Something crawled lazily over Mito's open palm. It tickled, startling her awake. She pulled her hand inward in disgust, cradling it as if it would break out in a rash any second now. The animal she had thrown off—a spider, maybe—scuttled away almost indignantly. Unlike any spider Mito was familiar with, its torso and some of its legs were encased in crystal, a faint, glowing sea green. The crystal clicked against the ground as the spider made its way to a hiding place. The spider turned a corner, and Mito was left in the heavy, familiar darkness.
She forced herself to her hands and knees and crawled straight, groping for a wall to guide her. She found one and she pulled herself upright along the cool, damp stone. She found her way into a cavern, lit by the same crystal she had seen growing over the spider's exoskeleton. In the sickly green light, her skin took on an unhealthy cast. Then she noticed a pair of eyes staring at her from upon the ceiling.
"Hello, little Hunter." The voice was inhuman. High and sinister, with an animal sort of rawness. "Do you want my help?"
Mito stepped back without noticing she had done so. "Who are you?" she asked.
"A friend of the Association." A long whine, almost like a laugh. "I'm just here to help with their latest project."
"No, that can't be right," she muttered. "The Hunter Association doesn't even know I'm here."
"Of course they know. It's practically the Hunters' job to know." The beast upon the ceiling skittered closer to her, and then fell to the floor with an impact that boomed loud upon the cavern walls. It drew itself to its full height, many feet taller than Mito.
The recognition struck her that the beast told the truth, that she had known this was the truth already. She just couldn't bring herself to face what it meant before. Ging knew exactly what she was doing. And he still did nothing.
"I don't need their interference," she said with new steel in her. "And I won't accept it from you either."
The beast raised its massive, bony hands in the gesture of appeasement. "I won't force you to accept my help. Call me if you change your mind. Same name as before."
The beast began to shrink, limbs folding inward and ruddy fur receding into flesh. Mito could not stifle a sharp gasp. By the time the beast was done shrinking, it was now only four feet tall. And it took the shape of the girl from the cabin, back in her nightgown and gently curled hair.
"It was you," she breathed.
The girl gave a surprised smile. "I thought you'd figured that bit out by now," she laughed. "And you're really the one that caught the Association's attention? I'd expected a bit more."
"I don't care what you expected."
"Nor should you," the girl said. "Here's your hint. Find the center of the mine. You will guide yourself there, and then you'll find what you need." She pointed to a cloth bag, leaned against the wall. "There are supplies in there. Personally, I voted not to give you supplies—you really shouldn't need them. But do what you want with them. Goodbye. Maybe we'll see each other soon."
Mito was utterly, helplessly, and completely lost. She had no idea how long she had spent pacing the mineshafts, and she still had a sneaking suspicion that she'd circled back to where she began walking. The mine was a logistical nightmare, with tunnels reaching and tangling like the roots of a tree, intersecting and diverging at random. Many of the tunnels were even dead ends. Some were dead ends by design—as though their architects had simply decided mid-swing of their pickaxes that they had better things to do—and others were overgrown with the green crystal or else caved in.
Mito stopped in a well-lit room. Sunlight streamed through a crack in the ceiling, and water dripped slowly, rhythmically into a pool on the edge of the room. She would rest here. The drip pool would provide drinkable water, and that was already more than anywhere else she'd encountered in the mine. Mito opened the flap covering her supply bag and dumped its contents on the floor to sort through. (Later, she would regret this decision. The supplies just wouldn't fit back in the bag the way they had when they were packed.) A Bunsen burner, a hunting knife with a blade the length of her palm, water purification tablets and an empty canteen, a vacuum-sealed bag of dried fruit, a pack of matches.
A fish swam in the drip pool in aimless circles, its scales reflecting the sunlight like expensive jewels. Mito stepped into the pool, quiet and careful not to disturb the water, and in an instant, brought her hands down onto the fish and lifted it from the pool. It wriggled and thrashed in her grasp, but a rapid blow to the base of its skull with the knife hilt caused it to go limp. She laid the fish on a clear section of rock to clean it, and soon cut away four slabs of pink flesh and put them atop the burner to smoke.
