After a brief moment of disorientation, Goku found himself in a new environment. He was already well-accustomed to the sensation.
This time, he appeared in an alleyway, though it was built of wood, surrounded by traditional wooden houses. Stepping out, he realized he was in a small, rustic town.
"First things first—find a place to eat!"
Spotting a ramen shop diagonally across from him, his stomach immediately let out a thunderous growl.
"Welcome, young guest! What can I get for you?"
As he entered, a middle-aged, balding owner greeted him with enthusiastic hospitality. "We have tonkotsu, miso, shoyu, niboshi..."
"One bowl of every flavor!" Goku said, wiping away a stray bit of drool.
The owner blinked in confusion. "Are you sure, young man? We have twenty different types of ramen."
Ordering one of every flavor meant twenty bowls. Forget a child—even a grown man couldn't finish that much. Moreover, Kogoro's Ramen was famous in this town for its massive, filling portions. No customer had ever managed more than three bowls.
"I have money."
Goku assumed the owner was worried about payment. Remembering Grandpa Dumbledore's instructions, he reached into his magical trunk and pulled out a handful of gleaming golden Galleons, thumping them onto the table.
*Hiss!!!*
At the sight of the glittering gold, not just the balding owner, but every customer in the vicinity sucked in a sharp breath.
Goku had pulled out at least ten Galleons. Each coin weighed roughly fifty grams; he had just laid half a kilogram of pure gold on the table. In this world, the value of that much gold was no small sum.
"Right away, sir! Just a moment!"
The owner didn't care if the boy could finish twenty bowls or not. For a guest this wealthy, he'd serve a hundred.
"Here is your Tonkotsu ramen, sir!"
In less than five minutes, the first bowl was served.
"Thanks for the food!"
Goku picked up his chopsticks, and in the blink of an eye, the bowl was empty. He finished every noodle and every drop of broth in under ten seconds. The owner hadn't even had time to turn back toward the kitchen.
'This kid must be starving,' the owner thought in awe, scurrying back to prepare the second bowl.
...
"This kid can eat a bit, can't he?"
"He's really going... that's three bowls."
"This is insane, that's the eighth bowl!"
"Is he a hungry ghost in disguise? He's a literal bottomless pit—he just ate all twenty!"
An hour later, the owner and the customers stared with bulging eyes at the stack of twenty empty bowls beside Goku. They had never seen such a feat of gluttony.
"I'm about five percent full. Mister, can I have twenty more?" Goku patted his stomach and called out to the dazed owner.
The owner snapped out of it, hands on his hips, grinning ear to ear. "You got it! I'll start them now! Hahaha! My ramen really is the best in the world!"
As both the owner and the chef, Kogoro was happy for the money, but he was even happier that his craft was being appreciated. A guest eating bowls of different flavors was the ultimate endorsement.
"Is this enough, mister? I have more if it's not."
After polishing off twenty more bowls, Goku felt satisfied. He pushed the handful of Galleons toward the owner.
"That's way too much! One of those is enough for ten meals," the owner laughed. "Actually, I won't take a single one. This meal is on the house!"
He was so delighted by the recognition of his skills that he decided to treat the boy. Besides, the legend of a boy eating forty bowls at his shop would do wonders for business once the word spread.
"Grandpa Dumbledore said you have to pay for your food," Goku insisted. He shoved the gold into the owner's bewildered hands and walked out of the shop, leaving a stunned crowd behind.
...
"Excuse me, ma'am, are there any really strong people in this town?"
Walking down the street, Goku approached an elderly woman basking in the sun on a roadside bench. She blinked, looked him up and down, and slowly shook her head.
He asked several more passersby, but none could give him the information he sought. It seemed this world didn't have the kind of legendary masters he was looking for to push his training.
'I'll look a little more. If there's no one, I'll move to the next world,' he thought. The white space had so many doors; he had decided that if he couldn't find a worthy challenge within three days, he'd move on.
"Why are you looking for strong people?"
Just as Goku was about to leave the town, a middle-aged man in a strange, dark uniform with a long sword at his waist stepped into his path.
"I'm training. I want to find masters to challenge so I can get stronger," Goku replied honestly.
The man nodded, then pointed to a boulder by the road that weighed at least four or five hundred pounds. "If you're that strong, can you lift that rock?"
"Like this?" Goku walked over, grabbed the boulder with one hand, and effortlessly hoisted it over his head.
The man's eyes widened with pure joy. "I knew it! A special constitution... just like Lady Kanroji."
He stepped forward, extending a hand. "My name is Mita. If you're looking for the strongest people in the world to challenge, I know exactly where they are. And there are many of them."
"Really?" Goku's eyes sparkled.
Mita nodded with pride. "Truly. Their strength is beyond anything you can imagine. They are among the most powerful humans on Earth."
Mita was a Kinoe-ranked member of the Demon Slayer Corps. He wasn't particularly strong himself, but he had a good eye for talent. He often spent his time scouting for potential recruits to send to Trainers.
He had been in the ramen shop earlier and had watched Goku consume forty bowls. A normal human couldn't eat that much; only those with unique physical builds—like the "Love Hashira," Mitsuri Kanroji—possessed such a metabolism. To Mita, this boy was a diamond in the rough, a natural-born genius for Breathing Styles.
***
Read 20 Chapters early on P-atreon.com/Redestro666