Within short order, part 2. God, I'm enjoying making this story so damn much more than I was expecting, and I was expecting a lot. Plus, who doesn't enjoy double updates?
Chapter 6: Chillingly Sweet Part 2
OR
Be Vewy Vewy Qwuiet, We're Hunting Minks
It is said, that far to the East, lies a forest whose trees scrape against the sky. Thick trunks overflowing with sap and carrying every breed of life imaginable all pale before the crown jewel of this biome however. Surpassing its rivals in all aspects, standing taller in a decade than any tree could in a 1,000, the Kingpin Sugar Cane reins supreme! A single stalk of this miraculous treat can sweeten any dish it touches, to the point that the very ground it is planted in becomes a smooth, delicious pudding! Hail to the King, baby!
After wandering into the harsh tundra, I spent my time mostly alternating between jumping into snowbanks looking for Marshmallow, and beating the local wildlife.
"3-Prong Braising." I spoke as I shot my hand forward at the adolescent Silver Grizzly trying to make me its lunch, my inner three fingers folded at the PIP to create a flat surface.
Within moments his 3 and a half ton bulk met my hand, and instead of my fingers breaking alongside my arm, the bear was stopped. More importantly, the sound of sizzling quickly filled the air as the Grizzly reared back in a roar of pain, before it started swaying on its feet with confused sounding growls.
I, meanwhile stretched out my hand and cracked my knuckles, resetting them from where they were slightly dislodged. Damn bear was heavy.
"You like my Braising then? It's a fun little trick I've been working on. A head-on burst of intense heat coupled with a little Knocking to really get that blood boiling, combined with that heavy fur of yours...I bet you're having hot flashes right now. Don't worry, I'll be sure to cure you into some high-class jerky." I chuckled to myself as I walked up to the probably hallucinating bear before, with a swift kick to the base of its neck, put it out of its misery and added it to the sled with the rest of what had come across me so far. Which, now that I think about it, was probably why it came after me in the first place.
Still, outside of a pleasant walk through a wintery hellscape and getting my meals set for the rest of my two week stay, I'd been having zero lucky finding a single Mink, let alone the Marshmallow. Which, granted, might be because I haven't really ventured that far from the bare edges of the Ice Hell and the IGO tends to at least TRY and keep the area from becoming a feeding frenzy of a death trap, I'd have still expected something from it. Camouflage was pretty helpful for a species that was regularly a foot and a half long, who knew?
The only reason I had picked the direction I had anyway was because it lead directly to the heart of the Ice Hell, which wanted to go anyway for the Glacier. Maybe it was just impatience, but damn it if something that wasn't sweet and adorable didn't rate a priority find.
It was a three day walk to Eternal Glacier though, to say nothing of the two weeks I had before I would have to pay money out of pocket to stay here, so I had time to screw around and experiment a bit. But first I was going to make a little igloo house so I wouldn't be as constantly harasser while I prepared my new supply of Beef Jerky and Blubber Nuggets. They were chewy, but damn if they didn't put meat on the bones.
DAY 1: Luck be a Mink Tonight!
I spent the whole day practicing what I hoped were Mink calls, but only succeeded in alerting my position to a wandering pride of Ice Jaguars. I had to run like hell until I reached a narrow enough cavern to funnel them in one at a time into a nice, orderly fire. Dinner that night was Jaguar Kababs with alternating Hot and Cold Mushrooms served on a tooth spit. It was alright, but needed more spice than I had at the moment to be made amazing.
DAY 2: Deadily Delicious
Mixed news everybody reading my journal! I finally found the Snow-Drop Marshmallow! A full patch spanning nearly 20 feet across, which I hope meant that a full pack or family unit had passed through here, but at a minimum meant I had some premium fluff on my hands! That thought...soured quickly, as I found the body of a fallen Hunter, a Stephan Q. Cumber going by his I.D that I found in his suit. He was remarkably preserved, most likely because of the massive amounts of snow around us, and it seemed like he suffocated, having tried to chew his way free before the snow...overwhelmed him. It was always a sad day to see one of the fallen, but I gave him my prayers, before folding his arms over his chest and cleaning him up a bit, and firing my emergency flare.
