"Hey... hey! Wake up!"
I frowned and grumbled, pulling my blankets over my head... only, there were no blankets. Huh? I groggily sat up and tried to rub the sleepiness out of my eyes. "What... who? Is someone there?" I murmured. I vaguely heard the sound of people speaking.
This... is my room, right? Is there someone else here? I blinked and glanced around. First of all, I was sitting on a dirt floor- definitely not in my bed. Second of all, I'm in some kind of sewer cave. It looked like a huge tunnel with big pipes lining the walls. Third of all, I'm surrounded by three people all talking to each other in hushed tones.
I blinked again. What is this? This must be some kind of lucid dream. I pinched my cheek- hard. "Ow- ow, ow, ow!" I yelped. Then I put my hand back down and stared at the men, dumbfounded. If this isn't a dream... then where am I? I covered my mouth in shock. Could it be that I'm being kidnapped?
"Who are you?" one of the men asked. He looked normal enough, and he had a white badge with the number two in black bold ink pinned onto his shirt. In fact, all the men had the same badges pinned onto their shirts, just with different numbers. Behind them, I could see a... green man? A very short, bald, green man in a suit.
...Ok...
"First, tell me where I am," I snapped back. Did these guys really kidnap me? I began to mentally freak out. "Hey, go easy on her. She's just a kid," the man with the number one said. Kid? He looked down at me and said, "We don't know how you got here. This is the meeting place for the hunter exam, and you were here before anyone else, even Mr. Beans here." The green guy tentatively raised his hand to let me know who he was.
I frowned. This is definitely a dream. But... hunter exam? I feel like I've heard of that before... ugh, it's on the tip of my tongue! "Now tell us who you are," the number two man said. Number one glared at him. "Uh... please," he added.
Hell no. I'm not telling these weirdo strangers my name. They could totally just look me up on the dark web or whatever and blackmail me or find out where I live.
So I can't tell them my real name, can I? If they know how to hack and do all that FBI stuff I see in movies, they could use my name against me... so what should I do? An alias? I don't really have another choice.
"U- um... my name is..." Come on, just think of a name! Suddenly, my mind went black, and I briefly lost all conscious thought. Aki Arata. My name is Aki Arata. "Aki Arata!" I blurted out, not thinking.
Who... what was that voice in my head? And it was almost like I couldn't even control myself when I said that name. Is that who I am? Aki Arata? I made a mental note to look into it later.
"Well, Aki-san, can you tell us how you got here?" Number three asked. I blinked. "I..." They all waited eagerly for an answer. "I have amnesia. I have no idea how I got here." It was partially true- I had absolutely no idea how I'd gotten here.
"...Amnesia?!"
"Isn't that serious?"
"Duh, she doesn't know who she is or how she even got here."
"Wait, how do we know she's not lying though?"
"You're right..."
"You think she's an orphan, or an abandoned child?"
"Nah, probably not. She looks healthy enough."
"She could be the kid of some bigshot! Maybe she just got lost."
"Wait, how do you know your name if you have amnesia?" one of them asked. I sweatdropped, scratching my head. "Uh... It's the only thing I remember..."
"Anyway, are you sure you don't know anything else about yourself?" I shook my head. "No, just my name. I'm kinda scared... I don't know who I am or how I got here..." I whimpered, putting on a fake act. Damn, I'm a pretty good liar.
"Shouldn't you take her to headquarters to look up her file or whatever you do there?" Number three asked Mr. Beans. He nodded and walked over to me. "Miss Arata, would you mind following me to the Hunter Association?" he asked. I hesitated.
"Actually... can I stay here and take the hunter exam?"