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.
Author note: After a long long long long LONG wait, chapter 56! OMG YAY!
On a serious note: I'm trying to work out a timetable between the two stories now that "The Phantom Rogue" is written, completed and live. I apologise for the long wait you had to endure!
Just in case you're only a reader of the 2011 version – I am cosplaying as Kurapika in October at the Anime Con in London, I'll be there both Saturday and Sunday 9not Friday I have work then). Feel free to come and slap me for making you wait this long/tell me how much you hate this story, or come along for pictures. I'm good for either! If you're not a UK resident or you can't make the Anime Con then fear not as I shall be posting pictures up.
Our searching for the cards to exit this game hadn't been an easy one. Somehow along the way I managed to lose my training shirt which was originally tied around my waist. The cards were located in different places, some easy to get and some really hard to get. For instance, one of the cards was in a chest underground! It took us a while to dig it up as the ground was hard and showed no sign of giving into our spades. That card turned out to be "Staff of Judgement."
We did tones of research in the library inside this game world. Our research turned fruitful because we found a card called "Elder's growth Pill." At least the library research beat digging the dusty ground, which still covered my training vest and trousers. Plus face and legs.
Our search took us under water. The water was a nice blue colour and very cold. It was worth it in two ways though. One, I was no longer covered in dirt. Two, we found another card at the lake bottom. It was inside a gold vase like ornament. The card was called "Fledgling CEO". The three of us quickly swam to the top and pulled ourselves out of the water.
My clothes felt heavy but that didn't matter, because this card was worth it. Why it was worth it Gon was going to happily announce. We walked over to Biscuit with wide grins on our faces. Gon threw his hand into the air, holding the card tightly between his finger and thumb, his free hand placed onto his hip.
"Yes! Halfway there!" Gon announced happily. I jumped up and down on the spot, smiling widely to myself. Killua threw his arms into the air with joy as Biscuit calmly clapped her hands in front of her face, keeping her own happy smile.
"That makes fifty types!" Killua said happily. This was exciting. Only fifty more types of cards to go and we could exit this game!
The four of us had left the shore line. Me, Gon and Killua walked in front of Biscuit. Gon was in the middle of me and Killua, who had his hands behind his head. We were walking through a forest. The plus side was it wasn't dark, so even though shadows cast onto the ground we could still see where we were going.
"Hey, Killua, Mishka…Something's been bugging me." Gon said, gaining Killua's and mine attention. I wondered what had been bugging him.
"Aren't there hundreds of players? Isn't it weird that we've been able to turn all our items into cards?" Gon questioned the two of us, turning his head to look at us both. I thought about his question and turned my gaze up to the sky as we began reaching a less tree covered area.
"Maybe we're just lucky?" I questioned, thinking over the answer myself. Luck probably paid a massive part, but I don't think we were as lucky as I liked to make myself think we were.
"What do you mean?" Biscuit questioned Gon, harshness in her tone.
"Even B-rank restricted slot types have a thirty-card limit. The players here before us should have already collected them." Gon said, making me frown as I brought my head down to think some more. He did have a point.
"That's true. But you can also see it this way. Fewer than thirty teams in this game are capable of making real progress. Most players aren't worried about getting restricted card slots. They're just struggling to find a way out of the game." Killua explained to Gon, making the two of us look at our pale friend in surprise. Killua also raised a good point. We were one of the lucky teams that were making progress. Not everyone else would be so lucky.
We had left the forest like path by the time Killua decided to drop his hands from behind the back of his head. I thought over his words. They made sense. It would also suck for other players if they were looking for exits and couldn't find them.
"It would suck if you got to Masadora, and there weren't any Leave cards." Gon said, sympathetic to those who had probably ran into that encounter. Killua turned his attention away from me and Gon and closed his eyes. He linked his fingers behind his head once more.
"Yeah, that's why…I got it." Killua said, opening his eyes widely as he stopped walking. Me, Gon and Biscuit stopped walking and looked at Killua questionably.
"If you guys got to Masadora, but there weren't any Leave cards, what would you do?" Killua questioned us, placing his hands on his hips as he looked at us questionably. I furrowed my brows slightly and frowned widely, fiddling with the front of my vest top.
"Cry." I admitted, earning a rather powerful glare from Biscuit.
"What kind of boy cries because he can't leave a game?" She questioned under her breath, although just loud enough for me to hear. I pouted at her, puffing out my cheeks as I held a glare on my face.
"What would you do then?" I questioned her more angrily then I had intended. Biscuit placed her hand onto her chin as she looked into the air, thinking to herself as she spoke.
"Let's see…I would save up the money until a Leave showed up." Biscuit answered as Gon nodded his head in agreement.
I turned my attention back to Killua, exhaling the air I had stored up in my cheeks when pouting at Biscuit. Killua pointed at me and Gon.
