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A/N: So, firstly, I'd like to again apologize for no new "Killua's World". I'll try and work on it this week, though. I'd also like to point out that I decided to take the "mild" and the "minor" out of "mild violence" and "minor swearing" as of this chapter. It's not so graphic that I needed to bump up the rating, it's just that I don't think it qualifies as "mild" anymore. And, after the last chapter, I don't think there's "minor" swearing, either.
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Chapter 12: Kitakura Monster

I woke up. Gon was beside me. The sun was nowhere in sight. I looked around. We were on the airplane. I relaxed in my seat, closing my eyes again. I thought back to the events of the previous day.

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After our shower, Gon and I had decided to leave Yorknew City. While we were getting ready, there was a banging on the door. I opened it and was immediately greeted with a punch to my face. The force of the punch that had caught me off guard sent me to the ground. I looked up at my assailant with anger in my eyes. However, the anger vanished as Leorio fell to the ground, revealing Kurapika behind him.

"Sorry about that," Kurapika said, "I thought we had agreed that there wasn't going to be any violence." He sighed, "But I guess you can never tell with Leorio."

Leorio got up, rubbing his neck. He complained that Kurapika's chop could have knocked him out cold. Kurapika snapped back that he deserved it. As they argued, I couldn't help but laugh. It started out small, but eventually it was to the point where I was almost rolling on the floor. They looked at me, confused.

"What?" Kurapika said

"What's so funny?" Leorio spoke at the same time.

I wiped a tear away from my eye and said, "It… It's nothing." A sudden burst of laughter escaped and I continued, "It's just that… you two remind me of me and Gon when we argue."

They couldn't help but laugh at the realization that it was true. We laughed for a couple minutes. The laughter stopped when they noticed Gon walking over to see what we were laughing about. We explained to him that it was nothing. He seemed to accept this fact rather quickly.

"So, why'd you punch me, anyway?" I asked Leorio.

"Why?" He echoed, "Let's see, where do I start? How about, for hurting Gon's feelings?"

I interjected, "I was pissed that nobody backed me up at the conference! So, you can't blame me for that!"

"Alright," Leorio said, "Then how about you hanging up on him when all he wanted to do was talk to you?"

"Still pissed." I said, less defensively.

"Then how about you calling me an asshole?" He said.

I paused a moment and then said, "I'm not apologizing for that one."

Leorio was getting really pissed now. He said, "You stinking brat!"

He raised an arm to strike me again and I got up and ready to defend myself. I was willing to cause major bodily harm to Leorio, if necessary. However, Gon stepped in front of me with his determined eyes and Kurapika held Leorio's arm. As soon as Gon had stepped in front of me, I dropped my defensive stance and took up a more natural position. Leorio eventually dropped his arm, too, after pulling it loose from Kurapika's grip.

"Anyway," Kurapika said, "the real reason why we came up here is to see if you were ready."

"There's no way they'd let me back in," I said, "Not after that scene I made last night."

"Fine," Leorio said, still a little pissed, "You can just stay here all afternoon. Gon, get ready. We're gonna be leaving pretty soon."

"Actually," Gon said, "I'm not going, either."

"What?" Leorio asked.

"I've decided to stay with Killua," Gon said, "We're gonna go look for the fountain of -moof?"

I put my hand over Gon's mouth before he could get the last word out. Leorio and Kurapika looked at us quizzically. I knew that if they knew we were going to find the Fountain of Youth, they would try extra hard not to let us go. I couldn't let that happen so I let out a nervous laugh.

"Ging," I said quickly, "We're going to find Ging."

"But," Kurapika said, "Gon said something about a fountain."

"Yeah," I said, adding on to my lie, "We last heard that Ging was somewhere near a famous fountain. So, we're heading there to look for clues about Ging. Right, Gon?"

Gon had turned his head to look at me after I mentioned his dad's name. I looked him in the eyes when I prodded him to answer. His eyes lit up with understanding. They looked beautiful with the light of knowledge in them. I couldn't admire his eyes for very long, though, as he turned his head to look at our friends and he nodded. I removed my hand from his mouth.

"Yeah," Gon said, "It was the Fountain of Wishes in a town to the east of here."

