1 Just A Simple Restaurant

Before this starts, just want to say that I am not at all a master when it comes to food, not in the slightest. In all honesty, I barely know anything, so I might just put a bunch of waffle and stuff whenever it comes to explaining the in depth details of dishes and stuff, so yeah.

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Tokyo, one of, if not, the most famous and well-known city in all of Japan. Full of people walking it's streets day and night, the streets seemingly busy no matter what time of day it was. It was truly a magnificent city to look at, especially during the night where the lights shone at their greatest.

Within this metropolis, a certain restaurant could be seen standing within one of the many many streets that made up the city. The restaurant itself looked quite bland, nothing made it stand out, and nothing about the restaurant screamed 'fancy' in the slightest.

However, the people that walked by all occasionally turned their attention towards the restaurant as if it were a celebrity walking casually in the public. Something about the restaurant just seemed to get their attention. Perhaps it was the perfectly clean appearance? Maybe the simple yet inviting design the building had?

Who knows.

Moving inside, the restaurant appeared to be your typical family run restaurant. Sporting a number of perfectly clean and set-up tables, chairs with fluffy cushions, and so much more that really gave the seemingly normal restaurant a look that could truly trance any person that looked upon it.

The main focus though, was a certain young man who could be seen standing inside the kitchen of the restaurant, which can be viewed through the window that viewed into it. From what can be seen, the young man, around fifteen or so, was calmly wiping the kitchen counter.

He had neat blue hair with a slight purple tint to it, along with a lean athletic build with perfectly fair skin. His outfit consisted simply of a white dress-shirt with its sleeves rolled up, along with a few of its top buttons being undone. He had one sleek black dress pants and black leather shoes.

This was Furumikawa Reiji, the current owner of this restaurant, which was simply called Eden. It was obviously named after the whole story about the Garden of Eden, a place that both the two original humans once lived and had been described to be indescribably beautiful.

It was currently very early in the morning, and Reiji was preparing for any customers that were going to be coming in soon. He wasn't really expecting any though until two hours later though, it was really early so most aren't even awake, or won't be wanting to eat until later in the morning.

After wiping the counter, Reiji went over towards the sink to wash his hands as he stretched a bit. Releasing a satisfied sigh, he gave a small smile before turning his head out of the kitchen window to look towards the front door of the restaurant upon hearing the door release a dinging sound.

"Reiji, I'm here!"

"Morning, Taiyou." Reiji gave a genuine smile as he saw a male who looked to be around twenty or so appear through the door. The person had hair similar in colour to his, though a bit shorter and combed to the right, the male also had a pair of sharp eyes just like Reiji. "Are you ready to get working?"

"Yep, sorry for being a bit late for the preparations. Kind of ran into Miki on the way here..." Taiyou chuckled with a slight sweatdrop as Reiji just scoffed in amusement. The person Taiyou was talking about was Miki Onimaru, a rather... interesting girl to say the least. She was the same age as Taiyou was.

Speaking of Taiyou, he was actually one of Reiji's siblings, and he had quite a number of them. Not an insane number of siblings, but definitely enough to be considered a lot. He had three brothers, and two sisters, with himself being the youngest out of all of them. Taiyou here being the second oldest of the brothers.

Taiyou worked here at Reiji's restaurant as the second chef, with Reiji being the other. While Taiyou's skills as a chef weren't as good as Reiji's, they were definitely good enough for him to be labelled as a professional chef of a very high calibre. Most of the things he he learnt were thanks to Reiji.

"You should go and get changed, I'll prepare you something for breakfast, you didn't get to eat yet, did you?"

"Hehehe~, you saw right through me as always." Taiyou smiled nervously as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "I may have woken up a bit late, so I skipped breakfast and made my way here as fast as I could... Sorry about all of that."

"Don't worry about it, and you shouldn't skip breakfast, it's very important. Now get changed, it won't take long." Reiji voiced as Taiyou nodded before dashing towards the back room of the restaurant. Reiji just chuckled at the sight before looking up at the clock, it was currently five in the morning.

