"Gyo!"

Rukei whirled around at the explosively loud voice coming from the young and seemingly dainty girl. Rukei wasn't sure how to respond to the girl, who held her hands on her hips in a disapproving and irritated manner.

"Use Gyo! Don't take your eyes off it! C'mon, use Gyo! Don't you know how?"

Rukei wasn't sure why, but she turned around awkwardly and quickly, as if she had just been called out by her superior for doing something wrong, and used Gyo as instructed. A foggy outline of aura trailed out from the phantom-like figure clad in the shining armor of a knight.

"See that?" the girl asked, her speech suddenly taking a turn for the rougher, speaking in a sort of way that made Rukei unconsciously believe that the girl was older, "The armor's just a puppet, so no matter how much you pound at it, nothing's gonna happen."

Gon followed the trail before finding a small mouse-like beast creating the projection out of it's tail. Once found, it vanished into a card and the armor fell to the ground with an unceremonious clang.

The blonde girl lept down to be eye level with the other three children, continuing to speak, "So you can use Gyo. Why didn't you use it before?"

They all glanced in between each other awkwardly, giving each other bashful smiles and trying to come up with an excuse.

She gave a huff at the reaction, "So you forgot," She held up her finger and waited for a couple moments with an expectant look in her eyes, though they had no idea what she was expecting.

"What are you standing there for? Gyo!" They followed her directions hastily after she yelled at them, seeing another foggy shape in the air, "What do you see?"

"The number 1," the all chorused as the girl nodded in an approving manner.

"Good. Listen up. If I lift my finger, you use Gyo and then holler out what you see. If you ever sense anything suspicious, use Gyo," she instructed.

Killua suddenly seemed to comprehend the situation, snapping at the girl, "Wait, why are you ordering us around?"

"You're bringing this up now?" Rukei questioned the late reaction but had no time to go on further as the girl raised her finger and Rukei instinctively called out the number she saw, along with Gon.

The girl praised the two of them with a "Correct!" before turning to Killua and instructing him to drop and give her two-hundred push-ups. Killua, of course, wasn't going to put up with that demanding who she thought she was.

The girl's face seemed to brighten at the question, "Oh yes, I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm pro Hunter Biscuit Krueger," Biscuit smiled proudly as she went on, "I learned Nen forty years ago. I'm going to use my wealth and experience to coach you kids! You should be grateful."

"Forty years ago?!"

"You're an old hag!"

A single punch sent him, ex-assassin that could open up three doors of the testing gate and spent the majority of his childhood training in life or death situations, flying up into the air.

Biscuit continued on hardly minding the feat she had accomplished, "I'm not big on formalities, so you can just call me Bisky. In return, you must obey every word of what I teach you."

That didn't seem like the fairest trade, but considering that Bisky had been practicing Nen was forty years, some part in the back of Rukei's mind was bothering her that she should somehow be grateful.

"No way and no thanks," Killua replied immediately after getting back up, "We're not desperate enough to beg a total stranger to train us! Say something, Gon, Rukei."

Gon didn't seem as adamant or ticked off as Killua did, but the boy made a very good point, "We have Wing-san."

"Right, right," the white-haired boy affirmed enthusiastically while making 'shoo-shoo' motions, "We already have our master, and we don't need anyone else to teach us."

"Wing?" Bisky repeated with a tone that lit up with one speaking of a familiar person, "You mean the little boy with the messy hair and glasses? The one who never tucks in his shirt?"

"You know him?"

"Do I know him? Wing's one of my students. So he's become a master now... Time really flies doesn't it?"

What a small world they lived in.

Bisky brought the conversation back to them, folding her arms, "So does that mean you're pro Hunters?"

"Oh, it's just me and Rukei," Gon clarified and affirmed that they had both passed the secret exam.

The girl- woman smiled widely when she had found the connection she could take advantage of to justify her right in schooling them, "Well, I'm pretty much your master's master so you shouldn't have any problems with me teaching you."

They had learned a little more about Bisky, who had apparently been an examiner before, and to convince them farther about taking up her teaching, she called out her book and took out the card Marimo-chi, the small fuzzy creature they failed to catch earlier. It's rank was a D level and did not go into any restricted slot.

