Title: The Path of a Predator

Chapter 3: Ready? X Set X Go!

Four hours, sixty kilometers, and still nothing interesting had happened yet. Suit had started to slip behind the group, running out of steam, and while Gon seemed to not have noticed it yet, we did find ourselves at the back of the group. While the back of the group was still boring, I made sure to check off the numbers that fell behind as we passed them…

Fifty-five: a shot man with a full beard fell behind, out of breath and red in the face.

Three-hundred-and-seventy-two: a young woman with cool green hair that covered her face as she stopped, panting for breath.

Two-hundred-and-six: an average-looking man with short black hair and-

Something clattered on the ground behind us, and the three of us looked over our shoulders to see what it was.

The black and red checkered suitcase that Suit carried with him tumbled to the ground, and the man stumbled to a stop before resting his hands on his knees. His breath came quick, and it seemed like the heavy gulps of air weren't nearly enough as his chest heaved. Sweat was pouring off of him, and it looked like he couldn't take another step.

Well, number four-hundred-and-three was joining those who had failed the First Phase of-

"Huh?" I slowed to a stop, the wheels attached to the soles of my sneakers digging into the ground, "What are you stopping for, Gon?"

He was looking back towards Suit, waiting for something as the remaining Hunter applicants ran farther away from us. Killua had stopped as well, looking from Gon to Suit after he had scanned the former's face.

He didn't respond.

"Hey, forget him. Let's get going." Killua urged Gon, though he made no move to continue forwards himself.

As seconds passed, Gon stood unmoving. His brown eyes focused on Suit, ignoring everything else.

I let out a long sigh, chewing on the candy-less stick before I spoke, "Or we could just stare at him. That works too, I guess."

After another moment, I turned to look at the retreating backs. Joker might be making things interesting up there… and now that I've introduced myself to Gon and Killua – and a gift of candy could always be an 'in' – I could always re-join them later. My foot slid against the ground, but before I could move away from the two boys, a loud shout came from behind me.

"I'M GONNA BECOME A HUNTER!" With a sudden burst of energy, and a weird look on his face, Suit leapt forward, arms swinging wildly as he ran past us. "Damn iiiiiiiit!"

"Eh?" The curious sound slipped from my mouth before I could stop it, and I turned to Gon, "Gon, how long have you known Suit and Blond-L… Blondie?"

Gon had grabbed the pole strapped to his bag, extending it out into a fishing pole, "I met them on the way over from Whale Island! So, it hasn't been too long!"

With a quick motion of his arm, Gon sent the fishing hook sailing through the air. The shiny red bobber glinted at us from the distance as it slowly finished its arc: landing right on top of Suit's suitcase. With another sharp tug on the fishing rod, Gon pulled back, and I watched in awe as I realized the hook had somehow latched onto the handle of the case. It returned to Gon easily, without the case weighing it down enough to hit the ground, and his fingers wrapped around the handle easily. His arm swung back, going with the momentum of the case's arc, and as I followed the motion, I saw Killua's wide-eyed stare trailing the case as well.

Noticing our amazed stares, he lifted the case in triumph, removing the hook from the handle with practiced hands. Killua let out a low whistle.

"Cool!"

"That was awesome!"

He grinned widely at us, siding the fishing pole through the case's handle and carrying the two over his shoulder. As he started running, Killua kept pace with him as I skated in line with the two boys as well.

"Have you caught any fish with it? How many? How big was the biggest one?" The questions rattled off of my tongue before I could stop them, and after a momentary pause, I measured out an imaginary length of the largest fish I had seen in the Ozryn market: about as far as my arms could reach from my body, "Was it thiiiiiis big?"

Gon chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head, "I've caught a lot of fish – Whale Island has a lot of fishermen that I learned from. The biggest one I've caught is called the Master of the Swamp. It's muuuuuuuch bigger!" He puffed out his chest, stretching his unoccupied hand out as a demonstration as I watched eagerly, "Aunt Mito said I couldn't take the Hunter Exam until I caught him!"

"Woooooah…"

In my silence, as I thought about Gon's words, Killua spoke up, "Let me try that later."

"Only if you let me try your skateboard, okay?" Killua nodded in agreement, and Gon happily looked back at me, "You can try it too, if you'd like!"

