Hisoka ~
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
I stared at Kira, who had gone silent. Her eyes refused to meet mine and I knew immediately I was right. Deep down, she wanted to use that power, too. A part of her was afraid, but another wanted to be able summon it, control it and wield it. That was all I needed to know, for now.
"Relax, I'm joking," I quickly assured her with a change of tone. I didn't want to push her just yet. I was content enough confirming that our objectives somewhat aligned.
"You're not entirely wrong."
I blinked at her in surprise. I wasn't expecting her to admit it herself, at least not anytime soon. What wonderful progress. But I guess when a person wants revenge badly enough, anything can become a solution. I suppressed an excited smile, realising I had severely underestimated her ambition.
"Of course, I have considered it," Kira began hesitantly. "As tempting as it is to use that power, the price isn't worth it. Every time I summon the demon, whether on purpose of by accident, it ends up taking over and killing the people around me."
"Did it kill me?" I asked, staring up at her.
She paused for a moment, then slowly shook her head.
"If I'm not mistaken, the last two times it happened, I was around." I observed, standing up and idly returning to my chair. "And yet, here I am, alive and well. I'm much harder to kill than you think."
Sitting across from me, her eyes were clouded with confusion. She knew I had a point, but what made that point valid was still a mystery. "You just got lucky," she dismissed. "I wouldn't keep pushing your luck if I were you."
"Or rather, you were able to suppress your urges to kill me." I had survived two encounters with the demon that had wiped out an entire Mafia unit and left a Shadowbeast traumatised. It couldn't be reduced to something as trivial as luck. "You've found a way to control it."
"I haven't," she protested in exasperation. "In case you didn't realise, it always manages to take over. It would've last night if I had remained in that state a second longer, and you wouldn't be here to smile at me now."
"That's where you're wrong, Sweetheart. Instead of your demon taking over, I'd say you simply lose control of it."
She rolled her eyes in annoyance. "That is the same thing."
"Wrong again." I said and produced a deck of cards. "You speak of your demon as if it's a separate entity," I explained, splitting the deck in half. "But I believe it's more accurate to say that it is just a part of you." I merged the two decks into one with a shuffle. "Therefore, with enough training, you should be able to control it."
"You think I haven't tried?"
"Blindly trying and properly executing are two very different things. Firstly, your fundamentals are lacking. I don't doubt that you're physically strong, but your Nen is in desperate need of refining." I pointed out plainly. "Of course, you're not entirely to blame, Sweetheart. After all, you've never received proper training in the Mafia, especially under a Shadowbeast who had also learnt through the same crude, trial-and-error method."
"How did you..." Kira seemed surprised that I knew of her background. Surely she had realised by now that there was nothing she could hide from me.
Instead of denying, she fell silent, running over my words. She knew it too, that her Nen was rough and insufficient, therefore her fighting style to relied on raw speed and power. As impressive as it was to have come so far on brute strength, it was no longer sustainable at this level.
I leaned back and returned to idly shuffling my cards, pretending to be unbothered. Sneaking a glance at her from across the table, I could tell that my plan was working by the way her eyes shifted down and her hands were fidgeting with one of her knives. The seed had been sown and she was beginning to doubt herself. Soon she would start looking for solutions. Right about... now.
"Hisoka, do you happen to know anyone who can teach me Nen?" She asked a little sheepishly. "You're right. Although I do know the major principles, my execution is quite tragic."
I blinked at her. That wasn't the response I was expecting. She had a Nen master, at least I would consider myself one, sitting right in front of her. And yet she was asking me to refer her to another? My sweet, little idiot.
"Why bother finding someone else? I can teach you." I offered casually, while making it as direct as I possibly could.
"Really?" She raised a brow, either questioning my ability as a teacher or my willingness to teach. However, there was a glint of hopefulness in her eyes, which was a positive start.
"Of course," I smiled in response. "But I have two conditions."
Her expression immediately turned from hopeful back to suspicious. "Go on."
"Firstly, you must not summon your demon again," I stated in a serious tone. "Regardless of the circumstances. If you ever feel it trying to break out, let me know immediately."
She didn't appear to be against the idea, though looked slightly confused. "But doesn't that defeat the purpose of training? Am I not supposed to be learning to control it?"
"Its powers are too strong for you harness as you are right now and I don't want to risk you taking unnecessary damage," I replied. "You will not use the demon in any fight or even during training until I tell you to. Promise me."
