Some more graphic depiction of violence, please watch out.

Fifty hours and four minutes.

Aym couldn't believe that he had been running and dodging traps for twelve hours straight.

From hanging from one lead to another to get to the other side, jumping over a pit full of venomous snakes, arrows to make him falter in his path, walking across a canyon in a tight rope with axes swinging every once in a while, cheap spikes to impale him while he was getting down the stairs.

Speaking of stairs.

The male looked at the abyss formed by the spiralling downward staircase.

There was a ridiculous amount of it.

He had considered changing himself to his fireball form so he could just blast down but then he remembered that it would be unstable when the other half of his soul was busy restraining one vicious soul inside.

Aym didn't want to see a splatter of blood from head hitting the ground just because he failed to control his unpredictable transformation.

So he settled on following the safety protocols, getting as far away as possible from the edge of the stairs. It was already a good thing that there were no sudden traps because he wasn't sure if he could continue to prevent further injuries on the tattered body.

After climbing down for another half an hour, the male reached the bottom and was faced with a metal door, its screen lighting up to present him with a question.

"Proceed? O or X."

He had watched what the kid had chosen while he was still groggily coming to his senses from waking up from the deep sleep he was induced.

The male pressed the O and X button at the same time and the door creaked open. He immediately stepped inside and automatically, the door closed by itself behind him.

The room lit up dramatically with lights shining down rows by rows as if welcoming him to an arena and now that he had a closer look, it was indeed shaped where a big brawl could happen. The walls on the other side looked as if it had been carved but the carved out part hadn't been taken out yet.

"Welcome to your third trial! Here, you are tasked to defeat all the prisoners,'' someone announced from a speaker that he couldn't locate.

"There will be three batches of prisoners. Every batch has no particular number of people but a maximum of fifty people could be sent each time. In total, the accumulated number is one hundred people! The time limit for each batch is one hour and if you exceed that, twenty hours of the time you have left will be taken. With that, good luck!"

And the speaker crackled out after that.

So, it's also a matter of the prisoners being smart enough to divide themselves or him having enough strength to fight all the people.

Aym grimaced and snapped his hands, sparks appearing before fizzling out.

He hadn't fully recovered all of his power and the chains only served to make it harder. There was no such thing as a chain back then even when he peacefully resided inside the kid. But now…

The male frowned at the speculation he made.

It wouldn't be good if this continued on.

A rumble sounded from a distance and the carved out part raised up slowly. Prisoners came pouring in like ants.

"First batch: 50 people."

Aym raised his eyebrows, hearing the announcement. They sent out the maximum number of people already? They were trying to make him exhaust his strength as soon as possible.

"Hey little girl, why don't you go back and try again next year? You'll only end up dead at this rate," One of the prisoners—the leader of the batch he assumed— said. The rest of the crowds laughed, seeming even more confident than before.

Little girl?

The male looked down on his body. Right, he forgot that he never shifted to his original form when he took control, just simply dyeing the hair and eye with his own red one.

"This little girl here is about to beat your ass up, be careful~" Aym said cheerfully, cracking his knuckles.

The kid had her fun just now. Now, it's time for him to let loose.

Killer intent oozing out with full force, Aym disappeared from his spot before landing gracefully on one of the prisoner's shoulders.

"Y-you!"

Flames sparked to life in his hand and he grabbed the person's face, a scream full of pain echoed in the room before the prisoner dropped dead to the floor.

Eyes gleaming, a sinister grin on his face, Aym pounced to the nearest person who was quivering in fear and repeated his earlier actions.

Looking at the next victim, the male continued to smile while tilting his head, both sclera and eyes darkening.

"Now, who's next?"

He managed to get another ten people with that method when the prisoners finally snapped themselves out from their terrified state and sent him crashing to a wall. Aym scoffed, having recovered quickly, and dodged any incoming barrages of attacks, now that the people finally got their shit together.

