I drew Aiko again, but this time with her bow. I was stupid and forgot to draw the arrows.
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Studying the landscape of the small island, I shaded my eyes with my cowl from my cloak against the sun to get a better look. It was a green and brown mottled cloak, and it was supposed to help when you wish to conceal yourself in a forest or flatlands. Aran has the exact same one, only his was longer.
Aran has other colors too, one for in deserts and one for in a more snowy land.
Adjusting the cowl so it hung over my face, creating a shadow that looked over half of my face, concealing the eyes.
Looking back at the island, I saw a forest. Along the horizon I could make out some huge rocks, jutting out of the forest and assembling a gloomy background to the bright and cheerful looking trees.
As the speedboat got closer to land, the spectator lady told us that we would go single file on a plank over to the other side, we would be going in order to who finished the last fade first.
Sliding into the shallow waters, the boat came to a slow stop as the captain heaved a sturdy looking plank across the distance between boat and land.
"First up is number 44!, you may walk across." She cried.
She kept going of a list in her hands and at last reached my friends.
Before that however, I was watching my target, number 80, as she walked across the makeshift bridge and weaved into the trees. She headed to the north-west of my sight.
"Next up is number 99!, good luck!" She said.
Waving and giving short goodbyes, we all wished eachother good luck, and a couple of don't die's could be heard as I hugged Killua, Gon, Leorio and Kurapika.
"Bye guys." Killua said as he glided off the plank and headed off into the trees.
"Bye, see you after the fourth phase!" I say as the small lady ushers me into the strip of wood.
Lightly walking over the plank, I head in North direction, hoping not to alert number 80, Siper, from feeling followed.
After around 20 meters, I head slightly to the west, in Siper's direction.
I pull the cowl of the mottled cloak even further downwards as I conceal my presence. I have perfected my zetsu from a young age from my days as a stealer and beggar.
Your skill at tracking people and remaining unseen is remarkable, as Aran once said.
In that statement, I quickly found Siper's tracks. An inexperienced person probably wouldn't pick up the small hints at a person recently being here.
Small red hair strings, soft imprints in the ground, or even flattening of wet grass.
This had turned into hunting the hunter.
She was tracking someone, but I couldn't even begin to phantom who.
She had decided to also conceal her presence and tread carefully.
Darting through the trees, I keep an eye on my surroundings for any unnatural movement of someone following me.
I think that would be quite difficult though. I thought, while crouching by a soft footprint in the ground. I have been trained for this sort of thing after all.
Estimating that I was only a couple of hours away from her I noticed a slight movement in the corner of my eye. Keeping my breathing normal and regular, as not to alert the stalker that I had noticed them.
I rose from the ground and headed off in Siper's direction. I quickly found a tall and thick tree that had a branch sticking out, in a wiggly horizontal line.
I'll catch Siper tomorrow, after I deal with my follower.
Swiftly climbing the tall tree, I sat in the crook of the branch and hung a small rope to my wrist so I wouldn't fall and hit my head, but I doubt that I would.
Settling down, I seemingly fell asleep, when in reality I was listening to the natural sounds of the late evening. Bird chirping dyed down as a silence fell over the forest, the occasional rustle of the trees swaying against eachother in the breeze.
I was suddenly grateful for my cloak, as I stayed inhumanly still, if you walked past, you probably wouldn't see me.
I can maintain my zetsu in my sleep and stay unnoticed in this concealed place up in the branches with the leaves blending into my cloak.
Maintaining this sleeping posture, my mind was working rapidly, spraining my eardrums to hear for any irregular sounds.
And then I heard it.
It was a faint sound of feet as they softly padded on the grass as the footsteps where all in all, almost completely muffled.
But from my intense training, I could hear those sounds, and recognize them as a potential threat to my badge. Or my life.
You shouldn't have followed me buddy. It dosen't work out for you in the end anyway.
I heard them start to climb the tree. Opening but a slit of my eyelids, I could make out a young man's figure clawing his way up the tree. Knowing that my cowl was halfway down my face, I needn't worry about him sensing me watching.
He reached a branch that was slightly higher to mine. It was also about a meter or two away from the branch I was on.
