PAIR

This article pertains to the soup in Acacia's menu. For the Nitro of the same name, see Pair.

PAIR
Name
Japanese	ペア
Romanized	Pea
Aliases	Food King (食王 (しょくおう), Shoku-Ō) Drop of Two Sides of the Same Coin (表裏一体の雫 (ひょうりいったいのしずく), Hyōriittai no Shizuku)
Statistics
Type	Soup
Capture Level	Unknown
Location	Birth Cry Tree (Area 7)
Related	Ballboons
Debut Appearance
Manga	Chapter 246
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PAIR (ペア, Pea), also known as the Drop of Two Sides of the Same Coin (表裏一体の雫 (ひょうりったいのしずく), Hyōriittai no Shizuku) is the mysterious soup that makes up Acacia's Full Course Menu Soup Dish. PAIR like all of Acacia's ingredients is located in the Gourmet World. There are multiple numbers of PAIR displayed within Birth Cry Tree, making the tree a form of large planetarium like display filled with many numbers of PAIR. It is the Food Treasure of Area 7, the Mountain Continent, in Gourmet World and is unobtainable unless one has great power and strength.

PAIR gains its title of Drop of Two Sides of the Same Coin because when PAIR usually falls, the other part drops within the underworld and the only possible method of gaining the other half is through having one who is on the verge of death catch it. This title means that both the land of living and the land of the dead (the two sides) share the same planet (the same coin).

Appearance

The many star-like PAIRs decorating the Birth Cry Tree.

PAIR has many differing appearance depending on how it is prepared. It's basic description is that of a ball which can differ in sizes.

An ancient planet-like PAIR.

A conventional version (one which is not fully prepared) is known to shine bright like the stars. A cluster of conventional PAIRs which can be found within Area 7's Birth Cry Tree create the illusion of a planetarium when put together. PAIR which appears in its early stages appear as part of the current Monkey King's testicles as they are the origins of PAIR itself; it is covered in the same layering of skin as the current Monkey King himself and appears as an actual pair of testicles.

PAIR which is prepared fully takes on the appearance of a bright, swirling sphere of liquid or energy. The brightness of a fully prepared PAIR shines the brightest in comparison to that of a conventional PAIR and can be distinguished from it as well.

Abilities

PAIR gives one the ability to interact with the deceased or with people of verge of death. Not much is known about how this works, but it most likely has to do with a part of PAIR normally falling to the Underworld. In order to process the amazing taste of PAIR, it changes the gender of the the ones that drink it (turning male into female, and vice versa), and in addition, after being drank, PAIR grants the ability to see the Spirit World, also known as the Back Channel.

As Food

PAIR has a extremely high nutritional value. The first example of this was when Bambina used the sound of an unprepared PAIR, called the Bell of PAIR, to feed everyone at the Monkey Festival and even the entire continent. The second example of PAIR's extremely high nutritional value was when the Four Heavenly Kings obtained the perfectly prepared PAIR amidst a field of natural Sandoriko flowers. Just the sound, smell and touch of a 100% PAIR was enough to not die from the Sandoriko pollen immediately and just a few drops on the ground was enough to stop the entire field of Sandoriko flowers from releasing pollen.

Being one of Acacia's Full Course Menu, PAIR has the ability to awaken one's Gourmet Cells. When combined with the nutrients gained from AIR, PAIR will awaken the second arm of an Appetite Demon within a person who has Gourmet Cells, allowing both arms of an Appetite Demon to be used for combat.

As a side effect of being known as 'Drop of Two Sides of the Same Coin', PAIR has the capability to switch ones gender with one helping. This means that a male will begin to produce female body parts and become more feminine in appearance, gaining breasts as well as having more curvature on their bodies and females will gain more masculine appearances.

The greatest ability PAIR can offer as a food is the ability to see through the the true 'Two Sides of the Same Coin', meaning that one will have the ability to see the spirits of those who passed away, the ability to see and go through the Back Channel. This ability becomes extremely strong once one has eaten a fully prepared PAIR.

