The soil was shockingly cool as it filled Killua's open palms and likewise cradled his raw knees. He widened his eyes as Misaki hopped down from the tree branch, weapon at the ready in her closed hand, landing between himself and Illumi while defensively facing the latter. He simply could not understand her purpose for arriving here, and particularly in the manner she had revealed herself. It had almost seemed as if she were posing a…

"Stand aside," Illumi ordered, completely unshaken by her presence.

Her voice was Novocain-injected; numb, unfeeling; "I shall be your opponent."

…challenge to Illumi?

Killua exhaled audibly and shakily. His next breath came in too sharp, something like a painful gasp. Misaki glanced marginally over her shoulder at the silver haired boy. Her amber eyes were different than he'd ever seen them before. They were hardened and callous.

"Leave," she commanded him monotonously.

The boy opened his mouth to speak and then closed it halfway when no words flowed to his mind or his lips.

Angling her head ever so slightly, the girl insisted, "Go to your friend and do what you have to do."

"Why are you…?" The question, he realized, had come from him.

"If I see Gon again, I'll kill him."

"You…!"

His instincts had attempted all at once to oppose her. There was a frightening amount of honesty in her words, and he recalled her stating previously how seriously she considered such things. Even if all her tales had been nothing more than laced up fallacies to fool him, Killua was certain that her approach to battle was not one of them. No, she meant what she said now…

…But then, why was she giving them a chance to escape; Killua from Illumi and Gon from her?

Bringing his right leg forth, he used his bent knee to endure the weight as he pushed himself back up and onto his feet. He did this slowly so as not to tempt either Misaki or Illumi to potentially take the offense against him. Initially the boy simply backed away so he was not left entirely vulnerable, and then halted as a thought struck him.

'What if she just wants me to lead her to Gon?'

"Tell your brother to leave," she said to Illumi, "or I will kill him now."

As quickly as she had uttered the warning, Misaki was behind the blue eyed boy, crushing him with expertly placed limbs restricting his.

Before Killua could locate an escape route, Illumi announced, "Go, Kil'."

The sound of his eldest brother's voice immediately had his feet moving, and it was not until he had nearly cleared the small patch of forest completely that the former assassin recognized that he had effectively left the scene and that Misaki was no longer restraining him. He allowed his legs to carry him toward Haku's residence, inwardly praying that Gon was safe and still in fact inside.

'She'll never win if she fights him,' he found himself thinking as the previous events replayed over again from somewhere behind his open eyes.

Illumi cocked his head at the narrowed, spiteful eyes of the girl. He let out a small, rare smile and said, "This might be the most interesting thing you've ever done."

With an unchanging expression, she countered, "You don't know everything that I've done. Fight or die; make your choice now."

Admittedly Illumi was fairly surprised at the notion of Misaki issuing him a challenge. Perhaps he had not spent long enough cultivating her before unleashing her unto his will… particularly if she was so obviously opposed to a task as simple as destroying a simple, young boy. Yet here she was, alternately in favor of engaging in a match that could clearly be her demise simply to avoid a much easier deal.

"You would prefer to fight me than to kill that boy?" he asked, honestly curious but refusing to allow his tone to reflect anything less than completely controlled.

Never removing her stare from his, Misaki replied, "One has nothing to do with the other."

"Then what is so difficult about-…?"

"You talk too much. Fight or die; I won't tell you again."

A thought occurred to him just then, and one that seemed to intrigue him further and further the more he entertained it.

"I am willing to release you from the contract," he explained slowly, "so long as you admit now that you cannot complete it for me as arranged."

Her glare refused to leave him, unfazed, as she drew back her collapsed umbrella and muttered, "To arms, then."

Her first strike, as Illumi determined with undistorted ease, was not thrown with the intention of dealing him damage. Rather, he realized that Misaki had first and foremost planned to rouse him, most likely to ensure that he would in fact meet her demand for combat. Instinctively he disliked this, and as the nen- enhanced boot (as she had not even opted yet to use her weapon) came down hard toward the left of his chest, he prepared a simple defensive maneuver through the use of Ko at his forearm and easily deflected the attack with a firm shrug of his biceps. She executed a somewhat wobbly aerial roll as her body was sent tumbling backwards from the force.

