It has been months since the day they found out about Nen. Since then they had wandered far in search for someone to open their cells, but found none. Though they found out that as soon they became hunters, Nen was needed and you were only on probation if you didn't have Nen. Most hunters they encountered said they would only open their Cells if they had a Hunter License and the other few wouldn't open their Cells.
So they found themselves going from bar to small restaurant to bar through the countries searching for clues about the next hunter exam, after a helpful tip of a hunter, they found out that in bars, or small restaurants of the bigger city's the hunter exams were held each year one time.
"Man, this is the fourth bar this month and we haven't found anything useful" complained a brunette, while resting her head not so gently on the table. She had changed a lot in the last few months on the road, gone were the clothes of Tokiwadai and instead she wore black pants and a green tank top. Her hair had grown a little and she looked far more trained.
"Yeah, and whose fault is it? In the last one we had a lead and you have gone and begun a fight" retorted a more calm white haired boy, resting his head on a palm. He too had changed, while he still wore white jeans, he now had a complete black shirt on and above it a jacket which was black and white. His hair had grown just a little bit longer, but he didn't seem stronger than before, sported no more muscle than in the beginning.
"Tch, yeah. It wasn't my fault, he called me a bitch" came the answer almost immediately. He rolled his eyes, they had the discussion many times over, it was one of the things to break the silence between them, which had grown more rare in the last few months. "Sure, but it isn't a reason to start a fight" countered the albino and she sighed, but kept her mouth shut.
While the brunette was in her thoughts he looked around the bar and noticed almost instantly a group of four walking in. "Welcome" called the chef of the restaurant to the four people. "Is the backroom open?" asked the oldest of the group. The other three looked around searching fro something it seemed. He narrowed his eyes, there was something fishy, since this was the fourth group that asked for the back room in the last two hours.
"What will you have?" asked the chef again and the other answered almost immediately. "The steak combo that opens your eyes to the light" yeah, that was a code, he knew it. "For three" added he as almost an afterthought and the white haired boy nudged the girl across from him under the table gently. "For three? How would you like them?" asked the chef and the girl too focused now on the people after the white haired boy nodded in that direction.
"Grilled over a low flame, until cooked" came the response and the chef bowed his head. "Got it. Let yourself in the backroom" he said and then the four of them walked through the doors in the backroom, later only the older male that had spoken for the three other came back. Nodding towards the chef he made his exit.
"You think that was it?" asked the brunette, a little muffled. They had often heard password sounding guys coming in. But still in all other restaurants, bars and so it was always wrong until now, this was probably the eighth bar where they heard such a code. Most of them were only codes for going in a gambling room, hidden in a bar or so.
"Nope, but what is one more destroyed restaurant?" whispered the white haired boy back. "Accelerator" she hissed quietly and he shrugged his shoulders. After all it was true. "Railgun, we have destroyed fifteen bars, because of fights or because of codes, so what is one more?" she rolled again her eyes but kept quiet, which he took as "go ahead".
"Hey chef?" he called out and he looked up to meet the red eyes of the albino. "Yeah, what can i do for you?" asked the chef and the albino smirked. "Show me that backroom of yours, please" though it did sound more like a demand than a plea. "Which backroom? We don't have one" tried the chef to persuade the albino, which didn't believe him obliviously. "Don't lie, I have seen you let other guests in the backroom … so will you show me or do I need to force my way in the room?" the smirk on the albinos face became far more sadistic and the chef shivered slightly, but held his ground.
"We don't have one, so please leave, you aren't welcome here anymore" Accelerator heard Railgun chuckle behind him and turned to her. "We are going, come on" he urged and stepped towards the backroom, which the chef still denied to have and tried to get them to go out. "Shut up" exclaimed the Railgun after a few minutes of the chef bothering them and zapped him, rendering him unconscious.
After a few more minutes searching they found the backroom and as they stepped in both realized it wasn't a room, but an elevator. "So, do your thing and hack the computer behind this thing" demanded Accelerator. This was the best clue they found up till now and he really didn't want to come too late for the exam. "Fuck you, do it yourself" replied the Railgun loudly and turned away with her hands crossed above her chest.
"Bitch, believe it or not, but if I could do it so easily I would, but its far too complicated to use it every time" explained the albino, while getting a bit louder than necessary. She rolled her eye, but didn't retort and held her finger against a button on the side of the elevator. The elevator wound up going down until it stopped at a floor.
The Railgun let the controlling system of the elevator explode and suddenly the whole elevator was blown up. Both of them jumped out of said elevator, groups of multiple people following them with their eyes. They turned away from the destroyed elevator and faced the group of people. They got stared at quiet a lot.
A green … thing? Alien? Whatever walked towards them, hesitantly holding out two plates with a number on it. Misaka snatched both and threw one towards accelerator, who caught his and looked at it with a frown. 407, seemed to be his number and as he looked at Misaka he saw that hers was tacked at her right shoulder.
