When the applicants began to walk toward the airship once more to travel to the Third Phase, Ronnie stuffed herself in the closet again to wait until the coast was clear. Then, when everything had gone quiet, she emerged and shoved her hands in her pockets, entering the cozy lounge where the examiners would be meeting later. Slumping down on one of the couches, she sighed, unstrapped her spear from her back, took off her backpack and struggled out of her boots. She then propped up her feet on a low coffee table and closed her eyes. Ten minutes later, the door opened again, and three sets of footsteps entered. Without opening her eyes, Ronnie raised a hand in greeting.

"Yo."

Menchi's voice replied almost immediately.

"What are you doing just sitting there?! I thought you were supposed to be keeping an eye on the applicants!" Ronnie sat up and turned to face the blue-haired woman.

"I am, but that's while the exam is going on. Otherwise, I get to do whatever the hell I want." Buhara laughed a little and Satotz gave a small chuckle. Menchi huffed and sat down beside her while Buhara and Satotz each took one of the small adjacent couches. A few minutes were passed with the three other examiners making small talk while Ronnie pulled a small notebook out of her bag and began to scribble furiously in it, occasionally referencing a sheet of paper with strange symbols on it. As she chewed on the end of her pencil in thought, the door to the lounge opened, and in stepped the Chairman's personal secretary, known as simply 'Beans'. He pushed in a cart laden with platters of food, and Ronnie almost immediately tossed her notebook and pencil aside to fall upon her dinner. Menchi gave her an unimpressed look at her fast-paced and rather sloppy eating habits before picking up her own plate and piling various food items onto its surface. Minutes passed in silence as the company enjoyed their dinner. Ronnie had finished eating first and sat back, letting out a contented sigh.

"Hey, how many applicants do you expect to make it?" inquired Menchi, looking around at the other three.

"You mean pass the exam?" asked Buhara.

"Yep. This year, we have an impressive group. Though I did fail them all at one point…"

"But doesn't it depend on what the upcoming phases consist of?"

"That's true…" Menchi pondered. "But didn't you notice it? One of them had this whole aura thing going on. What do you think, Satotz?" she turned to the mustached man.

"Oh, yes. I like the rookies this year."

"Ha! So you agree? I think #294 has a good shot." Ronnie nodded at her words.

"I gotta agree with you on that. He has some fine ass eyebrows." Menchi raised a brow at her words.

"I'm partial to #99." Said Satotz. Ronnie tilted her head to the side, remembering the white haired kid that was on the skateboard during the First Phase.

"He looks like a selfish, spoiled brat," commented Menchi. "What do you think, Buhara?"

"Well… he isn't a rookie, but #44 is the one I favor," Ronnie shuddered at the thought of the creepy clown guy. "I'm sure you noticed, but when #255 was throwing a fit, it was #44 who was really on the verge of killing someone."

"Yeah, his whole aura just screams 'psychotic perverted serial killer'." Said Ronnie, propping a foot up on the table. Menchi nodded.

"I did notice that, of course. He could barely restrain himself from tearing off our heads. But didn't you realize? He was already that way from the first moment we appeared."

"Really?" asked Buhara, a look of mild surprise on his face.

"Yeah, that's the real reason I was so edgy. He kept challenging me." Ronnie laughed.

"Good thing I wasn't in the line of fire, then!" Menchi scowled at her words before Satotz began to speak.

"I had a similar experience. He should be carefully monitored," Satotz sent a brief and pointed look at Ronnie, who raised her hands in a gesture of surrender. He continued shortly thereafter. "Though it pains me to admit this, we are birds of a feather with him. However, his affinity for darkness is far stronger. As Hunters, we are continually seeking out rivals. Ultimately, the Hunter Exam is but a place to find opponents worthy of respect. And every once in a while, we encounter someone who hits the floor running when we try to slow things down. An oddball of sorts." Everyone went quiet after those ominous words. Ronnie shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

Ronnie awoke the next morning to the sound of Beans' voice over the intercom.

