"Mirage, Mirage!...Mi-ra-ge!" Gon shook her shoulder roughly.
"Hm?"
"It's time to get up!"
"Ugh..." Slowly getting up she looked at the clock and saw that it was almost noon. "Uwa, I've never slept in this late in... wait... never actually..." She sighed at her laziness, that's when her stomach growled in a dire need.
"Mmm," she stretched, "Did anyone have anything to eat yet?"
"Nope!"
Yawning, she wiped her eyes. "I'll make something then and I'll be training by my own regimen later too if it's ok."
In the kitchen Kagero found out that the kitchen supplies were just as heavy as the tea pot. She could lift that, but with difficulty with her weights on. She ended whipping out a pan and making basic bacon and eggs with some spices. She made orange juice out of fresh oranges since the fridge had so many of them, and brought the plates to the table on a tray.
"You can cook?" Leorio asked.
"Yea, how do you think I passed the second phase?" Her voice was dipped in sarcasm, "Oh yeah, Zebero-san, I also made some for you and Seaquant."
"Oh thank you."
"Wait, you made some for Seaquant?" Leorio was surprised. He ignored her sarcasm.
"Yea... so?"
Leorio sighed. "You're too forgiving."
"Hmm, really? Well we're going to prove Sequant wrong anyways." She smirked and looked to him. Sequant huffed and looked away.
"But isn't being able to forgive a good quality?" Gon asked.
"It is, but..." Leorio started.
But Kagero interrupted before Kurapika could. "We should finish up, I want to train."
"My stomach has a dire need!" Kagero stabbed her fork into her bacon. "Mmmm, bacon."
Gon and leorio nodded and dug in.
After breakfast everyone went out to train. Kagero did her thing and the boys did strength training while Gon sat out.
Then lunch came around and everyone ate. Zebero made some basic sandwiches. The boys took a break but Kagero went out to do some sprint jogging to do aerobic and anaerobic exercises. She would jog then sprint then jog again, then she would stop, do push ups, do tree jumping exercises rinse and repeat. She was also munching on her sandwiches at the same time.
"... Train-a-holic..." Leorio muttered.
Kagero was passing by and tripped him as she got up from her push ups.
"Che, do hear everything!?"
"Oh but I do, Leorio, I do." She said the last by with a creepy grin in a deep voice.
She laughed as she started running again. After a while she decided to train with the others. Running to where they were, she saw them doing basic weight lifting with the chairs and everything around the house. That will be such a hassle to put everything back.
"Did you guys even think this through?" They all gave her blank stares, not knowing what she was getting at. "You will have to bring all this stuff back inside when you're done, dead tired and too weak to do anything."
During the training session Kagero brought something up.
"Hmm... Do you think I could travel higher into the mountain to train?"
"What!" Leorio yelled out dropping the chairs that were balanced on his arms.
"I mean, the air would be thinner and it would prove more useful for me since I can open the gate."
"I want to go too!"
"Sorry Gon, but I should go alone." She patted his head. "I'm used to living in the mountains anyways."
"But!" Leorio interrupted.
"No. I'm going alone."
"I agree with Leorio on this one Mirage." Kurapika came in. "We're already trespassing on the Zoldycks property, and if you get caught..."
"I already know that! That's the part of the reason why I want to go!" She huffed. "I would be alert at all times which would be beneficial. Also... I want to train the way I used to and I can't do it down here. Otherwise I won't improve!" Kagero ranted a bit and it went quiet.
"What if...What if I ask Zebero and he says it's alright?..." She broke the uncomfortable silence she had created. "Would you guys approve of it then?"
"Un!" Gon came in with no hesitation.
Kurapika sighed. "I would have to approve."
"Suits me." Leorio actually agreed.
Then Kagero went back to training and ended up doing her tree jumping exercise the majority of the time.
"Mirage~ What training are you doing?" Gon chirped. "I've never heard of it."
"Hn? Oh, I'm increasing my jumping height and strength in my legs. While doing that I try to land without a sound to distribute weight properly. You see, if I landed normally it would be bad on the joints and would create this huge crater in the ground and-" By this time Gon's ears were steaming.
"Ah, I guess it would be better to show you..."
She jumped as high as she could and surpassed the trees height. Then grabbed a branch as she was falling and spun on it to reduce the force and did some chin ups. Jumping down she landed without distributing the weight properly and a huge bang was heard and a cloud of dust formed.
"See? Just like Netero-san did from the airship. Good for a flashy entrance, but that's bad, very bad. You can destroy your knees doing that."
