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Let's get the legal stuff out of the way first. I do not own Hunter x Hunter or Hunter x Hunter 2011. All rights and ownership go to the following: Yoshihiro Togashi, Shueisha, Shonen, Kazuhiro Furuhashi, Nobuaki Kishima, Nippon Animation, Viz Media, Fuji TV, Funimation Channel, Satoshi Saga, Yukihiro Matsushite, Makoto Sato, Hiroshi Kojina, Atsushi Maekawa, Tsutomu Kamishiro, Madhouse, NTV, Yuzo Sato, Shoji Yonemura and last but not least Keiichiro Kawaguchi. Whew.
A new day had come. Gon was lucky his arm wasn't sore from all the arm wrestling matches he did yesterday, but the one he did with that lady really bugged me. Just something about her, it felt off. Still; I couldn't think about it right now, we were still trying to raise money to get into the auction to win a copy of Greed Island, no distractions! However, what I couldn't stop thinking about was my brother. The tenth was yesterday and all we had met with was Leorio who had talked us into lying to people for some money. It got me down, I couldn't lie about that; I was looking forward to seeing him…maybe he wasn't going to come after all…
Me, Gon and Killua sat on the couch, looking at the items and money on the coffee table sitting in front of us. Gon was in the middle of us as we stared at the things. The diamond ring and neckless was there, as well as several wades of money. Leorio sat on the arm chair on the other side of the coffee table, his suit jacket discarded somewhere along with tie. The top buttons to his dress shirt were undone.
"Currently, we have a three million diamond ring and neckless and two million, four hundred thousand Jenny in leftover cash. And we also have the two million, seven hundred, fifty thousand Jenny from the arm wrestling." Leorio said to us as we continued to stare at the money and very expensive jewellery. I was surprised by how much we actually made, I didn't think it would be that much. Leorio looked up to us, a stern look on his face; his face showing more annoyance than anything. Me, Gon and Killua looked up at Leorio, watching him with blank looks of our own.
"That gives us a total of around eight million. We need to turn this lot into at least nine billion, the minimum opening bid for Greed Island… I don't see how we can manage that through legitimate channels." Leorio said to us, sighing as he spoke. Gon smiled widely at him, closing his eyes and knitting his brows together.
"I wouldn't call that arm wrestling legitimate." He said awkwardly. I nodded my head, agreeing with him, furrowing my own brows.
"We tricked a lot of people because you said to Gon to match his strength with theirs." I said to him, swinging my legs slightly backwards and forwards from the couch. I was careful not to kick the coffee table; the hotel staff wouldn't be all that happy if we had broken anything while we were here.
Killua laced his fingers behind his head making Gon look at him from the sudden ruffle of movement. I leaned forward slightly, gripping my hands tightly onto the edge of the couch as I looked at Killua as well.
"All the challengers toward the end were half desperate losers trying for revenge." Killua said to Leorio. Leorio leaned forward slightly himself, a wide smirk appearing on his face.
"That's fine. That was my goal." He told us. The three of us looked at him shocked, our eyes going wide. Leorio moved a hand, pointing it towards us as he spoke about his "master plan".
"We want as many people as possible to embellish the tale." Leorio explained to us. I looked at him confused as I continued my leg swinging, knitting my brows together.
"What do you mean?" Gon asked him, confused himself as to what Leorio could possibly mean. Leorio's smirk got deeper as his explanation for his plan went on.
"The arm wrestling was meant as bait." Leorio said to us. I looked at him more confused.
"Bait?" Gon questioned after him.
"What does that mean?" I asked him, confused even more as to what Leorio meant. Leorio pointed at us, his smirk widening with each passing second.
"To draw out the moles." Leorio said to us. I looked at him, still confused. I thought we were going after money, not small creatures that seemed to be the bane of Sarah's back garden. Gon sat up straight as he too looked at Leorio confused.
"Moles? Why do we want Moles?" Gon questioned him, just as confused as I was.
"Pipe down now. I'll explain everything." Leorio said to us. Me, Gon and Killua looked at each other confused, still wondering what Leorio could even mean and why we were now after small digging animals instead of money.
