Mutou Judai had been focusing on Kengan matters recently.
And he planned to work with Erina to crush Toyo Electric in this Kengan Annihilation Tournament!
So regarding the "A Certain Magical Index" he had previously given to Ooya Ken, except for that incident with the illustrator, he hadn't paid any attention to it since.
And light novel circles in this country basically never caused heated discussions on the surface.
So during the time Mutou Judai spent with Erina, he couldn't possibly have encountered the enthusiasm that "A Certain Magical Index" had generated after its release.
However, there was one person who noticed the feedback about "A Certain Magical Index" earlier than Mutou Judai.
But this person wasn't that guy who was both a fighter and a failed novelist, Nikaido—this guy's new book "Boruto" had been canceled, and now he was already thinking about returning to Kengan matches, so he wasn't very concerned about "A Certain Magical Index."
Instead, it was a guy you could never tell had any connection to light novels who happened to notice "A Certain Magical Index."
—That was Kiryu Setsuna!
He still remembered when it suddenly started happening.
Looking back now, that might have been some kind of omen before good fortune suddenly arrived.
He was just staying by himself peacefully when suddenly a student from Ohzeki came and said to him—"Kiryu-sensei, I shall shatter that illusion of yours!"
He was inexplicably told such a thing, then the person left.
Huh?
This was the first time in Kiryu Setsuna's life that he applied his impression of others to someone else... this guy—was he mentally ill!?
Kiryu Setsuna thought that incident was just an accident.
But he didn't expect that after that... this mental illness seemed to be contagious!
—"Kiryu-sensei, I shall shatter that illusion of yours!"
Kiryu Setsuna didn't know how many times he heard this line afterward... some people even asked for autographs after saying it...
Kiryu Setsuna couldn't understand this at all.
And for things he couldn't understand, he naturally began investigating.
Then without even using much of his connections, he just opened Google and searched for the four characters "Kiryu Setsuna," and he discovered the first result on the search engine was:
"Kiryu-sensei, I shall shatter that illusion of yours!"
This...
After clicking on it, he quickly saw "A Certain Magical Index," then he understood everything.
This made him breathe a sigh of relief.
He was thinking that next time someone came to his door, he would explain to them, and could even have Katahara Shion help, when a completely unexpected "reader" came to his door.
That person was his god!
—Tokita Ohma!
After resolving the title issue, Mutou Judai returned to Totsuki with Erina.
They tacitly didn't mention the Toyo Electric problem at this time, instead talking about Totsuki matters.
"Erina... I saw your father during my previous Shokugeki with Hayama Akira. The Kengan Annihilation Tournament is coming up, and I think at the latest, after the tournament, that guy should do something..."
Hearing Mutou Judai say this, Erina's eyes obviously dimmed a bit.
Then she silently nodded.
Seeing her like this, Mutou Judai sighed.
"If it really comes to it, I'll go 'talk' with him..."
Hearing Mutou Judai say this, Erina shook her head, then took a deep breath and adjusted her condition.
"No... Judai, actually him coming back isn't necessarily bad... at least this way, I'll have a chance to overcome my psychological trauma..."
Erina looked at Mutou Judai and slowly smiled.
At this moment, she could still recall the scene of Mutou Judai raising both fists under the lights after defeating Wakatsuki Takeshi...
She admired Mutou Judai's strength.
This strength brought her a strong sense of security and gradually gave her courage...
Just like when she faced Katahara Metsudo together with Judai...
"Judai, don't worry, this isn't a big deal—I can't avoid facing this shadow my whole life. People have to grow, and I'm just facing one of the more difficult challenges..."
"Many people encounter such situations, and besides, I'm much luckier than them..."
Erina suddenly stopped talking here, just smiling at Mutou Judai.
Hearing half of it and suddenly finding Erina wasn't continuing, Mutou Judai asked puzzledly:
"How are you luckier than others?"
Seeing Mutou Judai ask, Erina blinked, her face reddening a bit, then put her hands behind her back and quickened her pace, walking ahead of Mutou Judai.
"Hmph~ If you don't know, forget it, dummy."
On the top floor of a hotel, in this most luxurious suite, Nakiri Azami stood by the window, looking down at everything below.
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
Behind him, a man sat on the sofa, looking at documents in his hand while smiling and speaking to Nakiri Azami.
"I remember you chefs like that what... food fist? Food gun?"
"It's Shokugeki."
"—Oh, right, Shokugeki!"
Finally remembering these two words with Nakiri Azami's reminder, this bald, heavily tattooed muscular man threw the documents in his hand onto the table.
Nakiri Azami glanced with his peripheral vision and found those documents were even upside down.
That meant—
The other party hadn't read these materials at all just now!
Nakiri Azami's peripheral glance was noticed.
Then this bald man smiled and spoke to Nakiri Azami.
"Don't look at me with that expression. After all, my eyes can't see—when you hand me documents, I can't make you lose face."
Saying this, the smile on his face gradually disappeared.
"So are you really going to do this? You should know that we mercenaries absolutely don't accept employers suddenly breaking contracts after accepting missions."
"If you want me to act, the result might be quite different from the Shokugeki results you chefs usually have."
Hearing the other party mention Shokugeki repeatedly, Nakiri Azami felt somewhat uncomfortable...
Vaguely, that smell from last time seemed to be detected again, directly making his vision go dark!
—He no longer wanted... or rather didn't dare to challenge Totsuki, which had Mutou Judai, to Shokugeki!
That was a monster!
Thinking back now, he still felt afraid—it was good that time it had a smell, even being knocked unconscious by the smell felt like he had profited!
Otherwise, if he couldn't smell it and had actually eaten that thing...
—Just thinking about it was terrifying!
No wonder those three judges ran so fast after taking the money!
He couldn't blame them—he was really the fool!
Paying money to eat shit!
But although Nakiri Azami was constantly roaring in his heart because very bad memories were triggered, he actually still showed no expression.
"I've long heard that the legendary Mercenary King—Muteba Gizenga can't see but can move freely through gunfire... Seeing you this time, I was even curious whether you really couldn't see. It's indeed as the legends say."
So...
"I definitely won't break the contract this time... After all, although we chefs use Shokugeki to resolve problems, sometimes Shokugeki is just too childish."
"You don't need to worry about other issues—Muteba, this time I'm commissioning you to kidnap the world's number one chef. Will you accept?"
Hearing Nakiri Azami say this, Muteba smiled.
"If the mission takes a relatively long time, you'll need to pay extra for me to accept the commission, since I came to this country mainly because I have a more important mission afterward."
"But just kidnapping a chef—leave it to me~"
Saying this, Muteba stood up, then showed a bright smile completely unlike a mercenary.
"...The world's number one chef, if I catch him, I definitely want to see what the world's number one cooking skills are like~"
"Do as you please..."
Nakiri Azami looked at his own face reflected in the window in front of him and slowly smiled.
—Mutou Judai... although you cleverly prevented me from testing your level last time, if you think cooking skills can decide everything in this world, that's being too arrogant.
Even Totsuki itself trains fighters.
In this world, cooking skills have never been the only deciding standard.
Although I currently don't qualify to contact this country's Kengan Association and the fighters within it... but this time I was lucky enough to encounter this Mercenary King when he happened to be nearby...
So.
—Mutou Judai, I can't let you interfere with me~
Last time you taught me a lesson.
This time it's my turn!