Gourmet World – Unknown Sector: Azure Fang Forest
The transition was not a gentle one.
One moment, they were in the cockpit of the *Raijin-1*, the familiar hum of its chakra reactor a comforting constant. The next, space itself seemed to writhe around the vehicle. Through the viewport, the starry void of the dimensional corridor shattered into a kaleidoscope of impossible colors—emerald greens deeper than any forest, blues that pulsed like a living heart, streaks of violet that tasted of ozone and raw creation. There was no sound, only a pressure that made their bones vibrate.
Indra's hands flew over the controls, his Sharingan active, analyzing the chaotic spatial data. Rias gripped her seat, her knuckles white, her own senses—sharpened by Uzumaki vitality and Fanalis heritage—screaming at the sheer density of the energy flooding into the cabin.
Indra: "Brace! Reality anchor stabilizing… now!"
With a final, gut-wrenching lurch, the colors resolved. The *Raijin-1* shot out of a shimmering tear in the sky above a world that defied every parameter in its database.
The first shock was gravity.
It hit them like a physical blow. The *Raijin-1*, designed to handle the harsh conditions of the Elemental Nations, groaned in protest. Alarms blared as its structural integrity seals flared to life. Outside, the world wasn't just below them—it felt like it was pulling them down with the intent to crush.
Rias: "Gah! What is—? It feels like the training chamber on maximum!"
Indra: "Worse. Initial estimate… 48 to 50 times standard Earth gravity. The air density is compensating, but… this is insane."
He fought the controls, the vehicle descending in a controlled, straining crash-course towards what looked like a forest. But 'forest' was too small a word. The trees were titans. Trunks wider than the Hokage Tower stretched kilometres into a sky choked with vibrant, bioluminescent moss that hung from branches like colossal beards. The 'canopy' was a layered ecosystem of its own, with floating landmasses, waterfalls that flowed upwards, and vines thick enough to tunnel through.
The second shock was the sensory overload.
Even through the filtered viewport and dampening seals, their enhanced senses were bombarded.
Smell: A riot of a million scents—sweet, decaying, metallic, spicy, floral, meaty—all at once. It was like being punched in the nose by an entire ecosystem's perfume counter.
Sound: A deep, planetary hum underpinned everything. Over it, cries, roars, chitters, and rumbles from creatures whose voices conveyed sheer physical power. The rustle of leaves sounded like the crashing of waves on stone.
Sight: Colors were hyper-saturated. Plants glowed with internal light. The very air seemed to shimmer with motes of energy that their chakra senses interpreted as a low-grade, ambient radiation—Appetite Energy.
Chakra Sense: It was chaos. In their world, chakra was a clear signal, a readable energy. Here, everything pulsed with a wild, hungry, physical energy that intertwined with life force in a way chakra didn't. It was disorienting, like trying to listen to a single conversation in a stadium of screaming fans.
The *Raijin-1* landed with a heavy thud, its gravity-compensation systems whining in protest, on a relatively clear patch of vibrant blue grass that felt spongy yet resilient under its weight. The hatch hissed open.
The wave of unfiltered Gourmet World hit them.
Indra staggered, catching himself on the doorframe. His Eternal Mangekyō spun instinctively, not from threat, but to process the overwhelming visual and spatial data. Rias took a deep, involuntary breath and nearly choked on the richness of the air.
Rias: "By the Sage… Indra, the air… it's like breathing liquid energy."
Indra: (His voice tight with focus) "Hyper-oxygenated, saturated with bio-particles and that unknown energy field. Our bodies are going to need to adapt. Quickly."
They stepped out. The grass came up to their knees. Each step was a conscious effort, as if wading through deep water made of inertia. A simple jump that would have taken them to a treetop in their world barely cleared their own height here.
Indra immediately raised a hand. "Sensor Array: Full Spectrum Deployment." A pulse of chakra, woven with Uzumaki sealing principles, expanded from him in a sphere. It wasn't just mapping chakra; it was trying to quantify everything—gravity gradients, thermal signatures, energy densities, biological mass.
The data that flooded back into his mind via his Dojutsu and system interface was staggering.
[System Alert: Hostile environment detected. Gravity: 49.8x Standard. Atmospheric Pressure: 8.2x Standard. Ambient Energy Field: 'Appetite Energy' detected. Compatibility: Unknown. Threat Level of Local Biosphere: Cataclysmic.]
