AN: I'm not dead and the story isn't either. I was just incapacitated by some real world issues. I'm ok but I wasn't able to finish proofing and upload this chapter until now sorry about that. Good news however in that the next chapter is about half way through proofing so I hope to get it out soon. For all of you who have liked and followed both my story and me I thank you. For those of you who review I also thank you. Now enough of my ramblings. Enjoy the chapter.
Finding a place to hunker down and let Kurapika recover was fairly simple for the group, though ditching the airship they had been using wasn't so much. Thankfully none of the spiders, nor Hisoka, decided to hunt them down so they had managed to do so without running into trouble. None of them really understood why that was but they weren't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, not when Kurapika, the only one among them capable of fighting a spider, was running a 103-degree fever at any rate. Leorio offered to look after Kurapika himself so the three young friends could finally deal with the real reason they had come to the city, that and because he was a doctor in training after all.
Unfortunately for the them however, they didn't have enough money to buy a copy of Greed Island at the auction despite getting quite a bit of money from Zepel's efforts, so they had to rely on Gon's plan to succeed. Fortunately, Gon's plan was actually a good one and had a fairly high chance of success so when it was time for the auction the next day the trio arrived at the venue bursting with anticipation… only to run into members of the Phantom Troupe, specifically the tall blond one named Phinks and the one who wanted to torture Gon, Feitan.
"Yo. Fancy meeting you here." Feitan's low, menacing voice sent shivers down Harry's spine despite his attempt at emulating a pleasant tone of voice.
"We were just leaving." Harry tried to back away but Phinks disappeared in a burst of speed and reappeared behind him, his hand firmly clamped down on his shoulder.
"There's no reason for that now is there? You wouldn't want to miss the auction after all, right?" Harry barely kept himself from trying to stab Phinks in the kidney for the implied threat in his words. Killua and Gon looked no better but they were being kept occupied by Feitan instead.
"Yeah, it's such an interesting event, it would be a shame to leave just like that, why don't you come join us." Feitan's "suggestion" would have been much less menacing sounding if he hadn't laughed darkly after making it. Harry had to bite back a sarcastic comment lest he piss off their captors, although captors was probably pushing it considering he could likely escape again like he did the other times and they knew it. After looking briefly at Killua and Gon, noting the same understanding in their eyes, Harry decided to accept the offer.
"Fine…"
Once Harry voiced their acceptance he was released from Phink's grip, though he was kept slightly separate from Killua and Gon, likely as a precaution against his ability to teleport. Once they were settled in Harry was the first to break the tense silence.
"So? What do you want from us?"
"Nothing." Phink replied.
"Nothing?" Harry deadpanned, not believing them for a second.
"Yeah nothing. Well nothing from you kids as a whole. You on the other hand are a different story."
"…Let me guess, you either want to offer me a place on the spiders or have a job offer for me due to my ability."
Phink smirked. "Got it in one kid. So you interested?"
Harry hesitated briefly with his response, giving Gon enough time to reply "for" him.
"There's no way he would be interested so you should just leave!"
Feitan raised an eyebrow in response to Gon's loud declaration, dark amusement evident in his eyes.
"Hoh? But the brat didn't answer himself how can you be sure?"
This time it was Killua who spoke up for Harry.
"Because you have nothing to offer that would appeal to Harry."
Feitan gave a non-committal noise in response, turning to look at Harry himself to see the truth of the matter, much like Phink who never looked away from him. Gon and Killua also finally noticed that Harry had yet to reply and turned their own gazes towards their friend/brother. It was clear that the two were expecting him to agree with them and were wondering why he hadn't yet but the truth was he didn't agree, not really. He didn't like the troupe at all, nor did he think he could ever work with or for them long term, but there was one thing they could offer him that would be useful.
"…I won't join the Troupe… but I will at least hear what job you want me to do."
The two spiders smirked at his response while Gon and Killua looked absolutely flabbergasted, and more than a little pissed judging by Killua's subsequent outburst.
"Harry what the hell are you thinking!? You can't be seriously considering working for them!?"
Killua looked set to continue his tirade but was stopped by a firm hand clamping down on his shoulder from Phink, who was subtly indicating to keep quiet as his outburst had attracted attention from the nearby people. After a couple minutes the interest in their group died down and Harry finally spoke his thoughts.
"I am serious Killua. I won't accept anything before I learn what the job is but I doubt it will be anything worse than what we've done for the family. The spiders are thieves by profession not murders, despite their body count. Besides, they have one thing I'm sure they could offer us."
Gon and Killua's angry glares lessened slightly at that, replaced with a sort of annoyed thoughtfulness that would be rather humorous to see if not for the situation.
"What could they offer you that we would want?" Was the question Killua posited.
"A copy of Greed Island."
At Harry's reply his two companions looked stunned while the two troupe members merely looked intrigued/amused by the group's dialogue and Harry's answer.
"It's simple if you think about it. The troupe was initially hunted by the various mafia groups because they robbed the auction house right?" At Harry's leading question Gon and Killua nodded. "We all know that the mafia failed to actually kill them all right?" Again nods were given in response. "Yet the auction is still going which means…?" Gon looked confused but Killua, after a brief moment of thought, spoke out in surprise.
"That the troupe are the ones running the auction, which means they hold all the copies of the game."
"Pin pon." Feitan's rather sarcastic correct answer noise caused twitches to appear on the two Zoldyck's eyebrows.
"That's some pretty good reasoning there kid, and you're right we could give you a copy of the game though a single job wouldn't cover that cost." Phink's rather more helpful explanation was appreciated though it wasn't quite what Harry wanted to hear.
"I see, well as long as I don't find the jobs you want me to take too unpalatable then that won't be a problem. Of course that's only if Gon's plan doesn't work so don't worry about it guys. That being said can we go now or are you going to try and capture us…again?"
The two spider's smirked at Harry's spunk. "Heh, you're free to go kid. If you do want to take us up on that offer at some point give a call to this number." With a nod at Phink's words the three youths stood up and prepared to leave but before they could Phink stopped them to give one last parting remark. "Oh, and tell your friend Kurapika that next time he comes after the spiders that we'll kill him. His fancy chains won't be able to help him again."
The trio shuddered at those words, the implication that the troupe now knew of Kurapika's name and abilities resting heavy on their shoulders. That meant that Pakunoda somehow informed them of what she pulled from Gon and Killua's memories. It also meant that she was dead, something that seemed to bother Gon but neither of the two Zoldycks. Still that piece of information was something they'd definitely need to share with Kurapika when he woke up, it was nothing but bad news despite the apparent lack of desire to hunt him or any of them down. Harry just thanked the Gods that, that was the case. The ability to teleport or not he had no desire to have a group of murderous Nen masters actively gunning for their heads. A sentiment that Killua at the least seemed to agree on if the shudder that ran down his spine was any indication.
They returned to their actual seats at that point and settled in to watch the rest of the auction waiting for the copies of Greed Island to finally show. Gon started dosing off not 5 minutes in but Harry thought it was interesting enough despite not being able to afford to bid on anything. When it was time for the copies of Greed Island to finally be auctioned off Harry and Killua got a shock at seeing Milluki in the seats, it was the first time either of them saw him leave home and it was actually a little unsettling if they were honest.
As the auction for the first copy went on Gon ended up accidently making a bid of 24 billion for a copy, though thankfully someone else was quick to put a higher bid so they didn't have to worry about paying any false bid fees. Killua was quick to take their friend to task for that little stunt, leaving Harry to simply enjoy the show as it were. The auction continued on for another couple of hours before ending, another two copies of Greed Island being sold during that period but beyond that nothing else of note happened.
After the auction the trio decided to put Gon's plan into motion and approached the winner of the first copy's (as well as the other two's) bid and offer their services as Hunters to clear the game. The man's guards were skeptical of their claims but after Harry and Gon flashed their Licenses they were able to speak to their boss. He didn't end up hiring them right away but they were offered a chance to get hired if they impressed the man's chief Hunter through going passing a certain test. The test was simple, they simply had to show him their Ren, or so they thought. Despite flaring their Ren to the maximum the man, who was called Tsezguerra, was quick to call them hopeless… needless to say they weren't hired once he did. At least they managed to get an invitation to the player screening so they had another chance to get accepted, even if Tsezguerra didn't seem optimistic about their chances.
When they got back to the building they were essentially squatting in Gon spent a lot of time working out his anger from their conversation with both the spiders and Tsezguerra. It was a nice change of pace to see Gon act like Killua usually did in those kinds of situations, at least for Harry, though it wasn't as nice when Gon started up a tirade on him. Luckily Gon was a…simple person and was quick to forgive and forget, especially since it was quite possible they would have to rely on the spider's help for a copy if they failed to pass the test. Gon wasn't done letting off steam once he was through with Harry though so while he was dealing with his anger problem Harry and Killua were thinking about what the pro Hunter had meant by them being helpless. It eventually hit both of them at the same time about what he actually wanted to see. Hatsu. None of them actually had their own special Nen abilities as Harry didn't count his Specialist Trait or his unpracticed copied techniques and Ren was actually just a basic principle/technique of Nen.
The two Zoldycks were quick to calm down Gon and inform him of their reasoning once they figured that out and all three promptly went into closed door training for the next four days, as that was when the screening was to take place. Harry wasn't sure how it was for the other two but he struggled with finding his own personal Hatsu for quite a while, though he expected Gon had just as much trouble judging by the frustrated shouting he could hear through the paper thin walls. In the end he finally hit upon an idea when he was reading one of the manga he had brought with him for when he got bored.
The manga was called Bleach and the part of the story he was reading had a fight between one of the Espada, the Primera, and two Captains. The Espada's release was really cool in his opinion, the coolest aside from Ulquiorra's, as it enabled him to form wolves out of his energy that could chase down his opponents and exploded on contact. So Harry, in a burst of pure childish whim, decided that that would be his Hatsu, besides something about wolves just called out to him.
Thankfully he already had knowledge on how to make constructs out of Nen from the information he had gleamed from Kastro's ability so all he had to do was mold the shape into that of a wolf, and figure out how to control it, and to make more than one… and make it explode. It was actually rather complicated but Harry was determined to make the technique anyways, at least things related to Nen came easy to him even without his Specialist Trait so he was optimistic about having something to show in four days. Harry didn't leave his room once after getting to work on his technique, bar the rare bathroom break. He even gave up on sleeping and ate his meals in his room while he trained, when he remembered to eat that is. Gon and Killua were much the same so no one was bothered by his actions, which he was thankful for.
When the day finally came for the screening Harry thought that he was ready. He didn't think his technique was mastered, or even complete. Not by a long shot in fact. But he firmly believed that it was enough to show he wasn't "hopeless" and that he had the qualifications to be hired as a Greed Island player.
The venue for the screening, when they got there midafternoon, was utterly packed by applicants and Harry was honestly surprised by how many people actually possessed the ability to use Nen. Sure it was a requirement to be a Pro-Hunter but there were only slightly more than 1,000 of those in the world and he doubted that a full 1/5 of that number were applying for the same job. Harry pushed those thoughts to the side as even right from the beginning the test had started. According to the analysis of a nearby Hunter, and his own thoughts on the matter, even the order in which they went up to show their "Ren" was part of the test. It was a rather clever way to probe the applicant's mindset Harry thought. Those who went first or patiently waited in their seats had the proper mindset while those that waited on the sidelines or simply followed the first few applicant's leads did not. When the trio decided it was time to go up and get tested Harry was the one who went first between the three and he was eager to show Tsezguerra just how "hopeless" he really was.
"Hoooh? It's you eh kid? Well, show me your Ren." Tsezguerra managed to look both bored and condescending as he drawled out his command.
Harry suppressed his desire to kick the man in the balls as he calmly replied. "Mind if I use Hatsu?"
"That's fine. You're free to show me anything that represents your power. Prove that the Ren I saw previously wasn't your true strength." Tsezguerra looked vaguely interested now, the bored look on his face gone, though the condescension remained.
Harry just gave a cocky smirk in response and, with a snap of his fingers that was more for dramatic effect than anything else, called up the power he had been working on for four days and nights straight.
"Los Lobos!"
As if they had been there all along four wolves, the size of small - medium dogs and made entirely out of green colored aura, appeared around Harry in a protective circle. The "fur" of the wolves seemed to whip around as if from an invisible breeze while their crimson red eyes bored into those of Tsezguerra. Two of them even unleashed low warning growls at the man, something Harry had practiced for 5 straight hours to get just right. It seemed to have been worth it as the man was clearly impressed, though whether that was with the ability itself or his feat of developing it in a mere four days he couldn't tell.
"You pass. I'm impressed kid, hope to see you do well in the game."