We went to the same spot as yesterday. This time it was broad day light, so we had much more time to get a lot of money unlike yesterday where we went straight through into the night. Gon took his seat back onto the stool in front of the table as me and Killua went back to holding the neckless and the ring. I stood next to Killua as Killua stood next to Gon. Leorio stood slightly in front of the table. He looked like a conman, a proper conman; it was the suit that did it I swear it! Leorio tossed a hand into the air as he began rounding up more people to take on Gon.
"Come on down! Let's have some fun conditional auctioning fun! We have a diamond and a neckless worth three million! The winner will be determined through arm wrestling." Leorio said, pointing to me and Killua before bringing him arm back to him, clenching it tightly into a fist as he explained to people how they would win the items. Leorio pointed back to Gon with his finger.
"The first person to beat this boy wins with diamonds. You must pay a ten thousand Jenny entry fee." Leorio explained to the crowd, excitement and enthusiasm in his voice as he attracted a crowd, just like last night. I couldn't help but fidget slightly on the spot; so many people were watching.
"What? He's just a kid. I'll give it a shot." A guy in a blue shirt said near the front.
"Don't bother. That kid beat five hundred people yesterday." Another guy beside him said, pointing at Gon.
"Huh?" The guy in blue said, astonished by what Gon had done. I couldn't help but fidget even more; people weren't going to try if they knew Gon was accidently breaking their arms and I shouldn't be encouraging this!
"Over twenty ended up with broken arms." The man in the long sleeved pale red shirt carried on explaining to the man in blue.
"Seriously?!" The man in blue questioned, amazing but shocked at what he was hearing.
I looked up at Leorio who seemed unfazed by everyone's mutterings. I felt Killua nudge my side hard with his elbow, making me bite my bottom lip to stop myself yelping. I looked at him with a small glare as he looked back sternly. I understood what he meant…I had to stop looking worried. I nodded my head, saying yes to our silent conversation.
I looked forward once more to see a huge man wearing a black suit push himself through the crowd. He had slightly light brown hair that was shaved close to his head and small narrow eyes. He was very well built, but I couldn't tell if it was clothing or muscle…I didn't want to find out.
"Move." He said simply as he walked forward to the front.
"Oh, do we have our first challenger?" Leorio asked.
"No." I voice said. It didn't come from the huge man in the suit. I looked to the big man's right to see a very little man in a suit. He held his hands behind his back. He had short black hair that was very close to his head and very small eyes. He looked a little chubby. Leorio looked at him, slightly confused as to where he came from but also who he was and why he said no.
"I already know that my man can't beat your kid. I was watching yesterday." The small man said to Leorio.
"Then what do you want?" Leorio questioned him, confused.
"Interested in make some real money?" He asked Leorio, raising an eyebrow in question.
"Meaning?" Leorio questioned him, leaning forward with interest. I looked at him questionably, wondering where the conversation was exactly going.
"I know where you can make big bucks instead of the pocket change you're getting here. You can make hundreds… No, thousands of times more." The man said. Me, Gon and Killua looked at him with wide eyes. Leorio's shoulders began moving up and down slightly, he was laughing to himself. I knitted my brows together, I didn't like where this was going.
Me and Killua gave Leorio back the boxes as Gon stood up from the chair. We followed the two suit men away from the crowd and through the streets of Yorknew. I wondered where they were taking us, it made me wary and sent shivers up my spine. We could be going anywhere! The tall man in the suit walked in front with the shorter man, Leorio, Gon, me and Killua all walking behind him. These parts of the streets were quiet, I couldn't feel any life what so ever around here. I furrowed my brows as I looked around, it seemed so strange.
"Are they moles?" Gon asked Leorio in a whisper, looking up to him. Leorio shoved his hands into his pockets. I shook my head at Gon's question.
"They're not furry, but they look like they dig a lot of holes." I said to Gon. Gon smiled slightly at my answer as Leorio shook his head.
"We've been over this, Mishka not that type of mole. Looks like we landed a big fish." Leorio whispered back to us as me and Gon looked back up to him. Leorio smiled widely at us as he removed a hand from his pocket and brought it to his face to cover what he was saying,
"Huh? Fish? Don't you mean moles?" Gon questioned him confused as I looked at him questionably. We're after fish now? Leorio used too much terminology; I had no idea what he was saying or what he even meant. Leorio glared down at Gon for his question.
