#isshinene

Happy (belated) Halloween - look at me descending more and more into cringe every year

Summary: Isshiki and Nene are childhood friends and rivals. As adults, what is their relationship like? 

M. Fandom Masterlist || Isshiki x Kinokuni

Genre : romance, friends to lovers,

“When I see you, I’m reminded of all my shortcomings.” Kinokuni Nene mutters stiffly.

She would admit this ever so often to Isshiki Satoshi, her childhood friend, rival and general frenemy. He is the gifted chef between the two of them while Nene earned everything she picked up.

“You don’t have to say it like a threat.” he always chuckled lightly.

None of her feelings has anything to do with Isshiki personally. Rather, they are insecurities about her own limitations—a fact that she has to slowly accept. He sensed this and made an effort to give her space after graduating from Totsuki, so that she could grow and see herself outside of their rivalry.

“Let’s go out for a drink after work. I’m in Tokyo for a few days.”

Isshiki frequently visits Tokyo for business and uses whatever spare time he has to go around and see friends. When he visits Kirinoya, Nene insists on staying inside kitchens. Hinako and Megumi literally have to drag her out when the restaurant closes in an attempt to get her some social interaction.

“Are you still mad at me?” he asks when he finally gets her alone.

Nene’s temper shoots through the roof and she pounds her fist onto the table. She gives Isshiki an accusatory glare before irately pursing her lips together. After all these years, it’s evident she still holds her frustrations about him deep inside of her.

“I can’t seem to shake it off. I feel like I’m 16 again when I see you.” she confesses, “I’m broadening my horizons and improving my cooking, but none of that seems to matter when I hear your name.”

Of course! Nothing but good vibes this weekend lol. 

Raiden is creative like Souma, and always willing to share knowledge like Erina. 

Akane is responsible and mature like both Akira and Hisako. 

Erik is very disciplined like Ryo and innovative like Alice. 

Maria is warm and welcoming like Megumi and proud of her heritage like Takumi. 

Isabella is brave and generous like Ikumi and supportive like Isami. 

Sumire is helpful like Subaru. 

Sosuke is fun and outgoing like Ryoko. 

Yuna is kind like Yuki and studious like Zenji.

Utau is good at public speaking like Urara. 

Haruo is open-minded like Rindou. 

Kesuke is fair and just like Nene and humble like Isshiki. 

FIRST IMAGE I GOT AND I AGREE- ITS THEMM

SAME VOICE ACTORS (4)

Valentine’s Day 2020

title: the secret

souma is out of his depth [hints of ryoali, eishirin, isshinene]

ooo

Many would say that Souma always acted before thinking. But that wasn’t right at all. Sure, he could be impulsive, and he was often more a man of action. If it got into his head to do something, then he’d do it. But he could get lost in his thoughts like the rest of them.

But maybe not like this.

It’s been a couple of days since Nakiri beat him at BLUE. He can’t say he regrets any of his actions, but in the aftermath, he finds himself restless. He’s not in any sort of slump - in fact there’s an undercurrent of energy pushing him to do something. If only he knew what that something was. So no, it’s not for a lack of inspiration or motivation, but until he gets to the bottom of it, he can’t set his direction. No mater the circumstance, he’d have been pushing forward anyway, but why is it that after BLUE, the expanse suddenly seemed so vast that he could go anywhere, and yet at the same time he felt that everything at this point had only been wandering. Only now he’s itching to go somewhere?

What his old man and Asahi said keeping ping-ponging at the back of his mind. He’d be cooking like normal, but then it’d creep up on him, so much so that he was getting annoyed.

Well as he said, he’s a man of action. If there’s something that niggled at his curiosity, then he’d satisfy it

Though Souma doesn’t get rankled easily (preferring to do the teasing actually), it grates on him to remember Asahi treating him as if he was such a child. It  wasn’t like he was that much older than Souma. 

ooo

He decides to ask Hayama first.

“And why exactly have you come to me about this Yukihira?”

“Well,” Souma drawls, “I figured you’d be an expert since you have Shiomi-senpai and all.”

