The moment Mizaistom finished speaking, the entire checkpoint island shifted from tense silence into frantic movement.
Candidates began circling each other like wary animals in a drought. Some approached others with forced smiles. Some grouped up immediately with people they had traveled with in previous phases. Some stood still and tried to look competent enough to be invited by someone stronger.
And some, like Hisoka, remained exactly where they were.
Smiling.
That alone was enough to make people actively choose other groups.
Yuzuki stood with his hands in the pocket of his hoodie, sunglasses still in place, while Hanzo looked around the island like a man evaluating a market full of unstable goods.
Ponzu clutched her hands in front of her and whispered, "We still need two."
Hanzo nodded. "Preferably not idiots."
"Preferably not murderers," Ponzu added, glancing for a second toward Hisoka.
Yuzuki shrugged. "Preferably people who won't slow us down."
Hanzo smirked. "You ask for a lot."
Before they could go hunting, someone approached them first.
He was broad-shouldered, sun-browned, and looked older than the rest of them by enough years to feel comforting rather than suspicious. His hair was dark and tied back into a short knot, and his forearms were scarred in the way that suggested hard physical work rather than fighting for sport. There was a practical steadiness to him, the sort of man who probably didn't say much because he didn't need to.
He stopped at a respectful distance and scratched the side of his jaw.
"You're putting a team together?" he asked.
Hanzo answered first. "Depends. Who's asking?"
The man gave a short nod. "Daigo Morn." He glanced between them. "I'm good with terrain, structures, and traps. Used to work salvage in collapsed ruins. If this next phase is in a city, I'll be useful."
Yuzuki looked at him for a second.
No obvious malice.
No fake swagger.
No desperate smell of weakness trying to act strong.
Just straightforward usefulness.
Hanzo asked, "Why us?"
Daigo looked directly at him first, then at Yuzuki. "Because you two are obviously strong. And because that girl looks like she'd rather be with the strong people than the stupid ones."
Ponzu blinked. "That's… fair."
Yuzuki gave a small nod. "Works for me."
Hanzo shrugged. "Good enough."
Daigo gave another short nod and stepped in with them, just like that.
"One more," Ponzu said.
And almost on cue, another voice cut in from the side.
"Then I'd like that last spot."
They turned.
A young woman stood there, maybe in her late teens, with auburn hair tied into a high tail and sharp eyes that moved too carefully to be casual. She wore a short dark coat over fitted field clothes, and unlike many of the examinees, she didn't look rattled by the exam so much as irritated by inefficiency.
Her gaze landed on Yuzuki first.
Then Hanzo.
Then she spoke.
"My name is Mirel Vane. I'm good at reading people, spotting lies, and piecing together patterns from incomplete information." She tapped one finger lightly against her arm. "I'm not the strongest fighter here, so I'm choosing a team where I don't have to be."
Hanzo laughed. "Honest."
Mirel tilted her head. "The exam sounds like it rewards judgment more than pride. So I'm using judgment."
Ponzu looked at Yuzuki. Hanzo did too.
Yuzuki said, "Can you keep up?"
Mirel's eyes narrowed very slightly. "I made it this far, didn't I?"
That answer got the smallest smile out of Hanzo.
"Fair enough," he said.
Ponzu nodded. "Then that makes five."
So that was the team.
Yuzuki.
Hanzo.
Ponzu.
Daigo.
Mirel.
Around them, the remaining candidates continued sorting themselves into groups. Some pairings made sense immediately. Others looked doomed before they even introduced themselves. One group had already started arguing over leadership before the phase had even begun.
And then, eventually, the deadline came.
Mizaistom stepped forward again and raised his hand.
"That is enough," he said.
Conversations died down.
Candidates turned.
Mizaistom looked over the assembled groups with the expression of a judge surveying evidence.
"Any remaining examinees without a full team will now be assigned."
That caused a fresh wave of nervousness.
A few people turned pale immediately.
Yuzuki's group looked toward the unassigned cluster near the edge of the checkpoint island.
There were seven of them.
And, of course, one of them was Hisoka.
The atmosphere around that half-formed group was terrible.
No one stood close to him if they could help it. A bald man with round glasses had positioned himself as far to Hisoka's left as physically possible without stepping into the ocean. A woman with a torn sleeve kept her arms crossed and her body angled away from him. A nervous young guy with freckles looked like he was considering dying on purpose just to avoid being assigned.
Hisoka smiled softly, hands in his pockets, entirely unbothered.
Mizaistom glanced at his notes.
