Kyandi: And back as promised!
Sinthe: When starting a story, she likes to put up multiple chapters.
Kyandi: It's me hoping that it'll draw people in long enough to get them hooked.
Sinthe: Is it working?
Kyandi: No idea. We'll just have to wait and see.
Sinthe: Then shall we go ahead and get to the chapter?
Kyandi: Yep! Everyone, please enjoy and review!
Sinthe: Kyandi-sama does not own Hunter x Hunter.
Chapter 3 Majority Choice
"Ugh! It's already been two hours!"
If two hours of down time could drive anyone insane, it was certainly doing so to Leorio. Two hours had passed since they had fallen into the tower room and no one else had come across the the last door into the room.
"Maybe they've already all gone down different paths. If it's someone that still hasn't found a door yet, he must be one helluva dumbass." Leorio remarked.
Just then, they heard a knocking noise from above. All four looked up at the ceiling and watched as the last trap door suddenly dipped slightly as if someone had finally found it. The person on the other side tested it again before finally falling through. To the four's surprise, Tompa fell into the room. They explained to him what was going on as Tompa secured his wristband to his wrist.
"Alright...ready." Tompa said.
With the wristband in place, a section of the wall shifted before it started rising, revealing a door behind it.
"Just as I thought, now that all five of us have put our timers on, a door appears." Kurapika said.
They approached the door, finding a sign that simply asked if they wanted to open the door or not and stated what button stood for which choice.
"Looks like it's majority vote from here on. Isn't this kind of question a little too obvious?" Leorio remarked, as they all pressed their answer.
The screen on the sign lit up, showing that while four of them had hit the O for opening the door, someone had hit X. Leorio, somewhat annoyed with that, turned to look at the others.
"Who's the one that pressed X?' he asked.
"Ahh...sorry sorry. Hahaha. I must've pressed the wrong one." Tompa said in a sheepish manner.
This lead to the first of many fights with Tompa, Leorio being annoyed by him hitting the wrong button. Tompa insisted that it had been an accident and Gon, Kurapika, and Killua insisted that Leorio just let it go. They didn't have the time to sit there and fight. Leorio, though not pleased with it, decided they were right and he let the matter go.
They left the room, finding themselves in a hallway that was blocked on both sides by a grate of bars. Another sign on the wall told them to vote on which way they would go; O for right and X for left. They put in their answer with three of them deciding to go right and two of them deciding to go left.
"What the hell? Don't you usually pick left in these situations? I always feel uncomfortable if I don't go left in these kind of situations." Leorio complained.
"There have been studies that have discovered that humans subconsciously choose to go left more often when facing a fork in an unknown path." Kurapika explained.
"I heard about that too." Killua agreed.
"Wait a minute! Then the voting makes even less sense. Which way did you guys choose!?" Leorio asked.
Kurapika and Killua both answered that they had chosen to head right instead of left. Even Tompa revealed that he had chosen right because if it was easier for them to choose left then the examiners would know that and might have made the left path more difficult. This meant that Gon and Leorio had been the ones to choose left, leaving them as the odd men out. But Leorio couldn't aruge the choice. The gate blocking the path to the right opened and they followed the hall.
The hall lead them a room where the only floor space was a small ring that stood in the middle of an open drop. There was no way to proceed since the floor ended a few feet past the doorway from the hall. On the other side of the room, in the opposite doorway, stood five cloaked and cuffed figures. As they watched, the cuffs on one of the figures, was released. The moment they hit the ground, the man under the cloak, reached up to yank the cloak off, revealing himself.
He was a large man with scars over his bald head. He turned to face them across the room.
"We are "ordeals" that have been hired by the judging committee to be your opponents! You are required to fight the five of us here. The fights will be one-on-one and each person can only fight once! You are free to choose the order as you'd like. Since you guys are on the path of majority vote, all you need is three or more wins to leave here! The rules are simple. The method of battle can be decided freely! There are no ties! When one side admits defeat, the other side wins!" the man called. "Now choose if you're going to accept this battle! Vote! If you're going to fight, press O, if you're not going to fight, press X!"
