Part 51: I'm X Still X Weak

My mind goes blank, and couldn't be able to think of anything. It's like I'm being pushed into the end of my vision, just watching everything that happened right before me, without controlling my body. I'm not the one who's in control of it anymore.

"That's right! Go wild, Secco!" The crazy man named Maurice yelled as he laughed maniacally to my condition.

Then, I saw my arm started to grow into a monster, like those times in the past. I should be shocked and surprised, but it's not me who's controlling myself right now. It was someone... or something.

'Kill him.'

I tried to stop the voice that keeps invading my mind, pulling me back into my senses and trying to regain my control over my body. The whispers of the voice became stronger and louder, causing my ears to go deaf.

I put both of my hands in my ears to cover the irritation the voice in my head gave me.

'Kill him. Kill him.'

I resisted her calling, as I know it will lead me to doom. My arm started to return to its normal form as I tried to avoid the voice that has been trying to manipulate me.

No. You can't control me, not right now that I tried to remove you from myself.

This continued for a long time, making the man in front of me stopped laughing, and irritated of what's happening in front of him.

"Hm. It looks like it can't control you yet. That's a bit disappointing." He said in his creepy voice with a blank face, but then, he pulled out a wide smirk in his face, as his eyes gave death glares to me. "Well, I'll just try to kidnap you, then."

He sprinted from his position, followed by his crazy laughter that never ends. He ran towards me with incredible speed, causing me to panic.

I tried to dodge his attempt of catching me and sprinted to the left. But then, something grabbed me by my foot and pulled me into the ground with a loud crash. The pain went all over my body as I dropped from standing. Adding my injured abdomen which I got from his stabs made it even more painful to me.

I tried to look at what's behind me, and the time when I knew it, my eyes widened in shock and surprise.

It was his arm and not just any arm. It was a distorted arm. All of its features are exactly the same as mine. The tongue nails that keep pulling out hearts from my victims are being wrapped around my feet, trying to pull me without my will to do so.

I tried to crawl with all of my strength in the opposite direction, but the tongue nails are stronger than me. So I tried to repeat the process, desperate to be free from the pull.

The crazy man laughed again at my condition like it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. "There's nothing you can do about it!"

I still repeated my actions, determined to get out of his grip, but then, I am slowly getting tired of my useless effort, then decided to stop doing anything. My injured stomach made me lose a lot of my blood, causing me to exhaust easily and just focused on the pain I felt. My skin started to get pale because of me trying hard to let myself go.

What should I do? This could be the end of me. If I let this man get me, then my goal of removing my arm will go to waste.

As I was about to accept my fate, all of a sudden, something gigantic sprinted from afar and sliced through the tongue nails that keeps pulling my feet.

Because of this, Maurice screamed out of pain and frustration. His tongue nails were being chopped from his arm and blood started to drip from it. His eyebrows are attached to each other and even though he's covering his face with his hood, I still can see his red eyes glowing in the dark, shouting anger to someone who gave him pain.

Then, the creature finally showed up in front of us, much to my surprise when I saw the familiar gigantic lion, standing majestically, with blood-stained his right paw.

It was Vasil. Since he's the only lion that I knew all of my life. Yes. I saw lions before when my father used to take me to the city zoo, but none of them are as large as the beast in front of me.

And if Vasil was here, then that means...

Then, behind the large canine was him, standing with his eyebrows almost stick with each other and his long curly hair being tied down into a ponytail. His thin clothes are still piling up around his body.

"G-Grenno...?" I exclaimed out of surprise, my voice still low and tired after I started to get blood loss. The pain is still there, but I tried to fight over it.

He didn't reply and just stared at the man that's been torturing me all this time. No one dared to move, trying to detect the other's next movements.

"This isn't over, Secco," Maurice said to me with a different vibe from before. He was now more serious and cautious about his surroundings. After seeing Grenno, he became a different person.

