Disclaimer: I wish I owned Hunter but it already belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi :( Sadly, I just own my idiotic OC, Hitomi... yay...
Chapter 39: Pennywise Attacks x The Heartless Boy x Sudden Realization
"What the-?!" Hitomi's eyes were open in full capacity. "Leorio in third place?!"
"That's incredible..." Killua mumbled.
They were all checking in a tablet the Hunter site, to have news about how the Chairman Elections were going on. Certainly, the picture of Leorio being the Chairman had never crossed their mind until now... They just didn't know what to think about that.
"YOU CAN GO TO HELL!"
Hitomi looked at the video Killua found and couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of Leorio using his Nen ability to punch Gon's father, Ging, in the jaw.
"I guess this clip had a big impact," Killua mumbled.
"I can see why," the girl snickered a little more. "Looks like our little Leorio-chan can use Nen perfectly now, and that he turned to be an Emitter."
The boy nodded, raising an eyebrow. "And that he has no problem using his Nen in front of a crowd..."
"So true... At least we can say that he isn't shy at all..."
They replayed the video again, and this time the Kuruta was able to hold her laugh.
"So do people dislike Gon's dad?" the boy wondered.
"It looks like it. There was a standing ovation there," Hitomi smirked. "It looks like I was right after all. Ging is just an idiot and Gon got in all the trouble of taking the Exam to meet him... And it indirectly drove him to his close-to-death state."
That was when Killua's phone rang. Gotoh picked up right away and there was a beat until he said something.
"Illumi-sama," he spoke to the phone.
A shiver travelled down Hitomi's spine, that name was the last one she wanted to hear around. Amane and Killua tensed as well as Alluka just blinked in confusion, ignorant of the thick tension in the place.
"... Yes, at once. Please, wait a moment," Gotoh then handed Killua the phone.
Hitomi then looked at Amane. Her tensed state made her understand everything, as well as Killua had. The Zoldyck Family's correlation chart surrounding Alluka was crystal clear now to both of them.
"Despite what he says, Silva trusts Killua, and that's the reason he let Gotoh and me accompanying him, instead of forcing him to stop. However, he still doesn't trust his daughter power at all. It makes sense, one wrong move and it's goodbye to the entire Zoldyck Family," Hitomi analyzed. "But he also wants to control Alluka, reason of which he just locked her up in a room with countless toys. He also made Tsubone and Amane, who look like his most trusted butlers, go with us so they can stop everything if something happens. That old woman looks like she can kill me in a flash... They, then, will take Killua and Alluka back home immediately. And Silva hopes that they'll glean some hint that helps him controlling his own daughter as a bonus."
She looked at Amane. Hitomi was sure that they were being cautious, unlike Kanaria and Gotoh, who were at their side.
"And to mess things up even more..." she remembered. "There's also Illumi."
"The moment that Gotoh said his name, Amane's tension spiked," Killua looked at his phone. "This means Amane and Tsubone, and Father and Grandpa by extension, disagree with Illumi."
It looked like Gotoh played good. If Tsubone had been there, she would have either distracted them or told Amane to shut her feelings off, after seeing the male butler's reaction.
Hitomi quickly got it by just looking at her friend's face: That was an internal family struggle she couldn't get her nose in.
Killua also knew it; that was an inner mission.
"They definitely aren't an united family at all, which makes logical to think that when they differ in opinion or objective, they won't sat around a table to talk about it like a real family and unite in the same goal. They do things their own way. This is a contest!" the girl concluded. "Silva, and probably his father, want Alluka close to them, in their hands, to control her. But at the same time, they don't want Killua hurt by her..."
"... I want to save Gon and Kurapika, and to set Alluka free while keeping Hitomi alive..." Killua continued his thoughts.
"... But the most terrifying thing is what Illumi wants..."
They passed through a tunnel, Alluka's face popping up in Killua's mind.
"... He wants to kill Alluka!" the boy reached the conclusion.
Hitomi frowned, while looking at the smiling Alluka. She couldn't help but wince at the thought of someone wanting to kill his own little sister.
"You removed the needle, didn't you?" Illumi's voice was what Killua heard from the speaker.
"Yeah," he replied, coldly. "I feel a lot better."
"Then I won't have to hold back when I kill you."
"Kill? Me?"
The Kuruta tensed at the words of the albino. She had a bad feeling about it.
"You can't kill family members during an inner mission," Illumi then laughed. "Family is off limits."
Killua lost it completely at that moment. Hitomi flinched slightly when she felt his bloodlust and looked at him. His face had darkened dramatically and his pupils had dilated.
"Hey, hey. Isn't this part great?" Alluka turned to Hitomi, smiling brightly while showing her something in her tablet. "Why is this story so mysterious?"
"Yeah... It's fantastic..." she mumbled, forcing herself to take her sight out of Killua and smile to the little girl.
Meanwhile, said boy gritted his teeth. He remembered his father saying something about Alluka not being part of the family.
"Is that what Father meant?" he tightened his grasp on the phone. "They're all thinking the same thing!"
CRACK!
A cold drop of sweat ran down Hitomi's temple. She slowly looked up to see that the phone in his hand had just cracked because the pressure the boy made on it.
"For goodness sake, don't do anything foolish..." she prayed and prayed...
But...
"Fine," Killua said in a dark voice. "I'll beat you at your own game."
The girl's face fell. That was bad.
"Then, let's begin," Illumi called.
BOOM!
Just before he said that, a truck appeared from nowhere and send the car in front of them flying. Kanaria, who was driving at the moment, reacted quickly enough to avoid it, even if it meant driving the wall.
