Disclaimer: I don't own HunterXHunter. I am not making profit off of this story.

My name is waterproof glue, the same way yours is untied knot.

XXX

In my family, there were three rules:

1. Mother's word was law.

Ever since the death of my father, my mother had begun to rule with an iron fist, almost as though she believed that we were susceptible to death at any given moment. If Mother thought it was unsafe, it was unsafe. If Mother thought that it was too late to play outside, it was too late to play outside. And most of all, if Mother thought I was being foolish, I was most certainly being foolish.

2. Nen was not allowed in the house.

To be honest, though, my little brother and I modified the rule as 'nen was not allowed in front of Mother.' We'd been surrounded by it our whole lives, especially during the time Father finally decided to take the hunter examination (though we weren't supposed to speak about that in front of Mother, either), so telling us to give up our nen was like telling us to run around naked during a thunderstorm. While surrounded by tall trees.

Besides, my nen was more of a protection type thing, anyway—not like I could cause trouble with it. My brother was the heavy-hitter in the family. He was attack; I was defense. My father always said that the two of us made quite the team. My mother always said that we were too dependent on each other.

I secretly agreed with Mother, because I genuinely had no idea what I would do if I were to find myself in a hostile situation without my brother. I supposed I could simply run away, except that there was no guarantee that I could outrun my opponent. (I'd live, though—no doubt about that. My defensive powers were strong.) The price of my nen powers had always been simple. In exchange for my strong defense, I'd given up every other means of aggression. Meaning I had absolutely no power against an enemy.

No special offensive attacks whatsoever—my strength lay in quick escape with as little damage as possible. My nen ability was to harden air particles on the molecular level by snapping my fingers. With a simple snap, I could solidify the air particles between an enemy and me, creating an impenetrable wall. I could even walk on air, if I wanted—certainly, the hardened air particles would hold my weight. Using the same principle, I could walk on water as well, (which is easier than walking on air, I might add). My nen ability was great for defense, but in exchange I possessed little offensive threat.

It was really no wonder that my father refused to take me to the hunter examination with him, even though he brought my brother, who was younger by almost two years. In his eyes, I was still very much a child—unable to attack, only able to protect.

(Every day for the rest of my life, I will regret not insisting to go with them.)

3. There was no such thing as the hunter examination.

It was, after all, the way that Father had died.

XXX

I needed the money for the hospital bills.

That's what I told myself as I stole out of my house, leaving behind my slumbering mother. Father had died in last year's exam, leaving us with no source of income. Because of this, Mother had to work twice as hard to keep my brother and me from starving. Though I helped as much as I could, it was far from easy, especially because hospital bills were quickly piling up.

Hospital bills from what? Why, the same incident which killed Father. My little brother, Trace, had until very recently been in an injury-induced coma, unable to provide information on his attacker. He slumbered for nearly a year before breaking free from his comatose state.

He'd woken up, terrified, screaming for our father and babbling nonsense about some magician. Although Mother and I were grateful he'd woken, he was far from recovered. He seemed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and the doctors insisted on keeping him. The pricks probably just wanted the extra money—money we didn't possess.

Which was why I'd made a hasty, split-second decision. To take the hunter examination myself, that is. The original reason why my father had gone was to obtain a secondary source of income. Now, I would be following in his exact footsteps.

It wasn't really a thoughtless choice, though. I'd talked it over with Trace at length, and he admitted that if Hisoka the Magician hadn't been in the examination, they surely would have passed. Most of the examinees hadn't even heard of nen, let alone known how to use it. Even still, Trace was terrified that Hisoka would return this year and slaughter everyone.

"Arella," Trace had pleaded, gripping the hem of my shirt feebly, "please don't die."

I'd turned, placing my hands over his. "I swear." Then, to lighten the mood, I'd laughed. "Besides, I'd probably be better off facing Hisoka than you were—I'm more of the running-away type, remember?"

Trace hadn't looked convinced, but had helped me prepare for the trip anyway, pointing out things I would possibly need to keep me alive.

"Don't get too close to anyone who knows nen," he warned me. "They might be examiners in disguise, or just all-around dangerous people. Also, don't believe everything anyone tells you."

I rolled my eyes at Trace's paranoia. It seemed he was determined to keep me alive, even if by isolating me from everyone else.

"The examiners are fair," he continued, "but they aren't absolutely above deception. They might not outright lie, but they may be misleading with their words."

I promised to keep this in mind.

"Don't tell mother," I teased. "She'd string me up by my toes."

The week before the hunter examination, I sneaked out of the house with a rusty, old bicycle that I had gotten for free from a kind neighbor. He promised to keep my mother from worrying, and had even given me a cell phone to call home with. Thankful, I bowed low, and rode the bicycle down the street, hoping for the best.

XXX

"Zaban City," I murmured, streaking down the sidewalk. I maneuvered the bicycle expertly, avoiding crashing into a couple that had just turned to corner. "Never heard of it."

I wondered if it was a place I'd be able to get to with the little money I had. I had enough cash to buy a boat ticket and probably a couple meals, but little more than that. Certainly, even a bus fare would prove too costly.

Pausing as I reached the harbor of the island, I fished out a map. Like I'd suspected, Zaban City was a large metropolitan area on a main continent. It actually wasn't far from the island I lived on, but there was an ocean between the two bodies of land.

Shrugging, I biked towards the dock and found the ticket master, whose nametag read 'Dom.' "Excuse me, sir—" I began, but he interrupted almost immediately.

"Surely you aren't here for that infernal exam?" he asked doubtfully, crossing his arms. "People die in that thing, you know?"

Frowning, I lifted the map. "Actually, I am taking the hunter exam. Is there a boat that goes to Doreh Harbor?" It was the closest I could find to Zaban City.

"We don't get many people taking the hunter examination," Dom replied huffily, "so the boat usually skips through our island. However, we had a couple last year, so I guess popularity has gone up. The boat's coming tomorrow."

I counted out the fare cost from my wallet, thankful that I had enough. "Tomorrow?" I repeated, handing over the money in exchange for a small ticket.

"Tomorrow morning," Dom emphasized. "So wake up early and get down here fast."

"That won't be a problem," I assured him, wheeling my bike over to a small tree. Plopping down to the floor, I leaned against the hard wood, breathing deeply.

I heard the ticket master grumble. "Suit yourself. Sleep all night like that and see how you feel in the morning."

So I did.

XXX

Actually, I felt perfectly fine in the morning, up until the point I got on the boat. There were already many others on the vessel, so I assumed they had come from different islands scattered around the ocean. All of them were male.

"What's a girl doing on this ship?" one of the passengers sneered, instantaneously extinguishing my good mood.

"Same thing you are, I suppose," I retorted coolly, calmly wheeling my bicycle past him and taking a seat on the floor of the boat. We began to pull out of the harbor.

Another man scoffed, shaking his head. "Kids these days," he said contemptuously. "You and that other one both. So ready to throw away your lives."

I ignored him, though his words piqued my curiosity. What other one? I wondered, glancing around. Carefully, I memorized as many faces as I could. As I turned my head, I spotted a boy even younger than me sitting at the bowsprit of the ship, fishing.

He was utterly concentrated, and hadn't even glanced my way when I'd first gotten on the boat.

Smiling to myself, I settled to the floor and resigned myself to a long wait.

So there are even boys like this in the world…, I thought before I slumbered.