Landing noiselessly in a bare three-by-three meters room, made from bare concrete slabs, Chuu glanced around. Completely empty sans a bland postament and a sign above it, dimly lit by a lone wall lamp. A rupor in one of the corners looked like a relic of the previous decades, big and angular. Coming from a crouch, she noticed a single digital watch on the platform.

A solitary route, then, Chuu nodded to herself. Good.

“The Sky Path. Long road and patient enduring lays ahead of you,” she read off of the tableau, her eyebrows flying high at the brevity and lack of instructions. She put the bracelet on her wrist, over the glove. It counted down the remaining time, but had nothing else of interest.

A nondescript door opened loudly, revealing a path in what previously looked like a solid wall. From it, notably stale air slowly filled the room. 

Chuu left the room with the silent rupor behind, and began making her way down the hall, trying to hear any noise from the tower.

It was, unsurprisingly, silent.

Concrete structures were nice this way.

This route was a much-needed change of pace, far from any imminent headaches or worries as long as she focused on her task and her task only. Girls and Hisoka moved to the background, unreachable, silent and completely out of her hands. Whether they were fine (hopefully, girls) or not (she could dream, Hisoka), was impossible for her to know now.

Given how spread out were the entrances they found, chances that others were also on solitary routes were high. That included Hisoka - Chuu made sure to keep track of the direction he wandered off. Unless there were merging routes further down the line, they wouldn’t encounter him.

And afterwards, if they were lucky, Hisoka would ignore them as he did up to this point, for the rest of the exam. If he was also inclined to act professional - Chuu snorted - he would include her in that list.

As she neared a dead end of the long hall, a door opened, leading her to a waide staircase that went on and on, before obscuring after an especialy abrupt turn. The path looked like someone just threw sharp and curved turns at random. Which probably was almost true - this was a prison-made-frequent-exam-ground. This staircase was likely an afterthought, accommodating various obstacles and trap rooms on other paths.

Chuu listened again, flooding her ears with nen, a trick she picked up long ago, from but there was still no sign of other participants. As it dissipated, her senses returned to normal and she was reminded once again of the stale air. Chuu frowned at that, but continued on.

She knew Hisoka's standards well enough by now, from all the commissions they ran for him. Starting with search for new possible opponents from more closed-off circles and unknown communities (even if he rarely followed up on the information they provided, despite paying for it a special price - doubled, for him), to finding the fruits that he left for later, for a rare check-up on their progress.

Chuu was also  familiar with his standards because she used herself as a gauge more often than not. He loved suggesting a fight to her every single time he contacted them. Being the most combat-oriented out of the three of them, she carried the brunt of his attention. Yves was a pretty decent fighter too! But, uh, Chuu had to admit that their leader was nowhere close.

They sometimes joked about Go Won stealthily assassinating him, but all of them knew that would never happen. 

Regardless, he was tolerable as long as they weren’t meeting in person. He was one of their regular customers, after all.

She felt confident in her assertions regarding Hisoka’s targets. HeeJin - pass, sweet fortunate girl. HyunJin - who knows, Chuu didn’t actually notice anything special about her, sans higher endurance, physical strength, appetite and shortened recovery period. That all looked uncomfortably familiar, but nothing exceptional either, not yet, at least.

Choerry... Only God knew what she was and what she could do. 

Earlier, when threatened with failure at cooking stage, Chuu had to shield both HyunJin and HeeJin from a certain death. Choerry, hopefully unknown to herself, oozed nen so potent and malicious, the closest unlucky examinee to their group keeled dead there and then. A couple of others were stuck gasping for air in frozen panic, but ultimately lived... albeit none of them walked out of the airship to make another attempt at a second phase. No doubt, they were physically scarred.

It wasn’t as bad, per say, as Hisoka’s bloodlust, but not that much better either.

Either a solid mediocrity in terms of fighting abilities with short temper... or someone gave her some stellar education and the girl was much more dangerous than Chuu first assumed.

She really, really hoped Choerry was just unaware of her actions at that time. 

If not... Well. Chuu probably should warn Go Won and Yves that she might have to resort to an emergency exit, huh?..

She stopped.

Hm. Not a minute passed, tete-a-tete with herself, and her mind began filling the space between her steps on its own volition.

When did she become such a worrywart?

That was rhetoric.

