The Group F kitchen, which moments ago had been enveloped in tension as the majority of the students scrambled to find ingredients in the wild, had now transformed into a stage for those who truly possessed fangs.
From the waiting area, Emiya Shirou sat with his arms crossed.
His eyes were now locked onto a single workstation in the middle of the room.
There, the Italian twins, Takumi and Isami Aldini, were demonstrating exactly why they were dubbed the Unbeatable Twins.
The sound of metal clashing against wooden cutting boards echoed in a dizzying rhythm.
Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack!
It was not the sound of an ordinary kitchen knife.
In Takumi Aldini’s hands, a double-curved blade swung at a speed that was difficult for the naked eyes of ordinary students to follow.
It was a Mezzaluna, the signature Italian half-moon knife.
“Good job securing this poultry, Isami!” Takumi exclaimed, his eyes burning a bright, ambitious blue.
His hands never stopped mincing the green herbs on the cutting board.
“Hehe, leave it to me, Bro!” Isami replied.
The plump youth was busy handling a medium-sized wild duck.
It was an Aigamo duck, a migratory wild fowl that often stopped by the lake near the campsite.
Catching a fully energetic wild duck without professional hunting equipment was a testament to the physical fitness and determination of the Aldini twins.
In Shirou’s eyes, their coordination was nearly flawless.
The moment Isami finished cleaning and cutting the duck breast, which was rich in fat, Takumi was already waiting with a high-temperature grill pan.
Sssss!
A loud sizzle rang out as the Aigamo duck skin touched the hot pan.
The delicious aroma of rendering duck fat instantly dominated the kitchen air, forcing several students who had just returned empty-handed to gulp hard.
Wild duck meat possessed a distinct, slightly fishy and gamey odor if not processed correctly, but Takumi splashed a bit of sake over it and flambéed it, eliminating the unpleasant smell in a flash.
“Let’s show them, Isami.
The pride of Trattoria Aldini!”
In a very short amount of time, Takumi turned off the stove and transferred the duck slices, which were perfectly rosy in the center, onto a serving plate.
As a finishing touch, he poured a bright green sauce over them.
“Chef Inui,” Takumi stepped forward confidently, placing the plate right in front of Hinako Inui, who was still relaxing.
“Please enjoy.
Aigamo Grilled with Spices.”
Hinako leaned forward.
She blinked slowly, observing the dish.
The appetizing roasted duck meat was blanketed in a green sauce reminiscent of a classic Italian condiment.
“Ho?
A green sauce…
is this salsa verde?” Hinako asked in a slightly teasing tone.
“Takumi-kun, you are aware that the main requirement of my exam is to serve a ‘Japanese Dish’ using ingredients from the surrounding nature, right?”
Takumi smirked, a smile full of pride.
“Just taste it first, Chef.
You will soon realize that this is a one hundred percent Japanese dish.”
Driven by curiosity, Hinako cut a slice of the duck along with the green sauce and placed it into her mouth.
One second passed.
The room felt completely silent.
Suddenly, Hinako’s eyes widened.
A deep crimson blush instantly spread from her neck all the way to her ears.
She held her breath, before finally letting out a long exhale that sounded like a moan of pure pleasure.
“Ah…
Hah…
T-This is…” Hinako gripped the edge of her skirt.
In the waiting area, Shirou tensed.
Here it comes, he thought warily.
His instincts screamed, preparing to witness this world’s biological anomaly for the second time.
“This sauce…
at a glance, it looks like Italian salsa verde using parsley, anchovies, and garlic,” Hinako babbled, her eyes tearing up under the influence of flavor euphoria.
“But…
this deep, savory taste…
you didn’t use sea anchovies!
You used uruka—salted sweetfish offal from the river!
Then this green color and sharp aroma…
you replaced the parsley and garlic with perilla leaves, green onions, and yuzukosho paste!”
In Hinako’s subconscious, the explosion of the savory duck fat and the freshness of the uruka seasoning birthed a new reality.
Hinako hallucinated that she was wearing a traditional Italian dress made of perilla leaves, dancing the tarantella in the middle of a Roman piazza, before suddenly, a giant Aigamo duck wearing a traditional Japanese festival headband swooped in and carried her away, soaring across a sky filled with fireworks.
“The taste of wild duck fat…
perfectly bound by the acidity of the yuzukosho and the elegant bitterness of the uruka…
Ahhh…
it feels like the feathers on my body are falling off from this tenderness…” Hinako sighed as she squirmed in her seat, her arms crossed hugging her own shoulders as her breathing grew heavy.
“What an extraordinary collaboration,” Hinako finally managed to compose herself, though her face remained flushed.
She raised her red stamp.
