Chapter 41: Herding
"While looking for ingredients would let us make a better meal, you're forgetting something, Mary." Said Killua as he set the massive pig down next to him, "This is the hunter exam and we don't know if we'll run out of time by foraging around, that and there should be enough ingredients at our stations as well."
"U-understood, thank you for letting me know Killua." She said with an embarrassed smile. [T-that's right, this isn't just cooking, this is the Hunter Exam! This is Uncle's last mission for me!]
Outside of Mary's thoughts the four other applicants watched on as Mary slapped herself and began to pump herself up as if no one was around.
"Hey Mary! What are you doing?" Asked Gon curiously."
For a brief moment Mary froze before she turned to look at him.
"N-n-nothing much! Now let's get going!" She shouted nervously, alerting the surrounding pigs in the process. [I really need to start calming down, I can't be making mistakes like these. Not when my f-f-friends, not when they've have accepted me for who I am!] she thought while trying to hide the embarrassment rising on her pale face.
[Oh come on now Mary! You're a human aren't you? 'Mistakes like these.'? Don't make me laugh anymore than I already have today! Mistakes are what makes us human, in fact! A mistake like you should keep making them to learn more. You clearly haven't retained much information despite all of the time you wasted reading, so make more, and more, and more, and more mistakes! Make so many you can never turn back from them.] Yelled a voice in Mary's head as the pigs began their charge.
Startled by her sister Mary's movements had paused as her platinum hair covered her blue eyes.
"Hey Mary! This is no time to be spacing out right now!" Yelled Leorio in response to the still Mary.
Ignoring the sounds of disappointment from her 'sister' she readied herself for the charge. "L-Leorio, Kurapika, take our pig back to the mansion! Gon, Killua, and I will catch up with you a-alright?" She shouted out with feigned confidence.
"We can't just accept that! Mary what if you guys get hurt w-."
Cutting Kurapika off Killua began, "Enough, we aren't here to fight them all off, we're just here to stall for a bit of time while you guys take back the ingredient. Besides, you two have tasted a bit of Mary's power before, if anything you two are the ones putting us in danger by potentially slowing us down."
Unwillingly accepting the circumstances, Leorio and Kurapika ran off, swearing that they'd get stronger to protect their friends in the future.
[Gon's decided to trust you, Mary. So for now I'll do the same. But, be warned, I'll be ready for you and your sister at any given moment.] promised Killua to himself.
At the same time Mary thanked Killua internally while she jumped away from an incoming pig.
"Now that they're gone, Mary, what do you want to do with them? The three of us, no the two of us should be more than enough to take down this number of pigs." Said Kurapika.
"I-I don't really want to kill them if necessary, but if we have to... then there's no helping it right?" She said in a unwilling tone.
In response she received a nod from Killua while Gon interjected, "What do you mean the two of you!? I'm more than enough to take all of them out too!" Shouted Gon as he jumped from tree to tree, evading the beasts.
"Huh!? Use your head idiot! The last time you tried to take on a strong opponent you nearly died right!?" He retorted.
Still unwilling to accept this he shouted back once again, "I know! And because I'm an idiot I want to try as hard as I can to improve myself so that that doesn't happen again!"
A sweet laugh echoed out for a moment, stopping the two on top of the trees for a moment.
"I-I'm sorry guys, but you two are just too much." She said with a bright smile. "Besides, I think we've bought enough time at this point."
Jumping deeper into the forest the three evaded the pigs, losing them one by one until only four remained chasing them by the time they neared the mansion's garden.
Sighing Mary turned around, and with a large tree branch, knocked the forehead of one of the pigs as hard as she could. [Gasp! Mary! How could you do that to a sweet little animal? It didn't deserve that! How cruel of you to do such a thing, it probably had a family back home waiting for it, maybe it even had a sick child that's anxiously waiting for it's dad. And you, you're the monster who took away that chance...] Plugging her ears she tried to push her sister's voice out of her mind, and while it didn't lessen her voice's volume, it allowed her to focus on the task at hand.
To her right Killua had already dug his hand into two of the pigs' foreheads, removing fragments of their skull as blood poured out from the newly formed openings. On her right, Gon had swung down hard onto his pig's forehead using his reinforced fishing rod.
Seeing Mary down, the two comforted her with a pat on the back. However this didn't stop Killua from mouthing to Gon, "See? I would've won if we had competed earlier."
"No I would've." He mouthed back.
Noticing the three of them standing just in front of the garden, Leorio and Kurapika ran over to them.
"Thank goodness you guys are alright!" Shouted Leorio. "Not that we had any doubt, of course."
"Y-You're a terrible liar Leorio!" Laughed Mary, "Is that why you two were so unwilling to leave?"
In response the two in question awkwardly laughed before clearing their throats.
"Anyway we really are glad that none of you guys got hurt in the process."
"T-Thanks for worrying about us, Leorio, Kurapika." She smiled.
"Don't mention it," said Leorio, "after all, who wouldn't want a future millionaire to worry about them?"
[Look Mary, look at all the blood flowing from those animals you killed. Doesn't it excite you!? The putrid smell, the thickness of it, that beautiful color! Mary why not let me out, I promise I won't do anything to harm anyone, I just want to take a closer look!]
"...swap-
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
A_Random_Person
A_Random_Person Rewrites are taking way longer than I anticipated, so they’ll probably take another one to two weeks before they are fully done. In the mean time I’ll be continuing to upload actual chapters with one coming out either every week or every 3-4 days depending on how much time I have. Anyway hope you all enjoyed the chapter, let me know about any mistakes or suggestions as always.
Thank you all for waiting patiently, and I’m happy to finally be back. -A_Random_Person
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