"Stop talking. It doesn't matter!" Leorio said to him. Me and Gon looked at each other, furrowing our brows slightly; equally confused on what Leorio could have possibly meant.
We followed the two suited men to a door. It had a yellow door roof thing and a sign next to it. The door itself was green.
"Here we are." The smaller man said, stopping in front of the door. We followed him in through the door. It was a lot darker inside. I stuck close to Gon and Killua as we walked through the darkened room and into an elevator. The two men in suits followed afterwards and stood in front of us, their hands in their pockets. I looked at Gon, Killua and Leorio. They all looked forward with slight glares. I did the same, bringing a small glare to my face as I looked forward.
The elevator dinged a bell and stopped moving up. The metal doors opened, revealing loads of shouts and bright spot lights. It reminded me a little bit of Heaven's Arena. We stepped out of the elevator on the top floor watching down into the boxing ring like area. It was swimming with people cheering for the two people in the middle. It looked like they were arm wrestling, but it wasn't normal arm wrestling. They all felt threatening. I couldn't help but stiffen as we stood by the railings.
"Oh! I can feel the bloodlust." Killua said simply. I looked at him questionably and turned my head forward again, pulling a wide face. I slammed my hands over my nose and screwed my eyes tightly shut.
"I can smell the sweat." I whispered to them through my hand covered mouth.
"The arm wrestling competition here accepts all comers, and pays out. The spectators bet on each match, and the winner receives ten percent of all bets placed. We're talking billions bet on each match." The shorter man explained. Me, Gon and Killua continued to look down at the crowds cheering as Leorio leaned forward, smiling widely at the information he just heard.
"That would mean millions with each win!" Leorio exclaimed to him excitedly.
"You could win even more… I'll be taking fifty percent of your earnings as my commission." The suited man explained. That seemed like a lot when we were only going to be getting ten percent of each win. I furrowed my brows more, feeling more and more uncomfortable with the conversation going on. I dropped my hands back to my sides, opening my mouth slightly so I could breathe through there instead of my nose.
"Fifty percent? Isn't that a little high?" Leorio asked him, looking at him with disappointment.
"You can't participate unless I enter your name. Besides, you can bet your own money. You'll get great odds with that kid, and earn back your stake a hundred times over." The suited man said. Leorio smiled widely and leaned forward once more, looking at the suited man with determination at the new information.
"That's right! I'm in! Go, Gon!" Leorio said, looking over to Gon, his hand clenched tightly into a fist with a wide smirk on his face.
"Huh?" Gon asked him questionably, looking at Leorio confused.
The man signed up Gon's name onto a sheet of paper and told Gon to follow him. Me, Leorio and Killua all stayed up the top, watching Gon closely as he followed the man. I furrowed my brows, I wasn't comfortable with this at all. I couldn't tell if there was something wrong with everything here, or if it was because of the dark lights and sweaty men.
"Well? Any other challengers?" The referee shouted into the microphone, waiting to see if anything else was going to challenge the huge guy next to him.
"Got one right here!" The short suited man shouted, loud enough for everyone to hear. Gon stepped forward towards arm wrestling arena. The short suited man placed a hand onto Gon's shoulder making the referee look at him confused until he smiled widely and nodded his head.
"Very well." The referee began saying before being cut off with the proper lights turning on. Everyone looked up at the ceiling confused. A very white skinned man suddenly jumped into the arm wrestling arena, holding a microphone up to his mouth. This man wore nothing more but a black pair of underwear and some knee high, thick looking back boots. He also wore a black, skin tight top that stopped just under his chest.
"Sorry, but the arm wrestling is cancelled! We'll be doing some conditional auctioning now!" The man shouted. Me and Killua quickly walked down towards Gon as Leorio did the same. Me and Killua stood next to Gon as Leorio swung himself in front of Gon and the short man, looking at him in disbelief and annoyance.
"Why was it cancelled?" Leorio questioned him annoyed. Gon leant back slightly, not expecting to see Leorio suddenly there.
