AN: For some reason I feel the urge to put an authors note at the start of a chapter even when I have nothing to say . . . that may be a problem . . .

Dolle harbour was a quaint little town. Of course, having spent the better part of a year in one of the largest port city's in Jappon, my definition of "little" may have become a little warped, seeing as how Dolle was a city with a population exceeding ten thousand. Nonetheless, I found it absolutely picturesque.

Dolle was the kind of place that you used as your first stop on a vacation to a foreign country. The sights were beautiful, the food was good, the people were friendly, and thick forests and proximity to the water actually held back most of the more dangerous fauna the continent was know for. That meant it was much safer than most cities in the Kukan'yu kingdom, with it's reputation for hyper dangerous animals.

That said, if one planned to come to this city on a vacation, I'd give them one warning. NOT IN JANUARY!

Every year during January, thousands upon thousands of Hunter wannabees flooded into Dolle harbour, looking to enter the hunter's exam over in the(relatively) nearby Zaban City. As a result, the prices at every restaurant, hotel and grocery store was tripled, at least! Not to mention that the crime rate increases by (an) order(s) of magnitude.

Unfortunately, as a I was attempting to take said exam myself, that was exactly the time of year I had arrived in Dolle. I had spent my first six hours in the city just trying to find a hotel with vacancy before I gave up and just set up a simple tent on the roof of an apartment building. Two days had passed since then, and in that time, I had been mugged no less than twice, scammed three times by store owner, and had, I kid you not, FOUR separate people try to kill me.

Of course, the assassination attempts probably had more to do with the bounty on my head than the danger of the city itself, but it still contributed to my bad mood.

Now, I suppose I'm getting somewhat ahead of myself. Hello. Nice to meet you. Call me Russet. Russet Roulette. It's not my real name, but it's what I'm going by now. I used to be a lazy Canadian fanfiction author who lived with his parents and spent most of his free time(and had I basically nothing but free time) sitting in front of a computer or on my tablet.

In short: I was a total bum.

And then some R.O.B. threw me into another world for, I assume, s***'s and giggles. I guess they rolled a one star on their "Victim Gacha", and got me. Hooray. Lucky me. I'm giddy with excitement. Woo hoo.

Before I knew it, I was being plopped down in the middle of Hunter x Hunter's Jappon, with the entire sum of my bank-account in one hand, a travel guide in the other and an ominous warning ringing in my ears.

Now, to be fair, HXH is far from the worst world to be stuck in. As long as you not someone of significance, and stay away from the, shall we say, "Interesting" area's, you can live what is essentially a normal modern life. The world of HXH is, as long as you don't dig to deeply, a pretty decent expy of the real world. Heck, my religion is a thing here, so if I avoided the main plot it would feel more like I had been sent back in time a decade or so, instead of to another world.

Unfortunately, it seems the R.O.B. knew that, so they left me with a little parting gift in the form of a watch and a prophecy. "When the countdown on that watch reaches zero, you will meet Ant King Meruem, and ask to shake his hand. And no force in this world will avert this fate."

This, of course, meant that the idea of hiding in a little corner of the world and letting people infinity more qualified than myself handle all the problems, was a no go. And so was the idea of trying to stop Meruem and the other ants from, you know, being born, which is about the easiest solution to that little problem I can think of.

Either way, with my life apparently on a countdown to what was all but certain death, I had no options left but find a way to survive an encounter with an almost unstoppable super-organism, who would likely be angry at me, or die. That meant I had to find a way to escape someone who could likely move as fast as a lightning bolt and I knew for a fact had the potential to hit like an actual nuke.

And that, of course, means I needed access to Nen. Thus, the Hunter exam. But before I can take the exam, I need to find the exam.

I had, of course, seen the Hunter x Hunter anime, so really all I should have needed to do is go to Zaban and find a really tall, fancy hotel with a little beat up restaurant next to it and go in, but I'd forgotten the pass code needed to get in. So I needed a navagator, but I new for a fact that I wouldn't be able to pass the Kiriko's test without cheating with foreknowledge(and even then it's unlikely), and I'll admit that I don't want to cheat if I can help it.

Really, even if I remembered the pass code, there's a good chance I'd still be searching for a navigator just out of a sense of fairness. Tens of thousands of people tried for the exam every year, it wouldn't feel right to reach it just because I had essentially had someone else show me the way without any input of my own.

Whatever the reason, in the end I was stuck looking for a navigator, hoping that the Kiriko aren't the only group of navigators in or around the city.