"Oh, really?!" I clapped my hands together happily, "I've never fished anything before! Let's see… I'll trade you another lollipop to borrow it for a while sometime!"

"Deal!"

I jumped in excitement, the wheels underfoot leaving the ground for a moment before I slowly guided them back into the rhythm of long strides against the hard dirt, "Yay!"

"For two lollipops, you can try out my skateboard."

"Hmm… Tempting. I'll have to get back to you on that."

Killua clicked his tongue as a small frown pulled at the corners of his lips, "Tch."

I sent the white-haired boy a cheeky grin that had him rolling his eyes and finding interest a new interest in the running contestants that had just come into view again. Following his example, the three of us caught up quickly to the back of the group as we narrowly dodged out of the way of a man collapsing to the ground out of exhaustion. It wasn't long before the long winding tunnel revealed a curve that went upwards: a long stairway that had applicants running up them in small groupings. The countless steps veered left and right slightly as it led us upwards, and as we approached I got ready to adjust my wheeled attachments.

Lance had made them as regular rollerblades at first, but with the number of varied situations I got myself into with his gift, he eventually changed his design. When I wanted to change from rollerblades to walking quickly and didn't have time to sit down and take them off (it actually happened a lot: chasing people down was hard, and ever-changing work), I could move the front wheels backwards towards my heel and press them into place. As there were six wheels, two at the heel, two in the middle, and two at the underneath the 'palm' of my foot (the area just below where the toes connected to the foot), Lance thought it would be easiest to slide the middle and forward wheels towards the back set.

Structurally, this function made the attachable rollerblades less sturdy, especially when the weight of my body was being spread out to the twelve wheels, as Lance had said. But, when he upgraded them, he recreated them completely with the strongest metals he could get his hands on – so there haven't been any problems so far.

So, when the stairs were close enough, I leapt upwards and brought my knees to my chest. Reaching for the underside of my sneakers, I quickly found Lance's metal framework and slid the bar connecting the two front wheels back into the middle ones. After the wheels were pressed against each other, I tugged the mechanism down further and brought both sets of wheels towards my heel. With the wheels all in line, I pushed them into my heel until I heard a 'click', alerting me to the fact that the locking mechanism had kicked in. And, the arc of my jump had me falling towards the steps of the stairs, I calculated where I would land and got my feet in position. Landing, and continuing my run with my weight on the front of my feet as I kept the wheels at my heels from touching the steps, I felt the two sets of gazes on me.

…In the few hours that I had spent with the two boys, I had somehow managed to forget that I was supposed to keep my skills hidden until the last possible moment.

"Looks like you can do cool tricks too, Kyra!"

Gon's excited response made me aware of Killua's silence, and as I let myself steal a look at him from the corner of my eye, I could see his gaze was directed at the device strapped to my feet. It was pretty expensive metal, probably out of reach for any 'normal' people… Had Killua come across it before? Did he know how tricky it was to get? To soothe my own worries, and to start forming Kyra's cover story, I decided to tell Gon half-truths.

"Haha, thanks! My brother can make really cool things! So, when I told him that I was taking the Exam, he sent me off with these to try and help me out!"

The Hunter Exam was dangerous, and the chances of dying were extremely high: a family member concerned for my wellbeing and searching for a way to give me an advantage (even one with a really high price tag) was believable, right?

Then, I steered the conversation back to Gon: he would probably be able to draw Killua's attention away from Lance's work, "Do you have any siblings, Gon?" I looked around Gon, "Killua?"

"No, I don't have any siblings. It's just me and Aunt Mito."

Killua made a sour face, "I have a few."

Seeing as Killua probably wasn't going to continue, I focused my attention on Gon, "Your Aunt sounds important to you."

"Mm. I was raised by Aunt Mito, I don't know my mom or dad. Although, I've seen my dad in pictures."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Gon."

He shook his head rapidly, "Aunt Mito is the best parent I could ask for!"

