23: 23: “Yawn…” Saku Hayashi yawned as he looked at the battle-hungry Toriko standing opposite him.
Irritation and impatience appeared on his face.
Toriko had called him early in the morning and dragged him here just to ask for a spar.
Couldn’t he have chosen another time?
He had truly picked an ungodly hour.
“Toriko, I’m not trying to discourage you, but you really aren’t my opponent right now.
A one-sided battle like this won’t benefit you,” Saku Hayashi said calmly, both hands in his pockets.
You should go home, and I should go back to sleep.
It wouldn’t be long before Toriko encountered his biological brother.
Starjun was the real professional and would undoubtedly motivate Toriko to grow stronger at a rapid pace.
Saku Hayashi would record their fights.
Once the brothers finally acknowledged each other, he could let them relive those “wonderful” memories.
“We’re already here.
We can’t just leave without doing anything,” Toriko said, scratching his head.
He could tell that Saku Hayashi wasn’t interested.
“Fine…” Saku Hayashi pulled out a red skyrocket and placed it in Toriko’s hands under his confused gaze.
“What’s this?” Toriko asked.
“Something to send you home.” Saku Hayashi smiled and immediately lit the skyrocket’s fuse.
Whoosh!
Before Toriko could react, the skyrocket carried him into the sky.
He couldn’t understand how such a small firework could possess enough power to lift someone of his weight.
“Have a safe journey.” Saku Hayashi waved as Toriko disappeared beyond the horizon.
Considering Toriko’s physique, a fall from an ordinary height wouldn’t kill him.
At worst, it would hurt for a while.
More importantly, Saku Hayashi could finally enjoy some peace and quiet.
This was one of Tom’s fireworks.
Its propulsion was powerful enough to effortlessly send a person flying into the sky.
Splash!
Toriko’s Food Luck was quite good.
Instead of crashing into the ground, he landed in a lake filled with soda, greatly reducing the impact of his fall.
“Pfft!” By the time Toriko surfaced, he was completely drenched.
“Seriously, where does he find such strange little gadgets?” Toriko muttered helplessly.
He wasn’t particularly angry.
… “Senior Sister Nono, your cheeks are still so soft and chubby.
You haven’t lost any of your baby fat.
Let me pinch them.” Saku Hayashi teased the short, emerald-haired girl while pinching her cheek.
Nono was Setsuno’s only disciple.
Since she had begun learning cooking from Setsuno long ago, Saku Hayashi had to address her as his senior sister.
Not only were her culinary skills comparable to those of the world’s top one hundred chefs, but she also possessed extremely powerful freezing abilities.
She could instantly freeze even the scorching waters of Pot Pond.
“Junior Brother Saku Hayashi, how many times must I tell you not to pinch my face?” Nono said sternly, trying to display the authority of a senior sister.
“Senior Sister, that tone really doesn’t suit you.
It sounds like you’re trying to act cute.” She really was adorable.
As Setsuno’s disciple, Nono naturally had to be cute.
Despite her advanced age, Setsuno still possessed an incredibly girlish heart.
Nono became furious and tried to pummel Saku Hayashi with her little fists.
However, Saku Hayashi held her back with one hand pressed against her head.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t move forward or reach him.
“Saku, stop teasing Nono,” Tsurara said helplessly as she watched them fool around.
“All right.” When Saku Hayashi removed his hand, he immediately retreated several steps to avoid a sneak attack.
This was experience accumulated over many years.
“Hmph!” Nono glared at Saku Hayashi angrily.
Her sneak attack had failed.
She had only succeeded the first few times.
After that, Saku Hayashi had learned to guard against her.
“Nono, did you come here to visit, or do you have a request?” Tsurara asked with a smile, changing the subject.
Now that she had been given a way out, Nono answered, “Master asked me to find the Wine-Heaven Mandarin Ducks, but I don’t know where they live.
She told me to come and ask you.” “So that’s what you’re looking for.
They aren’t extinct, but there are only nine days between their birth and death when they’re edible.
At any other time, the sweet wine flowing through their bodies becomes undrinkable.
Even someone who loves alcohol as much as Master Jiro wouldn’t touch it,” Saku Hayashi explained.
The name “Wine Heaven” sounded identical to “nine days” in Chinese, which was why the person who first discovered the creatures had named them that.
As for why they were only edible during those nine days, it was because that was their frenzied mating season.
Any two Mandarin Ducks that found each other attractive would immediately mate.
The entire scene became incredibly chaotic.
Only after a special chemical reaction occurred during this period would the wine inside their bodies become delicious.
“They can be found ten kilometers north of the Heavy Drinker Archipelago, within the mist-covered waters.
One of the islands there is among their natural habitats.” Although the Wine-Heaven Mandarin Ducks had a Capture Level of 20, their combat strength was extremely poor.
For them, such an isolated environment was exceptionally safe.
“So that’s how it is.
This is my first time hearing about them.” Nono carefully committed the information to memory.
Although she was Setsuno’s disciple, that didn’t mean she knew everything.
She had never seen information about this creature in any of the books she had read.
“Very few people know about them because their habitat is so remote and well hidden.
Only a handful of books mention them briefly.
Madam Setsuno previously asked Tsurara and me to find them, and that was when we first learned about them,” Saku Hayashi explained with a smile.
“We have nothing else to do right now, so Tsurara and I can take you there.” “Thank you.
I’ll be troubling you both,” Nono replied politely.
… They didn’t travel to the island by boat.
Very few people ventured into those waters, and the mist covering the region was extraordinarily dense.
A ship could easily strike a reef if its crew wasn’t careful.
The qinggong technique of running across water was a basic travel method mastered by experts of the older generation.
Before one foot sank beneath the surface, the other foot simply needed to step forward.
By continuously repeating the process, a person could run across the water.
To most people, it was a miraculous skill.
To those who had mastered it, it was merely another way to travel.
“Junior Brother, has your cat practiced this before?” Nono asked as she looked at Tom.
He had somehow mastered the technique after only a few attempts.
Although the principle sounded simple, actually learning the technique was extremely difficult.
Some people could practice for years without ever succeeding.
“No.
This is his first time.” Saku Hayashi shook his head as he watched Tom sprint wildly across the sea.
He could only attribute it to the reality-warping power of “I reckon” possessed by gag characters.
Tom reckoned that he could run across water, so naturally, his legs became capable of stepping on the surface at an extraordinarily high frequency.
“Nono, how large an area can you freeze with your current power?” Nono thought briefly before answering, “I’ve never tested my absolute limit, but the area is enormous.
I can freeze every part of the sea visible from where I’m standing.” “That’s impressive.
When we first met, you could only freeze a small lake.” Nono’s Appetite Demon possessed ice-based abilities.
As its host, she had naturally gained control over that power.
Many people possessed Gourmet Cells, but very few had a Appetite Demon.
The innate abilities granted by Appetite Demons were powers that countless people could never obtain in their entire lives.
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