When the three finally arrived at the said place, they saw the main group with most of the applicants sitting on the ground, still trying to gain back their strengths and breaths. "Look like we made it in time." Kurapika stated as the three started to slow down in their steps, passing from running to simply walking. Both Gon and Kurapika were scanning their surroundings, hoping to find the sight of their companion who got knocked out earlier.

'I don't see Hisoka or Leorio...' Then suddenly Gon felt a gaze on him, quickly turning around to see the source of it being Hisoka all smiling, a little more faraway and leaning against the trunk of a tree poiting his finger into the left side's direction. They followed his pointed finger only to find the sight of a now conscious Leorio, sitting against another tree trunk but far more away from Hisoka (it is understandable, if he wake up near that freak he would surely faints again).

"Leorio!" Gon called out his friend's name in surprise, immediately rushing to him with Kurapika following him closely, and Aria also did... though she just walked behind them. Gon took that occasion to give back Leorio's suitcase he kept with him during all the road.

"Arm wound aside, you seem... intact." Kurapika stated after doing a visual checkover on Leorio and nodding to himself while the latter just sweatdropped at this, "Not really pretty though, huh?"

'You look the same to me...' Kurapika thought so, but if he were to voice out his opinon right now it would only irritate his friend, all he hope is that Aria won't make a comeback onto this matter. Thankfully she didn't and he didn't had to answer that question with Gon switching the subject, "Since when did you come to?"

"Oh... uh, just now. But how'd I get all beat up? Can't really remember much after entering the swamp." Leorio answered with a huge bruise onto his cheek.

Kurapika and Gon blinked at Leorio before looking at each other, as Kurapika whispered to Gon, "We probably shouldn't tell him what happened."

"Yeah..."

But unfortunately this is where Aria decided to step in which startled the two of them, "From what I have heard, you got punched by that... joker guy and―"

"AH―AH―AAHH!" Gon quickly screamed out to cover Aria's voice with his own while waving his arms in a frantic manner thus making the girl stop to look at him in wonder, and so did Leorio while Kurapika sighed in relief. "But still, why's everyone standing around out here?" Nobody entered in the building.

"It's because we can't get in." Once he heard a familiar voice, Gon turned around to see Killua walking towards him, his skateboard under his arm as usual and a smile on his face. "Yo."

"Killua! Great timing!" With that there is less chance for it to be revealed! However since Killua wasn't present at the same time either, he just tilted his head on the side. "Eh? About what?"

"N–no, no nevermind, forget what I said...!"

"Sure...? Well anyway I can't believe you actually got here..." Killua noted, "I thought you were already done for."

"I just tracked Leorio's cologne."

"Cologne? That was how?" Killua stepped back one step, surprised at Gon's answer before narrowing his eyes at him, "You definitively are weird. ...And so are you!"

"...Me?" Aria pointed her index finger at herself, imitating the action that Killua did by pointing his index finger towards her, "Yeah, you! Just in a blink of an eye, when I only turned my back around, I found that you suddenly disappeared from my sight! Of course you went to find Gon, but how did you do? Did you teleported yourself or something? Are you supposed to be some kind of ghost?!"

"How rude, I am nothing like that. I just walked... okay, ran away when you weren't looking but... that's all."

"As if it was, you liar!"

"Putting that aside, where is the... Mouthless Mustache Examiner?"

"Trying to change the subject?! ...Hah... Well, whatever, just dealing with you make me feel more tired than running a marathon." Killua gave up and sighed wearily before looking around him, "But at least to answer your question, he left shortly before you guys came here. So you truly made it barely in time."

"Hm..." Aria hummed before losing interest into the conversation and falling silent once again, Gon on the contrary became interested to what Killua had said previously, "So why can't we get in?" Just as Killua said earlier, even though there was a small building in front of them, all the applicants were waiting outside instead of entering in it.

*GRUGGG* *GROWLLL* *GRUUUKKK* *GRRRR* *GRUGGLE*

Killua then pointed at the building where all those weird and loud noise were coming from, "That's why." On the plate attached onto the building over the closed doors, there was written here 'Second Phase begins at noon'. "As for the critter making that racket... it's anybody's guess. Guess we'll find out at noon."

"Not long, then."