"Okay, then what it you acquired a super rare spell card while waiting?" Killua questioned us even more. I thought about it. It depended on what type of super rare spell card it was. I placed a hand onto my chin and dropped my head slightly as I thought to myself about the answer.
"Sell it and buy more spell cards until Leave came in." Gon answered. I could feel eyes on me. I peeked through the tops of my eyelids. Bringing my head up once more, I dropped my arm back to my side.
"Well, if it's restricted I guess I'd keep it…but then I wouldn't be able to leave without losing it…" I answered Killua, earning a small smirk. We turned our attention to Biscuit, wondering what she would do.
"I would save it… Wouldn't it suck if all the cards you bought ended up being worthless? If you saved it, you might be able to trade it for a Leave-" Biscuit began saying smiling widely to herself. I looked at her in question, wondering what she had realised, before turning my attention to Killua who had shoved his hands into his shorts pockets.
"See?" He questioned us with a shrug of his shoulders. I had to admit, I didn't "see" what Killua meant.
We made our way to Masadora once more. With any luck, Biscuit wouldn't drag us away from here just to go and dig through more rocks. As far as I knew, we were past that in our training, but it was Biscuit and she was a little unpredictable.
The four of us began hanging about outside a card selling shop. There was a long queue outside the bear head shaped shop and they were probably all after the same thing; a Leave card. We kept our eyes peeled, looking for anyone that might be desperate to Leave the game. Soon a man with brown curly hair exited the shop and sighed deeply to himself. He looked desperate and disappointed. Perfect!
"Need a Leave card? Want to go back to the real world?" Gon questioned him, thus beginning our bargaining skills with complete strangers who looked like they wanted to leave.
We headed off into our own separate ways, staying inside the small square of shops so that we could see each other. I found a girl with blonde hair, sitting on the ground with her head cupped onto her hands. She looked about in her late thirties. She wore a pink tank top and black skirt with pink shorts underneath. She looked recognisable. I quickly summoned my book and took out my Leave card, then dismissed the book.
I walked up to the woman and sat down beside her, keeping a tight grip on the card in my hand. The woman at first didn't notice me, and sighed once more. I could see her look at me through the corner of her eyes, jumping slightly as she finally noticed me.
"Don't scare me like that cutie…Haven't I seen you from somewhere?" She asked me. I looked at her and thought over it for a second. She looked a lot like Kitty, the Hunter I fought back in Heaven's arena. Now that I thought about it was the same woman. However, playing dumb I shook my head, and smiled widely.
"No, I don't think so… If you don't mind me asking how come you're so down?" I asked her, keeping the wide smile on my face. Kitty stared at me questionably, before sighing once more and slumped her head into her propped up hand.
"I didn't think this game would be this hard. I just want to go home, see my boyfriend and pet Lizard." Kitty said, rather solemnly. I smiled widely at her, making her look at me in question.
"I've got a Leave card you can have, with one exception though." I said to her, showing her the Leave card. Kitty looked at it wide eyed and looked at me, egging me to go on.
"We'll trade. One restricted card from you for this Leave card." I said to her, keeping the wide smile on my face. Kitty glared at me, and turned her head away, crossing her arms over her chest.
"That's fine, I'll wait." She said to me, a harsh tone lacing her words. I shrugged my shoulders slightly and stood up from the ground, patting off my bottom.
"Suit yourself. I'll see you around then." I said to her, smiling widely. I began walking away until I heard footsteps come up behind me. Looking over my shoulder I was suddenly turned around by a desperate looking Kitty.
"Okay I'll do it; I just want to go home!" She said to me, desperateness in her voice. I smiled widely at her, waiting for her to release me and summon her book so that we could commence the trade.
I made my way back over to Gon, Killua and Biscuit. Gon had summoned his book and began flicking through the pages. I smiled widely as I held my card in my hand, before summoning my book and placing it inside. Killua had summoned his book as well and looked through the pages.
"We've gotten four restricted slots for four Leave cards." Gon stated, keeping the wide smile on his face. I nodded my head, keeping my own wide smile on my face. I hadn't done anything like bargain with someone before to get something; it felt kind of wrong in a way but it did mean we were closing to completing the game.
"Okay, that makes a total of fifty-four types." Killua said cheerfully. The four of us raised hands into the air celebrating our small victory.
We made our way out of the city again. We had collected some cards, but they wouldn't fit into the books being "common" cards we had already collected enough of or ran out of slots for, so they just ended up turning back into items. The four of us sat in a small circle, our books summoned as we stared at the various items in the middle. It was a mixture of things, from books to the lucky waving cat.
"So the cards that wouldn't fit into our binders reverted to items." Biscuit said, placing her hands into her laps.
"We're running out of free pockets. Then we should organize them now." Killua suggested to us, crossing his arms and legs over one another. I nodded my head as I placed my hands into my lap and sat on top of my legs, staring between my book and the items in the middle.
