H×H: 108 Stars of Destiny [IC]

[Raine]

Oz’s eyes glittered in envy of the behemoth his host’s had summoned for their transportation. The Argos is the current flagship of aero-fanatics the world over! The sleek silver and yellow exterior paints over  carbon-weaved metallurgy that slices through high-intensity wind currents like chainsaw through butter. The engine room bears the full heat of 26-spherical hammerheads that cry out like a heard of lions and in a 5-cycle overclocked state that culminates in 1,800 metric ton per meter torque base that can rip city foundations out of the ground. “Oh, my god… she’s more beautiful than I ever imagined,” Oz whispered to himself as he slowly crawled through the foyer of the airship. Oz had a standard relationship with the many details and models of airships. His childhood allowed him plenty of time to read and study, so he occasionally snuck a magazine of Air-Rider Monthly into his reading agenda since he was 10. The romance bloomed from there since, but his wallet never did to actually afford one. Ox pressed his cheek against the interior wall that was coated in burgundy lining and detailed to the nines with golden crowning along each and every wall segment. “I love you, baby,” he said seductively to the wall, “I’ll treat you right, I promise. Just let me love you…”.

 

At this point, Oz was getting the odd stare from the crew of the ship that wandered through cleaning and preparing for their newly arrived guests. He thought it was best to move along for now, Oz parted from the wall and blew a kiss back, “I’ll be in town. Call me!”

 

The rest of the ship didn’t fail to disappoint, built as lavishly and rich as he had hoped. The sentiment kicked into Oz, the design choices of the architect was obviously influenced deeply by the works of Lumerian nobility from the earlier half of the century. The trade boom of the decades caused the royalty with the available land to actually start a cultural arms race about how could have the most extravagant artwork and magnificent castles of their peers. The value of these various pieces and homes were astronomical and entirely funded by tariffs and mercantilism policies but it tarnished too much for it go unnoticed by the public even in hierarchal society and government of Lumeria. The peasant revolts showed those pricks the what-for though. The federal government crunched down hard but not before the city nobility was thrown in some cases, into flames. The Varak family from Varasha was actually put to the guillotine. But, no love, no loss. All that’s left from the period is these imitations of those good old days. It’s wonderful but a little sad. Stupid peasantry ruining those perfect works! I mean, yes, thy were living on slave wages in the urban cityscapes but Lumeria’s government still testifies that Shenglong secretly backed dissidents but that’s the name of the game in politics.

 

Oz had lost track of time and wondered lost until he finally found the dining hall. The vaulted ceilings and smell of gourmet food gave the wonderful social setting its flare. Oz thought it positively ugly how quickly these people forgot the deaths that led to this banquet but then again, he wasn’t shedding many tears either. Maybe he misjudged his competitors; they did remotely show potential in being hunters.

 

Oz’s injuries from the last 2 exams had dwindled to stings on his flesh but if he had a moment of reprieve he should take time to disinfect and bandage himself. But that would be for another time, for now, Oz feasted.

 

ARE YOU F**KING KIDDING ME! Oz was in disbelief, everything his airship was doing was beyond all imagination and performed without fault until he arrived at the food. His nose did not fool him, the food itself looked ravishing but the sheer idea that they would serve it on a BUFFET, blew Oz’s mind. How upscale can a BUFFET be. Did I murder and steal my way onto a top of the line pioneer of the sky or get a free voucher for rolling sevens at a craps table in New Falle!? Oz’s line of thought was interrupted by a large dog sneaking by and seizing a chicken leg. “The horse is still here?” he said quietly to himself.

 

He scanned the banquet hall for the remainder of his competition to spy on. Anemone was nowhere to be seen… or at least, able to see. After her childish antic about boarding first, he had lost sight of her. She might be in the room just too small in the crowd to see. The blue haired man-woman who blasted his tummy to kingdom come was also present, but Oz wasn’t too eager to revisit either her personality or her atrocious man-strength.  A cat girl was chatter boxing away with a fish girl, Oz refused to turn his attention to them. He was particularly against the two, in fact, he distinctly remembers having some remote interaction with them so far in these exams it’s just… Oz doesn’t like puns.

 

Oz didn’t eat. Oz was hungry but his non-violence protest of buffets would not be broken by something as trival as the Hunter Exams. As he passed through the room towards the living quarters, he noticed the gunman who was hitting on the red-head back at the first cabin. Such a sweetheart, Oz thought to himself, maybe I’ll hook him up on a date if we both get through this.

 

Shortly after scurrying around the corner to avoid the attention of the wolf-dog who plagued him since the beginning… no seriously, Oz thinks Alistair had it out for him at this point and being on an airship makes it mighty tempting for his enemies to send him 10,000 feet in a towards-the-planet’s-core direction. He knew Alistair wouldn’t do it without cause but Oz always considered himself a walking cause (for concern).

 

Moments after arriving at his assigned room, Oz stripped. [The following may or may not be an accurate representation of true events] Oz’s immaculate body shined like the undying sun, the obstacles he faced only strengthened his rock hard core and pulsing biceps.  He grunted at the tinge of pain that flashed as a damp cloth treated the sculpted collarbone where dry blood and masculine scars laid. Oz’s strut to the private bathroom gave him a flattering view of his Greek god body. The exam had layered dirt that stained him from his cut pectorals to chiseled thighs inciting a feeling of disgust to which Oz combed his fingers through his golden locks. [End of Segment]

 

The shower enlivened Oz’s spirits. He dressed himself in a towel and laid across his bed. Thoughts raced in his mind but it was generally optimistic. A chuckle came out of Oz, it didn’t seem as if his bad luck was right behind anymore. He tilted his head. There was another bed in the room. This was a room for two people. He was naked in a towel. He had forgotten to find a change of clothes.

 

Oz locked the door.

 

[spoiler=tl'dr]

-Oz talks about Airships

-Oz begins VN love route with Airship

-Oz tells small story about recent history in Lumeria

-Oz talks about people at the buffet

-Oz talks about his bad ass bod

-Oz is naked

[/spoiler]

[Love of Ghibli]

The shower was awesome. Lettess came out of the bathroom with a new found smell of cleanliness. It was definitely refreshing. Thanks this need for bathing he missed out on the carnage that had befallen the buffet. By the time he arrived with his only other change of clothes he looked as good as new. He looked around to watch as people feed and chatter. Thanks to all of the snack bars he had prepared earlier he didn't actually partake in any of the new food. He figured that everyone who survived would want a nice meal so he shouldn't take food from other people's mouths.

Lettess, instead, made his way backwards towards the kitchen where all of the lavish food came from. It was amazing! Fully stocked with cooked meats, spices and seasonings Lettess was awestruck. It looked like the staff was on break for the time being. Lettess looked side to side and then disappeared he literally started bouncing all across the fully stocked kitchen swiping things and putting them in his bag. He helped himself to a lot...including an extra set of knives in case he got into a hairy situation during the rest of this exam.

Hmmm he stated as he finished. I'll have to pay them back for everything once I get my first job as a hunter. Afterwards he made his way back to the room with his haul. By this point all of the excitement and events finally took their toll and he simply passed out on his bed.

[Maeriberii Haan]

The thought of her needing to be helped by that dumb bluehead brick of all people was completely upsetting for Nova. But, then again, it's not like she had a chance in getting past that redheaded psycho, who even managed to kill one of the wurms with ease. Definitely not something that she could get over on her own right now. She was still too weak right now, compared to some of the other monsters currently participating in the exam. Those two completely irritating demon twins, that zombie, that fire horse something that chased after her during the exam earlier that other goddamn redhead, the dumb brick, and the boy and his dog, among others. Right now, she was firmly outclassed by them, all due to her being too weak. Seeing her as helpless as she was right now, she considered to just give up on the exam and try other things instead, just like she had done again and again in other things, but...before she could decide on this, she had boarded the ship along with the others.

 

It's probably too late for her anyway to resign after coming this far.

 

[divider1]

 

The buffet was pleasant, and the physically drained Nova definitely wouldn't want to pass the chance to enjoy the nourishment presented before her. Taking the nearest piece of turkey leg she could get, she immediately munched on it like she hadn't eaten in ages. Granted, it's an exaggeration. But whatever.

 

It seemed that some people had left the dining hall to supposedly go to their rooms to rest. But Nova decided to stay longer instead. She hadn't enjoyed something to this level for quite a while, and she had every intent on savoring the opportunity as much as she could.

 

[divider1]

 

Whoops, wrong signal. Though, even with that in mind, Celia still leaves the bathroom after only fifteen minutes of purely wonderful relaxing cleanup there. She just had that certain feeling that she would get screwed over again if she's there for too long. She might pass out in the bathroom, she might fall asleep there, she might accidentally boil herself alive, someone might stumble upon her while she was being unaware of and do undesirable stuffs to her by that time, or something else. But point was, she definitely shouldn't stay too long inside the bathroom. Her body had stopped hurting too, and what remained of that damn spider that's stuck on her had been washed off, hopefully. It's still feel a bit ticklish, but that shouldn't matter much. 

 

Taking a bathrobe prepared in the wardrobe in her room, she then turned on the conveniently placed laundry machine in the (quite spacious) bathroom, and put her dirty clothing there. Due to that damn firedog thing snatching her away, she had nothing left for her to change into, and while her clothing were being washed in the laundry machine, she pretty much was stuck with the white bathrobe. Not seeing much else to do, Celia snuck in on the bed and closed her eyes. Hopefully, she could dream of anything else aside from spiders, eggs, giant worms, or caves. 

