Beta: TaintedLetter
(≧ڡ≦*)
Gon didn't wake up for the rest of the day, and far into the next one, but when he did he was hecka excited about his license. Less so when he realized that Killua wasn't with them.
"I promised Killua we'd pick him up when you were feeling better," Miwa explained to Gon, sitting by his bedside next to Kurapika and Leorio. "But, um, now I realize maybe you wouldn't want to...?"
"Of course I do! He's our friend," Gon said cheerfully. "Can you teleport us to him?"
"Technically yes, but I shouldn't," Miwa said with a grimace. "I have no way of judging distance until after the teleportation unless I know the area. I have no clue how far away Killua has become. If I were to just go ahead and teleport I might expend all of my energy, and um..."
'Accidentally unleash some raw, rage-inducing kyūbi chakra that will inevitably result in the massacre of those nearby. Definitely including Killua and his family.'
That just sounds like a good time.
'Not. Helping.'
"Did he mention where he was going exactly?" Kurapika asked in a kind voice. The blond boy seemed unnaturally kind and soft spoken. It kind of unnerved Miwa, since it was such a contradiction to what she sensed in his energy core. On the outside he was nice, but on the inside all she could hear was the rattling of rusty chains and the smell of rotten flesh.
She honestly hadn't been able to decide if he was a budding psychopath or just seriously disturbed.
Please let it be psychopath. Then please let him get strong and try to fight us.
'Why can't you learn to enjoy the simple things in life?'
Why can't you let me bijū bomb a few cities? Push humanity into glorious war and a fight for survival. Turn the world into post-apocalypse and slaughter the weak.
'So sadistic.'
"Back home to get his dad's permission to go on adventures with us," Miwa told Kurapika, ignoring the pouting (I AM NOT POUTING) kyūbi.
"Hmm... His last name was Zoldyck, right?" Kurapika said, pulling his messenger bag around. He fished around in it for a moment before he found what he was looking for and presented the group with a laptop.
"How the hell did that not get destroyed?" Miwa wondered out loud.
But Kurapika only smiled mysteriously as he booted it up. It took him several minutes, but he was able to figure out where Killua lived. He turned the laptop around to show everyone a picture of a mountain that looked like it ought to be haunted by ghosts. "Says here the Zoldyck family live on this mountain."
"Then let's go there, Miwa!" Gon declared.
"Okey dokey."
"Where are you guys going to head off to?" Gon asked his other friends.
"Get my degree in medicine to become a doctor," Leorio proudly declared.
"I... have some research to do," Kurapika responded vaguely.
'Why do I feel like by research he means murdering?' Miwa questioned. 'Is he really going to turn into a serial killer? Not that I'm judging him or anything since I'm technically a serial killer, too.'
Sage damn, I hope so.
Gon's gaze was downcast for a moment before he brightened back up. "Okay! Then let's make a promise to meet up again someday!"
"Of course," they agreed.
"Why not... here?" Leorio said, tapping on something on the screen of the laptop. Since Miwa couldn't read anything she really had no way of knowing what the heck he was pointing out.
"Sounds good!"
(≧ڡ≦*)
The trip to the Kukuroo Mountain—apparently it was a dormant volcano, which had Kurama hoping for it to explode while they were there—was short and easy. Miwa had a marker semi near it, and she and Gon made the rest of the journey on foot. There was a town nearby, and a tour that was offering free rides to the mountain.
Gon thought it'd be fun to go on a tour, so the tour was what they went on.
It was not fun.
It was stuffy, lead by an overly cheerful guide lady, and slow as heck. Miwa could have run faster on her hands than that stupid bus.
At least Gon seemed to be enjoying himself, oohing and ahhing at some of the random little facts the tour guide spewed out. When they finally reached the base of the volcano the tour guide let them out to stretch their legs and to take a picture of the Zoldyck Family gate.
The gate in question was big. Bigger than any gate had a right to be. It wasn't as big as Kurama, but it was about the size of one of his arms.
No gate should have been that big.
And it looked so over the top with its dramatic appearance. Any one who saw it would immediately think: Yeah that's a cliche gate of an assassin's family. SpoOOooky.
'So... kick the gates open or hop over?' Miwa thought, looking the dark gates up and down. 'I feel like there should be lightning flashing in the background.'
Or at least some ominous music, Kurama agreed. There was a pause, then Kurama adjusted their mindscape so the two could listen to a haunting orchestra from one of Miwa's old memories.
'Yep, that's better.'
Miwa and Kurama were interrupted from their conversation by an outburst of violence. Two of the people who had attended the tour had broken off from the group and straight up attacked the security guard for Killua's home. One of them was holding up the security guard above the ground.
