Disclaimer: I do not own anything but my OC.

Warnings: Violence. Language. Mentions of death.

Beta: Arii-hime.

CRYING WOLF
by: Riseha

Chapter 13

Hazardous

The moment I set foot on Zevil Island, I knew why I cried earlier.

I gulped, already running, trying to draw distance lest he catch up to me. Everyone who set foot here was free game now, it won't be against the rules to kill. Part of me wanted to wait for Killua to show up and then we could go together—but I knew better, he was terrified of Illumi and weak against him. Worse, he'd just hinder me.

Instead of taking chances with Illumi, it'd be easier to gather three badges.

I'm a Nen user, it'd be superbly easy—ignoring Hisoka and Illumi. As I plunged through the dense forest, I had the stupid thought of who my life insurance will benefit—Noelle and Yukiji, probably—but I think I forgot to pay my insurance. How will they benefit from that?

Either way, it won't be pros if I died.

I skidded to a halt, spreading my Nen like a net before pulling it back, silencing my presence with Zetsu.

Okay, plans: wait, set traps, get badges, run like crazy from Illumi.

I sighed silently; okay, that was useless. I must shove all panicked thoughts away before I could formulate a proper plan. But then again, plans were crap when it came to me because a) nothing ever goes as planned and b) things were always worse than I thought.

So, how do I get out of this mess?

My enhanced hearing caught the rustle of leaves. I tensed, spreading my Zetsu. I heaved a sigh of relief when I failed to recognize the aura, not someone I know—good, wasn't looking forward to seeing anyone. I twisted, snatching the bullet out of thin air.

I wouldn't say I saw it, rather, I felt it coming. With a flick of my wrist, I sent the bullet flying back. Someone tumbled off the tree, limp and broken. I dimly recognized her as the gunner—the sharpshooter handling the canons back at the abandoned ships. We had been brief allies, seen one another, but had never properly spoken.

I felt no remorse as I fished around her body for her badge. This was fairly easy but I didn't want to jinx myself—next thing I'd be doing was fighting Illumi.

Snorting, I turned, about to leave when something flew past me.

I jerked in shock, whirling around and barely had time to twist out of the way. Not Hisoka, my mind panicked; it wasn't his cards, but something much smaller, sharper... deadlier.

He stepped out from behind the trees, his disguise shed. His inky black eyes met mine a split second before everything dissolved into a blur of green and brown: the landscape but a mere blur as I fled.

I refrained from worrying my lip as I ran at break-neck speed in case I bit my tongue off. I knew Illumi had the nose of a bloodhound and if I started bleeding, he'd scent me.

This was my chance to face him, settle everything but my instincts had urged me to run—I did. My instinct was my boss and genius companion, if it told me to run, I would do without hesitation.

I spread my Zetsu, searching for someone, anyone—even though they won't be useful against an opponent like Illumi—and nearly fainted from relief when I couldn't sense Illumi's Nen. He was far away from my rather impressively large range. It was a safe distance.

Just as my brain registered that and tried to tell my body, I crashed into someone.

"Whoa, Noel?"

I jerked up, my vision strangely blurry. "Oh... Kurapika." My blonde friend reached out to wipe the tears that had sprang from panic, frowning. I felt myself blushing; caught crying and running when I was supposed to be in control, how embarrassing was that?

And I could feel his heartbeat. I pulled back, redder than before. Kurapika crossed his arms, frowning down at me as if I was a disobedient child. "Whoever it is you met is terrifying you," Kurapika observed. Gee, Captain Obvious, I wouldn't have known if you hadn't pointed it out. "You should tell me. From what I can grasp of your personality, you're not easily driven to tears. That guy got to be a monster: who's he?"

I stared blankly at him, inhaling sharply, running a hand through my disheveled hair that had fallen out of its ponytail long ago. "He wants to kill me, he's tried to kill me before."

"When?"

"Years ago."

Kurapika studied me critically. "You're twelve... years ago meant..."

