"Speaking"
"thinking"
On with the story
The result of the last match came out as it will be a three-way match between Soma, Ryo and Akira
Soma and Megumi were in a fish market as Soma wanted to find the dish theme for the final match and that is Pacific Saury
The Market was bustling as fishes were getting sold everywhere
"It's so lively! This is so exciting!" Megumi exclaimed.
"The Yellowtail Amberjack and Horse Mackerel are cheap today." Soma said as he looks around the assortments of caught fishes
"The other Fish can wait till next time Soma-Kun" Megumi told me.
"That's true, sorry 'bout that" Soma said before the two went to the Pacific Saury section.
"Have you been here before Soma-Kun?" Megumi asked.
"I came here a lot with my dad." Soma replied "and sometimes other countries' fish markets and compared to this place, theirs are way bigger"
The two looks around before bumping into Ryo and Alice
"heh, so you two are here for the Saury, right?" Soma asked them as Ryo nodded
"I've been coming here every day" Ryo said while Alice yawned
"I only come sometimes. It's open too early in the morning" Alice said as she looks tired
"I'd better figure out which condition I want the Saury to be in then" Soma said as they started to look for the Pacific Saury before finding one stall that had so many of them on sale
"Pacific Saury should have a rounded body and taut flesh. Clear and bright eyes. And a yellow tipped mouth which means it's fresh and has good fat" Megumi explained as they looked around
"Doesn't mean you should spring for the freshest ones though." Soma said
"Their umami hasn't had time to fully develop" Ryo added in. "The Umami component in Fish increases over time. It's dependent on the conditions in which the Fish was caught.
"You need a certain amount of experience" Ryo said as Soma reaches his hand for one of the Pacific Saury and holds it by the tail
"I'll pick… this one" Soma said as the fish was straight up. "even thought it's not the best one"
"you know it's not the best then why did you pick it?" Ryo said as he took one and it was smaller than that of Soma's
"let's just say, I need to test the water before diving in" Soma said with a smirk to Ryo who smirks back
"you're strange, Yukihira" Ryo said to the red head "which makes it more fun to beat you to a pulp"
"ones who said that they would win in a competition before hand are usually the ones who would fall first" Soma said as the two headbutted each other while fire was burning between them
"hehe, then let's have a small Shokugeki here" Ryo said as he reached for his bandana
"fine by me" Soma replied as Megumi panicked between the two
Soma and Ryo went to one of the empty fish stall as they started cutting their pacific saury and started making it into Sashimi
"that boy is amazing!" "he's keeping pace with Ryo-chan!" "what sharp knifing skills!"
The small crowd looks in amazement as both Soma and Ryo finished making their Sashimi in a mere 40 seconds
"try it, Tadokoro Megumi" Ryo said as Megumi became the judge and tasted both of their dishes
"Soma-kun's Saury is less firm" Megumi said in surprise. "but why?"
"There's a time lag between the Fish's Rigor Index. As well as the Breaking Strength of the Fish's flesh" Alice explained. "The Rigor Index is the indicator for how firm the Pacific Saury's flesh is. It gradually decreases after an average of ten hours once the Fish is subjected to Ikejime. What determines mouthfeel is the muscle's Breaking Strength. It rapidly plummets after about five hours"
"So even if the flesh feels firm it may already have poor mouthfeel if more than five hours passed?" Megumi asked.
"Listen well Yukihira." Ryo said as Soma was in the middle of wiping his knife clean with a tissue "The quality and flavor of the Ingredient increases dramatically to incomparable levels when in season. The flipside of that is if you can't get the best. You're putting yourself at a huge disadvantage"
"is that so?" Soma said "then let me do my magic"
Ryo got into Soma's face as the man had an irritated face.
"I'm not going to take a back seat to someone who uses Ingredients like that" Ryo said.
"then lucky for you, I'm not" Soma replied before Ryo and Alice left
"See you later!" Alice called back cheerily as they walked away.
"man, Totsuki's student are amazing!" a stall owner said before adding in "oh and there's that young tanned man from a few hours ago, he picked two of the best fishes in my stall before leaving off"
"so, Hayama was here too, huh?" Soma said before grinning "this just keeps getting more fun"
Soma and Megumi were near the harbour at afternoon as the fish stall all closed up
"It's done" Soma said as he made grilled salted pacific saury.
Megumi tasted the dish and instantly smiled as it was delicious
"it may taste good" Soma said as he took a bite "but it still loses against theirs"
"but if we want to be able to get the good ones, we have to come here everyday" Megumi said "and just looking at one isn't going to help"
Soma rubs his chin before he gets an idea
"let's head back to the dorm, Megumi" Soma said as they packed up and heads home
The days goes by as Hayama and Ryo visited the fish market but sees no sign of Soma anywhere
"did he give up?" Hayama said
"no, he's not the type to do so" Ryo said looking everywhere but still no sign of Soma anywhere
After a single week, the match came as the arena was filled with many legends in the food industries and pro chefs
"it's finally here! The final match!" the announcer shouted out as everyone cheered before the contestants came in
"The Spice Master, Hayama Akira!" Kawashima Urara called out as one by one, the three rivals entered the arena. "Kitchen Mad dog, Kurokiba Ryo!" she continued. "and lastly, the Diner boy, Yukihira Soma!"
