Mika's POV

I was waiting for Kurapika at the gate of the Nostrade Mansion. The gate was a large gate but it wasn't as impressive as the Zoldyck's though I don't think anything can be as impressive as the Zoldyck's. The mansion was massive and there were guard dogs around the mansion. I looked back at the path and noticed Kurapika was walking towards me. He smiled and I smiled back. "Mika, it's good to see you again." I noticed he also had chains on his hand.

"It's good to see you too." I told him. "You have black eyes?"

"Yes, it's so I don't have to explain why my blue eyes turn red when I'm upset." Kurapika explains. "You're hair was mostly up in a ponytail but now it's down."

"I wore a disguise when I went to Heavens Arena (Kurapika's really smart so he knows where that is), I like my hair better down." I explained to him.

"I like it down." He told me and walked to the voice intercom and pushed a button. "This is Kurapika, I was sent here by Sengicai (it's the name of the Hunter Association Agent) Mika is also here."

The machine said nothing and the gates opened automatically and we walked inside. Once we walked inside the gates closed automatically behind us. We walked on the path and I looked at the guard dogs and narrowed my eyes but said nothing. We were closer to the door and there was a man with grey hair and tuxedo. We stopped moving and he looked at us.

"We have been expecting you, would you please follow me." He told us and opened the door and lead us into the hall. In the hall there were different artifacts and paintings. You could hear a piano being played throughout the hallway. He opened a door to a room and we walked inside. "Please wait inside this room." He said and closed the door. I looked around the room.

There was a black grand piano with a pianist playing behind it. Though I could not see who, there was someone behind it. On the left side there was a woman on a purple couch and two pink, fluffy pillows. She was a beautiful woman with sharp blue (green in 2011) eyes and dark pink hair that was twisted into a long braid that stood upward. Some of her pink hair fell into several strands of her face and she had pink lipstick on. She was also busty.

Kurapika looked over to her and she smiled when she was us. She stood up and walked over to us. She stood once she was a few feet away from us. "Well here you are, don't you wanna, kiss me?" Kurapika looked over to me confused and I shrugged. I didn't know why she would want to kiss either of us. "What's the matter? That's just how we say hello where I come from, it's a greeting we call 'Instant Lover.'"

Once she said 'Instant Lover' I felt my Ten release and turn to Hatsu and a pin cushion the size of my hand was formed from my Nen. There were 6 needles in it. One of the needles turned pink and a thread could be seen from it if you used Gyo. Then The tiny needle turned into a tiny girl with grey hair and gold eyes. She was wearing a pink, black and white dress and was floating near me. "Danger! Danger! Ai here for 'Enemy Assistance!'" She said and touched the woman.

A floating pink card was formed and it had a picture of the woman's face and information on it. "Enemy's name is Baise, she is a Manipulator and her Nen ability is called 'Instant Lover'! If she kisses anyone she can turn them into her slave for 180 minutes but don't let that fool you, she's very dangerous!" Ai said and waved to me. "Good bye!" My Hatsu was then released and Ai and the pin cushion disappeared.

"What was that?!" She yelled and I gave her a blank stare.

"That was Ai." I told her and looked at her. "I wasn't planning on kissing you anyway."

She hmphed and Kurapika nodded, "I do not come from the same place as you, that much is obvious." He said coldly and I followed him as he walked over to the pianist. The pianist was done playing and she looked back at me. She had dark red hair that went down to her shoulders, her teeth were long and protruding and she was short and stocky. The only part of her body you could see were her hands, upper neck and face. The rest was covered by her clothes. She was wearing a long sleeved dark green dress with a light green spiky piece that covered her lower neck to her elbows. She also had on dark pink leggings and dark grey shoes.

She looked over to Kurapika and smiled. They obviously knew each other, how? I had no idea. "It is very nice to see you again." She said and Kurapika smiled back.

"You too, I had a feelings you might be a Hunter." He told her and she closed her eyes.

"Oh, the color changed that's unfortunate, I liked how they were before." She said and Kurapika's eyes widen for a second but then relaxed after word. She looked over to me. "Hello."

"Hello." I said back.

"My name is Melody." She told me. "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise, my name is Mika." I told her calmly.

"You don't seem to trust me completely but you trust Kurapika's judgment. You know that he wouldn't trust just anyone." She told me and I raised my eyebrows. "I'm sure you're wondering how I know that, I am no threat to you, I can tell because of your heartbeat."

"Interesting." I tell her shortly.

"Mind if I play another song?" She asked us.

"Not at all." Kurapika says and she continues playing. I walked over to the wall and leaned against it and watched as she spoke to Kurapika.

"I do have to say you're heartbeat still has its beautiful melody." She says. "Did you know that everyone has their own unique heartbeat? And It never lies, I can tell a lot more about a person by their heartbeat than talking to them." I looked back towards the door noticing there was another presence, it was the man from before. He bowed to us and closed the door.

