A/N: Okay, here we are again. I got this chapter done. It was a pain I tell you. Thank you for the faves and subscriptions. They made me happy. Thank you also the review(1) I received.

I think I should make some sort of cover for this story but at the moment I have no idea what it could be. I should probably also draw some pics of Sora's outfits...

Chapter 5
Umbra: Trick Tower

The morning dawned eventually as the airship approached its destination: the Trick Tower. The applicants woke up from their rest. Some early, some later. Sora herself was poked away from dreamland by someone who was obviously having too much fun with it. The girl swatted the hand away before sitting up.

Wait… Sitting up? Hadn't she fallen asleep against the wall while sitting up? But when she'd woken up in the middle of the night she'd been lying down. Whaaaat was going on?

A poke on her back alerted Sora back to the reality. She turned around slowly to see Leorio's grinning face and Kurapika… still asleep. Considering the place the girl was sitting currently and the gleeful expression he future doctor had…

"Don't tell me…"

"Yep. You were using Kurapika's legs as a pillow." Leorio smiled. I decided to wake you up and save Kurapika from a possible mortification." Sora really wanted to wipe that smirk off his face.

"I see…" The girl stated calmly. "I suppose I should thank you then. Next time though… please find some other way to wake me up."

"You mean you are going to do that again?"

"No. I meant waking me up in general. In the case if there would ever be the need. I usually wake up on my own quite well."

"Why did you do that by the way?" Leorio leaned her head against his upturned palm and eyed the girl curiously. He get a glare as an answer.

"I didn't do it on purpose if that's what you are asking, Leorio-kun."

"Hey, I'm older than you!"

"Mere ten days so it doesn't count."

"I'm still older!"

"But apparently I'm more mature."

"Shut up…"

That was a new voice. Sora and Leorio turned to look at the person sitting between them. Kurapika had woken up.

"Are we in our destination yet?" The Kurta yawned.

"No. It's only quarter to eight." Leorio answered.

"I see." It seemed that the boy was still only half-awake.

"Hey guys, let's go and see if there's any breakfast. Who knows when is the next time we get to eat." Sora got on her feet and took her bag. The other two followed the suit, the blonde with his eyes half-open and rubbing them, and the brunette with a smug smile on his face. The girl shot him a warning glare which was just enough to make him drop the smile. He wouldn't dare to go against that very clear warning he received. The young man nodded with a slight gulp.

When they airship finally stopped, the trio met up with Gon and Killua and made their way out with the rest of the participants.

"What is this place? There's nothing here." Someone was muttering as they observed their surrounding atop of the Trick Tower.

"Ahem." Beans got their attention. "Everyone, the exam's Third Phase will begin here, at the top of Trick Tower.

"Trick Tower?"

"To pass this Phase, you must reach the tower's base alive. The timelimet is seventy-two hours." The bean-looking man… creature… something… explained.

"That's three full days…" Sora mused.

"With that, we will now begin the Third Phase. I will pray for your success."

"Best luck to everyone!" Beans wished to them via a loudspeaker as the airship sailed away. Gon peeked over the edge of the tower.

"Are we supposed to climb down?" Leorio asked, clutching his briefcase against his chest as he and the rest of their little group peeked down too.

"That would be a suicide…" Kurapika said. Someone chuckled behind them.

"Maybe for a normal person." That person said, drawing their attention. His applicant number was 86. He was the rock climber.

"But a top-class rock climber can handle this, no problem." The man told them as he began his descent.

"Wow…" Killua breathed.

"He's going down pretty fast." Gon noted.

"…I rather not watch this. There's no way anyone would survive that." Sora got up and walked only a couple of steps when…

"Stop! Stop it!" The rock climber's screams climbed up the tower and reached their ears. "Help!"

Weird pinkish creatures flew over their heads after one of them had captured the poor applicant into its mouth.

"G-Guess we can't climb down the side…" Leorio gulped.

"Yeah." Kurapika agreed.

"Say, Sora…" Killua had appeared by the girl's side. Sora glanced at him and then the rest of the group who were still by the edge. "How did you know?"

"Know what?" The girl arched her eyebrows.

"That he wouldn't survive." The young assassin stated.

"I didn't…"

"Don't lie to me. You were looking sick since the moment he spoke."

"Alright…" Sora sighed. "I… I guess you could call it my…"

"Sixth sense." A book was snapped shut and placed beside the speaker. Sora looked up from her book.

"Sixth sense?" The eleven-year-old girl repeated.

"Yes. That strong intuition of yours. It's like a sixth sense, isn't it?" The person behind her continued.

