Chapter 8

"GOAL!" the three of us shouted in unison as we passed Satotz. "Yes, I won!" Gon exclaimed and pumped his first. "No way, it was me, so you both have to buy me dinner!" Killua argued. "No, I was clearly the winner!" I claimed.

"Hey mister, which one of us crossed the line first?" Gon asked Satotz. The examiner blinked, breaking free from his train of thoughts. "Oh, I believe you all crossed the finish line simultaneously," he said.

Killua groaned. "Aw, seriously? Then who buys dinner for who?" I asked. Gon thought for a moment. "I got it!" he said. "I'll buy dinner for Killua, Killua will buy dinner for Aki, and Aki will buy dinner for me!"

"Huh?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows. "That makes no sense..." Killua sighed.

After that whole event, we had to wait outside the tunnel for a while until the time for the applicants to get here was out. Once everyone was out, Satotz began talking about the next part of the first phase.

Out of nowhere, a man appeared behind the building with a monkey that looked a lot like Satotz. He claimed that Satotz was actually an imposter.

Wait a second... I think I remember this... didn't the guy with the Satotz-monkey actually turn out to be the imposter examiner? Wait, this is good! I'm starting to recover my memory of this show!

Just as I was thinking that, I saw a flash. Suddenly, everything turned black and white. Time slowed down tremendously. I gasped and looked around. Everything had been slowed down... except for me. My body also remained in color while everything else was black and white.

I glanced ahead and saw several cards slowly making their way towards Satotz, and the other towards the imposter. And... cards headed towards me. Hisoka's arm was slightly outstretched. He definitely threw them. It was just a little slower than the other two groups of cards, but still, I could see them moving.

My eyes widened as the cards came closer. Without thinking, I lifted my hand and caught the cards out of the air. It's a good thing I did that too, because when time returned back to normal, the imposter was dead, bloody cards sticking out of his stomach.

The Satotz-monkey blinked and scurried away in a panic. Satotz was unharmed- he was holding the cards that had been aimed at him.

What just... happened to me? Satotz said something, but I wasn't really paying attention. I glanced down at the slightly steaming cards in my hand. All three of them were the Ace of Spades. The Hisoka's eyes widened before he grinned at me and walked away into the crowd.

I felt someone tugging on my shirt. Huh? Did I just... almost die? I stopped spacing out and realized that Gon was pulling my shirt. "Come on, Aki! We'll get left behind!" he said. I blinked. "Oh, sorry. Come on, let's go."

"Hey, are you ok?" Gon asked while we were running. I smiled to reassure him. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"But back with the fake examiner, you were spacing out, and you had this strange look on your face. And where did those cards come from?" Gon asked. "Oh, this? Nothing, it's nothing! I just... found them in my pocket," I laughed nervously, shoving the cards in my pants pocket.

"Hey guys... I think we should move up," Killua said. "Oh yeah, good idea! We need to stick close to the examiner," Gon agreed. Killua glanced behind us, eyebrows furrowed.

"It's not just that... Hisoka's behind us, and I don't like the looks of him," I said. Killua nodded. "I can smell it in the air," he said. Gon sniffed the air. "Smell? I don't smell anything..."

I sighed but smiled at Gon. He could be so clueless sometimes.