"..."
On the field, Rindo Kobayashi stared at the chimera in its cage, lost in thought.
Beside her, Tohru wielded tools and magic in tandem, swiftly dismembering the monster into parts, picking out only the finest cuts of meat.
She added some seasoning and tossed it into the pan to fry.
Considering the Commander wasn't too fond of her tail meat—and since this was an official match—the dragon maid restrained her impulse to slip a piece in.
Meanwhile, the Spirit of Origin only had to wave her hand a few times in the air before the massive kraken tentacle automatically sliced into countless small segments.
Another flick—
And the slime and impurities clinging to the surface vanished completely.
"Mm, better make some sashimi for my lord..."
Mio used her spiritual power to cut the tentacle pieces into slices as thin as cicada wings.
"Hmm... for garnish, maybe some dryad extract? And seasoning made from Cerberus?"
She pulled several suspicious-looking ingredients from the counter and blended them into dipping sauce.
Her hands never once touched the food—she handled it all with magic from start to finish.
Ten minutes later, she was already arranging the final plating.
"???"
"She's using magic?!"
The Totsuki chefs gawked in shock.
"Ahhhhhh—!!"
Nene Kinokuni had wanted to at least try handling her impossible ingredient.
But the moment she approached with a kitchen knife, the tentacle wrapped her up and swung her around in the air.
"Help!!! Help me!!!"
"Put her down."
The Angeloids maintaining order sliced the tentacle cleanly, catching Nene as she fell.
"If you believe processing the ingredient yourself is too risky, we can handle it for you."
The angel spoke earnestly.
"However, with the Kraken, using high-powered destructive weapons may ruin the flavor and affect the final dish's quality."
"So it's best if you do it personally."
"No way!!"
Nene collapsed to the floor, waving her hands frantically.
She figured keeping her life was more important.
"..."
"Um, Commander... may I ask..."
Watching both contestants fail to even process their ingredients, Hinako Inui lightly tapped Setsuna.
"Does the Starsea Empire normally eat like this? Isn't it a bit... too intense?"
Graduates had seen a lot in the culinary world, but this was truly beyond her experience.
After so many years cooking, today she had her horizons shattered.
"Mmm..."
"We are a multiversal empire. It's normal to have ingredients from other worlds."
Setsuna noticed her curiosity and casually explained.
"Chicken, duck, fish, and meat get boring after a while. Sometimes we want something different. Those magical beasts actually taste pretty good."
"Oh, but they do have mild toxins. You're ordinary humans without genetic modifications—don't eat them recklessly."
Back when Tohru was first recruited, the dragon maid often brought bizarre things from her home world to cook.
At first, Setsuna and the others had strongly resisted those grotesque alien ingredients.
But after several experiments, some dishes actually turned out appetizing.
Driven by curiosity, they tasted them—and immediately had to admit they were delicious.
The flavor of magical beasts was on a whole different level from ordinary game or poultry.
From then on—
Whenever they discovered a new monster or dangerous species, they would first see if it could be used as a magical material, then check if it had culinary value.
If neither, it was fed to Chiyou after conversion into a Honkai Beast.
"...Amazing. That dryad extract, and that... Cerberus seasoning, could I have some to study?"
Jun Shiomi was completely immersed in the joy of discovering new culinary horizons.
"Cerberus. A three-headed hound from hell. Sure, the Goblin Slayer world has plenty."
Setsuna nodded.
"...That can be used as seasoning?!"
Fumio spat out her tea.
"Rindo Kobayashi, unable to process her ingredient—disqualified!"
"Nene Kinokuni, defeated by her ingredient—disqualified!"
A few minutes later—
Urara Kawashima, holding the mic, incredulously announced the results of the first two matches.
Two of the Elite Ten, heavily relied upon by Totsuki, were the first to fall—defeated by the Starsea Empire's advanced ingredients.
"..."
"Looks like we'll have to step it up."
