Disclaimer for story: I do not own Hunter x Hunter; I will not own it even though I would love to. I do own my OCs (or Original Characters for those that don't know what OC means).

(Author Note: I'm following the 1999 Anime for this story.)


Moonlight Heart

A Hunter x Hunter Fanfiction

TRAUMA X LIMIT X SWEET TRAP


I was born into a nice family; I had an older brother, a mother, and a father. And then I had the other members of the clan. My life was good, it was a life that I knew was a gift, a blessing, but it could not last… When I was seven years old, everything changed thanks to those people. I will never forget that day. I will never forgive them.

I will never forget the screams, the wails of the dying, the fearful and pained and angry cries of my people, the feeling of terror running through my veins, the words of my Mother telling me to hide, the promise she made me make to her, the sight of the fallen, the sight of the shells that were once my kin – my family, my friends, my world – with their empty eye sockets, the stench of blood and other bodily fluids, the smell of death, or the how the ground and blood had mixed to become mud.

It's a miracle that I survived, I owe thanks to a Hunter for that I guess… I didn't know that what he had taught me would save my life. What did the Hunter teach me? He called it "Nen". After my clan's massacre I did as I promised my Mother and began to look for my brother. It has been five years and I have yet to find him. My only family left, my blond haired blue eyed brother… my big brother who lived because he was searching for a doctor for a friend. I missed him every single day.

I never knew for sure if he was alive or not, but I just had one of those gut feelings that he was and that we would meet again.


Once a year, there is an exam that takes place. If you pass you become a Hunter; Hunters are people who travel the world doing all sorts of tasks, most – if not all – dangerous. You could choose to capture criminals or search uncharted lands or look for treasures… the limit? Your own abilities, I'd say. The exam takes place every December, but the location changes. Part of the test, if you think about it, is just getting to the testing site.

Anyone can take the Hunter exam, anyone who is twelve or older.

My partner and I didn't have a whole lot of trouble finding the way to the location of the Hunter exam. We found the restaurant in Zabari City fairly easily and after having given the password were led to an elevator and I was given a badge with the number 100 on it. When the doors opened at the starting site of the exam, a tunnel under the restaurant, we found ourselves face-to-face with a group of people. I quickly put on the number tag and a man with the number tag of 16 came up to us. He introduced himself as Tonpa and offered me a drink, a can of orange juice, but I declined politely as Kage leaned against me. Tonpa just shrugged, but I could tell he really wanted me to take the drink for some reason, and told me that if I had any questions to ask him. I looked him over; slicked back brown hair, beady eyes, yellowish shirt under a green vest with yellowish pants and brownish shoes, a bit on the heavy side, square-ish nose… He looked harmless, but something told me to be wary of him and it wasn't just my animal companion.

It wasn't long until I'd found a seat on a pipe near the roof of the tunnel and was letting my blue eyes, hidden behind black contacts, roam over the other examinees as I played with my blond hair twisting it into three separate braids and then into a single larger braid and Kage stayed near me on the ground. Tonpa talked with almost every new arrival and seemed to know just about everyone. I kept a wary eye on him while observing what the others were doing. To anyone else it might seem that I was relaxed and calm and didn't have a care in the world, but in truth I was ready and watching everything I could.

After a while the elevator doors opened to reveal three people: a man, a teenager, and a boy. The man was dressed in a dark blue suit with a purple tie, black shoes, and the number tag he wore had the number 403. His hair was either dark brown or black and was spiky and his eyes were brown; he wore tea-shade sunglasses and carried a briefcase with him.

The teenager looked very familiar to me; he had short blond hair and blue eyes. He was dressed in clothes I'd know anywhere, Kurta clan styled clothes, but… maybe, maybe it was… no, there was no way I'd run into him here… he was wearing a white full-body training outfit with a blue tabard that had orange colored hem and design on it, a number tag of 404, and a pair of periwinkle flats on his feet. He also had an over the shoulder styled bag.

