This chapter is much more canonical than the earlier ones so be warned. I'll try my best to twist the events so please tell me whether or not I succeeded. And if it's been a while since you've watched the show, I suggest you not skipping the canonical paragraphs, ne…?
Don't skip the dialogues, too! Most of 'em are mine…
And please don't hesitate to review. :D
DISCLAIMER: I WISH I own Hunter X Hunter
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CHAPTER 3: Pride X Storm X Exam
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEA
Their voyage started relatively peacefully, you know… considering the ship was full of self-proclaimed barbarians. This meant that little disagreements would turn into full-fledged fights.
"Cut his head!"
"Spear 'im!"
"Kick him in the*****!"
…were just a few of the rather loud shouts. The three continued to do their own thing until a certain captain caught everyone's attention by throwing those involved off the ship. He stated that as long as they were in his ship, they wouls all follow his rules or else they would have to swim to Dole.
"Who does he think he is?"Leorio muttered under his breath while Gon and Kurapika continued on with their indifference. For a few hours, they remained that way. That was until Gon sensed the change in humidity as well as other signs indicating the approach of huge storm.
"A big storm is coming." She voiced out, getting everyone-who-heard's attention and Leorio's incredulous scoff. The captain asked why she thought so and she coolly reasoned out her statement. The captain immediately told the crew to get ready, much to Leorio's visible shock.
The captain then let out a knowing smile and looked at the little girl staring seriously at the horizon. He saw another figure—a figment of his imagination- standing confidently beside his daughter. He grinned.
'Your daughter is pretty interesting, after all… Just like you said.'
...
Turned out Gon was right- and so everyone went inside the cabins to take cover. As anyone would expect, traveling in a storm was rough causing several of the well-built men to either vomit, faint, or call for their mothers. When the captain came to check, he mentally mocked the ambitious men- soon noticing the three people who were seemingly unaffected by all the chaos.
Leorio was looking at his compact mirror, arranging his tie. Kurapika was sleeping soundly, while Gon was doing acrobatic stunts on a wildly rolling barrel. The captain scoffed and mused that the only ones going to make it to the main exam amongst these reservoir of idiots were those three.
The storm went on and Gon was doing really well, showing off her inhuman reflexes and balance. But when she saw a large man rolling to oblivion heading towards her direction, she was caught off-guard and she effectively lost her balance.
"AH!" She yelled catching a certain narcissist's attention, and waking a slumbering blonde up.
A small thump was heard and Gon found herself getting carried by Leorio. She smiled.
"Thanks, Leorio-san." She stated making him grin proudly at his valiant act. Just when she got down, though, the boat turned left sharply getting Leorio's face to land on the floor. The boat stabilized immediately afterwards but when Leorio got to his senses he immediately looked at his handy compact mirror only to experience the shock of his life.
"Are you alrigh- HAHAHAHAHAHHA!" Gon exclaimed as she saw Leorio's expression of despair. Add that with a swollen cheek and you got a nice little image of mocking comedy. Leorio cursed and continued to look at himself in the mirror, while Gon didn't stop laughing.
They didn't notice the pair of cerulean eyes watching them blankly.
...
BOOM!
CRACKLE!
BAM!
And more and more screams of grown men were heard around the cabin. But thankfully, the storm started to calm down. Slowly, yes, but surely.
An hour passed by and the storm officially came to an end. Gon's laugh-trip did too, after an annoying amount of time- much to Leorio's chagrin. She apologized and he scoffed, before she tightened her ponytails and went in to help the other passengers. Kurapika offered to help, and Leorio (as an aspiring doctor) reluctantly did the same.
"Well, well… don't we have a number of doctors on board?" The captain said, amused by the sight. He asked their names out-of-nowhere getting Leorio to object while the other two told him their names without question. Kurapika, though, seemed to have forgotten to add an honorific on Leorio's name while he explained to him why there was no need to hide their names to the ship's captain.
The captain smirked, and then asked why they took the hunter's exam. This time only Gon told her reasons unquestioningly while the other two were very unwilling to tell theirs. As they reasoned themselves out to the oblivious Gon, and a tension between them keeps building up. Kurapika seemed to always forget the honorific and also seemed like he had a knack for intervening with Leorio's sentences as well. Leorio's eye twitched crazily.
'Does he have something against me?'