He sighed and tacked his number too on the right shoulder before standing again besides her, looking over all the participants. He didn't get a chill from people, but two or three gave him an intimidated feeling, that he had gotten used to thanks to his many encounters with hunter. "Three" he stated, looking over the crowd once again. "Two" stated the Railgun to his left.
He narrowed his eyes but nodded, now that he scanned the room again he too could only detect two. "We should maybe do a little bit small talk" he said with a smirk and walked in the crowd. Misaka sighed, seriously, small talk and Accelerator? Pff, he just wanted to look at the competition, but despite that she followed him. She looked over the people which competed too and noticed most were more bulky, had large muscle and probably amazing strength.
"hey, you two are newbies, right?" asked a guy to their right. Both turned towards him and saw a pale kid, even paler than Accelerator which typed on a Laptop. "So what?" asked the albino, almost as if offended and scowled at the kid. Though the kid didn't seem intimidated in the least. "Nothing really, it just has come to my attention that both of you stood out a little" replied the kid and Misaka frowned.
"Really, then you can probably tell which ones were more often here, right?" the kid nodded, unimpressed and began to count down. "Number 16, Tonpa, the Rookie crusher, has taken the exam 35 times. Number 44, Hisoka the Magician, was favorite to become a hunter a year ago but failed due to attacking an examiner" Misaka looked for the people, to see if she could spot them.
She found Tonpa with the other people that had come in just before them, Hisoka she could spot somewhere in the crowd. "197 198 199 are the Amori brothers, Amori, Imori and Umori, the three of them are consequential good because of their teamwork" he paused for a moment to tip on his laptop. "191, Bodoro, a master martial artist, which is one of the best in the world"
"So you are good prepared huh, if you have this much information on the participants" smiled Misaka at him and he blushed lightly and began to type in his computer again. "Well, thanks to the data I have found I could predict where the exam was to be held and what we must do in the first test" explained the kid and Misaka acted impressed. "Wow, really? You must be super smart then, right?"
Accelerator rolled his eyes at the girls behavior, really she had changed her ojou-sama mask almost completely with a flirty one, where she played at the boys to get information. "Yeah and I can predict that the first test will be an endurance test, probably a forty kilometer run" explained the boy and Accelerator turned away, hoping that it won't be an endurance test. While the Railgun had trained a little, he didn't and running was not really up his forte.
He walked away, leaving Railgun to talk with that boy alone and looked around for note worthy people. It seemed like most of them were quiet … disappointing as he had hoped to find a lot more people to fight him and to crush. He noticed a boy with silver hair that walked around with a skateboard, if he had something like that the endurance test would be no problem, as long as they wouldn't need to run.
He spotted number 44 casually standing there and waiting and after a few minutes walking around Railgun caught up with him. "So, found someone interesting?" she asked and he shook his head, besides Hisoka he found none that was up to par. "Well that's too bad, but I found one that gave of the feeling, its the guy with so many needles in his body" she exclaimed and he looked around for that person, but found none.
Both stopped as they heard doors opening and turned towards the sound to see a man walking in. He wore a suit, had a mustache and black hair. All in all he looked weird to both of them. "Welcome to the Hunter exam, the entry time has now passed. A final caution, if you are short on luck or ability you could very well end up dead. Those who accept the risk please follow me. Otherwise please exit through the elevator behind you"
Everyone turned to the elevator, which was still pretty much destroyed and then towards the two that came in last. "Well it seems the elevator is destroyed so please wait here until you are picked up" he corrected himself. As no one moved to stand at the side he continued "Very well, all 406 participants will participate in Phase 1" then he turned 180 degree and began to walk away.
Everyone began to follow him slowly but after a minute or so they began to run and as Railgun glanced to her right she could see Accelerator already panting hard. If that continued like that she would have to carry him … or he would drop out. Which was what neither of them wanted. She scanned the people in front of her and then stopped moving, while Accelerator, lost in thought run ahead of her. As finally a boy with skateboard came she stopped him and let the others pass through.
"Hiya, could you lend me your skateboard? You can have it back again after the first phase" she asked and looked innocent. He stared at her perplexed and she stared back with big innocent brown eyes. "Sorry" he began but got cut off. "Please, I will even give you something in return" she exclaimed and bowed her head and clasped her hands in front of her head. "Yeah and what?" he asked. She smiled and bowed down a little bit more and kissed his cheek for a full 5 seconds.
The boy showed nothing, but after half a minute began to blush furiously and gave her his skateboard before rushing off. "Cute" thought the Railgun and stared after him, before chuckling and running after the group, intending to catch up on Accelerator. Luckily it was a straight tunnel and so she couldn't get lost. After ten minutes she caught up with them and accelerator sat on the ground totally exhausted, while the group passed him by.
She stopped for him, holding out the skateboard to him, but as he didn't take it she laid it on the ground and began to help accelerator to sit on it. She lifted him somewhat up and sat him as good as possible on the board. "Oy Accelerator, you should get your ass moving or you will drop out" she said loudly and he glanced at her before taking a deep breath. "Railgun, shut your trap, thanks for the skateboard, but now I can handle myself" he gave himself with his arms a little bit momentum and the skateboard began to move after the group.
