I am so, so, so sorry for the long wait...I had a lot of trouble writing this chapter.
The usual disclamer applies, I do not own Hunter x Hunter, only Ayanna and other OC characters.
I tried to make it longer than normal, but I didn't really succeed.
I would like to thank my new beta reader FrustratedFruitLoops, and give special thanks to my previous Beta-er RhiannaWolf...I HOPE YOU CAN COME BACK ON SOON!
Well I'll just let all of you who actaully read these things go and read the rest of the chapter now xP
ENJOY~ xP
Danaki grew up in Yorkshin. He had a hard childhood, not many would have lived through it.
His dad was sentenced to a life time in prison, convicted of rape and murder.
Danaki screamed and cried, "No Daddy, don't leave me! I forgive you Daddy, I know Mommy forgives you too! Just don't let those guys take you away, Daddy, please don't leave me like Mommy left us... please Daddy!"
He never did find out that the real reason his father went to prison was because he raped and murdered women. He never did find out that his mother was, in fact, raped and then murdered by his father. He never did find out what had really happened to her, he only remembered bits and pieces of the truth… of her trying to leave them, and finally, leaving them.
"I'm sorry baby, Danaki, but Mommy can't stay here anymore. I hope you understand, but I promise I'll come back for you, I won't leave you alone." He remembers his mother telling him, he remembers her promises, her promising him to return. He was only three.
He doesn't remember going to his Dad only minutes after she left to tell him that Mommy left but that she promised to come back. His Dad left shortly after, returning later that night, splattered in blood.
"Good boy Danaki, you did a very good thing telling me about your mother leaving us. She was being a very bad girl, and bad girls deserve to be punished."
He was orphaned when he was only six years old.
Nobody would take him in; they didn't want anything to do with the "filthy" boy, as he often heard them call him.
He was left to live in the slums, to suffocate in the darkness of this world and drown in a sea of misery for five long years. He raised himself. He taught himself the ways of life at such a tender age when just the slightest amount of violence could influence someone to a life time of pain.
He scavenged for food in dumpsters and begged for spare change on street corners baking in the hot summer sun of Yorkshin city.
He lived in empty alleyways hoping the gangs that occupied them didn't come back that night.
He lived in fear for the first eleven years of his life…and he hated it!
Danaki, a kid of only eleven, orphaned for five years, and the son of a murderer, had no reason to live, and he didn't want anybody else to have one either.
Nothing held his soul to the Earth, nothing but hatred and vengeance.
"Life means nothing. Life is nothing…nothing but a lie. Life is a lie, and nobody knows the truth. I guess – I guess I'll just have to show them the truth, the truth to life."
Danaki killed for the first time when he was fifteen. He murdered a new family, the dad, the mom, and the newly born daughter.
"You thought you knew the truth, the truth to life, but if you did you wouldn't have died this way. You didn't know the truth, no, you knew the lie, the lie that everybody believes, but I knew the truth…and now you do to."
Danaki murdered another newly formed family when he was sixteen.
He murdered three more when he was seventeen.
And nine more when he was eighteen.
Every family had only three members like the first he killed three years previous, the dad, the mom, and a young daughter.
"No, no, please stop!" A small man whimpered from the ground where he lay, suffering from a shattered leg and broken heart. His clothing, which was clean, pressed, and ironed earlier that day, clung to his body from the blood pouring out of his wife's wounds.
"Stop! Please, just leave us alone, let us live, please don't…NO STOP!" He would scream and cry as he cradled his wives broken, limp, body in his arms while watching his daughter get slashed and beaten before his eyes.
He couldn't do a thing about it. His leg was broken, and even if he did try to get up (some have succeeded before) he would be delivering his wife to deaths doorstep, never to see her again.
"Stop it! Leave her alone!" He would scream, tears running down his already pale face. "Why are you doing this to us? We haven't don't anything wrong, we follow all the rules, we do everything we're told…I admit, we've had our fair share of arguments with other people but it was never anything worth this punishment, so why? Why are you doing this? Why can't you just leave us alone?"
"You thought you knew the truth, the truth to life, but if you did you wouldn't have died this way. You knew the lie, the lie that everybody believes, but I know the truth…and now you do too."
I watched the man in front of me, mentally assessing the possibility of being able to beat him in a fight. He wasn't very tall, maybe about Kurapica's height at most, and his light brown hair didn't do much to make him look super tough and scary. All in all, he liked like a pretty nice guy.
