Thirty-five hours down, fifteen more to go. I pouted through the dark at Leorio's sleeping form.

I felt safe in the little room, but nonetheless I waited until everyone was asleep to make the phone call. There was reception was quite good for a cursed tower.

I dialled and waited. Tonpa's big smelly foot dangled dangerously close to Leorio's snoring mouth. Closer, closer. I snickered. Leorio jerked away, grumbling. Not a moment too soon, his head was tilted in favour of the foot. Good grief. I am ninety-percent certain that Tonpa chose that spot to torment Leorio.

'Hello?' the sleepy voice came through slightly distorted.

'Hey, Nick-o, it's me,' I whispered.

The sound of sheets shuffling and feet hitting the floor. 'Yo, Rissy! Wow, I guess the phone works huh? How smart am I?'

'Would have been smarter to test the phone before I left,' I drawled.

It was an old phone of my adoptive father's which Nicky had managed to get working. He was a bit clever with things like that, but I would never admit this out loud.

'Aren't you worried about me, big brother?'

'Oh, yeah. How are you doing?' he asked.

I briefed him on what had happened so far in the exam. After all the danger, psychological warfare and straight up icky-ness, this was his response:

'So, you're stuck in a room with five dudes?' Nicky asked, incredulous. 'Hold up, you're okay, right?'

I rolled by eyes and turned down the speaker volume to keep things quiet. 'Relax, dude. It's just a couple of old guys and a few kids.'

'Quick, give it to me in five points.' Nicky said

We played a game as kids where we assigned someone a "subtle" descriptor so that we could talk about them more freely.

'A deadweight, a dumb doctor, a know-it-all, an assassin and a dense kid,' I rattled off.

'Have they been bothering you?' Nicky pestered me.

'Shouldn't you be more worried that I'm here with a trained assassin?' I asked.

'How old is he?'

'Twelve, I think.'

'Nah, he's alright then.'

'Nick-o, your overprotectiveness is ridiculous,' I told him.

'Whatever,' he retorted, 'what about the doctor?'

'Relax, relax,' I said, in what I hoped was a calming voice. 'He's only interested in women. I've seen his magazines.'

'That guy brings porn with him?' Nicky's voice was bordering on opera singer performing for the kingdom's wealthiest.

'Can you pipe down?' I whispered as loudly as I dared.

Nicky was slightly mollified. 'Be careful, okay? All men are disgusting.'

I snorted. 'I know, I've seen you looking at that red-belt brunette with drool hanging off your chops.' I could hear him stutter through a protest. 'Relax, after everything I've been through in this ridiculous exam, I think I can handle myself around a few dudes.'

'Alright, alright,' Nicky relented. 'Have you heard anything about… you know?'

I quickly filled him in on what Kurapika told me earlier tonight.

'You know what,' Nicky said when I finished, 'it's possible. We haven't considered it from this angle before, we just assumed your Grandma assumed you did it.'

I asked him about whether he had made any progress with our other search.

'Not much info coming through, little sister,' he sighed.

We venomously addressed each other as siblings when we were younger. Nicky had hated me on sight and I returned those sentiments with interest. As we grew to tolerate each other, the stickers well, stuck. For such a strawberry-loving knobhead, he was an okay brother. He passed. Just barely.

~oOo~

There were just over five hours of confinement left on the clock. It was an uncomfortable amount of time – too short to get stuck into any activity, too long to prepare to leave. Energies were antsy and tempers were running high.

'Can you not?' I was unable to control the note of irritation in my voice.

Killua had taken to bothering (poking, prodding, and jabbing) me while I pored through a magazine. I was distracted enough to pick it up, but this brat made it nearly impossible to find out what my fruit preferences say about my sex life. I knew it was non-existent but still…

Killua clicked his tongue. 'How boring.'

'Gon,' I called out. 'Can you please come collect your stray, please.'

'Yep,' Gon replied. 'Come on Killua, I'll teach you how to use my fishing rod to swing.'

Bless his heart.

Left to my vigorous intellectual pursuits, I discovered that my sex life was 'fun sexy'. What the frick-frack is 'fun sexy'?

Your wit and banter sizzle hotness, and you know how to make him laugh…

Ha. This is because I chose watermelon over banana, isn't it?