She smiled but ran ahead while he found the right vectors for the skateboard to drive and soon caught up with the group again. She overheard as people still murmured with each other and shook her head. Normally something like that would make their stamina worse. But still, just following someone with no goal would be pretty hard, especially considering they must travel at the leaders pace to not fall behind.
She glanced back a few times to see if accelerator caught up, but he didn't and it made her worry slightly. Though continued on, because she knew that only one of them needed to become hunter … but it would bruise his ego even more if she became one and he didn't. After ten minutes she was in front of the group, running besides the examiner of the first phase. Finally she heard a skateboard rolling up besides her and she glance towards him to throw him a nod, which he returned before continuing to skate besides her.
"60 Kilometers" said Accelerator nonchalantly as he drove the skateboard and smirked at the Railgun, which was now panting and sweating, though still running besides the examiner. She shot him a glare and looked ahead were the tunnel slowly became bigger, the ceiling getting a little higher. After fifteen more minutes they did run in a giant room where a long staircase was and she slowed down, letting the examiner run up the staircase.
Accelerator besides her drove the walls to the right of the staircase up, which weren't vertically down, but more round in a radius to the wall and staircase. She didn't really want to run up and gave herself a decent boost with a jump before floating up. She floated behind the examiner, who had probably noticed her but said nothing. After floating up the staircase for a few minutes, like fifteen she finally noticed the light above, which shined down on them, which was probably the end of the little run they did.
She sped up before the examiner, floating towards the exit and staring ahead. There was not much to see besides fog everywhere, but it was better than down there in the tunnel, where the air became slowly but surely harder to breath. A minute later Accelerator drove out, smirking at her and she rolled her eyes. "needed to use your power, huh? Aren't that fit are you, Railgun?" he mocked playfully.
"Yeah yeah, but the stairs would have become hard so I cheated a little … though you cant even run 10 minutes, huh?" she mocked back and he said nothing but still smirked as the examiner came through the door. Almost simultaneously came through the white haired boy and the black haired one that was in the group they had followed to get to the hunter exam.
The two of them began to argue who was first and the attention of the three others were on them for a moment, before Accelerator gave the skateboard back to the Railgun and she looked at him. Misaka winked at him and then walked towards the white haired kid. "Thanks again for the skateboard, boy" she smiled sweetly and gave him a kiss on the cheek again before giving him the skateboard back. The boy shut up, blushed furiously and looked down to the ground, embarrassed.
Accelerator scowled at the kid, feeling just a little bit jealous, because Railgun and he knew each other now for months and she still wouldn't really touch him, even though they were friends. But he didn't say anything and just stood back and watched as slowly but surely the other came rushing in. It took half and hour before the door closed and everyone that was there had passed the first half of the exam.
"It seems everyone has arrived and 37 participants have dropped out, if you will follow me through the second part of the first phase?" asked the examiner, turning away to go. "Don t follow him, he is a fraud!" shouted someone as the group began to move forward and everyone turned to the person who shouted. A battered man stepped out of the corner and came forward, he had a few wounds, many bruises and looked totally exhausted.
"He is a man faced ape!" continued the man and to show his proof he pulled out a man face ape from the corner, which looked identical to the examiner. "They had attacked me on the way to the exam and one of them has gone instead of me … they want to lure you into a trap" explained the man and Misaka narrowed her eyes. She could feel the examiners electrical signals, which were identical to a humans, just like this mans, but the man face ape had different ones.
"Tch" she turned away and waited for the examiner they followed until now to get moving. Accelerator which had seen her reaction smirked and decided to frighten the people a little bit. He walked up to the man and place soothingly a hand on his shoulder. "Don t worry, we will take care of you" he smiled and the man sighed in relief. Suddenly blood flew around and the ground was stained with the crimson liquid.
"Tch, as if. Hunters are strong … as if one would be overwhelmed by a few apes" exclaimed the Accelerator as he turned to walk away, but the ape that was with the man sprung up and tried to run away, but a pebble kicked with speed and accuracy shot through its head, killing it instantly. He turned around a sadistic smirk on his face as people watched him warily.
On the examiners jacket, shirt and jeans was now crimson liquid, just everywhere but not where Accelerator stood and on his person. He casually walked towards the examiner and smirked confidently. The Railgun huffed, but a light smile graced her lips. "well then shall we continue?" asked the examiner and no one wanted to give up so they all followed him, even if a few would have followed the other one.
The small mountain down was for accelerator no problem, but still running after the examiner still took its toll on him again after a few minutes. "Hey Railgun, carry me" he called out to her and she stopped with a sigh. He didn't like it, but besides flying what he really didn't want to do, everything else would be too suspicious. He climbed on her back and held himself with his arms around her neck while she held his thighs and began to move forward again at a higher pace so that she wouldn't lose sight of the examiner.
