"The sword left by your father?"
Hearing Okabe's words, Shigure Kōsaka froze for a moment. Then, as if remembering something, she leaped to the corner of the room, lifted the tatami mat to reveal a hidden compartment.
When she came back up, she was holding an ancient tachi.
"Is this the tachi?"
Okabe looked at the tachi, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"This is my father's heirloom. It's the sword he and I used when we trained together. Unfortunately, it's completely damaged now, so I keep it in the hidden compartment."
Seeing the mix of confusion and curiosity in Okabe's eyes, Shigure Kōsaka gently caressed the blade before looking toward the hilt. Given the sword's size, if something was hidden inside, the hilt would be the only possible place.
With a little pressure from her fingers, the tachi's hilt split in two, and a slightly yellowed piece of paper fell out, covered in tiny, dense characters.
Okabe picked it up and handed it to Shigure Kōsaka.
"You read it to me."
Since she couldn't read, Shigure Kōsaka handed the paper back, staring intently at Okabe.
Taking the paper from Shigure Kōsaka, Okabe hesitated for a moment before beginning to read the words aloud with complex emotions.
the words.
"To my little Shigure, seeing these words is like seeing me. Have you grown up by the time you're reading this letter?"
"I know my time is short, so I've written this letter. I hope you won't be sad about my death. After all, aging, sickness, and death are a normal part of life."
"In my life, I have forged too many blades. Some were used by righteous people, displaying great skill in cooking. Others were wielded by evil people, becoming weapons to take lives. This is the greatest mistake I have ever made."
thing.
"If you now have the ability, I hope you can do me a favor: find the killing blades I left behind in the Gourmet World, and destroy them."
"They were created not to be weapons turned against our own kind, but to be used for cooking."
"If you run into trouble, you can go to Wuyou Valley in Huaxia to find Li Wuque. He is a good friend of mine; we've known each other for decades. Don't hesitate to ask him for help. Ask for whatever you need. My daughter is his daughter. He will take my place and look after you."
"'It's a pity I won't get to see you grow up.' Why am I getting a little sentimental? Hahahaha, just kidding. I should still be able to live long enough to see you become an adult."
"That's about it. I can't really write sentimental things. The only thing I really want to say is—"
"'Live a good life. Don't drown in the sorrow of my death. Your life has just begun.'"
When the last word was read, Okabe was suddenly embraced by Shigure Kōsaka, who wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her head in his chest.
She didn't cry out loud; she just held him.
Feeling the warmth in his arms, Okabe's body stiffened for a moment before he gently patted her back, comforting her as one would a child.
child.
"Thank you for telling me. If it weren't for you, I don't know when I would have ever found this."
Rising from Okabe's embrace, Shigure Kōsaka hid the vulnerability in her heart and completely returned to her usual self, though a hint of sadness now lingered in her eyes.
"It's what I should do."
Looking at Shigure Kōsaka, Okabe let out a long sigh of relief. The weight in his heart finally lifted. The letter didn't seem to mention anything about the Dark Culinary World.
He figured that Master Shigure's father probably didn't want her to have too much contact with the Dark Culinary World.
"Stay here tonight. I'll teach you something incredible."
"Something incredible?"
Hearing Shigure Kōsaka's words, Okabe looked puzzled. Then, as if something occurred to him, his face suddenly turned bright red. He opened his mouth, at a loss for words.
"Isn't... isn't this a little too soon?"
Okabe said hesitantly, his heart starting to beat uncontrollably fast.
"It's not too soon. With your current martial arts skill and knife work, you'll definitely be able to master it with practice. A secret technique of the Kōsaka family."
"At the cost of sacrificing precision in processing ingredients, you can obtain the desired parts in the fastest way possible, helping a chef drastically reduce the time needed to acquire the required ingredients."
Shigure Kōsaka said word by word with a serious expression.
Traditionally, slaughtering a pig or a cow involves many steps: killing, bleeding, dehairing, gutting, and butchering the meat. The whole process usually takes a lot of time, but in a cooking duel, every second counts.
Creating the best dish within a limited time is a mandatory course for any chef. A great chef can make full use of every minute and every second.
And the key to how they utilize time... is culinary skill.
"Drastically shortening the time to process ingredients... that's a pretty good ability..."
A look of surprise appeared in Okabe's eyes.
Shigure Kōsaka's words were easy to understand. It meant sacrificing the precision of other parts to quickly process a specific, needed ingredient.
Although this method would cause a bit of waste, in a cooking duel, time is life. Besides, the other processed parts aren't completely unusable. All in all, it's a good skill.
"Wait, but isn't this a secret technique of your family? Is it really okay to teach it to me just like that...?"
