"Next, we will have the address."
"Please welcome the Director of Tōtsuki Academy, Lord Senzaemon Nakiri."
Countless gazes from below fell upon an old man dressed in a dark blue kimono.
Okabe also looked over.
Compared to a few years ago, the present Senzaemon Nakiri was clearly much older. His hair and beard were all white, and his face had many more wrinkles, yet his tiger-like eyes stared ahead, full of spirit.
"His eyes... his eyes are so... so scary!"
"He's in charge of Tōtsuki Academy... no, the entire Japanese culinary world is under his control. A single sentence can determine someone's future. He's simply the undisputed Gourmet Demon King of the culinary world!"
Looking at the solemn old man on stage, the expressions of the crowd changed slightly, their hearts pounding uncontrollably.
"First, I congratulate you all on joining Tōtsuki Academy."
His gaze swept across the nearly one thousand students below. Senzaemon Nakiri's voice was like a great bell.
"I wonder where you all first heard of Tōtsuki Academy? Perhaps from a food show on TV, or perhaps you heard of it from friends and family. But no matter what kind of aspirations you hold in coming here, reality will be far harsher than you imagine."
"You are all chefs with a certain foundation, have achieved some success in your respective fields, and have a certain level of understanding of ingredients. For your three years in the junior high division, you will not need to start from scratch. From the very first day you enter the school, you can begin practical kitchen training."
"And during your three years in the junior high division, you will learn various professional subjects:調理理論, nutrition, public health, cultivation theory, and business administration. These are all subjects you must master as chefs!"
Standing at the lectern.
Watching the students whose emotions were gradually being stirred by his words, Senzaemon Nakiri's tone became increasingly passionate.
"Of course, since you chose Tōtsuki from among so many schools, I believe your main purpose is certainly not just to study."
"If I'm not mistaken, most of you want to compete with your peers!"
"That's right, it's competition!"
He suddenly raised his voice, like a clap of thunder.
"Tōtsuki Academy is a battlefield. Here, there will be competition every day, and every class could become an elimination match. Among you, how many can confidently say that in one year, two years, or even three years, you will still be standing here?!"
The audience fell silent. Even the sound of breathing was clearly audible, and a sense of tension arose in everyone's heart.
"From its founding to the present, Tōtsuki's graduation rate has been less than one percent."
His gaze swept across the venue, looking at the various expressions—nervous, excited, or indifferent—Senzaemon Nakiri's voice was as cold as a blade: "This means that among the eight hundred of you, fewer than ten will graduate successfully in the end. The rest will all make a somber exit from this cruel competition!"
As Senzaemon Nakiri's voice fell, a wave of suppressed gasps and sharp inhales came from the crowd, but more people wore expressions of understanding, clearly having known the outcome before enrolling.
To throw oneself into the arena, to temper one's culinary skills under absolute high pressure.
Only cruel competition can forge a true powerhouse.
Flowers grown in a greenhouse will sooner or later self-destruct from lack of sunlight.
"I hope there will be more worthy opponents among this year's new students. It would be best if a few with comparable strength appeared, otherwise giving up our training at Ryōzanpaku to come here would be a joke."
In the lounge, Erina Nakiri leaned back on the sofa and stretched, looking completely relaxed.
"We don't necessarily have to focus on this year's freshmen. The upperclassmen and the high school division students can also be opponents. Doesn't Tōtsuki have an Elite Ten ranking? We can just challenge them in order."
Hearing Erina Nakiri's emotional words, Okabe shrugged.
His targets had never been his peers, but rather Tōtsuki's ten most outstanding geniuses.
Besides them, there was also Eishi Tsukasa, an existence of extremely high talent in the original work.
It's said that he had already defeated all the third-year students in his second year of high school, earning the title of the First Seat.
If there were a few in the Tōtsuki Elite Ten whose strength exceeded the regulations, Eishi Tsukasa and Rindo Kobayashi were definitely two of them.
"What you say isn't without reason. At our current level, fighting against our peers is indeed no challenge at all. The real opponents are only among the Elite Ten above. Ah! I'm getting a little excited."
As her voice fell, an excited flush appeared on Erina Nakiri's face. She then looked at Okabe, a sense of anticipation for the coming school life welling up in her heart.
"But we can't underestimate these geniuses from all over the world. Many people's achievements can't be measured by age. Young geniuses are not a minority, and it's not impossible that a twelve-year-old who passed the Special-Grade Chef examination might suddenly appear."
Okabe spoke half-jokingly.
In the story of Chuuka Ichiban, Liu Mao Xing was only thirteen when he first appeared. After studying at the Yang spring Restaurant for a few months, he participated in the Guangzhou Special-Grade Chef examination, becoming the youngest Special-Grade Chef in history.
