Micha'ela: Sorry about the cliffhanger. I hate them too and I have no idea why I end some of my chapters like that. Anyway, thanks for the review and I will post the next chapter as soon as possible. Thanks again. XD

Chapter 5

Fighting with One's Self

At nine o' clock precisely, the applicants arrived at the top of a tall tower for the third trial. The tower was called the Trick Tower. Netero's assistant explained to everyone that they had to get to the bottom of the tower, alive, within a 72 hour time period. One of the applicants began to climb down side as the three twelve year olds watched.

"That guy is doomed..." Nozomi muttered.

As said, a flock of gigantic birds flew towards the applicant and was quickly eaten up.

"Let's find a way down." Killua suggested.

Gon and Nozomi nodded and spread out. The girl scanned the other applicants to see them tapping the ground. She followed their lead.

"Leorio! Nozomi! Kurapika!"

The girl turned to see Gon waving at Leorio and Kurapika while Killua was jerked his head, signaling her to come. Receiving the message, she made her way over to the boys. However, before she could meet them the floor opened up beneath her. A small squeak escaped her lips as she fell. Hearing the noise, Gon and Killua gazed over to see nothing but a silver bracelet sparkling beneath the sun.

Killua walked over to where the bracelet lay and picked it up.

"What happened to Nozomi?" Kurapika asked when the boy returned to the group.

"The idiot fell into a hidden door." He answered, his gaze was locked onto the bracelet in his hand. After a few minutes, he tucked the bracelet into his pocket. "Let's pick our doors."

Meanwhile with Nozomi...

The girl slid down the slanted hole, about to reach the exit when she spotted the new room. Scattered across the room were tall stone posts, just big enough to stand on. But filling the spaces in between were sharp stone needles. There were skeletons, rotting corpses and fresh corpses in the sea of needles. As Nozomi flew out of the hole, she found herself heading straight towards the side of the closest post. She quickly withdrew her daggers from their sheaths and stabbed them into the stone. Luckily the stone was soft enough for her weapons to penetrate.

Without a second thought, the girl climbed to the very top of the post and let out a loud sigh in relief.

"That was a close one..." she murmured as she took another glance at the corpses and needles.

Tearing away her attention, she noticed the watch on the table beside her. The voice of the examiner echoed through the room, telling her if she wanted start the challenge she must put on the watch. Nodding, she went to reach for the watch but stopped when she spotted her empty wrist.

Where's the bracelet?!

Before the Third Round

"Your mother is... missing." Netero sadly stated. "She disappeared right after she gave me that bracelet."

"Oh... Then can you at least tell me her name? Maybe I can find her?" Nozomi asked with pleading eyes.

The chairman shook his head, "I'm sorry but I can't. Your mother asked me to not tell anyone about her, especially her daughter."

He peered down at the child who had fallen silent, obvious that she was in deep thought about her mother's actions. Netero sighed softly and placed his hand on her head.

"There is a possibility that your bracelet will lead you to your mother and..." He stopped and knelt down just enough to meet the twelve year old's amber eyes. "If you need anything you can always contact your godfather."

"My godfather? Who?" the girl asked.

In response, Netero removed his hand from the girl's head and pointed at himself.

Crap! That was the only thing that can help me find my mother! The twelve year old began to chew her lip as she thought. At last she sighed and buckled the watch on her wrist. There's nothing I can do now... I just hope I can ask Netero-san to bring me back here to look for it...

The table sunk into the floor. Then, an entrance was revealed on the wall right across from her. Nozomi took a deep breath before leaping from post to post until she reached the entrance. There was a choice to go either left or right. Her fingers lingered over the two buttons on the watch before she decided on picking right. The gate for the right side path opened and she followed the path until she reached the next room.

Inside the next room, it was filled with mirrors, making a path to a variety of paths. Also there was a sweet smell in the room.

This smell... I shouldn't inhale this.

With that thought, she used her sleeve to cover up her nose and mouth as she walked through the paths.

The longer she walked the more voices she heard. The voices of the starving children she used to steal with. All of them were crying and asking why didn't she die with them. Meanwhile, she reminded herself that it was the sweet aroma causing this.

After half an hour had passed, she saw her reflections turn into the starving children and dried up corpses of the people whose lives she stole. All of them asking her why she didn't die with them or why did she kill them.

