Suddenly, she felt a gaze staring at her.
Following the gaze, she saw Hayashi's eyes full of burning intensity, staring fixedly at her.
In an instant, Takanashi Rikka's brain went completely blank, her face turning bright red.
Even white steam was rising from her head in circles, so embarrassed she couldn't find anywhere to hide, not daring to meet Hayashi's gaze at all.
She just tightly gripped the corner of her clothes, shyly looking away.
Naturally, Takanashi Touka also saw her sister's cute appearance.
Looking again at how Hayashi was gazing at her sister with such burning eyes, Takanashi Touka's heart was filled with envy.
"Could it be that Hayashi-kun likes my sister's chuunibyou side?"
Thinking of this, Takanashi Touka's pretty face turned red, feeling extremely shy.
Did she also need to learn from her sister and become more chuunibyou for Hayashi to like her more?
But she really couldn't do it.
Yet seeing how much attention Hayashi paid to her sister, it would be a lie to say Takanashi Touka wasn't envious.
She gently bit her lip, her eyes becoming more determined.
To gain Hayashi's recognition and win his favor, she naturally needed to change in the direction Hayashi liked.
Otherwise, she would only be gradually distanced by Hayashi, and her position in his heart would become lower and lower.
Even though Hayashi cared about every girl, it was impossible for him to truly treat everyone equally.
Love still required her own efforts to fight for.
After this self-induced anxiety, Takanashi Touka had made up her mind.
As long as Hayashi liked it, she was willing to try anything.
Hayashi: ...That's really not necessary.
Meanwhile, under everyone's expectant gazes, Tohru smiled mysteriously, preparing to give the final score.
"After careful tasting, I give Hayashi's delicious dish a perfect score of seven points."
When Tohru said this, no one was particularly surprised, after all, Hayashi's cooking skills were evident to all.
Then everyone curiously looked at Takanashi Touka, all eager to know what score Tohru would give her.
Takanashi Touka was extremely nervous, her little hands clenched into fists as she continuously prayed in her heart:
"Perfect score, it must be a perfect score!"
As long as she could get a perfect score, she could tie with Hayashi, at least giving the other two girls a slim chance.
Trying to defeat Hayashi in cooking was almost impossible.
But even with just a tiny chance, she had to give it her all.
Nakiri Erina and Arato Hisako understood this principle as well.
So all three of them were nervously holding their breath, gripping their little hands tightly, fully expecting to hear the answer they longed for.
...
"Touka's dish is also very delicious, also getting a perfect score of seven points."
Tohru said.
"Yay! Yay! Yay!"
Instantly, the three girls - Takanashi Touka, Nakiri Erina, and Arato Hisako - jumped up excitedly.
Their happy expressions were as if they had completely won the competition, all dancing with joy.
Even now, the three girls felt this joy even exceeded the happiness they usually felt when participating in official competitions and winning championships.
For them, being able to tie with Hayashi was already the highest honor.
Seeing this scene, Hayashi's lips curved slightly upward, finding it quite interesting, and couldn't help but show a hint of a smile.
Just then, Hayashi saw Tohru wink at him with a "you understand me" expression.
How could Hayashi not understand?
Tohru giving Takanashi Touka a perfect score was obviously intentionally going easy on her.
And that was indeed the case.
Originally, Tohru had planned to give Takanashi Touka 6.5 points according to her own standards, which would already be quite considerate.
But seeing her three sisters so nervous and worried, Tohru's heart softened and she decided to let Hayashi and Takanashi Touka tie.
Although it was just a tie, according to the rules set at the beginning.
If it was a tie, this match would count as Takanashi Touka's victory.
The girls' team would have won the first match, no wonder they were so happy.
This also meant that in the next two matches, Hayashi had to achieve complete victory, and perfect victory at that, to completely crush these three girls in the score.
Hayashi wasn't worried about his own abilities.
The only thing to consider now was whether these three little judges would manipulate things behind the scenes.
This time was fine, but if they did it again, Hayashi would definitely lose.
At this time, seeing Hayashi with black lines on his forehead, Tohru also sensed something was wrong.
She naturally knew what she did wasn't right, so she put on a guilty expression, pinching her little hands while standing beside Hayashi with her head down, as if apologizing to him.
Seeing this, Hayashi didn't know whether to laugh or cry, raising his finger to lightly flick her forehead.
With a light "thud," Tohru grimaced in pain, pouting and looking at Hayashi pitifully.
Instantly, Hayashi's original dissatisfaction completely disappeared, and he sighed helplessly.
He had been completely handled by this little one again.
This little pitiful thing was already putting on such a pitiful appearance - could he really punish her?
He was really at the mercy of these little ones.
Hayashi said with a mixture of laughter and tears:
"Alright, I won't punish you. But from now on, you must judge seriously and can't act arbitrarily anymore."
Hearing Hayashi's gentle tone, Tohru's eyes lit up, immediately becoming all smiles and secretly breathing a sigh of relief.
Then she immediately stood at attention, saluted, and said with a grin:
"Leader, rest assured, I will definitely complete the mission!"
Seeing Tohru's chuunibyou appearance, Hayashi could only helplessly accept it and nodded.
Then Hayashi looked at the other two girls and saw the eager Nakiri Erina say to Arato Hisako:
"Hisako, let me handle the second match."
"Okay."
Arato Hisako agreed.
Actually, she and Nakiri Erina had already discussed that the first match's victory was largely because the three girls were going easy.
Otherwise, the first match would have had almost zero chance of winning.
However, another major reason.
Was mainly because this new dish was a high-difficulty dish researched by Nakiri Erina.
And Takanashi Touka had relied on her years of cooking experience to make it perfectly, even surpassing it.
It was precisely this point that allowed the three girls to accept going easy with a clear conscience.
If Takanashi Touka's "Little Rabbit Be Good" dish had been a complete failure, even ugly and unrecognizable as a rabbit.
Even if they wanted to go easy, they wouldn't have had the opportunity.
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