[Alert: Local life forms possess energy signatures that dwarf average S-rank shinobi chakra reserves. Proceed with extreme caution.]
Rias: (Looking around, spear materializing in her hand from its hairpin form) "It's… beautiful. And terrifying. Where do we even start?"
Indra: "We start by securing a perimeter and testing our capabilities against this environment. Then, we find food and water that won't kill us. Our supplies are for emergencies only."
He closed his eyes, accessing his Inner World. With a thought, he summoned two small, sleek devices—personal gravity regulators, advanced versions of his Kumo training tech. He handed one to Rias.
Indra: "Wear this. It'll help your body adjust by dynamically counteracting 90% of the local gravity, scaling down as we acclimate. We need to train in this gravity, but not die from a misstep."
They attached the devices to their belts. A faint hum, and the crushing weight lifted slightly, bringing them to a manageable, if still heavy, 5x gravity. The relief was immediate, but Indra knew it was a crutch. The goal was to function without it.
For the next hour, they performed basic exercises. Kata, chakra enhancement, simple jumps. Every motion felt sluggish, expensive. Channeling chakra was different—the dense, hungry Appetite Energy in the atmosphere seemed to resist it, making techniques less efficient, forcing more chakra for lesser effect.
Rias: (Panting after a series of spear thrusts) "My chakra is draining twice as fast just to reinforce my muscles. This energy… it pushes back."
Indra: (Nodding, analyzing a flicker of lightning on his fingertip) "It's not malevolent. It's just… more. More physical, more demanding. Our chakra is spiritual energy mixed with physical. This Appetite Energy seems to be physical life force made manifest. We need to learn to use it, or work with it, not just fight against it."
His musing was cut short by a new sensor ping. Something big, fast, and radiating a sharp, aggressive form of that Appetite Energy was moving towards them, a blur of predatory intent cutting through the sensory noise.
Indra: "Contact. Northwest, 800 meters. Closing fast. Single entity. Energy signature… formidable."
Rias shifted her stance, her spear's tip glowing with a ready infusion of Wind-nature chakra. Indra didn't draw a weapon. His hands remained at his sides, but the air around him crackled with barely restrained power.
From between two gargantuan, spiraling trees, it emerged.
The creature was a masterpiece of predatory evolution. It stood eight meters at the shoulder, its form that of a sleek, muscular sabertooth, but scaled to a titan. Its fur was a deep, storm-grey, crackling with arcs of blue-white energy that leapt from its body to the ground, scorching the resilient grass. Its most prominent features were two curved, crystalline tusks that gleamed like lightning rods, each longer than Indra was tall. Its eyes were pools of condensed electricity, fixed on them with intelligent, hungry focus.
[Sensor Analysis: 'Thunderfang Sabertooth.' Estimated Capture Level: 120. Primary Energy: Lightning-Aspected Appetite Energy. Threat Assessment: High.]
Capture Level 120. The term from Indra's pre-jump research flashed in his mind. In this world, it denoted a threat that would require a large, well-equipped military force to subdue. This was their first real test.
The beast didn't roar. It crackled. A sound like a thousand lightning strikes compressed into a visceral hum. It lowered its head, its crackling tusks aimed at them.
Rias: "Well, it's not sending a welcome committee."
Indra: "It senses foreign energy. Chakra. We're anomalies. Don't use large-scale ninjutsu. We don't know how the local energy will react. Close quarters, precision. Its energy is lightning-based. We can use that."
The Sabertooth charged. It was terrifyingly fast even in the high gravity, moving in a blur of grey and blue. It wasn't just running; it was riding the arcs of its own lightning, skating across the ground.
Indra's Sharingan whirled. "Palkia: Spatial Warp."
The space in front of the charging beast folded. It didn't stop it, but it redirected its trajectory, sending it crashing into a giant fungal stalk to their left with a thunderous impact and a shower of sparkling spores.
It shook off the hit, enraged. It opened its maw, and a sphere of crackling blue Appetite Energy—a raw, violent bolt of hunger given form—coalesced and fired.
Indra: "Rias, now!"
Rias was already moving. She didn't try to block it. She used her spear as a conduit, activating a sealing array etched along its shaft. "Uzumaki Art: Energy Redirect!"
