Sorry, I'm still working rn. I just realized I haven't scheduled the chap, my apologies!
—-
The next day, the main hall was once again crowded, yet the atmosphere seemed quite unusual.
Students slowly took their seats, confusedly looking at the arena.
Among them was Soma, along with the others from Polar Star Dormitory, eager to see who Soma would face in the next round.
"Hmm?"
Walking through the crowd before settling down in an empty seat, Soma blinked in confusion, noticing the arena seemed slightly different than yesterday.
He mumbled, "What is this? I didn't know there was a scoreboard like that."
A massive sign up top displayed Tsuna's and Mimasaka's names with large zeros beneath them, like a scoreboard.
"Well, it's quite obvious..."
Marui's voice was heard as Soma blinked his eyes before everyone else, except the basketball club members, turned toward Marui, who adjusted his glasses while watching the arena.
"In fact, a change should happen since this match today... won't be your average election round..."
"Could you be specific, Marui..."
Yoshino pouted as she slapped Marui's back, making him almost fumble from her strength.
"That's because the match will be a foo--"
As Marui sighed, trying to regain his footing and about to explain, the moderator interrupted him.
"Hello, everyone! It's your cute moderator, Urara Kawashima-desu!"
Her voice echoed throughout the arena as the fanboys cheered, while the haters glared at her for acting cute.
However, her next words instantly quieted down the entire arena.
"Ah, you must be wondering why we slightly changed the arena! The answer is simple: today's match will be a food war between the two participants, Tsunayoshi Ito and Subaru Mimasaka-desu!"
These words sent the crowd into an uproar!
"Huh? You can do that?"
"What? In the middle of the election?"
Everyone's reaction was quite expected—they were confused and a bit surprised by this announcement.
"...!"
Soma and the others, except for those who already knew, had surprised expressions before turning to Marui and asking, "You already knew about this?"
"Well, that guy challenged Tsuna in our club, so obviously we are aware of it," Marui shrugged his shoulders as Sato and Aoki bickered on the side.
"Then, the stake would be his knife?"
Ibusaki asked, narrowing his eyes at Mimasaka, knowing his reputation for notoriously challenging people to food wars and forcefully taking their treasured knives.
However, Marui shook his head, causing Ibusaki to tilt his head in confusion as Marui slowly spoke with a complicated gaze, "The stake would be Tsuna's late mother's chopsticks... and his life as a chef."
"Wha? Did I hear that correctly?"
The Polar Star Dormitory members were completely astounded by the stakes, feeling it had gone too far.
"...Do you mean it?"
Soma's eyes widened at this, and Marui nodded in response, "Yeah, if he loses, he will stop cooking for life..."
"..."
Silence permeated as those words sank in, and they all looked at Tsuna with a complicated gaze.
"Hmph... The stakes might be high, but since he accepted, it means he's confident in winning, you fool!"
A loud scoff cut through the air, drawing everyone's attention.
They turned toward the source to find Alice striding confidently toward the edge, Ryo following closely behind.
She proudly crossed her arms and added, "That gorilla won't pose much of a threat to Tsuna..."
"Hmm, that's right. If he dared to take it, that means he is confident in winning..."
The crowd murmured in realization as Alice shook her head.
She turned to Marui and asked, "Anyway, I only know the stakes for Tsuna. What about that gorilla? What will Tsuna take from him?"
"Oh..."
Marui blinked, adjusting his glasses, "I don't know..."
"...Huh?"
Even Alice, confident in Tsuna's victory, was bewildered. She blinked and cutely tilted her head, asking once more, "What do you mean by that?"
"Please welcome our participants today, Tsunayoshi Ito and Subaru Mimasaka!"
Kawashima's voice interrupted their discussion, and they turned to see Tsuna and Subaru making their way to the center of the arena.
However...
Alice and the others were still fixated on what Marui had said. They immediately turned back to him since their curiosity piqued.
"..."
Seeing the others staring at him intently, Marui felt his lips twitch.
He sighed, "Like I said, I don't know. If Tsuna wins, Mimasaka will have to follow whatever Captain Sakamoto gets him to do. And we don't know much about what our captain will do to that guy... so yeah, I don't know..."
"..."
The atmosphere immediately dropped into a pure silence.
Alice felt her veins bulging out of her forehead as she tightly gripped her fist in anger. She sharply turned to Tsuna and shouted angrily, "Tsuna-baka! You fucking troll! How can you be such a fool! You bastard!"
How could he even accept such a ridiculous challenge in the first place?
She knew there was no way he would lose, but still...!
"...?"
Her shouts made the crowd turn to her, giving her strange looks.
Yet, she didn't seem to care and kept on cursing Tsuna, her frustration echoing throughout the arena.
"How inelegant..."
A strong voice reverberated through the arena, capturing everyone's attention.
The crowd shifted their focus towards the entrance, where Senzaimon stood alongside the other esteemed judges, their presence immediately recognized by all.
However...
"Bastard, come get up and let me fucking slap that handsome face of yours!"
"..."
Alice didn't seem to care despite her grandfather's presence, which made Senzaimon's expression darken, making the atmosphere in the arena slightly awkward.
"Why are you shouting out loud? Shut up..."
Tsuna scratched his head at her curses and mumbled, "I guess it's in their blood to scream like that, huh?"
The other Nakiri also screamed a lot, which was quite annoying sometimes.
Then, he suddenly widened his eyes as a thought struck him, and he couldn't help but chuckle, "I wonder if their mother was a screamer as well, keke..."
"Tsunayoshi Ito... How does it feel to be one step closer to losing everything?"
Mimasaka's words cut through the tension, erasing the small smile on Tsuna's face.
He frowned, looking at the burly figure before him, "You always know how to ruin it, huh?"
"Kuhahaha! Do you know this? I'm actually more excited to do this with you than anyone else in the whole academy!"
Mimasaka's excitement was palpable as they moved to their workstations.
As they arranged their ingredients, Soma and the other members of the Polar Star Dormitory looked on in shock.
"Their ingredients..."
On both tables, separated by a significant distance, lay practically identical ingredients lined up perfectly, like a mirror image.
"...were the same?"
Mimasaka stared at Tsuna with a sly grin, raising his chin slightly as if looking down at him, "You are better than any other student I've seen. Even hidden a dragon like Hayama are a level apart from you! And that's why..."
This was his usual strategy.
Perfect Trace allowed him to know exactly what his opponent was making, and all he needed to do was add the finishing touches, making it better.
The stronger his opponent, the better his dish!
"...I will win!"
Mimasaka declared loudly, looking at Tsuna, who suddenly swung his arm.
The knife in Tsuna's hand flew toward Mimasaka with such speed that he barely registered it.
"...!"
Mimasaka blinked as he felt a breeze graze his cheek, followed by a light trail of blood.
"Wha...?"
Snapping back to reality, he turned his head to see the knife embedded deeply in the pillar holding their workstations as Tsuna's voice cut through the air, "Sorry, you talked too much. Flies were trying to get into your mouth, so I did you a favor and squashed one for you..."
"Though not sure if there were more, so what do you think about shutting your mouth?"
"..."
The coldness in Tsuna's voice scattered Mimasaka's remaining bravado.
He nervously gulped down his saliva, briefly glanced at Tsuna, and found himself immediately looking away as their eyes met.
He muttered under his breath, "W-who is this guy?"