So, Gon was an orphan? Or was he abandoned? Aunt Mito left me with a lot of questions, most of which I couldn't really put into words. Even though my family was full of Hunters that had to leave at a moment's notice to fly across the world and potentially might not come back (well, they were too strong to not come back), at least I knew them. I knew what they liked, or disliked, what they looked like, what they sounded like… The closest family member I could think of who I only saw in photographs were my uncle and grandparents on my dad's side. Apparently, they had died soon after I was born, killed by some assassins, but my dad didn't seem to like talking about them too much. My grandparents on my mom's side came down to visit us every now and then – they weren't Hunters, and lived 'far' away… But from what I understood, they didn't really like that we were Hunters, and preferred to not get involved in all of that.

Lance says that it started to become noticeable after dad's brother and parents were killed, undoubtedly because of their work as Hunters.

"…When my dad was twelve, he took the Hunter Exam. He passed and became a Hunter, then he left the island." Gon laughed quietly, "I want to find out why he chose to be a Hunter over being with me. That's why I'm taking this Exam."

The hazel-eyed boy's words sounded like some sort of revenge-quest: following in the footsteps of someone who had left him in order to know why he didn't return. But, coming out of Gon's mouth, with his eyes set squarely ahead, it was impossible to think of it as anything more than innocent curiosity.

"What kind of Hunter is he?" I glanced at Killua, noting that he knew that Hunters could come in different types. It was probably something a lot of people here knew, but…

"I don't know."

With the look on Gon's face, it seems like the thought hadn't crossed his mind.

"Pfft. Hahaha!" As Killua struggled to regain himself, the chuckle still in his voice, he continued, "That's kinda weird: you want to be like your dad, but you don't know anything about him? Weird."

My father, Kakeui, started out as a Blacklist Hunter – and still is to this day. He sometimes takes on contracts from powerful and well-paying people, but mostly he tracks down dangerous and wanted criminals by whatever means necessary. Riona, my mom, is a Botanical Hunter: specializing in the search and collection of rare and dangerous plants (aaaaaand taking them home and researching them in the large greenhouse on the Luchia Estate's land, apparently). The two met when my dad took a contract to escort mom to a criminal-infested region as she inspected the plant life there (dad managed to catch most of the bad guys, too. Or so the story goes). They both got their first star ranking a few years after becoming Hunters, and mom is getting close to her second star.

Aurelian followed in dad's footsteps for a while, being a Blacklist Hunter, but she recently left her Hunter profession behind to fight it out in Heaven's Arena. Lance works as an Information Hunter, when he isn't busy doing a whole bunch of nothing or tinkering on something. Neireniet and Melusines are Blacklist Hunters and work well together. Since hunting criminals and getting contracts here and there go well together, Ren and Melu also act as Contract Hunters.

Emelinne wasn't a hunter yet, and I still had no idea what Hunter I wanted to be. So far, being a Contract Hunter seems pretty decent…

"Hey, now that I think about it, why do you guys want to become Hunters?" Gon turned his question on the two of us, and I looked over to Killua for his answer first.

"Me?" Killua shrugged, "I'm not really interested in becoming a Hunter. I heard the exam was supposed to be really hard, so I thought it'd be fun. But this is disappointing."

My eyebrow raised in surprise: first we have Gon's whole backstory of why he wants to be a Hunter, and then Killua's shrug of an answer. With their eyes turning towards me, I quickly came up with a vague answer.

"Well, Hunters get access to things that normal people don't get to see. I thought that was cool, and being a Hunter would probably be fun, so here I am!"

Gon nodded, accepting my answer wholeheartedly, while Killua simply turned his eyes back to the front. We ran up the stairs for a while, falling into an easy hush as we all moved side-to-side to dodge the exhausted applicants. I had found two interesting people, if this Exam gave me nothing else. Pursing my lips, I quietly considered the fact that all of the people who took the Exam were interesting, but those who were set to pass it were more interesting. As far as I could tell, Gon and Killua would be passing with me this year.

Unless the Exam this year would let only a few of us pass… which it probably wouldn't: the rest of my family had passed the Exams with numerous new Hunters, unless someone had really tried to lock down their position and butchered the other applicants sometime in the final Phase...

Killua broke the silence, "Gon, wanna race to see who finishes first?"

"Sure." Gon nodded happily before turning to me, "Kyra, want to join us?"

I resisted the competitive urge desperately trying to get me to agree to racing the two boys up the stairs, and I managed to settle on, "Nah, if I joined you guys would be competing for second." I bit my tongue lightly, hoping to prevent any more competitive-sounding words from coming out.

