'Well, it is time for me to depart,' Kurapika said. 'Reuniting Killua was my final obligation before putting my hunter licence to good use. I'll use it to earn money to attend this auction.'

We were at a crossroads in the little village close to the Zoldyck estate. There was a cosy feel, with medieval timber houses and circuitous cobblestone streets and the cute little footbridge we used to cross a river. The auction Kurapika was referring to was the ten-day affair in Yorknew, beginning on September first.

'As for me, I'm heading home,' Leorio said.

'What!' Gon exclaimed, dismayed. 'Already?'

'I haven't forgotten my dream Gon.' Leorio smiled. It was times like these where I thought he was a tiny bit cool. 'This will cover my tuition at a public medical school, so I gotta… knuckle down and qualify for one.'

'Check. Study hard.' Gon nodded. He turned to me. 'What are you going to do, Risumi?'

I rubbed my chin. 'Where the Spiders are is where Sumi will be, so I guess my goals line up with Kurapika's.' I turned to him. 'Let's head out together.'

Kurapika nodded.

'Ooh,' squealed Leorio. 'Together. How romantic!'

I clenched my teeth and tried to ignore him. When the waggly eyebrows and jazz hands continued, I gave him a good whack.

'So, we're all splitting up,' Leorio said nonchalantly. 'We'll all meet again on September 1st in York New City.'

'Hell yeah!'

~oOo~

'Can you see this?' the woman behind the desk asked. She had a pallid complexion offset by a pink mohawk.

This was the third Hunter job agency Kurapika and I had located based solely on the rumour mill. Because of the nature of job that my companion was after, they were all in dilapidated parts of seedy towns teeming with rats and crime. All the receptionists asked the same thing: Can you see?

Frustrated, we left. We headed back down the narrow alley littered with garbage cans and used syringes towards the woodlands on the outskirts of town. It had begun to rain, a heavy spring downpour. The roads changed into muddy sludge when the trees began. The hair on the back of my neck prickled.

A whistling sound muted by rain – I heard it suddenly. Kurapika picked it up too and jerked his head away just in time. Something buried itself in the trunk of a tree passing through exactly where Kurapika's head had been. The round hole smoked. Son of a bitch.

A man stood in the road behind us. He was in the rough clothes of an unshaven traveller and carried his belongings in a burlap sack thrown over his shoulder. His eyes resembled that off a broad-beaked bird which had just spied a couple of tasty worms.

'What the hell was that?' Kurapika demanded.

'You can't see but you can sense, how interesting,' the man smirked. 'Well, I was just playing with you. Consider this advice from a veteran…' He showed off two Hunter licences.

I checked my secret pocket.

Empty.

Whoa.

'You didn't notice when I walked past you; you didn't notice when I stole these.' The stranger tossed them in the palm of his hand.

'Wow, mister,' I said, at the same time that Kurapika called him a bastard. 'You're such a perv.'

'You're clever, I'll give you that,' he said. 'But that's not good enough.'

'Return my licence!' Kurapika said.

The stranger smiled, showing teeth. 'Can a couple of newbies who know nothing about nen defeat me?'

We dropped into fighting stances. The rain had reduced visibility to virtually nil but that alone could not explain how none of our attacks, combined or otherwise, landed. All the time, we were getting pummelled. After the fourth sucker punch to the stomach, I dropped to the ground. I couldn't breathe, my fingers were numb with cold and my chest was hollow with the humiliating realisation that wow, after all that effort to get our licences, there were still crazy strong people out there. And they did not play nice.

'Get it now? You still lack something,' he said.

'Obviously,' I growled through gritted teeth.

'Come with me. I'll be your teacher. The real exam has only just begun.'

He tossed our licences back to us.

The stranger's name was Mizuken and he lived in a wooden cabin in the woods. In times of clarity, I would have picked up on the horror movie vibes but alas, we were drenched and defeated. I followed him limply into the living room, raising my eyebrows at the spartan furnishings. The living room only had a couch and a television set, the kitchen only had facilities and a scrubbed wooden table, and the bedrooms only had futons. And there were only two bedrooms.

'Are you guys good to share or do we have to fight this out?' Mizuken asked. 'I'm not sleeping with any kids.' He was a friendly man despite the way he introduced himself to us.

'We can share,' I said immediately.

'What?' said Kurapika, clearly affronted.

I shrugged. 'We've slept together so many times in the exam already, what's the difference?'

Kurapika's eyebrows drew together disbelievingly. 'The difference,' he said, 'is that those were temporary arrangements.'

'It's not like we're going to live with Mizuken forever. He's not adopting us.'

'Forget it, I'm sleeping on the couch.'

'No,' I refused.

'Fine, then you sleep on the couch.' Kurapika sounded annoyed.