Chuu inwardly sighed and continued walking.

She preferred to have company on missions, whether friendly or not, for this exact reason. Chuu obviously could keep track of Yves and Go Won from anywhere (she brushed over their tags again, on the other side of the world, calm, confident, bored, not physically active), but this exam proved already that her need for a company was worse than she assumed.

...On the second thought, maybe the solitary route wasn’t all that great for her. 

A stair gave out from under her foot.

Thank God! - flashed in her head as Chuu lunged forward, pushing off of a step over, as the next one already started to careen to one side.

The spikes beneath those steps pointed at her invitingly for a split second, before she was gone.

Even without nen, Chuu ran faster than most could track, leaving steps to fall far, far behind her, breezing through the never-ending staircase.

The tower was known to be deadly for an average wanna-be Hunter, sometimes even more than the other phases. Chuu was curious to see what level Judging Committee deemed as an entry-level.

She already heard about the Trick Tower from Yves when she had her exam. She landed on a path of two, that, a quarter away from the finish line, stated that only one goes further. Her co-examinee was so determined to force Yves to forfeit her chance, that he never stepped out of that room again.

The staircase ended, turning into a long and twisty hall, but Chuu kept her speed. Her hope was that the next room had better air, because at this point it was turning a little bit into annoyance. 

Involuntarily, her mind made a guess on how HeeJin and HyunJin would fare here. She didn’t ask for it and while the answer wasn’t a definite death, this thought stirred her carefully pushed-out fear.

Okay, so, admittedly, HeeJin was in more danger here. HyunJin was tenacious. She completed all of the previous phases on her own, not much to be worrying about past the general what-ifs and Hisoka.

But that didn’t mean that HeeJin was helpless, far from it - if there was a fight, she would have a rather good chance to win against random examinee. Chuu haven't seen her sable in action, but the way HeeJin maneuvered around the great stamp during the second phase, spoke of great balance and dodging skills. A bit slow for her taste, but everybody starts somewhere.

Chuu saw how the girl led it to a rock and leapt on top of it, pushing off of the mossy surface, leaving the boar to barrel right into it. The impact against fortified snout did no damage, but the momentarily pause from it let letting HeeJin land a solid hit with the scabbard.

And that was after the marathon earlier! HeeJin looked dead when Chuu and Choerry caught up with them before the cooking phase, for goodness sake!

At the first glance, she would have never labeled the definitely pampered girl as “determined” or “resilient”, but Chuu was proved delightfully wrong.

Well... It was not completely unexpected. HeeJin had a good reason to persist, after all.

A sudden need for a document from a well-raised, well-fed, well-cuddled (have you seen that flawless scarless skin and sheer quality of that waist-low hair?) girl who had shaky knowledge of the basic basics of cooking? Yeah.

Chuu tsked. She won’t be prying, since she was in a similar position once. The difference was that none of them sought legal sources or extra comfort. And also were a trio of professionals who didn't need anything, really, but that’s beside the point.

However, she still wished Choerry would poke HeeJin just as she was poking Chuu at first. Alas, it looked like the purplehead wasn’t as nosy with those two. Unfortunate, but understandable. 

On this note, she ceased being annoying towards Chuu after swamp altogether, now that she thought about it. Was that a permanent thing or were they just taking a break?

Either way it was nice, even if it was fleeting.

...She. Looped back to these thoughts again.

This was precisely why Chuu wasn’t keen on the whole “get new friends, its healthy for you” idea. The ones who weren’t on her skill level were too worrisome, haunting her with the worst scenarios of what could happen to them. The other ones, who could stand their ground? Her trust in the wrong person could put all of them in danger. And the stronger the person was, the more likely they were to become a problem.

Chuu grimaced. It was so hypocritical of Yves and Go Won to tell her to “get new friends” while doing none of that during their exams!

She took a sharp turn and saw that the hall morphed back into stairs.

That went upward.

“Ah,” thought Chuu. “‘Long road’.”

---

Air continued to be stale as she entered the next hall, the door opening when Chuu was right in front of it and closing immediately as she passed. If anything, it became even heavier. The tendency was uninspiring and she mentally labeled air “oxygen-deprived”, since “stale” description didn't describe it properly.

But it wasn't the only annoying thing here.