He gets treated to the rare sight of a flustered Hayama. He can’t tell if the other chef is blushing due to his dark skin, but he’s sure he doesn’t imagine him coughing after inhaling too much of the spices he was mixing.

This is only the second time he’s seen Hayama like this. The first, as if he could ever forget, was when the other boy won the Autumn Elections. The sheer relief he had on his face as he hugged the petite professor stuck with Souma for some reason. And the lack of that same professor during their own battle was probably a large factor in the other boy’s loss. People could say what they wanted but Souma wasn’t as blind as they thought he was. (He waves an image of a jeering Suzuki-sensei, no Asahi, saying ‘how dense’ away in irritation.) 

“Sorry,” Hayama coughs, “I guess I was just surprised, and coming from you.” He shakes his head, and Souma tries not to feel offended.

“I always thought there must have been a reason why Kurokiba and I lost to you. We were missing something back then.”

Before, Hayama would have said it was because he was better than them, but that’s isn’t so true now. For a while, he actually thinks about what Yukihira is saying. 

“I guess you’re right. Ever since I could remember - when I started to actually want to remember when life was suddenly worth living - Jun was there. She gave me purpose, and I just wanted to make her proud of me. More than anything, i wanted to see her happy eating my dishes.” 

Yukihira snorts. “Every time I feed her a dish that I think ‘this is gonna be it’, she only ends up crying.”

"So what brought this on-” But Hayama does a double-take. “Wait, who exactly are you talking about Yukihira-oi!”

But with a wave and a ‘thanks Hayama’, Yukihira is gone. 

ooo

“How long have you and Nakiri known each other?”

Kurokiba is in his off mode and so only raises an eyebrow lazily, as if asking. 

Souma thinks it’s pretty obvious which Nakiri he means. “Your Nakiri.” He can almost fool himself into thinking there are no implications in that statement whatsoever. 

“Oujo? I don’t really know how long. We’ve been battling each other since we were kids.”

“And what, you just decided to follow a random girl halfway across the world for some cooking battles?”

Kurokiba raises his brow again as if asking ‘your point?’ or maybe it’s along the lines of ‘like you can talk’. Whichever it is, he has to shrug in agreement.

“I’m just curious why someone like you who hates being ordered around ended up pledging lifelong service to a girl your age you even call ‘my lady’ unironically.”

Kurokiba looks at him like he’s grown a second head, and maybe he has. Even he has to admit that it’s out-of-character for him to be pushing the issue. In fact this whole venture has been something he’s been second-guessing, suddenly talking about feelings of all things. 

Kurokiba shrugs. “You wouldn’t get it,” He then stares at him like his boring holes into Souma that Souma just might actually end up fidgeting, “Or maybe you would.” “I thought I was some big hot-shot, the alpha of the pack. But then she made me realize that I was just a frog in a pond. I would’ve stayed like that, thinking my cooking was the best it could be, not even knowing I could still push my limits, if I hadn’t met her. She decided to take me with her to see the world. She put me in my place, when I thought I already knew it, and then I put her in hers, and that’s what we’ve been doing ever since. She cries and whines when she loses, but I’ve been the one staying by her side all this time so I’ve seen her at her loneliest.”

It’s the longest Souma has ever heard Kurokiba speak in his off mode. He sounds a bit angry at the last part, a bit like when he has his bandana on and Souma realizes he must be thinking of Azami separating the two cousins. 

It should surprise him, but it doesn’t, that he feels the same. It’s the same as the cool anger that sometimes gripped him towards Asahi in BLUE.

“So you have it backwards Yukihira, she was the one who did me a favor, and calling her ‘ojou’ is the least I can do for her. The rest is always staying by her side and continuing to push each other to our limits.” 

Kurokiba suddenly smirks and it’s such a rare sight on his normally droll face that it surprises Souma. “Anyway, you’re one to talk. You call your Nakiri-ojou a jouou.” 

There is absolutely no way Souma is suddenly feeling hot under the collar.

ooo

There is absolutely no way Souma is desperate.

But somehow, he even ends up phoning Tsukasa-senpai for advice.

