"That thing about waiting for you to recuperate so we could use your nen to search for Gon was a lie, wasn't it?" Killua accused, his expression somewhere in between anger and weariness. "You always planned on renting this boat, didn't you?"
Indeed the young boy was caught quite off guard when, following breakfast hour, Misaki ushered him to a small motor boat rental facility on the docks. Without even the slightest explanation of herself, she'd marched through the door and demanded a reasonably priced model (although her haggling skills left much to be desired, especially compared to someone like Leorio).
Now the two were already far enough from the shore that the mass of people on the beach looked more like a single, silhouetted blob in the distance.
"Yes, that's correct," she admitted with no trace of regret.
"Why did you lie about that?" he growled. "We could have left yesterday!"
"That's exactly why I lied," she explained with a shrug. "There was a pretty likely chance that you'd want to go back to check the island we left if you knew we could get there this quickly, and Tanzanite's gases would take a couple of days to stabilize. I wasn't going to let you kill yourself by trying to swim there, so why would I then lead you in to almost certain death?"
"You old hag!" he hissed, grinding his teeth and balling up his fists in frustration.
"Sit down and relax," she replied, her tone unmarked by worry. "We should be there in less than ten minutes at this rate."
Upon docking the boat, there was immediately a thick sensation of unease lingering in the air. The island was still and silent, which was perhaps uncharacteristic, although not nearly as odd as the fact that further inspection found the beaches and city completely desolate as far as any trace of another human.
This was not to say that the aftermath of both nature's wrath as well as the results of the former wave of human panic was absent. Stores were in a state of extreme disarray, with windows carelessly smashed and leaving the streets showered in a skin of tiny, glistening daggers and random stock items in poor shape. Many houses had tilted or even collapsed, likely as a consequence of the earthquakes that would have eventually found their way in to the community.
Yet, not a single body could be seen or traced. The dock was stark and barren of all ships, and even the small airport to the north was stripped of any and all aircrafts.
"Someone went through a lot of trouble to clean up, and quickly, too," Misaki mumbled once the two had completed a shallow run of the island.
"How could so many bodies be moved this fast?" Killua asked aloud. After a moment he whispered, "Nen?"
"Must be," she agreed. Scanning the quiet area around them with her eyes, she added solemnly, "Keep your guard up, Kil'. We're being watched, and I'll need you to be the muscle if anything happens."
"You mean I'll have to fight alone then?" he asked in disbelief.
"I haven't fully recovered enough to trust the use of my nen in combat yet," she whispered. "That part wasn't entirely a lie, you know."
Truly this was a terrible hindrance to her, as she also was incapable of expanding her En in order to effectively trace where these specific presences were, and unfortunately for that to be the case they would almost definitely have to be using Zetsu. She was almost certain they were nen users, which served to intensify the potential danger of the situation tenfold.
'Haku's glasses…?' Misaki pondered as she lifted her boot to uncover the item which had made a sharp, crunching sound at the descent of her most recent footfall.
Dropping a single knee against the concrete to aid a closer inspection did reveal to her a pair of now severely cracked spectacles that, at the very least, did resemble those of Haku's quite strongly. The plum haired girl seized the thick, black frames in her fingers and turned them over as though doing so would somehow solve the mystery for her. If indeed the glasses belonged to Haku, there were questions and possibilities that plagued her.
Firstly was the scenario in which the spectacles had simply washed up on the shore. This would mean that someone had intentionally transported them from their original destination in to the city. The question of 'why' was imperative and seemingly unsolvable in this hypothetical situation.
Then there was the possibility that Haku himself had either reunited with his lenses either in the ocean or on the sand of the beach. In that case, Haku might be on the island now or at least had returned since the eruption. Still, this begged the answer as to what would persuade him to abandon his necessary medium to sight. Had he been ambushed?
Of course, there was the distinct probability that she was merely over thinking what easily could have passed for coincidence. Surely Haku was not the only one to wear this specific style of frame…
"Misaki, behind you!" Killua warned suddenly in an alarmed shout.
At the release of the very first syllable of his cautionary sentiment, Misaki had already initiated a reaction. Dropping the glasses in an instant and pushing off with her back foot, she rolled to the side and landed with her right palm against the street with her forward knee bent and her back leg balancing preemptively on the ball of her foot (as though prepared to launch her again at any moment). Although she was fortunate enough to (narrowly) escape the attack- namely a large, nen enhanced fist which left a massive, concave dip in the concrete- she had also used her previously injured left arm to absorb the weight of her maneuver. The scab was now oozing puss and blood once again, with the addition of glass shards embedded in the open wound. She winced lightly from the spark of pain.
"Damn, I missed," cursed a husky voice from within the cloud of dust which had risen as a result of the attack.
The debris thinned away to reveal a fairly slender man in a black suit and tie. His chestnut hair was slicked back in to an undivided spike that reached his shoulder blades. He retracted his knuckles from the shattered rock and held it up before him, his face upholding a grim expression.
"What is your purpose here?" Misaki asked firmly.
"You never should have come to this place," the man responded, withdrawing his hand in preparation for another advance toward the girl.
He swung viciously and once again the girl scarcely evaded.
"Where are all the people?" she questioned.
"Hold still," the man ordered as he robotically launched another punch.
There was less than an inch of separation between his knuckles and her body this time.
Killua at first was stunned that Misaki would be so openly foolish as to attempt a round of questions amidst these offensive strikes, although it suddenly occurred to him that this was indeed her intention. She was distracting him, particularly since she had earlier stated that her nen was not again battle-ready. The idea was for him to take the lead during this time while the man ignored his presence and was predominantly focused on her. Determined to waste no more time, Killua transmuted his nen in to a fierce electric jolt and attached it to the unsuspecting assailant.
The man, who had concentrated his aura almost completely in to his fist, was conveniently left nearly defenseless. His muscles vibrated madly and continued to twitch even subsequent to falling on to the street in a scattered heap. Killua approached the body and stared in to its wide but nevertheless unconscious eyes before peering around himself thoroughly to detect whether there were any further opponents nearby.
"L.I.G.H.T.?" Misaki murmured, and a quick glance over revealed that her words were being read from a small business card that was now in her hands.
Immediately understanding that the man must have accidentally lost the rectangular piece of laminated paper at some point during the physical exchange, Killua rushed to her side and proceeded to join the girl in looking it over.
The first line revealed a bolded acronym (L.I.G.H.T.), and the one below it read "Reg. # 57". In tiny, colored print, there was a strange circle of many different world country flags (many of which neither Misaki nor Killua particularly recognized), and their purpose appeared to act as some sort of circumference for a symbol precisely like that which graced the Hunter's license.
"What is this?" Killua mused aloud.
Shaking her head, Misaki replied, "I've never heard of such a thing before, but clearly they are either responsible for what ever is happening here, or-"
"…They know who is," the blue eyed boy finished.
"Exactly," she conceded, her amber eyes running over the body at her feet. Pocketing the card, she insisted, "Let's go to Haku's place. Even if we don't find your friend, we might be able to find something useful among all those little trinkets of his."
Killua nodded determinedly, focusing in on his mission to find his friend as he hastily increased his pacing.
"Hurry," he commanded over his shoulder.
Misaki followed wordlessly, silently attempting to close off the valve to her flood of new thoughts in order to efficiently hone in on her real mission to ultimately assassinate the boy of whom they sought… if so he were found alive, that was.