At the call of a snap, the Nen beasts surrounding the court returned to Razor one by one in flashes of purple; the power and aura was being poured back into him. His next throw was going to be his true strength, most probably incomparable to his last.

But they were prepared for it.

She quickly asked Gon if his vision was clear enough with herself in front of him as she moved her head to the side, also double checking Trace's target mark on the ground directly beneath them. He responded positively and she focused her eyes back forward on the incoming projectile.

Instead of being thrown, it was sent down with a fearsome spike, but Rukei didn't have the time or energy to be disheartened or frightened. All she could think about was painting the arrow like symbol across the ball the instant it made contact with Gon's fingers. Trace snapped into effect directly afterward, coming with a sudden strain on her mind. As expected, changing the direction and force of the ball was far more difficult than moving a stationary object and with Razor's ridiculous power on top of that...

But she could do it!

Some invisible force was hammering through her skull and currently trying to smash through her focus; to hold it off she grit her teeth and dug her nails into her hand. A blurry wave passed over her vision but she could hold it togeth- now!

She immediately cut off Trace's connection right before Hisoka released Bungee Gum that kept the ball in Gon's hands despite the object's complicated pull, force, and power that she attempted to burn off. The ball came to a stop all together, now completely ragged, worn, and stained with blood, but firmly set in between Gon's fingers. They caught it.

A burst of cheers erupted from the sidelines as Gon held up the ball victoriously as she let out a shaky, relieved sigh underneath a small smile. She gripped her head with one hand to help ease the dizziness a little, and used the other to high-five her friends; she had to stop herself just as she was about to slap Killua's hand remembering exactly what condition it was in, so the only thing she could do was give him a "good work" despite the intense and demanding job he just pulled off for them.

They turned their minds towards the issue at hand. Now that Razor had taken back his Nen beasts, Gon was going to need even more power than his last throws to take down the Game Master. Any ghosts or wisps of doubts burned up completely under the towering burst of orange aura that lit up Gon's eyes with a determined and unshaken fire paired with an unwavering smile.

"Killua," Gon called out to his partner, looking up from his fist, "I'm going all out."

The boy would not have his resolve questioned in the slightest. "You'd better! Hold back, and I'll beat you up!"

Flaring aura spiraled down into Gon's fist as he began the chant of what used to be a simple child's game. "First comes rock! Rock... Paper...," Gon smashed the explosive Nen punch into the ball, "Rock!"

When everyone thought that Razor was attempting the old trick of receiving it upwards again, a rush of wind whipped past her, carried by the ball headed straight for Gon. Gon would not dodge- he would never dodge, but the energy that had been sapped out of him by his determination saved him as he collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"Not quite yet."

With Bungee Gum, Hisoka sent the ball flying back which Razor accepted, up for a game of rallying only to realize that he couldn't sent it back. The ball with it's ridiculous impact remained stuck on Razor's wrists, forcing the man out of bounds.

"Razor, catching the ball while out of bounds is against the rules! You're out! Which makes Team Gon the winner of this match!"

Gon slowly cracked open an eye upon hearing applause and yells of victory, and Rukei filled him in on the few seconds he missed as he sat up. "Oh, so Hisoka finished the job."

Killua slumped against the floor with a sigh, "In the end, he stole all the glory."

"It was only possible with all your help," Hisoka praised with a very uncharacteristic smile that almost made her forget all her frightening memories of the clown, "Call this a victory for the team."

Hisoka should have been prepared to take the full brunt of Gon's honesty when he had said that, "That doesn't sound like you at all."

The jester seemed indignant somehow at the boy's comment and Killua burst into a fit of snickering at the man's face. The aftermath of a flood of relief washed away the energy to keep up her iron mask, so she laughed quietly with them.

-

Rukei had to help Bisky address Killua's wounds; the boy wasn't cooperating very well with their lecturing master. Both students were only half paying attention to what Bisky was saying; their attention was drawn towards Gon and Razor's conversation that they couldn't totally hear over their master's yelling. Killua thoughtlessly told her to shut up and received a whack on the head.

The brunette continued to wrap the bandage around steadily as the two began to argue. The damage was hard to look at. I really should have held the ball instead. I may have been able to pull away faster. Ah, but Gon said he needed Killua to hold the ball to focus. But still this is-

"Don't be stupid," Killua scoffed suddenly, his words directed towards Rukei, "No point in worrying about it now that it's over."