Not long after, the captain revealed that he was an examiner so the two were forced to tell their reasons. Kurapika said that he needed to regain what was stolen from his tribe and to put the criminals behind bars, while Leorio told him it was all about the money. Gon scratched her head since she recalled that Leorio wasn't taking the exam but then shrugged it off. She just told herself she probably heard wrong.
As the discussion continued, Leorio inquired why he had to be a hunter to carry on revenge. Kurapika said it would be easier. And soon enough, the conversation turned to something offending and the tension between the two just got worse. They simultaneously gritted their teeth in annoyance.
They challenged each other for duel.
The two- in the heat of anger- ran to the main deck and glared at each other. A split-second later, they were in each other's throat with each of them saying the other should apologize. It was mainly a battle of pride since then.
Although... it was certainly an impressive fight, especially for two youngins, the captain thought. But it wasn't really necessary. Their fighting was stopped the instant they saw a certain girl jump off the boat to save one of the crew members.
The two forgot they were in the fight and went to help the girl and his crewmate.
THUMP!
"Gah!" Leorio gasped as soon as he was sure they were all safe. It seemed like he lost his breath as he pulled the idiots back to the deck. Kurapika was panting, the crewman practically unconscious, while Gon was grinning.
Her lack of nerves at the moment hit theirs.
"GON!" They simultaneously yelled, making her flinch.
Kurapika and Leorio really wanted to hit the girl on the head. She made them worry way too much, and much to Kurapika's concern… much more than necessary, as well.
"I'm sorry." Gon apologized her relieved smirk now completely gone. Somehow this triggered an arrow of guilt to attack him.
He let out a deep breath and stared at her. "Just... don't do something so careless again, alright?"
Gon blinked at his sudden calming, and so did Leorio. So she just smiled.
"Hai..."
After landing, more tests had to be overcome before they could get into the main exam. The first one was the inconvenient two choice problem, which introduced them to the very possible sacrifices they might have to make once they became hunters. The next was the test set up by the Kiriko, shape-shifting beasts, wherein they all passed with flying colors- showing off their individual strengths.
The way to main exam was definitely unconventional. And it now seemed natural for Kurapika and Leorio to bicker here and there. It started with Gon's obliviousness at the advantages of being a hunter, so when they tried to explain- their beliefs, pride, and principles collide… again.
The mocking and cursing stopped when the large elevator did, too. They were given pins with numbers indicated in them. Gon was number 405, while Kurapika and Leorio got 404 and 403 respectively.
She looked around and for some reason her eyes were immediately attracted to a young boy about her age, who was then looking at her with equal interest. He had spiked silver hair and emerald eyes that felt as if they would go right through you. She never let her eyes part from him until he heard an awful scream of terror not too far from the boy.
She immediately shifted her gaze to the scream's source and saw that half of the person's body was literally stuck on the wall, she didn't know how he did it but it was obvious who did. It was a man, in his early twenties, with an aura that was literally spitting that he wanted to kill. He had bluish silver hair and was wearing an outfit that expressed him as a 'magician' or a Joker. Most likely the latter.
Gon continued to gape at him until he turned to her maintaining his blood-thirsty eyes. But she blinked in surprise the instant the man nonchalantly smiled at her when he noticed. Leorio immediately turned her around as soon as he saw since he knew that the Joker was dangerous. Kurapika maintained his frowning face directed to him. That joker had an incredibly dark presence, that he had felt similar to his targets.
A man named Tompa approached them not too far later. He said he took the exam 35 times and knew all there was to it, so when the examiner appeared and the exam of stamina and mental strength started, he started introducing a few repeaters.
Apparently, the magician was named Hisoka and he failed the previous exam since he almost killed an examiner.
*An Hour Later*
They continued with their run and Leorio still shivered every time he recalled Hisoka's blood thirsty eyes. Kurapika remained impassive while Gon turned around at the sound of wheels approaching them. The boy from earlier was then on her row using a certain apparatus with wheels.
"Hello." She muttered casually.
"Hi." He answered with the same nonchalance. She smiled lightly and looked at his item.
"What's that?" She asked curiously getting an instantaneous gape from the boy.
"It's a skateboard." He stated and then pointed at her back.
"That?" He asked, Gon lifted her hand to touch whatever the boy was pointing to and found out that it was her father's rod.
