Jasper glanced around the fog laden area, paying only half a mind to the two arguing boys behind him. Arguing over who got to buy dinner… arguing over who placed first in their silly little sprint… It made him smile.

Greenie and Whitey.

Whitey and Greenie.

They were important. He just- just had to remember that. He wanted so badly to remember that. But he wouldn't. And soon enough he'd have to be reminded again. How many times would it take for them to get annoyed? (How many more times before he was on his own again?)

Jasper pursed his lips. The boys were much too useful. He couldn't allow himself to forget.

He held up his phone that he'd forgotten to even put away- how had he not noticed he'd been running with it in his hand the whole time, ugh- and started typing while he still could.


Milsy Wetlands. Killua glanced out over the revealed landscape. Seemed like somewhere his mom would have used for him as a training ground when he was younger if mustache man was right. A whole muddy forest based on trickery and deceit. That would have been one hell of a training run.

His lips quirked up. This was more like it. So much more fun than running through a boring tunnel.

"Take care not to be surprised and do your best to follow me," the examiner said.

Like that would be hard. At least he had met Gon. He was weird, different. But that made him fun. So, even if Killua got too fed up with the exam itself, he'd hang around to stick with his new… friend.

And- He could already feel his lips twitch up at just the thought. Killua was pretty sure you didn't become friends with someone right after meeting them… but if Gon wanted to claim him as a friend, well… he wasn't exactly complaining. He'd never had friends after all so it would be interesting!

Which… reminded him of the other person Gon had claimed as a friend.

Jasper.

The boy was… weird. And Killua still wasn't sure if it was in a good way yet. He glanced around, catching sight of the robed kid fiddling with his phone next to Gon and paying (or perhaps only looking like it?) absolutely no attention to any of the other examinees around him. Memory problems that severe should have crippled someone and yet here he was, having somehow made it to the Hunter Exams. But even Jasper had said he normally wasn't this bad, which begged the question of why he was currently suffering so harshly. Did bad days just happen? Or were they triggered? If so, what were the triggers? And why had they been set off right before the exam?

Killua leaned more towards the trigger theory considering the state they'd found the boy in earlier but that still left the question of what the trigger was. Was it fear? Jasper had said that's all he'd remembered, so it could be pretty solid. Or maybe it was something else they just couldn't see because Jasper couldn't remember.

Not for the first time since meeting the cloaked boy, Killua thought about how annoying memory problems were. As a Zoldyck, trained since infancy, he hardly had any memory problems except natural degradation and even that was limited because he'd been constantly tested over and over to keep his brain sharp. To run into it now, to be lacking so much information- it was frustrating… but also intriguing. Like a mystery puzzle that was begging to be solved. Or as Milluki might say, a puzzle game set on expert mode.

So, maybe Killua didn't want to claim Jasper as a friend like he happily did with Gon, but he could admit to himself that he wanted to hang around the other boy more. There was potential there… maybe. Leaving Gon to deal with the annoying repetition stuff took away most of his problems with dealing with the boy anyway.

"That's false! He's lying to you guys!"

Killua blinked, pulled from his thoughts as he glanced over to the new voice. Hm. The way he was holding himself seemed much too lax for the kind of injury he had. His breathing should have been a little more difficult with a chest injury but the guy was yelling and pointing just fine.

"He's lying to you guys! He's not an examiner because I'm the examiner!"

Ah. This had to be one of those deceit things, Killua thought with a scoff. It was super obvious. If this guy was the examiner, he would have been there to pick them up. Not to mention it made him seem really weak to get so beaten by one single beast that relied on trickery.

Except… all the adults were murmuring amongst themselves, confusion evident, distrust brewing. Killua couldn't resist rolling his eyes. Were adults actually this dumb? It was insane!

And then the fake examiner pulled out a monkey with the examiner's face, plus mouth (which, how did he eat? Was his mustache his mouth? Was it hiding under his mustache? Could he just phase food past his skin? Was it only an illusion and it was actually just a gaping hole?), and Killua sighed harshly through his nose. He ignored whatever was going on and instead turned to observe how Gon and Jasper were handling it. Which was why, when the bloodlust spiked he got to witness Jasper freeze, fingers unconsciously clutching at his phone as they shook harshly. Even with paper white skin of his knuckles got even paler with blood loss.

He noted that reaction carefully and looked up to see cards embedded in the liar's corpse and… Mustache holding some between his fingers.

"I see, I see. That settles it then."