"Killua!" Hitomi shouted, throwing Alluka at his arms.
"She's right! Killua-sama, don't let go of Alluka-sama!" Gotoh shouted as well. "If you two are more than a meter apart, Amane will capture Alluka-sama and Tsubone will take you home by force just after killing your friend!"
He nodded, hugging her tightly as Kanaria continued avoiding more and more cars being charged at them. Hitomi watched their car jumping in the air just to meet a truck charging a lot of large, metal beams. They fell right in front of it.
The two vehicles hit each other, the impulse sending the beams right to them, going across the car like knives.
"Watch out!"
Hitomi pushed the siblings out the way. In the process, she ended up injuring her left arm. She couldn't help but yelp in pain at it.
"Are you-?!" Killua was worried.
"Don't!" she cut him off, grabbing her bleeding arm. "Don't worry about me! Protect your sister!"
Reluctantly, Killua nodded and embraced Alluka tighter. Not paying attention at her was hard.
The car started to fall down the cliff, and Hitomi feared what was next. Just meters before hitting the floor, she used her Nen to break the roof of the car.
"Do any of you like free falling?" she joked.
Killua jumped first, while holding her sister by her waist and grabbed himself in a branch of a tree. The butlers managed to do so as well but in Hitomi's case, she didn't have such a luck. She missed the branch, painfully failing in the ground and rolling on it.
But at least they all missed being hurt by the explosion.
After then, they all landed in the ground, just looking at the girl who had her face still pressed against the floor. Killua chuckled, cat ears popped up, at the sight of her. All the others, though, just blinked.
Hitomi's body shook in rage, not taking her face out from the ground. It hurted. A lot.
She finally glared at the sky, her face full of dirt.
"DAMN YOU, ILLUMI!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. The sound echoed in all the forest and more.
In another cliff, two young men were standing, looking at the fire from the explosion. One of them released an amused smirk after hearing the female shouting.
"Oh, dear. Looks like someone is angry with you~!" the magician told the other one, who was shaking a little out of irritation, despite not being able to change his face.
"She will never die, will she?" he whispered.
Hisoka smirk widened and crouched, holding his hand in front of him in order to see better.
"That was excessive," he commented. "I thought you were going to ask him first."
"I have a little bird who brings me information, and after examining it, there's something that bothers me," Illumi told him. "Killua is hiding rules from us. If there are rules I don't know about, trying to negotiate with him is pointless. He might accede to my demands because they favor him."
The magician just looked at him.
"So I'll dispose of Alluka before he has a chance to use that advantage," Illumi continued. "I just need you to eliminate the butlers and Hitomi... Don't let that girl live. Then, look for a chance to take Alluka from Killua. For now."
"Okay," Hisoka then turned to Illumi. "By the way, am I allowed to kill Killua?"
That was the first time ever that Illumi showed any emotion. His eyes opened dramatically as the wind blew his hair away, enraged at the thought.
"I will... kill you... Right here... Right now," he pronounced.
"I was kidding~!" Hisoka grinned, before tilting his head at him. "You're oozing bloodlust. Is that alright?"
Illumi froze there, snapping out his anger. He looked in panic at the place he supposed that Killua was.
"Oh, damn," the Zoldyck turned to Hisoka, an eyebrow raising out of annoyment. "Was that on purpose?"
"Certainly not."
That was enough to convince Illumi and Hisoka was glad of it.
"I don't want to kill Hitomi just yet... If at all possible, I'd like Kurapika, Gon and her to live," he thought. "Having more toys is always more amusing... Well, only if it's possible."
"Try to stay away from Illumi-sama," Amane told Killua. "If he knows the route we're taking, it's best to change directions."
Hitomi had quickly stood up in her feet after feeling exactly what Killua felt, Illumi's bloodlust. The boy told his sister to hold herself tightly on him, just before they all started running, opposite of the direction where they felt the older Zoldyck.
"I concur, but..." the boy admitted. "It's hard to me to agree with you."
"My grandmother and I are not your enemies," she said.
"Not right now. But that could change if my father's mood changes."
"Silva-sama and Zeno-sama are not your enemies. Our mission is to bring you home safely, Killua-sama."
At the statement, Killua stopped running. They all turned to him, as he went in his Godspeed mode. Hitomi flinched... she was scared of what he was going to do...
"If that doesn't include Alluka, you're all enemies!"
And in a blink of eye, he was gone. Hitomi growled slightly and used her own Nen to run away after him, managing to lose the other butlers as well.
But the girl ended up losing him at the same time.
"I know I told you that I could take care of myself... but this is too much! Damned Zoldycks!"
Hitomi had to stop running because of the lack of air.
Panting like she was going to die of low oxygen, the girl leaned against the nearest tree, her chest rising and falling, and her heart beating like mad at the point of hurting her. She had her hand placed in her still bleeding arm, which annoyed her the most.
And the worst part was that she still wasn't able to find Killua.
"Come on, Hitomi," she smacked herself. "You can't lose a boy with totally white hair in the forest when he is shining in the brightest shade of blue!"
She took a step ahead but then froze. An eerie feeling tensed her body as a shiver went down her spine. She stood still, in anticipation.
Her eyes narrowed, looking at her surroundings carefully. They shone in a brighter red color.
"I know there's someone there, show yourself!" she shouted at the person she couldn't see. "Who is it?"
Hitomi heard the bushes behind her and steps coming closer.
"A magician who wishes to stay anonymous," the voice said.
Slowly, the girl turned around and narrowly dodged something that came towards her, scratching her cheek, maybe a knife. She found it strange when she saw a card stabbed in the nearest tree instead.