I waiting with him for three hours before a support team found me, where I reported what I found before they nodded and assessed him to make sure there was no foul play. Luckily, they quickly found the signs that this not a fresh kill, having happened around 4 and a half years ago from when his license and travel permits he had on him were issued. They would be sending back the body to his next of kin, alongside a letter of condolence and a subsidy of money to pay for the time they spent without confirmation of anything.
After they loaded him away, I stayed there for another hour, before moving forward. This was why I wanted to recreate these kinds of ingredients. If Stephan didn't have to explore into a frozen wasteland in the search for new flavors, maybe he would still be alive. Or maybe he wouldn't, and he would have just died in some other place at some other time. I didn't know, but if it cut down the number of those who were lost even just a tenth, then it would be worth it.
I kept walking that day, eating sweet snow but tasting so little of it.
DAY 3: Satisfaction In A Single Shot
By the third day, the weather had dropped far enough that I actually had to zip up my hoodie and tighten my hood, which put it solidly around minus 50 to 60. The only things living here were Ice species, and even then that was just to sharpen or prepare their bodies, and not to actually live. I was feeling a good bit better since yesterday, because life didn't stop just because I saw an example of it happen, especially for someone I'd never even known. It was a harsh reminder, but so was any other cold splash. It woke you up, and got you going.
The Sugar Minks refused to be tracked with my semi-professional skills around 100 or so feet after the Mallow Bank, so I would have to try other methods during the rest of my time here. That was for later though, right now, my eyes were on the granddaddy of cold, the Worlds Largest Icicle, and my second destination. The Eternal Glacier.
The cold, the majesty that towered over everything and filled the air with a chill that froze even the air till you could nearly chew it.
God, it made my throat dry and mouth water.
Without a second thought, I jumped down the ledge into the crater the Eternal Glacier rested in. Some theorized that the Glacier was actually a meteoric of pure ice that hit the ocean and flash-froze on impact, giving the ice hell its iconic walled shape, but I didn't care. I didn't care as frost started hugging my fingertips, how my skin paled and reddened in a maddening flow, how my breath refused to even show itself in the cold, because those same bits of frost on my fingers provided the perfect claws to shred across the ice.
I took a single moment to reach into my pack, to retrieve a nice serving bowl, before I went to town. My hands skittered across the surface, trying and failing to sink in any deeper to the impossibly dense ice, but I kept at it. Again and again, until finally. I wrote 'Aidan Was Here', and had a cup full of shaved ice. i collapsed on my ass, hands aching and fingers mildly bleeding, the cold air like knives in my tired lungs, but I could worry about that later. Instead, I carefully reached into my pack again, and took out the special ingredient I kept in its own private container, climate controlled to prevent it from freezing solid before I got here.
A Supear fruit, fresh from the harvest, specifically for this moment. It cost me a full months savings, but this would be worth it. I knew it. I felt it. I could taste it.
With gentleness betraying the throbbing in my fingers matched by my heartbeat, I held the Supear above my bowl of ice, and squeezed. Within moments, a golden juice was sliding down my fingers into the bowl below, the simple touch of the liquid to the ice shavings thickening it into a syrup that spiraled down the sides like a wonderful landslide. It slid between cracks and refracted light that sent rainbows refracting around. It was mesmerizing, and I barely even noticed when my fingers met the inside of my palm, making me snap out of the daze I was in and wipe away the droolsicles that had formed on my chin, as I stored away the wrung dry Supear for fruit leather later. Now, though, it was time to eat.
I didn't bother with a spoon. I simply raised the dish to my face, and bit off the top.
My eyes snapped open as my mind was hammered with cold. Brainfreeze struck my mind like a hammer, but I couldn't stop. The ice was falling into my mouth like an avalanche, the pain was making me see white, but...the sweetness. The fruit was my lifeline, and the slush traveling down my throat in great gulps was a path forward. The pain gave way to understanding, as I became one with the cold. For one, absolute moment, I was as cold as ice.
