KurapikaxMale!Reader | 𝐶𝐻𝐴𝐼𝑁 𝑂𝐹 𝑆𝑃𝐴𝑅𝑅𝑂𝑊𝑆

10, Childhood's For Chaos

The humidity in the air was near tangible with all its suffocating density. All 369 remaining participants stood together in a compact crowd before Satotz, waiting to hear the details of what fresh new hell awaited them next as he began to explain the instructions of the upcoming phase.

Y/n gazed upon Kurapika nervously, and when they joined eye contact he could only flash him a modest smile. The blond was quick to return it but quicker to turn away, and when he did Y/n  dropped his eyes to the muddy floor below that surrounded his shoes like quicksand. He was beginning to feel afraid. Afraid of how he made him feel. Afraid of what could happen if he let himself feel for anyone but himself. It made him shiver in anxiety. He had never felt anything like this since his past, forgotten life. A childhood turned chaotic and disastrous...

But how can I not fall for him? It'd simply be inevitable. Would it be even worth fighting against?

He narrowed his eyes at nothing in particular and crossed his arms, walking into the crowd in an attempt to distract himself with the examiner's directions, before an advancement in the state of affairs occurred.

False examiners, what a drag. Could that man really be lying? Nonsense, a true Hunter wouldn't fall so easily to a Swindler Swamp creature, right? If things really go south, I'll figure something out.

Y/n grew tired of thinking and tuned them out.

A tall man stepped through the crowd, halting next to Y/n. He was so close Y/n could see the individual fibers of his ritzy clothing and see his figure shifting slightly to his breathing. He seemed to be listening intently to a commotion in the front. He was so close he involuntarily discovered the odd man smelled like an expensive aroma and some irony smell. Y/n searched his brain to put a name on exactly what the smell was-- blood.

The magician Hisoka reeked of perfume and blood.

His eyes met Y/n's and he stood still, staring back at the mysterious man whose amber eyes shone with nothing but mischievous wickedness. Y/n could somehow feel his entire being was dripping with the same sensation that played in his eyes.

He angled a couple of inches towards Y/n, to which he panicked and his eyes darted to the abyss in front of him in an attempt to ignore the unignorable.

"Watch this," he said in a soft yet powerful bassy voice that made Y/n feel a little disturbed.

Before he could even glance back at his words, the magician had sent an array of playing cards cutting into the air, some landing into an imposter ape while the others caught expertly in between the true examiner's fingers.

"You are the real examiner," Hisoka said pridefully.

Quieted gasps could be heard as dozens of pairs of eyes stared at the trickster in horror.

Y/n looked closely at his decorated face.

"So you are the magician..." he said, eyes filled with as much curiosity as a child witnessing their first circus performance.

He looked at Y/n and hummed with a smirk.

Walking towards the front, the magician began to explain his little trick to the entertainment of the crowd.

This exam will only get more barbarous, Y/n thought, as the next phase began.

And the following trials were indeed barbarous. Running through the wet, consuming wilderness, Y/n, Kurapika, and Leorio had quickly lost sight of the examiner.

Once, Y/n held onto Leorio's wrist to keep him tumbling down to a wildly agape pit of bright pink liquid. Another contestant pushed them aside to run in front of them, and fell in the boiling pot, reducing the man to nothing but slowly dissolving bones, popping and gurgling as they sunk into the Lovecraftian creature below.