Hitomi looked at the enemy and froze. There was, smirking in a sick way, a orange-haired young man, with his face all painted in bright colours.
"Hisoka?!" she was shocked.
The Kuruta girl reached into a conclusion of it really quickly. She was doomed.
"My, my... Looks like I won't stay anonymous anymore," he took a step closer, as the girl took one back in reflex. "Oh, dear. Are you scared of me?"
"I hadn't developed any kind of coulrophobia or similar yet, thank you very much."
"So, I will never look like anything that is not a clown to you, right?" Hitomi was surprised when she noticed four of his cards floating around his hands.
"Wait... Do they float?" she blinked but quickly felt really stupid and used Gyo, just to realize that it he was just using his Bungee Gum to spin them around.
"Oh, yes, they float. They all float," he grinned in a creepy way. "And soon you will float too~!"
One part of her wanted to facepalm while the other wanted to get away from there, to find Killua and Alluka for once. Hisoka was damn scary.
She had no more time to think, because he swung his hand around and the cards got shot at her. Out of reflex, she jumped high to avoid them, but then she felt the pain.
On the other second, her face was pressed against the ground. She kept there for a second, feeling a warmth feeling rushing through her back like water.
"What the-?" she thought at the sight of blood in the floor. She reached at the place in pain and took off a card.
Using Gyo again concluded that she was inside some kind of Bungee Gum ring.
"I wasn't doing nothing when I followed you," his smirk widened. "In fact, I managed to hit you with the cards you just dodged by using my ability."
"Well, well," she stood up, smirking as well. "Looks like Pennywise is a bit wise after all."
Hisoka chuckled. "So I heard."
Hitomi stood still, slightly moving her hand so she could generate sonic waves from the bracelet. The magician looked in slight interest as the little girl got surrounded by her Nen, so it protected her like a shield.
His blue eyes looked at the red ones. Her Nen had gotten stronger than before, and it excited him a lot.
"Here we go!" the waves flew around her and the magician jumped in order to avoid being hit, just to find that Hitomi was now in the branch above him to land a punch.
He blocked the first one. He avoided the other punch and wrapped her leg with his Bungee Gum when she tried to land a kick.
"Shit!" she cursed in her head as he threw her by it and spun her around the place, with an amused smirk in his face. "And that bastard is enjoying this!"
She did her best to dodge the tree and managed to stand on it, an idea crossing her mind. Before Hisoka could pull at her, she leaped forward, in diagonal and so, in a matter of time the thread was tangled.
"Not bad," Hisoka had no more option but undo it.
"Thanks for the compliment."
When she, however, wanted to move, a wave of dizziness hit her. She stumbled back, hitting her back against the tree and placing her hand on her head, frowning in pain.
"What the hell is happening to me?!" she panicked, right after realizing that Hisoka couldn't hold his laugh anymore. "What did he do to me...?"
Hitomi's eyes opened after remembering something, reaching out the scratch of her cheek with her hand and touching it softly. She thought about the wounds of her back and winced.
"The way you are looking at me tells me that you noticed," he walked closer, and she tensed visibly. "It took less to take effect than I supposed."
"So..." she gasped for air. "So you poisoned me?"
"It was wise, too," he showed his card at her. "Don't you think?"
Hitomi flinched, as she did her best to avoid another strike coming her way.
"Damn, it's spreading through my body fast... Mostly because I'm too small... I'm lucky, it doesn't seem to be lethal..." she bended, dodging a card. "But I still can't afford being hit again. Increasing the dose is a big no-no..." she jumped, avoiding being hit again.
She bit her lip, panting audibly.
But she knew better, she was a goner already. Every step, made her mouth dry even more. Every jump, made her heart beat even faster. Man, even blinking made her feel more and more tired.
"Behind you, Apple-chan~!"
Her eyes opened in shock, as she did her best to turn around. A card made a huge gash in her belly, right before the magician's knee hit her right into the stomach. The air left her lungs suddenly when she hit the floor, meters away from him.
Hitomi tried to stand up, looking at the clown coming her way. She tried stand still, but her legs quickly gave up, unable to support her own weight anymore. She kept there, kneeling in the floor.
"N-No way..." she coughed some blood. "Strength is... leaving my body..."
She fell once again, and she grimaced over the fact she had just fallen in her injured arm. Little before that, it became one of her last problems...
Her gaze was getting blurrier...
Damn, even her eyelids were heavier than before...
Hisoka stood in front of her, and Hitomi only managed to move her eyes at him. He was holding a card and grinning... She wasn't able to move...
"Sweet dreams," his voice looked far away from her.
She finally closed her eyes, in surrender, accepting her cruel fate. Slowly, consciousness left Hitomi alone with that murderer.
Kurapika just sighed, looking at the white ceiling while leaning on the bed, Leorio reading some magazine at his side. He once complained about the pervert themes his companion was looking at, but after a while he shook it off. There were a few facts way more important in his mind to worry about that.
"Leorio?" he caught his attention.
"Hmm?" his gaze was still fixed in the magazine. Kurapika looked at his face and shook his head in a disapproving way. He was visibly blushing...
Well, it didn't matter. His bright blue eyes looked at the spot of the ceiling he was looking at before, absentmindedly.
"I'm going to die, aren't I?"
Leorio's glasses almost dropped from his head, as he quickly caught them. The future doctor quickly looked at his friend and winced. He expected him to look a little... more afraid. It wasn't that he looked happy either...
It was like he didn't care about it.
It was a little scary.
Leorio wondered how had he noticed that, remembering the events that happened since Killua and Hitomi departed to look for the way to heal them both.
