Aria was sitting in the underground space on the ground, her back against the wall, she stared emptily at the army of people in front of her all wishing to become Hunters, but personally she didn't cared about it wherever she succeeded or failed, she was just forced to come here because she got literally begged her to. She scanned all the people around her but didn't found the one she was looking for and there was time before the Hunter Exam start, maybe she should take a small nap? Yeah, she was bored and there was nothing to do, she didn't had anything valuable on her and was truly traveling with nothing besides her clothes on her so there is no fear about getting robbed here either, her senses are sharp so anyone trying to approach her with hostility she would immediately feel it, wake up and react.
...
"―san? Onii-san, are you sleeping...?"
"...!" Aria's eyes immediately jolted awake at the sound, she was pretty sure that she wasn't even sleeping for 10 minutes, everyone seemed to look at her though, why? Hiding her presence was one of the thing she was the best at so how could they notice her? Then she noticed a hand on her shoulder shaking her all the time with a green sleeve, feeling at the same time curious of who would go as far to wake her up but also annoyed at who would dare to interrupt her nap, Aria raised her head with the intention to give that person one piece of her mind until she froze upon seeing who it was.
"Onii-san? Is there something on my face?" ...Who was this 'Onii-san' he was talking about? Aria looked around her and saw no one, but feeling bad for the boy to be left unanswered, she decided to do it instead of that unknown Onii-san. "...No, there isn't... anything. Besides your eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth of... course." The two other behind him frowned at her sarcasm but the boy only smiled happily in relief, "I see! I'm relieved, Onii-san was staring really hard at me so it got me a little worried!"
The boy in front of her with long spiky black green tipped hair and large, hazel brown eyes reminding her of an innocent puppy. His outfit is composed of a green jacket and shorts. Aria's mind start to analyze it; same hair, similar eyes, similar face shape if it isn't due to the difference with age, similar moutain smell and similar passion for green clothes? No doubt about it, the boy in front of her must definitively be Ging's son... but what was his name supposed to be again? She remembered that Ging even spelled it to her but she didn't paid much attention to it back then. Maybe his personality too is similar to his father's?
"Is there something wrong, Onii-san?"
"...I was meaning to ask since earlier but who is this 'Onii-san' you are talking... about?"
"He is talking about you, dumbass!" The grown man behind him with short black hair, glasses and wearing a suit pointed his finger at her and screamed.
'...Oh, so they are the reason of why I got noticed, huh...?' Rather she was pretty sure that it was the youngest of the three who managed to find her, maybe there was some rare and still undevelopped talent at work? "Is that so? Sorry for... that."
"You don't sound sorry at all!"
"I am thinking so in the heart so it's all that... matter."
"It doesn't at all―!"
"Calm down, Leorio!"
"Let me go Kurapika!" No, no. Aria was actually feeling a little bad for not noticing that she was the one he spoke during all this time, it made her think in that point of view that he was starting a one-man discussion and it was kinda pityable. But she watched the man in suit being dragged by another who was older than the boy but younger than the man, with blond hair brown eyes and wearing a kind of tunique.
'...Still, why "Onii-san"...?' It isn't that uncommon for her to be told that she is rather masculine for a girl but she never expected that she would be thought to be a boy while she wasn't crossdressing, until... Ah. Aria now took a look at herself, she was wearing a baseball cap, a yellow hoodie with a green turtleneck underneath, and black jeans, the same clothes she wore when she was passing as a boy outside in order to avoid too much unwanted attention that she often had upon going outside as a girl since it covered even her face was shadowed. Since she was slightly taller than the boy, he probably thought that she was older than him, well of course she is, she is probably older than all the members of this trio all together.
"Sorry about it Onii-san, I was wondering if you would wake up before the exam so I ended up waking you up before it. But if you were tired I think that it is better to sleep at night."
"Besides what kind of person would sleep before the exam? Aren't you way too relaxed?"
