“Mum~~~~” I waved across the hall, and she waved back.

“Ohhh, what is this, a sudden twist has occurred! It seems the team leader of the SIH and her mother are on different teams! What a plot twist. And ladies gentlemen boys and girls this isn’t staged, I can assure you.”

No no, this isn’t a daughter against mother match, I lose hands down, this is Suu and his master, the person who taught him everything about cooking, one of the few people who can win against Suu in a cooking showdown.

“Ok, in true cooking arena fashion, I will have to reveal the core ingredients for today's arena.” She quickly signalled the staff member to wheel on the secret ingredient in a cart. They pulled the red covering off it and behold, boxes and boxes of potatoes. Hold on a minute, these look familiar, are they the ones laying around the front of the University kitchen this morning? I happened to walk pass by and wondering what they are doing with all the potatoes and thought they are for the cafeteria lunch.

So we are using leftover potatoes as ingredients.

“If memory serves me correct…” The announcer begins

No no no, that sounds familiar too, are we seriously going with that? Your station is going to get sued for sure. I cringed as she describes the origins of these potatoes.

I can see the dismay on the faces of chefs, Suu and my mother, they can tell these are not the best potatoes and wondering how they are ever going to make something good out of it.

“Alright, we are going to check out what other ingredients we got and see if we can scratch something, although I have something in mind already,” I instructed, as Suu still somewhat distant.

So, we found other products to be not much impressive either, staff like corn and eggplant, meat products and eggs, there isn’t any seafood, but we have access to a full range of sauces, spices, and equipment, so I guess lunch is decided.

“The goal today is to impress as many people as we can in this hall, but that is irrelevant right now, what do you guys want to eat for lunch?” I asked.

“Ramen~~~”

“cucumber sandwiche”

“Gyuutan Don”

“Kebab.”

“Sour pork.”

“Salmon salad.”

“Sea urchins~~~”

“Fried Chicken.”

“NONE OF THEM HAVE POTATOES IN IT!” I held back a scream “Ok, Kelly is going to use her team leader privileges and we are having potato salad, potato skins, and Suu, what do you think mum is going to make.”

“I think she is going to do the nikujaga.”

“Alright then, we will do the same, it’s time we show her how we will not lose easily.”

“Michelle and Daiichi, go get the potatoes washed, I want them clean, Shion, Chihiro, and Tomo Peel them afterward, don’t worry about pilling too thick, we going to use the potato skin anyway.” I started barking orders. Suu may be a great chef but he is no way a good leader. He would put others in charge and pull the strings a little from behind.

“Shiori work on the vegetables please and Matt prepare all the seasoning, I want the mayonnaise for the salad to be perfect.”

“Yes, Ma'm!” Those two saluted me without question

“Suu. I’ll let you handle the nikujaga while I cook some bacon.”

“Got it.”

“Oooooh, look at the knife works! The team leader of the Otaru Beer is showing her amazing moves, she is cutting the potatoes into thin strips with sonic speed, Camera can we have that in slow motion on the screen?”

Looks like mum is showing off again, I can’t lose either I thought to myself as I cubed the bacon with slow Kelly speed. I wished I had learned cooking from mum properly but I remember the hellish training Suu went through so I quickly decided I made the right choice. I mean, chopping daikon so thin that you can see through takes practice, by the end of the training Suu went through 3 knives and cooking pans.

Suu isn’t losing, He took some vegetables that Shiori had washed and prepared and started on his chopping, we decided to cut the vegetables that go in the salad to thin strips to better compliment the texture.

“Ooh, SIH team is displaying their secret weapon! The student prez seems to be catching up with the chopping showdown, and what is this? That looks like the exact same technique Otaru beer uses. Tech team, can we have a slow-motion of the cutting side by side please.”

Judging by the crowd, they are having a good time with the competition.

“Done, I am going to prepare for the nikujaga, Kelly, slice those beef with the grain as thin as you can and then boil them with clean water.”

“On it.” These detailed works are best for me. “Everyone who can’t cook, prepare the serving plats to make sure the three dishes are served separately. Matt, can you give me a sample of the sauce?”

Matt took a tasting spoon, walked over, realized my hands are bloody with beef cutting, he slowly guided the spoon in front of my face and then feed me the sauce. I can hear some girls squealing, now that I think about it, two hot guys cooking is something that you will not see every day. Being feed by a hot guy who can cook is rarer, even in manga and anime.

