So here's the next chapter. I'm really happy with how this story's turning out! 22 reviews already, and I'm only on chapter 10! I really appreciate the support! It keeps me writing!

Oh, and I apologize to people who love Leorio. He's not one of my favorite characters out there, but he's a good guy to use to get points across and be hot-headed towards people. I just thought he would be the best guy to use for this chapter to help Basil... Get through things.

Can you guess what Nen type Basil will have? ;3

Sirenightsparrow - Thank you so much! You are too kind, really.

"Some days are just bad days, that's all. You have to experience sadness to know happiness, and I remind myself that not every day is going to be a good day, that's just the way it is!" - Dita Von Teese

Re-cap:

No one could understand it. No one here didn't belong. I was a mistake, and I didn't even belong to this world. I only existed here since, what, how long? Even my time was mixed up. I had no idea how long it'd been. One time in my world, another here. It was all to confusing! I was alone. There was no one else like me.

My thoughts were broken by Crisei tapping my shoulder. "Hm?" I looked up at his tall figure. He looked concerned, but if he knew anything was wrong he said nothing about it.

"We're leaving," He jutted his thumb in the direction the three others were headed. Into a dark, long tunnel I was pretty sure wasn't there before.

"Oh, OK, I'm coming." I started forward, catching up with the others. Crisei trailed after me, eyes on my face. I turned my head and glanced at him, but he just turned his head away from me. I looked over at Gon who looked deep in thought.

"Hey Gon. What's on your mind?"

"I know it's over but, what if it actually happened?" Gon said. I cocked my head at him.

"What?"

"The test. What if we were really in that circumstance? What if we really had to choose between saving two people?" I paused. I saw the others stopped as well, pondering the question silently. I looked back at the ground. Honestly... I didn't know.

"I don't know," I replied, shrugging and shaking my head. "I guess we'll only be able to truly answer if it happens to us." Kurapika nodded, agreeing. Leorio still looked lost in thought.

"OK." Gon looked disappointed, but relieved by the answer. "Let's continue on then."

End Re-cap

We had been walking for, what, fifty minutes? Ugh... And it was so dark... Not that I minded. I had great night vision. It was just-

"When are we going to get there? I have to go for a dump! I have to piss too!" Leorio yelled. My fist balled up. Oh, I wanted to hit the loud-mouth so hard...

"Be quite Leorio," I said. "Look at and read the signs." Leorio squinted at me angrily, then stared at a sign. He narrowed his eyes, then leaned forward. He ended up kicking the sign he was trying so hard to read.

"It's so dark I can barely read them!"

"It said 'Danger: Wild, dangerous animals'." Kurapika said, clearly irritated. Leorio mumbled something about 'danger, my butt,' but quieted nonetheless.

"Didn't the lady say it was going to be a two hour trek to the tree?" Crisei said. I shrugged.

"We'll get there when we get there I guess. No use complaining."

"Easy for you to say," Leorio mumbled. I turned to him, eyes widened slightly.

"What?"

"You never complain," Leorio said, slight anger in his voice. "You take everything. You're always accepting everything that happens with an open palm! You never state your own opinion, and when someone asks for something, you do it and more! You make sure everything is perfect!" Everyone had paused. I was staring at the ground.

"So? It's the only way to survive, right? I mean..." I felt Leorio stomp over to me and grab my shirt.

"WHAT? How can you say that?!"

"Leorio-"

"No, Kurapika. That's no way to live! State your own mind for once, damn it!"

"OK," I said absentmindedly.

"OK?! Don't say that like it's routine! Are you-"

Are you talking back to me?!

And I broke.

I screamed, kicking Leorio and booking it out of there. I felt them running after me, but, honestly, what could I do?

He was right.

But, I didn't think, no, I knew there was nothing I could do about it. It was hammered into me like a needle bending my mind, warping it to its will. Even though my parents were gone, I still couldn't shake their gazes, the fear of them.

"Basil! Where are you?" I hid in the roots of a tree, face buried in my knees. I heard them coming, searching for me. My heart rate rose, and I was terrified. Even though they were my friends- No, I couldn't trust them. They would never understand.

I felt someone stop in front of me and bend down, plopping on the ground next to me. I didn't move.

"Sorry about Leorio. He just cares for you, wants you to be happy, hm?" It was Gon. "I'm sorry if he said anything to upset you. He was only trying to help." I shifted my head up to look at Gon. He was just sitting there, stupid, dumbfounding, contagious, innocent smile on his face. My lips flickered a smile for a second, then I looked back down at the ground.

