After short vacations, the time for the Autumn Election arrived. The Preliminary Round already took place, and the contestants for the main part were chosen. This year, the five seats will be opened due to the graduation of the 90th generation, so the top ten people have advanced to the next round.
Among them were Rin and Tomoe, who achieved first and fifth place, respectively, in the Preliminary Round. Rin became a dark horse of that round, as her abilities were not well-known due to her mostly focusing on helping me. When she could unleash her full, as Rita would call it, 'Maid Power', she dominated others in the year.
The Quarterfinals only cemented her position further, as she was able to defeat Subaru Mimasaka, completing the same dish as he, showing she could beat him in his strongest field, copying and improving. In the end, the five people who will ascend to the positions of Elite Ten are Rin, Tomoe, Sōma, Hisako, and Akira Hayama.
Hisako was able to emerge victorious against Alice's assistant, Ryō Kurokiba, while Akira Hayama defeated Sōma's rival, Takumi Aldini. Tomoe's opponent was Megumi, and despite being friends, she showed no mercy. And lastly, Sōma defeated Alice, being able to use the subject of their duel to his advantage.
Sōma and Alice's duel was last in the Quarterfinals, and as it just finished, the next round was about to be decided, but before it could happen, an incident occurred.
-"They truly showed up."-commented Old Man, looking at the intruders who entered the Shokugeki Arena.
~"Of course they would. Not only the son of his 'master' but also an enemy who took his rightful place is here. He can prove that he is better by winning this contest, so he will come here."
-"That's why you announced you will give a chance for the victor of the Elections to challenge you. I thought you did it to motivate them."
~"Well, at least we don't have to worry about the tournament bracket anymore."
-"Haha, true. Can I live the rest in your hands?"
~"Sure. You should focus on your family, inviting them to finals and the last challenge."
-"Already done. Azami wants the Tōtsuki, so he will be present. As for Mana, it was as you said. Just by knowing that you will use your full power, she instantly agreed to come."
~"Then we will extend the time for the Autumn Election so that the duel between me and the winner will happen during the Moon Banquet Festival, neatly wrapping it all together."
-"Good. You better get going, or that woman will attack your friends."
~"I'm afraid that it would be her who will be needing medevac if Rin or Tomoe were to act. I'm going. Have fun, Old Man."
-"Have fun, huh... I wonder if there will be any fun in this family reunion."
Before the situation could deteriorate further, I took Sakura and walked to the Shokugeki Arena.
-"Finally showed yourself, and here I thought you would chicken out."-A pale man who I know as Asahi taunted me the moment I showed myself.
~"I sadly had to move as some guests couldn't behave themself. Tell me, why are you here? Also, can you introduce yourself?"
-"Heh, I'm Asahi Saiba, and those are my companions, Kou Shiō and Sarge. We are here to join in the fun as I plan on challenging you."
~"I see. What do you guys think."~I looked at some other Elite Ten present here.
-"Give them a test. If they can pass it, they can join."-Spoke Rindō according to what I told her to say.
Erina, Momo, Sakura, and Isshiki also agreed, making it so more than half of Elite Ten came to the decision.
~"Then those five will be judges. If you can prepare a dish that is good enough by their standards, you can take part in the Autumn Election as special contestants."
-"Good. I can't wait to face you, Anthousai."-Asahi smiled as if he was sure that he would win.
Not surprisingly, three of them passed their test, and soon, a new Second Quarterfinals were announced. Kou Shiō vs Akira Hayama, Sōma vs Hisako, Rin vs Sarge, Tomoe vs Asahi.
They would start the next week, so before that happened, I worked with other Elite Tens to prepare everything, inviting judges, preparing the venue, and other minor things that someone needed to take care of.
Dividing the work, Sakura and Rindō were left in charge of the duels, taking care of venues and people. Erina and Momo had to prepare ingredients, spices, and other things to ensure fairness of the due. Isshiki was in charge of commentary and announcers, picking them and helping in the process, and I once again became a man in the shadows, making sure nothing went awry, especially as I had to take care of both Mana's WGO and businessmen following Azami.
Because of that, I missed all of the Second Quarterfinals, being busy dealing with Azami's attempts to take over the Tōtsuki. At first, he tried to approach other Elite Tens behind my back but was rejected instantly. Later, he would try to leverage his business contacts to threaten Tōtsuki with stopping supplies from coming its way, but that was prevented simply by replacing those who followed him with new contractors loyal to me, using both contacts of the Family but also work I did that past half a year.
