A week late, slightly longer chapter, enjoy! (short author's note)

Thank you for all the reviews. And believe me, I reread every one of them at least two times. Thank you! Thanks go to my sister as well, and my friends. Good life to you all!

Dusky had two things that she was afraid of: boredom and pissed-off people.

Pissed-off strong people.

But, as you can see, boredom comes first. So she didn't hesitate at all in hitting the call button every thirty seconds to her sensei's phone. She could already imagine the sailor moon theme song in her head already…

Finally, on the one thousand, three hundred and seventy-sixth ring (and she knew how many times because she had been counting; she was that bored), her sensei picked up.

Only to blast her eardrums like there was no tomorrow.

'WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?' Her sensei roared into his phone.

Dusky laughed sheepishly. 'Eheheh... hi?'

'YOU CALL ME NONSTOP FOR NEARLY THE LAST ELEVEN AND A HALF HOURS JUST TO SAY HI?'

Dusky cringed. 'But... I was bored...' she said shrinkingly, and then nearly dropped the phone from all the obscenities that spewed out of her sensei's mouth after her confession.

'WHAT THE *beep* ARE YOU? YOU JUST *beep* *beep**beep* GO AND *beep**beep* CALL SOMEONE FOR *beep**beep**beep* HALF A *beep**beep**beep**beep*DAY JUST *beep* BECAUSE YOU'RE *beep**beep**beep**beep**beep**beep* BORED? WHO *beep**beep*...'

Dusky stopped listening about five seconds into the rant. She put the phone down on the bed, where she could still hear Sensei's voice really clearly going on about blah blah whatever, and stared absentmindedly out the window, where she could see (in the really far off distance) Neon's mansion blazing with lights.

I really should stop being so honest all the time... Why did I say I was bored for? Now he's not going to stop yelling for another half hour... Dusky sighed. Maybe I should learn how to lie like Wind does...

At least Mini-Wind was gone for now, since she had finally FINALLY! reached Wind and talked to her properly. Actually, when Dusky had told Wind about the Mini-Wind inside her head, Wind had laughed non-stop at Dusky for five minutes. And then laughed some more.

Dusky scowled at the memory, before a particularly violent shout from Sensei distracted her from poking the sleeping Mini-Wind inside her head.

She glanced back down at her new shiny phone (from which Sensei was still shouting. Seriously, how does he get breath to shout for so long without stopping? And he knew even more swear words than she did! And she had learnt hers off her guards! Who all knew extensive curses in five different languages! Each!), and grinned. She had gotten this particular phone because it came in a particular shade of blue that matched Kurapika's eyes exactly.

Not that he knew. He was too engrossed in the 'latest technology' stuff, and so hadn't noticed Dusky holding up phones near his face to compare colours.

Well, he didn't notice until he turned his head and nearly jammed his nose onto of a random rabbit ear sticking out of the top of the phone she had been holding at the time.

Then he had yelled at her, but with humour. Which had made Dusky squeal inwardly at this small sign of un-emo-ness and made her buy the rabbit-ear phone (which had coincidentally been the right colour. Hooray for anime effects! As Wind says it, anyway).

But Kurapika, even when he had nearly stuffed a phone antenna into his nose hadn't yelled at Dusky as viciously as Sensei though, who was still going on about stupid young people these days.

'AND YOU HAVE THE *beep**beep* NERVE TO *beep* CALL ME WHEN *beep**beep**beep* YOU HAVEN'T EVEN *beep* FOUND *beep**beep**beep* YOUR SPECIALTY ATTACK!'

Dusky interrupted his rant. Which she thought was very brave of her, since Sensei was a strong person who happened to be pissed-off.

'Actually, Sensei, I've found it.'

Sensei stopped mid-swear word. 'Really? Are you lying to me just to shut me up? BECAUSE IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK!'

'I'm not lying! I've actually found it!'

...

'What is it?'