"The problem is that there's a whole lot of players that could get this card, while you three couldn't. If you run into someone's who stronger and has evil intentions-"

Biscuit gasped and stopped talking, carefully kneeling down without raising her head or looking left or right. It worried Rukei a little as the experienced Hunter continued to give out instructions.

"Sit down," Bisky told them calmly, "Pretend that we're chatting. There's an enemy behind me. Don't probe for him," Bisky warned and Rukei quickly turned her gaze away from the craggy rocks back to the blonde, "He'll notice."

"How did you sense him?"

Rukei realized the gap in between this woman and herself at this moment. "The enemy saw us and relaxed for a second."

"Doesn't that mean he's weak?" The white-haired boy inquired to which Bisky shot down the possible shelter for relief.

"He immediately concealed his presence again. It was only the slightest bloodlust and he quickly concealed it, so he's pretty good."

She had been training since she was a child to pick up things like these, but she had hardly felt a thing. She had been confident in this skill at the least, something built up by lurking in the shadows of criminal organizations for years.

"What should we do?" Killua asked, finally coming around to ask of Bisky's advice.

Biscuit put the book away before continuing, a satisfied sound in her tone of voice, "What do you think?"

"We four should move together," Gon concluded, "I'm guessing that he decided to use caution because there are four of us. If we stick together, he'll be less eager to attack."

Bisky nodded as the other two agreed, "Well, you're right. But that's not what we're going to do," the blonde replied to Rukei's surprise, "If I go off on my own, the enemy is one hundred percent guaranteed to come after me," Biscuit continued to give instructions, telling them to go south five hundred meters without hiding their presence and once they did to rush back with Zetsu immediately.

"Okay," Killua smirked at the formed plan, "Stalk the stalke-"

Slap!

It took a few moments for her to process what was going on as she sat staring at the two of them in intense confusion until Biscuit stood up, using the same childish and cute girl voice that she had first used when she met them. "Fine, then! Be that way! I've had enough! Bye-bye," she huffed while turning the other direction indignantly.

The one that had been slapped reacted according to the unplanned script, as he stood up too, "Yeah, good riddance! We didn't want you around anyways!" He turned to the other two left gruffly, "Let's go."

Rukei and Gon both stood up awkwardly before walking after him.

"So long, stupid!"

On the way towards the tall stone column, the gap between her and Bisky seemed even larger, as Killua told them that he didn't realize what Bisky had done until his cheek began to sting. When they rushed back, they were just in time to view Bisky throwing the man up into the air and take him down with a palm.

"If I had used my Nen, you'd be dead," Bisky looked up suddenly with a more teacher-like voice and demeanor, "So, what did you see first?"

"The guy being flipped through the air."

Bisky nodded at their responses before glancing down at the attacker, "If he were an in-game character, he'd have the rank of D in terms of difficulty. It would have been game over for you kids," Bisky let out an amused huff, returning her eyes back to the children, "This makes it the second time I've seen you barely escape death. How long will your good fortune last?"

"Bisky-san-"

"Just call me Bisky. If you insist on an honorific," she smiled and her voice quickly rose in pitch, "Call me Bisky-chama!"

"I think 'Hag' will do just fine"

Wham!

At Gon's inquiring about why Bisky was there, she answered that she was looking for a certain gem, Blue Planet, that was only available in Greed Island. Bisky was a Treasure Hunter. She also asked them as to why they were there, and Gon replied first, careful enough to spare the details as to Rukei's mission, telling Bisky that his father created the game and that he was looking for him.

Of course, anyone would be curious upon hearing this bit of information, Bisky included as she asked, "Who's your dad?"

"Ging Freeces."

"Ging?!"

Gon's face lit up with an excited and hopeful expression at the blonde's surprised reaction, "Do you know him?"

"You bet I do! He's famous," Biscuit exclaimed, "Chairman Netero once said that he was one of the top five Nen users."

Rukei somehow hated to admit it, as the man was making his too-good-for-his-own-good son go on a wild chase looking for him, but it couldn't be denied. "Your father really is an amazing person..."

"Bisky," Gon started earnestly, "If you'd be willing to postpone your treasure hunt, please teach us Nen!"

