She lost track of how many hours she sat alone in the passenger section of the ship. Of course, there were others around her, but none thought to strike up a conversation.

Due to the silence and the steady swaying of the boat, Riven could have nodded off to sleep right then, huddled in a corner, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. But something rustled inside her jacket.

Black, beady eyes peeked up at her. Riven smiled softly and stroked the bird's colorless feathers. t nestled into her touch.

"Morning," Riven cooed. She dug the raven from her side and giggled when he squirmed.

She had slipped the white bird a small amount of sleeping drugs—a potion—so that he didn't fly away when she first boarded the ship. No animal would really feel comfortable leaving land for weeks at a time, wings or not. Karasu was attached enough to her that he would always return to her side, no matter the time passed. But Riven just didn't think she had enough courage to go anywhere without him, as selfish as it was.

Only when the bird squawked, still shaking off sleep, did Riven rise to her feet.

"Come on, kid. I'm sure you need some exercise," she whispered, trying to avoid any unnecessary attention. She'd hate to be the crazy girl talking to her lapel.

Riven made her way across the passenger room, out into the hall and up the stairs to the deck. The sun was blinding, but she welcomed it and let it soak to her bones. Before her, the blue expanse of the ocean kissed the horizon. Whale Island was barely visible, like a tiny green jewel in the distance. At the railing, Karasu hopped onto her forearm. She motioned for flight, but the bird just curled into her cheek.

"Go on, kid," she smiled.

This time Karasu took off, leaving Riven behind.

The ocean sprayed her cheeks as she watched her bird turn into a white speck.


In her homeland, a place of grey skies and people who were just as colorless, Riven had taken to going about her business in a lonesome way. There were rules there, unspoken. If you weren't blood, expect nothing from others. Riven's blood was gone. So she was alone.

She spent the majority of her time with her nose in a book. The library was the village's only luxury, an antique, the only clue to the former greatness of her land. The only reason it was still open was the owner's unwillingness to change. He was retired, his daughter took care of him at home even though she couldn't stand him, so he spent all of his time reading in a chair. And if a little girl with long greasy hair stopped in every other day for five minutes, that was fine, so long as she didn't keep him from his book for too long.

When she was twelve, just as the foliage of spring was beginning to bud, Riven took her usual path from the library to her home, only to catch sight of movement at the trunk of a sycamore tree.

Crouching next to the trunk, she gasped.

A little hatchling, who couldn't yet fly, was hopping between the exposed roots. It lost its balance, tipped over, and hopped right back up. Its downy feathers puffed out, like a cotton ball, white as snow. It cawed, maybe for food. Probably for its family. And she couldn't just leave it there, knowing that.

Luckily, Riven had read a book on avians just the week before.


Riven returned to the library and found a very nice book on ravens. She'd never heard of a white raven. They were intelligent animals, with good intuition and problem solving skills; Kleptoparasites, meaning they often found their food or need material for their nests by stealing them. Their lifespan was anywhere from thirteen years to forty-three, That was one of Riven's most exciting finds of the day.

Then she came across a burgundy book with gold stitching in the Aves section of the non-fiction shelves. It was a very old book, she deduced from the wooden binding. Opening it, she saw that it was written by a native. It was from before. It wasn't supposed to exist.

She devoured it.

It was a book of stories, mythology, a man writing the old stories his grandmother was told in her childhood but didn't really believe anymore. Spirit Raven, according to legend, brought the sun to the people of earth. There were several illustrations of what could have been a dove with an oddly shaped beak in mid flight, clutching a white, shining marble his talons. His feathers turned black from the scorch of the flames, and the humans he had saved outcast him. The color was a sign of pain, of sacrifice for the great good.


She raised Karasu. He'd been with her for four years. She taught him to stay quiet, to survive, then to fly. It involved flapping her arms like she wasn't right in the head, and leaping off of stones. But most of it came to him instinctually. A kleptoparasite he truly was, and he brought her gifts he's picked off of unsuspecting humans. Then she had to teach him to fish when the townspeople, who often saw her with the bird perched on her shoulder, threatened to kill him if he continued be a nuisance.