"Nope." There were only a few short minutes remaining until the bell ring for the right time to arrive. Yet even during the whole waiting time, the weird noise didn't stopped. Because of that some applicants started to get worried over it, maybe there was a famished beast or monster behind those doors? Nobody knew, but all they could do is to wait till the right time to find it out and just in case, prepare themselves for it. Everyone's attitudes were pretty jittery and the suspence was certainly palpable. They had to be ready for whatever might leap out. Thus when the clock reached right at noon, the door opened themselves of its own with a 'creeak' creepy sound, and what was inside was...!

'HUUUH?' Was the common thought of everybody here. Because what was here wasn't a wild beast at all, but two persons. Rather a woman dressed in rather revealing clothing sitting on a sofa with her legs crossed while there was a large round man of an impossible giant size sitting behind her. Sure, they certainly didn't expected that at all.

"So... you're hungry?" The woman asked the man who answered with a sigh, "Hungry? I'm famished!"

"Okay, applicants, listen up! The second phase is... COOKING! We're Gourmet Hutners, so you'll be whipping up viands to satisfy our discriminating palates!"

"?!"

"Cooking?!" All the applicants were shocked, but neither the two examiners cared as if they had forseen their surprises and instead choose to continue on speaking with Buhara beginning, "First, you'll have to make a dish for me..."

"...And if you Buhara passes your effort, you'll be permitted to make one for me." Menchi finished, "You'll pass the Second Phase when you satisfy BOTH of us! Once we've eaten our fill, the testing period will be over."

'That guy could probably scarf down entire buffets, but I bet she's a nibbler.'

'That'll pare down the field.'

'But... cooking?!'

"Geez... I've never cooked in my life!" Leorio mumbled out, sweat dripping from his forehead while Kurapika nodded, "This certainly is unexpected."

"I have." When Gon said so, both Kurapika and Leorio turned to him with wide eyes as Leorio asked to him, "That's unexpected. What can you cook?"

"Hm... There are many things but, my speciality is a bowl of rice with a raw egg on top!" He beamed a bright smile to them, however there was a huge difference of reaction because of the impact of his words in contrast of his smile, which is the reason why Leorio had such a silly look on his face. "R–rice with egg?"

"Well... I guess that can be described as cooking, but..." Kurapika tried to find some positive points about it but can't help himself but to be at loss of what he should say as his voice continued to trail little by little...

Leorio brought a hand over his eyes and raised his face upward in slight exasperation and desperation, but couldn't refute the boy if he showed him such an innocent expression. "The cook doesn't matter much for such a dish."

"That's not true. Mito-san praised me for it." By now, not even Killua could hold back a wry smile as each of them started to gave up about trying to reason the boy.

"Well, all right. You can cook it for me some day."

"For me too..."

But it was then that Leorio felt the lightbulb over his head lit up, "Oh! That reminds me, we do have a girl here! Oi, Aria! Do you know how to cook?!"

"Please don't align me to such classic stereotypes. Are you trying to shame all the males cooks of the earth by labelling them... as women? But to answer your questions, I don't really know about my housework skills, I'm not a bride-in-training... after all, but at least I'm confident about my survival skills, I've traveled with people who did that... in the past."

"O–okay, if I'm ever lost in the wild I'll call you for help..."

"Feel free to do so." ...It looked like everyone in this group were a hopeless case. But more than anything, WHAT'LL THEY HAVE TO MAKE?! Everything would depend on it, whatever their skills are, if it's an easy dish they might have a chance while if it is a difficult one then they're doomed. Everyone was waiting in anticipation as Buhara gave his answer, "My dish of choice... is a whole roasted pig! Mmm... Can't wait! ANY pig in this preserve will do. Ready? Then..." He then slammed onto his large belly that produced a gong-like sound, "GET COOKING!" With that everybody ran to search for the ingredients. Unaware of the hidden trap laid by the examiners for them, who purposely avoided to reveal the most critical informations about those pigs they are searching for.

"Catching a pig and cook it. This is way easier than the First Phase!" Leorio smiled happily while the group of five were looking for pigs into the forest.

Kurapika looked around him to catch any sign of possible pig in view, "I hope it will be that simple though..."

