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"Care to participate in my little game of examiner, you three?" The magician asked, slanted gold-colored eyes zeroed in on them as he walked past the freshest corpse nonchalantly.

How many has he killed? Asterra thought. Ordinary people couldn't walk past a corpse in such a casual manner.

The three lowered their stance and gritted their teeth as the distance between them and Hisoka decreased.

"Leorio, Asterra," Kurapika started. "On my signal, run in different directions."

"What?" Leorio hissed. Asterra looked to Kurapika.

"Hisoka is more experienced than any of us in real combat. Even if the three of us attacked him at once, we wouldn't stand a chance against him. We can't afford to squander time in a pointless fight like this one!"

Asterra looked back at the advancing magician and murmured to Kikiri. Then she reached into her pocket and her fingers curled around her pocket knife.

Leorio and Kurapika might not have had experience, but she had years of Training under her belt. And all of it was screaming at her to stand her ground.

With a quick flick of the wrist another playing card appeared in Hisoka's hand. The magician neared the ring of corpses, and the distance between the parties continued to decrease, step by agonizing step. He came to a stop and raised his hand.

"Now!" Kurapika yelled.

The applicants and one Dokujo ran off with the splashing of mud, heading straight for the trees. However Hisoka made no effort to sprint after them; instead, he just mused, "I see…that's a wise decision you've made."

A dark chuckle filled the clearing, and it made the scavengers that had come to feast on the fresh corpses scamper off squeaking in terror. Hisoka then turned to the figure who still stood in the clearing. "But if that's the case…what are you still doing here?"

Sea green eyes met golden ones defiantly and Asterra replied, "Can't pass a test you don't take. Besides, I don't have a third eye."

"Third eye…now where have I heard that saying before?" Hisoka put a hand to his chin. After a few moments of contemplating he continued, "Ah, I know; you're a Resca, aren't you?"

Asterra narrowed her eyes and replied, "I am." Who was this magician, exactly? Her clan was a rather obscure one by international standards, often labeled as an "ethnic minority" by scholars. Outside the realm of academia the clan was known only in a few select circles. Only a handful of non-clansmen could recognize one of her clan's Sayings, like the one she had just alluded to—"Turn not your back on an enemy unless you have a third eye on your spine."

"How did you know?" she asked.

"I've heard some Resca mercenaries say the same thing before."

That made sense. A good portion of her clansmen were mercenaries and rather successful ones at that, from the way they never seemed to be starved for job offers. "I see. Guess you've been around then." Asterra's calm reply was followed by a soft click and a blurring of her arm. Hisoka cocked his head to the side and a pocket knife with its blade drawn out hissed by his ear. The weapon thudded into the mud a few feet away.

Hisoka smirked. "Goodness. That's rather rude of you, isn't it? Throwing a knife at me during a civil conversation."

There was no answer from Asterra, and by the time Hisoka's head had returned to its normal position she was within arm's length of him. Her arm blurred again and a straight whistled through the air, heading right for Hisoka's gut. The magician took a step to the side to avoid it. Momentum carried her body forward into another step but it didn't stop her eyes from trailing her opponent. She saw him in her peripherals for a moment, then the magician disappeared from sight as Asterra's foot hit the ground.

"Over here~" Asterra whirled around towards Hisoka's voice to see a black boot heading right for her chest. The boot was too fast: her arms wouldn't be fast enough to be of any use.

But gravity would.

So the girl leaned back and let the weight of her head drag her body downwards. Hisoka's boot sailed over her chest and chin with only inches to spare.

Asterra let herself continue to fall backwards and caught herself on her palms. Momentum carried her into a backflip and her foot sped towards Hisoka's face.

She didn't see the look of delight that lit up Hisoka's face.

For a moment, it looked like her foot was going to connect with his chin—

—but she didn't feel the jarring of heel slamming into the chin bone.

Instead she felt her foot sail through air. She didn't see that it had actually sliced through Hisoka's face like a knife through butter; she didn't see how the tall man seemed to dissolve into the air like smoke.

What the-? The girl landed in a crouch and stood up. Before she could look up, though, the green of the marsh grass was replaced with white and pink.

A fist buried itself in her stomach with the force of a freight train running at full speed. A sharp gasp escaped Asterra as all the air in her body was punched out of her.

