"Where are we?"
They stood in the endless oblivion, unaware as to what they were standing on. In this void, there was no light, and yet the two individuals were perfectly visible.
There was no sound, with the exception of Alluka's voice.
Nanika tilted it's head, giving a glance to the surroundings. "We are inside your dreams." It informed Alluka.
"My...dreams?" Alluka muttered. "Why is everything all black then..?"
Nanika gave her a small smile. "Normally, when a person dreams, their mind wanders into a cluster of thoughts and scenarios, which will create an unrealistic setting." It explained taking a step toward Alluka.
"I've managed to manipulate that so that we could have this chat."
One minute, Alluka had found herself feeling like she was completely weightless. Hovering in the black abyss with no effort.
The next, She began to feel gravity pushing her further and further and further below.
Alluka found herself falling.
Falling with no end in sight.
In an instant, the scene shifted.
As she screamed, She saw that her surroundings had changed drastically.
"Nanika! What's going on? HELP!"
The blackness that had covered everything was fluidly brushed away. The sky became light blue, the clouds white and illuminated by the shining star in the distance.
Her gaze widened as her head tilted downward to see a rainbow slide that entered a ring of beautifully covered clouds.
As she fell off the slide and began to pass through them, each of the rings provided a brief shade from the sun before she was exposed to it again.
'What… What's going on?!'
Eventually, she made her way to a small cloud a few meters away from the last ring.
She began to descend slower and slower until she finally reached the soft platform, landing gingerly.
As she sat on the cloud, her hands touching the soft floor, Alluka couldn't help but compare its feel to that of cotton candy.
Gasping, Alluka held a hand to her chest. Looking back up, the rings, along with the rainbow slide, had seemingly disappeared.
Her attention quickly shifted as a small piece of the cloud rose up from the rest and took the shape of Nanika. Color filled the shape, until it looked identical to the creature that had been previously standing in front of her just moments ago.
The entity giggled mischievously. "Did I surprise you?" It asked cutely.
Alluka, after taking a minute to catch her breath, Leaned forward from where she was sitting. "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!"
Although shaken, Alluka couldn't help but admit that it was slightly fun. Right now though, she would prefer to have answers.
Nanika wasn't fooled though. "You can't fool me. I know you enjoyed that." Nanika teased. "But to answer your question…" It began before moving closer.
Just as Nanika was a few meters away from Alluka, It took a seat.
"This is a dream, remember? Anything is possible here."
Alluka felt her face heat up, slightly embarrassed at forgetting such an obvious detail. "Oh…" She scratched her cheek bashfully.
Nanika placed its hands on its lap, adjusting itself into a more comfortable position. "Now…" It began, "You have a lot of questions that you've wanted to ask me and we have several hours before you wake up."
Alluka looked back up to see Nanika, nodding her head before adopting a serious look on her face. Nanika, ever since it had told them that it was unable to grant wishes in this world, had completely disappeared. always refusing to talk. Almost as if it didn't even exist. That was until Chi-Chi had asked about the dinner plate. Then and only then, had it assisted Alluka with a calm lie.
But why only then and not before? Why now?
Finally, she would get answers.
"Why have you been avoiding us?" is the question she decided to settle for. "Each time we called you, you never came out. Not to Gon. Not to Killua, not even to me! The only time you came out was to help me lie."
Nanika sat upright, readying itself to give out answers. The same smile plastered onto its face.
"Please tell me. All of us are worried about you, Nanika." Alluka said, sounding mildly desperate in tone.
Nanika's smile widened slightly before responding.
"The truth is… I have a reason to be here."
Alluka's brow furrowed in confusion.
"What do you mean?" Alluka asked, clueless.
Nanika shrugged and stared up toward the sky.
"In this world, there are seven magical artifacts." Nanika began.
The sky began to change in color. The light blue hue that it had along with the clouds that were illuminated by the shining sun quickly disappeared, replaced by a darkness resembling the night sky.