"Fishing rod." She responded unceremoniously. The boy blinked.
"You're weird." He stated, making her blush lightly and chuckle at his 'flattery'. He smirked internally.
"That wasn't a compliment."
"It wasn't?" She questioned, not thinking otherwise. Leorio scoffed in amusement while Kurapika just observed them. He seemed to be doing that a lot more than necessary lately…
"She has a hard time distinguishing between two opposite concepts, kid." Leorio said, grinning. The boy stared at him blankly and asked something that made Leorio's eyes twitch like crazy.
"Who are you ossan?"
"I am not old. I'm only in my tens! Damnit!" He exclaimed catching everyone's attention…and disbelief.
After a moment of silence-
"EHHHH!" Tompa yelled.
"Really?" Gon uttered silently.
"Unbelievable." Kurapika whispered to himself.
"NO WAY." A random guy at the back commented.
"…" the boy expressed.
And inevitably, a vein popped on Leorio's head. "URUSAI!"He shouted and increased his pace and then started muttering curses as he ran.
"Che."
...
But more and more hours passed- and Leorio got tired. Really tired. It was as if he was being pulled down by the ground.
Tompa volunteered into taking him and another examiner to a sort of healing sap. Gon and Kurapika decided to stay there and wait for them.
"What are you guys standing there for?" The silver-haired boy asked, stopping his tracks.
"We're waiting for them." Gon answered nonchalantly making the boy stare at her in curiosity.
"Why? The examiner's going to leave us behind. It's too late for them, and if by some miracle they do recover they could still follow."
"Because he's our friend."
"Friend…?" He voiced out, surprised at how interested he was. Then, he wondered where he'd encountered this smell that the walls were emitting before...
"Hai. You can be one of ours, too. What's your name? You know… if we see you again after this." She asked pulling him back, he tried to ignore the odd sense of delight slowly creeping inside him- unsure of how to see them. He only felt this emotion when his father or grandfather praised him.
"Killua." He said and the girl smiled.
"I'm Gon, and this is Kurapika."
But then Gon suddenly whipped her head to the direction where Leorio was taken. It was as if she heard something. Her eyebrows arched an instant later signalling the other two that there was trouble.
"See you later, then, Killua." Gon then shifted her gaze to Kurapika and asked him if he'll come with her, and Kurapika nodded immediately. He trusted Gon's instincts to the point that he no longer needed to think about it. He followed Gon's line of sight.
They couldn't just stand by and wait, after all.
And after a little while of sprinting, they found out just how correct their intuition was. Something was wrong, and they overheard everything that bastard Tompa said.
He enjoyed crushing rookies, he stated. And Leorio was just one of his victims.
After Tompa ended his bragging, he turned around only to see two very angry kids frowning at him. His sweat dropped and told them to take care of Leorio before he loses it. He took their momentary panic-stricken phases as an opportunity to escape. They two immediately ran towards their friend while he ran towards the boy who scared him to no end.
"Better stay away from them, old timer." He said to him in an incredibly cold voice. He saw the fat guy shiver and slowly back away from him. He never took his piercing glare away from the man until he was completely out of sight- which, unsurprisingly, didn't take long. He sighed and skateboarded to where the others went to.
As the smell attacked him again, he flinched. He just remembered what the familiar scent was, where it came from, and what it could do. His eyebrows arched involuntarily, and he unconsciously hurried his pace.
THUMP!
Gon was hurriedly running after Leorio who was walking in a daze, when Kurapika suddenly fell down on his knees. Killua had arrived right on cue, and immediately shook Kurapika crazily in an attempt to wake him up, but to no avail. Kurapika's eyes turned red, which shocked Killua making the silver-haired boy shake him even more crazily.
He turned around to Gon who was then pulling Leorio towards them. When she saw that Kurapika was also in some sort of spell, she slowly let Leorio go and walked towards them. Killua decided to walk deeper to the place in order to survey the area and find possible escape routes.
Gon looked at her friend, whose eyes were crimson. In most cases she'd probably think it was amazing and pretty... but the expression on Kurapika's face made sure she thought otherwise. She gently placed her hand on his cheeks and tilted his head so that she could get a better view of the expression of despair he was wearing.
"Kurapika..." She called softly. He flinched slightly, but there was otherwise no response.
