Some burning stuff here. Keep that in mind.

I don't own HxH!

After the first prisoner was arrested, the maze became slightly brighter—she spotted a couple of lights installed up above the ceiling— enough for Sora to see at least a meter away from her. The pain had been reduced to simply a tingle that didn't bother her much. Despite that, she was sure there's still some poison left in her body.

So far, no prisoners were seen or heard. They must have been staying hidden.

Minutes passed and not even the slightest sound except her rhythmic footsteps were heard that echoed along the corridor. With every passing second, Sora was getting more and more restless. At this rate, she wouldn't arrest anyone else. She checked her time. Luckily, only an hour had passed.

A figure standing not far from her made Sora stop dead in her tracks. Her hand slowly took out a dart before she carefully aimed it at the figure. However, Sora could only dodge a kick from the figure before the person turned around and dashed off.

The girl was starting to wonder if everyone in this maze had a death wish.

Immediately, she sprinted after the figure, creating another cat and mouse game. This time, the figure was faster and lighter than the first arrested prisoner. She would have a harder time catching the new target if she lost the figure's track just a second too late.

Sora observed that they had similar steps to the person who attacked her first. Faintly, she remembered that the target carried a knife.

As if answering her thought, a knife whizzed past her right which she barely dodged. Something trickled down on her cheek and Sora raised her hand to wipe it. Red liquid dirtied her hand as she stared at it.

So, she has two wounds on her face now. Neat!

The girl heard a soft click of the tongue from the knife thrower and the rustling of cloak as the prisoner went back to fleeing. Lessening their gap, Sora quickly threw the dart in her hand, aiming for the back. Her dart never reached her target. Instead, three knives were thrown to her and one clashed with the dart. Losing the ability to fly, the dart fell to the ground.

Sora ducked down just in time as three knives whizzed above her head and scooped up her dart at the same moment.

The target had more than one knife she concluded. How much exactly, she had no clue. By the current situation, the person had thrown four knives already and Sora roughly estimated with the billowing cloak, they could have hidden more than twenty knives all in the same size.

Knives by knives were thrown and each time, more knives were thrown. From three to six to nine. The corridor unfortunately limited her movement in dodging. Cuts that fortunately weren't deep littered her body.

With how lavish the prisoner was with the knives, there should have been more than forty knives hidden there. Which was something that amazed her actually. It must have been really heavy to move around and yet, the prisoner did it with ease.

Her respect for this unknown gendered person grew.

Still, everyone has that quirk they themselves didn't know about.

Every time the person threw a group of knives, the person would stop for a moment before dashing back and she used that chance to catch up to the target. By now, she was moments away from catching the target.

Sora was idly surprised when only two knives started flying toward her. Not three or nine or any other numbers. The girl easily dodged it as they sailed, each beside her face and waited for more projectiles to come.

But nothing came.

Has the prisoner finally run out of knives?

A knife lodged itself on the wall near her and another on the other side. Four more knives followed suit in pairs and planted themselves on the wall. The pairs are being planted lower and lower.

Apparently not.

Sora found it weird that no knives were aimed at her and tensed up when the person she had been chasing for minutes suddenly stopped and turned around. Her instinct screamed at her to stop running and Sora trusted herself. She stopped.

"I suggested that you shouldn't move any longer if you want to live," A quiet, cold voice echoed from the figure. It was a woman's voice, no doubt. With an age that was somewhere in her early-20s.

"What do you mean?" Sora narrowed her eyes and took a step forward, this time ignoring her warning instinct, when she felt her skin and clothes get cut. Even her bare legs were cut. A trickle of blood flowed out from the small wounds. The girl took a few steps back in surprise and all of a sudden her back was cut. It's a good thing she wore several layers below. Something was trapping her and it was very sharp. She decided to stay still.

"Did you feel it?" The prisoner asked with somewhat of a gleeful tone.

The girl pointed a finger in front of her. Small beads of blood were around the finger as she retracted it. That "something" cut her again.

"Keep on moving and you'll be a sashimi in no time," The prisoner commented as Sora briefly wondered what a sashimi is.

