The skies were clear once more. The ominous buzzing was gone, the sounds of nature restored. Smiling, Gon reinforced his grip before picking up speed. Killua moved fast. If Gon did not hurry, Killua would undoubtedly reach the border first. If so, an earful would be waiting for him. Killua had his moments of impatience and could get grumpy over the strangest things.
Noticing the trembling in his companion, Gon said, "Don't worry. We're almost there."
The girl peeked up at him. The evening sun highlighted the puffiness of her eyes, the tear streaks against her freckled skin.
Gon chuckled in return. "Someone as cute as you, people will surely be fighting to take you in!" He looked ahead and continued, "It's almost dinner time, isn't it. I'll make sure you get a warm meal and a hot bath and a nice place to sleep tonight. I'll make sure to find you good people to stay with, who will keep you safe and happy, like Mito-san did for me."
After Mito was mentioned, the rest of the words flowed effortlessly. Gon talked about growing up with Mito and his great-grandmother, Abe. He talked about the wisdom they imparted. On Whale Island, sometimes the worst of storms would blow through, and you would find a lot of things have been ripped or stolen from your life. Sometimes horrible things would happen, horrible things that will leave you crying for a long time. Worst part is, disasters happen and you cannot even control them.
But what you can control is how you rebuild yourself afterward. You make your ships faster. You make your houses sturdier. You meet people who patch up the missing pieces, and you discover yourself to be someone else's missing piece. And you learn to be happy again.
Gon had no doubt she will be happy again.
He stopped.
Twilight was upon them. The farmlands were void of activity, rakes abandoned and the cattle gone.
Gon continued into the village. He did not know why he did; he already knew from the smell what had happened. The smart thing would be to change course and leave, to find her another place.
Yet, his body did not listen. He walked through the dark-streaked roads, past the upturned barrels and abandoned ammunition shells.
Finally, there was a noise other than his footsteps. Behind one of the unlit homes were the sounds of activity. Gon ignored the tightened grip on his shoulder, the panicked shake and tug for them to leave, to leave now.
While she closed her eyes, Gon kept his open. Gon kept his eyes open, as he stopped behind the chimera ant.
It was dinnertime. The ant had been learning. How to remove bullets. How to gut and debone. How to split down the belly until shapes of all sizes unfolded before him in butterfly.
The hunt was fun, ooh, so much fun, but so was the feast. The hunt and the feast. The feast and the hunt. It was so hard deciding which he liked more. Decisions, decisions, so many hard decisions. The feast? His hand skipped over the knife in favor of the machine gun. No, the HUNT!
Without warning, he spun around and pulled the trigger. His laughter reverberated over the bullets.