Setsuno had come to the Cooking Festival mainly for Komatsu.
Now that Komatsu had been eliminated, she had no intention of continuing. Once she learned these tycoons were plotting something, she withdrew from the competition without hesitation.
How the rest of them competed was none of her concern.
"S-Setsuno…"
The group's faces went pale the moment they saw her.
Setsuno was the type who feared neither heaven nor earth. If it had been IGO's president, Ichiryu, they might have expected at least a polite expression.
After all, IGO required enormous funding to operate. It had to accommodate people like them.
Even if they were ordinary humans, they controlled vast wealth and power. With their support, IGO could function more smoothly. That was why Ichiryu maintained good relations with them.
But Setsuno?
She was a top-tier tycoon herself.
The Setsuno Group she founded had gathered countless chefs. As they joined, the company continued to grow. If she hadn't chosen to stand on IGO's side, she might very well have been among the tycoons gathered here today.
"You brats really have lost your minds," Setsuno said, looking at them with clear disappointment. "Have you thought about what you'll have to pay later? Joining an organization that devours people whole without even spitting out the bones… Do you really think you'll end up any better than the subordinates you abandoned?"
They weren't stupid.
They were just afraid.
Terrified of dying. If joining NEO meant surviving, that was enough for them.
But once they reached space, they would lose all value. And when that happened, Joie would discard them without a second thought.
"That guy's here," Jiro said with a sigh. "Came sneaking in. And he brought Teppei with him. Teppei's under control."
With something as big as the Cooking Festival, Jiro naturally couldn't stay away—especially knowing Joie might show up.
It wasn't just him.
Midora and Ichiryu were here too, hidden from sight. Compared to them, Joie was weaker by a considerable margin—especially now that the three of them had each ate two of the Main Dishes.
Joie couldn't detect them at all.
So he had no choice but to sneak in.
When the tycoons saw Jiro standing there as well, they were stunned.
After associating with Joie, they had learned who the top powerhouses of the Human World were. But they had no real understanding of how strong those people actually were.
After all, true top-tier fighters rarely made a move. The collateral damage alone would be catastrophic. In the original story, if Setsuno hadn't protected the Human World, one punch from Jiro could have erased it entirely.
Jiro had already sensed Joie's arrival. The other two had as well. They simply waited, letting Joie fully reveal himself before acting.
Jiro made no attempt to hide.
Joie arrived—and immediately spotted Setsuno and Jiro.
Setsuno wasn't much of a concern. Joie believed he could handle her.
But seeing Jiro here made him frown.
Still, his tension eased quickly.
The seals were still there.
Yes, the seals embedded in Jiro's body could be removed at any time. Years ago, after Acacia witnessed Jiro's violently overwhelming power, he had sealed it.
Back then, Jiro was too naive to understand how to remove them. It wasn't until he apprenticed under Acacia and learned Knocking that he figured out how to undo the seals.
But he never did.
He knew exactly how terrifying his strength was. To avoid disaster, he kept them in place. Over time, he got used to it. The nails were embedded in his body, but he no longer felt pain.
As long as Jiro didn't remove the seals, Joie felt he still had a chance.
His goal today was the tycoons—and Komatsu.
Now that things had developed this way, Komatsu was likely out of reach. That meant he needed to take the tycoons back to NEO headquarters first.
Just as Joie was weighing his options, a fist suddenly appeared right in front of him.
But it wasn't aimed at him.
It was aimed at the Shadow Beast beneath his feet.
The moment Midora and Ichiryu saw Joie, they assessed his condition—and immediately recognized the creature serving as his escape route.
So their first target was obvious.
Cut off the retreat.
Otherwise, if one strike failed to kill him, he might slip away.
With a single punch, the Shadow Beast was obliterated.
Only then did Joie realize Midora and Ichiryu had already surrounded him.
As for Jiro and Setsuno—while he believed they posed less of a threat individually, with all of them encircling him, escape was no longer an option.
Joie had underestimated the situation.
Jiro had truly ate two of the Main Dishes.
His strength was now beyond Joie's reach—even without removing the seals.
For the first time, Joie found himself in an awkward position.
The tycoons didn't recognize Midora, but they recognized Ichiryu immediately.
It was obvious.
Even IGO's president had come for the leader of NEO.
The tycoons shrank to the side, trembling.
The aura radiating from these few figures was suffocating.
The pressure in the air grew so intense that waves rippled across the sky above the festival grounds. The crushing presence nearly drove everyone below into unconsciousness.
Then—
A barrier rose, separating the crowd from that overwhelming pressure.
"It's Setsuno-chan's Pressure Dome," Chiyo murmured from within the crowd. "Looks like an enemy really did show up."
Before coming here, Setsuno had warned her that trouble might arrive.
Chiyo hadn't come to compete.
She had come to see her disciple, Chiryu.
She still carried guilt over abandoning her student for so long.
By her own standards, she hadn't been much of a teacher.