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Guest chapter 1 . Aug 2

"Great start to your story. But you should describe your O.C"

Hi! Thank you for your review. I completely agree with describing my OC however since this is in first person it is incredibly hard to do so without them sounding condescending and without them looking at their own reflection. I do have a plan on how I will be describing them but will be while they are on the blimp after the second phase.

Hope x And x Ambition

We had been running for a while now, if I had to guess I'd say it's been at least 30km1 since the start of the first Phase and from the looks of Leorio, who had slowed down to get back in pace with us, he wouldn't last much longer.

On top of that, he kept exerting his energy by shouting, much like now, "Hey! Wait up, kid!" His yelling was aimed at a kid who had just rolled by us on a board with wheels. What is that contraption? I had never seen anything like it before. I couldn't help staring at the kid in amazement as he slowed down slightly to look back at us with a questioning hum. "You should show the Hunter Exam some respect!" Leorio demanded, his shouting beginning to make my ears ring.

"What do you mean?" the mystery boy asked, tilting his head ever so slightly to show his confusion, his white hair flowing with the wind that came with the speed of his wheeled device.

"Why are you using a skateboard?" Leorio asked in annoyance. So that's what that is? A skateboard. I couldn't help mumbling the word to myself as I looked back at the contraption under the boy's feet. It appeared he had heard me as he looked at me, an unreadable look in his eyes - then again I had never really been good at reading people's eyes. "That's cheating!" Leorio's yelling was beginning to annoy me.

"Why?" the boy asked, completely unfazed as he continued to stare at Leorio, not even acknowledging the rest of us.

"Why," Leorio repeated in exasperation, he was starting to get annoyed with the child that didn't seem to understand his point. He didn't think he had to spell it out for him, I could read it in his body language how exasperated he was. He was practically shaking as he shouted out, "This is an endurance test."

Only for Gon and I to interrupt and make his mood worse with, "No, it isn't."

"Huh?" he paused as he looked at us with a look of confusion and almost what seemed like betrayal, "Guys, what are you saying?"

"The examiner only told us to follow him," Gon explained casually, not seeming to notice the look on Leorio's face.

I, however, did notice and wanted to annoy him more, "So therefore it's not an endurance test, old man. Use your brain for once." While it was fun to vex him, hearing him yell wasn't quite as fun.

"Whose side are you guys on, eh?!" there was the yelling I had mentioned. He seemed to do that alot and I could tell this would be a long exam, especially with the headache that was beginning to form but the amusement I got from seeing his face turn red was worth it.

"Hey, how old are you?" the white haired kid's voice brought my attention away from Leorio's ever growing red face to see he had been looking at Gon who smiled happily at the other boy.

"I'm twelve years old." He seemed eager to answer, maybe he was just eager to make more friends? Yeah, that seemed more likely. The silverette hummed as he seemed to think to himself for a second before he flipped the skateboard into the air and caught it while he kept his pace, not even missing a beat causing me to gape at him in shock and amazement.

"Guess I'll run, too," he said nonchalantly while I blinked at him, my mouth still open before it turned into a grin as I brought my hands up to my chin, squeezing them into fists in excitement.

"Wow!" Gon and I yelled in sync, not even stopping to look at each other before continuing, mine more of a squeal than Gon's was, "That was cool!"

"I'm Killua," he didn't even seem fazed by our reactions to his trick as he stared at Gon and I.

"I'm Gon."

I grinned as Killua turned his stare fully in my direction along with Gon, "I'm Nishinoya and I'm also 12 years old!" I figured it was best to keep my questions to myself about his skateboard and the trick he had just done when he nodded and looked back to the front as we continued on.

About four hours into the Exam, Leorio finally seemed to have enough and dropped his suitcase causing us all to pause and turn to look at him, me mainly following Gon in his actions and I assumed that was the same with Killua as he didn't really know Leorio at all. Now that I thought about it, I don't think he even knew his name.

My suspicions of him just copying Gon's actions were confirmed when he spoke up, "Hey, forget him. Let's get going." Gon simply ignored him and continued to stare down the path at Leorio as Killua and I stared at him.