 

Those things really made her sick now.

[Aix]

"Ow ya ee hawent eelwy antwod--" Anemone stopped realizing that speaking with her mouth stuffed with food was unproductive and also rather rude. She spent the next few moments chewing as fast as she could and nearly choked as she swallowed a huge chunk of food. "I'm Anemone." Upon saying that, she dived into another round of food before she realized she forgot to ask the question back. "So what's your name?"

“Emui Valentine, the one and only. Thanks again purr saving my life, I suppose,” Emui introduced with, before diverting her attention back to the food.

The one and only. A rather fanciful way of referring to oneself. At least, that's what Anemone thought. She was sure that with the billions of people in the world, there ought to be at least one other person named Emui Valentine. "Ah, no problem," she said.

Testament to their hunger, neither girl exchanged a word until they flopped back onto their chairs completely stuffed. By this time, almost everyone else had already left and the two of them were alone in their corner of the room amidst all the food that remained. The containers holding them seemed to contain certain properties that the food remained warm even after such a long time had passed. Emui was the one to speak first once the two were seated. “I gotta get hiss off my chest. At furst I was planning to just trick mew and steal your egg. It just seemed easier that way than doing all the hard work myself. But I didn’t, so...no hard feelings?”

Now this seemed like a problem. Anemone seemed to be constantly being taken advantage of. Earlier that day, she had been taken hostage by some psycho with a mushroom cut, and now even without her coming to realize it, this cat girl was ready to pounce on her as well. Anemone creased her eyebrows as she thought about this, not even giving thought to the matter of trust towards Emui. Maybe she was too naive to have come out into the great wide world so utterly unprepared for such things. And she was, since she felt no hateful inclinations towards the girl beside her. "... No hard feelings," she said. In the end, nothing bad happened, right? Oh yeah, there was a matter of whether she could trust this girl in the future, since the Exam was to continue the next day.

“That’s a relief,” Emui said, letting out a sigh of relief. “Don’t worry; I won’t try stealing...at least, not from mew. Mew saved my life and nobody’s really stuck out purr me like that before. I’ve got your back.” That was the least Emui could do, she figured. Were it not for fish gi...no, Anemone’s making that life-saving dive, Emui would have been wurm crap by now. Not really the best way to wrap up a day, since that would also include being very much dead. But here she was, alive and stuffed with good food. Even a selfish thief had to owe somebody for saving their life, right? Plus, the notion of a cat girl and a fish girl being friends brought a mental snicker to Emui. “So mew said your home was a long way from here, right? What’s that place like?”

"It's a beautiful place, full of colorful coral reefs and tropical fish-- I mean, I go diving and spearfishing a lot and it's a great place to swim! On land, it's uh, it's a pretty quaint and small fishing village, I guess," said Anemone, reinforcing her words with several nods of her head. That was convincing enough, right? She looked away and lapsed into silence for a few moments, before turning back to Emui. "So where are you from? What's it like there?"

“I came from a big city,” Emui started. “Not a very friendly place. If mew wanted to be on top, mew had to claw and fight your way o-fur the rest. I got by from stealing from others and it just became a habit by the time I left. If you’re fast and agile, it makes an okay playground too I guess; lots of narrow alleys, street lamps, and ofur stuff to run, jump, and climb over. Really helped make a quick getaway.” Not the best of times for Emui living there, she vividly recalled, but definitely the times that made her who she was today. The swift thief she was today; wouldn’t have been possible without that kind of environment really. “After mew get through all the crap though, I guess it’s okay there. Your home sounds a lot nicer, though.”

Anemone listened intently until Emui mentioned her home again. She bit her lip, and said, "Yeah."


"Oh? It seems some of you are still here." One of the Hunters had walked in the door. He was very tall, about 2 meters, and he wore orange sunglasses, even indoors. He was the Blacklist Hunter, Tigre Amand. "Aren't you going to head off to sleep? After all, you're in for a rough time tomorrow. Ah, heck, I suppose I've got the tougher job since you're just a decoy." He paused and cracked a smile. "Whoops, I've let something slip that I shouldn't have. Keep quite, won't you." Smiling to himself, he grabbed the entire container of buffalo wings and sat himself down right across from the girls.

Anemone kept quiet as she pondered his words. She supposed he let something about the next Phase of the Hunter Exam slip when he shouldn't have. But she wasn't sure how a decoy fit into this.

"I wonder, maybe you two are part of the 108 Stars, too," said the man across from them as he bit into a wing. "The Chairman says we shouldn't go killing you, but that's what they did 500 years ago, and it worked. Ah, speaking like that makes it sound like I'm part of the Anti-Stars Faction."

Anemone recoiled at his antagonism, but spoke up. "What are you talking about?" She saw no particular harm in asking him. He couldn't possibly pose any sort of threat to her while they were on this ship. Although, it became clear to her that she was no match to him, he was probably in the same league as the red-haired man.

"What am I talking about? Who knows," said the man, with a mouth full of chicken.

Realizing she wasn't going to get an answer out of this guy, Anemone stood up. "Let's go, Emui, we should get some sleep," she said, pulling the other girl by the hand. Before leaving the room, she looked back at the man to find him staring back. She stuck her tongue at him and walked out. Just felt like it.

[divider1]
Standing on the bridge of the airship, Saika Nogitsune looked outside to the rising dawn. "This is as far as we'll go," she said to the pilot. "This is as far as I can go, at any rate." The pilot turned to find her grimacing a bit, under some sort of pain.

"Call the examinees."

[divider1]
Anemone noted that the airship had grinded to a halt. They were still over an expanse of ocean, although she could make out the black strip of land in the distance against the horizon as she plastered her face to her room's window. It was then which the ship's announcer sounded.

"If all examinees could make their way to the main hall, please!"

She grabbed her trident from under her bed and headed out. Glancing at the ship's layout on the map in the corridor, she managed to be the first one to where the Chairwoman waited. Anemone once again noted how fluffy the Chairwoman's tail was, although it was less full of life right now. Now that she thought about it, Emui's ears were pretty fluffy as well.

Ah, this wasn't the time to be thinking about that. They stood in silence as everyone gathered. Despite that the Chairwoman had gathered them, it was the man with long silver hair who spoke.

"Now begins the final and hardest Phase of your Exam. If you can accomplish this task, you are officially a Hunter, and may return to the Hunter Association Headquarters in Aquapolis to claim your License," he said. One of the airship's crew came out with a bunch of large backpacks. "You are to infiltrate the Empire of Shenglong and destroy a specific building. You are assigned to groups, once more than forty percent of the building is no longer standing, the whole group passes."

Even Anemone was aware of the Empire of Shenglong. It was, after all, probably the most powerful country in the world. She felt there was something quite wrong with this exam. There was no way an Empire was playing along with the Hunter Exam and letting them destroy buildings like that, right?

One of the examinees stepped forward, evidently he had the same thoughts she did. "What the fuck? How are we to infiltrate Shenglong? The whole continent's in a total lockdown! If we get caught, we'll get tortured to death!"

"I'm sure as you already have seen, the Hunter Exam is quite dangerous, you may back out now, if so we will safely escort you back to safety," said the man. "However, this should show if you have what it takes to join the most prestigious organization in the world."

The man hesitated. Anemone could see the beads of sweat roll down his face. "I'm not fucking with the Empire! Count me out!" The man turned and promptly walked out, bumping into Tigre. In an instant he was blown away, slamming into a wall.

"And here I promised him safety," sighed the Vice Chairman.

"He's only knocked out."

"Here are the groups and the building you are designated." He pulled out from his pocket a large scroll and let it unroll on the floor. "The group of you are to take one of these parachute and lifejacket backpacks and exit the ship, where you will promptly swim to the Empire of Shenglong. Using your own resourcefulness, you will locate the building and use whatever means necessary to demolish. You have one month to complete this task, though I don't believe it will be necessary."

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

It was quite a frightening experience for poor little Valentine, to say the least. From the creepy man harassing her, followed by a slightly-less-creepy man abducting rescuing her, and finally a trip to hell and back. Spider-infested hell, no less. All without guidance from her boss. Not one. Guess he wasn't kidding when he said he's not gonna call once the exam starts. Understandably, Val was more than nervous throughout the exam. Though she managed to avoid the creepy dude who inadvertently groped her, what happened next was really a blur. First this guy named Torben rescued her and dragged her to the next exam place, or something. All she remembered was that he didn't set off any of her triggers. Then there's like this big scary cave thing filled with creepy eight-legged monsters seemingly lifted from Dante's Inferno itself.

 

She had to carry an egg to an entrance and there was weird devil children and a psychopathic killer straight from a slasher flick, all the while Torben seemed to both protect her and carry her incapable, shaking body. He grabbed two eggs all by himself and tossed one of it to her and saved her from all the scary spiders and worms and satanic kids. Throughout the entire cave stage of the exam, all that's in her head is worry over not having been contacted by Boss for such a long time, and a growing sense of... Trust in Torben. Trust that grew larger with every action Torben took. When he shot down that spider with such pin-point accuracy that can only be described as miraculous, when he heroically sacrificed himself so she isn't harmed by the worm, and of course, when he shot the bloody slasher Jack.

