The audience started talking to each other, and Suu gave the audience a full 30 seconds for them to ask each other questions and face their doubts. I can smell Suu everywhere, from the place, timing and details, it seems that he must have this all planned out and lead the school boards by the noses. Who wouldn’t want discounted tickets to the world economic forum? Have their students on display with student/business cards and declare we are an international school that focuses on business learning and our kids are far better than any other high schools. Everything starting to come together and the puzzle coming in place. I remember how Suu mentioned a “Sidequest” last week as well. I wonder what he is planning.

“You seem awfully calm about this.” Matt observed.

“At what? Suu pulling the strings and setting up the stage for whatever he's planning.”

“Yeah, exactly that.”

“We’ll be fine, after all, we always need some excitement in our life, otherwise it's not going to be a good story and no one will want to read it. We just about to get to the good parts anyway.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Nothing, just talking to myself.” I looked up in the program, there is no mention of our school names, the only thing is our logo appearing on the back of the program next to Otaru beer and Hokkaido tourism board.

“Any idea how much we had to spend to beat Otaru beer in becoming the primary sponsor?” I asked Michelle on the other side of me.

“Millions of Yen, but I am sure Otaru beer and tourism board will send someone to say hi too.”

It seems the Hall has quiet down and Suu took the opportunity to continue.

“Now you must be wondering why the student is presenting instead of the CEO,” Suu explained in English, “That’s because we believe in giving power to the young, instead of treating students as kids and diminish their protentional, we believe in giving them all the space to grow, because there is no such thing as limits to someone’s potential.”

I can hear some scoffing in the hall as Suu continued

“Of course, I could be very wrong.” Suu smirked, “We have set up some competition at the end of the event, the topics will be introduced at our school booth, but the entrants must be in teams of at least 6 and be affiliated with a company or organization. The CEO will be giving out a generous three hundred thousand yen in prize money.”

Suu paused and let that provocation sink in with everyone in the audience.

“And, to give everyone a chance at win,” Suu said with a smug on his face as he rub in the salt, “Only the Multimedia production club and art club members will be representing our school.”

He looked in the direction of Daiichi, he gave a thumbs-up to signal ok on his end while Shiori and I just looked at each other in sheer confusion. Shiori is the only member of the art club that’s on this school trip.

“Well then, that concludes all the exciting news, we do have a few executives that prepared a few speeches for this years forum regarding education and monetary value of knowledge but I better not spill too many beans here. Ladies and Gentlemen, please enjoy this week’s forum.”

Suu tidied his notes, bowed to the audience in a true Japanese fashion and made himself disappear into the right-wing of the stage.

Before the Audience begins to talk, the MC got back and started to bring the audience back, truly remarkable.

“Well thank you Shinjuku international college, now I would like to bring another message from our other sponsors. Before we get into it...”

We all stared daggers at Daiichi, he seems to be Suu accomplice, to which he simply kept on his poker face as the event dragged on. After about 10 minutes, Suu joined us and sat in the seat next to Matt that we saved him.

“You better explain yourself later Suu,” Matt growled at him, a little upset. “Otherwise we tie you to a fishing boat and send you out to the sea.”

That sounds like the most horrible threat Suu ever received, I can see him feeling seasick just by hearing it. You bet he will be confessing after this old man on the stage finish about the current trade war between the US and China.

...........

Lunch is held in the Cafeteria of the university, it looks like an old factory cafeteria as well. This place really needed some funding and a renovation. A poor business school just doesn’t seem it will attract many students. The lunch is held finger food style, mostly sushis and sandwichs on a few tables and you help yourself. Of course, we students let everyone else to get some food first while we waited for our turn, out of respect. And that’s when our interrogation began while waiting in line for food.

“Please, I can explain,” Suu said, pretending he has been kidnapped

“Go on then, I want to hear this.” Michelle pushed on, “otherwise I really will tie you to a boat.”

He looked at Daiichi, which nodded in agreement, oh that’s right he was in on this too.

“This is me and Daiichi’s plan to save the planet.”

