[Hunter x Hunter] Scamming My Way to the Top

[Boumargood]

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Chapter 45: Twenty-Eight Possibilities

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​

Lippo gave Tonpa no time to count the ways the next phase might kill him.

The examiner finished congratulating them, closed the file, and tucked it beneath his arm.

"Follow me. It's time to explain the Fourth Phase."

The applicants moved after him, some with an enthusiasm Tonpa could not understand and others with the caution of people about to open a box of unknown contents. He rose more slowly than the rest. His side immediately protested, and he had to suppress a groan as his ribs shifted beneath the bandages.

Leorio passed beside him, dragging his feet.

"If the Fourth Phase involves another staircase, I'm withdrawing."

Killua spoke from ahead of them.

"I think you'll collapse before you get the chance to withdraw."

Leorio launched into an angry protest, but Tonpa did not join them. He was too preoccupied with the passage Lippo was leading them through. He recognized neither its turns nor the metal door at its end, nor anything else happening around them.

In the anime, the story had moved straight to the explanation of the Fourth Phase with suspicious ease. He had never watched the applicants walk through this corridor, nor learned how far the final chamber was from the tower's exit. Those details had not mattered to someone sitting safely behind a screen.

Now that he was trapped inside Tonpa's body, every minute he could not remember had become a convenient place for disaster to occur.

'Wonderful. I've entered the scenes the camera didn't consider important. I hope my death isn't one of them.'

Lippo opened the door. Daylight flooded the passage and forced Tonpa to narrow his eyes. They emerged into a stone courtyard at the base of the tower, where the wind carried the scent of salt and a faint chill that cleared the stale air of the corridors from their clothes.

An island stood in the distance, a mass of green surrounded by water on every side.

Lippo stopped near the edge of the courtyard and pointed toward it.

"Only two phases remain. The Fourth Phase will take place on Zevil Island."

The applicants turned toward the island. Gon raised a hand above his eyes and tried to make out its details, while Kurapika studied the distance separating it from the shore. Tonpa did not need an explanation to know what awaited them there.

Seven days of hunting, stealing Badges, and sleeping in a forest occupied by Hisoka and Illumi.

He would have preferred the island to remain a little farther away.

One of the Hunter Association officials moved from the side of the courtyard, pushing a small wheeled cart. A broad black box rested upon it, with an opening in its lid large enough for a single hand.

It did not look threatening.

That did nothing to stop Tonpa's stomach from tightening.

The draw.

The applicants formed a semicircle around the cart. Gon stood near Tonpa, staring at the box with open curiosity, while Killua leaned slightly to one side in an attempt to see inside it.

Kurapika remained still, but his eyes moved between Lippo and the other applicants as though he had already begun analyzing the rules before hearing them. Leorio regarded the cart as though it were personally responsible for his injuries.

Lippo rested one hand upon the box.

"We will use this draw to determine the hunters and their prey."

The surrounding whispers faded.

"Inside this box are twenty-eight numbered cards. They bear the same numbers as the Badges you received at the beginning of the Hunter Exam, and each of you will select one."

Lippo gestured toward the applicants before him.

"You will draw in the order that you reached the bottom of Trick Tower."

His eyes then moved to Tonpa and his companions.

"As for you five, your arrival was registered as a single group. You will draw last, and I will call you in order."

Twenty-eight cards.

In the future Tonpa remembered, the box should have contained only twenty-four. The course of events had not merely allowed four additional applicants to survive; it had altered the draw itself to make room for them.

It was as though the future had not only opened its doors to unexpected guests, but also set out extra seats before they arrived.

'Excellent service. I hope it prepared targets other than me for them as well.'

Gon raised his hand.

"How will the card decide who hunts whom?"

Lippo's eyes settled upon him behind the red lenses.

"You will learn what the number means once everyone has finished drawing."

Gon lowered his hand but continued watching the box, trying to guess the answer.

Leorio released a long breath.

"Wonderful. We survived the tower together, and now they're going to make us hunt one another."

Tonpa said:

"At least we won't have to vote."

Leorio looked at him for a moment, then folded his arms before the pain forced him to lower them again.

"That's the first advantage I've heard since we entered that route."

Tonpa did not need the rest of the explanation to understand what the cards meant. The applicant whose Badge matched the number drawn would become the drawer's target on the island, and somewhere inside the box was a card bearing the number sixteen.

His number.

He studied the Badges worn by the applicants around him. The numbers he knew surfaced in his mind one after another: Gon was 405, Kurapika 404, Leorio 403, and Killua 99.

Hisoka was 44.

Gittarackur—the needle-faced man Tonpa knew was merely Illumi Zoldyck in disguise—wore number 301.

