Chapter 15: Killua and Aoi (part 1)

All extremes of feelings are allied with Madness—Virginia Woolf

"Settle down Aoi... it has nothing to do with you!" Menchi held Aoi down, but she was desperate to jump out.

"Chi-chan... let me go, I saw Killua-kun on the ambulance" Aoi struggled on the seat as she tried to break free. Menchi pressed her shoulders as she peered through the window as Kyoya picked up the speed through the one way. She finally gave up and slumped on the seat as she heard the sound of the ambulance fading in the vista of cars that they left behind.

"Aoi-chan..." Menchi hugged her friend tightly as she sobbed under her arms. Kyoya peered at the girls through his rear-view mirror briefly as he overtook the cars towards the Bypass with skilled hand. His brows frowned so prominently that it didn't escape his brother's notice that he was hiding something. Kai rested under his gray bangs as he heard Aoi crying at the backseat.

"Nii-san... I think we should stop-" Kai said softly; his lavender eyes on the front glass, carelessly observing the cars before them. Kyoya at first looked like he didn't understand a word his brother said; a prominent mark of annoyance soon plagued his face. But he composed himself from having any awkward outburst.

"You know this is a one way right—we can't go back now"

"Then stop at the end of the Bypass-"

The conversation didn't go further. Aoi was continuously sobbing at her backseat and Menchi didn't even stop for a second. Kyoya was the oldest and the most mature child under the Kitagawa roof, seeing this side of his cousin—a girl who was headstrong, fickle and tomboyish, who suddenly became mature, steady and maternal—this made him proud that she was his sister. Kai, at his side was sinking at his seat, slumping and lowering his eyes from the flashing lights.

"You okay..." Kyoya asked cautiously.

"I am fine..." Kai said softly enough so that only Kyoya can hear him.

"Here..." Menchi reached out with a capsule in her right hand while she held Aoi with the left, her voice was steady and clear. Aoi, who was sobbing until now, shook away Menchi's arm and peered over the shotgun seat.

"Is everything okay, Kai-san? Are you feeling bad?" Aoi asked through tears in her eyes and concern in her lips. Menchi, after casting a nervous glance tried to explain

"Kai-nii-chan is-"

A hand in the air stopped Menchi's speech at an instant. Aoi became so disarmed in that action that she shrunk at her seat reproachfully. Seeing this embarrassing state Menchi cast a shameful eye towards Aoi, and a fully abashed apology was almost upon her. She cast a glare at Kai and perhaps cursed at his lack of civil behaviour in her mind. However she could not say anything to him in front of Aoi—agitation is not good for this situation. Suddenly a pale hand reached towards the backseat and held a clean handkerchief very near to Aoi's face as Kyoya took a turn to climb upwards the highway as they crossed the Seven Point Circus underneath. One of the lights on the bypass flashed upon Kai's face as Aoi how he was looking at her in the eye with full compassion.

"Wipe your face Aoi-san..." he said compassionately and respectfully.

"T-thank you..." Aoi took the hanky with both hands.

"I used to have frequent seizures in childhood with flashing lights." Kai shared such a personal fact with Aoi so abruptly that even his brother and cousin looked like they had heard something unbelievable, "Although I didn't have one in five years but-"

"Please Kai-san, I will sit at the shotgun, you don't have to sit at the front-"

"By this time, they know that you are missing" Kai said gravely, "if you sit at the front, they won't let you leave this time-" Kai's voice of warning sent a shiver through Aoi's spine. He turned to Kyoya, "how far is the YSCH?"

"A minute away, at the end of the Bypass-" His brother replied tensely, "Kai, I don't think we are doing the right thing... it's like walking through tiger's cave-"

"Aoi has the right to see him-" Kai said loudly and firmly, but only Kyoya could see him sinking in his seat. As an elder brother all Kyoya could think about what happened a few years back, when his parents beat his younger brother to pulp because of his different opinion.

"Make it quick..." Kyoya braked sharply as his tried to conceal the black car under the shadowy portion of the highway. Menchi jumped out of the roadside door and pulled Aoi towards her; it was impossible to see what was going on—firstly the rushing cars towards the outskirt of Yorkshin City was impossible to get past and secondly the hospital door was looking like a chaotic press-conference.

