Home Dimension - Kurogiri's Bar – Secondary HQ of the League of Villains -

The living-smoke-like Nomu Kurogiri was looking silently the sleeping and utterly broken form of Shigaraki lying immobile on the bed, still out cold thanks to All for One's personal doctor filling him in so much pain killers it was a miracle those drugs had not fully took the place of the guy's blood in his veins.

"Hoy! Himiko fainted again! What should I do with her?" Dabi's voice echoed from outside the man-child room, and it sounded extremely annoyed.

"Drop her in her bedroom, she'll wake-up sooner or later. Hopefully." Kurogiri answered, uninterested.

"You know? When I met her I thought she would have become one of us right away, not that I would have had to play babysitter until she finally caved! Your Training is taking too long to break her!" Dabi answered, and with how hard he was breathing, it was clear he was dragging around something heavy.

"She will get around, eventually. As for you, we all have to make sacrifices! Now take her to her room and stop complaining! We need her and her Quirk, so do your job."

"I will...I will…"

BLEEEEUARGH!

"Oooh! Goddamnit she puked on me again! And half-digested blood this time! SHIIIIT!" Dabi shrieked as a LOUD splashing noise echoed from outside Shigaraki's room.

"I'll be the one mopping that, so man-up, stop complaining and do as you are told. And once you have done dropping her off, have that new recruit move here asap! They had enough time to make a decision." Kurogiri answered.

"Urgh! Okay...Okay...I drop this bastard in her room...T-Take a shower and-BLUU AAAAARGH!`` A second loud splashing sound cut the man's answer as this time HE violently emptied his stomach.

"...Just go wash yourself, I'll take care of that too."

"Urgh...T-Thank you…" Dabi answered with a weak groan, and with steps sounding disgustingly wet, he moved away dragging the unconscious Himiko on his back to her room.

"Okay...So...Shigaraki is still out cold...Dabi is way too recognizable and with zero stealth abilities, and the only one of us with a Quirk suitable for infiltration won't get up before a good three days of overdose and random seizure fits...Fine!...I will call the little spy we have in UA and remind him that if he doesn't help us he will lose that pretty Quirk Master gave him. It is about time the investments here start showing some returns! Himiko and that kid are starting to look like they are not worth the effort!...Why do people have to be so difficult?" Kurogiri muttered with a sigh of dismay, already regretting going along with Shigaraki's little revenge plan against that strange Quirkless Chef.

How can their Luck be so bad even a powerless Chef becomes such a big ordeal for them?

Meanwhile – UA Dormitories -

How can a Chef be such a big ordeal for her?

'This can't continue.' those were the words echoing over and over inside Ochako's head as she sat at her desk in the middle of the night, staring at the blank page in front of her, she was looking at it even too intensely, but she did not dare to let her eyes wander around her room...Lest her eyes landed on her waitress uniform…

The pretty emerald-green uniform topped by a frilly white apron with her name on the heart area inside the green outline of a cloud…

The uniform that kept making her mind wander back to her part-time job in a small homely Restaurant…

So that she won't think about the owner and Chef of that Restaurant.

It was supposed to be simple: go work there, know the Owner of the place and understand that that curious prickle of warmth she felt when the Lord Dog came to her rescue was only gratitude she felt for Momo's BOYFRIEND sending help and saving her life and return her life to normal.

Because that was all it was! Gratitude! Plain and simple gratitude for having what would later become her best friend's boyfriend saving her life!

A! SIMPLE! PLAN! Get the job (and the surprisingly-generous pay it offered), know the guy, become friends and squash dead every possible feelings beside friendship or 'You are my Brother in all but blood' connection her stubborn heart was inclined to plant in her subconscious after he saved her life!...Even if at the time he and Momo were actually not in a relationship still...The thing became official only later.

But the Timeline was not important! Even if it all hangs on Izuku knowing Momo before her, that was not important. Ochako took the job with the express purpose of killing prematurely any chance she may actually be attracted to the guy!

To the guy and his adorable laugh!

Or his wit!

Or his poor jokes, and his ability to laugh at HER poor jokes, a mystery in itself.

Or his fanboying whenever she talked with him about her studies, and his utterly sincere praises to her abilities. That was always a nice Self-Esteem Boost.

Or how they shared the same taste in music and movies! (she also needed to remember to return the CD he gave her to try, he was right: Track 3, 5 and 7 really slapped!)

Or to those amazing vibrant eyes of his, she could swear she saw them actually sparkle when light hit them at the right angle!

Or to his calloused and warm hands that could either move fluid like water or be steady like rocks…

...Did she mention those adorable freckles he has? And how they tended to stand-out a bit more when he got flustered? Like tiny constellations!

Then there was that time where he first taught her how to make mochi where she ended-up with a smudge of bean paste on the tip of her nose and he let out a very cute chuckle while wiping her nose clean and…

"Shit." the girl's whispered curse came out as a hiss while she forcefully stopped that particular train of thought.

"You are not helping!" she uttered while glaring at her chest, and she will forever remark, if asked, that her Heart DID give two louder-than-normal beats in answer to her accusation that sounded suspiciously similar to the words 'Screw You.'.

"It's easy! I will write a letter where I formally leave the job and then I will forget about him...I will write it right now even!" she said to psyche herself up.

A nicely-written and worded letter were she thanks Izuku for the good memories they shared, for the opportunity he gave her in taking her as his Waitress, for the work experience she had collected...For the laughs they shared...For the times when she randomly burst to tears after the USJ incident and he just hugged her while telling her everything was alright...And the nice and supportive messages he sent her...And for all the times he did not bat an eye but promptly answered her phone calls whenever she called him at 4 AM because a new nightmare of the attack woke her up so to keep her company until she fell asleep again...Fo-For all the Autographs she managed to collect by working for him, l-l-like the Selfie she managed to take with Thirteen he printed and had the Space Hero sign for her...For all the time he 'casually' cooked more food than necessary and begged her to bring back home for free so to not waste it...A-A-And the smiles a-and l-laughs and good m-memories and…

"Ah, there goes another page...I need a new one…" the girl muttered with a shaky smile as she crumpled the now wet piece of paper to take a new one.

"It should not be so hard!" she said, hugging her knees to her chest so as to bury her face in there.

"I am sorry I can't continue working for you because...because…" Ochako tried reciting with a steady voice before her tone again dropped onto a shaky whisper.

"Because I am afraid that if I continue working here I will seriously fall in Love with you…" she then admitted with her face gaining an adorable shade of red.

"...Would it be that bad, though?…" Momo was a strong woman after all, she would surely bounce ba-

"As it turns out, yes. Yes it would be bad." Momo said from behind her, and Ochako's blood and innards for an instant condensed into a single solid block of ice as she slowly turned around to see the tall young woman level on her a stare that had no soul behind, only two orbs of steel that took place of the normally-warm eyes of the Yaoyorozu Heiress and that were now firmly locked on Ochako's chocolate ones.

"Your door was slightly ajar and I could hear you sniffle, so I thought to check on who I believed was a friend in distress. I was mistaken." the young woman explained with a tone even colder than the ice Shoto could summon.

Clad only in a baggy pajama the other girls knew was a tactic to hide Momo's generous assets from view should she wander the corridors at night, and with her hair left untied in a mesmerizing cascade of silky strands, stood the, admittedly, only obstacle between Ochako and a normal form of Romance between herself and the young Chef she worked with/for...And by the looks of how HARD Momo's hands were clenching her own hips while she glared at her traitorous friend, the Hero Student Creati was barely holding back herself from creating something heavy with the only purpose of bashing Ochako's skull open hard enough to repaint the entire room in a wonderful shade of Uravity's Gray matter.

"We need to talk." That is all Momo said, scowling, and for maybe the first time since the USJ Incident, Ochako wished there was actually that Nomu thing in front of her once again in place of that angry Girlfriend.

Because she was sure she could actually reason with the Nomu.

Other Dimension - Starlight City – Forest around the city -

Once debriefed Su Mu-Cheng about Izuku and Nejire, and especially on the Chef's abilities, a plan was rapidly drafted between the two Travelers and the destitute, and yet still legally-legit, Heiress and Elder of the Mu-Cheng Clan.

Since both old man Sun and his granddaughter did owe Izuku their life, and since one of the Chef's Mission Objectives coincided with Sun and Su's own quest for Justice and Revenge, the four of them agreed on working together.

Su Mu-Cheng will openly challenge her cousin Chacha during the finals of the Tournament the Emperor organized to celebrate the 1000 years anniversary since the birth of Starlight City, and win the fight so to achieve two things: Izuku and Nejire will get the Thunder Phoenix while Sun and Su will have the chance of meeting the normally-reserved Emperor in person to beg the man for Justice by presenting him the proof old man Sun collected detailing everything the current head of the Mu-Cheng Clan did to take over and the Prince direct involvement in it…

This in the hopes that the Emperor himself was not funding and endorsing the entire thing to begin with, once asked by Nejire Sun had admitted that even with his newfound power from his Breakthrough he wasn't sure he won't die from sheer sorrow at seeing how deep the betrayal against one of his sons actually ran.

Luckily Su Mu-Cheng was not truly alone, and there enters her childhood friend Jun...Or Fatty Jun as the more unkind people called him, and yet the short guy did not give a damn about it.

"Fatty Jun, Jun, Jun of the Heaven-Defying fat ass or just Jun Mo-Xie, what does it matter? I am still me! Calling a rose Shit won't change its scent, nor calling a man FAT will change his character! I am fat because I want to! Because I LOVE to eat good food and drink good wine! I wouldn't be a man if I could not live with the consequences of my actions! And also...This Amazing physique took me years to develop! How can I not be proud of it? Bwahahahahaha!" the ball-shaped short man answered, making his entire body tremble like jelly on the notes of his jolly laughter.

"I mean, that's one way of looking at it?" Izuku admitted, perplexed.

"See? You understand! That puts you WAAAAY above those narrow-minded young fools back in the city! Now, if only my older brothers, the Mighty 'Champions of the Mo-Xie Clan', could understand too, I would reach Eternal Happiness!" Jun answered.

"As long as you are happy!" Nejire answered, chuckling.

"Very much so, Miss. This is not fat, this is condensed happiness!" he replied while loudly slapping his belly.

"Oh, yes, you have so much happiness in there you need to roll out of bed instead of walking!" Su answered.

"Wuwuwuwu! Big Sister Su is still so merciless! Even after her beloved Brother Jun went out of his way to find a new sword for her to use and a battle dress for her to wear...That stuff was not cheap, you know? I had to anger quite a few Young Masters down at the auction house to get them!" the fat young man answered with a whine.

"Did they ask if you were courting death?" Nejire asked.

"Why, yes! You were there too?" he answered, impressed.

"Nope!" she answered, smirking, while next to her Izuku was valiantly trying to bite back his laughter.

"We are just hearing it quite often ever since we got here, that is all." she explained with a clearly-fake innocent smile.

"While all this is very interesting, and curiously almost insulting, we have more pressing matters to focus on: Little Su's training and Sir Izuku's own Mission from his Sect." old man Sun barged in the discussion with a no-nonsense demeanor.

Under Nejire's suggestion, Izuku had explained their being there specifically looking for both the Phoenix and the recipe of a local delicacy as a Mission of sort of the Sect they both hailed from, a set of terminology the young woman was surprisingly swift in learning from the tidbits they both heard from the people around them to create a cover story clearly more believable than 'An Extra-Dimensional Entity sent me here'.

"Well, I need to train to recover my lost strength for the Challenge against Chacha! We only have three days before the finals and they are clearly stuffing her full of Elixirs and Pills to speed-up her Cultivation. But rest assured: Natural Talent won't lose to Cheating this time!" Su promised with blazing eyes.

"We will help you train as well," Nejire promised.

"Thank you, Miss Nejire." the other woman answered, grateful.

"While you do all that hard work you Cultivating Maniacs love so much, I will instead do what I do best: Aggravate Assholes and find Good Restaurants. Because I know who to annoy into betting their prized recipes in a cooking contest!" Jun instead declared with his already squinting eyes narrowing further into thin slits of maliciousness.

"Who would that be?" Izuku asked.

"Meng Hao, of course!"

"The owner of the Phoenix Palace Restaurant? He is deemed the best Chef of Starlight city, second only to the Emperor's personal Chef!" Old Man Sun asked with wide eyes.

"He is also an Egocentric Idiot that is easy to rile-up if you know where to tickle him AND a fellow Gambler like me, with the only difference that I know when to stop, he doesn't. And we can use that as an opening to make him accept: if I tell him my family will ditch his Restaurant because our new Chef is way better than him, the blow to his pride and the threat of losing the money coming from my family (especially my money since I kind of like what he makes...maybe even too much) will pretty much force him to accept." Jun explained.

