Author's Note:

Okay, this chapter contains a bit of confusing deus ex machina. Just try to roll with it, and I'll explain everything at the end

"… What?"

"While I was looking for Gon, I saw Illumi flee the palace," Palm hissed. "I thought it was odd, so I mentioned it to Knov-Sensei, and he instructed me to cover my eye for the time being." And she did indeed wear an eyepatch over her right eye, for some reason. "And then Sensei told me to follow Illumi with my power—just to watch for any contact with anti-Hunter organizations, in case he'd been paid off—and eventually, he called upon some strange, childlike thing to recreate Killua from nothing at all!"

Kite blinked a few times; Palm didn't back off from his face, white-knuckled fingers still alarmingly near to his throat.

"So, your Hatsu… shows you other people?"

"It shows me many things," she cagily replied. "Killua's alive; that's all you need to know."

"… Uh-huh."

And now Palm looked ready to burst into tears. "A… and Knov-Sensei won't answer any of my calls, either!" she cried out; Kite froze at the weight of the borrowed phone in his pocket. "What did I do wrong? In what way did I fail him?—no! You don't have to say it—the burns, it's the burns all over me, so hideous—the skin of some awful freak—and now he can't stand to think of me! And while he wanders away… d-don't tell me… is there another woman? Some harlot preying on his good nature, slithering into the open space…?! Tell me—TELL ME— EEEEE—"

"T-take it easy, Palm…!" he exclaimed, his hands now vised around hers for fear of them seeking out his throat. "I'm sure Knov's just been busy!"

"LIAR," she wailed as she threw herself away from him; the extravagant motion left the girl clutching at her injured ribs. "YOU'RE ALWAYS SUCH A LIAR."

Oh, for fuck's sake. "Palm," he began but predictably fell silent. Was there even a right way to deal with this wreck? True, he'd once seen Gon safely defuse her, but Kite possessed nothing a match for that overwhelming transparency—the friendliness, the buoyancy—that'd been key to the boy's success. Even in a world where she didn't hate his guts, Kite had zero chance of charming her.

And yet, the more he thought about it, the more his mind was strangely full of words to be said about Knov. "Don't you have any faith in your master?" Kite pleaded. "He's stuck by your side this far, right? Ever since he saved you from that asylum, hasn't he always been there for you?"

"Kn… Knov-Sensei…"

He took it as a good sign that she was quieting down. "Knov wouldn't abandon you even if you deserved it, much less for such a stupid reason as a few ugly burns. He cares about you, Palm."

She must really be crazy if she couldn't see it.

"Then… has this all been a test of faith?" she hiccupped.

"No idea," he lied as candidly as he could. "But doesn't he at least deserve to speak his part before you jump to any conclusions?"

Palm stared down at her feet, and it took Kite a few seconds to realize that… holy shit, the meltdown was actually averted. Quickly, he stole a glance at Knov's phone: 501 Missed Calls, 999+ Unread Messages. It must've been on silent this entire time.

"Now, you were saying… you were saying that you saw Killua… alive," Kite stated.

Palm nodded stiffly, and dear God, she was serious.

"And you're sure that your Hatsu can't be… I don't know… deceived?"

She paused.

"… Ah, well…"

Every moment drenched in silence eroded his patience to a sharper point.

"What Mermaid Clairvoyance showed me was Illumi's perception of his surroundings," she mumbled. "If he were somehow tricked into seeing Killua, then the Mermaid would also be tricked. But do you really think it could all be just a hoax or hallucination?"

Oh, dear God, that was unlikely.

"I…"

But was it more unlikely than someone actually coming back to life?

"I need to sit down," he whispered. Nen could do all sorts of crazy things; Kite himself even had a technique that, upon death, would (supposedly) transfer his mind to a new host. So this wasn't impossible. It wasn't impossible.

"I believe it really happened. Illumi acted like he knew what he was doing, so the power to rebirth people probably exists," Palm said.

Oh, dear God, Gon, you did it for nothing.

"… Why?" he hoarsely inquired, speaking from somewhere far in the back of his mind. "Why are you telling me all this?"

Palm did her best to square her shoulders at him in spite of her broken bones. "Because I… I might've been wrong about you, Kite," she declared. "You're a liar, but not a despicable one."