The Resca pulled her arms in and went bouncing and barrel-rolling across the clearing. Sticks and leaves tangled their way into her hair; swamp mud splattered her face and clothes.

Her world finally stopped spinning as came to a stop on her side, ear to the sodden ground and breathless. She curled up into a fetal position, stomach throbbing, and coughed once, twice, thrice. Her breakfast threatened to come up with each cough; she could taste the vomit at the back of her throat.

But her mind and pride screamed at her to stand up, to fight. To not just lie there and be trampled like some insignificant insect. So the Resca gripped the grass and snapped back up, ignoring her abdomen's pleas to not do so lest it got pummeled again.

Hisoka didn't move for a few moments and he had an expression of somebody contemplating something. Asterra thought about attacking but before she could act again he mused, "I guess a little experiment couldn't hurt."

Experiment? Confusion clouded Asterra's mind for a moment. Then she saw Hisoka's posture change, saw it tipping forward into a lunge, and readied herself. Visualizations of what kind of attack could be coming next flitted through her mind.

But Hisoka's next actions were cut short by the sound of somebody walking towards them. Both opponents turned their heads toward the source of the sound, which was a tall silhouette walking towards them through the mist. In the silhouette's hand was a sturdy branch.

A distinct "oh shit" feeling filled Asterra as Leorio stepped into view. What was he doing here?

"I just can't do it," Leorio said as he stopped.

"Don't be an idiot, Leorio!" Asterra yelled. "Kurapika told you to run, didn't he?!"

"Look who's talking! He told you to run too!"

"The one who's talking has six years of combat training under her belt. I can take care of myself," Asterra shot back. She kept a single eye on Hisoka, her body limber and ready to act in response to the magician's next move. "Look, this isn't your fight; it's mine. I'll handle it. So get out of here before you get yourself killed!"

"No," Leorio shook his head. "Even if this isn't my fight…I can't just run away"—his grip on the branch tightened—"without doing anything!"

With that Leorio lunged at Hisoka with a roar, branch raised high.

Idiot!

Hisoka turned to his right to face the incoming Leorio. But after doing so the magician just stood there, flatfooted. Then he added, "Mmm, I adore that look too."

This couldn't end well.

Hisoka was going to dodge this strike. It was the easiest thing to do and Asterra couldn't imagine him doing anything else in response to such a strongly telegraphed attack. In addition, Leorio was fully committed, which meant that it was going to be impossible for him to react immediately after missing the magician. The result: Leorio was going to be exposed and defenseless to any and all of Hisoka's attacks for a good half to one second. Asterra knew Hisoka's speed from his earlier display; it wouldn't even take half a second for him to land the killing blow.

Leorio swung his branch down hard and it passed right through the magician. An illusion, Asterra thought. That must have been what he used that time.

The magician dissolved into the air; the branch hit the ground and took Leorio with it. It was impossible for him to change direction, but his head could still turn to see that Hisoka had reappeared behind him.

Hisoka's hands neared Leorio, his long, pale fingers ready to curl around the green necktie that fluttered in the air. But they stopped for a moment as Hisoka saw an orange and white blur shoot towards him.

The hand had only stopped for a moment, but that was all the time Asterra needed.

The girl slammed shoulder-first into Leorio's side with a force that sent Leorio bouncing across the clearing farther than she had intended. Gravity dragged her downwards and Asterra let it lead her into a roll that allowed her to take a squatting position between Leorio and Hisoka.

"Helping out a friend?" He asked.

Asterra bit her lip at the word. No, Leorio wasn't a friend. He hadn't been in her life long enough to be one. Besides, she didn't need friends; she needed people who would help her pass this exam. "He's just more use to me alive than dead," she replied simply.

"More use?!" Leorio fumed. "What kind of wording is that?!"

"My my, you're a cold one, aren't you?" Hisoka asked, then came straight at her. This time her arms could make it; they threw themselves in front of her face to take the blow. A nanosecond later a tremendous force crashed into her arms and sent her skidding across the clearing on the balls of her feet.

Asterra came to a stop and fell to her knees. She started falling forward and her arms flashed out to prevent herself from faceplanting into the mud. Pain raced through the limbs as her body weight fell upon them and the Resca winced. If she survived this fight, her arms would be badly bruised tomorrow.

"You…what are you…?" Hisoka asked, curiosity in his voice.