"Ah, thank you." Harry was inwardly heaving a sigh of relief that his display was enough to get him accepted, even as he responded with a smirk and a cocky drawl.
He still could only summon four wolves at a time and both his range and ability to control each of them was rather poor, making them look more like they were having epileptic fits rather than moving like a normal wolf. They also weren't the same size as actual wolves which bothered him more than a little. At least their explosive power was ok, but even then it was only enough to break wood, which was far from what he wanted. Still he had plenty of time to develop it further so he wasn't bothered by it, it had only taken him four days to get this far after all, who knows where he'll be a couple of months from now.
Stepping into the next room he saw that only 7 other applicants had passed so far. Harry wasn't very interested in making friends with them so he simply picked a seat and waited for Gon and Killua to pass, believing that was an inevitability rather than a possibility. His faith wasn't misplaced as not much later Killua and then Gon arrived in the room with happy (or smug in Killua's case) grins on their faces. Harry wasn't sure what Killua's Hatsu was but Gon's was likely some sort of aura infused punch or kick judging by the way the room shook during his test, though knowing Gon it could also be a head-butt. His head was certainly hard enough to make that extra lethal with aura added to it. The test ended roughly 30 minutes later with only another 7 people managing to pass and, after receiving their contract and a brief rundown on their goals, they left the building and met up with Leorio to celebrate. Well that and so that he could look over the contract for them as well. When it came to money there was no one better to comb through a binding legal agreement after all.
Leorio, after a thorough read through, thought the contract was on the up and up so they all ended up signing it, though Killua pointed out the interesting tidbit about how items could be brought out of the game. It was an interesting side note that raised questions about just what Greed Island actually was but none of them decided to pursue the matter further at that point.
After eating their lunch, they spent a bit more time with Leorio before saying their goodbyes and boarding a train to their new employer's mansion. Once there Tsezguerra collected their contracts before giving another, more in depth, rundown on Greed Island and what they had been hired to do. Eventually it was time to finally enter that game and, after a game of rock-paper-scissors to decide the order, Gon ended up being first, Harry 5th and Killua 17th. Since there was a several minute-long interval between each new player entering the game Gon and Harry would be faced with a bit of a wait but neither minded too much. It was interesting watching the process of Gon disappearing in a flash of light after plugging in his controller but it got dull rather quickly as the monitor showed nothing about the process itself.
When it was finally Harry's turn to enter the game and received the tutorial he was almost instantly hit by a migraine as his Specialist Trait struggled (and failed) to understand the room he ended up in. As a result, he only half payed attention to what was said and all but ran out into the game world as soon as he possibly could. Thankfully his ability cut off as soon as he got outside and didn't start up again, which hinted at some interesting things as to the nature of the game though Harry was in too much pain to think about it at the moment. Gon was quick to rush to his aide but there was nothing he could do so, after calming down when Harry informed him it was just a headache, he settled for simply keeping him company, though thankfully he kept quiet as he did so.
When Harry's headache left him half an hour later Killua had still yet to show up so he spent the time playing with his Book, which thankfully did not give him a headache to look at, alongside Gon. Harry was glad that another headache didn't pop up again, though that was probably because his Trait didn't active at all rather than because the Book wasn't as complicated. Maybe it didn't activate because it related to the symbols on the ring? That would be rather interesting if it was the case as it could mean he needed to see a Nen ability from a living person or something like that to understand it. Such a condition would fit with how he learned part of how Hisoka's Bungee Gum worked from watching his fight against Gon and not from the recording of his fight with Kastro.
Unfortunately playing with their Book's got boring rather quickly and both Harry and Gon were left feeling bored for another hour before Killua showed up. Finally reunited the trio wasted no time deciding on the direction they wanted to go, eager to start playing the game and finding clues about Gin. The direction they chose was one those that they felt themselves being watched from as well as the one most of the other new players went towards.
As they walked Gon told them about Ging's message, having not told Harry as he wanted to wait until they were all together. It was interesting if lacking in any information and Killua was left disappointed that the Book he left Gon had nothing in it. They had just moved on to discussing the game's rules when they were interrupted by a man flying down before them from the sky. It was interesting to note that Harry's trait didn't activate despite the ability clearly being related to Nen, meaning that whatever it was it was likely not done by the man's own power if his hypothesis was correct.
Their interactions with the man ended up being less than pleasant as he somehow knew all three of their names, though he refused to answer how he knew them exactly, which put them all on edge. He then did something stupid, or rather even more stupid than taunting them with information he shouldn't have, he launched an attack/spell at Killua. It did no damage but still, Killua was not pleased to say the least, not at all, and as a result his switch was flipped.
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your perspective, the man's survival instincts were rather good and he didn't even hesitate to activate another card and fly away, leaving behind the tangy scent of sweat and fear. After that incident the three were a bit more on guard as they continued their journey, not wanting a repeat of the earlier incident until they knew exactly what had happened. Pretty soon they ended up arriving in a town called Antokiba, also known as the City of Prizes according to its tagline. It was a lively town that served to improve the trio's mood and the three quickly decided to participate in one of the competitions being held, after getting lunch of course. The good thing about Antokiba being the City of Prizes was that there were challenges and competitions everywhere for everything. This meant finding a restaurant where they didn't have to pay for food was rather easy, all that was required to eat an extremely large plate of spaghetti each without leaving any leftovers.
Throughout their meal they tried to fish for information from the anthropomorphic cat chef who served their food but were met with limited success. Killua thought he acted a lot like an NPC, and Harry and Gon agreed once he explained what that meant. At least he was able to offer an explanation on the card system so they didn't completely fail at gathering information. It served to explain what that man had done to Killua at least, though not the exact effect. Pre-loaded Nen abilities were an interesting concept and Harry was feeling a bit annoyed that his Trait appeared useless in figuring out how they and the abilities/items they contained worked.
Just as they were preparing to ask more questions they heard, and felt, a large explosion occur nearby. Being both curious and concerned in Gon's case all three ran in the direction of the blast where upon arriving at which, they found one of their fellow new players dead on the ground. According to the pedestrians nearby the man just exploded from the inside out, which caused all of them to be put on edge remembering the attack that hit Killua and fearing the worse. A random player was quick to debase them of the notion that a spell had caused it, instead telling them it was a personal Nen ability, likely from a player hunter. He tried to get them to join him for a meeting but none of them were willing to trust his intentions, though they ended up going along to hear him out anyways after he offered to explain the spell put on Killua and why he was targeted. That and he offered to explain some more details on the game that they would need if they didn't want to be constantly preyed upon by veterans.
There were several important pieces of information that they learned at the meeting, which they also noticed had 3 more of their fellow new players in attendance. One of them was the existence of the Bomber, the man who had apparently killed the guy just a few minutes prior. Another was the number of spell cards that existed and what the one used on Killua did. It was worrying ability, being able to track him and all, but ultimately manageable so they put it out of their minds for the time being. Then there was the information on how to get item cards and, most importantly, the clear conditions for the game. Their guide ended the meeting with an offer to join their faction, though none of the trio opted to accept despite how helpful they had been and the offer the remove the spell from Killua. Well it was really Gon who decided but neither Harry nor Killua were going to argue against the decision as they didn't really care. Though Harry had to correct Gon when he misinterpreted their reason for playing the game, he thought they were doing it to win when in fact they were only here because he was their friend. Killua sent him a look of gratitude for correcting him, not having liked Gon believing that they were simply interested in personal gain over him. After that little episode the three decided to simply enjoy Greed Island and have fun, their first step was competing in the contest they first saw when they entered town.
They ended up winning the contest fairly easily though they ended up getting attacked by several desperate people who attempted to gain possession of their prize, The Sword of Truth, as a result. The first was a rather sad man who was laughably easy to deal with. Gon simply stole his spell card before he could use it, making him admit defeat from the shock/shame. Unfortunately, the next group of players weren't pathetic and they ended up losing their one card, much to Gon's frustration. Harry and Killua were more philosophical about the whole thing and weren't too bothered, knowing it would be simple enough to win that competition again if they wanted another one.
The three decided to move on from the town after that, once Gon vented his frustration at any rate. Their chosen destination was the city of Masadora, where they could purchase spells cards such as the one needed to remove the tracker from Killua. They made sure to buy a map before they left, though at Gon's insistence it was blank as he thought it would be more fun to fill it in on their own. Interestingly enough the items at the shop cost Jenny, actual Jenny from the real world, which Harry thought was strange but not worth bringing up at the moment. The clue clues were piling up though and he was starting to form a suspicion about the true nature of Greed Island now however.
After asking for directions to Masadora, because their blank map was literally just an outline of the island and nothing else, they found that the town was 80 kilometers away, about a full day of running for the trio in other words. They also learned that there were bandits and monsters along the path, which got all of them excited as it was like a standard intro for every great adventure. The trio were all pumped up to leave but were stopped from doing so by the appearance of a young blond girl around their age that Harry recognized as being a fellow new player and from their earlier meeting. She said she wanted to join them but Killua was quick to shoot her down for looking like a burden, which was a shame as Harry thought she was rather cute. He also thought it was stupid since they were kids as well and she had to be at least as capable as them if she passed Tsezguerra's test. He didn't say anything however, as it ultimately didn't matter, so the three quickly and calmly walked away as the girl appeared to be in shock and incapable of speech by the rude dismissal. Harry did offer an apologetic look as they walked away however, though he wasn't sure if she noticed or not. Though he did know that once she recovered she followed after them anyways, which was both impressive and annoying seeing as she was able to keep up with them despite how fast they ran, proving Harry's earlier thoughts correct about her capabilities.
They did end up running into bandits at one point on their trip so Killua had something to vent his annoyance on. Or at least they thought they did. Turns out they were just very sick ninjas asking for help in as shameless a manner as possible. It seemed to Harry like they were running a scam, but Killua thought it was a scripted event for a quest so they went along with it. In the end they gave the "bandits" the 80,000 Jenny they requested on the off chance that Killua was correct. It wasn't very much money after all compared to the group's total wealth, though it was about half of their remaining cash. Their stalker tried to make herself seem useful by offering to give the money, but Killua was once again quick put her down rather rudely.
After receiving their generosity, the bandits had another request however, which was literally for the clothes off their backs. Harry was about 99% sure the whole thing was a scam at that point was set to kill them all when Gon beat him to the punch by readily offered their clothes to the bandits. Harry flat out refused. He liked his clothes and didn't want to be left wearing only his boxers and a wife beater thank you very much. Of course his two "friends" decided to force the issue and stripped Harry's clothes despite his violent protests. He ended up being immensely smug when he was proven correct about the whole thing being a scam when they ended up empty handed and "politely" asked to leave. At the least the monsters, once they reached them, were less of a disappointment/annoyance, serving as an excellent distraction from their anger.
The area they arrived in after leaving the "bandit" forest was a rocky one, with a large number of elevated stone mounds interspersed with wide but shallow ravines full of monsters. The first kind of monsters they ran into was a large number of giant cyclopes creatures which lived up the hype all three kids had initially felt upong leaving the City of Prizes. Gon was the first to leap into battle but his aura infused punch did no damage despite landing cleaning on one of the creature's face. Harry and Killua stayed back and simply observed the fight as Gon continued his attack, noticing how none of his blows appeared to deal damage, before they were interrupted by their monster attacks of their own. Harry and Killua seemed to have come to the same conclusion about the creatures at that point as they landed near simultaneous blows to their respective cyclops's eyes in retaliation, instantly defeating them and turning them into cards. They made sure to inform Gon of the weakness, after which the trio decimated the remained 12 monsters within a couple of minutes. It was a good warm up and all three were eager to search for new opponents to fight as a result.
They tried to moved deeper into the rocky area after that but before they got more than 20 meters in they encountered a massive 4 legged and 2 armed salamander/lizard creature. The thing was nearly as tall as the nearby hills and about twice as long. Needless to say the trio ran for their lives before it could swallow them whole. They ended up successfully escaping by activating Zetsu and hiding behind one of the many hills, though that didn't last long. Right as they breathed a sigh of relief and calmed their erratic heartbeats they were set upon by another monster, this time in the form of a cute but extremely fast black furry ball. Its attacks did no damage but it was too fast for any of them to catch so it eventually managed to get away from them, leaving the trio tired and frustrated.
After that they decided to just continue on their way to Masadora and try and ignore most of the monsters, though they didn't get far before they ran into the single ugliest horse any of them had ever seen, which promptly disappeared after spitting a bunch of blue and red bubbles at them. Following that was an endless stream of bizarre monsters that barred their path and were either too difficult or too tricky for them to defeat for a variety of reasons forcing them to run away, hide or take a detour around them. The pattern continued for a couple of hours up until they ran into a moving suit of armor. The group were all set to have another hard fight when they heard a voice shouting instructions at them.
