(This is by no means a hiatus break except for through literal definition. Trust I will take just as long to get another chapter out whoops!)
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It took them what felt like an eternity to finally get to the village. They could tell they were there when a sudden warm light danced along the path ahead and in addition to the sound of their music and the rustling trees nearby filtering into their ears, the sounds of the lively location littered the air; people chatting, running water, from a fountain, they assumed, and.. livestock? They felt like they had gone back into the past..
That feeling only amplified when they reached the village's edge. The houses appeared old and the clothing even older—maybe even past Leorio's time.. Y/N unwillingly watched the people inside the old clothing go through their seemingly busy, all the while joyful lives.
It made Y/N a smidgen curious about what they would think of the devices that they had, the watch, their headphones, and their music player. It would seem bizarre to them, of course, if they were living somewhere where houses were made of stone.
They continued to ponder as they absentmindedly walked down the village's path, attracting, surprisingly, very little attention while on their way. They didn't really know what they were seeking out or where to go.. the red dot just pointed to the center of the village, so instead they gazed around, taking things in. They almost began to miss Gon and the bunch; their streaks of entertainment made it so they didn't have to 'admire scenery' to satiate their boredom. Unfortunately, to Y/N, something so menial could only grip their interests for as long as they let them, which was never all that long.
They began to run, enjoying the wind flowing through their hair and watching attentively as they inched ever closer to the red dot. Their eyes looked to the furthest point of the path, a deep longing to be where they needed to be plaguing them.
The village finally granted them mercy as they watched the dot tracking their location intercepted with the red dot marking where they needed to be. The path below them continued as they halted themself, glancing from turn to turn and house to house in wonder of what they made such a journey for.
All they saw was a simple stuffed lion, slightly dirtied from the surface it laid upon. They grabbed the scraggly thing between two fingers, pinching it by its wiry mane and walking around with it on a further search. They watched as the red dot began to follow them, quickly realizing the lion was exactly what they were looking for.
They felt their nose scrunch. All this for a stupid stuffed lion? What dumb kid set up this trail and put them through such annoyance just so they could rejoin with such an ugly little.. thing? They scoffed but turned around again, still holding the little thing between their fingers, it swinging as they walk. The red dot disappeared, replacing itself quickly with a blue dot which seemed to be moving.
Y/N sighed and hunched their shoulders, trudging along again, towards the blue dot this time.
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When they finally reached the destination, Y/N was holding the lion like it was a baby. Just briefly, their fingers got tired and they dropped it, so they opted to instead just give up and hold it between their arms like they were its parent. The blue dot bounced around as Y/N glanced once again, catching sight of a little girl about just as dirty as the doll they held. They pinched it between their fingers again, lifting it from the comfortable cradle created amongst their appendages, then threw the plush towards the little girl.
"That yours?" They ask as it lands next to her feet. She stopped skipping to look at the small beaten thing, a brilliant smile growing on her face from cheek to cheek. Contrasting her dirty cheeks and hair, her teeth looked wonderfully clean and white, almost shining her thank you to Y/N, her delivery person.
"Maney! I thought I lost him for sure!!" She hopped excitedly, holding the small thing fondly in her even smaller arms.
"Where'd you find him? I've been looking for days!"
"I don't know.. somewhere with a path and houses." Y/N stagnantly responded, watching the girl's smile drop as she expressively began to think.
"That's just about everywhere.. you must not be from here. How'd you get in?"
"How'd I.. get in?"
"Yeah! The barrier?" She lifted her arms to spread her hands in a half circle, then looking back at him.
"I didn't see anything like that."
"Well that's weird, maybe you're special or something.." She brought her hand to her chin, cupping it between her pointer and thumb before quickly dropping them and jumping again.
"Well, Mom is gonna be real happy when she sees Maney again... thank you very much!!" She nodded rapidly turning to walk away from
Y/N quickly, leaving the kid to think to themself about the information she had just given them.
They weren't given much time to think, however, when the watch blipped into sight yet another red dot, further now than the girl was from her beloved 'Maney' —which Y/N thought was a pretty garbage name..—.
They set off again, wiping a bead of sweat created by the light heat radiating through the village. Y/N really really hated this trial. They hoped it wouldn't just be them helping these incompetent village people, but deep down they had a suspicion, and the red light reflecting from the watch to their pupils sure didn't help to inspire much hope.
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YOU ARE READING
HxH x Gender Neutral Reader
Fanfiction(Female and male reader version available <3) While taking place in the hunter exam, for reasons I do not care to think up yet; Y/N meets tons of unique and interesting characters. You already know they fall in love with them, that's why you're here...