That voice made his teeth clench. It was that clown from earlier in the day. He was shuffling a deck of cards expertly, a smug smirk on his lips as his hand lashed out. There was another thump and Killua caught sight of the ape, the one that had been dragged over and pretending to be dead, lying sprawled further away with a card embedded in his skull. He sucked in a breath.

D̶̘̩̗̥͗̈̏̏ą̷̨̻̩̞̺͎͔̈́n̴̢̼̫̩̙͖̟̉̿̈́̇́̋̃̚͜͠g̷̡̡̘̦͓͙̻̤̤̮͆͒̈́̀͑̅͘͠e̴͓͌͌̑̄͆̏̾̀͝ͅṛ̴̨̡̛̹̮̰͈̰̻͂͑́͘õ̸̞̳̫̺̰̫̆u̸̙̻̙̝̻̰͇̺̙̱͛͆͐̽̾̔͋s̵͙̅̈́͝

"He's the true examiner," the clown hummed, looking at mustache man. The examiner carelessly dropped the cards he'd caught. "A true Hunter would never be caught by such a paltry attack."

"I'll take that as a compliment." The examiner's voice was as cool as before, not even the slightest bit rattled. Killua admired that. "However, if you attack me again for any reason, you'll be disqualified. Is that understood?"

"Yes~ Yes~."

When he swallowed, his throat was a bit tighter than expected and when he blinked, his eyes were dry and burning. What a terrifying man that clown must be to have bloodlust like that at the drop of a hat. Not that Killua couldn't do that as well but he was an assassin! It was different. (His wasn't nearly as potent.)

He turned back to Jasper only to witness Gon standing in front of the boy, waving a hand in front of the robes's hood with a concerned expression. "Gon?"

His friend looked up and gave a small embarrassed smile. "I don't know what's wrong with him… but we probably shouldn't touch him. I just don't know how else to get his attention."

Killua… was pretty sure he knew what was wrong. He glanced back at the clown and-

Shivered as golden eyes caught his own before flickering over to Jasper and-

Was that a tongue licking his lips!? What the hell kind of expression was that!?

The young Zoldyck immediately turned back and was absolutely positive that Jasper had had a run in with clown man. And the result was a terrified young boy hiding from a pervert. Gross!

He had the sudden urge to keep a closer eye on the older boy. No kid deserved that kind of attention! Even Illumi had warned him about that stuff and if that wasn't enough of an indicator for how bad it was…

Killua was only thankful that Jas' mind remembered subconsciously based on his reaction alone. It could, of course, have been the bloodlust, but he had a feeling that wasn't it. Now he just needed to keep the idiot with the brain of a literal goldfish away from a dangerously powerful pervert. No problems.

Hey… Goldfish wasn't a bad nickname. It was pretty accurate. Or maybe Peanut? He was small despite being older and with his memory capacity that was probably about the size of his brain.

He'd have to think about it more.

For now. "Just clap in front of his face or something."


"Let's go to the front. We should keep an eye on the examiner," Whitey said, throwing a glance behind them as the fog thickened. Jasper glanced at his phone again. Well, if his past self thought it was worth it to trust these two, he probably should. Greenie was quick to agree so Jasper had no problems with it. "We should really get away from Hisoka. He'll probably use the haze to mask his kills. He feels really impatient."

He wondered who this Hisoka was-

"Ha," Whitey laughed, and though Jasper could not see his face as he was jogging behind Greenie, he could feel the mocking in it. "You shoulda seen your face! I can tell because we're the same type. So, I can feel it."

"The same type? I couldn't tell."

Oh, but Jasper could. He could not tell which of the examinees Hisoka was, and really did not care to find out as he'd just forget the name soon anyways, but he could certainly feel the malicious intent behind him. (He was trying his hardest to ignore it, to not shiver and hide and crycrycry-) And though Whitey was not currently releasing the same feeling, he could just tell there was something dangerous about the boy.

"You shouldn't rely on appearances. Do you understand," Whitey hummed, sounding slightly scolding.

"Ah." And then Greenie fell back a bit, making sure not to bump into Jasper, before yelling, "Leorio, Kurapika! Killua says it's better to be in front!"

There were some shouted responses but Jasper did not pay them much mind, instead glancing at his phone again. The list he had made was simple in the beginning until it got to the most recent entry.

Trust… He didn't really have much of that so why would he decide to trust these boys. He'd even written physical descriptions of them so he could find them later! That was… well, he wasn't sure if he had ever done that before and he wasn't about to go through all his past entries to find out but-

It didn't seem like normal behavior for him. Maybe they had impressed him with their usefulness? It was pretty obvious that Greenie was reminding him again and again whenever he'd ask a clarifying question (though having his phone out for reminders probably made him less annoying, he should just keep it out) which was super helpful. But then why did he use words like 'trust' and 'friend'? They were so little used in his vocabulary they might as well not exist!

