The Speed Hunter Chapter 1

The Speed Hunter Ryozha slammed the hotel phone back onto the hook, cracking the tough plastic casing and swearing angrily. “Jerks! Why can’t they even answer a simple question? Bah!” He spun the chair around and sat moodily in it. All my other leads have petered out. He thought to himself, “Bad Genkopf is almost definitely where the ring is”. * Sigh* “I’ve fought off forty-foot monsters; I’ve crossed impassable mountain ranges and forded rivers most people can’t even get near. I’ve crossed the ocean on foot, for crying out loud! So why can’t I get information out of one witch-like old woman or her servants?” Ryozha sighed again, this time out loud, and muttered “Maybe it’ll be better if I sleep on it. I’ve been trying to get at that old woman to ask a question for three days now, and I’m no closer than when I started.” He shrugged, spun out of the chair, and jogged into the bedroom of his small suite. There, he tumbled into bed without even bothering to change, falling almost instantly into a restless doze. Just as he was starting to fall into a proper sleep, the telephone rang abruptly. In a single, blurred motion, Ryozha was at the phone, reflexively ripping it loose and spinning to send it flying against the far wall, before his eyes were even all the way open. He then stared groggily at the resulting tangle of metal and plastic shards, scrubbing his hand through his short, spiky brown hair in irritation. Shrugging, he called the hotel desk on his cellphone. “Um... did someone just try to call my room?” “Yes, little bo... er, Hunter Ryozha.” the desk clerk answered. Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper “It was a policeman! He’s still waiting on the switchboard. Should I tell him you’ve run away?” “No!” Ryozha snapped. “Look, can you just put the call through to my cell? I had... er, an accident with the room phone.” “Yes, yes,” the switchboard operator said, “no need to get so upset at me!” With a brief rattle of switches and an electronic hum, an impatient male voice erupted on the line. “HELLO? Oh, there is someone here. I’m SO glad.” the detective snarled sarcastically. “Yes, officer.” Ryozha said patiently. “Is there something I can do for you?” “Listen, kid,” the detective started, and then paused. “Is your father or guardian there? We have some questions for whoever’s been using this phone to call Ms. Shelling.” “Just me, I’m afraid.” Ryozha replied. “I’ve been calling Ms. Shelling regarding a piece of jewelry that is the partial objective for my current hunt. Is something wrong?” “Your hunt.” the detective stated flatly. “You’re trying to tell me you’re...” “Look,” Ryozha interrupted, “maybe it would be simpler if I simply met with you face to face. You’re at the Spinsterhood, right?” “We are at the former residence of Ms. Shelling, yes, but... oh, what the @#$!. I’ll send a car to pick you up.” the detective grumped. “No need,” answered Ryozha. “I’m standing behind you.” The detective whirled, staring with mingled shock and disbelief at the Hunter who had so suddenly appeared behind him. “B...B...But... the hotel I reached you at is on the far side of town! How?” Ryozha ignored the question and handed the detective his Hunter License. The Detective, Lieutenant Renee Gromoff by his badge, calmed down somewhat and took it. He looked it over thoroughly, and then dubiously looked the boy who had handed it to him up and down. Ryozha rolled his eyes. In the nearly two years he’d already been hunting, he’d gotten used to this reaction. He knew what Lieutenant Gromoff was seeing, a slender boy with short brown hair and gray-blue eyes in his early teens, looking more or less like he’d just woken up. He was feeling almost as dubious about the Lieutenant, but thought he was hiding it a bit better. Gromoff was a short, barely taller than Ryozha, broad man with a red face and haircut so short that it’s color was hard to determine. He also, unfortunately, affected a trench coat that made him look like a fireplug wrapped in canvas. Gromoff finally handed Ryozha’s card back to him, grunting “You may be a Hunter, alright, kid. But Bad Genkopf is my turf, and this is my case.” Ryozha gave a kind of half shrug and said “Whatever. What happened?” Detective Gromoff glared at him and gave a kind of inarticulate growling noise, turning even redder. Ryozha watched him impassively, idly contemplating dragging him across town and dumping him in the central fountain, eight miles away. “I figure I could probably get him there in about half a second or so...” he thought, allowing himself a small smirk. Seeing the smirk, the detective almost visibly grabbed onto his self-control and calmed somewhat, refusing to let a ‘mere child’ get a rise out of him. “Lady Shelling was assassinated less than half an hour ago. Her lady-inwaiting heard an odd noise just as she left the room after delivering Ms. Shelling’s evening tea. She pushed the door back open, and found her ladyship dead in the chair she had been sitting in when the lady-in-waiting came in. Our only clue is the murder weapon itself, a strange kind of pin with a

