A Death Penalty

Phase 3

"The judge?" I questioned aloud.

"Hoho, it seem you're the first one into the tower. Your route is "the judge". X is guilty, O is not guilty. Choose your answers carefully and reach the bottom of the tower before the 72 hours are up. That is all." A voice said on what sounded like an intercom. A door opened infront of me, leading to a tunnel. "The Judge" what a fitting route. I suppose I already was an executioner of sorts.

My first "trail" seemed to be a simple court case. One man was guilty of arsen, one was not. The "guilty" would stay in the tower and the "not guilty" would be set free. In the end I labled them accordingly, only to find out that if I labeled them wrong, they would both die. The rest of the route went smoothly, with me only choosing wrong once.

"Which is worthy of death, and which is not?" Was the question. It didn't ask if one was guilty or not and that was strange. All the trials before this had been rather simple. Guilty or not guilty. This time, A man and a woman sat before me. Their whole bodies were covered in rags so I really didn't have any visual clues about them.

"What have you done?" I asked both of them.

"I drowned my husband, and then my son, and then my mother, and then my sister. All in my home, two years apart." The woman said.

"I killed 45 mothers and 105 children." The man said.

I remained silent for a while. Despicable acts indeed. How am I to chose only one?

"Why?"

"They begged me to." Said the woman.

"I wondered what they would look like, all dressed up in red." Said the man.

I stepped down down my pew and walked in front of them. Then I cut their heads off and tossed them down the void to either side. Their necks spewed blood everywhere until I kicked their bodies over the edges as well. A loud buzzer noise echoed through the room.

"Wrong choice. Both were sentenced to death. Please proceed." Gaint door opened in front of me. I walked through them and into a room with only one other person. I suppose even if I chose wrong, I passed?

"#45 is the second to pass. Time elapsed: 7 hours and 46 minutes."

"Ah~ Bell-chan~ finished so early?" He giggled. He looked me up and down.

"Oh? Did you have some fun?" He asked when he smelled the blood on my coat. It was hard to see because my coat was black, but the blood was fresh and potent.

"No. This exam is boring and this tower is only filled with filth." I grumbled sitting next to my door. My stomach was growling and that last pair made me mad.

"Oh, someone's grumpy." He pouted. Nosey magician. Why is he talking to me? I don't even like him.

"Yeah, I was woken up too early and I haven't had anything to eat all day!" I shouted. I huffed and looked away, slightly embarrassed at my outburst. He threw something at me. I caught it and looked it over. It was a protein bar. I muttered a thank you and devoured it. I was slightly more satisfied now, and still tired. I looked up longingly, remembering how Chrollo would let my lay on him and sleep whenever I was tired. He would comb through my hair or read one of his boring old books out loud to make me fall asleep. I missed him, and the rest of the troupe. I looked over at hisoka. Wether I liked it or not, he was a member of the troupe too now. I should try to be a bit nicer.

"Come here." He said, patting the ground next to him and opening his arms. As much as I detested him sometimes, I really needed a pillow. I sat down next and laid my head on his lap. It took a little getting used to, but I eventually fell asleep.

"Chrollo~ take me with you!" I said, chasing after him. I was laughing and trying to catch up, but he just got further and further. My laughter stopped, and my fear took over. "C-chrollo? Hey, wait up!" I shouted, desperately trying to reach him. He continued to walk forward, like I didn't exist. Chains came out of nowhere and wrapped around his body, squeezing until they cut through his flesh. My eyes widened in horror. His body disappeared and I heard something rolling across the floor. It stopped at my feet. I looked down and saw a pair of bloodied scarlet eyes. I screamed in fear and despair, crumbling to my knees. I hid my face in my hands, afriad to see anymore. I felt something crawling up my leg, so I only took a peak. It was a spider. It sat there on my leg, not moving. Until it's legs began to fall off, one by one. I quickly turned away out of fear.

"Haha! I'm first!" I heard someone shout. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Whoever it is is too noisy. I felt hisoka start to get mad. I put my hand on his knee, which basically told him to chill out. "He didn't wake me up." I told him. "Good." He said.

"I'm fourth?" The guy groaned. He looked like a ninja... But a weird one. I looked over and saw another applicant. Gittarakur? He had a familar aura though. I'd definitely met him before the exam. "You woke up with quite a start." Hisoka noted. I nodded. "It was a nightmare, about the troupe. I don't know what it means though." I said, mumbling a bit. "Oh? Tell me.

"If I'm going to tell anyone, I'm going to tell Danchou first." I huffed. He sighed, then offered his cards.

"Sure, but I get to choose this time." I said sternly. He grinned. I gave him back his queen of hearts and he shuffled his deck.

"I choose slapjack." I said, grinning. He sighed again. I knew he didn't like slapjack, it was too boring for him. That's exactly why I chose it. He dealt the cards and the game began. "Best two out of three." He said, putting his card down first. I put mine down next. Back and forth back and forth. The first round I won. Our hands were already red. The second round was a bit more competitive. We almost broke each others hands. Hisoka won that round. On the third round, I picked up the pace in the middle, throwing him off and giving me the last jack I needed to win.

"Haha! I win!" I cheered. "Now for my prize. Who is that really?" I asked, pointing at gittarakur. "Oh him? My dear friend Illumi. I don't believe you've met yet." Hisoka answered, shuffling the cards a few times.

"Illumi...... Illumi zoldyk? I remember him. He had a job to kill me. We were pretty evenly matched at the time, but I had more experience and was coming close to finishing him off. Turns out his father got a job to kill Illumi's client. Since his client had died, there was no reason to fight me any more, and he went back home." I laughed a little bit a the silliness of the situation. We were in the middle of a standoff, preparing our final moves, when illumi's phone rang. He answered, only for his client's butler to tell him the client died. We both just stood there for a bit until Illumi ended the call and walked away.

I remember when I got home Uvogin and nobunga were pretty pissed someone had tried to kill me, but I simply said it was fun and left it at that. The zoldycks had already killed a member before, so danchou wasn't happy they tried again. It was sweet that they cared so much.

"Oh? Well I'm glad you can meet again on better terms." Hisoka said dealing cards. I nodded. "What are we playing?" I asked. "Go fish." He said. I cheered. It was one of my favorites. So far, the card games might've been the most fun out of the entire exam!

"Do you have...... An 8?"

"Go fish~"

"Gimme the 8."

"...."

"That's what I thought."

"Do you have a king?"

"Go fish."

"Not what I meant dearie~"

"Go. Fish."