"Jan… Ken… Rock!"
As the enhanced fist made contact with the compacted rock atop the volcano, the impact was enough to puncture the mountain with an irreparable hole in the earth's crust. A wild recoil of dust and loose sediment created a smokescreen effect that blinded everyone within an eight meter radius; and Variscite itself was ten. Haku coughed in to the crook of his elbow to clear his irritated lungs, and once the tan fog had settled Misaki could be seen for the first time actually wearing her black bandana over her nose and mouth.
"Idiot!" Killua hollered to his friend, rushing up to meet him. "You're supposed to warn us first!"
"But Killua," Gon protested, "I did."
"Yelling out your attack isn't good enough!"
"That's lots of time!" the tanned boy argued. "We have to make a lot of holes and it'll take too long to warn you extra that often!"
"It would not! It'd only take a few seconds."
"If I have to do it lots of times, it'll add up to minutes!"
"You should be using the tools with us to make spots for the explosives, anyway; not your ability!"
"This is good practice, though," Gon grinned.
"You're going to tire yourself out."
"No way! I feel better than ever!"
The dark haired boy stood and flexed his right arm, using his left hand to explore it himself. A moment later, he collapsed on to his bottom, legs extended out before him and panting a bit.
"I knew it," Killua gloated, cupping the back of his skull with interlaced fingers.
"I'm just taking a break since everyone is mad that it gets so dusty!" Gon debated.
The two heedlessly continued their loud but non-aggressive bantering. Misaki smiled from behind the shelter of her bandana as she applied Shu to her silvery pick and pierced several small slits in to Variscite. She was admittedly surprised that the boys' playfulness amidst a serious mission bothered her quite a lot less than it had upon first meeting them.
'You're getting soft, Misaki,' she mentally warned herself, sighing aloud at the thought.
"Marvelous work, everyone!" Haku shouted in triumph as the deep holes brimmed with lava.
True to his word, the molten liquid overflowed and moved slowly and in a more controlled manner as Variscite emitted another of its predictably small, magmatic eruptions. Apparently this was a common and consistent occurrence at this particular volcano, and was pegged as an ideal testing point for their first attempt using the equipment and techniques. A wave of pride and relief rushed over the group to see the fruits of their labor having reigned successful, despite the simplicity of it comparative to that which would likely be required in lieu of the major eruption.
"Lunch?" the man suggested with uncharacteristically bold, bright eyes.
"…Berraudney?" Killua guessed.
"Born and raised," Misaki agreed, sipping at the bottle of red wine Haku had kindly packed and left for her.
The two had taken to asking questions to one another before the controlled fire among the small, almost out of place assortment of trees just west of Variscite's base. Haku and Gon had volunteered to scavenge the "forest" for food as opposed to heading all the way back home immediately following the test-run at Variscite.
Killua nodded at her response and reached out to receive the bottle that he likely would have turned away had Gon been present.
'What he doesn't know can't hurt him,' he'd decided when Misaki had offered him a drink.
"Okay, your turn to ask," he announced, taking a generous swig of the potent, bitter liquid.
The girl twisted her lips slightly in thought. After a moment she announced, "Okay, I've got one," before stretching out her legs from the fallen log on which the two were currently seated. "What drew you to Gon in the first place?"
The alcohol was definitely taking at least mild effect on Misaki, who would not have dared to pose such an inquiry while wholly sober of mind. She was honestly curious though, particularly since she was ultimately there because of her contract to dispose of the boy, who seemed to be Killua's polar opposite.
Killua, who was not feeling any symptoms of drunkenness, flushed bright red at the question.
"He sort of was drawn to me, I guess," he mumbled awkwardly, turning his face away from her amber stare.
"Have I asked something I oughtn't have?"
"It's not that," he answered immediately. He hesitated a moment, then said in a much quieter voice, "He saved me, that's all."
"From the fiery pits of hell?" she teased, gesturing for the bottle back.
He smirked and handed it to her.
"Sort of, yeah." He said nothing for a while, and then let out a small sigh and added, "He's my first friend, actually… I always grew up around servants and I was just trained to kill. I never thought I would…"
The girl cringed, if only slightly. This boy was obviously deeply attached to her target, enough so that he could not express it fully. She downed three long gulps consecutively in order to turn her odd feeling of guilt in to a contentedly numb haze.
"Your turn," she finally insisted, and he was grateful for the allowance.
"Well, you know my childhood was all training to be an assassin," he explained, "so what was yours like?"
