Forgiveness

Chapter 8

Yua was humming to herself whilst walking down a busy market street, dancing around people who were going about their usual daily life. She was brimming with excitement as she was on her way to the Heaven's arena to try and find Hisoka. She was looking left and right, trying to see a building stick out amongst the rest. The lady she had asked a few streets back had laughed when Yua asked where the arena was.

'Just keep going, you can't miss it.'.

Yua sighed in frustration but kept going, trying to not let getting lost dampen her great mood. She spotted a park through a gap between a couple of shops and decided to get off the street, it's not like she could get more lost!

Just entering the park felt a little bit more like home. The wind was playing around in the trees and the sound of a nearby streamed turned Yua's head. Suddenly, rising above the trees, Yua saw the Heaven's arena. It was a pure white building which seemed to touch the clouds. Her jaw dropped in awe at the size of this building, it was the tallest one she had ever seen!

'Awah, I want to stand on the top and look over at the whole world!' Yua jumped on the spot in excitement and not giving a second thought to the homely comforts of the park, she ran off towards the towering challenge before her.

'Can I come in and fight please?' Yua asked the large doorman blocking the main entrance into the Heaven's arena. She had run all the way and bounded up to the front door without even noticing the large queue of fighters patiently waiting their turn.

The doorman didn't even acknowledge her and continued to speak to the person who had reached the front of the queue. Yua's eyes snaked their way along the line of people, she even had to crane her head around the edge of the building to see that it disappeared way back, beyond the limits of the sight. Her faced dropped again at the thought of having to wait so long to get started. She turned back to the doorman, thinking of the best way to get around him. She put on her biggest eyes, made her bottom lip tremble and squeezed out a tear or two.

'Please Sir, my friend and I got separated. He's waiting for me inside and will be so worried if I don't arrive soon to meet him.'. Yua was pleading with the doorman, continuously dancing into his line of sight so he couldn't ignore the sobbing girl in front of him. 'Surely there's room to squeeze just one more person in now. I'm only small.'.

The doorman's face softened a little. Yua saw an opening and was about to carry on her helpless act when someone interrupted.

'Fake!' Yua spun on the spot and saw that a young boy with silvery hair had spoken. He had a moody face which turned up with disappointment at her acting skills. Her eyes narrowed at him when he pointed towards her and flashed his eyes in a challenge, 'You'll have to do better than that to fool…'

'You can go ahead of us Miss!' The boy next to the annoying one shouted out above his friend. He had a massive grin on his face and was waving Yua over.

'Baka! You actually believe that act?!' The silver haired boy was now shouting at his friend, his face a picture of disbelief. The other boy suddenly looked sheepish and blushed slightly whilst rubbing the back of his head in confusion.

Yua waved back at the friendly boy and ran over to join two of them, who were a short way from the front of the queue. 'Thank you, you are such a lovely young man!" She giggled with charm and fluffed his dark hair which was tipped with green. The boy was overcome with giddiness at her comments and bashfully looked away. Yua took that moment to turn to the moody one and spit out her tongue at him. His eyes became dark to match his moody expression, but he just tutted and turned away from her, clearly angry at both of them.

'You're welcome! My name is Gon and this is Killua,' Gon announced, bouncing with kindness as if he was talking to an old friend.

'Nice to meet you Gon-Kun! I'm Yua,' She then leaned down again and whispered loudly to Gon, 'I don't think Killua-Kun likes me very much.'.

'Awah, Killua doesn't usually like new people.' Gon laughed and playfully pushed Killua, who returned the push back and before long they were both laughing, the tense moment between them already passed. Yua noticed that even though Killua seemed happy to play along and put his feelings away, there was an element of distrust and darkness behind the fun in his eyes that he wanted to hide. She sympathised, only those who have been through a rough childhood held that look and burden.

'It's a pleasure to meet you too Killua-Kun.' Yua placed her hands together in front of her and gave him a slight bow of her head. 'I am sorry if I have made a bad first impression with you. I do have a friend inside that I am eager to see, and I am very grateful to you both that you let me stand with you.'.

