Disclaimer: I don't own Hunter x Hunter.

CHAPTER 25

Exam's Final Phase

(First Match)

After a few hours of flight, the airship finally landed. The examinees where then led to a certain building. It was time for the final phase of the exam. They all assembled in a very big room and all of the examiners they met in the exam were present along with the president of the Hunter Association.

"The last phase of the exam will be in the form of duels of 1 vs. 1." Netero announced. "The groups are the following..."

Netero removed the cloth covering a board that was placed in the area. Written on the board was the tournament pyramid showing the match ups. It was a bit peculiar though.

"The rule of the last round is very simple. One victory and you pass the exam." Netero continued. "In other words, in this tournament the winners quit the game one by one. The principle of the pyramid is to designate the loser not the winner. Do you understand?"

"So there will be only one eliminated?" Hanzo asked in clarification.

"Exactly! And consequently, each person has at least three opportunities to win."

"What about the rules of the fight? Are weapons allowed?" Eclair asked.

"Yes, weapons are allowed and pushing your opponent to quit gives you the victory. However, if you kill your opponent, you will be disqualified."

Seeing that there's no more questions, Netero signalled for the umpire to begin the first match.

"First match! Hanzo versus Gon!"

The match between Hanzo and Gon was rather one sided. Gon was fast and he had skills but the gap in experience was clear. Hanzo had the upper hand in the match. Hanzo landed a clean hit on Gon paralyzing him and even worsening it by giving him another hit which blurred his sight. Gon was stubborn though. He refused to give up and Hanzo continued to torture him without mercy.

"Gon! Don't be so persistent about this! There are other matches!" Leorio shouted. He couldn't bear to watch it anymore.

"If you were Gon, would you give up, Leorio?" Kurapika asked. He was also worried about Gon but, on the other hand, he could also understand Gon's unwillingness to give up.

"I'd rather die than to give up! But do you think I can tell him this?! Talking to him is the only thing I can do!"

Killua was silent but he was also worried. He was getting the urge to kill.

The girls, meanwhile, were feeling no better. Iris had her hands tightly on a fist. It was too tight that it wouldn't be strange if her hands started bleeding. Leila was biting her lip in worry. It was taking all of her self-control to stop herself from intervening in the match. Lastly, Eclair was furious. Hanzo was running second in her hate list and her grandmother was number one. Heaven knows how much she hated her grandmother.

Then everything just got worse. Hanzo broke Gon's arm.

Eclair was about to throw her dagger towards Hanzo when a hand stopped her.

"Let me go, Leila." Éclair seethed.

"If you intervene, Gon will be disqualified." The umpire announced.

"Please, Eclair. I don't like this as much as you do but..." Leila pleaded but her hands were trembling. Realizing that Leila was in no better state than her, Eclair let her hand down.

Iris, Leorio and Kurapika were reaching their limit. Iris hands bled, Leorio was threatening to intervene if Hanzo goes any further and Kurapika did nothing to stop him as his own feelings were beginning to overwhelm him.

Gon writhed in pain while Hanzo did a handstand. Like the blabbermouth he is, Hanzo was retelling his life story to Gon not aware that his story telling gave Gon time to recover. With a swift kick, Hanzo fell on the floor face first and when he stood up, blood was dripping from his nose. The whole scene turned around everybody's mood.

"Yeah! Gon kill him now!" Leorio cheered.

"Leorio, if he does that he will lose." Kurapika reminded.

"I let you kick me but..." Hanzo said.

"Liar!" Iris cut him off.

The mood became serious once again when Hanzo took out his weapon.

"Say 'I lose' or I will cut off your legs." Hanzo warned.

"That's not good...I don't want you to cut my leg but I don't want to lose. Let's fight another way."

Hanzo snapped. "No?! Don't you understand the situation?! I'll cut your leg. I'm serious!"

"If you do that, I'll bleed to death."

"Huh?"

"In that case, he would lose, right?" Gon asked the umpire.

"Yes" The umpire confirmed.

"You see, that won't be nice. Think about it."

By this time, some of the audience was laughing and amused.

"I can't believe you were this stubborn, Gon." Eclair commented as she felt the urge to smile.

Meanwhile, Killua was deep in thought. 'Nothing has changed! Gon is not any stronger...His broken arm is not better but...the bad atmosphere which was here...was gone in just a few seconds?!'

Then the atmosphere turned tense again as Hanzo pointed his weapon on Gon's forehead making it bleed. They exchanged a few words and Hanzo noticed something in Gon's eyes.

"I give up. I admit I've lost. I will wait until the next match." Hanzo surrendered.

"No! Let's find another way to finish this fight!"

A tick developed on Hanzo's forehead. The two immediately argued and Gon was very stubborn till Hanzo couldn't take it anymore. With a strong punch to the gut, Hanzo knocked Gon unconscious. After confirming that he lost and Gon's victory, Hanzo went back to the audience only to have Eclair stand on his way.

"What?" Hanzo asked.

Without warning, Eclair kicked his shin hard.

"Eclair!" Leila exclaimed in surprise at what her friend did.

"Ouch! What the hell did you do that for?!" Hanzo clutched his damaged shin in an attempt to nurse it.

"Nothing. I just felt like it." Eclair coldly responded.

"Are you freaking serious?!"

"Oi, why did you lose on purpose?" Killua asked getting the other examinees attention.

"I didn't lose on purpose."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"When I torture someone, I expect that person to hate me forever but I couldn't find any hatred in Gon's eyes. Can you believe it? I broke his arm and he didn't at all! I guess...he won me over."

Gon was carried to another room to rest and the second match started. It was Kurapika versus Hisoka. They both exchanged hits for a while till Hisoka whispered something on Kurapika's ear. Kurapika's eyes visibly widened for a moment then Hisoka mysteriously admitted defeat making Kurapika the winner for the match.

Then the third match began…

Author's Note:

I am very sorry for this very late update...The schoolwork I had to do quite overwhelmed me for the past few weeks and add that with exams then it equals to a lot of nights drowning in caffeine. I couldn't really write well in such condition so this chapter got finished very very late.

Fortunately, our break starts today so I'll be able to give more time for this fic. I might even post the next chap next week...Hopefully...

Review!

Reply:

To The Otaku Lady Priya: Thank you very much for reviewing again! I'm glad that you liked the last chapter. And don't worry about Gon and Leila's romantic unawareness...I'll be dealing with that soon enough...and hopefully I'll be able to deal with it in the most amusing and entertaining way. And about that particular episode with Gon's date with Palm...Trust me...you weren't the only one that was surprised...it was one of the most amusing episode on the series for me! But I still decided to ignore that romantic part of Gon because one, I was too shocked about the development and two, the first initial plan of this fic was developed before I actually watched that certain episode hence Gon's denseness. Once again, thank you for the very encouraging review and your very welcome to review again anytime!