First x Phase x 1

The small group walked down a street in Zaban City. The father of the Kirikos was disguised as a man wearing a turban and baggy clothing.

"2-5-10 Tsubashi Street..." The Kiriko mumbled, looking at a small paper with an address in his hand.

"There... That's it." The Kiriko pointed at a restaurant, but the four turned to the tall tower right next to it.

"The exam hall?" Leorio wondered.

"Wow!!" Gon was surprised by the sheer size of the building, since he lived on an island with many smaller buildings.

"Here's where the best of the best come..."

"Aspiring hunters from all over the world..."

"They all started here?" Leorio, Kurapika and Yukana imagined the masses of people that should be here.

"Um... I meant next door." The Kiriko turned their attention to a small restaraunt with a picture of a stir fry on the side of it. Much less grand than the overwhelming tower next to it.

".... A greasy spoon?" Leorio asked after a moment of awkward silence. "This is a gag, right? You're saying all the hunter exam applicants are jammed into that dive?" Leorio was confused if he took the right exam or not.

"That's exactly it. Did you expect the exam hall to be something conspicuous? Something that looked like it could hold all those countless candidates?" The Kiriko smirked at the mostly clueless group that realizes the whole pre-exam is about seeing through the lines.

(A/N: Silly narrator, you weren't supposed to say that.)

The group entered the restaurant and turned to see an old lady with chef clothing on, cooking at the counter. "Welcome! What'll it be?"

"The steak combo." Yukana speculated it might be some kind of code because the lady's expression went from welcoming to slightly serious.

"Grilled or broiled?"

"Grilled... Over low flame."

"Coming right up!" The lady went down the counter and began to cook elsewhere. An attendant stood by a door and waved them in.

"This way, please!" The attendant said.

...

The group found themselves in a small room with multiple doors. In the middle of the room was a table with a grill in the middle of it, plus four chairs around it. Food was cooking on the table and Yukana was beginning to get hungry.

"One in ten thousand." The Kiriko suddenly said, gaining the attention of the quartet. "The odds you'd get this far. Not bad, for your first run at the exam." The Kiriko left no room for questioning as he went to leave the room.

"Good luck the rest of the way. And look me up next year, won't you?" The sentence had an underlying condescending tone as the door closed. The room was actually an elevator and began to descend downwards.

...

"SHEEESH, this steak is bussin' bussin'." Yukana let a bit of his past life's self slip through him as he ate the grilled steak. After he finished, he began to doze off.

...

Yukana was quickly awoken when Kurapika and Leorio started shouting about what a hunter does. He didn't catch all of it, but Leorio said that basically a hunter's license can get you a lot of things, even if you sell it. Kurapika went over the actual duties of being a hunter while Gon was stuck in between, the poor kid had eyes going both ways.

"How about it, Gon?"

"What does being a hunter mean to you?!" The two finished their rant with a very weighted question.

"A career, sure, but-" Gon was cut off by the elevator hitting the 100th basement floor and having a small ding effect.

"Ah! We're here." Kurapika exclaimed, getting up from his seat.

"Hold that thought, Gon." All of them got up and went through the doors. What awaited them was a mass of people, varying in size, age, shape, race and looks. Many had scars, pristine faces, bearded chins, short hair, long hair. You could honestly meet anyone here. Some wary applicants turned their attention to the group.

'Man, this serious atmosphere is really crushing' Yukana thought. Eventually, the people stopped looking since they were identifying them as new people.

"Mighty gloomy down here." Gon perfectly described the tunnel. It was a long road with thick wires traveling down the semi cylinder. The place was ominously lit up by a few glowing panels on the wall.

"Like a subway tunnel. I wonder how many are here." Gon absentmindedly wondered, completely dismissing all the other applicants. Honestly, I wonder how they saw with the giant group of people in front of them.

"You're the four hundred-sixth." The group looked up to see a friendly-looking brown haired guy, with a blue overshirt and white pants and undershirt.

"How-do!" The man jumped down from the wire he was sitting on. "Name's Tonpa."

"Your badge number, sirs." Leorio and Yukana were handed their tags by a guy who had a head that seriously looked like a bean. His name is now bean man, no questions.

"Pleased t' meetcha." Tonpa shook hands with Gon, who was on the same frequency with his friendliness.

"I gather you're new." Tonpa realized, quickly identifying new players in the field.

"You can tell?"

"Pretty much! This is my thirty-fifth go. I started when I was 10." Yukana's jaw dropped at the number of times that this old man had gone to do the hunter exam.

"Yep. You might say I'm an expert examinee! Anything you want to know, just ask." Tonpa smiled cheerfully. Too cheerfully. Not even Gon would be excited for losing 34 times, determined if anything.

"He sounds proud of it! But he's failed year after year!" Leorio whisper-yelled, sweating a bit.

"34 failures so far..." Kurapika muttered back.

"I think he's a little sussy- suspicious. By now he'd either be dead or passed." Yukana felt his old terminologies coming back to him, but quickly suppressed them.

