UA University – Parking Lot -

Katsuki wore a thoughtful expression while he waited for the rest of the class to board their bus for whatever little expedition their teachers saw fit to tell them nothing about, and even if it was for safety's sake, the young man found the entire thing stupid, to say the least.

"Bunch of paranoid bastards…" he muttered.

As of lately, though, his thoughts shifted a bit towards an old acquaintance of his, once dreaming of becoming a Hero, and now working as a Chef in a small restaurant.

"You would have found all this exciting, wouldn't you? Blabbering on and on about everything, always so furiously mumbling about bullshit you find interesting...I wish you were here." Sitting alone in that bus, Katsuki muttered that admission with a long sigh.

He fucked up, that much he could admit at least in the secrecy of his thoughts, he finally saw him after more than one year and Izuku had treated him... Coldly . He didn't like that. And the more he thought about the Chef, the more he found things were strange: the light in his eyes, the posture, the mannerism...He was serving Pro Heroes and was not fangirling about them! What happened to him?!

"Something's up with him." he muttered, and he almost didn't notice the bus departing as soon as the last student boarded it. He needed to have that restraining order revoked, there was something wrong with the Nerd and Katsuki needed more freedom of movement to uncover the truth!

He needed to look deeper into that Restaurant, Izuku was supposed to be a bubbly, annoying and ever-excited Nerd, not that block of wood he had met!

At the same time - Jungle World – Forest patch -

"TRUFFLES! GIANT WHITE TRUFFLES AS FAR AS EYES CAN SEE!" an extremely excited squeal reverberated through the entire forest as a young Chef kept digging-up giant white truffles as big as watermelons by the dozens, and all of them of astounding quality.

Contrary to Katsuki's fears, Izuku was STILL the ever-excited, bubbly Nerd he remembered, only now his interest had moved from Heroes to Cooking thanks to his do-over as a Chef , and now that he was in another world and surrounded by Ingredients he had never seen before in both his Lives , he was mumbling nonstop about every Dish he could possibly make once back home.

One of the aspects that assured Izuku he was in another world was that the trees forming the forest were absolutely IMMENSE in size, and it was not just a hyperbole, every single one of them could easily be hollowed-out and turned into apartment complexes. The bright blue leaves most of them supported also helped.

BANG!

Of course, just like in the Gourmet World of Zaus, every excellent Ingredient was never really alone , but surrounded by other animals mounting guard to it or using it as bait for their own prey, like the giant flock of four-eyed Boars each the size of a truck that had made their home in the same area where those truffles grew.

Luckily Whitey was more than eager to smash its big metal fists on the things' heads to knock them out so to leave Izuku free to collect truffles at his leisure in total safety.

"A male and a female are kept alive, while everyone else will be properly prepared and stored. Remember." Izuku asked the robot.

"Understood." Whitey answered, leaving two adult exemplars alive while giving the finishing blow to the other adults, the young ones instead were permitted to escape.

"With this, I have collected enough Ingredients to cover the 1-Star and 2-Star level, plus extras to have some reserves that will last me until the breeding program back home is stable." the young Chef said, sighing, while moving to clean the dead boars: removing the skin, separating the meat in its various cuts and so on.

The System's mission was fairly straightforward: Collect Ingredients in great quantities, animals and plants, on a list separated in ' Levels' from 1 to 5, each level representing how difficult it was supposed to be for Izuku to capture/collect them.

And if they were animals, whenever possible he was also supposed to capture a male and female alive that will be put in the breeding area of his Restaurant ' Storage Room' he will be free to visit whenever he wants once returned from this particular trip into the jungle.

20 different 1-Star Ingredients

20 different 2-Stars Ingredients

10 different 3-Stars Ingredients

10 different 4-Stars Ingredients

5 different 5-Stars Ingredients

Luckily plants and animals were not counted separately, Izuku feared how long it would have taken him otherwise, but with how hyped he felt, he was not exactly as worried as he felt he was supposed to be.

" OOK! OOK! OOK! " all of a sudden a loud storm of angry howls echoed all around Izuku, and the source was a crowd of furious monkey-like beings with bright yellow fur and goat horns on their heads appearing from their hiding spot on the trees' foliage, they all glared downwards at the Chef with their purple eyes narrowed into slits while showing their drooling maws in a threatening manner, each fang of theirs was dagger-long and very sharp.

"That should be…" Izuku, unfazed, muttered while perusing the small booklet the System gave him and detailing the Ingredients he could ideally find in that world, all neatly separated by level and ' Deliciousness' .

"Ah-HA! Ram-Monkeys ! A 3-Stars Ingredient with tough but delicious meat. That means they will be a good Ingredient for stewing, steaming and much more! And the higher Level is all just because they always attack in big packs!" Izuku said, amazed, while opening a small box he took from a pocket to recover a thin and long needle.

CRACK! CRACK!

Knocking! The favourite hunting method of the people from Zaus world! Good for capturing Ingredients non-lethally by striking the nerves or pressure points that controlled the movement of living creatures with the use of specialized techniques or the use of biodegradable needles fired from various implements, known as Knocking Guns.

W ith that any beast could be transported alive at the hunter's leisure, however, the location of these nerves was different in every species, so a great amount of knowledge and experience was required to use Knocking techniques or Knocking Guns effectively.

As a possessor already of a ' Knocking Patent' , Izuku had more than an inkling about how to use it on himself or other beings for an insane variety of Offensive, Defensive, Support and Healing effects: like he just did by stimulating the pressure points of both his own arms, and especially his fists, to make them grow exponentially in size until both arms turned giant and full of enormous bulging muscles.

"Let's capture them all!" he yelled in glee.

"Understood." Whitey answered, eyes flashing red.

The monkeys' eyes too turned blood-shot red out of rage, angry at the small fur-less thing not finding them scary at all.

Yes, they were small compared to the boars, but they were many! And their heads were harder than rock while their claws and fangs were super sharp! Was it SO HARD to get some fear from their prey? They were monkeys with Ambitions! Not some food!

