Yumeiro Patissiere

Chapter 20 A Powerful Foe!? The Transfer Student from Paris

Today Ichigo was feeling tired during breakfast. "Did you not sleep well last night Amano-san?" asked Sennosuke. "No, not really," said Ichigo "I had a bad neck ache last night and I found it hard to sleep with it". "I have some cream that you can put on your neck, every time you get neck ache" said Satsuki. "Thank you Hanabusa-Kun," said Ichigo. "Neck aches are nothing to complain about," said Makato. "Excuse me Kashino, but weren't you complaining about a headache the other day?" said Ichigo. Makato blushed; he really did complain about having a headache the other day.

Just then Ichigo got a phone call from Rumi, saying that the line-ups for the second round of the cake grand Prix had been posted. Team Ichigo looked at the notice board and saw that their next opponent was a team called Team Lemon. Rumi explained that Team Lemon was the only first-year group that made it into the cake grand Prix. "This might be easy for you guys," said Rumi "I mean this group is only in the first year". "Don't be too sure Rumi-chan," said Ichigo "remember the old saying to never judge a book by its cover? Since this group had made it passed the first round, there's no doubt that this group is good". "That is true," said Makato "but we can defeat them anyway".

Team Ichigo met up with Team Lemon in the school hall way. Team Lemon introduced them-selves to Team Ichigo and shook hands with them. Ichigo thought they seemed nice, but reminded her-self to not let her guard down. Rumi found out about the team members for Ichigo. Morino, the blue haired glasses wearing member, was the son of a famous french restaurant chef in Tokyo, and his mother was a patissiere. Ayashi, the magenta haired member, was mixed blood of Japanese and Belgian, and was an expert with chocolate like Makato. Kujou, the brown haired member, has a family who owns a famous Japanese confectionary house in Kyoto. "Those three are top three amongst all the other first years" said Rumi. "What about Lemon?" asked Ichigo. "Lemon Yamagishi is a transfer student from the St Marie Academy in Paris" said Rumi. Ichigo could see that Team Lemon were indeed the type of students to not underestimate.

Ichigo told the sweets princes about what Rumi had told her. "It doesn't matter who we are up against," said Makato "whether they'd be higher or lower than us". "I agree," said Satsuki "we should just act normal as we always do". "I agree too," said Ichigo "Team Lemon is who they are, just like we are who we are". Sennosuke felt a bit nervous for being against Kujou, but he agreed with his team as well. Satsuki borrowed the DVD recording of Team Lemon's last round from the school's TV broadcasting club, and Team Ichigo watched Team Lemon's performance from the pound cake round. Ichigo thought that the boy's from Team Lemon were like replications of Makato, Sennosuke and Satsuki. Team Lemon made a family of geese from their pound cakes, and got full marks on all three segments. "Gosh they really are top notch for first year students" said Ichigo. The sweets princes agreed. "We will all need to work hard tomorrow" said Makato. "But tonight let's all get a good night's sleep," said Ichigo "I don't want to wake up all drowsy like we did in our last round". The sweets princes didn't want to either.

Sennosuke was still in a terrible state the next morning; he was still nervous about being against Kujou. He was now walking around the lake area to think, and then he saw the chairman. The chairman had a hobby of fishing at the lake in the early morning. Sennosuke asked the chairman what theme for the cake grand prix round was today, the chairman said he would reveal the theme when the match starts. "I see" replied Sennosuke, and then he ran back to the school building. The chairman felt that Sennosuke wasn't feeling any confidence about today's match.

Later that day it was time for Team Ichigo's round against Team Lemon. Everyone in the audience was eager for the match to begin. Mari was going to watch too. The chairman explained that this round would be done with individual matches. That meant each member of each team would be making four kinds of sweets, and the winner would be decided with which team made better sweets than the other team. The first sweets would be a cupcake, the second fudge chocolate, the third fruits jelly and the fourth a Japanese confection that kindles the coming of spring. Team Ichigo and Team Lemon took their places. Ichigo and Lemon were up against each other and were doing the fruits jellies. Ayashi and Makato were against each other, doing the fudge chocolate, Morino and Satsuki were against each other, doing the cupcakes and Sennosuke and Kujou were against each other, doing the Japanese sweets. Soon it was time to start.

Ichigo knew what fruits jelly she was going to make because she had made fruits jellies before. She grabbed some strawberries, red grapes, a mango and two peaches of the fruit stand. "You should use kiwi fruit," said Lemon "it will give the jelly a nice taste". Ichigo frowned at Lemon's words; she was taught in the past to always boil kiwi fruit before using them for fruits jelly, because non-boiled kiwi fruits it prevents the jelly from going solid while in the fridge. "I thank you for your advice Lemon," said Ichigo, calmly, "but kiwi fruit is not in my recipe for my fruits jelly and I don't have the time to boil it either". It was obvious to Ichigo that Lemon was trying to put her off. Sennosuke saw Ichigo's frown and thought that something was wrong. But he just concentrated on his Japanese sweet; problem was due to his lack of sleep last night he had trouble with concentrating, especially when weighing out his powdered tea.

Soon it was time for the judging. Ichigo had made a strawberry, mango, and red grape and peach fruits jelly, and Lemon made an orange, lemon kiwi fruit, and strawberry fruits jelly. Satsuki had made a cupcake with a rose decoration and Morino made a cupcake with blue decorations. Both Makato and Ayashi made a fudge chocolate cake. Kujou made a Japanese sweet based on the sakura trees in Arashiyama, and Sennosuke made a Japanese sweet based on the rape blossoms. The spirits made recipe cards of the sweets and sent them to the queen. The results was a draw; Makato's cake and Satsuki's cake beat Ayashi's and Morino's cakes, but Lemon's jelly beat Ichigo's jelly and Kujou's sweets beat Sennosuke's sweets. What had happened was Lemon's fruits jelly had more of a kick than Ichigo's and Sennosuke had made his sweets too sweet because he couldn't concentrate of his weighing the sugar, due to his lack of sleep.

So as the result was a draw; Team Ichigo and Team Lemon had to challenge each other again in a rematch.