SOUR CANDY | killua z. ✔

14 | stay

EIGHT NEAR-death experiences, five attempts to murder Tonpa, and nine hours later, Sen and her group finally reached the last barrier between them and getting the fuck out of Trick Tower.

Of course, there was a catch.

"Look," Leorio said somberly. "I don't care which of you stays behind, but I'm one of the three that's going on ahead."

"Now, wait just a minute," Tonpa glared. "You're the one who gambled away the extra hours we could've used to escape. Shouldn't you take responsibility and stay behind?"

Sen remembered why she hated men. Always fighting.

Idly, she got into a staring contest with the stone mermaid head mounted between the two doors. Again with the door picking. At least Hisoka wasn't there this time.

"If it were up to me, the three going on ahead would be Gon, Sen, and myself," said Killua.

"That's awfully nice of you," said Sen. "But I'll make the decision easier for everyone."

She walked up to one set of manacles dangling from the wall and clicked it shut around one of her wrists. 

"Someone get their ass over here and fasten the other one."

"Oi, Sen—" Killua's eyes flashed.

"What part of 'I did not come here for a Hunter's license' do you people not get?" She looked up at the ceiling. "I don't care if I pass or not. I got what I came here for."

She ignored the spasm in her chest that screamed liar!

They refused to finish shackling her to the wall. 

These fucking pussies.

Sen was half a second away from strangling someone with the chain she'd locked herself in. Although, Tonpa and Leorio had already grabbed weapons and seemed keen on doing that job for her.

"Sen-chan," Gon walked up to her. "You're good at puzzles, right?"

Good? I'm a genius. "I guess. Why?"

Why was he holding an ax?

"How can all of us take the shorter path without leaving anyone behind?"

She blinked. Well, wasn't that the million-dollar question. Gon's eyes glimmered as if he had already figured it out. He was just waiting on her.

Sen looked down at an indent in the ground where Tonpa had smashed his weapon. And at the wall to her left, where it had cut through like butter.

The walls, the pieces re-arranged in her head, a picture forming clearly. Are weak.

With less than an hour remaining, they opened the door to the long path (which all of them could take) and battered their way through to the short path (which only three of them were supposed to take). 

They raced down the path with less than three minutes left.

The choice to leave had been taken away from her when she fell down that trapdoor. The whole time in the Tower, Sen had been biding her time, avoiding the problem. She did her job, and her brother's. It was more than enough. Logically, she knew it was time to go home.

But was Sen ready to give this up? 

In the darkness, Gon and Killua's laughter echoed off the walls. 

▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

"Sen, number 297, is the twentieth to pass!"