"Did you hear?"
"The situation with Lady Erina has completely reversed!"
Because Dojima Gin decided to re-evaluate the final round and allowed the Totsuki students to rest for the afternoon, everyone finally received half a day off after several days of nonstop exhaustion.
At first, most people were too tired to care.
No one made a fuss.
But young people recovered quickly.
Once the news spread, the atmosphere shifted almost instantly.
"I heard the reason our sales collapsed earlier was because Lady Erina set up a casual stall across from the Totsuki Resort!"
"All the customers were dragged over there!"
"And apparently, her store's sales today were even higher than the Totsuki Resort!"
"Now she's going to have a Shokugeki with Chef Shinomiya!"
"That's insane!"
"As expected of Lady Erina!"
As the topic spread, many of the outstanding students from this generation of Totsuki were drawn in.
Hayama Akira.
Ryo Kurokiba.
And-
Alice Nakiri.
The silver-haired young lady, with her medium-length hair shimmering faintly, pale Western complexion, and refined Eastern facial features, was currently wearing a completely unfitting expression.
A goofy one.
She patted Ryo Kurokiba beside her and pointed excitedly at the chattering Arato Hisako nearby.
"Ryo! I just heard Erina's little secretary saying Erina is having a Shokugeki with Chef Shinomiya!"
Ryo Kurokiba stared ahead blankly and replied weakly.
"It's Yuki who's having the Shokugeki with Chef Shinomiya, Ojou-sama..."
"It's the same thing, it's the same thing~"
If Alice didn't speak-
Or if she were a life-sized doll-
She would undoubtedly be a masterpiece crafted by the world's greatest doll maker.
But this flawless appearance came with a mouth.
Ahem.
Rather than that, she possessed an... interesting soul.
Although Alice and Erina were cousins, their personalities were worlds apart.
Perhaps, at their core, both of them were a bit silly.
But as the saying went-
Outstanding people were always outstanding in similar ways.
Silly people were silly in very different ways.
If Erina weren't so awkward, she'd be a kind-hearted young lady who enjoyed shojo manga and simply wasn't good at expressing her feelings, at least outside the kitchen.
As for Alice-
She was mainly innocent.
Pure.
Straightforward.
And, well-
Just a little dumb.
"Ryo, hurry up!"
"We have to go watch Erina's Shokugeki with Chef Shinomiya!"
"It's Yuki's Shokugeki with Chef Shinomiya, Ojou-sama..."
"It's the same thing, it's the same thing~"
The two repeated this exchange all the way out.
Using Alice Nakiri's authority as a member of the Nakiri family, they left the Totsuki Resort together and headed straight toward O-uchu.
Arato Hisako clenched her teeth and followed behind them.
It was at this moment-
She brushed past two men.
One wore a black suit, with the Toyo Electric logo clearly displayed on his chest.
The other was dressed in a black robe, hunched like an elderly man, his face hidden from view.
As Hisako passed him, a sudden chill ran down her spine.
She stopped involuntarily.
By the time she turned back, the two men had already entered the Totsuki Resort.
"Toyo Electric..."
As Erina's secretary, and as someone whose family had served the Nakiri household for generations, Hisako was well aware of the conflict between Totsuki and Toyo Electric.
She also knew that Toyo Electric appearing at this moment was anything but simple.
However-
"Chef Dojima and the other Totsuki graduates are here..."
"What I should be worried about right now isn't Toyo Electric, but-"
Her gaze snapped forward.
Alice and Ryo Kurokiba had already run far ahead.
Hisako hurried after them.
"-Lady Erina!!"
...
O-uchu.
The underground fighting arena.
Well.
Perhaps it should be called an underground diner now.
Jaden had just finished a Shokugeki with Etsuya Eizan earlier, so the arena hadn't been converted back yet.
Instead, it was directly repurposed for the second Shokugeki.
This time, Erina wasn't busy in the kitchen.
She stood beside Dojima Gin at the entrance of the fighter's tunnel, watching Jaden and Shinomiya Kojiro walk into the venue.
Dojima Gin observed as the three judges dispatched by the Shokugeki Management Bureau took their seats.
Then he recalled Erina's expression from earlier-
The moment Jaden had challenged Shinomiya Kojiro.
At the time, she looked completely convinced that Shinomiya would lose.
And now-
The theme of this Shokugeki was vegetables.
The very thing Shinomiya Kojiro, the Vegetable Magician, excelled at the most.
Dojima Gin glanced at Erina from the corner of his eye.
Her expression hadn't changed at all.
Unable to hold back, he asked.
"Erina."
"Who do you think will win?"
"Yuki will win."
There was no hesitation.
None.
Dojima Gin paused.
He had expected her to think for a moment.
But the answer came instantly.
So confident?
If this had come from anyone else, he wouldn't have cared.
But Erina-
She was God's Tongue.
God's Tongue was the culinary world's heaven-granted standard.
Her judgment wasn't supposed to be wrong.
That Jaden...
Dojima Gin had only heard after the fact that Jaden had thoroughly crushed Etsuya Eizan, one of the current Elite Ten.
But Eizan was only the Ninth Seat.
Shinomiya Kojiro-
When he graduated from Totsuki, he was the First Seat of the Elite Ten of his generation.
And that was years ago.
Even if he had hit a wall recently, his current skill far surpassed his former self.
Yet Erina was absolutely certain Jaden would win.
This made Dojima Gin uneasy.
Could someone with nothing but E evaluations on record really be that strong?
Dojima Gin was perplexed.
Erina seemed to sense it.
She looked toward the venue, her expression turning even stranger.
"If we're talking purely about culinary skill..."
"Then Chef Shinomiya surpasses Jaden by far."
"But a Shokugeki..."
She let out a light hmph.
Almost like she was boasting.
"-That guy won't lose to Chef Shinomiya in a Shokugeki."
Dojima Gin raised an eyebrow.
He was about to respond-
When a sudden commotion erupted from inside the arena.
He turned his head.
And froze.
Jaden was already standing in front of the judge's table.
With three bowls.
Yes.
Ten minutes into the match.
He was done.
Jaden stood there, smiling brightly, as the three judges stared at him with twitching expressions, clearly still processing what they were seeing.
He pushed the bowls forward.
"The theme this time is vegetables."
"So I added bean sprouts to the instant noodles."
"Please enjoy."
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