Door of the Otherworld
"I can see it," Leorio stared out the window of the train. "Kukuru Mountain."
Stasy gazed out the window, the ominous black mountain having little effect on the cheery residents around it.
"What's wrong, Stasy?" Kurapica worried. "You're awfully quiet today."
"It's nothing," Stasy smiled at him. "I just miss my sweet Killua."
"Where should we start?" Leorio continued the conversation.
"First, let's go to an inn and make a plan," Kurapica suggested.
"It'll be ok!" Gon perked up. "We're just going to see a friend, aren't we?"
Kurapica and Leorio looked at each other before looking back at the blissfull Gon.
After asking around with the locals, the gang found out that Kukuru mountain actually had a tour bus. An infamous family of assassins had a tour bus that would take locals to the front gate. Nothing was ominous about the bus ride there, either, except for the group of suspicious men in the back.
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" the cute little tour guide in a skimpy pink and purple outfit announced over a microphone on the bus ride there. "The company 'Terror Buses' would like to thank you for joining us. Today, we'll present to you the assassin family of Dentora's province. Now, please look to your left."
Everyone obliged.
"This is Kukuru Mountain, the sadly famous place where the Zaoldyeck's live. Somewhere on this volcano, culminating at 3722 meters, surrounded by a mar of vegetation, may stand a residence, but no one has ever seen it. There are 9 members of the Zaoldyeck family. The great-grandfather, grandfather, father, mother, and five children. They're all proffessional killers. If you agree, we will approach the mountain."
Once they had arrived at their destination, the tourists filed out of the vehicle to gawk at what seemed to be the tallest wall they had ever seen. There was an eminse gate with seven doors of different height and two enourmous dragon heads at the two ends of the gate. To the left and right lay a thick brush of vegetation that was as much a barrier as the stony wall.
"This the main entrance," the tour guide informed everyone. "We call it 'the Door of the Otherworld.' The reason is simple: once you pass through, you'll never return alive. To enter, we use the little door on the side and we see the guardian. From this point, it's private domain of the Zaoldyeck's, so we can't visit."
"What?!" Leorio shouted in surprise. "But the mountain is still so far away from us! So why..."
"Yes, I know," the tour guide smiled. "Here begins the mar of vegetation and Kukuru Mountain, consequently all this is the domain of the Zaoldyeck family."
"You mean..." the group looked at the looming gate. "All of that is their front yard?!"
"Miss Guide," Gon raised his hand as if he were in school.
"Yes?"
"How do we get inside?"
The tour guide smiled sweetly. "Tell me kid, did you just listen to what I explained?"
"Yes, but..."
"If you enter, you won't come out alive. It's a killers lair." She glared at him even though her face was still twisted into a smile.
"That's a bluff, isn't it?" one of the suspicious men said. "A phantom murderer family that nobody has ever seen."
"I heard somewhere there's a 100 million bounty for the one who takes a simple picture of their face," the shorter suspicious man said.
"From a rumor, it became a legend," the bigger one hypothesized.
"But I'm sure there's nothing dangerous there," the shorter one chuckled.
The big assassin guy pulled the guard's door off it's hinges and picked the old man up by his collar. "Open the door!"
"What a nuisance," the old man squirmed. "My master will scold me for this!"
"Don't worry," the shorter guy laughed. "We'll take care of your master."
They extracted a single key from the guard's pocket and dropped the old man on his bum.
"Are you ok?" Stasy asked him.
"Yes, yes," he waved off her worries, then muttered under his breath, "Hnn, seems Mike will have something other than his usual food once more."
"Huh?"
The door from which the suspicious men had entered cracked open slightly. A large, furry, clawed paw held out two skeletons and flung them to the ground, and then resealed the entrance, once more. The tourists were screaming in horror.
"The master has forbidden that you eat between meals!" the old man shouted over the wall. "If you get fat, it won't be because of me!"
"What...was that?" Kurapica shuddered.
The tourists all climbed into the bus, eager to get the heck out of there. "Hey, what are you guys doing?" One of them shouted over to Stasy and the group. "Hurry and get on the bus!"
"Just leave us," Gon told him. "We'll stay here."
Everyone looked at them as if they were insane, but didn't feel the need to linger so they all hopped on the bus and drove off. The guard invited them into his little shack after they explained the purpose for their lingering.
"So you are young master Killua's friends?" He asked, setting his cup of tea on its saucer. "It's a real pleasure for me! Having visitors this way. I've been working for 20 years and you're the first ones to come in peace. As an employee, I may be punished if I say this, but...What a sad residence! Nobody ever visits here. There's an endless stream of people like this, but...," he pointed to the skeletons he had discarded in a trash bin. "Well, it's not a common assassin family, so it's normal." He sipped his tea. "That's the way they planned things. But I'm really happy! However, I can't let you enter. You saw it, too, didn't you? The paw of that enormous animal...That's Mike, the guard dog of the Zaoldyeck's. It obeys only the orders of the family; it's uncontrollable. For ten years, it has loyally obeyed the orders of its masters. Anyways, I can't let you enter. I can't let Killua's friends be reduced to bones."
