Oil was simultaneously spread on the
hot griddle, and the ingredients were dropped onto the griddle.
The griddle was a little small for
grilling two pieces side by side. It seemed as if they were going to cook side
by side until the first one was done, but they were already moving.
「It's too much trouble to cook them one
by one」
「Heh, we're on the same page」
Lucille and Minamoto immediately put
in the second batch of ingredients. Instead of two pieces lined up in a row,
they made one large piece to save space.
Seeing this, The Osaka Shibaryuu
Academy team booed.
「What a bad idea!」
「Okonomiyaki is adjusted to a size that
makes it easy to cook and flip over, so what's the point of breaking it up?」
Lucille and the others coolly ignored
these reasonable arguments.
The rest of the school was more
blasphemous.
**a
「Okay」
Madoka smiles with satisfaction as she
spreads one piece in a square instead of a circle.
The expanded area would have made it
easier to heat up, but the Shibaryuu Academy students were not happy to see
this.
「Is this an imitation of Monja? This is
why Tokyo people are so bad!」
「No, I'm from Hokkaido」
「... You mean that kind of okonomiyaki
is popular in Hokkaido?」
「No, no... Don't compare us with her!」
Saki mutters with half-lidded eyes.
「Madoka did this for a reason.」
「What?」
Oribe looks up and frowns.
The lady with the ringlet curls smiles
at the concentrated gaze, and holds up her hand to her okonomiyaki.
It seems to be a preliminary move to
use her ability.
『Ah』
「Hazuki-senpai?」
「...It seems that the heat is beginning
to pass through from the surface as well」
Marika shouted and Yotsuba looked at
Madoka and muttered.
Grilled on both sides.
It may not be as hot as the back side
using a stove and a griddle, but if it can be done, the time it takes to cook
will be greatly reduced.
「Fufu. My ability is [Heating]. It is
useful not only for the nasty insects that try to touch my good looks, but also
for baking these foods」
Unlike Shuka, who is good at
manipulating heat inside the body, this ability is mainly used to heat the
outside of the body and the surface of the body.
This is also a very troublesome
ability, since the fact that it is hot to the touch may be useful in a fight or
a duel.
Madoka looks at the okonomiyaki and
reaches for the spatula.
「Then, if you'll excuse me first...」
「Aren't you going to flip it over?」
Well, somebody can eat okonomiyaki
even if it is a little undercooked.
It's a good strategy, considering that
the okonomiyaki is designed to be heated to some extent without turning it
over, and that it will be cooked through before being eaten.
Oribe watches with regret as Madoka
takes about a sixth of the flat okonomiyaki and begins to eat it with an
elegant hand, but soon after, he starts the process of flipping the dough over.
He does it over without any
hesitation.
『As expected, the real deal is
different』
「But I'm sure Lou is no slouch either」
Because of the larger size of the
dough, Minamoto and Lucille took the spatulas in their hands a little later
than Oribe.
The larger dough should also affect
the difficulty of turning it over.
「This is not going well」
「There we go...」
Minamoto struggled here.
Lucille, on the other hand, by some
magic or technique or other, manages to turn the dough over with a hand
comparable to that of Oribe.
An all-around [Genius]. This is a real
feat of genius.
Thus, the work of each school varied
after the first sheet.
Madoka, who was ahead of the others,
slowed down with her elegant meal. Nevertheless, it was the fastest to finish
the first piece.
Oribe came in second. He quickly
finished his okonomiyaki, which was cooked orthodox and neatly, topped with
dried bonito flakes, green laver, sauce and mayonnaise, and cut into a grid
pattern.
The third place goes to Lucille. It is
also cut in a grid pattern, but each piece is a little larger than Oribe's. She
threw them in one after another, calculating how many she could fit in her
mouth.
The fourth was Minamoto. He was a good
eater like a gymnast, but he lost a lot of time when he turned over the
okonomiyaki and took time to cool down the hot okonomiyaki, which made him very
late.
However, Lucille and Minamoto eat two
pieces of okonomiyaki at once, so it is hard to tell how fast they are eating.
『The second piece』
「...I wonder how much they eat. To be
honest, two and a half pieces is about right for me」
『I'm limited to two pieces』
The four of them finish two pieces of
okonomiyaki neatly.
Again, Madoka is the fastest, thanks
to her [Heating] ability, but her pace begins to slow down even more around the
middle of the second slice.
While holding her hand over the third
piece, which she started to grill in the middle of the second piece, she
mutters to herself.
「...It's strange. I was planning to
disturb the pace by upsetting them with [Heating]」
「I've eaten this one countless times
since I was a kid. How can I slow down now?」
Oribe replied with a disciplined
manner and proceeded to cook and eat as he had said. His nonchalant and
unhesitant movements are saving time, and since he is a boy, he seems to be
able to eat more.
**b
「I'm getting tired of the taste. Do you
have any Tabasco?」
Lucille asked, this time flipping over
a third slice that had been dropped in as usual. The staff responded well to
her mutterings, offering the red condiment.
And then Minamoto said,
「...Hey, can I eat slowly?」
「Yeah. Go ahead.」
The bespectacled student council
president of Shibakkou Academy nodded his head in resignation.
One person is eliminated from the dead
heat, and the candidates for victory are narrowed down to three.
Oribe, who had been eating
consistently, tended to stop after the fourth piece. With little time
remaining, the key to victory was whether or not the player could attack the
fourth piece.
Madoka and Lucille did not rest after
the fourth piece.
With three minutes remaining, Lucille
overtook Oribe, and Oribe, seeing this, tried desperately to eat the remaining
half, but he could not recover his pace. It is now a duel between the two
schools.
「...I don't think I'll make it in
time...」
Lucille muttered in a small voice that
only her allies could hear.
She continues to eat without giving up
- in fact, she even refrains from putting sauce or mayonnaise on it, as if it
were too good to put on, but while she is trying to finish the fourth piece,
Madoka is finishing the fifth piece.
The pace is definitely slowing down,
but Madoka doesn't stop.
This is the reason why the gap between
the two is not closing.
「...I know you must be in a lot of pain」
「Yes. But I've experienced this kind of
pain many times. Besides, we can't lose. Since you dared to give us a victory,
we must do what we said we would do」
Shirosaki Madoka continued to eat
until the end of the time, keeping her smile, but with sweat on her forehead
and her eyebrows lowered. And――
「 In the second event, the winner is
Shirosaki Madoka from Shibatsuru Academy!」
Lucille lost by a mere one-eighth of a piece, a
narrow margin.
