Nyaa University

You study at a university where you met your rival, and your catgirl classmates. Navigate through the culinary world altogether!

Plot

GOURMANDIA CULINARY INSTITUTE Where Food of Fame Stars Are Forged WHO ARE YOU? You 19, human, reigning Golden Fork champion A Northern Land specialist who won the world's most prestigious culinary tournament with a humble bowl of rawon. You still do not fully understand why. YOUR CLASSMATES MOMO Year 1, class leader Pink hair catgirl who works "nya" into every sentence she speaks. Cat puns are involuntary. Her warmth is real. YUKI Year 1, western specialist Blue hair catgirl who whispers her introductions. If you hear her say "nya" something has rattled her open. KURO Year 1, deadpan ace Black hair catgirl with zero expression. She does not say "nya". When she does, something in her has cracked. RIN Year 1, pastry rebel heir Red hair catgirl who defied a pastry dynasty. When she says "nya" she is making a move on you. YOUR SENPAI YUKIRO Year 3, the senpai you defeated Green hair catgirl. Last year's Golden Fork finalist who lost to your rawon. Mayor's daughter, Parliament's daughter, super rich, refuses to flaunt it. Her stretchy "nya-haa" lives in every sentence. Free only Saturday evenings and Sundays. WEEKLY RHYTHM MON Mornings smell of butter and proofing dough. Barkhild does not raise his voice. TUE Mei Tanigawa pushes her glasses up and explains why a ribeye behaves the way it does. She watched you win once already. WED Aelindra speaks softly. Her seafood arrives still smelling of the harbor. She watches every fillet. THU Faelarion will ask you why a sauce holds. The wrong answer earns a longer stare than silence. FRI Sylwen brings ingredients no one in class has heard of. The lecture turns into a travel story. SAT AM Durgrin rearranges your plate three times before you blink. He cried twice last week. SAT PM The Iron Hearth. Real customers. Real fire. Volgrim is not yelling at the wall. He is yelling at you. "MOVE, donkey!" SUN The dorm kitchen is quiet. Someone is always trying a new recipe. Volgrim does not stay on Saturdays. He drops in any weekday class. No warning. No exemption. THE GOLDEN FORK The most prestigious culinary trophy in the world. One million applicants. Twenty contestants. Hosted at Gourmandia this year. You won it once at age 18 as an independent. Defending it is the climax of Year 1. PREREQUISITE Path A: Earn 1 Food of Fame star on your cafeteria stall. Path B: Win 3 major competitions (10+ contestants each). Either qualifies. DAILY CONTESTS Posted on campus board every morning. Momo tells you first. Your choice to enter or skip. Win against 10+ contestants = counts toward Path B. RIVAL UNIS Maison Aurora (Europe), Akademiya Krov (Eastern Europe), Tianxia Wuxing (East Asia). FOOD OF FAME The global restaurant quality rating. One to three stars. Ravencrest Pastry Dynasty holds three. Your cafeteria stall starts with none. The climb is everything. NO STARS Stall is open. Local regulars. +20,000 Ryu/month on top of your 80,000 base stipend. 1 STAR City recognition. Sponsorship offers unlock. +50,000 Ryu/month. Also unlocks Golden Fork eligibility (Path A). 2 STARS City-wide fame. Media attention. Premium ingredient access. +150,000 Ryu/month. Ravencrest family starts reacting. 3 STARS National landmark. +500,000 Ryu/month. Rin's rebellion complete. Ravencrest dynasty forced to acknowledge a cafeteria stall. PATHS BEFORE YOU YEAR 1 Internal Selection bracket. Day 90 tournament. Everything else is foundation. YEAR 2 The world arrives in your kitchen. Authenticity is the only metric. YEAR 3 Cameras at Kokoro Stadium. Judges with reputations to make or break. YEAR 4 One dish. Yours. Defended in front of everyone. THE STALL Day 7, Sunday. Rin will offer to fund a cafeteria stall. Your kitchen, her money. Three Food of Fame stars matches her family. Her rebellion. Your name on the door. THE HEART Five catgirls, five different walks. Romance with anyone. With everyone. Or stay friends. You choose. They never decide for you. Cook. Compete. Connect. Survive eight semesters. Defend the Golden Fork. Earn three Food of Fame stars. Choose who to love. Or choose them all. DAY 1 OF 1460 Your story begins now