Suddenly, Okabe remembered what Shigure Kōsaka had just said, and his expression became subtle. No matter how thick-skinned he was, he couldn't just ask for someone else's family secret.
"It's okay. The Kōsaka family line is dwindling. My father was the only son of his generation, and I am his only daughter, so I can make the decision to teach it."
Seeing Okabe's somewhat awkward expression, Shigure Kōsaka explained softly.
Her father actually had another daughter when he was young, but due to her overly reckless personality, she died in a Gourmet Mystic Realm, becoming the lifelong sorrow of Kōsaka Hachirōbei.
His wife also passed away from grief over their daughter's death. Kōsaka Hachirōbei missed his wife and daughter so much that he never remarried, living a lonely life until he was seventy-six.
He lived a lonely life until he was seventy-six.
Then he met Shigure Kōsaka.
The little girl brought to him by Azami Nakiri.
He saw a faint shadow of his deceased daughter in her, so he adopted her, named her Shigure Kōsaka, and raised her to adulthood.
After a moment's hesitation, Okabe ultimately did not refuse.
He really needed this kind of powerful culinary skill. Since Shigure Kōsaka herself didn't mind, there was no need for him to get hung up on what anything; it was best to just let things happen naturally.
"Okay, wait for me here."
Seeing that Okabe was no longer resisting, Shigure Kōsaka vanished from the room in a flash.
Looking at the empty room, Okabe simply lay down on the tatami mat. Shigure Kōsaka's words replayed in his mind, and a strong curiosity about the family's secret art grew within him.
As his physical strength improved during this period, his masters began to teach him their real skills.
The Dark Culinary World has re-emerged, Demon Chefs have also become active, and all sorts of people are appearing around him, giving him a sense that a storm is brewing.
"For now, I can only take it one step at a time. I have to work hard to improve myself, to reach a point where no one can bully or take from me. That way, no matter what happens, I can handle it with ease."
Lying on the tatami and staring at the ceiling, this thought surfaced in Okabe's mind.
Since the Gourmet World is bound to descend into chaos one day, he will strive to improve himself. With strength also comes a greater voice. It's rare to have a proficiency system where you can get stronger just by grinding. He didn't want to live a life of mediocrity, sheltered under the influence of others!
More than ten minutes later.
Shigure Kōsaka returned to the room holding a thick vine, from which hung eight wild rabbits with their legs tied by thin ropes.
"This is..."
"Materials for the demonstration. Let's go to the kitchen."
After saying this, Shigure Kōsaka headed for the kitchen. Okabe immediately got up and quickened his pace to follow.
Soon, they were in the kitchen.
"Is that... Okabe?"
Meanwhile, Alice Nakiri had just finished washing up and was about to head back to her room to rest. On her way, she happened to see Okabe coming out of Shigure Kōsaka's room.
"And Master Shigure is with him. What are they doing?"
With this thought in her mind, she unconsciously slowed down and secretly followed them. Soon, she saw the two of them enter the kitchen.
The next moment, the kitchen lights turned on.
"Which part of the rabbit do you want to eat?"
Placing all the still-lively rabbits on the kitchen floor, Shigure Kōsaka looked at Okabe, her large eyes filled with curiosity.
"When it comes to rabbits, I actually really like spicy rabbit heads, but I don't like gnawing on the bones. Plus, the meat from other parts can be used to make dry pot rabbit..."
"Sister Shigure, can your technique remove all the bones from a whole rabbit, leaving only the meat?"
As if he had thought of something, Okabe's eyes lit up as he looked at Shigure Kōsaka, his voice full of anticipation.
"A piece of cake."
Hearing Okabe's words, Shigure Kōsaka nodded slightly. Her gaze fell on the rabbits hopping around nearby, and she picked up a plump one.
"These two... could it be they got hungry late at night and came here for a private snack?"
Alice Nakiri, standing at the kitchen door and peeking inside, thought this as she watched Shigure Kōsaka suddenly pick up a rabbit.
"Momentary Splendor Slash!"
Looking at the wild rabbit struggling in her hand, a willow-leaf knife the size of an index finger appeared in Shigure Kōsaka's hand. The next moment, she swung it several times in succession.
Her speed was so fast that Okabe only saw a flash of silver light. The next instant, countless bones fell onto the table, leaving behind only the complete rabbit meat, skin, and organs.
And a bowl of steaming rabbit blood.
"How is that possible?!"
Alice Nakiri watched the scene of Shigure Kōsaka rapidly processing the rabbit, her mouth wide open in shock. What had just happened completely overturned her view of cooking.
When she was a child, she thought fictional anime characters processing ingredients in the sky was already amazing. But as she grew older and saw more and more powerful experts, she gradually realized that for a great chef, processing ingredients in the sky was just a standard operation.
