Disclaimer: Hunter x Hunter belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi. I just own my OC, Hitomi.
Chapter 7: Tricky Tower x Unwanted person x Cross or circle?
They all saw the man who tried to climb down the wall being taken away by the birds, maybe for food.
"Maybe, we shouldn't try that," Hitomi suggested.
No windows, no stairs, no climbing... The options were becoming less and less.
"There must be a door somewhere," the girl suggested.
"Yeah," Kurapika agreed. "We'd better spread out to find the door, if we don't want to fall behind the others."
They spread out, searching for the door. Meanwhile, the people were decreasing and the girl couldn't help but frown at that.
She tapped the floor with her foot as she walked. After a while, one of them seemed to budge with her touch.
Hitomi kneeled down next to it and stared at it.
"Did you find any?" Gon asked.
"Yeah, there's one," she answered.
"And there's more," Killua added, taping some others. "They are seven of them."
Hitomi smiled slightly. There were more than necessary. Gon called over her brother and Leorio and they arrived little before that.
Leorio kneeled down to the door. He opened it, but it closed itself shortly after.
"It seems like it has a self lock function," Kurapika noted. "We have to find other doors."
"Damn! One door per person," Leorio complained, "and it's only good once."
"Also, we should assume that each door leads to a different route." he said, quietly.
"This isn't the time to calmly analyze the situation!" Leorio shouted, annoyed. "We don't even know if there are enough doors for all of us!"
"There are," Hitomi jumped into the conversation. "We found six more like that one. More than enough."
She pointed at each one of them.
"Seven doors located so close to each other..." Leorio said. "There's something fishy about it..."
"Some of them might be traps," Kurapika concluded.
"So luck is part of your skill, huh?" he looked at Kurapika.
"Don't hold it against anyone even if you fall into a trap," Killua said.
"Let's decide the order of picking a door-" Hitomi suggested.
"W-Wait!" Kurapika said. "It's just that..."
Hitomi scratched the back of her neck, still waiting for his brother's sentence, but he didn't spoke. Then she realized that Gon was staring at her... Killua was too... So was Leorio...
She looked up at Kurapika. He was staring at her in worry. She blushed in embarrassment.
"Whoa, Blondie!" she said, once she saw him. "I'm aware of your 'brother's instincts' or whatever, but calm down!"
"But-!" he replied.
"I'm old enough to take care of myself!" she furrowed her eyebrows, annoyed, "Come on! I'm already twelve!"
"Okay," he sighed. "Take care then."
"Yeah, yeah..." she murmured, her cheeks still red. "Let's get over with it then."
They all stretched their arms.
"Paper, rock, scissor!"
After that, they all stood in front of a door.
"Let's all jump in on the count of three," Gon said.
"We'll be apart from each other from here," Kurapika said.
"See you on the ground!" Leorio said.
"You better not get lost, guys." Hitomi joked.
"Yeah," Killua said, simply.
Hitomi looked at the door in determination.
"One, two, three!"
They all jumped in the air and fell into the entrance.
The girl's feet collided with the floor and looked around, despite there were just darkness. She stayed there, waiting for the trap to take activate.
However, the lights turned on. She found herself looking at everyone again. Killua, Gon and she grinned at each other.
"That was a brief separation," Kurapika said.
"Such a pity," Hitomi joked.
They noticed a table with seven watches. The five of them got closer to it and found a sign.
"The Path of the Majority Rules.
The seven of you must find your way to the goal by using 'Majority Rules'."
They put themselves the timers and noticed that they had two buttons, one with a circle and another with a cross.
"Does that mean, unless we get another two people down here we can't get out of this room?" Kurapika asked.
"That's right," a voice said. "There are many routes in this tower. Each one has different requirements. You guys got 'The Path of the Majority Rules'. It's a tough course in which you must cooperate with each other. I wish you all good luck."
And the voice shut up. Kurapika look at his clock.
"The remaining time is 71 hours and 18 minutes... We just have to wait."
Hitomi sighed, before sitting on the ground. Killua and Gon did the same next to her.
"We'll be six," Hitomi said, after a while.
"What do you mean?" Killua asked.
"Remember the door that Leorio opened back then? I have the feeling that was the seventh that guides us here," she explained. "But it won't open again."
"But, didn't he said 'Majority Rule'?" Gon asked. "What happens if three of us choose one option and three the other?"
