23…33…45…13… She rated each Hunter that she passed. What the heck are they pro Hunters as well? Seriously? Seeing this, she figured that the Genei Ryodan could take down the whole Hunter Association if they wanted to, just that they were afraid of trouble. She wondered if those Hunters can see their difference in strength like she did.

No-no-no, focus your eyes on the prize… She told herself yet again.

Climbing out of the car she was brought into a grand hotel. Like, really grand. The crystal chandeliers sparkled from the twenty-meter high ceiling that was decorated with paintings. The marble floor was polished spotless. How formal everyone dressed made her feel like she was from a slum. Or she just won the Hunger Games.

On second thought, maybe she did…

"Ho-ho! Mizu-chan! Glad to see that you made it." President Netero came to meet her, stroking his beard with a sunny smile.

"Chairman Netero..." She breathed. Her killing aura was threatening to pour out. If she didn't have her sense, she would have strangled the chairman already, demanding where her target is.

"My, my, although that I was sure you'd be one of the applicants to pass this year, I didn't think you'd take this long!"

"I got a little panicked and took two days to rest." She said smoothly. "Otherwise I would have gotten here earlier."

"Hmm~ Well!" Netero clapped his hands. "I'm afraid that you will have to wait for another twenty-six days until the Exam is formally over." His expression was sympathetic.

He knows the story... Mizutsuki thought. "No, there's no need." She said, picking up her act. Her tone was somewhat hollow and so was her gaze.

"Now why would you say that darling?" Netero blinked.

"Because I killed them all." She said calmly. "The ones who were able to survive the Nosferatu, I killed them all. Because I thought that it would save time for you guys."

She didn't really kill anyone other than Ceezu, Slie, and Tonpa. But then again, who could have survived the deal? Even if they did survive, they wouldn't be stupid enough to go in again.

All the Hunters in their black business suit backed away from her or turned a sour face. "Mass murderer..." "Criminal..." "Killing addict..." "Why did she become a Hunter? For the no-legal responsibilities?" "Probably..."

You forgot to add the 'member of Genei Ryodan'... She thought. But she knew that exposing herself as a member would danger herself and the Ryodan instantly. I'll just play good until I see Pariston; then I'll send you all to hell...

Netero seemed to ponder. He knew that if it was any other people, 90% of the chance they would be lying. But he didn't know about her. "Hmm..." He scratched his chin. "Well then, I guess that you're right." Besides, I wanna watch your match with Pariston as well… "I thereby announce that the 283 year Hunter Exam ends here. The only applicant to pass is Mizu-chan here!"

A vein bulged on her forehead. Can't you spare the chan? She thought bitterly.

All the Hunters looked uncertain. "But what if there are more applicants?" One protested. "Shouldn't we wait another day?"

"There wouldn't be!" Mizutsuki snapped. Her fists were clenched. "I'm sure that I killed them all; I've never missed any one of my targets, look me up on the Hunter sight. I'm sure that it will say my mission success rate is 100%." She was so anxious to see Pariston she couldn't help herself from being cranky. She emitted a powerful aura of pure bloodlust. The Hunters backed away, but Netero seemed unaffected.

"There, there, Mizu-chan. No need to be so excited. Both of you are anxious, I know. So calm down~"

Thank god Phinks or Nobunaga wasn't there; otherwise they'd have made fun of her until the end of time. There were just too many things wrong in that sentence; yet it sounded so right.

She facepalmed. It doesn't matter... All will end when I kill him.

Netero cleared his throat. "Well, why don't you go take a shower and get some sleep? Mizu-chan? You look like you just crawled out of hell! I heard that the lavender bath salt they have in this Hotel is really good!" He held up a set of keys with the room numbers printed on.

She snatched the keys from him and walked away. "I hate lavender..." She muttered. "Don't bother me; I will kill anyone that enters my room..."

Netero blinked at his empty hand. Did she actually increase her speed just to get away from them quicker? "I heard that the Rose and Jasmine are pretty good too!" He called after her.

"I hate all flowers." Was her only reply. After bathing in blood so many times, she had forgotten what normal bath salt smell like.

She got a bathrobe from the room's wardrobe and tossed her own dirty clothing into the sink filled with warm soap water. If she used a hair dryer it should get dry pretty quickly.

