Chapter 2: Phase One

Waiting in the room-like elevator to stop its moving, Catalina wondered whether it was a good idea to give the toransu her number or not. But she couldn't ponder on it for too long, because it was only a few minutes until she heard the little ding, meaning the ride was over and she could leave the room. Quickly standing up and swinging her backpack over her shoulder, she waited for the door to open.

Once it did, she slowly made her way out, avoiding looking at all the other contestants who were staring at her, she walked over to the wall before jumping up extremely high and onto the pipes which were attached to the higher part of the walls. Making herself comfortable and glaring at all the contestants who were still looking at her, she took out her trusty navy blue notebook and pen. She quickly focused her nen to her eyes and brain, activating one of her nen abilities Scanner. She scanned everyone in the room quickly and jotted down everything she saw about them.

"Excuse me, miss? Could you come down for a second please?" The brunette heard a meek small voice from below her and looked down. She saw a little green… thing… What the hell is that? She jumped down, bag back on her shoulder and notebook and pen still in hands. The green person thing held a small white disk to her, a number printed on it.

"Please wear this on your chest at all times please. This is your application number, so take good care of it." The green thing started walking away from her and she started to panic slightly, wanting to know what he was. She quickly placed her hand firmly on his shoulder, halting him from moving anywhere. He turned around to face her again, a confused look on his small chubby looking face.

"I don't mean to be rude but who are you? And what are you as well?" She questioned him, looking as innocent as possible with her head tilted to the side, trying to look cute. The thing chuckled at her.

"I'm Beans and I'm a person. Good luck miss." He turned away from her stunned body, quickly walking as fast as possible into the sea of people. The girl twitched, she couldn't get any new information from him. He was something new and she couldn't get anything from it! Quickly she writes down everything she got about Beans in her notebook and sliding it into her secret pocket within her hoodie. She stares at the badge she got.

Number 302

Shrugging at the number she was given, she pins the badge to her chest and just as she goes to jump up to her previous sitting place, a large stubby hand lands on her shoulder, making her turn her head around and give the person a nasty stare, causing him to gulp and sweat slightly.

"H-Hi! I'm Tonpa. This must be your first time doing this. I've never seen you here before." The man being obese and smelling badly, his nose in the shape of a block and a badge with the number 16 on it. He held his stubby greasy hand out for her to shake, which she didn't grab, making him look a little disappointed.

"How did you know this is my first time?" She turned her whole body around to face him fully, her eyes filled with curiosity.

"Well, you could say I'm a bit of a veteran of the hunter exams. I've taken the exam 35 times and I know everyone in the room more or less. If you need information on anyone let me know. Anyway, what's your name?" Tonpa gave the girl a large smile, slightly showing his white teeth. She nodded at him, her brows furrowing at the man veteran.

"Catalina…"'Being in the exam 35 times is nothing to really be proud of, yet he still comes to someone who's never been in the exam before and act all friendly.' Catalina thought to herself suspiciously, making sure to keep a note of it in her mind to write it down in her blue notebook.

"Like the Spanish flower? I heard those are beautiful to see. I can see why you're named after it." Tonpa gave the girl another large smile, creeping the girl out a lot and causing her to cringe slightly.

"Here, a can of orange juice to commemorate our friendship." The large man took out an orange can from his small bag and held it out to her, noticing the slight cringe Catalina made. Tonpa changed the large smile into a small grin, hoping to trick the further, not noticing that the brunette girl was never being tricked by his 'kindness'. Cautiously taking it out of his hands, she kept her eyes trained on his face and noticed the slight darkening in his eyes that lasted less than a second before storing the can in her own backpack.

"Thank you Tonpa, I'll drink it later though. I'm not entirely thirsty at the moment, but if I may ask, when did we become friends?" The girl gave him a closed eye smile, her head tilted to the side and she released a slight killing intent, seeing whether he was strong enough to handle it. Instead though, she earned the attention of a few people around her, a couple falling to their knees, others sweating nervously while more just glared at the pair. Tonpa though, was sweating excessively, his knees shaking rapidly barely holding his weight.

Cringing at Tonpa's horrid B.O. smell, she quickly stepped back slightly, gave Tonpa a little wave and jumped back onto the pipe in her original position before she was called down from by the mysterious creature, which was called Beans, glad she didn't have to smell the horrid stench of Tonpa. Quickly taking her navy notebook out, she wrote down all the new information that was gained, keeping the book on her lap as she watched the door for the next hour or so, taking in all the information she could from the next hundred or so people.

She was looking down at her lap, sorting out all the information in her books and brain, storing them all in the correct places, when she heard the elevator doors opening louder than usual for some reason, lots of the contestants looking over towards the open doors, even Catalina. Out of the door stepped three people, all male. One was a tall older man, most likely around his late thirties, early forties; he wore glasses, a blue suit and carried a black and red suitcase in his hands. The second boy, a blonde feminine teenager with brown eyes, white clothing and a blue tabard with red tribal designs on it. The last was a very young boy, very innocent looking with his black spiky hair and green clothes, on his back was a backpack and fishing pole, an interesting choice of weapon. Quickly jotting down all the information and coming to the thought that no one else would be coming to exam, she placed her book away and opted to just people watch for the time being.

"AAAAHHHHHH!" A man screamed not far from where the three boys were currently standing, Tonpa was also with them strangely. Red glowing flower like things started floating around the room, the screams still going on. Turning her head to the source of the noise and flower things, she saw a man on his knees, his arms, or what's left of them in the air and turning into flower petals.

"How peculiar… His arms turned into flower petals."

She moved her eyes to the familiar voice that she could never forget. Her head slowly turned to the direction as well after confirming who the voice belonged to. It was one of her many contacts that kept her up to date on info regularly. He was her very favourite and worst contact ever, yet she trusted him the most with getting the most sacred and important data with her life oddly.

