Hunter x Hunter: Chapter 55

Little Blue

...

"I don't have time to deal with idiots!"

Leaving the Chimera ant in the dust, Himeko ran down the path as fast as she possibly could. Her mission wasn't to fight anyone just yet, Killua had specifically told her to stay out of trouble. Though this was something Killua had told her to do, she knew the seriousness of the situation and chose to follow his orders directly. The fight with an ant soldier could attract unwanted attention from other ants, and the last thing she wanted to do was give away their plan. Being in the middle of the woods, there were so many places she could hide and wait for the ant to go away, but once again Killua told her not to stray from the path.

"If he heard the joke about little Blue Riding Hood, then he knows that I'll be following the path," she concluded, "in other words, he knows where I'll be going and he knows which way I'll be going. I can just keep running and try to keep outrunning him, hoping that he doesn't know a shortcut to the village. He doesn't look like a fast runner, so let's just hope that I won't be running into him again."

There was no point in thinking so much, yet she started to do just what Biscuit advised her not to do. She started to list all the possible ways for her to discretely travel from village to village, and avoid being spotted. It was pointless, in the end there was no way for her to truly predict what was going to happen to her. "Calm down, Himeko!" She calmed herself down, trying to take in regular, deep breaths. "Just stay on guard, focus and everything will be fine. I've trained for weeks since the events in NGL, if I can't stay calm and collected now, I won't be able to handle the fight with Neferpitou in nine days. I've trained hard for this moment, I can't afford to mess up now. All that hard work would go to waste."

Just comparing Neferpitou to her current situation was more than enough for her to calm down. This was nothing compared to what could happen in nine days. Compared to the Royal Guards, all the ants she was going to come across were small fries. She trained so she'll be able to face a Squad Leader at least, so she wouldn't have to worry about anything unless she came across one of the Royal Guards. But according to Knov and Morel, all the Royal Guards were going to stick close to the King until the selections were over. There was nothing for her to worry about for now.

Keeping that in mind, she was able to calm down and think about the situation more rationally. In the original fairy tale, the wolf found out where Little Red was heading to and beat her to it by taking a short cut, gobbled up her poor old grandmother and pretended to be her. He then waited for Little Red to arrive before trying gobble her up to. Of course, just like any fairy tale the end to this tale had both a couple of gruesome endings along with a few good ones. However, Himeko wasn't Little Red but Little Blue and there was no wolf in her story but a fox. Taking this into consideration, if the Chimera ant was smart enough, he would take a short cut to the village and wait for her there. If he wasn't so smart, he would continue to follow the path trying to catch up to her. She had no clue how smart he was, neither did he know whether he was a mere soldier or a squadron leader. Based on the fact that he was able to use Ten, she assumed he was capable of fighting. But all that thinking didn't matter much. At the end of the day, if the soldier was able to catch up to her she'll have to face him eventually, even if it went against what Killua had told her. If he just gave up or couldn't catch up, then she didn't have to deal with that problem at all.

For now, that thought was sorted out. She had to remember that she was going to come across a couple of ants during her task, especially once they notice that someone started to interfere with their plans. At least for now Gon was safe, or at least safer than Killua and her. It managed to relieve her, and now that Killua was back to his old self, she knew that he was capable of looking after himself.

Just then, the vibration she felt in her pocket caused her to slow down until she was just brisk walking down the path. She took her phone out and looked at the map tracking her location. She wasn't the best when it came to directions, but she definitely knew that she was getting very close to her assigned village. That wasn't all, when she got close enough she could smell a rusty odour lingering around in the air. It was a very familiar smell, something she could recognise in an instant. Not too soon after, a loud scream was heard coming from straight ahead.

"No, don't tell me I'm too late!"

After stuffing her phone back into her pocket, Himeko picked up her pace again remembering to keep her steps as quiet as possible. She could finally sense the presence of a couple dozen auras nearby; she wasn't too late after all. There were people who were still alive over there.

