Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 208 MAJORITY RULES

Jill cuddled up to me as she slowly woke up. I relaxed on the ship as light began to leak in through the porthole. At one point she gasped, sitting up quickly. 

Still nude she slowly turned to see me. “So that wasn’t a dream?” She asked slowly. 

“That good huh?” I asked, a wide smile on my face. She blushed profusely. 

“I can’t believe I did that,” she mumbled. “I never even kissed a boy before.”

“If it makes you feel better, neither have I,” I said. 

Jill stared at me for a moment, then giggled as she got it. “Have you…ever done that with a girl?” 

“I’ve never…given them my gift,” I decided on. “The power.”

“Holy gods, I forgot about that,” she said. “How-“ she looked at her hands. “How do I use it?”

“Right now, you can’t,” I said. “It’ll take about a week of training to start to feel it. Then we can start on training you.”

“A week?” She asked dejectedly. “But the Hunter exam.”

“Don’t worry, you’re strong enough to survive. Besides, we are still a team, right?”

“Right,” she said. Looking at my naked body she blushed as she became a little more shy. Wrapping the blanket around her. “Am I your girlfriend now?” 

“If you want,” I said with a laugh. “It’s a big responsibility though. Think you can take it?”

“What do you mean?” She asked, a little nervous. 

“Well I have quite the sex drive,” I said, pulling the blanket away from her to reveal her body. “I know you’re a princess. Do you think you can keep up?” I moved closer leaning into her. She gasped as she laid back on the bed. Her naked body under mine as my dick thickened. 

“I-I can try,” she said sheepishly. “I um hurt but-yes of course.” Her face became harder as if she made some sort of decision. 

“You hurt?” I asked, feeling a little bad. “We have a busy day. Not sure I should put you through more pain.”

“I’ve heard of other things,” she mumbled shyly. Looking down to my dick. 

“A sheltered princess like you?” I asked. 

“Quiet with the Princess crap,” she mumbled. “I’m Jill.”

“Fine fine, Jill,” I said, kissing her. “We have a bit before we land yet. Want to explore?” 

She bit her lip but nodded. “Can you um, do that thing with your hands?”

“I can,” I said. It wasn’t long until she had cum a few times and I was explaining to her how to blow me. She had a small mouth but was enthusiastic about it at least. It took time but she swallowed. Moaning happily with the added taste of the chakra. 

I explained to her how to begin circulating chakra and we put our dirty clothes back on. Heading out there was a long buffet set up for everyone. We sat with Gon and his crew. He talked about playing keep away with Netero, and it seemed like stuff was sticking to canon. 

“We will be landing shortly,” the Chairman announced as we wrapped up the meal. “You will all be starting at the top of Shrewdness Tower. A special training ground for Hunters, your goal will be to reach the bottom of the tower within 48 hours. Again, we will not be monitoring what goes on in the tower. Anything goes once inside. Simply make it to the bottom and you pass the 3rd phase. If you feel you have gone as far as you can. Please stay on the ship, and we will drop you off at the nearest port.” The old man nodded and headed away. 

“That’s it?” Kurapika asked. “Not a whole lot of information.”

“That’s the Hunter Exam for you,” I decided on saying. I could have given them clues but I trusted that things would end up how they should. I wasn’t too sure I wanted to partner with them. I remembered that groups of 5 would be accepted and between Gon’s group and Jill and I there were 6. I especially didn’t want to be with a bunch of dudes when there were those of the fairer sex available. 

I noticed Kiri and her crowd. There had been some drama going on with the group. Most had split off after they were almost killed and raped. Now there were only 3 women left other than Jill and they weren’t working together anymore. Now in it for themselves the majority had been eliminated in the scavenger hunt. 

“Please disembark if you wish to continue the Hunter Exam,” someone said over the PA system. We got up and were soon making our way up the stairs. Jumping off the deck we spread out over the wide tower. At least a half mile in diameter it was much bigger than I expected. 

“Remember, simply make it to the bottom in one piece,” an examiner said from the deck and the blimp was soon lifting off. 

Many of us headed to the edge of the tower. It was quite tall. “I can climb down this easily,” a muscular man said. He began moving along the outside brick. Climbing down expertly. About 50 feet down giant birds attacked him, knocking him off the side of the tower. I considered following. I could have gotten down easily with chakra, but I doubted that was what the examiners wanted. 

“What should we do?” Jill asked as people began to scatter, looking around for another way down the bare roof of the tower. 

“Stay close,” I said. “There are trap doors leading down.”

“There are?” She asked. 

“Yep, people are already disappearing,” I noticed. We had started with 40 and there were only 30 people on the roof currently. I wanted to go down with the other women but they had already disappeared. 

