Chapter 25
Tricia's PoV
According to both Killua and Takuya, the test mission had gone decently well. Killua's Raikori had meshed well with Takuya and Hikaoki's Hatsu, the three proving to be a fearsome combo.
"Trica, let me ask you something." Killua said after describing the events of the mission. "How does your clan move at an impossible speed?"
It seemed as though the assassin had been awed by Takuya's impressive movement speed.
"Well, being a Kaiko definitely helps." I replied, "Kaikos are built for speed, unlike you humans that are built for endurance and durability."
"Hm?" Killua inquired, already intrigued.
"We're built to be lighter than the average human, which makes us faster but a lot more easier to injure. Kaiko blood makes up for this, though." I said. This was also the reason why none of the Kaikos fought hand-to-hand. Everyone either used weapons or nen, since punching someone could literally break our fingers.
"I see…" He commented, mulling over my mini-biology lesson. "So if I punched you right now…"
"You would very likely break a bone, yes."
Killua nodded in understanding. "But your Kaiko blood would heal it over while using your nen."
"Yep."
Killua took this into consideration. "Ah, so none of you do direct hand-to-hand." I nodded.
Although this conversation was rather random, it was necessary to cover some plot holes and inform the readers why the Kaikos are not OP or a Mary Sue race. Thank you.
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Hikaoki's PoV
Hehehehe remember the Gate-Key thing from the Cultivation arc?
"All the keys are gathered." Hikaoki stated, looking over several papers. "When should I plan for departure?"
Takuya glaced out of the window with his Ravin eye, then recalling the message the Author had left for him. "After Okami is defeated. We will need your help in the final fight."
"Understood." Hikaoki replied. The eight year project was coming to an end.
And hopefully, this war would not end in another massacre. What lay beyond the gates that Shadow had described, she didn't know. "Shadow has mentioned a mass wipe of memory once the ritual was completed. No ties will be left lose through this method."
"I assume that no one will remember you?"
"That is the expected."
There was a moment of comfortable silence as Hikaoki shuffled through some papers. Hikaoki felt a sense of nostalgia, almost. Not quite… though, to be honest. That sense was confused on how to feel as much as her.
If Hikaoki had to compare it, it was almost like death, although much less ominous. She didn't know what would lay beyond the gates of the ritual, and neither did Shadow. What she did know was that it would be very unlikely for her to ever set foot in this world ever again. Even if she did, nobody would remember her.
That besides, it was still far too early to begin worrying about the ritual. Okami still had to be defeated, and if the message Takuya had received was correct, there would be a second enemy lurking in the darkness.
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Tricia's PoV
A Week Later
According to the results of both her and Killua's training, both of the should be battle-worthy. Her swordsmanship was still good and Killua's Raikori was satisfactory. Her Hatsu would be limited to Timelapse, but that didn't bother her as much as she thought it would.
Timelapse had always been her strongest and signature move, after all.
About the seven swords, most of them were impossible for here to use anymore. The only ones left were number three, Hunter's Bane and number four. The fact that she could still use number four didn't really surprise her, though. She had originally created it as an extremely last-minute option with one limitation.
'Number four can only be used once.'
If the fight with Okami went downhill, she would use number four as a means to bring him down.
"Tricia?" KIllua said, almost appearing out of nowhere. He had a stack of papers in hand, most likely the ones that Takuya had given him in order to bring him up to touch with the events surrounding the Kaikos. "I have a question about something."
"What is it?" Tricia asked.
"It's about Cheriko, the Blood Reaper that participated in the Phantom Troupe issue." He explained. "It says in her file that she has the ability to manipulate blood along with reanimating dead bodies able to use their Hatsu, is that correct?"
"Yeah," Tricia replied, remembering the bloody scene and the dried husks of once-living people that she had left at the Ten Don's meeting place. She certainly have the title of 'Blood Reaper' for nothing. "What about her?"
"Well," Killua began, "It says here that she can only reanimate bodies in good condition, and that her normal style of fighting results in a destroyed body. That was the one flaw in her nearly perfect Hatsu. The thing that's bothering me, is that there is no indication of any of the bodies that she's already collected. She could bypass her one weakness with a reanimated body."
"I see…" Tricia responded. She was starting to see his concern now. Cheriko had never revealed any of her other collected bodies other than her two signature katana-wielding ones. Taking her fearsome reputation and record into consideration, there was no doubt that she had collected quite a few powerful nen users. "Even so, Cheriko shouldn't be able to do anything. She doesn't have access to this realm that were currently trapped in. Even if you assumed that she somehow got into this realm, the Council would be able to fend her off."
"Hm, so that's how it is." Killua replied, his mind wandering off. "When do you think the war will be over?"
"The war…" This was something Tricia had to think about. It was quite difficult to say, to be honest. Werewolf activity wouldn't stop the moment they defeated Okami, similarly to how the Kaikos wouldn't stop even if Kelsi was killed in battle. The werewolves would most likely cease activity for while in order to replace their leader as fast as possible, but otherwise she couldn't see an end until they pressured them to surrender. The chances of that, where far from likely. "This war will probably end when we prove to them that we can't be defeated without a large loss on their end." Tricia finished.
