Chapter 7

A very strange man in a purple suit and a mustache with no mouth- yes, no mouth- introduced himself as Satotz, the examiner for the first phase of the hunter exam. I vaguely remembered him.

All he said was to follow him, and everyone around me began to walk forward. Woah... I thought as I walked among the crowd. I knew I'd be taking the hunter exam, but... I can't believe I'm doing this for real. My body was filled with adrenaline. Everyone around me began to move faster, then jog, then full out running.

I knew for a fact that I would get tired after just a few minutes of running, but for some reason, in this body, I wasn't tired at all. The feeling was so strange.

I'd been running for about two hours when I heard shouting in front of me. I picked up the speed and pushed through the crowd.

In front of me, I saw the same tall man in a business suit yelling at Killua, who was riding his skateboard. The amber eyed boy was talking to the man, and the gray eyed blond ran alongside the business suit man.

It's them! The main characters I'd seen in my flashbacks! Even just seeing them made me feel more comfortable and excited at the same time.

It seemed like they were arguing about the skateboard. The amber eyed boy said something to Mr. Business suit. "This is a test of endurance! You can't use your skateboard!" Mr. Business suit shouted as I frowned.

"Excuse me, but Satotz only told us to follow him. He never said anything about how you were allowed to do so," I said out of nowhere before I could stop myself.

All four of them turned to look at me. "And who do you think you are?!" Mr. Business suit asked angrily. "I doesn't matter who I am. I'm just stating the facts. You should really calm down," I retorted. An irk mark appeared on his head.

"Excuse me?!" he yelled. I glared at him. "If I were you, I'd quiet down." Was this guy from the show always this fiery? "You shouldn't disrespect your elders!"

"Well you need to calm down and actually assess the situation before making assumptions!"

We glared at each other and I could've sworn electricity flashed. The tension doubled. "Now, now, you two... calm down," the gray eyed blond said. "Calm down?! This brat here thinks she can tell me what to do!" Mr. Business suit complained. "I DIDN'T tell you what to do, I only stated the facts!" I argued.

"Shut up, blockhead!"

"Old man!"

"Know-it-all!"

"Anger issues!"

"STOP!"

Everyone quieted down and turned to look at the amber eyed boy. "Leorio, apologize to her. And... what's your name?" he asked. I paused. My name? "Aki Arata," I said. "And Aki-san, you apologize to Leorio too." So that's his name, the business suit man- Leorio. The name definitely rung a bell.

We faced each other. I glared at him. I didn't want to say sorry to this jerk, and I'm sure the feeling was mutual. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"I'm extremely sorry. I hope you didn't damage your old vocal cords screaming like that. Certainly would be horrible if we couldn't hear your oh-so-wise words, elder," I said, making it clear that I wasn't sorry at all. Nearby, I heard Killua snort and cover his smirk with a hand. Leorio's face grew red out of anger. "Damn brat... yeah, yeah, I'm very sorry too..." he said in the same sarcastic tone.

The amber eyed boy smiled, as well as the gray eyed one (though his was more of a oh-god-what-am-I-gonna-do-with-these-two smile). "Good." I glanced at Killua. He hadn't said a word during the entire argument, only observing it with those piercing sapphire eyes, a slightly amused look on his face.

"By the way," I said, "I never got your names." The amber eyed boy grinned and raised his hand. "I'm Gon Freecs!" The gray eyed one looked up. "My name is Kurapika. A pleasure to meet you." Leorio glowered at me. "And you already know my name... it's Leorio."

I nodded. "Pleased to meet you all... aside from a certain bespectacled man in a cheap business suit."

"Hey, I heard that!"

"What are you talking about? I never said it was you," I replied innocently. Once again, Killua let out an amused snort- even Gon and Kurapika were trying not to smile. "Damn brat- who else could it be?!"

I realized it might look suspicious if I didn't ask for Killua's name, so I did that as well. "And what's yours?" I asked, pointedly looking at him and ignoring Leorio's shouts in the background. He glanced at me. "I'm Killua."

Hmm. That's it? No last name? It's not like I didn't already know what it was, though- Zoldyck. But the Zoldyck family is pretty famous, and if I had their last name, I wouldn't go around giving it out either.

"And you all know my name- Aki Arata. Feel free to just call me Aki," I said. And just like that, we were now acquainted.

Leorio and Kurapika ran behind while Gon, Killua, and I ran ahead. "So, Aki, why do you want to become a hunter?" Gon asked. I thought for a moment. "I guess... there's something about this exam I wanted to figure out." Which is sparking my memory.

"What about you guys?" I asked, avoiding any more chatter about me. Gon grinned. "I wanna follow in the same footsteps as my dad!" he declared. "Oh, your dad? What kinda hunter is he?" Killua asked. Gon paused. "Um... I don't know." Killua burst out laughing. Even I giggled a bit.

"What? What's so funny?" Gon asked innocently. "You wanna be like your dad but you don't even know what kind of hunter he is?" Killua asked. Gon smiled and looked forwards. "I don't know much about him... Aunt Mito, my aunt, raised me on Whale Island practically my whole life. But I wanna find out why he left me to become a hunter."

I smiled gently, remembering this scene. That's a great reason to become a hunter. "What about you, Killua?" Gon asked. Killua frowned. "I heard that the hunter exam was supposed to be really hard, and that's why I came to take it. But this has been way too easy so far."

Killua glanced at us. "I'm surprised you guys can keep up with me. Or maybe everyone else is just so slow that you seem fast," he said as the people around us dropped like flies.

Suddenly, I noticed that Gon had stopped. I stopped as well including Killua and we looked back. I saw Leorio covered in sweat and panting, his briefcase on the ground.

He was staring at the ground, probably regretting his decision of taking the hunter exam. "Come on Gon, we can't fall behind," Killua called. Gon kept staring at Leorio, that same powerful glow in his amber eyes.

"Damn it... damn it... DAMN IT ALL!!!" Leorio yelled and he burst off running down the tunnel, zooming past us. Gon smiled, and I stared at the dust trail he'd left behind. Gon took out his fishing rod and swung it, grabbing Leorio's forgotten briefcase and catching it.

"Woah, awesome! Can I try that later?" Killua asked. "Me too!" I said, raising my hand. Gon thought for a moment. "Ok, but only if Killua lets me use his skateboard," he said and grinned. "Deal," Killua agreed.

I looked down the tunnel and had an idea. "Hey, do you guys wanna race to the end?" I asked with a grin. "Yeah! I was just gonna say that! Loser has to buy a meal for the winners," Gon said. "I'm in," Killua said with a smirk.

We got into a starting position. "Ready, set, GO!" I said and the three of us took off running down the dark tunnel.