Killua blushed at her formality and the sincerity in her voice and quickly waved it off, 'It's ok. It's ok. No need to say anything.'. His awkwardness was clear, and the blush of his cheeks made Gon laugh. That was all it took for Killua to be shouting at Gon again, trying to hide his embarrassment, and then they were at it once more; shouting, laughing and messing around.

Yua watched this scene with a fondness, it reminded her of how she used to wind Chrollo up when they were younger. She giggled along with them all the way to the front of the queue. Yua couldn't remember the last time she had laughed for this long and suddenly understood the reason Killua seemed to easily hide his true feelings. Gon had a way of making them seem far away, though they never gone.

'Thank you again Gon-Kun, Killua-Kun. I wish you the best of the luck in your fights!' Once inside Yua waved goodbye and left them to go and register for her first fight. The beginning of her journey to Hisoka.

'Please take this ticket and go sit in the arena and wait to be called for your fight.'. The woman behind the registration desk droned out the instructions, barely staying awake for them herself. Clearly, she had repeated these words many times every day.

'Ah, I'm sorry to ask but can my fight be next? I'm kind of in a hurry to make it to floor 200.' Yua grinned at the lady, hoping it would cover her cheeky question and win her over. It did not. The lady raised an eyebrow at her and looked Yua up and down then rolled her eyes. Yua blushed, furious at the obvious look of disbelief on this lady's face.

'You're in luck, it's been a slow day today so it will be a shorter wait than normal. You'll soon be on your way to floor 200.' The sarcasm dripped from her voice making Yua's eye twitch in frustration, but she just turned on her heels and strode into the large arena.

This was the ground floor of the building and held over 20 separate fighting mats where opponents were continuously facing off to reach the higher floors. Yua had overhead some of the referees giving out various floor numbers to the winner of each fight, it seemed this was an assessment of your abilities and the stronger you were, the higher the floor you reached. Yua grinned, it was a great way for her to slingshot to the upper floors!

She began strumming her fingers on her lap, very quickly getting bored of waiting. She glanced around at the crowds of people. Most were here to watch a few brawls for free, but others were stretching and throwing a few practise punches in preparation for their fight. Yua giggled at how seriously a lot of them were taking this assessment, it seemed like it was going to be a breeze for her, looking at the competition on show. She slouched back in her seat, thinking of how quickly she could make it up to see Hisoka and the look of surprise on his face when she proves her strength.

'Number 2054 please go to ring D'. The loudspeaker rang across the room.

'That's me!' Yua jumped up with excitement and pounced over to the ring. She stood at the centre with the referee and kept swinging her head back and forth, trying to identify her opponent within the crowds. Suddenly, she locked eyes with a really large woman who was striding towards her, grinning with yellow teeth. She was a lot taller than Yua, possibly over 6 foot, and her muscles were so pronounced on her arms that the veins were popping out.

Yua grimaced. Not at the thought of fighting this woman but the thought of being so close to her. She was already sweating enough to have dark rings visible under her armpits and the stench from these seemed to be rising off of her body in waves.

'Oi ref, do I have to fight that? Can't she shower first?' Yua's pulled a face of disgust and the referee giggled at her comment.

'WHAT DID YOU SAY?' The large woman growled from across the ring. Her face changing to the colour of red which would anger a bull.

'I said you need a shower!' Yua shouted back, loud enough that the room had gone a little quieter to listen to the goading comment. She plugged her nose with her fingers and stuck her tongue out as if she had eaten something gross.

'Big talk from a little girl. Shouldn't you be in school learning to sew?'. Yua's face dropped and her smirk turned to a scowl. She hated being belittled. The referee was speaking now, something about rules and assessing the fight but Yua wasn't listening. She was just thinking about the quickest way she could take this woman down and make it to the highest floor possible.

