"It's cool to give your kitchen knife to the opponent from the start, but is it really okay..."
Inui Hinako, the second seat of the Elite Ten from Totsuki's 80th graduating class who had temporarily returned to Totsuki for this incident, was one of the five judges for this match and was somewhat worried about the decision Mutou Judai had made.
Shinomiya Kojiro and Dojima Gin sitting beside her were expressionless and silent at the moment.
They were like warriors about to go to war—although they hadn't planned to serve as judges for this match before, they didn't have any good reason to decline at this point, ultimately becoming what they were now.
Shinomiya Kojiro and Dojima Gin, who knew what would happen next but didn't know how to say it, looked very grave.
On the other side, Nakiri Senzaemon and Seiichiro were very composed!
Seiichiro was even smiling at the moment.
After hearing Inui Hinako's words, he optimistically raised the corners of his mouth.
"I heard that true masters, when they get serious, surpass their previous second with every second—regarding Mutou Judai, although he looks very young, you felt his aura just now too..."
Seiichiro looked at Mutou Judai who seemed to be cooking noodles, very confident.
"Don't worry... my intuition tells me he's definitely a monster beyond our imagination..."
Mm.
Hearing Seiichiro say this, Nakiri Senzaemon also nodded.
"I think so too... after all, he's someone Erina trusted so much that she called him to save the situation under these circumstances—God's Tongue wouldn't be wrong."
When mentioning God's Tongue, Nakiri Senzaemon sighed inwardly.
Regarding the relationship between Erina and Mutou Judai, he had no intention of interfering—although Totsuki was quite a large corporation, Nakiri Senzaemon had no intention of interfering with Erina's private affairs.
He just hoped he could solve Erina's God's Tongue problem...
Sigh!
Nakiri Senzaemon sighed inwardly.
Then at this moment, Mutou Judai had already walked to the judges' table carrying five bowls of noodles.
"I'm finished!"
"Five bowls of instant ramen, please taste!"
Hm!?
Nakiri Senzaemon and Seiichiro, who had been praising Mutou Judai before, were obviously stunned after seeing these bowls of instant ramen, and Inui Hinako blinked—she couldn't believe this was real!
Only Shinomiya Kojiro and Dojima Gin had expected this.
With half their faces darkened, they picked up their chopsticks in unison, lifted their bowls, and gulped down all the instant ramen in their hands!
They had both witnessed Mutou Judai's methods.
So they knew clearly that after the judging ended, they probably wouldn't have any appetite for the entire day!
If they didn't eat now, they wouldn't have a chance later!
This was how Shinomiya Kojiro and Dojima Gin were, while Seiichiro, Nakiri Senzaemon, and Inui Hinako beside them put down their chopsticks after taking just one bite.
They couldn't even understand what Shinomiya Kojiro and Dojima Gin were doing!
But they... didn't dare ask!
What was this situation?
Erina called someone to save the situation, and then he served five bowls of instant ramen...
This...
Seiichiro, Nakiri Senzaemon, and Inui Hinako didn't know what to say for a moment.
Mutou Judai glanced at Dojima Gin and Shinomiya Kojiro, then smiled and shook his head, directly leaning against the nearby wall, silently waiting.
After waiting several more hours, Saiba Asahi finally completed his dish.
"I'm done."
He seemed to be imitating what Mutou Judai had just done, also bringing out five bowls of noodles.
But his noodles could be seen at a glance—from the broth, toppings, to the wavy noodles themselves that were obviously different from instant noodles in texture, everything was carefully prepared!
"Five bowls of instant ramen, please taste~"
Saiba Asahi said this, then smiled and explained.
"Although I still made the noodles look like instant ramen, besides the broth, meat, vegetables, eggs, and the noodles themselves, I also added some special seasonings~"
He left his words there, very confident.
And actually, Mutou Judai, who could see the status on dishes, understood why he was so confident.
This guy ultimately didn't use his kitchen knife, didn't handicap himself out of spite, and still chose Seiichiro and Dojima Gin's knives to complete his Cross Knives.
So these five bowls of seemingly ordinary noodles actually had three buffs!
[Brilliant Pioneer: Adds an unimaginable flavor to the dish itself]
[Tempered Accumulator: Brings out the dish's flavor to perfection]
[Dimensional Transcendence: Enhances the dish's overall and most prominent flavors]
Seeing these three buffs, Mutou Judai could feel how impressive these five bowls of noodles from Saiba Asahi were.
Then...
—Five curses!
Let your performance begin!
After Mutou Judai finished casting his curses, the judges picked up their chopsticks.
"Special seasonings? Then we need to taste carefully."
Seiichiro sighed, then along with the other four judges, picked up noodles and put them in their mouths.
He had intended to slurp the noodles directly and then have some broth, but actually, after the noodles entered his mouth, he instinctively bit them off.
This...
First was stickiness—the reason he instinctively bit off the noodles was that they stuck directly to his tongue after entering his mouth!
Then that stench rushed from his mouth to his nasal cavity, making his eyes instinctively redden, with tears and snot flowing together!
This taste was actually overwhelming!
He wanted to retch but knew it wasn't appropriate, and no matter how he moved his tongue, this thing couldn't be scraped off his tongue in a short time—unless he used his hands to pick it off!
So Seiichiro was caught in a dilemma for a moment.
Inui Hinako, however, directly reached out and picked off the noodles stuck to her tongue, casually threw them into the trash can at her feet, retched for a while, rinsed her mouth several times, then wiped away the tears hanging at the corners of her eyes.
At this point, Seiichiro had steeled himself... ultimately he chose to abandon face and directly picked it out!
Saiba Asahi completely hadn't expected things to turn out this way, so he was somewhat stunned.
After the taste in his mouth subsided a bit, Seiichiro considered his words.
"This... you and Mutou Judai both made instant ramen, so why... why is your instant ramen so... special... forget it, I'll be direct—why can you make instant ramen this terrible!?"
Seiichiro's mindset was already somewhat exploding.
When Saiba Asahi had a Shokugeki with him, he wasn't at this level!
How did he suddenly become so terrible!
And he even poisoned them!
And said he added some mysterious seasoning...
This made him specifically taste it!
Nakiri Senzaemon had also just recovered at this moment. He stabilized his emotions, then frowned.
"What exactly did you add to create this kind of taste..."
After Nakiri Senzaemon finished speaking, before Saiba Asahi could respond, Inui Hinako, who occasionally acted like a child, had her childish temper flare up. Seiichiro and Nakiri Senzaemon wouldn't speak directly, but she would.
"It's shit, he probably added shit to the noodles!"
Seeing Inui Hinako's appearance of having her mindset completely blown by the terrible taste, completely disregarding her image, when Shinomiya Kojiro heard "shit," he instinctively recalled the French jelly he had eaten when he expelled Erina... that was real shit!
So when he heard what Inui Hinako said after her mindset exploded, he instinctively added:
"Shit doesn't taste this bad!"
...