"Then we flip a coin," Hitomi said, with a straight face.
"Really?" Gon asked with wide eyes.
"No, Gon. She is kidding," Kurapika sat next to them. Hitomi chuckled and Gon pouted. "She doesn't really know."
Killua sighed, before placing his arms behind his head.
It would take a while...
Tap, tap, tap...
"Leorio," Hitomi began.
Tap, tap, tap...
"Leorio."
Tap, tap, tap...
"Leorio!" she called him, louder
"What?" he replied.
Tap, tap, tap...
She released a long sight.
"For goodness sake, Leorio, stop pacing around!" she exclaimed, "After two hours it became really, really annoying!"
He stopped and started to think.
"Two hours? Maybe everyone has taken a different route down already," he said, "The ones still remaining on top must be really stupid."
Right then, they heard the entrance opening. They all looked up.
"It seems like that stupid one was arrived," Killua said.
The person landed in front of them and they gaped at his form. He was someone they sure didn't want to see...
It was Tonpa.
Hitomi facepalmed. "Damn it..."
"Looks like everyone is here," Tonpa said, laughing nervously.
"I don't want to do this 'Majority Rules' thing with you!" Leorio complained
The man put himself the timer and pressed a button. The wall moved.
"All right!" he said, punching the air. "Let's go!"
"Don't 'all right' us when you got here last." Leorio murmured.
"Man, and I thought that Leorio and Killua were the most annoying people in the world," Hitomi's eyebrow twitched.
A door appeared with a sign on it. They had to choose wherever they wanted to open it or not. They voted, and realized that there was someone who pressed the 'X', the option 'No'.
"Who the hell choose the 'X' button?" Leorio asked.
"Ah, sorry, sorry," Tonpa scratched the back of his head. "I pressed it by mistake."
And Leorio started to fight with the guy.
"Forget about it. Let's go," Gon said. "The door opened anyway."
"We've wasted two hours already," Kurapika told him. "I don't want to waste any more time quarreling."
"That's right," Hitomi said. "Even if he keeps objecting all the way, we'll be fine as long as the rest of us are cooperating, right?"
"And if he still gets in our way, then..." Killua smirked.
Tonpa flinched.
"Well, all right. Let's get going," Leorio reluctantly let him go.
They walked away and the door closed itself behind them. After a while, another sign showed, making them decide if they wanted to go right or left.
Hitomi pressed the button almost instantly. Tonpa saw what she put and glanced at Kurapika, the same. Then, he picked right.
And the girl's eyebrow twitched when she realized that Tonpa just copied them.
The sign showed two votes for 'left' and four for 'right'. That's why the right door opened itself.
"To the right? Usually in case like this people choose left, don't they?" Leorio asked, shocked. "Actually, I don't feel comfortable unless I choose left in a situation like this-"
Kurapika sighed and pushed him in the way.
"It's true that according to behavioral studies when people are lost or when selecting an unknown route, more often than not, they tend to go left," he explained.
"I've heard of that too," Killua said.
Hitomi nodded. Leorio, however, was confused.
"Hey, wait a minute! The numbers don't add up," he said. "Which one did you guys press?"
"Right," Kurapika, Killua, Hitomi and Tonpa said at the same time.
"Look, guys-" Leorio started to complain.
"People are likely to choose left. A proctor should know that, and would make a more difficult trap on the left path," Hitomi said.
"That's why we choose that." Tonpa concluded.
Hitomi glared at the man and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, right..."
"We're simple minded all right. Right, Gon?" Leorio said.
"So I'm at the same level as Leorio..." Gon flinched.
Finally, they arrived at a room which had a ring in the middle of the nothing. In the other side, they could see six cloaked people with cuffs in their hands.
One of them took off his cloak and his cuffs and started to talk.
"We've been hired to test you applicants!" he said. "You must fight the six of us here, and since originally you were supposed to be seven, we have a match won now."
Hitomi growled softly.
"The fight is one-on-one! You can fight only once!" he continued. "You can pick your turns. You can pass by winning the majority of matches, meaning four or more wins. You can fight anyway you want. There will be no draws! When one side admits defeat, the other side is deemed the winner! Decide if you will take on this challenge or not by voting. If yes, press the 'O'. If no, press the 'X'."
