Chapter 11: Hunter Exam Pt.2

Deciding to put training off for the moment, Soren decided to go around the venue with Killua to interact with the other contestants and find out some more information, but they both quickly realized the difference between the veterans who take this test year after year but keep failing to pass, and the rookies who have come here for the first time or have only taken the exam a few times. The veteran participants were tight lipped and refused to divulge much information about themselves or their knowledge about their experiences in previous exams, while the rookies were quite open to talking and trading information to try and be on a more equal footing with the other examinees, but the good information was only held by those veterans who refuse to open up, so it's not like any useful information was being passed around among the rookies.

[I'm getting bored, perhaps it's not always best to show up early to events or exams, as you might just end up wasting all your mental fortitude on enduring the boring atmosphere]: soren

Seeing as there was no use in trying to gather useful information as he already knows what will happen due to his past life's memories, Soren decided to just wander around aimlessly to pass time, and as the underground room began to grow more and more crowded, Soren took notice of a familiar group of people getting off the elevator.

'Looks like the show's just about to get good, quite literally': soren

Soren watched as the familiar trio took their badges from Beans and pinned them to their chests. There was a tall man with short spiky black hair with budding facial hair and a pair of glasses, wearing a blue business suit while holding a black briefcase, and a shorter young teenager with shoulder length blonde hair and grayish brown eyes, he wore a blue tabard with orange hem and décor, while underneath he wore a white training suit. The third member of the small group was a young boy around the age of twelve with medium length spiky black hair with green highlights, he had brown eyes and wore a long sleeve green jacket with red edging and a similar pair of short green shorts, and a green pair of boots that went half way up his shin, and on his back he wore a tan backpack with red and yellow accents and had a flexible metal fishing pole with a red bobber holstered to its side.

'I wonder if their personalities are the same as in the anime… You never know what can change when fiction becomes a reality': soren

As Soren turned his gaze away from the trio, he noticed Killua performing small tricks on his skateboard to pass the time, while in the other direction he noticed Tonpa making his rounds with his poisoned drinks as he inched closer to the group made up of Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio, the same group of people who had just entered the venue, and just in time for Beans to make an announcement.

[The Hunter Exam Applications have now officially closed, the exam will begin shortly]: beans

Just as Beans made his announcement, the wall opposite of the elevator began to shake and rumble before it began lifting into the air to reveal a freakishly tall man with tin and lean limbs. He wore a dark purple dress suit, almost black in color with a red tie to go well with his contrasting lavender colored hair and curly black mustache that seemed to act in place of his missing mouth.

[Welcome, everyone, my name is Satotz, and I am the examiner that will lead you to the second part of the examination, and your job is to follow me there, but before we start, there are a total of 406 applicants, and I would like to offer the chance to drop out now]: satotz

After a moment of silence, the man known as Satotz cleared his throat as his mustache began to wiggle and move as his voice filled the room.

[Okay!... To the 405 applicants who have decided to continue, please follow me to the next exam site!]: satotz

As Satotz turned around and began his slow march-like walk in complete silence, everyone began to follow after him while Soren began to think about the person who decided to leave before the exam even properly began.

'The poor sod probably drank Tonpa's juice and was feeling the disturbance in the force and decided to bail out now before his bowels decided to bail out later and leave him in a shitty mess': soren

As Soren chuckled to himself, he noticed Killua making his way over to him as his face seemed to show a look of dissatisfaction as Soren could tell he was about to hear his complaints.

[Ren, I thought you said this was going to be fun… It's been nothing but boring up until now]: killua

Soren could only sigh as he felt the same, but he knew this was only the start, as he knew the exam had to start easy and solely ramp up the difficulty, otherwise tons applicants would drop out of the early stages, while even more would drop out of the later stages leaving the applicants slim pickings or even having no passing candidate for that year.

[I feel you, but you have to understand, if they start off difficult, then the participants would have to exhaust themselves more to pass leaving little energy for the later stages, so they are building up the difficulty to test people's endurance and build stamina, at least that's my opinion… Don't worry, it should get harder later]: soren

Killua agreed with the logic, but he still didn't like the boredom they were putting him through, he felt he got enough of that at home, otherwise, why else would he have agreed to leave the house for this. Just as Killua was lamenting his choice to come along, he noticed everyone's pace begin to increase from a walk into a jog, and soon it went from a jog to a run, as Killua decided to use his skateboard to enjoy the chase of the mustache man who this entire time has kept the same slow paced marching stride as his arms swing back and forth and his legs extent out, but his speed continued to increase.

'Satotz is most definitely using his Nen ability, but what exactly is it?... Is it a speed type ability, or is it a small movement teleportation ability?': soren

Although Soren was thinking along the lines of speed or instantaneous movement abilities, Satotz was actually using illusions to trick everyone, and in fact, Satotz was never there in the first place, and was having everyone follow a clone of his. (A/N: There is nothing about his nen ability, but he seems like a capable ninja type character, and his personality is a bit mysterious to me, so I think his nen ability relates to illusion work or subterfuge, but I could also be wrong, I just think to cause the examinees to go into a full on sprint while not changing his posture is weird and has to be done through his nen ability)

[Hey Ren, look, some people are starting to drop to the ground in exhaustion… I guess running wasn't a daily activity for them]: killua

Killua pointed out the fact that some of the older or more unhealthy participants began to slow down and keel over in exhaustion, while some even just decided to turn back to go back to the elevator as they had given up.

[Yeah, such a shame, really… They thought becoming a Hunter was going to be easy? Then hopefully this was a wake up call for them]: soren

Killua nodded in agreement as he began to skate by others while shouting back towards Soren, urging him to come closer to the front with him.