Tonpa tried to recall the remaining numbers and received only a mixture of faces and brief scenes. He remembered Hanzo, Pokkle, and Ponzu, along with several applicants who would disappear from the story before the anime gave him any reason to memorize their names.

As for the four additional survivors, he knew only one troubling fact about them: they were not supposed to be standing here.

'Twenty-eight cards. That means my chance of drawing Hisoka is less than four percent.'

The number reassured him for exactly one second.

Then he imagined his fingers turning over the card to find forty-four waiting on its face. He imagined tracking Hisoka through the island's forest and reaching for a Badge attached to the chest of a man capable of killing him with a playing card.

His fingers trembled, and he closed them around the edge of his jacket.

'And there's more than a ninety-six percent chance I won't draw him. Let's focus on the statistic that doesn't end with my corpse.'

The danger did not lie solely in the card Tonpa would draw. Someone present would draw number sixteen, and Tonpa would have no idea who it was.

It might be a weak applicant he could handle, one of the four unfamiliar survivors, or someone the draw decided to reward with an easy target by sending Hisoka after him.

Tonpa retreated half a step until Gon stood between him and the magician. It offered no real protection, but it improved the picture aesthetically.

Killua noticed the movement.

"Are you trying to hide again?"

"I'm choosing a position that lets me observe everyone."

Killua looked at Gon's back, which concealed half of Tonpa, then said:

"A true expert's position."

Before Tonpa could answer, Lippo raised his hand toward the first applicant to arrive.

"Hisoka. You're first."

The magician pushed away from the wall. The few conversations still lingering around the courtyard stopped, and the applicants parted before him without needing to be asked.

Hisoka approached the cart and slipped one hand into the box. He stirred the cards for several seconds, then withdrew one and turned it between two fingers.

He read the number.

His smile did not change, but his eyes rose slowly and traveled across the assembled applicants.

The muscles in Tonpa's back tightened when the gaze neared him, only for it to continue past as though it had found nothing worth stopping for.

'Either he didn't draw my number, or he did and has already started enjoying the idea. How reassuring.'

Hisoka stepped away, and Gittarackur approached after him. His hand disappeared into the box before emerging with a card. He examined it without a single change passing over his needle-distorted face.

Tonpa had been unable to read that face before the draw, and the card did not grant him a sudden miracle.

A third applicant followed, then a fourth.

Every hand that vanished into the box had a chance of emerging with number sixteen.

Tonpa stood among his companions and watched the applicants' faces after every draw, trying to distinguish relief from fear—or from a sudden interest in his direction.

He could not tell which of them had drawn his number.

For the first time, he was not merely waiting to learn the identity of his prey.

He was waiting to discover which one of them had become his hunter.



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Chapter 46 drops in two hours as a bonus chapter! Thank you all for reading and supporting the story. Enjoy!

Want to keep reading?

Advance chapters (up to 12 ahead) are available here:

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[Boumargood]

Thanks for the story, it's enjoyable.
My one real criticism is the dialogue between the characters often consists of a short series of bland witticisms. Very often each person uses less then five words per line. They are not particularly witty or funny and half feel like they just exist to have someone talking.
If not for this I'd be enjoying it a lot more.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for reading, and I appreciate the honest feedback. I see what you mean about the short back-and-forth dialogue. I'll pay more attention to it and work on making future conversations feel more natural and purposeful. Thanks for pointing it out!

 

[Kazumaa23]

I just noticed but this fic has a Chinese webnovel feel to it with how much you repeat the same thing in different ways just to pad the word count.

 

[Boumargood]

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Chapter 46: A Useful Divergence

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​

Hands continued disappearing into the box and emerging again.

Each time an applicant stepped away from the cart with a card partially concealed between his fingers, Tonpa's eyes moved to his face, then to the direction of his gaze, then back to the Badge pinned to his chest.

He was waiting for one thing.

A glance that lingered too long on number sixteen. A sudden change in posture. A smile that did not belong.

Anything.

He found nothing.

Some applicants left the cart with expressions that were suspiciously rigid, while others avoided looking at the crowd altogether. A few did not even bother pretending. The moment they hid their cards, their eyes began moving from one Badge to another.

Those people, at least, were comforting.

Idiots were easier to read.

Unfortunately, whoever had drawn the card bearing number sixteen was under no obligation to be an idiot.

A stab of pain pulsed beneath Tonpa's ribs, and he shifted his weight to the other leg.

It did not go away.

Food, rest, and fresh bandages had made it possible for him to walk without leaning on Gon, but they had not erased what the prisoner had done to him. The longer he stood still, the more the dull ache in his side began to throb again.

Another applicant stepped away from the cart.

Then another.