Asterra looked up at Hisoka. "A human…?" she replied questioningly.

Hisoka put a hand on his hip. "I know that the Resca are known for their strength and sturdiness. But that kick should've broken at least one of your arms."

Asterra's eyes widened as she stood up. What?

"You seem fine though; I wonder why?" the magician mused. He cocked his head. "Do you have gauntlets under those sleeves, perhaps?"

She had nothing of the sort.

Was Hisoka being serious, or was this some sick psychological trick that was supposed to throw her off?

The redheaded magician walked towards her and Asterra put her fists in front of her face. Don't think about that. Focus on the present. Focus on what you can do now.

Another smile lit up Hisoka's face in response to the girl's action and he regarded Asterra's expression. The girl's narrowed eyes shone with a feral, defiant light and her lips were pressed into a thin line. She was clearly outclassed by him—she must have known that by now—but her eyes told him that she wasn't going to go down easy.

"That is a delicious expression," he murmured, his tongue running over his lips. The words, his tone, and his actions slithered into her mind, awakening a fear that crawled up Asterra's spine in the form of chills. The hairs on the back of her neck rose.

Respect all, fear none. She mentally repeated the Resca saying like a mantra but it didn't help her stave off the fear that made her insides go cold. Something was wrong with this Hisoka person and the air surrounding him. The Resca couldn't see anything, yet she felt a sort of impending doom hanging in the air that was so strong and heavy it seemed solid. One moment it felt like a stage curtain made of heavy cloth was weighing onto her shoulders, pushing her down into the ground. Then the malice changed shape and it was like there was some creature under Hisoka's command, something invisible and huge that was currently looming over her and holding a claw to her throat. She put a hand to larynx. Her fingers felt nothing, save for perspiration and a rushing pulse.

Hisoka came within ten feet of her and Asterra looked up at him. She had to act, but her muscles had tensed up at some point and now they refused to move.

Move, Asterra!

Her body didn't respond.

Move, dammit!

Hisoka reached a point six feet away from her and a streak of red-brown launched itself from the grass.

A sense of relief filled Asterra as she saw the red-brown spiral up the magician's body. Kikiri, you couldn't have come at a better time. It was over-this tactic never failed. All Kikiri had to do was bite for five seconds and even Hisoka would fall to his knees, paralyzed. And that would be the end of the fight.

Or so she thought until Hisoka's pale fingers curled around the red-brown cord spiraling up his body.

"Oh? What's this?" Hisoka murmured, studying what writhing thing he was grasping in his hands. Kikiri snarled and snapped at Hisoka but failed to sink his teeth into any flesh. "Hmm, just a filthy Dokujo. How boring." And with that his grip on the Dokujo tightened.

Kikiri screeched in a way that Asterra never wanted to hear again.

"No, stop! Stop it, you bastard!" she screamed at Hisoka.

Her words fell on deaf ears; Hisoka's hand continued to clench mercilessly around the Dokujo, and its nails dug into the creature's skin.

Alarm bells shrilled in her head, each tolling one syllable at a deafening loudness. No no no no no-

"STOP IT!" The cold iciness that had frozen her muscles and bound her legs to the ground vaporized, sublimated by panic and hatred and fury and the fear of losing the Dokujo that was like a brother to her. Scarlet curtained her vision and Asterra lunged at the magician with a desperate roar.

"Asterra, wait!" Leorio yelled.

Hisoka looked up from the screaming and writhing Dokujo impassively and took in the girl rushing at him, her eyes burning with the intent to kill.

"You know, that look suits you." Hisoka raised his free hand to strike her with enough strength to knock her back but not enough to deter her from coming at him again with that look on her face.

For the magician loved those kinds of looks, because the thrills they gave him made him feel so, so alive.

The girl neared, hand pulled back in a telegraphed punch that went against everything she had been taught.

Hisoka started to swing h-

CRACK!

Hisoka's face snapped back as a red blur smacked into his temple. His grip on Kikiri loosened and the Dokujo fell out of his grasp.

Asterra took advantage of the distraction to dive for the Dokujo. She caught him in one arm and cradled him against her chest. After her hold on the creature was solidified she then scrabbled away to a safe distance using her three other limbs. A downwards look revealed Kikiri gasping for breath with a panicked look in his eyes. Asterra felt along the Dokujo's flank, checking for anything-a bump, a dent in the wrong place-that would signify broken bones. She felt nothing, though. "You okay, Kikiri?"

