Toriko: Canon Storyline. Chapter 11: Valen

The thorn sea was shooting out its spiky waves, killing any creature foolish enough to come near it or swim in it. an island several kilometers to the west of this sea, was almost just as dangerous. Its name; weather island. At this island, a year passed by in four weeks. The first week held the season of spring, the second the season of summer, the third the fall season and the final week had winter. The reason it was so dangerous was because the weather changed every day.

the seven days of spring held normal sunny days, cold and chilly days, rainy days; where sharp raindrops fell from the sky like knives, windy days when small tornadoes blew around the island, combinations of warm and rainy days, when balls of fire fell down on the island, combinations of rainy and windy days, when sharp water tornadoes ravaged the island. And finally a combination of cold and rainy days, when storms of hail as big as cars came down over the island.

the seven days of summer held normal warm days, days when it rained burning meteors, days when the heat melted mountains, days when the ground turned to lava because of the heat, days of hot lightning storms, combinations of meteor and lightning rains, when meteors instantly crashed down on the island, devastating it. and days when melting and lava days came together, making the ground extremely hot and making the sea around it boil.

the fall days held warm days, windy days, chilly days and rainy days. combinations of those were flaming wind days, freezing wind days, tsunami wind days and days when hail the size of houses fell on the island. This was the most tricky season, as the weather could change in half an hour from warm to windy, or a combination of them, or a combination of the other forms of weather from the fall season.

and the seven days of winter held cold days, days when blizzards covered the island in a meters thick blanket of snow, days when ice the size of skyscrapers hailed down on the island, days when the icy wind would freeze anything instantly; freezing the surrounding sea along with it. there were also days in winter when meteors rained down, but they were frozen solid in their fall and did major damage to the island as they fell.

and those were just the four seasons that passed by in a week. But because the seasons came so quickly, all the plants on the island also grew and ripened quickly. The animals that lived on this island all had extremely high capture levels, most were in the 90 and some were even in the 100, because of the extreme weather conditions. And then there were the poison gasses beneath the island that sometimes broke out when the ground above it was shattered. And then there were the earthquakes that hit the island from time to time. Usually one every week, disrupting the gravity field surrounding the island, sometimes making new mountains.

he was standing atop the highest mountain on the island, looking down at the violent animals that were living down on the ground and the monstrous birds that were hovering over the island. He had been living here for six months, so he had encountered six years worth of weather changes. All these extremes were pushing him to his limits and by living on this island, learning to understand it, fighting with the animals, adapting to his surroundings and the weather, his gourmet cells had evolved quite a lot. His name was Valen, the fourth of Suramo’s students. Physically he was the strongest; even stronger than Mathew and Kabe.

after these last six months, constant hunts and surviving nature, most of his clothes had torn. Scraps of his shirt and hood remained and his messy red hair was visible. His pants were torn up to the knees and his boots were shredded to pieces. Even so, he still had his weapon with him; undamaged. Valen was known by several names; the giant, the invincible, but mostly the sword master. For every hunt he would take one or more swords. To challenge himself, he had only taken one sword with him and a single whetstone.

Valen stood two meter fifty tall, had broad shoulders, a muscular physique and the strongest will any man could have. In his life he had been in many battles and he had always pushed himself to new levels, never willing to lose, never willing to admit defeat. As such, his gourmet cells had adapted to him and kept on strengthening him, even though they had dug deep many times to squeeze out a victory. But his desire to win had become his cell’s desire to survive. This combination is what made Valen known as the invincible.

when Valen had started hunting on his own, after being finished with his training, he would go after ingredients that had higher and higher capture levels. He started with capture levels 18 to 20. After finishing those, he moved up to capture levels 25 to 35. After working through many ingredients, he moved on from there to take on capture levels 43 to 56. In every hunt he fought hard, learned new strategies and new techniques.

and through the years, through many evolutions, he eventually came to this island, where there were capture levels 94 to 120. And with yesterday’s hunt, he had devoured every ingredient, every creature that was on and around the island; sky, land and water. and with his gourmet cells adapting to the many toxic gasses, the strong earthquakes, the extreme weather conditions, along with his new developed sword skills and new found whetstones, minerals and metals, along with the claws and fangs of some of the beasts he defeated, he now had everything he needed, before going to leave this island.

but before he left, he would do one more thing and that was thank all the animals and ingredients that had kept him alive these last six months. He put his hands together and bowed to the north, the east, the south and the west. He gave his thanks to all the ingredients in the world and on this island. As he stood up he swung his head and his hair out of his red eyes, before looking up. The enormous heat had been building up and now a hail of burning lightning fast meteorites was falling down.

