January 6th, 2019
"A rookie fixer?"
Bronn got the question every year. He smacked the gumball into his mouth and gave the same answer he gave every year.
"For most of the contestants here, the Hunter Exam will be the hardest thing they've ever done," he gently palmed his chest, "But, with me here, it'll be nigh impossible."
"Sounds more like you're breaking things than fixing them."
Bronn smiled. It was the first time he'd gotten a reply like that. "Do you see that gentleman over there?"
The two young teenagers looked over to see a twenty-something man with white hair tied into a tight bun, with an average build, pale skin, and dark, form fitting clothes. He was conversing with a few other exam entrants of a similar age.
"Rhodyne Coates has paid me two million Jenny to win the Hunter Exam," Bronn explained. "Unless you guys can outbid his party, then you should leave. I'm not a particularly nice guy."
The girl, the one who'd asked the first question furrowed her brow. "If you've won the exam, then how can you take it again?"
"I've taken the exam nine times," he chewed the mystery flavored gumball. Blueberry… maybe? "On my third try, I was about to pass, but a competitor paid me eight hundred thousand to throw the stage and let him win. Ever since then, I've been doing just that. I carry the clientele on my back, and throw at the end so I can do it again next year."
The girl's companion, a boy slightly older than her caught on quicker than than the fixer expected. "Why are you explaining any of this to us, then?"
Bronn plucked the gum (raspberry flavored) from his mouth, covered in spit and saliva. "Because I've got this nagging feeling that you guys are halfway competent."
"We're not about to pay to win the exams!" the girl firmly declared.
Bronn shrugged and dropped the gum. "Suit yourself kiddos," grinning wide, a bit of a blue tint from the gum covered his teeth, "there's always next year." He snapped his fingers and walked away from the pair, who noticed too late the trap they'd fallen into. "Balloon Animals," Bronn's nen took hold of the gum, inflating swiftly until it was stuck to the boy and girl, inseparably attached to the blue bubble. The two struggled and writhed against, but all they accomplished was getting more of themselves stuck to the bubble.
Rhodyne began clapping, and the three others with him joined him. Bronn tipped his ballcap in mock appreciation.
"Two down, twenty-one to go," he remarked.
The first stage of the Hunter Exams was usually populated by hundreds of applicants. But, over the past five years, the rumors of Bronn Uick had spread far and wide. Getting stuck in some gum was actually a pretty tame punishment compared to some of the things he'd done to other entrants in years past. The man, in his early thirties, was actually quite disappointed in the low turnout. It seemed those who remained were either lucky know-nothings, like the boy and girl, or those who had the gall to think they could still challenge Bronn despite his reputation.
"Worth every Jenny, Mr. Uick," Rhodyne said, "the future of our expedition is in your hands."
"It's just Bronn," the fixer explained, popping another random gumball into his mouth. At least one contestant flinched at the sight. The man had light scruff on his face and his upper neck, with strands of blond hair poking out the back of his red cap which shaded his already dark eyes. He wore an open jersey sporting the number and name of some baseball pitcher, and scruffy looking cargo shorts. The man was dressed so casually, it was almost more threatening than someone taking the competition seriously.
Twenty five people were joined by one more, an exceedingly tall man who stood at nine and a half feet tall with long arms and legs, sporting a beanie cap and a long floral print shirt. "Excuse me," the man said, interrupting the entrants intermingling. "Is this all the people taking the exam?" he spoke in a low voice, as if it came from a horn.
"How do you do, Sheridan?" Bronn mentioned the hunter by name just to intimidate the remaining members of the crowd. The tall man had proctored an exam six years back and he wasn't a face one easily forgot. "Seems I've become something of a spooky story," he joked.
"Oh," Sheridan replied. "Then we can started I suppose. Your first phase-"
"Hey!"
The crowd and Sheridan looked to the boy still stuck in gum, barely able to scream.
"Aren't you going to arrest that guy or something?! He just admitted what he was doing! He sabotaged us! Don't hunters get mad when their tests are jacked around with?!"
"Nothing he's done is against the rules," Sheridan plainly explained.
"Well, can't you help us out of here?"