She blinked in surprise as she looked up, "Did I say that aloud?"

"No, but it was kind of obvious," the boy replied and her eyes dropped back to her job in embarrassment. It wasn't the first time she had been read so easily; Gon had been getting onto her lately too.

No, somehow they always seemed to know. Even from the very start, they had... She wasn't even sure how to describe it, but she was grateful to them.

If Rukei had listened to the conversation between Gon and Razor, she would have known how to put it into words, because like Razor, Rukei had been taught that "it only took one person, only one person in the entire world who will trust in you, to save you". Rukei knew what it was like to "feel like it was the first time anyone had ever called my name".

But the only thing that Rukei comprehended out of her feelings was gratitude, so she thanked the boy in front of her.

He stared at her in complete confusion, "For what?"

"I'm not too sure myself," she answered honestly, still rolling the white strips around his hands, reminding her that she didn't have to do this to her own arms because of the jacket, "But you're always helping us and putting pressure on yourself... I haven't been able to do anything for you two yet."

Killua had become increasingly red with every word she voiced and when he finally had heard enough he yanked away his arm from her, which got him a very annoyed request to stay still. He would not. "You really do make a big deal out of everything!"

"What? I do not!" She shot back immediately before repeating her order for him to sit still, awkwardly trying to fix the bandages that had started to become a mess with the boy's sudden motions.

"Yeah, you do! You know what," Killua announced, using his ravaged and ruined hand, the one Rukei was still trying to treat, to point dramatically, "here's a new policy. Let's not thank each other ever again."

This went against Rukei's sense of common manners as she stared at him expectantly, waiting for any sort of reasonable explanation for Killua's new code.

If she knew what the reasonable explanation was, she would have prepared herself for it by looking away, down, in someone else's direction; anywhere to hide the fact that she was moved and on the verge of tears. "We're supposed to help each other 'cause we're friends. Don't you think it's kinda dumb that friends need to thank each other all the time for being friends?"

What are you saying? Rukei grabbed him a little past his wrist to fix the gauze, "Alright, fine. Just give me your hand," she ordered dully, "Do you want it to heal or not?"

"Oh, right."

"Look, it's all tangled now."

I can't even keep my promises properly and yet you...

"That's because you were saying stupid stuff-"

I can't even thank you anymore.

"Stop moving."

What should I do?

Gon wasn't the only one who saved someone else without knowing a single thing.

Hyoshi had not missed a second of the conversation between the two children. While he had formed what he meant to be a brief partnership between them, he still didn't like Rukei. She was so obedient to whoever held out their hand to her; she took in commands like a computer and her emotionless demeanor made her seem more like a machine than a human. To him it was sickening.

But as he watched the two, he knew that Rukei was just a kid, like he used to be, listening to his best friend on the verge of tears, because Hyoshi too hadn't done anything for Jen yet.

-

"Three weeks. That isn't enough time for Killua's hands to heal. And it certainly isn't enough to close the gap between Genthru's abilities and ours."

"Which means we should use the time to come up with a plan."

Currently, the plan wasn't moving along so well.

Gon's Emitter training had been in progress for a couple days now but the product always turned out the same; he could only push himself only a few centimeters off the ground. To pass this level of Bisky's instruction, he had to be able to shoot himself a couple meters back with the idea that he could escape Little Flower's blast using it.

Rukei's Paint was slowly becoming more refined as she filled in a number of the possible combinations with registered actions. It was tasking to try and isolate areas of her control on someone else; she had managed to do so a couple times but it was too inconsistent and every success was closely followed with a severe headache.

"Change in plans, guys," Killua suddenly announced, putting an end to Gon's emission training, "I came up with a strategy for defeating them."

The spiky-haired boy didn't want to give up just yet; he really did believe he could make things work during the next five days. "But... But... Uh, well..."

They all stared at him blankly, unnerving him as he stumbled around for words.

"I think I've almost got it!" An awkward pause. "Maybe..."

Killua reached into his pocket before while bluntly shooting down Gon's idea, "Yeah, not happening. I can't use an unreliable technique in my plan. Time to give it up," Killua finalized as the other boy let out a crushed sigh but didn't have too much time to dwell on the matter as he caught the stopwatch Killua had thrown at him, "You'll have to learn this the hard way. Until you get it down to perfection."

