The spice of culinary club.

[SaxAppeal]

Katsuo wrinkled his nose at Buchou's remarks. He'd have to remember to keep his attention focused on any food he had cooking, instead of fooling around with clean-up before he was even done. When he heard what was said about Kiyomi's dish, he sighed. It was really hard to handle that many spices and make it taste good to everyone. He slid over to Kiyomi's station, and went wide-eyed at her presentation. "Wow, that looks amazing... you should teach me how to plate! Mine always end up even more simplistic than my recipes. Even when I don't mess it up..." Looking downward, Katsuo settled into a dissatisfied expression. He knew better than to mess around while he had a pan on heat, and ended up nearly ruining his dish as a result. "Hey, Nanami-san, why don't you take that home? I promised my mom I'd let her cook tonight, so I won't end up eating it." He'd made no such promise, but his mom would let him off the hook when he told her he'd given the food to a new friend. He washed his hands at the sink next to Kiyomi's station, then pulled off his apron and unearthed his book from the depths of his jacket's inner pocket. He walked back over to his counter, putting the dishes in the sink and brushing off the counter before hopping up there. Katsuo set the apron next to him, flipped to the bookmarked page, and proceeded to indulge in his book until club let out.

[Mecuvalec]

    Nanami was embarrassed... er... her face had a very faint pink color to it after she had been praised by Take-san, and turned her attention to the pan that he was moving. She was swift yet graceful in her acquisition of the fork, and took a sample of the dish in a similar manner as Take-san. As she placed it within her mouth, she stood erect. It was the most delicious thing she had had in a long time. To further enjoy it, she tried to get as much flavor out of it as possible and chewed it up until the president left. "Your dish... Take-san..." she said while tugging on his sleeve. "Delicious..." Now she was consciously trying to keep liquids in her mouth because she liked the taste so much. Whether it was because it was freshly-made, delicious, or both, she loved it. Take-san now walked towards Lum-san who was looking down at her own dish sadly. As Take-san was finishing his little chat with her, Nanami walked forward to her as well with fork in hand. "Exshcuse me..." She took quickly sampled Lum-san's dish, and Nanami almost thought that her feet tingled a little bit in pleasure. Putting a hand on Lum-san's shoulder, she gave her a thumbs up. Still chewing she said, "Don't worry... Tastesh... fantashtic..." Somehow there seemed to be a little glint of light in Nanami's eyes, the light reflecting unnaturally off her eyes.

[Moiety]

Kiyomi tried her best to hide her happiness as Katsuo complemented how her meal looked but lost all hope of her facade when Nanami told her that it tasted good. With a newly found grin spanning her face Kiyomi began to clean off the bits of mess that scattered her table. Aside from the spices that she used a few spills she had mostly kept her station clean of scatter and grime. "That bite you took is going to cost you something Nanami." The girl began to joke. "Maybe you should cook me something in return." Kiyomi didn't mean it seriously, yet she began to wonder if Nanami would catch on to it being a joke with what Kiyomi had seen of her social skills so far. After deciding not to waste the food Kiyomi began to shovel the rice into a plastic container before stopping at the last two scoops. She took a scoop of rice and placed a slice of chicken onto it before walking over to Katsuo, balancing the rice like a circus show. Upon reaching him the girl hastily shoved the utensil into his mouth, rice splattering onto his clothing and book as she broke the perfect balance she had just moments ago. "You can't tell me it looks nice and then leave without trying it to read your book, jerk." She waited with fork still in hand for the boy to respond to her force feeding.

[SaxAppeal]

Gently tipping his book upwards to get the rice off of it, Katsuo looked at Kiyomi a bit wide-eyed. Upon hearing her quip, he relaxed a bit and rolled his eyes. Carefully chewing his food before swallowing, he picked the pieces of rice off his clothes while he tried to find words for her dish. It was a bit hard, seeing as his brain was stuck between "That was kind of rude," and "OH MY GOD IS SHE FLIRTING?" Luckily his taste buds were better at handling this predicament than his brain, and the second his mouth was clear of food he had a verdict. "It's good. Really good. Although I'm not the biggest fan of using that many spices, you pulled it off well, regardless of what Buchou says. The chicken was cooked perfectly, too." Katsuo paused, then grinned. "Oh, and not that I mind you feeding me, but it'd be a bit less messy if you said something before you shoved it into my face next time, hun." He winked at the Kiyomi, then realized that she probably hadn't been flirting with him at all and he was probably going to get smacked for that. Tensing, Katsuo closed his eyes and steeled himself for the incoming smack, even leaning back slightly.

