At Totsuki Culinary Academy, the famous Polar Star Dorm is home to genius and eccentric chefs as always. One day, Soma Yukihira is given a shock by the dorm matron, Fumio Daimido. A master of tea ceremony with a terrifying temper when angered, she declares, 'Room inspections in one week! If your room is dirty, a ten-book report without question!' Soma thinks he's safe, until Satoshi Isshiki peeks into his room and says, 'I can't see your floor.' Panicking, Soma tries to clean up but discovers a
Polar Star Dorm: Today is Peaceful… Right?! - Polar Star Dorm: Today is Peaceful… Right?!
Sunday evening.
The Polar Star Dorm living room was strangely quiet.
Normally, you'd hear the sound of someone's knife doing dinner prep, or catch the smell of some weird fermentation experiment, or catch glimpses of Isshiki-senpai wandering around in his fundoshi. It was always noisy.
But today, about ten dorm residents were all sitting stiffly on the sofas.
One reason.
The small woman standing in front of them — Fumio Oomido — was terrifying.
"…Souma-kun."
Megumi Tadokoro, sitting next to me, tugged lightly at my sleeve. Her voice was trembling.
"Don't you think Oomido-san looks really scary today…?"
"Huh? Looks the same as always to me."
I said it, but I looked at Oomido-san anyway.
Her short, gray-streaked hair was tied back in a small bun, and her eyes were usually narrow and kind. She was maybe about 152 centimeters tall. Always smiling, and sometimes she'd eat failed kitchen experiments saying "it'd be a waste" — a gentle dorm mother.
But today, her eyes were just a little wider.
And sharp.
"It seems everyone is present."
Oomido-san spoke. Her voice was quiet, but the air in the living room went taut.
I touched the white cloth wrapped around my left arm and watched her.
Tootsuki Tea Ceremony and Culinary Academy — the greatest cooking school in Japan. It's in the suburbs of Tokyo, and the campus is insanely huge. When I heard it was the size of a hundred Tokyo Domes, I thought it was a joke.
Even within that academy, Polar Star Dorm is a little unusual.
A sixty-eight-year-old, two-story wooden building. Only about ten people live here now, but apparently it's been called a "den of eccentrics" for ages. Sure enough, you've got people who blow things up making fermented foods in the middle of the night, and a senpai who wanders around in a fundoshi. Not normal.
But I kind of liked it here.
"Today, I have an announcement for everyone."
Oomido-san took one step forward.
In that instant, every dorm resident's back straightened.
"In one week, we will conduct room cleaning inspections."
"Urk."
Someone gasped.
"The criteria are cleanliness, tidiness and organization, and proper storage of ingredients. Those who receive the lowest score on the five-tier evaluation—"
Oomido-san's eyes narrowed.
"—will be assigned a reading report on ten books from the required reading list."
The living room buzzed.
"T-Ten books…!"
"Aren't the specialized culinary books in the library like four hundred pages each…?"
"Ten books in one week… there'd be no time to sleep…"
Everyone's faces went pale.
I scratched my head roughly and thought.
(Ten books worth of reports, huh… sounds like a pain.)
But well, I'd manage somehow.
It's not exactly my dad's catchphrase, but it's one of those "I'll get to it eventually" things.
"Souma-kun, are you going to be okay?! Is your room clean?!"
Megumi looked at me with a panicked face. Her flower-patterned hair clip swayed.
"Well, I'll manage. I've still got a week."
"B-But… when Oomido-san gets mad, she's really scary, you know…?"
"It's fine, it's fine. My room is totally—"
That's when it happened.
"—Souma-kun."
A voice came from behind me.
I turned around to see Isshiki-senpai, apparently fresh out of the bath.
…Wearing nothing but a fundoshi.
"Isshiki-senpai, please put some clothes on."
"Hm? Ah, sorry about that. This is what I find most relaxing after a bath."
Isshiki-senpai smiled as he dried his wet hair with a towel. His brownish hair was damp, and his lean build was clearly visible.
A second-year high school student at Tootsuki, and his cooking skills were incredible. But more than that, this guy's "looseness" was top-class even within Polar Star Dorm.
"By the way, Souma-kun, did you hear what Oomido-san said just now?"
"You mean about the cleaning inspection? Well, I'll be fine."