The advantage of having a huge amount of people in one place like this was it was easy to get confused among the crowds and that there wasn't much room for them to act on their full power unlike in a one-to-one fight.

And it was easier to dodge too. He just has to keep staying in the air.

The male stepped on another prisoner's head as he dodged an attempted swipe to bring him down.

Aym looked at his watch and saw that twenty minutes had passed while he still had thirty more people to go. He snapped his hands and the flame came up easily this time.

Time to use it.

He rubbed his hand together in the midst of a somersault and blue flames appeared on his palm, growing bigger and hotter the longer he rubbed them.

Then, he slammed both of his hands on the ground.

Blue conflagration erupted in the room, blasting themselves until every edge was covered. Howls and screams of pain were translated as melodious symphony to his ears as he surveyed the arena for any survivors.

"Prisoner count: 0. Second batch will commence in 5 seconds."

He dusted his hands and sparks flew once more. He's still got enough fuel to burn.

"Second batch: 40 people."

Oh wow, they certainly used their dispensable source that quickly, huh which meant that ten people would be there for the third batch and he could just settle on good ol' one by one burning.

"Hello, are you coming for a barbeque party?" Aym said while waving his hand, beckoning the frozen new prisoners who were watching the crackling fire. "You came just at the right time!"

A maniacal laughter left his lips as he watched the terror stricken faces of the prisoners.

He rubbed his hands once more, blue flames sparking to life before slamming them to the ground.

"Prisoner count: 0. Third batch will commence in 5 seconds."

The second burst had created a smaller flame but it was enough to eradicate them while they were still in shock. Aym snapped his hand but the sparks refused to be ignited which he grimaced at. He had used too much power in the first run.

At the same time the wall rumbled once more to let the prisoners in, the male felt a sharp pain on his chest and he clutched it, groaning a bit.

The kid was going to get her control back soon.

"You could always control." Aym gestured to the orange blob that vaguely resembled a tinier version of her, no real outline visible. "This 'madness' of yours, you know?"

Sora did a high spin kick that the male dodged with ease and turned her gaze to the seething kid standing not too far from her, baring their teeth yet made no move to join the fight.

"It never works, they always lose control," Sora said, frowning, throat still raspy after being stepped hard enough. "Pain seemed to keep them steady though."

After the appearance of the mini her, Aym had loosened his step on her and moved away cautiously while eyeing them. But when they made no move to attack and only simply watched the exact with pure hatred in their eyes, the male had continued, his attacks becoming more frequent and his defense thinner.

As if he was growing desperate.

Sora, proudly, could say she managed to land a hit or two while he was distracted and now there's a bit of limp in his leg along with blood blooming on his chest.

Aym stopped to point at the kid who bristled at being noticed by him. "That is you, you can always control yourself. I've seen you do that before."

The girl too, stopped, frustrated at where the direction of the conversation was going. "No, I haven't."

"You remembered the times where you didn't lose control when creating a fire?"

She was stunned. There's no way that's possible.

"Your expression says that you don't remember." Aym groaned. "Just what did Shax do to you?"

Her jaw clenched and her eyes sharpened. "Shax has got nothing to do with this."

"Stop defending that bastard," he hissed, eyes lighting up in anger. "You didn't know what he's capable of."

"Yes, I don't know but I don't care. He took care of me enough that I'm indebted to him," Sora hissed back, once again already running toward the male.

This exchange had happened a couple of times already. Once Shax was brought to the picture, the two sides boiled, one in rage, one in defense before it would shimmer out when the madness' snarls cut them both.

It was the same right now.

The girl flinched when she felt that fiery stare back while Aym stayed rooted in his spot, his jaw clenched so tightly, it seemed it was sewed shut.

"Fine, madness," Sora said, watching from the corner of her eyes that the kid was turning their attention back to her, a chill ran down her spine, "You understand my head better than myself, Aym. How can I control it?"

