CHAPTER 13
"Please step up on the scale."
Hayuri did as the nurse told her and saw the instrument pointed at 58 kg and 172 cm. The nurse wrote down on a file and then allowed Hayuri to step down. She sighed in relief now that the thorough health file was complete and got dressed. She and Killua had been accepted as official trainees for the job of royal guards and were about to start their training. Fortunately, they had been given a four day rest, so Hayuri's injuries were pretty healed by now. Of course the wound was still there and it still hurt as hell, but she was now able to move around with some strain without hurting herself further. Of course, this was not due to some unnatural healing capacity, but to the top notch technology that was at the disposal of nobles, royal guards and the royal family itself.
Hayuri went out of the infirmary and walked down the corridor. The left side was covered in 4 mt tall windows and on the ceiling hung huge chandeliers every couple steps. On the right wall she could see the past members of the royal guard portrayed on hyper realistic paintings. Hayuri was a little tired of that much flashiness and over furnishing, and wondered how the inhabitants of such places didn't grow tired of it. At the end of the hallway, Hayuri opened a golden double door and entered the dining room assigned to them.
The room was packed with royal guard trainees; there probably were around 30 of them. A couple turned to look at Hayuri for a second or two and then went back to their own stuff. Hayuri glanced around quickly and found Killua sitting on a table by himself. She waved at him and walked closer.
"Hey." She said sitting down next to him. "How was your physical checkup?"
"Boring." Killua shrugged and munched on his sandwich.
Hayuri sighed at his lack of conversation and stood up to serve herself some breakfast from the buffet. She waved a waiter away when he started approaching her to probably offer getting her food, since she thought that being spoon fed like that was ridiculous. She got some eggs, bread and fruit and went back to her seat.
"Oiii.. have you noticed anything about our fellow coworkers?"
"Yesh, I hab." Killua nodded and gulped down his food. "There are a few of them that have caught my attention. The bulky guy with red hair that's named Tora; he seems to be confident in his physical strength and looks a little sick in the head to me - trust me on this one. The blond woman on a blue shirt is called Nanami and she seems to have a sharp mind and be the tricky kind, we should always be careful when dealing with her. Lastly, the green haired guy, whose name I don't know since he doesn't talk much, but has this presence about him that puts me on edge. As for the rest of them, they're good enough, but I still haven't seen anyone who catches my eye as the three I mentioned."
"Wow, you actually got that from observing just a couple minutes? Hmm... anyone else that caught your eye?" Hayuri added wiggling her eyebrows.
"Not really."
"Ohh, come on." Hayuri pouted and took some food, leaning closer to it. "How about the brown haired girl with dark skin and beautiful green eyes?"
"Oh, that one. Her name seems to be Hayuri and she's just a baka with a low I.C. At first I wondered how come she got in here, but it appears that she has come following the silver haired cool guy. Actually, he seems kinda interesting and strong. And smart. Actually, maybe she's not a guard trainee at all, but just his servant. It would make sense, be-"
"Low I.C.?" Hayuri frowned. "I may not be as smart as you are, genius boy, but I most certainly don't have a low C.I."
"Really? You even took like five minutes to even realize that I had insulted you, baka."
"Hey, I was finishing up what I had in my mouth. Unlike other people I am a good mannered person."
"Huh? Good manners? Where? If you think only speaking after you swallow makes you well manners, you are damn wrong. Every one in my family is more educated then you are. My mom would even say that you are more like a gorilla instead of a woman."
"Haaa, and what about you?" Hayuri scoffed. "You are as bad as I am, so don't you dare call me a gorilla!"
"I just choose to act like you, common girl. I can be as educated as I want." Killua exaggerated his gesticulations with his hands.
"Well, I'm sorry for growing up on the streets, Mr. nobleman."
"Oh, don't worry. You are forgiven. It's like going on a picturesque tour for free. Sharing my time with common people like you, that is."
"Jeez." Hayuri huffed and re-opened her mouth to give some sort of retort, but was interrupted.
"Hello." The blond girl known as Nanami was standing by their table with a kind smile. "I'm Nanami, pleased to meet you."