And now, a few flashes of silver light had turned a rabbit into four piles of ingredients—what was this?! Is this something a human can actually do?
Alice Nakiri fell into self-doubt.
Inside the kitchen.
"Didn't you say it could only precisely select one part?"
Looking at the four piles of separated rabbit skin, meat, bones, and organs, Okabe said in confusion. After all, according to what Shigure Kōsaka had said earlier, her technique was supposed to sacrifice the precision of other parts to perfectly extract the desired part.
"My focus was on processing the bones. After extracting them, what's left is just meat and organs. The other parts were just processed along the way."
Shigure Kōsaka explained softly. Where their gazes fell, the rabbit bones were picked clean, without a single shred of meat remaining—a testament to her exquisite knife skills.
"The focus was on the bones? Indeed, setting everything else aside, the bones were processed very well."
Hearing Shigure Kōsaka's words, Okabe was stunned for a few seconds. He then reached out, picked up a bone to examine it closely, and found that every single one was processed perfectly clean. He couldn't help but marvel at it.
"Knife skills serve the chef. Once the bones are perfectly removed, what remains is all rabbit meat. The organs and rabbit skin can be set aside."
Looking at Okabe's amazed expression, the corners of Shigure Kōsaka's mouth turned up slightly.
Looking at the bones and the perfectly processed meat before him, which felt completely boneless to the touch, Okabe looked at Shigure Kōsaka with eyes full of yearning.
"Mm."
"But before I teach you, you need to dissect these rabbits first. Carefully observe their internal structure."
Shigure Kōsaka nodded lightly and then had Okabe dissect the rabbits. This was the fastest way to understand a rabbit's anatomy, which would also be beneficial for executing the technique.
"I understand."
Without much hesitation, Okabe grabbed a rabbit and began to butcher it.
Unlike Shigure Kōsaka, his method required killing the rabbit, then bleeding it, waiting for it to stop struggling, boiling water, and then dehairing it.
This whole process, including deboning the body and head and separating all the meat, took him a full half hour to process one rabbit. Part of this was because it was Okabe's first time butchering a rabbit, but the main reason was that every step took him a significant amount of time.
Thus, the importance of the Momentary Splendor Slash became apparent. Using it well could really save a lot of time.
"Master Shigure."
Wiping the beads of sweat from his forehead, Okabe looked at Shigure Kōsaka, his eyes brimming with anticipation.
"That was decent. For the next rabbit, don't use boiling water to remove the fur. After killing it, skin it directly. With the knife skills you've mastered, you should be able to do it."
Shigure Kōsaka's voice was faint, devoid of warmth.
"Okay."
To this, Okabe just nodded slightly.
Although he felt it would be difficult, he was willing to take on the challenge. The difficulty wasn't skinning the rabbit, but doing so without damaging the meat underneath.
Time flew by during this process.
Okabe butchered one rabbit after another as instructed by Shigure Kōsaka, while Alice Nakiri stood at the door watching blankly, like a robot.
"Not bad. Three minutes per rabbit. We'll continue tomorrow. Before learning the knife technique, you must first reduce the processing time to under one minute."
Watching Okabe's astonishing progress, a flash of amazement crossed Shigure Kōsaka's eyes before she gave her instructions.
"I understand."
Okabe nodded slightly. Having processed so many rabbits with high precision, his stamina was quite drained. As he spoke, he pulled over a chair to sit down and rest.
"You outside, come in as well."
Looking at the seated Okabe, Shigure Kōsaka then turned her head to look outside the kitchen. She had noticed Alice Nakiri long ago.
At first, she thought she was just passing by and peeking out of curiosity, but she didn't expect her to still be there.
Hearing Shigure Kōsaka's voice from inside the kitchen, Alice Nakiri walked in, looking a bit guilty.
"What's your name?"
Looking at the girl's guilty expression, Shigure Kōsaka was a little puzzled. Then she remembered seeing her during training that morning and asked.
"Alice Nakiri."
While introducing herself, Alice Nakiri couldn't help but look at Okabe, hoping he would say something, but he just looked at her with a surprised expression.
"Alice? A nice name."
"Are you here because you're interested in knife skills?"
Shigure Kōsaka looked directly at Alice Nakiri, asking why she had been peeking at the door for so long.
"I want to know how your knife work can achieve such an effect. To process an ingredient so perfectly in just an instant—it's simply incredible!"
Hearing the question, Alice Nakiri's eyes were filled with longing. She wanted to know what kind of technique was needed to do something so miraculous!
"Simply put, it's about cutting the ingredient as fast as possible. Every cut must be precise. With more cuts, the precision of the processing naturally increases."
Hearing Alice Nakiri's question, Shigure Kōsaka frowned slightly as if in thought, then stated the conclusion she had just reached.
