Tonpa's smile was as fake as ever.
"Come on, Ponzu," he said, giving the bottle another little shake. "You've been walking for hours. This'll help your stamina. Trust me, I've taken the exam so many times—"
A shadow cut across the path.
Tonpa stopped talking.
Ponzu blinked.
Then her eyes widened.
Yuzuki stepped out from the cave mouth and into the open path, hands in the pockets of his oversized hoodie, sunglasses catching the dim island light. His expression was calm.
Tonpa felt his stomach drop.
'No. Not him. Anyone but him.'
Yuzuki looked at the bottle in Tonpa's hand.
Then at Tonpa.
Then at Ponzu.
"Tonpa," he said flatly. "Still doing this."
Ponzu stared at him in shock. For some reason, the simple fact that he had shown up made the whole situation feel different.
Tonpa quickly forced a laugh. "Ahaha! It's not what it looks like! I was just helping her out as a senior examinee—"
"Senior my ass," Yuzuki said.
Tonpa flinched.
Ponzu looked between them, confused. "You… know each other?"
"We've met," Yuzuki said.
Tonpa tried to smile again, but it came out wrong. Weak. Thin. Sweaty. "Now, now, let's not be hasty—"
Yuzuki stepped forward once.
That was enough to make Tonpa step back.
"Ponzu," Yuzuki said without looking at her, "that bottle's drugged."
Ponzu's hand instinctively loosened around it.
Tonpa raised both palms. "Okay! Alright! Maybe it has a little something in it, but it's not like I was trying to kill her! It's just how I deal with rookies!"
Yuzuki's head turned slowly toward him.
The look on his face was not murderous.
It was more disappointed and deeply annoyed.
"I really hate people like you," Yuzuki said.
Tonpa swallowed.
Then, like every coward when finally cornered, he tried to switch tones.
"Listen, kid, there's no need to get emotional. This is the Hunter Exam. People cheat. People trick each other. It's normal. If she falls for it, that's on her, not on—"
Yuzuki vanished.
To Ponzu, it looked like he simply disappeared from one place and appeared in another.
Tonpa barely managed to register the movement before Yuzuki's fist slammed into his stomach.
The impact folded him in half.
Air exploded out of his lungs.
His eyes bulged.
And before the scream could properly form, Yuzuki grabbed him by the collar and drove a knee into his face.
Crunch.
Tonpa's body snapped backward, blood spraying from his nose as he stumbled and fell against a rock wall.
Ponzu gasped.
Yuzuki didn't stop.
He stepped in, grabbed Tonpa by the shirt, and punched him once in the ribs.
Twice.
Three times.
Each hit made a horrible, wet sound.
Tonpa shrieked.
"Stop! Stop! I'm sorry!"
Yuzuki's answer was another punch.
He drove Tonpa into the ground and kicked him over onto his back.
Then he stomped down on Tonpa's wrist hard enough to make the man howl and let go of the drugged bottle, which rolled away into the brush.
Ponzu stood frozen.
She had seen Yuzuki fight before, but that had been against that killer. Against that monster.
This was different.
He was beating the brakes off Tonpa with the kind of irritation someone reserved for finding mold in their food.
Tonpa curled in on himself, wheezing and sobbing. "Please… please stop… I won't do it again…"
Yuzuki grabbed him by the front of his shirt and hauled him halfway off the ground.
"No," Yuzuki said, voice low and sharp. "You won't."
Then he headbutted him.
Tonpa's body went limp immediately, eyes rolling.
Yuzuki let him drop face-first into the dirt.
He stood there for a second, breathing evenly, then dusted off his hands like he had just finished a minor chore.
Ponzu stared at the unmoving Tonpa. One side of his face was swelling. His nose was crooked. One arm lay at an angle that looked very wrong. He was breathing, but barely.
Yuzuki looked down at him and said, "Yeah. He's done."
Ponzu blinked. "Done?"
"He's not continuing the exam with injuries like that."
He turned back toward her.
For a brief second, Ponzu tensed again out of habit.
But Yuzuki's expression had already softened back into something normal. Annoyed, maybe. Tired. But not dangerous.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
Ponzu stared.
She had spent the last few days quietly convincing herself that Yuzuki was some terrifying murder-child with no social skills and no human emotions.
And yet here he was.
Having stepped in without hesitation.
Having seen Tonpa targeting her and getting pissed enough to end the man's entire exam run over it.
Not because she asked.
Not because he had anything to gain.
Just because he didn't like it.
The realization hit her all at once.
'He's… not a bad person.'
Weird? Definitely.
Scary? Absolutely.
A little insane? Maybe.
But not bad.
Ponzu lowered her shoulders slightly. "I'm okay."
Yuzuki nodded once. "Good."
Then he turned and started walking.
Ponzu blinked. "Wait."
Yuzuki kept walking.
Ponzu hurried after him. "Wait, Yuzuki."
He glanced back over one shoulder. "What?"
"I'm coming with you."
"No."
Ponzu frowned. "No?"
Yuzuki turned fully this time. "Don't follow me."