“Rindou? Well she is a gourmand. She’s always eating interesting dishes, so if I don’t step up, she might grow bored of me.”

Tsukasa-senpai laughs and it is plain to Souma that he is as confident in his skills as ever. Clearly his senpai doesn’t imagine a situation where Rindou-senpai could ever grow bored of his cooking, and from what he knows of the brave barbarian, Tsukasa-senpai obviously has nothing to worry about on that front. How lucky. 

“If I didn’t see this world like she did I wouldn’t have even discovered all these tastes she’s tasted. After the regiment, I realized I’ve actually been really selfish when it comes to her. She always took care to experience my world, and I want to do that for her this time around.” His senpai chuckles warmly, sounding a completely different person from that nervous and self-centered elite he’d battled with what seems a lifetime ago. “It was actually seeing you and Nakiri-san together that made me realize that. So, thank you Yukihira-kun.”

For a moment their situations are reversed, and it’s Souma who ends up stuttering a ‘you’re welcome’ before the older boy hangs up. 

ooo

For some reason, Souma is exhausted, but he might have a masochistic streak in him (someone who constantly throws his dishes at the god tongue to get verbal tongue-lashings must have) because he also asks Isshiki-senpai. 

“Weren’t you I don’t know, a bit ticked off when Kinokuni-senpai was so sure you couldn’t win against Tsukasa-senpai?”

Isshiki-senpai is slicing eel at the Polar Star Dorm, and a lesser chef might have messed up on the cut with the sudden inquiry, but the slice is as straight as a ruler. His smile when he turns to Souma though is more enigmatic than usual to make up for his surprise. Souma has only ever seen him like this once, when Tsukasa-senpai interrupted the conversation he was having with Kinokuni-senpai. It had seemed important. 

“What brought this on Souma-kun? 

Isshiki-senpai to his credit doesn’t deflect in the many ways Souma knows he could have. He wonders if this is what Tadokoro feels like, playing ping-pong with him. 

“Just curious.”

Isshiki-senpai hums as if he knows more than he lets on, which of course he does. Souma ends up spilling since it’s not as if it was a secret. 

“Oh, so that’s what Jouichiro-san said. ‘A woman you want to give all your cooking to.’ If that’s the case, then Kinokuni is probably that person for me. She is the reason I started to enjoy cooking after all.” 

Souma feels second-hand embarrassment at how his senpai can say such things so casually.

“You actually reminded me of her Souma-kun. Kinokuni Nene gives her all to her passions. She doesn’t let anything distract her. That Kinokuni was always beautiful to me. When it seemed like she was lost, I just wanted to show her how fun cooking could be again, like she did for me. Little did I know I was the main cause of her despair. She was my life-saver and that’s how I repaid her,” he says rueful and with regret. 

“So it doesn’t bother you that she rejects you time and time again?” Souma asks genuinely curious and without admitting to himself (there’s been a lot of that going on lately) that he’s invested. 

“How harsh Souma-kun! Even I’m starting to get a little hurt. But, yes even then. At first I thought not giving my all would make her happy-”

“Senpai, no one would have been happy with that.”

Isshiki senpai seems to be, dare Souma say it, embarrassed. “Yes, well I know more than I did before. Now, I hold nothing back and it’s a bit like old times. She just gets this adorable furrow in her brow and pout when she loses.”

As Isshiki-senpai laughs, Souma starts to sympathize with Kinokuni-senpai a bit more. He means he always knew it, but his senpai really did have a sadistic streak huh? And though with everyone else, the soba master is as cutting as ice, with the heir of the West, she fumes in indignation. His senpai, brilliant though he may be, has his quirks, and seems to relish being treated differently than the rest, even if it is with more vitriol. 

Souma has to stop fooling himself. 

“So after all that, what now Souma-kun?”

He may still not fully understand his father’s and Asahi’s words (or he does but he isn’t ready to admit it yet), but he does know what he has to do. 

His world is still far too small for a girl who has tasted everything from every corner of it. 

He knows what he has to do, but he still expects the tongue-lashing. 

part 3 of snapshots in the life of an ice-queen and a demon king

next; not goodbye