"Rukei, you need to work on acting," Bisky called out to her and the girl tensed at the mention of the subject.

"I can keep a straight face just fine-"

Killua snorted at her reasoning and sorry attempt to cover up the fact that she couldn't do it. "We don't need you to keep a straight face. We need you to act believably scared of Genthru."

-

Rukei would rather go back to the tasking Manipulator training than continue. She had failed the acting segment of her training under the Zakuya six times. There was never a chance for a seventh test.

"S-stay away-"

She winced as Bisky smacked her across the head. The woman put her hands on her hips and looked at the girl disapprovingly, "You can at least change your expression!"

Easier said, than done! Rukei didn't even know what to change her expression to; she didn't really change her expression when she was scared. The girl let out a huff as she tried again, only resulting in another lecture about the flat tones in her voice.

Killua glanced over while swinging what were supposed to be toys in his hands around for practice, "No, her expression is barely passable, but it makes it. She talks really fast when she's scared, so try that."

"No, I don't-"

"Her voice is a little higher too!" Gon added helpfully pitching into the conversation, and Rukei was half worried that he would forget that he was still timing himself, "And sometimes she gets violent."

Rukei did throw Gon back by the end of his collar a couple times, but that was for his own good. She sighed and turned away, as Bisky gave her more advice surrounding the points given to them by her friends.

Her final exam came in the form of the Bombers appearing before them with Accompany. Genthru was all smiles as he approached them with a friendly and airy voice seeking to make a deal, but was quickly stopped by Gon who told Genthru to talk from where he was. He gave out obvious and flimsy lies about Tszegerra agreeing to their idea that were quickly called out by Killua.

"Well, that's a valid point," Genthru admitted, pushing up the bridge of his glasses, twisting the tense air within a blink of the eye, "So, now what? Do you want to die?"

Rukei cracked her knuckles behind her back and made sure her wrists were lose after she had stiffened with the momentary surprise of the disquietingly quick change.

His pupils were shrunken in what seemed to be an almost insane manner as he spat in aggravation, "Stop whining, and hand over your cards! Otherwise, we'll slaughter you!"

Gon pulled out an Accompany card and teleported them to Soufrabi, then back, then Antokiba. The next card they relied on was Return that took them to Masadora where they took cover in the foliage and Zetsu.

The familiar buzzing sound from overhead signified that Genthru's team had used up their last Accompany to find them, and they were making the most of it by cornering them into the area where the undergrowth had become denser.

"Now," Genthru started calmly with the same voice he had used when he first targeted them, "Why don't you give up and hand over your cards?"

"No way!" Gon barked boldly in what looked like a helpless situation, "We'll never let you have them! If we have to hand over our cards, we'd rather fight!"

Killua made a short attempt to calm the boy down, but turned his eyes back on the battle after realizing that that would never work. "Bisky, you run for it!"

"B-but-"

"Just run!"

Rukei made a show of grabbing her teacher by the hand and pulling her away quickly as Bara chased after them. She quickly let go of the blonde once they were out of the sight of Bara's allies as she listened to the woman's last few reminders carefully.

Her voice was hushed so Bara wouldn't hear, but firm. "It's best that you don't interfere with a one-on-one fight, but you need to stand by Gon in case something happens. He is the last boy that I'd expect to follow a plan!"

"Understood," Rukei muttered back quickly as she darted to her right quickly with a burst of energy. She heard the loud cracking and rustling of twigs and leaves that indicated that Bara was trying to follow her, but Rukei had already sprinted her way out of the twenty meter range of the teleporting spell that Bisky used.

Rukei had to head back quickly; if things went according to the plan, then they were almost guaranteed success. It was brilliant, and she had to hand it to-

A woman with very long sleeves stepped out from behind the cover of one of the trees up ahead with a book open. Rukei had barely been able to skid to a stop before the woman lifted up the card and recited the spell.

"Accompany on! Dorias!"

A bright flash took her vision for a moment and returned it with the view of the empty, grassy plains next to the city of gambling, but it was sent flying again with a sudden hit to her head. Flask wasn't going to wait for her.

She rolled out of the way before she was smashed further into the dirt, avoiding Flask's acidic strike by a few centimeters. She jumped to her feet and snatched up the paint gun in a single movement and grabbed his arm, past where his aura had been transmuted to toss him over her shoulder only to be sent to the ground again by his free arm.