Chuu was the first to admit that she was bad with distances and measurements outside of nen application, but if she had to guess, the stairs led her to almost the same level that she started on.

The new hall was wide and lined from wall to wall with the pressure plates on the floor, each having a pattern on it. Chuu could barely see the door on the opposite end of it.

She scratched her temple. This one she could just ignore, but if mental exercise and low oxygen air was where this all was heading to, this route was about to be changed from “bothersome” to “bull”.

---

“Congratulations,” said Chuu to nobody in particular. “You are promoted”.

Rupor on the ceiling, pointing towards a long, slowly descending in a barely-noticeable curve ramp, stayed silent. She had a sneaking suspicion it went around the whole tower.

How wonderful.

---

As time passed, Chuu had come to several conclusions. First, she had to begrudgingly admit that low oxygen was a decent hindrance. Even to her. Strong and resilient she might be, there was nothing she could do to avoid being affected. Chuu pushed off of the platform she was on with a bit more force than necessary, leaving a footprint in the cracked concrete. It wasn’t detrimental to her, but it was annoying nonetheless, being sluggish and slightly disoriented for seemingly no reason.

Credit where it’s due, it was a decent handicap for examinee of almost any level. 

Second conclusion - “traps” on her path could be generally broken down in two types.

There was a general transitional type with some traps sprinkled over it for flavor: falling stairs, dropping ceiling, slowly pushing together walls, hidden pressure plates in thin hallways, triggering anything from darts to electrocution, depending on the noticeability of it, etcetera. It forced the examinee to be constantly on alert, battling the spinning head and decreased patience. Having gone through many tests and training grounds in her youth, Chuu intellectually respected the thoughtfulness of how well it all worked together. 

She just wished someone else got it.

Passageways were long, as a rule, going in every direction, including straight upwards, halls and stairs and ramps. Their sole purpose was to waste her time and grate on her nerves. 

The second type of obstacle, though, was uncomparingly worse in her personal opinion. As Chuu only encountered reactionary traps, she assumed she got this in the bag.

Until she walked into one of those "stuck until you solve the puzzle" rooms for the first time as a naive little creature, and emerged as a beast.

The room greeted her with a large tableau on the wall and a horizontal panel with nine on nine depressions placed in a grid under it. In the corner, close to the tablet, stood a barrel full of colored rocks with slightly varied pictograms drawn on them.

Air, unsurprisingly enouh, was the same as it was before.

Upon closer inspection, tableau was a series of thin slabs placed one after another. The top one had a three by three matrix of symbols with a row of four question marks placed vertically to the right of it.

Realization dawned on her.

Who was responsible for designing this path?!

Chuu messaged Go Won in hopes for some cheating but there was no reply. She paid attention to her hatsu and it seemed that both the princess and their leader were patiently stealthing in Zetsu for whatever reason. Negotiation failed or was that already a follow-up?...  

Whatever. Chuu resigned herself to being stuck here for a while, considering the number of tablets underneath the top one.

Huffing, she turned the barrel over, scattering the stones on the floor. Kicking some of them out of the way, Chuu placed a make-shift stool in front of the tableau. Pouting at the puzzle, she took out a small promotional notepad, somewhat ready to tackle the obstacle.

---

She was done! Done done done done done done! With the puzzle, her route, the tower, other examinees, with herself, with the ing air, Chuu was done!

She didn’t care about the examiners and their opinions, about the sadistic architect of the trial, she was done with this bull of a puzzle and God help her if they put another one in front of her! Chuu would punch every encountered door into debris, she was heading to the base of the tower and she was racing.

The observers better open the doors according to her speed or start ordering new ones now.

An hour! A full hour passed in that goddamn room! At some point she had to meditate to calm herself down because her head was starting to spin and there was no vents leading into that room. Chuu went through so many different variants, she was this close to tearing the room apart!

She was leaving this path behind her as fast as possible and nobody could stop her. 

---

After hours of running and crawling through hallways covered in dust from what seemed years of disuse, feeling much calmer, Chuu stared at the hatch in the floor. This was new.

Chuu pushed it open and stared down in the abyss. Rough in-built ladder went down, disappearing somewhere deep, where even nen-enhanced eyesight couldn’t reach. 