"Open the door, old man!" snarled one of them, a fat blond with a sweaty stench.
Miwa honestly could not believe the audacity of those two. Two men with chakra so pathetically weak she'd consider them beneath wild animals trying to attack someone.
Trying to attack someone who worked for Killua.
Who was Miwa's friend.
In front of Miwa.
"Oi," Miwa snarled, stalking toward the two men. "Drop him and I won't snap your necks."
The two men sneered at Miwa, and the larger one threw the elderly security guard to the ground. "Huh? What did you say, little bitch?"
With a burst of chakra, Miwa rapidly busted all of their kneecaps, twisting their legs around in a horrific fashion. She did this within seconds before returning to her original position a few feet away from them.
As far as anyone else could see the two men just had their legs mangled in the blink of an eye. They were howling and screaming in pain, blood gushing out from their wounds as their splintered leg bones poked out from the skin.
"Miwa," Gon exclaimed. "That wasn't very nice!"
"They called me a bitch," Miwa defended herself, gesturing toward the two men who were already going into shock from the pain. "And they were attacking someone who works for Killua. How else was I supposed to react?"
"You should have talked to them first," Gon said, wagging his finger in a manner reminiscent of a scolding. "They might have had a very good reason for doing what they did."
Miwa sighed, realizing her rebuttal of: I don't care probably wouldn't work on Gon.
As Gon and Miwa were having their nonchalant conversation, the rest of the tour group screamed, ran back to the bus, and promptly hightailed it out of there.
Their whimpers and screams were starting to get a little irritated, so Miwa went ahead and crushed their heads under her boot. Gon, meanwhile, was helping the elderly man back up and asking him if he was okay.
"Thank you both for your help," the guard said, offering a polite bow to Miwa. "What brings you two here?"
"We're Killua's friends," Gon chirped, then nudged Miwa's arm. "Well, I'm his friend and Miwa is his fiancé."
This caused the guard to gape at Miwa for a moment. "Wha—truly?"
"We're here to see Killua," Miwa said, glaring at the cheeky Gon who stuck out his tongue in response. They both knew telling people that would only result in a lot of misunderstandings, especially since Miwa did not want to explain their inside joke to a stranger. "He said he had to talk to his dad before he could go adventuring with us."
"Ah, I see," the guard said, nodding at this. "That's wonderful, I'm glad to see the young master has made friends."
Miwa gestured toward the overly sized gates. "Do we just go through there, then?"
"Normally, yes—"
Miwa turned on her heel and approached the door. She was surprised when she moved to push the doors open using her normal strength it wouldn't budge.
'Oh, yeah?'
Miwa pushed her chakra out—and Kurama added his own—to enhance her physical strength, and promptly shoved all seven doors wide open. Kurama's chakra lingered in and around Miwa—she had ended up using a tail's worth, which was surprising—before rapidly dissipating.
'Oof that was heavier than I expected.'
That weighed as much as that Sage-damned octopus. Who the hell is this door for?!
"I-I don't believe it!" the guard exclaimed, eyes bright with awe. "The gates official name is the Testing Gates. Anyone who cannot open this gate is unworthy to enter the Zoldyck Estate. You won't need to worry about the guard, Mike, as he as orders to not attack anyone who goes through this gate. The first two doors weigh two tons each, there are seven in each and the tonnage doubles with each set of doors. Yet you just opened all of them!"
"Who the hell needs a door that heavy?" Miwa questioned, aghast by that odd logic. "That's just a waste of resources. The walls surrounding it aren't even as tall as the door."
Humans are idiots.
'Certainly some of them.'
"Wow, Miwa, you're really strong! You know for a second there it looked like you grew a tail," Gon jovially commented, all smiles and sunshine. "Thanks for talking with us, Mr. Security man! Come on, Miwa."
Gon and Miwa hopped through the gates that closed shut behind them.
On the other side of the door, there was a massive canine with too many odd proportions for Miwa to say for certain if it was more dog-like or wolf-like. It stood tall—about the size of Kurama's entire paw—and was covered in dark purple fur. It stared intently at Miwa and Gon, its black eyes assessing them with a cold hunger.
"That must be Mike," Miwa observed the massive dog and—
"Hey, kiddo. I'm Pakkun," the smaller pug greeted her, giving her a toothy grin and a small tail wag. "Wanna touch my paw?"
Miwa felt the memory echo inside of her heart. Warmth, love, and acceptance came alongside of it. The smell of the pack in her tiny apartment, all clamoring for her attention. Their warm, fur covered bodies, pressing against her own on nights dark and terrible. The sound of their reassured breathing as they slept around her.
