"Ah, Rukei, you were there?"

The words came out scratched and damaged, the end of his question almost disappearing as if it had been burnt up like his left hand. His windpipe had been destroyed. The skin around his right wrist was almost nonexistent. What was left of it was blackened and barely hanging on. His minor injuries were more serious than Rukei's worst.

The adrenaline that held back the full brunt of the pain was slowly being drained out of his body. He staggered towards the girl and gave her a weak smile. "Can you help me get Genthru out of here? I don't think I...," he had to pause for a second to give his throat a rest, "can lift him by myself."

If Gon was not injured, Rukei would have punched him.

"I could tell," Rukei replied sternly. And yet, Gon could hear a crack within her steel voice, "I could tell," she repeated in vain for it sounded no stronger than the last, "Gon, did it occur to you that you- you shouldn't be this hurt, what did-" she had settled on the simple, "Why?"

Gon looked down. He didn't want to give his explanation to Rukei because looking back, he wasn't too sure himself. "I wanted to... try out this great idea-"

"Great idea?" She echoed.

"... Archangel's Breath can-"

"That's not an excuse!"

Rukei had never yelled at Gon personally before. She had yelled at both him and Killua together, and Killua by himself a couple times and none were ever that pleasant. Gon found it painful to listen to her. There was always something so... Sad behind her voice. Something so disappointed.

Gon was not aware that it was with herself.

"Rukei-"

"That's enough talking," she cut him off. Her quiet, steady tone had returned, "Your windpipe is crushed. I apologize for making you speak."

Instead of feeling relief, he could only feel a prick of guilt in the back of his mind. But they needed to get the Bomber out. He gave a sort of gesture towards the man after tapping Rukei on the shoulder, who seemed to have spaced out for a moment. He felt like he would get chewed out again for speaking.

He noticed that the area around her ankle looked to have been burned or corroded by something as she hefted the man over her shoulder. A splotch of her blood color stained her jacket. If she stayed with Bisky, she should have been fine...

Gon pointed at the marks as he trudged beside her to which Rukei looked back ahead and shifted Genthru so that the body covered it from the boy's view. "It doesn't matter. I apologize for yelling. I was just..."

She didn't finish her sentence before changing her words and giving him a small smile.

"You've beat the Bombers. That's something to be proud about," the girl commended, "But please be more careful."

Despite all the pain, Gon could grin honestly.

-

She recoiled at the ridiculously loud screaming, slamming both hands over her ears to block out her teacher and her friend. She turned her eyes away from the castle doors that Gon had just disappeared through and to the two of them in the most stoically annoyed way possible.

After feeling that it was safe to remove the temporary mufflers, she asked them slowly, "What is it?"

"We've been trying to get your attention for a while now," Killua huffed and shoved his recently healed hands into his pockets, equally irritated with her.

Bisky nodded, folding her arms and leaned in to scrutinize her apparently spaced out student. "You've been really out of it ever since you and Gon met up with the rest of us. Was the encounter with Flask that bad?"

Killua tensed up at the mentioning of the lab assistant, "What? Did he say something to you?"

"Of course, he said something," Rukei replied quietly, "Flask always says something. He's not the type of person to shut up. That's why I'm worried about Hyoshi."

The blonde heaved a sigh and sullenly agreed, "It was awfully nice of him, even if it was just for Jen's sake, taking Flask to the Alliance that he hates so much and giving us #77. It would be terrible if something happens to him."

She nodded, assuming that the conversation was over and glanced back at the gigantic doors as if that would somehow let her see Gon. He would be fine now, right? He defeated the bombers and completed the game so there was nothing more to fight against. What happened in Greed Island would stay in Greed Island. He had even gestured to the man after the battle; he had no qualms against healing him. Gon wouldn't... He wouldn't sacrifice anything else, right? But he-

Rukei never got any breaks; she winced from Bisky pinching her cheek angrily. "Tried to pull a fast one on your master, didn't you?" She questioned with an strained, vexed smile, before releasing the girl, "C'mon. What's the real reason? If someone like you would flunk a quiz because of it, it must be pretty big."

She was pretty sure she did not flunk the quiz regarding the cards testing the memory of all the players. That would be unbelievable. But when she thought about it, she had a very difficult time recalling the answers she entered; she wasn't paying attention. In any case, she had gotten less than eighty-seven correct, eighty-seven being the amount that Gon answered.