"Gyo! Keep your eyes on it! Use Gyo! Don't tell me you don't know how!?"
Deciding to heed the advice and think about the source, who Harry happened to know was their stalker, later, all three activated Gyo and easily found out why they had been told to use the technique. The helpful voice of their stalker was quick to notice their use of the technique.
"See that? The armor is just a puppet so attacks won't work against it."
As the suit of armor attacked Harry and Killua, Gon followed the aura trail to the suit's controller, defeating the monster and resulting in the suit of armor instantly collapsing. It was at this point that their stalker made herself fully known.
"So, you can use Gyo. Why didn't you use it before?"
"Uh well…"
"You see…"
"hehehe…."
"So you all forgot…"
Their stalker deadpanned as she heaved a sigh before lifting up one of her fingers. None of them really understood what she was doing until she explained herself with a rather annoyed tone of voice.
"Why are you just standing there? Gyo!"
The trio hastily reactive the eye technique and saw the reason for the girl's finger to be raised.
"Well? What do you see?"
"""The number 1."""
Their stalker smiled at their answer, pleased by their success. "Good. Now listen up. If I lift my finger you use Gyo, and then you holler out what you see. If you ever sense anything suspicious you also use Gyo. Got it?"
"Wait! Why are you ordering us around?" In response to Killua's words their stalker simply raised her finger again, Harry and Gon were quick to activate Gyo, not really caring about the girl's assumed authority like Killua did.
""The number 5!""
"Correct." The girl smiled at Harry and Gon before turning to Killua. "You, drop and give me two hundred push-ups."
"Huh!?" Killua looked a combination of both incredulous and pissed, making the other two boys laugh quietly due to how funny it looked.
"It's your punishment game, get to it!" Their stalker answered Killua's unvoiced question like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Killua was not amused. "What the hell!? Why should I!?"
"Got a problem?" Killua didn't notice the vaguely threatening tone in the girl's voice but Harry and Gon sure did.
"You bet! Who do you think you are!?"
Harry decided to step in at this point and head off any potential conflict with the girl. "She probably thinks she's the person who has more experience in Nen than us Killua. Or are you saying you know more than her when she's the only reason we knew to use Gyo on that monster?"
Naturally Killua didn't like Harry's logic. "Shut up Harry! Whose side are you on!?"
"Mine of course. So you're on your own Killua in this sorry… Don't you have push-ups to do?"
Also naturally Killua appreciated his sarcasm even less. "Gahh! That's it! Stand still Harry!"
"Shut it both of you!"
For some strange reason both the Zoldycks felt compelled to instantly obey the girls barked order without even thinking. Gon just snickered quietly on the sidelines the whole time, at least until the girl sent a glare his way for his troubles before deciding to (finally) introduce herself.
"*Ahem* I don't seem to have introduced myself yet, I'm the pro Hunter, Biscuit Krueger. I first learned Nen 40 years ago and I'm going to use my wealth of knowledge and experience to coach you boys. You should be grateful."
"Forty years ago!?"
"You're an old hag!"
"Tch what a letdown, and here I thought you were a cute girl when you're really just a granny who's gets off on the attention of young boys just like every other person we seem to run into."
Killua and Harry received rather large lumps on their heads for their rather rude comments, though Gon was spared a similar fate thanks not possessing Foot-In-The-Mouth Disease like his assassin friends. Once Harry and Killua recovered from their head trauma Biscuit proceeded to give more information about herself.
"Wow! You've been an examiner, that's so cool." Were Gon's simple thoughts.
"I can't believe you actually spanked Wing just because he stole your tea during training." Harry voiced, amusement and incredulity evident in his voice.
"That's assuming that she's telling the truth." Killua remained skeptical however, not wanting to believe Biscuit was who she said she was.
"Tch, you're a stubborn little boy… I like to see that in kids." Biscuit smirked at Killua's pouting.
"And that doesn't sound creepy at allll… Seriously are we cursed or something? Every new person we meet seem to get along a little too well with little boys."
Harry received another smack to the head for his comments, though he thought it was worth it. The truth was out there! He was certain that Nen use did something funky to a person's preferences and the world deserved to know.
Biscuit of course completely ignored Harry's comments beyond the blow to the head and continued on with their original topic. "*Ahem* You said that you weren't desperate right? Book!"
"Eh? That's…" Gon's surprised voice petered off as Biscuit confirmed his suspicions.
"That's right. Take a look, that monster you had so much trouble with is a normal card that doesn't go in a restricted slot. The problem is that there are many people who could have effortlessly obtained this card while you three could not. If you run into someone who's stronger and has evil intentions…" Biscuit abruptly changed tracks. "Sit down…Pretend that we're chatting."
Though confused by the rather sudden change in topic all three complied with Biscuit's order. Thankfully though she was quick to explain what was going on. "There's an enemy behind me, don't probe for him, he'll notice."
"How did you sense him?" Killua asked the question all three were curious to know the answer too.
"He let a tiny bit of bloodlust escape. The enemy saw a bunch of kids and he relaxed for a second." Biscuit replied matter of factly.
"Doesn't that mean he's weak?" "Or at the very least inexperienced?" Was the response from the two Zoldyck's.
Biscuit shook her head in denial of their assertions. "No, he immediately concealed his presence again. It was only the slightest bit of bloodlust, and he quickly concealed it so he's pretty good."
Harry felt a hit to his pride at his inability to detect the enemy, as did Killua, though Gon seemed unaffected as he asked Biscuit for advice. "What should we do?"
"What do you think?" Biscuit questioned.
After thinking for a few moments Gon replied. "The four of us should move together."
"Your reason is?"
"I'm guessing he decided to use caution because there are four of us. If we stick together he'll be less eager to attack."
Harry and Killua had to nod at their friends reasoning and voice their agreement. "I agree with Gon." "Same."
Biscuit gave a light smile at that. "Well, you're right, but that's not what we're going to do. If I go off on my own the enemy is one hundred percent guaranteed to attack me. I'll go south, you boys go north. Walk five hundred meters without concealing your presences. Aim for that pillar, once you get there use Zetsu then rush back immediately."
"Okay, stalk the stalker-"
Biscuit instantly slapped Killua across the face before he completed his sentence, which would have been funny if it hadn't been so out of nowhere that it stunned Harry and Gon into silence.
"Fine then! Be that way! I've had enough! Bye-bye." Biscuit yelled, acting like the child she appeared to be.
Killua, face still stinging from the slap, was quick to act just as childish in response. "Yeah get lost! WE didn't want you around in the first place! Come on Gon, Harry, let's go."
Harry was struggling to keep a straight face even as he was internally cracking up over the two's interaction but he managed and the three started walking towards the distant pillar, following Biscuit's earlier plan. Killua admitted that he was actually impressed by Biscuit as, even though he had been on full alert, he wasn't even able to react to the slap until the pain registered on his cheek. He then threatened them on pain of death to never reveal that he was impressed by the "shitty old hag", which added a nice bit of levity to the tense situation. When the group reached the pillar however they turned serious once more and, after activating Zetsu rushed back towards Biscuit to help against the enemy. It turned out to be unnecessary as no sooner did they arrive then they got to witness Biscuit completely stomping the strange man into the dirt. Harry called him strange as he had been eating the Biscuits hair when they first arrived looking all too "happy" about it. Again Harry was certain that Nen warped people's brains. Their new teacher, heedless of Harry's internal thoughts, decided to then turn the moment into a teaching one.
"During that battle, what did you see first?"
"The guy being flipped through the air."
"Same here."
"Me too."
Biscuit just nodded, looking neither pleased nor displeased by the trio's answers. "If he were an in-game character he'd have a D-rank in terms of difficulty. It would have been an instant game over for you boys. That makes the second time I've seen you barely escape death. How long will your good fortune last?"
None of the three were comfortable after hearing that, though it was Gon who spoke up first. "Ms. Biscuit."
"Please just call my Biscuit, calling me Ms. makes me feel old."
""You are old.""
For the third time that night Harry and Killua paid for their mouthy comments with a blow to the head each. Gon decided to distract Biscuit so she didn't continue to vent her fury on his hapless friends and cause (further) brain damage.
"Why are you here Biscuit?
Biscuit looked thoughtful as she replied. "Well I'm here to clear the game, but I'm mainly after a jewel."
"A jewel?"
"mhm. There's a jewel that can only be found here. It goes in restricted slot #81 and it's called Blue Planet." Here Biscuit started drooling slightly before recovering. "What about you boys?"
"We're here to clear the game obviously."
"and to have fun doing it."
Gon decided to tack on additional information to the Zoldyck's responses. "Actually my dad made this game. I'm looking for my dad so I thought this game might contain a lead."
Biscuit looked surprised. "Who's your dad?"
"Ging Freecss."
"Ging!?"
"You know him?"
"Of course I do! He's famous. Chairman Netero once said he was one of the top five Nen users in the world."
That was quiet the claim, and more than a little intimidating. For Gon however Biscuit's words merely caused a fire to be lit in his eyes as he calmly voiced his next question. "…Biscuit, if you'd be willing to postpone your treasure hunt, would you be willing to please teach us Nen?"
As if she had been waiting for this request all along Biscuit smiled smugly. "You've finally come around? I'm a lot tougher than Wing you know? Are you ready?
Gon didn't even hesitate. "Yes!"
"And what about you two?"
"I'll be fine."
"I'm ready."
It was at this point that Biscuit's former opponent finally managed to regain consciousness, though he seemed pretty roughed up so how exactly he did that so quickly was a mystery. Their new teacher, proving that just because she was strong and experienced didn't make her a good role model, wasted no time mugging the man for his cards before giving him an ultimatum.
"I'm going to give you a chance, you must evade the attacks of these three boys for two weeks. If you do, I'll let you escape. If you're knocked unconscious or can't stand…I'll kill you."
The man gulped slightly at Biscuit's threat. "…I just have to avoid their attacks right? It doesn't matter what else I do to them?"
Biscuit simply nodded. "Sure. But there's one rule, you aren't allowed to leave this crater. If you break this rule, you lose or activate the other two conditions, you're dead."
"What about us?"
"The same rules apply, only I won't kill you for failing. Instead you'll have to do one of my punishments…" Left unsaid was just how terrifying she would make said punishment if they failed. "You're the Bounty Hunter Binolt, right?"
"Yeah…"
Again Biscuit nodded, likely already knowing the truth but simply wanting confirmation of it as a way of encouraging her new students. "There's a bounty on his head as well. He's a brutal murderer." For Harry that was all he needed for motivation, same for Gon and Killua, which Biscuit easily noticed. "Now then… Begin!"
Initially the three made no moves to attack Binolt, instead opting to wait for an opening to make their move. Unfortunately, they couldn't find one, not even when he went to his knees to conserve strength. Biscuit wouldn't let them keep dawdling though and ordered them to attack. Killua was the first to try and nearly received a pair of Nen coated scissors to the face for his troubles, only his reflexes and training keeping him from dying or losing his eyes. Gon was quick to follow up when Binolt seemed to collapse from the strain of his prior attack, to a similar lack of success. Harry took that opportunity to make his own move while their opponent was still occupied and nearly got shanked in the kidney for his troubles. He briefly thought of using his Hatsu but gave up on that idea, determining that it wouldn't be affective enough even with Binolt being injured as he was. Instead, after a brief conversation, they decided to turn the fight into a battle of attrition by tossing rocks at Binolt. Gon, as was his want, took it much further by using "small" boulders in place of the simple stones Killua was thinking of. It turned out to actually be an ingenious idea as the man couldn't cut throw the large rocks and, according to Biscuit's commentary, they couldn't have won in a drawn out fight like they planned anyways.
They basically manhandled the Bounty Hunter at that point thanks to their strategy, actually managing to back him into a corner after only half a day. At first they had simply used the boulders to get close to him and protect themselves from the man's scissors, but eventually they managed to completely reshape the battlefield. Whereas before the crater bottom was almost entirely clear, now it was littered by human sized boulders, perfect size to use to launch ambushes from and retreat behind to avoid any counter attacks. They actually managed to back him into a losing position using that strategy, with Killua poised to finished him off before Gon called him off. Their friend's actions confused the two assassins at first, until he explained his reasoning. It actually made sense to draw their battle out for the full two weeks as a means of training themselves once Gon pointed out that possibility so they went with it. They decided to take a break for the night at that point and continue the next day. Binolt tried to be sneaky in the middle of the night but the trio's senses were in overdrive so it ultimately failed.