"Oh?" Killua made when he saw Gon sit down on the grass of the hill from the top and slide downward to the bottom as if he was sliding over a slider, and so he did the same, just like everybody who forgot about wherever if they looked childish or not just for the sake of fun.

"YahooOOOAHHHH?!" Killua's shout of amusement immediately changed into one of horror when he saw that while he was still sliding, Gon stopped down there but didn't moved from his spot at all, and since Killua couldn't stop, he would surely end up crashing into him―

*Bump* *Bump* *Bump* *Bump*

―Which did happened, where Killua bumped into Gon, Aria bumped into Killua, Leorio bumped into Aria and Kurapika bumped into Leorio. All of them were making a different cry when they crashed into each others. Killua was the first one to protest, "What was that about, Gon?!"

However his friend didn't looked back at them and apologized like he expected to, but instead looked straight forward as he answered, "Found them."

"Huh?"

"Pigs!"

Indeed there were pigs over there. Large pigs with pink skin and extremely powerful snouts. They have a pair of small pointed ears and short curling tails. Their teeth are sharp and pointed, able to crush bones, by the way, there were also squeletons on the ground near them.

"Uh... They're chewing on bones." Leorio muttered out, in slightly disbelief and fear that start to climb up inside him.

"Don't tell me... they're carnivorous?" As if to answer Kurapika's question, the bone into the pig's mouth cracked and broke with the pig now looking at them before huffing smoke from their nostrils and charging towards them like enraged bulls while they could only run away in fear of being crushed or eaten by them.

"...How nice."

"HAH?! Why are you even keeping on saying nonsense during such a time―Wait sec', Aria!? Don't keep on standing there and run, hurry! Someone, go pick her up! QUICKLY!"

[A while after this...]

"Oh, my. They caught a lot of it..." Menchi noted before staring at the group filled with Gon, Killua, Kurapika and Leorio were now panting heavily, some were laying on the ground, others were sitting on it while near them was a perfectly fine and blinking Aria. Oh, by the way, all of them caught the pigs.

"Still, how did you guys only ended up like that?" Menchi couldn't help but ask so, seeing how different the four guys looked compared to the girl when the five departed together. And from what she had seen, they were far more exhausted then the other applicants who caught their pigs too.

"You, you..." Leorio finally managed to catch his breath before whacking Aria's head with his fist. "You dumbass! When those superpowered pigs are charging at you, you must RUN AWAY! Not STAYING and WAITING FOR THEM TO TRAMPLE ON YOU!"

"It hurts."

"It would have hurt far more if Gon didn't went to pick you up!"

"Which is why I told you Gon that we should have left her there back then."

"Killua, it's bad to say such an horrible thing!"

"To not even run away even though it was normal to do so, I wonder where on earth Aria were raised to develop such a weird common sense..."

"Kurapika, this is where you should scold her properly and not just calmly analyze the situation!"

'...Well, I can somehow guess what happened just from that talk even without explanation.' Menchi thought so and decided to refrain herself from asking further to the boys who didn't even heard her speak, no matter how interesting it may have seemed, otherwise if she heard any more of it, she would surely end up finding it weird too.

―The Great Stamp, the world's most ferocious pig and the only pigs present in the Biska Forest. They use their large, stout noses to send their enemies flying. If you're too slow, you'll end up as their dinner. However their weak point are their soft and sensible forehead, the reason behind their large noses was also to protect that same forehead. And those pigs were the targets that Buhara had requested as a meal. Thanks to Gon having noticed this, 71 participants for the Second Phase all managed to capture one... and all managed to pass thanks to the great generosity (and appetite) in Buhara's heart (and stomach). Now that they managed to clear the first condition in order to pass this phase, all there is left to do is to make something that fit Menchi's palate...

"But still, 'shisu', is it, huh...?"

"Aria, it isn't 'shisu' but 'sushi'."

"Mm? Thank you for correcting the mistake... Gon, do you perhaps know how to make one?"

"Nope, sorry. I'm too in the dark. Since she said that rice was an important ingredient in it, I thought maybe it would be rice balls, but Killua told me that because of the knife, something else was needed."

"I see, still thank you for sharing informations."

"Don't worry about it! It would be great if all of us could success together!"