"I can't help you with that," the male frowned, slowly approaching her before he stood in front, staring down at her with his blood eyes. The kid bristled and hissed at her side.

"It's a part of you."

burn...burn...burn…

Sora looked at the mini her who stared back at her with blank eyes, studying her.

"As an example when I do this," Aym whispered, lowering his head until he was beside her ears, staring dead at the kid's eyes, the temperature around him rose at an alarming rate, effectively making Sora wrapped a hand around her own neck and gasping for air.

This was even worse than having your windpipe being crushed. Every breath she took felt like swallowing coarse sand and her lungs burnt. Yet if she stopped inhaling, her head was struck with the immediate need for oxygen and she instinctively gulped down.

The girl felt a surge of killing intent behind her and before she knew it, the male in front of her had been stabbed, a hand passing through his chest all the way to his back.

Aym smiled wryly when blood slid down from the corner of his mouth.

Sora stared at the slowly withdrawn hand to the furious look on the kid's face, every inch of her orange body bristled then back to the fading body of Aym, too stunned to talk or trying to make sense of the situation.

"I'm not going to die, kid. Too bad, you can't get rid of me that easily." The male snickered at the mini version of her simply hissed louder.

His crimson iris snapped to meet her orange.

"Now, stop being a mindless brat and start thinking about yourself."

And Sora blacked out.

The moment she opened her eyes, she was already in an unfamiliar room filled with the smell of burning corpses and blue fire flickering from every place she laid her eyes on.

Her heart throbbed and she dug her fingers to her bandaged palm, drawing out blood. The rush of pain managed to tether her to reality and control to assess the situation.

A group of hooded figures were standing not far from her, seemingly frozen by the same sight as her. There were over fifty people dead on the ground and the chime of the speaker being turned on.

"Third batch: 10 people."

Her eyes latched back on the group of prisoners.

Ah, it seemed like it was a battle royale.

A fist flew toward her face but she blocked it with the tonfa and she jumped back to prevent herself being trapped by ten people at the same time. A tap and spikes sprang from her tonfa.

She leaped at the nearest prisoner.

"Prisoner count: 9."

Sora pulled the tonfa out of the man's face, blood dripping from the spikes.

"Prisoner count: 6."

Three prisoner's throats were sliced open in one swift hand movement.

"Prisoner count: 5."

Blood caked her hand as she took out her tonfa from the crumpled man's chest, eyes narrowing on the fleeing men.

"Prisoner count: 3."

She yanked her tonfa from one man's head then walked to take another after flinging them to stop the prisoners from running away, not that they have any escape route.

"Prisoner count: 2."

Sora looked at her tonfa buried deep in the person's throat.

"Prisoner count: 1."

The girl tilted her head at the shivering person in front of her. She retracted her spikes, raised her tonfa high and slammed it on their head.

"Prisoner count: 0."

The maroon haired girl calmly pried her weapons off from the person's slacked jaw.

"Congratulations, you have passed the third trial! You may proceed with your test."

Sora looked at her blood drenched clothes, even staining the inside of her white shirt and frowned while wiping the blood that splattered on her cheek. Luckily her hair was saved from the predicament. Her black jacket would cover the dried body later.

She shouldn't have used those spikes at the beginning but she needed to make sure that it's an immediate kill.

Wait but she didn't even check if knocking them out was enough to fit the criteria.

The girl looked at the corpse-strewn area, the fire had died out by now.

Oh well too late.

She wiped her weapons on a prisoner's cloak before strapping them back to her belt.

Fifty five hours and twelve minutes remaining.

And wow, how did Aym kill that many people in such a short time?

Being trapped inside a metal box for twenty hours after choosing the wrong hole to jump into should be a perfect time for her to simply sleep the rest of it and recharge her back but no.

Despite being soundly beaten up by Aym, having to fight another battle against ten people by herself, batting away a horde of snacks that fell on top of her and sprinting across a corridor with tiles dropping behind her, Sora was strangely still buzzing with energy.

