A/N: My first HxH fanfic! Just a fun fluff piece written in response to a challenge issued by Imbrium, the other half of Jan-Ken-Pon. This fic is set during episode 49 of the TV series, manga chapter 69. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: HxH belongs to Togashi-san, not me.
……
"Are you sure Greed Island's not there?"
"Eight or nine searches aren't enough?" Killua leaned back, away from the computer, and stretched. "It's just not there, Gon."
"Moooou," Gon sighed from his place on the floor. He threw a crumpled piece of foam, left over from the JoyStation packaging, at the windchimes dangling from the window. It missed. "Are you really really REALLY sure?"
Killua tipped his head back and stared at Gon. "You heard the thing." He put his hands up to his ears and flopped them over in an imitation of the search dog. "No stores match your criteria-wan. Isn't that enough for you-wan? Che. It's annoying."
"Fine," Gon said, looking disappointed. "So much money… why would Jin give us an impossible clue?" He fiddled with the top of Jin's box, poking at the mysterious ring still nestled inside.
"'S'not impossible," Killua replied, throwing a foam chunk at Gon. "Just difficult. Any Hunter could get that much." He grinned. "It's probably a test. You passed the Hunter Exam, yeah. But even Leorio did that."
Gon retaliated with a handful of packing peanuts. "Leorio did fine!"
"Fine, fine… but you'd better try and pass Jin's Exam." Killua dodged some of the peanuts, but several ended up stuck to his hair. "We need money before we can do anything, and the stuff we got at the Celestial Tower isn't enough."
"It might have been if you hadn't spent it all on chocolate! And you didn't even share!" Gon upgraded from packing foam to a pillow.
"I let you have one," Killua protested, hopping off the chair and grabbing his own pillow.
"After you sat on it!"
"It counts!"
"Does not!"
"Baka…" Whump. The pillow hit Killua in the face, and he blinked. "It… does… SO!" he said loudly, and brought the pillow down as hard as he could. Feathers flew.
"What on earth… Gon! Killua! Stop it!" The two boys froze, staring at the open door. Aunt Mito was standing in the doorway, and she did not look particularly pleased at the swirl of feathers that floated through the air.
"Aw, we were just having fun," Killua said nonchalantly, pulling Gon over in a grip that was a little harder than it needed to be. Gon stepped on his toe. "Ow! Uh…"
"You pick these up right now," Mito said firmly, walking over to the window and pulling a few feathers off of the windchimes. "Every single one of them, Killua…"
"Me? Gon did it too!" Killua protested.
"I know, which is why Gon gets to pick up these." She nudged some packing peanuts with her toe. "Get going, you two." She smiled at them, then walked out. Killua flopped down onto the floor with a groan, sending feathers and foam flying.
"Mou… she's really strict," he complained.
"Not really," Gon said, bending down to pick up some packing peanuts.
"Che. My mom let me do whatever I wanted." Killua poked at a feather with one claw. "And I turned out mostly fine."
"Killua…"
"And now I'm bored. Again. And just when something exciting came up, too. Mouu… stupid game. We can't even play it." He glared at the JoyStation and kicked at it with one foot.
"They must be fun if you like them so much, these games," Gon said, continuing to pick up the peanuts. Killua rolled over and tripped him, sending the packing foam flying once again. "Hey! Why'd you do that for?"
"You've never played one? A video game?"
"Er… no. Should I have?" Gon blinked and tilted his head.
"You ARE a backwoods hick. What'd you do for fun?"
"Oh, lots of stuff!" Gon bounced. "Like go out in the forests and explore, and see the animals, and climb trees, and swim in the lakes and hike to the ocean and go fishing and play with Gonta and-"
"Che." Killua sat up, brushing the feathers and foam out of his hair. "I have to fix this. You can't live this… this backwoods country life forever."
"What's wrong with it?" Gon asked. "You liked it…"
"But... video games!" Killua spread his arms wide. "It's like exploring times ten. Way better."
"Times… ten…" Gon thought about this for a moment. "Um… so that would be… eighteen?" he finished hopefully.
"Nevermind," Killua said quickly. "The point is we have to fix this. You," he proclaimed, pointing at Gon with one pointy-clawed finger, "need to be educated."
"Okay…" Gon said uncertainly, but Killua was already back in the computer chair and typing. "What're you going to do?"
