Chapter 69:
Spice of Life
Ri- Rika, why are you all dressed like that?" Masaru shuddered as his nose began to bleed.
"Cause we're hosting a watch party for the opening ceremony," Rika grinned.
All the female staff at Ryokoma were clad in Brazilian carnival attire. They were even planning to attempt a samba dance onstage before Maju did her magic act.
"It'll be a little lonely now that the Ginkawas will be in Rio to watch the Olympics, but we gotta make things enjoyable for everyone here too," Rika smiled.
Helga immediately froze when she walked in and noticed what everyone was wearing.
"Hey Helga, like my outfit?" Mimi giddily asked.
Helga gazed at Mimi for a bit before quickly turning away.
"I- It looks good OK!" Helga blushed as she stormed over to a table.
Rika then moseyed over and smirked at Helga.
"Try not to get too pervy," Rika smirked.
"Shut it! And don't YOU dare try and seduce me. I only came to let you know that the Tabemono succession likely won't happen for another year."
"Wait really?"
"Yes, the board ended up officially making Asahi Ryono interim chairman, but considering how old he is, he'll only serve for a year at most. Though you can bet in his one year he's gonna do all that he can to push his spartan gourmet vision, and set things up for his wife Azami to take over."
"Pretty sure he used to be the old headmaster in his heyday before handing it over to Makihara."
"Correct. Kiji Myouchi was actually the Vice Principle of Tabemono, but death only further delayed the process. The gourmet elite society also wished to have their new chairman selected before the official process begins. Thus, it's been pushed back to the start of next year. Your blacklisting still stands, but now you don't need to worry about anything else since Ryono can't do too much as an interim chairman. I bet they're also curious to see if Makihara-sama will keep his sanity. Though, there are some gourmet elitists that don't want Makihara to get his cooking license back, notably his own wife."
"That's surprising and not at the same time. I hear she's just as big a gourmet elitist as her husband, but probably resents him for doing all the cooking."
"Somethin like that. Though if you want some good news, Rebelle's unlikely to become head of the gourmet elite society."
"Oh?"
"Apparently she missed a bunch of important meetings. Claimed her phone was hacked, but the board viewed it as her skirting her duties. Though on the flip side, Mahi Makihara and Azami Ryono are now the top two picks there."
"Makes sense, those two are the most prominent members now that Kiji's dead and Asahi's too old."
"Both choices would be bad for me. I nearly lost all my hair to Azami back at Tabemono, and I hear Mahi's a big Ookuma supporter, Azami too to some extent."
"Great, so Ookuma's got her hands in the pie for all this too."
"Well, I said my piece, now-"
"You're not leaving till we dance. Mimi even brought you some snacks. Besides, your place doesn't open till the afternoon anyway."
Helga groaned and decided to stay and watch as she munched on the snacks Mimi had brought while she was talking with Rika.
...
As the coverage of the ceremony went to commercial break, all the female staff gathered on stage and attempted to do a samba dance.
"Hope Masaru doesn't get to aroused by this," Rika thought.
"We barely even practiced this, it's going to be awful," Matcha thought.
"Challenge accepted. I will carry this with my charisma," Benihime thought.
"Ugh, I'm not good at dancin," Waki nervously thought.
"This outfit really shows off how big my boobs are," Mimi thought as her face went red.
"I feel like I'm being mocked," Zuina thought as she gazed at Mimi's large breasts before gazing down at her much smaller breasts.
"People are filming. So Mother and father are likely to see this," Itsuki thought.
The dance, was by no means good, but they at least managed to complete it without tripping up. They immediately went back to work as soon as the opening ceremony came back on.
"Huh? Where's Masa- oh."
Rika noticed a redfaced Masaru on the ground with blood gushing out of his nose.
"Guess I aroused him a bit too much," Rika nervously thought.
"And you call me a resident perv. Your man went out in the first few seconds," Bianka snickered as she stuffed another tissue into her bleeding nostrils.
"Bianka, don't gloat. Had I not brought a tissue box with me, you would be on the floor just like him," Mochi glared.
