Kael didn't approach the trio right away—there wasn't a good enough reason to, after all. Otherwise, he wouldn't have minded getting to know gumi Tadokoro a little earlier.
Once the Two-Star assessnt wrapped up, the Three-Star Chef exam began. To Kael's mild surprise, the station assigned to him was right between gumi and the two guys from Polar Star Dormitory, Daigo Aoki and Shoji Sato. Their cooking stations were lined up in a row.
gumi, however, stood out from everyone else. While the other candidates busied themselves with setup and prep work, she was… scribbling the kanji for "person" over and over on her palm and pretending to swallow it.
The sight drew curious looks from nearby chefs. Sure, nervous candidates were common—but this level of anxiety? That was peak Tadokoro.
"You know that doesn't actually help, right?"
Kael couldn't stop himself. The words slipped out before he could think twice. His comnt imdiately drew the attention of gumi and her two dormmates.
"Ah—um! I—I'm so sorry! Was I bothering you?" gumi stamred, flustered and panicked. She clearly worried she'd distracted soone during the exam.
Kael shook his head. "No need to apologize. You didn't bother . I just think that thod's not really helping. It's making you more nervous, not less."
With how tense she looked, there was no way she'd pass unless she got insanely lucky.
"I... I know, but this is the only thing that helps calm down, even a little."
Her voice was small but sincere. She was fully aware the trick didn't work—it just gave her sothing to cling to.
Kael crossed his arms. "Then try a different approach. Instead of calming down, trigger another emotion—sothing strong enough to drown out your nerves. Anger, fear, anything works. And if that's hard, imagine a scene that stirs those feelings."
In the original story, Soma Yukihira had helped gumi focus by giving her a quick jolt of pain—pinching her cheek to snap her out of her panic. It had worked, but only because the pain kept her grounded, and more importantly, because Soma had been the first person in that toxic environnt to believe in her.
Everyone else in her class treated gumi like a burden—soone to avoid or look down on. Soma was the only one who didn't. The only one who stood beside her instead of above her.
So when soone like that showed up and extended a hand, of course her attention shifted entirely to him. That connection—not the pain—was what helped her relax.
Kael's thod, though, aid to use emotion in another way—by overwriting anxiety with sothing stronger. It wasn't perfect, but anything was better than letting fear run wild.
Because at this point, gumi's nervousness wasn't just stage fright anymore—it had calcified into sothing deeper: insecurity. The belief that she'd always fail, no matter how hard she tried.
"I... I don't really understand what you an," gumi admitted, blinking up at him in confusion.
"It's simple," Kael said patiently. "You're nervous because you're afraid of failing, right? So flip it around. Imagine what happens if you fail again. Imagine your family hearing about it."
Her eyes widened slightly.
"Maybe they wouldn't bla you. Maybe they'd even comfort you," Kael continued, his tone calm but deliberate. "But think deeper. You keep failing the Three-Star exam, while everyone else passes. Word gets around. People start talking behind your back—gossiping when you're not there."
He leaned a little closer. "At first, you might not hear those whispers. But as ti goes on, the talk spreads. Every new failure brings it all up again. Eventually, the gossip turns ugly—people stop saying you 'lack talent' and start saying your parents didn't raise you right. That there's sothing wrong with your whole family."
He paused, letting that image sink in. "Now picture that—your family getting blad, whispered about, humiliated. All because of you."
Kael wasn't being cruel—he was redirecting. Soone like gumi wouldn't react to insults aid at herself. She'd just shrink back, apologize, and bear it quietly. But drag her family into it? That hit a nerve.
Family was everything to her.
As a child, she'd seen how much pressure her parents were under. When she realized their family restaurant was struggling because no one could perform the anglerfish dissection show anymore, she hadn't hesitated—she went out on her own to learn it, just to help.
Soone like that couldn't stand the thought of her loved ones being shad because of her mistakes.
Under Kael's quiet, steady guidance, gumi's imagination did the rest. She pictured her parents smiling sadly while enduring judgntal stares, comforting her even as others whispered behind their backs.
Her face flushed crimson. Her trembling stopped. The nervousness that had paralyzed her began to twist—turning into guilt, then frustration, and finally, a simring determination.
"Looks like it's working," Kael said with a small smile. "Rember—whenever you start to panic, think of your family. Think about how much they'd hurt if you let this get the better of you. If you don't want that to happen, take control. Show them your best."
And honestly, he wasn't wrong. If her family ever found out how often she'd failed because of nerves—and how close she'd co to expulsion, just like in the original story—it would've crushed them.
Before he could say more, the examiner's voice echoed through the hall. The assessnt was starting.
This ti, the the was Regional Cuisine—gumi's specialty. She was a mber of the Regional Cuisine Research Society, after all.
Regional cuisine was just another way of saying "local ho cooking"—the familiar, comforting flavors that defined every town and prefecture.
In other words, for gumi Tadokoro, this the might as well have been a blessing from the gods.
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