Chapter 3:
"Hello Chameleon-sama! I'm your new caretaker!" I look up at a younger woman with brown hair and brown eyes, she looks plain. Her face falls and she stares in shock.
...I said that out loud, didn't I?
"Now now, Chameleon-chan, be nice." Smile Man says, I haven't bothered to learn his name, so that's what I call him.
For these past few months I've found out that the people who bought me aren't so bad after all. I'm basically treated like a queen, a queen that gets her exercise and gets to go outside all of the time. Sometimes people like to take me to fancy dinners to show me off. But then a lot of people are saying that I'm being spoiled rotten and that I'll "turn soft", but then all of the people who say that are poor.
One thing that I don't like so much is that whenever I'm in public I have to wear these huge goggles so people can't see my eyes. I also was taught to put nen into my tail so it turns invisible, and I can control my hair colour now.
I sigh, at least with my goggles I look cool even if they aren't super comfortable. But now they're starting to pressure me into wearing them all of the time.
I let the adults talk more without paying any attention. Yes, I do know that it would be smarter to listen when people are talking about me, but I always just assume that I'll find out later. Whatever it is is future me's problem, so I could care less. That is a very and way of thinking of life.
"Follow me, Chameleon-sama!" Plain Lady calls and I comply.
We walk all of the way out of the building, "hey, where're we going?" I ask curiously, one of my eyes is in Plain Lady, while the other is taking in all of my surroundings.
"To the place where you're gonna train, you need to get stronger before you can work with the other shadow beasts."
"Oh," I suddenly remember to turn my tail invisible before we get into a fancy car.
~0~
"WHOA!" I cry at the huge tower in front of me. I've never seen a building this big before! I know that Plain Lady tells me the name but I don't listen, "you know what!? I'm just gonna call it BFT!"
"What does that stand for?"
"Big Fat Tower!" Plain Lady starts laughing.
"You're so funny, Chameleon-sama!"
"I know!" I start laughing but suddenly stop, is this what the adults say when they say that people shouldn't "stroke my ego"? What even is an ego? "Hey, do you know what an ego is?" I ask curiously, I don't use the name that I came up for Plain Lady because I don't think that she'd like it very much.
"An ego is somebody's self-esteem, how they feel about themselves. Some people have really low self-esteem, but some people have way too high self-esteem. Usually when people have too much self-esteem people start to call it "ego"." Plain Lady explains as we step into BFT.
"How do you know when you have too much self-esteem?" I can sense people staring at me.
"Hmm, I guess that when you think that you're better than everyone else." She says thoughtfully, oh no I must have a HUGE ego then!
"Do you think I have a big ego?" I ask.
"Oh no! Of course not!" Plain Lady cries, frazzled. Lier.
We reach the front desk, I stand on the tips of my toes to see. I don't really bother listening to what the adults say up until the desk lady's shocked that I'm gonna be the one to train here.
"E-Excuse me, how old are you!?" She stutters as she leans over the desk to looks at me.
"Seven months-I-I mean seven years old!" I correct myself, if she knew that I was born only seven months ago she'd know that I'm not really human. I was born already with the body and maturity of a five year old and I've barely grown at all. I'm starting to get worried that I'll stay this size for the rest of my life.
"Seven years old!? Jeez, that's the second one!"
"Second one?" Both Plain Lady and I ask at the same time.
"Earlier today a little boy with white hair came and signed up, I remember...he's from the Zoldyck family." Apparently the Zoldyck family is a big deal because Plain Lady gasps.
"Chameleon, if you ever have to fight that boy, give up." I frown at her words, what's so special about this kid?
"Anyways, just sign this sheet and you're in!" The desk lady moves on before handing me a sheet of paper, I don't bother reading before signing it in my sloppy writing. I hand it back to her, "thank you! Your first fight is at 3:00pm today!"
"Thank you!" I wave at the lady as we walk away, people are still staring at us. I make an effort to look a beefy man in the eye and stick my enormous tongue out, "bleh!" He immediately looks away.
"Chameleon-sama, be nice." The exact same words as Smiley man, "also, hold my hand so you don't get lost."
"Ugh, fine." I groan.
~0~
I smirk confidently as I step onto the fighting square. Yet another beefy man stands in front of me, he looks shocked at my appearance.
"Here are the rules;" whoa, I only just noticed the referee. "The way that you win is either by knocking your opponent out or earning ten points! A clean hit is one point, a critical hit is two points, you also earn a point every time you knock your opponent out of the ring! Do you understand the set rules?"
"Wait! Do I have to fight this little kid? That seems low…" The man complains and my smirk widens, he's going to go easy on me.