“Ok, Matt lets tie him up,” Michelle instructed, I think she just wants to tie Suu up for fun at this point.

“Ok ok, stop, I’ll talk for real.”

“This is me and Daiichi’s Plan to save our club.”

“But we already have our club and its getting closed down next year when everyone graduates.”

“Alright then, Kelly, get some more rope, Daiichi is joining Suu on that boat.”

“Ok Matt, remember how there is a rule in this school if that a club doesn’t recruit any members for two years it will be shut down immediately right?”

“Yes, go on.”

“And this is our 3rd year without a new member, care to explain why?”

“That’s because you abused your Prez powers…..Oh…..”

“Well, the simple solution is for me to recruit someone but because Suu is been stubborn we had to negotiate with the school board.”

“When did this begin?” Shion asked, catching up with the story

“Middle of Last year,” Daiichi answered. “Suu and I had to find a way for our group to be useful, and I just had received an email from this university saying that they can’t afford the fees for this forum.”

The explanation went on, Suu and Daiichi filled us in the detailed of how this elaborate plan unfolds. He even distributed most of the club funds we should be getting to this event. So in reality, the true sponsor isn’t the school, but the MP club, the school is only using us as advertisements.

“Does it really matter Suu? If our club is disbanded?”

“Not really, but I really do want to have a final go at being a high school kid.” He answered, sentimentally. “We won’t have another chance, especially when we are already so deep in the business world if we lost our club, there is nothing that will tie us to being high school students anymore and most of us probably wouldn’t even show up to school.” He looked at Matt and Daiichi when he said that.

“So, as the President of the MP club, this is a challenge that we all must take on.” Alpha prez ordered, “Besides it's going to be fun, I believe you will be quite excited about the competitions.”

“Alright, I’m in.” Tomo answered, “What we are having for lunch, by the way, I’m hungry.”

“I feel like some cucumber sandwich,” Daiichi replied. Over exposure to Shiori does that to you.

...............

We seem to get a lot of attention now, especially with me and Suu in school uniforms. Sure all the females were ogling at the boys in suits but most of the time they are looking at the students with destine, how dear these kids trying to be better than us is what they are probably thinking.

“You sure about this Kelly? Shiori?” Daiichi asked, “You two shouldn’t be dragged in on this by Suu.”

“It’s ok, I love a little competition.” Shiori replied honestly, “Entering competitions with friends sounds fun.”

“I’ll be fine.” That was all I could reply, I just want to stay in the hotel and read mangas.

I am doubting my usefulness right now, all this time since I met these people, I have been the dead weight of the party.

What does Kelly want to be?

The question that’s been haunting me ever since last night resurfaced into my consciousness.

What can Kelly be?

It twisted and shifted and challenged me in a different form.

Is there anything to do now?

Just get Carried Kelly.

“I don’t believe in limits.” Suu was talking to one of the interviewers, is that the Hokkaido TV? “I don’t think an individual will ever reach their full potential, neither should parents, teachers or themselves. Anyone, be it student, parent, businesses, and governments, as long as there is a will to improve, improvement will occur.” He answered that in Japanese for the TV station and looked at me.

“How do you think to achieve that?” The reporter asked Suu, trying to put him on the spot.

“Step one, be surrounded by supportive friends, and if you are parent, be sure to support your children.”

“Step two, educate yourself about your potential, its an understanding, not belief, that all humans are created equal, if someone else had done it in history, so can you.”

“Step three is the hardest, it’s figuring out what you love doing and what you want to do for the rest of your life.” Suu looked at me again. “For me, I want to write books and scenarios and create worlds and characters and breath Souls into them.”

“Do you have a tip then? On how to find such passion in life?”

“I do actually, it’s the greatest short cut I have ever discovered. If there is something you are willing to get up at 5:30 am because you enjoy doing it, you should’ve found it. I am not talking about pressure or stress that forces you up early. You are going to jump out off the bed for it every early morning and can’t wait to start working on it.”

Dumbfound the reporter forgot to ask her last question, so Suu answered for her.

