The Path of Majority Rule continued for quite some time after that.
There were plenty of twists and turns—sometimes the vote was split, and sometimes we chose unanimously only to get a dud.
Still, nothing dangerous enough to kill either Killua or me came up, so we descended the tower feeling like we were playing a survival game.
"Huff, huff. Is this finally the last one?"
"We have just under forty hours to spare. At this rate, we should pass with room to spare."
Those were Leorio and Kurapika, respectively.
This is easier than I expected.
Did the five-on-five duel drag on for that long in the original?
I just hope I haven’t erased one of their growth events from the original story.
If these guys get weaker, the ant arc is fucked.
Before we knew it, we had reached a room with the final fork in the road.
All kinds of weapons hung on the walls—there looked to be dozens of them.
[This is the final branching point of the path. Are you prepared?]
[O VS X]
"Obviously O! Let’s get out of this godforsaken place already!"
[Then please choose a door.]
[A long and arduous path that all five may take, or a short and simple path that only three may take.]
[For reference, the long and arduous path takes at least forty-five hours.]
That’s a lie.
We had descended at least a hundred floors.
Even if they wound the route around like crazy, there was no way it looped around that far. At most, forty-five minutes?
Well, unless the path was made up of stairs going upward.
[Press O for the long and arduous path. Press X for the short and simple path.]
[If you press X, the door will open once two people are shackled to the handcuffs installed on the wall.]
[The two people shackled there cannot leave this room until the time runs out.]
Just as I thought.
I knew the last one would be a mission designed to stir shit up.
I was wondering when they would pull out the trolley problem, and they saved it for the very last moment.
If they threw a sacrifice mission like this at us in the beginning, when nobody had grown attached to anyone, we would just stab each other and be done with it. But what about companions who had cooperated for dozens of hours while descending the tower together?
-Waaah! Shackle me and go on without me, Kurapika!
-That’s impossible! I cannot abandon you! I will be the one shackled!
-Hmph, you idiots. But I do not dislike that about you. I shall let everyone go.
-Nooooo!
In a shonen manga, that was how this development ought to go.
But what about our Togashi world?
"Let me make this clear in advance. I’m pressing X."
Wooooo!
As expected of Togashi.
You never disappoint.
"And I have no intention of staying here, either. No matter what it takes, I’m going to be one of the three."
First contestant: Leorio!
Leorio, the man with the greatest character in this entire universe, has declared he’s cutting ties!
Before the exam, even he shows no mercy!
"I’m going to press O. We’ve come this far, so I want all five of us to pass together."
Ahhh!
But here comes contestant Gon!
With innocent eyes, he says something worthy of a protagonist!
How will the rest of the party take this?!
"Gon..."
"H-Hey. There’s no time for everyone together or anything else. We have no choice but to take the short path."
There it is!
Contestant Killua with the fact-based beatdown!
What a brutal act, dragging ideals down into reality!
What kind of personality is that?!
"What remains is deciding which three of us go. Naturally, Gotoh and I intend to be among those three. If we can’t settle it... we’ll have to fight."
Hell yeah.
Whose kid is this? So sharp and decisive.
He probably snaps people’s necks just as crisply. Crack, crack.
But why are you naturally including me in that?
You keep subtly treating me as part of a set with you throughout this Hunter Exam, don’t you?
But what do I do?
I have no intention of fighting.
"I’ll stay behind."
"!!!"
All four of them looked startled at once.
They were probably surprised because, in their eyes, the strongest person here had just given up.
If Killua and I were fighting together, two of the three slots would have already been decided.
But kids, there are two more bastards out there stronger than me.
And this older brother really doesn’t want to meet them.
I had been thinking during the dozens of hours we spent descending the tower, and I figured dropping out around here was the right call.
It bore repeating, but my role was only to watch Killua while Illumi hid his identity.
So I had planned to wait, if possible, until Gittarackur transformed into Illumi the Ghost like a Precure heroine...
The problem was that Hisoka had taken an interest in me.
I still don’t know why.
There were Pringles and Netero on that airship.
Did him losing an ear piss him off that much?
In the end, unable to withstand his pressure, I ended up saying I would accept a match with him during the exam.
Fuck.
I’m such an idiot.
