YAY! My Latop's safe! (It got doused with hot coffee, in case you didn't know via my FB page). I'm was so happy I resumed writing right away. School submittals came later. Hahah. I read a lot of academic books out of boredom, anyway. xD
And as always, I'd like to express my thanks to the lovely people who showed me their support—not only by reading—but letting me know they're reading. XD I LOVE YOU PEOPLE.
Disclaimer: I wish I own Hunter x Hunter.
…
CHAPTER 29: Exam x Animals x Clearing
Alluka uncharacteristically crossed her arms and stood firmly, looking at them with those (formerly) heart-warming wide eyes of hers that were (at the moment) filled with exasperating stubbornness that she must've gotten from Gon.
"You have to understand Alluka: Many people die in the Hunter Exams!" Killua said, inevitably raising his tone-of-voice. "Too many. The recent ratio's practically 1 is to 5. And that 1 is the surviving group."
Gon blinked at this. The previous exam seemed to have been particularly deadly.
But Alluka kept her ground and shifted her eyes from her brother to Gon. Their huge eyes met, and they stared at each other as if they were sending messages through their eyes. They barely even blinked. Seeing this, Killua nodded to himself, feeling a bit relieved that Alluka was looking at Gon. If there was anyone who can stop Alluka, it was her.
But then—after what felt like a whole minute of silent communication—Gon's stance softened.
"Okay."
"Wha—" Killua almost dropped to the floor and whipped his whole body to face her. "GON!?"
"YATTA!" And she twirled around like the young girl she was, and hugged Gon. "Thank you~ I promise I won't die."
"Gon, what are you—" He was cut off by Gon placing a soft touch on his arms, transforming his gape into an anxious thin-lipped frown. Then his mouth opened in an attempt to reason with the girl, who in turn just sent him that unnerving smile: the sort (normal) parents give their child when the kid is being cute and unreasonable.
"I'm not stupid!" He retorted to the wordless comment, but Gon didn't have the time to reply. The ship was about to depart.
"OIII! Everyone who doesn't want to be left behind better get aboard right noooww!"
Gon grabbed his arm to tell him it was time to move (because, really, he forgot they needed to board the ship in the first place.) And so, as the other examiners rushed in, so did they.
This made Kaito and the others blink. "You're going in?"
Gon nodded, while Killua's still processing the fact that Alluka's really going to be taking the very deadly Hunter's Exam.
"We're examiners!" She replied, flashing a toothy grin (and seemingly oblivious to her partner's state). "We'll see you again soon." She yelled, faced the boat, readied to drag Killua by his arm, and jumped right in.
…
The crowds grouped up naturally, with theirs rather isolated. Gon and Killua stood somewhere farther to talk. "Gon, you do realize how dangerous this is." He paused, recalling the whole silent communication between his two girls. "And what? Did you use telephathy?"
"I just saw how much she wanted this," Gon calmly told him. "You trained her, right?"
"Yes—but she is nowhere near strong-enough to survive this."
"Let her try this." "You're too protective of her."
"But this—"
"You told me yourself, she spent years alone in that room, with only her stuffed animals to keep her company." "You told me you were the only one truly close to her and you were apart for even longer."
It was true, he thought, but still—
"Don't you think what you're doing is no different from what your family did to both of you?"
It was around then that they heard Alluka, with her trademark squeaking voice, ask for a favour. "Please give me your hat."
They whipped their head to the direction of imminent danger and saw Alluka holding out her hand, with an oblivious Ponzu looking at her in puzzlement and a slight worry for her bees. They paled and strode to go between the two. Gon quickly took Ponzu's hat and handed it over to Alluka. Ponzu didn't even realize her hat was gone until Killua leaned down a bit to talk to Alluka.
"Will you give it back to me?" Killua gently asked as he extended his hand. Alluka shrugged and did as she was told and he, in turn, gave it back to Ponzu. "You shouldn't go anywhere near Alluka for now." He told her as he did so. Ponzu's eyebrows furrowed, about to ask why when Killua cut her off. "It's not your fault. But please avoid Alluka at all cost."
