Chapter 5: Hunter x Hunter part 2

After a good eight hour rest, I got up with a smile, stretched like a cat and started my day.

Taking a nice hot shower in my royal grade bathroom was always nice. Tile floors, tile walls, marble sinks, large glass shower, and a gold trimmed toilet. I even had a smaller enchanted window in the bathroom to show a spring scenery with Sakura tree's flowing in the wind.

When wizards have transfiguration, it's incredibly easy to use any material in construction. Too bad I can't use it, but hey, that's where money come in.

'One of the downsides to long hair is maintenance.'

Sure I could use a spell and fix it, but it's nice to shower and clean normally once in a while. And my hair has only grown from my first arrival in Harry Potter.

My long silky brown hair became more wild looking with my Animagus form, and my amber gold eyes still have their aurora like glow from the ritual.

The compass like tattoo on my forehead is still missing the final piece, and I figured it out after a while, but that's for another time.

I checked myself out in the full body mirror with a smile.

'Not bad for a year of effort.'

I was still young, but the definition showed, and the various scars lining my frame from my 'gentle' goblin instructor only added to the charm in my opinion.

With my quota of narcissism filled, I snapped my fingers and instantly dried off with a Banishing charm.

'I swear, there are over 200 charms in that world, and more than half are dedicated to making life easier while plenty of them are redundant. Who needs a Packing charm when you can just levitate them?

…

You know what, I support it, if you have magic you have an excuse to be lazy.'

Walking into my walk in closet, I perused the boundless fields of options! Of my dozen outfits, that all look similar except for the robes.

I threw on my enchanted military pants and a tank top, I felt it was fitting for the next phase of the exam.

Heading downstairs, I enjoyed the walk in the open air hallways and the sights of the artistic designs Gol set up.

Gol seems to have a love for interior decoration, and he spent a bit of time putting up art pieces and plant life in places that bring life to the mansion.

Entering the homy kitchen, I took a seat at the bar top where a cup of steaming coffee, a plate, a paper, and a note were waiting for me under stasis charms.

'Thanks Gol.'

My head elf is always watching out for me.

While digging into breakfast, I checked out the note to see it was an update from Gol about the elves' progress.

Gol was searching…. Beach resorts…. For inspiration…. Right, best to let him do what he wants.

Sil has apparently found some ancient ruins and was exploring.

And Bron was… making friends? I don't know what that means and perhaps I don't want to find out.

Ignoring that, I picked up the paper and began looking at the world news.

"Hm, looks like the upcoming auction in Yorknew city is already being advertised 7 months in advance. That should be around when I leave this world, perhaps I'll look into that one."

I perused the news, enjoying the simple reading of the world, when something flew over.

"Hoot."

Make that someone.

I turned from the paper to see my beautiful snowy owl staring at me.

"Good morning Athena, or is that good night for you since owls are nocturnal?"

"Hoot."

"Hungry? Here, have my bacon."

With a happy look, Athena jumped over to my shoulder and munched on the bacon I fed her.

And before anyone says anything, Gol feeds her three meals a day. She is just a glutton for bacon as most owls are.

As she ate, I read with one hand until my other shoulder was occupied by Shadow.

"Meow."

"Hm? Oh, good morning Shadow, say hi to Athena."

"Meow."

"Hoot."

"Meow."

"What? You want my lox? Girls, how am I supposed to eat in peace with you two interrupting me?"

"Meow."

"Hoot."

"What do you mean I'm not supposed to? Am I not the master here?"

"Meow."

"Hoot."

"*Sigh* I swear you get an intelligent pet and it's like you got married, except without all the sex."

Giving up my peaceful reading time, I fed my girls and finished my own meal.

Then I went to my large training area to warm up a bit.

An hour of cardio in the boxing area.

An hour of casting spells in the dueling ring with enchanted dummies that dodge attacks. And this was more of a workout than the boxing.

You remember my reflex ritual? Well it wasn't just my reflex's that were enhanced, or maybe they were. I learned that not only has my unconscious reflex movement been enhanced, but my hand eye coordination, or my conscious reflex movement had been enhanced.

And in accordance with that, I was able to easily pick up ambidextrous habits. I don't know how the ritual worked specifically, but I know that I can use both arms as naturally as the other.

So when I train in the dueling ring, I use both hands to cast spells, and my aim is very precise while my spell casting speed is high.

But that's only boosted when I use a gun, making my accuracy, firing speed, spell moving speed, and mana cost improve dramatically.

'It's too bad these guns fall apart so easily.'

Looking down at the desert eagle I used in the second phase, I saw it was already deforming slightly.

'I should find materials for better guns, or perhaps there are already enhanced guns in this world? I'll send a message to Gol to keep an eye out for it.'

With the first two portions of my work out done, I entered a side room of my work out space. It's a room I like to call the 'DODGE' room.

Crazy and insane as the guy was, my goblin combat instructor beat into me the importance of dodging an attack.

So I had a room built that would fire projectiles at you randomly from various areas.

