8 Pairs of 3

It had been just 3 days since their fateful meeting, yet an eternity seemed to have passed for Mary. Her muscles ached in pain from the "beginner's" training regimen. With every fiber of her being forced to the extreme. Efficiency was all that her uncle cared about.

"Get up, you don't have time to laze around."

"Pretty easy for you to say, you're not the one getting beaten down every time I stand up." Thought Mary. "Yes! Uncle."

Giving her a sinister smile he whispered, "Now don't bother trying to hide your true feelings, remember, the devil is always watching."

"I would never, hide my feelings about you unc-." Before she could finish she was grabbed by the head and slammed into a tree.

"Oh my little Mary, whatever will I do with you? By now you should have realized, it's not good to lie to your guardian."

Although she had heard him she couldn't respond, blood had filled her mouth and the pain she had felt immobilized her.

"Mary, do you plan on disobeying me? I said stand!" He had began in a cheerful tone, but as he said those last words the feeling of death had forced Mary's fight or flight response.

Needless to say, her body chose to fight. Now at such a disadvantageous situation it'd only be natural to flee. But Mary, sweet little Mary, she knew that running away would be an instantaneous death. Contract was still active, as it would be for the next 3 years.

Adopting a stance low to the ground she began to focus all of her remaining nen into her legs. And like a spring she propelled herself forward trying to land a one hit kill to the neck.

Catching the knife in between his index and middle fingers he gave her a gentle pat on the head, "good job! But if I were an enemy it'd been over the moment you had began charging you legs with nen."

Realizing her attack had failed Mary looked into his eyes with tears in her own, "Why not let me land the attack uncle? Your so mean!" She said while pouting.

"Cut the bull shit I'm not letting my guard down after what you did yesterday pipsqueak, my family jewels still have yet to fully recover."

"Fine, what's next old man?"

"Hey I'm only in my thirties brat!" Raising his hand he tossed a bag to her.

"Mind telling me what's inside before I open it? I don't really feel like getting knocked out by a paralytic."

With a straight face he said the words she hated the most, "No, open it and find out."

Inside the bag was a normal looking iron bracelet. "Thanks for the gift, now what's the catch?"

"A catch? Do I really seem like that type of person?" He answered while putting his hands behind his head.

"You shameless bastard, you literally use the devil," Upon seeing him whistle away she could only swallow her pride and put it on. "God, Fucking, Damn it! What the hell did you do to this bracelet?"

"What do you mean? I only did what any self respecting teacher would do. I lined the bracelet with a strong poison, after all, how else do you expect to build up a resistance?"

However his words were wasted, Mary had already passed out from the pain.

"Ahhh, damn, well I guess we'll call it quits for now."

Reaching for the passed out doll he picked her up and brought her to an empty cave.

—————

2 hours later

"Come on Mary it's time for the next step of your training!"

"Give me 10 more minutes and then we'll talk."

"Hmmm? I see, so even in your dreams you're still a brat. Now, WAKE UP!"

"You scream, like that when your scared, not when trying to wake up a child." Complained Mary while wiping the fatigue out of her eyes.

"No when I'm scared the person who'll be screaming won't be me it'll be my enemy." He told her with a blood thirsty glint in his eyes. "Now onto more important matters, you're task for the rest of the week is to survive in this forest without the use of nen, break this one rule and well, you're smart enough to know what'll happen."

"And what about this bracelet that's poisoning me as we speak? I need nen to nullify the effects."

"That's a silly question Mary, you'll just have to survive while poisoned, you know nothing too problematic."

"Nothing too problematic my ass, I can't even think when the poison is active."

"Is that any way for a young lady to talk to her elders?"

"Fine," taking a deep breath she said is her sweetest sounding voice, "Uncle, May you pretty please tell me how I'm to survive while poisoned?" Swallowing the disgust welling up inside her throat she looked at her teacher for a few seconds, waiting for his response.

"Well I guess I'll help you out a bit, deep within this forest there lives a beast who's blood will completely remove the effects of the poison."

"Great, any other advice?"

"Just one, stay alive." After he said this he left in a flash of nen.

Stopping her nen from flowing she could feel the heavy pain from the poison all over her body, "Seems like he's going easy on me, the pain is nowhere near as close as it once was."

Unbeknownst to her, it wasn't him going easy on her it was her nen, by cladding the poison with her nen it had begun to become a part of her. By breaking down her cells over and over and rebuilding them her body was quickly adapting to the deadly poison.

Three days had passed, three lessons she had been given, and three times she had surpassed her limits. Now it's time for her to use her gains to survive. She would survive the final beginner's test even if it killed her.