"I dunno…" Sora shrugged and stretched her legs forward and shifted a bit so she could lean more comfortably against her fellow bookworm's side. "Wouldn't Nen be the sixth sense?"

"What makes you think so?" There was amusement in the voice now.

"Because essentially every single person in this world is capable of using Nen if trained right. And Nen can be used in many ways. With En you can sense people around you even when you can't see them, with Gyo you can see the Nen used, not to mention the other uses one can find for their own Nen type. And my… hunches are not related to Nen, right?"

"No, they aren't. You don't get a feeling that something might happen. You just know something will happen and act or say thing according to that. But it isn't fortunetelling either. If it were you'd be able to avoid those events before they happen if you wanted to but the time between your feeling and the event happening is too short. And in the other hand Nen isn't really a sense. It is an ability that has to be learnt and that can be used to strengthen one's other senses." Came the reply.

"But-…" A pout appeared on the girl's face.

"Besides, doesn't sixth sense sound better than seventh sense?"

"Ah, that's right."

The person just chuckled. "Keep that innocence of yours. It's a rare sight nowadays."

"Nee… ****-niisan… What are you reading?" Sora scrambled on her feet and tried to reach the book that had been placed on the other side of the person she'd been talking to.

"Sora… Sora!"

The girl blinked back to reality. Killua was staring at her intently.

"What happened? You just spaced out." The white-haired boy asked.

"I... I got a flashback of my past. It has already happened for a couple of times." Sora rubbed her eyes. "Don't worry. They are quite useful actually."

"Okay. It was quick though. Only ten seconds or so." The boy shrugged, his hands in his pockets. "What was it about?"

"About my Sixth sense. Like I just could… feel that that man just now wouldn't survive. It's something that has apparently happened before too. I'm not exactly sure how it works." The blonde scratched the back of her head. It seemed that ever since she'd been a child, she'd known how the things would turn out. Well, it made things easier when it came to her knowledge about the plot.

"I see. You make split-second decisions based on that, right?"

"I suppose."

"It protected you from the frog back in the swamp and also prevented you from letting go was the web until the last moment when we were at that funny mountain."

"Correct." Sora nodded. Let the boy make his own deductions and correct him only when he was completely wrong. "Just don't tell anyone else, alright?"

Killua regarded her for a moment before shrugging again. "Okay."

"Thank you very much, Killua-kun. I'll go now to look for an entry to this tower."

"Entry?"

"Yeah. They can't expect us really climb down the outer wall. There's no trick in that. And the tower's name is Trick Tower. Usually towers are towers because they have an interior. Otherwise they'd be just pillars or obelisks or something. So I'm looking for an entry."

"I see. Oi, Gon!" The boy shouted over his shoulder. The green-clad kid jogged to them.

"What is it, Killua?"

"Let's look for an entry."

"Yosh!" And the two kids rushed away. Killua only thanked briefly Sora for the hint before they were too far.

"Okay… I gotta find an entry too. Preferably away from theirs…" The girl began walking around and looking at the stony floor for the right shaped tiles. It didn't take long as there was quite many of them and a large area to look. "Ah…"

The girl looked around. Some people had already disappeared into the tower, including Hisoka and Gittarackur aka Illumi.

"Right, let's go." Sora jumped on the tile which almost immediately flipped around, dropping her on the floor two meters below. The girl landed softly and stood up. She didn't have any time to be wasted as she didn't know how many challenges she had and how long would they take. For her relief though, she wasn't in the room with five watches waiting for poor applicants(i.e. Gon, Killua, Kurapika and Leorio. Tonpa didn't count). There was only one watch on the pedestal underneath a note tacked on the wall.

The girl strode to the sign and read it.

"Path of Solitude… In this route you'll go through alone. You will have no encounters with other contestants no matter what path you'll take. The clock will tell you the remaining time. And the buttons shall indicate your decisions."

By the end of the text, she finally realized she understood perfectly the language of the Hunter-World.

"Okay… I guess I have no choice then…" Sora picked up the wristwatch and put it into her right wrist as in her left one she had a regular watch. "It's almost half past eight now since the airship went slower. Better not waste any more time."

Static behind her informed that the examiner was about to contact her.

"My name is Lippo. I am the prison warden here, as well as the Third Phase examiner." The man in the control room introduced himself. "Multiple routes through this tower have been prepared. You have chosen the path of solitude. Confidence in your own decisions will be the key through this route."

"I see…"

A panel of wall slid up, revealing a door.

"You shall begin now."

