I'm back everyone! This week has been/ is really busy! I had to work on speeches since I'm presenting on Monday (Great XP) and there was a music trip today and I have a piano competition tomorrow and tons more projects that are just killing me! (Why is everything in April!) How tiring. But two god things! It's warm outside! I don't have to wear a winter coat anymore! :D And I had been able to actually write a new chapter through all that and update on time! So here you go, the second chapter of the Chimera Ant arc!
Disclaimer: I do not own Hunter x Hunter.
I opened my eyes, staring at into a blank ceiling above me as I laid on my back. I closed my eyes tightly before reopening them but saw the same white wall. I should be in a truck, lying against Killua. I thought, wondering where I am. Then it hit me. I'm back in Hana's dimension. Sitting up quickly, a blue blanket being thrown off at my fast movement, I moved my feet to the edge of the bed and was about to get off when I froze. Why? Because the bed I was sitting on was floating in mid-air. Letting my eyes wander, I saw tables, teddy bears, flowers vases, closets floating in the air without a care. I bit my lip as I looked down, seeing nothing but more items flying around and no ground. I gulped as my eyes landed on a drawer.
"If I jump, I can probably make it…" I mumbled. But if I don't… maybe I can use Nen to save myself. I stood myself onto the soft bed and jumped, body stretched like a cat but I spun, flipping and turning in the air. I was dizzy when I stopped from all of it and I had to slap my cheeks to focus. I then realized I was floating, body just there like everything else. I feel stupid. I thought and even more stupid when I realized I only got halfway to the drawer.
"Now… Where's Hana?" I asked, walking on the air with ease as I shouted for the blond girl and looked around this horrible creepy dimension. I heard pacing and snapped my head to the source, easily picking out a goldish color walking back and forth.
"Hana!" I shouted gleefully as I ran towards her. Hana's head snapped up, eyes unfocused as she turned to me with fearful eyes. Something snapped in her and a glass cup that was near me exploded. I screamed and swore in surprise as I ducked, hands over my head protectively as glass shards spun away quickly. "Hana…?" I repeated hesitantly, no doubt the exploding glass was caused by her. The said girl shook her head, backing up a few steps.
"Stay where you are." She commanded simply, arms raised up in front of her as I sign to stop. Hana closed her blue orbs and took a deep breath. All the tables, closet and everything stopped floating and slowly descended as a black and white tiled floor formed beneath her and spread out. The empty, white space hardened and became walls, splitting up the forming floor. A broom and a dust bin flew over my head and collected the broken shards of the glass and into a trash can. A wooden chair swopped me up from my frozen position and brought me to a table which had just landed with a soft thud. Tucking me in, two plates, forks, cups and a teapot swiftly landed on the table after a checkered table cloth had covered the wooden surface. A chocolate cake came on to the table as well if a sharp knife. I blinked and turned my head to look around, seeing everything looked normal and like I was in a house.
"I'm sorry about that." Hana suddenly stated, making me jolt and turn back to in front of me as the girl sat down in her chair. She continued as she poured us tea. "I was busy thinking about other stuff and the dimension just lost it and" Hana paused as she set the floral designed teapot back down on the table and waved her hands in a semi- circle. "Everything goes everywhere." I dumbly nodded my head as she cut the cake and gave me a piece. I quickly snapped myself out of my mini trance or awe.
"Where have you been? I haven't seen you in months and I have so much to ask you and everything's been so confusing and-" I cut myself off when I realized I was rambling. It was unlike me to ramble, I tried my best not to annoy people and stay quiet, but this has been stressing me for weeks and I wanted answers. "Can you please explain this to me?" I begged, my eyes pleading. Hana tensed at my look before directing her eyes to the dessert in front of her and plopping her elbows down on the table, the palm of her hands against her forehead.
