The Only One

The Airship

On the airship, all the remaining contestants were led into a large room that was easily able to fit the thirty or so people. Netero went up to the front, and Killua inspected him carefully. When he was distracted by the exam, he was not able to put much thought into it, but now he had a perfect chance to analyze this interesting phenomenon standing in front of him. The old man was barely exuding any aura. And even the amount that was leaking out was so minuscule that only now when Killua was relatively close to Netero, he was able to feel the steely air surrounding him. Yet all Killuas' instincts screamed that this man was dangerous, incredibly so. And he was trained to trust in his instincts. This means that either aura has nothing to do with strength (which is quite frankly ridiculous and has about one percent chance of being true) or Netero was able to hide his aura somehow (which was most likely). For now, Killua was going with the second option since it made the most sense and didn't break his world view. The question now is: could Killua do it too? Killua is able to control his aura to a certain extent, which wasn't much in his opinion since most of his results came from trial and error, but...

Before Killua could think anymore on that topic, Netero started speaking, "Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Netero, and I'm the Chairman of this year's Hunter Exam Selection Committee," Netero said.

"And I am his assistant, Beans," A little man that looked more like a green blob piped in.

"Originally, I had planned to make my appearance during the final phase, but as I am already here..." Netero explained. He looked at all the applicants, and the atmosphere turned heavy. "I love this tension in the air! So I think I will stick around for the rest of the trip."

"We are scheduled to arrive at our destination tomorrow at around eight AM. Until you are notified, you are free to relax and do as you please. Also, you will find dinner waiting in the dining hall," Binns informed.

Soon after, they were left to do as they pleased for the rest of the night, Kurapika and Leorio immediately went to find a place to catch some sleep. But since neither Gon nor Killua were the least bit tired, they decided to explore the ship.

Killua brought them to the kitchens almost immediately, sensing the smell of food like a genuine feline. The people there were not as compliant as the servants at the Zoldyck mansion, though.

"Hey, you kids! Stay out of the kitchen! Go eat in the dining room!" The cook yelled, throwing both of them out of the kitchen door. Killua narrowed his eyes at it. If something like that happened in his house, the cook responsible would have already lost his head. Or his heart. Or would have ended up with a broken neck. Either way, the point is that he would be dead, probably by Killuas' hand. And when his parents eventually found out that they needed to hire another cook, they would have just slapped his hands and scolded him about wasting human resources.

"Awww..." Gon wined, breaking Killua out of his slightly homicidal thoughts, "I wanted to get something to eat without going in that fancy place!"

Killua then smirked like the cat that caught the canary and pulled out a bag of candy he was able to snatch before they were noticed and shook it in front of Gon. Gon brightened up. "Wow, Killua! I haven't even thought about that!" Then he grinned at Killua, and Killua tried not to go blind from the brightness.

They ended up exploring the ship until the bad of candy was empty, and it was dark outside.

They were passing by the windows when Gon exclaimed, "Wow, awesome!" Something outside caught his attention.

"Hmm, what is it?" Killua hummed and went to see what the fuss was about.

Gon was staring out the window, mesmerized. Now that he looked, Killua could understand the appeal. To someone who grew up on a relatively isolated island like Gon, the view would be amazing. It was already late, and the darkness took its hold, but the lights of the city still shine bright as ever. Killua looked on impassively but plastered a small smile on his face for Gons' sake, not wanting to break the atmosphere. As someone who lives on a mountain and mostly worked at night in the cities when the missions required it, the view wasn't anything special.