But if I hadn’t accepted then, I would have had to fight while getting pelted with cards in that cramped indoor space.
Let’s call it beyond my control.
Anyway, I had been considering withdrawing ever since then.
Illumi had given me a mission, but surely my life came first.
If I dropped out quickly here and removed any reason to fight Hisoka, that crazy clown would soon forget me.
Maybe not at the Hunter Exam, but outside, that bastard has plenty of toys.
If he spent time playing with Chrollo, he wouldn’t even remember a small fry like me.
And as luck would have it, Illumi wasn’t watching here.
Even when I returned to the Zoldyck Family, he couldn’t say much if I said I had simply been unlucky and failed the exam.
If Killua passed but I failed, what the hell could he do about it?
So this was the perfect time for me to drop out.
"The others will have to decide the remaining person... but for now, please put the cuffs on me."
"Wait, Gotoh. Didn’t you say you came because you needed a Hunter license too?"
Yeah. That was a lie.
Your brother sent me here.
"There was something I wished to find out personally. It would help with my mission, but it was not essential."
So hurry up and shackle me.
I’m more excited right now than I have been at any point during this Hunter Exam.
When even Killua fell silent, Leorio and Kurapika cautiously approached me.
Good.
If I just waited here for forty hours, I would never have to see that fucking clown’s face again.
Shackle me already.
What a fucking irony that restraint would set me free.
Now I could say goodbye forever to this absurdly unbalanced exam—
"Wait!"
.
.
.
.
.
"To think you’d use a method to break through the wall in that situation."
"That was truly ingenious! The moment we entered the route for five people, you thought to break down the wall blocking the side passage!"
"Thanks to you, all five of us were able to pass."
Fuck.
**
After passing the third phase, the way the protagonist group looked at me changed.
Kurapika and Leorio seemed to see me as a "slightly scary but warmhearted older man," while Gon practically acted as if he had slapped a Good Person sticker onto my forehead.
Killua, on the other hand, looked a little confused. Maybe because of his usual cold-blooded assassin training, he couldn’t understand my final choice.
The four of them all thought differently, but I could see that every one of them felt less distant from me.
But for fuck’s sake, I don’t have the noble spirit of self-sacrifice you people think I do.
I just wanted to fail.
That had been the perfect opportunity.
Fuck.
Look at that clown bastard getting excited.
He isn’t saying a word, but hearts are practically pouring out of his eyes.
He can’t kill an examiner, so I’m the easy target now?
Fucking asshole.
"Congratulations, gentlemen, on escaping the tower. The fourth phase will be held on Zevil Island."
The fourth phase was announced as soon as time ran out.
After the fourth phase, there would be the final exam.
There had been twenty-six remaining passers in total, but one person had died.
So there were twenty-five actual examinees.
"We will now conduct a lottery. You will draw both prey and hunter. These cards bear the examinee numbers of the surviving candidates. You will draw in the order you escaped the tower."
Hisoka had escaped first, and Gittarackur—Illumi—had come second.
That was not particularly surprising.
But unexpectedly, the bald ninja had come in third.
As expected, a premium watch is just built different.
He wasn’t carrying anything like a bow on his back, so I guess he was the version where the older and younger brother became one.
"The number on the card you drew is your respective target."
The number I drew was 281.
At least it wasn’t one of the psycho duo. What a relief.
"Your own badge is worth three points, and your target’s badge is also worth three points. All other badges are worth one point. You need a total of six points to qualify for the final exam."
I see.
They were going to drop us onto that island and have us fight like dogs over our number badges.
If your prey was too tough, they would recognize it if you hunted three weaklings instead.
Not a bad system.
All the remaining passers boarded a ship bound for Zevil Island.
Although it took quite a while to get there, everyone hid their number badges from the moment they boarded until the moment they disembarked.
They were anxious about who might be targeting them.
At least Gon and Killua shared their numbers with each other.
They had become real best friends already.
I hoped they would keep building their friendship and skills, then take Illumi and Hisoka’s heads together.
"Everyone, you worked very hard during the third phase! The twenty-five people remaining here will receive invitations to next year’s exam, so even if you fail, you can challenge it again next year!"
The guide aboard the ship kept speaking in a cheerful voice for two whole hours, but nobody reacted.
