The hall smelled of blood, dust, and burned tension.
Mizaistom stood at the center of it all, one hand still raised toward Hisoka, the yellow-card prison of Cross Game locking the clown in place. The grid-like bars hummed with restrained Nen, each line steady, each angle absolute. Hisoka's aura pressed against it like a wild animal testing a cage, but for the moment, the Zodiac's hold did not break.
Yuzuki, a short distance away, was still breathing hard.
His chest was healed, but the blood staining his torn shirt said enough about what had happened here. His arms throbbed from the recoil of Red. His Six Eyes remained uncovered, cold and clear in the ruined light of the shattered exam hall. Around him, surviving candidates and Hunter Association staff stared in various states of disbelief.
Nobody really knew which part of the scene was the most insane.
That Hisoka had killed the examiner.
That Yuzuki had died and somehow come back.
Or that the exam itself had been blown apart in the span of minutes.
Mizaistom adjusted his tie once, then looked directly at Hisoka.
"Hisoka Morow," he said, voice calm in the way only truly dangerous people managed, "you are hereby disqualified from the Hunter Exam."
Hisoka smiled faintly, though the expression was more irritated than playful now. "A little late for that, isn't it? ♣"
Mizaistom ignored the remark.
"You murdered an examiner in the middle of an official phase," he continued. "You then attempted to murder a fellow candidate immediately afterward. There is no version of events in which you remain a valid participant."
Hisoka's eyes narrowed with that familiar gleam of amused contempt.
"How strict."
"Yes," Mizaistom said. "That is generally how rules work."
A few of the shaken examinees almost laughed, but the mood was too frayed for it to become anything real.
Hanzo folded his arms and muttered, "Good. Throw the freak out."
Ponzu, still pale, nodded immediately. "Seconded."
Hisoka let out a soft breath through his nose and looked toward Yuzuki instead.
Not angry.
Not even disappointed.
Just… intensely aware.
"You're lucky," he said softly. "♥"
Yuzuki, now irritated on multiple levels, replied, "Is that so."
Hisoka's smile widened just a little.
Mizaistom didn't let the moment linger.
He turned, addressing the surviving candidates and staff all at once.
"Due to the murder of Examiner Shigure Hanzo, the compromise of the examination process, and the instability caused by Hisoka Morow's actions, the remaining Hunter Exam is hereby canceled."
That landed harder than any blow had.
For a second, nobody reacted.
Then the room erupted.
"What!?"
"You can't do that!"
"Canceled!?"
"I made it this far!"
"This is bullshit!"
Several candidates started talking over each other at once. Some looked furious enough to attack someone. Others just looked empty, as though the weight of everything they had survived had finally crashed down on them all at once.
One examinee dropped to his knees and shouted, "So what was all that for!?"
Another kicked a broken stone slab and hissed, "This exam was insane from the start!"
A woman with a split lip and a torn sleeve looked like she was on the verge of tears. "I almost died three times for nothing?"
Mizaistom's expression did not change.
"It was not for nothing," he said firmly. "But the examination as a whole can no longer continue under legitimate conditions."
His gaze swept across the room, steady and absolute.
"The decision is final."
That shut most of them up.
Not because they accepted it.
Because they understood that nothing they said would change it.
A heavy, ugly silence followed.
Then Mizaistom looked toward Yuzuki.
"As for the candidate Yuzuki—"
Every eye in the room turned again.
Mizaistom continued, "In light of his completed evaluation, survival through all prior phases, and his confirmed passing performance in the Duel Trial before the disruption of the exam, he will be recognized as the sole successful Hunter candidate of this year's examination."
This time the silence hit differently.
Disbelief.
Jealousy.
Resentment.
Admiration.
A little bit of all of it.
Ponzu blinked first. Then slowly smiled.
Hanzo barked out a short laugh. "Well, damn. You actually did it."
Yuzuki himself looked more annoyed than triumphant.
Maybe because his shirt was soaked in blood.
Maybe because he had technically died today.
Maybe because some petty god had sabotaged his toolkit and left him to deal with the consequences.