"I know. It's just, I can't help it."

"Hm? What do you mean?" Gon asked. I sighed, then looked up at the sky.

"You wouldn't understand."

"Really? We understand you're hurting. There's something wrong with you. Why won't you tell us?" I turned to my left to see Kurapika had entered the little area. He crouched down next to me. When I said nothing, he sighed. "I know how you feel. Not wanting to tell anyone because you are afraid of what they might do." I glanced at him, then a small chuckle came out of my lips.

"It's not that I won't, it's that I can't." I said, looking at him sadly, then turned away.

We sat in silence for a couple seconds when Kurapika finally spoke. "I'm a Kurta." I looked at him in confusion. "I told you and the others this before, but you had spaced out. Something one of us said must've triggered a memory. I don't know what your life was before I met you, but I can tell you're full of confused emotions.

"I used to be normal. I had a family, and we all lived together. Then, someone came and killed them. Killed them all." I saw Kurapika tremble slightly and his fists clench. "I'm the last of my clan. I have no family left. Yet you say you ran from yours." Kurapika seemed to calm down slightly. "I know Leorio can be a little harsh, but he's worried for you. We all are."

"Yeah! 'Cause that's what friends do!" I looked at Gon with surprise. Friends...? I looked over at Kurapika, who nodded.

"Everyone has secrets. You can tell us when you're ready. But we'll always be your friends." I smiled at him, then looked back up at the sky, taking a deep breath.

"Thank you."

"Hey, we should go look for Crisei and Leorio," Gon said nervously. "I hope they're alright..." I nodded, sensing their presences not far with my Nen.

"They're fine," I said. I stood, walking forward slowly, while the two trailed behind me very close.

"Hey, look, I'm really sorry," Leorio said, scratching the back of his head. I shrugged.

"It's OK. I'm used to it, I-" I was cut off by a look of disapproval on Leorio's face and sighed, then smiled. "Thank you. It's nice to have people who care."

"If you don't mind me asking, why did you run-" Leorio was cut off by Gon.

"Oh hey, look! A house!" Everyone looked in the direction Gon was pointing. I smiled my thanks at Gon, whose eyes were full of understanding. I didn't want to tell them. Not yet at least.

I knew what Leorio was about to ask. He was going to ask about my parents, about why I ran away. Well, ran away was a general term. Escaped. That's more like it.

When we reached the door, Leorio placed his hand on the handle and opened the door. What we all saw next stopped us in our tracks.

Before us stood a creature with a woman in its arms. On the ground lied an injured man.

I remembered Kai-san had said there would be creatures like this on our trip through the hunter exams. This one, if I remembered correctly, was called a Kiriko.

"It's a Kiriko, a magical beast that can take human form," Kurapika said. "It's also an extremely intelligent creature." I nodded, remembering the info. These creatures, these... Magical beasts... My world did not have them. My world didn't have Nen either, so it wasn't too surprising. At this point, I was ready to accept anything. I hadn't seen or heard much of the world outside my home until now, so I was expecting anything. Plus, Kai-san did say the exams would be hard...

The Kiriko suddenly ran off, jumping through a window in the house, taking the girl with it. Kurapika and Gon ran after it, while Leorio stayed with the injured man. I took off after Gon and Kurapika immediately, leaving Crisei to help Leorio tend to the man.

I trailed after Gon and Kurapika, but as I saw them jump into the trees, I paused, then continued on the ground. Ninjas... I sighed, eyes watching them.

They were fast, even in the trees. I was not fast, but thankfully my Nen made up for it. However... I didn't have much. I hadn't been training, and time was slowly slipping by.

Time.

I got an idea.

I could train in my world, and get double the experience because of the time shift.

However that would require me telling them about my otherworldlyness... I looked up just in time to see Gon land a hit on the beast. It ended up dropping its hostage. The girl fell, and I paused to catch her. However, Kurapika beat me to it. He glanced at me, then down at the woman.

"I've got her. Go help Gon." I nodded, and was about to go when I felt a presence coming towards us. I stopped and stared in the direction. Its aura didn't seem malicious... Actually, none of the Kirikos seemed malicious. Like they were... Oh. They were testing us.

But wait, that made no sense. Then what about the couple? Unless... They were Kirikos too. I glanced at the woman in Kurapika's arms. Yeah, she was definitely a Kiriko. I looked back at the spot where the other Kiriko was about to appear. Kurapika had senced it too. However, the person to come out of the bushes was Leorio. My eyes blinked for a second, then I narrowed them. They were shape-shifters. Of course this wasn't the real Leorio.

