The discussion continues with the water divination test.

A\N: There won't be a chapter next week. I was unable to work on my story for the past few weeks, due to… well work. I'm hoping to only take one week off and still catch up, but I'll see how I go.

"Where were we…" Killua hummed as he pressed a finger to his cheek, "Right, we were at the juicy bit. We practised Ten for hours at a time, sometimes even alongside Zushi. Eventually, we learned Ren… we then learnt our categories. Gon was an Enhancer, Daniel was a Manipulator and I was a Transmuter. What our training consisted of, was mastering our aura flow. Gon had to make water pour out of the cup, I refined the taste of the water to something sweeter and Daniel…"

"-Made the leaf dance in the cup… lame, but my category isn't known for its finesse. At least, when it comes to Water Divination, training-wise…"

"You can change the taste of water?"

"Perks of being a Transmuter…"

"To anything at all…?"

Killua paused. What exactly did Clarisa expect him to do? Where was she leading the conversation? "Yes… as long as a knew the taste, I don't see why not."

"What about food?"

"I guess so…"

Clarisa paused, wondering if that was why Madelyn and Killua were both great cooks? Could her housemate also be a Transmuter? "Do you think Madelyn could also be a Transmuter?"

"What makes you think-" Killua stopped mid-sentence. Everything became clear now. Clarisa was assuming, "Oh… No… it doesn't work like that. But given Hisoka's test, Transmuters are known to be whimsical, prone to deceit and fickle… And Madelyn is quite fickle."

"I resent that!"

"Take it up with Hisoka, not me."

"If it makes you feel any better, Manipulators are both argumentative and logical. APPARENTLY, we also want to keep our loved ones safe… but Illumi must have not gotten the memo."

Killua chuckled at the insult. Yes, when Illumi placed the needle in his head to run away from those who were stronger than him, that would be considered 'protecting'. But the insult still stands "But that's his personality test. I'm sure it's not always correct, but the Water divination method is the best way to find out. I'm sure there are other ways… but that's the only way we know of."

"Aww… so I have a long way to go."

"Unfortunately, so…" Daniel gave the girl a weak smile, "Any more questions? Can we move on?"

"Yes…"

"Yup!" Madelyn popped the 'p'. She was slightly annoyed at the mild insult, but she's glad they were getting off this topic. She wants to get as far away from the Hisoka Test as possible. She's neither whimsical, prone to deceit or fickle.

How they met Gon's first partner…

Killua spoke about Whale Island next, the promises they made…

The first clue to finding Ging, Gon's father.

There weren't many questions asked, considering it was mostly about Gon and his mission to find his father. But Clarisa did have one curious question she wanted to ask the boys.

If they could go back to that Island, and Killua were to ask himself the same question… how would he answer? "I have a question…"

"Shoot…"

"If you were to ask yourself: What am I going to do... or what should I do...? How would you answer? Clearly, at that time you had a lot of things you didn't want to do… and not a lot of ideas of what you wanted to do."

Killua didn't need much time to answer. He already knew what he wanted to do, "To have fun… As lame as it is, I had an adventure with Gon… with Daniel… Now with Alluka at our side, I want to show her how fun life could be. Sure, there will be moments where we'll be in danger. However, as long as we grow stronger together… I feel like we'll have no trouble protecting not only Alluka, but each other as well."

"What about your answer, Daniel?"

Daniel flashed his partner a smirk "Not stalking… that's for certain."

"Daniel…" Killua whined from his boyfriend's comment at the time. He didn't like it then, and he still didn't like it now.

"I'm kidding…" The boy found himself smiling at the floor, "While I agree I want to also have fun… I want to be as strong as my boyfriend, one day. I want to be able to protect him from danger…" When he looked up, he saw his partner's eyes were diverted, looking away from him with a faint blush.

While neither of them could hear the words, he could tell his lover called him a 'Baka' under his breath.

Even if it's an insult, he still would've smiled…

It was the blush that preceded his reply.

