When Mangas Collide

CH 20: Food Wars! Pt. 2

Kirishima P. O. V.

After much debating, a couple heated fights and a high stakes game of rock, paper scissors later, it was eventually decided that Jirou should pick the other two judges of the competition. It was only fair since all this came about to determine who would be making her meals for the next week. Her first choice was a no-brainer. It was her closest friend Momo, though Jirou stated it was because she was a good food critic thanks to her prestigious upbringing. Though not even Kiri believed that blatant lie. Jirou's second choice was Tsubasa in an attempt to have fair representation amongst the judges by having one of their new classmates on the panel.

Together they came up with a challenge for the three contestants to follow as they complete their dishes. First, they had an hour to make a dish with the limited ingredients found in their kitchen. Second, they had to plate three identical dishes for each of the judges, which had to be delivered at the same time. Third, they couldn't hinder or aid anyone else in the competition.

"Does everyone understand the rules?" Mina asked the three contestants with one of the karaoke mics. All three of them nodded, their eyes shining with determination. "Then you may begin!" she announced, while Kaminari sounded a sports air horn.

Bakugou and Kyo immediately bolted for the table with all the ingredients, while Tohru follows them at a reasonable pace. The ash-blonde quickly grabbing most of the chicken, a jar of his premade curry paste, and a few other odds and ends. Kirishima's mouth was already watering, knowing that curry was one of Bakugou's best dishes. However, he hoped the ash-blonde remembered that the judges won't be able to handle his usual level of spiciness.

The copper-haired teen went straight for the whole salmon, a few vegetables, and a bag of rice. 'Uh, does he know that hasn't been gutted yet?' Kirishima thought to himself from where he stood watching in the kitchen doorway. Before he could voice his concerns, the shinobi slammed the fish down and began carving the salmon with impressive precision. Expertly removing the gills, head, fins, tail, and removed the slimy innards in a few swift movements. With a couple more flicks of the knife, he filleted it with ease. However, instead of putting it on a pan to fry it or put it in the oven to bake, Kyo just left it on the cutting board and made his way out of the kitchen.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Bakugou yelled, pausing with his own cooking. There was a frying pan in one hand and a sharp knife in the other, which made him even more fearsome than usual.

"Don't worry about it. I just need to do some meal prep is all," Kyo explained vaguely. Casually waving off Bakugou's concerns.

He walked past the crowd of confused students to go out in the courtyard. 21 pairs of curious eyes watched him through the courtyard windows to see him walk to a tree and immediately start removing branches. With a kunai, he quickly began to carve off the outside bark and created a long vertical split down the middle of them before returning inside. Only to walk back outside again with his two large fillets of salmon.

After a few minutes, Kyo had managed to secure them to the two long stakes he had made by attaching the fillets vertically within the split he created. The salmon was kept steady by wedging chopsticks he had stolen from the kitchen horizontally within the fissure. The stakes were then planted within the dorm fire pit at a 45-degree angle; to smoke over the fire, Kyo had managed to create by sparking the logs already in the hole with his quirk and fanning them to life. He then casually strolled back inside to begin one of his sides. Winking at a scowling Bakugou as he did so.

Kirishima noted that while Bakugou looked irritated, he continued to work in silence. No doubt determined to beat the shinobi in his second favorite past time. The redhead watched Bakugou's agile fingers skillfully chopping an assortment of peppers and other vegetables for his curry. Judging from the smell wafting from the kitchen, his premade curry paste was already simmering nicely in the wok. The judges are lucky that Bakugou rarely puts the spiciest ingredients in his premade paste since that tends to dull the flavor over time.