For a while, Kite paced the confines of his quarters like the restless animal that he was. He needed to talk, but he needed to think, but he needed to move, but he needed to breathe. Despite evidently having some form of clairvoyance, Palm had departed to search for Knov the old-fashioned way, so he was alone with the knowledge, the thought:

Killua was alive.

But if he was alive, why wasn't he here? There was little question as to the team's whereabouts for anyone who bothered to look; every major news outlet surely would've covered the Hunters' success to some degree (with the spin that they'd also allowed millions to perish, no doubt), so in the invasion's aftermath—assuming the worst-case scenario of their location dodging both leaks and official release, of which he found hard to believe—it still followed that a hospital would be chief among their possible visitations. And what non-local hospital was a more obvious choice than the one famously affiliated with the Association? Four days were more than enough time to (illegally) search the two or three facilities around East Gorteau and then head over here.

So what could possibly be keeping him from trying to find Gon?

—And all Kite could think of was Illumi.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Knov. Uh, a lot of stuff happened this morning, and… when are you free, today?"

"Er… I can be over in about an hour, and then I should be clear to stick around till the afternoon, if need be. Sound good?"

"Sh… sure."

"Alright. Bye, then."

"Bye."

It was the first real indication Knov had ever given that he was actually a busy guy, given that the man was always finding the time to check up on him. Knowing that he was soon to arrive, Kite found he could breathe a bit easier—not enough for him to actually relax, but there wasn't much that could presently manage that, anyways.

And so he wandered into the hallway, the crowd drawn by Palm's screaming having long since dispersed; the remaining traffic either gave him weird looks or pointedly tried not to look at him at all. It was more than a little uncomfortable, all the attention. His feet led him to Gon's door, and he found himself turning the handle—

"KURAPIKA, PICK UP YOUR FUCKING PHONE."

… Did that guy just eat his phone?

"Ahem," Kite cleared his throat. Yanking his hand (and cell?) from his mouth, the strange man sent him an unreasonably suspicious glare as he pocketed it, like Kite was the intruder instead of him. "Excuse me, but do you have any business in here?"

"Ehhh? I could ask you the same thing," the man hawkishly proposed. "I'm one of Gon's closest friends, bub. I've got all the right in the world to be here."

"… What?"

"I'm. His. Friend. What, do I need a badge for that, or something?"

"Friend," Kite tasted the word and then buried his face in his hand. "… Oh. Right, right. Sorry. Okay."

"So how about you, huh? Who're you to come in here and question me?"

Time to rebound. "I'm…"

But uncertainty took hold. Could they still be called friends, after everything? Teammates, after the mission was over? Family, without Ging's or anyone else's approval? Too many questions, too little time. "I'm Kite," he lamely finished.

Still Kite, after everything.

"Oh, so you're Kite?" the man exclaimed, because apparently that meant something. "I heard a little bit about you from that Knov guy—said you've been taking care of Gon while Killua's gone. Is that how you'd describe it?"

"Yeah," he affirmed, grateful for the bone he'd been thrown.

And the man, completely forgetting his former rudeness, grinned and stuck out a somewhat saliva-wet hand; Kite still affably shook it with his own. "Well, nice to meet ya! I'm Mr. Leorio, but, uh… you can just call me Leorio." After letting Kite return the greeting, his eyes turned distant for a solemn beat.

"So it's true, then. That he's stuck like this."

Since the story went unrequested, Kite was spared from having to explain. To versify and chronicle the fall of Gon Freecss.

"And even though he's right next-door, I take it his dad hasn't visited yet," Leorio then guessed. Upon Kite's lack of comment, the man's scowl returned. "Well, then the bastard's gonna have to answer to me," he muttered darkly. "The rest of us should be arriving soon."

"'Us?'"

"Yeah, us. Gon's buddies. I think the number I heard was eight…? Well, it'll be more people, anyways."

What a strange feeling it was, to become one of many after the spiritual lifetime spent as Gon's sole defender. And in his mind's eye, he could see it, now—the murmuring crowd of well-wishers flocking to Gon's side, all tokens from past adventures. Would there be children, like him, or just a collection of men like Leorio? Surrogate mothers to fuss with his hair, or maybe a string of rival admirers?