The path eventually came to an end, leading her to the village in chaos. There were screams and cries coming from every corner. Hiding behind a tree, she took a quick peek making sure no one was in sight before heading closer. Looking at the situation, she didn't want to wait any longer and head straight in, but she was told not to do that. She had to think rationally about this; these soldiers were controlled. They weren't her actual enemy, they were just being controlled by their real enemy. Analysing the scene, she figured there were exactly five soldiers. Villagers managed to do whatever they could to stay alive, but unfortunately two had already died. Five men were injured, while the women were inside their houses keeping the children safe. The villagers controlled the situation pretty well in her opinion, but confirming that there were only five people she had to face she headed in.

It didn't even take a minute for her take all five controlled soldiers out and tie them up with the help of some of the men of the village. They were slightly surprised by the fact that a stranger came to help them, but they took all the help they could get. Once Himeko finished tying all the soldiers up, the women and children hiding in their huts slowly came out now that they were safe, but they still remained cautious around this new stranger. After they deemed that she meant no harm, the village leader came to the front. It was a man, not too tall. He was pretty old, nearing his seventies and wore just a simple white shirt, brown vest and grey trousers and using a cane to assist him.

"Who are you, child?" He asked her, his voice still agitated from the attack.

"I just came to warn you," she answered him simply, "your leader has been dethroned, someone else is giving orders to soldiers and commanding them to commit mass murder around the villages. A lot of villages have already been taken out, and you were supposed to be next on the list."

It all started to make sense to them, but the fact that their countries leader was dethroned astonished some of them. "Diego was dethroned? Who is in charge now?"

"That's not important right now!" Himeko informed them. "These soldiers were about to kill you, and I don't recommend you to stay here any longer. It won't take long for them to notice that the soldiers failed to do their job here, they will send someone to investigate. You should all leave right now, move up to the next village and spread the message."

The news was overwhelming. Having so little information about what happened to their previous leader, or who and why someone was suddenly trying to commit mass murder caused anxiety amongst the crowd. A lot of them were still left mourning over the deceased, and Himeko could only watch helplessly, wishing she had gotten their sooner. She didn't want to interrupt, they needed to get over what had just happened but it didn't take long for the seriousness of the situation to be understood by everyone. The villagers didn't care about carrying their valuables with them, and soon left the village one by one, all rushing to nearby towns to warn fellow citizens of this country. Only a couple including the village head were left, still mourning over the pair of men that had just died. Leaving them there like that broke their heart. They were like family, and leaving them there to rot was like abandoning them. Three men got out shovels to start burying them to properly send them off to the other side, but Himeko intervened.

"You shouldn't be wasting your time doing this. I know how it feels having to leave them behind like this, but right now you have to get out of here." The villagers were still hesitant, but it didn't take much to convince them, "if you'd like, I'll bury them before leaving."

They gave in, seeing that there were still children with them. Even if it wasn't for them, they had to get their children somewhere safe. "Thank you," the village leader lowered his head slightly, before leaving her behind. Himeko received a shovel from them and she wasted no time to start digging two deep holes. She couldn't waste time either, after all she'd be in big trouble if someone were to find her. Their whole mission would be ruined if that were to happen. But she also kept in mind what happened in the village she visited with Killua and Gon. Bodies weren't disposed of properly, and somehow wild dogs were able to dig them up. She didn't want that to happen to these two, knowing that the villagers trusted her to send them off properly.

Five minutes later, she wiped the sweat off her forehead after she finally finished and left the scene immediately. Her phone vibrating in her pocket startled her, and she took it out knowing exactly who was calling. She picked up immediately, not even looking at the Caller ID.

"What's up Killua?"

"Where are you?"

"I'm just about to leave the first village," she reported back to him, "I came just in time, if I came any later then there would have been more deaths."

"That's not good enough, you are lingering around too much!" he started scolding her, "You are you going to get caught at this rate. Let me tell you now, if a village under attack but there is a chance for you to get caught, don't get involved. You have to stay away no matter how many people are getting killed, do you understand?"

Himeko swallowed hard hearing this, "Yes, I understand."

"Skip the next two villages. There shouldn't be a pattern in which villages we are helping out, it should look random!" He informed her, "I'm moving on to my fifth village, and I'll be contacting you again soon. Be careful!"