The three went to their kitchen station before Isshiki Satoshi appeared and announced out the judges
"the head judge is the academy's director, Nakiri Senzaemon-dono" Isshiki announced as Senzaemon appeared in the stage before Dojima Gin "as the head of the Tourism Division, Dojima Gin-senpai"
"unbelievable" "it's the headmasters and Dojima Gin" "they're like monsters"
The crowds murmured out before the last judge appeared
"and last but not least, Totsuki's Research Division's head, Nakiri Leonora-dono" Isshiki announced as an albino woman entered the stage as she looks identical to Alice
"could you give us some word?" Isshiki said as he gave the mic to her
Leonora coughs a bit before taking a deep breath
"h..hello. my name is Nakiri…Leonora, I Live..in Denmakr….Japanese is Difficult but I will try hard" Leonora spoke out with a broken Japanese language
"Her Japanese is terrible!"
Everyone in the stand thought the same thing as the foreigner took a seat on the judge's table
"hmmm, looks like we have three last bosses" Soma said as Nakiri Senzaemon, Nakiri Leonora, and Dojima Gin, the three are legends in their own division, making them pleased with their dishes is going to be a very hard task
"no matter of the task, I will win" Akira said while crossing his arms
Ryo put on his bandana as his entire character switched "NO IT'S ME!"
"so he's Yukihira Soma" Leonora said as Senzaemon nodded "I look forward to his dish"
"it is time" Isshiki said as the roof above split open and the moon appeared "the cooking time is two hours, once the moon has passed it, none is allowed to continue cooking"
"that's cool" Soma said before the match soon started
"BEGIN! COOKING!" Senzaemon shouted out as Ryo and Akira pulled out their Pacific Saury and just by looking at them, everyone can tell that their fish was at its prime
Soma was fumbling around in his container before he grabs a hold of something and he pulls out a pacific saury but it's covered in some sort of brown powder
"w-what is that?" Urara said on the mic as Ryo and Akira looks at the browned up fish with a sweatdrop
"a blunt sword?" "what is that brown powder thing?" "some sort of pickling?"
"let's start cooking" Soma said as he started washing his pacific saury in the sink
"what is Yukihira thinking?" Ryo thought as he took a glance at Soma's fish
"is that some sort of curing technique? It looks bizzare" Akira thought as he was in the middle of scraping the skin off his fish
The three started prepping their dish with amazing speed as all the major food industries client watched in amazement
"compared to others of their pacific saury, young Yukihira's dish is the only one blunt" one of the viewers commented "is it some sort of trick to fool the others?"
Everyone watches as Soma was cleaning his fish before he took a peek to the judge and sees Alice and Erina joining their grandfather in the cooking table
"looks like it's a family reunion of some sort" Soma said with a smile as he took a peek at Erina who looks back at him
Soma and Erina stared at each other before Soma gave her a smile as he continued back on his dish
"is something the matter, Erina?" Senzaemon asked his granddaughter who shook her head
"no, nothing" she replied before looking to Soma as the man was in the middle of cutting up some vegetables then herbs
Every single step, every single second, all three of them used every ounce of energy in them to prepare their dishes
"hey look!" one of the viewers commented out as everyone saw Soma stopping in his kitchen station
The man froze in his spot as he wasn't moving at all
"hey Yukihira!" "what's wrong, Soma-kun?!" "did he ran out of energy?!"
Takumi, Ikumi, Isami and the rest of the Polar Star students looks to the man and was worried if there was something wrong with him
CRACK
A bone crack sound was heard as everyone wondered where it came from
CRACK
Another crack sound was heard before another as everyone looks to the redhead and sees that he was stretching as the loud bone cracking sound was coming from him
Soma cracked his neck bone to the sides before rolling it around
"fuuu, that feels heavenly" Soma said as he rolled his shoulders a few times before taking hold of his knife "let's continue"
In an instant, Soma threw up his fish into the air before he sliced his knife in a horizontal and vertical line before the meat of the fish was cut out into tiny chunks
"wha!?" "unbelievable!" "he cut them so fast!" "is he some sort of monster?!"
"that's the way" Akira muttered out with a smirk
"interesting, Yukihira" Ryo said with a grin as both continued on prepping their dish
After 20 minutes, Ryo was the first to serve his dish and it was Aqua Piazza
The judges tasted his dish and in an instant, Ryo was given showers of praise by them
"amazing!" "that's Nakiri Alice's aide for ya!" "the headmaster instantly stripped!"
