Hunter Exams Begin

Killian, his childlike face smooth as steel, with eyes that would home at the unexplored deepest of parts some deep blue sea, cold calculating but vibrant blue eyes that lived under terrible pressure. In terms of appearance rest of him wasn't much different from his Killua, except for minor differences they had the same eye colour and the same white hair, granted to them by their father, and the same age of twelve granted by the fact of them being twins.

"The atmosphere is tense," Killian whistled as he put on the white badge with the number 47 in black on it.

"Wouldn't make a difference, would it?" Killua said lazily resting against the wall with bored eyes. He had his number 99 badge on like the other participants.

The crowd of hundreds gathered under the grey concrete tunnel-like room with dull lights hanging from above, it was enough for the crowd to eye each other with vigilance. Killian hadn't seen people from so many different cultures, outfits, ethnicity and ages, all gathered together like this before, all for the chance to become a hunter. He eyed his twin brother beside him who didn't seem to care much about it, they didn't come here to become hunters, after all, Zoldycks are meant to be Assassins, not Hunters.

"So any challengers here?" Killua asked.

"Let's see - that guy Hanzo," Killian said eyeing a bald japponese guy who was whispering his secret identity as Ninja and his secret goal to retrieve a secret ninja scroll to some man in a loud non-secretive manner.

"Just between you and me, I am actually a ninja, yeah the training is pretty brutal but I do it everyday, morning until night."

Killua rolled his eyes then his face turned towards the direction of a sudden painful scream.

"HELP ME! AAAAAA!"

Thick red blood splattered on the grey wall like paint and a participant's decapitated arm fell to the floor, making a pool of blood for all to see and do nothing to help. The man screamed and fell to his knees. Hisoka stood over him, his appearance is similar to that of a magician, jester or more accurately, a mix of both. Tall with light skin, pink hair, and jester make-up over sharp features, his attire is usually adorned with various suit symbols. He cleaned the blood off the playing card he used to cut the man's arm with his finger.

"And the arm disappeared. Next time, apologise when you bump into someone," He spoke with a playful voice.

Whispers rose in the crowd about him filled with fear and vigilance.

"Number 44, Hisoka the Magician, that maniac is back again this year, rumour was that he already almost passed the exam last year when he was expelled for nearly killing an examiner he didn't like, along with that he took twenty other applicants along the way. If I were you, I wouldn't go anywhere near him."

"How is someone like that allowed back this year?"

"They change the examiners every year, and they decide what the test are like and who gets to take them. That's just the way things are."

Killian looked at his brother. "He is strong - strong to point that we can't beat him. You realize that right."

Killua nodded with an uncaring face then asked, "Anybody else?."

"There are two more," Killian said turning to the crowd.

A strange bell-like sound echoed throughout the closed chamber before Killian could open his mouth. Then came a dragging sound as one of the chamber walls started lifting automatically, and everyone's eyes turned towards it, in moments the wall disappeared into the ceiling, what stood beyond was a dimly lit tunnel path and a man in a navy blue suit with purple hair and a large twirled moustache that covered his mouth.

"I apologise for the wait," He said in a calm monotone voice, "the entry period for the Hunter application has ended. The Hunter exam will begin in a few moments and I'll be your examiner."

Killian felt the mood around change as everyone braced themselves, their eyes glued to the examiner. While Killua stretched his arms and got up. "Finally, I was getting bored."

The examiner continued, "Before we began - a final caution, if you are short on luck or ability, you could very well end up seriously injured or even dead. Those who accept the risks, please follow me, or exit through the elevator behind you."

Nobody moved to leave except the man who just lost his arms and ran for the elevator while screeching in pain, leaving a trail of blood behind him, others knew the risks before coming here.

"Very well, 404 applicants will participate - at least for now. Please follow me."

Then the examiner turned around on his heel, and swung his arms and legs with military marching steps, moving further into the tunnel. Killian shared a glance with his brother and followed the crowd, Killua on his skateboard and Killian on his roller skates. Not even five minutes had passed and inside the dim tunnel, it was already getting monotonous with the echoing sound of hundreds of steps. The examiner picked up his pace prompting others to do the same.

"I am sorry for not giving a proper introduction," The examiner said without stopping, "I am Satotz, the phase one examiner. I shall lead you to the exam's second phase."

"Second phase? What about the first?" One of the participants in the first asked.

"That was already commenced," Satotz said calmly and murmurs ran throughout the crowd with questions.

