章 7: Chapter 7: Meeting My First Canon

Once in Beeskafmarro, Kaito first heads to an appraiser in the city to find out how much the market value of this relic is so he can figure out how much to pay me for the job. Apparently, its initial selling price would be around 140,000,000 jenny. I haven't quite grasped the monetary value of this world yet, but I know it's a good amount.

True to his word, he gives me 42.000.000 jenny for the job, and keeps the treasure. Kaito also informs me that the Hunter Exam will be held this incoming year in Zaban City, thanks to a tip from his Gourmet Hunter friends. Although I already knew where the exam would be, Kaito provided me with the list of flights that would take me to the city, since I wouldn't arrive on time otherwise.

Taking advantage of the situation, I ask him about some matters that I need to handle as soon as possible, and after giving me the information I need, Kaito and I part ways. With newfound wealth and knowledge, I feel ready to continue my journey alone for the moment.

The first thing I do is go to the bank to deposit my money, asking for a credit card and keeping 200.000 jenny just in case I need it. Following Kaito's advice, I also fill out the Hunter Exam Application and pay for a room in a building in the city to spend the night online afterwards. It takes a bit more than I thought due to my lack of understanding of the language, but I get it done in two hours.

As I leave the bank, I see an old woman stumble in the street and drop everything she was carrying. I immediately head over to help her.

"Are you okay, ma'am?" I ask kneeling down to inspect her closely.

"Yes, young man, I'm fine. I just tripped while carrying some things to my shop." She replies.

"Tell me where, I'll help you carry them." I tell her as I pick up all the objects from the floor.

"No, it's not necessary. It was just an oversight, I can do it myself." She says as I finish packing everything into a large handkerchief, getting up from the ground.

"Where I come from, everyone helps each other. And that is a value that I always try to respect." I say offering her my hand to help her up from the ground.

"You're so sweet." She says while helping her up, with a kind but knowing smile that seemed to see right through me.

After about half an hour, we arrive at the shop, which turns out to be a fortune teller shop. The shop is filled with an array of items, from intricate trinkets to bizarre talismans. The air is calm, and the atmosphere enchanting and mysterious.

"Since you have been so kind to me, would you like to have your fortune told?" The old woman asks me in a gentle and grateful voice as I turn to leave.

"Okay, I have time for that." With my curiosity piqued by the offer, I nod and take a seat opposite her.

The old lady shuffles a deck of cards and after a moment of silence, she begins to lay them out in a pattern that I don't recognize.

"Hmm," She hums, studying the cards carefully. "I see that your future is full of challenges and dangers, and you will have to stay true to your intelligence and heart to overcome them." Intrigued, I listen closely as the old lady continues, "Also... I see many women in your future."

I blink at her prediction, slightly taken aback. "Many women?" I repeat, unsure what to make of the prediction.

"Yes," The old lady confirms with a knowing smile. "their love for you will be strong and will bring you great joy, but each one'll also shape your destiny in different ways. Remember, young man, love is a powerful force that takes a lot of effort to nurture, and can guide you in unexpected directions."

Having heard the old woman's words I get up to leave, thanking her for her consideration. As I walk away, I recap of his predictions.

'She's a very good old lady. She told me the words she thought I would most like to hear as thanks for helping her. I don't know what the future holds for me, but I am not going to rely on unrealistic fables.' I think while heading to my next destination—the bookstore.

Now that I'm embarking on my journey in Hunter x Hunter, there are many topics I need to learn about that are better off with a book than a computer; language, geography, mithridatism, body development... But more than anything, I want to unravel one of the ten great mysteries of Hunter x Hunter. Browsing through the vast store, I finally find the book I'm looking for; Theory and Application of Aeronautics. I reach out to grab the book, when another hand touches mine as I reach for it.

"Excuse me." I turn my head to see the other person, and what caught my eyes makes my heart skip a beat; a petite young woman with short-layered black hair and plum purple eyes. She has a large bust, slim waist, and wide hips. She wears a black turtleneck and jeans, accessorized with black-framed glasses, a necklace bearing St. Peter's Cross, earrings ornamented with a reversed cross, and a bracelet on each wrist above her sweater sleeves. She's Shizuku Murasaki, member #8 of the Phantom Troupe.

'You've got to be kidding me?! What's a member of the Phantom Troupe doing here?! If she sense anything weird coming from me I'm fucking dead!' While my head is thinking at a thousand revolutions per minute, my face and body remain unperturbed with my gaze fixed on Shizuku for a few seconds.

"What are you looking at?" She asks stoic and unemotionally.

"Ah, sorry. I didn't expect to meet such a pretty girl here and I'm speechless." I say trying to come up with the best excuse possible to hide how terrified I am, which seems to produce a tiny blush on Shizuku's cheeks, "Anyway, you were looking for that book, right? Go ahead and grab it."

"What? But weren't you looking for that book too?" She asks in her usual blunt and air headed way of being.

"Yes, I want to study it to solve a doubt I have. But in my country, everyone always tries to help each other. And if by letting you take the book I can make your pretty face smile, then I have no problem with it. Well, I'm off to the checkout to pay for these books. Bye." I turn around trying to flee from this situation.

"Wait." I stop my marks at her voice, turning my head in fear of what might be coming, "If you also need this book, we can sit at a table and read it together." At those words, my blood runs cold, and any sense of security I could have flies out of my brain.

Unfortunately for me, this bookstore allows customers to borrow books before purchasing them.

I nod with a smiling, friendly face, but inside I feel uneasy and desperate. If I don't go with the flow, I could alert her and get myself killed. And if I act even a little nervous or strange, the same could happen.

