11 First x Phase x 2
"My deepest apologies!" Tonpa got onto his knees and clasped his hands together towards the four.
"Oh, that's okay, Tonpa." Gon deadpanned at Tonpa's internal panic.
"Its just lucky I drank first and Yukana has a non-expired one. Taste is a vital forest survival tool, so my tongue's trained to detect anything iffy." Gon explained, a bright and naive smile on his face.
"Er... That's lucky, all right." Tonpa wasn't nervous because he was genuinely sorry, he was in mass confusion for a multitude of reasons. One, that Gon was so naive to his plot. Two, Gon and Yukana had very extraordinary abilities, and three, that Yukana looked so threatening with that small red glint on his shadowed face as he crushed the can in his hand slowly.
Tonpa also questioned all of the other newbies in the exam. One, who just kept spilling everything about his "secret" shinobi life, another who had too much of a giant brain to fall for his tricks, the third way too creepy, and the fourth had complete immunity to the laxatives. But at the end, he smiled because of the wide variety of new contestants this year.
"BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!" A man with an absurd looking alarm made himself known throughout the room. He came from a hole in the wall. The man wore a full tuxedo, plus had a curly hairdo that went directly down and up like a slide, with a matching moustache. He also, for some reason, had no mouth.
"As of now, registration is closed. The hunter exam will now begin. Everyone ready? Good," The examiner didn't give them any time to choose, as they have had already done so before this confrontation.
The examiner easily hopped over the large crowd of examinees, all the way to where the tunnel continued. "This way, please." He politely held his hand out as he spoke.
People began walking at the same pace as the examiner, awkwardly shuffling forward as there wasn't all too much space in the tunnel. "Just so there's no mistake, the hunter exam is very rigorous. If you lack the necessary ability--too bad. If you're unlucky--again, too bad."
"And examinees are not above sabotaging each other, as you saw. If you're okay with that, they you're welcome to continue." No one objected as the pace quickened to an actual walk instead of a shuffle.
"Still with me? Good. You 405 applicants may enter the first phase." The examiner kept walking forward into the seemingly endless tunnel.
"Apart from the armless guy, that's everybody. Had hoped a few would chicken out." Leorio got a bit nervous about the amount of people still in.
"They already got this far, might as well go all the way. They might die though." Yukana spaced out, an internal playlist starting.
"This is odd." Kurapika said suddenly. Just as he said that, the examiner began to pick up pace while still taking strides as if he was still walking. There began to be a gap between him and the lightly jogging examinees.
Leorio swung his head around, confused as to why people were beginning to shift into running. "Hey, what's up? Why's everyone in such a rush?"
"As I thought, the pace is quickening!" Kurapika shouted, peering behind himself and watching everyone shifted into a more intense jog.
"Yeah! The guys in the front have started running!" Gon yelled back.
"Pick up the pace, Leorio!" Yukana raised his voice for the first time in a while.
"I am Satotz, your examiner for the first phase of the exam, as well as your guide to the second phase." The examiner, now identified as Satotz calmly spoke while still "running".
Many examinees were confused by his words. "Second? But what's the first?" The shinobi, Hanzo, asked Satotz.
"This, what else?" No one responded to Satotz.
Yukana brought his hand to his chin, narrowing his eyes in disbelief. 'What else would it be? The preliminaries are actually the first phase?!' He mocked in his head.
"I told you the exam had begun, did I not? You're now taking it. All you have to do is keep up with me. Simple, no?" Satotz supposedly gave an innocent smile, but we can't tell because of his invisible mouth.
"Where we're going, and when we'll get there, I cant say. To find out... Just follow, follow, follow." Satotz attempted to motivate the crowd.
"That's it. Simple, indeed." Kurapika agreed with Satotz.
"Simple weird, I think." Gon gave his five cents.
Yukana just had flashbacks of his endurance training with Machi, but quickly shook it away.
"Not really. It's just an endurance test." Leorio disagreed with Gon. "No problem there. I can keep up with anybody." Leorio was no one to skip out on arrogance.
'It's more than endurance. You have to keep going without knowing how long it is, which makes it harder than a normal test.' Yukana thought similar thoughts to Kurapika.