But unlike my insane instructor who threw sharp or blunt but dense objects at me, I had the room made with three setting.

Tennis balls, paintballs, and knives. In that order for each level.

Don't call me a pussy, you don't know what it's like to have dozens of bone breaking or flesh tearing objects thrown at you for hours on end.

Anyway, with my tiger Animagus form added on my rituals, I had a lot of enhanced senses, so it was nice to train them in a non-lethal environment.

Being a tiger enhanced all my senses, gave me greater strength, and also made me more flexible.

So it makes for some fun times on Tennis Ball mode.

After all that, I cleaned myself with a Cleaning charm, meditated for two hours working on my Ten while my mind focused on studying from books I had memorized, and only then did I decide to think about what to do for the third exam.

'I know the third exam is called 'Trick Tower'.

It's a massive cylindrical prison tower that goes at least seventy to eighty stories high in the air.

Climbing down the outside is suicide from the flying chutlu looking cupid monsters, not that that's a problem for me.

But the main way down is to have to solve puzzles, traps, and riddles to get to the bottom.

Examinee's have 72 hours to reach it.

I think in canon, only like 18 of the 42 applicants survived the tower, while the rest died or gave up.'

I meditated on my memories of the tower and the phase of the exam.

'The way I see it, I have three options.

Option one, give a big ole middle finger to the exam, turn myself invisible, and float down to the bottom before pulling out a tent and chilling for three days.

Simple and to the point.

Option two, join Gon's party and follow canon.

I'll know what happens and I can get to know the main characters better.

Option three, go my own way and enjoy the experience the tower can give me.

Eh, I know my options, let's deal with it when I get there.'

It's too much effort to dedicate myself to one path without knowing how things will play out. I thought I would follow Gon and Killua around at first, and now I'm already happy with going with Menchi.

After getting that out of the way, I just relaxed, trained, and did my thing until I ran out of time.

I always wanted to use as much time as I could to focus on learning more about charms and enhancing my Ten.

With charms, all I had to do was read the books, understand the content while cutting out the bullshit, and practice their application a few hundred times until I got it down, and then tried to find the feel and tricks to enhance my application of it.

I also made sure to practice its use in spell form, bullet form, and with a gun.

In spell form, most spell takes the form of a glob of light and shoots forward. But some had various effects like shooting water, fire, lightning, ice, smoke, and a few minor others.

There were so many charm variations of each type, that I had to figure out which one worked best and sidelined the others.

Wizards were uselessly redundant in making spells that did almost exactly the same thing as others.

In bullet form, the bullet looks like a spectral glowing bullet, and shoots forward faster and with a spin to it.

It actually helps to use spells in bullet form because the spell becomes compacted, and the effect only begins where the bullet lands.

For example, if I used a fire making spell, fire would shoot out of my fingers and be close range. But with a bullet, the flame is compacted and shot elsewhere, setting only the target on fire.

And when I use a gun, the bullet shoots out of the barrel and has higher impact power, accuracy, and lowers my mana cost.

I was already reaching the end of fifth year spells and once I hit sixth year, I could already start practicing with wards.

Wards were basically just advanced charms that had to be stationary.

Things like Muggle-Repelling charms, Intruder or Alarm charms, Fidelius charms, and Thief's Downfall charms.

There were others, about a dozen all told, but they needed a stationary target, and unless I wanted to have a magical drain on my reserves all the time, I had to find something to power the wards.

With Nen, I was making progress on the Four Basic Principles.

Ten, Zetsu, Ren, and Hatsu.

Once a person has opened their Aura Nodes, they must learn to keep their aura from leaking away from their body. Ten is the process of keeping the nodes open, but also having aura flow through and around the body rather than away from it.

Once maintained, it creates a shroud around the user that feels similar to standing in a lukewarm, viscous fluid. Ten maintains youthful vigor and reduces one's aging, since the energy powering the body no longer leaks away; one can keep the body from breaking down and deter the aging process.

When you combine the age deterring process of Nen and Magic, I was going to look much better than Dumbledore at his age.

Ten is the most basic defense against emotional Nen attacks, and it also offers limited protection against physical attacks, but hardly any when said attacks are enhanced with aura.

Through frequent meditation and practice, one can improve the quality of their Ten and even maintain it in their sleep.

The more your practice your Ten, the deeper your reserves of aura will become.

Despite being the most elementary technique of all, Ten is also one of the most important, since, together with Ren, it plays an instrumental role in determining the strength and smoothness of a Nen user's aura flow.

While Ten allows a user to keep aura from leaking away from their body, Zetsu stops the flow of aura from their body altogether.

By closing all of their Aura Nodes, the user is able to halt all outflow of their aura like water from a valve, making their presence much harder or even impossible to sense.

Shutting off the nodes in their eyes prevents the user from being able to see aura, but since they are no longer surrounded by their own aura, they become more sensitive to the aura of others.

This technique is thus doubly useful when tracking another person, as not only it will make it easier to follow them, but it will also prevent other users of Nen from noticing their pursuer.