With this decided, we head to an available table, open the book and begin reading it close to each other. I am alone, at the beginning of my journey, with a Nen user who can kill me in literally less than a second, and fear for my life isn't the main reason I can't concentrate on reading—it is the sexual excitement.

I know it sounds typical, but when I died at 20 years old, I had no experience with women in my previous life, and in this new life the subject had never crossed my mind, so I didn't think about it.

But now, facing one of the most wanted assassins in the world, all I can think about is those big plum eyes, that black hair with a sweet scent, that obvious hourglass figure... 'Damn, even in my previous life I was never this excitable! Is it that my tribe has more hormones than normal people, or is it just my young and inexperienced body's fault? Never mind, it doesn't change the situation!' I rub my eyes and focus my sight in the book in front of me.

'This is a challenge to my will, and if I want to overcome it, I have to steady my breathing and calm down.'

After several minutes, I start to mellow out, and when an hour and more than half of the book have passed, I have finally managed to calm down, and I have also managed to discover the answer that I had been looking for.

"Look, this model has a very rare design." Shizuku leans forward to point at the photo of an old airship, innocently brushing one of her breasts against my arm.

At this point, my mind shuts down, my face turns bright red and my heart starts beating like it's going to jump out of my chest. I'm unable to think straight, flustered and overwhelmed by the torrent of emotions flooding my head. 'I have to say something to get out of this! Say something! ANYTHING!'

"M-miss... D-do you know what time it is?" I abashedly ask to the Phantom Troupe member beside me.

She rolls up her sleeve, revealing a watch on her left wrist, "Wow, looks like it's pretty late already. I guess I should get going now. Thanks for keeping me company." She says giving a small bow, to which I nod avoiding looking at her as she starts walking out of the store.

Feeling that she has really left, I let out a gasp filled with all the nervousness, pressure, and excitement of this crazy situation, breathing heavily afterwards.

'Oh my god, that was so close. I've never felt so much strain in my life. Okay, I need to pull myself together and get back on track. I just... need a moment to calm down.' I think while controlling my breathing and trying to get through the <situation> I find myself in before getting up.

Some time later, Shizuku is walking down a city street, and as she turns into an alley, she bumps into two people; one is a very muscular and haired man of two and a half meters, with tanned skin and unruly mane of grizzled hair, who wears donning bearskin clothing and boots and a white sleeveless t-shirt. The other one is a short, young woman with a petite build, blue eyes, pink messy hair that reaches the middle of her back, but she most often wears it tied up. and who wears Japanese-style clothing that makes her look like a modern-day kunoichi. They are Uvogin and Machi, numbers #11 and #3 of the Phantom Troupe respectively.

"Damn, you finally arrived! We've been waiting for you for almost ten minutes, do you really want me to kill you?!" Uvogin asks with a loud and annoyed voice.

"Sorry. I got distracted by something and lost track of time." Shizuku says stoically without showing any emotion.

"Distracted with what?" Machi asks her.

"Hmm... I don't remember what, but it was something very nice." Shizuku answers with his usually aloof and forgetful demeanor.

"Oh come on, are you serious?!" Uvogin asks with his usual lack of patience.

"Anyway, she's here now, so let's forget about it and continue on our way. We have work to do." Machi says starting to walk.

"Damn it!" Uvogin complains, starting to walk followed by Shizuku.

As she follows the two, Shizuku looks at the hand she had touched Kai with; the memory is gone, but the feeling of that meeting is still embed inside of her.

At nightfall, in a room of a building, I enter, falling exhausted on the bed with my shopping bags still in my hands.

"I'm dead tired. I'm done for today. It's time to sleep." Saying this, I fall asleep almost instantly.

Today has been a crazy day. I didn't expect to meet a member of the Phantom Troupe so soon. It's a good thing it was such a calm and absent-minded member like Shizuku. If it had been one of the impatient or intuitive ones, I might not have made it out alive.

At least the book resolved the big doubt I had; Why there are no planes or helicopters in this world?

Apparently, due to its gigantic size, the magnetosphere of this world has a magnetic field far superior to that of Earth, which negatively affects the piloting systems and other systems of an airplane that allow flight at a certain altitude. In addition, the atmospheric pressure is also lower at lower altitudes, so such a construction cannot maintain a stable position at high altitude.

Helicopters and jets that travel at low altitude do exist, but a construction as large and heavy as a travel airplane cannot be created that is functional in this world, and taking into account the benefits of blimps over light aircrafts, society has been oriented towards its development instead.

Date: December 29th, 2010

I'm at Beeskafmarro Airport, checking in my luggage and heading to the runway where the blimp that will take me to Zaban City is. Honestly, I'm scared and uneasy; the last time I rode in an aircraft I died, so it was only natural that I found it difficult to do so now. Nonetheless, I am adamant in my goal to become a Hunter and explore this world, so despite my wariness, I bite the bullet and get on the airship.

The days of the trip were uneventful, but I couldn't calm down. My body felt stiff and my mind was scattered, so I couldn't train my Nen or read my books and notes. So, doing some warm-ups, I trained my body in my private room the whole time that I wasn't eating or sleeping.

Date: January 4th, 2011

<Attention dear passengers. Our arrival in Zaban City will take place at 10 am as planned. Please be prepared to leave the aircraft upon landing. Thank you very much.> A woman's voice says through the blimp's speakers.

When I hear this, I am at a loss for words. Zaban City was where Leorio, Kurapika, Killua and Gon first took the exam. Having arrived so soon, there is a chance I might run into them there. The thought fills me with a mix of excitement and nervousness as I look out the window to the place where my experience in the canon is going to start.