Preparation

Just like the rest of Acacia's Full Course Menu, PAIR is an extremely difficult and an especially dangerous ingredient to prepare. In order to even be able to set foot on PAIR's location, one must have prepared and eaten AIR, the Food King of Area 8, as AIR provides the needed sustenance to allow one to enter the location of the Monkey King's habitat.

Capture Method

In order to capture PAIR, it is essential to know Area 7's Martial Arts discipline known as Enbu or Monkey Dance. The ways of Enbu allow one to survive the harshest area of the Mountain Continent but most importantly, allows one to survive the Monkey King himself. In order to capture PAIR from the Monkey King, the Monkey King must first be satisfied, initially this was done with a female partner as the Monkey King offers PAIR to its female partner in order for them to create offspring. However, with little to no information on how many female Ballboons there are, the Monkey King must instead be forced into extreme nostalgia by dancing the famous Monkey Dance with the Monkey King. Once the Monkey King himself is lured into extreme nostalgia, PAIR will fall from the Monkey King.

The next stage of capturing PAIR at 100% is that both parts of it must be combined together in order for PAIR to truly form. This is done by ensuring that both balls of PAIR are captured in sync, the only possible way to do this is if one is on the verge of death as the other ball of PAIR travels to the underworld. After two sides capture both balls, it is then combined together within the barrier of life and death and if done correctly, PAIR will unleash its true form by breaking its second outer shell, revealing the swirling liquid or energy which is formed into a perfect sphere.

Cooking Method

PAIR is an extremely hard food to prepare and in order to prepare it through normal means, it would take over thirty hours to simply get the soup within PAIR. Through normal methods, one must put PAIR within an extremely large bowl and stir it for five hours continuously, afterwards it must be set to dry by the sun within ten hours, and finally, PAIR must be seared for up to twenty-five hours. The remaining details of its preparation have been hinted to continue for a minimum of one month and increase in both difficulty and complexity.

Through the recently discovered method however, PAIR can be prepared in as little as a second. In order to do this, one must have extreme food luck and keen sense of sight as in order to gain the soup within PAIR, one must find the exit hole of the soup within the ball and pierce it slightly in order for the soup to gush out of its shell. Through this method, PAIR will overflow in mass quantities.

History

Past

The ancient "Monkey King" who depleted PAIR.

Long ago PAIR was a mystical soup spring created from the Gourmet Cell-enhanced flavor of the Earth that existed in Area 7, however the area's native species, the Ballboons and their Ballboon king (who was Bambina's ancestor), slowly depleted PAIR's source, drying it up completely. Luckily the essence of the soup would live on within the Ballboons and form within their bodies as their "testicles". Since then, these Monkey Kings are the sole source of PAIR and they can only be extracted from them or the PAIR they themselves have placed on the Birth Cry Tree.

Cooking Festival Arc

Guemon and Malee of the 0th Biotope were assigned to capture it while Dores of the Gourmet Corp. was appointed to intercept them.

PAIR Arc

It is revealed by "Kaka" that PAIR resides on 100G Mountain and is actually a part of Monkey King Bambina's body. As the Four Heavenly Kings along with the comatose Komatsu continue on their way to Bambina, "Kaka" reveal that there are two different types of PAIR; the conventional PAIR from the Birth Cry Tree and the source of PAIR Bambina.

When "Kaka" continues to inform the Heavenly Kings of the origins of PAIR, she states that PAIR itself was a true symbol of male strength. Because of its relation to Bambina, "Kaka" informs the group of the species which Bambina represented. She states that the Monkey King itself was a rare species known as Kintamandrill and the true origins of PAIR itself was actually PAIR being Bambina's testicles. Being the Monkey King's own testicles, PAIR was originally an ingredient decorated to be a display of courtship by male Monkey Kings to a female of the same species. Having 'PAIR' shine more beautifully was a symbol of strength and its owner gained the right to leave many offspring.

Trivia

• PAIR having once been a natural soup that was consumed and dried up by native Ballboons which then gained the flavorful essence of the soup is quite similar to the history of the Century Soup which had also dried out but its essence continued to live on in the native Wall Penguins.

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