The differences between the two women were easier to pick apart than the Kiriko he met before the Hunter Exam. Though most of their features were exactly the same: gentle faces with brown eyes and curly hair, one had been more tanned by the sun and the other was slightly shorter and showed stitches along her right arm running all the way down from her elbow to the middle of her thumb.

When Gon pointed it out as they were running and scaling up the sides of buildings using whatever ledge they could grab, Jen said the one with stitches should have been Left; he heard that Left received it in a training accident while young.

Her injured limb became more difficult to use and as a result, Left was forced to become left-handed and Right was still right-handed, so the twins had received their codenames based on that.

Gon pulled himself upwards using the railing of the stairs, before hopping to the next platform. The boy reached the rooftop now: it wasn't as fun as climbing trees, but with the buildings so crowded together, it wasn't that much harder either. Their battlefield was split in half when Jen jumped onto the higher half of the building to escape the tackle of one of the twins.

Jen, now free to pull out the crystals out of his arm, swiped at the woman before him, who stepped out of his way swiftly. The man followed her, bringing the sharp edges downwards before being kicked sharply in the back by Right.

Cringing as he took a direct hit from the front by the other woman, he still avoided a second hit when Gon attempted to tackle her out of the way. It remained as an attempt, but it at least separated Left from his friend.

Left grabbed for his neck- her chilling fingertips brush Gon's throat as he leaned away. One mistake, and it was over! He slapped her other arm that meant to drive through his stomach the other direction; she attempted to hide the hit behind the first.

The woman's onslaught was hardly deterred. It was a fury of punches, grabs, and occasional knees that not only kept his hands occupied, but also the full attentiveness of his mind so that he could not think ahead. All he had time for was the now.

As a result, the rustic didn't notice that he had been backed up to the ledge of the building, until a particularly loud sounding of a car horn below alerted him.

He had to get her away!

She paled at the sudden burst of aura that seemed to send tremors through her very veins- where did the boy get such power? She prepared to block as he pulled his arm back, but it would be no good. If she took that head on, her bones would shatter! "First comes rock!"

Left retreated a few meters back to reassess the situation- she couldn't think when her mind was shaken with the spike of hidden force. The kid was stronger than she had been notified. They told her that the Zoldyck was the only one they should truly be cautious of, so why, why was her body still trembling?

As he released the harnessed energy having successfully scared Left away, Gon glanced quickly towards Jen. He was holding out well, the upper hand switched between him and the woman often. She wouldn't have any time to be switching targets or plans soon! That meant that Gon could focus on the woman in front of him!

When Right ducked around the man's stone-covered arms- Jen wasn't sure what she wanted, but the way she lunged for his skull, Jen knew she was trying to kill him.

The questions leapt around his mind, but he needed to find another time to juggle for answers. He jabbed his foot against her stomach, which successfully sent her flying backwards when she got a little too close for comfort.

With a grunt, her back slammed into the entrance to the rooftop behind her. As she forced herself on to her feet, she just barely slid down to avoid getting pierced by the gigantic crystals. His weapon had sunken too deeply in, and he could not pull it out fast enough and in a panic, it did not occurred to him that he could have broken away the wall with his free arm or simply retract the weapons into his skin.

"Jen!"

It was Jen's one mistake, and he was sure it was over when the woman disappeared from below him. When his neck didn't snap, he looked behind him baffled. Caught in a whirl of confusion and shock, Gon was faced with both Left, Right, and very little time.

-

Where did they go?

He called it. The city was too loud to listen for them and too polluted to smell for them. Killua clicked his tongue in irritation as he spun around on his heels, searching from another direction. This was a bad idea, and he called it.

He was trying to probe for their presence as he wove in and around people, and when it occurred to him that they might have taken the battle upwards, he trained his eyes on the signs and rooftops hanging above them and the crowded streets. Auri, while slightly more spacious, was definitely busier.

The boy turned into one of the alleys; he was sure he was going to get lost, but they weren't stupid enough to fight in open streets, so he wouldn't be stupid enough to look for them there. He darted over filthy puddles and overflowing trash bags that store or restaurant owners didn't care enough to try to stuff into cans or dumps.

Compared to the loudness of the streets, it was unsettlingly muted aside from the quiet mutterings of a few tired men or greasy-haired children standing along the sides of the back lane would pass in between each other.

Where were they?

At this point, he was getting annoyed and nervous- he would not admit the latter but it was obvious by the way he jumped when a hand was set on his shoulder.

She sounded like she was trying too hard to be annoyed when she spoke. "Killua," she hoped that her cheeks seemed like they were flushed because of anger. Not because she ran a longer distance than she should have, faster than she should have, "Where is Gon?"