Time skip~

A few hours had passed since we stuck in this room and the once blue sky had turned a black color. Which meant it was getting later in the day. The man from before came to get us and lead us into another room. "It won't be much longer now, thank you for your patience." He says and closes the door and we walked into the room and walk down the stairs. We weren't the only ones anymore, there were three men in the room.

One of the men had dark brown skin and curly, long black hair in a ponytail that reached to his mid back. He also had a dot in the middle of his forehead and was wearing a beige and white shirt with black pants and dark grey shoes. He also had dark brown eyes.

The other man had dark brown hair and eyes with sideburns that curled at the end. He wore a pinstriped pink shirt with a pin stripes purple vest over it. His pants were a dark color and so were his shoes.

The last man was muscular with abdominal muscles and a pompadour that dark brown and a mustache. He wore red pants and dark green shoes.

As we walked down the stairs the muscular man spoke first. "Man only a first timer would show up at the last minute!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah check out the blonde and pink haired kids, they're rookies if I've ever seen one." The man with sideburns said.

We ignored them and Kurapika sat down near the sideburns man and the muscular man while Melody sat by the curly haired man.

"But you know, everyone has to start somewhere, so it might as well be here." Curly haired man said. "This is their first chance at seeing what being a Hunter is like, it's a trial by fire for them, you never know they might even live through it."

Baise stayed by the stairs and leaned against it while I leaned against the wall. "Hey big mouth." She said and he looked over to her as she touched her lips. "No offense but. Shut. Your. Trap."

"I agree." Muscular man said. "A real Hunter knows when to keep his mouth shut."

"Says the Hunter who spoke first." I said and sat down on the ground and he gave me a look but I glared back at him. Kurapika started reading, sideburns man just sat there smiling, Melody cleaned her flute and Baise put on her lipstick. Everyone stopped doing what they were doing and we all looked up at the man from before. He was walking down the steps and as he walked a black screen descended.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting." He said as he continued to walk down the stairs. Once he was done the screen stopped moving and he took out a remote. "If I can have your attention I'll explain the details of this contact." He pressed a button and you could hear rain hitting the window and the screen showed a man that had large build with short, spiky hair that was black and dark brown eyes. He had tattoos under both of his eyes that reached to his cheekbones. He wore a blue turtleneck and a black shirt with grey pants and black shoes.

He was siting on a chair with two women by his side. They were both wearing kimonos. One of the women had pale skin and light brown hair. Her eyes were closed and she was wearing a pink kimono. While the other woman had dark red hair that looked almost brown and dark brown eyes she was wearing a blue kimono.

"Good evening everyone, let me get straight to the point. It isn't important to use whether you're licensed Hunters or not, all that really matters is if you can collect the items we want. I want to tell you that the job we're hiring you for is not entirely illegal, but you will be well compensated for your work." He said.

"Sounds good to me, pay me enough and I'll do anything." Muscle man said.

"I am willing to hire as many of you as I can for this assignment the more qualified people we have the better. So please keep in mind you're not competing with each other. I'll start things off my letting you know I have arranged a little test to determine what you're capable of, as you know, the auction in Yorknew City is only a month away. Before then I want each of you to bring me one of these items from this list, I wish you all the best of luck."

We walked over to the man and he gave us cards. "The items are listed on these data cards, here you are. One for you, and you, and you." He said and we all took the cards. It read: The actress Sarah's hair with DNA verification, Mummy's Right Hand of an Egyptian Tomb, Skin sample of Dragon Skin Disease, skull of the unicorn tribe, mint condition hide with Dragon Tattoo, Scarlet Eyes of a Kurta Tribesmen and Koh-i-Noor Diamond (Yes this is real, I looked it up online)

Kurapika's eyes widen and I looked over to him, so did Muscle Man. "What's wrong you're not looking so good, you getting queasy already? This list is only the beginning you know, you should be happy that everything they're asking us to get is legit. Once you're officially hired things you'll be asked to get are a lot worse than this. Like how about the preserved corpse of an endangered species that's carrying the most deadly pathogens known to man? This one crazy client I worked for actually asked me to find him a new bor-"

"Be quiet." Kurapika said. "You don't have to talk to me." He looked at Kurapika shocked. "Didn't you say a real Hunter knows when not to talk to much?"

"Right, trust is what I said." He said and looked away embarrassed.

"If you complete this assignment you'll be offered a contract to handle our security and acquisition at the auction, I look forward to working with you." He said and the screen turned black again. It was obvious that the man wasn't the client. He was probably one of the main bodyguards. He was close to the people who were actually in the Nostrade family.

"Hey the door won't open." Muscle man said and we looked back at him. I was about to say something but the screen turned back on.