"We four of a total of one hundred and eighty free pockets. We should each leave around five pockets free." Killua explained to us as he stared into his book. Gon looked at Killua as he began talking.
"You keep the spell cards, Killua." Gon said to Killua. Killua looked over to Biscuit, bringing his head up and away from the book.
"Bisky should also have a few defensive ones." Killua said to Biscuit, who was busy staring into her book. It took a few seconds for what Killua said to sink into her mind. She bounced her head up from her book and looked at Killua in shock.
"Wait! I have to use spell cards? No way! I don't know how they work." Biscuit quickly dismissed as she closed her eyes and turned her head away, seeming disgusted by the idea of using spell cards. I shifted my weight so I could cross my legs over one another and leant forward. I picked up the ornament of the cat. It was a tabby cat design, grey with dark grey straps on his back. I could see Killua from the corner of my eyes point to Biscuit angrily as he glared at her.
"The hell? Then learn how they work!" He yelled at Biscuit, who didn't even looked at him in response. I sighed slightly and placed the cat down onto the grass once more, this was going to be an interesting sort out.
The four of us had finally sorted out our cards among ourselves. I had a good round mixture of cards. We had just about convinced Biscuit to have a few of the spell cards, even if it was just one. I stood up and stretched my arms above my head. My legs felt tired after sitting with them crossed for a while just so we could sort out our cards.
"Okay. Book. We've been deliberately avoiding other players, but we'll have to take some risks to obtain the rarer cards." Killua explained to me, Biscuit and Gon, although it was more to me and Gon than it was to Biscuit. Me and Gon nodded our heads, agreeing with Killua.
"Well, let's get what we can ourselves, then negotiate aggressively with other players we come across. Sound good?" Biscuit suggested to us. I kept quiet and nodded my head as Gon and Killua both said "yeah", agreeing to Biscuits plan. I had to admit, I didn't like the sound of aggressively obtaining cards from other players, I didn't know if I had it in me to be aggressive to them just for their rarer cards.
We had wondered into a darkened forest. We spotted a guy with short black hair. He wore a reddish vest top with a white long sleeved top underneath. His trousers were cream coloured. Gon had been the one to do a trade with them. Me and Killua leaned our backs against a tree behind Gon as Biscuit stood by. The three of us made sure to keep out of view from the man. We watched the trade carefully, just to make sure nothing went wrong. They both walked over to each other and summoned their books. The trade was over quickly as the guy handed his card to Gon and vice versa.
"Wait." Gon said as the guy began walking away. His Neckless glowed a blue light. The card then began smoking and glowed a blue light as well, turning into a different card completely.
"It's a transformed fake." Gon said to him calmly. The man laughed and began walking back to Gon, his eyes closed apologetically as he re-summoned his book.
"Sorry I gave you the wrong one. Here's the real one." The man said to Gon, seeming generally apologetic. I sighed to myself slightly as I furrowed my brows. I don't think the man was ever going to give Gon the real one until he pointed it out.
"Man, you can't lower your guard around any of these guys." Killua said with annoyance in his voice. I hummed to myself in agreement.
"No kidding… Still, that Neckless is quite useful." Biscuit said to us. I had to agree, it was very useful. It could remove curses which was something that we would probably be doing a lot in the near future if we were going to aggressively negotiate with other players.
Once the trade was over…again, the four of us began making our way out of the darkened forest. We watched the man walk off first before making our own way, wanting him to keep thinking that Gon was on his own. Me and Killua had taken our usual spots next to Gon as Biscuit walked behind us. Killua placed his hands behind his head as I swung my arms backwards and forwards as I walked.
We came out of the forest and began walking down a hill. The sun was setting, so we should probably think about getting some shelter for the night, or at least somewhere out here where there wouldn't be any prying eyes to sneak up on us to steal out cards. The sun was painted a beautiful red, yellow and orange colour, with just a few pink coloured clouds hovering in the sky.
"Hey, this Neckless can remove curses, right?" Gon asked us. I nodded my head, smiling widely as Killua began answering the question.
"Only from spell cards." He said simply. Gon frowned widely as he turned his head forward once more, seeming disappointed by hearing Killua's answer.
"Oh, so it won't work." Gon said disappointedly. I looked at him questionably as Killua did the same, wondering what Gon was thinking.
"I was wondering if a curse was behind the disease that all those villagers were suffering from." Gon said, making me think back. I furrowed my brows at the ones he meant. It was the villagers who we ended up giving our clothes to when we found out that the little boy were dying. It was also the time we had met Biscuit, although not officially as we were running away from her.
"I wonder how they are now…" I thought out loud, trailing off in my sentence. Killua looked confused at me and Gon, wondering who we meant. I was about to answer until I heard Biscuit shriek behind me in delight.
"Oh, those people… The ones who took your money. But it won't work since they aren't cards." Biscuit said to us, certainty in her voice. I sighed slightly to myself, she could have at least been a little gentler about the subject…and not remind us that they took all our money to.
