Punished Makihara

The week went by fairly quickly without incident at the restaurant. In the mornings, Madoka would arrive for her offering of crepes and usually get kidnapped as soon as she left. In the afternoons, Yuni would stop by for food. Sometimes she'd stay and eat, sometimes she'd just do takeout, and sometimes she'd bring the triplets with her. Mochi and Bianka would also stop by every other day, though much to Masaru's dismay, Mochi refused to critique his food.

"I'm not going to wade into the culinary world again. The last time I did, I created a mess," is what Mochi would say.

Finally, the day came when Shiori gave the go ahead for Rika to work again.

"Yosha! I'm back! Now I feel like cooking everything sunrise to sunset!" Rika proclaimed.

"Then start with my crepes, I like the way you make them the best," Madoka said as she arrived.

"Alright, I'm gonna expand the crepe menu and give you some brand new flavors."

"REALLY!? YAY! CREPES! CREPES! CREPES!" Madoka cheered as she sat down.

A would-be kidnapper nervously peered in, but turned tail as soon as Rika noticed him and flashed her knife.

"I nearly burst a vessel when some ass decided to run in and kidnap Madoka while she was still eating. Good thing Waki ended up intercepting the bastard before he escaped with Madoka. But now that I'm healed, I'm killing anyone that tries to kidnap her in the middle of a meal! It's just plain despicable to kidnap someone while they're still eating," Rika thought.

The would-be kidnapper's day only got worse as he crashed into Waki.

"Huh? Aren't you the same ass who tried to kidnap Madoka yesterday!? The hell are the cops doing letting you lose!?" Waki glared as she prepared to jab him with a poison needle.

The would-be kidnapper screamed and ran back to the police station as fast as he could.

"My, seems you've gone delinquent, my dear Waki," Benihime mused as she walked up.

She was clad in a kendo outfit and zori and carrying a sheathed sword.

"It protects the customers," Waki laughed.

"Indeed. It's good most of our staff are versed in self defense. With me around, none shall dare kidnap fair princess Ginkawa!" Benihime boasted.

The two then made their way to the restaurant.

                                                                                  ...

At the police station, everyone glared at the would-be kidnapper prostrating on the ground.

"And care to explain how you got out!?" Himawari glared.

"I, uh, picked the lock," the would-be kidnapper replied.

"Maximum confinement."

                                                                                   ...

In Britain, Reika set up her laptop and microphone and prepared to call Mutsumi.

"I hope this works," Reika thought.

                                                                                ...

Mutsumi walked down the street in a business suit and grey heels. She was also disguised as Reika. Reika's call connected and Mutsumi let out a sigh of relief.

"Well now half my worries are at ease," Mutsumi stated.

"It shouldn't be that hard to match my mannerisms. Especially considering the people you'll be dining with later aren't too familiar with them. Just match the words I speak," Reika stated.

Meanwhile in America...

Some happy children gleefully ran around the fair, but stopped in terror when they made eye contact with a food vendor. His eyes were bulged and bloodshot, he hadn't shaved in a week, his face had aged, and his hair was disheveled. It was Makihara.

"OH! You're not going to get any closer to cooking again if you scare everyone away looking like that," Barney Obaba nervously chuckled as he leaned against the side of the food stall and ate an ice cream.

"Mr. President, I am struggling to maintain my sanity in this shithole," Makihara gritted.

"Then let this ole president impart some wisdom. I should know better than anyone, ya gotta make compromises if you wanna make progress. Trust me, in politics, everyone's got an agenda they wanna see implemented, but most of the time it never even makes it out of committee. People just don't like compromising, so I understand how you feel. But as expected, people don't like it when we don't compromise. You gotta compromise to make as many people happy as possible if you wanna get things done."

"And how exactly is forcing me making trash a compromise!? It's a prison sentence!"

"Did you forget your own pupil's words? Innovate fair food."

"And how can I do that!? All I have to work with is all this slop! If I had high quality-"

"But you don't. And that's the reality. You gotta make due with what you have. But going back to my earlier analogy, why not find a compromise that will make YOU happy as well? Why not search for the thrill of the challenge? Isn't that how chef's get their gusto? By challenging themselves to attain new heights?"

Makihara shook his head and stared at the funnel cake cooker.

"I will never find happiness making things I find revolting."

"Well, you've got plenty of time. The declaration of Independence wasn't written in a day you know," Barney smiled as he walked away.

Makihara thought back to his roots. He was a man from an elite family that enjoyed eating high quality food. He loved it so much, he decided to make it. He quickly became known as a prodigy and rose through the ranks of chefs to the top. But eventually, he began to succumb to elitism and began unleashing it upon Japan. It was only possible to get his gourmet elitism movement mainstream due to his status as one of the world's best chefs. Things looked as though they would go Makihara's way, then Rika appeared and ruined it all. 

As Makihara prepared to snap and go on a rant about Rika, a customer appeared.

"OH! Nasty! You look like a wreck mate!" the customer cringed.

Makihara turned and dropped his jaw as he recognized the man before him. It was world renowned chef, Gorman Randy.

"Saiba right? What's with the Rasputin look!? Oh! You need help mate, move over I'm comin in!"

Makihara stared in shock as Gorman hopped in the next stall over and began making some funnel cakes. A crowd quickly formed to try his cooking.

"See, not everyone's a gourmet elite, but that doesn't mean you can't try and challenge yourself to try and compromise. So are you gonna lose to a funnel cake again without trying? Or are you gonna try to make a funnel cake better than Randy's?" Barney smiled as he returned.

Makihara gritted his teeth in fury and began madly scrambling around in the stall.

"YOU RABBLE THINK I CAN'T MASTER YOUR SLOP!? WELL I'LL PROVE YOU WRONG! I'LL PROVE YOU ALL WRONG! I'LL COME HOME A CHAMPION!" Makihara ranted as he began bordering on insanity to revolutionize the fairground funnel cake.

                                                                             ...

Itsuki watched the broadcast of the Makihara vs Randy funnel cake cook off. She no longer had bandages covering her head and face, and her hair had begun to grow back giving her head some blue peach fuzz.  She had also opted to get earrings and a nose and lip piercing and was sporting them. She did have a bald streak running where the tattoo had been lased off though.

"Lookin good girl," Rika cooed as she walked by and rubbed Itsuki's fuzzy head.

"I'm looking better than my father at least," Itsuki sighed.

"WHOA! He's really going for the punished look. Though at least he seems to be cooking like crazy to try and beat Gorman Randy."

"I know, he looks terrible. I doubt he'll change much, but perhaps he can at least learn to cope with people that have a less sophisticated pallet as him."

"That would be nice," Rika smiled.