Toriko: Canon Storyline. Chapter 14: Ghost Crawler

Suramo knocked on the door before him and was allowed to enter. As he did, he saw two men sitting at a table. He smiled and sat down with them. Ichiryuu grinned, ‘nice to see you again old friend. What brings you here?’ Suramo shrugged and looked at Itachi Kamidogu, before looking back at the IGO president, ‘oh not much. Just looking up an old friend. I thought we could have a nice talk. And with Itachi here, it’s a nice coincidence.’

Itachi frowned, ‘a coincidence? What’s that supposed to mean?’ Suramo shrugged, ate one of the snacks on the table before drinking it away with some booze, before looking back at Ichiryuu, ‘so old friend, I hear you’ve send three of your students on training requests, so they can take on the gourmet world.’ Ichiryuu nodded, ‘I did indeed. I tested Toriko in battle. His strength and techniques might cut it, but his cells are not nearly evolved enough to take on the harsh environments. But speaking of training, didn’t you send your youngest student on training missions as well?’

Suramo chuckled and pulled a sheet of paper from his breast pocket and put it on the table. Ichiryuu picked it up, looked it over and said, ‘now isn’t it interesting that some of these ingredients exactly match with some of the ingredients I asked my boys to go and get. Ghost crawler or smoke lizard is the same creature on Coco’s list. Parsifal peacock is on Sunny’s list, Calcic bear is on Toriko’s list, as is the bubble fruit.’ Suramo nodded, ‘indeed they are. Mathew’s a good hunter, as are those boys of yours. But I do think they could learn to rely on teamwork some more. Especially a certain individual who Mathew’s sure to seek out.’

Ichiryuu looked at the list again, than at Itachi, before grinning and starting to chuckle, ‘so that’s what you meant with Itachi being here being a nice coincidence.’ Itachi’s frown grew deeper, ‘what do you mean by that?’ he took the list from the president, looked it over and saw a fish ingredient. He frowned, than remembered Mathew had met with the young heavenly kings in their youth, as well as his own daughter Shiroitora. He looked up at Suramo, ‘if you mean that beastly student of yours is coming to my daughter,…’ Suramo nodded, ‘indeed he is. no one but she can help him with that particular ingredient. And where I’m sure she would say she could handle it by herself, she could really learn to appreciate some teamwork.’

Ichiryuu spoke up, before Itachi could say something, ‘so, where’s our little predator at the moment?’ Suramo had a piece of cake from the table before drinking some more booze, ‘oh Mathew’s hunting a very elusive poisonous creature that might be out on a hunt itself. He’s tracking down Coco.’

{somewhere in the skies to the east}

Mathew and Seto sat on Blitz’s back as the shadow dragon flew through the skies. Flying next to them was a large bird, an emperor crow. Coco was sitting on his animal partner Kiss’ back and looked to his side, ‘Mathew, I’m not doing telling you your fortune or where to find a dangerous creature that could potentially kill you! I’m busy hunting at the moment.’ Mathew nodded, ‘I know. Old man Suramo suspected you were. The ghost crawler, also known as the smoke lizard. That’s what you’re after right?’ Coco looked surprised to hear Mathew say that, before nodding. Seto spoke through soul touch, “well Mathew has some training ingredients as well. and that just so happens to be one of them. and with us being partners, I’m accompanying him. and while I’m sure the two of you can cook, having a chef accompany you is a good improvement.”

Coco sighed, ‘I take it you won’t take no for an answer?’ Mathew shrugged, ‘hey, we’re both after the same creature. It has a high capture level. we might just as well help each other.’ Coco shrugged, ‘very well. it’s been a while since you and I hunted together. I just hope I don’t slow you down too much.’ Mathew grinned, ‘last time was during our training days when Shiroitora was tagging along with us. so, how’s it going with her since you fell in the water during that storm?’ Coco sighed, ‘not so well I’m afraid. My poison’s have weakened her and I’m afraid they may have even damaged her gourmet cells as he intimidation has changed as well. though she does seem to be getting better bit by bit.’

Mathew nodded, ‘that’s good to know. I’m planning to go hunting with her as well. would be better if she’s capable of joining me while she’s getting stronger.’ Coco nodded, ‘agreed. But I advice you not to be hasty with these training ingredients. They’re meant to test us and force our gourmet cells to evolve. So before going onto another hunt after this one, I advice some rest.’ Seto nodded, “agreed. That will give our gourmet cells time to adapt to the rest of our bodies and vice versa.”