The slight sting in her face snapped her back to reality. Another knife had grazed her. This time close to her left eye. Too close you could say. She turned her attention back to the source only to meet nothingness. The target had fled with vanishing sounds of footsteps, leaving Sora standing there alone.

She turned her attention to the knives lodged into the wall. Upon closer inspection, there seems to be something wrapped around the handle. Sora squinted her eyes for a better look and found a thin wire that was wrapped around the handle.

Her still squinted eyes followed where the wire was connected to another knife. She focused on the rest of the knives, finding herself entangled inside a very sharp and deadly wire web. Sora concluded that the knives could be controlled by the person through the attached wires which was why the woman could precisely stuck them in this particular position.

The knives were lodged deeply to the wall and no matter how hard she tried to pull them off, they wouldn't budge due to her lack of strength caused by the parasitic flame stuck on her chest. Even if they did move, it was only a little bit. She attempted to crawl but the knives were stuck until the floor.

Sora didn't have any sharp object with her. The spikes on her tonfa weren't sharp enough with how long she hasn't used them, they were probably dulled beyond repair. Same case as that small spike on the end of her chain.

Now that she was left with no option, the girl clutched the strap of her bag tightly.

"Hey, Lippo-san, I know you're watching so, are you sure you want me to do this?" She hummed.

The intense feeling of discomfort spiked but something stomped it down.

When she got no answer, she continued, "I wouldn't guarantee the safety of the rest of your prisoners after this, you know?"

Still no answer, only the crackling of the speaker emerged.

"Well, I gave you a warning already." She shrugged, taking out the alcohol sprayer that had been given to her. "You couldn't blame me for anything that happened after this."

With that, she struck out three matches at once before tossing the lit matches to the center of the web while her other hand swiftly pressed the nozzle. Instantly, the matches combusted into a bigger fire, each of them then fused themselves into an even bigger fire that almost immediately burned the wires to ashes. The path in front of her was cleared away in an instant. Bits of fire still remained on the ground before dying out.

Her heart throbbed at sight and a deranged smile threatened to split her face into half.

Burn.

She calmly placed the sprayer back inside her bag before continuing her pursuit of the prey.

Burn.

Her eyes flickered. From orange shade to something resembling the color of flame. A mixture of orange, yellow and red as if there was fire crackling within her iris. The corridor lightened up as she swept her gaze from one corner to another.

Burn.

In the corner of her eye, she caught movement. Without further delay, Sora sprinted after said movement, her legs much lighter, all pain receded from her body.

Burn.

A large and high wall stopped the prey from going further, her own body blocking any way out as she stared at the increasingly distressed prey.

Burn.

Three knives shot out, aimed toward her chest. Sora caught it easily and skillfully between her fingers, watching as the wires dug deeper into the woman's bandaged hands. Three more shot out, aimed toward her head. Her unoccupied hand caught it as easily as she stepped closer and closer to the prey.

Burn.

Suddenly the knives in her hands were yanked away, cutting both palms as result. Sora stared at the pouring blood before switching her attention back to the shivering prey, her eyes widening just a fraction.

Burn.

Sora abruptly closed her distance between them, her hand closing down her mouth before slamming her into the ground.

"Hey, do you want to play fire with me?" She cooed, her other hand trailing off the prey's tear-stained cheek, leaving a bloody streak who shook her head violently hearing the madness in her tone.

Burn.

Her hand reached out to fish the other bottle in her bag.

[It's my first time waking up after two years, only to see you losing control already?]

Sora froze the moment she heard the voice inside her head. It was as if a ripple had been made in the otherwise tranquil ocean of her brain.

Aym?

The prisoner took the momentarily stunned Sora to kick her in the stomach before dashing away.

"...huh." The girl looked at the retreating figure of the prisoner before finally remembering that she had a more pressing matter at hand.

"...you distracted me, Aym. Now, she's getting away," Sora muttered, ignoring the dull pain on her abdomen as she returned to running after the prisoner.

[That's the first fire you make after a while isn't it? That's why you're losing your sanity that bad.]