My palms began to tingle as I wondered what our match would be like. Would it be a death match like Tonpa's and Kurapica's? Or would it be a mental game like with Gon and Leorio?
I guess I'll just have to wait like everyone else…
"So, what's our match gonna be? Huh? Huh?" I asked him, images of intense hand-to-hand combat running through my mind. He didn't look like much, really. I could take him on and win, even if I wasn't the strongest close-ranged fighter around.
A friendly chuckle left his throat and I looked up at him in shock. Why did he sound like such a nice guy? He's a convict serving a hundred-year sentence, or maybe more according to Kurapica.
"It doesn't matter to me. Why don't you choose a game, little missy? It hardly seems fair that my team's always deciding what we're going to do," he offered smiling.
"Really, I can choose?" I turned back to my team, "Did you guys hear that? He's letting me pick the game! I got the nice one!"
A battery of possible competitions ran through my head: a friendly game of dice, a "whoever can eat the most whipped cream" battle… a jump roping contest – "Wait…I didn't bring my jump ropes!"
I slumped down to the ground; glaring at it as if it was its fault my jump ropes were still at home.
"Little missy, have you decided on a way to settle our match yet?"
"No, no, not yet, but I almost have it I swear… it's at the tip of my tongue."
Leorio fumbled for an answer to the girls question, is she a boy or a girl? It's pretty obvious if you ask me, you'd have to be really stupid to miss that one!
"You certainly look like a girl, but I think I'll play it safe and go with boy."
I nearly started to bang my head up against the stone wall.
"Is that your finally answer?" The girl smirked.
"Yes, my answer is…that you are a man! I'm betting ten hours on it!"
"I'm sorry to say, but I really am a girl."
The girl held out her hand in a paper formation, "I'm going to choose paper."
Rock, paper, scissors…rock beats scissors, scissors beat paper, and paper beats rock… "Choose scissors!"
Leorio began to sweat.
"Come on Leorio, choose scissors!"
He chose rock… and lost.
"Always choose the obvious choice…" I mumbled. "I know! We can play a game of catch!"
"Little missy?" My opponent asked, probably confused by my random outbursts.
"We can play a game of catch to figure out whose side gets the point."
My opponent nodded and asked what the rules of the match would be.
"Well, it can be like that game where you toss the egg back and forth until someone misses." I suggested.
"I've never played that," he shot it down.
"Well here," I walked up to the center of the platform we were standing on. "All we have to do is start at the center where I am now, and throw the ball back and forth to each other. Every time you catch the ball you take a step back until we both reach the edge of the platform. Whoever misses the ball loses!" I grinned.
"Are you sure that's the game you want to play, little missy?"
"Mhm, it'll be fun! Just wait," I turn to my team, "Can you guys get the ball out of my bag so we can play this game?"
Kurapica was the one closest to my bag so he nodded and opened it to look for my ball.
"So, mister, what's your name?" I asked my opponent.
He looked at me in silence for a couple moments before finally answering, "Danaki, and you, little missy?"
"I'm Ayann," I caught the ball Kurapica threw, ignoring the slightly freaked out look on his face-he probably saw my stuffed mouse. It looked pretty real if you asked me, or a high-class lady in a restaurant. Last time I took it out, she ran out the door screaming for me to keep that "deranged-animal-that-is-not-fit-to be-included-in-our-society" away from her.
Danaki nodded to me, and we both moved to our positions at the center of the platform.
"You can go first little missy." He gestured for me to start.
"Are you ready?"
"Of course."
"Then let's start!"
"So how long have they been at this now?" I heard Gon ask in exasperation as I caught the ball for the millionth time…fine, fine, maybe it was the ninety ninth thousandth time.
"About an hour…" Kurapica said at the same time Killua mumbled, "Too long." It was just loud enough for me to hear.
"Ayann, hurry up already!" Leorio shouted.
Everyone was getting impatient. I was too but, unfortunately, Danaki caught the ball again. What was I going to do to make this guy lose anyway?
"I'm trying!" I call back over my shoulder, barely catching the ball again before it hit the ground. "Now stop distracting me! Can't you see I'm busy?"
I threw the ball, hard, in the opposite corner he was standing in hoping to make him lose.
I watched him dive for it, catching it right before it fell over the edge.
"Oh come on!" I exclaimed in desperation. "If you were only a couple inches shorter you wouldn't have been able to reach that!"