Each card removed from the box reduced the number remaining without giving Tonpa any better idea where his own number had gone.

Quite the opposite.

With every passing draw, it became more likely that the person holding sixteen had already finished and returned to the crowd.

'Wonderful. My hunter may already be standing in front of me, and I'm giving everyone equal attention so I don't discriminate.'

Tonpa and his companions had been the last to reach the bottom of Trick Tower, so they remained where they were while the line in front of the cart steadily disappeared.

The space around the box widened.

Then Lippo raised his head.

"Gon."

Tonpa's attention snapped away from the other applicants.

Gon stepped forward.

The open curiosity he had shown before the draw was gone, replaced by quiet concentration. He paused in front of the cart, then slipped one hand into the box.

Tonpa watched him more closely than he had watched anyone else.

'Originally, he drew forty-four.'

His eyes shifted toward Hisoka.

The magician stood some distance away, idly turning his card between his fingers as though the number written on it deserved no more than a few seconds of thought.

It was not a reassuring sight.

Hisoka could look that relaxed while considering how to kill someone.

Tonpa looked back at Gon.

Part of him wanted the boy to draw forty-four again.

His jaw tightened slightly.

A grown man hoping that a twelve-year-old boy would become Hisoka's target.

When he phrased it that way, it sounded terrible even by his standards.

But he was not wishing for Gon's death. He was clinging to the only version of the future in which he knew Gon survived. A different card could send the boy after someone Tonpa did not remember, or into an event he had never seen.

'It's not cruelty.'

He paused.

'It's confidence in the only version where I know he doesn't die.'

The revised wording did not help much.

Gon withdrew his card and shielded its face with both hands before looking at it.

His eyes widened slightly.

Then the reaction vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared.

He slipped the card into his pocket and returned without looking at Hisoka—or anyone else.

Tonpa followed him with his eyes until he stopped beside them.

Nothing.

'Either canon survived... or Gon suddenly learned how to keep a secret.'

Lippo's voice came again a few moments later.

"Killua."

Killua walked toward the cart with a lightness that made Tonpa watch him for a moment.

After everything the boy had endured inside the tower, he still moved as though injuries were a problem that only happened to other people.

Killua reached into the box and withdrew a card quickly.

He read the number once.

Nothing changed on his face, though his thumb paused against the edge of the card for a fraction of a second before he hid it.

When he returned, Leorio leaned toward him.

"Did you get someone you know?"

Killua looked at him.

"Maybe."

Leorio frowned.

"What does maybe mean? The number is right there."

A small smile appeared on Killua's face.

"It means I'm not telling you."

Leorio opened his mouth, but Lippo called Kurapika's name.

Tonpa's stomach tightened.

Kurapika.

In the events Tonpa remembered, Kurapika had drawn number sixteen.

Tonpa's number.

Kurapika approached the cart with his usual calm.

When Tonpa had watched this draw from behind a screen, it had been little more than a convenient coincidence that arranged the hunts of the Fourth Phase.

Now he was watching the hand of a man who still doubted a large portion of what Tonpa told him disappear into a box that might contain the number officially turning Tonpa into his prey.

The card came out.

Kurapika exposed just enough of the number to read it himself.

His expression did not change.

A moment later, his eyes rose and moved across the crowd.

They passed near Tonpa.

Or over him.

He could not tell.

His shoulders stiffened before he forced them to relax.

Kurapika concealed the card and returned.

'Excellent.'

Tonpa knew exactly as much as he had known a minute ago.

The card bearing number sixteen might be with Kurapika.

Or it might not.

Trying to read that man from his face was an exceptionally slow method of wasting time.

Leorio's turn came next.

At least Leorio did not suffer from the same problem.

The instant he saw his number, his brows drew together.

He looked at the card a second time, then tightened his fingers around it as though whoever owned that number had personally offended him.

Tonpa watched him return.

Originally, Leorio had been Tonpa's target.

Four hundred and three.

Tonpa looked at the scowl that had appeared on the man's face from merely seeing a number.

'And I was supposed to steal his Badge later.'

He paused.

'Yes. I'm sure that would have ended in a calm and mature conversation.'

His gaze moved to the bandage wrapped around Leorio's head and the exhausted way he carried himself.

Practically speaking, he would not have been the worst target in the courtyard.

As for their relationship...

'Stealing his Badge would be an excellent way to turn fifteen percent Trust into a sincere desire to kill me.'

Leorio rejoined the group.

Gon started to speak.

"After the draw, we can—"

Killua interrupted him.

"After the draw."

Gon fell silent.

Leorio eyed their pockets suspiciously, while Kurapika remained still, his gaze shifting between the cart and the applicants without giving Tonpa a single useful piece of information for free.