The creature nodded as he continued to wheeze and rasp.

Asterra cried in relief and hugged the Dokujo, even though being squeezed again was the last thing the Dokujo wanted right now. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she whispered over and over like a broken record.

The red blur went flying back and to its small, gasping owner's silhouette and the fog cleared a little.

"Gon?!" Leorio exclaimed. Asterra looked up from Kikiri to see that it was really the dark-haired boy, standing between a couple of trees. Leorio's briefcase lay on the ground near him.

"I made it…" Gon gasped between shuddering breaths.

Made it? Had Gon somehow found out that they were being attacked by Hisoka? Questions swirled in Asterra's brain, her mind hungry for details despite the fact that this was not the time to interrogate the boy. How? And how did he know this was the place?

Hisoka shook his head and turned to where the strike had come from. "Not bad, little boy," he smiled.

Gon's narrowed eyes glared back at the magician. His grip on the fishing rod tightened.

"Is that a fishing rod?" Hisoka asked, eyes fixated on the small boy who had actually managed to hit him. The look on the child's face, although not filled with killing intent, made his blood sing in a delightful way as well. "What a fascinating weapon." He sauntered towards Gon, hand outstretched. "Can I have a closer look?"

That was when Leorio, whom Hisoka had turned his back on, roared. Asterra looked up to see Leorio rushing at the magician again, his branch raised.

The young man didn't have a chance. Hisoka moved at that blurring, impossible-to-see speed again and a moment later there was a resounding CRACK! When Hisoka was visible again, he was in the ending stance of an uppercut and Leorio was spinning through the air. There was a blur as his teashades flew in the other direction.

Leorio landed back first with a thud and didn't get up. He didn't even twitch.

Asterra looked to him, wondered if he was dead. She crept her way towards him, with Kikiri in one hand and an eye on the fight that was currently going on.

There was a yell and Gon appeared behind Hisoka, fishing rod over his head. The boy then swung the rod downwards.

Asterra inhaled sharply and held her breath, wishing for the blow to connect. For a moment, it looked like it had. But instead of the crack of metal against bone there was a wooshing sound as the fishing pole passed through another smoke lookalike.

Gon landed on his knees near where the lookalike used to be, a look of shock on his face. His head swiveled, eyes combing the fog for the red-haired magician.

"You came to help your friends?" Hisoka asked as he flitted into sight behind Gon. The boy almost jumped out of his boots, then recovered and leaped away, landing lightly on his feet. But Hisoka had somehow managed to get behind him again with that superhuman agility to murmur in Gon's ear, "Such a good boy."

Gon spun around on the balls of his feet again, swinging his fishing pole in a wide arc. But the weapon only sliced through another smoke lookalike.

Hisoka reappeared a couple of feet behind Gon. "And that expression is very nice, too…"

Gon leaped away from Hisoka, swinging his weapon wildly with each leap and hoping that the one of his strikes would land on Hisoka again. The red ball flew through the air, towards Hisoka. But the magician simply tilted his head left and right and the red ball sailed past him harmlessly. "Nice…very nice…" Hisoka murmured as he dodged the attacks. A smile lit up his face. "I'm getting really excited now…"

Gon narrowed his eyes as a new idea sprung into his mind. He swung his fishing rod downwards so that the ball thudded into the ground and kicked up loose mud. While Hisoka's attention was on the temporary wall of earth, Gon used his own superhuman agility to sneak up behind him. The boy raised his fishing rod with a roar.

Before he could do swing down, though, Hisoka's hand flashed in front of Gon. Long, pale fingers zigzagged past the fishing rod and wrapped around the boy's soft throat.

Gon choked in shock and his eyes widened. Then he started to writhe. The fishing rod fell to the ground with a clatter and the boy's hands gripped Hisoka's wrists in a futile attempt to somehow make the hand release him. His breaths came in shorter gasps as Hisoka's grip tightened.

Asterra, who had reached Leorio, set Kikiri down gently and put her middle and index finger to Leorio's jawline. Blood thumped steadily beneath the pads of her fingers and she breathed in relief. He was alive, albeit out cold with one hell of a bruise on his cheek.

Gasping sounds reached her ears and she looked toward the source of the sound. Her eyes stopped on the sight of Hisoka holding Gon by the throat at a point high above the ground. Gon's legs fumbled for ground that was more than a foot beneath them.

