Greetings, friends! I come bearing news!

This will be the last chapter for a while, as I'm reworking the previous chapters. Fear not, most of the story is the same, and a reread is not necessary. The most significant change is actually to be done with Hisoka's portrayal. Because I rewatched the show, and realized that Hisoka…

Doesn't touch anybody.

Ever.

Unless he's fighting.

Literally please, somebody, give me scenes where he purposely touches a person who he is not drawing blood from, or murdering, or in the process of murdering. The closest I can find is when he put his card on Killua's neck when they were at the Phantom Troupe hideout, but again, he was drawing blood.

So anyway, I felt it was a rather large injustice. I know some think that's not a big deal, but as a person who actually despises physical contact on a general basis, I highly appreciate it when somebody has enough self control to not grab, hug, poke, or just. Touch. Me. I think it's a pretty important personality trait. Thus, I'm reworking chapters to fix how Hisoka's creepiness is factored in.

IN THE MEANTIME ENJOY THIS FLUFFY CHAPTER OF FLUFF.

(I own nothing)

Kaia liked Hisoka.

That was easy. That was simple, that was obvious, that was probably dangerous because he was Hisoka, but Kaia liked him anyway. Staying with him...tugged at the clogs in her brain, let her think without getting caught. She felt like she could breathe. He'd probably kill her eventually. Yet…

Yet.

Kaia liked being here with him. She liked these woods. She liked the way the feather grass tickled her sticky skin. How the sun crept across the valleys in a patient, delicate wave of early orange-yellow, and how the firelight painted the morning darkness. The sound of wind as it played shadows and light with the grass. The sweetness of the river. The quiet moments shared between her teacher and her. She liked all those things.

She enjoyed his yellow eyes and the power in his shoulders, and she enjoyed talking nonsense with him, playing cards in the late light. She enjoyed preening under his compliments and throwing similar statements to the man herself. She, almost surprised in its fierceness, enjoyed being by Hisoka.

Even if, she thought, peering at him from over the softly smoking flames, his friends scared her.

Because forget Illumi.

"Sensei," Kaia called. Hisoka's attention landed on her like a bullet, yellow eyes haunting. From the edge of the clearing, Kaia gently rubbed the bloody nick in her ear—the scrape stretching from her cheekbone—and surveyed the mess of a camp. She pointed to the dead body laying in the center. "I was gone for an hour."

Stark gold pinpricks slowly trailed to where she pointed, then, just as slowly, returned to her face. Or, where she hesitantly prodded, from where an honest-to-dogs-needle had nearly ripped through her skull. She'd gotten by with a scrape because the very person she spoke to now had the speed of a God when it came to his cards, and apparently didn't hate her enough to let her die to the hands of his friend. Because Illumi had chucked a needle straight at her the moment she stepped into camp.

Stubborn, Kaia deliberately did not address Illumi in his full purple-skinned Gittarackur set. She pretended he didn't bother her. She knew how to act.

After a strong helping of staring her down with another expression she'd yet to pinpoint, Hisoka turned his head to the side. "Gittarackur," his voice layered smoothly, and the needle-man provided his attention. Hisoka's eyes tightened. "Did you forget the rules?"

"I know, I know." Illumi flapped his pale hand as if to wave the concern aside. "I did not expect it to still be by your side. I'm surprised you've been able to keep your pet for so long. I had thought for sure it would have run by now."

Hisoka's frown deepened, and his eyes remained heavy. He had a striking way of looking at a person. A single minded, violently focused sort of intensity. Almost as if everything that occurred did so to show him, impress him, amuse him, or displease him in some way. Illumi had evidently been on the receiving end of that stare many times; even now, he was barely affected.

"Illumi," is what Hisoka said.

"Alright, alright. I understand. She's off limits, Hisoka." The lanky man stretched his long arms for a minute, scanning the grass, until he found a spot to stick on and crouched. "Because I collected my target's card earlier, I have all six points." He withdrew a small pin from his jacket. "You can have the extra."

Hisoka caught the tossed pin and turned it over, inspecting it coolly. "Whose tag is this?"

"It belonged to some guy who tried to snipe me. He ticked me off, so I killed him." He reached for one of the many yellow needles poking out of his forehead. "Now, then."

As he began plucking each needle out, his cheek bulged and snapped into a different spot—followed shortly by his chin, his jaw and nose, while the sharp purple of his mohawk faded to a shiny black that spun and grew down past his hips. Kaia, like Hisoka, watched with rapt attention.

When it finished, Hisoka smiled. "That is always so fascinating to watch."

"It's pretty hard on me," Illumi explained. He pat his now smooth skin. "Oh, I feel much better."

Without further discussion, he promptly knife-handed the dirt in front of him and just...dug himself a hole.