"You would do this for me, Mister Jun?" Izuku asked, touched.

"You saved Big Sister Su from a very terrible fate, you saved maybe the ONLY person in the entire mortal realm that can see beyond the fat to see the real Jun and be my friend just because she wants to...That to me means a lot, and even if I had to spit on the face of Gods to pay you back, I would gladly do it."

"Thank you then, Mister Jun." the Chef answered, grateful.

"Stupid Jun. I am your friend just out of pity." Su answered by slapping the back of the young man's neck roughly, and somehow that made him chuckle.

"You keep telling yourself that, Big Sister. Then maybe one day you will believe it yourself! Just like you will believe your own lie about you not having a MASSIVE crush on that young weapon-smith down at the celestial forge."

"S-S-SHUT UP! SHUT UP OR I WILL KICK YOU SO HARD YOU WILL FINALLY TURN SLIM! I DO NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON HIM!" Su shrieked in answer.

"Tsundere?" Izuku muttered.

"Oh, boy! A very bad case!" Nejire confirmed, and both shared a smirk at her flustered face.

"Aaah! Just like her mother, absolute zero experience when it comes to Love." Old Man Sun muttered with a sad sigh and tear-stained eyes.

"Keep lying to yourself, sister! In the meantime, I will go annoy Meng Hao until he accepts the Challenge. You only focus on being ready at the moment's notice, Sir Izuku! That fool may even intend to have the fight between you two right away, depending on how annoyed I manage to make him! Bwahahahahahaha!" Jun declared with a loud laugh while running away with such fast and light-weight swiftness one would not believe the guy actually weighed like three people stuck together.

"While we wait for him to return, can I ask Sir Izuku and Miss Nejire to lend us your skills? You may have not been trained as warriors, but I know your strength must still be noteworthy if you could travel here alone." Sun asked.

"Sure, maybe even Whitey can help." Izuku answered.

"Thank you, even if I don't know how a Chef and a Mistress can actually help me," Su answered with a dubious, and slightly smug tone…

She will soon regret those words when between Nejire's Spiral Cannon and her Quirk's other attacks and Izuku's Knocking and other assorted techniques the Cultivator will be forced to play defensively way more than she anticipated. And the bruises, lots and lots of painful bruises.

The Next Day – Starlight City – In front of the Phoenix Palace Restaurant -

Izuku, in his life as Zaus, had seen plenty of restaurants both in the Human and in the Gourmet World: minimalist, rustic, modern, classic, futuristic, themed and so on so forth...And even after all those years, he could not help grimace, or even cringe, whenever he met a Restaurant that could only be described as Flamboyant, if one wanted to be really, really gentle about it.

The Phoenix Palace Restaurant was so Flamboyant it hurt his eyes, and that was literal: a five story pagoda covered by golden metal that was clearly shined daily to make sure walls and tiles did reflect the sun's light as much as possible so to seem like the building was made of pure light.

Then there were the GIANT paintings of blood-red phoenixes adorning the front of the building and the door shaped like a giant dragon head with its maw stretched open to accommodate in its throat the two massive golden doors covered entirely in drawings of flowers; then lanterns, bells and banners finished decorating the front entrance of the place.

"Even calling it gaudy doesn't make it justice." Izuku muttered, he was feeling his skin crawl whenever his eyes strayed away from the open doors.

"My eyes are hurting, Icchan." Nejire admitted, actually squinting a bit to fight off the glare of the sunlight reflecting from the building's gold coating.

"Yes, it's a bit on the flashy side. That is why I come here for dinner only, less light reflecting everywhere threatening to burn my eyes into a crisp. Unfortunately old bastard Meng knew what he was doing when he took over this place, at this hour of the day the light hits his restaurant just right to blind half the city in his own way to remind everybody where to find him if they want to eat well." Jun answered while shielding his eyes with a hand.

"And people still come here for lunch?" Izuku asked, appalled.

"Food's good, that's all that matters to them, they just need to shield their eyes long enough to enter, come, let's get in before a stray ray of light incinerates us." Jun answered while guiding both inside.

Gold. There was gold everywhere inside, enough to be just as eye-catching as the outside.

"Is it all real gold?" Nejire asked, appalled.

"Heavens no! Meng just knows a good alchemist, that girl knows how to create a paint that replicates gold's own color and glints to perfection, enough that petty thieves are often caught trying to peel some off. She makes it only for him, fortunately. Even the Emperor himself banned the usage of this blasted thing outside of the Restaurant's own exterior."

"Thank God! Where is Mister Meng?" Izuku asked.

"I am here, youngster!" a deep, gravely voice answered as a giant of a man with silver hair walked towards him.

The owner of the Restaurant was just as curious as his Restaurant: the tall (a bit more than two meters and a half tall) body was big and muscled while the head was small and wrinkled, just by looking it seemed like somebody photoshopped an old man's head on a thirty-something bodybuilder's body.

"He is a Golden Sun Core Cultivator, so be careful." Jun whispered.

"Okay?" Izuku whispered back, they had tried countless times explaining to him how Cultivation Levels worked, and to the Chef it still sounded needlessly complicated, especially with all the edgy names the various levels had.

"I am Level 2, that's it! Easy, simple, clearly understandable if one needed to put it on scale...Why did they have to make it so complex instead?!" the young man thought in misery.

"So this is my Challenger? He still smells of tits' milk! I thought I was supposed to fight a Master!" Meng hissed in contempt.

"Hohoho! Yeah, it's that pride that always makes sure you lose everything with the dices!" Jun answered, laughing.

"Junior, you dare?! The last six times were just bad luck!" the man roared in answer.

"My being young should not be an issue, please. We are both Chefs, it's a matter of skills not brute strength," Izuku answered with a tired begging tone.

"Youngsters these days! You think you can win only out of being you-KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Meng's annoying tirade against young people died messily when Izuku's hand closed tight around the man's testicles and squeezed hard, and he then further shocked the others by lifting the guy from the floor with that same hand no matter Meng being twice Izuku's size.

"I have it up here with your people's boisterous talks! Everywhere we go is full of guys and girls going 'Kowtow!','Courting Death!' or 'I am this Level or that Level!' get to the kitchen and cook, goddamnit! I am not here to listen to you prattling!" the young Chef ordered, squeezing even harder.

"I WILL! I WILL! I AM SORRY! STOP! YOU WILL SQUISH THEM! STOOOOOP!" Meng begged with a high-pitched chipmunk voice.

"Good." he answered after dropping the tall man.

"Oh, God...Oh, God I can't feel them anymore…" the man squeaked while walking bowlegged towards the area he prepared for the Challenge.

"I know I should reprimand you and tell you to be calm…" Nejire started saying.

"But?"

"But if another Young Master approaches me to get me to join his Harem by citing their Clan Name and Cultivation Level or whatever I WILL start blasting people. This world is aggravating." she admitted in shame.

"And you haven't seen High Guardian Academy or Beacon…" the Chef muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing, just bad memories. Let's go."

"If you say so," she answered, shrugging helplessly.

Two wide tables had been prepared in the middle of the restaurant, in an area the owner created by moving away most of the tables besides the two where the four judges will sit and try the dishes the two Chefs will prepare; in the name of fairness, Jun selected two judges while Meng Hao selected the other two, and all four of them were already looking at the two Chefs with calculative gazes.

"Can we trust them? If I lose, I want to lose because I was not good enough, not because, you know,"

"Because the opponent cheated?" Jun asked.

"Yes."

"Have no fear. This challenge is a matter of honor, I choose Meng Hao because I know that while prideful, he also values his own honor. He won't accept a victory through cheating, and since I personally know the guy and girl he has chosen, I also know that they will judge fairly."

"Good, thank you, Mister Jun." Izuku answered, sighing in relief.

"You just go and show him how it's done, Izuku! Give it your all!" the fat guy replied with a strong slap to the Chef's back that made him stumble a little forward.

"You can do it, Icchan!" Nejire cheered aloud for her friend.

When both Chefs took place at their own work-station, Jun himself addressed the crowd slowly forming inside and outside the restaurant with a blinding wide smile.

"WELCOME! WELCOME ESTEEMED GUESTS TO THIS AMAZING COOKING CHALLENGE!" the young man yelled with a dramatic flourish that made his wide belly jiggle violently.

"Today we are here to partake in a Battle fought not with mighty fists or Qi Arts, but with a more mundane, elegant and yet equally-precise skill: Cooking!" Jun said, basking in the cheering of the crowd.

"A mysterious young Traveler has recently reached our beautiful Starlight City while on a long, strenuous quest: become the world greatest Chef! To prove that the Dao of Cooking he himself embraces is unmatched! Then who's a better Opponent than Meng Hao himself, the greatest Chef of Starlight City second only to the Legendary Heavenly Chef cooking exclusively for the Emperor in person?! Well! We are about to find out if our Challenger truly is a worthy opponent!" Jun said while opening his arms wide.

"He is lying it a bit thick…" Izuku muttered.

"Let him, poor guy, is a naturally-born showman and nobody ever let him enjoy it, and a bit of Hype is good, it keeps the audience focused on the action." Meng answered, smirking.

"True."

"So! The Challenge is actually quite easy: Both contestants have to choose a single ingredient and create three different Dishes with it! It will be then up to our judges to decide who won and who lost! A big applause to our esteemed judges!" Jun finished his speech while moving an arm to the two men and two women acting as judges that gave a regal bow to the audience once introduced.

"Amazing! Now! What Dishes will be prepared, I wonder." Jun asked the two.

"Of course I will prepare the three most famous dishes of my restaurant! The Roasted Wings of the Golden Phoenix, the Thousand Spices Soup and my personal favourite: Burning Devils' legs. All made by using the tender meat of the Celestial Beast known as Inferno Bird." Meng Hao declared with a fanged smile, for the awe of the crowd.

"Which is?" Nejire muttered.

"Listening to the System, it's basically a carnivorous chicken big as a pig and perennially covered in fire. Its meat is very spicy by itself, so most of the skill required is in removing enough spiciness to make it edible." Izuku whispered back in answer.

"Oh! Is it that thing we captured before going up that mountain?"

"Yep! The thing that tried eating you, yes."

"A truly amazing choice, what about you, Chef Izuku?" Jun asked.

"I will use the Celestial Bull Conqueror," he answered.

"...The monster of Starlight Forest?" Jun asked with a faint voice.

"Wasn't very monstrous, just big." Izuku answered while summoning from the System's storage a collection of various cuts of meat very dark-red in colour.

"Or at least it wasn't that monstrous when Shiro just dragged the beaten-to-death thing by the tail into our small camp yesterday while we helped Miss Su training…" he then thought once remembered how giant that colossal (six meters tall) bull looked compared to the tiny white fluff-ball. Izuku was starting to wonder how strong the adorable pet still asleep around his neck actually was.

Many experts gave a strangled choking gasp in answer to that claim they couldn't even declare ballsy, since they all knew the stories of that bull terrorizing three fourths of the area around the city, of the giant single bull that even alone was the bane of Starlight City's mighty Army.

"And what will you make with it?"

"What question is that? Spicy Beef Noodles of course! Oh! And Celestial Bull Conqueror Filet Mignon with Fire Bird's Egg Omurice and Celestial Bull's Sweet-N-Sour Ribs!" he answered with a wide smile.

"You actually caught that blasted thing to use it as an Ingredient...You are strong, aren't you, kid?" Meng said with a low chuckle.

"Kinda?" Izuku answered with a shy smile.

"...BWAHAHAHAHA! That Fatty Bastard Jun tricked me! BWAHAHAHAHA!"

"Uh?!"

"Aah, it's okay. When he came to me, Jun sold you as a 'wet behind the ears' young Chef trying to make a name for himself by challenging me, and I fell for it! Bwahahahaha!" Meng admitted with a long laugh.

"Mister Jun!" Izuku said with a gasp.

"Sorry! I had to prey on his Ego!" Jun answered, chuckling amused.

"Ah, screw you, I am not that prideful. But at least I now know I can go all-out in this little Challenge! Ah! So? Are you judges ready to eat some one-of-a-kind meat? This kid really got his hands on that Monster Bull!" Meng said with a wide, amused smile.

"Really?!" the crowd asked as one in shock.

"On my honor as a Chef and man!" Meng answered while puffing-out his chest.

"Oh Gods! I am going to eat some legendary meat for free! AH-HA! Eat your heart out, Long Chen! I AM THE JUDGE! Not you!" one of the judges declared in unbearable pride.

"SCREW YOU!" somebody from the crowd roared in answer.

"Relax, my friends! Be quiet and let these Masters work, because the battle starts NOW!" Jun answered, and with his last scream both Chefs immediately assaulted their chosen ingredient.

