A Genius Thrown to the Wolves

Onto the Next Ch. 14

When everyone was on top of the tower needed to get through to move on, people started disappearing left and right. Kiyotaka was one of the first people to disappear. He'd fallen through a trap door, and was waiting on the four other people needed to continue down the 'selected' path. He waited almost ten whole minutes before the two boys he met the night before dropped in. They were followed by two others, and they all clearly knew each other. It took them a minute to realize he was there, even though he wasn't using nen. Kurapika was the first to notice him. "Who are you?" "Ayanokoji Kiyotaka" at hearing the familiar voice and name, the two 12 year olds turned around and jumped excitedly at him. "I'm so glad your the fifth member!!" Gon said ecstatically. "Me too!" Killua said in agreement. "I guess I'm glad to be here too" Kiyotaka said, a little less ecstatically then the other two. Leorio and Kurapika were confused on when they had gotten to know each other. "Since when were you so buddy buddy with this guy?!" Lerio asked, voicing his confusion. Gon was the one to answer, "we met him last night!" "Last night?" "Yep! We were playing ball in an empty room with the old man, and Ayanokoji came to join us!" "I didn't though, I just wanted to see what the commotion was." Kiyotaka corrected. "Hm." Kurapika was skeptical but, given the circumstances, he had no choice to work with the small boy. "How old are you? I'm 17, my name's Kurapika by the way, Lerio is 19, and these two are 12." "I'm 19" the group had the same reaction when they found out Lerio was 19, but for the opposite reasons. "You're really 19?" Kurapika asked skeptically. "I am, though your disbelief is natural given my stature."

Lerio warmed up to Kiyotaka pretty quickly, but the cold tone and way he responded with the fewest words possibly made Kurapika uneasy.

They got through the first decision with a unanimous vote and moved into a room with an arena surrounded my a hole in the floor. Kiyotaka walked up to the edge and looked over 'I wonder if there's a short cut down that way?'. He wanted to test his theory and said a quick "I'll be right back" over his shoulder. The others looked at him, wondering where he was going, only to see him jump off. They raced to the edge to try stop him, or at least see if he made it. He looked composed, and his face had yet to change, as they watched him disappear. They were all worried but had to continue. While they were listening to the prerecorded rules, and keeping an eye on the inmates sizing them up, they all heard a buzzing sound. Out from the darkness below came a drone of some kind. It's robotic arms wrapped around Kiyotaka's waist, placing him back on the platform. "What happened?" "I found the observation room." "So why are you back here?" Kurapika wondered? Figuring it was forced. "The man shrieked and sent that thing after me, telling me to take the test properly." Lerio chuckled a bit. "How far down was it?" Killua asked curiously. "It wasn't as far as it looked. There's a black fog making it look deeper then actually was. It's like a short cut to the exit and the observation room." Kiyotaka said louder then necessary. Kurapika was going to question his unnecessary increase in volume, but that was before he saw one of the prisoners jump off their ledge. In response Kiyotaka made a comment under his breath, "Too easy". This statement only made Kurapika more wary of him, and added to Killua's curiosity. The other prisoners were shocked by what just happened, realizing Kiyotaka had lied when they heard their fellow prisoner start screaming in agony. It only made them wonder how Kiyotaka made it down and back up again without so much as a scratch on him.

Despite the shock, the task continued. Kiyotaka had just gotten rid of a prisoner so they decided he would go last if they needed. They didn't, but Lerio did cost them 50 hours, now they were going to be stuck in a room for that long. Kiyotaka didn't like that he'd been away from the one thing that had been constant since he ended up in this world. He also hated that he felt that way about Hisoka.

Once in the room, Kiyotaka found a large cushion and brought it to the corner of the room. He got comfortable, but made sure nothing happened without him knowing about it. Pulse with his back to the wall, there couldn't be any surprise attacks. The group, for the most part, just kept to themselves. Which meant that they also left Kiyotaka alone. Gon and Killua got restless pretty quick, and entertained each other as best they could, with the occasional scolding from Kurapika. Kiyotaka was thankful that he didn't have to do anything in that time period, but was greatly relieved when the timer ran out and the doors opened to reveal their next path choice.

It was once again a unanimous vote that them led them to a very difficult decision. Would everybody get to go through, but take the path that took over 7 hours or take the path that had a slide and would get them there in mere minutes? The thing was that they didn't have 7 hours, time was up in less then one. Of course Kiyotaka knew of a solution to get them all through to the next round, but he was entertained by the quarreling of the group. That's when the green headed boy did something unexpected, he found the, relatively, same solution he had. Though the boys was still more time consuming, it still consisted of everyone getting through the wall of the long path and onto the slide of the short one.

Hisoka had been done a long time and waiting on Kiyotaka. He was starting to get restless. It was down to the wire when he heard Kiyotaka's name and badge number called.

A huge feeling of relief washed over Kiyotaka when Hisoka came into his line of sight. The other four watched as their temporary teammate immediately walked away with so much as a word. But they watched as Hisoka and him met in the middle, Hisoka signaling something with his eyes. He'd held his hand out in front of him, the four expecting him to be asking, or demanding, something. Instead they saw Kiyotaka use it as a foot hold and boost himself up and lay around Hisoka's shoulders. He'd curled up and they actually watched him begin to doze off. Kurapika knew he hadn't slept the whole time they were together, and the others took brief notice of this as well. It was slightly concerning, but what was even more concerning then that, was the fact that he was comfortable enough to fall asleep with one of the biggest walking red flags any of them had ever seen.