Chapter 406: Chapter 404: Perfect?
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In the world of 'Food Wars', chefs hold an esteemed place in society, and the entire nation places significant emphasis on food. As the princess of the prestigious Totsuki Group, Erina, with her legendary God's Tongue and her angelic, noble beauty, naturally garnered immense attention from the public.
Sui scrolled through Erina's recent posts, all of which were focused on her work, with little to no mention of her personal life. Her latest status update was about a judging event she was participating in.
In the post, Erina was pictured sitting gracefully at the judges' panel, dressed in her school uniform. She exuded the elegance and dignity of a princess as she sampled a chef's dish.
Although the post had only been up for a few minutes, hundreds of comments had already flooded in:
"Erina-sama is so noble and beautiful!"
"Yes, I wish her divine palate could taste my cooking one day."
"What a joke! Miss Erina's tongue is sacred. How could she possibly taste your food?"
Judging by the angle of the photo, it was clear that Hisako, Erina's loyal assistant, had taken the picture. Hisako must be the one who manages Erina's account most of the time.
Sui had once glanced at Erina's phone. There was very little installed on it—no games, no music apps, and none of the typical things one might expect from a teenage girl's phone. Even her contact list was sparse, consisting of family members, a few Totsuki Elite Ten members, and Sui himself. If you only looked at her phone, Erina seemed like the perfect, obedient student.
Suddenly, Sui's phone vibrated. It was a message from Erina:
"The food here is terrible and boring!"
Sui couldn't help but chuckle. In front of others, Erina was the picture of elegance, but when she was alone with him, she acted like an ordinary girl—sometimes even whining like a child.
"Erina-sama works so hard, so I have to work hard too," Atong, the talkative boy, said seriously, standing nearby.
Sui raised an eyebrow. "For all you know, she could be playing with her phone right now."
"Impossible! Erina-sama would never be inattentive!" Atong replied, clearly offended by the idea.
Sui rolled his eyes. 'The "perfect" Erina had just sent him a complaint-filled message.' He sighed. "She's not as flawless as you think. In fact, her personality used to be pretty awful."
Atong looked unconvinced, still clinging to his idealized image of Erina.
At that moment, a fresh batch of pigs, cleaned and bled, was brought into the slaughterhouse. The workers immediately got to their feet, ready to begin processing.
"Sui, let me show you the process," Uncle Takeda, the middle-aged man in charge, said to him.
"Alright," Sui nodded, though he already knew what to do. Out of respect, he followed along.
Uncle Takeda walked over to a hanging pig carcass. "These pigs have been cleaned and bled. The first step is to cut through the neck bone," he explained, using a large pair of scissors to sever the pig's neck. Then, switching to a kitchen knife, he continued, "The second step is to open the belly and remove the internal organs."
"The third step is to cut along the spine to split the back."
"And finally, we separate the tendons."
Uncle Takeda demonstrated each step with precision, and in no time, the pig was neatly divided into ribs, pork belly, trotters, and other cuts of meat.
"As expected from the best knife expert here! His skills are amazing, even cutting through the spine with perfect accuracy!" Atong marveled, eyes wide with admiration.
The entire process wasn't particularly difficult, but the tricky part was cutting through the spine. It required steady hands and precision to split it evenly. The spine wasn't perfectly straight, so it needed to be adjusted frequently during the cut. For most people, it was easy to veer off-center, but Uncle Takeda handled it flawlessly, his movements smooth and efficient.
Sui observed the clean cut along the spine. It was almost perfectly halved.
"Haha, well, I've been doing this for decades," Uncle Takeda said with a proud smile, clearly pleased with the compliment.
Turning to Sui, he said, "We'll handle the tougher parts, and you can take care of the rest, alright?"
Sui nodded. "Let me try doing it on my own first."
He had no intention of doing simple tasks. He wanted to push his limits with the Nichirin knife. If he couldn't use the blade to awaken its hidden powers, coming here would be pointless. He wasn't sure how many large animals it would take to unlock the blade's potential, but he knew it would take at least one hundred. Since Totsuki didn't have that many livestock, he had no choice but to come to a place like this.
"Alright," Uncle Takeda said, hesitating briefly before nodding.
"Thanks," Sui said, unsheathing his massive kitchen knife.
The workers around him stared, stunned.
"Whoa! That's a huge ass knife!" one of them exclaimed.
"Wait, are you seriously going to use that thing?" Uncle Takeda frowned. "A knife that big isn't suited for precise work."
Larger knives were harder to control, especially when it came to delicate cuts like the spine. Usually, a smaller knife would be used for such tasks.
"It's ok, I'm used to working with this one," Sui replied calmly.
Everyone around him frowned. They were clearly skeptical, thinking Sui was overconfident.
Uncle Takeda didn't say much, though his slight frown betrayed his doubt. Perhaps Totsuki students had special skills.
Sui approached the hanging pig carcass, placing it on the cutting table. He steadied himself, gripping the Nichirin tightly. His eyes focused, and his body lowered slightly as he readied himself to execute a cooking technique—the 'Raging Bull Azure Dragon Cut'.
For a moment, the room seemed still. Then, in the blink of an eye, a flash of light from the knife illuminated the space. No one could follow Sui's movements—they were simply too fast.
Uncle Takeda's eyes widened. For an instant, he thought he had seen Sui swing the knife countless times in a split second.
When Sui sheathed the Nichirin, a light sheen of sweat dotted his forehead, though his breathing quickly steadied.
"What just happened?" someone murmured, breaking the silence.
"I'm not sure," another worker responded, equally bewildered. All they had seen was a flash of the knife before everything returned to normal.
Just then, the pig carcass on the cutting table shifted. Slowly, a neat, clean incision appeared down its back. The body spread open, revealing the internal organs inside, and a precise cut at the neck completed the work.
The entire slaughterhouse fell silent, followed by the sound of several gasps.
[Note: Raging Bull Azure Dragon Cut: To be used on livestock like water buffaloes, butchering all the meat parts without spilling a single drop of blood or juice.]