 

Post-exam she walked to the airship by herself, all the while keeping her head down to as not draw any attention. She walked past a group who murmured something about a grey-haired man wearing a respirator and how he got disqualified despite finishing the cave part of the exam, by way of smashing an egg into the head of an examinee, before bashing both objects with a crowbar repeatedly. The end result was quite messy, to say the least. Brain parts and spider egg fluid scattered all over the entrance floor. The man himself is nowhere to be seen, though from the short bit she heard about him, Val is unsurprisingly terrified of him.

 

Val sunk her head deeper in her collar as she entered the massive airship, skillfully dodging any corridors filled with people on the way to her room. A long, long trip full of detours and hiding in corners, not unlike something from a Metal Gear Solid game. Her journey took her through the boiler room, the kitchen, and at some point, she somehow found herself in the engine room. But at least she avoided social interaction completely, so it went better than expected.

 

[divider1]

 

A while later, she finally made it to her room. Judging by the bags on the table separating the two beds, it seems that her roommate has entered the room before her, even though they're nowhere to be seen. Exhausted physically and mentally, Val immediately fell back-first on her bed, but not before taking off her cape. Putting her right hand on her forehead, she let out a long sigh, relaxing herself.  Now that she finally has a chance to recollect her scattered thoughts in the confines of her room in the airship, she realized that her trust in Torben has become something more. She yearns to meet him again, to have him lead her way forward once more. But before she could think about it any further, she was interrupted by a phone call from her precious- Boss.

 

"Ring~ Ring~ Ring~ Ah! Is it finally?! Boss!" In her excitement she jumped out of bed, and started walking out of her room absentmindedly in an attempt to find a better signal. "Status report? Ah, well... I managed to complete both exams just fine, though it was sooooo scary doing it without any guidance from you, boss! But luckily I met this really, really nice guy called Torben and he helped out a lot!" Though she bumped into several people, she didn't seem to care, or even notice that she did. More importantly though, she didn't notice the bewildered stares of the people she walked past. After all, even if you've gone through a war, seeing a girl walk past you while talking to a banana is still an odd sight.

 

Though she had no idea she was walking there, she found herself in the main hall just as it was announced that everyone should make their way there. Luck, or simply coincidence?

[Raine]

Oz awoke in frenzy; the echoing sound of an announcement scared the bejesus out of him. Oz’s attempt to regain balance out of his nap sent him spiraling off the mattress and slamming his ass on the carpet. “Hell,” cried Oz, “Could you make it any f***ing louder?” Oz had managed to put himself together after he found time to clean away most of the most horrific filth (and smell) from his old outfit but it was still not match for the luxury of his surroundings. He was sad to depart so soon from his beloved new mistress in the sky but found that the constant sight of tinted red on the walls was starting to make vision bloodied.

 

Dressed and suited, Oz stumbled out into the hall. The panic had set into more than himself as the good Boy Scout shuffle has triggered everyone to run to attention. The little hostage girl who could was already well on her way well ahead of the morning traffic brewing. Oz didn’t move immediately after leaving his room, partially because of being drowsy and partially because he didn’t want to give the superiors the false impression he was the most punctual hunter. Oz was shaken out of his trance by a hard shove at his shoulder; a character had busied past and struck him in the shoulder before hurrying along. Oz barely managed to make out a face, which in turn caused his PTSD to trigger. “Boobie guy,” he said quietly to himself. He remembered the sting to his face like it was yesterday, because it was. He thought her name was St. Patrick’s Day or Halloween or Ramadan or some-another thing like that.  

 

Once Oz noticed that the flaming horse was coming down the hall, he zoomed zoomed towards the announcement room. Oz blended into the now much smaller crowd that hustled into meet their new boss man. The analysis room itself wasn’t anything special; it was obvious that it was made to be more functional than the majority of the ship. A distinguished man with platinum hair and was platinum scary began by introducing the new exam to thin the rabble.

 

“You are to infiltrate the Empire of Shenglong and destroy a specific building. You are assigned to groups, once more than forty percent of the building is no longer standing, the whole group passes."

 

Oz tilted his head, surely they can’t be serious. There were two massive super big no-no warning sign flashing red lights going honk honk on this BS case. Uno, Shenglong is in its dying star period of empire development meaning it is hot, angry, and about to exploding hurting everything around it so it’s not exactly going to be in Nen Geo’s Top 10 Tourist Attractions in their yearly. Dos, there is no way in hell the building set to be destroyed is arbitrary. They want something in Shenglong gone for a reason.

 

He wasn’t alone in his protests; some poor a****** was just stupid enough to argue with the big boys upstairs about. A tough shot took him to the ground soon enough. He wasn’t sure to be angry that the superiors lied about promising safety or mad that he had the same opinion as the pansy who was sleeping on the cement. Platinum guy was platinum serious and told us to move along before he got platinum mad.

 

Oz was first to the airlock deployment barracks, it was industrialized, nah, militarized. It looked like the first place that was actually a reflection of the work hunters did, extremely different from the nature hikes and recreational cruises they had been given so far. Oz leaned back against the metallic walls, examining the equipment for the drop and waiting for the remainder of the group to shuffle in. Torben was the first after himself, he barely noticed Oz as he passed. He and Torben already had a stressed relationship, and remembering the list, he was lucky to not have to stress his luck anymore with him. But… Oz felt a strange sense of loss at not having a second chance to repair his relationship with Torben. Maybe if in another world, the lists had been randomized differently (or used the first time rather than randomized again), he could have had that chance…

 

 

Torben slammed shut the oaken door to their cottage, the blizzard was kicking up and the wild mixture of snow and chilled wind has made travel ill-advised for now. Torben felt a chill crawl under his skin; he could anticipate the fever already from too much exposure. It took only moments for him to leave his snow-laced boots at the foyer and remove the repetitive layers of thick fabric from himself. “Oz! You’re still in?” Torben yelled loud enough to be heard throughout the cabin.

 

“I’m in here!” cried a voice.

 

Torben was a tad upset by the fact that he had not specified where ‘here’ was but he keep to following the interior. His ears twitched at the cracking of wood, Oz hadn’t been squandering his time after all, he thought. The fire came into view. The windowed glass adjacent displayed the falling snow and gave no clue to the comforting warmth of the flame. He couldn’t help but rush beside it and relax at the iciness of his extremities give way to the blanket of heated air.

 

Suddenly, he felt a heat press against his back. “Oz-“ he was interrupted. A pair of fingers gently pressed against his lips. His unusually intimate friend had cozied up behind him and wrapped his arms across Torben’s waist. “You still seem a bit frozen… I can remedy that,“ the voice behind him whispered. Torben had no response, the fire’s light illumined just enough to make out the shadows of Ozmandius behind him. “Wait- ” Torben gasped, Oz’s hands had begun to sink lower down over Torben’s abdomen, dragging his fingertips gently over his skin.

 

“Oh dear Torben, you haven’t undressed enough,” Oz softly spoke with his lips inches from Torben’s right ear. Oz’s hands continued to drop under they found an unexpected obstacle. “Perhaps, we shouldn’t right no-“ Torben protested half-heartedly offering no resistance to the hands which found entry his trousers. “Perhaps, we must,” Oz insisted passionately.

 

Torben flinched as the sensation  echoed through his body responding to Oz’s handiwork under his clothing. Torben’s breathing became heavy, “Oz… I… lov-“

 

 

Awake, Oz glared at Torben with despair. 

[Love of Ghibli]

Lettess was awoken to the noise of the woman on the intercom. It looked like it was time for another stage of the exam. He made his way to the main meeting place for what apparently was the final stage of the exam. A smile came across his face as he was one of the few to have actually made it this far into the exam stage. Though to be honest he thought there was only one stage so finding out that this was the last one was quite a relief he only had one change of clothes so he couldn't really afford to run around in covered in sweat and whatever could've been thrown at him. Luckily this was the end of it.

Lettess stood attentive as he heard the final mission being described. He could only raise an eyebrow as this didn't really make sense. Hunter's now acting as spies and assassins...THIS IS FREAKIN' AWESOME! He yelled inside his own head. He had heard of the Empire from his older brothers and sisters. Of course they had cooked there. Even the most militant of countries have a taste for good food. Though they didn't tell him about any of this lockdown business. Lettess simply stood-by and watched as one of the only remaining people to make it this far in the exam surrendered. Apparently this Empire was something to be feared. Though it looked like he accidentally bumped into another one of the proctors...then he wasn't really able to bump into anyone else for a while. Lettess immediately caught his mouth as he didn't want to immediately laugh that hard in public. Well come on man eating spiders, giant deadly worms, THAT RED HAIRED DUDE don't make you quit, but this "Empire" does. Yeah not a fan.

Lettess looked at the list of names that was on his group. He tilted his head as he noticed that Alaster was on it. It looked like there were a couple of people from the Skytower's Summit working with him. It was interesting nonetheless. But in terms of the exam it looked like teamwork was going to be key...or not really. To be quite honest this looked like it could totally be a solo mission. Lettess took his life jacket and began to go into a deep train of thought. This doesn't sound right if the goal is simply to topple a building how do they know who actually did the work. All this kind of task does is ensures the objective...it doesn't test the participants. He found himself in a moral quandary, but that made his head hurt so no to that. Yeah I'm simply thinking too much! This is going to be fun. Without realizing it he had walked back to the deployment area with the mysterious knife fellow from earlier and the man with the sniper gun who tried to take down the red head psycho. 