Then, he sprinted back and away from our position, until his presence disappeared inside our range.

I couldn't be able to move from lying on the ground, still shocked of what's happening around me. I was about to get taken by a psychopath and then, Grenno showed up out of nowhere just to save me. I don't like him trying to save me from that man, but I don't have a choice since I'm completely out of energy.

He approached me, with Vasil following him from behind. He sat down in front of me and stretched his palm to my face. I tried to wait for him, curious about what he was about to do next.

Then, I started to feel that my energy came back from me. Even though I'm slowly losing blood, I can feel my strength started to come back to me. It's like the exhaustion I felt earlier wasn't there at all.

"This is my Nen, 'Legacy'. I can lend anyone my energy for emergencies. Use that to heal yourself." He said and stood up after he finished what he was doing.

I'm grateful he had given me this energy, but I'm still cautious of using it to myself. I just don't want to owe him anything at all. I tried to stop myself from seeking help from him so he couldn't blackmail me one day, but then, here I am, accepting his energy.

"Listen." He said, with his eyebrows finally met and I could see in his eyes the irritation. He might know that I tried to refuse his energy. "I don't have any intention of blackmailing you at all. I'm just a concerned comrade, okay? Don't think of anything negative."

Even though he said that I'm still growing suspicion, couldn't be able to trust him. But then, after a short time, I decided to use the energy he gave me since I'm started to lose blood, and heal myself.

"I'll be keeping an eye on you since you couldn't be able to control your arm," Grenno said, much to my surprise. I didn't expect him to go in an effort to stay and take care of me.

I stood up from lying down and faced him with my eyes glaring at him.

"I can take care of myself!" I yelled, didn't like him treating me like he was my father. I decided to take care of this mission alone, and yet, here he was, interrupting all of it.

"No you can't, you idiot! You thought I didn't see your arm going wild earlier?" He shouted back, trying to fight my rebellion.

"But I stopped it!" I did the same.

"Yeah, right. You stopped it, but still, you almost lost yourself. You were almost letting that arm control you." He said in a low voice, trying to stop the shouting argument we had.

After hearing his opinion, I started to listen. He's right. I almost let my arm control my body at that time. I must keep my arm from wreaking havoc the next time, and in order to do that, I must trust him, whether I like it or not.

"Okay." The only word that I can spit at this moment, trying to think if I made the right decision or not.

I tried to be independent, and don't want to reply to anyone at all, but I guess that didn't work out so well.

After facing my own problems and bought a new spare of clothes, I went back to the apartment and saw Gon and Killua getting frustrated over something.

I didn't have to ask for it anymore since I could see in their expressions the defeat and failure they faced in the battle. They lost, and it's not a good thing for them.

The next day, we went to the border stop of the NGL, to see the winner, Knuckle and Shoot leave and enter the forbidden place. Unlike Gon and Killua, they look like they've trained their Nen for a very long time, considering that they're older than the two boys.

After they bid farewell, Gon started crying as they leave, frustrated at the fact that he was too weak. They realized their weaknesses and not all of their enemies couldn't be defeated. I also felt that too, yesterday, as I faced Maurice, and couldn't be able to do anything to escape from him without Grenno's help.

Speaking of the devil, he decided to stay in the border stop, as he was having an urgent call coming from his colleague inside the NGL. I couldn't help but be amazed at his wide access to information all around the place.

We went back home to the apartment and while we're outside the building, I felt a demonic aura coming from the inside. Gon and Killua also felt this too, and couldn't help but to be nervous and alert.

But we didn't have a choice but to enter the now spooky building, and in our every step, we can sense that the aura is getting stronger and stronger. Cold what dropped from my forehead as we are getting nearer.

Then, we saw Palm in the wide living room of the place, stabbing a Gon doll, with multiple dolls behind her, stabbed and shredded with the knife in her hands. She turned her head around to look at us with her demonic red eyes, which sent chills down into our spines.

