The anticipation to see her sister was too much for Éclair. The woman lifted her re-energized body and ran to the green haired girl. "Nilly!"
Just as Vanilla widened her arms to give her sister a hug, she stopped just a moment short. The pale girl stared at her sister, "Uh, nee-chan? You're a man. Why?"
The blond girl hugged her sister "I know, and I'm so glad to see you!"
She'd hesitantly pat the back of the shorter genderbent woman, "Toriko's a woman! You're okay with all of this?"
Éclair backed away and her tear riddled eyes looked into those of Vanilla's. "Don't worry, the changes aren't permanent. Pair saved my life Vanilla. ~Actually, the Heavenly Kings did. I don't know if you knew this but~"
"You died. I know. I could feel it. I'm happy you're alive as well as everyone else. Where's the soup now?"
The shorter woman pointed behind her, "It's right in front of you. That's not a waterfall. That's the food treasure Pair." Her voice strengthened for everyone to hear. "Please everyone, share a bowl with us! There's plenty to go around, amongst many other dishes!"
Chef Chiyo walked toward the soup in shock and awe. "This is the soup? Unbelievable!"
Coco and his soaking body looked over at the group. "There are many other incredible ingredients as well. The Sandoriko plant is an ingredient that requires the consumer to put their life on the line just to eat it. It's quite extraordinary, really. That's why I've decided to put it on my full course menu as the Hors d' oeuvere."
An eavesdropping Éclair smiled largely, "That's awesome Coco!"
Before she could finish giving her praise to Coco, she heard a loud scream surface.
"Toriko! I'm so glad you're alive!" Rin yelled as ran toward the man. Éclair eagerly stepped aside and allowed the woman to reunite with the man.
The blond snickered, "Careful Rin, he's got knockers that'll blacken your eyes." The black haired girl was reluctant to hug the man in the current state he was in.
"What happened here? To both of you, no, all of you!?"
Éclair looked at the still visible people of the back channel. "There are many benefits of this soup. Please eat some. A lot of the monkey chef's in this continent pitched in with prepping food."
Yuda took a glance at the monkeys. I heard the monkeys of this continent were very ferocious creatures. I wouldn't have imagined you all partying like this."
The small woman jumped up and down excitedly, "Of course we're partying with them! These are my friends." She'd point at each monkey individually, "This is Ukikiiii. This is Oh Oh Oh. This is Ukiiiiih. This is~"
Toriko interrupted the girl as he ruffled her hair, "We're not gonna stand here as you introduce a billion monkey's Éclair." He turned back to Yuda, "From eating the soup, we can now see food spirits that reside in the Back Channel."
"Amazing!" Chinchin chimed in. "I've heard of this before. Food Spirits dwelling in the place where delicious food resides. They linger near the delicacies that they once loved. Once they encounter a chef, they tell them the true method of cooking the ingredient. If the food is delicious enough, it can open the door to the spirit world."
Éclair turned around and looked at the past society. "Wow, so are they-"
"I found them! Guemon and Mari!" Sunny yelled as he approached the group with two lifeless bodies.
Chin looked at the bodies with a look of turmoil, "What is going on here?"
The bluenette pointed, "Sunny! You found the corpses!"
Éclair ran an irritated hand down her face. "Toriko, they're not corpses. You shouldn't go putting that out into the universe either!"
"Geez, sorry. Well, don't you find it kind of strange that they're in the world of souls?" He'd look over at Guemon, "That could only happen if they're dead, right?"
Guemon's face told them that they were in for an interesting story, "I'll tell you what happened. About a year and a half ago we were searching for Acacia's full course. That's when we ran into the Blue Nitro and faced death. But then Mari used his knocking and we've been in this limbo ever since. To make a long story short, we've been waiting for you to relieve us of this knocking. So hurry up would ya?"
The blond woman looked at the bodies and back at their spirits. Her mind couldn't wrap around the fact that they were both alive and dead at the same time.
Chin fixed his small glasses as her peered at the bodies. "Well, Guemon is not one to roll over and die easily. However, Mari's knocking is world class. We'd need a very powerful Saiseya to take care of this.
"I'll do it." Pukin stepped forward willing and ready to heal the men.
Éclair was so fascinated. Her eyes watched as the Saiseya woman broke out all of her remedies and techniques. "You know, I was gonna be a doctor if this cooking thing didn't work out. I have an impressive steady hand."