They continued to use Binolt for training the next day, this time without the boulders, which made it much harder, especially since the man had used the night to recover slightly. Which was the pattern the combatants fell into for the full two-week time frame. As a result of both their talent and efforts the training quickly bore fruit as every day they improved leaps and bounds, all of them growing faster, stronger and more refined in their ability to fight and use Nen, until the last day finally arrived. By that point all three of them could defeat the Bounty Hunter by themselves, though apparently when they proved as much it crushed his last semblance of hope. He asked Gon to let him die at that point.
"I refuse."
"Gon! What are you saying? This man is a serial killer! Who knows how many people he's killed or what he did to them before he finally ended their lives!" Harry did not want to spare this man. He was the kind of person that Harry never hesitated to end the life of nor felt any guilt or remorse for doing so.
Gon looked sternly at Harry. "We aren't going to kill him Harry."
Harry was pissed and it showed. "Why the hell now!?"
"Because he's not a bad person. He helped us after all."
Harry was too stunned by Gon's incredibly stupid and naïve answer, so much so that he missed his chance of talking the other's into agreeing with him. Gon's decision to spare his life and refusal to back down from Harry was enough to somehow magically change Binolt's character, making him feel genuine remorse for his past actions. The ability to talk a Nen using mass murderer into not only change his way but turn himself into the police was as terrifying as it was impressive to the group, though Harry was more pissed off with his friend than anything else. Still, while Harry was both and annoyed about Gon's thought process it was ultimately pointless to do anything to the man now so he let didn't obstruct him as he walked off.
After sending the Bounty Hunter off, and letting Harry's mood improve slightly, Biscuit then instructed the trio on their next task, traveling to Masadora. Though not before making them all do three thousand push-ups for being too slow to activate their Gyo when she put up her finger. After their punishment she expected them to complete the seventy kilometer trip to Masadora in three hours. The blond haired loli-baba took way too much pleasure from their reaction to that news than was strictly healthy in Harry's mind.
They did actually manage to make it in the set time frame though so, despite their exhaustion, they were happy. Of course after making their one and only stop to a department store it was time to head back to the rocky area they had just came from, also in only three hours of running. Needless to say the three boys were barely standing by the time they got back, which Biscuit took as the perfect opportunity to start the next part of their training the sadist. They were to head back to Masadora... again…directly…in a straight line…through several mountains… using nothing but shovels. Looks of pure dismay and loathing were very common that day, as were the cruel, cruel laughs of their blond taskmistress.
The work of creating a straight path to Masadora was absolutely brutal and they only managed a few hundred meters that first day before collapsing in exhaustion. Of course Biscuit made even their rest a form of training as they had to keep alert for possible attacks while they slept lest they get brained by the rocks they had to hold over their heads. At least Harry and Killua had practiced with that kind of thing several times in the past, albeit in different form. Gon however didn't… needless to say he didn't any sleep that night and likely lost more than a few brain cells as well.
Biscuit didn't accept any excuses however and the trio were back at work early again the next morning. They and made slightly more progress luckily, though that was mostly because they had more time thanks to not spending six hours running to and from Masadora than anything else. That night Gon got an upgrade on his rock's size as a result of his (lack of) results from the night prior. Both Harry and Killua were worried that his friend would kill off all his brain cells before they could complete their training.
The next day however they ran into a problem (beyond Gon's lack of sleep and head trauma) when they ran into a rock layer in a mountain that they couldn't dig through with the shovel. Gon once again showed his hidden depths (and proved that he had enough brain cells to spare) by being the first to figure out the hidden task of this part of their training, using their Nen on the shovels to dig through the mountains faster. It made their task much easier and they ended up completing that segment of their training in a few days rather than the few weeks it would have otherwise taken. They still practiced the technique, which Biscuit informed them was called Shu, as part of their training but it was no longer the main focus.
Instead, their focus, now that they were done with creating a literal straight path to Masadora, was obtaining all the monster cards in the area. According to Biscuit they had the necessary physical capabilities to defeat all the monsters nearby, they simply lacked the experience and ability to come up with an attack plan on the fly, which was what the training was supposed to fix. They ended up going after some familiar faces during this leg of their training, from the annoyingly fast Hyper Puffball to the giant Melanin Lizard. As part of their training they also had to come up with plans to defeat each monster on their own with zero help from Biscuit or the others, which made sense if one thought about it. It took them each about two weeks to capture all the monsters in the area and complete that segment of their training, though that was more because of the variety of monsters than actual difficulty they represented. Harry and Killua actually finished faster than Gon by a few days thanks to their previous experience as assassins but in the end all three passed with flying colors after Gon caught his last monster, the Bubble Horse, which required rapid switching between Zetsu and Ten to beat.
Biscuit wasted no time starting the third phase of their training at that point, which was them working on their defense. She started by giving a demonstration on Ko, a Nen ability that combined all the basic techniques they had already learned. Coincidently, this was also the technique Gon developed for his Hatsu, giving him a slight leg up on his two friends at the beginning. All Ko was however, was concentrating all of their aura into one part of their body and then using it to attack, so Gon's advantage didn't last long.
Their goal for this leg of their training was to defend against Biscuit's Ko. The only problem with that was that defending against all of Biscuit's concentrated aura with their normal Ten shroud would cause them a lot of damage. Gon thought they should use Ko as well to defend against the blow, but he was wrong though only partially. The trick was to essentially use Ko on their entire body despite how contradictory that sounded, a technique that combined Ten and Ren called Ken. While the technique didn't quite match up to Ko normally, it was far more practical as it didn't run the risk of getting hit in a place their aura didn't cover if they used Ko, which would be very bad for their health to say the least.
Ken, as it turned out, was a very tiring technique and none of the trio could use it for more than two minutes at first without becoming completely exhausted. Thankfully there were three of them to rotate through the exercise, as it required them to defend against Biscuit's attacks they couldn't all go at once, so they had time to recover between sessions. It took them an entire month to reach the point where they could hold the technique for 30 minutes straight (the end goal Biscuit set for them), though that was standing still and simply waiting for a potential blow to land and not in actual combat. Of course throughout this month of training, as well as the two previous legs, Biscuit never failed to keep them on their toes with surprise Gyo tests, in which the two slowest ones to answer had to do a punishment. The punishments, because Biscuit was a sadist, meant push-ups in a thousand strong sets at a time, usually with weight…and dodging rocks. At least they were all putting on some muscle tone, though none of them really thought it was worth it when it was their turn.
Following their Ken was actual combat practice with the technique, reaffirming Harry's opinion that Biscuit was a phenomenal teacher as that readily addressed their shortcomings in the use of Ken at that point. She did introduce them to a new technique called Ryu before that they did though, which was really just an application of Gyo while using Ken to strengthen their aura in specific parts of their body on the fly for both attack and defense. The first day or two was simply getting used to the technique and gaining experience properly gauging the percentage of aura they diverted for either attack or defense. Like Shu had before it practicing Ryu became part of their daily training regime, along with running to Masadora and the new addition of sparring (using Ken/Shu of course).
Harry enjoyed this part of their training the most, as did Gon and Killua if he knew them like he thought he did, thanks to being less monotonous. Their sparring sessions ended up being a little chaotic as, more often than not, all three of them sparred against each other at the same time, but that was more of a plus in Biscuit's (and their) book than a detriment. Biscuit's reasons had something to do with constant awareness, multiple attack angels and it being practical in real combat while the younger trio's reason was because none of them were left out. They had to go slow at first of to get used to the new method of fighting of course. Very slow. But, like everything else they did, they took off with their new training as if they had been born to do it.
After two weeks of sparring they had gotten back up to the point where they were fighting at their full combat speed, much to Biscuit's slight surprise and delight. Like the other aspects of their training however they didn't suddenly stop sparring, instead merely adding it to their increasingly long daily routine as they moved on to the next, and final, phase of Biscuit's training regime, specific aura type training, which all three were extremely excited about.
The training was essentially learning how to improve their understanding of their Nen category and how better to apply it to their aura, and their individual Hatsu as a result. Surprisingly enough Biscuit didn't want them to focus entirely on their base category, instead making them work on at least one of their two second strongest categories as well. Apparently this would allow them to develop in a balanced fashion and even improve in their natural category at a faster rate. As Gon was an Enhancer, he would be working on Enhancer, Emitter and Transmuter training while Killua, being a Transmuter, would be working on Transmuter, Enhancer and Conjuration training. It was all pretty straight forward until it was Harry's turn to share his category.
"Now then, Harry what category are you?"
"I'm a Specialist."
Biscuit looked mildly surprised. "Hoh? That's quite rare, what's your Trait?"
"I think I have two, that or one is the byproduct of the other. I'm only certain that I have one Trait however as I didn't know how to find out if Wing's and my hunch on the other was correct or not."
Biscuit looked curious at that and simply motioned him to continue the explanation, which Harry readily did.
"The first one, and the one I know for a fact exists, is that I have the ability to understand any Nen technique I see, if given enough time of course. There are several limitations that I've found but the important ones are that I have to see it being performed from a living person, so I get nothing from Nen infused objects or recordings, and the second is that the more complicated a technique the longer it requires to understand it."
Biscuit hummed thoughtfully as she mulled over Harry's explanation before responding. "That's an incredibly useful ability, I assume that was why you tended to improve faster on the techniques I've taught you than Gon or your brother."
Harry just nodded in agreement, not planning on hiding it at all. "Basically. I was learning what both you, Gon and Killua knew about them at the same time I was practicing the techniques myself so that helped my understanding quite a bit. I only get theoretical knowledge though, so I can't just reflexively activate a technique I know without ever trying it before hand."
"I see… and? What's the other Trait you think you have?"
Harry hesitated for a moment before answering. "I think I have a strong affinity for the other Nen categories as well, about the same as someone who possesses them naturally, but again I'm not sure."
Biscuit hummed noncommittedly. "Why do you think that?"
Harry shrugged. "It's partially based on the reaction I got during my Water Divination and partly based on my experience with creating my Hatsu. During my divination my aura caused the water to develop impurities, change colors, overflow and change taste, while the leaf on top also moved against the current caused by the overflow. As it wasn't a standard reaction and you can only be labelled under one category Wing and I consider myself a Specialist. As for my Hatsu well it utilizes techniques from three different categories and I didn't particularly struggle with any of them, even if my technique itself is far from finished."
"Hmm… Show me."
Harry gave a nod and with a cry of "Los Lobos!" and a snap of his fingers for dramatic effect the same four wolves he had shown Tsezguerra appeared around him. They hadn't changed at all since he first created the technique as Harry hadn't had any time to practice his Hatsu since entering Greed Island but apparently it was suitably impressive to Biscuit, Gon and Killua judging by the looks on their faces. Come to think of it that was the first time Harry had shown either of them his Hatsu before. Now the only member of the group whose Hatsu wasn't known to the others was Killua's, well him and Biscuit.
"Impressive for someone with only basic training. I can tell that you are using Conjuration and Manipulation techniques for them but what's the third… could it be Emission?"
Harry slumped slightly at Biscuit's deduction. "…I don't know whether to be impressed or depressed that you figured it out so quickly. Yes, the third category is Emission. I use Conjuration to create the form and give them 'life', Manipulation to control and direct them and Emission to pack them full of aura so that they explode on command or impact depending on what I want."
Biscuit just nodded, ignoring Harry's exaggerated depression. "How long did you take to learn to do that?"
"4 days, though I'm still far from my desired goals. I can barely control them past a couple meters and even then they're shaky, they're smaller than I want by at least half and the damage they could do is only enough to break a wood board." Harry was unashamed as he listed his techniques shortcomings.
Biscuit appeared thoughtful. "Hmm I see… I think you're probably right about your hunch as you really should have lagged behind in at least one of those areas and as far as I can tell you made about equal progress in each. You might be slightly more inclined to Conjuration but that could be a product of your Trait if you witnessed any similar technique beforehand." The last comment was more of a question than a statement.
Harry nodded in affirmation. "I did, I watched a fight where one of the participants could make a doppelganger of himself and was able to get the basic workings of the technique. Not enough to replicate it fully but enough to already know how to create basic aura constructs."
"Then your natural disposition towards Conjuration is likely the same as the others." Biscuit started drooling slightly at this point, unnerving Harry greatly. "Ahhh, so much potential to work with I don't even know where to start. Should I have you do equal amounts training for Manipulation, Emission and Conjuration to improve your Hatsu. Or should I have you work on all categories including Enhancement and Transmutation. The former would have the best short term results, and possibly even long term as well as you wouldn't be splitting your focus as much but the latter… There would be a lot of work involved and you might end up becoming a jack of all trade but master of none, though with your raw potential…"
"Uh? Biscuit?" Harry tried to interrupt his teacher's rambling to no effect.