"You rascal, you've said all the pros and cons. What's left for me to say?"
Hearing Okabe's last words, Erina Nakiri couldn't help but roll her eyes at him, her voice full of complaint.
"Ahem, wasn't I just trying to motivate you since you seemed to lack fighting spirit? Setting some concrete goals to fire you up. Isn't this a pretty good outcome?"
Okabe coughed awkwardly twice, then looked outside the lounge.
At this moment, Senzaemon Nakiri had already stopped speaking, leaving room for discussion among the audience.
"Stare…"
Erina Nakiri wasn't paying attention to the outside world; instead, she was staring intently at Okabe.
[Okabe-kun, the biggest factor that can ignite my fighting spirit has always been right in front of me! Sooner or later, I will crush you under my heel and make you admit that you are not as good as me!]
Staring at Okabe's upright back, such a thought emerged in Erina Nakiri's mind.
Surpassing Okabe in culinary arts was the driving force behind her efforts until now, and it was her only goal at this stage.
"By the way, according to the rules in the student handbook, students at Tōtsuki either commute from home or check into the school dormitories. My idea is for us to live in the school dorms together and experience communal life. That way, we can also grow faster through our culinary duels. What do you think?"
As he spoke, Okabe retracted his gaze and turned to look at Erina Nakiri, only to find her staring intently at him.
The moment he turned, their eyes met, and she hastily looked away with a flustered expression.
"Live… live in the dorms? I don't have any objections… as long as I can be with you—ahem, as long as there's a place to live, it's fine! We're here to learn cooking, nothing else is important!"
Halfway through her sentence, Erina Nakiri suddenly raised her voice, hastily covering up the heartfelt words that almost slipped out.
At the end, she even added a sentence to hide her true feelings, but her eyes couldn't help but drift elsewhere.
"Then let's have the school arrange a dormitory. Hisako and Rindo will be with us. We can be together for a few more years."
The thought that he could spend the following years with familiar people put Okabe in a particularly good mood.
He didn't dislike unfamiliar environments, but if he could, he would rather be with people he knew.
That would make life more interesting.
"Yes, I think so too. It will definitely be a lot of fun when we're together!"
Erina Nakiri nodded in understanding, her face showing an incredibly excited expression.
"Oh right, for the accommodation, we need a separate courtyard. To be more precise, it would be best to have a field. I want to transplant the vegetables I planted at Ryōzanpaku, especially the Golden Tomatoes and Jade Cucumbers."
Thinking of the Golden Tomatoes and other vegetables he had cultivated at Ryōzanpaku over the past few years, a hint of regret appeared on Okabe's face.
As expected of a variety developed by Liu Mai after more than a decade of hard work, the effect of Golden Tomatoes in cooking was nothing short of miraculous.
When it was the core ingredient, it could enhance the flavor of an entire tomato dish by a full fifty percent. Even when used as a side ingredient, adding just a little could bring a ten to thirty percent overall flavor enhancement to the dish.
The specific enhancement depended on the application of the Golden Tomatoes.
No wonder the Dark Culinary World would go so far as to kill across borders to seize the seeds from Liu Mai. Every seed in his hands represented indescribable wealth, and more importantly, a shift in the culinary world's landscape.
"Don't worry, not just a vegetable garden, we'll also build a small farm. We'll raise our own food and try to breed better varieties. Vegetable planting and livestock farming are also part of Tōtsuki's curriculum."
"I've already asked Hisako to take care of this."
Erina Nakiri said with a look of longing.
Although a busy farm life didn't quite fit her image, if they really brought those things over, the ones who would be busy in the end would only be Okabe, Megumi, and Ikaros. At most, she would help with harvesting when the vegetables were ripe, and help prepare breakfast in their daily lives.
For Erina Nakiri, whose identity was a chef, this was simply too easy.
"I feel like you're not much like a young lady. You're too down-to-earth, more like a farm girl."
"Have you ever seen such a beautiful farm girl?"
Erina Nakiri rolled her eyes cutely, her tone half-annoyed and half-joking. She was about to say more when a timely knock came from the door.
"Come in."
As her voice fell, Hisako Arato and Megumi Tadokoro pushed the door open and walked in together.
"Lady Erina, Okabe-kun, the entrance ceremony is over. Let's go handle the accommodation procedures together."
"Alright, let's go."
Hearing Hisako Arato's words, Okabe immediately stood up from his chair. Erina Nakiri and Ikaros followed suit, and the group left the lounge.
"By the way, where has our dormitory been assigned?"
After leaving the lounge, the people outside were gradually dispersing.
"It seems to be an old dormitory called Polaris Dormitory. According to Lady Erina's request, only that place in all of Tōtsuki has both a vegetable garden and a farm. It's said that seniors from several decades ago, through Shokugeki, claimed half of the back mountain as Polaris Dormitory's property."
