The very next day, Gon and I encountered Shenka. But I almost wish we hadn't, because I was exhausted and sore.
I had spent the entirety of the previous night tossing and turning, trying to get over the throbbing ache burning white-hot in my chest. After I'd coughed up those damn pink petals, the pain didn't go away like it normally did. Instead, it stayed right where it was, tormenting me and keeping me from getting a single wink of sleep.
I was still achy and miserable when Gon came into my room at dawn to tell me he wanted to get an early start on our mission. He had immediately noticed the dark circles under my eyes, which were all too obvious against my paper-pale skin. But when he asked where they had come from, I had simply told him that I hadn't slept all that well, which was partially true.
"Does Killua need to stay home today?" Gon had asked, wrinkling his nose at me. "I'm willing to stay home and look after you. The others can make decent enough progress without us."
"We're too close to catching him to take breaks." I replied, hating the way my voice wavered. "I'll be alright, I can go a long time without sleeping."
And that was entirely true. Thanks to the intense assassin conditioning I had gone through at the hands of my own family, I could stay awake for three or four days at a time without collapsing or physically weakening at all.
It was just the pain. It was bad enough that I feared it would affect my performance.
Gon and I started right back where we had left off, at his "suspicious building". The scent was still really strong seeing as Shenka had been there under twenty-four hours ago. We followed both the scent and the tracks he'd left behind all throughout the shady side of town, passing many different drug dealers that tried to offer us things. We kept our heads down and ignored all of them.
"We're getting close. Stay alert." I whispered to Gon.
He nodded subtly and raised one eyebrow. "Shouldn't we double back and get the others first?"
"And risk losing this guy after all our hard work to track him down? Nu-uh. I've got my claws and you've got your fishing rod. We'll be just fine." I waved a hand dismissively as we passed yet another shady-looking character looking to sell us something that was probably illegal.
"But he's a dangerous criminal. We're just a couple of kids." the tan boy beside me began wringing his hands nervously.
"Well, given the fact that I'm a trained assassin and you passed the Hunter Exam, I think we're more than just a couple of kids."
"Touché."
We kept walking in silence, ducking between darkened buildings, following the seemingly endless trail of scent. A few moments passed before Gon nudged my arm, signaling me to stop.
"What is it?" I asked.
"There. That's him." Gon pointed past me to a group of tall, muscular males huddled in the corner of a dark alleyway, engaged in conversation.
Based on the raised voices and gruff tones, I determined that the men were arguing about something. It only took me a moment to pick out our target from the others. Shenka was taller and more intimidating than any of the other brutes present, with well-tanned skin coveted in tattoos and a large scar over his left eye. His greasy black hair was slicked back messily, and his muscular arms were folded across his massive chest.
"He's huge." I hissed, grabbing Gon's hand and dragging him over to a dumpster we could hide behind. "But we can take him. Wait until the other guys leave and he's by himself, and we'll make our move."
The ravenette nodded a couple times. "Okay. But let's listen in on their conversation while we're at it, they might be talking about something important."
I smirked. "Oh, I'm sure they are."
We both fell silent, straining our ears to hear the voices of the men in the alleyway. They were too wrapped up in what they were doing to have noticed us, so they kept talking without a care in the world.
"...I still say you don't pay well enough for this shit." one of the smaller, ratty-looking thugs was saying. "I been at this for six days now and you've barely a penny to show for it."
"Maybe I would pay better if you actually did your fuckin' job rather than lazing around all the time." Shenka snarled. He sounded very, very angry, based off his frustrated tone and aggressive body language.
"Quiet, both of you. This is getting us nowhere." a man who was almost as tall as Shenka quickly interjected. "We need to focus on the issues at hand rather than fighting about everything else. This is serious."
"I'll only move on if Striker over here agrees to stop bitching about his paycheck." Shenka rolled his eyes.
The ratty thug, Striker, huffed angrily but still nodded his agreement. "Fine. I'll drop it for now."
"Good. Now, on to other matters. There are four Hunters in town now, and I guarantee you they're after one of us." the male who'd broken up the fight declared. "I don't give a fuck who they're hunting. It could be all of us, for all we know. But either way, we need to get rid of them. Show them that it takes more than a bunch of measly, wimpy kids to take us down."
"I agree. There have been two small boys following me around for a few days now, so I think I'm the one they're after. I gotta admit, they are very skilled trackers." Shenka said, uncrossing his arms and sneering.
Gon stiffened beside me and I sucked in a breath.
