Sakurai: I am here and I am writing this chapter and I missed you all and I'm sad you all haven't been reading my story. (Not my unusual readers. The other people.)

Kazuki: I don't see why you are writing all this; on one reads these disclaimers.

Sakurai: I guess you're right. *sigh* I don't own HxH or the characters. All rights to Riku.

Kazuki: *to himself* great, I made her depressed.

Sakurai: I wish more people would read my disclaimers…

Riku's PoV

"I'm going shopping. Who's coming?" I asked leaning on the wall with one hand and putting a shoe on with the other. The four guys in my apartment looked up from what they were doing. I really need to get another girl in here.

"Sorry but I have to sort these papers for the building manager. He's coming to pick them up later." So Kurapika's not coming.

"I'm going out later so I want to get ready." Shiro raised an eyebrow at him.

"With a girl?"

Killua snorted. "What girl would go out with that? She must be blind or something." Leorio's face turned red with anger. "She is not blind!"

"You know what?" I said. "You guys aren't the best bodyguards. Actually, you kinda suck. The only person who's actually been doing any work is Kurapika."

Leorio acted like he didn't hear me but Killua didn't. He stood up and crossed his arms. "Oh really? We haven't done anything?"

"No not really. Except for the one person who jumped through the window, you guys have been pretty lazy." Leorio finally acknowledged my words and turned to me in anger. "I am not lazy!"

"Hmm, let's see." I said "Since you three have been here, I've gone shopping five times. Four of the times Kurapika went with me and the other time, Shiro did. It's not even his job!"

"I'm not going today so that's that." Then Leorio stood up and left the room. Probably to pout without us watching.

"Shiro would you like to go with me?" I asked nicely, to annoy Killua, who still had his arms crossed.

"I'm going." Killua stated walking towards the door.

"That's not very nice. You didn't let Shiro answer me."

"Doesn't matter." With that, Killua pushed me out the door, closing it behind him. As we walked down the hallway I tried to break free of his iron grip on my shoulder. Just how strong is this guy?

We got to the end of the hall and I walked towards the stairwell. He grabbed my shoulder and pushed me towards the elevator.

"No. No. No! No elevator!" I said panicking. He raised an eyebrow and I noticed some people standing around were staring at me.

"Why not?" He asked calmly, keeping his voice low.

"I just don't like them." I answered, keeping my voice equally low. "Can we please just take the elevator?" I looked into his eyes, pleading.

Eventually he gave in and we went down the stairs. "So, what's wrong with elevators?" He asked once we got outside, the cool fresh air finding its way into my lungs as I took a deep breath.

"Once when I was 10, I was playing in an old abandoned building. I went in one of the elevators and got trapped. Since the building was abandoned, no one found me for a few days. I almost starved, so now I hate them."

"They aren't all that bad. You're just scared because of one incident." The two of us strolled down the empty street towards the shopping district a few blocks away.

"I hate elevators and that's that. End of story." He smirked at me, but this smirk showed friendliness, unlike the others. We made it to the stores and the streets became considerably busier.

"What do you need to buy?" He asked, putting his hands casually in his pockets.

"Uhh… let's see." I said, taking out my shopping list. "We need some groceries, toilet paper, towels, some more bed sheets for Leorio, he keeps eating food on his, some pens and pencils, a new tea pot to replace the one you broke, some dish soap, and I want to get roses for Mr. and Mrs. Aanako's wedding anniversary."

"Wow, were going to be very busy aren't we?" He said, taking his hands out of his pockets to grab the list and look it over. I nodded and our shopping trip began. We started with the bed sheets and towels because they weren't fragile or perishable like the other things were.

The trip was actually more fun than I had originally thought it was going to be. After we had the bed sheets, the towels, the tea pot, the toilet paper, and the dish soap, we decided to stop in a small café for lunch.

We found a table and slid into the seats, glad to be able to put down the shopping bags for a little while. As soon as we sat I saw Killua tense and go on alert. I sat there quietly watching around me for anything suspicious. I saw nothing wrong. What was Killua worried about?

Killua's PoV

As soon as I sat down, I felt a dangerous aura and immediately went on alert. I looked around and spotted him walking towards us casually. I glanced at Riku and saw she was staring at me with fear in her eyes.

"Hello little fruit." Hisoka said, sitting next to Riku in the booth, squishing her against the wall.

"What are you doing here?" I snarled at him. He smirked at me, totally unfazed by the death threats my eyes were sending him.

"Oh, not much, just wandering around the city and then I saw you so I just wanted to say hi." The waiter came over and Hisoka ordered food, for himself and then for Riku and I.

"And who is this little fruit?" He asked turning to Riku who was cowering against the wall. "No one you need to know." I answered, clenching my teeth. He ignored me and grabbed her chin, making her face him. I rose in my chair, but Hisoka sent me a warning glance that said, 'Make one move and I'll crush her.'

