Early morning.
Okabe's room.
"Do you have everything?"
"I've got it all, don't worry, Miu. If I really forget something, I'll just come back and get it."
Looking at the worried expression on Miu Fūrinji's face, the already dressed Okabe said with a smile.
"You, don't you find it tiring to go back and forth?"
Hearing Okabe's words, Miu Fūrinji rolled her eyes cutely, then pushed the luggage from the bedside towards him, her tone tinged with mock complaint.
"It might be a little tiring, but if I can see you when I come back, Miu, a round trip isn't so bad."
Okabe steadily caught the suitcase that slid over, speaking half-jokingly.
"Oh, you... I hope you come back because you miss me, not because you forgot something and just happen to see me while you're here.
Sometimes I really envy Ikaros. No matter where you go, she can follow by your side, like the most valiant general guarding her emperor."
Hearing Okabe's teasing words, Miu Fūrinji's eyes filled with a strong sense of reluctance.
"Mm, I'll come back to see you all when I have time."
Seeing the girl's slightly reddened eyes, Okabe nodded solemnly. Although he wanted to say more, it was better to be decisive at a time like this.
The next moment, he looked at Ikaros, who had been waiting by his side for a long time: "Let's go, Ikaros."
"Yes, Master."
With that, the two left the room together.
Miu Fūrinji didn't follow them out; she just stood at the doorway, watching them go. Although she didn't cry, her nose felt tingly, and a bitter feeling welled up in her heart.
"If you don't want to be separated from young Okabe, I can send you to Totsuki. You can still be together then."
Hayato Fūrinji had appeared behind Miu Fūrinji at some point. He looked at her sad expression and the direction Okabe had left, speaking softly.
"No, Hayato-sama. Okabe has gone to pursue his dream. I don't have a particular interest in cooking, and I would only be a distraction if I went.
Besides, he has Erina and Hisako with him. They'll take good care of him."
Although she wanted to be with Okabe, it didn't mean she wanted to become a burden to him.
"You're so slow!"
Seeing Okabe walk out of the Ryōzanpaku gate, Erina Nakiri couldn't help but put her hands on her hips and complain.
"The driver will be here any minute. It's about a three-hour drive from here. This is motion sickness medicine. Lady Erina, Okabe, do you need any?"
As she spoke, Hisako Arato took out motion sickness medicine from her skirt pocket, poured out a few white pills, and looked at Okabe and Erina Nakiri.
"I don't need any."
Okabe shook his head. After his physique had improved, his resistance to various things had increased. Motion sickness was child's play to him.
"I don't need any either."
Hearing Okabe's words, Erina Nakiri stopped her outstretched hand, turned her head away, and said haughtily.
"Lady Erina, you should take one. Have you forgotten how you threw up everything when you got out of the car last time? You felt terribly sick."
Looking at Erina Nakiri's expression, Hisako Arato handed her the motion sickness pills and skillfully opened a thermos, clearly having prepared this just for her.
"Hmm?"
"Don't bring up such embarrassing things!"
Hearing Hisako Arato's words, Erina Nakiri's face turned a subtle shade of red.
She took the medicine, quickly drank it down with water, and simultaneously used her peripheral vision to observe Okabe. Only after confirming that there was no strange expression on his face did her heart settle.
Just then, the car pulled up smoothly.
"Let's go."
"You three sit in the back. I'll take the front."
Looking at the seats in the car, Okabe reached out to open the back door, holding the roof and the door with his hand to let Erina Nakiri and the others get in.
"I didn't realize you could be such a gentleman."
As she got into the car under Okabe's protection, looking at the hand he used to shield them, Erina Nakiri's lips curled up slightly as she spoke with a hint of meaning.
"After all, Okabe has always been a gentle person."
Hisako Arato gave a slight bow in Okabe's direction before ducking into the car, her words filled with admiration for him.
"I can't deny that, but that's about his only good quality."
Erina Nakiri huffed haughtily, a faint feeling of warmth filling her heart. She quite enjoyed this feeling of being taken care of.
Of course, this feeling arose mainly because the person taking care of her was Okabe, a man who was somewhat special to her.
If it were anyone else, she would have just considered it her due.
"Not many good qualities, but enough to get by."
Okabe teased as he closed the car door, not bothering to argue, and instead walked around to the front passenger seat.
The driver was a silent middle-aged man. After confirming in the rearview mirror that everyone was seated securely, he started the vehicle smoothly.
The car drove away from Ryōzanpaku, and the familiar scenery quickly receded. Erina Nakiri gazed out the window, her eyes deep in thought, and suddenly whispered, "Actually... I'm a little nervous."
