♡

"Now then, the Hunter exam comittee runs this hotel, so I want all of you to make yourselves at home until the battles are over. For the final phase of the Hunter exam, you will be competing in a one on one tournament. Here is the bracket we out together."

Aph rubbed her hands excitedly after seeing she would be fighting against Hisoka first. It had been a while since their last fight, and back then, her Nen was still much weaker, just like her body.

"Under these circumstances, everyone gets at least two chances to win a round!"

"Yeah, but some people can get five chances to win." Pokkle pointed out.

"Now that's fair, but this bracket was designed based on each of your individual performences throughout the hunter exam. Those who were rated highly will have the Mist chances to win."

"I don't get it. Can you explaining how exactly you scored our performances?"

"No!" Aph jumped at the old man's sudden shout and almost jumped up again to cling to the ceiling if it hadn't been for Gon holding her shoulders down and telling her to calm down.
"But I can explain the criteria we used."
'Damn you, chairman.'

And the rest was simply too many words for Aph's brain to make sense out of. She was a dumb child with short attention span, her head was for survival and not lectures. What she did understand was that the winner of each match gets their license and the loser moves to the next fight. To win, you had to make your opponent admit defeat, and if you killed them, you were disqualified.

The thought of killing someone immediatly made Aph remember that time she got involved with the government and was hired to assassinate someone. Since it was her first ever kill, she used some interesting ways to cope with it.

The girl let herself dangle up side down a few meters above the pavement from a rope that was connected to a rooftop. The two bodyguards of her target quickly recovered from the scare and went to move in front of them, but they weren't fast enough.

A blood-curling grin spread across the young girl's face, baby fat on her cheeks lifting up and innocent eyes glinting with bloodlust.
"VIBE CHECK!"

It would be the last thing her target would ever hear, as the bullet was already fired and busting through their skull.

Ah, a fond day to remember.

"First off, Aphrodite vs Hisoka! Please step into the middle of the room."

She hadn't even realized Gon still had his hands on her shoulders until he suddenly took them off and she got cold. Was this guy a human shaped heater?

"You shouldn't do anything risky. Surrender if you could get seriously injured."
"Sure thing, Mamapika." She grinned over her shoulder.

A frown fell onto her face as she looked down at her feet.
"Just a second." She rumaged through her backpack and eventually pulled out some duct tape.

The expressions following her were laughable as she ripped off a big strip and liftet her left foot, hopping around not to fall over. Her dark blue sock greeted them as it was revealed that her soles were litterally just barely hanging on. She quickly pushed the sole up and wrapped the tape around the sides to keep it together. After the second shoe was done, she left her backpack behind and finally went up to the waiting Hisoka.

Aph internally smirked at the eyes burning into her back. Hisoka stood before her, eyes glinting with excitement. This was going to clash with her efforts of training him, but for some reason, she was itching to finally get in a good nen fight. This was going to be fun.

"Start!"

At first, they stood. Still and silent, like wild animals stalking their prey. Their auras flared up, quickly, filling the room with tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. The two shared a knowing smirk.

Multiple gasps could be heard behind her. She was facing away from the appliciants, so she couldn't see the terrified expressions. Leorio managed to squeeze words from his tight throat.
"You don't have to fight him! There's gonna be more rounds!"

But she didn't respond. Instead, she giggled and help up her index finger. Hisoka pulled out a card.
"No bungee gum."
"No expanding."

Aph grinned. Hisoka was aware he had no chance in a small room, he knew he would be helpless once she used her easiest way to win a fight, by simply expanding her aura until it reached him.

She conjured two invisible small spears to float over her head. Without Nen, her friends couldn't see them, but she knew they could feel. And then all hell broke loose.

Hisoka dashed forward, throwing two cards in the process. Aph easily dodged, but noticed too late that it was a trap. His fist almost came in contact with her face when she let her feet slip to crouch down. His knee was already on its was towards her gut, but she used the momentum of her still slipping feet to slide under it and elbow the back of his knee.

A weak attack, improvised out of pure instincts and only her momentum of dodging. She didn't even attempt to block.

