Reason [BNHA x HxH!Reader]

[57] Reality Shift

The next 24 hours were brutal while you waited for Ai to be strong enough. For better or worse, Netero had stuck around — he said there was nothing better to do, but you were pretty certain it's because he considered you a flight risk and couldn't risk the chance of you leaving as soon as he disappeared.

And so, another party member was added to your team.

"So earlier you mentioned some Hunter Exam," Denki started, sprawled out on one of the couches. "You placed last in almost every one of the summer exams. How did you pass the Hunter Exam?"

Huffing with a mouthful of cheese puffs, you shot him a glare, allowing yourself to at least chew and swallow before you gave a rebuttal. "For your information, the Hunter Exam is nothing like high school exams, okay?! You guys would not be able to pass as easily. You can even ask Old Man Netero!"

The old man had been reading a book, and hadn't even looked up from it as he shook his head, lips turned upwards in amusement. "I wouldn't count them out, [Y/n]."

Well, that wasn't helpful. Rolling your eyes, you decided to take the lead again. "Anyways, the Hunter Exam has different phases, and changes each year. The Hunter Exam I went through involved running for about 100 kilometers, partially through an underground tunnel, and then through a really dangerous and hard to see swamp. Next phase was cooking — uh, everybody failed that one."

That earned a snort from Neito, which was promptly ignored.

"So because the cooking exam was impossibly hard, the old geezer butt in and let us do a different exam, so I had to jump off a cliff and hang off a huge spider web to get a giant egg."

"What the fuck is wrong with this world?!"

Neito was, once again, ignored.

"So after that, we rode a blimp to this huge building called Trick Tower. Like, huge huge. We were put on the very top of the building, and it was basically a smooth cylinder with no visible doors or windows, and practically impossible to climb down. The doors were hidden on the floor! I found mine because I tripped and a tile gave away beneath me, letting me start from the top of Trick Tower. And guess who I was paired up with?"

Mina piped up first, eyes glittering in interest and excitement. "Oh! Was it your little brother?"

You shook your head, and Denki guessed next. "What about that angry Leorio guy you've mentioned?"

Snorting, you shook your head, and Hanta seemed to realize, nearly grimacing. "It wasn't that clown guy from before, was it?" Unfortunately, you confirmed his suspicions.

"Yeah. I got paired up with fucking Hisoka. Anyways, we were given a cool coin to decide decisions — we had to call heads or tails every time we disagreed, and Hisoka pretty much disagreed every time to piss me off, I'm sure."

Everybody — save for Netero — was hooked on your story, leaning forward. "Choices? Like what?" Hanta asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"Like which direction to go, who to fight, etcetera etcetera. At one point, about halfway through the tower, we got dumped into this huge fighting arena. I didn't even know nen at the time! It was on this, like, pedestal thing? If we fell off the edge we would have definitely died. Anyways, we had to fight a whole bunch of imprisoned criminals, and I, uh, accidentally threw a guy off the side."

"YOU KILLED A GUY?!"

It was your turn to grimace as four different voices blended together in a shout. "I mean, it's not like I did it on purpose!"