The sight of Gon fighting for his breath should have been the thing that made her act.

But it wasn't.

He's distracted. Asterra shot up from her crouch. Gon had landed a strike when he had caught Hisoka unawares; she could do the same thing too.

The Resca took a step and her foot hit something. A downwards glance revealed a penknife, different from hers, in the grass near Leorio's foot. Perhaps Leorio had lost it when Hisoka had sent him flying.

But in this situation, ownership didn't matter; what was important was that she had a weapon. She scooped it up and slid the blade out as she sprinted towards Hisoka's back. Within the seconds it took for her to reach him, she fixed her fingers around the hilt of the blade into a reverse grip—the grip best fit for downward stabbing—and aimed for the jugular blood vessels that channeled blood up and down Hisoka's neck.

Gon saw a blur of orange and white rush towards him and in the next moment Asterra seemed to materialize behind Hisoka. Her arm was raised, a knife glinted in her hand, and her eyes were hard and unflinching. The Resca thrust down the weapon—

—but the knife never bit into flesh.

The magician didn't even turn to face her, which was the reason why a too-focused Asterra didn't see his counterattack coming. But she definitely felt it as Hisoka's free hand struck her in the jaw. Stars blossomed in her vision and her world spun. She hit the ground hard and the knife flew out of her hand as she bounced across the clearing.

By the time the Resca had come to a stop, her starry world had gone dark and her body had gone limp.

Hisoka paid no mind to the second person he had knocked unconscious within a five minute period; instead he peered into Gon's face, whispering, "How wonderful…" Gon grimaced defiantly and his nails dug into Hisoka's skin. Hisoka's face split into an even wider grin and his eyes seemed to roll into the back of his head. "Such a lovely look..."

Gon gasped once more, then his body finally succumbed to oxygen deficiency. His struggling breaths stopped. His limbs went limp. His head sagged forward.

Then something unexpected happened.

Hisoka's expression turned from one of ecstasy to one of alarm, and the hand around Gon's throat hurriedly uncurled. The boy fell to the floor and landed on all fours.

Gon felt the pressure on his throat disappear and he hurriedly breathed in deeply to replenish oxygen. But he breathed too quickly and too deeply and as a result began to cough.

Hisoka then squatted by the coughing boy and reassured, "Don't worry."

Gon looked up at the magician, a question in his eyes.

"I haven't killed either of your friends." Hisoka smiled. Gon glanced at Leorio and Asterra who were both lying in the grass. Then he saw Asterra twitch and looked back to Hisoka.

The magician continued, "I didn't have a reason to, since they both passed. And for the record, you do too." A confused Gon, who didn't know how to react to this turn of events, continued to look back at Hisoka who said, "Grow up and become a fine Hunter, all right?"

There was a chirping sound from Hisoka's trouser pocket and the magician took out a cellphone. He hit the talk button.

"Hisoka, you should get back here," a garbled voice suggested. "We're nearly at the Phase Two site."

"Got it; I'll be right there." Hisoka turned off the phone and stood up. "It's always good to have friends."

The magician made his way over to where Leorio lay and slung the unconscious applicant over his shoulder. He then picked up Kikiri in the other hand. "You can find your own way back, right?"

Gon nodded once.

"That's a good boy," Hisoka smiled, then walked off. The fog curled around and enveloped him until he was completely obscured from view.

Gon was frozen that position for a while, just staring in the direction Hisoka had headed. His breaths shuddered, and beads of perspiration dripped from his skin. And his body wouldn't stop trembling.

He had nearly died.

He. Had. Nearly. Died.

The words swam through his head like disoriented fish, sluggishly making their way through a confused mind to the part of the brain where realizations took place.

The fact that he had just gone through a near-death experience explained the fear that chained his body in place. It explained why it felt like his muscles had turned to stone. It explained the shortness of his breaths and the trembling.

But it didn't explain the other emotion—a thrill-that made his blood sing and heart race even faster.

He stayed in that position, confused at the way he felt.

Kurapika's voice broke his trance-like state.

"Gon!" Kurapika called through the clearing. "Are you all right?"

Gon looked behind him to see the blonde applicant running through the clearing. The boy gulped and nodded in response as the blonde kneeled by him. Kurapika breathed out in relief and noticed that Gon was looking at something. The teen followed his gaze to see Asterra lying in the grass.