Nothing really, just the usual... What he predicted. After realizing that, indeed, the boy had not a heart, his health worsened even more. He fainted once, scaring him to death. When he woke up, Leorio was relieved...
But now, Kurapika was growing weaker, and was bedridden.
As all the people around them hoped for the young Hunters to come there as quick as possible.
"What are you talking about?" he pretended to grin. "Even coming from an emo like you, it's kind of unusual, isn't it?"
The older one expected to be hit when he ruffled his friend's blond hair, but there was no reaction. He didn't even look at him as he narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not an idiot, Leorio. I know my body, and I know the restriction I broke... It's even a miracle that I'm breathing right now," he spoke. "And I know that well... Whatever is happening to me, there's no cure..." he smirked at himself. "Looks like, in the end, I'm not better than Gon..."
Both males fell silent for a while. Leorio's face went serious as he released a long sigh, knowing from beforehand that it was just useless to lie to Kurapika.
He placed his hands over the young boy's shoulders.
"Listen, Kurapika, I need you to forget all of this... And keep happy thoughts. You'll be alright..." Leorio spoke, the last part rather to convince himself. "I need you to stay strong... until Killua and Hitomi arrive... They will definitely heal you up."
That was the only time Kurapika showed any emotion, as he shot up from his bed in pure shock about what he had heard.
"Hey!" Leorio tried to put him down. "Don't stress yourself!"
"It doesn't matter!" he shouted. "What did you say?! I thought they were only going to heal Gon!"
"Well, actually... They went to heal you too..."
Kurapika clutched the sheets beneath his hands. The thought of Killua and his own sister dying to help him... To summarize everything, it wasn't a pretty picture for him at all.
"Who told... Hitomi about me?" he asked softly.
"No one, really. She figured it out for herself," Leorio scratched the back of her neck. "You should know that you are a terrible liar... Now, just... Just lie down."
Kurapika had no more option but do as Leorio told him to. For the eleventh time of the time, looked at the roof and released a long sigh. He shifted in the bed, his back facing his friend, bringing his covers close to his body.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." he frowned. "Killua... Hitomi... Just be careful."
"Hitomi... Just be careful..." the words echoed in her mind, as she desperately fought to regain consciousness.
Hisoka, on the other hand, just stood in front of her unconscious form, tightly holding a card in his hand. That was the moment. Everything would end there, in the next second.
But... Why was he hesitating? It certainly wasn't his first kill.
Maybe, it was for the match they had. Sure, she hadn't even landed a hit on him, but she had just shown some promise... She was someone who was in the verge of getting at her top strength.
Probably, that was the reason. Hisoka didn't want to kill her just yet.
He then made up his mind and tried to strike her, just to stab the ground. He looked, amusingly, at the female who had rolled in the floor just in time to avoid the final blow. Hitomi was looking at him, eyes wide and panting.
"Good morning," Hisoka grinned. "Slept well?"
"Well, they say that the best nap has a length of about twenty minutes, but it was just fine," she still had the energy enough to joke around. "I have the feeling that if I slept a second more, I would just pass away in my sleep, am I wrong?"
"Right," he looked at her. "Certainly right."
She tried to stand still, but she wavered a little. Hitomi bit her lip, she had to get ridden of that drowsiness. Now.
Hisoka stared at her eyes for a long time.
"Oh, my. That look is scaring me," he spoke. "Standing up even in that state... Well, what can I expect from a Manipulator?"
"What does my Nen type have to do with this?" she frowned.
"Didn't I tell you? My bad. One of a Manipulator's traits is to keep the people they love safe," he then counted. "In a matter like this, the ones you care that are affected... Let's see... Killua... his sister... Gon... your heartless brother..."
"Heartless?" she chuckled. "He can be one for sure, but I don't get what he did to you..."
"Huh~?" he laughed. "I meant it in a literal way."
Her eyes opened in both shock and confusion.
"What?" she whispered.
"You don't know? Well, it doesn't surprise me. I heard about it little ago," he told her. "Kurapika's heart is gone, physically."
Hitomi froze there out of shock, as she convinced herself that he was just lying. It just... it didn't make sense for her... Just...
Well, at least she wanted to convince herself that it didn't make any sense, but in the end she couldn't help but think that it explained everything.
"Even Nen can keep people without heart alive," Hisoka explained. "It easy when you think about it, even a simple Manipulator can use their Nen to make the blood keep flowing and everything work perfectly."
Hitomi thought about that, she found confusing that her mother could use a Hatsu technique, when she didn't know about Nen all her life. But then again, death was able to make Nen stronger, so it shouldn't have been that surprising.
Something was right, though. Whatever the Kuruta mother made to help his son, was becoming weaker, and he was dying.
Not only Kurapika, Gon was dying too because Nen as well, in a different way. Hitomi also thought about Killua and Alluka... Were they fine?
"I need to get to them as quick as possible... But I need to get rid of this clown... Somehow," she thought, silently taking her knife out of her pocket. "First I need to wake up... This is the fastest way I can think of."
Hisoka looked in curiosity as the girl browsed the dagger and gripped it tightly. Nen didn't rushed out her body, as he was used to.
"She wants to take me down without even using her Nen?" he was confused. "Wow, she is already out of her mind, it seems."
"Here I go!" she shouted. The magician got ready for the strike. "Hisoka!"
But, the man got greatly surprised by her actions, though. Instead of charge at him, like he expected, she stabbed her own arm with her knife, biting her lip to hold a cry of pain back.
"What are you looking at?" she joked while grimacing. She took her bloody dagger out of her arm and smirked, still in pain. "You haven't seen a girl the right side of her mind self-injuring herself without a reason at all in your life?"
