Vermilion Tears [Kurapika x Kurta!Reader]

[11] Madder Disquiet

Gathered in the lobby of a hotel, apparently owned by the Hunter Association, were the ten of you whom had passed the fourth phase. Waiting for the fifth and final phase to be revealed, the silence was tense as you all waited. Finally, after a few stiff moments of disquiet, a covered board was rolled out, and Chairman Netero began to speak.

"For the final phase, we'll be having a one-on-one tournament."

Revealing the board, but not the names at the bottom, you furrowed your eyebrows but opted to not say anything. To have only one person become a hunter in a bracket-style tournament... You clenched your fists.

"Only one person is going to pass?" That came from a perplexed Hanzo.

"No," Chairman Netero said. "One win is all you need to pass. The winners will be removed from the competition, while the losers move up. In other words, the person who finishes at the top will not pass.

"Here is the bracket."

Revealing the bracket, you clenched your teeth in frustration. Great, you'd be going up against either Kurapika or Hisoka, neither of them who you wanted to fight at all. And if you lost against either of them, you'd be going up against that old man, Bodoro, and if you lost against him, Leorio, and if you lost against him...

You'd be out.

Taking a deep breath, you calmed yourself down. It wouldn't come to that - you had no intentions of losing. Not when you had gotten this far.

"This bracket isn't very balanced," you pointed out, and Chairman Netero nodded.

"Yes, this bracket was based on your performances throughout the entire exam. Those who performed better get more chances."

Looking at your placement, you sighed in relief. Apparently you had made a good impression, considering you had four chances, compared to Leorio's and Gittarackur's measly two chances.

Killua, on the other hand, was pretty irritated. "That makes no sense. Can you explain how you scored our performances?" You looked at his placement in the bracket to see that he only had three chances.

". . ."

Everybody was silent, waiting for Chairman Netero, before he shouted at the top of his lungs, making you jolt. "NO! The scores are strictly confidential, so I can't tell you everything, but I can explain our methods. We consider three major criteria: physical strength, mental strength, and overall impression."

Chairman Netero explained the ways they scored, and you couldn't help but be a bit surprised at how well you had scored in the end. You hadn't even wanted to be here in the first place, so to rank better than some was shocking. And even more shocking... You grit your teeth. Hisoka had ranked better than you. Hisoka! How was his overall impression better?!

Finally moving on to the rules of the matches, it was explained that weapons were allowed, but cheating and killing were not. Killing an opponent means immediate disqualification, and you felt a bit bummed that you wouldn't be able to disintegrate a hole in Hisoka. You weren't an aggressive person by any means, but Hisoka had really managed to piss you off recently in light of all of this.

Everybody backing up, you gave Gon a reassuring smile as he prepared for his fight against Hanzo, the first match of the final phase. You hadn't really paid much attention to the self-proclaimed ninja, but you were decent at gauging strength. He was strong, but so was Gon - was it even, though? You couldn't tell who might win in this match-up. Normally, you'd say Hanzo, but, well... Gon was just full of surprises and innovative thinking that you couldn't say for sure.