While Meng started plucking away the feathers of the giant monster chicken, Izuku started by rinsing his bull ribs with running water to then transfer them to a large pot he then filled in fresh clear water until the meat went covered.

"How are you making them?" Nejire asked, curious.

"I am following the original 'tang cu xiao pai' recipe from Shanghai. Only with bull meat instead of pork." Izuku answered.

"Oooh!"

"I will use your shaoxing wine if you don't mind!" he said, uncorking a bottle covered in carvings of animals Whitey took for him from Meng's storage room.

"Uh? Okay! Just be careful, that is from one of my best batches, don't you dare ruin or waste it!" the other answered, growling.

"Have no fear, I know what I am doing." the young man answered, and once put aside a generous glass of said wine, he moved to cut the ginger into thin stripes, a couple green onions into tiny cubes and added those with some of the wine to the pot, everything topped by some star anise and minced chili pepper.

"Okay, while I wait for it to start boiling so to blanch the meat, I will prepare the noodles." Izuku declared after putting a lid to the pot.

"Need a hand, Icchan?" Nejire asked.

"If you don't mind, some water please!" the Chef answered while gathering the flour.

"Here it is!" she answered, already with a big pitcher of water in her hands.

"So fast!" he admitted with wide eyes.

"Hehehe!"

"Hn! Good technique," Meng admitted, watching in satisfaction his challenger taking a very short time to mix and knead a perfectly-smooth ball of dough.

"Thanks, and you were not kidding, you really will use a lot of spices for your soup!" Izuku answered, smiling wide. He had just left the dough to rest on a side and was rapidly removing the foam from on top of the meat pot with a ladle while he talked.

"You'll see! It will taste just as good as it looks!" Meng answered, smugly.

Finally done with the boiling, the bull ribs went transferred to a colander to drain while the remaining broth went filtered to remove ginger, green onion, star anise, chili pepper and any other residuals; Meng in the meantime finished covering the chicken wings with the marinade mixture he had prepared so to put them aside for the moment.

"What about the meat? The filet thingy." Nejire asked.

"The filet Mignon? That will be the easier dish, kinda. I have already cut them into shape and put the meat under marinade. I will need to prepare the Omurice for last since letting it turn cold will ruin the taste." Izuku answered.

"Aaah! Omurice! How I love it!" she admitted.

"Good to know! I will make your portion extra large then!"

"Thank you!" Nejire answered with a sing-song voice, and boldly kissed his cheek that immediately turned him redder than a tomato, all for her amusement.

Even with his face reaching the melting temperature of steel out of embarrassment, Izuku's cooking skills didn't suffer a bit, and after mixing black vinegar and light soy sauce in a small bowl, he moved to the next step of his ribs recipe.

"Peanut oil and sugar…" he muttered, collecting both ingredients from the System's storage and adding both to a wok already set on the fire at medium heat.

"Are you going to fry them in sugar?" Nejire asked, confused.

"Surprising, isn't it? And yet it's a fundamental part of the recipe." Izuku answered, chuckling, he was stirring constantly with a spatula to dissolve the sugar slowly, and once sure that the mixture had the right consistency and gained a uniform pale yellow colour and smooth texture, he immediately and carefully added the ribs to the wok.

Meng in the meantime had recovered the legs from their own marinade and had started roasting them on the thin metal grill he had prepared over some red-hot stones, soon making the mesmerizing sound of the legs' fat dripping and sizzling on the hot stones fill the room followed right after by the mouth-watering smell of roasting meat.

"...What's important is stirring constantly to coat them well with melted sugar, until the ribs turn golden brown, then you turn off the heat." Izuku explained aloud.

"Ookay," Nejire answered while taking notes on a small pad her friend gave her.

"Write that down, write that down." Meng instructed one of his assistants with a whisper.

"Yessir." the girl answered with a nod, she too wrote down everything on a piece of parchment.

A short time later -

"Finally!" With a cheerful laugh while tilting the wok, Izuku used a spatula to place the ribs on one side of the wok so as to freely scoop out the extra oil and transfer it into a small bowl, until only about a single tablespoon of oil remained.

"Now, this is the final step, and it's a very delicate one," Izuku said, adding more wood to the fire under his workstation to raise the fire's intensity to medium-high heat.

Moving a hand to hover above the wok, Izuku checked the temperature, and as soon as he was satisfied, he added the vinegar and soy sauce mixture over the ribs and quickly stirred them until the resulting sauce reduced and turned thick enough to coat the ribs.

"Done! Now some garnish of chopped green onion, and they are ready!" Izuku finally declared, adding the tiny green flecks of onion to the various plates of ribs he prepared.

"Oooh! They look delicious!" one of the judges admitted in surprise once she got her portion delivered.

"Here are my Sweet and sour bull ribs. Please enjoy."

"The meat of that living nightmare...I wonder how such a scary monster will taste…" a male judge said while lifting one of the ribs with a pair of jade chopsticks and plopping it whole in his mouth.

Squiiish!

"Oh-Oooh!" The answer was: delicious, and the man's moan at the taste showed it!

"The meat itself is just so springy and tasty! FUCK! I think I have bitten through the bone without noticing, but I can't stop chewing!" another judge admitted, and while throwing away her composure, the lady kept filling her mouth in ribs until her cheeks bulged-out like a hamster and then munching the giant mouthful voraciously with LOUD cracking sounds echoing in the room since she did decide to eat the bones as well so to not risk wasting even a single atom of meat.

"I'll be damned, boy! This is good! And it goes well with wine too! Ha-ah!" Meng admitted with a loud laugh, he just kept eating ribs and drinking big dishes of wine and by the time his plate was empty the guy's face had taken a vibrant red colour.

"Ehm...Your legs?" Izuku answered.

"OH, FUCK!" Meng shrieked in horror at his slip-up, luckily his own dish still came-out perfect no matter his small moment of distraction.

"Here they are, my spicy Inferno Bird drumsticks! The Burning Devils' legs!"Meng declared proudly while delivering the portions of his own dish.

"Aaah! So spicy! So goood!" Izuku admitted with shining eyes while eating.

"No nit-picking? No looking for errors to put me down? I am your Opponent, you know?" Meng asked, surprised.

"I know we are having a Challenge, but I am a Chef first and foremost! I care about the final dish and seeing the Ingredients being respected and handled properly. And you did an amazing job at that!" he answered.

"Oh...Thank you. So you really liked them?"

"I loved them! Do we move to the next dish?" Izuku asked.

"Ah! Yes, yes. Of course!" Meng replied.

"My word...Choosing a winner will be so hard!" one of the judges admitted.

"Never eaten so well before, Meng should get challenged more often, he is cooking even better than usual!" another said.

"The stranger is a damn big surprise too, so young and cooking like that?! That's a prodigy alright!"

What followed was Izuku's Spicy beef noodles (Lord Dog's seal of approval) against Meng Hao's spice-full chicken soup, and this time as well, judging by the loud slurping sounds coming from the judges' table, both dishes were so good manners went thrown out of the window without a second thought as the two men and two women shamelessly licked their plates clean.

"I think this round is on you…" Meng muttered with a bitter voice.

"Uhm?" Izuku, already moving to have seconds of the guy's soup, asked.

"Nothing, nothing. Finish that second portion of soup you took, then we will move to our final dish."

"Thanks!"

"...Who taught you, though? You use some exotic techniques and your speed makes Golden Core Cultivators like me look slow. This is ignoring the ridiculous notion that you have got a Divine Treasure Kitchen Knife, of course."

"My Teacher was a slave-driver. A madman that knew no mercy when training his pupils." Izuku answered with a wide smile.

"Then he was a good teacher! No Mercy shown means that the Students that survive will be good ones! Bwahahahahaha! My own master was the same, and I remember my hatred for him oh so fondly!" Meng replied while returning to his workstation.

"Boss? Aren't you being too friendly?" one of the man's underlings asked, confused.

"I thought he was just a stuck-up brat with too big Ego, what he is instead is a Master of the Kitchen just like me, and Masters respect each other!" he answered with a fanged smile.

"But...But...But he is younger than me!"

"And that means you will need to train harder, now shut up and let me work! My Golden Wings are my pride and joy and I won't let ANYTHING distract me from preparing a PERFECT Dish!" Meng roared, making his workers scamper away in fear.

Unfortunately, while Izuku was recovering the various cuts of Filet Mignon of the giant monster bull he had put aside, a strange intruder forced his way inside the restaurant to point a bony finger at the Chef with a savage sneer.

"That boy is finished! Meng Hao has no rivals in Starlight City when it comes to cooking!" the very old man declared with a wheezing laugh, he was clad in fiery-red robes left open to show his chest that while extremely muscled was still completely covered in wrinkles.

"Oh, no…It's Him." Meng Hao whimpered with an expression of misery.

"I wouldn't underestimate Icchan, if I were you. He is the King of Chefs." Nejire answered, nonplussed.

"Foolish brat! He is just a frog at the bottom of a well! He has no idea how harsh the world is outside-"

"Yes, yes. 'Can't see Mount Tai' and all that." Nejire interrupted him while rolling her eyes.

"NO! I mean, yes, but I was about to say-"

"That thing about Oriole and Cicadas? Or the distance between Heaven and Earth?" she asked, sighing.

Nejire had finally remembered where she had seen a situation like the one both she and Izuku were in unfold, only she saw it happening in one of those Novels her friend Tamaki would read from time to time and that she tried to read too, but while cringe in itself, it was even worse living it in person compared to reading about it!

"Show some respect, brat! This Old Monster is not afraid of administering some discipline to a bimbo like you!" the old man answered, and the Bimbo remark caused Nejire to bristle in fury.

"I was taught to respect my elders, but also to not forget my own self-respect! You are being very rude!" she answered.

"I don't have to play nice! I am stronger than you, so I can act as I please!" the old man answered, and moved to grab the girl's neck with a claw-like hand.

"Whitey."

CLANG!

Without even lifting his eyes from the wok he was cooking with, Izuku gave a gentle order and the robot's big hand closed fast as lightning around the old man's wrist to stop him.

"Thank you. All yours, Nejire. Sorry but I can't look away from the eggs," the young Chef said while still carefully mixing the eggs he was cooking.

"I am sorry for insinuating that you people talk like a broken record, that was uncalled for and I apologize for my rudeness. But violence is hardly the right answer to it." The girl, surprisingly, apologized to the old man with a formal bow instead of attacking him.

"Tche! You don't know how the world works then! Your words can only be amended with your death or me selling you to a brothel! Only then will I be able to save face!" the old warrior answered, this time sending his other hand towards Nejire's throat with its fingers straight like a blade.

CLANG!

"Troublemaker, cease the attack or you will be stripped as an example to others!" Whitey declared once grabbed that same hand to give Nejire time to fly back and away from the guy.

"…"

"Stripped?" Meng asked, appalled.

"It's Whitey's way to teach manners." Izuku answered, shrugging.

"You want...to sell me...TO A BROTHEL?!" Nejire roared in anger with thick spirals of energy flowing around her like a storm.

"Why? You think you are good for anything else? Besides standing there looking pretty, you don't really offer much else."

"THAT'S IT! WHIT-"

"Okay! Screw it! SPIRAL CANNON!" turning almost apoplectic in rage, and interrupting Izuku's own roar suddenly enough the young Chef painfully bit his tongue, Nejire gave a spectacular scream and, for a lack of better term, pulverized everything in front of her with her strongest attack to date.

The savage storm of energy launched the crowd of onlookers out of the restaurant together with the psychotic old man, and the warriors between that crowd had to activate whatever magical artifact they possessed to protect themselves while still being sent flying.

BOOOOOOM!

"MY RESTAURANT!" Meng shrieked in horror.

"Feeling better?" Izuku asked, looking at her in worry.

"Yes...I...I am sorry about this…I shouldn't snap like that." she answered with a mortified tone

Sigh! "I can't exactly blame you, that was Linley of the Blazing Fists, and while a strong warrior, he is as unpleasant as you can make it. I don't want him anywhere near my restaurant, but I guess he managed to sneak-in all the same thanks to the ruckus of this Challenge." Meng Hao answered, sighing.

"If he is that unpleasant, why don't people call him out on his manners?" Izuku asked.

"Because he is a Monster alright, monstrously strong...And He knows he can get away with whatever he does or says just thanks to his strength."

"That's unfair!"

"EH! Tell it to all the people he crippled or killed just for a laugh, or while he was drunk, the world is not a nice place." Meng answered with a miserable expression.

"If he is that dangerous he should be arrested!" Nejire said, appalled.

"Oh, they tried, but there seems to be no prison able to keep him contained for long...And strength like his is too valuable, so many influential families help him stay out of prison in exchange for him taking care of issues they don't want to fix themselves."