Then Lippo raised his head.

"Tonpa."

His thoughts stopped immediately.

'All right. Time to stop observing everyone else's problems.'

His eyes settled on the box.

'Now I get to buy one of my own.'

He moved toward the cart.

Several gazes passed over him as he walked. He could not tell whether they were simple curiosity or whether one belonged to the person who had drawn the card bearing number sixteen.

He did not turn to search.

If his hunter was intelligent, he would not reveal himself now.

And if he was an idiot, he had seven full days to prove it.

Tonpa stopped in front of the box and looked at the dark opening in its lid.

Then something obvious finally pushed through the tension clouding his thoughts.

Twenty-seven people had gone before him.

He was last.

Only one card remained.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

'They even took away the illusion of choice.'

Tonpa slipped his hand into the box.

His fingers moved along the bottom until they touched the edge of the only card left.

He took it and withdrew his hand, keeping the number covered beneath his palm.

His fingers hesitated.

He knew waiting would not change what was written there, but that did nothing to stop his mind from presenting the worst possibilities one after another.

Hisoka.

Illumi.

Someone he didn't remember who would later turn out to be even worse for some ridiculous reason.

'Let's see what kind of disaster they saved for me.'

He shifted his thumb aside.

The first digit appeared.

Then the second.

His eyes fixed on the final covered space.

He moved his thumb a little farther.

Tonpa remained still for a moment.

Then he read the number again to make sure.

Three hundred and three.

His eyes remained fixed on the number.

At least he had not drawn sixteen himself.

The thought stopped him.

'Actually... what would they do if that happened? Would I become both my hunter and my prey?'

A trace of amusement crossed his face.

'I'd demand all six points for not robbing myself.'

The thought remained amusing for another second before the number in front of him pulled his attention back to the real problem.

Not the number he had expected.

Some of the tension drained from his shoulders.

'Good.'

For the moment, that was enough.

'No deranged magician. No professional assassin in disguise. For once, the result isn't the worst one available.'

But the relief shrank when he lifted his eyes from the card.

If he was holding 303, then someone among the applicants in front of him had already drawn sixteen.

Twenty-seven faces.

And Tonpa had no real reason to rule any of them out.

'Excellent. I know my prey, and I still have no idea who my hunter is.'

His eyes moved across the crowd for a moment before he stopped himself.

Anyone with enough sense to draw sixteen and keep quiet was not going to answer Tonpa's question by staring at him.

He looked down at the card again.

He clearly remembered that his original target should have been 403.

Leorio.

Tonpa raised the card slightly, then lowered it.

'So even this changed.'

The divergences were no longer just a few additional people standing in the background.

They were beginning to reach events Tonpa had personally relied upon.

'Four extra survivors were annoying.'

His gaze settled on 303.

'But when the future starts changing what's in my own hand... that's a problem.'

He raised his head and began searching through the Badges.

He found the applicant wearing Badge 303 near the edge of the gathering.

The number was pinned to the chest of a man Tonpa couldn't tell whether he remembered from the original events or not.

He studied him for several seconds.

Average build. Standing away from the larger groups. Feet planted steadily, hands resting loosely at his sides.

Tonpa's eyes narrowed slightly.

He might be one of the four additional applicants who were never supposed to reach this stage.

Or he might simply be someone who had appeared in the anime background for a few seconds and given Tonpa's memory no reason to preserve his face.

After his failed attempt to identify the extra survivors inside the tower, Tonpa was not prepared to pretend he knew the difference.

He continued watching the man.

There was none of the cold stillness he associated with Hanzo, nor the unpleasant sensation that made Tonpa's body begin searching for exits whenever Hisoka came too close.

But the man had reached the Fourth Phase.

That alone was enough reason not to assume he was weak.

An unknown target, but not an obvious disaster so far.

Tonpa hid the card inside his clothes and returned to his companions.

Killua needed only one look.

"You look happy."

Tonpa settled his expression.

"I'm happy the draw is over."

Killua's eyes dropped briefly toward the place where Tonpa had hidden the card, then returned to his face.

"Of course."

Tonpa did not like the way he said it.

Leorio spoke next.

"You got a good number, didn't you?"

Tonpa raised an eyebrow.

"I got a number that doesn't make me regret it immediately. That's all I know so far."

His eyes drifted despite himself toward the edge of the courtyard.

The applicant wearing Badge 303 was still there.

Tonpa watched his posture for another moment, then looked away before his interest became obvious.

His body was no longer the one he had entered the exam with. He was stronger and faster now, but he had learned painfully that numbers alone did not tell him who knew how to fight and who did not.

The prisoner had made that lesson quite clear.

'This time, I'll try not to learn it with my face.'