"Wow," Flask's unaltered voice rang out over the fields causticly, "You reacted much faster than I predicted, Subject 9. You must have known who Seira really was. I'm curious as to why you didn't come to capture me. Something like you would stupidly grab at the hope of helping the Alliance."

Taking advantage of her position on the ground, she shot her leg out to sweep Flask off his feet but a boot grounding against her back halted her sudden movement and knocked breath out of her. She was still able to fire twice at Flask before he kicked the gun away.

"Were you busy with your friends?" he taunted as he raised the pitch of his voice, "You wanted to stay with them, didn't you?"

Rukei somehow managed to lock one of her arms around the leg that Flask stabilized himself with to topple him over which gave her the freedom to grab her gun and stand. When the man lunged at her, she spun around with the intention of gaining power to slam her heel against his jaw but a hand broke into her foot's path.

"I feel like I'm reading a rule book fighting you. Can't you do anything new?" She barely managed to withhold a cry of pain as he closed his hand around her ankle and surrounded it in the corrosive aura. Rukei fired again and Flask did not flinch expecting it to be the same, wimpy, little pellets.

He immediately released her as his wrist began to bleed out, cursing wildly as he withdrew his arm to himself. Subject 9 had put emission into the stupid paint pellets! And at that kind of close range, his left hand was done for rest of the fight.

No. Calm down. He should be fine. In terms of aura, Flask was better off and she was still so predictable. She would always take advantage of a momentary escape to fire her gun, or in this situation her toy, but the sudden panic would throw off the flow of her aura and as a result, the two shots were nothing more than a nuisance.

She couldn't move efficiently without a plan. Without commands to follow, she wasn't anymore special than any of the lowest ranked soldiers. She couldn't react efficiently when thrown into a random situation especially when she had been planning so long for something else to happen.

With his hand wounded, she would take that time to attack from his left side, usually by swinging her weapon as a bludgeon. As expected, he swatted Subject 9 away easily before lashing at her with his acid covered arm. "You still haven't learned a thing, have you? You used to be such a fast learner. Has spending time with those children perhaps dulled your ability?"

"They haven't done anything," Subject 9 replied back coldly, "And I-" the experiment was abruptly cut off after taking a blow to her stomach. She always left that unguarded and as a result, Subject 9 usually ended up hacking up that precious blood during fights. She staggered to her feet, one hand against the ground to stabilize herself weakly; high pain tolerance or not, there was no way Subject 9 was getting up after that right away.

Flask grinned down at the struggle to stand. She had no idea, no idea, what he had to suffer because of her! "Oh, don't worry, Subject 9," he started off softly in a mock comforting way, "I understand. You want to stay with them. I'll grant your request."

It stiffened. It actually had hope! It actually thought he would let it go, that he would forget all the pain and scars on his arms, that he would actually risk a bullet through his skull and theirs for its sake!

"You can see them everyday, screaming and writhing in pain in the laboratory across from yours. They'd be wonderful to experiment on; they already possess unique and useful traits! A boy honed by nature and a boy from a family of assassins!" Flask pressed on with a wild grin, "Imagine the possibilities!"

"Did you mean that?"

It had stood up, wiping away the blood from the edge of its mouth dully and with it any signs that it had been in pain. Its monotonous voice had no raise or sharpness to it to suggest anger or fear. Its face had been the same it had always been; iron. It had become completely unreadable.

No, he could predict it! He knew what was going to happen next! He was going to prove that to himself!

He darted forward with a punch; she would respond by grabbing his arm and trying to throw him over her shoulder- where did she go?!

Behind him? He barely managed to avoid a swipe of her foot- no, that was a feint! He realized that only when he received a Nen packed punch in the gut, strong enough to send him flying. "We're even now."

He felt like his insides had already turned to mush inside him as he coughed up red and forced himself to his feet; he was trembling. Subject 9 stood in front of him, was she going to attack? From where? Was she going to speak? What was she going to say? What was she going to do?

He couldn't read her anymore!

In a furious desperation he darted at her again; there was no use in trying to think about it. He just needed to attack! But every punch, every kick, every lash was smoothly evaded or knocked away like he was struggling against water.