She smiled fondly at them, glad they finally took up her offer, "You've finally come around? I'm a lot tougher than Wing," she warned, "Are you ready?"

"Yes!"

"Of course."

"I'll be fine."

They were interrupted by the hacking and coughing of the man who had just came to, with just enough energy to take out his book and transfer the cards to Bisky's binder upon her demands. "I'll give you a chance. You must evade their attacks for two weeks! If you're successful, I'll let you escape. If you're not unconscious or can't stand... I will kill you."

Rukei narrowed her eyes as she looked up from the man and to Bisky. It was a powerful motive. This was going to be much more difficult than anything they encountered in Trick Tower.

"I just have to avoid their attacks, right?" the man turned to the three with a sadistic grin spread across his face, "It doesn't matter what I do to them?"

"Sure," Bisky replied apathetically, "But there's one rule. You aren't allowed to leave this crater. If you break this rule, you lose, and I'll kill you. The same rules apply to you kids. If you leave or fail to defeat him in two weeks, you'll be punished."

Binolt, the Bounty Hunter and serial killer, fixed the strap holding his scissors back around him as Bisky begun the match, though nothing really happened until the morning came around. They had been circling him for a while, not sure how to go about attacking.

"What are you standing around for?" Bisky yelled out from the top of the crag, "He's trying to heal! Are you going to let him?"

Upon those words, Killua darted forward but retreated back immediately as Binolt slashed out with one of the scissors, creating a gash underneath the boy's eye. A fit of coughing seemed like Gon's chance but he couldn't get close either as the boy had to jump away with the point of the weapon held at his nose.

Binolt was prone to responding with his scissors, it was natural after all, he was well adapted to those and aside from it's obvious edge, it increased his range a little bit. A little bit could do a lot in a life and death situation.

Then if I could stun him for a little bit...

Rukei moved forward and as expected, he slashed at her. She moved her arm up to guard, a seemingly stupid decision until he could see it. The odd color that ran down from her limb.

"What the-"

Anyone who didn't know would be surprised by the color, and Rukei took that short moment of surprise to shoot at point blank, before being sent back once again. I only got four shots in. I need two more.

But he was wary of her now. It was obvious that the paint gun was tied to her ability somehow, otherwise she would have used those seconds to do something that would have inflicted immediate damage like a kick or punch.

"Gon, Rukei. Let's make this a battle of attrition," Killua suddenly called out while picking up a couple small rocks on the ground, "You get some rest. I'll keep an eye on him and use these to attack. We'll switch every six hours."

A familiar look crossed the spiky-haired boy's face, the kind of look that she saw during pinches and in a crisis before he came up with some crazy way out of it, "That's a good idea."

Turning to a large rock cornered up on the outside of the crater, the boy pulled in his Nen to his fist and shattered the gigantic stone in one hit. This must have been what he showed to them at the screening that caused the rumble.

But what was really surprising, was what came next. As a makeshift, yet sturdy and practical shield, Gon dashed forward to attack Binolt with the rock held in front of him.

"Good work," she mentioned to the boy quietly while picking up a fair sized stone beside her, following up with the new plan.

They had been using this strategy till the evening until they had created a forest of rocks around the man. Just when Killua seemed like he was about to take Binolt out, Gon called him to stop. The other boy was a little ticked, of course, but Gon reasoned that they could still get more training out of this. And he had a very good point.

There were numerous occasions where Rukei was planning to fire and take the man out with her cube and gun but if she had to use her final ditch ability for a 'D-ranked card' she would have a ridiculous amount of trouble with everyone else. She had disregarded the idea of using it entirely, fitting the weapon away in her holster.

Days went by. Sometimes the sun would beat down on them and sometimes the rain would pour over their heads, but each day was filled with the same fighting and training. Though, it wouldn't be correct to say that it was exactly the same. They had been improving rapidly over the past few days, faster and greater than she had when training with Shichi. A little bit could do a lot in a life and death situation.

And two weeks finally came to an end, where Binolt asked for death. Gon wouldn't hear of it. The boy grinned, bowed, and thanked Binolt, "Binolt-san", for helping them train.

