Hisoka ~
By the time I woke up, it was already well past midday. I felt quite content, with the amount of sleep I had. My body definitely seemed more energised. Despite this, I chose to remain seated under the tree. I couldn't be bothered to move.
My phone vibrated, no doubt a call from Illumi. He probably wanted to yell at me for not making progress. Still, I picked up. Illumi wasn't someone to ignore.
"Hisoka, have you taken your target's tag?" He asked with a sceptical tone.
"No, not yet." I answered truthfully. Illumi also wasn't someone to lie to.
"You don't even know who your target is, do you?"
"No."
"Want me to tell you?" He offered. Why was I not surprised? Of course he'd know. What a try hard.
"No, it doesn't matter." I replied indifferently. "I'll just find three others to hunt."
To be honest, I wasn't in a hurry. My bloodlust seemed to have receded, so now I was just feeling lazy. Besides, the hunt was to go on for an entire week, giving me more than enough time. For now, I decided to idle around for a bit, someone was bound to show up sooner or later.
After about two hours or so, I heard rustling in the bushes surrounding me. Unconsciously, a smile formed on my face. Finally. I felt my excitement start to grow.
"Well, come out. I know you're there."
There was no response. Must I always make the first move?
"If you won't come out, I'll come to you." I slowly stood up, and approached where I presumed the candidate was hiding.
As expected, a man emerged from the undergrowth, brandishing a spear. "I challenge you to a duel."
I took one glance at him, and words could not express the full extent of my disappointment. This man already had one foot in the grave. "You'll die."
Nonetheless, he charged at me. I mean, fair enough, he had nothing to lose. Still, I couldn't find the motivation to fight him. His attacks were relentless, yet sloppy, and too easy to dodge. I could tell that he was tiring fast. With a wild swing of his spear, which completely missed me, he cleanly cut down the tree that stood in the centre of the clearing.
This guy just destroyed my shelter! The audacity! Nevertheless, I remained composed. My performance had been spectacular so far, and I intended to keep it up.
Having used up the last of his energy, the man dropped to his knees, leaning heavily against his spear.
"Hisoka... explain yourself..." He panted, out of breath. "Why won't you attack me?"
"If I continue to avoid your attacks, you'll die eventually." I answered him nonchalantly. "I can tell from the swarm of Hemotropic Butterflies that your wounds are grave."
He gaped at me in shock. What? Did he think I was an idiot? Never mind that, stay calm.
"Someone else has already dealt you a fatal blow, yes?" I continued. "Though I understand your desire to die in battle."
"If you... If you understand so well, why do you still refuse to fight me?!" He struggled to even get the words out.
"I have no interest in the dead." I replied calmly.
"What? I'm not yet..."
"You're already dead. It's in your eyes." Surely he knew that too.
By attempting to challenge me, he was committing suicide, to prevent himself from dying in shame. Too bad for him, I wasn't in a sympathetic mood today.
I strode off and sat down on the log that was once a beautiful tree. "Bye-bye." I looked at him and smiled.
Refusing to give up, the man forced himself onto his feet, and charged recklessly at me again. But before he came within two metres, he dropped dead, his face now decorated with golden needles. Illumi's needles.
Surely enough, I heard the familiar robotic voice behind me. "Sorry, I was careless and he got away."
Are you kidding? Does he think I'm dumb too?
"Don't lie to me," I exposed him. "He probably begged you to grant him a last request and you relented." I smiled at him knowingly. "Am I right?"
"Well, I may have felt sorry for the man." Illumi admitted. "He was going to die anyway."
"You need to stop pitying those who serve no purpose."
"But you're guilty of that yourself. You've walked away from opponents before finishing them."
"I do have standards." I corrected. How many times did I have to explain this to him? "Why waste time on people who are utterly useless? I only spare those whose premature deaths would be a waste." He looked at me like he still didn't get it. Never mind. "Well, what about his badge."
"Oh, I already took it. I have six points now so I don't really need this one. Want it?" He tossed me the tag.
"Who's is this?" The number 80 was written on the badge. What's Kira's number again?
"It belonged to someone who tried to snipe me. That pissed me off, and so, well, I killed them." He replied, rather indifferently.
"Well..." Illumi began to remove his needles. His face started to shift, changing in shape and colour, slowly morphing back to his usual appearance.
"Hm? That's always so much fun to watch." I exclaimed excitedly. That was probably the highlight of my day.
"It does take its toll on me, you know." He complained, before sighing in content. "Ah, that's much better."
Then, Illumi proceeded to dig himself a hole.
"Well, I'm going to sleep until the deadline. Best of luck." With that, he disappeared into his little burrow.
How boring. He would just leave me like that. Now that my shelter was destroyed, and I couldn't dig holes, I guess I should get going. I stood up and left the clearing, a part of me wondering what Kira was up to. I decided to go look for her, and maybe rack up a couple of kills along the way. Hopefully she'd be happy to see me.
Kira ~
"Come on, Kira!"
It had been a solid fifty hours since we last slept, and Killua was as energetic as ever, running and skipping along. "Do you mind slowing down?"
"No!" The kid responded, without even turning. "Why? Are you getting old?"
This brat. "Hey, you better watch yourself!" I yelled at him, now determined to catch up. "Do you even know where you're going?"
"Nope! Not a single clue!" For someone who was lost, he sounded too happy.
