Killua's woken to a plethora of things. From having his fingers broken one by one to Gon accidentally licking his cheek in the middle of the night - he's experienced it all. It comes upon him unexpectedly, however, to waken in a bed he doesn't recognize. The mattress is hard and the casing of the duvet scrapes over his legs as he wiggles them (they're not restrained, which is good). Killua stays stock-still otherwise, merely squinting from one corner of the room to the other. It's better not to move. Not yet. Even though it seems counterintuitive to let a captive rest unbraced, in a bed of all places, his brain can't come up with any other reason for him being here. The last thing he remembers is falling asleep in a hotel room, which is obviously not where he is now.

It's dark, but his eyes adjust. Bit by bit, he's able to make out a door on the opposite end of the room. Above him on the wall hang numerous posters, most of them depicting what seem to be women in various stages of undress. Killua rolls his eyes and despite the unfavorable situation, it takes a load off his mind. It means he's not with Illumi. Milluki is not yet ruled out, but that's a brother he's able to deal with more efficiently.

Seconds tick by. Seconds he's able to keep track of thanks to the alarm clock on the nightstand next to him. It's nearly midnight. Should he move and look around? As far as he can tell, there's no cameras in the room. That does not foreclose a surveillance Nen ability, but he has to do something. Killua forces out his aura, putting his all into stretching it as far as possible. En still isn't his strong suit, but it reaches beyond the door into the hallway, enough to make sure there's no one lurking outside.

Killua sits. There's no immediate attack. He counts that as a win. Experimentally, he stretches his arms over his head, rolls his shoulders and throws his legs over the edge of the bed. His body feels fine. Excluding the stiffness from yesterday's training, he's not in any pain. Standing, Killua creeps towards the window. The curtains are pulled, but there's a crack he can peer through. Street lamps burn alongside the road in the distance, as well as lights from multiple buildings. The immediate surroundings are difficult to see due to the lack of illumination, but a sports ground seems to stretch on the right side beneath his room.

Killua turns away from the window to attend to the desk next to it. The disarray on top doesn't bother him, Alluka is a walking disaster where tidiness is concerned. He shakes his head and grabs the first thing his eyes settle on; a green hard cover book.

"Quirks and Their Application in Critical Situations," he reads. Quirks? As in, personality quirks? He raises an eyebrow and leafs through it. Charts and graphs jump out at him. Despite the ridiculous title, this seems to be an actual textbook. Killua gently places it back in its original place. Around it are more of the same kind of books. Books on maths and languages as well as politics and history. Combined with the view from his window and the class schedule pinned to a cork board, Killua is able to paint a pretty distinct picture, but he has no idea how or why he landed in a school. The only explanation is that someone hit him with a Nen ability without him realizing, and it clearly transported him somewhere he didn't plan on going. He could be two towns over or on the other side of the planet. Great. That's just what he needed. But it beats being captured by Illumi, so there's that.

Killua eyes the door. Sooner or later, he would have to leave and see what's beyond. What better time than now? If he was kidnapped, it doesn't matter if he goes now or later. The kidnapper probably wouldn't care. If he's actually in a school, though, there won't come a better time, since everyone is most likely sound asleep. Killua takes heart and pulls the door open a crack. The hallway is pitch black. It somehow manages to be darker than his room, most likely due to the lack of windows. Killua sparks a current of electricity between his fingers. A blue light flickers to life, throwing faint shadows across the walls. The last thing he needs is causing a ruckus by walking into things because he's blinder than a bat.

There's few things Killua is as thankful for to his parents as teaching him Silent Gaits. Thinking more carefully about it, there might actually be nothing else at all he's thankful for - but walking without sound does come in handy more often than not.

Walking silently, however, doesn't protect Killua from being seen, and he's painfully reminded of that fact when, at the other end of the hallway, a door creaks open. And fuck, there's no where to hide out here. Killua snuffs out the Nen between his fingers and stops breathing. He knows better than to activate Zetsu. It dawns on him then, that he didn't feel the presence of the other person at all right until they appeared, which means one of two things: That person is a Zetsu master, or they're weak as shit. Killua would far prefer the second option, but when did anything in his life ever go the way he wanted it to? Case in point: The person starts walking in his direction. They don't seem to have noticed him yet, but it won't stay that way for much longer.

Killua pushes his back up against the wall.

The person stops and touches something on the wall.

The next moment, the light on the ceiling ignites.

There's a moment of complete silence as the stranger's - a boy's - eyes fall upon Killua, pressed flat against the wall like a run over hedgehog.

I could take him out, Killua thinks. But that could very well mean killing an innocent student, and Killua doesn't really do that kind of thing anymore. Because that person has to be a student - the alternative being that Killua was kidnapped by a wide-eyed boy clad in a bright blue pyjama with crying pandas on it. Which, quite frankly, Killua can't see happening in a million years.

"Who are you?" the boy asks, rooted to the spot. His dark green hair, although much messier, reminds Killua of Gon. His stomach constricts at the thought.

As a result, his voice sounds a little rattled when he speaks, just enough to sound off to his own ears, but so subdued that anyone else won't notice. "None of your business."

The boy's eyes narrow. "What are you doing here? I've never seen you before."

