Chapter 86: Disdained Depravity
An eerily deafening silence descended inside the venue hall as all students; both rebels and central supporters, as well as professors culinary industry figures and global culinary leaders all watched in horror as the third seat clutched his bloodied arm and fell to the floor injured by the food war's emcee.
Even the arrogant victorious smirk currently being worn by Azami had fallen away to reveal his stunned horror.
Quickly recovering from his shock and realising that he needed to be seen acting on this situation before either Senzaemon or Gin could be seen to be taking charge instead of the presiding Tōtsuki Director, Azami stood up and bolted down the stairs loudly ordering the sidelined medical staff to tend to the third seat's injuries and then yelling at the bystander security to take away the emcee.
Nodding his head at his personal aid, Sean Aida, Azami strode across the venue hall towards Senzaemon so that he could bring about the return to the food war as quickly as possible.
"Due to unforeseen circumstances..." Mister Aida spoke into a microphone - given to him by another staffer - staff - "according to the wishes of Director Azami as well as former director Senzaemon, plus and the executive chef, the third seat shall receive medical aid before he retakes his place in the food war".
Watching wisely as seven members of the schools medical personnel, carrying a stretcher, hurried onto the stage whilst four additional security guards - following Azami's direction- rushed forwards and restrained, grabbed the blood stained and struggling Urara before taking her away.
Hanging his head whilst raising his hands to his face to hide his rage the emcee had induced in him for her attempted actions Sōma Yukihira and then injuring; and potentially robbing him, of one of his central warriors.
"Director? Sir Azami?"
Looking to his right he saw his ever faithful and present aid, Sean Aida, walking towards him holding out a piece of paper to him. "These just came to me from the Admission Office..." he stated plainly, his eyes darting over at the first and second seats.
"Apparently Tsukasa and Rindō had filled out these papers to quit Tōtsuki days ago to rob us of out supermajority on the Ten, but as the office never approved due to Chief Administrator Dyō throwing them down, he bound the traitors to Central and this food war".
Sighing as he nodded his head in agreement, Azami clenched his fists and spoke in barley controlled anger. "Had Urara not stabbed the third seat then Central would have been seen as holding strong in the face of an unwarranted rebellion..."
Gasping as he accidentally bit his tongue, Azami grumbled as he turned his gaze up, anxiously, in the direction of the V.I.P boxes.
"We could have been made so much more powerful but with so many global culinary leaders here to witness this event our standing will have lost a huge amount of fervour and trust".
Spinning around and grabbing the papers from Ida's hand, crumpling them within his own, Azami glowered furiously at the first and second seats before stuffing the paper into his inner jacket pocket.
"Traitors!" He seethed. "I never should have allied myself with them from the start... let alone allow them to join Central. I should have seen that they were too much trouble" he continued muttering angrily.
"We were so close to being internationally recognised", he added. "All I needed to do was rout my detractors and reclaim Erina for Central, but Miss Kawashima ruined everything!"
Watching the two people he was annoyed at, more than the emcee, in earlier question race out of the venue hall after the medical staff whom were carrying a stretcher bound Kensuke closely followed by his brown haired rebel sous chef, Azami frowned before about facing back towards the stairs up to his private viewing box.
As he walked up the steps he felt several pairs of angry hate filled eyes glaring daggers into his back, and so momentarily glancing over his shoulder he cast his gaze over the team of rebel chefs, whom aside from Chise Nakata, were all surrounding and comforting Megumi Tadokoro.
'Tadokoro...' Azami mused to himself, turning back to waking up the steps, 'maybe I should do something about her'.
Retaking his seat within his private viewing booth the Director clicked his fingers and gestured for one of his staffers to get him a drink. Huffing in exasperation as an obviously new person hurried over and asked him what he wanted, not knowing that he had a preference for port, he patiently waited whilst the young staffer walked over to a drinks cabinet and poured a stiff glass of port before carrying it over to its designated consumer.
Downing the liquor in one and then angrily gesturing for anther, whilst muttering foul things towards the first, second and third seats, the Director continued to down drink after drink ignoring the nervous looking staffer.
"Fools, all three of them", he gritted out angrily. "Young people these days have no sense of control. Fragility seems to be the sole thing they all have on common".
Running a hand through his hair, he promptly gestured for another sixth refill of his glass and then drank deeply, swilling the liquor in his mouth before downing the liquor; again in one. "Their weakness was each other. Nothing more nothing less".
Glancing down towards the cooking stage, Azami reluctantly nodded - agreeing - to allow the currently competing chefs, specifically the ones left in Nene and Sōma, Shōko and an absent Chise, to pause and re-prepare their dishes from scratch at a later time, so that the flavour profiles would be all new.
"Sir?"
Letting out another frustrated sigh, the Director looked over at the door to his executive box to find Aida looking at him curiously. "What do you plan to do with the bastards?"