"Eh?" Killua drawled, "You think you can run faster than us with those wheels stuck to your feet?" He nodded towards me, eyes on the wheels beside my sneaker's heels.

But, he had set me off, "Pfft. I can run faster than you guys in my sleep."

"Wanna bet?"

"Absolutely." I glared at Killua, "Last person to reach the end buys dinner."

"You're on!" He smirked, and I felt my blood simmer but then cool as I reminded myself to just wipe the smug look off his face by winning, "I guess I'll start thinking about what I want to eat."

"Good." I huffed, turning my face forwards with a smirk of my own, "You can cry over it later once we head to my choice of restaurant."

Gon laughed, his head swivelling back and forth between us, "Ready…?"

My eyes mapped my route, noting the other applicants who might become a hazard to my running: those that looked too tired to continue, those whose muscles were working against them with every step taken, those who had already fallen on the steps. Some were dragging themselves forwards with the use of their arms, some were unconscious, some had mis-stepped and were still rolling down the stairs.

If only I wasn't handicapping myself: I could just bound off of one wall to the other, and not have to run up any steps at all…

"Go!"

On Gon's word, I took a leaping start. Shoving off of the ground with my foot, skipping a decent number of steps before running up the stairs. Not as fast as I could go, but as fast as I could go that I thought was reasonable for a girl my age.

…I might've miscalculated, though. Judging by the wide-eyed stares that followed me upwards. Whether that was because they couldn't believe anyone had the energy to speed up the steps, or that I was running too fast – I didn't care to find out. Finally, something fun was happening, and I was determined to win this little race of ours so that I could rub it in Killua's face.

But, it seems the two boys started in the same way, and we were soon evenly matched: running up the stairs easily as we raced towards the finish line.

"Eager, Kyra?" Gon grinned at me, "I am too!"

I took out another lollipop, crinkling the wrapper with a knowing look over to Killua (who turned out to be quite the fellow candy-lover) as I popped it in my curved mouth, "This race is the most exciting thing that's happened so far. It's too bad I didn't get cool Magical Beast navigators like you did! That would've been fun!"

Gon had explained how he ended up in the Exam but left out the requirement of catching the giant Swamp-Master fish (which was admittedly the coolest part until his encounter with the Kiriko). It almost made me wish I had gone the intended route to the Exam: navigators and all. Almost.

"Oh, it's those guys."

Killua drew our attention ahead of us, and sure enough, Suit and Blond-Lance were running up ahead. Blond-Lance had taken off his cool blue garment, and I pouted silently at the thought. But now, getting a closer look at them, while I got the feeling Blond-Lance acted like Lance, there wasn't any physical resemblance that I could see. I'd have to think of a new nickname…

"Kurapika, Leorio!" The two turned to look back at us, and Blond-Lance gave a small wave as Suit gave us a sweaty grin.

"I made a new friend!" Gon pointed over at me, "This is Kyra! She says that she likes people introducing themselves before using their names!" He paused, "And I don't think you've met Killua either, Kurapika!"

I managed a smile and wave as I moved the lollipop from one cheek to another, "Yo. Nice to meet you!"

Blond-Lance's smile inched wider, "Nice to meet you two. I'm Kurapika."

Well, that solved the nickname problem.

"I'm Leorio." Leorio looked ridiculous: the wide swinging of his arms, the top of his shirt tied around his hips while his tie was still around his neck but turned around and trailing behind him like some sorry excuse for a cape.

But hey, I thought he was done for only a… while ago? How long had it been? I didn't keep track of it since Gon had been so entertaining…

"See you at the goal, Kurapika." Gon waved at the blond, bringing me from my thoughts as I realized we were already passing the odd duo.

"Catch you later, old timer."

"I'm not old!" Killua grinned at Leorio's angry response, and I felt that we'd get along – as long as Killua remained silent about any of his sharp-eyed observations.

"I'm a teenager, just like you guys!" Shocked faces stared at him, and I guess he could pass for a teenager in his late teens?

But he couldn't be, could he?

"C'mon, Leorio." I broke the sudden silence, "It's not nice to lie…"

"I'm not lying!" At the second admittance to Leorio's claim, words of shock came from the two boys.