Lettess simply sat across from the two and waved with a polite smile. Hello, my name is Lettess B. Sprout, and its a pleasure to meet you. He then motioned to Oz. Nice to meet you again as well. I see we didn't get off on the right foot with you kidnapping a potential friend, but it looked like the karma police caught up with you during the exam. Hopefully, we'll do better this time. Lettess ended with a smile and extended his hand with a handshake. 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Torben hadn’t had much chance to eat anything before they were ordered to gather to get the information for their next mission. And it was a tough one. But infiltration was something Torben could do. The skills picked up in his past life should come in handy for this one. Finding something to destroy a building might be difficult, but there was probably someone in the group that could help with that.
He wasn’t sure how he’d infiltrate with a group of people as he was used to working alone for missions like this. But backup would be important if he were to level a building.
That being said, something made Torben uncomfortable about this mission. He knew Hunters took down criminals, and this was different. If they were caught destroying government buildings...of course, it could very well be for that reason they were given this. They weren’t Hunters quite yet, if they were caught the organization could easily deny responsibility.

Torben didn’t like the possibility but there was nothing to be done about it. This was the mission and he would complete it.
He checked over the list of his group once more. He realized he never really met most of them. Though he had picked some stuff up during his brief meal. A couple names stood out. For instance the boy with the wolf and...the one who had came over here to talk to....that Oz guy. Seemed they knew each other in some way.
Luckily Oz wasn’t on Torben’s group, though it meant he couldn’t keep an eye on the cad.
Torben checked the other lists briefly, and his eyes were drawn to “Valentine”. So he had made it after all. Torben’s relief turned to concern once he realized Val was on the same team as Oz.
He’d have to do something about that.
“Hey, Lettess right? You’re on my team I think, nice to meet you. I’m Torben. This is gonna be interesting don’t ya think?” He grinned widely at the boy, before gesturing towards Oz. “If you don’t mind I’d like a quick word with him in private.”
Turning his attention to Oz, Torben lowered his voice. “Don’t forget, two strikes. If something happens that I don’t like, I’ll know.”

With that he remembered he had a couple more things to take care of before meeting up with more of his group. He had to check on the girl whose ears he may have damaged, and he had to make sure Val was okay.

The girl, Anemone if he remembered right, was easy to find. He wasn’t sure how to approach her but decided direct would be best. He walked up to her with a smile and exclaimed “Hey there, how’s your ears?”

[Maeriberii Haan]

“Mmh-”
 

"If all examinees could make their way to the main hall, please!"

 

“…Alright, alright! Sheesh, can you even let me enjoy myself for a bit here?”

 

Getting up from her now-messy bed, Celia placed her bath robe that was lying around on the floor back to the wardrobe without bothering to tidy it up first, and then she rushed to the washing machine to pick up her clothing, who has thankfully be fully rinsed and half-dried, enough for them to be wearable at least. After that, she immediately got herself dressed up as fast as she could before she returned to pick up her hat, purse, phone, and other stuffs on the room, and that was the last thing she did before she hurriedly left her room towards the main hall, still couldn’t believing that what she thought was an hour-long sleep to actually be close to twelve hours.

 

Then again, Celia couldn’t say that she didn’t enjoy the well-needed break she got. The pleasure of resting and eating as much delicious food as she could had definitely done her body good, and it felt like she had been born anew, with clean clothing to boot (though admittedly, it’s still quite messy due to her not having the means to iron it and not having the time to wear them tidily and properly). When she arrived on the main hall, she was thankfully not the dead last person to arrive, much to her relief. It saved her from a bit of embarrassment she might feel if she arrived really late to the briefing.

 

“Wait, you said Shenlong?”

 

Celia’s relief was short-lived, killed at the moment the vice-chairman detailed the next exam she and the others would need to take. To be exact, she was surprised that she had to return to Shenlong again, but…how the vice-chairman told the exam takers about that next exam, and everyone’s reaction to it was odd. She remembered visiting the place once when she was still young along with her family in a friendly political trip, and once again several months ago not too long after she set out on her journey. To be exact, it was the place she ran away from her caretaker so she could be truly free from the responsibilities that she needed to fulfill for her family, but that’s another matter entirely.

 

While it’s not exactly the most accessible place on earth, the place seemed to instill of fear on many’s expression, as if it deserved to be dreaded that much. Hell, to an extent, she was there for a month or two as far as she could remember, and she definitely didn’t see that much thing to be dreaded of. She even had some close friends there, including the youngest son of the emperor. Celia couldn’t really believe that several months were enough to change the land this much. The entire thing just sounded pretty fishy.

 

Celia almost asked a protest and questions to make things clearer for her, but another guy had asked his protest first, and that pretty much caused a senior hunter to literally plant him on the nearest wall. That’s not exactly something she wanted to experience, really, so Celia decided to stay quiet for now and kept her questions to herself. Though, the anxiety regarding this mission still made her quite giddy, and to calm herself down, she decided to try talking to a nearest…nah, nevermind. Well, at least she got one month to finish it along with her group.

 

Speaking of, much to her embarrassment, she had no idea about whose names were listed on the group list. So far, she hadn’t learned about the names of the other participants, which is a shame. Well…at least it’s not too late to introduce herself to others now. She looked around to find people that looked nice enough to introduce herself to without entering awkward situations, and she came across to this quite cute-looking young girl wielding a fancy trident. Celia didn’t waste much time to approach her.

 

“Hey, hello there! What’s your name? I’m Celia, so nice to meet’cha!”

 

Well, after she introduced herself like that, a thought passed Celia’s mind that she might be a bit too straightforward with it. Though, she then realized that almost as the same time as she introduced herself, Celia realized that a man was also approaching the trident-girl, and tried to talk to her.

 

“Well, may I ask for your name too, mister?”

 

[divider1]

 

Nova decided to not get some rest even with the others sleeping in their rooms during the twelve-hours grace period. Fuck that noise, she’s a strong woman who need no rest. Well, if only. Nova ended up falling asleep for several hours in the dining hall due to her being dead-tired from the previous mission, and she only left the place when one of the waiters started to get really impatient. Grumbling, she then decided to just wander around the airship while thinking of what should she do next.

 

It was pretty clear that she was quite weak, especially compared to the monsters that she would need to overcome. That fact still frustrated her a lot. Even with her being able to utilize her Nen a bit to create heat and fireballs, it’s simply all of the extent of her current ability. Physically, she’s just average, maybe somewhat more, but definitely not something to be really be considered as an edge over the others. Her mastery even over the basics of the Nen system was somewhat lacking. And…that’s pretty much it. She could use her practical knowledge from her days on the streets to get an edge over the other contestants…but it couldn’t be considered as what she actually wanted.

 

She needs to get stronger. Strong enough to achieve everything by her own efforts. Strong enough to not be helped around by someone inferior to her. Strong enough to overcome the others. Even if it required her to bow down and beg, or act like she did, so she could be stronger, she would do that. Being weak like this is completely frustrating. As much as she hated to admit it, it was truly a registered fact.

 

Who cares if she had to swallow her pride for a bit? If it means she could get stronger, anything goes.

 

[divider1]

 

“So, Shenlong, huh? Interesting.”

 

Despite her expression, Nova almost couldn’t believe what she just heard. It’s quite the absurd mission, to be frank. Shenlong is the de-facto superpower of the world at the moment, and really, infiltrating its capital and bombing their vital establishment felt like an almost impossible task. At least, the organization was sensible enough to give a one-month due time.

 

Not that it helped a bit.

 

Though…if any means necessary would be allowed…well, this could be interesting. Explosions, or something more esoteric? Who knows? It would be one hell of an exam, and even if she decided to yield from the exam in favor of something else, seeing something go down in flames as extravagantly like what were implied sounded amusing. Either those buildings or her rival exam takers. In thirty days, only one of the two groups would be around.

 

That alone was enough motivation for her to start thinking of possibilities to succeed in this exam, or at least, to see whether she could get stronger from the upcoming ordeal.

 

And hey, even if all else fails, seeing the other exam takers get executed publicly on television would be a nice source of laugh or two as long as she didn’t get caught.

[Tesability Black]

Unlike the rest of the examinees, who seemed to know the full extend of what was happening with this exam judging from the various outbursts, this red creature knew nothing about this Shenlong location, leaving him a bit hung out to dry, unfortunately. Clicking his tongue from the dryness in his mouth, the creature reached into the left sidepack with the whiparm for a moment, pulling out...

 

...was that really lava in an almost-full bottle?!

 

Popping open the cork that should have long burned up, he took a sip of the lava before recorking it and putting it back into his bags, continuing to try to pay attention.

 

Didn't help that he couldn't make heads or tails of what was being said...

 

The others began to split up into two groups as they started getting themselves organized, probably for the task soon ahead. He looked up to see a list of two names, one of them having his own name listed.

 

Taikyu Zephyr.

 

"Who all has 'Taikyu Zephyr' as a partner," he suddenly bellowed over the crowd to try to catch his team's attentions...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Once they were flying and Taikyu caught sight of the large amount of blue that was the ocean through a window, he would not stop shaking like a leaf in fear...

[Aix]

Anemone looked away from the mission directive sheet to find that the guy with the sniper seemed to still have business with her. Sorta. He was actually asking her if her ears were fine. "Well, the fact that I responded to your speech means I can hear at least," said Anemone. After a pause, she decided to just end the issue. "Yeah, my ears are fine." This guy did seem genuinely nice and she almost felt bad for going after him. Almost, since she realized it wasn't her fault, really, it was part of the Exam.
 