So I stayed in my seat while Hisoka asked her name and a very frightened Riku answered him. He let her go and slouched against the chair, amused. The waiter came and Hisoka dug into his sandwich and motioned for us to do the same.

We ate the sandwiches cautiously, keeping one eye on Hisoka at all times. When he finished, Hisoka stood up slowly.

"See you soon, Riku." He said then threw a card at the wall, cutting her cheek as it went by. She winced, but then watched Hisoka walk out the door. As soon as he was gone, I looked back at Riku. "Are you okay?" I asked.

She nodded, her eyes still wide with fear of Hisoka. Eventually, she calmed down. We went back to the sandwiches we never finished.

A hand held a handkerchief out to Riku. We looked up and saw that the owner of the hand was a woman in her late thirties. She had brown hair pulled into a ponytail and kind brown eyes. She looked at Riku's cut with concern. The blood was slowly streaming down her face. How did so much blood come from such a small cut?

"Here clean it up." The woman said and Riku took the handkerchief with a smile. "Thank you." She said then wiped the blood off. She looked at the now stained handkerchief with a frown and apologized to the woman.

"It's fine." The woman said shaking her head. "I have another one, so you can keep it!" We chatted with the woman for a while and then she left, so we decided to go and get the groceries.

We walked and talked. I noticed that the bleeding had stopped and only a thin cut across her cheek remained. We walked down the market isles, throwing food in the basket as we went along. We came to the fruits section and saw the kind lady standing by the oranges.

Riku walked up to her and said hello. The two started a conversation and by the time I walked up to them, they seemed like old friends.

"Maybe you two can help me." She said. "I'm looking for Riku Shirasai. Do you know her?"

Riku and I looked at each other and nodded. In the next few minutes, we were past the check out, out the door, and on our way to Riku's house. When we had called Shiro, he said to bring her over.

Later at Riku's house…

Random PoV

The strange kind woman sat on the couch in Riku's apartment. Shiro, Leorio, Kurapika, Killua, and Riku sat across from her. Leorio crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her curiously.

"So you say that someone from the hunter organization hired you?" He asked and the woman nodded.

Kurapika stood up and looked through some papers. "Riku did request four hunters. And since there are three of us, that seems like a pretty trustworthy alibi."

Leorio shook his head, thinking. "There's no way she's telling the truth." The woman raised an eyebrow at him and asked why he thought so. "Because there's no way she can be a hunter!"

The woman quietly stood up and walked over to him. Next thing you know, he was face-planting against the wall. Killua stifled a laugh and Riku looked at Leorio happily. "I think she's a hunter!" Riku said cheerily.

"I told you, I'm a hunter, I was hired by Chairman Netero to be a bodyguard for Riku, and I am telling the truth."

Riku looked at Shiro and he nodded. Then Riku stood up and shook the woman's hand. "Welcome to my home!" She said and everyone but Shiro started to ask questions.

"Riku, how do you know she's telling the truth?"

"Why do you trust her?"

"So you know something we don't know?"

"Do you know her already?"

"Who is she?"

"What is her name?"

The woman held up a hand, cutting the three of them off. "I'm sorry for not introducing myself earlier." She said with a warm expression on her face. "My name is Mikan Horoku, I am 32 years old, I do not know any of you yet, I hope you will trust me, and if you have any more questions you can just ask."

The atmosphere of the room lightened considerably and in the next hour, everyone had happily chatted and got to know each other.

"I have one question." Killua stated, turning to Riku and Shiro. "How did you know she was telling the truth?"

The two looked at each other and took a deep breath. "I have always been able to tell." Shiro said. "No matter how good you are at lying, I can always tell."

This sparked the blond haired boy's interest and soon it became a game, telling some lies, some truths and having Shiro guess. He got everything right.

"That's amazing!" Mikan said. Everyone was already used to the new woman and treated her normally. With Mikan's comment, Shiro shrugged his shoulders. "It's nothing much. Riku can feel emotions." Then his eyes went wide and he covered his mouth with his hand.

"SHIRO!" Riku screamed at him and everyone stared at her. "What do you mean you can feel people's emotions?" Asked Leorio.

Riku sighed and, with an angry glance at Shiro, explained, "I feel what they feel. Say a person is sad, and then I will become sad also. If a person is angry, I'm angry. Happy, happy. Greedy, greedy."

"Doesn't that just mean that you're empathetic?" Kurapika asked, thinking. Riku shook her head and stood up. Shiro followed her out the door and eventually the others got the hint and followed her out the door also.

They came to the Central Park and the boys watched Riku as she scanned the crowd of people. Everyone was silent. Shiro had a very serious look and Mikan shifted from foot to foot anxiously.