"Eh?"
Gon smiled empathically as she tapped the taller girl's shoulder. "We'll explain later," she said. "I'll treat you to some honey-flavoured desert, okay?"
Killua sighed as he watched Gon walk a very confused-Ponzu to the canteen. Asking for favours was in his sister's nature. It was really disconcerting how innocent instincts seem to have such potential for damage.
He can only give Alluka a look, and Alluka just blinked her massive eyes at him.
...
The boat reached the island's docks a couple of hours later. The captain stood in front of the crowd, seeming to gesture for a farewell speech. "Well, here we are! The island where the Hunter Association keeps deadly creatures from the Dark Continent!"
A pause, followed by a teasing grin. "Don't let yourself get mauled by the small ones. Those hurt the most."
As they watched the examinees pour out of the boat, Gon and Killua had a silent agreement to follow. However, merely a few steps in, Killua grabbed Gon's arm.
"No. One of us should ready the exam." He told her. Meaning, the other would do something else. Namely: Guard Alluka.
"…what?"
"You should do it," he went on, not giving Gon a chance to retort. "You know more about the continent than I do, after all."
Gon stared at him, to the point of awkwardness and his eyes ended up somewhere else but Gon. He realized she knew what he was up to. Was she going to reprimand him? Or call him an idiot? Both?
"I suppose you're right," Gon only said, regaining his attention. "But don't intervene unless it's absolutely necessary," she paused, referring to Alluka. "Only when we're sure she could really—" she stopped there and took a gulp, and only then did Killua realize Gon didn't make this decision so easily, after all. "—if she really could lose her life."
She closed her eyes and looked at him straight in the eye. "All these years you were the one who taught her to defend herself, didn't you?" "Trust her."
"But—"
"Do you understand, Killua?"
His shoulders fell. "…Fine."
…
Goreinu stood dauntingly at a rock, arms crossed, eyes focused on the examinees below him. "Listen here kids!" He yelled, looking at the people who were appraising their surroundings defensively, weapons out. "First off, I'd like to tell you there are no animals here yet. They live beyond the gorge you'll be passing later on."
This seemed to calm them down for the moment. Until, of course, he opened his mouth again.
"But for now—"He said, grinning. "Let's play dodgeball!"
They stared at him because they weren't sure if they heard right until Goreinu conjured a red ball. Naturally, a lot of people murmured impressed by the 'magic' trick, while some simply didn't react openly, while even fewer knew what it truly was. Those who knew about nen were a lot compared to the exams a decade prior, however. Times were changing pretty fast since the travels to the Dark Continent.
"Your job is to avoid the balls," he explained, holding up the harmless-looking ball to make his point. "When you catch one—although it's not really required since you'll reach the gorge anyway—you can throw it back to some sacks I hung up in random trees." "They contain tools that could help you cross that gorge."
"Who'll throw the balls?"
"I will." But then more murmurs were heard when five gorillas seemed to appear out-of-nowhere. "And my gorillas." Goreinu was hit by a rock from the back then. He turned to the ninja. "And you're telling me to throw balls, as well?!"
"You are a gorilla, Menchi-san told me so."
Hanzo looked absolutely offended. But he couldn't really call his precious Menchi a liar, so he just pouted, and disappeared like the underappreciated ninja that he was.
Still, the mere act of disappearing seemed to have already impressed some examinees. "These are hunters." A man said, impressed. Tompa disagreed.
"More like magicians."
Goreinu ignored the comments and continued on with his instructions. He nonchalantly pointed at a direction. "You can run into the forest, towards East, as soon as we all disappear in the forests. Am I understood?"
"YES, SIR!"
And Goreinu and his gorillas disappeared as well.
However, as expected, no one moved for a couple of moments. "We just have to avoid the balls right?" someone asked, as if confirming. After all, is the first exam this easy?
"There are no animals?" Another supplied. Surely examiners wouldn't lie about that?
When no one disagreed, most of them gestured to move. And among those one brave (or stupid) man ran immediately to the forest and the others followed. But a second later, the man was hit by a ball—his whole body flying in its trajectory.
