9 Magical x Beasts

"The old woman said it was a two-hour hike... But it's getting dark! We've been at this for four hours at least!" Leorio complained out loud. The group was walking down a dirt path surrounded by trees.

Yukana flinched randomly, before hunching over and holding his horns tightly. "You guys are still saying you don't see those in the treeline?!" Yukana said for the 3rd time that hour.

"I'm telling you, there's nothing out there. The old lady said it was safe." Leorio pushed off Yukana's concerns. Yukana flinched again, once more, as he held his horns. He slowly turned his head and swore he saw a horned figure in the dark.

"Shee... Another beast warning. Forget beasts! Where's the stupid exam hall? I'm hungry, I have to take a dump!" Leorio waved his hands around like a child.

"C'mon Leorio, keep up!" Gon called out. Kurapika continued staring ahead until he saw something.

"There it is." Everyone focused and saw that the pine tree was directly in front of them.

...

The pine tree on top of the mountain was extremely tall. The first few leaves on the tree were higher than the house next to it. The house was your average 1-story cabin, but everything inside was completely dark.

"Whew! Finally here!" Leorio exclaimed, ready to settle down. Yukana felt an a slightly unpleasant tingle in his horns, but brushed it off a bit.

"It is so quiet. Are we the only applicants to arrive?" Kurapika wondered. The group continued walking up to the cabin.

Leorio knocked on the door, only to hear an eerie noise inside. "Hello? Anyone h-" "Huh!?" Everyone exclaimed. What stared at them were two narrow and slanted eyes. Their eyes slightly adjusted to the dark.

The scene in front of them was severely concerning. Around the house, any kind of furniture or item was piled up in random places, most of them broken or scratched. In the back was a bleeding man slowly crawling towards a tall and thin figure. The figure was a tall fox-like creature, with bare legs and arms and a narrow head and two pointy ears. In it's three-fingered grip was a young woman with ragged clothes desperately trying to escape the magical beasts' arms. The creature let out an ominous "Killllllll....."

"A magical beast!" Kurapika got into a stance that put both long nunchaku in an x, while Leorio got out his pocket knife. Yukana went to take out Shokubai Akaza but felt a small frequency in his horns, and instead took a wide stance with one arm outstretched, and the other on his stomach.

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It all seemed useless because the magical beast just leaped right past them with claws extended, making everyone have to dodge. The tall frame of the beast broke through the doorway.

"We gotta save her!!" Gon dashed towards the direction the magical beast ran.

"Leorio, see to his injuries!!" Kurapika quickly joined Gon's hunt.

"I'm on it! Good luck!!" Leorio ran to help the man who was muttering help.

"..." Yukana felt everything was said, so he quickly ran out into the outside with the other two.

"It ran into the forest! But which way?!" Kurapika called out. Gon's eyes scanned around before locking onto a tall figure shown by the moonlight shining through a crowd.

'Holy crap! I knew he was good at sensing but not that good!' Kurapika and Yukana had similar thoughts on Gon's ability to perceive the things around him. Gon quickly dashed into the forest, wasting no time going downhill and practically bouncing down the slope. Yukana followed Gon and Kurapika through the trees but stopped once he saw that they were there no more.

'Crap... I lost them...' Yukana began to feel paranoid, remembering the dark figures from earlier. He decided to traverse safely and swiftly in the general direction of where he think they went.

"Shee-oof!" Yukana could have sworn there was a branch right under him but he opted for flipping forward and landing on his feet. He heard the eerie noises in the night, but felt a presense directly behind him. He quickly dodged the swipe of a thrown projectile with a strong. A kusarigama. The bladed end quickly got lodged into a tree before being yanked back, to which Yukana had to dodge both the weapon and the falling tree.

"Heh, looks like I found a Kowareta Rennatta... They'll offer me a high amount of money... Then I'll be reaccepted! Hehehehehe!" The man yelled out loud. He had black hair that slowly faded into purple that almost reached his knees. There were purple markings similar to Yukana's on it. The man was wearing a purple mantle with the sleeves torn, so it was more like one of those napkins for babies. He wore a black shirt and sweatpants. But the most defining feature was his pupil-less eyes and skin colored horns that were the same as Yukana's.

"W-Who the hell are you?!" Yukana felt an alarming sense of danger, even if he didn't have his horns.

"Don't worry, and don't move... If I bring you to them, I'll be brought back... But for now, I'm gonna capture you!!!" The man viciously lunged towards Yukana with a hidden dagger in his sleeve. Yukana barely had time to grab the man's hand and kick the hand holding the kusarigama, sending it flying away, but the chain was seemingly attached to his arm.

