I have had this idea of a fan fiction for a long time. It's been roaming around my head and I had to write it down.

Standard disclaimer applies. The world of HxH and its characters are not mine… I only own my OC and this particular plot.

CHAPTER 1

A silver haired teenager sat on a bed in a huge opulently furnished room. He was holding an open thick book with his right hand while supporting his weight on the mattress with his left one. He had a lean muscular body and was wearing a sleeveless black shirt and blue shorts. The room was light by a huge crown on the ceiling, which embedded the whole place in a cold blue colored light. The light made his pale skin look even paler, and his hair shine with an unusual glow.

The boy had his head tilted towards the book, therefore his eyes were hidden under his bangs. Nonetheless, one could tell that he was intently reading the words on the pages. The front cover of the book was a plain green and had the words "History of corruption in the democratic republics" written on it with silver. There were actually several book shelves in the room, the books in them appeared to be ordered according to themes.

There was a discreet knock on the door, which made the teenager look up from his book. His eyes were an electric blue, but even though the light in the room made the color stand out, they appeared to lack the common shine they should've had.

"Yeah?" he said in a voice that wasn't too deep.

The door slowly opened and a black haired, male butler came into view. He bowed a bit and spoke.

"Master Killua, your father wishes to see you."

"He does?" the boys eyes widened a bit. It didn't seem that it was usual for his father to call for him.

"I'm not certain why, but I can suppose you have a job to do." He said with a court tone. "A letter came in this morning, sir."

"I guess that was to be expected." he sighed while putting a bookmark on the page he was reading and closing the book. He stood up and walked to the desk to lay the book down. "I'll be right there."

-Timeskip-

Killua stepped out of the bus to find himself in front of a stadium, the atrium was packed with children and their families, which made it look like summer camp. He stuck a loly pop into his mouth, put his hands into the pockets of his black shorts and proceeded to the entrance. As soon as he entered the foyer he was greeted by a receptionist.

"Good day, how can I be of help to you?" She said with a smile.

"I'm here for the flash chess tournament."

The woman's eyes widened in recognition and slightly bowed. "Please follow me, sir." The lady said and walked down the hallway. She opened a service door and motioned inside. "Down stairs will you find the place. Good luck." She said closing the door behind her. Killua lazily walked down the stairs and found a second door at the bottom, which he guessed was 10 meters underground. He opened the door and found himself a huge basement filled with bulky men. He took a step forward and was instantly approached by a small, bald green man.

"Welcome to this year's hunter exam. Please take this badge; it holds your number as a candidate and you must keep it at all times." He said handing it over.

Killua took the badge noting that he was number 273 and pinned it to his navy blue t-shirt. He walked around for a while and noticed that everybody he saw looked pretty weak. He smirked and sat down leaning against the wall and waited.

After some time a box nosed man crouched in front of him and started talking to him, which Killua ignored. He then offered him a chocolate, which Killua accepted and ate. He knew it was poisoned and watched his dumfounded expression as he asked for more. He opened his bag and Killua grabbed a handful of candy and thanked him with a smug smirk. The man started sweating, made up a lame excuse and left. Killua wished to pass this exam fast and without any trouble, so he decided to keep other examinees away from him. Unless they gave him candy, of course. He looked around and noted that the amount of people inside had grown considerably, at least doubled over.

After 4 or 5 hours and just while he was popping another loly into his mouth, a loud ring echoed and a door opened. A middle sized woman entered the room. She looked pretty plain, except for her wild hair which was a fiery red and almost as big as herself. She gave a toothy grin and clapped her hands three times in order to gain attention.

