Not everyone marked their passage into adulthood with a spa binge, but not everyone was the beauty of the Four Kings.
Right after his first major check from a non-IGO client, Sunny booked passage alone to Life and blew every cent that he could on spa treatments, luscious meals and grooming. When the month was over, Sunny was squeaky clean, radiantly healthy and nearly broke.
The luster receeded from vacationing in Life: both the benefits from his visit and from Life's wonder. Today was much like the new "normal" in Life. Delicious but not sublime. One's first time was always a landmark experience.
Sunny exhaled as he delicately gathered his freshly-laundered hair into a ponytail. The little dressing room was exquisitely charming, with a huge mirror and matching pink brushes and combs. The spa catered to wealthy women, but Sunny went there from time to time for the exceptional hot springs.
On the staircase up to the Revival Lab, the breeze was mild and warm. Sunny was feeling marvelous until he heard peals of Yosaku's laughter rising from the lab. For some reason that made him tense.
"Hey, Sunny," Toriko said between mouthfuls. Not glancing up at him, of course, why would a person command more attention than whatever slop Toriko was eating? And it did look like grey slop, being that the table was nearly empty except for the compressed remains of whatever had been on the bottom of the pile.
"Gross!" Sunny said.
"I'm slowing down," Toriko managed. "It's stabilizing!"
It was a relief, Sunny realized. Maybe now was a good time to get to his true aim...
"So Reviver Man," Sunny said. "I have a few questions to ask you."
"You're looking for Earth," Yosaku grinned through a puff of smoke.
"Yes... What can you tell me about it?"
"What do you want to know?"
"I wanna know what it tastes like," Toriko interrupted. "It's supposed to be a dessert, right?"
"I wasn't talking to you!" Sunny shouted.
"So, what do you want to know?" Yosaku repeated.
"I'm not asking you anything here, where the glutton can hear. Besides, you've already got a dessert in your Full-Course Meal, Toriko! Don't go stealing mine!"
"I don't want to steal- AGH! So hungry!"
In the blink of an eye, Toriko started shriveling, the hard-earned muscle withering into sinew.
"Toriko! What happened?!" Sunny gasped.
Yosaku was suddenly on his feet. "It was Earth! Just imagining something delicious caused his Gourmet Cells to go into hyperdrive!"
"What...?!" Sunny shouted.
"Sunny, get more food, now!" Yosaku commanded.
"Why me? Why not Teppei!"
"Teppei's already getting food! But he's going to need a lot more!"
"Dammit!" Sunny cursed, but made a beeline for the woods.
The path to the Slug Dragon was easy enough to retrace, a broken twig here, and padded piece of grass there. He was going to have to touch the thing, but at least he had a plan not to butcher it.
He rapped on the cave, and the monsterous thing schlorped out. Ugh, vomit! Despite its immense grossness, he grabbed the Slug Dragon with his sensors and raised it high up into the air.
Right on cue, a giant Beef Falcon dove for it. Nabbing the beautiful brown-and-red feathered bird with his Hair Net was a cinch. He plopped the Slug Dragon next to its cave, into which it quickly slunk.
Sunny sliced the bird's throat. A Beef Falcon was a real delight, with each feather tasting like a different well-doness of steak. The long brown feathers tasted like a well-done steak, and the red underfeathers were juicy rare steak.
"How did you catch a Beef Falcon?"
Sunny whirled around to find Teppei with a large sack flung over his shoulder. He looked uncharacteristically serious, his tone dangerously flat. "Those are endangered."
"Look the other way this once, Tep. Toriko's gotten worse, and you can't expect me to cut up an icky Slug Dragon."
Teppei set down the sack and walked over to the bird. He bent down, surveying the damage of Sunny's slice. "But you used one as bait."
"Yeah. I saw Beef Falcons in the air the last time, and realized they must be attracted to the high salt content of the Slug Dragons."
Teppei bit his lip. "I could arrest you."
Sunny felt betrayed in a way he couldn't express.
"But this bird," Teppei said, planting a seed from his pocket, "can still be revived."
Logically, Sunny knew that Teppei was the one who healed all of Toriko's friends' wounds in Ice Hell, but he hadn't seen those skills in action. As he watched now, it seemed to involved planting and harvesting fast-growing plants that twined around the bird, and some concoctions from Teppei's earrings.
Sunny jumped as the bird weakly cawed.
"You...brought it back to life?"
"It's not something we Revivers can often do. Not unless we catch a poacher in the act." Teppei's look was crystal clear.
"All right, all right, I'll go catch a damn slug."
"Fine." And with that, the two men dashed in separate directions.
A/N: When Sunny's first introduced, it's mentioned that he doesn't care a whole lot about the IGO/Gourmet Corp. rivalry. (Although he clearly does stuff for the IGO.) I always wondered if he had some sort of teenage rebellion...and knowing Sunny, that would take the form of I'M GOING TO BE BEAUTIFUL AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME. :3
Also, I don't think it's been explicitly said that Revivers can bring things back to life that are actually dead, but it is kind of hazy on what "dead" is. I mean, Teppei was probably going to revive all the ingredients in the Gourmet Showcase if he could, and he had to know those were ice cubes.