Seeing that he couldn't do anything using above-ground methods, he tried to sabotage the actions of the school and Tōtsuki Group, but that also proved futile, as Sōe Nakiri cooperated with me to make sure everything was under control.
At the same time, I also deepened the connection between the Tōtsuki Group and my forces, joining the R&D divisions of both to be under Leonara's and Yukong's joint control from now on. In the future, Alice would most likely take over the position of head of this division.
Alice herself has also become one of the biggest sources of my headaches lately, as she learned about my relationship with Erina, and due to her rivalry with her, she decided that the best revenge against Erina would be to steal me from her. Thus, she began to make childish advances at me.
I decided to mostly ignore those and treat her the same as I treated other friends, but her actions were growing more and more outrageous, to the point that I would always have someone accompany me to take care of whatever brilliant idea she would come up with next.
~"Sigh."
-"Suprise!"
~"Erina, can you?"
-"Right... Alice, care to explain before I get angry?"
-"I wanted to surprise Yue."-Alige gave us two an innocent look.
-"What part of your brain came up with that."-Erina pointed her hand at Alice, who was in a big gift box wrapped like a mummy with a gift tape.
-"My Frontal Cortex?"
Picking this moment to leave the room, I sat down in the living room, waiting for the two of them to finish their argument.
-"Wear something for god sake!"
-"I'm wearing something underneath this tape. I'm not Shamelsess Erina."
-"Don't look at me like an idiot, you idiot! Can't you be normal?"
-"Isn't this how that heroine charmed her boyfriend?"
-"True... No wait. Why do you know about that?"
-"I read some comics in your room."
-"Don't rummage around my room!"
After some more arguing, Erina brought pouting Alice, who was now wearing normal clothes, back from my room. Two of them sat next to me. Erina was still visibly upset, while Alice bounced right back and started to hug my arm.
-"What do you think of my surprise, Yue?"
~"Alice, I think that this is not the best approach."
-"Hmm..."
-"Can't you just stop, Alice? Why are you so hung up on Yue? Normally, you would get already bored and move to some other subject."
-"Hey! I'm not some fickle person. I also started to like Yue, Ok."
-"Bah! Like you would. You barely even talked with each other."
~"Sigh. Please, can you don't argue nonstop?"
-"Sorry, Yue."
~"So why are you here, Alice? I don't think that you came here only for that joke."
-"It wasn't a joke... But you are right. My mom sent me to talk about something with you."
~"I'm listening."
-"She wanted to ask you if there is any experimental cure or even something that can slow down the progress of AACI."
~"Why is she interested in that?"
-"It seems that someone familiar to her got infested..."
~"I see. Sadly, there is no way to cure or stop the progress of the disease. We researched ways to slow the progress, but as of yet, those are unreliable and, even if working, rarely extend one's time by more than a month."
-"Is this AACI so scary?"-Asked Erina, a little shocked by what she just heard.
~"There is no scientifically known way to prevent it yet. This is the only thing I can say right now."
-"Luckily, no one close to us suffers from it."
-"Let's not think about such sad things! I'll send your answer to my mom when I return. Now, how about we play something?"
~"Sorry, it will be impossible. I have a meeting in around an hour, so I have to prepare for it."
-"Mou!"-Alice instantly began to pout.
-"Do you need some help?"
~"No need, it's not a hard job, but I have to do it myself."
-"When will you return?"
~"At night, don't wait for me."
After talking some more, I had to go, so I left two of them.
Many things could be said about Azami, but he certainly was a person who didn't concede defeat easily. He continued to use every convincible way to make the Old Man cede the position to him, short of hiring someone to kidnap Erina.
Because of that, I became quite busy, but luckily, he didn't catch me off guard. In those days, I became more and more thankful to Loki, whom I credit with developing my careful character to the point of paranoia.
Sadly, this made me miss most of the duels during this Autumn Election, only being able to see one between Rin and Sarge in the Second Quarterfinals. I also missed both Semifinals, Akira vs Asahi and Rin vs Sōma. Thankfully, Azami either got tired or understood the futility of his actions and finally accepted the invitation to the match during the Moon Banquet Festival. His ceasefire happened just before the finals, so I was able to witness it.
