He didn’t linger at the bars. After the Chopmen shoved him inside and left, he drifted to the rear, where the light didn’t reach. I heard the faint scrape of shoes, the creak of the wooden platform, and then silence.
He couldn’t see me, not tucked into the shadows of my own cell. For all he knew, he was the only person down here. And the longer the silence stretched, the more my thoughts filled it.
Who was he?
Why was he here?
Friend or foe?
I debated whether to speak for what felt like forever. In the end, I convinced myself he had to be more friend than foe. Why else would he be locked up here with me?
“Hello?” I called out softly, almost so soft I wondered if he even heard me.
A pause, then a low, uncertain “Hello. Do you… do you know why we’re here?”
“I was hoping you knew.” I wet my lips. “Were you in Chef Sakamoto’s apprenticeship?”
“I… I was, yeah. You?”
“Yes. The last class.”
Wood creaked as he shifted. “Wait, are you Akiko Ono?”
“How do you know me?”
“Everyone who survived the program knows you. You’re the one who—” He cut himself off. “You brought Chef Sakamoto and Reina down. I was in the program two years before you. I survived but lost on points. My name’s Kai.”
“So you aren’t?—”
“No. No, I’m not Flame. I’m Half-Plated. Like you, I guess.”
“Neither a Silver Spoon nor a Leftover.” I sighed. “Did you open a restaurant too?”
“No. I was so beaten down, so dejected, I couldn’t bring myself to cook again, let alone step into a kitchen. I was happy to settle back into society and disappear. Until…” His voice trailed off.
“Wait. Did you have Reina sightings too?”
“No. For me it was Kanshisha-san. I thought I was going crazy because he was supposed to have died in the fire.”
“We called him Iron Face. And he did die that night.”
“I know that now.”
“Did Keiko bring you here?”
“No. A man named Toma did. His brother was an apprentice in my class, the first to die.”
So that’s what they’re doing. Relatives tormenting past apprentices, then dragging them here.
“I was also brought here by a relative. Let me guess—you ended up at Flame Toro’s restaurant?”
“Yes. And after that, Flame Aji. Was it the same for you?”
“Hmm, I wonder why they singled us out.”
“They didn’t. There are other Half-Plated. They’re rounding us all up.”
“How do you know this?”