Clarisa offered a nod in understanding. She was smiling from the responses, however, it seemed like they had a lot more to go through.

Daniel talked about Yorknew next, about the auction on the game which had a clue to finding Ging Freecss. Even though that was their original goal, they had other stepping stones they had to make first. Namely, making enough money to buy the game, let alone get a spot in the auction.

The boy continued to detail their meet up with Leorio, and their goal to earn enough cash to get a buy into the auction. It was when he brought up the arm-wrestling plan, that Clarisa was gawking, "Wait… you used a ten-million Jenny ring, to entice people into arm-wrestling… and the buy-in was only ten-thousand? I would've started at one-hundred thousand…"

"Well, he used my money to buy it… which was unfair. Sure, I did make myself useless by scaring the others into picking Gon over me, but we did almost lose the ring… especially if she'd have picked me."

Killua raised a finger "What we later learned… was the person who Gon was up against, was a member of the Phantom Troupe, a notorious group of powerful thieves. People were willing to pay money to capture a member for two billion each."

"TWO-BILLION?!"

"It's not worth the paycheque…" Killua argued with a raised palm, "They're not only proficient with Nen, dealing with one of them, is like fighting Hisoka… except less lewd and more bones being crushed. That's beside the point… Leorio's goal was to get into the underground arm-wrestling, where we could make the big bucks…"

"However, as soon as we arrived, that's when we found out not only, was she a member of that group. It was no longer a wrestling ring, but the mafia turned it into a room to hire people to capture the Phantom Troupe members."

"So, what you do…?"

Killua sighed, "Like the dumbasses we were… we tried to capture them." The boy went through the finer details, talking about their plans on how they planned on capturing the members.

Gon's idea to pawn off his Hunter license so they had money to bribe people into revealing member's location.

The small detour they made on the flea market, where they outbid Zephile…

Meeting of said person…

Killua went through it all until he reached the point where they realised, they were up against an impossible cause. Mainly… trying to capture members of the Phantom Troupe. Once he reached the point on how they escaped, did their conversation progress…

"That… sounds horrible. They were not only powerful, but they scared you into submission?"

"Why didn't you use your Hatsu to escape?"

Killua crossed his arms, "At that point, I hadn't developed my Hatsu. Only Daniel had one at this point… and like I said, he was forced to show it off to the Phantom troupe members."

"Apart from the ability breaking under my own, stress… That wasn't the only problem we had that night… it was you walking towards Nobunaga, looking as though you wanted to kill him."

Killua pouted, "Well back then… I still had Illumi's needle in my head, so I had his bullshit swirling around in my head… things like that's impossible… Your only concern when you meet someone is whether you should kill them… Never fight an enemy you can't beat, I drilled that into you… These are the kinds of things I heard him whispering to me through that needle. It infringed on my ability to grow stronger… It stunted me…"

"I… I honestly don't blame you… having these sorts of things going through your head, it can make you feel weak… but even so… You were still far stronger than Gon and I, sometimes even combined. Never sell yourself short… unless you know…"

"You know what…?"

Daniel gestured towards their height difference.

"You're barely a bee's dick length higher than me." Killua frowned as he rested one hand on his hip, "Around five centimetres… at best."

"Oh… is someone worried he's gonna be fun-size for the rest of his life?"

"Ha, like that would ever happen. I'm definitely, going to be just as tall, if not… even taller than you."

Daniel smirked, "Both my parents are taller than your dad. Whereas you have to worry about your mother's genetics kicking in."

"I got my dad's eyes and hair colour… height won't be out of the question."

Daniel's expression hadn't changed. Sure, Killua might get lucky and get the best traits of his father, but that being said… even if Killua ultimately ends up being shorter than him, or taller to be fair, it's not going to change his feeling on the boy. Saying that right now, was more important than teasing his partner right now, "taller or fun-size, my feelings for you aren't going to change…"

Killua blinked in surprise, a blush now evident on his cheeks, "That's not fair… I said we were going to move away from the compliments."

