章 302: ONIGIRI!

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Give me all your stones or else Pennywise is going to eat your relatives.

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Time passed in a flash

Hiro was already preparing for the autumn Elections, the break was over and everyone was preparing on their own. The dish for the preliminaries was revealed to be Ramen, Hiro continued experimenting right till the day of the preliminaries.

The Election was split into groups and Hiro cooked his Hell Ramen, he made all the noodles himself and the broth and everything was blood red. It was so incredibly spicy that Hiro had to prepare jugs of milk for the Judges, just in case.

Despite the red appearance and incredible heat, the judges didn't stop until they ate everything. Hiro easily passed the Prelims and went back to the dorm.

A few days later he got the dish for the Quarter finals.

It was Onigiri!

Hiro grinned as he was reminded of a little girl and a swordsman.

A few days later

The Shokugeki arena was set up for the Quarterfinals and Hiro was first, he was up against the 4th seat of the Elite Ten. They were stimulated to participate and were the only non first years in the entire Election!

Senzaemon gave them the green light, but it was assumed that this was a one time thing because it just wasn't fair for the others and they even complained about it.

A woman with long black hair and little eyebrows walked onto the stage. She was an extremely beautiful girl and her name was Mei Hajusaki, her specialty happened to be all things rice. Basically, traditional Japanese cooking.

The crowd roared in excitement and the 5 judges watched her wave to the crowd, very elegantly. She was wearing a traditional kimono and had a warm smile on her face.

Hiro walked into the arena and the crowd went dead silent. He whistled to himself and walked to the station, free and easy. He didn't even bother to look at Mei, he stopped and grinned evilly, opening his cabinet and saying "Hey, Hey! I think these belong to you all?" before bursting out laughing.

The crowd erupted in boo's and insults, but Hiro just laughed at them and leaned his elbows on the station looking at Mei for the first time. She looked at him and said "I see you've taken quite a liking to the spotlight, Demon-kun."

Hiro grinned and said "Maybe... I've taken quite a liking to your little knife too~ Let's raise the stakes, eh? Your knife and seat, my expulsion and the knives back. How about it?" Mei pursed her lips and said "You're very confident."

Hiro licked his lips and said "It's one of my many charms." Mei laughed lightly and replied "I see, you certainly are a charming young man~" Hiro's mouth twitched up into a grin as he said "A shame, you'd make a good wife, but I have a wife."

She pouted cutely "A capable man can handle more than one woman?" Hiro chuckled "I'm not that capable." she smiled sweetly and a vicious light flashed in her eyes at his rejection, she wasn't serious, but how dare he refuse her? She said gently "I accept."

The crowd erupted in gasps and Senzaemon chuckled, saying "The rules and stakes are set! Start!"

Hiro lit a cigarette and took his ingredients out from the cooler. He grinned "Don't look at me like that, I'll blush~!" the crowd clicked their tongues and ignored the shameless fellow, watching Mei instead.

Hiro chuckled and washed the rice, while turning on a pot with water in it. He threw in a pinch of salt and then a handful of what seemed to be salt, the crowd started making fun of him "Look, he doesn't even know how much salt he wants to put in!"

Hiro ignored them and hummed to himself as he cooked the rice, wishing he was actually 'cooking rice' right now. He set it for later and started working on something else. He laid down some cling wrap and carefully spread honey into rectangular strips.

He made several dozen and threw them all into a fridge.

He wiped his hands and took out a jar with red orbs in it. He took the orbs out and crushed them into a paste, he chilled the paste and rolled them into balls before taking out the rice and laying it out.

He put a paste ball in each of the rice balls and molded them into triangle shapes. He took the Honey strips out of the fridge and gently peeled them off the sheet before wrapping them under the triangles, making it look like a traditional rice ball.

He plated them all with chilled plates and turned on a blow torch before running it over the Onigiri quick.

He turned it off and picked up the tray with 5 plates of Onigiri on them, walking towards the judges table, to see that Mei had beautiful flower shaped rice balls and Senzaemon had stripped his top half.

She smiled at the songs of praise for Onigiri.

Traditional was her specialty after all.

Hiro waited and the judges finally stopped, he served them and said "Mystery Onigiri." the judges looked at the Onigiri and Senzaemon said "It's just normal?" as he picked one up. Hiro chuckled and said "Try it, these Onigiri were inspired by a little girl."

The judges mumbled "A little girl!?" before biting into the corner of the Onigiri, without touching the Honey strip or paste core. Their eyes widened and they shouted "You used sugar?!"

Everyone was stunned and Hiro chuckled "The little girl was a bit confused, the story is like this. A swordsman was imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit and she was kind enough to make him rice balls to feed him, not knowing that if she fed him, she would be a criminal too! Anyway, the guard in charge took her food and ate them himself, complaining about the disgustingly sweet taste, she replied 'Sweet things make people happy.'"

He smiled and said "I figure that the little girl was right and made the sweet rice balls, I wasn't gonna change my mind because I was against a 4th seat. The sweet flavor is in every rice grain as I boiled the rice in sugar with only a bit of salt..."

He chuckled and grinned "Alone, the rice is alright but there's 2 secrets on the Onigiri. The strip and the core. You can eat them all together or separately, it really doesn't matter as long as it makes you happy to eat them!" the judges were speechless and remembered a time where they made Onigiri for their parents.

They started tearing up and eating the rest of the Onigiri, they bit through the middle and bot the Honey strip and the Sour plum paste, it was an explosion of flavor in their mouths! Senzaemon's upper half exploded and the rest of the judges made a funny face, trying to get that taste again.

Hiro grinned, adding "Of course, no Onigiri would be completed without the strip and core. The strip was made with chilled honey and the core is sour plum paste, when you put them all together, you get a new and exciting explosion in your mouth, glazing your taste buds with Sweet and Sour!"

He served a plate to Mei with a smirk and she snorted, taking the plate from him. She took a bite and froze from the subtle sweetness of the rice, it was very strange, but not bad! She bit through the middle and went into a daze, unable to believe what had just happened to her.

Senzaemon blinked and shook his head saying "That was the strangest Onigiri I have ever eaten." the rest of the judges nodded and pointed at Hiro as Senzaemon announced "The Winner is Hiro Eien!"

Hiro walked away, smirking "It's almost too easy~"