Time had flown by and each of the five had done their best, although for a few that was questionable. Why?
"Malli, I know you like treasure, but did you have to take away 30 hours of our time?" Kuriya asked, truly and thoroughly pissed off. There were many things that she could shrug off when it came to Malli's questionable actions, but this one took the cake. Malli frowned, feeling cheated.
It wasn't even real treasure, Malli thought with a huff. Now I'm being scolded because I was tricked. How could they?!
Kuriya saw Malli's defeated sulking and sighed, knowing that Malli understood how stupid of a move that was. At least, Kuriya hoped that was what was going through her friend's mind. She turned her attention toward Primna, feeling less irritated. Kuriya couldn't necessarily blame Primna for this one. "I don't fault you for losing since you did get unlucky by having to face a child in a fight to the death," Kuriya said. Even so, she cursed Primna's luck.
"I-I failed you, Father," Primna said with teary eyes, not even noticing Kuriya's acknowledgement.
"Hey, I'm just glad I lucked out and it had to do with smithing blades. Of course, I was caught off guard when the prisoner started to use it," Quino said with a huff. Kuriya could guess why Quino was in such a sour mood. She had... bested the opponent with a blade she had not crafted herself. Quino had used her opponent's blade on themselves, winning a match for her team at the cost of her own pride. Kuriya didn't know why Quino decided to use the opponent's blade, but at the end of the day they had won.
"My, my, you all have such long faces. I had quite a fun time," Hisoka said. Kuriya shot a glare at the man. Another thing she cursed was Hisoka's unfathomable, and dumb, luck.
"You're the only one that got an actual fight!" Malli said with a pout, clenching her hands in a tight ball. Kuriya witnessed Malli's knuckles turned white, the sheer strength in the grip cutting off her circulation.
"I didn't know you were witty like that, Kuriya," Quino commented, as if in an afterthought to the current madness going on between Malli and Hisoka. Hisoka was only staring at Malli with a gleam in his eyes that spelled just how amused he was by the girl's actions. Malli, however, wasn't having nearly as fun as Hisoka at that moment.
"When she's not doing business, which is rarely, she can be quite witty and funny. I always told her she'd do well as an entertainer if she ever wanted a change of profession or her current one wasn't working," Primna said. Kuriya glanced at Primna, then focused her gaze on Quino. In the back of her mind, Kuriya wondered if Quino was aware of the current situation.
"So, 30 hours, huh? Well, I guess I'll nap," Quino said. Quino made her way to one of the bean bags on the floor and curled up in it. The bean bag encompassed her body, the young blacksmith unaware of her surroundings. She was out like a light in seconds.
"She's quite oblivious, isn't she?" Kuriya asked, glancing between Quino and the obvious elephant in the room.
"Kuriya, you know that's not a fair assessment. She can't sense Nen. Nor can she sense the underlying bloodlust coming from you-know-who," Primna said, sighing from exasperation. Primna was starting to get tired of defending Quino from Kuriya's harsh judgements.
"Well, now that she's asleep, could you tone it down a little? I mean, you got to fight. And yet you're still itching for more," Malli said with a huff.
"You'll understand someday. With so much potential in the room, I find it hard to calm myself," Hisoka said.
This caused Primna to shudder, Kuriya to grimace, and Malli to bite her lip.
"You know, this seems like the start of a horrible joke. Four girls stuck in a room with a murderous clown," Primna commented, sighing.
"Agreed."
"So, wanna use Nen to–"
"Mal, I already discussed this. Quino doesn't know Nen, so we can't use it," Kuriya said.
"Not even if we keep quiet?" Malli pleaded.
"No, not even then," Primna responded.
Primna and Kuriya sat down on the floor and tried their best to ignore the bloodlust seeping from Hisoka.
Kuriya watched as the time ticked down, and the longer they stayed in the room the more times Kuriya caught herself glancing at Hisoka. Was she scared of him? No, not really. Could she win a fight against him? That was debatable, and that was easily the one thing that made her nervous about this whole situation. Out of the four, Kuriya was the strongest girl in the room. Despite Primna being older, Kuriya had been trained from an earlier age than Primna. It was an occupational hazard, Kuriya being the heiress of the Phantom Troupe. Training from an early age, learning how to survive, learning to exploit others' good will: all of that was mandatory.
"Hey, Kuriya, time's up," Primna said.
Kuriya opened her eyes. She hadn't realized they were closed. Swiftly getting up from her position on the floor, Kuriya glanced at her stopwatch. It read 38:02.
"We have about 38 hours to get to the base of this tower," Kuriya stated, willing herself to wake from her tired stupor.
