A big thank you to Just a Cadbury, Anime lover and all silent readers!
Anime lover – I hope your life gets better for you. I also hope this chapter is better for you as well, don't worry; I didn't find offence.
I'm so sorry this is short, I had to combine two episodes and now it's really thrown me off D:
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.
The three of us managed to make it back to the city; however we were still a long way away from the hotel we stayed at. We got to a train station and paid for some tickets to go back to where we were. My vision was normal once more; I was no longer seeing red, something I was grateful for.
The three of us stood on the crowded train platform waiting for the train. I fiddled with the sleeves of my training shirt. I looked between Gon and Killua through the corner of my eyes as I was standing in the middle of then. The past day had got to me, Killua and Gon tried to do something and I followed them hoping to be lead in a direction because I was too scared to think for myself. I was never going to be able to help my brother if I was going to be too scared to move whenever I faced the spiders…I wanted to be like Gon and Killua; brave and strong.
I took a deep breath and moved out from my spot between the two. Spinning around quickly I faced the two with a determined look on my face, owning only looks of confusion from the two boys.
"Teach me to be brave like you two!" I said to the two. Silence fell between us until Killua whacked the top of my head with his fist. I quickly grabbed the top of my head closing my eyes tightly and furrowing my brows before opening them and looking at him with a wide frown.
"Why did you do that that was really mean!" I said to him as Killua looked at me blankly.
"Seemed appropriate." He said to me simply as I rubbed the top of my head with my hands, continuing to look at the two through furrowed brows and a wide frown.
"But I was being serious!" I said to him. Killua shrugged his shoulders slightly as Gon looked at me with a small apologetic smile.
"Sorry, Mishka. It's not something that can be taught. Aunt Mito said the best way to be brave is to face your fear head on." Gon said to me, giving me an answer I didn't really want to hear. My frown only widened as I stayed quiet, dropping my hands to my sides. I nodded my head slightly after thinking over his words.
"Okay, I understand." I said to him quietly just as our train was pulling up to the station.
The three of us boarded the train. We didn't take seats, instead we chose to stand. I continued to stand in between Gon and Killua; the three of us had our hands behind our backs holding onto the rail behind us. Killua watched the world pass by from the train door window as Gon looked straight ahead of him. I did the same, keeping a spaced out look on my face just thinking over my own thoughts and what happened today. I had to get braver, I knew that much. Gon's Aunt said to face fears head on…when I next face the spiders I'm going to face them head on and show I'm not afraid of them!
The train started slowing down to a stop making me, Gon and Killua lean forward and look around the carriage. I wondered why it had stopped, we weren't at a platform. Passengers began questioning too as they whispered among themselves.
"We will be making an emergency stop. Please watch your step." A voice over the intercom said as the passengers talking got louder and louder because of the announcement.
"Did something happen?" Gon asked making me shrug my shoulders.
"Beats me." Killua said afterwards as we watched the passengers begin to panic at the sudden announcement.
We waited on the train inside the underground tube. People sat back into their seats once they realized they weren't going to be able to get off the train. Me, Gon and Killua leaned back onto the rail, Killua deciding that his hands were better off in his shorts pocket then holding the railing. Gon shoved one hand into his jacket pocket as I put both my hands into my training shorts pockets. We weren't moving, so I didn't need to hold onto the rail.
"Currently, all trains have been stopped. For your safety, please wait patiently." The train conductor said through the intercom, only receiving irritated and annoyed groans from the various passengers on the train.
Gon took out his creepy bug phone and looked at the screen. I looked over his shoulder slightly, leaning into his back a little bit.
"I'm not getting any reception down here." Gon said, dropping his hand to his side and turning very quickly. I stood away just as quickly as Gon looked between me and Killua, who looked at Gon through the corner of his eyes.
"And we don't know when the trains will start moving again." Gon said furrowing his brows with a small frown. Killua closed his eyes, furrowing his brows and frowning himself as he dropped his head a little bit.
"That settles it… we'll have to run." Killua said making me sigh slightly.
"I hope the trains don't start moving as soon as we decide to run." I muttered to them.
