Part 18: Way X To Say X Goodbye

SECCO RASVIN

Several days later, the day that we will open the gate had come. Zebro let us remove the heavy metallic vests, and that made me feel relieved, now that I can stretch my arm like always.

At first, Kurapika, Leorio, and I started to push the humongous gate at the same time, like what Seaquant told us to do during our first try. We used up all our strengths, even combining them, but to no avail. I started to sweat all over my body and even tasted its saltiness.

Until Gon joined us on opening the gate. He removed his injured arm he got from the exam and told us that it was already okay. Kurapika and Leorio had no choice but to let him join, as I just smiled, happy because of the situation.

Because of Gon's help, we successfully opened the gate, and we all have a small celebration that has only jumps and cheers. "Yay! We did it, Gon!~", I cheered at him and gave him a high five.

After we opened the gate successfully, we bid goodbyes to Zebro and Seaquant.

"Follow the path, and head for the mountain. The mansion should be somewhere up there." Zebro instructed us as he pointing the clear path right before us. "I'm ashamed to admit, but I've never been up at the mountain even I've worked here for twenty years."

"Sorry, I can't help you that much."

"No, we thank you. If you didn't train us, we would not be going at that mountain right now." Gon opposed his negative statement as he bowed and I nodded as an agreement and smiled at him.

We left the small cabin and we walked straight towards the deep backyard of the Zoldycks.

Since that day, I started to ignore that horrible nightmare where I killed Gon with my disgusting arm, and Killua tried to kill me because of what I did.

But I can't still move on. What if I will really do that to Gon? What if I will accidentally, and even intentionally, kill him? I can never forgive myself.

We've already reached the border of the garden, were a small opened gate was seen. As we look closer, we noticed a young girl with a darker tone skin and her curly hair tied up in more-than-two ponytails. She wears a black tuxedo like that of a butler, carrying a baton.

"Please leave," she spoke with her poker face. "You're trespassing on private property. You can't pass without permission."

Gon started to explain about how we passed through the Testing Gate to satisfy the butler-looking girl, but she still hesitated our permission and insisted us to leave. Instead of arguing, Gon already declared that we will then trespass their property and we three agreed.

She suddenly stroke her baton on the ground with great speed and drew a line on the ground starting from the side of the gate to the other side.

"Then... if you take one step beyond this line, I'll move you away by force," she instructed and we are all in high alert.

As I was about to reach for my small blades in my pocket, Gon suddenly stopped us from fighting by reaching his open palm to us. We froze in confusion as he started to walk towards the little girl.

When Gon took a step behind the line, without any hesitation, she hit Gon with her baton surprisingly and hardly that my friend was thrown back to us. Because of what happened, I was in high alert and immediately helped him. Kurapika and Leorio also drew their weapons but Gon stopped them.

I threw a glare at the girl and was about to grab my blades for revenge but Leorio and Kurapika suddenly stopped me.

"Leave this to Gon," Kurapika advised me and I just shut my mouth up, couldn't do anything on the situation.

Gon repeated what he did before and so is the girl, hitting him hard in the face once more. I closed my eyes and hid in Leorio's back as I couldn't take the beating anymore.

This went on for around thirty minutes and Gon's face was all in bruises and wounds. As he was being hit, again and again, he always shouting that he will see Killua no matter what.

It was already late in the afternoon and Gon was still being hit repeatedly, but I can see pity in the butler's face. Gon's steps became slower as he reached for the line.

"Stop it." the two words came from the girl's mouth and we saw in her eyes that beg for Gon to stop hurting himself.

I wouldn't have said that earlier to him if I can, but I trust Gon that he can handle this, and he unexpectedly did. He's indeed amazing, just like what I thought of him in our first meeting.

"Stay away!", she shouted and hit Gon another beat. "Cut it out! Do you realize how dangerous I am?!", she added and then, looked at us "Why don't you stop him? Aren't you his—"

But when she saw in our eyes the determination and desperation to enter the forbidden home, she became speechless.