*Ding*

"Welcome to Eden, would you like to take a sea- Oh, Koizumi." Reiji had turned to address the person who had just entered the shop. The person appearing to a female around the same age as himself, having long blonde wavy hair and a rather emotionless look to her. "Welcome back, you're early today. Want to eat something before school starts?"

"Yeah, I want your special ramen with extra vegetables, garlic oil, and medium-hot."

"Got it, sit wherever you like."

With that, Reiji left towards the kitchen as Koizumi walked over towards one of the chairs that were placed at the front counter table near the kitchen area. This was the seat she always sat at, mainly because she could observe and smell as Reiji and Taiyou were cooking their customer's food.

Koizumi was a girl Reiji has had many encounters with, mainly because she visits his restaurant every single day. She first came when the shop first opened around only a year ago, and she had kept coming back over and over again every day without fail.

Speaking of school, Reiji didn't ever really go to school, he stopped going after having finished middle school. The main reason being that his intelligence was far beyond his age range, and his parents allowed him to decide whether or not he wanted to continue schooling or not. He obviously chose not to, he preferred working in the kitchen.

"Oh, morning, Koizumi!" Taiyou, who had just finished getting dressed into a uniform much like Reiji's, except having all the buttons done up along with having a black open vest over the top, had greeted Koizumi as the girl just nodded back silently. "You're here to eat Reiji's ramen again, huh? Can't say I'm surprise!"

Taiyou gave a light laugh as Koizumi just turned her attention towards Reiji, who was calmly cooking despite feeling her gaze focused onto him. He was used to it, she would always stare at him as he cooked, though it didn't really bother him at all.

"Oh, Taiyou. Do you know where Fumino is? Shouldn't she be here by now?" Reiji asked, though he didn't turn his gaze away from the food. Taiyou, who had begun setting up a few things around the kitchen, responded while also remaining focused on his task at hand.

"She said that she'll be a bit late today, apparently Ayumi called her to help with a few things concerning her business." Taiyou responded as Reiji just nodded his head with understanding. Both Fumino and Ayumi were the sisters of their family, Fumino being the younger sister out of the two, and also the third youngest out of the siblings at the age of nineteen.

"I see, shouldn't be a problem if she's a bit late." Reiji spoke as he gave a casual shrug. Anyway, after swiftly cutting up a few pieces of green onions and tossing them onto the ramen bowl, he walked out of the kitchen and placed the bowel in front of Koizumi. "Hope you enjoy."

"Mm." Koizumi gave a simple nod, though she had drool rolling down the side of her mouth. Wiping it off, Koizumi proceeded to tie her hair into a ponytail before using a pair of chopsticks and digging into the bowel at an incredible speed. Reiji just gave a small laugh at this as he walked back into the kitchen.

"I made you a bowel too, Taiyou. Eat up before you continue doing anything else."

"Right, thanks a lot!" Taiyou grinned and nodded before taking hold of the bowel that Reiji held towards him. Quickly, Taiyou sat down on one of the chairs in the kitchen before eating it just as fast as Koizumi was. Reiji just watched both of them with amusement as he saw them scoffing down the food. "Delicious as always, bro!"

"Glad you enjoy it. Don't talk with your mouth full though."

"..."

"Reiji, another bowel."

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As the day went on, the restaurant had become completely packed to the brim as there were even quite a lot of people who made a reservation or were just patiently waiting outside until there were tables available for them to sit at to eat.

Despite the number of people that came, Reiji and Taiyou were easily able to keep up with all the orders. Fumino, their sister, had also come in at some point and begun her job as the waitress and also the person who welcomed all of the guests in, Reiji helping out with the waiter role as well.

If someone were to see the sheer number of people that lined up, they'd think that the restaurant was some kind of fancy top-end restaurant. Of course, that wasn't what Eden was. It was just supposed to be a place people could enjoy food, and it truly did do just as it intended, maybe a bit too well.

"Reiji, someone is here to see you."

Reiji turned his head away from the sink where he was cleaning the dishes, Taiyou was beside him doing the same thing. The person that called out to him was a girl with purple hair that was tied into a braided ponytail, appearing to be a few years older than him. Of course, it was Fumino.

