Number 378.
As she enters the room, she's given a tag with that number. The creature that gave it to her tells her to make sure she wears it at all times and to take care she doesn't lose it; she nods and puts it on, stepping away from it and examining the room.
The first thing she notices is, of course, the sheer number of people. Obviously, as she's the 378th person to enter, there are 377 other people, but somehow it feels more like 3770. She's never much liked crowds of people- indeed, she'd been hoping less than a hundred people would be smart enough to make it to the exam, but she'd obviously underestimated them.
Oh well. They'd be gone soon enough, she supposes. There aren't many who seem strong or smart enough to even get past the third phase, according to what she's heard of previous exams.
"Hello!" A middle-aged man comes over with a grin and a can of juice. "Are you new here?"
She's instantly suspicious. The Hunter Exam wasn't exactly a cakewalk to get into, nor will it be anything but difficult to complete. Even as she looks at him, she senses something sinister behind his smile. Instantly, she recognizes that look. Acts innocent but is anything but; he's a rookie crusher.
"Yes," she says, giving him a sweetly innocent smile in return. "What's your name?"
"Tonpa! What's yours?"
She hesitates for a fraction of a second and tries to pass it off by looking at his tag (#16). "You can call me Silent, Si for short." She chose that name five years ago, for a very specific reason. There are a lot of things she wishes to silence, after all.
"Cool, nice to meet you, Si!" he offers a can of juice. "Let's have a toast to our friendship!"
Her eyes narrow the slightest bit. She has no doubt there's poison in that can, but...
Well, let's just say she needs to start building up a tolerance for poison at some point, right? There's a very special thing she needs poison immunity for. So she smiles and grabs the can, thanking Tonpa. She opens it and takes the smallest sip, watching as Tonpa's face becomes a sinister smile for the briefest instant before bidding her farewell and leaving. That's what she thought; rookie crusher. Too bad she didn't fall for it, though.
"Number 399." The same green humanoid that'd given her her own tag now reaches up to hand one to some nondescript girl. Si forgets the girl's face the moment she looks away, turning around to scan the room. She instantly picks out her competition, eyebrows raising when she realizes only a handful of people are Nen users.
First, there are several older men, clearly competent martial artists. Only one of them glows white, however, and it's unstable enough she knows his Nen is of little use. The next people she locks her eyes on are a group of three men, most likely brothers from the similarity in facial features. None of them know Nen.
A powerfully built ninja is next; she senses his vast power and strength even all the way across the room. She's not sure if it's fortunate or unfortunate that no Nen shrouds his body; with Nen, the powerfully built man would be dangerous indeed.
A strange, mechanical man with pins sticking in his face catches her interest next, and it holds. His aura is immense and holds a strange energy that makes her wary. Just seeing him instinctively makes her want to cringe away, but she forces it back.
"Numbers 403, 404, 405," the little green guy calls out, handing each newcomer their respective badges.
She tilts her head, interest shifting over to them. #405 is a mere child, and #404 looks to be no older than sixteen or seventeen; #403, at least, seems to be close to his twenties. She wonders how a kid as young as #405 could've gotten in and briefly wonders if it was due to the other two applicant's efforts, before dismissing the idea. The way #404 and #403 treat him clearly suggest they see him as an equal; if that is so, then #405 must be a child prodigy.
She mentally adds him to the list of people to watch out for before returning to her scan of the room. The next interesting applicant she finds seems to be around the same age as #405, a white-haired boy with a tag that says 99. Like the three newcomers, he has no Nen, but the way he stands seems to imply he has some kind of power. She'd do best to be wary of #99, as well.
"AHHHHH!"
She spins, already preparing for a fight, but the only thing she sees is a man writhing on the ground, arms slowly disintegrating into flower petals.
What?
As people begin to step away from the afflicted man, they form a circle, enclosing the injured man together with a tall, pale one.
"Oh, how peculiar," the pale one drawls, eyes coldly amused. "His arms seem to have become flower petals." No shit, the girl thinks, eyes strangely drawn to him. For an instant, something about his smile seems familiar, but she ignores it.
"No smoke and mirrors here," Pale Guy continues, "Do take care. When you bump into someone, you really should apologize."