Unlike the phases before when she was knocked out cold the moment the tension subsided. She didn't know if it was because of an adrenaline rush or entirely something else.

So, she settled on washing her clothes. The examiner had been kind enough to provide anyone who's trapped inside with a bucket of water and some towel. For what reasons, she didn't know.

The girl carefully dabbed the dried blood off the thing she could no longer call a jacket with how tattered it was, being careful not to wet the inside and cleaned the grime between her fingernails. She also properly wiped her weapons this time. No washing her shirt because it would take time to dry while her waterproof jacket would dry sooner or later.

Sora took off her torn arm warmer, glad the wound there had returned to normal as simply a burn scar, not the horrendous sight of flesh and skin mangled together by soot glue.

Once she's done she waited.

.

.

.

.

.

Damn, she should have chosen the correct hole.

Sora sighed and closed her eyes, leaning her head against the cool metal, waiting for sleep to take her into darkness.

(

"Stay clear of fire. No looking, absolutely not making it, okay?"

"Eh? Why?"

"I won't be there to cover your escape anymore if you're too slow to escape, okay?"

"Are you going somewhere?"

"Yes, so please. Listen to me for once, okay?"

"...Okay."

)

Sleep surprisingly came quickly and without her knowing, twenty hours have passed already.

The girl was back on her feet instantly and checked her time.

Thirty four hours and twelve minutes.

"This is the last part of this path. A question will appear every minute. There will be a total of ten questions. If you fail to answer the question within the time limit, five hour of your time will be taken."

So there's a possibility of her having minus twenty hours if she answered all of them wrong? Wow, the examiner was certainly doing everything he could to make her fail.

The first couple of questions were easy enough, covering the general knowledge of the world and the Hunter Association that Shax has shovelled down her brain to learn because "you needed to at least know about the countries you will flee to and the people you're constantly running away from" or so as she quoted.

But then came the sixth question.

"Question number six, aura is similar to steam. O or X?"

The hell is this aura thingie?

Sora frowned and looked at her watch. She still has five more questions left which mean even if she got them all wrong, she would have five hours left. Which was good enough considering that it was the last trial of the path.

Or so it said. The girl wasn't sure if it's a false hope or something.

She pressed the X button and an inhuman screech filled the whole room. The girl shakily uncovered her ears and paled. She would have gone deaf had it not been for her fast reflexes.

"Question number seven, there are nine aura types. O or X?"

Right, she's definitely screwed.

After three more inhuman screeches later, Sora was down to ten hours and one last question left.

"Last question, would participant #210 have to stay in this room for another twenty hours? O or X?"

The girl was tempted to press X just to prove a point and made it twenty five hours. But then again, now that she thought of it, there was no right answer to this question. It could be O but the answer was wrong apparently so she spent twenty five hours. It could be X but the answer was actually correct so she spent twenty five hours anyway.

So Sora did what she knew the best when there's uncertainty in her path.

She pressed the O and X button at the same time.

"Congratulations, you have passed the last trial of this path. Good luck and have fun spending your twenty hours."

It's a full circle, isn't it?

Sora stared helplessly at the dripping mockery from the words and flopped down to her back, looking at the ceiling.

Another twenty hours of sleep, here we go.

"Number #210, Sora is the fourteenth to pass. Total time, sixty-two hours and three minutes."

The girl blinked as she stepped into the round hall where the examinees milled around, ignoring all the stares she was receiving with her bloodstained shirt and ripped clothes. A torch was used to light up the area but with how far it was, she managed to be calm enough.

Sixty-two hours and three minutes and she was only the fourteenth to pass? That was honestly something she hadn't expected. All other paths must have been deadly indeed. Or maybe some ended up fighting each other, she doesn't know.

She walked to an empty spot and sat down, observing all the participants that had arrived way earlier than she was.