The lightning sphere struck her spear tip. For a second, her arms trembled under the force—it wasn't just energy, it had immense physical mass and will behind it. The seals flared, absorbing a fraction of the impact and siphoning the energy. With a grunt, she pivoted and hurled the now-charged spear like a javelin, not at the beast, but at the ground in front of it.
The spear struck earth, and the redirected lightning-energy erupted in a localized EM pulse and a cage of arcing tendrils, stunning the creature and scrambling its own energy field.
This was their opening.
Indra blurred forward, his body enhanced to its limits. He didn't use Lightning Release; he used pure, refined Wind Release: Vacuum Blade, compressing air into a monomolecular edge. He aimed not for the skull, but for the tendons on its rear leg.
The Sabertooth, despite its stunning, had instincts born of millennia in this hellish jungle. It twisted, and Indra's blade sheared through muscle and crackling fur, but not deep enough to cripple. A paw the size of a cart swiped at him, trailing lightning.
"Dialga: Micro-temporal Deceleration."
The world didn't freeze, but for Indra, the paw's movement slowed to a crawl. He flowed under it, delivering two more precise Wind-enhanced strikes to the same leg. Bone cracked.
The beast screamed—a true sound of pain now, a physical shockwave of sound and lightning that blew back the surrounding foliage. It buckled, its wounded leg giving out.
Rias recalled her spear. It flew to her hand, and she charged, her body a blur of red hair and determined motion. She didn't aim for the heart. She aimed for the base of the skull, where the spinal cord met the brain, a target any hunter of large game knew.
The Sabertooth, in its pain and rage, unleashed its final gambit. Its entire body became a conduit. The ambient Appetite Energy in the air rushed into it, and it prepared to detonate in a sphere of annihilating lightning.
Indra saw it coming. A direct explosion would vaporize them even through their defenses.
He raised both hands. Not for an attack. For a seal.
"Uzumaki Secret Art: Eight Trigrams Sealing Style – Containing Vortex!"
A massive, spiraling seal diagram erupted on the ground beneath the beast, glowing gold. It wasn't designed to seal a Biju, but to contain and compress a violent outburst of energy. The building detonation was sucked downwards into the seal, contained in a swirling, screaming ball of light for a crucial second.
That second was all Rias needed.
Her spear, fuelled by her own formidable chakra and the latent strength of her Fanalis blood, shot forward. It didn't pierce; it impacted. The Adamantium-Ore tip, enhanced by her will and Wind chakra, struck the precise point with the force of a bunker buster.
There was a sickening crunch, a final, fading crackle of lightning, and the massive beast went still, collapsing like a felled mountain.
Silence, save for their ragged breathing and the ever-present hum of the forest.
They stood over their kill, adrenaline fading, replaced by the sheer enormity of what they'd just done. They'd defeated a creature of legend using teamwork, precision, and adapted strategy, not overwhelming power. In this world, their S-rank status meant little. They were beginners again.
Rias: (Leaning on her spear, sweat plastering her hair to her forehead) "That… was harder than fighting a ROOT platoon."
Indra: (Dispelling his Dōjutsu, a look of intense analysis on his face) "Its energy system… it drew power directly from the environment, from its own hunger. Fascinating. And inefficient. It was all brute force. We won because we were smarter."
He approached the carcass. The Appetite Energy was fading, but the meat… it gleamed. It looked marbled with streaks of blue lightning, radiating a tantalizing aroma that made his stomach growl fiercely, a hunger deeper than any he'd felt before.
[System Alert: High-density biological materials detected. Saturated with 'Appetite Energy.' Consumption likely to trigger physiological adaptation. Proceed with analysis.]
Indra: "Our first meal. Let's see what this world's food does."
Using a chakra scalp, he carefully butchered a large haunch of meat. He then used a combination of Fire Release (carefully controlled) and a Purification Seal to cook and cleanse it. The smell that arose was indescribable—meaty, electric, deeply Savory, with an undertone of ozone and spice. It made their mouths water uncontrollably.
They sat on a clean rock, the colossal forest around them, and ate.
The first bite was a revelation.
It wasn't just food. It was an experience. The texture was impossibly tender yet substantial. The flavour exploded in layers—rich umami, a clean, electric tang, a satisfying sweetness. But more than that, as they swallowed, they felt it.
A warmth spread from their stomachs, not the gentle warmth of good food, but a burning, energizing heat that flowed into their muscles, their bones, their very cells. It was the Appetite Energy, being metabolized.