"No. It's worth a shot." Killua said, a small smile creeping onto his face. I looked at him, smiling widely myself. If we could help someone in this game, then that would be amazing.
The four of us began making our way back to the village. It was dark by time we reached it. Coughs came from the buildings. It didn't sound like they had gotten any better. The villagers greeted us kindly and brought out floor pillows for us to sit on. Me, Gon, Killua and Biscuit took off our shoes as we entered their homes and sat on the floor pillows provided. I sat with my legs either side of me and my hands lying in my lap. The villagers inside the house sat in front of us cross legged, all coughing into their hands.
"Will you trust us with your lives?" Gon asked the elderly man. We looked at him determined as we waited for his answer, the silence in the room being ruined by the coughing of the men and small child that laid on the floor in a deep sleep. The elderly man bowed his head as he began speaking to us.
"You freely gave us everything you had. We will trust you!" The man shouted at us, before him, the rest of the villagers and the small sick child burst into smoke. I jumped a little as cards flew into the air.
I brought a hand above me and caught one of the cards and watched it closely. On the front of it was a picture of people in a bed with a damp cloth on their head. The card was called "sick villagers". Gon's Neckless glowed a bright blue and began transforming the cards into a new one. The villagers were dancing on the front and had a new name. They were now called "Healthy villagers." I smiled widely at the card and turned my head towards Gon.
"It worked!" I said to him smiling widely. Gon nodded his head as Killua kept the wide smile on his face. Me, Gon and Killua laid the cards down in front of us and left them for the minute that would require to transform back into people. Once the minute passed by the cards burst into smoke once more and began the villagers, healthy looking and much happier.
We made our way to the door and slipped on our shoes, the now healthy villagers following us with gratitude. As we stood outside waiting, the elderly man held a box in his hands. It was a small wooden box with the lid open. Inside was something that glowed red. Looking at it closer I could see it wasn't red at all. It was a purple gem cut gem stone, mounted into a golden ring. It sat on a very light blue fabric inside the box to keep it safe.
"Thank you very much! This treasure has been passed down for generations. Please accept this token of our gratitude." The man said to us hopeful. Gon smiled widely as he nodded his head and took the item.
"Awesome!" He said cheerfully. We thanked the elderly man and bowed slightly in respect to dismiss ourselves. Once we were far away from the house Gon transformed the ring into a card and held it in his hands securely, the wide smile never leaving his face.
"Lucky Alexandrite! Score!" Gon said cheerfully once more as he summoned his book and placed the card inside. That was one more restricted card slot filled. We were slowly getting our books filled up.
As soon as Gon placed the card into the restricted number seventy five card slot, his book dinged a small tune catching all of our attention.
"Another player has used Contact to reach you." The female voice spoke from the book.
"Yo, this is Kazsule. I'd like to talk to you. Could we meet in person?" The voice asked from inside the book. The four of us looked at each other in wonder, before looking back at Gon's book as we crowded around it. What got me was I could have sworn I heard or met Kazsule before. But with our card hunting the other player's names had slipped my mind. That and there were a lot of them to begin with.
"About what?" Gon questioned innocently.
"Some people are close to clearing the game. It's a team of three, led by someone named Genthru." The person spoke. I raised an eyebrow slightly in question, I could have sworn I heard that name from somewhere…but where… was he the bomber? I was pretty sure he was the bomber.
In the end we had agreed to meet this Kazsule in person. He gave us the directions to get to the meeting place. It didn't take us long to get there, but where it was unnerved me. It was inside a chasm of tall rocks. Inside the chasm were loads of other people. Me, Gon, Killua and Biscuit chose one of the flat rocks to sit on, away from the other players. I sat next to Gon and Biscuit while Killua sat next to Biscuit.
"Thanks for coming, everyone. Much appreciated. As I mentioned via Contact, Team Genthru is close to completing the game. I just checked the ranking, and they're currently at ninety-six types. We must figure out a way to stop them." The man with the yellow leopard print best top and silly hat asked. Now I remembered him! He was the guy that stole our card when we began playing this game! It was a little bit ironic asking for help when he was happy to steal them in the first place…at least that's how I saw it.
Killua raised his hand into the air, leaving his elbow pressed against his knee as he kept his eyes on Kazsule.
"Can I ask something? How do you check the ranking?" Killua asked him. Kazsule was about to answer until a female voice had butted in to answer for him.
"You don't know how to do that? If we answer all your questions we'll be here till dawn!" The woman mocked us. She had short orange hair and wore a purple vest top and cream looking trousers. Her feet were covered in brown combat boots. I puffed my cheeks out slightly as I looked at her in annoyance; it was a simple question why couldn't she just answer? Gon, Killua and Biscuit looked at her as annoyed as I did, none of us happy with her dismissal of us. The woman turned her head to Kazsule once more, dropping her arm over the top of her propped up knee.
