Part 52: Stalk X And X Date

NARRATION

It's normal to take a break after a long time of torture by life. It's normal to have fun once in a while. But Killua isn't like that at all.

"Why are you here?"

He asked while one of the tall pillars of the building was covering his presence from the people he was hiding from. His hood coming from his jacket added up to his hiding skills.

"Because... you're here...?" She answered with a question at the end. "Why are you stalking them?"

Secco started to get suspicious of her friend's actions since they stood alone in their apartment. And a really curious girl she was, she started to follow him wherever he goes, even ended up inside an ocean park, with whales performing in front of them. But they weren't looking at those mammals at all, instead, they're looking at the two people in front: a beautiful young lady and a kid.

"I just want... to protect Gon." Killua simply replied, with no excuses or indirect sentences. He, then, continued to stare at the two whale viewers with his eyes pleading of the guilt and depression he felt.

"From Palm?" Secco asked, tilting her head to show her curiosity.

"Well, yes." The lad answered honestly, couldn't be able to hide anything right now anymore since he was being caught red-handed. He tried to avoid her eyes since they he was uncomfortable in their position. "She may not look like it, or maybe she was, but she's dangerous. And Gon can't use Nen yet."

"But stalking isn't the way." She said, pouting her lips to show that she disagreed with his actions. "You'll look like the one who's dangerous here."

"Whatever."

She just shrugged off her friend's insulting reply and turned her head to look at the whales jumping from the small sea in front of them.

She couldn't help but stare at the jumping sea creatures, but she didn't show any face of happiness or amusement. She is just staring at them. She wasn't sure how to feel seeing it. Should she be sad that they aren't free at all?

Killua saw her noticeable actions, and continue to stare at her too. He realized that it wasn't the same Secco he knew anymore. Normally, she would be amazed and got distracted by the entertainment the whales gave her, but right now, she acted like they weren't whales at all. Like they were the same as her, she couldn't be free from the life she was in, no matter how she tried to get out. She was completely different.

***

Inside an underground clinic at the forest of the NGL, lies the Chimera Ant Queen in a bed, with no movements coming from her at all. Her blue blood rushed from all of her body parts, while the human doctors and surgeons are trying to save her life but then, in a short amount of time, she was already dead. No signs of life coming from her at all.

Colt, one of the Chimera Ant soldiers, mourned for his queen's death, as he held a little infant as small as a flower in his three-fingered arms. He didn't successfully protect the two important people of his life, but he had someone to protect right now, and this time, he won't fail.

While the human hunters, including Grenno, a Beast Hunter, just stared at the dead body of the Queen, as her loyal servants lowered their head to have respect for her.

During normal times, Grenno would be carrying that dead body to his laboratory, and make experiments out of it, but this time, it wasn't the time. He can feel their former enemies' sadness as their lost hope vanished in front of their eyes.

This lasted for a long time, but they're patient. They waited for hours after the moment finally ended.

"Hey," Grenno called, as everything was settled and the Queen was decided to be buried into the ground with a proper burial. "About what you said that Chimera Ants can remember their life as a human, do you happen to remember someone... who is an Exorcist before?"

"Exorcist?" Colt raised one of this eyebrow, couldn't understand the term he just heard.

"Err... it was a person who... remove bad omen from people like curses, threats, or something like that," Grenno answered, unsure if he explained it enough so the former can understand.

"Hmm... I'm not sure." Colt said as he put his fingers into his chin, trying to collect his memories. "But I remember Wynn calling himself to be curing curses from people."

"Is that so?" The beast hunter widened his eyes, which started to sparkle, eager to listen from the information he got.

"Yes," Colt replied. "But sadly, he decided to follow the King."

"I see." He said. His eyebrows met at the end, trying to think of a plan to gain his goals.

While he was thinking deeply of a plan in mind, Morel, an Ocean Hunter and his comrade, stepped forward to their conversation with his large body build, his gigantic large pipe still hanging on his back, wrapped in bandages to conceal.

"What's the matter, Grenno?" He asked, with a wide smirk on his face.

"Morel, I have a favor." His friend immediately talked, without any warning, and made him confused about the sudden actions.

"What is it?"

"Can you let my student go with you during your infiltration?"