Kurapika made his way towards the girl. "Asterra! Hey!"

The sound of somebody calling her name floated into Asterra's ears and she opened her eyes slightly. She saw blonde hair and grey eyes through hazy vision. "Kura…pika?" she asked, then winced as pain flashed through her jaw. She put a hand up to her face and opened her mouth experimentally. It wasn't dislocated or broken, but it still hurt to move. That was going to bruise nicely.

"Are you all right?" Kurapika asked.

She struggled up into a sitting position. "I'll be fine. Nothing a little ice can't handle."

"Unfortunately we have none of it." He offered her his hand and she took it. "Can you run?" he asked as she stood up.

"I'll manage." Then her eyes widened and she whirled around.

"What?" Kurapika asked.

She looked at him with a face drained of color. "Where's Kikiri?"

"Hisoka took him and Leorio." Gon then saw the look on Asterra's face and added hurriedly, "Don't worry, I don't think Hisoka will hurt them, since you and Leorio passed."

Asterra bit her lip regardless. The idea of Kikiri being taken away by a psychopath who had been crushing him a few minutes ago didn't sit well with her. Then the girl realized that her pocket lacked the familiar weight of her pocket knife. She looked around again.

"Something else missing?" Kurapika asked.

"My pocket knife…" she replied. "And Leorio's…"

"I'll go find it," Gon offered, his voice a little flatter than usual.

"Seriously?" she asked. "They could be anywhere in this clearing."

"Leave it to me." The boy dashed off, leaving Asterra and Kurapika in the clearing.

The newfound peace made Asterra's body start to relax and the adrenaline that had kept her going until now broke down. And now Hisoka was gone and she was in a safer environment than before, a foreign realization dawned on her.

We could have died.

The thought had passed through her mind during the fight, but adrenaline and her survival instinct had kicked in and prevented her brain from fully comprehending the statement. But now that adrenaline and the courage that came with it was gone, and in their place was a cold knot that made her sick to the stomach.

We could have died.

The trembling began in her hands and it crept up her arms, then entered her torso and trickled down to her feet. Eventually her whole body was shaking, as if she had hypothermia. An invisible hand clamped around her throat.

Hisoka could have killed me and Kikiri.

Now her breaths were shuddering uncontrollably; she felt lightheaded. Asterra gripped her left arm in an attempt to still her shaking body. But her body refused to stop its trembling as her mind continued to flounder about in this new type of fear that she had never experienced before.

Kurapika looked over to the Resca that was staring into the ground. "Asterra?"

The girl just continued to stare into the ground.

"Asterra? Are you sure you're okay?" Kurapika took a step closer and saw that the girl's body was shaking all over, heard the shortness of her breaths. He could only see her face in profile but he saw the colorlessness of it and how wide and terrified her eyes were. He recognized these symptoms-he had read them in a medical book he had picked up on a whim.

All these symptoms were those of a panic attack.

He had seen a much milder version of it in Gon a little earlier, but the boy had quickly recovered from it. Perhaps Asterra was more prone to them than him.

Asterra saw Kurapika near her from the corner of her eye.

Don't let him see you like this.

Asterra turned away from Kurapika and dug her nails into her arm, but the pain wasn't enough to snap her out of her current state of mind. But the voice of her reptile brain did manage to reach her through the suffocating fear.

Don't break down now. You can't break down now. It's too early in the exam and you're not in a safe enough place.

Focus on something else. Do something simple.

Trembling hands rose up to her hair.

That's it. Fix your hair, the voice encouraged. Just because you feel like shit doesn't mean you have to look like it. And while you're at it, answer Kurapika too.

"I'm fine," she replied too quickly. Her fingers fumbled with her hair tie to take out what remained of her side ponytail—the majority of her hair hung free, torn out of the ponytail by all of the rolling around she had done. A good chunk of it was matted with mud.

"You don't look fine," Kurapika said back. Then he continued carefully in an even voice, "You know you're safe now, right? That Hisoka's gone?"

Joke back to him. It'll throw him off.

"Wouldn't be fixing my hair if he were still here."

Kurapika didn't smile, as the reply was said in too shaky of a voice to be considered a joke. "Why don't you sit down?" he suggested.

