Gourmet Hunter (HxH Fanfic)

Cut into symmetrical strips, this was the idea in Law's mind.

The transparent sphere in the palm of Law's hand covered the potato. After a moment, the light dissipated and the potato on the chopping board remained motionless.

Law knew that his ability must have worked, so he reached out to nudge the potato, only to see it immediately break into several irregular pieces and tumble onto the chopping board.

"…"

Looking at this scene, Law was speechless.

His idea was to cut the potatoes into fine strips, but what was presented were potato were cut into haphazard collection of chunks. The difference between idea and reality is too huge.

At this moment, Law realized that how weak his control truly was. Unwilling to give up, he took another potato and put it on the chopping board, peeling it first...

Inside the white light, the skin of the potato was slowly peeled off by God Hand, taking about the same amount of time as the first potato.

Unfortunately, there is no stopwatch, so Law can only rely on his feeling to judge whether he has made any progress.

After peeling the skin, Law once again used the God Hand on the bare potato on the cutting board.

This time, not only were the potatoes cut into several chunks, even the thick wooden chopping board underneath was damaged.

Law didn't notice that the chopping board was also affected. He frowned at the still failed potato, pushed it aside, and picked up another potato from the side.

Peel and cut…

After repeating this over and over again and trying more than twenty potatoes, Law finally felt tired. Releasing a long sigh, he slumped to the floor and lay on his back, staring at the ceiling as he caught his breath.

'How can this be…'

Law stared at the ceiling silently.

'I experimented with more than twenty potatoes. I can peel them successfully every time, but it takes a long time. However, none came close to resembling uniform strips. The worst result is that they are divided into three pieces, and the best result is that they are in more than ten pieces.'

'In this case, let alone shredding, even slicing is impossible.'

Law's brows slowly furrowed, puzzling over the root of the problem.

After awakening the God Hand, the first time he used it was against an enemy. His idea at that time was to directly dig out Cook's heart and sever Cook's wrists.

In both cases, God Hand obeyed his will and successfully separated Cook's heart and wrist.

'If it could achieve such precision against a human target, how could it be so difficult with a mere potato?'

'What is the difference between the two...'

Law slowly closed his eyes, recovering his lost strength while thinking about the difference between the two.

'The power of Nen? The quality of the target? The number of targets?'

After some thought, Law identified the primary issue as quantity!

'To cut a potato into shreds, I have to divide the whole object into countless parts, so does this increase the difficulty of operation? But in terms of quality, the hardness of potatoes is far inferior to Cook's body, which is wrapped with a small amount of Aura.'

'In other words, to make good use of the power of God Hand, I must at least be able to control my Aura freely.'

'The God Hand is now like an untamed king of beasts, mighty and ferocious, so it will not obey my orders.'

'Alternatively, it resembled a robot capable of executing thirty complex instructions, but I can only issue one instruction within one second. It is far from enough for me to issue ten, twenty, or even thirty instructions in a specific order within one second.'

'As much as I want to try again, I'm almost out of Aura, and... I seem to have become a little complacent.'

Law exhaled slowly, turning his gaze to the pile of discarded potato peels and uneven chunks in the corner, and couldn't help but smile bitterly.

'Defeating Cook, an experienced Nen User, as a naive beginner, and defeating Hisoka with the God Hand seemed to make me a little too proud.'

As Cook had pointed out, Law was still a novice, who is unable to even maintain basic Nen Techniques like Ten consistently. However, Law was able to awaken his Nen Ability under such a weak foundation, whether it was thanks either to his natural talent or the mysterious white smoke text.

These advantages were undeniably his own, setting Law apart from the average person. But without diligence and effort, he will lose everything sooner or later.

'There are still three or four months left.'

Law patted his cheeks, stood up, looked at the twenty or so potatoes that were ruined beside the stove, and could only apologize to Uvogin and the others in his heart.

Initially, he had intended to make stir-fried potato shreds with smoked meat. But now, all he can make is potatoes stewed with smoked meat, a dish bordering on the realm of culinary disasters.

Law glanced at the unconscious middle-aged fat man, who is still lying on the ground. Since he couldn't take his cleaver, he could only light the fire directly and started cooking.

There were very few ingredients available, almost all of which were potatoes cut into irregular pieces, and smoked meat that Law had cut into pieces using the little Aura he had left.

There are not many auxiliary ingredients and seasonings, so he could only keep everything simple and control the general taste. The main thing is to stew the potatoes until they are soft.

Law was very efficient and quickly finished the steps of stir-frying the small white chili peppers and smoked meat in oil, adding water and potatoes. He then added seasonings, covered the pot, and waited for the potatoes to stew.

After finishing all this, Law took the time to reflect on his attempts at using God Hand to slice through over twenty potatoes.

'There is progress from the first to the last, but it was minimal, inconsistent, and hard to pinpoint.'

What exactly made the difference between a good result and a bad one?

Finding the answer and honing in on it would be key to improving his control. However, Law's training times are limited after all, so no matter how hard he tries to recall, he cannot find an accurate direction.

'After eating, I'll rest and recover my Aura. Once it's back, I'll train again. But I probably can't use potatoes anymore, but I can try using stones.'

Law exhaled and made a decision.

As time passed, the aroma of potatoes stewed with smoked meat slowly wafted out.

Law lifted the lid, inspected the stew, and confirmed the potatoes had softened. He rubbed a little salt with his fingers and sprinkled it in the steaming pot, then stirred it back and forth several times before taking the pot and pouring the stew into the prepared large bowl.

At this time, Law glanced at the middle-aged fat man lying on the ground, thinking to himself, 'He had not woken up yet, and it was unlikely that I would be able to use the kitchen next time.'

Law shook his head and stopped thinking about it. After gathering bowls, chopsticks, and another large bowl of rice, he placed a stack of bills on the cutting board as compensation and left the kitchen.

When he arrived at the ward, he was met with resentful looks from Machi and the others.

"Uh…"

Placing the food on the table, Law explained earnestly: "I got lost."

In fact, being lost was only part of the story, and the real reason is using the potatoes to train his control.

Machi shot him a skeptical glare that practically screamed, 'I wouldn't trust you', and picked up the bowl to serve herself.

Uvogin ignored his injuries, got out of bed, walked to the table, took a bowl of rice, and started eating.

Nobunaga was stunned when he saw this and said, "Hey, give me some."

"What's the hurry? This is... huh?"

After Uvogin took a bite of the potato, his eyes widened and he let out a surprised exlclaim. Then, he subconsciously looked at Machi beside him, and the latter also looked at him.

After looking at each other for a moment, the two of them suddenly, as if in tacit understanding, sped up their eating speed, shoveling rice and potatoes into their mouths as if Nobunaga didn't exist.

Law had already served himself a modest portion and stepped aside to eat quietly. Since this dish almost became a disaster, he couldn't bring himself to devour it as voraciously as Machi and Uvogin.

"Hey, can you stop eating and give me something?"

Nobunaga was dumbfounded when he saw Uvogin is still ignoring him.

Law chuckled when he saw this, and thought this scene was really interesting. It was almost... a refreshing change from his usual impression of them.

'If Uvogin and Nobunaga recover quickly enough, I'll have no shortage of people to spar with before September.'