In Another Life

Chapter 2: Success

Watching the tall man sprint towards you, you quickly throw a dagger in his direction.

Hisoka manages to dodge it effortlessly - to no one's surprise -  and continues to inch his way closer to you by the second.

Good. You thought, he fell for my trap. Jumping directly up into the air, you catch a glimpse of Hisoka doing the same thing. He is catching up quicker than you anticipated. Like second nature, you twist your watch again and conjure up a set of ropes. One to hook onto the bars on the roof of the arena and another to wrap Hisoka in immobilizing him. Like with your daggers, Hisoka manages to dodge the grip ropes, but was flung back onto the ground.

"Come on, I thought we were going to fight. It seems like you're just running," he taunts you, looking up at your figure clinging onto the rope on the ceiling. You clench your jaw at his words. You knew what you were doing, this was all a part of the plan. Just deal with his playful banter for now and we'll see who's talking at by the end of it, you reassured yourself.

You let out a fake defeated sigh and drop yourself back onto the ground. "You're right, I can't win if I don't play offense now, can I?" you question him. You see his lips form a smirk. Perfect. Fuel up his ego and go in for the kill. Without hesitation, you fling another dagger at him from your first time conjuring and just like last time, Hisoka manages to dodge it. What he doesn't know is that you've created invisible nen ropes the entire time and attached them to the daggers. As he swings his body aside to escape the sharp objects, you fling your hand to the left, causing the ropes to ripple through and change the direction of the daggers. Hisoka's eyes widen. You've handed a hit on him. He looks down at his abdomen, now bloody from the dagger. Rage begins to fuel his body and before you can even think, you start feeling a pull from your left leg.

"Impressive how you snuck in some invisible nen ropes to get me. Unfortunately, you're not the only one concealing nen." He says while pulling on something that is bringing you closer and closer to him by the second. In a panic, you use Gyo and realize he is using Bungee Gum. You've seen him use this before during his fight with Kastro, it is quite a unique ability you had to admit, but you weren't going to let that bring you down.

You throw your body towards him, surprising everyone in the room. While mid-air, you summoned another item, a cloak? You throw the cloak onto his head and hear him let out an unimpressed chuckle. Just as he tears off the material from his face, he is welcomed buy your fist holding gripping on brass knuckles which was conjured up while he was distracted. The audience yells at excitement after watching you land your second hit on Hisoka, a rather painful one. He loses his balance and falls down to the floor before getting up immediately and staring at you in front of him. You can sense the anger in his eyes.

Hisoka furiously charges towards you and flings multiple cards at you, to which you were able to dodge. One slightly grazed your leg, creating a small cut in your pants. As you catch your balance after his attempt to attack, you feel a tightness surround you. You soon realize what it is, he has used Bungee Gum to completely wrap you up while standing, keeping your elbows to your sides and your legs together.

"I'm surprised you were able to dodge my cards, but too bad you were distracted," he laughs. "Hisoka, this isn't very entertaining for the audience, having me constrained like this," you lecture him, trying to buy time to think of a plan out of here.

Your arms are basically glued to your sides, and you can't use your legs at all. If only you could reach your watch to turn it. Wait, that's it. Turn the watch. You nudge your wrist onto the side of your pants, hoping to possibly create some friction that will move the knob on the watch. After a few feeble attempts, you look up to Hisoka continuing to taunt you, how long has he been going at it? You conjure up tiny dart with some poison. That should do. Discretely, you angle the dart towards his right thigh and flick your wrist.

Everything happened so quickly, you almost didn't realize that your dart had successfully struck his thigh and beginning to weaken him. You feel his Bungee Gum loosen up on your figure as you wiggle out of it right away.

Hisoka begins to struggle keeping his stance, wobbling with every step he takes backwards away from you. He eventually falls onto the ground and is staring up at you towering over him. You can finish him off right here, just a quick slice of a dagger and you would gain victory.

You look at his eyes right into his soul. Both parties did agree that this was a fight to the death, but why were you so hesitant? You see a smirk form on his face, he is beginning to accept his fate. But you can't bring yourself to do it. Killing just isn't in your blood. Conjuring up another dart, this time coated with sleeping serum, you jam it into his shoulder, knocking him out.

A knockout is still a victory, you remind yourself. The crowd goes wild as the fight ends as you stand in the center of the arena, glancing up at the cheering bodies.

Finally making your way back to your hotel room, you almost miss the note that was slid under your door.

"We have an offer for you, come to the abandoned building on the outskirts of York New tomorrow at midnight. Do not ignore this message." the note said.

Too exhausted to even ponder over who or where this was from, you slump into bed, still in fighting gear, and drift off to sleep.