Chuu jumped in, grabbing metal handles, methodically climbing down and further away from the entrance. Lights lit up only when she was rather close, lighting up just enough to get to the next one, so there was no tell how of far the shaft went. She contemplated prying one of the handles off and throwing it down to have at least an estimate. On one side, it didn't matter, on the other, it was some destruction and Chuu would greatly appreciate some destress, but also examiners might not approve...

She grabbed the handle above her and tore it out of concrete, bending it under the force. 

Its clanging went on and on and on...

Hah. Its fall lasted so long, Chuu got absolutely nothing from it!

Except some petty satisfaction. Which was a win in her books.

To be fair, the tunnel in and of itself was great - Chuu was beginning to feel she made almost no progress vertical-wise and, unless there was a second tunnel she would have to climb up, this helped her by leaps and bounds!

After ten or so minutes of climbing, Chuu scratched her nose.

How fast she could climb at her fastest?

Was it faster than gravity or?..

Chuu let go, falling freely for a couple seconds, before catching handles again with both her hands and feet. She let go again. And again...

In two minutes she reached the floor. Dusting off her dress, she patted herself on the shoulder, both mentally and physically,  - climbing would’ve taken ages!

On the side of the shaft a door opened and she stepped through into, oooh, something new! A maze!

---

Most of her way down was spent in either that puzzle room or on stairs and halls. Given how many of the noticeable doors ignored her, she suspected that she got the longest route of them all distance-wise.

Chuu wouldn’t be surprised if her path went through at least half of the halls in the tower.

She rushed through the traps: another pressure plates on the floor puzzle, one puzzle that had the floor fall underneath her, one wall-climbing that, by her shaky estimation, went back up somewhere around a quarter or a fifth of the previous ladder and another two goddamn pattern puzzle rooms. Linking all of them were long halls and staircases that Chuu fondly regarded as time-ers and just sprinted through. Crawling tunnels made sprinting troublesome, but she went as fast as possible in those too. Oxygen-deficient air was no longer so grating for her, serving instead as a reminder to end this quicker. 

Still, the hours ticked by. If Chuu assumed that restrooms were spread roughly six to seven hours of estimated successful progress away from each other, she had to be getting close to the bottom of the tower.

She arrived at a square room that looked like an arena next. On the opposite side of the room, there were draped silhouettes in tiny cells, five in total, thick bars separating them from the main room.

Please be what Chuu thought it was.

For the first time in her descend, a rupor , with click that made her wince. 

“To proceed, win three rounds. Prisoners are deciding on victory conditions, you pick the opponent before the rule reveal.”

Chuu squinted, trying to discern shapes behind the bars. She picked the burliest, pointing a finger at them. “The first door on the right from the entrance.” 

“Please challenge me to a fight”, she thought. “Please challenge to a fight.”

Bars from the selected cell slowly moved up and a two-meter tall figure quietly approached her. Slow steps, each made with ease and confidence in themself.

“I challenge you to a fight!" boomed masculine voice as he threw off a hood, revealing a weathered tattooed face. A crooked smirk, dripping with superiority, split his face. "To the death!”

Chuu grinned.

---

“Second to pass - applicant ten! Time elapsed: nine hours, forty minutes!” Announcement was loud enough to be heard through the rumble of the door and Chuu let out a small victorious yelp.

She stepped into a huge round room with a almost six meter tall ceiling and dozens upon dozens of doors on the perimeter. The room was brightly lit by sparse lamps in the walls and four raised bowls with flame in the center, making it almost well-lit. The best part of the room was in its air - a normal blessed air that wasn’t tampered with in any way. Bless!

Across the room from her, was Hisoka, now staring directly at her. Two blood streaks from his wounds stood out on his top, stark contrast with icy-blue color of his suit.

There was only Hisoka. 

Oh no.

As the door went back down behind her motionless form, Chuu rankled through her memory. Did wounds make him more excited. Did it affect him outside of battle. When was he ever interested in acting professional.

Tense seconds passed with neither of them moving. 

In silence, extremely slowly, Chuu walked to the side and sat against the wall, not breaking eye contact with Hisoka for a split second. Her biggest interest was whether he would want to fight right now more or to keep them as their informants. It was a heavier, less funny thought now, when it grew into a very real concern. 

He smiled and waved at her.

Chuu made a small wave in return.

Hisoka broke the eye contact and pulled out a deck of cards, shuffling them. Chuu waited, ready.

