"Did you hear? The situation regarding Erina-sama has taken a turn!"
Because Dojima Gin decided to re-examine the final assessment and gave these Totsuki students the afternoon off today, after being exhausted for several days, they finally got half a day's break!
Initially, everyone was dead tired and no one made any big fuss.
But young people's energy is always miraculous. After someone brought back such news, these Totsuki students perked up again.
"It seems the problem with our sales earlier was because Erina-sama randomly found a stall across from Totsuki Resort and opened a shop, then all the customers were attracted there!"
"It even seems like Erina-sama's shop surpassed Totsuki Resort in sales today!"
"And now she's going to have a Shokugeki with Chef Shinomiya!"
"Amazing! Worthy of Erina-sama!"
Hearing such topics, many excellent students of this Totsuki generation had their attention drawn to this matter.
For example, Hayama Akira, Kurokiba Ryo, and... Nakiri Alice.
This young lady with conspicuous silver-white medium-length hair, Western-style fair skin, and delicate Eastern features was currently wearing a silly expression while patting Kurokiba Ryo beside her and pointing at Arato Hisako, who was chattering nearby.
"Ryo, I just heard Erina's little secretary seemed to be saying that Erina is going to have a Shokugeki with Chef Shinomiya!"
Hearing Alice say this, Kurokiba Ryo responded expressionlessly and listlessly in a low voice.
"It's that Mutou Judai who's going to have a Shokugeki with Chef Shinomiya, Ojou-sama..."
"Same thing, same thing~"
If she didn't speak, or rather if she were a life-sized doll, then Alice would definitely be the supreme masterpiece created by the world's finest doll maker.
But this beautiful shell... she had a mouth... cough cough, possessed an interesting soul!
Although Alice and Erina were cousins, her personality was completely different from Erina's.
Maybe both of these people were essentially silly in nature, but as the saying goes—excellent people are all similarly excellent, while silly people have all kinds of different silliness.
If Erina weren't so stubborn, then in areas not involving cooking, she'd be a young lady who liked reading shoujo manga, was kind-hearted but not good at expressing her inner feelings.
As for Alice—
She was mainly that type of... innocent, pure, straightforward—well, just a bit silly.
"Ryo, let's go quickly! We must go see Erina and Chef Shinomiya's Shokugeki!"
"It's Mutou Judai and Chef Shinomiya's Shokugeki... Ojou-sama."
"Same thing, same thing~"
Nakiri Alice and Kurokiba Ryo kept repeating this dialogue, then the two of them left Totsuki Resort under Alice's authority as a member of the Nakiri family and headed toward Great Universe Bar.
Seeing them leave, Arato Hisako bit her teeth and directly followed behind the two of them.
It was at this moment.
Arato Hisako brushed past two men.
One wore a black suit with a Toyo Electric label on his chest.
The other was draped in a black robe, hunched over like an old man, making it impossible for Arato Hisako to see his face clearly—but when passing by him, Hisako felt a bone-chilling sensation, which made her involuntarily stop in her tracks.
As Arato Hisako followed Alice and Kurokiba Ryo out of Totsuki Resort, these two had just stepped into Totsuki Resort.
"Toyo Electric..."
As Erina's secretary and from a family that had served the Nakiri family for generations, Hisako was quite knowledgeable about matters between Totsuki and Toyo Electric.
She also understood that when Toyo Electric people approached Totsuki Resort at this time, it definitely wouldn't be anything simple.
However...
"There are still Chef Dojima and other Totsuki graduates here at the resort, and what I need to worry about now isn't Toyo Electric, but rather..."
Hisako looked at Alice and Kurokiba Ryo, who had already run far ahead while she was thinking, and hurriedly stepped forward to catch up.
"—Erina-sama!!"
...
Great Universe Bar, underground fighting arena—well... perhaps it should be renamed the underground dining hall now.
Since Mutou Judai had just had a Shokugeki with Eizan Etsuya earlier, this underground fighting arena hadn't had time to be converted back, so it was directly utilized for this second Shokugeki.
However, this time Erina wasn't busy in the kitchen, but like Dojima Gin, stood at the entrance of the contestant passage watching Mutou Judai and Shinomiya Kojiro who had already entered the venue.
Dojima Gin saw that the three judges sent by the Shokugeki Administration Bureau had entered, noted that this Shokugeki's theme was vegetables, then recalled the expression Erina had shown when she saw Mutou Judai was going to have a Shokugeki with Shinomiya Kojiro.
At that time, Erina seemed to believe that Shinomiya Kojiro would definitely lose.
And now, knowing that the theme was vegetables—the specialty of Shinomiya Kojiro, the Vegetable Magician...
Dojima Gin glanced at Erina and found her expression still unchanged.
So Dojima Gin couldn't help but ask.
"Erina, who do you think will win?"
"Mutou Judai will definitely win."
Hm?
Dojima Gin had expected Erina to hesitate, but basically the moment he asked, Erina immediately gave her answer.
So certain?
If it were anyone else saying this, Dojima Gin definitely wouldn't care, but Erina—she was God's Tongue!
God's Tongue was equivalent to a divine benchmark for the culinary world!
So God's Tongue's judgment would never be wrong—
That Mutou Judai... although after the Shokugeki was decided, he heard that Mutou Judai had just completely defeated Eizan Etsuya, who was one of the current Elite Ten...
But Eizan was the ninth seat of the current Elite Ten.
Shinomiya Kojiro—
When he graduated from Totsuki, he was the first seat of that generation's Elite Ten!
Moreover, he had been graduated for a while. Although he had hit a bottleneck now, his current strength had long surpassed when he was still the first seat of Totsuki's Elite Ten.
But Erina was very certain that Mutou Judai would win...
This left Dojima Gin somewhat uncertain.
Was that Mutou Judai, who according to his records had gotten all E grades at school, really that strong?
Dojima Gin was puzzled, and Erina seemed to sense his confusion. She looked at the interior of the venue, and her expression became even more peculiar.
"If we're talking about culinary skills, then Chef Shinomiya's cooking is definitely far superior to Mutou Judai's, but when it comes to Shokugeki..."
When Erina said this, she snorted lightly, as if showing off something, and stated her extremely certain answer again.
"—That guy won't lose to Chef Shinomiya in a Shokugeki!"
Hearing Erina announce the result of this match once again, Dojima Gin raised an eyebrow.
He was about to say something when he noticed there seemed to be commotion coming from inside the venue.
When he turned to look, he discovered—
Mutou Judai was already standing in front of the judges' table holding three bowls!
Yes, ten minutes in, he was done!
This Mutou Judai looked at the three judges who still hadn't gone far and their twitching expressions, while pushing his three bowls of noodles toward them and showing a very sunny smile.
"This time's theme is vegetables, so I added bean sprouts to the instant noodles. Please enjoy!"
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