"...Shax told me not to get in touch with one once he left." The girl managed to catch up with the prisoner, slamming her back down with a kick to the back, pinning her to the ground. Her finger twirled the blue dart between her fingers before stabbing it into the woman's shoulder.

"TWO HAVE BEEN ARRESTED! TWO HAVE BEEN ARRESTED!" The alarm rang again.

[Stop listening to him so much. His words are not absolute order.]

"Finally, it's done," The prisoner mumbled.

"Who said we were done here?" Sora announced, ignoring Aym's words, her tone bubbly. A match was in one hand while a sprayer in another.

"W-wait!"

The floor opened up beneath them and the girl nimbly stepped on the woman's back to get out the hole before stepping back on the hard ground, a frown etched on her pale face.

"Tch, see, Aym. You distracted me back then and reminded me of a very important task at hand," she muttered, clearly annoyed, and immediately setting out to search for a new prey. "I would have ended my spree after burning her but you just have to prolong it."

[First conversation we have after years and you're complaining. Fine. Have it your way.]

Her head went quiet once more and Sora looked at her still bleeding palms. Now that some clarity has gone back to her mind, the girl washed her wounds before bandaging them up, making sure to layer them.

This was fine, she could concentrate completely on the trial instead of madly going around for something to burn. She would be fine, the budding emotions would wilt away as time passed. Unless there's another...

Her eyes spotted the flickering orange yellow shade she had grown to love so much.

Fire.

Who in their right mind would bring fire within her vicinity?

She zeroed on the torch, her legs carrying her after the prisoner who disappeared in the corner which made her lose track after that.

Burn.

After turning round and back, making way left and right, at one certain corridor, she felt the tip of her nose get cut, drawing out blood. Sora blinked in surprise as she took a step back to avoid further injuries. It must have been the wires that she hadn't burned yet.

An idea struck her head.

Since she needed to incapacitate the prey anyway.

With a tap, spikes sprang out from her tonfa. The girl stepped closer to the wire, but not too close, and slammed her tonfa into the wall beside a knife. Pieces of the wall crumbled a bit at the force. After countless hits later, the knife clattered on the ground.

She instantly turned to the other knives after that. More than half an hour later, Sora had successfully taken out all the knives. Her arms felt sore and her knuckles hurt from gripping her tonfa too tight. Sora carefully put all six knives she got to her bag, wires wrapped around the handle so none of it got tangled up.

Burn.

Her feet brought her to a forked path once again.

Burn.

A small fire at the end of the right path. She dashed after it with speed faster than before.

Burn.

The first stab was on the back. The second was at the back of their knee and the third one was at their heel. Sora watched as the prey touched the ground.

The torch that was being carried clattered on the ground not too far from there.

Burn.

The prey quickly sat up and dragged himself in an attempt to escape from their incoming doom. Sora threw another knife to his shoulder for good measure.

Burn.

"P-please s-spa-are me!" The prey cried out in pure horror. A male. A scared one. Sora decided to be merciful and wrapped the wire swiftly around him, stabbing the knives to the wall. The idiotic prey tried to move, resulting the wires to cut him slowly and could only screamed in pain as the wires sank into his flesh, blood staining the ground even further.

Burn.

The girl fished out the other bottle, a bottle with yellowish liquid inside. She poured all the liquid all over the prey's body, soaking his cloak and the ground beneath.

Burn.

Sora grabbed the torch from the ground and slowly inched closer to the victim.

BurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurn

"N-no, pl-please n-no," The male trembled in fear when his hood was flicked off.

A maniacal smile filled his sight and he saw what people deemed as a demon.

BurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBurnBur—

Her smile widened by a fraction, seeing his terror.

"Do you want to play with fire with me?"

She dropped the torch on the long clothing, watching flames rise into the air as screams full of agony echoed in the maze.

Sora stared at the dazzling things in front of her, completely mesmerized by its beauty. The swaying orange bodies, the red tongues devouring any sort of food it could consume, the bright sparks scattered around alongside the grey smoke that twisted around in tune with the wind.

She crouched down, one hand on her cheek while the other swept across the flickering fire, no pain nor burn, just warmness and calm.

As if she was simply waiting for a meat barbeque to be done.