The air in the cave was heavier than it should have been, pushing hard against everything it touched, as if it was not meant to be trapped in this mine. As if it required a new container to fill. A savory smoke began to rise from the slabs of fish, and Mito gingerly lifted them from the burner with the blade of her knife. She ate, barely tasting the fish. Soon, her stomach was full and she could focus on finding the center of the mine again. If the mine tunnels were built with some underlying logic, they hid it well. The only rule Mito had found at all within the mine was this: the tunnels usually go straight, sort of. If you squint. She strained to remember if the girl had given any useful information:
"You will guide yourself there, and you'll find what you need there."
Nothing of use. It was all too vague, the kind of thing that made perfect sense the moment you experienced its real meaning and not a moment before.
Mito filled her canteen from the pool and sipped from it steadily. She grew drowsy, so she made a place for herself on the most even patch of floor she could find and went to sleep.
She dreamt of a sea snake, smooth and pale, floating in the air as though it were water.
"Hello, Mito," the snake said, floating gently above the breaking waves. "Do you know my name?"
Mito shook her head no.
The snake sighed. "I shouldn't be surprised. Even I've forgotten it by now. Tell me, when you grow stronger, will you help me find my name?"
"Of course I will," Mito said before realizing it. "Nobody should have to live without a name."
The snake flicked its forked tongue. "Thank you for understanding," it said. "Ask me three questions."
"Where am I?" Mito asked anxiously.
"An abandoned mine, as you know. Six centuries ago, two Hunters of unmatched strength fought a battle here. They hated one another more than anything, and neither would give up or admit defeat. For nearly a year, they fought, until both were too exhausted to go on. Finally, they each decided to bring the battle to an end once and for all. They came at each other with the last of their strength, and then they died, with no strength left to give. But their Nen filled the mine; it took residence in the crystals you saw."
The snake slithered through the air, smooth and elegant, to be closer to Mito, to look her in the eye.
"What is Nen?" Mito said.
"Nen is the energy you felt within the mine. And many times before, too. You can think of it as a life force. Every living creature produces Nen. However, humans have learned to harness this life force, to turn it into all manner of weapons and to do battle with it. The Hunter Association controls the knowledge of Nen; it is what makes the Hunter Association so powerful."
"Is that how Ging fights?"
"Is that your final question?" the snake asked, an amused note in its hiss.
"Wait! No, it's not!" Mito cried. "I need to know, is Gon alive?"
The snake wrapped itself around her arm and said, "He's alive."
Mito wept, her tears mixing with the sharp, salty breeze.
The snake began to slither back out above the surf, not stopping to say goodbye.
"Wait!" Mito called after it. "I still have questions!"
The snake turned. "Follow me," it said. "I can answer all of your questions."
Mito waded into the shallow sea after the snake.
"Go under the water," it instructed. Mito complied, allowing her legs to buckle and holding a deep breath of air. "Good. Now, open your eyes."
Mito did. Around her, she saw no water, felt no sting in her eyes. She took in a breath, and found that she could breathe perfectly well. She saw images with no sound, flickering and fading before she could know what she had seen. Flashes of gold and crimson. Animal heads mounted upon a wall. The fire of a hearth, spreading and burning hotter until the whole town was consumed. Dragons rising from sea foam. Corpses, broken and bloody. And herself, still standing somehow.
Then, the sea snake again. "Have you found what you wanted?"
"No," Mito whispered. "I don't know what any of it means."
"None of them ever do," the snake laughed. "They all think they want to know, and when they find what they're looking for, they choose not to see.
"It's been a pleasure, Mito Freecss."
Mito snapped awake, and then she was falling.
A/N: This chapter was insanely hard for me to write for some reason. Sorry to end it on a cliffhanger (a very literal one in this case).