The three of us walked away from the rails and looked at the ceiling trying to find the sky light. I spotted a square shaped hole that looked see through and quickly grabbed Gon's jacket and Killua's vest top. The two stopped in their tracks as I pointed up to the sky light like square. It didn't look like if there was any glass, so I guess it acted as a vent as well. Killua was the first to jump up with Gon second. I bent my knees down and jumped up high, grabbing a hold of the edge of the sky light and pulled myself up. Gon and Killua jumped off the train roof and began running. I quickly ran over to the edge, jumped down with my knees bent and began running after them, catching up to them very quickly as I didn't really want to be left behind.
We ran quickly away from the train and managed to get outside without being struck down by one. We had stayed quiet, focusing on running away from the train tracks and to the outside. We jumped onto the next platform we saw receiving odd looks from the people on the platform. Running through the crowd the three of us raced up the stairs, smiling widely as we began to see dim light. Those were the street lights, and I had never been happier to see them.
As soon as we got outside, Gon checked his phone to see if he had any reception. He began searching through the phone and stopped on someone then pressed the call button, holding the phone to his ear.
"Oh, Kurapika?" Gon said grabbing my attention. I snapped my head up at him looking at him wide eyed. My brother actually picked up his phone? Gon smiled in relief and sighed slightly to himself as we took spots next to the railing, boarding off the stairs so no one would fall down them.
"Whew, we finally got hold of you. Yep, can you talk right now? Wait! Can you give me one minute? I have to tell you something." Gon shouted down the phone, making me furrow my brows. Big brother finally picked up and he didn't want to talk to us? I frowned widely as I watched Gon continue to hold my brother on the line.
"Killua, Mishka and I ran into the Phantom Troupe. Actually, they caught us." Gon said then instantly held his phone away from his ear, furrowing his brows in confusion. I could actually hear my brother, even if it was him sounding angry I was glad to actually hear his voice knowing he was okay.
"What were you guys thinking?! Do you realize how dangerous they are? Mishka should know better! Where is Mishka?!" He yelled down the phone. I fidgeted on the spot; he was going to scold me a lot when I actually met him face to face again. At least he was worried though.
Killua walked up to the phone and held out his hand after big brother finished yelling down the phone.
"Let me talk." Killua said to him simply. Gon quickly handed him the phone. Killua placed a hand on his hip and held the phone by his ear.
"I thought I knew, but after we met them, it became painfully clear. They're strong. Right now, we have no chance against them. That's why we need your assistance." Killua explained down the phone.
"We want to help." Gon said loud enough down the phone for big brother to hear. Killua stayed silent as I assumed my brother spoke into the phone.
"Don't you want to know where their base is?" Killua said and went silent once more.
"Do you know all of their powers?" Killua asked. I could hear my brother's voice getting louder down the phone, but not as loud as it was when he was shouting at Gon, so I couldn't pick up on any of the words he was saying. Killua's eyes narrowed in anger.
"You're the chain user who killed one of their members, right? They're looking everywhere for you. If you won't treat us as friends or equals, we'll do whatever we must to help!" Killua yelled down the phone huffing as he held it out for Gon to take, glaring angrily at Gon, although it the anger wasn't directed at him.
I grabbed the phone lightly out of Killua's hand and held the creepy bug phone to my ear, furrowing my brows slightly as I wasn't too sure what to say or how to say it. I took a deep breath after thinking of something to say.
"We really want to help big brother, and going after the Phantom Troupe is as much as my responsibility as it is yours! I want to help like I promised I would a really long time ago but like Killua said if you don't let us we'll do something ourselves to help." I said to him, keeping a stern look on my face, although my voice was far from that. I didn't like talking back to my brother, even more so disagreeing or going against what he said; but I promised to help all those years ago and I planned to stick to it.
"Mishka…" I heard my brother sigh down the phone slightly making me jump and furrow my brows, frowning widely. It sounded like he was disappointed in me and what I had said.
"Sorry, big brother. I'll pass you back to Gon now." I said to him, holding out the phone to Gon before he could say anything else to me. I felt bad, really bad, I was going against my brothers words; and all because I wanted to help him so badly.
Gon took the phone from my hand and held it to his ear. Silence fell among us as Gon thought over what to say. Once he thought of something, the silence was broken.
"Kurapika… One of their members cried in front of us. He said he couldn't forgive whoever killed his friend." Gon said, falling silent for a couple of seconds. I rethought the event through my mind, Nobunaga…he was really upset that his friend was dead and like then I couldn't feel sympathy for him no matter how much I tried.