"The more, the merrier," Kite eventually said, and he felt along the tension of responsibility, how it shifted and breathed.

"Palm said what?"

"… Honestly, you'd be better off having her describe it herself."

The failure of the Nen exorcist had been easy to explain. The Killua part, not so much.

And then Knov seemed to extrapolate the related events all at once. "Shit, my… my phone," he stammered, and Kite was already holding it up for him to see his nuked inbox for himself. "I forgot she didn't know my other…!"

Maybe Kite shouldn't have been so scrupulous about respecting the other man's privacy; if he'd checked the screen even once, this could've been avoided. But really, there'd just never been a reason to use it before today, since whenever Knov wanted to talk, he'd just take a portal to the hospital and do it in person.

"Would you happen to know if she's killed anyone yet?" Knov groaned.

"No idea. But she didn't try her hand at me, so that's probably a good sign."

The man squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Christ, okay. Let's call her, shall we?" He took the phone, dialed one, and held it a full ten centimeters away from his ear.

And the KNOV-SENSEI! emitted on the first ring was so loud that the audio cut out halfway through, so the latter half of what he heard was from her actual voice somewhere on the floor below them; Knov doubled the distance between the phone and his ear.

"Listen, Palm," he spoke slowly and deliberately over the din of her babbling. "I'm with Kite, right now. Come over so we can talk in person, okay? See you soon."

To keep her from breaking down the unlocked door, Kite preemptively went to open it—almost not preemptive enough, as down the hall, two hands could be seen prying open the elevator before it even came to a stop. And thus Palm hurtled past him and skidded onto her knees before her master.

"SENSEI—"

"First of all, Palm, you're injured. Get up off the floor and calm down; you can't be pushing your body like this."

Shakily, she rose to her feet and started taking deep breaths through her nose.

"Okay," Knov sighed. "I didn't mean to miss your calls, and no, you didn't do anything wrong. I've been lending my phone to a friend," he emphasized, "and haven't seen its messages in a while. No, the friend is not of the female sex. I'm sorry for worrying you so much."

And apparently, that was all it took to reduce Palm to a blushing schoolgirl. Kite stood in awe of Knov's power.

"… Oh, no, i-it's alright…"

"Did you attack anyone?"

"No…"

"Good girl. Now you can tell me what's been troubling you."

And here comes the moment of truth. "Ah, of course," she nervously agreed, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "Illumi, h-he didn't meet with any organizations, but something else happened! There was a small child locked deep within the Zoldyck estate—except it wasn't actually a child, because its face changed, somehow, after Illumi completed a strange ritual. And then Killua was created from bones and tissues that came out of nowhere!"

Say that it's believable, Kite silently begged. Say that you believe it, too.

"… Well," Knov finally said. "I'd say that's worth a follow-up question, yeah?"

"Y-yes, sir!"

And so Palm summoned a… shriveled, cadaveric mermaid statuette clutching a crystal ball above its back. Or, one could only hope it was a statue.

"Ask for how the creature's power works," Knov proceeded to command. Palm nodded once before carrying the mermaid out of the room; Kite watched the passersby hastily veer away from her and her summon as she shuffled into a public bathroom.

And as they found themselves alone once more, Knov smiled mildly at Kite's incomprehension. "This part can't be done with an audience."

Does that mean you believe it? "And this is…?"

"Her Hatsu," Knov said. "The power to divine an answer to any question she asks. However, it never tells her the 'truth,'" he then qualified. "Rather, it accesses the knowledge of someone else—her choice of the last three people she's seen with her right eye—and answers her based on what that person believes to be true. So right now, on account of her right eye being covered since the invasion, she's probing Illumi's brain for info on how the creature works."

"… That's a little crazy."

"Indeed. It's only made possible by a huge aura commitment, especially for someone of her relatively small reserves. That's why she's not supposed to use her power without my permission."

Kite imagined her situation, endlessly agonizing over what she discovered and what to do next, unable to contact anyone she trusted enough to consult. Palm's volatility considered, it was extraordinary that she'd held up as well as she did.

Or maybe, just maybe… could it be that Kite's words on not fucking killing people had actually affected her?

