"a5 grade beef, indeed lives up to its reputation, and the Mito family's strength is also astonishing!"
"No… I can't analyze it anymore."
"I want to eat, I still want to eat…"
Evidently, Mito Ikumi's beef donburi,
Almost instantly upon entering their mouths, conquered all these high-and-mighty judges.
…
If Sōma's donburi represented an incredibly brave bullfighter,
Then Mito Ikumi's dish was a reinforced, exceptionally fierce plum blossom iron-horned bull.
It used the most merciless and brutal force to directly send the bullfighter flying, instantly killing him!
Finally, the judging session ended.
And when 5:0 appeared on the screen, the entire venue erupted in an uproar.
Sōma had been utterly defeated!
"What a spectacular match, though Mito won overwhelmingly."
"But Sōma only lost because his understanding of beef wasn't as profound as Mito Ikumi's."
"If he had used a5 grade beef of the same quality, it's hard to say who would have won. Hisako, you were the one who leaked the Izakaya's information to Mito, weren't you?"
Erina, who had watched the entire match, turned and looked deeply at Hisako, asking faintly.
"Yes… yes, Lady Erina."
Hisako did not hesitate but nodded in response.
"No wonder." Erina sighed, "In the past, she was overly focused on the quality and preparation methods of meat."
"It seems Sosuke's cooking can indeed influence everyone; even Mito can now create more harmonious dishes that are no longer purely 'meat'!"
"Lady, to be honest,"
"I also didn't expect Mito's change to be so great after visiting the Izakaya."
Hisako said with deep empathy.
…
"Hmm, since the competition is over,"
"The Gaijin-fan Research Association no longer needs to exist. Go notify them."
"Understood, Lady Erina."
Receiving Erina's instruction, Hisako Arato quickly contacted the demolition team by phone to notify them.
And just like that, another research association at Totsuki completely disappeared.
Although Erina's actions were considered somewhat shameless.
Superficially, she was solving Totsuki's financial problems by removing these "tumors" attached to the academy.
However, anyone with a discerning eye knew that although Erina was a young girl with God Tongue, and a rare genius at Totsuki who entered the Elite Ten as the top student from junior high,
Yet, at present, her position as the Tenth Seat of the Elite Ten was still at the very bottom.
Therefore, she had to plunder others' resources in this way to have a chance to contend for other Elite Ten seats.
At this moment, looking at the 5:0 judgment result on the screen, Sōma felt an invisible knife piercing his heart, causing him immense pain.
This was the first time he had tasted "failure" since entering Totsuki, so it was inevitable that he felt very unwilling.
But no matter what, his regret and unwillingness were useless now.
He could only collect his disheartened emotions and go to Konishi Kaneichi, apologizing, "Konishi-senpai, I'm sorry, I couldn't win this cooking competition, and the Gaijin-fan Research Association…"
"It's okay, you don't have to blame yourself."
"Such an outcome should have been expected long ago."
"Besides, even if you had defeated Mito Ikumi, you would only have angered Lady Erina even more in the end."
Konishi Kaneichi forced a small smile on his face, then said with a bitter laugh, "Sōma, no matter what, I am very grateful to you!"
…
"I wasn't skilled enough."
"Last night, Fumio-grandma said that my cooking's flaw was in the beef."
"But as for what kind of breakthrough I wanted to achieve with the beef, due to time constraints, I hadn't figured it out yet."
"I thought it would be better to directly use some leftover ingredients and do the opposite."
"Then I put all the focus on the side ingredients, such as pickled plums, hot spring eggs, rice, onions, etc., thinking I might be able to defeat her, but it turned out…"
"I didn't expect that she, like me, also put the focus on other things, not the beef!"
With that, Yukihira Sōma let out a long sigh.
Perhaps at this moment, he could finally understand Isshiki Satoshi's warning to him back then, and also the reason his father, Yukihira Saiba, sent him to Totsuki Academy to study.
"Totsuki Academy is indeed a very interesting place."
"Dad, my goal used to always be focused on you, thinking that as long as I could defeat you, I could inherit your Yukihira Restaurant. Now it seems that such an idea was too naive!"
At this moment, Yukihira Sōma's deep eyes were like a still pool of water.
After a long while, he seemed to have understood something, as if he had grown a lot.
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