บท 17: Illumi

Netero called us all individually finding out who we were interested in and who we did not want to fight. He was probably going to use this to decide on what to do in the final phase.

Nothing much happened for the next three days. We landed at a committee run hotel. This is where the last phase will be conducted. We were led to a large open space where we were going to have the finals.

Netero- "The finals themselves shall consist of a one on one contest in a tournament format. As for the matchups- Ta-Da!"

The chairman pointed at a list with the order of the matches. My first match was against Gene.

Netero- "This might look daunting but here is the thing… You only need one win to pass!! It's the winners who drop away and the losers who go to the next round of the tournament. So, only one person will fail and everyone else will pass. There is one simple rule, you may use any weapon you may like but you may not kill. If you kill someone, you will be disqualified immediately."

Some people had more matches as it was not balanced. That was likely done based on how we scored and our potential. Freya and I had the Highest chances followed by Gene.

The first match was between me and Gene. To everyone's disappointment, I just forfeit as I am confident I can win my next match against Illumi.

Freya's match was with the martial artist. He gave up as he refused to fight a child. He is quite a noble guy. I'll make sure he will not die this time. The match after ours was Kile's. She had to face her brother. She didn't know it was her brother until Illumi removed his disguise. Kile started to sweat bullets. Seeing this I pull her into a hug and console her. I removed the pin Illumi had planted in Kile's hair to control her and threw it away. Illumi was visibly irritated by this. "Kile, just give up… You cannot fight him now." I say. Kile seems to see where I'm coming from and agrees.

Illumi pissed at me lunges at me only to be thrown back. "My next match is against you so save your energy…" I say to which Illumi just stares back. Leorio ended up losing his match as he had to fight the martial artist. I consoled leorio telling him that I would make sure that he will pass. I already had a plan for that. Kurapika won his match against the archer without any difficulty. Finally, It was my turn again. Illumi launched his attack without warning. This may seem fast for others but for me, he was pretty much still. I dodge him effortlessly and go behind him. I punch him breaking his back and his ribs. He won't be walking for at least 3 months even with the help of a specialist healing him. This rendered him unable to participate for the rest of the matches making him lose by default thus passing all of us. A grateful Kile came and thanked me for my help.

Ren- "No need to thank me… If you need any help, just ask me, ok?"

Kile simply blushes and looks away. After the final phase, we were given our Hunter license and a seminar was being held.

Beans(Secretary of the Chairman)- "You have all been handed your hunters license. It may not look like much but what it signifies is great! It enables you to enter 90 percent of the countries and 75 percent of the areas for which access by the general public is forbidden. You may use 95 percent of public facilities at no cost. Banks will treat you as if you were a top rated company. Take care that you do not lose it, it cannot be replaced."

Mr. Beans went on to say something about their policies and so on and so forth but no one really paid any attention.

Ren-"Kile, you should probably meet your parents and tell them about this. If not, your father might send others after you. I will be able to defend you but it will be a pain."

"B-But if I go back my parents won't let me out again… " says Kile worried that she will be forced to separate from ren. "Don't worry, If worst comes to worst, I will break you out of there. You have nothing to worry about," I say with a calming smile. Kile and I gaze into each other's eyes for a while. Kile kisses me without warning. I didn't know how I felt about this but I did like her. We kissed for a bit until Kile noticed Freya standing behind me. Her eyes widened in panic as she pulled away. "Don't mind me. You can continue… I don't mind if ren has other women as long as the love him. I can tell you are sincere," said Freya sincerely. Kile was shocked for a moment. It took her a bit to decide but she just said, "Ok…" softly and continued hugging me.