A Lily Among Blades

Chapter 1

"Killua! You baka!" I called out. The white-haired boy merely smirked at me and kept running.

"Killua, get back here!" He finally turned and stopped. Killua then caught me by the shoulders before I could fall over. I blushed, my hands planted on his chest.

"Who's the baka now?" Killua said, smiling mischievously.

"Oh, you! Just give me my book back!" I cried out. He tugged on my braid, causing hair to escape from the tight hairstyle. I frowned.

"C'mon, Lily, you've been reading all day! Spend some time with me!" he whined.

"Fine, fine. What do you want to do?" I asked. He was right, I had been reading all day.

"Yes! Let's explore the woods today! There's a cool place you haven't seen yet that I just discovered." I nodded.

Ten minutes later and we were trekking our way to the usual campsite. It was a small grassy clearing where we set up a treehouse. It was pretty big for a treehouse and really high up. There was a system of pulleys and platforms to take you to the top, but that was for visitors. Consequently, since we never had visitors, it was never used. I'm not really sure why we set it up in the first place.

We jumped up using branches as steps and landed on the main platform.

"Okay! What is it that you wanted to show me?" I asked. We had to be quick because Killua had to get home or his brother would come looking for him.

"Well..." he fidgeted nervously. "Maybe I'll show you tomorrow..."

"Oh, come on! We're already up here!" I exclaimed. Killua looked up, prompting me to as well.

"Shoot. It's already time for me to leave."

I realized he was right. It was far later than we'd thought. I sighed.

"Okay. Go. I'll not have you get in trouble for staying out too late and not be able to show me whatever you wanted to show me," I said. "Promise me?"

Killua nodded, smiling apologetically. Then he disappeared into the trees, leaving me with the sunset and fading chirps of birds. Solitude.

"Lily! Lily! Wake up! We're leaving!" Killua shouted through the treehouse. I groggily opened my eyes to see a silver-haired assassin standing over me.

I rolled out of my warm nest of blankets I called a bed. Oh, so not a morning person.

"If you don't have caffeine for me, I refuse."

Killua scoffed. "Of course. But you have to get it on the way because we really need to leave now!"

That made me perk up a bit. Normally Kil is very patient with my morning self. 

"Where are we going? And for how long?" I asked. Then swore as I tripped over my own feet. Once again, Killua caught me.

"The Hunter's Exam and I have no idea! But we're never coming back!" he exclaimed.

Oh, God, what did he do? The only reason he could've escaped means he probably stabbed someone. The thought made me move much quicker. Kil left to give me privacy and I speedily changed and packed. Who would be sent after us? I dreaded finding out.

Not two minutes later, we were off, Killua with his skateboard and me with my ripstick.

It took us a while but we finally got down to the exam site. The retrieval party was suspiciously nonexistent, but I'm taking what I can.

I was given tag 98, Killua was 99.

"Please don't lose these! Happy Hunting!" said a small bean man. I pinned the tag to my hoodie. I kept the hood pulled down low over my face, hiding my features and braid. Girls were generally looked down upon when taking tests like this. Luckily I didn't have much else to hide. The cavern... tunnel? was packed with people. It was loud enough, but the other applicants were eyeing each other. Clearly, there was no trust.

We moved on, weaving through the crowd. Or at least we tried to before we were blocked by a fat man holding two drinks. He had a grin on his face as he began to talk.

"Hey, boys! I'm Tonpa. I can see you're new here. First time?" he said. I glanced at Killua out of the corner of my eye, letting him take the lead.

"Yeah, we are. But if you can tell we're new, how many times have you been here?" Kil asked.

"Oh," Tonpa waved his hand as if dismissing the question. "I've done this exam thirty-five times already, so you can ask me anything you need to."

I snickered to myself. Thirty-five times? Loser. That just means you can't pass!

"How about a drink?" The 'veteran' offered. "In hopes that we all pass this year!"

Tonpa handed us each a drink and pulled out another one for himself. Kil popped the tab and downed his in a few seconds. I stuck mine in my bag. 

"I'll have mine later," I said quietly. "Not thirsty right now." Tonpa nodded and walked off calling, "Good luck!"

Killua and I looked at each other for a moment before laughing. "Thirty-five times? This guy has got to be kidding!"

"And there was something in the drink, wasn't there?" I asked, still grinning. 

"Yep. Probably a laxative or a minor poison, just to keep you out of the game," Killua responded. Kil and I had made a deal before we came, knowing people would try any underhand tactics to get rid of any competition. The other applicants probably had it out for rookies anyway. Killua would test anything they gave us because he's immune to poison among a variety of other things.

"Want mine?" I asked, pulling it out of my bag again. Kil nodded and I tossed it to him. Again, he chugged it down.

"Thirsty much?" I laughed. The other boy fake punched me in the arm.

We wandered around for a bit as people kept arriving. Eventually, we ended up on the piping around the walls of the room. It felt nice being high up, like back in the treehouse. Kil and I sat in comfortable silence, just looking out over the sea of people. It was oddly calming. I wondered about what we would do in the future. After the Exam, what would we do? Killua certainly won't go back to assassinating people. Right now, he looked peaceful. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. Slowly, I reached into my bag and pulled out my polaroid camera. Kil got it for me on one of his jobs. My thumb pressed down on the button and the camera clicked. 

"Kil, pose!" I said, holding it out to get a picture of both of us. It took a few seconds to click again and the polaroid slid out. I waited impatiently for it to develop. As it finally did, I laughed.

A crazy grin spread across my face while I leaned back into the white-haired boy behind me. I threw up a peace sign with my right hand. Kil had his hand sharpened and was holding it to my neck with an arrogant smirk.

Killua scooted closer to take a look while I dug in my bag for a pen. Turning back around, Kil was much closer than I expected. My face heated up, and I hoped he didn't notice. Ignoring it, I uncapped the pen and labeled the picture, 'First Phase of the Hunter Exam'.

This is going to be fun.