"What you're asked to do, you do"
The elevator doors opened. In front of me were many candidates who almost all turned in unison to watch me advance inside the tunnel. The place was quite large but too unwelcoming for my taste and so, with my black bag on my back, I headed to the side to sit down. The faces turned away from me as I pulled out a bottle of water, trying to listen to the conversations around without much success: we could have heard the flies flying, if there wasn't this trio a little further away. So I drank my beverage after this whole walk here.
"Excuse me," a voice called to me.
I brought my attention back to a boy next to me. He had a skateboard under his arm and a bored look on his face. White streaks framed her dark blue eyes that held my attention for long seconds.
"You got anything to eat? I'm hungry," he said.
I went through my bag, just in case, biting my lower lip.
"It's a thirty-seven and a half"
"If you have chocolate, that's fine with me, right?"
Hearing him, I grabbed a tablet that was lying next to my lunch and handed it to him. Stars in his eyes he grabbed them and then began to devour her, under my absent glance. Since I was a little girl, my brother taught me how to establish a degree of dangerousness. As he explained to me, I used it to evaluate at a glance the power of my opponent in order to adapt my behaviour. The closer he is to zero, the less I have to worry.
"You're a forty, you little cry baby, and that's very good for your age"
According to him, being close to fifty to fourteen years old was something more than satisfying but I had always tried to do too much.
"What's your first name?"
I turned my attention back to that boy. Seeing him close to my score had disturbed me a little, and to realize that I was examining everyone without realizing it also. He snapped his fingers before my eyes to wake me up.
"I am Kirua," he said.
"Tsubasa Berisha."
He was going to reach out his hand to me, which was already almost at my height, but he suddenly stopped. Eating his chocolate bar, he violently broke a piece of it and started staring at me with a strange look.
"Berisha," he repeated, "you just said Berisha, huh?"
I didn't really understand what he had until he put his skateboard on the edge, arms crossed on his chest. He continued to eat his chocolate, giggling nervously.
"Nice to meet you. My last name is Zoldyck. Kirua Zoldyck, if you prefer," he replied.
There was a tension between us all at once. Knowing that allowed me to understand why his degree of dangerousness was so high but I was a little surprised to see him there. As bounty hunters' daughters, we often stole prey from the Zoldycks and vice versa. A certain rivalry had settled down because of the loss of mutual money thus, I often had to deal with some members like Karuto-san or Maha-san: our altercations were rather violent.
"I don't like my family," Kirua said suddenly. That's why I decided to leave.
"You ran away too ?"
He opened his mouth to speak before laughing, with an air much more sincere than just now.
"Nice to meet you !"
He held out his hand to me, which I would shake this time. If I had had to come to the blows with him, I think I would have been disgusted of my parents for creating such hatred between our two families. Even though I didn't know Kirua, I thought he was very different from the other Zoldycks.
As I began to rummage through my bag, my gaze was suddenly drawn to the trio that set the mood from the beginning. At least, by one of them who had already been staring at me intensely for I don't know how many seconds. Kirua was doing tricks with his skateboard, so he didn't pay attention to me.
The boy was a bit dissociated from the group and his two friends didn't seem to see that he was looking at me. From what I could say about my position, it was that he was taller than me and his blue eyes literally seemed to pierce my soul for a reason I didn't know. Intrigued, I stood up a little to stare at him myself.
"Do you know him ?"
I had a little difficulty to detach myself a little from the eye that I maintained with this perfect stranger, to turn the head towards Kirua who had a hand posed on his hip, in balance on his skateboard. I didn't answer and we both stared at that blond boy who immediately turned away, talking to his friends again.
"He is strange, this one," noticed the silver-haired boy with a surprised air.
A few minutes later, the examination began with the arrival of a strange man: a moustached man with a strange pink hairdo and a suit. Even if I had more or less understood him, he presented himself as the examiner of the first test, being the one who would take us to the second. His name was Satôtsu.
I quickly lost sight of Kirua who overtook a good number of people on his skateboard. The participants pushed each other and since I wasn't in the mood to get angry, I let myself get to the point of not tripping several times. After the fifth time, I felt myself clearly out of balance, but contrary to the fall I was waiting for, a hand firmly grasped my arm in order to pull me back. Ready to thank this person, I saw the boy of earlier pass in front of me while staring at me. Our exchange lasted less long and he turned away much more quickly in order to join a tall brown with glasses to the carrying voice.
A little disappointed, I shook my head and started running again, this time a little faster than before. I caught up with their duet and gave the blond a slight blow on the shoulder for him to notice me and then slipped him a "thank you". He took a little time to answer me but I received my "you're welcome" a few seconds later. Accelerating the pace, I heard the other asking him what had happened but I was already too far away to hear his answer.
I ran for a long time without paying attention to the world around me. I really liked it when I trained with my older brother and he always said I was much more focused. Everything was in my head, like my choice to leave the family estate, the recent arguments between me and my family and all sorts of trivial things. It felt good to ruminate on different subjects alone, enough to make me feel better quickly.
"Wait."
I was drawn from my thoughts in a rather violent way. My wrist was grabbed and I suddenly cleared myself, failing to push my interlocutor. When I stood up, I could see that it was the blond of earlier which quickly made me regret my gesture.
"It's a twenty-one"
I shook my head and noticed that even though he kept running beside me, he seemed very annoyed.
"I think you saw that I've been watching you for a while," he declared. "Whatever you may think, I'm only interested in your eyes, but since you seem ungrateful to people, I give up the discussion."
"If you're that sensitive, just run further."
He seemed determined to ignore me, but didn't move an inch. I got a little annoyed and accelerated my race before making a crowbar that almost made him stumble badly. He picked himself up at the last moment and gave me a black look.
"I-"
"Tsubasa/Kurapika !"
He was interrupted by two high voices behind us. We turned in unison and I could see Kirua with the boy from earlier, in the trio. He was small enough with big brown eyes full of malice dressed entirely in green, with a man wearing glasses and a suit and dragging a briefcase with him, brown.
"Thirty and Ten"
"Do you already know each other ? I'm Gon and this is Leorio". he said, pointing to his friend who waved at me.
A little on edge because of my conversation with their friend, I couldn't help but give them a second paw hook. He bent in two, failing to meet the ground but did not stop. When he straightened up, I was already further away with a smirk on my face. He raised an eyebrow before my much more than childish behavior and began a discussion with Leorio not without rotting me internally.
"I don't like you, so you'll fail the exam"