"Is that necessary?" Sheridan addressed the question to Bronn, who waved his hand as if getting rid of an obnoxious fart, explaining they'd be free that afternoon. "I suppose you'll just have to reflect on your mistakes. Numbers fourteen and fifteen will not be continuing if you can't escape.
"Now, as I was saying-"
Bronn cleared his throat to interrupt their proctor once again, "Actually, Sheridan," the man removed his cap and approached where the hunter was standing. "Lemme just say this now. Anyone who wants to leave should go. I'm not trapping anyone else and letting them go," he explained calmly. "If I need to drop anyone else from this competition, it'll be permanent."
Number twenty-six immediately approached Sheridan and Bronn, presenting his tag to them. Sweat was running down his neck like a faucet. Rhodyne's two partners were enjoying themselves to the fullest.
"I can take that," Bronn offered, snapping up the tag with a sadistic smile. Once he did, the man sprinted off as fast as he could manage. "Any other takers? This isn't a joke y'know."
"Bronn! What is that on your arm?!"
"Hm?"
Crawling up from the button was a moth, that had disguised itself into a white and black color and was now resting on Bronn's arm. The fixer hadn't even noticed the insects presence, and before he could react, he felt a sting in his arm. Bronn was about to shout and yelp in pain, but the poison was so quick that his jaw felt tight before he form any real sounds. He fell to his knees and bit the dust. Rhodyne's face went white.
Every entrant, and even Sheridan looked about to uncover who had made the move. Everyone had their suspicions, but nobody claimed credit for the attack. "Tag number one will no longer be continuing with the competition," the test's proctor said.
"Now, if I can finally get to my explanation."
The first phase hadn't even begun, yet four people had already dropped out of the original twenty-seven.
Anne Kassidy was scared out of her mind. This whole competition had been chock full of strange men and women. She felt like she was the only normal person in a room full of extraordinary people, which came full circle to making her feel like an outsider among them.
After that weird man's death, Sheridan explained the first phase of the examination would entail a physical challenge. The twenty-three entrants were challenged to climb a cliffside easily over four hundred meters tall. It was attached to a larger hill, and the angle of the hill was straight up for most of the climb, but the last fifty meters seemed to stretch out from the hill at an angle against their climb.
Before climbing up the rock like there was a ladder, the exam proctor had explained that there was no time limit or race involved. All the entrants would have to do is reach him at the top of their dangerous climb. Anne was about three quarters of the way through the challenge when she began rethinking her whole life.
Anne was a city girl, growing up in an urban jungle near the coast. Always having a nose stuck in a book, she never stopped hearing stranger and stranger things about the Hunter Association, and wanted desperately to learn about them firsthand. It'd taken her two years and quite a bit of her parents' money to get her to where she was, but she still didn't have answers.
Looking about for a moment, the girl realized she'd been in last place. Nobody had dropped out or failed the challenge so far. It seemed that strange man's presence had done enough to trim whatever excess usually existed. His clientele was working in a team, helping one another up the hill, and a few had already disappeared over the top, no doubt having cleared the challenge with little difficulty. A few stray dogs were taking their time, keeping a great distance between one another. It was still a mystery as to who the Moth Assassin had been.
The girl pulled one of her multi-jacks out from the cliff face, plunging the sharp edge into the rock that now hung over her head, bending over backwards to continue the climb. She pulled the other expensive tool out to push forward. Her feet fell off from the cliff, dangling dangerously.
"I won't fall here…" Anne muttered, and then screamed out loud, "I won't fall! Do you hear me, dad! I can do this!"
Brazenly, the young woman pulled the multi-tool from its spot in the rock, stabbing it in again, slowly progressing. The process was exhausting, but after a few more minutes, she'd progress ten meters, dripping sweat, red hair stuck to her face and sucking wind. She took another stab forward, grunting over the physical pain.
"Let your last thought be of family."
Anne looked up to see another figure on the wall, much closer than she thought anybody was.
"What did you say?"
Anne Kassidy never got an answer to that question. Her face got the stamp of a leather boot, and her body fell three hundred and fifty four meters until it exploded against the earth.
