Disclaimer: I do not own Hunter x hunter or my hero academia. Those rights go to the legends Togashi and Horikoshi.

Edited 29/9/19

Izuku's POV

Sitting on a sofa, was a lady with funky green hair. She wore long strange deep purple boots, bows running down the length of the front side, extremely short shorts (they could be mistaken as panties if not for the denim), and a transparent shirt (with a bra underneath of course), defeating the purpose of a shirt in the first place. She was tiny compared to the giant that sat behind her, his arm was probably as big as, if not bigger than the woman.

"Welcome. I'm Menchi, the second phase examiner," said the woman.
"And I'm Buhara, the other examiner," continued the man

The two had a completely different feel to the emotionless examiner of the first phase. Menchi spoke with a tone of superiority to the examinees, understandable as she already was a hunter, and Buhara, despite his size, sounded cheerful and childish.

"Phase 2 will have..."

Everyone stood still with bated breath. What could 2 examiners with opposite physiques have in store for us?

"Cooking!"

'That was anticlimactic. At least I'll now have a chance to catch my breath... but then again, the exam has been full of surprises thus far.'

My thoughts were interrupted to hear 2 enraged voices, one familiar, and one unfamiliar.

"Cooking?" yelled the unfamiliar one.
"What do you think your playing as Christmas-tree-hair?! This is the hunter exam! Why do we need to cook!" snapped the familiar one.
"I'm just going to ignore that you little brat! Don't forget I could disqualify you in the blink of an eye! And you need to cook because we are Gourmet hunters!"

Although Menchi had lost her sense of grandiose in response to my explosive friend, she regained it in immediately announcing her status.

'Gourmet hunter? Although It sounds lame, it must be very cool! If I think about it, actually cooking isn't all done in the kitchen, there is also the process of gathering the ingredients. Many factors can come into play, such as the rarity of the ingredient, or the difficulty to obtain... Hunters can be so diverse!'

I seemed to be the only one excited from her answer, everyone else only mocked her with laughter.

'Even if they are gourmet hunters however, it is quite strange that one is... that size, and the other is as thin as stick...'

"So gourmet hunters? What do we need to cook?" The unfamiliar voice spoke again, with no attempt at hiding the mockery and over confidence.

"The required ingredient is pork."

Although Menchi was clearly ticked, her plus sized partner was unfazed by the jeers.

"You're free to use meat from any species of Biska forest pigs. You must use the cooking facilities here to prepare the pork. You will only pass if we both find it tasty."
"There's more to it than taste, don't underestimate the intricacies of cooking. When we've both eaten our fill ,the exam will end."
"So the 2nd phase, begins!"

A race against each other. That's likely what everyone else thought it was, with only a limited number of people being able to present their meal. Buhara could eat for days so he wouldn't be a problem, however Menchi's petite body would only allow a few meals before she was full. At once everyone rushed to the forest.

"Pah! I thought the first phase was easy, but they're lowering the difficulty? This'll be a breeze," scorned Kacchan.
"I hope so..." the other blond, Kurapika, replied, concerned.

Fortunately, we found the pigs easily.
Unfortunately, they were carnivores.

At the sight of more meat to devour, the entire horde of pigs came charging straight for us, bulldozing anything in their path, all we could do was run.

"I-I've read about these pigs! They're called the great stamp! They use their nose to send their enemies flying. They are strong so frontal attacks don't work!"
"Does attacking from behind work then?"
"I remember they had a weakness, I just don't remember w-where..."
"Guess we'll have to find that weakness ourselves then."

'Reading everything about hunters, remembering every piece of information about the exam had proved useful, or at least would have if I remembered the important detail! Think think! What did it say! "In order to take down the fearsome great stamp, it is all but too easy, one must..." Dammit I don't remember!'

I noticed a pig Gon was fighting bump into a tree, and apple fall onto it's head.

"That's it! The forehead! You must hit the forehead!"