[Mecuvalec]

    Uguuu... Nanami didn't think there would be repercussions tasting and complimenting someone on their food... She definitely didn't think she was going to get along with Lum-san very well. But Nanami believed that she did have to make up for that bite. She knelt to go retrieve a container from her shoulder bag, revealing it to be a bento box of an almost avocado color with a black lid that had white curved lines that came from one side and ended at points on the other end, and in the middle was a small red dot. Nanami grabbed a pair of wooden chopsticks from her bag, grabbing the thick end and pulling the chopsticks apart. Holding them in her right hand, she opened the lid of the bento, placing the lid neatly on the side of the table. Inside were little sections dividing sections of food apart. In the largest compartment was omurice with ketchup drizzled on top to draw the shape of an eye with a curved Y inside of it. In the 4 smaller sections was an onigiri that was dressed up in seaweed to draw a weird cursive "M" on it and a small crescent underneath it, slices of green apple cut to represent bunnies, little sausages that were sliced up to look like squids that had little faces, and some kimchi. Somehow it all managed to look neat and pretty, and that was the strong point of it. Nanami turned around to Lum-san, and held the chopsticks neatly on top of the box and bowed. "I can do... this... try some..." She was expecting Lum-san to laugh at her "attempt", but at least it was something that she had prepared.

[Moiety]

Kiyomi smile brightened upon the compliment from Katsuo. However that smile quickly turned to anger upon him calling her 'hun'. She raised an open palm in protest ready to deliver a quick slap to the side of his face. She began to turn red in a mix of anger and embarrassment. Kiyomi began to lower her hand as Nanami came over and began to parade off her boxed lunch. Kiyomi looked over the Bento with glee, her hand still cocked slightly upwards as she was distracted from her attack. "Nanami..." She started before picking tearing off a piece of the Omurice and eating it with the chopsticks. It chewed to fully before swallowing it, it wasn't bad at all. "Nanami this is so cute!" she finished as she admired the artistic touch of the lunch. "It doesn't taste half bad either." She commented. Still chewing the girl turned back towards what had previously held her attention. She looked Katsuo up and down deciding if he was even worth wasting the energy to hit. She came to a quick conclusion before reeling her hand back and firing it towards his gut. She threw out a fairly weak punch, one comprised of half of a joking jab and half an angry reflex.

[SaxAppeal]

Katsuo clutched his stomach after the hit, acting like he'd been shot. "Owwwww, okay I'm sorry I won't do that again. Tell... tell my mother... to return my library books..." Keeling over sideways, he thumped onto the counter a little harder than he meant to. He played dead for a moment, then opened one eye and peered over at Nanami's bento. "Whoa, that looks fantastic, Nanami-san." Katsuo sat up and sighed. "I'm never gonna be able to plate as well as either of you, so I guess I'll have to work twice as hard next time to make sure my food at least tastes better." He tapped on the cover of his book, and noticed the little Brain Burst icon at the corner of his vision. Speaking of things he needed to work on... he should probably avoid the cosplay cafe for awhile until he was ready to fight that crazy purple lady again. "Hey, Kiyomi, is anyone you work with into fighting games? I got challenged the other day on a new game I picked up, and the IP said they were playing from the Cafe. I suppose it could have been a customer, but I figured that I was the only one who wasn't focused on you in a maid outfit." That sounded mostly convincing... unless she somehow knew what Brain Burst was, then it would be really easy to call him out on his hastily crafted half-truth. He was kind of hoping that last-second teasing compliment would distract her from asking what game it was.

