As promised, here is the first chapter! I'm so excited for this story, you have no idea. Oh, before we begin, I wanted to clear up that Hiromu will introduce herself as Michi Hiromu. Michi will be first but it is her last name. Hiromu is her first name and is what she will tell people to call her. Also, because of her appearance and how she dresses, some people will think she is a boy at first. I didn't want any of you to get confused. Here we go, then! Chapter one, start!
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Michi Hiromu POV:
Step.
Push.
Step.
Push.
Faster. Softer. Quieter. Smoother. Quickly. Go, go! Run.
Although realistically I knew I was running rather quickly, I couldn't seem to go fast enough. I had been waiting for this moment for what seemed to have been forever. I finally had the chance to grow, to learn, to practice, to understand. You see, though I had been eagerly awaiting this day, I was late. I was always late and I hated myself for it. I knew I had to wake up early to make it to the ship, yet I stayed up almost all night training. I fell asleep right before sunrise, waking with a start to realize I only had 30 minutes to be at the harbor that was an hour away. That is how I have found myself running through the town like my life depended on it; which technically it did. At least my future did, anyways.
I had arrived at Whale Island two days ago in a poor attempt to pretend I was good at being early. Since then, I've discovered two new animal species, and five different variations of a rare herb I have been looking for. I need to come here more often.
After five more minutes of frantic sprinting, my feet finally stopped in front of the entrance to a large wooden ship. I stared up in awe. This was the exact moment that I had fantasized about for the past 15 months, and it was everything I hoped it would be. Sure, the boat wasn't grand or expensive by any means, but it wasn't the boat I cared about. It was what the boat represented. A new start, with new friends, smells, plants and ideas. I was more than ready to meet more people and add to my family.
Returning my head to its regular position, I looked at the wooden ramp ahead of me with fierce determination in my eyes. With each movement my legs made, my heart beat just a second faster. By the time I made it onto the ship, my heart was going faster than my feet ever had. I had a stupid wide grin on my face, head spinning all around, eyes absorbing every last detail they could manage.
My hands grasped the straps on either side of my shoulders, squeezing them tightly in an attempt to try and transfer some of the rapidly built up energy and excitement trapped within my body. I ran to the edge of the boat and placed my hands on the railing, pushing myself forwards with my arms. I leaned over the edge slightly, closing my eyes and breathing in the salty scent of the sea water surrounding us. I let out a blissful sigh, eyes opening. I pushed off the wall I was on and turned around.
I ran through the entirety of the ship, smiling the whole while. As I was running, I passed a blonde boy who was slightly shorter than me with quite interesting clothing on. I craned my neck behind me to look at him further as we passed by each other, temporarily taking my focus off of where I was going. I quickly came to regret my choice when I felt a head collide with my chest. The force of the collision caused me to stop my momentum and stumble back a bit. Startled, I looked around for what I had run into.
I quickly picked up on a voice coming from below me. Curiously, I directed my gaze downwards and saw a little black and green haired boy who couldn't have been older than 12. Realizing that I had run into him, I bent down a bit and reached out my hand.
"Are you alright, kid?" I asked worriedly, hand still extended towards him.
At the sound of my voice his head popped up, displaying his forest green eyes that screamed positivity. His face was soft and sweet, very much a face of a young boy. I softened at him, instantly feeling myself relax in his presence. He seemed like he was easy to be around.
"Oh, yup! I'm just fine! Are you alright, though?" He asked, reaching for my outstretched hand and grabbing it, allowing me to pull him up.
"I'm alright, thanks. I'm sorry about that, I wasn't looking where I was going." I said, rubbing the back of my head sheepishly.
"Don't worry about it, it didn't hurt at all, see?" He said cheerfully and started doing all sorts of stunts to prove he was okay. I giggled at his actions.
"Where were you going at that speed anyway?" He asked me, tilting his head slightly to the right in a curious nature. If you would have told me my heart had exploded at that moment, I would have believed you.
'SO CUTE!' I thought to myself. I couldn't help it, I reached out and cupped his cheeks in either one of my hands and squeezed his face lightly. The boy looked up at me confused, but smiled anyways.
"You're cute, you know that, kid?" I said, finally releasing his face. He beamed up at me innocently and thanked me.