Number 44. Hisoka the Magician

"No smoke and mirrors here. Do take care. When you bump into someone, make sure to apologize afterwards." With that, he turned and walked away; the man had fallen onto his stomach during the pink haired man's talking and died painfully and loudly. Everyone begun sweating or cursing, scared by the psychopath and his strength while Catalina raised an eyebrow and decided to have a little meet up. They haven't spoken for a while recently. Just as the brunette had jumped down from the pipe, everyone had dispersed and acted like the event never happened, but there was lots more tension hanging in the room than before.

Walking to where she could see the tall man, she made her way behind him and cleared her throat, Hisoka turned around and gave her a raised eyebrow. People around them had clearly voided them, a circle being made to make sure to stay out of their way while also watching to see if Hisoka would pull anything again.

"Catalina…"

"Hisoka…"

"It's been a while hasn't it, you've grown slightly taller I believe." Hisoka gave a little chuckle at the glare that was given to him from the much shorter girl, settling for a manic grin on his face.

"You're still murdering people I believe." Catalina gave the man a very charming smile while saying this, making him chuckle even more.

"Did you need anything Catalina? It isn't like you to come to me unless there was something you wanted." Hisoka gave the girl a curious look, wondering what she wanted. The girl gave a mocking look of hurt on her face as she pressed her palm against her chest.

"I only wanted to say 'Hi' to my favourite person in the world." She gave a cute small pout to add to the effect, the magician raising an eyebrow at her in question.

"Fine… I need some info on someone, he's one of my contacts and he's not answering me back. Can you do some digging and find out where he is for me?" Standing up straight and looking serious, the girl lowered her voice so only the two of them could hear. Nodding at her, the clown looking man turned and walked away, signally the end of the conversation. He knew she would send all the information over to him along with a reward of some kind. Deciding that she had enough socialising for the meantime, Catalina turns to head back towards her pipe where a loud noise rang out through the entire place.

BBBBBrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggg

Everyone turned to the noise, finding a tall lanky like man with purple, almost pink like hair and a very… Odd moustache with no mouth…

"Entry for the 278th Hunter Exam is now over. I should let you all know now before we begin that the Hunter Exams are very difficult and trailing things to do, not only will you be physically tested but you will be tested in every way possible. Know now that people lose their lives entering these exams, so if anyone wishes to leave the exam, please do so now." Catalina looked around as silence weighed down on the room and everyone in it. No one made a move until the strange man turned round, his back facing the crowd and looked back at us.

"Well then, if you please, can you all follow me to the second phase of the exam. Oh, and make sure to keep up with me as well." With that, the man started walking forwards, with all the contestants following after him like lost ducklings. Soon, he started to slowly speed up into a light jog, everyone murmuring about it, confused on why.

'Are we jogging?'

But before they all knew it, they were all running down the huge corridors.

"Forgive me, but I seem to have forgotten to introduce myself. I am the proctor for the first exam, Satotz."

The two continued running, half an hour and no one had dropped yet, not really surprising girl. After running for around 80 km, the first person dropped out, soon after that, people started dropping like flies. They had been running for a few hours, yet Catalina hadn't broken a sweat yet while lots of people around her hand and their foul stench were making her cringe. Deciding to speed up a little and head towards the front, the girl looks around to see who's left after four hours. But oddly enough, the three boys from before caught her attention again, this time though, a familiar white haired child was with them as well.

'How many people am I going to run into that I know?'

Not bothering to say anything to him like she did with Hisoka, Catalina just speeds up slightly, taking over them for a little while. They soon overtake her though, not even bothered that the two had passed her. She didn't mind, they were young and one was an assassin anyway. After a few more hours, they reached the lengthy staircase. Sighing at how long this has taken and how tall the staircase is, she could begin to feel the formation sweat on her brow. Another hour later she had reached the top, making her way onto the grassy land with many other contestants. Leaning against the entryway side and watching other contestants enter all sweaty and breathing hard, their faces flushed. She could feel someone approaching her silently and turned to look at the person.

"Catalina… What are you doing here? Did aniki send you to bring me back home?" Killua had approached her, eyes narrowed as he took in her appearance. The two hadn't seen each other in around 3 years, making Killua 9 years old, Catalina 12.

Staring at him confused the brunette asks "Why would Illumi send me to come get you Kill-chan?" The boy twitched at the nickname but never said anything about it, having learnt that she won't bother changing it after knowing what she's like from years of her always coming around to his house to see Illumi.

"I got mad so I stabbed mum and Milluki in the face." Killua gave her a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head as he said this, Catalina just blinking before a sweat drop formed on her head.

"I knew that you get pissed at them but I never thought you'd actually stab their faces… You should get back to your friend over there." The girl mumbled the first bit but pointed behind Killua towards the black haired boy who seemed to be around Killua's age and was staring at the two curiously, giving them a slight smile and wave before turning towards the blonde and older man, watching as the two argued slightly while complaining about the run. The complaining mostly coming from the shirtless man though.

Giving her wide eyes at the mention of friend, he just nodded numbly and turned around, quickly jogging over to him before she herself moved away from the entrance, heading into the crowd of contestants. Once reaching the center of the crowd, she heard a metal door sliding closed behind her and a scream of defeat from someone behind her, making her turn around curious at what happened. The entrance-way of where she was only standing moments ago was shut closed.

"Congratulations on passing the first half of Phase One. We are now at Numere Wetlands, also known as Swindler's Swamp."

I'm upset that I haven't got any reviews.

So if anyone is wondering why I haven't updated yet, it's because of not having any reviews.

Reviews help motivate me, I'm an attention seeker, so please give me attention!