Chapter 61: Oh, My Foolish Little brother ~
The matches continued.
Without Gon's particular brand of stubbornness causing disruptions, the pace picked up considerably.
Match 4: Candidate 294, Hanzou, versus Candidate 53, Bokuro.
Perhaps channeling the frustration he had been forced to swallow during the previous match, Hanzou opened with immediate, decisive pressure and subdued Bokuro in short order. Bokuro specialized in tracking, concealment, and archery; his close-range combat capability was limited. Faced with a credible threat to his arms, Bokuro made the sensible call.
For a bow hunter, the arms are everything. A break might eventually heal, but the lasting effects would be significant.
Watching Bokuro show that much sense, Hanzou exhaled with genuine relief. Further confirmation that the problem had been entirely Gon, and that his own judgment was sound.
Match 5: Candidate 404, Kurapika, versus Candidate 44, Hisoka.
Having gone through the first match without throwing a single strike, Kurapika was at full strength, and what followed was a full-contact exchange that both sides could pour themselves into.
As it happened, stubbornness tended to cluster. Kurapika's was T1 at minimum, possibly pushing T0, and throughout Hisoka's combat approach, which carried the particular quality of someone toying with their opponent, Kurapika refused to yield.
But then the fruit farmer's instincts made themselves known. Having been stopped at the threshold at least three times already during the exam, and now triggered for a fourth time by Kurapika, Hisoka held himself together through sheer force of will, or perhaps through the anticipation of a future harvest, and pressed Kurapika back down. In the end, he used the same category of leverage Ross had used: information, precisely applied, delivered at close range, leaving Kurapika with no way to move.
The difference from Ross was that Hisoka chose to let Kurapika take the win and pass, while he himself advanced to the next round as the loser.
Match 6: Candidate 403, Leorio, versus Candidate 407, Kuwabara.
Two men who occupied the same general role, and whose appearances shared the same prematurely-aged quality, finally produced a fight that could only be described as uncomplicated. Fists connecting with faces. No tricks.
Kuwabara's combat baseline was complete domination, and not only because he was a Nen user. During the seven days on the island, the three of them, Kuwabara and Yusuke and Ross, had worked through extensive full-contact sparring sessions together.
More precisely: Ross had been using them to sharpen his own technique, and they had been on the receiving end of that process.
Unlike Sonic's Sonic Speed Movement, which sat entirely on the supernatural side of the ledger, Kunio's All-Around Athletics were extensions of real physical ability: things that could be developed through genuine training. The gap in raw numbers mattered less at closer skill levels, and in one-on-one grappling, technical skill in throwing and countering produced its full effect.
Both Kuwabara and Yusuke had, over those seven days, taken repeated full-force hits from Ross's Decapitation Throw, Side Press, Back Throw, Sonic Throw, and the one they feared most, the Fireball Spike. Their impact resistance had risen. Their bodies had absorbed the rhythm of those techniques and learned something about throwing and counter-throwing on their own terms.
Ross had also spent that same period being put through it from both ends at the cost of considerable suffering, but he had gritted through it.
The old saying held: sweat now, bleed less later. Anyone unwilling to pay that price had no business stepping into the world of Nen users.
The fight between Leorio and Kuwabara was exactly what a straightforward contest between two men looked like. When Kuwabara won, Leorio did not do what some of his fellow candidates had done. He did not dig in stubbornly or make it ugly. What remained when the hits stopped landing was the mutual respect of two people who had hit each other honestly.
Losing is losing. Knowing when to accept it is what a reliable adult does.
(Leorio was nineteen. Kuwabara was fourteen.)
Match 7: Candidate 53, Bokuro, versus Candidate 99, Killua.
There was no match.
Killua looked at Bokuro, decided he was too weak to be interesting, and conceded on the spot to advance to the next round.
This was precisely why Killua had been given two fewer chances than Gon. He had come to this exam from start to finish in search of entertainment, and had never once been serious about any of it.
That said, Killua remained entirely confident he was not going to lose.
Match 8: Candidate 408, Yusuke, versus Candidate 301, Gittarackur.
"Finally my turn!"
Yusuke cracked his knuckles, full of intent, ready to go.
"Be careful out there. I went over the key points with you."
Ross offered the reminder. Yusuke waved a hand, said not to worry, and stepped out.
Then something unexpected happened. Before Yusuke had even reached the center of the floor, Gittarackur walked to the referee first. A sequence of sharp bone-cracking sounds followed. Then he walked off the field.
He had conceded voluntarily.
"What?! I am not accepting this!"
Yusuke, who had been coiled up and ready to test everything the past week of outdoor training had built, was immediately and visibly unhappy about it.
Gittarackur, for his part, did not acknowledge Yusuke's reaction at all. He simply fixed his hollow gaze on Killua, not far away.
Ross understood immediately.
Of course. He was here to intercept his own rebellious little brother personally.
It looked like the poor kid was not going to escape being put under pressure by his older sibling after all.
If that was the situation, Ross might need to get something ready in advance. Not for Killua. For a different unfortunate soul entirely.
Match 9: Candidate 191, Bodoro, versus Candidate 44, Hisoka.
Hisoka's attitude toward Bodoro was the opposite of how he looked at fresh, unripe fruit. A man already in his forties or fifties was, in his view, a piece of fruit not just fully ripened but actively on its way to rot. He had no interest whatsoever.
Another one-sided affair. Bodoro proved his stubbornness had real backbone in it too, but eventually Hisoka said something to him, and the old man, already reduced to lying on the floor and breathing hard, finally conceded.
Then came the main event.
Match 10: Candidate 99, Killua, versus Candidate 301, Gittarackur.
Killua had already settled into his fighting stance. Gittarackur, who had spent the majority of this final phase maintaining his disguise through a steady rhythm of bone-cracking adjustments, made his choice.
He was, of course, Illumi Zoldyck. And now he decided to shed the disguise entirely.
One metal needle after another came out. As they did, Illumi's face underwent something genuinely striking to watch: the dried-corpse appearance collapsed through visible muscular, skin, and skeletal shifting until what emerged on the other side was a face with long straight black hair and doll-like features, precise and symmetrical in a way that produced something very close to an uncanny valley effect.
Seeing it in person and seeing it through a screen were two completely different experiences.
No wonder Hisoka's consistent assessment of Illumi's transformations was that they were always interesting to watch, regardless of how many times he had seen it. Ross understood that reaction firsthand now.
"B-big brother..."
The contempt that had been sitting comfortably on Killua's face drained out of it entirely. He went visibly pale, the pressure hitting him hard enough that anyone watching could see it.
"Hey~"
Illumi, fully restored to his true appearance, gave his foolish little brother a cheerful greeting.