Izutsumi/Synopsis

The story of Izutsumi from Delicious in Dungeon.
== Biography ==
=== Background ===
When she was very young, Izutsumi would have a curse placed upon her which fused her body with that of a feline monster, turning her into a feline beast-man. Sold into captivity, she would be treated more like an animal than a human and as such, was paraded about at circuses for her abnormalities and forced to live in dismal conditions. 
However, one day a local nobleman would come across Izutsumi and while drunk, would buy her as a "pet" for his lover Maizuru, who would in turn train Izutsumi as a retainer for the nobleman's son Toshiro. However, she notably lacked motivation for this job, being distant from Toshiro, frequently pushing tasks onto her teammates, attempting escapes often and disliking Maizuru for her strict personality. This would soon culminate in Maizuru, for unknown reasons, placing a second curse upon Izutsumi, causing a knife-wielding hag to appear and attack her ever so often if the curse's mark isn't touched by the former once a while. Thanks to Izutsumi's habit of ditching her teammates, it's possible this curse was placed to ensure her loyalty to the retainers.
=== Delicious in Dungeon ===
==== Fifth Floor Arc ====
Shortly after Falin's disappearance after getting consumed by the Red Dragon, Toshiro, now known mistakenly as Shuro, hurries back to his country and summons his retainers, hoping to defeat it and rescue his lover in time. The party rush through the dungeon, arriving on the fourth floor just in time to save Kabru and his party from a sea serpent. Kabru, on his own quest to try and find out the truth behind what happened to the Touden party, agrees to help Shuro to find Falin. 
Descending to the fifth floor, Maizuru and the other retainers catch sight of Laios's party and attack, mistaking them for intruders. However, when Shuro enters, Laios happily recognises him and Shuro, also recognising his old party, orders his retainers to stand down. Weary from their journey throughout the dungeon, the three parties elect to sit down and interact, with Maizuru ordering her underlings to gather supplies to make food for Shuro, along with some of Laios's party. However, news of harpies attacking them arrives so the rest of the parties go out to help them. 
Just then, a gigantic dragon with Falin's torso for its head arrives, brutally killing Benichidori and attacking the rest of the retainers, causing Shuro to believe that the black magic Marcille used to try and revive Falin was what turned her into that chimera. Thus, while the rest of the party try to defeat the chimera, Izutsumi escapes into the shadows, not willing to participate.
Despite everybody's efforts, the Falin chimera manages to kill most of the parties and escapes, forcing Kabru and Shuro's party to revive their fallen teammates and return to the surface in order to recover. Conversely, Laios, scared of the thought of Falin getting injured or killed in her chimeric state, decides to lead his party further into the dungeon to track her down. Unbeknownst to them, Izutsumi also stalks them from the shadows, hoping to get them to cure her curses.
==== Sixth Floor Arc ====
Stalking the group throughout the sixth floor, Izutsumi reveals herself after Laios and his party defeat the Shapeshifter, holding Marcille at clawpoint as she demands the elf mage to cure her two curses, starting with the one implanted around her neck. While Marcille works on doing this, Izutsumi orders Chilchuck to bring her some food, which turns out to be a ration pellet. She ends up disliking this however, so Senshi (with orders to use no monster ingredients), cooks her up a mushroom risotto to sate her.
Izutsumi enjoys this dish, even asking for seconds. However, her poor table manners and picky eating habits anger Senshi, especially after she handles a spoon incorrectly and tosses the mushrooms out of her bowl. An argument triggers between the two, interrupting Marcille's procedure which causes the hag to appear. Fighting the hag, Senshi demonstrates how using tools correctly can save one's life as he uses shatters the hag's thin carving knife on his pan, before the rest of the party defeat it by lighting it ablaze. 
After the battle, Senshi and Marcille lecture Izutsumi over her actions. When asked why she followed them, Izutsumi reveals that she heard of the party's plan to save Falin and believed that if they had a plan to revert her to normal, they could also free Izutsumi from her curse. Marcille explains that they don't actually have a method for it yet, making Izutsumi dejected so Laios offers for her to tag along as they try to figure out a plan on the way. Thus, Izutsumi tells the party her real name and reluctantly tags along.
