Chapter Summaries

Tojo asked Gan'an Shinomiya for permission to spar with Toshiro Hijikata, while Hijikata and Gan'an weighed the risks of agreeing. Gan'an instead called Tojo his brother-in-arms, leaving Hijikata wary of the phrase because Sougo had used it while repeatedly setting him up.

• Tojo knelt before Gan'an Shinomiya and asked to spar with Hijikata after Hijikata had insulted his master.
• Hijikata realized Tojo was a skilled fighter and worried that winning or losing the spar would damage the Doma Family's plans.
• Gan'an considered whether to approve the spar, suspecting it could test Hijikata's strength or help the Doma Family assert authority.
• Gan'an told Tojo that he considered him a brother-in-arms rather than a retainer, hoping to drive a wedge between the Doma Family and the Kondo Group.
• Hijikata remembered Sougo's repeated betrayals behind talk of brotherhood and questioned whether brothers-in-arms were ever serious.

Tojo asked Gan'an Shinomiya for permission to challenge Toshiro Hijikata, hoping both to prove his worth and protect his livelihood. Hijikata tried to avoid the fight by offering an apology, leaving Gan'an and Tojo confused about what Keiryu Doma intended.

• Tojo declared his loyalty to the Shinomiya Family and asked to challenge Toshiro Hijikata.
• Gan'an Shinomiya considered Tojo's usefulness and decided to let him fight, while privately weighing the costs.
• Tojo recalled that he depended on the Shinomiya Family for his income and hoped his appeal to family honor might raise his pay.
• Toshiro Hijikata asked to refuse and offered to apologize for his earlier tone toward Gan'an.
• Tojo and Gan'an reacted with surprise as Hijikata backed away from the match, and Gan'an wondered whether Keiryu Doma meant to make the Shinomiya Family overconfident.

Gan'an Shinomiya tried to interpret Keiryu Doma’s marriage-alliance strategy and concluded that the Shinomiya Family needed to strike a careful balance with the Doma Family. He softened his response to Toshiro Hijikata’s earlier arrogance while making clear that he remembered the slight.

• Gan'an Shinomiya reasoned that Keiryu Doma needed a capable bride from a family he could control, and decided Kaguya fit the requirements.
• Gan'an Shinomiya concluded that Keiryu Doma had used Hijikata’s apology to test the Shinomiya Family’s attitude and resolve.
• Gan'an Shinomiya told Hijikata that he did not blame him, while pointedly changing how he referred to himself to remind Hijikata of his earlier disrespect.
• Toshiro Hijikata recalled that he had felt free to act arrogantly because he had not known Keiryu Doma’s plans and believed the Shinomiya Family could do little against the Kondo Group.

Toshiro Hijikata tried to avoid sparring with Gan'an Shinomiya’s sworn brother by suggesting they eat first, but Tojo interpreted his excuses as a profound kendo philosophy. The misunderstanding deepened when Tojo declared that kendo training never ended, leaving Hijikata and the dojo members bewildered while they pretended to understand.

• Gan'an Shinomiya praised Toshiro Hijikata’s samurai spirit and pressed him to guide his sworn brother in a spar.
• Hijikata tried to postpone the match by suggesting they eat first, and Tojo agreed before praising him for integrating daily life into kendo.
• Tojo interpreted the members’ report that training was finished as a chance to declare that kendo had no end.
• Hijikata tried to play along as Tojo claimed that true swordsmen trained at every moment, even while eating or sleeping.
• The two dojo members concluded from Hijikata’s composed reaction that he must secretly train whenever they could not see him.

Toshiro Hijikata struggled to keep up the appearance of a master swordsman as Tojo interpreted his ordinary habits as signs of advanced kendo. The Kondo Group members believed every explanation, and Hijikata was left sweating as Tojo compared their training.

• Tojo described Hijikata’s calm demeanor as training his sword heart, and the Kondo Group members were impressed.
• Hijikata said he merely did what he should, and Tojo treated the remark as a lesson about persistence in kendo.
• Tojo interpreted Hijikata’s posture, cigarette, trembling fingers, and vigilance as advanced swordsmanship, convincing the two members.
• Tojo said he had integrated kendo into daily life and needed nearly eleven years to reach that state, leaving Hijikata anxious about his own lack of training.
• Tojo proudly asked whether Hijikata had reached the same stage faster than he had.