"Just cut to the chase." The woman instructed Kazsule. Kazsule looked at her in amusement as he waved his hand next to him, smirking slightly at her actions.
"Now, don't be so mean… We're all here to exchange information." Kazsule said to her. The guy behind him with the white side parted hair and white tank top placed his hands onto his hips as he too smirked at the orange haired woman.
"They could have information you don't, Asta." The man said to her. However, the woman, who he had called Asta, laughed off his words.
"That's impossible. Those kids are amateurs you don't even know how to use the Trade shops. " Asta said smugly, crossing her arms under her chest. The four of us continued to look at her in annoyance as she crossed one leg over her thigh and closed her eyes.
We turned our attention back to Kazsule as he began speaking to us once more.
"In the Trade shop, there's a ranking that lists players and their total restricted card slots. If you pay a fee, you can even learn the numbers of their cards." Kazsule explained to us as he dropped his hands back to his sides once more.
"But getting a player's name from the ranking still won't let you use Contact or Fluoroscopy on them. Not until you actually meet them. Don't you feel smarter now, boys?" Asta said to us, bouncing her boobs on top of her arms as she spoke. She uncrossed her arms and leaned towards us, placing her hands onto the flat rock she was sitting on as she smirked smugly at us. Me, Gon and Killua glared at her, annoyed by the way she was speaking to us. We asked a simple question, that was all. She didn't have to be rude.
"In other words, if we know the members of a team, we can determine how many cards they have." The white haired man said to us, expanding further on what Kazsule had said.
"And Team Genthru is only missing number zero, number two, number nine and number seventy five." Kazsule said to us. Me, Gon and Killua looked at each other through the corner of our eyes when he said number Seventy Five. That was the card we recently obtained…so that meant he probably didn't know how to solve the riddle of the sick villagers.
The three of us turned our attention back to Kazsule as he began explaining some more about the missing cards.
"There's a solid theory that number zero appears in an event after the other ninety-nine cards are collected, so they only need three. We propose to find one of those three types before they do and monopolize it, to prevent them from clearing the game." Kazsule said to us, holding up three fingers before dropping them back to his side. Asta had crossed her arms under her chest once more and began bouncing her leg in annoyance.
"There's gotta be something else. We could deluge them with spell cards." Asta said to him, annoyance laced into her word.
"They already have a Paladin's Neckless. So Levy is the only spell that will work. And they can block Levy if certain conditions are met." Kazsule explained to Asta, destroying her idea of using a spell card to trick them.
"It's safe to assume that Genthru is willing to reveal that they have ninety-six types because they're pages are protected by Prison." The white haired man said to us, making it harder and harder to think of anything we could do up front about stopping Team Genthru completing the game.
"That's possible…" Gon spoke up as I hummed to myself, fiddling about with the fabric on my training trousers.
"Genthru was collecting a bunch of spell cards with the others who tried to recruit us. It's a reasonable assumption." Killua explained to him as he dropped his arm over his propped up knee.
Asta held out her hand as she puffed out her chest, throwing another idea at Kazsule. I honestly didn't know why she was doing so much with her boobs, what was the gain? They were only boobs.
"We could always take their cards by force." Asta suggested to him. That was almost suicide. He was known as the Bomber. We would all be killed! Easily! Like flies against a windshield, he would crush us all with a snap of his fingers.
"Would you be willing to lead the attack? We don't know what kind of abilities they have." An elderly man said to her. I turned my head to him, frowning widely. I guess they didn't know that he was the Bomber yet. It looked like we were holding a lot of information that could prove to be useful to them.
"Finding a card type to monopolize is the most practical option. I assume no one has objections." Kazsule explained to Asta as he held out his arms, waiting for someone to say something. The seconds passed by slowly as no one spoke up.
Kazsule dropped his arms by his side once more as he looked at all of us, turning his head around the chasm to do so.
"Then let's get to business. We'll need everyone here to cooperate." Kazsule said to all of us. Asta lifted up her arm once more as she began speaking again.
"I'm fine with the proposed plan. But I have a problem with these members." Asta said, clearly annoyed by all of us being here. She seemed very much like a one man army. A rude, boob pushing obsessed one man army at that.
"Hold on, Asta. I followed your condition… Have over fifty types of cards. These six teams met that condition." Kazsule said to her. Asta leaned back onto her hands as she closed her eyes, bouncing her leg continuously on the rock in an annoyed fashion.
"I also said that they had to be people who could contribute. I don't see how these kids con contribute anything." Asta said, glaring at us with one eye. I glared back at her as I puffed out my cheeks. She was rude, very rude. It dug at me. There was no need to be rude. She was the one who wasn't thinking, we had supplied some information by telling them that Genthru was collecting cards when he tried to recruit us.
"You're the one being uncooperative." Killua spat at her as the three of us glared at Asta.
