"There, there." He said, ruffling her hair, then added "Praise-freak"
Kosai grinned, and punched him in the face.
--(⋟﹏⋞)--
Just after a few minutes of waiting, Kosai fell asleep. Light snores were heard every now and then. Killua was unconsciously petting Nef, looking up at the sky in boredom.
When he looked back down, his bored face turned into a cheerful one as he spotted Gon standing next to Kurapika and a beat-up Leorio. He stood up, taking Nef with him. Nef looked up at Killua, before turning his attention to Gon.
"Gon!" Killua exclaimed.
"Killua!" Gon turned his head to face him.
"I can't believe you actually got here. I thought you were done for." Killua said, making his way closer to Gon.
"I just tracked Leorio's scent." Gon explained
"Scent?!" He exclaimed, slightly shocked " You and Kosai definitely are weird."
"Why Kosai?" Gon asked, confused by the inclusion of her.
"She has a really sensitive nose too." Killua explained, placing Nef on his right shoulder, and bringing his hands behind his head "She says Nef's nose is way better, but he's a fox, so that's kind of expected."
Gon opened his mouth to speak again, but he was interrupted "Excellent work, everyone." Satotz said, in a rather loud voice, waking Kosai up.
She looked around in confusion, and looked around, then her eyes finally landed on Gon and Killua. She put on her backpack and she slowly walked towards them while stretching and yawning.
"Phase Two of the exam will occur here in the Biska Forest. So I shall take my leave." He continued, as he pretended to leave the participants, and walked towards the direction that they had just come from.
While, in fact, he jumped on one of the many trees behind them, trying to spy the participants during the next phase.
No one seemed to notice —if they did, they didn't show it— However, Kosai seemed to hear the rustle of the leaves when he hid seemed to take notice of it, thanks to her enhanced hearing.
Nef also signaled that he still smelt him nearby —which was kinda creepy— but it confirmed that Kosai wasn't just hearing things.
She decided to ignore it as the doors in front of her opened. Revealing one insanely overweight man, he could pass for a real-life giant.
In front of him was a beautiful woman, who had a really bright shade of cyan as her hair color, and styled it in five ponytails—which looked pretty odd in Kosai's opinion. The woman was wearing really revealing clothing, she might as well be wearing a bikini
"Will all applicants who passed the First Phase please enter?" The woman called out.
"Welcome. I'm Menchi, the Second Phase examiner." She introduced.
"And I'm Buhara, the other examiner." The man introduced, followed by his stomach making a huge rumbling sound.
Kosai covered Nef's ears in panic — one of the disadvantages of enhanced hearing — Nef has it way worse though, she decided to cover his instead of hers.
The other participants looked around, wondering what that sound was. "You must be hungry." Menchi commented, looking up at Buhara.
"I'm starving..."He responded
Menchi nodded in understanding, and stood up, "There you have it, the Second Phase will involve..." Everyone looked at her with serious and somber faces.
"Cooking!" She announced. Everyone's faces immediately turned confused.
"C-cooking?"Someone stuttered out.
"Wait a minute! Cooking? We're here to take the Hunter Exam!" Number 255 yelled. 'Ton-san had called him Todo,' Kosai recalled
"That's right." Menchi responded, not caring about the negative responses to her test. "Your challenge for the Second Phase is to produce a dish that will satisfy our palate."
"Why do we have to cook?!" Todo yelled again, aggravated. "That's because we are.." she said, pausing for extra suspense
"Gourmet Hunters!"
A moment after she said this, everyone started laughing, Todo was the loudest
"Man, what a letdown."
"Hah, they're Gourmet Hunters."
This irritated Menchi —it was clear from the look on her face.
"So, Gourmet Hunters, what are we supposed to make?" Todo asked, in somewhat of a mocking tone. Menchi glanced up at him, before looking down at the floor, bangs casting a shadow over her eyes'.
"Buhara." She called.
Buhara stepped forwards "The required ingredient is pork." He explained. "You're free to use meat from any species of Biska Forest Pigs. You must use the cooking facilities here to prepare the pork. And you only pass if both of us find it delicious."
"And we will evaluate more than just the taste." Menchi added "Don't underestimate the intricates of cooking. Got it?" She called out, looking back at the crowd. "When we've both eaten our fill, the exam will end."