It was easy for Hisoka to turn, despite his buckling knee, and throw a punch. Aph dodged, again, and was slightly suprised by how slow this one punch was. Was he holding back?

'Nope, seems like he's not.'

Turns out the speed was slower for more precision in the direction the card was flying. She managed to move out of the way enough to not let it get stuck, but it still grazed her thigh.

Hisoka let out a suprised grunt when she ran straight at him, something she never did. Further shocking the man, she side-stepped to his left and got into a stance ready to attack. She never attacked hand-to-hand, weapons were her style.

But even when it seemed like she was going for a punch, she used her long legs to her advantage and kicked the right side of his stomach. Hisoka raised an amused eyebrow when he realized her physical weakness compared to him and was just pushed back a bit by the fully landed kick.

Aph started smiling and breathed out through her nose, before jumping back. He realized his mistake.

"My turn."

The magician's eyes widened at what he saw. It was Aph, but just Aph. The daggers floating above her head were gone. He was exactly where she wanted him to be.

His gyo flared up, searching for the floating aura. It was hard to catch with his still charged up cards on the floor being much more powerful. Another mistake. Aph only needed the tiniest bit of aura to take control of his own. This made it easy to hide traps within fights for her.

When he spotted the two daggers closing in on him close to the floor, aiming for his ankles, he simply jumped up. Such an easy attack to dodge. She really thought she outsmarted him. He chuckeled at that, looking forward to meet her gaze, while still going up. Aph smirked.

Third mistake.

It started at the back of his neck, and within the blink of an eye, through his body and heart, growing vines around his guts and pulling. This cold, unwelcome feeling rushing through his being.

"I put one right under the ceiling.", she stated with a sickly sweet smile, lifting up her finger again. Like a taunt, she moved it back the smallest bit, and it made Hisoka's stomach turn. Right now, she had his life in her calloused, playful hands.
"You're getting sloppy."

"I surrender." He tried to sound playful, but it came out forced with a shuddered breath. Once she retracted her own aura and left him his, she skipped over to Leorio. The examiners' breath hitched. What they had seen was Hisoka's aura being manipulated right before their eyes, seemingly against his will. They had no idea she was this powerful.

(More one her nen abilities later, I swear this will be less confusing once it's explained)

"I'm a hunter now! I can murder people and get away with it!" She laughed at everyone's shocked faces. Kurapika was the first to catch himself.
"What was that?"

"Hm?" She blinked, a confused smile gracing her features.
"He asked you what the fuck that was."
"No swearing in front of Gon. And it was just a fight!" She ruffled Killua's hair.

Everyone eventuelly shook off the weird feeling lingering in the air, and the fights continued.

'Wow, now that I think about it, these shoes used to be much more comfortable... I've been walking miles on then every day for years, they're definitely dead. But I need money to buy a new pair. Or should I help out in a shoe shop for a week and get them as payment? But I don't think that's how proper businesses work...'

"hUh?! We're already starting?!" She looked around in a confused manner, until she realized that no one was paying attention to her and were instead watching what was happening in the middle of the room, where–

Hisoka was fighting Kurapika?! When did that happen?

"Oreoman, do you think he'll be alright?", she whispered, unsure if telling the pun she just remembered would be acceptable at this moment.
"Maybe."

She guessed that she had spaced out for a couple of minutes, judging by the cuts on Kurapika and- OH SHEET HE MANAGED TO SCRATCH HISOKA YES THAT'S MY WIFE EVERYONE!

Hisoka suddenly got real close to the blonde and leaned down. Aph saw his lips move to whisper something, though she couldn't read what it was. She could feel Kurapika's natural aura flare in anger. Did his eyes just turn red? Lemme see-

"✨𝓘 𝓼𝓾𝓻𝓻𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻✨" Hisoka did his dann model walk, leaving behind a shaking Kurapika and making Aph wonder if she could talk in cool fonts with Emojis too.

The blond's back was turned to them, which made it impossible for his friends to see his expression. From the slight trembling of his shoulders, Aph got a little worried. He was her friend, and yet she didn't know how to help.