"What? It's another vote!? What a waste of time. If we want to pass, we have to fight anyway, right? So isn't it obvious we'll all press O?" Leorio remarked as they pressed their answering button. "Then again, some stupid moron might press the wrong button."
Tompa knew that was a jab at him. Even after saying he'd let it go, Leorio just couldn't completely it it be. They all put in their answers, the result showing up as all five voting to accept the battles.
"How about it? It's unanimous!" Leorio called across.
"Good. The first one up from our side is me! Now choose who will go first on your side!" the bald man, Bendott, called across.
Tompa decided to step forward, claiming that since the method of battle was to be decided freely, they had no idea what their opponents might have up their sleeves. He insisted that he would be the guinea pig, so to speak, so they could see what their opponent might come up with. They couldn't argue with his logic, so they let him go first.
With the choice made, a walk way slide across the open air between where they stood and the ring. Once Tompa and his opponent stood in the ring, the walk ways retreated back so that no one else could enter the ring and interrupt the battle.
"Shall we decide the terms of the battle? I...suggest a death match!" Bendott announced. "We fight until one side admits defeat or dies."
Tompa agreed to the terms, but no sooner did the match start, Tompa fell to his knees and declared he lost. His four companions all stared at him, dumb struck by just how quickly Tompa had given up. With his admittance of defeat, one point was granted to the opposing team, leaving Leorio more annoyed than he had been during this whole affair. This left it to Leorio, Killua, Gon, and Kurapika to get, at least, three wins.
Leorio grabbed Tompa by his collar the moment he was back with them, a pissed off look on his face.
"You bastard. Now I know for sure. You're just a piece of shit that likes to get in everyone's way." Leorio said.
Tompa grinned, deciding that it was fine to just admit that he was only there to screw with rookies and nothing more.
"You're exactly right! I've always been like this. And I will continue to be like this! That's how I've been able to survive all this time. You know what? Listen carefully. I'm different from you guys. I don't want to become a Hunter. When I take the Hunter exam, I'm not trying to pass. I just need a little stimulation. If you observe first hand how the veterns go about the exam and learn how to avoid danger, you can easily protect yourself. You get a front seat to the moment of death that occurs right in front of your eyes while you're protecting your own life. The carnage of death which claims the dreams of numerous youngsters. The expression on their face the moment their ambitions and hopes get destroyed forever. I've come to enjoy watching those beyond anything else. So eventually, I got actively involved in working to crush the dreams of newbies. I never thought of becoming a Hunter from the very beginning!" Tompa admitted.
Leorio released Tompa, unsure what to say to that. While they had honestly been trying to become Hunters, Tompa had just been getting off on helping to make others fail.
"This is where I back off and bow out. From the third exam, the number of examinees decreases, but the danger level increases. I don't strain myself any further...basically, I don't give a shit when I lose." Tompa added. "But this is the path of majority vote...if you four try hard, you can even win four to one. So don't be too disappointed now."
While angry that Tompa was purposely working against them, Leorio, like his friends, knew that they didn't have time to worry about this. They had to win three matches and still didn't know what the remaining four opponents were capable of. Kurapika insisted that Leorio let it go, saying that he figured out the purpose of their opponents' presence.
"Long term prisoners!?"
"Yeah. Their sentences will be reduced depending on how long they can keep us trapped in this tower. So it would be desirable for them for us to argue with each other." Kurapika said.
"If killing time and tying us down was their purpose, your decision was a correct one." Killua said, looking at Tompa. "That bald man looks like he's ex-military. He's the type that would never say "I lost" in a regular fight even if he was weaker. And if you were weaker, he probably would've tortured you just short of death for the remainder of the time."
"Hahaha! Of course, I had that all calculated as well." Tompa swore, though the sweat that suddenly coated his skin, begged to differ.
"Who'll go next?" Killua asked.
"I'll go!" Gon said, raising his hand.
"You sure you'll be okay?" Killua asked.
"Yup!" Gon replied.
"You're really something. Usually, people would get scared after hearing what I just said." Killua remarked.
