Work Text:
February 21st 2027, 1414 hours (2:14 pm) [Japan Standard Time; JST: UTC+9 – 14 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time (EST)]:
It’s been a few years or so since Sakiko and Soyo mend bridges over the breakup of CRYCHIC, and it’s also exactly a year after that questioning session with Gordon Ramsay (and also Robert Hesse and Chihaya Kisaragi). Soyo can remembered it like it just happened yesterday, when she and Sakiko met with Anon at the park (something the latter said directly to the face of Robert, the first Hell’s Kitchen two-time chef, but without the fact that Anon was going to be there), and after talking about that report (which Robert also contributed somewhat), Anon told her that Sakiko have a crush on the MyGO!!!!! bassist and that she wanted to see Soyo happy with her former CRYCHIC bandmate, causing the Ave Mujica keyboardist admitted such, and Soyo reciprocated it, falling for her as hard as Oblivionis fell for her. And they haven’t look back ever since, nor did they want to, especially with Anon’s blessing.
After walking for a while, they’re at the front door of Hazawa Café, run by the Afterglow keyboardist Tsugumi, who is engaged to the teal-haired Roselia guitarist Sayo Hikawa.
“You said to Chihaya that you have a crush on me, don’t you, Saki-chan?” Soyo teased a little.
“Well…she asked me, actually...” Sakiko shyly answered; “And yeah, Soyo, I can’t get my feelings about you out of my head, even if I’m in front of Gordon…and also that one dude named Robert…”
“And the Togawa Group is toasted, right?” Soyo replied; “I mean, I’m sure no one reading the report is going to forget what happened to your father that it unearthed, and bullshitting Gordon is a one-way ticket to a world of trouble and pain, cause the evidence ain’t lying, and he grew up having to endure an alcoholic father who’s rather abusive.”
“Yeah…that is nothing to him…” Sakiko giggled; “Like, he usually inserts his hands into questionable stuffs while inspecting the kitchen of many restaurants on Kitchen Nightmares, and even grab those to show it to the owners, so not even my grandfather can turn the tide, cause that’s literally nothing…but they just simply appointed someone else and ousted my grandfather for giving the Togawa Group a bad name, like the whole Mitsukoshi Incident of ‘82.”
“Wow, that sounds like history rhyming, isn’t it?”
Soyo and Sakiko was interrupted by the voice of a woman in front of them; she’s in her late-40s, she has a ponytail, but they can’t figure out any more from what she looks.
“Who are you?” Sakiko asked the woman.
“My name’s Christina Michelle Wilson, but you two can call me Christina.” she answered; “And who are you two?”
“Name’s Soyo Nagasaki, and this is my girlfriend, Sakiko Togawa, or Oblivionis as she’s also known…” the MyGO!!!!! bassist introduced herself and her blue-haired partner.
“Oh, so that’s the Oblivionis of Ave Mujica that Gordon talked about before…” Christina replied; “And yeah, I’m the Hell’s Kitchen Season 10 winner, and was once Gordon Ramsay’s number two when it comes to handling his restaurants in North America…well, at least before he moved his operation base back to the UK after having it in Dallas for a while. Oh, and I’m a lesbian.”
“Wait, is that how you know about me and the entire Ave Mujica?” asked Sakiko.
“Well, not quite like that…see, Chihaya Kisaragi told me about this whole thing about you and Doloris the vocalist, and it’s rather shocking.” Christina answered.
“Yeah, me too, Christina…” Soyo scratched the back of her neck.
“But let’s reserve that for later, cause I have some waiting for me today…are you two supposed to open the door or what?” Christina said with a slight chuckle to the Togawa-Ichinose couple as she stared at her Seiko Turtle-esque Doxa Sub 300T in bright Divingstar yellow (with the automatic ETA 2824-2), strapped to her wrist with the original NDC strap by NDCstraps in green with a yellow stripe (similar to those on the Marine Nationale-issued 300T Divingstars) and a stainless steel hook engraved with the words ‘Remove Before Dive’ below the NDC text.
Sakiko and Soyo blushed a little as they did just that, the sound of the door lock engaged, followed by the door being swung open and the greeting by Tsugumi. They and Christina walked into Hazawa Café, catching the attention of four at a table; PDP members Mia Taylor and Rina Tennoji, and their girlfriends, Meguru Hachimiya and Anna Mochizuki respectively (the former is an idol signed to APC (Amai’s Production Company), the latter is signed with Namco Production).
