Hunter & Assassin (No. 25)

Hope x And x Ambition

Hope x And x Ambition

Fearsome monsters... Exotic creatures...
Vast riches... Hidden treasures...
Evil enclaves... Unexplored lands...
The word "unknown" holds magic.
And some incredible people are drawn to that magic.
They are known...
....as Hunters!

"The Hunter Exam will now begin! I am Satotz, the Phase One examiner. You must follow me to Phase Two. This is the exam's First Phase," He informs the applicants, and they soon begin running.

Two hours have passed since the start of the exam.
The applicants have travelled over thirty kilometres from the start.
None of them knows how far they must go.
They are forced to run at the leader's pace, with no goal specified.
It's a monotonous course with no end in sight.
And many applicants have already dropped out.

The Hunter applicants continue to run, and though many of them have fallen from exhaustion, there are still many left. "Extrapolating from historical data, this exam type usually involves a forty-kilometre course," Nicolas guesses, feeling confident in his data collection. "My calculations suggest that we are nearing the goal...." He runs at the front of the pack, making an irritated noise.
"I underestimated the Hunter Exam," Leorio groans as he runs nearer the back. "Every person here is a monster. It's a gathering of monsters...." Killua rolls past on his skateboard, agitating the older teen. "Hey! Wait up, kid!"
"Hmm?" Killua looks at Leorio.
"You should show the Hunter Exam some respect!" He yells at the silver-haired kid.
"What do you mean?" Killua questions.
"Why are you using a skateboard? That's cheating!" The older teen shouts, pointing at the object.
"Why?" The kid asks him.
"Why... This is an endurance test!" Leorio snaps.
"No, it isn't," Gon argues, surprising him.
"Gon, what are you saying?" He asks his friend.
"The examiner only told us to follow him," The dark green-haired boy reminds him.
"Whose side are you on, eh?" Leorio sneers.
"Gon's!" Gigi jokes.
"Not funny!" He yells, and Killua, intrigued by the twins, slows his skateboard down and looks at them.
"Hey, how old are you?" Killua asks.
"We're twelve years old," Gon answers.
"Hmm..." "We're the same age," Killua ponders as he studies the twins and comes to a decision. As he jumps off his skateboard, flipping the board into the air as he jumps, impressing the twins as he lands on the ground and runs alongside them. "Guess I'll run too."
"Wow! That was cool!" He praises him as he runs up alongside the silver-haired boy, and Gigi does the same.
"I'm Killua," He introduces himself.
"I'm Gon," He introduces.
"I am Gigi," She introduces herself, and Gon goes to open his mouth, but Killua nods, seeming to understand her, making her smile.
"Damn it... Making a fool out of me...." Leorio groans as he watches the three twelve-year-olds in front of him, seeming to have the energy to continue running, though Nicolas is losing the stamina to continue; his data has been wrong.
"Impossible," Nicolas gasps as he tries to keep up with the runs at the back of the pack. "My calculations are never wrong! So why... Am I...going to fail? For me to fail... That's absurd. Unthinkable!" He tries to keep running. "I won't accept that!" He shoes and the three brothers in front of him smirk, seeing him falling behind as he drops his laptop, smashing it to the floor, and the brothers slow down to run along with him.
"Hey, rookie!" Amori calls out.
"You're a mess," Umori comments.
"It's rare to see someone out of steam so early. You must be a hell of an incompetent," Imori adds.
"People like you are doomed to fail the Hunter Exam. " Amori comments.
"So don't come back, snotrag!" Umori sends the final blow, and Nicolas falls to his knees with a cry as he gives up.
"Here. Thanks," Tonpa thanks the brothers, handing over a few bills. "Great work," Imori takes the cash, pocketing it.
"He won't recover from the abuse we just dished out," Amori informs him.
"I doubt he'll ever take the Hunter Exam again," Umori adds.
"Anyway, Tonpa..." Imori says. "You really do love crushing rookies."
"I live for it," Tonpa replies with a smug grin and up ahead at the front of the group that grows ever smaller, Satotz runs a little faster with no end in sight.
"It's been about four hours since the exam began. We must have travelled at least sixty kilometres. How much farther do we need to go?" Kurapika ponders as he runs, aware that Leorio is beginning to lag behind, growing tired.
"Only one rookie, every three years, passes the Hunter Exam. So for a normal human like me, it isn't even worth dreaming about... Damn it," Leorio groans as he tries to keep up, but he grows slower as a few other runners pass him. Finally, he drops his briefcase, coming to a stop, breathing heavily with sweat dripping from his nose. Gon stops, seeing his friend in trouble, and Killua stops, seeing why he stopped. Gigi continues to run, unaware of her brother stopping, though she looks around, seeing her brother missing, and looks back to see why and jogs to join her brother and Killua.
"Hey, forget him," Killua tells him. "Let's get going," But Gon doesn't move.
"Give him a minute," Gigi tells the silver-haired boy, and Leorio catches his breath.
"Screw that..." Leorio grits his teeth, finding a burst of energy. "I'm gonna become a Hunter! Damn it all!" He races past the tweens, Gon uses his fishing rod to grab the fallen briefcase, and Gigi catches it.
"Cool!" Killua compliments them, and they run to catch up with the group. "Let me try that later."
"If you let me try your skateboard, okay?" Gon bargains.
"I want to try too!" Gigi signs as they catch up with the other Hunter applicants and find they are nearing the end of the tunnel as they come to a set of stairs that doesn't seem to end.
"We've reached the eighty-kilometre mark." Satotz remarks as he looks over his shoulder at the remaining applicants. "It is now time to pick up the pace a bit," He starts taking the steps three at a time.
"Wait, are you serious?" Todo groans as he watches the examiner speed up.
"That guy's insane. He's prancing up the stairs, as if they're not ever there," Hanzo comments.