"I'm Hayuri, pleased to meet you!" She smiled.
"Killua."
And then, a sort of monologue started, in which Nanami told then about herself - sadly only irrelevant information like the food or colors she liked. After a minute or two Hayuri realized something; the girl had been only talking to Killua. She even had a faint blush on her cheeks, but Killua seemed not to notice her flirting. Even more, Killua seemed so uninterested that he wasn't even looking at her and biting his nails. After a while she stopped talking and shyly looked at the both of them.
"Well... please to meet you! I guess I'll be seeing you around." She gave them a bright smile and walked away.
"Well... I guess you were wrong about her, huh? She seems pretty honest and open to me." Hayuri pointed out when she was out of hearing range.
"I wasn't; she's good. I was trained on pinpointing acts and liars and I'm good at gauging people just by looking at them. So trust me when I say this; you should be weary of her."
"Oh, jeez. I almost forgot how humble you were about your numerous traits."
"Ohh, are my traits that numerous?" Killua smirked.
"Oh, yes. I can't tell you how much I've been wooed." Hayuri rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless.
"Please do."
"Oh, hey. About your wooing abilities. Nanami was all over you, wasn't she? At least your so called traits do work on some people."
"She wasn't. She was faking everything, I told you. Be wary of her." Killua slightly narrowed his eyes and leaned closer to Hayuri. He looked at her and sighed in defeat. "Actually, don't even talk to her at all. Knowing you, you'll get fooled in no time."
"How could you possibly know that sort o-"
Suddenly the entrance door to the dining room was sharply opened by a tall middle aged man. He had straight black hair and a mustache and was wearing a military uniform of sorts. He carried himself around with arrogance and a sense of authority. He stood under the doorframe for a couple of seconds and with his hands in his hips.
"All right, newbies!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. "Get in line here and stop eating like beasts."
Everyone quickly got up and walked to the center of the hall and got in line. Hayuri stood there and felt her hands sweat a little.
"All right, your first assignment will be a general test, but this time so that we can see what level you're on. It will be an individual test in which you'll have to perform four tasks. The first one will be getting to a pointed destination as fast as you can and while remaining hidden from our different watchers and cameras. This will allow us to assess your speed, stealth, and navigation skills, which will be important to your job as bodyguards. You will start from this place and have to get to room 27 in building C of the royal complex. Any questions?" He waited a couple seconds before speaking again. "I should've guessed! All right, when you hear ringing outside the test will start."
Everybody got ready and as soon as a screeching noise was heard, everyone sprinted towards the door or a window. Killua immediately used zetsu and hid his presence as good as he could. He ran through the palace at full speed and using his most quiet steps. He was soon reminded of most of his assassination jobs and he searched for the mentioned room. His intuition allowed him to get to a wing where the administration seemed to be. In a couple seconds he had found a map and pinpointed the room. Only a minute or two later he was entering the said place and was met with the impressed stare of the examiner. Of course, he had done his best and, since he had been doing this for his whole life, he had taken only four minutes. When the man broke out of his reverie, he wrote his time down and told him to sit down and wait for the others. Five minutes later, the next trainee arrived, and was closely followed by others. The tenth to arrive was Hayuri and, as soon as her time was written down, she walked to sit next to Killua.
"Tora, Nanami and the green haired guy came right after I did. I knew they were good."
"Well... I'll assume you got here first place. So, how long did you take?" She said leaning forward and raising her eyebrows.
"4 minutes."
"Whaaaat? How did-? Is that even possible? Did you know your way around from before?"
"I guess I'm just good at this." Killua shrugged.
"Well, good for you. Maybe you'll become the all-time favorite trainee." Hayuri pointed out while stretching her back. "You're definitely the best one in here."
Killua looked a little taken aback by her sudden praise, but said nothing. A couple minutes later, the last trainee arrived and everyone gathered at the front. Their teacher of sorts told them to follow him outside until they stopped in the middle of a big open space.
"The second task will test your ability on long range attacks. You'll have to aim at 20 moving targets without harming the rest. The targets will be colored red and the other will be yellow. You can use any method you like as long as it's long range. You can also use any weapon of the arsenal by my right. Lastly, you only have 8 seconds time to finish them all."