"Is that so~?" Hisoka grinned. "You look a little insane to me. Not more than me, though."
"Just a little, eh?" she ran to him. "At least I'm wide awake now!"
Hitomi disappeared in front of him and attacked by his back, just to have her fist blocked by him. Quickly, she swung her weapon around and managed to make a gash in Hisoka's shoulder.
The magician froze there, in shock, and Hitomi took advantage of that. She flipped in the air and stood back, waiting for his next move.
"Yay! I hit Hisoka!" she yelled in her head. "I think that now I understand Gon's excitement when he punched him in the Heavens Arena..."
But then, her happiness erased when he looked at the magician's expression and paled like a ghost. Hisoka had touched his blood with his fingers, and now he was liking it like a complete psychopath.
"Calm down... You can't kill her..." his eyes were completely dilated, and shone like a sick person. "The fruit is not ready... Not yet... Need to calm down..."
"It's exactly like when my brother fought him..." she realized, frowning at the sight.
Hitomi didn't know how much time passed since he started looking at her bright red eyes, but she somehow was feeling uneasy. After a long time, he broke eye-contact and laughed. That creepy laugh sent shivers down her spine.
"Now I understand, you are sharper than you look," Hisoka then said, still smiling in a scary way, winning a confused look from the girl. "The reason of you stabbing yourself."
"I thought we already stated that it was just to awake myself, in drastic way."
Hisoka chuckled once again, making Hitomi's muscles tense radically.
"Now I'm totally sure that you're not a Transmuter," he pointed at her. "You are a terrible liar."
That hit Hitomi hard, even more that it should have. It wasn't that she hadn't heard about it... it was the opposite. She had heard that about a dozen of times - the most of the times was Killua who told her that - and she was just beginning to believe it.
Damn.
"You are trying to bleed the poison out, aren't you?" Hitomi frowned at it. "But it's kind of double edged sword, isn't it?"
"Shut up!"
Hitomi knew he was right, but didn't care. There was a huge risk in her move. True, she could take most of the poison out of her body, but there was a consequence that could be a problem... Blood loss. There was a matter of time until she felt the lack of blood in her system.
She was feeling better now, but it wouldn't last long. That was why she decided to end it as fast as possible.
"But there's a good thing about it," she smirked. "Hisoka still doesn't know that my actions had a third reason..."
Pretending anger, she fired a couple of sonic waves at his way, which he dodged, before charging at him. They exchanged punches and kicks fast, but no one landed in the other. Hisoka was surprised at first.
Had her speed increased? No, it didn't... He was slower than before.
When he realized his vision blurring for a few seconds, his eyes opened slightly. He remembered when she stabbed a dagger soaked in her own blood in his arm and finally got it.
"Her blood was poisoned. So, at that time, she poisoned me... The dose was small, but enough for slow my movements down, so she could stay at my speed..." he then smirked. "My, my... Every second makes me hesitate even more my decision to kill her that soon..."
"Tired already?" Hitomi asked, stepping back for a little. "Then, I will show you another new trick."
She stroke again, but not in the way he expected. She grabbed his wrist instead of punching. But what surprised Hisoka was that it suddenly started to burn at the touch, so even himself had to bit back a yelp of pain. Hitomi, smirking, grabbed his other arm and it pained him a lot too.
He pushed her back, and started to laugh like a maniac again, looking at his red wrist, full of nasty blisters.
"This girl is really interesting... But I have to endure," her palm collided with his face, burning his cheek. "... Resist..." she burnt his right arm. "... Calm down..." and then, aimed for his eyes. "... Wait..." without restraining himself anymore, he grabbed the girl by her neck. "ENDURE!"
Oozing bloodlust at his top point, he tightened his grasp on Hitomi, and she cried and howled in pain, frantically trying to break free from his iron grip. However, it all ended when the young Hunter started to melt, in his surprise, getting away from his hands.
Hisoka instantly turned around and spotted a shadow quickly getting away from his sight. He smirked at it.
"Oh, well. That saves me from all the trouble," the magician decided to turn a blind eye. "Since she is that unpredictable, it's not that unlikely that Illumi won't believe me when I tell him that she fooled me good and ran away without me noticing..." he started to walk at the opposite way. "Anyway, he said that Killua had brought a couple of butlers, right?... That will be enough to entertain me for a little~!"
"That's bad..." Killua looked over his shoulder, finding nothing. "I think I got carried away and lost Hitomi as well... Let's hope she is okay."
After a long time of running, the boy finally made a stop while carrying his little sister in his arms. He looked around and undid his Speed of Lightning, forcing himself to smile a bit.
"Okay! We should be far enough away to take a break," he spoke calmly, before slowly walking through the forest. "I'd like to use Speed of Lightning to keep going, but to be safe, I should save my energy for getting into town. Also, if we keep going like this, there is a chance that Hitomi can catch with us. She should be faster than the others with her Nen."
"Big brother?" Alluka broke her brother from his thoughts.
Killua looked at her by the corner of his eye. For the first time since they had started they run-away, she was looking straight at him with those big, innocent, blue eyes of her.
"Am I... a nuisance?" The boy stopped walking, turning his head towards the child in confusion by her words. "If I were gone, would everyone get along better?"
The male Zoldyck didn't answer for a while, slowly putting Alluka down. He then placed both hands in her shoulders, gazing at the ground.
"Alluka," he looked up at her, smiling warmly. "If I were the only person in the world who really loved you, would you be sad?"
For a few seconds, Alluka stared blankly at the whitehead. That was when her lips curved into a wide grin, looking like she was drunk in happiness.
"I'm so happy, I can't stop smiling!" she giggled cutely.
