A/N: It's my birthday on the 23rd of March ✌😑. If any of you feel like blessing me early for my birthday [ko-fi.com/tenten100].
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The dining hall of the ship was massive.
Long polished tables stretched under warm chandeliers, loaded with enough food to make a starving city weep. Steam rose from silver trays in soft white waves. Roasted meats glistened under the lights. Mountains of fried rice, baskets of bread, platters of grilled fish, bowls of curry, noodles, sausages, eggs, soups, stews, fruits, cakes, puddings, and pastries spread so far that the far end of the buffet almost blurred together.
The moment Yuzuki stepped through the doorway, he stopped.
His sunglasses reflected the entire battlefield before him.
For one full second, he said nothing.
Then, very quietly, with all the gravity of a man accepting fate, he whispered,
"…I'm about to do something shameful."
Nearby examinees glanced at him in confusion.
Yuzuki marched straight to the plates.
One plate became two.
Two became three.
Then he went back and added a fourth.
An examinee holding a bowl of soup blinked. "Is… is he eating with a team?"
Yuzuki had no time to answer.
He was moving with terrifying efficiency now, loading food onto the plates with a precision that suggested he had trained for this exact moment. One plate became a mountain of meat, beef strips, grilled chicken, thick-cut pork, sausages, and fish. Another was flooded with rice, curry, eggs, dumplings, and noodles. A third became a fortress of fried foods and bread. The fourth was reserved for desserts, but halfway through he gave up pretending there was any strategy and simply piled on whatever looked delicious.
He carried all four plates to an empty table and sat down.
Then he began.
At first, nearby candidates tried to ignore it.
Then the pace picked up.
Fork, bite, chew, swallow, sip, next plate, next bite, no wasted motion.
He ate with total focus. The same kind of focus men used in battle.
A rookie sitting two tables over slowly lowered his spoon. "He's… still going."
Another whispered, "That's his third chicken leg."
"No, fourth."
"Is he okay?"
Tonpa, passing through the room with a glass in hand, paused when he noticed the white-haired boy.
Then he noticed the stacks of food.
Then he noticed how quickly those stacks were disappearing.
Tonpa's smile twitched.
'Nope. I'm not bothering that kid.'
He changed direction immediately and headed for a less dangerous table.
At the same time, another examinee entered the hall and took in the scene with sharp, amused eyes.
Hanzo.
The ninja candidate moved with the calm confidence of someone who did not doubt himself for a second. He was carrying a tray of his own, but his attention had already shifted to the small boy in sunglasses who was currently destroying enough food for five men.
Hanzo walked over without hesitation and sat opposite him.
"You've got spirit," Hanzo said.
Yuzuki, mouth full, glanced up briefly.
Hanzo gestured at the battlefield of empty dishes. "Or a bottomless stomach. Haven't decided which."
Yuzuki swallowed. "Food is temporary. Regret is forever."
Hanzo barked out a laugh. "That's a good line."
Yuzuki said nothing and kept eating.
Hanzo leaned back in his chair, arms folded. "You always eat like this?"
"When it's free."
"Fair."
Hanzo tore into a bread roll and watched him for a while, openly entertained. "Most people coming into the Hunter Exam are tense. Nervous. Sweaty. You seem casual about all this."
Yuzuki shrugged. "It's fine. Everyone here is weak anyway. Besides you and Hisoka."
Hanzo grinned wider.
Across the room, Tonpa was pretending not to watch while very much watching.
'That kid's insane,' he thought. 'Strong, creepy, and now apparently part beast.'
He decided he would absolutely not try any of his usual rookie-tricks on Yuzuki. Some prey looked soft but turned out to have teeth.
Yuzuki had teeth.
A lot of them, apparently, judging by what he was doing to the buffet.
Just then, the atmosphere shifted.
The strange instinctive stillness of prey sensing something with claws.
Hanzo noticed it immediately.
His smile faded into something more alert.
Yuzuki, still eating, noticed it a heartbeat later.