“If you want to know more, come back on the last day, I promise you will not be disappointed.” He gave a camera a wink before signaling the crew that he has finished with the interview. I can hear the collective heart skipping a bit around the world as Suu winked.

It felt like Suu was speaking at me, not the camera.

Just get carried Kelly, no, I have friends who will support me.

What can Kelly do? Everything, if my friends can do it, I can too

What does Kelly want to be? What wakes me up early in the morning that I will gladly repeat it for the rest of my life? I think deep down I already have the answer. It’s so unlike me to get depressed for no reason, I am sure this competition will be fun after all Suu did say they will be business-related and I am equally educated as all of my dear friends. Not that I ever practiced it of course.

We made our way to the school booth, there are already people standing in line, mostly want to get interviews with us. I saw Sachi-nee, Ellen Sensei and Mr. Math teacher, who apparently is famous around this part. On a big poster unrolled, are the competition rules and what the topic they will be on.

The business simulation game, apparently we are to play a sim about running a business Stockbroking season, with a real-time paper trading account provided to all the entrants Cook-off and restaurant running Limited to 4 teams. The teams will have one hour to provide food for all the guests. Received the best rating wins 3-6pm. Internet security wars

“Suu, that looks like cheating,” Chihiro concluded after looking at the competition list.

“Don’t be silly, these are just business essential skills we are testing people on,” Matt observed

“A cook-off really?”

“You will be surprised; the most successful people are cooks.”

“No Suu, that is a lie, you just want a cooking competition.” Tomo pointed out. “I assume the team with the most wins. But there are 4 events, don’t we have a tie-breaker?” I asked the logical question.

“You think someone one going to win the cook-off apart from me?” Suu asked, where did he get all the confidence from. He put on his best villain voice, with the hand covering his right eye. “There is only a few people in the world that could defeat me, mwahahahahahaha.”

“That sounds like a death flag to me.” Ignoring his eighth-grader syndrome as I pointed out.

“In all seriousness, I have prepared a tie-breaker so we should be ok.”

The Afternoon session is where the bulk of the activity is. There are booths of different businesses and sponsors promoting their product and service. There are a few other international schools, but mostly are MBA courses that you can attend once you graduated from university. No one even considers offering anything to people under the age of 21.

“It annoys me,” Matt spoke my mind behind me, “That no one ever takes young people seriously, this society is messed up!”

“We don’t make a good name for our selves though.” Michelle took the other side of the argument. “Kids these days will waste the best part of their life away, we have so much time and energy, could use it to making money but all we do is waste them.”

“That’s because all they’ve been taught is how they are useless and naïve compared to adults, and of course we will be if we are not taught how to be useful and think critically.” Matt given his point, “But then again, most of the adults don’t know what to think of themselves.”

Stop Matt, Stop it, we are all going to get stabbed, and then I realized I wasn’t in Frankston, but I can feel the adults around us are feeling uncomfortable, and they have every right to be, after spending only 2 weeks in my school I realized what young people can achieve. Think about it, in ancient times 13 is considered adult and the poor kids had to take on puberty and life at the same time, running their family trades or looking after an entire family. I truly think society really needs to re-examine some of its prejudices.

..........

“Hi, mum how have you been?” I called her at the top of the Hotel we are staying in. The day finished without much more drama and dinner was amazing as always. Shiori and Michelle went out for some ice-creams and the boys are who knows where, maybe there is an anime goods store nearby? “It has been a while.”

“Honey, it’s only like been two weeks.” My mum sarcasm filled voice replied, “How are you Kelly, not making trouble I hope?”

“Trouble? Me? Always.” I can hear the sound of a boarding broadcast, “you at the airport again?”

“Yeah, got called in as emergency reinforcement again.”

“Well, you have me to entertain you until you board.”

“That sounds good, we haven’t had a good girls talk.” See, she can sound her age if she tries, “What is it? Boy problems?” Never mind I take that back.

“Not yet, thank goodness, but I am afraid that one day it will be,” I joked. I told her about Shiori first since she brought up boys problems. And I went on and talked about all of the new friends I had made.