Not far away, Erina, Alice, and Momo grew tense as they continued cooking.
After a moment of shock, they bent down and focused on their dishes.
The themes were drawn by lottery, from ingredients submitted by both sides.
Some had the bad luck of pulling bizarre items. Others, fortunately, drew more conventional ones.
"Phew—thank goodness."
Fumio sighed in relief.
"Erina got shrimp dumplings? Momo's is tofu? Hmm... Alice is competing in the dark cuisine round?..."
"These topics are at least within their skill sets. They shouldn't have trouble handling them."
If it turned into a clean 5–0 wipeout, that would be humiliating for Totsuki. From the looks of it now, there was still hope to claw back a win.
"That's only because Tohru went easy."
Grey waved dismissively.
"If she'd used a little magic, you'd all be drawing things like forest trolls, harpies, or wyverns."
"But for this kind of small match, we can't be bothered with tricks like that~"
"???"
The Totsuki graduates were dumbfounded.
And silently thankful they had been smart enough not to act as recklessly as their juniors.
"..."
Looking back to the stage—
The three remaining matchups seemed relatively normal.
Erina was carefully preparing lobster.
The quality of the ingredients provided by the Starsea Empire far surpassed even the Totsuki conglomerate's supply, leaving her astonished.
"Ingredients of this caliber... they're rare..."
She quietly resolved to showcase her full strength.
With the God's Tongue, she was confident her dish would be one in a million.
Momo's duel with Ning Hai was centered on tofu.
She took a block of fresh tofu, placed it in a clean bowl, and gently mashed it with a spoon.
Then she blended fresh strawberries into puree, added milk, and simmered on low heat, gradually folding the tofu in.
She poured it into molds to set, delicately carving the surface as though crafting a piece of art.
"...Strawberry tofu mousse?"
Setsuna raised a brow in surprise.
As expected, the Fourth Seat's specialty was desserts. Tofu was no challenge for her.
Alice, meanwhile, was still puzzling over her dark cuisine approach. She tinkered with her machines, occasionally producing strange mixtures of questionable appearance.
Across from her—
Her opponent's work was... concerning.
The cat-eared maid hummed a tune while baking pies, then pulled out several dried salted fish from the fridge, chopping off their heads and planting them upright in the pies.
"Hmph! Victorious actually suggested I sign up for the dark cuisine match? And said I should just do my thing?!"
"My dishes aren't bad at all! Alice's will definitely taste worse than mine..."
"..."
Thinking of having to eat Cheshire's dish, the shipgirls and the ahoge king at the judges' table all went pale.
Meanwhile, Ning Hai had taken the rare step of making tofu from scratch.
She ground soaked black soybeans and yellow soybeans into soy milk, filtered, boiled, and added a touch of lemon juice.
Using a lard board as separator, she poured alternating layers of black tofu and white tofu into a mold.
At the base, she added threads, then sealed it with a lid.
And waited quietly for it to set.
"?"
Staring at the alternating black-and-white tofu and the unusual method, even the graduates and Momo grew curious.
To Setsuna, however, the dish gave him an overwhelming sense of déjà vu.
He was sure he had seen it somewhere before.
"You're making... a black-and-white tofu fusion dish?"
A purple-haired little loli asked uncertainly.
"...Mhm."
Ning Hai nodded.
"What I'm making is a dish I just learned recently from another world's records."
"—Grand Sorcerer Panda Mapo Tofu!!"
"???"
"Mapo tofu? Panda? Sorcerer?"
The Totsuki students were baffled.
The shipgirls, meanwhile, slapped their foreheads:
"What the hell?! You're crossing worlds here!!!"
...
After Rindo Kobayashi and Nene Kinokuni forfeited—
Tohru and Mio brought up their dishes.
"Commander, please enjoy~ Ehehe!"
"And you too—these are Starsea Empire's special ingredients. Try them."
"..."