The divergence had not suddenly become a blessing.

Four additional applicants were still here.

His draw had changed.

And whoever had drawn the card bearing number sixteen remained unknown—and might be far more dangerous than the applicant wearing Badge 303.

But for once, the change had not left him with only a problem.

It had left him with something he could work with.

Tonpa fixed his gaze on the applicant wearing Badge 303 one last time.

He memorized the man's face, his stance, and his position near the edge of the courtyard.

Then he looked away as though the man had never caught his attention at all.

The card bearing 303 remained hidden inside his clothes.

As for the card bearing number sixteen...

It was hidden somewhere among the other twenty-seven applicants.

And somehow, his new target was no longer what worried him most about the Fourth Phase.



_______________________________

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 47: Things That Don't Change

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa remained beside his companions, the card bearing 303 hidden inside his clothes.

A few moments later, Lippo placed a hand over the box.

The draw was over.

Nothing in the courtyard had visibly changed, yet the atmosphere felt heavier. Minutes ago, every one of them had simply been an applicant trying to survive the Hunter Exam. Now each of them had prey, and Tonpa himself had become a number in someone else's hand.

He swept his gaze across the faces only once.

Hisoka idly turned his card between his fingers, as though the number he had drawn meant nothing. The needle-faced man stood not far from him, perfectly still, his expression difficult to read even before the needles had rearranged his face. Hanzo had already hidden his card and folded his arms without sparing anyone a glance.

Three faces.

Not a single clue.

'I might not find out who drew my number until my Badge disappears. Or my neck along with it.'

His mouth went slightly dry.

A moment ago, 303 had seemed like the only good thing to come out of the draw. Now he remembered that having a target who did not look like an immediate disaster would mean very little if the person hunting him happened to be one of the worst people here.

Worse, whoever had drawn sixteen had no reason to look at him at all.

A smart hunter memorized his prey, then acted as though it did not exist.

Among the other twenty-seven applicants, far too many were capable of doing exactly that for Tonpa to feel reassured.

Lippo raised a hand, and the murmurs spreading through the courtyard died down.

"The number each of you drew corresponds to your target in the Fourth Phase."

The explanation did not surprise Tonpa, but several faces around him tightened. Somehow, hearing the word "target" spoken in that official tone made the little cards feel heavier than they had a moment earlier.

Lippo continued.

"You will be taken to Zevil Island, where you will remain for seven days. Your Target Badge is worth three points, and keeping your own Badge is worth another three. Any Badge that belongs to neither category is worth one point."

He raised five fingers on one hand and one on the other.

"You need six points to pass the phase. How you obtain them is none of our concern."

As Lippo lowered his hands, Tonpa's mind went straight to the numbers.

His target's Badge and his own would give him the full six points.

In the best case, he only needed his target's Badge. After that, he could stop hunting anyone else and spend the remaining days protecting his own while staying away from the three people whose intentions he had no desire to test.

If he lost his own Badge, however, the entire calculation changed. He would need his Target Badge and three additional Badges worth one point each.

As long as he kept his own Badge, the math was simple. Lose it, and the phase turned into seven days of chasing people who already had no shortage of reasons to dislike him.

'Add points and rules to theft, and suddenly it becomes an official exam.'

Beside him, Leorio touched the spot where his Badge was without thinking, then quickly moved his hand away when he noticed Killua watching.

One corner of Killua's mouth rose.

Leorio scowled as though the boy had personally invented the rules just to annoy him.

Lippo spoke again.

"A ship is waiting for you at the coast. Follow the marked route. The remaining details will be explained before you reach the island."

The examiner moved first, and the applicants followed in an uneven line.

Tonpa walked between Gon and Kurapika. The same group that had barely stopped arguing in the dining room now walked in a silence that made the sound of their footsteps uncomfortably clear.

Gon opened his mouth, then closed it when his eyes met Killua's.

Kurapika kept track of anyone who came too close, while Leorio touched the spot where he had hidden his card every few steps, pretending to adjust his coat.

Leorio was the first to lose patience with the silence.

"Are we going to walk the whole way like this?"

Killua answered.

"You can tell us your number if the silence bothers you."

Leorio pulled his coat tighter.

"I like silence. Silence is excellent."

Gon smiled, while Tonpa turned his face slightly to hide his own.

'Touching. It took the prisoner hours to bring us together, and the box needed one minute to make all of us guard our pockets.'

Tonpa was no better.

The card bearing 303 remained hidden inside his clothes, and he had no intention of sharing it even with Gon. Trust was a beautiful thing, but three points were prettier, and the System had yet to announce any reward for collective stupidity.

They smelled the salt before they saw the sea.