“They sound like amazing people,” mum concluded. “So what is the problem?”

“That’s the problem, they are amazing people, and I am not.”

“Oh, I see what you mean.” She went silent for a bit.

“Can you not agree with what I said? Shouldn’t mothers be like ‘it’s ok, you are amazing to me’?”

“Of course you are amazing to me, but does that make you feel any better?”

“No.” I lied

“Exactly, so there should be a better solution to your little problem.”

“And that is?”

“Just become amazing.”

“Easier said than done.”

“Is it really?” She questioned, sounding more responsible and wiser than she usually acts.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, just want to try to say that one time.”

“Mum.”

“Daughter.”

“I am going to replace you if you keep acting like that.” I joked. “In all seriousness, I know what I need to do, I just need to talk to someone about it that is not one of my friends.”

“Honey, I believe in your decision, I didn’t raise you to be someone who will only rely on others. You can do it.”

“Thank you mum, you believing in me is enough.”

“I don’t believe in you Kelly, anyone has the potential to achieve their dreams and that is a scientific fact, most people just have the wrong dreams or wake up too early.”

“Do all mothers talk like you?” I asked, this sounds awfully familiar.

“Only the good one’s honey.” She laughed on the other side of the phone, I giggled as well, for very different reasons.

We chatted some more before the boys showed up to the lounge, carrying luggage’s that seem to be anime goods. That is the most disturbing thing I have ever seen. They are all still wearing their 3 piece suit with perfectly combed hair and every bit the elite businessmen except holding figurines and Manga and anime goods. The worst one is Daiichi, he looks the most professional out of everyone, even now he looks dignified holding those bags of anime goods.

“Ok mum, I am going to have to let you go.”

“Have fun honey, love you.”

“Love you too.”

Doo doo doo, She hangs up on me. I didn’t even get a chance to ask where she is headed to this time.

“How come you guys didn’t invite me?” I demanded.

“Boys night.” Was Matts answer.

“>.>”

“Don’t give me that look, I am sure the shop will not let girls in there.”

“

“It’s true,” Suu confirmed.

“I will not ask what shady place you went to this time but next time I am coming.” It gets worse as I get older, boys starting to leave me out of events like this.

“By the way Kelly, we have something to talk to you about.”

“This can’t be good.” I joke.

“No, it’s not,” Daiichi replied.

“Oh.”

“We are going to have to let you be the leader of the team.” Daiichi began to explain, “You see, we all have relations to other organizations, I don’t want people to start researching into our backgrounds, it could prove troublesome later on.”

“Makes sense, but couldn’t we get Suu….. Oh, the Suu family.”

“Exactly, even our three bakas are out.”

“Oi, who are calling bakas?”

Tomo, Chihiro, and Shion all reached in their pockets and handed me their business cards. Seriously, this is not funny anymore, why you do this, how old are you!

It reads, “Trio Technology and security.” And they are all founding directors. Wait a minute, isn’t that the company that gives real-time support to some of the largest tech groups in America? That explains why they are nocturnal.

“Ok, that makes sense, what do you want me to then?”

“We need you to lead our team.” Daiichi pleaded, “Also you are going to do a fine job.”

I looked at everyone, in their best suits and holding anime goods and looking at me with utter confidence.

“I make no promises or take any responsibility if we fail, but sure, I’ll be the team leader.”

I received a round of applause.

“What’s this? Kelly is making a speech?” Michelle and Shiori got back at just the right time.

“No, we are going to have a strategy meeting right here and now.”

…………

I woke up at 5:35 am, naturally. I put on my glasses, Sneaking past Michelle and Shiori, I got dressed in jeans and hoodie I found in my suitcase and went out to the Rooftop Lounge to get some fresh air.

“Fancy seeing you here at this hour.” Suu was already there, setting up his laptop. He is in his Pyjamas with one of those hotel bathrobes on, probably couldn’t get dressed otherwise he will wake up Daiichi and Matt.

“I was surprised too, I just somehow got up early.” I replied, “So you really do get up at 5:30 am every morning and write your novels.”

