The next morning, Gon and Killua lay in the bed fully clothed, pretending to be asleep. There was a guard in their room. She sat perched on the mantle, not at all concealing her presence. She gave off a distinctly dangerous vibe. This one was different from the others.
Killua and Gon lay face to face, sharing a pillow, with their hands tangled together between them. This way, the Neko-Girls wouldn't get suspicious at them not sleeping in a pile, also, it made it easy to communicate under the radar.
Gon tapped Killua's thumb with his own.
He senses another person coming.
Two consecutive taps, then three more taps.
She will arrive through the front door.
Killua sensed a change in the guard's aura, she shuffled slightly. He tapped Gon twice.
She's moving, a shift change is coming.
Gon tapped three times.
The new guard is closing in.
The current guard hopped down from the mantle, and gracefully walked towards the door, tail swishing behind her.
Killua tapped Gon's finger once, you ready?
Gon tapped back, yes.
Silently as death itself, Killua moved his tail beneath the blankets, and positioned it near Gon's neck. He lay in wait.
Gon tapped his finger five times, toxin ready.
Killua swiped the edge of his barbed tail across Gon's neck, gathering the toxin. He allowed himself to fall into assassin mode, Gon stiffened slightly at the change in Killua's energy. The Valkyrie slipped his tail out from the covers, and held it in position.
The door opened, and the new guard entered. As the two guards passed each other, Killua flicked his tail, and flawlessly flung a splattering of Gon's neurotoxin all over them. Silently and immediately, they crumpled to the floor. Killua's tail flopped over, paralyzed as well. Gon's toxin got stronger each time he used it, and now all Killua's poison tolerance could do was keep the paralysis confined to only his tail. However, soon enough there would be nothing he could do. Gon's chemical weapon was truly remarkable.
Killua opened his eyes at the same time Gon did, and they grinned victoriously.
The plan had worked.
The two boys sat up and exchanged their intricate handshake.
"Yes!" Gon whispered.
"That was totally badass!" Killua responded.
"How's your tail?"
Killua grabbed it and flopped it around, "Dead."
"Dead?!" Gon whisper-exclaimed with wide, fearful eyes.
"No, not actually dead, moron! Just paralyzed."
Gon sighed in relief, but still fixed Killua with a guilty look, "I really wish I had an antidote, I hate that I paralyzed your tail like that."
"It's nothing, I'm trained to be used to stuff like this. Now come on, let's go before they notice something's wrong."
"Right! Killua, what're you gonna do with your tail? I mean, we don't know when it'll wear off."
"I estimate that it will wear off in about 15 minutes, so for now I'll just tie it around my waist."
Gon watched in fascination as Killua lifted the hem of his shirt, and tied his tail around his muscular stomach in a neat little bow. For some reason, Gon was a little disappointed when Killua put his shirt back down. His eyes had been drawn to the Valkyrie's toned midsection, and they felt sad when it was once again hidden from view.
"Okay, I'm ready," Killua whispered, and Gon snapped his gaze from his shirt to his eyes.
"Alright!" Gon responded, clearing his head of any cobwebs.
The two boys slipped out onto the balcony, and rushed out across the rooftops. No racing this time, they had a job to do: get past the wall. They ran across the rooftops, leaving shallow footprints in the snow. The early morning light spilled across the sky from where the sun was hidden behind the mountain peaks. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, but the weather was several degrees colder than it had been lately.
Gon was a little jealous of Killua, being so accustomed to the cold as he was.
On another note, exercising felt really good after two days of relaxing. Gon's entire body was aching and sore after pumping the biochemical through his system yesterday morning, but it hurt in a good way. Pain had never been a deterrent for Gon, but a stimulant. Now he was more determined than ever to continue jumping from rooftop to rooftop, ignoring the pain and the burn of lactic acid.
Killua showed no signs of soreness whatsoever. He truly was an incredibly fit humanoid.
It was impressive.
The two boys arrived at the wall exactly where they had been yesterday. They touched down simultaneously, leaving matching sets of footprints in the snow topping the roof. "No gymnastics today?" Killua said, jabbing at Gon's theatric landing the day before.
"Nope," he said simply with a smile and his tongue stuck out.
Before they could even think to ask about what they should do next, Circe flipped up and over the roof to stand beside Killua. "Hello Killua, Gon. I'm glad you made it."
"Yo," Killua responded.
"Good morning, Circe!" Gon called out cheerfully.
"This way," the dark skinned woman said, wasting no time at all. She then jumped off the roof, and disappeared into the shadows.
Gon and Killua followed her wordlessly, and walked after Circe through an uncharacteristically run down part of the village. The three of them walked along the base of the metallic wall, passing by dilapidated buildings with dark, ominous alleyways in between them. The ground here was cracked and uneven, and patches of black ice were copious and hard to avoid. Wind whistled in between the buildings, and a lone wind chime twinkled a sad song into the cold morning air.
"Circe, this place looks a lot different from the rest of the village, what's up with that?" Killua inquired, reading Gon's mind.
"If you're asking if there is a secret section of the village where the less fortunate are forced to live, know that that is not the case," Cirece answered in her cool, even voice. "As you have been informed, all of us here in the village live at a degree of impeccable luxury. This part of the village is just abandoned. Isolde, Nix, and Zephyr led you on a very specific tour route in order to prevent you from discovering this place, and the truth behind our situation."
"And what's the true situation?" Gon asked.
"You'll find out soon enough," Circe replied shortly.
Gon sweatdropped, Circe clearly liked Killua a whole lot more than him, and she wasn't making any effort to conceal that.
