The hazel-eyed girl awoke to a lady's voice blaring throughout the island, announcing the end of the Fourth Phase.
"All participants, please make your way to the boat, the deadline for the Fourth Phase has ended. I repeat, the deadline for the Fourth Phase has ended, please make your way to the vote. If any tag swapping occurs, both parties will be eliminated."
A wave of relief washed over Juice, nearly crying tears of joy. She had passed, and now she could go see Kurapika and get her ankle treated. She didn't want to put any unnecessary pressure on the injury, so, throwing away every bit of her pride, she crawled as fast as she could to the front of the island so she could get on the boat.
A few people who had failed the phase saw her crawling through the forest, though they said nothing. After what felt like years upon years of pain in her leg, Juice reached the clearing, and was instructed to wait until all of the passed applicants were gathered.
I know that they're not responsible for my injuries, but they're really going as far as to tell me to stand up? Juice thought as she uneasily stood up, the pain in her ankle flaring. She grimaced as she looked around the clearing, not a lot of people were there. Gittarackur, Bodoro, and Pokkle were standing around, but not anyone else. After a few minutes, Juice slumped against a nearby tree, unable to stand up for any longer, trying to rub her inflamed ankle but flinching badly at the touch, however light it was. By now, it should've been feeling better, so she wasn't sure what was up with her ankle.
"Stupid ankle," she muttered. When she finally gave up on trying to soothe the pain, she heard footsteps coming from a pathway by the edge of the clearing. Out walked a certain silverette, his sapphire orbs scanning the open field. Upon spotting the blue-haired girl with a splinted, blood-ridden foot, he ran over to her with worry in his eyes.
"Juice, are you okay?!" he exclaimed, squatting down next to her. Groggily turning her head to the direction of her crush, she sighed, wincing as she tried to move her foot.
"Yeah Killua, I'm feelin' just fine. No need to worry 'bout little ol' me." she muttered sarcastically, rolling her eyes before she looked down at her foot.
"Hey, don't joke! What happened?" after inspecting the wound showing from the poorly-build splint, he nearly gasped. "Did you shoot yourself or something?"
Juice contorted her face into such a repulsed expression, Killua immediately regretted accusing her of that and cowered. "No, you dumbass, I didn't shoot myself. This lady shot me."
"Oh my God," Killua said, exasperated. He had no idea what to say. Does it hurt? Of course it does. How long ago did it happen? She might not know. So, he said the one thing that rushed into his mind.
"Did you pass?"
The girl chuckled lightly at the question, reaching into her backpack and fishing out her collection of tags. "Sure did!" After seeing the display of five tags, Killua sighed in relief.
"That's a relief," he breathed, proud of the girl. To be honest, when Killua first saw her, he didn't expect her to even pass the First Phase. She seemed so nonchalant and airheaded, kind of like Gon, but with sassy and sarcastic undertones. He liked her, he just didn't expect her to be so strong.
"Mhmm," she agreed, looking around her. "Have you seen Leorio? Or Kurapika?" she asked, getting antsy. She knew he hadn't, but there was no harm in asking. "I want my brother and I need a doctor."
Killua shook his head, looking around as well. "No, I haven't seen them. I haven't seen Gon either. Do you think they all passed?"
"Yeah, I'm sure they passed. Have some faith in them, they're all strong." Juice chided with a neutral expression, but then her lips curved upwards into a sly smirk. "I bet you didn't expect me to pass, did ya?"
Upon hearing those words, Killua panicked, he really didn't expect her to pass. "I- I mean, I hoped you would pass, but I wasn't sure."
Hoped? He hoped I would pass? The girl internally squealed, but she kept up the smirk and huffed, as if she was a know-it-all. "Mhmm, don't underestimate me either. It'll come back to bite you!" she jokingly warned, leaning towards him to flick his forehead. However, the sudden movement made her ankle flare, and she hunched over in absolute pain. Killua couldn't help but laugh.
"Yeah, sure it will."
[ -- \ / -- ]
Eventually, Leorio, Kurapika, and Gon ended up at the clearing, and just like Killua, they rushed to Juice. In this situation, she really didn't like being the center of attention, but it couldn't be helped. She gave Kurapika a huge hug as Leorio fretted over her apparently infected wound, and immediately got to work on it. Killua and Gon awkwardly surrounded her, gawking at her ankle.
Sighing, she looked around the clearing while she clung onto Kurapika, who was fulfilling the role of the worried big brother he was. "Hey, did you guys see Ponzu? With hair like mine? I was hoping she passed."
She knew that she didn't pass, but she felt the need to make the three feel guilty. It was pretty cruel what they did, and she was disappointed that she couldn't help Ponzu. She even had two extra tags.
Nobody said anything, and the girl gave up in defeat. sighing at Ponzu's misfortune. She liked her. "Whatever. Leorio, what exactly happened to my foot?"
"You infected it, dumbass!" he exclaimed, frantically doing whatever it was that doctors do. "You kept the same bandage on for too long, and it-!"
"Well excuse me sir for the fact that I was shot by a stupid sniper against my will, just tryin' to survive," she scoffed, rolling her eyes but soon grimacing at the pain. "I get the point, sorry I don't know how to properly tend to a gunshot wound."
"Juice, you use a gun, you should know." Kurapika and Gon said in unison, stating the obvious. With a slight blush on her face, she tried to look away, but it was hard considering her position. She was leaning against Kurapika with her uninjured leg propped up by her chest, and both of her arms were wrapped around her older brother's waist. Her other leg was sticking straight out on the grass, where Leorio was working on properly tending to and bandaging her wound.
"I didn't think that I would get shot myself," she muttered, closing her eyes. Kurapika sighed, and started patting the top of her head.
"Jeez, what am I supposed to do with you?" Kurapika asked. "First you bang your head on a rock and now you go and get yourself shot. I'm going to die because of worrying over you too much one day."
"You say that like it's my fault. . ." Juice muttered, looking down. She felt like they were blaming it on her. "It's not like I wanted to be shot."
Kurapika didn't really know what to say to that, so he kept silent as Leorio did his job in silence, occasionally asking Killua and Gon for help. It didn't take to long, only about twenty minutes, but it felt like hours. "Alright, done," Leorio announced, closing his briefcase. Juice's ankle looked much better thanks to Leorio, and it felt better too. Standing up and supporting herself against Kurapika, she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank you Leorio," she said, softly smiling at her friend. He shrugged it off, saying it was no big deal.
"I just did what anyone would have, no need to thank me," It was funny, how a few minutes ago, he was yelling at her, and now he was acting like treating her gunshot would wasn't a big deal. Juice thought it was weird, but a good weird.
Eventually, after everyone that had passed had gathered in the clearing, they were loaded onto the boat and prepared to be taken to the Fifth Phase. Only a handful of applicants out of the four-hundred-and-six had made it, and with one of them knowing everything that would happen ahead of time, nobody knew what could happen.
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Fanfiction━━━━ ❰ ♕ If you lived a life where you were constantly judged and shunned by your own family for your hobby, and simply mistreated in general, would you leave? Some might bear it, others wouldn't. When this happens, only a select few are chosen to...
