The woman was in Gourmet Town once again. The place looked nothing like how she remembered it last. She was headed for Setsuno's place as she looked around. "Makes me sad that I didn't appreciate this place growing up. All the food that used to be here was taken for granted so much. I'll make it my goal to see the Gourmet Town I once knew again." She walked up to Setsuno's diner and knocked lightly on the door. To her surprise it was not the old woman to answer, but her disciple.
She bowed politely, "Hello, is Granny Setsu in by chance?" The girl shook her head, "No, I'm sorry. She's off to the Gourmet World and she didn't say when she was coming back." The woman sighed, "I see~ I'll come back again sometime. Hey, don't forget it's our job as chef's to get Human World to a better state yes? I'll see you around." "Wait!" The girl called out. "You're going back to the Gourmet World?" The blond nodded, "Yes, with Toriko and everyone." She looked back in the diner, "Would you like to have a meal? You came all this way~ It'll be made with the Billion Bird." She agreed, "Of course. What an honor that you'd cook for me. Thank you Nono."
As they two walked in, Éclair pointed immediately, "You! Why are you following me everywhere!? It's always on my time off too! Come on, don't you have a husband to tend to!?" Vanilla smiled, "It was all hugs and kisses before, what happened now nee-chan?" She squeezed her baby sister, "I'm only kidding Nilly. You know I love you!" Her eyes glanced to the cane by her side again and Vanilla sighed, "Stop Éclair. I already know you're blaming yourself for this and it's not your fault. There's no way you could prevent this. Let's eat the Billion Bird okay?"
Nono served the two their dishes and smiled, "Here you are." The girl's put their hands together, "I give thanks." The woman put the food to her lips, "I'm leaving for Gourmet World again Vanilla. ~I don't know when I'll be back." The girl nodded, "I know nee-chan." She put a hand on her big sister's shoulder, "I will do what I can to feed Human World while you're gone." The green haired girl took off her wedding band and put it on her sister's finger. Éclair frowned, "What is this?" "Assurance Clair. I don't know when you'll be back, but so long as you have my ring I know it'll guide you to the right place." The two embraced, "I promise you Vanilla~ no matter what happens in the Gourmet World I'll bring this back to you~"
The group stood back at the first biotope and they were ready to set off. Toriko started, "For every ingredient of the old man's full course, there was always something protecting them." The woman frowned, "Hmm, but there wasn't anything protecting the Billion Bird egg, right? Am I not reading in between the lines? I didn't see anything." They entered the new space again and Toriko pointed, "There was something. In there." Zebra sighed, "What a pain. Let's just get this over with." The man used his voice cutter on the tree and nothing happened. He frowned, "What the hell? There ain't a scratch on it." Coco nodded, "That's because it is a Gourmet World tree. You don't have to do all of that to find the door." The man led the group up the tree and to a door. He opened the door and walked in, "Pardon the intrusion~" The woman rushed in and grinned, "Cool! This place is like leaf city. There are leaves everywhere! Even the fridge is a friggin' tree!"
She found an entrance leading downward and waved everyone over. "Hey! There's an entrance down here!" She pranced down, "Leaf stairs, leaf bed, leaf shelf, leaf chair!" She stopped abruptly, "Oh~ no one's down here." Toriko looked around, "There's no way down, but know this is where he is. Guess I'll have to get a little rough." The man punched into the floor and nothing happened. It was just as clean as when they walked in. Zebra scoffed, "Watch out~" The girl's eyes amplified as he was getting ready to attack the floor in the confined space. The woman ran back up the stairs as he fired off his Sound Bazooka.
They stood back outside again and looked at the impenetrable house. Sunny rubbed his chin, "It's probably another one of the old man's tricks. I will search every nook and cranny of this place. As the man opened his dining kitchen, Éclair decided to do a little bit of looking herself. She pointed, "Hey, there's a well over here. She peeked her head over and fell down into the small space. She caught herself as her hand gripped onto the wall ladder. "Éclair!" The kings rushed over to find her climbing down, "I'm okay, but there's a passage through here." Inside was a steaming hot bath. The woman clapped her hands, "There's a bath in here! Let's get in!" Toriko smiled, "Yeah!" Coco shook his head, "This isn't what we came here for. Let's rethink this."
They were back outside again standing around the pond. Coco removed his jacket, "This pond is suspicious. I'm going to check it out." Éclair cheered on the man, "Woo! Go lady killer! Find the secrets of that pond!" It wasn't very long that they heard his voice again, "What?" They walked back over to the well confusingly. The blond girl pulled her hair, "Wait, so the well connects to the pond and the hot spring? What the hell is this place!?" "I found that earlier with my echolocation." Éclair pointed, "The first floor window is right there. It opens normally too." She moved it back and forth, "See." She quickly moved her hand as Zebra kicked open the window. "Dumbass window making fools out of us!"
As they climbed in, they saw something sitting in a chair before them. Toriko gasped, "A GT Robot?" He narrowed his eyes, "No. It's alive. It's a Nitro undergoing cryptobiosis." As soon as his words finished, the creature rose from its seat and swatted Toriko on the head, "I'm awake! ~And I am so angry with you guys! First you take too long to get here, then you kick in the window and make my head bleed! I have so many things I need to tell you, so sit down! Actually, don't sit down! I'm gonna deck the lot of ya first!" Éclair rose her hands defensively, "Wait! Who are you?" He looked at the woman, "You don't know who I am? Seriously? ~I told that idiot Ichi-boy to tell ya!" He looked at them seriously, "I'm the Taste Hermit Chichi. I'm also Ichi's combo partner." Blank faces were all that was left in the room. "I didn~" "That part about me being Ichi's partner was a lie." Éclair sighed in an irritable manner, "This guy's a nut."
