Disclaimer: I don't own HunterXHunter. I am not making profit off of this story.
A/N: March is a really busy month, considering all the IB testing/SATs/SATIIs/competitions/summer program applications that I'm killing myself with. Urgh. I don't even know if I'll be able to churn out April's chapter. So if I'm late, sorry in advance! Thank you to all my readers and reviewers! (:
Artificial intelligence stands no chance against natural stupidity.
XXX
"What?" Leorio asked in confusion, and the four of us beside him made noises of agreement. "How can the match not be over yet?"
The female prisoner slowly trotted over to Majitani, who still lay motionlessly. She made a show of checking his pulse. "He has only fainted," she explained. "You chose a death match! The combat should have lasted until one of the two opponents died or quit. This man is clearly still alive, and yet I never heard him say that he forfeited."
"Oh, come on!" I complained. "He was half saying it anyway. He was barely missing a syllable. Besides, it's clear who the victor is!"
The criminal shrugged, not replying.
I frowned. This was obviously some ploy to put us at a disadvantage. But what could be gained from this? All Kurapica had to do was finish the match. There had to be something. They wouldn't be doing this for no reason.
"Ah, whatever," Leorio said to Kurapica. "Just get over there and end it."
"No," said Kurapica.
There was a short pause as Leorio processed Kurapica's response. "What?" he yelped.
"For me, the match is already over," Kurapica explained. "I hit my adversary as he renounced the battle. I cannot continue to fight an unconscious man."
"You're joking!" Leorio exclaimed. "In that case, what do you want to do?"
"It depends," Kurapica replied, "on whether or not Majitani wakes. When he regains, we'll talk about it again, but don't count on me to kill him while he cannot fight back."
Leorio gaped, at a loss for words.
"If you want, I can kill him for you," Killua offered casually, hands in his pockets. "You've never killed anybody, have you? Are you scared?"
Kurapica regarded Killua in silence. "…I never considered whether or not killing somebody would scare me. Moreover, it's a fight between him and me. I don't need your assistance."
Killua gave Kurapica a flat stare. "I see," he said. "Let me remind you that you aren't alone here! Now's not the time to act selfishly!"
"That's right!" Leorio agreed quickly. "Even though I kind of agree with your philosophy, save it for later! Think of others a little!"
"Sorry, but I don't want to change my views," Kurapica insisted.
"Besides," I added, "it's not like Killua would be allowed to interfere in Kurapica's match, anyway. Only Kurapica can finish the match." But I still couldn't shake my uneasiness. Surely, the prisoners could not have been able to predict Kurapica's viewpoint on killing, could they? But even if they had, what could be gained? Time? I was sure it wouldn't take that long for Kurapica's opponent to wake up. It wasn't liked he'd suffered through a traumatic accident or anything. We just had to wait for him to wake up. To wake up…?
"Well, in that case—let's use the majority vote!" Leorio suggested, and I shrugged. This wasn't going to work, and overthinking myself to death wasn't going to help any. "O for Kurapica to hurry up and kill the guy, X for Kurapica to not! One, two, and…!"
True to my expectations, the screen didn't light up, no matter how many times Leorio pushed the button on his watch.
"Why didn't it light up?" he hollered.
"I don't think we're allowed to use the board on our own," Gon said sheepishly.
"Okay, I got it. Let's vote by a show of hands. Those who want Kurapica to kill the criminal, raise your hand!" Leorio lifted his own hand high, and was shocked to see no one followed. "Traitor!" he yelled at Killua, the only one who had seemed to agree.
"It's useless," Killua said, shrugging. "He said he wouldn't change his mind."
"Yeah," Gon agreed. "His opponent was about to admit his defeat anyway. We just have to wait until he wakes up."
"…And if he never wakes up?" I finally spoke, drawing the attention of the fighting boys. Immediately, all of them hushed, eyes wide. I'd finally been able to realize what my troubled subconscious had been trying to tell me.
"What do you mean?" Gon asked. "No one can sleep forever."
"That's what I thought at first, too, but I just thought of something. If I were that guy, I might just lie there forever. Their purpose isn't victory—it's to keep us here as long as possible," I pointed out. "Even if that guy were to wake up, he might 'sleep' until our time is up." No matter which way I looked at it, I didn't want to trust a criminal. They were obviously using this situation to their own advantage.
"Ah, maybe he's even…already dead," Killua suggested, and I started. I hadn't even thought of that possibility. It was true that we hadn't been able to confirm his physical state for ourselves.
