Toriko

The next day, after finishing a day of training.

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

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

"Did Lord Hokage send Setsuna to assassinate some important figure?" Hizashi instinctively made the connection and agreed readily. "No problem. Train for as long as you want. No rush. I trust you completely."

Setsuna returned home, removed his weighted gear, put the weights back into a Capsule, and took out some Senzu Beans to carry on him.

His last crossing had left too deep an impression. He had to be thoroughly prepared 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 malice of the world's will?" Setsuna could not help sighing. Fortunately, he had learned Bukūjutsu in the Dragon Ball World.

Setsuna steadied himself and began observing the world below.

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

Before Setsuna could think any further, fierce winds suddenly swept through the sky. Caught off guard, he was sent tumbling several times and had to operate Bukūjutsu with all his strength just to barely stabilize himself.

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

Squinting, Setsuna saw the entire forest below being uprooted and swept into the sky, along with countless strange creatures.

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

Among them were quite a few creatures Setsuna could clearly sense were far stronger than himself, yet they did not dare resist at all. They merely knelt and wailed in misery.

Setsuna did his best to hold his position, then turned and looked 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 shape. "It's the mouth of a giant python—a worldly python large enough to coil around the world!"

"Gigantic creatures, and a python this absurdly huge... 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 somewhat powerful creature could kill him, let alone when he had been dropped directly before Mother Snake. The world's will really wanted him dead.

"I have to run!" 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 size of Earth, it was a true world-ending monster.

Forget him—even Vegeta would have to run.

However, merely keeping himself steady was already difficult. Escaping this area against the wind was simply 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, its feeding could last years. He could not hold out that long.

"At this point, I can only try anything." Gritting his teeth, Setsuna bit his finger and began the summoning.

Though they were in different universes, the Myriad Worlds Pearl thoughtfully provided spatial services that allowed cross-universe summoning. Of course, the consequence was that the Summoned Beasts brought over would likewise have to remain for at least a year.

"Heh heh, 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 his tail, but man and snake still slowly drifted toward the "black hole."

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

"Forget that for now. Look up. That giant snake might be some distant relative of yours. Try seeing if you can communicate with it?" Setsuna had no other choice. He could only hope Mother Snake might be interested in an unfamiliar snake species. Maybe Manda could even marry into its family.

"A giant snake? We're doomed!" Under Setsuna's guidance, Manda barely managed to make out the giant python's head, and his entire body immediately began convulsing in terror.

He was considered enormous even in Ryūchi Cave, measuring over fifty meters long, but he was not even as big as the tip of that giant python's tongue. He was not enough to fill a gap between its teeth.

"Communicate my ass! #@￥%" Manda immediately burst into profanity. 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 the hell is this? Why can't I go back?"

Setsuna sneered. "You have no other choice now. Go communicate with it."

Manda was furious, but he could only imitate the seductive tone the three great Snake Princesses under the White Snake Sage used on humans and shout, "Lord 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 only thought of having Manda marry into its family, but this guy had set his sights directly on Mother Snake. This was not a pony pulling a cart—it was a little snake pulling a planet.

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

"So it really won't work. But at least it proves one thing: our languages really are mutually intelligible." Setsuna sighed.

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

"Chiaki Setsuna!" Manda roared in despair, using all his strength to hook Setsuna with his tail, trying to drag him to his death.

Under the ravaging wind, Setsuna could only barely dodge, but Manda sent his waist pouch flying, scattering all the Senzu Beans inside.

Setsuna reacted quickly 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 it almost full... Wait, the Senzu Beans!" Setsuna suddenly realized.

Even Goku, as powerful as Super Saiyan 2, could heal his injuries by eating one Senzu Bean, while someone as weak as Yajirobe could eat several at once to fill his stomach. Clearly, Senzu Beans restored injuries and stamina by percentage.

He had not considered this before mainly because the difference in size between Mother Snake and Senzu Beans was simply too vast to connect the two.

Setsuna stopped holding back and directly grabbed a handful of Senzu Beans and threw them out.

As he waited tensely, the wind finally stopped.

"Whew, we really have Manda to thank for this." Setsuna sighed sincerely.