"Pika, are you okay?" It lacked the usual overdramatic emphasizing, leaving behind a voice softer than they could have expected. She could see her squad looking suprised out of the corner of her eye, but didn't pay them any attention, as Kurapika returned to his spot. She stood close to him, their shoulders touching. It was kind of hard to resist the urge to fawn over him like a mother hen.

The air felt dense as Kurapika's win was officially announced, which meant that he was now a hunter. It was silent for a moment, until Killua spoke up.
"I didn't know you could speak normally."
"Oh don't give me that shit, Linda. I'm always this kind."
"Here we go again..."
"You shouldn't have said anything!"

Next were Gon and Hanzo. The two stepped up to the middle of the room and faced each other.

"I'm Masta. I'll be serving as referee for the tournament. Good luck." Aph pulled a grimace at the referee. That Masta guy didn't even care to indroduce himself before her match.

"Hey, good to see you again. You were the one tailing me around the fourth phase." Aph rolled her eyes at Hanzo. Does he ever stop talking? In the whole three days before where they bonded, an unusual relationship of friendly annoyance formed between the two.

"You noticed that?"

"Naturally. I assumed that each of the examiners was assigned an examinee to follow. Well, I'm sure I wasn't the only one who noticed."

"I noticed but didn't think it was worth mentioning." Kurapika whispered. Leorio grumbled something under his breath, making Aph snort and give him a very manly pat on the back, which almost knocked the poor guy down.

"I'm very grateful. You recognized my talent and as result, my rank improved. But no suprise there really!"
'You're so full of yourself.'

"Sure but-"
"Now, moving on." 'What the fuck let him talk' "I have a question for you. We can only win if our opponent surrenders, correct? Knocking them unconscious doesn't count. No t.k.o's either?"
"Right, those are the rules." Masta stepped back. "Now, time to start!"

It was less of a fight and more of a one-sided training session with Gon as a living dummy.

Gon started by dashing forward, confident in his speed, only to realize Hanzo was faster. With a chop to the neck, he fell to the floor. Aph winced in sympathy and held a hand to her own head.

"Now, if this were a regular match, I'd be declared the winner."
'Don't act like it's not a real match, the rules just don't fit your style.'
"Come on, pull yourself together. You must feel awful. I hit you hard enough to bounce your brain around your skull. You get it? You don't stand a chance. Just give up and spare yourself the trouble."

It was painful to just stand there and watch the little sunshine get beaten up until he was nothing but a barely conscious puddle on the floor. Despite her uncaring behaviour, Aph couldn't just let that slip. Sure, this was supposed to be a fight and that guy was a ninja, but when the third hour started, she could barely contain her aura. Was the chairman insane?

Her hands kept twitching through the whole thing. Kurapika and Leorio were boiling in anger, while Killua kept silent.

"Enough already! I'm gonna kill you, you hear me?! Pick someone your own size!" Leorio burst out at one point.

"If you can't handle it you'd better leave. It's only going to get worse."
'That's not how you make yourself popular.'
"What the hell did you say!"

"There'll be no interference in a one-on-one match. Stay back! If you try to help him in any way, Gon will be instantly disqualified!" Masta held Leorio back.

"It's okay..." Gon spoke suddenly, standing up with much trouble. "Leorio... This is nothing... Really... I... Can still... Fight him!"
'No you can't. Look at yourself.'

Aph grit her teeth as Hanzo kicked his feet from under him. Gon fell back to the floor, and when she recognized the spots where Hanzo grabbed him, she spoke in a warning tone. "Hanzo, that's a child."

The ninja shot her a half hearted look. "I'll break your arm. I'm not kidding. Now say it. Say you surrender."

"Never!"

- crack -

Without a second thought, Aph turned around and marched through the door. Pokkle gave her a pityful look and a pat on the back.

In the hallway, she slapped both hands against her cheek in an attempt to cheer up. 'Getting protective now, are we? Gon will be fine, he always manages.'