Gon approached with a beaten face once more and finally took a step beyond the forbidden boundary. To our surprise, Canary didn't beat him up and instead, cried. And all of a sudden, I realized that they did something to Killua which Canary doesn't want and needed our help. I thought she was just a robotic human who doesn't have any feelings or emotions at all, but here she is now, begging us to save Killua from his family.

"Please... save Ki—!" she didn't have the time to stop her sentence when a small marble strikes her forehead at an incredible speed, making her fall to the ground.

Without any second thought, we immediately ran towards her and helped her gain consciousness.

I sighed in relief as Leorio declared that she was still alive and just fainted. I can't help but care too much for the people who also always care for my friends.

We looked at the area where the bullet came from and two figures came out hiding from the tree and bushes.

A woman with one cyber eye which was surrounded by bandages towards her neck, dressed up in a Victorian outfit with a big wide hat, holding a Victorian folding fan. Beside her is a little girl with short black hair wearing a purple kimono and a signature mole near her mouth.

By seeing their faces, a sudden chill felt down my spine that made me shivers and dropped a nervous cold sweat.

We may not know who they are, but I feel a very dangerous aura surrounding them and I'm sure they're one of the important people in this dark gloomy household.

The older woman, with the cyber eye, started to murmur something about Canary not having her work done properly.

So she's been the one who's giving orders, then that means...

"Who are you?" Gon asked with courage, not being bothered by his bruised face.

"Sorry for my rudeness. I'm Kikyo, Killua's mother," she introduced herself while pointing her fan towards her chest. "And this is Kalluto." then point at the little girl.

I was shocked and surprised by the introduction. Who could have thought that our unofficial intrusion would alert all of the Zoldyck mansion, including the queen of the family and her favorite little princess, and took the effort of coming here?

The woman named Kikyo told us about a message that Killua just send.

She said that Killua doesn't want to see our faces for now but Gon respond with an encouraging message and Kikyo followed his order, then moved out of sight with Killua's little sister.

Canary woke up from getting fainted, making the heavy burden inside us finally lifted up as we saw her alright.

"I will lead you to the butler's headquarters." she spoke and lead us towards the said place which is actually an oversized mansion with a lot of luxurious windows and a door.

It looked like it was made of gold and some furniture was being displayed outside. And I remembered Canary saying that this is just a headquarters for butlers.

More than one butler greeted us with a bow and a very comforting greeting. They escorted us towards their living room and let us sat on the clean and expensive-looking sofa with our dirty clothes that don't fit in.

They said that Killua will be here at any minute and while waiting, they recommended us a coin game. It was just a playable and simple game at first but it turns out that we became more serious when the time that they treat us to not see Killua again if we lose the game.

They continued the game and one by one, our team was going down until Gon was the who is left to play, and I almost dropped my jaw when he injured some part near his eye to see the coin clearly as it moves into the air.

With that trick, Gon had the victory over his hands and all of the butlers started clapping because of our participation in the game. Just in time, Killua came out of the other doors and started yelling at the butlers for not telling us that we are already here.

After that, he rapidly rushes towards Gon and started pointing the injuries on his face.

"What happened to you? You look awful!" he shouted at Gon with a wide grin on his face like he almost laughs at what he saw.

"You too!", the latter responded with the same smile on his face.

Killua turned his face to Kurapika. "So you're... hmm... Kurapika, right?" he asked.

"What am I, an extra?" Kurapika sighed because of disappointment.

"Reolio!" the former shouted again at the old-looking guy.

"It's Leorio!" Leorio corrected him with his annoyed face and a bunch of irk marks keep popping up on his forehead.

When I stare at Killua in great shape without him noticing me in my position, I couldn't help but let my tears of joy dropped one by one.

"Killchi!!" I shouted his nickname, making his head turned around in my direction with a questioning look on his face. As my tears are falling on the ground, I rushed towards him and jumped to give him a great big hug as a greeting for his comeback.

But I saw him lift his arm and grabbed my face with his hand to keep me from hugging him.

"Even this creepy crybaby is here?!" he shouted in disgust as he still not letting go of my face from his arm. I tried to remove his arm from my face but he is more powerful than I am.

"Killua, stop it." Kurapika scolded him. "Secco was the one who was worried the most for you, ever since you left the exam."