"I agree, indeed being relaxed is better than being stressed but being too relaxed would lead to unattention during needed times. Please be more careful about it, specially if it is during a case where our lifes are on line."
'...Why are you three lecturing me as you want?' Aria's eyebrow couldn't help but twitch slightly as she was being scolded for her actions like a kid by three strangers who knew nothing about her. But trying to fight them back would be too bothersome to deal with later on if it lead to some kind of noisy disputes, so Aria would just add one thing: "I was bored and had nothing to entertain myself, so I slept to conserve my strength, do you have a problem with... it?"
But there was one thing that Aria really hated; it was to be continuingly accused when she was not at fault. So she didn't knew much of what kind of look she gave them but it was freezing enough for them to imagine that a snow blizzard was going between them, the three could only shrunk as they shook their head in denial and Aria sighed before looking away. Unfortunately, it was that scene that was the error she commited as she not only caught the attention of a certain silver-hair child assassin, another disguised one with needles and an annoying bloodthirsty battle maniac jester.
"So I'm Gon! Nice to meet you, Onii-san!"
"And I'm Leorio!"
"Kurapika is my name." And after those three introductions, the boy―Gon―happily extended his hand towards her.
Aria felt hesitant to give her name but since Gon already introduced himself, it was only out of politeness that she must do the same, so she shook his hand before introducing herself (just like a certain father said). "Aria..."
"―?" Aria raised an eyebrow at how the three others were looking at her strangely, curious of the reason of such a reaction, Aria asked: "What's wrong?" They looked at her as in a way as if she just asked something incredibly weird. Then the glasses person was about to open his mouth to retort her surely in an not amiable manner before finding himself blopping like a fish as he opened and closed his mouth over and again while not finding any smart thing to say, the two others were looking at her with wide eyes and a blank stare.
Suddenly the man called Leorio started to walk towards Aria, the latter only frowned at him wondering what he was preparing himself to do before feeling a comforting hand on her shoulder and saw that the said man was looking at her with compassionate eyes, "Normally I would be here and mocking you for having such a girly name but after I understood how much tough it must had been for you during your childhood, right? Don't worry, it is not your fault, just your parent's naming sense for naming a boy like a girl."
'...What on earth is this man talking about?' Aria thought before realizing it; they were still mistaking her for a boy, didn't they? Should she had chosen a more masucline pseudonym after all? Well not that it mattered to her.
"There's no way it would be true, Leorio!" Kurapika exclaimed as he walkd towards Aria at his turn and gently pulled down her hood which also made her cap fall down―
""EH?!"" The two raven-haired duo were shocked beyond degree! Well Aria didn't minded it that much as she only answered by an emotionless 'Ah...', but with that there was no use to hide it anymore, right? She had flaxen hair with some long strands outside but the rest was still under the hood of her jacket, and almond-shaped azure and scarlet mismatched eyes. No matter how they see it, she wasn't a boy but really a girl and both her hair and eyes color were reminding them of that of a bisque doll's, it was as if she was herself a bisque doll who took on human form with her, though it was a shame that her currently boyish attire was ruining her charm.
Aria frowned upon seeing their reactions first picked up her cap that fell to the ground, "What? Is it the first time that you ever saw someone with... heterochromia?" Yet all she got in response was an awkward silence from the other two with Gon nodding twice to her words before he broke out in a smile, "But I find it beautiful too!"
"Like hell the problem is there! You, you, you...!" Leorio pointed at her with a shaky finger while Aria just repeated while tilting her head on the side, "'You'...?"
"IF YOU WERE A GIRL THEN SAY SO FROM THE BEGINNING―!" No need to say that his shout reasonated through the whole underground space, Aria was probably sure that everybody already knew the news while she in truth just wanted to stay discreetly hidden in the shadows and not being forcefully brought to the spotlight.
Aria cringed a little at his earlier shout before sending him an annoyed glare, "And thank you for announcing it to the entire... world. Besides it doesn't matter that... much." If she knew that he was going to react like that then she would have liked to keep on pretending to be a boy but unfortunately she didn't liked to lie.