Accelerator had used his vector control to let gravity have no effect on him, so he was basically not there for the Railgun and she could run without problem. They soon had caught up with the examiner and let many people fall behind them, but he could tell it was a strain on her and could even feel the electricity powering her movements.
But she didn't complain and just kept running, though it seemed like she would soon give up and that would be it for both of them. After an hour the fog finally began to clear up and another ten minutes later they found themselves standing in front of a gate, a gate to a castle it seemed.
Again they rested as the other participants slowly came running in, some in oblivious exhaustion others still fit enough to run another marathon like this. Again half an hour until the examiner began to speak up. "This is where the second phase will be held, so I will take my leave, good luck" with that he walked away in the forest. After he was out of sight the gate slowly opened, making the ground rumble.
The participants slowly walked in, and there they saw two persons. One man easily big enough to look over the walls surrounding the mansion with short black and unruly hair, a yellow shirt and dark green pants. Before him on a couch sat a young woman with green hair styled up in 5 ponytails that had a pentagon shape, a see through brown shirt, a dark brown bra and blue hot pants.
"Wow that is a lot of skin to show" murmured Accelerator unfazed by it, but he had mostly seen just whores walking around in something like that. Railgun to his left nodded, and walked with the group closer to the two persons. "I'm Menchi the second phase examiner" she introduced herself with a smile. Then the big guy behind her began to speak up. "And I'm Buhara, the other examiner" and he too smiled.
Suddenly a loud sound was heard and everyone looked around for it, searching from where it could have come. Murmurs passed through the crowd of aspiring hunters and were calmed almost instantly by Menchi. "You must be hungry" she said to Buhara who grimaced and answered "I'm starving"
"There you have it, phase two will be … cooking" again murmurs passed through the crowd, but one participant became more vocal then the others. "This is a hunter exam and not a cooking show" he called out. "Well we are Gourmet hunters, so cooking is one of the things we do" and the Railgun could obliviously tell that Menchi was annoyed. "Gourmet Hunters … pff Hahahaha" laughed the one that had called out. Others followed in and snickered.
"So Gourmet Hunter, what are we supposed to do?" asked the one who had laughed mockingly and she wanted to facepalm, if he pissed the examiner, Menchi and Buhara off even more, no one would pass. "The required ingredient is pork" called out the giant of an examiner and the people murmured again. "Pig Meat?" asked one aloud. "Yeah, you are allowed to take only meat of Biska Forest Pigs" he explained.
"You must use the cooking utensils here to prepare the pork" he continued on and Menchi cut in. "But we will evaluate more than just the taste, as there is more to cooking as just that" and the participants that had mocked them just before cut her off "We get it, we get it" he said condescending. "Ok, the exam start, now!" called out Buhara as he slapped his stomach, a gong resounding of it.
The crowd stormed out and Misaka rested up, lying on the ground. "Huh, that was a little too much for you?" asked Accelerator slightly worried. She had basically pulled him through this exam and he would repay the debt. "Rest up, we are a team now .. I get the meat in the time you rest" he casually walked out in the forest, not glancing back at her or he would have seen her smile at his retreating back.
Finding the pigs was harder said then done as he strolled through the woods, occasionally seeing another participant. He stopped as the ground rumbled slightly, as if a horde of beast were running somewhere in the area. He walked in the direction, knowing that they couldn't touch him and no danger was there for him.
He stopped as he saw the other participants running away from the pigs they were send to get. They seemed to be strong as they run straight through a boulder thrown at them, but that didn't mean they would run through his vectors. A stray pig noticed him and charged, he smirked confidently and let it crash in him … in the reflection which was only a millimeter in front of his outstretched hand. The pig pushed and pushed but didn't get a single bit of distance towards him.
"Pathetic" he whispered and drew his other hand back to launch a punch, which hit the snout of the pig and sending it crashing through a few trees. The pig was easily knocked out and he noticed around him people had knocked theirs out too and began to run back to the castle to prepare their dish. He sighed as he went to pick his up, he really wasn't into this sort of thing, normally Railgun was one to cook for them if they were in a forest and she too searched for ingredients.
Her meals had thanks to that gotten from bad too decent. Though by far not a good cook she still could make delicious meals. He changed the vectors of the pig as he lifted it and began to trudge back. It had taken him … a good fifteen minutes to come her and now back with the pig should take slightly longer. He just hoped that girl Menchi wasn't pissed off enough to fail everyone just because it didn't t taste to her liking.
He sighed again and hoped it was one of the times were Railgun´s meal tasted like that of a high class restaurant and not like that of a seedy bar. Really it was weird how she could cook sometimes so good and other times fail so miserably. As he came back and looked around that she had wandered off and on a kitchen was a note saying she would be back shortly. Really that girl gave him more headaches than possible.
He waited for her and half an hour later she came back. She had slung a few things on ropes over her shoulder and began to take matters in her hand. She began to take out the pig, inedible thing to the right and began to search in this pig for a good part to cook, grill. Finally she found it and begun to cut it out of the pig. Her hand were complete red from the blood and she began to wash them before washing the blood of the meat.
