How come Gon always knew what mattered?

It always seemed like he would dash into her life just in time to pull her out of the hazy maze and back on track where her friends would be waiting for her, smiling and encouraging and teasing her to do the same.

And as she followed them as they hopped out of the taxi and started running for the airport, her thoughts were a bit farther away, as she decided she would chase after them and the hope that one day she could stretch out her hand to them.

-

It was storming. Water soaked her through her clothes, sank through her sneakers, and dimmed her vision. She didn't know where she was. Below her feet stretched a plain, reflective, tile-like surface that seemed to go on for miles; it was the only thing beside herself that filled the empty space around her-

A speck of white appeared in her vision, a familiar speck of white with a plain oversized t-shirt thrown over a dark blue turtle neck and baggy gray shorts.

The dim, gray, empty world seemed to brighten, and she started forward only to find herself frozen in place with no voice. Why couldn't she move? Why couldn't she call out to him?

And the only thing she could do as he walked away, getting smaller and smaller and her world getting bigger and bigger, was think. She had felt this before. And as she stood there in the storm watching him disappear, the eyes of green and blue burned itself into her mind.

Oh. She knew.

Helplessness.

-

Rukei awoke. This was the second time she had a dream, her first time remembering it; if this was what dreams were like she didn't want them anymore.

She adjusted her eyes to the lighting, gathering her surroundings. She had fallen asleep with the cube in her hands, across from Leorio and Kurapika who were currently missing. Gon was sitting next to her-

Gon was sitting next to her, staring out the window with a blank expression, looking down on the night view of cities that looked like gold or jewels scattered across the black ground. Gon was thinking of Killua. The proof was when the boy sadly muttered the boy's name.

Something pulled at her then; ripped would be a better word for it. She looked away and focused her eyes back on the little puzzle at her hand. Oh. She was going to ignore this too. She was going to leave another friend there when he was in trouble.

"Cheer up, Gon!" Leorio chimed, sticking a french fry into Gon's mouth to grab the abstracted boy's attention.

Kurapika gave the boy an encouraging look along with encouraging information, "We'll be at the Republic of Padokea by morning. You'll see Killua soon enough."

She wanted to do something. She didn't want to experience this feeling again!

So the least Rukei could do, was tell the boy to smile and she was happy to see him listen.

"Okay... Thank you for taking the Lamentation Tour today," the curly-haired lady bowed before going on, "We will be visiting Kukuroo Mountain, home to the famous Zoldyck assassins. Everyone, please look to your right."

She shifted so that she could see past Gon as instructed; observing the mountain where a ring of ominous dark clouds had collected near the top.

"That is Kukuroo Mountain, where the Zoldyck family lives. A forest surrounds the 3,722 meter mountain, and the Zoldyck estate is somewhere on that mountain. But no one has actually seen it."

Rukei had learned a little more on Killua's family. The Zoldyck family members included a great-grandfather, grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, and five other children. That meant, aside from Illumi, the mentioned 'Milluki', and Killua himself, Killua had two other siblings that she didn't know of.

"Then, let's approach the mountain!"

Towering over them was a massive wall, with different parts of it numbered one through seven; the front gate, otherwise known as the Door to Hades, of the Zoldyck estate despite the fact that the mountain was quite a ways off.

"So that means this whole area is their backyard?" Leorio muttered.

Gon turned to the lady, "Hey, Miss Guide?"

"Yes?"

"What do we have to do to get inside?"

The lady's smiled turned very strained, "Little boy, were you listening to my explanation? If you go inside, you'll never get out alive! Assassins live inside," she repeated with an irritated tone.

"It's all a sham," came from a voice behind the lady, sourcing back to the two men that had previously sat in the back of the bus with cloth wrapped around the weapons as an attempt to hide them.

"A family of assassins that no one's even seen," one of the two scoffed, "Just a photo of their faces is worth a hundred million."

"Seriously?!" Leorio snapped his fingers together, "Darn! I should have taken a picture of Killua!"

"It's just another case of rampant rumors masking a mundane truth," one of them snorted, before kicking down the door to the security checkpoint's office.

The larger man grabbed the guard and pulled him out, "Open the gate!"

The old man refused but was continued to be yelled at and shaken around until he sighed and gave them a key. Gon rushed to the old man's side. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," he replied, dusting himself off, "Now Mike's going to end up eating in between meals again."

