Tasber sat in the center of the carriage.
Although he was curious about this unprecedented power he had obtained, he also understood that now was not the time to ask questions casually.
After another four or five minutes, Kisho used water condensed from Nen to help Tasber heal those overly severe wounds on his body.
On the other side, "Kisho" seemed to sense something. He smiled at Amos, then patted Kisho on the shoulder. With a "bang," he turned back into a card and fell to the ground.
A few seconds later, the card on the floor suddenly turned into smoke and disappeared.
The passengers on the train: "..."
All kinds of dramatic transformations—whether someone appeared out of nowhere, vanished into thin air, or changed from one person into another—they had seen it all today.
"Looks like there's no problem anymore."
The bespectacled boy fell silent for a moment, then slowly said,
"Take off the rope used to stop the bleeding."
"Many thanks."
Tasber looked at the boy and smiled.
The boy with glasses said, "Heh, we should be the ones thanking you instead."
"You were sitting in the carriage behind, right? I didn't see you earlier."
He asked, "My friend and I are going to Filston to enroll. What about you?"
Only when asked did Kisho suddenly freeze.
"—Ah!"
Amos was already used to his sudden outbursts. "Ah?"
Kisho shot to his feet. "The exam… the exam—!"
Amos: "..."
He sighed and looked at the boy with glasses. "This guy and I, and this one here—we're all going to take the Hunter Exam."
As he spoke, he tugged Kisho. "Let's get back to our seats. It'll be bad if we're delayed."
Kisho: "Oh."
He stood up. Tasber followed closely and rose as well. Because of the wound on his leg, he stumbled and was caught by Kisho.
"Tsk!"
He could feel that after awakening Nen and then compressing his fat through some unknown ability, this man's weight had become unbelievably heavy.
The bespectacled boy watched as the three who had saved an entire carriage of passengers left.
One supporting another, with one following behind, their figures slowly disappeared beyond the door of the carriage.
"Hunter Exam…"
He murmured the words blankly, then silently etched them into his heart.
...
Kisho: "..."
Amos: "..."
Tasber: "..."
Cold wind poured in through the forcibly blasted-open carriage door, whipping the hair of the three into disarray—their thoughts just as messy as their hair.
They had indeed returned to the carriage behind, but inside, there was not a single person.
—Well, not entirely empty. Because Chrollo sat in his original seat, as if he had never moved at all, leisurely and comfortably reading a book from beginning to end.
"Back already?"
He lifted his head, looked at the three, and greeted them with a faint smile.
Amos: "..."
Kisho helped the still-injured and extremely weak Tasber—despite having awakened Nen—sit down in his seat.
Then he looked at someone who had been reading the entire time.
"Where is everyone else?"
Hearing this, he answered softly,
"I've been reading the whole time, so I didn't pay much attention—perhaps they all suddenly had urgent matters and got off the train."
Kisho: "..."
He raised a brow. "You must have heard the gunshots, right? Why didn't you get off?"
Amos looked at Kisho in surprise. Tsk, the kid finally figured it out… maybe?
"Because you and your little partner went to handle it, didn't you?"
Chrollo emerged from his sea of books, lifted his head to look at Kisho, and replied sincerely.
Then a mysterious smile flickered in his eyes. "And this police officer here, hehe."
Amos' pupils shrank.
Right!
He suddenly realized that he and Kisho had just… rescued a policeman?!
How ridiculous. A mafia elder and a member of an A-rank thieves gang joining forces to save someone who would become a policeman.
—This definitely isn't my problem!
It must be that someone made a mistake in educating his subordinates! Definitely!
Meanwhile, Kisho remained unconvinced.
"You trust us that much?"
"Of course."
Chrollo nodded matter-of-factly. "At your age, if you're here to take the Hunter Exam, you wouldn't be ordinary."
Kisho believed him.
"Oh," he said with a grin. "You've got good judgment."
Amos: "..."