Sitting down sounded like a good idea at the moment. It would save her the embarrassment of toppling over as the result of her knees buckling.

The Resca sat down. Kurapika sat down as well, though he sat with his back to her to give her some privacy. He thought about saying more reassuring things, but that was bound to get old after a while for the both of them. Then he remembered how Asterra had said that her reason for becoming a Hunter was to get access to vast pools of information.

Well, not all information required a Hunter License to be heard.

So the Kurta started saying things he had read in books - he pointed out trees, described how some weather patterns were formed, the history of past civilizations, etc. - in a casual, conversational tone while keeping an eye out for signs of danger. It was said that emotions were contagious; he hoped that Asterra would "catch" his calm and get over her panic attack.

Asterra never really turned her head to Kurapika to signal that she was listening; instead she remained engrossed in the task that she had set out for herself. Her fingers found a twig and curled around it, then coaxed it out of her hair. She winced as a few strands of hair followed the twig out and dropped it.

Her fingers repeated the process over and over and over and over for the next couple of minutes, her reptile brain speaking to her. And in the background, she vaguely heard Kurapika saying things in a calming voice. The voices and each repetition combined helped her stammering heart slow down and the trembling stop. That cold fear that had started this domino effect seeped out of her mind.

Kurapika glanced back to Asterra again as he described the poisonous properties of the leaves of the Kirrilo tree. Some color had returned to her face and the trembling was starting to lessen in intensity.

By the time everything had been picked out of her hair an odd calm had replaced the icy fear and every other emotion she had felt before. The calm was unsettling—it made her feel strangely empty and still, as if she had suddenly been turned into a doll. But Asterra didn't question it, because it was now much easier to function and focus on what had to be done.

And that was what mattered.

"Feel better?" Kurapika asked quietly as Asterra tied up her hair. He still had his back turned to her.

"Yeah," the girl nodded slightly and wiped mud off her face with a sleeve. Her eyes failed to meet his and looked to the bottom right.

Green lace-up boots suddenly appeared in front of her and a voice said, "Here you go."

She looked up to see Gon holding out two the two weapons she had lost.

The Resca stood up and thanked the smiling boy quietly as she pocketed the two weapons and zipped the pockets up in small, controlled movements.

"So, do either of you know where to go?" Kurapika asked as he stood up.

Gon replied, "I do."

"We'll follow you then," Kurapika said, and the three applicants set off.

=o=o=o=

A couple minutes of following Gon led them to a fog-free area with surprisingly well-made paths.

Gon sniffed the air as they came to a fork in the path. "This way." The teens followed him as he turned right.

"How can you tell?" Asterra asked.

"Leorio's cologne is really unique," Gon replied. "I can smell him from a mile away."

So he's got the nose of a dog too, Asterra thought.

There was a brief silence, and then Gon spoke. "Hey, guys…" he started. "What do you think Hisoka meant when he said that we passed?"

Asterra shrugged.

"Hisoka said he was acting as a judge," Kurapika replied.

"A judge?" Gon repeated.

"Yes. Which means that he must have his own benchmarks for evaluating each applicant's strength. Considering you, Leorio, and Asterra are still alive, you must have met his standards."

Those must have been some low standards if she and Leorio had passed without landing a hit.

"But I couldn't do anything against him…" Gon murmured.

"Didn't you land a hit?" Kurapika asked.

"That was a surprise attack."

"And he said that Leorio and I passed, even though we had our asses handed to us," Asterra added quietly.

"Hmmm…" Kurapika looked down in thought. "Perhaps he thought that all of you were kindred spirits."

"Kindred spirits?" Gon repeated.

"I seriously doubt that Hisoka could qualify as a Hunter. However, I must admit that he is strong; his superhuman agility and graceful technique definitely impressed me."

You should try fighting him. See how much he "impresses" you then, Asterra thought.

"It's quite common that those possessing special talents are drawn to others with unique gifts. Most likely, Hisoka's instincts and experience told him that you three had the skill and potential to become Hunters. To him, killing you now would have been a waste."

Gon and Asterra didn't reply, which made Kurapika backtrack, "I'm sorry; was that insensitive on my part?"

"Sometimes blunt honesty is the best policy," Asterra answered. If what Kurapika said was right, then to Hisoka she was nothing more than a piece of fruit that had yet to ripen. She was alive right now because she was being allowed to live by that freak.

