Disclaimer: I don't own HunterXHunter. I am not making profit off of this story.

This chapter is dedicated to flower scent, my first reviewer! (:

Friends are born, not made.

XXX

When I next awoke, the ship was in complete chaos. A great storm lurked in the sky, and the examinees were all scrambling to stay alive. Clashing lightning and roaring thunder burst in the sky angrily, joining the howling wind in our torment.

I stood, alarmed, and was thrown against the side of the boat as it lurched dangerously to the left. The men beside me were not so lucky, and all went tumbling across the deck. Though I managed to grab one before he cracked his head against the floor, the others went stumbling into barrels and tables.

"Get everyone into the passenger cabin!" the captain roared ferociously, wrestling with the wheel.

I hefted one arm of the man I'd caught over my shoulder, helping him stand. "You heard him," I gasped, shouting to make myself heard over the waves. "In the cabin you go." We staggered over the door of lower floors, and I flung him in carelessly. He moaned in protest as he plummeted down the stairs. I winced in sympathy.

Struggling past the crowd of passengers who'd begun to crowd around the door, I caught my bike as it skidded across the wooden floor. Frantically, I looked around to see if there was a place I could safely tie it to.

"Here!" someone shouted, and I swiveled, automatically catching the rope that was hurled at my face. The boy I'd seen fishing earlier had tossed it to me, and was gesturing for me to approach the railing. Together, we tethered the bike down, though there were moments I feared we would be launched overboard.

As we teetered across the tilting deck to the cabin, I almost tripped over a fallen barrel that had been slung in my path, and he grabbed my hand. "Careful!" he yelled over the clamor, and we safely made it down the stairs to the passenger cabins.

Once we left the chaos behind us, I smiled gratefully. "Thanks a million," I breathed, thankful that we'd made it through the storm alive.

"No problem!" the boy chirped enthusiastically, seeming completely unaffected by the storm. He let go of my hand and turned away. "I'm gonna go help more people out!"

I blinked, amazed at his compassion. "Ah, could I also come?" I asked tentatively, and he beamed.

"Sure!" he exclaimed, dragging me away.

Together, we scampered from person to person, offering water and medicine to the seasick individuals. We continued until the storm abated entirely.

"Thanks for the help!" the boy said, grinning widely.

Confused, I waved my hands. "No, no—it was the least I could do after you helped me out."

"I'm Gon," he declared, thrusting out one hand.

I grasped it, and he immediately began to shake forcefully. "N-nice to meet you, Gon," I said, a little perturbed at his zeal. "My name is Arella. Ah, I'm going to go check on my bike now."

"Okay, I'll come, too!" Gon said happily, clambering up the stairs to the main deck.

When we reached the outside, however, he frowned. I paused when he didn't follow me to my bicycle, and turned in puzzlement as he slowly made his way to the head of the ship. Once I established that my bicycle was in as poor condition as I'd originally brought it in, I trotted over to Gon, opening my mouth.

"Boy, what's the matter?" the captain asked before I could. "You finally getting seasick?"

I jumped, not realizing he'd been behind me—which was a little suspicious in my opinion. There weren't many people who could sneak up on me.

"There's an even bigger storm headed this way," Gon stated, looking over the horizon.

"Really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow disbelievingly. "How do you know?"

"The wind is salty," Gon explained. "The seagulls are warning each other as well."

The captain seemed as nonplussed as I was. "Boy!" he said in a shocked tone. "You can understand the language of birds?"

"Not all of it," Gon admitted, "but enough."

Tilting my head, I attempted to make sense of the birds' cawing and found I couldn't. Though my first inclination was to brand Gon as a liar, I couldn't find it in me to doubt the young boy. For some inexplicable reason, I trusted him. To say the least, I was impressed.

As the captain and Gon continued to converse, I made my way back down to the passenger cabin. It seemed there was little reason to stay aboard. Right when my foot came off the bottom step, a loudspeaker crackled to life.

"We are headed towards a storm that's about twice the size of the last one," the captain's voice said gruffly. Immediately, all the passengers began to complain loudly. "If you don't want to risk your lives, get on the emergency boats we've provided and take cover on the nearest island until the storm passes."

Surprisingly to me, there were many people who got off immediately. Too many had come without the resolve to carry through. I watched as person after person quickly gathered his belongings and jumped in a lifeboat. The room emptied before my very eyes.

In the end, there were four people left—me, Gon, and two others I'd never really paid attention to. They both seemed to be around my age.