"Order a game, of course. Same-day delivery, like with the JoyStation." His fingers flew over the keyboard. "This old thing can't handle much but it should be good for SOMETHING. Ah… here we go!" A few clicks, and he turned around and grinned at Gon. "Street Kombat Dead-n-Mortal Hardcore Battle!"
"What?" Gon leaned in and stared at the screen. "What is it, and why does it have such a weird name?"
"It is," Killua said grandly, "only the best game available for this model of JoyStation. I played it when I was four or five, somethin' like that. It's a fighting game. Pretty easy, but it's fun."
"I'm not sure Mito will like the 'hardcore' part," Gon said quietly. Killua snickered.
"It's a weird translation, or somethin'. There's nothing really bad in it. Nothing bad we haven't already seen in the Hunter Exam, at least," he added.
Gon reflected on what he had seen during the Hunter Exam and was quite sure that Mito wouldn't approve. Still, he smiled at Killua. "Okay, I'll try it. Let's go out to the field and wait! We can pick berries on the way or something, I know a great patch…"
Killua shook his head, but followed Gon out of the room.
…
Gon heard the noise before Killua did, and sat up to poke his friend. "Oi, it's coming! Wake up!" he said eagerly, prodding Killua with one foot.
"Mmm?" Killua groaned, blinking and sitting up slightly. His 'pillow' grunted and did the same, and Gon laughed. Killua made a face. "Shut up, at least he's warm and fuzzy," he said, reaching back to pat the kitsuneguma's fur. Gonta snuffled and licked the boy's hand.
"It's coming, I hear it." Gon got to his feet and stared at the sky, shading his eyes from the sun with one hand. Beside him, Gonta twitched his ears and peered in the same direction, making inquisitive noises. "It's a helicopter, Gonta. You'll see. It's really cool!"
"You think everything is really cool," Killua said dryly, standing up just as Gon pointed eagerly.
"Look, there it is, there it is! Oi! OiiiiiI!" Gon shouted, jumping up and down and waving his hands. Gonta let out a bark and tilted his head at the strange buzzing thing in the sky. Killua simply rolled his eyes and smiled.
"Oiii! Over here! Ah!" The helicopter paused overhead for a moment before a parachute blossomed underneath. Gon ran after the parachute as it drifted into the trees, followed by Gonta, only to emerge a few minutes later with a small package and the plastic chute. He waved eagerly at the departing helicopter. "Thank you! Thank you very much!"
Killua shook his head and grabbed the package. He tore it open easily and grinned at the box inside. "Good, it's almost like new. Not bad for such an old game." He tapped Gon, who was still waving at the tiny dot that the helicopter had become. "Hey, c'mon, let's go play this thing."
"Mm!" Gon nodded, stopping to pat Gonta on the head before they set off back to the house.
…
"Here come new challenger – HA! Street Kombat Dead-n-Mortal Hardcore Battle!" The noise from the JoyStation was quite loud, and Gon lunged at the volume button to turn it down. Killua grinned as he fiddled with the controllers, setting two of them up at once.
"See, we can fight against each other," he explained, tossing Gon one of the controllers. Gon looked it over, turning it in his hands. "This button – no, the purple one – makes your fighter kick. The red one is punch, and you can hit those buttons in different ways to do combo moves. And there's jump, the green one, and the button underneath does a special attack that depends on your character. Got it?"
"Mm," Gon said, eyeing the screen curiously. "But how does it work?" He punched buttons to no effect.
"We're still on the title screen, baka," Killua replied, and tapped the start button. "Start… two players…okay, you pick which character you want to play. They have different strengths and stuff." He immediately navigated over to his favorite character, Beef Slabjaw, heavy fighter extraordinaire. "Hurry up. I have mine already," he said impatiently.
"Um… ano.. hmm…" Gon looked at each character carefully, then very slowly picked his way over to one. "Okay."
Killua stared. "Secret Angel Princess-Princess?!"
"It works," Gon said defensively. The game screen blinked, then switched to a scene of a fighting arena, their two characters facing off against each other. The countdown began.
"Three! Two! One! Here come new challenger! HA!" shouted the JoyStation. Killua immediately began hammering on the buttons, and his fighter flashed across the screen to deliver an attack.
Gon leapt to his feet and hit the buttons on his controller, leaning in to stare intently at the game. "Aaah! No, don't do that! Do this!" he yelled at the screen, kicking with one leg to demonstrate as he pushed the buttons frantically.
"Your sensibilities harm my omeganess! EYAH!" Pre-recorded screams echoed from the speakers as Gon's fighter flashed, indicating double-damage.