There were lots of things Killua wanted to say in that moment, but even if he had the wits to string his emotions into sentences, it would be for naught for there were not enough words in the Hunter language for him to tell Rukei how stupid he thought she was.

And how much he admired her right now. It was not the fact that she managed to sprint there with her current conditions that caught his attention, but the fact that she would. Not because of pain. He knew she was incredibly durable, and even if she wasn't, pain was often pushed back in her mind.

It now seemed like a long time ago, when Rukei snapped at him in the train."Of course, I do!"

He was not going to ask her the same question Marron did. But that didn't stop him from asking the obvious few.

"What are you doing here?!" He hissed, "Should you really be moving around this much?"

Rukei let out a steady, "I'm fine," but the odd pause she took before she replied was for catching her breath, "Have you searched upwards yet?"

"I was about to," the boy replied with a quick glance in that direction before turning back to Rukei with a frown, "Can you climb like that?"

The brunette drew her shaky hand away from him- she had been using him as support until she recovered. She gave him a small smile; he shouldn't have been so reassured by it (nothing about the situation changed), but he was, "Don't make fun of me, Killua. Of course, I can scale something like this."

He relented with a short scoff as he rolled his eyes; a good excuse to avoid looking her in the eye, "Yeah, I hope so. Because I'm not going to go look for a pogo stick."

"I have no memory of asking you to."

-

"Your friends are idiots. All of them," Shichi muttered out as she rounded the next set of stairs. Kurapika followed her bewilderedly (it took him a moment to realize why she was heading upwards rather than downwards).

He had yet to figure out the main issue. He vaguely understood that Gon, Killua, along with one of the experiments- the one Kurapika had seen in Trick Tower- were under attack. Why? They didn't know. Where? That was not completely clear either.

But who?

It made an interesting topic.

"They're twins," Shichi started quickly over the sound of stomping up stairs and the click of their shoes against the metal steps, "We called them Left and Right. They mainly operated as assassins. They were pretty good at what they did. Did it with their bare hands." Shichi detailed, her tone veering into a sarcastically impressed one, "I was with them a couple times. Both took a lot of painkillers for some reason."

The blonde digested this information quickly, but it didn't sit well with his stomach. Something was wrong, spoiled. "They want to kill one of their experiments?"

"There are two things I can think of," the woman replied; the words ran off her tongue with a strong distaste, "A. Jen is an obstruction or threat to something. Like some kinda secret will be leaked out if we examine him. B," Shichi stopped at the rusted door in front of him to look at the man, her hand hovering over the knob, "They aren't after Jen."

His shoulders visibly tensed up, and his features froze up just before they could form a glare. He closed his eyes shortly as an alternative to taking in a deep breath. "I cannot bring myself to fully believe that likelihood. Why would the Zakuya want to dispose of Gon or Killua? Why would they be considered a threat?"

"A traitor."

The man's brow creased at the woman's statement, and he almost didn't catch it by the silent way she breathed it out (like it was forbidden). "What?"

"The Alliance conference. Last night," Shichi spat out; she was alarmed, but there was some other emotion beneath that in her voice. A very bitter, spiteful disgust. "Gon was right about Flask."

Kurapika paled.

"Wouldn't it be a problem if he were right again?"

Shichi swung open the door, and it slammed against the wall with a loud bang. Her other hand felt for the guitar strap, as she hefted it further back her shoulder. She slipped her cracked phone into her jacket pocket- before remembering why her phone was cracked in the first place. She instantly shot her hand back in to grab it before it fell, only to find it safely held up.

The hole had been neatly mended together in black thread with precise- pretty even- handiwork. The frayed ends had been cut away cleanly, and the stitching was perfectly uniform, as if it had been run through a machine.

She had to hurry.

"Kurapika, I need your help."

-

It was still clear.

Rukei felt like her jacket was choking her, clawing up her neck, and the heat was suffocating her, but her vision was still clear. She was thankful for this as she hefted herself up onto the last ledge with just enough breath.

It wasn't too hard to find the other two from there. A flare of brilliant orange could be seen a couple buildings away; she vaulted herself over to the next one after Killua. Keeping up with his pace was difficult with an invisible fire hounding her, especially at her throat.

But her vision was still clear, so she could aim. She could see the twins for herself, knocking Gon one way to another. Jen had just kicked out the crumbling wall around his arm, and had rushed to the boy's aid. She pulled Killua back before he could jump over; since she could not reply when the boy asked her for her reasons, it was most likely out of habit. "Wait!" was all Rukei could manage out.

