The Blind Bandit (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 40: The Ozone part 2

"It better not need much light.. It's super dark." The chef commented as he put the mask on. "The darkness is proportional to the cloud's thickness. For a cloud to block out the sun this well, it must be several thousands of meters thick. Don't worry. There's tons of lightning. That'll produce more than enough light." The hunter explained simply as if it was no big deal. Which was kinda unnerving considering how fast this storm was coming and how big it was. But at the back of Toriko's mind, he was worried to death of how Sarafina was fairing. She sent out Kururu to save them and now all three were separate from her. He could only hope she was okay.

Though the causal way he said the lightning bit was slightly disturbing. Komatsu had no desire to be a human lightning rod. And where was Toriko's mask?! Don't tell him that it was part of training? "L...lightning?! We're going in there?!" Komatsu asked frightfully, looking up at the clouds uneasy. "Hey, wait... Why aren't you wearing a mask?!" Komatsu asked as the hunter placed him on his back again. "It's about to get cold, Komatsu! Here comes the down burst!" Down burst... Wasn't that a phenomenon where turbulence inside a cumulonimbus cloud funnels warm air up and pushes cold air towards the ground..? Oh no. Komatsu's eyes nearly bugged out as the burst literally rushed towards the the three.

Ice immediately covered them when the down burst nailed them. "IT'SA BIG ONE! AND IT'S -50'C!" Pretty dang cold but a heck of a lot warmer than Ice Hell! And the wind..! So loud that it almost drowned out Toriko's voice. "Shivering!" The hunter's body temp rose up in response. Unfortunately it wasn't going to work in this particular environment. 'Shivering eats up a ton of energy. And the oxygen up here is halved.' Toriko thought already calculating his next move. He couldn't afford to waste energy! He already realised he couldn't fight Mother Nature. In the face of severe conditions, it wasn't hostility but flexibility and adaptation that would triumph! Toriko instinctively turned to his gourmet cells to help him.

The cells did their best to conserve the oxygen in his lungs in order to stabilise oxygen levels in the arteries. His cells conserved oxygen by cutting out most of the breathing process. As a result, Toriko's gourmet cells became fuel efficient and capable of unleashing loads of energy! All of that happened in mere moments. A split second later large fast moving boulder-size objects headed their way and pummelled into the vine. The impacts caused Komatsu to scream in terror. Those objects? Hailstones the size of boulders! "W..what are these things, Toriko-san?!" "They're hailstones!" Toriko explained as said hailstone was coming at them.

Suddenly a flash of light came overhead and sliced the hailstone in half. What the..? "HEY!" A familiar shouted at them. Toriko looked up and smiled in joy when he saw Sarafina standing just ahead of them, safe and sound. "You guys alright!?" She shouted.

"HAVE HAILSTONES ALWAYS BEEN THIS BIG!?" The chef shouted in surprise shock with his eyes as big as plates. The giant hunter then shouted him a warning, "Hold on tight, Komatsu! We're going through!" "GYAAH!" The small chef screamed as the large man quickly bounded up the vine and managed to avoid the onslaught of hailstones, and reunited with the blind woman. One of the oncoming hailstones nearly nailed them and landed like a bomb practically on top of them. Komatsu gave a loud cry of fear and exclaimed fearfully, "Toriko-san! Sarafina-san! We'll never make it! Let's go back!"

"No, we are not! We didn't go through this chaos just to turn tail and run away!" Sarafina scolded a bit as the chef's words distracted the hunter long enough for him to go, "WHAT!?" "Going up into these clouds is like walking into our graves!

"Calm down, Komatsu! You're over reacting!" Toriko said. "Don't be stupid, Komatsu! Calm down! The worst thing you can do now is panic! We're taking on nature here! Nature doesn't have to be our enemy! If we just stay calm, we'll survive! And one more thing." Toriko turned his head to look the smaller man in the eye. "We are NOT going to die! We've still got something to eat! So we're going to push forward and stay alive!" The chef stared at him, letting his words sink in. "Trust us, Komatsu!"