Kira seemed uncertain, but nodded. "I promise."
"And I promise I will do everything in my power to help you keep control of it." I responded with a reassuring smile.
"You said you had two conditions. What's the second?" She asked.
My smile widened. She would never agree to this. But it wouldn't hurt to try. It would only be funny and if I was lucky, she'd try to kill me. "I would like you to call me Master."
Her face paled and her jaw dropped. She stared at me for a solid minute in shock and disgust. What a lovely reaction. Soon enough, she had recovered and was shaking her head furiously. "No! You must be out of your mind to even think of that."
It went as well as I expected. "Why, thank you, I do like to consider myself a creative thinker."
"Think what you like," she said defiantly. "But there's no way I'm agreeing to that."
"Now that I'm your teacher, don't you think you should address me with some respect? Besides, constantly being called a clown really does damage my self esteem." I placed a hand over my chest pretentiously to emphasise the point.
"Your self esteem looks fine to me. If anything, I should call you a clown more often."
"Just once," I compromised, ignoring her jab. "Please, I want to hear you say it at least once."
"What, say that you're a clown?" She scoffed, purposefully misinterpreting my words.
If I wanted to coax it out of her, I had to be patient. "Look, Sweetheart, you need me to teach you Nen just as badly as I need to hear you call me Master." I tried my best to reason with her. "Now, won't you be a good girl and fulfil both our wishes?"
At the mention of Nen, her stubbornness eased a little. Her blind anger subsided just enough for her to consider the deal and realise it benefited her more than anyone.
"Come on," I prodded again, "you have to properly ask me to teach you."
Kira sighed deeply. "Well, there goes my pride and dignity," she muttered, before feigning a somewhat sweet smile. "Could you please teach me, Master?"
Immediately after forcing out those words, she made a half strangled sound and hid her face in her palms. Her neck was flushed red, no doubt reflecting the colour of her face right now.
Fuck, that was adorable. I had to hold back the urge to wrap my arms around her and squeeze her so tightly until she couldn't breathe. The cuteness aggression was real.
"Happy now?" She asked annoyedly, eyes deliberately still avoiding mine.
Yes, I was beyond happy. If only I was able to record it. I needed to hear her say it again. "Sorry, what was that?" I asked with a devilish grin. "Could you please repeat it?"
Instead of a verbal reply, a dagger shot towards my head and I barely managed to dodge it. I heard it sink deeply into the wall behind me. As expected, Kira had tried to kill me. God, that was hot.
"Don't push your luck, clown." Her silver eyes glinted dangerously, though her cheeks were still a shade of light pink.
"You're adorable when you're flustered, Sweetheart." I smiled teasingly, watching her involuntarily blush harder at my words. "Have I ever told you that?"
Kira ~
It had been a couple weeks since I started training with Hisoka and so far we hadn't touched on anything remotely combat related. When he said "Nen training", I didn't realise he meant torture through boredom and mental strain. He refused to even spar with me, instead, made me spend hours on refining Nen techniques.
Returning from a match, I walked down the corridor to my room. I wondered where the clown went. He had really taken the phrase "trust the process" to another level with his training methods.
However, under Hisoka's instruction, I had completed my battles with Sadaso and Gido, which put me at 3 wins. He was right, I should've fought Sadaso first. His ability was easily countered with rhythm echo, which had him grabbing at afterimages wth his invisible hand.
Unlocking the door, I walked in to find Hisoka already sitting in my living room, reading as he waited for me. Upon seeing me, he bookmarked his page and put the book down. "How was it?" He asked with a cheerful smile.
"Not bad," I replied, sitting down with him. "Did you not watch it?"
"What's the point? I knew you were going to win."
I guess it was a good thing that he had confidence in me, or rather, his teachings. From my last two experiences in the ring, I could feel that my defence had improved.
"Now, show me the injury." He said, getting up and repositioning himself closer to me.
I glanced at my arm and noticed the blood staining through my black shirt. I rolled up my sleeve to reveal an ugly gash on my forearm, which must've happened when I blocked one of Gido's spinning tops. In the high of my victory, I had completely forgotten about it.
Holding my arm out, I let Hisoka inspect the injury. He pulled out a piece of cloth and carefully pressed it against the wound to stop the bleeding, before sealing it with Bungee Gum. In these rare occasions, his aura felt was gentle and warm, vastly different from its usual malicious nature.