However, there are other ways to perceive a person hiding with Zetsu: aside from the five senses being effective, particularly perceptive individuals are capable of detecting the gaze of another person, although they might not manage to discern the position and number of onlookers.

Furthermore, if Zetsu is utilized within a certain range from a Nen user, that Nen user might notice their presence disappearing, especially if the Zetsu user's aura is powerful.

Despite the technique not affecting vision directly, activating Zetsu in front of someone else will give them the impression the user has turned transparent.

Zetsu can also be used to relieve fatigue, since it forces the body's external layer of aura to be fully contained within.

However, for the same reason it can be dangerous due to it leaving the body defenseless against any aura attack. Even a weak attack enhanced with Nen could do massive damage.

Since even the thin protection offered by Ten is gone, a Zetsu user is particularly susceptible also to hostile emotional attacks, resulting in their mind becoming as vulnerable as their body.

When I combine Zetsu with my occlumency, I am perfectly safe from mental effects, but my body is still vulnerable to attacks from others.

I don't even know if my charms can effect someone who has their Ten on 24/7.

And before anyone asks, Notice-Me-Not charms don't exist, as well as the Point-Me charm.

Zetsu is something that was easy for me to use, as with my eagle vision, I can actually see the aura nodes open and close, and train myself to become natural with the process.

That process will take a while before its combat ready, but it will get there.

Moving on, Ren is the next step.

Ren focuses on outputting a larger amount of aura than Ten, projecting it outwards explosively.

This amplifies the user's physical strength and durability and provides a large pool of aura for any advanced techniques or individual skills they decide to use, albeit at the cost of expending said aura as long as it's on.

One can train their Ren to extend its duration and increase the amount of aura at their disposal.

It is said it takes one month to prolong one's Ren outside of combat by 10 minutes.

If Ten is considered purely defensive, Ren can be regarded as its offensive counterpart, although it also grants the user vastly enhanced defensive abilities.

Now here is where Ren takes the emotional concept of aura from Ten and makes it much more effective.

By tingeing one's Ren with hostility, a Nen user can exert what is colloquially referred to as "bloodlust".

A prolonged emission of malicious Ren can induce uncontrollable dread in those who cannot use Nen, paralysis and if contrasted without Ten, even death.

On the other hand, a neutral Ren can rarely be felt by non-users. And positive Ren can create a calming and soothing feeling to those around it.

Since Ren is a show of power, it can also intimidate other Nen users, as it offers an approximate measure of the user's raw strength.

In most cases, Ren can even leave faint traces in the environment after the Nen user has left the scene.

Ten is something a Nen user has activated 24/7, while Ren is only used for combat.

Using Ren for too long will drain your aura and if you run out, you will fall unconscious and possibly die.

I don't have the reserves just yet to use Ren for long, but with my natural talent for Nen thanks to my world bonus, I am rapidly building my reserves. I am matching the speed it took Gon and Killua to build up their Nen.

And finally, there is Hatsu.

Hatsu is one's personal expression of Nen. Its qualities are influenced by but not restricted to the Nen user's natural Nen category, of which I am a specialist.

Hatsu is used to project one's aura to carry out a certain function, creating a special and unique paranormal ability that is colloquially referred to as a 'Nen ability'.

Once a certain level of skill has been attained with Ren, the practitioner can attempt to create their personal Nen ability.

A good Nen ability sticks closely to their affinity with their category, and it reflects a person's own character, regardless of its complexity; one can never truly master Nen if they only copy someone else's abilities.

I was still debating on what to do with my Hatsu.

I can make one very strong ability and use 'conditions' to make it better.

Or I can make a variety of abilities with weaker power.

Considering I already have my magic for variety, I was aiming more for a single Hatsu ability.

What that will be, will have to wait until I finish training with the first three principles.

As for advanced techniques, the ones I chose being En, In, and Shu, they will be on the backburner for a while.

For my time in my warehouse, I spent the majority on reading in my mind while my body kept up the flow of Ten.

48 hours after I entered my warehouse, it was time to head back out, where only 4.8 hours had passed.

*Line Break*

Inside a certain room in the blimp carrying the 287th hunter exam applicants to the third phase, a meeting was happening between the examiners to discuss their thoughts.

There were four people in the meeting, and each was a practitioner of a power known only to less than two thousand people in the entire world.

Netero, the chairmen of the association, and the strongest man in the world.

Menchi, the one star Gourmet hunter.

Buhara, a regular Gourmet hunter.

And Satoz, a Ruin hunter who focused on archeology.

What were these famous and dangerous people doing?

Well, they were feasting!

"Num num num, I think we got a good turn out this year chief." (Menchi)

"Num num, I must concur. Quite a few gems have popped up all at once." (Satoz)

"Num num, *Nod*." (Buhara)

Netero smiled and stroked his beard with a thoughtful look.

"I see, well it's just one of those times again."

Satoz raised an eyebrow in question.