"The Hunter Association would probably finish them off easily if they were weaken that badly, right?" Killua wondered out loud, Tricia nodding at his response.
"Netero's already helping us by defending some key locations and providing us with any information that we might need. If he did anymore, it would alert all the hunters in the world about his involvement and the Kaiko's existance. If that happens, we'll just have more enemies to defend from."
There was an unspoken question in the air, although neither of them brought it up.
"Do we really stand a chance against the werewolves?"
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Kelsi's PoV
The Kaikos were in a tricky situation, that was for sure. The interesting this was, Takuya's mysterious source only seemed to care about Okami's defeat, nothing else.
That only meant one thing to Kelsi: Only Okami's death matters, nothing else. The Author had control over their fate. Although he/she couldn't couldn't make the impossible possible, the Author was already pulling strings in the Kaiko's favor.
And whoever this 'Author' was saw that defeating Okami was the only way out of this darkness.
And it would be up to Kelsi to interpret how to go about doing it.
"So that's what the Author sees…" The leader said, looking over all of the information that she had been given. The werewolves wouldn't be able to operate offensively when they were deciding on their next leader. They had a system much more complex than the Kaiko's due to their large size, a system that requires much more time to operate.
So, the Kaikos would have to run in that short time frame. They would have to return to their motherland that they had rejected for so long. The same motherland that had abandoned them. Kelsi would have previously thought that there was no way that they would accept them back, that they would have to resort to something else.
But before she got ahead of herself, she had to plan Okami's defeat first.
"Takuya, Tricia, and me." Kelsi muttered under her breath. "Why Tricia though?..."
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Cheriko's PoV
The golden time was coming.
It was near, oh so very near.
"Okami-kun~" She purred into the phone, a malicious smile spreading ovre her face.
"Stop calling me that." Okami shot back, static slightly clouding his words. "When's Kelsi going to attack?"
"Why should I tell you?" Cheriko chirped, now with a happy-go-lucky smile while she swung her leg back and forth. "You haven't completed your side of the deal yet."
"I sent you the information that I have about Kelsi, isn't that what we agreed on?" Okami replied, irritated with the Blood Reaper. Cheriko continued smiling.
"Fine…" The pinkette pouted, "Kelsi's going to attack you tomorrow, how about that?"
"I see." Okami replied sharply. "Anything else."
"Nope." Cheriko siad, popping the 'p'. After all, there was a limit to how much information that she could obtain from her low position in the Kaikos. She wasn't even allowed in the realm, for pete's sake!
But, none of that really mattered to her. Tomorrow, everything would be okay. All of the work that she had put in for the past eight years would come back to her, tomorrow.
All that time she spent hunting down the best of the best nen users to add them to her collection, all that time would be worth it.
"But Okami~" Cheriko whined once more, standing up in the night breeze, looking down at her newly-obtained bodies. "Are you sure that I have strong enough puppets?"
"You have plenty of them.": Okami said, annoyed at Cheriko's antics. "Besides, didn't you just obtain the assassins from the Zoldyck family?"
"Yep!" Cheriko chirped, the fresh blood creeping to her feet.
In front of her lay the bodies of Silva and Illumi Zoldyck.
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Killua's PoV
After reading through the extensive files that Takuya had given him, Killua wasn't up for much.
But even so, he somehow found his way to the news feed on his phone.
Is the prime minister possessed?
Goat gets elected as mayor.
Protesters speak out against raising taxes
"Do people have anything else to do nowadays?" Killua muttered as he swiped past an article about someone with a Tetris fetish. "
It wasn't before long, however, that his news feed refreshed. This time, there was a new article in the headlines.
Mysterious pool of blood is found in front of the Zoldyck manor
Killua's blood ran cold as he tapped on the article with shaking fingers.
According to tourist Mary Lee, she found the mysterious pool of blood in front of the Zoldyck manor at around 10 pm tonight.
"I've never seen anything like it before." Mary said with a shaky voice. "One moment I was looking for my missing phone, the next I was looking at a pool of red."
The Zoldycks have refused to reveal anything about this incident, leaving us to wonder who that blood belongs to.
"I just hope that is wasn't a poor passerby," Mary continued. "We all know-
Killua stopped reading, flicking downward until he found a photo of the scene.
The picture was dark and it was difficult to discern the details in the blood, but amongst the red, Killua was able to discern a strand of hair.
A silvery-blond one.
Killua paled as he recognized that color of hair. After all, it was too similar to his own.
His father had been killed. Silva Zoldyck was no longer in this world.
And the worst part was, Killua didn't know how to feet about it.
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An
Yes, go ahead and shoot me. This chapter was difficult to write as I has put it down as a blank during my planning, which, of course, is not a good idea.
Guess what? Only two more chapters until Illusion is finished. Wowsies. Kudos to me