“What you put in this? This is amazing.”

“Let me have a taste too,” Suu asked.

Matt tossed the spoon in the sink and got a clean one, scooped it up and feed it to Suu.

That really got the females in the room going, Matt and Suu the two most popular guys in school, in all of their calm and collectedness, are feeding each other fresh mayonnaises.

“Wow this is good, what you put in it?”

“Shiori said something about a little garlic and bonito powder. She said the smoky flavors will go well with the bacon and potatoes.”

“Alright, I think my potatoes are about to be cooked, help me drain it and cool it. Then get Shiori to do the mixing. I need some seasoning for the fried potato skin.” I instructed. That’s the potato salad done

I finished the beef and put it into a pot Suu had prepared earlier, the water already boiling. The first thing he did was put four large pots of water to boil, we do have to feed a thousand people and a large pot of water takes a long time to boil.

The beef went in, they were cooked almost instantly, happy with the result, Suu help me with the pots and tipped all the water out of it, we cleaned the beef with warm water so no blood foam is floating then put it on the fire again this time Suu will do the final seasoning of the nikujaga.

I took the pile of potato skin, made sure the useless, I am the people who can’t cook, members cleaned them properly. Looks like the skin is pilled really thick, just what I want it, it makes Suu’s cooking better because he is not using the outer layer of the potatoes.

I started the fryer and heated up the oil. The potato skin should be made last to keep in the freshness. Matt was having a quick chat with Suu and then walked off to the storage run. We came back moments later with some mountain herbs that are local to Hokkaido as well as some coriander and other leaves.

He quickly cleaned them and handed them over to me. “Kelly fry them in the oil, please. But careful not to burn them.”

I looked at Suu and he gave me a thumbs up then did as I was told.

Sudden the smell of herbs filled the hall, it reminds you of the forests of Hokkaido yet somehow it makes you hungry.

“Ohhhh, SIH had made its power move!”

I quickly took out the herbs so they don’t burn and handed to Matt, who ground them into powder and mixed it with other seasonings such as sea salt for the fries.

“It seems like they had used the herbs to season the oil, because potatoes have the ability to absorb oil and that the oil has the ability to absorb flavor, think about the herbs you just smelt, and it is absorbed all within the potatoes.”

I didn’t even know that, Matt looks like he just did the obvious thing to do and Shiori is taking notes.

“Oh look like Otaru Beer is making their power moves too.”

I looked over as q tower of flame erupted in the wok, mum is doing a flaming stir fry, the smell of potatoes and capsicum filled the room, aggressively covering ours. Is she doing Chinese food? She really is going out of her way to give Suu a hard time.

My oil is heated and Matt is done with the seasoning, and once again gave it to Suu to taste. That stole the camera and crowd focus right back to us. I took the chance to put the potato skin in the fryer, the sound was loud and gave it a better impact. Let’s roll with the cooking royale.

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

“alright…. TIME UP. Everyone stop cooking!”

We were finished minutes ago and is already doing the plating, We had paper cups for each of the dishes. The Potato fries and Potato salad is already in the cups

“Ok, everyone stopped? We will have people line up for their food, the teams can keep serving the food until they run out or lunchtime is over, at the end we will decide who the winner is by majority vote. Lunchtime start!

“Ok boys and girls keep those cups filled with food!”

As I ordered that, Suu opened his pot of nikujaga, he was saving it for the last second. The beautiful aroma filled the hall, it made you feel relaxed, safe and loved after a busy day at work. I bet it will taste like it too.

The same thing happened on the other side, mum opened her pot, it smelled the same as ours.

“What is this? It seems like the two most promising teams decided to serve the same food! I assure you, this competition isn’t staged.”

“Nikujaga is a very popular Japanese dish, it's only right that the teams want a showdown with this dish because every family has a different way of making it, some family only pass down the recipe down the generations. So, it comes down to the interpretation of the dish when it comes to a nikujaga showdown.”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Thank you for commentary, what you say we get down to the floor with the camera crew and have a taste as well.”

“Great idea.”

Shiori took charge of customer service, I was never good at stuff like that. It appears that our dishes are popular, the potato salad is popular among the females for some odd reason. It’s good to see those didn’t cook pulling their weight serving the food as well. Suu already sneaked off somewhere, probably having a taste of my mums’ food.