In the distance, appeared seven tiny orange balls. On their surface a different amount of red stars appeared. The highest number was seven.
All of them, at rapid speeds, flew past Alluka. The young girl stared in wonder as they levitated just above the hands of Nanika. They let off a beautiful orange glow that illuminated both of their faces.
"Pretty aren't they?" Nanika noted. The powerful entity shifted its head upward toward Alluka, getting the latter's attention.
"These… are the Dragon Balls." Nanika said, revealing the name of the orbs.
"And they are the reason I have brought us here."
Alluka looked back down toward the Dragon Balls. They looked like regular spheres painted orange. However, Alluka couldn't help but notice that, even as they rotated, the crimson stars stayed perfectly in place. Not once straying from their location.
They gave off an aura of power. Of mystery.
Alluka stared at them, intrigued.
She blinked, regaining her focus as a thought came to mind.
"Wait, hold on." Alluka spoke up, shaking her head. "How could you have possibly known about these beforehand? We've never even been here before!" Alluka questioned.
Nanika allowed the orange spheres to levitate into the air, causing a yellow streak to emit from their moving figure. It then turned back to Alluka.
"Ever since you began sharing your body with me, I have been receiving very strange dreams."
Despite Nanika and Alluka 'sharing' a body, Nanika never had control over the vessel other than the motions required to grant a wish, (for example healing a wounded life form). Alluka's body really only acted as a rod for the powerful entity to project itself toward.
Along their travels, the trio decided that Nanika had the right to be able to have a body to call its own. The decision to grant Nanika full Access to Alluka's body was unanimous. And with that, Alluka and Nanika began to take turns controlling their body.
Ever since that fateful decision, Killua, Gon, and Alluka had helped teach Nanika how to control Alluka's body. They also began to teach the eager entity about a wide variety of subjects.
Vocabulary.
Knowledge of the world they lived in.
Knowledge about animals.
Along with many other things.
Nanika's intelligence naturally skyrocketed. Soon enough, its knowledge even began to surprise Gon and Killua, who showed incredible intelligence and cleverness themselves. It even began to participate in group planning, which was usually done by Gon and Killua alone, and offered itself as a surprisingly capable strategist and planner. Needless to say, the decision to give Nanika access to its newfound abilities had been a wonderful reward.
"These dreams…" Nanika looked skyward,
The sky turned completely black.
In the distance, the Dragon Balls shined a magnificent glow before flying even farther above. Eventually, they had gone so far that they were no longer visible.
"They had been coming to me on the first day of each week without fail. Each of them showed me visions of different worlds..."
A single bright orange light illuminated the sky, and from the center a shadowy figure arose.
This creature had two blazing red eyes, a long serpentine figure with four tiny arms, and two powerful horns.
"One night, I dreamt of the Dragon Balls. From them, arose a gigantic dragon."
The dragon came closer to the two, staring down at them unflinchingly.
"'What is your wish', it asked." Nanika Looked back down to see Alluka's Frightened face, her mouth gaping at the enormous creature.
"At the end of each dream, one thing always happened. The entire scenery of the dream would black out and display a number."
Just as Nanika had finished saying this, the entire landscape became black before 6 numbers colored in green that looked like they belonged on a computer screen, appeared on the horizon.
0-4-0-5-5-5
Alluka's jaw dropped, her eyes widening.
Nanika gave a soft smile as Alluka let it sink in. "Recognize it?"
Alluka looked back toward Nanika.
"Th-those are the numbers you had me put in the machine that day…"
Alluka looked down, trying to process this new revelation. As she did so, Nanika had the sky return to its light blue hue, but made the clouds pink in order to change the scenery a bit.
The two sat in silence for a while.
Alluka fiddled her thumbs as she attempted to put all of the pieces together. After several minutes, Alluka's gaze planted itself onto Nanika, a look of realization upon them.
"You want to make a wish."
This was not a question, but a fact. Alluka's tone clearly indicated as such.
A thought quickly came to the young girl's mind.
"Why didn't you just ask us to grant it for you?" Alluka asked, confused.