"I'm Gon, by the way! What's your name?"
"My name is Michi Hiromu, but you can call me Hiromu or anything else you'd like." I said with a grin.
'I already like this kid,' I thought, 'I can tell he'll make a great addition to the family if he wants it.'
"Okay! I'll call you Hiro, then!" He replied cheerfully.
"Hiro it is." I said, hand gently patting the top of his head. He grinned.
"Oh, Hiro! Did you see the view from the crows nest?"
"No, I haven't yet. Have you?"
He nodded, grabbing my hands.
"Come on, I'll show you!"
A bit later, I found myself at the top of the ship that was leading me to my new start in life, with a little boy smiling brightly next to me.
Then, as if we were the same person, we both lifted out heads to the sky and sniffed.
"Oh! There's a storm coming!" The two of us said on unison. We looked at each other in shock, then burst out in laughter.
We slid down the pole leading to the crows nest and walked around to find the captain.
"Captain!" I yelled, "there's a storm coming, just thought you should know."
Gon nodded in agreement next to me.
"Is that so? And how would you know?" He asked skeptically, a mischievous glint in his eye.
"That's easy! It smelled like a storm; a big one too." Gon pipped up next to me. Now it was my turn to nod.
"It smelled like it? Interesting..." The Captain trailed off, chuckling to himself.
Not long after we told the Captain about the impending storm, did it start to rain. Rain was the wrong word, actually. It started to absolutely pour. It was a wind-whipping, ship-wrecking storm. Because of the rain, everyone except the crew went under the ship's surface to take cover and stay dry.
Unfortunately, lots of the people on the ship weren't very equipped to deal with the severe rocking of the ship. In almost every corner you could find a person slumped over and groaning about how sick they felt, some even actually getting sick on the floor.
Gon and I were perfectly fine with the crazy movements of the ship, so I set out to help some of the people who had it the worst. Taking out my materials, I started making small batches of my simplest remedy to help with seasickness and nausea. As I was passing out the finished solution, Gon came up to me and asked if he could help.
"Of course you can! Here, you can take these herbs to people who look green in the face and tell them to chew on it. If they ask, it tastes just fine and it should help them with their nausea. Can you do that for me?" I said. Gon looked up at me and gave me a determined nod, taking the herbs from my hand and running off through the ship to help those who might need it. I smiled fondly at his back, watching him run around cutely.
Picking up my stuff, I made my way throughout the remainder of the ship in search of a place to rest.
My eyes spotted a familiar head of blonde hair and blue outfit in a hammock on the far end of the room. Deciding it a decent enough place to sit, I went over to where he was. Walking up next to where he was lying, I slid down the wall closest to his head. I was hoping he would notice me and introduce himself, but he didn't. Awkwardly, I glanced at the boy. Upon first glance, I probably would have thought he was a girl - he was really pretty. He was reading a book that I couldn't see the title of. I figured that was a good enough conversation starter as any, so I decided to speak up.
"So, what book are you reading?" I asked.
The blonde glanced at me from the side, not moving his head.
"This? It's a book about rare human treasure and artifacts." He responded matter of factly.
I hummed in understanding. "May I know your name?" I asked carefully, sensing he wasn't really here to make friends.
He hesitated. After a while, he spoke again. "If you must know, my name is Kurapika."
I grinned.
"It's lovely to meet you, Kurapika! I'm Hiromu, but call me whatever. You're really pretty, by the way. I hope that's not rude. I mean the best." I said absentmindedly.
Kurapika's eyes widened, but eventually he let out a little laugh.
"I guess I should say thank you. I didn't think it was rude. Thank you." He said, finally turning to face me fully. I smiled lightly.
Our conversation was cut short by Gon yelling towards us, saying the Captain wanted to talk with us. I shared a look with Kurapika and shrugged.
When we arrived, there were a total of six people in the room. The Captain, one of his crew members, Kurapika, Gon, a tall man with small glasses, and myself. The Captain was the one to break the silence first.
"Tell me, why do you four want to be hunters?" He asked, arms crossed over his chest.
Gon and I both raised out hands excitedly, more than ready to answer the question. I lowered mine and nodded at Gon, signaling for him to go ahead.
"I want to be a hunter just like my Dad!" He said with enthusiasm.