"Which times are speaking of sir?"

Netero chuckled as he answer.

"Hoho, sometimes years can go by without any real talent showing up, and then all of a sudden, boom, we get a whole group of gems all at once.

I've seen it happen four or five times in my years as chairman."

The four of them discussed this year's applicants for a while until the chairman asked who they would be betting on to pass.

"I believe numbers 44, 69, and 301 will easily pass unless something unexpected happens. The first and last are already experienced Nen users, while #69 is a natural born specialist with a very interesting ability.

As for potential, I believe numbers 99, 294, and 405 have a high chance of passing. " (Satoz)

Menchi and Buhara agreed with that.

"#69 is mine! That kid has the makings of a true gourmet hunter in him.

#44 was creeping me out with all that battle and blood lust, the damn guy was basically provoking us from the first moment he saw us.

#301 was… unsettling.

And while I agree with #294, I didn't pay much attention to the other two kids." (Menchi)

Buhara laughed while the other two looked curious.

"Oh? You wish to mentor the boy Menchi?" (Netero)

Menchi nodded fiercely.

"That kid has potential chief. A scarily high potential as a chef and hunter. And his Nen, which he likes to call magic, has a hell of a lot of variety to it."

Buhara jumped in there.

"Yeah, so far we have seen spatial storage, levitation, fire creation, using his finger like a knife, making my meal grow to triple its size, and he even brought out a dozen ingredients Menchi and I have never seen before." (Buhara)

Satoz added his opinion into the mix.

"From my end, I have seen flight on what looked like a broom, invisibility, and he seemed to be shooting bullets at people with various effects from slowing, tripping, sleeping, and knocking back to various mental effects.

It's quite the fascinating and versatile ability." (Satoz)

Netero rubbed his beard in thought.

"Hm, an interesting specialist indeed. They do pop up from time to time with strange and unique abilities.

As for his claims of magic, it's an interesting take on how a child would see it.

As magical beasts in our world are in actual fact just beasts that evolved and mutated with the use of their own aura in various ways, and civilians who knew nothing of Nen also labeled them as a mutation or magic, it's not a surprise that the boy would think his abilities magic." (Netero)

"But the kid knows about Nen, we all saw him practicing his Ten." (Menchi)

Netero just shrugged.

"Who knows, perhaps he just found something he liked and stuck with it. Even after knowing the truth, many Nen users have weird personalities."

All of them gave a nod in agreement to that, there were some very strange and odd being among hunters.

*Line Break*

Time flew by while I just chilled and meditated in peace when we finally landed at our destination.

The blimp stopped at the top of a massive cylindrical tower, and all 42 applicants got off with only the single message given to them.

'Find your way to the bottom within 72 hours.'

The top of the tower was flat and full of trip doors that would shut closed after a single person entered it.

One guy who was a professional rock climber attempted to climb down the side, and everyone watched as he was attacked and carried off by a giant flying Cthulhu looking cupid monster.

'It both amuses me and worries me how little these people care about others dying. It's like everyone is just numb to others losing their lives. Eh, when in Rome and all that.'

I don't know much of who I was in my first life, so I was kind of in a neutral state when I woke up in the warehouse with just the habits of my old bodies personality and thoughts. And then I think my mentality had already begun to change back when my goblin survival instructor had started breaking my bones, throwing weapons at me, and repeatedly yelling at me that one of the best ways to survive was to kill the thing threating your life.

I think he just wanted to see me try and attack him so he could break more bones honestly.

As I watched others fall through trip doors and others like Gon and his group search for their own entrance, I debated on my choices.

'You know what, fuck it, let's just head down.'

I hit myself with a Disillusionment charm, Featherweight charm, and Slowing charm before jumping off the edge.

When it comes to just going down, the easiest spell efficiency wise was the Slowing charm.

If I had to actually move through the air, the Levitation charm was the way to go. The Locomotive charm is another spell, but it only works on objects and it only lets them hover a few feet off the ground.

'There are too many redundant charms.'

I could have brought out my broom, but I was honestly just being lazy after all my rest and just chose to fall.

That would be my mistake of the day, as halfway down, my mind shouted at me to move as a mechanical arm covered in aura shot out of the tower and grabbed me.

'…I may have fucked up…'

This was indeed one of those moment in life when you realize… you just fucked up.

I couldn't avoid the arm due to my choice of flying spells, and even when I tried to hit the arm with some spells, they bounced off the aura on the arm.

'Since do fucking mechanical arms have aura!'

I didn't have much time to think as the arm quickly dragged me into the tower and tossed me into a stone room with a door.

A speaker on the ceiling turned on.

"Nice try kid, just because you know Nen won't make it that easy to escape my tower. I give you points for avoiding the man eating flying birds though.

My name is Lippo, welcome to Trick Tower.

Your under a 5 hour detainment penalty for skipping half the tower. Enjoy your stay."

I didn't bother to get off the ground and just took a minute to think about that.