“Yeah, somehow I just can’t stop, you know I used to be the biggest sleepy head and my low blood pressure in the morning doesn’t help at all.”

“You sound like an old man, talking about the past and your blood pressure.”

“Old man wakes up early too, that does make me an old man.” Once again there wasn’t any sarcasm in his tone.

“How does it feel, to find what you want to become?”

Suu smiled, he really does look like an old man today. He closed his laptop almost reluctantly and gave me full attention, “It feels like I have wasted years of my life until this point, I wish I realized it sooner so that I could have done a lot more.”

“Please Suu, you are 18 mate.”

“Doesn’t matter, I could’ve learned so much in 18 years, instead of learning it all now. You don’t get better at something miraculously, it takes time for that miracle to happen.”

I let that sink in, having no idea where to take this conversation so I simply sat there waiting for Suu to say something.

“Now Kelly, have you decided on what you want to be? Or do you want to enjoy your final year as a proper Japanese high school girl?” Suu asked.

“To be honest, I think I might just be a producer. You know, a game producer.”

“Sounds good.” Suu looked at me, “Let me know when you want to start. We’ll give you a hand.”

“Start what?”

“Your first masterpiece.”

“But I don’t know anything about being a producer, and I have a lot to learn.”

“That’s why you start,” Suu corrected, “If you don’t start then how you going to learn”

“Isn’t there like a step to this? Classes I need to take? Lessons I got to take?”

“You been a student for 12 years, have you learned much? Its not that I say don’t go to school or classes, but you have to understand the education system is fundamentally flawed, they teach you to be a robot in school. And courses, well they just want to make money out of you, the longer you spend in class, the more money they milk out of you.”

Why does every one of my friends hate the education system?

“What they teach you in a year, you can probably learn it yourself in a week. So forget about the courses, you got libraries, internets, family, and friends.”

“But-but…” I trailed off, it really isn’t like me to keep going backward, what happened to the Kelly who makes decisions and never look back? I think I am getting too comfortable here being dragged around by my newly found friends and forget who I am. The answer is clear and simple, Kelly is Kelly, smart, decisive and above all else courageous, I have been to more countries than most people experienced far more than an average high school girl, and hack, I was born in Frankston and survived.

“What have I been doing for the past 2 weeks?”

“Having fun, it has been a while since I saw you enjoy your time spent.”

“Ok old man, you better stop with the reminiscence, it is seriously tilting me.” I complained, “But, you are right, I had a wonderful Holiday, but I feel like its time to work hard at life again, like what I have always done.”

“Welcome back Kelly.”

I took a deep Seabreeze of Sapporo, or whatever left of it and stood up, it's about time I get dressed and get some preparations done after all the competition is today and we need to be there early.

.......................

“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the first-ever international business forum competitions ever. Today is brought to you by Shinjuku international high private school and our local sponsors for each individual event.” I remember her, she was the reporter on the first day that interviewed Suu. “So, Boys and girls, are we ready~?” She gestures to our group. I have instructed that all members must be in uniforms today, it's our school against the world today and we must look the part. I stood in front of the group and gave the camera a bow, apparently, this is filmed and is been streamed across the world right now. Bring it on I say, when I am old like Suu I can go back and look at these footages and laugh at myself.

“Ladies and gentlemen, are we ready?” She then gestured to the teams around the sides of the hall.

The entire middle section of the hall is now the competition area, it has been divided into two sections, half of it has rows of computers on it because 3 out of 4 competitions is going to be held there. The other half have 4 impressive show kitchens, complete with ovens, sinks and everything, makes you wonder how they set it up overnight.

“Alright, let me introduce you to the first event of the day, sponsored by Sapporo commerce university and their IT club, they have organized enough PCs. Now for the first round, we are going to play this business simulator, the team with the most money wins in the 1 hour period. Of course, you will be playing at 20X speed, which means you must make decisions very quickly. We have 5 teams participating for the first Event and each team only gets one PC.”