"Oh I almost forgot, there's one more thing I forgot to mention, I've taken the liberty of preparing a welcoming ceremony for you. In exactly 6 minutes from now in that room you're in, you will be participating in a simulation that will measure your fighting skills. It may be a simulation but without real world conditions it would have no real threat, and I'm sure you wouldn't want me to be insulted by a test that was too easy.

So you can say this is a way of permanently removing the weaker candidates. If you fail to make it through this simulation then there's no place for you here and our business with you will be concluded immediately, the minimum implement for employment is to be tough, at least tough enough to get out of that room alive. That's it good luck to all of you." Once he was finished talking there was a timer on the screen and it counted down the time we had left.

"If you please excuse me I'll be taking my leave now." The grey haired man said. "It was a pleasure." He then walked out of the door.

"The door doesn't look very strong don't you think we could just break it down and get out of here?" The curly haired man said and I stared at him. He would have known that there would be something else behind the door to attack us. Something doesn't feel right...

"Don't even bothered trying, even if we all worked on it together, we'd never get it open in 6 minutes." Muscle man said and sat down on the green couch. "It's sealed with Nen, we're birds trapped in a Nen cage."

I used Gyo and what he said was correct, there was Nen that surrounded the exits. Melody walked over to the window and pulled it open. "This wall is three feet thick and they've got us up on the second floor, it would take a wrecking ball an hour to break through."

We decided to sit down besides the curly haired man and the sideburn man. I watched them move around the room and stare at us. They were suspicious, that was obvious enough. 2 minutes and passed and it reached 4 minutes.

"Hey come on, don't you think we should be doing something?" Curly haired man asked.

"Neh." Muscle man said.

"There's only 4 minutes left you're just gonna sit there and wait for the time to run out?" He asked us.

"That's a good point, why don't we divvy up the items on the list they gave us so we're not all fighting over the same thing." Baise said.

"I've already decided what I'm going after, the Right Arm of the mummy." Muscle man said.

"Ok then I think I'll try and find the Unicorn skull." Baise said.

"Hey." Sideburns man said. "Why don't we worry about who's gonna find what after we get out of here."

"Yeah I couldn't agree more." Curly haired haired said. "For now why don't we focus on working together to deal with this situation."

"Let me see." Kurapika said still reading his book. "I think I'll take the DNA certified hair sample from Sarah the famous actress."

"Koh-i-Noor Diamond." I said and Curly haired man gave us annoyed looks.

"Ha, are you two trying to stay calm, is that it rookies?" Sideburns man said cockily.

"It's not that I'm trying to remain calm." Kurapika said. "I just don't think it's wise to do anything at the present time."

"Oh really, is that what you think?!" Curly haired man said. "Why don't you give us a reason why we should be doing nothing." Kurapika said nothing and closed his eyes.

"Only a fool would tell you what time a sneak attack would happen, if all they wanted to do was assess our physical abilities they could have ambushed us the moment we arrived." Melody explained.

"Right, and I believe the most treacherous part of this whole simulation is the six minute count down, it does seem like a long time to wait, but it's not long enough to come up with a consensus and corporate with people you've just met. This no way we can learn to fight as a team when the time expires.

We haven't even given each other long enough to decide if we wanted to trust each other or not, and when there's mistrust in a group an individual can't fight their best we'd all be doomed. That's why for this particular simulation I commend that instead of teaming up in a group we all simply find for ourselves and use our personal strengths and abilities the best we can. At leas that's what I think."

"It's like you're entire job for being here is to make us upset and doom to fail." I say staring at them. "But of course, that's only a hunch." Kurapika looks at me and we mentally communicate with each other.

"Then why go through the trouble of setting up this whole simulation?" Curly haired man said. "If that's what they want why not test each of us individually?"

"I don't know." Kurapika says. "Maybe they only want to hire real professionals who are able of critical thinking and sound judgement under any circumstance."

"Makes sense to me, you know for a rookie you're not bad, now if only you weren't so long winded." Muscle man said and looked over to me. "You're friend their just stares at people and hardly says a thing." He moves over to us and puts his hand on our heads and ruffles our hair. "If their was a spy among us he could use that to his advantage and I have a feeling that may be the case." Kurapika lowed his head so he couldn't touch his hair and I smacked his hand away. Then he started walking.

"Where are you going?" Curly hair asked him.

"I gotta pee." He said. "Luckily the door to the bathroom isn't locked, I've got timer there's still two minutes to go."

I frowned and as he opened the door there were 6 swords that aimed at Muscle man and broke down the wall. There were 'men' in black cloaks and 3 had guns. He dodged them and everyone hid by different furniture. While Kurapika and I ran forward and he used his chain to catch all of the bullets that were being aimed at him, while I focused Nen towards my hands and caught them. I opened my hand and let the bullets fall to the ground while Kurapika released them from his chain.

"Looks like you're still fast." Kurapika said to me and I smiled and he looked back to the men. "Come."