"But where should I have you start? It would be best to have you start in your natural category but there isn't a way to train basics for a Specialist, their Traits develop on their own. So where should he start? Conjuration maybe? He already has a head start on that. But Enhancement would also be good and would make him a better fighter simply using his body…"
"Biscuit!" This time shouting seemed to do the trick as Biscuit snapped out of her dazed thoughts.
"AH! Sorry, I got a bit carried away there." Biscuit laughed sheepishly.
Harry just sighed. "It's fine. I just wanted to give my opinion on the matter."
Biscuit looked honestly curious about his answer. "Oh? And what is that?"
"I actually want to try and work on all five categories."
"Hmm…Your reasoning?"
"Well I figure that you'll be showing us way to practice basic skills for each of the categories right?"
"That's correct."
"And those skills are based on Nen right." Harry stated leadingly, his thoughts quickly being picked up by the rest of the group.
"Also correct…You want to take advantage of your Trait to overcome the extra time required to work them, at least partially, I take it?
"Basically. I figure that seeing you perform the exercises a few times while also practicing with Gon and Killua will boost my understanding enough for it not to be too much of an extra burden on the categories we share training in. After all, between them that covers four of the five categories."
"That's pretty well thought out Harry, good job… very well that's what we'll do then. First up, Enhancement!"
The Enhancer training was as simple as those who were part of that category, smashing one rock against the other to make it break. It was a bit more complicated than that as they had to infuse their aura into a rock and use to it smash a thousand stones in day without it breaking to get a pass but not by much. Killua was actually the one to do the best in the task initially, despite Gon being the only natural Enhancer among the trio. Harry wasn't that far behind though and, soon enough, took the slight lead in the group as per usual. Once more Harry was glad that all he got for doing so was a few well-natured grumbles from his friend and brother.
They only did Enhancer training that first day, Biscuit declaring that they would only do one category each day to give them time to work on both it and the other parts of their routine as well. The second day was for Transmuter training and it involved forming their aura into the numbers 0 – 9 while running through the nearby forest at the same time. For this exercise Harry was in the lead from the very beginning thanks to already knowing everything about the technique after witnessing Biscuit use it for over two months. It didn't take him long to get basic proficiency with the exercise, nearly completing it on the first day alone in fact. Killua was the second best at the technique while Gon the worst (he ended up running face first into rock walls and trees several times much to the complaint of his brain).
The next day was Emitter training, or at least it was supposed to be. Instead the group learned Gon's new idea for his Hatsu, which was basically a Nen version of Rock-Paper-Scissors, and were finally showed Killua's Hatsu, which was the ability to turn his aura into electricity. Harry was definitely going to figure that out himself at some point, maybe even incorporate it into Los Lobos, it was just too cool not to. He had almost all the same experiences as Killua during their childhood so he could basically understand how he did it even without his Trait providing him information. It was basically impossible to forget the feeling of a few million volts coursing through his body after all, he'd just have to find out how it felt now that he had aura (he never did get to fight Riehlvelt and Killua refused to share his Taser). After that little episode Biscuit decided to give them a rest day and have a little party, during the course of which they finally remembered it was getting close to the deadline to apply for the Hunter Exam. A quick trip to Masadora later and they found out a method of leaving Greed Island, which involved beating up the chief of police at one of the island's port towns much to Harry's amusement. They could have bribed him too but Harry thought that latter was much more fun and efficient.
After "persuading" the NPC Killua obtained the necessary card to leave, while Harry earned the slight fear of Gon and Biscuit (who were rather disturbed by his cackling). They shared a round of goodbyes after that and, before Killua left, Gon told him a guaranteed method to get to the exam area. The method involved talking to monsters called Kiriko that Gon had apparently made friends with (big surprise) during the last exam. With their goodbyes said and Killua now gone Biscuit started back up Gon's and Harrys training, finally teaching them the Emitter exercise.
The exercise consisted of two parts, first they had to form a bubble of aura on their finger and maintain it for a whole minute (easier for Harry than for Gon) and the second was to throw the bubble several meters into a rock without it popping. Harry obviously had little trouble with the first part and was already working on to the second when their training ended up getting interrupted. The man that showed up was dark skinned, wore a blue coat and pants, and had a serious expression on his face. Harry recognized him as a fellow new player, as did Biscuit. The alarming thing about him sudden appearing though was the presence of what appeared to be a Nen bomb on his shoulder. Apparently he was there to warn them about the Bomber, whose true identity was Genthru, the unassuming looking blonde man who had been part of the group trying to recruit them the first day they arrived on Greed Island. According to Abengane, which was their new informant's name, Genthru had managed to place his bombs on every member of his clearing group, essentially taking them all hostage in order to get rare cards to beat the game himself.
After giving his warning, and trying to guilt trip them into going after the Bomber, Abengane left, ostensibly to spread his warning and the bomber's identity to other players. Neither Harry nor Biscuit were fooled by the man's manipulations but Gon wasn't so capable. Still in the end it didn't matter if he did as they were likely to run into the Bomber sooner or later. The group decided to head into Masadora for buy spells cards to prepare for the inevitable confrontation and complete the game in general at that point.
It was rather morbid when the group realized that the sudden influx of spell cards available at the store was caused by the deaths of over twenty players but needs must and all that. They ended up getting rather lucky with their card packs as they obtained a rare S-rank spell card when opening them. Gon had to be reminded to keep that information to himself after he all but screamed they had it to all and sundry. Harry could understand his excitement but sometimes he wondered just what went on his friend's head exactly. They called it a day after running back to camp and that night Gon, finally, managed to sleep without dropping the boulder on his head once, much to Harry's secret disappointment. Gon's reactions to the hits had been rather funny whenever they happened and Harry was saddened by their loss.
The next day it was back to training as usual. This time Harry was introduced to the Conjurer exercise while Gon went back to the Enhancer training, Gon not having to work on the extra category. The Conjurer exercise consisted of Harry making copies of a small green leaf with his aura. The goal was to eventually make an exact duplicate, down to each individual vein, crinkle and tear. Once he did that he'd have to create his duplicate leaf in an instant to get a full passing grade from Biscuit. It was much more of a struggle for Harry than he thought it would be at first. The level of detail he had to remember was extreme and having to form it in an instant even more so. With his Los Lobos he didn't actually pay that much attention to detail on his wolves. He usually just let his instincts guide him, which meant they ended up with just enough of the general shape of a wolf to be recognized as such. He didn't add things like individual strands of fur or even teeth really, seeming them as inefficient at the time. He also wasn't too concerned with making identical each time he made them so every time he used his Hatsu there were slight differences. Needless to say Harry had a lot of work cut out for him.
The day after that Gon followed his rotation and worked on Transmutation while Harry was introduced to the last of the basic exercises. The Manipulator exercise consisted of getting an articulated wooden puppet (that Biscuit pulled out of nowhere) to move exactly like a human, including fighting, dancing and other complicated activities, within a ten-meter range of himself. While difficult and occasionally frustrating Harry found the exercise quite fun and often tried to make the puppet do silly things like doing the worm or moon walking, albeit rather badly. Surprisingly enough Biscuit approved of his playing around with the puppet, or maybe not so surprisingly as those motions were actually quite complicated and perfecting them would only help master the technique. When the next day came Harry started over from the beginning of his rotation with Enhancer training as Gon worked on Emission. Which was how things went until Killua returned six days later. By that point Gon managed to get a rough version of his new Hatsu complete while Harry's Los Lobos had improved fairly significantly in all aspects if he said so himself.
Harry, Gon and Biscuit were there to greet Killua when he returned and they shared the good news on their spell card acquisition. Killua was fairly exited by the news and almost forgot to tell them he had passed the Hunter Exam in his rush to test out the cards and soothe his gaming addiction. They experienced quite the shock however when, after activating a Contact card, they found Chrollo Luficer's name in their contact list. They didn't think it was possible at first considering Kurapika had sealed his Nen, at least until Biscuit informed them that it was indeed possible to remove Nen bindings/contracts. Killua quickly went to contact Kurapika at that point to inform him of the news, resulting in another beat up police chief. It turned out to be unnecessary as Kurapika already knew of the possibility but he did inform them that he would have felt it if his binding had been removed so "Chrollo" was likely a fake.
With nothing to worry about for the time being Biscuit decided that instead of going back to full time training they would work towards clearing the game. Harry was honestly surprised, not excepting her to stop their training when neither he nor Gon had mastered any of their exercises and Killua had only gotten two days to work on them before leaving. When he voiced those doubts Biscuit was oddly pleased and more than happy to explain. It made sense when she framed it as getting more experience and it wasn't like they were stopping their training all together so Harry was quickly appeased.
Going after the restricted slot cards was both fun and a good method of practicing their skills like Biscuit said it would be. From punching a giant tree and making it rain bugs, to rescuing a young girl from the mob and winning a contest in Antokiba (again). The Paladin's Necklace was an incredibly useful card that protected the wearer from attack spells and even dispels cards under the transformation effect. They let Gon wear it and needless to say they milked those abilities for all they were worth by letting Gon carry all their important cards and being the front man when making trades with other players. Apparently Leave cards were a hot commodity as most players had given up on clearing the game and simply wanted to return to the "real" world.
For about a month they continued working toward clearing the game with the only thing of note in their personal lives was Killua's briefly resurgent gambling problem. Harry was quick to snap him out of it after they got the needed cards from the casinos but he wasn't very happy. At least this time he didn't try to claw Harry's face for taking him away from the slot machines, so that was a plus. There routine was fairly straightforward during this time. Every morning they'd spar using Ryu for a half an hour and then work on one of the type training exercises for another half an hour. After that they'd go hunting for restricted slot cards for the rest of the day, taking a break for lunch and to have another hour of training similar to what they did in the morning, and again at night before they went to sleep back at their home base. Each restricted card was an adventure in and of itself to obtain and by the end of the month that had acquired over 50 of the cards needed to clear the game, including Lucky Alexandrite which no one else had obtained up until that point. The funny thing was they had only obtained after Gon remember the bandits they had given their clothes to and wondered if the Paladin's Necklace would cure their sickness. Turns out it did and the Lucky Alexandrite was their reward... they refused to give them back to their clothes though which resulted in Harry nearly tearing down their village in his rage.
At that point Harry decided to go on his own solo adventure. He had a lot of fun collecting cards with the group but this was something he had to do on his own. During their many forays into the cities of Greed Island Harry had heard mention of a restricted slot card that he needed to get. Card number 031, Double Postcard of the Dead. Beyond needing it for clearing the game Harry wanted it for its ability, which was to allow one to send and receive messages to a deceased person, in Harry's case he wanted to try and talk to his mother. It was possible, even likely, that it wouldn't work considering this wasn't his world and he wasn't sure if the afterlife carried over but he had to try. Luckily Killua was tactful enough to read between the lines when he mentioned the card and kept the others from prying to deeply, for which Harry was grateful.
Double Postcard of the Dead was an S-rank cared with only thirteen allowed copies to exists so it was likely to be somewhat of a challenge, though not as much as the other two S-ranks they had obtained so far (which had an 8 and 10 copy limit respectively). Still, they had managed to get those cards without suffering any harm even if it required a lot of effort, so Harry wasn't worried.
According to the information Harry overheard, and latter bribed the crap out of someone to expand upon, Card 031 was said to be obtained through a quest at Greed Islands largest (and technically only) graveyard. The graveyard, lazily called Graveyard, was in a far corner of the island, roughly 200km from their base in the canyons, but with a simple Return spell to the nearest city that was cut down to a mere 30 km. Of course the quest could only be completed at night so Harry still went through his full daily training routine before setting off as he had plenty of time with which to complete it.
Once he arrived at the graveyard Harry searched for the quest giver, a grave digger called Yorick. Yorick was a rather creepy looking NPC that was about three times Harry's size even with his hunched over posture. He also wore a tattered black cloak that covered his face in darkness, bar his eerie yellow eyes, and was equipped with a large shovel and an old school oil lantern. He was also extremely hostile towards any "intruders" as Harry soon found out.
With a cry of rage, that was more animal than human, Yorick leapt at Harry with much more speed and grave than he had been expecting, his large shovel held over his head like a battle axe. Thankfully however he had been expecting the attack so dodging was simple, as was counter attacking. Yorick was unkillable so Harry didn't hold back at all when he smashed his fist into the gravedigger's face, launching him a good 15 meters away and through several tombstones. When Harry went over to "finish the job" Yorick quickly pleaded for his life, triggering the next stage of the quest.
