24 Sleep?

It was the fifth of February 1995. Two years before canon. I was preparing to leave whale island again. Worm had arrived on the docks today and was meeting me by the Snakebeech frontier lake.

"Is it in place?" I ask. I already knew it was in place. I had checked the gps transmitter signal. Why was I asking this? I didn't know why, but for some reason the moment I saw him arrive in the secluded grove bu the lake there was this urge within me. Telling me. Pushing me.

"Yes. It's done. Now for my payment?" He asked.

"Yes. Sure." I said and wired him the rest of the money.

"Okay then. Thanks for the job. Give me a call if you need anything else." He said as he turned to leave.

Suddenly, I pulled out my camera and took a picture of the lake as I called out to him.

"Hey! Wait."

"What now?" He asked.

"What do you think of this?" I said showing him the picture I had just taken as my hatsu activated. I was without a minute now a mute spectator in my own body as a fog spread across my conscious.

He realized what was happening and activated his hatsu : earth escape!

Only he didn't dive into the ground. Or rather he couldn't. His eyes were stuck to the picture as I walked over to him and activated my new specialist hatsu : Ape Scope.

Take a picture of any hatsu from one person of an ape based species that contains no other nen, per time per day and copy it in the form of an image. Burning this image will give the holder of the image the ability to use the pictured hatsu for an hour without cost while forcing them into a state of zetsu for a day thereafter.

I clicked a picture of him using his hatsu and took out my sword beheading him.

Tucking the nen image into my photo album, I dragged his corpse to the shallow grave I had previously dug for him behind the grove and buried it.

And just as suddenly as it began, it ended as I came to my senses.

"Huh?! Where am I? What? Wasn't I supposed to meet Worm today? Did I fall asleep? What time is it?" I said looking at my watch.

It showed the time to be 10 past 3 pm.

"Fuck! I'm late. I need to leave before the boat departs for Saherta." I cried as I ran towards the docks.

"You'r late. What took you so long?" Asked Fido.

"I just fell asleep I guess?" I replied.

"With Worm?!" Asked Kurapika, shocked, as the boat left the harbor.

"Worm? Right! Wasn't I supposed to meet him? Where was he?" I asked only to be answered with quizzical looks.

"What?" I asked.

"You went into the forest right before Worm did? How did you not meet him aniki?" Said Kurapika.

"I did?" I said confused.

"Maybe you just missed each other!" Said Pairo.

"Yeah. That's what must have happened." I said, as a feeling of dread crept up on me.

"That aside, where are we going now?" Asked Fido.

"Well, the boys here have plateaued in their training and so have I. So we're going to do some rather unorthodox training down south, while making some sweet sweet jennies." I said.

"Just tell me where we're going, without them word games!" Said Fido, smacking me on the upside of my skull.

"Jeez. Fine. We're going gambling. In glam gas land. Your training is to cheat the casino dry using only the advanced techniques. This is the heist arc of your lives my mans! By the end of our little charade here I want all of you to have a lifetime ban from sin city central, got it?" I said with a flourish.

"Yes aniki!"

"Hehehe.. sure bro!"

They said.

"Why aren't we bringing Gon along for the training then?" Asked Pairo.

"Mito san won't let him go to Sin city at the age of nine will she now? Also I was getting concerned with how fast Gon was improving. You guys can't be falling behind him now understood? He started training a whole year after you and yet he's nearly caught up to the both of you! For shame my mans! For shame." I say to the two kurta boys flicking their foreheads.

"Okayyy..." they answered dejected as I looked at the fast approaching horizon. The time of canon was coming and gosh dang it I was going to be ready for it!