Killua leaves the sanctuary of the wall to face the stranger head- on. "None of your business," he repeats, a little steelier.

"Are you a villain?" The boy changes his stance, almost as if he's readying himself to jump at Killua, which is a bad idea any way you look at it.

Killua racks his brain for an answer, but the question is so ridiculous that he comes up empty. "… What?" he utters, befuddled.

"Are you a villain?" The boy's voice is louder, something fizzles around his body, some kind of energy. "How did you get in here?"

"I don't even know what you mean by that," Killua admits, voice levelled. "Calm down. I'm not going to attack you." As long as you're not a threat, that is. He doesn't say that part out loud. He has a feeling it would make everything worse.

The boy relaxes a bit.

Killua heaves a sigh. Telling a smidgen of the truth probably won't hurt. It might deescalate the situation if he plays his cards right. He lifts his hands in surrender. "I don't even know how I got here, so I can't tell you. I just woke up in here. I don't know what's going on." When he sees the boys features soften ever so slightly, he deliberately adds in a mellow voice, "Can you help me?"

As expected, that seems to completely disarm the boy. He's laughably easy to read. The energy around him disappears like a smothered fire and a tentative smile stretches across his face. "You're lost?"

Killua snorts. "I guess you could put it that way, yeah."

"I'm Izuku Midoriya."

Killua quickly debates keeping his name a secret, but aliases are tricky if you're not used to them and as long as he doesn't disclose his last name, he should be safe. "Killua."

"It's nice to meet you."

"Can't say I feel the same, sorry."

Izuku laughs at that, light and airy. "Yeah, I understand. Come on, I'll bring you to Mr. Aizawa."

I guess I have no other choice. Maybe they'll actually be able to help me. Killua studies Izuku from head to toe. There's clear tension in his shoulders, but his arms hang loosely at his side. The smile on his face seems genuine, but his eyes stare at Killua a little too intently. So he's not as gullible as I first thought. I have to stay vigilant.

"Okay," he finally says. "Let's go."

"Follow me."

Izuku waits until Killua is beside him before he starts walking, and then he keeps an eye on him at all times. Killua pretends not to notice, it's best if the boy takes him for an oblivious fool. That'll give him the element of surprise should the situation escalate. Izuku seems nice and helpful enough, but Killua went through enough training to entertain the idea of this being a typical good cop, bad cop routine.

If they think that kind of farce has any effect on me, they have another thing coming.

Izuku leads him down a flight of stairs into what seems to be a common room. Killua files the layout away for later use. They pass a kitchen and a couch with a TV, as well as a table with at least ten chairs. "You go to school here?" The more information he has, the better. He might pretend to be a fool, but he's anything but. Fools tend to die early.

"Yeah!" Izuku sounds too happy about that for it to be a lie. "What about you?"

"Huh?"

"What school do you go to?"

"Oh - uh, I was home-schooled." Illumi's voice rings in his ears. 'Tell the truth whenever possible. The truth is easier to remember. Only lie if the truth would endanger your mission or your life.'

"Oh, that sounds interesting."

Killua shrugs. "It's whatever." Izuku doesn't need to know that little Killua would have sacrificed his soul to the devil just to have a taste of normalcy in the form of a public school.

Izuku leads him outside the dormitories. The air is chilly but not unpleasantly so. At least Killua seems to still be in the same hemisphere, summer just about to fade into fall, the days hot but the nights slowly cooling off. From down here, the place seems even bigger, and Killua confirms that the area he saw from the window is indeed a sports field.

"I'm sure Mr. Aizawa is awake in his office. He normally stays up late."

"I see." Mr. Aizawa has to be a teacher of some kind, or maybe the janitor. "Don't you think he'll mind us barging into his office so late?"

Izuku stops abruptly and leans into Killua's personal space so much that he moves back on instinct. "Mr. Aizawa would never turn away a person in need of help." The gleam in Izuku's eyes almost forces Killua to look away.

"Uh, okay." Because what else is he supposed to say to that?

Izuku falters and scratches the back of his head. He backs off, leaving Killua to take a deep breath. "Though, he might scold me for leaving the dormitories without permission."

"You know," Killua says, "I can just leave." He points over his shoulder to what seems to be the entrance gate. Now that he's outside, he just has to figure out where he is and find a way back home. Child's play.

"Absolutely not. Come."

Something compels him to follow Izuku. Maybe it's the honesty the boy radiates with every gesture, with every word - or maybe it's his own curiosity. No matter the reason, Killua knows one thing: If push comes to shove, the boy stands no chance against him. The energy he emitted in the hallway looked impressive, but Killua didn't feel a single ounce of threatening aura. In actuality, he felt no aura at all. He admits, it's a bit weird, but more than anything it reassures him. Maybe Izuku tapped into his aura by accident, because he was scared and anxious.

They soon enter another building, and this one looks much more like what Killua imagines a school to look like. Big windows line the hallways and class rooms follow each other on the other side. Izuku leads him with purpose, as if this building isn't a veritable labyrinth.

"We're here." Before Killua is able to collect his bearings or devise a plan of what he's even going to say to this Mr. Aizawa, Izuku knocks on the door they stopped in front of.

"Yes," calls a raspy voice from inside.

Izuku opens the door.

Killua hopes he's not about to meet the bad cop.