'Riiiight, fuck you to buddy. Let's see how much chaos your tower can handle.'

I cracked my knuckles and got ready to unleash hell. Taking out my iPhone, I enabled the music feature, setting it to play on speaker, and then got the song I wanted.

[~ROUNDTABLE RIVAL~]

"You shouldn't have bothered me Lippo, I was going to just pass peacefully but you have declared war on a prankster."

Before a response could come in, I turned into my tiger form, a mean machine of 200 pounds and six feet of length between head to tail tip, and launched an unlocking charm at the door, opening it and allowing me to charge past.

I hit myself with a Sonorous charm and amplified my voice.

"*ROOAARR!*"

My roar shook the walls and spread to most of the inhabitants of the tower.

Tigers fully mature within 5 years, and my breed of tiger can grow up to 13 feet in length from head to tail tip with a weight of up to 660 pounds.

And considering I merged with my wand, I can also cast spells in tiger form.

So now Lippo had to deal with a rampaging tiger adolescent throwing spells around and charging through locked doors.

"Oi! What the hell!"

I tried to hit a door with an Unlocking charm, but it got cast in aura before I could hit it, so I just bashed through a wall with an exploding charm and took off running in the next area.

"Slow down you bastard!"

All kinds of traps were launched at me.

Spike traps, spinning sawmills, tranq darts and bullets, swinging blades, and all kinds you could think of, but I just kept countering them with charms and using brute force to smash through.

"Would you just stay still!"

Four moving armors came at me, but I swung my paw at full force, releasing four severing charms, one from each claw, and slicing each armor into pieces.

"Ah! What the fuck is your Nen ability?!"

'Hahaha you started this!'

I had a blast rampaging in cat form, with only the traps and area's covered in aura being able to hinder my spells and attacks.

'This guy is using Shu on the tower, is this part of his Hatsu ability? Is this whole tower his weapon? I give you credit man but fuck you for that cheap shot.'

During my rampage I came upon three other contestants and dragged them into my chaos.

"Fucking hell! I have to fight a tiger now?" (Random applicant)

"Oh? A tiger? Wait… wtf is chasing it!? Is that a giant rolling boulder! AH! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" (Random applicant)

"FLUFF! I WANT TO PET YOU!" (Random female applicant)

I did a double take at the female and had to pick up my pace as a crazed cat loving female was added to the line of traps trying to chase me.

As for the first two guys…

'RIP guys, you will likely not be remembered by anyone here.'

I used the fire making spell to breath fire on a cloud of knockout gas, changed an entire floor bright pink with color changing charms, shrunk or grew random objects, and hit that yandere fluff woman with enough sleeping charms to put her in a mini coma.

My rampage didn't end anytime soon.

Collapsed ceilings, releasing strange, caged creatures, tearing into the throats of prisoners, clearing deadly obstacle courses, and casting charms at random at anything that moved.

The tower shook from all the chaos I was causing, and every other applicant was suffering in various ways as their tests became that much harder as a result of Lippo upping the security measures to contain me.

Back on Netero's blimp, Menchi was rolling on the floor laughing while the other three men were having various degrees of laughter.

Menchi's roar of: "I fucking love this kid." Kept echoing out between gulps of air.

It took a full three hours of me wrecking everything in sight and moving on, leaving confusion and destruction behind, before Lippo finally waved the white flag.

"Wait! Wait! Just stop and we can talk about this!"

I paused while breathing hard, after all, all that running and using magic had drained me quite a bit.

"Rawr?"

"Yes! Yes, just stop, I'll guide you to the bottom."

'Hm… suspicious, why is he waving the white flag now? Unless…'

I nodded my tiger head as I was sure he could see me and approached the next crossroad.

"Rawr?"

'Direction?'

"*Phew* thank god, just head left and take the stairs down to the next floor."

"Rawr."

I nodded my head amicably, then smirked evilly, and charged down the right path.

"WAIT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

At the end of the hallway was a pair of large doors and I smirked wider.

While shooting an exploding charm ahead of me, the doors were quickly covered in aura, proving my conjecture.

"Stop this now!"

I used Ren for the first time, allowing my aura I built up with Ten to surround me, and used all my 200 pound weight to smash like a cannonball through the doors.

And what did I find?

I found the control room where Lippo was rapidly turning pale while looking at me.

"Um… Parlay?"

"*ROAR!*"

I would wish to say that after a glorious battle to the death, in which my fluff brought glory and honor to my ancestors, I came out victorious, but despite his personality, Lippo is still a pro hunter.

And he's actually a blacklist hunter, a hunter who hunts criminals.

So despite my initial actions, it only took five minutes of staring each other down before we were both sitting in chairs, drinking tea, and snacking while Lippo both complained about my actions and complimented me as he never stopped typing away.

It seems his Hatsu ability really is related to the tower.

He called it 'Tower Defense.'

But instead of keeping others out, its meant as a prison to keep others in.

Lippo was never an upfront fighter, but he takes pride in being a jailer for the worst scum who avoid death sentences.