Sheridan waited half an hour after twenty-two entrants had cleared the first phase before finally bending his imposing frame over the edge of the cliff. After confirming that no one else was climbing, and that there was a small pool of red gore down below, he opted to continue the Hunter exam without the pretty young woman.
Rhodyne Chew's hands were filthy. Scarred, bloody and embedded with debris from the climb, he and his two partners were already thoroughly beaten down by just the first phase. The biologist perfectly understood he and his companions were unprepared for the Hunter Exam, and he'd strongly considered dropping out of the competition without Bronn. But, at the very least, the fixer had shown them towards the exam, and his presence had produced an exceptionally small field. If the trio didn't move, they would have to wait for years until they were prepared once again.
The Blank Institute didn't have that kind of time, and at least one of the three would need a license. They waited anxiously for a time. It seemed Sheridan was waiting on something before the next phase began. That something popped out from the ground like some rodent. A plump, squat woman pulled herself out of the earth. She was about four feet tall, and looked like a toy next to Sheridan's frame.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Sheridan caught the group's attention. Those that were resting begrudgingly stood back up form their spots on the ground. "This is my colleague, Lady Mikai, and she will be proctoring your exam's second phase.
Lady Mikai looked to be roughly middle aged, dressed in overalls and grimy clothes with ringlets of black hair reaching just past her neck. "Slim pickings, Sherry, what in earth did you do to them?"
"It's 'Sheridan,' and 'on Earth,' Lady Mikai."
The woman harrumphed and walked closer to the crowd for a rough inspection. "Rules don't apply to me, Sherry. But, they do apply to this bunch! From right now until the beginning of the next phase of your exam, killing is strictly prohibited!"
"Now, your goal this time around…" Lady Mikai stopped with a smile, knowingly building up the suspense. "Is to kill somebody!"
Rhodyne hung his head. He figured the exams would be strange and grim, but this was only the second phase. He and his associates were scientists, not murderers.
"Don't worry, those of you with weak stomachs don't need to fret," Lady Mikai explained. "To pass this test, there needs only be one dead body. However, any attempts to murder somebody will be actively thwarted by myself. Sheridan will only act in self defense and to take over proctoring should I die," the tall man nodded along, as if he'd been told the lunch special.
"Additionally, if I, and I alone, am able to deduce who the killer is, then they'll be removed from the competition, however the rest of the group will still pass," this put a stop to some entrants who already seemed game to take somebody out. "You have until sundown today. If there's no body by then, then you will all have failed."
Upon that proclamation, three things happened almost simultaneously. By a tenth of a second, the first thing was that a dark skinned woman sprinted towards the nearest tree of respectable height and climbed up the branches at dazzling speed until she was lurking fifteen meters off of the ground. Next, Rhodyne's partner grabbed him by the shoulder and put a knife into his hand. Lastly, a cowboy approached the mole.
"I think I'll be challenging you, little lady," the cowboy said, planting his boots into the grass and lowering his hand towards a revolver at his side. "No hard feelings, I reckon? I'm here for a reason after all."
Lady Mikai shook her head. "I won't act on any of you until you make an attempt on another person's life.
The cowboy swung open his leather jacket and whipped out the revolver. Lady Mikai hardly blinked at the threat. "I haven't missed from up to fifty meters with this here weapon. Don't think you can dodge this one, little lady."
There was silence, a puff of smoke and a deafening bang, in that order. The proctor of the second phase was between the cowboy and another man near the front of the crowd. Chuckling, the cowboy took off his hat, nodding it in some sort of professional appreciation. Rhodyne thought that Lady Mikai had simply dodged the bullet, but the round fell into the dirt under her feet. The cowboy had faked the trajectory of his shot, actually aiming for another one of the entrants, but Lady Mikai had caught onto the scheme and still stopped the attack.
"Before sunset comes," Rhodyne's spectating was interrupted by his partner, "you should kill me. When the proctor stops you then I'll do it to myself."