Handing the map and information about the dormitory to Okabe, Hisako Arato briefly explained the information she had gathered.
Currently, only Polaris Dormitory at Tōtsuki met Erina Nakiri's requirements, this ancient communal dormitory that had existed since Tōtsuki's birth. Many members of the Elite Ten in Tōtsuki's history have lived there. At its peak, the students from there even held the top two seats of the Elite Ten. The fields, the farm, the back mountain forest—all were won by students of that era through Shokugeki.
"Let's go there, then. We'll check it out first, and if it's not good, we'll change."
Unlike in the original story where Soma Yukihira entered Tōtsuki through a transfer student exam, being in such a rush that he had to go to Polaris Dormitory immediately after class in the afternoon and hastily complete the check-in process. They had ample time to choose a dormitory. If they were not satisfied with the conditions at Polaris Dormitory, Erina Nakiri could also use her authority to change to another place. As the young lady of the Nakiri family, she couldn't possibly lack the authority to even change dormitories.
"Okabe-kun."
As the group was contemplating, a clear voice rang in his ear.
Okabe turned his head upon hearing his name called and saw Momo Akanegakubo waiting at the auditorium entrance.
The little girl had been standing there for a long time without seeing Okabe come out. Just as she was about to give up, she heard the sound of conversation approaching from a distance, with a familiar tone mixed in. So she looked over and happened to see Okabe and the others walking in her direction.
"Okabe-kun."
Looking at Okabe, who was noticeably taller and more mature-looking than when they last parted, Momo Akanegakubo jogged up to him.
"Momo, what are you doing here?"
Seeing Momo Akanegakubo suddenly appear at the auditorium entrance, Okabe was full of doubt, and he also walked forward to meet her.
"I came to see you. Why didn't you tell me you were coming to Tōtsuki? It makes me angry."
Stopping less than two meters away from Okabe, Momo Akanegakubo pouted unnaturally, and at the same time, her five fingers dug tightly into Bucchi's body, showing her dissatisfaction.
"I just didn't get the chance. I was planning to find you after I settled in."
"Excuses."
Seeing Okabe's slightly evasive gaze, Momo Akanegakubo immediately guessed his thoughts and spat out two words.
"Ahem, so you came here to wait, without knowing if I was coming or not?"
Glancing at the surroundings, Momo Akanegakubo was all alone. The other new students had also left one after another after Senzaemon Nakiri finished his speech.
He didn't know what kept her waiting here.
"I had a feeling you would definitely come, so I came here to wait."
Hearing Okabe's words, Momo Akanegakubo turned her head with a slight blush, her fingers sinking deeper into Bucchi's body.
She had rushed over as soon as she learned it was the new students' enrollment day. However, it was only when she arrived at the auditorium that she remembered she hadn't asked Okabe if he was coming to Tōtsuki. But thinking that since she was already here, she might as well wait at the entrance, but she didn't see Okabe's figure for a long time. Just when she thought Okabe hadn't come to Tōtsuki, she happened to see him walking out from inside.
"I see…"
Looking at Momo Akanegakubo's expression, Okabe nodded slightly, an indescribably strange feeling in his heart.
He never thought a girl would be willing to wait at a place he might appear, just based on a guess. Even when the auditorium was empty, she didn't choose to leave, but quietly waited for that possibility. This sincere and scorching emotion blew straight into Okabe's heart in the sunlit breeze.
"You guys go ahead. I'm going to walk around the academy with Momo."
As if thinking of something, Okabe said to Erina Nakiri and the others behind him, then picked a direction and walked off.
Momo Akanegakubo said nothing more, just silently quickened her pace to follow.
"That girl, I remember she's the pastry chef from the dessert shop under Ryōzanpaku, right? She came to Tōtsuki too?"
Watching Okabe and Momo Akanegakubo's departing backs, Erina Nakiri turned her head and asked Hisako Arato.
"Yes, I heard she received an invitation from Tōtsuki two years ago, so she left the French dessert shop called 'Akeyukiya' and came to Tōtsuki alone. If nothing has changed, she should be a third-year student in the junior high division of Tōtsuki now."
Hisako Arato answered respectfully.
"In addition, Senior Akanegakubo has had an amazing intuition and predictive ability for the concept of 'cute' since she was a child. She has an incredible sense for the 'cuteness' of all things in creation. The toys, children's clothes, picture book designs, or dessert sketches that Senior Akanegakubo selects will all become big hits in the market. Therefore, toy manufacturers, the fashion industry, and the design world all come to her for consultation. However, perhaps because of her relationship with Okabe-kun, or perhaps because she herself enjoys cooking, at an important turning point in her life, she resolutely chose to join Tōtsuki, becoming a member of the Sweets Club. She is deeply cherished by the current club president, the current Ninth Seat of the Elite Ten, second-year high school student Ao Kawasaki, who seems to be grooming her as a successor."