"H–how can it doesn't matter?! You were a girl mistook for a boy!"
"There are other girls then me who is participating at the Hunter Exam right? What's the problem? Or rather are you ashamed about the misunderstanding that you've brought up yourself?"
"I–it's not...! A–at least if you're a girl then wear proper girl's clothes!"
"Are you asking me to participate into the Hunter Exam in... dress? Are you seriously thinking that I should run into such unpratical clothes for moving... around?"
"...It isn't false."
"Indeed." In the end even his allies turned against him, Gon smiled sheepishly to Leorio while Kurapika just sighed at him. It was as if he was on a box ring with Aria, one strike at the right, two strikes at the left! Followed by a kick in the guts and an uppercut! Keng, keng, keng! Leorio had been knocked out and lost miserably (in his mind).
"But I think the same otherwise Aria...-san?" Gon tilted his head while Aria just waved him off, "Don't use honorifics if you aren't used to, I don't like overformality... either."
Gon immediately brightened up at those words, "Then Aria! I wanted to say the same as Leorio even if you are right that wearing girl's clothes may be troublesome during the exam, I bet you'll look really pretty in them!" He smiled in all honesty without a hint of shame on his face.
However Aria just blinked, unfazed. "Even if you flatter me I have nothing to give to... you."
"I only said what I really thought!"
'...How embarrassing.' Kurapika and Leorio couldn't help but think as they were being slightly embarrassed that the two youngest of the small group here are discussing together with words akin to flirtting without any shame as them, the adults can't help but feel embarrassed at the display and feel inferiority over the 'mature' attitude of those kids about 'that kind of matter' which had always been excluded of their lives, could it be that those children were more experienced in that matter than them, the adults? If so then it only doubles the feeling of shame, but they wanted to become Hunters not to experience what a romantic life feel but to reach their goals, yeah!
*LILILILILILILILILILILILILILILILILILILILILILILILILILI―Clac*
The sound of an alarm being turned off was heard through the underground space, then a man with pale lavender hair which curls at the end, blue eyes and a thin curly mustache wearing a kind of suit. "I apologize for the wait. The enry period for Hunter applicants has ended. The Hunter Exam will now begin!" All the participants were offered a last chance to turn back but nobody choose that option; all of them determined to win the title of 'Hunter', some of them were confident of their success, others were overstimating the exam and some few others were just suicidal, anyway Aria was going to participate at this farce too so she could at least try to see it through till the very end, right? Because there was an important duty entrusted to her... or rather forced onto her.
"Say, boy..." She called out to Gon once again as he turned to her with a smiling 'Hmm?', she was pretty much sure that this boy was too positive, if only he could be just a little wary of others like his father then it would have been far better and yet. "Can you tell me your name once more? I'm afraid that I may forget... it."
Gon just blinked innocently before nodding to her request with a big smile on his face not even the least offended by her words, "I'm Gon! Gon Freecs!"
'Hm...? Did I heard this name somewhere?' Aria closed her eyes and nodded in acknowledgement despite the confusion that took place in her mind.
―It has already been 4 hours since they started to run, they must already have ran about 60 kilometers. Already many applicants had dropped out, the most amazing out of there was the examiner who ran at the same pace for hours without being tired but also ran into quite a strange way that didn't seemed human. Most of the ones who fell down first were the ones who were the most confident of their abilities but actually never received proper training for this.
"HEY! WAIT UP, KID!"
"...?!" Aria flinched at the strong voice that almost made her jump in the air, forcefully bringing her back from her thoughts about the exam, as she could easily guess that the culprit of such a ruckus being the glasses man in suit that she saw earlier, his name was... Yup, she already forgot. Since he yelled at her previously too, she thought that it may be of something she has done wrong again, but what? She is running like everyone else does normally, right?
"You should show the Hunter Exam some respect!"