"If he keeps up this pace, tons of people will fail," Geretta groans.
"Gon, Gigi, wanna race to see who finishes first?" Killua asks the twins as they come to the bottom of the stairs.
"Sure," Gon agrees.
"The loser has to buy dinner," Gigi tells them.
"Okay, you're on!" Killua agrees.
"Ready... Go!" The boys shout and race off, leaving Gigi behind for a second, and she runs after them. Leorio, having regained his energy back a little, keeps on running and catches up with Kurapika in the middle of the group.
"Leorio, are you okay?" Kurapika asks him.
"Sure! Just look at me. I realised that I can keep going if I don't worry about how stupid I look!" Leorio replies and picks up the speed.
"I should probably follow his example," He smiles and takes off his blue tabard, putting it in his bag and picks up speed, matching Leorio. "Leorio... I have a question."
"What? Is this too easy for you, Kurapika? Talking just wastes energy!" He replies.
"Are you really trying to become a Hunter for the money?" The blond asks, and the grin gets wiped off the taller teen's face. "You aren't, right? We've only been together for a few days, but I know you better than that. Sure, you have a nasty attitude, and you aren't very bright," Leorio makes a funny noise of anger. "But you're not a shallow person. I've seen many who live for money. You're nothing like them."
"You and your logic...." Leorio groans and continues to run; the blond teen looks at him.
"Scarlet eyes," He says, and the older teen looks at him. "That's why the Kurta were targeted. We Kurta are known for our unique scarlet eyes. When our emotions are heightened, our eyes turn scarlet, as though on fire. The eyes in that scarlet state are considered one of the seven most beautiful colours in the world. They command high prices on the black market."
"Thats why the Phantom Troupe attacked you?" The older teen asks.
"They took every single eye from my brethren's corpses. I can still hear their darkened eyes crying out in anguish... I swear I will capture the Phantom Troupe! And I will reclaim the eyes of my clan!" Kurapika vows, his anger never wavering.
"That's why you want to be a Hunter?" Leorio asks him.
"Yeah, if I become a Hunter with rich clients, I'll gain access to black market information," He replies.
"But you'll have to swallow your pride and become the kind of Hunter you despise!" The older teen warns him.
"The blow to my pride is nothing measured against the suffering my clan endured," The blond replies, not minding the work as long as he achieves his goal. The twins and Killua race up the stairs together behind the older teens.
"Sorry, but I have no noble cause," Leorio tells him, surprising the Kurta. "I'm just after money."
"Don't lie!" Kurapika snaps, not believing him.
"I'm not lying!" He argues.
"You really believe you can buy everything with money?" The blond asks him.
"You bet!" The older teen agrees. "For the right price, you can buy not only treasures, but dreams, hearts, and even people's lives!"
"Take that back, Leorio!" Kurapika warns him. "If you're insulting the Kurta, I won't forgive you."
"Why? I'm telling the truth. If I'd had money my friend wouldn't have died!" Leorio snaps, having gotten worked, he realises he's revealed too much and grows quiet, but Kurapika sees him in a different light.
"An illness?" The blond asks him.
"It was a treatable disease...." He replies, remembering when he was a child, and he watched his friend die. "The problem was that the operation cost a fortune. I was naive! I thought I could become a doctor... I wanted to cure kids who have the same disease and be able to tell them it was free of charge! Then I could have told his parents, too. That was my dream... What a joke. Turns out that to become a doctor, you need even more money! Got it? The world runs on money... So I want money!" Kurapika looks at him in admiration, and he spots the twins and Killua running up past them.
"See you at the goal, Kurapika," Gon says to the blond.
"Catch you later, old timer," Killua teases Leorio.
"I'm not old!" Leorio shouts back. "I'm a teenager, just like you guys!" This gets the others.
"Huh?"
"No way!" They gasp in shock.
"Can't take another step...." Another applicant gives up, the endless stairs littered with failures.
"Th-This is it...." Yet another Hunter applicant cracks and falls onto the steps, but the three tweens run up with no problem.
"I'm impressed that you both can keep up with me," Killua compliments them.
"Really?" Gon smiles bashfully.
"Thank you, I think?" Gigi replies.
"Or maybe it's just that everyone else is too slow," Killua comments as they continue to run past more people that have fallen due to exhaustion. "Man... The Hunter Exam is gonna be a breeze. That's no fun."
"Hey, why do you want to become a Hunter?" Gon asks him.
"Me? I'm not really interested in becoming a Hunter," He reveals, and Gigi looks at him confused. "I heard the exam was supposed to be really hard, so I thought it'd be fun. But this is disappointing. What about you two?"
"Well, our dad's a Hunter," Gigi explains as she runs ahead, turning around and running backwards, though she watches as the boys move to their right to avoid fallen applicants. "So we want to become Hunters, like our dad."
"Hmm... What kind of Hunter is he?" Killua asks.
"We don't know," Gon replies, making the silver-haired boy laugh.
"That's kinda weird," He chuckles.
"Really?" The younger twin questions.
"You want to be like your dad, but you don't know anything about him?" Killua questions.
"We were raised by Mito, so we've only seen our dad in pictures," Gon explains.
"Who's Mito?" He asks.
"Aunt Mito," Gigi answers.
"Oh..." The silver-haired tween nods.
"When he was twelve, our dad took the Hunter Exam. He passed and became a Hunter. Then he left the island. We wanted to find out why he chose to be a Hunter over being with us." Gon explains, and Killua seems to understand their reasoning and looks ahead, seeing the light at the top of the stairs.
"The exit!" One of the applicants yells.
"Whew... Finally, I can get out of this dark tunnel!" Another applicant shouts, and the boys pick up their speed, leaving Gigi behind as she plans to upstage them.