"You too Killua," she was about to cut the call, but realised that Killua wasn't done talking.

"And, Kou."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Never mind, I'll tell you later. Take care!" The line was cut, and Himeko put her phone back inside her pocket before making her way out of the village. But she stopped walking, hearing a rustling noise coming from one of the nearby bushes. The rustling continued and eventually stopped, but she knew something was lurking around her. She looked around the floor and picked up a relatively large rock which she ended up throwing towards the bush.

"Ouch!" she heard a voice she came across before. Seeing the bush moving again, she figured that whoever was hiding in it was about to come out and stop following her all together. Just like that, Himeko waited for her stalker to emerge out of the bushes not being surprised to see the same ant from earlier come out. "What did you do that for? You nearly broke my console!"

"I don't care," she bluntly told him, "stop following me already."

"I didn't follow you," the fox like ant informed her, "I was here before you even arrived. I gotta leave it to you, you are pretty strong."

"I know, I don't need you to tell me that."

"Wanna play a game with me?" He asked her.

"What?"

He got out a portable console out of his pocket and showed it to her, "wanna play a two player game with me on my JSP?"

"JSP?"

"Man, you are seriously behind with technology, aren't you?" He sighed, "it's a Joystation Portable, the latest version as well. I went through so much trouble to get hold of it."

Himeko just sighed as he ignored him yet again and just kept walking down the path again, "Cool story bro, go play by yourself! I have better things to do." But what Himeko didn't see what that smug smile that appeared on his Foxy's face. Though she was starting to leave, Foxy quietly pressed a couple of buttons on his JSP, and that was all it took for Himeko to collapse to the group.

"It's a two player game, I need someone to play with."

...

Once Himeko regained consciousness, she was surrounded by nothingness. She was in the middle of a blank space, everything around her was completely white. The last thing she recalled was standing near a village she managed to evacuate, but then she also remembered that Chimera ant that kept following her. "That little prick," she cursed under her breath, knowing that the ant was responsible for whatever happened to her.

"Welcome to Demon Tower," she heard a robotic voice echo through the empty space, "I'm Sara, your personal guide. Want me to create a profile for Player two?"

"I'm really stuck in a game, huh?" she asked herself, now that one of her many questions was answered. There was no way out of there, so she would have to play along. "Ugh! Go on!" She groaned in annoyance.

"Okay, please spell out your name."

The slow, robotic voice was causing her to lost patience very slowly, yet she didn't know what else she could do. In order to get out of there, she would have to do whatever this game wanted her to do. She started to spell out her name, "H"

"H," the robotic voice repeated after her, letting Himeko know that it understood her.

"I."

"I"

"M."

"N"

"No, I said M!"

"N"

"M."

"N"

"Goddamnit, fucking piece of trash!" Himeko started to curse in a sudden fit of anger as her patience was starting to run out with the very bad voice recognition software.

"Sorry, but I couldn't find the letter 'goddamnit, fucking piece of trash'," the system informed her in a slightly regretful tone, before going on to make a suggestion, "did you perhaps mean G?"

"No!" Himeko started to yell in utter frustration.

"I got Hinnn," Sara told her, before going on to confirm it with her, "Is that correct?"

"No!"

"Would you like to start over?"

"Yes!"

"Please spell out your name."

Himeko let out yet another groan in frustration as this was getting her no where. The system obviously had trouble recognising M from N, so she decided not to use her real name. "K," she started off.

"K," the robotic voice repeated after her.

"O."

"O"

"U"

"U"

Once she was done spelling out her name, she went on to confirm it. "Okay!"

"I got Kou, is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Creating profile, please wait." The robotic voice disappeared, and the room was soon filled with slow waiting music while she was asked to wait. After a minute of waiting, the voice returned to inform her that progress has been saved and that her profile had been created. "Welcome to Demon Tower, Kou. Initiating the game, please wait." While waiting, Himeko noticed that her surrounding was starting to change. Roads, shops, buildings and even people started to appear one by one and eventually, the game was fully loaded. Sara went on to explain that she can access most buildings, shops, buy and sell things, and even interact with some characters. There was even a rule book that she gave Himeko to read through.