From that point, they had to run to Masadora, after doing three thousand push-ups because they didn't call out the number nine fast enough. She could see the city from a distance, a much larger city than Antokiba, and far more colorful as well. Balloons floated over it reflecting the size and color of the city and as much as Rukei wanted to explore this place, she couldn't.

"Huh?" Gon looked back, jogging in one place, when she suddenly announced this as they neared the gates, "Why not?"

She held up her arms to show them. Aside from the most obvious gash that she had received from Binolt, there were other scrapes and scratches speckled with pink that she didn't want to show. Rukei didn't have her jacket to cover this anymore either since she had given it to the villagers and the only thing she had left were her leggings and t-shirt.

"Ah, I almost forgot," Bisky spoke up at the topic that Rukei had brought in, "You've been used as a Zyphon experiment, haven't you?"

The brunette blinked in surprise at Bisky's question. She knew about Zyphon? From who did she hear this from? "Yes. The project is incomplete, but my blood is mixed with Zyphon."

It was a curious subject. Of course, the boys wanted the information too, "How did you know, Bisky?"

"It was a pretty big deal to us Hunters when the Zakuya was uprooted. That syndicate was made up of some pretty strong Nen users," Bisky hummed to herself as she reflected on the case two years ago, "Some details were sent out to certain Hunters, myself included. Most of them were concerning this Zyphon."

This information made Rukei a little uncomfortable though, as always, she would not show it. Were their names revealed? What kind of details were sent out? She was guessing their names and pictures were not given since Bisky didn't recognize her by her face or name, and neither did Tsezguerra.

"Well, I understand that you want to lay low," Bisky finished, "Wait out here then!"

They returned with some bandages that she could wrap her arms in to hide her wounds and protect them from getting cut so easily. It would raise questions of course as to why her arms were completely covered with these strips but it would raise less questions as to why her blood was pink.

Bandages?

She was pulled out of her thoughts by a sudden whack on her back from a shovel, sent along with a "Quit slacking!" from the white-haired boy beside her.

She sniffed and insisted that she wasn't, as she turned back around to continue shoveling away at the rock. Once they had reached Masadora, they had to return to the same area, and they were told to go back to Masadora again. In a straight line.

An unfortunate clang reverberated through the tunnel as she struck against the stone. Gon offered to break it with a Nen punch, until he discovered that he could shroud the shovel with his Nen, which sped up the process exponentially.

While they were also burrowing through these rocks, Bisky had them obtain a variety of monster cards that they couldn't take down the first time around. They finished with the Bubble Horse, apparently the most difficult creature to get, though only showing up as a C Rank.

After having completing this task, Bisky had taught them the advanced principles Ko and Ken, Ko, being the technique that Gon had been using for his ridiculous punch. Ken being the technique that Bisky advised for them to use as a counter for it. It had been grueling and difficult to maintain for a long period of time. Ryu wasn't easy to control at first either, but they had gotten to the point where they could spar with it at a good speed.

"Today, we'll be training in the Enhancer category. Level 1 is smashing rocks," Bisky explained while using the rock shrouded with Shu in her hand to crush one of the same size underneath it, "Crush them like this. Smash a thousand with a single stone in a day, and you clear the level."

The rock in Gon's hand fell into small pebbles after a couple rounds and he looked down in disappointment, "It crumbled."

"If the stone in your hand breaks, it's over."

Rukei tried to give him a little bit of an uplift with a 'You did better than I did,' while brushing her hands together to get rid of the grains in between her fingers. The overachiever on the far left managed to last the longest but he was more eager to begin training in his own category.

"Now, now, don't rush. You're only allowed to train in one category per day," Bisky told them with a finger held up in the air.

"Six!"

Their master smiled in a satisfied manner, "Bingo! A draw."

"Again?"

"These days we just keep getting draws."

Bisky praised them lightly on the progress they had made, "That just shows that you've both grown accustomed to using Gyo."

They weren't quite satisfied with this answer unfortunately. "But it's no fun if there's no winner."

"OK! Then let's use rock-paper-scissors to decide! Losers have to do a thousand push-ups!"

"Pass. Count me out."

"You can't get out of this one, Rukei."

"I'm not going to-"

"First comes rock! Rock-paper-scissors!"

