𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐙𝐄 | ʰˣʰ

chapter iv.

THEY'RE ALL morons.

People have fallen to their deaths on this Mt. Split-in-Half during this very redo of the Second Phase, and still more leap into the ravine.

A couple of applicants have already returned to the Hunter Association airship that brought you here, parked not too far behind the crowd.

This is likely the only point in the Exam where people are dropping out before trying their hardest—Perhaps it is plain, pathetic death right under their noses facing them for the first time, shedded any disguises it might've worn in the First Phase. Or maybe those guys just really fucking hate eggs.

But a majority of the applicants who have made it thus far are jumping in now.

They hang by their hands from the Spider Eagle webs strung across the ravine, including 44, Tonpa, and the other group of 4 that formed during the first Phase.

A shout, Gon's voice, reaches your ears from the webs: "Don't let go yet! Wait."

And up around you, there are people who stand back and watch. One man with a yellow ponytail, 255, who was punched into a tower by Buhara earlier, is one of these (Now he has bloodied tissues stuck up his nostrils). He looks on idly, resigned to an extent.

The rattling needle man who does not blink is another. He watches intently, or perhaps as intently as he can with that unmoving expression pinned onto his face.

And there is you, arms crossed and hands tucked comfortable into the crevices of your elbows—The afternoon sun is not enough to keep them from feeling the cold in the middle of January, especially not at this altitude.

You stand by the cliff's edge, 301 far to your right, ticking off numbers in your head. Counting.

Twenty-eight

Peering down your nose, you shift your weight from one leg to the other. In your periphery, a couple people decide amongst themselves not to trust Gon's say-so. They shift the burdens of their own weight from the Spider Eagle webs to gravity itself. They drop, snatch an egg off its cluster, and then, large egg still held in their hands, plunge out of sight.

Their screams follow them beneath the far fog below.

Hell if you'll jump down there without internalizing at least a couple of successful examples to go off of. Enhancing your physical ability with nen will hardly cushion a fall like that, and even if it did, how would you climb back up in time? You're not in danger of death, but you will not fail.

Twenty-nine

As if reading your mind, Chairman Netero of the Hunter's Association raises a mellow voice behind you to every applicant withdrawing: "To accept your limits is no shame. You're welcome to retake the Exam another time."

You spare him the smallest of glances over your shoulder at the words.

Thirty

He is looking right at you.

Before you have time to dwell on the fact that somehow he knows exactly who you are, your attention is drawn back to a shout compressed small by distance. Gon, apparently the leader of the web-hanger group in the ravine, yells, "Now!"

A hundred pairs of hands release the Spider Eagle's eggs to grab hold of their eggs instead and plunge downwards.

Soon after, whoosh brings with it an updraft and carries with it the egg-bearers back to high ground.

You restart your count.

One

Up close, the eggs are even larger than you imagined when seeing people snatch them off their clusters. Now that everyone still alive is back up, cheerful exclamations and loud voices fill the air.