Disclaimer: None of the HunterxHunter characters belong to me. Only Nozomi.

Chapter 2

The First Round

The sound of clapping filled the extravagant dining room. Inside the room a seven year old version of Nozomi stood in the center of a room filled of forevermore silent men and women. Nozomi tore her gaze away from the tattered carcasses at to the young man entering the room with his teammates.

"Well done Nozomi. You did better than I had expected." The young man stated and signaled the girl to come to his side.

Without hesitation, the girl rushed over to the man's side. Flashing the man a small smile that did not meet her lifeless eyes. "Thank you Master."

Her master returned the smile and gently placed his hand on her head, causing her slightly flinch before relaxing into the touch. Meanwhile, her master watched his teammates scanning the corpses until they found their target.

"AHHHHH!"

Everyone snapped their attention to the door to see a woman in her twenties, terror etched in her face and her body was trembling with fear.

"Whoops, there's one left." A blonde male in Nozomi's master's team announced.

Once the words left the man's mouth the survivor broke out into a sprint, running away from the group. Nozomi's master glanced down at the girl beside him.

"Nozomi, you know what to do."

"Yes sir."

"Look! It's the exit!"

Nozomi snapped out of her daze and returned her attention to her surroundings. The underground passage was still dark but the light of the exit made it visible to let all the remaining applicants to see the long set of stairs before them. Everyone dashed up the stairs to find themselves staring at a marsh.

"The numelle's marsh, nicknamed the crook's nest." The violet-hair examiner, Satotsu, announced. "This is where the second round will stand. You will have to go through here."

"Wow..." Nozomi murmured to herself as she scanned the foggy scenery.

This was her first time seeing the wild before and including the fact that she was not participating in a physical test by herself, she could not help but feel a little excited. Unexpectedly, she felt something crash into her which caused her to fall flat on her face. Normally, she would have caught herself before she fell, but a memory of her master telling her to not reveal her abilities rang through her head.

"Ah! Sorry! Are you okay?" A frantic voice asked

"This voice sounds too high to be an adult..."

Keeping that thought in mind, the girl flipped over to see a boy with long, spiky black hair and dressed in green hovering over her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She answered.

She was about to push herself back up to her feet when she noticed the boy's outstretched hand held out to her. Softly smiling to the gesture, she took his hand and allowed the boy to pull her up.

"My name's Gon, what's yours?" The boy stated as he released her hand.

"I'm Nozomi, nice to meet you."

Just as she finished speaking, another boy around her and Gon's age appeared. He had spiky silver hair and electric blue eyes, but there was something else about him that Nozomi couldn't quite put her finger on. Behind him were two more guys. One was a blonde teenager and the other was a tall man in a blue suit.

"Gon, the round is about to start... Who's this?" The blonde teen asked

"Oh Kurapika! This is Nozomi. Nozomi, this is Kurapika, Leorio, and Killua." Gon introduced.

The five of them were going to continue to talk when a injured man suddenly arrived, announcing that Satotsu wasn't the examiner but actually a monkey-man that lives in the marsh.

"The monkey-men like fresh flesh. They have long thin limbs but overall they are weak. They let themselves get tamed by men. They know how to use our language skillfully, and manage to trick men in the marsh, where the other monsters that get along with them are waiting to capture their prey alive! His purpose is to get rid of all the candidates at one time!" The injured man announced.

However, once he finished his speech, cards were thrown towards both the injured man and the examiner. The injured man was killed immediately by the cards cutting deep into his face, while Satotsu caught the cards thrown at him with ease.

"I see. I see. With this, it's all clear." The magician, Hisoka turned to Satotsu, "He's the real examiner. In fact, examiners are hunters that do this freely at the jury's request. So there's nothing odd about a hunter, even at the second zone, stopping that kind of attack."

"Well that's nice..." Nozomi thought sarcastically to Hisoka's actions.

After reprimanding Hisoka, all of the candidates started running after Satotsu when a thick fog shrouded the area. Killua suggested that the three of them should move up closer to the examiner to get away from Hisoka, the magician. Right after Killua's warning, Gon shouted out to Leorio and Kurapika for them to go up to the head, causing an annoyed appearance on his face.

As time passed, the fog grew worse and screams could be heard from the back. Both Gon and Nozomi glanced back, beginning to concern about Leorio and Kurapika. Soon, concern got the best of Gon and he rushed back for the two. Nozomi was about to turn back too when Killua swiftly grasped her wrist.

"Don't. They will be fine." He firmly stated.

Hesitantly, Nozomi nodded and continued run beside him until they reached an open area with a building in the middle. The twelve year old girl quietly told Killua that she would be right back and left before receiving a reply.

The closer she approached to Hisoka, the scent of blood grew stronger.

"You've been lowering the numbers of participants, huh?" The girl whispered

"I allowed a few of them to live." The magician replied and pointed to the right. Following his finger, she saw Kurapika, Gon and Leorio seated in the shade of a tree.

Making sure she hid her look of relief, she walked over to join the three. Little did she know that Killua had been watching her from afar.

"Oi Nozomi, is there anything wrong with my face? Kurapika and Gon said that its normal." Leorio immediately questioned the twelve year old when she arrived to the group.

The girl examined his face and tried not to laugh to the sight of the enormous bump on his face. Luckily for her, before she could answer, Killua arrived and greeted her and Gon with a beam.

After a moment of waiting, the clock struck twelve, all of the applicants gathered around the large doors. The building doors swung open to reveal two new examiners, a gigantic man and a woman with pink hair.

"So, you hungry?" The woman asked the man behind her.

"You bet! I'm starving!" he answered and his large stomach gurgled in agreement.

"Therefore, the theme of the second trial will be cooking!" The woman announced. "We are both fine gourmet cooks! Thus your mission will be to satisfy our appetites by cooking us a meal!"

All of the applicants eyes widened in surprise.

"Cooking?!"

I kinda fixed this chapter so it will be more interesting. Hope it worked.