"I was eight."

"What did you do to offend him?" Kurapika asked. "Personal vendetta or does it have anything to do with your family—"

"That guy's my oldest brother." That shut Kurapika up. "I dunno why. But he just showed up and tried to kill me. I managed to trick him, and pretty much the rest of my family, and ran."

"The Chairman is just your foster grandfather, I presume?" I nodded, not at all surprised Kurapika had been able to guess right. "What sort of family do you have?" He cursed softly, tugging on his own hair in frustration.

"A family of assassins," I answered. Something flash in Kurapika's grey eyes; something like recognition and realization. I wondered what he was thinking but this guy was hard to read when he wanted to be troublesome.

"You don't mean..." Kurapika faltered, his voice drowned out by another equally familiar voice. His eyes widened. "Leorio?" He eyed me critically, as if he didn't know what to make of this runaway girl who was freaking terrified of her oldest brother who happened to be a serial killer. "Stick close to me, I'm not letting you out of my sight if you keep attracting trouble."

"Okay, this is a serious blow to my pride but: that guy's someone who could make me run like a coward, what makes you think you can beat him?"

"If you're really his..." Kurapika cleared his throat uneasily as we broke into a sprint. "I mean, you have to calm down, when I saw you running into me like crazy, I knew you were too terrified to think properly. He's your oldest brother, how cruel and merciless could he be to his own sibling? Some part of him would hesitate, no matter how hardhearted of a killer he is."

"It's not just the terror," I said, and the moment I let that slip, I knew it was the truth. "He's my brother," To my eternal mortification, my voice cracked. Traitorous body. "I often found myself asking why he would do it? It's the betrayal stopping me from acting."

"You're hindered by how much you love him," Kurapika guessed. "and you're too hurt and stunned that he doesn't feel the same, or his feelings aren't enough, to stop him from killing you."

"You sound like you've been through the same thing."

Kurapika's face hardened. "I had an older brother—once."

His face told me not to ask anything. I wisely kept my mouth shut—as I'm always competent enough to do. Kurapika slid to a stop behind a tree, gesturing for me to hide as well. I shrugged into my Hatsu, crouching behind the bushes. Leorio was painfully loud as he shouted and yelled at Tonpa who had stolen his badge, yelling about liars and tricksters.

I rolled my eyes. Leorio wouldn't know subtlety even if his life depended on it—which it sort of did. The examiner himself had already told us to be subtle, and here Leorio was, being completely predictable.

Tonpa shot past us; or, he would have ran past us had Kurapika not dropkick him. "I agree with the first part," Kurapika said, surprising me as I hadn't heard anything. "But I am forced to disagree with the latter part."

"Kurapika! Noel!"

Kurapika smiled. "Hey." I lifted my hand in a lazy wave. Then his smile dropped.

"I'll get the other guy," I promised, taking off, leaving Leorio to pummel and yell at Tonpa.

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Leorio kept shooting odd glances at me. If Kurapika had told him about our embarrassing meet-up, well... I don't think I could punch his lights out for being a blabbermouth. It wasn't like I told him not to anyway. Still, I'd like it if they would stop pitying me.

At any rate, the oldest guy didn't say anything about how I was practically breathing down Kurapika's neck with how close we were standing. I could not guarantee the safety of his life and limb if he made any jokes.

"Guys!"

I turned, blinking. "Gon?" I stared at his swollen face. "Got beat up by Hisoka?" He looked surprised. "I heard from Killua that he's your target."

"Noel's target is even scarier than yours, I heard," Leorio mumbled but Gon's inhuman ears heard.

His brown eyes widened in surprise. "Eh, really? I wasn't aware there was someone even more scarier than Hisoka here. Did you get his badge?" I scowled, which pretty much answered his question. "Oh... I got mine."

"Are you trying to rub it in?"

He grinned cheekily. "Nope."

"I need another badge," I said. "but that can wait until Leorio's target is acquired."

