A Genius Thrown to the Wolves

Lets get Cooking Ch. 9

As if on que the heavy concrete wall split open, revealing a girl a little bit taller then Kiyotaka. She had a lot of skin showing and her hair pulled back into 4 spiked ponytails. Behind her was a man more then 10 times her size. "Hey everybody!! Congratulations on making it to phase two of the Hunter exam! I, Menchi, and Buhara over here will proctor the next phase! You'll have to prepare a dish that gets passed by both me and Buhara. It must feature the main ingredient, the native wild boar found on the other side of this wall. Let phase two begin!!" She said cheerfully as she moved out of the way to let the participants through. Most of them moved sluggishly and threw jabs at the two hunters on their way past. Kiyotaka could already feel the anger building within their proctor causing him to sigh at the trouble it would most likely cause. Under his breath he let out a "let's just get this over with quickly" Hisoka nodded at what little motivation he got from the boy, which was more then he got from the first phase. 

When they got through the gates Kiyotaka took charge. "Do you know how to cook?" "Unfortunately no~" "well- (Kiyotaka said stopping and facing him)- then you go get our main ingredient and I'll handle the rest. I'll meet you at our station in 15 minutes." "Sounds good~ I love seeing you take charge! But are we aloud to work together?" "She never said we couldn't. Just that we all have to present our own dish." Hisoka turned and walked away, excited to see what his kitten brought back, and oh so proud of his catch that day in the woods. Probably his biggest stroke of luck yet!

Kiyotaka was just happy to finally have some peace, and be outside the 6 foot radius he'd just gotten Hisoka to dismiss. He took his 15 minutes of freedom to gather all the different plants he found growing in the area. He found the main ones he was looking for, to flavor the dish he was about to prepare, but also the non edibles. You never knew when poison might come in handy. Some of them even acted as neutralizers to certain venoms and other poisons. Overall very conviene to have. It would also be easy to defend against Hisoka if he had some in his back pocket. He hid the dangerous plants in the small satchel on his hip and carried the rest.

When he walked over the hill and towards the cooking station he saw Hisoka sitting glumly against a cooking station, two large pigs dead on the counter above him. That immediately changed when he saw Kiyotaka. He jumped right up at the sight of him, a large, somewhat sinister, smile had been plastered on his face. "So what'd you get?" Kiyotaka held up his find. "Is that really going to do anything?" "It will do a lot actually. Now (Kiyo said carrying two pots over to their station) take these and fill them up with water" "from the stream?" "Yes, but make sure it's from the waterfall, you might have to walk up stream a little, we want the water as fresh as possible." "Why?" "Are you the chef?" Hisoka grabbed the pots and headed off down the hill. Kiyotaka grabbed a pan and grabbed one of the plants he'd grabbed. After separating the flowers and leaves from the stem he used the sap like substance to act like butter. It was very fragrant and just the right combination of bitter and sweet. After simmering it, he cut some of the red fruits he'd found and and threw them in the pan. When the fruit slices were soft he added the pig meat in. He'd used the meat he'd cut from around the ventral line that he sliced into thin pieces. While letting that cook he grabbed another pan. This time he used the sweet nectar from the flowers he'd found to cook the meat he diced from the pig's cheeks. While that was cooking, he'd taken some aluminum foil like material and shaped it into a boat like shape, then wrapped some of the bacon pieces around them and put them in the oven. When those got crispy he pulled them out of the oven, took the foil out and scooped the diced meat into the bacon boats, drizzling in the left over nectar. He wrapped the loose bacon strips around the boat to keep everything together before putting them back in the pan and cranking up the heat. The outside basically being fried the other half being just the right amount of chewy and fatty, keeping all the flavor. He arranged them on a platter and found little sandwich sticks to put with each piece.

About 7 minutes after he'd finished, he saw Hisoka coming up over the hill. He'd wanted him out the pans down only to stare at the food in confusion. "It's my dish, yours to if you want to put it on a separate platter, but I don't think anyone is going to pass this round." "Why does the kitten think that?" "The judges attitude. She's clearly pissed at the lack of respect for her profession." "You're probably right. She's turning her nose up at everybody right now. If you already made your dish, why did you have me go so far to fill these pots up?" "To get rid of you so I could cook in peace." Kiyotaka responded without a moments hesitation. "Ha!?~ So rude Kiyo!" "Also because I was going to use it for something else. The other pot is for you to make a roast beef stew." "I don't know how to make roast beef stew." "Well good luck" Kiyotaka said monotonously while taking one of the pots for himself. Hisoka was stunned that he'd been played just then. But he had admit that he was curious Kiyo was using the pot for if he already finished his dish. "We'll better hurry so I can watch him!" Hisoka said, loud enough to make Kiyotaka roll his eyes. He was almost in a state of disbelief on how a person could be so persistent and unashamed, on how he could be so utterly odd. Of course he says that without fully realizing how odd he himself is.

Hisoka had finished his roast beef which he was confident tasted like shit. When he'd looked over to Kiyo's station, he saw the boy pouring something into a mini spray bottle. He must have gotten it from the table of supplies in the center of the cooking stations. "What it that Kiyo~?" Kiyotaka glances up at him before returning to pouring in the remaining contents and screwing the lid shut. "Are you sure you want to know?" "That is why I asked isn't it?" Hisoka was a bit annoyed he was getting such a round about answer. "Would you like me to tell you, or show you?" "Show me!" "Okay, you asked for it!" "Wait wha-!! Ah!"