"Oof!"
Harry landed on his feet, stumbling only a moment before he righted himself. With a grumble, he righted the vest so it wasn't pinching at his neck. The fabric was coarse under his fingers, the metal plates inserted beneath giving it a feeling almost like hide armor. He took a moment to adjust his stance into a steadier one while he breathed in the cooled air from the building's air conditioner. It stank of sweat and musk but it was still a far sight better than the previous place filled with a heavy stink and the grunts and smacks of flesh on flesh. It had been rather close to another experience that he never ever wanted to think of again.
Despite the way he was removed from the ring floor, he was actually glad to be away from the noise of it all. He hadn't been expecting to have to jump forward like that but when Jasper lost himself for a moment he didn't want a repeat of the Trick Tower. The kid already had so much on his plate and the guilt Jasper was carrying from Camo did not need to be repeated in somebody new.
Now, he was here, in the physical again, trying to get used to the heavy feeling of his limbs, especially with that vest that had been forced onto Jasper earlier. Ugh… It really was annoying. No wonder Jasper complained about it.
Told you so, Jasper harrumphed.
"I've been waiting for this moment~!"
Harry shivered, his fingers clutching at the neckline of the vest, nails scratching at the material unpleasantly. For some reason, that happy go lucky voice sounded even worse than Snape calling him out in that first year potions class.
"Harry~ Look at me."
Good luck.
Jasper was such a little brat.
With a sigh, he turned to face their sweetly smiling teal haired mentor. "What?"
Her eyelid twitched. "You're a rude little snot too. But whatever, attitude doesn't matter right now. What's most important is that you need to come out more often."
"What…?"
I don't get it.
Neither did Harry.
"By the blank look on your face, you're confused. Let me explain!" She propped a hand on her hip, her face becoming serious. "You come out to protect your alter ego, Jasper. That's not a bad thing until you're up against an opponent that's way above your level."
Harry stiffened, one hand immediately dropping to the scar on their forearm. Menchi's eyes followed the movement and her mouth twisted into a scowl. With a sigh, she ran her fingers through her bangs before dragging her hand down her face. "I see you already know what I mean. Well, I won't ask what happened but you were probably lucky right?"
Yes… he'd been very lucky. If their previous mentor hadn't shown up…
"Right. I noticed it before but that match down in the ring proves it. You and Jasper move differently. Jasper is all about balance and speed to help with dodging but you seem to have a more sturdy stance, blocking a hit instead of dodging it. When Jasper went to flip your opponent it was an entirely avoidant move that would have put him in a better place to land a devastating strike from behind. But you took over and relied on brute strength to launch the man out of the ring."
"I never… noticed," he said quietly, thinking over the implications. She was wrong about what Jasper had intended to do but that didn't mean she wasn't wrong about the move in general. Jasper would have crushed the man's skull against the stone floor if he'd followed through with the second part of the move, but the original was one that had been used several times to flip a fight to their advantage. It was something that Jasper had been taught by their previous mentor, not that the kid would remember that...
Still, it made sense. They were two completely different people with different experiences and Harry himself used to have an entirely different build. He'd been good at defense and shields before, which would make him now more prone to taking a hit instead of dodging. He hadn't been around when Jasper had learned from their previous mentor and hadn't gotten any instruction from him so it would be to his advantage to take Menchi up on her offer.
"Hmph. You can't see yourself from the outside so that's not surprising, but do you understand why you need to come out more?"
He could hear Jasper quietly humming in their mind, probably thinking over everything too. Cold air brushed against his cheeks and he shivered. What had once been pleasant was now starting to make him shiver in the hallway. His arms folded over the hard metal plates crushing them against his stomach in a sad attempt at getting warmth. He'd never liked the cold, especially after the many many times he'd almost lost fingers and toes to it.
"I do. I need to learn too."
Ha! I'm not going to be the only one suffering anymore, Jasper whooped.
But Harry didn't feel like responding to the mini celebration. He was too stuck on the thought that he could have been better from the start. He'd been busy trying to patch the fading barrier in Jasper's mind but he had time, he should have been working hard too. After what had happened to Sirius-
As long as Harry was here, he wouldn't let anything like that happen to Jasper.