Anemone spun around to face another girl coming by. Celia, she called herself. She seemed to have an extraordinary reserve of Nen, coating her body in it at all times, and if Anemone recalled correctly, she was the one who punched a hole in the wall. "I'm Anemone... Nice to you meet you, too." It appeared that this girl was in her group, and she'd be better off getting along with her, she supposed.
 
The others in her group included that mushroom-haired kidnapper, the fire horse thingy, one of the devils, and the girl who lost an arm during the last Exam. Walking past them, she grabbed a few of the backpacks, carrying them with her abnormal strength and passed them to her group members. "Let's go have a look inside the Empire first. I'll be heading off."
 
Finding the instructions on how to activate the parachute on a convenient diagram on the backpack strap, Anemone was the first to just leap out of the plane. Pulling the rope on the backpack that unleashed the parachute, she rode it down halfway before ditching the backpack and diving into the water.
 
[divider1]
She arrived way before everyone else, her swimming speed was utterly unmatched... especially when she went out of sight. Quickly, she climbed onto the rocky shore to get a bearing of her surroundings and watch for danger.

"A-A-A mermaid!"

Anemone turned at the exclamation. She lunged forwards with her trident, stopping it inches away from the throat of an Aizan boy who was hiding in the bushes. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Are you with the military! Or Xinxuanzu?!" stammered the boy.

"The shin-shu-what?" It then occurred to Anemone that the Xinxuanzu were what she was looking for. She was apparently supposed to take down one of their buildings.

At that the boy seemed visibly relieved. "Of course, a mermaid wouldn't be."

"Now that you've seen me, I have to kill you," said Anemone, although she didn't actually mean it.

"D-Don't!"

It occurred to Anemone that getting help from a native would probably beneficial to her cause. "Tell me about this shin-shu-thing."

Scaring him like that seemed to have loosened his lips a bit. "They're the special police in Shenglong! You're not from Shenglong, right? Everyone in Shenglong knows who they are!"

"Where can I find their dormitory?" She realized that may have been suspiciously specific and rather strange, but she doubted this boy could do anything.

"I don't know. How am I supposed to know that?"

Anemone paused to consider this. Pulling away the trident, she stated. "You will be my guide in Shenglong. We'll wait here until my friends arrive."

"More mermaids?! W-Wait, I'll be your guide? Are you tourists?"

Anemone thought for a moment and came to the conclusion that it would be easier to keep him in the dark. "We wait."

[Love of Ghibli]

It seemed as if it was time for the adventure to start. Lettess jumped out of the plane still fully confident in his survival of this task. As he touched the ground he used his Nen to push off the surface of the water and make a beeline directly to the shore. He was simply attempted to run on water. Of course that was not successful, but at the very least he didn't die on impact and he proceeded to swim to shore. As he made his way to the shore he noticed that he definitely wasn't the first member of the group to actually make his way to the country. With his clothes wet he waited on the sand for a minute to gather his thoughts. 

Hmmm I'm pretty sure everyone else on my team has some for of plan, but what am I going to do? He thought to himself. It was at this moment he realized that he had actually forgot to bring any of his cutlery and utensils. Oh crap! he said out loud. But it was in that moment he realized what he could do. A smile came across his face and he immediately ran into the town. The plan he thought of in question was definitely going to make his two older siblings mad, but the family name was going to be needed if he was to survive this ordeal.

[Maeriberii Haan]

"...Wait, Taikyu is supposed to be you?"

 

Her good mood after introducing herself to Anemone and the other guy immediately was interrupted by the fact that apparently she was supposed to be in the same group as the fire horse thing that almost got her eaten by a spider yesterday. Of course, faced with this fact, Celia was less than amused. Though...something made her stop from approaching the fire beast and turned around to face the ocean instead after getting a bag of parachute. Without even bothering to respond first to the beast, Celia jumped from the ship while laughing as hard as she could, which continued until she hit the water. The reasoning was simple.

 

Celia was just finding it bloody hilarious that the fire beast would also need to jump into the water, and she wondered how badly it would end up after that.

 

[divider1]

 

“Nah, we’re not mermaids, kiddo. You can definitely call us tourists though.” Celia, who overheard the boy’s words when she rose up from the water not long ago, responded to him as she clutched her hat that had gotten a bit ruined due to the direct descend to the water earlier. She was a bit miffed that her fancy hat was ruined when she swam to the shore, but since it’s not something that mattered that much, she got over it not long afterwards.

 

“W-wait-“

 

“So…kid, do you live not far from here? If so, is it fine if we stay near there for tonight? Don’t worry, I’ll pay you a bit if necessary, and we won’t make a mess, isn’t that right Anemone?”

 

Celia shifted her attention to Anemone for a bit, but she seemed to be more content in overlooking the sea to see the others arriving. Miffed a bit that she didn’t get a response just yet, Celia moved her gaze back towards the boy, who was still a bit at loss on how to react to the situation.

 

“But but-“

 

“I guess you can think more regarding this while we wait for our other friends to arrive to the shore.”

 

“Uh…I don’t think I have problems with you and your friends to stay near our house for tonight, but my parents…I think I’ll ask them first later.” It’s clear that the boy said it awkwardly due to not being really comfortable with the entire circumstances, but Celia took that as yes, and her smile widened as she turned her attention back towards Anemone again.

 

“Well then…with that settled for now, I guess it’s time to wait again. 

 

Hey Anemone, it’s probably better for us to come up with some sort of plan, no? We should discuss about this more at the very least, and if the boy’s parents are home…I think there are some things that I wanted to ask to them. You have no objections to this, right?”

 

No answers from her just yet, so Celia turned to face the ocean, now with a smirk on her face.

 

"Hey, you saw that fire beast on the ship, right? I wonder how much does he like swimming."

 

[divider1]

 

“Damn, that Sprout kid seemed to have something in mind already. And the others haven’t even arrived here. Tch, oh well, I think I’ll just dry myself a bit here first.

 

At least I probably ended up better than that fire beast-thingy.”

 

A bit exhausted from the lengthy swim from her landing point towards the shore, Nova leaned on a nearby palm tree while she used her Nen to warm herself and her wet clothing up a bit before she continue on her way. But…it was then that she had completely zero idea for now regarding of what to do next. Turning around to see that Lettess was not too far away yet, she sighed a bit, before she stood up and ran towards the guy, deciding that abusing his companionship would probably be the best way for her to continue until she got a more solid idea regarding the land.

 

“Dammit Lettess, wait for me a bit!”

[Asriel Dreemurr]

Alaster, as always accompanied by his faithful canine companion, made their way to the main hall in the aftermath of feeding themselves and getting the chance to rest and heal from their injuries.  They waited patiently as the next phase of the exam was announced, and very quickly something did not seem right.  Crassus had always told the young nobleman that the Hunter Association was politically neutral, so for them to target something like the Empire was unsettling.  Not to mention the fact that planning to do something like this in the first place might as well have been suicide.  In any case, the two had come this far and they had no intention of stopping their quest to become hunters here.  The time frame was a fairly generous one at that, a month to bring down one building seemed easy enough.  Once the announcement was finished, he made his way over to examine the scroll more closely and thus determine both who he was grouped with and what their target was.

 

"Hmm," he said as he looked over the scroll, idly scratching Rexxus atop the head.  "We'll be working with Lettess again.  I can't say I know these others very well, but sprout we can rely on."  He nodded to himself, took a parachute for himself and another for Rexxus, and began making his way back to where they would be exiting the airship when the time came.  The others were already busy, and getting acquainted and forming a plan could come after they were on the ground.  Right now, he was just getting ready to actually make the jump.  It wasn't the sort of thing everyone was prepared to do, certainly not something he was excited about.  Not that he hated heights or water, but there was certainly the potential issue of getting tangled up in the parachute.  The idea of being trapped by the 'chute in deep water...well he wasn't excited about it.  In any case, he made his way to where they would be jumping and waited for the rest of his team to get there.  Once he was sure they were in position, he made the jump along with Rexxus.

 

The splash down was less eventful than expected, with the parachute being fairly easy to remove in water.  Of course his canine friend needed some help, thanks to the issue of not having arms, but once they were free he was able to get them moving.  His spear was, thankfully, not especially difficult to deal with in the water and a little use of Nen helped him swim strongly enough to avoid being dragged down by the weight of his leather armor.  Some time later, he emerged on the shore a little ways behind Lettess.

 

"Glad to see you made the jump," he said as he approached the young chef and Rexxus shook himself off on the sand.  Of course, when that particular scion of the sprout family started running off like an idiot he had to intervene.  A quick command, and Rexxus bolted after the young chef to tackle him to the ground.  Once the fellow was subdued, the nobleman came along and pulled his friend off the boy's back.  "Let's hold here for the rest of the group to show, then we can get off the beach and start getting a plan together."  True to his word, he waited until all seven members of their group were accounted for.  Not that he recognized most of them, so far as he could tell only he and Lettess had been atop the tower back in the city.  Once they were all present, he motioned for them to follow and quickly made his way off the beach.  Thankfully he found a place where they could gather and be relatively invisible from the outside, a stand of trees on the far side of a hill from where they had landed.  The whole time he was getting there, he signaled the members of his group to follow him just to make sure they knew he was trying to lead them.  He and Rexxus settled into their place in the stand, and once the others had gathered there he spoke again.  "Right, first allow me to introduce myself.  I am Alaster vi Florentius, and this is Rexxus."  The Dire Wolf yipped as his name was spoken.  "Now that that's out of the way, we need to get working on a plan.  Our target is, as you all know, the Shenlong Royal Treasury.  To that end, let's start with ideas on how we're going to take it down.  If you have an idea, share it.  Withhold judgement until we've got all the ideas we can come up with, the more potential solutions we have the more likely we are to come up with an actually good plan."