Jasper really hated his failing memory. Really really.

He sighed slowly and turned back to paying attention to following Greenie and Whitey. The fog was getting worryingly thick. If he got lost- Well, goodbye License. And he couldn't afford that.

So-

Of course-

Not even ten minutes later they get eaten by a frog.

A short time later, sitting in the middle of frog stomach acid on the muddy ground, he groaned and let his head thunk forward not caring for the mud that caked onto his face or hood. That had been highly unpleasant for a multitude of reasons.

Whitey was saying something about juice but he hardly cared at the moment. He just wanted to lie down and sleep. When was the last time he had done that? He had no idea. The writing application didn't tell him when each update on an entry was made. He could have slept… or he might not have… He honestly couldn't tell beyond feeling exhausted suddenly.

While bemoaning his own (possibly) sleepless state, Greenie suddenly shot up and took off into the mist. Jasper was so startled that he tried to scramble up after him. The only thing that stopped him was a hand on his shoulder. And it only worked because he flipped around and tried to groin punch Whitey… who he realized was Whitey after already throwing the punch. (And that a groin punch was usually meant for an adult so he would have accidentally throat punched him… er… he had a feeling he should be really happy it hadn't landed.)

"Huh. That wasn't half bad. A little slow though."

Jasper stared for a moment. Throwing a punch that hadn't even landed shouldn't hurt, right? "Oops."

Whitey snorted. "That's it? Whatever. Anyway, don't go running off. If you lost Gon we'd never find you again and you wouldn't remember that you needed to be found. And I'm definitely not wasting time for you."

Sounded like solid logic. Whitey didn't seem as safe as Greenie but he'd still been included in his last entry. He double checked to make sure, though. Then he looked at the other kid and blankly asked, "Hunter Exams?"

Blue eyes closed in exasperation. "Yeah. First phase. Your family. Yada yada-" That was extremely unhelpful. He wanted Greenie back. Wait… if he wasn't back soon was Jasper going to forget about him? Should he make another entry to look for Greenie? "-C'mon. We can still catch up to the examiner and Gon can take care of himself. Way better than you at any rate."

Well, that was rude. Jasper could handle himself fine. He'd been doing so for years!

"I can take care of myself," he muttered mutinously.

Whitey looked unimpressed. "Your brain is the size of a peanut and your memory is as fragile as one. Now c'mon, Nutty."

"Hey! I only half resemble that remark," Jasper replied smartly. "And my name is not nutty."

The other boy smirked, blue eyes sparkling (and he liked the color… he missed Ma). He turned away and started walking, hands held behind his head. "I dunno, Nutty seems to fit you! You have mental problems, and your brain is a peanut. I mean… unless you want to be called goldfish?"

"What? No!"

Jasper was appalled. He was not a goldfish! Or a peanut! But Whitey was trotting away before he could argue his case, so he quickly followed.


Kurapika thought a lot, about a multitude of subjects (though it often circled back to avenging his clan, he was first and foremost a seeker of knowledge… He just put that knowledge seeking to use to take down the Phantom Troupe) and that usually required a lot of thinking. If one wanted to actually understand the knowledge, in any case. He didn't see why one wouldn't but he was digressing-

Kurapika thought a lot, which led to the hundreds of thought threads currently racing through his head as he ran behind Gon to follow Leorio's (apparently) unique cologne scent. Some thoughts weren't all that important- mostly wondering about food and how this or that clansman would like certain things he'd seen. Others were a little more so- wondering about the next phases, thinking over what possible Hunters could be their examiners. And some were at the forefront- mostly circling around the current oddity his interest had chosen to latch onto. Namely, Gon.

He tossed around the little tidbit Gon had imparted about being excited to fight Hisoka and had decided the boy was a budding thrill seeker. Not necessarily a bad thing if handled correctly. It would be pretty useful in a Hunter's line of work but it could also lead to recklessly dangerous acts. But Gon's newly budding adrenaline discovery was just a small morsel when compared to the rest of him. First, the original thing to catch his attention, was how good at reading people the kid was. Considering he didn't come from a terrible background as far as Kurapika could tell, it had to be from something else? Maybe a sense of empathy? Or perhaps, because he'd grown up in the wild, it was a basic animal instinct that was somehow translating over?