Then I was looking down at a sparkling clean dish, any trace of juice completely absorbed by the ice it previously houses, as I panted and gasped for breath to get the blood that had frozen in motion again. I felt it. The flavor coating my tongue, the completeness in my gut, the understanding that I would never eat anything colder and survive as I was.
My grin split my face, even as I shook with aftermeal chills. I had found an addition to my Full Course Menu.
Now I just had to see if I could help find someone else's
END OF CHAPTER
FULL COURSE MENU!
Hors d'Oeuvre: Szechuan-Style Pheonix Bites with BB Corn Tortilla Chips
Soup Dish: TBD
Fish DIsh: TBD
Meat Dish: TBD
Main Course: TBD
Salad: - Eternal Glacier Shaved Ice With Supear Syrup
Dessert: Set-Me-Free Razzerberry Cheesecake
Drink: Grand Soda Melon Malt
END OF MENU
I seriously want to get across to everyone the sheer amount of fun I'm having with this story, because I haven't felt like this in...I think it's been years. I feel proud, fulfilled, and honestly amazed at the sheer amount of enthusiasm I'm getting back from this. Yes, it's not a ton of people, but the ones who are giving back are doing 110% and I fucking love it. I literally cracked open the wikipedia page on cooking techniques and just went to town thinking on how to make them into fighting styles or techniques. I love my life.
On an unrelated note, I also found out that an explosive durian is already canon for Toriko, it's called a Dodurian Bomb, who knew? Thanks Toriko wiki. I also totally lied about adding a recipe to the story this chapter, so I decided to do it here at the end. The following is a recipe for some of the best damn Hot Chocolate you'll ever have, for anytime you're feeling cold.
First off, you're recipe list is going to consist of 1 dollar-store knockoff chocolate, two percent milk, or, if your feeling fancy and have some lying around, condensed milk. Utility wise you'll need a small pot, or a microwave safe bowl and a funnel if you don't have a steady hand.
For your best results, use a soft candy bar, which means one without wafers in them, such as Mars bars, Tolberones, so on and so forth. Now on with the actual making of our wonderful drink.
We start off with our chocolate bars, which we'll be cutting into small sections to help melt it all faster. You'll want about 10 to 16 slices of chocolate from a single bar, which you'll then put in your pot or bowl alongside your milk. For a single cup, use around a cup and a half of milk, as we'll be cooking it down. For a new 'pitcher', you'll want to use around three to four cups, with every other 3 to 4 cups past that original adding in another half of a chocolate bar so you don't make it too thin or thick. Alternatively, finely chop and flatten the chocolate until you make it into small, broken chunks to ensure maximum ease with cooking. If you're using condensed milk, you'll only want to add about a third to half of the can, alongside 2 and a half cups of milk to thin it out.
From here, we have two options. For those using a pot, we'll be putting our mix onto a medium-high burner, about a 6 to 8 depending on how hot your stove runs. During this time you'll want to gently stir the mix while the chocolate cooks in. At this stage you'll be looking for the milk to change to a light brown color, while avoiding bringing it to a boil. If this happens at any point simply turn it to a low simmer and continue to stir it to ensure nothing burns. You can also add additional ingredients during this time, such as a tea spoon of cinnamon, a bit of butter, or a dollop of coffee. Once it's a nice, golden color and you no longer feel the chocolate with your stirring utensil, simply pour into your mug of choice, and enjoy.
For those using the microwave, simply put your mixture in for about 3 to 5 minutes, checking it every minute or so to stir it in and ensure nothing is left behind. This method is a bit more hit and miss depending on the strength of the microwave, but still produces a wonderful drink to enjoy. You can also add the same additions previously listed with minimal differences.
All this together creates what I like to call True Hot Chocolate, because it is, literally, hot chocolate. Doesn't stop it from being delish though. Next time, I go hunting for Minks, FOR REAL. And maybe something to do with ramen, I have some tips and tricks to share with that I'm sure a lot of you could use. Enjoy!