He finally opened his eyes after several days of shutdown, and the first thing that greeted him was the heat coming from the ray of sunlight passing through the window beside him. He repeatedly blinked and rubbed them, as the heat caused him pain and itchiness.
Archi grabbed his whole body from lying on the bed and sat down to turn his head around, studying his surroundings. He was in his own room at Cantaran City. He put the palm of his hand on his head, couldn't be able to remember how he got back into his very room. All he remembered was his client being pulled into the depths of the earth by something.
"You're awake." A familiar voice of a woman stunned him on his seat, caught off guard by the sudden speech. He rotated his head to the side and saw Java, standing upright in the doorway, with her arms crossed on his chest.
"You've been unconscious for three days."She explained, as she let go of the doorway and walked forward in a few steps, approaching her student. Her hair, still tied into two loose ponytails, bounced along in every step. "Tell me...what happened back then?"
Archi just lowered his head, couldn't be able to answer her question, reminiscing about the trauma he had experienced that lead to losing someone important to him. Michael might just be a client to his eyes, but after the death of his uncle, he swore to keep everyone protected and safe, no matter who they are.
And yet... he couldn't be able to do it still.
His master didn't wait for his response since she already expected that he wouldn't. She just closed her eyes and walked back to the door. "The breakfast is ready. Come dow–"
"There was something." Suddenly, the boy spoke for the first time in a while. His voice was more damaged and cracked than before, proof that he had been crying before, plus the rain that made him suffer from the cold. "There was something lurking under that house."
"Something?" As Java was about to leave, she leaned her head to see him in her vision and raised her eyebrow.
"I-I'm not sure what it is but..."Archi stuttered, as he still remembers the terrible experience to reveal information to her as much as possible. "...it took Sir Michael with it."
"I lost him. I lost everything." His eyes crumpled and squished by the muscles around them, as both of his eyebrows met each other, trying to stop the grief he was feeling. The fact that he just lost someone again stabbed him like a blade. "It was all my fault. If I didn't let go, then..."
"Don't blame yourself." Java interrupted, couldn't be able to deal with the melancholy her student was suffering. She witnessed this before, back when the death of her uncle was still fresh in his mind, and it's not a very good scene to look. "He gave you the information we wanted, right? That's all we have to focus right now."
"Sometimes, you have to sacrifice others for the better of most people." She added, getting back on crossing her arms again. "That's the rule."
"No." The only thing he replied to the short lecture he received from her. This made her eyes widened in shock, couldn't be able to accept what she had heard. Sure, her student isn't respecting him that much and always speaking rudely to her, but she knows that he wouldn't disobey all of her orders. He wouldn't do that, and he knew that too. But then, all of a sudden, he just rejected her.
"What?"
"No! That's your rule, not mine!" He yelled, closing his eyes to keep from having eye contact with her. In every word he spits, one can hear the pain and struggle that he had been hiding all this time. When they met, he never thought of the rules and orders his master gave and taught him. But as he grew older, as he met Secco, he saw the different side of the world and had his own different view of everything he knew. "Why do you have to follow it... if you can just break it and look for another way?"
"Because–..." The sudden pause of her sentence made her student stays quiet and just waited for the long silence to pass through. It wasn't unexpected of her to stop in the middle of her explanation since she's known to be a smooth talker. "...there's no other way..."
"Well, I'll prove it to you!" He shouted back as he went off of his bed and stood up straight, bandages wrapped in other parts of his body caused by the injuries he took to go all the way back. "There's another way!"
He reached for his bag, displayed on top of a chair, and walked towards the wide doorway, passing through Java without giving him respect to her. Her eyes widened to his sudden continuous actions and just followed him out of the room towards the hallway, couldn't be able to say what's in her mind.
"W-Wait! Where are you going?" She stuttered as she tried to walk at the same pace as him, but the latter didn't answer her question nor turn his head to see her. Because of this behavior, she got irritated and couldn't help but to yell again. "Archi!"
The boy unexpectedly obeyed and stopped in his tracks, giving a short silence between them. He, then, turned around to see her, standing with her eyebrows met at each other in the middle of her face.
"I'm going back, and I'm gonna bring him back."
With those final words, he continued walking through the corridor and out of the beerhouse they were in, while Java just stood there, didn't move an inch, reminiscing the moments she had in the past.
***
==+==
"Here. Take this."
He lent the weapon he had been holding all this time in his hands towards the young lady in front of him. It was a silver trident filled with different gems and ores stuck in its every part. But despite the beautiful shape it had, cracks and rusts didn't let it have immortal life.
"This weapon had protected our family for generations, so it's a little rusty." He said, still holding the trident while she just stared at the magnificent blade she had ever seen in her life.
"But Father, I'm leaving. You should keep this to protect yourselves." She said, her eyebrows raised, filled with guilt and second thoughts about the matter. Since she grew up, she had been fascinated by weapons and blades she can see, but she never had a single weapon in her life, not even a dagger. So this is a great opportunity for her, but this is a family weapon, so she didn't know whether to accept it or not.