She opened up the large rule book, and started to quickly skim through all the pages. The first rule threw her off already. 'Characters are not allowed to use Nen'. Using Nen was a quick and efficient way to handle things compared to just fighting with fists. If this was a rule, then her opponent must have been really confident with his hand to hand combat skills. Not only that, it mentioned there being distractions set out on her way to make her fail her mission. She had the typical three lives, and if she were to lose all three, she wouldn't be able to leave this two dimensional world. The book went on to describe her main mission to invade the Demon Tower, battle through all the different floors and finally defeat the boss in order to win. After skimming through the pages, she put the book away and waited for her instructions, but this time she was greeted with another voice.

In the distance, she could see a tall tower standing and heard a familiar voice coming from that direction, "If you want to get out of here, you will have to defeat me!" The fox ant challenged her. At least now she knew who her opponent was and knew where she had to head to.

Remembering what Sara told her, Himeko began to wander through the streets looking for someone to ask for directions. Eventually she spotted an elder standing by a flower shop all by himself. "He is old, so he must be wise! He must know what I have to do here," she thought before she decided to approach him. "Hey old man, could you help me getting around here."

The elder looked at her, "I see, another hero has come from a far away land to try and set us free. For decades now our kingdom has been ruled by this demon, forcing us to bow down to him, but we haven't given up hope. One day, our saviour will come and set us free."

Everything he told her was already mentioned in the instruction book, so she decided to ask him a more specific question. "Yeah, I know all the background stuff, I just want directions to get to the weapon store. The map they gave me is kinda stupid. I can't read it!"

The elder looked at her once again, "I see, another hero has come from a far away land to try and set us free. For decades now our kingdom has been ruled by this demon, forcing us to bow down to him, but we haven't given up hope. One day, our saviour will come and set us free."

"Yes, you already told me so I know. Could you please tell me how to get to the weapon shop?"

The elder turned to face her yet again, "I see, another hero has come from a far away land to try and set us free. For decades now our kingdom has been ruled by this demon, forcing us to bow down to him, but we haven't given up hope. One day, our saviour will come and set us free."

"For fuck's sake, I'll just use the map!" Himeko decided before marching off with the map. Sara was right, the characters in the game were programmed to speak, but she didn't mention the fact that they are only able to repeat the same phrase over and over again. It was pretty pointless, she would rather have characters not talk at all. After wandering around for a while, Himeko walked passed a little boy standing by a family restaurant. Her walking past him seemed to have triggered the character to start talking.

"You must be Kou, the new challenger of the Demon King," the boy was older than ten, and slightly shorter than her. His tanned face was covered in freckles, and his dark brown hair was fairly long, reaching to his shoulders. He also carried a wooden sword around with him. "That demon has taken my parents away from me, and I must avenge them!"

"Oh boy..." Himeko thought, hearing the little character talk. At least this one was programmed to speak more than the older man she came across a while ago, though she was actually forced to talk to this boy. Too bad there weren't any cheats in this game so she could just walk through the walls or something and avoid talking to characters like this.

"I have decided, I will avenge my parents' death!" The boy declared full of determination.

"Little, vengeful boy has joined your party," Sara announced in her robotic voice, much to her dismay.

"Wait, what?" Himeko exclaimed. She tried taking a few steps around the area, walking in circles only to notice that the little boy was following right behind her. "Hey, little one!"

"What a nice day it is, don't you think Kou?" The little boy smiled at her innocently.

"Hey," she tried to get rid of him, "Go away!"

"Let's go kick some demon butt!" The boy beamed, full of determination. He was only programmed to say specific phrases, so whatever she said to him didn't seem to affect what he was saying.

"Don't worry, I'll get revenge for your parents so please leave me alone!" Himeko pleaded before she picked up her pace and started running away. Thinking that the boy couldn't keep up, she confidently looked back only to see him following right behind her without breaking a sweat. She suddenly came to a halt and turned to the boy again, "Okay kid, go back home and play with your toy swords!"

