Chapter 49: Binolt
"Sit down, pull out your book, make casual chat," Bisky said simply, sitting herself down in the dust. "There's an enemy at my back."
Aliara blinked but complied, sitting herself down with a thump. She couldn't sense anyone, but the lack of encounter with anyone else had made her suspicious. Frankly, it was about time. "How could you tell?" Killua said, hushed.
"His blood lust," Bisky said, flipping a page in her book. "He intends to kill us. But he saw a group of kids and dropped his guard, which proves he's an amateur."
"So you think he's weak?" Gon asked.
Bisky shook her head. "Quite the opposite. He saw us and erased his presence immediately, and his willingness to approach three of us at once indicates that he's strong."
Aliara nodded along, "so what do we do then?"
The blonde girl looked temporarily surprised before she asked, "what do you guys think?"
"Attack him together," Gon answered. Killua and Aliara nodded along. When Bisky asked why, Gon replied, "because if he erased his presence after lowering his guard, it's because there's four of us. So if we attack him together, I think he'll become unstable."
"Correct answer, but we should make our moves in different directions," she countered. "If I go alone and you three go together, there's a one hundred percent chance that he'll go after me. Go five hundred meters down, until you hit the rock ledge, and then use zetsu and double back. Got that?"
Aliara bit her lip. She'd much prefer to do it their way, but if this 57 year old said to do it this way... Who was she to argue?
Right. Argue against this girl she didn't know and had no reason to trust. Sure.
But if she had taught Wing...
Without further warning, Bisky reached out and slapped Killua hard across the face.
Gon's face went blank.
Killua was surprised.
Aliara suppressed a laugh.
"If you really think so, that's fine!" Bisky yelled, standing up and glaring down at Killua. "I can't stand you anymore! Bye!"
"Fine!" Killua huffed, playing along. "Idiot!"
The trio stood up and marched off, not once looking back to Bisky. As soon as they were one hundred meters away, Aliara started giggling. Killua huffed, "oh, shut up." Gon started giggling too, and soon it was two against one. Killua fumed inwardly.
They activated zetsu and doubled back, dashing over the rock. Aliara took the high route and paused over top of the mountains of rocks, halting abruptly when she realized where they were. Bisky stood in the clearing, right across from a tall man with beady eyes and a pair of scissors in his hands. One of Bisky's pigtails had been chopped off, but she didn't seem bothered. The creepy, beady-eyed man clutched his scissors in one hand and long gold locks in the other. Bisky's hair.
Aliara almost gagged as he swallowed her hair, cackling about how he would know everything about her. She watched his eyes bulge out of his head- he probably learned her true age- and then he settled his scissors back in his scissor pouch hanging from his belt. He pulled his hands back into fighting position, and Bisky did the same. He lunged, and she easily flipped him in the air and slammed him on the ground with more force than Aliara thought was possible.
"You're lucky," Bisky said pointedly, shrugging, "in a nen fight, you would be dead." She noticed the trio watching, beckoned them over, and told them, "if he was a game character, he would've turned into a card, and his rank would be D."
Aliara's eyes widened. Only? He wasn't weak at all- rather, Bisky was stronger, by a large margin.
"Bisky," Gon said slowly, "will you train us?"
(Aliara inwardly scowled)
She beamed. "That was the plan." The blonde girl (woman?) turned to Killua and Aliara. "Is it okay with you two?"
Killua shrugged. "It's fine."
Aliara bit her lip but nodded.
The man coughed weakly, spitting up blood.
"Here's the deal," Bisky said firmly, clapping her hands together and turning to the man. "You're Binolt, right?"
He nodded slowly, trying to stand up. "Yes."
"Good. You have two weeks to fend off the attacks of these three, and then I'll let you go."
Aliara blinked. "Eh?"
"But I can do whatever I want to them, right?" he slurred, staggering to his feet and pulling out a pair of scissors. Aliara ignored her first instinct to back up.
