And if I have to carry you

Chap 1

"Watch out where you're going. It's not safe."

The short, blonde boy examined their surroundings nervously. Almost everyone around him was so much taller and he was sure most of them could kick his ass in less than 0.7 seconds. The only safety he had right now was his best friend, who scared everyone, who had at least 4 braincells, away.  Her mimik was truly frightening. Her frown was even heavier than normally and she moved her top lip slightly upwards, to expose her metal canine teeth. From a distance they almost looked like silvern wolf fangs. 

They were surrounded by many, many other humans, if you can call some of them even humans. Many of them had scars over their whole body, some had colorful skin and some just looked like weird creatures. His friend was right . This place was not safe.  

But some of the other opponents looked friendly. Maybe the ravenhead didn't need to be so careful. Maybe all these people just look scarry and are actually really nice cinnamon rolls? Yeah maybe that guy with the big skull tattoo is actually a good baker and always wears a pink apron at home! Yeah yeah. Maybe everything is less scarry than-     

"Hey fellow opponents!" a rather... corpulent man approached them. "Number 212 and number 213 I see. Are you together here? What are your names? Your first time at the hunter exam? How abou-"

His rambling immediatly stopped when he heard the quiet growl of the tall woman. Her cold eyes were narrowed on him as she waited for him to lower his hands, which rested on her and her best friends shoulders. Quickly he backed off, sweatdrops on his big forehead. His tanned skin looked a lot paler than before. That often happened when someone pissed Ketu off. 

The small boy next to her poked her softly. She immediatly straightend herself up and put a light smile on her pale face. The man flinched clearly visible when she reached out to shake his hand. Her friend quickly put a hand over his mouth, so the scared male wouldn't see him chuckle. "Your guess was correct, number 84. We really came here together. May we know your name?"

Archie knew that voice. Ketu usually used that voice, whenever she made fun of someone. The corpulent man couldn't know that, of course. It was delightful to see his face lighten up and him reaching out his hand himself. The boy almost started to laugh loudly as he saw how Ketu wrinkled her nose disgusted when she shook his hand. But the man seemed to oversee it. Well her facial expresion only changed for some seconds so could have just not noticed. Archie knew from first hand, how much Ketu despised dirty or sweaty hands. One time, some years ago, he tried to grab her arm, when he was nervous. For the next 2 hours she continued to clean her skin until it was all red and scrached. Even now she tried to somehow clean her hands with the bandages, wrapped around the fighting staff she always carried around. Pure disgust was written on her face.

Archie shook hands with 84 himself and even he was grossed out by these hands. A cold shower  ran down his spine as he touched the warm wet skin. For a second he would have rather attacked one of these scarry ass men, than be near these hands. 

"My name is Tonpa! This is my 35th time I take this exam!"

The short blondes eyes widened :"The 35th time! Wow you did it so often you'll definetly get it this time!" His cheerful, light voice made the fat man chuckle. Ketu grabed Archie's hair, pulled him near her and bowed down to hiss in his ear: "That he needed to take the exam so often doesn't mean he's strong. It means he's weak. Don't use him as a example, we will get this first try and if I need to carry you the whole way through I will."

With warm glowing eyes he looked at the serious face of his friend and smiled widely. She just straightend herself up again and looked Tonpa in the eyes. "My friend's Name is Archie and I'm Ketu. It's a pleasure to meet you Tonpa." 

"So it really is your first time huh? Yeah I've never seen you guys here. You know I'm known for greeting all the new guys and wish them good luck at the exam. Let's clink glasses on that!" The tall ravenhead tightened the grip around her staff as the short, fat man started to rummage around in his bag. 

He ended up only taking out 3 cans of soda. They weren't really big and seemed to be just ordinary soda. Ketu took two of them, the suspicion was still clearly visible in her ice blue eyes. To be sure, that Archie was still attentive she whisteled quietly. He snapped out of his thoughts and grabbed the colorful object, which was held right before his nose. Before he opened it, he looked at Ketu. He felt that she wanted to say something. Her lips started to move slowly. "Be careful"  

With a sidelook at the tanned man he opened the can. Ketu said he should be careful. That meant she had a bad feeling about it. And if Ketu has a bad Feeling, then the whole world should have a bad feeling. 

So he sniffed on the little opening. It smelled... rotten. Only slightly, but for Archie's trained nose it was like someone threw some rotten oranges in his face. He scrunched his nose. 

"Is everything alright young one?" the corpulent man asked. 

Instead of answering him he looked in Ketu's eyes: "It's poisoned." 

You could see the panic in Tonpa's small pig eyes. "What- What are you Talking About? Youngster why would I try to poison you?" But besides that he didn't do anything. The way he stood was normal, even relaxed. When even this useless looking, fat man wouldn't hesitate to poison them...what would these other scary people do? But...they weren't the only dangerous thing here.

Archie recognized a movement besides him. His friend had taken a step forward and brought the colorful can to her lips. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her gaze was fixed on the corpulent figure in front of her. Without wasting another breath she started swallowing the surely disgusting soda. When she was finished, she threw the empty can at the male. 

"We may be new here, but we're everything but weak. You need better tricks to bring us down."

And with that Tonpa walked away. He looked like he saw a ghost. Well...

Widely grinning the blonde boy looked at his friend. He laughed when he saw her greenish skin tone. "Archie, I don't feel so good."

"Well you just drank a can full of poison, idiot."

TBC