Chapter 1: Stalking Mission

I made a huge mistake that day. I didn't want to die, but dying in the face of protecting your friends shouldn't be that hard. I couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't want to die yet, not now, not yet. It all started a while ago...

I only left Kurapika a couple of hours ago because I wanted to tour the world. He'd been fine with the suggestion and told me to go find his friends, Gon and Killua, who were supposedly living somewhere around here. I'd found them in the forest without a great amount of difficulty.

Killua's POV

"Someone's been following us for a while now."

"I know, pretty strong too," Gon said.

I came to a stop and Gon paused waiting for my reaction.

"All right, we know you're there, you can come out now."

Meiko's POV

Not bad, they sure spotted me pretty easily. I jumped down from the branch I was standing on and landed on the forest floor with a soft thump.

"Well then, hit me."

Killua engaged in an aggressive stance, but Gon looked completely relaxed. He grabbed Killua's shoulder and pulled in back.

"I don't think she wants to fight us, Killua," Gon said.

"She just said 'hit me'," Killua argued.

"Yes, but look, she doesn't look like she's ready to fight at all, and she has no weapons out or anything," Gon said.

I paused, watching the two argue.

"Well, if its just about the weapons, that won't be a problem."

And with that, 4 lances appeared out of thin air and surrounded me. 2 more guns appeared in each of my hands. Did I mention that I'm a materialization user? I'm not limited to just 4 lances and 2 guns, but I am able to control just these 6 weapons extremely well. They're each made of the strongest metals on earth and will not break easily. I can't try to hurt myself either, my weapons won't let me. It's a shame really. Sometimes, I just want to break myself; I want to feel the pain, because I've never been scratched by anybody before.

"See! She materialized some weapons!!!" Killua growled, still in his protective stance in front of Gon.

"Hold on, I don't think she's dangerous," Gon said.

Killua rolled his eyes and leapt straight for me. I shot once, then twice at him but he dodged both shots easily.

Incredible, normal people shouldn't even be able to see those shots. I guess this is why they're Kurapika's friends.

My second of speculating cost me. Killua let loose with a wave of electricity. I flinched when I felt it coming, but...I'm sorry, those kinds of attacks won't hurt me.

I didn't feel like dodging it, I WANTED to feel the pain, but at the last moment, one of my lances moved to the electricity and grounded it. I groaned.

Killua froze in shock.

"She's...really strong," Killua said.

"Stop attacking her Killua!" Gon yelled.

Gon took a few strides up to me and faced me head to head.

"Gon, what are you doing?" Killua asked.

Too late, one of my lances had already bound him to a tree.

"Gon, get away from her!" Killua yelled.

But Gon was approaching me steadily with slow steps.

"You're not our enemy, are you?" Gon asked.

I smiled and pointed my gun directly at his forehead. He didn't even blink or flinch.

"Haha! You're funny and brave too. By the way, my name's Meiko. I'm Kurapika's friend. You must be Gon, and the one tied to the tree, you're Killua aren't you?"

I could see the emotions sprawling across their faces. Confusion. Confusion. And hope. Killua looked dumbfounded as I let him go.

"Kurapika's friend?" Gon questioned with glee. "We haven't seen him since, York Shin? Was it? How is he?"

"He's fine. I just left him because I had business to do in this country, but I'm not in any hurry whatsoever. Can I travel with you guys for a while?"

"Of course!" Gon said without thinking at all.

I could already hear Killua's angry snorting from behind me.

"Kurapika's friend," Killua muttered under his breath. "Wait, how do we know you're not a member of the Genei Ryodan? You could be trying to get information from us."

I paused, truthfully, I could be a member of the Genei Ryodan and I had no way to prove I wasn't.

"I can't prove myself, but you're just going to have to choose to trust me or not."

"Okay," Gon said. "Let's trust her!"

It was Killua's turn to groan. Never try to reason with a reinforcement user.

"So, why are you here anyways?" Gon asked.

"Kurapika had some information on one of the members of the Ryodan in this country and told me to come track him."

"Which one?" Killua asked, seemingly annoyed.

"I think it was Shalnark? Or...yeah, that was it."

"Shalnark? What does he do again?" Gon asked.

"He's the manipulation one with the devil cellphones?"

"Oh yeah," Gon said, acknowledging my description. "Well then, let's just go!"

"Okay then."

And so began my journey with Gon and Killua. Little did I know that it was soon to be interrupted.