I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. I dialed a number and then brought the phone to my ear.
"Hello?" Kortopi said on the other end. "Hey Kortopi." I say. "Hey Kara. What are you up to?" He asked. "Well I decided to take the Hunter Exam." I tell him. It was silent for a moment.
"I believe Hisoka is also taking the exam this year." He calmly said.
"Yeah, he is here too." I began to walk back into the forest. No time to waste. Who knows what will be next for the exam.
"And has he seen you?" Kortopi was trying to keep his composure.
"Yeah, he saw me a few times." I said. "Oh is that so? What are you wearing?" He asked. "A gas mask and a hoodie." I described my appearance to him.
"Ok, that's pretty clever of you. So do you have an alias or something?" He questioned.
"Well I'm not stupid. Of course I do." I assure him. "Well have you spoken to Hisoka?" He was asking many questions. And his voice was calm but he was definitely irritated.
"We did talk a few times. But not really a conversation. But he did grab my arm once." I didn't want to lie to him. I continued to walk through the forest, following the sent of all the people.
I could hear all the animals around me but every time I looked at one it would cower away in fear.
At least the creatures are smart.
I heard a sigh through the phone. "Kara." He paused. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? WE GO THROUGH ALL THIS WORK JUST FOR YOU TO FLUSH IT DOWN THE DRAIN BY TALKING TO HISOKA. I WOULD UNDERSTAND IF YOU WENT TO TALK TO ILLUMI, BUT YOU TALKED TO HISOKA. HONESTLY WHAT WAS THE POINT OF FAKING YOUR DEATH?" He shouted through the phone.
But I just pulled it away from my ear and let him scream at the air.
"Are you done?" I brought the phone back to my ear. "Yes I'm done. But seriously Kara, what is the point of all this if you are going to be so careless?" He lowered his voice back down to a minimum.
"To be honest I don't even know why I did this anymore. I thought that if I left, everyone would be happier and safer. But seeing Illumi at the cafe, I could see he has changed. He is not like he used to be. And that's my fault. I miss him." I tell him.
"Kara, you just need to be safer now especially since Chrollo knows that you are still alive." He said.
When Kortopi spoke, my heart jumped out of my chest. I sat there in silence, trying to make sure I heard him right.
"What did you say?" I nearly whispered into the phone.
"Chrollo knows you are still alive." Kortopi repeated himself. I stopped walking. I had made it to the gate where everyone else was. I could see all the remaining participants.
I stood there and stared blankly at the sky. There was a big blimp in the air on the other side of this big wall.
"Kara? Are you still there?" My silence concerned Kortopi.
"Kortopi I have to go." I say and instantly hang up the phone, not waiting for him to respond.
Everyone watched me as I slowly put my phone into my pocket. Gon ran up to me.
"Hey, it's you. You made it." Gon jumped up and down. "Who is that?" Killua walked up to the two of us. "Umm..." Gon thought long and hard to remember my name.
"Oh yeah, it's Alya." He pointed to the sky.
I stood there looking off in the distance. Then I slowly looked down at the children in front of me. Tears began to fall from my eyes.
I grabbed Killua by his shoulders. "Are you happier now that I am gone? Tell me I made the right choice."
I'm glad no one could see me crying under this mask. He just looked up at me like I was crazy.
I looked over to Hisoka. Him and everyone else were staring at me. I ran over to him. "Do you miss me? Are you glad that I am dead?" I placed my hands on his chest. But he said nothing.
He placed his arms on my shoulders, pulling me away from him and he said, "Forgive me, but I dont know who you are."
I backed away. And let out a small chuckle.
"No, of course you don't. I'm sorry I have you mistaken for someone else." I walked away.
Gathering myself again, I look around to see Mr. Satotz in a tree. He was looking down at me.
He motioned for me to come to him. I walked over to him.
"So are you ready to explain how you got to the end of the tunnel so fast?" He said hopping out of the tree.
I nodded my head. "Yeah well the thing is, I'm not human. I have the powers of a demon. Which includes super human speed and teleportation." I began to explain my abilities to him.
He carefully listened to everything I was saying. With every word he got sucked in more and more.