"I see. So you made this training up?" Kurapika asked
"Yup, I did live in the mountains after all. I made up some ways to train."
"Like what?" Kurapika was intrigued.
During their training time Kurapika and Kagero were talking about training methods and the ones she made up such as the reflex fishing training, the tree hoping and the spinning around on her front wheel of her rollerblades. Then Leorio brought up some pointless topics and other stupid ideas. It was all fun and games until Leorio dropped a chair on his foot. Well maybe that's exaggerated. Then Leorio tried to sneak up on Kagero and got the tables turned on him—literally. He was going to pick up a table when Kagero came in and table flipped it over his head. He swore for revenge.
After that it was time for dinner. Kagero cooked again because Gon requested it. Apparently her cooking reminds him of his Aunt and Grandma. The boys brought the furniture in while she cooked. They regretted not brining in the furniture in earlier when they weren't as tired. Leorio was mumbling incoherent strings of profanity that hopefully couldn't be heard by Gons pure, virgin ears. Oblivious to the men's groans of pain, she continued to cook the meal that consisted of some chicken with peppers and greens with sauce and a side of rice.
Bringing the food out, the brought all of it out at once even though it was insanely heavy. She was the type to carry everything at once, or die trying.
"Uwa, it looks good Mirage!"
"Thanks." She smiled.
"You know...Mirage actually seems like a girl now with all the cooking that she's been doing." Leorio voiced out.
Kagero smacked him upside the head with the tray she brought the food out with.
"What was that for?!" He rubbed the bump that was starting to form.
"Nothing...You just irritated me." The others laughed.
While they ate she brought up her idea of going to train further up the mountain.
"Zebero, would I be able to go train up in the mountain?"
"Why's that?"
"It would be better for me to do my own training since I can open the gate already; and I think that the thin air would be a better environment to do it in."
"Hm, as long as you be careful you should be fine."
"Thank's Zebero."
After they finished eating Kagero took a nice hot bath and went to bed. The next morning she got up and made breakfast, again, and by the time she was done everyone was up.
"Mornin." Leorio yawned.
"Morning, breakfast is on the table. I'll get Gon up."
"He's still asleep? I thought he would be an early riser."
"Oh he is." He just did some secret training last night. No big deal. But I'll keep that unknown to you.
"Gon." She shook his shoulder. "Gon... Ah, no use." She picked him up and waltzed out of the room.
"Wha-" Leorio and the others were surprised to see Kagero carry Gon down to the table while he was sleeping. Remind me to not get Mirage to wake me up.
She placed him at his seat at the table. He promptly woke up.
"Smells good!"
"Heh. I guess that woke him up, must be hungry." Kagero laughed. "Well he does have a dog's sense of smell."
"Un!"
After breakfast she went to her room and put on her mother's sweater and her black shorts. Her weighted vest was under her sweater, same with her wrist weights. Packing everything that was necessary in her pouches and bag, she walked down the stairs and to the main room, then Leorio noticed something.
"Wait...you're not going right now... Are you?"
"Wow, your being unusually sharp this morning." Kagero taunted.
"What!...Wait so you're going ?!"
"Mmhmm, why not? We're not staying here for forever so I have to get started now. Were only staying for, what? A month?"
"When will you be back?" Kurapika asked nonchalantly.
"Hmm.. about a month." That got a deadpan from Leorio. That was the time they were staying for. "That's around the time when you guys would try the gate again right? I might come back early or right on the dot. I might also come back occasionally to refill on nutrition bars." She paused for a moment and thought of something. "Zebero, would I be able to increase my weights again?"
"To what?"
"Legs to 100kg and arms to 100kg, and my vest to 700kg."
"That's insane!"
"I know," She agreed, "but this will help since I won't be coming back a lot, then I will not have to add more. Unless I have gotten used to this weight in two to three weeks I'll come back and increase it."
Zebero came back with the newly weighted weights, but he actually put 800 kilos for the vest. She put them on.
"Hmm...Isn't the vest heavier than I asked?"
"Yes."
"To what?"
"800kg, I think you can handle it."
"I guess so..."
"Once again... Insane!" He threw his hands up in exasperation.
"Leorio," She said in a threatening tone. He was getting annoying. "I would advise you to be quiet." She said with a sweet smile that didn't suit the dark voice she used. The fact that she was cracking her knuckles didn't help.
"..."
"Oh, so you're going to come back twice as strong!" Gon came in, pulling her attention to him.