Rias: "Oh… oh my. Indra, do you feel that? It's like… my cells are singing."
Indra: (His eyes wide, his analytical mind racing) "Yes. It's bypassing the normal digestive process. The energy is integrating directly into our cellular structure. Look."
He held out his arm. The muscles, already defined, seemed to ripple subtly, becoming denser, the fibres visibly rearranging under the skin with a faint, golden glow. He felt a surge of strength, of vitality. His chakra pools, drained from the fight, didn't just refill; they expanded, the coils in his network humming with a new, potent vibrancy.
Rias gasped. She held up her own hand, watching as the contours of her forearm became more sculpted, her skin taking on a healthier, almost luminous glow. The fatigue from the gravity and the fight melted away, replaced by a buzzing, eager energy.
[System Notification: Host has metabolized high-grade Appetite Energy. Physiological integration initiated.]
[Analysis: Cellular regeneration rate increased by 15%. Muscular density increasing. Chakra network capacity expanding. Neural efficiency enhanced. Symbiosis with local energy field has begun.]
[New Energy Interface Detected: 'Appetite-Chakra Hybridization' in progress. 1% complete.]
Indra: "This… this is the core of this world's power. Not just training in harsh conditions, but consumption. You literally eat your way to strength. The hunger, the Appetite… it's not a metaphor. It's the engine."
He looked at Rias, seeing the same awe and understanding in her eyes. They had just taken their first, irrevocable step into becoming something new. They were no longer just shinobi in a strange land. They were becoming Gourmet Warriors.
---
The next few days were a cycle of intense, focused activity.
First: Base Camp.
They couldn't live in the *Raijin-1* forever. Using a combination of Earth Release, Wood Release (via his Hashirama-cell enhanced biology), and intricate Uzumaki Barrier Fuinjutsu, Indra constructed a hidden fortress.
It was built into the side of a giant, hollow root system from one of the mega-trees. From the outside, it was indistinguishable from the surrounding wood and fungus. Inside, it was a marvel of compact, efficient design.
A main living chamber, climate-controlled by subtle fire and wind seals. A sealed laboratory for Indra, equipped with basic analytical tools summoned from his Inner World. A training area with adjustable gravity (he upgraded their personal regulators to create a localized field up to 100x gravity). A secure storage vault for samples and their dwindling supplies from home. Most importantly, a multi-layered barrier seal that masked their chakra signatures and emitted a "nothing to see here" psychic pulse to most wildlife, keyed to the local Appetite Energy frequencies. It wouldn't stop a determined, intelligent predator, but it would keep the local fauna from treating their home like a snack bar.
Second: Systematic Study.
Indra's scientific mind shifted into high gear. This was a new universe with new rules. He needed data.
Flora & Fauna Catalog, Entry #1-25: They began cautiously exploring a 10-kilometer radius. Every plant, fungus, insect, and small creature was documented. #1: Spark-Moss: Glowing moss that stores static electricity. CL 2. Edible, tastes like spicy popcorn, provides mild energy boost. #5: Azure Sap Vine: Produces a thick, sweet sap with powerful regenerative properties. CL 15 to harvest (vines fight back). Key ingredient for first-aid. #12: Iron-Hide Tortoise: A slow-moving reptile with a shell harder than steel. CL 50. Meat is incredibly tough but rich in minerals. Broth strengthens bones. #18: Whisper-Willow: A tree whose leaves make calming, psychic-harmony sounds when wind passes through. CL N/A. Environment modifier. #25: Blaze-Berry Bush: Berries that combust when chewed, releasing flavors and heat energy. CL 30 to harvest (thorns inject neurotoxin). Incredible stamina food. Energy Analysis: Indra spent hours in meditation and in his lab, studying Appetite Energy. He discovered it was less about "control" like chakra, and more about compatibility and flow. You couldn't mold it with hand signs. You had to want it, to hunger for it, and let your body become a conduit. His chakra, particularly his Lightning and Yang-natured chakra, showed the highest affinity for interfacing with it.
[System Notification: Appetite-Chakra Hybridization: 5%. Host's 'Creation' ability now interfaces with local energy. Efficiency increased.]
Physical Changes: The constant high gravity and the rich diet were transforming them. Within a week, their muscle density had increased by 300%. They were not bulkier, but infinitely more compact, powerful. Rias could now wield her massive spear with one hand in the 5x gravity setting as if it were a twig. Indra found his base speed and strength, even without chakra enhancement, rivaling his previous fully-enhanced state. Their senses grew sharper, able to parse the overwhelming input of the forest into useful data.