"But you were being cute when you were arguing why you'll be taller than me."

The boy looked away, glaring at the girls. They weren't going mention, or talk about what just happened.

Madelyn didn't care… if anything, she was offended by Killua thinking she was going to say crap about what just transpired.

Clarisa on the other hand… made a gesture.

Killua sighed in frustration. Of course, she'd motion that they were being cute, "None of that matters, because we got away, escaped from the clutches of the Phantom Troupe. We met up with Kurapika, who we almost made a life-or-death pact with… just so we can get rid of our biggest problem, Pakunoda. Like Zaikaria, she can read your mind. However, unlike Zaikaria who was more invasive with your memories, Pakunoda can only read your memories, based on your knowledge on the question she asked you."

"Think of it as selective reading…" Killua motioned with his hands, "Another issue was Nobunaga wanted to recruit Gon into the Phantom Troupe. We needed Kurapika's help, if we were going to beat them, considering he already killed one member."

"To explain it better, Kurapika's abilities rely on chains… specifically, chains, for distinct tasks. One of those chains, is to put a cross on someone's heart. If they break any of the conditions Kurapika sets, they die. Killua, well… let's be honest… mainly Gon wanted to set a condition where he'll never reveal the chain user's identity… even if it cost him his life. Killua and Leorio joined the bandwagon, only cause Gon wanted it. But at this time, not only did news about the Phantom Troupe members had been killed had been spread… through Kurapika's contact, Hisoka… we not only found out that all of them were still alive, but their reward for capturing them dead or alive had been rescinded."

"To be FAIR, once we found out there was no more reward for capturing them, I wanted no part in the situation. I'd rather ditch the place and get as far away from them as possible."

Clarisa crossed her arms. It sounded like Killua only wanted to get rid of Pakunoda at the start, but as soon as the reward was revoked, his tune changed "What about you, Daniel…?"

"I was scared… scared to be up against them again. As we mentioned, my ability acted uncharacteristically; it was as though water, was slipping through my fingers. It didn't help that it was also fragile like glass… I'd be an easy target. But at the same time… I didn't want to feel useless. Not to Kurapika… much less to Killua…"

Killua continued with their story.

He went on to detail their plan on dealing with the Phantom Troupe.

They intended to capture Pakunoda and get rid of her, but once he reached the part where not only did, they get found out, Killua and Gon got captured once more, the conversation mood switched.

Madelyn offered the boys a sly smile, "I'm noticing a pattern here…"

"Yeah, yeah…" Killua stuck out his tongue at the girl, "there was a time where we were weak. Honestly, we're probably still weaker than them right now… if I'm being honest."

"They must be really strong, for you to consider yourself weaker than them."

The boy crossed his arms once more, "Well, they are unbelievable strong… of course I'm gonna argue we're still weaker than them. However, I'd make one exception… we may be stronger than one or two of them, considering we had gotten stronger over time, but neither of us wants to test that theory out."

"What would you do if you were stronger than all of them?"

"Nothing! I rather not deal with them… Even my father rather not deal with them."

"Your father fought one of them?"

"Yup, he killed one previous member… He also argued the money, wasn't worth the hassle."

"What else happened?" Clarisa pressed the topic forward.

Daniel spoke up, "With Killua and Gon captured, and the deal I made with Kurapika, I was to negotiate with the Phantom Troupe. You see… Kurapika caught their leader, not Pakunoda. So, we wanted an exchange of hands… Killua and Gon, for the Phantom Troupe leader, Chrollo. The man argued that it'll never work out in our favour… but we managed to strike a deal with Pakunoda. When we made the exchange, I was so relieved to him them back…"

"Relieved… Huh…?" The boy spoke with a deadpan attitude, a thumb being pointed in Daniel's direction, "He ran up to me during the hostage exchange and cried ugly tears on my shoulder."

"They weren't ugly tears… I was just so relieved to see you!"