spherical head, it looks a bit like what the local freaks use for body piercing. It was stuck in her throat, and, although she may have slumped as she died, from the angle it may have been thrown through the window. And I know the ring you’re talking about, she usually wore it when she came down to the station to complain at me about her neighbors. You can get a list of her effects once the lab boys have finished cataloguing everything, but it didn’t look like she was wearing it when I took a look at the crime scene. Looks like your hunt has come to a premature halt, kid.” Ryozha looked levelly at the detective for a moment, then, deciding he could get nothing further useful from the man, nodded to him and slouched off down the street. A short time later, he was leaning on a streetlight in the business district of Bad Genkopf, turning over what to do next in his mind. As he mused, a snatch of conversation caught his attention. “... But your father certainly is strange.” “Yes, but isn’t he interesting? Jin is one of the greatest hunters in the world.” Ryozha’s head snapped around. “Jin?” he mumbled. He looked around until he picked out the speakers; they were two boys, about his own age or a little younger. One had pale blue hair and green eyes slit like a cat’s, and moved with the wary grace of a predator. Ryozha was certain that the other boy had even noticed his sudden interest, despite the fact that he was hiding his presence. The second boy had spiky, almost greenish hair, big brown eyes and looked... well, familiar. A lot like a certain famous Hunter friend of Ryozha’s grandfather, in fact. His interest piqued, Ryozha hopped down off the concrete base of the streetlight and walked across the street. He was careful to move at a more normal pace than his usual blurred rush, not wanting to startle the other boys into a confrontation. Once he had closed the distance a little, he called to them. “Excuse me...” he started, “but are you Gon Freaks?” The other two turned to him, and the boy with the spiky hair smiled, nodding and saying, “Yeah, I’m Gon, and this is Kailua. Who are you?” The boy who Gon had identified as Kailua looked sideways at Ryozha, and added “And how do you know who Gon is, if he doesn’t know you?” Ryozha gave them both a lopsided smile. “Actually, the answer to... Gon said your name was Kailua, right? Kailua’s question is part of my answer to Gon’s question. My name is Ryozha; my Grandfather runs a Nen training school in the Bulimia Prefecture, in the north country, Quanta, to be exact. He knows Jin well, and Jin sometimes visits the school. And it seemed, that every time he visited, when he saw me, he would talk about Gon, since we’re close to the same age. He always seemed to regret having left you with his cousin, but at the same time, he didn’t know how he could hunt with a child following him. What Kailua said earlier is true; Jin is a bit of a strange one.” Kailua gave a little halfsnort, half-laugh and nodded, apparently satisfied, while Gon’s eyes went wide. “Wow,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, “you know Jin better than I do... that’s kind of weird.” “Well,” Ryozha commented, his eyes twinkling, “no-one ever accused Jin of being ordinary. But what are you guys doing here? Bad Genkopf is a long way from Whale Island.” Gon explained that the two of them were Pro Hunters, in Bad Genkopf searching for a lost Faberge Egg rumored to be in the area; it was more of a ‘fun’ hunt than anything serious. “But what are you doing here, Ryozha?” asked Gon. “Well...” Ryozha hesitated, and then shrugged. “I’m on a hunt for a key.” Kailua blinked, and looked a little skeptical, but before he could say anything, Gon said excitedly “A key? What to?” Ryozha glanced around. He didn’t see anyone, but something was making him uneasy. He could tell that Kailua, while outwardly relaxed, could sense something too. “Let’s walk around, and I’ll tell you.” Ryozha said, motioning for the other two to follow him. He set off, but tension made his control slip slightly, and he found himself moving at his normal pace, leaving the other two far behind. As soon as he noticed, he raced back to the other two, who had stumbled to a stop once he vanished from sight. He tried to hurry them along, feeling hostile presences closing in, but even Kailua seemed stunned by the speed he had suddenly displayed. “How did you do that?” Gon asked. “Look, it’s just part of my Nen. Come on!” Ryozha urged. “Too late.” smirked a voice from behind them. Several large figures separated themselves from the shadows, surrounding the three boys. “Alright, kids. Hand over your hunter licenses if you want to live.” Kailua snorted contemptuously. “Yeah, right. Like you’re going to let us live once you have the licenses. If you’re going to lie, you should at least learn to do it more convincingly than that.” He paused, and smirked. “New deal. Run away now if YOU want to live.” The thug leader growled, and he was suddenly surrounded by the glow of a Nen aura. His cronies followed suit, advancing menacingly on the boys.