Everyone stopped and looked at where he landed. Smoke practically oozing off his chest, and he was a hundred percent unconscious.
"WHAT THE HECK—"
"Is this dodgeball?!"
"Canonball is more like it!"
The mumbling continued until no one could say anything, and an air of stillness followed. No one dared make a move nor a sound, with everyone looking at other people to see who'd be next.
On the other hand, Banana and Pondungo, who now had an idea at the speed and power of the balls, nodded at each other and took a knowing step after the other. Soon, their light stride turned to sprints and they disappeared into the forest, with Alluka and Ponzu following closely behind them.
When no human sound of pain followed, the others found out the girls were the first ones to get past the first few throwers.
Meanwhile, hidden behind the rustling leaves of a random tree... was Killua. The gorillas, Hanzo, and Goreinu did not bother to hide.
Gorillas, Killua mused at that one moment he wasn't thinking about Alluka. They increased in number and in strength, and he was impressed with Goreinu's growth since they last met. Razor's show strength back then really got to him.
Easily getting his thoughts back to Alluka—she seemed to be unhurt at the moment, to his relief.
His sharp eyes surveyed the other contestants and saw that their friends were managing to avoid the protruding rocks, roots, and (cannon)balls. And they should, considering everyone has been holding back with their throws.
Then he heard a thump and saw a guy falling backwards and realized there was a rock. Covered with Hanzo's invisibility cloak.
Looking around, it seemed that there were at least a dozen victims. And when Killua caught a glimpse of the Hanzo, he saw that the ninja seemed satisfied. Killua made a mental note of getting a piece. Just because.
He watched their friends as they avoided Goreinu's balls. They didn't seem to have a hard time, and he relieved to see that Alluka was at least agile enough to avoid the balls. There was also the factor of her height. Alluka hadn't grown much, she was very small for her age. She's a hard target.
More screams were heard, and he noticed that the balls were increasing in speed a little, albeit the strength remained the same. An image of five years ago appeared—roused by the incessant strong sound made by supposedly harmless volleyballs.
He was reminded of what game—Greed Island—actually meant to Gon. I was the only one she trusted enough to be her cannon. Obviously, he'd have trust issues with regards to everyone in his life. It was unfair of him not to give that to his baby sister.
Hanzo was taking out quite a number of participants (because invisibility cloaks was a very finite resource), although he was conveniently avoiding Alluka. He was definitely holding back though, throwing with just enough strength that people of this calibre could handle enough. His gesture was like he was throwing darts, not much power, but incredible accuracy.
Then Killua caught the bald ninja actually targeting Alluka, and he had to use all his strength to keep himself from moving. He had to cheer on Alluka while standing by (and pray that Hanzo fell down that tree). It was one of the hardest things he had to do that day.
But then she fell down because of an overhanging root, and Hanzo's ball effectively missed her (literally) by a hair.
"Wow. She's lucky." Hanzo uttered rhetorically after whistling, impressed. The ninja spared him a glace, which told him that hairless-ninja knew very well he was watching. "Reminds me of you and Gon when you were kids."
"Ah," he spat, and threw a small spark of lightning at the branch which—to his extreme contentment—the Ninja did not see in time, causing him to fall to the ground. Killua left just after he saw the Ninja's face hit the ground.
He arrived to the Gorge in time to see Banana get herself a rope and hook from the sack. But an examiner took it before she could and, because he was so much heavier than Banana and because he did not bother to adjust his tools according to his non-nen wielding stats, he fell down the gorge.
Alluka soon arrived at the gorge—unharmed, sans the small wound she got from tripping—and she didn't even bother get the sacks. She went straight to the gorge and—to his surprise—instantaneously focused nen on her feet and jumped. A second later she was standing on the other side of the gorge, grinning, and red in glee.
Killua released the breath he didn't know he was keeping.
…
It took an hour for at least a dozen examiners to reach to other side of the gorge, and thrice that to get the rest. Killua was standing nonchalantly on a tree branch, a couple of meters from the other side of the gorge, along with people who had made it through. They were watching the final dozen trying to get over the ravine, and only half of them made it through.
