Finding a Way Out

Dawn had barely broken. Sunlight rose over the sea and shone on the warship's metal hull.

Woken by the heat, Odin stood on the deck, looking at the distant horizon.

The airship had left last night, and now there was still no sign of it returning.

The examinees emerged from the inn one after another.

Some had dark circles under their eyes, some hadn't even changed their clothes, and others were still rubbing their eyes.

"Hasn't the airship come back yet?" one examinee asked.

"Who am I supposed to ask?" another replied.

"Then what do we do?"

No one answered.

Hanzo walked over to Odin and yawned. "What did you see when you chased after it last night?"

"The examiner from the third phase stopped me from boarding." Odin glanced at him. "And smiled at me."

Hanzo froze for a moment, then rubbed his chin. "Then this is a test. The Hunter Association wouldn't dump us here for no reason."

"That's what I thought, too," Odin said.

The examinees gathered together and began discussing it.

"Maybe we're supposed to find our own way to the next test site?"

"How? There aren't even any boats on this island."

"What about that old couple from yesterday?"

Someone went looking for the old couple, but the inn was deserted. There wasn't a soul inside.

Even the pots in the kitchen were cold.

Killua crouched at the edge of the deck, watching the seawater below. "This island is surrounded by reefs. Ordinary boats can't get close."

Gon stood beside him and sniffed. "There's a strange smell in the seawater."

"What kind of smell?" Kurapika asked.

"I can't really describe it." Gon frowned. "Like something rotting."

Leorio sat off to one side, rubbing his legs. "What do we do now? We can't just swim there."

"No, we can't swim. We don't even know how far it is. Acting rashly would be too dangerous," Kurapika said seriously.

Killua, standing nearby, chimed in with a grin. "These waters are definitely bad news. I could smell that stink even from over there."

What stink? The stink of blood, of course.

Odin said nothing. He walked around the deck, studying their surroundings.

Warship Island was actually an enormous abandoned warship wedged into the island's mountain.

After who knew how many years, the hull and the mountain looked as though they had grown together.

He walked to the bow and looked down.

The hull was covered in rust, barnacles, and seaweed.

Wait.

Odin narrowed his eyes.

Those barnacles were in the wrong places.

Normally, barnacles grew on the bottom of a ship, where it was submerged in seawater.

But the barnacles on this warship stretched from the bottom all the way up its sides. What puzzled Odin was that there were none on the deck.

He could only suspect that the Hunter Association had cleared them away in preparation for the Hunter Exam.

"High tide," Odin murmured.

He moved along the hull, studying the distribution of the barnacles.

The higher barnacles were dry and pale, as though they hadn't been soaked in seawater for a long time.

But those near the bottom were still fresh, with traces of water even on their shells.

Odin raised his head and looked at the mountain where the warship was wedged.

There were clear marks on the mountainside-a dividing line in the color of the rock, dark below and light above, left by immersion in water.

That line was at least ten meters above where he stood.

Odin also noticed barnacles on the metal walls of the warship's lookout tower.

"This is trouble." Odin turned and ran back to the deck.

The examinees were still talking. When they saw him run back, they all stopped to look at him.

Odin ignored them and ran straight to the other side of the ship to keep checking.

It was the same.

The barnacles stretched from the bottom to the upper middle of the hull, and the waterline on the mountain was ten meters overhead.

He crouched and ran his hand over the deck's metal plating.

There were signs of rust along the edges, but they weren't severe.

If this warship had been submerged in seawater year-round, the corrosion should have been much worse.

In other words, the water rose to that height during a particular period.

"Hey, what did you find?" Hanzo followed him over.

Odin stood and pointed at the waterline on the mountain. "See that line and the walls of the lookout tower?"

Hanzo followed his finger and nodded.

"Those are marks left by the water," Odin said. "That line is more than ten meters above our heads."

Hanzo froze, then his expression changed. "You mean-"

"The water level around this island is rising," Odin interrupted. "If I'm right, this area gets submerged in seawater during a certain season.

"The warship is wedged into the mountain, but the sea will rise over it."

"Rise over it?" Hanzo looked up at the waterline. "Then doesn't that mean..."

"Exactly," Odin said. "The Hunter Association probably brought us here at this time because this is when the sea rises rapidly. If we don't leave, we'll all drown when the water comes up."

Hanzo sucked in a sharp breath, then turned and ran back across the deck to tell the others.

The examinees erupted into an uproar.

"Is that really true?"

"The water's rising? Doesn't that mean we're dead?"

"Find a boat, quick!"

"What boats?"

Odin stayed out of the chaos. He returned to the center of the deck and found Ponzu.

Ponzu was standing in a corner, gently tapping the brim of her hat as a few bees flew around her.

"Can your bees scout for us?" Odin asked.

Ponzu looked up at him. "Yes. What do you want to find?"

"A boat, and our destination. The Hunter Association can't expect us to drift aimlessly at sea. We must be supposed to escape from here and then head somewhere else!" Odin said. "There have to be clues on this warship."

Ponzu nodded and raised her hand.

The bees took flight with a buzz and scattered in every direction.

Odin and Ponzu followed them.

Seeing Odin and Ponzu get moving, the other examinees sprang into action as well.

The two followed the bees through the warship and soon found a room that seemed a little different.

There was a table, two chairs, a cabinet, and a map on the table.

The map showed this region, including Warship Island and several small islands nearby.

One island had been circled in red, but there was no accompanying note, leaving them uncertain whether it was their destination.

Still, they had no other destination in mind, so this new clue gave them a promising lead.

Odin walked over to the map and examined it closely.

The circled island lay southeast of Warship Island, roughly ten kilometers away by his estimate.

"Ten kilometers." Odin frowned.

Ponzu frowned as well. "None of the boats around here seem seaworthy."

"Maybe we're supposed to repair them ourselves?" Odin thought for a moment. "For a ten-kilometer trip, we should be able to make it as long as the boat doesn't sink right away."

"Probably." Ponzu nodded in agreement.

Odin led Ponzu to the doorway and looked toward the shore.

The seawater was at about the same level as when he'd checked earlier, with no obvious change.

That meant, at least, that things were still calm today.

"Let's hurry," he said. "First, we'll go back and tell the others."

The two returned to the deck.

The examinees were already in complete disarray.

Some were trying to build rafts, some were throwing pieces of wood into the sea to test the current, and others simply sat off to one side, staring blankly.

Odin walked to the center of the deck and raised his voice. "I found a clue."

Everyone fell silent and turned to him.

Odin explained what he had found on the map.

"Ten kilometers?" one examinee shouted. "Sail ten kilometers in boats like these? You have to be kidding!"

"Sounds fun. Gon, let's go take a look," Killua suddenly said.

He walked to the edge of the deck and jumped straight down.

"Killua!" Gon followed him.

Killua landed on the hull and ran down its rust-covered metal plates.

His movements were light, each step landing on a seam between the plates. He moved as fast as a cat.

In less than a minute, he reached the bottom of the ship and stood on a reef jutting above the water.

Not to be outdone, Gon followed right alongside him.

Kurapika and Leorio immediately followed.

Seeing this, the other examinees got moving too.

Even the examinee who had just shouted that it had to be a joke was no exception.

There were only so many boats here that could sail, and no one wanted to stand by and watch everyone else pass the test.

Odin walked to the edge and looked down.

"Honestly, these people!" Ponzu said indignantly. "We should hurry and find a boat too."

He turned to Ponzu. "Coming with me?"

Ponzu nodded.

Odin walked to the edge of the deck and jumped straight down.

He landed on the hull and reached the edge of the island in a few leaps.

Ponzu followed close behind, keeping pace.