Of course, he had gotten the most questions right. It was natural; Gon honestly enjoyed and thoroughly played his father's game to the best of his ability. So she did not need to worry. Gon would be fine. As long as she did her job of keeping him away from the villains, she would not have to see that kind of scene again.

"It doesn't matter," Rukei assured, for her own sake more than Bisky's, "I was just overthinking something."

Rukei was half expecting the teacher to pinch her again with the woman's skeptical glance but the blonde turned away with a relenting huff and a short pat on the shoulder, "Well, as long as it's not about anything dangerous. You just came back from a life and death situation; don't be so eager to jump into another!"

The brunette gave her a small smile to Bisky's response. "Understood."

That was the end of one problem and the beginning of the other. She had not yet received an answer to the most pressing question.

What was Flask doing in Greed Island?

-

With Greed Island cleared, there was also the question of, what were they going to do next? They had played the entire game for months just to find a clue on Gon's father and they had walked out empty-handed aside from little tales that Razor had relayed or the stories told by List and Dwun. Some of it she had already been well aware of, like the fact that Ging was a jerk.

But apparently Ging did leave a footprint behind in the form of an anagram inside of Gon's binder. The only possible problem was how they were going to follow that footprint, but Gon had solved that already with a plan revolving around Paladin's Necklace.

"You used Transform to make Accompany a restricted slot card, then used Paladin's Necklace to revert it," Bisky summed up as the three students cheered on managing to pull the plan through, "That's clever thinking. But I'm surprised that you'd do that for an Accompany rather than just choosing a restricted card slot."

Gon smiled bashfully when Bisky praised his idea, "Yeah, but I probably wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't the first one to enter the game."

"Remember when we played rock-paper-scissors here?" Killua brought up after the confused look Bisky gave the boy.

"I was first to enter the game and while I was waiting for Killua and Rukei, no one was around. Which meant the first person I met in the game should have been the second person to go in, Goreinu. But when I checked my binder, there was someone I met before him."

Ging had registered his name as 'Nigg' when he entered the game with Gon when he was a child. Gon believed that his father was trying to tell him if Gon was ready to throw everything away to find him, then he had to at least be strong enough to clear the game.

"Your dedication is really something," Bisky perked up with a curiosity, "Well? What will you do once you find Ging?"

"Naturally, I'll introduce him to Killua and Rukei!" Gon raised his voice to where he was yelling as if he were trying to announce something to the entire universe, "My best friends in the whole world!"

Killua immediately went red and began stuttering; he forgot how to comprehensibly say 'shut up'. "J- sh- y-you idiot, cut that out!" He growled, after finally picking a sentence that faded away into indecipherable mumbles, "You're so embarrassing..."

Gon grinned at his friend cheerfully, as if that made it any better for the boy who was intensely avoiding looking at everyone else's face. Rukei opened her mouth to thank Gon for his unnecessary declaration that she really appreciated from the bottom of her heart, but quickly stopped herself when she remembered her new policy that was recently forced on her and settled with giving him a small smile.

"Really... Cut it out..."

She glanced up to see their master sobbing and taking out a pink handkerchief to wipe away a waterfall of tears and blow her nose, "It's age. It must be age! It doesn't take much to make me cry..."

The students looked on with awkward smiles until Gon offered a place for her to tag along in hopes of getting hee to cheer up. "Bisky, do you wanna come with us to see Ging?"

"No. I'll pass," Bisky finally replied after straightening her posture and stepping a little ways from them, "I'm not interested in men who already have kids."

"Oh... Well, take care, Bisky!"

"Thank you very much!"

"Osu!"

-

The person who had knocked them to the ground, opened fire, and saved their lives was not Gon's father.

He looked a bit older, with the long, silver hair, stern, guarded expression, and towering stature, but he appeared a little miffed when Gon called him "old man" so she guessed that perhaps he wasn't.

His name was Kite. He was a student of Ging and had apparently saved Gon's life years before while he was looking for Gon's father. It was the final challenge that Ging had given Kite as teacher to student, though it had never been made official due to Ging's nature.