She bounced on her feet and took a deep breath. There wasn't enough patience left in her to keep watching without doing anything. Getting attached to another person was new, and she wasn't sure if it was good or bad in the long run.

It only took a couple of minutes before the door opened again. She took one look and immediatly rushed over to one of the examiners carrying Gon.
"Who won?"

Aph ignored his protests as she took the boy into her own arms and kept carrying him where ever they were going. He realized she wouldn't budge and sighed.
"Hanzo ended up surrendering, to everyone's suprise."
"Of course he did. Annoying little man. I'll smack his big bald head once I get back."

She was led to an infirmary, where she carefully layed Gon down on a bed. The already waiting nurse thanked the two and immediatly got to work.

And let me tell you, when she went back, she did smack him. Hard. Hanzo's attention diverted from the ongoing match between Hisoka and Bodoro. Pokkle behind them snorted, to which she quickly wrapped and arm around his shoulders and pulled him between them. Hanzo let out an offended gasp when she grabbed Pokkle's arm and used it to hit him again.
"Traitor!"

"Wha- I didn't-"
"How dare you hurt my child!" She ignored Pokkle, succesfully making him scowl. "The essence of these matches aren't physical abilities, but mental strength! You dumb bitch, did you even think about the rules?!"
"Shut it! I know!"
"Then why'd you still hurt him!"

They stepped closer, trapping poor Pokkle squeezed in the middle of it.
"I can do what I want!"
"Catch me outside how 'bout that!"
"Oh you wanna rumble?!"
"Bet. First to get both ears cut off loses."

"Be quiet, you two!" They both looked down at small, weak Pokkle with blank expressions. He suddenly felt really pathetic.
"Nah."
"No."

"Enough! Shut up!" All three simultanously looked at Leorio. Hanzo raised an eyebrow, Aph barked, and Pokkle's mild social anxiety thanked him. After a small staredown, the last-minute-studying quartet turned their attention back to the fight.

Bodoro kept refusing to give up, even though he was already injured. Only when Hisoka had him on the floor and leaned down to whisper something in his ear did he admit defeat.

The next matches were kinda boring. Pokkle went against Hanzo and gave up almost immediatly, which was understandable after seeing what he did to Gon. Next was Killua against Pokkle, which was also cut short when Killua thought he would be boring to fight and admittet defeat.

When it was time for Leorio and Bodoro's match, Leorio asked to postpone it because of Bodoro's injuries. So that's how Killua ended up facing off with Gitterackur.

"It's been a while, Kill."

Everyone watched in horror as he started plucking the needles out of his face one by one. His appearance started to change, and it was honestly really fun to watch.
'Hold on... Fish eyes, long hair, crop top... That's his brother!'

"Big brother..."
"Yo."

"He's Killua's brother?" Leorio whispered.
"He uses those needles to change his appearance?"

"I heard you stabbed mom and Milluki." Aph had to adapt to the sudden tension in the air and hold back a laugh at his blank expression.
"Guess so."
'Shit he looks so scared'
"You made mom cry."
'I wish I had a mother I could make cry.'

"Well who could blame her? Any parent would cry if their kid did that!"

"Tears if joy."

Leorio fucking died.

"She was so happy to see how much her son had grown up. But she's concerned about you being out on your own, and she asked me to check up on you if I got the chance. Lucky me, huh? I had absolutely no idea you wanted to be a hunter. As for me, I'm here to get a license for a job that's coming up."
'Is it possible to hate and love a person you just met at the same time? He's my spirit animal.'

Aph wandered off after that. Not physically, but mentally there was just a black void. That's what happens when a person forms too many smart sentences in a short time. She only knew that Gitterackur, or now Illumi, was using nen on Killua, who looked like he was having a panic attack. Well that's a traumatized child if I've ever seen one.

"Oh no, that's not good. So Gon already considers Kill a friend. Fine, then I'll just kill him."

She found her way back to reality when Illumi started walking towards the door and furrowed her brows.
"Assassins have no use for friends, they only get in the way. Where can I find Gon?"

"Please wait a second! The match is still-" Illumi cut the guard off by throwing a needle at his