"Okay, we should rush as much as possible. Who knows how much is left to complete," Primna said.
"Very well. Press O to continue, X to not," Kuriya commanded, pressing O on her stopwatch.
Four people pressed O and one pressed X.
"Ah, sorry, accidentally pressed the wrong button," Quino admitted, blushing from embarrassment.
"Let's get through this as fast as we can!" Malli said, running through the door before anyone replied to her cheery sentence.
"Such enthusiasm," Hisoka commented.
They all rushed through the corridors, and conveniently outran most of the traps because of it. Malli almost landed in a pit with spikes at the bottom, though. Hisoka, to the astonishment of Quino and Primna, had saved Malli from her enthusiastic running.
"Hey this looks fancy! And there's a lot of weapons around us. Do we get to fight?" Malli asked, adrenaline still flowing through her veins.
"Well, let's see what this room is about," Quino said, running toward the plaque, "Are you ready? O to continue, X to stop."
Everybody pressed O.
"One path allows five to pass, but is long and difficult. The other path allows only three, but is short and easy," Lippo, from a speaker, said, "incidentally, the long and difficult path requires a minimum of forty-five hours. The short and easy path leads to the goal in approximately three minutes. Press O for the long and difficult path, and X for the short and easy path. If X is selected, two people must be secured to the wall with handcuffs, before the door will open. The two chained members will be unable to move until the time limit expires."
"So we're supposed to fight and leave the two losers behind?" Kuriya sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"You didn't see this coming, did you?" Primna asked Kuriya.
"No. Hold on, though, let me think this through and–"
Before she could finish, Malli pushed Kuriya, almost making Kuriya fall flat on her face. A card flew right between the two of them, digging into the wall with unbelievable strength.
"Calm down. We're not going to fight each other until we figure out that it's the only way," Malli said, hands on her hips and eyes trained on Hisoka.
"We won't make the long way, so we have to take the short way," Hisoka said. His bloodlust was practically tangible, and it was visibly overwhelming Quino.
Kuriya walked toward the card and eyed it. She grabbed it and pulled it out, inspecting the damage it had made.
Meanwhile, Malli was trying to coax Hisoka to calm down and wait even though she knew that all he wanted to do was kill. Primna pulled Quino behind her, trying her best to shield Hisoka's bloodlust so it didn't damage Quino's psyche.
"I may have an idea," Kuriya said for all to hear, still inspecting the card and the wall.
"Oh, you do? What brilliant idea have you conjured up?" Hisoka said with barely contained self-control.
"We go the long way. Trust me, I have a plan and I'm certain if we work together we'll be able to accomplish this in no time," Kuriya said with confidence.
"Hmm, fine. I'll trust our little spider," Hisoka said with a smirk. Kuriya bristled, but didn't say or do anything else.
All five of them pressed O.
"Alright, now we break the wall," Kuriya said, grabbing an axe.
"Break the– that's genius!" Quino said, eagerly grabbing an axe.
"Hold on, maybe we should give that to someone stronger. No offense," Primna stated.
"But I'm a blacksmith! I'm used to doing hard work like this," Quino said, unknowingly pouting.
"Okay, fine. If you get tired, give the axe to someone else, okay?" Primna said with a sigh.
"Just not Hisoka. It's best to not involve him at the moment. Or give him a weapon in general. He's barely controlling himself right now," Malli stated as she nervously snuck a glance toward Hisoka.
With that, Quino and Kuriya began to work to break the wall down.
Within less than ten minutes, a good portion of the wall had collapsed. There was enough room to fit them all through.
"Come on, you first Hisoka. And don't you make any funny moves," Malli said, practically pushing Hisoka into the other corridor. Of course, he wasn't pleased one bit by Malli's insistent actions, but he decided it was best to play along for now.
"Malli seems to know how to handle Hisoka pretty well," Quino muttered, admiring Malli for her guts and ability to actually make him do what she wants.
"Quino, Primna, what I'm about to tell you may be shocking, but what I am about to say is the truth. Do not, under any circumstances, share this bit of information with anyone. If you fail to keep this to yourselves, I will personally deal with you," Kuriya said with a dark look in her eyes. Quino gulped in response, but Primna simply stood there like it didn't bother her. "Malli is Hisoka's daughter."
"Wha–" Quino was stopped by a hand clasping her mouth.
"That makes sense why she's able to be in close proximity to him and not feel unnerved," Primna said, keeping her hands clasped above Quino's mouth.