As Erina Nakiri's secretary, besides her daily required medicinal cuisine studies at Ryōzanpaku, Hisako Arato also keeps up with current news and hot topics, as well as investigating the safety of those in her social circle. Momo Akanegakubo, as a woman with a close relationship with Okabe, was naturally one of her targets.
"She sounds like an amazing person!"
Beside them, after listening to Hisako Arato's long introduction, Megumi Tadokoro wore a shocked expression, clearly not expecting the little girl who left with Okabe to be such a formidable character.
I didn't expect the little girl who left with Okabe to be such a formidable character.
"It's normal for people close to Okabe-kun to have some strength. Let's go to the dormitory to check the situation first."
After hearing Hisako Arato finish Momo Akanegakubo's resume, Erina Nakiri nodded slightly without much surprise.
"Yes, Lady Erina."
"Mm."
"Master…"
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the lush ginkgo leaves, leaving mottled patterns on the stone path.
Okabe and Momo Akanegakubo, one tall and one small, walked among them, feeling the summer sun and breeze, their hearts unconsciously calming down.
"Momo, did you come here for something specific? Or did you just miss me after not seeing me for a while?"
Looking at the small figure beside him, Okabe asked curiously.
"Of course I do. I want to have a cooking duel with you! Let's compete with desserts!"
Hearing Okabe's words, Momo Akanegakubo suddenly quickened her pace and stood before him.
"Huh? So suddenly…"
"Every day at Tōtsuki, I've been working hard with the goal of defeating you. Back at Ryōzanpaku, I clearly knew I was no match for you, so I didn't even dare to think about challenging you. Honestly, I hated myself for being like that, because that me was a coward. This is the fundamental reason I came to Tōtsuki to accept its cruel, elite, elimination-based education."
Looking at Okabe's stunned expression, the corners of Momo Akanegakubo's mouth lifted slightly, as if she was very satisfied with his current emotion.
A surge of excitement rose in her heart, and her eyes churned with a wave-like fighting spirit.
"Now, three years have passed, and my strength has improved by leaps and bounds. I think I have the strength to fight you."
"So, please have a cooking duel with me. The location will be our Sweets Club!"
Letting out a long, turbid breath, Momo Akanegakubo stared into Okabe's eyes and spoke seriously, word by word.
"Alright, I agree."
As Momo Akanegakubo's voice fell, a gust of wind suddenly blew across the sky.
Looking at the serious girl in front of him, who was a head shorter than him, her hair fluttering in the breeze, Okabe decisively agreed to her request.
"Then let's go to the Sweets Research Club now. I've already prepared all the ingredients."
Hearing Okabe's words, Momo Akanegakubo looked as if her wish had finally been granted, a flawless smile appearing on her face.
After a walk.
The two arrived at a brand-new building.
Taking the elevator to the third floor, Momo Akanegakubo took out a key card from within Bucchi's body.
"You guys are quite high-tech. You even need a key card to enter the club."
Looking at the club research room that required a card to enter, a surprised expression appeared on Okabe's face.
"Because the Sweets Club often has companies coming to discuss collaborations. To protect the recipes of new products under development, the security level is relatively high." Momo Akanegakubo explained while swiping the card, her tone filled with pride.
With a "beep," the heavy glass door slowly opened.
What came into view was a spacious and bright space, with neatly arranged stainless steel workstations and a full range of professional baking equipment. Photos of various desserts hung on the walls, and the air was filled with the sweet aroma of butter and cream intertwined.
"Senior Akanegakubo!"
"Hello, senior!"
There were quite a few club members moving between the various cooking stations in the room. When their gazes fell on Okabe behind her, they all greeted her, their eyes filled with inquiry and curiosity.
"Momo, who is this behind you…?"
And the pink-haired girl and others who had arrived before her also walked out from behind their cooking stations and saw Okabe.
"This is Okabe-kun, my guest."
After a brief introduction, Akanegakubo paid no more attention to the others and turned to walk straight to the innermost workstation.
"This is my exclusive area. The equipment is specially customized to fit my height."
Akanegakubo's fingers gently brushed against the front of the cooking station. Okabe followed her gaze and found that compared to the other areas, the workstation here was noticeably lower. The oven and mixer were also smaller models, but exquisitely made, clearly not cheap.
"Nice environment. What's the theme of this duel?"
Okabe put down his belongings, washed his hands, and asked Akanegakubo.
Akanegakubo took out the prepared ingredients from the refrigerator. When she turned around, her eyes became sharp.
"The cooking category is 'Sweets,' and the theme is 'Summer.' All the ingredients in the Sweets Research Club are at your disposal."
____
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