My head's underwater,
but I'm breathing fine
Your crazy,
and I'm out of my mind
It feels as if Gon, Killua, and I stayed at the gate for an eternity before Leorio and Kurapika arrived. Piku whizzes as he cross the line and Leorio is panting hard. I lean on the wall while looking beyond the field, noticing that the fog was clearing up. The people were filling up the limited area and a sudden plead for the gate to stop so they can get through.
I sigh at their misfortune, 'Better luck next time'. Everyone soon gathered around Satotz. He explains the place, Numere Wetlands, an area where the animals fool you when you least expect it.
"How can we be fooled when we are expecting it!" I heard a voice say.
'You are going to be the first to be fooled if you keep that up,' I think, going through all the time when nature has gotten the best of me.
"Don't let him fool you!" I heard a random voice came in. I turn to the voice, and must I say he looks awful. I don't know weather it was the running or his face.
"I just said they can't!" I hear Old man shout, his new name. "He's lying to you!" He says once again. "I'm the real Examiner!" He continues.
'Liar. If you were the real examiner, why do you look so weak?' Everyone starts mumbling stuff about their confusion.
"He's the man-face ape, one of the creatures that dwell in the Numere Wetlands! He loves the taste of fresh human flesh!" The fake one explains while pulling out Man-face ape.
'Huh?' I think, looking closer at the ape. 'They can't be the same….because the ape has a mouth and Satotz doesn't. Not only that, but he said they love the taste of human flesh, but he doesn't have a mouth. So They can't be the same if one eats and the other doesn't.'
The applicant start to question the Satotz. Suddenly three cards fly towards the man and satotz, while four card fly towards me. The man gets hit and collapses to the ground while Satotz and I catch them with ease.
I look at the cards that were thrown toward me. 'A black king of spades, a red queen of hearts, a black and white joker, and a red ace of hearts.' I look at the cards confused before looking towards the Joker.
"I see, then that settled it. You're the real one, Mr. Examiner," Joker chuckles. "You see examiner's here are Hunters hired by the Hunters Association to do this job without pay. Real Hunters that hold the title we seek, even low-type ones, can easily block that attack"
Everyone else stares at the joker, dumbfounded after witnessing that display. Satotz flicked the cards away, maintaining a stoic expression. "I'll consider that as a complement. However, should you attack me once again more, here on out, I shall consider it as you turning on an examiner and report you for disqualification immediately. Is that clear.?"
"Hai~" Joker says, not the bit least intimidated. I take this as a chance to give him his cards, while everyone was listening to the rest of Satotz explanation.
I tug on his sleeve, surprising him a little, as I hand him the four cards that were thrown to me. He looks down, licking his lip.
"That was dangerous you know, you could've killed me." I say, not in the least scared of the man who was standing in front of me.
He just hums in a weird manner and take the cards away slowly. I just stare at him as he only looks down at me. I let a meek smile cross my face as I walk away to my group. They were all looking at Satotz, all but one.
Killua. He was staring at me. I walk towards him, waving my hand in his face. This action seemed to bring him back to reality. "Wha-why were you talking to Hisoka?" he questions me.
I looked at him confused. "Who's Hisoka?" I ask, thinking if I spoke to anyone named Hisoka, and none came to mind.
"That clown you were talking to," he says, slightly annoyed.
"You mean Joker, I was only giving him his cards back." I tell him. He's eyes don't leave mine and I feel a bit uneasy by his stare."Come on we don't want to be left behind, do we?"
He seem to snap back into reality, "You're weird," he says with a slight laugh, and with that we follow Satotz into the deadly Numere Wetlands.
We were running for a while as the fog got thicker and thicker, when a sudden wave of blood lust came flying through. I felt a shudder go up my spine and began speeding up, determined to get away from it. Killua must have felt it because he told us to go up farther.
Gon, being innocent as always, says, "Yeah, we don't want to be separated from Satotz." I face palmed at his innocence. Killua seemed to notice that I too experienced the weird feeling. "You noticed it too, Rin?" I only nodded my head in agreement.
"I'm more concerned of increasing our distance from Hisoka," Killua tells us. "I can smell it in the air."