'I don't want to sleep on the couch, but I don't want you to sleep on the couch either!'

Kurapika snorted. 'You sound exactly like Gon. Grow up.'

Somewhat insulted, I accepted Mizuken's offer of a shoji screen. We set it up in the middle of the room and played rock-paper-scissors for the side with the window. I lost, but Kurapika took the windowless side anyway. It was puzzling, his actions sometimes.

When the sun rose the next morning, I hopped out of bed while the house was still in slumber and went for a run. No matter how friendly Mizuken was and how accustomed I had become to Kurapika's presence, I wanted to leave – if only for a short while. A stream which started from a waterfall half a mile from the cabin was full of trout and meandered down to the foot of the mountain with the carelessness of something ancient. I followed it easily. On returning, I raided Mizuken's kitchen, floating on a runner's high, and found exactly four eggs and half a loaf of dubious-looking bread. How spartan was this guy? I broke off some mint that was growing wild right outside the back door and by the time I was unloading scrambled eggs onto toast, the bearded and the blonde were emerging, rubbing their eyes.

'Do you always wake this early?' Kurapika remarked.

'Sometimes,' I said. I was pricked belatedly with the horror that I had imposed unthinkingly. 'Um, I used your kitchen,' I told Mizuken.

'Sure, no problem as long as I get to eat.' Mizuken gnashed his teeth. He stopped, then, and considered me. One eye narrowed and his lips twitched. 'What happened to you?'

I cocked my head to the side, asking with my eyes, still wielding a frying pan with one hand.

'Your leg, Risumi, what on earth happened?' Kurapika spoke for him.

I looked down, turning my head this way and that. My eyes bulged and my jaw slackened to see the outside of my calf was sporting a deep slice the length of a coin. Blood was smeared messily all over, and the outside of my other leg was in a similar state. I stilled, frowning hard.

'What on earth?' I looked at the others. The others looked back. In the end, I shrugged and set out the plates. As I sat down, Kurapika snapped his fingers and said 'Bingo!'.

I looked up at him, asking him with my eyes. He pointed to my legs, where the one with the cut was crossed over the other, mashing the two bloody sides together. 'Ah,' I said, shooting him finger guns.

'How is it possible that you didn't even feel it?' said Mizuken bewildered.

'She's clueless on a different level, Mizuken,' answered Kurapika. 'Once in the exam I saw her punch herself in the face putting on her cloak.' I was going to defend myself, but Kurapika stopped me with one steely stare. 'Where do you keep the first aid kit?'

'First aid kit?' said Mizuken. 'I have a box of band-aids in the bathroom.'

Kurapika ordered me to sit down while he knelt on the floor and cleaned up my cut with a towel. Then, he poked it! He cut off the cussing out I had loaded on my tongue, saying sarcastically, 'Oh, do you feel it now?'

'You bastard,' I muttered, pouting my chin on my hand and looking determinedly in the other direction.

'If you can't be graceful, why can't you at least be careful?'

'Because, Kurapika, I don't particularly care about thistles or thorns or rocks,' I replied tartly. In response, he poked my wound again. 'You squashed toad bastard man.'

'Remind me, how many times did you get scratched up in the exam? Please, just to humour me, would you keep yourself out of trouble?' Kurapika sighed. I avoided his eye.

As we ate, we got schooled. As it turns out, nen was the life force that all humans possessed and to be truly powerful was to harness this force. The strength of this power depended on the strength of your resolve.

'I should have no problem with that,' Kurapika said, darkly.

I did not want to be left behind. 'Nor I.'

'Teach us how to use it,' Kurapika insisted.

'You newbies will have to learn how to unlock your aura nodes first, then control it so that your life force doesn't leak away,' Mizuken said, picking his teeth.

'What happens if it leaks away?' I asked, stupidly.

'You die,' Mizuken answered. 'Anyway, your aura nodes are unlocked by achieving a clear and calm consciousness, which can be achieved through meditation,' he said, halting our open asking mouths. 'There is a much quicker method of forcing the nodes open but it's too dangerous.

'How long does the 'slow' method take, then?' Kurapika asked.

'Any time between several weeks to several years.'

'We have one year,' I said. Kurapika nodded.

~oOo~

Three months passed and my bangs grew out to shade my eyes, so I pinned them back with pins. They grew to frame my face and I pulled them up into my ponytail. They grew to curl at my collarbones so I started braiding my hair in a French plait down my back. I had long traded my sweater and pants for high-waisted cargo shorts and a tank top. Summer was upon us and she was merciless.

We had fallen into a routine. Kurapika and I would wake up at the whisper of dawn and go running. Mizuken mandated that he join me because he had "too many feelings and nowhere to put them". To put it bluntly, the poor kid had to exhaust himself to even gain a sliver of peace in his head. I knew the feelings were anger. We thumped out a rhythm through the woods and down the mountain, breaking at the river before climbing back up in a winding serpentine pattern through the trees.

