Nobunaga returns to the room with a scowl on his face. "Didn't even touch the water this time." He mutters as he sets the tray down in a corner.
"I doubt his stomach is used to those conditions." Shalnark theorizes. "He has been like this for three days. If this keeps on, he'll die."
"Good." Feitan says.
"Hey! What the hell did you just say?!" Nobunaga gets up, a ready hand on the handle of his sword..
"You protective? Why? He can't handle one death. Can't be Spider." Feitan shrugs.
The tension thickens.
A soft thud of Chrollo's book closing and it entirely dissipates. "Nobunaga, go fetch Gon. We'll settle this once and for all."
"Got it, Danchou."
The door softly swings open and the two enter. Gon looks paler than ever, his eyes shining with only a tiny flickering determination.
"Sit." Chrollo gestures to a crate next to him.
Gon obliges without hesitation.
"You haven't been eating." Chrollo starts.
"Not hungry."
"Don't lie. What are you still upset about?"
Gon frowns. "You know what I'm upset about."
"Killing her? You would have died if you--"
"I wouldn't have been in the danger of dying in the first place if you wouldn't have sent me there to steal that stupid pin. Did we even manage to acquire it? No!"
Malicious aura directs itself at Gon. "Hey! Watch your--" Phinks growls.
"Shut up!" Gon blocks it with an even deadlier one.
Chrollo decides to utilise his trump card. "Do you wanna see Killua?"
Gon perks up, a spark of softness lightening up inside him. He nods.
"Start learning Hatsu. I'll give you a week. After that, if the results of your water divination test satisfy me, you'll get to see him." Chrollo smiles coldly.
Gon frowns. "Why not now?"
"Because you weren't being very nice just now." His smiles widens.
It takes every ounce of Gon's patience to not release all his frustration. "Fine." He spits out. "Nobunaga, train me. Let's go."
The swordsman beams. "That's the spirit, Gon!"
A side-glare thrown at a certain Phinks and he follows him out of the room.
Knock knock knock
"Leorio, could you get the door?" Kurapika yells from the kitchen.
Leorio releases his Ten. "Okay, Pika." He says as he walks over to open the door.
"Hey!" The girl in front of him smiles.
Sparkling green eyes enhanced by the brown skin. Equally brown hair tied up in a bun.
"Pretty." He accidentally says out loud.
She pushes past him and into the kitchen, ignoring his comment.
"Natsumi? What are you--"
"Hey Pika! Didn't know you could cook. Smells good. What are you cooking?"
"Roasted mutton. Wait at the dining table with Leorio. There's enough for everyone."
"Sweet. Thanks, Pika!" She walks out of the kitchen and slips into one of the chairs.
Leorio's questioning gaze meets her eyes. "You know Kurapika?"
"Guess who got you out of that mess and bandaged you up?" Natsumi says as she pours herself a glass of water.
"You did?!"
"Yep. You're welcome." She downs the entire glass in one go.
"Woah."
"Leorio! Help me out here!" Kurapika's voice calls from the kitchen.
"Gotta go. Make yourself at home."
"Thanks, Leo. Will do." She pours herself another glass.
A short interval later, the food arrives, along with the duo who sets it on the table.
"You're a great cook, Pika!" Natsumi exclaims as the first bite melts in her mouth.
"Thank you. It's... a recipe from my mother." His eyes stay on his knife cutting the meat.
"Your mother must be a great cook too then." Her smile falters with her next words. "Which brings me to the reason why I'm here."
The atmosphere suddenly feels stiff. Even Leorio senses the tension between the two.
"What is it, Natsumi?" Kurapika's eyes finally meet hers.
"You're a Kurta, aren't you?"
Kurapika freezes. His spoon falls onto the plate with a clatter.
"How the hell did you know?!" Leorio nearly chokes on the meat in his mouth.
"I saw his scarlet eyes when you two were fighting the Spiders. I got curious so I did a bit if research on the Hunter's website. I learnt all about your history, Kurapika. I'm guessing the unknown group who killed your clan was the Spider?" Natsumi explains.
Kurapika takes a deep breath. "You're correct."
"I..." She turns the knife in her hands. "They did the same to my clan as well. So I get how you feel."
"I'm sorry about that." Kurapika frowns.
"Why... did they kill your clan too... if you're okay with telling us..." Leorio mumbles.
Natsumi's eyes darken. "I'm from the Mekami clan... We were nomads, from an area near the Lukso Province, however, I'm not sure whether our clans actually ever made contact or not. We were in possession of a certain gem, that when caught the Spider's eyes, resulted in my fellow members' demise. I was out in the woods that day with a friend and... I managed to survive while even my friend failed to..."
She abruptly stands up. "Kurapika, Leorio, thanks a lot for the meal. It was great. Sorry to come in like this without any invitation, I was curious about whether you were actually a Kurta or not. Since calls can be intercepted, I decided to come over myself. I'll still let you know before I visit next time. Thanks again." With that and a hasty goodbye, she left the rest of the food untouched and walked out the door.
Leorio stands up to stop her but Kurapika puts a hand on his shoulder. "Let her go, Leorio. Give her some space."