There was something alarmingly unfamiliar about Left and Right. It was unnatural, the way they seemed faster, stronger. Accompanying the haze of fatigue in her mind, confusion was whittling away at her accuracy.

Hit! Twice, she inhaled sharply as Left's gaze fixed on the brunette meters away. Though not quite where she wanted, the girl took note of the blood streaming down the woman's shoulder. The nen infused paint bullets should have been aimed lower to hit the designated target.

With Left's glare, the pieces of her sweet victory had melted away. Left had left her purpose behind to leap after the girl- Rukei slammed against the roof's floor, with just enough time to tuck her head in to prevent heavy shock. With the exhaustion, her hands barely stopped Left's in time from snapping the girl's neck in half.

The woman snarled furiously- the way her lips curled back made her appear almost as a vicious beast- still trying to use brute strength to overpower the child. There wasn't a need to look at the brunette's shaking fingers or Left's nails digging into the younger like a bird's talons to know that Left was winning.

What was it, in looking into Left's face contorted with terrifying rage and hissing in some angry language she couldn't make out, her teeth barred at the girl like fangs, that Rukei felt to be familiar?

Her heart sunk, and not because she was losing to the woman- yet oddly enough she was reminded of loss. Oh. Rukei knew what it was now. Through growls and indecipherable yells, this woman was crying. This woman was like Shichi.

This woman must be stopped.

The moment must have been shorter than it felt, because Left hadn't yet crushed the girl's throat. The brunette smashed her head against the agent's, and Killua tore the woman off her. The head butt probably harmed herself more than her enemy, Rukei concluded as she steadied her spinning mind by gripping her skull.

The white haired boy's fingertips sparked as the woman got back up slowly. "You alright?"

"Fine."

Bending her knees, Rukei pulled into a stance caught between fight and flight when Left lunged at her with another spiteful snarl. The way Rukei was now, she couldn't handle Left. That much was obvious.

"Paper!" barely registered, Killua dragged her back to the ground to avoid the emission attack. The wild look on the woman's face as she turned on her heels to counter it clearly announced her frustration; her unruly curls whipped out like a mane emphasized it.

The blast of aura was easily countered with a swipe of the woman's arm knocking it away. An unsteady hand grabbed for the gun that flew away from her a few feet when she was tackled. Rukei was able to pull the trigger three tim-

The weapon dropped with a clatter, and she grit her teeth together to avoid crying out. Rukei tried to asses the damage. Her holster slowed it down a little when the bullet that Right shot entered her leg, and her aura more so; her wound wasn't even bleeding that much.

Rukei did not expect an attack from the other, nor did she expect either of them to be carrying a weapon, much less an unfamiliar firearm. It shouldn't have hurt like this! Even if her Ten was weaker during the operation of her Hatsu, she-

She understood as her blood began to boil, unnaturally, at a rapid pace that wasn't from the effects of her testing.

"There's something in it," Rukei rushed out to Killua- she stopped speaking to conserve strength as a barely bearable heat washed over her mind. That heat had also wrapped itself around her nerves, growing hot enough to make her feel like she was being encased in ice.

There was no time to think about that, no energy to spare either, as Left dove in with a heavy palm strike. Though Rukei blocked it, the force was enough to send her and her weak stance over the edge of the building.

She grabbed hold of the railing of stairs below and hoisted herself over, shuddering as she collapsed onto the metal steps. Whatever was in the bullet, whatever laced the bullet, or whatever was the bullet was similar to anti-zyphon and it hurt.

It wasn't as severe as being injected with a full syringe of the clear liquid; she credited that to her nen that guarded her and the holster that weakened it. Normally, with just these two circumstances, she could take it easily enough: she would still be able to fight efficiently.

But the testing left her vulnerable- she still felt like she was suffocating. Rukei scratched at the hood around her neck, trying to pull it away in hope of getting at least a little bit of relief. It remained as a futile attempt.

Above, Killua held Left at bay. The curly haired woman tried to jump after the girl with the intention to finish her off, knowing that Rukei wouldn't be done in by that amount of effort. The white haired boy's hit to her back was more effective than it sounded, when accompanied with a shock of lightning.

It only lasted for a second, and it was enough for Killua to land a really good punch on the agent across the face. As he swooped in to chop her neck, he had to draw back again when she recovered with her hand shooting back out to snap his neck.

This woman was way too fast! Blocking the punch cost him more than he expected; the damage echoed in his mind, and that second lost to surprise allowed the woman to get too close.