Hearing her words, Hisako Arato immediately looked at her with concern. "Lady Erina, are you referring to the Totsuki entrance exam? With your skills, you have nothing to worry about."
"It's not the exam, I could pass that sort of thing anytime." Erina Nakiri's slender fingers unconsciously twisted the hem of her skirt. "It's actually... the new environment."
Okabe saw her slightly furrowed brows in the rearview mirror and chimed in:
"I heard the competition at Totsuki is incredibly fierce. Even though everyone is a genius from around the world, only one percent of the students can graduate."
"Fierce doesn't even begin to cover it..."
Hisako Arato suddenly spoke up, images of what she had seen when visiting Totsuki as a child flashing through her mind.
Students wailing in despair, lamenting their failure in an exam. Some were even expelled shortly after enrolling. The weak would have everything they owned taken by the strong through Shokugeki.
Trying to survive in there was no easy feat...
"That place... is practically hell!"
"While the competitive pressure is indeed a bit high, that's only for ordinary people. For us, it's just another place to prove our abilities."
Thinking of her gains from the past three years at Ryōzanpaku, Erina Nakiri was exceptionally confident.
"I hope we run into some worthy opponents."
Okabe said as he closed his eyes.
It was still a few hours' drive to Totsuki Academy. Since they were usually together all the time, they didn't have that much to talk about.
Seeing his posture, Erina Nakiri and Hisako Arato exchanged a glance. One looked out the window, and the other also closed her eyes to rest.
As for Ikaros, she constantly monitored their surroundings to prevent any unforeseen dangers.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly.
Two and a half hours later, the car came to a steady stop, and the four of them got out.
Although he had been prepared, when he truly saw the scene before him, Okabe was still stunned.
He looked up at the tall mountain in front of him, with all sorts of buildings embedded in it. No matter which angle he looked from, it was a magnificent sight.
"It's amazing, isn't it? This is our school from now on. I was shocked the first time I came here, too. It's hard to imagine that such a huge mountain is all Totsuki's territory. It leaves you speechless."
Seeing the shocked expression on Okabe's face, the corners of Erina Nakiri's mouth lifted slightly, and she felt a secret delight.
After all, Totsuki was an industry of the Nakiri family, and her grandfather was the director of Totsuki Academy. By extension, she was the heir to Totsuki, and also its future director.
Seeing her future property shock someone she genuinely respected, how could Erina Nakiri not feel a little proud?
"I was actually prepared for it, but I really didn't expect the mountain to look so majestic from the foot, and all the buildings on it are so new."
Okabe mentioned what surprised him the most.
Unlike the buildings at Ryōzanpaku, which had been standing for who knows how many years, every building at Totsuki Academy looked as if it had just been constructed.
"Totsuki's equipment is replaced every five years, and the buildings are successively replaced within fifteen years, so every building looks brand new.
Also, many of these are student club research labs, but these labs aren't fixed. They are hot commodities that can be won by students through Shokugeki, rebuilt, or sold to the next class of students."
Erina Nakiri had clearly done her research beforehand, or perhaps this was simply part of her required studies. She knew everything about Totsuki like the back of her hand.
"Commodities?"
Okabe's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
"That's right. Strictly speaking, the entirety of Totsuki is a commodity for sale.
As long as your culinary skills are up to par, you can put up sufficient stakes and use Shokugeki to continuously plunder the wealth of others until they give up on the cooking profession entirely."
Erina Nakiri nodded and continued her explanation.
Totsuki Academy follows the rules of the modern culinary world, where cooking determines success or failure. Here, there's no such thing as a distinguished family background, only the level of one's culinary skill.
There have been cases in the past of students who inherited their family businesses early only to lose everything at the academy. When emotions run high, everyone becomes a gambler.
Of course, the prerequisite for a Shokugeki is that you can afford the price of losing. There's no shortage of people who were defeated by an underdog, turned the tables on the Shokugeki stage, and ended up losing everything.
Unless one is absolutely confident in their own abilities and certain they can dominate their opponent, few people would use a Shokugeki to settle a score.
"It's no good just standing here. Let's hurry up and go."
Speaking of which, today is the entrance exam day for the junior high division. But we seem to have arrived a bit late; there's no one here except for a few cars.
If we miss this time slot, the next exam is in two hours. The entrance exams will last for half a month, with people continuously coming to take them."
After talking for a while, Erina Nakiri suddenly realized they were still standing at the bottom. With less than half an hour before the exam began, she urged them on.
"There are thirty-four minutes left. It takes fifteen minutes to walk up from here, so we have plenty of time."