"Screw that," I turned my attention to Leorio as he began to speak, "I'm gonna become a Hunter!" He took a second before standing and sprinting passed us with new found energy yelling out a "damn it all" on the way though he left his suitcase behind. As I turned to go get it, a line zipped by me and grabbed the case before it was launched into the air and in our direction, coming extremely close to my face. I dropped back onto my hands and lifted my feet in the air as it passed by where my face used to be, performing a flawless back handspring and stuck the landing before whipping around to face Gon with an annoyed look.

"You almost hit me!" I yelled as I pointed my finger at him, though my annoyance quickly washed away at the look of surprise and awe on his face, leaving me feeling confused. "What?"

Before he could say anything, Killua cut in as he spoke to Gon, "Cool! Let me try that later."

Gon nodded as they turned and started to run with the pack again, leaving me to catch up as quickly as possible, "If you let me try your skateboard, okay?" Killua nodded in response before turning back to the front again, stuffing his hands into his pockets. Gon turned to me as I reached his side and let out a huff of air, "Sorry I almost hit you." He scratched the back of his head with an apologetic smile.

"It's fine, just be careful next time," I pouted yet kept my focus before me so as to avoid any bodies that laid in the path. The last thing I wanted to do was trip over a passed out loser.

I groaned at the sight of the stairs that shortly came into view and groaned louder when the group picked up the pace. Not that I couldn't keep up but mainly because I was feeling lazy today and had only been okay with it in the beginning because it had cured my boredom but it was back and with a vengeance.

"Gon, wanna race to see who finishes first?" Killua asked as he looked at Gon, completely ignoring my presence which annoyed me greatly.

"Sure!" Gon agreed with a nod before looking at me expectantly, making me grin in excitement. Ha! Bite me, Killua.

"I'd like to join too," my tone had been pretty bland but there had been a hint of excitement which I couldn't hide even if I had wanted to.

"Sure," Killua's tone told me he didn't really care if I had joined or not but also held a tone of mischief too. I quickly found out why when he smirked and spoke again, "The loser has to buy dinner." He was staring at me as if saying he knew I would lose and it honestly pissed me off, the feeling blooming through my chest along with determination to prove him wrong.

"Fine," my voice shared my determination with the two boys as I stared back at Killua, refusing to back down, "Sounds good to me. May the best win."

"Okay!" Gon cheered, "You're on!"

All together we began the count down, "Ready… Go!" With that, we all took off, though we managed to keep pace with each other quite well which was a bit surprising. When I had been training, my sensei said I had exceptional speed and that they had never seen someone run that fast before so I really thought I had this in the bag but these two boys were keeping up with me like it was nothing. I growled lowly as I realized that I may actually lose. I didn't know exactly how much further we had to go but if it was too far away I would expend all of my energy in this stupid race, all because I couldn't take a hit to my ego.

Along the way, I could see Leorio and Kurapika up ahead as they talked and as we got closer I caught the last of their conversation, "The world runs on money; so I want money!" It had been Leorio, guess that's why he's taking the exam. It makes sense honestly, the man seemed to like to dress the part of a well off man but to keep it up, you needed lots of money so in order to keep up the appearance at least, you needed to be able to at least back it up a bit. Though judging from the look on Kurapika's face, there was actually more to the story than what I thought.

As we reached them, Gon spoke up, "See you at the goal, Kurapika.

"Catch you later, old timer," Killua and I spoke up, leaving us to glare at each other with Gon standing in the middle with an awkward smile on his face.

"I'm not old!" Leorio fumed as Killua and I broke our glaring contest to start grinning at the man's angry yells, "I'm a teenager, just like you guys!"

We all froze at this statement, Gon and I yelled out a loud "No way!" while Killua simply let out a confused and surprised grunt.

We had separated from Leorio and Kurapika shortly after the surprising news he had just delivered to us. The stairs had continued on for a while and I mentally thanked my sensei for their incessant demands that I run up and down the steps at home even if my parents got annoyed with it. They had me do it like 20 times in a row and then repeat it 10 minutes later. At the time I thought they were just cruel but hey, definitely helped in the end.

"I'm surprised you guys can keep up with me," Killua mentioned as we moved side to side to avoid stepping on some of the fallen contestants who were now just making this harder. Doing this made me expend more energy than I would've had it been a straight run and I could feel my body start to get tired.

"Really?" Gon questioned while looking at Killua, not even looking at the downed people as he moved to the side to avoid them.