She studied her tattoo carefully in the mirror. Vicky was a master; she did not leave any trace of hesitation while printing the picture. The colors were spread across her skin equally and smoothly. The number 8 sat in the middle of the twelve-legged spider. Just watching it made her feel calm.

Before stepping into the shower she made sure the mirror wasn't double-sided.

People say that there are multiple uses for showers. About from actually showering, you could sing, or even reflect yourself in there. The second thing she hated the most apart from flowers was singing; so she took the chance to reflect her life.

"Barely two weeks…" She mumbled as she counted the days. At the very start, she was given to the Camorra by the Meteor City elders. Then, she had to go through training to become an assassin. A lot of things happened and then she swapped targets with the Ryodan, causing them to hunt her down. Then Chrollo wanted her ability so badly but failed to steal it; so instead they made her join. After that her first mission was to massacre the Mafia that raised her to prove her loyalty. When she was massacring the Mafia at their party, she met Pariston. And now to kill Pariston, she had become a pro Hunter.

"Tsk…" She scowled. "My whole life is fucked up…"

"And so is your personality…" The devil on her shoulder whispered.

She snorted. "That I admit… If I wasn't fucked up, I wouldn't be in the Ryodan…"

She flopped down on the soft bed, not bothering to wipe her hair. "Ahh~ I'm so tired…" She yawned. Calling the room service she dumped her clothes into the employee's hands and told them to finish washing it in three hours.

It seems like that the employee had taken her joking threat seriously, as he ran off screaming.

Oh well.

Sitting up she pulled her backpack towards her and she dumped out the leftover weapons. She had managed to retrieve a few of the throwing knives she used to kill the Nosferatus. Other than that, she had a few bombs left and a pair of scissors. She started polishing the knives and the scissors.

If she was going to kill Pariston, she better be prepared. Until now she had no idea how his brain worked; but it obviously didn't function like normal people. Which made him even more dangerous; you can never anticipate his moves. All she could do right now was to be prepared. She practiced different scenes in her head and made sure that she had a solution to everyone.

I can't call any of the Ryodan members… She thought. Even though I'm a Hunter now, blacklist Hunters would be hungry for my head. I'm still a known criminal; they'd probably put a bug to eavesdrop on every call I make. Then they'd investigate about the ones who I called…

In a way, this hotel room was more like a prison cell than any other prison cell.

As Mizutsuki let her thoughts wondered, her hands moved on its own and polished the blades she owned. When they were all done and gleaming, her hands continued to polish them until they were shinier than Pariston's teeth.

At the thought of Pariston, she grabbed a throwing knife and threw it at the door in anger. It landed a perfect bull's-eye on the peep hole. And it nearly hit Chairman Netero in the forehead as he walked in. "Whoa!" The chairman exclaimed. "When did I do anything to cross you Mizu-chan? Although you did say that you would kill anyone that interrupts you…"

Mizutsuki blinked. "Chairman?"

Netero held up a hand. "Yo! How was the bath?"

"I never take baths, I only take showers." She looked away at the pile of gleaming blades on her bed. "The only kinds of baths I take are bloodbaths."

"Ahh~" Netero grabbed a chair and pulled it over. "You're part of the dark society."

"Ain't that obvious…" Mizutsuki muttered. "Even though you're the chairman of the Hunter's Association, it doesn't mean that I won't fight you and kill you…" Her eyes were clouded with darkness and her aura screamed pure evil. The blade she held gleamed ice cold."

Despite the fact that even Phinks had confirmed that her aura was the scariest out of all the Ryodan, Netero still seemed unaffected. That shocked her a little bit. "Anyways!" The chairman ignored the evil aura she was emitting and tossed her a card. "That is your Hunter license. Take good care of it, you'll only get one!"

"Hmph…" She took the card from Netero and placed it into her backpack.

Netero nodded to himself inside his head. She's not letting any gaps into her guard. This kind of skill can only come from experience and practice. As young as she is, she had gone through many battles, perhaps even comparable to me…

"Chairman Netero," She said quietly. "I hope that you would excuse my rudeness; but I must ask. When the hell is that idiot Blondie going to meet me?" What a troublesome old jeezer… She thought. He looks like he's full of gaps, but there's actually none…

Netero smiled and stroked his beard. "Hmm… Before I answer that, you have to answer my questions first."

Mizutsuki immediately threw a knife towards him; it whizzed pass his ear and buried itself into the wall behind him. She immediately grabbed another knife. "Don't joke around with me, old man…" She said in a tone of pure poisonous evil. The next knife would be aimed at your ear instead of the wall."

