Chapter 14: Fierce Battle! The F3‼︎ Small Animal Duo, the Long-Haired Princess, and a Blow to Pride

After making it to 3rd place in the preliminaries thanks to Rentarou's strategy that even swept up other participants... The competition ahead still looks tough!

"Never thought the Gori-Ra alliance would show up too..."

"That 'never thought' is exactly right...!"

"Honestly figured they were disposable..."

And surprisingly, due to a rule change allowing fixed team sizes, that guy called Yuu-kun joined their team too. Well, he hasn't appeared yet. What's this? When considering rule changes, someone thought "Wouldn't it be awesome if we added Yuu-kun?"...? No more meta this time‼︎ Last chapter went overboard‼︎

"But both eating contest champions are huge...!"

"Both far exceed average human height."

"[Either giants or clearly of giant descent]"

Right. Two monsters who could each single-handedly win this tournament. Can we beat this? Impossible, right? Even for Rentarou... Well, maybe future Rentarou with all 101 girlfriends could do it... But current Rentarou can't possibly take two of them.

That leaves making Kurumi-chan our main fighter while everyone supports...! Fortunately, each of the 5 rounds awards points by placement, so even if we can't beat those two, maintaining 2nd place while grabbing as many 1st places as possible before a final reversal... That'd be our strategy.

"The traditional Food Fight Festival! Now for Round 1! Today's ingredient is..."

"Traditional eating contests... ramen... hot dogs..."

"[Meat festival]"

"Maybe something where table manners matter...?"

Hmm. There are many staples of eating contests, but this is a traditional one. As Hakari said, etiquette might factor in...?

"Tapioca milk tea!"

"Where'd the tradition go?!"

"Just pandering to Instagram culture...!"

"Is this... tradition? Tradition?"

What even is tradition? Well, judging by the menu alone might be unfair, but this is way beyond unexpected after the simple rice preliminaries.

Still... tapioca milk tea. The liquid filling stomachs seems dangerous, but we can't get distracted. The real challenge is probably... Got it.

"Who's fighting Round 1... burp"

"Rentarou-chan, you rest after working so hard in prelims ❤︎"

Rentarou...! Pushing yourself this far for us...! We'll take it from here. No matter what monsters we face, we'll win...!

"Like I said, I'm doing all rounds."

"With your capacity, you could handle a few rounds..."

"That Dora○mon-tier stomach though."

"[That cat robot's stomach defies physics]"

But Kurumi-chan's stomach is incredible... Still looks ready after all that eating. She did say she'd win alone. But doing every round is too much. Your stomach doesn't reset between wins.

"Even you can't handle all rounds, Kurumi... Let others help..."

"Leave me alone..."

Hmm... Still not comfortable relying on others... Then this is our best move.

"Who's our team?"

"Depends on other teams' picks..."

"Scouting first is logical."

Round 1: Tapioca milk tea. Doesn't seem heavy, so there must be a twist. My stomach has limits too, so scouting seems best...

"[Then... I'll go.]"

Quiet one. Good for scouting... Wait. If we just scout now, we might not recover when heavier dishes come. More importantly... treating someone as expendable... I won't allow it!

"Then I'm going too. The Small Animal Duo with Kurumi-chan will aim for... no, we're taking 1st place‼︎"

"[Then an alliance we shall form.]"

"You're joining too?... And drop that nickname."

"Kurumi-chan and her Merry Crew...?!"

"What's wrong with your taste?"

Ugh... I knew it was outdated, kinda lame even to me but... yeah that was terrible. Saying it out loud makes me hate it.

"Names aside... Let's just deliver results, okay?"

"Doesn't matter... I can do it alone..."

"Round 1 contestants, please step forward!"

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"Well then… Round one, begin!"

Here we go. First bite… delicious! Wow, this is amazing. The milk tea’s sweetness is spot on, but the real star is the texture of the tapioca—so chewy and satisfying. So good. It’s so good, but… huh? Wait, is this actually worse than I thought? No, it’s not just my imagination—this is seriously hard on the jaw. I figured chewing tapioca would be a bit of a workout, but this is on another level…!

“Mmm, so good~!!❤︎”

Well, I mean… Kurumi’s here too, so if I just push through—wait, what the hell, Takeko Super Deluxe⁉︎ What is that…? She’s alone but—no, that’s not the point! She’s drinking it! She popped the lid off and just poured it down without even blinking at the tapioca! Isn’t she choking on that…!?