Third: Training Evolution.
Their sparring sessions changed. They began practicing channeling Appetite Energy alongside chakra.
Rias found she could imbue her spear strikes not just with Wind or Lightning chakra, but with a physical impact force drawn from the environment, making each hit feel like a small meteor strike. Indra experimented with his new energy. A Lightning Release: Chidori, when blended with raw, hungry Appetite Energy, became less a precise piercing tool and more a vibrating, devouring drill of energy that tore through matter on a molecular level. He dubbed it "Lightning Release: Gourmet Spear." They also trained their minds. The sensory overload was a weapon. They practiced filtering, focusing, using the constant barrage of information to predict weather patterns, creature movements, and energy flows.
One week after arrival. A new sector.
They had used the *Raijin-1* for a short, cautious hop to a different region to broaden their sample base. The vehicle's sensors had indicated an area of even higher gravity and strange mineral deposits.
They emerged into a landscape of jagged, metallic crystal spires under a violet sky. The air was thinner, sharper. Indra's sensor immediately screamed a warning.
Indra: "Gravity spike! 80x local standard! Activate full personal compensation now!"
They hit the regulators. But the gravity here was active, pulsing. It wasn't just weight; it was a crushing, directional force that sought to flatten them into the glittering ground.
Rias: "I can't— my feet are sinking into the crystal!"
Before they could fully adapt, a shadow blotted out the strange sun.
It descended from the violet haze—a bird, but a bird made of condensed gravity and malice. Its feathers were like polished obsidian, reflecting distorted images. Its wingspan was that of a small village. Its eyes were voids that seemed to suck in the light. It didn't flap; it glided on tides of distorted space.
[Sensor Analysis: 'Gravity Condor.' Estimated Capture Level: 180. Primary Energy: Gravity-Aspected Appetite Energy. Threat Assessment: Extreme. Lethal.]
This was not an enemy to fight. This was a force of nature.
The Condor's mere passage overhead increased the gravity to 100x. The *Raijin-1's* hull groaned. Cracks appeared in the crystal ground beneath them.
It turned one void-like eye towards them. Not with hunger, but with the casual interest of a giant noticing a curious insect.
A single, silent pulse emanated from it.
The world flattened.
It was a wave of pure gravitational compression. The air itself became a wall of infinite weight. Indra's barriers, his Space-time techniques—they all required a fraction of a second to activate, a thought. This wave gave no time. It was instant, absolute.
In that nanosecond before oblivion, two things happened.
Rias, driven by Fanalis instinct and Uzumaki stubbornness, did not try to resist. She leaned into it. She channeled every ounce of her newfound hybrid energy not to push back, but to reinforce her body on a cellular level, to become as dense and unbreakable as the very crystals trying to crush her. She became an anchor.
Indra's mind, accelerated by his Dojutsu and the Von Doom template's ruthless logic, did not calculate escape. It calculated survival. Direct defense was impossible. So, he didn't defend. He redirected.
"Inner World: Emergency Ingress!"
It wasn't a summoning. It was a desperate, costly yank on the fabric of his personal dimension. As the gravity wave hit, he didn't try to stop it from crushing them. He opened a microscopic, temporary rift around them and funneled 99% of the compressive force into a barren, sacrificial quadrant of his Inner World.
The cost was catastrophic. A continent's worth of landscape in his Inner World was instantly compressed into a neutron-star density marble. The backlash tore through his chakra system. He felt ribs crack, capillaries burst.
But they lived.
The wave passed. The Gravity Condor, seeing the insects still moving (if broken), lost interest and soared away, seeking larger prey.
They lay in the shattered crystal dust, bleeding, gasping. The *Raijin-1* was critically damaged, half-crushed.
Rias: (Spitting out blood that glittered with crystal dust) "...Okay. That was... a lesson."
Indra: (Voice ragged, a healing glow already starting around his ribs as his regeneration fought the gravity-suppressed damage) "A lesson in humility. CL 180... is a different league. We survived by the skin of our teeth and a trick that won't work twice. We are not hunters here. Not yet. We are prey."
It was a sobering, vital realization. The Gourmet World had just shown them its true scale.