The answer made Morel raised an eyebrow, trying to read what's inside his comrade's mind. No one could ever predict his actions, not even his colleagues.

"How do you know about that?" He asked.

"Well... I have... ears everywhere." He answered, unsure if the former will buy his excuse. He couldn't just let anyone know about his secrets in accessing information from different branches. If a branch broke, then the whole tree will break apart. At least, that's what he believed in.

Then, after a short moment of silence, Morel burst out laughter in front of them. All of the witnesses are confused about his reaction since there's nothing funny about that statement.

"Haha. I'll consider it." He answered, bringing back the wide grin in his face. "If they're brave and strong enough, then I'll let them."

***

The night already came into the part of the NGL, but Gon and Palm's date still didn't end that easily. No sweat was dropping from their faces, showing their exhaustion after the tours and trips they had during the day.

Soon, they started to walk in the woods, and every hour, they got deeper and deeper into it. It should be dark and spooky for those who will be walking through the place, but the moonlight passed through the leaves, giving a path for the lost wanderers. Then, they ended up in a tree, with no leaves or fruit from it, only a tree with lonely dark branches coming out of it.

And of course, the stalkers are still following the peaceful hang out of the two in front. They both sat down, hiding in the bushes, trying to hide their presence from them.

Their eyes are stuck to them, waiting for something to happen or one of them to make the first move. It was confusing and interesting for Secco since she had seen this several times in the movies before.

While they are having fun in their own ways, Killua suddenly felt something in the air. His eyes were widened in shock as he tried to sense it again. His sweat started to drip from his forehead. It was a dark Aura, and it's not just coming from anyone. It came from a Chimera Ant.

And it's not just who felt that demonic presence of a monster. Secco, who was beside him the entire time of the day, not leaving by his side, also felt that too, which triggered her defense reaction. She already grabbed bandages from her pocket, ready for a sneak attack coming from the ambush.

"Secco," Killua called for him through a whisper, not removing his serious face. "stay here with Gon."

"Wait." Secco raised one of her eyebrows out of confusion, couldn't be able to react to his decision. "You're gonna fight it... all by yourself?"

"If both of us will face it, then no one can protect and watch out for Gon." Killua tried to defend his decision from her disagreement. The latter just stared at him, with her eyebrows stuck with each other. "Please, just do it."

After a staring match between the two, Secco gave a deep sigh, showing her frustration, but ended up in a defeat. "Fine."

Killua accepted this as a head start and was about to walk towards the deeper space of the woods. When he was about to take a step forward, arms wrapped around his torso, keeping him from moving anywhere at all.

He didn't try to resist it and just didn't move an inch in his position. It was gentle and warm. It wasn't anything threatening. He tried to peek who did it, but even though he won't face it, he knew where it came from.

"Be careful," Secco whispered as she couldn't let go of his body. It hurts her to see Killua facing an opponent when she was there, waiting for her friend to defeat it. She doesn't want him to go away. She doesn't want to fail to protect them anymore.

After that short amount of warmth, Secco finally let go of her arms, which set Killua free and ran into the deeper part of the woods as fast as he can.

Secco didn't have any time to spare and just sat to guard Gon who was just meters away from her. She was planning to shout at Gon about the Chimera Ant that's lurking in the woods, but she doesn't want to ruin the good times they had.

Then, after an hour of waiting, Gon and Palm started to stand up from sitting down, with the latter showed up a face that wasn't amused or happy at all. They both walked away from the lonely tree and away from the woods they were hanging out at.

Secco saw these suspicious actions and attempted to stand up from her position and tried to follow them as fast as possible. But realization caught her, keeping her from moving in her position at all.

She was determined to take care of Gon and look out for them. But then... she remembered Killua.

He's still fighting with a Chimera Ant right now, and she couldn't be able to leave him alone in this dark place full of wild animals. She tried to move but every time she remembered him, she couldn't be able to decide what to do.

She doesn't want to leave Killua at all.

"What happened?" She heard a familiar voice coming from her back, so she turned around, with lots of hope in his eyes, and saw Killua, standing, with injuries all over his body.