Tojo challenged Hijikata over his approach to kendo training and insisted on sparring with him at the Kondo Dojo. Tojo struck Ozawa first, but Hijikata swiftly put a hand chop to Tojo’s neck, leaving Tojo furious and Ozawa ashamed.

• Tojo boasted about his kendo experience and argued that training should continue throughout daily life, then criticized Hijikata for scheduling practice and called him unworthy of being a teacher.
• Hijikata tried to explain that different schools had different methods, but Tojo proposed sparring to inspire the dojo’s students.
• Ozawa challenged Tojo to face the dojo members first, and Tojo dismissed them as insufficiently trained before striking Ozawa with a hand chop.
• Hijikata immediately placed a hand chop against Tojo’s neck and asked whether Tojo considered himself checkmated.
• Hijikata comforted Ozawa by explaining that Tojo had years of experience and had struck first, while Tojo silently resented being called a sneak attacker.

Hijikata punished Ozawa and the other members with extra training after Tojo’s attack exposed a weakness, then exchanged veiled assessments of their confrontation. Tojo left believing he had gained an advantage, while Hijikata reaffirmed his duty to protect the Kondo Group and considered which opponents truly threatened that duty.

• Hijikata ordered Ozawa and the other members to add half an hour to their training after Ozawa was caught off guard.
• Tojo withdrew his hand from Ozawa, and Hijikata released Tojo’s neck; both described their actions as jokes while acknowledging the danger of the exchange.
• Tojo analyzed Hijikata’s calm, dojo-style fighting and concluded that learning Hijikata’s attack pattern gave him an advantage.
• Hijikata privately rejected the idea that the Kondo Group would settle for a one-for-one trade and reflected on his responsibility to protect its members.
• Hijikata recalled that Katsura Kotaro and Otae were among the few opponents he could not confidently face while safeguarding the group.

Toshiro Hijikata and Tojo turned a meal at the Kondo Dojo cafeteria into a silent contest of restraint, while the onlooking members imagined an unseen clash. The chapter ended with both men still trying to make the other pick up his chopsticks first.

• Ozawa told the gathered members that Hijikata and Tojo were engaged in a serious contest over their meal.
• Hijikata and Tojo sat motionless before the Japanese dishes, each waiting for the other to start eating.
• The members watched and speculated about the unseen battle as the food began to cool.
• Tojo suggested they start eating, but Hijikata insisted that his guest should go first.
• Hijikata changed his mind when Tojo smiled, and Tojo urged him not to suppress himself; Hijikata remained baffled by the exchange.

Toshiro Hijikata and Tojo’s supposed contest of strength turned out to be a battle of endurance over a table of food, though Hijikata never understood what they were competing in. After Tojo called a draw and invited him to eat, the Kondo Group members panicked at the thought of him eating Tojo’s dishes.

• Ozawa and the Kondo Group members interpreted Tojo’s talk of Hijikata suppressing himself as a hidden clash of strength.
• Tojo explained that the seven deadly sins were human nature and claimed Hijikata was suppressing his appetite, while Hijikata remained baffled.
• Tojo said he could endure watching the food grow cold and proposed ending their endurance contest in a draw to avoid wasting the meal.
• Hijikata agreed to eat with Tojo rather than admit he had never understood the contest.
• Ozawa reminded the Kondo Group that Hijikata’s food dulled people’s senses, prompting the members to dry heave and warn against letting Tojo eat with him.

Tojo explained his love of pain while drowning his fried rice in Devil Pepper sauce, but Hijikata kept turning the conversation toward hemorrhoids. Tojo left furious and flustered as Hijikata privately suspected he had hemorrhoids.

• The Kondo Group members recalled Hijikata’s mayonnaise-heavy cooking and watched in surprise as Tojo sat down to eat with him.
• Tojo poured several bottles of Devil Pepper sauce over his fried rice while Hijikata and the Kondo Group members looked on in disbelief.
• Tojo described spiciness as pain and recounted winning a sword-fighting championship despite his aching wrist.
• Hijikata asked whether Tojo’s butt hurt and whether he had hemorrhoids, derailing Tojo’s explanation of his pain tolerance.
• Tojo angrily denied having hemorrhoids, while Hijikata privately decided that Tojo’s reaction suggested he did.

Sogo Doma tried to encourage Umaru to make friends by arguing that relationships began with conversation and negotiation, using his own pranks as an example. Umaru accepted his advice about taking the initiative but concluded that making friends did not require pranks, leaving Sogo awkwardly defending his claim to Toshiro Hijikata.