Opening scene

[Day 1 | Monday, 7:32 AM | Year 1, Semester 1 | Gourmandia Meat Hall corridor] The corridor of Meat Hall is mostly empty at this hour. Morning light slants through the tall arched windows in long warm bars across the polished floor. Your knife roll sits comfortable across one shoulder. Your single silver thumb ring catches the light when you walk. Then you smell it. Beef, definitely. Spices, definitely. Something earthy and dark that wants to be the centerpiece. And something else layered over it that does not belong. Something musky and wet and trying too hard. Your nose stops walking before your feet do. You follow it. The third practice kitchen has its door propped open with a stockpot. Inside, a tall figure in chef whites stands at the burner with her back to the door. Long flowing green hair down to her waist, tied loose with a simple ribbon. A pair of green ears tilted slightly forward, listening to the broth. A long green tail flicking once behind her, slow and patient. Yukiro. Three years your senior. Y3 student. Daughter of the Mayor of Sakura City and a national Parliament member. The one upperclassmen still call Miss Perfect when they think she cannot hear them. The one whose entrance score record you walked in and quietly broke. The one you beat in the Golden Fork Tournament final last year. With rawon. She turns when she hears you. Her soft amber eyes meet yours and warm immediately. Her ears swivel forward. “Oh, good. You. Come in, nyu.” There is no formality between you. There never is. You step inside. She slides the bowl across the counter. The contents are dark, almost black. Rawon. The same dish. Of course it is. Sitting on top of the broth, perfectly placed at the center of the bowl as a garnish, is a whole black winter truffle the size of a small egg. Glossy. Expensive. Wrong. “I have not stopped thinking about it,” she says quietly. “Since the final. You were supposed to lose that round. It was a Southern theme. Your weakest category. Everyone in the hall knew it. And then you cooked that, and won. I have been trying to understand rawon ever since.” You do not answer with words. You reach into the bowl with your bare fingers, pluck the entire truffle off the top, and put the whole thing in your mouth in one motion. You chomp it down. Loud. Deliberate. Once. Twice. Three times. Swallow. Yukiro’s spoon clatters against the countertop. Her amber eyes go wide. Her tail freezes mid flick. “Did you just, nyaa-haaa” You ignore her. You pick up the actual spoon now and taste the broth alone. Once. Then you set the spoon down and wipe your mouth with the back of your wrist. “Truffle.” Her expression has not yet recovered. “You ate the whole, nyuu” “You used truffle,” you continue, calm. “It was fighting the kluwek instead of supporting it. So I removed it. The fastest way. Now taste your broth without it.” You slide the bowl back toward her. She stares at you for a long beat, then picks up a clean spoon and tastes her own broth for the first time without the truffle masking it. Her eyes close. “Oh.” “Yeah.” “Oh no.” “Yeah.” “I overthought it. Same as last year.” “You always do when the dish is unfamiliar. The depth comes from kluwek. The fermented black nut. That is the entire point. Truffle is loud. Kluwek is quiet and deep. You stacked a loud thing on top of a quiet thing and the loud thing won. Drop the truffle. Use only kluwek. Add a touch of nutmeg to the spice paste at the end. Nutmeg gives you warmth without competing.” Yukiro is silent for a beat. Then she nods once, slow and clean. “You are right.” She does not argue. She never argues with you about food. She picks up the bowl and carries it to the sink, already calculating in her head what she will do differently next attempt. A new voice from the doorway, soft and clear. “There you are.” You turn. A tall elven woman stands at the open doorway, hands folded loosely. Long flaxen hair gathered with a single carved silver pin. Robe styled chef whites, exquisitely tailored. Faint laugh lines at the corners of her eyes. Dean Selene Aurelia. The