For a split second, I sensed movement roughly fifty metres away. Quickly, I sprinted towards Killua, and pinned him to the ground. "Hey! What are you doing, idiot..." He protested, before I silenced him with a glare. I raised a finger to my lips, indicating for him to remain quiet.
Then I pointed ahead, and surely enough, a man with dark green hair, in a navy blue tunic, strode into the open. Killua's eyes widened with recognition. We had found our first target.
"Can I kill him?" The little boy perked up excitedly. Woah, calm down there.
"Alright, let's refrain from killing for now." I had to stop it there, before he started getting any other ideas. "Seeing as this guy's my target, I'll take him."
"Wait, what?" He complained. "But I want to fight, too!"
"You will get a chance to fight, once we've found your target."
There was a long pause. Killua fidgeted awkwardly. Oh no... You've got to be kidding me.
"Don't tell me you don't even know who target is." If I had wanted to be around an idiot, I would've stayed with Hisoka.
"Okay, okay, so what if I don't?" He pouted, crossing his arms defensively.
"What do you mean 'so what'? You can't seriously expect to randomly knock out someone who just happens to be your target!"
At that he didn't reply. Instead he looked at me sheepishly. Oh boy... So that was his plan?!
I sighed. This turned out to be way harder than I had anticipated. "You know what? You stay right here, while I finish off that guy. It shouldn't take too long. After that, we'll figure out something."
Killua only nodded, clearly too embarrassed to say anything else. Good. At least he's cooperating now.
With that, I headed towards my target. At first, he seemed completely unaware of my presence. I smiled, knowing this was going to be an easy win. I sped up, closing in on him from behind.
But just as I released my first knife, he spun around, and dodged my attack. The man grinned at me, gloating from that little victory. "Did you really think you can sneak up on me like that?"
"Look, I really don't have time for your little chitchat, I've got a problematic child to get back to."
He looked at me weirdly. He clearly didn't understand the source of my frustration. "You know what? Don't mind that. Let's just get this over with." I reworded.
Drawing two more knives, I attacked him, before he had the chance to reply. As expected he drew his sword and parried my strikes. I could tell that he was quite skilled at close ranged combat by the way he moved. But not skilled enough.
I dropped to a crouch, and slashed at his right leg, giving him a nasty gash. I laughed lightly. Not nearly enough. He stumbled backwards, but quickly regained his footing, and charged at me with the fury of being humiliated. One of the first things I had learnt about fighting was that the moment you lost your calm, was when you've lost the fight.
This man was not only a loser, but a sore loser. He swung at me angrily, with even more aggression than before. A very sore loser, indeed. By doing so, he had created several openings. I guess I'll finish this quickly.
I darted towards him, knife in hand, ready to plunge it into his chest. To my surprise, he dropped his sword, and seized both of my wrists. He wrestled me to the ground, as I struggled to stab him. But in terms of physical strength, he overpowered me, pinning my hands down.
He smirked at me smugly, as if he'd already won. What a moron.
I focused all my aura to my right arm, forcing the knife closer to him. As expected, he directed all his strength to restrain my right hand, freeing up my left. This also left his right side undefended. Nice one, idiot. I slowly unsheathed the knife strapped to my left thigh, ready to stick it in him.
Suddenly, the man dropped dead on top of me. What the hell? Blood began to seep from his head, dripping onto my face. Ugh! Gross! I shoved the dead weight aside, freeing myself. What just happened? I looked at the dead body, and to my extreme annoyance, saw a card protruding from the back of his head. That interfering clown!
Hisoka jumped down from a tree, smiling cheerfully at me, as if unaware of the fact that he'd just stolen my kill. I marched angrily towards him. "What the hell was that?!"
"Saving your life, of course." He replied, giving a little bow, clearly oblivious to my rage.
"Are you joking? Do I look like I'm in the mood for jokes?" I was seriously mad.
"Was that a 'thank you'?" He continued with the act. "Why, you are very welcome."
I've had enough of his clownery. "Why can't you just stay out of my way? I don't need you to protect me!"
"Oh, Sweetheart, haven't I told you? I am keeping you alive, and I will continue to keep you alive. Whether you like it or not."
For a moment he seemed dead serious. And I had to admit, it scared me a little. But that didn't last for long, as he rambled on. "Besides, you were losing the fight. You needed me."
"I was not!" I protested. "I had everything under control."
"As if." He commented. "It definitely didn't look like it."
"Well, I don't know which fight you were watching, but I was winning." I remained stubborn. "If you hadn't interfered, I could've stabbed him."
"He was on top of you."
What even? Was he serious right now?
"So?"
"I didn't like the look of that."
Does this clown hear himself when he talks?
"You're one to talk! You were pretty much doing the same when we were on that stupid tree."
"Would you guys cut it out?" Killua appeared out of nowhere. "For god's sake, you two are arguing like a married couple."
Huh?! Who gave this brat the right to speak?
"I'm sorry, what?!" I demanded, grabbing him by the shirt. "Would you like to repeat that?"
He didn't seem to register the threat. Instead, he yelled right back at me. "I said, you guys are like a married couple!!!"
At this point, I was really losing it. First Hisoka, then Killua?! It seemed that the harder I tried to avoid trouble, it always ended up finding me.
~~~~
Hi guys! Hope you've enjoyed this chapter. If you liked it, please vote and recommend.
Writing about Hisoka and Killua is so fun. The clown and the cat. And I just had to make Hisoka jealous, for drama's sake :)
Also, I'm always open to feedback and suggestions, please feel free to leave any comments. I'll be updating again soon!
~ krypto