Moving along the dungeon, Izutsumi accidentally pushes the party out of a gutter where they end up in the room where they initially fought the Red Dragon. Collecting their loot, distrust immediately forms between Chilchuck and Izutsumi as the latter attempts to pocket a gold coin, causing the two to exchange insulting stereotypes about their races. Noticing some fish frozen in the ice, the party tries to extract them but accidentally activate an ice golem, which was birthed after Senshi accidentally dropped a golem core into the sewers a while ago. The party struggle to defeat the monster, but after Chilchuck locates the golem's core and marks it out with an arrow, Izutsumi rips it out and deactivates the golem, allowing the party to harvest the fish frozen in it for later.
Soaked from their encounter with the ice golem, the party decide to take a sauna to warm themselves up, during which Izutsumi reveals that thanks to her curse, her entire body is covered in fur, causing her to resemble a monster instead of a human. This causes Laios to be curious about differences in Izutsumi's body from normal humans, forcing Chilchuck and Marcille to restrain and blindfold him to stop him from harassing the former. As Senshi finishes preparing the meal, Izutsumi demands to eat first thanks to her role in stopping the ice golem, but is told to wait for everybody to be ready before eating. After the meal, Chilchuck gives Izutsumi a repaired backpack as an apology for his harshness, giving her another lesson on working in a team. TThis causes Izutsumi to apologise as well and thank the party for the meal. Thus, geared up with new winter clothes, the party sets off to continue exploring the dungeon.
On the way, Izutsumi declines eating any monster parts, believing that if she eats a monster, she will become more monster-like herself. When the party question her on her picky eating habits, she quickly lies about always liking what she was served. Stopped by a blizzard, Izutsumi laments the lack of "normal" resources, to which Laios assures her is perfectly normal and that eating monsters is mostly harmless, giving the analogy of sheep not becoming plants even when they eat grass. However, Izutsumi quickly points out what appears to be a plant-sheep hybrid, making Laios's analogy moot. Laios tries to explain to her that it's a sheep-mimicking plant called a barometz but Izutsumi has already hurried off to try and harvest it. 
Despite ignoring Laios's warnings to be cautious, Izutsumi soon picks up the scent of dire wolves and escapes, leaving the rest of the party to deal with them. As Marcille follows along, she asks why Izutsumi deserted the rest, to which she replies that she dislikes dogs and was simply following Chilchuck's advice of "letting others do what you cannot". Marcille tries to explain that was not what Chilchuck meant, but Izutsumi retorts that Marcille didn't contribute to the golem fight. 
As the duo search for a way back to their camp, Marcille questions whether Izutsumi is going the right way, causing her to retort that she'll follow whatever path she likes and questions Marcille on why she even eats monsters despite disliking them. As Marcille tries to answer, the howls of dire wolves rings out and Izutsumi immediately ditches her companion to try and escape, only to hear a loud explosion from the back. This causes her to remember an incident where she was reprimanded by Hien for getting Tade to clean the roof of snow instead of herself, leading the ogre to injure herself. Recalling that she didn't actually command Tade to help her, Izutsumi asked her why she even decided to help but is unable to recall her teammate's reply. 
Just as Izutsumi scales a small ledge, a dire wolf ambushes her and bites her arm, breaking it. Fortunately, Marcille arrives in time and unleashes a bolt of light, stunning the wolf which releases Izutsumi from its jaws. On the way back, Marcille reveals that while she doesn't really enjoy eating monsters, she must make sacrifices in her quest to save Falin and as such, is willing to do so if it means speeding up the process. She notes that Izutsumi also seeks the Lunatic Magician with them and that if she wants to break her curse, she might need to take some shortcuts such as eating monsters.
