Dépaysement (on temporary hold)

~5~

Gon exited the grimoire tower with more questions than answers, not even the keeper of the grimoire tower understood why his had changed upon contact. That definitely wasn't normal, but it was still functional. Gon opened his grimoire and examined the pages again, there were only three pages and they were all filled in. He'd previously miscounted due to them being so thick, not only that but they were also scrawled with the hunter language. Each page detailed one of Gon's abilities. Rock, Paper, and Scissors.

Well, doesn't really matter does it? I got my grimoire, and now I can take the exam! In...six months. Gon groaned, raking his hands through his hair. I mean, I guess I could train my Nen in the meantime? I don't know how hard this exam will be. Gon took a deep breath. "That's right! I'll train hard, although I need a better place to sleep don't I." He muttered to himself. Gon peered down at his map again, there were quite a few towns nearby. However what intrigued him wasn't a town, but a massive demon skull on the map. I wanna check that out so bad! And it's on the outskirts of one of the towns too so I could probably find a place to stay there.

Gon went off on his way, taking his time to enjoy the nice stroll. It took about three days travel to arrive, mainly due to the many detours Gon took along the way. As he neared the large skull he gaped at the sheer size of the thing. Sure he knew it was large, but he didn't think it was that big! Gon scaled the skull, coming upon a statue at its peak. It was a young looking man with a grimoire in his hand, and a crown upon his head. Gon didn't dwell on it very long, as he heard a voice from down below. It sounded like...counting?

"SIX HUNDRED AND SEVEN, SIX HUNDRED AND TEN, SIX HUNDRED AND-"

Gon peered down below at the voice, spotting a familiar figure. Wait it's that guy from the ceremony. He realized. Upon closer inspection Gon saw he was counting every swing with a very large heavy looking sword. He couldn't help but wonder how many hours the guy had been at it. He thought he might as well say hello, so he quickly mapped out a path to reach the forest floor. Gon leapt from the skull, then from branch to branch with precision. Gon heard the counting cut off abruptly as one of the branches he leapt on cracked, then snapped underneath his weight.

"Ah-!" Gon braced for the fall by gathering his Nen in his feet, hitting the ground with a thud. He winced at the jarring impact, the ground denting beneath him from the force. "Sorry-" Gon apologized, with an awkward laugh. The grey haired teen just stared at him in shock for a moment, before shouting. "Where did you even come from man!?" He whipped his head around, as if trying to search for where he'd came from. Gon blinked. "Oh, I climbed the demon skull from the other side then jumped down with the branches, but as you can tell one of them broke."

"Woah so cool! I'm Asta by the way" Asta said, the sword slacking in his grip. "I'm Gon, Gon freecss." He felt his eyes drawn to the sword curiously. Asta grinned. "It's awesome isn't it? Came out of my grimoire!" He hurriedly pulled out the book to show to Gon, who examined it with curiosity. Five leaves? I wonder what that means. "So can you use magic now?" he questioned, not completely understanding how grimoires work. He'd heard those teens talking about how the kid was magicless. Asta let out a sigh. "No, I don't have any magic power at all. But I've been training my body all these years, this sword is all I need to become the wizard king!"

Gon whipped out his own grimoire. "Here's mine!" He said cheerily. Asta hesitated as his eyes landed on the grimoire. "It's very.. Geometric?" He said slowly, like he couldn't come up with anything else to say about it. Gon shrugged. "I know its small, that doesn't really matter though. I just need a grimoire to try out for the magic knights." Gon explained, slipping it back in his bag. "You're gonna take the exam this year too?" Asta asked, with a grin.

Gon nodded. "Yeah! I didn't realize the exam was so far away, I need a place to stay so I went to the coolest nearby town, I saw this one had a giant demon skull and I just had to come visit." Asta chuckled. "Yeah I guess it is pretty too, Hage doesn't have much to offer though really." He said, with a soft sigh. Gon blinked. "Hm? Oh that's not a problem, back on whale island I used to catch my own meals a lot so I'll be fine. All I really need is a place to sleep and somewhere to wash my clothes."

Asta grinned. "Well in that case, I'm sure we can fit one more in at the church. If you don't mind sharing a room." Gon slid his grimoire back into his bag. "Not at all!" Asta suddenly grabbed his arm and started dragging Gon with him. "Right this way!"

1003 words

To Be Continued...