Chairman Netero was paying particular interest to the exam this year. Not only had Ging's son appeared, but King's chosen successor was with him.
It was rather rare for someone to join the exam with the express purpose of becoming a hero hunter. The last one to pull it off was Stain, who was currently operating under the guise of a villain just to keep the heroes on their toes.
An unpleasant way to do it, but highly effective. The standards for heroes in general had begun to slack to worrying levels since All Might took over as the top hero. Far too many were in it for the fame and glory, and not to protect others.
Stain was a necessary evil in many ways, regardless of how much the pro heroes complained about it when they found out he was an active hunter in good standing.
So he wasn't about to let the proctor throw out the entire batch of candidates because her pride was stung by a young girl.
At the exam site...
Ichigo wasn't depressed. She knew that fate wasn't about to let something like a hunter in a snit derail Gon's plans to pass the exam at the same age as his father. Besides, how was it her fault that the hunter demanded a dish that only a few people would actually recognize outside of Japan, then got snitty when she gave the boys a rough idea of how it was made?
Honestly, just because she was in the mood for fish didn't excuse her behavior...especially since she had a sensitive palate and got pissed when she demanded a bunch of guys who had likely only made simple dishes to make something as specialized as sushi!
Out of all the samples given, only Ichigo and the ninja known as Hanjo had made anything that looked like a proper sushi.
"Man, that sucked. What are the odds that we'd fail this early?" said Killua pouting.
"I'm surprised you made something edible. Most boys your age can't cook at all," said Ichigo, pointedly looking at her cousin.
"Why are you looking at me for?" said Gon confused.
"Nothing," said Ichigo. Killua snickered, as did Leorio and Kurapika.
They were all rather bored and had been waiting for an hour, trying to figure out what to do next. Suddenly there was a loud yelp, as one of the hunter candidates jumped up yelling about his ass being on fire.
Soon the area was filled with several claiming the same problem, which had Ichigo and Gon sighing.
"Bruni?" said Gon.
"Bruni," confirmed Ichigo.
"What's a Bruni?" asked Killua.
Ichigo went to where the last person had jumped up, and with a flash had grabbed something from the nearby ground.
In her hand was a strange little lizard with blue and purple scales, looking quite amused with itself.
"Bruni, what have I said about these little pranks?" scolded Ichigo.
"What is that?" asked Kurapika, interested. Many of the others were giving the lizard foul looks, having realized he was the source of their ass being on fire.
"We're not entirely sure, just that he seems to have a weird fire quirk. King gave her to him before he left to track down his sister and brother-in-law," said Gon.
"He finds it amusing to see humans jump about in alarm," said Ichigo sourly. "But he is pretty useful when he likes you."
"How so?" asked Kurapika.
Ichigo put out a metal plate, then put some wood chips and herbs in it. Bruni jumped from her hand with glee and began to set the herbs and plants on fire, creating a pleasant scent.
Gon easily handed over some meat, which began to sizzle and cook over the lizard's flame. Bruni didn't seem to mind in the least.
"...Your pet lizard works as a portable burner?" Leorio.
"Let me put it this way. Bruni's fire can heat up metal instruments, and with a bottle of water can sterilize them in an area where you can't start a fire pit," said Ichigo.
Leorio blinked, before he gained a sudden appreciation for the lizard. That was seriously useful.
"So why are you making lunch?" asked Kurapika.
"I overheard her arguing on the phone. While cutting an entire applicant pool of potential hunters is fairly common, I don't think the chairman was impressed she did it because we couldn't make sushi to suit her sensitive palate," said Ichigo dryly.
That made the boys perk up.
"So we might as well eat now and get our energy up, then get ready for the next round," said Ichigo.
She was right...the hunter was forced to administer a second exam because her test was unreasonable. Ichigo whooped with glee as she jumped off the edge into the ravine to grab an egg. She left her 'pillow' next to Gon once he came up, and climbed up the rock like a monkey.
"That was fun!" she said cheerfully.
"Like all the times King had you do that flight training," agreed Gon.
"...Flight training?" said Kurapika.
"I'm not spoiling that surprise."
Ichigo didn't even think twice...she promptly glomped Killua after he got tired of playing with the chairman to try and earn his badge early.
Killua tensed, clearly not used to friendly physical contact...but she could feel her quirk kick into overdrive as he began to calm down from the subtle murderous aura he had. Gon might have ignored it, but she knew that if she allowed him to leave without diffusing the worst of it, something terrible would happen.
At the very least he might turn murderous intent into action.
Killua managed to get out of her octopus hold, and gave her a strange look. Like he couldn't quite figure out how to deal with what she just did.
He walked out of the room with that weirded out expression on his face.
Ichigo wouldn't discover it until later, but he killed three other candidates. Mostly because he was still rather freaked out about her influence over his behavior, but mostly to confirm he hadn't lost his touch. His family would literally kill him otherwise.
Gon grinned at his cousin, who had bowed out on the grounds that playing with the chairman was "too much work".
She had become slightly lazy since training with King, but to be fair when she DID take things seriously she was a terror to behold.
Even King admitted that a motivated Ichigo was TERRIFYING, so perhaps it was best her quirk worked on her just as well.
And that was before Chastiefol was ever put into play.
Ichigo was not happy when she saw how high the tower was. It would be an absolute pain to fly down this thing and that was before those human-eating birds came into play. Besides, it would be rather boring to cheat and have to wait five days for Gon and the others.
"Tch."
It didn't take her long to find the entrances. She promptly grabbed Gon and dragged him over to where a cluster of them were.
"What are you doing?" asked Killua, entertained by the sight of Gon being dragged by someone as tiny as his cousin.