'Well...' Dusky launched into a long explanation, telling him about her three-nen-type abilities, how she found out, all that stuff.

After she had finished, there was no reply.

...

'Erm... Sensei?'

...

...

...

'Dusky, that is the weirdest thing I've ever heard.'

Dusky beamed. 'Thank you!'

'That wasn't a compliment...'

'But being weird is good, right?' Inwardly, Dusky added, 'And you've finally shut up! That's something to be happy about, right?'

'Did you just say something else, Dusky?' Sensei asked suspiciously.

Dusky sweat-dropped. 'NO! I didn't say anything else! Just that I think weirdness is good! Yes it is!'

'You're so weird.'

'Thank you!'

'... Anyway, since you've found out what is, start to train like this...' Sensei began to instruct Dusky. She sighed in relief. He didn't start yelling again!

'Dusky, you're not listening, are you?'

'Of course I am!'

'Then what did I just say?'

'That I had to train.'

Sensei sighed. 'I said a lot more after that, stupid Dusky.'

'Whatever. Anyway, were you doing something?'

'Erm...' Sensei coughed delicately. 'I wasn't doing much...'

Then, 'Crap! No! Pause!'

Behind her Sensei's panicked voice, Dusky could hear a girl's voice going, 'Sailor Moon, make up!'

'... Sensei? Are you watching Sailor Moon?'

The electronic music that had followed the girl's voice suddenly stopped. 'Yesss... pause successful!'

'Sensei?'

'What?'

'Sailor Moon?'

'Of course! Nothing can beat Sailor Moon! But... I can't believe you called me for eleven straight! It was so distracting during my Sailor Moon marathon! If I miss some important plot detail, I'm going to blame you!'

'Yeah, yeah, whatever. I can't believe you yelled without stopping for forty minutes straight.'

Sensei ignored her. 'Now, IF you don't have anything else to tell me, I'm going back to Sailor Moon.'

He hung up.

Dusky scowled. Couldn't he have talked to her a bit longer? What was she going to do now? At least calling him had killed off more than twelve hours of her time.

A knock sounded at her door.

'Yes?' Dusky said, opening the door. The innkeeper, in his pyjamas (complete with a sleeping hat thing with a bobble on the tip of the hat thing), stood there and smiled simperingly at her.

'Dusky, I'm just here to tell you that the customer next door to you wants you to stop yelling out rude words and let them sleep.'

'But I wasn't yelling or swearing.'

'Even if it wasn't you yelling out rude words inside your single room, can you still keep the noise down?' The innkeeper smiled wider and even more sickeningly than before.

Cheh, he didn't believe her did he.

Dusky matched his smile. 'Fine,' she said simperingly, and with a bow, the innkeeper walked away. Dusky poked her tongue out at his retreating back before going back into her room and closing the door.

She sighed. Well, I might as well go to sleep and train in those weirdo worlds of Jeb's...

Wind view

'Are we there yet?' Killua (uncharacteristically) whined.

'No.' Gon simply answered, smile fixed on his face as if by superglue and bouncing on his feet like he had pogo sticks stuck on them. 'I can't wait to meet Aunt Mito! I haven't seen her for such a LONG time!' He squealed loudly for the umpteenth time.

'Yeah, yeah,' I said tiredly. Between Killua's whining and Gon's squeals, it seemed like the trip would never end. I looked up at the sky. They reached the house at morning/afternoon right? I groaned. It was still dark.

What could I do to occupy the time? I checked my long closed backpack. Hmm, the forgotten first aid kit (I was quite glad I didn't need that anymore), random sticks and stuff I didn't want to touch because I didn't know what special things they had and… F.R.O.G!

Computer games! Hallelujah!

I untwisted it and immersed myself (while ordering my staff to follow Gon) in blasting away zombies with plants that shot missiles of all kinds fed by sun pooped out of sunflowers.