10 minutes later.

“My jaw…”

“Hurts… oof!”

“Ugh, this is seriously bad… it hurts…!!”

Everyone, except for Takeko Super Deluxe who’s off doing her own thing gulping stuff down whole, is clearly struggling with jaw pain… or so it seemed.

mocchi mocchi mocchi mocchi…

“Sh—Shizuka⁉︎”

“Shizuka-chan⁉︎”

No way. Shizuka’s still chewing like crazy without slowing down. How? That much jaw movement has to hurt by now…!

“How the heck are you still eating like that…?”

“Oh! That’s right! Shizuka-chan…!”

Wait—do you know something, Rentarou?! No seriously, I kinda do wanna know how she’s managing that!

“Shizuka-chan has a tiny mouth… so each bite she takes is smaller, which means she has to chew way more for every meal!”

“In other words, her jaw is used to way more chewing than the average person’s!”

“So you’re saying… she’s built up chewing endurance⁉︎”

“Which means… Shizuka-chan is…”

“Yup, Shizuka-chan is…”

““Just like a tiny woodland creature—so cute…!””

Wait that’s the conclusion we’re going with? But I can’t let her show me up. As a fellow member of the Small Animal Alliance, I can’t let her do this alone…!!

mocchi mocchi mocchi mocchi mocchi…

mochi mochi mochi mochi mochi mochi mochi mochi…

“Wha—you too!?”

“Kawaru’s picking up speed too! But… why?”

“She’s not like Yoshimoto Shizuka, used to chewing this much… It’s strange.”

“That face… wait, could it be…!”

“You figured it out, Rentarou-kun!?”

“Yeah! Normally, when your jaw starts hurting from all the tapioca, your chewing speed drops—but Kawaru’s used to being in pain from way back! She’s built up pain tolerance over time!”

“That’s not really something you should get used to…”

“That’s kind of a depressing reason.”

“But ignoring pain and pushing through is efficient.”

“Still, even she has to have a limit to what she can take… and yet…!”

mochi mochi mochi mochi mochi mochi mochi mochi…

“You’re going that far…?”

mocchi mocchi mocchi mocchi mocchi mocchi…

“No—Shizuka-chan’s speeding up too!! You two… you’re both pushing yourselves beyond your limits…!!”

“That’s enough!”

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"The results of Round One are in…!1st place: The Competitive Eater Champion Team, 3 points!2nd place: The Rentarou Family Team, 2 points!3rd place: The Gurira Union and Yuu-kun Team, 1 point!"

"[A valiant effort from both sides.]"

"No… more tapioca… My jaw’s done for…"

"Y-you're… better than I thought…"

Kurumi-chan…! What a sweet girl…! She's starting to open up, little by little…! I made sure she got to eat a lot—wait, get a grip, me. This is bad… Watching her eat so happily is hitting me harder than I expected. I already love seeing Rentarou eat, but Kurumi-chan’s way of eating too… it's becoming something truly special to me…!

Still, it’s not easy. Sure, Rentarou has a natural connection with her as her boyfriend, and I at least have the bond of having cooked her something good… So she’s opened up a bit to us, but with everyone else, there’s still some distance. Although… it does seem like she and Shizuka-chan got a little closer earlier. This feeling—maybe if everyone keeps giving it their all through this Food Fight Festival… something will change.

By the way, right now I’m lying on Rentarou’s lap while he massages my cheeks. Because they hurt. I can still power through the pain itself, but… eating more after this is gonna be rough…

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"Now, for Round Two! Speed-eating ten pieces of sushi!"

"When it comes to speed and efficiency… I’m confident."

"I-I’m not losing either…!"

A speed round, huh. Nano definitely looks fast. Gurira Union is going again minus Yuu-kun, and from the Champion Team, Chanko Bakukin’s up. I see… so they’re rotating members. That’s gonna be tough…!

"Round Two… start!"

"So gooood~!!❤︎"

"This isn’t the time to be savoring it, Kurumi!"

"But… eating without savoring it would be an insult to the food…!"

What a good girl… no, seriously. She really does eat like she means it—so full of appreciation… What a good girl…! …Wait, my reactions to this kid are getting kind of weird. Eh, whatever. The competition’s tight, but we’ve got Nano.