Ryozha pulled out his jointed staff, and noticed Kailua producing two yo-yos. Gon simply shouted “First comes Rock! Rock, paper, scissors... ROCK!” while cocking his fist and charging the thug nearest him. There was a thunderous crash, a flare of Nen, and the thug was hurled away in what Ryozha judged to be a nearly flat trajectory, about sixty feet up and still rising when he passed out of sight. The other five thugs paused at that, and Ryozha struck without warning, hitting his target thirty-eight times before he had time to blink, and hitting him a further twenty-nine before he hit the ground, just for good measure. Kailua, meanwhile, went straight for the gang’s leader, striking him with a flying kick, followed by a yo-yo cross up that laid him out right there. Amazingly, he struggled up onto one elbow, spat blood and shouted, “Your weapons, you fools! Use your... ungh...” folding up as Kailua shocked him unconscious. The remaining three thugs started, shaking themselves loose from the shock of seeing three young boys demolishing a trio of full-grown fighters, and produced a variety of weaponryone a gun, one a pair of short-handled scythes, and the last a Billy club. All handled their weapons with the assurance brought by long experience; Ryozha, Kailua and Gon glanced at one another. Then Gon and Kailua looked at each other, obviously uncertain, since they didn’t know Ryozha. Ryozha hesitated also, but the matter was settled when the man with the scythes went straight for him. Kailua got the gunner after him, and Gon wound up facing the club-wielding man. Ryozha swung his staff at the scythe-wielder, but kept half an eye on Kailua’s opponent, unsure if he should have gone after the gunman. The next few seconds cured him of that; the scythe-thug’s hands blurred, and Ryozha nearly lost his head. He focused in, blocked a half-dozen strikes in as many microseconds, and then backpedaled, Ryozha style, ending up on the far side of the street in the blink of an eye. Then he favored his opponent with a half-smile, pulling his headphones up from around his neck and putting them on. The scythe-wielder paused, obviously wary of some kind of new attack, but Ryozha simply grinned and hit play. Back on the other side of the street, Kailua was dodging bullets. The gunman sneered at him. “These are Nen bullets, little boy. You can dodge as long as you like; I’m not going to run out of ammo, but you’re eventually going to get tire...ungh.” “You’re not going to run out of ammo, but you are going to take your eyes off me long enough to mock me.” Kailua commented from behind him. The gunman whirled, yelling “Fiery Pistol Whip!” as his suddenly blazing pistol whipped ‘round, trying to catch Kailua in the head with it. Kailua darted backwards, stopping a few feet away and slapping out his smoldering shirt. “Huh. Seems I’ve underestimated you.” he said. The gunman snarled and started forward, firing as he came and trying to force Kailua up against a wall or lamppost. Meanwhile, a short distance away, Gon and his opponent were shattering windows twenty feet away with shockwaves as they hammered on one another. “So...” Gon began, “You’re... a... reinforcement user... too, eh?” The two separated a bit, and both paused for breath. “But why’d... you... guys... erg... put so much of your Nen... in your weapons?” Gon asked. “Simple...” his opponent gasped, “they’re... more powerful... this way, and so are we... since we wield them.” “Oh!” Gon exclaimed. “I understand... kind of.” He looked at the club wielder. “Ready to keep going?” “AAAARGH!” screamed the club wielder in response as he closed the distance between them in a split second, bringing his Billy club in low and hard. About a hundred miles away and 10,000 feet above, the occupant of a small private airship was turning a ring set with a strangely cut stone over and over. Every so often he would push Nen into it, resulting in an amorphous flash of Nen-light reflected in dead black eyes. His expression never changed, but there was a sense of frustration about him. He continued to turn the ring over and over in his hands, examining the Nen-flash from every angle, as his airship mounted higher into the deepening twilight. Back on the street, Gon was pressing his opponent hard, managing to stay in too close for the Billy club to be really effective. The club-thug’s swings had already created several craters in the sidewalk and dented one of the streetlights so badly that it was almost falling over, but his nimbler opponent simply dodged them and closed in again, hammering him time after time with his rock fist. At the same time, the battle between Kailua and the gunman had moved further down the street, as the gunner laid down an apparently wild pattern of fire that somehow neatly bracketed the former

assassin, forcing Kailua back. Or at least, seeming to force him back. As they reached the intersection, Kailua suddenly darted around the corner, vanishing in a fading flurry of footsteps. The gunman hesitated, then grunted, half to himself, “I hope you don’t think that’s a new trick, kid...” as he proceeded to blast through the corner, hosing the area a step or two around the corner with fire. A shadow detached itself from the deeper shadows of the building’s rooftop and dropped, unnoticed, towards the gunman. The gunner abruptly noticed the thin, wire-whipping noise just audible above his gunfire, and jerked upwards, trying to adjust his aim in time. “Don’t worry,” Kailua said as he landed on the gun-wielding thug who was hopelessly entangled in his yo-yo wires, “I don’t.” Simultaneously, a short distance down the street, the scythe-wielder was advancing on Ryozha, who seemed oblivious to him, his eyes closed as the thunderous strains of “O Fortuna” filled his ears, accelerated to nearly a thousand times it’s original speed. Ryozha’s eyes snapped open as he adjusted, perceiving the music at its normal speed. The world around him seemed fuzzy, drops of sweat beading from the scythe-wielder’s brow hanging in a frozen trail air behind him as he rushed forwards. Ryozha stared, giving a low