"Muri-da... Aoi-chan, ikuzo. It is impossible to get past the reporters-" Menchi's voice shook a little as she spoke. Aoi looked at her friend and it wasn't anything that resembled remotely of her best friend. She was scared, so scared that Aoi felt guilty of putting her friend in this position—it was not her responsibility to accompany her, Killua was Aoi's brother—how many times she shall crutch on other people! Aoi felt so ashamed and pathetic that she stepped forward on her own.

"Aoi-chan... matte, I am coming with you!"

"No, Chi-chan. I don't want to bother you—Kai-san and Kyoya-san would be found out eventually if you are with me. Go, wait in the car. I can handle this."

Menchi saw Aoi walking straight ahead to the other side as she herself stepped back in the shadows. She feared everything that was going to happen. She feared for her family, her Hunter cousin Kyoya for what the Matsuhashis can do to them once they find out what she and her brothers were up to. She feared for her father, who worked as a Lieutenant under the Hunter Commission—he would lose his job or his life. And most of all, she feared for her dear best friend. As much she liked to spy on people she disliked or was concerned about, she didn't stay to watch Aoi enter the hospital. Menchi backed on her feet and slithered inside the SUV.

"I don't know what she is up to-" Menchi buried her face in her hands "one moment she runs away, the other moment she enters the same door she ran away from-" the bustle of the topside highway shrouded the sounds of her anxiety. Several moments of silence passed as the darkness inside the car flashed with incoherent lights from outside like a dark restless night does during violent thunderstorms.

In the meanwhile, after wiggling her way like a vermin through a dark attic Aoi managed to sneak inside the hospital. She could not recognise it; the crisp, clean and professional air of the well polished Yorkshin City Hospital seemed like some chaotic battleground and everyone was chanting one name like the end was near! Killua Matsuhashi! With each time someone uttered his name, a degree of heat dropped from Aoi's skin. Her knees felt weak and wobbly and she felt exactly the same as she felt during her last school day—the world around her whirled and her resolve to meet him seemed to disappear. She felt like as if someone was choking her and she didn't even realise. She leaned against a shabby looking door and reeled her eyes towards the Green Signed Exit—

I need to get out...

Suddenly she felt being pulled back through the door with a firm, long fingered hand clamped tightly on her mouth. Everything happened so fast that Aoi couldn't feel the pain at the back of her when she was slammed against the wall and a nearby broom was knocked at and feet. Aoi knew this place, in its darkness and disinfectant-like smell. It was the same broom closet where she sneaked in to eavesdrop on Leorio and Pakunoda's conversation; and this time, it was Pakunoda who was holding Aoi down.

"What on earth are you doing here—you were gone!" Pakunoda hissed with an edge of alarm.

"I am—wait, how did you know that I was gone!" Aoi asked as Pakunoda slowly withdrew her hand off Aoi's mouth.

"You were supposed to say, 'I don't know what are you talking about'—it's about the damn time!" Pakunoda snapped, "I have already enough on my plate with this situation and I cannot go banging about to Leorio what I was doing-"

"—How is he?"

Pakunoda stopped and glanced at Aoi, this time properly. She could see Aoi tried her best to hold herself up with whatever determination she could muster but a subtle spasm ran through her body like some minute static current.

"—How is he?" Aoi asked, this time her voice seemed raspy and somewhat impatient, as if someone else was speaking using her innocent voice.

"He is not well..."

Aoi couldn't speak. Her eyes glinted with confusion, fear, tension within fractions of seconds. She straightened herself up to look at the other one's face and her heart flinched in mortal fear. "He has a few shrapnel through his heart. The strangest thing is, there was very little bloodloss—his bloods are clotting fast, Heparin has been administered but no avail. Leo is literally wrestling with his brother's death and three world class-experts are on the way." Pakunoda said everything in one breath and tried to take a new one, in a futile attempt to channel hope, "Matsuhashis have become like drug-sniffing bloodhound and they think Knov has something to do with this."

When Aoi thought nothing would be more devastating, the new information struck her like a bolt of thunder "My father... Pakunoda-san, what are you saying?"

"You have chosen a very poor timing to come here... Chrollo has called half of the Board members to put your father under the Bounty. He also mentioned that he didn't see you at Killua's birthday party-what's wrong with you, why are you panting?"