"Leorio, what are you doing here?" Kurapika said. Leorio, no, the Kiriko, opened its mouth to speak, but I interrupted it.

"Kura, that's not Leorio. It's another Kiriko." Both Kurapika and the Kiriko looked surprised for a second, but Kurapika got his composure back almost instantly. The Kiriko changed out of Leorio's skin and launched itself at me, but I dodged.

I couldn't help but have the thought that it reminded me of a bear/dog cross my mind...

I had no time to think of the others as I continued to dodge out of the way of the creature. It continued to attack, I continued to dodge. Finally, it was just starting to get boring...

"Excuse me," I started, dodging once again. "But I really don't want to hurt -dodge- you. I know you're just testing me." The creature's claws stopped millimeters from my face. It looked surprised, then smiled, backing off.

"You could tell?"

"I figured. I didn't sense any animosity from you." The Kiriko looked surprised.

"You could tell just from that?" It asked. I nodded. It smirked once again.

"Though I'm sure you had some help from Nen." I blinked at it.

"You know about Nen?"

"Oh, a great deal of us do. You just have to sense it. I could tell you've been using Ten, so I went a little harder on you than I really should've." It shrugged. "Oh well. The test is over. How about we head back to the house?" I nodded, trailing after the Kiriko at a fast pace since it was walking much faster with its longer legs.

"The test is over." Kurapika told him.

"Test!?" Leorio exclaimed. Crisei looked just as dumbfounded, then shrugged with a smile. I just smiled at them. Were they the only ones who didn't realize? I frowned. Hopefully that didn't mean they didn't pass. Though Crisei was just with us for my sake... I guess the only one I had to worry about was Leorio...

"Hmm, how many years has it been since anyone could tell us apart?" One of the Kiriko said to the other. The other just smiled and they shared a laugh.

"Could you tell them apart?" Leorio asked Kurapika.

"No, not at all..." Kurapika replied. I shrugged. They looked the same to me... I'd have to get to know them before I was able to.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves. We are the navigators. Our family provides support for the hunter exam." One of the Kiriko said.

"I'm their son," said the human looking male.

"And I'm the daughter." Said the other girl.

"The hunter exam changes location every year. It's quite difficult to locate it. So we navigators help by guiding the applicants to the sight. But we don't help every candidate. So we test the applicants to see which ones are worthy to take the hunter exam." The Kirikos said, switching off between each other.

"Kurapika-dono. You successfully used the vaguest of hints to determine that we weren't spouses. The hints were these tattoos that mean a woman is marked single for life." The human female paused as she wiped off the tattoo. I glaned over at Kurapika and smiled a congrats to him. "Kurapika-dono demonstrated that he is very knowledgeable. Therefore he passes." I was so happy that he passed!

"Leorio-dono. You never realized my true identity. However, you dressed my injures faster and more thoroughly than any doctor. Also you kept assuring me that my wife was safe. Your kindness makes you worthy to take the Hunter Exam." I blinked a little at the Kiriko.

"Wait, really?" I said. Leorio punched me in the side of the arm.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" He exclaimed. I just smiled. Kurapika and Gon shared a laugh.

"Gon-dono," the smiling Kirikos said. "Your super human physical ability and powers of observation makes you worthy to take the Hunter Exam." Since Gon was giving out fist bumps to the others, I held out my fist. He grinned big as his collided with mine.

"Good job!" I said. I was so happy my friends had passed!

"Basil-dono." I looked up at who I was pretty sure was the Kiriko I had fought. "You realized pretty quickly that I was indeed not Leorio, and you figured out quickly this was just a test. Your sharp mind and skills show you are worthy of taking the Hunter Exam. You pass." I grinned, then fist-bumped Gon once again. I flinched a little when Leorio ruffled my hair, but accepted it anyway.

"Crisei-dono. We know you are not taking the exams like the others here. However, if you were, your inspiration and distractions would have passed you. You should definitely try again next year." Crisei bowed, then scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Thanks..."

"We will take you to the hunter exam." The Kirikos said as they spread their wings. I stared at them in awe.

"Off we go!" Gon yelled with a grin. I turned to him and grinned, than hopped onto the back of one of the Kirikos.

"Wow, you're light." I blushed.

"Yeah, that's what everyone is saying..."

"Makes it easier to fly. Like a feather!" I smiled at the joke as it took off. I hung on tight.

Yes. off we go. Now, the real challenges start!