Yukana tried kicking the man but he had a surprisingly good balance, blocking with his leg before swinging his other arm around, freeing the kusarigama from where it was. Yukana had to roll backwards, freeing the man's arm, before pulling out Shokubai Akaza and letting the blade extend.

"Ooh! You even have a Kowaretta weapon!!!!! This is really gonna be a great harvest!!!" The man suddenly stabbed the knife into the ground and dragged it backward towards himself. Yukana felt that he was being pulled towards the man and stabbed his sword into the ground, halting his falling.

Yukana attempted to make the best of his situation. He shifted the weapon into a spear, slapping his hand on the flat end of the blade, making the handle extend outward and the edge widen. The man's eyes went wide before having to dodge Yukana, who rolled himself into a ball and fell forward before pointing the spear at the man. When the man took his dagger out of the soil, Yukana felt the pull leave him.

The man grinned widely, to Yukana's confusion. He then began to madly swipe at the ground, making Yukana lose his sense of direction as he fell to the left and right randomly. Yukana panicked and switched to the gauntlet form, stabbing his fingers into the ground. He felt the pull keep happening but he was completely rooted in place. The man, seeing that it wasn't working anymore, threw the kusarigama at Yukana while swiping, who had to free one hand and grab it mid-flight.

The man was surprised as Yukana grinned widely and yanked on the ribbon of the kusarigama, pulling him forward. Since the pulls stopped, Yukana let the man fall towards him before preforming a palm strike directly into his gut. Yukana expected him to fly backwards, but the man grit his teeth and held onto Yukana's arm.

A small bit of spit coughed out of his mouth and onto the ground, and before Yukana could react, flipped himself over Yukana's hand and kicked Yukana in the back. Yukana flew forward, rolling to try to get his balance, but it was half-done as Yukana really felt the pain in his back. Yukana's vision darkened, but the next time his eyes opened, the man was right in front of him and slammed his fist into Yukana's head.

Yukana could feel his brain slosh around in his head, but what the man failed to notice was that Yukana let himself get hit and extend the now segmented spear form of Shokubai Akaza around the tree right next to him and the flat end directly slammed into the man's head.

"Shit... You're better than I thought kid..." The two were panting wildly, scuffed up but still willing to go on.

"NIGERUNDAYO!!!" The crazed man lost his crazed grin and bolted the opposite direction of Yukana, almost faster than he could see.

"Holy crap... He could have gotten me."

...

"Hmm... It's been ages since a human was able to tell us apart. And so easily" To Yukana's surprise, the now revealed two magical beasts were actually examiners. The two "wife" and "husband" were wearing tribal clothing.

"Can you tell 'em apart?" Leorio whispered to Kurapika and Yukana.

"Not at all..." Kurapika and Yukana responded to him.

"The one Kurapika and I bopped is the husband." Gon pointed in the general direction of both of the magical beasts, which still confused the other three.

"As you've now realized..." "...We're the navigators." "I'm their daughter." "I'm their son." All of them greeted. The only two discernable to each other was the son and daughter.

"These tattoos signify a Sumi woman's betrothal to god and her vow of chastity. Few today would recognize such ancient symbols on sight. However, Kurapika did, and also knew their significance--That I therefore had no spouse." The daughter uncovered the mystery that she was, indeed, not married to her brother.

"Leorio, on the other hand, never figured me out. But he did apply exceptional first aid skills. More to the point, he ministered to what he thought my needs were with great diligence and compassion." Leorio dismissed the compliment from the brother.

"As for Gon, he's displayed extraordinary agility and perception. Few humans have ever been so naturally gifted." Gon also waved away the compliment from one of the transformed beasts.

"But, you, Yukana, we didn't see you at all, not even at our observation points-" Yukana quickly interjected.

"Um, about that, I encountered a weird purple man with horns-" Yukana was also cut off.

"You encountered the Crazed Rennatta!? And survived?!" They all shouted, startling Yukana.

"Well, yeah. He kept somehow sending me flying but I did get a few good hits on him before he retreated." Yukana said, not really understanding what was so wrong with this.

"The last time we encountered him, he tried to kill us. And almost succeeded, too." One of the transformed beasts said.

"Do you know what they are talking about?" Gon earned a curt shake of the head from both Kurapika and Leorio.

"Well, he said he was trying to capture me so maybe he was holding back?" Yukana said, not really understanding the man's motives.

"Anyway, since you've displayed great fighting capability and reflexes based on how little you were hurt, you pass." The son said to Yukana.

"You all pass. We'll take you straight to the exam." All of them transformed into beasts. They revealed that they had some sort of wingsuit, and picked the group up by the shoulders and flew towards the city.