Ponzu Joins the Family.
(Ponzu POV)
"Fine, I accept the deal." I said, while in reality, I was thinking. 'As soon as I'm out of here, I am going to bail out and the kid will not be able to do anything to me.'
"Great. For now I will get Bourbon's plate." He unceremoniously said.
"It is suicide to take his plate. This entire cave is a trap since Bourbon ordered his snakes to stop anyone from escaping it. It is also impossible to touch him, since the snakes were trained to protect their master, even if he is already dead." I told this to the crazy kid.
However, he ignored my advice and extended his hand towards Bourbon.
"Did you not hear what I said? You are going to die."
I only looked at him after he managed to retrieve the plate..
He, in return, ignored me again. As soon as he touched Bourbon a lot of snakes fell down from the ceiling, however, instead of attacking him, the snakes slithered away as quickly as they could.
I was flabbergasted. He actually did it. "How is it possible?" I unconsciously asked.
When I looked at him, I saw his black eyes and a really strong dark aura around him.
'Huff. I was naive. There's no way that I can escape from him. Judging by the amount of killing intent that he has... If I break a deal with him, he will hunt me until the ends of the earth. What did this child have to go through to have this huge amount of killing intent? He has what, 9 or 10 years while I have 17 and yet, I am terrified of his eyes. It feels like I am looking at darkness itself.' While my mind was running in circles trying to figure out how did he have such a strong killing intent, he came closer to me.
His sudden movement paired with his black eyes made me fall on the ground without even noticing it.
"Are you coming or not?" He asked while he extended his hand to me.
'I must be crazy for wanting to accept his hand. He looks like a kid that would do anything to get what he wants, but my heart keeps telling me to follow him, that it will not be a bad idea.' While my mind was in turmoil, I decided to do a leap of faith and grabbed his hand. 'This kid might be either my doom or someone who will give me something that I never had and always wanted. This is what my instincts are telling me.'
Then, after he got me up, he went towards the exit of the cave. While he did this, I followed behind him and asked. "Wait, wait. You aren't serious about going through, right?"
He did not answered me before he grabbed me in a princess carry and dashed to the exit with many snakes falling on top of us. But the snakes were not bitting us, they were evading us. His killing intent was so strong that it was enough to scary and affect their survival instincts.
Their own instincts, were screaming at them to evade this crazy kid. This made all the snakes open a path until we got out of this snake hole.
"I never expected to see the sun again this soon." I commented while looking at the sky.
*Thud*.
But suddenly, the crazy kid released me and I fell on the floor. "Oww. Couldn't you have been more gentle?" I asked while getting up and massaging my butt.
"I will introduce myself first." He ignored my request and sat down. "My name is Oemitsu and I am 11 years old."
"My name is Vergo and I am 9 years old." The other kid with sunglasses said.
'God. What have I signed for? I just joined a group of kids.' Before I continued to regret my mistake, I turned to them and introduced myself. "My name is Ponzu and I am17 years old." Right after I said that, Oemitsu extended his hand and said. "Welcome to the family." Before he smiled.
"Huff. Whatever, I don't regret it." I said before I shaked his hand.
"Good to know." For some reason, his smile widened. "The first thing you have to do is give up on the Hunter Exam." Just this sentence made me freeze and widen my eyes.
"What!?" I screamed.
(Oemitsu POV)
5 days later.
Suddenly, right before I had drifted to sleep, I heard an annoucement. "The forth phase of the Exam has just ended. Will the applicants return to the starting point at once? You will be given an hour of extra time. If you do not return during this time you will fail the Exam. You are not allowed to exchange tags after reaching the starting point and anyone caught swapping them, will be disqualified."
Turning to look at the equally bored Vergo and the ever annoying Ponzu, I said. "It seems that we have to go."
Then we returne to the initial point, as per request of the announcer. 'Me, Vergo and Ponzu passed this phase of the test. Ponzu was always annoying me because she didn't wanted to fail her exam, so I sacrificed her original tag, as I requested her to do it, but in the end, I gave her 3 new plates to compensate. I had to work quite a lot to get them.
To get 3 plates for her, I decided to have a little bit of fun while doing it, so I placed Ponzu's original tag, which was Leorio's targeted plate, on the middle of the island and used magic to increase my voice and told everyone in the vicinity the location of the tag.
That way, I managed to get 3 more plates thanks to that and Leorio got his own plates, this means that everyone was happy. After this phase ended, 12 people managed to get pass it from the original 27.
Kurapika and Leorio appeared at the last second again. I'm really amused as to how they can be this lucky.' While recapitulating the events inside my mind, we embarked inside the airship.
Without having nothing to do, I decided to spend some time speaking with Kurapika, Leorio and Gon. Leorio ended up thanking me, after all, he passed thanks to me saying the position of his targeted plate.
'Well, I did it for entertainment, however, I also wanted to pass Leorio. Getting friends in the Hunter Association is essential. Besides, I have a feeling that Kurapika will be useful for me in the future.' After thinking of this, I heard another announcement. "Every single participant will have a interview with Hunter Association's President. As soon as you hear your number and name, you must go to the second floor and talk to the receptionist. #44 Hisoka." The announcer called Hisoka's name and number.
This made me smile. "Are you alright?" Suddenly, Gon asked this.
"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked him this when I turned to look at him.
"Well, Hisoka left you in a pretty bad spot." He said.
"Fufufufufufufu. I'm fine now. However, I'm still surprised that you managed to fetch Hisoka's plate." Right after saying that, I saw surprise on Gon's face.
"How did you knew?"
"Like Killua, you made the same mistake he did. You raised your hands high and showed your plates to everyone that had two working eyes to see." I looked at Gon and saw that he was pretending that I wasn't talking about him. "Huff." This only made me sigh.
"#369 Oemitsu." I heard the announcer calling me.
"It is time." I said as I got up. "I will see you afterwards." I told everyone before I focused on Gon. "Gon, for once on your life, try not to leave people waiting for you until the very last second." I advised him.
To which he only showed me his tongue and I ignored him. Then I climbed the stairs and stopped right in front of the receptionist.
"The President is inside and waiting for you." She said.
Entering inside the room, I saw a relaxed Netero. "Come, sit." He said.
Going in front of him, I sat on the chair and crossed my legs.
"Now, I will ask you a few questions to satisfy my curiosity. Why do you want to become a Hunter?" He asked.
"Hmm. I heard that the Exam was difficult and a Hunter's license is extremely convenient to have."
"Out of the 11 candidates, do you have someone that could catch your eyes?"
"Yes." I answered.
"And what would be the candidate's number?"
"#294, I guess. The others are rather boring or I already fought against them." I shrugged.
"Which one of the other applicants would you want to fight the least?"
"#99 or #405. But I would rather fight against you and see how big is the difference between you and me is." Right after saying that, I released my Killing Intent.
This left quite clear what I wanted.
"Hmm. I see... You can leave." He leisurely said.
"Fufufufufufufu." I stopped my Killing Intent, got up and left before thinking. 'Netero truly is something beyond a monster. He was full of openings and yet if I tried to make a move against him, I would die in a second. In his eyes, he doesn't even see me as a threat.' This thought made me laugh even harder. "This world is truly the best."
(Snap out if it! You need to recheck your Status and get ready for the next part of the tournament.) Nyarlathotep said.
'You are right. I almost lost myself there. I almost lost sight of what truly is important.'