While Nanika had become incredibly sharp and intuitive, Alluka wouldn't have been surprised if the thought slipped the creature's mind.
Nobody was perfect after all.
Nanika merely shook its head, a frown rooting itself on its face.
"I'm afraid that's not possible." It said, frustration lacing its voice. It bent forward and gingerly picked up a fluff of cloud.
"Why not?" Alluka inquired.
The cloud slowly began to blacken, forming into a small humanoid form. Fitting right into the palm of its hand.
"My species, the A̸̢̟̫͑͗̋͑I, were never meant to gain such vast intelligence." Nanika began. "We were, for the most part, mindless wish granters. Similarly to how I was when I had yet to gain the knowledge I now possess."
"So?" Alluka asked, "What does that have to do with it?"
"It means that we were never meant to have desires." Nanika stated. "Only grant them. Even if it came from one of you, I would not be able to grant it because my powers would be aware that it was a wish that I requested."
It stared into the vast sky, its face unreadable.
Alluka frowned before continuing. "Why all the secrecy then? Why only tell me? Killua and Gon would b-"
"They wouldn't understand." Nanika interrupted.
Not expecting that, Alluka felt anger pierce her heart. "How can you say that?! If anyone would help you, it's them!"
Nanika looked at Alluka, completely unfazed.
"How can you be so sure?" Nanika asked.
Alluka, exasperated, replied. "Wh- How can I be sure?! After everything they've done for us, you honestly doubt THEM?" She questioned, Incredulous.
Nanika's gaze bore into Alluka, giving a deadpan look. "You trust them." It stated.
Alluka, rolling her eyes, nodded, as if Nanika had stated the most obvious thing in the world. Nanika sighed, nodding its head in a look of disappointment.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? That didn't work out so well for you last time." Nanika said, almost mockingly.
Alluka's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean..?"
Behind Nanika, two figures sprung up, one male and one female. They then took the form of very familiar people…
Alluka's eyes widened. "They are…"
The woman opened its mouth to speak. "Oh darling… We know you want to go outside. You must understand that we keep you here for a good reason."
The man did not speak. He simply stared at Alluka with a cold frosty gaze. His piercing blue eyes staring into Alluka's own.
The woman bent over and said in a sickeningly sweet voice. "But when you are here, nothing can hurt you! You can read all of those books that you're so into. And look at all the toys you have!" The woman let out a grin.
"Aren't we such GREAT parents?"
Alluka shook her head. She understood where this was going…
"Killua and Gon aren't using us. They're the ones who broke us out. Remember?"
Nanika pressed its thumb under its chin. "Perhaps. But for what purpose?" Nanika said, dispelling the figures. "Killua knew full well what we are capable of. It would help explain why he refused to train you before coming here."
"Gon didn't have a problem with it. Remember all the times he tried convincing big bro that it would be a good idea?" Alluka rebutted.
"Perhaps that was just an act of 'good cop bad cop'.Killua playing the overprotective big brother and Gon the lax friend." Nanika shrugged, getting up and walking closer to Alluka. "All so they can keep you under control."
A pit began to form in Alluka's heart.
"What if they want to keep you to benefit them? Use you, US, to get what they want?"
The pit grew deeper. But she wasn't done yet...
"Then why would they let you get smarter?" Alluka tried to argue. It was clear to Nanika however that its point was starting to sink in. "Letting you gain more knowledge wouldn't do them any good… A-and Killua trained us today!"
"Killua had no choice." Nanika stated simply. "If he didn't train you, it would only make Chi-Chi more suspicious of us. Not a very good thing for them considering she seems to be onto us."
Alluka shut her eyes.
"He was also pretty soft on you while training. It's almost as if he doesn't want you getting too tough. I wonder why THAT would be a problem..." Nanika said, sarcastically.
"That's not true! Remember that he brought out the turtle shell! That was really hard!"
"He probably brought it out so that he wouldn't have to train you as much." it pointed out, sounding confident. "Or do you not remember how many breaks you needed?" it remarked.