"Actually, she still does feel that way. However, she's able to tell what state of mind he's in, and if he's going to swiftly become unstable any time soon. She realizes that Hisoka is less likely to attack if she keeps making him aware that she's in close proximity to him. You could say her presence calms him somewhat. Still, be on guard. His bloodlust might become too overpowering for him in the near future," Kuriya explained.
"Well, we should probably get going," Quino said, reminding them of their time limit.
"Let's go," Kuriya stated.
All three of them went to the parallel corridor, and proceeded to go down it. Just like the examiner had stated earlier, it took three minutes to go down.
"Kuriya, applicant #158, is the thirteenth to pass. Primna, applicant #400, is the fourteenth to pass. Quino, applicant #406, is the fifteenth to pass. Total time, fifty-eight hours and forty-eight minutes."
Quino laughed, looking around at the other applicants in the room. Primna turned her serious face into a relaxed one, giving an air of gentleness with an underlying tone of danger. Kuriya walked off and slid down against a wall, sitting against it. Malli was talking to Hisoka, though it looked one-sided. Hisoka kept his gaze to the ground, not acknowledging the girl that was blabbering to him.
"We made it. I started to worry for a second there," Quino said with a blush.
"Yes, we almost ended up fighting amongst ourselves. Fortunately, Kuriya managed to stay calm and create a plan," Primna said with a smile.
"Well, I'm tired. Though it was really fun," Quino said with a small smile on her face.
"I'm glad you enjoyed your time. I didn't think you'd have so much fun with so much tension in the group mainly caused by an unexpected clown's bloodlust."
"Hah, guess you're right. I'm glad I survived," Quino said.
Primna stalked off to a wall and sat down, Quino not far behind.
"So what do we say when they question what happened to us?"
Primna shook her head. "You're definitely a worry wart. No worries, though. I'll think of something, you just go along with what I have to say, okay?"
"You did it before, I trust you to work your magic again," Quino said.
"Now we wait. Hopefully they make it," Primna whispered.
"They probably will. Well, Leorio seems to be the weak link in the group. Though Killua is a– you're afraid Leorio's not going to make it."
"Huh?" Primna breathed out.
"You're afraid Leorio's not going to make it. That he'll fail or, worse, get killed."
"He's a kind person. He's aiming to become a doctor to help those in need, which is admirable. I think he deserves to pass the Hunter Exam and get the money to become a doctor. He may even be able to give people who simply can't afford what they need for free," Primna said with a sweet smile on her face.
"Sure. Whatever you say," Quino muttered.
"Besides, are you certain you should be talking about my bias towards Leorio? At least my worries are reasonable. Yours aren't," Primna said with a bit of a smirk.
"Mine? I'm not worried," Quino said, giving a huff that only made Primna's smirk grow.
"You're worried that someday Gon will leave you behind. That you'll be abandoned, just like your adoptive mother did to you," Primna said, a knowing look in her eyes.
"Take that back! You don't know anything!" Quino said, glaring at Primna. Primna noticed the tears building up in Quino's eyes and she instantly knew that she needed to apologize to Quino.
"I won't take it back, because it's the truth. But I'm sorry I angered you. I have a terrible time at biting my tongue," Primna said with an apologetic expression on her face.
"N-no. You're right. That's exactly what happened. It's just–"
"New? Difficult to admit? You don't want it to be true." Primna watched as Quino's eyes concentrated on the ground. Frowning, Primna added, "I have something that I don't want to admit either. Do you want to hear about it?"
Quino looked at Primna with tears in her eyes but Primna could see the underlying curiosity burning in those red eyes.
"I don't want to admit that my dad abused me," Primna started. "All these years, I thought of his abuse as his love. That's the only thing I've been raised up knowing. I've thought of abuse as love. He'd even tell me he was sorry that he hurt me, only to hurt me again later. I had learned over the years that that was his way of telling me that he loves me, despite all the pain he put me through. But it isn't true. The fact is, I'm not sure if he even loves me at all. He's never told me he does. But I love him. Even through all that pain, I still love him. But then something happened that changed my whole view on what 'love' was."
"What was that?" Quino asked, scooting closer.
"You wouldn't believe it. You'd probably think I was joking. Are you ready to hear this interesting little tidbit?"
Quino nodded her head, tears no longer in her eyes. All that was left in her eyes was curiosity.
"My dad became busy. I forgot what the job was, but he had to leave for a while. So he brought me over to the Hunter Association. That's when I met Chairman Netero for the first time. It's funny, because I'd forgotten this very vital detail in my life. It wasn't until recently that I remembered it. My dad brought me to Chairman Netero, and I stayed with him for the duration of my dad's job."
"You stayed with Chairman Netero? He babysat you?" Quino asked, definitely shocked by the news.