Back home, we parted. Like Kurapika, I also had a problem with peace. When we first started meditating for nen in the woods, my own body interrupted me every time I came close to quietude. An itch. A thought. A twitch. A twinge.

'Risumi, you fidget too much.'

Mizuken was watching me with his arms folded.

'You. You have even bigger problems,' he said to Kurapika who had been doing his best on a formation of rocks on the other side of the clearing, sitting like a cross straw-haired buddha.

He led me back into the cabin where he rummaged around and produced a paperback book with a woman on the cover. She was holding a complicated yoga pose with a joyous expression usually associated with heavy medication. I accepted it just to be polite.

'Sometimes, people need to occupy their body in order to relax their minds,' he said. 'Try this. Give the theory a read and follow along with some of the exercises. If you don't like it, you don't have to keep doing it.'

Once outside again, with the book in my hand, I decided to head in the opposite direction to the stream. It would be so unbelievably awkward to strike a warrior pose out of nowhere with Kurapika watching. I would burst into flames.

Instead, I seated myself underneath the weeping willow and read about relaxation, breath and fascia. I had raised an eyebrow when I got to the part about listening to my body. Only earlier in the week I had injured my leg with no awareness whatsoever. It seemed like maybe, perhaps, mayhaps, this book was not totally a waste of time.

I started out in a seated pose, then twisted my body to the left and then the right, which was easy enough. As was the overhead arm stretches and the cat-back and seated-cow and table-top. But then it wanted a downward-facing dog. I looked around to make sure no one was around to watch, then pressed my lips together and straightened my legs, raising my butt to the sky. Dear gods above.

Next I had to look up to my hands and bend my knees, for which I was grateful for, then step to the front of my 'mat' (also see: grass) for a ragdoll pose. The idea was to let the top half of my body hang loose like laundry on a line. It wasn't awful, kind of nice actually. But then, I had to do a 'halfway-lift' and it would have been hard even if my back were not apparently composed of immovable scales. Make a 90 degree angle with my body, butt sticking out behind me. Ack.

But the worst was yet to come. I was to 'move into chair-pose' which involved standing with my legs pressed together, knees bent with arms up by my ears and body forward. I clenched my jaw even though I was supposed to 'relax all the muscles in my face'. Then, I had to fold and step my left leg back into a crescent moon! I nearly wobbled out twice – my knee hurt on the ground and apparently operated on a completely different nerve system from the rest of my body. Mini back-bend, warrior-two, reverse-warrior, extended side-angle, reverse-triangle, forward fold. Repeat for the other leg.

By the end, I was a shaky mess. My knees were greened and marked with deep lines. I was just grateful to have no witnesses to my first tragic attempt. Strangely, my body did feel lighter when I stood up again.

So while Kurapika chopped wood, I took a more mild approach. Mizuken must have told Kurapika what I was doing (it sure wasn't me!) because the next time I went out with the paperback, he found me. I was in reverse table-top. Which is as awkward as it sounds. When his face suddenly filled the sky above me, my table-top developed a folding function across its middle.

'What the hell, Kurapika,' I hissed through my teeth.

He brushed the hair out of his eyes which were twinkling.

'Go chop your wood, jerk.' I told him.

Kurapika held his hands up defensively and backed away, 'Okay, okay, whatever you say.'

When he had gone, I put my face in my hands and groaned out loud.

Now, I kicked off my shoes when I reached the stream and moved seamlessly into a flow, sliding from one pose to the next whenever it felt good, whatever pose felt natural to do next. I emptied my mind and focused on my breath, breathing in, and out, lengthening my spine and folding a little deeper each time. When I was finished, I folded my hands in my lap and closed my eyes.

When the sun pushed through the willow's branches and shone on my face, I got up and headed back to the cabin. On my way back, I passed Mizuken wading in the stream with his pants rolled up, catching trout with his bare hands. Thinking I had never seen anything so manly, I chuckled out loud.

'Hey!' I called. 'I'm going to take the milk!'

Mizuken looked up and pointed his chin to a spot a little further down. In the crevice were two glass bottles of milk, kept there to chill. I gave him a two finger salute and went on my merry way.

I kicked off my boots at the door and joined Kurapika in the kitchen.

'Can you do the eggs?'

'Yep, on it.' I grabbed the pan off a hook on the wall and got to work. Kurapika who was frying mushrooms with his sleeves rolled up added a scoop of corn to the mixture and it sizzled to the high heavens. Then we toasted some bread and carried everything out to the clearing where Mizuken was waiting, a pile of fish guts already attracting animals off to the side. Three trout were grilling on the campfire.