After a few minutes of waiting, Riku had found what she was searching for. "Look." She demanded pointing in front of her. They followed her finger and focused on a man on a bench reading a newspaper.

"What do you think he's feeling right now? Leorio, you start."

He looked at the man and scratched his chin. "Uhh… tired? Maybe?"

Riku thought about this then turned to Kurapika. "And you?"

"I think he is interested in an article they way he is staring at the paper like that." He answered, trying his best to put logic in his guess.

"I think he is just daydreaming!" Mikan exclaimed, excited to be involved in the game.

"I think he's bored." Killua suggested, also a bit bored himself. "I hate reading the paper. That's why the news was invented."

"But newspapers are important!" Leorio disagreed. "They tell you about stuff happening around your area and not just the world!"

"Ah hem." Riku said, clearing her throat to get Leorio's attention. "Can we get back to the topic, please?"

They all nodded and the serious, silent atmosphere continued. Riku stared at the man and the group started at both of the two.

Riku's PoV

I hate this talent of mine, but thanks to that stupid Shiro, I'm in the park demonstrating it to everyone.

I looked at the man on the bench reading a newspaper and focused all my energy on him. Then a wave of sadness swept over me and images flashed in front of my eyes like a movie on fast-forward. I know what happened to this poor man. I looked at my friends and they were staring at me in shock.

Killua's PoV

Did I just see right? I had been watching Riku look at the man, her face almost expressionless. Then something happened to her eyes. Something strange.

They went from bright blue to a golden yellow color. Then the black part (okay so I don't know the names of the parts of an eye. Shoot me.) Went from a small circle to an oval with a pointed top and bottom. In other words, Riku had yellow cat eyes.

I saw her expression change to a very sad one and a tear came to her now blue again eyes. Then she turned to us with that same sad expression. Then, with a pained smile she asked, "Do you want to know what he's feeling?"

We all nodded so she explained how his wife, 13 year old son, and his new baby girl had died in a car crash recently. I saw Mikan sobbing silently as Riku told us that the newspaper man was the driver of the car that crashed.

I was genuinely amazed that that man had all those emotions bottled up. I was more amazed at Riku. What other things was she capable of? And what was with those cat eyes?

The first one to gather his mind was Leorio, probably because it was so tiny. The creep went over to Mikan and started flirting. It was pretty gross. He was "comforting" Mikan as she cried. Eventually she calmed down, but Leorio was still bear hugging the poor woman.

"Uhh, Leorio, can you… um… get off me now?" She asked. He ignored her and went on saying things like 'you're the love of my life' or 'we belong together.' Does he have to do this EVERYTIME we meet a woman. Mikan finally escaped when she said that she already had a boyfriend.

"Oh Really? Who is he?" Leorio asked skeptically.

"Just someone I met in my travels."

"Hmm… I'd like to meet this 'boyfriend' of yours."

"Okay! I'll call him over!" Then Mikan walked a bit farther away and called. Meanwhile, Leorio stared at her with his shoulders slumped and his mouth wide open.

"I thought she was lying!" He cried out exasperatedly. Mikan walked back up to us. "He'll be here in about ten minutes!" She announced happily, making Leorio groan.

We found some nearby benches and sat down. Somehow, we had gone from the strange subject of Shiro's lie detector and Riku's empathy detector to the silly subject of Mikan's boyfriend. Personally, I' m glad she has a boyfriend. If she was living with us and was single then Leorio would be flirting all over the place every time of the day.

We were all talking, but when we heard a voice behind us we stopped dead.

"Hello again, little fruit." I whipped my head around so fast you would think my neck snapped. Hisoka stood in front of me with a smirk on his face.

"There you are honey!" Mikan exclaimed. Please. Please tell me she is not talking about Hisoka.

But, because I'm a misfortune magnet, Mikan jumped up from the bench and threw her arms around Hisoka's neck. I glanced to my left and saw looks of fear on everyone, especially Riku.

Why does it have to be Hisoka?

Sakurai: Phew, all done!

Kazuki: So… Hisoka is dating Mikan?

Sakurai: Yup!

Kazuki: But, why? I mean, what's wrong with that woman?

Hisoka: Nothing is wrong with her. I am just irresistible to delicious fruit everywhere.

Sakurai: No creepiness here please!

Hisoka: Fine with me, little fruit.

Sakurai: OKAY! Change of subject time! I have a friend who is into computer graphics. Together we designed an older version of Riku. Okay, so not that much older. The girl in this picture is about 15-16.

But since my friend is obsessed with Harry Potter, the girl has a witch-type style. Here is the link. Why it's so long, I have no Idea.

Thanks so much for reading! I love all of you! Please, please review!

3 thank you! Nya~!