Our food was “sold out within half an hour.” But we did make sure everyone only gets one serving so that as many people can try our food. It seems we made about a thousand portions for everyone since the servings are small enough they would have the stomach to try another people’s food too.

Suu came back with a bowl of untouched mashed potatoes, I realized he just walked around with that apron on again.

“Did you think we won?” I asked.

“Hmmm, the only dish I haven’t tried is the shopping streets mashed potatoes,’ He pointed to the bowl his holding, “But I think me and master are evenly matched, but her team let her down.” He said, confidently.

“Matt really did well with that potato skin, who told him that?”

“He told me where he came from people do it all the time.”

“Something new every day huh.”

Suu didn’t bother to reply as he bites in the mashed potatoes.

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

“Alright, it’s the moment of truth.”

Seriously, we are getting sued.

“All you have to do is stand at one of the sides of this hall, behind the team you think have the best potato dish and we count the numbers.”

The people started to move, after some time, I realized we only have about a hundred people behind us, the number doesn’t add up. I looked at my mother's team, she seems to have less than us.

“What’s going on?” I asked the group behind me, “And where did Suu sneak off to anyway.”

I looked at the direction of the Otaru Beer group, my mother isn’t there either.

“What is this, we have an unexpected winner!”

Wait voting is over? I looked to my left I see almost 600 hundred people sanding far behind the Sapporo shopping street team. I can make out a student wearing a frilling apron and my mother standing next to him in that crowd.

“EH!”

What is this development!

“Eh!?”

“Alright then, that wraps it up, we are starting the last round in 30mins, get all the teams back to the computers when you ready please, you can leave the cleaning to our crew members.”

At least I don’t have to clean, I thought. Shiori took my hand and dragged me to the shopping streets side, I realized they still got some food leftover and she must’ve wanted to try the food too.

It seems like they made nothing but mashed potatoes, in industrial amounts, she had prepared for everyone in the hall and have them come back for seconds. Even then, there is barely anything left. Shiori took one of the bowls and a plastic spoon and gave it to me and got her own. She really gets assertive when it comes to the things she loves.

I took a bite, and suddenly I understood why we lost. It is potatoes, but it is something else, the milk and butter are the best on earth, from Hokkaido. It sends the feeling of happiness and fulfillment all through your body. And just when you think the butter is getting too rich, the sweet and refreshing taste of mountain berries and summer Japanese wild herbs comes in and refreshes your taste buds so you uncontrollably go for another bite. The grandmas and grandpas of the shopping street won this hand down, we have lost.

I turned my attention to my mother and Suu, they are talking about the ingredients used and how they should learn from it.

“Suu who’s this?” Tomo asked, followed by the whole team. Still wearing those accursed aprons.

“Oh this, Kelly’s mum, say hi to mum guys.”

“Hi, mum~.” Was everyone's reply, they really like playing along with jokes like this.

“So you must be Kelly’s friends, thank you for taking care of her.” She gave my friends a warm smile. “And thank you for putting up with Suu as well.”

“No no, Kelly being wonderful, and Suu, well Suu is Suu.” That was Michelle

“That’s good to hear, oh by the way, here is a little self-introduction.” My mum pulled out a stack of her business cards and handed them around.

“Director for hire?” Matt asked, “What is this?”

“I am the last chance a company has for survival, my life job is to go into a dying company, found out what is wrong with it and revive it if I can. Sometimes people call me the business doctor” Mum explained, “That said, I really do hope I never have to work with you and your companies. Oh and don’t go around saying my name, because if they know I get involved a company is already on their last legs.”

Oh, so Otaru Beer is in deep trouble, that is not good to know, I quite like their beers.

Each individual of my party had exchanged their business cards with mum. She is impressed with all the young high flying executives I am around.

“Wait, Kelly, if you had such an awesome mum, how come you not in any business?”

“Because all I learn from her is how not to run a company. Besides, what she is doing isn’t a family business.”

“That been said, I had everything I know drilled into Kelly from a very young age, so that if one day she wants to do something on her own she is ready for it.”

“Your mum is so cool Kelly,” Shion observed, “And I heard that Suu is your Cooking student?”

“Hardly, Suu calls me Master, but we just BFFs who have the same hobby, that is all,” Mum replied, I cringed at the word BFF but it wasn’t far from the truth. “Also, those aprons do look adorable on everybody.”

Oh, right we still wearing them.

“Ok team, we have one more competition to win, let's get ready, we can talk to mum when it's over.”