Satotz looked back without stopping, "You must follow and keep up with me until we reach the location of the second phase."

"Follow you? That's the test."

"Yes. But I cannot tell you where and when you must arrive. You just need to follow me."

The crowd talked about how easy this test seemed, some were wary of it and then two hours passed by and the test didn't seem to end. Just a non-stop run without an end with many applicants dropping out or dropping on the floor out of exhaustion or injury. The test never stopped for anyone and now the tunnel seemed unending, Killian within the group moved ahead and observed the other applicants, and Killua looked too bored to be bothered to go any faster.

The more Killian focused his vision, the more the scene in his eyes changed, he could see a translucent visible aura tightly covering every individual in the room including himself, he always saw this aura in everyone when he tried to focus including his family, but there was something different about them. Unlike most, where the translucent aura leaked from the top of their head, dispersing into the air, many of his family members kept their aura sealed, skin tight and didn't let it leak. He once asked his family about it, but they just told him to ignore it, but Killian knew that they knew about it, at last, they were the ones who taught him how to catch lies. Today in this crowd, he saw this sealed aura phenomenon in three individuals. First was Satotz the examiner, the second was a notorious participant named Hisoka, and the third was a thin gaunt man with a blue mohawk and large parts of his face pierced with golden needles of all sizes, he never caught his name but despite the appearance, something about him reminded him of his older brother Illumi, perhaps the needles.

'Who is he?' Killian thought and rolled towards a chatting group in the crowd where a returnee man named Tonpa was distributing information to other participants.

"Hey, mind if I ask something?" Killian asked coming near him.

The older fat returnee's face turned to him with surprise, then smiled - a false smile of a liar. "Alright, but one question at a time."

"Hey, Tonpa, since this is your 35th try at this, you must know a lot about the other guys by now," A boy in green said while running near the man, he had a green tipped black hair, a large fishing rod sticking out of his backpack.

"Yes," Tonpa said.

"Can you tell us about them?" The boy asked.

"Where should I start?"

Tonpa turned to the crowd and pointed out specific people. First was a man who looked to be in his thirties, with a hooked nose and a turban around his head.

"How about 103, Bourbon the snake charmer, he never forgets an enemy."

The second was a man in a martial art costume.

"That guy over there is number 76, the great martial artist Cherry, no one can beat him in hand-to-hand combat."

The third was a large man with the top part of his tied hair bleached blonde.

"Number 255, Todo, he is a champion wrestler and trust me - He is a lot smarter than he looks."

Then he pointed out a trio of late teens.

"Number 197, number 198 and number 1999 are the Amori brothers. They fight together and they keep getting better every year."

"Let me see," Tonpa looked around for more, "there he is."

He pointed ahead towards a dark-skinned man dressed in hunting gear.

"There he is - Number 384, the Huntsman Gerreta, he can take down any creature with just a blow gun and a club, his skills are amazing."

Then he looked around a concluded. "I guess that's about it for the regulars."

"And what about that guy?" Killian asked pointing at the gaunt man with a face filled with golden needles a few feet away.

Tonpa looked at him and said, "I don't know - never saw him before."

"Then what good are you?" Killian said with a blunt face. "You are old, this is your thirty-fifth attempt, just given up, you are a damn loser."

"Hey kid, that's not how you talk to adults." A man in a blue business suit screamed at him, then his eyes went towards the roller skates, "and you are cheating."

Before Killian could reply, Killua came between them on his skateboard. "What makes to think my brother is cheating?"

"Brother...." The man muttered looking at them, at their matching looks for a moment then continued, "Duh, it's an endurance test."

"Not exactly," The boy in green chipped in, "the examiner just said to follow him, not exactly how."

The man turned to the boy in green, "Gon, who is your friend me or him?"

Killua stared at them and muttered. "They are friends."

"Quit yelling, you are only wasting energy," A blonde boy while running beside them said, "and it's annoying. We are allowed to use whatever we bring to the exam."

"You all are annoying." The man gritted his teeth.

"You both are new you here, aren't ya," Tonpa looked at the Zoldyck brothers and said with a false polite smile, "well if you ask me any other questions I would be more than happy to ---"

"I had one, but couldn't answer it," Killian said, "just keep your mouth shut."

"Hey, that's rude." The boy in green commented. "Who are you both?"

"Are you asking my name?" Killua asked plainly, slowing his speed as the boy ran beside him.