Leorio peered over intently, and I was instantly relieved. Leorio was training to be a doctor—he would surely be able to know. "Man, with the lack of light here, it's hard to tell," he admitted. He addressed the criminals on the other side. "We'd like to go and see if he's still alive. How can we believe that he might suddenly wake up? He might already be dead!"
"I just told you, he's only unconscious," the female prisoner stated, sounding irritated that they'd been found out so quickly.
"We can't trust the words of criminals!" Leorio yelled.
"…Well, in that case, would you like to bet?" the criminal asked slyly. "Is he dead or is he alive? Let's bet on it."
"A bet?" I repeated, confused.
"What are we betting on?" Leorio asked. "We don't have anything."
The female laughed. "Time! We'll bet, and the winner will receive time. Take a look at that black screen over there." We looked to where she was pointing and saw the number 50 lit up on the screen. "We can bet up to 50 hours. The minimum bet is 10 hours. The game will be over when one of the gamers is at zero hours. We'll take turns betting. If you lose, the time you have to exit the tower will be reduced by 50 hours. And if I lose, my sentence will be increased by fifty years. If you accept the game, I'll let you check to see if he's still alive or not."
"It's a girl's voice," Leorio muttered. "She's insane—ready to bet her prison sentence."
"Don't trust her, Leorio," Kurapica warned. "If we lose, we'll only have twelve hours to exit the tower.
"You're the one saying this?" Leorio growled. "We're only doing this because you didn't want to give the final blow!"
Kurapica pressed his lips together. "I understand," he said. "I won't say anything more." He looked almost like he was sulking—which was awfully cute of him—and I had to stifle my laughter.
"Still, he's right," I protested. "If she's betting on her sentence, she must be extremely confident. Forget about the bet; it's too risky. I'll go check myself." I prepared to walk off the platform, snapping my fingers.
"No, It's better if I go," Leorio asserted. "Even if you can see whether or not he's alive, you won't be able to tell whether or not he's really unconscious. If he really is alive, nothing will change even if you go over there. We'll just be waiting for him to wake up, same as before."
"Ah, that's true," I murmured dejectedly. "…So can't I just—"
"I accept the challenge!" Leorio called to the other side.
"—bring you with me?" I sighed, as Leorio hadn't seemed to be listening to me at all.
"As I decided the terms of the bet, I'll let you choose the stake in hours," the criminal said.
Leorio thought for a moment. "I bet 10 hours he's alive," Leorio said.
"You're prudent," Kurapica said approvingly.
"This is common sense, isn't it?" Leorio replied, crossing his arms. Truthfully, I thought Leorio could have bet higher and still be safe.
The criminals had a whispered conversation on the other end. I couldn't hear, so I glanced at Kurapica to see if he had. He didn't say anything, though, so either he hadn't been able to hear, or it simply wasn't anything important. "Alright, we'll let you go across and check," the female criminal said.
The bridge extended, and Leorio quickly strode across. He knelt before Majitani and rolled him over, checking his pulse.
"You see?" the female criminal asked, sounding bored. "He's only fainted."
The numbers on the screen changed to 40 and 60, in our favor.
"Yay, Leorio has taken the lead!" Gon cheered.
As Gon and Killua spoke with each other, I sat down beside Kurapica. "I don't understand your views on killing," I declared, and Kurapica turned curiously. "I thought you wanted to be a blacklist hunter."
Kurapica turned away, and for a second I thought he wouldn't answer. "…I don't really want to be a blacklist hunter," he admitted. "It's not like I'm after all the criminals in the world. I just want to avenge my clan."
"And you think you can do that without killing anyone?" I asked directly, referring to his refusal to kill Majitani.
Kurapica sucked in a breath. "The Phantom Brigade is composed of horrible murderers of the worst kind," Kurapica said, passionate with anger. "I will kill when I confront the Phantom Brigade, but not before then."
"That will put you at a severe disadvantage," I pointed out, steadfastly not looking at his eyes. I didn't want to see whether or not his eyes had turned crimson. If I could help it, I didn't want to see his eyes as anything other than their regular blue.
"How so?" Kurapica asked. To my relief, he didn't sound particularly angry.
"Well, from what I can tell, the members of the Brigade don't seem to have any morals," I explained. "If you've got all of yours, then you won't be able to confront them on even ground."
Kurapica was silent for a long while.
Meanwhile, the scoreboard changed to 80-20, in the criminals' favor. "Eh? What just happened?" I asked, flabbergasted that I had missed something so drastic.