"What do you mean?" A voice foreign to her ears, so was the man perhaps not talking to her? Discreetly, Aria took a look behind her shoulder to see Leorio arguing with a boy similar to Gon in age who had spiky silver hair and blue yes, he also wore a turtleneck top and short and was riding on a colorful skateboard. In contrast of Gon who looked like a loyal puppy, this boy looked more like a delinquant kitten.
'So he was truly not talking about me again...' Aria let out a slight sigh of relief. Dealing with this man was kinda a pain after all, so she couldn't help but slightly pity his second victim which was the silver-haired boy.
"Why are you using a skateboard? That's cheating!" Leorio pointed angrily at the silver-haired boy who only looked at him back in an unfazed manner as he asked, "Why?"
"Why..." Leorio felt his anger raise even more after hearing the boy's question while to him the answer was already obvious! So he clutched his fist in anger and cried out once again, "This is an endurance test!"
"No, it... isn't." Aria heard one more familiar voice which she recognized as Gon's this time, she would at least remember his name even if she forget the others, it was her job after all.
But Gon's answer made both the two males turns to him though in Leorio's case it was more of an angry frown, "Gon, what are you saying?!" Yet none of them stopped in their tracks as they continued their arguments while keeping on running, Aria noted it with faint amusement, and Kurapika seems to have escaped this scene since a long time.
"The examiner only told us to follow him." Gon replied without missing a beat and caring about the vein ready to burst out on Leorio's forehead, "Whose side are you on, eh?!"
'Okay, now it is starting to become ridiculous.' Aria thought wryly, the man was an adult against a child, and he was angry for something he didn't had, him. It was making no sense to her but due to the earlier flashbacks, she was aware that if she said something offending once again, she would get another great reaction in return along with everyone's attention back on her once again, something she would like to avoid as she want to do her job quietly and neatly thus without attracting attention. So Aria began to open her mouth while carefully prepare some words with tact to not anger anyone―
"In the end, this old man is just jealous because he is too old and tired to ride on a skateboard while you are enjoying your... youth."
...
Thus silence reigned once again between them. That was strange, so thought Aria, her original objective was to relax the mood so it would be more easygoing instead of heavily strained like all the tired people around them, yet why did she felt that she had just frozen everything like some kind of ice queen? However the problem is that Aria forgot―or maybe was never aware of it to begin with, that she has quite a foul mouth working on automatically along with her inability to read mood during those kind of moments plus her personality of always saying what she is thinking so straightly created that kind of result.
Thus she was also unaware of the reason of why Gon was looked at her as if he just saw the most shocking thing he had ever seen, of why the silver-haired boy was trying to hold back to the point of chocking on his laughter, of why Kurapika who looked towards them shortly seemed to now run farther and quicker away as if he was escaping as further he could, but most importantly of why Leorio was reminding her of a boiling volcano on the point of exploding. Even the people around them started to distance themselves in fear of the upcoming explosion...
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME―?!" And thus as expected the volcano exploded, though Aria was clueless of the reason as she thought about it, but after some complains and scoldings of the fuming man she had enough of it and went to the children's sides for more calm and tranquility. Of course she ignored the man's obvious lies about him being a teen which almost made her trip on her feet and left the others speechless. Now that she thought about it, many people were lying about their ages so he mustn't be an exception to it as he may had wished to gain the reductions that only youngters can have... yet if he was truly a teen chronologically then Aria should pity him since he was already an old man both in mind and body. (Ladies and gentlemen, Aria is currently in open denial.)
"Man, that was hilarous!"
"I wonder if it would be alright? Leorio seemed to be quite angry... Ah, Aria, welcome back~!" Gon happily waved at her upon seeing her approaching them, "Let me introduce the two of you, Aria this is Killua, and Killua this is Aria! Say, say, Killua did you knew? It is really strange but Aria is a girl you know?"
"..."
"..." When both of said people were staring at him as if he was an alien, Gon felt a little nervous, "W–what...?"
"Gon, you are talking as if you never saw a girl before." Killua started first and Aria immediately followed after him, "Is it that weird for me to be a girl despite having such a name that go with it?"
