A/N:
I want to like...ingest Lucifer and Vox from Hazbin Hotel and ingest Mindless Self Indulgence music at the same time
YOUR POV:
"'To open the door, select 'O' to open and 'X' to not open it,'" Gon reads aloud the sign that's above the door.
"It's forcing us to use majority rule already?" Leorio asks a bit in shock. "The answer should be obvious." We all put in our answers on our bracelets making the majority vote four to open the door and one to keep it shut. "Who pushed 'X'?"
Tonpa nervous laughs, "it was me, sorry. I pressed the wrong button by mistake."
Leorio grabbed hold of Tonpa's shirt, "stop messing around old man! Are you blind?"
"It was an accident like I said."
"How can you 'accidentally' press the wrong button?!"
Gon interferes. "It doesn't matter. The door is open anyway,"
"It does matter though. This guy deliberately pressed the wrong button!"
"Leorio if you keep arguing we won't make it down in time," I speak up.
"Uh-huh, and even if he keeps pressing the wrong button, the rest of us just need to press the right one," Killua says as we all walk into the next room.
The next room had another sign for us to follow and two gated doors, one on the right and one on the left.
"'Which one is the correct path? 'O' is for right and 'X' is for left.'" Gon reads as I take a glance down each hall in hopes it would help us decide.
The majority was 'O' for the right door being at four and 'X' for the left being at two.
"Why would you chose the right side?!" Leorio exclaims, "you should always go left in a situation like this!"
"True. But research has indicated that people who are lost tend to go left." Kurapika explains.
"Then the numbers don't add up!" Leorio continued, "what numbers did you press?"
"Right," Kurapika answers as he goes towards the right door.
"Right," Killua answers as he follows the older blonde.
"That's why they chose right...to outwit the examiner." Tonpa starts, "if the examiner knows that people tend to go left then the left would be more difficult." Tonpa then walks off as Leorio lets out a frustrated huff and goes to the right.
Gon and I glance to each other before following them.
The next room was massive, the path on our side had a sudden drop off. On the other side was the same thing and in the middle was a small fighting arena, below was a massive black pit.
"Great, more cliffs." I cringe.
"Look over there." On the the other side were six cloaked people. They were honestly intimidating even from all the way over here.
"They're here, take my handcuffs off." One of the cloaked figures says as their handcuffs break in half and fall to the ground. The figure then reaches and takes off their cloak to reveal a man. He steps forward into the light, "I'm finally free."
"Allow me to explain." It was the voice from the first room, the examiner, "before you are a few Trick Tower prisoners. The Hunter Exam Committee has officially fired them as examiners. You'll fight against the six of them. The fights will be one v one. Each person will only fight once. You can fight however you'd like and there will be no draws. A win is decided when the opponent admits defeat."
"Decide who will go first. In other words, you need four wins in order to pass." The man across the path says.
"However, the actual fights will not be so simple. The prisoner's sentences will be reduced by one year, for every hour they delay the applications here. So their deal is to buy time."
"I understand. We only have seventy two hours to complete all of this...time is a value thing here." Kurapika says to himself.
"I'm up first. Chose who will go first." The man instructs.
"What should we do?" Killua asks, "he said that we could fight using any method. So anything goes..."
"We don't know what they'll try to pull," Leorio warns.
"There's too much at stake without knowing what they have up their sleeves. Given that, I'll go—." Kurapika starts but is interrupted by Tonpa.
"No, I'll go first. I'll be the guinea pig so we can see what they're up to. Consider this my apology for before." Tonpa says.
"Are you serious?" Leorio asks cautiously.
"Yeah. Besides, you don't trust me right? Do you really want me to be the tiebreaker when the score is two-to-two?" Tonpa continues.
"You have a point..."
Tonpa sets his bag aside as the walk way opens from the platforms that lead to the center arena. Tonpa and the prisoner make their way to the center to fight. "Alright, let's determine the combat method. I propose a death match."
"A death match?"
"They'll fight until the other dies?"
Tonpa agreed and the two get into position to fight each other. The prisoner runs toward Tonpa to attack but before the prisoner can, Tonpa gets on all fours and surrenders.
"D-Did he just say that he 'gives up'?" Gon asks, unsure if he heard him correctly.
"Maybe he said 'give me a sec'?" Leorio asks, hoping that what Tonpa said wasn't true.
"I'm going to kill him," I accused as I feel someone pat my head as a way to calm me down.
"What did you just say?" The prisoner asks as Tonpa lifts his head.
"You win if I admit defeat right? So I give up! I lose!" Tonpa smiles.
The prisoner laughs, "fine. I win this round." The prisoner then turns and makes his way back to his side while Tonpa's comes back to ours.
The score is now one-to-zero.
Tonpa nervously smiles, "man that was awful. He looked so much stronger up close."