Killua blinked and looked up for a second before looking back at Gon, "Or maybe it's just that everyone else is too slow." He sighed heavily and dropped his head with a soft groan, "Man; the Hunter Exam is gonna be a breeze. That's not fun." He brought his head back up with another sigh.

"Hey, why do you want to become a Hunter?" Gon queeried, his gaze still focused on Killua who turned his head to look back at him.

"Me?" he asked with a surprised look on his face before continuing with an indifferent look and rubbing the back of his head, "I'm not really interested in becoming a Hunter."

Gon let out a confused, "Huh?"

This caused Killua to look away as he continued talking, "I heard the exam was supposed to be really hard, so I thought it'd be fun." His tone was bland and borderline bored before changing into slight annoyance as he spoke up again, "But this is disappointing." He turned his head to Gon, "What about you?"

"Well, my dad's a Hunter," he said enthusiastically, "So I want to become a Hunter, like my dad."

Killua hummed, "What kind of Hunter is he?"

"I don't know," Gon was so nonchalant about it all but I couldn't help but laugh along with Killua,

"That's kinda weird," Killua said as he glanced my way, his laugh dying down as well as my own as he seemed to stare at me. I simply smiled at him before turning my attention to Gon. If he was going to be following around Gon much like myself, I may as well act friendly.

"Really?" Gon asked, oblivious to what had just occurred between Killua and I.

"You want to be like your dad, but you don't know anything about him?"Killua asked and I nodded along to his words, he was right afterall. It was weird to wanna be like someone you don't know.

"Mito's the one who raised me," Gon explained, "so I've only seen my dad in pictures."

"Wait, who's Mito?" I questioned with a tilt of my head, if it was his mother then he would've referred to her as mom wouldn't he?

"She's my aunt," he answered with a smile in my direction and Killua and I both let out a small "oh" before Gon continued to speak, "When he was twelve, my dad took the Hunter Exam. He passed and became a Hunter, then he left the island. I want to find out why he chose to be a Hunter over being with me." I stared ahead of us as he finished his explanation. It hadn't made sense to me at first but at his last sentence, a sense of sadness yet understanding came over me. I now understood him a bit more and his motives. If I didn't know my father and only knew that he had left me to do something else I too would wonder what was so great about it. Though I wasn't sure if I would have tried to pursue it myself.

"What about you?" Gon asked, draggin me from my thoughts as I turned to look at him to see who he had been asking. When I met his eyes, I realized he had been asking me and I chuckled slightly, embarrassed for not realizing that sooner.

"Oh, uh," I paused as I thought for a second as I brought my finger to my bottom lip and rubbed it as I tried to figure out a way to word this. "I guess for a self-confidence builder. To prove to myself that I can do this, that I am capable," I brought my hand down from my face to look at them with determination. Gon simply smiled at me while Killua huffed before turning back to the front.

"That's admirable," Gon said before they were interrupted by someone yelling that the exit was ahead. Gon, Killua, and I all let out a soft 'ah' before we all took off as fast as we could. At this point my legs were beginning to burn but I pushed past that as I had done many times before during training to cross the finish line with the two boys, all of us letting out a loud "Goal!" as we did so. My arms had gone up in the air with excitement to finally have a moment of rest as I fell down onto my butt, resting my arms on my knees while taking slow, measured breaths in the hopes of calming the adrenaline running through me as well as appear unbothered by the sudden sprint we had just done.

I watched as Gon cheered, "Yay! I win!"

Killua whipped around at this, staring at him as if he had just grown two heads, "What are you talking about? I was faster."

Thus began the fight when Gon responded with, "I was."

"No, I was!"

"I was faster, so you have to buy dinner!" At this point I had a feeling Gon just wanted a free dinner but I ignored that as the annoyance of being forgotten was bubbling within me.

"No," I shouted as I jumped to my feet, my energy fully renewed, "I was!"

Gon and Killua whipped to look at me with shock before they both glared and yelled out, "I was!"

"Nope!" Killua shouted and puffed his chest out, "I was faster. So you both buy me dinner."

"But I was faster," Gon pouted before turning to the examiner which caused Killua and I to look at him as well. "Hey, who was faster?" Gon asked him and we waited for a response, my arms crossed with a pout on my face.

"I believe you two both crossed the finish line simultaneously," Satotz replied before looking at me as I raised my head in a proud manner. Obviously if they crossed at the same time and he didn't mention me, it meant I won, right? As I turned to gloat to the boys, Satotz spoke again, "You, however, were just a second slower than them." I fell over in shock as the boys cheered.