• Sogo Doma asked Umaru whether she wanted friends, and she admitted that she did despite saying Onii-chan was enough.
• Sogo told Umaru that starting conversations was essential to building relationships and reassured her that others were also shy about approaching people.
• Sogo claimed that pranking people was a form of negotiation that made them remember him, and he used his first encounters with Toshiro Hijikata as an example.
• Umaru reasoned that Toshiro would have become friends with Sogo even without the pranks, leaving Sogo to awkwardly agree while Toshiro listened.

Toshiro Hijikata tried to use hostile negotiation to turn Kaguya Shinomiya into a friend, believing she only pretended to hate Sogo Doma. Tojo then recounted his childhood endurance of green peppers and chili powder, leaving Hijikata and the others baffled by his pride.

• Toshiro Hijikata reasoned that Kaguya Shinomiya had no real intent to harm Sogo Doma and hoped hostile negotiation might make her an ally.
• Hijikata reflected that he had already offended Kaguya and planned to use the contrast effect to make later kindness seem sincere.
• Tojo announced that he had hated chili peppers as a child and described green peppers as bitter and painfully spicy.
• Tojo boasted that he had eaten every green pepper at kindergarten meals, while Hijikata and the Kondo Group members silently questioned his pride.
• Tojo said he had eaten half a bottle of seven-spice chili powder with lunch in elementary school and hinted at the painful consequences.
• Tojo declared that everyone else had tried, but only he had succeeded, leaving Hijikata and the others unable to understand what he meant.

Sogo Doma’s standing with the Kondo Group and the Four Great Financial Conglomerates was explained, along with the tensions surrounding his first meeting with Senzaemon Nakiri. The chapter left Sogo arguing that the God's Tongue was a disease and comparing it to congenital insensitivity to pain.

• The Kondo Group’s chefs, many of them former Totsuki students, respected Sogo because he had given them jobs and protection from their families’ objections.
• Sogo and the Doma Family were described as unafraid of the Four Great Financial Conglomerates, while Senzaemon had tolerated Sogo’s limited recruitment of Totsuki’s expelled students.
• Sogo mistook a woman resembling an imposing figure from his family for a reminder of that figure, while Senzaemon misread his reaction as interest in Erina’s mother.
• Sogo told Senzaemon that the God's Tongue was a disease rather than a gift, and Senzaemon reconsidered his anger when he thought of his daughter and other possessors of the ability.
• Sogo compared the God's Tongue to congenital insensitivity to pain and described how people without pain could be treated as sacrifices.

Senzaemon Nakiri reflected on Sogo Doma’s overwhelming influence at Totsuki and the Doma Family’s ties to the Kondo Group. The chapter ended with Sogo’s surveillance exposing plots against Keiryu Doma, followed by the Sala Twin Trees killing the conspirators and terrifying the wider world.

• Senzaemon Nakiri acknowledged that Sogo had subdued Totsuki and taken in a few talented students expelled after losing Shokugeki matches.
• Sogo’s reputation and the Doma Family’s influence eclipsed the Nakiri Family, while Erina and Hisako became absorbed in otaku culture.
• The Kondo Group kept violent organizations in check by killing leaders who resisted it.
• Families connected to violent organizations plotted to kill Keiryu Doma, but the Sala Twin Trees killed them before they could act.
• Sogo used electronic surveillance to uncover further conspiracies, and the Sala Twin Trees rang their bells again, leaving the public shaken.

Tojo explained how he had trained himself to endure peppers despite hating them, inspiring the Kondo Group members with his extreme chili challenges. He left them stunned by revealing that green peppers had become as manageable as bitter melon after he grew accustomed to hotter varieties.

• The Kondo Group members admired Tojo for being the only one who had succeeded in eating the dish, while Toshiro Hijikata reacted with disbelief.
• Tojo recounted mistakenly adding seven portions of seven-spice chili to food and enduring the resulting agony.
• Tojo described blending green peppers into juice and then challenging himself with increasingly painful red peppers and chili sauces.
• Tojo revealed that he hated peppers and wished they did not exist, but believed he should overcome what he disliked by eating them.
• Tojo said that after getting used to hotter red peppers, green peppers seemed about as difficult as bitter melon.