Hearing Erina Nakiri's words, Okabe took out his phone to check the time. There was still over half an hour before the exam time listed on the admission notice.
"That may be true, but not being on-site while preparing for the exam makes me a little uneasy..."
Although she was the nominal heir of Totsuki, right now Erina Nakiri was just another candidate facing an exam.
As the young lady of the Nakiri family, she carried an even heavier pressure. If she performed slightly poorly or made a mistake in her cooking, it would be seized upon and infinitely magnified.
"I'm going to be late, I'm going to be late! This is terrible, my alarm didn't go off. I was too nervous to sleep well yesterday, and now my stomach hurts so much, I can barely walk..."
A muttering voice came from a distance, accompanied by the sound of hurried footsteps.
Okabe followed the sound and saw a girl with blue hair in two braids, her face filled with anxiety.
"Megumi Tadokoro? Right, she's also a new student this year. It's not strange to see her here."
Looking at that young but highly recognizable face, Okabe said her name in his mind. He then saw her dash past them, running up the mountain in large strides.
She was out of sight in no time.
"So frantic, not composed at all. Enough talk, let's go up too."
Seemingly influenced by Megumi Tadokoro's mood, Erina Nakiri also became anxious, starting to walk up the steps as she spoke.
"Mm."
Okabe nodded slightly in agreement. The group of four picked up their pace and soon arrived at a flattened area halfway up the mountain.
It had bluestone paths and was fully equipped with various facilities: benches, gardens, lawns, and various structures. Every three to five meters, you could see small groups of people.
One in every three was impeccably dressed, attended by servants who bustled about, busying themselves with tasks like making tea. They were clearly the young masters and ladies of wealthy families.
And their only common trait was their youth.
"So lazy! Are these people really geniuses selected from all over the world?"
After observing the behavior of these people for a moment, Erina Nakiri shook her head inwardly.
The more skilled a person is, the more their actions will differ from the ordinary.
This wasn't to say they would make exaggerated movements, but the aura their body emitted and their state while cooking would reveal how skilled they were.
One could get a general idea just from their demeanor.
As a member of Japan's top culinary family, Erina Nakiri would return to the Nakiri household by car every weekend to learn the art of physiognomy from her teacher.
So far, her judgment had rarely been wrong.
"Among the new students, besides the geniuses selected by the Director and others, there are also many heirs from families with considerable prestige in the food industry.
Because these heirs have enjoyed a life of luxury since childhood, and some have been spoiled by their parents, their skill levels are inevitably uneven."
Hisako Arato said, holding a file.
"Heirs from various regional restaurants? If that's the case, I can understand why there are so many undisciplined stragglers here.
But coming to Totsuki's entrance exam with that kind of attitude, I'm afraid they won't even pass the first stage."
Hearing the explanation, a worried look appeared on Erina Nakiri's face, then she pouted, seemingly dissatisfied, and started walking towards the exam location.
"The entrance exam shouldn't be too difficult. After all, Totsuki is fundamentally a school. If you've already learned everything outside, wouldn't it be boring to come here?"
Okabe shrugged. Although Totsuki Academy had a high expulsion rate, with very few making it to their third year of high school, the entrance exam usually wasn't too hard. At its core, it was still a school run for profit.
Whether students were expelled later didn't matter as much as whether they could bring value to Totsuki Academy's development. These tall buildings were most likely funded by various corporate investments.
"You're right. Without mediocrity as a foil, the brilliance of geniuses wouldn't stand out."
After a moment of thought, Erina Nakiri nodded, her gaze shifting away from the lax candidates.
"Let's go, let's see what this exam is about."
She took the lead, walking forward along the bluestone path. Okabe and Hisako walked alongside her, while Ikaros followed quietly at the very back.
After passing through a meticulously manicured Japanese dry landscape garden, a massive auditorium appeared ahead, its main doors tightly shut.
In the garden outside the auditorium, people were gathered in small groups of two and three, forming little cliques, all guessing the theme of the upcoming exam.
"The exam four hours ago was to follow a complete recipe to make a stir-fry dish. Passing was based on achieving a satisfactory taste. I wonder if it will be the same this time."
"Highly unlikely. Totsuki has never used the same recipe twice. But the last round tested Chinese cuisine, so it's not impossible they'll switch to Western cuisine this round.
No need to be too nervous. The entrance exams are generally easy. Basically, if you show up, you can pass. No need to put so much pressure on ourselves."
"That's true. We come from culinary families, after all. We've been receiving elite education since we were kids. It's impossible for us not to even pass the entrance exam!"
"Indeed. Although Totsuki's expulsion rate is shocking, I've never heard of anyone getting stuck at the entrance exam. As long as we perform at our normal level, we should all be able to pass."