He only smirked and threw the ball to the corner opposite to the one I was standing in.
'Stupid tall people…' I ran to catch it, stumbling over my feet and flailing like Killua probably would if he ever attempted to dance in my attempt to grab the ball before it went over the side and not fall over with it.
"I caught it!" I called from my position on the ground, nursing my bruised head. Somehow when I was chasing the ball I tripped over my shoe, caught the ball, and went flying into the torch pole.
Slowly standing, I grabbed onto the pole to pull myself up, deciding it was time to end this game before I got hurt again.
Reeling my arm back into the position I would normally hold it if I was going to shoot an arrow, I swung my arm, once…twice…three times and watched it fly at high speed to the opposite corner. I watched him as he made a dash for it, watched him as he dived for it, and watched him not catch it.
"I did it! I did it! Did you guys see that? I won!" I did a little happy dance, jumping up and down in a circle.
"Ayann, look out!" Gon shouted and I looked at him in confusion.
"You should have listened to your friend, little missy." A harsh voice infiltrated my senses; I began to feel lightheaded and wobbly. My legs felt weak, and my lungs burned. [1]
A blurry hand reached out towards my throat. Why can't I see? It got closer and my knees got weaker.
I stepped back, and felt my stomach drop, my head spin. Distantly, I could hear someone's screams… wait, was that my voice?
"Ayann!"
Tonpa you jerk! "I wanted to fight him," I mumbled to myself while Tonpa walked across the thin walkway to begin the first fight. "Tonpa you better not lose!"
He stood across from the bald man with scars on his head. I watched, and waited. What was going to happen?
"Let's decide how we're going to do this," The bald man says. Tonpa nods. "I say we have a death match."
I gasped.
Tonpa gulped.
Leorio paced.
Gon stared.
Kurapica blinked.
Killua yawned.
"We fight until either one of us admits defeat or dies from his wounds, sound okay to you?"
"Do you guys think he'll be okay?" I asked my group.
Kurapica was the one to answer me. "I don't know, we weren't expecting anything like this."
Tonpa accepted.
"Is he insane?"
"You're brave, I respect that." The bald man said while walking forward, his pace slowly crawling into a steady full out sprint. His hands posed to strike Tonpa at full force, aimed for his throat.
We watched with bated breath.
Tonpa took two resolute steps backward and dropped to his knees. Slowly so that his actions wouldn't be misinterpreted, he touched his head to the ground, shouting, "I SURRENDER!"
"Wha…what?" The man stopped, his hand only inches from where Tonpa's throat would have been.
"Did he…did he…did he just surrender?" I was confused. He didn't just surrender right? He was just faking right? The fight hadn't even started yet!
"I said I surrender." He lifted himself from the ground. "I guess you've beaten me… I never stood a chance."
"Tonpa, you idiot! You didn't even try!" I yelled.
'Am I really going to go down without even putting up a fight?'
My hand reached out trying to grab anything to stop my falling momentum. Why was I falling again?
I grabbed something, my arm jerked, I came to a stop.
"Oh yeah, he was going to hit me or something, and I stepped back?" I told myself. "Did I step over the edge? Really, how stupid can I get?"
'No way am I going down without a fight!'
Slowly I began to shimmy up whatever I had grabbed onto to stop my fall. It was pretty thin, and felt like metal, it kind of reminded me of Gon's fishing rod...but this was thicker than that, and longer.
Crumbling earth met my head and I tried to grab a hand hold of that, but found I didn't need to.
Below me was a staircase, a staircase that I could have used this whole time, a staircase that could have saved me a lot of trouble, a staircase that was going to find itself being yelled at soon.
I landed with a thud on the stone stairs and slowly began my trek upwards. The closer I got the more sounds I heard, mostly ones of my group screaming my name and Leorio swearing at Danaki.
A patch of light a few steps ahead of me…one step...three steps….five steps…there!
And somehow I'm on my back with a knife pressed to my throat. How?
"You thought you knew the truth, the truth to life, but if you did you wouldn't have died this way. You didn't know the truth, no, you knew the lie, the lie that everybody believes, but I knew the truth…and now you do to." Danaki said, pushing the knife harder against my skin. The piercing pain woke me up.
"The truth? What do you mean by that?"
Kurapica stood over his fallen opponent, the one he knocked out.
"Did he really just knock him out with one punch?" I look at Leorio, shocked.
He only nodded in reply, still staring straight ahead at Kurapica.