Gon lifts his nose and starts to sniff the air. "Huh? I don't think he smells," he states simply. I sigh at his inability to understand the situation.
Killua looked at my dark-hair friend weirdly, and glance at me with a bewildered expression. I only shrug,guessing this was how he always is. I've been with the boy for, I think three or four days now, and I know he is just a ray of innocence.
"He's oozing with blood lust," Killua says and I nod my head in agreement. "He would try to use the fog as a distraction to lower the number of examiner. I can feel it, because he and I are the same."
"How are you the same?" Gon asked once again.
Killua only replied with a cold smirk, "You shouldn't judge a book by it's cover." he states.
'Oh I know that, but the question is do you know that, can you not judge a person before or after you met them., I think, not noticing Gon taking in a giant breath.
"Leorio! Kurapika! Killua said we should move up front!" I was shaking, literally shaking with vibration of his voiced, bad thing I was right next to him.
"Can't you feel the tension around us?!" Killua states in complete and utter shock.
"Eh but-" he gets cut off by Leorio.
"Baka! If we could, we would," he obnoxiously loud voice cut him off mid-sentence.
"Don't worry about us! We'll be fine!" I hear Kurapika reassuring voice.
The fog has gotten thicker and harder to see in and this made the boy worried. I could tell by his facial expression that he was deciding on what to do.
"They'll be fine, Gon. Now let's head to Satotz before he leaves us." I say in a reassuring voice and entangle his hand into mine.
He looks at me and smiles widely. I smile back at him. Sensing something odd, I quickly let go of Gons hand and jump up. Big mistake. Before I had time to worn either of them, They were swallowed whole by a….giant frog.
What that hell, where did that come from? I stare at the creature, but there's no time to wonder about such things. Right now, the boy I'm supposed to be watching is inside a giant amphibian. I'm a second away from finally using my attack magic when I notice the frog's face change color. A second later, my comrades are thrown up.
I quickly rushed towards them, forgetting about the frog, and held out both of my hands for them. Gon accepted easily, but Killua looked hesitant before grabbing it. This made me smile at both of them.
"How did you get out?" I ask. "I was about to get you guys out when the frog threw ya up." I told them, wanting an explanation.
"It was this," Killua answers, holding out a can that seemed really familiar.
"Ah, that was the can that Tonpa gave to us," Gon exclaims. "So Tonpa really did help us." I really hate that fat ass, but only now will I agree with him just this once, but I still hate him.
"I could have gotten out myself" I hear Killua mumble.
"Yes, you could, I'm sure you could," I say truly believing he could do it. He only looks back at me, his eyes widen by a bit. When suddenly an awful scream shrills out somewhere, causing me to tense.
We all look up, but Gon Is the first to react. I quickly grab his forearm, saying it was just a bird, pointing to the bird that screams just like a human. He got the message and we start running to catch up with Satotz. When we finally reach him, I turn around only to face nothing.
A wave of panic fell over me, I look at Killua, but he seems to be hiding that he was indeed worried too. 'Oh god no, I was supposed to watch over Gon, to make sure he doesn't get himself killed, oh god no…' I was too busy focusing on my thought to notice I was being pulled near the rest. When I finally came to, I was standing next to a tree next to Killua.
"Killua, what happened to Gon?" I question frantically, my cool diameter vanishing along side the bot in question. "Oh god, he's going to kill me if Gon's dead. Oh god no." I started mumbling the last part making sure he doesn't hear me. Then I take a quick sniff hoping he would be here soon. Then my head shot up.
Killua looked shocked before asking, "What wrong?"
"They are here, Suits is here, and Gon and Piku are following," I explained as I turn and point to a tree that Leorio is leaning on. We start to look around for Gon and found him and Piku running up the path that lead to here.
"Gon!" I shout once he made it near us and glomp him in a hug. "Man, do you know how worried I was? I turned around, only you see you not there, and I think killua pulled me here, but that doesn't matter, your hear and that's all that's matters." I say letting him go only to glomp him again, then let go.
"For a second there, I thought you wouldn't make it, how did you do it?" Killua ask as we walk towards Old man.