“Christina, you’re finally here!” Anna said as the Hell’s Kitchen legend came towards the table, with Sakiko and Soyo right behind her.
“Hi, Christina~” Rina smiled at the chef as she waved her hand.
“Is that those two that Taki talked about?” Soyo whispered.
“Uh, Christina…” Sakiko followed; “What are those two? And the other two as well…I think Taki also told me about them…”
“Oh, that’s Anna and Rina, and also Mia and Meguru…” Christina explained; “One of them has the same first name as Mia Castro, who is the Hell’s Kitchen Season 18 runner-up…” she quipped.
“Hi, nice to meet you all for real…I’m Soyo Nagasaki of MyGO!!!!!, and this is my girlfriend, Sakiko Togawa, or Oblivionis when she performs with Ave Mujica as their keyboardist…” the bassist said as she and her girlfriend sat down; “I’ve heard about the four of you from Taki…”
“Yeah, she’s friends with Toyama-san, and she’s now engaged to Yu-senpai…” Rina explained.
“Rina-chan over here is my girlfriend…” Anna shyly explained; “Oh, and about that, it was on her 25th birthday…”
“Yeah, Anna…Chihaya told me about it…” Christina replied to the purple-haired gamer idol.
“Chihaya…” Sakiko muttered; “Ain’t she getting married later this year?” asked the keyboardist.
“Yeah, Saki-chan…” Anna replied.
“And so is Makorin and Yukipo too…” Rina added; “That’s Makoto Kikuchi and Yukiho Hagiwara, by the way…”
“Those two are mates with Chihaya at Namco Pro, aren’t they?” Mia replied. Anna nodded back at the light blonde-haired musician; “Oh, and I heard that Miki and Iori are about to tie the knot too…” Mia added.
“It’s rather ironic, isn’t it? Cause they used to not get along well…or maybe that was all a marketing ploy?” Meguru quipped; “Either way, they seems to be actually lovely together…”
“Oh, that whole thing about Miki and Iori sounds a lot like what apparently Alan Saffron claimed prior to the release of his memoir ‘Gentle Satan’, which is about growing up with his father Abe Saffron…I won’t blame you all for not knowing him, the ‘Mr. Sin’ of Australia as he is known, cause so was I, at least before Stan and Wendy told me about that Kitchen Nightmares two-parter wherein he tried to save the Saffrons’ burger joint at LA and gave me that memoir.” Christina explained.
“Hold up, isn’t that the memoir that Sakiko got after that session with Gordon?” asked Soyo; “Cause I remember borrowing it from her and read a few parts then and there.”
“Yeah, it is~” Christina chuckled.
“Okay…we haven’t ordered anything, have we?” asked Mia; “It’s been a few minutes or so now…”
“Oh, right…” Soyo scratched the back of her neck.
“Christina, would you?” Meguru said to the Hell’s Kitchen legend.
“Okay…give me a moment…” Christina replied.
As Christina went up to the counter to call something, Mia started the chronograph timing of her antimag Sinn 613 UTC on her wrist (a diving GMT chronograph that she got when it came out almost two years ago, with the then-rare Sellita SW535 a, the GMT counterpart of the SW515, both of which are part of the SW500 caliber family based on the cam-actuated Valjoux 7750 design, the patent of which has since been expired), strapped to the 20mm light gray Erika’s Original Mistral MN strap with a thin lighter gray center stripe, along with bead blasted stainless steel hardware and a matching normal slider, with an additional removable slider (similar to those on MN straps for any and all Tudor Pelagos FXDs), and so did Meguru with her Ollech & Wajs Navichron (with a Valjoux 7753 that has been taken apart, engraved with the Ollech & Wajs name on the mainplate, then reassembled with a custom rotor) on the “100% Made in the USA” ADPT 20mm single pass nylon RAF strap in the pale khaki shade known as “Straw”. Meanwhile, Rina and Anna didn’t even bother with their chronos, as they’re wearing it just because they want to have some wrist time with those within their collection; Rina is rocking her fully lumed white Damasko DC57 Si (with the modified Top grade Valjoux 7750 with the silicon Swiss lever escapement, and optioned with both the upgraded balance spring also made from silicon and the ‘Si’ dial with the symbol for silicon and different subdials for the small running seconds and 12-hour chronograph totalizer; these facelifted DC5X chronos with such upgrades are nicknamed “Dual Silicon” by Ritsuko, who herself has an older DC56) on the 20mm grey and black CWC Stretch elastic G10 strap with polished silver-toned stainless steel hardware, while Anna is sporting her hand-wound 39mm black Hanhart 417 ES 1954 (the reissue of the chronograph worn by Steve McQueen, but with the Sellita SW510 M, unlike the later Flyback ones with the AMT5100 M based on the same Valjoux bones as the SW510, like the one with the red reset pusher that Kasumi Toyama of Poppin’Party fame rock) with the 20mm sapphire purple Nick Mankey Classic Hook elastic strap with brushed stainless steel hardware and Tiffany blue stitching.