"You promised to take me to NGL..." Palm said, as she continuously stabbing the Gon doll in her hands while looking at us with her spooky eyes. We all just stood there, terrified of what she was doing to the doll, indirectly, to Gon.

"Yeah. I'm sorry." Our friend lowered his head, guilty of what he had done to Palm, which really isn't a big deal in general, but since she is a lady, that's kinda hurt her heart. "What can I do to make up for it?"

"Let's see..." Palm whispered, her voice sent chills down into my spine. "You must... do any one thing I say."

"Hey!" Killua yelled at her, doesn't approve of the idea she had given. I also don't want her to do anything bad to Gon. He's been crying and depressed all the time since we went home from the border, so her adding to his problem is a bit of a headache. But I didn't try to move an inch to react. "Do you know how Gon f–"

"Okay, I agree!" Gon answered immediately, much to our surprise. Killua became irritated but just stood up, not saying anything to them.

"Go out with me," Palm said, which widened our eyes. What?

"Huh?" Killua reacted and raised his eyebrow out of confusion and shock. I'm also surprised too. What the heck is going on?

"Okay." Gon answered.

"Eh?!" Killua and I shouted and looked at him at the same time, surprised at his reply. I couldn't believe what I'm hearing right now. Did Gon just say yes to a date?

***

I sighed as I sat down in my own chair. I waited for my ordered lemon cake in a nearby cafe. Gon and Killua went to the gym, not too far from here, to continue their training.

I didn't come with them, much of their surprise, as I started to not feel well. I don't know what was going on with me. It feels like I'm getting tired and my head started to ache. And all I could think about was to take a break and eat something to regain my energy.

I'm not sure if it's was the Maurice guy encounter or Gon's going on a date that made my head hurt. But right now, I should wait for my food.

Gon's date will be ready tomorrow and I decided to help in preparing for it later. I'm still in shock of what he did and how he handles it was like he had been on several dates before. Was Gon actually very popular in his hometown? I don't know.

My ordered lemon cake finally came after a short time of waiting and started to enjoy it all by myself. It's been months since I've tasted this cake at my father's house.

Speaking of my father, I wonder what he has been doing right now. I wish those auction guys won't be arresting him anymore. I don't want anyone to hurt him, that's why I didn't show myself up. I want to protect him from my arm and the threats that I'll be dealing with during my journey. I wish he was okay.

As I was thinking about everything, I suddenly felt an intense pain in my neck, which took all of my air inside my body, causing me to choke and unable to breathe. It didn't last for long and my air came back, then, I immediately took some short breaths to gain more oxygen.

What happened just now? It's like there's something stuck in my air passage that kept the oxygen from entering my body system. Is it because of the lemon cake that I ate, I don't know. It was weird. I thought I will lose my life at that time.

"Secco!" I heard a familiar voice from afar. I turned around to see Gon and Killua, with their wet shirts and bodies full of sweats all over. Why didn't they spend the time wiping themselves up?

We all started to prepare for Gon's date and went to the woods to prepare the special part of it. I started to envy Palm, to be honest. Gon was very kind and sweet to others, so it's obvious that he would spend so much time and effort to make this date very perfect.

The next day, Gon started leaving the apartment to have a date with Palm. He waved goodbye to both Killua and me, which we did the same thing.

After he left, the whole room just went into silence. No one spoke or made any noise. I just stood in the door with nothing to wait for. I don't even know what I was doing. I just don't feel like moving at all.

Then, I suddenly saw Killua walked pass through me, with a whole different outfit than before. He opened the door in front of us and was about to go out when I called him.

"Where are you going?" I asked him, still didn't move in my position.

"I... I-I'm training... at the gym." He uttered in his words, which made my suspicion in his actions increased highly. It's like he's not himself at all. Like he had been planning something.

He finally opened the door, didn't wait for my response, and closed it behind me. Out of curiosity, I sneakily followed him along.