The next 24 hours were brutal while you waited for Ai to be strong enough. For better or worse, Netero had stuck around — he said there was nothing better to do, but you were pretty certain it's because he considered you a flight risk and couldn't risk the chance of you leaving as soon as he disappeared.
And so, another party member was added to your team.
"So earlier you mentioned some Hunter Exam," Denki started, sprawled out on one of the couches. "You placed last in almost every one of the summer exams. How did you pass the Hunter Exam?"
Huffing with a mouthful of cheese puffs, you shot him a glare, allowing yourself to at least chew and swallow before you gave a rebuttal. "For your information, the Hunter Exam is nothing like high school exams, okay?! You guys would not be able to pass as easily. You can even ask Old Man Netero!"
The old man had been reading a book, and hadn't even looked up from it as he shook his head, lips turned upwards in amusement. "I wouldn't count them out, [Y/n]."
Well, that wasn't helpful. Rolling your eyes, you decided to take the lead again. "Anyways, the Hunter Exam has different phases, and changes each year. The Hunter Exam I went through involved running for about 100 kilometers, partially through an underground tunnel, and then through a really dangerous and hard to see swamp. Next phase was cooking — uh, everybody failed that one."
That earned a snort from Neito, which was promptly ignored.
"So because the cooking exam was impossibly hard, the old geezer butt in and let us do a different exam, so I had to jump off a cliff and hang off a huge spider web to get a giant egg."
"What the fuck is wrong with this world?!"
Neito was, once again, ignored.
"So after that, we rode a blimp to this huge building called Trick Tower. Like, huge huge. We were put on the very top of the building, and it was basically a smooth cylinder with no visible doors or windows, and practically impossible to climb down. The doors were hidden on the floor! I found mine because I tripped and a tile gave away beneath me, letting me start from the top of Trick Tower. And guess who I was paired up with?"
Mina piped up first, eyes glittering in interest and excitement. "Oh! Was it your little brother?"
You shook your head, and Denki guessed next. "What about that angry Leorio guy you've mentioned?"
Snorting, you shook your head, and Hanta seemed to realize, nearly grimacing. "It wasn't that clown guy from before, was it?" Unfortunately, you confirmed his suspicions.
"Yeah. I got paired up with fucking Hisoka. Anyways, we were given a cool coin to decide decisions — we had to call heads or tails every time we disagreed, and Hisoka pretty much disagreed every time to piss me off, I'm sure."
Everybody — save for Netero — was hooked on your story, leaning forward. "Choices? Like what?" Hanta asked, eyebrows furrowed.
"Like which direction to go, who to fight, etcetera etcetera. At one point, about halfway through the tower, we got dumped into this huge fighting arena. I didn't even know nen at the time! It was on this, like, pedestal thing? If we fell off the edge we would have definitely died. Anyways, we had to fight a whole bunch of imprisoned criminals, and I, uh, accidentally threw a guy off the side."
"YOU KILLED A GUY?!"
It was your turn to grimace as four different voices blended together in a shout. "I mean, it's not like I did it on purpose!"
Denki sighed, leaning back into the couch. "Man, you have a habit of throwing people out of arenas, huh?"
At the reminder of yours and Denki's fight, Mina, Hanta, and Neito chortled, causing your cheeks and ears to redden from embarrassment. "Except you weren't an accident," Neito reminded Denki snidely. This only caused the other blond to slump even more dramatically.
"And I thought we had something special, [N/n]...."
You rolled your eyes. "ANYWAYS, back to my story!" Your classmates hushed, allowing you to continue. "So eventually we get down Trick Tower and we're the first people to make it down! So after waiting for everybody to finish, we're given our next task: to hunt."
"Hunt?"
"Mhm! So at the beginning of the exam, we each got a numbered badge, mine was 406. Back to the phase after Trick Tower, we each had to pull a badge number and hunt that person — not kill them, of course!" You were quick to tack that on as your peers' faces morphed into shock. "Just to steal the badge. There was a whole bunch of other rules, but basically I had a monkey guy that I stole his badge from, and had to stay on the island for a week before we all left to the final phase.
"The final phase was, like, this fighting tournament! We each were put into brackets to fight people — only one loser would be at the top and would fail the Hunter Exam."
