Sorry for the late update, guys. Got writer's block on this one so I had to let it sit for a while :p
"I'm stuffed too," Menchi said. She uncrossed her legs and stood up from her couch. "Which means that the Second Phase is officially finished! The results: 148 failures and 0 passes!"
Whisks, ladles and pan lids hissed through the air as applicants cried in outrage. The sound of Todo's fist slamming into the work station added to the cacophony. The station held for a moment, then cracks ran across the counter and the structure fell apart into pieces. Water sprung out like a geyser from the area that used to be the sink.
"Like hell I'm accepting this bullshit!" Todo roared.
Menchi shrugged. "Doesn't matter if you do or don't accept it; you've still failed."
"Why?! You asked for pork, so we risked our lives to ge-"
"I said to prepare the pork in a way we both found delicious, and none of you made anything remotely delicious!" Menchi snapped. "Almost all of you just roasted the damn pig whole, which requires zero effort. And just when I thought some people actually tried, they only changed the appearance-no one attempted to emphasize the flavor." Menchi pointed at the crowd accusingly, an extremely pissed look on her face. "I'm positive that none of you took cooking seriously!"
"How are we supposed to make it taste different?" Hanzo muttered with a shrug. "No matter who makes it, pork dishes taste all the same."
Considering Menchi's current mood and her passion about cooking, Hanzo passing that comment was akin to him making a death wish.
Menchi snarled and cleared all the stairs with a jump. Then she stormed over to the bald man with a furious look on her face. Her hands flashed and yanked Hanzo towards her by his scarf. "Just try saying that one more time, baldie!" Menchi snarled into Hanzo's face. "Any more crap from you and I'll shove my arm up your ass and knock your goddamn teeth out!"
Swearing, chewing out, grabbing a person by their collar and screaming in people's faces. Yes, this Menchi person reminded Asterra of the Training instructors back home.
Menchi then shoved Hanzo to the side and turned on the rest of the applicants. "Anybody else feel like passing a comment? Because I don't want any lip from a bunch of amateurs who can't even roast a fucking pig!"
Silence answered her challenge. "Yeah, that's what I thought," Menchi muttered as she let go of Hanzo's scarf. She then sat back onto her couch, her expression calmer than the one she had worn three seconds ago. The smooth and quick transition in emotions made Asterra wonder if Menchi was bipolar.
"So, back to what we were talking about earlier," Menchi continued. "In other words, you people don't have the guts to try anything new."
"Shut up!" Todo roared – apparently one applicant had not been fazed by Menchi's earlier display. He jabbed an index finger aggressively at Menchi. "I'm not trying to become a cook or a gourmet…I'm trying to become a Hunter!"
The applicants around Todo shouted their agreements and the wrestler continued, "My goal is to become a Blacklist Hunter. And I'm not about to let a mere Gourmet Hunter's decision keep me from becoming one!"
The examiner he was talking to couldn't care less at this point. "Too bad you got stuck with a mere Gourmet Hunter as an examiner," Menchi replied in a clearly unsympathetic voice, not even bothering to make eye contact with the wrestler. "Better luck next year?"
At her words Todo turned an unhealthy shade of red. He then lunged at Menchi, growling, "Why you-"
A mini-earthquake shook the ground as Buhara lumbered into Todo's path at a speed Asterra didn't think was possible for a man of his size. The examiner's arm blurred and there was a sharp crack! as the giant's arm smacked away Todo. Whatever profanities the wrestler had been about to say were cut off brutally and Todo went flying through the air as if he had been shot out of a cannon. All the applicants visibly winced as the wrestler hit the red, conical top piece of one of the towers. Todo slid down the piece and fell, landing on the ground with a heavy thud.
Menchi broke the stunned silence that followed. "Buhara, that was my fight. Not yours."
Buhara turned back to the female examiner. "If I hadn't intervened, you would have put him in the hospital."
Because knocking him into the tower wouldn't put him in the hospital, Asterra thought.
Menchi gave a small laugh. "Yeah, probably." Menchi stood up from her seat and held out her hands to reveal the four kitchen knives she held in them. Her high-heel boots clacked as she descended the stairs towards the applicants. "I'm getting the feeling that you all think Gourmet Hunters aren't actually Hunters because you think we can't fight. Well, let me clarify something. Every Hunter knows some form of martial art-they wouldn't last a day on the job if they didn't. Gourmet Hunters are no different." Menchi started juggling her knives. "We venture into the dens of ferocious beasts to find rare ingredients, and sometimes we have to fight out way out."