"Okay?" Killua hugged his sister tightly. "I'll always be with you!" the kid wrapped her arms around him as well. "You don't need to worry about anyone else."
That was when he noticed something and narrowed his eyes.
"Someone is there. Is it Tsubone? Is it Illumi?" he thought.
Both siblings heard some leaves rustling and tensed, turning around to the source of the sound. There was someone in the shadows, standing over the branches. Killua placed a hand over Alluka's shoulder out of instinct. The person jumped down and stood in front of them.
But when he looked at his face, Killua relaxed considerably.
"That's bad, I thought you would be dead be dead now," the boy rolled her eyes. Hitomi scoffed in annoyment at his statement. "You're late, though."
"Oh, sorry for not being an albino version of Flash," Hitomi rolled her eyes. "Next time, run a little slower."
The Kuruta then noticed Alluka acting somehow awkwardly. She was standing slightly behind Killua, her left hand grabbing his shirt, looking at the older girl in a strange manner... No, it wasn't fear, Hitomi could tell.
She was keeping her distance to her, though.
"Hey, Killua," Hitomi turned to the boy. "Did you say something funny to your sister?"
"Well, not really, but..."
Hitomi looked at the girl for a while, and her gaze softened. With a sigh, she stood in front of her, bending slightly to be at her eye-level. She smiled kindly to the wary kid.
"Alluka, listen, because I'm not going to say this around often..." she gazed at the floor. "I'm sorry."
Killua was surprised about that, but didn't say anything at all.
"I noticed there's... an awkward distance between us, and I can't not help but think that it's my fault... because it's my fault..." Hitomi released a friendly chuckle. "I never did anything to fix that... I guess that's because I'm a complete idiot who doesn't know how to socialize with new people," she scratched the back of her head. "But, even though I know you probably don't like me, I do like you, so... Is there a way... to start over and be friends?"
Alluka didn't say anything for a long while, she just directed her gaze to the ground.
"Can you... tell me your name?" that took both Hunters aback. "You know... there is no way that anyone doesn't have a name... At that time, I accepted your choice of not letting me learn it. In fact, I know that Big brother didn't let you do that because it would hurt us both..." the female Zoldyck looked at her eyes. "But to be friends, I think we first have to know who we really are. So, can I know it?"
"Wait, Alluka-!" Killua tried to stop her.
"It's okay, Killua," Hitomi said, still looking at the little girl. "I want her to trust me as much as I trust her," she then smiled at the boy. "I want to do this."
The boy had no more option but stay out of this. The Kuruta looked back at Alluka, her grin still on, as she looked at her intensely.
"My name is Hitomi Kuruta," the girl spoke.
"I'm Alluka Zoldyck!" the younger one waved her hands around. "Nice to meet you!"
"I already know that."
"Don't be mean!" Alluka pouted. "You said that you wanted start over!"
"Right, right..." Hitomi chuckled. "Nice to meet you too."
Killua blinked at them, before releasing a smile. It was nice to see them that close now. "Girls..." he whispered with a sigh.
Hitomi then stood in her feet, when a wave of pain greeted her entire body, but forced herself to hide it. Her short grimace, however, didn't go unnoticed by the sharp-eyed Zoldyck, who narrowed his blue orbs at the sight of the wounds covering her body.
He, however, wondered how he didn't notice that sooner.
"What happened with you?" Killua asked.
"Oh, this," she looked at her body. "I stumbled across Pennywise, why?"
Alluka blinked in confusion while the boy raised an eyebrow.
"Who is this 'Pennywise'?" he asked again.
"Who else do you know that looks like clown?" the silence made Hitomi facepalm. "It's Hisoka, you dumbass!"
"HISOKA?!" his eyes opened greatly. "You didn't fight him... did you?"
"Oh, no," she walked past him. "I just stood there as he stabbed poisonous cards in all my body while eating cookies!"
At the silence, Hitomi realized that she shouldn't have mentioned the part of the poison. Quickly, her vision blurred a little, as she wavered a bit. Thankfully, Killua's hands were placed in her shoulders, stabilizing her.
"Take it easy, please," Alluka told her, sweetly. "You are wounded..."
"Don't worry," she slapped the boy's hands away. "I'm totally fine. Let's get moving!"
Then Hitomi cursed in her head, feeling the side-effects of either blood loss or poisoning, she didn't care which of both was, though. It looked like the adrenaline that was flowing in her blood - or what it remained of it - was running out.
"Hitomi!"
Everything spinned to the girl and when she realized what was happening, her knees had hit the ground. Looking at the blood dripping from her wounds to the grass, tainting it, she realized that neither her arms nor her legs had the strength enough to get her up.
They both rushed at her side instantly, in worry, to look at the shaking Kuruta. Killua did her best to keep calm, because he didn't want Alluka to panic either. That was the last that they needed right now.
"We need to treat this," Killua mumbled, almost to himself.
"No way, leave me here!" Hitomi shouted. "We can't lose any more time on me! I can manage in my own!"
"No!" Alluka yelled, much in the Hunters' surprise. "I won't let Big sister alone here!"
Hitomi smirked to herself. It looked like she got into the sister level already...
"Seriously, Hitomi, doing things by your own like that..." Killua sighed. "You are a B-type, aren't you?"
"So what if I am?"
"Thanks. That's all I needed to know."
Killua did what the girl expected the least. He picked her up bridal style, like he always did with his sister. Hitomi blushed like mad, trying to break free from his grasp, in vain.
"Alluka," he turned to his sister. "Sorry for the trouble, but can you hold by yourself in my shoulders?"
