Something was tickling your nose, and then it dropped all over your face. You let out a cough, sitting up abruptly as you spat the red sand out of your lungs. You blinked a few times, taking in your new surroundings. A room filled with pillars and stones, the look reminding you of an ancient civilization. You weren't in the Desert Labyrinth anymore, and that's made you wonder where you exactly landed after falling into the quicksand. All alone, with no sign of Komatsu or the others. You released a trembling breath, lifting yourself up slowly.

"Come on, (y/n)...You can do it. You just have to find the others-..." you trailed, and flinched when you heard a loud noise.

Something shifted above you, red sand dripping from cracks in the ceiling. The smell of water filled your nose, and also an acidic scent.

"Where am I?..."

"Little rabbit" the voice of Zebra suddenly filled the room, making you leap in surprise. "You listenin'? Cause I'm gonna say this once, so you'd better listen good"

"Zebra-san...?" you called, trying to find where his voice came from.

"The place you're in right now is a tower of Gourmet Pyramid, while the kid is in the basement. Toriko and I just got to the pyramid, too"

"The inside of Gourmet Pyramid?!"

"It's actually a kind of castle-like structure" Zebra continued. "But it's a pretty weird place. You've got two things ya should be doin' now. The first one is to give it yer all not to die. And the second is that you have to think of what food to prepare for the party after this trip is over"

"U-Uh, aye! Got it!" you nodded with a nervous grin. "Thank you, Zebra-san!"

With a newfound vigor, you started to wander around the place in search of some kind of hallway to proceed further in the pyramid. You eventually found a passage that led somewhere darker, and you were hesitating in taking this path. Seeing that you had no choice, you followed through.

You arrived in a larger area filled with staircases and bridges that led to deeper levels of the Gourmet Pyramid. You encountered no wild beasts so far, and you hoped that it would stay that way. There's was no way for you to defend yourself properly even if you had your hammer with you. You knew you would just freeze on the spot while you allowed the monster to feed upon your body.

"If Komatsu is in the basement, then surely he will be down there..." you murmured. "I hope he made it safely"

You descended the staircases for a long time. Sometime you would find strange inscriptions marked into the walls, or drawings that told of an unknown story that you couldn't decipher. But more importantly, you could hear a song. Faint, yet very clear to your ears. You followed the sound, your feet padding through the dark hallways of this castle. Your eyes traveled to a room filled with coffins, and then another long corridor filled with more murals and drawings from before.

At the end was an old book, illuminated by a blue light under it. You carefully approached it, blinking and gaping in awe. Taking a closer look of its content, you realized that you couldn't read it.

"What is this...?"

Suddenly, chills ran down your back and you felt like someone was watching you. Stalking you, to be more precise. You looked over your shoulder, and your eyes widened at the sight of a humanoid-like bird standing there. It looked frail and skeletal, as if it hasn't eaten for years or even centuries. Your cry came out croaked, your clutch around the book loosening to fall on the dusty ground with a loud thud.

The thing released a feral screech, opening its jaw to reveal sharp rows of razor teeth inside, and a long tongue that tangled out of its mouth. It jumped on top of you, but couldn't land a proper hit on you since you were covered by some kind of armor. It manifested as a TV static-like coating around your body. The beast kept going on with the hits, attacking until the barrier weakened. You were pined on the ground, its claws digging into your flesh.

Its movements were fast and precise, aiming its jaw to your jugular. You thought it would rip your throat off, but a sudden snarl made the creature pause for a moment. The next thing you know, the wild beast crashed against the wall behind you. Dino stood between you and it, snarling and growling.

"D-Dino!" you exclaimed happily.

"(y/n)-chan!" Komatsu came running into the room. "Are you alright-WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

Your friend eyeballed the wild beast that stood back on its two feet, snarling at the Thunderous Wyvern. Wasting no time, you took the book laying on the floor before you grabbed Komatsu's hand, running out of the room with Dino following after you.

You had no idea if the wild beast would too, but you didn't want to find out.

"We have to run!" you panted, clutching the book against your chest.

