At Totsuki, an entrance ceremony was being held. All the first years have attended.
Announcer: We will next present the new students with their class badge. Incoming Valedatorian, Erina Nakiri.
Erina: Here!
As Erina was receiving her student badge, some of the male students were murmuring about how perfect she was.
Announcer: We will now welcome our keynote speaker: the director of our Totsuki academy, Senzaemon Nakiri-sama.
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Some students looked scared as Senzaemon have them a cold stare.
Senzaemon: Greetings. Congratulations on your advancement to the high school division. During your three years in the junior high school division, you have obtained a basic skill set in cooking and deepen your understanding of each ingredient. In addition to the cooking practicum, you attended classroom lectures on a variety of topics including culinary theory, nutrition, public health, introductory agronomics, and management. Now, you're standing at the entrance to the high school division. The challenges you'll now face are not about your skills or knowledge, but wether you have the wherewithal to survive as a food professional. 99 percent of you... *Points at them* are meant to be sacrifices for honing the remaining 1 percent!
Fat guy: He called them sacrifices. He's got quite the speech going, Nii-chan.
Blonde guy: Yeah, you're right.
Senzaemon: Of the 812 students who entered our high school division last year, only 76 advanced to the second year! Incompetence and mediocrity will be mercilessly excised from our student body. A thousand first-years will be whittled to a hundred by next year, and we can count on those who'll advance to graduation on one hand. Aspire to become one of the small handful of those professionals! *Points at them* It should be you!
The students had confident smiles on their faces.
Senzaemon: Hone yourself! That is all.
Senzaemon walks away while Erina was sitting at the backstage with a confident smirk.
Erina: (This academy only has such a strong name recognition because of the intense competition allowing only a select few to complete their education. Should one succeed in advancing to actual graduation, their stardom in the food world is assured for their remaining lifetime. But I pity those of you who're in the same generation as me. You have been destined to fight over who gets to be second place since the time you were born. The pinnacle of Totsuki Academy and of the Japanese food world, belongs to me, Nakiri Erina!)
Announcer: Finally, we'd like to introduce two transfer students who'll be joining our ranks today.
That last part got Erina curious.
Erina: (So another student made it cut in a different exam?)