"Alright, Menchi. Teach me, please."
"That's the spirit! Why don't we start out with having you around for longer periods of time. That way you can get used to being around without being overwhelmed."
She'd noticed that?
Overwhelmed? Harry, what is she talking about?
He didn't want to have to explain that, instead choosing to ignore Jasper who started whining at him.
"Sounds good, I guess. You want me to stay out now?"
"No time like the present time! Oh, look. Here comes the munchkin squad."
Menchi was right. Gon, Killua, and Kalluto were exiting the main door to the arena and already making their way over to the duo.
"Harry, you're still out," Gon said, his smile bright and happy.
"Yes. I'll likely be out for longer periods of time now. Jasper can't hog all the training," he sniffed. His lips twitched in the corners when he got a happy cheer from the olive skinned child. Killua and Kalluto were quieter but he did get a sassy, "Story time," from the white haired boy which made Jasper whine louder.
"Alright brats, let's get up to the next floor so we can turn in your tickets. I want to be on the 100th floor by the end of tonight, understand!?"
"So pushy," Harry sighed, ignoring the daggers being stared into the side of his face.
Hm. If Menchi was making him stay out, that meant that she was pushing for him to be doing all these fights. He felt a slight hint of apprehension, but mostly… he was really eager to see what he could do. Most of his time spent in this body had been spent running away or healing themselves, but he'd never gotten the chance to fight someone so outright. All he had to go on were Jasper's memories and putting those into practice were going to be a lot different than just knowing it. They didn't have the muscle memory for this and Jasper's learned style was far different than Harry's own protective 'dueling' style.
Well, looks like he was just going to have to figure this out on his own.
The trip to the elevator was short, as was the quick ten floor win or loss explanation (which meant they'd have to get five more wins by the end of today to satisfy Menchi… ugh). Harry hardly paid attention, still lost in his own thoughts about a fighting style more suited to him that could work with Jasper's body.
At least until another boy hopped into the elevator.
While Menchi lamented another kid joining her increasing squadron of children, Harry took a moment to look over the boy. He was short, definitely younger than him, and had a rigid stance even as he was just standing still. Harry cocked his head taking in the short hair and the almost comically stern look on the younger boy's chubby face. What an uncommonly serious looking child.
No one said anything until they had already arrived on the 50th floor and it was the younger boy who dropped into a sudden almost perfect bow.
"Ossu! I'm Zushi."
Harry stepped out of the elevator behind the rest of everyone else and leaned his back against the wall to avoid the other people walking down the hallway. He glanced at everyone walking by them, trying to see if anyone was a threat while also looking for an exit of any sort. Most places they could hop out of windows but on the 50th floor? He was definitely going to have to look for alternatives.
That's a good idea, Harry. I don't think I like this place, Jasper admitted uneasily. The other boy's presence was stretching and retracting filled with anxiety.
It was a good thing Harry was in control then.
Yes, it is! You can just… stay out there. I'm gonna… look for stuff in here… if you need me.
Harry frowned, his chin tucking into his collarbones. He hadn't realized Jasper would be so afraid of heights. Had this ever happened before? No. Heights couldn't be it. Jasper had been fine during the second phase of the Exam and he loved to travel in airships so where was this sudden nervousness coming from?
Oh, wait. He shuddered, feeling his skin crawl in disgust at the memory.
He glanced at the hallways again, his foot tapping against the squeaky clean linoleum, listening to the nearly inaudible tap beneath his raggedy shoe. His shoes weren't making the right noise, but some of the other people in this hallway…
Yea, it definitely wasn't the height.
But that Jasper was feeling that anxiety from just a sound like this was not a good sign. The barrier was getting worse and Jasper was a nosy little bugger just like Harry could be. He only hoped Jasper would let it progress naturally instead of trying to poke holes. Harry at least knew how to poke in the right spots to keep the rest of it up for as long as possible.
"Harry!"
He startled, his nen immediately flaring and settling into Ten protectively.
