With the Final Four set, Team Southern Tokyo branch begins some preliminary planning to tackle their opponents. During their discussion, Kazuma noticed that Shigeru had referred to Ryou as “senpai”, which Kawachi shrugged off as Shigeru’s way of sucking up to Ryou. However, Ken informed them that while Ryou was at Harvard doing his food science research, Shigeru was under his tutelage. And while Ryou graduated at the age of 19, Shigeru may prove to be even better since he graduated at the age of 16. On top of that, Ken said that both of them were doing research on native yeast, which apparently can change the taste of bread into many different varieties, and if Shigeru has been able to create and isolate a native yeast, Ken pronounced that Kawachi would most likely lose the matchup 
Meanwhile, back at the Pantasia labs, Yukino approaches Shigeru about acquiring some endo-proteases, which Shigeru hands over with some speculation, but Yukino reminds him to mind his own business since he’s getting funding from her. Shigeru seems to hold a private grudge against Yukino as he give her the evil eye while she’s smoking in the lab and referring to the yeast at “germs”. However, Shigeru keeps it to herself.
Back at the Southern branch, Kawachi is down and out after hearing about Shigeru’s credentials, but Tsukino comes to save the day by providing Kawachi with a secret weapon: Ken’s own native Hatsuga genmai yeast! With this in hand, Kawachi feels the odds have now been evened and finally looks forward to the challenge. However, as viewers will see later during the competition, Yukino uses the endo-proteases, which breaks down proteins, to send Kawachi in a tailspin to make his dough. Man, Yukino is such a despicable character. She not only tries to put on a “nice” face to try and win the trust of Tsukino and her team during the competition, but sabotages the other team’s own ingredients. I’m predicting this will likely not go over well with Shigeru if Kawachi manages to lose his side of the bracket. However, I did get a good laugh at Tsukino’s near futile attempts to hit Ken with various spitballs and Kageto’s various practice attempts to cheer up the group 
This post was written by...
Kungfucius – who has written 275 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the original founders, and a fan of long-running shounen series.
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I thought it was hilarious how Ken nails Tsukino with a spitball and then starts whistling innocently