"Hm? Don't remember there being any meetings with anyone today..." Reiji voiced in confusion as he wiped his hands before walking out of the kitchen as Fumino stayed to help Taiyou. When Reiji walked out, he looked to see someone standing by the front area of the restaurant. "Can I help you?"

"Furumikawa Reiji, we finally meet face to face." The person appeared to be an old man wearing a yukata, and just by looking at him from first glance, Reiji could see that the man was more than meets the eye. Something about him, though it didn't affect Reiji at all. "It's an honour to meet the one who holds the title of The Divine Pillar."

"The Divine Pillar? Been a long time since I've heard that title, don't really know what I think about it, it's kind of cringe." Reiji scoffed with a bit of amusement as he narrowed his eyes towards the man. "So, who are you? For you to know that title, you must be someone high in the cooking world."

Reiji didn't say that statement out of arrogance or anything, it was a title he had unintentionally earned. It was given to him by the greatest chefs on this planet, examples being Alain Ducasse, Pierre Gagnaire, Gordan Ramsay, etc, A bunch of chefs who earned a number of michelin stars.

He had met a bunch of michelin star chefs in the past, he met Alain Ducasse a number of years ago, hadn't seen him ever since though. They were both incredibly busy people after all, so there was rarely any time they could do something like schedule a meeting or anything of the sorts.

"My apologies, allow me to properly introduce myself. My name is Senzaemon Nakiri, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Nakiri... If I'm not mistaken, that's a prestigious family you hail from. I think I recall you, you're quite the expert here in the culinary world."

"Indeed, and I'm pleasantly surprised you know of us, let alone myself." Senzaemon seemed to grin as he said this. "After all, the Furumikawa family are the most influential family in all of Japan and beyond. A true force to be reckoned with. I didn't expect someone of your status to know of us, it's quite the honour indeed."

"Hmph. You hold us too high." Reiji chuckled as he shrugged his shoulders, Senzaemon scoffed at that as the man gave an amused chuckle as well. Reiji then crossed his arms before asking. "So, what can I do for you, Mr Director of Totsuki Culinary Academy?"

"Hahaha~! I shouldn't be surprised you could identify who I am so easily, everything I've heard about you so far lives up to rumours." Senzaemon barked a loud laugh as Reiji kept a neutral look on his face. "I shall not waste any time. Of course, you know how our world has countless different culinary schools. Such as St Marie Academy, and of course Totsuki Culinary Academy."

True to those words, there were many kinds of culinary schools in the world. Some focusing on specific kinds of dishes, such as St Marie Academy that focused on training future patissieres. There were schools that did baking, others for meat products, and many more as well.

Of course, standing on the absolute top of all those schools was Totsuki Culinary Academy. Where the absolute best of the best chefs try to attend, emphasis on the 'try' there. You couldn't just have skills in one particular culinary art, you had to be capable of making all kinds of dishes from around the world if you wanted any hope of graduating.

"As you have already stated, I am the current director for Totsuki." Senzaemon spoke as he reached into his yukata before taking out a letter and handing it to Reiji, the male taking hold of it with a slight raise of his eyebrow. "I'd like to make a request, if I may be so bold."

"Go ahead."

"I'd like you to attend Totsuki academy, not as a student, but as an invited chef to teach them." Senzaemon spoke without looking away from Reiji's eyes. If the request had surprised the young man, he certainly didn't show it. "We will be having a summer camp soon, and I want you to teach them that the culinary world is as vast as the universe itself, that they have yet to truly begin exploring its ever expanding depths."

"In other words, you want to give them a royal beat down?"

"Precisely." Senzaemon seemed to grow a vicious grin on his face. Reiji stared at him unflinchingly for a second before a smirk soon formed on his face, the smirk sent a few shivers down even Senzaemon's spine as the expression held many different emotions and ideas.

"Summer camp, was it? Sounds interesting."

"Hahaha! It is the training camp from Hell, after all."

"Very well, I'm interested to see how good your so-called future aspiring high world-class chefs truly are, Mr Senzaemon."

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