"What is this book?! And what was that creature?!" Komatsu wondered.

"I have no idea!"

The two of you took a few random passages, and when you made a sharp turn around a corner, you let out a scream. Another beast, far much bigger and intimidating. It resembled a sphinx, green in color with long curly brown strands that was its mane.

SALAMANDER SPHINX (MAMMAL) CAPTURE LEVEL - 92

Your wyvern stood protectively in front of you and Komatsu, showing no sign of fear in front of his opponent. The sphinx growled at you, baring its sharp teeth. The ceiling suddenly collapsed, along with a deafening earthquake. Rocks and sand started to fall on you and Komatsu, with one particular piece that you couldn't avoid in time.

You waited for your demise when Toriko sliced through the rock in half, the Gourmet Hunter landing in front of you.

"Toriko-san!" you breathed in relief, nearly fainting on the spot.

"(y/n)! Komatsu!" he beamed as Zebra landed behind him.

"Looks like your tiny heartbeats are still goin', eh? Kids?" hummed the Heavenly King, turning to face you and Komatsu.

"A-Aye, somehow, Zebra-san!" you nodded.

The two Heavenly Kings then faced the new threat that was the sphinx, and you decided that it would be best to stand aside from what would soon become a battlefield with Dino and Komatsu. The three of you took refuge behind a destroyed pillar, and you pulled out the book to see once more its content.

"Can you read it?" Komatsu inquired as he took a look inside too.

"No...But I swear I saw this creature before" you answered, turning the pages until you fell on an illustration that looked the same as the wild beast. "Here! It's the same, right?"

"I-It is!"

Komatsu passed through a few pages, his eyes narrowed in concentration. Numerous drawings, and while you couldn't read the characters, you both could tell what it was describing. It was a recipe book, full of how to prepare ingredients you had never seen before. The murals you saw before must have been part of the recipe too.

You gazed back at the two men who were currently fighting the Salamander Sphinx, having recognized the beast as the one who held the Mellow Cola by its scent. They were using their Appetite Demons to intimidate and pull down the beast.

"They are not doing this properly..." you stated.

"Toriko-san! Zebra-san!" yelled Komatsu as the two men were pushed in your direction by the angry sphinx.

"He's strong. This guy really is the master of Gourmet Pyramid" Toriko grunted, panting heavily.

"It's fucking cocky" spat the other King. "Our attacks are barely having any effect. We're never gonna get any blood out like this"

"It's not blood. It's the tears" Komatsu cut in, earning a look from both men. "The tears are the Mellow Cola"

"What? How do ya know that, kid?"

"It's written in this book" you pointed. "It even shows how to take it out if we follow the instructions properly. It's probably a cooking recipe book written in ancient times, and used by the ancient civilization that was situated here centuries ago"

"This book has directions on how to prepare and cook lots of different kinds of special preparation ingredients" your friend added, opening to a random page in the book.

"So, special preparation ingredients?" hummed Toriko.

"You sayin' you both can read those crazy lookin' symbols?" Zebra deadpanned, not believing you one bit.

"Of course not" you huffed, and the man let out a confused noise. "But based on the pictures and the length of the sentences, we can get a good idea of what it says"

"Really?"

"Aye!" nodded Komatsu. "I've probably read hundreds of cookbooks over the years"

"Eh. Zebra. You could say that the fact that we made it here is thanks to them" smiled Toriko. "It's no coincidence. They lead us to the Mellow Cola, having the talent of being liked by ingredients. Believe in Komatsu and (y/n)"

"No matter how much the ingredients like him or her, you've gotta capture them or it's pointless" scoffed the tall man.

"Right, and for that, I need to ask the two of you. We'll tell you the method for cooking it in order to get the Mellow Cola out" you said.

"Slick bastard. You better give us good directions, kids. Cause if you don't, I'll kill you both" Zebra warned.

"W-We will do our best..." you sweatdropped.