"Well, the next person doesn't look so bad." Gon reasoned, pointing to the skinny man that was waiting to enter the ring.
"I don't know." Killua replied.
Whether he looked like mush or not, the man was still a criminal and there was no telling what he was capable of. Killua turned to peer across at the man, studying him as best he could from where he stood.
"Yeah. I think you can relax. He doesn't look like the type who fights physically." Killua remarked.
With that, Gon and the prisoner, Sedokan, entered the ring. Sedokan gave Gon a sly little smile before pressing a hand to his chest.
"As you can see, I'm not too confident in my stamina. Anything like fighting or running around doesn't really suit my style." Sedokan told Gon.
"But that's what I'd rather do, because I'm not too good at using my brain." Gon replied, cluelessly.
It was kind of obvious that he wasn't the brightest bulb in the box.
"Ah? So I've come up with a very simple game that both of us can play." Sedokan continued.
With that said, Sedokan pulled out two candles to show to Gon. One was longer while the other was on the shorter side.
"We both light our candles at the same time and the candle that goes out first, loses. What do you think?" Sedokan asked.
"Okay! Sure! Sounds good to me!" Gon agreed quickly.
"Choose which candle you want to go with. If you want the longer candle, press X. If you want the shorter candle, press O. Choose by majority vote." Sedokan said.
Gon's friends were instantly suspicious of the whole thing. Normally, it would be the obvious choice to go with the longer candle, but this was a criminal they were dealing with. It had to be a trap. Either there was some kind of trap in place with the long candle, or Sedokan was trying to use reverse psychology to get them to choose the shorter candle. Either way, it was an impossible choice.
Kurapika knew that when a person was given two possible choices with obvious differences, they would become suspicious and would be unable to make a fast choice. Then there was the psychological damage one suffered afterward if the choice they made was wrong. It was exactly what Sedokan was counting on. He dropped to sit on the ground, grinning.
"Take all the time you want. It's by majority vote, but you're free to discuss this one. Since we've got plenty of time." Sedokan said.
It was bound to lead to fighting among them if they tried to discuss it. Kurapika decided to nip that in the butt while he could. He turned to Gon and called out across to him.
"Gon! You make the choice." Kurapika called. "We will follow your decision. Choose as you'd like. It's pointless for us to stress about this. We will trust your instincts."
"So I can choose, right? Okay!" Gon replied, turning to Sedokan. "I'll choose the longer one."
"So you choose the long candle, right?" Sedokan asked.
"Yeah. The longer one will probably burn longer, right?" Gon asked, completely confident in his answer.
His friends, however, were sure that he hadn't thought the choice over, at all. But they had said that they would go with whatever choice Gon made, so each of them entered in the O for the long candle. With that, Sedokan tossed the long candle over to Gon.
"You get the long one. And I get the short one." Sedokan said, turning to one of the torches lit at the four corners of the ring. "Then at the same time, we light it."
At the same time, both of them touched the wick of their candles to the flame, lighting them. From there, it should have just been them waiting to see which candle went out first. Gon found out quick that there was a draft blowing up from below the ring. If he wasn't careful, his candle would be blown out by the wind.
"How long would that candle normally burn for?" Killua asked, leaning towards Kurapika.
"Wouldn't it burn for around five or six hours?" Kurapika replied.
"The wind from below is pretty strong. So basically, he'll hardly be able to move during that time." Leorio remarked.
Something strange going on with Gon's candle, caught their attention. Suddenly the flame sputtered and then grew in size, as if someone had just added fuel to the fire. The now enlarged flame began to burn the candle out, faster and faster.
"He must've mixed in something like gun powder to increase the size of the flame so that the candle will burn faster!" Leorio snapped. "Look! It's getting smaller by the second! At that rate, it won't even last two or three minutes! God dammit! The longer candle was the trap!"
Sedokan laughed lowly to himself. The truth was, he had prepared four candles; two long and two short. While one long and one short candle were normal candles, the other two were soaked in oil, so no matter whether Gon had picked long or short, Sedokan would have given him a candle soaked in oil. Sedokan was sure he had won.