Alluka wanted to argue further, but her resolve began to crumble as she saw the logic in Nanika's argument. She knew that Nanika never brought anything up without a good reason. And right now, it had failed to mention anything out of deep seated emotion, only relying on factual and truthful facts to make it's point.
It was getting hard to breathe...
"And who's to say that they didn't give me awareness to make me feel like they love me? They would never expect betrayal considering our history together."
"Stop it…" Alluka began to beg.
Nanika's face got even closer to Alluka's. "Don't you remember what Gon once taught us?" It said, as it used its thumb to gently nudge Alluka chin to have her look into its obscure eyes.
"If you can get your target to move the way you want it to, then you've succeeded as a hunter."
Alluka's eyes began to shimmer with water. "NO! My parents never even let me leave the mansion! Those two freed us! They did it because they LOVE us! Killua even said that you didn't have to grant wishes ever again!"
Nanika shrugged. "He did say that." It acknowledged. "But how do you know it wasn't so that I didn't feel pressured? Manipulating me to feel grateful toward them. Loving them enough to grant them any wish without any requirements. Patiently gaining my trust over time."
Alluka felt tears streaming down her face. What Nanika said certainly had truth to it... But deep down in her heart, she wanted nothing more than to believe that Killua and Gon loved her and Nanika selflessly.
The loneliness that she subconsciously knew she would bear from such a revelation made her want to deny it even more.
Nanika sighed as it brushed Alluka's hair. "I don't like telling you this Alluka. I don't like seeing you so upset. But this is a possibility that may very well be true." It said, bringing Alluka's head toward its chest. "Humans are selfish creatures by nature after all. If I tell them what my wish is, There is no guarantee that they would ever let me have it. Especially considering the nature of it..."
"But, 'sniff' Th- (Sniff) The-" "Shhh..." Nanika massaged Alluka's back with its hand.
"Maybe they do love us. Despite all of the evidence I present, there is a chance I could be wrong..." Nanika said, comfortingly. "But so long as people know what we are capable of, we will never truly be able to confide in anyone." Nanika stated. "Unless you help me make my wish come true, that is."
Alluka looked at Nanika, uncertainty present all over her face. Nanika smiled gently at her. "You and I share something special. So special, that normal people would never be able to comprehend it." It whispered into her ear.
"I am the only one you can ever truly trust... Just as you are the one person I can trust. We share body, mind, and in a certain way, soul." It said, caressing her lovingly. "With the help of my wish, We will never have to be uncertain ever again. Nothing will ever be able to hurt us again. We will have nothing to doubt. We will have absolute control over our destiny." Nanika stated confidently.
It gingerly placed a hand over Alluka's cheek, rubbing it softly with the back of its palm. "But to attain that freedom, I need your help." It stated clearly.
Nanika could see the inner turmoil raging with Alluka, but it knew that it was slowly winning her over.
"Please Alluka, I could never accomplish this on my own..." It pleaded.
Alluka shut her eyes in contemplation.
I know I kept the truth, but it was for OUR benefit. You know I would NEVER betray you...right?" Nanika reasoned.
She didn't want to believe everything it had told her, No matter how much sense it made. That said, this was Nanika.
Nanika, who had been with her through thick and thin.
Who had been there with her ever since the beginning.
Nanika who, despite being trapped in her body, has done nothing but support and help her.
Taking all of the factual points Nanika had made into account, Alluka trusted that what Nanika did was for their best interest. Even though she did not believe what it had said about Gon and Killua.
But Nanika could see it. the seed of doubt was now planted inside of her.
Alluka slowly turned her head toward Nanika, before wiping her eyes to remove the feeling of tears. She took a deep breath and continued.
"O-okay." Alluka conceded, completely trusting in Nanika now that it had explained itself. "What are we gonna wish for?"
Nanika tenderly kissed Alluka's forehead, causing the young girl to blush slightly. It then gave a wild grin.
"Here's the plan..."