"Killua!" Gon said desperately. "Don't hit me so hard!"
"It's a game! Hitting hard is the whole point," Killua said, grinning evilly as he executed a triple-combo that sent Gon's fighter spinning across the screen to slam into a wall. "Better hurry up or I'm going to win."
"No! Do this!!" Gon bounced up and down in place, making punching motions with one hand in between hitting the controller buttons. "Thiiiiis!" The HP bar dipped into the red. "Noooooo!"
"Eat smiles with my ears when you say that! Woh-PAH!" the JoyStation barked. Killua's fighter loomed threateningly over the game arena, and Gon's fighter ignored all his attempts to demonstrate proper moves.
Killua snickered. "Sorry, Gon… but I'm going to win this one," he said with a smirk, and prepared to execute his final killing strike.
"No!" Gon yelled. "I'm not giving up! Special attack!!" He bounced some more, pushed the buttons as hard as he could… and began to glow.
Killua blinked in surprise, and missed the killing combo. "Gon…"
"Special attack!" Gon repeated, the orange glow intensifying. It began to gather around the controller and slowly snake down the cord, towards the console.
"Gon, stop it!" Killua yelled, lunging at the controller cord, sending his own controller flying. "You can't…"
The glow of Nen hit the JoyStation before Killua could knock the controller cord out of the socket. There was a fizzle, then a very loud pop, and the game vanished. Killua stared at the TV screen in disbelief.
"Um… did I win?"
Killua stared at Gon in disbelief.
"What?" Gon said, looking bemused.
"You… you BAKA!" Killua yelled, picking up a handful of feathers and packing peanuts and throwing them at Gon. "You BROKE it!"
"I did? I didn't mean to! You were going to kill me!" Gon protested, scooping up his own handful of ammunition and flinging it.
"It's just a GAME!" Feathers flew.
"I was doing the special attack!" Foam hit the ceiling.
"You didn't have to DEMONSTRATE!" The second pillow burst.
"Woh-PAH! I counter with veggie might!" Gon yelled, imitating the game, and tossed the Street Kombat Dead-n-Mortal Hardcore Battle box at Killua.
"BOYS!"
They blinked.
Mito walked into the room, her eyes blazing.
"New challenger, hah…" Killua whispered under his breath.
And a formidable opponent she was, too.
They lost.
Disclaimer: HxH belongs to Togashi-san, not me.
……
"Are you sure Greed Island's not there?"
"Eight or nine searches aren't enough?" Killua leaned back, away from the computer, and stretched. "It's just not there, Gon."
"Moooou," Gon sighed from his place on the floor. He threw a crumpled piece of foam, left over from the JoyStation packaging, at the windchimes dangling from the window. It missed. "Are you really really REALLY sure?"
Killua tipped his head back and stared at Gon. "You heard the thing." He put his hands up to his ears and flopped them over in an imitation of the search dog. "No stores match your criteria-wan. Isn't that enough for you-wan? Che. It's annoying."
"Fine," Gon said, looking disappointed. "So much money… why would Jin give us an impossible clue?" He fiddled with the top of Jin's box, poking at the mysterious ring still nestled inside.
"'S'not impossible," Killua replied, throwing a foam chunk at Gon. "Just difficult. Any Hunter could get that much." He grinned. "It's probably a test. You passed the Hunter Exam, yeah. But even Leorio did that."
Gon retaliated with a handful of packing peanuts. "Leorio did fine!"
"Fine, fine… but you'd better try and pass Jin's Exam." Killua dodged some of the peanuts, but several ended up stuck to his hair. "We need money before we can do anything, and the stuff we got at the Celestial Tower isn't enough."
"It might have been if you hadn't spent it all on chocolate! And you didn't even share!" Gon upgraded from packing foam to a pillow.
"I let you have one," Killua protested, hopping off the chair and grabbing his own pillow.
"After you sat on it!"
"It counts!"
"Does not!"
"Baka…" Whump. The pillow hit Killua in the face, and he blinked. "It… does… SO!" he said loudly, and brought the pillow down as hard as he could. Feathers flew.
"What on earth… Gon! Killua! Stop it!" The two boys froze, staring at the open door. Aunt Mito was standing in the doorway, and she did not look particularly pleased at the swirl of feathers that floated through the air.
