CHAPTER 9

Hayuri was running through narrow alleys, panting hard and sweating in distress. She took a turn and ran into another allay, that was just a dark and deserted as the previous one. Every couple steps she took, she would take a quick glance back. Every time she came to a crossroads, she would check on both her sides if anyone was there. Every passing second her chest tightened in anticipation and her trembling legs felt weaker. Her heartbeat was so erratic and so strong, that she swore that it echoed all around her for everyone to hear.

After what seemed like forever she saw the main street at the end of the alley. She felt relief wash over her at the prospect of being surrounded by a crowd, but as soon as she walked into the street her hope was crushed. The main commercial street looked empty. Completely empty. At midday.

What the hell? Where is everyone?

Hayuri frantically looked for any sign of somebodies presence all around her, but found no one. It was almost like a stage setting for a play. Suddenly she remembered the reason of her ragged breathing and quickly turned around fully to look back into the alley. There was no one there. She frowned; was she only imagining things?

A sudden grunting behind her reached her ears and she jumped in shock while turning to the main street once again. Her breath was caught in her throat and her eyes widened in distress.

The street was filled with people once again, but they didn't seem to notice anybody around them. Every walking soul was so engrossed in themselves that they didn't even look up from the ground. In the middle of the street, right between the pedestrian congestion, was a little girl. She looked to be 10 years old and had beautiful blonde hair, round baby blue eyes and a pretty face. Hayuri immediately knew who she was.

"Ha-Hayuri…" when she croaked in pain Hayuri realized that she was kneeling on a pool of blood and her clothes were ragged. She was bleeding to death in the middle of the street, but no one even seems to mind her. The girl raised her hand to reach out to Hayuri. "He-Help… me…"

Hayuri shook her head, opened her eyes and took a step towards her. However, as soon as she did, she saw that there was somebody behind the girl. Her body froze and she started trembling in fear. Right behind the girl, and holding her by the shoulder was a tall man. He had black hair and shiny red eyes that looked down at her in a vicious way. His face had a dirty smirk plastered on it as he looked at her; challenging her. Hayuri stood there numbly for almost a minute, struggling in her mind, forcing herself to walk over to the girl and rip her away from the man's grasp. The man squeezed the girls shoulder and licked his lips. He then grabbed her wrist and started walking away from Hayuri and into the crowd, dragging the blond haired girl behind him.

Hayuri tightened her fists and opened her mouth to scream for help; surely anyone would listen if she did. She took a breath in and screamed; but no sound came out. She tried two and three more times, but to no avail. When she looked again, the man was gone, along with the blonde girl. She felt her body go into shock and her vision black out.

Hayuri jolted awake in her bed, sweat dripping from her temples and with a soaked shirt. She looked around to see that she was in her room at Okume sensei's house. She took a couple deep breaths to calm down and then looked at the watch on the nightstand. It was 5 am. She decided not to go back to sleep, since it would probably be a futile attempt, and also because she was supposed to wake up in an hour anyways. She took a shower, which really helped her relax, and got dressed into loose comfortable clothing. She walked out to the garden and started meditating.

Since Hayuri had been working on her Ten for a month and a half by now, it was almost like second nature to her. She could train her Ten while thinking about anything, or not thinking at all. This time around, the only thing she needed was to clear her thoughts and get some peace of mind. After almost an hour of training her Ten and meditating, she felt movement behind her.

She didn't need to open her eyes to know that it was Killua; she was already used to his presence and could detect his aura anywhere. He sat down next to her on the edge of the floor slab and she smiled lightly.

"Good morning." Her voice was soft and her face was serene.

"Morning." He answered while crossing his legs and adopting a meditation pose. He discretely looked at her for a moment and then closed his eyes. Both Killua and Hayuri trained their basics for an hour, as was morning routine for them. When they finished, both walked to the kitchen to prepare breakfast and a take away lunch for the three of them.

"Hey, are you alright?" He said while preparing tea and Hayuri looked up from her tasks with a questioning face. "I heard you scream before dawn and getting up."

"Oh. That." Hayuri said and went back to her duties. "It was nothing, just a nightmare."

"Ha…" Killua said and didn't press any further on the subject.

Both finished their chores and ate breakfast with their sensei. When they finished, the three of them ran to the hills to train, as usual. When they arrived, they sat down under an old tree to protect themselves from the already strong summer sun.

"I think your ken and shu training is good enough already. So now we're going to learn Ko, which is the use of nen to enhance a certain part of your body. This will allow you to either attack or protect yourselves from an attack. So now, please stand up and try to concentrate all of you aura in one part of your body. When you're done use Gyo."

Both did as he told them and held their hands up while molding their aura. When they used Gyo, both could immediately see where the other one had used Ko. Hayuri had used it on her right hand and Killua on his left forearm.