Leorio's eyes softened. "Hey, thanks... guys."

"Don't mention it," Kurapika said. "It's too late to turn back now anyway. We're here."

We crouched behind the bushes, inspecting the cave. Leorio exhaled loudly. "Okay, I'll head in and if I don't come out in thirty minutes, head back to the checkpoint. Leave me."

"No." Surprisingly, I was the first to say that. "There's safety in numbers. If you're not out by then, we'll go in." Only Kurapika's confusion was cleared, he nodded and motioned for Leorio to enter.

Something tugged at me in the back of my mind, urging me to follow Leorio. I waited till Leorio's back was fading into the darkness of the cave before I spoke. "We all know that he's the weakest among us, right?"

"Who's the strongest?" Gon asked, perking up.

"Not you, definitely," I said, smirking softly. "I'd say Killua. Then Kurapika and I are tied." Said boy coughed, muttering something about 'crying' and 'killer brothers'. I elbowed him into silence. "After you is Leorio."

"That's mean!"

"At least you're better than Leorio. Speaking of which, it's far too silent in there. Think he died or something?" I glanced up at the sky, noting how utterly impossible it was to tell time. "Judging from the clouds' position, I'd say it's way past ten minutes now... what?"

Gon blinked owlishly at me. "You can tell time from the clouds' position?"

"...Just kidding."

"At any rate," Kurapika said. "she's right. It's too silent. Knowing Leorio, he'd be shouting battle cries."

I stepped out of the bushes, hearing Kurapika hissing something before the two boys jumped after me. "Either he got completely sidetracked by a pretty girl in there or he's dead," I grumbled, stopping at the mouth of the cave. My hearing wasn't as good as before—wasn't as good as it would've been had I spent the last four years in the Zoldyck mansion—so I wasn't sure but I thought I heard something slithering in there.

"Leorio?" Gon called, his voice echoing. "Well, we're coming in!"

"No!" Leorio's voice roared back. "Don't come in! It's a trap!"

I glanced quizzically at our surrounding, blinking. The cave was dark, and there was no other entrances to other adjacent caves. The only light came from the small lamp before the cloaked man, Bourbon seemed to be asleep. Sitting further away from him was a girl a few years older than me, a tall yellow hat and green hair framing her sharp features.

I glanced down, hissing when I saw Leorio's fallen form.

"What?" I finally asked when I failed to see anything of danger. Ponzu's form screamed defeat and resignation, Bourbon the snake charmer seemed to be asleep and if I hadn't known better, Leorio seemed to be sleeping. He was bitten by snakes. "There's nothing wrong."

"That's where you're completely wrong. Look behind you, Noel," Ponzu grouched, crossing her arms and harrumphing.

We knew each other by name and a brief trade-off. I had gotten stuck in a room with Hisoka—talk about creepy—and I had traded with Ponzu who had no room. Conveniently, I had forgotten to tell her that Hisoka was my roommate. I ended up bunking with Kurapika.

I turned, scowled and cursed when I saw dozens of beady yellow eyes glaring down at me. "Oh, great," I mumbled sarcastically.

Gon let out a small sound of awe. "Whoa. There's got to be at least two hundred there!"

"Not good," Kurapika grunted, turning to Bourbon. "Is there anything we can trade—"

"It's hopeless," Ponzu interrupted. "He's dead."

When she pointed that out, I noticed that his hand was swollen. "He died because of...?" I couldn't see any bees. As if reading my mind, Ponzu smirked, snapping her fingers. I watched, disgusted as bees crawled out of her hat—their hive, disgusting. "Oh. You're a bee-charmer, I see."

"They're well trained," Ponzu agreed. "Whenever I scream or faint, they're trained to come out and sting the closest creature." She snapped her fingers again. "You guys can go back now."

Kurapika sighed. "I assume he's been stung before?" Ponzu nodded. "This is troublesome. Some people have—"

"We know," I said, though that was just to get him to shut up. I didn't want a medical lesson here. "How do we get out?"