"I just followed Leorio cologne," he states.
"I know his cologne was really strong and has a weird smell to it." I said quickly intervening.
Killua looked at us weirdly "You followed his scent, you're defiantly weird," he say speaking to me and Gon.
"Huh..owowow." I need to see leorio waking up holding his face. "Huh what happened, my memory is kinda fuzzy."
"Maybe it's best not to tell him what happened." I lifted my hand to quickly side hit the person who scared me, slightly, only to drop it back to my side reliving it was only Piku. 'Hmm, what happened' I thought then looking at leorio.
He seemed normal to me, nothing wrong with his face. Then something seemed off, and realize it. I took his glasses that were crooked on his face and fixed them, while placing them back on his face. "There, now you look the money hungry old man that does nothing but scream at people and complain."
He seemed to get annoyed, with this a screams at me, in my ears, "I'm not old I'm from the same generation as you! I don't complain and I rarely ever raise my voice!"
I look back at him in shock, a disbelief look crossed my face. "Don't lie!" I scream back at him.
"Where are we?" I ask, finally looking around. I hear someone sigh behind me.
"This is the second phase," killua says.
"Oh...hahaha….sorry," I say, looking to my left opposite side of killua.
"Excellent work, everyone," Satotz congratulates us. "Phase Two of the exam will occur here, in the Biska Forest Park. So, I shall take my leave. Best of luck to all of you." Satotz starts to run down the path again.
The doors to the park opened right as he leaves, revealing a mansion and a large open yard with tables, stoves, anything you would find in a kitchen all over it. "Will all applicants who passed the First Phase please enter?" a girl at the entrance of the mansion asks, sitting on a couch with a very... large man behind her.
"Welcome. I'm Menchi, the Second Phase examiner," she say, she had turquoise hair wrapped in five different ponytails and green eyes she was wearing a brown bikini top and mesh to, with jean booty shorts.
"And I'm Buhara, the other examiner," Buhara said and by now we were all gathered in front of them. A large rumbling sound came from Buhara and I tried to contain my laughter.
"You must be hungry." Menchi turned her head towards Buhara.
"I'm starving..." Buhara says and put his hands on his bloated stomach.
"There you have it. Phase Two will involve..." Menchi says and stood up, the applicants preparing for what's coming. "..cooking!" she says, causing the other applicants to question her, thinking she was kidding. They started to laugh and mock the examiners while I bit the inside of my lip trying not to yell at them, unknowingly it bleed.
'Calm down,' I think to myself. 'Some people are really rude.' Not listing what she said to cook, until a hand grab mine."Hey, Weirdo. The Second Phase started," I heard a familiar bored voice say.
"Oh! Thanks, Killua." I thank him, not before wiping off the fresh trail of blood from my lip, as I ran after the other applicants with me trailing behind Killua. "Wait, what are we doing?" I ask Killua as I finally catch up to.
"You weren't paying attention at all, were you?" I shook my head. He sighed. "We're supposed to get pork, you know, from pigs," he said and I nod.
"Okay, thanks. I wasn't listening out there." I say as we both walked into the forest and spotted Gon, Leorio, and Blondie.
"Hi, Gon!" I says, waving and joining them as they search the area for the pigs.
"Catch a pig and cook it. This is way easier than the First Phase," Leorio says as we all looked around.
"I don't think so,Leorio," I say "Cooking is a very serious matter." Suddenly, Gon jump down the hill as if it was a slide and I follow after him. Forgetting that my hand was still in Killua's, we both fell down at the same time.
"Wahoooo!" I exclaim and let out a giggle but it was short lived once I bumped into Gon. I groan in pain as Killua, Leorio and Piku bumped into me.
"What was that about, Gon?!" Killua scolds as Gon look to his right and I follow his gaze.
"Found them," Gon says as everyone turned their gaze towards the big nosed pigs chewing on bones.
"Pigs!" Leorio exclaims.
"Is it just me or are they chewing on bones..." I point out.
"Don't tell me... they're carnivores!" Piku says as one of the pigs notice us and warns the other pigs. That's where the death chase began. I never actually thought I'd ever run away from huge, carnivore, big nosed pigs. Unfortunately, we bring the pigs to other people who weren't fast enough and got knocked into the air by the pig's snouts.