Rukei rather liked Kite; the way the man talked was somehow nice and he resembled Gon in his earnest respect for Ging. And Kite managed to earn this same respect from Ging which meant that as a Hunter, his skills were the real deal.

"You said that the thing that attacked me was a Chimera Ant?" Killua brought up after looking at the video of the Camp Tiger. While they had spent most of the night talking about Ging, Kite had spoken a little bit of what he had seen and accomplished as well as a Contract Hunter.

"Yes. Under a class-1 quarantine. Normally, no one would be allowed near such a dangerous insect," Kite detailed with a glance towards the destroyed nest, "I normally specialize in larger creatures but currently, I'm investigating these ants. Something has been bothering me."

Rukei also looked towards the nest with Kite's comment. She hoped that it was nothing too big; the gravity that Kite treated them with made her a little nervous.

"But it appears now, I'll have to move to a different location," the man noted while pulling out his phone, "I must make a call, but I'm not getting any reception here."

Gon shut the laptop and handed it back to the owner, "A call?"

"I'm working with others. Seven of us are working as a team," Kite explained, "I guess I must wait for their arrival. Once they're here, I'll introduce you. They're amateurs, but they're still skilled Hunters- well, speak of the devil."

Kite did not have time to finish his previous sentence as he quickly perked up at the sound of footsteps. He smiled as he turned around to face a group of four that approached them. A woman wearing a cap that was of a slightly similar fashion to Kite's asked who the children were.

"Oh, it's a pleasure seeing you all the way out here," the woman greeted them, "I'm Spinner Clow. Spin is fine though!"

"I'm Gon Freeces," the boy chimed, taking her outstretched hand, "Nice to meet you, Spin."

The bubble of gum she was chewing popped. She stared blankly at the boy, "Freeces... Wait, is this-"

"Yes. This is Ging-san's son."

A man with rather unkempt hair pointedly excitedly towards the other two at the surprising news, "And you? Not you guys, too?"

They didn't really look alike, did they? Rukei wondered why people would believe that they were siblings. But after a moment of thought, she realized that it was very well possible because if Illumi and Killua could be brothers, anyone could. "No, we're not. My name is Killua Zoldyck."

The four seemed to tense at his last name. A woman with light hair and overalls broke the awkward silence, "Um, forgive me if I'm wrong, but are you part of the famous family of assassins?"

"Yeah, but I dropped out," the boy replied as if it was something as simple as ditching class.

The same woman from before gave a short nod before turning to the brunette, "And you?"

She gave them her full name and at another uncomfortable pause, she told them that they didn't need to push themselves to comment anything. Nazoku was a common surname from where she came from, and her biological family was not anything crazy famous like the boys beside her.

"Additionally, they're all pro Hunters," Kite added on, "So you should show some respect."

The four had set down their luggage and taken a seat, so the rest of them followed their actions as they continued to chat. She learned that this group had been with Kite for three years.

The largest man with a somehow koala like face brought back the previous topic, "I don't think we finished introductions. I'm Monta Yuras. But call me Mon."

"I'm Stick Dinner," the man with the unruly hair announced, "I handle cooking. Know why? Because my name is Dinner!"

The rest of his group groaned at his introduction; they had probably heard this thousands of times before along with his cackles. Kite pulled his cap over his eyes as Killua awkwardly gave the man a smile. Rukei personally thought it was hilarious and had to turn away and pretend to cough. It looked like Stick was about to say something else but was abruptly cut of by Spin.

"No," Spin held up her hand with an annoyed look in his direction, "No more. Banana, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself?"

The woman gave a little bow, proceeding as quickly as possible with an embarrassed grin, "My name is Banana Kavaro. It's a pleasure."

Just as Gon was about to give back the polite 'nice to meet you' a fluffy, white dog popped out of the back of Banana's bag and almost immediately rushed into Gon's arms upon seeing him.

"We have two others on our team," Kite brought up, drawing attention away from the dog for a moment, "Where are Podungo and Lin?"

"They're both headed towards the area of the sighting," Mon informed, before perking up and reaching back into his bag, withdrawing a small jar holding something like a part of an insect, "Oh, and you were right, Kite... This looks just like the claw of the a Chimera Ant queen. We ran some computer analysis and the result was a 99% match."