Kaia'd seen it in the anime. All the pieces fell together and she, in that moment, knew everything that had transpired; the spear man challenged Hisoka to a duel, Illumi arrived to finish the man off, and... He looked an awful lot like a very, very awkward mole in real life.

Once he'd settled a large enough hole to satisfy him—Hisoka frowned at a clump of dirt that'd hit his shoe—Illumi promptly stepped in. "Well, I'll just sleep here till the final day," he said, and added before disappearing, "Good luck."

Then he was gone, and two semi-strangers were left alone with a dead body and a fallen tree.

Hisoka flipped the extra tag in his hand. Kaia rolled her shoulders restlessly. The fire crackled softly beside the body, casting a foreboding, treacherous shadow dancing across the low pink grass in the evening sunset. Somehow, in the mere hour she'd been off hunting rabbits, the big spruce tree they'd made camp by had been rudely cut down. Hisoka used it now as a long, convenient bench to overlook the clearing. Making the most of the opportunity, Kaia mused, before tightening her grip on the rabbits in her hand. Illumi's hole glared ominously at her. She felt blood drip down her neck.

It itched.

"Come join your Sensei up here, won't you?" Hisoka suddenly purred. He pat the empty spot on his right softly, offering a sweet, curled smile. "As you can see, I've rearranged our camp. It is much more pleasant to sit on something other than the dirt, don't you think?"

Kaia leaned on her left leg while sending her teacher a disbelieving stare, but as the man she admired seemed more amused than bothered, she sighed, choosing to foolishly trust. Hisoka continued flipping that tag as she came to sit—on his other side, where he'd stand as a clear barrier between Illumi's dirt home and her. Just in case, she thought.

Hisoka was so, so much larger than her. Sitting here like this, her head barely came to his arm band, and her feet did not touch the ground his shoes sturdily rested against. He hummed. She nodded to herself. She was fine. She hadn't just been murdered, and Hisoka had effectively used Hisoka Powers, and even if her belly felt a little twisted and her throat a little tight, she was fine.

Hisoka offered the pin to her, pulling her from her self-distraction. "Number 80. You have yet to collect your tags, right? Would you like this one?"

Kaia tilted her head, thinking. Suddenly, as if this just occurred to her, she said, "Sensei, you like helping out, don't you?" She blinked up at him and his lack of reaction. Then she smiled, let it curb her eyes. "Thanks for stopping the needle. And if you're offering the pin, thanks for that, too. Just two more to go now, yeah?" She cocked her head, about to ask...then stopped herself and faced her feet.

"It was my pleasure..." The soft shuffling of Hisoka's cards filled the clearing, gently lapping over the sharply crackling fire. "Does your ear hurt?"

She reached for the spot instinctively. "A little. I think I'm gonna scar—oh, hey, there's a chunk missing. Wow, haha, I really did almost die. Definitely gonna scar... That's okay! Don't make such a scary face, Sensei! Scars are cool. And using Ten apparently makes my injuries heal faster?" She furrowed her brows and brought a thumb to her chin. "How does that work anyway?"

"Well..." Hisoka inspected a jack between his forefinger and thumb. "It seems to be a trait all Enhancers have."

Kaia tilted her head the other way, much like a dog. "So Enhancing is not just for strengthening a specific thing, but can be strengthening a specific feature or property?"

"Perhaps. Generally, Enhancers tend to strengthen their body parts. They make some of the strongest fighters that way." He put the card in his deck and rubbed a finger across it. "Is that what you're going to do?"

"...Good question." Kaia let a thousand ideas flicker behind her eyes before resting in a cozy little corner to stew. "I definitely like the idea of a tank. But...don't people usually only get, like, a couple abilities? Like you have your Bungee Gum, and Texture surprise—" his eyes darted to her, gold and predatory. Kaia barely paused. "—and those are pretty flexible. Other people, though, get like...punching. Really hard. Which, I guess I can find use in, just. Not super good in daily situations?" She flexed her fingers, a considerate raise to her brows. "I think I want something that I can use a lot and use often. Like yours."

The shuffling slowed, Hisoka's nails scraping along the sides of the cards, then it picked up again and he stared out over the pinkening sky, the blue-black shade of trees. "It is best to remain within your own category. Your sufficiency in, for example, Conjuration, is extremely low. To focus on it would be a waste."

Kaia leaned on her palms and kicked her feet. A sparrow's dark outline spun over the sunset.

"What if I Enhanced the properties of my nen?"

Hisoka stopped. Then continued. "Do explain."

"If Enhancing can be used to strengthen a specific piece of something rather than the whole itself—which I'll have to test out, this is just speculation—then couldn't I use it to just...build up itself? Say I Conjured up, like, a stick. Couldn't I then Enhance the quality of wood and the sturdiness, even though I made it? Or I could simply Enhance my nen itself, like some sort of self-powered hamster wheel, so I'd be able to make the stick in the first place."