What is this, a fucking funeral?
We had boarded a ship for a Squid Game island immediately after the third phase ended, so everyone’s energy was at rock bottom.
"Your stay will last one week! You will disembark one at a time at two-minute intervals. All right, number one, start!"
"♣"
Once again, Hisoka was the first to land on the island.
"Going first must be advantageous... since you can hide yourself in advance."
So there was a benefit to the order in which you passed the exam.
Well, the lottery itself depended way too much on luck.
Getting to draw first did not raise your odds of passing anyway.
Those of us who passed The Path of Majority Rule emerged from the tower around twelfth place, and since we had passed through teamwork, we decided the order among ourselves.
Killua, Gon, Leorio, and Kurapika would go from twelfth through fifteenth.
I was sixteenth.
"I’m off, Gotoh."
"See you later, everyone!"
"All right! See you at the final exam."
The three left in an instant, and now it was Kurapika’s turn.
"Gotoh."
"?"
Kurapika looked in the direction Leorio had run, then spoke to me.
Honestly, I hadn’t expected him to talk to me.
I had spoken with him the least out of the protagonist group.
"Thank you."
"...Have I done anything that warrants your thanks?"
Other than playing life-or-death tag with Hisoka throughout the exam, I had done nothing.
Kurapika gave a small laugh at my words and looked at me.
"Perhaps you and Gon have more in common than I thought."
Why are you smiling like that?
Wasn’t this guy’s whole identity about revenge?
He was smiling so damn brightly.
On top of that, he had naturally dropped the formalities with me all by himself.
I hadn’t even dropped them with Gon, for fuck’s sake.
When I stared at him with a deeply suspicious expression, Kurapika readily answered me.
"I mean when we fought the death row inmate in Trick Tower."
"That was quite a while ago. And you thanked me then too, Kurapika."
Was he the type to remember both favors and grudges for life?
But Kurapika shook his head and spoke to me.
"That was thanks for calming me down. You stopped me from getting carried away and ruining the exam. But this is different."
Then what is it?
That guy wasn’t even a Troupe member.
It wasn’t like I avenged anyone for you, so what are you thanking me for?
Yet the blond stared at me with an exceptionally wistful gaze.
"You were the first person to get angry for me, Gotoh. The first person to empathize with my pain, too."
Huh.
I was just pissed because I almost fell for that bastard’s bullshit.
Come to think of it, I got pissed at myself a second time because there was no way the Phantom Troupe would get caught in Trick Tower.
Apparently, the things I blurted out while beating up that death row inmate had stayed in Kurapika’s memory.
But I couldn’t even remember what I had said.
Kurapika turned fully toward me and bowed ninety degrees from the waist in gratitude.
"Thank you, truly. I will never forget what happened today for the rest of my life. For the first time since that incident, I have met someone who understands my wounds."
Guh!
Is this the authentic half-dogeza, one-half version?! It’s too powerful!
That’s bullshit. This is fucking burdensome.
According to the author, this guy was a character guaranteed to die.
I didn’t think he would get me killed, but it felt awkward knowing he might think of me while he got himself killed.
If I had actually done something for him, it would be one thing, but this was just a lucky accident, so it felt a little uncomfortable.
And for fuck’s sake, lift your head.
The candidates who hadn’t left yet were staring.
This is so damn uncomfortable.
I hurriedly pulled Kurapika upright.
"Please stand, Kurapika. I did not do it expecting anything like this."
"I know. But this is the only sincerity I can show you right now, Gotoh."
Then give me money, fuck...
"Two minutes have passed! Number fifteen, depart!"
"Then I’ll be going first, Gotoh. I hope you won’t go easy on me, even if I’m your opponent."
With those final words, Kurapika disembarked onto Zevil Island.
Do you think I have the leeway to go easy on you?
That mad clown entered there as number one and has had time to dig himself a hole.
In my situation, it would be a miracle just to encounter you alive.
"Haa..."
A sigh escaped me on its own.
Why is it that every original character is screwed up in their own way?
I took off my glasses and pressed my brow when one of the candidates remaining behind approached me and spoke.
"Not bad, mister. Seducing such a young girl and all. Care to share your secret?"
And who the fuck are you?
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