After that she began to cut the meat down to eatable sizes. It were all around three different ones and she would make all three different through spices. She began to make one in a pan, making in completely cooked through and adding different spices to it. Besides that she made a small salad to accent the meat and a little bit of sauce.
After she had done the salad and sauce she began to make the other two, one half raw and the other completely cooked through. It was the piece with the most juice in it and it showed as the fire rose around it when the meat juice fell down in the fire. She smiled as she took out three plates and began to decorate them. Finally the meat was through and she place it on the plates before giving Accelerator one, which eyed it hungrily.
She hadn't spoken since she started, concentrating on the task. She pulled Accelerator along towards the examiners, while theirs was decidedly less than all others she was sure it looked the best. After all the eye eats with you.
"Here, Madame, Monsieur" she bowed lightly as she gave the plates toward Menchi and Buhara who accepted them. Menchi smiled, finally someone that put a little bit thought in it and had made an effort. If it tasted somewhat good she would pass the duo. Buhara took for the first time a knife in the hand and cut a piece of the meat off.
He eyed it, it looked good and nice juicy. He took the bite and smiled before he declared that they passed. Menchi however eyed it more critically, too cutting off a piece and examining it. It looked good, delicious even and she took a bite. It didn't taste bad, though a little bit too juicy for her taste. Then she cut off a piece of another, examining it again and again she took a bite, it was good too, far better than anything she had tasted today and the sauce accented the pork nicely. It was nothing fancy, but from an amateur it was good enough for her tastes.
"Pass" she exclaimed and the Railgun sighed with relief and bowed again before walking off with Accelerator following behind. She smiled widely as everyone looked shocked at them and Menchi, who has until now failed all without even trying a bite. Railgun and Accelerator walked confidently down the steps and began to clean their equipment up, which Menchi noted and would have given them bonus points.
The exam continued on and the two espers watched as people brought a bit individuality in their dishes, but nothing too great besides a flag, a flower circle and a pork burger pig sized. Though none of them passed and they noted that Menchi grew frustrated. Obliviously none of them thought of something better and didn't take the exam too seriously because Menchi was a gourmet hunter.
Really it was pathetic of the others and Railgun felt bad for Menchi, as she was clearly mocked and underestimated. But she could feel the power of the Gourmet Hunter, clearly stronger than almost all other Hunters they had found up till now. After another fifteen tries everyone had tried one time their luck and she sighed, Menchi was clearly annoyed.
"Stop, the second exam is over and only two passed" called Menchi out and gestured to the albino and the brunette. Both sat on the ground doing their own thing and waited for the exam to pass. Instantly the participants began to complain. "You cant do that! I want to be a black list hunter and I will not be failed by a Gourmet Hunter" called out the one who had mocked Menchi at the start of the exam.
"Well I said to prepare pork that we both liked … and only Participant 407 and 406 did it right, so you fail" she smiled condescendingly the aspiring to be Black list hunter down. That didn't go down too well as he lost his cool and charged her, but was intercepted by a brunette which gave him a slap to the face and in that moment of touching him shut down his body into sleep. "Tch, are you stupid or so? Attacking a hunter will get you disqualified in the best case and in the worst case killed" she kicked him a for good measure one time.
Accelerator could tell that she was upset the whole time they had mocked Menchi, especially that guy she found irritating and she had let her temper get the better off her and intervened where it wasn't needed. Though he could understand her, even in this world woman where looked down upon to a certain degree and considered weaker, which got on the Railgun's nerves.
"You really shouldn't interfere, participant 406" called out Menchi in a calm tone that sent shivers down the spines of the other participants. Railgun laughed weakly and answered "Well it would have become a massacre if I didn't, right?" "Probably" she said and stood up from her couch, walking down the stairs.
"We are constantly going down in new caves, new regions searching for ingredients that aren't known to man, most of the times unprepared of what is to come. Every hunter knows some sort of Martial Art and you lack will and focus to experiment. That alone disqualifies you lot from becoming a hunter" she pointed with the knife she held in her hand at the group. Some looked down on the ground, ashamed while others ignored her words.
"That said it would be excessive to fail everyone but two" came the voice out of loudspeakers and a Zeppelin made its way across the sky towards their location. The hunters looked up awed by the sight and some noted the Icon of the Hunters association. Suddenly a person jumped out and landed on the ground, in between Menchi and the crowd of participants. Accelerator smirked, this power he could feel from that person was overwhelming, intimidating even him to a point where he wanted to run. No other had such an aura.
The debris kicked up by the person landing didn't deter him and he was almost ready to pounce and get a fight with that person until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked to his right to see Railgun shaking her head no. "Tsk" could be heard from him, but he relaxed slightly. Out of the debris after a few seconds walked an old man and stood before them. "Chairman Netero" exclaimed Menchi, a little bit surprised.
