Greetings! This is my second OC story in this fandom. Unlike the previous one, the OC I pair with Shalnark here isn't a wallflower-kind of OC so this story isn't a part of my Wallflower Project. This story will be quite short, covering the Hunter Exam only.

I hope you'll enjoy this story. Please forgive me for any grammatical mistake and typo you see. Corrections are always welcomed.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but this fanfic and some OCs.

Important note: This story takes place around four years prior to the manga/anime.

Summary: The twelve year old Shalnark originally planned to attend the Hunter Exam just for fun. He never expected he would make his first friend and learn something new during those days. Mild ShalnarkxOC.

Pastels

First Color

Lilac

A boy in his tween stood in front of a majestic looking hotel. He looked up at an enormous sized, black and gold colored name plate above the building entrance. A smile bloomed on his face as he confirmed that the hotel before him was indeed the place he was looking for.

The boy walked up the stairs in front of the entrance. A porter opened one of the oak doors and bowed politely as he passed by. He arrived at the well furnished lobby then looked around, searching for the receptionist desk. It didn't take much time for him to find it. He walked straight to the other side of the room, where the receptionist desk was.

"Good afternoon, Sir. How can I help you?" the receptionist lady greeted while sporting a warm, businessman's smile.

"I want to reserve a room," the boy said. "President Suit on the highest floor, with a sea view."

People around him blinked in confusion as they heard him. His request sounded absurd to their ears. Not only that this small boy, who came by himself, asked for the most expensive room; he also asked for a sea view which was totally impossible as the hotel located in the middle of mountains. Nevertheless, the receptionist lady didn't show any sign of bewilderment. Instead, she nodded and hand an electronic card to the boy.

"Please use the elevator on the west side," she said while pointing at her left. "We hope you enjoy your stay."

The boy took the card and proceeded to the elevator as instructed by the receptionist lady. The elevator doors closed shortly after he got it. There were a lot of numbered buttons on the panel beside the door, indicating the destination floors, and a line-shaped hole on the bottom of it. Knowing what he was supposed to do, he didn't press any button but inserted the card he got earlier into the hole. Shortly after that, the elevator started moving down.

B1… B2… B3… B5… B10… B20… B50…

The elevator kept going underground.

The boy leaned his back to the wooden wall. He fished out his phone from his pocket and played some shooting games on it while waiting for the elevator to reach its destination.

The boy's name was Shalnark and he had just turned twelve this year. He might look ordinary and harmless on the outside, but one shouldn't underestimate him. He wasn't an ordinary kid. He was member of an infamous thief group called Phantom Troupe.

And on this special occasion, he had come all the way from his hometown, Meteor City, to the Hunter Exam… just to kill some boredom.

PING.

Shalnark looked up from his phone as he heard that sound. He looked at the screen above the panel and learned that he had just arrived at floor B200. The doors slide open, revealing a small room ahead, another door, and a little man who stood by that door.

"Welcome to the 283rd Hunter Exam." The little man said as Shalnark walked toward him. Now that Shalnark had gotten a better view of that man, he realized that the head was actually round and green like a pea. It was hard to guess whether it was a real head or a mask.

"Here's your badge; your examination number is written on it. Please take a good care on it and don't lose it at any cost." The pea-head man said as he handed a round plate with number 467 on it to the blond boy.

Shalnark took the badge and looked at it closely for a while before pinning it on his right chest.

"We wish you the best of luck." The pea-head then stepped back and told the boy to go to the next room.

Shalnark pushed the heavy door and enter a much, much larger room. The room was probably even larger the lobby two hundred stories above. The room was round and the wall was very tall. The ceiling couldn't be seen from where he stood. Unlike the previous room, this room wasn't floored with tiles and the wall was made from stone. On the top of everything, the some parts of the wall were even covered by moss. The room totally looked like pit of a gigantic well. It just lack of water.

