The Cooking Test (4)

Out of the remaining 13 contestants, 2 had already been eliminated before the round had even finished. The supervising seniors consulted with Mizuno Senpai at the front, debriefing her on the results of the rest of the students.

They occasionally pointed at certain people, though their inaudible voices made it difficult to determine whether or not they were positive. In less then three minutes, it looked like they had narrowed down the final list of freshmen who would make it through.

"Thank you for your patience, I will now announce the names of those moving onto the third and final round. Like before, if your name isn't called that means you have failed to make it through," Mizuno Senpai stated after stepping forward with her list of names.

This time, Reiji's name was called first.

"Yagami Reiji..... Once again, excellently done. I have high hopes for your dish," she said with a happy smile.

The students started whispering yet again. They had been confused on how he managed to pass the written exam, with some even thinking he had managed to cheat without getting caught.

Sounds ridiculous, but that's how terrible his reputation had been. Before transmigration, Reiji's predecessor had never shown interest in anything except for fights and other troublemaking acts, so it wouldn't be that easy to gain some trust.

But as they looked at his station, they immediately understood that they had been too naive. The various ingredients that were cut in the different styles was easily the best out of all the participants.

"Thank you, I won't let you down," Reiji returned her smile with a confident gaze.

The senior simply nodded with satisfaction and moved on to other names on the list. She rattled off five more names, but none of them were Haruna's.

When Reiji turned towards her, he saw her biting her fingernails in sheer nervousness. Her red nail polish started to chip a little and her other hand was grasping the edge of her skirt tightly.

Maybe noticing his stare, she also turned to look at him. Reiji smiled and gave her an 'awesome' sign towards her set of ingredients, which made her calm down slightly.

"The last person to pass is.... Yuzuki Haruna," Mizuno Senpai declared with finality.

While the people who failed drooped down with disappointment, Haruna started jumping in place with joy as soon as her name was called.

Learning from the previous round, she didn't make any noise and simply started pumping her fists at Reiji, shadow boxing with absolutely zero technique.

He couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle at her excitement, though he wasn't surprised at her making it through. He had been checking on her progress while he waited for the round to finish, and she had managed to complete in the nick of time.

And because Haruna had been so careful with her uniformity, he knew there was no chance for her to fail unless the supervisors were blind.

Reiji looked around at the remaining first-years aside from Haruna and himself, and saw that there were only five other people. He narrowed his eyes when he realized that there was only one guy left aside from him, which wasn't supposed to be the case.

'What happened to that Hiragi guy? Wasn't he supposed to be one of the friends you could make if you chose the cooking club?'

He quickly looked at the eliminated people who were leaving and saw a slightly familiar face amongst them. It was Hiragi, a slim student who was supposed to scrape through with the lowest scores.

One of the storylines was for the player to practice with him and the other male student, improving their initially low-tier skills together, creating a blossoming friendship.

But Reiji had never liked Hiragi out of the two men. He was placed there in the game for comedic relief, making fun of the serious nature of the cooking club and secretly mocked the seniors behind their backs.

Most people probably would have found him funny, but as someone who greatly respected the seniors' dedication to cooking, Alex/Reiji had always thought his jokes were tasteless. Even more so now that the game had become a reality.

There was no option to prevent it though, so he was always stuck with tolerating him whenever he chose this club.

But now..... he had been eliminated?

Reiji was so focused on his prep work that he hadn't paid much attention to what the others were doing.

Little did he know, the reason Hiragi had failed was because of his presence. His station was diagonally behind Reiji's, so when the second round started Hiragi had the best view in the house for his 'performance'.

When he saw that incredible speed and technique, the poor guy had blanked out for a few seconds. And even when he regained his composure, he was completely disheartened by the huge gap in skills, causing him to make more mistakes than he was supposed to.

This ultimately led to his elimination, though Reiji had no way of knowing this.

'Well.... at least Yamaguchi is here?'

He turned to the only other guy in the room, Yamaguchi Ren. He was a short and chubby fellow with plump cheeks and a permanent smile on his face. Just being around him made people feel comfortable because he resembled the cuteness of a panda.

And this wasn't one of those 'two-faced' cliches, Yamaguchi was a genuinely kind person. Reiji was actually quite fond of his character because he was so infatuated with food and cooking that he ended up becoming a chef at the end of the game in every single route.

Almost like finding a kindred spirit.

'I don't know why Hiragi was eliminated, but this might be for the best. If he kept making those jokes I don't know if I'd be able to hold back from punching him.... Not when he has such a punchable face.'

This entire thought process only took a couple of seconds, and Haruna was still jumping at her station while giggling to herself.

"....I hope you realize how creepy you look right now," Reiji grimaced with a teasing tone.

Haruna snapped her head towards him and gave him a glare.

"I asked Granny to teach me her backslapping technique, want me to show you my progress?" She hissed.

Reiji's eyes widened with a hint of genuine fear. He sometimes got flashbacks to those horrifically agonizing slaps, making him wince with phantom pain. Even if she was bluffing, he couldn't take that risk.

"....O-On second thought, that was just the lighting. You look really pretty," he said with a trembling smile, backing away slowly.

"That's what I thought!"

Haruna crossed her arms and smiled playfully, but the tips of her ears were a little red. Thankfully, they were hidden by her long blonde hair.

Mizuno Senpai then clapped her hands loudly to catch everyone's attention, with two other women standing behind her.

"Alright everyone! You 7 are the only people remaining. Though we actually considered making the number even lower since some of you weren't quite satisfactory, we thought we'd still give you a chance. As you know, this final round consists of cooking us three judges a meal," she announced loudly, gesturing to the people behind her.

One of them was the senior that had disqualified people and praised Reiji's skills. The other woman was much older, appearing to be over 60 at least. This was the supervising teacher assigned to the cooking club, who used to own her own restaurant when she was younger.

After retiring, she was scouted by the principal to take care of the cooking club's administrative duties and occasionally give them advice. She usually liked to defer to Mizuno Senpai because she believed that chefs should learn through trial and error, not with strict supervision.

Of course, she still helped out when members asked her for tips, feedback, or other help.

"I'm sure all of you already have a dish in mind. We are going to give you one hour to place your meal on our table, including prep-time and plating. If it isn't on our table before the clock runs out, you'll be disqualified. You may use anything from the pantry behind you, as well as any of the equipment in the room. There are no limitations in terms of cuisine, type, or themes so just try to make the best meal you are currently capable of."

Mizuno Senpai reset the timer on the screen to indicate 60 minutes and gave all 7 of the students encouraging smiles.

"Don't be stressed, just try your best!" She chuckled lightly, her rhyme lightening the tension ever so slightly.

Reiji and Haruna exchanged glances and gave each other a thumbs-up. She had said that her entire weekend was used for practicing her chosen meal, so there was nothing he could do except trust her at this point.

If they both managed to enter, the Cooking Club's sessions would be a LOT more chaotic and fun than it would've been.

"Everyone ready? Your time starts.....NOW!"