When Kurapika spits those words, I noticed that Killua slowly removing his grasp from my face until I can finally breathe for more air.

"You're... worried about me?" he asked me with a little bit of tone of shyness from his voice. I lifted up my face to see him clearly and the only thing I saw is him lowering his head and his cheeks started to turn red.

I couldn't help but admit that he was so cute on that act that my saliva started to drop from my mouth and my nose started to bleed.

"Killchi, you've finally acknowledged me!~" I asked him in excitement and joy now that he appreciated my efforts as a friend of his.

"Hmph! As if I acknowledged such piece of trash." he started to insult my efforts and my worries for him but I saw in his red face that he was actually saying the opposite. I just smiled at him and ignored his insults.

After that short reunion with Killua, we moved out of the mansion and started to talk about where should we go next. On the way out, I cockily told him about me improving my strength to just open the Test Gate.

"Killchi, now I'm catching up on you!~" I told him in confidence.

"There's no way you can catch up with me if you just opened the first gate only, coward," he answered with an insult as he pointed his index finger again in my forehead. When I heard the word 'coward', I can't help but go wild.

"What?! You're calling me a coward, stupid killer?!" I fought back as my eyebrows almost meet their ends.

"So what, old woman?!"

Our fight continued until our foreheads and noses were stuck to each other. The fight didn't last long when Kurapika and Leorio announced something.

They decided to part ways from us for some personal reasons. Kurapika told us what Hisoka whispered to him during the exam and it was actually about the Phantom Troupe, the gang who killed his entire clan, who was also known as Spider.

He said that they were actually at the Yorknew City right now and Kurapika wanted to apply as a Blacklist hunter at the same place so he can hunt them. So we decided to meet at Yorknew City on September 4.

Leorio wanted to continue his path on becoming a doctor and bid goodbye on the three of us.

We were the only three left in the squad and I was planning on separating from them too.

"Gon, Killchi." I called their names, and they both turned around me at the same time with a questioning look.

"This will be my limit," I announced and they all have the same facial expression, shocked.

"Huh? You're leaving, Secco?" Gon asked me with a hint of refusal was written on his face.

"My true purpose of becoming a hunter was not just to protect the ones I love, but to also know about my arm," I explained to them as I stared at my bandaged arm and clunch it into a fist. "I want to study it, so I can control it, and maybe it will help me in the future. And also... I want to be stronger to protect you both... on my own."

"Well..." Gon doubly accepted my decision but he couldn't do anything to stop me. "Then, take care, Secco." yet, he still forces a smile on me.

I nodded and raised my hand to show my thumbs up to them. "Let's meet at Yorknew City on September 4! And when I go back, you will be surprised because of my sudden change!"

Gon also gave me a nod and thumbs up."Good luck, Secco!"

Gon started to wave his hand to me while Killua just stared at me, didn't say any word about my departure.

I also waved my hand to both of them while a smile was painted on my face.

"Secco! Wait!" I was about to run away at high speed when someone called my name from behind. I thought it was Gon who was calling me but when I turned my head to look around, I saw him with his silvery shining hair and blue sparkling eyes.

"K-Killchi?" I startled because of his sudden chase after me and especially, with those serious look on his face that I couldn't even read.

He stood there for a minute as he stared at my cobalt blue eyes. I lost control and it was too late before I know that I was stuck in his eyes.

Suddenly, he raised his right hand towards my forehead and poke it in great force. I shouted in pain as I tried to cover my forehead with my both hands to stop the small yet painful feeling coming from it.

"Ouch! What did you do that for, Killchi?!" I pouted and shouted angrily at him because of his sudden attack at the hard yet weak spot of my face.

As I was busy massaging my forehead to remove the pain I felt, I noticed his sudden change of expression.

His eyes were sparkling and reflecting from the sunset beside us. His warm-looking cheeks are shining. His smile was as wide as the sky above us.

He was smiling. He was smiling right after me. He was giving one of his best smiles, and this was the first time. Before, he always gave me chilling glances and deathly glares, but now, he looks nice to me.

"I poke you in the forehead... because that was my way to say goodbye to you."

After a few seconds, I realized that I'm blushing in front of him.