"I'm sorry. I can't do that." Something in me snapped and I shot up, flipping the table in the process. Everything on the table flew up, cake, tea and everything. They froze in their position, which was kind of cool because tea had been spilling from the cups and now was just there, frozen in time. But I was too angry to think about that.
"That's bull! I've been waiting weeks, weeks! For a simple answer that you could give me! Only you should and can give me! I think anyway…" I trailed off on the last part, before my anger came up again. "Everything is going haywire here! And I'm confused and lost about it all. The Arakaki royal family is just a play, a plot, isn't it! To give me a background, to give my character a story! So why… Why does it seem real?! Why is the Hunter x Hunter plot changing?! Why…" I took a breath, ranting and yelling made my throat hurt. "Why does it all feel so familiar!?"
"Are you done yet?" I glared coldly at the girl in front of me who only raised an eyebrow at my tantrum, arms crossed over her chest in annoyance.
"No." I lied, which was very obvious. There was a moment of silence as I panted, anger dwindling. Hana rolled her eyes at me and I stomped my foot on the ground and plopped myself back down on to the chair. The table moved, going back to the position it was before, everything in place as if I had never flipped it into the air. Hana let out a soft sigh before the silver fork at my side lifted up, cut my slice of cake, stabbed the small part and shoved it in my mouth. My eyes went wide and I would've spit it out but god dang it, it was a good cake.
"I won't tell you anything." I wanted to flip the table all over again but Hana raised her palm towards me. "You're right. I can tell you everything you want to know, but I won't."
"Why." I mumbled, chewing on my cake as some sort of relief. Sweet~
"I don't know how. I don't know how to say this without scaring you. Without hurting you. Without making you feel like everything was a lie." She mumbled something under her breath but I couldn't catch it. Taking a breath and eating another large piece of my slice of chocolate cake, I spoke.
"Fine." Hana's eyes grew wide quickly as she looked at me in shock. "I waited weeks without answers, I can wait months more. But that doesn't mean I don't want them as much anymore, heck, it's probably one of the biggest things on my list right now, but I can wait. You better tell me soon though." A small smile came onto my lips, unable to help it since I felt strangely mature for my actions, but then again… I threw a tantrum.
"Ok." The blond girl said simply, a gentle smile of her own. I nodded my head firmly, but grinned.
"Now, I'm going to sleep in this dimension and see if I can go back to the guys that way instead of waiting for myself to wake up." Hana let out a laugh, making almost all the tension from moments ago disappear like nothing.
"Gotcha. The bed is three doors down on your right." I nodded my head and made my way out of the room but rewinded to look at the girl who was still there.
"By the way, thanks for this." I stated, pointing at the gold locket dangling from its thin chain around my neck before following her directions and finding the bed I had woken up on, jumping into the blue blankets comfortably.
"I hope this works…" I mumbled as sleepiness hit me like a brick.
My eyes shot open, fear clawing my chest as sweat dripped from my forehead. I'm an Idiot. I thought as I calmed my ragged breathing. I forgot I've been having nightmares almost on a daily basis now. About to bring one of my clenched hands to my face, a hand covered it instead and kept it still. I tensed as I looked up hesitantly to stare at deep blue eyes that obviously showed worry.
"Are you ok?" Killua asked me. I was silent, listening to the hum of the car and Gon's soft snores. Kite and Stick weren't here and my eyes glanced out the window, realizing we were at some sort of gas station. My lips were dry and throat was burning, as if I screamed which I really hope hadn't happened. I opened my mouth, ready to mutter the regular 'I'm fine.' Lie as well as the last time, but Killua interrupted.
"Don't you dare tell me you're perfectly fine, you were basically screaming in your sleep." My face paled up at that, worry piling up into my heart along with the fear that hasn't calmed down yet. Killua must've seen the worry in my face. "You didn't actually scream." The white haired boy told me with a soft scoff. My tense shoulder's relaxed a bit, but my fear still lingered. Unfastening my tight hold on the boy's shirt, I wrapped my arms around him tightly, letting my face burry into his shoulder. I felt his breath against the side of my face, which meant he was going to say something.