Bisky nodded. "Yes. But if you're put in agony, or they get a critical hit on you, I'll kill you. Plus, you're not allowed to leave this area. Got it?"
Aliara thought this was insane.
Then it slowly dawned on her- what Bisky was exactly trying to do. Training. A training exercise. Interesting.
He nodded. "Perfect."
Bisky turned to the edge of the clearing and started to scale the stone wall. "This is Binolt, black list hunter. His nen allows him to eat the hair of his opponents and learn everything about them, from their name to their physical abilities to diseases or illnesses. He prefers twenty year old girls."
Was that last comment really necessary? Aliara thought, glancing up at Bisky.
"Twenty two, actually," Binolt mused, eyeing Aliara oddly.
The black-haired girl swallowed and pulled her hands up in front of her face. She didn't like the way Binolt was looking at her. She stared at her gloved hands warily before undoing the straps on her gloves. "Hey, Bisky," she called, and when the blonde girl was looking, she tossed her gloves up to her.
Bisky caught them with ease. Aliara flexed her wrists.
"What was that?" Gon asked.
"This is training, right?" Aliara said simply. "So I want to train. Not using my inventions."
The boys both grinned at her, and the three of them jumped at Binolt as soon as he sat down.
Gon leaped at him, running directly forward, and was Binolt was focused on Gon, Killua jumped down to his side. Aliara immediately dashed in from the other side.
Binolt whipped out two pairs of scissors, swinging one set at Aliara and one at Killua. She halted just in time- he would've taken her eye out- and felt a burn over her cheek. She pressed her finger to her face and felt warm blood. He nicked me.
He'd also gotten some of her hair, apparently- probably her bangs- because he was scooping short black hairs into his mouth. "Aliara Lorvell," he croaked, and she almost flinched. She hadn't heard someone say her full name in a long time. "You've had quite the struggle."
Killua and Gon regrouped. Aliara was frozen.
"Amnesia accident," Binolt coughed, spitting more blood into the sand. "You got dropped off a building. And you broke your arm when you were five."
"My brother shoved me out the window," she admitted, smirking at the memory as it danced in her head. It was supposed to be a practical joke, but Kuro had taken it too far and she'd fallen out of the second story window.
"You also got sliced open at the shoulder," he mused, jamming a set of scissors back into his belt.
"Shut up," Aliara snapped, turning away from him and marching back over to Gon and Killua. The fact that this... creepy bastard knew everything about her- just because he'd eaten her hair- was creepy and very invasive.
Killua picked up a pile of rocks. "We'll take shifts. He'll cut us if we get too close."
"Can he cut rocks?" Aliara mused, turning to Gon. He grinned back at her and ran over to the biggest rock in the clearing. With a swell of nen, Gon punched the rock and it shattered into smaller rocks that were still her size or bigger.
That was how it went. They used the rocks for cover, darting around until they could get an opening. They kicked rocks around the sandy area to create hiding places and a more crowded environment. They distracted him; they avoided him; and they attacked him. About two hours in was when they finally had the opportunity to land a hit- Gon punched a rock at Binolt, exploding it into pieces, and while he was distracted, Aliara leaped over him. Concentrating on two people at once, Binolt momentarily forgot about Killua, and the white-haired boy landed on Binolt, ready to punch him in the face.
"Wait!" Gon objected. When Killua and Aliara stared at him quizzically, he added, "we have thirteen days still. Let's use them. For now, we should let him recharge and we can get some sleep."
Aliara had to laugh. Only Gon would actually do something like this.
Nevertheless, she and Killua agreed to go along with it, and they picked one area with a bunch of tall, bulky rocks and settled down to sleep. Aliara sat herself down across from Gon, but Killua sat down next to her. She was sure he'd be able to hear how loudly her heart was beating.
Binolt tried to move and they all glared at him in unison. He shrunk back.
Aliara drifted off into a light sleep, still keeping an eye on Binolt. She didn't trust the shifty man at all, and had no reason to.