After Harry proved that, yes he did not in fact want to murder him, Yorick was all too quick to start lavishing praises on him, expounding on how magnanimous and strong he was. It was extremely creepy, especially when all of that was said in the rasping guttural voice Yorick possessed, but Harry barred with it for the sake of completing the quest. Eventually Yorick begged Harry to fight off the ghost that had been plundering the graves for the past few days as he was incapable of doing so himself, naturally Harry accepted.
The ghost was easy enough to find as it caused fog in the nearby area around it. The ghost was a rather disturbing combination of a fat post man and the Grim Reaper and had about as much people skills as well. As soon as Harry was spotted by the creature it attacked him with a scythe made of old fashioned letters. Despite the monster's appearance it was blindingly fast and Harry, due to not taking it seriously, nearly got bisected by its first strike. Thankfully however he was able to dodge in time that the only damage he suffered was a cut on his undershirt.
As has become the norm in combat ever since meeting Biscuit Harry activated Gyo as he continued to dodge the ghost's attacks. Like every other mob on Greed Island the ghost had a weakness that was highlighted by aura. Unlike other mobs however that weakness wasn't a location to attack, rather it was a line that showed where the creature was going to attack a second before it was about to. For someone who had trouble dealing with the ghost's speed that would be useful, to Harry not so much. With no clear weakness Harry decided to go about things the easy way, namely beat the monster into submission. He did this by getting into its guard. Scythes were decent weapons at a distance but in boxing range? Not so much. Once there Harry simply used Ryu with 70% of his aura in his fists and hammered the ghost for all he was worth. He had to dodge a few wild swipes here or there but ultimately, not two minutes later, he had beaten his opponent into ectoplasm, which promptly turned into a card.
Everything about the card was full of question marks but it was rather easy to figure out that he had to turn it into Yorick to finish the quest, which was what he did. Yorick tried to be difficult at first but, after a beat of "coercion" and using Gain on the card to show the ghost's remains (and wasn't that an oxymoron) his quest was complete and the reward was given. Harry didn't linger in the graveyard after that, though he didn't Gain Double Postcard of the Dead immediately either. Now that he had the card he was hesitating, scared of disappointment if it the card failed and scared of success of it didn't. In the end however he had to do find out one way or another.
Like the name suggested Double Postcard of the Dead looked like simple pre-paid postcards, albeit with a graveyard theme on them. Harry, after another brief moment of hesitation, pick up on of the cards and followed the instructions they came with. It was actually quite simple, all it required was the name of the deceased, in this case Lily Marie Potters nee Evans. What wasn't simple however was figuring out what to right. He agonized over the decision for a solid half hour before finally settling on something simple, mainly expressing his love, asking for her confirmation that she still loved him despite what he has done and asking if she was happy where ever she was. Once done the letter disappeared in a short burst of pale blue fire and Harry returned back to camp as a reply would have to wait for the next day.
Harry didn't sleep that night, feeling too anxious to do so despite his conditioning from the Zoldycks. He wasn't much better during training the next day as he constantly looked around hoping to see a response from his mother. None came. He didn't despair as the cards didn't explain when a reply would arrive beyond "next day" and there was still plenty of time left for it to show up. Of course by the time night fell he was getting apprehensive as there were only a few hours until a full 24 hours had passed. The group had obviously noticed all of this but, once again thanks to Killua, didn't mention it at all. When it was time to go to sleep Harry continued to stay up, waiting on the off chance that the reply would arrive exactly a full day after he sent the card, Killua silently joined him.
Harry didn't cry when the 24th hour finally passed and he didn't receive a reply. He didn't cry, but he definitely wanted to, he just had no more tears left to shed. He knew it was a strong possibility that it wouldn't work but still he had hoped, and now that hope was gone. Thankfully Killua, for all his stunted and warped emotions, knew enough to comfort his brother and Harry was grateful for that, his brother's warm hug helping to drive away that chill in his heart ever so slightly.
The next day Harry took off to recover from the emotional strain from yesterday, which Biscuit was kind enough to allow and Gon was smart enough not to mention. Despite feeling like crap he got better as the day went on until he was finally back to normal by the time supper was done, or at least he appeared that way. Killua knew better and again he comforted his brother before the two fell asleep for the night, helping Harry banish the lingering remnants of his disappoint into the back of his mind, though they still festered there underneath the surface. Still it was enough for him to get back into the swing of things the next day as he fully rejoined the training with Gon and Killua. He had expected it to be a normal day of just training, the last of which before they resumed hunting cards, but was proven wrong that night.
Kaszule, the man who had stolen their card on the first day and they had traded with for Restricted slot cards early in the month long card hunt, called them with Contact asking them to join a meeting between clearing groups. He was apparently worried about the team lead by Genthru getting close to clearing the game, which made sense. After a brief discussion they decided to go as they knew Genthru was the Bomber and thought he was enough of a threat to see where the meeting would lead. Despite some annoying interactions with a woman named Asta, who was very condescending and didn't like what she perceived to be a team full of children being there, the meeting turned out to be quite fruitful for their group. They managed to gain several restricted cards they didn't already possess, including two S-ranks, along with informed of some useful bits of game knowledge they had previously lacked after all. The biggest gain however came when they went to try and monopolize card #2.
Up until that point no one had managed to figure out how to obtain that card but thanks to happenstance they managed to trigger the event that lead to acquiring it. Apparently all that was required was a group of fifteen people to travel to Soufrabi using the Accompany card. A quest would then be trigger where they had to deal with a bunch of pirates known as Razer and his fourteen devils. After Killua "persuaded" one of the devils that was raiding a NPC bar, through liberal application of alcohol and a spark from his Hatsu to the man's face, they were taken to Razer. Interestingly enough all that was required to get the pirates to leave the town, and thus complete the quest, was beating them in multiple sports contests. It was fairly easy all things considered, at least for Harry and the gang. For the rest of their extended group however? Not so much. Not one of them were up to the challenge, bar a man called Goreinu, so they ended up using the contest to gather information for a later attempt with (hopefully) more competent teammates.
After their inevitable loss the group disbanded after they failed to gain a single victory in the contests though neither Harry, Gon, Killua or Biscuit had actually tried. None of them planned to give up on the quest like the others however, though they did need enough competent players for a new team however as they only had 5 members, themselves and Goreinu, which was far from enough to win or even trigger the quest. The first person they thought of contacting, at Harry's urging, was the fake Chrollo Lucifer. Gon, of course, wasn't too keen at the idea of asking a potential Phantom Troupe member for help and neither was Killua to a lesser extent but none of them had any better prospects at the moment.
Luckily, or unluckily in Harry's opinion, "Chrollo Lucifer" turned out to not be a Phantom Troupe member…technically. He was actually Hisoka… and he was naked…and verrryy "happy" to see them. Harry was tempted to claw his eyes out at the "glorious" sight but he couldn't afford to take his eyes off the magician, not when he was radiating blood thirst and killing intent. Biscuit had no problems looking though, at least until Hisoka turned to face her and she decided to try the "demure young lady" act, which disgusting in and of itself really. Thankfully her actions were enough to dispel the tense atmosphere and Hisoka returned to his more "friendly" state. After things calmed down Gon asked about his reason for being there and going under the name of Chrollo, which he answered truthfully enough though Harry suspected he was hiding something, which Biscuit later confirmed. Still despite his lying to them Biscuit still asked for his help with getting car number 2, despite the protests from the rest of the group.
That might have proved to be mistake when the three boys felt Hisoka staring at their asses during the walk to the nearby town, which ironically enough was the "City of Love". Harry hated the irony and was quite upset that his guess about Hisoka's… preferences continued to be right on the money. At least they got him to walk in front of the group so they no longer had to deal with that.
Of course none of them had a clue of anyone else to invite to their party so they were really on traveling to the city to waste time and think on the matter, until they got annoyed by the various cliché romantic encounters and decided to leave. It was a fruitless endeavor though as Gon ended up hitting on the idea of asking Tsezguerra for help during that time. Considering he was both a pro Hunter and the one nominally in charge of them and the rest of their employer's players it was a pretty good idea actually. Thankfully Hisoka of all people had him in his contact list so getting in touch wasn't too hard (none of them had met him in game) and the man was quick to agree to a meeting between their groups.
They talked for a while before Killua decided to use the chance to get some petty revenge and test Tsezguerra's usefulness the same way he did theirs. Tsezguerra ended up showing them his ability to jump several meters in the air with Nen, which was enough to convince them he could be useful even if the ability itself was underwhelming for a Hatsu. The expression on his face when all three boys easily copied his technique and even jumped higher than he could was priceless however and served to improve Harry's mood. With Tsezguerra's group joining them they now had 10 people in their party and they were confident in their ability to win a majority of Razer's contests as a result. All that was left was to get in some last minute training and to find five other shmucks to pad their numbers so they could trigger the quest and they'd be set.
A week later and the group gathered once more, ready to challenge Razer and his Devils. They easily won the first 3 events thanks to the efforts of Tsezguerra's party members but after a brief bout of drama, in which Razer killed the devil who Killua lit on fire due to his desire to revolt, the remaining contests were scrapped in favor of an all or nothing dodgeball game against Razer. Harry thought it was unfair but Razer was a Game Master so complaining would have been pointless.
The dodgeball match was to be 8v8 so they had a small problem considering 3 of their competent members were already sidelined, meaning they were one competent member short of a full team. Thankfully Goreinu was a Conjurer and was able to substitute his Nen beast for one of their players, making the numbers even. Harry also managed to receive confirmation that his hunch was correct and that Greed Island was actually just part of the real world during a brief conversation with Razer, Gon and their other groups members, which he felt rather smug about considering Gon, Killua and even Biscuit hadn't figured that out yet. That feeling lasted up until Razer threw the ball the first time. That man was fucking scary and he would have killed Goreinu with that throw if not for his ability to swap places with his Nen beast.
At least he had proven himself useful up until that point, managing to take out 2 members of the other team, which consisted of Razer and 7 other conjured Nen puppets, before he was banned from reentering the court (his Nen gorilla having been their outside ring member and thus swapping meant Goreinu couldn't return without using their one Back). Even worse than that however was that Razer immediately got the ball back after his throw, which he promptly passed at extreme speeds to his "teammates" that had already been taken out of the court (the version of dodgeball they were playing meant that the downed teammates could still be part of the game as outside of the court members).
Tracking the ball as they passed it was extremely hard but everyone on their team managed to follow it, all of them except Tsezguerra that is. He managed to save his life thanks to a quick warning from the trio but he was badly injured and was now disqualified from playing. It was no but at least the ball was on their side of the court now. The trick was keeping it there. Thankfully they had Hisoka on their side and he was able to use his Bungee Gum to retrieve the ball after knocking out one of Razer's Devils. His next throw was thwarted when two of the devils combined however, and the ball was once more in Razers court, much to everyone's quiet dismay.
The young trio were quick to activate their Ken in preparation from the man's throw. Which was a good move as Razer chose to aim for Gon, likely due to his early revelation to being related to Ging. The throw was another killer but Gon managed to use Ko to deflect it and save his life at the last second, though he was blasted out of the ring due to forgetting to anchor his feet with Nen. He ended up taking a bit of damage but he was relatively fine and was almost instantly back on his feet, ready to continue the fight as it were. Unfortunately, he had to remain outside of the court due to technically being knocked out and being unable to step back in without using their one Back (which was essentially a "revive"). It wasn't really a problem as the team was more than willing to let him have that chance, they just made him wait before using it.
After Gon's was convinced to stand down for the time being the match started back up again, though they decided to kill time waiting for Gon to get some basic medical treatment for the hit to the head by passing the ball around. Goreinu had other plans however after less than a minute of this however. Whether it was due to wounded pride or a desire to regain his courage the man decided to stop their time wasting scheme and take a shot at Razer. The good news was that it was effective as Goreinu tossed a wicked ball into Razer's face by using the ability of another summoned Nen beast to swap places with the Game Master. The bad news was that Razer's last remaining Devils were able to reclaim the ball before it touched the ground, thus Razer was still in the game. The even worse news was that Goreinu was now unconscious due to being hit in the face in retaliation by one of the Devils. By far the worst news however was that Razer had the ball once more. At least it was still four vs three in their favor, though was likely about to change.
One again Razer's throw was monstrous in its strength and speed. Harry and Killua barely managed to dodge out of the way in time to avoid getting hit despite being ready to move at a moment's notice. When the ball made a surprise turn however, Biscuit was not so lucky as the ball clipped her dress which counted as an out being part of her "body". Hisoka also faced some rather poor luck as a rebound throw from one of the outside devils caused him some light damage (and by light that meant only two broken fingers and a bruised hand rather than a completely shattered arm). At least he managed to catch the ball. Gon decided to use this chance to use their team's revive to reenter the court at this point which wasn't a bad decision as that meant they once again had the numbers advantage, even if two of their team were injured and numbers didn't seem to matter against Razer.
