"Hey, Kurapika!" Gon said. Quino looked in the direction that Gon was looking at and spotted the blond.
Kurapika waved at Gon, signaling he heard him.
"Hi Gon, Killua, Quino," Primna said. She snuck a glance at Leorio and smiled fondly.
Dang, he outdid himself but he made it. Gotta give props to the man, or should I say teenager?
"Is this our destination?" Kurapika asked.
The fog was thick. Primna could barely see the trees not too far from her.
"No, it isn't," Gon informed him.
"I see," Kurapika breathed out.
"The fog is fading," Primna observed, watching as the fog slowly dissipated.
"Huh, you're right," Quino said, getting up. Gon got up as well, taking in the sights.
"The Numere Wetlands, also known as Swindlers Swamp. We must cross these Wetlands to reach Phase Two of the exam. This place is home to many bizarre animals, many of them being cunning, insatiable creatures who deceive humans and prey upon them. Be very careful. If you let them fool you…"
You're dead?
"...you're dead."
Yeah, figured as much.
The door behind them shut. Primna saw Quino jerk just a little, and Primna secretly wanted to spook the poor girl some more. Of course, she stopped herself.
Now's not the time to be scaring the daylights outta poor little girls. Though I bet it'd be fun.
"These wetland creatures will use every trick in the book to fool their prey. An ecosystem in which creatures obtain food through deceit… hence the name Swindlers Swamp. Stay very close to me so you won't be deceived."
"What a joke. How can they fool us, when we're expecting it?"
Did ya seriously just say that? Leorio, I thought you were smarter than this, Primna thought with a well concealed sigh.
"Don't let them fool you!" A voice from the right said.
"I just said that they can't," Leorio commented.
"D-don't fall for it…" The voice said again, revealing the owner to be a man. He pointed at the examiner. "He's lying to you! He's an imposter! He isn't an examiner… I'm the real examiner." He pointed to himself to emphasize, and Primna wanted to roll her eyes at the obvious deception.
Please, you think that's going to work?
"An imposter? What's going on?"
Are you kidding me?! They're considering it?
"Then who is he?" Someone asked.
"Look at this…" the man said, pulling a weird looking creature with the face of Satotz into view.
"He looks just like Satotz!" Gon shouted out, looking might surprised.
Wait just a second. That's... a Man-Faced Ape. Huh, didn't see the resemblance 'til now, actually. Thing is, a Man-Faced Ape is better at human camouflage than that. I doubt that man's an examiner anyhow. Too squishy.
"It's a Man-Faced Ape, one of the creatures that dwell in the Numere Wetlands!"
"Man-Faced Apes love the taste of fresh human flesh. However, their limbs are long and thin, so they're quite weak. That's why they disguise themselves as humans. They trick humans into following them into these wetlands, where they team up with other animals to kill and devour them. He intends to trap every single applicant!" the man claiming to be an examiner said, pointing at the suspected examiner.
"He certainly doesn't walk like a human…" Someone said.
Well, yeah, but…
Primna watched as cards flew toward the beat-up man's body. They sliced into his skin, embedding into his sweaty body. His body stiffened, and flopped onto the ground behind him, signifying his death.
What the…
The sound of cards being shuffled reached her ears, and she looked to the left at the person with cards in his hands.
"I see, I see…"
He's the one who threw the cards, Primna thought. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"That settles it," the man said. "You're the real one."
So that was to prove who's the real examiner, huh? Makes sense. If the examiners couldn't deal with these brats then I doubt they'd be able to take care of any 'potential outbursts'… like this one, Primna noted mentally.
"Examiners are Hunters, selected by the committee to perform this duty without pay. Any Hunter, bearing the title we seek, would have been able to block that attack," the man stated.
"I shall take that as a compliment. However, should you attack me again, for any reason, I will report you for turning on an examiner. And you will be immediately disqualified. Are we clear?" the examiner warned the card-wielding magician.
"Sure," the man smoothly said.
Well, that sort itself.
"Nature really can be brutal to watch…" Leorio muttered as he watched vultures eat the Man-Faced Ape's body.
"So he was a Man-Faced Ape, as well," Kurapika noted.
Yes to both of those, Primna thought. Was it that surprising that the guy was actually a Man-Faced Ape? They're in surplus from where I come.
She frowned, putting on an act that she was just as disturbed. In reality, she didn't think the sight of the vultures eating the Man-Faced Ape's body was disturbing in the least.
That's a part of life. Besides, I couldn't care less at the end of the day.
"He was attempting to confuse the applicants, to lure some of them away," the examiner said.
"We cannot relax our guard," Killua said.
"You will be encountering such deception on a regular basis. I believe that a number of you were fooled into suspecting my identity?"
The look on Leorio's face made Primna giggle.
"Do you understand? If you lose sight of me in the Numere Wetlands fog, you will never reach the exam's Second Phase. Do bear that in mind."
Of course. But I think I'm going to take this chance and contact Kuriya, Primna thought as she watched Satotz turn around.
"Then let us be on our way. Please follow me," the examiner said, starting to walk toward the wetlands.
"Um, guys, I need to do something real quick. Don't worry though, I'll be fine. I'll catch up with you five later, okay?" Primna said, waiting for confirmation.
"Oh, um, okay," Leorio said, hesitation evident in his voice.
"You're leaving? I guess that's fine," Quino said, though it was obvious she felt just a bit suspicious.
"If you need to," Kurapika said, nodding his head to further prove that he was fine with it.
"Okay, be careful, Primna!" Gon said, waving goodbye to her.
"Sure," Killua said, a look of indifference on his face.
With that, the five followed Satotz.
"Okay, time to find Kuriya," Primna said, no longer a deceptively sweet smile on her face.
Hey everybody!
Guess what? I've achieved something that I shouldn't even be proud of! Yay! No, but seriously, I now have to triple post. If that's an achievement of laziness and absentmindedness then I don't know what is.
So, yeah: I don't own Hunter x Hunter and everything in it. The only thing I can claim are my OCs and the original content they make.
Well, I won't bore you with more words, so thanks for viewing and be ready for two more posts! Bye-bye!