"Yes! Only Gon understands me!" She ran and glomped him. She forgot that she had all that weight on and almost crushed Gon, she halted halfway and lessened the force, Gon had the wind knocked out of him. "... Hehehe sorry... But I always wanted to say that and glomp someone... Anyways, bye!" She ran off into the woods and up the mountain.
"Bye! See you soon Mirage!" Gon yelled after recovering and waved.
Leorio sighed and scratched his head. "What are we going to do with her?"
"What's that supposed to mean!" She yelled.
"Ah. She heard me."
"Of course I did!" Wait...isn't that like...Dejavu?
On her journey through the mountain she didn't go down the path that would lead them to the house, she would get caught like that. She went around to the secluded part of the mountain with more trees. She did her jog and sprinting exercises until she thought she was high enough that the air was more difficult to deal with. By that time it was sun down. She made a camp like the one she made during the hunter exam and went to sleep.
She did her usual training methods for a week when she thought of a new training method.
"Aha! I'm a mad genius!" She thought aloud, though she debated on whether she should laugh evilly or not. If she got caught while doing so... well they would immediately attack her. Plus she couldn't just laugh like an evil maniac—that would be way too loud. And then she would get caught, possibly tortured, and killed. Either way it was bad for her.
The next morning she set up a training sight with logs tied and hanging from tree branches. She set them up in the trees so that she could pull on a rope that would make them all fall and start swinging. She would have to dodge these swinging logs. It would also be a good trap.
She did that all morning and frankly it was tough. With the weights on that were much heavier than she was used to her movements slowed down considerably. She got hit a few times and now had bruises across her back, arms and legs. The thinner air didn't help much either with her stamina.
Ugh, I'll have to cool these. Don't want them to swell and restrict my movement.
After following her nose she found a decent sized pond nearby. She took off her sweater and wet the sleeves. Dabbing the cold, wet cloth on her bruises she sensed something nearby.
It's not an animal... She glanced to the area where it came from.
She started doing her version of Rhythm Echo. Even though it wasn't really that. Killua taught her how to make the double with the rhythm, but not with the intensity that the normal technique did. Instead of doing it in a circle the movements were random for each shadow.
Hmm not bad, she knows I'm here. And she knows rhythm echo. Though...it's different… He came out of his hiding spot. He was an old man, white hair standing on end, short of stature and weird banner on saying '1 kill per day'. She researched on Killua's family background when she head he was an assassin.
So he must be Zeno.
"Little girl, you are trespassing on our private property, state your business."
"Oh!" She halted to a stop, almost flying forward from the sudden loss of movement. "I'm Killua's friend." She said cheerfully, better not act suspicious...
"Killua's friend?"
"Mmhmm," she nodded, "Yes, we took the hunter exam together, and we want to take him back you see. But the others can't open the gate to come in, so I'm training by myself."
So she can open the gate. "What gate number did you open too?"
"I almost opened gate four, but I got through three, so I'm going to open five by the end of the next two months."
Like Killua she could open it, impressive. He opened gate three, but not five... is she older than him? She looks like she's at least twelve.
"So... you're his grandfather, Zeno, correct?" He gave her a murderous look. "Ugh, I'm not a threat, no need to murder me, and you only kill for profit correct? Also the only reason I know you're Zeno is because I did research and only got your names and narrowed it down."
She answered almost all of my questions… "How do you know Rhythm Echo?"
"Well, Killua gave me a hint and taught me a bit. Though he was too stubborn to teach me the full thing."
Hint?
"Yes, a hint. He said to move with no sound in a rhythm! Vague hint, I know. I couldn't even get it until he taught me the rhythm sometime after." In the room we were stuck in the tower for how long...
Awkward silence ensued.
"Oh, do you think you could spar with me?" I know this is a stupid question. Sparring with an assassin that could kill me at any moment. "Please? I haven't sparred with anyone in...I can't remember how long!" Actually I can, it was with Hanzo, but that's beside the point.
Interesting girl. "It's possible." Then he disappeared.
"What...He just, vanished, typical of an assassin." She raised an eyebrow... then realized what he did, "Wait...YOU! Don't get my hopes up and just... Just LEAVE! MEAN OLD MAN!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.
On the other side of the mountain Zeno clearly heard what she said and had an amused smirk on. Gon and the others probably heard her too.
Kagero was pissed off now and decided she couldn't train in the state of mind that she was in. So, she decided to meditate.
Meanwhile, on the bottom of the mountain.
"Was...was that Mirage's scream?"
"Un. She said 'You. Don't get my hopes up and just... Just leave. Mean old man.'" Gon relayed almost in a monotonous voice.
"You don't have to translate it word for word, Gon." Leorio deadpanned.