"Of course!" Alluka climbed in Killua's back, quickly sitting in his shoulders for a better grip.
"HEY!" Hitomi yelled. "Let me go! I'm totally fine!"
"See?" Killua told her, smirking. "You don't even have the strength to struggle..."
"I'm struggling, you idiot!"
"You are? Well, that makes me more certain about your lame physical state."
Hitomi growled slightly and gave up, because she noticed he was right. She was way too tired to continue fighting against his strong grip. It was useless.
"Just don't force yourself anymore, okay?" he whispered at her. "It's okay, you can rest until we reach there."
"You really think I would fall asleep while you are watching?" she bit back a laugh. "You pervert."
Killua still couldn't believe how stubborn Hitomi was. You just had to look at her to realize that she was actually fighting to not fall asleep. He looked ahead, smirking.
The girl wondered why she was feeling that good when she pressed her head against Killua's chest... His warmth... It made her feel alive, but sleepy at the same time.
"Let's see so," but when he realized, she was already unconscious...
He couldn't blame her though. He frowned at her pale face, instinctively bringing her cold body against his own.
"Please, hold on a little more..." he forced himself to run faster. "Don't die, Hitomi!"
Consciousness suddenly hit her, as she shut her eyes tightly in discomfort of the light coming from the windows. Only after a couple of minutes, Hitomi decided to slowly open her eyes. Her gaze was blurry, but focused in the white ceiling above her, trying to recall the events from last time.
Quietly, she turned her head and saw something that awoke her all of sudden. Killua was there, his head resting in the bed, in a deep slumber.
"Like any cliché shoujo manga..." the girl's eyebrow twitched.
But when she took a closer look at the expression in his face, the girl frowned. He was grimacing. His eyes were shut tightly and his hand grasping the sheets, clutching them, more likely. Sweat beads were forming in his forehead.
"Killua... What's wrong?" she tried to shake him awake. "Wake up! Killua!"
With a gasp, Killua straightened up. He sat there, with wide eyes, feeling a little disoriented for a few minutes. Hitomi looked at him, blankly.
"You are awake now?" she asked.
Killua then seemed to recognize her as he blinked at her. "You are awake..."
"Yeah, I think I just asked something like this just now..."
That was when she felt herself being pulled to a hug. She blinked when Killua tighty brought her against his body, resting his head in her shoulder.
Well, was just her impression or he was really out of character right now?
"Don't do that ever again, you idiot," he whispered at her.
And, without a clue of what to do, the girl hugged him back.
Hitomi had no idea of how annoying knowing the truth was, Killua had told her everything that happened in the whole two days she was off .
Despite all their efforts, Kanaria and Amane caught up with them, but they managed to keep Illumi from discovering them at least. It was time to depart, though, because he would end up visiting them in no time.
"We've already prepared an airship," Amane told them when they met up in the airport.
"Great, how many?" Killua asked, confusing the butler. "Sounds like you only have one. Are you serious about this? Without at least five or six airships heading to different places, we'll never lose Illumi!" he pointed at them. "Split up, and make the arrangements."
Meanwhile, Hitomi called Kanaria over. Without letting Amane know, she whispered.
"Hey, Kanaria," she was serious. "We need you to do something for us, please. Would you?"
"Of course," she nodded, blinking. "What is it?"
"Just... How annoying... but annoying like annoying can you be?"
After ending their conversation, Hitomi walked out the place and sat down next to the Zoldyck siblings. She noticed by the corner of her eye Killua shivering slightly, but decided not to worry too much about it.
There were in the middle of a plan after all.
"This airship will take us to our destination," Kanaria told Amane. "Is that okay?"
"Yes," the butler nodded.
"We'll have to pay for two tickets, or they'll find out it's unmanned."
"I know that!" Amane was beginning to feel irritated. "Do you take me for a fool?"
"What does this say?" Kanaria asked, holding a paper.
"Ask the clerk."
"What names should we put the tickets under?"
"Look, can't you do anything by yourself?!" Amane then turned around to the place where the Zoldycks and Hitomi was supposed to be, but found no one. "Where's Killua-sama?"
Realization then hit her when she saw the airship flying high in the sky.
"Damn it!" the butler then yelled. She turned to Kanaria, pointing a finger at her. "Hey! You were pestering me as a distraction, weren't you?! You helped them escape!"
"What are you talking about?" Kanaria lied with a blank expression.
"What are you talking about?! Kurapika doesn't have a heart?!" Killua shouted, in shock, when Hitomi told him all about her encounter with the magician. "That's stupid! I bet he is lying. I didn't know you would be naive enough to believe Hisoka..."
Hitomi kept silent for a while, fixing up Alluka's blanket. She watched her sleeping form, little before standing up and walking towards the boy who was driving the ship.
"Yeah, at first I didn't believe him either, but..." she took a seat next to him. "Somehow, if we suppose that he is saying the truth, everything makes more sense... After all, at that time... I swore he was dead. There's absolutely no way his heart could've exploded and regenerate itself."
"I see..." he said, faintly.
The girl noticed something and frowned. Killua had just shivered again.
"Are you cold?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. They were in summer now, after all...
"It's nothing, really," he shrugged.
Hitomi still was not convinced, though.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm telling you I'm okay!" he said, irritated, taking his phone. "I'm calling Morel."
"... Okay..."
Killua talked with Morel for a long time, ignoring completely Hitomi. She was worriedly examining his face by the corner of her eye. He didn't look well at all.
But when the airship suddenly trembled, she felt like she had enough of it. She waited for him to cut the line, and placed a hand over his forehead.
"What are you doing?" annoyed, he slapped her hand away.