The boy was about my age, had spiky black hair that turned green at the points, and warm brown eyes. He was looking around in awe. His attire, from what I could tell, was made up of a green jacket with red trim, green pants, and brown green boots. He was carrying a backpack and a fishing rod. His number tag read 405.

I gave the other applicants a once over again and saw that most were looking at the three new comers. I sighed as I heard Tonpa call out to the three. "You guys bring the number up to four hundred and five. Hi, I'm Tonpa." He then jumped down from his place not too far from mine on the pipe. "I'm number sixteen this year."

"This year?" the blond asked.

"Good to meet you." He bent down slightly so he could shake hands with the youngest looking of the trio.

"I'm Gon." The boy said as he and Tonpa shook hands. "And these are my friends, Kurapika and Leorio." Tonpa shook hands with the blond with a 'hey there' and held his hand out to the guy in the suit, who just slightly waved instead, with a 'how you doing?'

Tonpa opened his mouth to speak as I jumped down with a small huff and walked over to the group as Kage followed. "You guys are rookies, aren't ya?"

"Wow, how'd you tell?" Gon asked.

"Well, I just know; this is my thirty-fifth time at the exams."

"Thirty-fifth time?" Gon echoed with a smile and a bit more than a hint of awe in his voice.

"Yeah, I guess that makes me an exam veteran." Tonpa said as he crossed his arms. "If you have any questions, I'm the guy to ask."

"Okay, thanks." Gon said, still smiling. I just slightly shook my head and moved to stand next to the blond, but none of them noticed me or Kage.

"Uh, thirty-five times? What's up with that?" Leorio asked.

"So you're the infamous Tonpa." A man behind Kurapika and Leorio stated. He wore a white shirt with pink frills down the front, a red bow, and dark blue dress pants with brown suspenders and dark shoes. His eyes were kind of beady and his black hair was parted on the side. In his hands he held a laptop computer. The number tag attached to his suspenders had the number 187.

"And you are?" Tonpa asked, "Let's see, uh…"

"I don't think you know who I am." He sounded very arrogant. "You see I'm a rookie. Number one hundred and eighty-seven, Nickolas."

"How are you doing?" Gon asked as the other three looked like they thought this 'Nickolas' person was strange. "I'm Gon."

Nickolas started typing on his computer, "Ah, here it is; Tonpa, this is your thirty-five attempt at the exam. That's the second highest ever. And you managed to make it this far to the exam hall a record of thirty times; quite the achievement."

Tonpa looked a bit proud of that, but in truth it wasn't something to be proud of – at least that's my opinion. "Yeah, I'm really good at entering but not so good at passing, obviously. I guess that makes me King of the Flunkies."

Nickolas looked a bit smug, "You're King of the Flunkies, huh? Yes, that's a very appropriate title; you know, I couldn't have said it better myself." He closed his computer, said 'excuse me,' and disappeared into the crowd.

"Rude much," I said as Leorio asked: "Could that guy be any more annoying?"

Tonpa laughed slightly, "Kick a man when he's down, huh? Unfortunately, everything he said is true. It looks like there's going to be a lot more intense competitors this year than in previous ones, check it out." He pointed towards the crowd and we all turned to look.

Someone screamed and we turned towards that direction, my eyes narrowed, and I muttered softly about how I wanted the first phase to start.

"That maniac's back again this year… Number forty-four, Hisoka the Magician." I tuned Tonpa out after that as I looked at the blue haired man with a small frown.

I tuned back in, just in time to hear about how the examiners change every year and they choose the tests and who passes or fails. The man that Tonpa called Hisoka turned around just enough that I saw that he had a teardrop under his left eye. Then a ringing sound echoed through the tunnel when it stopped a man with no visible mouth spoke. "As of this moment, the exam is closed to any further applicants. I would like to officially welcome everyone here to the Hunter exam."

"Finally it's gonna get started," Gon exclaimed.

"Ah man, I can't believe I'm actually getting nervous." Leorio said as he messed with his tie.

"Ready Kage?" I asked and got a lick to my hand as an answer.