Soft giggles escaped her lips as she watched the flame pass between her moving fingers.

"Ah, it died off already," she muttered, frowning.

What remained of the prisoner was merely a skeleton clothed in ashes, the smell of burnt body hitting her nose, lumps of black where clothes formerly were. The limbs crumbled when she nudged it, sending thousands of dark soot into the air.

Quietly, Sora stabbed the third dart into what was left of the body. Surprisingly, it stuck albeit weakly.

"THREE HAVE BEEN ARRESTED! THREE HAVE BEEN ARRESTED!" Again, the alarm rang.

Shortly after the announcement, a hole opened like before and swallowed the corpse.

Her mind had considerably cleared up, her shoulders sagging with the extra weight of annoyance and frustration gone due to the short stunt she did. Her eyes turned back to their normal orange, leaving no trace that they had ever changed in the first place. In the back of her mind, however, there's still that soft voice.

burn...burn...burn…

Seemed like it still hadn't completely quelled her thirst for burning but it was much fainter. Sora was sure there wouldn't be any more shenanigans with fire so the voice would go away sooner or later and the urge would fade.

She stood up, stretching a bit and all sorts of pains barrelled into her in full force, toppling over and hissing out as a result. This was why she had never liked her "zone", the foolish things she did during that time would serve as a reminder afterwards.

[You're done now?]

"Oh, you're back. Hello," Sora said flatly, fixing her hair and hood that were a mess, frowning at all the tears on her jacket. She should buy a new one as soon as she's done with the exam.

[That's one hell of a show. I enjoyed it.] A cackle followed.

Sora frowned, glancing at her time. She had two hours left. "Enjoying me losing my sanity? Sure, it has always been an entertainment for you."

[You know what kind of delicacy I preferred.]

"Gross. Just go if you don't have anything else to say," She grumbled underneath her breath. The girl continued her journey in search of the rest of the prisoners, winding down to another dead end after walking around for a bit.

[You're becoming no fun. Fine, thank you for the food.]

Aym disappeared just as soon as he came, saying whatever he pleased as usual. Which actually made her frowned, stopping in her tracks.

Where was he for the past two years?

Unexpectedly, the fourth and fifth target had been easy to catch and find. The fourth one had been fast like a cheetah, Sora even had a hard time trying to catch up to her. The target was immediately knocked out when another attempt in throwing tonfa at a moving target had been made once more with one full swing of her arm. Sora was pretty sure that she heard something crack.

She pretended she didn't see the blood seeping on the hood and quickly stabbed the dart to her shoulder.

The fifth one was slightly more difficult to catch because the prisoner put up a fight instead of running away like the rest of the others once they saw her. Sora's right eye had a close call of being ripped out during the fight, due to the metal claws worn by the prisoner. She managed to subdue the vicious female by slamming her tonfa into the female's chest. Again, another crack.

She slammed her foot on her injury, a howl of pain reached her ear, even twisting her heel a bit before stabbing the dart on her stomach.

Her body had been covered with all sorts of new wounds from the brutal fight, her jacket torn close to tatters with how it now just hung flimsily on her shoulders. The bandages she had 'borrowed' from Leorio had been used clean and she mentally apologized to him while trying to convince herself that a doctor must have a stockpile, one less of it would be fine.

And like she speculated much earlier, her craving to cause arson vanished with no more fire to stimulate her.

Sora was in another predicament though.

She groaned from her spot on the ground, sprawled like a fish waiting to be fried, face basically kissing the dusty tiles.

She was right when she said she would have no more energy during the fifth hour.

Her limbs felt like jelly with how wobbly they were. The girl had tried to stand back up or at least up to a crawling position, only to come crashing down once she pushed herself into a failed attempt of push up.

And she has one more prisoner left to catch, dammit.

Still, Sora dragged herself with every ounce of energy she had and propped her body to the wall, trying to stand but to no avail.

The sounds of new footsteps alerted her to the incoming prisoner. The girl looked at a cloaked figure at the other end of the corridor and squinted her eyes when she noticed something strange.

The prisoner was approaching her, no sign of fleeing even after spotting her from afar.

