Book 2: Malum

Chapter 15: Luck of the Draw

"Say please before asking for favor."
-Inuyasha (Inuyasha)

"Rita, have you ever thought about taking the Hunter Examination?"

The girl blinked, casting Ging a sideways look.

"Well why on earth would I do that?"

The Two-Star proceeded to give her a funny look. "Hunters are probably the most respected people in the world today. They get access to a certain degree of classified information and receive transportation for free and-"

"Spare me," she groaned, closing her eyes and frowning. "You know I can't think in this heat."

"For someone with abilities that will rival mine in a few years, you're awfully sensitive to the weather of all things."

"I just don't understand why all of your dumb ruins are always isolated in some dumb desert." She tsked. "And besides, Hunters aren't all that great. They just have a piece of plastic that says they've passed a test."

"It's great entertainment." He said, throwing it out there. "It might even be a challenge. Also, my ruins aren't dumb."

Rita was mildly offended. "You're all the entertainment I need Ging; besides, you try me every day. I'm satisfied the way I am for now."

Ging seriously doubted the validity of the statement; after all, how could someone be satisfied after forgetting seventeen years of his or her entire life?

"Hey," she breathed, looking up to the blazing sun as the two trekked across the vast expanse of billowing sand. "Ging."

"Eh?"

"Why do you stick with me?" The girl questioned.

He cleared his throat. "The correct question would be why do you stick with me," she shot him a pointed look; he went on. "But in all honesty, it's because you can't be of significant detriment to me."

"That's it?" She frowned. "Just because I can't hurt you?"

The Two-Star Hunter snorted, resorting back to his cynicism. "What were you expecting you spoiled brat, you're ten years younger than me and without a memory." He cast a sideways glance at her. "Disappointed?"

"Hardly." She hmphed. A pause. "You could have at least lied; proper manners and all."

"Sorry, I don't like indulging people." He sighed. "But really, the Hunter Exam-"

"Is a waste of my energy." She rolled her eyes, finishing his sentence for him. "I could just as easily get anywhere I want to go, so long as I tag along with you, and I can fend for myself just as well." She crossed her arms. "I don't want to spend a week going through some tedious trial just to get a piece of plastic."

"Rita." Ging frowned all, of a sudden very serious.

The conversations had a tendency to wander wildly from place to place throughout the duration of the two's travels; since all they could really do was walk and trek, the only source of amusement and avoidance from insanity was via mere small talk. So their topic varied, going from one end of the spectrum to the other.

"There's this kid," he scratched the back of his neck. "His name is Gon."

"Is he related to you?" She asked. She stared at him for a moment longer and narrowed her eyes. "He's your son, isn't he." She deadpanned.

"It's not what you're thinking!" He fumbled, much to her private delight; she was certain no one else had seen the infamous Ging Freeccs quite as flustered before. "Yes, he's my son, he is, you're right." He tsked, shutting his eyes tightly and putting his hands back into his pockets. "Anyways, Mito says he's hell bent on taking this damn Hunter Exam and-"

"This is unlike you." She hmphed, still frowning. "You're worried about him?"

"I'm not." He said with all the ingenuity in the world, so much that she was taken aback; the conversation veered sharply toward a more serious tone again. "I'm not worried about him. He has my blood and I have total trust in him. But I still wonder about him time to time, though I spend most of my waking hours trying to avoid him."

She groaned. "This was why you were trying to goad me into this? To make sure he doesn't die?"

"I promise you'll enjoy yourself Rita," he crossed his own arms. "Do this for me this one time; a personal favor. You'll meet interesting people along the way too."

She stared at him, appalled at herself for even thinking to consider taking this pointless examination. "If you have so much darned faith in him, why is this even necess-"

Rita was cut off by the sudden sound of his hands coming together, clasped as he lowered his head suddenly. She took several steps back, doing a double take. The high and mighty, egotistical Ging Freeccs, bowing his head to her?

"Stop!" She cringed, feeling goosebumps. "Lift your head, this isn't like you!"

"Just keep an eye on him, tell me how he's doing from time to time!"

"Okay, alright, now stop bowing to me it's scaring me!"

Ging finally straightened up, relief flooding his eyes, albeit subtly. "Thanks Rita, I owe you one."

"You owe me your ass is what…" She muttered, taking her hood and roughly yanking it over her head so he couldn't see her face.