"Tell me, Guardian," Kurapica spoke after a long pause. "Why are you unharmed? You can enter, can't you? Otherwise, why would you have this key?"
"Good remark," the old man blew the steam from his tea before he tipped the cup back and let the last few drops of the colored liquid pour into his throat. "But you are half right, half wrong. To enter, I don't use the key. This is the special key for intruders. All of these weird people, eight or nine come proudly up to the front door. When they can't open the door, disconcerted, they try to destroy it. It's annoying. So we built a door with a lock right next to it. This way, intruders come to steal it from me, and I don't resist. Then they're killed and eaten by Mike. Under my appearance of sympathetic guardian, I'm only in charge of cleaning up the messes Mike makes."
"On the real door," Kurapica also pointed out. "There's no lock."
"Exactly."
"What?" Leorio shouted again. He trudged out the door and pushed against the big double doors with all his might, but to no avail. "I pull! I push! To the left! To the Right! It doesn't open!"
"That's only because you're weak," the guard told him.
"I gave it all I had!" he yelled back, defenseively.
"Look," the old man said as he took of his jacket to reveal the undershirt beneath. "The door's nickname is the 'Door of Verification.' The ones that can't open this door..." He exhaled and suddenly his muscles grew to an unbelievable amount. "..do not have the required qualities to enter into the Zaoldyeck's domain." He pushed against the door, and with great strain slowly opened it. Then he released it and the stone slabs slammed shut. "As you can see, this door closes automatically. Once it's opened, you have to enter without pausing. Year after year, it becomes harder to open. If I failed, I would get fired, so I don't have any other choice. Mike was given the order not to attack people who enter through the Door of Verification. Each side of the first door is two tons."
"T-t...two?" Leorio stuttered. "Normally, nobody can push such,...You said 'frist door'?"
"Yes," the old man smiled. "Look! You can see that there are seven total. The weight doubles each time the size changes."
"It doubles?!" Leorio shouted.
"They were built so that we open the one corresponding to our strength. When Killua entered, he opened the third door."
"The third one?" Stasy inquired.
"12 tons!" Gon exclaimed.
"Err..that's 16 tons, Gon," Kurapica corrected him.
Stasy looked at the doors, and an unsettling feeling weld up within her. "I'm going to try to open it."
"What?" Leorio seemed to like that word a lot. "Did you not here what the guy said? SIXTEEN TONS! SIXTEEN!!"
"Yes, but if Killua can open the the third door," she explained. "Then I don't feel worthy enough to be his wife."
The girl rolled up her sleeves and pushed against the door. It didn't budge. Vexed, she took a step back and inhaled deeply. "HA!" She pushed forward, screaming with the effort.
Everyone gazed in awe as a white aura began to encase the girl and the door slowly creaked open. However, just as Stasy opened it a creak, an immense growl emanated from her stomach. She fell to the ground and the door swung shut. "Hun...gry..."
"Do you understand now?" the old man told the others. "To enter the domain, you must have some abilities. The world where you live is different."
"I don't like this.." Gon mumbled before he turned to the guard. "Sir, lend me your keys."
"What?"
"Even if I only came to see a friend, I must pass a test. So being an intruder fits me better."
"Don't be stupid, Gon!" Leorio attempted to persuade the boy. "Didn't you see the monster a while ago? One of his paws was bigger than you!"
"Perhaps," Gon admitted. "But all this stuff isn't ok with me. Testing his friends is weird, isn't it? I refuse to enter through such a door!"
"I think you're right," the old man scratched the back of his head. "But it's madness wanting to pass with force. You'll get yourself killed for sure."
"I agree with you," Kurapica piped in. "We have some time, so let's try opening the first door."
"Gon!" Leorio nagged him.
The boy remained unmoving.
"Oh my," the old man realized Gon would not budge from his decision. "I'm sorry, but I can't give you this key. I can't let friends of Master Killua's satisfy Mike's appetite so easily. Well, wait a moment."
He walked back into his room and began dialing on a phone. "Hello? Yes, it's Zebulo. Uh...there are three of Young Master Killua's friends and...yes, yes...Yes, I'm sorry, yes! Yes, yes. I understand, yes, forgive me. Thank you, goodbye." He hung up the phone. "I suspected it. They refused."
"You called the residence?" Gon asked.
"No, I called Zaoldyeck's attendants. All calls to the residence have to pass through the intendants. It's rare to speak to the family."
"Would you mind calling again?" Gon asked. "This time, I'll talk."
"Ok, it doesn't bother me, but," the guard dialed the phone, "It won't give you a good impression." He handed Gon the phone.
"Zaoldyeck's intendant speaking," a deep voice came from the phone.
"Yes, hello," Gon replied. "My name is Gon. I'm a friend of Killua's. Is he here?"
"Master Killua has no friends," the voice replied before it hung up.
Gon calmly redialed the number and place the phone to his ear to here a familiar "Zaoldyeck's intendants speaking."
"WHO ARE YOU TO KNOW THAT KIND OF THING?! THAT'S ENOUGH!! LET KILLUA GET OUT OF HERE!!"
