Pitou makes an exaggeratedly homicidal expression, mixed with anger and slightly excited.
Gon starts preparing another Jajanken with his right arm and says to Pitou
Gon: well, I see that you're fighting for keeps.
At that moment Pitou has an intuition, returning serious and a little worried
Pitou thinks: did he notice my distraction!? and that without it I would have killed him?... now that I think about it, if he managed to dodge me it was also thanks to the dust caused by the previous attack... which he managed to unleash because I was angry for the blow he received in the hand... it means that he had foreseen all of this!? but for what purpose? I didn't get any actual damage...
it's the same feeling I felt that time (referring to when she was protecting Komugi)... but this time.
Pitou returns with the homicidal face of before: there is nothing to hold me back.
While Pitou was thinking about these things Gon was continuing to charge his shot.
Pitou thinks: this is not the time to get distracted!
Pitou observes Gon: hmm that move again... if I try to attack him from the front he finds a way to dodge me and counterattack... I should wait for him to come forward, but he is always there to concentrate the aura... in that case... I will force him to attack me!
Pitou expands the aura to perceive Gon and Killua, which is a bit far away.
Pitou crouches, and then lunges face-to-face at Gon, arms back and ready to strike; meanwhile, she moves the Nen into his arms, reducing it to his face.
Pitou thinks: only 2 things can happen:
1) Gon will dodge the attack to the right or left: in this case I will hit him with one of my arms, cutting him in half. Dodging upwards would be disadvantageous for him as he has no support.
2) Gon will try to hit me: in this case, not only is the head the best place to hit a chimera ant, but I have also reduced the Nen so as to make it attack me right there. If he decides to attack, he could never miss such an opportunity, and by then I will already know how to fight back.
Pitou comes in front of Gon at full speed.
Gon: Rock!
Gon delivers a very strong blow, straight to Pitou's left cheek, harder than she had expected... but before being thrown away, with his fist pressing on her face, Pitou opens her eyes that are like those of when she cut arm to Kite.
For the first time, Gon changes his expression slightly (as if surprised, in a negative way) when he sees Pitou's gaze.
Even Pitou's instinct blocks her again for a moment, but this time she is sure thanks to Nen that the body is that of the real Gon, so she immediately recovers and while she is detaching herself from Gon's fist, she uses her arms to cut off Gon's arm.
Pitou is thrown away very quickly by a large explosion of Nen.
Pitou wants to keep keeping Gon and Killua in check with his Nen, but she also wants to use as little as possible for that purpose, so she wants to stop.
Pitou withdraws the Nen to activate Doctor Blythe.
Pitou thinks: I have to use Doctor Blythe to stop me... indeed! I have a better idea.
Pitou does a backward somersault while in flight, and plants his feet on the ground, managing to stop, face down to the right.
Her cheek has been damaged, and it is bleeding slightly, but very superficial damage remains; it comes back to her when she was hit by Meruem for "insulting" him.
Gon's arm falls to the ground and this reminds Gon of Kite when he defended him, and then Kite dead with his body full of scars.
Killua sees what happened and thinks about the same thing, realizing that this can only be bad for Gon.
Killua: Gon!
Killua would like to get close to Gon, but he is undecided because he doesn't want to get in the way of him in the fight.
Gon's expression, which has remained serious until then, begins to get more and more angry.
Gon with a serious and angry look, takes the severed arm and with Divine Speed runs towards Pitou; Killua sees him and decides to run too to try to stop him, but he avoids disabling the Divine Speed on Gon, as this would greatly disadvantage him against Pitou.
Pitou meanwhile, while she has his face down
Pitou thinks: as I thought, he chose to hit me in the face, he probably thought he could throw me away before my counterattack.
Gon leaps up to Pitou and says:
Gon: Pitou!
with the left arm raised, while holding the cut right arm.
Pitou, refocuses on the fight, opens his eyes wide and turns his gaze to Gon, with a smiling face and very excited for the fight.
Pitou noticed that Gon has lost focus, and also that much of Gon's Nen is focused on the feet.
Pitou has an idea, and decides to use the previous tactic to get Gon to attack her in the face.
Pitou expands the Nen to control Gone Killua, and moves Nen into the arms, especially the hands, attacking first with her right hand.
Thanks to his agility, Gon is able to use his leg to deflect Pitou's blow; Killua from afar realizes that this is a critical moment and must help Gon at any cost, so he throws an electric shock at Pitou's hand when she is hit.
Subsequently Pitou attacks with her left arm and Gon does the same thing as before, deflecting the blow, also with the electric discharge.
At this point Gon concentrates the aura left in two points:
- largely in the vital areas, mainly in the center of the body, so he can move it quickly if needed.
- partly in the left arm, managing to make it then go into the fist of the right arm he is holding.
The Nen from Gon's legs vanished when he deflected the shots, and Pitou was slightly stunned this time than before, because she had foreseen the electric discharge, protecting her hands more with the Nen.