"So Menchi-kun, you dropped almost all applicants because of their reluctance to try new things?" he asked, already knowing the answer. "No, I lost my cool when someone insulted Gourmet Hunters and thus made the exam harder than necessary" she looked at the ground in slight shame, but lifter her head to meet the eyes of Netero. "In other words you knew this exam wasn't okay?" he questioned.
"Yes, when cooking is involved and I lost my cool and since no one but those two made a move to try out something new I failed them all" she continued to explain. Then her eyes shined with determination . "I am unfit to be an examiner, so please retake the second phase" she bowed a little and Netero smiled before patting her on the shoulder. "Well it would be problematic to find a hunter on such short notice, so please continue and give them another chance, okay?" She nodded.
"Ok, then the next thing we make, will be boiled eggs and I will show you how its done" exclaimed Menchi out loud and so they began to make their way to the Zeppelin, which landed nearby. On the way the aspiring hunter to be talked with each other about what they would need to do to get the eggs.
The flight was uneventful as Railgun and Accelerator just waited for the second phase to be over, after all they had passed in the last test. Though as they landed both walked out with the group to see what the others would need to do. "In this Ravine live Spider Eagles" began Menchi as multiple people looked down. "Spider Eagles build their nests in deep ravines to protect their eggs from predators, which make it one ingredient hard to get" explained Netero.
"Yo-You don't mean we-" began a hunter but got cut off. "Sure do" said Menchi before she jumped without hesitation down. The Railgun looked awed as Menchi easily grabbed a Spider Eagle web and took the momentum out of the jump. Then she hung there, waiting for an unseen signal before she let herself fall down by, grabbing an egg on the way down. "Ehh, she jumped down there?" exclaimed many, shocked to see the examiner basically killing herself.
Though a few seconds later she could be seen coming up again, floating in the air, before grabbing the stone wall and pulling herself up to the others. "This ravine has an upward stream of air. So you can easily come back up if you grab an egg" explained Menchi. As people began to jump down Menchi sweat dropped "H-Hey I haven't explained everything yet" she shouted, but it fell on deaf ears.
They saw as the group hung their, some let themselves fall and caught an egg, but the upward stream of air didn't come. "So the stream is not always there and one must time it, huh?" murmured Accelerator and looked the hunters hung there waiting for the upwards stream. "Do we need to do it too?" he asked suddenly and Menchi shook her head. "No, you two don't need to, after all you did good in the first one"
"Mhm, ok" he walked back in the airship, the Railgun following him. "Go to bed, you will probably need it after such a day" he basically commanded her and normally she would protest but this time she didn't even glare at him as she walked to the room they got assigned to on the way here. He sighed as he followed her to their room and sat down on the other bed, his back against the wall and staring at the ceiling.
He could hear the shouting from out there and knew that the first ones had probably passed the second phase. He tried to shut out the noise from the outside and began to let his thoughts wander. So far the hunter exam wasn't that hard, even if the running part was for him basically impossible. They tested up till now only things a normal person could do, like running absurdly long and making out of a pig something to eat.
He was to be honest, a little let down, but maybe it would change with their next task and maybe it would be an elimination round finally, where it came finally down to fighting. It was one of the things he looked forward to and maybe just maybe he would get to challenge her. He gazed at her, soundly resting on her bed, eyes closed but not asleep.
A smirk graced his lips, yeah that would be perfect, after all she was the only one that had ever penetrated his defense in a fight so easily. Though he would settle for others as well, but she would be his first choice in a fight. He let out a sigh and looked over the people he thought could give him at least a little bit of fight. Hisoka, the bloodthirsty magician, as he heard other murmur he had taken out other participants while being unseen by their first examiner.
Next was the pincushion, as he gave off at least an intimidating aura of Nen, which would mean he had at least a little bit of fight in him. Though he had seen nothing noteworthy of him thus far. Next he would consider the white haired kid, he was different, ruthless and efficient. He didn't have Nen like the other two, but still was perfectly fit and fast.
That was it, the other he found were nothing special and soon darkness claimed him as he let himself fall asleep. His head tilting to one side a little, still bent up as if staring at the ceiling. Misaka too had fallen asleep after a little bit and rested her body, which she was sure before going to sleep would be sore tomorrow like it never was before.
She awoke instantly as a sudden sound alerted her, a loudspeaker in their room, telling them they were at their destination of the third phase. She calmed her racing heart and the electricity flowing around her, as she had gotten lightly paranoid after being one time attacked in her sleep and getting woken up to being beaten down on by thugs. She sighed after half a minute and stood up, her muscles burning in protest.
"Accelerator" she called out to him, but he slept still and she sighed, he had blocked out sound after being awoken sometime probably. It always left her with two choices, touching him and waking him up or letting him sleep … and momentarily the second was not really an option so she walked up to him and gripped him harshly and began to shake.
He twitched a little before opening an eye to glare at her. "Tch" she glared back, before letting go of him and walking straight out of the room, Accelerator, which now had laid on the bed sat up, before standing up and walking after her, a little bit muffled. He really wasn't a morning person, which was why they were mostly in afternoons on the road.