whistle of amazement, causing the thug to wince as the hypersonic vibrations, far above hearing range, assaulted his eardrums. The scythe-thug was actually moving visibly, even to Ryozha’s accelerated vision! He shrugged, and moved forwards in a blazing Nen aura, fighting inertia and trailing flickers of friction flame. His jointed staff moved, crashing into his enemy at supersonic speeds, seemingly from dozens of angles at once. After about an apparent minute of speed-time later, Ryozha noticed that his opponent’s expression had changed, to one of intense concentration. Then, without warning, one of the scythes moved, ever so slightly, and at just the wrong moment, snagging between sections of the jointed staff and yanking Ryozha off his feet as he tried to dart around to strike again. The boy could only watch in horror, jerked out of the intense concentration needed for his speed awareness, as things around him sped up, and his enemy’s other scythe swept up, blazing with Nen. Amidst the crackle of electricity and mingled smell of ozone and burning flesh, Kailua suddenly noticed that his opponent was smiling. He frowned, double-checking the location of his opponent’s gun hand. His frown deepened when he saw that the gun was pointed away from him, and so tangled that it couldn’t possibly point at him. Then he jerked as something whistled past his head, cutting his ear and setting it bleeding. He lunged back, concentrating his Nen into his eyes to shift his vision to Gyo, and swore as he saw the thug’s aura bristling with tiny spikes, several of which detached themselves and fired at him. He leapt back again, losing his grip on his yo-yos, and watching in fury as his opponent immediately shoved himself up, untangling himself as his aura continued to fling tiny bullet-spikes at Kailua. He kicked the yo-yos clear, and then he smiled at Kailua, a cold, hard smile, that kind of lost its effect as he coughed up smoke. Kailua flew in with eye-watering speed while he coughed, but before he could reach his opponent, he had already brought his pistol up and blasted a virtual wall of bullets at Kailua. Gon’s opponent, meanwhile, was in trouble. He was starting to hear things cracking where Gon’s fists struck, and finally, in desperation, yelled “Whirling Club Fury!” and brought his Billy club around in a shrieking triple circle. Gon ducked under the first two, but then, unable to drop any lower without digging, held his ground and countered the third, strongest strike. There was a blinding flare of Nen, and when it cleared, the green hunter had vanished through a dust-filled new hole in the wall opposite where they had been fighting. His opponent came out of the spin and stumbled to a halt, panting. He grimaced and clutched his side as a particularly deep gasp jarred something that felt broken, and was probably at least cracked. He heard a crash and a shout behind him, hurled himself around, then collapsed, retching, as the world spun around him, then faded to black. A few seconds later, there was a shout and a blaze of orangeyellow Nen, and Gon came hurtling out the hole in a flying kick, only to roll to a confused stop as he met with no resistance whatsoever. He glanced around, and started to run towards where Kailua was being shot at. There, Kailua was being forced to use every trick he knew to avoid the Nen-bullets; already he was bleeding in more than a dozen places from near misses. He had been trying to work his way around to

his yo-yos so that he would have his weapons again, but his foe seemed to be expecting that, and every move in that direction was met with a hail of Nen-fire. Finally, he had given up on his yo-yos, and focused on dodging, scanning his surroundings and alert to any opportunity. Finally, the opportunity came when he bumped up against the lamppost that had been nearly severed where Gon and his enemy had been fighting. Taking a precious second from dodging, Kailua grabbed the lamppost and heaved downwards with all his strength. The gunman, caught off guard, was smashed to the ground as the lamppost buckled and crashed on top of him. Then, with a flare of blue light and the actinic smell of burning ozone, Kailua pumped as much power as he could muster into the feebly writhing gunner. Nearly a kilometer away, Ryozha was growing desperate; with every move he made, his opponent seemed to grow faster, his scythes moving in blurs even to Ryozha’s accelerated vision. Finally, Ryozha poured on a frantic burst of speed, separating from his opponent long enough to shift into Gyo; concentrating, he could just see faint, tenuous tendrils of Nen connecting him to the scythe wielder. His opponent charged, shrieking forward at near-supersonic speeds, and Ryozha felt a sudden drag on his own limbs; he moved, racing backwards, and saw the faint Nen-tendrils brighten, siphoning his power into his enemy. He shuddered at that, then smirked. “Okay, this may not be as hard as I thought,” to himself. Leaping forward and closing the space between them, he met his opponent’s flashing swing with an extended fingertip. There, with a flare of golden Nen-light, the scythe slowed, and nearly stopped. The scythe wielder, undeterred by this, brought his other scythe around in a blazing arc, trailing friction flame. Ryozha’s half-smile became a full, evil grin, and he touched the incoming scythe. The scythe wielder yelled as his weapon abruptly burst into flame, melting and deforming like wax. He dragged his remaining scythe away from Ryozha’s Nen-grip, noticing to his consternation that Ryozha’s formerly pure golden aura was now shot with thick streaks of red Nen as well. He moved back warily, and, when Ryozha didn’t use whatever new power he was displaying, charged forwards, hand, feet and scythe blurring in a complicated sweep. Ryozha met each with a flare of golden Nen wherever they happened to hit, not even bothering to block, aside from the scythe, which he met with another extended fingertip on the handle. “Whoever sent you chose an excellent counter to my Nen abilities.” Ryozha told him “However, they didn’t do their homework