"I am fine Pakunoda-san, I just had a dizzy head while I was entering the hallway, it's a stubborn one this time-"

"And elevated pulse, nervous spasm as well?" Pakunoda was taking her pulse. Her symmetrical face was tense and tight, "for how long you've been having this?"

"It's nothing Pakunoda-san; I just get dizzy, nauseated and weak kneed when I get nervous... honestly I hate that about myself." Aoi politely freed herself from Pakunoda's grip and faced the other way, "my life has been very peaceful and uneventful so far—I guess I don't handle pressures and stress very well-"

"I see..." Pakunoda pursed her lips and stepped a little further. Her eyes still on Aoi, trying to figure out the cipher in her tangled nervousness; Aoi stood against the wall along with brooms and mops, trying to manage herself as far as she could. The yellow bulb swung back and forth from the ceiling in a hypnotising manner.

Suddenly Aoi heard a rustle of paper and pen being pulled out from the pocket. Pakunoda was frantically scribbling something on the paper, by putting it against the wall. "Here... take this prescription- and" she reached for her pocket and pulled out a file of tiny pink coloured pills "take one of these and place it under the tongue like an antacid whenever you feel—the way you feel-" she shoved Aoi from the broom closet, "now go-"

Aoi guarded herself against the closed door, staring at the pink pills she just received "what are these... and why should I have them?" her brow crinkled in suspicion out of her own free will. Pakunoda's eyes softened at her query and she replied with a comforting hand on her head before pushing her out of the door and into the emergency exit.

The cool and crisp air conditioned atmosphere was beginning to sink into Aoi's skin when she hastily stepped outside the humid and hot July night. The moisture wrapped her with an asphyxiating sticky film, but it felt better than the oppressing claustrophobia of the Hospital where she felt like a hamster in a rolling wheel, running and running to exhaustion in the fear of her family. The backdoor of the hospital was further away from the highway which elevated Aoi's anxiety even more. She wanted to squint her eyes close and walk through the bustling traffic but could not. After some eternal moments of torture the moment she entered the air-conditioned chillness on the SUV, she could breathe again.

"How's Killua...?" Kyoya asked out of common courtesy.

"Drive Kyoya-san... I am tired" Aoi leaned her head back at the leather seat and soon, seeing the twinkling lights of the bustling city, her eyes drooped.

...

Two years ago

The pink floral scent of the spring was fading from the atmosphere for a moist headiness of summer. The atmosphere warmed up and the afternoon became quieter. It was that time of the year when the entire population of school breathed relief when the last bell of the day rang at 3, in a hope that they would go home, have a cold class of drink and roll on the floor to take a small nap. The clubrooms were abandoned because none had the energy to continue afterschool activity anymore. In this uninterrupted silence of the after hour school, a voice thundered from third floor Music Room.

"And five, six, seven eight..."

A white haired middle school boy lay on the school ground; it was no doubt that he was Killua. He didn't fit in this after-school silence, as if his friends left the school when he was asleep and he will see a post-apocalyptic silence when he wakes up. The grass winnowed against his neck. He started at the coarse female voice and darted his head straight upwards: yes, it was unmistakably she, Madame Olga, the French Teacher and Dance Mistress of Minami Junior High. She broke her hips when she was a KGB spy, and now she tries to break hips of other girls who are unfortunate enough to be in the European Classical Arts club.

As soon as her voice faded, a swiggly tune of violin moaned at cue. Killua smirked at that, so mediocre and out of tune! He was brought up listening to his Chrollo-nii's violin: he gave up his dream of being a violinist to become a Hunter, but when he failed at the exam, he was already past the age of admission at Julliard Music Academy. His bitterness and suppressed talent made a great literature-expert out of him, but he still continued to play for Killua. This, whoever he or she was—the violinist, was nothing compared to Chrollo-nii; in fact he almost laughed out loud when the player made the violins neigh and squeak at times. Nevertheless the strange tune evoked curiosity in him. He was alone and bored and that neighing violin seemed a good thing to laugh at right now. He stood up from the grassy slope, dusted his shoulders and knees and quietly climbed upstairs.