"In your room, the floor isn't visible."
Isshiki-senpai said it perfectly calmly.
"…Huh?"
"When I passed by the other day, your door was slightly open. I caught a glimpse inside—"
Isshiki-senpai's eyes took on a slightly serious shade.
"The floor was completely invisible under all the cardboard boxes. That might be a problem that goes beyond a cleaning inspection."
"F-For real?"
"For real."
I gulped.
It was rare for Isshiki-senpai to look this serious.
(This is bad.)
I stood up.
"I'm gonna go check my room real quick!"
I dashed out of the living room and ran down the hallway.
The corner room on the right, at the end of the second floor.
This was my room.
The moment I opened the door—
"…Whoa."
The words slipped out.
A six-tatami-mat Japanese-style room.
It was supposed to be a nice room with a view of the academy's forest from the window.
But the floor… wasn't there.
Eight cardboard boxes. Mountains of plastic bags. Bundles of what looked like some kind of dried goods. Three frying pans with broken handles, two chipped knives, five bent whisks.
They covered the entire floor, leaving no path to the futon or the desk.
"This is all the stuff that got shoved into my room…"
Thinking back, senpais and classmates had said things like "hold onto this for me" or "here, I don't use this anymore, you can have it," and I'd accepted it all without being able to refuse.
My room had become a graveyard for unwanted junk before I knew it.
"Can I really get this cleaned up in a week…?"
I scratched my head roughly.
(Ten books of reports… that's seriously bad.)
Oomido-san's scariness was the stuff of dorm legend.
There were even rumors that she was once one of the Tootsuki Elite Ten. After graduation, she'd been head chef at a famous restaurant, but for some reason, she became the dorm mother of Polar Star Dorm.
The senpais all agreed: she was the scariest when angered.
"…But."
I stared at the mountain of cardboard boxes.
My amber eyes glinted slightly with curiosity.
"Some of these ingredients might still be usable, right?"
I opened the nearest cardboard box.
Inside were vacuum-packed fermented foods, dried herbs, jars with peeled-off labels, and canned goods from Scandinavia I'd never seen before.
"This is getting interesting!"
I grinned.
(Right. If I make new dishes with these ingredients, the cleaning will get done along the way.)
I could clean and experiment with cooking at the same time. Killing two birds with one stone.
I immediately picked up one of the cans.
It had a Swedish label on it. An illustration of what looked like some kind of fish.
"Is this one of Erina's…?"
Come to think of it, she'd been researching fermented foods, hadn't she? Why it was in my room— well, whatever.
(Let's open it.)
I hooked my finger under the pull tab.
Psssh.
"…Huh?"
The next instant, an unbelievable smell filled the room.
"Ugh, gross!!"
Pinching my nose was useless. It stung my eyes.
"What is this, is it rotten?! No, is it supposed to be like this…?!"
Coughing, I threw the window open.
The wind came in, making it a little better.
"Hah… hah… what an incredible smell…"
I looked at the can fearfully.
Inside was fish submerged in liquid. Fermented herring.
(Scandinavian fermented food. Interesting as a research subject, but not something you should open in your room.)
I put the lid back on the can and wrapped it in multiple layers of plastic bags.
Then I looked around the room.
"Yeah, first I've gotta sort everything out."
I rolled up my sleeves. I retied the white cloth on my left arm a little tighter.
Usable ingredients, and stuff that was completely done for. Whether the broken cooking tools could be repaired.
(Clean this place up in a week. Experiment with cooking. Absolutely avoid those reports.)
"Let's do this!"
I said it out loud, psyching myself up.
From the other side of the door, I heard Megumi's voice.
"Souma-kun?! There's this really intense smell…!"
"Don't come in! It's a danger zone in here right now!"
"Ehhh?!"
I laughed.
(Alright, the one-week battle begins.)
In the back of the room, there were still piles of unopened cardboard boxes.
I wouldn't know what was inside them until I sorted through them a bit more.
Broken frying pans, chipped knives, mysterious dried goods, Erina's canned goods.
I'd clean it all up and turn it into cooking.
(I'll break through this cleaning inspection.)
The evening sun streamed through the window, dyeing the messy room orange.
I'd start in earnest tomorrow.
Tonight, first, I had to do something about this smell—.
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