"More importantly," Gon said, voice high with distress. "what do we do about Leorio? The snakes are highly poisonous."

I studied Bourbon critically. Kurapika's eyes widened in alarm as he thrust out a hand to stop me. "Wait. I know what you're thinking but there are snakes guarding him. They might be even more poisonous than the ones guarding the cave."

I shrugged him off. "Thanks for your concern, man." I sounded sarcastic, but seriously, I was glad he was worried. "But I'm immune to most poisons." What I left out was that I hope the tolerance of poison was enough to fend off this snakes' poison. Inhaling sharply, I lunged.

"Try his scarf!" Gon called helpfully.

If it wasn't the poison, the snakes crawling about me were going to kill me—not only were they disgusting, they were suffocating me. A few snakes wrapped themselves around my neck, tightening the circle and I coughed, vision blurry by the snakes pressing down on me.

I wrenched the man's body closer, using both hands instead of using one to fend off the snakes. I shuddered, barely suppressing the yelp, when a few snakes slithered under Killua's shirt.

"Got it!"

I scrambled back, throwing the antidote towards Gon, and trying to dislodge the few dozen snakes on me. I was never going to have a snake as a pet—nor would I go near one unless the circumstances were dire. I had enough of snakes to last me a lifetime—and to think I once thought of them as cool creatures.

Someone pulled me to my feet, pulling the last snake from my shirt. I let out a sigh of relief but Kurapika was throttling me. "You—do you know how dangerous that was? I swear—"

Dizzy, I fell on my knees. Were the snakes that poisonous? Or my tolerance had really gone to hell? I didn't have time to ponder.

For the fourth time this month, my eyes rolled back and I crumpled onto my back, unconscious.

Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ

The first face I saw was Old Man's.

I relaxed even before I had the time to tense up. Thank goodness he was there, if he hadn't been there, I was sure Illumi would lodge something in my throat or something just as bad. "Water," I croaked, squinting to see where the jar of water was. White stretched and surrounded me, a typical color for the infirmary—though the Old Man might just change the color theme of the Hunters Association infirmary for his own amusement.

Surprisingly, he handed me a cup without playing keep-away. Paranoid as I was about his mischievous attitude, I sniffed the water first, wondering if he had poisoned it before I gulped it down greedily.

Old Man rolled his eyes, scoffing. "Puh-lease, if I wanted to poison you, I'd use a poison that spreads through the air."

"Because you want to risk your own life and make things challenging for yourself, right?" Even though we had this conversation about a gajillion times, I was surprising myself by responding the same way. "How long was I out?" I asked as I set the glass down.

Grandfather took it from my hands gingerly—most likely trying to play with my paranoia by acting as if he had rigged the glass with a bomb—as he spoke. "Hm, a few hours. Your friends had to drag your sorry ass to the next phase."

"I only have two badges—"

"Oh, they knocked Ponzu out, took her badge and Bourbon's as well. They gave the last one to you. I passed you even though you're only half conscious. Anyway, you got taken down by a bunch of snakes?" He sounded amused instead of mad or condescending.

I sneered. "Laugh all you want."

He beamed at me, whipping out a notebook and pen. I glanced at him suspiciously but he was too used to such attitude from me to bother reassuring me like he usually did in the beginning (where I'd whip out a dagger at the slightest suspicious movement; yes, I was just that jumpy after running away from home).

"At any rate, I must interview you. Everyone but you has already—"

"What's the point?" I asked, irritated as all I want know was to sleep and sleep.

"To determine the matches." A wave of nausea washed over me, forcing me to slid back down onto the bed. I glared at him. He snickered. "Oh, don't worry. You won't die... I think."

"Very reassuring," I muttered dryly.

"Question number one: who has caught your attention the most?"

I contemplated not answering but spiting him like that when he was holding my death sentence wasn't such a good idea. I cleared my throat. "Glitturack... Hisoka and Killua."