I figured that there were far to many contestants participating in the exam for the Kiriko alone to test. That, and I doubt any of them would have survived trying to test the likes of Hisoka. So there had to be more ways to get to the hunter exam. But where?

I Groaned as I slumped back in a beat up chair, closing my eyes and letting my body ragdoll. I was currently sitting in the back of a rugged bar in one of the seedier parts of Dolle Harbour. I would normally avoid places like this, but as of right now, I had not other options. It was the lunch rush and every other place I had passed was filled to the brim with people. Even this back-alley bar was almost filled to capacity. Case in point, I had been waiting an hour and a half for my salt-and-pepper chicken wings.

"Having a bad day?" A voice asks to my left, making me look up. The speaker was a rather pretty young woman standing roughly five foot seven(172cm) with short magenta hair and eyes. She had a mole under her left eye, and had large, circular metal earnings. She was wearing a rather . . . shall we say "unfortunate" waitress outfit. For some reason she seemed familiar. Was she another crossover character?

"Not as bad as you're probably having." I snarked out, looking her up and down in shock a couple of times before realizing what I was doing and averting my eye's. "Seriously, they're making you wear that now of all times? I've seen swimsuit's less revealing than that piece of trash. Seriously, what the hell is that?"

It was to woman's turn to groan. "Your right. You have no idea how many time's people have tried to grope me today. I've lost count of all the cheesy pickup lines I've heard, and I can't walk two steps without feeling like someone is undressing me with their eye's. I've asked to wear something less revealing, but the boss just said this "Brings in the boys" and that I have to wear it. I'd quit if I could afford it, but I'm flat broke and I need this job."

"Yeah that's harsh." I agreed, nodding, taking another glance at her. This time I noticed two things I had missed the first time do to my eyes being focused on . . . well, you can guess that much. The first was that she was actually quite muscular, like a martial artist, and the second . . .

"By the way, are those my chicken wings, or someone else's?" I asked, pointing to the platter she was holding.

"Oh! Yes, they are. Sorry, I'm just . . . really, really tired. I'll get back to work now." She set my plate down and started to leave.

"Hold on a minute. Can I ask you a question?" I call after her, while sprinkling extra salt onto one of my wings.

"What is it?" She asks as she turns around, sounding suspicious.

"Have you heard any strange rumours, or seen anything out of the ordinary recently?"

Hearing my question, she relaxed a bit(I assume she thought I was going to ask her out or something.) and answer. "I don't think so. I've herd about a few robberies here and there, but nothing unexpected for this time of year. Why?"

I sighed in annoyance. "Long story short, you have to pass a secondary before your allowed to enter the Hunter exam. Unfortunately I can't find any of said tests. They should be scattered around the city, but I guess that they're pretty well hidden or something. Oh, well, guess I'll have to keep looking." I shrugged, taking a bite out of the chicken wing I had salted. "Hey, these are pretty good!"

The woman seemed surprised at my explanation, ignoring my exclamation. "I've never heard of that before. Are you sure that someone isn't trying to trick you?" she asked me, ignoring how I was stuffing my face with chicken.

I chewed and swallowed my mouthful before answering, so as not to be rude. "Yes, I herd it from a very reliable source, who wouldn't try to trick me. You see, you need to pass a test, and then a person referred to as a navigator will lead you to the exam site. Without a navigator you can't even get in." I explain. It was probably wrong to talk about this in public, but I was a blather-mouth who had trouble keeping secrets, and I figured their wasn't to much harm in it.

"I see," she nodded. "I guess that makes sense. Well, sorry I couldn't help you. Good luck finding a navigator."

"Thanks." I smile and nod, returning to my chicken. After a moment, I bellowed after her. "And give my compliments to the chef, this is the best chicken I've had in months!"

It was later in the afternoon of the same day(January fourth to be exact, my second day in town) that I found myself dodging yet another assassination attempt. Unfortunately for me, it seemed that the hunter exam drew in enough underworld bounty hunters that a few of them recognized me. Not for the first time, I found myself cursing the name of a certain slimy eel of a drug lord with a god-complex for placing said bounty.

In the end, between my consistently good luck and my good reflexes, I saw the bounty hunter and managed to dodge his first bullet and break his arm before he could fire off another. It's a testament to how experience the police of this town were when it came to dealing with the exam's fallout that the man was being cuffed and hauled away by a beat-cop withing the minute.