Netero merely laughed. "What an honest girl you are!" He laughed. "But you're still too young; anyways, that sure is some good skill. It wasn't learned in a day right?"

She wanted to rip Netero's smiling face off.

"So answer me. Every Hunter must hunt something; whether you want to be a Hunter or not, this is mandatory. Say, what is it you're going to hunt for?"

Mizutsuki was silent for a couple moments before she erased her killing aura and answered. "I only attended the Exam to hunt for Pariston's head." She said quietly. "But I will kill him sooner or later. So it doesn't matter."

"Nuh-uh, not good enough!" Netero exclaimed with a merry smile. "If you give me a good enough answer I'll give you a hundred Jennies as allowance~"

"How old do I look?" She cried. "Don't tease me, old jeezer."

"C'mon sweetie, it's not a hard question to answer." Netero was still smiling.

Mizutsuki couldn't help being frustrated. This old man would indeed be a hard opponent to fight. In the end she gave in; and in a dead serious tone, she spoke. "Anything that a man wants." She said quietly; the sentence was barely audible. "I will happily get it for him, even if that means that I have to sacrifice myself." She remembered how every member of the Ryodan looked at their Danchou; in their eyes were pure loyalty. And hers' was too.

Netero looked as interested as ever. "Who is the man? I suppose that it isn't your friend who accompanied you through the Exam?" So far Netero what Netero had gathered was this: This girl in front of him belonged to an organization with absolute authority on the dark society. The eyebrow-less man was a member of that organization too. And the man she had sworn loyalty to was the leader of said organization; and also the one who had ordered her to betray the Camorra.

Mizutsuki flipped the chairman off; a rather bold thing to do. "Like hell I'd say who it is." She spat. "Your turn to answer, chairman. Where is Pariston?"

Netero smiled. "He's very excited for the date too, Mizu-chan. And he was wondering if you would join him in a romantic dinner tonight."

Of course, Pariston never said those words; he just said 'dinner'. But Netero elaborated on the sentence himself to see how the cold-blooded killer would react. He wasn't disappointed by the results.

If Mizutsuki had anything in her mouth, she would have spewed it all out. But since that she didn't have anything in her mouth, she choked on air and bit her tongue. "What…?" She coughed. A traitorous red hue rose up to her face. "Can I refuse?"

The chairman whistled. "Are you actually Tsundere Mizu-chan? What an unexpected trait for a trained assassin. And nope, there's only one chance~" Netero was laughing uncontrollably inside to the point that his stomach hurted from not laughing.

"No! I mean, can't we meet normally?" What she had defined as normal was having weapons stocked all over themselves; have a big fight and one of them would die. This was completely out of her calculations.

"Anyways," Netero stood up. "It's all up to you~ I hope that you guys can sort out your problems with negotiation. Because seeing either one of you go to waste would sure make me sad; what a waste of talented youngsters!"

If only she had saw that smirk as the chairman walked out of the room…

After gawking at the walls for about ten minutes, she snapped back to reality and facepalmed. "Oh dear…" She muttered. "But whatever… If that's what it takes to kill you…" Her expression grew murderous. "You will PAY for toying around with me like that… Dearly…"

I'm not sure what you would call that... Would that actually be classified as ParistonXMizu? (Oh my god, Mizutsuki would come out of the story and kill me if that happens...) But neither of them are interested in each other that way... Only that chairman Netero is trying to tease these 'youngsters'. *cough cough*

Man it sure is hard to write about their relationship. The only thing I know is that Pariston is VERY HARD TO WRITE. Exactly how do you describe his personality? Self-centered? Only cares for his own amusement? *double facewall* Perhaps I can get an idea how to describe him if I hit my head hard enough?

I think that the next chapter would be the end of the second arc, and chapter 27 would be a transition chapter to the third arc. Anyone guessed what it'd be about yet? (I think that this would end up as an 80 chapter story...) And Feitan is really popular... I mean, he's my fav character too but whoa; his popularity is off the charts! Weeeeeeee

I've been into those little things called shimejis lately; and they're so freaking cute! *little girl squee*. And I'm planning to draw a Mizutsuki Shimeji as well; that outta be fun.

Review!

BTW; I know that my grammar isn't good but I'm trying very hard to edit (Someone just be my beta reader already..). And English isn't my first language so yea...