I don't own HxH!

A loud chiming sound that strangely resembled an airport announcement woke Sora up from her deep and peaceful slumber. Still groggy after waking up, the girl glanced around in confusion for a bit before belatedly realizing that she was lying down with her jacket covering her up instead of sitting up.

Seemed like Killua had left earlier than she was.

"Thank you for being patient, everyone. The airship is about to arrive at our next destination," a voice from the speaker announced.

She raised her body to a sitting position, stretching a bit while yawning. She hadn't had such a good sleep in a while now. Glancing out the window, she spotted a tall tower towering from afar on top of a bigger tower.

There seemed to be a lot of weird and unusual mountains, huh.

After grabbing a quick bite from the canteen that by chance still had the remaining food from last, Sora stopped in the bathroom to wash her face before joining the others, erasing any traces of sleepiness and refreshing her mind. Her hair was still slightly unkempt like usual, maybe even more unkempt now. Still, she didn't bother to fix it.

While at that, she changed her bandage and applied the ointment, silently glad the bruise had lightened up to a more purplish blue color. At this rate, it would heal in just a few days.

Once she was done, the girl exited the bathroom and went to where the participants gathered together. The blimp landed on top of a really tall cylinder building with no doors or windows. Participants slowly filed out of the blimp and looked around curiously.

Sora took the moment of waiting to approach Kurapika. "Kurapika-san, sorry. I forgot to return your handkerchief. Here you go."

"Kurapika is fine and thank you." The blond haired male accepted the now pristine white handkerchief before placing it back in his bag. "Where were you yesterday? I didn't see you in the break room even until the morning."

Ah, she knew the question would come.

"I ended up exploring the airship with Gon and Killua after treating my wounds then passed out somewhere in the corridor," Sora explained sheepishly, scratching her cheek.

Kurapika sighed before giving her a smile. "As long as you're okay. I know you can protect yourself in case something happens."

She felt touched by the older's male worry before nodding and giving him a thumbs up to reassure him.

Suddenly, she felt bad for lying to him. She'd have to make up sometime to tell the whole group now that Killua has the general gist of her identity while she knew Gon wouldn't mind. Hopefully that the other older two would be accepting of that too.

"Everyone, the exam's Third Phase will begin here at the top of Trick Tower," the green ball guy announced after clearing his throat to gain attention. "To pass this phase, you must reach the tower's base alive. The time limit is seventy-two hours. With that, we will now begin the Third Phase. I will pray for your success."

And with that, the blimp along with the still unknown species mini green guy, that now she thought would be comfortable as a pillow, left them on top of the tower, not before wishing them good luck.

Gon was the one who kneeled down and looked over from the edge, beside him was Sora who was leaning just a tad bit too far that one wrong move would send her falling over a hundred meters below, much to Leorio's chagrin. Killua was there to keep her in line though because once again he yanked her hood until she landed on her butt.

She thought they'd be on better terms after last night but apparently not.

"Thank you for that, Killua." The girl stood up while dusting her pants.

Said boy only stuck his tongue out as a response while Leorio patted her head out of relief. She quickly wore her hood back after that.

"By the way, are we supposed to climb down?" Leorio asked in fear, the reality of the current task suddenly came crashing in.

"Isn't this just suicide?" Kurapika reasoned out.

"A normal person can't do it," A voice stated out suddenly from behind them and simultaneously, the little group turned their heads to it. A muscular man with the number 86 pinned to his chest was standing with his arms crossed, a smug look clearly planted on his face.

The man started to climb down at a fairly fast pace, impressing the three young kids.

"Such a task is a piece of cake for a professional rock climber like me," he continued to brag about his ability, continuing to descend but as if he heard something he stopped moving.

Shortly after that, a strange winged creature—that looked pretty much like a deformed baby she thought with a shudder— swooped down on him and carried him away. Obviously to fill up its stomach with the newly captured prey.

""Thought so..." Sora blurted out after a few moments of silence at watching the flying beast away.