" OOOK! " With a very battle-cry-like roar, the Pack Leader initiated the assault himself, by showing that their ornate twisty horns weren't there just for show as the male used its strong legs to shoot forward like a bullet to headbutt the new Prey to death.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Each of the dozens of monkeys around the Leader as well jumped forward at high speed, soon covering the area in deep craters as the big Monkey-Bullets rained from the sky from every direction one after another.

"Feisty! I like it!" Izuku declared happily, having dodged the first salvo with a forward burst of speed that brought him right in the middle of the monkey group.

" Bodhi Pestle! " giving him the needed opening to nail the Second in Command of the Pack with a bone-shattering right-hook that cracked heavily the monkey's skull and sent it flying.

( Bodhi – From Buddhist Terminology: Enlightenment. So: Pestle of Enlightenment (Punch) )

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK! " The outrageous act apparently launched the Pack Leader, and every other monkey, in a blood-thirsty frenzy that resulted in all of them attacking both Chef and Robot at the same time . All forty-five of them.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-" Izuku couldn't help but shriek as the horde rained on him.

One hour later – USJ Building – Earthquake Emergency Area – With Katsuki -

" Change of plans, I am happy the Nerd is not here! " the young man mentally hissed as he fought against a guy with patched leathery skin tossing blue fire at him.

"Come on, Hero! I want to see how good you are!" The Villain mocked him relentlessly from his hiding spot.

The so-called School Trip had gone to shit as soon as they just entered the damn place! The boss of the Building, Pro Hero Thirteen , was just giving her opening speech when a Portal opened and several Villains walked out, all swaggering and stuff.

" We are the League of Villains ." one of them, a guy with a body apparently made of blackish smoke, had declared once finished HIS speech about the entire class of AU plus teachers being perfect as a first act for their birth; and while Aizawa and Thirteen had been left behind to fight the Monster the Villains brought along, every other student had been neatly divided in groups and teleported by that Kurogiri into different sections of the Building where various other Villains guided by one of the guys that arrived with the Portal were already waiting for them.

He and a couple others were facing the Villain they called Dabi , and the young man's fire was strong enough to repel Katsuki's explosions long enough for him to dodge them, this in turn left enough of an opening to the other Villains to try blind-siding him right after.

"Run a bit more! I can see you can do better than this, kids!" Dabi would also mock them relentlessly from the sidelines at every given opportunity, another thing that angered the students facing him quite a lot.

With Momo – Fire Disaster Area -

"Can you see her?" Momo asked with a faint voice.

"Not at all," Ochako answered.

The two girls, along with Jiro and Hanta Sero, were at the moment trapped in the Fire-Themed area and put against a blond girl called Himiko that seemed able to melt into the few shadows in the room to disappear.

"Can you tell where she is hiding?" Hanta asked Jiro.

"Too much fire and other sound effects, I can't hear that psycho. But I can easily tell you where the other bastards are!" the girl answered.

They all were covered in shallow cuts as Himiko took clear pleasure in seeing them bleed, thus wishing to prolong the Fun as much as she could.

"It's still something!" the young man answered.

"How much tape can you still make?" Momo asked.

"Not much, and not enough to trap all of them. This fire is making me dry-up faster than normal, soon I won't be able to use my Quirk anymore." he answered.

"I am running low on body fat too, I will be forced to stick to small creations for now." Momo admitted.

"Then we'll need to first leave and regroup with the others." Ochako suggested, and got nods of approval from her friends.

"Hihihihi! Why leave so soon? We are having so much fun!" Himiko's disembodied voice came from their side as the girl swiftly jumped out of their blind side to slash at them with a wicked-looking combat knife.

"JIRO!" Momo yelled while pushing the girl away and watching the blade open a deep cut on her shoulder as a result.

"MOMO!" the other yelled with wide eyes.

"Hihihi! See? See? It's so fuuuun!" Himiko, giggling deranged again, declared before melting into the shadows once more to disappear.

"Here! This should hold for now!" Hanta said immediately, and added a long stripe of tape created by his Quirk to the clean piece of fabric the girl created with hers to patch her arm enough to stop the bleeding.

"Thank you. We need to hurry and regroup with the others before that girl kills us a piece at a time," Momo answered with a grateful tone and labored breath.

She and everybody else though were unaware that Something was keeping tabs on what was happening, and that close-call between Momo and Himiko raised several serious Red Flags for the Entity watching.

"Crisis detected! Likelihood that the girl's death will hinder the Host's Ascension to God of Cooking: 67% . Preparing countermeasures! "

As soon as the System determined the state of Emergency, the plump dog sleeping in front of the closed Green Cloud Restaurant opened its sleepy eyes and frowned immediately.

"So a weakling is putting this Lord Dog's source of Spicy Beef Noodles at risk? Certain Sins deserve Divine Punishment! Woof!" the dog declared with a magnetic, baritone voice full of merciless annoyance.

With Izuku – Jungle World – Night -

The young Chef was at the moment bent over a stone basin having an improvised cooking showdown with the so-called Chef of a semi-primitive tribe of lizardmen he had met while Ingredient hunting, it was either accepting the Challenge or be eaten alive, not much of a choice on the matter.

The System had told him that due to different Time Flow, the ten or so hours he had spent in that Jungle World roughly translated into a single hour in his original world, thus explaining why the Entity told him to not worry about people noticing his absence, if things went properly, he would actually be able to open his Restaurant in time for the lunch rush-hour... IF those lizardmen actually stopped bothering him.

He only had fourteen hours left in his Time Limit and he still had to collect enough 4-Stars and 5-Stars Ingredients to complete his Mission, even if thanks to this Challenge he was forced to take part to mean he could pilfer a couple 4-stars ones when nobody watched.

" 5-Stars mean either very rare or very dangerous Ingredients. Where do I look for them? " Izuku thought while adding the fillets of fish to the soup he was making once done removing their very tough, purple-colored skin and scales to show the milk-white tender flesh under it. ( ' Coral Fish ', a 4-Stars Ingredient. )

"You want to meet the God of mountains? You must cook good offering then!" the bulkiest, tallest and meanest lizard man of them all, the Leader, explained while studying the big pot the young Chef was working with.