And, after Leorio glared at Tonpa, they all voted 'Yes'. Right after then, they heard a beep and a red '1' appeared in the opposite side, because of their missing member.
"All right. The first one from our side will be me!" the man said. "Who will be fighting from your side?"
"I'll go," Gon said to his group.
"No, I should go," Kurapika said. "He seems like the type to fight with brute strength. If you fight him straight on, you'll be a disadvantage, Gon."
"Wait a minute... No. I will be the one going," Hitomi objected. "If you fight, you'll base your strategy in the sole suspicion that he is just physically strong. Therefore, you'll do something stupid."
"If you are scared, I'll go," Killua said.
"Who is scared, Whitey?" she asked, annoyed.
Killua was about to say something else, but he was cut before that.
"Wait!" Tonpa said. "I'll go."
They all looked at him in disbelief.
It was just... No way.
"You've gotta be joking!" Leorio said. "A petty scoundrel like you is no match against him."
"I know all of you don't fully trust me, right?" Tonpa said.
"Not at all," Leorio and Hitomi said in unison.
In a normal situation, she would be surprised. She had just thought the same thing that Leorio...
Oh, well.
"Well, listen!" he held his hands up in defense. "Up ahead, we may face a situation in which the score is tied. If you don't trust me, can you risk letting me fight the tiebreaker?"
"Fair enough," Hitomi admitted.
"I see his point," Killua added. "Why don't you let him do it?"
"You offered yourself to be the first one to fight," Leorio told him, annoyed. "So you better not lose."
"Just watch," he said, confident...
Almost too confident.
A bridge appeared, letting Tonpa walk into the arena. The opponent did the same thing.
"Well, let's decide the way of the match," he proposed. "I suggest a death match."
He thought about it for more like five minutes. Hitomi's eyebrow twitched.
"Please, accept it!" Hitomi shouted, jokingly. "I'm begging you!"
His brother looked at her in a disapprovingly manner.
"What?" she asked, grinning. Kurapika just shook his head.
"Alright, I accept your challenge," Tonpa said, solemnly.
They four glared at her, she raised her hands in defense.
"I was kidding!" she defended herself. "He decided to suicide alone, it's not my fault."
As soon as the mode of battle was decided, the man launched towards him in an attack. They all saw Tonpa placing his hands on the floor to do something really, really...
Really unexpected.
"I give up!"
Just... what?
The faces of his companions fell in disbelief.
"Wh-What did... you say?" Tonpa's enemy managed to say.
"I give up," he scratched the back of her head. "I'm defeated."
Hitomi facepalmed, seeing the '2' appearing in the other side. So... What were all of them worried about just now?
Leorio grabbed Tonpa by his collar once he arrived at their side, really pissed off.
"Now I'm convinced!" he yelled, letting him go. "You are a helpless jerk who only gets in others' way!"
"If we win two more fights, you'll lose," the man told them. "You can't go ahead or back. You'll have to spend the rest of your time here until the time limit."
"So, in order for us to win, we must win four out of five fights." Kurapika concluded.
They all looked at Tonpa, who flinched at their intense gaze.
"You got us, old man," Killua said.
"Coward old man," Hitomi corrected.
Tonpa, however, smirked. He looked at them.
"Yeah, I'm a coward," he admitted. "That's how I've always been. And that's how I'll always remain."
"I figured it out, thank you very much," Hitomi said, annoyed. "Get to the point already."
"That's how I have survived!" he continued. "Listen, unlike you, guys, I have no intention of becoming a Hunter. What I want from the Hunter Exam is not to pass but to get any excitement. I stay close to the veterans and watch what they do to hone my ability to sense danger. That way I can ensure my safety, then I get to watch the ultimate show of death. A scene of hell where the dreams of young people are devoured. Gradually, watching such moments became very amusing for me and I began playing actives roles in dashing the dreams of newbies. I found this far more exciting in life than becoming a Hunter."
The girl just felt sick by listening to him. She wanted to puke... It was disgusting.
"As for this year's Exam, it's about time for me to withdraw, I don't care if I fail," he continued. "However, this is 'The Path of the Majority Rules'. If the five of you work hard, you can keep on going with 5 to 1 odds. It's not so bad after all, is it?"
Hitomi's fists clenched, staring only at her feet.
"That's awful," Kurapika said.
"Damn you! I won't forget this!" Leorio exclaimed. "I'm going to take you down to the bottom of this tower."
