Ayan~ Thank you for sticking with me! This is a rewrite of "13" for those who don't know. I'll try to stick to my original ideas of a story line (read: incomprehensible) but I may go off track. Any and all suggestions are welcome. Sorry for a short chapter.

An orange-haired girl was sitting on a bed in an expensive hotel. Pacing the room was another woman; this one had a purple ponytail. The air around the room was tense; you could feel the anger coming off the woman like a thick vapor.

"Why," the woman started, "Were you in another city, 500 miles away from our raid? You have an answer to that, Lekin?" She glared at the offending girl, who was fiddling with her braid.

"I'm sorry Machi-chan. I didn't mean to, I ended up over there before I knew it, ayan..." Machi twitched at this remark.

"How did you end up in the middle of nowhere by accident? Danchou gave you a map! A really big one! What happened to that, huh?" Machi's voice rose to the point that Lekin winced.

"Ayan~ Can you not yell so loud? I... couldn't read the map... Ayan..." She looked away. "Anyway, since you're here, ayan, could you help me? I'm so bored!"

"Go fight some bodyguards! There's a heck of a lot of them around here anyway," Machi suggested looking annoyed. "I'm not done being mad at you. Don't think you're off the hook."

"Ayan~ Bodyguards around here are fat old men. It's no fun fighting ugly things," Lekin pouted. "Plus I can't fight full out with you here. Hiso-kun might show up and try to fight me. Ayan~ I hate it when he does that." Machi sighed.

"Hisoka is off taking the Hunter Exam. I guess he was bored too. Don't expect me to be your chaperone, Lekin. I'm not here on spider business so I'll be gone soon." Lekin perked up.

"Hunter Exam? The one Shal-kun took? Ayan~ Why's Hiso-kun doing that?"

"How am I supposed to know what he's thinking? He failed last year, maybe he's after revenge? Doesn't seem like Hisoka would care, though."

"Hiso-kun failed? Why? Did he creep out the judges too much, ayan?"

"He killed one of them. Go take it yourself if you're so curious," Machi snapped irritably.

"Ayan~ I think I will. Where is it?" Machi sighed.

"Find it yourself."

X 13 X

~Three days later~

"This is the last time I'm doing this, hear?"

"Ayan~ Sure Machi-chan! Do we turn here?"

"No! The other way you directionally challenged idiot! We're going to Zaban. Zaban! Not Forsooth!" Machi dragged Lekin through the city, not stopping to window shop like Lekin so often did. She had forced Lekin to change out of her imitation of Danchou's coat and into a light green jacket. Machi briefly wondered if all teenage girls were this infuriating. She supposed not.

X 13 X

"Ayan~ Can we stop to eat there? I haven't had fast food in a while." Lekin drooled at the thought of unhealthy food she was sure to get. The luxury hotel had caviar and salads. They needed a new chef.

"No, that's the exam hall, stupid. Now get going." Machi shoved Lekin into the greasy spoon and barked out a password to the frightened waitress. She stormed out of the place as soon as Lekin had wandered into the elevator-room.

The elevator groaned to a halt as it reached its destination. Lekin stepped out into the large room. She was glad Machi has lent her a jacket, because it was cold. She idly wondered who built the place.

"Ayan~" she said, stretching while scanning the applicants discreetly. There weren't that many of them.

"Excuse me ma'am. Here is your number badge. Please take care of it." The speaker was a short chubby man who reminded her of a beach ball.

"Thanks, ayan," she replied. Another contestant was approaching her. She ignored him. He didn't look any fun. Were these badge things important?

"Wow! You got here twenty-third! That's impressive for a newbie! How about a toast to celebrate? I'm Tonpa, by the way." How annoying. Did this person realize that he was a waste of space? She voiced her opinion out loud and he scuttled away, half freaked out by her reaction and mostly scared of the killer intent pouring from a seventeen-year-old girl.

Placing herself in as close an equivalent to a corner as she could find, Lekin sulked. Machi-chan has been furious at her for missing the raid Danchou had ordered. Life sucked. She was bored then and wanted to go on that stupid little raid, but she got lost as usual. She then resolved to steal a GPS. Would that help?

"Ayan~ This is boring. Where's Hiso-kun? He'll be sorry he didn't get here earlier." She smirked. A big burly man was yelling at her. From her position sitting on the weird tubing connected the walls, she could hear every sexist word, but she didn't feel like listening to him. Hmmm… What should she do to him?

Ayan~ Thank you for reading. I do need a beta, so any ideas? What do you guys think Lekin-chan will do to Mr. Burly? So her character design is slightly different this time. She says "ayan" in better places and isn't quite as random as the original. I will try to keep Machi and Hisoka from being OOC but I can't guarantee anything. I rewrote this 'cause the old one sucked. I am quite aware of how terrible of an author I am, but I'm so desperate for REVIEWs that I wouldn't mind if you wanted to rant to me about my failure...