Chapter 9: Loss
"HUH?!"
Aliara strode off the battlefield, hands crossed over her chest. "I surrender, I quit, whatever you want me to say," she said in a bored tone before going to stand next to Killua. The white-haired assassin stared at her in disbelief. Out of all the people here, he hadn't expected her to do something like that so immediately.
"W- Wait," Leorio stammered. His knife shook in his hand. "You... You can't quit that easily! We haven't fought!"
"I said that I lose." Aliara turned to face the chairman. "Leorio wins then, correct?"
He nodded, not seeming to be very surprised. "Of course. The next match is Pokkle and Hanzo."
"Why the hell," Killua whispered, "would you do that?"
She shrugged. "I didn't want to fight him."
"That's it," he deadpanned, narrowing his eyes. "You just didn't want to fight him."
Aliara shrugged. "Yeah."
He shook his head. "I will never understand you."
"I don't plan on letting you," she mused, and Killua grinned at her.
The next match between Pokkle and Hanzo was again, very one-sided. Hanzo won very quickly. Pokkle wasn't even half as stubborn as Gon was, and admitted defeat pretty quickly upon having his arm twisted behind his back. Next was Hisoka and Bodoro, which would decide who Aliara would fight. They both put up a fight, and Bodoro would not admit defeat, until he was beaten down and Hisoka whispered something into his ear. Bodoro conceded. Aliara would be fighting the martial artist. She frowned. He looks half dead. Why would I want to fight anyone who can't do anything? How fair is that?
"Killua and Pokkle," called the announcer.
Killua literally took two steps on the floor before saying, "I lose. Sorry, I'm just not interested in fighting you."
Everyone shook their heads at him in disbelief. "Sorry," Aliara whispered to him as he got back, "it's not as cool the second time someone does it." Killua frowned at her, eyebrow twitching in irritation, then started smirking. Aliara grinned back.
"Bodoro and Aliara," called the referee.
"Can we wait?" Aliara called. "He's still resting. Hisoka beat him up pretty bad." She sent an accusatory glare at the joker but he rolled his eyes and licked his lips creepily. "I don't want to fight him like that."
The ref seemed surprised. "Of course. Then we'll have Killua and Gitturackur."
"Now," Killua groaned, "everything thinks you're all cute and innocent and sweet. They couldn't be more wrong."
Aliara punched him in the shoulder. "Go out and win, ghost boy."
He smiled at her and made his way across from Gitturackur. The referee declared the fight to begin, but before Killua could make a move, the man started pulling out all the weird pins that protruded from his body. Puzzled, Aliara watched his features deform and shape into a blank-faced, adult man with long dark hair.
She didn't recognize him, but Killua did. "Illumi," he gasped. "My... My brother."
Aliara's jaw dropped. No way was this clown his brother.
The silence that followed was eerie and tense. Killua's brother, Illumi, spoke up. "Mom and Miluki say you've hit them."
Killua shrugged, although Aliara saw his shoulders tensing. "You could say it like that."
"Mom was crying," Illumi continued, his voice cold and quiet.
"Obviously," Leorio grumbled loudly. "A mother that suffers like that from her own son-"
"Tears of joy."
"WHAAAA?!" Leorio cried. Aliara almost laughed. So Killua hadn't been joking when he said he stabbed his family and ran. She watched as Illumi taunted Killua, telling him that his mother feared he would be a hunter. It was only a coincidence, apparently, that Illumi had run into Killua here. Aliara bit her lip and tried to control her temper. Family reunions never went well in her family, maybe it was the same for Killua, from the sound of it.
It was what Illumi said next that made Aliara want to jump out and strangle him. "Your vocation is to be a killer."
Killua was tense, incredibly so. Aliara dug her nails so hard into her palms she was sure they were going to bleed. "You're just a puppet," Illumi continued. Killua took a step back. "Passionless. Inside you, you have no passion, no desire. You feed yourself with shadow, and the only pleasure you can feel comes from the deaths of other people."
"It's not true," Aliara mumbled under her breath. She shook her head. Now is not the time to be cautious and have people phobia! "It's not true!" she snapped, much louder. "Killua, don't listen to him."
"You're just as we taught you, Father and I," Illumi continued, aggravating Aliara to no end. "What were you expecting in becoming a hunter?"
"It's not that I wanted to become a hunter that lead me here," the white-haired boy grumbled, scuffing his shoe on the ground, beads of sweat pouring down his face. "There's something I want-"
"No, there's nothing," Illumi interrupted.
