Toriko

The next day, after finishing a day of training.

Setsuna stopped Hizashi and said sincerely, "Teacher Hizashi, I'd like to take five days off for some personal training. I might also leave the village for a while."

After traveling to the New World, he would have to remain there for at least a year, though there was no limit on how many years he could stay. To be safe, he decided to request five days of leave.

"Did Lord Hokage send Setsuna to assassinate some important figure?" Hizashi instinctively made the connection and agreed readily. "No problem. Train for however long you want. There's no need to hurry. I trust you completely."

Setsuna returned home, removed his weighted gear, stored it in a Capsule, and took out some Senzu Beans to carry on him.

His previous crossing had left too deep an impression on him. He had to make every possible preparation before setting out.

After steadying himself, Setsuna began another journey through worlds.

When he opened his eyes again, thick clouds filled his vision. A sudden sensation of weightlessness seized him and dragged him downward.

"Of course it's the sky again. Is this the world's will being malicious?" Setsuna sighed. Fortunately, he had learned Bukūjutsu in the Dragon Ball World.

Setsuna stabilized himself and began observing the world below.

"Huh? What a huge forest." Setsuna was rather surprised. He was high in the sky, so the world below should have looked tiny, yet the forest before his eyes was anything but small.

Before Setsuna could think further, a violent gale suddenly swept through the sky. Caught off guard, he was sent tumbling several times and could only barely stabilize himself by pushing Bukūjutsu to its limits.

"What is going on?" Setsuna was genuinely shocked. Even a super typhoon above Level 16 should not have left him in such a sorry state. What was wrong with the wind in this world?

Squinting, Setsuna saw the entire forest below being uprooted and hurled into the air, along with countless bizarre creatures.

Those creatures came in all sorts of strange shapes, but without exception, they were enormous—unbelievably enormous.

Setsuna could clearly sense that many of them were far stronger than him, yet none dared resist. They could only kneel and wail in grief.

Setsuna did his best to hold his position, then turned and looked up toward the higher sky. To his horror, he found a black hole hanging in the heavens.

"No, that's not a black hole..." Setsuna widened his eyes and barely made out its full outline. "It's the mouth of a giant python—a worldly python large enough to encircle the world!"

"Giant creatures, and an utterly colossal python... Damn it, could this be the Gourmet World from Toriko?" Setsuna's face darkened. The world of Toriko was undoubtedly a high-energy universe as well.

With his strength, appearing in the Human World would not have been too much of a problem. But in the Gourmet World, any moderately powerful creature could kill him. Not to mention that he had been dropped directly before Mother Snake. The world's will really wanted him dead.

I have to escape! Setsuna had no intention of fighting. Mother Snake was 220,000 kilometers long and weighed 1.5 quintillion tons. Even on Gourmet Earth, which was 659 times the volume of Earth, she was a genuine world-ending monster.

Never mind him—even Vegeta would have to run.

Yet simply holding himself steady was already difficult. Escaping this area against the wind was utterly impossible.

What should I do? Wait until it finishes eating? The thought surfaced in Setsuna's mind, but he quickly dismissed it.

Given Mother Snake's size, her meal could last several years. He could not hold out that long.

"At this point, I can only treat a dead horse like a live one." Gritting his teeth, Setsuna bit his finger and began a summoning.

Although they were in different universes, the Myriad Worlds Pearl thoughtfully provided spatial services, allowing cross-universe summons. Of course, the consequence was that the summoned creature would likewise have to remain for at least a year.

"Hehehe, remember the fifty... Wait, what the hell is this place?" The moment Manda was summoned, he let out a shriek and spun away.

Setsuna desperately grabbed Manda's tail, but man and snake were still slowly dragged toward the "black hole."

"Thanks..." Manda's mind was muddled, and it took him a while to react. "No, why am I thanking you? Where is this place?"

"Don't worry about that first. Look up. That giant snake might be some distant relative of yours. Try seeing whether you can communicate with her?" Setsuna had no other choice. He could only hope Mother Snake might be interested in a snake species she had never seen before. Maybe Manda could even marry into her family.

"A giant snake? We're doomed!" Guided by Setsuna, Manda barely managed to make out the giant python's head, and immediately began trembling all over in fright.

He was considered enormous even in Ryūchi Cave, with a body over fifty meters long. Yet he was not even as large as the tip of that giant python's tongue. He would not be enough to fill the gaps between her teeth.

"Communicate my #@￥%!" Manda immediately cursed. The gap between him and that giant python was greater than the gap between him and an earthworm. How could they possibly communicate?

"I want to go back!" Manda screamed as he tried to end the summoning, only to discover in despair that he could not return.

"Where is this place? Why can't I go back?"

Setsuna sneered. "You have no other choice now. Hurry up and communicate with her."

Manda was furious, but he could only imitate the seductive tone the three Snake Princesses under the White Snake Sage used on humans and shout, "Great Snake God, I am a little snake from Ryūchi Cave. I have admired you for a long time and hope to become your favored companion."

Setsuna was stunned. He had merely thought of having Manda marry into her family, but this guy had set his sights directly on Mother Snake. This was not a small horse pulling a large cart—it was a little snake pulling a planet.

The gale paused for an instant. Joy appeared in Manda's eyes, but in the next moment, the wind speed abruptly increased tenfold.

"Just as expected, it didn't work. But at least it proves one thing: the language really is shared." Setsuna sighed.

Seeing that even he was about to be sucked into Mother Snake's belly, Setsuna decisively let go.

"Chiaki Setsuna!" Manda roared in despair, hooking his tail with all his strength as he tried to drag Setsuna down to their deaths together.

With the gale raging, Setsuna could only barely dodge, but Manda sent his waist pouch flying. All the Senzu Beans inside spilled out.

Setsuna reacted swiftly and recovered most of the Senzu Beans, but two were still swept away by the gale.

The next moment, the wind suddenly slowed considerably.

"What's going on? Is she nearly full... Wait, the Senzu Beans!" Setsuna suddenly realized.

A single Senzu Bean could heal the injuries of someone as powerful as Super Saiyan 2 Goku, while someone as weak as Yajirobe could eat several at once to fill his stomach. This showed that Senzu Beans restored injuries and stamina by percentage.

He had not considered that before mainly because the size difference between Mother Snake and a Senzu Bean was simply too great to connect the two.

Setsuna could not afford to be stingy. He grabbed a handful of Senzu Beans and threw them out.

As he waited anxiously, the gale finally stopped.

"Whew, it's really thanks to Manda." Setsuna sighed sincerely.