completely.” He met another, far slower swing with his staff, not even bothering to absorb it’s power this time. A couple more kicks and strikes were met with indifferent shrugs and flares of golden Nen. The scythe wielder slowed and simply stood, staring, as Ryozha moved towards him in a fiery blaze of scarlet Nen, undershot with streaks of gold. “You’re very strong, I have to admit,” he said, “but there’s one ability of mine that you didn’t know about... although I guess I don’t exactly advertise it. My special ability is being able to use your movement, kinetic energy, to supercharge my Nen, or else simply to store it. So, if I’m concentrating, I can take every move you make against me and turn it on you. I can even make things super-hot by accelerating their molecular motion- that’s how I melted your scythe. So- do you want to surrender now?” The thug swore at him and leapt, bringing his scythe around in an unstoppable arc. Ryozha gave a one-shouldered shrug and casually dodged behind him, then grabbed him by the belt and back of his collar, accelerating him to more than two hundred miles an hour in an eye blink and continuing the spin, hurling the screaming thug, spinning, into the side wall of a building, which partially caved in on him. Ryozha turned to find Kailua and Gon watching him, Gon in wide-eyed amazement, and Kailua with a more calculating look on his face. “Oh, hi guys.” he said. “Hang on a second... I need to burn off some of this power- I’m holding too much to be comfortable.” Gon started to nod, while Kailua simply looked at him, but Ryozha was already gone, thousands of miles away in an eye blink. A few minutes later, he came back at (what was for him) an easy jog. The blazing red Nen-inferno had died down to a secondary aura, about equal to the gold Nen that was Ryozha’s natural aura. “How did you do that?” asked Gon. “Who do you think those idiots were?” asked Kailua, ignoring Gon’s question. “Well, at first I thought they were just more hired muscle out to steal our hunter licenses...” “Nah. Too strong for that.” Kailua interrupted. Ryozha gave him an annoyed glance. “I know that now, of course- as soon as they revealed their Nen, I could tell they were far stronger than hired thugs... although their technique of putting almost all their Nen into their weapons was certainly odd.” “Then it’s probably something to do with your hunt, Ryozha.” Gon said. “True.” added Kailua, “A lost Faberge egg is valuable, but nothing special... any decent Pro Hunter could find it. The key to... something...” He paused, and looked at Ryozha. Ryozha raised an eyebrow, but said, “The key to a legendary treasure, one of the biggest the world has ever known.” Kailua nodded and said, “That could attract all kinds of

crazy people.” “Yeah,” continued Ryozha. “Also, that was kind of a lame excuse to attack us... guys that strong could easily get their own hunter license.” The three boys moved out of Bad Genknopf’s business district, heading for Gon and Kailua’s hotel. Ryozha said he would pick up his things from his hotel later, after arranging his checkout by phone; his room was bound to be watched if the thugs who had attacked them were indeed interested in his hunt. Gon happily agreed, while Kailua gave his special “I don’t like it, and I don’t really trust you yet, but I have no choice” shrug. Ryozha, perfectly aware what he was thinking (it wasn’t as if he was trying to hide it, after all), gave him an amused half-smile. “If it makes you uncomfortable, Kailua, I can always find another place to stay!” he said, calling out to the other boy. Kailua looked taken aback, slightly shocked that Ryozha would simply confront him with it like that. Gon looked upset, and hastened to say, “No, no, we don’t mind at all, do we Kailua?” Kailua, looking irritated, simply nodded. Ryozha half-shrugged, then smiled and reassured Gon that he would be happy to stay with them. Shoot, he thought, I just meant to push Kailua a bit, to try and get him over the fact that he’s sharing a room with someone he doesn’t really know. I didn’t mean to hurt Gon’s feelings... He half-shrugged again, this time to himself, as he called the hotel he had just been staying at. Oh well. There’s nothing I can do about it now. His phone, bouncing through the specially prepared dummy relay he had paid an electronics company a small fortune to set up, reached his old hotel’s front desk. “Hello,” the desk clerk said, picking up the phone, “Genkopfia Hotel reception. How may I help...” she got as far as saying, before she was interrupted by an ear-shattering squeal of static. Ryozha allowed himself some small, secret satisfaction as the desk clerk (who had been annoying him the entire time he stayed there, making stupid jokes and treating him like a child playing a game) gave a sort of audible wince. “Hello?” he half-shouted through the static storm. “What?” yelled the clerk into the phone. “Hello?” he said again, then, without waiting for an answer, went on to say, “This is Ryozha the Hunter. Something has come up unexpectedly; I’ve had to travel to Pyotokia.” “What!” exclaimed the desk clerk, “Pyotokia? But that’s halfway around the world! It takes...” Ryozha cut her off. “I know; Hunters have certain... resources available to them when needed. But that doesn’t matter. I want you to send my things to the Bad Genkopf Arms Inn, to room 203. Some hunter friends of mine are staying there and will be traveling shortly to catch up with me.” “But...” shouted the desk clerk through the rising static storm, “Pyotokia is halfway around the world! How did...” Ryozha cut her off again, his patience wearing even thinner. “Room 203 of the Bad Genkopf Arms Inn. You got that?” “But...” began the desk clerk, then sighed “Yes, little... sir.” she said, getting one last dig in. Ryozha frowned and snapped his phone shut sharply. “All right,” he announced, “my things should be getting here shortly.” “Fine,” said Gon, “but why were you yelling?” “Yeah,” said Kailua, “I was wondering the same thing. Is your phone that cheap?” Ryozha looked at Kailua, one eyebrow raised. He’s really baiting