"Don't worry Kou, the path to victory may look foggy now, but the fog will eventually clear away," the child gave her some unneeded motivation to keep going, "... or that's what my father always used to say." His face momentarily looked upset, before he regained that innocent smile once he was done talking.

"Please get lost before I lose my patience kid!"

"Stop it Kou, you're making me blush!" The child replied bashfully, only making Himeko groan in frustration.

"Sara, how do I get rid of this kid?" Himeko asked, not having any more patience left to deal with the young boy casually tagging along.

"Information on how to remove people from your party is on page fifty-two in your instruction manual." The robotic voice replied. Hearing this, Himeko took out the massive instruction book and flipped to the said page before starting to read through the guide on how to remove someone from your party. After she was 100% sure on what to do, she put the book away.

"Hmm... that doesn't sound so hard!" She thought to herself, remembering what she read in the book. She gathered some strength into one of her fists before landing a punch straight in the little boy's face, possibly breaking his nose while she was at it.

"Little, vengeful boy has left your party," Sara announced. To be sure, Himeko started walking around the area to see whether the little boy was still following her around. Luckily he wasn't, but with a broken nose, he was looking at her with his vengeful eyes. Seeing this, Himeko didn't waste any time to get herself out of there before the little, vengeful boy decided to take revenge on her. She continued her journey, looking out for a weapon shop now that she couldn't use Nen in the game anymore. At one point, she managed to reach a small, run down store with a wooden sign that had a sword pictured on it. Himeko peeked inside to see a range of weapons being set out on tables, and hanging down the walls so she concluded that this was the right place.

She ended up entering the store, and the store keeper was programmed to greet her as soon as she walked in. "Welcome to Smith's Weaponry," the slightly obese man greeted her. He was much taller than her, and though he had a belly sticking out, he was still pretty muscular. His brown beard only added to his manliness, "take your time looking around."

Himeko took that as an invitation and immediately scanned for the perfect weapon to use. Of course, being amazed by the range of weapons she was able to chose from, she got a little side tracked wanting to try out all the toys set out in front of her. She could only choose one thing, and she had to choose wisely. After all, there was a whole dungeon full of monsters she had to get through with her bare hands and these weapons. Her eyes curiosity couldn't help but want to try out the guns she found lying on the table. Although she did question why they had guns in a game that was supposedly set in the medieval era, she still couldn't help but want to try those out.

"Call me Inoue. Himeko Inoue." She picked up a pistol, and tried doing a few classic James Bond poses before pointing the gun around. Not knowing that they were actually loaded, her index fingers accidentally pressed the trigger and the bullet shot past the store owner, lightly grazing his cheek and shattered the windows behind him as well.

"Holy shit!" She exclaimed before her eyes avoided those of the store owner and innocently put the gun back on the table. Guns may look cool in movies, but she didn't have a clue on how to use them. If she did take one with her, she would have probably ended up holding one the wrong way around and shot herself by accident. She didn't want to take the risk of making a fool out of herself, but as soon as she saw the large bazooka not that far away from her, she just felt the need to pick that up and try it out too. After she ended up dropping the bazooka and fearing that she might have accidentally broken it, she felt compelled to try out the tall scythe standing in one corner of the room.

"This looks so cool!" She thought, remembering how Kite's weapon could also turn into a scythe. But that one was much larger than the one she was holding, and Kite managed to wipe a whole army of Chimera ants out with them. That reminded her of Kite's current state, wondering whether he would really be fine. She didn't know Kite for as long as Gon and Killua knew him, but in that short amount of time he became one of her role models. Just like Sensei, Haruko, Natsume, and Toshiro, she ended up looking up to him as a mentor. Sure, he didn't look too friendly and he didn't speak much, but now that she thought about it, that just added to his charm as a Hunter.

