"Well well, looks like you're no better than me." Hisoka followed me through the woods. I led him as far as I could without letting the boys fall out of my nen.

"I was on my way to the next town. They happen to be heading toward the same place, I felt their nen rapidly declining and went to check on them." I didn't have to explain myself to this guy but keeping him occupied while the boys got some rest was the least I could do.

"you felt their nen without them being in yours?" Hisoka tapped his long nails against his lip and looks me over "we both know that's not how nen works, if it was especially powerful you may have felt the ripple but that wasn't the case." He walked in circles around me. "it's more likely you were watching them from nearby or from far away.

He leaned down to my ear and ran his sharp nails up the back of my head, trailing them through my hair.

"you are rather skilled in nen usage, I'm guessing you have some kind of nen tracking ability." He trailed his fingers through my again and let it fall back.

"Why should I tell you?"

"I'll let them rest in peace for the rest of the day." He bargained easily.

"rest in peace is an interesting choice of phrasing." I countered. He chuckled.

"pure coincidence. I will not bother them or intervene in the rest of their day."

"the rest of the week." I knew it was in vain but I had to try.

"the rest of today and tomorrow, this is my final offer or we can just fight and the winner gets to choose."

"Actually." I pulled my hoodie off hung it on a branch "sounds good to me."

"oh really." A smile crawled across Hisoka's face and his nen expanded colliding with mine. It was a heavy nen, the density of it making it obvious how much more powerful he was than me. I activated my mirror and captured the nen, I had an idea of how I could beat him.

"go." Hisoka lunged and tackled me into the ground,

"dammit." My mirror was still active. I didn't mean to absorb that much energy.

"awe, don't tell me that's all you can do." He licked my face.

"what the hell!" I kicked him off using the same energy he just used on me. "dammit."

"Your mirror makes you as strong as you need to be, right?" he smirked at me "but at a cost to you, you'll take the damage as soon as your mirror deactivates."

"So you're a smart creep." I already absorbed and used energy. I needed to finish this quickly.

"you see." He struck again. This time I mirrored his speed and dodged, he struck out with his leg and I dodged again. I'd store his attacks and finish him in one move.

"I know all I need to know about your fighting style from watching you and Illumi. I know all I need to know about you just by watching you with Gon and Killua." He threw a cutting burst of nen at me. I caught it in my mirror while dodging the attack itself." He disappeared and slammed me into a tree by my throat.

"You thought being as strong as you needed to be would be enough." He leaned closer, pressing me against the tree, he spoke directly into my ear. "you spoke to Gon and Killua about limiting themselves hen you have placed the biggest limitation on yourself."

I kicked him. I know my own weaknesses, I don't need to hear about them from him.

"shut up!" I circled him, my nen still mirroring him. He just smiles as if he knew so much better than me.

"you are very skilled, you could be so much better if you'd get off the defensive." He attacked me, one hit after another. I mirrored the speed but I couldn't find an opening,

"such a skilled defense." He laughs "it's exciting, I can't even get my hands on you." He was graceful in every move he made, fluid even when he faked me out. I closed my eyes and let my nen read him. I needed to stop absorbing his blows, they was too strong. I needed to finish this.

"If you're going to make your move, you should do it before you wear yourself out little girl." He struck out, I dodged and concentrated the mirrored aura into my hands, my muscles strained, my arms ached.

"you're an awfully quite fighter." He laughs. I opened my eyes and lunged. He smirked and moved but I could do one more thing with my nen, I was almost a purely defensive. I sacrificed some of the aura in my attack and used it to solidify the nen around him and for that second he lost his smiles and I collided with him full force. All the nen I had saved up, all my nen into this attack.

With one blow I had exhausted myself, with one blow I took on more damage than I had the entire fight. My mirror as born of my desire to never be weaker than my opponent again. I would never be too weak again. I lay across him completely exhausted, he was still breathing but he was unconscious at least.

I reached out with the remainder of my nen to the boys, they was sleeping peacefully, I stimulated their nen recuperation but I didn't have enough energy to offer them anymore. I grab Hisoka's wrist and locked my hand around it. He couldn't go anywhere without my knowing now. God's eye, that's the ability I had used to check on the boys when I felt their nen drops. I knew what was going to happen the second they were out of my nen, I just didn't know how to say anything when Killua was so dead set on leaving, but they had to get stronger. I didn't think they'd pass out so quickly, they were overdoing it. I told them not to over do it.

thanks so much for reading,

as always I will see you tomorrow

and I would love to know what you think.

XOXO