Chapter 48: Last Decision

The next morning, Gon, Killua, and I are throwing pillows at each other when I 'accidently' hit Leorio's face.

Leorio: "Stupid kids, quite throwing the pillows!"

We stop, and Gon suggests we exercise since we haven't done much that requires anything physical. We do just that. They do hand stands while I stretch into impossible positions.

Killua: "How are you doing that?"

Gon: "Esther is quite flexible. He used to curl up into a ball and sleep back at Whale Island."

Esther: "Yeap, work through the pain."

After exercising for a few hours, it's time to eat. I mostly eat. They keep trying to hide their food while I snatch however much I can. Hahaha! FOOD! Looking up to the time, we have 1 hour left. We start to prepare our stuff to leave.

Gon: "Ok, I'm ready to go!"

The timer is up and I hear a click. The door opens. Gon smiles as he charges out first. Everyone else follows with a smile of their own. After walking around for a bit, we see stairs, Leorio suggest we go left. We complicate about it then raise our hands, and by majority rule, we get left. When we walk there, we're right back where we started.

Killua: "Didn't I tell you we should have taken the stairs down?"

Leorio: "Shut up! We all agreed to this path!"

We keep travelling, going through loads of different paths. Lots were fun, but I kept throwing up since some involved transportation. After running away from a rock, we make it to the next question.

Leorio: "We're supposed to vote on whether to open the door? We need to move on, so the choice is pretty clear."

We enter our vote. 4 out of 5? Who pressed the wrong button?

Leorio: "Alright, who did that!"

Gon: "Sorry Leorio, I accidentally pressed the wrong button."

Leorio: "Fine, let's just move on."

We enter the room. There are 2 doors. One has an X, and the other has a O.

Killua: "This will be the last decision made by majority rule. Are you ready? Choose O or X."

We chose O. An announcement sounds.

"Please select a path. There are 2 available options to choose from. The long and difficult path, which the entire group can take, or the short and easy path, which will be limited to only 3 of you. Incidentally, if you choose the long and difficult path, it will require a minimum of 40 hours to complete. While the short and easy path will lead you directly to the goal in approximately 3 minutes. Press O to select the long and difficult path, or press x to choose the short and easy path. If X is selected, 2 applicants from your group must be chained to the wall with hand cuffs before the door will open. Those applicants will be unable to move until the time limit has expired."

The announcement cuts off. Looking around, I see weapons of all kinds.

Killua: "The examiners thought of everything. Look around, every weapon I ever heard of is down here."

Kurapika: "So 2 out of 5 huh? Then they must expect us to fight to decide which 3 pass."

Leorio: "Alright, I want to make this clear. I'm pressing the x button, but I'm not staying behind. I'm one of the 3 that's moving on. And I'll do whatever it takes."

Gon: "Hold on a second, I'm going to press O. It's just, we all made it this far by working together. We can finish together. It's a big risk, I know that. But still, we got to try!"

Killua: "Oh come on. Not a question about it being a risk, we got less than 5 hours to make it there. Gon, there is only one way to pass. I mean it's obvious."

Esther: "Y'all done talking?"

Everyone turns to me, I'm holding a grenade.

Leorio: "Where the heck did that come from?!"

Esther: "Did you forget? I'm an inventor. It's just that, I was feeling around the wall and it's not very sturdy. Seems easy to blow up don't you think? So I'm going with Gon, we can just take the long path and open up the short path. What do you think?"

Kurapika: "It's possible, it might just work. Ok then, we'll try it."

We all choose O. The door opens. I enter, and throw the grenade.

Esther: "Everyone, duck!"

It explodes. Opening the wall up to the other side, we enter.