"But if you lose, we eat you." a near guard added while licking his lips with a long purple tongue.

"I know...I know…" the young man answered with an annoyed sigh.

Leaving the soup to simmer under a low flame, the Young Chef focused on the second dish he planned for: a giant steak made with the meat of an enormous crocodile-like creature with a scorpion tail the System, in all its unoriginal cringe, named scorpio-dile ( 4-Stars) , a name that made Izuku's skin crawl every time he thought about it.

" Naming things is hard, Host Izuku." the System said once again.

Deciding the Ingredient was good enough by itself to not require much extra work to make it tasty, he just worked the tender meat hidden under the bullet-proof skin of the thing into a mouth-watering medium-rare steak releasing thin strands of oily juices whenever he moved it on the flat and thin rock he was cooking it on.

"You would need a 50-caliber rifle to puncture the skin, and yet the meat under it is so amazingly soft and tender…" the young Chef muttered impressed.

A couple of living specimens of the various Ingredients he found in the tribe's cages and nearby river had also been ' borrowed' by Izuku before the challenge even started, and he still played dumb whenever the daughter of the Tribe Leader asked him over and over if he saw her two crocodile ' pets' anywhere once she discovered their disappearance.

Rorororororo!

Several stomachs whined in agony as the guards too close to Izuku went continuously bombarded by the thick waves of aroma coming from the young Chef's Soup and Steak.

"This is torture, Chief! We want some!" one of the guards said with a whining tone.

"No! Offering for the God of Mountain can't be eaten by others!" the Leader answered with a barking growl.

" The God of the Mountain. I hope my hunch is right and the King Python I am hunting for my bonus is the same creature! " Izuku thought while turning the steak on the stone and releasing a new dense cloud of aromatic steam that further tortured the guards making sure he wouldn't try to escape until finished the Challenge.

"Stranger can't win! Father made offerings for God of Mountain, Grandfather made offerings for God of Mountain and I made offerings for God of Mountain!" the lizardman ' Chef' Izuku was fighting with declared while still glaring at the young man.

"You did not remove the fish' skin or innards when boiling it, nor removed the surface fat from the crocodile meat, nor cleaned the stomach before roasting the whole thing on the fire, both will taste too bitter." Izuku answered, finally tired of the thing's jabs at his cooking abilities.

"Stomach and innards stay! That's where the taste is!"

"That's where both animals' feces are!" Izuku snapped back.

"Fe-what?"

"Sorry, mom…Their SHIT , you moron! IF you want to use the innards, you clean them first!"

"Cleaning? Why? Who says shit does not taste good?" the Lizardman Chef asked back, annoyed.

"...Pretty much everybody, apparently." Izuku hissed back in answer while pointing at the Tribe Leader and everybody else faces turning even greener than what they already were.

"Chief?"

"I don't know if you use that to cook. Please do not use it any more." the tall Lizardman half-begged while gagging.

"I knew the food tasted strange when he made it! I was right!" one of the guards was heard muttering right after.

"You others know nothing of good food." the Lizardman chef replied, huffing haughtily.

"Neither do you." one of the Elders countered.

"YOUR MOTHER IS A EGG-BREAKER!"

"HOY! YOU WASH TONGUE WHEN TALKING ABOUT MY MOTHER!" the Elder shrieked back.

"ENOUGH!" The Leader of the Tribe gave a loud roar that immediately silenced the argument, before looking at both Chef's dishes.

"Your food is ready?"

"Yes," both said.

"Good. Bring them to God's Voice , she will tell who is the winner."

The ' God's Voice' was an extremely old-looking female Lizardwoman with grey-green scaled skin and only one eye working, the other was dull and devoid of life , she walked while leaning on a tall wooden stick and smelled of burnt herbs.

"This is offering for the God of Mountains?" the old lizard asked with a whisper of voice.

"Yes, Voice of God. Stranger wants to meet the God of Mountain, so he must prepare a better offering than Tribe Chef."

"Then the Voice of God will judge." the old female answered while nearing Izuku.

"..."

"...Your future is Mist to me. How so?" She said once studied him for several minutes.

"I don't know, Voice." the young Chef answered, unsure.

"Great Power helps you, scary Great Power. This is your offering?"

"Yes. Soup made with the fishes of your grand river and steak made with crocodile meat."

(Crocodile Steak)

(Fish Soup)

"Please, let this weak one taste for you, your offering, Great God of Mountain…" the old lizard said before taking a sip of the soup and a tiny bite of the steak.

"…" and the thing's only working eye widened slightly at the taste of both.

As Izuku expected, the fish soup he made with those five different fishes offered a delicate taste, further enriched by the various spices he added to the stock to create a slightly-dense soup bringing forth the full flavour of the fishes and perfectly framing their tender and flavorful meat, but without the unpleasant smell usually accompanying fish meat in general.

The steak was soft and fragrant instead, with a strong meaty aroma that filled the mouth and tickled the nose at each bite while bouncing between the teeth and caressing the palate whenever one chewed.

"The Stranger wins."

"YOU DID NOT TRY MY OFFERING!" the Lizardman chef yelled in outrage.

"You always prepare the same food, day after day after day. Offering is just the same every time too. No need to try it." the old lizard answered, waving him off, before calling the Chief closer to her to whisper in his ears.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Kick moron to big wolves and keep the Stranger. Good food is a blessing." she said.

"You sure?"

"Best food ever eaten. Your daughter is also raping the Stranger with her eyes since he arrived, if we lucky he is also virile enough to give her many eggs other than good at cooking for tribe. I want to be a great-grandmother soon." she answered.

"E-E-E-EGGS?! I am too young to be a grandfather!" the Tribe Leader shrieked in horror.

WHAM!

In answer the old lizard whacked him on the head with her wooden staff.

"I say keep him."

"But...Moooom!" the Chief said with a long whine, and getting a second whack on his head from the old lizard.

"I am old and want great-grandbabies, and she clearly wants to have his eggs too, she still looks at him in need when he doesn't see her. Keep him in here. We need good food and new eggs to grow a strong tribe."