"G-guess we can't climb down on the side," Leorio shakily said. Others nodded in agreement.

"You expected this to happen?" Kurapika asked her. The girl shrugged lightly.

"It's called Trick Tower, it wouldn't be possible if you could climb down without any obstacles," She answered, peering down the edge once more, "I'm sure it's a lot harder than that."

Kurapika agreed with her reasoning and the group split up to search for a way down. At a closer look, the number of examinees slowly became less and less. Somehow, the participants found their way inside the tower and were heading to the exit somewhere downwards. Sora was completely aware about it and silently, she was anxious.

The girl walked around alone, away from Gon and Killua for a while. Before long, she accidently came upon a loose tile that descended slightly when she stepped on it. Noticing it, the girl retraced her steps back and crouched down beside the tile, pressing her palm onto it. The tile descended again and Sora finally realized what was going on. From afar, she watched another participant disappear right before her very eyes, proving her suspicion.

The tower was solely made out of tiles, some of which were trapdoors. The participants needed to enter through one of them to move on. The tile she had come upon was used by someone already so no matter what she did, the tile wouldn't flip open.

It seemed that Gon had also noticed this for he had called her and both Leorio and Kurapika to gather around him.

Sora approached Gon slowly but before she could even reach him, a tile flipped open underneath her and she fell directly through it, her scream dying in her throat.

It's always her, huh.

Sora landed on her butt with a hard 'thud'. She stood up while rubbing her sore butt. At this rate, she's going to have a flat ass.

The room was dark but the light streaming from the gaps above between the trap doors was enough for her to scan the room.

It was small, its length maybe around two grown adults being laid down on the group vertically and horizontally and made up entirely out of brick. The height was just right, leaving a space around a head tall. Aside from the counter right opposite from where Sora was standing, there were no other things. It's completely desolate.

And she was definitely separated from the rest of the groups. But it's fine, she'd manage to do it even alone. After all, she had grown used to doing things without anyone's help after all this time.

Sora spotted a wristwatch placed on top of the counter as she approached it. A little tilt upwards and she could see a red light blinking slowly. The girl suspected the red light was a surveillance camera used to monitor their actions.

Her suspicion was spot on when the red light seemed to follow every movement she made, be it waving her hand, taking a couple of steps back or running to the other side of the room. Sora tapped the camera lightly, signaling the person behind it that she knew he or she was watching. Not long after she did that, a male voice blared out in the room.

"I praise your sharp senses," A voice said. Sora turned her head toward the source of the voice, a speaker placed on another corner of the room which she failed to see due to its color blending with the rest of the moldy bricks.

"Welcome, I'm Lippo, this phase examiner. You may start your phase now, good luck!" The voice introduced himself and instructed. With those words, a crackle sound and silence fell back into place.

"He said to start the phase but there's nothing I could use to progress," Sora said to herself, glancing around before her eyes eventually found themselves on the wristwatch, sitting there harmlessly. There must have been a reason why it was put there.

As soon as she wore it, numbers appeared on the small display screen, with seconds continuously ticking down. Below them were two buttons, O and X.

Behind the counter, a closed door with a screen that sparked to life, its light managed to cast more light into the dim room.

"Rules of Survival. Choose carefully to ensure your survivability in this place," Sora mumbled the words written on the screen, eyebrows becoming more and more furrowed nearing the end of the sentence.

She glanced at the two seemingly harmless buttons on her wrist.

Looks like they're going to be holding her life on the noose.

The words then disappeared slowly before they were replaced by another set of sentences.

"Proceed? O or X?"

Sora raised an eyebrow at the question and mulled over it for a bit. Obviously, the answer is O but, like she stated before, this is Trick tower. It won't be as easy as that. But then if she answered X, there's also a high possibility that the examiner wanted her to think that way and in the end it's the opposite.

Oh well there's no harm in trying either one of those anyway. Besides, she was interested what's this ruse about having to choose carefully.

The girl pressed the X button and immediately ducked down when a spike thrust out of the door. The pointy object hit the other side of the room with a 'clank' then reverted back to its former place.