Rukei had instinctively thrown out a hand after the pressuring and ended up doing a thousand push-ups. During this and Gon's gloating, Bisky brought up an interesting folklore on how rock-paper-scissors came to be.

"There's a theory that rock-paper-scissors started with martial arts," she started while holding out her hand in a position of each attack she listed off, "Paper represents a palm attack that wrecks the opponent's organs. Scissors represents a finger jab targeting the vital points. Rock represents a punch with the fist to deal external damage."

According to this, they used rock-paper-scissors as a type or game to train when martial arts were banned as an evil art. At that time, it had been known as Evil Fist.

"Wow. You really are old-"

Wham!

Rukei was about to tune out to avoid listening to a very soon to come argument that she was sure that was on it's way, until she heard Gon, who seemed to have been struck by something. "That's it."

His eyes glowed with a sort of mix between inspired and excited, and she had a feeling she recognized this look before, or rather felt it himself. He had figured out something about his Nen like she had on the docks of Whale Island.

"Evil fist."

The boulder in front of him crumbled and broke away into little pieces after Gon had recited the everyday chant and smashed his fist into it. "Here comes the next one," he announced, before pulling his hand back again to charge, "First comes rock! Rock... Paper... Paper!"

They waited for a reaction as he stood there with his palm out in slight confusion until Gon turned to them.

"Bisky, how do I make my Nen fly?"

"You train!"

"So much for that buildup..."

Killua held up his hand while analyzing Gon's technique, "So paper is an Emitter technique?"

The boy nodded and released the Nen in his hand while creating the scissor sign and swiping across the air, "And scissors is a Transmuter technique. I wanna be able to cut through rock."

Bisky seemed to take a liking to the ability, "That's a reasonable fighting technique."

"You know how it takes time to focus Nen into my fist?" Gon asked, going on to explain why he thought of this theme, "I was trying to think of a good way to spend that time. And when you were talking about rock-paper-scissors, it hit me. Because I like rock-paper-scissors."

Their master nodded in approval at the reasoning, "Trusting your instincts is important. Your gut plays a big role in techniques that require multiple Nen categories," she told them while tapping where her heart would be.

Killua coughed and cleared his throat to grab their attention. He smiled proudly while he held both hands up and set them relatively close to each other. They waited for something to happen curiously, and when Rukei was about to question what he wanted, a flicker of blue flashed between his fingers. Pulling his hands back, he extended the brilliant branches of the electricity he had transmuted.

"Well, this is all I can manage right now," he admitted before putting away his Nen, "But if I charge it up, it's pretty strong."

"That's awesome, Killua!" Gon exclaimed, running up to the boy to praise and discuss with him about it.

Rukei tried to find a proper description for it, sorting through some vocabulary in her head, "You're like a..."

"An electric eel!"

"Yes, an electric eel."

"What are you talking about?! That's a horrible comparison!"

"Then how about a lightbulb?"

"That's even worse!"

Killua huffed as she and Gon tried to give out other examples ranging from cats in the winter after they roll around on carpet to transformers and utility poles. He eventually told them to forget about it as their options gradually became weirder and more random.

Rukei was still trying to find a good comparison when Killua brought up her Nen. "You said that you were working on some new technique."

The brunette nodded, sending a glance over to their master, "You're correct. I haven't explained my abilities to Bisky either."

And so she did explain to the blonde her abilities that were already set, and her new technique to all of them that she named Paint. She elbowed the white-haired boy after he laughed at her zero-effort naming.

"Hey, can you show us Paint?" Gon questioned enthusiastically, looking forward to see the technique in action.

Rukei waved a hand as if to wave away the idea, "I'd have to use it on one of you and that's a little..."

They were pretty dismayed by the factor, but their attention was stolen away by Bisky's sudden call for a break. "It's a little early but we can still have a party. What do you kids do at home to celebrate?"

They glanced in between each other, silently asking if they knew what Bisky was talking about. They didn't. But thankfully their teacher went on to clarify.

"In the outside world, it's almost New Years. Time flows at the same speed inside the game as the outside."

The spiky-haired boy jolted at the news, turning towards the other boy, "The deadline to apply for the Hunter Exam is coming up!"

