Chapter 21
"Day one on Zevil Island... I'm stuck in a tree not knowing what to do nor if I will last... There's possible fruits and animals I can hunt to survive when it comes to food, but what I'm not concern of is... living without being caught..." Kuromi announced dramatically. Kiyoko rolled her eye as Kuromi joked around with herself and scanned the field for anyone who comes. "Sometimes, I wonder whether you're having fun or just plain having fun," Kiyoko said twice.
"Oh, I think I'll pick... Option one. Of course I'm having fun! That proctor even said we can kill, remember?" the violent side of the girl pointed out. Kiyoko wanted to nod, but Kuromi was still looking around for any victims to come. "Yeah, I remember... But I really, reallyyyy don't think you should actually try to kill. What if we fail to and they come kill us instead? We don't even need to steal anyone's tag!" Kiyoko said worriedly. "Our tag is worth six points and that's our ticket to pass. Just.. Don't lose it.." Kuromi groaned and took off her tag to pin it to her black top underneath her blue shirt. "You worry too much.." A dart was suddenly heard whizzing over to her, but the girl managed to dodge it quickly before it impaled her body. Pulling out her staff she began to carefully scan the area again only to have another dart fly over to her at high speed. It looked like it came from the bushes below from where she was.
"We've been found.. Finally.." Kuromi told Kiyoko as she whacked the sharp weapon away with her staff. Kiyoko sighed and took over completely as she leapt off the from the branch she was on and into the plants below. 'Damn it...' Geretta muttered to himself. Staying low so he wasn't exposed the man popped up his head slightly above the surface to check only to see nothing. What he didn't know was that the girl was able to silently trail over to him without being noticed. Kiyoko suddenly jabbed her staff into the center of his spine forcefully causing him to bend back far and drop to his knees. The man suddenly swung his giant blowgun behind him, but missed the girl by an inch before she kicked him down to the floor. Her leg was grabbed quickly before she was able to take of as Geretta stood back up and tried shooting another dart at her.
'Kuromi, take over," Kiyoko said as she immediately switched out with herself. Kuromi, being the one who possess more strength thank Kiyoko, pushed her lower half up and kicked Geretta's heavy looking weapon away from his grasp. Swinging her leg back down and making contact with his head, the girl managed to break free from his grip on her ankle and rolled over to the blowgun. 'I don't even know how to use this thing...' Kuromi thought nervously. 'Oh well..' Instead of using a dart to attack the man who was now on his feet and aiming to get the gun back, Kuromi switched back to Kiyoko so she could get behind him without being caught. "Good night!" Kiyoko said as she switched back to Kuromi and swung the bigger side of his gun to the back of his head. Geretta groaned and fell unconscious after the impact he earned from the back. The girl walked over to him and grabbed his tag before she threw it off somewhere so he could look for it after, hoping it'd land somewhere dangerous or a hard looking place. "I'm going to hide this somewhere too..." Kuromi muttered as she took off and looked at the weapon she picked up. "I have no use for it especially if we don't know how to use this thing."
'Our body feels like it's beginning to slow down...' Kiyoko suddenly pointed out. 'Quickly, we need to find another hiding spot and check for any scratches we may have gotten. I'm pretty sure the darts are covered in something if it's used in hunts.' Kuromi nodded and quickly threw the blowgun off to the side somewhere; she didn't have a single care about where it landed and proceeded to enter deeper into the forest of trees. Stopping in an open area where she believed no one was around, the girl began to pant heavily and check her body, seeing a tiny yet slightly deep scratch on her leg. "It looks like we were hit when we weren't paying any attention.." Kuromi growled, looking around and climbing up another tree. 'It'll take time to recover, but I'm sure we'll be fine by at least half an hour?' Kiyoko reassured herself. 'It's just a scratch after all. If we were impaled by the dart then it'll take even longer for us to recover, just not too sure how long... It depends on how strong the poison he put on is.'
Kuromi was now groaning at the idea of sitting in a spot until the poison wore off, but she knew that if she did start moving, the poison may spread quicker and she'll become more vulnerable if she did encounter another test taker. "I wonder... Who're hunting Leorio and the others as well as vice versa..?" Kuromi suddenly asked. "They never said anything did they?"
'Gon said he's hunting Hisoka, didn't he?' Kiyoko reminded her. 'I do hope he'll be fine..' Kuromi rolled her eyes as she muttered a quick, 'You worry too much.' Kiyoko laughed a little awkwardly as she took over her body in case they needed to make another escape without the need to turn into a beast. She was, after all, physically faster than Kuromi. "Let's hold off on the switching. My head is starting to hurt," Kiyoko mumbled. "I think I'll hold off becoming a Lynith until it's nighttime. If someone is near while we're in rest, it'll be easier to sense them even if we're not paying attention." Checking around for more scratches on her body, the girl was relieved to see nothing but the single scratch and suddenly spotted Ponzu sneaking into a cave from a far, wondering if there was someone else in the pocket hiding. 'Are you thinking of checking what's up in the cave later?' Kuromi asked excitedly.
"Uhhhh, best that I stay away to stay alive.." Kiyoko responded nervously. "I don't know what Ponzu is capable of and I'm not about to find out just yet.." Kuromi then let out a low grumble as a distanced scream was heard from where Ponzu entered the cave. "Confirmed. I am not going in there with or without a plan," the bubbly girl said worriedly. "No idea what is in there and it's too risky after hearing that.."