Gon was quick to give a semi-motivational speech to his three remaining teammates and convinced them all that the horrible idea of not dodging Razer's throws was actually the right choice. He only managed to accomplish that insane feat thanks to the stirring up everyone's competitive nature and desire for a straight victory (and thus revenge against Razer), rather than a technical one. At least Gon had a good plan to let them achieve victory, even if it was simple and extremely straightforward. What it boiled down to was this, Gon was going to punch the ball really, really, really hard by using his new Hatsu technique. The technique was extremely effective as the large amounts of compressed aura allowed him to hit the ball at a speed near equal to Razer's own throws, managing to take out the largest remaining Devil despite it being able to "catch" the ball. The only downside was the damage done to Killua's hands but at least Harry was able to switch out with him for the next hit so he could take a rest and they could more evenly distribute the damage. Since the big Devil had been taken out the ball was luckily returned to their team, which meant they had another shot at taking down Razer without having to play "dodge the bullet" first.
The lead up to Gon's next blow was just as impressive as the hit itself. Thanks to there not being a time limit Gon was able to spend as much time as he wanted charging up his technique, the force of which was able to lightly shake the building just from the pressure alone by the time he was done. Razer, instead of trying to dodge the blow, just gave an excited smirk and flared his aura in response, nearly equally Gon's entire compressed output. It wouldn't have been enough had he tried to catch the ball, but that wasn't what Razer did, instead he received it like a volleyball and deflected the ball into the ceiling. He got knocked out of the court as a result but he had perfectly received the blow, at least Hisoka managed to catch the ball with his Bungee Gum so he was declared out. Of course Razer promptly return to the field using his revive and the teams were basically reset, the only difference was that Gon, Killua, Harry and Hisoka were mostly on their last legs and Razer was down a Devil.
Hisoka couldn't use his right arm or throw the ball due to the damage he had taken earlier. Gon was running on fumes in terms of aura from the attacks he had made. The worst were probably Harry and Killua however. The two Zoldycks, in order to keep from dispersing as much of the force behind Gon's attacks as possible, barely used any aura to cover their hands when they held the ball for him. The result was that their hands were in terrible shape, though nowhere near as bad as they could be thanks to both of them only holding the ball for one hit each. Tsezguerra called for a time out upon realizing this and tried to convince Gon to step out to the court so he could hold the ball in their place, as he had the ability to properly protect his hands from the Gon's attack without reducing the force, but none of them agreed. They felt like it would be a cop-out and, despite being called idiots by both Tsezguerra and Biscuit, they got their way. The three decided that Killua would be the one to hold the ball for his last hit, his hands taking relatively less damage than Harry's due to the difference between Gon's two "throws", and the match quickly resumed.
Biscuit, knowing that arguing with her students would be futile, restarted the game by pulling out a trick curved throw to take out the last remaining devil in revenge for her previous defeat, leaving Razer as the last man standing. The ball was even on track to return to their side of the court if not for the tricky kick pulled off by the last Devil before it was officially called out. With the ball now in Razer's hands the four remaining players now had to prepare to deal with would be his last throw of the game, one way or another. In what seemed to be becoming a reoccurring theme Gon was the one to make up the plan to deal with his throw. It was rather silly all things considered and entailed the four of them "combining" to successfully block it, which caused a creepy glint in Hisoka's eyes and shudders to run down the two Zoldyck's spines. Still it was that or trying to dodge and no one wanted to accept such a win at this point.
Razer let them have their planning session, only attacking once they were done, which showed just how confident he was in his victory. He had good reason to as well which the group learned as he super charged the ball with his aura, bringing it up to a level past even Gon's last attack. Instead of throwing the ball however he went for a spike instead. It was a much more dangerous decision as the ball's force tripled as a result, which made the players glad that there were four of them still there, none of them believing they could take, or even dodge, Razer's latest attack with anything less. For the four's "combination" it was decided on Gon being the "arms" with Killua being his support and the "bridge" between him and Hisoka. Hisoka for his part would smother the ball's force with his Bungee gum while Harry act as the entire group's "legs". While the idea was a bit childish it actually ended up working as they managed to catch the ball without damage even though they got blown back nearly two meters.
With the ball now on their side it was time for the dodgeball game's climax. Killua instantly got into his stance, holding the ball up for Gon while Gon, for his part, somehow manage to draw upon twice as much aura as his previous attack despite his reduced reserves. This time he compressed his aura enough that it took on an orange tint, which was likely his natural aura color, due to the quality/density of it if Harry remembered Wing's lesson correctly. Harry felt a bit useless standing on the sidelines as he watched however, which he absolutely hated. He couldn't help Killua hold the ball or protect his hands due to how complex such a task would be and not having enough experience to get the timing right to do either. He couldn't help Gon with the actual attack either as he knew no way to transfer aura nor a way to add his own energy to the ball without blunting Gon's attack somehow. The fact left a rather bitter taste in his mouth but he quickly pushed the feeling aside as he watched his friend's and brother's will and resolve. Despite not liking it he wouldn't change anything, knowing it to be the best course of action and that it meant more to Gon and Killua than it did for him.
Gon attack, when he finally unleashed it, was absolutely brutal, even stronger than Razer's previous blow. Strong enough that even the Game Master himself seemed to feel the pressure from it. Without even hesitating Razer got into to his receiving stance, planning on dealing with the attack the same way he did last time. Shocking all those present it actually worked and the ball was sent screaming back down the court in a collision course with Gon, actually gaining some speed rather than losing any much to everyone's horror. Luckily Harry was waiting in the wings and managed to get his, now unconscious, friend out of harm's way, saving his life and leaving the ball to fly past into the waiting arms of Hisoka, who utilized his bungee gum to send the ball right back towards Razer. It looked like they were about to enter into a deadly game of ping pong at that point, up until Razer tried to return the ball and failed to do so thanks to Hisoka's Bungee Gum sticking the ball to Razer's arms. Razer made a valiant attempt to stop the ball but the momentum proved to be too much and Razer was forced out of the court.
They were quickly declared the victors after that and Razer wasted no time in answering Gon's question about Ging's whereabouts, once he woke up, before proceeding to tell him stories about the man. Harry wasn't sure what they were about as he respected Gon's privacy and instead opting to have his hands looked at along with his brother. As it turned out the damage, while extensive, would recover in a week or two but Killua's hands were much worse, it would be a month for a full recover at best, though he'd likely be able to use them in a reduced capacity in about half that time. Biscuit made sure to give them both an earful for that, even if they both could tell that their master was proud of them despite their decision.
Pretty soon Razer was done talking to Gon and the group returned back to their quest giver for the reward. With a quick use of Clone cards the group now had three copies of Patch of Shore, the original going to Gon and the two copies going to Tsezguerra and Goreinu. Hisoka declined any offers of compensation for his help, despite not getting a Copy of the Card, and promptly left (much to Harry's silent relief). Now Genthru was incapable of clearing the game without dealing with them first. A rather dangerous situation but there was nothing to really do about it unless they wanted him to win, which none of them did. The group left the lighthouse that the quest giver had lead them to after that, opting to walk rather than use a spell card so they could simply enjoy talking with each other.
The mood turned bad and extremely tense when they received a Call from the Bomber though, who (rather predictably) gave a blatant threat in an attempt to get them to hand over Patch of Shore. The threat by itself was slightly unnerving but it got worse after he revealed the death of all the other members of the previous party Harry's group had gone with. They hadn't been particularly close but despite that Gon took it personally and called out the Bomber to fight, much to Killua's, Harry's and Biscuit's anger. They loved Gon like a brother, they really did, but he was such a hardheaded idiot at times that Harry and Killua sometimes forgot that fact as they attempted to strangle him. The Call was cutoff at that point and thankfully the Bomber and his group decided against taking Gon up on his challenge. Biscuit was the only member of the party that was both uninjured and strong enough to deal with the Bomber's group at the moment after all. After that the group, bar Hisoka who had left long ago, started a strategy session on how to deal with the bomber.
It was likely that Gentrhu believed that Gon only had a Copy of Patch of Shore and would be going after Tsezguerra so the pro Hunter graciously made the decision to buy them time as a result. Well it was likely he had much choice in the matter anyways considering he'd die if Genthru caught him regardless but the gesture was nice none the less. Though the pro Hunter did decide to give Gon a thorough dressing down for his previous actions, which Harry approved of even if it bothered him to see his friend beat himself up once he realized the potential consequences of his impulsivity. Tsezguerra wasn't doing things completely out of the goodness in his heart however, as he offered to stall Genthru for three weeks at the price of their Lucky Alexandrite. It was a good deal as it would allow all of them to recover a significant portion of their strength and which gave them the possibly of defeating the Bomber so they decided to take the deal without any fuss. Once the deal was struck the parties went their separate ways and Biscuit wasted no time restarting the trio's training.
With Harry and Killua's hands still badly damaged they were forced to focus on recovering and coming up with plans to defeat Genthru's team, only allowed to do some intermittent light Nen exercises in between their strategy sessions. It was rather annoying as they had to watch Biscuit train Gon into the ground every day but at least they weren't completely barred from training. In a normal situation they likely would have but Genthru was too much of a threat to do so, and it wasn't like basic Nen exercises straining the body all that much anyways. Harry could even work on his Hatsu occasionally thank to its nature, though Killua wasn't so lucky due to the electric burden his placed on his body not being good for injuries.
Not much interesting happened for the next two and a half weeks besides the group finally seeing Biscuit's Hatsu. Magical Esthetician was a combined Hatsu that used the same three categories as Harry's Los Lobos, though it went in the opposite direction in terms of combat ability, which meant it had none. Cookie, as Biscuit called her Nen construct, had zero ability to fight, instead possessing a very large range of support abilities useful for both general health and recovering from training as Gon quickly found out. Killua didn't think much of the technique but Harry thought it quite amazing and he made sure to study it constantly to take advantage of his Trait as the principles it used could only help improve his own ability. The going was slow, even a bit slower than trying to understand Hisoka's Bungee Gum, but Biscuit used it so often during those two and a half weeks that it didn't matter. In the end Harry knew everything about the base ability itself, though he barely knew anything about the techniques Cookie used beyond Piano Massage (which was the only one Biscuit showed them). He didn't care though as, like he had thought, his new knowledge helped him bump of Los Lobos by a level.
After those two and a half weeks though they had finally run out of time, Tsezguerra falling just a few days short of his goal of three weeks. It was a shame but Harry was at least fully recovered by that point and he and Killua had already completed their plan to deal with the Bomber and his gang. The plan would heavily really on Gon's efforts but with there being four of them at least he'd have Biscuit to back him up when he went against the Bomber, even if the stubborn fool was determined to beat him on his own. At least they had advanced warning thanks to Goreinu having been observing both Tsezguerra and the Bomber. Not long after Goreinu warned them about Genthru coming for them did the man with his in question arrive in the telltale light of Accompany, his two minions in tow.
The Bomber tried to talk them into making a deal but negotiations quickly broke down after he lost his patience with the group and their refusal to give in. With that the plan was a go and the group started a game of Accompany tag that ended with them near Masadora where the next stage was set to go off. The four were quick to hide in the forest using Zetsu before the Bomber and his gang could appear, which worked surprisingly well as they tricked them into wasting time checking the spell card store, buying them enough time to complete their preparations. By the time Genthru used his last Accompany card to appear before them again they were ready though they continued to act like they were running away in fear.
The team was quickly cut off from running by the Bombers, Genthru stopping Gon and Biscuit, Killua the red haired man called Sub and Harry the black haired man named Bara. Genthru tried once more to pressure them into giving up their cards but Gon immediately shot him down, backed up by similar words from Biscuit. Killua then started the next phase of their plan by playing the part of the scared kid and telling Harry to run and leave Gon and Biscuit to their fates. He did so, after putting up his own scared kid routine, and like they had planned Bara chased after him and Sub chased Killua who was also running, leaving the other two to face the Bomber by themselves.
After being chased by Bara for a couple of minutes it was time for Harry to start his part of the plan. Summoning his Book, he took out a Transformed Accompany card and, after undoing the Transformation, used it on both himself and Bara to take them both to Soufrabi. This was the strategy that he and Killua had devised. He and Killua would draw away Sub and Bara from Genthru and, once they were far enough away, use Accompany to make sure that even if they were defeated that the two stooges wouldn't be able to return to aid Genthru against Gon and Biscuit. Neither had any plans on losing, or even running away from their opponents like they had told Biscuit they would, however.
"I don't get it. Why would you go to all this trouble to be alone with me?" Bara looked vaguely confused by Harry's actions as he voiced his question.