"Since when you trained your Gyo you worked on immediately pinpointing the location of the others aura, it will come as and habit to you now. This will lower the chances of getting a serious injury when sparring. However, you won't start sparring at full speed immediately. First you have to develop the reflexes on protecting your body from the nen enhanced attack. Hayuri, I want you to slowly aim a Ko enhanced punch at Killua. Killua, I want you to block the attack while protecting your body with Ko."

Both did as instructed and felt the force of the attack immediately; it was so strong that even lightly touching while using Ko pushed them back a couple steps.

"Now, try again while also focusing your aura on your feet at the same time." Okume-sensei said.

Hayuri aimed a punch at Killua, which he blocked with his forearm and, this time around, they easily stayed on their feet while doing so. Okume instructed them to keep working on that while sparring and slowly raise the speed as they were comfortable with it.

They sparred for the whole day and, at the end, they had noticeably improved their speed. Okume-sensei estimated that, at this pace, they would be able to fight at their regular speed in less than a week. Both Hayuri and Killua were enthusiastic about further improving this technique, since it was pretty entertaining. Also, since the use of nen was much lower than that of Ken, they were almost not tired at all. On the other hand, both were hurting a little on some parts of their bodies, since they still had to get a hold of adjusting the amount of aura used to protect themselves.

When they arrived at home and, while preparing dinner, Killua realized that they were really low on supplies. Okume-sensei said to buy them on a nearby town in the morning, since they were much cheaper in that market.

So the next day, both Killua and Hayuri set off with a bamboo grocery kart to the bus stop. There seemed to be a bunch ladies waiting for the same bus at they were, who kept looking at them and giggling and blushing. Killua rolled his eyes at them and sat on the furthest end of the bench.

When the bus arrived, they sat down and stayed in silence for a couple minutes. After a while, Killua overheard an old woman saying something about 'couples this days being modern and men doing as much housework as women'. He grunted.

"I feel like a goddamn housewife." Killua subtly glared at the ladies.

"Well. It can't be that bad, huh?" Hayuri said smiling brightly.

"I've never done this kind of stuff before." He further complained.

"Well, unless you pretend on being a rich ass boy for your whole life, you better get used to it." Hayuri pointed out. "I don't think there are any girls left who are willing to do the housework for you."

"Well, sadly for you, I don't pretend to die anything but rich." He answered out.

"And if somehow life manages to get you broke?"

"Then I'll have to find and older woman who's willing to do that for me." He shrugged.

"You know that it'll have to be much older, right? Like, a granny." Hayuri pointed out. She then smirked at him and indicated towards his hair. "It might not be too unsettling; you already have white hair, after all. It's just unsettling to think about you getting intimate with an old lady."

Hayuri shuddered at the thought with a frown on her face and Killua turned pale.

"Oh, I forgot about that."

"How could you forget about that?" she raised an eyebrow. "Are you even a grownup?"

"Shut up." Killua mumbled blushing and turned his head to look out of the window. He had never really considered a different kind of future than continuing with his family business. In that case, he would be rich, so he didn't need to worry about that. However, he would have to find a wife anyways. It just sounded like a drag. When he thought about wives, all that he could think about was his mother's whining. He had never really even thought about anything remotely sexual about getting married. Of course he had seen pornography before - it's not like he was asexual - , but the idea of marriage was something that seemed hideous to him. If he wasn't rich, he'd rather find another way to get his housework done. Suddenly he snapped his fingers and looked back at Hayuri. "I know what I'll do: I'll to the same as Okume-sensei. I'll be strong enough to train someone and I'll have them do that stuff for me."

Hayuri looked at him and frowned. Was he really that bothered by that kind of stuff? Sure, it was not fun doing it, but it was not that bad, was it?

"Why do you hate it so much?"

"Why?" Killua raised an eyebrow at her. "Well, of course it's because it makes me feel like an old lady."

"Is that so bad?" Hayuri tilted her head. "I don't think it's a bad thing. I don't particularly enjoy housework, but I don't dislike it either."

"Well, that's because you're a girl with brown skin. Maybe you've just assimilated that role due to the social circumstances." He pointed out. Hayuri's eyes widened in disbelief and she sharply turned to look at him. Killua had realized that what he said was rude at the very least. He wanted to apologize before hell broke loose, but she spoke first.

"I have not." She hissed with a hostile expression on her face. "I don't think that being a woman and having brown skin means I'm supposed to do chores, while people like you sit on their ass."

Just as she finished talking the bus came to a halt at their stop. Hayuri stood up and got off the bus, being closely followed by Killua who was dragging the grocery kart behind him.

"Oii… Hayuri." He spoke and caught up to her. "I know it sounded hurtful, but I didn't mean it like that."

"Whatever." She grunted and didn't look at him while walking around the market. "Let's just get over with this."