"Sorry!" I yell to the people who got caught by the pigs. I let out a yelp as I notice the pigs were gaining up on me and panic in a different direction, drawing one of the pigs from the herd. When I turn back to see if the pig was still chasing me, he just sat there looking at me. Now that neither one of us are running, I can properly observe the creature. Aww, they actually look pretty cute.
I walk slowly towards the pig, holding my left hand out towards it. "Nice piggy..." I say calmly as my hand was inches from it's nose. It stares at my hand for a few seconds before nudging his nose onto my hand. Looks like he likes me.
'Sorry.' I thought sadly and elbow It on the head. I studied the pig for a second wondering how I will take it back. Deciding on just dragging it, I turned around and was about to grab the horn only to feel nothing, 'Huh?' I thought noticing my pig wasn't in my hands. I turned toward to culprit, Killua.
My mind was filled with wonder. "Hurry up, if you don't want to be left behind!" he shouts over his shoulders. I couldn't help but smile at this as I jogged towards him.
"Thanks," I tell him wholeheartedly.
We arrive at our stations and Killua puts my pig on the table and takes his own meat his is station. I start to open and gutted the pig, and I can't help but smile at this. Then stopped, hoping no one saw my pleasure of gutting something. I season the pork and throw in some cut up vegetables. Then put it on the rotator, not before slicing the outside so the inside can cook too, giving each side a certain amount of time to cook. I put the rest of the vegetables on the plate in a presentable manner, and take the pig off the rotator. I noticed that it was smelly really good and really wanted to eat it.
I decided against it, I put the roasted pig on the plate adding some more season here and there and went to the line. I look down at my plate, confidant of my meal. Freed taught me all about cooking in Fairy Tail. Although I rarely cooked for others, he made sure I had the proper skill when it came to presentation and taste.
When it is finally my turn, I present my dish to the drooling man and stunt woman. The man was about to eat it when she stops him. She picks up her fork and starts to eat it. "Right amount of fire time, season's good," she started mumbling to herself about my dish, After tasting it two more times, she sighed and held up a green circle, along with Buhara.
I grin a huge smile, and they seem a bit taken back. I wonder why as I go back to my station. Then it hits me 'My fangs, God, I need to remember them,' I think with a sigh.
I looked up, noticing that the other contestants look dejected. Menchi soon announces that nobody passed except for #406. I looked around for #406, forgetting it was me, then remembered I was the one who passed and walked over to my group. When i heard a loud smashing and quickly turned my head to the source.
A fat man with blonde streaks was complaining about not passing and how he was going to be a blacklist hunter claiming he wasn't going to let a mere gourmet hunter decide his fate., menchi replied with "Too bad you got stuck with a mere gourmet hunter, better luck next year" With a mocking tone.
His face was red from embarrassment and anger and shot at her quickly when he was thrown towards the gate smashing pieces of it. I looked around for the culprit only to see it was Buhara.
"Buhara. Don't interfere"Menchi said sternly
"Yeah but if i didn't you would have killed him." I then noticed the knives she had in her hands, but they were covered in something. 'huh? I've seen something similar on jokers cards when they were thrown to me...i wonder what it is' Completely ignoring the speech she made about us not being able to be a capable hunter.
"That said…" a voice boomed from above.
Everyone, me included, looks up to the sky in surprise. There, above us, was a large aircraft that I was surprised no one heard coming.
"It would be excessive to fail every single applicant," the voice finalizes.
"That's the symbol of the Hunter's Association!" someone yelled out in shock. "Is it someone from the Selection Committee?"
As if to answer his question, someone lept from the window of the aircraft and fell to the earth with an earth shattering explosion. Dust covered the area and I squint through the dust, trying to see who on earth had been crazy enough to do that. As the dust clears, it reveals a large crater created in the earth as well as a….old man?
I gasp in shock at the old geezer, surprised he wasn't at least injured in the fall. What was he made out of? Iron?
"W-Who is that old geezer?" someone managed to stutter out, verbalizing the question we are all thinking.