"Chameleon is a fellow fighter, she signed up for this. Now beg-"
"Does it count as a win if you kill your opponent?" I interrupt curiously, the two stare at me in shock. They seem horrified.
"-Kills begin to count as wins after you reach the 200th floor! Now, three! Two! One! Fight!" Wow, I'm impressed that the dude managed to brush off my question so quickly.
"Hey kid I'm gonna give you one chance…" I don't listen to the rest of his words because I realize that there are screens everywhere and one of them is zoomed in on us. And when I listen among the loud surroundings there's an announcer talking about us, I grin because this is a perfect chance for me to show off.
"Alright, let's do this!" I say half to myself, ooo, with my invisible tail I can make it look like I have some special invisible power and can make things move with my mind!
Woo! I look back at the man who's still giving me a concerned look. It looks like he isn't gonna attack first so I guess that I'll go.
I don't even need to get any closer!
I aim and launch my tongue at him, it wraps around his waist and I use nen to get enough strength to throw him out of the ring.
"One point for being sent out of the ring!" The referee cries as he gestures to me. I watch as the man climbs back onto the fighting square. He looks pretty annoyed, good thing I'm planning on finishing this right away.
Jeez it's loud in here! I don't like it!
My moment of distraction was not very good for me. Because I'm that time the guy got within three feet of me.
"Gah!" I shout in panic and I barely dodge a punch, well, at least now I know that he's motivated to fight me. I jump just above his head, I spin in midair, and smash his face with my tail.
He falls to the ground, "KO!" There's a sudden uproar in the crowd watching, I look around to see all of the screens focussed on me.
"Chameleon has used an invisible force to beat her opponent! It's amazing!" I smile sheepishly and adjust my goggles, I have to make sure that I don't let this get to my head…
"You may move up to floor 20!" I grin and give the crowd one last wave before leave the fighting ring.
~0~
I keep on winning, fight after fight I always win. It doesn't matter who I'm up against, none of them stand a chance.
"Yet another amazing win from Chameleon-hime! How does she do it!?" I wave at the crowd with both hands and even blow a kiss. I've become really famous at BFT, well, it's actually called the Heaven's Arena but who cares?
I guess that the opponents are getting tougher as I move up the ranks, but nobody here knows how to use nen. That's my trump card.
I'm on floor 192 now, my next fight will bring me to the 200th floor. I've been told that that's where things start to get serious.
I skip off of the small arena and all of the way down the hallway, "excuse me!" I stand on the tips of my toes to talk to the desk lady.
"Chameleon-dono!" She cries in surprise, "here, I have all of your money. And here's you next fighting time!" I grab both and walk away. I look at the sheet of paper with my time and the person who I'm fighting.
Hmm, three days from now, 4:00pm, and who I'm fighting…
Zoldyck Killua.
I grin giddily at the thought, I've seen a couple of his fights. He's definitely tough.
"Chameleon-sama!" I jump at Plain Lady's voice, I learned her name awhile ago but I like getting a reaction out of her. "Who are you fighting next?"
I freeze, uh oh, she told me not to fight Killua. Not ever. I hold the papers behind my back and make an effort to pout in a cute way. "It's a secret." Her face falls into a suspicious frown.
"Who is it?" She says with a serious note.
"It's a secret, besides I don't even know the person!" I try to lie but she isn't falling for it.
"Give me the paper!"
"No!"
One thing leads to another and soon we're fighting over the paper, it's actually pretty funny because I'm stronger than her.
"Ch-Chameleon-sama! Give. Me. The. Paper." She tries to wrestle it out of my tiny hands but I twist, I break the paper away and stand a few feet away. "Chameleon-sama, I'm going to count to three…"
I take one look at her, then at the paper. "One...two...three!" As she takes a step forward I shove the entire thing in my mouth, including the money. "CH-CHAMELEON-SAMA!" Plain Lady screams at the top of her lungs, I pick the money out, but swallow the rest whole. That's a special skill of mine, swallowing things whole. Well, actually since my tongue's so long I can hide a BUNCH of things in my mouth.
But this time I decided to swallow it.
Plain Lady takes both of my shoulder and starts shaking me. "THAT ISN'T HEALTHY AT ALL YOU NEED TO STOP DOING THINGS LIKE THAT!" Bystanders are laughing.
Suddenly she stops and lets out a sigh, "whatever what's done is done. Let's go to our rooms." I hold her hand as we walk through the halls, on the way I spot a boy with white hair and blue eyes.
We make eye contact and he immediately looks away with a "tch" sound. I narrow my eyes, just wait Killua-san, in three days I'm going to give you a run for your money!