“Uh, Tsugumi?” said Christina.
“Oh, Christina…” Tsugumi uttered, before glancing at her no-date brown and beige Sinn 356 Klassik with front sapphire glass on the 20mm brown Wolbrook ‘Rally’ Tropic rubber strap with a brushed stainless steel buckle; “What do you like?” she asked.
“Definitely not a cup of coffee or anything like that right now~” Christina joked; “But I’ll have a big cup of chocolate milkshake for Sakiko and Soyo, a cookies and cream smoothie for Rina, a blueberry soda for Anna, a virgin mojito for Mia, and a banana smoothie for Meguru…oh, and I have a raspberry soda and four slices of New York-style cheesecake…” Christina gawked at the treat on the temperature-controlled display case.
“Thanks~” Tsugumi shyly smiled; “The big milkshake will take a little longer, so I appreciate if you can wait…” Christina nodded. After going through the motions and paying the money for what she called, she returned to the table.
“So, Sakiko and Soyo…” Christina said to them; “I know I only found out about Crychic after hearing about it from Chihaya, but how were you two back when it was still around?” she asked.
“Well, Christina…we were bandmates, for lack of a better word…” Soyo answered; “Saki-chan was on the keyboard and I play bass.” she explained.
“And Tomori was the vocalist while Mutsumi and Taki plays the guitar and drums respectively…” Sakiko added.
“Oh, is that Taki Shiina of MyGO!!!!! with a similar voice to Nana Nakagawa?” Christina joked; “Actually, just kidding…like how Gordon scared the hell out of Trenton Garvey and Megan Gill with that crazy cocaine prank before the finale of Young Guns, aka Hell’s Kitchen Season 20.”
“Well, she doesn’t sound like Nana, that’s for sure~” Soyo chuckled.
“Also, did Gordon actually pulled that prank?” asked Sakiko.
“Yeah, that did happen, and they thought they were caught red-handed, only to turn out that it was their head chef jackets.” Christina explained.
“I’m pretty sure they damn near crap their pants over that.” Mia quipped.
“Yeah, like they don’t know what it truly was until the jig was up.” Meguru added.
“Anyways, what happened to Crychic?” asked Anna; “Like, I know Chihaya also dug into that while investigating the whole thing about Sakiko and Hatsune, and I heard that the latter and Tomori is dating.”
“Well, we have one performance and that was the only one, then we disbanded after Sakiko suddenly left Crychic…” Soyo explained.
“That sounds an awful lot like what happened to Hassan from Hell’s Kitchen Season 15…” Rina replied.
“And for the record, he served raw chicken during Andi’s wedding reception, so Gordon have a good reason to eliminate him, aside from him having a downward spiral when he put on the red jacket…” Christina chimed in; “Andi is the Red Team’s sous chef from Season 7 to 16, but for that season, I filled in for her when she got married and going on a honeymoon, and she’s supposed to be in the All-Stars season, but she didn’t return because she got pregnant…okay, back to the whole Crychic thing~” she chuckled.
“You’re welcome, Christina…” Sakiko replied; “So why did I left Crychic? Well, maybe it’s because of my grandfather-in-law’s meddling and shit like that…” she drifted off.”
“Well, I supposed it’s because of that, cause the report Chihaya worked on that was released on your birthday also implicate him as well…” Christina replied; “And I heard that Minami Mori got disgraced after Robert Hesse dug around and got ahold of incriminating evidence that she was a bad mother towards Mutsumi, and since Robert himself, in his own words, had ‘a fucked up childhood’ due to his abusive deadbeat father, sleuths and Ave Mujica fans got ahold of it and spread it around. Yeah, Mori is totally fucked all the way to Hell’s Kitchen because she can’t bullshit her way out of that when the proof is that damning, and this came after the whole shitshow around the Togawas unfolded. I’m sure Gordon would be happy to humiliate her as hard as he did with Joe Nagy on Kitchen Nightmares.”
“So you’re saying that they won’t let Mutsumi’s mother live it down because of Robert found damning shit about her?” asked Sakiko; “Also, who is this Joe Nagy?”
