4 Chapter 4

"Do we really have to do this?" Soma asked Soran as he tied a blindfold over his younger twin's eyes.

"Yes we do." Soran answered blandly only for Soma to complain again.

"If you wanted to play hide and seek, you could just say so. There's no need fo-" He was cut off by Soran.

"This isn't some game. The aim of this is to familiarize myself with the ingredients on a deeper level. This is a necessary step for me to do that." Soran explained as Soma cut off his sight, securing the blindfold.

Less than a minute later, he heard the sound of containers being dropped on the table in front of him.

"I don't really get it but I guess I'll help." Soma said as he did what he was instructed to do.

During his cook off with Soma the previous day, Soran realized how foolish he had been. He had been too narrow minded about cooking and how to enhance its taste.

[Spice Mastery][3/50]

He looked at the new skill he acquired while making the tandoori rice. Tandoori was a method that involved using a lot of spices to cook. With that being his first time of actually using it, it was of no surprise when he received the skill.

He was then reminded of Akira Hayama who was able to take full advantage of the use of spice due to his keen sense of smell.

With that in mind, he wanted to test out a theory of his. He had instructed Soma to blindfold him before bringing out an array of ingredients and spices in front of him.

He wouldn't be able to touch them since their shape would give him a hint as to what each one was so Soma had to be the one to bring them closer to his face.

"This is the first one." Soma's voice came from in front of him as something was brought near his nose.

Taking a whiff, he thought for a second before answering without hesitation. "Onions."

"Correct!" Soma confirmed. They were starting with the easily recognizable ones before they started moving to the more tricky ones.

"Here's another one."

"Cinnamon." He answered immediately.

"Another one!"

"Ginger."

"Another one!"

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They had been doing this for about 40 minutes and Soran was beginning to get impatient. He had started getting the ingredients wrong and spending more time trying guess which one it was.

"Cardamom?" Soran asked a bit unsurely.

"Wrong!" Soma denied, causing Soran to grit his teeth in frustration. This was his third wrong guess in a row.

He took another whiff of it, trying to figure out what it was. The smell of whatever was in front of him was a bit rotten which caused him endless confusion as there weren't many cooking materials he could list that gave off this kind of rotten smell.

'This smell…is it…peanut butter!?' He thought as his eyes widened under the blindfold.

"It's Sumac." He answered confidently. For a moment, there was silence before Soma's overpowering shout came.

"That's right!" Just as Soma's voice came, another pleasant sound occurred in his head.

[You have gained 'Hyperosmia' skill!]

The effect was instant as he felt his sense of smell heighten more than he had ever felt before. Just as Soma brought the next one forward, it didn't take more than a second for Soran to answer.

"Coriander!" He answered with a grin on his face. Soma on the other hand was surprised since he had yet to inform him that he had raised another one to his face.

"C-correct."

He dropped that one and picked up another one. Just before it got to his nose, he spoke up again.

"Nigella." He announced with a grin on his face.

'Hayama, you may have been born with your gift but you're not the only one who's special. You were born with yours while I acquired mine…' He thought as he correctly listed the name of the next spice.

With his sense of smell heightened, he could smell even the hidden scents of the ingredients they made them recognizable. He was unable to properly name them before since his normal sense of smell couldn't reach those hidden scents.

The brothers continued this until they ran out of ingredients which happened when they hit the hour mark.

He guessed that with the blindfold over his eyes, the leveling speed of the skill was a bit higher but that was only speculation. [Hyperosmia] had stopped at level 3 but he was satisfied for the moment, happy with the fact that he had actually gotten the skill in the first place.

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"How are you holding up?" Joichiro asked as Soran worked on his preparations to put together a dish.

"Huh?" Soran looked to the man in confusion.

"How does it feel…to lose?" Joichiro asked, causing Soran to halt all movement. Silence reigned in the kitchen as Soran's hair shadowed his eyes.

"What are you talking about?" He asked as he continued making sure everything was in order. It was past midnight and Soma was fast asleep, leaving only the two of them in the kitchen.

"Your match with Soma. You may not want to admit it but I can see it in your eyes…you hate it." Joichiro spoke as Soran stopped once more but he wasn't finished.

"You hate losing even more than he does. I guess that makes sense, you were always a bit more competitive than Soma when you two were growing up." He said with a small chuckle.

"I heard about your little experiment today. It still baffles me that you were able to achieve it. That shouldn't be normal under any circumstance." Joichiro continued as Soran turned to face him with narrowed eyes.

"What exactly are you trying to say?" He asked in growing irritation at the truth in the man's words. He and the original Soran were more alike than he first thought. They both had an enormous amount of pride in their ability. Losing was the one thing they both hated.

"I'm saying that not many people would be able to come back from such a loss. In fact, not many people would still have the drive to continue cooking after all this." Joichiro said, making his point.

As much as Soran wanted to scoff and ignore his words, he knew he was right. 'Soran' had reentered the kitchen not more than a month ago and was being put through an almost hellish regimen only to lose to his own twin by such a margin.

For most kids, it would no doubt feel like a wasted effort to even try again at all. With how far ahead the older twin was, it looked like he may never catch up.

But Soran wasn't most people.

"Well I'm not most people. I already told you, I'll crush you both. Just you wait." Soran said with a serious look, a dangerous glint appearing in his eyes for just a moment.

"I know that and I'm not trying to discourage you at all. You've made a lot of progress over the last month…more progress than most have made in the years they've been cooking."

"Add that to what you accomplished earlier today…" Joichiro trailed off, leaving Soran in suspense.

"If you have a point to make, I suggest you stop beating around the bush and get to it." Soran said bluntly.

"You're more knowledge about a lot of things than Soma so I'll ask you this. Have you ever heard of the God Tongue?" Joichiro asked with an unusually serious expression.