So, I realized last chapter that, poor Basil! You know how with the time-loop-thing-whatnot it halves the time in the dimension she isn't in? Well, that means she ages two times faster! I mean, it's not that big of a deal with Ten, in her world, since she'll still live longer than others, but in the HunterXHunter world she's going to age much, much sooner than the others! DX Poor her! She'll be like 14 in her world or something according to the date, 15 in the HunterXHunter world according to the date, and 17 in both according to her body, while the others are still 12-looking! DX Poor Basil! What? NO! My brain can't handle, and I'm the AUTHOR! DX
KonekoNoRenkinjutsushi - Yes, thank you! I got it now! I know, me too! I can just see the look on Killua's face, like, WTF? Bye? Where's she going? She's just falling asleep! His brain will probably on overtime right now, lol. Poor him. Yes, me too. *Wink wink* I always have to squeal a bit whenever I see a new message in my inbox saying a new review or chapter.
Guest - Yeah, control Z. That works on a lot of computers. However, the buttons I had pressed hadn't deleted the story part like that, no, it reloaded the page before I had saved so as to end up erasing everything. There's no control Z for that. :'(
Zeladious - Hehe... I is calmed now. Ish. I'm making sure not to make the same mistake again! Yeah, me too... My mom has often times caught me yelling at the computer screen for someone 'not to be so stupid' or for them to 'kiss already' or things like that... hehe...
Liz - Keep reading, you'll see!
"Beauty is the disinterested one, without which the ancient world refused to understand itself, a word which both imperceptibly and yet unmistakably has bid farewell to our new world, a world of interests, leaving it to its own avarice and sadness." - Hans Urs von Balthasar
Re-cap:
...
Silence.
Minus the snoring and scratching sounds from the boys.
I decided to make out pictures in the ceiling to pass the time. It always helped before.
"Can't sleep?" I almost jumped. I turned to see Killua was still awake. I would've sworn he was asleep... I shrugged, then smiled as I remembered the first conversation Gon and I had.
"Yeah. I haven't gotten any sleep for who knows how long anymore." I replied. I continued to stare at the ceiling. There was more silence. I could tell Killua was pondering the answer I gave him. I chuckled, then turned over on my side away from him.
"What do you mean?" Killua asked. I glanced over at him over my shoulder to see he was now sitting next to me. I turned my head away from him again. "You don't seem like you haven't been sleeping. 'Specially when you slept quite a bit here in this room."
"Do you believe in miracles?" I asked Killua. More silence. I guess he was surprised by the question I posed.
"Sure. I guess."
"And do you believe that for something good to be given, something of equal value must be taken?" I asked. I could feel him nod. I paused in silence for a bit, then closed my eyes. "Goodbye Killua. I'll see you when I get back."
And with that, I fell asleep.
End Re-cap
It was the last day. I'd spent quite enough time in my world, and starting my practice with Gyo was the next step in my training. I also had to figure out what Hatsu abilities I should make for myself. I wanted something original, something useful. Something that could be used for both offence and defence, easy to use, but not overly simple that people could figure out how to combat it immediately. Though at the current moment I was just wanting to work on my Gyo. I could withstand ten seconds of Ren, which was terrible in my opinion, but it was a lot better than when I started out. Who needed Zetsu? Clearly not I, I was able to use everything else without it. Except In. I figured, if I couldn't use Zetsu, I couldn't use In either.
I slammed a fist down onto my open palm. That was it! I'd make a Hatsu ability which I could use to help in situations where I'd need Zetsu!
I glanced over at Gon and Killua who were doing some push-ups upside down. I tilted my head at them. How was that possible? As Killua caught my gaze I looked away from him, only to see a shirtless Leorio doing squats. I sighed and looked away from him as well, then walked over to Crisei and Kura who were reading books.
8 hours left, and breakfast was served. I scarfed down as much as my small stomach could handle, which wasn't a lot, then went back to the couch to practice my Gyo. It was hard, and I could only keep it up for a split second at the current moment. Normally I could keep it up for, what, two seconds average? However, here, in this world, I was going straight from Ten to Gyo, instead of practicing by using my Ren as an interval. I didn't want to use my Ren here and have the others start to question me.
My thoughts were broken by a food fight that almost broke out between Gon and Killua if Kurapika hadn't intervened. I couldn't help but smile at the two boys.
6 hours left. Kurapika's pile of books was growing really tall, and everyone was getting pretty bored.
"Hey wanna play a game?" Killua said, breaking the silence. I looked up at him, curious.
"What game?" Gon asked.
"Is it complicated?" I asked. Killua shrugged.
"If you're the capturer, you have to try to capture the other person's hand while they try to slide past your hands. If you capture their hands you get to give them a punishment, but if they slip past them you win and give them a punishment." Killua replied. I smiled. Sounded easy.