Shut up... Shut up.

Nozomi quickened her pace, moving her hand to her ears in attempt to block out the voices. Unfortunately, the voices started to grow louder and louder, echoing in the room.

"SHUT UP!" She finally screamed.

The mirrors shattered into a million pieces, making the dull floor seem like it had just been dusted with silver glitter.

Her panting started to slow down as she scanned the floor. Is it ov-

"Over? Ha! No."

The twelve year old snapped her attention in the voice's direction to see herself in a slightly cracked mirror on the wall, but instead of her black clothing, she was in rags with bangs hiding her eyes.

Nozomi narrowed her eyes on the mirror and cautiously approached it.

"Who are you?"

"What? You don't even know how we look like?" The reflection paused. She then swept the hair out of her eyes. "Well, what we will look like."

To her surprise the reflection did not hold her usual amber colored eyes, instead they were glowing white. On her forehead there was a tattoo of what she had always dreamed of receiving, the sign that would make her Master finally call her "daughter."

"This your future. Our future!" the reflection cheered. "Isn't it wonderful?"

"...No..." Nozomi muttered, causing the reflection's eyes to widen.

"What? Don't you want to be known as Master's daughter? A part of a family? Instead of being just plain old Nozomi, we could be called Nozomi Lu-"

"No! I have a family! I have a mother! Master is just using me! My mother still wants me... Right?"

A sneer spread across the white eye reflections face to the sight of the original's uncertainty.

"Aw~ And I thought that you would have grown up a lot by now." The reflection teased, earning a half-hearted glare from the original. "Don't you get it? If our mother wanted us then why were we one of those starving, homeless orphans in the first place? Master wants us! Even if you want to leave, he is still controlling us with the strings that are attached to us."

Strings? The girl thought and peered down at her arms to see thin strings tied onto her joints.

"We are puppets who cannot break free from what holds us down." The reflection stated, while the original was trembling from anger. "It's pointless. Just accept our fate."

Just as she finished, Nozomi's fist went crashing through the mirror, causing the glass to fall to the ground.

"I had enough. I don't have to be tied down anymore." She grumbled as she withdrew her bloodied fist from the newly created exit. Suddenly, the face of a young silver hair boy popped up in her head. "Killua doesn't want to be an assassin and he had shown me that by running away and entering this exam. If he can do it, I can do it too."

The girl walked down the set of stairs and into the next room. Unbeknownst to the child, her eyes had turned white and a deadly smirk crept upon her lips.

Once entering the next room, it seems that there were about twenty prisoners waiting for her arrival. Most of the prisoners grumbled to the sight of a twelve year old girl, complaining that it was no fun. While the others were silent as they waited for their cuffs to free their wrists.

When their cuffs hit the ground the prisoners took off their hoods to reveal their true appearances.

"Alright number 150. You will have to choose between two options." The examiner announced. "Press X if you would let the opponents to decide what your challenge will be or O to choose your own challenge and pick your opponent."

Nozomi scanned the crowd, seeing the bloodlust in their eyes as her fingers gently traced the buttons on the watch. Finally making her decision, she let out a short chuckle and pressed a button.

"You chose X. To let your opponents to decide."

Menacing laughter filled the room, while the twelve year old remained silent. When the laughter calmed down a buff man stepped forward.

"We will have a fun fight to the death. And since you are just a child, we'll let you fight all of us one by one." He announced, a confident smirk adorn on her face.

"That's nice but it's fine. I don't want to have you all hold back. It'll be better if everyone joined the fun."

With that, the girl charged at the crowd. Slicing and stabbing every single one of the prisoners until they wouldn't move anymore.

"I would have used my curse but that will just ruin the fun." She said to the bodies as she returned her daggers to their sheaths. Soon, the color returned to her eyes placed immediately slapped her hand over her mouth. "Damn it... I lost control again."

The exit was revealed and she reluctantly walked down another flight of stairs.

"Third round. Third to arrive: #150, Nozomi. Time used 7 hours and 53 minutes." A voice announced as she stepped into the room.

In the middle of the room were Hisoka and his partner number 301, a man with pins all over his body. Hisoka turned to the girl and smiled.

"Oh, I see one of my toys had just arrived."