"Geez, weren't you paying attention?" Killua complained. "Leorio managed to wake that dumb brute up over there, so even though we lost forty hours, we got Kurapica's victory."
"Oh," I said in surprise. Why on earth had Leorio bet forty hours, when he had been so careful before? "Well, I guess that's good. If Leorio wins, we'll be able to move on." I began to pay more attention to the match.
The criminal lifted her hood, revealing herself. "Let's bet on my gender—male or female?" she proposed. I frowned. She was obviously female. What was the point of this bet?
"…I'm okay with this," Leorio agreed, "but if I guess wrong, how will you prove it to me?"
"With my body, of course," the criminal replied, smirking. "You'll be free to check me wherever you'd like to obtain your proof." I gaped at her indecent words, flushing as the boys beside me shook their heads.
"That Leorio, he's going to choose male," Kurapica sighed, and Killua agreed.
Gon, however, looked clueless. "What?" he asked, blinking.
"Oh, come on," I said nervously. "Let's have a little faith. If he bets all of our hours that she's female, we'd be able to turn the tides a little." I stared intently at Leorio's back, willing him to do the right thing.
"Alright, I bet ten hours you're a male!" Leorio declared.
Kurapica shrugged. "There we go."
"Leorio!" I growled. He'd just wasted ten hours simply for his own satisfaction! Hadn't he lectured Kurapica for acting selfishly just a little while ago?
"Such a pervert," Killua grumbled.
"How did you know?" Gon asked, pouting at being left out.
Killua gave Gon a short explanation on how the minds of perverts worked, and I was a little concerned that Killua, who was the same age as Gon, knew of such things.
"Ah, I understand!" Gon said, nodding his head.
"Do you really?" I asked, dubious, but let it slide. I turned my attention back to the platform in the center of the room.
"Soooorry, but I'm a female," the criminal simpered. It seemed she'd already known what Leorio would say.
"S-seriously?" Leorio gasped in fake surprise.
"You wanna check?" his opponent asked, folding her arms and glancing at her nails.
Leorio smiled widely. "For sure!"
I groaned, burying my head in my hands. Honestly, doesn't that guy have any sense of shame? I wondered. "We're going to lose," I grumbled. "This was a terrible match-up. Kurapica should have faced this woman instead."
"What do you mean?" Gon asked.
"Leorio doesn't take big risks," I explained. "He takes a lot of small ones. In this case, he should've gone big from the beginning, when he was betting on things that he was sure of. Like whether Majitani was dead or alive, whether or not he was unconscious. He decided to give up forty hours in exchange for Kurapica's victory, which I'm okay with, even though it was a little excessive. But this time—that criminal was obviously female! If he had bet all of the points he had for female, we wouldn't be in quite this bad shape."
Killua shrugged. "That's true, but now it's Leorio's turn. Maybe he can turn the tides."
We waited intently for Leorio's bet. Maybe he could choose a topic only he knew about, like doctor-stuff. The number of pressure points in the body, for example.
"Whatever, I'll just go with luck!" Leorio bellowed, holding out a fist. "Let's play rock-paper-scissors!"
I coughed pointedly.
"Yeah, we've lost," Killua sighed.
"Maybe Leorio's really good at rock-paper-scissors!" Gon suggested optimistically.
"It's not really something you can be good at, though," I said doubtfully.
"Eh?" Gon looked surprised. "But I'm really good at it."
Killua peered at Gon. "I don't believe you," he said. "How can you be good at a game of luck?"
"It's true!" Gon protested. "I'll show you later."
Meanwhile, Leorio and his opponent were waving their fists. "Rock! Paper! Scissors!" Both of them chose rock, so they had to go again. "Rock! Paper! Scissors!" Leorio chose rock again, but the opponent chose paper.
I slapped my forehead, leaning back against the wall.
"Yay, victory!" the criminal cheered gleefully, making her way back to her side.
Leorio began to trudge over to us.
Suddenly, Kurapica grabbed my sleeve to get my attention. "I'll become strong enough so that I won't have to," Kurapica stated.
"What?" I asked, bewildered, still strung on Leorio's disappointing loss.
"Before, you said that I won't be able to confront the Brigade on fair terms," Kurapica reminded me, referring to our earlier conversation. "So I'll just make it so I won't have to. I'll become strong."
Slowly, my mouth curved into a smile. I could see in his eyes that he truly believed he could become as strong as he wished. Of course, I couldn't sit idly either. "Yeah," I said. "Let's all become strong."