Smiling devilishly, he couldn't help but chuckle. "I'll deal with them later..." he spoke firmly, "but for now thanks to the forethought of the Chief Administrator, they are bound by their Tōtsuki rank and status to continue in this food war; and Central will be all the stronger for it", Azami stated plainly. "However, once we have won, I will make them pay".
"Sean", he spoke again but with a hint of gleefulness creeping into his voice, "I want you to go down tongue cooking hall and become the emcee now. Whip up the audience into a pro-central frenzy; as you do. Keep them and our benefactors on side. I need to go meet our new guests".
Bowing as he displayed his unwavering loyalty, total reverence and devotion towards Director Azami as the man himself stood up and made his way out of the viewing box, Mister Aida vigorously nodded his head before standing tall, turning around and leaving his boss to perform his new duty.
Moreover, ad he descended the steps from the VIP viewing booths, a huge grin bloomed across Sean Aida's face as he walked knowing full well what his boss had in mind for the rebel chefs, and that they were now going it face a new kind of food war format.
Staring, rooted to the spot, at the blood staining the floor, Megumi felt as if her heart was going to burst out of her chest and then start violently jumping about all over the floor of the cooking stage. Anger, fear and frustration all tore at her insides as she narrowed her eyes at the restrained and handcuffed emcee, who was being led away by security guards.
Feeling all her energy wither up she dropped to her knees and raised her hands to her face as she felt tears streaking done her cheeks, and then suddenly an involuntary flinch racked through her body as arms wrapped around her followed by the voices of all her fellow rebel compatriots began murmuring around her.
Turning her head she saw all her fellow rebel teammates gathered around her; plus Nene. Sōma, Erina, Isshiki and Kuga; surprisingly, all looked equally distraught by what they had all heard and witnessed. Just as she was about to speak, she caught sight of Tsukasa and Rindō bolting from the venue hall after the medical personnel, carrying her stretcher bound brother.
"Hey… Megumi" Erina mumbled softly, "I've talked it over with grandfather and with Chefs Saiba and Dōjima and they've all agreed to let you drop out of the team food war to be with your brother…"
"No!" Megumi exclaimed loudly, flinching at the sudden sharpness of her response. "I'm not leaving! I-I- trained for this team food war, and I'll compete. Besides… Azami just said that my brother is going to return when he's bandaged up".
Kneeling down before his girlfriend, Sōma squeezed her hands knowing that this small gesture was more appropriate right now than a kiss or to further embrace her.
"I'm… sorry", a quiet forlorn voice opined.
Not bothering to look up yet knowing full whom that was speaking, they could hear the voice was cracking with emotion, Sōma and Megumi remained inert and immobile as they listened to Nene from their kneeling position on the floor.
"I should have put two and two together…" the ex-sixth seat continued. "Me and Ken share a few classes and during one in particular I saw some scars on his arm but I didn't realise the significance of them at the time" she murmured tearfully.
Raising her head slowly, Megumi noticed the sixth seat had tears flowing down her face before she abruptly spun around and buried her face in Isshiki's calming embrace.
Suddenly feeling a wave of nausea rush through her body which she guessed was a result of being both emotionally drained - worried and scared for her brother's well being and life - as well as seething with rage and hatred at seeing how Azami had reacted, Megumi slumped forwards and wrapped her arms around Sōma holding on to him and refusing to yield.
The directors utter contempt of the situation enraged her no end. Yet, as the blue haired girl tried to stand and hurry after her brother she stumbled and almost hit her head on the edge of the nearby workstation countertop but she was caught and held comfortingly, preventing her from hurting herself.
Instinctively knowing who had saved her Megumi leant against the person's chest steadying herself on her feet once more before gazing into the golden eyes of her boyfriend.
"Megs… are you sure you're okay to continue?" Sōma asked worriedly. "No one would blame you if you wanted to drop out..."
Smiling softly as she heard her boyfriends concern filling his voice, the girl lifted her head bopped him on the nose. "I'm fine…" she sniffed wiping away tear trails on her cheeks. "I may not trust Tsukasa and Rindō but to be with Ken right now but with Chise returning to cook here again I guess I'll have to have faith in them".
Wiping away her tears the blue haired girl scrunched up her face into angry scowl. "And even if we are going to have to face them… I will show that 'devil'…" she glowered up in the direction of Azami's executive box, "just how strong a Tadokoro chef can be!"
With a grin she pushed herself back towards the area where the rebel chefs were coalescing in support of their currently cooking team mates before shocking them by undoing her hair from its usual twin pigtails and then deftly creating one long braid that she allowed to hang down, around and over her right shoulder.
"Game on…" she snapped narrowing her eyes at the remaining three members of the Ten before her.
Sōma blinked in adoration of Megumi's new hairstyle, he had always loved her twin pigtails but now her single braid was super cute. He also couldn't help but notice the surprised and positive cheering coming from Yuki, Ryōko and Ikumi as they all lauded her style.
