Knife Skills X Simulation

Inside the warehouse.

Chop, chop, chop! Clatter!

The spacious warehouse was bustling with cooking activity everywhere.

Some were gutting and slicing fish, some were molding strangely shaped rice balls topped with fish, and others had finished and were lining up to await the examiner's judgment.

Harsh reprimands rang out from the raised platform from time to time.

One after another, candidates came down dejectedly while others nervously went up, like a mechanical assembly line, making the overall atmosphere unusually tense.

"Is this fit for human consumption?!"

Amid the loud judgment,

Leorio, Gon, and the others returned to their cooking stations with their heads hanging. They all glanced at Baishi's empty, tidy counter and couldn't help sighing.

"Where... did Baishi go?"

"Damn it! If I'd known, I would've stuck with him..."

"This is hard! Really hard... What shape is sushi supposed to be?"

"I think the presentation has a lot to do with it. Judging from the name hand-pressed sushi..."

"..."

Just as the group gathered to discuss their troubles,

Tap, tap, tap~

Baishi, with all his Aura Nodes closed and his presence barely noticeable, silently returned to his cooking station carrying a pile of strange fish bound with grass vines.

Glancing at the four beside him, who had suddenly started talking about him in the midst of their lively conversation, Baishi raised an eyebrow and said with a smile, "What? Did you miss me that much?"

As soon as he spoke,

"Ah-"

The group, startled by Baishi's seemingly uncanny appearance, recovered and immediately swarmed around him in delight.

"Baishi, you're finally back..."

"Where did you go? Did something happen?"

"Hey, hey, hey! None of that matters. Sushi is what matters!"

"Right, right, right... We've been worried sick. What is normal sushi supposed to look like...?"

Having everyone's words pour into his ears at once was no fun.

But Baishi had basically understood what they meant. Without wasting words, he saw that no other weighting task had been triggered, glanced at Leorio, and shook his head slightly. He then efficiently took off his dress coat and slowly rolled up both sleeves.

"Watch closely and learn. I'll give you a proper demonstration. As for whether you can make acceptable sushi, that depends on your own skill..."

"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm!"

Everyone nodded in unison and quickly returned to their counters, watching Baishi's every move, ready to observe and imitate him at all times.

Of course, to avoid attracting the other candidates' attention, they did everything somewhat discreetly.

Even so, the candidates who had formed some impression of Baishi from watching him before immediately turned their eyes on him in secret when they saw him appear.

One of those gazes was almost tangible, staring at Baishi without restraint.

Even in a state of [Zetsu], Baishi could clearly sense that twisted malice. He glanced over and saw Hisoka in a corner, playing with a kitchen knife. Baishi's face immediately went expressionless, and he looked away, ignoring him.

Since Hisoka intended to make a move against him and subject him to a so-called qualification test, it meant the two were already enemies.

When dealing with an enemy...

He would ignore him when appropriate, but once he was strong enough to deal with him, he would certainly choose to strike first!

Scrape, scrape, scrape! Swish, swish, swish!

Once ready, Baishi first picked out the arm-length, arrow-shaped black fish and, under the tap at his counter and in full view of everyone, deftly scraped off its pitch-black scales, removed its innards, and washed away the blood.

The sight made the others, who had previously wrapped whole small fish directly in rice balls, pause in surprise. They quickly followed his example, selecting fish of suitable size from their catches and removing the scales and blood.

While waiting for them, Baishi discreetly opened the Aura Nodes in his right hand beneath the counter, conjured the black iron wheel, quickly shrank it, and stuck it to his abdomen with rubber Nen Aura.

[Talisman - Extensive Knowledge and Strong Memory]!

In an instant, his cooking memories related to sushi and the videos of tuna-cutting techniques he had watched were rapidly analyzed and integrated in his mind.

[Talisman - Dynamic Simulation]!

Using the integrated memories, he analyzed them at high speed until he could reproduce the techniques himself. Then he looked up and glanced at the others, who had also finished preparing their fish. With a calm expression, Baishi processed the fish in a manner that was both unfamiliar and textbook-perfect.

The entire process was unhurried. Every cut Baishi made was a simulated reproduction of his integrated memories, and as he went, practice gradually made perfect.

Baishi didn't know the exact name of the arrow-shaped black fish. All he knew was that, after he cut through its skin, it revealed ink-dark flesh like jade, firm in texture.

Was I lucky or unlucky?

Judging by the firmness of the flesh, it was undoubtedly well suited as a main ingredient for sushi, but this was his first time seeing fish meat that was nearly black.

Whether it was safe to eat remained to be tested...

At that thought, Baishi caught sight of Menchi deep inside the warehouse out of the corner of his eye. He pursed his lips and said nothing. Given her status as a top chef and Gourmet Hunter, she should be able to judge accurately whether the ingredient was edible, right?

Slice, slice, slice~

Switching to a suitable thin-bladed kitchen knife, Baishi precisely cut the deboned fish into uniform slices of sashimi, each 0.5 centimeters thick.

In the same way, while waiting for Leorio and the others to catch up, Baishi processed the remaining strange fish, which were gradually losing their vitality, according to their individual characteristics, preparing combinations suitable as the main ingredients for sushi.

At the same time, during the process, he made a point of scooping the rice he had cooked earlier into a small wooden tub. Once it had cooled to warm, he added sushi vinegar, mixed from salt, sugar, and vinegar in a [1:5:10] ratio. He gently folded it through, then covered the tub and let it rest for several minutes so the rice could absorb the vinegar mixture, producing glossy, soft vinegared rice.

Hand shaping was the soul of hand-pressed sushi, so once everything was ready,

Baishi motioned for everyone to keep their hands wet like his to prevent sticking. He opened the wooden tub, took out an appropriate amount of vinegared rice, and shaped it in his palm into oval or rectangular rice balls.

He applied even pressure while shaping the rice balls to avoid crushing them. Once the vinegared rice had taken shape, he placed a slice of sashimi on top and pressed it gently into place, working quickly and deftly to maintain the ingredients' temperature.

During the process, Baishi didn't stick too rigidly to any particular pairing of vinegared rice and sashimi. He arranged them attractively according to the ingredients, occasionally adding vegetables as supplementary ingredients, and finally took care with the important presentation on his only silver serving plate.

He repeated the process without stopping.

Leorio and the others, as well as the other candidates watching in secret, all suddenly understood.

Only then did they truly understand what sushi was supposed to look like.

Unfortunately...

Baishi had rather liked sushi in his teens, but after hearing that a certain small island nation was dumping nuclear wastewater into the sea, he had never eaten it again.

"You've all learned it, right?"

Seeing sushi on the four people's counters, Baishi looked at everyone with a smile, though his narrowed eyes were actually fixed on Leorio.

"Is there anything you still don't understand? If not... are you satisfied with the information about this cooking challenge?"

"Extremely satisfied!"

Leorio was the first to speak. He gave Baishi a thumbs-up, chuckled, picked up the plate he was thoroughly satisfied with, covered it with a lid, and dashed straight toward the queue.

"I'll go test the waters for you first..."

Ding!

[Temporary Weighting Task complete!]

[Restriction - Forced Equivalence: Advent Emulation attempts x1 blue, x1 green]