Chapter 23: A x Dreadful x Number

January 8, 1999

Levi sat with his knees bent, his arms wrapped tightly around them, and his head buried as deep as possible into his body.

The one who just helped him was being sneered at by the troupe.

It was his fault though, there was no denying that. If he had only been braver, they could have finished earlier. But no! He had to hold onto Feitan the whole time, pulling him back as well. He had promised himself that he would stop being a liability, yet...

Levi sunk his head deeper into his chest. The room went silent. The silence reminded him of the one he had just experienced back in the pitch-black room. A shudder danced down his spine. He was aware of all the eyes in the room staring at him.

"What happened to him?" Nobunaga's concerned voice sliced through the silence.

"Aw! Got scared?" Of course, it was Phinks who asked that.

Levi stayed quiet. He had caused enough destruction for a day.

Phinks waited a few second for Levi to take the bait before laying down another one. "Just give up if you're so scared. I'm willing to bet that Feitan only came last because of you. Didn't Pakunoda share the same fate?"

Levi was used to being insulted, wrongly-accused, and even ignored. He made an internal oath to not talk.

"You're too much of a liability, I'm starting to doubt Danchou's judgement."

"What?" Feitan's voice reached a dangerous point. He could never tolerate that.

"What?"

"What did you just say about Danchou's judgement?"

Levi closed his eyes. He wanted to block out their bickering. Please stop! It was his fault. Why were others even being dragged into it? He should be the only one facing the verbal abuse that Phinks was a master at.

His head swam with unpleasant memories. He yelled at it to shut up. Unfortunately, he had actually said it out loud.

Every pair of eyes in that room burnt into him. Levi could already picture their disgust-filled expressions.

How dare this brat raise his voice? He could hear their thoughts, How dare this piece of-

"Levi?" Instead of a harsh voice that Levi was expecting, Pakunoda's soft concerned notes greeted him. "Are you okay? What happened back there?"

"Inhaled weird nen." Thankfully, Feitan answered for him.

"Nen?" Shalnark asked, "Hmm... that's unexpected."

The sound of a door sliding open echoed throughout the large room interrupted the conversation. Levi looked up to see a tall man with frilly hair and a strange club step in.

"Geretta, applicant number 384 is the tenth to pass!" A mechanical voice announced, "Time elapsed-- 12 hours and 27 minutes."

Geretta scanned the applicants. "Not bad I guess..." He sighed and sat down.

10th applicant... Levi looked around. There were two people other than the troupe members that had arrived before them-- a strange-looking man who had weird pins stuck into him, and a bald man with fancy eyebrows.

Levi put his head back down. 72 hours minus 12 hours... 60? In that case, they had to spend 60 more hours in there.

Levi decided to meditate to calm down his aura and the others let him have a break...

January 12, 1999

The bright sunlight nearly made Levi go blind. He squinted until he could properly open his eyes.

They had just left the tower and were on the top of a rocky plateau. A forest stretched below for a while until it hit the sparkling blue sea.

"Congratulations on your successful descents. I'm Lippo, the examiner for the third phase that you just passed," A man with spiky hair and glasses announced, "only two more phases lie ahead."

"The fourth phase will take place on Zevil Island." He snapped his fingers and a man brought a box on wheels in front of him.

He put his hand on it and continued his speech. "The first step is for you all to draw lots."

Confusion ran amok. "Lots? What will that decide?"

"Who to hunt, and who will hunt you!"

Some grinned, some gasped, others shuddered, while some remained stoic.

"In this box, there are 40 numbered cards, corresponding to all of the remaining applicants." He raised his right index finger. "You will now draw one card each, in the order in which you exited the tower."

Hisoka went first. Then, the pin guy. Then, Phinks. Then, the bald guy. Then, Nobunaga. Then, Pakunoda. Then, Shalnark. And then, it was Levi's turn.

He held his breath in anticipation as he slowly walked towards the box. He could feel every pair of eyes around drilling into me.

"But... he's so young!" he heard someone whisper in the back, obviously referring to him.

Levi reached the box with another problem facing him-- even on tip-toes he couldn't reach the mouth of it. He was short... even shorter than Kortopi so... of course he couldn't...

Levi gasped as a rough hand raised him up by the back if his collar. He turned around to see the thug face of the box-bringing man. At least he could reach the mouth of the box now.

He put his hand inside and pulled out the first card he caught. The blank card came out with a beep from the machine. Wait... blank card?

The man let him go. Levi landed on his feet and examined the card as he walked back to the group.

The next person i.e. Feitan passed beside him. He didn't even bat an eyelash at him but Levi could feel the distaste the man had for him in his aura.

Levi gulped. He really needed to patch things up between them.

"Alright," The spiky-haired man spoke up again, "does everyone have a card? Good. You may peel the sticker off your card to see your number."

Levi made a small 'o' with his mouth. He noticed the sticker that he had dismissed as just a part of the design earlier. He slowly peeled it off. The number stared at him even more menacingly than Feitan had when they had found out that they had lost.

A ruffling of clothes and fumbling of metal. Most of the people were taking their pins off for safekeeping, except the troupe members, the pin guy, and Killua. Levi paused for a second before removing his own and pocketing it.

"The tabulator has recorded the number that each of you drew." Mr. Spiky-hair resumed his speech once the pin-fumbling stopped. "You may therefore, dispose of the cards, if you wish."

Crunching noises filled the air until Mr. Spiky spoke again. "The applicant whose ID is specified on your card... is your target!"

Levi took a deep breath as Mr. Spiky confirmed his suspicion. He stared at the number on the card in his hands with a frown.

Mr. Spiky kept talking despite the tension in the air. He told them about the points system-- 3 points for your own badge, 3 points for your target's, and 1 point for any other badge. To win, the applicants were supposed to collect six points for which they had a week in Zevil Island.

The task didn't even sound easy. The tension in the air only increased. A certain group of people however, were smirking. Of course, they were the ones who hadn't unpinned their badges.

Levi wished he could be one of them but the card, that was now living in his pockets, had glared at him too hard with that dreadful combination of numbers that had made 50.

50, as in the same number that was on Feitan's badge.