They're talking about us.
I locked eyes with my best friend and he frantically mouthed, "What do we do?"
"Wait." I mouthed back. "He'll seperate from his pals soon enough."
Gon gave me a thumbs-up so I knew he understood and returned his attention to the criminals. I tuned back into their conversation.
"...They're both real skinny, I'm surprised they passed their Hunter exams in the first place. But if they managed to get this far, they might actually pose a problem, as much as I hate to admit it." Striker was saying. His voice was high-pitched and nasally, as if he were talking through his nose. I hated it.
"I'm not afraid of a bunch of scrappy little runts. If they decide to confront me, I'm sure I could handle it. They don't pose a problem at all." Shenka replied, dryly. "I'm willing to acknowledge their tracking skill, but tracking someone and fighting them are two very different things."
He shouldn't underestimate us. Damn fool's got no idea how skilled we are.
"Easy there, Shen. If they could pass a Hunter exam they shouldn't be taken lightly, especially if they look pretty young. Have you any idea how difficult those exams are?" Striker raised one eyebrow.
"Hmph. Point still stands. I ain't scared of them. I'm gonna go now, I've got a meeting with a client in half an hour." Shenka shrugged off the comments of the other males and walked away.
I grabbed Gon's arm firmly to get his attention. "He's on the move." I whispered.
"Mmh. Let's take him down. But I still say we should tell Kurapika what we're doing first. He's probably gonna lecture us to no end when he finds out." Gon agreed, lips twitching upward in something of a mischievous smirk.
I chuckled soundlessly and returned my attention to our target. The raven-haired criminal was walking away from his group, and right toward us. I held my breath, silently praying he wouldn't notice a couple kids huddled in the corner behind a dumpster. Fortunately he didn't notice at all, and walked right by our hiding place without catching sight of us. I waited a moment before silently rising to my feet, signaling Gon to follow me.
We remained close behind Shenka for about five minutes, following him through many a dark, suspicious alleyway before I realized we had made a mistake. Shenka knew we were there all along.
And that's exactly why he intentionally led us into a dark passageway between two buildings that was actually a dead end, cornering himself between a solid brick wall and us kids.
"Gon." I grabbed my friend by the arm, glaring furiously at Shenka's back. "He knows."
Gon's eyes widened, but he didn't say a word.
That's when our target slowly turned around to face us, his lips twisted upward in a horrifying, disgusting grin. His slanted black eyes were alight with malice and cruelty. This man had very bad intentions. He wanted to kill us. I could feel the bloodlust emanating off his body in pulsating waves.
"You didn't think I was completely unaware of your presence, did you?" he called out to us.
I shoved my hands into the front pockets of my shorts, concealing the long, sharp claws my fingernails had become. "I suggest you come quietly. Don't want anyone getting hurt here." I told him.
"Yeah." Gon piped up. "We're here to bring you to justice. Surrender now."
Shenka laughed. It was a horrible, croaking sound that hurt my ears. "Oh, you still think I'm the one who's gonna get hurt in the event of a physical confrontation? Just for that unfair assessment, I'm gonna have to teach the both of you a lesson."
I rolled my eyes. "Good luck with that, buddy."
Without warning, the criminal sprang at us. He was alarmingly fast. One second, he was staring us down. The next, he was right up in our faces with a dagger in each hand, swinging them maniacally.
Gon let out a yelp of alarm as he and I jumped away from the attack. I threw a quick glance at my friend to make sure he was okay before unleashing an attack of my own, rushing forward and slashing my claws at the criminal's large, muscular back. He twisted around all of a sudden, the razor-sharp tips of my claws missed him by mere centimeters. Before I had time to recoil and strike again, he had punched me in the chest, hard.
I let out a high-pitched cry of pain and went down hard, choking on the flower petals that surged up and out of my throat unbidden, spilling out of my mouth and onto the rough pavement. There was also a lot of blood, I could taste it on my tongue.
"Don't you dare hurt Killua!" Gon shouted, springing at Shenka, trying to batter the tall man down with his fishing rod.
Fortunately neither of them had noticed the petals. I quickly scooped them up and jammed them into my pocket before bouncing to my feet and rushing back into the fight. My chest hurt so badly, I couldn't believe that a single punch was enough to force me to cough up petals like that. I felt so weak. But I had to help Gon, or else both of us were gonna die.