#384, the guy with the blowgun and sunglasses, #301, a guy with pins covered his whole face and strangely mechanical movement, #294, that one ninja guy, #53 and #371, carrying a bow and a spear respectively, #118, a guy with a pretty lively and cute monkey hanging around, #80 one of the few rare women she saw in this exam was wiping her sniper…

And #44, Hisoka.

Sora felt a shiver down her spine when the clown directed his gaze at her and gave her a small smile along with a small wave. In front of him, a tower of cards had been carefully stacked. Upon a closer look, she saw a quite deep cut on his right shoulder, surprising her a bit. There was actually someone who was capable of hurting the madman.

Seeing the man again, she was once again reminded of their encounter in the forest and the man had casually said Shax's name which meant they were in a quite good relationship.

She looked at her trembling fingers before clenching them.

If she died after this, at least it would be worth it.

The girl stood up and briskly approached the male, her daring action drawing attention from the handful of people in the group.

"Hisoka-san," she called out. His yellow eyes turned toward her and she resisted the urge to step back.

"What can I do for you, little mouse? I won't bite you for now, so relax." The man chuckled, settling down another card.

That's precisely why she was so guarded because he was that unpredictable.

Sora turned her attention to the cards to direct her fear at, hesitating a bit. "...How is Shax doing now?"

The question seemed to surprise the clown because he looked at her curiously before humming. "He's doing well. Probably better off if he wasn't too invested in that project of his."

The girl furrowed her eyebrows. "Project?"

"Ah." Something gleamed in his eyes. "I'm sorry, that was a slip of my tongue. You weren't supposed to know that."

She was pretty sure the sly man was intentionally baiting her but she knew better despite the burning curiosity inside her. Questioning the man wouldn't be an easy task.

Sora heaved out a sigh, racking her brain for more information she needed to know. "How long have you two knew each other?"

Hisoka knocked the card tower down with a flick of his finger. "Two years."

It strangely coincided with the time of his leaving. The girl hoped she could safely assume that all these bizarre connections Shax made was after he left her, not before.

"How did you two meet?"

Silence.

Okay, she wasn't supposed to know that.

"It's good to know he's doing fine at least," Sora muttered before nodding, "Well, thank you Hisoka-san. You can go back to stacking your cards."

"No problem, little mouse." An almost creepy smile appeared on his face and the girl did take a step back this time. "I would advise not to trust him so much."

Sora nodded then literally flung herself out of his vicinity, reaching her side of the room in a matter of records.

First, Aym now Hisoka? Sora didn't understand why these people had any problem with the man. She wasn't sure if she could count on Hisoka's words though, no amount of trust could be placed on him.

"Now, stop being a mindless brat and start thinking about yourself."

Aym's words rang in her mind as she sat down, head deep in thought.

Maybe there's more to Shax than he looked.

A couple of hours passed after that with more new people.

There's #191, Bodoro, looking like a martial artist master, #103, Bourbon, a snake master and #197, Amori, #198, Imori, and #199 Umori, the brother's trio.

She also found another female #246, Ponzu among the crowds which made her happy for no apparent reason other than the fact there's another girl in the mixture of countless males.

Sora chewed on the plastic spoon in her mouth after breakfast was served an hour prior, frowning as she stared at the stone door who stood still against the trials of odds.

There was only half an hour left.

And no signs of the other four boys of the group.

"Ack." She took out the spoon that had broken in two, stinging her tongue before discarding it to the tray.

Three minutes left.

Her legs bounced anxiously, not minding the guy who arrived only to die on the spot.

"How stupid. He could have lived and come back again next year," she heard Umori said to the corpse.

'Maybe there's no such thing as next year for the male. Maybe it was what drove him to his death in the first place.' Sora mused quietly, feeling strangely sentimental of her own situation.

Her attention was back on the closed doors.

Still no signs of the quartet.

"One minute remains."

"Looks like it'll only be the twenty of us here." Sora heard Imori say.