Coco looked at Seto, ‘you have some interesting electromagnetic waves emanating from yourself. You seem both powerful and skilled. I can tell; you will greatly improve your cooking skills.’ Mathew smiled, ‘and with that being said, our hunt begins!’

Blitz and Kiss started to descend and eventually landed near a broken down village. There were only a handful of people living here and a lot of smoke moved through the town, as well as around it. the mountain terrain around the town made it a strange location, but not less nice. Coco looked around, ‘it looks like this town’s been plagued by disease and monster attacks.’ Mathew smelled the air, ‘or both. I smell some form of poison in the smoke and dust around and in the town. Don’t forget what we’re hunting and what it’s capable of.’

Coco nodded, ‘the ghost crawler, or smoke lizard, can turn its physical body to smoke. This allows it to move through the air, unhindered by anything. As smoke, it can take on the nature of any gas it chooses. As such it can become poison of any kind. and with the disease on the smoke hanging around here, I think we’ve found the creature’s territory.’ Mathew nodded, ‘and then there’s this creature’s diet. It only eats creatures that are already dying. That’s why it poisons them, usually slowly, making it worse bit by bit. And when they’re so sick they’re almost dying, it strikes and eats its prey.’ Seto tapped his staff onto the ground, “and from the souls I sense in the city, all of them are sick and the food’s not all that good either. Luckily, once it’s caught, killed and prepared into food, it also becomes medicine for all the diseases it has made.”

Coco looked at the city and wondered if there was more to this training request of the president than just training. Helping this poor town could very well be and addition to the training, or maybe even the main reason why this creature was on his list.

Mathew remembered his studies on this creature, ‘this creature likes to strike at night. Sun will set in about an hour. So let’s go into town, ask for the creature we’re after and see what they can tell us. what these people need now, more than a cure, is hope. Hope for change, hope that we can catch this creature and cure them.’ Coco smiled, ‘you always have such an easy way of doing things. But you are right. Let’s go.’ As they walked in, Coco remembered one their past experiences.

{in the past; the garden}

Mathew had come by to train with the kings again. Shiroitora was here as well, but she sat with her mother, watching the boys. Mathew, wanting to see how much stronger everyone had become. As such, they should go after a capture level 15 creature, together. As Toriko smelled it, Mathew followed its tracks and Coco looked for any signs of movement of their prey. Zebra listened for it and Sunny wondered if his hair would survive this clash. As they searched, Mathew spoke about ways to go about taking this creature down, as if it was already ensured that they were going to succeed.

catching the beast in question was a lot harder than Mathew had made it sound. Especially since all five of them followed one of the other plans, but in their own way. Though with five of them and only one of their prey, they managed to tire it out, before finally subduing it. in the end Mathew acted as if it had been like a walk in the park, while he was sweating and out of breath.

{present time}

the three went into town and asked around about a creature coming in and causing the destruction outside. Seto stayed at a distance. Since he appeared blind, deaf and mute, people wouldn’t presume he had a way to speak. But as he stood at a distance, with his soul touch he could follow the conversations. People hadn’t really seen any creature of sort, but they had noticed lizard like shadows moving around, as well as how the smoke in this town took on different colors during each hour of the night. And with these two gourmet hunters asking about a ghost like creature, they feared their town might be haunted.

but, with the promise of both hunters to capture this creature and that the meat of this beast would cure all the diseases it had created, people were really putting their faith in both hunters. And as the night set in, Coco looked at the town from atop Kiss, while Mathew patrolled through the town, smelling the air. Seto stood atop a building, staying in soul touch with both Mathew and Coco, allowing them to talk to each other as well.

and than Coco saw a dark purple fog approach from the north, coming down the mountain. Its electromagnetic waves were ominous and if it wasn’t stopped, it would cause the death of two people in this town. He spoke to Mathew through Seto, ‘“Mathew, smoke is coming down from the north mountain and is headed toward the village. There’s life in the smoke.”’ Mathew turned to the mountain, smelled the air and indeed smelled the scent of several toxins coming near. He nodded, ‘“I smell it Coco. Shall we act now?”’ Seto, “no, not yet. You two are our trump cards. Allow me to attack first, use the wind to blow it away. as it’s smoke, I should be able to do that. next step comes after that.”

the hunters agreed and Seto road the wind’s back to the north side of town where he sensed the smoke approach. There was the soul of a creature inside it. he swung his staff at it, creating a ball of spinning wind, sending it, hitting it and blowing it up the mountain. As the smoke landed there, the smoke form changed and a large dark salamander took shape, before rushing down the mountain, much faster than it had done in smoke form.