"Killua! Are you okay?" Secco asked, scanned his whole body full of wounds and injuries coming from their fight. For now, she was glad that he was still alive. "Let me heal th—"

"Why did you leave him with her?!" Killua suddenly snapped out of his silent zone and burst anger towards his friend in front of him. His face was furious with blazing blue eyes. He couldn't accept the fact that Second just left Gon with anyone that's dangerous. "I said to watch over him! It's so simple yet you couldn't do it! Is he even important to you?!"

Because of the rage exploding from his mind towards his mouth, she couldn't be able to react. She couldn't move from her position. Her whole body was shivering from the fear and grief she felt.

She was hurt and scared at the same time, couldn't be able to react from the anger that she just faced. Her eyes started to get warmer than before, forming tears that started flowing on her cheeks, then dropping on the solid ground.

"B-But... I... I just couldn't... leave you here, Killua." She stuttered, with her cracked voice interrupting her explanation. She tried to explain it clearly, but then, her fragile heart forced her to cry. She lowered her head to cover her face and wiped her eyes with her arms. "I realized that... you're fighting something dangerous. I just... I couldn't let you die. You're... you're important to me as Gon was important to me too."

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry, Killua... I'm sorry." Her cries are even louder than before, as she couldn't help but be in grief. She couldn't say anything properly at all.

He then realized something because of her actions. After that, he came to a conclusion. This... this is the Secco he knew.

Then, after her mourning, Killua grabbed her by the arm and moved her closer into him. He wrapped his arms around her small body. Nobody tried to move off their position, as they are absorbing what's happening around them.

"I-It's fine. S-Stop crying now." Killua said while stuttering, her face was all red because of embarrassment. He then let go of his grasp of Secco with a gentle touch and tried to explain everything. "I-I forgive you. But first, let's take care of Gon."

The girl stopped crying and wiped all of her tears from her eyes. She then showed up her warmest smile at him.

"Okay."

After the settlement between them, they ran back towards their apartment, trying to find the two people who disappeared in front of them.

Once they opened the door towards the living room, they found Gon writing plenty of papers laying down into the floor, which is mainly for Palm. On the corner of the room, the lady found the two, standing in front of the door.

All of a sudden, she struck the two unwanted visitors using her deadly knives in her hands, but then, Killua reacted so quickly and dodged the knives away from both of them.

At the same time, he grabbed the lying Gon on the floor, still writing about his apology, and started to make a run for it.

Nobody knows any plans and couldn't be able to have any idea why they decided to run from the crazy behavior of Palm. But no one regretted having a run from her, now that she started to look like a psychopath in their eyes.

They ended up in a hotel near the station, which then considered their safety from the rampaging Palm. Both Killua and Secco panted while lowering their heads on the ground, trying to catch their breath.

They decided to stay in the hotel for a while when keeping themselves away from their killer into a safety zone.

Gon and Killua decided to go on a gym to train more, while Secco was left inside the hotel, training her meditation to keep her arm away from controlling over her.

At the same time, a phone call echoed through the room, which stayed silent before. Irritated by the noise, Secco decided to answer the call, which unexpectedly came from Grenno.

"Hello?" She asked, trying to confirm the presence of her master.

"Secco, I have news for you," Grenno said lazily, couldn't give the effort to speak seriously at all.

"What is it?"

"Pisacco was eaten by a Chimera Ant, unfortunately. I found his clothes in one of the corpses." The man said straightforwardly about the problem they were facing. After she knew about this, her eyes widened out of surprise and disappointed with their failed mission.

"I-I see." She stuttered in her words, couldn't be able to accept that her mission will just end here, without even her starting the day.

"But... there's a possibility that he became a Chimera Ant," Grenno added, which made her eyes more widened than before.

"A what? A Chimera Ant?" Secco raised an eyebrow, her mind was full of confusion about everything that he heard.

"Yes. It's possible that a Chimera Ant can have human genes. And I think I found him." Grenno continued to explain, didn't have time for his student's confused thoughts.

"The Chimera Ant's name was Wynn, an armadillo. You can find him in the Republic of East Gorteau, which the Chimera Ant King resides." He added. "I requested my colleague to take you there with them."

Then, with just that, the other line hanged up, leaving her to stare at the air, without a confused mind. She couldn't even start her meditation because of the new information she was given to, but she knew everything will change.

It finally started. Her mission of removing her arm had finally started.