The Otonari's Last (Hunter X Hunter Fanfic) [Indefinite Hiatus]

II - the First Phase

The man abruptly turns away from us and begins walking into the seemingly never ending tunnel. I share a glance with the boys before following all of the other participants.

After speeding up a little, the man speaks again, "I failed to introduce myself. I am Satotz, the Phase One examiner. I shall lead you to the exam's Second Phase."

"Second Phase?" someone near the front queries. "What about Phase One?"

"It has already commenced," Satotz responds simply. "You must follow me to Phase Two. This is the exam's First Phase."

"Follow you? That's it?"

"Yes," Satotz agrees. "I cannot tell you where or when you must arrive. You just need to follow me."

"I see how it is," Kurapika murmurs, keeping a steady pace.

"What a weird test," Gon adds.

"So it's just an endurance test," Leorio notes. "Fine by me. I'll be right behind you!"

I shake my head as we continue to jog after the lanky examiner. There's the mental strain of not knowing how long to run for, as well. A slower pace would be best for this kind of test, but Satotz isn't giving us much of a choice, so...

I flip my headphones onto my ears, flipping my wrist face-up to access my music. As a familiar tune plays, I focus on maintaining a constant speed and regulating my breathing. Time begins to pass faster and when I look at the time on my watch, two hours had already passed. Then three. The next time I check marks four hours.

Kurapika and I keep pace relatively easily, already passing people that are beginning to slow. It seems that he caught on to the test's purpose too, as he's keeping a steady speed - only speeding up when the people in front of us, and assumedly Satotz, do. I glance around, noticing that we lost Gon and Leorio at some point. My eyebrows furrow worriedly, but my focus returns to running when the people ahead speed up a notch.

A lengthy staircase comes into view a few minutes later and Satotz begins running up it. I groan lightly under my breath - I hate walking up stairs, forget running. Then Satotz decides to pick up the pace again. I let out a huff, carefully tying my hair back in a bun while running.

Might as well get somewhat comfortable; who knows how long we'll have to keep going?

After my go-to playlist plays all the way through twice, I notice a white light at the end of the tunnel.

Finally, I groan in my head. It's over. That or I'm dying from exhaustion.

We reach the end of the staircase soon after that. I pant lightly when we reach the top, pulling my headphones down around my neck. Looking around, I notice Gon standing off to the side with the white-haired boy from earlier. I make my way over to them.

"Hey, Gon," I greet. "Glad to see you made it. Any sign of Leorio and Kurapika?"

"No, I haven't seen them since we split up," he answers. I gesture to the boy beside him.

"I'm Ara," I introduce, giving him a nod. "What's your name, kid?"

"Killua. Aren't you the girl that was watching me while we were waiting?" I nod again.

"Yeah, I noticed you drank Tonpa's juice and it intrigued me."

"You knew something was up with it?" he asks, slightly surprised.

"Ara knew something was wrong just by looking at it!" Gon exclaims excitedly. "She told us!" Killua gives me a look as I ruffle Gon's hair teasingly.