The idea made her lip curl.

Gon answered no, then said something completely unexpected. "But you know, I kind of got excited."

Kurapika and Asterra blinked.

"I was so scared I wanted to run away, but I couldn't. And at the same time, I was excited." The boy turned back at the two teens with a smile on his face. "Isn't that weird?"

The two teens didn't answer.

Excited. That was definitely not how Asterra had responded to the fear Hisoka had evoked, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to respond to the fear in that manner. But it explained why Gon had not had a huge and absolutely embarrassing panic attack like her after Hisoka had left. A panic attack that Kurapika had undoubtedly seen but had yet to comment upon.

Her fingers dug into her palms at the memory of the weakness. Would he use it against her? Use it to discredit her? Or exploit it in a more direct way? It wasn't guaranteed that the three of them would remain allies in this Exam; after all, Kurapika could easily become an enemy in the next minute, hour, or day. Not that it would be a crippling shock to her if the answer to either of those questions became a "yes" in the future.

Those kinds of practices had been commonplace in the dog-eat-dog environment she had spent the last six years in, after all.

=o=o=o=

Nobody spoke after Gon's words, which left the trio in the quietude of the forest that was barely disturbed by the sounds of their footsteps. The combined forces of time and the silence bled the anxiety from Asterra, who decided that she would observe how things went and cross bridges when she reached them.

The disappearance of anxiety left Asterra with a cooler head, allowing Asterra to review her encounter with Hisoka more objectively. She sent her legs on autopilot and dragged up the memory from her mind. Apparently the strike to the face hadn't killed too many brain cells, since her recollection of the event was more intact than expected. His blurring speed, his superhuman strength, his unnerving eyes, his fist burying itself in her gut…every moment, every detail, played back in her mind with an unusual, agonizing clarity.

Asterra chewed her lip. Despite all those hellish years of Training, despite being one of the best trainees of her age group, in the end she had been unable to even land a hit on Hisoka. That encounter had made her feel like she was a bumbling new trainee again, and that was a time of her life she did not want to relive.

The girl swallowed the disgust that rose in her throat and replayed the memory in her head again.

What did I learn from that encounter?

Asterra remembered her punch not hitting, her kick not connecting. She remembered Hisoka's fist thudding into her stomach, her arms bruising as a result of his blow.

What did I learn?

She remembered that invisible, oppressive dark thing that had permeated the air around Hisoka and the way it had made her muscles freeze.

That I'm not biggest fish in the pond anymore.

As much as the Resca hated to admit it, she had no choice but to do so now that she had experienced the reality with her own skin. This was a brutal, in-her-face wake-up call that also gave new meaning to her mother's advice.

Up until now, she had heeded the piece of advice based on the logic that a group could achieve more than a single person. But now the Resca had gone through a near-death experience, she could look at that advice from another angle—larger groups meant an increased chance of survival.

There was no guarantee that Hisoka was the only applicant stronger than her-there were some 400 applicants in total. One slip-up, one wrong move in front of that kind of applicant and it would be game over for her.

Her hands clenched involuntarily. It was a commonly known statistic in her clan that three out of five Resca teens who took the Hunter Exam came back alive. But that was an average—in the past there had been years where no teens had returned alive. In those years, coffins and/or dog tags had come back instead.

Asterra had always thought that the teens had died because they had not been competent. Until now, she had been convinced that there was no way that she would come back in a coffin, because she was very competent. She had not given thought to the idea that there were other people in this world that were stronger than her. And now life was shoving a bitter tonic down her throat—a tonic infused with the realization that being competent by Training standards did not guarantee coming back from the Exam alive.

Reality sunk in.

Gears that had not rotated for several years creaked to life.

Turning gears stoked embers that had long gone dim, embers that complacency had almost snuffed out completely.

And as the embers became a hungry, determined flame, her eyes lit up with conviction. A single, silent oath manifested itself in her mind, one she managed to uphold throughout this exam and for the rest of her life.

I will not let arrogance numb my mind like that again.

And while she was at it, she would give that reality the one-fingered salute by surviving anything this exam flung at her.


Yeesh, that was melodramatic haha.

Thanks for reading :)

-Rhyss

EDIT: At the end of chapter 15 I explain why Asterra was able to resist that kick in further detail. If you'd like to look at it quickly, then go ahead.