Mike? Like the cat?* Her thoughts were cut off by an agonized scream followed only by the howling of the wind until the door creaked open.

Some kind of creature that was now doubt several times larger than herself if the gigantic paw, arm, limb dropped two skeletons out, the clothes telling her that it was the men that had just broken in.

A series of shrieks erupted through the air as the tourists scuttled back to the bus. The guard sighed, scratching the back of his head at the problem he encountered. "He's only supposed to eat at assigned times. Mike!" He yelled, "Don't blame if you get fat!"

"Hey!" She glanced back to see the lady waving the flag around from the safety of the vehicle, "What are you doing?! Get on the bus!"

Gon smiled back at her cheerfully, "Oh, you can leave. We're staying here."

"I see... You're Killua-bocchan's friends. I'm happy to hear that. I've worked here twenty years, but this is the first time any friends have come to visit," the old man finished, placing a cup of tea in front of her, "Since I work here, I shouldn't say this, but this place is rather lonely. No one ever visits. Though we do see a lot of those," he mentioned with a point towards the trash can that hardly covered the skeletons that were thrown inside.

The old man thanked them for coming but would not allow them inside on the reasoning that he did not want Killua's friends to be reduced to the same form of the intruders in the trash.

"Sir, how is it that you're safe?" Kurapika brought up, "You go inside, correct? If you never needed to enter, you wouldn't need a key."

"Quite perceptive of you," the older man laughed, "But you're only half right. I require no key to get inside. This is the key for intruders."

Leorio echoed his words with confusion, "A key for intruders?"

"For some reason, eighty to ninety percent of intruders attempt to use the front gate. If I don't open the gate for them, they'll try to break it down. Such troublemakers. So we added a locked door on one side. The intruders take the key from the helpless guard and Mike eats them."

This man was not a guard, he was simply someone who cleaned up after Mike. Then that meant...

"The actual gate isn't locked!" Kurapika concluded, and she quickly whipped around to look at the gigantic structure again"

Surely, they weren't going to have to open that, were they?

Leorio decided to have a go at it, but ultimately failed shaking his hands with annoyance, "I tried pushing and pulling but it won't budge! Are you sure it isn't locked?"

When Leorio was told hat he wasn't strong enough, he insisted that he was using all his strength with further irritation.

The older man told them to watch and they did, as he pushed the door open and that's when she got a good look at how thick the door actually was. Not to mention, it was probably made out of some kind of ridiculous material.

"I should mention that door one weighs two tons."

"Two tons?!" Leorio repeated with disbelief, "You're not supposed to be able to open that! Wait, what did you say? Gate one?"

The man nodded, "Yes, have a look. There are seven gates. When you go up a gate, the weight doubles."

"Doubles?!"

Rukei did the math in her head and she really questioned the Zoldyck family. "But is there really a point to building a 256 ton gate?"

She got a chuckle and a shrug for an answer. "The number of gates that open depends on the amount of strength you use," he explained, "Incidentally, when young Killua returned, he opened gates one through three."

Gon repeated the man's words, "Gate three? That would be twelve tons!"

"Sixteen tons, Gon," Kurapika corrected with a sigh.

"Do you understand? This is what's required just to get in the door. They live in a different world."

The spiky-haired boy hummed before turning around, "I don't like it. Mister, lend me the key. I came here to see my friend, not to be tested," Gon stated firmly, "You can consider me as an intruder. So let me borrow the key. I'll use the intruder's door."

"Gon!"

"Hey..."

The boy didn't budge one bit as he kept his hand out, "It doesn't matter if you won't loan me the key. I'll just climb the wall, if that's what it takes."

Leorio yelled at the boy, as if that would do something, "Don't be stupid, Gon! Didn't you see that monster? It's arm was bigger than your entire body!"

"But I won't accept this! Why would you test your friends? I'll never enter through that door."

Rukei knew this scene was very, very familiar; they had been down this road before. "He's not going to change his mind."

The older man tried to show Gon why it was a bad idea, like Gon would actually see it, "However, forcing your way through is impossible. Mike will kill you."

"I agree," Kurapika put in, "We have time. Let's figure out a way to enter through gate one."

The words flew right over the the boy's head but the older man still refused. But he had another solution in his mind. "Hello? This is Zebro," he started but was then followed by many 'I'm sorry's and she concluded that his plan was a failure. He had called the butler apparently as all communication went through the butler's office.