The orange afternoon sun slantly entered the Third floor corridor as Killua slowly walked towards the squeaky violin, laughing and smirking all the way. But he was unknown to the fact what was waiting for him when he would reach there.

The west side room at the end of the corridor was the famous Third Floor Music room. The door was opened ajar, and on the opposite wall, at the corridor Killua saw a dark silhouette moving on the orange coloured setting sunlight. Her wispy figure glided gracefully through the disastrous music, without care. He held his breath as he turned around to meet the body in front of the shadow, and his eyes were blinded as he directly looked towards the west window.

Killua knew her; the thin and frail looking girl in 2-C—how can he not recognise her! Every morning as she walks in the classroom it looks like a ghost just walked it. That paper white skin and black curtain were unmistakable. She hides herself under her hair and buries her head in books, but Killua never expected her to be this: standing like some unreal marble statue and dancing with inhuman precision with her head held high, hairs tied back and those feline eyes focused with a passion that her timid eyes usually hides. Like the stars hide in the sunlight and come alive in the dark, she looked like that.

"Stop, stop..." Killua's heart jumped in his ribcage as the voice of Madame Olga resonated through the room. He sild himself at the side of the door, behind the wall of the room, "Stop Miss Tanaka, forty-two fouettes are enough on one go—you'll hurt your ankles!"

"It's okay Madame; I can go for ten more... I swear I practiced last night. I need to get it right—from yesterday the summer vacation starts!" a mellow but firm voice protested.

"You need to take it slow... " Madame Olga softened her tone, "you already did enough for today, and stop worrying. The Competition is in the Fall. Go home and have a nice sleep."

Killua tried to pace up towards the stairs as he heard footsteps approaching him. But he knew he was too late when the footfall stopped right at his back. He squinted his eyes regretfully and slowly turned back. Killua awkwardly straightened his posture and a shroud of guilt covered his face as he looked at the dancing girl—Tanaka—looking at his way, with an eyebrow raised. He felt really bad for laughing at the violinist.

"I am sorry to bother you, but I don't think I have ever seen you in here—are you a part of the European Classical Arts Club?" Tanaka asked with a sober tone while her eyes inspected every inch of Killua.

"No, I was just passing by—see you!" Killua turned around on his heels, intending to walk away. His bowed his head slightly, squinting his eyes and hands firmly down his pockets. When he walked about three feet away, a voice stopped him.

"Wait..." he heard hurried footsteps following him. He turned around to look at her. Her eyebrows weren't arched anymore, and the characteristic shyness was upon her face, "If you aren't in hurry—may we walk together from school?"

"Okay..."

The footsteps of two people resonated throughout the empty corridor. It was a strange scene: two people walked side by side in almost robotic manner—a girl dressed in faux pas sweatpants, tucking in the delicate pink ballet leotard while the boy dressed perfunctorily in school uniform with his shirt hanging out over his neat pants. They both moved their necks as far away from the next one, palm fisted under the uniform pocket or picking the thumbnail with the other hand. The sight of the lower landing was soon in view—the counting of the steps would last only so long.

"I-am-Aoi-Isabelle-Tanaka-Hajimemashite!"

"Killua-desu—Namae wa?"

They locked eyes with each other with a sense of stupefied terror. Perhaps they were anxiously reassessing their stupidity of introduction. They both breathed deeply and their lips parted for adequate introduction.

"I am sorry..." Aoi apologised first, "It was so rude of me..." she bit her lips and lowered her eyes.

"It's okay... It was rude of me too" Killua sniffed and lowered his eyes.

"I am-"

"I am-"

"You go first..." Aoi smiled at Killua and waited for his reply.

"I am Killua..." he hesitated a bit, "nice to meet you-"

"Aoi Isabelle Tanaka... nice to meet you too."

Killua's lips twisted in a smirk, her fidgeting formal introduction seemed lightly amusing to him "So... this is how you introduce yourself to everyone... with your full name?" he asked with a humour. However on the other side, things weren't taken with equal ease and humour. Aoi's brow knotted quizzically and her lips shrunk in an annoyed pout.

"Why... what's wrong with that? It is my official name. In fact the school records say so."

Killua hesitated, an unsavoury jolt was felt in his heart, and perhaps he had been unintentionally rude to her. He tried to mask the situation with a hasty and subdued reply "No... I just haven't heard anyone mentioning their Christian name fully."