He doesn't torture people, but he has a habit of using prisoners as NPC's to test new hunter examinee's.

For every hour the prisoners manage to stall the examinee's, they get one year taken off their sentence's.

And considering many of these prisoners have a few centuries on their sentence's, well, a lot of work is needed.

Hey, no one told them to go on bombing, raping and or murder sprees of innocent civilians. The fact that they're not dead should be something their thankful for.

Anyway, for the rest of the exam, I just kicked back and chatted with Lippo as I watched through the surveillance screens as he messed with each applicant.

Some died, some gave up, and others were tearing through the challenges.

With nothing better to do, I just meditated and trained when I wasn't busy.

At one point, I even made an offer to Lippo.

At the end of the first 36 hours, I got a bit bored with meditating or watching the others and decided to see if Lippo wanted to have fun.

"Hey." (Jin)

"Hm? What's up man?"

I pulled out a pipe from my inventory.

"Wanna get high?"

Lippo just gave me a blank look.

"Are you offering an examiner and a blacklist hunter of all people to get high with you?"

I nodded without any shame.

"Yup."

Lippo just stared at me and sighed.

"*Sigh* fuck it why not, not much is happening for a few hours anyway."

"Ha, I knew you were a degenerate."

"Shut up, should we use my stuff, or do you have your own?"

I just chuckled and brought out some weed.

After 'asking' my head of house for Hufflepuff, I was allowed to take plenty of 'samples' of the experimental muggle herb I brought her to play with.

There were many times I found her wandering the halls, sitting at meals, or in class with red eyes, so I'm pretty sure she found out how it worked.

I even stumbled on her discussing something quietly with Snape a few times.

I may or may not have started a Hogwarts weed circle.

Anyway, we just chilled and blazed for a few hours.

To my surprise, I actually found that meditating while high enhanced my Nen practice.

It was like more of my lifeforce gushed out of me.

So I tried smoking more, and when the control room was successfully hotboxed, Lippo and I decided it would be fun to mess with the applicants.

"Yooo what kind of funny traps ya got here, let's mess with all of em." (Jin)

"He he he, you came to the right guy, hold my joint, I got this." (Lippo)

That's how a reign of terror began on the tower.

Fire alarms, random floods, electricity outages, prototype zombies, disco lights, rave music, hallucinogenic gas, and there was this one guy with a monkey that we kept dropping in pits full of sand.

For almost an hour, we just kept placing more pits in front of him while he raged.

But the biggest change that happened, was when the door, which Lippo repaired, was kicked open, and none other than fucking Hisoka appeared as the smoke from the room cleared up a bit.

"Ho~ So this where you have been my wizard friend."

Me and Lippo froze, not so much in fear but in a deer caught in the headlights way.

Hisoka looked like he got soaked with water, his hair was dripping, his makeup was ruined, and he had various splatters of paint and blood on him.

In other words… the chaos we caused caught him up in it to.

Hisoka looked at us, the room, and then the smoke before smiling cheerily.

"You got room for one more?"

Me and Lippo looked at each other for a moment before we shrugged and pointed to another chair.

"Thank you."

And that's how the duet of high guys fucking with people became a trio.

"Oh! Hit that one with the paint attack." (Jin)

"That one's standing in some water, use electricity." (Lippo)

"Oho~? You locked Gon boy in a room for fifty hours? That's boring, you should mix that up." (Hisoka)

Are reign of terror continued throughout the night, and it was… glorious.

Come sunrise on the last day, me and Hisoka cheerily left the control room and the half asleep Lippo and took the master elevator to the bottom of the tower.

We scored first in the exam for finding the control room.

As the last few hours past, the final applicants trickled down into the destination with war torn and exhausted expressions.

Me and Hisoka stood out for being clean and full of smiles while we drank tea and played cards.

Illumi was the first one after us, and he gave Hisoka the stink eye as his disguise of gillitak has a third of his needles missing and his clothes were torn up in places.

When he turned around, me and Hisoka had to visible retrain from laughing as his ass had a bite mark like and animal had clamped down on it.

And just like canon, Gon and his group showed up in the last hour.

As the announcement came over the speakers from Lippo, the third phase was officially over, and the final sixteen applicants left the building.

I think it was twenty four in canon, but well, I caused quite a bit of chaos.

Outside, we were met with Lippo, who had cleaned himself up from how Hisoka and I left him, and to his side were two agents in suits with a box on a table between them.

"Congratulations to the final sixteen here who have passed the third phase. I know many of you may be tired, but we are going to jump right into the forth phase."

There were a few groans, but Lippo ignored them.

He pointed at the box.

"First off, can everyone please come up and take a card from this box. Please do not remove the tape on the card. You can come in order of those who finished the third phase first."

I looked at Hisoka and offered him to go first with my eyes, and he nodded with a smile and grabbed his card.

I went second.

And the rest went on.

I elbowed Hisoka and took a few steps back.

He gave me a weird look but followed my example, so we were slightly behind everyone.