He caught up with her after a little, saying nothing as they walked besides each other. On the road pleasantries like good morning or good night meant not much and were only such. They didn't need to say such thing aloud after traveling with each other for so long … and not saying it one time to the other. At first it was out of spite towards the other, but that changed after weeks and they formed an understanding.
They walked towards the crowd of people, still big enough to count at least a hundred and that was nice, considering only a little bit more than a handful would pass and this meant they were promising so far. "Morning" greeted one of the females towards Railgun and she, as he could see out of the corner of his eye, smiled and inclined her head towards the female. He studied her for a moment and noted she couldn't really have made a friendship with her as they weren't even together more than a few minutes.
Though he could see that she had potential … nothing too great as she would be crushed by him in a few seconds. He rubbed his neck lightly, being stiff from sleeping in a sitting position of half a day. He looked out of a window, little way away from the group and noticed they were coming close to a tower and would be there in a good few minutes.
Railgun stood there watching the others, having noticed they were tense, probably waiting for the exam to start and she picked up a few of the people nervous habits. Some fiddled with their hands, others couldn't stand around doing nothing and always were in movement, while other let their eyes dart quickly through the competition. She sighed after minutes as the Zeppelin finally let them out atop of a tower.
She could feel it, it would get far more harder than before, as there were still a good 100 people left. The tension was high, as high as the tower build out of metal. She noticed instantly as soon as she touched it and her eyes crossed with that of Accelerator, which smirked at her before settling down on the ground, intending to hear out the next task.
She heard Netero clear his throat, catching the attention of all applicants. "Welcome to the Trick Tower, your mission is to reach the first floor of the tower in 72 hours or three days, good luck" he said and instantly people began to search for an entrance, only for one to get the idea to climb down the side. "While it would be hard for a normal person, I'm a climbing expert so it is no problem for me" he called out and began his descent.
People watched him as he slowly got lower and he was soon out of sight, though after a little suddenly his screams filled the air and the Railgun smirked, she could have told him there was a nest of birds on his way down, a craving in in the tower. She noticed how the people got less and finally they found out about the trap doors leading inside of the tower.
She glance at the spot where he sat once again catching his eye as he slowly inclined his head as a no sign and laid back staring at the sky as it got brighter and brighter with each passing second. She joined him shortly after, keeping check on the other people in the tower, easily tracking them through the doors inside the tower opening and the electrical power at work.
Even if it was isolated she still could feel it, her sense honed after living days on the road where no electricity was and only then she appreciated the city for being full of electricity she could feel. Though thunderstorms were still the best as she felt energized, as if it would never stop … which it didn't considering she was a walking power plant.
She felt her eyes close and her muscles relax as she fell to sleep once again, her body still needing rest after the torture of they day before. Still she unconsciously took in all the electronic pulses flowing through the tower, building up a map in her head as she slept.
She awoke with a start as she heard an explosion not so far away and looked around. Only a handful of people were still on the top besides her and she could feel that all hidden doors were closed, so no one else could enter them. She saw Accelerator stand at the edge of the tower a few pebbles in his hands and throwing them in the sky. Again he threw one and again the explosion could be heard, which was actually a sonic boom.
"Hey" she called out to him and he turned around looking at her before he incline his head. She sat slowly up, her muscles aching a good deal less and she could feel far more energy then in the morning. She slowly stood up, looking in the sky to see if she could see the sun, but nope it was too cloudy for that. "Hey how long have I been out of it?" she questioned him and he shrugged.
"Don't know" he answered after a minute and she could only sigh, already exasperated at his answer. "Ok, I am going down, see you at the finish line" she called out and began to make her way to the trap door that led to the fastest but most dangerous way. She smirked as it slowly opened and she steeped in and let it close behind her.
She could hear on top the others running to her position, probably searching too for an entrance, but too bad there was none. She walked forward after looking around the room, a brick wall to her left and right, metal reinforced in between the two rows of bricks. It got fast boring as she knew which ways to turn without running in dead ends.
Though she quickly got a wake up call as a boulder fell from the ceiling in the hallway, rolling towards her. She quickly turned around sprinting away, the turn for the dead end almost ten minutes walk way away. She looked behind and saw the boulder getting closer and closer, but she could finally see the turn where she could hide. She looked around one more time to see it would be close, but she soon jumped to her left, inside the way to the dead end, getting graced by the boulder as it hit her right arm lightly.
She waited a minute before walking out, looking around and seeing the boulder in the distance crashing against the brick wall. She grimaced, that would have hurt if she got hit by that. She sighed before walking back the way she had just come from and made way forward the point the boulder had dropped from. There the way got even again and she could feel a trap door there, just waiting to open as she made her way there.
She stopped just before that, looking around and locating another tine camera, that a normal person wouldn't see. She walked forwards confident enough to know that the trap door wouldn't open, which it didn't … for five seconds. It opened and she jumped as felt the ground shift for a second hoping to reach end out of the walking pace. She didn't get to grip the edge, sliding down a few meters before stopping.