~0~
"Finally the long awaited fight is today! Zoldyck Killua vs Chameleon, who will win!?" Jeez, this place is full. I swear that almost every seat is taken.
I'm the one who entered the ring first, now I'm just waiting. I search the crowd for Plain Lady, somehow I manage to spot her and send her a small wave. She looks absolutely horrified.
"And Killua enters the ring!" There's an uproar in the crowd as the boy enters the ring. I think that he's confident, he has his hands shoved in his pockets.
"I'm assuming that you two know the rules?" Both of us nod at the ref.
"Let's have a fair fight!" I cry excitedly, hah, I'm lying. This isn't a fair fight with my nen.
"Ok!" Killua-san gives me a thumbs up with the smallest smile that I've ever seen.
"3, 2, 1, fight!" I immediately run at him, after so many fights I've managed to come up with a pattern.
If he dodges to the right I'll use a low sweep, if he dodges to the left I'll use my tongue and throw him out of the ring, and if he dodges backwards I'll launch into the air and hit him with my invisible tail.
I reach him and swipe, he jumps backwards. I smirk, tail it is.
I jump high into the air, as usual I spin. I twist my head to get a good view of my target before landing the finishing blow. But- my tail is stopped.
My back hits the ground and I look up to see the boy holding what looks like air. My tail!
"Let go!" I snap angrily.
"Clean hit!"
"What!?" I stare at the screen to see that Killua got a point. My anger only grows so I use my tail to lift him off of the ground, the I quickly stand and slam it down. He hasn't let go.
I cry out in pain when he squeezes my tail, hard. The level of pain that it gives me makes me lose my concentration, this make my tail appear.
All of a sudden there's a ridiculous amount of sound, people are shouting. All that I can make out is that my great big secret's been discovered. In my annoyance my hair and tail start to match my emotions.
Yellow with excitement, white from shock, red for frustration. All of these colours are mixing into patterns.
I'm starting to panic, I don't know what to do, I don't want to lose, not yet! "I said let go!" I snap again, when he doesn't follow my instructions I make a quick decision. Even though he's heavy I manage to lift him high into the air with my tail. I slam my tail into the ground again, he somehow manages to land on his feet. How strong is this guy!? If it were a grown man and he tried to land in his feet his legs would've been broken!
I keep on spamming this attack, eventually...eventually he won't be able to handle it anymore!
But soon I've exhausted myself, I glare at him. I need to try a different approach…
I thinking hard but all of a sudden I'm in midair. Shoot! He threw me!
I cry out is dismay as I soar off of the fighting square, but I manage to land on my feet. "One point!" I growl angrily, well at least my tail's free. But I just discovered a great big weakness that I have.
I jump back into the ring, I can still win. He only has four limbs, I have six including my tongue.
My tongue! I'll use that to keep my distance!
I aim, wait how did he get right in front of me so fast!?
I barely manage to block before he punches me. I skid backwards a couple of metres, I look at my arms. Jeez, if I hadn't used nen that would have shattered my arms.
Killua-san looks thoroughly shocked that I managed to block his blow, he stares at me with his eyes wide before asking. "How did you-" I see my chance and I don't let him finish, right hand, 70%.
He sees what I'm doing and crosses his arms over his face. I can't help but grin, poor choice.
Instead of aiming straight for his face, I manage to do a sort of uppercut move to his stomach. He flies out of the ring and slams into the wall, "critical hit, and being knocked out of the ring, three points!" We're tied now, I smirk and roll my shoulder. See, this guy isn't so tough, I can handle this fight!
Suddenly I feeling a ridiculously powerful force hit the back of my neck, my breath catches in my throat and I feel myself fall face first onto the dusty ground.
I jinxed myself didn't I?
I black out.
~0~
I groan as I open my eyes, Plain Lady's above me. "Chameleon-sama! How are you feeling?" She cries somewhat desperately.
I moan again but try to sit up, "I-I think I'm fine. What happened again?"
"You lost to Killua, he karate-chopped the back of your neck. What were you thinking, remember what I told you about fighting him!?" Oh now I remember, and I was so sure that I had a chance at winning… My hair and tail become a depressed blue.
I ignore her question, "where are we now?" Plain Lady's looking more and more annoyed.
"We're in a limousine, about to leave Heaven's Arena because now people know what you are!" So we haven't left yet? I force myself to sit up and I look out the window, oh jeez, people are right outside of the car!
"Gah!" I jump in surprise when I see the flash of a camera. Whatever, it should be fine because the outside of a limousine's windows are dimmed so people can't see inside.