"Did you know that every time you sigh, a little bit of happiness escapes?"
- Senjougahara Hitagi (Bakemonogatari)

"You agreed to this without informing of this why?"

Rita felt a tic form on her forehead. Silently she growled to herself, put the phone to her ear in irritation.

"Wouldn't it seem strange if I had declined?" She sighed. "He was begging me to look after his son for a bit. Besides, it's the Hunter Exam, there's no possibility of running into them there. They don't need Hunter licenses to do what they do."

Pariston, telltale grin no doubt still plastered across his face, considered this for a moment. "I suppose you're right."

"You can always contact me via phone." She pointed out grudgingly. "It'll be easier too, since you don't need to avoid Ging; I won't be near him."

"Alright," he consented. "I see no problem with you taking the Hunter Exam. It won't take more than a week or two."

She breathed a sigh of relief, inhaling.

"Before you go off though, I'll need a favor from you Rita."

Exasperated, she exhaled in one go. Go figure; when Pariston yielded, it wasn't without cause.

"What is it?"

"A certain political figure has been causing quite the ruckus lately. It seems he's taken a… certain disliking to me."

"So get rid of him?"

"If you please."

"Email me the info. Quickly please. The exam starts in just a week. I'll have to do it before then."

"I sent it a few minutes ago. Thank you Rita." Far too sweet.

"Evening, Pariston."

She hung up the phone, sighing. Again.

"The act of murder is giving up the humanity that is within oneself."
- Ryouji Shiki (The Garden of Sinners)

In Hangshai at half past midnight a slender girl with long ombre-colored hair and gossamer attire was sitting next to a suited man in a casino.

Laughing with ostensible glee, she downed a shot of vodka and rolled the die. Gambling was always fun, and for some reason, she won more often than she lost.

"Rita-chan, Lady Luck seems to be on your side tonight." He commented.

"So she does." She smiled cosmetically. "But I think this will be the last game. I'm tired, and I want to retire for the night."

"So soon?"

"There are things to take care of back in our room, aren't there?" She asked, smirking.

The city was one notorious for its ridiculous crime rates and also promiscuity. It was one of the only places that prostitution was legal, but god forbid; Rita was just having some fun, right?

She had found the man and checked into the same hotel as him, introduced herself at the casino, and had successfully acquainted themselves.

"Well, then, why wait?" He stood up.

Rita cringed inwardly. The man was probably well over thirty-five; that or his job was high stress, but she figured his outer appearance was a combination of the two.

"Let's get going."

She sent a vixen smile his way and stood up, taking care to tug the dress down as it was riding up. Her feet hurt too.

Fuck you Pariston.

Their room was on the fourteenth floor, and the ride up the elevator was filled to the brim with uncomfortable and outrageous comments.

Relieved at when they finally entered the room he had booked, she threw off her outerwear and heels.

"Make yourself comfortable." He said, also shedding his blazer.

"Do you have any wine?" She asked, sitting down on the bed. "The vodka was too hard for my taste."

"I don't want you to be too intoxicated to enjoy yourself tonight."

"Please Akihito-san," the name tasted like poison on her tongue, "I can hold my liquor well."

"Alcohol in excess will ruin your health."

"There are things inside of me that need some killing." She remarked. "Especially tonight; it'll help me focus."

"Help yourself; there should be plenty in the refrigerator."

He undid his tie as he sat down on the bed, and she stood up and poured two glasses of red wine. Carefully she swirled the fine glasses. After a brief moment of thought, Rita took both and made her way over to the guest she was entertaining tonight, courtesy of a certain Three-Star Zodiac.

"Don't be so tense," he laughed as he took the wine from her. She stood in front of him, sipping the alcohol, never breaking eyes contact even as she swallowed the bitter liquid. "Your shoulders look stiff."

"It's just from sitting so long." She shrugged. Then smiled. She put her wine glass down gently and slowly started to approach him.

Slowly, carefully, cautiously, she coated her hands in nen and focused so as to prevent any unintentional use of her inherent power to suck someone dry.

As far as she had been informed, Tatebayashi Akihito was a normal human being, though a corrupt politician; nen was not in his repertoire.

He himself chuckled slightly opened his arms to accept her.

As Rita took both sides of his face with her hands, she leaned in and closed her eyes, lips nearing his, she -

Abruptly tightened her grip and snapped his neck, intantly killing him.

Lifelessly the body slumped to the floor immediately.