Wide eyes stared at him. He stared back, slightly bewildered and trying to still his twitching fingers by clenching them into fists against the new pair of jeans they'd been gifted.
"Sorry. I spaced," he hummed after a moment. "What did I miss?"
Menchi's hand went up to rub above her eyebrows as she turned a 'see what I have to deal with' look to the new man standing next to her. With a bird's nest of hair (that was oddly reminiscent of his Potter looks) and a messily half-tucked shirt, the new guy stood only slightly taller than Menchi. His glasses were slightly too wide for his genial face but overall his presence was non-threatening. Harry already disliked him, well used to the genial smiles like his old Headmaster's and quite a few of the older Slytherins from Hogwarts. Don't ever trust appearances. It was a hard lesson that he was still working on even after everything Jasper had been through as well.
"We met Zushi and his Master, Wing! And Miss Menchi knows Master Wing!"
With the helpful comment from Gon, Harry dipped his head in greeting. "Sorry, really. I'm not used to… so many people."
He glanced down the plain white hallways again, taking in the lack of decorations as people swarmed to and fro like ants.
"Not a problem at all," Wing chuckled. "It's a pleasure to meet Menchi's apprentice. I don't think she's ever taken one before even though she's such an accomplished Hunter."
"Ah. I hadn't known that," he muttered, sending a confused look over to the aforementioned Hunter. Her muscled arms were crossed under her chest and her chin was raised in a particular way that Harry had always categorized as snobby.
"That's right! This runt will go places if he ever decides he wants to!" That… was actually a very nice comment that made Harry's face feel a little warm.
He discreetly stuck his tongue out at Killua who seemed to be silently laughing at him. Gon was all smiles right next to their white haired friend, but Kalluto was still just as quiet and withdrawn. The newest boy Zushi was watching everything with wide eyes, seemingly intent on memorizing everything here. "Actually, now that you're here Wing, I'd like to ask a favor. Hey, brats! Go turn your tickets in and get ready for your next fight!"
"Hey, Killua, can I speak to you for a moment?"
After hopping all the way to the 100th floor, in large part due to Menchi's sadistic shoving, they had all finally been assigned individual rooms… Except Menchi who had decided that she was stealing one of the boy's rooms, so someone was going to have to bunk with someone else. That had yet to be decided, though. Currently, he had a more pressing concern on his mind.
With a shrug from the assassin, he brought the other boy into one of the assigned rooms and closed the door behind them.
At this point of the day, the sun had fully set so the only lighting in the room was from a desk lamp that was situated by the small bed. It was a bare room all in all; the walls were painted a soft cream, the bed was placed in the middle of the room with a desk and chair at the foot of it. Two small nightstands were on either side of the bed at the head, one adorned with a lamp and the other bare. Across the room was the door to the bathroom but he hadn't seen anything in there yet, completely uninterested in that until he had this conversation.
With a sigh he kicked off the ratty shoes, relishing the give of the plush brown carpet beneath his aching feet. It was nothing fancy, but it beat having to walk around on a cold wooden floor, especially with all his muscles spasming in weird places from wearing the vest. Honestly, they'd only just barely gotten used to it at the Zoldyck estate and now here Harry was stuck in the bloody thing. It's a good thing he was a stubborn bastard otherwise he would have given up hours ago. It wasn't that the fights were particularly hard considering he just lightly kicked people out of bounds but...
"So, what'd you wanna talk about?"
Harry's green eyes fluttered open, taking a moment to answer just to needle at the shifty boy standing across from him. He wasn't one to poke fun normally, but seeing Killua's reactions to Jasper were amusing and he wanted to know if he could get the same result. It was rather adorable to watch, after all.
Finally, when it looked like Killua might blow a fuse, he responded, "Let me see your hands."
Killua spluttered, clear offense written on his features. Harry wasn't stupid though, and he could be really observant when he wanted to be. Today, he had definitely wanted to be even if it was just as a distraction from everything else. Focusing on one person gave him the chance to work through all the other sensory input he'd been getting all day and he felt far more settled into this body than any time he'd been out previously.
