"Could it be some kind of hidden ingredient—one we've never discovered before?"
Granny Ayame stared at the Air Tree in confusion. None of them approached it. The air density around the tree was far too high; getting close would affect the body.
That kind of pressure didn't mean much to Setsuno, but she wasn't about to walk into something problematic on purpose—especially when she wasn't the one who had heard the ingredient's voice.
"Kael," Setsuno said, turning to him, "since you're the one who heard the ingredient's voice, you should know how to cook the Air Tree. I'll leave it to you."
She didn't dwell on it any longer. If the ingredient had called out to Kael, then the next step naturally fell to him. She was curious too—just what kind of ingredient an Air Tree really was.
Kael nodded. He held his breath and moved closer. Hearing the ingredient's voice didn't mean he was immune to the Air Tree's effects, so not breathing was necessary.
"I see," Kael muttered. "The method isn't difficult. But without hearing the ingredient's voice, no one would ever realize the Air Tree is food—just like the Sandoriko on the Seventh Continent."
As he stood before the Air Tree, it conveyed its preparation method to him. The process itself was surprisingly simple.
In the Gourmet World, there were many ingredients with low cooking difficulty that had gone undiscovered simply because no one knew they were food.
Following the Air Tree's instructions, Kael drew his knife and made several swift cuts into the trunk. Then he retreated from the area covered by the tree's air.
"That's it? It's already cooked?"
Setsuno and Ayame both looked puzzled. The process had been far too fast. As for failure, Setsuno never even considered the possibility.
She knew exactly how monstrous her disciple was. If Kael could fail even after hearing the ingredient's voice, then he wouldn't be Kael. The cooking had clearly succeeded.
"It's done," Kael said. "Now we wait. The fruits need time to merge."
The three of them watched the Air Tree. Soon, it released a massive amount of air—completely different from what a normal Air Tree produced.
As the air poured out, all the fruits began converging toward the center. People had tried eating Air Tree fruits before, only to conclude they were inedible. What they didn't know was that the fruits had to merge first.
The fruits fused rapidly, forming a single sphere about the size of a basketball. This was the true edible part of the Air Tree.
"So that's how it is," Setsuno said, enlightened. "The scattered fruits have to combine before they can be eaten. No wonder people thought they tasted awful."
Kael picked up the fruit and split it into three with a hand-blade. If no one else were around, he wouldn't mind eating it all himself—but with Setsuno and Ayame present, that wasn't an option.
"Why does it taste like nothing at all?" Ayame asked after taking a bite. "It's like drinking plain water."
"I didn't taste anything either," Setsuno said. Then realization struck her. "Ayame, have you heard the rumors about another?"
"Another?" Ayame froze. "You mean this is an ingredient that can only be tasted with a completely new sense of taste—one humans haven't awakened yet?"
As a veteran chef, Ayame knew about another. Eating it awakened a new sense of taste.
This world didn't only have humans—other species existed too. Human taste wasn't universal. What humans found delicious might be revolting to others, and what humans hated could be supreme delicacy to something else.
To gain other kinds of taste, humans needed another. It granted entirely new taste senses, to the point where everything in the world would taste delicious—even things no one should ever eat.
Fortunately, most people had limits.
Kael, Setsuno, and Ayame were different. Kael could taste it.
Not because he had awakened a new taste, but because the Blue Demon existed within him.
The Air Tree fruit could allow Toriko—when he was still weak—to let the Blue Demon fight for several minutes. That meant the Air Tree fruit belonged to the Blue Universe, a type of ingredient the Blue Demon favored.
Once a Gourmet Demon awakened, it became the host's appetite. What the host liked to eat, the demon liked as well. That was why Kael could taste the Air Tree fruit—because the Blue Demon was tasting it.
More than that, the Air Tree fruit awakened the Blue Demon inside Kael.
That was likely why the Air Tree had called out to him in the first place.
Kael inherited Toriko's legacy and possessed three Demons within him. But only the Red Demon had awakened from the start. The Blue Demon and the White Demon required specific ingredients.
For the Blue Demon, it was the Air Tree fruit. For the White Demon, it would be the Demon Clam from the Golden Labyrinth.