"Hmm..." The edge of his lip curled into a smile. Kaia found she liked that. "Perhaps. You could simply pick up a stick, though."

"Well yeah, but that's not the point."

"Then what would you wish to Enhance?"

"What, I can't just choose to make sticks? What if I did it for firewood. I just Conjured up firewood and then Enhanced its properties so it burned real long and then used it for fire?"

"...Kaia, you can collect and Enhance actual firewood."

"Or I could make my own firewood. What if I was in a spot where I couldn't get firewood? Like on the ocean?"

"Oh, but boats are made of wood, are they not? Couldn't you take the boat apart and use that?"

Kaia slapped her hands on her knees and started to argue that, but she noticed the amused glint in how Hisoka curbed his eyes, and thought, oh, this is like Dad.

He's just having fun. Like Dad.

She grinned ferally in a way every tooth in her mouth showed and said, "If I could make firewood, then after using the boat as fuel, I could rebuild it."

Hisoka nodded approvingly. "Yes, but then what would you use for firewood?"

"I could make more."

"It is not your category, Kaia. You would certainly tire."

"Not if I Enhanced my endurance!"

He hummed. "And how would you go about doing that?"

"Um... Oh, oh," she snapped her fingers, "I could jumpstart certain functions in my brain and increase, I dunno, blood flow? And probably my basic body functions themselves, so my body would feel re-energized. I'd have to study human anatomy for that, though."

Hisoka slapped two cards together. "Would that mean you'd never tire?"

"...Yes." Kaia raised her eyes up, to the right, where the clearer blue shone like back light to the feathered tops of black pines. She frowned. "Darn. I love being unconscious."

"Are you hard headed?"

"Might be." She let herself flop over the log, scanning the undergrowth in its facinatingly upsidedown-ness. She blew a dandelion fluff that drifted over her nose. It billowed up, then hovered before softly drifting down. The grass smelled good, and the moist earth offered a comforting scent Kaia vaguely found familiar. Memories of similar things trickled down the back of her head. Kaia let the flitting notion caress her, and appreciated the colors of the sunset's afterglow.

"Your aura..." Hisoka purred inquisitively. Kaia kicked a foot to show she heard his quiet voice. "Did you learn Zetsu?"

"I think so. Needed to verify." She kicked her other leg, listening to the crunch of wood when her heel came down. "My neck itched, so I figured it was 'cause of me flaring my aura. Figured out Ten, by the way." She half curled up to peer over his elbow. "I was making my aura into a shell, but I shoulda just been keeping it from floating away." She snuck a glance at his face. "You never told me I was doing it wrong."

"You are very intelligent." He nodded to himself, as if he came to the decision recently. "I was certain you would not disappoint me."

She flopped back. "Thank you. You're very kind."

"So you figured out Ten..." He studied her from the sides of his eyes, still holding that eerie intensity. "What prompted you to try Zetsu, hm?"

"Ah, that." Kaia stretched against the log, relishing the way the bark dug and scratched at her back and shoulders, then she pulled one hand from the grass to show Hisoka her palm. She flexed her fingers. "I was making this bubble thing, but smaller, yeah? I'll show ya later—it's cool. 'Bout the time I figured out how to actually do Ten, and separate it from that bubble thing, I noticed my neck itched." She waited a breath, noticed a bat's shadow arc above them in wild zigzags, then continued. "So, I pulled all my aura to that little knot I like, and then just...Um, evaporating it? I definitely got rid of it." She squinted. "Where did it go?"

"Is that so?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Wanted to surprise ya with it, too, but I almost got my head taken off instead by Mister Mole over there."

"...Mole?"

She nodded decisively. "Mole."

"Hmm... You said your neck itched?" He allowed enough pause for her to answer, then smiled broadly and said, "perhaps you were bitten by a bug. There are so many out here, aren't there?"

She scratched below her jaw; scanned the almost black undergrowth in the limited, strained orange light, listening to the lonesome, inquisitive calls of estranged crickets. Hisoka's fingers slid deft against his cards. Kaia inhaled the cold earthy air, and relaxed.

"Yeah," is how she answered.

Hisoka considered this, a perplexed, or maybe simply thoughtful, moment. Then he asked, "did you kill it?"

"Nope." Thoughtfully, she added, "occasionally I think I hear a mosquito nearby, but I ain't been able to pinpoint it just yet." She sat up, peeling her shirt from the log's clingy bark, and hopped to her feet. When Hisoka asked, she simply explained, "I figured the sun's leftover light's about to drop off, so I might as well cook the rabbits when I can see them. Wanted to try something new, and kinda need sight for it."

