Yuzuki stood alone in one of the quieter hallways of Hunter Association Headquarters, his new Hunter License turning slowly between his fingers.
Even now, it still felt a little unreal.
A small card.
And yet that card had dragged him through death, madness, exams, murder clowns, a ball game with Chairman Netero, and a lecture from Beans that had nearly killed him in a completely different way.
He looked at the card once more.
Then nodded to himself.
"Yeah," he muttered. "This is real enough."
He pulled out his phone and scrolled until he found the name he wanted.
Bisky
He pressed call.
The phone rang twice.
Then—
"Hello?"
Bisky's voice came through bright and familiar, carrying that same childish sweetness that Yuzuki now knew was mostly weaponized nonsense.
"Hey," Yuzuki said. "It's me."
A pause.
Then Bisky's tone sharpened immediately.
"Yuzuki?"
"Yeah."
Another pause.
Longer this time.
Then—
"You little brat."
Yuzuki blinked. "That sounds hostile."
"It is hostile," Bisky snapped. "Do you have any idea how long it's been since we last spoke?"
Yuzuki took the phone slightly away from his ear and winced. "Not that long."
"It was long enough!"
Yuzuki sighed. "I wanted to get the card first before I told you."
That quieted her for half a second.
Then Bisky huffed. "Well… that is slightly better."
"Slightly?"
"Very slightly. Don't get smug."
Yuzuki leaned against the wall and smiled faintly. "I wasn't planning to."
"So?" Bisky asked. "You actually passed?"
"Yeah."
"Officially?"
"Officially."
"With the card?"
"With the card."
Bisky let out a dramatic sigh on the other end. "Good. At least you didn't die for nothing."
Yuzuki's eye twitched.
There was a lot hidden in that sentence.
Too much.
He decided not to unpack it.
Instead he asked, "So what now?"
Bisky answered immediately. "Now you come to Heavens Arena. I'll meet you there."
Yuzuki straightened a little. "Now?"
"Yes, now."
"I can't."
That got an immediate reaction.
"What do you mean you can't?"
"I have a job."
Bisky went quiet for a second.
Then, very slowly, "You've been a Hunter for five minutes."
"Yeah."
"And you already took a job?"
"Yeah."
Bisky made a deeply disapproving noise.
"What kind of job?"
Yuzuki shifted his weight and answered honestly, "I'm helping a Gourmet Hunter collect a fruit."
There was silence.
Then Bisky said, in a tone so flat it almost became funny, "I have a feeling it's more complicated than that."
Yuzuki looked down the corridor where Menchi had told him to meet her later.
"…A little."
"A little," Bisky repeated.
"Maybe more than a little."
"Mhmm."
Yuzuki scratched his cheek. "But still. That's the job."
Bisky sighed. "Fine."
He blinked. "That easy?"
"No," she said. "Not easy. I just know when arguing is useless."
"That's surprisingly mature of you."
"Shut up."
Yuzuki smiled.
Then Bisky added, with far more seriousness than before, "Don't die."
That made his smile fade just a little.
"Alright," he said.
"Good."
And with that, the call ended.
Yuzuki looked at the screen for a second, then slipped the phone back into his pocket.
"Everyone's obsessed with that today," he muttered.
---
The Hunter Association cafeteria was much quieter than he expected.
Not empty, but organized. Clean lines. Bright lighting. Staff seated in clusters. A few Hunters eating while pretending not to watch each other. The smell of coffee, grilled fish, soup, and expensive ingredients hung pleasantly in the air.
Menchi was already there.
Of course she was.
She sat at a table near the window with one leg crossed over the other, drumming her fingers against the tabletop in visible impatience. The moment she saw him, she stood.
"Good," she said. "You're here. Let's go."
Yuzuki stopped.
Then frowned.
"No."
Menchi stared. "No?"
"You have to explain properly first."
That made her eye twitch. "Explain what?"
"Everything," Yuzuki said. "In depth. About the fruit. About where it is. About how you know about it. All of it."
Menchi folded her arms. "We can talk on the way."
"And you can also leave me in the dark on the way," Yuzuki replied. "No thanks. I'm not walking into some death hole because you waved around the words 'legendary ingredient' and expected me to clap."
Menchi stared at him for a few seconds.
Then sighed sharply through her nose and dropped back into her seat.
"You are so annoying."
Yuzuki sat opposite her. "That usually means I'm being smart."
"That's not what it means."
"It often is."
Menchi decided not to keep wasting time on that and got straight to it.
"The fruit is located in a place called the Hollow Cathedral," she said.
That name alone was enough to make Yuzuki sit a little straighter.
Menchi continued.
"It's a massive underground abyss beneath a dead mountain. Not a normal cavern system. An abyss. The structure is basically one enormous vertical drop spanning kilometers."
Yuzuki's eyes narrowed slightly. "Kilometers?"