The Demon Clam wasn't something Kael even considered for now. Entering the Gourmet World was still far too dangerous for him—and even if the White Demon awakened, he couldn't use it yet.
Toriko's example was clear enough. After devouring the Red Demon, Toriko's cell level had already reached tens of thousands. And even then, the White Demon could only move once—just a single finger.
When the White Demon first awakened, both the Red and Blue Demons were on edge, warning it not to move at all.
Normally, Gourmet Demons shouldn't affect the host's body while in the consciousness space. The White Demon broke that rule. Even there, it couldn't move freely.
If it did, Toriko's body outside would collapse instantly.
So awakening the White Demon now would be nothing but trouble.
Kael had once thought he'd need to reach the Eighth Continent before awakening the Blue Demon. He hadn't expected it to happen here.
And there were plenty of Air Trees around. To Kael, that was incredible news. One fruit meant the Blue Demon could fight for a short time—a true trump card. He needed to stockpile these fruits.
That said, Kael had no intention of relying on the Blue Demon for everything. Toriko was the cautionary tale.
Letting the Blue Demon fight came at a heavy cost. When it battled the Heracles(horse King) in the original story, Toriko couldn't even move. The consumption was too extreme.
He could only stand there and watch.
Against top-tier enemies, that made him a sitting duck. If they couldn't handle the Blue Demon immediately, they could just kill the host instead.
One breath from the Heracles drained all the surrounding air. The Blue Demon didn't need air—but Toriko did. Once the host was endangered, the Blue Demon would be forced back into the consciousness space.
So the Blue Demon could only be used as a last-resort lifesaver—not something to rely on casually.
Still, having the Air Tree fruit meant having a trump card.
"That explains it," Setsuno said, sighing. "Only then does it make sense why the Air Tree fruit has no taste at all. What a pity."
Another was incredibly special. It could already be cooked—but only after eating Pair. And that was the real problem.
Pair could be eaten now, but it resided with Bambina. That alone made capturing it a nightmare.
Even the Blue Nitros failed repeatedly. Back then, Acacia had been poisoned by Sandoriko pollen and stumbled upon the Blue Nitro "Pair" after it had been critically wounded by Bambina.
Acacia devoured Pair to survive. Pair devoured Acacia to survive. And in doing so, it discovered the NEO within Acacia.
Capturing Pair was nearly impossible. Without eating Pair, one couldn't enter the Soul World. Without the Soul World, another couldn't be cooked. A perfect deadlock.
In theory, one could bring another out of the Soul World to cook it—but that was even harder than capturing Pair.
First, you'd need light-speed movement, because another moved at the speed of light. Without that, you'd be stuck chasing it in the Soul World for ten thousand years until it exhausted itself.
Even if you succeeded, there was still the cooking time.
Another could only be cooked in the Soul World because time there flowed differently. Decades or centuries inside equaled only an instant outside.
The Golden Chef had calculated that cooking another required six hundred thousand years.
For the Nitro, with their endless lifespans, that was fine.
For humans? Even letting hundreds of generations die while cooking wouldn't be enough.
In the end, Setsuno and Ayame could only leave it at that.
Kael stayed behind and collected more Air Tree fruits. Setsuno didn't comment. If the ingredient had guided Kael here, then it was clearly useful to him.
She didn't ask what it was for.
As long as her disciple could grow smoothly, that was enough.
Kael didn't explain either. It wasn't forbidden knowledge—but he didn't feel the need to share every secret he had.
This trip to the old First Biotope had been immensely beneficial. Beyond the massive haul of ingredients, the Corona Sunflower alone was priceless.
And now he had the Air Tree fruits—a trump card.
If he ever faced an enemy he couldn't beat, as long as they weren't on the level of Midora and the others, letting the Blue Demon loose would be enough to crush them.
Kael and Setsuno stayed a few more days. Old friends needed time to catch up.
After that, they left.
Setsuno had invited Ayame to leave with them. With the Hell Bees already captured by Kael, no one outside the IGO core would even know about this place.
But Ayame declined.
She was happy to see her old friend—but she had grown used to this life. She didn't want to deal with too many people anymore.
So she stayed behind.