“Yes, mum!” Sigh, when did I get upgraded to mum status?

“Alright Kelly, you go and have fun now,” she gave me a warm motherly hug. “I’ll go visit your guys after the next competition.”

I reluctantly let go, I don’t see this mother of my often, she flies around the world all the time and never go home on time, but I had fun, traveling the world ever since was young, away from the place I was born, meeting people, some wonderful, some horrible. Now that I am old enough and knowledgeable enough to be by myself, I somewhat missed some of that.

“Alright, let's win this. Even though I am useless at computers.”

The best I can do is play some otome games on a PC, maybe write a powerpoint presentation, maybe.

Chihiro took the leadership of the comp, Apparently, we got to hack other teams computers and protect ours. Each team is assigned one PC to protect and other PCs to attack. So, Chihiro is taking care of the defenses while Shion and Tomo are doing the hacking. The rest of us are instructed to either play games or watch some cat videos online or whatever we want to do, apparently it acts as a diversion for other groups.

“Alright ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, welcome to the last match, the bell had just sounded signaling the start of the competition, Seiji-san what do you think?”

“We are having few surprises today, if we discard the first round, I wouldn’t think a kid would win so big on the share market, nor that the Hokkaido shopping street would defeat a well-built team like Otaru beer. But cybersecurity is an important concern to modern-day society, so we should….”

The conversation stopped as the bell for the end of the competition sounded, I looked up, the other teams are glaring daggers at us, and then, all the screens in the room and the big screen had Shion and Tomos handsome faces on it, still wearing those aprons. Now that I think about it, no one took them off!

“Good afternoon everyone, Let me take this time to remind you that cybersecurity is actually a great concern, so please make sure all your electronic devices are protected properly. A public service announcement from Shinjuku International High Multimedia production club. Over and out.”

The screen came back, with the announcer’s sour faces, it's funny to watch them saw their own faces on the screens and adjusted their expressions.

“Well that concludes today's showdown, next we have the award ceremony, oh hold on, I got a message from our sponsor.”

The announcer received a note from one of the crew members and had a quick read. That looks like Suu’s Handwriting.

“It seems that because the SIH can’t hand the prize money to their own students, so the prize will go to the grandpas and grandmas from the Hokkaido Shopping strip!!”

That really did get the crowd going, no one wants the sponsor to take their own prize money and it should never happen. I joined in the applause as I said goodbye to the club funds we are supposed to be getting back. The competition was rigged in our favor to begin with anyway.

The Award ceremony took place later, Of course, one of our teachers gave out the money, we can’t get the winners to rub salt into everyone else.

“Alright everyone, come for a group photo~~~” My mum showed up with her phone and took a picture without any further warning.

“Wait! mum, we not ready yet.”

“What you mean, I just caught Kelly in her natural habitat~” My mum smiled at us, “Kelly I am sending this photo to you and Suu afterward.”

Gaven up on mum, I turned the attention to my lovely friends.

“So, when are you guys going to keep wearing those aprons?” I asked,

“uh, now would be a good time.” Matt said, at the end of his endurance, “I was hoping to wear them in the train back but that sounds like a terrible idea. Everyone followed Matt and took off the apron, so did I.

“I am going to tie you to a boat if you don’t take that thing off.” I stared at Suu.

He reluctantly took off the Apron, “I am keeping this though.”

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

“So Kelly, what do you want to do?” Mum asked me as we got on the train back to Sapporo. Mum is dressed in a long white summer dress with her shoulders exposed, it impresses me how pretty she looks even at her age, then I realized she is only in her late 30s and looks like 19.

After the photo, my friends offered that I should go spend some time with mum, they said they’ll explain to the school and do the clean up so don’t worry. Before we left, mum had a few words with Suu, she handed him a letter and Suu rejected it politely, I was too far away to hear what they are saying. The conversation ended soon after that.

“I haven’t tried the ice-creams in Hokkaido, let's start with that.”

“Good idea, I haven’t tried either.”

It’s weird hanging out with mum like this, it feels like I am hanging out with a good friend we giggle and had fun. We even got hit on by a few high school students, thinking we are high school girls on a school trip, which my mum politely declined.

“So Kelly, What do you want to do now? I believe you finally figured out what you want to do.” Mum asked me as she is licking on her soft-serve.

“I want to be an anime game producer.” I answered, “but since I don’t know anything about it I am starting from ground zero.”