"Huh?"

"No way!"

"Why, you-!"

The three of us sped away from the older teenager, and soon found ourselves to be the only ones running through the tunnel: bodies were sprawled across the floor in front and behind us, but none were still competing in the First Phase.

O

"I'm impressed that you can keep up with me."

We had been running for at least another twenty kilometers before Killua spoke up again, and as the race was still on, so too were my competitive remarks. It wasn't my fault that Killua seemed to say everything like he was better than us, and now that I'm in this race: I'm in it to win it.

I snorted, "That's my line."

"Hey-!"

"Really?" Gon's innocent response to his previous statement quieted the pale boy's response, and so he picked another one after sending a glare my way.

"Or maybe it's just that everyone else is too slow."

Unfortunately, Killua's words were true, and while there was a tiny part of me that wanted to say they weren't (alright, a large part of me), I kept my comments, and thoughts, to myself. It wasn't surprising that a large number of applicants had applied: but the amount who had made it to the First Phase were surprisingly unskilled. While I didn't expect them to have the amount of training Killua or I had (excluding Gon, because, as Killua said, it was surprising that he was keeping up with no experience in any field except for running around Whale Island), I was at least hoping for more people who could pose a challenge.

I guess that's why this was the First Phase: since it had an actual Hunter as an Examiner, it would weed out those unsuitable for the job.

"Man…" Killua sighed, "The Hunter Exam is gonna be a breeze. That's no fun."

I silently agreed. The Exam was clearly designed for people who were a little more 'extra' than 'ordinary'. For the three of us, this First Phase, and probably the ones after it, were going to be far too easy. At least I had made the Exam more challenging myself than relying on the low bar they had set: finding the Exam Site without the help of a navigator (although I guess you could call Lance my navigator) and then also trying to see how far I could get without revealing the level of my skills to the other applicants…

So far, these handicaps had led me to meeting Killua and Gon, and I was kinda interested to see what other interesting things they stirred up.

Natural light streamed into the tunnel as we made it around the final corner. The sight of it had me glancing towards Killua and Gon, "See you slowpokes at the finish line!"

I bounded up the steps, passing Mr. Pins and Needles, Joker, and Ninja-guy as I reached Examiner Mystery Man. He was strange-looking: wearing a suit like Leorio (except his was dark purple in colour) and had pale lavender-coloured hair that curled up at the ends. His run was also weird, as he seemed to slink up the stairs without bending his arms or legs. Shrugging the sight off as I raced forward (this was the Hunter Exam, after all), I heard Gon and Killua's steps closing in behind me. The lead I had gained with my spurt of speed failed to make much of a difference as I slowed down, remembering that I was trying to blend in.

But, as Mystery Man reached the top of the steps, and all of us were about to tie, I tried to pull ahead by an inch or so as discretely as possible.

"Goal!" Our three voices called out as we exited the tunnel, and we all took a few steps to come to a halt before turning and looking at one another.

"Yay! I win."

"What are you talking about? I was faster…"

"What are you talking about? Clearly your eyes had trouble adjusting to the light: I'm the one who won!"

"I was."

"No, I was!"

"Nope, I was!"

"I was faster so you two…" Gon paused, "Wait, how are we doing this with three people?"

"Oh… Good question…"

"Well, since I was faster than both of you, you both have to buy me dinner!" Grinning widely, I put my hands on my hips in triumph.

"That doesn't even make any sense."

I glared at Killua, "And why doesn't it?"

He matched my glare, "Because I was faster than you."

"Not a chance! I was faster!"

As our glaring match intensified, Gon turned to Mystery Man, "Hey, who was faster?"

"Ah, good idea, Gon!" I broke away from my glaring contest (as clearly, I had the superior glare) and turned to the Examiner, "I was faster, right?"

…Apparently this Examiner didn't have a mouth. He had a thin, curly, mustache, but no mouth. How was that even possible – it was him who spoke to us before, right? I shook the thought away, as long as he could tell these two boys who the real winner was, then it didn't matter!

"Keep dreaming, Kyra." Killua also turned to him, "I was faster. End of story."

