Beans observes the twelve other people in the cavern. Every year, he hands out the badges to the people taking the Hunter Exam. As such, he's the only person from the Hunter Association that routinely has contact with the Examinees. After so many years he had gotten very good at guessing which participants will pass and which will drop out early. He doesn't think the group in front of him stands much of a chance.
The ding of the elevator draws Beans out of his musing. He turns his attention to the doors as they slide open. A young girl steps out. Between her orange scarf and her bangs her face is almost completely hidden, and burn scars run from her hands to her elbows. Beans instantly recognizes her as a return participant who goes by Rook. She never puts a last name on her applications. Beans approaches her with his clipboard and a badge.
"Welcome to the Hunter exam," he greets. "We will let you know when it is time to begin. Here is your badge." He hands her the badge marked 13.
"Hmm." She takes the badge from him and nods in thanks. "Three hundred ninety two to go," she mumbles as she walks away.
Beans stares after her, wondering what she could mean by that. He has always found her strange, in a different way than the people who usually took the hunter exam.
He had first met her six years ago, the first time she showed up for the Exam. Beans had been surprised to see such a young kid make it to the exam site. The Association got hundreds of thousands of applicants every year so of course kids applied. Not many made it past the preliminary examiners and those that did were typically in their late teens. Rook had been nine. If he was honest, Beans had been worried. The Hunter Exam could be deadly after all. But he knew full well that appearances could be deceiving so he hadn't said anything. It was a good thing he didn't. She broke the arm of another examinee who commented on her age.
Turned out he didn't need to be worried in the end though. When the first examiner gave people the option to leave before they started, she had left. It was the first time Beans had ever seen someone actually leave of their own volition. There was almost always someone that got injured before the start or a rookie that one of the others got to. After that one participant though, none of the others had approached her. The Examiner had been surprised as well. When Beans told the Chairman the whole story, he fell out of his chair laughing. After he had recovered, he admitted that no one had willing left since he became chairman. Rook was definitely a strange one.
…
Rook runs her fingers through her hair. She cut it just a few days ago and now besides her bangs it stops just a couple inches from her head. It is so freeing not having to pull it back, but she still isn't used to it.
She turns her attention back to the crowd. The beginning of the Exam always makes for good people watching. She has a good vantage point standing on one of the pipes that run along the wall. It's easy to separate the new faces from the old. Of course even the newbies are familiar to her.
She sat in her brother's lap with headphones on. They sat in an office chair in front of the computer. Her eyes darted between the text at the bottom of the screen and the characters. She laughed at the difference between what was written and what was actually being said. A sudden bang from upstairs had her covering her mouth as Knight squeezed her to him.
She clenches her hand on her scarves as she pushes the memory away. Better not to get caught up in the past while surrounded by potential enemies.
Looking at the opposite wall, she spots Tonpa. He is sitting almost directly across from her with his gaze locked on the elevator doors. The Rookie Crusher has made a point to avoid her ever since she broke his arm. She chuckles thinking about the show a certain magician will be putting on soon.
Speaking of, her eyes scan the crowd and quickly land on the pervert clown himself. To some it may seem like he is sizing up the other examinees. To Rook it looks like he is deciding who he wants to kill and who he wants to fuck. He licks his lips and a shiver runs up Rook's spine. She averts her gaze.
Another creepy face draws her attention. Illumi, disguised of course. She's not sure if that's a good thing. She remembers his real appearance being pretty freaky with his soulless looking eyes, but the way he moves with all the pins in is so unnatural it sets her on edge. Of course that could also be because his focus never fully leaves his younger brother. Oh he does a good job of hiding it, and if Rook didn't already know their relation she never would have been able to spot it. His apparently aimless wandering never takes him to far from the white haired child.
Said child is currently not that far from where Rook is perched. He had gotten taller since she had last seen him. Killua was the first main character she had met and the only canon character she had met outside of the Hunter Exam. It had been so odd to see the nine year old at Heavens Arena. She hadn't been sure it was him until he had been called for his match. She had tried to avoid him for the most part. She didn't want to accidentally change the story before it truly got started. It had been unavoidable though when they faced each other in a match. It had been interesting. Afterwards, Killua had approached her. They had talked a few more times before Killua made it to the two hundredth floor and left.
The ding of the elevator draws everyone's attention. Out steps three people. A tall man in a suit, a blond in a blue shall, and a green clad kid. Rook pulls her scarf up over her mouth as she jumps to the ground. Now that the whole cast is here, it's time to begin.