Suddenly, a breeze of air brushed passed the group. Yukana had to move his hair out of his eyes to properly see. A kid the same age as he and Gon rode a skateboard. The kid had white hair and deep blue eyes. He wore a blue undershirt and a white overshirt, with grey shorts and shoes. The tag on his chest read "99".
"A SKATEBOARD?! THAT'S CHEATING!!!" Leorio called out to the boy.
"How so?" He was unfazed by Leorio's hypocritical statement.
"How d'ya think?! He told us its an endurance test!"
"No, YOU said that. He only said to follow." Gon corrected Leorio.
"Hey! Whose side are you on?!" Leorio shouted at Gon, pointing an accusatory finger at him.
"Not the old man's, clearly." Yukana mumbled under his breath, to which Leorio still heard. A tick mark quickly grew on his head.
"Yelling just wastes energy, Leorio, and irritates me. Don't forget, we could bring whatever we wanted to the exam!" Kurapika gave a smug reminder hidden behind his calm demeanor. Leorio was close to bursting a vein.
"Hey, you two! How old are you?" The boy said, the question directed towards Gon and Yukana.
Yukana and Gon pointed at themselves. "Almost 12." "Just turned 12." Gon is 11 and Yukana is 12(or is he?).
"Me too. Huh..." He seemed to be contemplating something. "I think I'll run for a bit." He flipped up his skateboard into his hand in one smooth motion.
"Wow! Cool!" You know who said this.
"I'm Killua."
"I'm Gon!"
"I'm Yukana, but you can call me Yukan or Kana... except no one does..." Yukana seemed to be dejected, drooping his shoulders until he tripped. Yukana rolled with minimal effort and kept his momentum.
"And who're you, pops?" Killua called out to Leorio, confusing him for a moment.
"Pops..." Leorio muttered, his anger boiling over the limit. "I'M NO "POPS"! I'M NOT EVEN 20 YET!" Leorio angrily yelled at them, surprising the entire group.
"NO WAY!!!" The three youngest stopped for a moment.
"Et tu?! That's it, our friendship is over!!!" Leorio shouted, pointing aggressively at Gon and Yukana.
"That easy, old man?!" Yukana mocked, continuing to run ahead to where Kurapika was.
"GET BACK HERE YOU...!"
...
'Holy Heck! We've been running for three hours straight! I knew this was an endurance test but gawdlee! This is absurd! Although this is nothing compared to the training and the Great Escape, it's still shiz!!!' Yukana thought, a small bead of sweat dribbling down his face before he took off his outer haori and hung it around his neck.
...
'Oh my goooood! We've been running for five hours straight! Did I really pass time by counting??? I mean I know I did that a while ago for meditation but darn! Nobody's even dropped out yet!' Yukana thought, more beads of sweat dripping down his face, but visibly slower than when he had his outer haori on.
"How ya doin'?" Yukana was snapped out of his trance by Gon asking Leorio a question, whom was in much worse condition than Yukana was. Leorio was beginning to fall behind in the crowd.
'I didn't expect such a tough first phase! Correction, I didn't expect such tough applicants! These guys are the cream of the crop! Didn't appreciate that till now! I'm seriously outclassed!' Leorio admitted, not out loud though.
Leorio was quickly losing hope, sweat covering every inch of his body. His run began to shift into a speedwalk, before he started to stop. Leorio dropped his briefcase and was barely moving.
"Leorio!" Gon shouted, worried for one of his new friends.
"He's failed, Gon. That's how it goes, cmon." Killua tried to make Gon move past him. Yukana just stared intently.
'He can't be that confident yet be the first to give up! Come on, get up!' He was thinking.
"That's crap..." Leorio muttered under his breath. "I CAME HERE TO BECOME A HUNTER!!! AND THAT'S FULL STOP!!!: Leorio yelled out, suddenly pushing forward past them until he caught up with Kurapika. Gon smiled brightly, and Yukana let out a genuine smirk before turning away.
Gon used his fishing rod and threw the hook to Leorio's briefcase that was left behind, catching it and grabbing onto it.
"Wow! Cool!" Killua was genuinely surprised by Gon's skill with the fishing rod.
"I gotta try that." "I wanna try your skateboard." The two friends said at the same time. Yukana brightly smiled at the interaction as he kept running.
60 km and counting. Number of dropouts: zero.