The knives continued to glint as they spun in the air around Menchi. "Now that's settled, I'll say this: strength isn't the only thing that makes you a Hunter. You have to have to be willing to experiment and you have to be observant too. Every one of you lacks those two qualities." She caught the four knives in one hand and pointed them at the crowd of applicants. "That alone disqualifies you all from becoming Hunters!"
Applicants looked down, unable to meet Menchi's gaze, and silence filled the courtyard.
Asterra leaned against the working station, gaze down and hands in pockets. The fact that she had failed was finally beginning to sink into her. Memories of the past few days flitted through her mind-Training, the boat ride here, joining up with Gon, Leorio, and Kurapika, the quiz lady, the Kiriko, the running, Hisoka-and she closed her eyes. All of that for naught. Her shoulders sagged.
She knew there were plenty of Resca teens that failed to make it past the third phase of the exam on their first try. Those that were able to just took the next Hunter Exam and hoped for the best. Heck, even her parents had failed the first time around. And she was alive, so she could try it again next year.
Or so one part of her reassured.
Another part of her was pissed. Pissed that she wouldn't be getting her Hunter License this year and not getting to access the information she wanted. Pissed because she would have to wait another fucking year when she had already waited far too long to get answers.
A megaphone voice from above her cut off her train of thoughts. "Even if that is the case, isn't it a little excessive to fail every single applicant?"
The applicants looked up to see a blue blimp painted with the design of a predatory fish came into view. On its side was the sign of the Hunters Association: Two capital Xs touching each other to make a diamond shape in between them, with said diamond shape colored red.
"Hey, it's a Hunter Association blimp!" one applicant yelled.
"Is it someone from the selection committee?" another wondered.
"Hey Gon, look," Killua said and pointed towards the blimp. "There's somebody climbing out the window."
Asterra looked up and to see that Killua's words were accurate: there really was somebody climbing out the window.
"Is he going to jump?" Gon asked.
"I doubt it," Asterra replied.
"I dunno…he looks –" Killua cut off his words as the figure jumped out. "Oh, there he goes."
Asterra choked as the figure fell out the window and plummeted. The other applicants shouted in alarm. There had to be at least 60 feet from the ground to the blimp; there was no way a human could survive that high of a drop.
Seconds later the figure slammed into the path leading up to the porch with the force of a meteorite. A large bang shuddered the earth and applicants nearby the site of impact were knocked off their feet. Shouts erupted as each applicant's arms flashed up to protect their head. Asterra chose to take cover instead; she grabbed Kikiri and dived behind a work station as a mini sandstorm was kicked up and bits of earth shot every which way like projectiles.
The metal her back was pressed against shook as bits of earth flung themselves into the work station. Asterra stayed hunched over, hands over head, knees to chest, and Kikiri in lap, until the shouting and coughing died down and the earth settled. Only then did she dare peek around the corner of the work station.
From the sheer craziness of the stunt, Asterra expected the figure to be some macho young guy who was either drunk or high.
But the sandstorm settled to reveal a figure that was the polar opposite of that image – an old man with a sage-like air. He wore a white male kimono-like robe with blue accents and billowing sleeves that hid his hands. His head was bald except for the white ponytail that erupted from the top of his head. A white beard, tipped with grey, hung over his chest. And two blue studs decorated each unusually long earlobe. His frame looked fragile; Asterra would have thought he was frail if it wasn't for the fact that she had seen him survive a 60 foot drop.
Wooden sandalsclacked against the ground as the man walked towards Menchi, a serious look on his face.
"Who the heck is this geezer?" an applicant muttered as the old man stopped in front of Menchi.
"That man is the Chairman Netero: Chairman of the Committee that is in charge of the Hunter Exam," Menchi replied.
"Well, that's my official title," Netero said. "But I work more behind the scenes and only take action when there's an issue, like now. So, Menchi."
Menchi straightened. "Yes, sir."
"Apparently you failed all of the applicants because you disapproved of their reluctance to try new things."
"No, sir," Menchi replied solemnly. "It wasn't that. I just lost my cool when one of the candidates insulted Gourmet Hunters. I ended up making the exam harder than necessary."
"Ah, so you're aware that this exam was unacceptable."
Menchi nodded. "Yes, sir. When cooking is involved, I lose my cool. I'm unqualified to be an examiner." She looked at Netero in the eye. "I will resign as examiner, so please redo the Second Phase."