me, he thought, But... what can I do about it? It’s only been a few hours, but already I worry about hurting Gon’s feelings... I even kind of like Kailua, simply because he’s Gon’s friend. It’s weird... Aloud, he said, “Actually, that feature cost me a lot to set up. A special satellite router makes it seem as if I’m calling from... well, from anywhere I want to seem to be calling from. In this case I picked Pyotokia, because it’s as far away from here as I could think of off the top of my head. I’m hoping that whoever’s tracing me will simply take off for there, leaving me to work unhindered.” Before Kailua could comment, he added “I know they’ll probably place a tracer in my bag, but that doesn’t matter, since for now it’s going exactly where they think it’s going, to your room.” Kailua looked sidelong at Gon. “Hey Gon. Remember Hisoka’s system for determining an opponent’s Nen type?” he said out of the corner of his mouth, but still loud enough for Ryozha to hear quite clearly. Gon nodded, looking at him oddly. “Well, now I REALLY see what he meant about Manipulation users liking to lecture people!” Ryozha twitched slightly, glaring at Kailua, who gave him a cat’s grin. After a tense few seconds exchanging glares, he started to laugh. “Okay, I guess I deserved that.” he said. Gon started to laugh too, and, after a moment, Kailua joined in. After they’d settled down, Kailua asked “But seriously, why’d you pick Pyotokia?” “Eh?” answered Ryozha. “I don’t know. It was just a random country far away from here.” “Oh.” said Kailua. “Hey Kailua,” Gon said, “Isn’t Pyotokia where your family lives? That IS where Kukri Mountain is, I’m pretty sure... Isn’t it?” He looked at Kailua, who was kind of groaning, and looking at Ryozha. “Kukri Mountain?” Ryozha said. “Kailua... Kailua... Kailua Zoldyck? OH! Of course... wish the Hunter Website would update their photographs a little more

often, though... the latest one they’ve got, you look about nine, and it’s REALLY fuzzy, to boot.” He met Kailua’s stare. “What are you looking at me like that for?” Kailua calmed himself a little, and answered, “Well... when most people find out about my family, they want to try and get the reward for turning us in, or get revenge or something.” Ryozha looked at him for a moment longer, then half-shrugged. “Maybe. But I’m not a blacklist Hunter; I’m a treasure hunter... and honestly, Kailua. I’m NOT your enemy. At least, I don’t want to be.” His mouth twisted in a half-amused, half-rueful smile. “Besides, I know a little bit about your family. Out of all of them, having seen you fight, I MIGHT be able to take you on. But you’re much stronger than I am, and I don’t really think I could win. And from what I’ve heard, your brothers... some of them, anyways... father and grandfather are all much stronger than you, at least right now.” Ryozha wandered over to a patch of floor that was wide enough and lay down on his back, stretching a little. He propped his head in his hands, and watched as Kailua relaxed slightly. Gon, who had been watching the strangely tense scene with a worried expression on his face, grinned. “Hey,” he said, trying to break the tension completely, “we’re about to practice our Ten and Ren. Do you want to join us, Ryozha?” Ryozha glanced over to Gon, and gave him his usual lopsided grin. “Sure,” he said, and was abruptly on his feet, without any apparent intervening motion. Kailua jumped a little, and Gon laughed. Soon, all three of them were standing in a circle in the Hotel room, glowing gently with Nenlight. About two minutes later, Ryozha abruptly sat down, causing the other two to lose concentration. They looked at him oddly, but Gon said “What’s wrong, Ryozha?” Ryozha’s mouth twisted in a rueful halfsmile. “I don’t know if this was such a good idea after all... I’ve done every Nen exercise I know at least three times, and made up two new ones.” Gon looked shocked, and Kailua blinked, seeming a little stunned. Ryozha paused, and looked at them. “I’m sorry... I guess I didn’t explain very well. When my Nen is activated, I have a really hard time working at normal speed... I just automatically go really fast. For EVERYTHING.” Kailua stared at him, and Gon looked at him, leaned back a little and put his hands behind his head. “That’s kind of cool... but it does make it hard for you to practice Ten and Ren with us.” Ryozha nodded, looking a bit glum, then brightened. “I know- why don’t I run and get some snacks, and maybe find some information on those guys who attacked us while you practice?” Gon smiled, and started to make a motion that might have been a nod. That was enough for Ryozhahe was halfway across town before Gon had finished the movement. Five minutes later he was seated in an Internet Cafe at a computer with a bag of nachos open next to him. His fingers blurred as he typed, and then he stopped. The smell of burning circuitry wafted past his nostrils, and he looked down. Aw, MAN! Not again... The keyboard was rapidly turning into a small puddle of melting goop. He glanced around, then, sure that no one had seen him, wandered over to the manager to complain about his keyboard melting. The manager apologized profusely and gave him his money back, which he pocketed, then ambled out the door. Once he was out of sight, he blurred away at impossible speeds, muttering to himself. Finally, after some thought, he decided to retrieve his laptop from his old hotel room. Glancing around, he realized that he had come a great distance from Bad Genkopf. He was in the deep woods in the foothills of the mountains that surrounded the little city. Reorienting himself as best he could, he slipped back into speed mode, sliding his headphones up and hitting random play. Racing forwards, he felt a strange tug at his limbs. The trees were blurring past with eye-watering speed, but something seemed off. He paused, and glanced down at himself. No snaky tendrils infected his golden Nen-aura... he looked again. His aura was pure gold! All the extra energy he had absorbed earlier in the evening had burned off. He sighed. Looking down across the mountains, he guessed that it was going to take him close to half an hour to get back... by which point Gon and Kailua would be finished their Nen-practice, his luggage would have arrived, and his Laptop would be ready to go. Okay, he thought maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing to happen. And I can’t believe I absorbed so much Kinetic Power from just that one guy... maybe that’s why I’ve been so jittery tonight! He shrugged. Oh well may as well get started. He raced off, leaving nothing but a brief swirl in the cool evening air. As he jogged gently up the street towards the hotel, the sun was setting and a light mist was rising from the ground. He let his Nen drop slightly, and shivered- it was colder than he had thought. A chilly