"Do you know everyone here, then?" Gon asked, pointing at the various people in the room.

"Just about! I'll point out some the regulars. Lessee....

103-Bourbon, the snake charmer. A tenacious competitor! Get on his bad side, and you'll never get off!

76-Cherry, the martial artist. In terms of unarmed combat, he's the best!

255-Todo, the wrestler. Strong as anything, and a lot smarter than he looks.

197 to 199-The Amori brothers, They specialize in teamwork, and keep getting better at it.

384-Geretta, the huntsman. He's darn handy with blowdarts and clubs

That's just a sample of a host of capable people who haven't quite made the grade yet." Tonpa informed Gon, and by relation, the others, who were listening in.

"GAHH!" A sudden shout interrupted their talk. Everyone in the exam hall snapped their heads towards an examinee who was missing two arms, severed directly at the elbow. He was facing a guy with red hair and poker-card themed clothing. Yukana's horns were practically screaming "BAD MAN BAD MAN" at the poker man.

"Behold. Now you see them, now you don't. No tricks involved." The clown man opened his hands out like he was presenting the armless man.

"Muh-Muh_ My arms!!!" The man kneeled and held out both of his half-arms.

"You should be more careful. At least apologize when you bump into someone." Now, the clown man was someone Yukana recognized, and started to break out in sweating. He remembered him as one of the newest members of the Phantom Troupe.

"Hmph... He's back. Too bad. 44-Hisoka the Magician. He seemed like a shoo-in last year, but then he attacked an examiner he didn't.... um, approve of, and was disqualified." What Tonpa talked about was something Yukana vaguely remembered Hisoka talking about.

"And they didn't tell him to take a hike for good?!" Leorio yelled out loud. Hisoka began to walk away from the situation he created, with people parting way for him. Before disappearing from their sight, Hisoka directly glanced at Yukana and gave him a predatory smirk. If Yukana didn't have any self control, he'd have started running for the hills.

"Of course not. We get new examiners each year. They decide what the tests are and who gets to take 'em. The devil himself can pass the hunter exam if an examiner says its okay. Hisoka took out 20 examinees last year, a score I'm sure he won't mind improving on. Steer clear of him if you can." Yukana remembered an instance similar to this from not too long ago.

...

Hisoka silently walked through the hideout, and about everyone was asleep or out on a mission. He neared Machi's room before he heard heavy breathing. Intrigued, he glanced into a slightly agape door.

"567... 578... 579..." Yukana kept counting after every sword swing, practicing his form over and over. Talent doesn't come from nowhere, you know. He didn't even realize that it was almost midnight. What intrigued Hisoka was the horns on his head. Yukana wasn't wearing his hat(don't ask me how he gets it off) and was shirtless.

Hisoka erased his presence before approaching the unaware Yukana. He got into about 2 meters behind Yukana before Yukana finally realized his presence, through a tiny tingle in his horns.

"What the hell?!" As a visceral reaction to the predatory smile on Hisoka's face, Yukana subconsciously jumped back multiple times. It looked like he was more gliding than jumping with how little he moved his legs. He reached about 20 meters away before he stopped.

"Oh~ You're an interesting one~" Hisoka did his famous lip-lick and leaned back slightly. It was as if a pink light was shining from his-

Author, do I really gotta narrate this?

(A/N: Yes.)

A pink light was shining from his no-no square. Okay?

"This is definitely what he was talking about, I gotta NIGERUNDAYO!!!!!" Yukana eased into a stance before diving towards his hat and putting it on(Don't ask me, still). Hisoka watched with disgusting eyes as Yukana pushed off the wall and flipped out of the door.

...

Yukana still gets the shivers when he remembers that instance. "But there are lots of others like him, too. But I can show you the ropes." Yukana wasn't drawn by Tonpa's words, but rather the murmurs nearby.

"Heh heh heh. Poor little newbies. The latest happles victims of..." "Rookie Crusher Tonpa." Two veteran examinees were talking to each other.

"What say we..." Tonpa brought out a few cans of tag-less soda and gave it to the four. "...Drink a toast--to friendship and luck!"

"Sure!" Gon put full trust in this man. The four of them opened their cans while Tonpa inwardly smirked. Gon and Yukana drank it at the same time, to which Gon immediately spat it out. Yukana swished it around in his mouth before spitting out a clear white liquid and wiping his mouth.

"Tastes weird, Tonpa! It must've gone bad!!" Gon was still completely oblivious to Tonpa's scheme and handed him badk the soda.

"Really? Dear me, that's odd..." Tonpa was sweating a lot in nervousness.

"Tastes good to me." Yukana kept spitting out the clear white liquid after every sip.

'What gives? The laxative is practically odorless and tasteless! What kind of taste buds does this kid have!?' Tonpa thought, before turning his attention to Yukana. 'And this kid! He could separate the laxatives from the soda inside his mouth?'

"Urk..." Tonpa watched as Kurapika and Leorio poured out their sodas onto the ground.