"Well, you don't have to tell me if don't want to," The boy said wryly, "I am Gon and I am 12 years old."

"12 years old huh..." Killua muttered not saying anything further, he flipped up his skateboard, caught it in his hands and started running.

"You are not using that anymore?" Gon remarked.

Killua looked at the man in the blue suit. "Mister, how old are you?"

"Mister?!" The man snapped. "I am a teen, not much older than you guys, I have you know."

"No way!" Killian, Killua, Gon, the blonde boy even Tonpa said in unison. No way that man looked like a teen, early twenties at least.

"Not you too, Gon," The man snapped.

Killian rolled his eyes and moved ahead but when he looked over his shoulder, he saw Killua keep his pace near the group. Hours passed, they covered the distance of sixty kilometres, then a divergence came, two tunnel pathways, a familiar sweet scent permeated it. The examiner took the left path so did the others. If this was a trap, no one fell for it.

Killian kept moving as time passed then suddenly stopped, letting the crowd move past him, as he counted the footsteps and people moving, he couldn't feel Killua among them. He turned around to see Killua twenty meters behind; looking back, not moving, so Killian move towards him, crossing the distance in a few moments.

"What happened?" Killian asked as stopped near to see the group from before tending to the man in the blue suit from before, he was on his knees, gasping for air in exhaustion.

"What are you doing?" Killua asked. "He is finished, so just leave him behind."

"Come on, you don't know that," Gon said, "I can't just leave my friend behind."

"Your friend..." Killua muttered.

"That's what I said."

The man in blue suddenly rose with all strength, sweating and gasping as he did so. "I am not giving up! I came here to become a hunter and that's what I going to do!"

The man ran forward and fell on his knees again as he reached near them.

"You need some rest," Tonpa said.

"Shut up, I'll leave you in my... dust," He gasped and crawled, "my legs- my legs aren't moving."

"You are not struggling so much for just money?" The blonde boy asked.

"No," The man shook his head while gasping, "it's all about the money."

"We don't have time to argue about this," Gon added, "What do you think we should do now, Tonpa?"

"Hmmm..." Tonpa looked at the man and then said in a tone that he suddenly remember something.

"Wait a sec.. that sweet smell...do you remember the sweet smell coming from the other tunnel? That might help you."

"What?" The man looked at him.

Tonpa explained, "I thought I recognised the smell, it was the sap of the Healing Seeder Tree."

Killian and Killua shared a glance. They both knew there was no such thing as the Healing Seeder tree and that sweet scent from earlier was of the Tree of Hallucination. Recognising dangerous herbs and drugs from the scent was part of their lessons and mistakes weren't allowed in their scent recognising tests.

Tonpa added, "The sap is used by Hunters who often become too exhausted. All you have to do is smell the aroma for a while and you can recover enough strength to keep on going. It'll help Leorio."

Saying that Tonpa supported the man up with his shoulder. "I'll take him there."

"Wait a minute," Kurapika said, "It could be a trap."

"Maybe, that is possible, but we can't just leave him behind, can we?" Tonpa argued, "that's a chance we are going to have to take."

"Yes, but-"

"This my thirty-fifth attempt, I am the king of the flunkies and do you know why I fail the exam thirty-four times? I am a sucker for anyone who needs my help."

"Tonpa..."

"It's okay... once Leorio recovers we'll catch up to you. I promise."

"I am sorry Tonpa," Leorio said in his exhausted state then looked at the others. "Don't worry about me, just keep moving."

"Just get going. I have done this thirty-four times before," Tonpa said, "I am learnt how to avoid the usual traps."

Killua didn't move and just looked at them. "What are doing? Are you coming or not?"

"Sorry to keep you waiting, but you can go ahead," Gon said.

Killua looked with a bit of surprise. "You mean you are not going to keep going."

"No, not without Leorio." Gon said then turned to the blonde boy, "Kurapika, I am going to see how they are doing."

The blonde looked to the path where the rest of the participants went, they were so far that even their running footsteps couldn't be heard in the tunnel, then he looked back to Gon, "I'll come with you, we can always catch up later."

"Alright," Gon said then looked to Killua, "we'll be back, then if you want - you can tell me your name."

They left running towards the other direction of the course without saying another word. Killua just stared at them while they did so.

"Truly a strange bunch," Killian said.

"True," Killua muttered.

"He is leading them all into a trap," Killian said coming close to Killua, "you want to help them?"

Killua replied with a slight nod.