Their eyes meet and he finally sits down in defeat.
"Your friend told us he was taught by a Shingen-ryu master. Did the same one teach you too?" Nobunaga asks, sitting down next to Gon on a seat attached to a table in the lawn outside the villa. (A/N: yea they're still living there, also excuse the ridiculous amount of prepositions in this sentence lol)
Gon nods.
"Alright then, you should be familiar with water divination and the different effects your nen type can have on the water when you apply nen to it. Correct?"
Gon nods again. "I trained my Hatsu some back then too. It was enough to pass the secret hunter exam. Shouldn't it be enough to pass his test too?"
"Wait, you passed the hunter exam? Your friend told us he was trying to be a hunter?'
"Well, he failed the last phase of the hunter exam this year." Gon starts. "But that only happened because he was put up against a nen user when he didn't even know about nen."
"Huh, well if you did pass, where is your license?"
Gon hesitates. "Uhhhh... long story but I had to auction it off to get info on you guys."
Nobuanga chuckles. "Wanna get it back?"
"Get it back? How?" He perks up.
"If you pass the boss' test, your license will get back to you. How about it?"
"That'd be nice." Gon shrugs, trying his best to appear uncaring as to not show a weakness.
Nobunaga chuckles again. "Alright, I'll test ya first, kid. Wait a bit here, I'll get the test ready."
With that, he leaves, disappearing inside for a while.
Gon looks around. Perhaps he should enjoy the scenery more... for once... Grass stretches on for a good distance until it's interrupted by dense forests which later develop into mountains. The place seems to be a valley... or rather a large stretch of plain surrounded by a forest and a mountain range.
Was this chosen on purpose? Probably. With this sort of terrain... Gon gulps. Can he even consider escaping? One wrong move and... Gon shakes his head. The past is the past, no matter how recent.
However, it can easily return to the present. A small voice mutters in the back of his head, which he can't help but listen to. He has no chance of escaping. Not here at least. Perhaps he can free Killua and hold them off until he's a good distance away... but no... he'd by lucky to manage to hold off even one of them for a considerable amount of time. What about Hisoka? Could he enlist his help? He did cancel that possibility out earlier but...
"Yo Gon! What are you thinking?" Nobunaga waves a hand in front of him to release him from the trance.
"You're back."
"Of course." He places down the glass of water with a leaf floating on top, on the table. "Here, show me your Hatsu."
Gon cups his hands around the glass. A few moments of focusing later, the volume of the water increases with enough pressure to shatter the glass. Gon frowns when he sees his poker face. Water drips down the table in gushes, yet the expression remains. Finally, a tired Gon decides to give up.
"Huh? Done?" The swordsman raises an eye brow. "I expected the hunter exam's criteria to be greater than this. Oh, well. I guess it's supposed to get you started on nen."
"Wait... then how much can you do?" Gon asks, confused.
"Me? I brought some extra glasses, I'll just show you." He places a fresh glass on the table.
After a moment of focusing, it's his turn to cup his hands around the glass. The moment he releases his Hatsu, the water shoots up a few metres. As he removes his hands from the glass, the water comes splashing back down, nearly making them wet.
"I can do more than this of course. But let's keep this the goal of the week. I'm pretty sure this will be enough progress to let the boss pass you." Nobunaga shrugs at Gon's awed expression. "Taking the amount of time you've trained into consideration, your Hatsu is pretty impressive. However, if you try to create an ability with this level of Hatsu, it will fail pretty badly. You may be able to gather a good amount of aura but the countdown for it would be stupidly long, leaving too many openings for your opponent. Got it?"
Gon nods, suddenly feeling intimidated by him. "What would be... your best?"
"Dunno. Never tried to give it my all." A soft frown appears on his face. "Uvo was always better though... if he'd still be here, he would've loved to see you train, he might even have been the one training you instead of me. I'm sure he would do a better job too."
Gon tries his best to hide his clenched fists. They hurt other people's friends yet care so much about their own... what the hell...
"Alright." Nobunaga wipes his eyes as he recovers. "Being an enhancer doesn't mean you can just let your aura go wild. You need to learn how to properly control it. Your first task is to increase the amount of water without breaking the glass. Try to avoid cracks as well. The catch is that the same amount of aura you used when you were showing me your Hatsu should be used here. You should be able to achieve at least that much in a day. Got it?" He stands up once Gon nods. "I'll be back at dinner time. You'll have to skip lunch today. Best of luck." He turns around and starts walking.
"Are you... leaving?"
"Yeah, what else? I told you I'll come back at dinner time." He shrugs as he walks away.
[A/N: A little longer chapter than usual. And thus begins Gon's hatsu training! After that, he'll start creating his nen ability, and spoiler alert, it won't be the canon one-- not because I hate it but I just wanted to have a fresh take. Also, Gon's kinda changing in this situation too so yea.
Lilphantomtroupelady: Aw. Oh well I hope it somehow gets fixed soon. Also, thank you :)) ... can 5'1 people even drive? Hold on lemme check... okay they can... also wait a minute, he's shorter than I am?? Huhh??? ]