Soma: The Phantom Seat (Abandoned)

Chapter 22 Megumi's Will

With Soma's victory, Alice is now on the ground crying after the memories, and Soma sighs, "You act like a kid because you lost. Here, stand up."

Alice grabs Soma's hand, and she says, "Don't act all haughty with me just because you won! I'm going to say it now, this isn't the end for me, even though you are my friend, I won't let anyone else take Totsuki's top. Have a nice day."

After Alice is about to leave, she notices Erina, who says, "It seems your abilities were nothing special."

"What's with you! Erina! You're not only a genius at cooking! You're also a genius at insulting people!" Alice yells. "Listen, just wait until I come to take my revenge! Erina!"

After Alice leaves, Erina sighs and says, "It must be nice to be able to cry selfishly like that."

In the hallway, Megumi rushes to Soma and gives him a hug, she says, "Soma-kun! I was watching you from the waiting room. Congratulations!"

"Thanks, Tadokoro. You're next, right?" Soma asks.

"Yeah, I was really nervous...they prepared a waiting room just for me, and I didn't know when I was going to be called until just before it actually happened..." Megumi says.

"Ah, but somehow, you looked relaxed, and that's great for you." Soma says.

"Yeah. I hope I can have fun cooking, it is the first time I'm thinking like that." Megumi says.

"You sure have grown a lot, you wouldn't think you're the same girl who nervously stared down at the pot while boiling something." Soma says. "Well, don't strain yourself too much, it hurts to see you like that. I'll be watching from the audience."

After Soma walks back to the audience, he is dumbfounded by everyone who is having unusually flashy cheering items, and as her boyfriend, he decides to help out as well.

But Soma realizes that Megumi's opponent is no other than Kurokiba Ryo, Alice's assistant. The theme for the match is Ramen, a noodle dish formed by Noodles, Toppings, and soup.

Kurokiba Ryo uses the Fish leftovers for the soup's dashi, which brings the flavor of the fish. Megumi already knows this when she sees that Ryo is picking Elliptical-shaped 3mm x 1mm noodles which have an almost bouncy elasticity. So Megumi tries to use Scallops and adductor muscles for the Dashi. She wants to make an almost transparent graceful soup.

"That's right, Megumi's home is a port city, her understanding of marine products is second to none!" Yuki says.

"How interesting, to think this would be a match between two people who grew up in port cities." Alice suddenly appears, much to everyone's surprise.

Soma says, "Alice is right, Ryo was raised alongside the sea."

(Flashback)

"Are you sure you can just go out like this?" Soma asks.

"Don't worry, you have come all the way here from Japan, we must greedily try to experiment with all kinds of flavors." Alice says.

But as they are walking to a pub, they find a boy the same age as them, and the boy is a younger version or Kurokiba Ryo. He says, "Who are you? A customer? We're on our idle time now. Get your meal somewhere else."

Soma says, "Oops, looks like we came at the wrong time, right?" But then he sees that Alice walks into the pub and says, "Then I'll wait inside."

They find that the place is not that tidy, and Alice wants to give her regards to the chef, which turns out to be the boy in front of them.