BOOOM!

To both Travelers' surprise, old Linley reappeared inside the Restaurant only slightly disheveled from an attack that back home could send even giant Villains fly into dream-land, his robes were now a bit crumpled while he was scowling harshly. But not a bruise could be seen anywhere on him.

"You dare attack me instead of accepting your fate?!"

"I won't be sold to a brothel just to appease your ego!" Nejire answered, scowling just as hard.

"I decided that that is your fate and that will happen!"

"No. Because the world doesn't revolve around you! You Villain!" she answered.

"My strength is unmatched, and the World is ruled by the strong, so what I say happens!"

"Not on my watch! I will never leave Justice in the hands of a Selfish man like you!" Nejire answered while once again collecting spirals of energy in both her hands.

"So a mere child dares lift her head in front of me? So be it then! Don't blame this senior for being merciless! You asked for it!" Linley roared in fury as he dashed forward with both hands covered by pure-black fire.

"SPIRAL CANNON!" Nejire yelled while pouring as much power as she could in the giant storm of energy she shot at the old psycho.

"Burning Palms of the Raging Buddha!" Shockingly, the two-handed palm thrust of the old warrior pushed through the attack with great effort, but he was still soon upon the girl, ready to hit her on the chest with full intention of killing her instantly.

"Goddamnit...Whitey!" Izuku in the meantime gave a tired sigh and asked for his Robot's help.

"DIE!" Linley roared.

BOOOM!

The sound was atrocious, forcing many members of the crowd to cover their ears in agony as blood faintly dripped from them, but when the smoke cleared, Whitey was in front of Nejire with both Linley's flaming hands lying flat on his round belly and no damage whatsoever visible from the impact.

Sigh! "Thank you, Icchan." the girl said with a sigh.

"What?!" the old warrior gasped in shock.

"I would have intervened myself, but I am almost done with the omurice. Whitey has been created to deal with these issues, so it was not a problem asking him to help you. I know you have no need of somebody protecting you, your strength is great in itself, but you will need to forgive me for butting-in still to protect somebody precious to me, sorry but I can't help it." Izuku admitted with a shy smile.

"I know, I know, I am not offended." Nejire answered, smiling wide herself.

Him calling her 'Precious' helped as well.

"How dare you ignore me?! I will just smash your puppet to pieces and THEN I will tear apart your precious woman! I will force you to eat her corpse!" Linley declared with crazed eyes.

"Wh-"

"Whitey! I had enough! Strip him!``To Izuku's surprise, Nejire herself gave the order.

"...Host?"

"You heard the lady, go ahead." Izuku answered with a helpless shrug.

"FOOL! YOUR TOY CAN'T DEFEAT ME! Life-Ending Palms of the Ashura!" the crazed old warrior yelled as hundreds of hits landed on Whitey's chest in a single instant.

"Troublemaker has shown no intention of stopping. Initiating Disciplinary Stripping!" On the notes of those words, and while the old man was still hitting him...

Whitey's big left hand went up…

WHAM!

And then the same hand came down right after in a vertical slap that instantly slammed Linley face-down and buried his body several inches into the floor in a perfect imprint.

"…" nobody present could wrap their heads around what they just saw.

Linley, the Monster of the blazing hands, downed by a single slap, and the ones between them that actually fought the guy and miraculously lived to tell the tale felt both vindicated and humiliated, because that robot made it look so easy to down that human Demon!

STRAAAAAP!

As an added insult, that same hand then teared-off the old warrior's clothes like nothing, and the crowd knew those robes used to be made with the rare and priceless skin and fur of some high level and hard to kill Demon Beast, and yet the robot managed to tear those like tissue paper. Just the price of replacing those robes made many faint in horror!

"Oh, God! Old man ass!" a youngster in the back shrieked in disgust as the completely naked and unconscious Linley flew past him once thrown outside by Whitey.

"Never heard of pants?!" Nejire shrieked in horror while covering her eyes.

"Apparently not. Just like with personal hygiene, good manners and much more, he never bothered with it." Meng answered, grimacing in disgust.

"I really hope that slap will be enough to make him drop this and just leave," Izuku muttered.

"HOW DARE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" a howl of madness resounded from outside as a blur flew back into the restaurant.

"Apparently not." Meng answered, sighing in dismay.

"He is very persistent,"

"You have no idea, my boy!"

"THIS OLD MONSTER WON'T LOSE FACE AGAINST A STUPID PUPPET!" Linley yelled as an aura of thick black flames encased his body, luckily hiding his bits from view.

"The Troublemaker is not backing down and has been branded as a Menace to the Host for his Killing Intent. Entering Battle Mode!" Whitey declared with his monotonous robot voice gaining an icy edge.

"Battle mode?! You can't defeat me! Taste the Full Power of my secret technique, Toy! Soul rending, Dao destroying, Dantian severing, heart crushing Billion Raging Buddha's Palms!" Linley roared in mad fury, and upon reaching the robot, the naked old man rained on Whitey's chest a deluge of hits delivered with such speed it literally looked like a billion hands were attacking the robot at the same time!

Thum! Thum! Thum! Thum! Thum! Thum!...

And still the robot showed no reaction whatsoever, he just stood there with a relaxed posture and waited for the fool to finish his tantrum.

"Troublemaker, please desist, this is humiliating for us both. The Cringe Levels are too high." Whitey asked.

"SHUT UP!"

"Standing here, I realize…" Nejire hummed to herself, and Izuku could swear he heard that from somewhere before.

"Troublemaker is making a fool of himself, and this Unit won't permit a Troublemaker to waste the Host's time with their temper tantrums." To Linley's horror, Whitey walked forward through his endless rain of hits and then bent down to grab the old warrior's right ankle in a lightning-fast fluid motion.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Without any fancy names being called-out, Whitey simply lifted Linley above his head by the ankle and slammed the guy down on the floor several times so hard the entire restaurant trembled like in an earthquake.

"Had enough?" the Robot asked.

"Ptu! N-N-Not yet!" Linley answered definitely after spitting most of his teeth.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Once again, Whitey used his old on the man's ankle to slam him on the floor, in the exact same place so to deepen the body imprint that had formed.

"Had enough?"

"N-N-No!"

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

"Had Enough?"

"I-I B-B-B-Barely felt it!"

"Good Heavens…" one of the onlookers muttered in horror.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

"Had Enough?"

"Whitey…" Izuku tried saying.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

"Had Enough?"

"Whitey-chan, I think that's enough…" Nejire tried saying as well.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

"Had Enough?"

"Is your bodyguard enjoying this?" Meng asked, horrified.

"I don't know!" Izuku admitted.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

"Had Enough?"

"S-S-S-Stupid puppet!"

"Oh, come on! Are you a masochist?!" Nejire exclaimed in shock.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

"Had Enough?"

"…Y-Y-Yes." Finally, after several rounds, Linley, or whatever mass of bruises that used to be him, hung limp in the robot's grasp.

"Good. Will The Troublemaker trouble the Host and his Guest again?" Whitey asked.

"N-N-No, sir...L-L-Linley learned his lesson, Sir…"

"Good. You can leave the premises now." The Robot declared, lifting the old man again above his head, but this time instead of slamming him down, he threw him, and the once-mighty Linley was simply sent flying away out of the restaurant so fast the old man disappeared beyond the horizon in less than a second.

"Anybody else wishes to aggravate the Host or Miss Nejire?" the robot asked.

"NO, SIRE!" the various people present, and the Young Masters hiding in there now doing everything they could to not stand-out, answered as one.

"Good."

Sigh! "Sorry about the sorry spectacle. And about your restaurant." Izuku said with a sorrowful tone.

"Don't worry, I had already planned for renovations to begin with, your bodyguard just sped-up my schedule a little. Is your dish ready?" Meng Hao answered, having finished wrapping the wings he was working on in edible gold leaf, and having done it with such care every crease of the skin was still present, as if the wings had been naturally made of gold.

"Yes, I am ready, here is my Dish: Celestial Bull Conqueror Filet Mignon with Fire Bird's Egg Omurice." Izuku said while presenting the thick disks of perfectly-cut meat topped by the wobbly spheres of golden omelet.

"What is that?" Meng asked.

"The gold I will use to cover the meat, and contrary to yours, my gold will actually be tasty!" Izuku answered, and with a swift movement of his knife he gently punctured each small egg bubble that then ruptured and delicately unfolded to cover the bite-sized portions of filet mignon in a thick cover of golden egg custard interspersed by tiny specks of green herbs and red chilies.

"It really looks very similar to molten gold!" one of the assistants of Meng admitted in surprise.

"SILENCE! God, you don't have to give a comment about everything that happens!" the giant guy bellowed, annoyed.

"A bit of sauce, and it's ready." Izuku finished the dish by topping everything with a spoonful of a delicate sweet-and-sour spicy sauce he made to give the gold a bit of red color.

"Here, try it. My own gold dish!"

"Don't mind if I do!" Meng answered, using two jade chopsticks to pick up one of the meat disks in his plate and plopping the entire thing in his mouth with an eager expression.

"Ahahaha! Just what I expected from somebody endorsed by old man Sun Mu-Cheng! This thing is damn amazing!" Jun admitted with a jovial laugh after wiping his own plate clean in a matter of seconds.

"He cooked the egg into a salty custard, and managed to create a pocket out of the same egg to contain it, his handling of the ingredient is nothing short of sublime." one of the judges commented, pleased.

The meat was just melting in the mouth at each bite, a flavour encompassed by the egg cover that while delicate and soft, hugged and coated the tongue in the pure taste of the egg, enriched by the chilies tickling the nose and the herbs giving it a more round taste with a faint, captivating spiced undertone.

"How was it?" Izuku asked.

"Damn good! Just as I thought, you are no ordinary Chef. There is a thing I don't understand, though."

"Yes?"

"I admit that my gold-covered wings have always been my joy, so I may sound pretty defensive of the recipe, but I need to ask: why do you hate gold leaf that much?" Meng Hao asked.

"Because it's only glitter." Izuku answered immediately.

"Hn?"

"It has no flavor, no texture, no nutritional value and so it has no place on a dish. Even as a decoration, it adds nothing, besides bragging rights about somebody being so wealthy to eat gold. Your wings are exceptional: the taste is amazing, the skin crunchy and flavorful and the meat has a smooth and tender texture that shows how the Ingredient was treated with the care it deserves while cooking, but it didn't need a gold wrapping, it was already golden the right way, with the color of that beautiful skin."

"Eh! You really love food, isn't it, kid?" Meng asked with a sad smile.

"I love Ingredients and cooking, yes." Izuku answered, smiling.

"I could see that. There was a Chef that held the same level of love for cooking that I respected with all myself, you know? I built this restaurant's name and its fame as an homage to him." the giant of a man explained with a fond tone.

"But he died in anonymity, nobody knew the miracles he could do whenever he entered the kitchen...Too mundane, too simple...Not classy enough! That was how those ignorant fools always marked his dishes! He too hated gold leaf, especially since that wrapping was the very same reason his rival won their Challenge and took away his restaurant to turn it into...This.

In the name of revenge, I just took what I learned from that great man and added to it the same gold wrapping, and won back this place.

Did gold change the taste? Not even in the slightest, just as you and him used to say, but by letting go of that small morsel of Pride, I could avenge my Idol, in a sense. Believe me, while I came to like the color of gold, I would give everything to not see it in my dishes ever again…"

"But Life is often made of compromises. They want to show their status, by any means necessary." Izuku admitted with a sigh.

"Sadly, yes."

"Sorry then, I pinned you for a kind of Chef you clearly are not, my apologies." the young man admitted with a bow.

"Eeeh, no need to apologize. I can't really blame you, you know? After a while playing the same role day after day for years, the Character and the Real Person get blurred together and not even you yourself can tell where the real you starts anymore." Meng admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Still, it was not nice for me to jump to conclusions," Izuku admitted with a small smile.

"Ah! Spare me the pity, you kicked my ass with food already, don't twist the knife in the wound more!" Meng answered, chuckling.

"Sorry!"

"I get it, I get it. So? What's the recipe you want to know about?"

"But we haven't voted yet!" one of the judges tried saying.

"Aaah, shut it! Who cares about it! I had fun, the boy had fun and you got to eat for free, be happy with that and don't ruin the moment!" Meng cut her off with a growl.

"I never!"

"Yes, yes, whatever! It's so tiring, Izuku, I often feel more like a Babysitter than a Chef," the tall guy admitted with a whisper that made the other chuckle.

"I don't envy you."

"Yes, yes, enjoy my misery, you tiny bastard. So? The Recipe?"

"I would like to know about that Fire-Filled Dragon Carp fish dish this city is so famous for," Izuku answered.