"Shut up." I stated as I tightened my hold on him, a blush slowly forming on my face from my actions as I buried my head deeper against him. "I just need a moment, okay? I'll be fine…" I muttered softly.
"Didn't I say not to say you're fine?" Killua whispered annoyingly in my ear. I found myself smiling in reply as his familiar boyish scent soothed my frantic nerves. That sounded embarrassing. I thought to myself, the blush growing deeper
"I didn't say I was fine, I said I was going to be." I told him as he wrapped his arms around me as well.
"Same thing." He said simply with a sigh. I giggled at his reaction. "What was your nightmare about?" I closed my eyes once I heard the question, my shoulders tensing again.
"I don't want to talk about it." Was my answer as the white haired boy patted my back gently to help calm me down. I narrowed my eyes at him since he was once again treating me like a child.
"And you said it was better to tell other people your problems." Killua went and I could tell he was rolling his eyes without looking at him. I remembered in the third phase when I first lost it, I woke up with him there asking me if I was ok and I ended up spilling my fears to him.
"You were really sweet then too." The boy stuttered in embarrassment. "Sorry… it's just… I was really scared and I need a moment to remind myself it isn't real." I apologized gently, loving the warmth I was receiving from the boy. Even his hugs made me feel like the safest person in the world. Killua was silent but his grip on me tightened and it was probably the best reassurance I had.
"A Chimera Ant queen moves repeatedly until she finds a place she likes. As she does, she births more and more solider ants to build her own army. Once she's chosen a location, she births a large number of carpenter ants, which constructs her castle with incredible speed. From then on, the queen remains within the castle until death. So if a Queen grew to two meters tall and were to set her sights on humans, there should be entire villages or towns of missing people." Kite stated, giving us a large amount of information in one go.
"I don't see anything… I just checked the past six months, and the largest group only numbered ten." Spin stated as she sat in front of the computer, doing her research.
"Say, can we look up missing people individually?" Gon asked the pink haired girl.
"Don't be ridiculous. You know how many hundreds of thousands of people go missing worldwide?" She explained to the green haired boy.
"We should be able to see which areas have the highest concentrations." Killua spoke up. My eyes drifted towards him and he caught my eye. His face softened for a moment and I snapped my head away angrily. Don't look at me like that! I wanted to scream at him. It was only a nightmare, nothing more, nothing less. He didn't have to worry about me over a dream.
"No good… The data's two years old." Spin complained after a moment.
"Maybe we should start checking for sightings." I suggested to the other female simply. "If someone saw a giant bug, there's going to be some kind of news."
"We tried that, of course. But we couldn't find anything." She replied with ease, shrugging her shoulders.
"Maybe we're getting worked up over nothing…" Banana called out from the other side of the room. Kite leaned forward, towards the computer screen.
"Bring up the tidal data from the day the arm was found." Kite commanded and Spin did as she was told. The results covered the screen.
"The arm was discovered here…" A white triangle popped up at the left corner of the map.
"Now go back ten days. Locate any currents that may have carried the arm to that location in that time." The white haired man told the female.
"What do you mean?" She asked as she blew another bubble.
"It's possible that the arm was severed after the Chimera Ant made a landfall." Kite explained with ease, eyes trained on the screen.
"That makes sense." Spin proceeded to do what Kite had asked before coming to a conclusion. "It could have come from any of the Balsa Islands…"
"Including the Mitene Union."
"The Mitene Union…" Stick repeated the place.
"Oh, where the NGL Autonomous Region is." The peach haired girl informed us.
"Yep, as well as East Gorteau. There's no getting information out of those two countries." Kite stated as he walked away and to the opposite side of the room he was on.
"What's this NGL?" Killua asked, arms crossed over his chest as we turned our heads to look at the man.