"Okay, mom…" the Chief relented with a defeated tone.

"Uh? What's happening?" Izuku asked, unaware of his innate talent of attracting hot things working even in other worlds.

"You have no need to worry, Stranger. Say, ever thought about starting a family? Big family?" the Old Lizard Woman answered while she, the Chief and his daughter, Izuku and the Tribe chef and the other lizardmen walked into an ordinary procession towards a big gate made of bones residing in the back of the small village right on the edge of a tall cliff.

"A couple of times." Izuku answered, unnerved by the strange question and relaxing only when he saw Whitey walk right behind him to shield him from the strange looks the Chief's daughter kept leveling at him from time to time.

She was 'Pretty' in a certain way, and the fact that she dressed in just a tiny loincloth and stripe-bra showed-off the very generous curves Mother Nature bestowed on her, especially the chest with both mounds of her breast being slightly bigger than her head, and her very tall and well-trained physique too was objectively nice...But she just could not capture Izuku's interest, and for some reason he missed, he kept comparing that Lizardwoman to Momo and found her lacking every time when compared to the young Hero Student.

Finally the long procession reached the bone gate, next to that the river protecting the back of the settlement was noisily throwing itself down the cliff into a giant waterfall saturating the air in a thin mist of water particles and filling the small lake of the valley below.

"Put the offering on stone, the God of Mountain will accept your offering and give you the Answer you seek." the Old Lizardwoman explained while pointing with her wooden staff at a crudely-made altar made of rock.

"Okay." Patting the belly of the robot following him, Izuku carefully put the pot of soup and giant steak on the stone and took a step back.

"God of Mountain! We have an offering of Stranger for you! Help Strangers find Answers with your Wisdom, we beg you!" the old Lizard prayed with a loud voice.

BAROOOOOOOOOOOO!

Right after that, the Tribe Chief unclasped a big horn from his belt and blew through it, releasing a deafening low tune that echoed on the valley under them.

When the last echoes of the horn died-down, the ground under the group started shaking violently and an enormous shape surfaced from behind the waterfall to climb the mountain upward and meet them.

" ...Is that the King Python ?" Izuku mentally asked with eyebrows rising up to his hairline.

" Correct, Host! That is the Special Ingredient you need to collect for your Bonus. This Thousand-years-old specimen will be especially tasty once prepared thanks to the extremely sedentary life it has lived in the resources-rich territory around you. Please capture it either alive or dead, dear Host! " the System answered.

"...Easier to say than done." the Young Chef admitted with a low voice.

The King Python was a monstrous giant snake with lustrous black scales and a stubby red horn on top of its head, it was a towering beast big enough to easily swallow an entire subway train whole with lots of space to spare in its maw and gut.

"God of Mountains is here. Present him your offering and ask your question after he eats the food." the Chief whispered to Izuku before he and the Old Lizardwoman walked away to leave him and Whitey alone with the thing.

" Hisssss!" a giant pink tongue briefly poked out of the thing's mouth as it neared the offered food.

"YOU CAN'T MAKE OFFER! I MAKE OFFER!`` When he saw the giant snake actually accept the food, the Tribe Chef turned near-insane in rage and tried jumping Izuku with its knife held high.

"STOP!" the Tribe Leader yelled in fear as the noise clearly put the giant snake on alert.

"Killing Intent against Host detected! Entering Battle Mode! " Whitey answered, eyes flashing red, by grabbing the crazed Lizardman by the neck and lifting him.

" AGK!" The lizard gasped in pain, but undeterred by the hold on him, he threw the knife at one of the giant snake's eyes.

SPLOTCH!

" HISSSSSSSHAAAAAAA! " with a tiny spurt of blood, the giant snake threw back its head and released a loud high-pitched shriek.

"NO!" the old lizard woman yelled in horror.

"IF YOU LIKE GOD OF MOUNTAIN, THEN GET IN GOD'S BELLY!" the crazed Chef yelled in glee.

While still thrashing around violently, the giant Python slammed against the cliff-side with its whole body, destroying the altar and the terrain under it and causing a small avalanche when an entire side of the cliff crumbled to dust under the animal's immense weight.

"WHOA!" Izuku yelled as the ground gave-in under him and he found himself falling into the void...And right inside the mouth of the angered giant Snake waiting for him with its maw fully open.

CHOMP!

With a thundering sound, the giant Python swallowed the Chef whole and gulped him down together with the falling food and few hundred kilograms of rocks, before sending a glare to the rest of the Tribe and moving to attack them as well.

"Attempt to detect the Host's life! Switching to Extermination Mode! KILL!" Whitey eyes immediately turned from red to purple, while his left hand sunk into his arm to switch place with the wide blade of a squared butcher knife.

"Wha?" That was how far the Tribe Chef could go before the robot cleaved him vertically in half with a single swing of his arm-blade, before boldly jumping on the giant python's face to fight with it.

"YOU FOOL! GREAT POWER PROTECTS STRANGER! NOW RUIN WILL RAIN ON US!" the old Lizardwoman yelled while taking the hands of both Tribe Leader and his daughter to pull them away.

"But-But! But The God of Mountains!"

"Screw the God of Mountains! Our lives are more important! Iron Thing and Great Power protect Stranger and we offend both! Now we run!" the old thing yelled in fear while dragging both away in a surprising feat of strength for something as ancient as her.

BOOM! BOOM! THUMP! CRASH!

As they ran, the three could hear the battle between Whitey and the giant snake demolish the gate and the few foolish guards that tried intervening, unfortunately only the chubby robot seemed able to go toe-to-toe with the creature while everything and everybody else just went pulverized by the python's massive tail and body.

"Host must be protected! KILL!" Whitey would roar from time to time while either smashing his big fist on the Python's head or hacking away pieces of its body with the arm-blade, soon turning the giant snake head into a mess of broken scales and flesh dripping blood in astounding quantity.

BADOO!