Gon tried to call him this time and Rukei leaned in to listen. The boy introduced himself politely, even changing his regular pronoun usage to a more formal one and adding honorifics. "I'm Gon, one of Killua-kun's friends. Is Killua-kun there?"

"Killua-sama has no friends."

There was a click indicating that the man had hung up.

Gon punched in some numbers and brought the phone up back to his ear.

"Yes, this is the butler's office."

"How could you possibly know that?!" He yelled with the same angry voice and expression that he had when he broke Illumi's arm. "Put Killua on the phone!"

There was a moment of long silence following his yell, and as mad as Rukei was herself, she really didn't think that it helped. "I believe you said you were Gon-kun?"

"Yeah."

The man continued on with his hypothetical statements. "Let us pretend that Killua-sama happens to have a friend named Gon. There is no proof that you are Gon."

"If you put Killua on the phone, he'll recognize me!"

"By your voice? That isn't a reliable test," just when Gon was about to counter, "'If you put Killua on the phone, he'll recognize me!'" The butler did have a point. "That was a simple recording. And there are many other ways to mimic a person's voice. Next, you'll claim that he'll recognize you by sight. There are only a few methods by which you can mimic a person's appearance. But it still isn't impossible." She knew that the butler was also right to be wary about that, she knew of a master of disguise herself. Along with the Kiriko.

Rukei held out her hand, "Gon, let me speak with him."

The boy looked in between her and the phone before handing it over to her. The butler on the other end still hadn't spoken so he probably realized that the phone was getting passed around.

"I'm Rukei. I understand that there are different ways to mimic a voice or appearance but I have a very specific blood color," she informed; it wasn't her favorite thing to reveal to a complete stranger, but if that would get them closer to Killua she would very willingly give up the information.

There wasn't much of a response but she could hear the faint clinking of a coin in the background. Was he contemplating it? If she wanted to push her luck, now was the time to do it.

"On top of that, I have been told that no one has seen the faces or identities of the Zoldyck family members. The fact that we know Killua's name alone should be convincing but if I need to then I can describe to you his features, how he talks, and his abilities."

"Then let's pretend that you are the real Rukei and are friends with Killua-sama. It's possible that someone forced you to approach Killua-sama for sinister purposes. As long as the threat exists, I cannot let you meet Killua-sama. The Zoldyck family practices the trade of assassination. Naturally, it has made enemies. As butlers, our duty is to guard our masters from their enemies. I apologize," he stated, as if he were actually apologetic, "but please leave."

Click!

Now she was ticked off.

She put the phone down stiffly; trying to cool down by staying still in contrast to Gon who briskly stormed out the door. The boy threw the fishing line over the gates, hooking it on the other side, giving it a little tug to make sure it was tight enough to start climbing. She followed the two scolding older kids out the door.

Gon made no move to back down as he was told to stop, "It's fine. You guys can wait here. I'll go by myself."

"I can't let you do that!"

"It's fine."

"No, it's not!"

Rukei sighed, but to be honest, breaking down the locked gate seemed to be an appealing idea at the moment. Kurapika stepped in after Leorio telling everyone to calm down as the boy continued to scale the wall.

"Gon-kun, I'll give you the key," Zebro offered, but Gon still ignored everyone else, "You can go through the door."

Leorio turned around quickly at the suggestion of an equally bad sounding idea. "Hold on, pops! We can convince Gon to stop!"

"Really? But he seems to be a stubborn boy," a little more than stubborn, Rukei thought to herself, "To make amends, I'll accompany you through the door."

Gon finally turned his head to face them, as Zebro said that it was possible that Mike would recognize him and not attack, though he was almost completely positive that Mike would kill all of them.

The boy dropped down from the line, "You can't do that. I don't want to cause you any trouble."

"No, I'm coming with you," Zebro responded sternly, "The result will be the same if I stay behind. If I send Killua-bocchan's friends to their deaths, I'd never be able to face him again. If you die, I will also die."

The boy looked down in a remorseful manner, before reeling the line back in. He had calmed down a bit. She imagined that he was still pretty upset but he managed to put it aside for the old man. "I understand now. I didn't stop to consider your situation. Sorry."

"You must like animals, Gon-kun," Zebro said suddenly which surprised the boy as the man had hit the mark, "Just as I thought. Did you grow up playing in the countryside?"