"U-uh, I don't know…" The short suited man said, confused himself as to why the match would suddenly be cancelled.
I could get a better look at the man. He wore make up. His lips had blue lipstick, his finger nails were covered in purple nail polish, one eye had a spikey green circle round it while the other hand a spikey brown circle around it. His hair was blonde and in crazy dreadlocks. I couldn't tell if he was trying to dress like a girl or not.
"To win, you must play hide-and-seek!" He shouted into the microphone, raising his arm into the air. Leorio looked over his shoulder to the strangely dressed man as me, Gon and Killua looked at him confused. Hide and seek? What a strange thing to do for conditional auctioning.
"Hide-and-seek?" Leorio questioned out loud, confused himself by the man's words.
"We'll start by passing out flyers!" He shouted as woman in purple leather dresses started pouring into the room. They began handing flyers to everyone. One woman handed Leorio one and then me one. Gon and Killua looked over my shoulder as we stared at the flyer, taking in the information.
"Examine the picture on the flyer. Those seven people are your targets!" The man shouted through the microphone. Gon and Killua was handed their own flyers and looked at them instead after staring at mine over my shoulder.
There were two girls and five boys. However, the one that caught our interest was the girl with glasses and short black hair.
"Hey, that girl with glasses was…" Leorio said trailing off as he looked to Gon.
"Yeah, she arm wrestled me." Gon said, looking up at Leorio as me and Killua continued to look at the sheets of paper.
"Hey, are they the ones responsible for what happened last night?" Someone asked behind us. Me and Killua looked over our shoulders slightly, looking at the direction of the sound. I couldn't see the two people talking; but I was only interested in their words. They didn't speak very quietly. Somewhere was attacked last night?
"Yeah, you mean the attack on the auction?" Another man questioned to the first man's question. There was an auction last night? Did we already miss our chance for the game? No, I hope we hadn't. Killua looked surprised by the information. I looked at him with furrowed brows, wondering what he knew and the rest of us didn't.
The man wearing the strange clothing began talking once more into the microphone, grabbing everyone's undivided attention.
"In order to win the bid, you must capture and deliver a target to us. For each target brought in, you will receive a nice sum of two billion Jenny!" The man shouted, holding up two fingers into the air. The four of us looked at the paper wide eyed, that was a lot of money for these people. Did they do something bad?
"There is no time limit. It doesn't matter if the target is dead or alive. Please contact us once you've captured one!" The barely clothed man went on explaining. The whole of the huge room erupted into whispers and chatter among themselves. Gon looked up at Leorio once more.
"Two billion each?" Gon questioned him. Leorio looked down at Gon excitedly with a large smile on his face.
"If we catch them all, we'd have fourteen billion!" Leorio said excitedly. I looked at the two wide eyed, that was loads! Just for these people. They must have really upset someone, or a group of people. The man went on explaining the rules of the auction.
"It'll cost you five million Jenny to participate!" The man shouted. Leorio looked down at Gon, stuffing the piece of paper into his suit trouser pocket, keeping the large smile on his face.
"We're joining in, right?" Leorio questioned him.
"Yeah…" Gon said hesitantly, trailing off. Leorio signed all four of our names down onto the piece of paper. Because we were joining as a group we only had to pay one lot of five million. Still, something didn't feel right about the whole thing, it made me uncomfortable and fidgety.
We exited the giant room and into the fresh air once more. I took a deep breathe, happy to be out of the sweat smelling room. I couldn't help but smile widely to myself; glad we were finally out. I had folded up my piece of paper and tucked it between the hem of my training shorts and hip. I was keeping my phone this way as well, because it was a flip phone I was able to have one part tucked neatly over the hem of my shorts, the top pressing against my hip with the other half flipped over to the outside of my shorts. The phone registered itself as closed, so I was still able to receive calls.
The four of us walked away from the building and down the quite street. Leorio had one hand stuffed into the pocket of his suit trousers. Gon had his arms by his sides as I had mine slightly behind my back, lacing my fingers lightly with each other. Killua had both his hands stuffed into his pockets.