"Ha! So now you owe us dinner," Killua gloated as he smirked down at me.

"But why should I have to buy you guys dinner when I'm sure you guys can afford it yourself," I pouted up at him, forcing tears to form in the corner of my eyes as I sat up with my legs crossed.

"Nope, a deal's a deal," Killua's smirk turned into a cat-like grin.

I groaned and fell onto my back and I whined out, "But my money."

"Sore loser, are you?" Killua snickered and I jumped up to glare at him.

"So what if I am?" I frowned, "Maybe I really wanted to win and make you buy me dinner."

"Well, sucks to suck," Killua shrugged as he turned away, that grin still on his face, "Now you have to buy us dinner."

"Um," Gon started as he raised his hand towards me and I turned my pout to him, "You don't have to pay for mine, it's okay, really."

I hugged him tightly as I laughed, "Gon, you're so sweet!" I turned a glare towards Killua as I moved away from Gon but kept my arm around his shoulder, "At least someone is nice around here."

Killua simply shrugged at me before turning to Gon, "You shouldn't do that, Gon. He lost fair and square and he knew what the consequences were so he should pay for your dinner."

"Eh?" Gon and I said before I went silent and Gon spoke up again, "But I'd feel bad taking all his money." I blinked at Gon before releasing my arm from around him as Gon turned to face Satotz again, "Hey, Mr. Satotz. Is this where the Second Phase of the exam takes place?"

Satotz shook his head, "No, we still have quite a way to go."

"Oh," Gon said and we all moved to the side as we waited for the others to pile out and I took the time to study our surroundings, or at least what I could see of it all. There was so much fog covering the area yet the ground around us looked kind of wet almost like it had recently rained and I immediately knew this would be a heck of a trip through here. I sat on the concrete below our feet as we waited, wanting to give my legs a break before we had to continue on. We waited for a bit more with idle chatter, my back to the door before Gon called out, "Hey, Kurapika!" I tilted my head back to see the blonde standing behind me with Leorio standing next to him, shirtless. I hadn't noticed if he had been before or not but that was not a sight I wanted to see so with a face of disgust I quickly lifted my head back up and made eye contact with Killua as I stood and walked to stand next to him.

I leaned over slightly so he would be the only one to hear me as I whispered, "Seeing a shirtless old man was definitely not on my list of things to see this year." He laughed loudly and my chest swelled with joy as I made the otherwise quiet boy laugh. It felt like a huge accomplishment compared to if I were to make Gon laugh.

"Is this our destination?" Kurapika asked and I pouted in response. I was annoyed that it wasn't the end and I wanted everyone to know that I was not happy about it.

"No, it isn't," Gon verbally answered and I let out a whine as I threw back my head again.

"Why couldn't the first exam be over yet?" I questioned only to hear Killua snicker.

"You're just still mad you lost."

"Shut up! Am not!" I yelled at him, completely forgetting the whole reason I had behind wanting this over with.

"I see," Kurapika said awkwardly before turning his attention away from us and towards the fog covered land before making a realization, "The fog is fading."

"Really?" Gon and I asked as I turned my attention away from Killua's cocky smirk to our surroundings to see that it actually was. It was dispersing to show that we were surrounded by trees and more wet ground. I internally groaned at the sight of the moist soil, I immediately knew it was gonna be a pain in the butt to run through this. This would cut the group down a bit for sure as it would take more energy to run through it than it did within the tunnels. I glanced back at Leorio with mild concern. He had almost given up in the tunnels, who's to say he'll be okay out here.

"The Numere Wetlands," Satotz began to explain as I turned my attention to him, "also known as Swindlers Swamp. We must cross these wetlands to reach Phase Two of the exam. This place is home to many bizarre animals, many of them being cunning, insatiable creatures who deceive humans and prey upon them." A shiver ran down my spine as he paused and I could faintly hear some animal growling just within the wooded area. "Be very careful," Satotz warned. "If you let them fool you," he paused and turned around so he was now looking at the small crowd of people, many of whom were sweating, "you're dead."

I gulped in fear, I didn't realize I could die so early in the exam. I shook off the nerves before jumping when a sound resonated from the exit we came out of. As I looked over, I noticed that a shutter was closing down on the exit as someone who had been crawling reached their hand out and cried out a "wait for me" before they fully shut in front of him and closed off any chance of him following.