"But that's what she yelled."
"Oh, she must have met Zeno-sama." Zebero said when he came in to check on the boys.
"Zeno-sama?" Gon questioned.
"Killua-sama's grandfather. He might have let her train in piece." Ehhem...Hopefully.
"Knowing Mirage," Kurapika came in, "She must have noticed his presence and struck a conversation with him."
"That does sound like Mirage..." They said in unison.
In the middle of her meditation she sneezed abruptly.
"Dam, they heard me and are now talking about me, huh." She said skeptically.
Back at the Zoldyck mansion Zeno told Silva the contents of his mission and remembered to report about the girl.
"I met an interesting girl on the mountain. She said she was Killu's friend."
"A friend?" Silva raised an eyebrow. It was a question but he didn't state it as one.
"She opened the gate, wasn't intimidated by me, and she asked me to spar with her." Zeno thought she was interesting.
Silva scoffed.
Back with Kagero she sneezed abruptly. "Damn, everyone must be talking about me!" She scowled.
A few days later she sensed the old man again while doing her log exercise. She had a feeling that he let her sense him this time.
"What do you want?"
"I'm here to take you up on your offer."
"Really?!" Her face beamed. She jumped out of the way of a log and landed in front of him.
"No."
"Whaaaat...Well, I should have expected that, coming from a master assassin after all." She pouted. Then a log came flying at her hitting her in the side, sending her into a tree. "Oof." she grunted when hit suddenly. Zeno grimaced internally as she almost went head first into the trunk. Kagero's eyes widened, she didn't really want a concussion. She tipped the ground with her foot helping her front flip before head butting the bark.
"Ugh, that was unexpected..." She got up rubbing her side, 'Ouch, that's gonna bruise.' She got back on topic, "Then, why are you here?"
Just before he spoke she said what he was going to say. "To keep tabs on me hm?" She turned around and went back to her logs, "I'm not up to no good. You can come every day and I won't leave this general area. Until, the end of the two months anyways. "
She pushed the logs really hard and they started swinging wildly. She closed her eyes and continued training, ignoring Zeno.
Three hours later she was sweating profoundly. She took of her sweater to reveal her vest and bandages. Her wrist weights were noticeable now and her ankle weights were already in sight.
Zeno was still there surprisingly. Silva told him to keep the girl under a strict watch. Though he was curious to how much her weights were.
Then she took off to the trees and hopped on to trunks without touching the ground. Another form of training she recently made up in the Hunter Exam.
Good training for combat in this type of terrain, also works muscles and balance to a very high degree.
After that she found an open spot that was relatively flat and cleared it of debris, then she switched her shoes to rollerblades. Just like what she did in the hunter exams fourth phase. She spun wildly on her rollerblades constantly shifting her center of gravity.
Did she make these training methods up? Zeno thought.
"AH!" She had one of those eureka moments and suddenly stopped spinning in her tracks, almost falling over from the sudden loss of momentum. Her sudden exclamation startled Zeno since she had been so quiet.
She thought that changing her center of gravity in a long jump with a flip or something in a certain way would be able to increase her jump length considerably. She changed her rollerblades back to shoes and she ran to the furthest part of the clearing. She ran as fast as she could and jumped as far as she could and marked it off with a few sticks and the place where she launched herself from.
She did it again but in the middle of her jump where she would have started descending she tucked her legs in and shifted her center of gravity further down to the waist. She flipped out of the tuck she did and landed about twenty feet further than her normal jump.
"Uwa, can't believe I've thought of this."
She was about to get back to training when...
Her stomach growled.
"Um, hey...Zeno-san."
"..."
She sighed. "I'll take it that your listening. Is there a stream or river nearby? A fast one at that?"
"In fact there is, you will have to find it yourself though." He didn't plan to help her in any way. Though he smirked, what she would find... would be surprising.
"Hn, I see. Thanks." She plopped down and meditated to focus on her surroundings. She smelt the moisture of the water coming from the east, she also heard water flowing.
She got up and started running towards the stream.
"... This isn't a mere river or stream..." She looked over to Zeno who followed her skeptically, "Who the hell has rapids in their backyard!?" She sighed. "You guys do defy anything normal in all aspects, and I do indeed mean all."
She took her shoes off and walked to the part of the rapid that wasn't as ferocious as the other spots.
"Ah, I wouldn't want to get these wet..." She took off her anklets from the large rock that she was on and tossed them to the side of the rapids they made a fairly large crater. Then her wrist weights, same thing as her ankle weights. And finally her vest, which made the largest cavity of them all. She stretched, feeling the relief from the loss of weight and jumped into the middle of the calmest part in the... rapids.