Menchi steps forward calmly, making her way to the old man. "The Chairman of the Selection Committee. He's in charge of the Hunter Exam…Chairman Netero."
From the sound of it and everyone's reactions, this old geezer must be important. Quite frankly, I didn't care. I was still too occupied about how he had jumped from that height without a single injury.
"Well, I work behind the scenes,." the old man explains. "I only take action when there is an issue, like now. So, Menchi-kun…" The Chairman stares squarely at the turquoise haired woman.
"Yes, sir," Menchi says respectively.
"You failed all of the applicants but one because you disapproved of their reluc-" I twitched, noticing the Chairman's brief glance down at Menchi's chest. "-tance to try new things?"
"No, sir." Menchi replies, seemingly not noticing the quick glance the Chairman had done. "I lost my cool when one of the candidates insulted Gourmet Hunters and I made the exam harder than necessary."
"In other words, you were aware that this exam was unacceptable?"
"Yes, sir," Menchi answers reluctantly. "When cooking is involved, I lose control. I'm unqualified to be an Examiner. I'll resign as examiner, so please redo the Second Phase!"
I smile a Menchie's choice, she really was nice.
The Chairman hummed in response. "But it would be difficult to find another Examiner on such a short notice."
"I apologize…"
The Chairman suddenly held up a finger, like an idea had just struck him. "Alright, how about this?"
I stare down into the abyss below me in awe and wonder.
The Chairman had taken all the applicants, as well as Menchi and Buhara, to Mt. Slit-in-Half for the redo of the Second Phase, which was now boiled eggs.
I squint looking down and see gigantic spider webs with egg sacks hanging from them. I want to try it but she said I don't have to since I already passed it. Regardless, I convinced her to let me do it for fun..
"Now, everyone…" Menchi caught everyone's attention. "Look down there. Those are a Spider Eagle's web."
A sudden rush of air came through the crevasse and knocked a few applicants back. Now I really want to try it, it will be like flying again.
"Look below the web," Menchi continues. "Those are Spider Eagle Eggs."
I ignored the spider part, because…..they're spiders.
The Chairman continues for Menchi. "Spider Eagles build their webs in deep ravines, to protect their eggs from predators. This makes their eggs one of the most difficult ingredient to obtain. The eggs also known as dream eggs."
"W-what a minute….you don't mean-"
"I sure do." Menchi cut fat blonde streaks off, making my heart flutter. She jumps over the ravine and Menchi grabs onto one of the webs and waits, staring down at the eggs.
"Even if she can grab an egg, how will she climb back up?" Leorio mutters quietly from his spot beside me.
"The wind…" I whisper excitedly,
Menchi all of a sudden lets go of the web and begins to plummet downwards, everyone cries out in shock. On the way down, Menchi manages to grab an egg before disappearing into the fog below.
"Is she trying to killer herself?"
I block Leorio out as I stare intently down, waiting for Menchi to reappear.A ridiculously strong wind blasted through the ravine making me fly a little, Menchi coming back up with it, an egg in her hands.
As Menchi hovered above us I glanced back at the ravine with excitement. At times like these Iris really rubbed off on me. 'Iris' I thought sadly, then I shake my head a little to focus on the task at hand.
"I've been waiting for something like this!" I hear someone say, I turned towards Gon and our companions. Jumping off. I couldn't let them beat me so I jump off as well. Everybody lands, by grabbing a web while I decide to impress them by standing on the web, balancing on it.
They started tuning around looking for me, then looked up.
"Wow! Cool!" I hear Gon say. I looked under them, yes I was standing on the web the held Gon and co. Yes, I was right between Gon and Killua.
I held up a 'v' sign in victory, and laughed. A man drops again to grab an egg.
"Let's go!" Leorio exclaims, about to let go before Gon stops him.
"Not yet," Gon commands.
"Why not?"
"There's no wind," Killua states simply as I intensely waited for the wind.
"There isn't always an updraft," Kurapika says as the man who grabbed the egg fell to his death. I winced.
"Wait," Gon says, closing his eyes. All of the applicants stare at Gon, waiting for him to tell us when to jump down. Suddenly the web starts to snap.
