Chapter 1: Transmigration (Patreon)

"Ramsay!" "Wake up, hurry!" "If the Manager catches you sleeping again, you'll get chewed out again!" "Ramsay?" "Ramsay, can you hear me?"

The urgent, anxious voice rang in his ears again and again. Ramsay's lashes fluttered, and with great effort he pried his eyes open, still thick with sleep.

His mind hadn't come back online yet. He mumbled on instinct, in a sleepy, almost adorable voice:

"Manager?"

"What Manager?"

The pretty young waitress in front of him sighed in exasperation and gave his shoulder a light pat. "Honestly... did you sleep your brain away?"

"A VIP is coming to the restaurant today. Everyone's running around with their feet barely touching the ground, and you're the only one who dares to slack off and nap!" "Ugh!" "I give up on you, really."

Ramsay looked up at the visibly anxious girl.

The next second, a sharp, swelling pain tore through his head.

A vast flood of unfamiliar memory fragments surged into his mind like a tidal wave, wildly filling in the blank spaces of his awareness.

---

He shuddered all over.

His back snapped straight, and he sat bolt upright, his pupils contracting.

Once he had absorbed every last memory, a monstrous wave rose in Ramsay's heart.

Holy crap!

He had transmigrated!

He had been a top student in a language department, steeped in multiple foreign languages. He'd gone to sleep, and now he'd woken up in Tokyo, Japan, as a kitchen helper at a Western-style restaurant called ONLY!

The enormous drop in status was hard to swallow all at once.

Ramsay quietly made up his mind.

Once this rush was over, he'd go to the Manager, quit, and run.

Luckily, he was fluent in several languages. Living and working in Tokyo would be no problem at all, so at least he was spared the awkwardness of a language barrier in a strange new place.

---

Just then, the waitress saw that he was fully awake.

She hurriedly shoved a basin of fresh greens into his hands, her tone both urgent and tense.

"Quick, while the Manager's not here, wash these greens thoroughly." "Today..." "Today's guest is special." "There can't be a single mistake, or all of us will be punished!"

"Mm." "Got it."

Ramsay pushed down the turmoil inside him, answered, and took the basin.

He walked to the sink in the back kitchen and bent over to wash the greens, his mind racing through every memory he'd just received, trying to digest this absurd transmigration.

As his thoughts were still in disarray, the sharp, rapid clack of high heels suddenly sounded from outside the door, quick and brisk and thoroughly intimidating!

---

A tall, immaculately made-up woman, the Manager, strode into the kitchen, swept a sharp gaze across the room, and spoke in a low voice. "Everyone, listen up!" "All pre-service preparation has been checked! Miss Nakiri will be here shortly, and there must be no slip-ups in today's service. Is that clear?"

"Don't worry!" "Manager, we guarantee nothing will go wrong!" "With Chef Nakamura here, even Miss Nakiri, with her God's Tongue, is sure to be won over!" "Exactly." "It's only the God's Tongue, after all." "We've got a member of Totsuki's Elite Ten holding down our kitchen!"

Everyone chimed in. Amid the tension in the kitchen, one thing was plain: their trust in a single person was absolute.

Hearing this, the Manager's tight expression eased a little.

She walked up to a young chef in the kitchen and said earnestly, "Nakamura, I'm leaving the preparation of today's dishes for Miss Nakiri entirely in your hands." "Keep your standard steady and help the restaurant pass this inspection."

---

Ramsay followed the Manager's gaze.

The instant he saw the young chef's face, he froze on the spot, with nothing but shock left in him.

Holy crap!

It was Azami Nakamura!

As a viewer who knew the entire Shokugeki no Soma series by heart, he knew this character all too well.

The Miss Nakiri the Manager had just mentioned was, without a doubt, the young lady of Totsuki Culinary Academy, the owner of the supreme palate known as the God's Tongue... Mana Nakiri!

Ramsay was silent for a long while.

At last he fully accepted one outrageous fact:

Yes! He had transmigrated! And into the world of Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma!

But doubts followed right behind. According to the original story, Azami Nakamura only showed his true edge much later. Why was he working part-time at an ordinary restaurant like this so early?

Before he could work it out, a new wave of memory fragments flooded his mind and cleared up every doubt at once.

---

So that was it!

The timeline he'd landed in wasn't the main storyline of the original work, but a very special golden period.

Right now, Azami Nakamura was still just a first-year student in Totsuki's high school division. He hadn't yet begun his dark transformation, hadn't married into the Nakiri family, and hadn't changed his name to Azami Nakiri!

Which was exactly why everyone still called him by his old surname, Nakamura!

At the moment, it was the first-years' "Stagiaire Assessment" at Totsuki.

The Academy had scattered all its first-year students among partner restaurants for on-site internships, and the assessment rules were extremely harsh:

If, during the internship, a student failed to earn passing marks from both the restaurant and the Academy's examiners, they would be forcibly expelled from Totsuki on the spot!

---

And this restaurant, ONLY, was precisely where Azami Nakamura was doing his assessment.

Azami of this period had already displayed a peerless talent for cooking.

Though only a first-year, his skill had reached an almost unbelievable level, and he'd forcefully climbed to the Third Seat of the Elite Ten, standing above countless second- and third-years.

In all of Totsuki's high school division, only Gin Dojima, First Seat of the Elite Ten, and Joichiro Saiba, the Second Seat, could hold a place above him.

Even more remarkable, all three of these top Elite Ten members belonged to the Polar Star Dormitory.

Their bonds ran deep, and they looked out for one another. In other words, the Polar Star Dormitory of this era held firm control over the balance of power at Totsuki, and its glory was unrivaled!

Later generations would call this age, when stars gathered and geniuses emerged one after another:

"The Golden Age of the Polar Star Dormitory."

---

With his extraordinary cooking, it hadn't taken Azami Nakamura long, after beginning his internship at ONLY, to win over everyone in the restaurant with his exquisite skill. Customers and fellow chefs alike trusted him completely.

And so, today, when the Nakiri heiress was coming to dine, the Manager had entrusted this vitally important task of running the kitchen to Azami Nakamura!