"Okay, let's do it" said Toriko, removing his cloak. "I'm not sure if we have the stamina to take on an opponent of this level. Both Zebra and I have about 70% of our calories left"

Komatsu and you stood at a fair distance from the fight as you held the book together, quickly 'reading' the passage before you began the instructions on how to extract the Mellow Cola out. The Heavenly Kings avoided the attacks of the Salamander Sphinx all the while.

"First, uniformly pound every inch of its body!" Komatsu told. "Like tenderizing meat! Apply moderate force!"

They dodged the rain of attacks from the sphinx's mane as they began to pummel its body together. When you judged the two did a good job, you followed the next instruction:

"Next! Pound the center of its belly! More firmly this time!" you shouted.

The sphinx roared as Toriko charged forward with Zebra backing him up with a Sound Wall. Instead of hitting the Gourmet Hunter, they were bouncing back by the shield the feral King cast upon Toriko. He managed to get under the belly of the sphinx, and punched him with a Ten-Fold Spiked Punch.

The glands inside the eyes of the wild beast swelled a bit more, showing that you were making progress, even though the two Kings looked tired. They had a limited amount of energy, knowing roughly how long the preparation would take. They had to choose their attacks carefully.

"Scrape some scales off its back!"

"Next, attack the back of its legs! Go clockwise from the right front leg!"

"Take one feather from each of its wings, and pluck them out at the same time!"

The men followed the instructions without flinching or hesitation for one second, and the last command made the tear ducts of the wild beast enlarge. It was storing the dextrose it got from eating its prey in its tear ducts, and now it the one time of the year when it can flush it all out.

The dextrose was the base of the Mellow Cola, and if put under straw by the methods listed in the book, the resulting carbon dioxide will dissolve in its tears to become carbonic acid and produce the Mellow Cola.

"We're almost there! The final step is to pummel its snake tail!" said Komatsu.

"This?" Zebra raised a brow as he stared at the beaten up face of the snake tail.

"Let's give it everything we've got left, Zebra" Toriko grinned, and Zebra grunted at his words.

"Fine"

The sphinx hollered the moment they punched its tail with all their might. The beast lifted its head up, the glands in its eyes wavering before it exploded into tears. Cola came out, glittering like sparkles or stars as the Kings grinned at their reward.

You couldn't help but smile brightly, relieved that you actually did it. However, your expression suddenly fell when your chest constricted painfully. Komatsu slowly turned his head, gaping at you with a horrified face. Your hold around the book loosened and the object collided on the ground with a loud thud, earning the attention of the Kings. Their eyes widened, replicating the same expression your friend was making.

The creature from before that reminded you of a bird had followed you in the end, but it looked much healthier than before. Maybe it has eaten on its way, but still wasn't completely filled. You felt the beast's fist passing through your chest, and just for a moment you went blind. Heart pounding violently in your ears, your blood pumping wildly in your veins.

You fell forward and laid unconscious on the floor, the wyvern's anguish scream being the last thing you heard.

Your mind drifted to unknown places, and you were wondering if you were currently dying. The embrace of sweet death that lulled you to a sleep of eternity. If it wasn't of Zebra's thunderous voice piercing your ears that woke you up abruptly. Your eyes shut open, staring wide eyed at the ceiling. You were laid on your back, and your gaze drifted to the hunched form of Dino over your laps.

The poor guy was shaking, the feathered and scaled skin of his face slightly damp from invisible tears. However, at the sudden change in pace of your heart, he shot his head up and let out a roar of happiness.

"D-Dino!" you cried as the wyvern jumped in your arms, nuzzling his beak in your hair.

"Skyawk!" he yelled out, purring loudly.

"(y/n)! You're alive!!!"

Both Toriko and Komatsu were at your side in one instant, followed by Zebra who looked content. An aura of static light fluttered around your body before completely disappearing, the sound armor destroyed.

"Just to be safe, when we were ducking it out with that Salamander whatever, I covered you in a Sound Armor stronger than the one from before" told Zebra. "Looks like it did the trick. But even so, with that powerful attack...I really thought you were dead, little rabbit"

"Thank you so much, Zebra-san" you coughed a bit, palming your chest in search of an evident injury. "It still hurts a bit..."