He shook his head, pushing the thought aside. "So when Palm was 'watching' Illumi, she'd… asked her Hatsu where he was?"

"Mm-hmm. And, along with Illumi's general location, she was made continuously aware of his perceived surroundings for as long as she kept the question going. When it comes to reconnaissance, little cheats like that make Palm more effective than any satellite."

"… So you're pretty proud of her, eh?"

"Hah," Knov laughed. "Maybe a little."

The door slowly creaked open for the girl (sans mermaid) to slink back into the room.

"I've, ah, completed the assignment, Sensei…"

"Excellent," Knov warmly praised and gave her a long pat on the head, ruffling the lanky twists of her hair. She practically vibrated beneath his hand. "Now you can tell us what you learned."

"Y-y-y-yuh-ye-yes!" Palm squeaked. "The creature is something that can grant wishes!"

Kite tensed up.

"Oh?"

"Y-yes! Someone can make one wish after they fulfill three of its requests! Requests are issued singly with an average delay of three-point-two seconds post-completion! Their difficulty varies directly with the difficulty of the previous wish granted!"

"What happens if someone fails to carry out the requests?"

"Failure will be met with another request! Upon the fourth failure, they'll instantly die alongside the person they love most! Then, varying directly with the previous wish's difficulty, other people will die in the order of most time spent with the request-receiver! Request difficulty will then be reset to the lowest level!"

"What leads to failure? Is there a time limit?"

"The failure criteria are known to fluctuate with the creature's mood! To die before completing the three requests will also fail the request-receiver to the maximum number!"

"And how does one become the 'request-receiver?'"

"The creature must know their name! The creature must be able to speak to them, and they must be able to hear the creature! There must be no other current request-receiver! They must not be the person who made the previous wish!"

"And what exactly are the things that can be wished for?"

The most important question.

"Absolutely anything!"

From then on, the questions were fairly predictable—What is the creature? Where is Alluka Zoldyck being kept?—and then Palm was forced into Zetsu from Nen exhaustion. A few days later, they resumed—What is the state of Killua Zoldyck? Where is he? Is he there of his own volition? And a few days more—What is Illumi Zoldyck's itinerary for the next six months? Given the remaining loyal Hunters from the C. Ant Extermination Team, what's the safest way to kill him? How likely is it to succeed?

What's the safest way for them to kidnap Killua and Alluka Zoldyck?

Kite exhaled as he finished deleting the last of Palm's death threats from his phone. After much delay, his handful of worldly possessions had been recovered and returned to him—at Knov's request, of course. Upon him questioning the man's strangely extensive influence, Knov also admitted to bribing the hospital staff for oversight of the Hunters' affairs. Kite had begun to expect that level of thoroughness from him at this point.

"So that's it. When everybody's made a full recovery, we're gonna break into the Zoldyck estate, get Killua back for you, and use the Something to free your brain from this trap. Simple, right?"

Gon looked the same.

"And then you'll be okay," Kite stated. "If Killua's by your side, you can be happy again. He'll be the one to fix you back to normal. Or normal-ish, at least. And everything will be as it should."

He spoke with certainty, the picture of success so painfully clear in his mind. Gon, sobbing on Killua's shoulder. Killua, teary-eyed as he reassured him, holding the boy in his arms. Knov, smiling fondly; Palm, without malicious intent. And Kite…?

"But still, I… I'm sorry that you've had to wait this long. It must be awful, thinking about that thing all the time. Actually, I bet it's so damn boring; you've got to have used up every thought you could've possibly had about it, by now. Treading and re-treading that ground forever."

"Just hold on a little longer, Gon. Help is on the way."

But the question remained—

"And then what?" he asked of Gon and the world, quiet and resigned, too weary of himself to be anything else. "We all go on our merry way like nothing ever happened? Like we still have a reason to stay together? Like you would even want me around to begin with? Everything will be as it should, but… but what does that mean for me?"

If you don't look after him, no one will, Bisky had once told him, and he'd believed it with all his heart and soul for every damned day hence. But that wasn't the case, anymore, was it? Kite was no longer Gon's only guardian—his final, fraying tie to sanity; Killua and his other friends were about to change all that, both taking his place and eliminating the need for supervision at all.