"Alright! The first phase is about to begin. We have a vast amount of participants, 764, which needs to be reduced. Also I want to try something new this time. So, this exam will be done in pairs that will be randomly decided by us." She said and whining and complaints were heard all over the place. Killua grunted and face palmed. So much for trying to stay away from other participants. The examiner took out some sort of device. "Every duo will be bound to each other by the wrist with this. This is no ordinary machine. It's made of a special material that makes it indestructible even to most pro hunters. It's coded so that it will keep both examinees bound until this phase finishes." She put the device into her pocket and raised both hands and six fingers. "Every pair needs to take six badges from other contestants while keeping both of your badges safe. You must also make sure that your partner survives. When you have all 8 badges please come to this checkpoint. After the exam is over the bindings will be automatically removed. Now you will be assigned a partner, please check out your number on the screen and go the appointed box."

Killua searched for his name on the screen and got in line. After a couple minutes his name was called and he walked to the assistant, who took his wrist into his hands and attached the device firmly. Killua looked at the other end of the device but his partner was hidden by a wooden wall. He waited until the assistant nodded and said to step away to allow the next one in line to step in. He walked out of the box and looked to the side to come face to face with his partner.

"A girl? Really?" He grunted and tilted his head backwards. "Tough luck."

"Hey, what the heck is that supposed to mean." The girl that seemed to be around Killuas age frowned. She was around 1,65 mt tall and had medium body contexture. Her skin was light brown, her eyes were green and her dark brown long hair was tied up in a high ponytail. She wore black leggings, brown combat boots and a manly green tank top. She also carried a leather backpack and had a small pouch tied to her hip left hip, which lead him to assume she was left-handed. She looked at him for a moment and a smug expression appeared on her face. "I can totally stand up to you in a fight any day."

"Yeah, right, miss number 119." Killua snorted and turned his head away. "Better prove it by not dragging me down."

"You should take your own advice, seeing that apparently I arrived before you did." She smirked

"Pfft, that proves nothing. I may have just woken up an hour later than you did." He said raising an eyebrow. The girl smiled a little and looked at their joined wrists. The cable binding them was 50 cms long, which allowed some movement, but forced the pair to work together. She guessed if he didn't prove to be as competent as he appeared to be she would have to carry his dead weight around.

They stood side by side watching the last couple candidates in their box get their wrists bound, which took 2 or 3 more minutes. When everyone was done the bell sang for a second time and the redheaded woman made an opening gesture. "Now that every participant has a partner, the exam will begin! Ready, start!"

The girl immediately crouched down to avoid kick to the head and swept her attacker from his feet with a low roundhouse kick while keeping her bound wrist above her head. Killua dodged a couple punches while swiftly kicking his two opponents with a bored face. He saw from the edge of his vision his partner grab a man and crouched down just in time for her to roll over his back en slam the poor guy on another attacker that was just by his side with full force. Another man run towards him and he kicked him in the chin while whacking somebody else in the back of the neck knocking him out. The girl he was bound to jumped and simultaneously kicked two bulky men that were on each side of her. Other attackers were dissuaded from trying to take their badges seeing how they had managed to defeat 7 people in just 5 seconds. Killua groaned and jerked his arm in order to pull the poor girl closer. She stumbled and almost fell over, but managed stand and turned to face him.

"What?" she growled with a frown on her face.

"I have my three badges already." He said raising his free hand and showing the items. "I told you not to drag me down."

"HA, you'll have to take that back because I'm done as well." She said with a smug smirk while holding up three badges as well. Killua blinked in surprise and suddenly wished he had looked her way to gauge her strength. He had not expected her take any badges that fast. Of course he had also taken them too fast for the untrained eye to see, but he had special training. He absolutely did not expect to find anybody here, a girl nonetheless, to be that fast. He hadn't even bothered assessing her strength because of her gender. Now that he put some attention to it, it was clear she was a better fighter than most contestants. She walked and stood with the presence that only came with battle experience. His instincts told him that she was a strong opponent, nearly as strong as he was. "Tch, whatever. Let's just go."

He started walking dragging her along with him and feeling a vein popping out on his forehead as he heard her giggle at him. They reached the checkpoint in half a minute later and handed their badges to a short man with grey hair. He wrote down on a notebook and opened a door for them.