He'd noticed quite quickly that Killua had only started using his hands, getting through one match with his left and three with his right, before he resorted to using his leg in the final fight for the night. Killua kept his scarred hands pocketed so Harry wasn't 100% sure about his theory but it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides that, he couldn't help but compare himself to Killua and wince at the similarities. If the boy was truly hiding his pain… it was far too similar to the detentions he used to suffer with Umbridge for Harry's liking. He had a means of soothing that pain and he wasn't about to let Killua suffer like he did. Hermione had forced help onto him and Harry would pay back that kindness by doing the same for Jasper's friend.
"You have pretty sharp ears, kid. You heard me."
"I'm not going to show my hands to you out of nowhere!"
"No? Why not?"
"Because that's a weird demand!"
Harry tilted his head, taking in the defensive posture Killua had subtly curled into. From the lumps in his shorts pockets, he'd also curled his hands into fists. Everything about him screamed ready-to-run and Harry was definitely unpleasantly reminded of himself.
He let out a long sigh through his nose. He didn't want to make this worse but he wasn't exactly sure how to make this better either.
Maybe ask him? Or just explain why you're asking?
Jasper sometimes had good ideas.
Hey!
"Look. Your hands are hurt, right? I can help. I want to help."
Not particularly eloquent, but sometimes Jasper's bluntness could come in handy. Harry wasn't sure why Jasper's own blunt phrasing seemed to work better than his own when he was still in Hogwarts. Maybe because Jasper had no boundaries most of the time?
"Tch. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm fine."
"And I'm the rear end of a Hippogriff."
"A what?"
"Look. I know what a bloody stubborn kid I was. I still am. And that's exactly why I know that you're in pain. I have the means to help you and I won't tell anyone. But if you don't let me help, I'm definitely telling Gon."
Killua flinched.
Harry smirked.
Killua wasn't particularly hard to read for Harry. After watching him from Jasper's eyes and then spending most of today observing the boy… he'd come to the conclusion that Gon was Killua's weakness. He seemed to care for Jasper too (if the obsessive glances checking over his health were any indication), but Gon was a special boy that seemed to have dived straight into Killua's heart. When he'd first had a coherent thought about this Jasper had felt surprised and Harry had had to spend a good half hour trying to explain that some people clicked easily and others took work. Not to mention, there was now a trauma between Killua and Jasper and while Harry was good at ignoring things he didn't want to acknowledge- and Killua was shaping up to be the same- Jasper definitely wasn't that way. If they weren't careful it would cause friction and possibly a rift in their new friendship.
And it was rather new. They'd barely known each other for two months. Harry was still very aware that these friendships probably wouldn't last but Jasper was stuck on them. Not that he could blame the boy. Jasper had been starved for safe affection for years now and he was greedily lapping it up. Sure, he had some suspicions, he was still wary of them turning on him (not without reason) but Jasper was a soft boy for love.
This was why Harry had to be even more careful in Jasper's place. Friends were good but they could also be a fatal weakness. So, while Jasper still had these friends, Harry was going to do his damndest to watch out for them and make sure they could never hurt Jasper intentionally or otherwise.
And this whole situation… watching his friend suffer in silence? Jasper didn't like it, so Harry was going to fix it.
"So. I'll repeat myself just this once. Let me see your hands."
"Agh! You're aggravating, you know that?"
Harry smiled, accepting the pale scarred hands into his… into Jasper's own hands.
"Takes one to know one," he hummed. "Tch. Look what you did to yourself. With these kinds of wounds, there's no way you're fully healed and you fought with them? You're such a little dumbass!"
"Ack! That hurts! Stop poking at it like that!"
"You shouldn't have been stupid then, you bloody moron! These are definitely fractured!"
With these kinds of wounds there was definitely no way Killua had healed in any significant way unless it was with nen. Even then, healing nen was supposedly rare so who knew exactly how much he'd been fixed up on the inside. The outside could have just been sealed while the inside was still shredded. Why in the world would they have sent Killua out like this.
Harry paused at a sudden epiphany, his thumb still gently massaging over a particularly nasty scar on top of the middle knuckle.