"Excuse me young miss, have you chosen your weapon yet?" The voice of the store keeper startled her. She didn't expect him to speak, especially since he was supposed to be just a program. When Himeko turned around to answer, the scythe she was holding accidentally knocked over one of the weapons which then ended up causing a domino effect. She watched in horror as half of the store fell apart in front of her, before quietly putting away the scythe where it belonged. She soon ended up trying to look for something she was familiar with, like a pair of katana she knew how to use. She stopped walking as her eyes managed to catch a chain, just like the one Kurapika wielded back in Yorkshin city, but running through a few mental stimulations she just walked past it, "Only Kurapika can make those look cool anyway, I would only take away it's coolness," she sighed, "I'll just go for the katana, they make me look cool anyway."

Once she picked up two twin katana, she carried them to the front desk and saw the store owner protecting himself with a giant shield. She wondered whether this too was part of the program and looked back at the store to see how much damage she managed to cause in a matter of minutes. After placing a couple of gold coins on the table she left the store.

"Hey Sara, what do I do now?" She asked out loud, hoping the robotic voice would reply.

"Are you going to fight like that?" The robotic voice responded in a mocking tone. Himeko ended up looking at her own reflection in a store window. She wore a blue hoodie, grey jogging bottoms and a pair of running shoes. Though there was nothing wrong with her clothes as she was just going around to fight, she could tell that even a computer was starting to judge her choice of clothes.

"Well, yeah. There is nothing wrong with my outfit!"

Before she could justify her own choice in clothes, she heard the robotic voice once again. "New outfit obtained."

Himeko looked through her inventory and found a set of clothes neatly folded in her bag. She took that as a sign to change her clothes and looked for a place to change her clothes. After entering a local bar, she entered the women's restroom and changed into her outfit. Knee-high brown boots, blue shorts, a light blue and white top and a dark blue cape; it was a typical outfit straight out of an MMORPG game. She didn't exactly know how to feel about it, her top was cropped so it revealed her stomach, also exposing the Royal Beast symbol on her waist. She also decided to put her hair up into a ponytail.

"New achievement unlocked: Looking presentable."

Himeko paused as she tied her hair back, feeling offended by the system poking fun at her before continuing. Himeko soon exited the bar she was at, putting her own clothes away inside a small pouch.

"I've changed my outfit, now what do I do?" Himeko asked, hoping Sara wouldn't start picking out her choice of hairstyle now. There was no answer for a while, and she wondered whether there was a bug in the system now. However, this time around it wasn't Sara who replied. It was Foxy.

"So, you've decided to accept my challenge after all?" He asked before letting out a villainous laugh. "I didn't expect you to have the guts!"

"Oh, just shut up! What other choice do I have?"

"You have thirty minutes to come up twenty floors of my tower, defeat my hundreds of demons lurking around and finally defeat me," Foxy explained her task in more detail, and a small timer appeared in Himeko's hands.

"Meh, I've caused more damage than that in the weapon store," she informed him, "your demons don't scare me."

Foxy's laugh could be heard echoing through the streets again, "is that so? Then I guess you won't have any problems at all." Following this, there was utter silence before the brown path leading to Demon Tower was replace with black tiles. Himeko took a step forward. The tile exploded, causing her to blow up too.

The area flickered and flashed white, before Himeko reappeared again unharmed and in one piece. She couldn't believe her own eyes, she somehow managed to survive that explosion.

"You have two lives left," Sara informed her, before revealing a vital piece of information. "The black tiles explode."

"You little shit, you could have told me earlier!" Himeko ended up cursing at her guide before looking up to see that around one hundred of the path in front of her was covered in black tiles.

"Player two receives one warning for use of offensive language."

"What the fuck?!"

"Player two receives second warning for use of offensive language," Sara informed her as she swore yet again, "one more warning would result in Player two being muted for the rest of the game." Hearing this, Himeko quietened down, knowing that one more wrong word would result in her being muted and not being able to talk was the last thing she wanted to happen to herself. Instead, she focused on the path ahead of her thinking of a way to get across without losing another life. "Do you have a way of crossing? You can check you inventory-" Before Sara could finish her suggestion, Himeko prepared to run across. She took in a deep breath before starting to sprint towards the exploding tiles, leading to a chain of explosion as she ran over. She managed to safely escape each explosion by just a split second and reach the end of the explosive path in a matter of seconds. "That works too," Sara commented, seeing how she had already ran past the explosives.