Shalnark walked deeper through the crowd, planning to find a good place to standby and play some games again while waiting for the exam to start. He then happened to see a fat man with square nose handing out some canned juice to several examinees. That fat man strange behavior sparked an interest in him so he decided to get a closer look at what that fat man was doing. Who knows? It might be a good way to spend the time.

"Please take this to celebrate our meeting." Shalnark heard the fat man said while handing out another canned juice. The examinee the fat man was talking originally to refused it, but then took it because the fat man kept insisting that he should take it. After talking for a while, the fat man then bit a good bye to that examinee. He looked around, searching for someone new to talk to. His eyes glinted with mischievousness as he caught a glimpse of a little boy, who was no other than Shalnark.

"Hi there, boy!" The fat man quickly approached Shalnark with a big smile plastered on his face. "I haven't seen you around before. This must be your first time isn't it?"

Shalnark nodded slightly. He then asked. "Who are you?"

"Oh, how rude of me, I haven't introduced myself," The fat man said in a rather dramatic way. "I'm Tonpa."

"Nice to meet you, Uncle Tonpa." Shalnark beamed.

"Unc-. Uh, yes, yes, nice too meet you too." Tonpa thick eyebrows twitched as he heard the boy called him uncle, but quickly covered the agitated expression with another fake smile.

"Hey, how do you know that this is my first time?" Shalnark asked as he innocently tilted his head.

"You see, this is my 32nd time taking the exam, so I can easily tell new faces." Tonpa answered with a proud tone in his voice, even though it wasn't something that could be proud of.

"I see. That's great. You must know most of examinees here very well." Shalnark said, while mentally noted on what a sore loser this fat man was.

"Of course, I know everything about the examinees here," Tonpa raised his chin. He pointed his finger at a composed looking geezer behind him, "You see the old man over there? He is Kenzo, very good at handling wooden sword. And the timid looking man who is talking to him is Goreinu. It's his third time trying out the exam." Tonpa then pointed at a group of three people who bore similar faces, "Those guys are Amori brothers. Each of their individual skill is good, but they are even better when they're operating as a team. And then the guy over ther-"

"What about the guy you talked to just now?" Shalnark cut in.

Tonpa was taken aback by the sudden question. "Ah, oh, that guy. He's Meyer, a newbie like you."

"Is that so? I thought he was your old acquaintance because you gave him a drink."

"Ah... Ahahahahah… No, I just gave it to him because he looks thirsty. Speaking of which, boy, do you feel thirsty too?" Tonpa fished out a can from his bag then give it to the boy.

"Thank you." Shalnark took the orange colored can.

"Well…" Tonpa began as he rubbed his hands together and looked at the boy in expectation.

"'Well'?" Shalnark repeated.

"Why don't you drink it now?"

"Nah, I'll save it for later! The exam should be tiring, right? I'll drink it after the exam ends."

"But… But… aren't you thirsty?"

"A little… but I can bear it."

"Well then, you should drink this now. I'll give you another one if you feel thirsty again."

"Nah, it'll be troublesome if I suddenly want to use the restroom in the middle of exam."

Tonpa frowned. He couldn't argue that one. "Okay… just make sure you drink it later."

"Okay." Shalnark chirped. The fat man then gave him a weary smile before he retreated, probably searching for another examinee to talk to.

Shalnark looked at the canned juice in his hand. This orange juice was most likely spiked. If it hadn't been, that Tonpa old man wouldn't have forced people to take and drink them. Besides, that fat man didn't look sincere at the slightest. One could easily tell he was hiding something in one glance. To think that one would something unproductive like this in order to cut down the number of competitors… No wonder why that Tonpa still didn't pass the exam even after thirty-something years.

Shalnark shrugged and put the spiked juice in his pocket. Oh well, it's not his problem. That fat man would eventually fail again for all he cared.

"Hey you."

The platinum blond haired boy turned around as he felt that someone was calling him. He saw a girl was looking back at him. She was a little taller than him and probably older than him by one or two years.

"Yes?" He replied questioningly.