Unbelievably, she’s keeping pace with Chanko Bakukin. Actually, she’s basically drinking the sushi. Looking closer, Chanko Bakukin is too. I get it for Bakukin—he’s huge—but Nano’s not even that big!? What kind of throat is that!?

"Chewing is inefficient."

"What is your throat made of, titanium alloy or something!?"

"[A speed-eating performance straight out of ⭐︎rby.]"

"That censorship’s doing nothing!"

"Both competitors are blazingly fast! Who will seize victory!?"

We might actually take first at this rate—wait, she stopped!? She froze up at the tenth piece. What happened!?

"Ate too much… I feel sick…"

"From just nine pieces of sushi!?"

You’ve gotta be kidding me, Nano!? That was only nine pieces!? I mean… yeah, she’s always just drinking supplements, but still!! People like that have shrunken stomachs and can’t really eat much…! Even with all the easily digestible smoothies I gave her, if her stomach doesn’t have the capacity, it’s pointless…!!

"The Gurira Union and Yuu-kun Team are closing the gap fast!"

Not good. At this rate, they’ll catch up. But… wait, Nano!? What are you doing… No way!! Nano’s afraid of heights, isn’t she!? If she’s climbing something that tall… then she’s triggering her survival instinct to protect herself—and that boosts appetite!? That’s insane. I mean, yeah, I did some wild stuff too, but still. That’s some serious resolve… Nano…!

"At the top of that high tower…"

"Her long hair gleaming under the lights…"

"And such a stunningly beautiful girl up there…"

"Ahh… it’s like…"

"Rapunzel, at the top of the tower…!!"

Whoa… so pretty… amazing… And then she pops the last piece of sushi into her mouth—done! She did it, she finished!! You did it, Nano!!

"The results of Round Two are in…!1st place: The Competitive Eater Champion Team, 3 points!2nd place: The Rentarou Family Team, 2 points!3rd place: The Gurira Union and Yuu-kun Team, 1 point!"

"Copy-pasting the rankings makes it way easier!"

"I said no breaking the fourth wall, didn’t I!?"

"But the source material’s already like this, so it’s fine…"

"So the Champion Team’s now got 6 points, we’ve got 4, and the Gurira Union is at 2, huh…"

"We have to beat the champions at some point..."

We can still make a comeback for now, but if we don’t start getting first place soon, it’s gonna get rough. The next round’s pretty important.

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"Round Three is this! Super Spicy Mapo Tofu!!"

"I’ve got confidence when it comes to spicy food."

"Kusuri's probably okay with a little heat too."

"I’m staying in for this one too."

I see… with this lineup, we might have a shot…! That said—Kurumi-chan seriously plans to compete in every round, huh? Is she gonna be okay? I’d prefer to save her strength for the finals, but… we really need that first place win…

"Alright, Round Three—Begin!"

"…This isn’t a joke recipe some idiot scribbled down for fun!?"

"This is an insult to food itself…!"

"Spicy, oo-hoh! But compared to my usual training, lighting firecrackers in my mouth—this is nothing…!!"

"Are all of you idiots!?"

What the hell just happened. Takeko stopped. Takeko Super Deluxe—she stopped eating!? This might be our chance. Even Chanko Bakukin, sitting next to her, is shaking his head, like, "No way can I eat this."Man, he's huge. How many people is that guy rolled into one? I mean, okay, sure—maybe it is an insult to food, but it's technically still a dish and… huh?

...Something feels off. Is it just me?An insult to food? Them? The two who’ve done nothing but swallow food whole without even tasting it? I was right there next to them—watching. Kurumi, obviously, but even me and Shizuka… even the Gurira Union guys—maybe they didn’t fully savor it, but even if it was just the first few bites, we definitely enjoyed the taste.

Even when nobody said anything aloud—there’d be these little moments. A faint smile. Just a flicker of enjoyment on their face. You notice these things when you love seeing people eat with joy. Even Nano, who usually just drinks her food—when she ate that sushi, her lips curled just a bit. A tiny smile.

This… this doesn’t add up. Those two—Chanko Bakukin and Takeko—they should love food. They’re champions of eating. And yet… not a single flicker of expression. Not even a twitch of the brow.

It’s like they’re wearing masks. Like they weren’t enjoying it at all. That alone might be explainable, sure. But then why? Why didn’t they eat this time?

That “insult to food” line—was probably just a lie.

There must be some other reason they didn’t eat.

No doubt about it.

Those two…

They’re hiding something…!!