~oOo~

There were still five minutes left but we were all packed up and raring to go. I slung my bag across my body and joined the boys at the door. Even Tonpa had his backpack on both shoulders and game on his face. I had almost forgotten about him; he had been remarkably quiet during the past two days. Perhaps it was the fact that we were already so hindered by the time crunch that he thought he could chill out and watch us flunk out. I may fail but it will not be today.

Five… four… three… two… one!

The door slid open and we all barged out.

I wish I could say we were civilised. I wish Kurapika's elbow wasn't in my face, I wish Killua's leg wasn't trapped around mine and I wish Gon's fishing rod wasn't pecking my head.

Not bothering to restrain myself, I cursed. If only Tonpa wasn't pressing his hefty gut into my back. I braced myself and jabbed an elbow into him. It was like sinking into quicksand. Tonpa stumbled backwards and I backed into the room. Thank goodness. They were still battling it out at the door.

I followed the boys out into the relatively fresh air of the brick hallway once they had figured it out. We hit the ground running. It felt good to be moving again. But after a while, the hallways, turns, and stairs started to blur together as I lost my sense of direction. Finally, after about half an hour, we ended back where we started.

'We should have taken those stairs,' Killua grumbled.

'SHUT UP.' You can guess who said that.

We ran again.

The corridors and passages continued. One section of wall gave way when I leaned on it to catch my breath and we all trooped through – right into a room full of rickety railway tracks snaking down into a yawning chasm. There was one single cart for crossing.

'We shouldn't have come in here,' Leorio muttered.

'Shut up,' I told him.

Gon and Killua jumped into the cart without hesitation. Not wanting to be left behind, the rest of us piled on too. It was a tight fit – no bigger than your standard bathtub. I wished I had knocked out Tonpa back at the room and left him there.

'Does anyone have a plan?' I asked nervously, peering down into the darkness below.

'Here we go!' Gon said as he and Killua pushed their weight on the front of the cart.

There was no question. We were going down.

I could feel the wheels spinning below us as we gathered speed and trundled down the tracks. The force pushed stagnant wind into my screaming mouth. Just as it looked like we would not make the turn due to sheer speed, the wheels gripped the tracks with a shower of sparks and jerked us around the bend, giving me severe whiplash.

We descended faster to the bottom of the tower than we had ever before. Up ahead, through my tears, I saw a section of the track break away and fall.

Dear gods of physics. Let us live.

The kids up front gave an unrestrained whoop of delight as the cart went airborne. We crashed down onto the continuing tracks with the force of a hundred rhinos. My teeth, eyes and brain rattled inside my head. I bit my tongue. This is impossible. I closed my eyes and held on tight.

At the bottom, windswept and shaky, I climbed out of the cart and sank onto the floor. Gon and Killua were slapping hi-fives.

But before I could breathe a sigh of relief, someone said:

'What's that creaking sound?'

We all turned around. A boulder was easing itself from its rest position. I realised we were standing in a corridor with a downward-sloping floor. I did not even have the energy to swear.

Stumbling like a newborn lamb on ice, I forced myself to run. The boulder was so large that it scraped against the brick walls. It rumbled hungrily, hungrily, hungrily after us. My breath caught in my throat. No, I told myself, keep it together. Stopping was not an option.

The floor became steeper and steeper. The boulder was gaining on us. Up ahead the wall ended, the corridor continuing at a complete right-angle. I threw myself around the bend, landing harshly in a heap of myself. The boulder crashed into the wall and inertia helped it dig itself in.

Holy cow.

I slowly picked myself up off the floor, surveying the damage it had done to our motely crew. Everyone was relatively unharmed. Gon and Killua exchanged jubilant looks. All Killua had to say complain that he was all covered in dust. Kurapika and Leorio looked ruffled and leaned bodily on the walls. I could tell our future doctor was not too happy with how seriously the kids were taking our near-death experiences. Tonpa was straight up lying on the floor like a winded boar. I can sympathise.

I picked crumbs of gravel out of the road burn on my palms, arms, and knees from when I footy-tackled the floor.

'Remind me to give you something for those later,' Leorio told me. He glanced at his watch. 'Better hurry.'

The only good thing about the last two hair-raising journeys was that we were closer to the bottom than ever before.

At last, we arrived at a door with this plaque:

Majority choice

O – to open the door X – to leave the door as it is

'Obviously we want to open the door,' Leorio said.