The young men and women in the small groups chatted back and forth, and their hearts relaxed in the process, becoming more at ease.
"It seems Totsuki's exams have indeed been too easy these past few years, letting these guys develop lazy habits. No wonder the reputation of Totsuki graduates in the culinary world has been much worse in recent years."
Listening to the discussion around her, Erina Nakiri sighed in her heart.
What do these people take Totsuki for?
Each one of them has access to the world's most advanced and privileged educational resources, yet they are lax in their culinary practice, even feeling nervous about a mere entrance exam.
She had already received information on these people from Hisako Arato. They were all heirs to major food-related industry conglomerates, and some came from families that owned restaurants.
These people had resources that ordinary chefs couldn't even dream of, with famous chefs as their personal instructors.
People who grew up like this should, by rights, be very confident in themselves, feeling they are invincible and would never bow their heads to anyone.
Not like now, where they don't even have the confidence to pass the entrance exam.
They only relaxed after someone said, "The exam is easy, few people fail," and put on a show of being at ease. Such students were undoubtedly here just to get a prestigious name on their resume.
That's right.
Even if expelled from Totsuki Academy.
It would still be a rare credential in society, because ordinary chefs don't even have the qualifications to enter Totsuki; only talented chefs can.
The competition at Totsuki is fierce, with over half the students being forcibly expelled each year. Of those who make it all the way, only a handful graduate in the end.
For the vast market of Japan, and even the world, such a small number of chefs is nowhere near enough.
This has led many small and medium-sized restaurants to recruit geniuses expelled from Totsuki, allowing them to develop in their restaurants. If they find a good one, they might even marry their daughter to him.
Of course, more of them just go back to inherit their family restaurants.
"I must reform it in the future!"
Such a thought surfaced in Erina Nakiri's mind, but her facial expression remained unchanged, calmly observing everything at the scene.
For someone like her who had always worked hard.
She couldn't stand these people who lacked their own ideals and ambitions, who mostly fooled around after enrolling, only to weep and complain about why they were expelled in the end.
Meanwhile.
"Ugh..."
Megumi Tadokoro was squatting by the bushes, so nervous she felt like she was about to throw up. She could only repeatedly draw the character for 'person' on her palm and swallow it to alleviate her stress.
"Want some water, miss?"
Holding a sealed bottle of mineral water out to Megumi Tadokoro, Okabe bent down and spoke in a gentle voice.
"Huh? No, thank you."
Hearing Okabe's words, Megumi Tadokoro, who was squatting by the bushes, was startled.
She turned around to find a handsome young man holding a bottle of water, asking if she wanted a drink. She immediately waved her hands nervously in refusal.
"Have some, it's unopened. I saw you muttering to yourself here for a while. If you don't drink some water, your mouth will be dry during the exam, and it will affect your performance."
Okabe firmly handed the water over, rationally analyzing the pros and cons at the same time.
"Thank you."
Hearing Okabe's words, Megumi Tadokoro paused, then stopped refusing. She thanked him with a slight blush, thinking to herself that she had met a kind person.
"You're welcome. But you don't need to be so nervous. The Totsuki entrance exam is just a screening process to weed out those who know nothing and are just trying to get by.
Looking at the calluses on your hands, you don't seem like the type to slack off in your cooking. There's no need to worry about this kind of exam; you'll definitely pass without a problem."
As Okabe spoke, he looked at Megumi Tadokoro's hands. There was a callus between her thumb and index finger, clearly the hand of someone who often holds a kitchen knife, completely different from the other pampered young masters and ladies.
In the original story, it was because Megumi Tadokoro had very little confidence in her cooking that she received poor grades in subsequent classroom tests.
In reality, her skill level wasn't bad. She was the type who worked hard in the background. Such a person shouldn't be overlooked; she should shine on a bigger stage.
Since he had decided to build his own team, he had to offer a helping hand when people were at their lowest.
As the saying goes, it's easy to add flowers to a brocade, but hard to send charcoal in snowy weather.
For him, who was already familiar with the plot, investing in Megumi Tadokoro was a surefire deal.
"I'm not that amazing..."
Hearing Okabe's words, Megumi Tadokoro waved her hands, her face blushing, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the compliment.
"Believe in yourself, just do your best. Being overly nervous does nothing but drain your energy. If you fail, you just try again. It's no big deal."
"I... I'm sorry."
"You don't need to apologize to me, you don't owe me anything. I just saw you were all alone and too nervous, so I came over to talk to you."
Okabe said as he sat down on a nearby bench, making a 'please' gesture towards Megumi Tadokoro.
___
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