Trouble is a Friend
Chapter 2: Quiz X Two Choices X Silence
Trouble he will find you no matter where you go, oh oh
No matter if you're fast, no matter if you're slow, oh oh
The eye of the storm or the cry in the mourn, oh oh
You're fine for a while but you start to lose control
The ship has finally arrived at Dolle's port. Once the four of us—Gon, Leorio, Kurapika, and I—got off the ship, we immediately noticed the amount of people gathered at the port. They all must be the Hunter Exam's contestants. There are really quite a lot of them; I'm getting a bit curious about the Hunter Exam now. I looked back to see Gon shaking hands with the captain. The captain pointed toward a tall tree on a mountain not that far away, and told us that it's a shortcut to the exam location. Believing the captain's words right away, Gon headed toward the mountain, despite Leorio and Kurapika's warnings.
Of course, I followed after Gon. "I'm going to go with Gon. It's up to you guys if you wanna follow or not."
Not long after we've walked a while, Kurapika showed up behind us. "I'm going to tag along with you two," he said, "Leorio is taking the bus."
Oh, the bus. I really wanted to ask Gon to take the bus as well. Heaven knows how much I hated hiking, or walking in general. Back then when we were on missions, I always did my job quickly so it's not a waste of energy. Unlike Ubougin; he always liked to play around with the weak people. Man, I need to stop thinking about the Ryodan… those bastards. Anyway, I bet Leorio is going to come back later.
As we walked toward the big tree, Gon was talking cheerfully with Kurapika, telling him about the wonderful nature in Whale Island. All of a sudden, Kurapika turned toward me. "Ginger-san, you said that you lived with Gon's family for a while. But where did you come from originally?"
Meteor Street. There's no way I could say that to him, or anyone else to be exact. I really don't know how people will look at me after knowing that I came from Meteor Street. The place where people threw away everything, the place where humans can turn into monsters, the place where the only people who will accept me… are the Spiders. Besides, I don't know if he knows that the original members of the Ryodan came from Meteor Street, so I can't risk that as well. "I am… um… from the Navalla continent…"
"Navalla?" Kurapika repeated. "That's unexpected. If I remember correctly from the books, Navalla is a continent in the Southern Hemisphere where it's considerably peaceful compared to the rest of the world, right? When I heard Gon say back then on the ship that you were really strong, I expected you to come from a warrior tribe of some sort."
I laughed dryly. I really just said a random name. Who knew that it was an actual place? "Yeah, well, I was quite interested in… self defense…"
Kurapika nodded. "For a young girl, self defense is important."
Young girl? Boy, no matter how I look at you, you're younger than me. Just because I'm shorter than you and have a baby face, you think you're my elder? You should be calling onee-san like Gon! But then again, it's not a bad thing to be called young. Like Shalnark, he has such a baby face, and Shizuku as well.
"Oi! You guys! I'm coming as well!" Leorio's voice came from behind. I knew he was gonna come sooner or later. Not to mention, there has been someone following too. But judging from his scent, he's probably not strong enough to cause us any harm, so I'll just let him follow us. It wouldn't take much to get rid of him if he tried anything, anyway.
The four of us, plus the person hiding behind, arrived at a rundown-looking alley way. The road was dirty, and the houses looked sorta creepy as well. But even though there's no one to be seen, there are a lot of people here. And they are watching us. Gon and Kurapika noticed as well. Just as Leorio was trying to figure out where the people were, tens of people walked out from the doors. The children wore white cloaks and masks. In their lead was an old lady holding a strange cane, who glared at us quietly.
All of a sudden, she bellowed, "THE EXCITING QUIZ OF TWO ANSWERS!" I swear her eyeballs looked like they were going to pop out. It startled me, and also the other three. We just stood there with nothing to say while the cloaked children clapped.
"You want to go to the tree on top of the mountain, yes?" the old lady continued. "To get across, you must answer the quiz correctly. The other path is filled with bloodthirsty beasts."
The old woman continued on to explain the rules of the quiz, and as usual, I dozed off. Basically, there are two choices to the quiz, and we have to choose one. If one of us gets it right, we will all pass. However, if one of us gets it wrong, then all of us fail. Quite an easy concept, but Kurapika and Leorio started to bicker once again. "If this guy get's it wrong, then we're all doomed!" they say about each other.
"But at the same time, if one of us gets it right, we all pass!" Gon said positively. "I'm not good with quizzes, so I guess I'm lucky I have you guys!"
I guess that is the good thing about being a kid—you always think of the good side first. But then again, when I was Gon's age, I was a real pessimist, wasn't I? I mean, living in Meteor Street, I had to fight with rats for food. How can I not hate the world for that kind of things? But I guess it was just meant to be; everyone is born in different places and I just happened to be an unlucky one. Like Kurapika, he's also just unlucky that his tribe got killed.
…Although I was one of the killers. Well, maybe his case is a little different.
As we were discussing, the old lady became impatient. And so did the person that was following behind us. He finally stepped out from behind; oh, he was one weak looking fighter. He came out with a sly smirk and said, "Hey, you guys are taking too long! Let me go first!" Then he eyed Gon from the corner of his eyes. "Sorry, kid! I overheard what the captain said to you."
