Part 41: Search X And X Sought

NARRATION

Both sides didn't move at their position, waiting for the other one to execute their blow. They wouldn't expect to be against each other as they were just got involved in this.

'Did she call for her?'

The big man with the cursed arm thought as he stared at the lady with purple hair, holding her trident in her right hand, now stained with his blood.

"Tell me, are you her client?" The man spoke to the young woman straight-forwardly, which made the latter raised her eyebrow out of confusion but got curious at the same time.

"What are you talking about?" Java asked, didn't answer the question, as her curiosity win over her. She just went over here because it was her master's orders. Her master just told her to go to a place called Philene Village and just remembered that her student was also there.

"Never mind." The big builder said, closing his eyes as he didn't expect that to be the answer. "You don't know anything. So I might better kill you right away."

With him giving a death sentence to her, he sprinted out of his place and moved forward towards her in an inhumane speed. But thankfully, Java jumped in mid-air as the time he got closer to her.

As she was in the air, she pointed her trident towards the man below who doesn't have any idea what she was about to do. With the wide smirk in her face, she watched everything to unfold and all of a sudden, the large man was being sucked in the air, moving towards her trident's blade at great speed, like he was being pulled to it. The man couldn't even react to the attack and was just shocked at what happened.

With no hope of getting out, the blade stabbed his right arm, leaving it to drop a puddle of blood into the cemented ground. But he didn't even bother to feel the pain, and just felt annoyance and anger towards the woman.

"You b*tch! What did you do to me?!" He yelled in anger as he tried to remove the trident out of his arm, but it was too strong and hard for him to remove it.

Java didn't answer, and instead, she jumped off in the air into the ground with a soft landing. She stood up and started to use her Nen technique. Then, all of a sudden, the trident dropped into the ground with great speed, carrying the man with it. Both the weapon and her enemy landed into the ground with great force, leaving him squashed and take damage. This made him angry much more.

"I used my special technique, "Magnetic Field" on you. The more I wrapped Aura with the properties of a magnet into my trident's blade, they can attract any other metals, even the iron minerals inside your body." She explained as she finally removed the trident out of her enemy's arm, which made him shout for pain, "So if you're anemic, you can actually get away. But it seems you aren't."

"You..." He growled in his position, his eyes started to get dark and became a cloud of green. "You and the kid with your stupid f**king powers!! I'm going to kill you right now!"

He shouted in anger and started to release dark Aura inside his body, which made his opponent in an alert stance and went into serious mode.

'The way he identified Nen as 'power' means that he doesn't learn it yet. But he just used Ren and released that much Aura. Maybe he knew about it naturally.'

Java thought as she readied her trident to strike again with her Magnetic Field. She didn't expect that she can be in a dangerous fight like this, she was just ordered to investigate the village, after all.

"Stop it, Ziddo."

The fight was being interrupted by a shout from a distance. The voice gained both of their attention and forgot to charge up their readied blows.

On the top of a house, not far from the battlefield, a man in a cloak, covering all of his body and some parts of his face, showed up out of nowhere. No one can see his face, but Java can clearly see his wide smirk up to his ears and the wrinkled skin I'm his cheeks like he came from Hell.

"Don't try to interrupt our fight, Maurice! I was about to-"

"I found her."

The big man, which turned out his name to be Ziddo, couldn't be able to say his sentence when the cloaked man named Maurice interrupted it. As soon as he heard what he said, his eyes widened out of surprise, and his irritated face turned into something else, once he widened his smile like a serial killer.

"I found her daughter," Maurice said as he still couldn't remove the smile in his face as he thought of many things. "I can't wait to play with her! She's a strong one!"

"You should've brought her here, idiot!" Kiddo yelled at the cloaked man, feeling irritated. He, also, been waiting for this whole time to come, and now that they finally found her, their excitement increased.

"I can't. It's not the time yet. Let's wait until it completely controlled her body." The former answered, as the back of his cloak swayed in the dusty wind around them.

"Should we finish this b*tch up? She will be a nuisance." The big man said as he turned around to see Java, who have no idea what's going on in front of her. He just gave her a death glare, but the latter didn't seem to be bothered by it.

"Hmm..." Maurice said as he rested his chin in his fingers, trying to think something, while keeping his creepy smile in his face, "We'll let her escape for now. That will make this game more fun! And I don't think she worked for the government either."

Ziddo didn't like the decision of his companion and gave him a deadly glare of annoyance, but he doesn't have a choice but to follow him. Once he made a decision, no one can change it, even himself.

So he sat in the air, preparing his legs, and jumped high into the air, towards the roof the cloaked man was at. They started to leave, but once they did that, he took a good look at his previous opponent and gave her the last death glance before moving out of the scene.

