A Lily Among Blades

Chapter 2

Kil and I stayed up on the piping for a while longer. After a bit, I noticed three people walking in. One was blonde, wearing a red and blue tabard with a satchel across one shoulder. The one in the middle was about Kil and I's age and wearing a green jacket, shorts, and boots. He had a backpack on with a fishing rod sticking out. The last one on the right was much taller, wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase. He looked like an old man.

Tonpa approached them, doing the same as he did to Kil and me. They talked for a bit before a scream rang out.

Both Killua and I were on high alert, looking for the cause. A man was kneeling on the floor, his arms slowly turning to flower petals. There was another tall man, dressed between a clown and a magician. He looked like he was talking, but I couldn't hear what he was saying over the man's screams. Eventually, it was finished and I turned my head away. The chatter built up again, but everybody avoided the magician clown like he had the plague. 

"C'mon," Kil said. "I'm thirsty again."

"Already? You drank mine too," I said. Killua nodded and I gave in. We hopped down and found Tonpa. He was shocked, to say the least. It was really funny to see his reaction. I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing. Once he was gone, Kil and I did start laughing.

A rumbling startled us out of it. The wall at the far end of the room began to rise, revealing a long tunnel and a very tall man in a suit. He had purple hair and a small mustache. The most interesting thing was that he... had no mouth?

"The FitnessGram™ Pacer Test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues."               (A/N I had to, sorry not sorry)

.... What?

"Apologies," he said. "Force of habit. My name it Satotz and I'll be leading you through the first Phase of the Hunter's Exam. Please follow me."

He turned and started walking. It was really weird, like he was a doll without knee or elbow joints.

I hopped on my rip-stick, Killua on his skateboard, and we were off. It started out slowly walking, then jogging, then everyone was running behind Satotz who was still walking very oddly. Not long after, the old man started yelling at us to 'have respect for the Hunter's Exam!'

"That's cheating!" he yelled.

"On the contrary. It's an endurance test, but he never said we couldn't use our skateboards. Besides, why do you care?" I retorted as snarky as possible. The old guy grumbled and the blonde boy laughed. He looked nice. The kid with green hair smiled and said, "I'm Gon! This is Kurapika and Leorio." He gestured to the old man and blondie in turn.

"I'm Killua. This is Lily." I nodded to Gon and Kurapika, ignoring Leorio just to bother him.

"Ugh," I groaned. "I have a crick in my neck now. I'm gonna run."

I hooked my back foot under the center of the board, leaned forward, and kicked my feet up.

"This is always fun to watch," I heard Kil say. The other three cried out as I 'fell'. But I knew what I was doing. I practiced this one for ages, trying to upstage Killua. I planted my hands on the ground and straightened my arms, propelling myself up and over, the rip-stick in the air. Landing lightly, I caught the board and started running.

Killua did a kickflip and caught his own skateboard, eliciting a "Whoaa!" from Gon. Gon then asked why we were taking the exam. But before we could answer, Leorio butted in.

"Why is this test so dang long!?" he groaned.

"It's an endurance test. We've been over this, dude," I said.