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These days, no matter what the magical benefits might be, nobody was a fool enough to eat dragon meat.
Each and every dragon was poisonous, and sometimes also venomous or cursed, and, often enough, only the dragon themselves knew in what way, and how to neutralize said poison.
Any fool trying to eat dragon, provided they survived getting the meat, dropped dead before they'd even swallowed down all of their first mouthful.
It started with an idea that resulted in Tohru contemplating which body part could miss a piece.
Eventually, she decided on the end of her tail: It would result in her remaining symmetrical, so it wouldn't influence the way she walked or flew in inconvenient ways, and miss Kobayashi was a very small creature compared to Tohru's true form, so, likely, the lack would only be noticed by someone looking for it, and would not inconvenience Tohru at all.
Still, to make sure, it needed to be a piece large enough to fill miss Kobayashi right up, so, something the size of a large meal that miss Kobayashi could swallow down when she was very hungry.
As she carefully removed the poison glands in the cut off piece just below the scales, she giggled a little. Despite the oddity of it, the thought of miss Kobayashi eating a part of Tohru that Tohru had especially prepared felt oddly intimate.
It wasn't really a surprise miss Kobayashi refused to, though. Making a decision like that was a big step.
Not to mention miss Kobayashi tended to avoid overwhelming things.
Eating the flesh she had cut off herself restored Tohru perfectly. Part of the magic was in symbolism, after all. (There was always next time.)
The next try, Tohru went for a more balanced dish.
Being curious about the taste, and saying that she wouldn't notice if it was ground up were all good signs.
(Privately, Tohru hoped the juices that had soaked into the meal were enough.)
But...
Miss Kobayashi had chosen not to eat it, and part of the magic was in symbolism.
Partaking of a dragon’s flesh was partaking of its lifeforce, increasing your own vitality and lifespan by the thousandfold.
Maybe next time.
They had years, after all.
"Ah, you got us dinner, Faf-kun?"
"Indeed. It is one of the many tentacles of a long-lived magical creature of darkness whose flesh is said to grant the eater a long life."
"Ah. That sounds interesting." said Makoto, while looking down at the dark, rubbery looking stuff. It looked vaguely squid-like, if a little tougher and more textured, and the colour was strange, something between ink black and ash gray with a disconcerting oily gleam to it. He'd eaten worse while in high school, and Fafnir had obviously put some effort in to make the whole thing more palatable, but...
"Eat it." said Fafnir with all the commanding, curt, forbidding finality that meant he was a little insecure and his feelings would be hurt if Makoto didn't.
Well, that made the choice rather easy, didn't it?
"If you say so. Sure."