He laughed nervously and I joined in. Our friends looked at us quizzically again and then they looked at each other in the same way. I guessed they were trying to find the answer about our behaviour in each other. I knew they couldn't; they never did. I hoped they wouldn't ask any further.

However, I had no such luck as Kurapika said, "I've never heard of this 'Fountain of Wishes'. Where, exactly, did you say-"

I cut him off, "That's because you haven't travelled as much as us." It sounded reasonable, so I continued, "You've been with your employer so you haven't heard as many rumours."

I hoped he bought it. He was in his normal thinking pose, so I could tell he was considering my words. I also hoped that I wouldn't have to explain to Leorio. If I did, I would have to replace 'with your employer' with 'busy with your studies'. And, for all they knew, this so-called 'Fountain of Wishes' could have become very popular in the last little while and that's why it was reasonable that Ging was there. Of course, there was no 'Fountain of Wishes' and we had no clue as to where Ging could be, but that didn't matter.

"I suppose that's true," Kurapika said after a few seconds.

I let out an inaudible sigh of relief. Fortunately, I didn't have to explain to Leorio as well. They wished us luck in finding Ging and left us to finish preparing for our journey. As soon as they were gone and I closed the door, Gon grabbed my face, turned it towards his and put his lips to mine. It took me a second to register what happened, but by that time, our kiss was over.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"No reason," Gon said, "Just felt like it."

We both laughed and continued packing our bags. I put the book in my bag this time because I figured I'd be the one reading it mostly. A few minutes after Leorio and Kurapika had left us, we left the hotel. Gon called us a cab while I told the front desk that we were checking out of the room. When I walked out of the hotel, Gon was standing by the cab, holding the door open. I shot him a quizzical look and he just grinned.

"Feeling chivalrous, today, Gon?" I asked as I got into the cab.

"I just thought I'd do something nice for you," he said, climbing in after me, "to make up for last night."

He looked down at his feet. I could tell he still felt bad about not standing up for me at the conference last night. Seeing him so down, it made my heart feel a tiny pang of guilt for yelling at him the way I did. I wanted to just tell him to forget about it and not worry anymore. However, I decided to do the exact opposite.

"You know," I began. He looked up at me and I continued, "It's gonna take a lot more than a couple kisses and holding the door open to make me forgive you."

He nodded, as if he was expecting me to say that. I admit, I wasn't expecting him to nod and it caught me a little off guard. I knew he was thinking he would do anything to gain my forgiveness and it made me think. Was what I was doing wrong? Was I taking advantage of him just because he was so gullible? My thoughts were interrupted by my phone ringing.

"Hello?" I said, answering it.

"Killua!" It was Leorio. He sounded desperate.

"Yeah?" I said, a little confused.

"Is Gon with you?" He still sounded desparate.

"Yeah," I said, "of course."

"Thank God," He said, relieved.

Gon wanted to know what was happening and I just shrugged my shoulders. Leorio continued, "Kitakura isn't here."

"So?" I asked, "Maybe he's just running late?"

"No," Leorio said, his voice more grave, "That isn't it."

"Okay then," I said, trying to come up with suggestions, "Maybe-"

I was cut off, "Everybody else is dead."

"What?" I said.

"Everybody that was at the conference last night," Leorio said, "They're all dead. Kitakura is the only one not here."

"How long have they been dead?" I asked.

"I'm guessing around twelve to fourteen hours," Leorio said. He must have known my next question because he continued, "We were the only ones that left right after the conference ended. Everybody else stayed to enjoy some refreshments. It's a bloody mess here. Literally. You guys have to get away from this city now."

Leorio kept talking but I stopped listening when something on my right caught my attention. A shadow moved down a side road. It was human-like in appearance, but it also looked like it was imitating an animal as it moved. And it moved fast. I had a pretty good guess as to who and what it was.

"I've got to go, Leorio," I said, distracted, "I'll call you back later."

"What?" He asked, "Killua, I'm not done talking to you!"

"Yeah," I said, "You too."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He yelled, "Killua! Don't hang up on me! Killu-"

I hung up. I leaned forward and told the driver of the cab to turn down the next street. He protested that it wasn't the way to the airport, but I told him to do it anyways. Gon asked what was going on and what the call was about. I told him I'd fill him in on the details later. I directed the cab driver to turn where the shadow turned until we pulled up to a park, where the cab couldn't go.