She had had enough. "You can't decide that for him, you... you pale-faced bastard!" Aliara yelled suddenly, stepping forwards. The other contestants looked at her in surprise. Illumi, to her everlasting annoyance, ignored her again.
Killua bit his lip. "There is something!"
"Then tell it to me," his older brother scoffed, raising a hand. "What would you want?"
Killua went silent. Aliara mashed her teeth together angrily.
"There's nothing, is there?"
"No!" he barked, throwing out one of his hands. "I want... I want to be friends with Gon and Aliara."
There was a pause as that sunk in. Aliara's hands went limp. Her eyes widened. He... What?
"I'm fed up with killing." Killua's head tipped down to the floor. "I just want to be friends with Ali and Gon. I want to have fun, like a normal kid." Aliara's mouth fell open just a bit as she gaped at Killua. He wants to be friends. He wants to be normal.
I didn't realize how similar our goals were.
"That's impossible," Illumi jeered, and Aliara started thinking of multiple ways to kill that sorry bastard, all of them getting more painful and bloody as she went on. "You can't make people be your friends. The only judgement you're able to pass on a human is to know if you can kill him or not. Because that's what we taught you.
"You're just amazed by Gon and Aliara," Illumi continued, talking a step towards Killua. "And you don't know how to process them. That's all there is to it."
"That's false," Killua retorted quietly.
Illumi ignored him. "If you stay friends with those two, one day, you're going to end up killing them." Aliara's blood ran cold. "Because you're a natural born killer."
"No," Aliara whispered.
Leorio took a step forwards. "Oi, Killua! I don't care who he is! He doesn't understand anything at all! He's a dumbass! You want to be friends with Gon and Aliara? Don't fall asleep and just do your thing and win!"
"Killua," Aliara called out, watching for any sign of emotion on his face. "Killua, you have nothing to worry about."
The white-haired boy's head tipped up to face her.
"We're already friends," she emphasized, trying to smile. "We already are. I'm sure Gon would say the same."
Pause. Aliara inhaled sharply.
"Really?" Illumi pondered aloud.
"Of course, you idiot!" Leorio hissed, stomping his foot on the ground. Kurapika didn't even try to calm him down.
Illumi's mouth tipped down in a frown. "That bothers me. If she already thinks they're all friends... I know," he resolved, holding a finger in the air. "I'll just kill them both."
Killua's eyes widened and his face went white. Aliara tightened her fists. Sweat dripped down the side of her face. "Bring it," she scowled, holding up her hands in front of her, temporarily forgetting where she was and what she was here for. Kurapika and Hanzo both took a step back, on guard.
Illumi took a step in her direction. Aliara felt pressure, like it was trying to hold her down. She felt scared, something she hadn't felt in a while, and she lowered herself down in her stance, glaring at him. "Excuse me," one of the officials interrupted, "the match isn't-"
He casually tossed three pins at the man's face, and Aliara watched it bulge oddly. His face resembled something from a nightmare. The man gasped and fell back. "Thank you," Illumi said quietly, closing the distance off.
"No," Killua said quietly, his voice strangled. "No-"
Kurapika and Leorio each took a step in front of Aliara. Any other day, she might've complained, saying she could fight her own battles, but the support was welcomed and at the moment the pressure she was feeling might've been enough to make her back down. No, it wouldn't have.
Suddenly, Illumi stopped and thought. "Darn it. I need that license, but if I kill anyone, Killua automatically wins." He frowned. "I know. I'll beat Killua, then I'll kill them."
Aliara looked at her friend. Killua's face was drenched in sweat, and she could almost see him shaking. To see Killua, someone she admired for his strength, tremble so much, Aliara wanted to stab Illumi right then and there- three times in the right arm, twice in the left, once in the face, and repeatedly to the gut.
"Hear that, Killua?" Illumi asked quietly. "If you don't win against me, you won't be able to save Gon and Aliara."
"Killua," Aliara heard herself say, "beat the hell out of him!"
"Can you fight for friendship?" the dark-haired man mused. "No, you can't. But that doesn't matter right now- what matters is if you can defeat me or not. You already have the answer. You know you don't have as much strength as me. 'Don't fight someone you can't beat'. I taught you that."