"Ok!" Gon said.
"What's the punishment?" I asked. Killua smirked.
"You'll see."
Gon and Killua went first. Killua caught Gon's hand and gave him a hard flick on the forehead. "Ow!" Gon said as he held his head. I giggled.
"Alright, let me try," I said. Killua held his hands out and I got ready, staring at his hands, but patiently waiting. Then I looked up at Killua. "So, if you win then you're going to-" As I was speaking to distract him I tried to slip my hands speedily past his. Unfortunately Killua was too smart and still caught my hands. I pouted. "Darn, I really thought I got you." I braced for the flick on my forehead, but It never came. I opened my eyes to see Killua waiting.
"Your punishment isn't a flick," he said. Shit. What is it then? "It's a question. What did you mean? Yesterday?" I looked at him, confused, then remembered. Shoot. Well, I was wanting to tell them soon anyways... But I was so unsure, so, afraid. I wasn't sure why, but it didn't feel right.
"I- Uh..."
"Ne, Killua, what did she tell you last night?" Gon asked. Killua didn't even look at him as his eyes narrowed slightly and answered.
"She said she hasn't had sleep in a very long time, and then, before she 'fell asleep' she said 'Goodbye, I'll see you when I get back.'" I looked away from him, only to notice Leorio, Kurapika, Tonpa, and Crisei were all staring at me now. I grit my teeth.
"Oh! Just like she said to me when we first met! She said she hadn't slept for a week, then she said she had slept, but she hadn't slept, and I was really confused... I'd forgotten about that."
"Basil, what's going on?" I looked at Kurapika's questioning face, then sighed.
"I'm... Not from here," I replied. Everyone scooted around me, and my face flushed as I scooted back.
"So you're an alien? Cool!" Gon exclaimed. That made me smile.
"In a way, yes." Everyone stared at me like I was crazy. "It's up to you whether you believe me or not, but..." I trailed off, then sighed. "I'm... From a different dimension. I come here whenever I sleep, then go back to my world whenever I sleep here. It's really complicated, but-"
"So you literally haven't gotten any sleep from since you got to this dimension to now," Crisei mused, stroking his chin. After a second, he fumed. "What the heck? Why didn't you tell us this before! This is really serious!" Kurapika patted his shoulder to calm him down, then looked at me.
"This explains a lot. Especially with you not waking up until you want to, occational rips in your clothes that weren't there before, and even the exaustion you have on your face after you wake up. Normally someone wakes up rested, but you wake up like you've been out at the gym all day." I looked down, but smiled. They believed me... However, I was told not to tell them about Nen, so I'd leave the rest up to their imagination.
"Kai-san said I should tell someone so they could help me throughout the exam, but I didn't want to place that burden on anyone's shoulders... Plus, I-" I was cut off by a hug. I turned, curious as to who it was, and came face to face with black, green and white as I was pushed to the ground by the two boys.
I was afraid, but I didn't want to tell them that. This was what friends were like. Real friends, those who stayed by you and laughed with you... Ones who actually made life special.
And I knew they'd be able to help me, now that they knew the truth.
Although I was very worried about Tonpa.
He had a confused but sly smile on his face.
One minute left. "This is one long minute." Leorio said. I groaned as well. We all waited, until finally the bell rung. Gon rushed out followed by Killua, then me, then Crisei, Kurapika, Leorio and Tonpa. As we all raced along the path, we were forced with many choices. Right, left, to continue or not... We continued to press button after button, and continuously fell into traps or hard paths, though we didn't know if the paths we chose were the easier ones or not.
We had an hour left by the time we reached the point where everyone was starting to get stressed or annoyed at each other, the doors, the choices, anything they could think of. Even I was starting to get stressed. I felt annoyed currently at Tonpa, who I had decided to call Tom. He was quite annoying, to say in the least, and I couldn't wait until he was eaten or crushed or left behind.
Honestly, at first I felt bad of my feelings towards the man, but after a bit I decided i didn't care. He was really getting on everyone's nerves, and I didn't care what happened to him anymore.
"We're supposed to vote on whether to open the door? Of course we will!" Leorio said as we faced another door, much like others. The question bothered me. Why would we vote to go on? Shouldn't it be obvious? Who wouldn't go on, besides legless crab biscuits who were such pussies they had to press O for sake of saving their skins for no apparent reason. Who knew, this could be the end.
Unfortunately, someone pressed O. Leorio and I both flung around to face Tonpa, in which an argument ensued. Unfortunately, our actions were unjust as it was actually Gon who hit the O. It was by accident, but it caused me to hate myself and have to apologize to Tonpa for accusing him. After that I decided to leave the Tom conflicts to Leorio.
On the other side of the door was another door. Killua read it aloud.
"This will be the last decision made by majority rule. Are you ready? Choose O or X," he stated simply.