Gotta respect the local cops. Whatever they get paid this time of year, it's not enough. Not by a long shot.

I spent a few more hours walking around listening to rumours and looking for anything that was out of the ordinary, with little success.

I really wished that the Conductor of the train had given me a hint the way the boat Captain had given Gon one, but all he told me and the other dozen or so people who passed the train test was "Keep an eye out. There may be a secret hidden around every corner." When he dropped us off.

I did hear a few stories about some of the more outrageous things that other wannabee contestants had gotten up to, ranging from flirting with female cops to forming a drunken nude conga-line down by the docks(I don't want to know).

But, it was going to start getting dark soon, so I began to make my way back to the building where I had set up my tent the night before. I actually had said tent with me in my large, three-by-three travel bag, but there was a good reason I had choose that building in particular, so I was going back to it.

First of all, it was tall, so tall that I didn't think any snipers would be able to target me over the rim of the roof, and both the stairs and the elevator up to the roof were really, really noisy. No sneaking onto the roof unless you scale the side of the building. At which point you had to get over the chain fence, which would make noise. In short, about the only way for a normal assassin to get the drop on me would be scaling the building and then throwing an explosive over the fence.

It was on my way back to the building when I stumbled across an admittedly disconcerting scene. I was taking a back-road to both avoid more potential hitmen, as well as a shortcut, when I found myself standing before a sea of snakes. Which is to say, snakes covered the entire road from sidewalk to sidewalk, leaving no room to go around them. In the middle of the circle, stood a large man in robes and a turban, who seemed to be looking over the snakes critically.

I stood watching the scene for about ten seconds, before stepping up to the edge of the circle and calling out to the snake charmer, who I vaguely recognize from the show. "Uh, hello?"

Hearing me, the snake charmer looked up from his snakes. "Can you make a path for me?" I ask after we make eye contact. "You kinda blocking my shortcut. I can go the long way if it's a problem, but . . . " I trail of as the snakes covering the ground around the man suddenly start moving, converging on the man and starting to slither up his legs and into his robes. Withing seconds, what I'm sure was three time's my weight in snake disappeared into the snake-charmer's robes.

I stood there all but gaping as the snake charmer walked passed me, saying nothing. 'How the heck did he do that!?'

The next morning, I was roused from my slumber by the sound of the chorus of Barns Courtney's "Glitter and Gold". I was almost immediately scrambling around for my glasses, which had been knocked away from were I set them sometime during the night. Once I found them, I dug around my sleeping bag for the source of the music, my cell phone.

It didn't take long to find it, the dark blue outer shell of the flip-phone standing out next to my mint-green sheets and camouflage sleeping bag. I didn't bother checking the caller ID and just answered it. "What do you want Dazai?" I demanded grumpily. I didn't like being woken up.

"Hey Russet!" A sickeningly cheerful voice responds. "Any luck finding new suicide methods for me?"

I get a look. "I told you before Dazai, I'm not helping you with you morbid hobby!" I snap into the phone, before hanging up and burying my head under my air-pillow. Seconds later the song starts again.

I try to ignore it, but after two minutes of it playing non-stop, I give up and answer. "What is it now, Dazai? I'm trying to sleep."

"How's your little hunt going? Any luck finding a navigator?" the pain-in-the-neck asks in a gossipy tone of voice.

I sigh. "No luck yet. I've been looking and asking around, but thus far I haven't spotted anything. Why?"

"Have you checked the sewers?" He asked, ignoring my own question.

I pause for a moment, considering what he just said, before responding. "Dazai . . . did you hack the data base?"

"What data base?"

"The Hunter Associations." I growl.

"Why I never!" Dazai gasps in the cheesiest hurt voice possible. "You think I would hack a private organization just to give an acquaintance a . . . " I hung up on him again. I had reached the end of my patience for that man months ago. Still . . .

"The sewers, huh?"

AN: I feel that that's a good place to end of. I could do more but I think the next part would feel more natural as it's own chapter.

I'm a little disappointed with this(but I'm always disappointed with my work) because it came out feeling a little rant-y. But hey, that's basically the way I talk and think IRL, so it fits. That said, I apologize it it's hard to read.

I feel a little disappointed that nobody made any guesses at the characters in the last chapter(Prologue) but I honestly expected that.

I included two more crossover characters in this chapter, but one of them I've already had addressed by name and the other will be making another appearance in a few chapters. So Dazai doesn't count and the other one's on a time-limit.

I don't know what else to say, so I'll end this here. Until next time!