"Aah! You went for an Old Classic! That's nice to hear! For an instant I thought you wanted to know about one of those fancy and new 'daring' recipes that are all the rage between the new Generations nowadays. You can't imagine how much that actually raises my respect for you!" Meng admitted with a loud laugh.

"Oh! I am happy to hear that! So can you help me?" Izuku answered.

"Of course I can! But in exchange I want you to tell me how that omurice thing works, because that is a form of gold I can get behind!"

"Of course! Actually, there is also another piece of gold I can offer if you want!" Izuku answered.

"Uhn? Really? Do show me!" Meng said, excited.

"It's a form of glazing called Mirror Glazing. I saw some nice yellow fruits between the Ingredients in your storage. I will show you how to use them to make a jelly that shines like a mirror, and with that color, it will be extremely similar to gold too!" Izuku answered.

"Huhuhu! So excited, okay! Show me your Magic, young Chef!" Meng answered.

"Yessir!" Izuku was happy for that chance, those strange fruits had the consistency of apples but tasted like pineapple, he had to get his hands on those!

"Understood. The seeds of those fruits, if put aside by the Host, will count as a Captured Ingredient and will be added to the Restaurant Storage. Good Job!" the System confirmed with a small jingle.

Said that both Chefs returned to their workstations, only this time each working slowly and explaining in great details each step of their creations.

"It's fairly easy, all things considered. The Dragon Carp in the name is mostly a poetic way to present the fish meat that has turned red as a fire dragon's scales after cooking.

Same with the Fire-Filled thing, it's all about a sauce made with chilies, but it's not that spicy, in fact, it's pretty mild, it's a matter of flavor in this case, the spicy taste in it, not the burning sensation.

The tricky part is opening a pocket in the fish the right way to not have anything spill out until it is done cooking and you add it to the soup." Meng explained while removing scales and bones of the fish.

"Nice! As for me instead, first I will show you how to extract Gelatin from fish and cattle bones, then how to refine it, and finally how to use it to make both desserts and other dishes. Luckily your restaurant is so outlandish you actually have a way to freeze food and keep it cold the way I need, even if to do so you use a low-level ice-element demon core." Izuku in the meantime went through his own small lesson, with both Chefs rapidly exchanging tips and suggestions as they worked.

The audience watched in amazement then as both Chefs somehow managed to both teach and get taught a new recipe at the same time as the most famous dish of Starlight City and a brand new method of dessert making came to be at the same time.

"Is that boy a Monster?" one of those pompous heirs muttered in horror.

"He is Icchan, MY Monster!" Najire answered, proudly and with an adorable dusting of red on her cheeks as she gave her declaration.

"It's useless, Wang Lin...You can't have her…" the guy's friend muttered dejectedly.

"Goddamnit...I am a Soul Refiner Silver Core Tiger Claw Snake Spirit Big Dong Heaven Son Dust-Hand Earthquake Warrior Level Cultivator...I am supposed to always get the Jade Beauty…"

"I know, I know. The Heavens are merciless. Just don't spit blood over this,"

"EH! I don't even know if I should laugh or cry!"

"HUSH!" Nejire hissed with a frown that managed to silence the two, with the added result that the two guys turned even more depressed.

Finally, once both Chefs finished their cooking lesson, they presented the resulting dish: on Meng Hao's workstation stood a perfectly done Fire-Filled Carp Dragon, a beautiful fried fish with its heavenly-tender meat filled by a spicy and smooth chilies cream red as blood, the fish was swimming in a sublime pristine brown soup with algae, carrots and mushrooms cut in shapes to mimic a pond, with the steam of the dish giving it a very mysterious air.

Izuku instead presented a pie glazed with a golden fruit glaze perfectly smooth and unblemished and shining like a mirror of gold, and to the side, several slices of the same fruit he used for the glaze had been had cut and layered to form a gorgeous lotus flower...He then had added (as a tiny bit of flexing) a two-inches miniature of Meng Hao himself sitting cross-legged in a meditation pose in the center of the lotus, that too made from one of those same fruits.

"Golden Pie of Ascension. To give it a name in style with this restaurant." Izuku declared with a cheeky smile.

"Bwahahahaha! It really looks like gold! And it actually reflects like a mirror! That technique of yours really is nice, you sure you want to teach me that?" Meng Hao asked.

"It looked like a fair exchange between friends, yes? As a Master to another, as you said." Izuku answered.

"Well, you did defeat me and took one of my knives as a trophy, teaching me a new recipe sounds like a nice peace offering! So yeah, I can accept that...Just let's go through the motions one more time step by step, because that really sounds complicated." the tall man replied.

"Of course!" Izuku answered with a happy smile.

"Before that, though…"

"Yes?"

"Who was that man that inspired you?"

"Who else? My father, of course! The Best damn Chef of Starlight City!" Meng answered, proud.

"Nice!"

Sigh! "One down...We only need that phoenix bird now…" Nejire said with a sigh of relief, and was happy to see the situation closing on such a positive note as the two Chefs actually becoming friends instead of enemies.

Day of the Tournaments finals -

Nejire was sleeping soundly, at peace with the world and all things, the bed felt heavenly, warm and comfortable and she never, ever, wanted to wake-up!

"Nejire-chan? We really should get up, we need to accompany Mister Sun and Miss Su to that Arena." Izuku's voice cut through the idyllic sensation of peace, a thing that forced Nejire to bury her face in his hair to escape the need to wake-up.

"Nejire-chan...Please?" Izuku begged again from the confines of her four-limbs crushing hug and the cover of her long hair.

Yes, she had sneaked in his bed again, but that was because she was cold and because she needed to save appearances and keep the lie of them being together ongoing.

"Nejire-chan?" There was also the fact that after all those days together, Nejire was starting to get used to seeing his face that close every morning when she woke-up, he had a very adorable sleeping face to go with the amazing warmth he exuded.

"Five more minutes," she whined while clinging to him harder.

"Normally I wouldn't mind, but we made a promise." Izuku answered.

"Fine!" she had finally come to terms about her and Mirio being done, and for the first time, her sleep was finally serene and peaceful! But still, they did promise they would have been there, so she gave a last squeeze to Icchan's entire body and then finally got up from the bed.

"Sorry for waking you up," Izuku actually apologized and rapidly got dressed.

"It's okay, it's okay! I am more awed you never tried cupping a feel!" Nejire answered, pleased to see him turn around once again to not watch her change.

"I-I am not that kind of guy!" he answered, appalled.

"And that's cool! But...You know...I wouldn't have minded if it was you." Nejire answered.

"Wha-" SLAM! The girl didn't even let him finish his shocked statement that she was already out the room and slamming the door closed.

"Kyuuhn?" Shiro gave a long call and actually looked curious, head moved to the side and all.

"I hate when they tease me, two lifetimes and I still can't deal with that." Izuku answered with a groan.

"This Esteemed Lord can only offer a prayer to you, Partner. I fear things will become more hectic still, in the future. But I'll be by your side all the same." the small Ancestral Taotie thought in answer while jumping on the Chef's shoulders to wrap himself around his neck like a scarf.

Sigh! "Let's go, Shiro-kun." Izuku said with a sigh, hurrying to join Nejire, Sun and Su outside.

Arena of the Tournament -

The arena was a perfect half sphere built with dull black stone bricks and slightly buried into the ground, the whole thing measured at least five hundred meters in height and had several feet of water occupying the middle of the arena right under a suspended platform acting as ring for the fights.

The seats for the audience ran in concentric rings along the entire perimeter of the building, with the highest seats being reserved to the Emperor and other dignitaries; at the opposite side of the Emperor instead sat the Fighters, and right next to those there was the opening mechanism for the retractable bridge connecting their seats to the small platform above the water, a round disk of smooth rock fifty meters in diameter suspended barely a foot above the freezing water thanks to four giant chains.

As Izuku suspected, the fights were just as brutal as the concept of Qi Cultivation suggested: he and Nejire saw the ten finalists battle against each other in a series of battles of increasing brutality, with men and women zipping through the air exchanging blows at absurd speed, and more often than not with various Elements, like Fire, water and Wind, trailing behind each hit or defensive technique to further increase their already insane power.

Had things not be that absurdly violent and bloody, Nejire would have compared it to a real life Anime episode, but after seeing a man getting both his arms torn off like tissue by a tiny girl half his size, and the guy returning the favor by literally biting the girl's left leg off, she preferred to say nothing.

"That Phoenix is an obscenely rare Spirit Beast, having it as a Companion already means having Victory in your grasp at all times, but if you fuse with it through a ritual, your power will increase thousand-folds at each new Breakthrough, and with the added bonus of healing from every wound no matter what, that is why they are so ready to tear each other limb from limb, they are all betting everything on their victory with the hope that by fusing with the Phoenix, they will heal back every piece they gave up." Old man Sun explained with a sorrowful tone.

"Does it really work like that?" Izuku asked, horrified.

"I can't say, it's all a legend based on the only other case of a Cultivator fusing herself with a Firestorm Phoenix to achieve a breakthrough that saved her from certain death...Many, like me, actually wonder if that is only a fairy tale, or even worse, that that effect works only with that particular race of Phoenixes." he answered.

"And they all still throw their lives away like that?" Nejire asked in horror.

"The world is a harsh place, and some instead of learning to adapt, aim to reshape it to fulfill their own desires, and for that they need Power, and the most unscrupulous are ready to do everything to get that power." Sun answered.

"I see." the girl muttered, saddened.

"Ssh! It's Chacha's turn," Su Mu-Cheng interrupted them with a harsh hiss while pointing at the center of the arena where a tiny girl with her hair tied in three buns and wearing a bright-pink qipao dress was about to fight a giant hulking man with a wild hairstyle resembling a lion mane.

"Get ready to jump in once she is done to Challenge her." Sun reminded her.

"Don't worry, I have been ready to fight her ever since I woke-up!" the young woman answered.

They all though missed the Emperor walking away from the fight once alerted of something by a servant.

Belly of the arena – while Chacha was fighting -

SPLASH!

"GUORGBLOURG!" a young man with pristine and expensive robes gasped futilely while his head was being forcefully held deep under the water of a stone basin.

"Up." the Emperor ordered once he joined the various armored men filling the empty room in the arena dungeons.

"BWHA! Fa-father!" the young man, Starlight City's prince, gasped for air and watched his approaching father with scared eyes.

"Zhang Xuan, your father is very disappointed." The Emperor answered with a scowl, and the burly guard holding the Prince by the back of the neck took it as a signal to once again force the youngster's head underwater.

"GOUUUUH!" the young man trashed futilely to try breaking free of the hold on him.

"Up."

"BWAH! Fa-Father! It is not what you believe! I would never conspire against you!" the Prince begged, his tears mixing with the rest of the water dripping from his face.

"I thought I taught you better, but instead you still lied to me. Down."

"N-NO!" the Prince begged, but any further words became just a mass of bubbles escaping from the bottom of the basin.

"Up."

"AAAH! I-I was not conspiring, I swear! My deal with the Mu-Cheng Clan has nothing to do with the throne!" Prince Zheng hurriedly said as soon as his head was forced out of the water.

"You aren't even good at lying. I am the Emperor! NOTHING that happens inside my territory escapes my sight! You promised that fool, a seat as your personal Advisor as soon as you ascended to the throne, in exchange of you getting both little Chacha and Little Su as your concubines." the Emperor said with a disappointed tone.

"How?!"

"Your father has been covering for your foolish escapades with women for years! Have you any idea of how many bastard children I had to make disappear!? Your loins have always been your weakness! Your willingness to go to every lengths necessary to sate your urges are worthy of legends! And yet I, your father, hoped that sooner or later you would have set your head straight and become a proper heir! But I was wrong...Your Lust for women has reached such a level that you are ready to kill your own flesh and blood in exchange for some carnal pleasure!`` The Emperor spat in great fury, and this time the Prince was kept under the water almost long enough to make him lose consciousness.

"Bwha! Father...I...I...I am sorry...Spare your son...Please!" Zheng begged with ragged breath and half-lidded eyes.

"Spare you? A traitor? Why should I?" the Emperor asked.

"I will kill Chacha myself! As a proof of loyalty! I will kill her as a mark of me abandoning my ways and becoming worthy! I only ask for a last chance to Father!"

"...Fool. Chacha Mu-Cheng is already fated to die, she has been ever since she got pregnant with yet another bastard child of yours. That was what brought you here." the man answered.

"W-W-What?"

"Dispose of him, Captain. You already know the punishment I bestowed on him." the Emperor declared while walking away without sparing another glance at his first son.

"Yes, your Imperial Celestial Majesty." the Captain of the guards answered immediately.

