After Menchi ruthlessly announced that everyone had failed, the examinees erupted into an uproar.
One fat man reacted more violently than anyone else.
It was Takuto, number 225.
"You've got to be kidding! I refuse to accept that judgment."
"I object! I'm here to become a Hunter, not some gourmet! And I want to be a bounty Hunter, so how can Gourmet Hunters like you decide whether I pass or fail?"
Menchi leaned back against the sofa behind her, turbulent emotions simmering beneath her calm expression.
"Well, that's a real shame."
Takuto said:
"What?"
Menchi said:
"I mean, you're completely out of luck with this year's exam! Try again next year..."
Takuto gritted his teeth.
"You! Stop kidding around."
But just as he was about to start trouble, Buhara, who stood beside Menchi, sent him flying with a single slap.
He struck the building behind the crowd, shattered a pane of glass, then crashed heavily to the ground.
The examinees: "..."
Menchi looked at Buhara.
"Stay out of it!"
Buhara gave a good-natured smile.
"But if I didn't step in, you would've killed him outright."
Menchi drew the twin blades she had kept behind her back and spun them in a dazzling, stylish flourish.
"Hmph! That's right.
"A bounty Hunter? Give me a break. He couldn't even withstand a single blow from a Gourmet Hunter!"
"It doesn't matter what kind of Hunter you want to become... but there's one essential requirement: you have to be a skilled fighter."
Menchi's declaration about Gourmet Hunters ended, successfully cowing the examinees. But accepting failure just like that would make a mockery of the entire year they had spent training hard!
"Even so, isn't it a little too harsh to arbitrarily eliminate all of us just because our cooking wasn't tasty enough?"
Ponzu