The Results From When I Time Leaped to My Second Year of High School and Confessed to the Teacher I Liked at the Time – 23

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Sana’s Shokugeki – Part 2

The day of the cooking competition.

The ingredients seemed to have been bought by Hiiragi-chan and they were placed within the refrigerator in the cooking room. Lunch break was in the state of a complete three-way deadlock, with the sparks of tension going between them. Especially between Sana and Hiiragi-chan.

“I’ll tell you now the categories for which each of the dishes will be judged.”

“Aah, do you mean stuff like the originality and the taste?”

“If it’s like that, it’s way too normal and it’ll be boring, right? It won’t be judged on that, but there are a total of 4 other categories. Friendship, effort, cooking—”

Isn’t it friendship, effort, and victory! [1]

Where did cooking come from?! Rather, isn’t this supposed to be an evaluation of cooking?? Is it really okay for cooking to be a category of judgement!? Friendship and effort? What is that? How should I judge something like that…

“What is this cooking competition for anyways…? And, what’s the fourth category?”

“Sibling love.”

Doesn’t that mean that Sana completely wins that one? This girl, is it that the ends justify the means for her?

“… Only Sa-chan having an advantage, isn’t that unfair.”

“That’s right, Sana-chan. It should be Love, instead.”

Put some thought into the first three categories as well!

“When you say love… it means that you would have to like Nii-san so that’s a no!”

Sana, your face is completely red.

“That’s not true.”

“… It’s not?”

“Yeah, it isn’t.”

“… I-if that’s the case, then it’s fine I guess?”

As such, after school, the irregular cooking competition began.

Since we were cooking, today, we gathered in the cooking room where fire could be used instead of the home economics room.

“Nii-san, can you make some rice and a light salad. You can do that much right?”

“I can…”

No matter how you look at it, she’s definitely making karaage.

“Ah, it’s okay if you don’t do it Sanada-kun. I can do it quickly.”

If I end up being pampered by her, even if it’s Hiiragi-chan, I don’t think the others would tolerate it.

“Everyone’s making something. If I’m the only one not making anything I will feel bad, so I can do it.”

“Then, make it together with Sensei ♡.”

Sana and Kanata raised their eyebrows.

“It’s probably tiring for Sensei who works so hard, so Nii-san can make it with Sana.”

“… Rather than Sana, I can make a better salad.”

As the silence inside the cooking room, a heavy air set upon them making it hard to breathe. W-what is this? This feeling…!?

“I’ll do it myself, so the rest of you can concentrate on your own cooking, okay?”

Since I said that, the three people reluctantly began their work. Before I time leaped, I was living alone, so making a salad isn’t something that is too hard for me. Moreover, when it comes to rice, any adult can make it. I made the salad with any toppings that went with it, and put it in the fridge. After that, all that was left was to wait for the rice to cook. At around that time, the smell of oil filled the air of the room, while the sound of something being fried could be heard.

“…. Why is everyone frying up karaage!?!? Sana thought that only Sana would be doing it!”

“… Making something that Seiji-kun likes. That’s what it means to be strategic.”

“Sana-chan’s thinking was definitely naïve. Why would you think that you were special?”

“Ugugugu… Sana thought that she was a step ahead of everyone…”

Having nothing else left for me to do, I watched over the three of them from a short distance away. Heeeeh, Hiiragi-chan purposely took a look at what Sana was cooking.

“Sana-chan, you’re making karaage, right?”

“T-that’s right, what is it?”

“Are you using a store-bought breading?”

“W-what, is something weird…?”

“Nope, nothing. It’s just that if it’s like that, no matter who makes it, it’ll taste the same. Is there a meaning in making something like that for a cooking competition?”

Hiiragi-chan, that’s mean! More importantly, that’s so immature! It isn’t wrong, but don’t say that to someone who is new at cooking!!

“Ugigi… I-I mean! My moth—advisor told me that using something like this is quick, easy, and delicious…”

“”Fuun…””, two people snorted.

((… I won.))

It felt like I could hear both Hiiragi-chan and Kanata saying something like that within their minds.

“N-nii-saaan! The two of them are making fun of Sanada family’s karaage!”

“Aren’t they making fun of the fact that you’re making karaage that has nothing special to it for a cooking competition?”

“Moouuuuu, why are you saying that!? Sana really tried hard and practiced a lot, too.”

I know. Before today, karaage kept on showing up on the dining table after all! In the morning, and even at night. At our house, it was at the level where it would have felt like we were having a karaage party every day.

“My advisor is stupid!”

“Also! Stop calling our mother an advisor! It somehow embarrassing!”