"Eh...? EH?! O–of course not! I mean earlier Aria had her hood on and it was hiding all her face, with those clothes and her hood on I didn't noticed that she wasn't a boy!"
"...Is it that uncommon?"
"No, it isn't uncommon for women to crossdress as men in order to keep unwanted attention away when they are traveling alone, on the contrary I would say that what you did was pretty much normal."
"See? I'm not in the... wrong." Though now that she think about it, she was supposed to keep on pretending to be a boy―they said, for her own security but Aria completely forgot about it thus didn't carried their wishes on...
"Geez! Why are the two of you allying up against me?!" Gon started to ruffles his hair in panic as Killua only laughed in response, Aria too felt like she could laugh at this too. But as if he remembered something, Gon looked at Aria curiously, "By the way Aria, Killua said that you were traveling alone but is that true?"
"It isn't false, I'm currently traveling... alone."
"Heh...?" Gon looked at her before his curiosity caught back to him once again, "Huh? But why are you even traveling all alone in first place?"
"I was with some peoples up until recently but we decided to get on separate ways after I came here for the Hunter... Exam."
"I see! I'm relieved!" Gon patted his chest as he sighed in pure relief while Aria just raised an eyebrow at this, "Why are you... relieved?"
"Because if you were truly traveling all alone it would be sad!"
"Why?" Upon hearing her ask that, Gon froze and kinda send a SOS Help! gaze to Killua who was only staring back at him as curious as her, so he nervously spoke out as both of them didn't understood the reason behind such a reaction, "W–well... isn't being all alone... lonely...?" He said out hesitantly.
"...Lonely?" Aria repeated his words as she watched Gon with wide eyes, the said boy felt nervous under her gaze. The word felt foreign to her yet at the same time familiar. Because of her thinking so hardly, she didn't noticed Killua studying her under a careful eye.
"Aria...?" Gon's worried voice was calling out to her, just by looking in his eyes she could tell that he was thinking 'Did she reacted like this because of my fault?', because of how honest and innocent he was.
"...It's nothing, it was just the first time that someone told me this so I was kind of... surprised..."
"Is that so? I thought that it was normal for everyone..." Gon stated, being confused by Aria's words and her reactions while Killua was strangely silent, Gon thought that it was normal common sense for everyone to feel so, thus he was completely unaware of the internal turmoil happening inside Aria and Killua's minds. Because despite not having a father or a mother, Gon was raised with enough love and care to the point of yet having anything unfortunate happening in his life. Yet, it wasn't the case for both Killua and Aria, the former went through the torture in the teachings to become an assassin while the latter felt her own worthlessness about how she failed to save the ones she held dear to. If one day Gon too were to experience such an horrible experience that would change him completely, how he would react... it isn't something Aria look forward to know.
*Toc!*
"Ah...!" As he heard the sound of something falling onto the ground, Gon stopped and turned his head towards the opposite direction, his sudden halt caused both Killua and Aria to stops in their tracks too, to see what was happening. He was staring, and also seemed to be waiting, for his adult friend in suit who was know almost on his knees out of fatigue, sweat dripping nonstop from his face and heavy panting.
"Hey, forget him. Let's get going." Killua said, but even so Gon didn't moved from his spot at all, continuing about staring at Leorio
'So this person overestimated himself like the others...?' Aria thought so as she turned her head away from the sight, from now on there was nothing more to see about him, at least it would be better to stay here and alive instead of gettitng himself killed through the continuation of the exam.
"Screw it―I'LL DEFINITIVELY BECOME HUNTER! Damn it all~!" The familiar roar of the glasses money grubber reached her ears and when she turned around―
*Fwoosh~* At a speed even winning against a top marathon runner, Leorio ran towards the stairs that would lead him to his goal of all his straight, lefting only a gust of wind on his path behind him and even starting to catch Kurapika who was way ahead of them. She didn't even noticed that both Gon and Killua stopped in order to wait for the man before he caught them up and even depassed them, yet Gon only smiled happily at Leorio's sudden enthousiasm as he used his fishing pole to catch the suitcase that Leorio forgot behind earlier. The thread of the pole wrapped itself around the handle of the suitcase gracefully before being pulled back in the air in one pull and landing in Gon's arms.
