Cards and Keys

Chapter Twenty Eight: Entropy

Lucy POV

Letting loose another ragged breath, I used my sleeve to wipe the beads of sweat from my forehead— not that it did much good. My whole body was thoroughly soaked from the several hours of training I'd endured. Ignoring my tiredness, I thrust forth more of my aura, forcing it forwards and away from my body.

Several days had passed since I'd obtained the book— days that, in-between matches, Hisoka and I had spent relentlessly poring over it's pages, searching for the magic that would suit him best, and examining what remained of the spell that the phantom troupe had stolen. As much as I itched to get right into teaching him, he first had to find the magic that truly fit him, and he needed to be certain.

I was happy to see the intense interest he was now showing in magic. Even if the rushed circumstances were less than ideal, magic was something that I deeply loved, so I was happy to share it with him. It felt like sharing a little bit of my own world with him. I wondered if he felt similarly about me learning nen.

Admittedly, his eagerness to learn had also caused me to become frustrated with my own shortcomings. I was still yet to discover what my specialist abilities entailed. It would've been nice to craft my first hatsu with those abilities in mind, but that no longer seemed like the efficient thing to do, as I hadn't made any progress in determining what they were. Instead, I had opted to develop an emission-based hatsu, since Wing seemed fairly certain that was where my second greatest affinity lay.

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted from my hatsu yet, so I was just focusing on emitting my aura. Once again, i focused it on my hands, then propelled it— farther this time. I grinned at the progress. The more I did it, the longer my range became.

I glanced out the window of the training room. It had been morning when I began, but the Sun now had reached its peak in the sky. Deciding it was time to head back, I stretched out my aching limbs and headed back through the main training grounds.

Hisoka and I didn't often frequent the training grounds of Heavens arena, since I usually just trained in Wings room. However, I'd wanted a little time to myself today. It was also rather interesting to peep into the other rooms and see what everyone else was doing. I'd already spotted a lot of the contests I'd fought before, but also some new faces.

Just as a reached the end of the hall, I heard the faint tap of footsteps behind me.
"Oh, Lucy. I'd been hoping to find you, I have some questions I'd like to ask." Said a familiar, monotonous voice— the sound of which made me immediately whirl around.

"You- I told you to stay away from me." I sneered, coming to face the stoney-eyed assassin before me. I'd almost forgotten that he was hanging around here.

"And I have." He shrugged nonchalantly, "You're not still upset about the events of the hunter exam are you?"

"Upset? I'm more than upset, Illumi! You literally traumatised Killua and- ugh, look, I'm not getting into this crap again. You know exactly what you did." I said with exasperation, ready to be done with the conversation. I had more important things to be worrying about right now than Illumi— like the troupe. Unless he did turn out to be involved with them. I glared at him. "What are you doing in the training rooms? You said that you were here to watch, not fight."

"Oh yes, that was the plan. However, I decided that I'd done enough observation. You can only learn so much that way, you know?" He hummed, his head slightly tilting to the side.

"And what exactly are you trying to learn?"I asked skeptically.

"I believe I had some...misconceptions in how to best utilise nen. I'm merely trying to confirm if there is a more effective approach to the subject. Killua may not have been as foolish as I first thought." He said ever-so cryptically. Misconceptions? What could that mean? I didn't like that he brought up Killua...but it wasn't worth asking further, I didn't want to engage with him and he'd only dance around the subject.