To get the best result, you couldn't use the same method on everyone.
The hardest target was never the strongest or the weakest.
It was always the one stuck right in the middle.
Megumi Tadokoro's family inn was exactly that kind of existence for Toyo Electric.
From a business perspective, the land where the inn stood was perfect.
Perfect location.
Perfect terrain.
Perfect for a nuclear power plant.
Which was precisely why it was a problem.
If Toyo Electric proposed a Kengan match, Megumi Tadokoro's family inn didn't even qualify.
This small countryside inn had never reached the threshold required to enter the Kengan Association. It wasn't a company. It didn't have the status. It wasn't eligible to fight a Kengan match at all.
If Toyo Electric used underhanded methods-like the ones often used on squatters-it would technically work. But only partially.
This city was too small.
In a place like this, many despicable tactics simply couldn't be carried out smoothly. News spread too fast. Faces were too familiar. And Megumi Tadokoro's family inn wasn't completely defenseless. Years ago, they had once hosted a distinguished guest. That alone gave them just enough backing to make things troublesome.
More importantly, unlike Ajiro Fishery, there was no upper management to approach.
The inn belonged entirely to the Tadokoro family.
And the family was satisfied.
They weren't greedy.
They weren't ambitious.
They had no interest in selling.
That alone made Toyo Electric temporarily unable to act.
After all, you couldn't just hire people to storm in and rob them like bandits.
If Toyo Electric really did something that crude, a lot of people would be watching closely-waiting for the chance to mock them when things went wrong. So even if they didn't need to be honest, they still needed a reason that looked reasonable on the surface.
And so-
"You accepted this shokugeki, right?"
Hayama Akira stood there in a black trench coat, his expression flat.
His gaze swept over Megumi Tadokoro and her family. The Totsuki Academy uniform didn't escape his eyes. He recognized it immediately.
To be honest, he hadn't expected his target to be a student from his own school.
But expectations didn't matter.
He had no choice.
-This is all for Jun.
-Even if Jun doesn't understand, I still have to protect her research results.
Hayama Akira repeated that to himself.
He tightened his grip slightly on the document in his hand.
Then, in the same cold tone, he asked again.
"You accepted this shokugeki, right?"
The paper he held was a shokugeki permission letter.
One party was Toyo Electric.
The other was this inn.
A shokugeki was to be held.
The stakes were... complicated.
Megumi Tadokoro stared at the letter for a long time.
It took her several readings before she finally understood what it meant.
In short-
If they lost, their family inn would be demolished.
A nuclear power plant would be built in its place.
When she realized that, her eyes slowly turned toward her mother.
Megumi Tadokoro's mother noticed the look and sighed.
"Megumi... we really had no choice but to agree at the time."
She hesitated, then continued.
"We just didn't expect our chef to suddenly..."
She stopped there.
Whatever the reason was, she didn't say it out loud.
Megumi Tadokoro didn't ask.
After understanding the situation, she looked away from her mother and back toward Hayama Akira.
Her heart was pounding.
Her hands felt cold.
Still, she stepped forward.
She moved in front of her mother.
For a moment, she couldn't even get her voice to come out properly. Her throat was too tight. But she forced herself to look up at Hayama Akira.
She focused on keeping her body still.
Focused on stopping the trembling.
-She was preparing to challenge him to a shokugeki.
Because there was no one else.
Her grandfather was old.
Their hired chef had suffered an accident.
Even her mother's hand was injured.
Right now, the only one who could protect this place-
Was her.
So-
No matter how scared she was.
No matter how nervous she felt.
She only had one choice.
Accept.
She took a breath and was about to speak.
And at that exact moment-
The inn's door opened.
A lazy voice drifted in from outside.
"A shokugeki... that's a little interesting. Can I participate too?"
Megumi Tadokoro turned her head.
Standing at the doorway was Jaden, leaning casually against the frame.
She recognized him immediately.
-Jaden Yuki.
She had watched his shokugeki with Asahi Saiba.
To be honest, she hadn't understood most of the process. But the result was unforgettable. Jaden had won.
A victory like that was guaranteed to leave a mark on the history of the culinary world.
Hayama Akira, on the other hand, felt nothing but irritation.