It wasn't that they'd let him go happily. The entire affair had seemed fishy, that mansion had given him the creeps, but they'd sent Kalluto along and Jasper and Harry both had noticed that Kalluto paid particular attention to Killua when he was messing with his hands. Which meant that his family did know about it. And they'd still let him go.
Harry's mouth twitched. What a very weird family.
"What's with that stupid expression on your face?"
"Says the one who's hands won't stop shaking," he quipped back before registering the words coming out of his mouth.
Whoops. He hadn't meant that dig but it was too late now.
Killua glared at him, moving as if to pull his hands back, but Harry just gripped the boy's wrists instead. "Sorry, sorry. I said I was going to help, and I will. I just needed an idea of what was wrong." He frowned down at the purple scars intently. "My powers work best on fresh wounds but…"
"Powers? What are you even talking about," Killua muttered sulkily.
"Nen, of course. We've mentioned it a few times, but I don't exactly feel like explaining everything right now. Let's just say each person has a power they can use and develop into something that suits they're style. Healing isn't exactly a specialty of mine but it was a necessity. So, let's get this show on the road!"
With a cheerful grin in the face of Killua's annoyed confusion, he summoned his nen, pulling it out into the air to summon the first tier of his healing ability. Small ghostly leaves sprouted over the taller boy's hands, the small heart shaped bushels concentrated more on the sides of his hand. Not surprising considering that was where he whacked people in the neck.
"Wha-What are you doing…? The pain…"
Harry was tempted to needle some more but he wasn't that petty. "I guess you can't really see what's happening. My ability allows me to summon plants that I know intimately and use them for healing purposes. This specific plant is called Dittany and it's good for soothing pain and speeding the healing process. It's not exactly perfect but in combination with Sage and Rosemary…" The aforementioned plants bloomed into ghostly existence as soon as the dittany had withered, it's job complete. "Your bones should be knit back together completely if I do this once a day for the next three days. The only thing I can't guarantee is that they'll be completely straight. They felt fine to me, but I'm not an x-ray machine."
He shrugged nonchalantly at the horrified look on the kids face. Harry was pretty confident in broken and fractured bones. He knew exactly what they felt like due to so much experience and while Killua's hands had fractured, they felt clean and weren't out of place. He wasn't going to say any of that though, far too amused by the gloomy horrified pallor that had suddenly fallen over Jasper's friend. He almost looked like a limp wet noodle.
Then, the fire returned to Killua's eyes just as the sage and rosemary withered and the spiky limbs of his last chosen plant bloomed into existence.
"What the hell am I supposed to do with crooked hands, huh?"
"Maybe you shouldn't have broken them in the first place."
"I'm going to throttle you," the white haired boy seethed.
Considering Jasper was his friend and Harry currently occupied Jasper's body, he was quite confident he was safe. Killua was also a sensitive kid just like Harry, so that was another layer of safety covered.
"No, you won't," he responded cheerfully.
The aloe vera withered and he finally released the captive hands. Not that he really needed to hold them during that process considering he could bloom the plants anywhere around him in a 5 meter radius. It would be better in the long run for Killua to associate Jasper's hands as something positive to hold, though. Trauma was never easy to deal with and Harry hoped that he could ease it while he was here, just a little bit.
AN: Whew! I was able to get this out on Friday even if it's later in the day than I'd prefer! Hope ya'll enjoyed it, and as always please leave a review~
Q&A: Tetractys- Jasper's nen... Hm. I can give a little hint~ It's called Hearthkeeper! I wonder what you'll be able to get from that ;)
KrixLight- I love that you're enjoying Kalluto! He's been pretty quiet for a while now but don't worry! He'll be getting a chapter of his own!
Drakality- Wing is definitely going to be around but Menchi is a little possessive over Jasper so he won't have much to do with him training wise. A group pet? That's sounds like an adorable idea but I have no idea what animal it could be XD
Jasper freezing is definitely an unfortunate problem he's going to have to work on. As you can see from this chapter Menchi is not participating in the Arena but she is supervising! (And taking advantage of the boys' hard work by stealing one of their rooms XD)
AS ALWAYS I LOVE YOU GUYS! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and keep up with my story! See you next chapter~!