"I am not Christian..." Aoi's lips were still shrunk into a pout, and this time her face seemed darkened.

"Oh..." Killua lowered his head. He was messing things up again. He often wondered how his brothers smoothly talked to girls, and made them laugh even with the most mundane of words. He often saw Hisoka flirting with girls in his office whenever Killua arrived there to get the premier taster of new sweets. He saw Leorio and his girlfriend Pakunoda just laughing about without any words... how the hell they do that. Suddenly his trail of thought broke when the concrete under his feet changed to something soft and grassy. Crap! Suddenly a sense of urgency filled his mind. Quickly, he needed to speak—whatever it was, just speak!

"So how come a person like you came to loiter around the third floor music room?" Aoi unceremoniously broke the silence. It was harmless and innocent the way she spoke, but something felt really wrong with that sense. Killua stopped on his feet as Aoi was two steps forward.

Killua's brow knotted in that statement. He lowered his voice and looked at Aoi's eyes straight with a marked severity "and what kind of person do you think I am-". He was upset, because he assumed that the last thing this quiet, dedicated girl would be someone judgemental.

"I'm sorry... that's not what I meant—I just—we have a really bad reputation in the school, especially with the boys" Aoi defended herself, her eyes darkened with shame and the repentance of unwilling rudeness, "They kind of demean the ways of our club—once a boy joined at Ballet section and people started spreading rumour that he was gay..." she looked outside at the open ground, where the orange light of the setting sun drenched everything in a coppery setting glow "the rumours got so bad that since then not a single boy joined our club. We would love to have at least one male dancer, instead of dressing up as males in Pa De Deux—am I boring you?"

Kilua huffed, and a casual smile of relief graced his lips "No, not at all... I just never saw you speak so much before." As soon as the words slipped his lips, he started to realise that perhaps it wasn't the right choice of words to say to a girl like Aoi. He had seen in many cases that is the worst thing to say to a girl. But that's not what he meant, he meant as a complement: she was so careful and empathetic with her words—and that made her a pleasure to listen to. But he tried to veer it around before she gets the window to be offended.

"Though you are right but not all the way." Killua smiled awkwardly," I was just resting here, and I heard that abortion of that violin upstairs-"

"Abortion of a violin?" Aoi's brows knotted in a frown and whatever words were forming in Killua's tongue sank at the deepest pit of his stomach. This is not going well, is it!

"I am really, really sorry for what I have said, it just sort of slipped out" Killua spoke fast to bring the damage control as fast as possible—what's with him today he could not understand. He now sort of understood why Chrollo got annoyed when Gon blabbed his minds off at the dinner table—some people should be banned from speaking in general and he would place him at the top of that list. As he contemplated whether he should seal his lips off, his startled out of his brains when Aoi started to laugh.

"oh thank heavens," Aoi breathed between her fit of laughter, "I thought I was the only one who noticed that and it had been killing me ever since. Madame Olga never complains about Mine-san and I thought I was the wrong one. Oh thank god!I can barely move in that kind of piece-"

"—What are you talking about, you dance brilliantly." Killua blurted out unmindfully, not realising completely what he was actually saying.

"Seriously?"

Killua paused for a second, and looked Aoi in the eye—her green eyes widened with the surprised complement, as if she could not completely believe his words. Did she even saw herself dancing? Killua wondered. As far as his knowledge, artists of European classics are so over their head that they consider themselves some rare and exotic breed. His own aunt Kikyo was an opera singer and she was well known to through the classic fits of Prima Donna every time she went on stage. His eyes squinted in disbelieve of her humility.

"Seriously... or I would have laughed rightaway to the one playing the violin" Killua hastily lightened the mood "—honestly. Track would sound way better-"

Aoi lowered her eyes with the reply "I wish. But alas it's not 'historically accurate' for the competition panel—no tracks allowed, only live music. And honestly I don't blame Mina-san—she is trying so hard to play. She is really good with Mozart and stuff, but I think she is having a hard time because it's Baroque-"

"Sorry?" Killua interrupted "But what broke?"

