Urara could feel a massive sweat drop trailing down her head as she watched the scene before her young and impressionable eyes. She knew for a fact that everyone, except for the occupied blonde Mito heiress, was feeling the same thing as her.
The newly named Prince of Totsuki was seated serenely upon his counter, a small notepad in his hands, scrabbling away and snickering like a maniac as he gawked at Ikumi's partially exposed behind.
It has been almost 15 minutes since the start of the Food War and Haru seemed to have no intention of cooking or even moving away from the counter any time soon. He was not even trying to look away from the swaying rear for a single second, as if expecting it to vanish if he looked away.
"Um … Mr. Uzumaki… you can start your cooking now." she mumbled uncertainly as she shifted closer to the blond to inform him. She wasn't moving closer to him to have a clearer view of his well-developed chest and abs. Nope, not at all!
Snapping out of his deliberations, Haru curved to the mildly red-faced freshmen and held his index finger in a hushing gesture, a sincere expression on his normally grinning visage. "Shhh, I am gathering critical intelligence about enemy territory."
"Vital information? From her ass?" she probed with a sweat drop. Was he kidding?
"There is a primordial motto 'Gaze upon thine ass, for thou shall findeth infinite wisdom'." Haru countered sagely, eyes closed and lips stretched into an affectionate smile. "Gazing upon those cheeks of wisdom is what I live for!"
A colossal sweat drop materialized above the entire hall as Haru sought to justify his perversion by providing fabricated sayings. Even the typically passive and uptight Master Chapelle, seated next to several of his fellow lecturers, sweat dropped when he heard those words.
Urara was left gaping next to the giggling blond as she tried to come up with an answer to convince the blond to start his cooking, but unfortunately, his nude torso presented to her sinful eyes, coupled with his shameless admission was making it impossible for her to form correct words.
However, as luck would have it, Ikumi became aware of the silence of the hall as well as familiarly perverted giggles and turned around with a glare. What she saw only infuriated and embarrassed her even further.
Apparently, while she had been giving it her all and cooking with purpose, the blond pervert had been standing behind her and staring at her ass! What the hell was wrong with him? Only 25 minutes were remaining and he had yet to even start prepping the ingredients?
Didn't he realize that he would get expelled if he didn't cook anything? She could care less if he lost and got expelled but it would tarnish her reputation if he lost simply because he was distracted by her rear!
With no other choice but to put a stop to his giggling, the blonde Mito heiress scowled at the blond boy and strode around the table to face him, effectively bringing a screeching halt to his perversion.
Haru sulked childishly and pocketed away his notepad with a grumble. "Guess I collected enough 'wisdom' for one day. Time to cook like I am groping a babe."
"Wisdom my ass, you were being your twisted self again!" Ikumi remarked with a glare. Everything with him was turned to vulgarity, even his examples and references.
Haru's eyes lit in approval. "That's exactly what I have been talking about! Wisdom and your ass go hand in hand with one another; one cannot exist without the other!"
"Does everything with you have to be ass this and ass that?" Urara inquired pointedly, a sweat drop trailing down her head.
"Yup." Haru retorted sagely, hands crossed over his wide chest. "A sagacious gentleman once found himself bewildered in an inhospitable wasteland of desperation. In order to discover his lost direction, he set sail to come across the possessor of the unsurpassed rump in the desolate tract, happening across a distinguished pair of cheeks. By peering through the hills of that prodigious rump, the sage rediscovered his lost path and declared in his moment of sagacity that 'Ass is wisdom, Ass is life!'"
"…"
"…"
"…"
Dead silence… as silent as the stillness of a graveyard … as still as the chilly nights of winter and as disturbingly quiet as a haunted house greeted his words of "wisdom". No one, not even the normally Tsundere Erina Nakiri, standing up in the VIP box, could feel their jaws or eyes.
Miyoko and Ryoko palmed their faces in irritation and indignity individually, while the rest of Polar Star inhabitants could only gawk at the audacious blond. Even Soma could feel his face resembling a fresh tomato.
The only one even remotely feeling entertained was the honored Director of the academy, Senzaemon Nakiri. The silver haired old man chuckled softly as he listened to the blond shamelessly and boldly narrate something not even his favorite student, Joichiro Saiba, would have been able to say in front of such a large crowd.
Way to deliver on your promise, Haru. he pondered with a soft smirk, flippantly shaking his head when Haru gave him a discreet grin. The boy was a light of hope for the academy, one he would gladly accept and appreciate.
Seeing as he traumatized the crowd enough, the blond immortal hopped off the counter and started on prepping his ingredient, while the students, teachers and gathered judges tried to gain control of their facial muscles.
While he loved trolling people, he still took challenges seriously, even though he didn't show it and this one was no exception.
Since the main theme was rice bowl with meat being the main ingredient, he would have to cook something in direct contradiction to Ikumi's dish. The problem with modern chefs or even artists was that they were fixated over one specific dish or specific art, thus overlooking the significance of others.
That predictability was especially true in the case of Ikumi. Her title alone made her an easy target of obvious probability. He didn't even need to gather info about her to know that she was proficient in meat based dishes.
So whatever she was going to make would be focused heavily on the aforementioned ingredient and may even overwhelm the flavors of the accompanied rice. Judging from the way she was bringing out the A5 meat from the oven, it was obvious the strong umami of the beef would play a deciding role.
He, on the other hand, was not ashamed to admit that he had no time to pick something remotely in league with the A5 meat Ikumi had. What he brought with him was by no means cheap or lower in quality, but it was still no match for the A5, so he would've to enhance its flavor and richness by something else.
Keeping those factors in mind, the only way to enhance the umami of the lower quality beef was by cooking the rice and accompanying vegetables in a way to bring out their true and maximum tasty potential.