"Please come with me," the examiner said, "Let me take a moment to remind you all that the Hunter exam is extremely demanding. If you're unprepared or unlucky, you may well be severely injured or even killed. If you are alright with accepting those risks then you may continue following me." He, and everyone who could, started walking. "Very well then, the number of applicants is four hundred and four. At least for now," he said.

The examiner began to walk faster, making a gap between him and us, and Kage began to nudge me with her nose and when I turned to her she moved so that I could easily get on without slowing down. Others began to realize what the examiner was up to as well and I quickly climbed onto Kage's back. "Steady Kage, steady girl." I said as we kept next to Gon, Leorio, Kurapika, and Tonpa.

"Sorry for the delay, but allow me to introduce myself. I'm Satotz, examiner of the first phase; I'm also the one leading you to the site of the second phase." Almost everyone was running while trying to keep up with Satotz. "Some of you may have already realized it. Keeping up with me until we reach the second phase is, in fact, the first phase."

I'm not sure how much time passed but at some point, Gon asked about how much time had passed and Tonpa asked. "It's been about thirty minutes so far."

"What a weird test." Gon said. I giggled a little at this but said nothing.

"Actually, it's designed to test our physical endurance and more." Kurapika said.

"Ah, you noticed that too, huh?" Tonpa asked.

"Noticed what?" Gon asked.

"It's to test our psychic too, right?" I asked.

"Ah, yes, see we have to keep running and running, but we don't know how far or how long. It causes a lot of mental fatigue too, just got to keep going. This is a psychological test as much as it's a physical one." Tonpa said, to which Gon made a sound of understanding as Leorio exclaimed that he could do it.

"Hey Tonpa, since this is your thirty-fifth try at this, you must know a lot of these other guys by now." Gon said and I smiled.

"Kind of," Tonpa said.

"Tell me about them. I bet all of them are really interesting." Gon said and Tonpa pointed out a few of the others and said something about them, but I didn't really care. Number 103, a snake charmer; number 76, a martial arts; number 255, a wrestler; numbers 197-199, team fighters; number 384, a hunter – like an animal hunter… that's all I really learnt since I didn't care to remember their names.

Leorio and Gon made some comments and then a boy with blue eyes and white spiky hair appeared on a teal colored skateboard with a yellow arrow on it. The boy was dressed in a maroon colored turtle-neck shirt under a lilac colored V-neck shirt with a pair of dark colored shorts and brown shoes. He had a number tag with 99 written on it pinned to his shirt. "Wow that's cool!" Gon exclaimed.

"Hey! You kid on the skateboard! That's not fair! You're cheating!" Leorio exclaimed.

"Hey, what's your name?" Gon asked, looking at the boy and then at me and smiling. "How old are you?"

"So what makes you think I'm cheating?" he asked, "And what about them?" he tilted his head towards me and my black wolf.

"Well, duh! It's an endurance test! And that's just a girl!"

"Hold your tongue," I said as Gon said: "Not exactly, the examiner said to follow him, but he didn't say how."

"Gon, who's your friend – me or him?" Leorio asked, annoyed.

"They're friends…" I heard the unnamed boy said.

I caught his eye and smiled slightly before looking over at Kurapika as he scolded them and giggled. Tonpa started to offer to answer any questions that the boy might have and stopped as he got a dark glare from him. He then let his skateboard move closer to Gon, who asked, "What's up?"

"You asked what my name was?"

"Yeah, well, you don't have to tell me if you don't feel like it. I'm Gon and I'm twelve."

"Oh, twelve years old…" he muttered before grabbing his skateboard and starting to run as I patted Kage and hopped off.

"Hey, you're not using that anymore?" Gon asked.

"Mister, how old are you?" he asked Leorio.

"Mister?" Leorio repeated, "I'm not all that much older than you all, I'll have you know!"

"No way!" most of the five of us exclaimed.

I moved next to Gon and got his attention. "What's up?" he asked.

"You wanted to know who I am?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"I'm Kisa, age twelve." I said then motioned to the black wolf next to me, "This is Kage."

"Wow, how'd you-"

"Kage is family and hasn't let anyone but me ride her before and I'm not sure why." I smiled as Kage let out as much as a laugh as a wolf can.