Killua had his eyes wide open in admiration while a smile grew on his face as Gon showed him the suitcase like some kind of big fish he just caught, "Cool!" The silver-haired boy thought while Aria just stared at them. Then the three started to run again, "Let me try that later." Killua said.
"Only if you land me your skateboard too! What about Aria? Do you want to try it?"
"Aah! Not fair, why does she get to use it for free while I have to exchange my skateboard with it?!"
"..." Aria would be lying if she said that she doesn't want to try at least... she never had the occasion to do it before after all.
"I'm impressed that the two of you can keep up with my pace." Killua noted as the group of the three were still running on the stairs and avoiding the lying exhausted participants' bodies who could no longer continue and were on the way.
"Really? Hehehe..." Gon shyly rubbed the back of his neck with a smile on his face.
'It's not like he was praising you though...' Aria thought silently but decided to not break the boy's joy with her tongue as a whip, while Killua seems to think the same as her as he only raised a curious eyebrow towards Gon before redirecting his attention towards the road with narrowed eyes, "Or maybe it's just that everyone else is too slow. Man... The Hunter Exam is gonna be a breeze if it's like this... that's no fun." Killua sighed and his shoulders slumped down in disappointement too.
"You can never be sure... it is only the beginning after all." When Aria spoke, Killua immediately raised his head and looked at her in a somewhat annoyed manner. As if she just interrupted one of his cool lines. But thankfully Gon came between them before another incident could start again. "Hey, Killua and Aria, why do you two want to become a Hunter?"
"Mm?"
"Me?" Since Killua responded first, Aria had the intention of letting him start, if it can make him stop to send glares in her way then she would gladly do so.
"I'm not really interested into becoming a Hunter."
""Eh?""
"I heard that the exam was supposed to be really hard, so I thought it'd be fun. But this is disappointing. What about you, Gon?"
"Well, my dad's a Hunter. So I want to become a Hunter like my dad."
"Hm... What kind of Hunter is your dad?"
"I don't know." At his straight and honest yet ridiculous answer, Aria almost felt herself missing a step but thankfully she quickly took back her balance. Killua, him, was just dumbfounded before he exploded in laughter as he found the situation strangely comical, "That's kinda weird!"
"Is that so?"
"Because you want to be like your dad yet you don't know anything about him?"
"I was raised by Mito-san soon as I was born, so I've only seen my dad in pictures."
"Who's Mito-san...?"
"My Aunt Mito."
"Oh..." Killua hummed while Aria felt herself frown, so during all these years Gon never got to meet his father?
"When he turned twelve, my dad took this Hunter Exam. He passed and became a Hunter. Then he left the island." Gon spoke with a smile without any strain on his face, it was something that Aria didn't understood. "Gon, shouldn't you be angry at your father for abandoning you like this for his... job?" He had all the rights to be angry, he had all the rights to resent his father, yet...
"Aria is saying the same things as Mito-san! But I'm alright!" Gon smiled so brightly that it was blinding for her to watch, not even a trace of sadness in his expression, just only pure happiness. "I want to find out why he chose to be a Hunter over being with me."
"Heh..."
"Why Aria want to become a Hunter?" Gon asked innocently.
'You're wrong too Gon, I never once wanted to become a Hunter, I just came here because I have nothing else to do, I don't care wherever I'm successing or failing it.' Yet she couldn't say it. Here everyone had their own reasons to become Hunter, from the most nobles to the most twisted causes, yet Aria had nothing, she just came here because she was asked to and not out of her own will.
"I... wanted a change of pace, the Hunter Exam happened to be here... so..." Maybe it was true, maybe she truly wanted to run away from everything even temporarily. She wanted to change her ideas away from her problems and if she could reach peace of mind, then it wouldn't be all bad either.