"You should rest down, (y/n)" Toriko suggested.

"But...What happened to the Mellow Cola? And the creature-?"

The two Kings suddenly collapsed, nearly falling on their knees by how tired they were. Taking a closer look at them, if you didn't know any better, they seemed like they were on the verge of fainting.

"My autophagy is almost at its limit" heaved Toriko, having broke through his limits to fight the wild beast.

"Me too. My throat is about to go hoarse" Zebra enriched, clutching his neck.

"I'm sorry...The Mellow Cola we worked so hard to retrieve...was stolen by that guy" the Gourmet Hunter motioned to the corpse of the humanoid bird. "Even after you both worked so hard to instruct us..."

"Toriko-san, where's the wild beast that expelled the cola?" his partner inquired.

"Over there" Zebra pointed to the shaking sphinx in the background who was sniffling.

"...There's still more" you frowned. "The first cola that comes out is an oxidized scum-like substance that was stored in the tear glands. While it's great cola as well, what should come out after is the matured cola"

"How are you sure that it hasn't come out yet?" wondered Toriko.

"She's right, if we consider the amount" said Komatsu, taking a look inside the book. "The real cola has tons to hundreds of times the volume that the previous had. An amount so large there's no way one person could drink it all"

"If it had already come out, this area would be a pool of cola by now" you continued, staring at the Salamander Sphinx. "The tears that have yet to flood out of it is the real Mellow Cola!"

"No way..."

Mellow Cola purred out of the sphinx's eyes, splashing all over the guys and you. It has the sound and fizziness like a firecracker, the liquid sparkling brighter than what came out earlier. You could feel the flow of your blood suddenly quickening just by having the cola beings in contact with your skin.

Komatsu cheered loudly at this victory, with Zebra smirking broadly at the large amount of Mellow Cola that was coming out from the beast. Dino was practically swimming in the pool of cola, already drinking his heart out.

"Even the Salamander Sphinx seems to be happy to have it out of its system" you grinned, giggling a little at the face it was making.

"It must feel good for this guy to expel all the cola it had stored up"

"I've decided" stated Zebra, catching everyone's attention. "I'm putting this Mellow Cola into my Full Course. So, what do you think, kid? You'll form a combo with me now, right?"

"...What?!" was all that came out from Toriko's mouth.

Oh, yes. This two reminded you of what they had spoken about before Toriko came back with the Reservoir Camels. Zebra had one condition that you needed to fulfill so you could obtain the Mellow Cola, and knowing Komatsu, he would have a condition to propose too. Throwing conditions left and right, the Heavenly King came with one that stated that Komatsu would form a combo with him. And your friend accepted under one condition: that he would form an unbeatable and amazing Full Course.

"Wait a minute you two, what the hell did you guys decide without asking me?!" Toriko barked.

"So, what about it? My Full Course? Ya interested in the Mellow Cola?" Zebra pressed on, causing Komatsu to sweatdrop.

"I...I don't think I can decide with just the drink..."

"What'd you say?!"

"S-Sorry..."

"Even Toriko hasn't got his whole thing together, right? And it's a Full Course full'a good-for-nothing ingredients anyway, right?!" the feral King snarled.

"What do you mean good-for-nothing, man?!" spat the Gourmet Hunter.

"What was that, asshole?!"

"If you actually ate any of it, you'd be moved by how good it is!"

"There's no way in hell I would!!" Zebra argued with Toriko.

"Actually..." Komatsu interrupted their bickering. "I can't decide whether I form a combo with Zebra-san or not until after the two of you have completed your Full Courses"

"Kid, what the fuck are you pulling?!"

"Yeah! How could you make a promise like that and not tell me?" his partner frowned.

"I'm sorry. But please understand. The reason I was able to speak that condition, with unwavering confidence, was because I believe in you, Toriko-san" smiled Komatsu. "That your Full Course won't lose to anyone's"

"Komastu..." breathed in shock Toriko.