In a second, he began building a tower, playing by himself.

After two minutes of watching his peacefulness, Chuu tore her gaze away and took out her phone, automatically opening Yves’ dialogue. Partially to ask for guidance, partially as a distraction.

Alas, no matter how big the room was, being one on one with Hisoka was an uncomfortable experience. She hoped more people would come in soon.

Over sixty-two hours left until the end of the third phase.

---

-Extra-

Previous day, 7th of January

Application Pestercard

[embroideringCutie] opened a temporary dialog with [vanillaMiracle] at 01:40

[EC]: WHY DIDNTYIU REMIND ME ABOUT HIM

[EC]: HE IS HERE

[VM]: Who?

[EC]: HYSKOA

[EC]: HISKKA

[EC]: THE PSYCHTIC GERDENER

[VM]: I’m sure I warned you

[VM]: Wait a moment, Ill ask DT

[VM]: She says i told you after my exam

[EC]: HE IS RIGHT HERE OH GOD V VM HE IS NEN WINKING AT ME

[VM]: He is not, he wouldnt be too obvious

[EC]: HE TOOK OUT HISCARDS

[VM]: Siiiiiiiiiiiiii

[VM]: iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

[VM]: iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

[EC]: VM!!!

[VM]: iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

[VM]: Just move further away, there has to be a lot of participants at this point

[EC]: Wonnilla

[EC]: he is 44th

[VM]: Suiting

[EC]: there arent nearly enough people here!

[EC]: ????

[EC]: nmd

[EC]: returning to the topic

[EC]: WHY DIDN’T YOU REPEAT YUOR WARNING

[VM]: I thought it wasn’t needed, miss how-dare-you-doubt-my-memory

[VM]: Just censor Hisoka out. Go say hello to someone, get to know someone passable, forget about him

[VM]: It is too early here

[VM]: Annoy someone disposable

[VM]: OR a better idea

[VM]: You can make some friends for a change? Hmm?

[VM]: Remember that DT explicitly asked you to?

[EC]: friends, sure

[EC]: like you did? :I

[VM]: He ruined that possibility for me! 

[VM]: And FORGET about him already

[EC]: unnie, its impossible

[EC]: no one is able to forget about him!

[VM]: Except you, apparently

[EC]: (╥﹏╥)

[EC]: theres just a lot on my mind,

[EC]: Wo-nni-lla

[EC]: I know you are tying to fall back asleep! :<

[EC]: get back here and keep me company!

[EC]: welp, you are asleep

[EC]: Im

[EC]: so

[EC]: boooooooooooored

[EC]: ugh

[EC]: this is a circus of fashion disasters

[EC]: and not only in fashion

[EC]: I look around and might as well see zombies, they look HOPELESS VP

[EC]: HOPELESS

[EC]: wastes back home showed more promise then they do!

[EC]: when are you going to wake up again :C

[EC]: it HAS to be one of the dullest halls ive EVER been stuck in. We are just standing in big dark dull room underground and everyone is SO grumpy

[EC]: okay fine got it Ill patiently wait for your princess sleep to end

[EC]: :D!!

[EC]: morniiiing!!!!

[VM]: I can keep you company until we need to get going

[VM]: But don’t expect any excitement. If you forgot, we’re in the same timezone

[EC]: one weirdo here offered me to drink some canned juice he brought. Is he stupid? Stranger danger aside, who would take a drink from a stranger at the HUNTER EXAM?!

[VM]: Ah, him. Joy. If you could kill him off subtly without any examiners noticing, youll do a favor to future generations

[EC]: I mean I did obviously, got curious what was in i

[EC]: ??????

[EC]: wow

[EC]: good morning, you are clearly still asleep this is hunter exam killing is allowed

[VM]: Yes, but having a good impression would be nice, E C

[EC]: huh?

[VM]: You told me to play nice the previous year, remember?

[EC]: oh, right

[EC]: !!!!!

[EC]: THERE IS A CUTE GIRL INCOMING

[EC]: MY AGE NOT FASHIOM DISASTER PIGTALES SISTER GOTTA GO BYEE

[embroideringCutie] left the dialog

[VM]: Have fun, EC

[vanillaMiracle] closed the dialog with [embroideringCutie] at 04:21

Dialog is being deleted.. .