[Love of Ghibli]

And he was off! Lettess was making quick ground as he heard the sound of himself being followed. But that couldn't be it, who would actually follow him. Within seconds he was pinned down to the ground and his face was completely buried in sand. He could then faintly hear the words of Alaster and his suggestions. Muffled beneath the sands Lettess was able to get out a soft "Okay." 

As he made his way to his feet he saw that everyone was actually gathered and it was time for a sharing circle of ideas. Lettess was busy brushing off the sand off of his clothes and he waited for others to talk. But it didn't look like anyone else had an idea. Lettess thought at the very least he could contribute to the conversation. He raised his hand to talk to the group of team members. Well hello all, my name is Lettess B. Sprout, for those of you who didn't know. My family is actually known far and wide as some of the top chefs in the world. My plan is to use my families' name to get us a temporary stay at a hotel near our target.I think from there we can form an information network make our jobs easier. Hey, if we play our cards right we can probably have "supplies" shipped to us. I'm sure if I act like a big enough premadonna I can get us in without having to show papers or something. The downside of course is that this plan of action will draw a lot of attention to us as a group. Whiiiiiiiccccchhhhh is why I was going to go in alone...Some of you may not want to have your faces out there in such a stealthy mission like this. But I definitely don't mind being a distraction. Aaaannnndddd that is my idea.

Lettess stepped back from the center of the group as to allow questions comments and concerns.

[Raine]

The imagery we imagine when a body strikes water conjures up the notion that it gives way and would be ideal to land in. This is false. You see, the particular combination of oxygen and hydrogen bonds that forms the unique angle of the bipolar molecule gives birth to the property of surface tension. Oz, a master of history, culture, and literature and someone who had lived in particularly arid regions in his youth was not aware of his property of water. So naturally, when Ozmandius was falling, stomach full of butterflies and nausea-ridden, Oz was seeking comfort that he would hit the nice pillow surface of the ocean and had not prepared a dive. Unleashing his parachute too late, Oz struck down too fast.

 

A pillar of water shot up at the instant of Oz’s landing. His nervous system howled in response and his breath was taken from him. His world was over taken by the dense azure sea which grew slowly darker as he sank into the sea, unable to correct himself due to immense pain that overwhelmed his nerves and mind. Self-preservation kicked into over-drive, Oz panicked and became desperate as his need for air hastened but the seawater and pain had all but destroyed his sense of orientation. Ina frenzy, he exhausted sharply and followed the air bubbles. He must have sunk deeper than he suspected, because his last supply of air burned his lungs in the seconds prior to emerging.

 

“GAH!” Oz finally managed his head about the water level and began gasping for air. Oz, who was a poor but not unable swimmer, focused every ounce of strength he possessed to avoiding the reaper that hovered just beneath him. Calming himself, he spied over the moderate waves to see other figures who had begun towards the coastline. He was already behind. Straining himself, he first attempted to swim his way to the shore but he was too inefficient to battle the conflicting waves. Oz feared he’s exhaust his already tired body too much, he would run out of fuel before making land. He redirected himself, and focused on keeping his head above the water and riding the waves that brought him closer.

 

When Oz finally was about to find sandy shoals under his feet, he was virtually gone. He never knew that water intensive activities would be so daunting or prevalent through his Hunter Exam. He praised the sand below him, while slowly rediscovering his breath and gathering enough strength to follow. The coastline of Shenglong was not unfamiliar, but then again, all coastlines would be more or less the same. Oz knew well enough that the police state of the country would be on their ass and they would die behind iron bars and sadistic wardens should he be discovered. That was all the motivation he needed. Oz stumbled to shade and attempted to weave his way towards the remainder of his group.

 

Oz arrived on scene, and at first sight noticed Anemone and Celia conversing adjacent to a young Azian boy. IDIOTS! Oz thought, as he hid from their plain view. They find some local and they assume that he’s friendly? Morons, they may be, but I’m not getting ratted out but some toddler raised on propaganda and xenophobia. Oz sped out from the shadows and tackled the Azian boy to the sand. Oz quickly maneuvered himself to place his weight behind his forearm and on the boys throat. He couldn’t see how the two others responded but it didn’t matter much, the boy was agile and smashed his knee upwards into Oz’s stomach, striking the bruise left by Celia earlier. The wind was knocked out of Oz as the boy backpedalled away from him.

 

Oz laid flat on the beachhead, he was too exhausted from the swim to put up any sort of fight or ever place a hold on a boy. He felt pretty pathetic. “So,” he asked the two girls, “you want to hit me too?" 

[Astolfo]

After having laid traps out for unwary contestants, the Nyx sisters' twins were thrown out the window when massive wurms invaded the stage, tearing through the rock - as well as any unlucky people caught in their way. Grabbing her younger sister's hand, Malnova leapt out of the path of one such beast hurtling down their way in the nick of time. Running towards the exit, the duo had to avoid the paths of several other wurms as well as clumsier fellows who got themselves in a tangles mess. Skidding to a halt when they met Whitechapel at the sole exit, surrounded by a rather bloody pile of parts, they were brainstorming what to do next when the girl from before punched open another exit, thankfully.

Speeding through the exit with a mass of other entrants before the red-man could stop the two, the group, the twins took the relief from all the stressful events that had been occurring, even if it might have been a brief one, thankfully. After the airship arrived to pick up the drastically reduced number of people remaining in the exam, they were led to a buffet after the Hunter Association Chairwoman's short introduction.

[divider1]

After judging from other peoples' reactions that the food and drink appeared to be safe enough for now, Iom let her massive appetite, tearing through the food hungrily and chugging down any available drink. Her older sister was a bit more passive, eating enough to satisfy her hunger and give her energy without stuffing herself. Iom on the other hand though, was more than fine with engulfing whatever meat and bread she could grab a hold of, all disappearing somewhere inside her petite frame. After sating herself as well, the sisters receded to their room to rinse off and relax, with one of them on guard while the other washed off all the blood and grime that had built up over the course of the Exam, before switching.

When the call to the main hall was made, both of the Nyx girls had donned fresh garb before joining up with the rest. Upon hearing that the next phase was to invade the Empire of Shenlong, Malnova's jaw dropped. Out of all possible places, the Exam chose the strongest military superpower on the entier planet? Something was very off here, because she couldn't imagine the Empire would agree to this, even if they'd probably withstand near everything the examinees could throw at them anyways.

Malnova briefly considered exiting the exam with her sister, as to not risk Iom's safety, but when the first man to do so got to become very friendly with the nearby wall, she kept her mouth shut. As the scroll listing the teams rolled out, Malnova immediately noticed that it separated the two sisters. Fuming inside, she considered protesting, when she realized there was a smarter option. If Malnova just went rogue and joined up with Iom instead, as long as the others in her group could finish the goal they were assigned, she could remain with Iom safely. The Empire of Shenlong was the last place she'd leave her sister without her nearby.

[divider1]

Within the privacy of their rooms, Malnova was pacing about, considering the best plan of action, when Iom butted in. Iom was apt enough to figure out what Malnova was most likely sulking about, so she interjected, "Sis, it's fine, you don't need to worry so much. I mean, come on! I'll prove to you that I'm strong enough to handle this myself and make you proud!"

Malnova opened her mouth, before closing it again a few moments later. Doing that a few more times, Malnova finally spoke up, "Don't be silly Iom, the Empire of Shenlong is the strongest damn military superpower on this entire planet and if you're caught, you'll be tortured and executed if they figure out what you're trying to do, and even if you don't leak, they'd still do it anyways, because hell, that's what the place's twisted government is like. There is no goddamn way that I'm leaving you to just jaunt off to Shenlong without me."

"Believe in me Sis, I know I can do it. Trust me!" Iom looked up into her older sister's eyes, her own full of vigor and fire. At this, Malnova's ironclad defense faltered a bit. In the end, when things came to an end, Malnova was still Iom's older sister, and so she felt the responsibility in protecting Iom, but in that, she couldn't hold onto Iom forever if she wanted Iom to develop into a proud Nyx woman. Struggling internally, Malnova opened her mouth but no words came out. Closing her eyes and sighing as the internal battle of emotions raged on, her eyes flew open in surprise when Iom took her hands in her own softly.

"You're ultra-cool, Sis, so I'm going to go out there and show those Shenlong humans what it means to be ultra-cool like you. And while I'm at it, I'm gonna go punch that blue-haired bítch smack in the gob!" Iom hugged her older sister. Malnova's opposition crumpled completely at that point. She couldn't just go and say no when Iom was this into it. Hugging Iom back softly, Malnova ruffled her sister's hair gently. Malnova decided she'd trust Iom with her own mission and started thinking about how she'd accomplish her own side of things. Infiltrating and annihilating a building in Shenlong would be hard enough without worrying about Iom too. She supposed that Iom would probably go right in and try to bash everything apart, but given how that she herself wasn't as physically benefitted, she'd need more subtlety. Figuring that she could possibly join the elite police force to gather information and possibly divert police away from the place Iom's group would attack, Malnova resolved to join the Xinxuanzu. She just prayed that Iom would be able to get in and out quick enough to avoid the Xinxuanzu, given the fact that every member of that elite police force were highly trained as well as extremely skilled with Nen and Hatsu.