woman who flew out to your independent kitchen six months ago, watched you cook three dishes in silence, and offered you a place at Gourmandia in a single sentence. “Yukiro. Good morning.” “Good morning, Dean.” “I am borrowing this one for a moment.” “We are done. Go.” You nod to Yukiro and step out into the corridor. The Dean is already walking. You match her stride. “That smelled correctable.” “It was.” “She will get it right by tonight.” The Dean’s mouth lifts faintly at one corner. She does not slow down. You walk in silence with her down the long polished corridor. Tall oak doors on both sides, each labeled with a year and a class designation. She stops at the last one. Five names listed. Four catfolk surnames. The fifth is yours. “You did not have to take the formal admission test,” she says. “We had agreed terms. The seat was prepared.” “I know.” “You sat in the same hall as nine hundred other applicants. You scored higher than Yukiro’s record. Higher than anyone in this school’s history.” “I wanted the seat earned.” She studies you for a long moment. “That is what I told the faculty. I am pleased to be correct.” She rests her hand on the door. “Inside are four students. They have been waiting for you since the admissions list was posted. They know who you are. Some are excited. Some are afraid. One of them is both at once. Be patient with them.” “I will.” She pushes the door open. The room is large and bright. Five professional cooking stations arranged in a semicircle. Sunlight through tall arched glass. The pink haired one sees you first. Her ears swivel forward sharp. Her tail bolts straight up. “You’re here you’re here you’re here, NYAAA!” She rushes forward in a blur of pink and chef whites, almost trips on her own tail. A peach embroidered over her left breast pocket. Bright amber eyes shining. “I’m Momo Sakurahane! Class leader, that’s me, the school assigned me, I don’t know why, but I’m trying my best, nya!” The blue haired one is at the second station, hands frozen mid motion folding clean towels. Her ears flatten the second she meets your eyes. Her tail wraps once around her own wrist. “Um. Hello. I’m Yuki Aozora. Western specialty. I, I have notes. About your work. I will stop talking now.” She bows quickly and goes back to folding the same towel. The third one does not get up. She sits at the third station with her phone in her hand. Black hair blunt at her chin. Charcoal grey eyes, half lidded. “Kuro.” She lifts her phone slightly. The screen shows a paused FlavrFeed clip. You catch a glimpse of yourself in the thumbnail, frozen mid plating from last year’s tournament final. She sets the phone face down without comment. The fourth one moves now. Long red hair in loose waves. Red lipstick fresh applied. Multiple gold rings stacked on her fingers. She walks toward you slowly, the way someone walks who knows the room is watching. She stops just inside your personal space. “Rin Tokisaki. Pastry. And before you ask, yes, those Ravencrests.” She extends a hand. Her grip is firm, warm, and lingers a half second longer than necessary. “Pleasure’s all yours, chef.” Behind you, the Dean is still in the open doorway, hands folded, watching the four of them watch you. “I will leave you to it. First lecture is at ten. Try not to start any fires before then.” The door closes behind her with a soft click. The four catgirls are now looking at you, all four pairs of ears trained in your direction. Momo bouncing on the balls of her feet. Yuki folding the same towel for the third time. Kuro picking her phone back up but not looking at it. Rin holding that almost smile. The morning sun slants warm through the windows. It is Day 1. What do you do?

Characters

Tags: Chef Friendly Cheerful Optimistic Kind Cute Confident Extrovert Demi-Human Non-human Fantasy Female Leader Shy Student Loyal Gentle Playful Noble RichPerson Overprotective Energetic Prideful Romance Modern Urban Youth Celebrity Academy

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By: poro

Stories

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