Grumbling, I walked us over to Gon and his team. “Guys,” I hissed lowly. They turned and walked over. My toe kicked one of the many panels that would allow someone access. “Looks like we get down by hidden panels.”

“Woah, good eye,” Leorio said trying to peek in but all that could be seen was a dark interior. 

“Guess we separate here,” Kurapkia said. 

“What? No,” I said, kicking another close panel. “Just find trap doors close to one another and you should end up at the same place. Jill and I will take these 2.”

“Okay, good luck,” Gon said, trying to find more panels. 

“Ready?” I asked. Jill nodded and we jumped down. Landing about 10 feet down we were in a dimly lit room. Jill and I turned to the people already there. My heart sank as I noticed them. 

2 of them I was excited to see. They were Kiri and one of the other women in the group. The last was someone I didn’t want to have to move down the tower with. 

“You’re um, Hisoka, right?” I asked. 

“I am,” the red haired magician said. He was dressed like a jester, without the hat, but he called himself a magician. He still freaked me out so I planned to call him whatever he wanted. “It seems we have our 5,” he added, looking to the other 2 women. 

The trio turned to a screen on the wall. On the screen was written:

WELCOME TO THE SHREWDNESS TOWER, WHERE MAJORITY RULES. PLEASE TAKE A BRACELET TO HELP DECIDE YOUR PATHS. 

On a pedestal in front of the screen were 5 metal bracelets. The bracelets were simple. They had an X and an O button on them and that was all. As we put the bracelets on a screen on the door turned on. 

OPEN DOOR - X

KEEP DOOR CLOSED - O

“I’m guessing we all want X,” I said, breaking the silence as I pushed the X on my bracelet. The others did the same and the door audibly clicked. 

“This is going to be fun,” I mumbled. We walked out as a group to find a hallway going in 2 directions. On either side were bars that blocked both paths. Another screen popped up on the wall. 

LEFT - X

RIGHT - O

“Left?” I asked the others. 

“I think right,” Kiri said. 

“Works for me,” I said. Pushing O. We had 5 in agreement again. I could tell this was going to be a long ass 2 days. We walked as a group. Hisoka eyeing me as we did so. Everytime he did I could feel my skin crawl. 

I really wasn’t confident against the guy. But the more I thought about it the more I wondered if that was the main characters weakness against the guy. Gon had struggled against Hisoka. But I was a hell of a lot stronger than the kid. I wondered if I had more of a chance than I thought. I pushed those thoughts out of my mind for now. 

Not much else to do. We talked sparingly until we came up to an opening in the wall. There was a wide expanse that led to a suspended platform that was connected to the other side via a small bridge. At the center of the platform stood a large man at least 7 feet tall. 

“Welcome to the Trial Commission,” the man said. His voice booming in the open space. “We will be the jurors.” He pointed behind himself to 4 other people in robes. I noticed the shackles holding their wrists together. Slowly I was remembering this part. In the manga they had to go against prisoners like these. The prisoners would try to delay you. And if they could delay you enough you would become stuck in a room to wait, giving you less time to clear the tower. I really didn’t want to be stuck in a room with Hisoka if we lost any time. 

“I’ll fight all 5 of you,” I said, stepping up. “At the same time. I don’t care.”

“What?!” The big man asked. A little upset that the speech or whatever that he was about to say was cut short. 

“I’ll fight all 5 of you jurors. All at the same time.”

“I didn’t explain the rules, yet!” The guy growled. 

“Fine whatever. But I don’t want to go one at a time. Let’s get this over with,” I said. Hisoka chuckled behind me, my spine tingling in fear as he did. 

The big man at the center growled. “If you want to take our challenge. You have to push X for yes. O for no.”

“Can the challenge be all 5 of you fight me at once?” I asked. 

“No, it’s gotta be 1 at a time,” he said angrily. 

“I vote no,” I said. “These guys are here to stall us. Let’s just keep working around until we find a group that will let us finish it all at once.”

“Are you sure you could even take on all 5?” Hisoka asked. His smile was wide and creepy as per usual. 

“Wait,” the man in the middle of the room said. He turned to face a camera mounted on the wall. “The guy wants to do it all at once.”

“Let him, but the same rules apply,” a voice said over a microphone. 

The big man nodded. “Alright. Normally we would fight 1 at a time. Until all 5 of us went. The best of 3 would win. And you could pass if you beat 3 of us. But if you want to fight all 5 of us. Your team would lose and have to turn around.”

“Fine with me,” I said. I pushed X. 

“Now you have me curious,” Hisoka said, pushing X. I ground my teeth but I had to stop being such a wimp around the guy. He wasn’t an impossible foe. Just creepy as all hell. 

“Are you sure?” Jill asked. I nodded. She pushed X and the other 2 women followed. They had seen me kill the other men. They knew what I was capable of. 

