It took the whole night to get to the exam site… and luckily I didn't fall off the navigator as it flew. I followed the navigator through a town on an island called Whale Island, I think. Then we got to a small house on top of a hill. "This is the place. Go into the house and talk to the lady in there, and then follow her instructions," the navigator instructed me and I nodded, "OK! Bye Mr. Navigator and thank you!"

I walked into the house, and saw a lady in there cooking. She had short orange hair with a green necklace. I knocked at the door behind me. The lady turned around and my eyes widened when I saw her panda eyes. "Oh, so we have another guest," she said with a smile and yawned, "Hello there, my name is Mito, what's your name?" I hurried and bowed to her, "My name is Pairo, sorry for intruding your home, Mito-san."

"It's okay, since my nephew is the examiner…" she muttered under her breath, "I suppose this can't be helped." She looked up and smiled at me again, "Sorry for my rudeness let me take you to the backyard, there are others wanting to be hunters over there, and here's your tag number." She handed me a tag with the number 507. I put it on to my chest and followed her to the backyard. When she opened the door, I gasped at the sight, looking at my number, there must be 506 other people over there wanting to become hunters. Even with my bad eyesight, I could tell that these people must be all experts in something. Mito-san bowed and turned to go back into her house, I looked after her, wondering how many days she have to put up with this group of people.

I looked around, and then a man jumped off the roof of the house and walked up to me, "Ah, you must be a newbie, never see you here before."

"How can you tell?" I asked the man.

"This is my 38th try in the exam, so I basically know everyone here, except for the newbies." The man said proudly. I stared at him, wondering if that is something to be proud of. He continued to talk, "Anyway, my name is Tompa, what's yours?"

"My name is Pairo," I said, bowing to him, "Um, Tompa-san, if this is your 38th try in the exam, you must know a lot about it right?"

"Yea… basically, but the exam takes place in different places each year and the examiners also change as well so you can never know what you will be tested on."

"Really!"

"Yea, so if you have any questions about the exam, feel free to ask me," he said as he took out two cans of juice, "Hey, how about a toast to our new friendship?" And he handed me one of the cans. I shook my head, "Um, Tompa-san, you don't have to give me the juice, I bring my own water, I can toast with you with it." I took out my water bottle and smiled at him. "Cheers!"

"Uh… ok, cheers!"

I drank some of my water as Tompa-san stared at me. I glanced at him and though, hm… why is everyone staring at the, the nice old me, the lady, the navigators, and now Tompa-san. I looked up at Tompa-san, "Um… Tompa-san, why are you staring at me?"

"Huh? What? Uh, no! I'm not staring at you at all!" Tompa-san scampered and laughed a nervous smile. I stared at him until he stopped laughing, "Ah, to tell the truth, I was staring at your clothes, I thought that they look interesting!"

"Oh! These are the clothes of my tribe!" I told Tompa-san proudly, then thought about my home, way in the forest… I noticed Tompa-san's eye twitched as he stared at me and I put back on my smile, "Hey, Tompa-san, can you tell me about the Hunter Exam?"

"Huh? Oh, sure!" Tompa-san made another nervous laugh, "Normally, there will be 4 to 5 phases in the exam, and they are usually really hard and could kill you as well."

"Oh, no wonder you were proud of your tries! You survived them all without dying! You're so cool Tompa-san!" Tompa-san scratched his head in embarrassment and then a boy about the same height as me with black spiky hair and green clothes came out of Mito-san's house, "Hello there!" He yelled, waving his hands at all 507 participants. I noticed that Tompa-san's eyes were wide as he stared at the boy. The boy continued to talk when everyone's attention was turned to him, "I am Gon Freeces! Your examiner for your first phase! Nice to meet you all!"

I heard Tompa-san grumble when the boy named Gon introduced himself, something like, "Not that mountain kid again." I turned back to him, "Hey Tompa-san, do you know him?"

"Ah, yea, I do… he was in the exam two years ago."

"Really! How many times did he try to become a hunter?"

"One."

"Wow! Just one! He's really amazing!"

Then, Gon-san jumped down and called out to all the participants, "Follow me! I will take you to a place to do phase one!" then ran off. All off the participants ran after the little boy, and I had a hard time keeping up. When we got to our destination, I was almost giving up. Just when I was just about to take a break, Gon-san yelled, "We're here! Come and gather around me and I'll explain what you have to do!" Catching my breath; I walked up to Gon-san to hear what he is going to say.

"Everyone, look at the poster on the big tree over there," Everyone turned to the tree, "That's the list of different kinds of fish in this lake over here. Certain types of fish equals to certain amount of points. You have to catch the fish and keep the fish alive or they don't count any points. The tools are all around the tree go get the tools with your number on them and don't steal anyone else's tools. You can only use the tools, nothing else. The time limit is one day; you have to gather 100 points to pass this phase." He took a deep breath and shouted, "NOW START!"

I said good luck to Tompa-san and hurried and to my assigned tools, which is a big bucket with a fishing rod. As it turns out, everyone have the same tools. What's the use of putting numbers on the tools if they are all the same, I thought to myself, shaking my head. Taking my tools, and ran to the poster on the tree, looking closely to see what fish there are. Then I found a shady spot beside the lake and started to fish. Basically, through the whole day, I fished up 1 point fishes and occasionally 5 points fishes. I filled my bucket with water so the fish will stay alive. Counting my fish, I got 80 one point fishes and 4 five points fishes. The sun was still up high when I collected my fish to 100 points. Hoping that I didn't miscount, I carefully carried the heavy bucket to Gon-san, "Gon-san, here are my fishes."

"Woo! The second person to finish! And you don't need to call me Gon-san, just call me Gon!" He said cheerfully. Then he started to count the fishes, "1…2…3…4…5… ah! You have 84 fishes so that is… um… 80 of them are 1 points… 4 of them are 5 points… er… 120 points!"

"Eh… Gon? Isn't it 100 points?"

"Oh! Right! Sorry!" Gon stuck out his tongue in embarrassment, "I'm not good at mental math."

Gon then stared at my cloths, "Hey, those clothes look familiar… ah! They look so much like the type of clothes that Kurapika wears!"

"Kurapika?! You know him?!"

"Yeah! He's my friend, are you also his friend?"

"I'm Pairo, we're childhood friends! Thank goodness! I thought that with his nature, he won't be able to make any friends!"

"Pairo?! You sound familiar… ah! Kurapika talks a lot about you, you know? I'm go glade that you're alive! I thought that you died in the… um…" Gon trailed off when he saw my face fell. So Kurapika thought I was dead? Wait, if Gon knows about what happened, then Kurapika must also know what happened! Oh no! He must be chasing after the Spiders right now! When I noticed Gon was worried about me, I lifted up my face and smiled, "Really? Well, now I can surprise Kurapika that I'm alive!"

"Kurapika will be so surprised and happy if he sees you! Ok! I will not tell Kurapika yet, and let's surprise him!" Gon said, happy that I didn't get angry. I thought why I would be angry, and then I remember what Kurapika would react if he was in this situation and smiled to myself. Gon sure knows Kurapika well.

We chatted as one participant after another came to get their fish checked and counted. When the sun finally set, Gon got up and called, "TIME'S UP! 487 participants passed!" Then the wind picked up as a blimp came flying down to land. A little green person came out and said, "Hello everyone, I am Beans, please come into the blimp for your second phase," and then walked back into the blimp with everyone chasing after him, including Gon. I noticed that a bunch of people came to see the blimp leave and Gon yelled, "BYE EVERYONE!" "GOOD BYE GON! BE SAFE" The people called back, waving their hands. Gon is sure popular.