"NGL stands for Neo-Green Life. The people who live there only live in nature and away from technology." I replied the boy, hands on my hip. Killua raised an eyebrow at me, probably wondering how I knew.
"Here." The map on the computer zoomed up on the place we were currently talking about. "They primarily communicate by letter. Primary means of transportation is by horse. Anyone knowingly bringing technology into the country is subject to execution. In '87, a three-man TV crew was caught trying to enter the country to get a story. One was executed, and the other remains in prison. Of its 2.17 million population, 99% belong to the Neo-Green Life Party, with the rest being support volunteers." Spin added to my short explanation.
"If the Chimera Ant washed ashore there, how would the NGL citizenry react?" The man in the blue cap asked as he stared at the wall. "They probably wouldn't do anything. When a deadly epidemic spread throughout the area, they let nature run its course, refusing to admit international doctors. And if they tried to contact the outside, it would be too late by the time word arrived. If that arm belonged to the Chimera Ant queen, she may have already begun to build her nest." We had to wait awhile as Spin did some more research and such. My head bobbed up and down. Lack of sleep. I thought to myself again. Killua poked my forehead from time to time to help me stay awake.
"Are you ok, Yukiko? You seem really tired." Gon asked, worry in his voice. I gave him a smile.
"I'm fine. It's just hard to sleep in a tuck sometime, ya know?" I half-lied with a small laugh as I stifled a yawn.
"I bought tickets to the Mitene Union." Spin called out from the computer.
"But to reach NGL, we have to take an airship to the neighboring Republic of Rokario, and travel by land from there." Banana added in as she stood behind the pink haired girl.
"It 'ant' gonna be easy to get into a country of such nasty rumors. Just kidding." Stick laughed at his own little pun again.
"Nasty rumors?" Killua repeated.
"What do you mean?" Gon asked in confusion.
"Have you heard of DD?" Kite asked.
"DD?" The green haired boy said again, still confused.
"It a drug that's ingestible and propagating rapidly in urban areas worldwide." I told the boy who gave me the curious look.
"It's derived from the bila tree, native to the Mitene Union. And they claim that over 80% of the world's bila trees are located in NGL." Kite continued from my little part.
"So the nasty rumors are saying that the drug is being manufactured in NGL?" Killua asked, glancing at me and the taller man.
"They're only rumors. No one has been able to publicly prove it." The latter replied.
"After all, the country's locked down tight." Stick chimed in.
"When people try to get in to investigate, they're executed." Spin told us as she leaned back into her chair.
"Executed…" Gon went in disbelief.
We were at the airport, sitting on some comfortable chair as we waited. My head leaned against Killua's shoulder, my eyes dropping from sleepiness but I tried to force it out.
"If you're tired, you can just go to sleep." Killua said as I made a move to sit back up straight but he grabbed the side of my head and pressed it gently back to his shoulder.
"Nah…" I muttered softly, rubbing my eyes and patting my cheeks to wake myself up. We heard footsteps and turned our head to look at Kite who stood beside us.
"It may be a bit late to ask, but are you sure you want to come?" No. No. No. I thought in my head, thinking of all the things that were going to happen.
"Of course!" Ah, I pity the fact they don't know what's going to happen.
"You weren't kidding about the 'late' part." Killua stated with a grin.
"Definitely." I added in, a small smirk on my face to help let go of the lingering sense of dread.
"We have no idea what the situation is inside NGL. There may very well be a swarm of giant Chimera Ants already, hunting humans down. If that turns out to be the case, my priority will be saving them." We all looked at the group of amateur Hunters. "So I may not be able to help you. You must be able to protect yourselves. If you want to come, that's the requirement." Kite lectured us, but the smile never left our faces.
"Okay, got it." Gon went as he nodded his head.
"We'll be fine." The white haired boy at my side stated.