He sighed and scratched the back of his head, "And our training was just staring to get fun..."

"I believe you're required to apply before the end of the year."

"We need to hurry! How do we get outside?"

-

They managed to find a way without buying any expensive spell cards. It was simple; beat up the man at the port and get a ticket. They saw Killua off, giving him instructions about the Kiriko and telling him to hurry back as soon as possible. Their last exam took about a month so this one would probably take around that same time.

Instead of feeling down that their best friend would be gone for a while, Gon and Rukei used it as a fuel to train harder. They were going to surprise Killua when he came back! But even if they wanted to, there was no doubt that the boy would have done exceedingly better than Rukei and Gon in the certain stage presented before them.

"Okay! Train while you run!" Bisky ordered while creating a series of numbers in her hand as an example, "Once you can form the numbers from 0 to 9 in one minute, you'll clear this stage!"

Rukei was having a ridiculous amount of trouble since her nen type was so far away from this category of training. She managed to get her aura into a vague blob hanging from her hand, and very slowly it began to make form of a circle, the beginning of a zer-

She barely caught herself from tripping over a root and quickly rolled on to her feet. Gon was not as fortunate to only run into a root. He fell to the ground, holding his head from slamming into the tree. Bisky stood over them with her hands on her hips, "What are you two doing?"

The familiar hum of someone teleporting using the in-game spells interrupted them. Their visitor was one of the men that had been asked to join the group from before. He appeared as one of the more perceptive and logical players. "Your other friend isn't here?"

Bisky returned with her young and sweet girl act, walking up to the man in a concerned, soft manner, "What's that machine on your shoulder? Did something happen?"

"We were fooled by the bomber. Will you listen to my story?"

Genthru was the bomber. He had fooled over fifty players and those players had nothing to look forward to except the empty promise of being spared by handing over all their cards. They were most likely to be killed.

This man, Abengane, wanted Gon, Rukei, and Bisky to avenge the players and himself and to tell all the other players about the Bomber and his abilities to avoid anymore casualties and put an end to his deceit. With that Abengane left to warn as many people as possible with the short time he had.

A huge shipment of spell cards came in later that evening.

Gon, Rukei, and Bisky were splitting the cards amongst themselves evenly and looking over them and what they could do. Which one should she use first? Blackout Curtain might be fine, but they didn't even had any cards that went in the restricted slots so there wasn't really anything she needed to guard closely. She had a couple Castle Gates on her too so she could immediately handle attacks nearby anyways. And if that didn't work she could-

"Another player has used Contact to reach you."

Both Gon and Bisky looked up at the announcement and over to Rukei's book where it sourced from. Rukei answered hesitantly, not sure what to expect exactly. "This is Rukei."

It was quiet for a while, the awkward kind of silence of someone trying to decide what to say and how to say it. Finally, before she could prod again, there was an answer. "You're the girl with the weird blood color, right?"

Gon moved over behind Rukei's book to be able to be heard by the man on the other end, "Binolt-san?"

"There's a player looking for you. I don't know who is but everyone in Dorias knows that there's someone like you around now and that there's someone looking for you. Luckily, looks like the only thing they know about your appearance is your blood."

She took a deep breath before she could start rushing out random sentences in alarm. She went over the information carefully before answering, "Why did you decide to tell me? I assume there's some kind of reward on my head?"

"You kids let me go when I had a bounty on my head," Binolt reminded, "I'm still going to turn myself in when I get a hold of a Leave card. Consider it payback."

"Thank you."

Once the line was cut, Gon immediately pointed the suspect they both had in mind, "Was it Flask?"

"It's hard to say," Rukei answered, closing her binder, "Flask already knows what I look like, and there are spell cards that can be used to find me. I don't understand why he would cause a fuss like that. Perhaps it's to make it harder for me to move around?"

"Who's Flask?"

Gon frowned and followed along for a bit, but the obvious question came next, "But what's the point of that? Does he know that you're on a mission to find him?"

"What mission?"

Rukei mulled over Gon's question, "I hope not. This is already quite difficult..."

Gon tried to give her some hope as she reviewed worse case scenarios in her head, and it showed up in her eyes. "Then what about-"

Wham!

"Don't ignore me!"