She tensed up, now that she's in an even more vulnerable state and eyed the cloaked person warily once they stopped in front of her.

At the very least, Sora could stab the shoes.

Her fingers moved to do just that but a pressed foot to her chest shot down her earlier intention as she was now busy holding back from recoiling in pain. How did the figure even know her injury hasn't healed yet there?

"You should take better care of yourself, Sora," The man hummed, simpy digging his heels deeper into the bruise.

"Who are you?" The girl managed to gasp out through her struggle to pry the boots of her chest. Her mind swam with questions to how he knew her exact name, not simply as Hellfire.

"Arios, Arios Lawsliet." He chuckled, tugging his hood down to reveal a pair of green eyes with blond hair. "I know you're watching inside, Aym."

"You don't want to continue to see your poor proxy like this, don't you?"

At that, pain burst from her concealed right arm and a scream tore out of her throat as she crumbled sideways, writhing in pure agony.

Cold sweat mixed with tears slid down her cheeks, that Deadly Piercer was a miniscule, needles compared to the repeated stabbing of knives on her forearm, her nails raked the ground in an attempt to bring some clarity. Through her ripped jacket and arm warmer, she spotted an old wound resurfacing. Her own burnt flesh, the skin peeling off to show the sight of raw muscle to the whole world.

"What the fuck, Aym. Why now?" She hissed, biting her own cheeks to prevent another scream from being let out, tasting her own blood.

She got no answer.

Sora choked down a pained sob as her vision began to blur and not a second later, she blacked out.

"That's brutal, not even a shred of compassion?" Arios snickered as he watched the girl in front of her twitch back to life.

A pair of crimson red eyes met his own green ones.

"No other option, she blocked all access to the front." Aym grunted, voice still raspy as he got used to having a physical body for the first time in a while. Not to mention the wounds were horrible, the kid was too reckless for her own good.

The other male frowned at that. "Why? Didn't she usually split it with you?"

The red haired male stood up, stretching a bit and grinned when he heard a bone or two popped before turning to Arios with a serious look.

"Shax did something to her. She didn't even remember my presence for these past two years," he answered and the blond haired male dramatically gasped hearing that.

"He hates you that much?"

"It's not a matter of hate when I nearly toppled the whole regime his dad built from the ground." Aym shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal, picking the blue dart before inspecting it closely. "It's business."

"I would never understand the two of you." Arios sighed before waving his hand. "Right, I came out of my hole to tell you that the others have begun moving too and they won't be as vigilant as me."

Aym nodded before scanning the man from the top all the way to the bottom, an amused smirk broke out on his face. "You taking this man's identity now? Arios Lawsliet? You're getting crappier with your disguise."

"It's the only way for me to enter this place." The blond haired man scoffed, crossing his arms. "For his pretty face, he was a damn good serial killer."

"Then his body?"

"You know what happens to the body once I take their form."

The red haired male hummed, twirling the dart a bit in his hand. "And you say that I have no compassion. I can say the same for that one prisoner you trick to bring a torch."

"You have a worse moral compass than me and for the second one, I was helping the girl to regain her senses, else we wouldn't be able to talk like this."

Aym shrugged. "True," he said before stabbing the blue dart into Arios' shoulder. "I only have to do that, right? The kid's going to kill me if I'm the cause for her to fail the exam. I can already hear her fighting back for control back there."

"Sure, sure, soft guy. Just be careful once you're back out. The others could detect you being active again," The blond haired man whispered in low tone while patting the red haired on the shoulder, "And I'm not choosing a side this time."

Those were his last words before he was plunged into the abyss below as Aym stared at the tile that flipped back up to a hard ground.

He was almost alone in this life then.

Not too long after, a chime resounded inside the labyrinth. "Congratulations, you have succeeded in capturing all the mice in this game, you may proceed to the next room,'' the announcement said.

The ground beneath his feet began to rumble. Walls started to sink down, the room steadily getting brighter and brighter. After a while, the labyrinth was no more and instead an empty space replaced it. Aym now could see a metal door on the other side of the room.