"Unfortunately that's easier said than done. It would be difficult to find another examiner on such short notice."
Menchi bowed slightly. "I apologize…"
Netero stroked his beard in thought, then said, "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 so that they know what you're asking is not impossible; I'm certain that will help the applicants to accept the results. Is that acceptable?"
There was a slight pause, then Menchi smiled. "Yes, sir. In that case the new challenge will be…" Menchi thought for a moment, then continued, "boiled eggs."
"Boiled eggs?" the applicants echoed questioningly.
"Chairman, can you take us to Mt. Split-in-Half in your airship?" Menchi pointed up at said airship.
Netero looked to the horizon. "Mt. Split-in-Half?" Then he smiled knowingly. "Certainly. I can do that."
=o=o=o=
An hour later, the applicants were on the plateau portion of Mt. Split-in-Half. The airship they had traveled in sat some distance away from a chasm that gave the reddish-brown mountain its name.
Menchi stood by said chasm, which spanned the entire diameter of the plateau, with her hands on her hips. "Now, everyone-look down there."
The applicants looked over the edge carefully, keeping their stance low so that they wouldn't lose their balance easily.
Inside the chasm were thick white strings reminiscent of spider silk woven into a web. Unlike the radial pattern of normal spider webs, though, this nest was made of layers of strands that stretched across the chasm. Some of the vertical strands were connected to each other by horizontal strands of silk.
"What's that?" Asterra asked Menchi.
"That's a spider-eagle's nest," Menchi replied.
"So they make their nests there, huh…" Gon said.
"Nice place," Kikiri muttered.
A slight breeze from the chasm tickled Asterra's face and a moment later a strong gust of wind blew from inside the chasm. Asterra's hair whipped every which way and she pulled her head away from the void. Applicants who didn't have a strong enough stance went stumbling backwards.
"Look below the web closely," Menchi continued as the abnormally large gust stopped.
Asterra peeked over the edge warily and focused on looking past the vertical strands of silk. When she did, she saw little clumps of orbs, gathered up in a net of silk that was tied to one of the vertically running strands.
"Those little balls you see are Spider Eagle eggs," Menchi explained.
"Spider Eagles build their webs in deep ravines to protect their eggs from predators," Netero continued. "This makes the eggs one of the most difficult ingredients to obtain. In fact, they're so difficult to obtain that they're called dream eggs."
"W-wait a minute," Todo stammered. "You don't mean…"
"I~sure~do," Menchi sang and jumped off the edge.
Cries of horror rose from the applicants as they watched Menchi free-fell through the air. The examiner zoomed through the first layer of threads, then she came to a screeching halt as she grabbed onto one of the threads of the second layer, right above a cluster of eggs.
The cries of horror stopped.
"Okay…" Leorio trailed off. "That's that, but even if she does get the eggs how's she supposed to get back up?"
Leorio had a point. Even though there were multiple layers of web, there were no strands that connecting layers to each other. And even if the chasm did have handholds and footholds for climbing, rock climbing while holding an egg and not using any safety ropes was tantamount to suicide.
Before anybody could reply to Leorio's question, though, Menchi let go of the strand she was holding on to. And at that moment, Asterra felt another soft breeze tickle her cheek.
Another cry of horror rose from the applicants as Menchi plummeted down, down, down. But the examiner didn't flail or scream in panic; instead she just grabbed an egg as she passed by an egg cluster and kept on falling. After a few moments she was swallowed up by the fog that covered the lower parts of the chasm.
"Is she trying to kill herself?!" Leorio half-yelled, facepalming.
"No, she's not," Kurapika replied calmly.
The strong gust of wind from before howled once again, blowing several more applicants backwards. Asterra lowered her head until her chin was on the ground, eyes narrowed to slits.
Her eyes didn't stay narrowed for long-they popped wide open when she saw familiar turquoise hair shoot up past her field of vision.
Asterra raised her head to see that Menchi was now floating-floating-above the applicants with a wide smile on her face and a large egg about six inches in height in her hands.
Gon beamed.
"That looks fun," Killua grinned.
"This ravine has updrafts that help the hatched chicks fly up from the web," Netero explained.
The wind shoved Menchi out of the middle of the canyon and towards the side all the applicants were on. The examiner landed neatly next to the chairman. "There," she said, holding out the egg in one hand. "This is the egg you'll be using as the ingredient."