"Am I ready? You bet." Leorio replied.
Once again, everyone pressed O except for one. This time, it turned out to be Tonpa. There was more arguing, even though the door had already opened, and we were aloud in. Two more doors.
"Seriously?" I said, quite annoyed. I waited for someone to read it aloud for me. Currently Crisei was the only one that knew I couldn't read. Thankfully he hadn't told anyone. It would've been really embarrassing...
"Please select a path. There are two choices. One path allows 7 to pass, but is long and difficult. The other path only allows three, and is short and easy. Incidentally, the long and difficult path requires a minimum of forty-five hours. The short and easy path leads to the goal in approximately three minutes. Press O for the long and difficult path, or X for the short and easy path. If X is selected, 4 people will be secured to the wall by handcuffs, before the door will open. The four chained members will be unable to move until the time limit expires." I stared at the ceiling with a frown. I raised my hand respectively out of habit.
"Um, what about Crisei? He's not really taking the exam," I said. Silence. I looked over at Crisei, who just shrugged.
"He will have to be tied, but will be released to join you at the bottom," the voice from the intercom finally replied. Then there was more awkward silence.
"The examiners were very prepared. I think they have every weapon under the sun here." Killua finally said to break the silence.
"I wonder if we can keep any," I asked. I looked up at the ceiling, and, hearing no objection, decided to look around for something I could use. I made sure to listen to the others too though. I didn't want to come in mid-conversation and not know what was happening.
"Three out of 6… So we're supposed to fight, to decide which three pass?" Kurapika asked. I glowered at him. I would not fight them. I opened my mouth to object but Leorio beat me to it.
"Let me make this clear," he said. "I'm going to press X. But I have no intention of staying behind. I'll do whatever it takes to be one of the three who pass on…" I almost laughed.
"You're shameless. Had you not wasted fifty hours, we would be able to take the long and difficult path. Shouldn't you take responsibility and stay behind?" Tonpa said.
"What?" Leorio said, starting to get angry.
"I have to agree," Crisei said.
"You have no say in the matter!" Leorio yelled. "You get to come either way!" That shut Crisei up.
"I'm sure everyone else agrees too! Have I said anything inaccurate?" Tonpa continued. I spoke up.
"Why not something less violent like a short game or something?" I asked. They glowered at me and I shrunk back, looking back at the weapons. A couple small daggers caught my attention and I grabbed them, tracing my finger along the bone-like design, twirling them in my fingers.
"Hold on. I'm going to press O. We made it all the way here together. I want us all to pass together." I turned to Gon, a little shocked. I mean, if we pressed O, we'd never make it!
"Gon…" Kurapika started.
"Even if it's a big risk, I want to give it a shot!" Gon said. I walked over to him.
"Gon, we don't have the time. We kind of have to press X."
"Yeah, Basil's right Gon," Killua continued. "Come on, you can really call this a risk. We have less than an hour. Gon, there's only one choice, if you want to pass this exam."
"There you have it." Leorio said. For some reason, as I looked at Gon's face, I felt kind of bad for him. Like I'd let him down or something...
"Now we have to decide how to choose which three pass. Well, I'm planning that on being you, Basil, and me." Killua said to Gon. I looked at Killua, surprised. How could he choose so fast? Honestly, I don't think I would be able to choose. I'd want Kurapika, Gon, and Killua, but I would have to let one of them down if I wanted to go with them.
And then, Tonpa threw an axe at Leorio.
"Tonpa! That was dirty!" Leorio yelled as it narrowly missed him and dug into the wall behind him.
"In a fight, there's no such thing as dirty!" Tonpa yelled back. I backed up, not wanting to be apart of it if I could help it.
"Stop this, you two!" Kurapika yelled.
"Yeah, stop it! Let's find another way to deal with it!" I said as well.
"C'mon, let's do it together," Gon begged.
"Before we start fighting, we have to choose X or O!" Leorio yelled at Tonpa.
"Too late for that!" Tonpa said. Leorio grit his teeth as he grabbed a large weapon as well.
"Time to put you in your place!" he yelled.
"Right back at you." Tonpa replied.
"Seems our only chance is to fight." Killua said. I looked at him like he was insane.
Run. I'd always been taught to run or hide. Then I realized I could fight. It was an option. I could do it. But fighting wasn't a good thing. Honestly, right now I just wished everyone would stop and settle things nicely!
Time. We just needed time. Why was it there, taunting me? I had too much of it, yet never enough. Just when it seemed to help me, it'd backlash and show me I was actually behind. I had no control over it. I couldn't stop it, I couldn't fix anything. And now everyone was going to fight and I felt like it was all my fault.
And so I grabbed onto Crisei and held tight to his clothes and sobbed, shaking even though the tears would still not fall.
Thanks for reading!