Sora paled as realization dawned into her. She understood now why it is called the Rules of Survival. The consequences were too big for a simple mistake but then the answer seemed to be unexpected.

She glanced at the door once more. A seconds later and she'd been turned into a skewered rabbit.

Looking at the O button, the hooded girl hesitated for a bit before finally pressing it and had to duck down from the spikes that dropped from the ceiling. They quickly went back up.

So, it's this kind of trick question, huh. There's no right or wrong answer. She glanced back and forth between the wristwatch and the screen.

Experimentally, she pressed the X button again and rolled away from a spike that nearly pierced her torso from the side. The X button was pressed again and she swiftly jumped back to dodge a spike beneath her. Then she pressed O which sent her to roll away again from the spike on the other side.

She tried more possible combinations after that, expertly dodging all of the traps until she finally kneeled down, wheezing to take a breath.

So it's not a pattern because there's no way the examiner expects her to try every possible pattern out there when she has nothing like hints or some sort. She checked every corner of the room and there's nothing that indicated such. Yes, she might be observant—- might possess enough brain cells to make logical deductions— but she's not a genius.

Sora looked back down at her buttons, suddenly realizing that there's something she hadn't tried.

The girl pressed the button at the same time.

The door cracked open slowly in a very dramatic motion.

Oh wow. Apparently, it's that simple and it's just her buzzing brain that over complicated things. Nothing surprising here.

She glanced down at her clock as she approached the door, counting that thirty minutes had passed already. Thirty minutes of her being an idiot.

"Congratulations! You have passed the first challenges!" The screen read.

Seemed like there would be more of this kind of thing.

The girl looked at the path beyond the door which was engulfed completely in the darkness. She could see stairs descending down from the light that managed to trickle in along with the screen on the door that soon died out.

Worst case scenario she would have to light up a few matches to give her some vision but now that she's alone, she doesn't have to worry about losing control.

Sora stepped inside and the door connecting the room and the stairs closed with a 'thump' behind her.

As if welcoming her, torches flared up on the walls that flanked her on both sides, narrow but wide enough for two people to enter side by side.

Shax's disapproving gaze flashed inside her mind but it was fleeting, a mere wisps, nothing compared to the intense discomfort she usually felt as if caught after doing something bad.

Something stirred within her, an emotion she hadn't felt for a long time, buried deep within her in a huge effort to let herself disappear from the radar.

She allowed a mad grin to form on her face as her finger briefly brushed the flickering fire.

Sorry, Shax. She might have to disappoint him this time.

.

.

.

There's a reason why Shax always stopped her from coming too close to the stove, ending up as a chopping duty and only allowed to watch from afar.

Sora hummed as she ducked down a large scythe that swung above her head, barely nicking her hood before quietly resuming her walk with the slightest spring in her steps, tethering a bit too close to the edge to curiously peek over the dark abyss she was currently crossing as if she was taking a field trip into the woods and she was seeing exotic animal.

There's a reason why Shax continuously scolded her when she intentionally burned off all the books she had in her room and everything was on fire. Yet, she made no attempt to leave the room.

She purposely stepped on a tile that was obviously a trap, halting just in time to dodge the arrows that whizzed past her before continuing, swinging her arms cheerily. A few more large strides and she'd be on the other side.

There's a reason why Shax kept covering her escape from the police when she was sometimes—oftentimes— too distracted by the lingering flames to make a proper getaway.

The girl stopped just in front of the door, pressing the X button before a spike protruded through the door that she purposely dodge a bit too slow, nicking her cheeks, her eyes gleaming in pure lunacy.

Her sense of danger went down to zero.

Sora pressed both the O and X buttons and the door swung open. She had learnt that all of the doors were opened in the same kind of way.

Torches lit the corridor once again and Sora cackled, skipping inside with the door closing behind her with a 'thump'.

At this rate, anyone who she met on the other side would have one hell of a time.