But, in the smallest gap of people, I recognize a white haired boy keeping his distance. "Killua-san!" I cry in excitement, and of course the impulsive me opens the door and zooms past the people who're in my way. I skid to a stop in front of him and just kind of grin stupidly.
He looks really confused, "uhh, hi?"
"Hi! Congratulations on the match! You're actually the first person to ever beat me, so...yeah!" I hold out my hand, wow, he must be really strong. I wanna fight him again some time. He just stares at my hand blankly so I cover the awkwardness up by adjusting my glasses. "Uhh, if I ever see you again I'll be strong enough to beat you by then!"
Suddenly an odd feeling passes over me, what is that? I turn my gaze to see a tall guy making his way toward us, I can't help but stare at him.
He has wide black eyes and also black hair, he's wearing a lot of green. I gulp, he's scary.
Killua notices the new focus of my attention and turns to wave at the man. "That's my older brother." He states calmly, I stare at him in shock. So he has to deal with that creep on a daily basis!?
I said that out loud…
Killua bursts into laughter, my hair turns bright pink from embarrassment.
"Chameleon-sama!" My arm is grabbed and I'm dragged away, "don't do things like that without warning!"
"But I wanted to talk to Killua-san!" I complain loudly as we make our way through the crowd of reporters.
"You shouldn't be anywhere near him! He's dangerous!" I send her a glare, he didn't seem very dangerous…
~0~
"Yo, I'm the new Shadow Beast." I greet as I land beside a man with bat wings. First mission, after five years of training I finally have my first mission!
He turns to me and studies me skeptically, "ok, what's your name?"
"Chameleon!" I chirp confidently and adjust my goggles.
"Uhh, and how old are you exactly?" He says with a huge frown.
"Six!" I hold up my fingers as I say it, "I'm looking forward to working with you!" This guy does not look impressed, he takes out a phone, texts something, then looks back at me.
"Whatever, I'm Bat." I frown at his hostility, what's his problem? I don't think that I've done anything wrong…
Whatever, I need to focus on the mission. We were called here because somebody stole a bunch of the mafia's money and regular grunts couldn't handle it. So they called in a couple of the REAL nen users. I've memorized the face of our lead, and we got a tip that he's actually in the building right in front of us.
I scan the streets below us, my eyes moving in all directions. I gasp, "there!" I point at the man as he looks around with suspicion all over his face. "He's in a huge crowd, so maybe we should tail him until he's all alone!" Bat follows where my finger's pointing and narrows his eyes at the target.
"You're right, we don't want to draw very much attention to ourselves. The problem is that it's difficult for somebody like me to be subtle, since there isn't very much cover in the city."
"Then how did you manage to get to the very top of this building without being spotted?" I ask curiously, his only answer is a glare. "Just asking the obvious question." I say with a shrug.
He continues to glare so I just let out a sigh and stand. "~I can handle this cuz' I can turn invisible~" I singsong as I jog on the spot and stretch. "~They won't see me comin'!~" Bat is just looking more and more irritated, what a stick in the mud.
"Let's, go!" I cry as my entire body disappears, I hop a building closer to the target.
"Be careful!" I hear Bat shout from behind, I almost wave back but I remember that I'm invisible.
I keep a careful eye on the target, every time he moves I adjust my position. Eventually he goes into a fancy looking building and I frown. I can definitely get in there but it's gonna make this mission more risky…
Whatever!
I land on the street, people don't notice me at all. I walk to the front entrance of the building and pick somebody to tag behind. I move right behind them so nobody notices the longer amount of time that the doors stay open, once I'm in I look around for my target. I easily spot him again and start following him through a maze of hallways. Soon he stops, jeez this guy's nervous, he's rank with fear.
Yeah, I can smell people now, I can also turn invisible without using any nen.
Now would be a good chance for me to make my move, but I stop when a new person's scent enters my nose. The new guy walks right past me, obviously not noticing an invisible little girl.
"Do you have the card?" The new man growls, I smirk. What they stole was a debit card with millions of dollars on it, if they're going to exchange it now I can just steal it and run.
The target reaches into his pocket, perfect. "Yes, I do." I aim, the second that he pulls out the card I launch my tongue. It sticks to the card a pulls it back to my mouth. I place the card carefully under my tongue and bolt, still invisible. I easily lose them and head back to where I left Bat.
He jumps when I appear out of nowhere. "Did you get the card?" He asks seriously, I nod and pull it out of my mouth, "that's mildly disgusting."
"Do you want me to polish it or something!?" I snap, offended.
"No, it's just that you could have just put it in one of your pockets." I sigh, whatever, my first mission was a success and that's all that matters.