'Now back at the sushi... I'm pretty sure that I was taken to eat some, but I certainly don't know how to cook it... A cold dish, was it? Fish and rice I believe? Hm... I only ate, I didn't watched how the cooks made it in the restaurants...' The only informations that Menchi gaved them was that the dish came from a small island country, that it used rice as an ingredient, that knifes were needed as tools and that it had to be hand-molded.

"―FISH! IN A FOREST?!"

*WHAP*

"QUIET! Forest have rivers and ponds!"

'...Thank you very much for the free confirmation, whoever was the idiot who openly let this information out.' With that Aria, along with everyone else ran to the forest to catch fishs for the dish. (By the way the people were actuallly Leorio and Kurapika, Leorio who looks flustered that everybody overheard them despite his megaphone mouth while Kurapika was ashamed by his own blunder due to the fact that Leorio irritated him with his denseness to the situation). Well personally, after she caught the fish, she didn't well what to make to be sure of it. And the appearance of the one in her mind would surely end up into a different shape in her hands. But well, she just have to try what she can!

[Five minutes around later on...]

"―Close! It's so close to the good answer but it's also wrong! It's in the same country indeed but it's a differnt dish! What you made, young lady, is a fish meat filled rice ball!"

'Hm... Look like I failed. So it wasn't like that, huh? But well, at least she didn't threw mine away like she did with the others, at least this is a positive point...' Then when Aria walked away until she also saw the four guys she recently started to hang out with, thus she approached them. "Did the four of you... failed as well?"

"My dish was thrown into the air." Leorio grumbled,

"So was mine." Gon sighed,

"The big guy behind liked mine but she didn't even wanted to taste one bite." Killua said,

"...I was told that mine was even worse than #403's..." Kurapika said in a depressed manner while Leorio in the background retorted 'Is it that insulting to be compared at me?!'.

"...I see, so everyone went through a lot, didn't they?" Well, if any of them didn't succeeded then she couldn't ask them for tips, besides it seems that her result was actually better then theirs. Menchi earlier said that her answer was close but also wrong, was there any hints in her words? Anyway she has to try again, when she still has the motivation to do so of course.

"―SUSHI IS JUST RICE MOLDED INTO A BITE-SIZED OBLONG SHAPE DABBED WITH WASABI WITH A SLICE OF FISH SLAPPED ON THE TOP! NOTHING SIMPLER AND IT TASTE THE SAME NO MATTER WHO MAKES IT!"

...First it was Leorio and now it was the bald ninja (now that she thinks about it, it was also those two who almost got themselves being tricked by the Man-faced Ape, right?), no matter what are the reasons, Aria felt now at loss wherever she should be thankful or regretful to have two large mouths within the applicants who voice out openly all the answers they find to the others.

"This one... Nope! The rice doesn't fall apart on the tongue!"

"...*Munch*"

"Don't you know you're supposed to slice the fish across the grain?! Try again!"

"...*Munch*"

"The rice is the wrong shape! Mold it with a thumbprint on the bottom! Don't press allthe air out!"

"...*Munch*"

"Too slow! Too slow! Your body heat transferred to the fish!"

"...*Munch*"

"This sucks! No good! Remake!"

"...*Munch*"

"*Glug, glug* Pwah...!" Menchi drank the green tea in her cup in one gulp before turning to the applicants with a silly smile as she rubbed her head, "That's it! I'm full now!"

'BUT... NO ONE'S PASSED!' Thus the applicants that passed after the second phase part two: 0.

"...*Munch*"

"...Hey, Buhara? I already said the verdict, no need to taste the samplings anymore. Especially if all those are failures."

"Huh? But I didn't do anything Menchi."

"Then what is the munching sound that I heard since earlier...?" Thus both Menchi and Buhara, and along with everyone else turned towards the source of the munching sound they heard since earlier. And when they saw a familiar flaxen-haired female, the group of the four usual guys felt their eyes bulging so much that it could almost pop out from its sockets while their mouths were so opened so largely that their jaws could even reach the floor.

"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?!" Leorio couldn't help but shout so, one day he was going to die from a heartattack because of the girl's actions for sure! While Aria turned to him with a blank gaze while stuffing her mouth like a squirrel with their 'failures' as Menchi said earlier. "Well... I didn't had a decent meal these few last days so..." It was decided, this girl was truly a hopeless case.