He shot Kisho a vicious glare before turning to Chrollo. After a barely noticeable hesitation, he asked,
"...Did you happen to notice any examiners for the Hunter Exam?"
"No."
Chrollo replied.
"That's good."
Kisho let out a sigh of relief. "That means the examiner hasn't really arrived yet."
Before he could finish speaking, three men dressed in black with their faces covered rushed in through the wide-open carriage door, guns raised and pointed at the four people inside.
Kisho: "..."
Amos: "..."
Kisho instantly sprang up from his seat, one eye turning silver-blue at the same time.
A violent Nen pressure erupted in an instant, crashing down heavily upon the three bandits.
"Ugh!"
Caught off guard, the three gunmen let out muffled groans. Then Nen surged from their bodies as well, countering Kisho's pressure.
Kisho raised his hand. Fire Whirl slowly gathered in his palm. His gaze locked tightly onto the three. Just as the atmosphere climbed toward its peak—
"Calm down. Don't rush to act."
Amos grabbed his wrist, feeling the terrifying pressure from the Fire Whirl in Kisho's hand and silently marveling in his heart.
He spoke, "These three might be the real examiners."
Kisho froze.
"Brat! That was way too heavy-handed!"
Among the three bandits, the leader pulled off his hood, glared at Kisho irritably, then looked at Amos.
Perhaps thinking this one was easier to communicate with, he frowned and said, "Chestnut-haired kid, is it just you few?!"
He looked around the now-empty carriage. "Where is everyone else?!"
Amos sighed, forced to take responsibility for explaining the situation.
"It's like this…"
...
After a round of explanations, the leader of the bandits—no, the examiner—wore a serious expression and pulled a phone from his pocket.
"Hello, unexpected situation. Real bandits boarded the train and affected the passengers in the carriage before the exam site."
"Contact the locomotive and delay departure by one hour. Don't let this spread! Send a Nen user capable of memory erasure over as soon as possible."
Kisho and Amos exchanged a glance and wisely remained silent.
After hanging up, the chief examiner sighed.
"Originally, this stage was meant to test how candidates would react when encountering bandits."
"But… with only you few left, there's no need to continue this stage. You can directly proceed to the next pre-exam—"
Chrollo closed his book and looked at him seriously, interrupting.
"That's not quite right, Examiner."
"Although candidates bear life and death risks during the exam, due to your operational mistake, the assessment we faced was more difficult than that of the other candidates."
"I believe the Hunter Exam should be fair."
He continued softly yet firmly, "Moreover, my friends' performance clearly exceeded what this stage was meant to test."
"If the result is merely exemption from the next pre-exam, we cannot accept it. After this, we will file a complaint with the Hunter Association."
The examiners: "..."
Who is this guy?! Talking nonstop—and everything he says makes sense!
Indeed, there had been a problem with this stage. They had planned to gloss over it, but if a complaint were filed…
"I understand."
The chief examiner sighed.
"All individuals currently in this carriage will directly obtain qualification to participate in the official Hunter Exam—will that suffice?!"
Even if granting one extra exemption meant writing an additional ten-thousand-word report afterward, it was still better than a complaint… probably?
However…
The chief examiner looked at the four people in the carriage.
The fierce kid, the rational kid, and the half-dead young man lying there…
All three could use Nen, and they had saved an entire carriage of passengers.
Letting them proceed directly to the official exam wasn't an issue.
And this eloquent young man…
Well, although he couldn't use Nen, just by saying a few words he had struck right at the core of the issue. Letting him pass wasn't unjustified—and even when the bandits were close at hand, he hadn't run, had he?
Just as the examiner nodded in satisfaction, a "whoosh—" sound of a toilet flushing came from somewhere behind him.
Someone came out clutching his stomach, face pale and sickly.
Then this person, utterly bewildered, locked eyes with the three speechless examiners.
...
Tonpa, who had spent the entire night running to the toilet, inexplicably received a number plate marked "235" from the examiner, and inexplicably boarded the train said to head directly to the official exam site…