Rukei suddenly felt cold as Killua held up the tube to take a better look. Judging from the size of the claw, the ant was probably bigger than a human. Kite brought up the idea that the claw may be from a different species completely, but according to what Mon said, she highly doubted it.

Kite and his team had been investigating this insect since they had finished a survey for a Kakin official, Won. It had apparently went on the Southern Piece auction, but in the end the arm of the creature had to be given over to Hunters or the government.

"So where did Podungo and Lin go?"

"Somewhere south of Yorknew," Spin replied, "Apparently the person who found the arm lives in a city by the ocean."

Kite slung his bag over his shoulder and stood to his feet, "Sorry you won't be able to catch your breath, but we should hurry after them."

"Hey, can we come with you?"

Kite seemed to like this idea too, and agreed with a small smile. Kite was not the only one who was pleased with the idea; the group of Hunters was happy to have them on board. They continued to chat on their way, and Stick cracked another pun which caused another suspicious fit of coughing from the brunette.

-

Rukei had become a little more enthusiastic about hunting down the Chimera Ant after learning about the queen's dangerous appetite, size, and the possibility of the extinction of the human race. But a search of the shores and the nearby forests came up bare; the currents were complicated and Gon's nose couldn't pick up anything.

They returned to Yorknew fruitless, hoping to find other trails by studying the currents or waiting for any news to come up. Rukei was quite happy to be useful, apparently her memory and ability to read files at the speed of sound really sped up the process.

"We already checked that article," the brunette called out to Spin who sat behind the computer. The girl set down a rather impressive stack of newspapers she had in her arms. Spinner raised an eyebrow at the giant pile, "I looked over it on Tuesday."

"You aren't going to read all of that, are you?" the woman questioned hesitantly, "What are those even?"

"I couldn't obtain all of them," Rukei reported regretfully, "But essentially, they're the papers around the time the arm was discovered. Podungo said that she'd gather articles from the Balsa Islands."

The woman reached into her desk and pulled out a cough drop. She tipped the chair onto its back to legs to lean back and hand it to the girl, "You sure are working hard. Make sure you get rid of that cough first though. Don't push yourself."

Rukei didn't have a cough, but the nice Hunters had given her so many cough drops since she started working with them. She liked Stick, but he needed to shut up. She flushed awkwardly as she took it while she heard barely held back chuckling from the two boys who knew her best. She turned around to give them a scary face only to immediately flip back to expressionless as Kite entered the room asking for updates.

"Nothing new," Killua sighed as Rukei shoved a couple papers into his hands seeing that he had too much time. Gon laughed at him only to receive a hefty stack of his own shortly after.

Gon glanced up from the page, already tired of reading what seemed to be unrelated papers. They probably were, but it didn't hurt to check. "If there'd been a sighting, there would have been a huge fuss. We would probably know right away."

"Not all the time," Rukei countered, looking over the first article, "If a child or elderly person saw it, then it'd most likely be brushed aside."

"Yeah, if they even could live to report it," Killua put in bitterly, "They'd be eaten- what about missing people? Have we checked that?"

Of course! If the Queen had already found humans, then a great number of people were bound to go missing. Finally, it had only been the first week of searching but it had become dreadfully tedious and unrewarding, Rukei was-

The sharp sound of a ringing phone persisted throughout the conversation that called her away from the group and near the corner to answer it. A quick look at the caller ID put her slightly on edge with concern.

They watched her hold a rather one-sided conversation; in any of the short instances Rukei spoke, it mostly consisted of 'yes' and 'I apologize'. She gave her friends an uncomfortable glance as she appeared to be castigated. It was not Shichi, Rukei seemed to be a little annoyed whenever Shichi lectured her, and it probably wasn't Crimson. They probably would have heard the yelling, taking the woman's nature into consideration.

Rukei hung up as quickly as she could and turned around apologetically as she reported what had just come up. "I'm returning to Jianghai."

。。。

Sorry that this chapter was late, short, and uneventful, but please hang on for the next few chapters! They shall be fun, full of action, mystery, conflict, and good things! (ifitturnsoutwell) why Flask was in Greed Island will be explored and Hysohi shall not be brushed aside and forgotten!

Hopefully, I'm able to get the next chapter out much faster than I got this one out!