Before she could get another set of instructions, Himeko prepared to race towards the Demon tower not wanting to waste any of her remaining time. Having no problems on the way there, she managed to make it there in a short amount of time. She took a moment to look at the timer to see how much time she had left; 24:32.

"This is more than enough time," she thought, opening the large double door leading to the first floor of the tower. Hearing the sound of the door open, the attention of the demons waiting for their next prey automatically focused on Himeko. The countless number of monsters stared at her, before they all charged at her at full speed. "Damn, that's a lot of monsters," she thought before unsheathing her sword and politely shut the door behind her; she had good manners after all. The first floor was fairly easy to complete, even without Nen she managed to charge through all the demons with her two swords and slicing them all into half.

"Demon Tower Floor Two unlocked," there was an announcement that she had managed to clear the first level, and unlock the second. As soon as the announcement was done, the door with the elevator to the second floor was also unlocked. She ran inside and waited for the elevator to take her to the second floor. While waiting, she looked at how long she had left. 23:56; it was a good start, it took her a little more than half a minute to clear the first floor. As soon as she reached the second floor, she continued rushing towards the next elevator while defeating her opponents on her way there. Her luck continued for the next few minutes until she finally reached the fifth floor. Now she had around twenty minutes remaining.

"Now, only fifteen floors to go!" She told herself, before charging to attack a demon. She swung her newly bought sword once, and her eyes widened in horror as she saw the blade breaking off. Not having time to dodge her opponents attack, he was hit and flew right back, landing on the floor. Himeko briefly looked at her broken blade that was brand new without a scratch. There was no way a perfectly good blade like that would break in such a short amount of time, but seeing that another monster charged at her she didn't have much time to keep pondering about her broken blade. She threw the broken sword away before drawing her other blade that she had only used a couple of times.

Defeating all the monsters on that the fifth floor triggered the elevator to the sixth floor to be unlocked. After safely sheathing her remaining sword, she kept trying to figure out why the first sword broke in the first place. After all, she was no amateur when it came to using swords and blades. Natsume taught her how to properly use a sword so she couldn't find any flaws in the way she handled it. In the elevator, she sighed before taking out the timer. 17:23, she wasted too much time on the fifth floor. She couldn't afford to do that anymore, not if she wanted to get out of this game anytime soon.

"Himeko, you're too slow," she told herself, staring at seconds decreasing on the timer. 17:22, 17:21, 17:20, 17:19, 7:18, 7:17, 7:16. There was something wrong with the timer, ten minutes couldn't disappear just like that. "Sara, how much time do I have left?"

"You have seven minutes and eleven seconds left," the robotic voice answered, causing Himeko to throw the timer on the floor out of frustration.

"Worthless piece of trash!" She cursed, looking at the broken pieces of the timer on the elevator floor, "what's the point of giving me a timer if it doesn't even work properly?!" While she was in the middle of her mental breakdown, she suddenly heard a voice.

"Are you enjoying the game so far?" Foxy asked mockingly, making her blood boil. He obviously knew about this all, it must have been his work all together. From the broken sword to the time limit reducing all of the sudden. "You look a little troubled all of the sudden, where did all your confidence go?"

"I will kill you," she threatened, but all she heard in response was a mocking laugh. He wasn't taking her serious, he wasn't taking her serious at all.

"How cute!" He sneered at her, "what do you think you can do to me? Kill me? This is my game," he reminded her, and as a reminder the elevator that was going up came to a sudden halt. "I'm impressed you managed to come this far, but I guess I won't be seeing you any time soon." With that, Himeko was left in silence trying to find a way out of this situation. She had seven minutes left, one sword, no ability to use Nen, and fifteen floors to still go.

"Damn it!" She screamed in frustration, breaking open the emergency flap at the top of the elevator and climbing out. She knew the rope would lead her to the next floor, so she carefully started climbing up the rope, and kicking open the door to the sixth floor. She drew her remaining sword, wanting to quickly make it through the mass of demons. After hurrying through the sixth floor, the elevator to the seventh floor unlocked, and she took it up. Reaching the seventh floor, eight, ninth, tenth and even eleventh floor were no problem.