"Why not?"
"Because I said so."
Ponzu put her hands on her hips. "That's not a reason."
"It is if I'm the one saying it."
Ponzu made an offended face. "I can walk where I want."
Yuzuki sighed. "Ponzu."
"What?"
"I'm serious. Don't follow me."
Ponzu crossed her arms. "And I'm serious too."
They stared at each other for a few seconds.
Then Yuzuki clicked his tongue and turned away again.
Ponzu followed.
He sighed louder this time.
"Why are you like this?"
"You helped me."
"That doesn't mean you should trail me around."
"I'd rather trail around someone strong than get tricked again by another Tonpa."
Yuzuki had no answer for that.
So he just kept walking, and Ponzu kept following.
The path soon bent downward into marshy terrain. The jungle thinned. The air grew wetter. Stranger. Heavy with the smell of mud and stagnant water.
Ponzu looked around uneasily. "This place is awful."
Yuzuki nodded. "Yeah."
A moment later, the ground ahead stirred.
The swamp exploded.
A massive beast surged out of the muck in a burst of black water and slime. It looked like a cross between a crocodile and a toad, with a bloated body, ridged hide, and a mouth that opened far too wide. Yellow fangs lined its jaws in three uneven rows.
Ponzu screamed and jumped back.
The creature lunged.
Yuzuki shoved Ponzu aside with one hand and stepped forward instead.
The beast's maw opened toward him—
And Yuzuki raised a hand.
"Blue."
A tiny distortion appeared in front of the monster's face.
Then the world seemed to fold inward.
The beast's body lurched violently as an invisible force crushed it from multiple directions at once. Bones snapped. Flesh folded. The swamp around it surged inward as if dragged by an unseen hand.
In less than a second, the enormous creature compacted into a ruined, pulped mass and dropped into the mud with a wet splash.
Ponzu stood there speechless.
Yuzuki stared at the remains.
Then at his own hand.
Then at the surrounding terrain.
The way the swamp water had moved.
The way the pull had interacted with the environment.
His eyes sharpened behind the sunglasses.
'Wait.'
He crouched and looked at the ground more carefully now. The swamp itself wasn't random. The water flowed toward a narrow fault in the stone. Beneath the surface, a hidden current disappeared into darkness under the cliff wall.
Yuzuki smiled slightly.
'That's it.'
Ponzu was still staring at the beast. "What… what was that?"
Yuzuki pointed toward the dark opening beneath the rock shelf. "Our way forward."
Ponzu looked where he was pointing.
A low tunnel entrance sat half-submerged beneath tangled roots and black water.
Her expression shifted from awe to dread. "You're joking."
"I'm not."
"That's underwater."
"Only at the entrance."
"How do you know?"
"I don't."
Ponzu stared at him in horror.
Then Yuzuki added, "But the current's too deliberate. It's feeding inward, not out. That means there's air space deeper in. Probably a tunnel route between islands."
Ponzu looked at the opening again.
Then at Yuzuki.
Then back at the crushed beast.
"...You really are crazy."
"Probably."
And with that, Yuzuki stepped into the water.
Ponzu groaned softly, then followed.
The underwater entrance was short but miserable. Cold water. Sharp stone. Almost no visibility.
Ponzu nearly lost her nerve halfway through.
Then they broke through to the other side.
Yuzuki rose first into a dark cavern chamber, water dripping from his hoodie. He pushed his sunglasses back into place and looked ahead.
A wide cave tunnel sloped upward, lit faintly by glowing minerals in the walls. Farther ahead, he could hear the distant crash of waves and the low tremor of shifting rock.
Ponzu pulled herself out next, coughing.
"You were right," she said, still shocked.
"I usually am."
"That's unbelievably arrogant."
"Still right."
Ponzu rolled her eyes and followed him deeper into the tunnel.
The cavern eventually opened onto a cliffside path overlooking another island.
Then another hidden route.
Then a narrow rope crossing.
Then one last cave mouth that emerged onto a rocky shore marked by a tall stone pillar carved with a large, weathered numeral:
7
Yuzuki stopped.
Ponzu nearly walked into him.
They both looked up at the pillar in silence.
Then Ponzu whispered, "We made it…"
Yuzuki scanned the island.
There was only one other figure there.
Hisoka.
He stood near the shoreline, clothes spattered with blood that was very clearly not his own. Several bodies, or what remained of bodies lay farther back among the rocks.
Hisoka looked up and saw them.
Then smiled.
"Ahh… second place. ♠"
Ponzu stiffened immediately.
Yuzuki stared back, expression flat.
Hisoka's grin widened, eyes gleaming as they took in Yuzuki's soaked hoodie, muddy clothes, and the fact that despite everything, he had still made it here this quickly.
"How wonderful. ♥"
Yuzuki looked at the blood around him and clicked his tongue.
"Of course you got here first by killing half the route."
Hisoka placed a hand over his chest, mock wounded. "What a cruel assumption. ♣"
Ponzu edged a little closer to Yuzuki.
He noticed.
And though he said nothing, he didn't move away.
---
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