Silence continued for a while before Satotz started to talk again, "These wetland creatures will use every trick in the book to fool their prey. An ecosystem in which creatures obtain food through deceit. Hence the name Swindlers Swamp. Stay very close to me so you won't be deceived."

"What a joke," Leorio began with a scoff, "How can they fool us, when we're expecting it?"

"Don't let them fool you!" a man suddenly yelled out and I turned my head to look at the man who was just now coming from around the corner of the tunnel exit.

"I just said that they can't," Leorio said, annoyed at the fact that this person hadn't been listening though I kind of doubted that anyone was really listening to him other than maybe Gon and Kurapika - I, unfortunately, was also one who was listening to him.

"Don't fall for it," the strange man stuttered out and walked a few more paces out but kept his one hand behind the wall, seemingly in pain, "He's lying to you! He's an impostor! He isn't an examiner. I'm the real examiner!" He pointed at himself and I looked over at Satotz to see him expressionless at the accusations.

"An imposter?" Leorio questioned as he looked between the man and Satotz, "What's going on?"

"Then who is he?" the ninja asked.

"Look at this," the man said and dragged a creature that looked similar to Satotz out from behind the wall causing many of the applicants to gasp or look between them in shock.

"He looks just like Mr Satotz!" Gon yelled out in surprise.

"It's a Man-Faced Ape, one of the creatures that dwell in the Numere Wetlands!" the man explained, almost too desperately.

"A Man-Faced Ape?" Leorio asked. I too was curious as to what it was. I had never seen something like it before.

"Man-Faced Apes love the taste of human flesh," the man explained, "However, their limbs are long and thin, so they're quite weak. That's why they disguise themselves as humans. They trick humans into following them into these wetlands, where they team up with other animals to kill and devour them. He intends to trap every single applicant!" The way I see it is that there was no way this man was the examiner. Satotz had been in the tunnel with us for hours and we were weakened and the tunnel opened up in multiple spots even towards the end so if he was one of these supposed Man-Faced Apes, why didn't they ambush us in the tunnels.

"This is a load of crock," I muttered to myself with a roll of my eyes and crossed my arms as I shifted my weight to my other foot, completely over this dude.

Leorio on the other hand seemed to be believing everything the guy was saying as he growled out, "Bastard."

"He certainly doesn't walk like a human," the ninja commented. I thought he would've been able to tell but I guess not. The sound of something hitting flesh made me jump and whip my head in the random guy's direction to see him fall to the ground dead with cards sticking out of his chest and a shudder of fear ran through my body. Something, some kind of instinct yelled at me to run. Run as far away as I can. But my body refused to move, I couldn't even take my eyes off the body.

I was frozen; sounds were muffled and I couldn't see anything but the body and as my vision started to completely blur, a shiver ran through my body as the instinct to run grew stronger. My eyes immediately snapped to the man responsible for this reaction, I wasn't sure how I knew that it was him but it was almost like my body just knew or maybe my subconscious knew he was dangerous and was the reason I was responding like this. I didn't get it and at that time, I didn't even think about it. I had been beginning to panic as he stared me down, that stupid clown. Why did he scare me so much? Just as I thought I was going to pass out, Killua pulled on my arm and knocked me out of my panic.

I looked at him to see him looking at me with a frown and a quirked brow, "You ok?" I simply nodded and gave out a soft hum, afraid that if I spoke that my voice would crack. He stared at me for a few as some more conversation went on before he sighed and dropped my arm before looking back at Satotz. I blinked at the side of his head before also turning my attention to the examiner.

"I believe that a number of you were fooled into suspecting my identity?" Silence flooded the crowd as I kept my gaze directed onto him, not even glancing towards Gon in fear of seeing that scene all over again. "Do you understand? If you lose sight of me in the Numere Wetlands fog, you will never reach the exam's Second Phase," Satotz explained before turning around, "Do bear that in mind. Then let us be on our way. Please follow me." He began to walk forward and steadily picked up the pace as we began to follow.

The sound of birds dragging most of the applicants attention and had almost got mine if it hadn't been for Killua speaking up next to me, "Ignore it and keep your eyes forward." I followed his advice as we advanced on.

4802 words

1) 30km equals approximately 18.9 miles