She dialed Pariston but made sure that the call would go directly to his voicemail. The girl was not in the mood to deal with his cactus-like demeanor as of now.

"It's done. Don't bother me for two weeks." She mumbled into the phone.

She hung up.

Rita laughed bitterly and immediately guided herself to the bathroom. She needed a fucking shower.

"If you want to be accepted, you must accept yourself first."
- Yoshida Haru (Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun)

Before gleaning information about the Hunter Exam's whereabouts, Rita went to a salon and cut off a good eight inches of her hair. The ombre had now disappeared, so she asked the stylist to dye her hair a deep orange again.

"Miss, your hair is healthy and beautiful as is, I suggest you-"

"Neither healthy nor beauty have ever been at the top of my list in terms of priority. Please dye it this color. You'll receive your pay regardless."

"… Right away miss."

"Loving yourself does not make you vain, or selfish, or self-centered; it makes you indestructible."
-Unknown

A restaurant?

Before proceeding inside, Rita ensured that her hood was situated properly, to some extent concealing her facial features by shadowing them.

She figured the Hunter Association would choose a location that no one would suspect but this particular restaurant was one that seemed far too shabby to house several hundred Hunter Contestants. It was small, slightly run down, old and unrenovated, and had bounds of moss growing on its walls.

Of course, getting here had been hell in the first place; she basically had to force the information out of certain people. The sea the ship had crossed had been choppy, and then finding the godforsaken city was one of the most exasperating tasks she had ever been tested with.

Then there was that senile old lady who had asked her strange questions.

Rita knew she had answered incorrectly, but she also knew that the path the woman had offered her was not the correct route. Upon engaging in conversation with her, Rita gleaned enough information to find the steak house.

Breathing deeply, she opened the door to the restaurant.

"Welcome!" Said the host, slightly preoccupied with grilling the beef.

"Is the backroom open?" She questioned.

"What will you have?"

"The steak combo that opens your eyes to the light." The girl almost laughed, it sounded so tacky. "For one."

The chef suddenly made intense eye contact with her. "How will you have it?"

"Grilled over a low flame, until cooked."

"Of course. Please let yourself into the backroom."

Without another word, Rita passed by all the customers and ducked into the back room. She supposed her attire was rather conspicuous, what with it being all black; the hood pulled over her eyes might have made her look suspicious but she had stopped caring about how she looked long ago.

It seems this room is an elevator… She thought to herself as the ground began to rumble. It's traveling a long ways down.

After a good six or seven minutes, the red-painted walls parted in order to reveal a long and poorly illuminated tunnel. There were several other contestants waiting; as she entered they all turned to stare at her. Much to her surprise, only two gave off the presence of having learned nen.

"Hello!"

Rita looked down. It seemed a large green bean was speaking to her.

"Please take a number."

It read sixty-six. She chuckled.

"Please wear this badge at all times. Be careful not to lose it."

The bean walked off.

Odd fellow.

She took in surroundings once more. Rita was getting terrible vibes from a certain red-haired character facing away from her; he seemed to be dressed like a clown…

Shrugging, she sat down on the side of the tunnel.

"Haven't seen you around before." Someone waddled up to her. "I'm Tonpa. It's nice to meet you."

"Rita, though I can't say the same." She mumbled, keeping her voice low. It would do no good to attract unwanted attention. Only people of a certain caliber had made it this far into the exam, after all. "This is my first time taking the exam, so that's probably why."

"I figured," Tonpa smiled, all grins and good-intentions. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"The journey must have been hard. Would you like a drink?" He fumbled around in what seemed to be his side satchel. Tonpa offered an orange fizzy drink and offered it to her with an extended hand.

She stared at it for a moment. "You're not an examiner." She commented.

"No," he laughed, almost sheepishly. "This is my thirty-fifth attempt; call me a veteran of sorts."

"…" She frowned, feeling a spike in her irritation. "Then you have no right to test me. Get it out of my sight."

"E-Eh?"

"Go kill some other poor soul with whatever you've put into the drink." She rolled her eyes.

"What are you talking about? This can hasn't been opened." He laughed. "The vending machine accidentally spit out two."

"Tonpa the Rookie Crusher," Rita growled, tired, fatigued, and quite frankly done with his bullshit, stood up and glared at him. "I make it a point not to take beverages or food others offer, much less from someone with a nickname like yours. Please get lost."