[Hey, let's go see what's going on towards the front of the group… The stronger guys must be up there]: killua

Soren nodded, and as they passed by a man in a blue business suit holding a black briefcase, they could hear him shouting from behind, as Soren knew where this was going and only showed a slight smile as they turned their attention to the man followed by his two friends.

[Hey, you with the white hair!... You can't ride a skateboard, that's cheating!]: leorio

Upon seeing Leorio's angered expression as he was seeming a bit exhausted as the sweat dripped down his forehead, Killua could only sigh as he acknowledged the man's presence with a single sentence.

[Cheating?... What are you talking about?]: killua

Seeing as Killua was trying to deny his use of a skateboard as cheating, Leorio began to get more worked up as he felt the need to explain how it was unfair to the others, and thus was cheating.

[You know what I'm talking about!... You're using a skateboard while everyone else is running… That's obviously cheating!]: leorio

Just as Killua was about to rebuke his statement, the voice of the youngest member of the group of three spoke up in Killua's defense.

[No it's not, Leorio… Mr. Satotz only said to follow him, he never said we had to do it on foot]: gon

Hearing that his friend was against him on this, Leorio couldn't help but feel frustrated as he blamed his friend instead.

[Not helping, Gon… Whose side are you on!?]: leorio

Gon could only respond in pure innocence as he was raised to be an honest and upstanding kid who abides by the rules.

[I'm not on anyone's side, I'm just saying he didn't break any of the rules set by the examiner]: gon

Gon's words got a slight nod from the blonde teen named Kurapika who continued to keep quiet and save his stamina while Soren only watched while keeping a distant pace, as this was Killua's moment to make another friend, now he only had to take it, and take it he did as he tilted his head before smiling, and then he performed a move where he stomped the tail of the board, launching it into the air as it rotated like a helicopter blade before landing in his grasp as he tucked it into his armpit and began running beside Gon and started introducing himself.

[Hey, how old are you?]: killua

Killua began by asking for Gon's age, which Gon didn't seem to mind telling him, as he was too innocent to understand concepts like personal information privacy.

[I'm 12, what about you?]: gon

[Haha, same… My brother and I turned 12 just recently… My name's Killua, and that guy over there is my brother, Soren… What's your name?]: killua

Although Killua knew his name due to Leorio using it earlier, he asked for the sake of formalities, rather than to assume Gon was okay with him knowing his name and using it openly. When Gon saw this, he began to smile, and when he looked over to where Killua pointed and saw Soren, his mouth dropped as he began to look back and forth between Killua and Soren before speaking his mind innocently.

[Woah!... He looks just like you, but with a different hair color!... Also, my name's Gon, and these are my friends, Leorio, and Kurapika… You met Leorio already]: gon

Gon introduced himself along with his two friends to Killua who gave each of them a nodding smile while in turn Kurapika gave him a nod, while Leorio seemed to grow a little frustrated with Gon giving out information that's not his to strangers. After seeing the atmosphere begin settling as they ran and chatted, Soren began to include himself as he introduced himself to the group to give them an impression of himself.

[So, as you heard from my brother here, my name's Soren, but I allow my friends to call me Ren… You guys seem interesting enough, so you can refer to me as Ren from now on]: soren

Seeing Soren go in for the kill, and by kill it meant snatching a new friend, Killua quickly began to butt into the conversation as he began to complain to Soren.

[Ren, why are you trying to steal my new friend!?]: killua

Seeing his brother act out like that, Soren began to chuckle as he cleared the misunderstanding.

[Calm down, Kill… We can all be friend here, there are no rules saying you can only have one friend…]: soren

When Killua heard this, he released a sigh of relief, but was quickly taken by surprise with Soren's follow up sentence.

[But it is a rule that you can only have one best friend, so we'll have to race to see who can take that spot, right, Kill?]: soren

Killua was beginning to feel flustered as he wanted to argue with Soren, but Gon's awkward laughter broke the tension as he spoke to try and calm the situation.

[No, no… I look at friendships differently than others, I like the idea of having multiple friends that I can consider my best of fiends, so you guys don't need to fight for a spot that doesn't exist with me]: gon (A/N: I think I made Gon sound a little too smart in this sentence, but I don't like the headstrong and stupid Gon from the show, even though that's what most Enhancers personalities are like)

After the budding argument was defused, Gon's attention was grabbed as he noticed Leorio was falling behind before he completely collapsed huffing in exhaustion, and upon seeing this, Gon stopped running and began to look back at Leorio while Kurapika stopped as well and looked to Gon.

[What are you doing? The crowds moving ahead]: kurapika

Seeing Kurapika's motivation to not want to fall too far behind, Gon told him to go on ahead, which Kurapika did while telling him not to take too long, leaving Soren and Killua as the only other group to come to a complete stop as Killua turned to Soren for an explanation.

[Why do you think he stopped?]: killua

Soren rolled his eyes at his brother's complete lack of care for others, as he had only just become friends with Gon, and due to his interaction with Leorio, he didn't really have a good impression of him, so he felt Gon couldn't be waiting for him, or at least he wouldn't have waited for Leorio.

[I think he's waiting for his friend… You have to remember, if you got a friend that is willing to abandon their goal to wait for you to stand back up and keep fighting, that's a friend who you can trust with your life… That's a friend who you should be willing to give your life for, or at least that's how I see it]: soren

Hearing Soren's sage-like words, Killua nodded in agreement as he waited silently for Gon to either continue running, or give up the exam, and he didn't have to wait long, as the answer was seen through Leorio's actions.