The core principle of all culinary skills lies in the fundamentals.
Even the Fierce Bull Azure Dragon Slash, which can dismember an entire cow, requires the chef to imbue the knife with internal energy, increase the speed of their cuts, and then process the various parts of the cow using experience and sharp eyes.
It's not something you can perform just by shouting a name. That's right. To use advanced culinary skills, there is one more essential prerequisite: Internal energy.
This is the fundamental reason why great chefs often come from prominent families, while independent chefs in society rarely have a chance to make a name for themselves.
Unless your talent is so high that you can ignore all advanced culinary skills, relying solely on solid fundamentals to compete with top-tier experts.
Such people do exist. When one appears, it often signifies the rise of a new family.
As for others who are talented but not exceptionally so, they either become apprentices to a master and inherit their legacy, or they choose to join the Dark Culinary World. Rather than living a mediocre life in the Gourmet World, they would rather prove their worth in battles of blood and fire.
"Cut the ingredient quickly, find the right position and angle for each cut, and the precision will naturally improve?"
Alice Nakiri murmured to herself, a worried expression on her face. According to Shigure Kōsaka, what they needed to polish most were still the fundamentals.
Only after raising their fundamentals to a certain level could they approach advanced techniques. Otherwise, even having internal energy would be useless.
"I understand. Thank you for your guidance!"
Because she had been focused on studying molecular gastronomy for the past few years, Alice Nakiri had, to some extent, neglected the fundamentals.
She felt that if science could solve a problem, there was no need for a person to spend a great deal of time studying it; maintaining an above-average standard was enough. What she needed was to understand the properties of ingredients and use scientific instruments to bring out their deepest flavors.
In fact, that's what she had been doing. Yet now, someone was telling her that human skill could achieve things machines couldn't. This dealt a certain blow to her worldview.
A sense of confusion began to grow in her heart. The path she had adhered to for so long—was it right or wrong?
"Master Shigure, it's getting late. We'll be heading back now."
The rabbits Shigure Kōsaka had caught were all properly processed, simply seasoned and marinated, then placed in the refrigerator, ready to be taken out for lunch the next day.
"Be careful on your way."
Glancing at Okabe and then at Alice Nakiri, Shigure Kōsaka opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end, she just nodded and watched them leave.
"Okabe, do you think I've gotten my priorities mixed up? Neglecting the most basic fundamentals of cooking for the sake of molecular gastronomy techniques..."
The girl's voice carried a hint of hesitation. She was too embarrassed to ask in the kitchen, but now that it was just the two of them, she spoke with a troubled expression.
The thing she had pursued for so long—could it have been wrong from the very beginning?
On the way back to their rooms, hearing Alice Nakiri's words, Okabe couldn't help but fall silent. He couldn't judge which method was better or worse, because he had never studied molecular gastronomy and didn't know its strengths and weaknesses.
"Actually, there's no path in this world that is absolutely correct."
"Master Shigure's knife work is indeed astonishing, but your molecular gastronomy techniques are equally impressive, a revolution in the culinary world."
After a moment's hesitation, Okabe stopped, turned around, and looked at Alice Nakiri seriously.
"No completely correct path?"
Alice Nakiri's brow furrowed slightly.
"A chef's purpose in making a dish is to combine different ingredients to let people taste happiness. This is the commonality among all chefs under heaven."
"Within that, some are skilled with knives, some excel at noodles, some have perfect control over the heat for stir-frying, and some use molecular gastronomy. These are individualities."
"There's no such thing as a perfect person in this world. Everyone has things they're good at and things they're not. Even Master Shigure has her weaknesses. You don't need to compare your weaknesses to someone else's strengths."
"Commonality and individuality? But it feels like everyone else's individuality is so strong, while mine is so weak..."
Hearing Okabe's explanation, Alice Nakiri couldn't help but complain under her breath. She had clearly won all sorts of major awards abroad, but after returning to Japan, she was still no match for Erina Nakiri and Okabe, as if everything she had learned all this time was worthless.
"That's why you need to develop it even more."
Okabe said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"If you keep changing weapons just because the one you have is weak, then all your previous accumulation will be wasted. In the end, you'll be a jack of all trades, master of none."
He roughly understood the knot in Alice Nakiri's heart. This girl most likely saw Shigure Kōsaka's knife technique and felt that the school of cooking she had mastered wasn't as powerful as others'.
That's why she was feeling lost right now, unsure if she should persevere. Many people have these kinds of feelings.
But it's mostly a subjective judgment. Even for the same technique, the effect will vary depending on the user's proficiency, let alone an entire school of cooking.
Technique serves the dish. Blindly focusing on advanced techniques while ignoring the dish itself—that's truly getting your priorities mixed up.
____
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