Regrouping with the rest of the party, Laios and Senshi prepare a meal with an unripe barometz fruit, which disturbingly resembles a lamb fetus inside. In the meantime, Marcille heals Izutsumi's arm with a spell which apparently is quite painful. Though initially reluctant to try the meal, Izutsumi soon realises that it is delicious and recalls Tade's reasoning for helping out: she wanted to express her gratitude for being taken in. Thus, Izutsumi realises that despite the sacrifices she might have to make, it'll be worth it in the end when she accomplishes her goals. Laios, Senshi and Marcille applaud Izutsumi for stepping out of her comfort zone, to which she scratches them up and says she only ate the meal out of necessity.
The party stop to eat, where Senshi prepares them a meal using eggs. Suddenly, Izutsumi senses an unnatural presence near her, causing Laios to suddenly reveal that he's been seeing illusions of a spirit stalking him shortly after learning magic from Marcille, but was scared to tell the others about it until he had his suspicions confirmed. Marcille advises against talking to the ghost, to which the ghost is angered at being treated like a fiend and reveals that he was the one who saved Laios's party from a trap earlier. The ghost invites the party to meet someone, so when Laios and the party accept, ghostly hands emerge and drag them into the walls.
Awakening, Laios and the party find themselves in a picturesque castle village where a farmer greets them and tosses them disguises. Laios notices that monsters have replaced the livestock of the village, to which the farmer explains that since regular animals are rare underground, they keep monsters instead. Arriving at a house, the villagers are excited to show the new outsiders around, so while Senshi, Chilchuck and Laios go off to explore, Marcille stays behind to take care of Izutsumi, who has grown strangely tame. While at the home, Marcille agrees to humour three dressmakers by trying on their dresses, with Izutsumi donning a new outfit as well. Meeting up with the rest after frolicking about, Marcille explains that Izutsumi's tameness is likely due to an anti monster aggression barrier present affecting her monster half.
The group are invited for lunch with the village's leader, Yaad, who reveals that the village is in fact, what is left of the Golden Kingdom hidden within the dungeon, with its inhabitants being cursed with immortality by the lunatic magician. While the party eat, Yaad explains that his grandfather, the king Delgal, out of remorse for pressuring the magician into dark magic, embarked on a journey to the surface to free his people, with Marcille revealing that Delgal did succeed in revealing the dungeon, though as a result of leaving the spell's range he died and crumbled away soon after. When questioned on why he invited Laios's party over, Yaad reveals that the country's deity, the Winged Lion, created a prophecy: a knight wielding a winged sword would defeat the magician, free the country and become its king, with the knigh referring to Laios. Shocked by this, Laios quickly informs Yaad he has to consider while the rest of the party try to discourage him from accepting, unable to imagine what he'd do in that position. 
The next day, the party eat breakfast with Yaad, who continues explaining the tale of the Golden Kingdom. The lunatic magician, Thistle, was sent to Delgal's family to act as a jester long ago, with the two growing up like brothers. When Delgal ascended the throne, he asked of Thistle to train in magic, becoming the court magician. However, Thistle's obsessive personality and lust for power would cause him to descend into madness before casting a spell of immortality over the dungeon. Laios wishes to settle matters with Thistle diplomatically, so while Yaad notes that the party are too weak to fight him now, they can venture further into the dungeon to free the Winged Lion and gain his power to stop Thistle. As such, the party leave the village back to the dungeon, ending up in an old dwarven reservoir. 
Upon awakening, Izutsumi recalls her actions back in the Golden Kingdom, causing her to crumple in shame. While Senshi and Chilchuck try to decipher their location, Laios and Marcille go off to try and find traces of Falin. Returning, they reveal that they found feathers littering the place, claw prints and even saw a bird-like beast resembling Falin, though Laios suspects that it may have been a griffin instead. Hearing this, Senshi is notably spooked and tries to stall the party, but all of a sudden said griffin appears and swoops down, abducting Senshi as he tries to escape. Unclear on how to find their friend, Marcille proposes to the party to create familiars, which would allow them to remotely track down and find Senshi. 