"You could've waited until both of us had joined the group, not before then."

"Well… I couldn't wait!" Daniel stuck out his tongue at his partner. He did the same to him, what the boy did to Clarisa earlier. But thinking back on the situation, he couldn't remember the reason why he ran towards Killua even though the full exchange hadn't been made.

All he remembers… was that need to hold the boy in his arms, and the tears of relief after seeing Killua was truly okay. That definitely, had to be a moment where he started to feel like he wanted to be more than friends with Killua.

He began to wonder, if the more they became open with each other… at what moment, did he finally realise he wanted to be Killua's boyfriend?

Only time could tell…

But for now, they had a story to tell… a history to relive through words. Rather than switching with his partner once again, Daniel continued the conversation "There was another issue happening on the side that we barely glossed over, that was mainly obtaining enough money to be able to bid on the game Greed Island, the real reason we needed so much money. Wait we failed to mention earlier… was the price tag… it's starting bid was almost nine billion Jenny…"

"What…" Clarisa may have started the conversation off confused, but Madelyn made it very clear, that price tag was unachievable for herself, "kind of fucked up game costs that ridiculous price?"

"The kind that involves impossible odds." Killua spoke with a cruel smile, "Lets narrow it down… shall we? Bombers that massacred more than fifty players. A volleyball game that had a person's head got taken off with a single throw. A hair stylus that used a pair of hairdresser scissors to cut people up, oh… and it gets weirder; he could guess your stat points from just eating your hair. He guessed our second Nen teacher's age and skill via that method…"

"Have you ever dealt with a non-weird Nen user?"

The two boys looked at each other, thinking hard on the matter. They couldn't come up with a time where a person wasn't quirky is some way… they were all weirdos "No…"

Daniel agreed with his partner, "Yeah… no, we haven't. They have all been weird so far… Except for Victor, he's a monster through and through."

"Someone you've yet to talk about…"

"We've only had to deal with him recently, and we've got a long way to go before that." Killua argued, "We had another run-in with two members of the Phantom Troupe, but our life wasn't in immediate danger. They let us go after mention Pakunoda thanked us…"

"What for…?"

Killua shook his head, "We, or should I say they didn't stay long enough to tell us why. HOWEVER, what we did learn from probing them, was that aura didn't necessarily disappear after death… a person's hatred and regret can keep your abilities going long after your demise."

The boy paused to let that information sink in. This was something Madelyn needed to hear more than Clarisa, given that she was closer to developing a Hatsu than her housemate was, "Another thing we got to do was, we met up with the person buying all the copies of the game. Gon's idea was to sort of infiltrate and land a spot within, by joining as one of the possible candidates that are playing the game. It turns out that is what the original buyer's goal was…"

Killua further went into detail, explaining what the rules and conditions they set among themselves to land a spot. It was after, where Daniel stepped in for his partner so he could catch a breath, "We managed to land a spot on the game by developing our own Hatsu within five days. Gon learned Ko, I learned to manipulate my aura to replicate the properties of electricity… by using the electricity of a stun gun on my aura."

"More like shoving a stun gun into his arm."

"I didn't shove a stun gun into my arm. I electrocuted my aura nodes to give it a sensation of what electricity felt like, then I replicated the feeling until I could spark it between my fingertips. The only problem is with this tactic, I still need to recharge it when it's depleted."

Daniel crossed his arms, "You still used a stun gun on yourself… that point still stands. For me, I mimicked my shadows to be an extension of my body. While it came to a cost, like if someone severed one of those arms, it'll feel like I lost a limb, it made them just as strong as my physical strength. The controlling aspect… well, that came with time. I developed commands that made them move in specific directions, but Vastorie argued I should work on it is more mental commands. It's good advice, but then it'll need a little of a kick, so I can give it another risk to bolster its strength."