"Aw, we were just having fun," Killua said nonchalantly, pulling Gon over in a grip that was a little harder than it needed to be. Gon stepped on his toe. "Ow! Uh…"
"You pick these up right now," Mito said firmly, walking over to the window and pulling a few feathers off of the windchimes. "Every single one of them, Killua…"
"Me? Gon did it too!" Killua protested.
"I know, which is why Gon gets to pick up these." She nudged some packing peanuts with her toe. "Get going, you two." She smiled at them, then walked out. Killua flopped down onto the floor with a groan, sending feathers and foam flying.
"Mou… she's really strict," he complained.
"Not really," Gon said, bending down to pick up some packing peanuts.
"Che. My mom let me do whatever I wanted." Killua poked at a feather with one claw. "And I turned out mostly fine."
"Killua…"
"And now I'm bored. Again. And just when something exciting came up, too. Mouu… stupid game. We can't even play it." He glared at the JoyStation and kicked at it with one foot.
"They must be fun if you like them so much, these games," Gon said, continuing to pick up the peanuts. Killua rolled over and tripped him, sending the packing foam flying once again. "Hey! Why'd you do that for?"
"You've never played one? A video game?"
"Er… no. Should I have?" Gon blinked and tilted his head.
"You ARE a backwoods hick. What'd you do for fun?"
"Oh, lots of stuff!" Gon bounced. "Like go out in the forests and explore, and see the animals, and climb trees, and swim in the lakes and hike to the ocean and go fishing and play with Gonta and-"
"Che." Killua sat up, brushing the feathers and foam out of his hair. "I have to fix this. You can't live this… this backwoods country life forever."
"What's wrong with it?" Gon asked. "You liked it…"
"But... video games!" Killua spread his arms wide. "It's like exploring times ten. Way better."
"Times… ten…" Gon thought about this for a moment. "Um… so that would be… eighteen?" he finished hopefully.
"Nevermind," Killua said quickly. "The point is we have to fix this. You," he proclaimed, pointing at Gon with one pointy-clawed finger, "need to be educated."
"Okay…" Gon said uncertainly, but Killua was already back in the computer chair and typing. "What're you going to do?"
"Order a game, of course. Same-day delivery, like with the JoyStation." His fingers flew over the keyboard. "This old thing can't handle much but it should be good for SOMETHING. Ah… here we go!" A few clicks, and he turned around and grinned at Gon. "Street Kombat Dead-n-Mortal Hardcore Battle!"
"What?" Gon leaned in and stared at the screen. "What is it, and why does it have such a weird name?"
"It is," Killua said grandly, "only the best game available for this model of JoyStation. I played it when I was four or five, somethin' like that. It's a fighting game. Pretty easy, but it's fun."
"I'm not sure Mito will like the 'hardcore' part," Gon said quietly. Killua snickered.
"It's a weird translation, or somethin'. There's nothing really bad in it. Nothing bad we haven't already seen in the Hunter Exam, at least," he added.
Gon reflected on what he had seen during the Hunter Exam and was quite sure that Mito wouldn't approve. Still, he smiled at Killua. "Okay, I'll try it. Let's go out to the field and wait! We can pick berries on the way or something, I know a great patch…"
Killua shook his head, but followed Gon out of the room.
…
Gon heard the noise before Killua did, and sat up to poke his friend. "Oi, it's coming! Wake up!" he said eagerly, prodding Killua with one foot.
"Mmm?" Killua groaned, blinking and sitting up slightly. His 'pillow' grunted and did the same, and Gon laughed. Killua made a face. "Shut up, at least he's warm and fuzzy," he said, reaching back to pat the kitsuneguma's fur. Gonta snuffled and licked the boy's hand.
"It's coming, I hear it." Gon got to his feet and stared at the sky, shading his eyes from the sun with one hand. Beside him, Gonta twitched his ears and peered in the same direction, making inquisitive noises. "It's a helicopter, Gonta. You'll see. It's really cool!"
"You think everything is really cool," Killua said dryly, standing up just as Gon pointed eagerly.
"Look, there it is, there it is! Oi! OiiiiiI!" Gon shouted, jumping up and down and waving his hands. Gonta let out a bark and tilted his head at the strange buzzing thing in the sky. Killua simply rolled his eyes and smiled.
"Oiii! Over here! Ah!" The helicopter paused overhead for a moment before a parachute blossomed underneath. Gon ran after the parachute as it drifted into the trees, followed by Gonta, only to emerge a few minutes later with a small package and the plastic chute. He waved eagerly at the departing helicopter. "Thank you! Thank you very much!"
