"I've understood the situation."
Lying on the room's balcony, Mutou Judai looked at the scenery of this small inn built on the mountain while talking on the phone.
"The situation here isn't as complicated as I imagined—it's just that Toyo Electric originally planned to build a nuclear power plant here, and all subsequent events were triggered by this plan. However, Toyo Electric delegated the demolition task to a real estate company... they're only pulling strings behind that real estate company and didn't send technical personnel, so it's hard to say what exactly they're thinking."
"But looking at the current situation, it's simple to handle here..."
Saying this, Mutou Judai looked at Nakiri Azami and his people who seemed to have just woken up and were waiting for a car in the courtyard outside the inn. He pondered for a moment, then spoke again:
"By the way, Erina—I saw your father. He even came to judge the Shokugeki between me and that Hayama Akira, and he was even using the name Nakiri Azami instead of Nakamura... I heard you mention him being driven from the family and having his surname taken away, so for him to return so openly, he must be planning to do something."
Mutou Judai said this, then stopped talking temporarily, giving Erina time to think.
And indeed, Erina fell silent with him.
On the other end of the phone, when Erina heard Mutou Judai mention her father, she was first stunned, then her bangs cast shadows over her eyes.
She didn't speak for a long time, and Mutou Judai waited for her.
Finally, Mutou Judai sighed and spoke proactively.
"If you don't want to see him, then since he's where I can see him now, if I 'talk' with him and 'reason nicely,' I believe he'll definitely understand and leave this country again."
Saying this, Mutou Judai activated his curse skill with a range of his line of sight.
For non-living things, it was instant.
For living things, there was an additional choice.
Fatal or non-fatal.
Then Mutou Judai felt this choice, his mind constantly hovering over the 'fatal' option.
"If you're really afraid, you don't need to worry about anything. Your father's health doesn't seem very good. When he was judging today, he inexplicably fainted. Maybe he's suffering from some serious illness due to not returning to this country for so long and being unaccustomed to the climate."
Mutou Judai said this as another form of inquiry.
He wanted to know Erina's attitude.
If the shadow Erina's father left was truly unbearable, then he wouldn't let Nakiri Azami see Erina again.
But this was Erina's father after all, so the key still depended on her own attitude.
Mutou Judai would respect Erina's choice and think about how to handle subsequent matters based on her choice.
"I see..."
After hearing Mutou Judai say this, Erina obviously took a deep breath.
When she spoke again, her voice returned to its usual tone.
"Judai... you don't need to worry about him... Whatever he wants to do this time, let him do it, but I won't let him do certain things either..."
Initially, Erina's tone was somewhat hesitant, but her voice became increasingly firm.
She had made her choice.
"I will resist."
"Are you sure?"
"Mm..."
Saying this, Erina stood in the moonlight wearing pajamas, twirling her hair with one hand, her face slightly red.
If she were face-to-face with Mutou Judai, Erina probably wouldn't say things that made her feel very embarrassed, something that wouldn't work even when alone with Mutou Judai.
But on the phone...
Without looking at Judai... it was like when she read shoujo manga and practiced 'conversation training' with dolls while hugging the manga alone...
With this thought, Erina blushed and spoke somewhat shyly to Mutou Judai:
"But... it would be nice if Judai could face it together with me~"
Hiss—
In Mutou Judai's impression, Erina was basically always strong with a bit of weakness.
She was like a balloon—when you didn't bully her, she looked quite round, but when you poked her and she deflated, she immediately went flat.
This was Erina.
So what Mutou Judai encountered was either her inflated state or her weak state, sometimes very gentle, sometimes with flashes of brilliance that even Mutou Judai admired.
But...
—This was his first time seeing Erina act spoiled with him.
So.
Face! I can face anything!
Forget making me face some Nakiri Azami—even if you made me face Hanma Yujiro, I could face it!
Mutou Judai shouted this in his heart.
But when it came to his mouth, he tried hard to steady his voice:
"Mm... I'll be with you."
"Mm~"
With Erina's response, they fell into another long silence.
After a long while, Mutou Judai cleared his throat and directly changed the topic.
"Cough cough... Erina, as long as you have these matters under control. Then about Toyo Electric..."
Mutou Judai watched as Nakiri Azami had already left with his people in a car, and he brought the topic back again.
"I heard you mention that Kengan Annihilation Tournament before. Is Totsuki participating in this competition?"
Regarding the Kengan Annihilation Tournament, Mutou Judai had been hearing this term frequently lately, so he had looked into it.
"Mm... This time it's reportedly proposed by the Kengan Association chairman. Whoever wins this Kengan Annihilation Tournament can become the next Kengan Association chairman... Changing chairmen is very important for the Kengan Association. Each chairman determines the style of each Kengan era, so even if we at Totsuki don't have such intentions, we should probably participate and see how things go."
Hearing Erina say this, Mutou Judai exhaled.
"Then I'll be direct—regarding Toyo Electric, not talking about my side, just considering that we now have conflicts with them, if Toyo Electric becomes the new Kengan Association chairman later, wouldn't that put Totsuki in a very uncomfortable situation?"
"Mm..."
Erina pondered for a moment, then understood Mutou Judai's meaning.
"Judai, are you planning to use this Kengan Annihilation Tournament to directly severely damage Toyo Electric?"
"Mm... After all, everything Toyo Electric has been doing recently is basically preparing for this competition directly or indirectly. I feel that just defeating Tiger in the Kengan match a few days from now won't really solve anything—but Erina, if you became the Kengan Association chairman, do you think we could regain some of the initiative?"
"We could even use the tournament to further damage Toyo Electric, making them truly hurt to the bone, affecting their foundation!"
"Even..."
Mutou Judai stopped here, and Erina continued for him.
"...Even if we achieve complete victory, we could even try to absorb Toyo Electric, right?"
"Mm."
Hearing Mutou Judai say this, Erina's mind began racing.
If there were no Mutou Judai in this world and it was simply Food Wars, then Erina would probably become Totsuki Academy's director next year.
So her thinking patterns and methods were already there, just lacking corresponding experience.
Being like this—without the caution that comes with experience, bold, and clear about what she should do.
This made her smile and speak after thinking for a while:
"But the premise of everything is that you won't lose."
"I won't lose—then leave the rest to you."
Mutou Judai also smiled.
He and Erina both understood each other's meaning, and although they didn't explain everything completely, they tacitly finalized this plan.
After chatting a bit more, Mutou Judai hung up the phone.
After all, his system had a built-in alarm function that would wake him up early tomorrow morning. If he didn't sleep now, tomorrow morning would definitely be uncomfortable.
But before sleeping, Mutou Judai once again picked up the intelligence he had manually recorded and organized from Tadokoro Megumi's family.
"Toyo Electric doesn't handle demolition themselves but leaves the demolition work to a real estate company—and this real estate company called Yukinoshita, although it's a regional wealthy family, seems to have serious family system issues, and the company's scale isn't large either."
Thinking of this, Mutou Judai yawned.
"If they're the direct managers responsible for demolition, that's perfect—sleep first for now, and tomorrow... I'll go have a chat with this Yukinoshita family~"
...