ꜱᴛᴜᴄᴋ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴍᴇ- ᴋɪʟʟᴜᴀ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ [OLD]

14- 𝘔𝘢𝘯 𝘹 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘹 𝘢𝘯 𝘹 𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱

So sorry for not updating in a while! Things have been a bit crazy for me. I'll try to write more on here!

~~

So, we failed. I was about to turn around and leave, but I didn't want to. I felt almost obligated to stay. I wasn't shocked, but I felt more angry and disappointed. I mean, obviously, this phase of the exam would be hard. It'd be like trying to pass off a rat as a ferret. You could try, but it probably wouldn't work. But I figured I'd at least feel a bit better for trying. People let out their small complaints among the crowd, but I stayed silent. The guy with the black shirt from before had gotten so angry that he broke one of the cooking stations. "This is unacceptable. Do you hear me? I will not accept this!" He shouted. Unfortunately, he didn't have any choice but to accept it.

"Say what you want but you still failed." Menchi sighed. 

"Shut the hell up! You asked for pork and we gave it to you! We risked our lives just so-" He was quickly cut off.

"Your challenge was to prepare a pork dish that both examiners were to find delicious. And none of you even came close to succeeding!" She lectured.

"Um excuse me Miss Menchi?" I muttered, feeling incredibly nervous. She let out a small hum. "With all due respect, most of us don't exactly specialize in cooking. You two have been all over the world and have tried all kinds of tasty food. Do you think maybe your standards were too high?" Her facial expression went from grumpy to 'I'm incredibly pissed off' and the lump in my throat tightened.

"Hunters should be able to get out of their comfort zone often and succeed. Because you all failed miserably at doing something outside of your little boxes, you just proved that you aren't hunter material. That's not my fault." She scoffed. I just nodded. Menchi slumped back onto her chair. "Not a single one of you has the guts to try anything new or innovative."

"Hey, shut up! I'm not here cuz I wanna be some gourmet cook, But a hunter!" The guy in the black shirt shouted, raising his fist. A lot of other people in the crowd cheered and did the same. "My goal is to become a blacklist hunter and no stupid Gourmet hunter's gonna tell me I can't"

"Then it's too bad that a 'stupid Gourmet hunter' is your examiner." Menchi scoffed. "Well, better luck next year I guess." At this point, the guy's face was bright red. 

"Don't mess with me!" He shouted, and charged towards Menchi and Buhara. Buhara sent him flying with a single punch. He crashed into one of the castle-shaped pillars of the gate, risking his back being broken. He then fell onto the ground with a loud thud. 

"Buhara, please don't interfere." Menchi sighed. 

"I'm sorry, but it kinda looked like you were gonna kill him if I didn't step in." He replied calmly. 

"Probably." She laughed. Menchi now had knives in her hands. She walked down the steps of her strange castle-looking place to where the examinees' cooking stations were set up. "Let's get this straight. We frequently venture into the dens of ferocious beasts in search of the finest ingredients." She held up her knives and began to juggle them. "And every hunter is proficient in at least some form of martial art. You lack focus and the will to experiment with new things." She stopped juggling and held out her knives. "And that alone disqualifies you all from becoming hunters." My eyebrows furrowed out of disappointment. Not with anyone here, or with the examiners, but with myself. I needed to try harder, to step outside the fine line that was my comfort zone. I knew that, but I didn't do it.

A silence fell over the area. "Well, that said, it seems a bit excessive to fail every single applicant." A voice over some PA system spoke. I looked up and almost as if on cue, a large blimp showed up. 

"The symbol of the hunter's association!" Someone shouted. "Must be someone from the exam committee."

Someone jumped down from the blimp, landing on their feet. They were an old man with a white beard that was brown at the end. He wore white and blue clothing with some brown wooden sandals and silver earrings. He had wispy white hair that seemed to flow from one point on his head and matching bushy eyebrows. His sleeves flowed with each step he took. "Hey, who's the old man?" Someone asked.

"He's the head of the exam committee and he's responsible for the hunter's exam," Menchi answered. "Chairman Netero." 

"Oh, I just work behind the scenes. It's not all that impressive." He said, quite dully. "I only intervene in the exams when little issues like this one pop up. Now, dear Menchi." He tilted his head up a little bit. 

"Sir!" She nodded.

"It's come to my attention that you've chosen to fail all of this year's applicants. The reason being as I understand it, their general reluctance to challenge the unknown." Netero's expression remained unchanging.

"No. I'm sorry sir, but I snapped when a candidate insulted Gourmet hunters and I'm afraid I made the exam harder than necessary," Menchi said, looking ashamed of herself.

"I see. But it seems you're aware this exam was completely unacceptable." The chairman spoke.

"Yes. It's just that I get so incredibly emotional when food is involved. I'm not suited for this position. So I must resign as an examiner! Please let them retake the second phase." Menchi stated, her hands remaining at her sides.

"Sadly, I can't imagine where'd we begin to find another examiner on such short notice."

"My deepest apologies sir."

"Hold on, I have an idea. You continue serving as an examiner, but you yourself must participate alongside this year's applicants in completing whatever challenge you choose." Netero suggested. Menchi gasped a little bit at this. "Well, what do you say? Sound reasonable? Surely that'd make the applicants more comfortable with the results."

"I suppose you're right." She sighed, smiling. "and I have just the thing for the new challenge. We'll all be making boiled eggs!"