Asterra looked at the egg then looked back down into the chasm where the clusters of eggs hung. So the general flow of this exam was jump, hang, let go, grab an egg, and let the updraft carry an applicant back up. It was a simple enough exam, except for the timing of when to let go. Letting go at the wrong time would result in either falling to one's death or being thrown back up before having a chance to grab an egg.
Talk about high risk, high reward.
"Y-you must be joking," Todo stuttered. "No sane person would jump down there…"
Au contraire. A sane person that knew the updraft mechanism would. Asterra took off her sling bag.
"Wait, you're going?" Kikiri asked.
"Yeah," she replied as she tossed the bag a couple feet away from her.
"Are you crazy? Asterra, you're jumping into a canyon for crying out loud! You could die!"
Asterra flinched as images of her falling, splattering against a rocky floor and ending up as a bloody, unrecognizable mess flashed in her mind.
Yes, she could die if she went.
But if she stayed, she wouldn't pass. If she didn't pass this phase, she'd have to wait another year to become an independent adult and get that Hunter License. And she didn't know if she had the patience for that.
"Come on, let's play it safe," Kikiri urged. "Wait 'til next-"
"No."
"What?"
"If taking a swan dive off some chasm is what it takes to pass this thing, I'll do it-I'm not wasting this second chance. Besides, I know what I'm doing." She patted Kikiri on the head. "I'll come back. Now stay here and make sure nobody takes my stuff, okay?"
Kikiri nodded reluctantly, a concerned look in his eyes.
Asterra smiled at the Dokujo and stood up to walk over to the cliff where the others had gathered. Each step made her heart beat faster and harder, and she felt the familiar thrill of adrenaline rush through her body.
"Ready?" Gon mouthed as the five of them met eyes. The other four nodded.
"Then let's go!" Gon shouted and the five of them leaped off. For a moment they seemed to be suspended in midair by invisible strings, but then the strings snapped as gravity tightened its hold on them and hurled them downwards.
The other applicants saw the five of them jump, and one by one they followed suit.
"Wait a minute!" Menchi yelled. "I haven't finished explaining everything!"
The applicants ignored the examiner's words and the air was filled with the whistling sound of falling bodies. Each body passed through the first layer of strings, and moments later all the applicants that had jumped were hanging onto the strands of a single web.
Asterra looked down to look for the closest cluster of eggs and found one close to the expected path of her fall. If she leaned forward to reach it while falling, she would be able to grab an egg on the edge without any problems.
"All right, I'm off!" an applicant's voice said. Asterra turned toward the source of the voice to see a man with light brown hair let go of a silk strand and plummet. He grabbed an egg as he fell past a cluster and continued to plummet.
"Hey, let's go too!" Leorio yelled.
"No, let's not."
"What?" Leorio turned to the Resca who had answered him. "Why?"
Killua answered for her. "Because there's no wind."
Leorio looked down, trying to spot the applicant that had just fallen.
"As Killua said, there isn't always an updraft," Kurapika said.
As if to prove Kurapika's point a chilling scream shot up from the empty space below the applicants. Apparently the applicant had realized that no updraft was coming to save him.
Nobody said anything as the screams died away.
"So…when's the next updraft going to blow?" Leorio asked nervously.
"Wait," Gon said and closed his eyes as if listening intently.
So you noticed too, huh? Asterra thought as she looked down and exhaled. Both of the previous updrafts had been preceded by a slight, tickling breeze. That had to be the telltale sign of the updraft. If she let go when she felt that breeze, she would have enough time to grab an egg and be pushed back up to the surface. So all we have to do is wait. Just wa-
An ugly snapping sound reached her ears and Asterra felt herself fall for a moment before being jerked to a stop.
"What? What was that?!" Leorio yelped.
Asterra's head snapped towards the source of the sound-the string that was adhered to the chasm wall-and her eyes widened. Shit. "The string's fraying!"
"The web can't hold us all!" Kurapika yelled.
Find a way out.
Survival mode kicked in and Asterra's mind whirred. If the string snapped, they would go flying into the opposite wall. If she could find appropriate handholds and footholds she could climb out of this mess.
Blood started to pound in her ears like war drums signaling a march. Adrenaline sent her senses into overdrive. Borders between shadows and light became crisper; possible footholds and handholds seemed to pop out of the cliff face as if they were begging to be noticed.
"Gon?" Killua turned his head to the left nonchalantly. "Can we go yet?"
Gon shook his head.
"You're calm," Asterra remarked to Killua, eyes on the wall.