The taller of the two strangers was wearing a smart suit, looking rather imposing with his dark sunglasses. The other was wearing a blue tabard-like piece of clothing which I secretly thought looked kind of cool. I squinted down at my own clothing—a simple shirt and trousers—and sulked. Even Gon was wearing a specially-tailored outfit of bright green.

The captain of the boat entered the room, folding his arms.

"So that just leaves the four of you," he said. "Give me your names first."

The tall man in the black suit went first. "Call me Leorio," he said.

"My name is Kurapica," the blond boy said next.

"I'm Gon!" Gon exclaimed.

"And I'm Arella," I finished.

The captain stroked his beard thoughtfully, and the four of us waited tensely. "Why do you wanna become hunters?" he asked finally.

My eyes widened in comprehension. This ship ride must've been part of the hunter examination, which explained why the captain had been able to sneak up on me. It made sense that he would also be a nen user.

It seemed, however, that I was the only one to realize. "Why're you asking?" the man named Leorio groused. "Are you the interviewer or something?"

"Just answer," the captain said stonily.

"I want to know what kind of job my father did!" Gon said without preamble, causing Leorio to smack his face.

"Hey, kid, don't just answer like that," he complained. "Don't you have any sense of teamwork?"

Gon furrowed his brows. "Why does it matter? He's just asking us the reason."

I agreed with Gon. "I want to be a hunter so that I can pay for my brother's hospital bills," I announced.

Glancing at Leorio, I was bemused to see that his expression had changed from irritated to a cross between unhappy and nostalgic. He sighed. "Whatever, I can't do it," he grumbled. "I'd rather even fight than do something I don't want to do."

"I agree with Leorio," Kurapica said, causing Leorio to twitch at having the honorific in his name left out.

"How old are you to be saying my name like that?" he asked irritably.

Kurapica ignored him. "It's easy to pretend to tell the truth to avoid question you don't want to answer," he continued. "However, I also think lying is one of the most shameful acts possible. But for me to disclose my true reasons to someone I just met… It's simply too personal. Therefore, I cannot answer that question here."

"Oh, is that so?" the captain asked slyly. "Then you two must get off this ship immediately."

The boys froze. "Why's that?" Leorio asked.

"Don't you get it?" the captain sighed. "The hunter qualification exam has already begun!"

I inwardly nodded, my suspicions confirmed.

"As you know, there are just too many people who want to become hunters," the captain explained. "The examiners don't have enough time or the manpower to evaluate you all. For that reason, people like me are hired to cut down the numbers. The ones who left in the lifeboats have already been disqualified. Even if they find their way to the examination site by an alternative route, they'll be rejected. Basically, it's up to me whether or not you'll be allowed to take the actual exam. So just answer the question."

There was a long silence at the end of the captain's speech. Finally, Kurapica opened his mouth. "I'm…a survivor of the Kuruta tribe," he said, startling the captain. "There's a group of bandits who massacred my tribe four years ago… I want to become a hunter to capture the Phantom Brigade."

"A blacklist hunter applicant, eh?" the captain murmured. "The ones of the Phantom Brigade are A-class bounties. Even a veteran hunter would have difficulty. You'll most likely just end up getting killed."

"I do not fear death," Kurapica said quietly. "I only worry that my rage will someday disappear."

Leorio sighed. "So you want revenge. That's something you can do without becoming a hunter."

"That's quite an ignorant statement, Leorio," Kurapica replied, once again leaving out the honorific. "There are places you can't enter, and information you can't obtain unless you're a hunter. Don't you even know that?"

I frowned, realizing that both were being quite rude to each other. I assumed it was the irritation from being stuck on a cramped boat for so long, but still…

"Leorio, how about you?" the captain asked.

Leorio seemed to temporarily shrug off his irritation. "Me?" he asked. "I don't want to suck up to you or anything so I'll just be honest. Money!" he exclaimed. "If I have money, I'll be able to get my hands on everything! A huge mansion! Luxurious cars! The best wine!"

"You can't buy character with money, Leorio," Kurapica stated bluntly.

I watched in dread as a livid expression crossed Leorio's face. "That's three strikes," he growled. "Let's take this outside, Kurapica. I will end the filthy bloodline of the Kuruta tribe."

"Take that back, Leorio," Kurapica hissed murderously.

"You mean 'Leorio-san,'" Leorio snapped. "Come."

"Wherever you'd like," Kurapica replied, and both boys set off to the main deck.

The captain hurried after them, flustered. "Do you expect to pass the hunter exam by ignoring me, you punks? Hey! I'm not done talking yet!"

"Let them be, sir," Gon suggested, and I was flabbergasted.