Eli Pavas wasn't an exceptionally brave man, but his offer here made Rhodyne rethink his own level of commitment to the experiment. He was the oldest of the trio, with thinning dark hair and bulk stuffed into an olive tracksuit. Eli was usually jovial and lighthearted, but the depth of his resolve had fully been revealed.
The third of the group, Minnie Stride, was stoic at the offer. The way she looked at Eli was as if she expected him to make the offer. She pulled out her own switchblade, a sign of solidarity with the plan he'd made. Though she was the youngest of the group, she'd been with the Blank Institute longer than even Rhodyne. Her mind wasn't something they could sacrifice at this stage of their process.
"Well at least I tried!" the cowboy declared proudly, lazily spinning with his revolver. "Not like some tree squirrels I know!" he was shouting up the tree to the woman keeping watch over the group.
The intended target broke from the ranks of the entrants in a rage, "You were gonna kill me, brother?"
"I'm not your brother, kid," the cowboy explained, still spinning the weapon. "Hope none of y'all thought these exams would be a stroll to a peach plant," he now addressed the whole crowd. "If you don't wanna die, then the real play is for all of us to take down this woman!" The hairs of his mustache fanned outwards with his voice raised.
"Sure, sure, right after I gut you, brother," the intended target had several small blades that slipped out of his sleeves and between his fingers. He positioned himself as if ready to take on the cowboy directly. "Nobody shoots at me, brother."
"I am not your brother," the cowboy emphasized, finally settling the sidearm in the palm of his hand. "You wanna come at me with those toothpicks? I think I've still got some of my breakfast between my teeth."
Rhodyne caught on to the game. The cowboy and knife wielder approached one another subtly. The biologist did his best to signal his partners without alerting the others.
"Die then!" The knife thrower tossed a blade towards Lady Mikai, who was forced to stay in place, or else the blade would strike another entrant with brutal lethality. She'd been positioned by the cowboy into a very compromising position. His ploy with his 'target' was working. The two fired a volley of their projectiles, knives and bullets towards the woman,
Rhodyne prayed their idea would work, and pulled his two partners along with him towards the ensuing fray. The trio didn't know what was going on, but Lady Mikai wasn't making an effort to catch the oncoming volley. Instead, once a single object got close enough, her arm would simply reach out and block it. The bullets bounced off of her skin, scorching her clothes, and the knives glanced off of her limbs.
"That's your second attempt to kill me, number fourteen," Lady Mikai noted. "Make it a third and I won't let you live afterwards." Rhodyne brought the knife down against Mikai's skull, only for his swing to be cut short by the equivalent of a cannonball cracking against his chest, putting him on his back. Eli and Minnie were quick to follow. "As for you three, I've got no respect for you. You'll soon realize it takes more than money to be a hunter. Try to kill me twice more and I'll show you what I mean personally."
Eli coughed and coughed, his blood spilling out between his lips and decorating the earth under his hands and knees. Lady Mikai walked away from the center of the crowd, no one else willing to make a move against the seemingly invincible proctor.
"How much more time until we're done with this crop, eh Sherry? An hour or so?"
Sheridan stood in silence and stillness, his arms crossed and his eyes unblinking. "Hm… Sherry?"
Lady Mikai tapped the man on his side and his knees buckled, the man's huge frame crumpling to the ground.
"Sherry… Sheridan?!"
The woman continued checking for life for a few more moments, but nothing came of it. "It seems…" she finally said with a hoarse, sad voice, "that you will all be continuing to the third phase. Please follow me."
"Chairman. You're sure it's alright not to investigate Sheridan's death?"
"It was Lady's idea, and Sheridan, gods rest his soul, agreed. There was no crime committed, and Mikai's restraint is commendable."
"What are your thoughts on the group this year, then?"
"Most years act out the same… but there are those irregular years in which expectations are flipped on their head for whatever reason. It seems the Fixer's presence and then immediate absence has created the exceedingly particular circumstances of this crop being far more capable than most entrants ever are. Clearly, many of them already possess Nen abilities, and could be considered full fledged Hunters as soon as they pass."
"Thorough as always."
"Well… I hope I'm wrong. Who doesn't love some subverted expectations?"
A/N: This was way more fun to write than I thought it would be. Let me know what you think!