The verbal threat, as strong as its resolve, did not follow through as expected. Killua, unconsciously drawing one step nearer to his spiky haired friend, felt the rush of adrenaline as he braced himself for the anticipated onslaught. His mind whirled, both urging him to commit to his flight response and alternately determined to face his demons and fight off the attack as some form of redemption from his last failure.
Yet, it did not come. Instead, a meek whimpering sounded from the robes that concealed Miu, who was now holding a blood-drenched right sleeve in her left hand, and a soft, dull thud echoed throughout the dark room. An exaggeratedly long stream of purple-red liquid had already reached the floor from the nearest exterior of the table where the assailant was present, and at the end of it was a disembodied hand still clutching the weapon. At the angle from which the boy studied it through his blue eyes, he noticed the bone that once adjoined the wrist to the hand was neatly severed and slightly overhanging the wet, fleshy tissues at the stubbed end. The cut was unarguably clean.
Immediately his eyes moved to Misaki. Had she done this? To his surprise, the girl was frozen in position, as if she'd been only just reaching for her weapon at the point when the attack had been executed. Someone had been quicker. Following the girl's amber gaze, he realized that she was inspecting the "elder" who had spoken earlier.
"Wha-?" Haku began, still disorientated from the action he had not yet been able to decipher the cause of.
"You're fast," Misaki said to the elder, her voice only variably crossing over from indifferent in to the realm of the mildly impressed.
"We did not ask you to come in here to make demands," he announced, causing Miu to hunch in to herself at the calculated harshness in his tone. "We've heard that you are interested in joining the ranks of the Conspiracy Hunters, and so we wish to share with you our purpose and our mission." There was a brief silence, and then he continued with: "Number Six will take care of all your questions."
Without further encouraging, Miu vaulted over the table and drew short, but quick strides towards the door. Her sleeve was now tied in a firm, but gory knot over the presumed stump of her wrist.
"Follow me," she commanded briskly.
Miu spoke no words for a lengthy period of time, silently ushering them through twist after turn of the nearly identical surroundings of the maze-like set up. Every so often she could be heard grinding her teeth fiercely, though it was unclear whether this was due to the pain in her partially severed arm or perhaps something altogether different. Finally she began to talk, though her tone was short and cold and she kept her face purposely turned away from the group even in spite of it being cloaked.
"As Conspiracy Hunters, we have an obligation to our employers to carry out our assigned jobs with extreme care and caution. Government ministries from all around the world hire us to cover up and solve scandals from simple assassinations and treason to natural disasters."
This immediately caught Haku's attention, and the man glanced up so quickly that he nearly launched his drooping glasses from his face.
"Natural disasters? You mean like the inactive volcanoes that have been suddenly erupting?"
Miu released a grunt so loaded and aggressive that the bespectacled man's shoulders arched inward in response.
"I would have said that if you hadn't gone interrupting," she snapped. "Yes, obviously we've been swamped trying to both cover up and prevent the mass eruption."
"Then you're the ones that told everyone that the volcanoes weren't dangerous?" Gon asked, recalling Haku's story about the government officials' report on Tanzanite.
After an exasperated sigh, she admitted, "Of course. Obviously the world won't take the news that they're all pretty much doomed gracefully."
"Doomed?" Killua echoed.
Stomping her foot once childishly as if to reprimand him for speaking, Miu then leaned in to a door that looked indistinguishably akin to all the others they had passed. She seemed to struggle for a moment before finally prying it open to reveal a massive projector screen on the far wall. The tiled floor was littered with people seated before desk-top monitors, hammering madly away in a constant rhythm at their keyboards. Not one so much as glanced away from their work stations as Miu lead them to the only computer that was set up facing opposite of the large screen at the very back of the room.
Retaining her right arm against her, Miu seemed to have a fair amount of difficulty controlling the cursor and typing letters and characters. This lead Killua to the realization that the hand she had lost must have indeed been her dominant one.
"Below the exact coordinates of the North Magnetic Pole, we found this…"
A strange chart appeared on the projector monitor, color coded and silhouetted. The four studied it quietly, but only Haku seemed completely confident as far as translating it.