"I apologize for the long wait. The airship will soon arrive at its destination." the intercom cut off, and Ronnie sat up, wiping away the extremely attractive trail of drool from the corner of her mouth. Rubbing her eyes with one fist, she grabbed her boots in her other hand and pulled them on, tucking her pants into them before retying her ponytail and readjusting the goggles on the top of her head. She gathered up her notebook and pencil and shoved them both into her bag, then grabbed her spear and strapped it to her back. Lightly patting her cheeks to wake herself up to at least some degree, she exited the lounge, checking left and right to see if the coast was clear, and then strolled down the hall with her hands in her pockets. Out the window, a tall stone tower rose from the earth, located near the seaside. It was known as Trick Tower, and it just so happened to be a high-security prison.

A light impact shuddered through the floor of the aircraft, signaling that it had landed on the very top. Footsteps could be heard tapping down the corridor at both ends, and a panic filled Ronnie decided to stuff herself into that god-forsaken closet again.

Maybe this was a bad idea. She thought, trying to inhale a deep breath in what little space she had. Ronnie strained her ears to listen to the last of the footsteps fade out the door and slipped out of the closet after they had vanished. The airship began to take off once more, and she waited by the exit door. The airship began to move away from the tower and Ronnie scratched her chin. Umm… am I supposed to jump? She opened up the exit door and looked down. The height was slightly daunting as she gazed at the trees below. She prepared herself to jump out. YOLO!

Ronnie leapt out of the door and began to free-fall through the air, limbs spread wide before gripping her spear and impaling the side of a tree at the last moment. The wooden shaft had been reinforced with a special polymer, making a mixture that was much stronger than either ingredient if they were alone. Ronnie made four complete swings around her makeshift gymnastics bar before she began to lose momentum and simply hung there before ripping her spear out of the tree and dropping to the ground. After a few seconds, she clutched her head and stumbled into a nearby tree. Dizzy… she blinked, getting shakily to her feet again before making her way to the entrance of Trick Tower and banging on the front door.

"HEY! It's Ronnie; lemme in!" The door opened to reveal a tall bald man who simply looked at her with disinterest before gesturing to follow him. She did so, and was eventually led to a dark room with many monitors lining the far wall in front of a desk. A small man with a purple mohawk and round glasses sat in the single desk chair, nibbling on crackers and gazing at the screens. Ronnie sat down on the desk and the man acknowledged her by glancing briefly in her direction from behind his large glasses.

"Please remove yourself from the desk." Heaving a sigh, Ronnie started to swing her legs back and forth.

"But there's only one chair in here and it just so happens to be occupied."

"I'm sure you can be a big girl and suck it up."

"That implies that I'm not already an adult…" she pouted, sliding off of the desk and crossing her arms. The Third Phase examiner chuckled, biting into another cracker.

It had only been an hour and Ronnie was already bored out of her mind. She had been staring at the monitor displaying the top of the tower, watching as applicants dropped into hidden trap doors. She blinked slowly, sitting cross-legged on the ground and watching the remaining applicants on the roof (around twenty) tap on the floor beneath them, searching for an entrance. The others had already disappeared below and made it inside.

Ronnie had her booklet open in front of her, at least twelve five by five tic-tac-toe games present in the margins of the pages. She sighed loudly, leaning back and slumping on the ground to lie on her back. Ronnie lifted her head to look back at the small man facing the monitors.

"How do you do this all day?" the sound of crackers being munched on for the millionth time met her ears.

"I have a much longer attention span than you do." Ronnie's head dropped back down to rest on the ground.

"Perhaps we can mess with this group a little." Ronnie lifted her head again to see Lippo (Ronnie had asked his name after five minutes of dead silence) gesturing at one monitor in particular with a sly grin on his face. They had obviously just fallen through the floor, and were now dusting themselves off after impact. Lippo switched on the audio for that room and Ronnie sat up, interest peaked.