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The effect of the poison was finally fading off on her; she was able to move around and about whenever she liked. Searching around for resources to live off, the girl remained hidden from the open as long as she could as she slowly allowed her energy to refill. Along the way, she managed to find Leorio looking around the area she was in cautiously as he walked by slowly and quietly. Dropping to the ground behind him, the man jumped and swung his entire body around to see who it was, his face completely terrified. "Relax, it's just me," she laughed standing up straight. "Hey, do you have a spare band-aid or something, Leorio?" she asked, removing the honorifics.
"A band-aid? Of course I do. Did you somehow get hurt or something?" the man asked, putting down his suit case as he knelt down and searched for the requested item. The girl nodded and pointed at the scratch on her leg she manage to get. Inspecting it closely, Leorio nodded and cleaned up the scratch that bled a bit and pasted on the said band-aid to keep it from being affected. "Geretta, I think his name was, managed to find me and attacked," Kiyoko said. "If you do ever encounter him, avoid getting hit by the blow darts. It's poison covered and will paralyze you for a long time if it does get a direct hit."
"Thanks for the warning," he said as he cleaned up the mess he made. "Hey, do you know who number two-forty-six is?" Kiyoko blinked curiously as she shook her head side to side and crouched down low to stay hidden. "I don't remember many of the applicants' tags to be honest.." she said. "And I think I should go back and hide before anything else happens again.." An arrow suddenly passed by the two at a dangerous speed and distant. The girl quickly reacted and moved out of the pathway of the arrow as she pulled Leorio back down onto the floor from instincts. "They're hunting down their targets and I'm technically everyone's target," the girl said as she ran of and reflected the projectiles back. Leorio, crawled of away from the projectiles and ran off after Kiyoko while blocking his head from being hit, looking back frighteningly once in a while.
"Can't you do anything else besides run though?" Leorio exclaimed as he jumped over a decelerating arrow. Kiyoko laughed and jumped to spring over a log with her free arm, using the fallen plant as a shield. "I can fight, but I don't think it's a good idea since I recently recovered my energy and healed from minor paralysis," she said. The man groaned as he clumsily climbed over the giant fallen tree trunk and hid, Kiyoko looking around for anything to use. The girl suddenly picked up a flimsy stick that seemed to arch like a bow and inspected it for use, but after inspections she knew she could only use it once. "Leorio, do you have a long piece of string?" the girl asked, earning a weird look. "I managed to pick up some before I left the ship... Why?" the man asked curiously as he handed it over. Kiyoko shrugged as she pulled off an arrow on the log carefully after she finished creating the bow, some of the string dangling off the item. "Okay, so I only have one shot at this and hopefully I'm fast enough to send this arrow flying back to it's owner without fail..." Kiyoko said as she set up the handmade weapon. "It'll break after I shoot this." Sitting up and quickly sending the arrow off to where the shooter was by pulling it as far back as she could before having the stick snap, Kiyoko, like she said earlier, broke the flimsy bow and managed to send the arrow off successfully. An arrow suddenly grazed her cheek from the direction she shot the projectile right below from where she earn the last cut from the Kirikos, oozing a bit of blood. On the other side where Pokkle was hiding, the arrow she sent back managed to scrape a little of the side of his forehead and cut off a few strand of his hair. Pokkle immediately went pale and backed down for a bit before scanning the area again, getting his weapon ready for another send off.
"Say Leorio?" she called again, looking back down and dropping the broken stick. "Do you have another band-aid?" Leorio sighed as he urged her to sit back down quickly. "We need to get out of here quickly if you don't want to die or fail this exam," he said, cleaning the cut and covering it up. "I have a feeling that the arrow may have been poisoned as well.. Many hunters with these kind of weapons would do such things to hunt and kill their preys." The man then stood up and dragged the girl along with him to get out of shooting range again, hiding in the plants nearby and clearly not wanting to get hit. "Sorry for the trouble," Kiyoko said.
'Not sorry at all,' Kuromi muttered right after. Leorio cautiously looked around nervously and made sure that the person after them was finally gon before he began his search for his target again, shaking his head as he did so. "It's fine. If I wasn't here at this moment, you're probably going to be stuck with an infection or something." Kiyoko chuckled as she quickly jumped back up into a tree behind them, noticing the sky beginning to grow dark for the day. Sliding back down and landing near the man, the girl sighed and looked around for temporary shelter. "It's starting to get late... We'll need shelter and hope that no one will actually hunt each other at night.." Kiyoko then suddenly turned into her Lynith form which surprised Leorio since he practically forgot about her ability and dashed off to look for any place she could hide and rest. Leorio looked around anxiously and ran off with her far in front of him as he silently called to her name himself. 'Kiyoko, wait for me!' he hissed.
The girl turned white beast stopped by an area shrouded by many trees and rocks then crawled into a den, laying down to rest. Leorio came by and crawled into the den as well, groaning in disappointment. "I still haven't found my target yet...! I still don't know who they are..." Leorio complained. Kiyoko let out a low huff and scratched the back of her ear before laying back down. "Oh, right... I forgot you can't talk in that form.." he said, earning another low huff.
"Day two is coming near... Do you think you'll survive tomorrow as well?" Leorio continued to ask. Kiyoko growled in response and flipped over onto her back and stared at the ceiling, feeling uncomfortable with the recently earned scratch on her face. "Don't worry, it'll be just fine," the man said before laughing a little and patting her. Kiyoko shook her head and mentally laughed at herself as Kuromi grumbled and looked away. 'You're talking to an animal that can't even talk to you right now, you big lug,' the girl said. Of course Leorio couldn't hear her and continued to speak and eventually fell asleep, snoring loudly and keeping the girl up for a little longer. 'QUIT SNORINGGGGG!' Kuromi exclaimed as she grabbed her head.
'Just let it be...' Kiyoko mumbled tiredly, twitching her long white ears.
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