"Let me explain how I know Ichi-boy. Well I had been in cryptobiosis for some thousands of years. Ichi-boy was the one who woke me up. I think it was about 500 years ago. That brings us to the present." The woman screamed, "What!? You're a bad story teller Chichi! You didn't tell us anything!" He rubbed his chin, "I think it was actually 490 years ago. No that's not right. Was it 480?" Coco exhaled, "We know that part." "I'm guessing you guys caught onto the fact that I was here last time you came? I was pretending to be in cyptobiosis and I wanted to surprise you but you left. ~Anyway, I'm glad ya made it in time." He planted 5 seeds and watered them in their pots. Quickly the seats grew into leaf chairs. "Have a seat."
They took a seat and Éclair shrugged, "Listen, we weren't trying to ignore you or anything. We just had a crisis on our hands." Toriko rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, and you seemed like you would be trouble so~" "That's what I'm saying! You didn't even bring me a single box of cakes!" The woman put a hand over her face, "Sorry we didn't bring you anything. Is that what you wanted to hear? I'm sorry."
He grinned deviously at the woman, "I smell a female. You guys met with a female before you came here huh?" The kings pointed as they spoke in unison, "Éclair's a female." She rolled her eyes, "Wait a second, you thought I was a boy this whole time?" He looked the woman up and down, "You don't look like a female. Your hair is pretty short and you look like a young boy. What are you trying to pull?" She growled, "What!? I'm not a boy Chichi! I have boobs for heaven's sake, and they're not that small!" She yelled out, "Look at them!" The man paused for a moment, "~You're not fooling anyone. ~Now back to what I was saying. You've been the closest to a female, and I'll only continue if you let me wear that outfit in your bag." Éclair shook her head, "My uniform? Sure. I'm not sure how you knew it was there, but okay." She handed the man her clothes irritatingly and he continued.
"I've heard all about you guys from Ichi-boy. You're going to be heading to Gourmet World after this yes? And Ichi-boy has asked me to deliver an ingredient to you five." As his words ended, the floor began to cave in and sink to the base level. Éclair clung to her seat as it came to a stop. Chichi looked at the group, "Welcome to my kitchen. ~Allow me to show you the ingredient I am supposed to provide." He pointed at a plain apple on the counter. It was just a generic red apple, yet the Kings were like blood thirsty heathens over it. Their gourmet cells took its form outside of their bodies upon the sight of the apple. The woman's eyes were amazed by this reaction. Amazed, and frightened. Chichi snickered, "So those appetite devils came right out did they? ~Quiet down you monsters!" He swiped his hand at the formed intimidation's and brought the kings back down to a level head. The taste hermit laughed at the men, "That's so cute! You can't control it at all can you ya hatchlings. It came out so instinctively."
The blond looked over at the hysterical man, "Right ha~ha~ that was soooo hilarious. Um, you wanna tell me what I just witnessed!? What the hell is that ingredient!?" The man glared seriously, "Just one look made you lose all control. It's one of the items on Acacia's full course menu." Silence filled the room. Who knew they were in the presence of such greatness? The woman put a hand over her mouth, "Are you~" "Nope, that was a lie, sorry." Just as the woman was going to literally strangle the life out of the man, Toriko made his way to him first. "You bastard! Why would you ever joke about that!? There are just some things you shouldn't even kid about!" Before the bluenette could react further, the hermit spoke, "Well it does have the scent on it. That there is just an ordinary apple, but a small scent of one of the items on Acacia's full course menu is stained on it. The allure of the real thing is nothing like it. ~And the place you guys are going next is a world with a ton of ingredients like it."
Toriko continued to look at the apple, "I spent a year and a half in Gourmet World, and I never felt a shock like that. So this is Acacia's full course huh? It's in a whole different level from other ingredients." Chichi held up the apple, "Then how about we have this apple for dinner before you head out. Let's eat it together." The woman nodded, "Yes, let's eat it! Chichi, roll up your sleeves because we're cooking together! If it's our last meal we should go all out." The man folded his arms, "No. All Ichi-boy asked me to do was eat this apple." Coco looked at the taste hermit, "But there is still a lot we'd like to ask you." "All of the answers are in Gourmet World." Éclair shook her fist at the man, "Are you kidding me? I gave you my clothes! ~which by the way is a skirt that is commonly worn by WOMEN, something I AM!~ I'll find more clothes with the scent of girls." "Really? Sultry girls?" She nodded, "Sure! My sister and Nono can give me some of their things. Toriko, I'm sure you can get some of Rin's clothes, and the lady killer has women throwing their panties at him all the time. Yes, we can get you some clothes with the scent of sultry girls on it." The man exhaled forcefully, "It's so good to be alive! Alright, let's rustle up some grub for our last supper!" Both Éclair and Chichi got in the kitchen and did what it is they are great at. That meal was definitely one for the ages. Laughing and eating around a table were the moments she lived for~ It was moments like that which would keep her going when she reached the Gourmet World again.
Chichi looked at the ambitious lot. "Remember that when you're out there you've gotta work together. The night that the Gourmet World is about to enter is that sorta place that is even vicious to the daytime beasts. If you've resolved yourselves to it, then get goin! First you depart. It all starts there!" The group nodded, "Alright then, we're off to the Gourmet World!"