I stepped out of the elevator and took a long look at the floor I am in. As I was observing the structure of this floor, I sensed the presence of a unknown organism. I looked down below me and I saw a green living thing holding a circular object. "Congratulations on being the first applicant in the Hunters' Exam! This will be your tag, please wear it all the time." He, I suppose, said with a wary smile. He is scared of me, I can tell, but he is really proficient in masking it.
I stared at him hollowly, devoid of any possible emotion, but it's not like he can see my face. I took it from him and wore it. A number one was written on it. Must the other appicants be oh-so-late? Well, me being early is a possibility as well. The green blob walked away, leaving me alone in this...place.
I walked towards a corner and sat down on the floor beside it. I leaned my head on the corner, allowing me to be at a comfortable position.
I took out, what you might call, a pair of 'headphones,' and hooked it by my ears. It is really a wonderful invention. One of the things I thank the humans for. It is capable of filtering the outside world, and drowning you into music fantasy. I absolutely love it. Sad thing is, I stole it. Humans should really pay attention to their belongings, shan't they?
Slowly my eyes glued unto each other, and I experienced peaceful sleep I never did for the past five years of my life.
===
I was awaked naturally by my body clock. I stood up and stretched my sore muscles and counted the heads present in this huge space of matter. Roughly four hundred humans were here. I slept that long? Oh well, I'd better start finding my next prey. Before I continued, I hooked my headphones around my neck, and stopped the blasting heavy metal music that I am a huge fan of.
I then walked around the room and bumped into a fat human that reeked the smell of uselessness. He turned around with a scowl, but then he replaced it with a fake smile. I noticed that he had two bottles of sodas on him. Is he really gonna give me that humane junk, a scrap of metal molded unto the use of drinking?
"Ah, hello! You must be new in the Hunters' Exam! I know because-" Them he continued to blabber on, proving that he IS a waste of my time. My ears are dying, and I hate his voice most especially. I really want to listen to music, but I know too much of it can break your ears. So then, can I kill him? Killing is legal, right? Oh wait, when did I ever care about following the country's law? "-so, how about a drink as a token of our friendship?" He finished his speech with another one of his fake smiles.
Sure, I'll kill him no problem.
=Killua's P.O.V.=
I was walking around with my skateboard, when I spotted my dear friend named Tonpa. Heh, that pathetic rookie crusher. It was pretty obvious that the drink he gave to me had laxatives in it. I have been trained to withstand poison, so a petty laxative as such wouldn't even bother me one bit. Although, I am bored...so I guess I'll play with him for a bit~
I noticed that he was trying to hand out the poisoned drink to another person.
The person wore a mask, and not just any mask, the mask covered one of his eyes. I couldn't even see his 'visible' eye, because it was covered by the hood of his jacket. One word can easily describe the mask, and the word is: macabre. Honestly, that mask had this strange designs around it and it made the person look creepy.
The person looked about my age, judging his height and body structure. But he could be younger than twelve.
Suddenly, the person released a frightening aura.
W-what is this?! It's exactly the same as my brother's!!!
=3rd Person's P.O.V.=
All the attention was focused to the mysterious person, and Tonpa looked like he was gonna pee in his pants. Hisoka, the magician/clown, looked like he was extremely joyous. A new fruit has ripened~ He licked his lips in excitement. I can't wait to fight with him~
Voice as cold as ice, yet scratchy to the ears, cut the heavy atmosphere present. "Ne Tonpa, did I ever say, that you could ever be my friend? A drink, to toast our friendship? Are you that stupid? Your voice is already annoying. I don't need you to be annoying as well, now do I?" A pause.
"But, I do want to know something." Tonpa is now at the floor, wanting to go anywhere else but in front of this person. The three latecomers, #403, #404, and #405, were curious enough to see the masked person. So they joined in the crowd.
Kurapika, the most logical of the three, wondered what could possibly be the thing the person wanted to know of. Gon, the youngest, wondered who was the person himself. Leorio, the most hot-tempered of the group, wondered why was everyone so indulged in the particular conversation.
Finally, of which seemed like hours, the person broke his position as he took a step forward, and Tonpa had to crawl away while facing the person.
"What's a thousand minus seven?"
Tonpa blinked in confusion. "H-huh?" Sensing his slow intellect, the person once again repeated the question. "N-nine hundred, ninety-three?" He said nervously. The question was fairly easy, it was just for the fact the Tonpa was scared shitless that his answer came out as a question.
"Ping-pong." The person said in an uncaring manner. "Lesson learned Tonpa? You should be lucky, I really wanted to kill you, but, it appears that I had too much attention, and I simply hate stealing shows." As if on cue, the wall rumbled and literally went upwards to reveal a slim man with no mouth. Tonpa's heartbeat was going a million miles an hour. W-what just happened?!
"Congratulations to the 404 applicants in the Hunters' Exam." The number of applicants have been subtracted by one, because of a certain clown. "If you do not wish to continue, please exit through the elevator. Remember the exam is very dangerous and deaths are highly likely to happen, I am also not responsible for your lives." No one dared to move.
Of course, everyone that worked hard to find this place, wouldn't back down. Seeing no one's exit, the slim man continued. "Alright, now please follow me to Phase Two." And by that, he turned his back, and started to limp fascinatingly towards the opposite direction.
The people started to follow, yet still are in a confused state. A random guy raised his eyebrows and voiced out the majority of the people's mental question. "Phase Two? You mean-"
"Yes," The man confirmed. "This is already Phase One." Then he picked up the pace. Soon, the people started running. "Ah, my apologies, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Satoz, and I'll be your examiner for Phase One."