Karasu had kept her busy for four years. He had kept her happy.

And then she learned of the Hunter Exam, and Riven knew in her bones that it was time she stopped procrastinating and repent for her sins.

X


"That's odd."

Riven's heart jumped in her chest so quickly that it physically hurt. She turned to the speaker. He had stormy gray eyes and blond hair. And he was about her age. He wasn't looking at her directly, but out into the expanse of blue. Riven followed his gaze and realized that he was watching her little white companion in the distance.

Hastily, she curled her hand around her lips and let out a loud whoop, a kulning call, short and melodic. In an instant, Karasu flipped directions and sped back towards the ship.

"He belongs to you?" the boy asked.

Riven nodded in response. She wasn't sure why he was speaking to her, but she decided to be polite. She didn't need any enemies.

"I knew it was strange for a bird to be this far out at sea," the boy continued. He spoke mostly to himself, like he was just stating facts and didn't want to start a conversation. She wasn't that sociable, either. She might not have said anything at all. But she surprised herself..

"You must be very keen, if you noticed him," She said.

"Hardly, there's just not much to see out here," the boy brushed the compliment off politely. Unsure of what she should do next, Riven turned back toward the sea. Karasu had made good time and was just meters away. Then he squaked and darted from his path before circling back. He lost a feather, and it was torn out of sight by a violent wind. Confused, she called again, holding her left arm out. It was covered in bandages; not from injuries, but to prevent Karasu from clawing her skin off.

The bird seemed to calm as he returned to Riven's outstretched arm. She brought him up to her cheek and he nuzzled her.

"Is he alright?"

She glanced at the boy, even more perplexed than he was. She knew Karasu's tendencies. He didn't misbehave often.

"I'm not sure what spooked him," she admitted, brushing droplets of spray from his breast.

"Ah," the boy's eyes lit up with understanding. "Most animals tend to feel uneasy when a storm is on the way."

That made sense. But she'd seen Karasu before storms, and the most he'd given her was an extra squawk. "It must be a frightening storm."

He gave a nod. "I suppose we should head back below deck, then."


Tired, Riven leaned back against the wall. She contemplated slipping a little bit of sleeping drugs to Karasu. He didn't exactly enjoy storms, and she didn't need him making a racket in such a small area. But the potion was made from a home remedy, a tree sap that causes drowsiness. The trees only grew in her homeland. She would have to use it sparingly.

The lower deck was crowded with every passenger on the ship, a chorus of moans and even less pleasant sounds joining the creaking of the floor and walls. Yet even with the rolling and swaying beneath her feet, Riven felt fine. She'd spent years living on a river, and her village happened to be on the coast, as much of a harbor city that could exist in her home. She had grown up around ships and sailors. A boy in green was, noticeably, running from passenger to passenger, providing relief and water to the ill where he could. Riven wondered why he was working himself to the bone for them. They couldn't so much as thank him. She rested her head on the wall. The ship pulled back and forth. She imagined she was on shore, watching a ship depart from the docks as she had as a child, before he had learned what it meant to survive in the world.

Riven opened her eyes, not quite sure as to when they had closed. The door had been busted open. The captain, a pot-bellied man with a pipe in hand, was in the doorway, his presencing demanding attention. He eyed them critically, and Riven held her tongue.

"You four, come with me."


In the captain's office there stood seven people; the Captain, a sailor, the navigator, the young boy in green, the blond, a man in a suit with a briefcase, and Riven. Eight, with Karasu on her shoulder.

"First, tell me your names," the captain said gruffly. He was a harsh man, she decided. Like the old librarian, except he still had his will to live.

The youngest one of them shot his hand in the air. "I'm Gon!"

"I'm Kurapika."

"It's Leorio," the man in the suit said next. He looked skeptical about this whole conversation.

"Riven," she answered shortly, giving a curt nod.