Tojo and Toshiro Hijikata competed to prove their willpower by eating foods they claimed to hate, astonishing the Kondo Group and Gan'an Shinomiya. Hijikata’s explanation convinced the onlookers that his mayonnaise habit was a form of training, leaving Tojo challenging him to finish his rice.

• Tojo finished mixing devil-pepper sauce into his rice and challenged Hijikata to match his resolve.
• Hijikata covered his rice in mayonnaise, prompting the Kondo Group to retch and Tojo to question how anyone could eat it.
• Hijikata claimed he hated mayonnaise and ate it only to train himself, explaining that he exercised afterward to burn off its calories.
• The Kondo Group praised Hijikata’s supposed willpower, while Gan'an Shinomiya was shaken by the idea of training with hated food.
• Tojo challenged Hijikata to finish the mayonnaise-covered rice, and the Kondo Group confidently backed their Vice-Chief.

Tojo challenged Hijikata after being overwhelmed by the Vice-Chief’s mayonnaise, but Hijikata’s anger at losing his precious bowl turned the encounter into a terrifying hunt. After finding a stash of anniversary mayonnaise, Hijikata calmed down and tried to pass off what happened as a sparring match, while Tojo remained helpless and terrified.

• Tojo drew his sword to stop enduring the smell of Hijikata’s mayonnaise, and Hijikata threw his bowl at him.
• Tojo shattered the bowl with his wooden sword and was splattered with mayonnaise, while Hijikata grew furious over losing his precious food.
• Hijikata threatened to roast Tojo, frightening Tojo, Commander Shinomiya, and the Kondo Group members.
• Hijikata dragged Tojo into a dark room, found his hidden anniversary mayonnaise, and calmed down.
• Hijikata called the encounter a sparring match, but Tojo remained unable to resist and feared being eaten.

Toshiro Hijikata’s overwhelming display against Tojo frightened both Tojo and Gan'an Shinomiya, though Hijikata cared most about his ruined premium mayonnaise and collection. He left convinced that the world, not his love of mayonnaise, was at fault.

• Tojo abandoned his proposed spar and praised Hijikata after Hijikata effortlessly overpowered him.
• Gan'an Shinomiya reconsidered the Kondo Group’s power after seeing Hijikata treat Tojo with casual superiority.
• Hijikata worried that a spar might damage his rare mayonnaise collection and resented Tojo for splashing mayonnaise on him.
• Tojo nervously insisted that he no longer needed guidance or a spar, and Hijikata concluded that the people who disliked his mayonnaise were the ones in the wrong.

Sogo Doma learned that the dojo members had mistaken Hijikata’s mayonnaise habit for spiritual training, then confronted Hijikata about the story. Hijikata changed the subject by revealing that Gan'an Shinomiya had proposed a marriage match between Sogo and Kaguya Shinomiya, leaving Sogo and Utaha stunned.

• Sogo Doma heard the members’ account of Hijikata’s supposed mayonnaise-based spirit training and realized they had been fooled.
• Utaha Kasumigaoka believed the dojo’s strange practices were swordsmanship training and asked Sogo whether he had experienced them.
• Sogo confronted Hijikata about the mayonnaise story, and Hijikata’s mayonnaise-shaped lighter undermined his claim that he hated mayonnaise.
• Hijikata revealed that Gan'an Shinomiya had proposed Kaguya Shinomiya as a bride for Sogo, not Taihei, leaving Sogo and Utaha shocked.

Sogo Doma learned that Gan'an Shinomiya had proposed a political marriage, but he refused to accept being married off and blamed Kaguya Shinomiya for pursuing him. Toshiro Hijikata pointed out that Sogo’s own actions may have prompted the proposal, while Sogo insisted Lord Gui Long could marry in his place.

• Sogo Doma protested Gan'an Shinomiya’s marriage proposal, saying he was underage and refusing to be married off.
• Toshiro Hijikata told Sogo that Lord Gui Long had agreed to the proposal, prompting Sogo to suggest Gui Long could marry instead.
• Sogo introduced Utaha Kasumigaoka as his long-term meal ticket and joked that spending other people’s money was better than spending his own.
• Toshiro Hijikata suspected Kaguya Shinomiya had helped Sogo financially, and Sogo reluctantly admitted he had accepted a small amount from her.
• Sogo claimed Kaguya had proposed marriage because she lusted after him, but Toshiro revealed that she already liked someone else.
• Sogo accused Kaguya of being a scummy player and again insisted Lord Gui Long could be married off in his place.