The path opened between the rocks, revealing a ship waiting beside a short pier. The wind drove cold spray into Tonpa's face, and a sharp twinge ran through his injured side beneath the bandages.

He climbed the gangplank carefully.

Killua moved ahead of the others, then jumped onto the deck instead of simply finishing the walk up the plank.

Tonpa stared at his back.

'There was an easier way.'

He paused.

'Which is exactly why he didn't use it.'

Tonpa continued carefully up the gangplank until he reached the deck, then chose a place near the middle of the ship—far enough from the edge to reduce his chances of falling, and far enough from Hisoka to reduce his chances of being shoved overboard.

Gon and Killua did not move far away. They stopped beside the nearby railing, and a few moments later Gon's voice reached him clearly.

"Killua... you didn't draw my number, right?"

Killua leaned slightly toward him.

"No. Did you draw mine?"

Gon quickly shook his head.

The tension between them vanished almost immediately. Then each of them drew out his card just far enough for the other to see, without revealing the number to anyone else on deck.

Killua's smile disappeared for a moment as he read Gon's number.

Then he looked back at him.

"Your luck really is awful."

Gon hid the card again, but the excitement in his eyes looked nothing like fear.

He leaned a little closer to Killua.

"What about you?"

Killua hid his own card and shrugged.

"I don't know who the number belongs to."

"Then... good luck."

Killua smiled.

"You're the one who needs it more."

Tonpa remained still as a single thought slowly surfaced.

'Gon's excited... and Killua says his luck is bad.'

He looked at Gon for a moment.

'In the original story...'

He paused.

'Forty-four.'

If his guess was right, Gon had drawn the card bearing Hisoka's number, just as he had in the story Tonpa remembered.

The exchange had not been identical. Even where they stood was different. The number of survivors had changed too.

Yet the result seemed to have found its way back into place despite everything that had changed.

Tonpa slipped a hand inside his clothes until his fingers touched the card bearing 303.

He had not drawn Leorio this time.

Four additional applicants had emerged from Trick Tower.

Even his target's number was one he had never expected to draw.

As for Kurapika, Tonpa still had no idea what he had drawn.

And yet it looked as though Hisoka's number had ended up in Gon's hand again.

Tonpa looked toward the widening wake behind the ship and felt some of his earlier relief fade.

'Why do some events change whenever I get involved, while others find their way back into place?'

The future no longer seemed like a road he had simply strayed from.

It was beginning to look more like a web. Some threads shifted whenever he passed through them, while other knots remained fixed no matter what changed around them.

But that was only a theory.

No blue window appeared to confirm it. The System offered no free explanation, and Tonpa was not stupid enough to turn a comforting idea into a rule simply because it sounded clever inside his head.

His fingers tightened around the card.

Maybe there were no fixed knots at all.

Maybe, if his guess was right, Gon drawing forty-four again was nothing more than a coincidence.

Or perhaps some events simply required larger changes before they moved off course.

None of those possibilities helped.

All Tonpa knew was that he could no longer rely on the future he remembered, but neither had it dissolved into complete chaos.

Some things had changed.

Others had not.

'It's like walking through a room full of fragile things. I don't touch anything on purpose, and somehow I still hear something break behind me every few steps.'

That was, in its own way, more disturbing than either alternative.

Tonpa fixed his eyes on the wake stretching behind the ship.

A more unsettling question surfaced.

Did some events simply find their way back into place, no matter how much the road leading to them changed?



_______________________________

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 48: The Cheapest Sacrifice

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

The question lingered in Tonpa's mind until the coastline disappeared behind them.

The deck shifted beneath his feet with every wave, while his fingers kept brushing the card inside his pocket to make sure the number 303 had not changed. It was ridiculous. Ink did not rewrite itself, and the System had not yet reached the point of replacing his target with Hisoka halfway through the voyage.

Even so, he did not take the card out to check.

Some fears were better left folded away.

The applicants had scattered across the deck in small groups, keeping their distance from one another. No one spoke loudly anymore. Whenever someone moved, eyes followed them, then looked away before they could be noticed.

'An hour ago, we were congratulating each other for surviving. Now everyone's trying to figure out who they're going to rob first.'

The thought was not quite as funny as he wanted it to be. Every quick glance around him confirmed that the others had reached the same conclusion in their own way.

After a while, Tonpa grew tired of watching people pretend they were not watching one another and leaned back against the cabin wall.

As the voyage wore on, the pain in his shoulder took the opportunity to remind him it was still there. He watched the sea instead of the other applicants, trying not to seem interested in anyone—especially now that he had realized whoever had drawn number sixteen might be smart enough not to look at him at all.

A short, fair-haired attendant stepped out of the cabin, a clipboard in one hand and a small microphone clipped near her collar.