Lippo spoke up as soon as everyone had a card.

"Now, please remove the tape on your cards."

Everyone did so and the cards revealed a number.

Rather than look at my own, I looked around at everyone else's as soon as the tape was off and memorized all the numbers I saw.

I smirked as I saw who had my number and looked at my own in surprise to see that I had theirs as well.

"The fourth phase of the hunter exam will be a game called the hunter and the hunted.

With sixteen members here, each of you has been given a target, that target is each other.

Your own badge is worth two point, and your targets is worth two points. Every other badge is worth one point.

The fourth phase will commence on a nearby island, and you have three days to get four points worth of badges.

How you do it is up to you.

I wish you the best of luck, please board the ferry, it will be an hour ride."

Hisoka sent me a thankful nod and didn't question how I knew to stand back to see who everyone else had as a target.

Hisoka was being hunter by Gon, and Hisoka's target was some short guy with a cape and short sword.

My target was surprisingly, fucking Tonpa, the useless lard who managed to get this far by clinging to Gon's group.

And Tonpa's target was me!

Ha, this must be fate telling me to finish him.

The joy ride to the island was met with a tense silence as everyone was eyeing each other warily.

Well, it was tense for most, as me and Hisoka went back to our usual tea and card games.

Killua and Gon seemed to just notice there was another person their age around and I waved at them, getting an awkward wave back.

They saw me in the second phase, but due to how solo I've been, they never really paid me much attention.

Anyway, the small island came into view and we were told to exit the boat in the order we finished the third phase in. Each person got ten minutes before the next would exit.

This time Hisoka offered to let me off first, and I took it.

Now here I had a choice again.

Take the fast and simple way, or the long and trolling way.

Honestly, I was still satisfied with my trolling of the third phase, so I decided to get this one over with.

Once out of sight from the boat, I disillusioned and silenced myself, and then used Zetsu before trailing back and hiding in a tree.

I even used a color changing charm to blend in better.

When Hisoka passed by, and even Illumi after him, neither saw me.

'Ha, combining magic and Nen is fun.'

I waited as one by one, everyone passed by, until Tonpa came off the boat last, and I immediately hit him with a stunner in clear view of the boat that hadn't even got a chance to leave yet.

Then I just walked up, grabbed the badge, and kicked Tonpa into the water, where he woke back up and started flailing and I just walked away with a silent whistle.

To give a short overview of this guy.

He has taken and failed the hunter exam over forty times, and he is nicknamed the rookie crusher.

He takes sick sadistic pleasure in not trying to pass the exam but making sure others fail.

He poison's, cheats, lies, pays off thugs, and does any kind of action to make newbies full of innocence or arrogance fail.

He is one of those creatures that feed off negativity.

So I decided to fuck with him for fun.

First I took my prize and secured them.

Then I would troll him for three days as he searches for me.

The next 36 hours were hell for Tonpa. And I only say 36 hours because he wasn't alive long after that.

I randomly hit him with slowing charms, making him walk like a snail for an hour before the effect let off.

Banished his pants.

Shot red sparks at him while he slept.

Freezing charm at night.

Ice Jinx's in his underwear.

Confundus charms to make him think tree's was me and bull rush them.

I even hit him with a scouring charm due to his smell but that only ends up making the target clean at the cost of having soap in their mouth.

It was a weird spell parents would use on kids when they misbehaved, or they dirty dishes to make them shiny.

It does clean the body though.

I made Tonpa's life hell for those 36 hours until he cried and ran away.

Why was I so cruel?

The dude has been crushing innocent souls for close to thirty years.

I can't even imagine how many he pushed to suicide.

Toxic people like those were best off eliminated or crushed before they could hurt someone else.

And it seemed karma caught up to him, because as he ran away from where I was tormenting him, he ran right into the path of a bloodthirsty Hisoka who took his head off with a single clean cut.

And to those curious, Hisoka uses playing cards as weapons by imbuing them with Shu.

After that, while Hisoka was distracted and in a euphoric state from killing someone, I managed to take him down with a sleeping charm bullet.

Now I know many would protest that working, but Hisoka was quite seriously unhinged at this moment, and I had a good idea why.

An hour later, with Hisoka tied to a tree tightly, he woke up and blinked his eyes.

"Hey man, you back in the world of sanity?"

Hisoka looked at me strangely and then down at the restraints before he smiled.

"Oh yes. I was a little… wound up I guess you could say. Did I take your kill? If so I apologize."

I waved my hand at that and shot a severing charm at the rope to free him. He probably could have escaped on his own, but it was a courtesy thing.

"Eh, it's fine. I had already broken his will before you got to him. He just had the bad luck of running into you."

Hisoka chuckled at that.

"My~ I didn't know you were such a sadist Jin."

I shrugged at tossed him some water.

"I'm not usually but I just hate toxic people like him. Weak cowards who try to bring down potential and positivity to make themselves feel better and above others.

They can't handle others succeeding where they fail, so instead of improving themselves, they lash out at others."

