Toriko: Gourmet Chat Group

Chapter 45: Embarrassing Erina

"Chocolate... marshmallows... nut cookies..."

"Oh my god?!"

Erina's nose twitched. The faint, sweet scent of various ingredients filled the spacious living room. Carving furniture from ingredients wasn't difficult, but practically no one would do it. After all, food, no matter how durable, was not suitable for furniture in terms of quality and longevity.

A vase carved from chocolate, a marshmallow throw pillow, a candy crystal chandelier, a cookie bookshelf, a honey-crystal coffee table... This kind of furniture usually only existed in storybooks and manga.

Kenji chuckled to himself. If she saw Toriko's Candy House, which is made entirely of ingredients, she'd probably have a heart attack.

"Won't furniture made of food spoil?" Erina couldn't help but ask.

"It might be a law of this world. For example, in your world, if the food is too delicious, it's like an aphrodisiac for the person eating it."

Kenji had also "appreciated" the Food Wars! anime. Unfortunately, many of the risqué scenes on streaming services had been censored, either with holy light or a black screen. You had to go to a browser to find the uncensored version.

"Huh?" Erina was taken aback. "Aphrodisiac"? What a crude description. Because that phenomenon was so common in her world, everyone was used to it. No one found it strange.

Kenji took out a tablet, which he had redeemed from the shop. He could upload memory fragments from his mind onto it.

Erina watched with curiosity.

In the first episode, after eating a delicious dish, the faces of two characters, Kurase and Minegasaki, were flushed, their eyes glazed over, and they let out a series of seductive moans, their legs involuntarily clamping together.

"No way... is that what happens in my world?" Erina's face was beet red, and her head was practically steaming. To behave so shamefully in public... it was indecent!

"Yes. Have you never noticed?" Kenji paused the video and asked with a smile. When you're the one eating, you don't think much of it. But to see it as a bystander... it was a social death.

Kenji hadn't even shown the clips of Erina's own reactions to delicious food. If he had, she would have been so embarrassed she would have dug herself a hole and fainted from shame.

"This..." Erina thought back. Her secretary, Hisako, often tasted her dishes, and her enraptured expressions were probably, maybe, possibly no different from the two in the anime. And during the Shokugeki competitions, when the chefs were particularly skilled, the judges' reactions were basically like they had taken an aphrodisiac.

Chotto matte...

Erina's face instantly turned pale, her expression crumbling. When she enjoyed a particularly satisfying dish, was her reaction... also like that?

"Ahem, let's just get to the cooking," Kenji coughed, worried that if Erina continued down this train of thought, she would let out a scream that would make NEO proud.

"What's the ingredient?" Erina took the offered out. She saw that the anime still had many episodes left and couldn't help but worry.

Kenji led Erina to the kitchen and took out ten Puffer Whales, all fresh and unpoisoned.

"Is this... a pufferfish?" Erina thought the shape looked familiar. In Japan, the poisonous pufferfish was a popular ingredient in some restaurants. If prepared correctly, it was exquisite. But if the poison wasn't completely removed, eating too much could be fatal, and there was no effective antidote. However, there were significant differences between a Puffer Whale and a pufferfish: the color, the fins, the length, the weight...

"The toxin of a Puffer Whale... just 0.2mg is enough to kill a person within 30 minutes to an hour. A miscalculation of even 1 millimeter in the cut will cause the fish to instantly turn toxic. The location of the poison sac is different in each fish, so the placement of the cut must also change. The taste of a Puffer Whale is many times more delicious than that of a regular pufferfish."

Kenji gave a simple introduction. This ingredient was a real challenge for a chef.

"Not even a millimeter of error..." Erina bit her red lip. That was an incredibly strict requirement. "This must be a very precious ingredient. Are you sure you want me to handle it?"

"I have plenty more," Kenji said nonchalantly. "I'm not a chef. Do you want to watch a video of a successful preparation?"

"...I'll try it myself first."

Erina went into a changing room and emerged in a white chef's uniform. Although it covered her from head to toe, it couldn't hide her figure. That chef's uniform is so round... no, I mean, that chef's uniform is so white.

"What a fine knife," she said.

She was using a knife from Kenji's kitchen, which Smile had procured. While it wasn't one forged by Melk, it was still a high-grade knife on the market. A good chef could tell the quality of a knife just by holding it, and it was the first time Erina had ever used such an excellent blade.

"Considering your physical strength is on the weaker side, this stamina potion produced by the IGO can temporarily boost your power," Kenji said, taking out a vial containing a clear blue liquid. It was an extract from some creature developed by the IGO research institute, which could enhance strength for a certain period of time with no side effects. It had almost no effect on him, but without it, Erina probably wouldn't even be able to cut the Puffer Whale.

To allay her suspicions, Kenji drank half of it himself. After confirming that he was fine, Erina used it. It had no taste, but her strength did indeed increase. She felt like she could kill a bull.

"!!"

The moment she made the first cut, even with her enhanced strength, Erina felt a surprising weight. The Puffer Whale only weighed about 7 kilograms, but it felt heavier than cutting a giant tuna. The flesh was incredibly firm, a sign that its essence and flavor were highly concentrated. It was the first time she had ever prepared such an ingredient. She now understood why Kenji had given her that potion; it really did require a considerable amount of strength to prepare.

"Oh no."

Due to her nervousness, her hand trembled, and the white Puffer Whale instantly turned toxic.

"There goes over ninety million yen," Kenji said nonchalantly. An unpoisoned Puffer Whale was worth at least 100 million, while a poisoned one was worth 8 million on the black market.

Erina blushed, embarrassed to have wasted such a precious ingredient. She silently cursed herself for being so careless.

"Don't worry about it. Here's a video of a successful preparation. It might give you some inspiration," Kenji said, handing his phone to Erina. He had gotten the video from Tina earlier.

Erina nodded and began to watch. She was stunned by Komatsu's skilled knife work. This Komatsu, who looked like a second-rate chef, possessed such incredible skill. She had always been in the habit of judging people by their appearance, but now she realized that there were always people better than her. Her own cooking skills were not bad, but the assistance of the God's Tongue played a large part.

"So that's how... you cut here... what a strange anatomy..."

Erina studied the video intently. It was the first time she had seen the internal structure of a Puffer Whale. It was different from preparing a regular pufferfish, which was the method she had just used. Although the location of the poison sac was different in each fish, the video tutorial was very helpful, and Erina felt a little more confident.

The second fish... poisoned. She rested for three hours.

The third fish... poisoned. She rested for four hours.

...

The thirteenth fish. Several days had passed. Thankfully, the flow of time was different in different worlds.

Careful now... don't let your hands shake...

Erina held the purplish-black poison sac with utmost concentration, beads of sweat trickling down her cheeks to her chest. If it weren't for the food Kenji provided to restore her stamina, and the rests she took after each failure, she would have burned out long ago. Her eventual success was likely influenced by Kenji's Gourmet Luck; otherwise, her chances would have been slim. But even with that help, the fatigue still required time to recover from. There was no way she could have prepared 13 Puffer Whales in one go.

Swish!

Erina's movements were slow and gentle as she carefully cleaned the toxic membrane, and finally, she removed the poison sac in one go.

Wow! A golden legendary!

With the poison sac removed, the white Puffer Whale began to glow with a dazzling golden light.

~~~

We cross the 1200 power stone goal and as promise here the bonus chapter

Next goal 1300 power stone, good luck guys.

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