She woke up again after the night had passed. She looked up and realized Gon was fighting Binolt, dancing between rocks and lobbing small stones at the scissors man. She was about to get up and go join him when Killua said, "Hey."
Just one simple word froze Aliara and she halted. "Hey," she said back, trying to fight down the burst of panic that was swelling inside of her.
"Uh, look, I just thought we should talk," Killua said slowly, rubbing the back of his head nervously. That was something he did when he was nervous, she realized. Rub the back of his head. Honestly, it just made him look adorable, but she shouldn't be thinking about that right now.
"Yeah," she said with a sigh, shifting so she was sitting cross-legged and facing Killua. "Probably."
"Well-"
"I-"
They both chuckled nervously and stopped- they had both tried to start at the same time. "You first," Killua said, nudging her with his foot.
"Okay," Aliara said, exhaling slowly. She could kill people twice her size; this was nothing. Right? "Look, I'm sorry," she blurted out.
"You're what?" Killua said in surprise.
"I'm sorry," she repeated. "It wasn't fair of me to just... let all that out at once. I should've been watching what I was saying. It wasn't fair to throw that at you and then not follow up on it."
Killua averted his eyes. "Oh! Well, I mean, I can't say I blame you. I don't know what it was like for you to have amnesia and then get all your memories back, but..." he trailed off before continuing. "Yeah, it's okay."
Aliara sighed, avoiding his eyes as he stared at her. "Still wasn't nice of me, though."
There was a silence, but it didn't feel awkward. Part of this had been cleared up. Now... the hard part.
"Did you-"
"Do you-"
They both paused again, and then Aliara laughed. "My bad. You go first."
"No, it's fine, you go," Killua said quickly, waving her off. His cheeks were red.
"So I'm the one doing the hard parts of this conversation?" she complained, grinning. Her cheeks were probably fire-engine red, but that didn't concern her at the moment, which was strange.
Killua shrugged, grinning right back at her. "Yep."
She huffed. "Well, uh, never mind."
"What?"
"I was," she paused, "I was just going to ask you a question, but it's okay, I don't need to-"
"Oh. Uh... Yes."
Aliara looked up. Green met blue. "Yes to what?"
Killua blushed. "Your question."
"But you don't even know what I was going to ask!"
"I think I have a rough idea," he said, smirking. "And I can't have you doing all the hard parts of this conversation."
She laughed.
Killua leaned in and pressed his lips to the cut on her cheek that she'd gotten yesterday from Binolt. He only lingered for a moment before pulling back, but a moment was all he needed. Aliara felt like her brain had short-circuited.
He winked at her. "See you soon."
He winked at her.
He fucking winked at her.
What a smug little!...
He got up and leaped over the rock, presumably to go help Gon in his fight against Binolt.
Aliara pressed a hand to her cheek, which was still warm- but now, not just from her own blush.
(If she'd listened, she might have heard Gon smacking Killua across the arm and hissing, "I told you!")
She squealed and hugged herself before getting up to go join Gon and Killua. But the entire time, she couldn't keep the stupid smile off her face.
Apparently, neither could Killua.
RedBurningDragon: Torture indeed. More torture in later chapters ;) Thanks for the review! :)
The Otaku Lady Priya: GON'S SO ADORABLE! HE'S SUCH A LOVABLE DORK! I hope you liked the end of this chapter! Thank you so much! :D
robertastarcris11: Thank you! Here you go! :D
Guest: I'm so happy you liked it! Hopefully Gon won't have to play matchmaker much longer... ;) Thank you for your review! :)
Yozora531: Gon's the freakin captain of this ship and without him they wouldn't be as close as they are now XD Thank you for your review! :)
Night Owl: ME TOO XD I'm so glad you enjoyed, thank you for your review! :D
At Night We Rise: I hope this chapter satisfied you then ;) Thank you for your review!
ONLY TOOK 49 CHAPTERS BUT HERE WE ARE YESSSSSSS
Thank you all for your kind reviews, I love hearing from you :)