Then Gon grinned.
"If the flame is stronger then it would mean that it's also more resistant to the wind, right?" Gon asked, sitting his candle down on the ground.
Before Sedokan could question what Gon was doing, the boy rocketed forward towards him, closing the distance between them quickly. Gon, once in front of him, simply blew out Sedokan's candle and then gave the man a victory sign, his grin wide.
"I won!" Gon declared.
With Gon's victory, it was tied at one win each. Leorio was sure that they could count on him and Kurapika to win their matches and that they were home free. Kurapika volunteered to go next. His opponent was a big, bulky guy named Majitani, that looked like his face had been run through a meat grinder and had, then, been poorly put back together. He even had little hearts tattooed on his chest.
"Have you seen the head and body of this guy?" Leorio asked, concerned for Kurapika.
Kurapika, though, didn't seemed all that concerned when faced with the large and misshapen man before him. The man then tapped his chest where the hearts were tattooed.
"I've already killed nineteen people, but that was annoying because it's not a good number. I'm happy!" he said, his lips curving into a grin. "For me, the only things that excite me are the fights in which we risk our life. I don't like making the things in half! I need blood! Bodies! Pain!"
Still, Kurapika remained undaunted in the face of this man. His next words actually seemed to surprise Majitani.
"That's okay for me. But if you could decide the fight's rules it would be fine." Kurapika replied in a neat and calm tone.
"Hmm, yes...here's what I suggest; A fight to the death! We fight until the other fighter admits defeat or until he dies! But...supposing that you assume you fail during the fight...I can't guarantee I'll stop hitting!" Majitani replied.
"Okay. Fine for me."
The still calm tone of Kurapika's tone was enough to make his opponent wonder if he was stupid or something. Most people, upon meeting Majitani, were scared, but Kurapika didn't seem the least bit effected by it as he removed his tabard and asked if they should go ahead and start.
"Wait! I forgot something. We can't use weapons. It's an hands only fight. Even if we're members of the jury, we're still prisoners. We aren't allowed to use weapons." Majitani said, stopping Kurapika.
Seeing his point, Kurapika pulled out the attached bokken that was his preferred weapon. Without any hesitation, he threw them aside before proceeding to pull out three knives and two shuriken, tossing them aside as well.
Majitani had been sure that Kurapika had weapons on him, but by the way Kurapika easily tossed them aside, it didn't look like he really relied on them. But it didn't matter. Majitani had two trump cards. One in his right arm and the other on his back.
Leorio and Gon, both, were concerned for Kurapika and his well being, but Killua was pretty sure that Kurapika had nothing to fear from Majitani. Kurapika seemed to be able to sense that as well. In hopes to put some fear in Kurapika, Majitani jumped towards him, pulling his right fist back to punch. Kurapika jumped back, Majitani punching the ring floor instead. The stone floor shattered under the power of his punch, surprising Kurapika. Kurapika slide across the floor a few feet, putting him behind Majitani as he stood.
He froze when his eyes landed on the tattoo on Majitani's back. There, tattooed on his right shoulder blade, was a twelve legged spider. Most of them recognized the tattoo instantly as the brand of the Phantom Troope. Majitani honestly believed he had Kurapika fooled, that Kurapika would no longer want to fight him out of fear of going up against a member of the Phantom Troope.
He was wrong.
"Hmm, well? You're pretty damn silent right now? I'm Majitani, one of the four kings of the Troope. Take my first attack for some kind of introduction. If you wish to renounce to the fight, it's now that you have to tell it, because at this moment of the fight, I'm still..."
Majitani trailed off in what he was saying when he noticed the killer aura that seemed to be rolling off Kurapika in waves. He stiffened when he noticed that Kurapika's eyes had started to turn a bright shade of crimson. He stared at Kurapika, taking a step back away from him. And then Kurapika seemed to vanish before his eyes. One moment he was there, and the next, he was right in front of Majitani, grabbing him, roughly, by the face.