"We need to hurry." Leorio said enthusiastically. I knitted my brows together, I didn't want to rush. I didn't want to meet that girl with the glasses, she seemed off.
"There's no rush. They won't be able to catch our targets." Killua said, making the three of us look at him questionably and confused. So, Killua did know something we didn't know. Killua continued to look forward as he began speaking once more.
"After all, the Mafia's having trouble handling them." Killua explained. I furrowed my brows more as Leorio raised an eyebrow in question.
"What do you mean?" Leorio questioned him quietly.
"This conditional auction is nothing but a bounty hunt. In other words, the Mafia is admitting that, alone, it can't capture these targets." Killua explained. Me, Gon and Leorio looked forward, taking in Killua's words. He knew so much about these people; it was a little strange. But I wasn't one to question him, Killua seemed to know a lot about a lot of things.
"You have a point… They were willing to suspend everything to track them down." Leorio said, removing the piece of paper from his pocket and looking at it more closely.
As we continued to walk forward Killua began explaining more.
"Me and Mishka just heard that the underground auction was attacked last night." Killua said, making Leorio snap his head back to Killua.
"The underground auction?! Was it them?" Leorio questioned, looking back at the paper. Did everyone know about the underground auction? I thought there was only the big main auction not an underground one as well. I furrowed my brows as I thought to myself; there were more types of auctions than I thought. Leorio looked up to the sky, dropping his arm with the paper in his hand to his side once more.
"That's why there's a reward for their heads?" Leorio questioned. Killua smiled widely to himself as he went on speaking.
"Yep, they must be nuts to steal from the Mafia. And we already know who would be crazy enough for that." Killua said, pointing to his head before dropping his hand back down to the ground. He's smile turned into a smirk as we all stopped walking.
My eyes went wide with the realisation of who he was talking about. I could feel my body shake, but it wasn't from excitement or anticipation; it was from fear. Leorio and Gon looked back at Killua, wide eyed themselves as I continued to look forward.
"The Phantom Troupe!" Leorio exclaimed quietly so that just the four of us was the only ones to hear. That meant they were here, in this very city. My body continued to shake in fear as I thought over all the possibilities to myself. I could see my own vision turning red from the fear as I clenched my fists tightly. The opportunity was here…and I was too scared to try and take it.
"Oh, right… What's Kurapika up to?" Gon said, changing the subject, or at least trying to.
"Yeah, he should be in the city, but he hasn't made contact." Killua went on to say. I heard Gon rustling through his pockets as he took something out.
"I'll call him." Gon said to us.
He began going through his phone. He held it to his ear, letting it ring. I don't know how long we were standing in silence, but Gon's words made my heart drop.
"He isn't answering." Gon said. I turned around quickly on the balls of my feet.
"Is he working?" Leorio questioned. Killua and Gon looked at Leorio as he began explaining some more.
"I heard that he's been working as a bodyguard. Probably for some VIP…He's trying to track down the Scarlet Eyes, so it must be someone in the underworld." Leorio said. So that's what he was doing…sounded good, although dangerous at the same time.
"What is he was guarding that person at the auction house, and got caught up in the attack?" Gon asked, continuing to hold the phone up to his ear. I looked at him with wide eyes and quickly walked over to him, snatching his creepy bug phone out of his hand. Gon looked at me shocked as I pressed the hang up button, and then pressed the dial button again. After a few seconds I hung up again and pressed the call button again. My vision was still red, but not only in fear but in worry as well because of Gon's last sentence. I kept repeating this, just staring at the creepy bug phone with wide, worried eyes, before pulling it to my ear, hanging up, and then calling again.
"He wouldn't have been caught up in the attack. If the Troupe attacked, he'd be actively tracking them down. It's possible he's already captured two or three." Leorio said, smiling widely to make light of the situation. I looked at him through the corner of my eyes before pulling the phone away from my ear and hanging up one last time, sighing heavily to myself, knitting my brows together even more.
"I hope you're right…" Gon said, taking the phone back from my hand as I held it out to him.
I hoped he was right too, I really hoped that the reason why he wasn't picking up was because he was keeping a couple of them under close watch, and now because he was caught up in the attack.