Exam Start!

Once Kusana had landed, the magical beast led him to the place where the exam started. Kusana could have sworn it was the tallest building in town, but no, it wasn't.

Instead, the Hunter's Exam took place inside a small restaurant right next to it. When they had entered, there were a few people eating at the tables and the sound of cooking in the back.

"Can I get a steak combo." The disguised beast said. The person cooking in the open kitchen perked up.

"Grilled or broiled?"

"Grilled… Over low flame."

A bit of time passed, and the two entered an elevator. In the middle of the elevator was a big table with a built-in grill with a steak on top of it. The table has one chair in front of it.

"One in ten thousand." The disguised man at the other side of the room said while Kusana waited.

"The odds you'd get this far. Not bad for your first run at the exam. Good luck, and look me up next year." The fox-faced man left the elevator and turned the knob next to it. Kusana felt that the elevator was going down.

Kusana silently ate the steak on his way down the elevator. Eventually, he finished the steak, and soon after, the elevator finally reached the bottom of the building. It was very quiet with only the sizzling of the steak and the gentle hum of the elevator to accompany him.

The door to the elevator opened on the basement floor 100. As soon as he stepped out, there was a loud chatter in the room and he was immediately met with a large crowd.

The large crowd wasn't crowding around the elevator, it was that there was a lack of space inside of it. But, instead of it being a big underground room, it was a large tunnel that spanned farther than the eye could see, so why was it so crowded?

People stared at Kusana as he brushed through the crowd, trying to get to where he thought was the front of the room. People of various backgrounds were in this large crowd. Eventually, he was met with a guy whose head was shaped like a bean.

"Hello! I'm Mr. Bean and this is your badge. Please do not lose it." The small man handed Kusana a large circle with a pin on the back. On the front it had the number 403. Kusana gave him a quick thank you before continuing to push through the crowd.

A guy with straight brown hair and a yellow and green gi on greeted Kusana with a bag on his side. "Hey, you! My name's Tonpa, what's your-" Kusana coldly pushed past him. He could tell that he was trying to be friendly for malicious reasons.

Kusana reached the front of the crowd, but there was a big "DO NOT CROSS" line. All of the people at the edge seemed like they knew a thing or two, so Kusana didn't dare cross the line.

A few more minutes passed while Kusana stood there before a loud bell rang across the entire crowd. Everyone looked to the source of the sound and saw a man in a business suit and parted blue hair with a black curly mustache standing on one of the thick wires running along the wall.

The man stopped the head-themed alarm before saying, "As of now, registration is closed. The hunter exam will now begin. Everyone ready? Good."

The examiner suddenly leaped over the crowd, landing over the stopping line. He neatly presented the rest of the passageway, saying, "This way, please."

He began walking at a slow pace, with the crowd following behind. "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."

No one dared to speak a word after he said that. They had already come this far, and now there was no turning back. "Still with me? Good. You 405 applicants may enter the first phase."

"Wait a minute…" Kusana muttered. Other applicants at the front of the pack also began to realize something. The examiner was speeding up, but somehow it still looked like he was walking. Everyone had to burst into a light jog to match his speed.

"I am Satotz, the examiner for the first phase of the exam, as well as the guide to the second phase." Kusana could easily infer that this "jog" was the first phase, but someone still asked the question as to what the first phase was.

Kusana was running quite fast to keep up with the pace of the rest of the group. Being in the front meant you had to be slightly faster than everyone else. He obviously didn't expend his energy willy-nilly, because that would make him fall.

During his time in the forest, Kusana had to adopt a certain running technique to expend the least amount of energy and to move the fastest. It was an old theory about running that, before, he never had time to test out.

Essentially, he would "recycle" the energy of his stepping. Energy is expended when the impact of stepping moves the bones in his feet, so instead, he lets his heel hit the ground for a brief moment.

The stepping force is then redirected to the toes, where he is able to push off the ground harder. The style of running took an extreme amount of focus and control, which was what made the run seem short.

So, because of that, he was able to run at extreme speeds while using up the least amount of energy. He was barely able to keep up with Satotz's ever-increasing speed.

Eventually, the group reached a point where there were stairs leading up to some point in the tunnel. Kusana was having a hard time trying to keep up his speed, but two kids came up to him.

One was recognizable from the journey on the ship, Gon Freecss. The second was unfamiliar to Kusana, a pale skinned kid with white hair and blue eyes. He wore a white t-shirt with a black undershirt.

"Hey, aren't you Kusana? Like from the ship?" Gon yelled out as he caught up to Kusana. He nodded as to not disrupt his focus, but his hair sashayed in the wind created by his speed.

"Yo, I'm Killua." The other boy said. He gave off an aura of deadliness barely obscured by his kid-like physique and childish personality. It looked like he barely broke a sweat in the multiple hours that the group had been running.

Kusana began to slow down a lot more as they saw the opening at the top of the tunnel. He nearly collapsed at the top and began rapidly inhaling, opening his eyes to the widespread wetlands not too far from him.

(I have recently posted a new Naruto fanfiction called "Every Man Has His Karma" so go check it out. Now.)