She settled beside the fire, pulled out a pan to rest against the lining rocks, and began. This time, rather than toss anything, she planned to use seasoned guts with the fat scraped from the hides as a broth. The way Kaia figured, she'd begun regaining her appetite. More meat would be needed because of it. She would have tried to shoot perhaps another pig, or gathered more greens before heading back but...like she'd said. Her neck had itched.

Prickled, spiked, left a distilled, uncomfortable twist in her gut. Using Zetsu and old hunting habits copied from her father, Kaia'd been able to ghost from the eyes for a while. It'd come back not too long after sitting down. Yet...

Yet, while Kaia cooked now, she did not worry, nor did she do much more than vaguely scan the clearing's shadows, because Hisoka sat just three feet away, and she trusted.

Kaia chose to trust.

She would be fine.

The slightly bitter undertones of the guts complimented the sweeter taste from the rabbit meat, which had been cooked just enough to nearly melt in the mouth. The few parsley-like herbs and small cloves of garlic gave a richer flavor, and the wild asparagus a crunchy texture that finished the meal. Kaia let the flavors rest on her tongue, and decided that this meal she could be proud of.

Hisoka seemed to like it more, too. "It's unfortunate," he said, when she began to wash the empty pan. She continued scrubbing the meal's residue with water and a napkin, but inclined her head to show she listened. Before being prompted, Hisoka returned her plate to the grass on her side. He said nothing more, but Kaia waited anyway, quietly finishing washing her items.

When that'd been done and stars began poking holes through the darker corner of the sky, Kaia stoked the fire and asked, "what's unfortunate?"

Hisoka, pleased with her interest, held up seven thin sticks before tossing four. "This trial ends in three days." He smiled at her, tossing another twig away. "Your meals are rather delicious. Is cooking a passion?"

She watched him, considering his stature and the relaxed set to his shoulders. "I like eating," she allowed, eventually. "My mom was always the one cooking back home. She, um, preferred her meat as dead as possible, and gave herself bonus points for charcoal, or if you got a jaw ache after chewing." Kaia shrugged and mimicked holding her bow. "I didn't think much of it till I started hunting myself, and she burnt some of my steaks. After that, I started seriously cooking my meats. Then a lot of other foods, too... Though," here she grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of her head, "I found out later I have a taste for rawer meat."

Hisoka raised his brows. "Uncooked?"

She winked, showing one canine. "Pretty close." She glanced at a shadow that moved wrong. It molded back into a tree. She studied her peripherals. "I'm not completely fond of the gummy texture of rawness, though. Sometimes I cook it just enough to get rid of the gummy. But a lot of people don't like that so I make sure to cook it longer, like the rabbits. I'm guessing they tasted alright?"

"They were spectacular."

She smiled. "Cool."

Hisoka cocked his head. "There's still only three days left."

She copied him. "You said that earlier."

"Aren't you worried?"

"About meals? Oh, did you want me to cook for you? That's fine. Ha, I can be your Super Chef, making sure you eat a good solid meal after each fight. ...Or something like that."

He chuckled. "Kaia," a single eye peeked at her from between his fingers. "We need to collect your remaining tags."

"Ohh." She rolled her eyes up, as she'd forgotten, then looked to her right. "That's what you meant. Yeah. Guess I do gotta do that, huh."

"Well, now." Without much else, Hisoka stood up, placing one hand on his hip. He gestured to the trees with the other. "Shall we go?"

"To get tags?" She hurried to throw dirt over their fire, smothering it.

"Unless you have other plans..."

"No, no, I'm coming!" After tossing one final bunch of dirt over the fire, she clipped her fanny pack low on her hips and bounded after him. He waited for her—something she acknowledged as part of his character—before stepping once more into the twists and tangles of wonderful, wonderful expanse of trees. When Kaia walked behind him—like a follower, like followers did—she felt something...unfurl.

Something sort of warm, sort of pleasant, sort of happy on the inside of her chest.

Kaia stared at the broad back of the man who'd she'd chosen as her teacher, and thought, good.

She didn't feel caught in her own head.

She didn't feel burning.

She didn't feel bored.

She didn't feel bland, wrong, coldhearted.

She felt the chill that crept about the early night along with the skin-prickling heat that folded her stomach when she came too close to Hisoka. She felt the cold grasses and scratchy twigs and fallen branches against her ankles. She felt the goosebumps on her arms and the callouses on her fingers when she rubbed them. She felt sort of warm, sort of pleasant, sort of happy on the inside of her chest, and...sort of like she was getting too sentimental, and needed to chill out before she'd jumped too fast into quick pleasure.

Kaia swallowed the majority of nostalgic emotions reminding her so clearly of homedadhuntinghomedogsdadhomehuntinghome, of what she loved, and scratched the scabbed splotch on her ear. It burned. She'd probably started bleeding again, since the scab now sat wet on her palm.

...She was still happy.

She decided that was fine.

Fight her.