Harry just smirked. "It's simple, so you couldn't go get help your boss."
"Huh? I have no idea what you're talking about. Do you actually think you can beat me brat?"
"Of course."
"Tch. Don't be so full of yourself brat!"
With a cry of rage Bara, in a massive burst of speed, launched himself forward at Harry, intent on taking him down with a strong blow to the head to save on time. Luckily Harry was prepared and, with the help of his own physical abilities, managed to dodge with plenty of room to spare. Next time wouldn't be so easy as Bara had clearly underestimated him but it was enough for Harry to start his counter attack."
"Los Lobos!"
Without even landing from the backwards leap he took to dodge Bara's attack Harry activated his Hatsu and, with angry growls, 10 ethereal green wolves sprung into existence around him. Thanks to Biscuit's training and his own efforts no longer were his wolves the size of small-medium dogs. Now not only were they all the size of real wolves, they even looked more like them as well, complete with "fur" and a row of razor sharp teeth. All the other aspects of the technique had improved as well as Harry could fully control/direct his wolves' actions in a ten-meter radius around him and the power released when they detonated was enough to crack small boulders. Needless to say Harry was very happy with his technique and wasted no time showing his opponent the fruits of his labors.
With but a thought Harry set his constructs to attack Bara and, like a pack of starving wolves, they launched themselves at the man with savage abandon. Bara wasn't a weak or inexperienced opponent however, not by a long shot, and was able to perfectly dodge all the attacking wolves. Harry's opponent was kept on the defensive despite that however as the man refused to take Harry seriously. That was fine by Harry as it let him set up the next part of his attack without getting interrupted.
"Pretty impressive for a brat but your technique still needs work kid."
"I know."
"Wha-?"
Bara didn't even have time to voice his confusion as Harry brought out his secret weapon. Whereas Killua showed a more childish side by having Milluki make him a Yo-Yo out of a super dense alloy metal to use as a weapon Harry was a bit more practical in his choice. Harry had asked for, and received, a pair of gloves that allowed him to manipulate monofilament garrote wire. Said wire was near invisible to the naked eye it was so thin, but it was strong enough to cut through flesh as easily as any knife. Harry made full use of these traits to slowly get the wires into position to surround Bara as he was distracted by his wolves.
With a sharp tug of his wrists the wires bound Bara in a cocoon of razor sharp wire, that was only kept from cutting him into dozens of meat chunks by his hastily activated Ken. Bara, realizing his new position, was quick to get serious and, using a combination of his full strength and even more Ken, started to snap the wires binding him one by one.
That was fine, Harry didn't think they'd finish him off or even hold him for long anyways, that wasn't even their purpose. The purpose of his wires was simply to hold him just long enough for the real attack to land. Bara found that out the hard way as the ten wolves that he had previously been dodging with ease pounced on him in mass, their jaws clamping down on any part of his body they could, from his legs to even one on his neck. They didn't do more than cause some bruising thanks to Bara's aura, but then again his wolves were made to be explosive for a reason. With a bright flash and a clap of thunder Bara was engulfed in ten simultaneous Nen fueled explosion.
Harry felt his wires go slack as the explosion finished the job that Bara started and completed the process of tearing them to pieces. He didn't mind as they were one off weapons anyways as they were much too difficult and impractical to use in combat anyways, especially at a speed capable of catching Nen users who weren't distracted. Harry peeled of his gloves and threw them away as he waited for the smoke to clear and show him just how much damage he had caused. When that finally happened the results were less than he had expected but the damage was enough to finish Bara off regardless. In all honesty, despite it being kind of optimistic, he had expected the explosions to flat out kill Bara or, at the very least, take off a limb or two. As it was everywhere his wolves had been latch onto, except for Bara's neck, were badly mangled and looked like Killua's hands had after the match against Razer but, with Nen and medical care, they would make a full recovery in time. Bara's neck, in comparison to the rest of the locations, only had a medium sized 2nd degree burn on it, the man having likely concentrated more aura to that location in order to save his life.
In total however, Bara was in no condition to move under his own power now even if he was conscious, which he wasn't. Harry was tempted to leave the man there, or even flat out kill him while he could, but in the end decided to follow the agreed upon plan and picked up him and began to walk the long road back to Gon's and Biscuit's location. When he arrived there he found Killua with his own defeated opponent already waiting for him, looking like he hadn't received a single scratch. Harry heaved a silent sigh of relief at that, though that lasted only as long as it took him to look at Gon. Gon… was a complete and utter mess. Not even counting the large number of burns and abrasions on his face and body he was missing his left hand while his right wrist was burned down nearly to the bone. If not for the fact that they could use Breath of Archangel to heal his wounds completely Harry would have killed Gentrhu then and there for doing that to his friend. As it was he simply gave the unconscious Bomber a nice kick to the balls as he dumped Bara down next to him.
Surprisingly enough that didn't wake the man up so the group was in for a rather long wait. Once Genthru finally did wake up however it was Killua who spoke to him first.
"Are you awake? Summon your binder."
Gon was quick to clarify what Killua wanted. "We want you to return the cards you stole from the people you backstabbed."
"…On one condition… Use Archangel to heal Bara. We have a Clone card." Genthru's voice was incredibly weak but surprisingly sturdy and calm despite his situation.
"Don't worry, that was always part of the plan. We brought 7 copies of Clone after all."
Harry decided to keep his thoughts of killing Bara to himself, no need to get his brother or Gon mad at him for almost going against the plan after all.
After a brief moment where Genthru tried to ascertain their truthfulness he finally complied with their demands. "…Book…"
With "the transaction" complete Biscuit was quick to use Breath of Archangel on Gon first, on account of him being the worst off and them caring about him more. The effect was quite miraculous as in an instant Gon's injuries, including his missing hand, were completely restored back to their uninjured state. The same thing happened to Bara, who was the worst injured amongst the bombers, when it was his turn. It was when they tried to heal Killua next, mostly because they could and his hands were still injured, that they ran into a problem when Goreinu blocked their attempts to Clone more Breath of Archangel cards.
The man was, understandably, pissed at their decision to heal the bombers and refused to complete their trade if they did so. If Harry was in charge he would have sided with him, but it wasn't his show and he had been outvoted so he kept quiet. Killua, after hearing Harry's objections towards sparing the bombers, had a plan of attack already in place for such an event. His plan was simple, he just pointed out that both he and Harry were assassins and Goreinu was perfectly willing to heal them. Harry hated being used in such a manner to let the Bomber be healed but in all honesty he agreed with his brother slightly on the matter. They were worse than the bombers if you actually thought about it after all, he and Killua had killed much more people and most of them weren't in a game known for its death toll. Hell some of their targets had even been innocent civilians, for a given definition of the term. It was kind of funny and made Harry just a little bit happy when Goreinu replied by saying that they were different from the bombers as he actually liked them. At least the man was honest about his bias unlike many others.
In the end Killua managed to bring him around to their way of thinking thanks to Biscuit and Gon further backing him up Zoldycks on the matter. There was a brief moment where Harry was put on the spotlight when Goreinu asked for his stance on the issue but Harry just kept to the party lines as it were and the moment passed. Beside it was one thing to kill an opponent in battle and another to do so after they had been beaten and captures, the two Zoldycks should know having done plenty of both. Not that Harry would have minded but it was one of the ways he had been talked into agreeing with the rest of his group. Goreinu was a good man so he too realized this and eventually gave in, allowing them to follow through with their plan to heal Gentrhu. After the Bomber was healed, it was Killua's turn after Goreinu guilt tripped himself into giving them another Archangel card, the four having had to use their original on Genthru.
Surprisingly enough that had been his plan all along anyways, and not just giving them a Breath of Archangel but all the other remaining Restricted Cards as well. Apparently Tsezguerra, his team and Goreinu himself had all agreed beforehand to give them the cards so they could beat the game, though only because their employer, Battera, ended all of his hired Hunter's contracts. As they got paid for his breach of the contract and there was no longer a large reward for clearing the game, beyond taking three items out of it, they decided to let their team do so, in light of the roll in defeating the Bomber. Goreinu once more proved to be a good guy by splitting the 4 billion Jenny he had personally received with them, Biscuit even cried as a result of his actions much to Harry's amusement.
After Gon put all 99 readily available Restricted Cards into his book a system announcement was triggered. As many of the long term players had thought, doing so trigged the event that enabled the players to obtain Ruler's Invitation, which would lead them to Restricted card #0. The event took the form of a Greed Island multiple choice quiz dealing information on all the Restricted Cards. The message had barely gone out however when the group was suddenly surrounded by players who had appeared in the telltale glow of Accompany. They all prepared for a fight, suspecting they were there to try and take their cards, but their worries ended up being unfounded. The players simply wanted to sell them card #0 if they managed to obtain it from the quiz. The price they wanted was expensive but only 5% of the reward money Battera had promised before he ended the contract so the group was quick to agree. They had the money for it after all despite the reward not existing anymore, and it wasn't like it was a bad deal all things considered.
The group split up after that, deciding to take the quiz individually as a mini competition between them, the losers of which had to face a penalty (likely a modified Biscuit Sadism Session™). The quiz was surprisingly difficult and, unless you really paid attention when you gathered the cards and possessed a great memory, all you could really do was randomly guess the answers for some of them. Harry and Killua had to do that several times but Gon was surprisingly very good at answering the questions or at least that's what it seemed like. When the results were tallied Gon had the highest score with 87 out of 100. None of the other players received their scores so they couldn't tell how close they had been to winning which was frustrating to the Zoldycks, especially on top of them having to face a penalty.
Ruler's Invitation appeared before Gon in the talons of a strange owl creature upon being declared the winner by the system. He barely had finished reading the "flavor text" before their group was confronted by two other Hunters trying to force them to have a contest with all their cards at stake. The two were a savage looking pair that had been hired at the same time as them but, unluckily for them, they were incredibly weak and the three youths easily beat them into unconsciousness. With that small bit of drama over with Killua activated a Drift card to get to Limeiro, where the Ruler's Invitation was supposed to be used at, as they had never been to the town before and it was the only spell that could take one of them there quickly. He was quick to return and use Accompany to take the group however, bar Goreinu, to complete the final "quest" of Greed Island.
As Ruler's Invitation only let one person, the owner of the card, enter the castle in Limeiro Harry, Killua and Biscuit had to kill time outside until he was done. When Gon came back and told them what happened none of them were disappointed about that though. Harry and Biscuit were kind of neat freaks and Killua didn't do well with large amounts of garbage after a certain assassination mission he had done when he was younger so none of them would have been able to stand talking to Dwun, who was the textbook definition of a lazy shut in and had a room to match. The following parade/celebration for clearing the game was nice though, even if it wasn't really Harry's thing. There was plenty of fireworks, food, drink and dancing late into the night. The party was still going on in fact even after the four turned in for the night to discuss the three cards they were going to take out of the game.
It was decided that they'd all get to choose a card, after Harry and Killua said they were fine with sharing their slot. Biscuit didn't even hesitate to choose hers, #81 Blue Plant, which wasn't a surprise considering her love of gems. Killua didn't really have an opinion on what card to choose and neither did Harry after being disappointed by Double Postcard of the Dead. Gon however had a very unique, and downright brilliant, idea of what to take for their reward. He wanted to bring out #84 Paladin's Necklace along with an Accompany Card Transformed into a Restricted Slot Card. It was brilliant as they could use Accompany to travel to Ging as he was actually listed in Gon's Contact list. The only problem was that it would require them to use the remaining two spots, thus would mean that Harry and Killua give up on their own choice. Gon was apologetic about it but both of the Zoldycks were willing to go along with his plan, neither having any desire for the other items on offer anyways.
When they left the game the next morning everyone was happy with their rewards. Biscuit wasted absolutely no time in bringing out Blue Planet and fawning all over it, leaving the other three to feel incredibly awkward and Harry having to resist making more than a few snarky comments. After she had calmed down it was time for the trio to bring out their cards and see if their plan had worked. Paladin's Necklace was first and, once Gon was wearing it, the Transformed Accompany was next. Like they had hoped Paladin's Necklace quickly dispelled the Transformation and, after a brief round of celebration and saying their goodbyes to Biscuit the trio activated the card, whisking them away to parts unknown in pursuit of Gon's wayward father.
AN: Harry's fight with Bara was short but honestly if you remember the anime Killua's fight against Sub was really short as well so I didn't see a reason to prolong it. It was much longer than when Biscuit completed face rolled him however so there's that. Yes, I did take inspiration from (more like ripped off) Bleach for Harry's Nen ability and no that's not won't be all there is too it. Anyways hope you enjoyed this chapter.
-Monumentum.