The room dinged and a bridge began making its way from our side to the center platform. As I walked the other 4 people on the other side had their shackles released. Dropping their hoods they revealed hard criminals. Ugly men one and all. 

I walked onto the platform and they stopped to face me. “You sure are dumb,” the main guy said. “We are all men with hundreds of years of imprisonment between us. Every hour we keep you here is a whole year off of our prison sentence. And if we block you from passing, that's 10 additional years knocked off for each of us.”

“Well damn, what kind of crimes did you all commit?” I asked. 

“Us? Little bit of everything. Serial killer,” he said pointing at one of the guys. “Killed his wife,” another guy sneered. “Ate his neighbor,” a man with a wide smile laughed. “We all killed to earn our way here.”

I nodded, setting my plan in place. “I assume anything goes?” I asked. “Killing?”

“We plan on it,” the cannibal said, licking his lips. Another ding sounded and the bridges retracted. 

“We good to start?” I asked. 

“Yeah,” the man said. “When-“ he stopped talking as I grabbed the water in their bodies and pushed them off the edge. They had comical looks on their faces as they were pushed back 10 feet and began to drop into the open expanse between the platform and the wall. 

They screamed about half way down and we heard a thud. It took a few seconds but the ding sounded and both bridges extended back out. 

“Man, I would have felt a little bad if they weren’t bad guys,” I mumbled to myself as the others walked across the bridge. 

“You, what did you do to them?” Hisoka asked me. His eyes squinting as he stopped a few feet away. Honestly I was tempted to push him off the edge. Then again he could probably pull himself up with his Nen Bungee Gum. 

“Oh and you are gonna tell me all your secrets?” I asked. 

He smiled wider. “You are very interesting,” Hisoka said and I shivered. 

“Yeah, thanks. Let’s finish this up, alright?” I said as I headed to where the men had been standing. I had planned on beating them with Conqueror's Haki, but the world was a better place without the prisoners. It was a sick place if the Hunters were fine letting those guys leave early. 

First a woman Hunter purge. Then letting murderers free. Maybe the Hunter Association wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I was worried what else I would find out as we walked down a hall. 

Over the next few hours we went through more majority votes. Which way to turn. Stairs to take. Holes to jump down. All the while I was on high alert, ready for Hisoka to try something. It was tedious, but he kept his hands to himself. I wish I could say the same about his eyes though. I felt them on me randomly. It was unnerving. 

We finally came to a door. All agreeing to open it. Inside the walls were lined with weapons. “Finally,” I mumbled. 

“Huh?” Jill asked. 

“Nothing,” I said as we entered. A screen on the wall lit up. 

WELCOME TO THE FINAL JUNCTION. PLEASE PICK AN EXIT TO TAKE. THE LEFT WILL BRING YOU TO THE BOTTOM OF THE TOWER. THE RIGHT LEADS TO A PATH THAT WILL TAKE YOU TO THE BOTTOM OF THE TOWER BUT WILL TAKE AT LEAST 36 HOURS TO PASS.

The doors were next to one another. I smiled wide, knowing the trick. The screen blinked and another message appeared. 

ONLY 3 MAY TAKE THE LEFT PATH. PRESS O FOR THE LEFT PATH. X FOR THE RIGHT.

“Jill and I will take the right path,” I said without hesitation. 

“What?” Kiri asked. “That easy?”

“Well I don’t plan on fighting. I’m sure they wanted us to though,” I said pointing to the weapons on the walls. “We will just try our luck on the right path.”

The trio shrugged and we pushed our buttons. Jill and I were forced to go into the right door before the left would open. We walked in and were left in darkness. I waited by the door. 

“You know, you could have asked me. I’m freaking beat,” Jill said with a sigh. 

“Sorry babe, I didn’t want to risk Hisoka trying to start something,” I said. 

“That guy really freaks you out, huh?”

“You’re lucky he has no interest in women,” I said. I heard the door on the other side of the wall open. Muffled voices sounded as they headed down the hall. When enough time passed I said, “okay, step back.”

Pulling my arm back I punched the brick wall with a straight punch. It cracked but didn’t bust in with one hit like I had hoped it would. “Stupid well made wall,” I mumbled as water poured out of me. Condensing it down in a ball of chakra I opened a pinhole and the high pressure water began to cut through the stone. 

“What are you doing?” Jill asked. 

“Finishing early,” I said. It didn’t take long to cut a hole into the hall next to us. We walked through into the left exit. After walking down a set of stairs we found the other 3. Our names and numbers announced as winners over an intercom we were the first 5 to make it. 

“How the hell did you do that?” Kiri asked, amazed. 

“Just used my brain,” I said. Of course I had stolen the idea from the manga, but they didn’t need to know that.