"And why do you want to become hunters?"

Before anyone could answer, Leorio tensed. "Hey! If you're not an examiner, you can't boss us around!" He snarled, his finger pointed.

"Just answer the Question," the captain crossed his arms, bored. Leorio was going to add something else, but Gon interjected.

"My dad is a hunter! I left Whale Island because I wanted to know why my dad desired it so much!"

And that was how the argument started. "Hey, Kid!" Leorio looked down at him with a scowl. "You're not supposed to answer!"

"Why can't I tell him why I'm here?" Gon asked innocently.

Riven glanced at Leorio and wondered what made him so guarded. He made another short and heated exchange with the blond, Kurapika, who ended up just ignoring him altogether.

"It's quite simple to avoid pesky questions by offering a plausible lie, However, it's shameful to rely upon deceit."

Riven thought about his words, and she disagreed. Honesty was a luxury. In some ways, so was shame. She had other priorities.

Kurapika continued,"That being said, if I were to tell you the truth, I would be exposing my deepest secret. That is why I cannot provide an answer."

Riven peered at him in curiosity, finding Kurapika's answer to be satisfactory. Gon hadn't seemed to keep his search for his father a secret, so answering was easy for him. But if it was personal, no one could say he was obligated to tell them.

"In other words," the captain took a deep huff of his pipe, "you refuse to answer my question. Hey, Katsuo," he said, looking at the sailor at his left. The boy's back automatically straightened. "Tell the examination board that we have two more drop outs."

All four examinees gave him looks of surprise and shock.

"You still haven't figured it out?" the captain sighed. "The Hunter Examination has already begun. There are as many hunter wannabes as there are stars in the skies," he elaborated. "The Examiners don't have the time or the resources to review them all. So, they hire people like us to trim the fat. I've already reported that everybody else on this ship had to withdraw. If they can't handle a little storm like that, they'd stand no chance in the Hunter Examination's later stages. In other words, you only proceed to the main exam if I pass you. So think carefully before you answer my question."

Riven understood now just how many people were willing to risk everything to become a hunter.

"Should have told us that sooner," Leorio whined.

"I'm looking for my sisters," Riven interjected quickly. "We were separated, and a Hunter's license will let me find them that much sooner."

The captain nodded at her, to let her know she had answered sufficiently.

"I'm the only survivor of the Kurta clan," Kurapika went next. "Four years ago, they were annihilated by a band of criminals. I wish to become a hunter to hunt that band down." He said with a determined face. "The Phantom Troupe."

"So you want to become a bounty Hunter?" The captain hummed. "The Phantom Troupe is a class A bounty. Not even the most grizzled Hunters can touch them. You're throwing away your life." He didn't sound like he much cared.

She knew about the Phantom Troupe. She was warned to avoid them when she first arrived.

Kurapika nodded, "I do not fear death. I only fear that my rage will fade over time."

Karasu shifted on her arm.

Leorio scoffed. "So in other words, you want revenge? Does that really require that you become a Hunter?"

"That may be the stupidest question I ever heard, Leorio," the blond shot back, smirking.

"That's Leorio-SAN to you!"

"Places only accessible to Hunters, information otherwise unattainable, actions otherwise impossible. . . There are more reasons than your brain could possibly handle."

Did he just call him stupid?

Kurapika was correct; those were the benefits she herself needed her license to grant.

But he had been very polite to her earlier, and she wasn't sure why he wasn't the same to this Leorio. She was positive the taller man was going to sock the blond in the face, until Gon leapt in between them, oblivious to the tension.

"Why do you want to become a Hunter, Leorio-san?" Gon asked curiously. Obviously flattered, the man straightened his posture.

"I'll put this simply, I want money. Money can get you anything!" He grinned, imagining the possibilities. "The hottest rides, the best liquor!"

"You can't buy class with money, Leorio."

He turned to glare at the teenager. Then he turned his back on the group and suggestively headed to the door.

