Food Wars: Taste Reversal

"That's... Shiraki-kun, anyway, let's start processing the ingredients first..."

Megumi Tadokoro returned to the cooking table uneasily. Thinking about the threats from the two students just now, she felt that her future in culinary school was bleak. She never expected to encounter such a situation so soon after school started. Fortunately, her partner was Shiraki-kun, so it should be fine at this level.

"Ah, it's time to start working on the ingredients."

Shiraki looked around at the other groups of students. Soma Yukihira had already finished reading the recipe and was starting to work on the beef, while the other students, whose names he didn't know, were busy processing the ingredients. But when these students noticed Shiraki watching them, almost all of them glared back with an unhappy expression. These unfriendly glares made Megumi shiver, but for the sake of her cooking grade, she forced herself to ignore them and focused on processing the ingredients.

It seemed that the whole classroom wasn't very friendly to them.

Shiraki noticed that Megumi was clearly rattled, even though these students were really targeting him, and not her. But she was the one who was scared. Still, being able to direct such cold treatment at an innocent girl showed that these people weren't worth his sympathy.

"Well, first concentrate on cutting the beef into five-centimeter cubes, and then..."

Megumi Tadokoro focused intently on cutting the beef, as if facing a great challenge. Despite the unfriendly glares she was receiving, she tried to push through, knowing that with Shiraki by her side, it would be okay. She just needed to keep up and not hold him back.

About five minutes later, Megumi Tadokoro had finished processing all the ingredients.

"Shiraki-kun, the next step is to fry the beef in the pot."

"Okay." Shiraki gestured to her, signaling that he understood. He glanced at the progress of the other groups. The quicker ones had already put the beef in the pot, while the slower ones were still cutting onions. The confident smile on Shiraki's face helped ease Megumi's nervousness, and she said, from the heart:

"You're amazing, Shiraki-kun. Even in such an atmosphere, you're not tense at all. If it's Shiraki-kun's cooking, you must be able to easily get an A grade, right?"

"Huh, what are you talking about?" Shiraki replied, looking at her with a strange expression.

"Huh?" Megumi Tadokoro still couldn't react.

"In this classroom today, no one wants to get an A grade except the two of us."

With that, he took the kitchen knife from her hand and slapped it directly onto the cutting board!

Boom!

The sound of the kitchen knife hitting the cutting board echoed throughout the room. At this moment, everyone, including Teacher Chapelle, looked up in surprise—not because of anything else, but because Shiraki not only drove his kitchen knife into the cutting board, but also shook the knives of everyone in the entire classroom into the air.

[SS-level Cooking Card: Flowers, Activation! Successfully designated cuisine: Burgundy Red Wine Beef Stew.]

Brush, brush, brush!

The knives that were shocked into the air by Shiraki sparkled with silver-white light. The blades of the knives in the entire classroom flickered like steel flowers, flying wildly in mid-air, detached from their owners' control.

Shiraki grabbed a pot of cut beef from in front of Megumi Tadokoro, then flicked his wrist. A new kitchen knife appeared in his hand, and without warning, Shiraki tossed the pieces of beef into the air. Dozens of beef pieces formed a parabola in mid-air. Just as Megumi Tadokoro gasped and thought Shiraki was going to drop the beef, Shiraki's right wrist flicked again, and a bright kitchen knife shot toward the falling beef.

"Ahhh!"

The student who had almost tripped Megumi Tadokoro earlier saw the knife flying toward him and instinctively screamed, sitting down abruptly. But the flying kitchen knife didn't pierce his body; instead, it sailed just over his head, landing with a thud on the ceiling.

Everyone, including Lecturer Chapelle, watched in awe as the knife, thrown by Shiraki, arced through the air and bounced the beef pieces back with a thud. The force of the bounce was so strong that it made everyone wince.

Thump!

The knives that had been flung into the air by Shiraki earlier now gently fell back into place. The positioning and trajectory of the knives were identical to how they had bounced, leaving everyone to wonder if they had imagined the earlier scene.

Just when everyone thought it was over, Shiraki pulled out more knives from his cooking table—he had retrieved various types of knives while Megumi was working with the ingredients. Not only was the training room stocked with a variety of ingredients, but it also had a complete collection of knives for all kinds of uses. As the entire classroom stood in stunned silence, Shiraki's left hand grabbed a board laden with kitchen utensils and lifted it high.

Once again, all the knives spun into the air, and the same spectacular scene unfolded—knives spun wildly, ingredients were tossed into the air... bacon, carrots, onions—one by one, the ingredients flew up as Shiraki continued his amazing display.

The constant flash of knife blades and the sound of vegetables being sliced filled the entire room. Some students, who had been focused on their own cooking, stood frozen, mouths agape. Even the pot and spoons in their hands dropped to the ground unnoticed. Even Lecturer Chapelle had never witnessed such a spectacular cooking display before. He stood on the podium, mesmerized by Shiraki's performance, the handouts in his hands almost slipping from his grasp.

Brush, brush, brush!

The blades in the air glimmered with silver light, dazzling everyone to the point of pain in their eyes. But no one could look away, their attention completely captivated by the spectacle. It felt like they were watching a magic show.

With every toss, the ingredients that fell back down were perfectly cut into predetermined shapes. When the last of the ingredients were processed, the knives, still spinning wildly in the air, fell neatly onto the cooking table, perfectly arranged. It was as if the knives had been placed there from the start.

That... was cooking skill that didn't belong to this world.

Shiraki wasn't the kind of person who hoped for good fortune to create something extraordinary. When provoked, he used his mind to navigate the situation. In his eyes, wasn't provoking him just a way of saying, "Come trouble me"? After all, even if he failed, there were no serious consequences. So why not? If he succeeded, he could make a name for himself at Totsuki Culinary School.

If he didn't teach these people who provoked him a lesson, they would just keep coming back for more. Soma Yukihira might enjoy the troubles, but Shiraki had no time to waste on them. As for what had happened in class today—he had no intention of constantly bringing up that people were targeting him. Instead, he'd show his strength, which would act as a deterrent for those who might cause trouble in the future. It was better to make people respect you and avoid seeing you as a soft target.

After all, while Totsuki Culinary School is a prestigious institution, the students in it were also very practical. No one would want to pick a fight with a genius chef destined to shine in the future. The reason Soma Yukihira was often ostracized by other students was partly because he had been preconceived as a "common chef" and partly because of his arrogant behavior.

And now, Shiraki's goal was to establish himself as someone not to be trifled with. He wasn't like Soma, who could be picked on. There would be a price to pay for provoking him.

For example... everyone except him should get an E grade in this class.

As soon as this idea crossed his mind, a mechanical prompt sounded in Shiraki's ears, one that only he could hear.

[Ding! Triggered Task: All E, etc.! Mission Description: How can you stay silent after being provoked? Please ask the host to fight back against the students making provocative actions present. The more students who get an E grade, the more generous the reward!]

Mission reward: 200-2000 points, random lottery 2-6 times (depending on task completion). Failure penalty: The host will be despised by all students in the class.

This task... was just what he needed.

A small, almost imperceptible smile appeared on Shiraki's lips as his hands continued moving in a mesmerizing blur. The students could only stare in awe, increasingly dazzled by his skill.

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