Misaki's eyes turned to the fire, which danced in her lessening pupils. Her lips parted slightly and froze in the position, mildly agape. The silver haired boy decided that the alcohol was beginning to slow her linguistic skills and thought processes, and waited patiently (albeit secretly somewhat anxiously) for her response. However, in reality this was not the cause of the girl's silence, but rather was the inward debate as to whether or not she ought to tell him the truth.
"I played in the forest," she announced hesitantly, "and enjoyed fighting off large bugs with a stick."
Killua cupped his mouth to suppress a laugh, not wishing to offend her at his reaction. Her voice was so monotonous now that he was hard pressed to decode how serious she was or was not intending to be.
"Sometimes my mother would take me to the city and I'd help her carry groceries home, or my father would call for me to bundle up firewood for our stove… I really liked picking wild raspberries and travelling through the forests."
"Gon grew up in the forest, too," Killua chimed in, hoping that she would not be insulted by his interruption.
Instead, she simply ignored it, secretly not wishing to bond any part of herself too personally to the boy she would later be indebted to destroy.
"What did your parents do?" he finally asked.
"I think it would be my turn to ask a question, would it not?"
"Oh, yeah…"
"It's fine," she murmured, smirking. "I was just teasing." She coiled her fingers tightly around the neck of the bottle and took an ironically minuscule sip. "They skinned animals and sold pelts for money, but before that… they were bandits."
Killua pivoted to face her suddenly. His eyes hastily scanned the bandana around her neck, which he now connected with ease to those which the bandits in the Berraudney forest they had encountered wore.
"Bandits?"
Nodding lazily, she said in a hollow, detached tone, "They gave up that lifestyle after I was born… but some things can't be shaken so easily."
"Misaki…" Killua whispered, absentmindedly grasping her wrist.
I never saw them again after that…
Was this what had happened to her? Had she run away to gain a profit for her household, and then discovered her parents had become bandits once again? Had the bandits killed them, perhaps? Was that why she had the bandana now?
She was staring at him, her eyelids frozen at half mass.
Could he possibly sympathize with only his speculations? Could he sympathize with the truth even if he knew it? Was he capable?
He was looking at her, too. Her reflection was wavering in his eyes amongst the ripple of flames. He leaned in, not thinking, just doing.
Sometimes, Kil', you just have to 'do' and not think so much…
He could smell the alcohol on her breath and the flowery scent of her hair. He was achingly close now… So… close… as… to… actually…
"Killua! Misaki-san!" Gon's voice boomed through the trees suddenly as twigs snapped below his marching, booted feet. "We're back!"
As if struck by lightning, Misaki violently retracted from Killua and dropped the bottle of wine in the dirt before them. She dived down to grab it, and unfortunately Killua shared this idea. The two smacked foreheads with enough momentum to send them flying partially backwards.
"Shit!" the girl cursed so aggressively under her breath that the boy's blue eyes actually widened with disbelief.
Killua then turned his gaze toward Gon, who had emerged with Haku through the bushes, each with an armful of nuts and berries. Gon shrugged and smiled apologetically at his friend's sideways glare, which told him that his good intentions to warn him of their return so as not to catch them off guard had done the opposite and brutally killed the moment.
"Hey, who's your friend?" Gon asked suddenly, glancing to Misaki's free side with a look of sheer confusion.
The two turned instinctively to see a man of perhaps thirty with shaggy brown hair that touched to his ears and styled stubble staring down at them through grey-blue eyes. He wore a full sleeved, red shirt with the collar unrolled and placed deliberately up over the bulk of his neck, and an off-white vest over top. His blue jeans had absent, frayed knees. In his hand was the bottle of red wine Misaki had dropped, and he held it out to her wordlessly with the neck in his closed fist.
"Misaki," he said in a low voice, eyeing the girl.
Killua watched, prepared and in a defensive position, as Misaki's eyes met the man's. They stared silently at one another for a painfully long period of time, and the longer they continued to do so the more it bothered the ex assassin. Did she really know this guy? Why were they just staring at each other? She had admittedly just stared at him for a while before they had almost… So did she… with this stupid guy…?
The pale boy was suspicious and felt a preoccupied loathing toward him without needing to know anything about who he was. He struggled to think of an appropriate line to interrupt their little moment with, determined to sever any possibility of a connection between them. He had worked too hard to be tossed aside for this random moron.
…and meanwhile Misaki was shocked and appalled, after being ignored so effortlessly, that she was staring in to the face of yet another of her deceased victims. It was unbelievable to her that she was being so obviously monitored and practically mocked by this new and terribly untimely alias of Illumi's.