Unexpected Competitor (2)

Chapter 70: Episode 32 - Unexpected Competitor (2)

Right after dinner, the Sweets Princes and I made our way towards the cooking lab to plan out ideas now that a subject was given. There were still 5 days left until Round 2 so we had to try our best and think of something quick. Before we went to the cooking lab though, the Sweets Princes got ahold of various fruits and brought them to the kitchen.

"It's a fruit paradise!" The sweets spirits played around the fruit joyfully without a care in the world. I noticed that Fraise seemed especially happy because her specialty was fruits, so she seemed delighted to be in her element.

"Wow, you guys gathered a lot of fruit," I pointed out, taking a look at the assortments of fruits sitting on the table before us. Bananas, peaches, watermelons, grapes, apples, pineapples, oranges, strawberries, mangos, and cherries filled the table.

"Now then, what should we do for the plated dessert, "Petit Prince," Andou poked fun at Kashino who grabbed a hold of the grapes.

"Shut up, Specs," Kashino said, glaring at Andou.

"Quit fooling around. We have to focus on what we're going to make," I said to all of them.

"How about we each make our own the way we want to. I'm going to use this fruit," Hanabusa suggested, holding onto an apple.

"That's not a bad idea." I agreed to his suggestion as well.

"Keiko, what will you make?" Fraise asked me who picked up some peaches.

"I guess… whichever pops into my head the quickest," I shortly stated, looking at the various assortments of fruit.

'The images are overflowing my mind after I ate Team Natsuki's fruits… but… this won't be an easy task to perform, especially against their team where we have a disadvantage. Each person and spirit has their own specialty where each lacks in this field… I just hope that we can come up with something that can rival up to Team Natsuki's creation and surpass it…'

* * *

As we worked on our creations, we finally finished up and presented ours.

"It's done. As expected, Hanabusa's is beautiful," Cafe quickly praised Hanabusa's platter.

"This is an apple tart and sherbert. The glass sweet is a champagne jelly." Hanabusa presented a beautifully decorated plate with various elements garnished with flower decorations.

"Kashino's is gorgeous, too!" Chocolat rebutted, looking at Kashino's plate.

"I tried putting grapes and chocolate cake together. The glass sweet is a wine sherbert," Kashino presented his dish with a small chocolate grape cake at the center, garnished with red grapes at the top and a chocolate swirl. A chocolate grape sauce garnished the plate and a purple wine sherbet stood in a glass with chocolate swirls.

"Andou's looks cool as well," Caramel said shyly.

"Mine is a collaboration between Japanese persimmons and chestnuts, though, maybe the color's a bit plain," Andou presented his dish. A persimmon-chestnut cake laid in the middle of the plate with mango slices surrounding it. Two macarons, evenly spaced apart, stood just before a persimmon-chestnut parfait, garnished with whipped cream and a chestnut.

"How about Michiko?" Kashino directed at me who was still whipping together my dish. Bringing my dish forward, I still wasn't entirely sure if I was pleased with it.

"Here, I did a peach tart. It's on an orange-mango sauce and I tried doing a peach iced tea to go with it. I wanted to make the image of a "sunset" so that's why I added orange and mango slices around the tart," I explained to them nervously though the reactions were indifferent.

My dessert was a peach tart with peach balls in the middle to give the image of a warm sun. The orange and mango slices surrounded the peach tart on an orange-mango sauce to give it a more vibrant look of a sunset, and I made a peach iced tea drink with orange, peach, and mango slices on the rim.

"Doing something tropical against Team Natsuki won't do!" The sweets spirits, except Fraise, scolded me and I sighed, shrinking down to the floor.

"Maybe you're right…" I replied dejectedly.

'Team Natsuki will be a tough foe so doing something like this probably won't win us the round…'

"Don't be so harsh, give Keiko's dessert a chance!" Fraise defended as I sighed.

"Well, for now, let's dig in," Andou said with an encouraging smile, holding forks and spoons in his hand.

We dug into each others' dishes to provide feedback and to see what worked well together.

"Hanabusa's is… the appearance is pretty but there's no impact in taste," Kashino said coldly, tasting Hanabusa's dish.

After that remark, Hanabusa furrowed his eyebrows, clearly ticked at Kashino's statement.

"You too, Kashino. You might have been aiming for impact but there's no harmony, and it's heavy in taste," Hanabusa rebutted, taking a bite of Kashino's.

"What did you say?!" Kashino exclaimed in annoyance.

"Let's calm down. We're here to receive constructive criticism so let's not be salty with each other," I explained to the two boys who were getting worked up over nothing.

"Exactly. Now, you two. Try Michiko's "Sunset," Andou said, also trying to calm the situation down. Kashino and Hanabusa glanced at each other and stopped, walking over to my peach tart with orange-mango sauce and slices.

As they took a bite of my dessert, I could see both of their eyes light up.

"Delicious… The taste has punch," Hanabusa praised.

"Aah, the acidity of the orange and mango sauce match with the peach tart. It's motivating and gentle and the image of a "sunrise" is introduced," Kashino added onto it. He looked at me and raised his eyebrows. "I think this will work."

"Shall we take a look at Team Natsuki's pieces?" Andou said, getting out a laptop from the cooking lab's research shelves.

"The library might have some data…" Andou began typing onto the computer and quickly brought up Team Natsuki's fruit dishes. We all peered over his shoulder to see and our eyes widened in shock.

"Amazing…" We all said in unison after seeing their fruit desserts.

Their dish was vibrant, showing various colors ranging from red to yellow. It had an orange sherbert on top of a fruit tart and a fruit drink on the side. The plate was decorated with a caramel spun-sugar web, giving off the appearance of strands.

"On this blog, it says that the Dessert Industry's Dessert Contest gave the gold medal to Team Natsuki's "Sunshine Shower." The ability to pull out the beauty of appearance and taste of tropical fruits rewarded them high marks," Andou read from the computer.

'Even if it's on the screen, you can tell that the intensity is amazing… They're really good…'

"I guess battling with tropical fruits is a disadvantage for us," Andou said, scratching his head nervously.

"Yeah… but a fruit that can battle this gaudiness is…" Hanabusa couldn't even finish his sentence from the shock.

"Why don't we decide the theme first?" Kashino suggested. "The materials are important, too, but we have to make the theme clear like Michiko's "Sunset" and its impression has to be easily introduced."

"I see," Andou agreed.

"Let's decide a theme with each individual fruit," Hanabusa added.

I looked over at Kashino who was picking up his dishes. He looked back at me with a smirk.

"We expect great things from you, Leader. Team Michiko's name isn't just for show," Kashino boldly directed at me and continued cleaning up.

At his words, my eyes widened in confusion.

'What the… Why do I have to decide the theme?!'