When he tried to grab her, she ducked underneath his arms and threw him to the ground easily. His own kick allowed her to knock him off center with a soft block followed by a sharply contrasting, powerful kick. What had changed?! When had things changed?!

Rukei guided his right straight away from herself, leaving his back open as she forced his shoulder downwards, creating a blind spot to press the end of the gun against his neck.

"Game Over."

He winced as the pellet splattered against him at point blank. Why wasn't there emission in it? He would have been eliminated for sure if there was Nen in the paint.

Rukei stepped in front of Flask with the cube in her hands. "I was going to be patient. I was going to see if you would reveal anything to the foolish, predictable Subject 9 during the fight, but things have changed. Did you mean that?"

The struggle enduring the pressure of the cube was obvious. Unless she took over his mind completely, her victims would feel a crushing force pressing down on them, and currently she needed for him to be alert to answer questions. But Flask managed to force out a couple words. "Can you... answer my question first?"

This was the first moment of hesitance that gripped her since her encounter with the lab assistant. He requested her of something. It seemed unnatural somehow. This feeling disquieted her into silence as he continued on.

"How did you predict this encounter?" He questioned, his snake eyes set on the ground, "You were acting all the way up to when I punched you in the gut, weren't you? How far ahead did you plan?"

"Only Shichi-oneesan can accomplish something like that. There was no way I could have anticipated this," Rukei huffed at the idea that she was even near that level as she was now, "You are correct on one part. I was acting. All of you always believe that I'll never change. I just took advantage of that. Now then," she started firmly, "my question."

Flask felt a burst of anger and disappointment shoot through him. In those few seconds, Rukei had taken the control of the entire situation into her hands like the stupid toy cube. "And what are you going to do if-"

A punch exploded against his jaw before he was pressed under the invisible force again. Rukei had not punched him.  He had punched himself and blood dropping out of the corner of his mouth was the result of it.

"I'm in a hurry," Rukei stated dully. Emotionless, cold, iron. How could she be the same, so steady that it was eerie, yet so different that he could hardly recognize her? "Next time, it will be your own transmuted acid. Give me the names of everyone who considered using Gon and Killua as experiments."

"They aren't going to be used as experiments," the man finally hissed with a frustrated lift as if she couldn't see something so obvious; he seemed to be trying very hard to try and look up to glare at her. It wasn't going to happen. "It was held in discussion but dropped. Happy?"

Flask fell to the grass with a muted thump.

"My friends were considered being used like I was. Do you think that makes me happy?"

-

The constant clicking of the cube persisted above the running footsteps of Rukei and a controlled body through the forest surrounding Masadora. She had wasted too much time with Flask; she needed to find Gon quickly.

She heard a loud crash from deeper within the forest. That was a good sign, that meant the battle was near it's end. Knowing the spiky-haired boy, the reckless kid probably got more scratched up than he needed to, so she still hurried.

Moving a row of the cubes to the left, Flask's body slumped against a nearby tree. She would normally release her control but she was afraid Flask would wake in the short time she left him there and would escape, so she kept Paint in it's effect as she parted the branches of some shrubs to reveal a fairly well-sized burrow.

Once she jumped down, a recognizable, vivid, orange glow lit up the familiar scene at the end of the tunnel that chilled her to the bone.

"W-w-wait!" The man sputtered, flailing in attempt to move, speak, do anything to receive mercy,  "I surrender! I surrender!"

Where... have I seen this before?

Gon heeded nothing as he smashed his fist into Genthru's stomach, and a red color splattered against the walls of the rocky tunnel that stirred her memories. Red. She had seen this before. She had seen someone still punch their opponent without mercy even while they surrendered before. She had stood there helplessly behind them before.

Oh.

Kurapika.

With a raspy, destroyed voice, Gon shifted into the stance and yelled.

"Osu!"

。。。

Was the parallel here intentional? I have no idea. It took me a couple re-watches to notice, but if it was intentional, IT IS GENIUS. If it wasn't intentional, IT IS STILL GENIUS. (The similarity of Ging and Razor and Gon and Killua also made me tear up, Togashi has too many skillz)

The picture up above was supposed to illustrate Rukei while she uses paint, since her eyes take on an odd glow but the problem is, I can't do glow, so it looks a little off. ^^; I think without the glow looks pretty good though; maybe the eye color looks better? It's got a nice, simple intensity.

ALSO THANK YOU FOR 2K READS! ☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