Using their remaining food supplies, Marcille converts the organic material into three bird-like creatures which, despite their relative success, disappoint Laios thanks to their lackluster appearance. Sending the familiars out, Marcille notices their vision is overlapping with hers, causing her to blindfold herself in order to focus on the familiars. Laios carries her around and eventually, Marcille finds Senshi trapped in a nest but the griffin kills her familiar before she can rescue him. 
Laios reveals that griffins are apex predators thanks to their simplistic but powerful build and as such, he has to modify the familiars to be able to beat them. He reshapes the familiars into dragon-like shapes, increasing their aerodynamic abilities before sending them out once again. While the dragon familiar manages to give Senshi a rope, it ultimately ends up killed by the griffin as well. Thus, to rescue Senshi Marcille creates one final familiar: a fish-like creature focused solely on speed. With its might, Marcille manages to distract the griffin and punctures its wing, downing it and allowing Laios to slay it. With the fight over, Laios prepares a meal from the remains of Marcille's familiar while Chilchuck decides to encourage Senshi to tell them his backstory, with the former telling the party his story of being a veteran adventurer who has a wife and daughters. Senshi, comfortable with the party's openness, decides to tell his tale. 
Once a young miner, Senshi was part of a spelunking crew who mined for ancient artefacts, though most of their finds were ores. One day, while mining the crew would stumble across a huge underground castle completely covered in gold: the locale of the dungeon. While Senshi was hesitant to enter and wanted to gather more resources first, the other dwarves decided to enter first, causing him to follow along in fear of being left behind. However, as they ventured deeper a mysterious monster began picking off members of the crew, with the party getting lost in the process. As such, they searched for a way to the surface but their food eventually ran out, forcing them to seek out food while Senshi stayed in their headquarters to map the area. However, during an expedition one of the miners would get killed by the monster, causing their numbers to dwindle.
With supplies dwindling and morale low, the group were on the constant hunt for food, eventually resorting to eating their horse. One night, Senshi would overhear the team leader Gillin arguing with his crewmate Brigan over food rationing thanks to Gillin prioritising Senshi's wellbeing. Later on, Brigan would attack Senshi and accuse him of hiding food, causing Gillin to take him outside and the two to fight. Suddenly, Senshi hears the sounds of screaming and as all goes quiet, Gillin enters, badly injured and with a pickaxe-like dent on his helmet. Ordering Senshi not to look outside, Gillin claimed that while he and Brigan were arguing, the monster, now revealed to be a griffin, attacked them and killed Brigan. Fortunately, he killed the griffin and thus, cooks up a stew of its meat for Senshi and himself to eat. With that, Gillin left to use the bathroom but was presumably killed on the way, leaving Senshi all alone.
Scared for his life, Senshi would spend some time in the room, piecing together patterns from the maps he drew before finally finding the courage to go outside, only to find that the bodies of his comrades were taken, leaving only their belongings behind. Taking their gear up, Senshi would continue venturing through the dungeon before getting captured by orcs, whom he'd befriend and ally himself with. Senshi would eventually find his way back to the surface but, scarred by his experiences in the dungeon, would elect to stay there instead of return home, making his dwelling in the upper floors of the dungeon and later deciding to help new adventurers when the dungeon is uncovered.
Senshi reveals the truth on his cowardice when running from the griffin: he always feared that the meat he ate that day wasn't a griffin's meat but instead, Brigan's flesh, making him scared of confirming a griffin's taste. Laios quickly recommends for Senshi to finally put this matter at ease by eating the griffin's flesh, which he accepts, though Izutsumi and the rest are somewhat disturbed by this proposition. Finishing the stew, Senshi realises that the griffin's meat doesn't taste anything like the meat he ate in the past and thus, accepts the fact that he unknowingly committed cannibalism, acknowledging that Gillin always wanted him to keep living. Fortunately, after thinking about the matter and tasting the meat, Laios realises that Senshi's party wasn't attacked by a griffin but rather, a hippogriff, a monster resembling a griffin except with a horse's behind replacing a lion's. Noting that hippogriffs have blunt hooves to cause dents such as the one on Senshi's helmet, Laios assures him that a hippogriff was the one that attacked his party and as such, he truly did eat monster meat that day.