Yua started to build up her Nen in her hand and flashed a toothy smile at her opponent. Just as the referee uttered the words begin, the woman went flying into the wall behind Yua. She impacted a few meters up the wall and then peeled off to land on the floor, leaving woman shaped concave behind her. The referee gawped at Yua. It had seemed to him like she hadn't moved at all and even now, she was blowing on her fingernails as if she had had just applied a fresh coat of polish.

Though no-one had seen her move, just as the referee has announced the start of the match, Yua had grabbed the shirt of her opponent and whipped her over her head into the wall. She was now only blowing off the heat buzzing on her fingers from the fast movement.

'Well, referee, how high can I go?' She flashed him her winning smile. He was caught off guard, knowing Yua had easily beaten her opponent but not actually seeing the technique she used.

'Floor 50?' The referee said it more like a question and then stepped back in horror at a flash of anger that crossed Yua's eyes. 'I meant to say Floor 50 would be to low! Let's try floor 100?'

'Humph, I guess a little bit of practise wouldn't hurt before reaching Hisoka.' She grabbed her ticket from the stunned referee and stalked away towards the elevator, passing a medical team who were trying to revive her opponent on the floor. Yua smirked, she always enjoyed proving people wrong who judged her on her looks.

Before reaching the elevator, Yua remembered the two young boys who would be the next fights after her and decided to hang around to watch. Their matches were as quick as hers and Yua whooped in excitement and wonder from the side-lines, marvelling at their strength. Gon had simply pushed a fully grown man in the chest but it had caused him to fly out of the arena, even further than Yua's opponent had travelled. Killua, interested her more though. He didn't seem to move and yet as soon as the match started, suddenly he was behind his opponent and with a swift chop to the back of their neck, sent them spiralling to the floor in a KO.

'Awah! He's so fast!' Yua chirped, eyes widening in excitement. Gon spotted her in the crowd of shocked onlookers and ran over as soon as he had been given his ticket for winning.

'Your fight was amazing Yua-chan. I didn't even see you move!'.

'I did.' Killua walked behind Gon, his hands in his pockets. Though his words seemed rude, his smile softening the words into a playful tease.

'Thank you! Your fights were amazing too, I can barely believe you are both Twelve. Gon you are so strong, that man must have been ten times your size!' She ruffled his hair again and turned to Killua. 'and Killua, I barely saw you move, and then, BOOM, your opponent was finished.' She cooed at them like a proud mother hen and both of them blushed at her comments. 'What floor did you both get?'

'We're headed up to floor 50. How about you Yua-chan?'. Gon asked, eager to see if they could spend more time with this strong girl.

'Ah sorry Gon-Kun, I made it to floor 100. Just lucky I guess.' Yua didn't want to seem too arrogant but she knows she could go straight to floor 200, if the rules allowed it. 'Anyway, should we ride the elevator together?' Gon nodded and grabbed her hand leading her to the elevator doors. Killua rolled his eyes and followed as usual.

The elevator made a small ding when they reached floor 50.

'Bye for now Yua-chan!' Gon waved ferociously at the closing elevator doors, again giving the Yua the impression they were already best friends. 'Please watch all our fights!'.

'I will Gon-Kun. Have fun and I'll see you at the top soon!'. Yua waved back, actually enjoying the company of little Gon but it was the other one, Killua, who intrigued her, and who she looked forward to seeing again. Yua admitted to herself that she liked these boys and hoped they would make it to the upper floors.

'If only they knew of Nen.' Yua muttered to herself, now in the elevator alone. 'It would be great fun to fight Killua and see who was faster but without Nen the disadvantage would be so great, it would be boring.' She could tell they didn't know how to use Nen by their obvious lack of aura and their complete obliviousness to her own. 'Ah well, I'm sure they will figure it out soon in a place like this.'.

The elevator dinged once more, reaching floor 100. It was Yua's mission now to reach floor 200 as soon as possible. She smirked, knowing the boys below would be quick to try and beat her there. She smiled to herself again as she exited the elevator, thinking about her new friends.

'You still have a lot of learning to do Gon-Kun, Killua-Kun, but I will see you on floor 200 soon.'.