He reached into his pockets and revealed a gleaming piercing knife. It had three forks, the middle one being the longest and sharpest.
I guessed that he was planning on killing me before finding the hidden badge.
While he was readying himself for the deadly struck he was about to give, i was readying myself too.
Then it happend.
He lunged with the knife towards my heart, but I never gave him the chance.
In the space of one second, I had managed to jump into the branch he was on, disable his arms and bring a dagger to his neck.
"Be a good boy and tell me, why where you going to kill me?" I cooed in his ear as a small trickle of blood ran down his neck.
Even though I still was holding up my zetsu, he was still with shock. Large beads of cold sweat rolled down his terrified face as he started to struggle, only to realize his arms where broken, and his weapon on the dirt ground, meters below us.
He was about to cry out in pain when I sliced his neck, not wanting to make a scene.
He probably had my number as his target.
Searching through his stuff, I found some left over rabbit and some small bottles fastened to his leather belt.
I sniffed one of them and hastily pulled my head back and but the lid back on.
Poisons. They would come in handy one day.
Munching on the food, I let go of the dead body and let it fall to the ground.
I had stashed his badge in my other pocket and put the potions in the other.
Adjusting my rope, I settled down on the high branch.
Actually falling asleep this time, I had a dreamless sleep, much more reassuring than my usual nightmares.
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Awoken by the early sounds of birds singing, I had head out on the path to Siper and her target.
I had decided to use my bow for the shot.
My powers where quite simple to grasp; make the bow and arrows, the arrows are limited to how much nen I have left, and the range for the bow is adjustable for different circumstances.
The furthest I've ever shooten at was over five hundred meters. A normal bow is around 180-220 meters, so it was quite an accomplishment. But of course the only reason that was possible was because of my nen powering it.
Aran almost fainted when he saw the shot. It was a strait bullseye too.
I glanced at the surrounding forest as I spotted a clearing in the distance.
I saw Siper in a group of bushes, hidden from sight as she readied her sniper.
I stood about 50 meters behind her and I could make out someone in the clearing that she was concentrating on.
I couldn't make my move until she did, cause otherwise she would notice me. I was at a bad disadvantage, but I would make it. It only took me a fraction of a second to send an arrow flying in her direction at inconsiderable speed.
Then it came. She put a bullet in the gun and pulled fire. The bullet wasn't even out of the gun before I had nocked a black nen arrow and release, sending a razor sharp arrow straight into her exposed head. She died instantly, head falling to the ground as she fell, hunched over the sniper rifel.
Her target, who had noticed the two simontanious aura flows come from nowhere, doged the bullet and looked in the direction of the producer of the iron bullet.
Emerging from the trees, I stopped my nen and hurried off to Siper. Blood was seeping around her and soaking the bushes.
Rolling her over, I took her badge and stuffed it in my pocket. I officially passed the exam.
Noticing that Siper's target was still standing there, observing what she was doing.
Widening his eyes as he noticed the black arrow as it faded away, he started to walk off.
Looking up, she looked hard at the wierd man's body. He had golden needles sticking out of his body and his skin was a purple-ish color.
I sensed his slight aura that still lingered from when he took a stansive pose against our nen.
W-wait is that...
My eyes as wide as saucers as I recognized the man. He was who Killua reminded me of, how could I not remember. They where brothers after all. His aura was a cold, dark and manipulative thing.
Smirking at the sudden meeting with a long lost acquaintance. I stood up and walked over to him, my bloody footprints marking the green and brown dirt ground.
"Why hello, long time no see... Illumi."
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"Huh?... oh it's you."
"Yeah it me needle man... it's been a while."
"I didn't know you wanted to be a hunter."
"I didn't know that about you either. I thought you where an assassin."
"I still am, Ai-Chan."
"Stooop, my name is Aikooo." I whined.
"So?" Illumi said. It came out more of a statement than a question. He gave me the nickname when we first met, I had told him my name but it had come out slurred and he heard Ai instead. He never bothered to change how he said it.
"Why are you disguised, Illu-Kun?" I ask, gesturing to the wierd attire he was in. His needles where sticking out of his face, chest and some places else, one of his many disguises.