Asta sighed to herself as she began pushing herself up from the flat rock, a small smirk crossing her very pale face. She quickly readjusted her seating as she continued to smirk and glare at us.
"You've got a smart mouth. Then show me some proof that you can be useful." Asta said to us, thinking she had us cornered like mice being chased by a cat. She was trying to be sly and catch us out.
"We know Team Genthru's ability." Gon said to Asta, making her jolt in surprise.
"We have one of the three cards they're missing." Killua spoke up as he closed his eyes.
"We know where and how you can get that missing card." I said to her, keeping the glare on my face.
"Still dissatisfied?" Killua asked her, annoyed by her. Asta leaned forward and lazily dumped her cheek into the palm of her hand as she continued to smirk at us, crossing her other leg over the top of her knee that dangled from the flat rock.
"No, that's good enough. So tell us what their abilities are." Asta said to us, egging us on to give them more information.
"What about you?" Killua questioned, taking her back by surprise. It didn't seem like she was expecting us to talk back to her.
"Show us some proof that you can be useful to us." Killua demanded from her as he turned his attention to her.
"We have seventy-one types of restricted slot cards… Significantly more than you. I'll give you an A-rank card in return for the information. You shouldn't have a problem with that." Asta suggested to us, trying to bargain with us to part with our information.
"I have a problem. We can obtain A-rank cards ourselves. So give us two S-rank cards or equally valuable information. Otherwise we won't tell you a thing." Killua said to her, the air filling with a wicked tension. Is this what Biscuit meant by aggressively bargaining with other players to obtain cards? Because if it was then Killua was doing a great job.
"Don't get too cocky brat!" Asta spat at Killua, glaring back at the white haired kid just as powerfully as we were glaring at her.
She then began turning to all the other teams, smirking to herself as she began speaking to them.
"Did you hear that everyone? These kids won't be any help. They want to S-rank cards from each team. That's ten cards they'd take." Asta said to them, trying to get the other teams to turn onto us.
"Don't be a fool. I'm only taking cards from your team. I'm fine with giving information to the other four. I'll let them decide what to other in return. But I won't tell you anything until you meet my condition." Killua said to her, glaring at her hard as he crossed his legs and dropped his hands lazily onto his knees. Asta looked shocked by what Killua had said, wondering why we would let the other teams decide. The other teams weren't the ones who was judging us and belittling us like she was. Asta sighed in annoyance as she dropped her head.
"You are a stupid brat… Throwing a tantrum because I didn't baby you, huh?" Asta said as she turned her attention away from Killua. Killua glared at her even more than he had done before.
Kazsule decided to step in at that point to break the war of words from between the two.
"Stop it, the both of you… We don't have time to fight amongst ourselves!" Kazsule said to them. Killua and Asta pointed to each other angrily and bitterly as they glared at Kazsule.
"I haven't agreed to team up with them yet!" They both shouted at the funny hatted man.
"It's fine Asta, give them two cards." The big guy in the yellow shirt and red baseball cap said to Asta.
"We need to move on." The very small girl from next to him said to her. She had black hair which covered one eye and a very loose wife beater top thrown over her. She looked quite small compared to Asta. Asta turned her attention to her team mates angrily, disbelief at what they were saying to her.
"What?! I have no problem giving them cards! But that kid's trying to pick a fight!" Asta yelled at her team mates angrily, pointing her finger over to Killua. Killua stood up himself and began pointing over to Asta, glaring at her just as hard as she was glaring at her poo teammates.
"You're the one picking a fight! Hey, let's leave." Killua yelled at her, before turning his attention to us. He placed his hands onto his hips, getting quite huffy over the situation.
"I don't want to team up with these people!" Killua said, throwing the biggest fit I ever saw him throw. I couldn't help but furrow my brow and just smile at him, not really sure what to say. It was hard trying to get Killua to change his mind once it was made up. Biscuit sighed to herself and turned her head in annoyance.
"Come, now…Though I admit I'm a bit peeved." Biscuit said. Gon turned his head as well, closing his own eyes.
"But given the circumstances…" Gon said, trailing off in his own sentence. Killua turned his attention to me. I just kept my small, furrowed brow smile on my face.
"We can always just ignore her once we've given the information…" I said to him. Killua dropped his shoulders as he looked at the three of us in anger, not happy with what we had said to him.
Once we got Killua to calm down, we hopped off our flat rock and walked to the front of the group. The other teams had down the same and sat in a small tight circle, listening to what we had to say. Gon took the stand, with me, Killua and Biscuit sitting behind him, watching the entire group. I felt nervous. I didn't like being the centre of attention, being stared at, it wasn't my thing.
"Genthru has these two abilities, Countdown and Little Flower. So it's best to keep your distance from him." Gon explained to them. I saw Asta place her forehead into the palm of her hand, closing her eyes tightly. I could hear them whispering, it all sounded like they might have already been caught by Genthru. I could see Killua smiling a wide cat like smile through the corner of my eyes.