“Takumi Aldini, Isami Aldini…
PASSED!”
“Yosha!” Isami cheered happily.
Meanwhile, Takumi turned around, pointing directly at Yukihira Soma, who was standing in front of his station.
“Bravissimo!
How about that, Yukihira?
Did you see?
This is our level!”
In his seat, Emiya Shirou let out a long sigh and massaged the bridge of his nose.
Megumi beside him looked on in confusion.
“What’s wrong, Emiya-kun?
Do you have a headache?”
“No, Tadokoro,” Shirou muttered with a weary voice.
“I am just making peace with reality.”
Seeing Hinako hallucinating again, the last shred of doubt in Shirou’s mind shattered.
When Megumi cooked earlier, he had still harbored a sliver of hope that the judge’s lewd and nonsensical reaction was merely an isolated incident—perhaps an allergy or a mere coincidence.
But now, seeing the exact same effect triggered by Takumi’s uruka sauce, Shirou had to accept this bitter truth.
In this world, eating delicious food can cause illusions, Shirou analyzed internally.
He remembered how Casters used spells to scramble their enemies’ minds.
Here, chefs did the exact same thing armed only with pots and pans.
Alright.
For the sake of my own sanity, let’s call this phenomenon ‘Food Illusions’.
An absolute neurological reaction where the gustatory senses trigger visual and sensory projections in the eater’s brain.
Shirou nodded slowly to himself.
Giving a scientific name to something so absurd somehow made him feel a little calmer.
“Heh.
Not bad, Takumi,” Soma’s voice broke Shirou’s reverie.
The red-haired youth did not look intimidated in the slightest.
He tied his white headband around his forehead, turning his stove dial to the maximum.
“But don’t get too happy just yet.
It’s my turn now!”
Soma stepped forward to the judge’s table carrying a tray.
Since Shirou had already caught all the best-quality Iwana upstream, Soma only had several small and medium-sized river fish, such as Ayu and Wakasagi, which varied in size.
“What are you going to serve, Yukihira-kun?
Your fish are so small; they won’t be filling enough for a main dish,” commented Hinako, who had regained her composure.
Soma grinned widely.
“Chef Inui, before I cook, may I have that snack you’re eating?”
Hinako blinked in confusion, glancing at the bag of Kaki no Tane (a crunchy, soy-sauce-glazed rice cracker and peanut snack) resting on her lap.
“Eh?
This?
But this is my favorite snack…”
“Just a little bit!” Soma coaxed.
Reluctantly, Hinako handed over the rest of her snack.
Without wasting any time, Soma placed the Kaki no Tane into a plastic bag and crushed it using the base of a pan until it became coarse crumbs.
He then coated the cleaned small fish in a light tempura batter, rolled them in the crushed Kaki no Tane, and tossed them into the hot oil.
Sizzle!
The loud crackle of fish frying in oil filled the room.
Shirou narrowed his eyes, analyzing the structure of Soma’s cooking.
Smart.
Rather than using ordinary breadcrumbs, which are unavailable in the wild, he used the judge’s crunchy rice snack to create an ‘Okakiage’ coating.
The crushed Kaki no Tane already has a distinct soy sauce seasoning and spicy kick, which will immediately infuse into the neutral river fish meat when fried.
It took only ten minutes for Soma to finish his dish.
He drained the fried fish, which were now golden brown and heavily textured, serving them on a plate alongside a thick, greenish dipping sauce made from wild lime juice, egg yolks, and roughly chopped mitsuba leaves.
“Please enjoy!
Wild River Fish Kaki no Tane Okakiage!
Osomatsu!” Soma untied his headband.
Takumi scoffed.
“Using the judge’s snack?
A cheap trick.
That won’t beat the elegance of my dish.”
Hinako looked at Soma’s dish with one eyebrow raised.
The small fish were fried whole.
Using her chopsticks, Hinako picked up a whole fish, dipped it into the mitsuba sauce, and took a bite.
CRUNCH!
An incredibly loud, crisp sound echoed throughout the room.
The deep-fried Kaki no Tane coating shattered inside Hinako’s mouth, releasing a salty and spicy flavor that exploded instantly.
Hinako’s eyes widened once again.
Her joints stiffened.
And then, the “Food Illusion” happened again.
This time, inside her head, Hinako felt herself transforming into a small river fish swimming against a fierce current.
Suddenly, the river’s current turned into an ocean of soy sauce, and crunchy rice grains rained down on her body like meteors.
However, rather than being painful, those meteors provided a soul-igniting warmth.
At the end of the river, Yukihira Soma stood like a sea god, tossing her into the night sky until she exploded into golden fireworks.
“A-Aaaahhn!” Hinako let out a stifled cry, her body leaning so far back she nearly tumbled out of her chair.