The results came up with four O's and one X. Leorio grabbed Tonpa by the collar and lifted him off his feet.

'I've had enough of your crap,' he growled.

'Wait, I pressed O,' the accused argued.

'Don't lie,' Leorio snapped. 'You specialise in ruining other people's chances.'

'Leorio, sorry,' Gon interrupted with doleful eyes. 'I accidentally pressed the wrong button.'

Realising his mistake, Leorio awkwardly put Tonpa down. But the little man just would not take anything lying down.

'You owe me an apology,' he demanded with hateful eyes. 'I can't let that slide'.

'Shut up,' I snapped. 'It's your own damn fault for having a garbage track record. Just because you didn't stab us in the back one time you think you can get on your high horse?'

Tonpa was unruffled. 'You make it seem like I'm to blame for everything that's gone wrong.' He turned to Leorio. 'Have you forgotten who cost us those fifty hours?'

Leorio paled, then reddened. Kurapika tried to calm him down and was shaken off roughly. The two who by age were supposed to be the most mature squared up to fight. I groaned in disbelief. Gon, bless his heart, looked sorrowful for accidentally causing the mess.

With an air of disdain that I could really sympathise with, Killua slid open the door. He popped back in a second later.

'Hey Gon, we're getting close to the goal,' he said.

The next room contained two doors separated by an unpleasant statue of a woman's torso emerging from the bricks. Her arms were topped with spikes and draped over the doorframes.

'This will be the last decision made my majority rule,' Killua read aloud.

I could not help muttering "thank god" under my breath.

An electronic voice spoke to us about our options. One door led to a path that was long and difficult but allowed five of us to pass. The other was short and easy but only allowed three.

Well, we already have a problem don't we. Because of Tonpa, we have a grand party of six. At the very least, we will leave one behind.

But here's the kicker: the long and difficult path took forty-five whopping hours to finish. We did not have forty-five hours. We did not even have five hours. But the short and easy path only took three minutes.

For the first time, I noticed that the walls were lined with numerous brackets holding an army commander's wet dream – a complete arsenal of "every weapon under the sun", according to Killua.

Were we supposed to fight for the chance to leave the tower? How barbaric. I did not like my chances either. The room was small and cramped. Most of the weapons were long range which would really limit the space we had to move. Everyone was looking testy and starting to bicker amongst themselves.

To be completely frank, failing would not be the worst thing. I was still alive, and I had gotten a pretty good feel of the ruthlessness of the exam. I could regroup and train for the next year. But I had already made it so far. It felt like a waste of near-death experiences. You only get so many chances before 'near' becomes 'real'.

Kurapika turned to me. 'Risumi, can you tell what the situation is beyond the doors?'

Feeling pretty fed up myself, I snapped at him. 'Oh honey. Do you really think my senses are 'even better than Gon's'?' I injected as much sarcasm as I could into my accompanying air quotes. 'That Kirriko was just feeling guilty about almost killing me.'

'I will thank you not to take that tone with me,' Kurapika said, stiffly. 'May I remind you who broke your fall?'

'Oh, dear sir!' I retorted. 'May I present you my firstborn in gratitude for your services.'

'I don't want your grubby kid.'

'How dare you.'

For the first time since we met, Gon raised his voice. It was child-like but determined, and it cut through mine and Kurapika's bickering and Leorio and Tonpa's wide-swinging, clumsily executed battle.

Gon told us his plan.

I had to smile.

Everyone selected the long and difficult path, then geared up. We took turns hacking our way through the wall which divided the two paths. I took up an axe. It would be a dumb move to dull my scythes when there were free blades provided.

It was tiring work. After two rotations of the hacking roster, angry red blisters were growing on my hands. My shoulder ached with irregular throbs and sweat traced disgusting, grimy tracks through the brick dust that had settled on my skin.

Finally, after nearly an hour, we had busted our way into the short and easy path. From there, it was a steep, three-minute slide down to the bottom. Gon lost his footing with a shout of delight. Killua followed eagerly. I went next, then Kurapika, Leorio and Tonpa.

We landed in a heap on the bottom. The seat of my pants was smoking hot in the least sexy way imaginable. Plus, I was pretty sure I knocked my head on a few sharp bends in the slide. The four of us scrambled out of the way just in time for the oldest members of our group to drop. And then, all we had to do was walk to where everyone was gathered.

We made it just in time.

Gon was truly a special kid.