The ceiling of the corridor Sora was walking on gradually became lower and lower. The girl had just noticed that when the torches were gone, and she was forced to crawl to resume. The ceiling didn't stop lowering to the point she was forced to prone on the ground.

Now that her skin was meeting the gravel ground first hand instead of her sneakers, she felt just how rough it was and it was ripping basically her lower half. The pain and the lack of fire managed to bring her some semblance of awareness —read sanity— back to her mind.

It was a good thing she didn't need to prone for too long. The ceiling had slowly gone back up and created more spaces to move. From prone, to crawling, and at last, she could stand up without slouching.

Torches came into view, lighting up the corridor back.

She had poured the water contained in her bottle on her throbbing knees, attempting to clean it. It stung, obviously, yet Sora, per usual, ignored it and hey, it helped her to be somewhat calm enough to think rationally despite the existence of fire flickering just a few arms length from her. She would be really glad if she found some alcohol for better cleansing but in this condition, water was enough. Her other bottle in her bag didn't contain the former unfortunately.

Speaking of the other bottle.

Her fingers twitched as she purposely tightened her grip on the strap to prevent herself from opening the latch.

Sora's rational brain took control for once.

Now that she has wider space, Sora went back, walking with faster pace this time all the while glancing at the remaining time she had at hand.

Sixty-nine hours and twenty-five minutes with seconds that ticked away.

She never realized she had travelled that long.

Her steps came into a halt upon meeting another door with a screen. This time, it let out a dull light, in contrast to the previous ones. The same two words and two letters appeared on the screen.

"Proceed? O or X?"

The girl pressed the buttons at the same time, watching the door swing open. But this time, something different happened. All the torches along that corridor died out, consuming everything in darkness. The only light being the screen and the neon green numbers on the watch that kept on changing.

Her brain was now on full alert with the absence of fire and amplified by pain. Her eyes narrowed and glanced around warily, waiting for any strikes or anything, but found none. She allowed herself to calm down a bit and took slow, careful steps through the door.

Just like before, the door closed behind her once she took a step forward. Sora observed the room through her limited vision.

The room was a bit different from the first room. It was bigger, a four-by-four area room with walls around four meters high spread out at least three meters from in front of her, forming another set of walls. In the distance, a second path to the right appeared in the corridor. The girl quickly guessed that it was a maze, considering the branching of ways and the high walls. There was one crucial part that was missing though.

Not a single torch could be seen on the path before her. However, there's one conveniently sitting beside the entrance that fortunately didn't manage to stir her up that bad with how far it is.

On cue, Lippo's voice rang out inside the room.

"Welcome to the Labyrinth of Abyss Here, you'll play a hide-and-seek game with the prisoners within a time limit of six hours," Lippo explained cheerily.

Sora looked around the room for any speaker and found one in a corner after walking around the room. The girl stood nearer and listened to the explanation quietly while crossing her arms.

"Your task is to arrest the prisoners who were currently out on loose in here, every time you arrest one, their sentences will be added another thirty years," the male continued, "And to do that, just stick the blue darts on that other corner of the room to any parts of their body and you caught one!"

The girl approached the blue darts neatly placed inside a box, examining one of them closely and seeing there's nothing particularly special about them. They were simply darts.

"However if you fail to arrest all the prisoners by the end of the time..." His voice stopped for suspense then continued, "you'll be the one who got arrested with all the accumulated added time of the prisoners!"

She looked at the camera with a grin, not even the least unsettled by his threat. "I see, I should have known that a Phase examiner would know me."

"Of course." Lippo cackled. "Your reputation precedes you, Hellfire. Most Hunters would kill just to get the slightest bit of information about you."

Sora hummed and quietly walked to the entrance of the maze. "I'm honored. I'm nothing compared to the Phantom Troupe."

She stopped right at the border, looking at the camera once more, smiling. "I'm just a girl who likes burning things."

Silence fell on the room before a disbelief laughter rang out from the speaker. "You're truly a lost cause but because of that, there's one more thing that I prepared to aid you. Check the other corner."

