"GROUP A HALL"...
"Begin.. Cooking!" Sanzaemon shouted, his face was plastered on the huge flat screen tv in front that started the students' off with the skills they had learned over the course of the so called training camp they were at.
You were on the sidelines with Eizan, expecting someone important to arrive and watch the battle against students.
"Welcome, I believe we informed you that we would begin at eleven?" Eizan stated, unfazed by the late appearance of the blonde haired female. Or as he would describe it as a grand entrance.
"Are you saying that, knowing full well how difficult it is to free even one minute of my schedule? Well, Eizan-kun?" Sendawara Natsume said, looking down at the male that stood before her, removing the pair of specs that hung unto the bridge of her nose the entire time they had spoke.
"S-Sendawara Natsume?!"
"She has a monopoly on the curry business in Japan." One of them exclaimed from the large and vast crowd.
"Hmm? That's not how you talk to someone important, Eizan-senpai." You told the upperclassman, who just shot you a threatening look of 'stay out of this.'
"Eizan-kun talked me into coming, but can mere students manage to entertain me? Only Y/N had entertained me so far, but she isn't counted because she's a first class bookwoman." Natsume said, sighing softly as she sat down at one of the provided seats.
Eizan sighed, adjusting his glasses. "Heh, just keep shelling out the big bucks to me."
"What was that?" Natsume glance at her back, looking at Eizan dead in the eye.
"Oh, nothing. Please enjoy the Autumn Election to your heart's content, Natsume-sama."
You furrowed your eyebrows, glancing back and forth at the. Do they always argue like this?
•❅─────✧❅✦❅✧─────❅•
"Holy shit, I just felt something creepy crawl up to my spine." You exclaimed, slightly flinching by Ryo's aura after he placed the band on his head. He has always had a very menacing aura that scared a lot, but you never expected it to be this creepy and nerve racking.
"Oh my, scary but still handsome-" You thought to yourself, watching how Ryo chopped the meat and other ingredients as if he was brutally murdering someone he had held a grudge for.
"What extravagant movements." The other judge said, crossing his arms and paying more close detail to his skills in comparison to the others.
"Indeed! In comparison, however.. That one's dull." He said, averting his attention to Marui.
"Is that udon?"
"This fragrance.." You muttered, your index finger touching the tip of your chin as you glance at Akira.
"I knew it."
Ibusaki Shun opened his pot, replacing the current smell. Fogs from the smoke enveloped the huge hall, covering the sight of the other contestants. Both efficient and also has its disadvantages.
"Smoke.. Shun..?" You muttered, still unsure about it. You then take notice at the male and saw that you were right. I mean, I guess he's the only one who's expert with smoking foods and stuff.
"It's smoke!"
"Smoking is yet another method to add fragrance to a dish. This has changed the air in this hall yet again!" One of the judges exclaimed.
"What now, Natsume-sama~? Are you finally entertained by these mere students?" You asked, letting out a small smirk while you glance at the female who had seemed to be in denial of all of this happening.
"Well, it seems I'll be entertained at least a little." She answered, looking at her nails.
"So, who's your pick, Eizan-kun, Y/N-chan?" Natsume asked the both of you, cutting you off-guard.
"Hmm, let me think. It's hard to say whom my pick would be, but there is a man whose abilities I wish to assess in full." Eizan exclaimed.
"Mmm, all of them are good. But I'll go with Akira." You answered honestly.
•❅─────✧❅✦❅✧─────❅•
"Heya, Isshiki-senpai." You mumbled, waving your hand up in the air so that the upperclassman can see you.
"Oh, Y/n! Aren't you in the Hall A?" Isshiki asked, as you started walking towards him.
"Yeah, but I decided to go here and look at the others." You then glance at the students and saw that Megumi was about to chop the monkfish. The blue-haired girl wore her gloves and started fixing her posture, so that she can butcher the monkfish perfectly.
She started butchering it, shocking the students who thought that Megumi was unworthy to be a part of the preliminaries. Your lips formed into a small smile, watching the petite girl as if you're a proud mother.
