"W-what… what knife work! I didn't even see the blade move!"
"W-wait—look at the tofu. Is it… brighter after he cut it?"
"Is that really tofu? That's unreal!"
Shock rippled through the stands—not only at the uncanny ingredient anymore, but at Shun's god-tier knife skills.
Terunori might be arrogant, but he wasn't a fool. As an Elite Ten member, he understood perfectly what such knife work meant.
So this guy… wasn't bluffing from the start?
A flicker of unease rose—then the Elite Ten's pride and his absolute faith in himself stamped it down.
"Hmph. What if your knife is good? Cuisine is the art of flavor!"
His hands moved faster, more forceful. "I have top-grade Jasper Tofu, and my family's complete recipe for Mirage Mapo Tofu. In mapo tofu, I'm the absolute king. Even another Elite Ten won't beat me on this theme!"
He wasn't exaggerating. His forte was Chinese cuisine—Sichuan most of all.
Mapo tofu was his pride, the signature of the Chinese Cuisine Research Society itself.
Centering himself, Terunori slid his carefully blended doubanjiang into shimmering oil—an instant bloom of rich, pungent, layered heat burst forth.
Sichuan's soul, on full display.
But just then, murmurs began to spread through the spectators.
"Hey—look! Shun's steps!"
"Yeah! Check the order he's rendering the mince, then blooming the doubanjiang."
"Not just the order—the moment he splashes in stock and the first thickening? It's almost to the second!"
"No way… are they making the same dish?"
The whisper swelled to a wave.
Polar Star caught it too.
"It's true! Shun-kun's sequence is highly aligned with Terunori-senpai's!" Yuuki blurted.
"Not only sequence," Zenji added, lenses flashing. "Core aromatics are nearly identical—doubanjiang, douchi, huajiao, chiles, the mince, green garlic… Could it be…?"
Terunori finally really looked at Shun's station. A few minutes in, his heart thudded.
That familiar cadence. That exacting fire control.
Coincidence?
When he saw the same six prepared flavor components being married together, a thunderbolt of realization slammed through his skull; his grip almost dropped the knife.
"You—!"
He couldn't hold it back. In a blur he crossed to Shun's bench, trampling shokugeki etiquette, pinched a small pinch of Shun's fried "mince" from a ramekin—and popped it in his mouth.
Two chews. His face changed.
Crisp giving way to a just-right chew; roasted fat and meat perfume exploding between his teeth…
But under the flavor—a delicate difference from true meat. A cleaner, plant-protein perfume, strangely more pristine.
"Impossible—you're cooking the same recipe!" Terunori's voice shot up a register, ringing through the suddenly hushed Moon Banquet Hall.
"What does he mean—same recipe?"
"A secret family formula?!"
The gallery buzzed; Terunori looked as if he'd seen a ghost, glaring at the calm Shun with disbelief and fury.
"La (heat), xiang (aroma), se (color), tang (scalding heat), ma (numbing), su (crisp)… six flavors as one! That's the true 'mirage'—the sixth soul that separates this from ordinary mapo tofu!"
Eyes locked on Shun, he growled, "This came from fragments our family restored from ancient texts—countless years of work! No one outside the Kuga line should know it! Where did you steal it?!"
The outburst answered every lingering doubt in the stands.
"Mirage Mapo Tofu? What is that?"
"Sounds insane!"
"The sixth flavor—su? As in crispy?"
"No wonder the steps match—it's a legendary variant!"
"But Terunori-senpai says it's unique to his family… so how would Shun—?"
Polar Star sat stunned.
Facing Terunori's nearly unhinged accusation, Shun finally set his spatula down.
"Steal?"
He met Terunori's stare, voice level. "Terunori-senpai, did it ever occur to you your 'complete' recipe might not be the only truth of this legend? Its path through the world may reach much farther than your family imagines."
He gently stirred the pan—golden tofu shimmering in a ruby glaze. "The 'mirage' isn't about hoarding a paper formula—it's the harmony of transformation. You're fixated on replicating and owning—and you've missed its spirit."
Mirage Mapo Tofu hails from another gourmet world—Cooking Master Boy—its creator known as Bei Fairy.
Long before the System, on slow nights in his family kitchen, Shun recreated recipes from Cooking Master Boy and other foodie worlds; this dish was one of them.
So—no "theft."
If anything… how did Terunori learn it, without being a world-hopper?
"Family inheritance," is it?
Interesting.
(End of Chapter)
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