Aoi gave out a nervous laugh "No... not broke—Baroque. It's a style of music between 17th to 18th century." Killua could see a sight of disappointment in her eyes: the kind when an adult has when he can't say 'it's too complicated for you' outright to a child. "Where most people cannot tell the difference between Bolshoi style and Balanchine style; I would be dancing on La Follia—but all of it would be so much worth it."

"For the first time in my life, I would be dancing in front of people—it's scary, nerve-wracking, but I am so much excited."

...

"Chrollo-nii, what's a Barock?" Killua asked Chrollo at the dinner table.

Before he could answer, Chrollo glanced briefy at Killua with a frown, "That's called a barrack, Kilu. Honestly you need to work on your English."

That tactless grammar Nazism annoyed Killua more than usual; he clicked his tongue very discreetly and composed himself from retorting "No... I know what I am saying; it's about the barock in Music!"

"Oh... you mean Baroque?" Chrollo huffed a relieved sigh and eventually smiled "Goodness, I am surprised that you even know that word..."he seemed to be very pleased with Killua, so much that he lightly brushed off Killua's glare which he caused by his backhanded compliment "no, no I am not making fun of you. I am just very surprised."

"Do you happen to know what it means?" Killua cut in abruptly.

Chrollo looked at Killua with a sincere expression, after putting his chopsticks aside "Baroque is a style of art which emphasises on human emotions, nature and religion. It is often associated with West European aristocracy, especially French Aristocracy. In fact our own home was built baroque style, before it was Hausmannised as Gothic style a century ago." He added with a sense of pride.

Killua remotely had any interest in the trivia, yet he sat patiently to get his answer, but when he couldn't he retorted "But what about the music?"

"Ah, yes... Baroque Music is very distinct." Chrollo added with an air, Killua could forgive him for that because Music was something where Chrollo feels like fish in the sea; he carried on "It plays in a lower tonic scales, uses harpsichord instead of piano and a lot of emotionally and religiously indulgent stuff—but I don't understand why you are harping about that?"

"Oh—um..." Killua paused awkwardly, groping to hide the real reason "I heard someone speaking about it in History class—some freak from Classical club." He scratched his temple to seem more genuine "what was the thing—yes, lafolia."

"No no, Killu... it's not lafolia it's La Follia." Chrollo corrected his little brother briskly, "Great piece, really pretty—I had to play it at Julliard Auditions-" his briskness slowly started to fade off his face.

Killua got himself out of the dinner table before Chrollo gets really upset with the painful memory of his Julliard days. The point was not that he failed the entrance exam; the point was that he topped and never made it in time.

Since that day Killua made a habit out of himself of working late night in the library. No one knew what he was doing and no one had a clue. None of the older brothers ever paid attention to him because unlike them Killua didn't possess any special talent to wow people. The last 'boring' case was Milluki and he seemed to be quite happy that he wasn't under the radar of the bone wrecking expectations: he worked himself hard to get into the Imperial College of Engineering and he is quite happy spending his days with circuits and wires. Thus Killua getting himself worked up was least of everyone's worry.

However, one thing bugged Chrollo all the way. Right after three pm, Killua could be seen nowhere in the house, especially in the weekdays. He didn't pay attention to it because he thought that he was hanging out with some possibly delinquent-ish jock friends. He had no idea that Killua was actually going to the school, sitting on the grass, and patiently waiting for the practice to come to an end at Four-Thirty sharp. He made it such a flawless routine that even Aoi waited for him to come at the front gate as they would then proceed to walk home with two soft-serves at their hands.

"I shouldn't have this..." Aoi looked at the green soft serve nervously "Really I shouldn't have this-"

Killua smirked very subtly "You mouth says 'no' but your eyes say 'yes'..." he paused to check whether he was going at the right direction with the person intended "That's the sign to definitely have it-"

Aoi fidgeted uncomfortably as she looked at the smooth icecream swirl beginning to droop in the afternoon heat "You don't understand-"Aoi whispered desperately "If Madame Olga finds out-"

"She won't find out if you don't let her-" Killua interjected with a twisted smirk on his lips "besides, it's not like you are inactive and pigging out... c'mon! The Fish waffle is really good, and the anko filling is not too sweet."

"Okay..." Aoi nibbled a little on the swirl, "mmm, this is really great—I never tied this before. I was so sick of having sugar free froyo for half a year-"

"Told you..."