"Look, that's just how it came out... No! I'm NOT doing it over! I didn't adhere to established criteria?! How so?! It was established that I'd judge by taste! MY taste!"

"Partially, but equally on an applicant's ability to pick up on your hints..."

"WILL YA STAY OUTTA THIS?!" Thus Buhara's brave attempt at reasoning Menchi was immediately shut down.

"There was a glitch... one of the examinees was familiar with the dish... and spilled the beans to the rest of 'em! Threw the whole ting outta whack!" (Hanzo who certainly knew that she was talking about him on the phone, twitched slightly in annoyance).

"That's no grounds to redo the test! It's decided! In the Second Phase, Part Two... EVERYBODY'S FAILED!" And with that she hung up.

"..."

"She meant it."

"That's it? The end of the exam?"

"That's, that's ridiculous!" There were many protests among the whispers between the applicants.

Thus Aria walked away and sat down against a kitchen's cooking table, if all there was going to be was scolding then she could take a nap during this. If only she could drift towards the world of dreams like that by shutting herself away from all the noises outside... At a moment, she felt this happen, until―

*THOOMP―!*

"W–what...?!" For one of the rare times, Aria stuttered as she was jolted awake by an enormous sound, a slight shake of the ground and the gust of the wind blowing up at her face, unfortunately (or rather thankfully for her) nobody saw that as their attentions where taken by what just woke Aria up. Oh, come on, she didn't even had the time to doze off! She stood up at her turn and decided to walk towards its source, in order to witness what she just missed because of her nap. When she arrived, she saw... an old man wearing a kimono?

"―He is in charge of the Hunter Exam... Chairman Netero." She heard Menchi said, look like she just made it in time for the explaination.

"Well, I work behind the scenes. I only take action where there's an issue, like now. So Menchi-kun..."

"Yes, sir."

'...Oh? So she isn't talking back to him, huh?' Aria noted, rather the scene looked more like a child being punished by an adult because of her wrong doings.

"You failed all of the applicants because you disapproved theri reluctance," He glanced up at her chest in between, "to try new things?"

'...Perverted old man.'

"No, sir... I lost my cool when one of the candidates insulted Gourmet Hunters. And I made the exam harder than necessary." She sincerely voiced out her faults to her superior while she didn't do so earlier with her associate.

'...Or rather, didn't she noticed at all that the old man was ogling at her? Or is she just not mentioning it in order to not be irrespectful towards her superior...?'

"In other words, you're aware that this exam was unacceptable."

"Yes, sir. When cooking is involved, I lose control. I'm unqualified to be an examiner. I will resign as examiner, so please redo the Second Phase!" She took a 100% change compared to what she was earlier, but all the applicants weren't going to answer negatively at that, on the contrary! Thanks to this, perhaps they would be able to have a more easy test to pass, along with the possibility to continue on the Hunter Exam.

Netero hummed in thought before answering, "But it would be difficult to find another examiner on such short notice."

"I apologize..." Menchi bowed in sincere apology.

Then Netero raised a finger as if a good idea just came to his mind, "Very well. How about this? I'd like you to continue serving as an examiner. But you must also participate in the new test you propose. Is that acceptable? I'm certain that will help the applicants to accept the results."

Menchi's eyes widened in surprise at Netero's words before she closed her eyes and a smile formed onto her face, "That's true... Then the new challenge will be... boiled eggs!"

"Boiled eggs?" One of the applicants repeated in shock, of course it sounded simpler than the mystery they had to do earlier but wasn't it far too simple too in comparaison?

"Chairman, can you take us to Mt. Split-in-Half in your airship?" Menchi asked by poiting her finger at the airship that was still flying in the sky.

"Mt. Split-in-Half? I see what you're doing. Certainly, I can."

'Mt. Split-in-Half... is that the name of a mountain? But why on earth would eggs be present in the mountain?'

The mountain is famous for its characteristic split in the middle that divides the mountain into two equal halves and for its strong ascensional currents inside the split. It's also the home to the Spider Eagles that build their nests between the cliffs on Split Mountain with their webs. Below the webs were hanged the Spider Eagles' eggs because apparently Spider Eagles build their webs in deep ravines, to protect their eggs from predators. This make their eggs one of the most diffciult ingredients to obtain and they are also known as dream eggs (from Netero source).