He hummed slightly as he scribbled something down. "Who do you want to fight most?"

"Uh... Leorio," I said, smirking. "It'd be fun to rub it in his face when I win." The silence after my answer was far too long. I glanced suspiciously at Grandfather who was smiling down at me, his brown eyes twinkling. "What?"

"I haven't see you that happy in a long time," He admitted, making me blush as I realized I had been grumpy every time I was around him. But it couldn't be helped. Grandfather was seriously testing my patience. "Okay, then... Who is the one you don't want to fight?"

"Glitturack, Hisoka, Killua and Gon—again—because I couldn't beat the first two no matter how hard I try now, and I'm positive I won't be able to make the latter two give up."

Grandfather hummed some more as he scribbled whatever it was onto his handy notebook. I noted the frilly pink cover with distaste. "Isn't that...?"

"The notebook you gave me for my birthday? I know it wasn't sincere, but thank you anyway."

I gave him the cheapest notebook I could find in a store, of course it wasn't freaking sincere. I thought he knew that, why did he keep it? I didn't know the old man liked pink, but then again, he had always been out of the norm. "You should rest up," he said, sounding like a normal grandfather for once. "The final phase is in a few more hours. If you're not awake by then—"

"I'll be disqualified," I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "yeah, yeah."

"Nope," Grandfather said, smiling as he skipped out of the door. "I'll send someone to wake you up." While that sounded like a nice thing to do, I figured he was going to send either Hisoka or Illumi through the door just to see how I'd react. I silently promised myself to not sleep in.

I was asleep even before my head hit the pillow.

Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ

My internal alarm clock jolted me awake just before the clock struck six. I glanced out of the window, noting that the sun was already rising. I grimaced, stepping away from the window when sunlight spilled in like nobody's business.

I shuffled to the bathroom, rummaging around the small and cramped space for an extra, untouched toothbrush. Looking into the mirror, I had to agree with my imagination that I looked like shit. There were bags under my eyes despite the long nap I'd taken. I knew they weren't as bad as they seemed, just my pale skin made it worse and more prominent. My hair was scorched (thanks, Hisoka), messy and was at half its original length down my butt.

I washed my face and toileted, still unable to soothe my stiff and aching limbs.

When I first joined, I didn't think the Hunter exams would be this taxing. Just thought there'd be a few battles... Or, maybe I should've expected this.

It had been a long time since I last consulted my memories of this world and it would need a lot of coffee to get my mind searching for lost memories. I shuffled out of the infirmary, combing my hair and trying to disentangle the bird nests in my hair. The sun was far too bright for my liking. As I stepped into the hallway, I belatedly realize we were no longer on the ship.

As expected, I was the last to arrive. But fortunately, not many people were staring at me. Instead, they were staring at the board that had been wheeled in, a cloth covering its contents.

I sidled up next to Kurapika, elbowing him to signal my presence. "Good morning," he said pleasantly, not taking his eyes off the object. "Slept well?"

"Sure, you?"

"Fine."

"Grumpy?"

"No."

"...Your hair's on fire."

"Sure, breakfast's in an hour."

I gave up. Kurapika was not a morning person after all. I just thought that since his hair shone like the sun, he must've loved to witness sunrise or crap. Groggily, I wondered where I got such a ridiculous idea. I peered over him, seeing Killua and Gon chattering excitedly by Leorio's side.

The other three had yet to notice me. But that was excusable as Old Man had already started speaking. I was short in comparison to Killua, forcing me to tip-toe to see the match-up. I swear, if Old Man paired me up with—

I inhaled sharply, nearly breaking every bone in Kurapika's hand when I saw the match-up.

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A.N: Let's hit the 200+ review mark! From this chap on, I'll be answering reviews through PM so please enable that option. As always, thanks for the reviews!

Question: Who did she end up fighting? First person to get it right can have a say concerning the storyline- if it's not too troublesome.