Hayuri picked a couple kunai as weapons, since she was most comfortable with them. Killua picked a pack of long and thin needles, since his older brother had efficiently taught him for whole two years how to kill with them. Everyone got in line and the watched as their teacher used hatsu and many rubber balls started floating around at great speed and with random directions that changed every couple seconds. Everyone started throwing their own weapons of choice. Most of them would hit 60 to 80 percent of the targets. When Nanami's turn came, she managed to finish 90% of the red balls, and was praised by a couple guys. Killua narrowed his eyes at her and wondered if she had worked on assassination as well. She sheepishly smiled and slightly bowed in appreciation. Hayuri frowned and wondered if she truly was as fake as Killua said she was.
Hayuri's turn came and she inwardly hoped that she would to all right, since she wasn't very competent at long range combat. She truly did her best and managed to get 70% of the targets, which placed her amongst the average. Not too bad. She shrugged and walked to the side and watched Killua step up. He crouched a little and narrowed his eyes as he crossed both arms in front of his face, each hand holding at least a half a dozen needles. He simultaneously threw all of them at great speed and he finished most of his targets on that moment. The balls hadn't even hit the ground when he had already launched a second attack and disabled all of the remaining ones. Everyone stared in shock as he had only taken 4 seconds to finish them all, and none of his needles had been misused. Killua walked to the side and was elbowed by Hayuri.
"Baaka. Why are you showing off, huh? Need some attention?" she loudly whispered to him.
"I'm just aiming for the best position as a bodyguard. Is that too bad?"
"You would've gotten it anyways! Now that Nanami girl will be all over you once again." Hayuri sighed and held her hand to her temple.
"Huh? Why is that a problem to you? Wait! Don't tell me. You're jealous!" Killua feigned surprise and held a hand to his 'o' shaped mouth.
"Don't get all cocky with me; it's just uncomfortable to be around when someone hits on you." Hayuri quickly said and looked away from Killua to hide a light blush on her cheeks.
"Don't worry, Hayuri. There's a couple of hideous guys around. Maybe one of them will feel generous one day and hit on you."
"Oi. I'm not that bad. I'd even say that I'm above average, ok?" Hayuri crossed her arms and felt a tick mark appear on her forehead. "I think any guy in here could be interested in me. Err… maybe most of them? I haven't really thought about it."
Hayuri frowned and looked around as she mentally checked every guy around her. Killua wanted to openly laugh at her for what she'd said and mock her, but they were in the middle of a test of sorts. So he simply stifled a laugh that threatened to escape his throat with his hand and looked back to the last couple trainees as they aimed at their targets.
"All right! Your third test is to spar with each other on hand to hand combat, so that we can see how good your close range abilities are. However, you are not allowed to use any weapons and Hatsu is not allowed. You will fight two times each and each encounter will last 60 seconds. Of course you cannot kill your opponent, you are working partners, remember?"
Killua was up against the bulky man called Tora. He was widely smirking while cracking his knuckled and stretching his head both sides. Killua simply stood there with his signature nonchalant posture and bored face. As soon as the fight started, Tora jumped at Killua and aimed a punch at him. Killua barely had time to get out of the way, his punch connecting to the ground and creating a huge dent. Even though Killua had expected his increased brute strength, he was slightly impressed at his speed; he had expected his huge body mass to slow him down.
"Haaa, you're not bad, whitey. It'll be fun kicking a punk like you around." He smirked and jumped at him again. However, Killua swiftly grabbed his wrist and flung himself up in the air above him and kneeled on his shoulders. He aimed an elbow at his right shoulder, but was forcefully shaken off before his attack connected. He black-flipped a couple times away from Tora and looked back at him to realize that he seemed kind of pissed.
"Wait, did I anger you? I thought big elephants were used to having other animals on their back." Killua smirked as he saw the man get red in anger. "You must be related to them, right?