She waited until most of the applicants had turned toward her.

"Before we arrive, there is one final detail regarding disembarkation."

What little conversation remained died down.

"You will leave the ship in the order in which you reached the bottom of Trick Tower. Applicants will disembark at two-minute intervals."

Something heavy settled in Tonpa's stomach.

He knew the rule.

He simply had not thought about it while his only concern had been getting out of the tower alive.

His group had been the last to reach the bottom.

'Wonderful. Even succeeding came with a late fee.'

He kept his objection to himself. He still wanted to know what would happen to the five of them, since they had arrived together.

As though answering his question, the attendant continued.

"If multiple applicants reached the bottom at the same time, their order will be determined when they disembark."

Then she returned to the cabin, leaving behind a silence slightly heavier than before.

Tonpa turned back toward the sea.

Those who left first would have time to get away, find a suitable position, and perhaps even watch the people arriving after them.

As for him and his companions...

Together, they had managed to finish last.

Now they were paying for it together.

No one announced the island when it first appeared.

It began as a dark line dividing the blue sea from the sky, with trees gradually rising above it. Dense forest covered most of the land, tangled so tightly that the shadows beneath it looked like one long entrance to somewhere Tonpa had no desire to explore. Along the nearest stretch of coast lay a narrow gray beach broken by black rocks glistening with seawater.

Without realizing it, Tonpa pushed himself away from the wall.

He would spend an entire week there.

Seven days to take the Badge of a man he knew almost nothing about, protect his own from an unknown pursuer, and avoid Hisoka, Illumi, and Hanzo.

'A relaxing vacation. All that's missing is a request to rate the service when we leave.'

He remained standing as the shoreline drew closer. The island was no longer a distant shape whose danger could be reduced to a joke. The rocks became clearer, the trees taller, and the shadows beneath them deeper.

Then the sound of the engine beneath his feet grew quieter, and the ship began turning toward a small bay.

The scrape of the anchor against metal rang out, and the same attendant emerged from the cabin again.

She raised her clipboard.

"This is Zevil Island, the site of the Fourth Phase."

Tonpa's gaze moved from the beach to the trees. There were no buildings, no fences, and no safe place to hide. Apparently, the Hunter Association had chosen the island according to a simple standard: the harder it was to find the body, the better the exam site.

The attendant turned a page on her clipboard.

"Disembarkation will begin now. How you use your time is up to you."

She glanced down at the list.

"The first applicant may disembark."

Hisoka moved.

His footsteps crossed the wooden deck with the calm of someone who knew the entire island would be within his reach whenever he wanted. At the gangway, he turned his head slightly toward the remaining applicants.

Tonpa stopped breathing for a moment.

'Damn it. I haven't even set foot on the island yet. Don't start the exam with me.'

He forced himself not to move his head. The last thing he needed was to look like a terrified man trying to check whether Hisoka was watching him.

The magician's gaze passed over the group without stopping on him... or at least, that was how Tonpa chose to interpret it.

Hisoka crossed onto the beach and disappeared into the trees without a single branch making an audible sound.

The two-minute interval began.

It was not long, but Tonpa felt every second granting Hisoka a little more distance between himself and anyone with common sense.

When the time was up, the man with the needles was next.

Illumi walked with the same stiff gait, his distorted face turned toward the island. He looked neither left nor right, giving Tonpa no clue whether he was carrying the card bearing number sixteen.

'One makes sure you know he's dangerous. The other doesn't even need to try.'

Tonpa could think of nothing to add to that, even inside his own head.

Illumi vanished among the trees, and the silent two-minute countdown began again.

When it ended, Hanzo's turn came.

The moment his feet touched the beach, he shot toward the trees, moving so fast that the advantage enjoyed by the first three applicants began to feel less like a head start and more like the island being cleared for them.

The attendant continued calling applicants forward.

With every departure, the deck grew emptier. Some applicants ran the moment they reached the beach. Others walked to hide their urgency. Tonpa tried to memorize their routes, then realized that half of them had deliberately changed direction near the trees.

Everyone was lying—even with their feet.

After a wait that felt longer than the voyage itself, only Tonpa, Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio remained near the gangway.

The attendant looked at her clipboard, then at them.

"You reached the bottom of the tower at the same time, so none of you arrived before the others. Decide your order among yourselves."

Leorio opened his mouth, then closed it.

Kurapika looked at the others, while Gon scratched his cheek as though considering how to settle the matter. Killua, meanwhile, did not seem particularly concerned about a few extra minutes either way.

Tonpa stared at the gangway.

He could ask to go first.

Eight minutes separated the first of them from the last.

Under different circumstances, that might have been worth arguing over.