For the first time, she allows fear to well up inside her. This guy's Nen is strong- far stronger than hers, equal to the mechanical pin-guy. And what makes him scarier is the cruelty he seems to have no problem showing. At least pin-guy seems content to watch and listen; this one only wants to kill.
"That psychopath is back again," she hears Tonpa say nearby. Immediately she turns to him and edges closer; as a rookie crusher, Tonpa must've been here for many years. It's likely he knows valuable information that could come in handy should she ever get on the pale guy's bad side.
"Again?" asks #405.
"Does that mean he took last year's exam?" #404 adds, seemingly much calmer than over half the room. For a kid, #404 definitely seems mentally strong.
"#44. Esu, the magician. They say he's named 'ace' after the ace card, but no one knows for certain." She edges closer until she's practically inches from the little group, waiting for Tonpa's next words. "He would've passed last year's exam, but he almost killed an examiner he didn't like. It disqualified him for that year, but now he's back again."
Fear returns, stronger now. Examiners are not easy to kill by any means; first class Hunters are the only ones chosen to become examiners, and each one of them is at least moderately efficient in Nen. That Esu decided to try and kill an examiner just because the former felt like it...
"And they let him!?" #403 explodes, looking horrified.
"Calm down, kid." She steps closer, arms crossed. "The Hunter Exam changes every year, depending on who's in charge. If the right- or perhaps a better choice of words would be wrong- people are in charge, anyone can pass. Including that psychopath."
"Were you there last year, too?" #405 asks, extending his hand. "I'm Gon."
She shakes her head. "No, but I know enough about the exam to know how much it changes each year." She takes the kid's hand and shakes it, eyes widening a little at the strength of his hand- she almost has to use Ryu to keep her hand from being crushed. "You can call me Si."
"I'm Kurapika."
"Leorio."
She nods politely, unwilling to offer her hand again in case one of them has a grip just as strong as Gon's.
"Now that we're all introduced..." Tonpa grabs more juice, holding it out. "Who wants one?"
"Me!"
"I do!"
"Sure."
She stays silent, eyes flicking over to the three kids as she carefully lifts her own juice to her lips and lets another tiny sip past her throat. Although she wouldn't necessarily wish misfortune on another person she has no ill feelings about, she does admit she's curious to know how they'll react to it; she's already partially immune to several different poisons, but even her stomach already feels vaguely unsettled from that one small sip.
Well, if they're naive enough to accept help from a stranger, they had it coming, she decides. She watches, expressionless, as they open the juice cans and tilt their heads back, gulping...
Gon spits it out. "Tonpa-san, this juice must've expired. It tastes funny."
Without hesitation, Kura-whatever-his-name-is and #403 spit out their own juice, pouring the rest of it out. Interesting. She admires how Gon has clearly already won their respect, and also the boy's apparently superb senses. She tasted absolutely nothing weird in the juice, and for Kura-something and #403 to spit it out only after Gon did, they must've not, either.
"Really? I-I'm very sorry! I didn't realize the juice had gone bad!"
"It's okay, you don't have to apologize," Gon says sweetly, naive innocence shining brighter than Christmas lights. "Is your stomach okay, Tonpa-san?"
"Y-Yes, I'm fine." But yet he'd drunk some of it, too; he must keep a different set of un-poisoned juice for himself, or perhaps he's built up a tolerance to it.
"I've sampled all kinds of mountain grasses and plants, so I can usually taste it when something's bad. It's a good thing you didn't drink too much, or you would've been in trouble!"
"Really? That's good to know." Tonpa looks like he could curdle milk. Unbidden, a laugh comes to her that she hastily chokes out into a cough. Kura-something glances over at her, a tiny quirk moving his own lips up. "I'm really very sorry, it won't happen again. I'll see you guys later!"
Gon waves good-bye, before turning to her. "So, Si-san-"
"No need for formalities," she cuts in, her smile almost genuine as she looks down at Gon, "You can just call me Si. Same goes for all of you. I'm not that old."
"Leorio's obviously younger than you, yet he still wanted to be called Leorio-san," Kura-something mutters, causing her lips to curl up.
"You weren't respecting me!"