"Kurapika." She called again, but this time with a turn that urged him to come back. He cringed a moment before blinking the daze away. His eyes widened as he saw that Gon was right in front of his face, letting her soft and warm hands lie on his burning cheeks.
She slowly took her hand away the instant she saw that he regained his consciousness. She grinned warmly.
"Welcome back."
...
BOOM!
The wall disintegrated catching everyone who was running like hell to follow that blasted examiner to gape in shock. They saw several figures jump off the newly created wall.
Most of the figures, which meant everyone save for Leorio, landed on their feet gracefully. Leorio quickly dusted himself and regained his composure, only to be angered by the sight of the person who almost made him lose all sanity.
"TEME—"He muttered as he grabbed the fat guy's shirt.
"That's enough, Leorio-san." Gon states sternly getting him to lose his grip at an instant. He opened his mouth to kick some reason into her head when Kurapika intervened.
"She's right. We have already wasted enough energy." He said and then glared at Tompa, before adding, "He's not worth it."
Killua smirked and sent an intimidating glare towards the Tompa's direction causing him to lose his footing. He didn't take off his eyes off him until Gon called his name.
"Let's go now, Killua." She stated, and Killua nodded and immediately followed her.
"Where'd you get the bomb?" Gon asked Killua with extreme interest.
"My brother made it." He replied coolly, remembering the little injury he inflicted on his own brother.
"Sugoi, he must be real smart then?"
"In many ways, yes. But he's really mostly just an ass."
"Really?" She asked, confused that a person could be just a butt.
"Yeah." He asserted, misunderstanding the question. "He'll trade anything for his Otaku collection."
"He must really love them, then?" She commented, catching him by surprise. He really didn't think of it that way before.
"…"
"Killua?"
"Probably." He shrugged.
"What about you then, Killua? What are the things that you like?" She asked innocently.
'Killing…?' He mused, since he really didn't know anything else.
"I like fishing… and climbing trees… and playing with my animal friends." She muttered, answering her own question. She then looked at Killua to hear his answer. He didn't, he was just staring in front of him blankly so Gon decided to wait patiently for his answer.
Kurapika, on the other hand, just observed the two children running in front of him. But somehow his focus was really on the younger one. He mused how the sound of her voice so easily attracted his attention. He was confused, but thankful all the same. He had to find a way to repay his lengthening list of debts to her someday.
He continued to stare at her, a habit growing stronger and stronger every minute. But this time she turned back at him and smiled beautifully. He blushed, especially at the remembrance that it was the first thing that he saw when he woke up that time. He was about to smile back at her when she abruptly turned to the boy beside him who was audibly scoffing in irritation.
"Hmph." He muttered quietly as he shifted his visibly annoyed face away from her.
"Killua?" She inquired, puzzled at his behavior.
The boy ignored her and threw his skateboard in front of him and then used it. Gon stopped her tracks for a second in absorption of what happened.
"AH!" She exclaimed. "No fair!" Gon immediately ran after the other kid who was getting farther and farther away from her.
"OI! Kil-lu-a!" She called every time she placed herself wherever he was facing, only for him to turn at the other direction like a spoiled brat.
"Killua~!" She called again while moving to wherever he was looking…again.
This became somewhat a cycle that a few of the contestants who saw chuckled to themselves - even the examiner. He smirked as he looked at the two kids with his peripheral view of vision.
'What adorably tenacious children.'
.
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END OF CHAPTER 3
Coming soon:
CHAPTER 4: Hisoka X Assasination X A Long Third Exam
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REPLIES TO ANGELS
Seithr- Fairy - Oh no, I'm not annoyed at all! You really helped me out a lot here. I have a few ideas as to how to incorporate what you said without really changing anything in my original plot as well. Thank you so much, especially since I can't seem to muster the time to read all those chapters of manga...
hunterxhunter123- Thanks for the comment~! And yeah, I think so too. Ahaha.
imachan1208 - Yes, it is. And my future update rate will be 2 weeks since school is starting again, hope its not too long for you! Thanks for the comment~!
Phoenix-Thunder - Aw, shux. Hehe. Thank you for for the review!
Guest [12/29/11] - I'm glad! Thanks for the review! lolz
Please tell me your thoughts for this chapter or maybe even the story so far~! Thank you~