breeze swirled the mist into strange shapes, and he glared around, almost- and here he mentally halflaughed at himself- almost daring something to jump out and attack him. After a few seconds, nothing did, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched by an unfriendly presence. He hesitated, but he was already too close to the hotel to deceive anyone as to his destination. He slipped in on silent feet, blurring up the stairs like a hyper kinetic ghost. He paused at Gon and Kailua’s door... Mine, too, for now, I guess... he thought to himself... and listened intently, reaching out with a feather-gentle probe. I can’t sense any unfriendly presences. At least, no OTHER unfriendly presences, and that one does not seem to be inside the hotel, he thought. But I do hear... laughter? He slipped into the room, feeding a trickle of his Nen into the door so it whipped silently open and shut in an eye blink, speeding inside without the faintest sound. Kailua and Gon both glanced around. “Oh, hey Ryozha!” Gon called out cheerfully. “Why didn’t you tell us you had a laptop... and with such cool games on it!” Kailua enthused. Ryozha wandered over to where the two of them were sitting on the floor, banging away on the keyboard of his laptop and staring, enthralled at the colorful graphics. “Er... when?” he began, an odd expression on his face. Gon looked around again. “Oh, I’m sorry Ryozha! I just thought... er, we just thought you wouldn’t mind very much...” his voice trailed off. “It’s okay, isn’t it?” he asked anxiously. “It’s fine, Gon,” Ryozha hastened to assure him. He paused, and rubbed the back of his neck, letting out his breath in a long sigh. After all, it’s been a busy night... He gave Gon a lopsided grin, which quickly spread into a genuine, unforced grin. “But you’d better reset it for three players!” Some time later that night, once Gon had tired of the game and wandered off, and Kailua had sat back to sulk after being beaten seven games out of ten, Ryozha settled down for some serious searching. His laptop glowed gently with imbued Nen, and his fingers rapped out a staccato beat that rose in speed until it was nearly a whine. After a minute or two, he sat back abruptly. “Aargh!” he yelled. “I can’t find ANYTHING! This is stupid- I’ve searched more than twenty thousand sites without anything concrete at all.” He spun around to stalk over to the fridge, and tripped over Kailua’s feet, tumbling into Gon and bringing all of them down in a heap. They pried themselves loose, and sat back. Ryozha was still grumbling, but the other two were too busy staring at him to notice. “Doesn’t it mean that the computer is broken when the screen just flashes like that?” Kailua asked, while, at the same time, Gon wanted to know “How can you read anything at all when it’s going by so fast?” Ryozha glanced at them and blew out his breath in an exasperated sigh. “It’s not flashing, Kailua, it’s just displaying... really... fast.” His voice trailed off, and he stared at Gon. “You could actually tell that those were words?” he demanded, staring at the younger boy. Gon simply looked back at him. “Well, yeah...” he said, rubbing the back of his neck and looking embarrassed. “Shouldn’t I have been able to?” “No... No, it’s not that.” Ryozha said. “It’s just that...” “Gon has amazing eyesight.” interrupted Kailua, who had clearly regained some of his composure. Ryozha transferred his stare to Kailua. “He must have... But I still can’t find anything on this stupid pin other than rumors and speculation! It’s driving me crazy!” He slammed the laptop shut with a bang and a flare of pale peach-colored Nen and flopped onto his back. Gon and Kailua looked at him oddly, and Kailua asked “Pin?” Ryozha rolled onto his side and looked at him. “Yeah, there was this strange looking pin that was used to kill the old woman who had information I needed for my hunt.” Ryozha found himself tensing a bit as Kailua’s focus suddenly sharpened on him. “A strange looking pin used in an assassination?” he demanded, leaning forward. “Y... yeah...” Ryozha stammered, staring back into Kailua’s eyes. His eyes... he thought, gulping slightly, they’ve become holes... holes into a pit that I never want to see. Abruptly, Kailua backed off a bit. “Sorry,” he said. “But mention of my brother always makes me tense.” Ryozha made a slightly strangled confused noise as his eyebrow tried to climb past his hairline. Gon, meanwhile, just looked confused, then he brightened. “Ah, of course! Illumi. He uses pins, doesn’t he?” he looked at Kailua with smiling confidence, and Ryozha cringed inwardly. If Kailua nearly kills me accidentally just for mentioning a pin that might be connected to his brother, what’s going to happen to Gon? The look of profound shock on Ryozha’s face deepened even more when Kailua just looked at Gon and nodded with a small smile. “Yes,” he said, “my oldest brother makes his kills with strange pins with bulky, round heads.” The smile faded utterly as Kailua continued, “He’s DEADLY dangerous. If he has the ring... and it’s likely he does, if she always wore it; it would be proof of the kill... then it won’t be easy to get it back from him.” Ryozha looked at him steadily, still wary, when a sudden thought made him groan and sink onto his back again. “Oh, no!” he moaned, “Don’t tell me I’m REALLY going to Pyotokia!”

