The wind on Island Seven had a way of making silence feel loud.
It moved through the jagged rocks in long, whining breaths, carrying the smell of wet stone, old blood, and swamp water from the islands beyond. The candidates who had survived Phase One stood scattered across the black shoreline and broken ledges, some breathing hard, some nursing injuries, some staring blankly into the distance as though their minds had not yet caught up with the fact that they were still alive.
Yuzuki stood with his hands in his hoodie pockets, sunglasses still on, quietly watching the incoming stragglers.
One after another, the survivors arrived.
Some crawled in half-conscious, dragged by nothing but stubbornness. Others limped across the final stretch with blood caked into their clothes. A few came in groups, all of them looking as though they hated the others but hated dying more.
Ponzu had found a place not too far from Yuzuki and, while she wasn't standing directly beside him, she also wasn't pretending she wasn't near him on purpose.
Hisoka, of course, stood alone, smiling to himself for no reason at all.
Hanzo leaned against a broken stone pillar with his arms folded, looking mildly irritated and completely awake.
And then a man stepped forward.
He had clean features, calm eyes, and the sort of neatly composed appearance that made him look more like a teacher than an examiner in a death exam.
Yuzuki's posture shifted almost immediately.
'Wing.'
Of course, the moment he saw him, recognition clicked. A Nen user from the anime. Zushi's master. A calm, intelligent, cautious person. Not someone Yuzuki had expected to see here of all places.
Wing surveyed the assembled candidates once, his gaze measured and analytical.
Then, for the briefest moment, his eyes landed on Yuzuki.
And paused.
Only for a second.
But Yuzuki noticed.
'So Bisky told him about me.'
Wing moved on as if nothing had happened.
"Attention, everyone," he said, his voice calm but carrying easily through the wind. "The first phase has officially concluded."
The murmurs died down.
Wing continued, "Of the one hundred and thirty-seven participants who took part in Phase One... sixty-two survived and shall take part in the second phase."
A ripple passed through the crowd.
Some examinees looked around with delayed horror, finally realizing just how many people had vanished between the start of the exam and now. Others only grimaced, as if the numbers confirmed what they had already suspected.
Yuzuki simply listened.
Sixty-two.
Less than half.
'Yeah... sounds about right. This is the Hunters exam.'
Wing turned and gestured toward the next stretch of the exam.
There, spanning the gap between two islands, was a nightmare in stone.
The Broken Causeway.
A long chain of cracked roads, half-collapsed bridges, and sinking platforms stretched over a wide marshy chasm. Entire sections leaned at dangerous angles. Some pieces had fallen away completely, forcing jagged detours and narrow crossings. Strong winds tore across the path in sharp gusts, making ropes whip and loose planks creak.
And below it—
Was the swamp. It was dark, thick and seemingly alive.
Things moved under the mud. Long shapes. Jagged backs. Too many eyes. Every now and then, one of the carrion beasts lurking below surfaced just enough to remind everyone that falling was not an option.
And if the beasts did not get you, the acidic mud probably would.
Wing let them take it in before speaking again.
"Phase Two is called the Cargo Trial."
At his signal, Hunter Association staff began distributing sealed metal containers to the remaining candidates. Each one was roughly the same size, each one marked with a number, each one heavy.
When Yuzuki received his, he had to adjust his grip slightly.
'Twenty kilos, give or take.'
Heavy enough to slow people down.
Awkward enough to be annoying.
Wing waited until everyone had theirs before giving the full instruction.
"Deliver your cargo to the checkpoint before sunset."
His voice did not rise.
"If the cargo is damaged, opened, lost, or stolen, you fail."
That was all.
No maps.
No arrows.
No safe route marked.
No guarantee that the shortest path was the correct one.
Immediately, candidates began muttering.
"That's it?"
"No directions?"
"How the hell are we supposed to know where to go?"
"Stolen? So people can just take it from us?"
Hanzo clicked his tongue. "Of course they can."
Yuzuki looked down at the container in his hands.
Something was wrong.
He could feel it.
He tilted it slightly.
The outer shell was tough. The weight was real. But there was a subtle wrongness to the way it settled in his arms. Not unstable, exactly. Not shifting enough to be obvious.
Just... off.
'There's definitely something weird in this thing.'
He couldn't pin it down yet.
But it bothered him.
A few meters away, Hisoka smiled.
He had noticed instantly.
Not just that something was inside, but that whatever it was, it mattered more than the shell itself. His grip changed almost at once, lighter, more balanced and more careful.
'How interesting. ♦'
He did not say anything, of course.
Let the others blunder.
That was half the fun.
Wing watched the examinees carefully as panic, greed, and calculation all began to ripple through the group.
Then he said, "You may begin."
And the second phase started.
Several candidates took off immediately, either trying to outrun everyone else or too stupid to think before moving. One nearly tripped over a cracked section of the causeway in the first ten seconds. Another, looking around wildly, picked what seemed like the shortest route and bolted.
Yuzuki did not move right away.
He studied the structure ahead.
The leaning stones. The broken spans. The changing wind.
And the container.
Beside him, Ponzu adjusted her own cargo and said, "I'm coming with you."
Yuzuki exhaled through his nose. "No."
Ponzu frowned. "Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
He turned to look at her.
She met his gaze and said, with complete sincerity, "Being with you is the safest route."
Yuzuki's eye twitched behind the sunglasses.
"That's not how routes work."
"It is for me."
He looked at her for another second, visibly irritated.
Then he looked ahead again.
"Do whatever you want."
Ponzu brightened immediately and followed as he finally stepped forward onto the Broken Causeway.
Yuzuki still didn't know exactly what was wrong with the cargo.
But he knew enough to be careful.
And somewhere ahead, already moving with that infuriating, floating ease of his, Hisoka had clearly figured out much more.
The second phase had begun.
And the causeway was waiting to punish every mistake.
---
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