"I feel like this is something I should be aware of…"

"It is…" Daniel clarified, "Hatsus not only depends on your focus, but its power is also strengthened by your resolve and risks. For instance, Killua's Hatsu… when he caught up to you, he empowered his speed by releasing his electricity across his nerves, forcing them to react instantly rather than the signal to go from the brain, along with the nodes that needed to be triggered to make that movement. What's the risk…? He's pumping electricity along his nerves… he could fry his body inside out."

"How hasn't he yet? I can't be the first one his used that ability on…"

"Simple, training… When I was younger, one of their forms of training was torture, the stereotypes being: deprived of sleep, food, water, for long periods. Others included being whipped, poisoned, and their personal favourite… electrocution. If I got kicked into a PowerStation, while the whole thing is exploding around me and I have millions of volts going through my body… I'd get up like it's nothing. It's still painful to experience for me, but the problem is… I'm used to it."

Madelyn wanted to ask why, but she saw Daniel shaking his head. It didn't feel like he was implying it was a touchy subject, since, Killua was very casual when revealing the information. Maybe it's something they're going to talk more about later. She made a gesture for them to continue, seeing as Clarisa wasn't asking anything as well.

Killua continued the topic, "After filling out a contract, we were allowed to enter the game. We decided who goes first via rock paper scissors. The person with the most wins goes in first… it was Gon, because he cheated. He has a tactic that helps him figure out what the person is going to go with. Daniel came in ninth place… I was eighteenth."

"He has bad luck when it comes to gambling."

"I- you know what, I'm not even going to humour that insult. When Daniel went in, he had to explain everything to Gon again. Information overload makes Gon's brain fizzle. When we got in, we were being watched. We picked a direction and got into our first card battle, since the game was based on collecting cards… although, it was more like a training game designed to help Gon get stronger… his father was one of the creators after all. Anyways, he used a card called Trace, it's a built-in game mechanic that we later learned, was used to track my movements. We never had to deal with that guy again, so who knows what happened to him."

"When we went through the list of names of people we met, I vaguely remember his name being greyed out."

"In that case, he either logged out, or he got killed by someone else. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the bomber that killed him."

Clarisa raised a questioning eyebrow, "The who…?"

"Technically, it's bombers. It's a group of three people, one who had a Nen ability that causes explosions. For us… he was the final boss of Greed Island, a troublesome man that caused us nothing but grief." Killua stated before moving on, "We started to play around with the mechanics, finding out ways to circumvent spellcasting, while also trying to avoid it. We got robbed of our cards, we made some in-game money, but what we did find… is Wing's teacher, Biscuit Kruger, or as she wanted to be called… Bisky or Bisky-Chama."

Daniel pointed a thumb at Killua, "He called her old hag once he learned she was fifty-seven."

"She is an old hag… at least in comparison to how she looks."

"Oh, you mentioned her ability can make her look younger earlier."

"Yup, it relies heavily on therapeutic massages. She, or more like her ability Cookie, transmutes her aura into body lotion to restore youth and vitality. Cookie does multiple massages, but there was a super important one, one that helped us deal with the Chimera Ants later… Piano Massage. It can make a thirty-minute sleep feel like eight hours had gone by."

"That's neat…"

Killua gave a nod, "However, her training sessions were brutal. She'd always push us to the limit… until we collapsed. Enters in Binolt…" The boy went on to explain what their training session was like; their first real fighting experience was dealing with one man day and night.

The woman had set them up against a murderer with a bounty, the hairdresser named Binolt. She expected them to keep fighting the man until their either died, or they beat him.

Gon however later changed it until they could beat him single-handedly.

The girls listened intently to the scenario until Killua eventually finished, telling them that they let the man go so he could turn himself in.

"It's strange… hearing how you let him go."

"I know what you mean…" The boy offered with a cheeky smile, "you expected me to kill him at the end."

"At this point, he was starting to change," Daniel argued with a smile, "taking in life as a ride with many detours. He wasn't filled with bloodlust, but rather a need to keep exploring not only himself, but life as well."

"So, what happened next?"

"We learned the advanced Categories…"