"Why?" I demanded. "They're going to kill each other."

"To know someone is to know what angers him," Gon stated. "My Aunt Mito taught that saying to me. To me, the reasons why those two are angry are very important, so I think it's better to just let them be."

The captain and I mulled this over until a crewmember burst through the door. "Captain!" he gasped. "The storm is approaching faster than we anticipated!"

We all rushed to the deck, where the crewmembers were desperately trying to raise the sails before we capsized. In the middle of the ship, Kurapica and Leorio were rushing at each other with their weapons raised.

Suddenly, part of the ship's mast snapped in half, throwing one of the crewmembers overboard.

"Katso!" someone screamed.

"Shit!" Leorio snapped, immediately lunging for the falling man, fight with Kurapica forgotten. Gon was hot at his heels.

Breaking out of my shocked reverie, I raised an arm and prepared to snap my fingers, intent on forming a wall of air in front of the falling man. Halfway through the motions, I changed my mind, realizing that if I formed a hard wall, the man would surely bash his head against it and sustain severe damage.

I leapt after him with Leorio and Kurapica, though none of us managed to reach him on time. Gon, however, leapt off the ship, latching himself to the man's legs. Though I was appalled beyond belief at his reckless behavior, I managed to react quickly, grabbing Gon's legs along with Leorio and Kurapica.

Once we were brought to safety, Kurapica and Leorio harangued Gon immediately.

"How could you be so reckless?" Kurapica berated him. "The storm is so vicious that even a mermaid would have trouble surviving in these conditions!"

"If we hadn't grabbed your legs, you would've been swallowed up by the sea, you stupid idiot!" Leorio added.

I sat in stony silence, until Leorio nudged me. "Arella, say something to this moron!"

I took a deep breath. "Your Aunt Mito," I said slowly, "would have cried if you'd died here. I hope you understand that. If we hadn't caught you, you would've drowned."

Though he looked a little repentant at his actions, Gon began to speak. "But you guys did catch me," he said, and I smacked my forehead, realizing he hadn't understood anything at all.

Kurapica, Leorio, and I glanced at one another for a moment, bonding over Gon's insane logic, or lack thereof. Honestly, he was such a child.

"I apologize for being rude," Kurapica said, smiling softly. "I'm sorry, Leorio-san."

Leorio waved off the apology, scratching his chin sheepishly. "Man, you're embarrassing me," he said. "Just Leorio is fine, Kurapica. I also take back everything I said before."

I groaned in frustration. "Men!" I exclaimed. "Dumb, stubborn animals."

Immediately, protests began to arise, most notably from Leorio.

We were interrupted by guffaws from the captain, who was leaning against the mast. "You youngsters are really something," he chuckled. "I'm feelin' mighty good today! I'll make sure you guys reach the closest harbor to the examination site! I give you my word."

We blinked in surprise, conflict forgotten. "What about your exam?" I asked, confused.

"Ah, I'm so happy I forgot all about it!" he thundered. "Gon, why don't we continue with the steering lesson?"

Gon leapt to his feet. "Okay!" he shouted gleefully, leaving the rest of us behind.

We reached Doreh Harbor a couple hours after that, and saw that it was swamped with people.

"Wow, there are tons of people here," Leorio whistled appreciatively.

Kurapica nodded. "The majority of the crowd is probably here for the same reason as us."

As we left the boat, the captain stopped us. "One last piece of advice," he said in a grave tone. "Head for the mountains, towards that large tree." He pointed over our heads and we stared at the prominent landmark.

"Alright!" Gon said. "Thanks!"

As we pushed through the crowd, we stopped in front of a large map to see where Zaban was located.

"That's weird," Leorio said. "The district of Zaban is a big city. There's no reason to head towards a mountain in the opposite direction. There's even a bus that goes directly to Zaban."

"But the captain advised us to head for the mountain for a reason," I pointed out from atop my bicycle. I leaned on the handle bars. "I don't think the captain was mistaken. If he really wanted to fail us, he could've just thrown us off the boat like he did with everyone else."

"Maybe the captain was mistaken?" Kurapica suggested cautiously.

Gon shrugged. "I'm still going to go. Like Arella said, there must've been a reason."

"Gon, you should learn to be more suspicious of others," Leorio admonished. "I recommend you take the bus."

I shook my head. "Look, there must be a thousand people over here. Only a handful passes the hunter exams. If all these people made it to the exam center, wouldn't it be too simple? The bus must be a trap," I argued.

After thinking it over, Leorio and Kurapica finally agreed.

It felt nice to be trusted.