Food Wars: The Heaven's Senses

The Taste Judging

The Selection began, and several of the competitors began cooking furiously to prepare dishes that would satisfy the tastes of the five judges. However, one of the judges, Natsume Sendawara, was taking more of an interest on the Yukihira girl, who was cooking with a big smile on her face.

"I just wonder where I've met that girl before..." She thought to herself.

Finally, the time for cooking was slowly coming to an end, and the timer went off, making every contestant within in the room stop what they were doing and preparing to show off their dishes to the judges.

The first student went up, and the tension of the room became so thick that you could cut it with a knife. The judges took their first bite, and it didn't take long for them to give a score to the student.

And let's just say that the Sendawara sister was not please in the slightest. She awarded no points and glared at the student who served her a dish that was not to her liking. Everyone was shocked, but to the other students, it was just another student out of the running for one of the four places that would move on to the actual competition.

However, as the dishes were placed in front of the judges one by one, the students began to truly understand how fierce the competition was. It was fine to please the four other judges, even though they didn't give a very big score each time, Sendawara never gave a single point. Always going for a zero score for each dish that was presented to her.

"Uh, yeah, this is bad." Natsume Sendawara said as she wiped the remaining food from her lips, "How could I give a score for something like this?"

"Um... okay." The A Venue's Emcee, Yua Sasaki, said nervously, "What about the student's score?"

Sendawara glared at the poor nervous girl, "Are you hard of hearing? I said the dish was bad."

Yua shook in both her nerves and terror, "Okay... so the final score is.... 19 points."

The Yukihira twins watched the judging with Shun and Ryoko while they waited for their turn to come up.

"Natsume Sendawara awards zero points again." Shun pointed out.

"She's judged more than ten contestants, and hasn't given a single point." Ryoko added.

"Even though everything looked delicious." Soma said, his nerves slowly creeping up on him.

"She does seem like a tough nut to crack open." Hikari said, "But she's only human. And she will crack soon."

"Uh.. Please, the next contestant. Ryo Kurokiba, if you could be so kind. It's your turn." The Emcee said.

The boy with the black hair and the dark circles under his tired eyes stepped forward. From around the stadium, the spectators could see that Ryo was creating a curry from lobster, something not commonly seen within this kind of dish. But then again, no one has ever seen someone with his skills either.

Ryo presented the judges with his lobster curry.

"Ooh, the fiery red of the lobster contrasting with the bright yellow of the saffron rice is quite beautiful." Shingenoshin Koda complimented, "And it was expertly treated so that the legs and the antenna would oppose no danger."

"How thoughtful." Makito Minatozaka said, "This presentation has a grace and refinement to it. It's difficult to find something like this outside of the fine dining experience."

"Yeah." Natsume Sendawara said bored, "Lots of fine dining establishments serve lobster curry in their repertoire. A seafood curry is nothing special to write home about." 

She took her spoon, dug it into the curry and took a big bite. Immediately she almost dropped her spoon from the sheer bliss of the food she had just eaten. Her cheeks burned red as she wondered what on earth she had just eaten. And for the first time during her judging.... Natsume Sendawara took a second bite.