He had not wanted to kill her so quickly; especially while the contract was outstanding, but he decided that perhaps humoring her could essentially convince her to give him what he desired. Withdrawing a handful of needles, he carelessly tossed them toward her.

She dodged them easily with a right-ways roll; then using the ball of her foot to push off and launch herself at him again. Misaki hurled her umbrella at him midway, though a simple side step rendered him unscathed. As her body reached him, she aimed her knuckles for his throat, but was stopped as he caught her fist in his perfectly placed palm.

He swung his own fist with his free hand at her exposed abdomen. Much to his surprise it seemed that this was the reaction she had actually envisioned, and she lined up her right foot to step upon the hand and use the momentum of his attack to throw her upwards in the air. It wasn't until he understood that, while essentially above him, there was a purpose to Misaki opening her palm and reaching out into the air that he was able to identify his sudden need to defend.

Unfortunately he was slightly too late, and the umbrella which had passed him earlier came flying back to the girl's hand, hindered only by its momentary collision the back of his left shoulder. He felt the blood flowing from the wound, albeit still a fairly shallow one comparative to the damage that she could have done if she had fully taken advantage of him then, and tilted his head at her once again as she touched down.

'She's gotten faster,' he noted.

Then a more interesting thought reached him.

Supposing that Misaki could have used his nonchalant attitude toward her to ultimately cause him severe harm in a more vulnerable area rather than just this slight blow to a fairly durable spot, she had purposely refrained from doing so.

'She's hesitant to kill me,' he thought, feeling powerful once again.

In an instant she was on the offense again, using the trunks of nearby trees to ricochet from in order to appear unpredictable. Unfortunately her determination to focus her eyes distinctly and hatefully upon him at all times was all too easy for Illumi to see through, and as she descended upon him with a few carefully thought out combination moves, his image before her vanished. It had been a rouse to lure her over, and she had fallen for an echoed vision of him rather than the real thing.

Realizing that she had foolishly shortsighted herself through her own obsessive fixation on his form, Misaki activated Ken in a desperate attempt to defend herself. Nevertheless, she was met with an agonizing shot to the ribs with enough vigor to propel her violently into a far tree. The pain was terrible and she was quite certain that at least one of her ribs must have cracked or broken, though she gritted her teeth and disallowed herself to give Illumi the satisfaction of seeing the true effects of his strategy on her.

A shower of pins blocked her sight of him, and given the circumstances she tossed herself forward, flat onto the ground, in order to avoid them. As if out of nowhere, his figure was descending on her. Rolling on to her back, she kicked up toward his navel with all her might. The connection was made, and despite the gratification she felt as a few drops of his blood trickled down on her face from his lips, her victory was short-lived. As Misaki rocked sideways to make a grasp for the weapon she'd dropped when she had fallen, she realized that her arms were locked in place and impaled just enough that she hadn't initially felt the impact- from the curve of her shoulders to the crook of her elbows.

Illumi stood over her, studying her. Between his fingers he held three more needles.

"I don't have to kill you now," he explained.

Her eyes grew colder. He relished in the sight for a moment before continuing.

"I have no objections to reasoning out an agreement that suits the both of us."

Misaki's eyes softened for a moment before she sucked in a small puddle of his blood that was lingering near her mouth, and then spat it back toward him distastefully.

He stared quietly at her reddened, wet lips for a minute or two before he swung one leg to the opposite side of the girl, now towering above her virtually helpless figure.

"Tell me one thing," he said. "What is it about that boy that stops you from killing him?"

Misaki blinked hollowly a couple of times before she grinned and laughed loudly, deeply, richly… and as amused as she was by the question, Illumi was equally as morbidly confused by her response.