On the adjacent edifice, Jen was forced to retract the crystals that jutted out of his arm with a strained smile- he had thrown out the bullet embedded into one of the stones, but whatever it was took enough effect for his ability to be too painful to use. As handy as they were, the crystals were an extension of his body; any damage to them would be damage to him.

But Right had already been knocked too the ground. Gon landed a critical, enhanced kick on the woman while she chose to sacrifice time to fire at the brunette, and she was out. She wasn't half as difficult as Left.

"Are you okay, Jen?" The boy asked quickly, as the man gripped his head and forced a grin.

He nodded, kicking away a weapon that Right usually would have never used. "I can tough this one out. Help Killua."

The boy crossed the gap between the two buildings, but once the boy's feet hit solid ground, Left retreated, jumping down the sides of buildings. Even with her supposed target right in front of her, Left still pursued Rukei.

She stumbled down the staircase, blinking constantly in hopes of being able get rid of the suffocating smog she wandered in. Right now, Rukei would be a burden in combat for Gon and Killua, but if she could get to a different, higher building, she could handle things from a long range. But the brunette wasn't in the condition to jump from one place to another anymore. Perhaps she needed that pogo stick.

She missed a step, and she tried to steady herself by gripping onto the rails for a second and gasping for breath. She was dizzy, nauseous, tired- it was hot, and she was hurting. Everything was blurry, so another brown blur didn't call for a reaction.

The first thing on her mind when she was flipped over the railing was its odd familiarity, and not with her short fall seconds before. It was longer ago (it seemed so faraway now, it almost seemed hard to remember- at the same time it felt very recent), but Rukei was sure she had experienced this hazy fall before. Somewhere... Ah, it was the dream, wasn't it?

Then it'd be fine, she told herself through the freezing heat, she'd wake up before she'd hit the ground.

"Wake up!"

She was yanked out of the dreamy fall. She dully opened coral eyes to find a worried shade of blue and a very pale hand gripping her wrist from behind the railing.

He pulled her back over quickly, one eye trained on Gon who intercepted Left before she could jump over to the other building that they were on. These buildings were way too close together! "Are you trying to get hurt? You should have just stayed in the Alliance, idiot!"

Tired and hurt as she was, Rukei could still manage an offended huff. But she was thankful. She could run as long as Killua held on to her; she didn't have to worry about missing a step or slamming into a wall. "What practicality is there in getting myself hurt-"

"I could write a seventeen paged essay about every time you almost got yourself killed and why you thought it was a good idea!"

"As if you had the vocabulary-"

Bumping into the boy cut her statement off, who suddenly stopped to avoid getting hit by a set of ripped off rails that crashed into the wall in front of them. Realizing that projectile wasn't aimed at him, Gon got up from his duck quickly to check the condition of his friends.

A disjointed smile of disbelief stretched across Killua's face as he craned his head around to face the brunette. "She's really got a bone to pick with you..."

"Shichi-oneesan worked with them occasionally," Rukei informed, though even with knowledge she felt just as confused, "She can be a little... combative, so I suppose something happened."

"What does any of that have to do with you?"

"What do you mean 'what does any of that have to do do with you?'" The brunette replied evenly as their feet finally hit the pavement of the alleyway. The boy's expression twisted into a baffled frown. The answer should be obvious: it had nothing to do with Rukei!

Both of them whipped their gaze back above them upon hearing the rustic cry out when he was thrown into a building. Left caught the boy's foot in his attempt of a roundhouse. The brick wall never stood a chance; the boy flew through it, tumbling into an apartment room where a very shocked gentleman rushing to meet his deadline for his company project narrowly avoided a severe injury.

"Gon!" Killua darted forward only to skid to a halt in front of Left. The woman stepped forward slowly, and Rukei dropped her eyes. She should have been okay, everything she saw was mostly blurry or blackening anyways, but watching the woman gave her more of a headache than Rukei could currently take.

There were only a couple agents she knew that could use Rhythm Echo. Left and Right were two of them. But this was Rukei's chance! While Left was forced to move at a certain pace, Rukei needed to get in her last shot.

But she couldn't aim! Rukei could use En, though her range didn't even stretch a meter (if Left got that close, Rukei would be dead), but her skull was being pounded from the inside out and her entire body felt like it was freezing and boiling and she can't focus-!

The brunette shot at random, pulling the trigger at every 'Left' that appeared. She half- remembered Killua telling her to calm down, but it was hard to hear over the screaming rings in her ears. Those also eventually became a blur.

Rukei didn't realize that she was out of bullets as quickly as she should have. She released the empty magazine from the gun, reaching back to grab a loaded one.