"Exactly as I suspected," she forced a smirk, worry in her eyes. "You've a fever, maybe for stress... Why don't you rest a lit-?"
"Stress, don't make me laugh," he smirked. "I can't rest, you know. There's no time for it."
He was surprised, though, when Hitomi stood up and pushed some button.
"Well, that's why the Autopilot-mode exists," she grinned at him.
"That's not enough, idiot. I also have to check up that Illumi isn't around! We've already lost two days, so it wouldn't be a surprise if he already found us!"
"Then, why didn't you leave me and escaped like I told you, dumbass?"
At the thought of it, Killua felt like he finally lost it. At the girl's surprise, he stood up and glared angrily at her, his fists clenching and unclenching in anger.
"What did you want me to do?! Leave you to die alone?! There is no way I can do that!" Hitomi didn't answer his outburst. "... If you were to die..."
That was when the girl got it and felt bad about her words. Maybe, she shouldn't have been that insensitive about her own death.
"Now, now... Calm down..." she wanted to tranquilize him, but it looked like it had exactly the opposite effect.
"Calm down? How do you want me to?!" he snapped. "Illumi is out there, if you didn't notice. If I'm not careful, he will kill both Alluka and you! And that means that if Alluka dies or I'm a second late, Gon and Kurapika will be gonners, too! Don't you understand?! One wrong move and... and..."
'All the people I love will die'... that probably were the words that he couldn't say. A large lump in his throat didn't let him end his sentence.
Hitomi was frozen, looking in shock how tears streamed down his face, without an end. She felt that everything was just wrong. That wasn't the Killua she knew at all.
"Killua... What-?"
"And you know what is the worst thing? All this was my fault!" he continued, ignoring her, completely. "I let Kite to die, and that guided Gon to this! I let you walk away that time, to fight Pouf which lead Kurapika to help you and end like this! I let my parents know about Alluka's ability that caused them to enclose and hate her!"
She knew it. Nothing was making sense.
"Killua!"
"Because I didn't think straight, I foolishly taunted Illumi to kill Alluka! I didn't think straight that time when I run away and left you alone... And Hisoka nearly killed you!" his face was red now, and Hitomi couldn't tell if it was because of his anger of fever. "Stop looking at me like that! You know I'm right!... You should hate me!"
"KILLUA!"
It was useless. He wasn't recting. He wasn't listening. He wasn't the Killua she knew.
"I'm just useless! Everyone will die because of me! I SHOULD BE THE ONE DYING!"
His rant then stopped, but not at his own accord. Killua felt a pressure in his lips, his sapphire blue eyes opening at full capacity as he looked at her closed ones. He couldn't breath and his heart pumped like he was going to jump out his chest.
It was a matter of time, though, until he calmed down, like he was finally giving up to the warm of her mouth and lost himself in that sweet kiss, his tears finally slowing down.
His mind was in a total blank and clouded, but he certainly did notice Hitomi pulling away. That was when he felt himself pushed and his head ended up resting in her shoulder. Her arms wrapped around him tightly, like she didn't want him to go away.
"Please... Don't ever say anything like that ever again..." Hitomi whispered in his ear. "Did you ever think that would happen if you died? What would happen to us?"
Killua didn't reply, just kept there, unmoving. He was still shocked at her actions.
"I... don't even want to think about that..." she continued. "You should know how important you are to me... and to all of us."
The boy's eyes softened at her words, and felt somehow guilty. She was right.
Killua felt her scent, he never knew she had an scent... And that it indeed smelled good. He faintly heard her gentle words, as he enjoyed the warmth of her body. His eyelids suddenly felt heavy, as he relaxed in Hitomi's embrace.
He still couldn't believe it, though. Some seconds ago, he was yelling like mad. But know, he was feeling calmer than never before.
But, that feeling...? Yeah, maybe...
"... Hitomi..." he fought to keep his eyes open. "Feeling this way about someone... I thought... it would... never happen... to someone like me..."
Killua felt a hand stroking his hair and he unconsciously buried his face on the blonde's one as his mind started to drift off, totally forgetting everything else.
Surrendering to the drowsiness and warmth, his blue eyes slowly began to close as he sniffed her scent once again.
... It felt good...
End of the chapter! Probably, next chapter or the 41th will be the last one. It's hard to believe it :(
Smack me if you want, because the first kiss scene ended up horrible :(
Anyway! If you want, check Mr. Kohen picture of my OC in deviantart, "Hitomi from Eyes Burning Scarlet"! It's awesome :D
Let's begin with reviews!
OhhPlease: I love them a lot too, they are great! Thanks for the review and I hope you liked this update :D
JokeLover123: Everything is possible with Nen XD (or so my creepy mind thinks...) Thank you for the review and I wish you liked it!
Kri: Here's the fluff! I hope you liked it XD The meeting with Illumi will be next chapter, though. Thanks for reviewing!
Elisablackcat: I wonder if Togashi will ever show us Senritsu's true form, when he returns of course (I heard he is returning next year, I think, but I hope he doesn't drop it months later again -_-') I bet she is really beautiful. Thank you for the review and I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)
Mr. Kohen: LOL! I thought the same thing when I saw it XD Thank you for the review and I hope you liked this!
SoulXHunter: Fluff is here, I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you for reviewing and I wish you liked this chapter :D
Veno: Yes, it's Hisoka. Since the first part of this fanfic was based in the 1999 version, I thought it would be best to describe him with blue eyes (it's dificult to see his eyes in this version, but I'm pretty sure they are blue, I saw this more clearly in Greed Island OVA). Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoyed this chapter :)
Silent Readers: Thanks for the visit and I hope it was worth of it :D
See you all later!