She fished for, well, any kind of fish really. And while she was doing that Zeno took the chance to check her weights.
Ankle and wrist weights both weigh 100 kilo's each, and the vest weighs 800. So 1200 in total. Not bad.
She caught a whole bunch of fish. Zeno probably thought she was a fatty. She brought them back to her camp and gutted the fish with her hidden blade on her right arm guard.
She's well prepared.
After the fish were done cooking she dug in, but stopped mid-bite.
"What are you doing? You should eat too. Why do you think I got so much fish for? I'm not that much of a fatty."
Zeno mentally laughed, slightly.
"Oh come on, I cooked it right in front of you. It wouldn't be poisoned, and you're immune to poisons, and I know you have been trained to not eat for days on end, but..."
Zeno sighed and he took a fish. She beamed.
"So, you gonna' report this to the boss?"
His facial expression didn't change but she soon thought he was confused by her statement.
"And by 'boss' I mean Killua's father, Kikiyo's husband, your son."
He didn't say anything and just remained stoic...
She thought that she should break his emotionless face and get him to laugh or at least smile.
"Say, you didn't kill anyone today right?"
He stayed silent.
"... I'll take that as a yes. Anyways, and your banner thing says 'one kill per day'."
"..."
"So does that mean you're going to kill me?"
He decided to play along. "Yes."
"What! No! You're kidding right? You have to be kidding." She acted along sensing that it was sarcasm, then she glanced to Zeno, he still had the blank slate on his face, "Bu- But I have... I HAVE SO MUCH TO LIVE FOR! I can't die yet! I-I can't! Please...j-just let me say something, just one more thing, it's all I need..." She stood up looking terrified and backed away slowly.
He was surprised that she took it so seriously.
"You... My friend..." She took a deep shaky breath in to emphasize fear and sadness. "HAVE BEEN FOOLED!" She started laughing at his stoic face. She was laughing so hard she was clutching her stomach.
Zeno sweat dropped and looked away like 'I can't believe I have been fooled.' Though that would be exaggerated.
"Ahh, I got you good. Your face, it just screamed, 'I have been fooled, nonetheless by a little girl!' Well not exactly as emphasized and I did but..."
'What have I gotten myself into...' Zeno thought, though there was a slight upturn of his lips.
"Aha, success! You smiled!" She cheered and did a little victory dance.
After a while the fire had started to burn out.
"I was thinking..." Kagero brought up randomly a few minutes later. "Why did you let your son name Killua, Killua. Who would let someone name their son with the word kill in it."
Zeno's face slipped.
"Heh, I got you to smile again. But seriously...Why 'Killua'? If he was on an assassination mission and he had to infiltrate some place or get close to someone and he said his name he would scare the other person off!" She raised her voice during her argument.
Time passed and it was getting dark. "Ah, it's getting late, good night Zeno-san."
Kagero went inside her little campsite and curled up in the comfiest patch of dirt there was. 'Zeno really is a good person; he just makes his living in this manner... Still can't approve of it though...' And she fell asleep.
Back at the Zoldyck manor.
"She is not doing anything out of the ordinary. She is... intriguing to say the least." Zeno explained the events to Silva. "Do you want me to test her skills?"
"Yes."
(Omake)
"Ah, I wouldn't want to get these wet..." She took off her weights from the large rock that she was on and tossed them to the side of the rapids they made a fairly large crater. She stretched, feeling the relief from the loss of weight.
Then she thought of something, she smirked wondering if Zeno would know the reference.
"I'm... too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt. So sexy it hurts." She did a little dance and tossed her shirt across the rapids.
Zeno started coughing.
Obviously she had her bandages on underneath.
(Omake End)
(Omake #2)
"The child is not doing anything out of the ordinary. The kid is... intriguing to say the least." Zeno explained the events to Silva. "Do you want me to test the child's skills?"
"Yes."
The next morning Zeno approached Kagero's camp. She was already outside training.
They stared each other down, cowboy showdown music echoing in the background.
"Zeno, time to show me your moves. Ready... And... Go!" She pressed a button on a remote and music came on and they broke out in dance.
A dance battle that is.
(Omake #2 End)
Hey-o, another chappie here. I'm uploading this now unedited because I'm leaving on vacation for a week. And I can't bring my laptop with me so I won't be able to edit it. I figured uploading now is better than waiting a week, right?
I hope to see some reviews! I'll still be able to check after all! Though I won't be able to reply until I get back…