“Alright then, let's do this.” We let Shion pick a PC, apparently, he can tell how good they are just by looking at it, which I highly doubt that’s the case but hey a PC is a PC.

We booted up the PC, so did every other team, it looks like most of these people are lecturers from schools or business owners.

“Hey Chihiro, you think the person who made this game knows how to run a business,” I asked

“If he did then this Indi game should be making him millions of dollars right now, so I assume no. It is such a shame because the game is great. But no, I haven’t played it.”

“Ok, I have an idea, how about we play this like a VN instead of a sim?”

“What?” Matt asked.

“I have a feeling your business sense will not work here.”

“You sure about this Kelly?”

“Of course not, but if we do the same things by the textbook, like all the other people over there, what would be the difference?” I explained, “Besides, what are the chances we have in winning the remaining three comps where it is least dependant on chance?”

“Alright then, if it’s a visual novel then I wouldn’t mind giving this a go.” Matt sat in the operators' chair

“Go, Matt, you can do it!.”

“Ok, we will be given choices A-D and we need to pick one ASAP, so if anyone of you knows the best answer yell it out, otherwise I will just keep on going.”

“Uhm, what is a visual novel?” Shiori asked.

Oh right, we have a member of the general public here, “Uh, I will have to explain that to you later, but what we are doing here is like a quiz and we have picked the options.”

“Oh, in that case, I might be able to help out too.”

“Remember, 20X speed is pretty hardcore, get ready everyone.”

“All the players ready? Well to bad, we are starting in 5,4,3,2,1 GO!!!!!!!!”

The crowd all cheered for no reason, all we did was start the computer, and then there is a projector screen that came down and on it showed two commentators, probably from the Hokkaido Tv stations. They are doing a live commentary of the show, with 30 seconds of delay to avoid cheating. What is this? Esports????

“What do you think of the Current situation Seiji San, you think the Students will have an upper hand because this is a game?”

“I think not, you can tell all the professionals are picking their choices as well and fast as the kids are, there is something about the experience in operating a business that the kids just don’t have.”

Experience? I wonder just how many of the academics on other teams have run business. Not that I have either, but I have certainly played VN before, and no bishies could ever run away from my grasp!

That been said, the game focuses on micromanagement, and every now and then a chance event happens and we decide what direction to take it.

“Ok, player change,” Matt announced, “I am not good at micromanagement games.”

“I was wondering about that, Feels like I am playing spacecraft 2,” Tomo observed, here let me have a run with it.”

“What is this? The SIH team is having a driver change, it seems this is too hard for one of their members!”

That really did get the crowd going for some reason. Matt is now behind Tomo, who is managing all the resources and business ventures with double Matt’s speed. While Matt and Michelle are doing the back seat driving. Whenever there is an event choice Matt will always be the first one to pick the choices.

Meanwhile, Shion and Chihiro are watching the screen, apparently, they found the commentary entertaining. Daiichi is watching the other teams and see how they are acting, they not going to jump on us or anything Daiichi, it's fine.

As for me and Suu, we are educating Shiori on the beauty of visual novels.

“You see Shiori, have you ever wanted to want to date all the cute anime boys in the mangas you read?”

“Not really,” Shiori replied, “Most of them are not my type anyway.”

Well, I am sorry about your type standing next to you but it would be easier if you said yes.

“Ok, imagine a Lonely Suu have no friends and have no interest in the real-life girl, but he wants to have some interactions with Cute anime girls, so he went on and purchasing a game where the girls talk to you in a predetermined pattern and give you a selection to proceed the story.”

“Huh……” Shiori doesn’t seem to get it, this is going to take long.

“Suu help me out.”

“No, apparently I have no friends and want to have interaction with cute anime girls.”

“……..”

This is going to take a while.

................

So, it took me a whole half an hour to explain what a visual novel is to Shiori, but it became a great past time because by then the game has already concluded.

we have our score on the big projector, there was a camera that came around shooting the number on our screen. So, the results are that we won the game by 10 times what the others combined.