"Okay… But don't eat too much snacks, Lippo-san. It's not good for your health." Sora told the man as she approached the door and pressed O to open it. "And it's not nice to hear the munching through the microphone." She added before vanishing to the corridor behind it.

This first decisions Sora had to make were relatively easy. Just about which way she'd turn when she came to a fork. First she turned to right and apparently avoided a confrontation with one of the inhabitants of the tower and next she turned left. That turn made her face a jigsaw puzzle scattered on the large stone table in the middle of the room. The problem with them was though that they had nothing to indicate the order of the pieces.

"Okay… I've made puzzles before. First I need to find the edge pieces." The blonde settled on dealing the pieces into two stacks. One with the pieces of one of two straight edges and others without. The other pieces she pushed in the middle of the table and the rest near her. As she observed the amount of pieces, she came to the conclusion that they'd cover the whole table once the puzzle was done. But now she faced a dilemma. She did now know which corner piece belonged to which corner.

"Damn… I gotta start from one corner and almost blindly proceed from there… At least one side is colored differently so I won't try to fit the pieces upside down…" Sora crumbled, picking one of the corners and placing it into the corner of the rectangular table before going to find a piece to fit its edge.

"One side of these pieces is the same color than the table so it's safe to assume that's 'down'. And one is the same color than the ceiling, 'up'." The girl picked up one of the pieces size of a plate and examined its surface. "There's gotta be a hint for the future reference. One can build this puzzle with only the edges but it will take simply too long time…"

Running a hand along the surface, Sora noted that the 'up'-side wasn't smooth. It had some patterns but due the dim lighting of the room and the dark color of the piece, one couldn't see it on naked eye.

"I need more light." All the torches were on the walls, casting annoying shadows around the room and disturbing Sora's working. Not to mention that they were too far and couldn't be moved. The girl dug out her lighter and flicked the flame. Now it was better. Humming she sat up on the table and continued her work.

Three hours. That's how long it took Sora to finish the puzzle even with the help of her lighter. Nevertheless she continued her way and after three more decisions of which way to go, she faced one of those prisoners who were employed to take down the applicants and this reduce their sentence. Not that it'd actually help them much. They all had some ridiculous sentences.

The man she was facing was a good half a meter taller than her, muscular and in jail for a manslaughter. His sentence was something a bit over hundred years. As if he'd ever live even half of that… He had already been in the jail for twenty-something years already. At least according to his story he'd told her once his cuffs had fallen on the floor.

"So… How does this go?" Sora asked, dropping her backpack on the floor and kicking it near the wall.

"You have a choice. Either you fight with me and potentially die. Or then you forfeit now and are potentially disqualified." The prisoner explained with a bored tone. His eyes were half-lidded and the whole appearance was weary. But Sora knew better than trust the first impression of the man. after all this was the Hunter-World.

"Potentially disqualified? What does that mean?"

"You will go through the door on the left and walk down a slow path of maze before meeting another prisoner… if meeting… and then fight him. Possibly. He is stronger than me for sure and you can avoid the fight with him only by forfeiting and being disqualified for sure."

"So basically I either fight you now and possibly die or then I fight the other guy and possibly die or avoid both fights and give up becoming a Hunter this year."

"Basically yes." The man in front of her nodded.

"If I win you here… Will I get to the end via a quick route?"

"Yes."

"Okay…" Sora paused for a moment. In this situation she had practically only one choice. And hopefully her strength and experience from before would help her to win. She'd just need to go about all in, trusting her muscle memory. "Let's fight then. What are the rules?"

"Fight until one dies or forfeits. If you forfeit, you'll head down the long route. If I forfeit, you are free to choose either one."

"Alright." Sora slid her right feet behind her and crouched slightly, her hands clenched in fists. What she could see from the man… he was obviously a fighter relying on his strength rather than speed.

"And begin!" Lippo announced via the loudspeaker. The prisoner attacked straight towards Sora. The girl dashed to the side, under the punch of the man's left hand. Once she was about a meter behind the guy, she changed the direction and jumped in the air, aiming a kick to the man's head. The convict happened to look over his shoulder right on that moment and the heel or Sora's foot hit him right on the forehead.

The man staggered a few step until he came to a halt. Sora landed softly a good three meters behind him.

I can do this… I just need to trust myself…

"Arrrrh… Strong little girl. I suppose I have to take this seriously too." The man mumbled, while turning around and holding his forehead. But Sora didn't give him a chance to attack when she was already in the right side of him. Her hand briefly touched the man's shoulder before she bounced upwards, landing directly a top of his head and pushing it to the floor as he lost his balance. There, standing on the prisoner's head, Sora happened to glance at her wrist watch. Altogether she'd used about six hours in this phase. That meant Hisoka was about to finish his route.