Hisoka got a dark look as if he were recalling something and nodded.

"Indeed, flies that try to bury potential like that should be purged."

I raised an eyebrow at him. Not much was really known about Hisoka's past.

"I thought you didn't care who you killed?"

He hummed and answered.

"I will rightly admit I'm a sadist, and even a masochist to a certain extent, but only in combat. If I find something interesting to fight, for a certain quality they possess, I will play with them.

I like finding toys that can grow, but if they are not special, they don't interest me. I only really entered that bloodthirsty mindless state because I saw some potential that broke through its crust to show me the diamond hidden underneath.

It was…Hm… irresistible."

I just chuckled at his behavior and we talked for a bit before separating again. We might be friends, but if we have a reason to fight, we will. And right now we were in an exam meant to make us fight.

As for Hisoka's behavior.

Remember, Hisoka's favorite thing in the entire world, is seeing potential and watching it grow so he can personally crush it in a fight to the death.

And just like canon, Gon showed his natural talent by managing to use Zetsu without knowing about Nen and got Hisoka's tag.

Hisoka restrained himself from killing Gon in that moment, as he was mesmerized by the potential in the boy, and the effort to do that must have ignited his bloodlust like crazy.

Turning off his rational mind and making him stop thinking.

But don't be fooled, Hisoka is a true genius with combat, and he mastered Nen to a deadly extent.

In a straight fight, I would never get my bullets past his Nen defense on their own.

Anyway, time flew by as I hollowed out a tree and rested inside till the fourth phase ended.

In the end, out of 16 applicants, only me, Hisoka, Illumi still in disguise, Hanzo, Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and…. Pockle passed.

The first big change I made in canon was Leorio not passing.

He came by with Gon's group, but it seemed his target was Hanzo, and his own badge was taken by Pockle.

As for the other seven, only three survived. Tonpa, the short sword caped guy, the black hunter, and the female sniper had all died.

Interestingly enough, the first three all died to Hisoka's hands.

The black hunter had targeted Gon after he got Hisoka's badge and was running away, and Hisoka killed the guy and gave his badge back to Gon.

When Gon tried to tell him he doesn't accept his pity, Hisoka laid him out with a good punch and told him to get stronger if wants to repay him for that punch.

The female sniper died from targeting Illumi.

The crazy insane assassin used a fucking needle from a snipers range to stab through the scope of her sniper, and into her brain killing her in one shot.

'You don't fuck with the Zoldyck family.'

Anyway, the final eight, along with the survivors, were taken by blimp to a hotel where the final phase would happen.

Netero revealed a line up for all eight contestants to fight in a bracket tournament.

But instead of their being one winner, it was the opposite.

There would only be one loser, and the other seven would pass. Getting a single victory in any round means you pass the exam.

The only two rules were:

You cannot kill your opponent.

One side has to forfeit. Being knocked unconscious does not count as victory.

Here things mostly progressed like canon.

Gon faced Hanzo. Hanzo gave up after Gon refused to give up.

I faced Pockle. As soon as the match was called, I shot him with a disarming charm, making his bow fly out of his hands, then a levitation charm holding him in the air, and the proceeding to banish his clothes, one piece at a time while asking him to give up, and he finally quit before he lost in underwear.

I got weird looks for my method, but I just shrugged. I could do this a dozen ways and that was the least painful of them.

The Hisoka faced Kurapika. And Hisoka forfeited after whispering something to Kurapika.

Then Illumi faced Killua. Illumi removed his disguise by pulling out all the needles in his face and reverting back to his normal face.

Then Illumi used his Nen to convince Killua to give up and go back home since he ran away. Killua forfeited but didn't leave just yet.

In the next round Hanzo faced Pockle, but Killua stepped in during the match and killed Pockle by stabbing him through the heart from behind.

Killua's action eliminated him from the tournament by breaking the no killing rule and stepping out of turn.

No one paid attention to the dead body for some reason, and the hunter exam came to a close.

I could have stopped Killua at that moment since I knew what was going to happen, but I didn't because I saw no reason to mess with canon more.

Leorio would take the exam next year, but I felt bad for the guy considering he wanted to be a doctor and anonymously donated him a pouch of gold coins to pay for his medical studies.

I didn't hate Leorio, he was actually a really great guy, but he was a bit weak physically and the only reason he passed the hunter exam in canon was because Gon carried him. Literally at some points.

So the hunter exam ended, we got an orientation about the benefits of being a hunter, I said my goodbyes to Hisoka, who made sure to remind me to come visit at Heavens arena sometime soon under threat of hunting me and being a creepy stalker until I agree to fight him, so I just agreed to get it over with.

Win or lose, I didn't care.

What I did care about was that as soon as my business was done, I got captured by a certain turquoise haired women and enjoyed being dragged around in a headlock with my face pressed into boobs.

"Alright kid, exam's over, your ass is mine now." (Menchi)

I really hoped she meant that metaphorically.

Chapter end.