A Father's Duty

"What kind of monster was that... I can't see its EM waves." Coco asked after swallowing a pufferwhale sashimi.

"That? That was a mechanical construct." Somnus said.

"Do you know about it?" Toriko asked this time.

"No, but I could hear the sounds of gears inside its body." Somnus replied as he took a bite from the Devil Serpent's meat.

"Do you remember? When I declined to come with you earlier to catch the pufferwhales? Its because of that birdman. I hunted one down that wants to attack 8th biotope." Noctis said which made Toriko frown.

"You mean their goal is..." Coco seemed to be interested about the goal of that GT Robo.

"To catch ingredients, what else? If you have a construct that can reach places that humans have a hard time entering, what will you do?" Noctis asked and they finally understood Noctis' words.

"We didn't meet that birdman on the way to the beach. That means there's only one way he could've entered..." Noctis said and let them think about the answer.

"Impossible! That's a 60,000 feet underwater cave!" Coco said.

"Impossible? Then that guy just did the impossible." Noctis replied as he stared at Coco.

"What's more, I couldn't hear any person inside the construct, I can't hear someone breathing. I don't know how they were moving it with fluid motions, but they sure are amazing. I wonder if I could get some to study" Somnus grinned while looking at his brother.

Coco and his group were silent after Somnus' words. They can't believe that the monster they just saw was a pure construct.

"Fine. You'll get it later." Noctis said and Somnus gave a thumbs up.

After a few more rounds of eating, mostly Toriko, the group was about to pack up when a voice spoke up.

"I've been smelling *hic* the aroma of a good wine. Seeing that *hic* you're leaving, can I *hic* have some of that sake?" The old man asked in a polite way

"Uh... sure. Have some. We can just make another bottle for our group." Komatsu said and offered the remaining half-bottle.

"Yo, old man, we meet again. I see you're still following the scent of booze." Toriko said with a smile.

"Hoho, young man. Looks like you caught a lot. Thank you for the sake, I owe you guys one." The old man said before turning around and leaving.

"Toriko, do you know that man?" Coco asked.

"Oh, him? We met at the train, he asked us for some booze. We have plenty anyway so we gave some." Toriko said with a childish grin.

"You don't know him?" Coco asked in confirmation.

"Yeah, we just met in the train, what are you on about?" Toriko replied.

"Then does the name knocking master Jiro ring a bell to you?" Coco seriously asked.

"You mean that guy's Knocking master Jiro? It can't be, right?" Toriko asked.

"I thought so but after seeing his hair, I could confirm that he was indeed Knocking Master Jirou." Coco said while Toriko just shrugged.

"I didn't know, we only offered him some drinks. That's all." He never really took Knocking Master Jirou's favour into heart. He only shared some booze and pufferwhale sake, although it took them quite a while to get the pufferwhales, they still have plenty of them. Sharing a half-filled bottle won't hurt them.

Meanwhile, Hera sent her son a glance. Somnus, who felt his mother's glance, understood what she's implying.

"I'll tell you later." Noctis said in a low voice before going back to enjoy their feast.

Soon, the pufferwhales that turned golden after removing their poison sac were finished by the group, much to the lament of Tina and Komatsu. A single piece of a clean pufferwhale without its poison sack, costs 10x more than their usual price and even more if sold in underground auctions. Such a price is worth it for a phantasmal ingredient who could only be caught in the human world every decade.

The group easily returned to the surface with Coco leading the way. Their gains were enormous especially for Coco who managed to get stronger after eating the Pufferwhale and Devil Serpent who possessed insane poison in their body.

Tina also returned to her company to organize the footage she got from filming the pufferwhale feast. She's pretty sure that the scoop she got would receive the bonus she deserves. She was also sullen and curious about Noctis and his group who claimed to be 'magicians' or 'sorcerers'. She had seen first hand about the weird way of how they fought. She thought of filming them but decided not to after hearing that they were hunted by people, more likely, scientists who want to run tests on their body.

Komatsu also learned a lot from the experience he got for dissecting the pufferwhale. He realized that he still had long ways to go when he saw Noctis removing the pufferwhale's poison sac in first try with the only thing to guide him was the sessions of his failure to remove the poison sac, his companions, although didn't remove the poison sac in their first try, they still did it in far less tries than him. He thought that if he wants to improve more, he would have to stick closely to a bishokuya, or Toriko, in fact, to meet more new ingredients that he had only seen but never touched.

Toriko... was just being him. He gained strength from eating delicacies and the pufferwhale feast also helped his Gourmet Cells to improve. He was looking forward to his next adventure where delicious food awaits him.

Noctis, on the other hand, told his group to return. They had fun on their mini adventure, but Noctis had to fetch his daughters. His daughters would love to eat new kinds of food and sweets that Noctis haven't made or forgot to make yet. Regis, Hera, and the others knew why Noctis wanted to return back home. That's why they didn't stop him. They had plenty of chances to go back.

Hera also asked Noctis a fatal question that he had thought for a long time. It was about the time difference and what would happen to their world after entering a new one. He couldn't just tell them that the main world was frozen in time while they are in another world because he didn't have any magic related to time... yet. That's why he decided to avoid his mother's question with the legendary 'I don't know the answer' with a matching shrug look.

He plans to first reach the full potential of Gandora's powers, tell Dimaria the dangers of being a God's vessel, hopefully she would listen, then use Gandora's powers to absorb the fragment of Time in Dimaria's body. He can't have something like an arrogant God running around, destroying, and killing innocent people for their amus.e.m.e.nt.

Before the group separated, he bought a GT robo and a GT android for his brother to study. The group then separated to do their own thing.

"I don't know what you're planning, but remember that I'm always gonna be by your side." Irene suddenly said as she hugged her husband's arms and kissed his shoulder.

Heaving a sigh, he kissed the top of Irene's head as they walked towards their room. Noctis pushed the door and saw the precious people sleeping peacefully without a care in the world.