"Remember these three things," Blondie began. "Number one, if you really were a part of the phantom troop your tattoo would include your member number, which it doesn't. Number two, they wouldn't bother to keep track of the people they've already murdered. Three, don't ever speak of the phantom troop again."
"What truth do you mean? There are a lot of truths in this world, the truth about smiles, the truth about secrets, the truth about friendship, the truth about death, the truth –"
"Little missy," He cut me off, his blade pressing deeper into my already bleeding neck. "I don't care about any of those truths; I only care about the truth to life."
"But life and death are one of the same, aren't they?"
"No, not at all."
"Yes they are!" I exclaimed. "The truth to life is the same as death. Everyone has one shot at life so make it the best you can. Don't hold back because you only have one shot at it. Everyone dies at one point or another so just live life to the best of your ability and-" He pushed the blade deeper, cutting of my next words. I coughed, still attempting to speak, "-and have no regrets so when your time comes you don't wish for something you can never have."
He didn't answer, or move for that matter, so I took my chances with pushing the blade away from my throat and jumping away from him, rolling and bouncing back to my feet before he even had the chance to turn around. I think I managed to stun him with what I said, but still, i probably shouldn't, but…"Live life to the best of your ability remember; no regrets and no wishes." I smiled and made a dash for the thin walkway leading back to my team.
He cut me off, "Do you really think you're going to get away so easily?"
"No, but it never hurt to try." I gave in to my urge to stick my tongue out at him, "No regrets and no wishes~"
He lunged for me, his hands outstretched and reaching for my throat.
Gon held the candle, watching as it continued to get smaller, and smaller and smaller. "Ow, hot! It burns!" Gon yells, "It's hot wax!"
"Gon," I scream, what is he going to do now? Are we really going to lose again…and on the second match too?
The short stump of a candle hit the ground after Gon let it drop, I held my breath… I think everybody else did too.
"Oh no, what's going to happen now," I glanced at Killua, he actually looked interested in what was going on, for once.
"What is he doing?" Leorio asked.
I looked back to the match just in time to see Gon blow out his opponent's candle…it was…it was…
"Gon, you're a genius!"
He lunged for me, his hands outstretched and reaching for my throat.
I jumped away, tripping over the ball.
"Maybe…"
He lunged again.
The ball looked at me, as if mocking me. He wasn't going after the ball now was he?
"Maybe…" I grabbed the ball and rolled away again, this time towards my walkway.
He lunged again.
"Maybe…" I looked at the ball; then looked at him, his face pulled back in a sneer.
"Definitely," Smiling manically, I threw the ball hard towards his face. It was extremely satisfying to watch the ball bounce off his stunned face.
"No regrets and no worries!" I ran back across the walkway, looking at him over my shoulder, "I won!"
My team looked at me, and I smiled, "I won! Thanks you guys…if it wasn't for all your matches before mine I definitely would have lost."
They nodded – like they weren't even paying attention to me – "Well, we need one more point in order to win." Leorio said.
Why weren't they paying attention to me anymore? Just five minutes ago they were screaming my name in worry but now that I'm safe I don't get any congratulations for winning! How rude…
"It looks like I'm up next," Killua smirked, walking up towards the walkway to start his fight. "I was getting so bored of watching I almost fell asleep."
"Hey," I cried. "My match was not boring!"
He just sent me the "You're not fooling anybody" look.
"Bitter old man…"
A sputtering sound came from Leorio and I looked back at him, only to see him wallowing in his self pity, "If I had known Killua was going to be last I would have tried harder during my match!"
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"
I snickered, "Serves you right…"
Killua glared and me and Leorio, the switched his gaze to my-self proclaimed twin, "Gon, these guys are really getting on my nerves!"
Faking a gasp I hugged Killua, "Oh how your words wound me! But don't you worry I will continue to get on your nerves – I mean, be your best friend who has a tendency to speak without thinking because that is what best friends are for." I smiled.
Leorio pulled me off said boy before he could respond, or more than likely glare, "Now is not the time for games Ayann," He looked at Killua, "If this match requires the use of a brain Killua doesn't stand a chance!"
Killua scowled, "I don't want to hear this from someone who just lost us forty-five hours in his last match, and yeah, I'll admit, I'd probably lose if I had to answer a bunch of math questions!"
"Don't worry about it," Gon and I said at the same time. Then he branched off and said, "Whatever match you have I'm sure you'll do fine."