Mystery Man looked to Gon, then to Killua, then to me. With three children staring expectantly at him, he eventually gave a response that only caused his curly moustache to move slightly, "I believe that you all crossed the finish line simultaneously."

Puffing my cheeks out at the answer that was least satisfying at all, I walked up to him and pulled a lollipop from my wrapper-filled pouch. He looked down at me, but as he made a move to grab the candy, Killua called out.

"Hey! You can't bribe the judge, that's cheating!"

"I'm not bribing the judge, slowpoke! I'm just handing him a lollipop!" After the candy left my hand, I continued, "…So that the sugar can help his unfortunate vision problem he seems to be having!"

Sticking my tongue out at Killua, who had quite the angry face, I then reached out a hand towards Mystery Man, "Nice to meet you…" I paused and decided to consider his mass-introduction at the start of the Phase as a suitable one, "Satotz! My name's Kyra, the actual," I stole an impish glance at Killua from the corner of my eye, "winner of the race."

A hand found its way onto my shoulder, and I could tell it was Killua before I even glanced back to see the white-haired boy standing behind me, "Hey, now… That's enough bribing! He's already called the tie…"

I could feel him getting frustrated, and it only made the grin I hadn't realized my lips pulling themselves into grow wider at the knowledge of getting under his sharp-eyed skin.

As he started pulling me away from Satotz, my hand retracting quickly to delve into the folds of my crinkly sweater-pocket, I leaned back onto my heels and let myself be wheeled over to Gon, "Then how can it be bribing, slowpoke?"

Killua growled before responding through clenched teeth, "You're the only slowpoke here!"

"Alright, because it's a tie, then I'll buy you guys dinner," Gon appeared at of nowhere, and probably stopped Killua from removing his hand and letting me fall to the ground, "And then Killua will buy us dinner," He gestured to me as he spoke, and Killua followed it with a 'huh?', "And then Kyra'll buy us dinner!"

"I don't get it…" Killua sighed, and in doing so loosened his grip on my shoulder.

Taking a look around, I noticed that there was a light fog covering the ground, and the open space before realizing that we had come to some sort of marshland-type area. The ground just in front of the tunnel's exit was solid enough to allow Lance's rollerblade attachments to work, but if we left this patch of ground, they would become a problem. Seeing as there were no other Examiners in sight, I figured that we still were in the First Phase and plopped myself onto the ground: escaping Killua's grasp as I started to remove the attachments. Pulling the bag from my shoulders, I quickly deposited the rollerblades and empty wrappers back into my bag (deciding to grab another handful of candy to replace the ones that the three of us had eaten – although most wrappers belonged to me), as the remaining applicants made their way up the stairs.

"Hey, Mister Satotz. Is this where the Second Phase takes place?"

"No, we still have quite a way to go."

"Oh…"

Standing up, brushing the dirt off the back of my sweater, I noticed that my breathing was heavier than it should've been after only rollerblading… roughly eighty kilometers. Other than the deep breaths, the rest of my body acted as I expected it to: my muscles weren't pained, I wasn't tired… I might be a little hungry, but because the cloudy skies were the brightest overhead, it was around lunchtime.

"Hey Kyra, quit spacing out!" My eyes snapped to Killua's blue ones as he called over his shoulder, "Gon found this cool frog!" With a low croak causing Gon's laughter as crouched down, not too close to the small frog, but not too far, either, Killua ran to join him.

For a moment, I wondered how something as simple as finding a frog could immediately spread a smile across my face. But, the moment soon passed, and I joined Killua and Gon as we watched the brown frog hop around.

Before I could relax, I felt Joker's eyes on the three of us, and I glanced back to see him walking out of the tunnel with Mr. Pins and Needles close behind.

Killua and Gon had been interesting, and I'd be sure to stick with them for the Exam… But the longer it went on, the harder it would probably be to separate myself from them. Checking out the rest of the competition now, in the foggy swamp… That would probably be best. Especially when Joker's bloodlust actually made the air feel heavier and colder the moment he was within sight.

Something was going to happen soon, and I'd be there to see it.

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- Disclaimer -

The only thing I own are my OCs

O Reviews O

Cutefrog: Thanks for liking it so far! Hope you enjoyed this one too!

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Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed, fireflies!

-Love, Ember ;3