Pitou thinks: as I imagined, he deflected my two arms, also hitting them with an electric shock, to decrease the damage of my immediate counterattack, and now he wants to use his severed arm to hit me in the face from a distance, risking as little as possible, to then maybe run away with the ability that gives him speed... but he didn't consider a thing!
Pitou bends over to the left, lifts his leg, and hits Gon in the belly with his right foot, which also has claws.
The foot was uncovered because his shoes broke before when she planted her feet on the ground, but precisely because the feet were a little underground, Gon did not notice the danger they represented.
Furthermore, the foot, being underground, dispersed the electric charge first, allowing Pitou to attack with his leg immediately after suffering the electric shocks. Pitou had decided to stop and plant his feet on the ground just for a similar eventuality.
Gon notices Pitou's blow, and although he manages to move the Nen to the point of impact, this is not enough.
Pitou's claws manage to pierce him in the belly, causing him a fatal wound that causes him to leave his right arm severed and to be thrown away very fast backwards.
Behind is Killua, who from a distance did not see perfectly what happened, but seeing Gon fly fast towards him, he got in position to receive him and to cushion the blow.
Pitou thinks: good fight... but it's over now.
As she is lowering his right leg, his ears prick up and she notices something out of the corner of his eye.
Looking away, he sees Gon's arm moving, with his fist facing his face.
Pitou was still a little dazed from the two electric shocks, distracted because she thought she had won, with the Nen still focused mainly on the hands and partly expanded to control Gon and Killua, currently very distant from her.
Pitou bends the body back to avoid the trajectory of the arm, and tries to concentrate the Nen on the face, but loses his balance because she is on one leg, which is a bit embedded in the ground.
The punch also, by itself, instantly changes trajectory as Pitou moves, eventually hitting her straight in the face, slamming her to the ground and then causing a gigantic explosion.
A crater is created at the point where Pitou has fallen to the ground, nearby plants are uprooted and a roar is heard extending throughout the forest, with many animals starting to run away.
Killua is also surprised and a little scared because he realizes that the aura emitted is Gon's, but he thinks it impossible that Gon had all that power, despite having spent the previous 2 years with him training. Killua is afraid that Gon, in a moment of anger, has taken some kind of vow to have such power.
The explosion ends, a great fuss remains and Killua from the outside can glimpse the silhouette of Pitou lying on the ground; he also sees Gon's arm, still with his fist on Pitou's face, which falls to the ground when raised, beside Pitou.
Killua soon after looks down at Gon and sees a large hole in his belly, realizing that the situation is tragic.
Gon: Killua... run away!
Killua tries to smile, but he has tears in her eyes
Killua: what are you saying! Pitou is lying on the ground, you see! now I just have to take you quickly to a hospital and then...
Killua hears a thud, and his face becomes very worried and scared, as well as sad.
Killua slowly turns towards the cloud of dust... he sees the silhouette of Pitou who has one arm raised, with his hand resting on the ground.
Next, raise the other arm and one leg as well; finally she also raises the last leg, finding herself on all fours.
The silhouette of Pitou also takes on two gleaming red eyes, visible through the dust.
Killua very scared and with tears in his eyes, because of Gon's condition rather than himself
Killua: quick, I have to get you out of here!
Gon: no, you already understood it too, the Divine Speed after this fight has drained a lot and if you used it for both, we would not be able to get to the nearest city... Pitou would reach us.
Killua: no, that's not true! come on Gon, you are the one who wanted to discover the world, experiencing so many adventures! how can you say such things...
Gon: Pitou wants me, if you use divine speed you can escape and notify the Hunter association!... don't worry
Gon rests his left arm on Killua's shoulder (reference to when Killua calmed Gon while Pitou treated Komugi), and with his classic happy gaze he says
Gon: I'll survive, and eventually we could go and discover the world together!
Meanwhile, Pitou took Gon's arm, stood up on two feet, starting to walk towards Killua and Gon, until she got behind Killua.
Killua notices it, turns around, and with a determined look without tears he says
Killua: I'm sorry Gon, but I can't abandon you! after all, in this fight, Pitou is also my prey.
Killua faces Pitou with her face extremely damaged, with her jaw also dislocated.
Killua instinctively gets frightened seeing Pitou's face reduced to that state, but then returns concentrated.
Pitou, with one arm she adjusts her jaw, and with an extremely nasty look (the mouth cannot convey many emotions in that state) says
Pitou: move!
But Killua doesn't move.
Pitou raises Gon's arm, tightly in his hand
Pitou: I won't make the same mistake twice!
Killua is a bit bewildered because it seems that Pitou is not talking to him, and suddenly a hand rests on his shoulder and moves him a bit; it's Gon who got up even though, with the deadly wound he has, he shouldn't be able to.
Killua: Gon what are you doing! You can't move with such a wound!
Gon: I told you, you have to go, I'll take care of her.
Gon starts making a Jajanken with what little aura he has left.
Killua realizes that cannot reason with Gon and, not being able to get too distracted by Pitou, activates the Divine Speed on both of them.
Pitou gives a murderous look and a smile that, with her face destroyed, makes her look extremely monstrous and frightening.
2 years before... [next chapter]