"Good job, Megumi."
—————————
You came back almost immediately to Hall A. Because you took Urara's position, meaning you'll be the hostess for Hall A for the meantime.
"The time allotted for cooking is almost over!" You exclaimed through the mic. The contestants have wasted their blood, sweat and tears to this competition. They were seen to be finishing up on their dishes, the look of relief and also anxiety plastered unto their faces.
"Please put on the finishing touches, everyone." You started counting down, making the students more anxious and even stressed. If they miss one last touch on their dish, it could cost them their entire score. The tension begun to rise more and more as you counted down, the cries of encouragement from each section and each friend getting louder and louder.
"Time's up!"
The crowd roared, some standing up and cheering for their friends to hope for the best and highest scores for them. The people watching had happiness and went wild, while the contestants grew anxious. The odds couldn't be in their favor. They were competing with the best students in Totsuki Culinary Academy. If they fail this, they will forever be embarrassed and even traumatized.
"We will now enter the judging phase."
"Again, your host for today isn't Urara, but Y/N Kinoshita." You grinned at the audience. The change was a bit different, but you did a great job in filling in the missing space that Urara would have done ever so easily. In the corner of your eye, the boys that were head over heels for you were blushing, their eyes shooting hearts at you.
Oh to be Y/N Kinoshita.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
System:
You really stole Urara's
position, huh?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Yup! I didn't know it was fun to host something." You replied, letting out a small giggle.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
System:
It's all fun and games until you
make a mistake in front of the
crowd.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Your chest heaved up a bit, making a face that read anger, confusion and judgement.
"Alright, where's the deafen option here? Gotta mute you-"
"There are five judges for today, each judge can award up to twenty points, so a dish can be awarded a maximum of a hundred points. Only the top four scorers will advance to the main tournament!" You enlightened them, the big screen showing the judges that sat in front with deadpanned faces.
"Now let's ask our judges to evaluate the first contestant,"
The first contestant was already in the front, he served the dish that he made to the judges. One of the judges just watched the others as they took their bites from the dish. They seemed to be displeased just by looking at it.
As they savored the taste on their tongue, the contestant's eyes shined like galaxies when one smiled from ear to ear. Just looking at the dish and the look on their faces, they seemed to have enjoyed it, but another thing you took note of was their eyes. Eyes tell the way to the soul and judging by it, they seemed to be yearning for something missing from the dish.
"Please tell us the score, then. Our lovely judges." You exclaimed through the mic, looking at the judges who were thinking what to give. Even though they were showering the male with various compliments here and there, his score wasn't high enough to be considered as high nor make the crowd cheer.
A few seconds of them thinking, they all nodded their heads and pressed the button that was in front of them. The score that they gave showed up.
"Aww, what a pity. The judges gave the man 28 points." You exclaimed.
. . . . .
"31 points! Not bad..."
. . . . .
"Huh? 6 points. Better luck next time~!"
"Hmm~ I guess the judges are very hard to please, huh? No one had gotten to over 40 points yet!" You mumbled, holding the mic as you let out a sly smirk.
You were loving this so far, seeing the people's devastated face, that it seems the real Y/N Kinoshita loves the most. You hoped that no one from your job would call you to say that you need to go to work.
"Zero points-! Hold on, who the heck got zero points?!" The students flinch by the sudden raise of your voice. I mean, who wouldn't shout? There are people who got zero point continuously!
"Ugh. Anyways, up next is Ryo Kurokiba!" After hearing his name, he went in front of the judges and served his dish to them.
"Ah, the contrast between the fiery red of the lobster and the vibrant yellow of the saffron rice is beautiful." One of the judges exclaimed, staring at the well-made dish in front of their eyes.
"Mmm... The lobster shell is immaculate, with no damage to the legs or antennae." As the judges complimented the black-haired male's dish, you simply walked behind him and whispered, that is enough for him to hear.
"Good luck, Ryo. Remember our talk earlier."