That's great, anything else? By the looks of this guy, even if he passed through this quiz, he probably can't survive in the actual exam, anyway. The four of us agreed on letting him go first, and we listened intently for the question.
"Here's the question," the old lady began and her eyes squinted into mysterious slits, "Your mother and your girlfriend are captured by a demon, and you can only save one. Who would you save, your mother or your girlfriend?"
What… kind of question is that? I've never met my mother or anything, but doesn't that depend on who you love more? But people have different circumstances, so she's telling us to read her mind and answer to her favor? This is bullshit. The Hunter Exams is such a letdown. I'll kill this grandma if this guy answers correctly! I bet he's going to choose his mother; he probably doesn't even have a girlfriend!
"My mother," he answered (Aha!), "A girlfriend, you can always get a new one. But you can only have one mother in your life."
Oh. I have to say that's a pretty darn good explanation. But still! 'You can always get a new one'? For a person who stands beside you all the time and trusts you, you would just get a new one? But then, that's kind of what happened to me. They only replaced me… with that crazy man… and just left me behind. Even… him.
The old lady considered his answer for just a few seconds, and they let him through. "ARE YOU MOCKING US? THIS QUIZ IS MESSED UP! WHO CAN SAY AN ANSWER TO THAT KIND OF QUESTION?" Leorio shouted after the guy passed through. Thank you, Leorio, sometimes your loudmouth really say some good stuff. "I'm leaving! I'm going to take another path!"
"Too late," the old woman said, "If you quit now, you are disqualified. You don't have the soul for a hunter."
Well, that's unreasonable. Oh, wait, what's that sound? Sounds like the guy that just passed through… he's screaming. Sounds like he's in pain. I get it! That pathway was a trap! Looking at Gon and Kurapika, they must've heard it too. But Leorio…
"Leorio!" Kurapika tried to warn.
"Wait!" the old lady put up a hand. "From now on, if you continue to communicate, you are all disqualified!"
Wow, this grandma is really asking for it. Kurapika tried to tell Leorio to calm down with his eyes, but it seems that Leorio cannot understand at all. Gon seems to have realized, and remained quiet. Let's just hope that Leorio doesn't do anything stupid. And then, the old lady said the question.
"Your daughter and son have been kidnapped, and you can only save one. Which one would you save?"
Once she finished saying the question, she started to count down five seconds. Leorio was furious; he walked to the side of the street and picked up a wooden stick. I'm guessing that once she finishes counting, he's going to strike her. No matter; once she finishes counting, we've passed. I can probably stop Leorio's attack within half a second. Just as I thought, the old lady finished counting, and Leorio jumped at her. But before I could step in, Kurapika already jumped in front of the old lady and blocked Leorio's attack. Hm, this boy has a pretty good speed.
"Why did you stop me?" Leorio bellowed.
"Calm down, Leorio!" Kurapika raised his voice at Leorio's angry face.
"I cannot calm down! I'm going to bring a little gift to Zaban: her head! And then I'm going to kill her friends, and teach them a little lesson!" Leorio shouted on and on. Until Kurapika finally silenced him.
"We gave the right answer, Leorio!" he said calmly. Leorio suddenly stopped his shouting, and looked dumbfounded at Kurapika. "Silence—that was the answer! The quiz has no right answer because no one can answer it, so the right answer is to remain silent."
Leorio looked bewildered. "But… the other guy, he…"
"He was only told to go, but no one told him that he answered correctly." Kurapika explained. "I heard him scream a while ago. He probably got attacked by wild beasts over there in the woods. I'm sure Gon and Ginger heard him also."
"Exactly," the old lady said, gesturing toward the children who opened two large sliding doors to a tunnel-like entrance. "This is the right way."
Leorio stared at the entrance unbelievably for a while, and then turned to the old lady. "Grandma… I owe you an apology." Hm, so Leorio does have some good manners after all. These kids are really quite nice.
"I wanted to meet people like you, so I accepted this job," the old lady smiled warmly. "Hang on, and you'll become a good hunter."
With that, we departed from this rundown place and entered the tunnel. We walked in silence for a while, and all this time Gon was making a troubled face. And finally, he let out a big breath and smiled widely. "Ah! I really can't figure it out!"
The three of us looked at Gon and puffed out a laugh. "You don't have to figure it out, Gon! The quiz is over!"
But Gon thought otherwise, "But… if one day I really have to save only one person that is close to me… what would I do?"
Leorio and Kurapika were put to silence. Yes, that's the real meaning of the quiz, isn't it? Even though it's just one of the trials to get to the real exam, the old lady really wanted us to think about it. You have to imagine everything, even the worst, because to survive in the reality you can't have feelings. For me, I guess the answer to the question… really is going to be silence. Because when you think that you have somewhere to belong and you have people to rely on, you really don't know what they really think. They could just leave you behind because you're not up to their standard, or they've never really cared about you in the first place. I already experienced that firsthand. And because of that, no matter how cruel it might be, if a situation comes up and I have to save, say, Gon or Jin, I wouldn't save either.
Because when I needed to be saved, a stronger being was whom they chose.
A/N: Thank you for the few that read this story and gave feedback! I'm really glad that someone is reading my story. The lyrics in the beginning belongs to the song "Trouble is a Friend" by Lenka. It's the song that inspired me to write this story!