Sana-chan is so cute, Hiiragi-chan said as she treated her like a child. Ufufu, Hiiragi-chan laughed as her hands continued to move and fry more and more things.

“… Anyone can make it, anyone would say it tastes good… in other words, it’s like a hamburger from a family restaurant… There’s no way it would take first place…”

Kanata was merciless.

“That’s such a huge insult to Sana. Sana, Sana will believe in her karaage!”

Cutting the chicken, breading it, and frying it. Doing just that, what is there to believe in, little sister.

“It’s done!”

“… I’m also done.”

“Sensei has also finished with her cooking ♪.”

It seemed that everyone was fired up after finishing as they brought their karaage towards me. For Sana, it was the same exact kind as the one that she had in her bentou for lunch. Hiiragi-chan’s as well, was one that knew very well. Kanata’s… rather than pieces of meat, they were each one long strip.

“Itadakimasu.”

Yeah, I’m very familiar with the taste of Sana’s and Hiiragi-chan’s. Since it was freshly fried, it tasted really good. As for Kanata…

I tried tasting one of them. Some parts were crunchy, and other parts of it was the tender meat of normal karaage. It was similar to something you might eat in an izakaya [2].

“Ah, this, can it be?”

Kanata nodded in response to my exclamation.

“… Yagen nankotsu [3]. Since I heard you were all making karaage, I thought you guys were all making the same thing. It’s quite a curveball.”

“Yagen nankotsu, I thought I was played when I was buying the ingredients.”

Hiiragi-chan looked seriously downhearted as Sana secretly asked me.

“Yagen, what? Nankotsu?”

“It’s a soft type of bone that you can crush by biting down on it.”

“B-booone? There’s no way something like that would taste good. It’s not meat after all.”

“You’re still very much a child.”

“… Sa-chan’s taste is like an elementary schooler.”

“Since it’s something that appeals to adults, it can’t be helped.”

“Uuuuuuuuuuuu, you guys are making fun of meeeee.”

Hiiragi-chan divided the cooked rice into individual portions for each person, took out the salad from the refrigerator and placed it all on the table. Gathering the karaage that everyone made, they had an early dinner together.

“Store-bought karaage tastes good, Sana-chan.”

“… Yeah, it’s good. Store-bought karaage.”

“Please stop calling it store-bought. Say that it’s Sana’s karaage! … Uuu, Sensei’s is good…”

“… Yeah, a lot of the flavor has seeped into the meat, so it’s really good.”

“Right? Right?”

While talking happily, I scored the 3 of them out of 5 points in each category.

First is Hiiragi-chan.

Friendship: 1
Effort: 1
Cooking: 5
Love: 4

When it comes to effort, she was already good in the first place, so she didn’t even need to try. Besides, I already knew that it was good in the first place so friendship and effort are both rated at 1.

Next is Sana.

Friendship: 3
Effort: 5
Cooking: 2
Love: 3

She made something that was subject to quite a lot of insult, but I do admit that she put in a lot of work so her effort is rated at 5.

Lastly, Kanata.

Friendship: 2
Effort: 3
Cooking: 4
Love: 5

Predicting that everyone would be making the same thing and that eating the same thing would be tiring, I give her a 5 for love.

For the friendship category, I had based it off of how much they had helped another for this times event. The three people around me fidgeted and took glances at me as I judged them. It seems that all of them were pretty anxious. After finishing their scoring, I handed each back their papers.

“Nii-san, who was first?”

“Is there a need for a first? It was delicious and as a dish, it could be considered a success. Isn’t it fine already?”

Originally, this was for Sana’s bride training after all. She tried hard and practiced, and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun I thought. Everyone was also peaceful as they were eating together. As they all seemed to be satisfied, everyone nodded.

On the way home.

“Kana-chan, show me your score.”

“… Don’t want to.”

“Why?”

“… It’s embarrassing.”

“A score that you could be embarrassed about? Nii-san!”

“I gave a normal score. Moreover, she had the highest grading.”

“Eh. Then, why…?”

Without speaking another word, Kanata split off from us. Is it because her scoring for love was 5…?

“Sana… will work harder in cooking… losing to Sensei is annoying after all.”

Because it seemed to give Sana some motivation, I can say that this times cooking competition can be considered a big success. It’s just, that night, a call came from Hiiragi-chan.

“My love isn’t a 4, it’s 100! I thought it got through to you too, Seiji-kun.”

Hiiragi-chan ended up requesting a 100 out of 5 points maximum.

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TL Note:

1. The golden Shounen Jump motto: “Friendship, Effort, Victory”
2. An izakaya is a type of informal Japanese pub. They are casual places for after-work drinking.
3. Yagen Nankotsu is the cartilage which comes before the breast bone

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