"IT'S A TIE! FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TOTSUKI HISTORY, THERE HAS BEEN A TIE OF ONE HUNDRED POINTS IN THE AUTUMN ELECTION!"

"WE WILL NOW WELCOME MAHIRU TETSUYA AND EISHI TSUKASA!"

Apron cloths fluttered as the two most feared of the first years step into the arena. One side, the notoriously elusive Tetsuya Empire heir stands, dark hair glistening and gold eyes cutting. On the other side was the figure of the infamous 'teacher killer' Eishi Tsukasa, looking almost otherworldly with his pale hair and lilac eyes.

"STEP INTO THE CENTRE!" Senzaemon Nakiri roared.

Golden eyes chill, distaste bloom in violet irises.

They move at the same time, same brisk paces that place them beside the headmaster at the same time. Hands shake. They turn and leave the same way they arrive. The audience has fallen silent, they had expected a confrontation. 

But there was none: neither of them was callous enough to display the frustrations out in the open. The fated confrontation happens beyond the walls, beyond the ears and eyes. Almost as if it was the illicit affair of two forbidden lovers.

"Do understand that when I win, it will not be the pen or words or opinions of another person. It will be through your own mouth and by your own heart when you acknowledge that my cooking is far superior to yours, Eishi Tsukasa."

"I don't expect any less, Mahiru Tetsuya."

"Before you lose to me, you will not admit defeat to anyone else."

"Of course."

The ice in golden eyes turns to rapturous embers and the distaste in violet irises blooms into burning suns. 

That is the first battle of the famous power couple of Totsuki.

%%%

"Ara," Mahiru leans against the door, the high-class distaste clear on her face, "what's this, a high school reunion?"

"Geh," Kojiro Shinomiya turns away with a look of pure hatred and swirls his tea moodily while Joichiro Saiba waves at her cheerfully.

"Mahiru~" he called, gesturing for her to come over, "Come give a hug to your godfather."

"With my heels?" She tucked a hand under her chin, taking a seat by the counter. 

"My, so mean. Maybe I should drop by Shiro's some time and update him on ways on how to teach you about being a proper human being." her godfather cackled drunkenly.

If only you had done so six years ago, then maybe everything would be different now. Why did you do nothing?

"Well, now that all of us are here, what do we do?" Shinomiya drawled, moodier than all of them on their worse days combined. Kojirou Shinomiya on the best of his days was little less than a migraine, on his worse, he was a straight up stick-in-the-ass.

"Oh, oh!" Kuga chirped. "I have an idea! We should ask Mahiru-chin to hire the yakuza and the black ops from overseas and just pew-pew new-headmaster-sama!" he crowed, making gun-shooting motions with his hands along with sound effects.

"Oh, that's a great idea. Why don't we blast you to the moon, too, while we're at it, midget?" Shinomiya hissed.

Kuga explodes, slamming his sake— wait, sake?— on the table, he began to yell at the top of his lungs, "Oh, so you think you're so great because you're tall? Sa, why haven't you gotten you Michelin Stars yet, senpai, huh?" Kuga jumps around eyes wide with murderous intent and his voice hysterical and cracked. 

"WHY YOU FUCKING—" Mahiru's phone connects with his face.

A multitude of heads snaps towards her simultaneously. She ignored them before shrugging, offering a reluctant, "they would've never stopped" as her excuse. Awkward silence ensued before Fumio clucked and shuffled off to the cellar to get her wine, muttering that she wasn't old enough for everything.

Shinomiya, having recovered, glared at her back and muttered something about her being older than all of them. 

His glasses ended up cracking from the pressure of the bottle being thrown at his face.

Mahiru sighed. 

We're... All disconnected from reality, aren't we? She sweatdropped.

%%%

"Do we have to fill out all this paperwork?" Saiba whined. 

Why was she not surprised?

Why was it that all the insane people had to be found in the one place she could not deal with them? Actually, Kuga's 'pew-pew' method seemed a lot more appealing than dealing with her crazy-sociopathic maniac with... Strange tendencies former sensei.

"Don't worry," she said, not a hint of compassion or empathy to be found in her voice, "it's only a fraction of my daily work."

