Toriko: Namu's Buffet.
Chapter 3: "Into the Cavern Lagoon!"
Namu and Tsubaki walked through the darkness of Cavern Lagoon. Thanks to his Gourmet Cells, Namu didn't have much of a problem navigating, but he noticed Tsubaki didn't have trouble either.
"Hey Tsubaki. Do you have Gourmet Cells too?" he asked.
"Yes, I do." she replied coldly. At that point, Namu had had enough of her attitude.
"All right, what's your freakin' problem?! I've been nice all this time and you're being a total pain!" Tsubaki turned around quickly and marched straight into Namu's face until their bodies were practically squeezing against each other.
"You wanna know what my deal is?! I'll tell you what my deal is! You're Namu, the Man with the Iron Will. I know you're reputation. You're a total player. Every other week, you're with a different girl, and I refuse to be the next one!" Namu was shocked.
"That's true." Namu admitted, "However, you didn't give me a chance to explain myself."
"Oh yeah?" Tsubaki said sarcastically.
"The reason I'm always hanging out with women is because of my grandparents. They formed a Combo a long time ago and have been together ever since. I just thought it'd be cool if my Combo partner was also the woman I loved."
Tsubaki was disappointed with herself. She had believed rumors of a man she'd never met and didn't even listen to his side of the story.
"I-I'm sorry. That was rude of me. Now that you mention it, all the women you've been seen with were all chefs, weren't they?"
"Yep. I was dating them, but we were also hunting Ingredients." Namu replied.
"Wait. How come you're always with a different woman, then?" Tsubaki asked aggressively.
"Not all relationships work out. Sometimes they weren't looking to be in a relationship, other times they were, but one of us says or does something stupid that we can't take back."
"Oh. I'm sorry." Tsubaki said, with a slightly embarrassed look.
"Don't worry about it." Namu said with a grin, "How 'bout we start over? Hi, my name's Namu." he said, as he held out his hand.
"I'm Tsubaki. Nice to meet you." she said as she shook Namu's hand.
As Namu and Tsubaki continued through the tunnels, they sensed something near by.
"What do you think?" Namu asked.
"I think it's trouble." Tsubaki replied.
Suddenly, there was a loud screeching sound.
"What the heck was that?!" Namu shouted.
"I don't know, but I think the ground is shaking!" just then, a Devil Serpent came crashing through the cave walls.
"HOLY CRAP!" Namu and Tsubaki said in unison. The large Serpent Beast let out a loud cry before rushing towards Namu.
"LOOK OUT!" Tsubaki yelled, but as the beast attacked, Namu barely moved an inch. "What the?" Tsubaki thought to herself.
"Not bad big guy," Namu said to the monster, "but I've a few tricks of my own." just then, Namu took off his jacket and threw it to the side. Namu was surrounded by orange energy, then a large monster appeared behind him. The creature was very muscular and had orange skin. It had long, black claws on it's fingernails and had three toes on each foot. It had a long, reptilian tail, and large, dragon-like wings on it's back. It's head was large and bulbous, with piercing red eyes and it's mouth was covered in tentacles. Tsubaki was put off by Namus's display, then noticed a shiny, grey substance was leaking from all over Namu's body.
"This is why they call me 'The Man with the Iron Will' Tsubaki. I can secrete a living, liquid metal from a separate set of pores and then harden it at will. I call it 'Bio-steel'"
End of Chapter.