"You weren't respecting me!"
Gon looks over at her sheepishly as the two bicker. "Sorry, they're always like this."
"No, it's quite alright. It's been awhile since I've been around people who are close enough to even do that without trying to kill each other."
Gon's eyes widen. "Really?"
"Yeah." She gives him a rueful smile. "Generally, the only fights I'm around these days are-"
She's cut off by a loud and, frankly, obnoxious ringing sound. When she looks around, a tall, strange-looking man (like that's much of a descriptor anymore considering Esu and pin-guy) is there, holding what she assumes to be the source of the alarm. "I apologize for the wait."
"Hey, Hisoka."
"Y/N," he greets. "You're here unusually early. It's not like you to get to school any earlier than five minutes before bell."
She scratches her head a little awkwardly. If it were anyone other than Hisoka, knowing he watches her would be flattering; knowing him, though, he probably only watched her because he was bored. "Uhm, I just happened to wake up and couldn't go back to sleep, so I thought I might as well just get ready to go earlier than normal."
Hisoka tilts his head and considers a moment, before laughing the smallest bit. "Liar. You wanted to come here for a reason. Might as well spill; we have plenty of time."
Her face heats up a little, partially from the boy's intense gaze and partially from embarrassment. Just do it, she tells herself, and clears her throat.
"Actually, I, um, was wondering..."
"Hm?"
She's practically burning up from embarrassment. If Hisoka's inevitable rejection doesn't end her, the heat in her face is probably enough to fry her brain up. "I, uh, well..."
"Don't leave me in suspense," he teases, throwing her a sultry grin.
"Go out with me!" she blurts, hastily shoving a hand over her mouth. Hisoka raises an eyebrow; out of all the things he'd expected, she guesses that was not one of them. After all, Hisoka's insanely popular, at least with the girls- there's no way he'd even be interested in a friend like her. "Not- not like that," she hastily amends. "I don't want you to date me- I mean, I wouldn't be averse to that but- oh God what am I saying just-" she takes a deep breath. "This is pathetic, but I need you to pretend to be my friend."
Hisoka's eyes widen, ever so slightly, then narrow. "Why me?" He asks. "You could ask anyone in this entire school; why me?"
She sighs, looking down. "Out of everyone in this stupid building, I've a feeling you can pull it off best. And I've heard enough about you to know you like making deals."
She holds her breath, waiting for a reaction, a response, maybe a punch in the face. Instead, he starts laughing. It's remarkably low for a boy that's only sixteen, she notes absently, yet she feels a little offended when his laughter continues for a few more seconds. "Here I thought you were going to ask me to pretend to date you, maybe to get someone jealous. I've never been asked to pretend to be someone's friend before, I have to admit."
"So you're saying people have asked you to pretend to be their boyfriend before?" She asks before she can stop herself.
Hisoka grins. "Maybe, maybe not. But about your proposal..." his eyes narrow. "What will you give me in return?"
"What do you want?" Even though she'd expected that he'd want something, she hadn't been able to figure out exactly what the something was. She curses herself for not thinking harder; Hisoka might only be sixteen, but he's easily as cunning as a full-grown man in his twenties. Even though she's yet to see him actively try to ruin someone's life, exposing any kind of weakness is downright stupid.
He makes a considering noise in the back of his throat, eyes slowly scanning over her, appraising. "Nothing, at the moment," he decides. "But you'll owe me one in the future...what do you say?"
The idea of being in debt to someone irks her, but, for her mom... "Okay."
60 miles down, who knows how many more to go.
Really, she should not have neglected her physical training as long as she did. Her teacher had been far too lenient with her for far too long; lack of discipline had made her not want to discipline herself, so consequently she's now out of shape.
If this continues for too much longer, I'll have to use my special ability, she realizes, scowling. Although the use of Nen is forbidden when done in front of an unknowing audience (nice job breaking the rules, Esu), Life Spring's only quality is restoring energy and healing cuts, bruises, and, occasionally, a severed limb or two, so theoretically, no one would know as long as she's quiet.
With a sigh, she summons her aura and says, "Life Spring!"