[divider1]

As the plane neared their destination, Malnova and Iom left their rooms to rejoin with their respective groups, but not without a quick hug between the sisters first. Nodding at each other, they both launched themselves off the now sloped entrance floor towards the ocean with immense speed. They fell as fast and far as they can before it would be necessary to use the parachute, and then they ripped on the cord to let the parachute stream out behind them to land in the water safely. Discarding it behind them once it was close enough to simply dive, they threw off the backpacks behind them before bursting into a high-speed swim towards the shore.

[divider1]

[spoiler="Iom Side"]Speeding towards the shore, Iom slung out her arms forward while creating her trademark massive fists to grab into the nearest trees and pull herself out of the ocean, spraying everyone nearby with seawater. Looking around excitedly and taking in the situation, she noticed that there was an older man as well as two girls. Smirking when she noticed the girl she so affectionately referred to as the "blue haired bítch" earlier, she gave a small wave, before punching the Azian boy hard enough to instantly knock him out. Iom might be a more physical based person, but she wasn't a dumbass - far from it. Given the fact that the Empire reigned over all of Shenlong's massive area, even a country area like here could and probably would've been subject to propoganda and fear-based tactics. Risking discovery right now was not something they could afford.

Her fists returning to a normal size, she whistled at the three people already present there. "Hey mister 'n Trident Girl 'n Blue-Haired Bítch, I'm working with you three, hope we get along." Cracking an entirely, obviously sarcastic smile at them, she turned to face the boy. "Don't worry, he's not dead, although it won't matter, since we should be long gone by the time he wakes up or anyone finds him. What were you two girls doing though? Talking to some native thinking they're just going to be friendly and help you invade their country? Didn't you think that the boy might've gone and told the police about us later? That would make this trial a hell of a lot more challenging, with the Shin-Shu-Whatever trying to kill us too." Sighing, Iom looked around to take in her surroundings while waiting for an answer.[/spoiler]
[spoiler="Malnova Side"]Cutting through the water smoothly, Malnova stepped out of the water, shaking off the excess, her boots crunching on the sand. Two of her team mates - and a dog - for this mission were already here and Malnova came over to join them. Inspecting her allies-to-be closely, she noted down anything of importance inside her mental map of this Exam while waiting for the others to join.

After all members had arrived, they made their way off the beach and gathered at one spot to discuss their plans to invade and destroy. Malnova decided not to talk at the moment, remembering a lesson from back at home, about how being quiet yields more information to learn rather than to talk and miss it. After all, there was no reason for her to give away her information if she could gain information for free. When some apparently famous chef started speaking up, Malnova reclined into a disinterested posture although she was intently listening. After the man finished speaking, Malnova took a few moments to roll the idea over her head and consider benefits and flaws.

"You might be a big name, but there's a few issues here. They'd probably want to know how you got in past their borders and security to enter their Empire in the first place, second, none of us here are most likely as proficient in food as you are, so there's no reason to grant us access, and third, even if it did work for you, they'd still have people carefully monitoring everything you did, because you know, foreigner and all." Standing up, she continued, "Also, since we don't really have complete powerhouses like the other team has, this mission can't rely on just going in and bashing the building apart. Thus, we'll have to rely on secrecy and subterfuge. Don't you think being tied to some chef celebrity would ruin that? It would almost guarantee we'd get no privacy at all." Motioning with a wave towards the general inland, Malnova offered her own input now, to test for reactions. "I'd say those who are capable should enter the elite police force, known as the Xinxuanzu. It'll let us bypass nearly any law here since the government is just like that in this Empire, in addition, we'll have a high level of influence as well as remain in ownership of weapons and the right to use them. From there, we can figure out more and then insert ourselves into the Treasury's security entourage and work from there." Settling back against a nearby bamboo tree, she waited passively for their responses.[/spoiler]

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

After the positively rude response, Torben was satisfied that the girl hadn't been permanently harmed by his actions. He hoped that his actions wouldn't come back to bite him on the ass later, but for now he had a much more important matter to attend to.

 

Valentine. His name being on the list meant that the boy had made it. And he was on Torben's team. He had twice the amount of reason to find him. Torben couldn't quite understand what made this one so important; out of all the examinees. Perhaps it was how the boy seemed to be an innocent in a world of killers. Perhaps it was that they were the only one Torben really interacted with. Or maybe it was something else entirely; Torben couldn't say for sure.

But he did know he had to find Val soon. Had to see for himself the boy was alright.

 

Pushing and maneuvering himself through the crowd of people trying to find their groups; Torben looked for the unique looking young man. After a while he finally spotted him and nearly bowling over some other examinee in his rush to reach Val.

 

"Erm..." Torben realized he didn't know what to say. He was just overjoyed, an unfamiliar feeling these days, to see the boy. "Val...I'm...glad you made it out. Guess a little, well not so little but you get my drift, worm isn't gonna stop you." He clapped the boy on the shoulder and smiled. An actual, genuine, smile.

This test might be difficult but at least he had a friend by his side. He'd have to keep an eye on him, but it seemed like he was made of tougher stuff than one would think. "Come on, Val, we gotta meet up with the others and then we can show all of them what we're made of."

[Aix]

Anemone grimaced slightly at the rather cruel treatment of a young boy. "That was unnecessary," she said, but left it at that. She supposed what they said was reasonable enough, so she didn't care to argue it further. She was hardly an expert on infiltration. "We still have one more in our group... Are they coming?"

She supposed no one else would know. Now that she thought about it, she remembered it was that one girl who had lost her arm... that girl who managed to get lost enough to find herself in the right place. Hopefully, the same thing will happen again and they can just proceed forwards. Besides, it's not like they needed her. In fact, it wasn't even necessary for them to all work together. Anemone straightened herself out.

"I'm a fisher. If we keep close to the sea, I can catch us fish," she said. "Otherwise we have to steal." She paused. "Food, I mean." She was really just thinking out loud now. "However, we have no idea where we actually are and where we are headed." She nodded towards the boy. "I hope you guys know the lay of the land as well as him," she said, slightly accusingly.

[divider1]
"Sir!" Whatever he was about to say next was cut short as a wine gourd can flying at his head, knocking the guard off his feet.

"Call me 'milord' now. I've decided. I am now the lord of Fujian! Lord [acronym=Prepare for puns later~]Hu[/acronym], master of Fujian. I like the sound of that." The morbidly obese man whom the guard was addressing was too absorbed with himself to care about whatever the guard had to say. "Or maybe I am a god! Ahahaha, the guardian god of Fujian. Yes, I like that better."

"What is it, Private Yi?" The fat man's lieutenant who stepped forwards was the opposite of him. He was extremely thin, with a long and serious face. A stickler for detail, shown in the fact that he had memorized the names and faces of all the three thousand men under his command.

"Lieutenant General Wang, an airship has been sighted off the coast," said the somewhat dazed Private Yi as his superior helped him onto his feet. "The guard detail there has confirmed around ten foreign devils have made a landing on the coast."

Now this was a rare occurrence. Why anyone would want to come to Shenglong was anyone's guess, but Wang doubted they were tourists or immigrants. Troubles from outside tended mean real trouble and hence it was always reported to the highest authority in the area. While intuitively, only ten people didn't seem like much of a threat, but Wang realized that it simply meant these ten people were extremely capable. For a moment, he recalled when he tried to join the Xinxuanzu so many years ago, only to run home with his tail between his legs from the monsters that presented himself at the exam. It was a simple tournament style elimination of entrants and Wang knew he lost before his match began.

"Send an entire battalion to surround the area and put it into lockdown," he said, although thinking back to his younger days, he wasn't even sure if five hundred men was enough. "Put another battalion on standby."

[Love of Ghibli]

Lettess listened in earnest as one of the people poked holes in his idea that he had already stated. But everyone can have their opinion right? Lettess was poised to respond, but he thought that it would be more polite to actually wait for others to actually respond. Lettess then decided to respond to her actual statement about stealth and infiltrating some kind of police force. Since no one was actually speaking up he decided to reply in kind. Well I already addressed that this wasn't a stealthy plan, but I prefaced that with my whole plan to actually go alone. This way my presence as a "celebrity" makes your stealthy mission a lot easier. Its like a grand distraction...he added with a smile. 

As for infiltrating the police I...Lettess was about to finish his discussion when he heard a slew of vehicles in the distance. Then again maybe the police have already come for us. It seemed like military battalion were coming and about to surround the beach area. Lettess looked a tad serious as he knew, in the back of his head, that standing still in one place for a long time was a bad idea. Hopefully the teams faces aren't totally recognized thus blowing their chances all together. He looked back to the person who made the initial comment about the police force. You may be right, but since I'm only 13 I doubt I qualify for the police. If we make it out of here I think we should try your idea. 