Joichirou went to work with a whine, knowing that Mahiru would most likely stab him if he stained the contracts with his tears while Mahiru stared at her own pile of problems. As it stood, she was the only one who'd be able to coerce the Elite Ten from a financial standpoint. However, most of the council were those who were widely acknowledged, despite not yet graduating. 

Which meant, that she could only cut off everything at its root. Before taking over Totsuki, Nakamura had been focused on closing down restaurants he deemed unworthy. However, due to the sudden, unexpected resistance of his authority from diverted his attention to Totsuki, which gave her the chance to be able to support many of the restaurants who are in danger or have already been closed.

Admittedly, it was a low move, as Saiba's son would need her, a former First Seat, as well, to sway the students. But she was picking her battles. Besides, Mahiru had little heart for the students. They were not the kings of this battle— The civilians were. To spark something that would truly be able to stand against Nakamura and all his followers, Totsuki itself needed to be brought down. Nakamura's power came from the students, who believed in Totsuki's prestige— Prestige given by the people. If Mahiru were to take away that prestige, the glamour of graduation would appeal less rewarding, and the assurances Nakamura brought of their guaranteed success would become null.

But... It was so troublesome... Why had she agreed to this in the first place?

Mahiru paused and closed her eyes. Right. That's right. That was the reason why she accepted. Opening her purse, she groped blindly for her office cell phone. Reaching the cold plastic, she clicked it awake and dialled for Shimizu. Predictably, her competent secretary picks up right after the first ring drops.

"Ojou-sama?" 

"Shimizu, how many Nakiri shares are now under my control?" Mahiru asked.

"Two million. As Senzaemon-dono promised."

Her lips curve. Teeth flash in the dark. "Good. Tell him that all the alumni I've gathered in Totsuki have all held Second Seat at the very least."

"Understood."

Mahiru typed away on her construction plan. "Shimizu, is there something you'd like to ask me?"

"Mahiru-sama. Why are you helping them? I do not understand your purpose. These people who've abandoned you, these people who've never bothered to help you. Most of all, these people you would've never spared a second glance if not in the face of the circumstances. Why save Totsuki when you could leave it to rot? Why waste the trouble?"

As expected of Shimizu, Mahiru mused. "You're right, Shimizu. I never intended to save Totsuki in the first place." Eyelashes flutter close on milky skin. "However, I disagree with you on its people. These people, no matter how I view them..." A flash of white. "They are all meaningfully important in their own right. But I am choosing to let them damn themselves because Totsuki as a whole is corrupted. This system was damned— Weed out the weak, cut out the fat, discard the excess... They do not create the strong. They create survivors, those who seek to win by any means possible. What's more— A world of the strong? That is unachievable by all human means. We are our sins. Our flaws define us. What is strong without the weak? What is the weak without the strong? Where there is one there will be the other. As surely as the sun will rise from east tomorrow." And she will take advantage of their bloodshed. 

"But... I still do not understand why you are there."

Mahiru chuckled, an amused puppet master. "Shimizu. Who are the current most powerful families in Japan?"

"Tetsuya and Nakiri—" A gasp from her secretary.

"Indeed," Mahiru smirked by the rim of their cup, "the two families have waged a feud that has lasted since the end of the second world war. We've been at each other's throat for decades, how could I resist an opportunity where they offer their own heads for the scaffold?" She stirs her tea. "Besides... The old man can think of it as a repayment of sorts for all the times he indulged me in waiting for my move in Shogi. I'll put his training on improvising to good use. Afterall, war waits for no woman."

%%%

*ojou-sama = young miss, used to refer to the daughters of wealthy households by servants.

i'm ashamed to admit that my updates have gotten consistently shorter and have taken longer. lol this that last part even make sense?

oh and don't start crying about mahiru's 'development' i meant, what'd you expect? she's the scion of this multi-billion corporation and cooking's never held a special relation to her as it did to others in this series. the bribe senzaemon offered in chp. 1 may have seemed like a good enough reason to— but why have nakiri shares when she could have all of totsuki?

as of right now— she holds half of the nakiri shares and tetsuya shares, which means she has significantly more power than both senzaemon + azami and every other canon character. besides, if she has totsuki, too, she can– *beep beep following section has been sensored due to spoilers*

yeah, aha, whoops. image source is beautiful bones: sakurako's investigation

sophie xx