"What?!" Ray shouted, admitting defeat. A loud chorus of 'Ooh's' and 'Ahh's' and cheering erupted from the surrounding children. 

"No fair, Sonju!" I whined, pouting over my recent loss. "I'm the one who taught you! It's not fair for you to beat me~" The red-head demon himself cave me a cocky grin before turning away to continue navigating.

It's now been a day since we've been travelling underground with Sonju and Mujika. In that time we've been travelling along the underground caverns, I taught Sonju how to play chopsticks. After doing so the game gained attention, and we decided to do a tournament. I managed to defeat everyone but Ray, landing in 2nd place, until Sonju decided to join the game, completely wrecking all of us. Including Ray- who was quite the sore looser.

After that, Mujika asked Ray and I to make dinner as the top two ranking in the tournament.

"A-ahhh that probably isn't a good idea..." I heard Reina say- the 4th place ranking.

"Y-yeah, p-please don't make Y/N cook." It was now Poppy, who came in 9th place, speaking, her face as white as a sheet.

I scoffed. "C'mon guys, I'm not that bad at it!" 

"Last time you cooked I almost went bald!" Daisy, one of the first to loose, whined, grabbing her curly locks. 

"Wait-it wasn't that bad-!!" I tried to defend myself in my cooking abilities, but it was too late. Even all the plant 3 kids looked terrified- and they've never even tried my cooking.

"That bad?" Chris, a quarter-finalist, gave me a concerned look. "Poppy and Reina made me try it! I couldn't taste or smell for days-" 

"T-then how about just Ray cooks?" Mujika offered, followed by a chorus of agreement from the other kids. 

"I don't care what you say about my cooking skills, but my grilled cheese is godly."

-----------timeskip brought to you by Ray's cooking----------

"SOOO GOOOD!!" Emma exclaimed, eating her stew. 

"How did you two make this?!" Don asked whilst eating his stew happily.  

"...its called cooking." Ray answered plainly. 

"But how could you possibly make it so delicious???!" Emma exclaimed once again. 

"Eh?" Ray shrugged. "I just did like Mujika taught me, step-by-step."

Don groaned. "No fair! Anything you try you're the best at!" 

"...it can't be that good..." I muttered, going into denial. 

"Oh, stop being such a butt." Reina said, sipping the stew carefully. "And it is that good." She reaffirmed. 

"REINA GIVING PRAISE TO SOMEONE ELSE'S COOKING?!?!1??!!1?!!!" Poppy exclaimed. Hanna gave a low whistle and Niko looked impressed. 

I sighed, taking a bite. "It's mediocre, I guess..." I said, trying to refrain from drooling.

-------

I sighed, patting my full belly in satisfaction.

"...For something that was 'mediocre', you certainly ate that food fast." Ray said, hovering over me. I scowled.

"Do you need something?" I asked, turning away. 

"For you to admit that it was good." Ray huffed, sitting down.

"Ohoho? Is someone proud of the stew they made after all?" I fufufu'd turning to face him. 

"No." Ray answered immediately, crossing his arms. 

"That response was a little fast, don't you think?" I pointed out. Now it was Ray's turn to scowl. "Or could it be that you care about my opinion of your cooking??!" I laughed, enjoying teasing him, even if what I was suggesting was definitely not true.

"Oh, be quiet." He said, kicking a rock across the room. "Anyway, we're moving soon. You should hurry up and get your stuff." He said quickly before making his escape.

2 more days passed and Sonju and Mujika began teaching us basic survival skills. I picked up shooting quite fast as well as identifying certain berries, but after hearing about my previous mishaps in cooking, Mujika and Sonju ensured that I stayed away from cooking. 

In this time I also grew closer to all of the kids as our plantations succeeded in blending together over the short time, growing close and fortifying trust with one another. They now sat all together and thought of eachother as close friends- or even siblings. 

I started spending a lot of time with Sonju as he brought up the question I asked before fading consciousness a few days prior.  He started teaching me how he made the smoke bombs and his spear work in private originally to humour himself, but as time went on he seemed to be genuinely interested in my progress. I wasn't great with the long weapon of the spear so after a day or two he decided to switch me to knives, and working with a smaller weapon that supported my smaller frame seemed to work well.

The day arrived where Sonju needed to go to the surface. I asked to go up with him alongside Emma, and although hesitant to accept the older girl, he allowed me to go up easily. 

"Woah!" I exclaimed at the change in scenery, shielding my eyes from the bright sun. I was riding in front of both Emma and Sonju, leaning off the side of the lizard-horse as I looked around. We made sure there were no pursuers in the immediate area before arriving at the original starting point. 

"Then?" Sonju asked, hopping off of his lizard-horse. "I'm sure you two didn't ask to come along... just for a change of scenery." His eyes slid to me as he reformed his sentence. "...Or Emma, at least. I have no idea what's going on in this weirdo's brain."

"Rude!" I exclaimed while Emma laughed. The air suddenly turned serious, though. as Emma looked up to the demon.

"Umm... I wanted to ask you to teach me..." Emma began unsurely. 

"We want you to teach us how to take a life." I finished for her, looking up at the large demon despite being situated on the horse. 

After Emma explained Sonju hummed at our peculiar request before a grin spread upon his face. "I see... Alright." He responded, and then began teaching us the way to hunt. 

Whilst Emma caught sight of a bird and aimed her bow steadily, I decided to look for another form of prey. 'The best time to hunt is when the hunter finds it's prey itself...'  I said, remembering the hunter exam arc from Hunter X Hunter. I trailed along for a bit, staying within sight of Sonju, and then remembered what occurred during that very arc of the hunter exam. I walked over to the river and watched carefully as a few bugs buzzed overhead. I watched and waited as a fish approached the bug, and the bug dipped a little too close to the surface-

"TWANG!!" The bowstring released and the arrow hit the fish mid jump, sending it falling into the river below. Sonju approached me as I waded into the river and picked up the fish. I then received a gupna from Sonju. My hands shaking, I took a deep breath and pierced the heart of the fish. I waited a moment before the flower bloomed, and exhaled the breath I was holding. 

"Now, you should try something a bit more difficult to catch next time." Sonju said, and then we walked back to Emma who was waiting at the Lizard-Horse, who is now just going to be called a 'steed'.