It was around then he heard leaves rustling behind him. He only turned his head to its direction, but not fully, as he knew who it was. "Hey."
"Hey."
"How'd the first exam go?"
"A little over a half left."
"Harsh."
"Yeah," was all he uttered. "So how're preparations going?"
"Almost done." "I'll finish the final stage off tonight."
"That was quick."
"It wasn't hard." She said, shrugging. "The creatures here are relatively weak."
His eyebrows furrowed at this, and he turned his head to face her. "How weak?"
"I'd say the creatures are level… E. Except for one or two. Those are probably C—even experienced hunters could be surprised by their appearances, as they do great In. But the chances of meeting those types are pretty slim."
"What's the weakest level?"
"F."
"Well, that's disconcerting." He said, recalling just how terrified everyone else was. If they were this scared of that level of monsters, imagine how they'd fare in the beasts' natural habitats.
"Look, the last batch is here." Gon said, getting his attention back to the exam. They watched as the examiners practically fainted on the ground, while others had enough strength to rest under the shade. However, the late passers only had five minutes of rest, because before they knew it—Shoot and Knuckle appeared in the clearing they all landed on.
It was quite an entrance. The two effortlessly jumping over the gorge so many fell in, and showed the examinees just how much work they still needed to do. There was a moment of silence that followed, the displaced dry dirt incessantly misting the grounds, which intensified their entrance further.
"There are 243 examinees remaining." Shoot said nonchalantly, with his bellicose partner standing imposingly beside him, the dust finally settling down. "This exam will last until sun down. And in that time frame, we decided to cut you further to at least a quarter."
A burst of murmurs followed the statement, some even yelling how 'unfair' it was and that they were causing maximum injuries just for the heck of it. They had no idea any other group of examiners were at least thrice as worse. The noise, consequently, placed a number of veins into most of the hunter's heads.
It was Knuckle's head, however, that exploded.
"SHUT UP!"
Silence
Knuckle gritted his teeth, his face contorted in anger, and his shark-like teeth revealing themselves. "If you're so afraid you'll fail then I beg you to go home—or even better: jump down that gorge—right now!"
Knuckle made a panorama out of his glare, his arms defiantly crossed across his chest, and huffed a sigh when no one spoke. "The thing is—People have mercy. Beasts do not." He said. "If you can't even be sure you can win against at least 2 people, you'd likely die by beast."
Shoot nodded calmly as Knuckle began to cool down. "Also, we'll give you an option to withdraw after winning, in case of serious injuries, and you fear you'll die by being too weak to defend yourself from the beast anyway." He paused, visibly cooling down a little. "In such cases, you're guaranteed an invitation to the first exam this coming new year." "Hence, as you can see we're trying to get as many survivors as we can." "The Dark continent is, as the name suggests, a very dark place."
When Shoot seemed to have finished, Knuckle pitched in. "Here's a priority: Avoid conflict with animals. They are still lurking around, especially when you get to areas with few groups of people."
"Well, that's a good way to lower the casualty rates…" Killua mumbled from the trees. Goreinu, arriving just in time to see Knuckle explode earlier, smirked.
"He's more worried for the animals getting hurt than the people getting killed, actually. Not that most of them would be able to sting the animals." Goreinu said. "Guy's got a soft spot for critters." And motioned to look at Gon. "Something you two have in common."
Killua rolled his eyes.
Goreinu laughed a little at this before adopting a slightly dourer look. "So Killua. How are you going to deal with Alluka-chan this time?"
Killua blinked and gulped. It was an exam where Alluka would be left alone.
There was a nervous ring in his ears, then—a wave of images where Alluka was harmed and he ended up killing whoever was foolish enough to harm his little sister—as Knuckle's booming 'Go' echoed across the forests, and the examinees moved as quickly as they could.
"I-I'll… just watch over her." He said hurriedly, before disappearing.
A few seconds after the signal, they watched as many of the examiners attacked the nearest person first—majority of them actually being acquaintances with the person. The rest however, ended up deeper in the woods by that instant that instinct went above all else.