I opened the door, told the cab driver to stay and closed the door again. Gon got out and followed me into the park, all the while asking me what was going on. It was a few steps later that I told him what Leorio had told me. I also told him about the shadow I saw. I was about to tell him my theory on the shadow, but Gon chimed in.

"So," he said, "you think this shadow is Kitakura?"

"Yeah," I said, "That's pretty much it."

We ran through the park, looking for any signs of the shadow. It was weird, it was a beautiful day and yet nobody was in the park. I brought this up with Gon, who agreed. I saw the shadow move out of the corner of my eye and immediately ran in that direction. Gon followed.

We ran into a wooded area of the park. I thought it seemed perfectly reasonable for Kitakura to hide out in a place that resembled a forest. After all, he had come from a forest. As we ran, Gon tripped and grabbed my shirt, pulling me down with him. I'm not sure which one of us had it worse. Me, being choked by my own shirt and hitting my head on something hard, or Gon, hitting his face on the ground and having my head smack into his.

I sat up, rubbing my head where it had hit Gon's. I turned around to look at Gon, who was getting up, holding his face. Apparently he didn't feel my head smack into his, which gave me my conclusion: I had it worse. I felt like hitting him on the head, just so he would feel how I felt. However, he just looked at me and grinned that stupid grin.

"Heh-heh," he laughed, "Sorry, Killua. I slipped."

"How could you have slipped?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said, "but I suddenly lost my footing."

"Well," I said, "next time you decide to suddenly loose your footing, don't bring me down with you."

As I was getting to my feet, I saw the shadow moving in the trees. I could tell it was getting closer to us. I was tracking its movements in the trees, when it suddenly stopped. I looked around, but I found no signs of it anywhere. I was about to tell Gon to stay on his guard, as he was just getting off the ground himself, when the shadow jumped from the side of the trees and hit Gon, sending him to the other side.

"Gon!" I yelled, while running after him.

When I entered the denser part of the woods, I saw Gon laying on his back with a snarling part-wolf part-human on top of him. I knew in an instant that it was Kitakura. It looked like he was trying to bite Gon's face off. Gon was just barely dodging the gnashing teeth trying to get him. I ran up to the monster and punched it in its face. Unfortunately, the punch didn't knock it off of Gon, like I was hoping. Instead it just turned its attention towards me.

"Shit." I said as I realized it was going to come after me.

I started to run away. I looked back to see if the Kitakura monster was still chasing me. It was. However, I also saw Gon getting up and looking in the direction I was running. I saw him nod his head and he got into the position he does when he's charging up to use his Nen.

I got the message. I stopped and turned to face the charging Kitakura. When I was sure the monster was running straight, I ran towards it. The monster opened its mouth as if it was going to take a bite out of me. However I put out my hand, placed it on the monster's snout, and jumped over it. I also sent a little shock into it, just to get it really pissed. I ran back towards Gon and looked back to see if the monster followed. I saw it start running again-apparently, the shock I gave it and the fact that I jumped over it made it stop- and it resumed chasing me.

I stopped right in front of Gon, smiled at him, and turned around to face the oncoming Kitakura monster. The monster was waving this time. It went to one side, then the middle, then the other side, then back to the middle. Once it was right in front of me, I stepped out of its way and Gon landed a fully charged Nen punch right on Kitakura's nose. The monster went rolling away, doing back flips.

"You…" Kitakura said, writhing in pain, "Damn… Brats!"

He got up on his feet and for the first time, I got an actual good look at him. He was completely hairy now with the head of a wolf and the body of a man. His hands were human, but his feet were paws. However, his head started to change back to that of a human's. I could see blood on his face, both dried and wet. The dried blood was around his mouth and the wet blood was coming from his broken nose.

"I'll kill you," Kitakura said, "I'll kill you both, you fucking damn shitheads!"

"I'd like to see you try," I said, mockingly, "bitch."

Kitakura started running on his feet but then he got on his hands. I ran up to meet him. When we got close to each other, I slid under him and grabbed onto his arms. I was hoping to stop once I had a hold of him so I could be all badass in front of Gon, but I kept sliding and pulled Kitakura's arms underneath him, sending his body flying and landing on his back. When he landed, I had stopped sliding and I immediately brought some electricity into my aura. I'm not sure how many volts I sent into Kitakura's body, but when I stopped, he was motionless.