"Sounds like a bunch of them might be victims." Biscuit whispered to Gon, making Killua cover his mouth as his smile grew. I looked at him questionably, wondering what could be making him smile like a Cheshire Cat.
"Isn't there anyway to disable his technique?" Asta asked, sounding as if she was desperate for anything. Gon nodded his head as he turned his attention to her.
"Yeah there is… You have to touch Genthru and say "I caught the "Bomber."" Gon explained to them. Killua leant forward as he looked at Gon wide eyed.
"Stupid! Why did you tell them? We could have gotten more cards out of them!" Killua objected angrily. Gon turned his head over his shoulder, looking at Killua apologetically.
"That would have started another fight." Gon explained to Killua. I thought over it, if they had been caught by the Bomber then we ideally needed to avoid another fight; who knew how much time the Bomber was allowing these people.
Gon turned his attention back to Asta, giving a small shrug of his shoulders.
"The bombs can't be armed until Genthru explains how his ability works, so if you keep away from him, you should be safe." Gon explained to Asta, the sound of him smiling coming from his words as he spoke. Asta looked annoyed by Gon's words, but then again I hadn't seen her not looking annoyed or smirking at us. Silence fell around us, until Asta straightened up and began speaking.
"Did you know there are two ways to cast spells?" Asta questioned Gon, who nodded his head in response.
"A spell card is used up the moment you say its name aloud. But it's possible to keep reusing a spell." Asta said to us, taking us back by surprise. None of us were expecting her to tell us something we didn't know, much less about how you could keep reusing a spell card. Me and Killua stood up, more interested about hearing what Asta had to say.
"For example, you know how a list of players you've met appears if you put Steal in your binder? If you remove the card without pressing the select button, the spell card isn't used and you can keep reusing it." Asta explained to us. Me, Gon and Killua looked at each other in amazement. We never tried doing it that way before…that would save up on a lot of card hunting and trying to decide when we should use a card.
"You can buy all B-rank restricted slot cards at stores. You simply need to buy from the same trade shop over fifty times. If you become a frequent customer they'll start making you offers. Do you have two Skeleton Glasses cards? Or Emerald for Beauty or Mystery Pond?" Asta continued to say, giving us all the information she had to us, all the things we didn't know and now would; All because we stayed and shared what we knew about the Bomber.
Asta spoke for what seemed like hours, explaining everything she had found out to us. Me, Gon and Killua watched her carefully as she gave the information.
"Is that enough information to satisfy you? I'll give you another card if you're not happy." Asta said to us, going back to her annoyed tone of voice once more. She dropped her check into the palm of her hand and closed her eyes in annoyance.
"Nope that's enough, thanks!" Gon said to her, raising his hand to stop her from talking.
"I'm up next, then." A male voice that was unknown to us said. We turned her heads to see a very muscly guy stand up. He had short spikey hair and wore a purple tight top with no sleeves. He looked like he could crush someone with ease, but also looked like he wouldn't dream about doing that.
"I'm Goreinu. Nice to meet you." He said to us, a calm smile on his face as we stared up to him.
The whole group began giving us information for our bit of information on the Bomber. It was starting to become overwhelming. I felt much better than before, happy that I was no longer the centre of attention. I couldn't help but smile widely to myself with all the information that was being given.
"Thanks, everyone! That was very educational." Gon said to them cheerfully, his own wide smile crossing his face. Kazsule began walking up towards us, a hand on his hip. He brought the attention away from us and began speaking himself.
"The question now is which card we should try to monopolize." He asked us, dropping his other hand to his hip as he looked at everyone calmly.
"It's probably impossible to monopolize the number seventy five we have. Each team can only obtain one, and the limit is twenty, which is too high." Killua explained to Kazsule, earning us stares from some more of the members. I could hear them mutter, but what those mutters said I was unsure of. I guess, I wasn't paying too much attention to the mutters, now that the spotlight was back on us.
Kazsule summoned his book and took out a card. He held it out in front of him and stared at it with a serious expression.
"List on! So five other teams each have one. Monopolizing this one will be impossible." Kazsule said, looking into his book. Asta stood up and walked over to him, crossing her arms underneath her chest once more as she started at Kazsule.
"What about the other two?" She questioned him. The blonde short haired man with the white skin tight shirt took out a card after summoning his book.
"List on. Number nine!" He said as the card flashed into a bright yellow light. The other guy with blonde spikey hair and a white vest top summoned his book. He took out a card and held it into the air, a serious gaze on his face.
"List on. Number two." He said, making the card disappear into another bright white light, vanishing into his book.
"No good."
"There are three teams with number nine."
"No one has number two, Patch of Shore… We can make it work!" The man with the blonde spikey hair said, leaning forward as he stared at his book wide eyed.
"Guide post on. Number two." The girl with the black hair covering her eye said. She looked into her book as the card in her had glowed a vicious yellow light, almost like flames in her fingertips.