The three fell into a comfortable silence (well, the silence between Killua and Circe was comfortable, the silence between Gon and the two of them was awkward). The two boys made sure to walk in Circe's footsteps, as she was an expert at identifying and avoiding the patches of black ice. Her tail swished behind her gracefully, and as the 15 minute mark arrived, Killua unwound his tail from his waist and left it to sway back and forth behind him as well.
"Won't Isolde and the hags from hell find us?" Killua asked, breaking the silence.
Gon swallowed his laughter, knowing Circe wouldn't take well to laughing in such a serious situation. Especially considering how she didn't react at all to Killua's unbridled disrespect.
"They will not," Circe answered. "I have made arrangements so that the three of them will be unable to find you two until we have finished up here."
Killua snorted, "What did you do?"
The Neko-Girl's mouth tilted up at the corner. "I caused a little trouble."
Gon and Killua shared a knowing smile.
They liked this girl.
After a few more minutes of walking, Cirece came to a halt.
"We are here," she said while gesturing to a seemingly uniform section of the metal wall. Once Gon and Killua came to a stop beside her, she reached forward, and grabbed onto a camouflage door knob.
"Woah!" Gon exclaimed.
Killua raised his eyebrows.
Circe twisted the optical-illusion-of-a-doorknob and opened a doorway into a dark tunnel. She then wordlessly entered, and Gon and Killua followed her lead once more. The passageway was pitch black, making Gon ever grateful for his ability to see in the dark. He knew that as a Valkyrie and Neko-Girl, Killua and Circe possessed the same ability. Most humanoids did, actually. Humans seemed to be the only ones whose eyes were unable to cut through darkness. Gon supposed he was lucky to have inherited mythical creature eyes, rather than plain old human ones.
After traveling 50 feet (that's one impressive wall) the trio arrived at the other side of the wall. Cirece reached out for another hidden doorknob, and Gon was pleased to discover that he was able to identify it this time.
"What's on the other side of this door is particularly disturbing," was the only warning the dark skin woman gave before she whipped the door open, and led the boys out into the light.
Both Gon and Killua exclaimed in surprise this time.
They stood at the top of an incline, and sprawled out before them was the missing part of the village. However, rather than finding more flawless gothic architecture, carefree women, and snow capped roofs, there was only destruction; buildings lay in piles of rubble, shattered glass was scattered everywhere, and the brick-laid roads were upturned to reveal the coarse dirt underneath.
Gon looked about in horror.
An incredible battle had clearly been fought here.
That was the only explanation for all of this carnage.
Silent as a wraith, Circe descended the incline and led the two boys through the destroyed other half of the Neko-Village. She let the scenery speak for itself. Gon and Killua followed, and looked back and forth in horror.
Up close, they could see the weather-ridden corpses of fallen Neko-Girls. Rotten, gossamer-like flesh barely clinging to pearly rib cages, cracked skulls laying across the still-stained bricks; it was awful. Another thing they could see was enormous skeletons that lined the path they took like Cerberus at the gates of the Underworld. Weapons protruded from the monstrous corpses, and shattered bodies of Neko-Girls laid in droves around each gargantuan skeleton.
After walking for the better part of half an hour, Circe finally stopped walking.
"What… happened here?" Killua said, finally finding his voice.
"An incredible battle, against an army of monsters just like the one the two of you fought. As you can see, half the village was destroyed and countless lives were lost."
Circe's voice was riddled with emotion, and her eyes shone with unshed tears.
"But…" she broke off. "That's all that I know."
The silence stretched out, and once it got unbearable, Killua broke it.
"What?" he said in a frustrated tone. "What do you mean that's all you know?"
Gon opened his mouth to say something similar, but no words came out. He had seen terrible things before in his two years of traveling… or at least… he'd thought he'd seen terrible things. Clearly, he had not been exposed to the harsh reality of the world. Not one tiny bit.
"That's exactly what I mean," Circe said with a defeated sounding voice. "It all happened eight years ago, I was only 12. I was just a kid. I didn't pay attention to anything like this… and aside from that, my memory is all hazy from that time. And after all this happened, the High Priestess covered it all up and we just acted like nothing happened at all. The past eight years have been such a blur… we are terrorized by that creature and unable to continue the ritual… and I don't even know why. None of us do!" She jerked her head up and gazed deeply into Killua's eyes, her fist clenched out in front of her, "Then you two came, suddenly the soul of the village changed. When you two came and drove the thing off, it broke the pattern! I-it snapped me, all of us, out of this horrible daze. I don't understand how all the others can just continue on as if nothing happened… but I can't just sit back and do nothing. I'm not stupid, I know that you two are out to solve this mystery. Well I can help you."
Gon watched as Killua had another staring match with Circe, during which tears silently trailed down the woman's face. She was incredibly passionate about this, and would do anything to help them figure this out.
"So," Killua said, "You really are different from the others. I was right about you."
He held out a pale hand.
"I'm glad to hear that you're finally helping us," he said with a crooked smile.
Circe's eyes shimmered with wonder, and she slowly reached out and took Killua's hand. The Valkyrie looked over at Gon, and Gon took the hint and clasped his hand around their joined ones.
"Let's solve this mystery, and save the village," Killua declared.
"Yeah!" Gon exclaimed happily.
"Yes, let's," Circe said in reverence, eyes shimmering as she looked at Killua.
AN: oh dear, I WONDER who my favorite Neko-Girl is... (cough cough, Circe)
lol, she get's to form a main trio