"I would've liked to see you grow up," Kite weakly confessed. "To see the man you turn into."

Perhaps there had never been a time when it wasn't too late.

"But once all this is over and you're happy again, it'll probably be goodbye," he realized. "I know I promised to take you traveling and whatnot, but who are we trying to kid, here? You don't need me for that. You don't really need me for anything."

The simple truth.

"So don't you see how this has to be? It's not enough for me to wish I had a place at your side. It's not enough to just… want it, Gon. If I stay with you just to be with you, then that's where my path has to end. And of course I'd be willing to end it there if that was where you needed it to end, but I… I can't do it just for me. It can't be just for me."

"Please understand, Gon. We call ourselves Hunters, after all. You and I, me and you—Hunter and Hunter."

Life was an exercise in finding the strength to carry on.

"I think, in one way or another, I've broken every promise I've ever made to you," Kite mused, giving in to an inexplicable smile. "Well, let this be the one that I keep: I will wake you up and bring Killua back for your eyes to see. And then…"

"And then I'll go on living, I suppose. Keep moving, keep breathing, no matter what.… Yes, I will survive. I can promise you that much, one last time."

He looked at Gon; Gon looked ahead; and Kite recalled the boy he once knew, running and jumping and looking right back: Kite, over here! What's that, Kite? Oh, this is Kite! He's Ging's student—really strong. Woah, Kite, that was amazing! For now, I'll let Kite decide what we should do. I'm weak, Kite; I'm so weak…! Then you're gonna have to train me, Kite. No, Kite—let me go. H-how could you let her go, Kite? How could you let her w-w-w-walk into that place with… with those things…?! Ah, you must be mistaken, Miss Palm; Kite would never back down from something as important as this! Me and Kite have always been friends. Oi, Kite! Kite? Kite…

"Thanks for letting me get to know you."

It wasn't so hard, turning away. No, it wasn't so hard.

Eight hundred meters off the ground, the city lights below shone blue against the midnight sky, the background chatter of the cocktail party low and placid in his ears. It was a carefree event for him, now that his work was done. Things would probably get a bit louder once someone stumbles upon the corpse left in the bathroom, but there wasn't much he could do about that; on small charter blimps such as this, it was nigh impossible to discreetly dispose of a body.

So Illumi continued to stare out the window, nursing a drink he wasn't able to feel.

"Officially, my parents are still debating on whether or not to kill him, but I suspect that they'll choose to leave Alluka alive. They think they can always keep him under lock and key, even though Killua's back, now, and there's no way we can subdue him forever. But even without Killua to consider, letting Alluka live is still like keeping a bomb in your house just because the fuse isn't lit—pointlessly dangerous."

The statement was faithful to his actual beliefs all but for the part about Killu; of course they could subdue him forever.

"So you plan to take matters into your own hands? To… get rid of the bomb?"

"Yeah, that's right. Killing Alluka won't be easy, though, so I'd like for you to help out. It's in your own best interest, after all; with the way things are looking, there's a chance you'll someday end up a sacrifice, as well."

"My, my," Hisoka murmured. "That certainly doesn't sound good."

Author's Note:

Okay, so I'm gonna get a lot of questions: what is up with Palm's Hatsu? Well, allow me to explain: PALM'S HATSU AS A HUMAN IS DIFFERENT THAN HER HATSU AS A CHIMERA ANT.

How do I know this? In literally the first episode that she's introduced, it's implied that her ability can do more than just remotely stalk people; when asked how she knew to call Bisky there, she said that she looked into Gon and Killua's backgrounds "with her power." Later on, she elaborates a little on what that means, saying to Bisky, "I'll let you decide how to train them, since my power told me you would be the answer." And when Palm is finally shown using said power, what we see is this: she asks her creepy mermaid a question (which happens to be about Killua's location), and it gives her an answer.

Naturally, the ability to just "get answers" is overpowered as fuck, so I gave it some limitations inspired by her Hatsu as a chimera ant (and that also make sense in canon). So in this fanfiction, she can only probe the brains of the last three people she's seen with her right eye.

Hope this makes sense! Let me know if it doesn't

Also, the next chapter will be a long one, so it might be a little late :( please don't hate me