"There's a cluster of openings over here. I think it means we're supposed to enter as a group...this place certainly fits the description of a prison King told us about."
"Wait...you think this is the same place that they tried to hold Ban for a month for a drunk and disorderly charge so he could test the level of the prison?" said Gon.
"It's isolated, there are man-eating animals here and I know for a fact it's run by a Blacklist hunter and his friends. Considering this is the hunter exam, it would fit," said Ichigo.
"Why would a hunter throw someone into what is clearly a high-security prison for a drunk and disorderly?" asked Leorio baffled.
"His full title is Ban the Undead, and he's actually a Hunter from the group known as the Seven Deadly Sins. Imprisoning him wouldn't help much because he can pretty much outlive any prison sentence given and odds are he'd leave after he got bored before it was over. Besides, he's mostly retired and it was something the Chairman suggested as a joke. From what I heard the Blacklist hunter nearly had a complete fit when he saw the state of his prison and he had to scramble to catch several prisoners who decided to follow Ban when he escaped," said Ichigo with amusement.
Killua snorted at that.
As they went deeper into the tower, having chosen a path for Majority Rules, they found themselves in an arena.
The second Ichigo saw the spokesperson for the group of criminals they would have to get past, she couldn't believe her luck.
Part of the trials King set for her to take his place as the new fairy monarch was that she had to fight Ban for at least fifteen minutes and win...and that was before she got the upgrade.
And her luck must be in, because she recognized him immediately from the photos King showed them. Gon clearly did to, to some extent because he was grinning.
"So, which one of you kiddies is going to face me first?" said Ban.
"I call dibs!" said Ichigo quickly. She was already handing her pouch to Gon, but not before slipping something out first.
"Okay, but why?" said Leorio.
"I'll explain later," said Ichigo. She quickly scampered across the small bridge into the arena and grinned. "How about a small wager to make this interesting?"
"Oh?" said Ban, looking mildly interested.
"If I can survive you going all out for fifteen minutes, no hold's barred, then we win. If you beat me or knock me out, we lose fifteen hours," said Ichigo.
"Now wait a minute!" protested Leorio, but Gon shut him up by elbowing him in the gut.
"Sounds fair to me. You sure you want to do this kid?" said Ban. "I mean you are carrying a security blanket with you."
Ichigo didn't stop grinning. He was in for a big surprise.
"Can we have a timer on the board please?"
"Are both parties in agreement?" said the hunter in charge of this exam.
"Yeah, yeah, let's get on with it," said Ban.
Everyone on Ichigo's side hit the "O" button for agreement.
A timer was placed on the digital screen for fifteen minutes.
"Begin!"
Without any warning at all, the 'security blanket' became a spear...that promptly gutting Ban.
"What the hell?!" said Leorio, watching as the sweet, innocent Ichigo turned into a complete one-woman nightmare.
"I thought that was a special pillow or something," said Kurapika, now rather interested.
"It's the sacred spear of the fairies, Chastiefol," said Gon. "The hunter who gave it to her gave her a set of conditions before she could unlock it's full potential, and one of them was to fight his brother-in-law in a no-hold's barred sparring match for at least fifteen minutes without losing. So far Ichigo can only use three of the forms...the pillow is just a standby form that she favors."
"Wait, that's Chastiefol?!" said Killua, staring in shock. "My dad told me about that thing! It's supposed to be a complete pain in the ass to fight and even he said it wasn't worth the pay to fight anyone who is able to use it properly. I thought it was supposed to be in the hands of the Fairy King!"
"It was. King chose Ichigo as his successor, and in order for her to fully ascend as the Fairy Queen she has to complete a series of trials. We thought getting our hunter's exam was the only one we'd be doing... I had no idea Ban the Undead would be here."
"That's Ban the Undead? The legendary self-healer who was part of the Seven Deadly Sins group?" said Kurapika. "What's he doing in a place like this?"
"My guess...he interfered an arrest made by the hunter who's proctoring this exam and irritated him enough that he threw him into prison as well without knowing who he was. Once he knows who Ban is or at least sees the tattoo, odds are he'll have him leave with us or straight up throw him out," said Gon shrugging. "This isn't the first time Ban's been thrown into prison, but most have the sense to only throw him in the drunk tank because keeping him is an absolute nightmare. If he wants to leave, he'll leave and there's nothing that any normal hunter can do about it."
"Sheesh there's a lot of blood. How is she planning to get that off? I mean I doubt there's any shower the proctor would let her use..." said Leorio. There was a lot of blood in the arena. And quite a bit of it on Ichigo. She kept going for fatal attacks and Ban wasn't quite fast enough to dodge several of them. She was practically covered in it.
"What's the time?" asked Gon.
"Less than twenty seconds left, why?" said Killua.
"Because the crystal King gave Ichigo if she encountered Ban before she passed the exam should activate soon. He's sparred with his brother-in-law before and he knows how messy it can get."
Sure enough, something in Ichigo's pocket began to glow with increasing intensity with ten seconds left on the clock.
When the counter reached zero, there was a weird ball of light around her...that proceeded to soak up the excess blood in the arena.
When it dimmed, Ichigo had a new outfit made of crystals and Ban was looking far more interested.
"I know that spell...that's one of King's special outfit crystals."
"King wanted me to give you something if we ran into you first," said Ichigo. She looked to her cousin, who went through her bag before pulling something out. He tossed it and she caught it with expert ease. "King made sure to pay for it in advance just in case...otherwise it would have gone to the chairman if we passed."
Ban laughed as he happily accepted the large bottle of alcohol.
Up in the control booth, the blacklist hunter was having a fit over learning he had Ban the Undead in his prison.
Like hell was he doing renovations once that pest got bored enough that he wanted to leave! He was not recapturing all those prisoners twice!