"And if I'm the one who's in danger, you should escape without me." A frown came over our faces with ease as Kite said that with upmost seriousness. I pinched myself to get a grip. "Got it?" We didn't say anything as our blimp was called. We boarded it with ease and we looked out the window as the sun set. I sat on the ledge, Killua stood and Gon sat on the bench. Memories of the Hunter Exam filled my mind.
"What did you just decide?" Killua asked the other male.
"Remember what Kite said before we left? That we should escape without him if he's in danger." Gon questioned us.
"Of course." I replied, swaying side to side.
"I don't think it was a choice…" The white haired boy stated as he poked my cheek as I leaned towards him. I shot him a glare.
"That's why we didn't say anything, but I've been thinking. Is it possible for Kite, who earned Ging's respect, to be in that much danger? You said that Ging had a reason for bringing Kite and me together…" We nodded our heads. "You're probably right. I don't know the reason, but I can't give up halfway, no matter what's going on. Otherwise, I'll disappoint Ging. Of course, I could never forgive myself, either. So I won't run away. That's what I've decided." Gon's eyes shone in determination as he stated that.
"Man, you had this totally serious expression, so I was expecting something big. But it's just business as usual." This is something big! I screamed in my head, but shook my head inwardly.
"Huh? I thought about this a lot. I even ran a bunch of mental simulations…" I let out a laugh.
"You probably would've come to this conclusion even if you hadn't." I told the boy with a cheerful grin.
"Think all you want, but you'll still be Gon. If someone said you should abandon them, you'd never do it." Killua stated.
"You make it sound like I wasted my time considering it. Then what about you two?"
"I'm a spontaneous guy, so I'd think about it when the time comes." Killua replied with his arms crossed, not looking at either one of us.
"You mean you might run away?" Gon asked, tilting his head.
"I can't say until it actually happens." The white haired boy explained.
"Same. It all ends up with the 'depends'." I replied, putting one finger up and spinning it in a couple of circles as my feet went back and forth while they dangled.
"Say for instance…" the other male was about to make up some situation but Killua cut him off.
"I can't tell you what I'd do in a hypothetical situation. I don't decided until it's time." I laughed at Killua's answer. We talked on and on until it was dark. Gon had fallen asleep, face buried in his arms. Killua and I looked out the window, watching the moon and the stars.
"Killua…" I called out softly, not wanting to wake the sleeping boy. Killua let out a 'hmm' as he looked at me without turning his head. I fidgeted with my fingers, not sure if I should say this. "If… If I was in danger, would you run away or save me?" Killua's eyes went wide as he turned to stare at me but I didn't look his way. The boy probably thought I might do something stupid, but then realized I was purely curious and relaxed.
"Well, it depends on the situation." I let out a small smile at the answer I received.
"Then if, let's say I got controlled by a Manipulator and I had to kill both you and Gon because I was ordered to, what would you do?" My hand formed tight fist on my lap as I felt Killua burn holes into me.
"I would kill the person controlling you." Makes sense. I thought. I turned my head, finally locking stares with the boy.
"But what if he or she wasn't there, like he or she locked us into a room for his or her own stage, or even after you kill the person the Nen will still control me. What would you then?" Killua narrowed his eyes at me in rather confusion or annoyance. There was a moment of silence and he didn't reply so I spoke. "Then the best idea would be to-" My breathing hitched as Killua was suddenly in front of me, arms on either side of me on the ledge. He gave me a serious look, frown etched on his face.
"Don't finish that sentence. Don't speak." The boy demanded, but my mouth opened anyway.
"But really Killua. What if that happened? If I had to murder everyone we knew. All the friends we made on this adventure. Wouldn't it only make sense to have only me die than like 10 or so people? And, besides, if I didn't die then I might have to kill more and more people until someone kills me. So it would be best to end it at its roots, right? It only-" I was ranting and Killua cut me off for a second time, his lips pressing against mine for a moment to shut me up.
"This has to do with that nightmare you had, doesn't it?" I tensed at that, moving my eyes away since I couldn't match his stare.