"And I want to be a hunter so I can learn new things, meet new people and find out who killed my family." I followed, looking the Captain straight in the eyes.
"Idiots! You shouldn't tell him anything!" Said the tall man with glasses.
"I agree with him, the Captain isn't an examiner, so we don't owe it to him to explain why we're here." Kurapika stated cooly, refusing to answer.
I furrowed my brows in confusion.
"What do you mean? Why wouldn't he be an examiner? He wouldn't have asked us if he weren't, plus there has to be a reason he picked us four specifically. It only makes sense that he would be weeding out the applicants who aren't fit for taking the test." I mentioned, taking them through my thought process.
The Captain just chuckled and nodded at my little explanation.
"The boy is right, you know. I am an examiner for the phase that comes before the first phase. My job is to help narrow down the number of test takers before the real exam starts." He said. I assumed I was 'the boy' that he was referring to. I huffed a bit at that, but shrugged it off. I don't really care what gender people refer to me as anyway.
Kurapika and the other man's eyes widened, but eventually Kurapika sighed.
"My name is Kurapika and I am here to become a hunter so I can get access to information and privileges I would not have had previously." Kurapika explained vaguely.
"Fine. I'm Leorio and I want to be a hunter because it's one of the best ways to get money! Majority of the richest people in the world are hunters, you know." The tall man, who I now knew as Leorio, said.
"Not everything revolves around money, Leorio." Kurapika mentioned backhandedly, looking away.
"Hey! It's Mr. Leorio to you, punk. I'm older than you so show me some respect, would ya?" He said in annoyance.
Kurapika blatantly ignored him and continued on talking to the Captain.
"Don't ignore me, brat! I'm talking to you!"
One thing lead to another and Kurapika and Leorio were going outside to fight each other.
'That's strange,' I though, 'It's storming out. How are they going to fight?'
With this, I thought it best to go outside and check on them, Gon following closely after me.
When we got outside I saw the whole crew struggling to tie down the ropes for the ship, so I went to help them.
I grabbed one of the ropes and pulled it, tying it securely to the nearest metal piece that I guessed was meant for tying things to. I was about to go over and help someone else but I noticed one of the deck hands' grip on the rope loosen at a particularly strong gust of wind, causing him to let go and fly over the edge of the ship.
Eyes wide, I saw Gon running over to try and catch him. He quite literally threw himself over the edge with the other boy, reaching after him. On instinct, I ran and jumped too, grabbing ahold of Gon's ankles. In turn, Leorio and Kurapika grabbed mine and pulled us back over.
MINI TIME SKIP TO AFTER THE STORM
Gon and I sat on the edge of a part of the ship, looking up sheepishly at Leorio and Kurapika, who were both scolding us.
"You shouldn't have been so reckless. What if you had drowned?" Kurapika said.
"Yea, what if we didn't catch you?" Leorio added with a wave of his arms.
"But you did, didn't you? You caught us, right?" I said simply.
This seemed to have stunned the two scolding us enough to get them to stop reprimanding us.
The Captain, having overhead most of this, started to laugh loudly.
"I quite like you four. You've put me in a good mood. You know what, I'll let you pass." He said with another hearty chuckle.
Gon and I beamed at each other and jumped up to hug each other. After we let go I hugged Kurapika and Leorio too, squeezing each of them tightly.
Because we passed the pre-examination, the Captain gave Gon directions while we waited. After they finished talking, Gon ran up to us and told us the information he got.
After a tiny argument with Leorio, the four of us made our way to the pine tree at the top of the island.
As we walked, I made sure to mentally record everything I was feeling. My feet on the ground below me, my heart pumping, blood flowing through my body, the sun on my skin, everything. I wanted to remember everything. Nothing should be forgotten, not when I finally had a chance to live the life I had only read about. The life I wanted to live. The life I didn't have yet. The life I desperately needed. A life that was worth living.
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YAAAY! I finally got the first chapter outttt! I'm so happy. Please tell me what you think! I know its pretty boring right now, but it still needs time to introduce more characters and have more opportunities for it to be funny/more interesting. So yesss please bear with me. Thanks for reading and don't forget to take care of yourselves!
With all the good vibes heading your way,
-J-Queen