From a distance, she could see Hisoka smirking about something and strangely her worry was washed away. Whoever was coming must have attracted his attention and who else attracted his?

The ground rumbled as the door lifted itself up and three pairs of feet stepped out from the tunnel.

Her heart soared and she quickly stood up.

"Participant #404, Kurapika is the twenty first to pass. Participant #99, Killua, is the twenty second to pass. Participant #405, Gon, is the twenty third to pass. Total time, seventy one hours and fifty nine minutes."

All the three boys were covered in bruises and dirt but at least they're still alive.

"My butt hurts…" Killua complained while pouting. "I didn't expect a slide for the short and easy path."

"That was really close." Gon said to Kurapika, beaming excitedly. The blonde smiled tiredly as he held up his hands.

"My hands are covered with blisters," the male said.

"Same here," A voice croaked out from behind them. It was Leorio and Tonpa who were busy elbowing each other.

She didn't know what had happened back there but they seemed friendly.

"Participant #403, Leorio, is the twenty-fourth to pass. Participant #16, Tonpa is the twenty fifth to pass. Total time, seventy one hours and fifty nine minutes."

"My hands are blistered, but all five of us cleared the tower together. All thanks to Gon." Leorio said, grinning while ruffing Gon's hair.

""I was worried you guys wouldn't make it," Sora spoke out finally while jogging toward them, giving them a small wave, watching as the black haired kid's grin widened.

"Sora! I was worried you had fallen into a trap when you weren't in the same room with us," Gon said, bouncing on his heels.

Her path had been full of traps but at least it wasn't a trap.

"No, I came much earlier than you guys and I already thought I was slow enough." The girl said, stopping in front of the boys.

"Your path seemed to be…" Kurapika eyed her bloodstained shirt and all of her injuries with a frown and equally worried look. "Very brutal."

"It's not my blood, don't worry." She chose not to elaborate further and fished out the ointment from her bag before returning it to Leorio, smiling sheepishly. "And I might have used up all your bandages so sorry about that."

The aspiring doctor seemed to look aghast at her apology. "Nonsense, you should have asked for more! Here, let me wrap a new one for you."

She let him do just that because the visible ones were only on her palms and left arm. Once he got to her right arm, however, that's a different story.

"It's okay, Leorio-san, " She calmly said, moving her right arm away from his reach. "I can do the rest of it alone. The wounds there are not an issue anyway."

"And I don't take any buts," Sora continued, lifting a finger up to cut the male off when he opened his mouth to protest. "I'm really okay."

Seeing the female refusing to back down, Leorio sighed and gave her a roll of fresh bandages. "Fine, I trust you will be able to take care of it yourself. Just tell me if anything starts hurting more than usual, yeah?" the older male huffed and ruffled her head.

The girl gratefully took the given item. "Of course, don't worry about that."

Sora refused to acknowledge Killua's calculating look on her right arm.

"Here are the results of the Third Phase. Twenty-six contestants passed and one died." The announcement finally came.

On the other side of the room, a door rolled itself up, casting bright sunlight that they haven't seen for days into the room.

Sora shielded her eyes, grimacing a bit with how piercing it was and yet her heart thumped erratically in her chest.

She was another step closer to reaching her goal.

And that's the end of all the rewritten chapters. Whew, that's a long ride.

After all of this, all the ideas were still basically floating aimlessly in my head and I'll be half winging it. We'll see how long I can continue and see if uni won't murder me in the process or having the motivation dying along the way.

Rewritten, some parts were written in a more detailed way, changed and added some new parts.

Thank you all so much for the favs and follows!

Elisablackcat: It's only the start :D Hopefully I'll find more time to write and get to the revelation later. Thank you so much for the review!

Ruili6mo: I'm glad you're interested in Aym because there will be more to him of course XD I can't answer any of that speculation right now but stay tuned once it's revealed :D Thank you so much for the review.

As always, I would love to hear about your opinions!

Bye!