"Great dancing," Yuni applauded as she happily gorged on fried chicken while the triplets ate their cake.
"Oh look, I can see Madoka in the audience," Mimi giggled as she pointed at the TV.
"You sure that was her? The lighting makes it a bit hard to tell," Zuina grumbled.
"Hey Matcha, you know you look sexy in that outfit," Waki cooed.
"Don't flirt, get back to work," Matcha grumbled.
"Quite the dance we did," Benihime mused.
Itsuki meanwhile was staring face to face with her angry mother whom had just walked in with the Ryonos.
"Despicable. To think you would flaunt yourself so vulgarly," Mahi scowled.
"So?"
"SO!? YOU DARE SPEAK BACK TO ME!? YOU TRULY ARE RUINED BEYOND REPAIR!"
"And why are you so-"
*Smack*
"YOU EFFECT MY EVALUATION SCORE! Mark my words girl, when I become headmaster of Tabemono, I'll shut this place down no matter how much profit you're making."
"Tabemono doesn't have THAT much power. Besides, our loyal customers would riot."
"No they wouldn't. Madam Ookuma will be Prime Minister. She'll have them all properly in obedience like rabble should be," Mahi huffed as she stormed out.
"Well, seems the competition just got a little easier. Now bring Masaru here. Asahi has to tell him something now that he's interim chairman of Tabemono," Azami glared.
...
Azami and Asahi looked ready to burst all their veins when Rika strolled up with an unconscious Masaru.
"YOU HEATHEN! YOU SEDUCE MY SON LIKE THAT!?" Asahi fumed as he swung his cane at Rika.
"Says the guy who married a woman 20-30 years younger than him," Rika scoffed as she dodged the swing.
"*Tch* If I was still in my prime I would have taken over Tabemono as permanent headmaster again, but my age is beginning to hinder my cooking efficiency. Anyway, you'll be feeling the effects of the cutoff of the supply blacklisting soon. All that exotic food you get from abroad will be off the menu and your remaining food will take a drop in quality."
"Not exactly, we've found some good farmers that will still supply us," Zuina glared as she approached the group.
"I bet their crop is inorganic slop."
"And? The taste and quality of our dishes has not diminished. Our patrons confirmed it."
"_!?"
"You really think we'd be caught with our pants down? Ever since that declaration, Masaru and I have been working to get the supply problem solved. Believe it or not, many of the vendors we previously worked with happily said they'd choose to work with us over Tabemono. Most of em supported me and my team when we challenged Makihara way back when. Sure we lost some vendors, but we got new ones too. Zuina found a nice farm that grows a whole bunch of stuff out in the boonies. The old man and his family were over the moon when we asked to try making stuff with his produce. Turns out, despite not being as elite and organic as the stuff Masaru was able to get, the patrons loved the taste just as much if not better. And as for the exotic ingredients, one of our loyal patrons hooked us up with some good suppliers," Rika smirked.
"Ginkawas," Azami spat as she and Asahi turned to leave.
"You're lucky Kiji ended up kicking the bucket. Otherwise he would have become the interm headmaster of Tabemono instead of me getting tasked with it. Now I can only focus on Tabemono instead of going after non-gourmet establishments. Though the process will resume in early 2017 when all the holidays are done," Asahi glared.
...
Helga let out a sigh of relief as she lowered the menu she hid behind.
"If they noticed me, I'd have gotten in trouble," she thought.
"Helga, did you really think I wouldn't notice you?" Azami glared.
"Kyah!? A- Azami-sensei!?" Helga cried.
"I came back to speak with you. Tell me, why have you been getting so chummy with the enemy?"
"We are NOT friends. I only really come here cause that Mimi girl was good friends with my grandmother."
"It's true, she looks just like Hylda," Mimi stated as she arrived.
Azami's eyes began to twitch as she zeroed in on Mimi's large breasts.
"They're big. Are you related to the Ginkawas?" Azami snarled.
"You bet," Mimi smiled.