"I got really mad after seeing that. I couldn't let that go. We want to stop them! Please, Kurapika…" Gon said to him. I quickly grabbed the phone from Gon's hand putting it to my ear.
"Please big brother you will need all the help you can get they're really strong!" I said to him, furrowing my brows in hopes of getting him to change his mind. But this was Kurapika, my big brother, and once he made up his mind he rarely changed it. The line was silent for a few seconds as I tried listening to anything to indicate he was still there.
"I'll call you back." He said firmly and bitterly before the phone started beeping, showing that he had hung up.
I furrowed my brows and handed the phone back to Gon before looking away. I was upset and also hurt. Big brother was angry at me because I wanted to stick to a promise I made a long time ago and I couldn't understand why. He always said don't make promises you couldn't keep so why was he getting mad when I was trying to keep this one?
After standing around for a little while we decided to go back to the hotel; we clearly weren't going to get through big brother tonight no matter how much we tried. I dug through the pockets of my training shorts and quickly grabbed a hold of phone. Pulling it out of my pocket I flipped it out and went to the text messaging icon. I began typing on the buttons lightly, sending a text to my brother.
"Sorry big brother. We just want to help, please don't be mad at us! Mishka xx" I read over the text message and nodded my head, happy with what I had wrote and pressed the send button, sending it to my brother; whenever he decided to look at his phone again. By the sounds of it, it wouldn't be for a while, he sounded really mad.
We walked towards the hotel, deciding there was no point in running at the moment, plus the night air was actually nice and relaxing considering the day we had been through. When we got there though, we didn't expect to see what we did. Leorio was happily laughing with Zepile, cans of beer everywhere and crisps lying about on the coffee table. Cigarette butts over flowed in the ash tray…I didn't even know we had an ashtray, come to think about it I didn't even know Leorio smoked! Maybe they were all Zepile's? But there was way too many just to be one person's drinking smoking habit. Either way the two guys were making a mess in our hotel room.
"Yeah. I'm getting into this! How about another?" Leorio offered Zepile as they sat red faced on the floor, Leorio with a bottle of what looked like grape juice but probably wasn't grape juice in his hand. Zepile and Leorio were both smiling widely at each other as they drank and ate.
"Seriously… They were drinking while we were captured?" Killua questioned, shoving his hands into his pockets as he leaned forward. I sighed slightly and furrowed my brows, dropping my head with my eyes closed.
"I bet they didn't even notice we were gone…" I said trailing off as Gon scratched his cheek with his finger, smiling awkwardly and widely at the two men currently drinking each other under the table on our floor.
Leorio looked up to us and held up a hand, smiling widely, his red face glowing.
"Oh, you're back? Come and drink with us!" Leorio said, waving his hand over to where he and Zepile were sitting as he used his other hand to hold out a glass of whatever it was he was drinking. I shook my head quickly, scrounging my nose with my eyes shut tightly.
"We're only twelve Leorio!" I said to him, opening my eyes and glaring at him. Killua glared at him and placed his hands on his hips as he closed his eyes.
"Are you an idiot? Like Mishka said, we're underage! And aren't you underage too?" Killua questioned him as I continued to glare at him. It was going to be us clearing up the mess that he and Zepile were making not them, because they would probably be too out of their mind to do so! I didn't like drunken people, I could tolerate them, but only because Sarah ran a bar and loads of drunken people were there all the time.
"What's your point? In my country, you can drink once you're sixteen." Leorio said, holding the drink close to his face. I sighed slightly as Killua bowed his head.
"I see." Killua said to him annoyed and defeated by Leorio's attitude.
Me, Gon and Killua tidied up some space so that we could join them on the floor. The empty beer cans were piled up into neat little squares of four with the crisps that were on the floor were thrown away, much to Leorio and Zepile's complaints. I quickly went into the kitchen and filled up two glasses with water. Gon and Killua walked into the kitchen grabbing a can of juice each from the fridge. Gon took one out for me. I smiled widely at Gon as thanks. Exiting the kitchen, I walked over to the red faced men and gave them a glass each. Once they were downed me, Gon and Killua sat on the floor in front of them, me sitting next to Killua so that he was in the middle of me and Gon. We began explaining our story of what happened to us and where we actually were, a can of juice in our hands each.
"I see. I had no idea that happened. I'm amazed you escaped alive." Leorio said, looking at us with a serious expression on his face. Zepile bowed his head as his eye lids half closed, looking at the floor.