We all kept running and Leorio didn't talk to Gon for a while because he had been among us who doubted Leorio's declaration of not being that much older. Leorio, Gon, and Tonpa started talking. Gon started it by wondering aloud about the boy we'd 'met', which turned into Leorio wondering what would happen if we turned right instead of left, and then Gon mentioned a sweet smell. Three hours later, Gon mentioned the sweet smell again and Tonpa stated his opinion that it smelt like a sap to him and Leorio started to fall behind and coming to a stop. Gon, Kurapika, Tonpa, the white haired boy, Kage, and I all stopped. "Leorio," Gon called.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing? He's finished so just leave him behind," the still unnamed boy asked as the other applicants passed us.

"Come on, you don't know that. Besides I can't just leave him. He's my friend." Gon reasoned.

"Your friend?" I saw the boy's eyes widen.

"Uh-huh, that's what I said."

"I'm not giving up!" Leorio said between pants. "I came here to become a Hunter and that's what I'm gonna do!" The others continued to talk as I began petting Kage and waited for them to reach a decision. Tonpa and Leorio ended up heading back towards the other tunnel and I frowned. I climbed onto Kage's back and we started following Tonpa and Leorio while the other three talked. Not long after Kurapika and Gon caught up to Kage and I.

"I don't trust that man," I whispered to Kage as we found Tonpa lying face down on the ground just outside the right tunnel where the sweet smell was coming from and Gon called out to Tonpa. Tonpa slowly and shakily got into a knelling position and pretended to be scared and then glad that it was Gon and us who had found him. Tonpa told us that it was a trap when Kurapika asked. Kage and I stayed behind with Tonpa as the other two headed into the tunnel. Tonpa paled as I glared and Kage growled and showed her teeth. "Down Kage," Kage stopped growling and barring her fangs which made Tonpa look a bit better until I continued, "he doesn't look like he would taste too good, but then again… you've eaten other things that didn't look too yummy and seemed to enjoy them." I smirked as Kage seemed to chuckle and Tonpa looked about ready to pee his pants. We then turned and headed into the tunnel and left Tonpa staring after us. We passed a freaky Nickolas before we caught up to Gon with Kurapika over his shoulder. Kage let us put Kurapika onto her back, I thought I saw red eyes, and we continued on in search of Leorio while I questioned if I had been really seeing Kurapika with red eyes or if it was my imagination. Not too long after that Kurapika started struggling and the white haired boy showed up and kicked him in the face which woke the blond boy up.

"Kurapika?" Gon and I asked.

"Gon? Kisa?"

"Good, you're back to normal, but ah…" Gon said but trailed off as we all turned to the white haired boy.

"There is no healing cedar tree."

"Huh?" Gon and Kurapika spoke in simultaneously.

I sighed and shared a look with Kage before muttering, "I should've let you eat him, Kage."

"The sap comes from the tree of hallucination, it's been used by assassins for a long time; it makes its victims re-experience the worse events of their lives and eventually drives them insane." He said.

"How do you know that?" Gon asked.

"So that means that Tonpa must have…" Kurapika trailed off.

"Yeah, that's right. He set you all up." Kurapika made a noise of frustration.

"We should go." Gon said.

"Sure, okay. I think I know a way we can save a little time and get your friend back in a single move." The white haired boy said. "The game's no fun unless you take some risk."

"I'm glad we met up again." Gon spoke, "Are you going to tell me your name now?"

"Killua," the white haired boy said.

"Killua?" Gon repeated and the boy in front of him nodded. "Okay, Killua, tell us your idea."

Killua pulled something out of his pocket and showed it to us, "It's a bomb, small but effective."

"That's a bomb?" Gon asked as he looked at the small gray cylinder that sat in the palm of Killua's hand.

"Let's blow up this wall and all this disgusting sap covering it." Kurapika and Gon gasped while I smirked.

"Not a bad idea." I said as Killua tossed it up into the air and caught it. Kurapika and Gon looked at me for a bit before we started moving again. We blew up one wall and ended up landing on Leorio.