Lettess then decided to go into a racing stance. With that being the case I'll be your distraction you all should get going. Lettess broke off into a full sprint once again and made his way to the edge of the beach area. There he saw the full brunt of what was coming at him. Unfortunately he didn't have any of his knives with him so this was going to be a good test of his dodging skills. Luckily he had a hood so his face was somewhat concealed. He look ahead and made sure he got the attention of at least some of the military. He took a stereotypical kung-fu stance and that was when the march on the beach seemed to stop. Oh crap...they've fought Nen users before. He thought to himself. The soldiers replied in kind pulling out all of their semi-automatic sub machine guns. Lettess raised an eyebrow as he wondered when did a military have that much funding. Well there's lockdown for you. There was some authoritarian figure who was yelling something over a bullhorn about standing down. Lettess ignored it. Instead in front of the army he seemed to disappear. But they could easily recognize Nen based speed when they see it. Immediately the soldiers pointed their guns at a near by building and on the side of that building they would see Lettess climbing. 

Well they're good. I'll give them that. Bullets went flying as the soldiers opened fire on Lettess. But that was nothing before his extreme speed. But he barely made it to the top of the building unscathed. He noticed that as small platoon of soldiers was sent into the building to give proper chase. Hopefully this was enough of a distraction for everyone else to scatter. Oh Semi-automatics! This will not end well.

[Maeriberii Haan]

[hr]

 

"The firehorse's stuck at the plane, huh? Quite a shame, but eh, we'll survive." Well, honestly Celia was absolutely happy regarding that news, and tried her best not to laugh at the beast's probable misery. She's still quite bitter for losing almost every single of her bearings in the cavern early on, and the fact that the beast almost made her the next meal of a spider. Everyone else at least had arrived,though it seemed that Anemone was not really amused with their treatment of the boy. Well, to be fair, Celia probably did get too straightforwardly pushing on the boy, but hopefully not. Or...she might just refer to a certain someone's "greeting".

 

Celia noticed one of the devils among the people arriving, and that irked her quite a lot. The devil's irritating welcome only made her more annoyed, and to think that she had to work together with that devil...she might be able to hold herself back for now, but sooner or later she would punch the hell out of the devil. That'd teach her a lesson not to be an annoying prick.

 

"I hope you guys know the lay of the land as well as him,"

 

"Anemone, you're expecting us foreigners to know more about this place than someone that lived here?" That was a honest question despite the tone. Still, Celia wanted to get some time with either the boy or really, someone in the land so she could actually understand what was going on the empire. She could ask him right there at that moment, but she didn't really feel like it, and it might make people know that she's supposed to be the princess of the kingdom of Cannes, an identity she really wanted to forgot and leave behind. It was a silly reasoning to not ask things in public, and Celia didn't really sure whether the two would be related enough to lead to the other, but she'd just play it safe for now.

 

"Foreign devils, state your business here!"

 

It was all too sudden. Before her group could actually get some talk regarding what they should do next, they were suddenly ambushed by an army. Well, not quite, but it's still something like...like...ugh, Celia couldn't really be bothered to make an estimate. But basically there were a lot of soldiers coming at their direction, all coming with firearms. Celia was still surprised that firearms development, and technology in general, had been ridiculously active for the last several months. It was like a century's worth of development had been done in a year or so.

 

Ugh, dammit, this is not the time to think about that!

 

Celia thought a bit whether she should try fighting back against the army, but she immediately dismissed the thought. One hundred people might still be a logical match against her, but 500? Don't be silly. Celia's not a superhuman. Alternatively, she might be able to tell her identity there just to escape from this tight situation since her kingdom and the empire's supposed to be allies, but that'd just be stupid and might not even work since, guess what, her ID was lost back on the cavern. Dammit firehorse thing. So...her only answer would probably be running away as fast as she could from the place before she became a literal bullet nest. Without thinking about much anymore, she looked at her group, and noticed the man she bumped into in the cave, and the boy. Celia immediately went to them and grabbed their arms firmly. The man was seemingly really tired from the swimming to the shore, and the boy's just a boy. She might be able to drag the two of them with some efforts. Or carry them on her back, either works. But she might only be able to carry o- that's nonsense, of course she could carry the two of them.

 

"Hey you two, let's get the hell away from this place. I'll either drag you or carry you on your back, so decide fast. Also, we kinda might have to hide in your place after all, little boy.

 

But yeah, hurry up and decide."

 

"S-sure...I guess. I think I'll get on your back."

 

"Good boy. Now, how about you...Oz, isn't that right?" From the list of her teammate, Celia was pretty damn sure that this guy would be Ozymandias. She would've said that he was Taikyu, but it was the horse instead.

 

[divider1]

 

Nova watched her group gather and discuss from a distance. The wolfboy might or might not have noticed her when he dragged the Sprout kid back from his position, but eh. It was quite annoying to just sit there. She currently had no idea on what she should do next, and the atmosphere the wolfboy set up didn't really help anyone in thinking for a strategy, especially since no one there really had any idea on what were they going to do in the first place from what it seemed to be.

 

And then, of course, enemy soldiers arrived not long after. It was kind of irritating, but it became even more irritating when they opened fire. Of course, they're kinda too much for the group to handle seeing their numbers...but eh, screw it. The forces had been split apart with people running at different direction anyway. She could get some...

 

Without wasting any more time, Nova rushed straight to the nearest soldier, who didn't notice her due to her previously semi-hidden location. She wrestled his submachine gun and kicked him in the groin afterwards to disable him, before she started to open fire at the other soldiers, while trying her best not to get shot. The soldiers were thankfully not trained in using Nen, so she was able to use her superior agility to dodge being riddled with bullets so far. Still it was surprisingly fun to fire at will to the semi-hapless soldiers, and before long, Nova picked up other guns the other soldiers dropped and enjoyed her moment of feeling far more powerful than her opponents-

 

Until a bullet grazed her shoulder. The pain snapped Nova back to reality, and she realized that there's too many soldiers for her to act as stupidly reckless like that. She might be far more powerful than a soldier one-for-one, but against this much...it's just plain stupid to challenge them. Seeing a path to a forest not that far from the battlefield, Nova immediately ran as fast as she could there, while several soldiers were still intent on chasing her.

 

What a pain.

 

[hr]

[Love of Ghibli]

After a series of rooftop jumping and imitating his favorite ninja anime Lettess thought he had successfully left his pursuers. Unfortunately that did not seem to be the case. Just as he was resting a small platoon of 8 men had surrounded him on the roof top and were prepared to engage. Hmm did they guess where I was going? Just a tad arrogant of me to think I could take on an organized military by myself. The men had their guns drawn and one of them stepped back to issue fair warning. You are now trespassing on the property of the Empire of Shenlong. If you surrender now we promise not to do you any harm. The men clearly cocked their firearms and each of them had the kill shot. Luckily Lettess still had his face covered so they didn't actually make eye contact. There was only way out of this. How sad that he didn't have any of his kitchen tools with him. He would have to do this bare handed. Oh mom is sooo going to be disappointed in me for this. Lettess leaned as if he was falling and within and instant he was already next to one of the gunmen. With a quick punch to the genitals and neck chop the soldier was quickly taken care of. The others were to slow to react as by that time Lettess helped himself to the combat knife pertruding from the pocket of the fallen soldier and it was more than adequate to deal with the rest of the prey. The men quickly opened fire and Lettess proceeded to buzz around the rooftops dodging bullets and engaging in combat....

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Elsewhere in a neighboring hotel there was meeting. A small meeting of like minded individuals who thought to make this empire a better place through the thoughts of revolution. Some would call them rebels, they would call themselves the bringers of hope and the emissaries of change. Nevertheless meetings were being had. The current leader of this faction named Shun was discussing the prospects of a bomb...because nothing brings about chang like a massive explosion. Shun and his rebels were in slight conference looking at plans of the city until they heard the loud sounds of gunfire from a neighboring vicinity. The group was eeriely quiet. Fear had set in, were they discovered, was the hiding plain sight gimmick too obvious was this the end. Shun immediately got on the secure line to his scouting party. WHAT IS GOING ON! He screamed alarmed. Luckily the scouts reported back that he should simply just look out the window. After grabbing some binoculars he looked outside and a little bit beneath his current position he noticed that there was a child fighting on the roof tops with some soldiers. What was more surprising the child was winning. In a very uncharacteristic move the entire crew came to watch. They were all in amazement.

 

Wow what kind of monster is that? One of the grunts mentioned. The kind we need to recruit Shun commented.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Lettess had successfully disarmed the men of their guns, but it seemed like anything short of death was not going to be good enough to actually free him of this burden. The men had started to resort to hand to hand combat. Luckily they were all taller than him so it wasn't hard to slit some of their Achellies. As the men would fall to the ground helpless Lettess jumped off of the roof and bounced between the sides of the buildings till he landed safely on the ground. Stopping to breathe heavily and make sure the coast was clear Lettess continued his sprint outward into the streets. Unfortunately now the place was swarming with the military. Well I wonder was this all my doing? He then ran before he could be seen heading the direction opposite of the beach. Luckily there weren't any enemies for him to encounter. At some point he hit a wide open space and realized that there wasn't anyone around. It looked like he was trapped in some courtyard and then the thought hit him. SNIPERS! He immediately started to speed blitz everywhere with the power of his Nen and true to form after every step there was a small explosion. Someone was firing anti-tank rounds at the boy.

It looked like all was lost as the mysterious sniper wasn't giving him much room till the entire open area went up in smoke. He Lettess stopped as this lack of visibilty wasn't really dangerous against him, but it was oddly helpful. Lettess took one step but he noticed he was literally surrounded by cloaked figures. Then one of them stepped forward and spoke. Come with us if you want to live. Lettess simply nodded his head and the group ran off.