So far it had yet to be wrong to a detrimental degree. Except maybe in Tonpa's case. There was definitely something wrong with the man and the drinks proved it. But Gon had still talked to him nicely… but had never said he trusted him like he had Kurapika and Leorio. Hm. Okay so maybe good sense but no experience? That could be fixed.

And there was his superhuman abilities like his sense of smell and overly strong and dexterous muscles. There were tribes of people that had specific attributes (like Kurapika's eyes) that set them apart from others but he'd never really heard of any so… generalized as Gon's. It was more like he was an animal in human skin.

Then there was that… subtle charisma. Kurapika was 100% positive Gon had no idea how easily he drew in people and, so far, hadn't seemed to notice that he did so with… maybe not good people per se, but at least, not morally reprehensible ones. (It had been a bit of a relief to hear Leorio's story. It proved Gon's judgement and charisma wasn't a fluke. And that Kurapika hadn't judged the man's- teenager's?- kind heart wrong.)

It made him briefly wonder about the two kids that had been with Gon as well. Killua he hadn't seen much of but Jasper… while their interactions weren't long, Kurapika had gleaned quite a bit. Trouble forming new memories should have been a larger hamper than the boy was currently showing it to be. The thought had crossed his mind several times now that it could all just be an act and he might have decided to disbelieve it if Gon hadn't said he was 'good'. That still didn't mean it couldn't be an act but Kurapika was slightly more inclined to trust the tiny boy- and wow, was he tiny, even smaller than Gon.

"We made it in time," Gon cheered, suddenly sprinting forward.

Kurapika jerked from his thoughts and followed quickly, his chest heaving with exertion. He'd never been the best at endurance even though he could do it (nothing would break his will), so he was quite thankful it was finally over.

He glanced around but found no examiner. Hm. There was nothing to say they passed but also nothing to say they were disqualified. They'd obviously made it to the right place but had they made it in time? He'd just have to act with the assumption that they'd passed...

They found Leorio quickly enough and… he wasn't really surprised that Leorio couldn't remember much with the nasty hit he'd taken. He and Gon both agreed it was better if the man didn't know about Hisoka. Kurapika would hate to have the aspiring doctor get himself killed by going after the murderous man again. Kind hearted, Leorio may be, but even-tempered he was not.

Thankfully the next few minutes were calm because he appreciated the break to sort himself out again. Quick stretches to cool down, and breathing exercises to focus his mind on the important matters. Another few minutes passed and-

"Why is nothing happening," Gon asked blithely, staring at the large doors that were situated on a small building that sat in the middle of the forest. There was a large clock above it that was ticking ever closer to noon and Kurapika would bet that was when the second phase would start. He was about to say so when someone else answered.

"We can't get in yet."

"Ah! Killua," the eleven year old happily exclaimed, turning to one of the other kids in the exam. Kurapika took a moment to listen to their conversation (Yes, Gon was certainly unique) while looking the other over. No matter how much Gon liked the other, everyone here was still an enemy and he'd like to at least be aware of threats. The closer you let someone in during an exam like this, the more you risked being backstabbed.

Killua honestly didn't look like too much but there was just something in the way the kid held himself. Like he was bored and these tests weren't really curing that for him. And he didn't even look slightly winded or tired after such a long run. That lent a lot more proof to Killua being a lot more dangerous than his appearance suggestion. It didn't mean that he was a threat but it also didn't exclude that option either

"Well, Nutty and I made it here pretty quickly. We've just been hanging out."

"Who's… nutty?"

Killua snorted in amusement. "Jasper. 'Cause he's a nutcase with a brain as fragile as a peanut. Duh."

Gon blinked and Kurapika couldn't help the twitch of his lips. It was actually a rather mean, if amusing, nickname. "Oh! I guess it fits? But I don't think I'll call him that."

"To each their own." Killua shrugged as if it honestly didn't bother him. Kurapika couldn't help but analyze that as well. He did that for a lot of things, seeming unfazed. Was it truly an act or no? Either answer would give him a lot of ground if he ever had to face the boy.

"So, where is Jas anyway?"

"I left him over by that tree and- oh no-"

Kurapika looked over to where the other boys were facing and couldn't help the nervous frown and the harsh thumping in his chest. Hisoka was over there, smirk as unchanged as ever, talking to the little cloaked boy. The blonde was faced with the sudden urge to run over and rip them apart because that look on the older man's face seemed absolutely indecent-

And then a clawed finger was pointing in their direction.