A figure in flamboyant clothing drifted through the hall with lazy confidence, like someone entering a party where he was both guest and threat.
Hisoka.
He wasn't scanning the room for long.
His eyes landed on Yuzuki almost at once.
And then he smiled.
Hanzo muttered under his breath, "Of course."
Hisoka walked straight toward them.
Candidates near his path quietly moved aside.
Tonpa, seeing where this was headed, took two quick steps backward and hid behind a wider examinee.
'Nope. Definitely not my problem.'
Hisoka stopped beside the table, one hand resting on his hip, the other turning a card slowly between his fingers.
"My, my," he said. "What a terrifying appetite. ♣"
Yuzuki kept chewing for exactly two more seconds before swallowing and setting his fork down.
"What do you want?"
Hanzo's eyebrows lifted slightly.
No fear and hesitation.
Interesting.
Hisoka's smile curved a little wider. "Nothing yet. I was simply curious. ♠"
His gaze slid to Yuzuki's face.
More specifically, to the sunglasses.
He tilted his head.
"Why are you wearing sunglasses indoors?"
Yuzuki's posture shifted just slightly.
Not much.
But Hanzo saw it.
The tiny tension in the shoulders. The way the room around that table suddenly felt smaller.
"It's a fashion choice," Yuzuki said flatly.
Hisoka laughed softly. "A poor lie. ♦"
He leaned in just enough to be annoying.
"Maybe I should take them off for you. ♣"
Hanzo immediately sat up straighter.
Tonpa nearly dropped his drink.
Yuzuki went still.
Then he slowly stood.
His chair scraped back across the floor.
All around them, conversations died.
The dining hall quieted with eerie speed as more examinees noticed the shift.
Yuzuki looked up at Hisoka through those dark lenses and said, with dangerous calm,
"Try it."
Hisoka's pupils sharpened.
There it was.
That little edge.
That little spark.
"Mm… so hostile. ♠"
Yuzuki stepped around the table. "You came over here. You started this."
Hisoka smiled and raised the card between two fingers. "Did I? I only asked a question. ♥"
"No," Yuzuki said. "You annoyed me."
Hanzo was on his feet now too, tray forgotten.
He wasn't intervening.
He just had no intention of remaining seated between two monsters.
Interesting. Very interesting.
From behind his human shield, Tonpa whispered, "Why is the kid talking back?"
The examinee in front of him hissed, "Shut up, idiot, they'll hear you!"
Hisoka's gaze lingered on the sunglasses.
His smile sharpened.
"Whatever you're hiding there…" he murmured, "I want to see it. ♦"
Yuzuki's expression did not change.
But inside, irritation was already curdling into something colder.
'This clown is really annoying.'
He did not raise his voice.
"If you reach for my face," Yuzuki said, "I will break your arm."
The room froze.
Then Hisoka laughed.
Just a soft, delighted laugh that made several examinees take another step back.
"Wonderful. ♣"
The card in his fingers spun once.
Hanzo folded his arms and watched closely, the grin creeping back onto his face despite the danger. "Well, this exam just got interesting."
Hisoka took one step forward.
Yuzuki didn't retreat.
Hisoka's aura leaked just a little.
The pressure spread through the hall like cold water soaking into cloth. Some candidates visibly stiffened. Others frowned, suddenly aware that they were in the presence of something deeply abnormal.
Yuzuki felt it.
And answered.
Just enough for the floor beneath the tension to stop tilting.
A cold, razor-thin intent spread around him, not broad like Hisoka's, but compact. Focused. Clean. Dangerous in a different way.
Hanzo's eyes widened a fraction.
'He's got that much composure?'
Hisoka noticed too.
And smiled wider.
"Ahh… there you are. ♥"
A server near the buffet line yelped softly and fled into the kitchen.
Tonpa abandoned all dignity and ducked behind a pillar.
Several examinees began backing toward the exits, unwilling to be caught near what was clearly turning into a pre-exam deathmatch.
Yuzuki adjusted the cuffs of his hoodie once.
Hisoka rolled his shoulders lazily.
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