[Mecuvalec]

    Nanami looked up upon receiving Lum-san's praise and her face twitched, the corner of her mouth coming up just a crack. "Thank you... Lum-san..." Nanami took a little bite of her Omurice as well, but it seemed simple and plain compared to the cooking that the two had done just a moment ago. She jumped in surprise as Katsuo was hit and fell onto the counter, slightly biting the chopsticks in her mouth. She bent closer to go inspect him, but she recoiled when he opened his eyes and gave his speech. "Thanks... Take-san... Your food... tastes much better..." Nanami said quietly to him. Hearing about the Take-san's incident with the cosplay cafe had Nanami a little confused and intrigued, causing her to lean slightly more forward. Surprisingly talk of fighting games made her think about that incident with Satoshi... and Brain Burst. But surely Take-san was referring to a different game.

[Moiety]

Kiyomi smirked, him bringing up the fighting game at the cafe had only set in stone her suspicion that he was the Crimson Commander. "I wouldn't know." She stated. "I dont talk to the low life girls in there. Most of them actually enjoy walking around dressed like that." She let out a humph sort of noise, crossing her arms in protest of the maid outfit. She began to bite on the edge of her lip, if he bursted right now and saw her name on the list there would be no way to avoid him knowing that she was the Byzantium Empress, nobody else in the cosplay cafe had been in that room with them aside from her and Katsuo. Kiyomi noticed Nanami leaning in closer to the conversation before she delivered a swift flick to the shorter girls forehead. "What, you into fighting games Nanami?" She questioned. Kiyomi wouldn't be too surprised if the girl was, it would make a little more sense as to why she was so socially awkward if she played games all day. Kiyomi thought about how obsessed with brain burst her mind had been since that first battle of hers. She had not dared to challenge anybody else, yet her mind did nothing but tempt with the idea of reopening that program, the rush of the game and even the power it gave her in real life of being able to slow down time was all too much to not want to dabble in.

[SaxAppeal]

Gripping the edge of the counter so hard his knuckles turned white, Katsuo allowed a rare look of concern to flit across his face before he relaxed. "Bummer. Whoever it was knew what they were doing, whereas I... didn't. Nearly got my ass handed to me. I got really lucky at the end and managed a draw, although that probably shouldn't have worked either." He closed his eyes and sighed, thinking about how much of an adrenaline rush that had been. "That game is so much of a gamble... guess it couldn't hurt to try to play it again, worst case I'll lose a bunch but learn how to play. Hopefully my learning curve isn't too bad..." Katsuo opened his eyes, realizing a second too late that he'd been thinking out loud. Well, if they did know what Brain Burst was, they could almost certainly call him out. Even if they didn't call him out on it, he couldn't be sure they wouldn't just hold onto the information he'd accidentally given them without giving anything in return. That would be the tactical move, but of the two, Kiyomi was more likely to do something like that. Well, he didn't really know Nanami all that well yet, so he couldn't be sure... Cursing under his breath, Katsuo decided the best plan was to make a run for it and cut his losses. He slid down off the counter, snagged his backpack out from under the cabinets as he walked by, and made a beeline for the door. It was rude, but he'd rather just get the hell out of there and think about how to handle this than try to deal with the fallout of his stupidity now.

[Mecuvalec]

    Nanami reeled back at the flick to her head, clutching it with both hands and bending over slightly. She reasserted her gaze onto Lum-san, giving her a mean look. She was certain now that they wouldn't get along, but they were club-mates so Nanami would just have to deal with it for a while. "I've... played a few..." she muttered. Looking back at Take-san, he began his monologue with himself which was strangely more intense than it should've been about a normal fighting game. Maybe he was a professional gamer? But he was new to this one. Maybe it really was Brain Burst?... She let it toil around in her mind for a bit, but let it go for now. Though Nanami knew she had to try it out sometime, she felt as if she could wait for her challenger to come to her. Suddenly Take-san made a bee-line for the exit, and Nanami had a distinct urge to follow him. Grabbing her bag, she ran swiftly to him, accidentally bumping into him as she came on too quickly. "Sorry..." Nanami was flustered, she had no idea why she followed him, but she intended to.