"Not necessarily…" Which was true, I wasn't planning on turning this back to my dream. I was going to tell him that if I was in danger, save Gon but my head was fuzzy and I wasn't really sure what I was saying anymore. I thought back to that dream that was only a night ago.
Blood and corpses were littered across the floor as I stood in the middle of the mess. Red stains were on their clothes and pools of it formed underneath them and onto the floor. I soon realized just who these people were. Killua, Gon, Kurapika, Leorio, Zushi, Wing, Melody, Bisky, Kite… I thought, spinning as I looked at each and every one of them. Something clanged on the floor and I looked at my blood stained shoes to the awfully familiar scythe, covered in red spots. Staring at the reflection of the blade, I looked at the blood spread across my face and clothes. Me. The thought echoed in my empty, shocked head. It was me who had done this. Me me me me me. I closed my eyes for a second before reopening them and then the floor was on fire, surrounding me as they burned the dead bodies and slowly burning me. Blood dripped from the walls, pouring into the closed space and rising up quickly. I was drowning and burning in blood and fire. I was screaming, trying to swim in this disgusting liquid, but everything hurt and just…
Something skimmed the side of my face, pushing my long hair behind my ear and making me snap out of my trance. I realized my body had been shaking at the memory, but stopped at the soft touch. My cheeks heated up as I looked back at the boy in front of me who had that gentle look on his face again. My hands clenched together tightly again as the stupid idiot made my heart race faster. Hesitantly, I placed my own hand on top of his, planning on pulling it off but stopped at the contact. Killua grinned at my action, giving me another kiss as he held me in place.
"You shouldn't over think things." The white haired boy stated, his cheeky grin on his face before kissing me for a third time now. Fear dripped off me as I relaxed under his touch. "After all, you'll always be Yukiko." Something struck me when he said that, leaving me gasping for breath. I felt myself lurch forward, bringing him into a hug as I slipped off the place I was sitting on. Killua yelped as he stumbled from the sudden force but ultimately, caught me. I buried my flushed face into his chest. You'll always be Yukiko. His words echoed in my head as realization dawned me and spread across my face. I'll always be me… I thought again before grinning ear to ear, I held onto Killua tightly.
"You have no idea how much that means to me."
Hey Hana… You know what, take your time. I wanted to know all that because I wanted to know who I was, if I was really that quiet girl, the polite, well-mannered girl, always cheerful girl, a princess, a tomboy, sadistic murderer or so many other sides of me. But I realized; does that matter? Because no matter what, I'll still be Yukiko Arakaki.
To be continued…
Okay, so another short chapter. It was only one episode XP I was planning on adding some actually action, but then I went "Hey! I kinda want to do this!" And here we have this super weird ending thingy. Sorry. TT^TT Anyhow, I still hope you really enjoyed today's chapter. I should move on to the reviews…
Sweet Candy180: Thank you! Hopefully *crosses fingers* You too!
Arrow-chan3: Yup!
Amv(Guest): hehe! Sorry about that! But here she is (Hope I did it okay…) Yeah, so hopefully there was some fluff in today's chapter. Hope I do!
KuraiOkami-chan: it was such a tiny plot twist I forgot I even wrote it XD Well, I really hope they are awesome. XP
Arcaelia: Haha, yep! Hope the sequel turns out ok too!
Sakura-Hyuga(Guest): LOL
XxLuckyfourleafCloverxX: Haha, Thanks! It can be!
Retz and Amilia(Guest): I'm sorry if I did something TT^TT The chapter was great as always!
NickyDawn: Yup! Your welcome! XD
KurapikaISaBOY: Haha, welcome to my story! I'm glad you like Yukiko. Really? I feel when things move faster, it seems rushed XP Haha, ty!
Nispedana: You're back! XD Glad you liked it!
So that's all the reviews for last chapter! Drop by and leave another please! We're so close to 300! (God that's shocking) Wish me luck on my Competition and speech and just school in general. Bye!