The kids immersed themselves for several moments to enjoy the cold smoothness of the unique soft serve. Killua was already finished with his Vanilla swirl and now awaited his moment to take a bite out of the fish waffle. Aoi was still halfway with her Matcha icecream and she savoured every tongueful of this bitter sweet conconction.

"Aoi... is everything okay?" Killua asked almost subconsciously and snapped from his mind and pondered upon his words. Aoi stopped on her tracks to spare a brief glance towards Killua as suspicion hovered on her brows. Then she started to pace again "Yes... I am just worried about the presentation. Madame Olga says that I am 'all technique'. Honestly, I am not sure I can act out something like 'madness'" Aoi confessed honestly.

They walked a couple of meters in complete silence. Killua unmindfully stared at the bitten fish wafer, the vanilla icecream that still remained inside was starting to make the wafer soggy.

"Why are you so quiet all of a sudden?" Aoi stated quietly as she intently stared at Killua's soft serve; the thing he wolfed so greedily was now unnaturally stayed neglected in his hand.

"No... Just wondering how it would be-" Killua replied reluctantly, as if he was forced out his train of thought.

"Can I ask you something?" Aoi asked almost unceremoniously, after staring at his profile for some moment.

"Yeah... sure-" Killua replied abjectly

"How would you interpret it—if you had to interpret madness?"

Killua stopped on his feet. He pursed his lips before he turned towards Aoi. The bustling traffic of Yorkshin's famous shopping districts were passing in blur behind him as he looked at Aoi, standing in front of a stony and bare wall of a glinting clothing shop. The sun vanished behind the twinkling cityscape. Aoi could see Killua's pale knuckle whiten as the grip on his wafer tensed a little bit.

"How do you interpret it?" Killua asked with a surprisingly mellow voice.

"Madness?" Aoi was relieved to hear his voice, which didn't seem to be threatening, "I don't know—sometimes I think of chaos, sometimes I think of obsession—Madness feels like all the emotions are dancing a discord waltz in an out of tune music."

"is it?" "is it really madness though?" Killua abruptly cut in.

"I don't understand you-" Aoi's brows knotted in confusion.

"Is it really madness: Chaotic emotions, obsessions?" Killua raised his face towards the small space of the night sky, as the towering building obscured it like tall arches over palaces "I don't think it's that easy—just imagine you are having a routine life, home-school-dance-home, and one day you go to home and find out everything you ever knew and owned in that place has been removed. You stand at your door looking at the empty walls that you once called your home. Now think, the house was your mind and the stuff you had were your emotions and suddenly one day, they just vanish—you scream and scream but no answer comes—only the haunted echoes of your own voice. That hollowed house seems to crash on your head—a sense of endless nothingness makes you go around looking for those stuff in your empty house, but all in vain-" Killua paused for a little bit, and looked away at the passing streetlights.

"Don't you think that's lot scarier?"

Aoi could not fathom those words, those immense words actually came from his mouth. The hair at the back of her neck stood up, and her forehead became clammy to fathom those meanings.

"You speak like as if you know how it feels-"

"Aoi... we are here-" Menchi shook Aoi's shoulder gently. The car had stopped in front of a big house. She knew where she was—it was Knov's Safe house, she had been here a couple of times when her father worked on particularly dangerous cases. But she never thought she would have to end up here again. Aoi slowly fluttered here eyes open and she saw Kyoya shaking hands with Knov, who looked towards the car. She knew that kind of interaction—it was a Hunter on Hunter interaction: curt and secretive, alarming and professional. The shielding device around the house would completely mask everyone once they are in—not even the Matsuhashis can find her here.

"Go on..." Kyoya came inside again, "Both of you-".

"Aren't you coming?" Aoi asked Kyoya fervently, "If they know where we are and what you guys did for us, they'll try to harm you-"

"Don't worry... Knov-san will take care of that don't worry. Uncle called me when you were asleep. Auntie and Shota will be joining you soon—everything's going to be fine."

I have heard quite positive comments at Killua X Aoi dynamics at the beginning of my story, and I thought I should just explore it, along with the real problems, which makes him alienate from the family. I am hoping to write fairly regularly. The reason behind Killua's accident would be revealed soon.