Toriko 357

[Toriko 357 Translation by Kewl0210]
Page 1:
Insert: Bottomless
appetite
Title: Gourmet 357 Neo, the Creature!!
Author: Shimabukuro Mitsutoshi

Page 2:
Side: Jiji unveils the truth----
Jiji: Since time immemorial, the ancestors of we Nitro
have cultivated Gourmet ingredients.
That was before this planet earth was born.
At least 5 billion years ago.
Sun: Oh my God!! How long ago was this?!!
Koma: 5 billion years... Then even the cooking of Another wouldn't seem like such a long time......
Jiji: The methods for cultivation were no different then as they are now.
We would find a planet with good habitats, administer the "Gourmet Cells",
and wait for them to slowly ripen.
Coco: So the world that exist snow...
is the final stage of that?
Jiji: That's right.

Page 3:
Jiji: The one thing that changed
between then and now in the process of the ripening
is how we give stress. ["stress" in italics.]
Guys: Stress...?
Jij: Right now, every few hundred years the sun's warmth (cooking heat) is cut off
which forces stress on earth's habitats, which brings out flavor...
Guys: Is that the 'Gourmet Solar Eclipse'?!!
So like how if you curtail the amount of water you give tomatoes, it raises the tomatoes sugar content?
Cultivation methods where you purposefully give the crops stress in order to make them taste better, huh?
Jiji: Mhm... But long ago, we had a much more uncivilized method.
The stress we gave the produce... and the Earth was much more primitive and direct.

Page 4:
Jiji: Exploitation
by demons-----
This wasn't environmental stress by changes in warmth, moisture, water, or light.
This was physical shock brought on by dominant predators.
Stress from fear, despair, anxiety,
and impending certain death from being eaten.
Komatsu: S... So that made the flavor of the ingredients...
Sun: That sure is a viol'nt way of doin' it...

Page 5:
Jiji: The demons used to deliver stress are called 'Beneficial Beasts'.
Apparently, we Nitro controlled them but...
among them...
was "Neo". [quote white]

Page 6:
Jiji: And that is where...
the story begins...
When the planet was mostly ripened and the Beneficial Beasts' job was done...
it seems there was one beast we forgot to collect.
SFX: ZAH
Jiji: That was Neo...
Originally, Neo was small, slow-witted, and unskilled at exploiting,
so the Nitro ridiculed, calling him a 'useless creature'.
Nitro: Huh? We're short one demon.
Yeah... must be that runt. Just forget about that useless thing.
The creatures of this planet will probably end up devouring him sooner or later. ["him" in italics]
...Actually, did we even have a beneficial beast like that originally?
I dunno...
SFX: GOUN SHUUU

Page 7:
SFX: GOOOOO
Jiji: That was...
what started the nightmare.
Neo had always...
been waiting...
for this moment where
it could be free.

Page 8:
SFX: DRIIIIP
SFX: TSUUUU
Ants: !!
SFX: BOTO SZZZZLE
SFX: WASHA SZZZLE WASHA
SFX: GRIIIN
Neo: EH...
EH
EH....
Handwritten: WAA WAA
SFX: WASHA WASHA
Neo: BEH...
BEH
BEH
SFX: SZZ SZZZ SZZLE WAAA WASHA WASH WASHA

Page 9:
SFX: A~~~~~ LICK LICK LICK LICK
SFX: OHMOHM OHMHOM ZOBOZOBOBO
Neo: Tasty.
SFX: GRIIIN
Neo: AAAH
DOOOOON
SFX: CRACK CRACK CRACK

Page 10:
Neo: DOOON DOOON AAAH AAAAH
SFX: CRACK CRACK]
SFX: WAA WASHI WASHI WAAA
SFX: GOGOGO WAAAAA
Narr: With Neo being free
of the chains of the Nitro's surveillance...
it was no longer the slow-witted
Beneficial Beast the Nitro knew it as.
SFX: KYAAAH
Animals: !

Page 11:
SFX: DODODODODO
SFX: DO
SFX: BUTA
SFX: GTAAAAH
SFX: BUN BUN
SFX: LICK LICK LICK LICK LICK LICK

Page 12:
SFX: GUOOO
SFX: ZUDON MEKI MEKI
SFX: SHAKU SHAKU SHAKU SHAKU SHAKU SHAKU BUSHUU
SFX: GYAAAH KAH
SFX: DON
SFX: DOGUOA

Page 13:
SFX: DON DON DON
SFX: DON DON DON
SFX: SHAKU SHAKU SHKAU OHM OHM SHAKU SHAKU GUCHA GUCHA GUCHA
SFX: PIKYAAA
Jij: From its experience as a Beneficial Beast,
Neo secretly learned
that the moment when the "best taste" burst out of a creature
is 'when it dies'.
Large amounts of dopamine is secreted in their minds in order to relieve the stress they have towards death.

Page 14:
Jiji: THe stronger the 'despair of death' is
the more the brain responds by going into high gear producing pleasurable substances.
That difference brings out an intensely good taste
which was Neo's favorite flavor.
Sometimes, it would stare at prey
from point-blank range
and then stick near it for three days and nights
to give it the fear
that it could not get away.

Page 15:
Jiji: And once the prey's flavor reached its peak
it would eat it.
At this point it was a parasite
with utterly sinister "eating habits"----
Neo's "appetite"
was truly terrifying.

Page 16:
Jiji: That land which was once known across the universe as the most rich and fertile planet
was a giant gourmet paradise with a diameter of *140,000 kilometers.
Asterisk: * About the same size as Jupiter
Jiji: The pulse of that flavorful world that took hundreds of millions of years to be built...
was halted by Neo...
in a single month.

Page 17:
Nitro: ......This...
This can't be...
What is this...?
Jiji: What the hell had happened...?
The NItro hadn't the slightest idea...
But after this incident,
cases of fertile planets that supported life dying out happened one after another...

Page 18-19:
Jiji: The nightmare had only
just begun...
Insert: To the star-destroying predator, all things are merely waiting to be its food------
Bottom: Toriko
...Gourmet 357
/ End
The great gross eater that even consumes planets. Next issue, it continues its unstoppable rampage.