"It worked, not the easiest way to travel but it is fast. I guess there's no turning back now." Kurapika said before Leorio sat up muttering words of pain.

"Gon? Kurapika?" he looked around slightly, "Pietro?"

"You were hallucinating as a result of inhaling the sap; Tonpa fooled us all." Kurapika said.

"Hallucinating? So that's what that was." Leorio looked away from the two before looking back at them, "Looks like I owe you guys one for saving my butt, but how did you manage to avoid it?"

"It was a close call for me," Kurapika said.

"I was fine; I didn't feel a thing." Gon said and I moved into Leorio's sight.

"Kisa? You're here too?" Leorio asked and I nodded.

"Hey old man, we don't have time to sit around chatting." Killua said.

"Old man? Hey what are you-?"

"His name is Killua," Gon and I said.

"Ready for the next round?" Killua asked as he held up three more bombs. There was a 'click'.

"What was that? I heard a click?" Leorio asked and followed the bombs with his eyes as Killua threw them. "There bombs?" he exclaimed as they blew up. The wall blew up and we moved through the hole that was made and landing among the examinees on the other side.

"What exactly is going on here?" Satotz asked.

Gon answered him, "Uh, ha-ha-ha, I'm sorry but we had to break through the wall."

"I never said you couldn't destroy the wall, but tell me how is it that you survived after wondering down the tunnel of hallucination? I'm quite impressed."

"I can't believe it; where'd they get the rookie from this year anyways?" Tonpa spoke as we stood up. Leorio then marched over to him and grabbed a fist-full of his shirt.

"How dare you? I've got a score to settle with you." Leorio said.

"Stop it, Leorio."

"No way, doesn't this guy just piss you off?"

"The test always has obstacles to overcome." Leorio groaned in frustration and let go of Tonpa.

The first phase of the exam continued. Satotz told us that he was going to pick up the pace since we were getting close to the final stretch. In front of me Gon thanked Killua, who then claimed this was just a game to him, and behind me Kurapika and Leorio talked and I just shook my head at how odd the doctor-to-be looked without his shirt or jacket on… why he kept the tie on I don't really care to know.

"Hey it's the exit," Gon claimed and Kage and I moved forward to run next to the two.

"You seem happy."

"Yeah, aren't you, Killua? Kisa?"

"Not really, it's just an exit. This test was so boring it didn't feel like a game at all." Killua said.

"I guess in a way I am," I said as I hopped onto Kage's back.

"Yeah, but it means we're one step closer to becoming Hunters." Gon said with a smile.

"Why do you want to become a Hunter so badly?"

"My Dad's a Hunter, that's why. I heard he's one of the best in the whole world."

"You heard?"

"Yeah, you see, I was raised by my aunt and I only know my Dad from a picture I had. But that doesn't bother me; I wanna become a Hunter just like him. About that board, would you let me try it sometime? Maybe?" Killua looked surprised before smiling.

"Yeah; if you let me use your fishing rod, Gon."

"What about me? Would you let me try it?" I asked.

"Sure," they both said. I smiled and then we were outside, looking at a marsh.

"Wow."

"These are the Numere Wetlands, known to many as Swindler's Swamp. We've got to make it through there in order to reach the site for the second phase. There are many creatures unique to these wetlands, they are crafty and various; they'll try to deceive you and make you their next meal." Satotz said before the tunnel was closed off and we couldn't turn back. "Follow me and stay focused, if you are deceived you are as good as dead."

"That doesn't make much sense." Leorio said. "How can they deceive us when we already know that that's what they're trying to do?"

"He's lying!" Someone yelled and we all turned to look. "Don't listen to him!" It was a guy who looked like he'd been in a fight and had a monkey with a human face in a bag. "He's not an examiner! He's an impostor; the real examiner is me!"

"An impostor? What's going on here?" Leorio asked.

Kage started to growl at the new comer but stopped as I placed a hand her shoulder.

"Yeah, then who've we been following?" a bald man, number 294, said.