The Assassin's Sin

chapter 2- forest fights

        Once y/n arrived at the top of the stairs with most of the group, she took the opportunity to catch her breath. In front of her and the rest of the applicants was a foggy looking forest. The door to the stairway closed soon after she had recharged. 

       The examiner, Mr. Satotz, began to explain why they had stopped in front of the foggy wetlands, but he was interrupted by another man who claimed to be the real examiner. Before y/n had a chance to think about which one was the real examiner, she sensed danger coming from behind her. She moved her head just in time, as a card flew past the spot where her head was hardly a second earlier. Her head whipped to where the card came from. Hisoka.

       'Of course it was him' she thought. 

       He gave her that same creepy smile as before. He explained his reasoning to Mr. Satotz for attacking him. He let Hisoka off with a warning, telling him he'd be disqualified if he attacked an examiner again. With that Mr. Satotz finished his explanation, and took off into the thick fog. 

       Even just a few steps was enough to make y/n lose sight of the him. Soon she found herself  scrambling to find the path at all. Through the fog, she heard a scream and instinctively ran towards it. The scent of blood was a distinct path into a small clearing. It was too late by the time she had noticed Hisoka standing at the other edge of the small field, drenched in blood and surrounded by bodies. 

       Y/n froze in horror as Hisoka met her panicked gaze and began to stroll toward her. She was too scared to move; her whole body was shaking. She knew she couldn't take him one on one for long. She had to escape, but how? She didn't have much time. He was already more than halfway across the clearing. She decided to try to fight until there was an opening to escape. 

       Without breaking eye contact she moved into the clearing and began to circle around the edge of the trees. Hisoka waited patiently for her to attack, making it clear he wasn't going to let her leave without a fight. She sprinted forward, keeping low to the ground. She ran directly at him until the last moment when she gracefully moved around him. She took the opportunity of being behind him to kick him in the back, but to her shock and horror, he dodged and caught her leg in the process. 

       "Very good, but you'll have to do better if you want to leave with your life." Hisoka chided. He swung her by the leg and tossed her down to the muddy grass. She caught herself before she hit the ground and assumed an offensive stance. He wasted no time before flicking three of his cards at her. Y/n dodged the first two with ease, but slipped on the wet grass trying to dodge the third card. It hardly touched her arm, but it drew blood nonetheless. She took a sharp breath in and looked at the blood on her arm. Bad idea. Hisoka took her distraction as a chance to attack. He grabbed her jaw with a crushing grip. He tilted her face upward and held a card at her throat threatening to slice . "I'm disappointed; you shouldn't get so distracted in the middle of a fight." 

       She gave a firm glare and jumped up, putting all her weight into a well aimed kick at his crotch. He let go of her to dodge. They both lurched backwards. Hisoka took a moment to process what had happened and laughed. Y/n launched another attack similar to her first, but instead of kicking his back, she aimed for the back of his knee. When he moved forward to dodge the attack, she seized her chance to escape. 

       She didn't look back and ran as far and fast as she could. After a good ten minutes of sprinting through the fog and trees, she slowed her pace, realizing he had let her go. Now she just had to worry about finding the path. She stopped abruptly and looked for anything that might help her identify where she was. She decided to climb up a tree for a better view, but nothing was visible. However, on her way back down she heard someones voice, though she couldn't quite make out what they were saying. She felt a wave of relief wash over her, until she saw who it was. 

       'The weird pin guy!' 

       She groaned at her misfortune. Her sudden sound made him look up at her, much to her dismay. She choked down her fear and decided greet him, hoping for the best.

       "Were you able to see anything from the treetop?" the man asked in a voice befitting his appearance.

       "Uh, no. The fog was too thick. I didn't even see you," she sighed. 

       "Oh, I see" the replied with a unnatural twitch of his head.

       "Well my name is y/n. Since were both here, wanna try to help each other find the path?" Y/n extended her hand toward the odd man and gave an polite smile.

       "No," the man said with little emotion before walking off into the fog.

       "Rude." She huffed and ran after him into the fog. "Hey! Wait up, come on. I can be useful, I promise! Please don't ditch me here." 

       The man didn't acknowledge her pleads and said nothing. He just kept moving forward for about a minute before they were in front of a large wall and Mr. Satotz with the other applicants, Hisoka among them. Hisoka noticed the two of them and headed their way. Y/n instinctively took a defense stance.

       "Now now, darling. No need for such a cold greeting, I did let you live did I not?" Hisoka sneered. 

       "Pardon my lack of enthusiasm," she replied flatly, disgust evident in her tone and the glare she wore.

       Hisoka let out a small chuckle at her blatant aversion for him. "I didn't realize the two of you were acquainted," he chimed eyeing you both. 

       "We are not, she followed me here." the guy with the pins stated bluntly. 

       "Oh, what a shame. I truly think the two of you could get along, Gittarackur." Hisoka seemed to be teasing Gittaruckur more than y/n. 

       Y/n's attention drifted over to Killua chatting with his friends. She decided to go over and introduce herself, rather than stay for the rest of Hisoka and Gittaruckur's conversation. She skipped off in Killua's direction. 

       "Y/n, you made it too." he laughed. "Why were off hanging out with them?" He sent a judgmental glare in Hisoka's direction. 

       "Believe me, it was not on purpose," y/n retorted with an exasperated sigh. She turned toward Killua's friends and introduced herself. "Hi, I'm y/n!"

       "Hello, y/n! My name is Gon!" Another child about Killua's age responded eagerly. 

       "And I'm Kurapika. Over there is Leorio." A blonde man said briefly, and gestured at a man leaning against a tree seemingly out cold. Upon closer inspection, the man called Leorio had a large, protruding bruise on his face.

       "Whoa, what happened to him?" y/n asked.

       "Hisoka," replied Gon. 

       "So he attacked you guys too then." Y/n cast a glance over her shoulder back at Hisoka, who smiled and waved at her. 

       "You fought him as well?" Kurapika questioned.

       "Yeah, he let me escape after I 'proved my worth' to him," she shuddered at the thought of the fight.

       "Whoa! So that means you fought him off all by yourself then?" Gon gave her a look of admiration.

       "Hardly. If he was fighting for real, I'd have been done for." She admitted with a light chuckle of embarrassment.

       "That's still quite the impressive accomplishment." Kurapika looked at Leorio, who looked like he was waking up. "We barely escaped with all of us fighting him." 

       The conversation was once again cut short by the examiner's announcement. The second phase was about to start.