"You said, you're Gon, didn't you?" the voise inquired.
"Yes," the boy replied.
"Even supposing Killua does have a friend named Gon, how will you prove it?"
"Make Killua come and he'll tell you!" Gon shouted at the phone.
"If you mean he'll recognize your voice, that won't work," the voice countered, and then with Gon's voice repeated his words. "'Make Killua come and he'll tell you!' There. It was a simple magnetic recording, but there are numerous ways to counterfeit the voice. Next, you'll surely say, 'When he sees me, he'll recognize me.' But for that, too, even if the ways to take the appearance of someone are limited, it's still possible. We can also imagine that the ones who want to kill Master Killua will used one called Gon to reach their goal. And while there's still the risk, we won't let Master Killua go out. The Zaoldyeck's practice assassination. Consequently, the number of their enemies will increase. Protecting our masters from useless exterior attacks is our job. I'm sorry. Maybe he'll call you back later." He hung up.
Gon set the phone down and walked outside of the room.
"Eh? Gon!" Leorio called out after him. "Go-He's out of his mind."
The black haired boy swung his fishing pole around and then flung the hook to the top of the wall. It latched onto the top and Gon tugged the line to make sure it was secure.
"Gon!" Leorio protested. "I'm telling you to stop!"
"No, you two wait here with Stasy," Gon ordered them looking at the girl who had fallen asleep long ago. "I'm going alone."
"You really think I'll let you do that?" Leorio shouted back.
They began to quarrel and the guard scratched his head in a tired sort of way. "Gon, I'm giving you the keys. With these, you'll be able to pass through the intruder's door."
"Sir! Wait!" Leorio protested. "We'll make him forget this crazy idea!"
"Really?" the old man inquired. "Gon seems to be very stubborn. In compensation, I'll pass through the door with you. If I go with you there's a small chance that Mike will remember me and won't kill us. Well, you can be almost a 100 sure he'll kill us, but..."
"No, that way, it doesn't work," Gon refused. "I don't want to cause any problems for you."
"No, I'm coming too," the old man finalized it. Staying here would be the same. If some friends of Killua were about to get killed in front of me, I could never hope to see his face again. If you die, I'll die too."
"I understand," Gon flicked his fishing pole to retrieve the lure. "Please forgive me. I didn't think of you, sir."
The old man smiled. 'He's a good kid.' "Gon, you like animals, don't you?" the asked the little boy.
"Huh? Yes..."
"There was no doubting it," the old man chuckled. "You spent all your time in the countryside, didn't you?"
"Yep, how did you know?" Gon inquired.
"Gon, I'll reopen the Door of Verification once more," the old man brought out his muscles. "This time, look at Mike's face."
The door opened and everyone ran through and slammed shut.
"Phew!" Stasy sighed as she dusted off her pants. "That was a close one!"
"When did you wake up?" Kurapica asked her.
"Oh, a while ago," she answered. "I grabbed something to eat in the woods. I feel renewed and refreshed!"
"Mike!" the guard called out into the night. "Come here, Mike!"
The ground shook with the weight of the humongous dog. Mike had a long snout and curly, ragged white fur that had been dirtied to a light tan. Gon stared into the dog's blank eyes in horror, sweat trickling down his face. The dog calmly layed down, but Gon was still backing away.
"Gon, do you understand?" the old man spoke through his fear. "It's a perfectly trained guard dog. There aren't any wild animals like this that you've met in the countryside. You thought you could communicate with it, didn't you?"
"Until I saw his eyes, yes," Gon admitted.
"Right now, it's recording the silhouette and the smell of a human its seeing for the first time. Apart from this, he has no other sensations. It's like a machine. If the conditions, emitted in order, are fulfilled, he'll attack even someone like me who comes to see him everyday. You want to fight against it?"
Gon eagerly shook his head in the negative. "No way, it's terrifying. I don't want to confront him at all."
"Well, this way, if you want to follow me. My house is close to here, you can rest here for the night."
Zebulo agreed to let them endure a special training at his small house. Everything there had a weight increased tenfold. The door to the house was 200 Kg and even a small cup was 20 Kg. They had to wear weights on their arms, chest, and legs every waking minute and did the chores around the house. The first day, they felt like slugs.
"You'll get used to it," the guard chuckled, getting ready to go to his post for the day. "And once you do, I'll increase the weight."
"Seriously?" Leorio complained. "This is heavy for me, I can't imagine what the kids..." He stopped in the middle of his sentence as he saw Stasy and Gon merrily running mops across the wooden floors with ease.
"Well, I'm off to work!" he pushed open the door and walked back to his guard room.
As he unlocked the newly repaired door, something in the woods caught his eye. The elderly man curiously walked through the vegetation and gasped as he walked into a clearing. More rather, all the plant life in a good 30 meter radius were reduced to withering piles of plant flesh. The old man kneeled down and examined a greyed tree, once a mighty oak had no been turned into a raisan. The tree looked as if the very life, the very energy had been sucked out of it. Stasy words from last night suddenly came back to him.
"I grabbed something to eat in the woods. I feel renewed and refreshed!"
Could she have done this?