It didn't take long for piercing screams to be heard, most of them because of the animals they encountered. A few people ran to the clearing by the gorge again, but almost all of them ended up injured. The ones who remained in the clearing were beyond ready.
"How do they even know how many people each one took down?" Gon asked. After all, they didn't ask for the examiners to take the number plates of those they beat. Goreinu nodded before answering.
"They don't have to. Those are just words, probably." "As they said: All they needed was a quarter of survivors who will get back to them within an hour." "No one probably figured out, considering how quickly everything went, that no one is keeping tabs." It was a natural course to get deeper in the forest, especially at the time, because running towards the clearing too early will likely cause their demise.
In such desperate times, humans weren't much different from the beasts hidden in the forests. They could be worse—as a lot of the unconscious (many half-dead, or would be dead) people on the ground showed—because they could wear mask of congeniality and harmlessness. At least beasts didn't lie.
Gon sighed, before patting Goreinu on the back as a quick farewell so she could go and follow Killua.
Killua, meanwhile, met Pondungo some few meters above the ground, and saw Banana sitting on the branch right beside her. They were just sitting, really, as if waiting for time to pass and Killua wanted to ask if they're already done when he felt Alluka's presence not too far away.
Killua watched over Alluka as she effortlessly ran through the forests. He caught a man grinning like a maniac at the easy kill and Killua immediately let his presence known. He managed to stop himself from doing anything else, but making sure he was seen—with his darkening eyes and invisible aura of hostility—was more than enough. Tompa, who was the next one in Alluka's path, and who happened to have that look of bloodlust after taking his second kill, avoided looking at Alluka completely.
For a moment, Killua thought he could breathe. It was short lived when he felt a strong aura come near him, but instantaneously realized who it belonged to. "How is she?"
"Unharmed." He answered with a relieved smile, but that too was short-lived.
It was broken this time by strong rustle of leaves. A bloodied man soon came out of the bushes, holding his incapitated arm, as he passed through Alluka's path. Alluka stopped her steps and watched, while Killua partly noted that Gon's attention was somewhere else and was on alert. "Level C." She mumbled, but he realized what she meant a bit too late.
It felt like a flash to him. That millisecond of stillness—with the man standing covered in blood, staring at Alluka, frozen in the middle of the single-file pathway—and the sudden leap of a creature twice as tall as he was…
...the screams that followed...
...and the fact that Alluka was suddenly splattered with the man's blood.
But then, as it chewed the man's head, the creature turned its head to Alluka—a baleful look too visible on its face. The two flinched. Look out Alluka! They yelled in their heads, before instantaneously putting force on their feet for their dash.
But then Alluka's eyes met with the Level C, and at that instant their movements halted. It was an odd, how their feet stopped, and how they instinctively knew they weren't needed.
A highly unexpected phenomenon followed: The large beast cringed, seemingly because of the sight of Alluka. It stayed frozen in place for long seconds, before backing away to the safety of the bushes. They heard another piercing scream not too far away from them afterwards, as the monster found another human to eat.
In any case, they did not expect that.
Scaring off other examiners was easy (with Killua around), but an actual beast from the Dark Continent? Gon and Killua could only stare at each other, utterly puzzled.
Still, it was a cause of relief. And pride.
Maybe little Alluka was stronger than either of them had thought.
.
.
END OF CHAPTER 29
Coming Soon:
CHAPTER 30: Allusions x Key x Elena
Unexpected things begin to brew.