*Whoosh*
Azami glared as she stared down at Mimi whom had perfectly dodged her kick intended for the abdomen.
"You're more skilled than Komachi, what the hell did you do before coming here?" Azami glared.
"Uh, I uh, oh right, worked in the Danish government," Mimi declared.
"So you're from a Scandinavian branch of the Ginkawa family, *tch* hear they have ties to some of the royal lineages there. As for you Helga, you can bet I'll be putting in bad word about you."
"For what? Rebelle came here to make trouble all the time. Besides, Rika scouted my place so I can scout hers," Helga glared.
"We will conduct an investigation. I'm still suspicious over your claim that Sundae was murdered by cultists and bounty hunters," Azami glared as she left.
...
The guest cheered as the Japanese team entered the Olympic stadium.
"Huh, did that woman really shave her head and eyebrows for the opening ceremony?" Rika thought as she stared at the footage of the Kuramoris walking in with the flags.
...
In Rio at the Olympic stadium, Emeri groaned.
"Why did mother do something so stupid," Emeri groaned.
"Hey, just look at it as her doing it for good luck," Eriza smiled.
"Could have just drank some milk," Harumi mumbled under her breath.
"What'd ya say momma?" Madoka asked.
"Oh nothing."
Harumi then gazed over towards her father and Oribe and Orise.
"*Sigh* I really hope Tetsuka is here. It'd be nice to see her again," Harumi sighed.
"Tetsuka-nee-chan's here!?" Madoka asked.
"Hopefully," Harumi sighed.
On the other side of the stadium, a 14-year old girl with jagged silver hair, red eyes, and sharp teeth clad in an oversized jacket sat and filmed the event with a camera. She was none other than Tetsuka Gikawa, Harumi's third daughter and Madoka's older sister. She had been ostracize by the purist sect of the family due to her being different from the rest of the family, and for causing Harumi to develop heterochromia as a result of her birth. Once Tetsuka turned 10, she decided to leave the mansion and explore the world on her own. Part of her reason for leaving was due to how harshly she was treated by her older sisters Oribe and Orise.
"Hoh, that Ji and Ba wavin the flag? Wonder if Ka-san's here too. Guess I better try to keep the phone intact," Tetsuka sighed.
...
Once the next commercial break hit, Maju went on stage, clad in a similar Brazillian outfit to the ones the female staff at the restaurant wore, to perform.
"Ladies and gentleman! The great Mahoro Maho is here!" Maju declared.
Rika then began filming the act.
"Why are you filming?" Masaru asked.
"Both for our social media, and cause little Madoka seemed wowed by her," Rika grinned.
Maju flawlessly performed her act, though ended up accidentally making her bra-top disappear much to many of the male patrons, as well as Bianka's, pleasure.
"Truly enchanting," Bianka gushed as she began to lose consciousness from her nosebleed.
"I hope Reika-san gets back quicker than she projected. I don't want to babysit this pervert for another year," Mochi grumbled.
...
"Seriously, why'd you cover my eyes for that?" Helga growled.
"But you could have been seduced!" a flustered Mimi pouted.
"I'm not a perv."
Mimi then slipped Helga a peek causing a small stream of blood to drip out of her nose.
"Wha? HUH!? Th- This isn't what it looks like OK!" Helga fumed as her face went red.
"Don't worry, I don't mind if we're both girls, heck Harumi-chan's very pro-yuri," Mimi smiled.
"I'm gonna kick my grandma's ass for giving me those genes."
"So glad we know for sure you truly are Hylda's granddaughter."
"Yeah, I guess that quack doc managed to get hold of some of Hylda's DNA and found it matched mine. Wonder where she got it though."
"Probably from an old friend," Mimi smiled as she winked towards an elegantly dressed man eating some Koldskål.
"Hylda, your will lives on," Eluf smiled as he enjoyed his meal.
...
Rika nervously smiled as she stared at Masaru struggling to stop his nose from bleeding.
"Guess maybe I'll have to keep him in the kitchen whenever Maju performs," Rika nervously smiled.
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