Majitani tried to say that he gave, that he lost, but before he could get it out of his mouth, Kurapika slugged him hard across the face, slamming his head into the ring floor.
"Three advices...One...on the real sign, the members's number is written in the center of the spider. Two...they've already killed so many people that it would be impossible to count the number. Three...don't ever usurp again the name of the Troope, because next time, I'll kill you without hesitation." Kurapika said before grabbing his tabard and weapons and returning to his friends.
"Are you ok, Kurapika?" Leorio asked.
"Yes, I've had nothing." Kurapika replied.
"No, what I mean is...do we risk something approaching you?" Leorio asked.
"I've understood since the beginning that I didn't risk anything against him. I knew also that his tattoo was an imitation, but after seeing that spider, I've seen everything in red. In fact...this happens each time I see a simple spider. I lose my mind and become unrecognizable." Kurapika answered.
Leorio and Gon, who had both been traveling with Kurapika since they all got on the ship together, both felt like that was something that Kurapika probably should have told them from the beginning. Especially since they could have seen a spider anywhere along the road to the Hunter exam. Kurapika dropped to sit on the ground, somewhat sulking in the after math of his actions.
"This certainly means that all my hatred hasn't gone away. And I should rather be delighted..." he remarked more to himself.
Gon, out of ear shot of Kurapika, turned to Leorio, speaking behind a hand.
"We're gonna avoid showing him spiders, aren't we?" Gon asked.
"Yep." Leorio replied without any hesitation.
If that was how Kurapika was going to act in the face of a spider, than they would avoid it at all cost. None of them wanted to get hurt because of Kurapika's reaction to the sight of spiders.
Leorio stepped up then, to take the next match, only to have it pointed out to him that Kurapika's match wasn't over since they had agreed on a death match and Majitani was still alive and had been unable to get out that he forfeited the match. Meaning that the match was still going on. When Leorio told Kurapika to just finish it, Kurapika refused, saying that he couldn't hit an unconscious man.
Leorio tried to use the majority vote to decide on whether Kurapika would finish it or not, finding himself drawn into the whole trap of majority vote, which only caused a huge rift to basically be opened between him and the others. So they ended up sitting there, waiting for Majitani to wake up on his own.
During that time, Hisoka was the first to reach the bottom of the tower with only six hours and seventeen minutes lost.
After a few hours, Killua started to wonder if Majitani might, after all, be dead. From where they stood, and with the low lighting, Leorio couldn't tell.
"We'd like to go and see if he's still alive! How can we believe he'll open an eye sometime? He might already be dead!" Leorio called across.
"I told you a little while ago. He just fainted." replied one of the two remaining prisoners still cloaked.
"It's already been several hours! We can't be content with what you're telling us!" Leorio snapped.
"Well, in that case, would you like to bet? Is he dead? Or alive? Let's bet on it."
And with those words, started Leorio's match with Lelut, the only female among their opponents. Her proposal of a match was simple. Each side would have a total of fifty hours in which to use as bets. She and Leorio would take turns suggesting bets. If they lost the bet, whatever time they bet would be subtracted from their fifty hours and added to their opponents. The first side to hit zero hours, would lose. If Leorio lost, then the amount of time in which they had to reach the bottom of the tower, would be reduced by fifty hours. If Lelut lost, then her prison sentence would be increased by fifty years.
Leorio, though Kurapika protested, accepted. The first bet...whether Majitani was alive or not. Leorio bet ten hours that he was alive. Leorio check Majitani, checking his pulse and even opening his eyes to examine them. Since Majitani was alive, Leorio won the bet. He won the next bet too, when he bet that Majitani was only faking being unconscious. When that was revealed via Leorio threatening to drop him off the side of the ring, Majitani declared he had enough and that he gave up, making Kurapika the winner of his match and bringing their score up to two wins.
But with the next bet, Leorio lost ten hours.
Lelut suggested they bet on her gender; male or female. If he didn't believe her, Leorio was free to examine her body to find out whether she told the truth or not. Of course, just so he could examine her body, he bet she was male, losing him the bet. The last bet was who would win Rock, Paper, Sisscors. Leorio lost, meaning they now lost fifty hours off the time they had left to escape the tower.
