Chapter 15 - 5: Airship and Ten

After the old man landed, Menchi introduced the oldman as the Chairman Netero.

The Chairman asks Menchi if she really failed them because of their unwillingness to try new things.

Menchi admits losing her cool after her profession was insulted and making the exam harder, she informs him that she will resign as an examiner and asks the Chairman to re-do the Second Phase.

The Chairman proposes that Menchi thinks of another task, and she has to show them how to do it.

Menchi requests the Chairman to bring them all to Split Mountain, where Spider Eagle eggs are located.

The re-test involved getting the so-called "Dream Eggs" dangling on webs at the ravine.

After a quick demonstration of Menchi the applicants who were not fazed by the task, jumped to get the eggs.

Some of the applicants fell to their deaths, failing to realize that they should have waited for the updraft.

Except for James who, despite the updraft, jumped nimbly on the canvases, he easily managed to get an egg and after a quick cooking he passed the test again.

The other applicants relyed on Gon's senses, who signaled when to release their grips from the webs, they have cook the eggs and finded them delicious.

Gon shared his egg to Todo, who also enjoys it, Menchi tells him that they risk their lives for the joy of discovering delicious food like the dream eggs.

Todo is humbled and asserts he will try again next year.

The applicants learned that being a Hunter required a great amount of determination, regardless of type.

James watched the whole scene with a smile as he tasted his egg.

The examinees and examiners board the airship and Chairman Netero is formally introduced to the examinees. Beans, the Chairman's secretary, announces that the airship will arrive at the site of the Third Phase the next morning at 8 AM.

The applicants are thus free to dine and rest. 

Finally at the end of the day, there were only 43 candidates left.

. . . . . . .

In a large cabin of the Menchi airship, Satoz and Buhara were sitting, each vacant at their activity, discussing the examination and the applicants.

"How many applicants do you expect to make it?"

" You mean pass the exam?"

"Yep."

"This year, we have an impressive group. "

"Though I did fail them all at one point but doesn't it depend on what the upcoming phases consist of?"

"That's true But didn't you notice it?

"One of them had this whole aura thing going on."

"What do you think, Satotz?"

Satoz then put his left hand under his chin with a thoughtful look.

" Oh, yes, I like the rookies this year."

"Ha! So you agree?"

"I think #294(Hanzo) has a good shot."

" I'm partial to #99(Killua), he looks like a selfish, spoiled brat."

" What do you think, Buhara?"

"Well he isn't a rookie, but #44 is the one I favor, I'm sure you noticed, but when #255 Todo) was throwing a fit, it was #44 (Hisoka) who was really on the verge of killing someone."

Satoz nodded slightly but suddenly thought back to the candidate who had killed the Man-Faced Ape during the first phase.

"The rookie 271 (James) is also a good rookie, he's constantly attentive, decisive, with above-average physical fitness.(Don't forget that in HXH a gifted kid like killua can open a door of many tons)."

"Now that you mention it I remembered him, although he finished first in all the second phase trials, it seems to me that he does everything he can to erase his presence, but the most intriguing thing is that throughout my evaluation he seemed to be slightly hurt although he hid it rather skillfully."Menchi said offhandedly as she continued to comment on the mediocre performance of the other candidates.

Meanwhile, in a small room in the airship, James was standing shirtless, in an initial offensive boxing position, while an extremely white aura surrounded his body.

Drops of sweat slipped from his body, his muscles made him suffer more and more with each passing second, finally he fell to his knees panting with fatigue as the white aura disappeared.

"Twenty minutes."

James had already read the manga HXH, he then knew the basic principles of Nen according to the explanations of Wing, he was a secondary character who had taught the two main protagonists to use Nen after the examination of the Hunters.

After awakening the Nen he was as excited as ever, who has never dreamed of possessing superpowers, magic or supernatural abilities?

He was currently practicing at the Ten, this technique allows a Nen user to contain aura by enfolding their body with it.

All human beings possess aura, but unbeknownst to most of them, it slowly leaks away. Making aura stay around the body is called Ten (纏 lit. wrap around).

This is the most basic technique, thanks to it, the body will be strengthened and the aging process can also be slowed down.

If is best to adopt a natural posture when practicing Ten, James opted for the most natural position for him, that of boxing.

"Ten is really hard to maintain, it requires not only a mind always alert to control, but also great physical strength, if it was me before entering Survival World I would surely be dead by now."

"If it was before I could never remember all those details, but since the improvement in sense stats my short term memory has improved a lot, and my long term memory has also received a slight improvement I can even remember such old memories."

He then rested for a few minutes before getting up again and continued training at the Ten.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the airship, an unscrupulous old man was martyring two kids.

James already knew this, but he decided not to participate in Netro's little test, because he wasn't the protagonist, so he wasn't sure that Netero would accept him to participate, on top of that he still wanted to stay in the world of HxH to improve, he wasn't in a hurry to take the hunter exam.