The Cost of Vengeance

Chapter 14

Gon did as promised.  He trained with Feitan daily for a week.  Though there was definitely improvement in his fighting technique and stamina, Gon had only been able to up his power to 43%.  To be fair though, Gon had a lot of power, that made relatively no sense.  He hadn't trained enough to have that kind of power, even as an enhancer.  He couldn't have possibly been born with that much power, so there wasn't any real reason for it.  

Not that anyone on his side could complain, but anyone opposing him most certainly could.  They had stolen some rare jewels and artifacts around neighboring cities.  A few casualties, no more than ten.  They sold them for triple what they were worth, not that anyone knew the difference.  Gon continued helping people train as they asked and even trained with Chrollo a few times as per request.  He started a schedule with Feitan and Shalnark, since hey wanted regular training.  Every other day, they'd switch and when Gon finished with them, he would train with anyone else who asked.  He didn't get a lot of free time, but that wasn't really an issue. 

Having too much free time, meant he had more time to think.  The more he thought, the more he'd spiral.  Never about what he was doing, more so of what he might do.  He worried over what he might do to the phantom troupe.  He had the tattoo so there was no going back at that point, but he couldn't help but wonder if he was dragging them down too.  He was pretty sure that he wasn't but there was always that nagging voice in the back of his mind.  After training with Shalnark on Tuesday, Gon went shopping for groceries.  He picked up only the essentials and paid in cash, even though Chrollo had given him his credit card.  

As he was putting the groceries away, a thud could be heard from across the residence.  Gon was going to check it out, but when nobody called for help, he assumed it was okay.  He finished putting away the groceries and went to find out what had caused the abrupt noise.  He walked in and out of rooms, finding no cause of anything.  He ran into nobody either, they were probably looking too.  As he entered Nobunaga's room, he saw him and Shalnark, unconscious in front of him.  He leant down and checked their pulses.  They were strong so he was trying to sense if anyone was around.  He could definitely sense someone.  He just couldn't pinpoint who.  

He didn't have to ponder over it, because out of the shadow, stepped Illumi.  He looked slightly off put, but other than that, kept no emotion on his face.   

"Hmm, so Kil was telling the truth.  Interesting.  So Gon, why are you with the phantom troupe now?"

He was circling Gon, as the latter continued checking his friends for injuries.  

"I'm here because I want to be and they don't try to control my power like Killua did.  Though I can only assume that he was like that because of you."  

Illumi appeared behind him and grabbed his neck.  Gon wasn't worried about it though, it was a harmless attack.  It appeared so at least, and Illumi was never one to hide his true intentions.  

"You should be careful what you say, you know I am a trained assassin."

"And?  I'm the kid who put Hisoka in the hospital."

Illumi was taken aback at that.  He hadn't heard from Hisoka in a while, sure, but to be bested by Gon.  He settled with a scoff before leaving out the window he entered.  Gon eyed the window suspiciously for a minute before turning back to his friends.  He couldn't sense any major injuries, just a few scratches here and there.  Machi could handle that, where ever she was.  Gon decided to check the area they had built a training arena in.  It was just far enough away that even Gon's en wouldn't be able to reach.  

He found them in the training area, warming up.  

"Machi, Nobunaga and Shalnark have some  cuts and scrapes.  Can you heal them while I try and find out what Illumi wanted?"

She agreed and Gon went to try and figure out why Illumi had been so passive.  He thought about it for the next few hours, before coming up with a plausible answer.  

Illumi was probably worried about Hisoka being in the hospital.  He did look a bit worried when I told him.

That made sense and Gon couldn't think of anything else at the moment.  He went to go to training when the voice in the back of his head got a little bit louder.  He ignored it and proceeded on his way and thought nothing of it.  He was stretching a little bit before his match with Shizuku and Shalnark.  They were ready not long after and he stood up, feeling uncharacteristically tired.  Not to mention, the voice he'd been ignoring was getting more and more prominent.  

Leave.  They won't miss you, you only make it harder for them to work.

He tried to shake it off, but every attack seemed to make him more exhausted.  He could usually last hours longer than the others, and the voice would be drowned out by their praise.  He just couldn't fight the voice screaming at him as he collapsed to his knees.  

"Shut up!  Shut up!  You think I don't already know that?  I don't know what you want me to do!"

They all froze in place.  The happiest person and most powerful person looked completely shattered.  They were confused, what could possibly cause something so drastic.  He was still screaming, rocking in place.  At some point sobs overtook his body and Shalnark had pulled him into a hug, Shizuku looking for any injuries.  She couldn't find any so that made everything even more confusing.  

He was still screaming and Chrollo seemed to be trying to go through all of his thoughts at once.  

"Gon said Illumi was here, yes?"

"Uh yeah, but boss, he said that he had been benevolent, only clasping his neck pretty hard once before leaving."

"Hmm."

Chrollo dove back into his thoughts as Shalnark tried to, at the very least, calm Gon into sleep.  After about five minutes of shushing and mumbling quiet nothings, Gon finally fell unconscious.  He was exhausted, not that that made any sense either.  They carried Gon back to the main base, a couple lacking behind with Chrollo to talk about causes.  

Nobody could hear what they were discussing, but could tell that it was better to not interrupt.  They laid him down on the couch leaving Feitan to watch him while they figured out what was wrong with him.  They were in the kitchen discussing for the next two hours before Feitan himself thought of an idea.  

He silently hoped that he was right, because if he wasn't, this could be a costly move.  He put his hand on Gon's neck before pinching his fingers quickly into the skin at the bottom of his skull.  He pulled out a needle and audibly sighed in relief.  He carried the needle cockily to the kitchen.  He leaned against the doorframe holding the needle up between his fingers.  

"I did it."

They all turned around looking quizzically at the blood on his fingers.

"Illumi stuck needle in head.  Me never trust him."

They all looked shocked that Feitan had been able to figure it out before them.  None of them doubted Feitan and knew that he was incredibly intelligent, but all things considered Chrollo and Machi were the smartest members.  

All things aside, they could all relax in good conscience, knowing that Gon would be okay.  Though it didn't stop a couple of them from wondering what Gon had heard in his head, that affected him so greatly.  

A/N:  As always please feel free to leave critics and requests in the comments, you are also welcome to message me privately for anonymity.  Take care to keep in mind that no matter what anyone tells you, you are beautiful/handsome and it's your choice to believe that, not theirs.