The Love of the Powerful

The X Hunter X Exams

6 years later - current time

Ding!

Cain scanned the room before him, there were about three hundred people already there, all silently glaring at him. Cain shivered, all this attention made his skin crawl in embarrassment. He stared back at the crowd, some people rolled their eyes and resumed the chatter before he had arrived, but most snarled and whispered insults at the blond.

Cain had grown over the years of training and working, his once short blond locks had fallen mid-waist in soft curls, which he usually took the time and effort to tie it every morning. He grew to the height of 5'4, which was manageable and didn't cause any big inconveniences. He had no time to get jealous over things like height. The past 6 years had served as a period for him to train his soul, and his overall physical abilities.

"Here's your number. Don't lose it." A small green man handed him a round number card that clearly stated he was number 312. Then approached a rather large man who introduced himself as 'Tonpa'. Tonpa was a friendly guy who sported a pair of bushy eyebrows and spoke playfully. But in the conversations that Cain had overheard, Tonpa was everything but amiable.

"It was nice to meet ya err.. Cain-san. Let's toast to our new found relationship!" Tonpa fished two lukewarm cans of juice and handed one to Cain, who awkwardly accepted the offer and opened the can. Tonpa was acting way too comfortable for a person who had just met someone, and he was suspiciously excited to see Cain open the can, unlike normal people when they offer someone a drink. As they toasted the drinks, Cain 'accidentally' tipped the contents of the can onto his shirt, which was an idiotic idea since it was his only shirt but he hated direct confrontation. "Oh dear, would ya like another one?" Tonpa offered, reaching inside his coat to grab a new can of poison.

"No thanks, the juice smells a bit funny. Weak stomach stuff, sorry." Cain lied as smoothly as he could breathe. He sniffed the once white shirt, his nose scrunching in disgust at the very faint stench of the laxative. Tonpa left with a scowl that could not be missed by the keen eyes of Cain, who was kind of disappointed even though he had expected his kind of development. Well, Tonpa was also known as The Rookie Crusher.

"Ahhh... the newbies this year sure are difficult to play with." The man mumbled to himself.

He thinks he's being so sly, putting laxatives in the drinks. Cain reluctantly peeled the sticky shirt off himself, accidentally bumping into someone in the process. "Excuse me." Cain mumbled, turning around to meet face to chest with number 301, Gittarackur.

301 was by far the most eccentric in the large crowd, with his several facial piercings (or that they were needles punctured onto his face), and towering height of 6'1, he has been the recipient of many wary glances from the newcomers and veterans.

Gittarackur proceeded to offer a shirt to Cain, who gladly took it with a smile, then robotically strutted away into the crowd, his jaw clicking with each step. The shirt was unfortunately a tad too big on him, as it hung off him like a dress and covered the shorts that Cain was wearing. It didn't matter though, he was just grateful that there was a kind soul somewhere in this place, full of brutes and no-brainers.

"AHHHHHH! M-MY ARMS!" Cain's heart tightened at the scream, throwing his mind into a frenzy. He peeked towards the direction of where the scream had come from, a crowd was starting to gather at the scene. He could slightly make out the scene of a man's arms peeling off into small blood-red flower petals that delicately danced around the room. Cain could imagine how much it had possibly hurt, having your arm split into small sections? That will definitely not be on his list of many ways he had injured himself like a fool.

"Oh, how peculiar, his arms seem to have become flower petals." All eyes turned towards the speaker, "No smoke and mirrors here."

"Do take care." Cain's eyes trailed over the brightly dressed man who spoke with sarcasm laced thickly in his voice, "When you bump into someone you should really apologise."

The man, who Cain later overheard as Hisoka the Magician, shot the now armless man one last glare before disappearing into the sea of challengers. Cain could hear the distasteful exclamations in the crowd over the magician, and the foolish schemes that would eventually lead to their downfall.

-----

When all the participants had arrived at the area, Cain observed them to be around 400 people in total. There in front of everyone, stood a man with lavender hair who had later introduced himself as 'Satotz', the examiner of the first phase.

The first phase had been a test of endurance, Cain thought that was a smart way to sieve the incapable from the strong as almost a third of the participants had dropped like flies in the first hour. Satotz had continued to steadily increase his speed, leaving everyone to chase after him frantically. Cain used this chance to run to Hisoka, who was next to Gittarackur.

"Uhhh excuse me?" Cain tapped the red haired man's shoulder, "I thought your trick back there was really cool, did you use nen?" He questioned the jester, who in return replied with a flirtatious smirk.

"My, my, this little hatchling here isn't weaker than what his face says." Cain pouted at the offensive remark, "Oh I do apologise, that wasn't funny?" Hisoka chuckled at the various expressions directed at him from the short boy. It wasn't that Cain couldn't say anything, it was that he was too embarrassed and pissed off that if he were to say a word, he would regret it in the middle of the night.

"Hey Cain-chan. What brings you here to this exam?" Hisoka asked, Cain never really knew how he knew his name but came to the conclusion that a magician could get his hands on anything.

"Hmm... reasons." Cain mumbled, fiddling with the ends of his hair.

Hisoka knew better than to bug him to say something, even though the magician had been thirsting for a fight, he sensed the small but sudden change in Cain's aura. Ahh... I'll definitely fight him the next time I get the chance~ Hisoka pervertedly licked his lips before running ahead of Cain and Gittarackur.

It had been three hours since the start of the marathon, and the number of participants from before and almost decreased by half. Cain was getting annoyed as when they were going to reach the second phase, surely they won't run for the entire day right? As his train of thoughts continued, he tripped on a stair and fell on his face.

"Tell me, Gitta-san. When did we approach the stairs?" Gittarackur chuckled, it wasn't everyday that he was given a nickname for an alias, and he probably wouldn't have allowed it if it were someone other than the blond boy now with a bloodied nose.

"We've been on the stairs for the past half hour, silly." Cain was surprised that Gittarackur had answered him, since the purple giant often kept to himself and didn't speak to anyone with the exception of Hisoka (sometimes). After his wave of surprise had washed off and Cain had realised what the reply was, he rolled his eyes and poked Gittarackur's arm hard.

"Payback." Cain stuck his tongue out childishly and winked. Gittarackur took this chance to smack him on the back of his head.

"Idiot, leaving yourself in the open like that."

"Ohhh now it's on!"

A while later, Satotz had stopped in his tracks as they reached the top of the stairs. Cain rejoiced at the smell of fresh air instead of the stench of sweat and body odour, waiting for the rest of the participants to reach. He slightly regretted leaving

Gittarackur behind after their immature exchange since there were only a small portion of people who had finished, and Cain knew none of them.

Amongst the early finishers were two prepubescent boys who excitedly talked about the exam, one of them looked around and gawked at Cain, then pointed at him and whispered something to his friend. The boy had long spiky green hair with large brown eyes that screamed determination and curiosity, but that didn't stop Cain from silently freaking out.

"Hey Killua," The boy had muttered to his friend, "Didn't Kurapika say something about the Golden Eyes of the Kurta Exiles?"