Sora approached the said object and crouched down to pick it up.

"A sprayer?" Sora said curiously as she inspected the object in her hand. It's a wonder why she didn't notice it when she first observed the room. The girl sprayed it around and the smell of alcohol hit her nose. A small smirk graced her face.

"Aren't you worried about the condition of your prisoners by giving me this?" She asked, safely storing the bottle into her bag. "You're basically asking them to experience the trial version of hell itself."

"They know what they're getting themselves into, don't worry," the male replied, which didn't sound like he told them anything at all. "Now, one last thing…"

Confused at his trailed away words, Sora failed to notice a bullet flying toward her. The sharp pain she felt made her look downward to the right side of her chest where she could see blood begin to seep out, some managed to drip down on the ground.

Great, it's her chest again.

After a while, the blood stopped flowing and was replaced with a yellow flame. The flame helped in barely lightening up the room and she already felt something stirring again. Sora looked at the barely seen speaker for an explanation.

"Ah, that is a special bullet that sucks your energy bit by bit to the point you won't even be able to move your limbs," Lippo cheekily explained. "You should be given a handicapped with each advantage you get, no?"

Of course with every good thing, there's a catch.

"With that, your second trial has begun!" And the speaker crackled out, silencing any further questions.

He didn't even wish her good luck, rude. That eager to capture her? But then again, why gave her a sprayer then?

Her hand went to her chest where the flame was. No sign of her hand getting burned. Not even pain. Yet, Sora could confirm her energy was being depleted at quite an alarming rate. She wasn't even sure she'd be able to walk once the fifth hour mark hit so she should be really really fast.

And six darts. That was the amount of darts she had in her grip. It was safe to assume there were six prisoners.

Thirty times six, one hundred and eighty. Wow, she would die in this rotten place if she failed the trial which was not a pleasant thought. She'd prefer dying in any open field rather than this.

Pocketing the darts, Sora walked ahead to the maze, entering it then proceeded to turn right. The maze was dark, with the help of the light from the flame and her watch, it could barely light up the path in front of her.

The hallways eventually branched off into three after that. She chose the left one without any thinking. Several meters after she entered, Sora noticed the footsteps behind her at a quite fast pace and immediately she turned around to throw the dart.

Unfortunately, with her lack of vision in the dark, Sora missed the knife that was being wielded. Her dart clanged on the ground, missing her target just as she defended herself from the knife at the last second, only to get slice on her arm.

The girl picked the fallen dart and stared at her bleeding arm. The knife had torn her jacket's sleeve and she could see the wound as a result.

Sora folded up her sleeve to inspect it better. The wound was somewhat deep, enough for blood to keep pouring even when she pressed it and she was silently glad for it. That meant her blood was left on the weapon and if the figure was in a hurry, there's a possibility that it will leave a trail.

No, she's not a masochist. It's just basic knowledge.

The girl poured water over the wound, taking out the bandages she had not returned to Leorio and wrapped it around the wound to stop the bleeding. Just when the white cloth finished being tied, blood had already soaked it again. Sighing, Sora left it that way.

She turned back to the path where she's from, the direction where she heard the footsteps disappeared, and stalked over her first prey. It's nice being the one who hunted instead of the one being hunted.

Much to her delight, there were actually blood splatters on the ground. Not much but it was there. She followed the trail of blood, making sure to be as quiet as possible.

Right, left, straight, then nothing. A dead end. The prisoner must have noticed it and decided to clean their weapon.

The girl was displeased at the sight but continued to walk through the now bloodless corridor. Abruptly, her hood was yanked away and as a result, Sora nearly lost her balance and an angry vein throbbed at the side of her neck.

So, they were allowed to provoke her, huh. The examiner really didn't value the lives of these prisoners.

Instantly, the culprit swept past her and dashed away. The soon to be victim had heavier footsteps than before and the girl suspected that the figure was a different person.