Not that the experiment had that luxury. She leaned back to avoid the enemy's pounce. Left knocked the child's gun out of her trembling hands when the assassin reached over to crush her skull: a few inches short. If Left had been half a second faster, surely Left would have killed her!

And avoided Gon's 'rock' punch entirely.

The rustic began charging the attack from above, before hurling himself down with a nen-packed fist. If not for the gap in experience that could only be crossed by time, Gon's hit would be dead on.

Left's instincts jolted her hands up for a block and her legs back for evasion. In her attempt to guide his attack away, she ended up guiding his punch to her left shoulder again.

The same one Rukei had shot earlier.

The force was enough to push Left back into the wall, and by the way she slouched over, gripping her shoulder with a heavy grimace, it was enough to keep her there for a while.

Ready to take off again, the rustic whirled on the heel of his boots quickly, "This is our chance! Let's run!"

They weaved through the alleyways, Rukei did her best to manage the directions. Not too far, maybe the three weren't in the best condition, but they were in a good enough condition to camp and make sure Left was contained in the area. Not too close either, for very obvious reasons.

They came to stop in a narrower street next to a tiny, dismal shop that sold various imitations of brand clothing that was popular five years ago. The girl set her hand on her knee as a support and leaned her back against the dirty wall.

Rukei closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, keeping herself together by a thread. As much as she wanted to throw up, she knew her blood would definitely come up with it, and Left could track them down based on that unnatural, wrong smell alone.

"We should be fine here, at least for a few minutes," Killua stated (hoped), as he glanced warily from one place to another. The rusted emergency ladders hanging down the sides of buildings and staircases were especially watched.

Gon tried to do the same, but was too concerned by the heavy breathing of their companion. Even if they were resting, the girl's sharp decline barreled on with no signs of slowing. "Rukei, are you okay?"

A nod. She swallowed any unsteady words and pained whimpers as fire shot through her leg. At least, the bleeding lessened. "I'm sorry. I lost my gun. I just needed one more shot."

If she had thought through her targets more carefully back there, Rukei may have had Left under control by now. She had wasted precious time and her friends' sacrifices. What now? What could she do to reverse the situation? Could she take those chances back? In her current state, what other possible way was there to-

She flinched when she felt her head being pulled down by a familiar fabric, and had to push the yellow hood back to see the white-haired culprit. Now wasn't the time for pranks-!

"You know, I don't think Left will be able to use her left arm for a while, considering what we did to her shoulder" Killua brought up casually. He seemed to have lost all his serious caution with a bright, comical smile, "But I guess she's 'all right', now!"

'It wasn't the time for puns either!' was what she tried to convince herself as she found herself failing to press down a smile, and then a laugh. "You're unbelievable," she tried to force out sternly (another failure), "We almost died."

"What's new?" Killua shrugged, "Calm down a little, Rukei. Your gun can't solve every problem."

"And it's our problem too!" Gon added indignantly. The need to beat Left rose up inside him, all the way to his the honest eyes. He really didn't enjoy being thrown into that wall.

Rukei's unease and jittery nervousness hushed. The pain was still very real, and danger still lurked at their doorsteps, snapping its jaws hungrily, but she found herself oddly comforted. It was an impractical thing, but she supposed that wasn't so new either.

Paint wasn't her only Hatsu. She had been stepping on Trace and Stain like they were forgotten trash; they were her own abilities and she couldn't even respect her own power. How was Rukei supposed to make her enemies bend to her Hatsu with that outlook? She needed all the pieces to the puzzle to solve it.

She needed to calm down. She wasn't even solving it alone.

Gon fixed his eyes on Rukei's yellow hood again, realizing how scarcely she actually used it. He moved his eyes from the yellow hood to Killua and the blue turtleneck. Both of them were usually dressed warmly (given, the rustic usually wore the green jacket but it didn't look half as thick as theirs). He then noticed, as Killua tried to support the brunette that Rukei wasn't that much shorter than the other boy.

"Guys, I think I got a great idea!"

。。。

When the sketches are better than the final, and you feel really conflicted about which art you should post... (just some self-advertising but uh, if you want to check out some decently good art, there's a chapter in my art book called 'Blind Rage' and I think the piece looks super lit and I haven't done something that nice in a while, so just saying that would be great if you dropped by for a little bit!)

I hear a break is coming soon? That should normally be good news for updates, but break is also the time where I catch up on all the outside reading I've been procrastinating on (and try to fix my passive voice habits). We'll see how it goes! In any case, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Leave a vote or some feedback (that's always very appreciated)!