Seto nodded and Mathew rushed by him in beast mode. As he reached the capture level 70 ghost crawler/smoke lizard, he bashed it away with a turtle stomp. The lizard crashed into the mountain before jumping up and turning into sea-foam green smoke and blowing toward Mathew. Coco jumped down from Kiss and landed in the smoke. It was a smoke that slowly rotted away one’s flesh. It started burning right away as it touched their skins, but Coco also took it in much faster, analyzed it and started producing anti bodies.

as the lizard noticed this, it blew away from Coco, shortly landed in physical form, receiving a quick slash from Mathew’s tiger claw. If not for its strong scales, it would have been a fatal blow. As it jumped away, it turned into smoke again, this time it was pure black smoke. Mathew and Coco nodded and Seto said what they were thinking, having caught up with them, “before it changes into a different poison, it needs to become physical first.”

the black smoke descended on them, but it seemed more moist than the other smoke, which had been dry. Could this have been because Mathew had slashed it, causing it to bleed? Seto blew the black smoke away with his wind, but then the smoke split into two, going after the trio again. Mathew, seeing how Seto’s wind was effective, wondered how this next attack would affect it. he brought back his right hand, stretched his claws, drew air onto his claw, before lashing out twice at both approaching black clouds, ‘tiger wind claw!’

two claws of wind cut through the smoke clouds. But as they were hit, the two black clouds quickly gathered into one and turned into the lizard again. it now had three slash marks, where before it only had one. As it had become physical, Coco had prepared and now attacked, ‘poison dressing!’ he splashed poison onto the lizard, who squirmed under its paralyzing effect, before turning into pink smoke and attacking once more. But it moved a lot slower. And as it reached them, it was even more moist than before. its physical body bleeding had an effect on its smoke.

this pink smoke seemed to work like it was suffocating them, trying to kill them by entering their lungs. Coco took in this poison as well and made antibodies again and breathed a bit easier. Mathew held his breath, while building up power. And as Seto blew the pink smoke away with a small twister, he was ready to unleash it. Coco too was ready to finish it. as the pink smoke landed, it turned into its lizard form again, Mathew attack, slashing it with a burning phoenix wing, while Coco slashed it with his poison katana.

both attacks on their own would have done devastating damage. Combined the lizard couldn’t stand up to them. as it fell down, its blood momentarily turned into bright purple smoke. As it did, Coco pulled Mathew away, ‘that’s highly toxic smoke. It tries to take us along with it!’ Mathew nodded and waited for the smoke to vanish. As it turned back into blood and Coco said it was safe, Mathew let Seto step forward.

Seto took out his cooking utensils and Coco noticed his knife was shining like Komatsu’s knife. Seto was a chef that took good care of his knife as well. and as Seto started cooking Coco stood amazed, as he saw how precise Seto was working. There were still some poisonous cores within the body that had to be purified before being cooked and Seto seemed to do it effortlessly. But this was only at first glance. Seeing the sweat on his forehead, Coco could see how concentrated he was working.

Seto grilled the poisoned pieces of meat, disinfecting it. and he served up the ghost crawler as several different dishes; grilled burgers, roasted chunks of meat, slices of baked meat and even the organs had been prepared into a multitude of dishes, including intestinal sausages. With the right spices and the right cooking, anything could be made delicious, according to Seto.

they brought the food to the towns people who had not gone to sleep, as they heard the battle outside of town. Both the hunters seemed a bit damaged, but with the many plates of food they had with them, as well as the lizard’s hide, they had proof they had taken down the lizard. And with the purified cores cooked along with the meat, the dishes would most certainly cure all the people. Everyone gave their thanks and happily ate the food. As they ate, Mathew noticed his poison resistance grow stronger, as well as his immunity system. Having withstood some poisons and having fought against a creature that could turn into smoke, this dish was both delicious and rewarding. His and Coco’s wounds closed. That was two dishes down, six more to go.