She immediately put her feet to work, sprinting after the figures now that the footsteps were louder to her ears. As if sensing that Sora would catch up, the cloaked figure increased their pace. In turn, the girl increased hers. Bit by bit, the none-hooded girl was right on their tail.

Sadly, turns and twists made it difficult for her to throw the dart precisely at the figure's back. Every time she took aim, the figure would turn into a corner and disappear into another corridor which frustrated her greatly.

All of a sudden, the prey stopped dead in their tracks and Sora followed suit, seeing what's before them. A high wall like others loomed over them, preventing them from going any further. To put it simple, a dead end.

So, the prisoners weren't given any maps, hints or anything about this place either. If they had, they wouldn't get caught in a dead end. Or perhaps this was a scheme from her target to delay her. Sora couldn't really see the target's expression well but from their body language, it can be assumed that the target didn't expect this either.

Sora took the moment of hesitation in the prisoner's plan to sprint forward, dart in hand, as she tried to stab it into the figure's shoulder.

Only to meet with a sudden burst of gas to her face.

The girl gasped, not expecting the prisoner to carry any form of self defense mechanism thus inhaling a quite large amount of gas. Her head began to spin and her vision blurred. Not to mention the sensation of being pierced repeatedly nearly made her scream.

Sora realizing it too late, quickly stumbled back, nearly slumping on the ground in the act.

The figure chuckled in a deep voice, identifying themselves as a man.

"That poison is called Deadly Piercer. When inhaled, it will put the inhaler into a half conscious state and immobilize you at the same time where they would gradually feel the pain of being stabbed all over their body, without an antidote, you'll die," the prisoner explained, chuckling all the while.

Through her blurry and darkening vision, Sora could see the man walking away from her. Staggering to chase after him, she half expected herself to fall over but miraculously, her sheer willpower managed to hold her legs steady.

She unstrapped her tonfa, took one shaky step back, a deep breath, and flung her weapon at the man's head.

"How...you shouldn't be able to mov—" The prey fell with a 'thud' to the ground, knocked out cold.

Well, that was easy.

Following, Sora's knees planted themselves on the ground, hands propped up to prevent herself from face planting on the floor. The throw had used up all her energy and trying to hold herself up was just pure stubbornness.

The girl crawled slowly to the man and began searching for any antidote, rummaging beneath the cloak. After a few minutes searching, she found it. A small blue via with a silver-ish cap, unknown purple liquid sloshed inside the glass wall.

She tilted her head back and poured it down her throat, grimacing at the bitter taste. The effect had been immediate albeit slow but at least she could now stand with shaky legs.

Sora stabbed her dart to the man's shoulder before taking a few steps back.

An alarm rang across that giant room and a speaker blared out.

"ONE HAS BEEN ARRESTED! ONE HAS BEEN ARRESTED!" It repeated.

She watched as a tile opened up beneath the prisoner and he fell through it, disappearing from her view altogether.

The sensation of needles drilling her skulls still persisted and Sora leaned her head against the wall to inhale a few calming breathing.

The examiner was really making things hard for her now that the prisoner's weapon had been put into the mix. Who knows what kind of weird things they have?

The girl groaned, stumbling a bit as she continued her trek.

One down, five to go.

There hasn't been really much changes for this chapter from the original one (Ch 7-8) except for omitting a few scenes completely and adding a couple dialogues and scenes and Sora's train of thoughts.

As you can probably see by now, the story is written mostly in 3rd POV from Sora's limited perspective so there are no intrusive opinions from other characters though I might slip once in a while like the previous chapter. There will be future chapters where other character's POV will be written, especially Killua. Right now, I'm still withholding some information about Sora so there's that.

And ah yeah, this version of Sora is a little bit more of the calm type of deranged and perfectly okay with her reputation being widespread or known by people than her previous one. But that's just my opinion. I tried to make it creepier though.

Thank you for all the favs and follows from the last chapter!

Elisablackcat: I'm really glad you enjoyed their interactions ^^ thank you so much for the review!

I would love to hear about your opinion for this chapter.

Bye!