The MC raised the excitement of the audience with his smooth talk.
"And now! What flavor of cooking battle will unfold at this year's event?! What kinds of recipes will we see?! And what drama shorts await us?! The 50th Cooking Festival officially beings now!!"
"YEAHHH!!!!"
"And don't forget, I, Harry Chest, will be covering the events as your MC!! I've been the number one most popular Gourment MC for fifteen years straight! Last year, second place MC Harry Arm surpassed me, but I pulled some strings and kept him out! I'll fight to the death to stay here as your host! On that note let's have a great fest today!!"
"Harry Chest.. you're awful..."
"Let's get this ball rolling, folks!"
"We begin with round 1 of the preliminaries!!"
Harry raised his fist and shouted, "Swimming! Biking! Running! It's a Food Stamina Race!"
"It's what we call the "Cooking Triathlon"!!"
Haru who was standing beside Komatsu could see that Komatsu was flabbergasted. He also sighed when he thought about Komatsu since he knew that Komatsu was the weakest chef in this place, however, his talent in cooking was real.
"During this race, 50 of the 100 contenders will be disqualified!"
Its starting point is Rice Beach on Cooking Island. Unlike the traditional triathlon sport, having great stamina is not quite necessary because the events are relatively easy. The chefs need to swim to and from Takoyaki Island (which is 750 meters off the coast) to get their ingredients, bring them back by riding a bicycle, and then run to obtain cooking supplies. However, the faster the chef is in the swimming and getting to Takoyaki Island, the better the ingredients they can get. For the bicycle part, there are two routes. There's an easy course, but it's a longer distance, while the shorter course is more dangerous and full of wild beasts. Also, if the chefs don't reach the Cooking Utensils station at a specified time to get their trusted utensils, the station will close, and the chefs will have to use normal ones. Only 50 chefs will advance to the next event, which is decided by the dishes they prepare at the end of the Triathlon.
Haru knew that what was important was the food itself rather than how fast someone finished this event, however, if the chef was slow then it would be hard for them to get the best ingredients and the best utensils.
Haru turned toward Komatsu and felt that this guy was the best chef in this world right now since he knew even normal ingredients could turn into super ingredients as long as Komatsu had picked those ingredients.
---
"Uwaaa... I can see Komatsu shaking from here," Sunny said with a worried expression.
"Don't worry about him," Coco said with a smile.
Zebra only drank cola without caring.
"KOMATSU, YOU CAN DO IT!!!!" Toriko shouted with a smile.
---
"E - Everyone....." Komatsu was moved, but he was really unconfident since he was too weak.
Everyone went to the beach and had changed into swimwear standing together while waiting for the tournament to start.
"Komatsu-san, I'll help you on this match," Haru said.
"What? Haru, you can't do that! It'll be cheating!" Komatsu said.
Haru shook his head and said, "No, you don't need to worry." He raised his eyebrow and started to communicate with the fishes within the beach to help Komatsu pull him to Takoyaki Island.
Some of them noticed that there was a lot of fish which suddenly appeared within the beach and they felt strange.
It was his first time for Haru to use his ability to communicate with a water lifeform.
"Huh? Did you do this?" Komatsu asked.
Haru nodded and said, Just swim, Komatsu-san."
"Round 1 of the preliminaries! The Cooking Triathlon! Let's go to the man who will give the signal to start!! He's ranked 2,715th place in the World Chef Ranking!!" Harry, the MC, said.
"Idiot!! 2,714th place! Don't underestimate me, idiot!" Monchy shouted.
"Now, Chef Monchi, if you would please enter the ring!!"
"Leave it to me, Idiot!"
Mochy jumped into the ring, however, his feet stuck to the rope and fell to the ground, then the gun on his back was triggered by an incident.
BOOOOM!!!
"AAND START....!!!!!!!"
Haru was excited and jumped into the water quickly.
The moment he entered the water he felt that he had become truly alive at this moment.
Swosh!
His speed had reached into a Mach or more leaving everyone behind.
"......"
Everyone was stunned at this moment, however, some chefs also started to move quickly.
"W - WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SPEED?!"
The MC along with the audience was shocked.
Coco, Toriko, Zebra, and Sunny raised their eyebrows and realized that Haru had become stronger once again.
Komatsu who had entered the water suddenly being pulled by a group of fishes. "W - What is this?!" He was shocked and thought that they would try to eat him and became scared, but then he realized that they were trying to help him to reach Takoyaki Island. "T - Thank you!" He didn't know whether Haru had heard it, however, he was very thankful to Haru for helping him.
Haru had reached Takoyaki Island and picked up some ingredients. He didn't pick up too much before he grabbed his bicycle but stopped when he saw Setsuno had reached Takoyaki Island.
"You're very strong..." Setsuno sighed and said, "It's almost cheating."
"Well, I'll reach the finish line first," Haru said and pedaled his bicycle.
Setsuno nodded and grabbed the ingredients.
Haru didn't take a long time to reach the finish line and started to cook. He cooked a pretty simple bento that he usually cooked for Sora and Megumi before they went to the school.
Everyone was shocked when they saw him only making such a simple bento, but for some reason, they could feel the love coming from Haru.
Haru cooked rice, sweet and sour fried chicken, tamagoyaki, spinach salad with sesame dressing, colorful vegetables such as tomato cheery, assorted fruit, and a soup below the box before placing it on the bento box neatly giving it to the judges for them to test.
They didn't expect that the food that Haru had cooked was very normal, however, they didn't disdain it since they thought that Haru was a bento master. They started to eat the food that had been cooked by Haru then suddenly felt that they felt very warm and they could the love within this food. They felt that they were being pampered by their lover and felt that as if they had an unforgatteable date in their youth.
Haru sat down and didn't do anything waiting for everyone to serve their food. Even though he was confident, he also felt nervous somehow since it was his first time cooking in the competition.