'Aunt Mito!' Gon shouted as he waved wildly. A young woman looked up from her washing and stared at Gon as if he was a dream. Then a wide smile spread on her face before she called over her shoulder to someone who wasn't visible to us. Then an exasperated expression crossed her face as she went into the house.

I was quite glad to see the house followed the anime. After all, the anime house was much more interesting than the manga. I mean, where else would you find a house entwined with the roots of a massive tree?

As Gon ran ahead, I looked around with Killua as he walked slowly along. We didn't talk, just comfortable silence punctuated with a little curiosity as we looked. A peaceful aura filled the place, and even though the people were just walking around doing ordinary things, the sunlight seemed to filter though the air to make everything just seem just that much more beautiful.

A total opposite to Killua's dark home. Very different from the perfectly kept home/palace of mine.

This was more... a comfortable place. A place where little kids could run around and enjoy themselves.

Killua and I rounded the corner to see Gon being hugged and scolded (at the same time) by Aunt Mito with his grandma just standing behind him looking generally happy.

'And you didn't even write, just a letter saying you passed the hunter exam and nothing after that! Do you know how worried we were?' Aunt Mito reproached fondly as she hugged Gon tightly.

I drooped slowly to the floor, the staff flying upright into my hand and looked longingly at the scene. I hadn't met the parents from this world during my time in Avril, but I missed the ones I had back home. And they didn't even remember me. I glanced at Killua, who had this lost, forlorn but also longing look on his face. He glanced at me and gave me a wry smile.

I guess I looked the same too. I tugged on my hood to hide my face. It was then that Aunt Mito noticed us standing awkwardly at the door.

'And who is this?' she said kindly, looking at us gently and stopped hugging Gon (though I noticed that her hands were still on Gon's shoulders). Killua immediately pulled his hands from his pockets and I suddenly stood straighter, putting my staff onto the holder on my back and bowed deep from the waist.

'Ah, none of that!' I felt a hand on my shoulder pushing me up, and I looked up at Aunt Mito smiling at us kindly. 'Are you Gon's friends?'

'Y-yeah.' Killua stammered out.

'He's Killua, and the other's Wind!'

Aunt Mito looked at us and repeated our names. 'Killua and Wind, yes?' We nodded dumbly. 'Come in, come in! It's the first time Gon's ever brought friends home, and they're friends from overseas!'

She ushered us into the house with Gon tagging happily along with his grandma, babbling about something or another that was nearly incoherent. His grandma nodded happily. I slowly relaxed.

It was nice here. No death fights, no need to have your guard up. I fiddled with the rings on my fingers, (a new nervous habit) as I watched with Gon and Killua (all of us with sweat-drops) as Aunt Mito whirled around in the kitchen preparing lunch (grandma was sitting on the table drinking tea).

'And you don't even write to tell us you're coming back and you have friends over! How am I supposed to treat you all? Ah, we don't even have enough ingredients…' She rambled/grumbled/yelled at Gon. Then she noticed our dirty state.

'Good timing, go and have a shower while I make lunch,' she said, staring pointedly at Gon and Killua's dirty faces.

'But we were planning to explore the forest in the afternoon…' Gon argued. Aunt Mito held up a hand.

'Go before I count to ten. ONE!' Gon immediately started pushing Killua with a huge sweat-drop on his face.

'Let's go!' He said with one of those smiles.' I listened to them banging and making a noise as they prepared for shower. Aunt Mito counted to eight before she realised I hadn't gone.

'Wind, isn't it?' She smiled at me. 'Why aren't you going with them?' I started. Then a light bulb moment.

Oh.

I pulled down my hood to show my shoulder-blade length hair (freaky fast growing hair).

'Mito-san… I'm a girl.' I said softly. She had this huge shocked face going on. Like, dropped mouth, her antennae of hair twitching in front of her face, bird eyes, the whole thing.