“That sounds fun, need any help with it?”

“Nah, I feel like I want to do it myself, you have taught me well after all. But if it does end up failing, I might need your services.”

“Hmmm. Should I charge you the full price or do I give you Mates rates?”

“I don’t want to know, because I have no intention of it failing.”

“That’s my girl,” mum smiled proudly, “So when you going to find yourself a boyfriend? Or are you into girls instead?”

“Not yet, but I am sure someday I must make that decision, but not today, not anywhere in the foreseeable future.”

“Hoooooo….”

“How are you doing mum? Not working too hard? You should take a holiday sometime.”

“Kelly, when you enjoy what you are doing in life you will never want a holiday.”

“That’s good to hear mum,” I am happy for her, “But you have to look after your body ok.”

“Please Kelly, you think I would look this young if I don’t?” She said proudly. She does look like my sister rather than my mother. “Some time I do wish you would dress a little girly, you are wasting my good looks.”

“Oi.”

“What.”

“Nothing.” It’s probably the only reason why I would dress like a girl, to make my mother happy.

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

We chatted some more and before we realized it’s time for me to return the hotel, she followed me there to the foyer. And left me with the boys as she went on and bothered the girls.

“So how was your date with mum?” Daiichi asked, not you too.

“uneventful, but enjoyable,” I answered, “By the way Daiichi, you the perfect person for me to talk to.”

“Oh me? How can I be of service.”

“I want to be the producer for the game we are making.”

“Done.”

“What?”

“You think I can be a good producer?”

“No,” I rubbed it in, “I guess I am getting promoted.”

........

I think my mum kidnapped the girls, so instead of looking for them, the boys went to dinner. We took our seats and left 3 empty, two for the girls and one because we have a table that seats ten.

“Oh, you didn’t call me for dinner.” I heard my mothers voices behind me.

“oh, I thought you kinda……. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING.” I screamed under my breath.

Behind me she is in my spare uniform, with the cute white blouse and the bow, Shiori must’ve borrowed her the skirt and she is wearing my school socks and spare shoes too! She even has the blazer on. She looks every part the schoolgirl, and because she is short like me she looks even cuter in those skirts. Would I look like that too?

The boys' Jaws are dropping, even Daiichi’s Poker face wavered for a fraction of a second.

The girls, cough cough, girls, sit in the seats and is perfectly fine with the idea, even Shiori looks like she is having fun.

“Mum, what are you doing?”

“I heard we are having seafood for dinner, and I can’t make a reservation here, so I decided to infiltrate.”

No mum, this isn’t an anime and you can’t just infiltrate a school, doesn’t matter how cute you look.

“I can assure you, master, that the seafood here is great and the chef is brilliant too.” Suu is giving his honest report to his master.

“Oh-ho, good.”

We filled out mum about my life in Japan for the last few weeks, it does fill like a long time and there had been plenty of tales to tell. My mum was giggling and joking about just like a high school girl would the whole time. Maybe I should try acting more girly sometimes, maybe. Mum enjoyed the dinner too and even told one of the younger waiters to send the compliments to the chef. Dinner finished in a blink, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

“Ok Kelly, time for me to get back to the real world.” she hugged me after we got her changed in our rooms.

“Have fun mum.” I hugged back.

“Always.” She said as she sneaked out of the room and made herself disappear down the hallway.

I don’t know what to do with this mother of mine, but I do love her to bits. I watched as she goes back to a busy life of cleaning other peoples messes. It have been a great school trip, even if Suu was the master mind behind it all and it became an advertisement for the school. But think about it, it was an event that we have to do to save the club, straight out of an anime, I can tick that box at least. I am sure the rest of the year will be as enjoyable.

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

The next morning, as we headed to the airport Suu and I got a message of our group photo from mum. Looking all stupid in those frilly aprons, which Suu quickly uploaded to our chat group.

I am glad I have so many good friends now, and the real climb had just begun, we have a game to make, school to attend and couples to hitch. I can’t wait until we get back to school and get on to those things, but there had been one last thing that bothers me.

“Hey Suu, what was mum trying to give you back then, you know that envelope. Not a lover letter I hope.” I sincerely hope.

“Oh, Your fees for the School uniform and School trip, I told her I was your legal guardian in japan and she shouldn’t offend me so she had to take it back.” Suu said with a straight face.

“EEEEEHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!??????”

………………………..