Or maybe because becoming the only person to pass a Hunter Exam after all this felt too absurd to process immediately.
Still, he had done it.
He was officially a Hunter.
One candidate from the angry group muttered, "Of course it'd be the freak."
Hanzo heard him and immediately snapped, "You're one word away from getting kicked through a wall."
The man wisely shut up.
Mizaistom then spoke to a nearby staff member. "Take him."
The attendant bowed. "Yes, sir."
The man approached Yuzuki carefully, perhaps not wanting to surprise the recently resurrected child with impossible eyes and blood all over him.
"Please follow me," the attendant said politely.
Yuzuki glanced once at Ponzu and Hanzo.
Ponzu gave him a small, awkward wave. "Congratulations."
Hanzo grinned. "Try not to die again."
Yuzuki looked at him flatly. "I'll do my best."
Hisoka, still restrained, laughed softly.
"Do grow stronger for me. ♠"
Yuzuki didn't even look back at him as he walked away.
"Get a hobby."
---
Not long after, Yuzuki found himself being escorted across a private landing strip where a sleek Hunter Association aircraft waited with its boarding stairs already lowered.
The sky above was dimming into evening. Wind tugged at the torn edges of his shirt. The attendant stayed beside him the whole way, never rushing him, never speaking unless spoken to.
Yuzuki looked at the aircraft once, then at the attendant.
"So where exactly am I going?"
The attendant adjusted his glasses politely. "Hunter Association Headquarters."
Yuzuki blinked. "Headquarters?"
"Yes."
"And why?"
The attendant answered as if it were obvious. "You are to meet Chairman Netero."
That made Yuzuki stop walking for half a second.
"Netero…"
The attendant gave a small nod. "Yes."
Yuzuki resumed walking, but his thoughts had already shifted.
Chairman Isaac Netero.
The old man who killed Meruem.
Even now, even after everything he had been through since transmigrating, that name still carried a strange weight in his mind. Not just because Netero was strong. Not just because he was the Chairman.
But because, in another timeline he had only ever watched through a screen, that man had walked into the jaws of the impossible and dragged a king into death with him.
Yuzuki had always wanted to meet him.
He just hadn't expected it to happen like this.
The attendant gestured toward the stairs. "After you."
Yuzuki nodded once and stepped inside.
The plane's interior was quieter than he expected. Clean leather seats. Soft lighting. A narrow aisle. The kind of expensive understatement that made it obvious this wasn't a regular transport.
He sat by the window.
The attendant took the seat across from him.
And a few minutes later, with engines rising into a smooth, powerful hum, the plane lifted off.
The flight itself was long enough for exhaustion to settle into Yuzuki's bones again.
Now that no one was actively trying to kill him for the moment, the ache in his body became harder to ignore. His arms still throbbed from Red. His head still felt strange from dying and returning.
He leaned his head against the window and watched the clouds pass in silence.
At some point, the attendant offered him water.
He accepted it without a word.
At another point, the attendant politely asked if he needed medical attention.
Yuzuki thought of the hole that had been in his chest, then of the fact that he was currently breathing, and answered, "I'll survive."
The attendant looked like he wasn't entirely sure that phrase meant anything around Yuzuki anymore.
Eventually the plane descended.
When they landed, night had already settled in fully.
Outside, another attendant was waiting beside a black car.
The handoff was seamless.
"Please," the attendant said, opening the car door.
Yuzuki got in.
The city beyond the private runway was a blur of lights and glass and distant movement. Far cleaner and more ordered than the places he had been dragged through lately. The ride itself was smooth, quiet, and long enough to build anticipation in spite of himself.
He kept his head against the window and watched the world slide by.
Then the car began climbing.
Up a broad road.
Past gated entrances.
Past layers of security.
Until finally it stopped before a massive structure rising into the night like a monument to bureaucracy, power, and secrets.
The building was enormous.
Refined.
Imposing without needing to be loud about it.
Yuzuki stepped out of the car and looked up.
The attendant who had accompanied him the entire trip stood beside him and gave a small, formal gesture toward the building.
"Welcome," he said, "to Hunter Association Headquarters."
---
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