WARNING: the following contains spoilers for Season 5, Episode 9 of Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma, now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Erina Nakiri is the girl with the God Tongue, the top student at Totsuki, and its dean as well. But perhaps not even she can handle the monumental challenge placed before her. Up until now, Erina has been treated differently from the other chefs who had entered the BLUE. Now she comes face to face with the mysterious Bookmaster. The conversation that follows changes everything for Erina and her Totsuki allies.
Mana Nakiri's Desperate Quest
Erina Nakiri didn't take part in the three-gate challenge that Soma, Takumi and Megumi did. Instead, she fought the countless chefs who failed those challenges, all by herself, and exhausted herself in the process. She won't stand for this much longer, so she marched right into the central castle on the BLUE tournament's grounds and demanded to see the Bookmaster. Before long, she stood before the head judge herself, and defiantly notes that she has survived all of the Bookmaster's attempts to eliminate her from the BLUE. The Bookmaster can't see why Erina should complain, since she has indeed won all her matches, and then the bamboo blinds are raised to reveal the kimono-clad woman sitting there, a fan in hand. This is Mana Nakiri, Erina's very own mother.
Mana is on a quest, but so far, she feels nothing but despair about her progress. She, too, possesses the God Tongue, but she has maxed out her culinary journey. She has sampled and tasted every flavor and cooking style the world has to offer, and she is desperate to taste something gourmet that the world has not yet seen. It's the classic "I'm too strong for my own good" paradigm that sometimes appears in shonen anime, and coldly, Mana doubts that her daughter can give her what she wants. She has already given up on Erina, and instead believes that Asahi Saiba can fulfill her dream to taste that new gourmet dish. Erina feels differently. She stands proud and declares that she shall win this tournament, and prove her mother wrong, whatever it takes.
The Next Step
Erina is now fired up more than ever, with the personal stakes of her mother's quest versus her own self-worth. Erina defied her controlling father, Azami, and freed Totsuki from his self-serving vision of what "perfect" gourmet looks like. Now Erina will prove her worth to her mother, too, and never has Soma seen Erina this alive in the kitchen. Up until now, Erina was a lofty goddess of gourmet, casually rejecting any dish that didn't meet her stratospheric standards. But now someone stands above Erina, and it's time to get to work.
The single-elimination tournament is well underway, and after defeating Don Kama with Soma, Takumi must face Erina alone. These are steep odds, and Takumi knows it. He will challenge Erina with all he has, and when Erina presents an astounding dish to the judges, Takumi retorts with his own modified version of a dish Erina had once defeated him with. It's a fine comeback, but alas, it's not enough to douse the flames of Erina's determination to topple her mother. Erina has no grudge against Takumi, but neither does she show any mercy. She defeats him 3-0 in their match, taking Takumi out of the running and moving Erina one step closer to challenging Mana's own God Tongue. Sooner or later, Erina is bound to run into Soma and/or Asahi Saiba as well, and they may be next on Erina's chopping block.