After a few minutes of getting the crowd's cheers and applaud, Akira was next and his dish was a scorched pacific saury carpaccio
The judges tasted the dish as the fish instantly bombarded their tongues into heaven
Another applaud from the crowds was given to Akira as it was more louder than that of Kurokiba's
Soma was the only one left as the man was still at his cooking station
"oh no! the moon!" Megumi exclaimed as the moon was nearly gone
"hurry, Yukihira! There's not much time left!" Ikumi exclaimed
The moon was gone but a single drop of light shines upon Soma as the man was walking towards the judges with three dishes in hand
"sorry for the wait" Soma said as he sets the dish on their table "this is my dish"
They opened the lid of the dish as it was a bowl of rice but mixed with pacific saury
"Salted Rice with grilled saury" he said as Nakiri Senzaemon gave a twitching grin to the dish
"let's taste it!" Leonora said excited as the three judges tasted the dish and was sent to the ocean where grilled Pacific Saury were swimming everywhere
"it's so good!" she screamed out as she couldn't stop herself from eating the rice dish
Everyone complemented Soma's dish but they all saw Senzaemon had not stripped at all
"oh yeah, I forgot about this" Soma said as he reached back to his kitchen station, only to come back with a pan in hand and within the pan was what looks like milk
"milk?!" "what is he going to do with that!?"
"this is the final form of my dish" Soma said as he poured the milk looking liquid into each of the judges' bowl and the moment every single of one of them tried it, Senzaemon's clothes instantly exploded
"HE STRIPPED! Everyone in the crowd shouted out
"this taste, this warmth" Senzaemon looks to the wide liquid in his bowl as it swirls around "it's soy milk"
"correct" Soma said with a grin "it's Porridge style Pacific Saury Rice"
"this is just like my match with his" Alice commented as the man used the same trick against her in the bento theme match
"no, it's more than that" Erina added "the soy milk was absorbed into the rice and made it more fluffier but packed with lots of flavours"
"it's so amazing!" Leonora said in awe "this taste reminded me of how I met my husband!"
The crowds cheered on and applauded for Soma as the man takes off his headband and wraps it around his hand
"it wasn't much" Soma said as all the judges finished eating his dish with content smiles
"now it is time for us judges, to discuss the winner of this match" Senzaemon said as he, Gin and Leonora started discussing with each other while Soma and the others did so as well
"interesting dish, but I would've made it better" Ryo commented as he was eating Soma's and Akira's dish as they tasted his and each others
"say that if you win this match" Akira said before taking a bite out of Ryo's aqua Pazza
"but still, you guys made some rocking dishes" Soma said taking a bite out of the Carpaccio
"look at them, they're like bffs" Alice said with a smile as Erina nodded in agreement
"hey! Leave some for us!" Alice went to Ryo as she takes a bite out of the Carpaccio and the Pacific Saury rice
Soma takes the aqua pazza and the carpaccio as he picks up some of the fish meat
"say aahh, Erina" Soma said as Erina blushed a bit
"aah" Erina opened her mouth as Soma feeds her the fish meat
"good, right?" Soma asked as Erina nodded while chewing the dish
After 5 minutes of discussing, the judges sat back down but not Senzaemon
"we have decided the winners of this Autumn match" Senzaemon spoke out
Soma and the others look at the headmaster and awaited the result before a thought rang in their heads
"winners?" they thought before each of their names was written on a giant piece of paper
"all three contestants are the winners!" Senzaemon shouted out as the crowds shouted in shock
"all three contestants are the winners?! Unbelievable!" "how is it even possible!?" "this is some sort of joke, right?!"
Everyone shouted out in shock as they can't believe that the winner of the autumn selection competition would be the three contenders in the first place
"All three of your Dishes are on par to each other but all of us voted for the other instead of one" Dojma Gin said with a smile
"They made the perfect choices for their Pacific Saury selection. Yukihira Soma-kun had closed the gap through his creativity however. His inventiveness is incomparable among the three of you" Leonora added in
"All the more surprising all three Dishes had tastes that were nearly equal" Senzaemon said. "so it is decided for the first time in Totsuki's history that the winner of the Autumn Selection match is three of you!"
"damnit! I'm supposed to be the winner!" Ryo shouted out in his berserk mode
"don't you mean me?" Hayama said as the two headbutted each other while sparks were flying between them
"now now" Soma said before he wraps his arms around both of their shoulders "having the first place together, ain't that nice enough?"
"IT'S NOT!" Hayama and Ryo shouted at the redhead who just grins
Dojima Gin smiles as he crossed his arms "looks like your son surpassed us, Joichiro" he thought before looking to the night sky above
Soma, Ryo, and Akira stood side by side as they were given golden medals in their victory
"cheese" Soma said while doing a peace sign while Hayama and Akira were sending daggers in their glares at the redhead
A photographer took their photo as it was now on the front newspaper
"Winners of the Autumn Election; Kurokiba Ryo, Hayama Akira, and Yukihira Soma"
That's a wrap!
Bye bye