Then spoke.
"The remaining seven examinees will be treated as one assigned unit."
The reaction was immediate.
"What!?" one of them yelped.
"All seven of us!?"
"With him!?"
Hisoka tilted his head, visibly amused. "How rude. ♦"
The freckled one looked ready to cry.
The woman with the torn sleeve muttered, "This is a death sentence."
The bald man adjusted his glasses with shaking fingers and whispered, "I should have joined literally anyone..."
Hisoka's smile widened.
"You all look so tense. ♠"
No one answered him.
The group stood together the way strangers stand together during an earthquake: physically close, emotionally miles apart, all of them quietly certain that one wrong movement would make everything worse.
Ponzu leaned closer to Yuzuki and whispered just low enough for only him to hear, "I think I'd rather fail."
Yuzuki nodded once. "Reasonable."
Hanzo snorted.
Mizaistom either didn't hear them or chose not to react.
He simply gave the final instruction.
"You may begin Phase Three."
That was all.
No further explanation.
Just permission to walk straight into disaster.
The groups began moving almost immediately.
Yuzuki's team, however, did not.
Hanzo raised a hand. "Wait."
The others stopped.
Mirel nodded approvingly. "Good. If we rush in blind, we deserve whatever happens."
Daigo folded his arms. "Agreed."
Ponzu looked from one to the other. "So… what do we think this is really testing?"
Yuzuki was the first to answer. "Judgment. Obviously."
Hanzo nodded. "Yeah, but Mizaistom's the examiner. Which means law, order, ethics, authority. This isn't going to be solved by just beating people up."
Daigo added, "And if it's a city crisis scenario, then we'll need to know what kind of 'order' they want restored. There's a big difference between stopping a riot and rescuing hostages."
Mirel took over smoothly from there. "Exactly. We don't even know if the obvious chaos is the real issue. For all we know, some of the people causing problems are planted to bait bad decisions."
Ponzu frowned. "Like if we attack the wrong people, we fail?"
"Probably," Mirel said. "Or if we solve the problem too violently."
Hanzo rolled his shoulders. "So no mindless fighting. Great. That rules out the fun route."
Yuzuki ignored that and looked toward the city in the distance.
"So we gather information first."
Daigo nodded. "Fast. We need to know who's in charge, what's broken, who's lying, and whether there's a central pressure point."
Ponzu raised one hand slightly. "I can gather information quietly if there are civilians around. People tend to talk more freely around someone who doesn't look threatening."
Hanzo smirked. "Useful."
Mirel pointed at Daigo. "You handle route stability and building entry."
He nodded once.
She then looked at Hanzo. "You're mobile, fast, and good in close quarters. If we need someone intercepted or retrieved, that's you."
Hanzo gave a mock bow from the waist. "Naturally."
Then her gaze shifted to Yuzuki.
"And you," she said, "are clearly our 'break glass in case of emergency' option."
Ponzu almost laughed.
Yuzuki just asked, "Meaning?"
"Meaning if things go completely to hell," Mirel said, "we point you at the biggest problem."
Hanzo grinned. "I like her."
Yuzuki sighed. "Fine."
That was enough.
Just a rough strategy formed from common sense, pressure, and the instinctive understanding that if they were going to survive this exam, they'd need more than raw strength.
So they moved.
The ruined fortified city loomed ahead on the next island like the corpse of a kingdom that refused to stay dead. High stone walls rose in broken segments. Towers leaned at ugly angles. Several roads leading inward were blocked by collapsed archways, smoke, or makeshift barricades.
Even from a distance they could hear it—
Shouting.
Crashes.
A scream.
Glass breaking.
The city was in chaos.
As Yuzuki's team crossed the final approach and stepped through the ruined outer gate, they slowed almost at once.
In the streets ahead, everything was wrong.
A wagon had been overturned and set on fire in the middle of a market square. People in ragged clothes were throwing stones at shuttered government buildings. Somewhere farther off, a woman was shouting for help. Two armed men were dragging a bound merchant through an alley while a crowd argued around them. A city guard stood atop a staircase yelling orders that no one was listening to.
And all around it—
Movement.
Watchers.
Observers.
Hidden exam eyes.
Mirel exhaled slowly.
Daigo rubbed the back of his neck.
Ponzu grimaced.
Hanzo said exactly what everyone else was thinking.
"Well," he muttered, "this exam is going to be a pain."
Yuzuki looked out over the city, expression flat behind his sunglasses.
"Yeah," he said. "A huge pain."
---
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