"We got it, we got it" Todo said, waving his hand, dismissing her. "Let's just start."
Kosai looked at Todo, annoyed, but she didn't let her face show it, holding it's regular grin.
'Cooking is very important y'know?' she remarked, in her head, 'Gourmet hunters are strong too.' she huffed, remembering when she had once got her ass kicked by one, for trying to steal food, not one of her best moments.
"Very well, the Second Phase of the Hunter Exam.." he said slamming his hand on his stomach, making a loud 'bong' sound.
'He must be bloated. That sounded super hollow.' Kosai thought.
"..Begins now!" He exclaimed. Everyone ran out the entrance, looking for a pig.
Kosai skipped along with her new buddies. "Catch a pig a cook it. This is way easier than the First Phase" Leorio said, relaxed. Kosai shrugged, and continued skipping forwards.
"That's basically what you said at the beginning of the swamp run." Kosai said, "I think 'They can't fool us if we know they're coming!' is what you said.
"You.." Leorio's words grew darker, "You little brat! Has no one ever taught you to respect your elders?!"
Leorio chased her around, which of course, ended in failure.
"Stop wasting your energy." Kurapika stated "We do not know what kind of creatures we may encounter on the hunt."
Gon then slid down a hill, trying to get down in the quickest way. Killua followed, most likely because it looked fun to him, and the others joined in too.
Except for Kosai, Nef had signaled her not to go down with them, and she trusted him so she had taken his warning, and skipped happily down the hill.
The other four weren't quite as happy, and were layered on top of each other—as Gon wouldn't move out the way of where he stopped.
"Pfft..." Kosai let out, putting her hand over her mouth, trying to suppress her laughter, but failed.
"Hahaha!" She rolled around in the grass, holding her stomach and was laughing so hard, little tears started to form from it.
"Stop laughing! It's not funny!" Killua yelled, obtaining the attention of the huge boars in front of them. Killua looked up at them, muttering a "Whoops.."
He quickly hopped up and grabbed the hysterically laughing Kosai who was on the ground and dashed away from the hoard of boars that were now chasing them.
"These pigs are crazy!" Leorio yelled, running alongside Killua.
Gon turned around and tried hitting one of the pigs with his fishing rod, by jumping in the air.
However, he was knocked away by the boar's large snout. The boar turned to Gon, ready to attack him, but Gon dodged, causing the boar to run straight into a tree. This paralyzed the pig for a moment before it slowly turned towards Gon.
It was readying itself to charge at Gon again, before a humongous amount of apples, right onto its' head, making it whine in pain and knocking it down. "Could it be.." Gon jumped up again, this time turning in the air and aiming straight for it's forehead with his fishing rod. He used his fishing rod to apply an insane amount force onto the boar's forehead, killing it.
Kosai calmed down enough from her laughter to see this, wiping a tear from her.
"Could their foreheads be their weak points?" Killua questioned from above her.
"So the pigs evolved large, strong noses to protect their soft foreheads." Kurapika explained, always being the reasonable one.
"That makes sense. Kura-kun you're really smart." Kosai said, before gathering some apples that fell on Gon's pig. "They look yummy~" she said, biting into one of them. Then, went up a hill to catch her own pig.
Finishing her apple, she found one. She jumped onto its' snout and jumped up again, this time flipping once, and landed on the forehead, digging her heels into the pigs' weak spot. She flipped away, landing on the ground in time to see the pig falling onto the ground, and laid dead. Doing all this with a cocky grin.
She lifted the pig up, and carried it back to the cooking station, along with the other applicants.
'This thing is heavy...'
"Oh my.." Menchi announced, "They caught a lot." looking at the huge crowd of people, hand shading her eyes from the sun.
~~~~~~~~
Kosai's Fun Fact of the Day
Kosai is — as mentioned before — completely broke. So she has been living the last few years of her life as a thief. She is also quite skilled in pocket picking.
Her main source of food is stealing from restaurants. Normally, she wouldn't get spotted, due to her insane speed. However, one day, she ended stealing from a Gourmet Hunter's restaurant, she obviously ended up caught, and beat up, because she challenged the hunter to a fight.
Published 11/17/19
Edited 7/24/20