"You don't have to do this, you know? It's just a cut, I can do it myself."
"What kind of master would I be to let my darling student get hurt and do nothing about it?"
I internally cringed at the way he addressed himself, and even more at how he addressed me. But if this was what it took for him to continue teaching me, I had no choice but to put up with his dramatic antics. "It's a fight, Hisoka." I replied dismissively. "It's only natural to sustain an injury or two."
"One injury, I suppose I can tolerate. But two..." His aura instantly darkened. There it is, the murderous aura. It amazed me how quickly his mood could switch. "You're done with those three, right? It wouldn't matter anymore if one of them were to go missing... or get killed."
"No, they might want a rematch." I pointed out, though I highly doubted it. "And I need more victories so it's best to keep my options open."
His frown lingered for a while longer, then he shrugged and smiled again. "Whatever you say, Sweetheart. But if any of them dares to touch you outside the ring, it's fair game."
I couldn't argue with that. If they planned to take me down unfairly, there would be no need for Hisoka because I would kill them myself. Luckily for them, the arena had rules that prevented killing during matches. Perhaps this was why I struggled with these fights, as it was much easier for me to stick knives in my opponents' heads and end them there than slowly accumulate points by hitting them.
That being said, I had just saved Gido's life. He better not repay me by plotting my murder outside of the arena. If he wanted revenge, he would be welcome to rematch me anytime.
"For the time being, I need to find new opponents." I sighed, knowing it could take months to get seven more matches if no one volunteered to fight.
"I would've given you... what's his name? Right, Kastro. I would've let you fight him if he didn't insist on getting back at me." Hisoka said, twirling a card in his hand. "He would've been a good match for you but unfortunately we have already organised a match. And you know that I don't spare people twice."
"You've agreed on a deathmatch?" I asked, my interest peaked. Now that I thought about it, I had never seen Hisoka fight seriously and I was kind of curious. But then again, did Hisoka really take Kastro seriously if he had trouble even remembering his name? "When's the fight?"
"I don't know, sometime soon, I assume." He replied indifferently. "He did seem quite eager."
Never mind. The clown was clowning as usual.
"Oh, that reminds me, Gon and Killua have also reached floor 200. I guess you can fight one of them if you promise to be gentle."
My eyes widened in surprise. That meant Killua had managed to escape from the Zoldyck mansion. It made me happy to know that he was now with Gon, far away from his controlling family. If only I could see Illumi right now and gloat about it in his face, though I doubted he would give me much of a reaction. But what were those kids doing in Heavens Arena?
"However, I'm worried they might not be able to stay here for long." Hisoka remarked in a saddened voice.
"Why? I thought they've only just arrived."
"I'm afraid they might miss deadline to sign up, unless they can learn Nen in time to pass the initiation test."
"What initiation test?" I was never aware that there was even a test. And it required learning Nen? Was it even possible to learn it in a day?
"My initiation test, of course." He replied with a cheerful smile, seeming rather pleased with himself. "They simply have to make it past my Ren to reach the registration counter."
Huh. I blinked at him, dumbfounded. I could never decipher this clown's intentions. "You're telling me... you want Gon and Killua to stay at Heavens Arena, so... you set a near impossible task to drive them away?"
"Precisely!"
I suppressed the urge to call him an idiot. "And that makes sense to you?" I asked as politely as I could instead.
"Of course," he nodded proudly. "If the two can't withstand my aura, they have no hope surviving on this level."
Hisoka did have a point, but again, his methods were questionable. "Wouldn't it be better to let them through first?" I tried to reason with him. "Then they can learn Nen at their own pace."
He simply shook his head. "There is no urgency in that. Besides, even if I didn't stand in their way, others would, and there's no guarantee they'll be as kind and thoughtful as I am."
Yes, Hisoka Morow, very kind and thoughtful. However, he wasn't entirely wrong. I had noticed that if it wasn't for him staying around me all the time, someone would've attacked me, thinking I was an easy target.
"I have to greet them again soon, you can accompany me if you wish." He suggested, before warning me. "But if you use your En to assist them, I will know."
I had no choice but to nod. Hisoka didn't have to make any explicit threats to make me understand that there would be consequences for disobeying him. His piercing golden eyes made it clear enough.
~~~~
The plot is finally moving. This chapter came out longer than it needed to be but please, I hope you enjoy reading it.
Please keep the comments coming, they're really good motivation for me and usually a good laugh.
~ krypto