"No! FATHER! FATHER!'' The Prince exclaimed in horror as four men grabbed a limb each to force him on the ground spreadeagled.

"Your privates brought you to this point, blame them, not your esteemed father." On that cue the Captain shouldered an extremely heavy-looking war hammer, and aimed it at the Prince's crotch.

"NO! NOOOOOO!"

"I will spare you and myself further ignominy by saying that the current head of the Mu-Cheng Clan tried assassinating me for some absurd plan to steal the throne and that you died to save the Emperor's life. At least nobody will ever know you died bleeding to death from your crushed pelvis. Farewell, my son." with those words the Emperor closed the door behind himself just as the heavy hammer started moving downwards.

"NOOOOO!"

Not a single guard in that room flinched at the crunching sound that cut that wretched scream short, and none of them saw a shadowy figure leave the room unnoticed after spying on the whole thing.

With the Emperor -

Showing an absolute lack of caring for what had happened to his own firstborn, the Emperor met again the same shockingly-old-looking monk he had sent to catch the Ancestral Taotie fundamental for his Ascension to Godhood, and only then the Emperor showed an emotion: unbridled rage.

"I seem to remember my Esteemed Persona telling you that unless you returned with that accursed Taotie on a leash, you would have died by my own hands at our next meeting! And I don't see any creature of infinite Greed bigger than a mountain anywhere! So why are you here in front of me?!" he roared.

"My Lord! Please have mercy! My talismans keep telling me the Taotie is somewhere in this very city! But this poor old fool doesn't understand how that is actually possible!" the mummy-like old man begged in despair.

"What? The Taotie is here!? Right now?! IN MY CITY?!"

"Yes! Every talisman I use catches the lingering traces of the bottomless power of that almighty beast, but no matter where me and those guards look, we can't find it!"

"Have you checked everywhere?!"

"Yes, my Lord! Even underground!"

"How can this be, do the legends describe the Ancestral Taotie as having any special powers its own descendants don't have?" the Emperor asked.

"Many, my Lord! As many as the stars in the sky! As the first Taotie and 'The source of all Greed', he has many terrifying abilities...But nothing recorded talks about abilities that could permit such a mighty beast to roam free in this city unseen, especially with its immense sizes!" the Monk replied in tears.

"I see, I will believe you this time. There must be something we are missing." The Emperor answered with a thoughtful tone.

"I am combing the city, my Lord! Every stone is being upturned!"

"Good, continue, once I deal with the last remaining details of my son's latest idiocy, I will triple the soldiers at your disposal for the search." the Emperor declared.

"Thank you, my Lord!"

BOOOOOOOOOM!

It was then that a loud explosion rocketed the entire arena and caught the attention of both men.

"What is happening?"

"MY LORD!" a Guard screamed in horror onc burst into the corridor.

"What?" the Emperor demanded.

"A tragedy, sir! Before we could shoot the arrow to kill that girl, the Heiress of the Mu-Cheng Clan showed herself still alive and Challenged her to a duel!" the soldier said.

"Okay, and?"

"Sir...The Elders of the Mu-Cheng Clan are fighting together against the disgraced Sun...While Lao is battling against a strange Chef and his puppet…"

"SO? Deal with them! You can't possibly be so demented to need my guidance or orders to resolve such a simple matter!" the Emperor growled in answer, unable to believe his own soldiers were that incompetent.

"...You Majesty...That girl, Chacha...Before the battle with her cousin started, has boldly declared her being pregnant with the Prince's Heir...Everybody heard her…" the soldier said with a small voice full of horror.

"WHAT?! THAT LITTLE WHORE!"

And the soldier was right in feeling such fear, because before he even had time to react, the Emperor exploded forward in a rage-filled dash nothing could stop, not even the poor soldier's body that exploded into a giant splash of blood upon contact.

"Wait, my Lord! I will help you!" the Monk declared while chasing the Emperor, and uncaring of the dead man's remains he stepped over in his haste to follow his Master.

Arena -

It was a mess.

High in the sky old man Sun was fighting alone against the other three Elders, one of which his own brother, thanks to the miraculous Breakthrough he had with Izuku's Healing Cuisine; and right under them, Chacha and Su were locked in a stalemate as they exchanged lightning-fast blows so violent the four massive chains holding up the ring shook violently enough to look about to snap.

In the stands, now vacated by any audience, Izuku was parrying Lao's spear attacks with his own Sea Dragon Kitchen Knife while Whitey and Nejire faced the personal guards (and occasional Assassins) of the Mu-Cheng clan in a 2 vs 30 battle with no quarters given.

"WHY!" CLANG! "YOU!" CLANG! "OPPOSE!" CLANG! "MY AMBITION?!" Lao Mu-Cheng spat furiously, each word accompanied by a wild thrust forward of the crystal-head spear in his hands meeting the kitchen knife in a shower of sparks.

"I do because your ambition was built on murder and Manipulation! You Killed your brother! You crippled your father! And you crippled and almost killed your niece! You even used your daughter! On what ground could I just stand there and watch as you played with people's lives as you please?!" Izuku answered, and his own swipe managed to cut the body of the spear in two, for Lao's horror.

"I was of the idea you were a Chef, not a Hero." Lao answered sneering, returning the broken spear inside the ring on his hand and summoning from there an overly-ornate sword with a roaring dragon engraved on its wide blade.

"That is the thing, you idiot! I decided I can be both!"

"Well said, Icchan!" Nejire declared from the sidelines, proud of her friend,

"Troublemakers, you will all be stripped as an example to others!" Whitey declared while helping the girl fend off the joint attacks of the Clan's guards.

"Who are you, even? To force me to bring out my trump card, the sword I secretly created to deal with the Emperor himself with the ancient fang of a dragon! That knife of yours is very annoying, so it's time for it to break!" Lao yelled in rage, and with a flash of blood-red Qi Aura he appeared in front of Izuku in the blink of an eye.

"DIE! DIE UNDER MY SKY-CUTTING DRAGON SWORD!" the madman yelled while slashing down with his sword.

"Oh, shut up! One Blade: Samsara Cut! (一刀 輪廻おろし - Itō: Rinne Oroshi)" the young Chef answered with an upward slash himself.

SPLAT!

"GYAAAAAAH!" Lao shrieked in agony as the golden blade that went shot from Izuku's slash not only sliced through the sword like butter, it kept traveling forward cutting away the man's right arm at the shoulder, cleaved in half the stands, cut in two one of the chains holding up the ring and finished its fly cutting in half the opposite wall of the arena, all under the impressed look of the Emperor and Monk duo that had just walked out to watch everything unfold.

"Father!" Chacha yelled in horror, and that moment of distraction was all Su needed to deliver a final, world-crushing punch to the girl's face that sent her flying, but before her body could actually go though the opposite wall, Su had already hurried past her to catch the now unconscious girl.

"Chacha, you should thank the new life growing in your womb if I focused my attacks on your limbs and head only and never really went for the kill. The children should never pay for the Sins of the parents, so until he or she is born, I will protect you. But after that...Well, we'll see." Su declared while gently moving Chacha to lie on the floor out of harm's way.

Up in the sky -

"NO! LAO!" one of the Elders cried-out in horror, right before breaking formation to hurry at his nephew's side.

"Bo! Come back here!" one of the other two Elders roared in anger.

"Don't get distracted, oh mighty Second Elder! Your life will be over otherwise!" Sun said with a victorious roar, his muscles had grown immensely as he unleashed his full power on those three Elders, turning him into a vengeful hulking demon raining hits on the three men he once called brothers (one of which was his actual blood-related brother.).

"We crippled you! We banished you! How have you become so strong?!" Third Elder demanded while helping Second avoid a punch coated in enough Qi to resemble a flaming meteor, thus saving his life.

"Bwahahahaha! I always knew it was no accident what crippled me! You and my brother had always been little traitorous shits veering for more power than you deserve! And today I have the chance to avenge my son and granddaughter! We recovered from your machinations and are here to return you everything with interest! The judgment has been cast! DEATH!" Sun answered while assaulting the two Elders that were now desperately trying to hold back who used to be the strongest of the Four Elders, and that was now even stronger than before!

"I am coming to help you, Grandfather!" It was then that Su joined the battle, making the two Elders swear loudly.

One Monster was already a handful! BUT TWO?! Do the descendants of Sun Mu-Cheng all have Demon blood in their veins?!

With Izuku -

"Brother Sun recovered his old strength and even achieved a breakthrough...Su not only healed from the deadly pollen we fed her, but even kept her Cultivation and monstrous strength...All this happened right after you arrived in Starlight City...Was it all your doing?" Elder Bo demanded with a snarl aftercovering Lao's stump with a gelatinous paste that immediately stopped the bleeding.

"I may have chosen the path of a Chef, but deep in my heart, I still want to be a Hero. And meddling with the plans of Villains is the pure essence of a Hero. To me at least." Izuku answered.

"You cut...My blade in two...what's wrong with that knife of yours?!" Lao asked with a faint, yet ferocious growl that made him sound more a beast than a man.

"Your sword was made with the fangs of a young dragon, my knife? Mine is made with the fang of a beautiful dragon lady that has reached maturity," the Chef answered while flashing a proud smile to his kitchen knife, and he could swear he felt pride emanating from it for just a second at the praise.

"Well, I hope your Clan knows that even with all the treasures of the world, they won't escape the Wrath of the Mu-Cheng Clan! Once we've resolved this minor set-back, I will personally guide our full might and eradicate you and everybody you love! No woman, elder or child shall be spared!" Elder Bo promised with a crazed look.

"Host doesn't need to worry, none of them has the Qualification to be a threat to you. Nobody else in this Universe does." The System declared solemnly, and the fragments of the broken sword and the ring on Lao's severed hand started glowing in light.

"UH?!"

"The Phoenix is now within grasp of the Host, and with the success of this Abrupt Mission the Host level will rise to 3. In commemoration, the System will use the imperfect 'Divine Treasures' in possession of the man named Lao to create a new instrument for the Host.

Should the Host achieve Ascension and become the God of Cooking of the Hero World that piece of Equipment will then be officially recognized as part of your own God of Cooking Kitchen Set." The Entity declared as the ring and the broken sword disappeared into specks of light.

"What?! My treasures! NO!"

"The delivery will take a while as everything will need to be broken down and purified of impurities and imperfections before being used to forge the Instrument, the System apologizes for the delay. Once returned home, the Host will be free to give every specifics he wants for its creation."

"Oh, cool!" Izuku admitted with a wide smile.

"What have you done, boy?!" Bo demanded with blazing eyes, to his dismay though, the very last Mu-Cheng guard just happened to fly past them undressed, signaling that Nejire and Whitey had done dealing with them.

"Me, nothing. My Sponsor? They are about to give me a commemorative present for ruining your plans." Izuku answered with a cheeky smile.

"Oooh! A souvenir?" Nejire asked as she and Whitey joined Izuku to stand at his sides.

"Yep!"

"I am surrounded by incompetents!" the old man roared in madness.

"With a Tiger in my right hand, I am unmatched on land!" Sun was heard intoned from above them.

"Oh, no…Not that Technique!" Bo uttered in panic.

"STOP HIM!"

"With a Dragon in my left hand, I am undefeated in the sky!"

"Stoooop!" both Elders in the sky yelled as one.

"GO, GRANDPA! AVENGE FATHER!" Su was heard screaming right after.

"This is not Revenge! THIS IS JUSTICE! Heaven-Earth Style: Twin Beast Kings Punch!" Sun roared like a mighty beast.

THUM! THUM!

The time between that victorious scream and the actual hit was probably less than a second, and yet the loud dull sound of Sun's double punch landing on the two Elders' chest was so loud it rang through every corner of the entire city, and with an almost-synchronized double explosion, the two Elders went shot down to the ground and through the arena until they both disappeared deep underground with their chest cavities smashed inwards.

If they survived that attack, their fighting days were still officially over forever.

"Second Elder! Third Elder!" Lao gasped in horror.

"It's over, brother. You are alone now. Admit defeat, confess your crimes and you will be given proper justice following our laws." Sun asked once he and Su landed behind the Elder and Lao, both traitors were so alone and surrounded by enemies.

"My plan...My scheme for the throne...All in ruins!" Bo yelled in rage, and all the others could see only madness burn in his eyes.

"U-Uncle?" Lao muttered weakly.

"SILENCE, YOU FOOL! I CHAMPIONED YOU AND THAT WHORE OF CHACHA AND PUT-UP WITH YOUR INSUFFERABLE RAMBLINGS ONLY TO SEE EVERYTHING GO UP IN SMOKE! AND ALL BECAUSE OF THAT DAMNED CHEF! DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Bo's scream was deafening, and with a beastly roar he assaulted Izuku with the clear intention of ripping him limb-from-limb.