A little overexcited at remembering I shouted the information loud and clear.
A bit too loud and clear.
Everyone turned their heads towards me, many with a gleeful look in their eyes, but five with an annoyed look.

"Idiot! Did you think shouting it loud enough for the entire world to hear was a good idea? Damn nerd."

I realised my mistake too late.
Everyone took the pigs out in one hit, hitting them straight in the forehead. A group of smug examinees all raced back to the mansion in order to cook the meal, carrying pigs over their heads.

Almost in sync, every examinee roasted the pig on a flame, turning it so it could cook evenly.

Already, the first examinee had brought their meal to the table, presenting with confidence and certainty.
Although the pig was burnt.

To my surprise, the larger examiner passed him without a second thought, devouring the giant pig. However, Menchi didn't even touch it and failed him.

"It's overcooked. The toughness of the meat ruins the flavour."

Examinee after examinee, all came up, presenting their pig, getting a pass from Buhara, and a fail from Menchi, without even touching the meat.

"So that's why one is so large, and the other is so slim. At least the problem of Menchi getting full easily won't matter. One is a glutton, and the other is a foodie. Buhara will eat anything, so long as it's edible (I hope) and Menchi has strict tastes. She said at the beginning to not underestimate the intricacies of cooking. If I were to cook a proper looking meal, I could pass, however I could also inform the rest of the applicants how to pass. Even if the taste was to be bland, if she still ate it, the other examinees would have a better shot at success. The best thing to do would be to wait for all the other examinees to attempt, and ultimately fail, so we can present without worrying about anyone else seeing, however there are two problems. Buhara could get full, after all, over 100 applicants are remaining and he is eating the whole pig every time, and someone else could be thinking the same thing, and we end up waiting for each other to go..."

"Deku, shut up."
"That's right! This phase is a cooking test, but they're judging us on originality and powers of observation."
"Y-yes! That's what I mean," I gratefully said to Kurapika.

Kurapika summed up my thoughts into a few words, I silently thanked him for ignoring my embarrassing habit, and understanding my rambles,

Leorio and Gon then decided to decorate their pigs with some random things... they didn't understand at all.
As they went up to present I called them out.

"W-wait! That's not what we meant! It needs to actually look like a meal! We don't have to use the whole pig."
"Yes. We must utilise the ingredients given to us, and compliment the flavour of the pig. In other words, the taste doesn't matter." It seemed Kurapika didn't wholly understand either.
"N-no I don't think so... The taste does matter, although it first needs to pass the test of observation."
"Either way, Buhara looks like he's getting full, we need to hurry up!" Killua was right. Buhara's stomach looked completely bloated, his shirt was rolled up, unable to cover the giant stomach of his.

Although I said all that, I couldn't actually cook. I had a better chance simply saying how one would pass the exam, seeing as no one else seemed to understand.

I began to chop up some vegetables, hoping I could somehow make use of them, but I noticed Kacchan go up. Whilst we were talking, he was preparing his meal, ferociously. He had now finished and was going up to present.

"Finally, someone utilised the ingredients! Let's see, then."

For the first time, the picked up her fork and knife, and cut a piece of pork out of the dish, placing it in her mouth.

"Huh. Strange that out of all the people to take this seriously, you would. Didn't you call me Christmas-tree-hair?"

She chewed, not looking delighted, yet also not looking completely disgusted.

"The taste isn't that great. I see what you tried to do with the sauce, but you should use apple sauce instead of gravy, it compliments the flavour much better. Although it isn't that good, compared to the other freaks you're not half bad. You pass."

"Seriously?! You asked us to catch a pig and-" It was that same examinee who had outburst eariler.
"I asked for you to prepare a meal using pork, and none of you made anything remotely delicious! None of you put in any effort! The best thing was the meal this young man cooked! It is pretty terrible, but compared to you losers, it's godly!"

I had to hurry up. Kacchan came back with a evil smirk on his face, now that Menchi had explained how to pass, chances of anyone else plummeted to less than 0.5%

Nevertheless, I gathered my courage and walked up towards the examiners.