Killua shuffled slightly and Illumi said, "If you move, I'll take that to mean the fight has begun. If our bodies touch, I'll believe that the fight has begun." Illumi shuffled closer and closer to Killua, his hand moving achingly slowly at his forehead. Aliara was doing everything in her power to stop herself from strangling Illumi and boiling him in hot water and feeding him to the wolves.
"Don't forget. If you don't confront me, your friend Gon will die."
"Go on, Killua!" Leorio screeched like an angry monkey. "Whatever happens, we won't let anyone get killed, not Gon, not you! Whatever he does, we'll stop him! Do what you want to do!"
Aliara tensed. She was worried for Killua.
"I lose."
The words came out of Killua's mouth made Aliara feel like a knife had plunged into her heart.
Then Illumi laughed. "Ha! I was lying to you, brother! I have no intention of killing Gon or Aliara. I only wanted to test you. Now I have what I wanted."
Aliara's head spun. What just happened?
"You don't have the qualifications to make friends," Illumi said, squatting down next to Killua, who looked upset, frustrated, and confused all at once. "More so, you don't need any."
The silence that followed made Aliara want to sob, kill Illumi, and just take out her anger on absolutely everyone right then and there.
Killua took slow, morbid steps away from Illumi. He went to the far wall near the door and slumped down against the wall. Aliara glared at the chairman- dammit, why did her match have to be next?- and said fiercely, "Two minutes," before she raced past Kurapika, Leorio, and everyone else and over to Killua, who was squatting with his back to the wall and his face tucked into his arms. The stares of the other participants followed her.
"Killua," she whispered. "Are you okay?"
He didn't say a word.
"Killua," she repeated.
Silence.
"Killua," she said again. "I don't care if you think you're not capable of having friends." More silence. "Gon and I are already your friends. This changes nothing. I promise. And... friends don't break promises, right?"
Still he ignored her. Aliara held back what she thought would be a strangled sob and she leaned down to Killua, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. "Oh my god, Killua," she whispered, her hands all the way at his back. She felt him shift, but that was it. Gritting her teeth, she stood up. "I'll fight Bodoro and win. And then you can fight him after and you can win too, and then we'll all be hunters. Okay?"
Aliara sensed Killua's blood lust building up but she turned away, glaring at anyone who was staring at her. "I'm ready to go," she announced angrily, her temper higher than she thought it had ever been, stomping into the center of the room. She turned, so she was facing Killua. Bodoro achingly stood up and started stretching, thanking Aliara for the extra time to rest. Aliara ignored him. She felt her own blood lust swelling up in her head, and she wanted to tear Illumi apart, limb to limb.
The ref called, "Begin!" and Aliara prepared herself to end this in one strike.
But then it happened.
She saw Killua move from behind Bodoro, stand up, and then appear right behind him.
He was going to kill someone. It was going to be the martial artist. She knew it.
"NO!"
The plan forming in her mind as she went, Aliara lunged forward so quickly that Bodoro thought she was lunging for him. The martial artist dodged to his right and barely missed Killua's strike as his right hand tore upwards, meant to strike Bodoro through the chest and kill him.
She blinked. Her plan had worked. She had gotten Bodoro to move, so Killua wouldn't kill him.
She blinked again. Her vision was fading. What happened?
She blinked for a third time, then a fourth, her blinking becoming rapid.
Killua withdrew his hand. He had missed Bodoro. So why was his hand covered in blood?
She stumbled. What happened?
"No," she heard, "No, no, no!"
It was Killua.
Why did her shoulder hurt? Her left shoulder felt like it was on fire. She raised her right hand to her shoulder and pulled it away, sticky with blood.
Her vision was fading even more rapidly now. Killua was just a blur of white. His face was shocked and so upset that Aliara was having trouble comprehending what happened. His blue eyes widened, and Aliara finally realized how pretty his sapphire eyes were. The small dots of blue blurred.
"Aliara!" someone called, but she couldn't tell who.
Killua had accidentally hit her instead. Consumed by blood lust, of course.
At least Bodoro hadn't gotten hit. He would've died.
And at least she was short, and she had ducked to the right, so that Killua's hit had taken her shoulder instead of her chest or neck.
"Oh," she breathed and her normally quick mind put together what had happened.
Then her knees buckled, and she fell to the ground, her face coming to rest in a pool of her own blood.
Night Owl: Thank you so so much! Your reviews mean a lot! :)
Guest: Unfortunately, that was Aliara. Sigh. O hope your soul is okay. Thanks for the review! :)
O: Aww thank you so so much!
Sorry for the late update. Hope you're all doing well!~