"Congratulations. It's impressive how little time it took you, but I'm sorry to say you were second." He said and both of them walked through the door and heard it close behind them. They realized they were in some sort of hangar that contained a huge airship, which both assumed would take them to the second exam.

In the hangar with them were two other people, a man and a woman. The man looked to be around 30, had red hair and was dressed as a jester. The woman in the room looked pretty scared and was trying to discretely walk away from the man. Both Killua and the girl he was bound to tensed at the sight of them, immediately recognizing he was dangerous. Another fact became apparent to his female companion while watching the scared woman walk away.

"Hey! How come their device has already unbound their wrists and we're still connected?"

"Huh?" Killua widened his eyes and turned around just in time for two other applicants to enter the hangar. Who by the way also had their wrists unbound. "Hey! Wait!" He said pointing at the man that took their badges. "How come we haven't been unbound?"

"Oh, you haven't? It appears this particular device is faulty and didn't take in the signal to open. You'll have to wait until the next phase ends and you meet the chairman. He's the only one with the authority to do so now. I'm sorry for the inconvenience." He answered and turned his back on them to keep on greeting other applicants.

Both teens turned around with a frown on their faces.

"What have I done to deserve this?" The girl next to Killua face palmed and sighed in defeat.

"You're complaining? You should be thankful, woman." Killua said putting his free hand on his hip and turning his head to face her.

"Oh yeah, thank you Kami for allowing me to spend more time with a sexist rude guy." She said in mock joy.

"Aghh... just please let the next phase start already!" Killua complained while sitting down facing away from her. She sat down next to him as far as the device allowed them to. Both stayed in silence sulking in their demise for what seemed like hours, but actually was just thirty more minutes.

A voice spoke though speakers announcing that the first phase was over and that 230 applicants had passed. It then instructed them to board the airship, which would take them to the second exam site in and an eight hour journey. Both entered the airship silently cursing the long trip and stopped walking down the hallway a good ten meters away from the entrance. Both watched the stadium they had been at through a window as the airship took off.

"It's nighttime already." The girl said pointing to the dark sky outside. "Around 11 pm."

"You don't say… thank you for pointing that out." Killua rolled his eyes.

"Damn you, jerk. I'm implying that we'll arrive to the second exam site just at dawn. I wonder if it was scheduled that way on purpose." She said lifting her free hand to her chin.

"Maybe the second phase will last the whole day." He added widening his eyes a bit. "But it could also mean that it's a very short one and we'll have enough time to go and do the third phase as well."

"I have the feeling it will be the first option, though I wish it's the second."

"So do I." Killua combed his hair with his free hand while raising his bound wrist and sighing. "Then we'll find the chairman and get this fucking thing off."

"Well, in any case I'd like to eat something now."

"What if I don't want to go to the dining room?" Killua scoffed.

"I'll have to try and drag you there for the eight hours remaining in here. You don't want that do you?" she said glaring.

Killua glared at her a little and then sighed… again. "Better not let it get to that, we're bound too close and I don't want bloodstains on my shirt."

Both walked in an uncomfortable silence to the dining room and sat at a table. They waited for a while until the waiter walked to them. He handed them the menus and came back when the girl motioned for him to approach them.

"What would you like to order?"

"I want noodles with tomato sauce. Also, a glass of soda." he said leaning back into the seat and looking up to the waiter who turned to his partner.

"I'd like a steak, mashed potatoes, a mixed salad of whatever you have and water, please." She said smiling and handing the menus back.

"All, right. Got it. I'll be right back." He left.

The girl looked around and watched the other contestants in the room. After a minute or two of observing them she chuckled.

"You'd expect the participants to be stronger. I mean, they're all bulky and shit, but I can tell that they are weak."

"They're as almost as bad as any other civilian." He nodded looking around as well. "Although I must say the creepy man dressing as a jester is really dangerous."