The figures on the screen seemed to be surprised that they had all landed in the same room. Two of them were no older than twelve. One was the white haired kid, who wore a simple dark blue long-sleeved shirt underneath a white v-neck t-shirt and grey shorts, the other had black spiky hair and wore a green shirt and a pair of matching green shorts, along with green boots. A fishing pole stuck up from his yellow backpack. The other two were older. One of them looked to be around his mid-teens, with grey eyes and bright blonde hair. He wore a sort of blue tabard with red designs on it, and a plain white shirt and pair of pants underneath. The fourth looked like he was in his late twenties, and had black spiky hair (much shorter than Green Boy's) and a pair of spectacles perched on the end of his nose. He wore a white collared shirt with dark blue slacks and carried a briefcase decorated with red and black diamond patterns.

Ronnie watched as the white-haired kid and Green Boy grinned at each other.

"That was quite a brief farewell." Remarked Blondie, getting up from the floor.

"Oh, so all the doors led to the same room…" said Glasses, looking disgruntled as he lifted his face up from the floor. He had most obviously landed directly on it, and Ronnie could only wonder how his glasses weren't broken. After those words, Green Boy began to walk up to the front of the room, where a cylindrical table stood with five metal bracelets on the surface. A sign was on the wall behind it. He began to recite what was written.

"'The five of you must allow the will of the majority to reach the goal.'"

"Five of us?"

"Look… There are five stopwatches." Green Boy picked up one of the bracelets. Ronnie squinted at the screen to see what was on them, but the resolution wasn't good enough. She looked back up at the screen as the white haired kid began to speak.

"There's an O and an X button."

"Could it be that we won't be able to leave this room until another person drops in?" asked Blondie as they all fixed a bracelet to their wrists. Ronnie was so engrossed in the computer screen that she didn't notice Lippo turn on the microphone beside her.

"That is correct!" Lippo had spoken so suddenly that Ronnie jumped, letting out a small shriek and falling off of his desk.

"Who is that?" asked Glasses, looking around.

"My name is Lippo. I am the prison warden here, as well as the Third Phase examiner."

"Prison warden?" Ronnie got up from her fallen position, dusting off her pants.

"Multiple routes through this tower have been prepared," Lippo explained, a smug grin on his face. "You have chosen the path of majority rule. Cooperation will be key if you wish to clear this phase of the exam. One person's selfish behavior can derail the entire group. And you can't start until you have five members. Best of luck, gentlemen!" Lippo almost turned off the microphone but Ronnie quickly intervened.

"Hey hey hey, I wanna say something!" Lippo gave her a dry look before gesturing to continue.

"Um, do I just talk like normal or something, cause I don't see any sort of device…"

"Yes, speak normally."

"Alright. Um, yo!" the four in the room looked at the speaker with strange looks on their faces. Green Boy smiled and waved at the speaker. "I just wanted you to know that, um… uh… like it most likely says on your bracelets, you have a time limit of seventy two hours to get to the bottom of the tower, and some paths are longer than others, so choose wisely. Oh, and it would be in your best interest to, y'know, not kill each other. Unless you wanna fail the exam, then kill each other all you like. But ninety seven percent of Hunter applicants do want to pass, so… play nice. I, uh, think that's all I have to say… anyways, I'll be watching your every move! Bye!" when she stopped speaking, Lippo turned off the microphone and audio with the push of a button.

Ronnie sat back down on the floor and started up yet another tic-tac-toe game as Lippo turned his chair around to face the door. Putting two fingers in his mouth, he let out a sharp whistle and the door opened, revealing several people in hooded prisoner uniforms with heavy handcuffs on their wrists. Ronnie paid them no mind as they entered and stopped before Lippo, their faces shadowed in their hoods.

"Did you need something, warden?" asked one. Lippo grinned.

"The test begins now. Take your assigned positions." He ordered. The prisoners nodded. Ronnie crossed out a line of Os with a swift swipe of her pencil.

Gah, I'm not too thrilled about this particular phase of the exam, since Ronnie really doesn't really have much to do... so I guess I'll just go ahead and post the next few chapters to get out of the boring part :P