Hunter Association Headquarters was far too clean.
That was Yuzuki's first thought as he stepped through the towering entrance and into the polished interior. The floors gleamed. The walls were smooth and bright. The air even smelled expensive. Paper, polished wood, filtered air, and the faint scent of coffee drifting from somewhere farther down the hall.
It felt nothing like the places he had been dragged through lately.
No blood.
No collapsing roads.
No murderous clowns.
It was almost unsettling.
The attendant who had brought him this far stopped at a wide inner corridor, bowed once, and said, "From here, Mr. Beans will guide you."
Yuzuki blinked.
Then, almost on cue, a small green figure came hurrying down the hall with a clipboard tucked under one arm.
Beans.
The same Beans from the exam.
Only now, in the far more official setting of Headquarters, he somehow looked even more like a highly competent bean-shaped civil servant.
"Ah! Yuzuki!" Beans said brightly as he came to a stop in front of him. "It's good to see you again!"
Yuzuki gave a small nod. "Likewise."
The previous attendant excused himself and left, leaving Yuzuki alone with Beans.
Beans adjusted his glasses with practiced professionalism and smiled. "Chairman Netero is expecting you, but we have a little time before he's ready to receive you. So, if you don't mind, I'll be guiding you from here."
Yuzuki looked around once, then back at him. "Sure."
Beans beamed. "Wonderful. Please follow me."
And so the tour began.
The headquarters was even bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside. Corridor after corridor stretched in clean lines beneath high ceilings. Offices stood behind glass walls. Staff in suits moved quickly but without panic, each person seeming to know exactly where they were going and why.
Beans spoke as they walked, voice warm and informative.
"This is the administrative wing," he said, gesturing to one section lined with offices. "Licensing, assignments, mission records, registry updates, and general bureaucratic management are handled here."
Yuzuki glanced through a glass partition and saw people buried under paper stacks and screens.
"That looks miserable," he said.
Beans chuckled politely. "Some Hunters would agree."
They turned down another hall.
"This side contains archives and restricted document storage," Beans continued. "Most ordinary Hunters don't gain access to some of these records unless their work specifically requires it."
Yuzuki looked over. The doors here were thicker, and security was visibly tighter.
"So this is where all the secret nonsense is," he said.
Beans coughed into his hand. "That's… one way to phrase it."
Yuzuki smiled faintly.
They passed a series of rooms that looked like training facilities, meeting chambers, and briefing halls. Along the way, a few staff members stole curious glances at him. That was to be expected. He was a bloodstained child who had apparently become the only Hunter to pass this year's exam after dying and then not staying dead.
He would have stared too.
Beans either didn't notice or kindly pretended not to.
"This is one of the strategic planning rooms," Beans said as they passed a chamber with a large circular table and multiple map projections along the walls. "Complex Hunter Association operations are often coordinated here."
Yuzuki looked in and whistled softly. "So this place really does run the whole world in the background."
Beans adjusted his glasses. "That would be an exaggeration."
Yuzuki looked at him.
Beans looked back.
Then Beans said, "...But not an entirely unreasonable one."
That got a quiet laugh out of Yuzuki.
As they continued walking, the tension that had stuck to him since the exam started to loosen little by little. Maybe it was the calm. Maybe it was the absurdity of being given a proper tour after all the nonsense he'd just survived.
Or maybe it was because he was about to meet Netero.
That thought had been sitting in the back of his mind the whole time.
Not fear.
Not exactly.
Just anticipation.
This was Chairman Isaac Netero.
A legend.
A monster.
The old man who had stood at the summit of the Hunter world and, in another story Yuzuki had only once watched from the safety of fiction, had dragged the strongest creature alive down with him.
Beans seemed to sense the shift in his thoughts.
"You're wondering what the Chairman will be like, aren't you?" he asked.
Yuzuki answered honestly. "A little."
Beans smiled. "You'll see soon enough."
Eventually they reached a much quieter wing of the building.
The bustle of administration faded behind them. The halls here were wider, the lighting softer, the walls decorated less with insignia and more with simplicity.
Beans stopped in front of a set of double doors.
"Chairman Netero is inside," he said.
Yuzuki straightened slightly.
Beans gave him one last reassuring nod. "Go on."
Yuzuki pushed the doors open.
The room beyond was unexpectedly plain.
Large.
Open.
Mostly empty.
And right in the middle of it stood Chairman Netero in sportswear, bouncing a ball off the floor and catching it with one hand like a man with absolutely nothing important to do.
He looked up as Yuzuki entered.
For a moment his expression stayed unreadable.
Then he chuckled.
"Heh."
The sound was soft, amused, and somehow ancient.
"So this is him."
Yuzuki stepped inside fully and the doors shut behind him.
Standing in person before Netero felt… strange.
The old man wasn't physically imposing in the usual way. He wasn't especially tall, nor broad, nor dressed in anything that screamed authority. And yet the room somehow belonged to him completely.
His presence filled it.
Not loudly.
Just absolutely.
Netero bounced the ball once more, caught it under one arm, and smiled.
"Welcome, Yuzuki."
Yuzuki bowed slightly without forcing it too deep. "Chairman Netero."
Netero nodded, clearly amused by the respectful tone. "Congratulations on becoming an official Hunter."
"Thank you, sir."
Netero's eyes sharpened a little, though the smile never left. "You also managed to go toe to toe with someone who killed an established Hunter."
Yuzuki kept his expression level. "I survived more than I succeeded."
"Modest," Netero said, chuckling.
Yuzuki didn't know if it counted as modesty when it was simply true. Shigure was dead. Hisoka was still alive. And Yuzuki himself had also died somewhere in the middle of the whole mess.
Still, this was Netero.
There were worse times to be humble.
Netero tucked the ball under his arm and walked a little closer. "Tell me, then. Why did you want to become a Hunter?"
It wasn't asked casually.
Not quite.
Yuzuki could feel the test in the question. Not a formal exam test, but the kind older monsters gave when they wanted to see how your mind worked.
He answered honestly.
"To hunt criminals legally."
There was a beat of silence.
Then Netero laughed.
"A bounty hunter!" he said. "At your age!"
Yuzuki scratched the side of his cheek, just slightly embarrassed. "That's basically it, yes."
Netero's laughter faded into a pleased smile. "Such a serious answer from someone so young."
Then he lifted the ball from under his arm and tossed it lightly into one hand.
"Well then," he said, eyes gleaming now with a very particular kind of playful danger, "come play with me."
Yuzuki's mind clicked immediately.
The ball.
The room.
The old man's stance.
He remembered this.
He remembered Gon and Killua. The impossible game. The way neither of them had gotten the ball even once. The way Netero had made a simple challenge into a lesson on the gap between levels.
Yuzuki smiled in anticipation.
"Yes, sir."
---
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