Instantly, she feels better. With her newfound strength, she's able to practically run abreast of Gon and his new friend, #99, but she knows that now she's only running on borrowed energy. The Hatsu ability itself takes energy to cast; the net gain wasn't much, but it should be enough to at least get her into stage two. Who knows what'll happen after that.
"Hey, Si! You're joining us?"
"I thought I'd give it a go."
Gon grins. "Cool! This is Killua. Killua, this is Si."
Killua only nods coolly, icy eyes locked with her own, and that's when she realizes exactly who he is. Ice-blue eyes and white hair, combined with skin as pale as snow and an aura of death- he's a Zoldyck, through and through.
"Nice to meet you, Killua."
"Yeah."
"Hey, wanna race?" Gon asks, surprising her when his eyes lock first with Killua, then with her. "Loser buys everyone dinner!"
"Wait, me too?" She asks, surprised despite herself.
"What are you, an idiot?" Killua asks coldly.
Anger surges but she pushes it down, knowing it would do her no good to pick a fight with Killua now. Instead, she decides to swing to the other extreme- make him uncomfortable by her vulnerability. "Well, I'm not really used to being included in things, you see, so it came as a bit of a surprise."
Killua blinks, looking thrown for a second as though he'd experienced the exact same thing. It's likely, seeing as he was raised in a family of assassins. "Well, I'm in," the white-haired boy declares.
She sighs, already knowing she'll be the loser. "I'm in too, then."
"I WIN!"
Gon and Killua charge through the door, neck and neck, both yelling, and her eyes narrow. There's no way she's giving up that easily. She summons the last of her strength and jumps, sending a flying kick to each of the boys' legs as she vaults over the top of their falling bodies.
"No, I win," she proclaims as she turns around, watching with a smug smirk as the boys pick themselves up, groaning.
"That was dirty!" Gon complains, dusting himself off. "We weren't expecting that!"
"Then that's your fault. You should always expect an attack at every moment."
She sees Killua's expression change, then; the frustration and fury he'd sported mere seconds ago fades into consideration and agreement. "She's right, Gon. We should be more vigilant. Who knows who might try to attack us when our guard is down."
"Well, when you put it that way..." Gon mumbles. "Does that mean we both have to buy you dinner, then?"
She shakes her head, then considers a moment. It feels almost like she's taking advantage of them by forcing a bunch of twelve-year-olds to buy her food, but these kids are anything but ordinary. "I'm not sure if there's even going to be an opportunity to buy food in this exam," she says slowly. "But even if there is, don't worry; I did trick you, after all. I'd rather you spent your money on something for yourselves."
"Aw, you're so nice, Si!" Gon grins. Somehow, his innocence makes him look younger than he is; she supposes that it should make her underestimate him, but she already knows better. No normal kid could've just run over sixty miles and still look perfectly fine.
"Not really. I'm just practical." She looks over, examining them once more. "Why do you want to become Hunters?"
"That seems to be a really popular question," Killua observes, frowning at his hands. "But I guess I trust you enough to tell you. I just got bored and thought I'd give it a go."
"My dad's a Hunter," Gon explains next, "So I wanna become one to find him. What about you, Si?"
She shrugs, fighting to keep the pain and darkness out of her eyes. She doesn't want to scare Gon. "In a world with so many injustices, there needs to be someone who can right them. Hunters are, arguably, one of the most powerful orders in the world. If I join them, I have a chance to mete out justice to those who deserve it."
Killua and Gon both look at her, the former considering, the latter awed. "That's so cool, Si! You're a lot like Kurapika."
So that's what the golden-haired one's name is. Kurapika. "Hey, Satotz-san," Gon continues, looking over at the examiner, "Is this were the exam's second phase is?"
"No, we still have quite a ways to go."
"Oh." Gon turns back around, crestfallen, as Satotz strides past them, partially fading into the surrounding fog.
Several minutes pass with minimal small-talk; even Gon doesn't say much, most likely trying to preserve his strength. Applicants slowly begin to trickle in, almost all of them panting and several of them passing out within seconds of their arrival. After a few more minutes, #403 and Kurapika join them. The older one is obviously on the verge of collapse, bare-chested and soaked in sweat, but Kurapika seems perfectly fine, just winded. It's vaguely amusing how, out of all five of them, it's the youngest ones who are in the best shape. Well, not including her, that is.