"ICCHAN!" Nejire screamed in horror as the old psycho was upon them in the time she needed to blink.

"Troublemak-"

SWING! SPLAT!

To everybody's surprise a thin blade flew by itself to behead Bo in an instant, making the Elder's head plop harmlessly at Izuku's feet while the rest of the body continued its charge past him to splatter on the floor right after.

Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!

What followed was an excited clapping as the Emperor himself made his way towards them while he used his Qi to guide the sword back in the scabbard at his hip.

"Amazing battles, each and every one of them. This Emperor truly is impressed!" he then said once reached the group.

"Your Majesty!" Sun and Su said as one while kneeling down.

"Raise, raise. Your Emperor is way too excited to deal with stuffy etiquette!" the man answered, grinning wildly once his eyes landed on Izuku...And Shiro sleeping around his neck.

"It's there! My Lord, the talisman cannot be wrong! The boy has the Taotie!" the Monk said with a wide, crooked smile.

"There it is! My precious Ancestral Taotie! My dear Chef, not only you helped destroy an evil plan to usurp our throne, but you also bought us the greatest Treasure we were unable to locate!" the Emperor said while putting both hands on Izuku's shoulders.

"This Emperor is almost humbled by the sheer amount of debt he has towards you! Name everything you want, and as a thank you for your services, We will give you everything you ask tenfold!" he then said.

"I would not believe him if I were you, young sir! My father has a habit of coating every word he says in poisoned honey! Sweet at first glance, and deadly right after." a new voice said.

"Second Prince!" Sun gasped in shock.

"I see that my father's lie about my unfortunate death on the battlefield is still widely spread, unsurprising considering how different our worldviews are!'' The Second Prince was a dashing youth, tall and strong and exuding a majestic aura worthy of a Hero from Legends.

"You…" the Emperor said while clenching hard on Izuku's shoulders, and the Chef's discomfort caused Shiro to stir awake and immediately turned pissed-off at seeing such a blatant show of intimidation aimed at his Partner.

"Me, father. I have long since returned from that nice suicide mission for the good of the Empire you so generously sent me to, a mission I completed in success, mind you. I appeased those people that wanted you dead for what you did to them, and they promised that as soon as I succeed you on the throne, they will actually form an alliance with us...Especially since my Wife comes from these lands."

"You survived, this Emperor is happy to-"

"Stop lying, father. You are just as bad at it as Zhang was, before you killed him."

"The first Prince is dead?!" Su gasped in horror.

"...I am not following." Nejire admitted.

"Lots of backstabbing happened." Whitey supplied.

"Oooh!"

"You! Young Chef!" the Second Prince said.

"Yes?" Izuku asked, already a second away from using Knocking to break free from the Emperor's hold on him.

"My father wants that Taotie of yours to become a God following some silly little legend without a shred of legitimacy. He is a madman obsessed with eternal life and scared of Death that has killed people by the thousands just to gain a single year to add to his lifespan. I suggest you do not give him that pet of yours, because the only prize you will get from it will be a swift death, same goes for your woman."

"LIES! You are trying to steer people against us!" the Emperor answered.

"Host, you may be aware already, but the System will offer a confirmation: Everything that man said is indeed the truth, no Lies have been detected by the System."

"Good to know." Izuku answered with a sigh.

"Uh?"

"Impact Knocking: Nirvana!" With a gong-like sound, Izuku's right palm impacted with the Emperor's chest, sending him skidding back with a perfect imprint of the Chef's hand on the man's armor.

"Ugh!"

"MY LORD!" The Monk shrieked in horror, but before he could do anything, the Second Prince chopped him on the neck and knocked him out.

"So you dare go against an Emperor!? Foolish children! With Godhood within my grasp, I will never stop! NO MATTER HOW MANY HAVE TO DIE!" the man yelled while brandishing his sword and assaulting Izuku.

"My word, these people are aggravating." A cultured deep voice was heard before a delicate fluffy paw slapped down, painfully slamming the Emperor face-down.

"Wha?!"

"Shiro-kun?" Izuku asked, unnerved.

"In the flesh, even if I don't really like talking like you people do, it is uncomfortable to my throat. But even I grow tired of these people and their empty words, there is only so much 'verbal masturbation' I can take before it becomes too much." the Ancestral Taotie declared while jumping down from Izuku's shoulders to stand above the downed Emperor's head.

"Y-Y-You…" the man growled while weakly pulling himself up to stand on all fours and glare at the small animal.

"I heard of that Legend back in the days, you know? It was quite the hassle and it cost me my beloved Partner, she was killed by a dirty fool like you that thought eating my heart could turn him into a God...I loved that girl." the Taotie said with narrowed eyes, then his body started to grow exponentially.

The fluffy fur retracted to leave it place to smooth skin as white as snow and filled in powerful muscles, two ice-blue eyes became four and red as blood, the tiny cute paws with otherworldly-soft beanies switched place with four giant and sturdy hooves massive in sizes, and the petite mouth and face went transformed into a monstrous mouth filled in dozen of rows of teeth, one could actually declare being too much teeth.

The True Form of the Ancestral Taotie was so massive the entire arena went crushed to dust under a single hoof while the beast dwarfed the entirety of Starlight City, and its appearance, besides sending the place into panic, forced the fighters still in the arena to take fly to get some distance, except Izuku's group that instead found themselves on Shiro's massive back, admittedly the safest place on the entire damn planet.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Both Nejire and Izuku cursed as one in surprise.

"What you are seeing is the Ancestral Taotie's Battle Form, the form it takes to fully utilize its powers. Please don't be scared, he is on our side as Host Izuku's Partner and Pet." the System alerted both.

"KIND OF HARD TO STAY CALM!" Nejire admitted.

"Shiro-kun?" Izuku instead asked.

"Huhuhu! Have no fear, my Beloved Partner! I will just deal with this small pest then we'll get home! I already smelled that electric bird you need, so we will collect it no matter where they are hiding it. As for you…" the Ancestral Taotie answered before nailing the floating Emperor with six blood-red eyes devoid of pity.

"You are looking at the Taotie you wanted so much. What now?"

"...AAAAAAAAAH!" Surprisingly, the Emperor turned tail and tried running away.

"NO RUNNING, COWARD! YOU TRIED ATTACKING MY PARTNER, AND THAT MEANS I AM HONOR-BOND TO DEVOUR YOU!" gravely offended by the guy's attempt at fleeing, Shiro opened his mouth impossibly wide (enough to look like he could ideally swallow the entire damn city whole) and launched from deep inside his mouth billions of thin black tendrils that snapped forward at light-speed and latched onto the Emperor to drag him back towards his maw.

"NOOOOOOOO!" the Emperor shrieked in fear as he was unable to break free, but before he could disappear inside the Taotie's stomach, the Second Prince intervened.

"Lord Taotie! Please wait!"

"Uh?"

"My father has committed many sins, many grievous crimes, and I want people to know! I want him to stand trial for his many misgivings and let the law decide his punishment!" the Prince begged.

"You know well that by law he will be condemned to death, will YOU then be the one to carry on the task? Will you bear the weight of killing your own father?" Shiro asked.

"...Yes. I know well there is no chance my father's fate won't be death penalty, and I will be the one to cut his head. But he still needs to stand trial, even just to not get down to his level and merely kill him. Justice and Laws exist for a reason, it is what separates us from the beasts or the monsters, and I want to stand by those ideals. He will have a trial...And I will be his executioner." the Prince answered.

"...Take this damn fool." Shiro, rolling his four eyes, released the struggling Emperor, and as soon as the man tried fleeing again, one massive hoof moved down like a guillotine to shoot him through a nearby building like a human bullet.

"He really was an idiot." Shiro said with a sigh before returning into his small and adorable Rest Mode Form around Izuku's neck.

Sigh! "I will go collect him, please forgive me." the Second Prince answered with a defeated sigh as he moved to make sure his father was just unconscious instead of death from that merciless attack.

"This day has been pretty eventful," Sun admitted while ogling Shiro and Izuku in apprehension.

"Who are you people? Why does everything about you two makes no sense at all?!" Su asked, groaning.

"Shiro-chan's monster form was a surprise for us too!" Nejire admitted, and she hated how the small Taotie looked clearly smug about it.

"Just...Just give me that damn Lightning Phoenix...I wanna go home." Izuku asked with a tired groan while massaging his temples.

"Right! I will ask the Prince where it is! Give me a minute!" Sun answered immediately.

There wasn't much of a fanfare when the scared Bird was delivered to Izuku and Nejire, in fact, the two Travelers had to sneak out and pretty much escape the city like thieves thanks to the combined effort of the Second Prince, now Emperor, and both Mu-Cheng warriors just to avoid being lynched by civilians and guards alike; and the portal the System used to bring them open couldn't open fast enough if you ask them.

Later that day – with Nejire – UA Dormitories

Contrary to what she expected, her return to UA DID raise a huge commotion between a worried-sick Ryukyu and a desperately-apologetic Nighteye pestering her in question about where she had spent the night and if she was okay. Along with the two Pro Heroes promising that should she wanted, they were more than open to the idea of skinning Mirio alive for her.

"It's okay, Mirio made his choice and I understand. I am not mad anymore I...I got over it," she answered.

"You got over it, in a single night?" Ryukyu asked, confused.

"It may have been a single night for you, but for me, it felt like DAYS. I am okay, I just want to return to my life now: Study, being a Hero, meeting friends, the usual!" Nejire answered.

"I am glad you are okay, just remember that both me and Ryukyu are there for you, your friends too. You are not alone." Nighteye said.

"Thank you, I am happy to hear that," the girl answered with a wide smile. Both Pros were happy to see her being up to her usual standards.

"Whenever you need, Nejire. Now go, in a couple hours the Sport Festival will begin, and I know you will hate to miss it," Ryukyu said with a small smile of her own.

"RIGHT! I need to collect a couple things and ask Tamaki-chan something! I need to go! Thank you for helping me, BYEEEE!" Nejire answered before zooming away at high speed.

"Huhuhu! She really is okay, thank God." the Dragon Hero said with an elated chuckle.

"Whatever miracle helped her, I thank it from the bottom of my heart," Nighteye answered, sighing.

"What's important is that she is safe, come, let's have a celebratory coffee,"

"With pleasure." he answered, he will still kick Toshinori and Mirio's ass for this incident, but he will have his coffee first.

Meanwhile – Tamaki's room -

Tock! Tock!

"Who's it?" the super shy boy asked aloud once heard knocking.

"Tamaki-chan? Can I come in?" Nejire asked.

"Yes, feel free." he answered, sighing in dismay, but letting her in.

"Thank you,"

"What do you need?" he asked once seen her take a seat at his desk.

"Nothing too extreme. I saw you read a couple Wuxia on your phone, right?"

"Yeah?" he answered while sitting on his bed to look at her.

"How would you describe the whole genre to somebody that knows nothing about it and still wants to give it a try?" She asked.

"You sure?"

"Uh-hu!"

"I need to know how bad that world really was, because many things sounded eerily too over-the-top to be normal!" Nejire thought, grimacing.

Sigh! "Fine. The genre is pretty much Chinese Dragonball, only with Cultivators instead of Sayians, are you following?"

"Yes? Kinda."

"Good, they also all pretty much follow the same structure with the MCs going mostly through the same steps all the way to the epilogue."

"Uh-hu? And those steps are?"

Sigh! "Imagine you are the MC, often reincarnating in a Wuxia world from a planet like ours (like in our Isekai), and once old enough you basically do this for the entire Novel: you eat a pill, sit on your ass for several years and once you're done, you go from rank 8 ping-pong to rank 2 ching-chong, which is still like hundred ranks below the HEAVENLY GOLDEN DRAGON GOD EMPEROR STAR ANCESTOR, but it's okay since there are still about 3000 chapters to go and all big dick characters that could kill you with a fart are currently busy, so you can go and wipe-out the ding-dong clan, which obsessively wants you dead because you courted death by destroying the king-kong clan after its young master picked a fight with you over your jade-like beauty childhood friend." Tamaki explained.

"...That is a Wuxia novel? Young Masters and Courting Death and all that?" Nejire asked in disbelief.

"Pretty much. It mostly works like that for the very trashy ones, but there are some diamonds hidden under the layers of crap that are kind of good instead. You just have to be good at searching." he answered.

"Oh God, me and Icchan were in a very bad one then…" Nejire thought in misery.

"So how do you choose one to read?"

"I basically look at anything with 'Immortal' in the title in distrust until proven wrong...Which is to say that 99% of the time, those ARE actually bad."

"Do you have some good ones to suggest?" she asked.

"Sure." Tamaki answered with a shrug.

"Thank you! Send me a couple titles by message then, I need to make a call!" the girl declared while exiting the room.