The eyebrows of Yuda rose, "Really? Both professions require a lot of work without even a millimeter of disarray."
Her sister shook her head as her eyes rolled back, "She's lying. She was always going to be a chef. For 5 years in a row she dressed up as Chef Tsurara Mama for Halloween."
"Ew! You're embarrassing me in front of the world Vanilla!" The shorter woman pressed her lips together as if to be annoyed. "I totally thought about being a doctor~ once~ Okay don't press me on this! I became a chef in the end anyway. And I was only Tsurara Mama 4 times!"
"We're alive again! Thank you so much Pukin!" Guemon yelled as the two woke up from their once dormant bodies.
"Wha- what!? Already!? Vanilla! You made me miss it!" Éclair yelled as her face turned beet red.
The pale quadruple armed woman bowed, "It was because of your fine knocking and Pair that I was able to bring you both back to life Mari."
Éclair's blue eyes marveled in the presence of Pair. "It's because of Pair that my heart is back. I think it had something to do with the Spirit World or something like that."
"No." The old woman Chiyo shook her head. "That is not why. Guemon and Mari had knocking done to them, but your heart was smashed. It was gone, completely. For Pair to return its spirit, it would need to be replaced."
The blue haired Bishokuya turned to his partner, "Well it was, wasn't it Éclair? Her heart came from the other side."
Pukin adjusted her glasses as she took a good look at Éclair's scar. "I think I understand what happened. At the same time your heart was crushed, it was regenerated."
Toriko's eyes amplified from the given information, "What? So Teppei regenerated her heart?"
Chin gave a light chuckle, "Your Gourmet Cells have awakened Éclair."
The woman didn't even give Chin's words much thought, she was certain that this couldn't be right. "No way! I don't have those fancy Gourmet Cells. If I did, then where are my big bulging muscles? Hmm? HMMM?"
The short man continued, "You might want to take this seriously. You don't have to have large muscles when hosting Gourmet Cells. You've been feeding the Gourmet Devil that lives inside of you with all of the ingredients you eat. Either that or they were introduced into your body. No matter which way you look at it, there's something inside of you for sure."
Everyone stood back in awe including the chef herself. "What does this all mean?"
"When the Gourmet Devil first awakens, it takes a huge toll on the host's body." Pukin looked the young woman in her eyes, "Teppei saved your life. He knew that your original heart could not handle the stress and burden, so he regenerated a new one that could. He knew you would run into Pair along the way. He had faith in your abilities."
Little tear droplets formed in the blond woman's eyes, "So, Teppei was looking out for me after all?"
"I don't buy it." Toriko shrugged. "I know one thing for certain, and that's that Éclair got attacked. I can't just believe that he would allow that to happen."
"Well~ I don't care about your negative feelings right now Toriko! My sister's here! My brother-in-law is here! Zombie's here! All of our friends are here! And best of all, Pair is here!"
The blond woman looked back at the soup, "Pair. It saved my life. This soup gave me strength that I didn't even believe existed within myself, or within the Four Heavenly Kings. Without them, and without Pair, I'd be dwelling alone in the Spirit World right now. I couldn't imagine sharing a bowl of the greatest soup in the world with anyone other than you all. Let's all grab a bowl and toast to Pair, because to this soup I owe my life, and my humble thanks."
The area went quiet for Éclair's speech. Then, she could feel the ground moving. It was like an earthquake. The monkey's and the people of human world gave the woman a rowdy applause. Her smile was more than gracious toward the people.
Everyone gathered near Pair and got themselves a bowl. Just as Zongeh took a sip of the soup, the monkeys surrounded him and carried him away.
"Huh? What's this?" He babbled, "Hmm, these monkeys have a combined capture level of 10,000 right? So that must make me king of the monkeys! My capture level is about 10 trillion, I'd say!"
As he was boasting in all of his glory, everyone turned to take a look at his voluptuous female form. Unappealing to say the least, but to the monkey king~
A path cleared as Bambina walked through. His eyes caught that of female Zongeh's and he knew he had a partner he could dance with for the rest of his life. Snatching up the now female, the two waltzed away like no one's business.
Toriko smiled, "He looks so happy now that he found his lover. ~Even if it's not the right one."
Éclair, now back in her female form shrugged, "Hey, don't question fate. I never thought I would cook for you, yet here I am staring death in the eyes and laughing. Who knows if I was even the right person? Let's just be happy for what is~ and toast! To the bride and groom!"