I let out a yelp as the web started to get thinner and thinner, what do you expect I am on the web. People started to jump, impatient, and fell to their deaths. Why did they do that? I mean they could've just waited a couple seconds right? Why do they want to waste their lives?
I smile when I felt a little wind, turned around and fell backwards. "Now!" Gon calls as we all let go and grab an egg before falling down into the ravine. After a couple seconds we came back up, and I felt as if I was flying again.
"Yay! I'm flying again!" I say happily before landing on my feet a couple seconds after the rest due to the fact I was blown higher than the them, and waiting for my egg to boil. By the time all of the eggs were done, it is sunset and I just stare at my egg, not feeling like I want to eat anything.
I stood in between Gon and Killua, and Killua had already finished his looking sad because of it. I looked down to my untouched egg and handed it to him. "Do you want it?" I ask him and his head perks up.
"Seriously?" he ask hopefully.
"Seriously," I confirmed as he ate it immediately. I smiled at how sloppily he ate then grinned even more. "But you owe me dinner now." I say after he finished and his eyes widened.
"Aww, man!" he shouts.
I smile softly to myself. I look down at my shoes, moving my feet side to side. I wonder what everyone is doing back in Fairy Tail. I'm sure Natsu would have taken my egg just like Killua. I sigh, thinking about the pink haired dragon slayer.
"Killua," I say softly.
"Hm?" he hum as he uscks his finers, savoring the taste of the egg.
"Why do you think I'm weird?" The thought wouldn't leave my head. He hasn't seen me or gotten to know me. Of course I've been called weird and a freak, but no one ever sticks around after stating the obvious
"Well," he says. "You can smell stuff like a dog and seem to always be a step ahead of us. I think that's kind of weird, especially since I'm usually the one ahead of people."
"Mm," I hum. So it isn't' because of my physical appearance, that's good.
"Why, do you not like it or something?"
"No, I was just wondering. And just an FYI, I don't like fish, so keep that in mind when you buy me food"
He rolls his eyes and mutters a whatever. Gon goes crazy after hearing my dislike of fish and I swear he give me the same lecture Happy did about the beauty of the sea creatures.
Once everyone was finished we boarded the airship so it could take us to the Third Phase. The Second Phase was a lot shorter than the First, so I was relieved.
But I couldn't shake off the bad feeling I had about the Third Phase.
Omake
"That really felt like flying, though," Gon says cheerfully. "Even if you don't have wing of your own, just the feeling is amazing."
"Well," Killua says. "you shouldn't be too crazy about it. Yeah it's fun and all, but some creatures aren't meant to fly."
"Like what?" I chime in.
"I don't know. Cats. Cats shouldn't fly."
I laugh at the white-haired boy, if only he knew what I've seen.
"Don't be so mean to cats," Gon says.
"Yeah," I say. "they can be annoying. Especially when you want to go somewhere with a friend, but the cat is like 'no, she shouldn't do that, it's too dangerous.' It gets really bothersome, to the point where I had to sneak her out of Fairy Hills just to hang out." I remember how I had to convince Wendy to leave Carla for one evening so we can have some fun.
The boys look at me blankly, blinking in confusion.
"What?" I say, cocking my head to the side.
"Rin, what are you talking about?" Gon ask with a laugh. "Cats can't talk."
"Yeah, you're right. What's next, cats can't be blue, flying around with a green pack on his back saying 'Aye, sir!' while eating fish? Or maybe they can't transform into huge, humanoid fighters with a huge sword?
"No, they can't," Killua says slowly to me. "Did you hit your head during or something? Maybe you're having weird dreams or a lack of sleep is making you dilutional. Gon, was this dude like this when you first met him?"
Oh yeah, normal cats don't do thing like that. Well, they are exceeds not cats. I hope Gon and Killua don't think I'm crazy, because it is all true.
Gon shrugs and I laugh nervously. "I'm going to sleep."
"I think you need it," Killua says with a smirk. I stick my tongue at him and lay back down.
I'm sorry this is a little late. I was busy with finals. To all the people who take their time to read my story.
Thank you.
Oh and if you want to know what the songs I use at the top are, just comment. XP