Hanta interrupted you, eyebrows still knit together. "Wait, how many participants were there in the exam?"
"406," you nodded to yourself. "I was the last one to enter. By the last phase, there were only ten of us, including me."
"WAIT, that many people failed?!"
Shrugging, you tilted your head. "Well, a lot of people died. It's pretty dangerous, after all..."
Neito was rubbing the sides of his head, clearly looking like he was about to have an aneurysm. "This world is absolutely nuts... There is absolutely no way they'd allow this back in our own world."
In agreement, you gave a wry smile. "The pro-heroes would flip the fuck out," you snorted. "Anyways, Gon, Killua, Leorio, and Kurapika all made it to the final phase with me! Oh. And Hisoka. The worst fight was the first one." Even the thought of that fight made you angry and want to punch Hanzo in the face, even if Gon had forgiven him.
Mina leaned closer to you. "Was it yours?"
You shook your head. "Nope. It was Gon's — he had to go against this dumb ninja named Hanzo, who broke his arm and threatened to kill him! Oh, I was so mad I was ready to murder that guy!"
"But Gon is baby!"
Once again, this was from Mina, although you weren't quite sure what she meant. It was probably slang you hadn't picked up, yet. Nonetheless, you allowed her to hug you, and you frowned, trying to get a grip on your emotions again. This was long in the past, after all.
"Anyways, seeing Gon's stubbornness, Hanzo just gave up. I didn't get to my fight, because then Killua killed this old man by ripping his heart out, and killing somebody was against the rules so Killua got disqualified and we all won be default. So that's how I passed the exam."
The students of U.A. looked at you in confusion, with Hanta holding his hands up. "Whoa whoa whoa. Did you just say Killua ripped a guy's heart out? Can we go back to that?"
In realization, you lit up. "Oh! Yeah! Killua's an assassin — well, ex-assassin, now. He got mind-controlled by his douchebag older brother, and that's why he killed somebody."
For a moment, the room was quiet as everybody soaked in your words. Denki was the first to break the silence.
"You know, [Y/n], I can definitely understand why you are the way that you are, now."
"What does that mean?!"
The outburst was enough to make everybody relax into chuckles, at ease once again. Popping a handful of cheese puffs into her mouth, Mina leaned her head on your shoulder. "Hey, can you tell us more about this world? These stories seem almost like an action book!"
You leaned your head on top of Mina's and hummed, a fond smile forming on your face.
"Yeah, yeah... Hm... Let me tell you guys about what I was doing in Greed Island before I got here, and about the bomber, Genthru!"
The day went on, with you telling your friends your adventures, and vice versa. All four of them shared their own childhood stories, and soon enough you had Ai speaking up in your head, asking if you were ready to go. They had been able to recuperate faster than they had expected, much to everybody's relief.
It was a weird feeling. For so long had you been searching for a way to get back to your world, only to leave the first chance you could. Netero had given you the option to stay here, and that he would bring everybody back, but it just didn't sit right with you. You had way too much unfinished business in that world, and if you left permanently, you just knew it would haunt you.
Besides, Katsuki himself had said that you had to stay and fix the mess you made, and so it was settled.
Making sure the hotel receptionist — still Millie, you wondered if she ever left or slept or did literally anything else besides working — knew you were checking out so your card didn't get charged anymore, you took a deep breath.
"Ai, I'm passing this over to you, I guess. Do me a favor and don't cap my nen again?"
Don't worry! You just rest!
Closing your eyes, you allowed Ai to take yourself over again, back again in the vast emptiness that was your mind. It wouldn't take too long — Ai was only taking control to hold open a portal longer to connect back to your world and allow you all through. In a few moments, you'd be back to normal, back in a world you had grown to call home.
Speaking of which...
You grimaced. Now that you had this under control, soon you would be leaving for good. The thought of never seeing the new friends you had made, your father-figure, even seeing U.A... It was unbearable. Maybe it was a hassle at first, but you had grown fond of the other world, and so saying 'goodbye' to it . . .