A rather violent body-slam the snake attempted to shake-off the robot caused another big chunk of the cliff to turn to dust, a piece big enough even the animal couldn't avoid falling down to the valley below, still with Whitey holding onto its nose with one hand and relentlessly slashing down with his arm-blade.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

The impact with the ground was terrifying, demolishing hundreds of trees and rising a giant cloud of dust as the giant Python landed head-first on the ground below but finally throwing Whitey away, the robot simply rolled on the floor a couple of meters before returning to his feet with not even a scratch on his body.

"HISSS! HISSS! HISSS! " meanwhile the giant Python was strangely moving around in clear agony before setting its eyes on the robot and trying to swallow him whole.

"DESTROY!" Whitey in answer welcomed the assault and once avoided the bite climbed again on the snake nose to plunge the arm-blade elbow-deep INSIDE one of the animal's eyes.

" HISSSSS HAAAAAA !" the Python shrieked horribly as it started slamming its head on the ground over and over, desperate to shake-off the chubby robot.

"KILL!" still unsatisfied, Whitey took a hold of the eye the blade was piercing through with his other hand, and with a mighty pull, he managed to gouge-out the giant eyeball of the snake in an explosion of thick blackish blood.

BOOM !

Finally too tired and wounded to fight anymore, the giant python collapsed on the floor with a weak whimper-like sound and its breathing growing rapidly shallower the more blood it lost from its various wounds.

"Host?" Whitey asked once calmed down , blade returning inside his arm to leave its place to a proper hand and eyes once again colored white.

The insane amount of blood covering the robot had also rapidly evaporated thanks to the System, leaving it perfectly clean.

Forcing the almost-dead snake to lie on its side, the robot finally understood why the snake was thrashing around violently in agony during their fight when he noticed a strange bulge appearing on the python's belly at random intervals, as if something was trying to push out from deep inside it.

Script!

Finally, the tip of a common kitchen knife branded with I-Island insignia faintly surfaced from a tiny cut on the snake's belly, immediately catching Whitey's eyes that moved towards it with heavy and rapid steps.

"Host is alive!" the robot declared while gently shoving both hands inside the tiny slit Izuku opened on the python's belly from inside to tear a giant hole open for the Chef to walk out of the animal's stomach.

" Ugh! Okay...The first Sortie could have gone better…" he admitted while grimacing at the smelly gastric acids and droll covering him.

" Congratulations to the Host for capturing the Special Ingredient for your Mission! " the System declared with a happy chime while cleaning off the muck from Izuku's body and clothes.

" Hmmm! Lavender! Nice!" the young Chef said once, giving a whiff to his now clean clothes and skin.

" The King Python will be now moved to the Restaurant Storage, and the Ingredients inside the stomach that are still in acceptable conditions will be also counted as properly Captured as per Host's request. " the System said, making the giant snake fade away and disappear without a trace, gouged-out eye too.

"Good to know the ones I put aside while in there are still valid for Capture. That means I only need two 5-Stars and one 4-Stars Ingredient left to find to complete my Mission." Izuku said with a sigh of relief.

As the Entity said, the snake was used to easily gorge itself with everything it came across, and that meant a wide collection of good Ingredients was waiting for the young Chef as soon as he arrived inside the python's stomach.

It was at dawn of the following day, after a short pause to sleep, that the young Chef managed to find the remaining Ingredients he needed, one of which a pair of giant bears and their cubs ( Categorized as 5-Stars ), and as soon as the System transported them into the Restaurant Storage Area the same noiseless explosion of light engulfed both him and Whitey to bring them back to Izuku's original world.

Green Cloud Restaurant – Inside the Kitchen -

The same light shone brightly in the spacious room as the young Chef and robot returned home from their little sortie, and a rapid look at the clock on the wall confirmed the System's promise: Izuku had left the restaurant at 6 AM, and after twenty or so hours in there he was back to see the same clock sign 8:32 AM of the same day, barely an hour late for his Breakfast Service , so with still plenty of time for organizing things for lunch.

"Uh! Convenient!" Izuku admitted with a low voice while cracking his back and yawning a little, luckily Gourmet Cells also meant his body possessed ' Superhuman Adaptability' , meaning that for him having slept barely four hours was still enough to recover fully, he was just as well rested as a normal guy sleeping for eight hours.

"Thank you for all the help, Whitey. You have been a life-saver!" once given a friendly pat to the amazingly-soft belly of the robot, the young Chef moved the sign on the door to ' Open' , unlocked it, opened the drapes obscuring the Restaurant main room completely so to bask in the early morning light...And watched Blackie walking towards the door with cat-like steps once exited from a pitch-black portal and then lie down next to the entrance to sleep, like usual.

"Blackie?" he asked.

" Uhrm? " the Dog grunted as an answer.

"You okay? Something happened?" Izuku said, knowing well the Dog pretty much NEVER left his place next to the Restaurant entrance except to sleep inside at night, as far as he knew.

"Don't worry about it. While you were away this Lord Dog has been asked to lend a paw to fix a small issue, nothing a gentle caress of mine could not manage." Blackie answered, sounding overbearingly smug.

"Uh?"

" A small emergency arose where one of Host friend's needed support. Since Host was occupied elsewhere the System simply assured no harm to come to the girl known as ' Momo' by sending Blackie on site. She is now safe and unharmed." the System explained.

"MOMO?! WHAT HAPPENED?!" Izuku asked immediately.

" The System will offer a small debrief to the Host while he prepares the Breakfast for the approaching customers and initiates the preparations for the Lunch Dishes. Rest assured no tragedy happened. " the Entity answered.

"O-O-Okay. But you need to tell me everything!"

" If it will help Host calm down, the System will."

"Thank you!" Izuku answered, grateful, before welcoming with his usual gentle smile the small group of Customers coming in for breakfast.

While he prepared the pastries and croissants and the coffee and cappuccinos for the customers, he was enraptured by what happened in the few hours he left to visit another world.

USJ – Main Hall – Earlier that day -

Things were bad, really bad! Even after finally regrouping in the main hall of the USJ and fighting together!

The situation was an utter mess, that much Aizawa could regretfully admit; he was proud of his students because they were holding their own against the crooks that League of Villains had bought along for their merry attack, but whenever one of those that first accompanied the Leader of the group joined the fight, things spiraled into disaster.