He had been buried in problems at Jun Shiomi's research lab. Several investors had withdrawn their funding one after another. He hadn't paid any attention to news outside of that.
Jaden's shokugeki with Asahi Saiba had ended in the morning.
The news only spread after lunch.
Jaden arrived here in the evening.
The information had circulated while Jaden was traveling.
Hayama Akira hadn't gone back to Totsuki yet.
So the face in front of him felt unfamiliar.
On top of that, there was the guilt of confronting a schoolmate. And Jun Shiomi hadn't been speaking to him lately-because she knew he was helping Toyo Electric.
His patience was already thin.
He waved his hand dismissively.
"I'm busy. Just start quickly. I don't care who goes up."
At that moment, Jaden walked over to Megumi Tadokoro.
"If you're a Totsuki student," he asked casually, "did you see my shokugeki with Asahi Saiba?"
Megumi Tadokoro nodded without thinking.
"If that's the case," Jaden continued, "I'll represent your side in this shokugeki."
He smiled faintly.
"Can you leave this to me?"
Megumi Tadokoro's mother and grandfather didn't know who he was.
But Megumi did.
They looked at her.
And in the end, they nodded.
They had no other choice but to trust her judgment.
Megumi Tadokoro took another breath.
She looked at Jaden.
Then she nodded.
Jaden blinked.
He was a little surprised she agreed so easily. He had already prepared himself to persuade her further. But since she accepted without hesitation, he simply turned toward Hayama Akira.
"Then let's get ready," he said lightly. "If we're having a shokugeki, let's make it between the two of us."
Hayama Akira waved his hand again.
"I told you. I don't care."
Just like that, it was settled.
As preparations began-gathering judges, arranging the venue, and deciding on the shokugeki theme-Jaden finally learned why Megumi Tadokoro trusted him so completely.
"World's Number One Chef?"
He stopped mid-step.
"You said I'm the World's Number One Chef!?"
Megumi Tadokoro's mother and grandfather heard this title for the first time.
But Jaden looked even more shocked than they did.
Megumi Tadokoro nodded seriously.
"Yes."
She explained carefully.
"Mr. Asahi Saiba defeated Mr. Joichiro, who was widely regarded as the World's Number One Chef."
"The title itself was never official. But after that match, many people treated Mr. Asahi as the one who held it."
She paused.
"And then you defeated him."
"So now... that title belongs to you."
...
The World's Number One Chef was about to participate in a shokugeki.
The news spread fast.
It reached the Shokugeki Administration almost immediately.
Judges began to be gathered.
Normally, if Joichiro were involved in a shokugeki, judges would fight for the chance to attend. Even if they had to grow two extra heads, they would still show up.
But when they heard Jaden's name-
Everything changed.
In less than thirty seconds, the Shokugeki Administration was almost empty.
Judges fled.
Some ran so fast they left their shoes behind.
No one stopped to pick them up.
Jaden had become the World's Number One Chef. And thanks to people like Gin Dojima and Kojiro Shinomiya, his reputation had spread through judging circles within half a day.
No one wanted to judge him.
After all-
Judging a monster required courage.
And guts.
The staff stood there, completely at a loss.
Then-
Three figures walked in.
They looked relaxed.
Almost too relaxed.
"We heard someone is having a shokugeki?"
They clearly had no idea what they were walking into.
The Shokugeki Administration seized them on the spot.
Everyone else had escaped. These three walked straight into disaster.
Even if they couldn't gather five judges, three was still enough.
The staff felt bad for them.
But there was no alternative.
And when the paperwork was filled out-
The staff felt even worse.
Because these three judges all knew Jaden.
Their increasingly laid-back attitude toward shokugeki.
Their lack of enthusiasm.
Most of it traced back to him.
They were the judges from Jaden's shokugeki with Eizan.
They were also the judges from his shokugeki with Kojiro Shinomiya.
After those experiences, three once-passionate judges had changed.
They stopped competing for assignments.
If there was work, they took it.
If not, that was fine too.
That was why they always appeared together.
And unfortunately-
They still couldn't escape.
For the shokugeki between Jaden Yuki and Hayama Akira-
By sheer coincidence-
The judges were the same three again.
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