"I'm literally going to literally kill him!" I yell, "he's messed up so—!" Killua had snuck up behind me and grabbed me. "Hey! Let me go!"
"No, I'm not going to let you go. Besides, Leorio is taking care of it for you." Killua comments, gesturing to Leorio holding Tonpa by his shirt.
"Killua please!" I beg, "let me at him just this once!"
"I'll let you go when you calm down. Actually, take that anger and direct it at whoever you'll be fighting." Killua suggests.
"Gon! Tell Killua to let me go!" I look over at Gon who backs away as if to say he doesn't want to get involved.
"They just want us to fight amongst ourselves in order to waste time," Kurapika explains.
"But if their goal is to buy time," Killua says now holding my hand tightly, "then the old man made the right choice. That bald guy is probably a filet soldier or mercenary. If you had fought him then he would have started by crushing your throat, that way you couldn't say 'I give up'. Then he would have tortured you, not killing you for the rest of the time." Killua calmly states, a dark aura radiating off him.
"Killua, you're scary." I admit looking at him.
"But didn't you say I was nice not too long ago?" He counters.
Leorio lets go of Tonpa as a new prisoner on the other side speaks up. "Don't worry. Everything will be fine." The prisoner's handcuffs break off and he takes off his cloak to reveal a man with straight black hair, "if we defeat two of the remaining five then we win."
"Regardless we need to win four in order to advance." Kurapika says.
"So who's up?" Killua asks.
"Me! I'll go!" Gon smiles while raising his hand.
"You sure?" Leorio asks.
"Uh-huh. The next guy doesn't look too strong anyway." Gon replies as he takes off his bookbag.
"Don't let your guard down," Leorio warns. "He's still a criminal."
"I know." Gon says as he walks down the path and to the arena.
The two meet in the center as the man speaks up first, "as you can see, I am not very strong and I do not enjoy physical activities. So I came up with a simple game for us to play."
"'A game?'"
"Yes, one that doesn't rely on mental or physical."
"What type of game?"
The man then pulls out two candles. "We'll light the candles at the same time and whoever's candle goes out first is the loser."
"Sure, sounds great!"
"Now, which candle would you like?" He holds two candles, one short and one long. "Press 'O' for the long one and 'X' for the short one. Majority rule wins." He then sits down with the two candles behind him.
Unsure of what to pick, Kurapika tells Gon that he must be the one to decide which candle and in the end we would choose whichever one he picks. "Are you sure about that? He never thinks anything through." Killua hums, glancing over at Kurapika.
"Hey that's rude." I say, "we just met him."
Killua shrugs as Gon speaks up. "I get to pick? Oh okay. Hm...I'll go with the long one because it will last longer. It's a no brainer."
"How can he just—?"
"I knew he wouldn't think it through."
We all pressed the 'O' button on our bracelets as the prisoner threw Gon his candle. The torches around the arena lowered as they lit their candle simultaneously.
Minutes passed as the two's candles flickered but were stable. "Normally, how long would it take to burn a candle down?" Killua asks as he looks at the bracelets timer.
"Five to six hours?" Kurapika replies.
Suddenly a harsh draft came from below the arena, making Gon's candle flicker harshly for a moment. "A harsh draft...so that means they have to stay still and not get distracted, yeah?"
Suddenly Gon's candle erupted into flames which made the candle wax melt quicker.
"Woah look at Gon's flame!"
"He must've spiked it with something so it would burn faster." Kurapika infers.
Wax slips down the side of the candle and onto the floor as Gon seethed about the temperature of the candle. "Since the flame's burning a lot, a little draft won't put it out right?" Gon smiles as he sets down the candle onto the arena floor. He then rushes towards the prisoner as he stares in shock. Gon takes a breath and blows out the candle swiftly. "I win!" He smiles giving a peace sign.
After the mess was cleaned up Gon came back to our side as Leorio congratulated him.
"Congrats Gon!" I hug the boy in a congratulatory gesture. Gon hugs me back for a moment as I take his hands and study them, "any burns? It seemed super hot."
"I'm okay!" Gon admits, "it burned but not anything I couldn't deal with."
After I studied his hands carefully, making sure there wasn't any serious damage I pulled away from him. "If you say so." I shrug, "anyway, I'll go next."
I see one of the prisoners on the other end take off her cloak to reveal a girl with dark blue hair. "Are you sure letting you go is a good idea?" Killua suddenly asks, "I mean you might kill someone...or him." He says gesturing to Tonpa.
"I'm fiiiine, I think. Besides, it's not like I'm going to actually kill him...I've just...considered it." I smile innocently.
"You got this Y/N!" Gon cheers.
I take a breath as I walk across to the arena where I meet the blue haired girl. I was excited to fight, to a win a point for my team but I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.