"The juice. Did you take it?" She asked in interrogative manner. By the juice, she must be referring to the one Tonpa had just given him.

"I did. Why?" He asked back.

"'Why' your head. It is not good! That juice is dangerous! You should throw it away!" She said, placing her hands on the hips.

He blinked in confusion seeing a sudden outburst.

The girl shook her head. Her short strawberry blonde hair swayed as she did so. "Doesn't your mother tell you not to accept things –on the top of everything, food– from strangers? Geez, kids these days should be more careful. What if he had put something inside that juice?"

Shalnark didn't have any mother so obviously he got no one that would tell him what was the right thing to do and what wasn't. Not that he bothered about it though.

"I got it. I'll throw it away once we get out of here." He smiled at her. He already knew that there was something inside the juice, but he decided to just go with the flow since he didn't want this girl to lecture him again like some old woman.

"Good!" The frown on her face turned into a smile. "You know, I was worried when I saw that man… er, what was his name again? Ton something? Tonkotsu?"

"'Tonpa'." He corrected.

"Yes, yes… Tonpa. I was worried when I saw that Tonpa man approached you. You know what, earlier he had approached me as well and forced me to take the juice. I had had to lie that I had been allergic to persevered food to shake him off. Really, he must be a pedophile! Just look at his lecherous face." She shuddered a bit as she hugged her small body.

Tonpa surely got one hell of ugly face topped with a suspicious smirk, but Shalnark didn't really think that he was a pedophile. If any, he was just some loser that wanted to get several people fail the test with him.

"But he also gave the juice to other applicants." Shalnark said.

"Too naïve!" She pointed a finger at him. "He must have been doing it so that no one can tell that his targets are actually cute kids like us."

Ah, she just self-proclaimed that she was cute.

"Is that so? I personally don't think he's a pedo though."

"Why?"

"Because… If he was a real pedo, he would look for his target on the streets, not on the Hunter Exam ground." He explained.

She put her point finger on her lips and thought for a while. "Now you mention it…" She muttered.

"Right?" He grinned.

"It might be true… but it doesn't change the fact that he IS a suspicious fellow. He might be dangerous." She insisted.

"I agree about that, but you don't need to worry about him. That dude isn't strong at all."

She tilted her head to the side. "Why do you think so?"

'It's because he doesn't possess any significant amount of aura.' He wanted to say that, but it would be no use talking about aura-related matter to a non nen user. "Well, if he was strong, he wouldn't have failed the test over thirty times, would he?" He explained in a more understandable way.

"Oh, you got the point." She clapped her hands together then laughed. "Silly me, I shouldn't have make a fuss over such a man."

He laughed with her. It was the truth. Most examinees there didn't possess any threat to him; that Tonpa with his spiked juice for example; or several groups of men around him who had been keeping an eye on him.

Don't joke around. This isn't a play ground for kids.

Just see. They'll eventually cry and ask for home.

Heheh. I can't wait to hear their begging for mercy.

Those were what they were whispering to one another as they watched the two kids. They just didn't know that one of the kids before them was a member of an A-ranked bounties group of thieves who could beat them singlehandedly.

"By the way, I'm Luce, Luce Estoile." The girl suddenly said to Shalnark. Her sudden introduction made him focusing his attention to her again.

"I'm Shalnark," he replied. "Just Shalnark, if you were wondering about my surname."

The girl named Luce laughed. "Well, just Shalnark… It seems like the Exam will begin shortly," she said as she raised her right hand and shove it toward the younger boy. "Let's both do our best, 'kay, Shal?"

To do his best… Actually he didn't need to do such a thing. As a nen user, he would naturally overqualified the exam. However, it didn't sound half bad. He might try to do his best to enjoy this little game called Hunter Exam.

Shalnark reached out his hand and took her hand. His lips curved forming a smile as they shook hands.

"Sure."

I hope you like the first chapter. Please spare a minute or two to fill the review box bellow and tell me what you think about this chapter.

See you on the next chapter :)