Jasper glanced at his phone again before looking around. He couldn't see anyone with the description written down in the second to last entry. The last one was a simple 'Second Phase. Wait to start'. Whatever that meant. But the one right above it… something about him being friends with two other people here and he could trust them. Except he couldn't see anyone of their description around.

He sighed and stood up, stretching away the slight ache in his muscles that suggested he'd been doing some kind of physical activity. His right wrist heavily protested the movement and he frowned at it, before dropping the hand with a sigh. Whatever the problem was he could take care of it later. He glanced at the crowd of adults again, seeing no one that fit the physical description he'd provided himself. How annoying. Now he had to decide if he should handle this next part by himself when it started or look for his supposed friends.

Should he bother if he wouldn't remember shortly? But then he'd look at his phone and probably go through this drama again. He could always delete their entry. What kind of friends were they to leave him alone after all?

Then again… he'd written it for a reason. He'd written… written… he glanced down at his phone. Oh, right. Friends. Hm.

"Having some trouble, little rat?"

He blinked and tilted his head to look at the man that had appeared at his side. How had he not noticed, he was usually better than this! This guy was way too close!

With a wary step back to get some distance, he looked the other over. The man didn't follow but his amusement practically radiated off of him. Jasper ignored it. He liked his bubble, okay? Personal space was a thing and he respected it and would like his respected in return.

He returned to observing, giving himself a slight shake out of his own thoughts before he was too distracted and ended up forgetting this guy was even talking to him. A… strange costume this man was wearing, all poofy, contrasted by slimming bits in areas like the waist and ankles. It made the man look larger than he probably was underneath those clothes. Definitely a showy guy. And his hair was redredredred-

He sucked in a careful breath. "Uh. Who are you?"

"You don't remember me~? Why~ I'm hurt!" Was that an honest to goodness pout on an adult's face? Weird.

"I don't remember a lot of things," Jasper responded frankly.

"Oh! I see~ How unfortunate. That would explain that little list on your phone," the man hummed, a clawed finger coming up to tap on his lip thoughtfully.

Jasper frowned sharply, an uncomfortable feeling of go away run away wiggling in his gut. He trusted his gut implicitly… except he had nowhere to run away right now. If he left this conversation there was no guarantee this man wouldn't just follow. His hand clenched on the aforementioned phone as he huffed out, "How do you know about that?"

"Why you gave it to me earlier, of course~."

What reason would he have to give his phone to a man he hadn't even told his memory problem about? There was something very wrong with this conversation, with this man. Alarm signals were blaring to life in his head and he-

Wanted to run.

He glanced at his phone discreetly, turning the bright screen enough that he could see it without moving his head. Green was safe. He wanted to find Greenie.

"Who are you," he asked instead of giving into his growing urge to flee. He tucked his right arm closer to his side, feeling it twinge. If he couldn't get away would he be able to use it?

"Are you going to remember if I tell you~?"

Well, no. But the mocking practically dripping from those words pushed practically every button that shouldn't be pushed. Condescension from adults had always been- had always- he hatedhatedhated it. It made his vision go red (just like that day).

"Of course I will," he spat (like a liar).

"Then my name is Hisoka~," the clown looking guy practically purred. "And what should I call you, precious little fruit?"

He twitched at the change of address. Wasn't he being called a rat earlier? Please change back to that, thanks. The way those words practically caressed the guy's tongue on the way out of his mouth made Jasper supremely uncomfortable, and he didn't need the splitting migraine that suddenly popped up either.

Blinking black spots from his eyes (and suddenly everything was too bright and his head was poundingpoundingpounding like the drums of war) Jasper cleared his throat, once, twice, thrice, before answering. "It's… Jasper."

"A pleasure~!"

Yea… yea, no. Definitely not. He was leaving now.

So, he turned to do just that except- "Are you looking for your friends, Jasper~?"

He froze. Was that what he had been doing? How had this guy known?

"No need to worry. They're right over there~."

A clawed finger was pointed at a tree surrounded by four people, two of which seemed familiar and-

He glanced at his phone. Greenie and Whitey. His shoulders sagged in relief and he scurried over, desperate to get away. He wanted to be safe right now.

The man, thankfully, did not follow.


AN: Mary D. Black2000: You are absolutely right! Hisoka is a pretty simple character, out for his own pleasure... and Gon is a more complex child. How do kids even think, though? Like... seriously I can't remember my self-centered child life -

Thank you to everyone else who has commented on the previous chapters! I absolutely appreciate them and they really do give me life. If I lode motivation, reviews are usually what bring me back on track.

Anyway! I've decided if any of you have questions I can answer them here in the Author's Notes.:)