Arriving in seats reserved for Elite Ten half an hour after the start of the finals, I could see Rin and Asahi cooking on the stage.
-"Yue? I thought you were busy."
~"I was able to finish everything. What is your opinion on those two, Eishi?"
-"How to say it... While I can't stand Asahi's way of cooking, he will most likely win."
~"His Cross Knives, huh. That indeed might be hard for Rin to overcome."
-"I thought you would believe in her."
~"I do, but the truth speaks for itself. Normal opponents won't be able to defeat her, but she can't show her full strength here, while Asahi is able to perform better due to his determination."
-"Hmm, he indeed seems a little desperate in his actions. What did you do to make him want to defeat you so much?"
~"His past is linked with both the Nakiri family and Joichiro. You can say that he wanted to be what I am now. Thus, in his mind, if he were to defeat me, he would be able to reclaim what should be his, or something along these lines. I'm no psychologist, after all."
-"Take what should be his? His talent and personality are similar."
~"It seems he will finish soon."
-"It should be Batter-Fried Chicken with Boudin Noir."
~"He is not pulling any punches. I wonder what he will bring for our duel."
-"I'm also quite interested. What are you going to do now?"
~"Spend time with everybody until the Moon Banquet Festival."
-"You seem not worried about your opponent."
~"It's not that I underestimate him, but it won't be him who will be my true opponent during that Shokugeki."
-"So that's why you are so busy. You are planning something in the background."
~"Indeed, I want to create a good ending to a tragic story."
-"Good luck then. It seems the winner was decided."
I looked at the arena, where the score 1-2 in Asahi's favor was displayed.
~"Indeed. As expected. I'll be going then."
-"Sure, can't wait to see your performance once again."
As everything for the upcoming match was already arranged, I didn't need to do much aside from normal Elite Ten chores for the foreseeable future. I went to consolidate Rin, who used her loss to request some dates from me, to which I acquiesced.
After others learned about that, everyone else also started to make similar requests, so knowing that my time here was coming to an end, I spent my whole free time with everybody. Under such circumstances, time passed quickly, and the Moon Banquet Festival arrived.
My Shokugeki had once again become the centerpiece of the event. All the actors had already arrived, everything was in place.
-"Lord."
-"Master Yue."
~"Sakura, Rin, after this matter is done, this world will be in my hands. Do you want to remain here after that?"
-"My place is by your side, Lord."
-"I'm the same as my sister. It's fun here, but I would rather be with you."
~"I see. Then, be ready to return to your true bodies."
-"Yes."-They answered together.
-"Yue, it's time."-Momo called me through the doors.
~"I'm going."
Taking one last deep breath in this mortal body, I fully shattered it, completing its return to my avatar. I still kept my power mostly sealed, but now I fully shed any last part of the mortal body I had before. Because of this, some of my aura returned. I quickly hid it, but the change could still be noticed, as it looked as if my temperament had changed.
Extending my hand, I made different elements appear on my palm, feeling my control over nature returning to me. Without a mortal body, seal keeping my power would slowly lose its effectiveness, so even with me keeping it intact, it would stop working in about a day. After all, sealing Aeon at full power was a futile thing. It could work because I constantly helped the seal and technique of rebirth developed jointly by Terminus and Earth Mother.
Covering my true appearance so that I still looked the same as before, I exited the room and started heading toward the arena. Like last year, the spectators' seats were overcrowded, and when I entered, all eyes fell on me.
The cheers erupted, and countless screams drowned the room in noise, but those who were familiar to me were quiet, instantly noticing that something had changed. Even Old Man raised an eyebrow when he looked at me, genuinely surprised by me.
-"You never stop to amaze me, Yue."-Old Man Nakiro shook his head.
~"Life where you know every outcome is boring. It's good to be shocked from time to time."
-"So you are the boy who caused me so much trouble? I can see that you are quite special."
~"I would prefer you don't call me boy, Mr Azami. We are not familiar after all."
-"Heh, then I hope we can get to know each other."
-"You are so sure of yourself that you dare to call me here as a judge?"-Spoke Mana, who sat on the other side of Old Man.
~"I do."
-"Good, I truly hope you won't disappoint."-After saying that, she stopped looking at me as if losing interest.
-"Let's not waste more time."-Spoki Asahi, who stood next to his workstation.
-"What about you?"
~"We can start, Old Man."
-"Then, the Shokugekit between Yue and Asahi Saiba hereby begins!"