"That's three times now," muttered Leorio. "Step outside," he straightened his jacket. "I'll end the filthy Kurta bloodline, here and now."

Kurapika glared daggers at him. That had been the wrong thing to say. "Take that back, Leorio! Take that back."

Leorio narrowed his eyes over his shoulders. "That's Leorio-san to you." He disappeared from the room, a fuming Kurapika striding after him.

"Hey, boys!" The captain called after them. "I'm not finished yet!" He made his way after them, but was blocked by Gon.

"It's okay. Let them go."

The captain gave him a bewildered expression.

"Mito-san once told me, 'if you want to get to know someone, you have to make an effort to learn why they're angry.' It's important for them to understand why they're mad," The boy explained. "So we should let them handle this themselves." The Captain backed down, smirking to himself.

"That is very wise advice," Riven gave a soft smile.

.

Gon grinned up at her. "Mito-san is super kind, and smart!"

She hummed. "Is she your mother?"

Gon shrugged."She raised me."

"Captain!" Just then, the navigator shouted. Riven and Gon shot their eyes out the window. There, in the midst of the giant wave, was twister. "A water sprout!"

"Drop those sails," the captain ordered, taking charge. He took complete control of the steering wheel, wrestling with the waves. "All men on deck!"

Katsuo rushed out the door, Gon bounding after him. Riven nearly lost her balance after a particularly rough bump. Karasu panicked and took to the air, instinctively flew for the open, abandoning the captain's quarters.

"Kid!" Riven yelped, dashing after him.

Outside, as it was storming, Riven followed her spirit raven to one of the towering masts. Luckily, the frenzied bird didn't perch at the very top, but one of the lower level sail-branches. He didn't like the wind at that height, but being too low and close to the water was also unacceptable.

Riven took a breath and whooped a sharp kulning, but Karasu didn't react. cursing, Riven hoisted her body weight on one of the foot holds and began to climb.

She was two feet off the floor when she heard a sickening snap, like a crack of a whip. There was a flash of color in the corner of her eye. She gasped as Katsuo, in a red shirt, was whipped back, thrown high into the air.

From her height, she could probably catch him. She just needed to let go of the netting. Her fingers slipped off on their own accord, and then she found herself stepping onto the railing. She didn't think, she just did. She braced herself. The flailing boy hit her with full force. There was more momentum than she could handle, and her feet were suddenly out from under her. Riven tightened her grip around Katsuo. She was a strong swimmer, but she had never had to support another, unconscious person in such conditions before. She almost felt guilt already.

If it came down to a choice, she knew who she would pick.

It all seemed to happen in a flash. Kurapika and Leorio leapt over the edge, slinging over the railing to reach for the two of them. She barely managed to respond by extending her own arm.

Nothing connected.

Just when she believed she was on her own, about to plunge into the raging waters of the sea, her eyes were assaulted with green. And a hand grabbed hers. She felt her shins submerge in the icy ocean below her, and there was a painful tug on her arm. Katsuo put twice the amount of strain on her shoulder, but she managed to hang on. Kurapika and Leorio grunted, supporting the weight of three bodies from the railing.

"Pull them up!"

In no time, practically the whole crew was peering over the edge, pulling up Kurapika and Leorio up, then her savior, then her and Katsuo.

She gasped, falling to her knees on the hard, soaked deck. Her long hair stuck to her face, heavy with rain water and spray. She tried her best not to shake as she rose to her feet, grinning like she never had before.

"Thank you, Gon,"

He grinned up at her. "No need to thank me."


A/N: Well, to be honest, this was an experiment. I recently got into Hunter x Hunter, but I have seen both series (1999 and 2011). I loved them both, but I'm more familiar with the 2011 version, so that's what this will be based off of.

I would like to apologize for any errors. I tried reading through this, but It was quick, so I probably missed a few things (Edited/proofread a little more thoroughly on 4/24/18. Please let me know if there are any major mistakes or inconsistencies that I missed =D).

Thank you so very much for reading!

Lin