“Yeah that wasn’t fair, it turned into a competitive spacecraft 2 game halfway.” I said to the camera,” We treated it like a game rather a business session.” I said apologetically to the camera and audience, that really didn’t feel like winning at all. Oh well, they can complain that the competition being rigged later.

“Alright, now after that unfortunate defeat everyone, ready for the next round? We have provided everyone with a real-time trading simulation of the Japanese stock market, however, do note that your tradings are completely virtual, which is slightly different, it will be a judgment of your business sense rather than Psychology.”

“Your time limit is 1 hour, this is a battle royal, the best player will win representing their team. while we get the kitchen and ingredients ready for our next event. Ready? GO!”

…………..

“I can’t believe this! Suu from SIH had doubled his margins in a mare 1hour.”

Yeah we all know how that happened, I made about 10% in that hour, everyone else made about 20-30% while Shiori is pouting because she lost 2% of her capital. Don’t worry Shiori, there is that guy who is now 200,000 yen in debt, I don’t even know how you can end up in debt, I made a mental note to ask Suu later on.

If we win the next one, which is the cook-off it will be over. Speaking of Cook-off, I am hungry what are we having for lunch?

“Lady’s and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is the event you and your stomach had been waiting for, the cook-off between elite teams. The set up is brought to you by Hokkaido Television, we were saving it for a cooking show that we are putting on next month, please look forward to it.”

“Now this will be a test of the elite teams, so let me introduce them, first off the dark horse of the event, SIH MP club on the northern kitchen.”

“Suu, we’ve been called the dar…..WHAT ARE YOU DOING!”

Suu wasn’t listening to the introduction, he is handing out aprons, the frilly aprons that were supposed to be wiped off the face of the earth forever.

“Here is the one I prepared earlier,” Suu handed me one of the smaller ones, “And here you go Matt, this one is for you.”

“Oh, look like the students choose to have their own aprons, they do look cute don’t they.”

Too late, the audience already saw what we are trying to wear. Michelle, Daiichi, Suu, and Shiori are already wearing them.

“Damn it Suu, You owe me for this. Ok everyone, think of this as battle Armor and you are a magical girl.”

“How do you know what I was thinking?” Suu asked.

“I wasn’t.” we hurriedly donned our frilly white armor. Somehow Matt looks really Suitable for this, the three bakas are trying their best to stay cool. Michelle and Daiichi looked very uncomfortable and Shiori is having the cutest smile on her face, she really likes these aprons. And I don’t even want to know what I look like in these, even though I used to wear them all the time before it went down the burnable trash bin.

“On the east and west side are respectively the Sapporo shopping strip, a more local team, and the International restaurant association, we have high hopes for this team.”

They all have their own aprons, especially the IRA, they look like restaurant owners and chefs. Most of these people are middle-aged and look confident in their skills, some even had their own cooking knives in wooden boxes.

“Maybe I should have brought mine,” Suu said, “That looks impressive.”

I can imagine Suu doing a pose while pulling out the knives, in the frilly apron we all wearing.

“Ok everyone, those who can cook raise your hands,” Suu, Shiori, and Matt raised their hands,

“well," our party is useless. "Ok everyone else, just stand around and be our test taster and help out when you are told, make sure not to get in our ways.”

“K~~~” Was the group's response. Sometimes, sitting out is teamwork too.

“I didn’t know Matt can cook.”

“Better than you would think.” Matt took off his blazer, rolled up his sleeves and we did the same.

“Lastly we have a special guest, it seems Otaru Beer is really interested in this cooking event and called in some reinforcements. I present to you, Otaru Beeeeeeeerrrrrrr.”

I Otaru Beer had made this their commercial, it is broadcasted all over the net, they have to show off. I am sure Hokkaido TV will do a very good job for this advertisment.

“Suu, what do you think of these people?” I asked, only to find him frozen in place, his eyes focusing on the women in chef cloth behind everyone else, she is head lower than everybody, her long caramel coloured hair in one single neat ponytail.

“Master,” Suu whispered underneath his breath. One of the few people in the world that can beat Suu in cooking.

My mother.