But ahead of him lay an empty beach and a forest that had swallowed twenty-three applicants, one after another.

Hisoka had entered first.

Illumi after him.

Hanzo too.

'Yes. Eight minutes will definitely change everything.'

He almost scoffed at himself, then stopped mid-thought.

Eight minutes meant nothing to him.

But did the other four know that?

He looked at Gon, then Kurapika, then Leorio, and finally Killua.

His gaze lingered on the boy's faint smile.

'You might.'

He turned his attention back to the other three.

Still, he did not need to convince everyone to the same degree.

He only needed to make his concession look more generous than it actually was.

And with that, the noble persona he had created a few days earlier began slipping back into place.

He softened his expression and raised one hand before the discussion could begin.

"There's no need to argue over something like this. Decide the order among yourselves. I'll go last."

Gon's eyebrows rose.

"Are you sure? You'll be the last one off."

"I know."

Tonpa smiled like a man who had risen above selfishness hours ago, rather than one who had just discovered a way to sell eight minutes he did not need.

"We made it out of the tower together. I'm not going to start the next phase by arguing with you over a few minutes."

Gon smiled immediately.

"Thanks, Tonpa."

Kurapika studied him for a moment, then nodded.

"That's generous of you."

Tonpa gave a modest smile as Leorio let out a breath beside him.

"Fine... thanks. Just don't come back ten minutes from now and say we forced you."

"I'll try to bear this sacrifice bravely."

Leorio gave him a narrow-eyed look.

Killua merely offered a small smile.

"Suit yourself."

Tonpa could not tell whether that was gratitude or whether the boy had understood exactly how much his concession was worth.

Ding!

The familiar sound rang inside his head, and several windows appeared in succession.

[Trust Level Increased.]

[Gon Freecss: 19% → 20%]

[Killua Zoldyck: 15% → 16%]

[Kurapika: 11% → 12%]

[Leorio: 15% → 16%]

[Required Trust Level Reached with Gon Freecss.]

Tonpa's eyes stopped on the twenty percent.

Genuine joy spread through his chest, forcing him to lower his head before his expression gave him away.

Finally.

The first condition of the Side Quest had been met.

'One down. Three to go.'

He wanted another second to enjoy the achievement, but the System did not give him the time.

Before the Trust window had fully faded, another chime sounded.

Ding!

[Group Deception Registered.]

[Number of Affected Targets: 4]

[Reward per Target: +5 Nen Points]

[Reward per Target: +5 Experience Points]

[Total: +20 Nen Points, +20 Experience Points]

Tonpa dismissed the remaining windows before they ruined his performance and kept his modest smile in place.

'Twenty points for eight minutes. I'm finally starting to understand why people enjoy charity.'

His attention returned to the group.

His concession had solved only one part of the problem. The other four still needed to determine their order.

Gon spoke.

"Shall we settle it with rock-paper-scissors?"

Leorio frowned.

"We're deciding our disembarkation order with a children's game?"

Killua said:

"If you've got a better idea, say it."

Leorio went silent for a moment, then raised his fist.

"Fine. But nobody cheats."

Killua looked at him.

"At rock-paper-scissors?"

"You, specifically, I don't trust."

Gon let out a short laugh, while Kurapika raised his hand along with them.

A few quick rounds settled the order.

Gon first, followed by Killua, then Kurapika, with Leorio in fourth.

Leorio stared at his hand in annoyance.

"Wonderful."

Killua said:

"At least you're not last."

Leorio glanced at Tonpa standing behind them, then shut his mouth.

Tonpa gave him a small smile.

"Glad I could help."

Leorio's eyes narrowed.

"Don't make me regret thanking you."

Tonpa merely raised both hands in innocent surrender.

The moment did not last long. The attendant had been standing beside the gangway the entire time, watching them with patience that was beginning to wear thin.

Once she was sure their game was over, she recorded the order on her clipboard.

"The twenty-fourth applicant may disembark."

Gon stepped forward, but stopped at the entrance to the gangway and turned back toward them.

"See you on the island."

Killua raised a hand without answering, while Kurapika nodded.

Tonpa settled for a small smile.

'Assuming we still have our Badges by then.'

He did not say it aloud. Gon did not need that particular wish before setting foot on the island.

Tonpa simply maintained his smile and watched Gon cross the gangway to the beach.

The moment his feet touched land, he ran toward the trees and quickly disappeared into the dense greenery.

The two-minute interval began again.

Tonpa stayed behind as promised, watching the place where Gon had vanished.

He had not lost his chance to hide. That chance had left the ship with the first applicants a long time ago.

But he had bought a little more trust from his companions with something that was no longer worth much to him.

And in his opinion, that was as close as sacrifice had ever come to being a fair trade.



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