"I'll fucking beat the crap out of you, brat!" the middle aged man yelled and quickly launched a kick at Killua's side. However, due to his angered state, he hadn't seen that Killua had purposely moved next to a stone pillar. So he simply stepped back and his feet connected to it, turning it to dust. Tora's vision was hindered by a couple seconds and, before he knew it, his back was hit with great force. His huge body was sent a good 6 meters away and he rolled a couple more. He immediately stood up and blocked Killua's next punches. A couple attacks were exchanged, until Killua crouched and round house kicked him off his feet.
"Wow, you've gotten slower." Killua said, knowing that it was due to his provocation. "I was kidding when I said you were an elephant, but maybe I'm some kind of clairvoyant, you know?"
Before the bulky man could counter attack again, the fight was over and he scowled back at Killua.
"You'll pay for this. You better remember that." He muttered though gritted teeth and walked away.
Killua said nothing, but had a complacent smirk on his face as he walked back to the crowd and sat next to Hayuri.
"Oi, Killua. Weren't you the one that told me that he looked sick in the head? Weren't we supposed to be weary of him?"
"That advice was meant for you. I can take him no problem any time. Also, he was underestimating and mocking me, so he had it coming."
Hayuri sighed and watched the rest of the fights. Most of the fighters looked like regular nen users, but it was difficult assessing their strength without watching them use hatsu. Soon, both of Hayuri's turns came up and she was against two guys that were pretty regular. She was a little above them, but no big hits were exchanged and the fights ended in cordiality. Killua's last fight was pitiful, since he immediately knocked to poor man out, and was reprimanded by their teacher for not measuring his strength. He reminded him that the purpose of the activity was to measure their abilities, not to simply win the encounter. Hayuri smiled a little at that, thinking that Killua looked like a naughty little boy being scolded because of some prank he'd pulled.
The rest of the fighting was pretty plain and uneventful. When the test was finished, everyone walked back into the building and entered the dining room once again. Their teacher got to the middle of the room and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"The fourth and last task, will allow us to gauge your analytic mind and strategic thinking." He said with an authoritative voice as he walked back and forth. "So it'll be a written test. A scenario will be presented to you with a limited amount of information and you'll have to present an analysis on the situation and an action plan accordingly. You have 60 minutes and you may leave when you're done."
Everyone got a paper sheet, walked to a table and sat down.
The scenario presented was an assassination threat on an important business man that could under no circumstances stop his activities and had hired them as bodyguards. They were given some data on the man's background, his enemies and detailed info on the place where he'd be staying for a couple weeks. They also had a general schedule of what his next 10 days would consist of. Hayuri looked at the information for a couple minutes and finally devised a plan to protect him.
Killua completed the test a couple minutes before she did and left the room, this time not being amongst the first couple people to finish. When Hayuri had written everything down, she walked to the main desk to hand it over and left the room. As she walked down the hallway to go find Killua in the main garden - where she supposed he'd left to - she walked across a payphone. She thought for a moment and decided to call the hunter agency that she worked for. She put a coin in the machine and dialed the number.
"Hello?"
"Hey, it's me, Hayuri."
"Oh! Hey, what's up?"
"You texted me saying to give you a call."
"Ah, yes. You texted me saying that you'd be working as a Royal Guard in Western Padokia?"
"Yes, we already passed the test to apply. We're currently trainees."
"Good. When you told us where you were at we came across a job that has to be taken care of in there and the pay's worth a whole year's work."
"Really, that much? Did you find it by coincidence?"
"Well, kind of. We knew you were there and looked it up just in case something came up. So, will you do it?"
"Of course! I'll kill two birds with one stone."
"All right. We're already finding some people working on the inside that can serve as spies to support your work. When the target's found we'll be immediately noticed by them and go give you a hand."
"A hand? Since when do we even do that? Do you think I need help?"
"Well, you probably will if we want to success. You'll receive notice of who the target is by word. For now I have to go. Good luck."
"All right. Goodbye."
Hayuri hung up the phone and stood there for a couple seconds. For some reason, she felt a sort of anticipation and dread build in her chest. She thought for a couple seconds, but couldn't find a reason for her apprehension, so she simply shook it off and left to find Killua.