The boy's expression seemed to light up a bit. He must have remembered something nice. "Yeah! How did you know?"

"Gon-kun. I'm going to open the Testing Gate again. I want you to see Mike for yourself."

Terrifying.

That's what the thought of having to face off against Mike was. She broke out into a cold sweat as the giant creature knelt down in front of them; hollow eyes burning into her.

She had seen many creatures and animals tested on in the lab while she was loitering around waiting to have more needles put in to make sure Zyphon remained in a stable condition. Some turned into very violent creatures, it was natural of course, they were the ones attacked in the first place. But no matter how violent or grotesque they became, none were as frightening as the beast that sat obediently in front of them.

"Do you understand now, Gon? This is a trained hunting dog," she could hear Zebro say, "It's nothing like the wild animals you're accustomed to. You must have expected to be able to communicate with him. Until you saw his eyes. Mike is currently memorizing the appearance and scents of humans he's never seen. There's nothing else on his mind. He's like a machine."

Zebro must have said something else afterwards, but she didn't hear him. She did hear Gon's answer so the man must have asked something. "No, I'm scared, I don't want to fight him!"

"Well, how long will you be here?"

She drew her eyes away from the dog and to the man, "Until we meet Killua! We won't leave before then!"

"Then please come this way."

She knew something was a bit off listening to the very heavy-sounding grind of the front door, Seaquant's warning, and the loud slam of the tea pot against the table. She couldn't connect the dots but she knew something was very off about the place.

"You want to see Killua-bocchan?" Seaquant repeated, before bursting out into laughter, "That's a riot!"

"Sorry to say, but we're dead serious," Leorio shot back with hostility shading his tone.

The man shook his head at them, "Then let me give you a warning: give up, and go home."

"What was that?!"

He lost his humored expression and continued on with gravity weighing his voice, "Zebro told you about the testing gate, right? That should give you an idea of what this place is like."

"We understand that it won't be easy," Gon finally spoke up, "But I'm not leaving. Not until I see Killua! When Killua was in trouble, I wasn't there for him."

Ah. It was that tearing feeling again that seemed to split herself into. An overwhelming sense that seem to surround her on every side. I was there. And I couldn't do anything.

"If I had been there, I could have stopped Killua!"

You're right, Gon. Rukei's eyes drifted to her shoes. If you were there you could have stopped him.

"Killua is my close friend!*"

Zebro broke the dense atmosphere that blanketed them with a chuckle. "We understand. Then why not do some training here?"

"Training?"

"Hey Zebro..."

The man ignored his annoyed, hesitant co-worker, "Listen well, Gon-kun. You three are allowed to work together to open the door. With a little training it should be possible. How about it?"

It wasn't a bad idea she supposed. If they had tools already prepared for them to train with, they may as well take the offer.

Gon gave it a moment of thought before replying, "I don't like the idea of being tested..."

"But if there's no other way..."

"We just have to do it!"

Zebro was satisfied with their answer, "Then, I'll have you put these on."

Rukei was accustomed to lifting heavy weights, running up several storied towers, and the like but having to wear fifty kilogram vests all day sounded tasking. In addition, the vest was going to get heavier as she got used to it. Even the tea cups weighed twenty kilograms, but she had very good hands. Not only were they fast and precise, they were pretty strong, but it was getting pretty ridiculous. And she was most definitely done with 500 kg bathroom door.

She opened her eyes to see a certain boy after hearing a certain floorboard creak in the room. She almost sighed as the boy looked over his friends to see if anyone stirred and satisfied that they didn't, went out to secretly train. The girl finally got up when he left the room, intending to follow him, but stopping before she exited. She grabbed the vest and strapped it on.

Rukei found him in the clearing, lifting himself up on one arm, and she called out to him with her most disapproving voice as possible.

He was surprised at her appearance and fell backwards to quickly jump back onto his feet with that sheepish look on his face, which was becoming increasingly harder to scold. Instead she gave out a huff. "I don't blame you but you should give it a rest."

"Aren't you out here to train though?" He questioned, pointing at the weight on her shoulders.

She gave them a quick glance before looking back up. "Not really. But Zebro told us to wear it all the time unless we were sleeping. And I'm not sleeping."

A couple moments of silence passed over them until Rukei thought it was about time she pulled herself together and said what she needed to say.

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Gon blinked with concern and confusion all over his face, "For what?"

"For not stopping Killua."