What he should have said, and what I did say was, "Even if you lose I'll still be here to get on your nerves when you get back!"
He frowned.
"Clip-clack!' I looked across the way to see a tall, burly man. He had brown hair, a brown mustache, and was that a permanent frown on his face? If it wasn't for his huge muscles I might have thought he was sickly because of how the skin on his face was sunken in.
"Meet Jonas the Dissector," The voice from the table told us. Looks like it wasn't the table talking after all…
"Who is that?"
"J-Jonas!" Leorio shouted.
Staring across the way Killua asked, "Who's he?"
Leorio, still looking pretty freaked out said, "Killua, I don't think you should fight this guy."
"He's the worst mass murderer in the history of Zaban city." Tonpa told us.
"Really, how many has he killed?" Killua actually seemed interested in something…didn't think I'd see the day…
"They only have 146 confirmed victims, but authorities are assuming that there are more. It's hard to know for sure because he rips his victims into fifty different pieces or more and they have to piece them back together from parts found from all over the city. That's how he got his name, Jonas the Dissector." Kurapica explained.
Jonas, he rips people into lots of different pieces and then scatters them around the city?
"Hey Killua, I don't think you have anything to worry about…were not in the city so he can't scatter your remains! Oh, but then again, I don't think you should try to die either…I wouldn't have anyone to talk to besides Gon, Kurapica, Leorio, and possibly Tonpa. It'd get boring without my best friend." Don't die Killua…please don't die.
He started to walk across the thin walkway.
Jonas was letting the dust from a chunk of rock he broke off from the wall flutter from his hand into the breeze. He too started to walk across the thin walkway.
"I've never seen hand strength like that," Killua commented almost approvingly.
"Hey Killua, where are you going?" Leorio cried. "It's okay to forfeit fright now… we can always take the exam again next year, nobody should be expected to fight against that guy!"
"Bitter old man…" I whispered, Kurapica's hand on my shoulder being the only thing holding me back from dragging Killua back to our side and then tying him to…to…something that would hold him!
"Don't try to stop me," Killua smirked, looking back at us from over his shoulder, "This is finally getting interesting…I can't wait to play."
"This isn't a game Killua!" Leorio's eyes narrowed and his face became grim.
"Leorio, just leave him alone…No regrets and no worries, remember?" I sent him a small smile. Killua you better not die.
"It's pretty obvious that that guy isn't going to choose an intellectual match. He's just itching to get his hands bloody." Leorio protested, angry at the blatant disregard displayed towards Killua's situation.
While Gon was assuring him that it'd be fine, I settled for screaming: "Killua if you die I'll bring you back to life just to kill you myself!"
Killua stood in front of Jonas, his hands in his pockets and his back slouched back. He looked pretty relaxed if you asked me.
Jonas's hands clenched and he answered Killua previous question of what type of match were they going to have. "You're mistaken, this isn't going to be a match…it's going to be a one-sided murder."
I flinched.
Jonas continued, "I don't care about the exam or reducing my sentence…I just want to dig my hands into your flesh and hear your screams and cries of agony, it'll be music to my ears."
"So it'll be a death match then?" Killua confirmed, "Whoever dies loses?"
Kurapica and Leorio shouted their objections, Gon stayed silent, Tonpa looked surprised, and I…well I was playing with my stuffed pet mouse.
"Heh, get ready to –" Jonas's voice stopped abruptly and I looked up.
Killua held Jonas's still beating heart in his hand, the crimson blood dripping to the floor making soft pit – pat sounds on the ground. His lips were pulled back into a malicious grin, his eyes dark.
The front of Jonas's shirt began to flood with blood from the open wound in his chest, "G..gi..give it back…give it…" He repeated multiple times, reaching for his still beating heart.
Killua's hand began to tighten around the heart until it exploded and Jonas fell to the floor, dead.
"So we now have four wins and two losses," Killua put his still-bloody hands into his pockets. "Which means we win right?"
"Yeah," The bald man said, "Behind me is a small room, you guys will wait out the forty-five hours you lost in there."
I was the first to recover, "You won! We won! I knew we wouldn't lose just yet…definitely not so early in the exam, Leorio."
Finally done!
And in case any of you were wondering:
[1] The reason she was lightheaded was because she stopped breathing but hasn't yet realized it herself...but I guess it kind of saved her life, right?
Wow that chapter took forever, but thank you Frustratedfruitloop~ You helped me a lot on this chapter xD
Well review please, tell me how I did~