A dozen hours passed in the blink of an eye.
It was now evening in Emiya's real world.
In the anime world, it should still be daytime. And in the Food Wars! world, it was already the morning of the fourth day of the training camp.
Breakfast assignment day.
Eggs were the theme.
Hundreds of students would prepare breakfast dishes centered around eggs. Emiya had been looking forward to this for a long time.
Loki was even more excited than he was.
"I finally get to eat Megumi-chan's cooking again! I've been waiting for this!"
Seeing how fired up Loki was, Hephaestus and Hestia exchanged glances. They couldn't help but feel a trace of anticipation as well.
Emiya snapped his fingers and sent the three goddesses straight to Erina Nakiri's room in the Food Wars! world.
"You three go on ahead to the venue," he said. "I'm going to pick up a few friends from another world."
With that, he vanished.
The next second, he appeared in the world of Natsume's Book of Friends.
Takashi Natsume had just woken up.
"Today's the breakfast assignment," Emiya said. "Want to come try some?"
Before Natsume could answer, Nyanko-sensei jumped straight onto his head.
"Of course! I've been waiting for this ever since you mentioned it."
Natsume hesitated. "But I still have school today."
"Don't worry," Emiya said. "I'll send you back when it's time."
At that point, refusing would feel strange. Natsume nodded. "Then... thank you."
"No problem. Let's go pick up Haruhi Suzumiya first."
Emiya waved his hand and brought Natsume from the Book of Friends world to the Haruhi Suzumiya world.
What he didn't expect was that there were already two other people in Haruhi's room.
One was a petite girl with fair skin, sharp features, dark eyes, thin lips, and short, choppy hair with an uneven fringe.
Emiya recognized her instantly.
Yuki Nagato.
The other was a girl of similar height, with a cute, doll-like face, wavy chestnut hair flowing down her back, and puppy-like eyes beneath long lashes that practically begged for protection.
Her chest was disproportionately large for her frame.
Not as extreme as Hestia's, but clearly larger than Haruhi's-and certainly larger than Loki's.
Mikuru Asahina.
Emiya was familiar with her as well, but his attention lingered more on Nagato.
It wasn't that Mikuru wasn't cute.
He had just always liked Nagato more, ever since he first watched the anime.
Even more than Haruhi.
Seeing the three of them together, Emiya could roughly guess what was going on.
Fortunately-or unfortunately-they were already fully dressed when he arrived. Neither he nor Natsume saw anything extra.
Haruhi wore an expression that clearly said she'd been waiting a long time.
She pointed at Emiya and introduced him.
"This is the vice-leader of the SOS Brigade," she said. "A person from another world. Emiya."
Yuki Nagato nodded at him, expressionless as ever.
Mikuru lowered her head shyly. "Um... n-nice to meet you. I'm Mikuru Asahina."
"Nice to meet you," Emiya replied. "I'm Emiya."
He paused, then looked at Haruhi. "It's time. Let's go."
Haruhi didn't object.
Emiya gathered everyone and sent them to the Food Wars! world.
They arrived in Erina Nakiri's room again, but Loki and the other two goddesses were already gone.
They had clearly headed to the venue first.
So Emiya, one boy, three girls, and one spirit left the room and made their way toward the test venue.
The students had been divided into multiple locations.
Emiya's friends were all assigned to Venue A.
Soma Yukihira. Megumi Tadokoro. Takumi Aldini. Erina Nakiri.
Naturally, he brought everyone to Venue A first.
When they arrived, the test was already underway.
Lines had formed in front of many stalls.
Among them, the longest queue by far stood in front of Erina Nakiri.
Although Erina was Emiya's personal chef, he never stopped her from cooking for others.
The reason was simple.
She hadn't yet reached her peak.
If she wanted to keep growing, she needed to keep honing her skills at Totsuki.
So Emiya let her remain at the academy.
To eat better food later, he was willing to wait now.
Seeing how long the line was, Emiya didn't bother joining it.
He planned to try other students' dishes first.
But before that-
"Let's split up for now," he said to Natsume and Haruhi. "Go try whatever looks good. We'll meet back here later."
"Alright." Natsume nodded. A few dishes had already caught his eye.
"Deal," Haruhi said immediately. She grabbed Yuki Nagato and Mikuru Asahina and dragged them toward another counter.
Emiya smiled and scanned Venue A.
As expected, he quickly found Loki.
She was standing right in front of Megumi Tadokoro's stall, bothering her as usual.
Hestia and Hephaestus weren't with her. It seemed the two goddesses were doing their own thing.
"Hey, Loki."
Emiya walked over, then turned to Megumi.
"Can I have one as well?"
Megumi nodded shyly and handed him a plate.
The theme was eggs.
While most students used chicken eggs, Megumi had chosen quail eggs and prepared a breakfast-style oden.
The flavor was gentle.
With each bite, the rich broth spread through his mouth.
"Just like last time," Emiya said sincerely. "It's full of heart, Megumi."
Megumi's face instantly turned red. She lowered her head.
"Th-thank you..."
"See?" Loki said loudly. "See? I told you Megumi-chan is amazing!"
"You should quit Totsuki and become my child already!"
Megumi wasn't in her forced calm state this time.
She wanted to refuse.
But she didn't know how.
She stood there flustered, her face growing redder by the second.
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