Blocking off the rowdiness of the people, Killua noticed that the mysterious masked person suddenly disappeared, and he couldn't even sense his presence anymore.
Where did he go?
===
It's been hours since they started, and to some of the wannabe hunters, they found the run quite boring. It was silent until-
"HEY YOU!" Leorio, one of the latecomers, yelled to a certain silver-haired boy. The boy, also known as Killua, looked behind him and cocked his head as he, well, balanced professionally in his skateboard. "Who, me-?" "YES YOU!" Leorio ran a bit faster to catch up with the boy.
"Have a little respect to the exam, brat! This is an endurance test! Don't use your skateboard!!!" Leorio yelled with a huff. Suddenly, another boy, goes by the name of Gon, cut in. "This isn't an endurance test. Satoz-san just told us to follow him." He replied honestly.
"EH, GON?! Which side are you on?!"
"The right one!" Gon innocently replied back. Leorio fumed, but before he can say anything, Gon turned his head around and faced the boy. "Ore wa Killua." The boy stated coolly, sparing a side-glance to the enthusiastic boy. Gon gave a grin, "Ore wa Gon!"
As if in their own little world, they muted out Leorio's annoying yells. "Are old are you?" Killua asked. Gon titled his head at the weird question but nonetheless answered it. "I'm twelve years old!" He said in a somewhat, proud voice. Killua's eyebrows shot up. 'Hmmm, he's the same age as me.'
"Guess I'll run too." He muttered in an uncaring fashion. Suddenly he tipped out of balance from his skateboard, but instead of falling face flat, he did a trick that sent the board to the air. Due to gravity the skateboard fell and he caught it effortlessly without a single glance up. Gon was awestruck, but to Killua, it was nothing. "That was awesome!" Gon eyes' sparkled with excitement.
Killua shrugged, "Not really."
Suddenly Leorio yelled again and broke their friendly moment. "That's not allowed! That's cheating!!!" He repeated his previous statement. Killua rolled his eyes in irritation. Luckily, Kurapika, the blonde, interrupted.
"You'd better conserve your energy, Leorio, and talking actually does the opposite." He calmly said as he kept up to the pace. Leorio fumed angrily and glared at Killua, who struck out a tongue to mock him.
"Hey old geezer, you better listen to what he says." Killua snickered. Then Leorio grew a tick mark on his forehead. "I'm not an old geezer! I'm a teen just like you guys!!"
Then as if the world stopped moving and lightning struck the background.
"What the!?"
"No way! Impossible!!!"
"Are you sure, Leorio-san???"
"OF COURSE, I AM!!!!!"
===
"Goal!" The two boys yelled, as they simultaneously exited the seemingly-impossible-to-pass-through tunnel. Apparently, the made the test, a game and the decided that the first one to exit was to buy dinner to the other contestant.
"I was first!" Gon argued childishly.
"No, I was!" Killua argued back.
Then right by that moment, Satoz (the mouth-less examiner), exited the tunnel. So Gon had a brilliant idea. "Ne Satoz-san, who was first?"
Satoz was silent for a while, probably thinking, and afterwards, gave his answer. "I believe both of you cross the line simultaneously." He said in monotony. "Awww." "Tch."
Then with a snap of his fingers, Gon had an idea. "Ah! Then you go buy dinner for me, and I'll buy dinner for you too!" Gon suggested. Killua titled his head and made a cute confused face. "I really don't get it." The before anyone cause say anything else, they sensed a presence of a somebody appearing by the misty fog. It was a blurred shadow, and the fog was thick, so they could only see the silhouette of the figure.
"Why don't we change the bet, a bit?" The figure stepped out of the foggy forest-like area and continued walking a tad bit before he stopped in within a few feet from the two boys. "Both of you buy me dinner." They boys were gobsmacked, and so were the few others that just recently exited the tunnel. "W-why should we?" Killua asked, in an accused tone.
The figure, who was in fact the mysterious person that nearly killed Tonpa earlier, gave a sarcastic laugh, one of which that didn't held any emotion in it.
"It is because I was the first one to arrive here." The person stated. Satoz stared at the boy -or at least that is what his gender seems to be since his face is nearly covered up- with suspicion. I can't seem to read what are his true intentions.
Suddenly- "Don't listen him!" Then all the attention turned away from the mysterious boy and went to another man who was severely beaten up. He groggily appeared from the corner of the wall and he gave an arrogant smirk. "He's an imposter!" Numerous of gasps were heard all around.
Most of the people started getting worried and became doubtful and confused. "Look at this!" The man pulled out a strange looking monkey thing that resembled Satoz greatly. At this action, most were gapping.
"This is a monkey-man. They plan to bait you all and drag you into the forest so you will be eaten by the larger beasts that lurk in there!" He smirked once more, "And the man right there-" He pointed at Satoz, who was surprisingly calm, "-is one of those creatures! I am the real examiner!" He ended it with a satisfied, yet wicked smile.
"Your tricks were almost fooling, I must applaud, but-" The man stopped dead. Everyone stared dumbly and blinked at the scene.
Not a heartbeat after the 'real examiner' stopped talking (lying), he fell down limply. Yup, he just died. Standing behind the man was the culprit and the killer. And yes, it was the hooded boy. His hands coated in the man's blood.
Oh wait, the 'man' wasn't even human. He was in fact, one of the creatures he himself was speaking of. Only a handful of the group knew it from the start, but no one expected someone to kill it.
A sigh escaped the boy, "Ah mattaku, are humans really this stupid?" He asked no one in particular, yet so incredulously. He cracked his fingers and admired his nails for a moment before he gave out a long sigh.
"Such intelligent creatures, aren't they?" He ended it with a mocking smirk.