Killua didn't say anything more as they walked around and bought flour, cereals, legumes and spices. When they finished, they walked back to the bus stop and sat on the bench waiting for their ride. They had been on the market for half an hour and Hayuri hadn't directed on word towards Killua. Honestly, it was driving him insane. He didn't want her to be angry over something that he hadn't meant in a hurtful way. When the bus arrived and they sat down next to eachother, Killua tried to initiate some kind of conversation. He pointed out some things about their training and some things about the scenery outside. But every time he spoke up, he would be blatantly ignores by Hayuri. He stayed silent until they got back to their town and got off the bus.

As soon as he got off, he saw her grabbing the kart and start walking towards the house. He was anxious - he didn't want to be on her bad side anymore - so he quickly caught up to her and took a hold of her hand.

"Wait." He said softly. "Please, let me explain."

This time, Hayuri turned to look at him. Her eyes were filled with hurt and Killua, for the first time, felt bad about saying something that hurt someone. She fully turned around to face him and Killua assumed that it was her way of saying that she would listen to him.

"Look, when I say that I didn't mean that I thought you were supposed to do that stuff. I really don't, that's why I don't expect you to work more than me while staying here at Okume-sensei's house. What I did mean was that, since it's culturally common that woman and brown skinned people do housework, it could have meant that you subconsciously would be less opposed to it. Ok? It's not what I think; it's just what has traditionally been normal. Sometimes people accept degrading treatment, because they have always seen it happen and assume it's normal. It's-"

"I get it." She interrupted him raising her hand. She then looked back at him with a smile and then averted her eyes back to the ground. "I didn't understand it that way and got angry without letting you explain further. I should've listened to you before. It's just that it would've not been the first time I got judged because of my gender and the color of my skin."

"Sorry." Killua apologized and smiled at her. "So, we're good now?"

"Yes, we are." She grabbed the grocery kart this time and motioned towards the house. "Let's go."

Killua felt relieved at this, he didn't want to be around someone that was mad at him. Also, even if he didn't spend time with her, the idea of them being on bad terms unsettled him a bit.

- Timeskip -

Killua and Hayuri were back in the hills to train their Ko. Killua stood in front of her with a smug expression and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You know, I might make you pay for making me worry yesterday."

"HAAA!" she pointed at him while a tickmark appeared on her temple. "How dare you? I'll kick your ass and show you how to properly treat a woman!"

"Huh? A woman? Where?" Killua looked around until his eyes met her. "Oh! You mean that female like entity standing over there?"

"I think you need to see an oculist, since your sight isn't working right." Hayuri said and activated Gyo as she launched at him before he had the chance the make a comeback.

Hayuri aimed a hook at his jaw, which he avoided by leaning his body backwards until his hands rested on the flood. He then did a backflip and kicked her in the chin with his right foot, but she protected herself with Ko and then jumped a couple times backwards. Killua ran at her and did an uppercut again while trying to knee her on the gut. Hayuri realized his knee was covered in nen, so she protected her belly and deflected his fist with her forearm. Before he could try to attack again, she grabbed his nearest wrist and threw him over her shoulder. Killua recovered his footing immediately and blocked an elbow that she aimed at his ribs. She then tried to kick him on the knees and straight punch him in the shoulder. He realized she used nen on her leg, so he protected his thigh with nen while crouching a bit. At the same time, he grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm so that she had to turn her back to him. He then kicked her with Ko on her lower back, while she protected herself with Ken. When she regained her balance she jumped away and turned to him with a scowl.

"You shouldn't turn your back on an enemy, you know?" Killua smirked and pointed at her. "If I was an enemy, you'd be knocked down by now."

"I know!" Hayuri blushed. "I'll work harder."

She ran to the forested area on the hill, hid on top of a tree and decided to go into Zetsu, so she could feel her surroundings with more accuracy. She closed her eyes and felt Killua's presence to her right, who slowly got closer to her until he was just by the trunk of the tree she was hiding in. She took a quiet and deep breath in and silently dropped from the branch. Hayuri activated her Ko when she was just over him and he jolted in surprise. Killua knew he didn't have enough time to see where she'd attack and defend himself, so he used Ken to protect his whole body. Hayuri's kick came crashing down with full force on his shoulder and Killua was thrown to the ground with full force.

"Yayyy!" Hayuri cheered and made a wining pose, while Killua grunted on the floor. She had never really mocked him when managing such an effective attack, but this time she couldn't help it. After all, it was oh so very often the she managed to get an upper hand on anything against him; usually, she'd be the one getting a beating. "A point to Hayuri-chan, our female warrior. She has managed to kick the Abominable Snowman to the ground!"

"Oi, shut up." Killua growled and stood up. He had a pissed off expression on his face and put on a dirty smirk. "You'll see the real monster now."

And so, Hayuri learned two things that day.

The first one: Killua really was stronger than her. He usually probably used only 80 or 90 percent of his strength, while she used her 100 percent.

The second one: don't piss Killua off while training. Or do, and expect to get your ass kicked to the moon and back.