"Yeah, I noticed. I'm definitely weary of him. He's stronger than both of us."

"I'd say that if we're both 8 out of ten, he's ten out of ten. I'd even say he must be on the top 50 fighters worldwide. I'm pretty good at gauging the strength of other people."

"You're a humble one, huh?" she said rolling her eyes. "I would've thought you were pretty bad at it since you thought I was weak."

"Well, you were a girl. I didn't want to waste my time judging your strength. So I just assumed you were weak." He answered shrugging.

A tick mark appeared on her forehead. "You're not only insulting women by saying that, but also yourself." She said and Killua raised an eyebrow at her. "You're underestimating half of the population. One day you're arrogance will get you killed."

Killua glared at her a little but kept quiet. He was too proud for his own good, so he didn't agree with her out loud. But she was right and he knew it.

"All right." She said after eating the last of her food and putting her cutlery down next to Killuas empty plate. "Let's go get some sleep, ok?"

"Whatever." Killua muttered still bothered by what she'd said and stood up and walked to the door closely followed by her. He was sick of the damn device linking them together, he needed his personal space. Also, he needed to use the toilet.

"Stop." He said suddenly stopping and making her crash into his back. He turned to a door that was in the hallway, put his hand in the handle and turned his head to look at her. "Wait here, I'll be right back."

Without waiting for an answer he opened the door and closed it behind him. She was about to complain when she saw a sign that had a man drawn on it. Her wrist was pulled until it was pressed against the door. She blushed at the uncomfortable situation and realized with embarrassment that she also needed to use the bathroom, and hoped that the length of the device binding them would be enough to reach the toilet. She wouldn't be able to wait until he next phase was over, which was the following day.

Five minutes later Killua came out and she pointed to the door right next to the one his was closing.

"I also need to go." She muttered while averting her eyes. She quickly walked into the other bathroom and closed the door behind her. Thank god the thread joining both their wrists was flexible and thin, therefore allowing the door to close almost completely. She sighed in relief when she realized that the bathroom was individual and had only one sink and one toilet, which were right next to the door, allowing her to reach just fine.

Killua stood on the hallway with his hand pressed to the door and grunted in frustration. If this had to go on any longer he didn't know how he'd handle it. He had never imagined himself in a situation as silly as this one. He'd normally just kill whoever put him in this position, but he couldn't kill an examiner since he would fail the exam. He also couldn't kill the woman since she was pretty strong and if he managed to get rid of her, he would probably end up beaten pretty badly and would have trouble doing the exam.

The door opened and out came his partner flashing a shy smile at him. He smirked at her modest attitude. He lightly pulled his wrist and walked towards the one of the rooms that were appointed for sleeping. She coughed trying to break the silence, since it made her uncomfortable now; she was a little embarrassed after the bathroom situation.

"Erm… Finally we'll get some sleep. By the way, my name is Hayuri." Killua simply looked up to her for a second with a bored expression and kept on walking. Hayuri forgot her shyness and frowned a bit "Do you not know common courtesy? If I introduce myself you're supposed to do so as well."

"I don't feel like telling you my name. Why should I?" he said opening a door and pulling her into the room. It was filled with bunk beds organized in lines which held around 20 sleeping examiners.

"Rude bastard" Hayuri whispered under her breath and followed him to a bed in the farthest corner. He sat down and looked at her with a poker face.

"Let's get to sleep and don't move while you sleep. I will take it as an attack." He whispered and laid down on the right edge of the bed while she laid on the left side. She was a little angry at his rudeness, but took in a deep breath and tried to put her mind at ease. She found a position in which she didn't touch him at all and slowly drifted to sleep.

Killua only allowed himself to close his eyes when he heard her breath become slow and steady. He didn't want to have to do anything to do with her, since it would only get in the way of his mission. But even though, he found teasing her pretty amusing.

Hayuri, huh?

Thank you for reading! Please Review!