"Wait... is this really edible?"
The Totsuki graduates stared at the plates, curious but hesitant.
At first glance, the finished dishes weren't so terrifying.
Tohru's was a simple pan-fried meat dish, paired with some unknown sauce and peculiar sides.
It didn't look much different from a steak.
Mio's kraken sashimi resembled restaurant octopus sashimi.
The plating and knife work were as exquisite as her appearance.
—The Spirit of Origin hadn't used a single kitchen tool. She had cooked everything entirely with her spiritual power.
But recalling what those ingredients had looked like earlier, the onlookers couldn't help but shiver.
"Relax. I removed all the toxins. It's absolutely better than anything you've eaten before."
"This is the difference in ingredient tiers."
Tohru even offered a plate to Rindo.
"Here, yours. See for yourself what our cooking is like."
"Me?"
Rindo and Nene braced themselves, accepting a portion.
They cautiously cut off a small piece and placed it in their mouths.
"!"
An indescribable flavor bloomed instantly.
The Totsuki chefs had tasted and cooked most of the world's ingredients—but these otherworldly magical beasts were entirely new territory.
Tohru had used only the simplest cooking method. The doneness was perfect, maintaining the meat's tenderness with just a hint of charred crispness.
Rich, aromatic, layered—the depth of flavor outstripped anything Earth's greatest seasoning masters could achieve.
And this was merely the ingredient's natural taste.
"Ah!!—"
In an instant, Setsuna seemed to witness a hallucination.
The two girls shone with golden light, their clothes bursting apart.
Just like in Food Wars, where eating good food triggered explosive reactions.
Even the judges weren't spared—both chefs blushed, letting out strange sounds.
"Ah... this is true otherworldly flavor..."
Rindo clutched her chest, utterly intoxicated.
"Though the cooking itself was simple, the sheer quality of the ingredient more than made up for any lack of technique..."
"Chimera... as expected, the rarer the ingredient, the finer the taste."
"This flavor, this flavor... ah~~"
Their expressions twisted strangely.
Soon they couldn't even stand, collapsing to their knees, panting, with blissful dazed looks.
Setsuna had only ever seen such faces on the Eternal Snowfall.
"???"
"Wait, Tohru—you put something in there?"
He looked at the dragon maid in confusion.
"Hey?!"
"It's just grilled meat—was this really necessary?!"
"Why do they look like they've been partying for days?!"
Even Tohru was dumbstruck, never expecting her dish to have such power.
"..."
"Probably just the Shokugeki world's inherent skill."
Grey shrugged, offering the only explanation.
Chefs there were hypersensitive to taste. Eating delicious food hit them like drugs.
In the original story, every match had judges exploding clothes several times—regardless of gender.
The dishes were basically full of "stimulants." Yep.
"..."
After a while—
Rindo and Nene finally managed to sit up.
"Delicious."
The red-haired girl licked her lips, still craving more.
"Such unique ingredients. I've never seen anything like them in our world."
"To turn meat like that into cuisine... remarkable."
Nene rested her chin in her hand, lost in thought.
Then, with a seeking look, she turned to Setsuna:
"Um... may I learn some of this cuisine? Especially that sashimi?"
"Of course. When you get back, have the Angeloids teach you how to handle magical beasts."
Setsuna waved casually.
The two nodded in acceptance and stepped down.
Tohru beamed with pride over her achievement.
The remaining contestants continued working diligently.
Erina mixed starch with wheat flour, kneading the dough carefully, then prepared her filling…
A premium Norway lobster was wrapped in a translucent skin, then fried lightly, steamed, and finally plated with meticulous sauces and garnishes.
Her cooking was intricate.
Every motion was graceful, a pleasure to watch.
About half an hour later—
Erina carried her dish to Setsuna and the judges.
"Norway Lobster Dumplings. Please enjoy."
Shua—
As the lid lifted, steam billowed.