The guy beneath her shifted.

"Are you giving up?"

A grunt.

"Not yet? How honorable of you." The blonde girl mocked. She jumped up and landed on the same spot. A crunch and howl indicated that the man's nose was broken.

"Giving up now?" She asked again.

Another disagreeing grunt. With a sigh the girl took her staff from her back and twisted it into its full length. She drove one end of it right on the back of the man's hand. The bones cracked underneath the force and this time the man didn't yell or even grunt.

"Used to torture, eh?" The staff was slammed on the other hand. "For man who relies on his hands and strength, you surely disregard it all. You just want to keep your life. That's why you tried to scare me to the long route to the certain disqualification.

"Giving up now?" The staff hit the bottom of the man's feet.

"No."

"Then I suppose I just have to kill you." Sora shortened the staff and jumped backwards, landing right next to her backpack. She dug out one of her knives and walked slowly to the man. The guy's shoulders tensed but he didn't move. Probably the hits on the head were still making him dizzy and the pain in his palms prevented him from moving. Pathetic.

Sora kneeled on the prisoner's upper back and placed the tip of her knife to the soft spot in the base of his skull.

"Some people can knock out people by simply pressing here… But with a right tool, man can be killed too. I only need to slide this knife five centimeters in until I hit your spinal cord. And that… That will cause you to suffocate to death." The girl explained with a low voice. "So I ask you one more time… Are you giving up?"

No answer.

"Fine. You were a spineless and nameless character anyways." Sora gripped her knife tightly and pressed it downwards. The sharp steel pierced the skin easily and sunk into the flesh. In fifteen seconds the man stopped moving and the girl pulled out the knife.

"That was unpleasant." She muttered as she wiped the knife clean to the hood the prisoner had been wearing when she'd arrived. The door on her right opened. Yes, she'd definitely take the shorter route.

Once the knife was safely tucked into Sora's backpack and the girl had continued to the corridor, she finally let out a shudder.

"That was scary…" She muttered. Not only facing that guy but also how easily she'd defeated him. How easily she'd killed him. Yes, he was only some nameless character that didn't affect the plot at all but he was still a human in this world.

"Just who am I…"

The next challenge was a quiz. A freaking quiz about the world. It had everything possible. Economics, politics, culture and nature. Sora guessed her answers. Well… She did spent time trying to figure the correct answers out by logic. In the end she had correct answers six out of ten. That meant she'd have to spent eight hours in the quiz room and continue her journey then.

"So that means I have spent almost 15 hours when I get out of here… With a good luck I'll be the fifth one to finish since Hisoka was first with six hours. Gittarackur second… then was Hanzo and then Gerreta whose time was about twelve hours. Pokkle and Goz would be next then with thirty hours under the belt." The girl mused as she settled down by the wall for a short nap.

Four hours later Sora was properly rested and able to walk on. On the rest of her chosen route had no more obstacles left but was tediously long.

"Path of Solitude. Fitting name indeed. Long lonely corridors just made for one to start doubting their decisions in every turn. To doubt their luck and abilities…" She made her way down a pair of stairs. The n-th staircase this far. When would she reach the end?

"Booooring…" Sora sighed and blinked. She was facing a wall about three meters before her. Great, was this a dead end?

Just then the piece of wall/a door slid up.

"Sora, applicant #173, is the fifth to pass. Total time, seventeen hours and forty-two minutes." Lippo announced via the loud speaker when Sora stepped into the final room with the other already passed applicants sitting by the wall. Just like she remembered: Hisoka, Gittarackur, Hanzo and Gerreta.

"Finally…" The girl muttered making her way to the wall right next to her door and sitting down. Now she only had some fifty hours plus to spent. Over two days in the other hand. And her wristwatch was telling her that it was almost two in the morning. Great. Just so great…

A/N: Alright. I decided to cut this here. Fear not though. I'll put Zevil's Island into one chapter anyways. Speaking of which... Do you think I should use the English names(I already use it with Beans...) or Japanese ones? In the other words... Phantom Troupe, York New and Melody... Or Genei Ryodan, York Shin and Senritsu? I have no idea.

Reply to a review(you others don't need to be shy. I love everything you send):

-leroalice:
Ah, it's dangerous to ask questions. I don't want to spoil anything so I can't answer. Suggestions and ideas are welcome and I can discuss about those thories but no questions okay. Thank you for the review anyways. :)

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Okay... I think I'll start writing the next chapter tomorrow. We'll see about that. Just remember that I'm still open for pairing, Nen and backround ideas.