"Hey, Kurapika!" Gon chirps, waving the boy over.
"Is this our destination?"
"No, it isn't."
"I see." Unlike Gon, Kurapika's disappointment doesn't show on his face; instead, he merely looks around. Probably counting to see how many people made it through the tunnel. "The fog is fading."
"Really?" Honestly, she thinks, Gon is not the brightest kid. She'd noticed the fog beginning to fade almost a minute ago. Although she guesses comparing herself to a kid, even a talented one, is probably not the most fair of comparisons. Killua doesn't look at all fazed; he must've noticed it about the same time she had.
"The Numere Wetlands, also known as Swindler's Swamp." Satotz's distinct voice comes through the fog. "We must cross these wetlands to reach Phase Two of the exam. This place is home to many bizarre animals, many of them cunning and insatiable, fully capable of deceiving and preying on humans. Be very careful."
He slowly turns around and his aura darkens, eyes expressionless as he says, "If you let them fool you, you're dead." As if on cue, the door leading to the tunnel shuts with a clang. "These creatures will use every trick in the book to fool their prey. An ecosystem in which creatures obtain food through deceit...Hence the name, Swindler's Swamp. Stay very close to me so you won't be deceived."
For a moment, no one speaks. She looks around, carefully gauging each person's reaction. Almost everyone seems nervous, or at least wary, but then her eyes flick to Esu and he only seems amused. Figures. With Nen as strong as that, she doubts anything scares him.
"What a joke," #403 declares, a contemptuous look in his eyes. "How can they fool us when we're expecting it?"
Just you wait, she thinks. In a place like this, I'm sure there are more ways than an idiot like you can count.
"Don't let them fool you!"
"I just said they can't," #403 snaps, glaring in the direction of the voice.
A panicked, bloodied man slowly steps into view, glaring back at him. "D-Don't fall for it," the bloody man wheezes, then points an accusing finger at Satotz. "He's lying to you! He's an impostor!"
She freezes, thinking. Could that be true?
"He isn't an examiner. I'm the real examiner." Murmurs break out among the crowd, but she stays silent. She needs more evidence to even consider that Satotz isn't the real deal... "Look at this!"
She tilts her head. A...man-faced ape with the appearance of Satotz? That's certainly new. She bites her lip, concentrating hard, the applicant's voices fading into the background. First things first, the ape doesn't actually look that much like Satotz. The teeth are all wrong, so either that particular ape sucks at transforming and the other one doesn't, or Satotz is human. And if he's human, then he couldn't be an impostor, because the bloodied man's case seems to depend on Satotz not being human.
The new man continues, explaining about man-faced apes, but she barely hears him. Yes, it's true that Satotz has a strange gait, but what the man leaves out is that the apes' gait actually looks very similar to a human's. He's either intentionally trying to deceive them or was told wrong, and she's willing to bet it's the former.
"He intends to trap every single hunter applicant!"
"Bastard," #403 mutters.
"He certainly doesn't walk like a human," #294, the ninja, says.
A pulse of Nen swells, filling her mind with the color purple. The aura, and the bloodthirst behind it, are enough to make her want to vomit. As she forces her eyes open, the deceiver is already falling, three playing cards embedded deep within his torso. She turns to look at Satotz even as the other man's body hits the ground, only to find...
He caught them? I was so thrown off by the bloodlust I couldn't even track them with my eyes.
The only sounds are the shuffling of a deck of cards and a low laugh. "I see, I see..."
Esu. Why is she not surprised.
"That settles it..." Esu opens his eyes to gold slits. "You're the real one. Examiners are Hunters selected by the committee to perform this duty without pay. Any Hunter, bearing the title we seek, would have been able to block that attack."
Again, not surprised, although she questions the way Esu chose to figure it out.
"I shall take that as a compliment," Satotz says, throwing the cards to the ground. "However, should you attack me again, for any reason, I will report you for turning on an examiner. You will then be immediately disqualified. Are we clear?"
Esu doesn't even flinch, his smile as serene as if he were taking a stroll. As powerful as he is, the comparison might not be too far off. "Sure."