"Tell me you have a plan, Eraser! I beg you!" Thirteen begged as she kept battling a guy with a body made of dark smoke.

"Trust me, if I had one I would have already implemented it!" Aizawa yelled back in answer, happy to see the last remaining students rejoin them in the main hall of the place after that smoke guy ' Kurogiri' had first separated them, and all of them looked utterly bruised, meaning they had pretty hard fights too.

And whatever that ' Nomu' thing was, it was now keeping-up with Toshinori of all people! The two hulking brutes were just punching the crap out of each other with both holding nothing back, and neither of the two seemed to make a dent on the other!

"You are indeed a tough guy! But I know I will just need to give you one hundred punches more to be done with you! TEXAS SMASH! " Toshinori declared, still trying to inspire Hope in such a desperate situation.

"Fuck! They just keep coming!" Katsuki bellowed in anger as he and a few others managed to get into the main hall.

That brat is still cursing, good, they too are fine! Aizawa welcomed that potty mouth like a blessing for the first time since the kid joined his class.

"We...We need to escape, I can't keep this going for much more...I am melting myself in my own acid!" Mina admitted with labored breath.

"What about you, Tenya-san?" Momo asked, looking pale and malnourished, having used her own Quirk to its limits and so with very little fat mass remaining in her body and still weak from the stab wound on her arm.

"I can still fight, but I am running out of fuel as well. They may be weak, but sheer numbers are making-up for it," the tall bespectacled boy answered, gasping for air himself.

" Geeeeeeh …"

"Yeah, Kaminari too is reaching his limit, no more lightning for him." Jiro translated for the others.

"Jiro...Your ear is bleeding." Ochako, swaying on her feet in nausea, asked.

"That knife bitch that is now fighting with Aizawa-sensei almost cut one of my ear-jacks off, it was a miracle if it's just a shallow cut." she answered.

"FUCK! My shoulders hurt like hell, if I make another bang I will kiss my arms goodbye! SHIT!" Katsuki added, snarling.

"I...I think my leg broke! Sero-chan? H-Help?" Toru asked, being held by the shoulder by Jiro, to help her walk.

"I am thirsty as hell, no more tape for me…"

"That monster dislodged three of my extra arms, I won't be of much help either." Mezo said, teeth clenched hard in anger.

"I can't harden anymore..I...I think I have a couple ribs broken!" Kirishima added.

"Me too. Ribbit! "

"Have no fear, Reinforcements are coming." Aizawa yelled while dodging another fast swipe of the crazed blond girl he was fighting with.

"This is taking too long! I am getting bored." Shigaraki declared with a bored sigh as he too finally joined the battle.

"Don't let him touch you!" Thirteen warned in fear as the guy was soon upon Ochako, both hands ready to grab her.

"OCHAKO-CHAN!" Tsuyu yelled while pulling her friend away with her prehensile tongue.

" Kya !" The brunette shrieked in surprise, only to grow relieved when she saw the floor develop a giant hole as soon as the Villain touched it.

"Hey! I wanted to kill that girl!" the Villain roared in offense.

"Stop playing around, we have a mission to complete." Kurogiri answered, using his warping powers to escape Thirteen's Quirk once again.

"I am trying! But she is cheating with that tongue! She isn't playing fair! IT WAS MY PVP FIGHT!"

" Kero! Is this a game to you?!" Tsuyu asked, disgusted.

"HOHOHOHO! Yes it is! And I can't wait to finish it with a new High Score ! Crush them, Nomu!" Shigaraki ordered with a pleased smile as the hulking figure immediately stopped fighting against All Might to charge the students like a raging bull.

"STOP!" Toshinori ordered in abject horror.

" GRAAAAAAAAAAH !" surprising the kids with its speed, the thing was soon upon them with both fists up in the air to squash them.

"Scatter!" Shoto, eyes wide, yelled, making the other scamper away.

"Ah!" Just as Momo tripped to the floor, Ochako was at her side to help her get back up on her feet, unfortunately leaving them both as easy prey of the monster.

"MOMO! OCHAKO!" Mina shrieked in horror as the two giant fists of the Nomu were about to squash both into a pulp of broken flesh.

"NOOOO!" Toshinori yelled as he desperately tried to reach Nomu before it was too late.

" Woof! "

It was then that the Void got blew-open by an unseen mighty force to show a fissure in Space itself, a hole hovering in the air and showing pitch-black nothingness inside, and whatever force opened that portal it also pushed the Nomu away so violently the creature tumbled like a rag-doll on the floor for a couple of seconds and away from its potential victims.

The entire room went plunged into complete silence as both Sides of the fight were waiting with baited breath to see who would come out of that portal, if reinforcers for the Villains or the Heroes.

"Another Warp Quirk?" Aizawa hissed with narrowed eyes.

"One of us, Kurogiri?" Dabi asked.

"Nobody beside me has a Warp Quirk in our organization." Nomu answered.

To everybody's surprise a rather big pitbull dog with lustrous black fur walked out of the tear in Reality that closed by itself as soon as the animal fully came out, walking between the two groups with elegant cat-like steps until he got in front of both Momo and Ochako and sat down, as if wishing to protect them from the hulking muscled monster that in the meantime had jumped back on its feet.

" Aww ! What a cute doggie!" Himiko gushed with a wide smile.

"A stray dog? With such a rare Quirk?" Kurogiri muttered, surprised.

"Not much of a stray if it has a pot belly ." Dabi commented.

"H-H-Hey! Isn't that the dog guarding that Restaurant?!" Mineta muttered, gasping.

"Blackie?" Momo whispered, just as surprised.

"Does this Lord look like a stray to you, brat? Show some respect, or else this Lord's paw will smack you until nothing remains!" Blackie answered with his baritone, magnetic voice carrying forth his overbearing attitude.

"Uh, it talks too. Bit of an inflated Ego, though." Kurogiri answered.

"Why are you here, Blackie?" Momo asked.

"This is a dangerous place!" Ochako added right after.