REPLIES TO ANGELS
Reah-Kitsune – Yay! I'm so glad I (or rather, the story) still have that effect on you. *hearts*And loool. I really do wanther to call them mama and papa but unfortunately she's too big already. xD If only she never grows old physically as well... ahaha. And thx for reviewing, sweetie! :D
AngelKitty27 – I am so happy to know you'll stay with me til' the end! *brohug* and yes, yes he/she is adorable! I need an Alluka plushie right now, in fact. xD Oh, and thank you for reviewing! XD
Egichuu – hehehe. First of all, thank you for reviewing! :D I am glad you like the idea! Now..., I can only hope not to disappoint. xD. And here's the update! I hope you enjoy~ And more mamaGon-papaKillua here we cooome~! xDDD
Pitou77 – Thank you for reviewing! xD I am sooo happy you found the chapter awesome! Kekeke—and here's the next chapter! I hope you enjoy, but whatever you think do tell me~! ;D
Angaebi – hello my lovely little anime-grape. Kekekeke. Oh, Thank you for reviewing! Glad you liked the charas and hopefully I get to maintain (if not improve) the characterizations. XD
Shen0 – And thank you for reading and reviewing and letting your support be felt! *brohugs*
RaNDoem – IKR. We need actual family! Fics of fem!Gon and papaKillua. Haha. Hope you like this chap, btw, and thank you for reviewing! :D
Dragonbooks249 - Yes, indeed! It's a good sort of exam—to test the character because the excellence-honor separation is a problem even in real life. Thank you for suggesting it! I dunno if I manage to squeeze the time to write that tho (since I've already rush-written one before). I'll do my best, and thank you for reviewing and for the suggestion. :D And n'aw. Knuckle's just being a random tsundere. Haha
Pri-Chan1410 – Thank you for reviewing! Haha. Yay! Glad you think the chap's still great, and I do verymuchhope that this one's no less. xD Tell me if it is tho! Enjoy~!
Grandpamuffin – Here's the exam! I hope it doesn't disappoint. Glad you think the chapter is great, btw, and thanks for telling me! :D Oh and I'm reading your fem!Gon story. It's super cool.
Digilover23 – Hahaha IKR. How many teenagers are adorable during their rebellious stage?! Haha. I hope you find this chapter cute as well. Thank you for reviewing, and do enjoy~
Aphelion – Hahaha. I decided to be socially-aware when I was writing this so... #Ebola. xD And here's the next chap! I hope you like it, and thx for reviewing the prev. chapter! :D
Bluesonicblast – I know I know and I'm sorry I took forever! Haha. But I'm glad it was still worth it. I pray this one is, as well. xD And thx for reviewing btw~
Hikar1m1ra – BREATHE! Hahaha. But lol I'm pressured to do well. xD Hope this chap was worth your shortness of breath! xD And thank you for commenting~! *hugs*
Phoenix-Thunder - *brohugs* AH how I missed you And hahaha indeed! Alluka's so cute, despite her probably size at that age. ParentYinYang pair banzaiii! AND YAY! You're writing? Please do! *excited* XD And thank you for reviewing!
Giotto27 – Thank you for reviewing! xDD I am so glad you found the trio as cute as I have. Ahhah. I hope I can keep on capitalizing on that lol. Hope you enjoy this chap!
Crazywordsmith – yay for being vocal! Thanks for speaking and so very glad to hear from you. xD Andwhoa! Two days straight? I'm flattered. *sobs* and so glad you liked the things I did and even pointed out my improvements! Thx for getting this far! Hope you'll be with me til' the end.
Fingersofbone – She will! She will get all the perv references...! When she, like, reaches 20 or something. HAHA. Glad you're enjoying this so far, and thank you for reviewing as always!
TsukiRiver – (ch1) Hi there! First of all I hope you get this far and read this reply. Haha. And second... yeah, I understand. It's just that the CA arc traumatized me so I just opted to skip it. Hope the succeeding chaps make up for it! And thx for reviewing~
Darlingfedz – Hey there! Haha. Thanks for reviewing~ And oh~ Late? It's okay. I'm glad your job seems to be going well. I'm glad that we still get a bit of your time and that is enough. ;) Stay strong,happy working, and hope yopu enjoy this chap!
RavenZaoldyeck99 - Thank you for reviewing! Hahah. Super glad I made you laugh. XD Besides, Killua will make a great dad! Since he's too young let's settle with cute Alluka. *Cackles* And enjoy this chap, btw! :D
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THANKS FOR READING!
I hope you enjoy and—as always—it really motivates me to write
when I know your thoughts, no matter what they are! :D