The male looked at his watch. Currently, he still has sixty two hours and eight minutes. Now that while he's out and touching grass, he might as well finish the phase for the kid.

He took a step out of the door and an axe swung past him, barely missing his leg.

A roll of sweat trickled down.

Experiencing is truly different from simply watching.

"You're really weak, you know that?" Aym mocked her, the chains wrapped around his body jingle as he twirled around once again to dodge her attack.

She knew that too goddamn well.

Sora growled as she swung her leg to his torso, only for the man to turn into a burst of flame before reappearing from behind then kicking her to the nearest column.

While coughing out blood and sucking in deep breaths, she was awfully reminded by her one sided battle with Hisoka and her anger flared up.

"Come on, I wasn't even using my hands." Aym pouted, emphasizing how his upper limbs were pinned to his body by the chain by wiggling around that looked similar to that one giant worm she once saw in the television. "You've grown too dependent on your beloved weapons."

True, she couldn't rebuke that.

"Have you always been this infuriating?" She hissed out as she dashed toward him, skidding to a stop behind him before swinging her leg to his neck. "It's no wonder, I don't miss your voice for the past two years."

Aym simply bent down, her kick missing his nose by an inch before he sprang back up, twisted around and swung his own legs which Sora deflected right in time with her raised arms.

"Rude. I have a charming voice." The red haired man scoffed, leaping a few meters with few steps backward to gain more distance from the girl. "But I've always liked this feisty you better."

Sora frowned, her eyes narrowing in concentration and thoughtfulness as she swung her first after narrowing their distance once more with a jump. Aym's crimson eyes glinted at her speed.

"What do you mean?"

The man jumped to the side. "It means that you've been too compliant because of someone."

The girl blinked and nearly missed the kick aiming at her face but she jumped back in time, panting hard while wiping her sweat. She already felt tired after all squabbling and dodging. Her failed attempts in attacking didn't even deter him.

"What? I'm not being compliant to anyone."

"No one you say?" Aym frowned, calmly approaching the girl who stood back up and was rushing toward him again.

"Yes, no one," Sora snarled as she dropped down to swipe his legs off.

Only to get a kick to her stomach that sent her straight across the field but she managed to catch herself and back roll mid air, landing on her feet.

"No one, huh?" Aym appeared in front of her abruptly, her reflexes didn't manage to save her from being slammed to the ground, a boot pressing down her neck, cutting off her airflow.

"Ack— " The girl tried to pry it off, digging her already blood soaked nails to the male's ankle as she looked at the male with a look of pure fury.

"Good, good. Show me more of your emotions." Aym cackled, his crimson eyes glowing as he applied more pressure. "You haven't exactly been fun."

She gritted her teeth, blood dribbling down her chin, weakly clawing in her remaining effort to stay awake because dammit, she had lost consciousness too often today. But it proved to be futile. As her raking got weaker and weaker, she could only helplessly wait for the darkness to take her back. Just as she was about to close her eyes, a familiar string of words reached her ears.

burn...burn...burn…

"Ah, I forgot about that little guy," Aym grimaced, casting a look over the horizon.

"Your own madness."

Rewritten a bit, Sora's reaction to fire was different from how I wrote it back then. Here she was just plain unhinged and with the sole purpose of causing arson for...reasons. And yeah I did say, she was the type of deranged that you know was creepy but not loud/maniac enough to show that they're creepy.

I really hope you like the changes with how she reacted seeing and after causing fire.

And yes, her interaction with Aym is less hostile than the original one because the circumstances to what leads them now was different too. Shax was involved a lot more compared to the original one where I barely spoke about him at all.

And also yes, I fleshed out Arios a bit more and gave some more insight to what his power was. If I want to give you a spoiler, he would appear again much much later I guess. But who knows.

Also the scenes was written in a different order and different fight happening.

I felt like people got stepped on a lot here hmm.

Thank you for all the favs and follows, I really appreciated them!

Elisablackcat: I'm glad you find the shift in her personality interesting :D and yes, she has her phases that depends on how the fire was started. Thank you so much for reviewing!

Anyway, as always, I would love to hear about your opinions!

Bye!