This time, when I approached, Shenka was ready for me. He shoved Gon aside and whirled around, swinging a dagger at my face. If I didn't react quickly enough, that sharp edge of metal would cleave my head from my shoulders. I jumped as high as I could, twisting in mid-air, executing a perfect backflip before landing on my feet and slashing my claws at Shenka's chest.
At first, I thought he'd dodge again, but this time, he was too busy trying to fend off Gon to block my attack. I felt three of my fingers connect with his chest, sinking deep into his flesh. Blood spurted everywhere as I yanked my hand back and pivoted sharply so I could get out of the way before he could retaliate.
The roar of fury and pain that burst from the criminal's mouth was so loud the entire city probably heard it. He battered a screaming Gon into the ground before charging at me, brandishing his daggers menacingly.
I could feel more petals rising in my throat, threatening to burst out of me at any moment. I tried my absolute hardest to keep them down, wincing at the sharp pain in my lungs. It was a little bit difficult to breathe.
Goddammit, not now!
I tried to dodge Shenka's reckless, anger-driven attack, but, for the first time in my entire life, I was too slow. The best I could do was throw my arm up to protect my vital organs and my head before he slammed into me.
He struck me three times with swift brutality even as his dagger cut into my forearm before throwing me up against the brick wall with such force I felt my ribs cracking.
Hours upon hours of torture training had taught me not to scream, even when the pain shot through me like a bolt of lightning. I silently crumpled to the ground, clutching my injured arm to my chest.
Gon screamed out my name, but that scream broke off into a howl of absolute fury as he launched himself at the criminal.
That was one of the only flaws Gon had. He was very vengeful, and if someone he cared about was being hurt, he became overwhelmed by the desire to exact his revenge on whoever hurt them.
Shenka whirled around and blocked the sloppy attack with ease, his free hand swinging around to slam into Gon's shoulder, knocking him back a bit.
Get up.
I tried to will myself to stand, but my head was spinning and everything hurt and I needed to cough up those damn flower petals before they completely clogged my windpipe. I felt like I might choke on them at any moment.
Gon can't take him on all by himself. Get up. Help him. Get. Up.
But I couldn't get up, and it was already too late to try.
Shenka blocked a couple more of Gon's outraged punches before growing bored of their little game and ending it with a single blow to the collarbone. I watched helplessly as my best friend was sent tumbling across the hard ground.
The criminal let out a soft chuckle as he turned and walked away. "Lesson learned. Don't ever show your faces again, or I'll kill you."
I gasped and shuddered, feeling warm blood from the deep laceration on my arm sliding down my wrist and dripping onto the ground. Everything hurt so badly I couldn't move, couldn't do anything except tremble all over like an injured dog.
"K-Killua..." Gon stammered out, and I realized he had somehow managed to crawl over to me. He flopped down on his stomach beside me, reaching out and touching my back with just his fingertips. "Ouch... I think he beat us pretty good just now."
"N-No kidding, idiot." I hissed between gritted teeth.
"I sent a distress signal to Leorio and Kurapika. They should be on their way here. Until then, try to be as still as possible so you don't upset your injuries." Gon instructed, eyeing the blood soaking through my sleeve with concern. "Those look pretty bad."
"Hurts like a bitch." I admit, before glancing sidelong at my friend. "Are you alright?"
"He definitely broke my collarbone," was Gon's matter-of-fact response. "and gave me a couple bruises but I'll be alright. It's you I'm worried about."
I opened my mouth to reply, but found that it hurt too much. My voice came out as a weak, shuddering groan instead.
I really need to cough up those petals, but I can't because Gon's right here and he'll see them.
It was surprisingly difficult to keep the flowers within my system rather than just hacking them up like normal, but I was stubborn enough to do it no matter how badly it hurt. I had to keep my friend from discovering my illness. If he found out, all hell would break loose.
Fortunately, he seemed to understand that I was not able to talk to him at the moment, so he didn't say anything else. He just kept running his fingers up and down my back, keeping his touch light and delicate so he didn't hurt me on accident.
I think I must've lost consciousness at some point, because when I woke up, I was back in the hotel and Kurapika was yelling at me.
To be continued...
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A/N: SKREEEEEE I feel like that fight scene was so sloppy, I did my best to make it as descriptive as possible but I'm really terrible at doing fight scenes smh. I apologize if you found this chapter difficult to read. Hopefully the next one will be better.
Eyyyy thank you so much for reading! Please remember to leave a review telling me what you thought, and consider checking out my other fics if you have time. Thanks again, love y'all!
-UltimatexAdmin