Ao was at the Gourmet Central Wholesale Marketplace browsing the various stalls and also looking for Toriko as it was the most likely place to find him.

Spotting the familiar head of blue hair carrying some monster Ao grinned and practically skipped over to him.

"Toriko!" she called, Toriko looked over  his shoulder at the call of his name and grinned "Ao!"he greeted as she hugged him "It's so good to see you" she said.

"Yeah it's been a while" Toriko grinned.

Ao let go and walked next to him as he continued his way.

"So what's new?" Ao asked curiously.

"We're engaged i think that's it, although Coco refused to have any part in it" he shrugged.

"Ah so Tou-san told you all" Ao mused and he nodded.

"So anything else i should know about?" she asked him, he grinned and went on to tell her what he's been doing the past few years since they last saw each other.

~~~~~

"Komatsu!" Toriko called once the two bluenette's had reached an area in the market for Toriko to drop off his captured beast.

"Toriko-san!" the small man called in reply but then noticed the woman at Toriko's side "Who's that?" he wondered outloud.

Toriko set down the creature he had caught "I caught this and brought it here to sell wholesale, i also happened to run into Ao here on my way over" he said gesturing to the blue haired woman at his side.

Ao gave a small wave before a brown haired woman rushed over holding a mic.

'Ugh reporters' Ao groaned internally, rolling her eyes and resolving to ignore this woman until the heat death of the universe, she despised the media and reporters especially.

"You're Toriko aren't you? And you're Ao the Gourmet Queen, yes? I'm Tina" the brown haired woman introduced herself.

"Huh?" Toriko turned to her confused, Ao just continued to ignore her until a small round bird flew over to them.

"This is my Carrier Balloon Pidgeon, Kruppoh" Tina said.

"Aww she's so cute!" Ao gushed over the cute birdie digging out her snack, a sandwich of all sorts of delicious ingredients, braking off a small bit of bread and letting the pigeon feed on it from her hand.

Toriko chuckled a bit, she hadn't changed at all.

"Meeting Toriko and  is am extra large serving ... no, an extra extra large serving of luck! I'm a Gourmet Newscaster for "Gourmet TV" we introduce ingredients from all over the world. Please! either of you or both! Let me interview you for our program!" Tina gushed.

Then a group of suits from IGO appeared in front of the duo blocking Tina "All interviews must go through the proper channels" the main suit said as two other suits pushed back the annoying reporter.

"Oh yeah says who?" Tina asked, although clearly terrified.

"IGO?!" One of her crewmen asked.

"Indeed, i am the IGO's Foodstuff Development Department Chief, Johannes" the main suit said introducing himself.

"Let's call it quits Tina" the director said trying to get Tina to walk out of it but the reporter wasn't budging, until the two other suits dragged her off.

Ao instantly felt at easy, she seriously hated reporters. (So weird thing, i don't find Tina as annoying in sub as i do in dub but Ao still hates the media)

"Y-you didn't need to do that" Komatsu weakly protested.

"If the media got wind of this it could be troublesome" Johannes told the short man before turning to the two bluenette's "Ao-sama, Toriko-san it's good that i ran into you, i have a job i'd like to offer to you" he said.

"Us both? But why?" Ao asked.

"Why don't you just put one of your little IGO Bishokuya on it? That's what you have them for right?" Toriko asked adding to Ao's question.

"The Rainbow Fruit is ripe" Johannes simply said.

"What?" Toriko and Ao asked simultaneously.

"T-the Rainbow Fruit?! The legendary fruit which complex bouquet of flavors changes depending upon the temperature and humidity?!" Komatsu yelled surprised.

Ao lightly punched his head "Keep your voice down midget you don't want the whole word to know do you?" she asked.

"The whole world should know about this!" Komatsu yelled and Ao rolled her eyes 'How naïve' 

"They say that just one drop of Rainbow Fruit's juice is so concentrated with flavor  that it's enough to turn all of the water in a 25 meter pool into a rich, mellow juice, i heard that you could trade just one of them for 500 million yen but i thought they'd gone extinct" Komatsu said.

"And why do you think that is?" Ao asked prompting Komatsu to turn to her again.

"One fruit is worth 500 million yen you say? Do you have any idea what people would do for that kind of money? They could for example oh i don't know monopolize a resource until it went extinct" she said lifting a brow, Komatsu frowned looking down knowing she had a point.

"True, which is exactly why you should keep quiet about this, in nature they are extinct" Johannes said.

"I see it's selective breeding, the IGO's specialty" Toriko said.

"But there is one problem, Troll Kong's make their nest in the Rainbow Tree, which grows the Rainbow Fruit, none of our people can get close to it" Johannes said.

"Troll Kongs?!" Komatsu yelled frightened.

"The strongest of all gorillas, the Troll Kong, a few days ago we sent in three Gourmet Tanks costing two billion yen each but they were destroyed, a forty ton piece of machinery flipped like a table, they're capture level nine" Johannes said.

Before Komatsu could scream in terror Ao interrupted "I think i'll pass" she said looking bored as she calmly crossed her arms.

"Why? Are you scared?" Toriko smirked nudging her.

Ao scoffed and smirked "Please, a level nine is no fun, besides i've got stuff to do and i'm sure you can handle this yourself Toriko" she said.

"Alright do what you gotta do" Toriko shrugged.

"We'll meet again Toriko" Ao waved over her shoulder back at them as she walked away.

~~~~~

Ao went home, which was a nice little one story cottage with a water wheel generator out in the back, build on the edge of a cliff with a cave under it that had a massive waterfall going down it.

That cave was home to Ao's dearest animal companion, a White Dragon, hatched from an egg she had found in the very same cave the day she decided to build a house on a cliff.

The White Dragon is a reptilian beast of unknown capture level native to the Gourmet World, they are smaller then the Derous but no less aggressive.

Ao's had named the hatchling Shiro and raised it since minute one when Shiro was only the size of a cat to the present where he was the size of a small commercial plane.