"W–wait a minute..." The examinee#255 Wrestler Todo fell back onto hsi butt in fear as he realized what they must do in order to obtain the egg after Netero's explaination. "You don't mean..."

"I sure do." Menchi answered while Todo cried out with a loud in a unbelievable 'EH?!' while Menchi paid no minds to this as she walked straight towards the ravine that was so high that you could barely see the bottom of it, and without hesitation she jumped in it. Before she reach the bottom of the fall, she managed to catch herself onto some webs and hung herself on it, the fearless action made many applicants cry out in fear, after all how could she manages to do such a thing without any thoughts?! Hunters or not, was she trying to throw her life away?!

"Even if she can grab some eggs, how will she climb back up?" Leorio wondered as the others were also looking down to see what was happening.

As if she was answering his question, Menchi suddenly let go of the web string she was hanging on (whcih supported her weight surprisingly) before diving downward and grabbed one egg and disappeared in the mist downard (Todo cringed in fear when that happened while Leorio gasped in shock), however just a little after―

*Fwoosh~*

―With a gust of dry and warm wind that flew upward, Menchi was suddenly lifted up by that wind till the 'ground' where everyone was, as if she was pulled up by some kind of invisible string, she then landed back onto the top of the mountain where everyone was, showing in her hand a rather large egg compared to the usual ones coming from chicken or other birds.

"Ah...!"

"That looks fun..." Both Gon and Killua had their eyes wide open and smiles on their faces upon seeing Menchi's actions, excitement building up inside them.

"This ravine has updrafts that help the hatched chicks to fly up to the web." Netero explained while Menchi walked up them, showing the prize she won in her hand. "Here. Now all there is to do is to boil the egg."

"Y–you must be joking. No reasonable person would jump down there..." Todo backed off further from the ravine in fear, however his question was quickly answered by a bunch of applicants joining in first (the four 'boys' first), "I've been waiting for this!"

"Yosh, count on me too!" And thus, one after the other;

Menchi became started to panic upon seeing this as she held her hand out to them but in vain, "Wait! Hear me out until the end!" But unfortunately already half of the applicants had jumped down.

Aria who had yet jumped turn to Menchi, "Do you think it is already too late for you... to continue your explainations?"

"..." Menchi could only open her mouth in shock while no sounds were coming from it, why was that girl, rather #402 so nonchalant about everything?

However Aria mistook her silence for something else as she ran towards the ravine too, "Understood, this was rude... of me, I will jump too."

"No, no, wait! This isn't what I meant!" However once again Menchi had been too late.

"It's way damn good! Much better than the eggs you buy in a store..."

"With a profoundly texture that melt in your mouth! Regular eggs are rubber balls in comparision!"

"I can see why they are called 'dream eggs'!"

"..." Aria was chewing her egg silently compared to all the others who were openly voicing out their positive opinions about it. If she were to say about what she were to think right now, there is no doubt that Menchi would surely hit her or try to kill her for this, thus she can only stay quite.

"Hey, Todo-san..." Suddenly Gon's voice caught her attention as she turned to see that he was handing his egg towards the wrestler who badmouthed the Gourmet Hunters earlier and didn't dared to retake the test out of fear, "Would you like a bite?"

Todo reluctantly accepted and when he bite into the egg, his eyes immediately snapped open, "Delicious...!"

Menchi smiled at this and approached them, "Now you've experienced the joy of discovering how good something can taste. We're risking our lives for that joy." She finished by pointing at herself.

Todo then faced her completely, his earlier rudeness now completely gone. "I was completely outclassed this year. But I'll be back next year!" He bowed to show both apology and respect.

Gon smiled at this and then turned around to see Aria watching him, before quickly forgetting about his egg and rushing towards her, "Hey, hey, Aria! Isn't the egg super tasty?"

"...Uh-huh."

"See? It's great that it taste good, right?!" Gon then grinned widely, showing all his shining white teeths to her.

However Aria, despite having nodded, was now looking at her egg in wonder. 'It tastes good... I said that but, there wasn't any need to overexaggerate, was it? But despite that everyone is smiling because of such a simple thing... everyone... but me.'

And thus the number of applicants passing the revised second phase, part two was now of 43.