"The Phantom Troupe's that dangerous?" Zepile questioned us. Gon looked up at him smiling widely at the older man.
"Back there, one of the tricks you taught us came in handy." Gon explained to him. I perked up next to him and nodded my head quickly, looking at him with a determined look of my own.
"We ran at him quickly using Nen and then split to either side and broke through either wall to make new exits!" I said to him, explaining what the three of us had done.
"I get it. I'm glad I was able to help in some way." Zepile said to us, smiling widely at the three of us. I couldn't help but smile slightly back myself.
Zepile took a long drag of his cigarette, holding it between his little and ring finger. He blew the smoke out through his nose, sighing slightly to himself as we looked away from us, watching the smoke make patterns in the air. Now the room was going to smell…great.
"Experience can sometimes blind you. A con artists knowledge might come in handy again the Troupe." Zepile said, making Leorio suddenly jump up straight while holding a finger in the air with his eyes closed. He held the glass of whatever it was he was drinking in his other hand.
"Exactly! There's more to being a con artist than you'd think. I haven't just been drinking myself senseless here… I've been learning a lot from Zepile." Leorio said to us, trying to justify his huge amount of drinking in our hotel room. Killua began drinking from his juice can as Leorio continued on talking.
"And tomorrow morning we'll hit the auction. You guys are coming, right?" Leorio asked us. The three of us looked at each other, humming to ourselves before looking back at Leorio.
"I'd like to, but I have to find Kurapika and learn about Nen from him." Gon said to Leorio, who looked unfazed by the mention of my brother's name.
"Kurapika? You got through to him?" Leorio questioned as I nodded my head quickly with Gon who nodded his head once.
"Yeah, but we're waiting for him to call us back." Gon explained as I began taking a long drink from my juice can. I pulled a face after bringing the can away from my mouth and swallowing, it was very sweet. I looked at the can; it was just normal apple juice…still too sweet for my liking.
Leorio dropped the look on his face and pointed a finger at us, looking a little bit annoyed.
"Hold on. Did you say you need to learn about Nen from him?" Leorio questioned Gon.
"I did." Gon replied simply to him as Killua went back to drinking his grape juice.
"Why? He just learned about Nen recently himself, right?" Leorio questioned us. Gon leaned forward slightly as he began explaining his reason.
"But Kurapika managed to defeat a member of the Phantom Troupe." Gon said to him. Leorio pulled back as he continued to look at Gon with a serious expression written on his face.
"Seriously?" Leorio questioned Gon. I nodded my head quickly, looking at him with the same serious expression he was giving us.
"Yeah. He must know some secret about Nen. Some strength that doesn't require experience or power." Killua explained as me, Gon and Leorio looked at him.
We talked about whatever came to mind as we continued to sit on the floor; but if we were honest, we were waiting for a call from big brother. Leorio and Zepile had stopped drinking so quickly and instead Leorio just ate the crisps while Zepile smoked. Gon's phone started ringing, making all of us look at the pocket he kept it in. Gon took out his phone and pressed a button as he held the phone to his ear.
"Hello? Kurapika?" There was a long pause as we watched Gon closely and carefully.
"Huh? What do you mean? Kurapika?!" Gon shouted as I snatched the phone out of his hands pressing it to my ear tightly.
"Are you okay?! Big brother what happened?!" I shouted and asked down the phone.
"There is no need for you to keep your promise now. They're gone." I heard my brother say before the phone went completely dead. I took the phone away from my ear, furrowing my brows and frowning widely as Gon sighed to himself. Killua looked at Gon, as he was the one that got most of the conversation.
"What'd he say?" Killua asked him as I continued to look at Gon's phone, trying to get my head around the words that my brother said.
"The Troupe's dead." Gon said simply. Leorio leaned forward, glaring at the phone while Killua looked angry himself and shifted in his spot, propping up one leg.
"What?!" Leorio shouted at Gon.
"Seriously?" Killua questioned. I nodded my head and handed back Gon his creepy bug phone.
"He's not there now." I said, indicating that big brother and hung up the phone.
"I have no way to find out any more." Gon said, furrowing his brows.
I couldn't understand, the Phantom Troupe, who had captured us earlier today and seemed almost undefeatable, was killed. The worse part of it was that my big brother didn't sound happy about it; but instead sad and upset, as if he wasn't the one that had dealt the final blow to them. I wondered, if that was the case.