"Foolish girl! This Lord was enjoying his nap when he was asked to come save your life, and here I am! Last thing I need is for sorrow to affect the young man I swore to protect. Apparently you are precious enough for him. I personally had to make a move." Blackie answered, scoffing.

Now...The System had already sent Whitey with Izuku into another world, and It also knew the boy was harboring feelings for Momo, so, since the Entity felt that his Sorrow at losing her could potentially hinder Izuku's ascension to God of Cooking, the mysterious System asked Blackie to intervene and save the girl's life.

Problem was that Blackie had only two priorities in life: Fighting a good battle and eating Izuku's Spicy Beef Noodles two-to-three times a day, so the dog hurried to protect the girl as a way to preserve the high quality of his food, reason why in his hurry to leave he missed Who exactly was the girl he was supposed to protect , and since his Pride forbid him from asking for clarifications, he just made sure to look and talk to both girls at the same time while delivering his line, sure that at least one of them was the right one, since both were about to die a messy death before he arrived.

" This Lord's noodles are too important! If I have to play babysitter to make sure the Kiddo does not lose Cooking Talent because of Sorrow , then so be it! WOOF! " the black dog thought in determination.

" Izuku was worried about me/Midoriya-San was worried about me? " Both Ochako and Momo thought at the same time.

And while Ochako found strange that a boy she just met already felt she was that important to him, she could not help feeling touched all the same, like Momo was, at seeing the tiny help the young Chef still sent her way; neither could both girls deny feeling a small prickling in their chest as they heard Lord Dog declare how much Izuku found them ' Precious' .

" ...This can't be happening… " The System had not the ability to face-palm, but at that moment it REALLY REALLY wanted to.

" Aaw ! So you were sent by a friend of theirs? How sweet...And pathetic. NOMU! Kill that fleabag!" the hands-covered Leader of the League commented in cruel mockery, before pointing at Blackie and giving his order to the hulking brute.

" GUAOOOOOOO! " the giant of muscles immediately ignored All Might again to assault the plump dog.

"You dare call your Lord Dog a fleabag? Preposterous!" Blackie's eyes narrowed dangerously while glaring at Shigaraki, he didn't seem to find threatening the charging Nomu enough to even just spare it a glance.

SNAP!

Nobody expected it, everybody in fact looked at Blackie with wide, bulged-out eyes as the dog's mouth merely opened and closed in a blurry of motion to give ONE single bite that completely obliterated the entire top half of the three meters tall mountain of muscles, leaving behind only a small fraction of the Nomu's torso and its legs to fall to the ground in a rapidly-expanding pool of viscous blood.

Munch! Munch! Munch!

They all heard the dog loudly chewing his mouthful of Nomu while the up-until-now Invincible monster lied dead at his paws, also, none of them could actually explain WHERE all that flesh/meat actually went, considering that Blackie was at best a fifth of the Nomu's overall sizes and so not something a mere dog should feasibly be able to eat whole .

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Katsuki loudly swore, neatly encapsulating everybody's feeling at the absurd spectacle they just witnessed.

"Bleah! As expected, it can't even be put on the same plane of Existence of this Lord's beloved Spicy Beef Noodles. What a waste of meat!" Blackie muttered to himself once swallowed the hundred or so kilograms of Nomu he had just bitten off, and even as a dog his expression clearly showed contempt and disgust.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! SPLAT!

Still unsatisfied, the dog added insult to injury and gently patted down with a paw, the collision of the well-manicured thing with what remained of the Nomu exploded the ground and shook the entire USJ Building hard enough many thought the thing would collapse on top of them, and digging a perfectly-drawn, very deep and HUGE imprint of a dog paw covering the entire floor of the main hall; as for what had remained of the Nomu's body, that simply turned into a fine red mist dispersing in the wind as soon as the paw struck. Completely erased from Existence.

Toshinori...Toshinori felt wronged, or even insulted , somehow. He had just declared that Nomu a worthy opponent and something he would need " One Hundred Punches!" of his to beat...And a mere dog instead killed it with a single bite and then disintegrated with a playful pat of a paw.

" Did I offend somebody? Is this Bad Karma showing-up? Why? Was it SO NECESSARY to show me up this badly? What did I do wrong? " All Might thought in sorrow as he coughed awkwardly and shifted to stand next to Aizawa.

"What the fuck happened, Kurogiri?" Shigaraki asked, annoyed.

"I don't know." the other answered.

"HEY! ARE YOU A MOB BOSS ? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" the young man asked.

"First you call this Lord Dog a Flea Bag and then a measly Mob Boss ?! Are you tired of living?!" Now Blackie was really annoyed, and the imperious way he talked and lifted his exquisite paw again clearly showed it.

" WOH ! DOWN! DOWN! PUT DOWN THAT PAW! SLOWLY!" Himiko yelled immediately.

"I am no Mob Boss , you weakling! I AM YOUR LORD DOG! A MODERATOR! " showing a bit of knowledge of modern media, Blackie declared haughtily his correct title while giving a lazy pat forward with his paw, and to the others' shock an unseen force slammed with ungodly fury on Shigaraki's body with the force of a world-ending meteor, launching him flying back at insane speed and through the wall behind him, and through other three walls behind that still, each and every time leaving behind a perfectly-cut hole in the shape of a dog paw.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

What was shocking was that whatever sent the Villain flying, affected him and him only, not even Kurogiri standing right next to the guy was affected.

"SHIGARAKI!" Kurogiri yelled in alarm as he hurried at the young man's side as soon as he saw him crash-landing and his successive boneless tumbling on the floor until he remained in a very humiliating ' Face down, ass up' position.

Both Shigaraki's arms and legs were broken in various parts and twisted at odd angles, his body was covered in bruises and deep cuts, the right eye was swollen completely shut while the left one had been gouged-out and was still bouncing on the floor at few feet from him, the rib-cage had been smashed inward and even the young man's testicles were clearly burst to shreds while every single hair on his entire body had been torn away, just like his clothes, leaving the young Villain completely naked, bald, unconscious and broken .