"I liked your pigtailed look… but this is way cuter", Yuki cooed from behind the bars of the 'special seating area'.
"You look like an idol done in Shibuya", Alice added playfully winking at Megumi. "Really sexy".
Even Akira widened his eyes at the blue haired girls new look but he was quickly dressed down by both Alice and Ryō.
Standing off to one side, Isshiki smiled as he realised that this was the exact same trick that Kensuke had done before his food war against Sōma - back then; by restyling his hair - Ken had shown his renewed resolve. And whilst Megumi was never going to cut her hair short, she loved her long hair, the effect she had created was one of reformed confidence and determination.
Albeit in the face of Azami's disdainful sadism.
Before Sōma could join the group appraisals he spotted the same suited blonde haired man, whom had announced Akira's expulsion after his loss to him, striding forwards holding a scrap of paper.
With the earlier smile on his face immediately turning to a scowl Sōma glowered at Mister Ida, daring the older man to not even try and placate the situation.
However, what the director's aid had to say made Sōma's blood boil so much that he didn't even sense himself beginning to move forwards, ready to strangle him for daring to make such an egregious decision for them. Nor did he feel the strong hands of Takumi and Isshiki holding him back.
Holding a microphone in his let hand, Mister Aida spoke to the venue hall while reading from the paper.
"Due to totally unavoidable and unforeseen circumstances…" he spoke matter-of-factly. "All three of the top seats of the Ten are temporarily withdrawn from this contest; for now. But they will return to compete in this Team Food War shortly".
"You, and my farther, have no empathy!" Erina yelled abruptly moving fortress and slamming Mister Ida across the face. Stomping her foot and pointing at the blood on the floor the god tongue fiercely rebuke the way that her father was carelessly continuing the food war.
"Chef Kensuke was just stabbed… and you people want to continue? Central is beyond cruel! This is blatant illegality. Carrying on with this team food war as nothing had just happened! And look up there".
Following Erina's other outstretched hand, up towards the VIP viewing gallery both Aida, and Azami, openly gaped whilst simultaneously failing to hide their supreme anger and shock as they realised that Kensuke's top three benefactors had left.
"We don't need them!"
The voice of the forth seat, Momo Akanegakubo interjected. "They were drawn in by Kensuke and were solely interested in him. We however…" she gestured to herself, Eizan, Saitō and Nene, "plus Tsukasa and Rindō are all of far greater skill of culinary knowledge than he was".
Eizan narrowed his eyes in the direction of Megumi before returning his angry glare back towards Isshiki and Sōma. "Tsk. Whilst I'm sorry for what happened to Kenny..." he sneered contemptuously, "I could tell that his time at Tōtsuki was coming to an end. Director Azami was going to expel him after our victory".
Taking the decision to stop any further escalations of tempers from the participating chefs, and seeing that Senzaemon was busy, talking to other additional medical officers, Dōjima hurried forwards and after a small joint conversation with the new emcee, signalled that they should be a short juncture right now for both sides to calm down before continuing the cooking.
Unfortunately, Takumi Aldini seemed to have been pushed beyond that point by Eizan's comments.
"You son of a…" Takumi growled lunging forwards trying to punch the new eighth seat in the face for disparaging a fellow member of the Ten, and whilst he managed to land a hit to Eizan's chin the new eighth seat swivelled around and kicked the blonde Italian boy in the shins knocking him to the ground.
"You really are bastard you know that!" Nene interjected glaring at her fellow council seat. "No wonder you can't get a girlfriend".
Instantly seeing the seething hatred flicker between both Nene and Eizan, Isshiki placed himself in the middle of the two of them taking Nene by the hand whilst narrowed his eyes, and clenched his other hand, as a warning to the other counsel seat, or anyone else who might say something blatantly contemptuous.
However, as if saved from having to physically restrain Eizan, it was at that moment that they all heard the sound of the loud booming voice of former director Senzaemon.
Abruptly stopping their glaring match and looking behind around, the ex-seventh seat along with Takumi and Nene saw that Erina's grandfather was grumbling to himself as he read the looked over a signed order from Azami's aid.
"Enough!" Senzaemon roared defiantly. "There will now now be a brief hour and a half interval before the food war restarts!" He explained plainly but clearly exasperated. "This is the so-called will of Tōtsuki's Director. This is as a result of the incident that has just occurred so both sides will please vacate the stage and return to their designated common rooms".
Taking up the final part of the explanation was Dōjima who shook his head and sighed loudly. "The current bouts will be begun again when we return in an hour. So let's all just retire for now and calm down".
R.I.P -
Her Majesty: Queen Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor II [April 1926 - September 2022]
With Grace and Quiet Duty, She served Great Britain thusly. (Forever grateful for her calming presence to British life).