This left them with only one match left in which they could win; Killua verses Johness.
Leorio instantly felt his blood run cold. Johness was a serial killer, known simply as Johness the Cutter. He had no particular logic to his kills and didn't care about age, or sex, but all one hundred and forty-six people he killed, were reduced to nothing more than shreds of flesh under his bare hands. All bodies were ripped into, no less than fifty parts and it was all done with his bare hands.
Leorio was sure that Killua was done for, though Killua wasn't concerned in the least. He knew he didn't have anything to fear and, to the great shock, and even some horror, of everyone there, not two minutes passed before Killua, effortlessly, ripped Johness' still beating heart out of his chest.
With that, they won and were able to pass the prisoners and move on. They were lead to a small room supplied with places to sit and relax, a shelf of books, and other small things. They would spend the fifty hours Leorio lost, there.
Now to just waste away the next fifty hours.
-0-0-0-0-
Four Hours Earlier
Base Of The Tower
Hisoka sat in the room that was the finish line, waiting to see who would be the next to complete the exam. He had been sitting there, by himself, for a good two hours, just messing with his cards to pass his time. Just then, one of the doors opened. Hisoka looked up, expecting Gittarakuru, or one of the other stronger examinees he had seen. Instead, walking in through the doorway, was a person he didn't really remember having seen.
"Applicant number seven, Sinthe, second to finish. Time lapsed...eight hours and nine minutes."
Hisoka raised an eyebrow as the hooded head of Sinthe, turned in his direction. He stared at Hisoka for a moment before silently turning and walking away from him to the opposite side of the room, where he dropped easily to sit with his back to the wall. Hisoka eyed this small, cloaked, figure, intrigued. He didn't really remember having registered this applicant's existence.
He didn't sense anything dangerous from this person, but, now that he was paying attention to him, he could sense something...different about him. Something that made Hisoka want to over look him as if he was nothing more than a shadow. No one paid attention to a shadow. It made Hisoka even more interested in this small person. With a grin on his face, he shuffled his cards.
"Care to play a game to pass the time?" he offered.
That hooded face turn towards him. He could just tell that Sinthe was looking at him. When Sinthe spoke, the voice was low and soft, the kind of voice Hisoka would expect from a person as small looking at Sinthe.
"No, thank you. I don't play nice."
Hisoka's grin grew at that simply stated reply. He chuckled lowly to himself.
"Neither do I." he admitted.
"So I have seen."
With that, Sinthe grew silent, not saying another word, or making another sound for the next four hours. They were still sitting there in silence when another door opened, admitting Gittarakuru. This placed Gittarakuru in third place with a total of twelve hours and two minutes having lapsed. Right behind him came Hanzo, placing fourth with twelve hours and three minutes having lapsed.
Hanzo, seeing that Hisoka, Sinthe, and Gittarakuru were already there, sulked since he had hoped to be the first one to the bottom of the tower. Though there wasn't anything he could really do about it. Gittarakuru ignored the ninja and turned his eyes towards where Sinthe sat on the opposite side of the room.
"Interesting. Someone else got here before me." he remarked.
"Isn't it?" Hisoka replied, chuckling. "He's not much company though."
Sinthe, across the room, chose to ignore that comment. Looking down at the timer still around his wrist, he saw that there was still more then fifty-five hours left to go. Might as well try to get some rest while he could.
It was going to be a long fifty-five hours.
END
Kyandi: Yeah...I don't think I could sit in the same room as Hisoka for four hours and not do or say something to try to mess with him.
Sinthe: Do you want to die?
Kyandi: Not really.
Sinthe: Then it's best you don't do that.
Kyandi: True enough. Though I have a feeling Hisoka would just laugh at me for trying to mess with him.
Sinthe: That seems like something he'd do.
Kyandi: Yep. Anyway, everyone please enjoy and review!
Sinthe: We'll return as soon as possible.
Kyandi: Bye-bye!