[Moiety]

Kiyomi smirked as Katsuo began to nervously storm out of the room. In slight awe as Nanami began to follow him through the room, bumping into his back as she hastily walked. Her smile grew wider and more devilish as she weighed her options. "Burst Link." She muttered to herself. She knew that the second she challenged Katsuo he would be able to put two and two together and link her and the Byzantium Empress as one. She slammed her hand forward bringing up the challenge list in front of her, the long purple dress that now floated on her whipping by at her sporadic movements. The list popped up in front of her vision as two names sat ever lonely on the list, the rest of the slots filled with nothing but simple dashes. She noticed the new name on the list, Avocado Defender level 1. She disregarded the name for now, she would look into that person later. She slammed a pin point finger onto the challenge button on Crimson Commander. The world around her melted once again, as everything changed from its normal hue to a blue tint. She expected another abstract world like the previous one, however the one that came up was much more sadistic. The counters and chairs in the room were replaced by steel plated metal studs coming out of the ground, the walls rose high into the sky to form what seemed like an inescapable prison. The roof, now almost out of sight dawned long steel chains that hung about 10 feet from where the floor was, some of them overlapping and tied to each other. She looked at where the familiar blocky character stood, the short shy girl that was previously there now nowhere to be seen. She took the opportunity of his sure surprise at the challange to spring her attack. "trying to leave already? Come on theres no use hiding your Brain Burst from anybody, right?" She dashed foreward straight towards one of the metal pegs that had taken over a kitchen counter. With a small hop she used the table as a spring board, launching herself up and aiming to fall back down where her opponent stood, sword tip pointed face down in an attempt to drive it into his shoulder. "Make the connection yet, Katsuo?" She laughed.

[SaxAppeal]

Just after Nanami bumped into him, Katsuo froze. The world tinged blue, and was instantly reconstructed into a massive, sadistic arena. Chains hung from the roof high above, and steel studs rose from the ground. He turned, just in time to hear none other than Kiyomi taunting him. He watched her vault towards him, her massive blade careening towards him. He didn't have time to be surprised - that blade hurt, and he had no intentions of being hit by it if he could help it. "Jeez, you should know to at least take a guy out to dinner before you try to jump right on him, Kiyomi-senpai." He sidestepped the attack as best he could, resulting in a glancing blow that barely nicked his HP bar. As Byzantium Empress landed, he did his best to body-check her, jamming his "Staple Gun" towards her side and squeezing the trigger twice. He was dancing in the flames here by taunting her back, but at this point he didn't care. He'd been ridiculed far too much, by people far inferior to him, for him to allow it in a place where the two of them were equals. Especially when she was questioning his intelligence. "You're gonna have to show me something special if you plan on winning this time, hun."

[Moiety]

Kiyomi sidled along the back of Katsuo as he turned to fire his pistol at her. A bang echoed throughout the large metal prison. Kiyomi flinched as the noise rang in her ear yet no pain followed through. she brandished the four foot long saw blade by her side, the golden metal gleaming among the metal box. She could feel her blood boiling again as the familiar feeling of this games fighting seeped in, the feeling of fighting somebody she knew, and as much as she disliked admitting it, possibly even befriending only made the game that much more adrenaline pumping. She swiveled the sword in her hand to a backhand fighting style holding it out in front of her with the blade pointed downward. She pulled the blade inward towards herself, letting it sink dangerously close to her body as it stopped just below her elbow as she tried to sink it into Katsuo's back. "If special is what your looking for then you should know you've come to the right place." She whispered out as seductively as she possibly could while in the thick of a battle. "You should know I bring a lot to the table." She finished as she jolted her blade farther past her back.

[SaxAppeal]

Katsuo grinned, his cheeks flushing to match the color of his armor as Kiyomi whispered in his ear. As he twisted away, his reply was ripped from his mouth as her blade plunged into his side. "Sheesh, I can't even flirt a little without getting beat up? You'll never get a boyfriend like that, Kiyomi-chan." His HP gauge had dropped by nearly a quarter, and he hadn't even damaged her yet. He stepped back, jerking the blade from his body (removing another 5% of his HP), and whipped his pistol up towards her face. Without squeezing the trigger, he watched her body movements carefully, setting up his real attack. Just before she moved, he charged "Taiho", tweaking the tip of the cannon's barrel at the last second to follow her movement as best as he could with the projectile. "You're not the only one with a few new tricks, babe." He waited for the recoil and allowed it to carry him backwards, jumping to land on the metal stud behind him. He held "Staple Gun" at the ready, hoping he could use the slight ground advantage to allow even Cardinal Commando to pull off a neat trick.