After eating, we commenced Project Hatsu. So far, we've gotten ten, zetsu and ren under our belts, and I've even made headway with go and in but hatsu gave us immeasurable grief. The shape of our nen… I'm not even sure I like the nature of my nen.

I found out my nen type soon after Mizuken figured out my problem with meditation. He sat the two of us in a little clearing in the forest. Two logs served as benches on either side of a third log which served as our table, its top sliced flat. On that table was a glass filled with water with a single leaf floating atop. Kurapika and I sat facing each other, feeling apprehensive.

'Water divination is a method to determine the type of aura you have,' Mizuken said. 'Project your aura through your hands using Ren and hold them close to the glass. Risumi, you go first.'

I closed my eyes and concentrated my aura in my hands. After a couple of deep breaths, I found the leaf travelling across the water from side to side.

'Looks like you're a manipulator, Risumi.' Mizuken smiled at me. 'Manipulation is what allows you to control living and non-living things. The most popular manifestations of this type of ability is controlling other people. Conditions are a big part of manipulation; we'll go through that later. Kurapika, you're next.'

I did not particularly like what I was hearing. Playing puppet master? That's not my style at all

Sediments formed at the bottom of Kurapika's glass, the leaf had not moved.

'A conjurer,' Mizuken chuckled. 'I could have told you that from your personality.'

'Do the aura types lend itself to different personalities?' I asked.

Mizuken rubbed his stubbly chin thoughtfully. 'It's probably just a little more accurate than star signs. There are general traits that can be found among most conjurers, for example, being high-stung, serious and careful, which is exactly what Kurapika is.'

'It is not,' Kurapika blurted.

'See, he's high-strung,' Mizuken said to me. I snorted.

'What about manipulators?' I asked.

Mizuken thought for a moment. 'Manipulators tend to be argumentative and patient, which is a bit harder to see in a person at first glance.'

'Risumi is never patient,' Kurapika remarked.

'He's right,' I said. 'I'm so impatient that I left the womb early. It caused a lot of trouble.'

Kurapika nodded. 'See? And she once hit me for talking too slowly.'

'When did I do that?' I demanded.

'So argumentative,' he rolled his eyes.

I ignored him by asking Mizuken, 'What do we do with this information?'

'You make it your own.'

Which was easier said than done, seeing as we were still struggling with it lo these months later! All I knew was what I did not want – which is controlling people. There is just something… icky about it. Same goes for animals. So that left inanimate objects, but which ones? I could not simply march objects around and have them swing at my opponents. Imagine being attacked by a walking table. No, it would have to be something that is like living. But what?

Frustrated, I kicked my legs back and forth.

An even more frustrated voice said from below me, 'Can you not?' It was Kurapika who seemed to have ducked in a hurry. I apologised quickly, jumping down from the branch I was sitting on. He left in a huff. Seems like were both bogged down in a quagmire.

Something good was cooking, savoury and thyme-y by the time I finally wandered home late in the evening. It was Kurapika's turn to cook dinner and as expected he was holding sentry over a pan of pasta. I took the liberty of standing on my tiptoes and leaning over his shoulder to take a whiff. 'Yum,' I approved. Kurapika smiled at me, and I threw him a cheeky wink before going off to wash up. I was just emerging with a towel oh my head when Mizuken banged in with his usual gusto.

'Kids, I have a mission for you,' he boomed. He sat down at the small table where we shared our meals and I helped his other kid bring the dishes over. 'I want to order some things from my blacksmith and I'm thinking you two can take my order down to Aralusia – isn't that where you're from, Risumi? You could spend some time there with your family and come back with the order. It should take around a week, probably.'

'Aralusia?' I said, 'Wouldn't you normally choose someone a bit closer?'

Mizuken drank messily from his glass. 'Can't get a decent blacksmith in these here parts.' He pushed a scribbled list across the table. I could make out an axe, what seemed like an entire set of kitchen knives and some other nuts and bolts.

'You won't even need to tell him I sent you, he'll recognise my handwriting,' he guffawed. 'And I'll send the money with you, of course. Aralusia never really did get behind the whole bank transfer thing, did it?'

'Nope,' I answered.

I washed the dishes with some mixed feelings that night. It was nice to go home, of course… but I just need to school my expressions. How should I face everyone, especially Delphi and Nicky, after having my subconscious fears confirmed? Nicky had called a few days after we left Killua's to let me know that our mother was out of the woods which was a relief. I was happy to have been told this, especially when I meant I could sleep a little easier, but the earlier thing niggled at the back of my mind.

Well, no time like the present to deal with your insecurities.

A/N: Hey you 😊 please leave a comment and tell me what you think. It can be good or bad, I don't strip-mine the trail-mix, y'know.