Chapter 148
With the Autumn Elections over, Haruto’s daily life returned to relative peace.
There were still a few noticeable changes.
The most obvious was the way the other students now looked at him—with awe, curiosity, and even faint admiration.
His spectacular performance during the Autumn Elections had engraved the name Suzuki Haruto into the minds of everyone at Totsuki.
Haruto noticed the change but paid it little attention.
What interested him far more was that the rare ingredients he had brought from other worlds had now spread throughout the culinary community under Totsuki’s management, using the Autumn Elections as their debut.
Those ingredients caused an enormous stir in the cooking world.
Totsuki, however, was powerful enough to keep every potential problem away from Haruto.
He was extremely satisfied with the arrangement.
It was exactly what he wanted.
Whenever Haruto traveled to another world, he was either hunting ingredients or journeying toward his next hunting ground.
His nerves remained tense almost constantly.
Compared with those adventures, the Food Wars world had become a relaxing vacation between long periods of dangerous work.
There were no lethal beasts, no brutal environments, and no need to remain constantly alert for threats to his life.
He did not need to overthink everything or keep his guard up at all times.
He could simply relax and devote himself to learning how to cook.
Naturally, Haruto did not want anything disturbing that peace.
Although Totsuki had blocked trouble from the outside, however, internal problems still remained.
Haruto had spotted Mimasaka Subaru lurking around Polar Star Dormitory several times.
Eizan Etsuya was clearly plotting something behind the scenes.
It might even be connected to the man who had once been expelled from the Nakiri family.
Haruto did not care much.
If they truly came looking for trouble, he would simply deal with them.
Peaceful days always passed too quickly.
Even Haruto eventually realized that he had rested long enough.
A familiar restlessness began stirring inside him.
It was time to search for more rare ingredients.
More importantly, a new world had appeared!
...
On his next day off, Haruto left Totsuki and returned to his home.
Without hesitation, he stepped through the newly formed World Gate.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing in a lush forest.
The air was unbelievably fresh, filled with the fragrance of grass, trees, and damp soil.
Ancient trunks towered all around him, their interwoven branches and leaves nearly blocking out the sky.
At first glance, the trees looked perfectly ordinary. The forest seemed no different from countless others he had seen.
Haruto raised an eyebrow and was about to release his En to investigate the surroundings when his gaze suddenly sharpened.
A "bug" lay on a low branch not far ahead, lazily chewing on a leaf.
It was nearly as long as his forearm, with a bright green back and a smooth, milky-white underside.
A pair of distinctive red, Y-shaped antennae rose from the top of its head.
Two pairs of tiny abdominal feet supported its round body, while yellow rings decorated its sides.
Its enormous black eyes gave it an adorably vacant expression. A yellow, spindle-shaped protrusion at the end of its body wiggled back and forth as it continued eating.
"A baby Rayquaza!"
Haruto blurted out instinctively.
Of course, he knew "baby Rayquaza" was only a joke.
This was a Caterpie.
And the sight of it instantly revealed which world he had entered.
’The Pokémon world.’
Haruto’s eyes lit up.
Countless Pokémon immediately flashed through his mind.
Farfetch’d came with its own leek. Krabby looked tender enough to steam. Corphish appeared wonderfully plump.
And then there were Slowpoke tails...
Tears of happiness nearly began leaking from the corners of his mouth.
Even more exciting was the opportunity to experience the joy of throwing Poké Balls.
He could gather ingredients while meeting adorable Pokémon along the way.
It was the best of both worlds.
The more Haruto thought about it, the more excited he became.
His smile was almost impossible to conceal as he began deciding which Pokémon he should seek out first.
Should he catch a Farfetch’d?
Or should he visit a river and fish for a few Krabby?
While Haruto was happily imagining all the delicious possibilities, the space around him suddenly changed without warning.
His vision blurred.
In the next instant, he found himself within a strange dimension.
It stretched endlessly in every direction, bathed in a faint golden glow.
Beneath his feet was a radiant surface that resembled a star-filled sky, while absolute silence filled the surroundings.
Haruto’s heart sank.
Forcing down his rising panic, he looked ahead.
His gaze settled on the figure standing at the center of the space, and his breath immediately caught.
It was a white Pokémon with the elegant, imposing body of a centaur.
Gray vertical stripes traced the darker areas of its torso, mane, tail, and face, giving its form a mysterious, flowing appearance.
Its four slender legs ended in sharp, powerful hooves.
Its mane rose high from the top of its head, while its face was a deep gray. Its green eyes contained red pupils, surrounded by circular green patterns.
Two small protrusions extended from either side of its neck, their dark undersides marked with strange gill-like patterns.
Around its abdomen was a cross-shaped wheel known as the Arc—an immense ring embedded with four crystalline jewels.
Haruto swallowed hard.
His throat felt painfully dry, and his heart pounded so fiercely that it seemed ready to burst from his chest.
"Arceus..."
Arceus was standing before him.
The creator deity of the Pokémon world.
The being said to have shaped this entire universe.
Haruto was extraordinarily nervous.
His situation was essentially that of a thief sneaking into someone else’s home to steal food from the kitchen—only to be caught the instant he stepped through the door.
Worse still, the owner of this particular house was a creator god who could crush him with the slightest gesture.
Haruto possessed no ability whatsoever to resist Arceus.
As the saying went, walk beside the river often enough and eventually your shoes would get wet.
His travels through other worlds had gone smoothly until now.
Yet the moment he entered the Pokémon world, he had encountered the most powerful being it contained.
Haruto stood completely still, his body slightly tense and unwilling to make the smallest unnecessary movement.
His mind raced, yet he could not think of a single solution.
Could he flee the Pokémon world?
The required time had not passed, so he could not leave.
Could he use teleportation magic?
Before Arceus, he doubted he would even have the opportunity to cast it.
Just as Haruto’s anxiety reached its peak, an emotionless, neutral, and ethereal voice sounded directly inside his mind.
"Outsider. What is your purpose here?"
Haruto’s entire body trembled.
He forcibly suppressed the turmoil inside him.
Arceus had not immediately erased him. Instead, it had asked him a question.
That meant it did not currently intend to kill him.
At least, not yet.
Haruto drew a deep breath and honestly met Arceus’s gaze.
"Lord Arceus, I come from another world. My purpose in entering this world is to gather ingredients that can be used in cooking."
He stated his intentions without the slightest attempt at deception.
Haruto would not dare lie in front of Arceus.
Those green eyes regarded him in silence.
After a long moment, the ethereal voice sounded once more.
"You must not harm Pokémon."
It was only one brief sentence, yet the weight hanging over Haruto’s heart immediately vanished.
He released a long breath, and the tension left his body.
Haruto quickly nodded with complete seriousness.
"I swear that I will never directly treat Pokémon themselves as ingredients!"
The promise was not merely something he said to satisfy Arceus.
Haruto genuinely intended to keep it.
Still, promising not to use Pokémon themselves as ingredients did not mean he could not collect food they naturally produced.
Many Pokémon generated perfectly edible ingredients.
Surely gathering some of those would be fine.
Apparently satisfied that Haruto posed no threat and had no intention of harming Pokémon, Arceus’s overwhelming presence receded slightly.
It turned and prepared to leave.