"Eh. You've got a hell of a lot of trust in him" Zebra scoffed. "Got it. I'll let you off the hook this time. But soon I'm gonna assemble a Full Course that'll overcome you with amazement"

"Zebra-san..." trailed your friend.

"Why don't you ask (y/n) to form a combo? I thought the two of you hit it off!"

"There's no way she can adapt to me-"

"NOT MY FAULT IF YOU'RE TOO DAMN TERRIFYING" you yelled, squeaking at the venomous look Zebra threw at you.

"Are you getting cocky with me, little rabbit?" the Heavenly King easily lifted you up like you were some kind of doll.

"I'M ANSWERING HONESTLY!"

"Anyway, we got the cola, so let's hurry back and have a party. And both Komatsu and (y/n) will be responsible for doing the cooking for it!" said Toriko.

Komatsu pulled out the Natural Rubber Backpack, and the Gourmet Case of liquids began to suck the Mellow Cola. Once done, Zebra put on the backpack while Toriko turned to the Salamander Sphinx to thank it again:

"Your tears are in Zebra's Full Course. Thank you" he grinned sheepishly. "When your cola matures again, we'll come back"

This earned a threatening growl as the sphinx began to lash out around it, becoming mad. You took it as a cue to get away before it changed its mind in devouring you all. Leaving Gourmet Pyramid, you made a stop in the Gourmet Deserts to gather some natural rice and muscovado before heading to the village to offer them to the villagers.

The camels you had rented had somewhat also made it back to the old woman, which relieved you. You were soon back home one month later after taking a Lift House, to which once more you had to stop both Toriko and Zebra from fighting each other.

"H-HE'S REALLY HERE! ZEBRA-SAN!" shouted in disbelief the manager. "HURRY! Get the customers to a safe place!"

As promised, the Heavenly King visited Hotel Gourmet to enjoy the Mellow Cola and other dishes prepared by either you or Komatsu. The moment he entered inside, it created an uproar among customers and staff. Not that you were really surprised it ended up the case.

"Sure has gotten busy in here" spoke Zebra, clad in a leather jacket.

"Yeah, because of you" Toriko answered bluntly, wearing a white suit.

"Welcome! We've been expecting you!" you greeted the two Kings with Komatsu. "And just as promised, to celebrate the capture of the Mellow Cola, we've prepared the best cooking Komatsu and I could muster"

"Oi. Don't get cocky, kids" warned Zebra, shoving his face close to yours before walking away in the direction of the dining table. "Now let's hurry the hell up and start the party! Where's the party hall?!"

"...Did I do anything cocky?"

"He's hiding his embarrassment" told simply the Gourmet Hunter. "Ever since he ate your cooking at the Honey Prison release celebration, you both gained another fan"

"Really?" Komatsu blinked in surprise, and Toriko nodded at him.

The sound of rushed footsteps echoed through the hall as Toriko blinked. Having hell ears, of course Zebra did hear what he just said. And he was now charging like a raging bull toward the other Heavenly King.

"KEEP YOUR GODDAMN MOUTH SHUT!" snarled Zebra, swinging his fist that barely missed Toriko.

"WHAT'RE YOU DOING?!"

"SHUT UP! I'LL BEAT THE SHIT OUTTA YOU!"

"Please...Stop it you two..." sighed Komatsu as they began to fight in the hall.

A thick mark appeared over your forehead, and you walked in the direction of the Heavenly Kings. The next thing Komatsu knew, you were holding the two muscular men by the ears, knees and legs bent at your height. You huffed through your nose, opening your eyes to glare at the glutenous males:

"Enough is enough! You two won't fight in this hotel either!" you ordered, pinching their ears.

"OW-OW-OW-OW-OW! I'm sorry! Please, let go!" pleaded the blue haired man while the other scoffed under his breath.

"Pff, weakling-OW! YOU DID IT TOO HARD" snapped Zebra when you suddenly twisted his ear. "YOU DAMN COCKY WOMAN!"

"You know...I'm think it's actually Zebra-san that can't adapt himself to (y/n)-chan" mumbled Komatsu, sweating.