I sighed in relief and got up. I walked towards Gon, whose face went from excitement to horrified in a matter of seconds. I also felt my shoulder starting to hurt. I looked and noticed it was bleeding. It wasn't bleeding before, so how- I felt another swipe at the same shoulder and it knocked me to the ground. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw Kitakura standing above me. My eyes went wide when I saw him.

"Killua!" Gon shouted.

At the mention of my name, I looked and saw Gon running towards me. I wanted to shout at him to stay back, but I felt Kitakura's hand on my neck, pushing it down to the ground. I couldn't say anything. Gon was focusing his Nen into his fist again. He punched but Kitakura dodged and smacked him away.

"I'll deal with you later," he said to Gon, "but first, I'm going to take care of this little bitch."

He laughed. I knew he was insulting me, but I was too concerned about Gon, who had hit a tree and was laying on the ground, struggling to breath. Apparently, Kitakura had once again transformed his head into that of a wolf's as I saw really sharp teeth out of the corner of my eye. I also felt his saliva dripping on my head. I admit, it didn't feel very nice. I closed my eyes, waiting for the moment where I felt nothing. Gon cried my name as best he could but he was still too winded to do anything.

"Get the fuck away from my friends" a familiar voice said.

I opened my eyes just in time to see Leorio roundhouse kick Kitakura in his broken nose. The impact sent Kitakura flying into one of the nearby trees. Leorio pulled out a pocket knife and ran towards Kitakura. I wanted to follow him with my eyes, but it was like they were glued to what was in front of me. When I gained control of my eyes back, I quickly looked to where Leorio was actually stabbing Kitakura with the pocket knife. He was relentless, too.

A few seconds later, I saw him moving both hands on Kitakura. I couldn't tell what he was doing and I wasn't sure I wanted to know. He pulled on something. When he finished pulling, he threw that something onto the ground beside them and he continued stabbing the beast. Kurapika had to step in and pull Leorio away from Kitakura. When Leorio was moved, I noticed Kitakura had a huge hole in his chest and was bleeding out immensely. I looked to the ground and noticed a heart. I looked at Leorio, who was breathing heavily and covered in blood. I couldn't believe my eyes.

When Leorio regained his composure, he said, "Well. He won't be bothering anybody anymore."

I was still in shock. I looked toward Gon, who looked the same way. Leorio came over to me and lifted me by my good shoulder onto my feet. I held my shoulder, as I still felt some pain in it. Kurapika helped Gon up. Fortunately, Gon wasn't hurt.

"Come on," Leorio said, "We need to get you to a hospital to get that wound of yours taken care of."

All four of us walked out of the woods. I heard some sirens in the distance. They were probably coming to the park, but by the time they got there, we would be gone. A thought kept nagging me. It was nagging me from the moment I saw Leorio kick Kitakura.

"How did you guys find us?" I asked.

Leorio smirked, "Well, once we figured out that Kitakura was behind what happened at the conference, I remembered you said that he had lived in a forest so, naturally, I thought of the only place resembling a forest in this city."

Kurapika shot him a glare that was a mix between angry and annoyed. Leorio corrected himself, giving the proper credit to Kurapika. His corrected version made a lot more sense. When we got back to the cab, Gon opened the door for me again. He smiled at me and I smiled back at him. Leorio and Kurapika had gotten into their own cab before Gon and I got into ours.

"What happened to you, kid?" The cabbie asked after we got in.

"If I told you the truth," I said, "you wouldn't believe me."

Gon agreed and the cabbie said, "Try me."

I looked to Gon who shrugged. I sighed and said, "Alright. But first, take us to the nearest hospital."

"You got it kid," the cabbie said. When we started driving, he continued, "So what happened?"

I thought of a way to word what I was about to say. "Alright, so, we just had a fight with a shape-shifting wolf monster."

I noticed the cabbies disbelieving eyes in the rear view mirror. I was expecting him to say something condescending like, 'You shouldn't make up such crazy stories' or 'You kids and your active imaginations'. However, he said nothing of the sort. All he did was just nod.

"Cool," he said, "Wish I could have seen it."

"Believe me," I said, "it wasn't that great."