"Mm? Is that so?" Gon accepted her answer with a smile while Killua frowned with a 'What? It's only that?' kind of air?, Aria internally sighed in relief. She didn't wanted to say more than that but didn't want to lie either. It was then that they saw the light on the other side of the long underground tunnel, some rejoiced over the fact that this long marathon would finally be over. Both Gon and Killua smirked before they started to quicken up their paces of all their strength forward, Aria frowned at this. Were they trying to have some kind of races? If so then why not? She would humor them if it was what they wanted, with that in mind she squatted down on her legs before pushing forward and propulsing herself forward and start to run on the side walls, lefting only a gust of wind behind her which made some of the applicants fall from the sudden pression.
Satotz reached the end of the stairs first. 'Now, let's see how many made it this far?' He stopped and was about to look over his shoulder to see the first few people following him from behind―
*Woosh~* Just like a strong gust of wind passing between them, Satotz had to close at least one eye in response before finally opening it and saw the first one who had reached the goal, a young girl with long flaxen-colored hair and a scarlet and azure heterochromia, Satotz then frowned in response, was there a person with such a striking appearance among the applicants? Yet she properly carried the #402 plate on her chest...
""GOAL―!"" Two other voices sounded as Satotz had to one more time turn around to see two boys, one with black hair and the other with silver, reaching both the two at the same time the top of the stairs and passing across him in a blink of an eye with smiles on their faces and laughs in their voices.
"Yay! I win!"
"What are you talking about? I was faster..."
"I was!"
"No, I was!"
"I was faster, so you have to buy me dinner Killua!"
"Nope! I was faster! So you buy me dinner!"
"But I was faster!" The two didn't wanted to give in so they turned towards the first of first who reached here first aka the examiner, "Hey, who was faster?"
"I believe that the two of you crossed the line simultaneously. But the first one to reach here after me is her." Satotz pointed at the figure a little more away in front of him, Gon and Killua looked at each other in a confused manner before following the direction Satotz was poiting and letting out a cry, ""AH!"" Yes, here was Aria with a somewhat smug look on her face and looking towards them as if she was waiting for their reactions after they finally notices her presence.
"Aria, when did you―?!"
"You cheated, didn't you?!"
"How can I cheat without the two of you... noticing? I did run like I was told, nobody said that it was forbidden to run on the... walls." Besides her physical abilities were one of the few things she could currently be proud of, she was forced to train, train and train after all so why not trying to show off when it was needed?
"Oh... Then I'll buy Killua dinner, Killua will buy me dinner and we will both buy Aria dinner, how is it?"
"Sounds good to me."
"But not to me! Why are you accepting her logic so easily?!" Besides it would come to the same anyway. As the two were still arguing with each other, Aria was putting her ideas up together...
'So the price of the race was a free dinner, huh...? Besides if they buy each other dinner why can't both of them buy their own shares? It's far more simple to buy what they want themselves than letting another do it.' To say the truth, Aria was now remembering that there may be some kind of bet like that going on, but she was only listening absentmindedly so she didn't cared about it much. Yet if she got a free dinner thanks to that, or actually two free dinners then she would be alright with it, specially if she only had canned food these few last days so the boys should ready their wallets up before invinting her to eat!
Yet she managed to discover a lot of things about these people; it seems that all of them are open-minded idiots who don't hesitate to declare all their secrets openly to people they just met... A doctor in training, an avenger, an assassin and a mountain boy. It seems that there would be a lot to say to Ging but it would be good for him to know that the people around his sons aren't bad... one carry smell of blood and murder but he doesn't seems to be one bad at heart. It seems that she would be part of an amusing party from now on, maybe she would start to have more attention about what is happening around her from now on...
A/N.: Aria's way of speaking was pretty much neutral which is why it was harder for the group to discern her gender at the beginning, her voice sounds pretty androgynous too.