"And that is pretty much it." I finished. He stared at me with shock in his eyes. It was a lot to take in after all.
"Well, how interesting." He chuckled. "So you were the Butterfly Killer, huh?" He asked in disbelief. "Yes I was." I assure him. He was rather interested in my abilities.
The huge gate that we were waiting by opened up and everyone walked through it.
There was a woman and a huge man sitting in front of what looked like cooking stations.
They said they were gourmet hunters and they will be the examiners for the second stage of the exam.
The woman's name was Menchi and the male was Buhara.
Someone started to laugh and joke about how useless gourmet hunters are. And I could tell that that was rather irritating for the examiners.
They told us that we had to cook pig and they would be the ones to judge if it was good or not.
If it was good enough for them, as gourmet hunters, then we will pass. But if it wasn't good enough to please their pallets, you would fail.
At the sound of a bell everyone rushed off into the forest in search of a pig to cook for the gourmet hunters.
I stood at the opening between the cooking area and the woods. I took a deep breath in to see if I could smell any pig. And I did.
I followed the sent of pork. My nose lead me to an open field filled with gigantic pigs. The pigs had snouts half the size of their bodies.
"Ok well, I guess I'll just pick one and cut it's head off."
I slowly crept up being one of the smaller pigs and swiftly sliced it's head off.
It wasn't easy though, the flesh at the top of the head was soft and I could cut through it easily but the farther my sword cut, the rougher the flesh became.
All though it took a minute or two. I finished killing the pig and lifted up the body to take back to the station for it to be cooked.
I didn't need the head so I left it were it was.
I walked back to the cooking station to see I was the first to have arrived.
Menchi stood up from her chair. "Where is it's head?" She asked as I placed the pigs body down on the table.
"I didn't need it." I told her. She tilted her head. "And how did you decapitate that pig?" She looked at me with suspicion.
"I cut its head off with my sword." I lifted up a cutting knife off the table and began to skin the pig.
She sat back down and waited for more people to arrive.
Once I finished skinning my pig, more applicants started to make their ways back to the stations.
But I ignored them and continued on my pig.
On my way back over here, I found some mushrooms, wild garlic and onions. There was also a blackberry bush and I thought that could be useful so I grabbed some.
I carefully sliced my pork into thin slices and chopped up my mushrooms, garlic and onions.
I then mashed up the blackberry's I found until it was a sauce consistency.
I placed my pork over the fire and let it cook along with the ingredients I chopped up.
After the pork was thoroughly cooked, I took everything off the heat and coated it with the blackberry sauce.
I plated it and took a step back to look at the finished product. A smile appeared on my face.
"Now I'm no chef, but that looks damn good." I picked up the plate and walked up to the gourmet hunters.
I placed my food down on the table and they both picked up their forks to give it a try.
All the other people who came before me, only Buhara tried their food.
Menchi slowly lifted a piece of pork to her mouth and took a bite.
We sat there in silence as she tasted the food.
She lifted up her card and gave me the thumbs up.
"Not bad." She smiled. "You pass." Buhara said still stuffing his face.
I bowed down and walked back to my station.
Many people were still cooking their meals. Most people did the same thing. They just threw the whole pig in the fire and waited for it to turn brown then they served it.
And that is why everyone except for me has failed so far. And by the looks of it, everyone but me is going to fail.
Person after person went to serve their meals. And they all got the thumbs down. One guy even got so mad he tried to hit her but he was thrown by the large male gourmet hunter.
After about an hour everyone had presented their meals. And like I thought everyone had failed.
"Ok so all except one of you have failed. Better luck next year." Menchi stood up and told everyone.
People began to shout. "What?! You can't fail us all." Someone said. "You can't do that." Another person said.
"Shut up all of you!" Menchi yelled. "You all suck at cooking. And nearly all of you did the same things. No one ever tried. So it's your own fault you failed." She sat back down in her seat.
Then there was a loud boom and everyone looked up at blimp in the sky.
There was a small figure falling from the sky. It was a men. He had jumped out of the blimp.
Landing on his feet the man stood tall. He was an older man with white hair and a white beard. He said his name was Netero.