They spent the next two days in hiding, repairing their bodies and their vehicle. They ate the stored Thunderfang meat, their bodies craving its energy to heal. The near-death experience, coupled with the intense energy consumption, accelerated their hybridization.
[System Notification: Appetite-Chakra Hybridization: 12%. Host's cellular structure now passively absorbs ambient Appetite Energy for basic maintenance. Regeneration speed in Gourmet World increased by 50%.]
[Template Synergy Note: Victor Von Doom template progression (39%) resonates with 'sovereign adaptation' and 'survival through superior understanding.']
Back at the Azure Fang Base, Day 15.
They had returned, humbled but wiser. The Gravity Condor encounter had reshaped their goals. Reckless exploration was suicide. They needed a foundation.
Indra stood in his lab, a holographic display showing the complex energy readings from a Blaze-Berry. Rias was in the training room, slowly practicing spear forms under 30x gravity, her movements fluid where once they were strained.
Indra's POV –
The data streams were beautiful. Appetite Energy wasn't random. It had types, affinities—Lightning, Gravity, Fire, Regeneration, Psychic. It interacted with matter in predictable, if incredibly potent, ways. His Creation ability, fueled by chakra, had always felt like… imposition. Forcing reality to accept a new shape. Here, with the hybrid energy, it felt different. When he tried to create a simple knife now, he didn't just impose the concept of 'sharpness' and 'metal.' He found himself unconsciously pulling trace minerals from the air, aligning their atomic structure with the local 'Hardness' aspect of Appetite Energy. The resulting blade was not just sharp; it was naturally monomolecular, a product of this world's physics.
This is the key, he thought, not for the first time. Not to fight this world's energy, but to understand its language. To let my will express itself through its grammar. Doom would see this as the ultimate form of control—not dominating a system, but becoming its most fluent speaker, its architect within the rules.
He looked at the system notification about the template. It wasn't about building castles in the sky anymore. It was about building a self that could thrive in any sky, no matter how violent. That was true sovereignty.
A soft chime. His analysis of the Azure Sap was complete. The regenerative properties weren't just biochemical. They were tied to a "Vitality-Type" Appetite Energy that encouraged cellular replication and harmony. He could synthesize this. He could make a healing salve ten times more potent than anything in the Elemental Nations, without using any chakra.
He walked into the training room. Rias finished a devastating thrust that created a sonic boom in the dense air, then turned, not even breathing heavily.
Indra: "We've been reacting. Surviving. It's time to start building our methodology."
Rias: (Wiping sweat that evaporated almost instantly in her heightened body heat) "What do you have in mind?"
Indra: "A curriculum. Phase One: Full Acclimation. We train until our bodies operate at peak efficiency in 50x gravity without aids. We catalog and safely consume every flora and fauna up to CL 100 in this region, mapping their energy effects on our biology. Phase Two: Energy Mastery. We move beyond channelling to truly wielding hybrid energy. Developing our own 'Gourmet Techniques.' Phase Three: Active Hunting. We deliberately seek out and subdue creatures between CL 100 and 150, using strategy and our growing power."
Rias: "And the Condor?"
Indra: "That's Phase Four. And it's a long way off. But we will get there. Not by being stronger than it in its terms, but by being smarter, more adaptable. By turning the rules of this world into our weapons."
He handed her a small vial of iridescent gel. "Regenerative salve, synthesized from the Azure Sap and Blaze-Berry enzymes. Appetite Energy-based. Should heal that crystal-burn on your shoulder in minutes."
Rias took it, a smile touching her lips. It wasn't just the gift. It was the evidence. They weren't just surviving. They were learning. They were adapting. In the heart of the most dangerous place imaginable, they were doing what they did best: building, innovating, growing stronger together.
She applied the salve. A warm, tingling sensation spread, and the faint, crystalline scar tissue melted away, leaving perfect skin.
Rias: "You know, for a hell-world, it has its perks."
Indra: (A rare, genuine smile) "It's a world of extreme challenges and extreme rewards. A place where effort and risk are directly metabolized into power. In a way, it's the purest expression of the shinobi path we ever left behind—survival of the fittest, evolution through struggle. Only here, the ceiling is… astronomical."
He looked out through a one-way seal-window at the gargantuan, glowing forest. Somewhere out there were creatures that could crush mountains, fruits that could grant eternal youth, energies that could rewrite biology. They had one year.
"Let's get to work, Rias. Our first Gourmet Year begins now."
End of Chapter – 53.