But then, tragedy struck!! (No! H-How could I have been so foolish!?) The elder had been so focused on shoving hot dogs into his mouth as quickly as possible, he had burned his tongue on the steaming wieners! His hot dog-consumption speed had been drastically decreased! (Damn...! It’s never easy to eat freshly cooked hot dogs this fast... But if they’re this hot, he has to be struggling, too...!)
The village elder gave Wataru another glance... to find Wataru, his face as impassive as a fearsome statue’s, chomping down hot dog after hot dog, completely unbothered by the heat of the meat!!
(Wh-What the—!?!?) The elder was speechless! (H-How!? How can he keep chowing down so fast!? These sausages are still painfully hot! N-No... Is it possible that he...?) The elder suddenly realized the true intention behind Wataru’s pre-meal prayer!! (I-I get it! When he clapped his hands, he made a gust of wind that cooled off his hot dogs!)
Allow me to elaborate for those among our Dear Readers who are unable to decipher the old man’s internal rambling! What Wataru had done before he started eating was no ordinary handclap, but the Shaolin Tornado Clasp*, a move from ancient Chinese martial arts!!
(*Shaolin Tornado Clasp — An incredible move devised through four thousand years of Chinese history, where the user claps their hands together with more force than any ordinary human can in order to generate a powerful shockwave. It just so happens that the move’s form is nearly identical to the movement Japanese people make before beginning a meal. A martial arts master can generate powerful winds and create tornados before them with nothing but a casual clap of the hands. [1])
Of course, no ordinary clap of the hands could generate enough wind to instantly chill an entire platter of food! But it was possible for Wataru, the most powerful, hot-blooded fighting teen who has mastered all martial arts from around the globe!!
(O-Outrageous... That seemingly innocuous gesture was a strategic move to cool down the freshly prepared food!! The idea is preposterous... But it’s the only way to explain his superhuman hot dog-eating speed!!) The elder’s lead rapidly diminished until, before he knew it, Wataru had easily overtaken the old man!! (Wataru... Perhaps... Maybe to you... I can trust you with... my dream... to become... the strongest food fighter on the Wind Continent...)
The five-minute countdown allotted to the competition had passed! The servant who had been acting as the judge called an end to the contest! “I will now proceed to the scoring phase!” he declared!
The judge carefully counted how many hot dogs remained on each plate! Wataru, the elder, and even Aria and Résistance in the audience waited for the results with bated breath!! “The results are in! I will announce the winner of this hot dog-eating competition momentarily!” This was it! The result of this hot dog-eating competition would decide our heroes’ fate: would they acquire the orb, or not!? It could go either way!!
“Final results!” The judge declared! “The village elder has eaten... 47 hot dogs! And the challenger has eaten... 1097!!”
Wataru absolutely wrecked that competition!!
“You did it, Wataru!” Aria cheered, beaming at our hero!
“...You had to count when it was such a blowout?” Résistance acutely pointed out! In truth, the elder’s platter still held most of the hot dogs it had started with, while Wataru’s hot dogs were nearly finished!! Even as the judge was taking his tally of the remaining hot dogs, everyone in the audience was secretly wondering why he was bothering to count!! Even the village elder could see how obviously Wataru had beaten him!!!
At the end of the day, Wataru won the hot dog-eating competition!
“You bested me, Wataru...” The village elder said. He showed true grace and sportsmanship, despite losing by a margin of 1050 hot dogs!
“It was an honor to do battle with you, Mister Elder!!”
“Y-You think so...?” Résistance couldn’t help but mutter out loud. Truth be told, she was more than sure that Wataru would have won even without using his Shaolin Tornado Clasp to cool down his hot dogs!! He had won by 1050!!!! That’s one thousand and fifty!!!!!
“I’m a man of my word.” The village elder produced a red gem the size of his palm! “Here, Wataru. Take this orb.”
Wataru took a close look at the orb! It shimmered in the light, its refraction vibrant and alluring! It was beautiful enough to make anyone want to stare at it forever!!
“Woah! Thank you!!” Wataru didn’t forget to thank the elder as he took the orb!
“Hey, Wataru!” the elder added! “How would you like to be one of the Wind Continent’s elite food fighters?”
“Never!!!!!” Wataru immediately rejected the potential sidequest!
“I-I see...” the elder said, smiling gently. “Well, if you change your mind, you can come see me anytime!”!
“All right, I’ll keep that in mind!”
It’s my personal guess that Wataru and his friends would never return to this village! Why, you ask!? Because I have no plans to start writing WATARU!!! The Hot-Blooded Fighting Teen & His Epic Adventures After Stopping a Truck with His Bare Hands!! ~From Dry Toast to Thanksgiving Dinner: the Delicious Climb of a Hot-Blooded Fighting Food Fighter~!!! Trust me, I’m the author!!!!
That being said, Wataru’s party had succeeded in obtaining the first orb! Their quest to collect all six orbs had still only just begun!
To be continued in the next chapter: “Chaos! A Novel Challenge for the Orb!”
*Sources:
[1] Everything You Didn’t Know About the Shaolin Tornado Clasp: The Man Who Clapped Up a Storm — Isekai Tensei Publishing