It made you feel incredibly sad and lonely. Did you have any other choice, though? While the thought of leaving the new world was unbearable, so was the thought of saying 'goodbye' to Gon and the others. You had spent your entire childhood with Gon — he was your brother, after all, adopted or not! That hurt even worse than the thought of leaving your old world for good.
There were other factors. Kurapika, Leorio . . . Not to mention the classmates you had gotten really close to. Mina, Momo, Katsuki, Izuku, Shouto . . .
Would you never really see them again if you went back home?
Did you even had a choice in this matter? Not even you knew.
Stop it, you chastised yourself, heart clenching. Now isn't the time to worry about this. We need to go back to the hero world, capture the villains, save the day, and go back home! Much easier said than done, though....
[Y/n]! It's bad!
At the sound of Ai's voice, you snapped back into reality, pain and wind giving you whiplash as you tried to figure out where the hell you were. It was dark, now, in contrast to the bright sun of your own world. Rubble was everywhere, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that you had fallen right into some sort of fight, eyes strained in confusion as you tried to figure out who was fighting.
"Chuunibyou?!"
At the familiar, angry voice, you snapped your head towards Katsuki, eyes widened in confusion.
"Ka— wait, where's everybody else?!"
Mina, Hanta, Denki, Neito, Netero — none were around, and you heard Ai pipe up in your head, saying that they returned everybody else to the school.
Why did you send me here, then?!
Katsuki wasn't giving you a chance to talk with Ai as he tugged your hand, immediately pulling you out of the way.
It was a good thing, too, since you hadn't realized that there were villains around you.
Stumbling into Katsuki's chest, he used his explosions to launch both of you off the ground for a moment. The sudden change in pace had you disoriented and confused; it didn't help that you felt spent from traveling through dimensions again.
Ai, get me out of here!
Some of your other friends are nearby and I can't see them and I don't know who exactly they are, so I can't teleport them. Do you want me to leave them?
Shit!
You didn't have time to look for the others, and there was no way in hell that you were going to leave them here. Feet back onto the ground, you did a backbend to avoid an attack by a masked villain you didn't recognize, with Katsuki yelling at you to avoid getting touched.
Come on, come on... Who else is around here?!
"That's enough — I'll take it from here."
Aw, fuck. At the familiar voice, the hair stood up on the back of your neck, and while the villain backed off and focused his efforts on Katsuki, you knew you were not out of danger just yet. If anything, you were in even more trouble, especially since the owner of the voice was the one who had pretty much caused you trouble from the get-go.
"[Y/N]!"
Hearing Katsuki call you by your actual name was jarring, and you looked over only to see a rescue team — ah, the other friends. Izuku, Momo, Tenya, Shouto, and Eijirou. Such a weird team!
Ai, take them back to the school, please. I wish for them to be safe, and they won't leave me behind.
Ai!
It was strange to see it happen to somebody other than you, as the sky warped and sucked your friends in before going back to normal. You just hoped Ai didn't teleport them above the school.
I didn't, they're safe!
Applause from behind caused you to tense, reminding you that while your friends were safe, you still weren't. Turning around, you steeled yourself, face icy.
"It's been so long, [Y/n]! I'm so glad to see that you've managed to control what's inside of you. After all, I've been waiting on this since the moment I met you, after all. Playing with you... Hopefully it will be even more fun than Ging or the Chairman! Just don't let me be bored."
Meeting soulless brown eyes, your lips thinned. You were hyperaware of the villains approaching from behind, and you held your hands up in surrender, closing your eyes.
"Alright, alright. You got me. I'll go with you guys for now, if only so All Might can fight for real." The man in front of you looked genuinely surprised, although the expression only lasted for a moment before it shifted back into his sly and cunning smile.
"You have changed. How interesting."
"Whatever, you damned rat. Or, would it be better to call you by your name, Pariston Hill?"
Pariston was unbothered, waving you off, his eyes flickering to behind you. There wasn't even enough time to turn around and see who was behind you as a feather-light touch grazed your shoulder. Immediately, everything went black — you hadn't fainted, no. It was like you were forced back into that empty blackness that you were stuck in whenever Ai took control.
Realizing you would be here for a bit for whatever reason, you closed your eyes and took a deep breath.
Now, to come up with a game plan, and end Pariston's little game once and for all.