Then…

'Oh! I didn't realise that Gon would even be able to make friends with such a cute girl!' She suddenly gushed as she rushed from behind the counter to look at my face properly with shiny eyes. 'I didn't even realise! I'm sorry! But you really are cute; I wonder how I didn't realise before! I've always wanted a daughter!' she babbled happily.

'Umm…'

'Of course you can't go bath with those boys!' She laughed. Then the kettle shrieked and she immediately looked panicked. 'Ah!'

And she rushed back to the stove to switch off the stove and check something frying in the saucepan.

I chuckled quietly. An old creaky voice came from my right and I looked.

'Do you want to sit with me for awhile when you wait?' Gon's grandma asked, smiling at me. I nodded and sat across from her. She poured me a cup of tea and slid it gently towards me. We sipped in contented silence while we listened to Aunt Mito grumble about how if she had realised I was a girl she would've let me get in the bath first (gentlemanly manners and all that).

'So…' I looked at Gon's grandma. She had smile crinkles all over her face. I liked her, she looked nice.

'Yeah?'

'Where're you from?' She asked me when Aunt Mito in the kitchen had a quiet moment. Aunt Mito looked over at this question as well. I smiled.

'Well, I come from this country far away called Avril. Have you ever heard of it?' Gon's grandma smiled and shook her head in a no.

'No, I'm afraid I'm quite limited in knowledge around the world. Tell me about it?'

I told her about the things I had studied in the two mountain tomes. Suddenly, I felt happy I remembered all that information, looking at the old woman's contented face.

Of course I didn't mention I was the Imperial Princess of whatever, blah blah, long title. I just mentioned that it was a monarchy system and briefly went over the politics concerning those areas (she listened with great interest, though it was obvious she didn't understand much of the intrinsic political things I mentioned) so I talked about the rivers, lakes, and the people.

They both perked their heads up at the mention that every one of the people could use an aspect of the elements.

'I can show you if you like.' I offered. They smiled.

'Really?'

'Yep.' Holding out a hand, I summoned a breeze that carried a few leaves to the table (and a few specks of dirt). Then I whirled my hand gently around, and the leaves gently circled on the table until I swept them away out another window.

They both had wide eyes at that, and I chuckled.

'You control the wind?'

'More like friends with. We ask, and they do.' I replied simply. They nodded.

'Nature is like that, controlling it is just too much to think of. After all, it is wild.' The old woman said to me with experience in her eyes.

'Eh?'

She just shook her head and smiled. 'So you were up to the clothing that showed which type you were?'

I nodded, dropping the topic she obviously didn't want to talk about. It was then that loud voices and footsteps came down the stairs.

When they came into the room, they were faced with an annoyed Mito.

'How long did you take? Did you even think of Wind over there?' She pointed at me. I waved with a cheesy grin. They gave me sheepish looks.

'Well, it was really comfortable, Aunt Mito!' Gon protested futilely once again (of course, with that super-glued grin that didn't seem to want to come off).

Aunt Mito sighed and shook her head with a smile and pointed to the table.

'I haven't finished lunch yet. While Wind takes her turn, do you want to tell grandma about your hunter exploits?' I pushed my cup of tea towards the centre of the table and stood up.

'Thank you for the tea.' I told the old grandma.

'Thank you for the interesting conversation.' She smiled. I flashed a huge grin at her (was that light glinting off my teeth? I hope not) and brushed past Killua whose face was flushed red. I backtracked and looked at Killua.

'Hey, Killua, are you okay? You seem red.'

'Might've soaked a little too long.' Mito looked up concernedly at that, but when I leaned closer to Killua and Killua practically started puffing steam (what the heck?), she got this knowing gleam in her eye.

'Wind, you should go shower now!' She said a bit too cheerfully, but I shrugged it off and thanked her, before moving up the stairs.

The last things I heard from the kitchen were a murmur from Mito, and an outburst of "I DON'T like her!" and Gon's crowing of "He does! He does! How did you guess, Aunt Mito?"