Java was just left standing there, couldn't be able to move as she was witnessed. Her cold sweats were pouring on her cheeks, but she was able to stay calm in her position. She felt it. She felt the deadly dark Aura of that man in a cloak that she just met.

I have to tell it to Grenno.

***

SECCO RASVIN

The days of training were over and we finally start beating the game. First, we started collecting restricted slot cards in the nearest place which are the Legendary King Great White Beetle and the Gold Dust Girl, and decided to go to the City of Gambling, Dorias to get more of the cards.

"You're looking for Grenno, right? Go to Dorias. You'll find him there."

All of a sudden, I remembered what Binold told me before during our first days inside the game. Come to think of it, I actually didn't come here inside the game just to beat it. I actually came here to find someone. Someone that can tell me everything I have to know about my arm. Someone that can help me find a way to stop it.

Before we went towards Dorias, we stopped by Antokiba to try the monthly contest that occurred. Since I realized what I was going to do inside the game, I lost the energy to play with Gon and Killua, and just ended up with just the both of them playing and winning the contest.

We won the Paladin's Necklace, which can reflect all attack spells and can restore cards under the effects of Transform and Fake cards, to their original state.

After a long run of collecting cards for the game, we managed to collect a total of six different restricted slot cards which isn't that really easy to gain at all. But Gon and Killua are having fun collecting them and almost underestimating the mechanics of the game.

After a long walk in the game, we made it towards Dorias, which was full of buildings with luminescent lights and noisy casino devices. It felt like I'm back in Yorknew City because of this. Since our apartment was beside the Casino Grand of the city, we couldn't get away with the noises they brought us and my father couldn't complain since it's a very large company that was carrying it.

We started playing the slot machines to try gaining restricted slot cards to add to our collection. Killua volunteered to try the slot machine. I can't help but think that he just wanted to play it. We used Risky Dice to play the game and it gave us a good amount of restricted slot cards. But after we heard about a guy who died using the same method as we do, I couldn't help but be worried about Killua's state.

The ability of the Risky Dice is not to be messed with. Once you've rolled Bad Luck, you'll gain bad omen and will cancel all the good things that happened to you. It even results in death.

And yet, that didn't stop Killua from rolling the slot machines, which made me a lot more worried since he couldn't be able to stop himself from doing it.

"I can do this... one more time!" Killua spoke, as I can see his cold sweats dropping into his cheeks and his eyebags got worse than before.

"K-Killchi... please stop it..." I stuttered in fear and worry. A tear almost fell in my cheeks as I pleaded for his life not to end. I just couldn't help but want to push him out of his chair, but I knew he wouldn't like that.

"I said I can do this, so I'm gonna do it!" He just shouted with desperate to throw the dice into the slot machine and was about to do his thing when suddenly, Bisky's hand formed into fist struck his head in great force, causing him to lose consciousness and slept for a while.

"Okay, let's move on to the next city!" Bisky shouted as Gon already carried Killua in his back.

I was about to go follow them when suddenly, I heard a loud smack coming from the large room we're in. I turned around to look for the source of that sound and it was coming from one of the people playing the slot machines. My friends also heard the sound and did the same thing.

"Damn it!" The man with long curly hair tied into a ponytail, wearing a large eggshell scarf all around his neck up to his chest and loosen sweater and trousers. When you looked at him, he looked like a wandering traveler from the other side of the world because of his outfit.

"Go to Dorias. You'll find him there."

I don't know why, but I have this feeling that it was him. My gut kept shouting that I should approach him and ask for his name, but I don't know if it will end up good. Is he really him? Is he really... Grenno?

"C-Can I get a second?" I asked my friends to give me a short time to do this. I saw them nod in approval and after seeing that, I started walking towards the guy who shouted earlier.

Every step I took to send me chills like I'm walking towards death or something. I can feel a strong Aura coming from his body and this is my first time seeing one of these people. Before, it was easy for me to amaze them, but now, I finally realized how dangerous are they and not all of them are your allies.

"E-Excuse me..." I asked but he didn't turn around to see me and just concentrated on his slot machine, with his eyebrows about to meet in both ends.

"What?" He asked with an irritated voice as he tried to win the game in front of him.

"Are you... Grenno?" I asked him straight-forwardly as I gulped my saliva back into my throat.

"Yeah! Got the problem with that, kid?!" He burst all of his anger and irritation towards me. He shouted like an angry customer in a bar and I felt my eardrums were about to destroy because of that.

"E-Eh...?"

I couldn't help but to let my cold sweat drop into the floor as my troubled smile was stuck in my face, couldn't be able to react to him. And I can also feel my friends having a hard time understanding the man in front of us.

All I know about Grenno is that he's a Beast Hunter and an expert, but I didn't know that he has an attitude like this.

Looks like this talk will be a lot harder than I thought.