"Yes."
Menchi leaned forward, expression tightening with focus now that she was talking about something that mattered.
"The interior isn't just one empty shaft. There are natural platforms along the walls, warped ledges, hanging root systems, and massive growths of bioluminescent plant life. Light exists down there, but not in any comforting way." She paused. "Sound also behaves strangely. Everything echoes. Distorts. Carries farther than it should."
She held his gaze.
"And at the very bottom, the Abyssal Glass Fruit grows on a single tree rooted in complete darkness."
Yuzuki was quiet for a second.
Then he asked, "That sounds ridiculous."
Menchi nodded once. "It is ridiculous."
"At least you're honest."
"I'm a Gourmet Hunter, not a liar."
"That's still up for debate."
Menchi ignored him and continued.
"The dangers are what make the retrieval nearly impossible."
She raised one finger.
"First—Echo Beasts. They're the primary threat."
Yuzuki listened closely now.
Menchi's voice lowered slightly.
"They don't hunt using sight. They hunt using sound reflection and distortion. They mimic voices. They distort direction. They create false sounds."
That made Yuzuki's expression sharpen.
"You can hear your partner," Menchi said, "even when they're nowhere near you."
That was bad.
Very bad.
Menchi raised a second finger.
"Second—Gravity Distortion Zones."
Yuzuki blinked once.
"That sounds fake."
Menchi glared. "It isn't."
She leaned back and continued, clearly resisting the urge to insult him for interrupting.
"Certain areas in the cavern have altered gravity. Sideways pull. Inverted pull. The kind of spatial instability where one wrong step sends you somewhere your body absolutely should not be allowed to go."
Yuzuki frowned. "So... falling forever."
"Potentially, yes."
"Wonderful."
Menchi raised a third finger.
"Third—Aroma-Induced Hallucinations."
Yuzuki was already beginning to hate this fruit.
"The closer you get to the Abyssal Glass Fruit," Menchi said, "the stronger its scent becomes."
Her expression grew more serious.
"Effects include reliving memories, seeing illusions, losing your sense of direction, and in some cases full emotional breakdowns."
That made Yuzuki's face flatten.
"So this thing is food, a psychological attack, and a death trap."
Menchi pointed at him. "Exactly."
Then her face shifted again.
There was still one more thing.
"The final danger," she said, "is the guardian."
Yuzuki's eye twitched. "Of course there's a guardian."
Menchi nodded once.
"The Cathedral Warden."
That name hung between them for a second.
"A massive creature that resides near the fruit," Menchi said. "No known classification. No confirmed full-body sketch. Only fragmented descriptions from those who saw it and got away far enough to write."
Yuzuki leaned back in his chair slowly.
Then looked at her.
"How do you know any of this?"
That, at least, Menchi was ready for.
"I didn't discover the fruit directly," she said. "I found a fragmented Hunter field report in the Association archives."
Yuzuki immediately lost some of his skepticism.
"Whose report?"
Menchi's expression shifted into something more respectful.
"Gourmet Hunter Renkai Voln."
Yuzuki had never heard the name.
Menchi saw that instantly.
"He attempted to reach 1-Star status twelve years ago," she said. "Then disappeared."
"Dead?"
"No body was ever recovered."
Menchi continued.
"The document I found was incomplete. Damaged. But it contained enough to matter."
She began listing it off from memory.
"A rough sketch of the cavern system, labeled Hollow Cathedral."
"A drawing of a glass-like fruit emitting light."
"Notes in the margins."
Yuzuki leaned in slightly. "What notes?"
Menchi's voice lowered.
"'The aroma... it invades the mind...'"
She paused.
"'Not just food... something else...'"
Another pause.
"'It must be cut in a single motion...'"
And finally—
"'If I fail here, let this record reach someone worthy...'"
The cafeteria suddenly felt quieter.
Yuzuki stared at her.
Menchi's eyes lowered just a fraction.
"The final page was torn out," she said. "No conclusion. No confirmation. Just the trail."
Yuzuki was silent for several seconds after that.
Then he asked, "And you decided this was a good idea?"
Menchi met his gaze without backing down.
"I decided it was the kind of idea that separates real Gourmet Hunters from people who just know how to cook."
That answer was so sincere that Yuzuki couldn't even mock it properly.
Instead he looked out the cafeteria window for a moment, thinking.
The Hollow Cathedral.
Echo Beasts.
Gravity distortion.
Hallucinatory aroma.
A hidden tree growing at the bottom of a vertical abyss.
A legendary ingredient that might not only qualify Menchi for 1-Star status, but also raise his own name if they actually came back with it.
And somewhere behind all of that—
A dead Hunter's final trail.
Yuzuki looked back at her.
"When do we leave?"
Menchi smiled for the first time since he sat down.
"Now," she said.
---
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