"Okay."

With Nejire – First Year students dormitories -

"Let's see…"

Tock! Tock! Tock!

"Who is it? It's better be fucking important, because I have only five minutes to get ready and go crushing a fucking Festival!" Rumi answered once pulled the door open.

"You are Rumi-chan, yes?" Nejire asked with a smile.

"Yeah? And you are that Big Three Girl, what do you want?"

"Wanna Team-up to get Icchan all for ourselves?" Nejire asked, her smile now gaining a more mischievous glint.

"...Get in." Rumi answered while forcefully pulling the other girl inside the room and slamming the door closed.

Another long chapter. My apologies.

Author explains:

I know it sounds like Parody to some of you, but in truth what happened in that world is not far from what usually happens in a real Wuxia Novel, and if among my readers there are people in the know about the genre, I know they can testify about this being true…

There are some BAD Chinese Novels out there, and finding a good one under the crap is very, very hard.

in this chapter Izuku uses one of the fighting Techniques of Zaus, the "One Blade: Samsara Cut ( 一刀 輪廻おろし Ittō : Rinne Oroshi )"

How does it work: Izuku uses a knife to cut an enemy in half. Even if the target's body is shielded, the slash will still hit, ignoring any obstacle and heavily damaging the target.

Its secondary (and most lasting) effect is that the wound will be ingrained into the target's genetic makeup , making the scar a hereditary trait for several generations.

(Samsara is the Buddhist cycle of reincarnation).

Yes, the attack is THAT BULLSHIT! XD

Omake Time!

Extra-Dimensional Ingredient Hunt, Episode 2:

Yatagarasu Egg Custard...And Waifu?

Green Cloud Restaurant -

"Please collect ten eggs of the Legendary Yatagarasu Bird and successfully create a custard pie with it." the System instructed as the new portal opened.

"Can I find a Yatagarasu in a normal city?" Izuku asked.

"Host can either hunt them himself or have somebody grab them for him. The System is offering a relaxing Mission this time as an apology for the Mishap with the Minotaur Noodles." the Entity replied.

"Thank you. Even if I know it was not your fault if that place was that insane." the young Chef replied with a gentle smile while stepping through the portal.

"It is still a mistake from the System, and that is not supposed to happen." the System replied.

"It's nice for them to actually apologize!" Nejire said with a wide smile while following Izuku.

"You were not there, Nejire-chan. It was a nightmare."

"I am here now, I will protect you! We are Combo other than a couple, remember!" she answered, kissing his cheek.

"Thank you," he said with a happy smile and a bright red face.

As soon as they stepped into that new world though...Several eyes subconsciously snapped towards their general direction, no matter where those people were or what they were doing.

School -

A small flash passed through the mind of a young girl with pale pink hair, making her head snap towards the window while her eyes widened slightly.

"Oooh!"

"...Kanna-san?" one of the kids said, confused.

"Who's it?" the kid muttered, curious.

Apartment -

"Stupid human! What part of your job as a Support escapes you?! You are supposed to Heal! Why do we keep you in the Team if you fail at such an easy task?!" a man with long black hair hissed in contempt while madly mashing on his keyboard, on the screen there was utter chaos as the simple raid of the guy's favourite MMO turned into a pure mess.

"Hang on, Faf-san! We are almost there!" The man's 'Friend' said from the computer behind him, he too was typing at high speed.

"Then you should work harder and-" the black-haired man's tirade stopped abruptly when he felt a faint stabbing pain come from the back of his skull.

"...An interloper." he muttered darkly, and his growl was not a sound a human was supposed to be able to produce.

Quaint House -

"AAAW! I missed you so much!" a very well-endowed woman moaned in elation once seen a young boy return home, and her hug almost drowned the kid's head in her massive chest.

"Don't do this, you demon!" the poor kid, face completely red in embarrassment, shrieked while trying to break free of the booby hug...Unaware of how GOOD he had it.

"I am no demon, Shouta-kun! I-"

Twing!

The strange tingling sensation traveling up her spine made her stop abruptly and actually open her eyes to show the mismatched irises she possessed.

"Oooh! We have visitors! Two of them even!" she said, chuckling amused.

"Uh? Visitors? Where?" the kid asked.

"That way!" the busty woman said while pointing in a general direction while smirking.

"Really?!"

"Yup! VEEEERY Ancient Magic too! Let's go see who is it!" the woman said while dragging the boy away.

"W-W-WAIT! I am not a baby! Stop carrying me! STOOOOP!"

Market District -

"Are you sure you have to check on this?" a woman with red hair and a kind of dead-fish-like expression asked, bored.

"I felt a strange wave of Magic, different from the kind I am used to seeing. And a very powerful one at that!" the young woman with short black hair answered while marching forward.

"Then why did youinsist on me coming with you?" another woman, dressed like a typical maid and with her hair in two ponytails, asked in annoyance.

"Because I may need help in fighting them off if whoever it is it's here to make a mess...And you are the only one I trust…" she answered, shy.

"I am glad to see that you made peace, finally." the last member of the group, a short girl with...way too big assets, added, huffing.

"Thank you for coming as well, Ilulu." the only human of the group said.

"Just because you personally asked, Kobayashi."

"Hoy! Hoy! Don't make doe eyes to her!" the maid hissed in contempt.

"OH! It's you guys! HI!"

"Kobayashi, Tooru."

"Fafnir and Lucoa! You felt it too?" Elma asked, surprised.

"Yes, interlopers." the black-haired man uttered in distaste.

"I still don't understand what's the problem," Kobayashi asked.

"Whoever opened a portal here used a different form of Magic," Lucoa explained.

"And?"

"It was too different, imagine writing a book in Japanese, then suddenly a page written in gibberish appears out of nowhere and when you try reading it you see it written in an alphabet that does not even exist. That is the basic feeling." Fafnir explained.

"So alien magic?" the human woman asked.

"Nope! This feels WAAAAAY different! Ancient but completely detached from anything I have ever seen. And I did meet aliens!" Lucoa answered.

"That felt very powerful too, too powerful." Elma added.

"Divine?" Tooru asked, unnerved.

"I fear it was beyond even that…" the other replied, grimacing.

"IMPOSSIBLE! YOU CAN'T COOK LIKE THIS! YOU ARE NOT HUMAN!" a restaurant nearby descended into chaos just as the group passed in front of it.

"I am plenty human, you are just being a sore loser." a young voice replied calmly.

"Uh?" Kobayashi muttered, unsure.

"I'LL GIVE YOU SOME SORE LOSER'S BEATING THEN!"

"Troublemaker!" a robotic voice answered, and barely a second later, the Restaurant owner was seen flying out of the place only in his boxers.

"There was no need, Whitey…" it was then that Izuku and Nejire exited the place followed by the tall robot,

"The Troublemaker was about to attack the Host. That is unacceptable." the machine answered.

Sigh! "You are way overprotective." Izuku answered.

"He is just doing his job, Icchan. Unfortunately we can't stop him when he decides to strip his victims." Nejire replied, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

"...Found the Interlopers." Fafnir declared once the two groups met.

"Eh?" the young Chef muttered, uncertain.

"Good evening, you come from another world?" the only human of the group asked.

"Ehm, yes? Are we in trouble?" Izuku answered.

"It depends on the motive of your visit," Ilulu said.

"Oh! That's easy, I was looking for some Yatagarasu's eggs,"

"…"

"...What?" Tooru asked.

"Yatagarasu eggs, here?" Elma asked, dumbfounded.

"Not Here Here, but I was told that I could find help here to get some," the Chef explained.

"Why?"

"I am a Wandering Chef and-"

"Oh my! You are a Chosen! It's been a while since I met one!" Lucoa said with an excited wide smile.

"A chosen?" Kobayashi asked, confused.

"Oh, you know?" Izuku asked with his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline.

"Of course I do!"

"What are you blabbering about?" Fafnir asked, snarling.

"Our Guest has been chosen to become a God of Cooking! That's why you are here, isn't it?" Lucoa asked.

"Yup! And one of my tasks is to find some Yatagarasu eggs. I think I will try making a custard pie with them...And maybe some Profiteroles." Izuku answered.

"A God of Cooking?" Kobayashi asked, confused.

"HOW MANY!? HOW MANY DO YOU NEED!?" Elma demanded immediately while grabbing his shoulders to wildly shake him.

"FOR GOD'S SAKE! I HAVEN'T EVEN COOKED THIS TIME!" Izuku shrieked in horror.

Piiiinch!

"Please forgive her, she is a Glutton and sweets are her weakness," Tooru apologized while painfully grabbing and twisting Elma's ear to pull her away.

"Okay...Okay...I-I understand," the young Chef answered, panting in relief, and gladly accepting Nejire's comforting hug.

"I still don't understand what a God of Cooking is supposed to be," Kobayashi admitted, sighing.

"Just a useless pretender full of himself. A fake Deity that isn't even worth cookin-"

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

To their shock Whitey interrupted Fafnir tirade by lifting by the leg and slamming him down on the ground several times until he remained buried upside-down up to his chest, unconscious.

"Puny Dragon." Whitey declared simply.

"…"

Later that day – After Fafnir recovered and Elma returned with the eggs – Kobayashi's apartment -

"So, basically, a God of Cooking is a literal title?" Kobayashi asked.

"Exactly! They are mortals that are given a chance to Ascend to godhood and become the God overseeing and blessing the Chefs of the Mortal Realm. Their skills are supposed to be beyond human understanding." Lucoa answered.

They all were sitting in the living room of the human woman's apartment waiting for Izuku to finish preparing his custard pie.

"And they travel through different worlds to do it?" she asked.

"That is the strange thing, normally they don't. The local deities test them and that's all, this is the first time I hear of a Candidate going Dimension Hopping to do it." Tooru answered.

"It's all because Icchan's Sponsor has very high standards," Nejire answered.

"And your sponsor is called The System." Elma asked.

"Yep!" Izuku answered while still keeping tracks of his dish.

"Never heard of it," Kanna admitted.

"I tried divining their identity, and only got a splitting headache in exchange! Shota-kun! Kiss the pain away!" Lucoa admitted with a whine.

"Stop it!" the kid answered.

"And you, Faf-kun?" the only other human of the group asked.

"...I don't want to talk about it…" Fafnir answered, face glued to the table top and voice full of agony.

"He just did the same, with the same results." Ilulu explained, smirking.

"That is actually scary, whatever that Entity is, it must be terrifyingly strong." Elma muttered, unsure.

"...The System says that you should stop nosing about, they hate being watched." Izuku warned them while finally bringing-out the finished dessert.

"Here it is! Yatagarasu Custard Pie! Please enjoy!" the young Chef said with a happy smile once divided the thing into equal portions.

"Woooa! You did it!" Kanna said in amazement.

"Yatagarasu Eggs are not an easy ingredient to use, even for demons that actually handle them daily. I wonder how a human managed," Tooru muttered, curious.

"I have great expectations instead! I still remember how good the offerings were from that Candidate I had between my fans!" Lucoa said with a wide smile.

"You mean during the Maya Empire?" Tooru asked with a teasing smile.

"I have very fond memories of that time, yes!"

"Enough talking! Let's try it!" Elma said, drooling-down a river and taking a first bite big enough half the giant slice disappeared in an instant.

And it was otherworldly fluffy! Amazingly sweet and delicate! A custard that mortal words could barely describe, all framed by a crunchy and flavorful crust with just the right amount of vanilla flavour to mesmerize the senses.

"...He did it…" Fafnir was begrudgingly forced to admit.

"Oh my! This is even better than dear Asmodeus' own version!" Lucoa admitted, chuckling.

"Very good! Congratulations," Kobayashi offered with a kind smile.

"Thank you," Izuku answered with a shy smile.

"Izuku…" Elma was next, and she marched up to him to look into his eyes fiercely.

"Y-Y-Yes?" the poor Chef said, unnerved.

"...Marry me." the dragon woman asked, dropping to one knee and taking one of his hands in both of hers, there were even sparkles shining around her.

"WHAT?!" the other yelled in shock.

"SPIRAL CANNON!" Nejire instead was completely not amused, and showed so by shooting her full power against Elma, sending her fly outside the apartment and then shooting herself forward to fight the HUSSY trying to pull a move on her boyfriend.

Sigh! "Once again...This happens…" Izuku muttered, dejected.

"Not the first time?" Kobayashi asked while she, her coworker friend and Izuku watched the other dragons trying to stop Elma and Nejire from murdering each other.

"No…" the Chef answered with a desperate sigh.

"My condolences." Kobayashi answered, and hugged the poor boy as he broke down in tears.

WHY?! HE JUST WANTED TO BE A SIMPLE CHEF! WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING!? WHYYYYYYYYY?!