"I know where to find it… Soufrabi." She said as the card vanished into thin air.
"I've been there before!"
"I have an Accompany card here."
"Okay, let's go. Accompany on! To Soufrabi!" The man with the Accompany card shouted, making us all glow a bright yellow light. The experience was strange. I felt my body lift into the air, it was almost as if I was part of the air, just I glowed yellow while the rest of the air didn't. I had to close my eyes tightly, not wanting to look down. It was faster than walking no matter how you looked at it, but I just wished it didn't shoot you into the air.
We landed at a place fair away. We had landed on a beach. The darkened water spilled across the sand, trying to reach our feet. We had stayed in a tightly knitted group, finding it better to stay with each other than to wonder off by ourselves.
"This is Soufrabi?" Gon questioned, looking around him in shock. The place before us was huge. It was a city, a very big city. It looked intimidating. It looked as if it could have been as big as York New, or the city with Heaven's Arena.
"It's quite a big city. Let's head in and snoop around." Kazsule said from behind Gon as we just continued to stare at the giant city before us. With that, our group of several different teams began crossing the sand to the giant city known as Soufrabi.
Once we reached the city we had spilt up into our individual groups, agreeing that we would tell one another when we found the card or the way to get the card. I walked beside Killua and Gon. Gon Biscuit next to him. Killua walked with his hands in his pockets as he stared between me, Gon and Biscuit. Soufrabi was full of bright lights and market stools. It looked a little bit like the Festival of Life that was held not too long ago back at Sarah's home village. It made me miss it a bit. I should probably visit her again soon.
"Search every room, one by one. Some characters may not give you information until you visit multiple times so pay attention." Killua instructed us. Me, Gon and Biscuit threw our right hand into the air.
"Yes!" We said at the same time, looking determined to follow Killua's instructions. We heard someone call over to us, grabbing all of our attention. It was Goreinu, who stood a little way away pointing in a direction ahead of him.
"I found someone with information." He said to us, taking all back by surprise.
"Fast!" We said in shock, looking at him in shock. We didn't expect anyone to find information that fast.
All of us met up in a quieter part of the city. The lights weren't as bright and it wasn't as crowded as back at the market place. It was an open area with a fountain parked in the middle. It added a nice touch to the city. There were a few people here and there, walking about and minding their own business. They didn't pay mind to what we were doing or saying, that was for the better I guess.
"When we visited a few months earlier, we couldn't find a single clue." One of the men said to us as we stood in our rather large circle, allowing us to look at everyone more easily.
"This must be information only available at certain times. Maybe an event that only occurs at this time frame?" The man with the white hair suggested to us, his arms crossed over his chest as he pitched his idea. It seemed plausible. But I didn't know much about video games, so I couldn't say if that was even possible.
"Razor and the fifteen devils… It's possible that the event was triggered by the number of players here." The girl with the hair covering an eye said to us. We looked at her in question, wondering what she had meant.
"There are sixteen pirates. And it just so happens that there are sixteen of us." The girl said to us, explaining what she had meant.
"So the event won't start until you have a party of sixteen or more?" Kazsule questioned her, looking at her questionably.
"But how would a game character know that?" A man wearing a red shirt asked her. Killua hummed to himself before smiling widely, letting his smile turn into a smirk.
"Oh, Accompany!" Killua said, making the girl with the hair covering her eye turn to face him. Her expression never changing from the neutral one it held.
"Yes, a group of sixteen or more must reach Soufrabi with Accompany. That's probably the trigger for this event." The girl explained to us. I couldn't help but look at her confused, was this how video games worked? Was this a common thing in a video game or was Gin the first one to make it like this?
Silence fell over our group as we took in her words. I heard Goreinu sigh from behind Killua.
"Brutal…" He said making me and Killua turn to face him in question. Goreinu looked at us and shook his head as he stopped scratching his chin.
"Oh, nothing." He said to us, turning away to walk away. I looked at him even more confused and questionably, he was a strange man; saying something then walking away saying it was nothing.
"Let's go to the pirates base!" Kazsule announced to us. It wasn't like we had a choice, if we wanted to get that card and monopolize it, we needed to go to that base. That way, if we got all the cards then Genthru and his team couldn't complete the game.
Our feet bounced against the ground as we back running towards the pirate's base. It was located in town. The building was made of stone and stood in a square like shape, almost like a castle type building without the high tower.
We pushed our way in and stood behind Kazsule as he opened the large wooden double doors. The inside looked like a bar. There were pirates sitting on the floor, playing games and drinking beer. Somebody stood behind the bar to serve it all. I couldn't help but crinkle my nose at the smell. It was unpleasant. The pirates didn't look all too friendly either. In a way, I was hoping that we could fight them outside, away from the smell of alcohol…or maybe try and talk it out with them. But deep down, I knew that neither options would be available to us.