Chapter 7
When I can see again, I am standing in the middle of a luxurious room, alone. Looking all around, I wait. All of a sudden I hear loud moanings, and then I see them, Life size humans, made of balloons. I gasp. They all have the happiest looks on their faces, and with their arm stretched out they start whispering.
"It's going to be okay, Skyler."
"We won't let anything hurt you."
"Here have a hug."
"We love you Skyler." They start to encircle me, and my face goes pale white.
The first balloon man thing is about to touch me, when I get out of shock. I grab my knife and swiftly cut through him. A loud popping noise bangs in my ear, and I scream, falling to the ground to cover my ears. The balloon man thing flies away before the next one advances on. I can't control these things, they don't have any hair. Why is my nen ability so useless against balloons?
Standing up and summoning some wax, I press them into my ears and swing wildly. I can still hear the popping, but it isn't as bad. I am doing pretty good now that I can't hear them want to care for me.
One of the balloons jumps from my blind spot and attaches to my backpack, hands grabbing my shoulders. I scream again. The balloon is practically molesting me and even though it is made of latex, it feels like an actual loving human touch. Taking advantage of my shock, a balloon man thing jumps at me from the front. I stumble back, tripping and then falling. The balloon man thing on my back cushioning my fall before exploding.
I slash away at the balloon in front of me rendering it to pieces. There are only about 10 left and I close my eyes, memorizing where they are, I move fast enough to cut them in one swipe. I open my eyes, panting.
"Good job, you pass." The voice says and then I find myself sitting strapped in the chair again, the piece of glass moving off my face. The straps unclip, and I get up and walk back to the door I came through.
Illumi is standing there no expression on his face again.
"Number 301, please state your biggest fear." I sit on the floor tired, and begin watching Illumi's face. His mouth barely opens,
"Losing control of my younger brother, causing him to ruin our family name." Even Illumi, a Zoldyck assassin, has fears that come from the heart. His fears are tied to his family and although it is absolute loyalty in a twisted way, I didn't see it coming. Even he has more heart than I do.
Illumi walks toward through the door, and as it closes, the screen in front of me lights up. I see Illumi walking into the room, then taking a seat on the chair. Straps whip around him and the piece of glass slowly lowers onto his face. The screen in front of me flashes and I soon see forest. Illumi is standing there, Killua in front of him. I am a little embarrassed, he must have saw those balloon things and though I was a wimp when I started to scream.
"Little Kil, where are you going?" Illumi's cold voice rings out.
"I am leaving." Killua says harshly. "I don't want to be an assassin anymore, I want to make friends." Illumi looks down on his little brother, eyes swirling.
"You don't have friends Kil, and even if you did, you would just betray them." Illumi says, "You can't help but want to know if you are stronger, if you could kill them." Killua looks fearful. "Killing is in your blood, it is who you are." Illumi says strongly.
"NO!" Killua screams. "I am not going to kill anymore, you can't control me! I am leaving and never coming back!" Killua runs out of the forest and out of sight.
Illumi is standing there, shock on his normally emotionless face. There is no way to conquer that fear except death. I am right. Illumi flashes in front of Killua who is in front of giant stone doors. "Kil, you are not going to leave." Illumi says firmly before slashing down on his brother ending his life. I think I see a single tear about to fall from his simulated face before the screen flashes black again and then I see the door open and Illumi is walking back.
"Never tell anyone you saw this, or you will be tortured." Illumi says.
"Jeez, no need to get your panties in a twist. Besides who would I tell? Hisoka?" Illumi glares at me and I laugh. "Whatever, let's just get this over with."
And we walk through the open door on the left side of the room. We answer a few more questions in the next hours, none that are significant enough to matter.
"This is the last question. Also, afterwards, the serum in your veins is completely useless to us." The intercom speaks. Both Illumi and I have gotten a little more "friendly." After all, we do know some of each others biggest secrets. I change back into my 13 year old self, which is like a second skin to me.
"Illumi stick those pins back in you before anyone on the other side of this question door will see you." I tell him.
"I know, Skyler, and if you are going to speak to me for the rest of the exam, call me Gittarackur." You see, he actually speaks full on sentences to me now.
"Yeah, yeah, I ain't stupid." Watching Illumi's beautiful silky hair retreat and his perfect pale skin darken slightly, is fascinating. We both look at the last question. Who do you love or care about the most in your life? "Il-Gittarackur, go first for this question please." He jerkily nods and speaks, "Killua." I already knew that so it didn't really matter and the green circle lights up. I think for a few seconds before saying the answer I believe to be correct.
"Nobody."
Illumi jerks his head toward me for a split second before jerking it back and looking at the empty square. Half a second later, the green circle appears and the door begins to slid up to open. He walks through first and I walk through behind him.
"Gittarackur, applicant 301 is the second to pass. Skyler Katoh, applicant 333 is the third to pass. Total time twelve hours and two minutes."
Wow, I totally beat my goal of 36 hours. Haha. But only one person could have finished before us. We both turn out heads to the left to see Hisoka casually leaning against the wall, one leg crossed over the other. "I figured you'd already crossed the finish line." Illumi says. Hisoka turns toward us and just smiles. I notice that he has a cut across his right shoulder and smirk as well. He probably got that cut on purpose, but at least we are unscathed.
Not even a second later, another door slides open and the bald ninja guy comes yelling through "I'm the first one to finish!" He pumps his arms in the air, idiot.
"Hanzo applicant 294, the fourth to pass. Total time twelve hours and three minutes." Hanzo yells and grabs his head
"I don't believe this!" He whines. "I came in fourth." He says sadly. He looks around to see Hisoka sitting and Illumi and I standing there.
"How did you beat me?" Hanzo tells, pointing a finger at me.
"Me?" I ask in a sugary voice. Them let out just enough blood lust to make him shudder and take a step back. "Why, I just have no idea." I say smiling sweetly. Hisoka chuckles and I walk away from Illumi to sit next to Hisoka.
"Wanna play cards?" I ask him.
"Sure." Hisoka pedo smiles.
We are playing some war, when about twenty minutes later, that guy with a red visor and a staff this with what looks like a beehive on top of it arrives.
"Gerta, applicant 384 is the fifth to pass. Total time twelve hours and twenty-seven minutes."
"Not bad." Is all he says before sitting down as well. Hisoka and I continue to play card games until around 15 hours later, some food arrives. I grab some for myself and him and we take a break. Applicant 53 and 371 arrive next at around 30 hours. Looks like there is still quite a ways to go. Why did I ever give myself such an easy goal? I guess because I just didn't know how easy this was going to be. Now there are seven people. Illumi is being weird and eating crackers rather oddly, but I guess eating with that many pins in your body can be difficult.
A/N: School has started!!!.....My updates might be slower now, but bare with me. I feel like Illumi is OOC. Please, please tell me if he is, and I will try to fix it. No one has commented in a long time, and I really don't want to be one of those people who demand them or they won't update, but comments always make me feel better and make me more motivated to write. So please, please comment. Thank you!
BTW did you know that my favourite Hunter x Hunter characters are Hisoka and Feitan?