The father turned around his back and looked at the other people behind him who had about the same age as him. Most of them gave nods and stares at him, so he replied with the same.
"Don't worry about us. You must protect yourself. You're the only one who can save our roots." He said, pushing the trident he was holding further away from him, and towards his only daughter, who was confused and shocked at the same time. "We're already aging and weak, so there's no point protecting us."
"But..." The former couldn't answer, still filled with the same emotions as before. She wasn't ready to take the treasure of their family yet, and they knew that too.
"Sometimes you have to sacrifice others for the better of most people." He said, patting her shoulder with his hand. She raised her head, staring at her father's face, listening with doubt."Remember, you can save our family."
==+==
***
SECCO RASVIN
The time has come. The day that we'll be infiltrating the palace of the republic has finally come. We are all staying in a wide white room that Sir Knov made for us with his Nen. They said that he can teleport others into this eternal space. This became our hideout during our plan of extermination against the King and his Royal Guards.
Our team with Gon, Killua, and Ikalgo, who just got recruited by Killua while he was executing his mission before, started our own meeting and review the overall plan we discussed earlier.
We were separated into two teams, Gon and Killua must go to the central stairway towards the throne room, where we assumed the King was residing, while Ikalgo and I will descend to the basement floor to look for Palm. I insisted on going below the palace since my main mission in the first place was to find Wynn himself.
Killua then asked me how I can go through the Chimera Ant soldiers undetected. After his question, I removed the bandages around my arm and showed the ugliness it had to my friend. Ever since that dog man I met said that I have the same scent as one of the Chimera Ants, I took this as an advantage to blend in.
He easily understood what I was going to do because of it. But because I forgot that it's not just us who was staying inside the room, most of the people inside took a defensive stance, threatened by the dark Aura it released. Thankfully, that didn't last long and we all started our missions.
Ikalgo, disguised as Flutter, and I walked towards the elevator in front of us after going out of the white space we were in before, while our other friends went to the other way towards the throne room. While we were walking to our destination, I suddenly felt two Chimera Ants coming to our direction.
I quickly grabbed my bandages and was about to attack the two comers in the elevator, but then, Killua ran passed us at incredible speed, killing the enemies in less than a second.
We all stood in shock, even him, couldn't believe what he just did to them. But after that, we all continued walking and fulfilling our mission like there was nothing happened. Ikalgo and I finally made it into the elevator, with no threats and attacks coming from any enemies.
The silence greeted us both while we waited for the elevator to reach the basement floor of the massive palace we're in. Come to think of it, I haven't seen the exterior of this giant building, and because of the following events that were happening right now, I don't think I still have the time to do such a useless thing.
"So... about that arm you had..." Ikalgo spoke out of the blue, which caught me off guard. I didn't turn my head to see him since I can see him in my peripheral vision. "...where did you get it?"
At first, I didn't answer for a while, didn't know if I can say it or not. It's been a while since I've told someone everything about my arm, and I haven't realized how long has it been since I was struggling with it.
"I just got it when I was born." I started my story, lowering my head, trying to reminisce about the worst moments I had with my arm. That time I got treated badly by my other classmates but thankfully, someone I didn't know saved me from them, and that's when I started not to be a coward anymore and fight for myself.
"As you can see, it's very ugly and no one will like it." I continued, raising my arm and stare at it like it was another being, not attached from my body. "Because of it, I was bullied, my father got discriminated, and even got sold to an auction. It's not a really good life for me."
I suddenly remembered the time that I was living inside the ship. The start of my freedom against the discrimination and judgment I've been experiencing in the city. I remembered trying every method I could think just to remove my arm from my body, whether to chop it off, stabbing it, even burning it, but I ended up injuring myself instead.
Then, I remembered... that was also the time I found a new meaning to my life...
"But then... I met them..." I added, releasing a sincere smile on my face, remembering those times. "Gon, Killua, and my other friends... they helped me fight my despair in living."
The Captain, my fellow workers in the ship, my father, my friends, my masters, and other people I met, they treated me like I'm like everyone else, with or without my arm. They treated me like a human, as a person. Not a monster. And those are the happiest days of my life.
"They supported and inspired me to not give up no matter how cruel the world is." I turned around to see Ikalgo with a warm smile. He also did the same thing as I did, satisfied with what I told him.
Based on what I've heard, he was one of the enemies' pawns, but then, when he met Killua, he discovered true friendship with him and everyone else in our team. He, too, was put in the darkness, and now that he was saved from it, he was proud to be in here.
Everything was going well, and all we have to do was to wait for the elevator to come down into the basement floors.
But suddenly, I felt something strange and familiar at the same time. My eyes widened in shock as I felt it with my instinct. Cold sweats started dropping from my forehead, and other parts of my body are shaking without my will.
This feeling... This familiar feeling...
And the thing that I wasn't expecting to happen... is...
Kill.