"I've been through worse," Killua replied. "You sound pretty calm yourself."
"Panicking won't help the updraft come quicker." Come on, come on, she thought as her eyes scrolled over the canyon wall. Her eyes skimmed upward and made an imaginary path out of footholds and handholds that, worst case scenario, she could take to get back to the surface.
The string snapped again, and the rational side of some of the applicants snapped with it.
"Like hell we can wait for the wind!" one shouted and let go. Other applicants started letting go and dropping to the ground as well.
"They're dead," Killua muttered and soon the air was filled with the chilling screams once more.
Another falling feeling. Another jerking motion bringing her to a stop. Asterra fixed her grip and pressed her lips into a thin line.
"It's gonna snap!" Leorio yelled.
Silence.
Then Asterra felt a tickling breeze on her cheek and at the same time Gon yelled, "Now!"
The five applicants let go of the thread and plummeted. The other applicants let go as well.
The wind whistled in Asterra's ears and the details of the canyon wall were smoothed over. The cluster of eggs she had spotted neared and she reached out with her hands. In the brief moment that she passed the cluster, she managed to wrap her hands around an egg that was at the edge of the cluster. Pulling it loose required no extra effort; gravity did the work for her.
The applicants continued to plummet after passing the egg clusters. A few moments of falling and Asterra felt droplets of water stick to her face as she passed the layer of fog that she had seen. Any time now, she thought. Any time now would be great.
As soon as that thought passed through her head she felt something push against her chest, something that fought gravity. For a brief moment she hovered in the air and could see every crack in the weathered canyon wall. But then the cracks melted together into a solid red-brown again and she was shooting up, up, up. Shouts from the applicants barely reached her ears over the whistling of the wind. Then red-brown of rock change to the blue of the sky and then the applicants were hovering over the chasm, over the applicants that had been too afraid to jump.
It was at that moment that Asterra realized she was laughing uncontrollably. Gon and Killua were laughing too, while a number of the other applicants just grinned.
"How can you laugh at a time like this," Kurapika murmured as he shook his head, egg in hands.
Netero chuckled at the sight. Menchi smiled as well, then looked backwards at the applicants that hadn't moved. "And as for the rest of you…I guess you quit."
"Don't be too hard on them," Netero said. "It takes courage to concede, too."
=o=o=o=
Asterra bit into the boiled spider-eagle egg, her teeth cutting through the whites and into the still-slightly-runny yolk. The taste of heaven spread across her tongue and made her realize exactly how much time had passed since having that piece of jerky for a meager lunch. It also made her appreciate the size of the egg.
"I can see why they're called dream eggs," Kurapika said before eagerly taking another bite. Leorio, Gon and Killua just chewed with gusto, satisfied looks on their faces.
Asterra felt Kikiri scratching on her leg and she tore off a piece of the egg for the Dokujo. Kikiri snapped up the egg from her palm and licked his lips when he was finished.
"This is a damn good egg," Hanzo said around a mouthful. "I wish they sold them in stores."
Menchi swallowed. "You wouldn't think they were delicious if you ate them every day."
The applicants that hadn't jumped off looked on the egg-eating applicants, a wishful look on their faces.
"Hey, Todo-san," Gon called. Todo looked down to see the boy in green holding out his egg to him. "Would you like a bite?"
Todo accepted the egg from Gon. He took a bite out of the egg, then his eyes widened as if he'd seen the light. "It's delicious…"
Menchi licked her fingers clean and walked over to the wrestler. "It's good, isn't it? Now you know the joy of finding and eating something delicious." Menchi pointed a thumb at herself. "We Gourmet Hunters risk our lives on a daily basis for that joy."
Todo faced Menchi. "I apologize for my behavior earlier." He bowed. "I was wrong to look down on the Gourmet Hunters."
Menchi grinned. "Apology accepted."
Todo straightened again. "I was completely outdone this year. But I'll be back again next year!"
Gon smiled at the man's words.
=o=o=o=
Fifteen minutes later everybody had finished eating and a second blimp had arrived on the plateau. Those who had failed the second phase were directed to this second blimp, while those who passed were told to file into the blimp that had flown them to the plateau earlier in the day.
Both blimps then took to the sky. One of them turned to start heading back to Zaban City; the other sped off in the opposite direction towards the site of the next exam phase.
Thanks for reading to the end. Follows, favs and reviews are appreciated, even if the reviews are short.
See you in the next chapter :)
-Rhyss