She clutched her chest, panting as if she had just run a marathon.
“W-What is this crunchiness?!
The savory and spicy taste of the Kaki no Tane pierces the outer layer, but the moment my teeth reach the meat…
this fresh river fish meat envelops it in a contrasting tenderness!
This mitsuba and egg yolk sauce ties everything together with a refreshing acidity!
Ahhh…
it makes me want to keep chewing until my jaw falls off!”
Shirou, who was watching the scene of Hinako Inui’s Foodgasm—writhing and moaning in pleasure over a snack-coated fried fish—could only stare blankly.
His soul had grown immune to it.
Food Illusions.
Yes.
This is completely normal.
I will not question it anymore, he thought, sealing his common sense tightly inside a mental iron vault.
With trembling hands and ragged breaths, Hinako stamped Soma’s evaluation sheet.
“Yukihira Soma…
PASSED!”
Soma turned toward Takumi with a satisfied grin.
“Well?
Do you still think yours is the most elegant?”
A vein of annoyance bulged on Takumi’s forehead.
“Its deliciousness is extraordinary, I’ll admit!
But using instant ingredients like a snack is cheating!
Chef Inui!” Takumi ran up to the judge’s table, looking at Hinako, who was still trying to catch her breath.
“Please judge: between my dish and Yukihira’s, which one is superior?!”
“Eh?
W-What?” Hinako blinked, trying to snap back to the real world.
“Please decide who the winner is!” Takumi pressed.
Soma also stepped forward.
“True.
Since you were the one who challenged me, let’s settle this right here.”
Hinako scratched her still-blushing cheek.
“Hmm…
if you insist…
The two have very different approaches.
Aldini-kun’s Aigamo is highly elegant and classy, utilizing high-precision techniques.
While Yukihira-kun’s is extremely wild, innovative, and full of surprises…”
Takumi and Soma held their breath, awaiting the final verdict.
Shirou also listened closely from afar, curious about the judging criteria of an elite Totsuki alumnus.
“Therefore, the tastier one is—”
BZZZZ!
BZZZZ!
Before Hinako could finish her sentence, the loud vibrating sound of a cell phone from inside her apron pocket sliced through the tension.
Hinako jumped in surprise.
She reached into her pocket and saw the caller’s name on the screen.
Her face instantly drained of color.
“O-Oh no!
It’s Shinomiya-senpai!” Hinako shrieked in panic.
She hurriedly answered the phone, her body automatically bowing even though the caller wasn’t in front of her.
“H-Hello, Shinomiya-senpai?
Y-Yes!
I’m so sorry!
The exam in my class took a little longer!
Eek!
Please don’t be mad!
I’ll head over there right away!”
In a panic, Hinako hung up the phone and gathered her belongings.
She looked at Takumi and Soma, who were still standing frozen, awaiting her answer.
“I’m sorry, you two!
The winner is…
A TIE!
Yes, a tie!
You are both equally amazing!
Now hurry up and pack your things, the time limit is up!” Hinako yelled as she hurriedly sprinted out of the kitchen room.
“For those who passed, return to the bus immediately!
Shinomiya-senpai is going to kill me if I’m late!”
Takumi stood rigidly, his mouth hanging half-open.
This cliffhanger verdict was truly unsatisfying for his competitive soul.
He turned to Soma with a fierce glare.
“Yukihira…
our battle is not over!
In the next challenge, I will definitely crush you!”
Soma chuckled, rolling down his sleeves.
“Anytime, Takumi.
Anytime.”
In the corner of the room, Shirou patted the shoulder of Megumi, who still looked exhausted yet relieved.
“Let’s go, Tadokoro.
We’re heading back to the bus.
The first exam is over.”
“R-Right, Emiya-kun,” Megumi replied, smiling brightly.
A few minutes later, the students who survived the first stage of the massacre began lining up toward the buses that would take them back to the Totsuki Resort.
The late afternoon sky was starting to radiate a reddish-orange hue, illuminating the exhausted yet deeply relieved faces.
From inside the bus, Shirou sat by the window, gazing at the mountain forest slowly fading into the distance.
In the seat across from him, Soma was already snoring softly from exhaustion.
The first day of the Totsuki Hell Training Camp had only just begun.
Emiya Shirou closed his eyes, letting the rhythm of the bus engine soothe his mind.
He knew, after witnessing the Food Illusion phenomenon and the insane level of competition from students like the Aldini brothers, the days ahead would not only test his cooking techniques, but also his mental endurance in facing the absurdities of this culinary world.
One day is almost over, Shirou thought to himself.
And there are still several days left.
Hang in there, my sanity.
“Like my work?