Misaka looked down, seeing large spikes just waiting to impale her a few meters under her. She sighed again in relief, before making her way up the still opened trap door. She really shouldn't underestimate the person controlling this thing, as she had clearly controlled the signal to not open while she was on the door. She stood up giving the finger in the direction of the camera before moving on.
It soon got boring again as there were no traps ahead for quite awhile, but soon she came to a staircase leading down quite a good chunk of the tower. She jumped practically down, feeling that in the beginning weren't traps. That was until she stepped on a stone that sunk in a little, which transformed the staircase in a slide, making her slide down. She used her electromagnetism to keep it slow, but still it hurt after a while.
As it begun to hurt Misaka stopped completely, to stand up and walk down the slide. It was quite easy as she could use her electromagnetism to magnetize herself to the steel plate under the stone. Though the slide gave a good chunk later, where one normally would have quite a lot of speed, away to a field full of small spikes, long enough to hurt quite a bit but short enough to not be fatal. She grimace as she thought about what would have been if she would have slid into them.
After a strong jump she was behind the spike field, still going down the slide, which slowly tilted more and more downwards. Soon it gave away to a free fall where. In the free fall she managed to dodge a spear coming out of the wall and three beams full of spikes. She landed heavily in the water, diving deep to go through an underground passage.
Whoever had gone this way, Misaka decided after she had gotten up behind the passage, was definitely good at adapting as they wouldn't have found the underwater passage by the first time and would have needed to dive a second time to get through the passage, which meant they couldn't have taken the force of their free fall to dive.
She dragged herself on top of a platform, taking deep breaths of air as she laid there, quiet exhausted. She was now a good three or four hours on the way and she was exhausted, the traps giving her always a scare and an adrenalin kick, which made her even more exhausted after so many times. She laid there for a few minutes, getting her breathing, heartbeat and shaking hands under control.
After minutes she slowly stood back up, having enough energy to continue on. She walked at a slower pace as before. The walls still looked the same, as did the floor, she couldn't see the end of the corridor, but could feel the electricity in the ground going soon a right curve. She took the way to the right as it split and followed slowly. Under her on the same way she could feel traps being activated, obliviously trying to kill whoever had this way too.
Though if she continued at this pace she would be at the point in roughly three hours. Misaka sighed one last time before breaking out in a jog, hoping to catch up with whoever was on the same path as herself. Together they could probably do it faster and … she pause for a second. Nah, Accelerator would be alright and if worst came to worst he would just bust his way through ceilings.
She continued on, dodging traps left and right, keeping always a jogging pace to catch up with the person in this route. She finally stopped after an hour running, catching her breath and taking a break. She had gotten near to the person, only a good hour away from her/him.
Accelerator had gotten pretty fast pretty bored as he sat on top of the tower, with no one to talk to and the few remaining people all having given up. Railgun had gone in the tower, taking a route, probably the hardest, to get her kick out of the exam at least. He flipped a coin and predicted on which side he would land on, as it was a relative simple game he had made as he could predict it with a 99% accuracy.
Though even that had gotten boring, being almost always right. So he decided to go down to the waiting area, waiting there for his companion to turn up in the next few hours or so. He walked towards the edge, before letting gravity take a hold on his body after a step out in the air. He let himself drop, no wind splashing in his face thanks to his ability.
As he neared the ground his brain began to calculate at a rate a normal human couldn't. Outside of Academy city with the rate he could calculate he would have been a wonder child, calculating faster than an outsider with a calculator, and that over long long equations. As he touched the ground dust was kicked up, a crater was in place, but he had no single scratch on his person.
It really was to easy as he made his way around the tower, searching for a way in and he knew one was there, somewhere. After all the other would need to get out … or they would need to bust a hole through the wall. He continued on, pretty bored as it wasn't exactly the most exciting exam up till now. As he found the door he walked in, to be greeted by the first person there, the magician Hisoka. "yo" he greeted. Accelerator smirked as he walked in "Want to have a match?" he gestured to the deck of cards and sat himself to the magician.
AN: So ... I obliviously don´t know anything about cooking as you could probably tell, but hey I tried at least. So I hope that chapter didn't really disappoint you too much, after all I took such a long time to upload a new chapter. But sorry, I had quiet a few things to do at home and no really motivation.
I found quiet the good Accelerator - Misaka story and check it out. Off the Deep end its called, probably the first and only story I will ever advertise, because its just that awesome :)
So ... Misaka is OOC, but for a reason as you will later learn, besides that I wanted to try something different. At the moment I will concentrate on bringing the main characters close to each other, but a romantic relationship will not happen for quiet some time ... if ever. Accelerator and Misaka don't strike me as characters in this story to get romantically involved with anyone ... at this point, if ever.
So, expect a upload in around two to three months from now and if you see mistakes on my part, well pm me or leave a review and I will fix them. So see you and thanks for reading.