Senshi is thankful for this revelation but notes that there's no way to confirm how a hippogriff tastes like, To this, Laios reveals that the mushrooms Senshi tried to collect earlier are changeling mushrooms, capable of morphing the appearance of anything that steps into their circle, which must've turned the hippogriff into a griffin, noting the griffin's hoarding behaviour and kicking attacks being typical of hippogriffs. Drinking the soup once again, Senshi is reminded to the self-sacrificial care of his old team and thus, thanks the party for helping him make peace with himself.
The party set off once again, only for Laios to accidentally step on some changelings and cause them to fall gravely ill on the road. When they awaken, the party find themselves transformed into different races, with Laios becoming a dwarf, Marcille becoming a half-foot, Chilchuck becoming a tall-man, Senshi becoming an elf and Izutsumi becoming a kobold. With the layout changed, the party is forced to venture on forwards in hopes of finding more changeling mushrooms. The party soon arrive at a large door at the bottom of the dungeon, which the mollusc inhabiting Laios's sword, Kensuke, unlocks using its tentacles. However, gargoyles descend from above and the party struggle to fend them off thanks to their anatomical changes: Laios's stamina depletes rather quickly, Marcille's small body gets overwhelmed with mana easily, Senshi's frame is too delicate for fighting, Chilchuck is too large to run and hide while Izutsumi goes berserk upon smelling blood. As such, the group decide to retreat with the door shut behind them. 
Entering an ancient dwarven stronghold, the party decide to cook up the hippogriff meat into dumplings, saving the leftovers for later. Just then, the gargoyles manage to break in and attack. When one gets itself stuck in a grate, the party surround it only for the gargoyle to get transformed into a manhole cover. This causes Marcille to realise that the party is covered in changeling spores, allowing them to morph their foes if they surround them. For the second, airborne gargoyle, the group throw Marcille upwards and manage to form a large ring which the gargoyle passes through, turning it into a fountain. 
With their threats defeated, the party get to washing off the spores while Senshi uses the changelings to his advantage, using the manhole to transform his hippogriff dumplings into different kinds of dumplings. As such, the party is well fed and after a good night's sleep, return to their original selves. Venturing further downwards, the party find an automatic trolley which suddenly activates, spooking Izutsumi. The trolley transports the party deeper down into the dungeon, during which Laios remarks that despite defeating Thistle being a possibility, he's had trouble coming up with ideas on how Falin can live a normal life thanks to her half-draconic body. As such, he theorises that using changelings could allow her to reduce her size and live fairly normally. 
Hearing this, Senshi asks Laios why he and Falin are in the dungeon despite their meagre ambitions, to which Laios admits that he used to be a soldier in his country, but deserted after experiencing bullying there. From then on, he'd venture the world on a caravan doing odd jobs until he eventually stumbled upon a magic school Falin was attending, whereupon she immediately dropped out to come join him on his adventures, where they'd soon reach the Island and its dungeon to start a new life. When questioned on why he let Falin follow along, Laios admits that Falin was ostracised for her magical abilities and as such, he was her only companion most of the time. Thus, to prevent her from feeling lonely he didn't want to shoo her away and wanted to make sure she had company for the time being. 
Marcille recalls how Falin would always bring her strange plants back in magic school and begins to tear up in regret upon realising she pushed her away when Falin wanted to spend time with her. This spurs Izutsumi to try and comfort her, even begrudgingly hugging her. Along the way, Senshi recalls that while the dragon hams he made earlier were consumed by Thistle to remake Falin into a chimera, the party didn't experience any adverse effects despite eating dragon meat earlier. Thus, he deduces that to revert Falin to her old self, the party could remove Falin's human half from her draconic half, with the body being cooked up and eaten. Laios notes the difficulty of eating such a massive creature, so Senshi urges him to call upon his friends and contacts to recruit people to join them in the feast. Thus, while somewhat perturbed by this grisly method, the party continue to delve into the depths, hoping to find the Winged Lion, free the dungeon and rescue Falin once and for all. 
Category:Synopsis