"An under-water volcano," he explained to the others, "and a large one at that! Oh my, those equations can't possibly be in regards to force and magnitude, can they?"
"Yes," Miu practically spat, "they are. As you can see, there has been an unnaturally sudden increase in magnitude during that last eight years. At first no one thought too much about it, but then it turned out that this was no ordinary volcano. The eruptions, coupled with the location in the center of earth's gravity travelling through the magnetic poles have started causing reactions that no one was prepared for until recently."
"Then the earthquakes emitting from this specific volcano are actually causing the increase of activity in all the others?" Haku questioned.
"That's only the beginning," Miu explained mockingly; almost proudly. "Once enough pressure has built, there will be a final eruption, which right now based on statistics we've gathered judging by the rate of growth will probably cap at about a thirty or so in magnitude…"
Haku's thick frames slid all the way down and off his nose, landing against the toe of his black shoe. His hands trembled violently.
"A thirty?" he repeated; his voice uneasy and strained.
Gon's face was practically a blank mask as he rotated his head to the man who was now desperately reaching for his glasses through a blurry haze.
"Haku-san, is a thirty bad?" he asked slowly.
"Bad?" he practically shouted. "It's unheard of! A level thirty of magnitude is enough to adjust the shape and alter the lifespan of a neutron star!"
Miu cleared her throat exaggeratedly from within her hood before continuing.
"By then most, if not all inactive volcanoes will probably be active again, and this final eruption will ripple out. It'll start travelling through the water, and the pressure will undoubtedly start a chain of eruptions until the land is overwhelmed with tsunamis. The seismic waves will then trigger the land volcanoes, which means-"
"If we're not killed by the tsunamis, there will be no escape from the lava, gases, and falling rocks from the explosions," Haku finished with a distinct awe in his voice as he returned his frames to his face as though in a trance.
"When exactly is this supposed to happen?" Misaki questioned the girl seriously.
Shrugging, Miu replied, "We're estimating in about three or four months at the soonest, depending on whether the magnitude of the eruptions stay within a similar rate of increase or not."
"Kukuru Mountain," Killua murmured, gaining the attention of the others, "is an inactive volcano…"
Gon's eyes widened in understanding and he rushed to his friend's side. The rest of the group did not comprehend the significance of his statement.
"What's your fucking point?" Miu hissed.
With fierce eyes, Gon turned to her and unapologetically scolded, "You shouldn't be so mean without knowing why someone is upset!"
"I shouldn't…! You want me to….! I should be…!" Miu started, choking back tears in between. Finally she turned on her heel and stomped toward the exit door, turning back only to callously announce, "You're shit, and I'll make sure that Number One does not accept you," before slamming the door viciously on its hinges.
A silence enveloped the room, interrupted only by the sounds of typing, which never hindered for even a second. Gon's face was still firm.
"She doesn't even care that someone else could be suffering," he grumbled quietly.
He stewed in his still swelling anger for a moment or two without distraction.
"We were probably the reason her husband was killed," Misaki suddenly said in a tone so casual that it did not at all match the severity of her words.
Haku shifted uncomfortably, constantly in at least slight motion at the feasibility in the statement. Killua's eyes met the girl's, though he couldn't read her expression. There was something there, but it was almost as though he was not learned enough yet to translate it. Gon was noticeably startled.
"What now?" Haku asked, opting to interrupt the awkward tension.
Misaki tilted her head at no one in particular.
"Apparently we've stumbled on to something bigger than ourselves…" She touched the second knuckle of her index finger to the curve below her bottom lip before nodding to Killua and suggesting, "First we should assess what the significance of Kukuru Mountain is. Then we should decide how to make it out of here alive."
Gon and Haku stared uneasily at Killua as he explained, "They didn't even mention initiation, so they must plan to kill us if we don't join."
"There isn't much time," Misaki insisted, approaching the silver haired boy and kneeling down to his eye level while taking his shoulders in to her palms.
Her touch caught him slightly off guard at first. Although it disappeared almost as suddenly as Killua had noticed it, there was a definite concern and potential for sympathy reflecting in her amber eyes.
"Tell me what is important about Kukuru Mountain."