Toriko: Namu's Buffet.
Chapter 5: "The Fish Dish!"
Finally, Namu and Tsubaki made it to the Sandy Cave Beach.
"It's so pretty." Tsubaki said, amazed.
"It sure is." Namu replied, "Welp, let's catch us some Puffer Whales!" he said, as he removed his jacket and shirt.
"Ugh! Can you keep your shirt on?! It's impolite to undress in front of a lady, ya know!" Tsubaki yelled, covering her eyes.
"Oh yeah? Then how come you're blushing?" Namu asked with a grin.
"SHADDUP!" she shouted.
"Whatever. REBREATHER!" Namu said as he secreted bio-steel from his face that formed a mask over his nose and mouth.
"You can use your bio-steel to breathe under water?" Tsubaki asked, surprised.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Namu replied.
"Well before you go in, you should know about the Puffer Whale. You need to be absolutely careful dealing with them. The slightest irritation and their whole body turns poisonous." Tsubaki explained.
"You're not coming with?" Namu asked.
"Oh, um, I…" Tsubaki twitched and fidgeted, scrambling for an excuse.
"You can't swim, can you?" Namu asked, bluntly.
"I never had time to learn." Tsubaki said, looking slightly depressed, for lack of a better word.
"All right then, maybe I'll teach you sometime." Namu smiled causing Tsubaki to blush again.
Namu stretched a bit before jumping in the water. He swam for about 5 minutes before he finally found them, the Puffer Whales.
"Wow." Namu said, amazed at all the snow-white fish in the water. "All right, how did Grandma explain it? 'Remove all intent to kill until the last moment. Erase yourself from the Ingredient's senses' Something like that?" Namu stood on the floor of the underground lake and calmed himself, "LIFE ERASE." Above the water, Tsubaki could feel Namu's life-force disappear but didn't worry, cause she already knew what he was doing.
Namu slowly swam up to one of the Puffer Whales and was prepared to use Knocking, but suddenly the creature turned a deep purple color.
"Crap." Namu said, annoyed, "I undid LIFE ERASE too soon. On to the next one, I guess."
After multiple failures, Namu finally Knocked one correctly. "YES!" he thought, excited for finally catching one, "Gonna need more than one though. This might take longer than I thought."
Tsubaki waited for what seemed like hours, staring at the crystal-like water until Namu finally crawled out with about ten Puffer Whales, "I did my half, now it's your turn." he grinned at Tsubaki.
Tsubaki laid down a tarp and gently moved one of the Puffer Whales to the center.
"All right. The poison sack for each Whale is in a different place." Tsubaki concentrated with all her might, trying to find the best place to cut. She took a deep breath and gently placed the blade of her knife along the would-be neck of the creature, she took another breath and cut, turning the entire Whale purple and toxic.
"Nooo!" she said with a combination of anger and sorrow.
"It's all right," Namu said, placing his hand on her shoulder, "I ruined the first dozen or so trying to get one. Keep trying." he grinned and Tsubaki nodded. After a few tries, Tsubaki got another Whale, but as she was about to cut, a voice spoke to her, "lower" it said. Tsubaki followed the voice's instruction and moved her knife lower, "Now, 5 centimeters to the right." Tsubaki followed the voice again, "Now, remove the poison sac. Scoop it out with your hands, gently." Tsubaki parted the meat of the Whale and found the purple sac. She sweated profusely, she came this far and she did NOT want to fail again. Tsubaki gently cupped the sac in her hands and began to pull slowly, "slower" the voice whispered, and she did just that until the sac was completely removed, turning the Puffer Whale a rich, golden color leaving Tsubaki and Namu amazed.
"YOU DID IT!" Namu said excitedly.
"It was weird Namu, it was like a voice spoke to me, telling me what to do."
"My grandma told me about that. She said it was called the 'Voice of Ingredients'" Namu grinned.
Tsubaki walked around the beach until she had a bunch of small sticks under her arm. "That should be enough." she said as she made her back to Namu who was lying in the sand with his eyes closed.
"Get up, ya bum." Tsubaki said as she kicked the resting metalhead.
"What was that for?" he whined.
"I need your metal for something."
"What would that be?"
"Can you make a grill with your bio-steel?"
Tsubaki rubbed the sticks she picked up under Namu's make-shift grill that was still connected to his arm until a they caught fire.
"Finally." she thought, "All right, gimme the Puffer Whale." she said as she stretched out her arm.
"Here ya go." Namu said simply as he handed her the fish. Tsubaki placed the Puffer Whale on the grill and watched the fish cook, fervently. After a while, Tsubaki could tell the fish was finally done and took it off the grill and looked around for plates.
"Umm…" she said, concerned.
"I got it." Namu said as he secreted two metal discs from his body.
The two sat across from one another again. Namu was about to devour the delicious looking and smelling fish in front of him.
"WAIT!" Tsubaki shouted.
"What?!" Namu asked, confused.
"Let me put this on first." Tsubaki said as she sprinkled some dust on the fish.
"What's that?" Namu asked.
"Just some seasoning." Tsubaki grinned.
The two closed their eyes and clapped their hands together, "ITADAKIMASU!" they said simultaneously before eating.
BOOM! This taste was amazing. Namu had rarely ever tasted anything so delicious. It seemed the more he chew, the better it tasted. "Incredible." he thought, "There's no end to how delicious this is." he said with tears in his eyes. As Namu swallowed the yummy fish, he noticed how smoothly it went down. "This is it." he thought.
"Tsubaki," he said.
"Hmm?" she tilted her head, still teary-eyed from the delicious food.
"Would you mind if I put this as the 'Fish Dish' of my Full Course?" his question left Tsubaki stunned. Was it really that good?
"I-I don't mind at all." she said, blushing more then ever.
"All right!" Namu said as he pulled a piece of paper from his jacket pocket and began writing in it.
"Is that your Full Course?" Tsubaki asked.
"Sure is. Wanna see?" Namu said as he passed the paper to her, and what she saw shocked her. Aside from the Fish Dish, there was nothing on it, "How could a top-class bishokuya have such an incomplete Full Course?" she thought to herself.
With that, Namu and Tsubaki left the Cavern Lagoon, unaware that they would soon meet again.
End of Chapter.