"He did. I was an unruly child. At the time, I had thought of love as pain. Chairman Netero realized that when I brought home a dead puppy. I remember thinking it was so cute, and that I absolutely loved the thing. So I killed it. I wanted to show it to Chairman Netero, to show that I absolutely loved the puppy and that I wanted to keep it. Of course, I hadn't realized I had killed it."
"So it was accidental?"
"If you call sticking sticks into the thing as it whimpered, then yeah, accidental. No, I just didn't realize that I had killed it. I only thought it was in pain," Primna said, nibbling on her bottom lip.
"Oh, I get it," Quino said quietly.
"He corrected me. Chairman Netero– he told me that that wasn't love. I was confused when he told me that. Then I asked the question that changed my life. I asked what is love. Instead of telling me, he decided to show me. With a hug, of all things. I didn't know what to do. It was a foreign thing, a hug, and I didn't know what to do. After that, Chairman Netero began to teach me what love and affection really was. I was heartbroken when my dad took me back. I felt like he ripped me away from a person who I started to think of as my true father. From that day on, I decided to block the memories. They were just too painful to bear. A few remnants from those days remain, though. For instance, I took up babysitting, which is really odd if you take my character and background into account."
"Wow. That's a really messed up past. Do you regret meeting him. Chairman Netero, I mean," Quino said, tilting her head.
"No. He taught me so much. And it wasn't just about love and affection either. He even taught me some martial arts. He helped me get better at controlling my Nen. He even gave me an encyclopedia book on the Dark Continent's Flora," Primna said with a small smile.
"The Dark Continent? Wait, why would he give you a book on that? Wait! Isn't that place undiscovered?"
"Ah, oops. Oh well, I guess that cat's out of the bag now," Primna said half-jokingly, her eyes downcast.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm from the Dark Continent," Primna said, her eyes closed.
"You! How?! Hold on, how are you from the Dark Continent?" Quino asked, whispering the last bit into Primna's ear.
"Well, I was born there. And anyone born and raised there are tight lipped about it. Sorry, but I can't really go into detail about it," Primna said, glancing around at her surroundings.
"Oh, um, okay. That's really crazy though. So, I should probably not talk about this to anyone, right?" Quino asked, already deciding herself to keep this a secret.
"I would like that," Primna whispered to Quino.
"Kurapika, applicant #404, is the twenty-eighth to pass. Killua, applicant #99, is the twenty-ninth to pass. Gon, applicant #405, is the thirtieth to pass. Total time, seventy-one hours and fifty-nine minutes."
"They made it. Wait, all three of them came from the same place. And where's Leorio?"
Primna frowned. "Quino, I think they came from the other set. You remember Kuriya talking about how there were two sets of majority rules, right?"
"Oh, yeah. Wait, if that's true, then they must've gotten to the point where they had to choose between the long path or the short one," Quino said, trailing off when she saw the look in Primna's eyes. It was vicious, and dark. Nothing Quino had ever seen before could match such an intense look.
"They took the short path. Leorio's not here," Primna said.
"Wait, calm–"
"Leorio, applicant #403, is the thirty-first to pass. Tonpa, applicant #16, is the thirty-second to pass. Total time, seventy-one hours and fifty-nine minutes."
"See, Leorio made it. He was just lagging behind," Quino said, giving a halfhearted laugh. She was just glad Primna didn't instantly charge at Kurapika, Gon, and Killua.
"Yeah," Primna breathed out.
"Come on, let's go and congratulate them," Quino said, getting up from her seat on the floor and grabbing Primna's wrist.
Primna got up as Quino began to drag her towards the group. Quino had a big smile on her face, and Primna had a genuine smile for once.
"The Third Phase of the exam is over. Thirty-three applicants have passed. One has die," the Third Phase examiner, Lippo, announced.
Hey everybody!
Wow, that was long. I know I said today that I would triple post, but I didn't expect this chapter to be so darn long. So I'm really sorry to postpone the triple post. Please forgive me. TT
I don't own Hunter x Hunter.
Well, next chapter will be going to the next phase. But I do want to warn you that one of the chapters I will be posting soon contains... referencing to cutting? Technically doesn't show, but it's quite obvious that that's what is happening. Don't worry, though, I'll warn you before the chapter actually starts (and I'll even give a little bold warning that'll tell you when it appears). In my opinion, it doesn't seem that bad, but I won't let my personal opinion cloud my judgement.
With all that said, I hope you enjoy this chapter, are excited to see more, and can wait patiently for the triple post that I will post tomorrow. Oh, and make sure to follow so that way you can keep up! Bye-bye peeps!