It was a miracle he was still alive, and Kurogiri almost expected Shigaraki to soon develop a deep-rooted fear of dogs as soon as he woke.

"This should be enough. You can wrap the rest up by yourselves, this Lord Dog has a nap to return to, my Beauty Sleep shall not be interrupted! " Blackie declared while rising again his paw, and once amused himself with the terror he saw in everybody's eyes once they saw him do that, he patted the air in front of him to blast open a new pitch-black tear in Reality.

"I did my part, you stay alive now. He will apparently miss you dearly if you die, and the last thing this Lord needs it's for his Protegee to succumb to Sorrow. Farewell." The dog said that to Momo AND Ochako at the same time before leaving, still secretly unsure and wondering if he actually helped the right girl or not.

"Bye, Sir! And thank you for the assistance, Sir!" Tenya, either by good manners or fear, answered with a respectful tone and a DEEP bow he did not get up from until sure the Dog was gone.

"That's one Hell of a dog." Aizawa admitted, finally releasing a sigh of relief once the black tear in Space closed by itself and disappeared.

"One of us?" Toshinori asked.

"To Hell if I know!" Thirteen admitted with a helpless shrug.

"Actually, we kind of know who that dog is, and who he belongs to." Mina admitted.

"You know his owner? Are they some Pro Hero?" Toshinori asked once seen the leading group of the League of Villains being forcefully teleported away by Kurogiri once clear they were now at disadvantage.

"I don't remember one of us fighting alongside a dog, I would recall a dog and Hero able to do THAT!" Thirteen answered.

"Actually, that dog belongs to a Chef." Mina answered, sheepish.

"Uh?!"

"He is Blackie , he is the guard dog of 'Green Cloud Restaurant', a restaurant owned by a friend of my family." Momo explained.

"Green Cloud...Wasn't that the restaurant Gunhead doesn't stop gushing about?" Thirteen asked.

"That one." Aizawa answered with a groan, clearly remembering the annoyance at the man's talking nonstop about the place. It was just food, damnit! No need to be so extreme!

Nighteye too had talked about that place to him, Mic and Nemuri, only in a more worried tone while mentioning the need to give it a deeper look since he found-out how some things did not add-up as they should have when he visited that Restaurant.

"Oh! A retired Pro sent us some help then?" Toshinori asked.

" Pfft! Nope! A Quirkless sent his dog to save your ass!" Katsuki answered, tone full of mockery.

"The dog didn't ' Save my ass'! I was doing fine!" All Might answered, mighty annoyed.

"Suuure!"

"I WAS!" Toshinori answered, maybe a bit too petulantly for somebody his age.

"Katsuki-san, don't annoy the Number 1 Hero of Japan , please." Tenya begged with a groan.

"I was just-"

'You say ruuun!'

"AH! Hello, Izuku?...Yes, yes I am okay...Yes, Blackie did help us…" the mood shifted abruptly when Momo's phone rang and she picked-up the call immediately.

"That's the special ringtone of our Chef friend," Mina said, chuckling a little.

"Speak of the devil," Tooru added, sighing elated.

" Ribbit! Well, he did send his Dog here to help us, it was a given that once he returned he would call to see if she was alright," Tsuyu answered.

"I still can't wrap my head around the fact that a Dog THAT STRONG is happy to work as a simple Guard Dog for a Restaurant, owned by a Quirkless of all things." Aoyama admitted.

"Nothing says they can't be friends! Quirk or not!" Tenya replied, huffing.

"I bet the food helps too." Mineta added, shrugging.

"The dog owner?" Aizawa asked.

"Yes, sensei!" Ochako answered.

"Well, the guy did help us, so I guess we owe him one. What's his name? I think he deserves at least a Thank you for sending us some help...Even if I don't understand how he knew we actually needed it." Aizawa asked, in truth feeling an ever-growing need to check on that Chef exactly BECAUSE the guy somehow knew they needed help when ideally nobody was supposed to know they were in the USJ building to begin with.

" How did he know? Is he a Villain trying to butter us up? A Spy? An independent threat? In any case, how did he or his superiors know about the attack?" the man thought with narrowed eyes.

He was starting to understand why Nighteye had some doubts about the place and the mysterious ' System Incorporated' behind the Restaurant, not only about the young Chef working there, the arrival of that Monster Dog was just too optimal in terms of timing.

"The name? Oh! Izuku Midoriya, sensei! He is our same age." Mina answered.

"Thank you, Ashido."

"...Why does that name sound familiar?" Toshinori muttered, unsure, as a strange cold feeling blossomed in the mouth of his damaged stomach.

And why did he also fear actually learning the truth behind that name?

Meanwhile – UA – Gym

A tall blond young man was standing alone in the middle of the ample room while studying the tall human-sized sandbag while gasping for air; his muscled body was completely drenched in sweat with fat drops loudly rapping on the floor under him, and in the empty room each drop was as loud as an explosion.

"Once...Once again…" the tall young man, Mirio, wheezed with his eyes squeezed shut and his teeth clenching hard.

"Texas" he said as his sweating immediately tripled in volume, but also evaporated as soon as a new sheen formed, making his entire body release long streams of steam for all around him.

"SMASH!" The right hook Mirio slammed on the sandbag instantly snapped the thick chains holding the thing up and shot the sandbag against the wall where it exploded in a giant cloud of sand.

" NGH! Aah...Aah...Aah..." any form of satisfaction though failed to show-up as Mirio fell on his knees while clutching his chest, his body dropping the power-up state of the One for All Quirk he received from Toshinori instantaneously.

"It hurts...Why does it hurts? M-My heart…" Mirio gasped for breath as he forced himself to stand back up to his feet.

Still with troubled breathing, a splitting headache and with blurry eyes, the young man silently dragged his feet while walking back to the changing room for a rapid shower.

He needed to ask Recovery Girl , he needed to know why whenever he used that Quirk his heart felt about to burst open, he knew he had no history of heart problems so he knew there was something wrong going on, but more importantly: He knew he had to keep it a secret from All Might and Sir Nighteye, he didn't want to disappoint them.