Himeko eventually reached the fourteenth floor, and getting out of the elevator she scanned the number of demons she had to defeat in order for the next door to open. She looked at her sword that wasn't looking to good anymore. The state of it was slowly deteriorating and she could only hope for it to last for a few more minutes.

"Sara, how long to I have left?" Now that she didn't have a timer left anymore, she could only rely on her robotic guide to inform her.

"You have four minutes and seven seconds left."

She sighed, knowing that there would be a good chance in her losing the game if she doesn't hurry up. As one of the demons rushed at her, she used her sword to defend herself which resulted in her only weapon left to break. Before the monster could attack her again, she stabbed it with the remaining blade, and couldn't pull it back out. Both her katana were unusable, and all she could rely on now were her bare hands.

"You have two minutes, three seconds left." the robotic voice reminded her, making her jaws drop. Her time limit halved, the Chimera ant ended up messing with it again. While she was trying to process the little time she had left, she heard it again, "you have fifty nine seconds left." The time limit halved yet again, and Himeko heard Foxy's voice in the background laughing in amusement.

"I have less than a minute to get through six more floors!" She thought. "Come on, every technique has a weakness Himeko. You have one, Kite has one, Gon has one, Killua has one, even Sensei and the Chairman must have one. Think, there must be a flaw in this all!"

The Chimera ant continued laughing seeing her desperate state and comparing it to how confident she looked not so long ago. "What will you do now, Little Blue?"

"Think Himeko!"


A/n- I hope this was an alright-ish chapter. Try to spot all the references I made ^^

Review Corner -

SilverDewDrop- Thanks for your reviews. Those two chapters were supposed to be one. I lost track, and it ended up being way too much to post as one, so I split them up hence the double update. And I hope you managed to catch up on sleep, I swear revision can kill a person sometimes haha. And 'I don't have time to deal with idiots' has always been my motto xD It's a good motto to follow, especially when there are so many shit talkers in High school.

Havanatitania- Kou kinda fought in this chapter, not so much though. More in the next, this chapter was supposed to be a little more comedic when she first enters a video game (Idk if I actually succeeded in that, my sense of humour can be really weird sometimes. I end up being the only one laughing at my own jokes sometimes; it's embarrassing, I know!) And yeah, there will be an additional fight with the fourth guard.

AJPJweallluvJJ- OMFG, that's possibly the cutest ship name I've ever heard. Like not just for this fic, I'm talking overall. PikaKou, Pikakou, Pikakou, can't get over how cute it is, hehe ^^

Queechi- I always imagined Palm being a mentally unstable version of the girl from The Ring. That's why Himeko called her Sadako in a couple chapters. And second hand embarrassment is Himeko's ultimate weapon. If she masters that attack, she can beat Hisoka, the Zoldycks, Phantom Troupe all the ants including the King and possibly annihilate the world's population. There is a reason she hasn't mastered it yet, and isn't ever going to master it. The story needs more characters to keep going XD

Ziggy123- Writing Koullua is fun! They are so unpredictable as a ship, I can literally make them have a conversation on anything and get away with it ^^

DeceivingAura- Wow, it means so much to hear something like that from a fellow writer! This isn't the best fanfiction out there, but I'm trying my best to write to the best of my ability and trying to think of new content that would keep the readers going and constantly going back to edit previous chapters ^^ Tbh with Himeko, I try to intentionally make her unlikable sometimes because in reality we all have those moments, and reading back I feel like that's the best way to make a character relatable and reading some reviews I feel like some readers feel like they could relate to much better that way too. Just keep going, and don't limit yourself as a writer and you'll get there before you even know it!

Also, it's so cool to finally meet someone who ships Kou with Kurapika. Seeing how everyone preferred Killua, I felt like I was doing something wrong with Kurapika, but I guess not many people prefer him as a love interest. There won't be that many interactions between Kourapika/Pikakou left in this part (HunterxHime), possibly only one or two in the next arc since I'm planning to finish this part after the Election arc. But there will be plenty more once I start writing the next part (HunterxHime 2; I still don't have an official name for it, lol).