"I can't tell you that." He said in a monotone voice.
"Fine, I've met your brother. Killua-San."
"Oh." He says.
I still remember the first time we met. He still had the same monotone voice, devoid of any emotion.
It had been hunting season, in my third year as Aran's appraintice and we had split up in the forest to see who would get the biggest animal.
I had wondered farther than I intended and ended up at the foot of a hill, covered in thick trees. I decided to hike my way up.
When I got to the top, there was a mansion. It wasn't that tall, but it made up for it in the area it covered. Looking at the house, I was about to go another way, when I heard a scream and muffled crashes and another scream that got cut off by another crash.
Staring at the building in shock and confusion, a lanky and fall figure sprang out of the small window from the second floor.
He had shoulder length hair, Maybe a tad longer. His eyes where a black color, and they looked like pools of darkness.
"Oh, there's a witness." He said as he gracefully lands on the ground.
"What just happened?, why did you just jump out of a window?, why do you have bloody ha-"
"Stop asking so much questions." He sighs, rubbing his hands on his jeans.
"Well, you're the one who just jumped out of a window." I say.
"I just killed the man that lives there. Do you know him?" The strange boy said.
"No, but i hunt around here and I just found this place I guess." I reply.
"I'm Aiko. You could clean up at my place if you want." I say, looking at his hands and now blood stained denim jeans.
"I'm Illumi," he said. "I guess I could but I would have to be quick, my parents are expecting me."
"Okay Illu-Kun!," I say with a smile. "This way."
I guide him through the trees and head back to our little hut on the cliff. I irregularly check to see if Illumi is following.
That was ages ago though.
He came by quite a lot after that, he said it was because he could clean up better at my place than at his. But I suspect that it was because he wanted to see me.
We had created a sort of friendship in that short time. I even visited his house once, although, you would most likely call it sneaking in. Then his father found out and got really mad. He destroyed a small section of the forest in that rage.
He looked kinda creepy in this disguise, not that I would admit it.
"I was gonna give that sniper's badge to Hisoka. He can't remember who his number is."
"You can have this one then." I say, reaching into my pocket.
Pulling out the badge I had gotten the night before, I handed it to him with a small smile.
"Thanks."
"I missed you. Sort of." I say as I extend my hands outward, in an invite for a hug. After all, we hadn't seen eachother in years.
Getting the hint, he gave me a brief embrace, and I squared his middle. I was short enough not to reach the needles sticking out of his upper chest.
After that, we separated ways and I headed off into different directions.
Hiding my presence, I slinked off into the woods, as the rest of the examinees still had four days to finish the exam.
I found a river close by and checked to see if there was anyone close by.
Seeing and sensing no one, I stripped to my underwear and dipped my feet in the clean water of the river.
It was freezing.
Heading a little deeper in, I submerged my body in the water and washed away the sweat and blood from my enemy's.
I wish that I could have stayed being friends with Illu-Kun, but fate decided that we weren't compatible.
Washing my hair, I think about his. It's so soft and gleamy. He let me braid it once. It was a wonderful experience.
I wish I had hair like his. I think jealously as I run my hand through my short hair.
Mines not nearly as soft. I wonder what he uses.
Deciding that I had spent far to long in the stream, I waft out of the water and onto dry land.
Sitting down for a moment, I let myself dry off on the wind that was breezing past.
Once dry, and fully clothed and equipped with my trusty daggers, I find my way south, back to the entrance.
I decide to go in stealth mode, as not to alert someone of my presence. They could potentially be a threat to my life again, or my cards.
Three days later, the last examenees gathered at the starting point and patiently waited for the rest to turn up.
Shit... I killed three people in this exam. I wasn't supposed to do that haha.
Standing at the edge of the tree line, I waited.
Once we where all there, the boat lady announced who passed.
Heading back inland we began peppering ourselves for the last dangerous obstacle that we had to overcome.
The last phase.
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Oof... its illumi.
I'm such a simp for all these characters...gosh.
I decided to spend my precious phone time on wrighting this chapter.
Now I only have two hours left!
It's not even four in the afternoon!
At least I went skating today, that was fun.
Stay safe guys!<3