“Well, he’s the owner of Mill Street Bistro, and he’s an arrogant and abusive boss who treats the staff like crap.” Christina explained; “Gordon literally went out of his way humiliate him on that Kitchen Nightmares two-parter about that Norwalk establishment, which also including ridiculing him right in front of the same staff he treated badly towards. And yeah, Gordon may be tough, but he’s a fair, reasonable boss to work with.”
“Well, I supposed he knows how important the staff are to running a restaurant.” Soyo replied.
“Yeah, cause it’s always the staff who knows what’s going south with a restaurant, and lower-level staff being abused is something that get on his nerves, which is why he go after those like Joe Nagy on Kitchen Nightmares.” Christina explained.
Suddenly, Makoto appeared and carried her tray of what Christina called for the group.
“Oh, Makorin~” Christina smiled as she turned to see the black-haired woman, who is sporting a blacked-out Damasko DSub50 in submarine steel (with the in-house A26-2 caliber in Top grade form) on the 22mm black ISOfrane 1968 rubber diver strap with the black DLC-coated Retrosicuro buckle.
“Nice to see you again, Christina~” Makoto faintly smiled; “I’m helping out Tsugu today…oh, and your order is ready, thanks for waiting~” With that, a flustered Makoto laid what the Hell’s Kitchen legend ordered for the group and left.
While everyone else got their drinks in reasonably sized cups (and dishes for Christina’s cheesecake slices), the chocolate milkshake for Sakiko and Soyo is in a rather massive glass cup with two bending straws on the opposite ends, since Christina effectively called the ‘One for Two’ milkshake that’s only available on the menu normally on Valentine’s Day and White Day, but can be “custom ordered” outside of those occasion. The drink itself was brown because of the chocolate in it, and it was topped with whipped cream and a cherry.
“T-Thanks, Christina…” Sakiko awkwardly replied.
“Yeah, thank you for this…” Soyo followed
“You’re welcome.” Christina replied back to Oblivionis and her bassist girlfriend as everyone else took a sip of their drinks.
Sakiko went ahead, sipping the glass of chocolate milkshake. Soyo then followed after, and the two drank it till there’s no more of it when they’re finished.
“You know, Saki-chan?” Soyo said; “It’s sweet and rich, just like you, the girl that I love~” Soyo put on a bright smile.
“Oh, fuck…why did you…I-I can’t hold it in anymore…” Sakiko thought to herself; “Yeah~” she pushed the glass to the side and pulled Soyo in to bring her former-bandmate-turned-girlfriend closer to her, slamming her lips towards her bassist lover.
She didn’t felt anything like this towards any of the Ave Mujica members, even Hatsune (before everything came to light), or even towards Soyo back when Crychic still exist, but she didn’t want it any other way, especially because Anon was the only reason why she even realized her love for Soyo. Soyo’s response made it even better; she deepened the kiss as she was blushing, her eyes focused on her former-bandmate-turned-partner, cause she want to love Sakiko as much as she was loved by her.
“Thanks, Gordon Ramsay~” Soyo thought to herself.
They were lost in each other, so much so that they forgot that they’re doing in front of two known idols from Namco Pro and APC (respectively) and their girlfriend, along with the Hell’s Kitchen legend Christina Wilson herself (though she’s nowhere near the GOATs of Hell’s Kitchen like Meghan Gill, Alex Belew, or even Ariel Fox).
“Oh wow…you two do really love each other, don’t you?” Christina uttered in mild shock, before trying to address the Ave Mujica keyboardist; “Like, Sakiko…Gordon heard you telling to Robert’s face point blank that you have a crush on Soyo.”
“Well, yeah, I am…I know she has feelings for Anon and she was my former bandmate…” Sakiko replied.
“Actually, I have feelings for Sakiko too…” Soyo interjected; “I actually told Anon the day before that report was published that I still have a crush on my former bandmate, and she didn’t mind it much, cause she’s the reason why we even reconciled in the first place…”
“Look, you two have that chance and actually mend bridges in the end, while Gordon didn’t have such a chance to say something and make up with his own father before he passed away at 53.” Christina replied, making the Togawa-Ichinose couple shocked; “I know it’s different, but still…”
“You know, I never know about that, and now hearing about it…” Sakiko drifted off as she started at Soyo; “I’m lucky that I have such a chance to do that.”
“Yeah, and I’m glad that we’re in love together~” Soyo smiled as she pulled Sakiko in for another kiss.
One thing that’s for sure, Christina won’t forget about this at all.