I don't want to even guess what was happening down there.

Kurapika looked at the attackers. He closed his eyes, letting his chain drop from his sleeve. Images flashed behind his eyelids.

If I pass this, I will be one step closer to avenging you and retrieving what is rightfully yours…

His eyes snapped open, and his chain lashed out at the black shaped figures.

It was over too soon, too soon, the assignments handed out, and each of the contestants given a list of things that could be retrieved and a time limit. Kurapika ignored the other people and walked out of the room. This would be easy.

A warm smile, yellow hair like sunlight. A young voice, calling mother, mother, and she turns from a pile of dirty dishes to look at him, smiling, yellow hair shining, shining, so bright, beautiful

The corridor seemed long, too long. Turn the corner and the exit was right at the end of another one, another corridor as long as it seemed short, too long…

A laugh, a butterfly. A red earring, silver eyes that flashed red

A beam of sunlight shone through a tall, crystal clear window. The deep red curtains were not drawn, and hung heavily to each side in dark décor. Did he hear a voice? No, he shook his head. There wouldn't be voices here.

Rough hands carving wooden toys, a gruff pat on the head. Warm eyes, brown eyes, a slightly awkward voice reading stories

He opened the door to a sky dominated by clouds. And all sunlight soon disappeared, dark grey invaded the blue until it was covered, until no light was allowed to pass through. He stepped down the steps, ignoring the dogs to his left.

A field, a green field dotted with flowers, sunlight was pouring down and he had to shield his face. A voice, yelling, laughing, black hair danced silver eyes flashed and he felt for a moment that

The gates opened on their own, and he stepped through.

'We'll always be friends, ne?'

A drop, then many drops. The sky was crying, crying. He stopped and looked up.

'I love your eyes, Kurapika! They're so blue it's like the sky…'

The sky expanded in all directions, until the trees cut it off in a sudden cut of dark green but the sky was grey, dark grey, and there was no blue in sight

Screaming, dark cellar. Would they be fine? A shout, a thud. He hoped it wasn't father, it couldn't be. Brown eyes, rough hands

Thunder which rumbled in the distance woke him from his stupor and he walked slowly forward again, but with purpose, always with purpose

What was that scream? Yellow hair, warm smile, mother mother, don't leave me, she won't leave me, she can't leave me, think of good things, warm smile, yellow hair, butterflies

A butterfly was struggling under its leaf, it couldn't get wet, and he couldn't do anything to help and walked right past it, past its panicked wings fluttering ever slower

Past rows of bodies, past houses of red, hollow eyes, there was no body, there was no body, there was no body, where was she? Wherewherewherewhere

He walked down the track, red earring swinging. He looked at the signpost and decided left, it would be the fastest way to where he was going

Laugh, silver eyes, there was no body, where was she? Left, right, right he went and there was nothing, nothing but red and a high scream

A bus stop. He stopped under its cover and checked the timetable. The bus would be going where he needed to go. Good

Marked dead, a mass burial and a huge epitaph listing the people dead, they couldn't even get individual graves, he stared at a name

The bus rolled to the stop where he was sitting and he braved the rain for a few seconds before getting into the slightly stuffy humidity of the bus and paid his fare. Then he sat in an empty seat and looked out the bleary window

There was no body, she might be alive

Black eyes stared back at him through his reflection in the window. He frowned at it and took a book out of his bag to read

There was no body

The words seemed to blur in front of his eyes, he couldn't concentrate. Massaging his temples, he put back the book into his bag and rested his head against the headrest

She might be alive

Blue eyes hardened and stood up. On a day with a grey sky he vowed revenge and the return of his clan's eyes while clinging onto a hope, a slim hope, a hope like a ray of sunlight on a stormy day

Because there was no body

Because she might be alive

Well guys, end of chapter. Hope you liked it and since its holidays next week shouldn't be late. XD

Good luck to all!