It seemed the menacing aura did enough to scare him and the corpulent man waddled away again.

Rita sighed and looked around, yanking her hood farther over her eyes; hopefully, she hadn't caused too large of a ruckus. Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice-

She felt an incredible bloodlust surge to the right of her; it was quickly repressed but that sort of yearning was not one that Rita missed, nor was willing to look over without second thoughts.

A certain treacherous clown was clenching and unclenching his fists as he sat behind a well-stacked house of cards. His ochre eyes held a manic quality, similar to one someone would have seen in the gaze of an addict or alcoholic.

Rita allowed her aura to surface and envelop her completely and holistically; she never took her gaze off of the dangerous man.

Number forty-four, or so it said on his number plate. Ironically, the Japanese number of death: four.

"Oh..? And what have we here?" He said in a sultry voice.

Rita thought for a moment, then started taking a few steps toward him. "Up for a game of poker?"

The clown looked at her with smoldering golden eyes, seeming to want to size her up before answering. Without another word he collapsed the house of cards, closed his eyes for a few moments—as if savoring the feeling—and the cards suddenly flew to his open left hand, aligning themselves neatly in a deck. "It's no fun with two people."

So he's a magician.

"It's only boring if you make it." Rita sat down in front of him.

It seemed that approaching the bloodthirsty clown in and of itself caused more of a ruckus than being rude to the Rookie Crusher ever could have. And here she was only looking for some entertainment to ease her boredom.

"Number Sixty-six." He examined, eying her number plate. "How coincidental."

"My name is Rita." She offered, refusing to be referred to as a number. "I hear enough chit-chat about you to know your name."

His voice was smooth like a vixen, velvet, like the road to hell paved with good intentions.

"You seem bored."

"You're a boring person," Hisoka remarked, "and I have no interest in toying with lackluster humans. Besdies… Aren't you scared little girl?"

Personally offended, Rita blasted her nen considerably, crossing her legs. "You were saying."

He smiled in a slightly terrifying way; if Lucifer himself had a human counterpart, it would reside within this man. "I'll deal."

"Great." She situated herself.

"Poker it is."

"One who loses their calm loses the fight before it even starts."
-Colonello (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!)

After the course of several hours, hundreds of people began to trickle in. By the next day around the afternoon, over four hundred applicants had assembled. Rita stole a glance at her watch.

The acceptance period for aspiring Hunters would be ending soon.

"… Strange atmosphere down here."

"They clearly differ from the Hunter applicants we saw in both the port and city…."

The girl frowned. After hours upon hours of tense and back-breaking silence, rambunctious newcomers were not appreciated.

"Excuse me…." Someone said.

Rita tsked and turned her attention back toward the house of cards Hisoka was currently building. As far as she could tell, he was bored out of his mind, tense, bloodthirsty, and didn't really mind that she was keeping him company in a sense.

"Everyone's really tense…"

Three newcomers had made it in the nick of time, making a small child in a ridiculous green get-up applicant number four hundred five-

Rita's breath caught in her throat. As the bean offered the three their number plates, she got a good glance at the adolescent, perhaps twelve, thirteen years of age. Of course, the only information hat Ging had given to her in order to help identify him was that he would be in his early teens, short, stubborn, and looked like him.

Though at the time Ging had evoked her wrath with the incredibly vague description, she realized the resemblance between the two were uncanny, especially as far as the gleam in their eyes went. Determined, hard-headed, and brutally honest.

Of course, Tonpa approached them, as he had done with every other rookie he had laid eyes on, including a bald ninja and an eerily familiar silver-haired teen right around the same age as Gon, or who she was almost certain was Gon. From their brief exchange she realized Gon had great sensitivity to his senses and that the other two's names were Leorio and Kurapika.

What bothered her were neither the silver-haired child nor Gon, but the blonde that stood at attention beside the green-clad adolescent. A cold, ambitious look gleamed in his irises; familiar, achingly so.

Kurapika… Where had she heard the name before?

TO BE CONTINUED

"Am I a memory? Or is the memory me?"
-Yano Motoharu (Bokura Ga Ita)

A/N: Hey guys! It's been awhile! So i updated a whole shit ton at once last time because I knew I would have less time when school started. Lo and behold, I'm sorry I'm so late with updating haha! I hope you enjoy this chapter. Is there anything confusing? Please drop a review :) Enjoy. I'll be preoccupied for the next month or so, so please be patient. Thanks again. !