第―章

幼なじみ

Chapter 1

Childhood Friends

A six year old Nakiri Erina raised a haughty eyebrow at the equally six year old boy who was looking at her intently. She had tasted his Teriyaki Salmon dish, Egg Soup with squid dashi base, white rice and freshly prepared pickled vegetables and had found it… adequate.

Actually, she found it better than adequate. She had been skeptical the moment she met the son of Asura, Yukihira Jōchirō, since he was just as young as her. The level of skill she believed he had was nonexistent. The moment she had said that, the young blonde had seen a mischievous gleam in the redheaded boy's eyes that had her cautious from that moment on.

Her fears were unfounded the moment she had taken a bite of his food and was nearly sent to food Nirvana. Of course she could never tell the young boy in front of her, she was too proud to do so. Okay, maybe not too proud. He did pretty well for his age.

"How long have you been cooking Sōma-kun?" she asked, very light blush on her face.

"I've held a knife since I was three. So, three years it's been?" The redheaded boy grinned broadly at the girl across from him. "What'd ya think?"

"I-Its was a-adequate," she stammered out, a full blush adorning her cheeks.

"Just adequate?" Sōma asked cheekily, rubbing his chin and leaning in closer to the girl.

"Ye-Yes!" the girl squeaked out, leaning away from the infuriating boy. He was getting on her nerves, but she could not find in herself the will to push him away.

"Well then," Sōma crossed his arms across his chest and smirked broadly, "Looks like someone's a little dishonest."

"I am not dishonest!" Erina shot back at the boy, indignant at his disrespectful tone. "You're food was just adequate, and barely so!" She frowned when he smiled even more widely, a very mischievous gleam in his eyes. The blonde had now realized she had gone just a little too far.

"Is that a challenge? 'Cuz if it's so, I'll make you eat your words." She wanted to smack that cheeky grin off his face so badly now.

"You're a hundred years too early to challenge me Sōma-kun," the little girl huffed, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly.

So the following days after that declaration, Yukihira Sōma had made every single one of Erina's with one serving for himself as well. And despite the fact she would always say his food was adequate, the young redhead was never once dejected due to her words. In fact, her words seemed to kindle within the son of Asura a fire that his own father had never seen before. Somehow or another, the strange relationship they shared was helping both children grow and learn from the other in ways other than just cooking.

Jōchirō had actually found them one day playing Uno in an empty room off to the side of the Nakiri family compound.

"Hey Pops," Sōma greeted his father with a wave of his hand, not taking his eyes off the cards in his other hand. "Cancel. Plus four, color is now red." Jōchirō laughed heartily when he saw Erina pout cutely and mutter something about cheaters as she gathered another four cards to her seven.

"Reversal. Reversal. Cancel. Plus two, color's blue!" the young blonde said proudly as she placed the three cards on the pile and snickered.

"I'm going to get you for that," Sōma promised, annoyed that he had to take on more cards since he was down to two just a few moments ago.

About seven minutes and thirty-two expended cards later, Erina had come out on top as the winner of their fifteenth match of Uno, though the record was eight to seven with Sōma in the lead by one. The redhead sighed as he gathered the cards and listened to his friend boast about her awesome card skills as well as cooking skills.

"Didn't you burn those cookies a few days ago?" the young boy asked with a dubious raise of the brow.

"You were distracting me! I had it completely under control! Besides you could have pulled them just as well." He was perplexed by her stern reply and blushing face, two very contrasting shows of emotion.

"All I said was you had a little batter on the side of your face." That only served to cause her to blush harder. "And I was checking to see if you were okay, since you ran out of the kitchen pretty fast, face all red."

"Th-that was nothing!" she told him indignantly, crossing her arms across his chest.

"As much as I love watching you guys go at it," Sōma's father voice cut through their little argument, interrupting them. "Sōma and I need to leave."

"What?" the two of them, Erina and Sōma said at once.

The entirety of the Nakiri staff, as well as family members including the clan head, Nakiri Senzaemon, were gathered at the gates of the clan compound to see off Yukihira Jōchirō and Sōma as they departed to other parts of the world for a ten year long tour.

"Make sure you write to me, okay?" Erina sniffed as she hugged the boy to herself.

"Okay," the boy replied awkwardly, patting her back to reassure the little girl hugging him that he was going to write to her.

"Promise?" she asked as she pulled back to look him in the eyes.

"It's a promise!" Sōma replied with a grin. "And I'll make sure that when I come back, my cooking is so great, you'll be forced to praise it!"

Erina smiled and then motioned for one of the maids to come forward. The little girl then thanked her maid when she procured the object from the woman and proceeded to present it to Sōma with both hands. "Please take this as a good luck charm." It was a simple long white piece of cloth. "I asked my mother to help me make it for you. It was supposed to be a birthday present." The last bit was muttered quietly, but not enough so for Sōma not to hear.

Taking the offered material with both hands, Sōma marveled at it for a moment before tying it around his forearm as if it were an armband. He then looked at his friend and grinned broadly. "I'll think of you whenever I wear this."

"I hope in a good way," she muttered. The young blonde was then engulfed in one more hug that ended just as quickly as it was initiated. Erina then watched as the boy ran off to catch up to his eccentric father who was already strolling along.

"Don't worry Erina-chan," her grandfather's voice interrupted her thoughts on Sōma. "Sōma-kun will more than likely be back. I have a feeling that you'll meet him at Tōtsuki when you enter there too."

Erina nodded absentmindedly to her grandfather and watched as the two small figures in the distance shrunk until they were no longer there. 'You better come back with skills enough to satisfy me Sōma-kun, or else I'll never forgive you."

Is it me, or does the writing of Shokugeki no Souma sound like an ecchi manga or eroge? Eh, must be since the artist was formerly a hentai mangaka... Don't look it up. You're not old enough. Also, this is a new story, and if you're here from other my other works, don't kill me!

Disclaimer: Yeah I don't own this.

So I'm not doing another, got it?