Killua shook his head and grabbed the package. He tore it open easily and grinned at the box inside. "Good, it's almost like new. Not bad for such an old game." He tapped Gon, who was still waving at the tiny dot that the helicopter had become. "Hey, c'mon, let's go play this thing."
"Mm!" Gon nodded, stopping to pat Gonta on the head before they set off back to the house.
…
"Here come new challenger – HA! Street Kombat Dead-n-Mortal Hardcore Battle!" The noise from the JoyStation was quite loud, and Gon lunged at the volume button to turn it down. Killua grinned as he fiddled with the controllers, setting two of them up at once.
"See, we can fight against each other," he explained, tossing Gon one of the controllers. Gon looked it over, turning it in his hands. "This button – no, the purple one – makes your fighter kick. The red one is punch, and you can hit those buttons in different ways to do combo moves. And there's jump, the green one, and the button underneath does a special attack that depends on your character. Got it?"
"Mm," Gon said, eyeing the screen curiously. "But how does it work?" He punched buttons to no effect.
"We're still on the title screen, baka," Killua replied, and tapped the start button. "Start… two players…okay, you pick which character you want to play. They have different strengths and stuff." He immediately navigated over to his favorite character, Beef Slabjaw, heavy fighter extraordinaire. "Hurry up. I have mine already," he said impatiently.
"Um… ano.. hmm…" Gon looked at each character carefully, then very slowly picked his way over to one. "Okay."
Killua stared. "Secret Angel Princess-Princess?!"
"It works," Gon said defensively. The game screen blinked, then switched to a scene of a fighting arena, their two characters facing off against each other. The countdown began.
"Three! Two! One! Here come new challenger! HA!" shouted the JoyStation. Killua immediately began hammering on the buttons, and his fighter flashed across the screen to deliver an attack.
Gon leapt to his feet and hit the buttons on his controller, leaning in to stare intently at the game. "Aaah! No, don't do that! Do this!" he yelled at the screen, kicking with one leg to demonstrate as he pushed the buttons frantically.
"Your sensibilities harm my omeganess! EYAH!" Pre-recorded screams echoed from the speakers as Gon's fighter flashed, indicating double-damage.
"Killua!" Gon said desperately. "Don't hit me so hard!"
"It's a game! Hitting hard is the whole point," Killua said, grinning evilly as he executed a triple-combo that sent Gon's fighter spinning across the screen to slam into a wall. "Better hurry up or I'm going to win."
"No! Do this!!" Gon bounced up and down in place, making punching motions with one hand in between hitting the controller buttons. "Thiiiiis!" The HP bar dipped into the red. "Noooooo!"
"Eat smiles with my ears when you say that! Woh-PAH!" the JoyStation barked. Killua's fighter loomed threateningly over the game arena, and Gon's fighter ignored all his attempts to demonstrate proper moves.
Killua snickered. "Sorry, Gon… but I'm going to win this one," he said with a smirk, and prepared to execute his final killing strike.
"No!" Gon yelled. "I'm not giving up! Special attack!!" He bounced some more, pushed the buttons as hard as he could… and began to glow.
Killua blinked in surprise, and missed the killing combo. "Gon…"
"Special attack!" Gon repeated, the orange glow intensifying. It began to gather around the controller and slowly snake down the cord, towards the console.
"Gon, stop it!" Killua yelled, lunging at the controller cord, sending his own controller flying. "You can't…"
The glow of Nen hit the JoyStation before Killua could knock the controller cord out of the socket. There was a fizzle, then a very loud pop, and the game vanished. Killua stared at the TV screen in disbelief.
"Um… did I win?"
Killua stared at Gon in disbelief.
"What?" Gon said, looking bemused.
"You… you BAKA!" Killua yelled, picking up a handful of feathers and packing peanuts and throwing them at Gon. "You BROKE it!"
"I did? I didn't mean to! You were going to kill me!" Gon protested, scooping up his own handful of ammunition and flinging it.
"It's just a GAME!" Feathers flew.
"I was doing the special attack!" Foam hit the ceiling.
"You didn't have to DEMONSTRATE!" The second pillow burst.
"Woh-PAH! I counter with veggie might!" Gon yelled, imitating the game, and tossed the Street Kombat Dead-n-Mortal Hardcore Battle box at Killua.
"BOYS!"
They blinked.
Mito walked into the room, her eyes blazing.
"New challenger, hah…" Killua whispered under his breath.
And a formidable opponent she was, too.
They lost.