Two golden dumplings lay on the plate, sprinkled with unknown spices, accompanied by a touch of vegetables for color.
From plating to aroma, there wasn't a single flaw.
Raised among haute cuisine, Erina's cooking was always elaborate and refined.
Setsuna cut off a piece, chewed, and savored quietly.
He gave a slight nod.
"Not bad."
Even with ordinary ingredients, Erina had brought conventional cooking to its peak.
Both texture and flavor were near perfection.
"A very refined dish. Young lady, your skills are impressive."
Richelieu added her praise.
"Phew..."
Receiving affirmation from both Setsuna and the shipgirls, Erina exhaled in relief.
The Totsuki graduates also gave unanimous approval.
The God's Tongue's technique was flawless—as long as she didn't face absurd ingredients like Rindo or Nene had, her dishes were Totsuki's finest.
Thinking this, she turned toward her opponent: the Herrscher of Sentience.
Senti was staring blankly at the kitchen tools.
She had tasted plenty of fine food in the Starsea Empire.
But cooking it herself? That was another matter.
She tried replicating some dishes from Fu Hua's memories, but nothing satisfied her.
Minute by minute, the deadline loomed closer.
"She's still not starting? Even if she kneaded dough now, she wouldn't have time to finish…"
Hinako leaned closer to Setsuna, whispering.
"Let her be."
Setsuna didn't mind.
As a judge, he cared little for the outcome. He was here purely for entertainment.
Who won or lost didn't matter—eventually, all of them would be his chefs in the Starsea Empire.
As for their rivalry…
If it made them happy, so be it.
In the end, they'd all obediently cook for him anyway.
"...Crap."
Remembering she'd impulsively signed up and might get spanked if she lost, Senti slapped her forehead.
She sat, pondering.
"Uh... uh… hhh... Qun..."
"Wait, I've got it!"
A flash of inspiration struck. She leapt up, grabbed a pack of frozen dumplings from the fridge, thawed them in hot water, and tossed them straight into the fryer.
"?"
The judges and Erina were baffled.
Starsea Empire instant foods were indeed higher quality than elsewhere—but they could never compare to freshly cooked cuisine.
Using frozen food in a high-level cooking duel was like serving instant ramen at a Michelin-star restaurant.
"Hey!"
When the dumplings were done, Senti scooped them onto a plate.
No plating. No garnish—just some chopped tomatoes and cucumbers thrown on carelessly.
"Finished!"
"The Herrscher of Sentience's special fried dumplings!"
"The most delicious food in the universe!"
She puffed out her nonexistent chest proudly, placing the dish before the judges.
"...Eh?"
Hinako leaned forward.
Some dumplings were over-fried, nearly blackened; others were undercooked.
It looked sloppy.
"..."
Erina grew tense. After seeing Tohru and Mio earlier, she suspected Senti had some hidden trump card.
Surely it wasn't this simple.
But no matter how she thought about it, everything seemed ordinary—common ingredients, no strange tricks.
Frozen food could never rival her hand-made dumplings.
"We'll try it, then."
Hinako, Fumio, and Dojima lifted a piece each, tasting.
The moment it touched their tongues, their brows furrowed.
"The oil isn't drained... no seasoning..."
"Some undercooked, some burnt..."
Compared to Erina's refined dish, the difference was like heaven and earth.
Still, not wanting to offend anyone so soon, Fumio softened her words:
"There's a lot of room for improvement..."
"No, you're wrong."
Senti wagged her finger smugly.
"This is the most delicious thing you've ever eaten. No dish in the world compares."
"The Herrscher of Sentience's culinary skill is unmatched in the universe."
"..."
"Ah... uh... oh!!"
The three blinked, their minds dazed, before savoring again.
And suddenly, enlightenment struck:
"Yes!!! This is the most delicious dumpling dish in the entire world—no, the entire universe!!!"
"Nothing can ever compare!!!"
—
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