Valen took a drawing stance, placed his right hand on his sword’s hilt and his silver aura started swirling around him and large katana like blades formed out of his aura. These aura blades also took the position of a drawing stance, as if they needed to be drawn. Valen was relaxing and let his mind go blank, letting his intuition take over. And as the first lightning meteor broke through the cloud, almost instantly followed by the other meteors, Valen drew his blade and swung it up. The aura blades were also drawn and were swung up, letting out a spiraling shockwave of incredible cutting power.

a total of thirteen spirals shot up like that and as the meteors fell they were struck, pierced and cut to pieces by these spiraling shockwaves. The clouds were even cut in half and blown away. Valen sheathed his sword again, felt it was coming, looked up and saw a meteor that fell once every year. The reason this island went through so many changes and grew from time to time, was because the meteors added up to it. and this one was about half the size of the island. It would obliterate what was here, use everything as nutrients, new animals would come and the cycle would begin all over again.

Valen’s aura flared up around him, shoot high into the sky, drew his sword and slashed it up. A giant silver crescent moon the size of the island formed over the island, before shooting up with incredible speed. as it hit the meteor, the massive burning rock was cut in half, before being shattered into dust, except for the small metal cube inside. Valen grinned; that metal cube was the last thing he needed before leaving.

as it crashed down on the island, making a massive crater, Valen landed next to it. he lifted the cube up that was about twice his size and weighed about two ton. Valen carried it to the ocean, lifted the cube up with his left hand, all the whetstones, claws and fangs and minerals and metals were strapped to his back in a bag of leafs. He reached with his right hand to his sword, drew it and slashed it at the ocean. He sheathed his sword and ran through the opening his sword slash had created, back to the mainland.

as Valen reached the mainland, he had swung his sword six more times and had caught five large sea creatures in the process. With his hunting on the island done, he was finally ready to head to a friend of his. But first he had to go home and pay his girlfriend a visit. She wouldn’t really worry about him, as she knew how strong he was, but she worried anyway, because she loved him and would rather keep him close.

he went home, stored all his captured objects and made his way to LIFE, where he got a hug, a scolding, a kiss and a treatment from Lyneria. As they hadn’t seen each other in six months, she had grown more worried than usual. As Valen enjoyed her hot spring with minerals from the gourmet world he said, ‘you know I can take care of myself Lyneria. So why worry so much when you know that?’ Lyneria stepped into his hot spring as well, ‘you know I’ve worried about you ever since we were training with master Suramo. You would always look for the strongest creature on the shell plate Suramo put us on.’ Valen nodded, ‘yeah, I like challenges. A hunt isn’t really fun when the hunter doesn’t get any challenges. So, how are our two friends doing?’

Lyneria smiled, ‘well Kabe is still weaving to his heart’s content, but is also keeping up with his hunting. I believe he’s able to take on creatures from the capture level 70 up to 79. And Mathew’s still as reckless as ever, more so than you. but he’s met a good chef. the last time I saw him his cells were way more active than I’ve ever seen them. still; their cells are nothing compared to yours. They’re even more active than mine.’ Valen smiled, ‘and knowing you get reviving ingredients from the gourmet world, that’s saying a lot.’

Lyneria scooted over to him and leaned her head against his upper arm, ‘so, are you going into the gourmet world soon?’ Valen nodded, ‘I am. But first I’m going to the Shokurin temple to finish my food honor training. I kept doing it daily while I was on the island, even in those weather conditions. I think I’m ready for the final test.’ Lyneria sighed, ‘I guess you are then. Well, I wish you the best of luck in obtaining the temple treasure.’ Valen leaned his head to the right and kissed her on the top of her head. The from corners of their eyes they saw a door close, but not before a young black haired woman with a red face pulled away. Sayako had accidentally seen them bathe together.

the next day Valen was walking up to Melk mountain to meet up with his friend. Melk the second, who was Melk the first’s adopted daughter, although she pretended to be a guy. He reached her workplace in a single day and showed her all the whetstones, metals and minerals he had gathered, as well as the claws, fangs and the metal cube from the meteorite. Melk showed him several techniques which would be useful, before going back to her own work.

Valen worked for a week, before finishing a new sword. It was made of all the claws, fangs, some metals and minerals of the island and the metal cube from the meteorite. It had been well crafted and sharpened to perfection. It would be able to withstand the gourmet world and would help him in gathering the remaining pieces for his full course menu of life and thus his ultimate weapon. He was planning on making a sword out of the ingredients in his full course menu. And so far he had gathered some great ingredients.

and with a new set of clothes, a new weapon that could cut a mountain in half with ease, Valen made his way to the Shokurin temple for his final exam in food honor. Lyneria had never told him how the bubble fruit was obtained, but it was worth the journey of a lifetime; so he was really looking forward to eating this ingredient. And with that in mind, he set of to finish his training to enter the gourmet world.