The memories of the pack, of her pack, were still in bits and pieces, but enough was given back to Miwa to know she loved them and they loved her.
She glanced down at her hand, wondering if she spilled her blood to summon them would they come to her again?
Contracts are soul bound, but they are in another world. If you summon them, it will take a significant amount of chakra. Enough that all of your chakra will be drained, and over half of mine I would imagine. Worst case it might even drain all of our combined chakra, whatever nature chakra we could scrounge up too, and still not be enough. We could trap them in between dimensions trying to summon them.
'Definitely don't want that.'
Miwa glanced back over at the guard dog, admiring how soft its fur looked.
"Can I pet you?" she politely asked.
"It doesn't look very friendly," Gon told Miwa, peering at the canine. "I think it wants to eat us."
Miwa only shrugged in response, taking a step closer to the overgrown pup. 'Do you think it wants to eat us?'
Most definitely. It's leaking retrained bloodlust. If you want to pet it, you'll have to tame it.
'That's a shame,' Miwa thought, turning away from Mike. Taming it would mean using Kurama's chakra to scare it into submission before working with it. She didn't want to do that to Killua's pet puppy.
Maybe Killua would let her pet him later.
'So soft and fluffy.'
It warmed her heart to see cute fluffy animals. It put a smile on her face, and a skip in her step. With a cheerful hum, she and Gon began to make their way up the mountain to visit their friend.
(≧ڡ≦*)
(Kikyo)
Meanwhile...
Kikyo was an unhinged woman.
A brilliant, cunning woman, but an insane one at that.
Growing up in Meteor City resulted in a lot of horrors being forced upon her. Her childhood was filled with cruel acts, and desperate attempts at survival. She learned, painfully so, her desires were unimportant. Her body was a tool. Her mind a prison.
Even as she wallowed in the filth of that hell on earth, she managed to climb to impressive heights.
She even garnered enough attention that she caught the eye of one Silva Zoldyck. He showed her a cold, twisted kind of love, but it was a love that Kikyo had never been given and so she greedily ate it up. The two married, and he took her out of that hell and into the Zoldyck family.
She was a smart woman, and when given the resources helped push the Zoldyck family to greater heights.
But she was... damaged.
Abuse was love. Suffocation was love. Cruelty was love.
This was the love she knew, and so this was the love she passed on to her children.
When her favored son attacked and scarred her face in his escape from home, she was beyond excited. Her son had given in to his killer ways, and even returned some of her love!
She was elated when he returned.
Less so when he wanted to leave after talking with their father.
She knew her son was going through a... phase, yes a phase. He was at such a delicate point in his life. As a loving mother she had to help him make the right decision.
Even if that meant she had to enforce a little discipline.
The matriarch of the Zoldyck family enjoyed a lovely tea party for herself outside of their mansion. As she sipped her tea, her butler greeted her with a low bow.
Gotoh was a loyal butler with the Zoldyck family. He was pristine, powerful, and rarely ever smiled. He kept his dark hair pulled back in a low ponytail, and his glasses were always without a smudge. His stoic nature was reinforced by a perpetually dry expression.
Even so, Gotoh had a soft spot for Kikyo, and so he always spoke in a kinder tone when addressing her.
"Kikyo-sama," Gotoh gently began, "two guests have arrived. According to the doorman, they claim to be friends of Killua. One of them... has opened the testing gates."
"The Testing Gate opened?"
"Yes."
Kikyo was silent for a moment, processing this alarming information.
This was it. This was a time when her son needed her to make the right choice for him.
"This is a critical time for Killua. We cannot allow any distractions to come near him, especially such unnecessary things as friends. Do you understand?" Kikyo stressed.
"Yes, my lady."
Kikyo smiled in relief behind her bandaged face.
Yes. She would help her son.
Whatever it took.
(≧ڡ≦*)
BONUS TT!AU:
Miwa, Gon, and Killua abruptly teleported into the Zoldyck manor where the family members were sitting down to enjoy dinner.
"Sup guys. Just letting you know this is my best friend Gon," Killua said, patting Gon's shoulder, "and this is my other best friend Miwa."
Gon and Miwa waved.
"Bye bitches," Killua said cheerfully before Miwa teleported them away.
(≧ڡ≦*)
Killua's family is weird.
Canonically they (Gon, Leorio, & Kurapika) worked hard to be able to crack the gate open, but there's no reason for that to happen with Miwa's involvement. Don't worry about Gon skipping out on the training here. I have my own plans for him & Killua to grow in different ways with the introduction of Miwa, and... to fit inside the entirety of the narrative.
Answer: Gon or Kurapika.
Question: If you had to have a creature / demon / fantasy being trapped inside of you, what would you want?
Reviews are love!