(A/N: thank you so much to all my readers and followers who have stuck with me from chapter 1😭🙏. I appreciate all your sweet comments💕. I never thought I'd get so many readers here. It's been months and months (maybe a year?) since I first started this fanfic. All you guys kept me motivated to write even though I usually keep my stories in drafts. I've gone back and edited some parts (mostly grammar problems and incorrect information) in the chapters too. In fact, I'm watching the episode where they start the fourth exam at Zevil Island to jog my memory and make sure I get the episode correct right now on Netflix😅. If you ever want to talk about anime with me (since I'm so obsessed with it) feel free to message me. I may have watched the same series as some of you, after all. Again, thank you, and without further ado, I present chapter 19.)
I took a deep breath, breathing in the cool air outside of Trick Tower. "It feels so good to finally breath fresh air again!" I exclaimed with a smile. "I agree. It's quite refreshing after being trapped in that tower for days," Kurapika said, crossing his arms.
"I still can't believe you out of all people got there first," Leorio muttered. "Right? I'm pretty amazing, aren't I?" I said smugly, placing my hands on my hips in front of him, to which he responded by sticking his tongue out rudely.
"You should've seen Killua! He defeated his opponent so easily," Leorio said, pointing at the white haired boy. "If only Aki had been in our group instead of Tonpa, it would've been much funner. And we would've saved a lot more time," Killua said with a sigh, placing his hands into his pockets.
"Aww, that's so cute, Killua baby missed me," I cooed playfully, clasping my hands together with a grin. Behind me, Kurapika and Leorio burst out laughing. "I- I did not!" he insisted, blushing lightly out of embarrassment. "Yes we did! Aki you should've been there! We had an awesome pillow fight," Gon exclaimed, eyes wide.
"You're as innocent and clueless as ever, Gon," I said with a sigh, patting his head. He smiled at me with a confused expression.
"Congratulations to all 26 applicants who made it here!" a short man with a purple mohawk said from the front of the small crowd, drawing all their attention to him. He must be the examiner. Um... what was it... Satotz, Menchi, Buhara, and... Lippo! His name was Lippo, I think.
(A/N: so remember the guy who died right after finishing the third phase? If you don't it's in episode 12 of the hunter exam but I made it so that he survived (with some injuries) so that there would be an even amount of applicants for the card drawing. Since originally all of the 25 applicants who passed had an opponent already, I had to even it out so that each of them with the addition of Aki had one opponent.)
"There are two more phases left in the exam. The fourth will take place on that island behind me- Zevil Island," he explained, pointing towards a large island a little far-off into the ocean.
He snapped his fingers, and a man rolled over a silver cart with a strange looking box on top. An image flashed through my mind of a hand drawing out a white card from it. Is that what it is? A card drawing lot?
"Inside here there are 26 cards. They will decide who you're hunting and who will be hunted," Lippo explained. The applicants began to whisper amongst themselves, confused. "Hunting?" Kurapika murmured, eyes narrowed.
"Each of you will draw a card from here, starting from whoever passed first to last in Trick Tower. Now, who was first?"
Hesitantly, I walked up to the box, standing in front of it. "Now draw a card," Lippo said, hands behind his back with a grin. I reached inside, pulling out one of the cards. One side was white with the other side red.
Weird... And I don't remember anything yet from this scene either, I thought as I walked back to Gon. Illumi walked up next, followed by Hisoka, Hanzo, etc.
"Killua, Aki... by hunting, do you think he means that we'll be fighting each other?" Gon asked. "Probably, yeah," Killua said, hands behind his head. He then walked up to the box, pulling out his own card.
Gon mentioning fighting each other sparkled something in my memory- about the applicants fighting each other. And these cards had the applicants number we were supposed to find, I think. I gulped, staring down at my sealed card.
I hope I hadn't picked a card that Gon or Leorio originally had, because I'm pretty sure those had led to relevant scenes in the show, and I didn't remember Killua or Kurapika's.
All I could do was pray that I hadn't gotten those four- or any particularity powerful opponents like Illumi or Hanzo.