Of course, Buhara passed me without any second thought, however he wasn't the problem.

"You take a page out of his book? Well I'm sorry to say you were too slow, now you really need to impress me."

It was a pass from the observation test, she took a piece out of the meal I prepared and placed it gingerly into her mouth.
Not even a second passed and she spit it out of her mouth.

"Yuck! Sorry kid, I can tell you tried, but there is such thing as overdoing it you know. You added too many different ingredients, it all clashes in the mouth. I would pass you for effort if you came first, but it's too late. You fail."

Defeated, I walked off.

"Come on! Deku how can you fail such an easy thing as cooking!"
"I don't know how you passed!" Killua spoke to my defence
"I don't know how your all so bad at everything!"

After my fail, it was over.

"I'm stuffed!" The cheerful voice of Buhara signalled the end of the test, licking his lips after finishing the meal I had prepared.
"Yeah I'm stuffed too. Therefore only one person passes. We're done here!"

She couldn't have been full, she only took a single bite out of 2 dishes prepared.

"No! I can't accept that! This is ridiculous!" The same voice from earlier resonated - #255.
"In the end you still failed. None of you took cooking seriously! Only two people did, one probably because they saw the previous person pass when they tried!"
"Shut up! I'm not trying to become a chef or a gourmet. I want to become a hunter!"

The crowd all backed him up, shouting in agreement.

"I refuse to let a mere gourmet hunter decide my fate!"
"Too bad you got stuck with a mere gourmet hunter as your examiner. Better luck next year."

Menchi had struck the last nerve of #255. He lunged forward at Menchi, enraged, but was easily knocked flying by Buhara.

"Let me make this clear. We venture frequently into the den of some ferocious creature in search of ingredients. You lack focus and the willingness to experiment. That alone disqualifies you from being hunters!"

Everyone was stunned. But what she said made sense.

'Just as I thought, every hunter had to take the exam and pass it, gourmet hunters included. There is not separate exam for gourmet hunters, the reason there is such thing is because some ingredients can be difficult to obtain.'

"That being said, it would be excessive to fail all but one applicant!"

To everyone's surprise, a voice from a loudspeaker rung over us all.

'Oh my god is that... The chairman?! I can't believe it that's that chairman's voice!'

Making his dramatic entrance, jumping out from an airship landed none other than the chairman Netero, landing unscathed although he fell a long distance.

"I work behind the scenes, I only take action when there is a problem, like now." The old man, with his elongated ear lobes and long eyebrows, addressed the 2nd phase examiner.

Menchi's attitude completely changed in appearance of her senpai. In the blink of an eye she went from angry and frustrated to respectful and obedient.

"You failed the applicants because you disapproved of their reluctance to try new things?" said Chairman Netero.
"No sir, I got angry when one of the applicants insulted gourmet hunters, and I made the exam harder than usual."
"In other words, you were aware this exam was not acceptable."
"Yes sir. When cooking is involved, I lose control. I am unqualified to be an examiner. I will resign as an examiner, so please redo the 2nd phase." She had turned sheepish in front of the old man. Just like that, a confession made its way out of her mouth.
"But, it'll be difficult to find another examiner. How about this - you create a new test, but you must also participate in the test you propose."
"Then the new challenge will be boiled eggs! Chairman, can you take us to mount, Split-in-half?"
"I see, certainly I can."

Hey, I posted the 3rd chapter not too much later! I guess I'm really enjoying writing this even if it doesn't get much attention lol. You can expect a fourth chapter, but don't get your hopes up . Thanks for reading! Thanks for all the follows and favourites! :D

Replies to reviews:

Jss2141: Thanks! ^-^

FreeFacepalmSamples: :) Thanks! I know you, you're writing the not quite a villain but far from a hero fic! I love it!

Guest: Yes, I am aware of that. I don't necessarily mean nenless, I mean more unable to use nen I guess, it's just shorter and more sudden sounding. Do you think I should change it to be more accurate?