"Bastard... playing with other's lives? Don't you know how important they are?" she murmured.
"You're just like a computer bug," Killua said, approaching him in a dangerous way. "And I hate games that have bugs."
Tonpa stepped back in fear. However, Gon's naivety saved his life.
"That's right! Tonpa-san is right," he said, happily. "We can keep on going if we maintain 5 against 1 odds. We can, without having to fight among ourselves!"
And like that, Tonpa's life was saved.
They looked into the arena, where the new fighter walked. He did not look very strong... but ...
"It's my turn!" Gon shouted.
After that, a young man faced Gon and agreed to fight in a game in which each one of them had a one whose fire blew off first was the loser.
He showed them two candles, one obviously longer than the other. He said that the group had to decide which one Gon was going to use by Majority Rules.
"I'll bet there's a trap set in the longer one!" Leorio said.
"Certainly, it's normal to think that way," Kurapika said. "On the contrary, there could be a trap set in the shorter one."
"But, if you start thinking about it-"
"Yes, it's endless," he replied. "We're faced with a Disparate Choice. When you're faced with two choices with clearly different conditions, it raises suspicions and you inevitably start to second guess yourself. On top of that, the psychological impact of making a wrong choice is a lot worse than in a situation where the two choices appear even."
The convict however sat down in the floor.
"You can take your time to decide," he said, making the girl narrow her eyes in suspicion.
Hitomi crossed her arms and leaned her back against the wall, sighing tiredly. Killua stared at her, curiously.
"But, something still troubles me..." she murmured.
"What are you thinking?" Killua asked.
"It's just... what if both of the candles are just the same?" she said.
The four of them looked at her, with a serious expression in their faces.
"I mean, they want us to waste as time as possible. The guy is too confident, he doesn't show any nervousness, even if our chances of guessing the 'right one' are still of 50 percent. Also, he didn't say anything about one being different from the other," she explained. "It could just be that they both either have or don't have a trap."
"That's true," Kurapika said. "So, no matter how long we think about it, we'll never guess the right one.
She nodded.
"Then..." Leorio said, nervously. "Which one? I think-"
"Gon, you decide!" Kurapika shouted, cutting him off. "We'll be abide by your decision. Let's go with your natural instincts rather than talk among ourselves."
"I agree," Killua said.
"I can decide?" Gon grinned, they nodded. "Got it. Then I pick the longer one."
They looked at him in disbelief.
"You pick the longer one, right?" the prisoner said. "Why?"
"Because the longer one will last longer, of course!"
Their faces fell once again...
"Gon and his simple-mindedness..." Hitomi sighed.
They had to accept his decision. As soon as Gon turned his candle on, the flame grew, it was a trap. Burned by it, the boy accidentally dropped it, but the fire didn't turn off.
He grinned, before running to the man. He blow the candle, and the match ended.
"I won," he smiled widely.
And a huge '1' appeared in their side.
"Alright, I'll go," Kurapika said and walked into the ring.
Kurapika's enemy retired his cloak and revealed his monstrous appearance, and nineteen hearts tattooed in his chest.
"What a macho man!" Leorio shouted.
"What a Frankenstein, more likely," Hitomi said, sarcastically.
The 'man' - or so he was supposed to be - pointed at his tattooed chest.
"I've killed nineteen people," he said. "But it was bugging me. So, I'm glad the twentieth person has showed up."
"Decide the rules of the match," Kurapika said, cutting off his speech. "I'll follow."
"Then let's have a death match in which we fight until one of us either admits defeat or dies," he proposed. "However, don't think I'll stop beating you just because you decide to admit defeat halfway through the match."
"Alright, that's fine."
Kurapika wasn't affected at all. He just took off his tabard and left in the floor, getting ready to fight.
"Take a good look and see how fierce I am!" he shouted, jumping in the air.
He tried to hit him, but Kurapika avoided it. His fist made a huge crater in the floor, but that wasn't the thing that surprised them.
Intentionally, 'Frankenstein' let all of them see the huge tattoo he had in his back. A huge spider with twelve legs...
That was the Spider.
That's all for today.
Thanks to SoulXHunter for reviewing! I'm sorry, but you will have to wait for a little before I introduce Hitomi's Hatsu in this story... However, I hope you found this chapter as enjoyable as the last one :)
See you later!