Late the next day, far out on the ocean and chasing the edge of night, Ryozha skimmed the restless surf on pounding feet, sending twin sheets of wake-plume high into the air to fall as a fine mist nearly a hundred miles behind him. Every so often, he would break his hair-fine focus to glance down at the small GPS locator unit in his watchband, to make sure he was still headed in the right direction. Beneath the preternatural calm forced on him by his intense focus, though, his thoughts were churning, as anticipation, satisfaction, and worry all clawed for dominance. Anticipation, at the moment, was winning; his thoughts drifted back to his last conversation with Gon and Kailua. “We’ll come with you right now, Ryozha!” “We can’t, Gon- remember we promised to find the Egg for our client within two weeks? We’d never make it to my house and back in time. Anyways, my house is easy to find, Ryozha; it’s near the peak on the highest part of Kukri Mountain. It’s also a major tourist destination, for some stupid reason.” Yes, I know that already, Kailua. Do you have any advice on how to get in? “Not really... I’ve never heard of anyone coming there just to ask if a piece of jewelry was taken.” “Mr. Goto will help!” “You’re probably right, Gon. If you can reach Goto, he can advise you on what to do. I’ll call him and tell him you’re coming, although I can’t promise how much help he’ll be. It’s really up to Illumi what happens.” “Oh! Tell Mr. Goto I said hello... tell Mr. Zain Bu-Lon and Canaria that as well. Oh, uhm... Mr. Zain BuLon is the gatekeeper at the entrance of Kailua’s family’s land, and Canaria is the intern that guards the first gate.” Heh... All right, Gon... man, I’m going to have to write this down... “One last thing, Ryozha. You said that the assassination happened two nights ago, just before you met us? Right... then Illumi won’t get back to Kukri Mountain for at least another five days.” All right- I’ll finish my research here in Bad Genkopf- I need to make certain that the ring is really gone, so I need to visit the police station, and also to search the house, just in case. I’ll leave tonight. He hadn’t seen Gon and Kailua again that day or the next- they had left into the countryside to find the lost Faberge Egg- and the visit to the Police Station and further ‘net research had proved fruitless. He left his two new friends a note in the hotel room as the evening of the second day drew close, and sped out onto the open road, heading inexorably west. A fragment of the Symphony X’s Revelation (Divus Pennae Ex Tragoedia) wafted through his consciousness, and he whistled snatches of its Chorus as he raced off into the dusk. “Watching the night wandering alone, try as might to escape the fight, never let me go, alone, alone, I’ve got to find a way, a way, a way, a way to rise above it all.” The same song fragment woke in the back of his mind, jerking him back to the present. He frowned as he ran, focusing on it for a second. Then he started to laugh. Still laughing, he reached up and pulled his headphones into place. Skipping through songs, he found the appropriate one. The music started, and Sonny Bono’s voice came crystal clear through his headset... “I have climbed... the highest mountain... I have run... through the fields...” the song began. A minute later, Ryozha warbled along with the chorus, “But I stiiiill haven’t found... what I’m looking for...” Still chuckling, he sped off through the night, steadily catching up with the day that had left him behind. Nearly six hours later, Ryozha casually ambled up the central street of the small city at the base of Kukri Mountain, looking for a suitable hotel. Offspring’s “Staring at the Sun” spun rapidly out of his headphones, and he had to admit that after running halfway around the world, even he was feeling

tired. A half-smile played across his lips as his last thought replayed itself... Even I was feeling tired... oi. I must be tired to be thinking crap like that... He glanced up at the sign of the inn he found himself standing in front of, and shrugged. Close enough. That’s it for me for tonight... er, this morning... bleah, whatever. The next morning, he drifted across town to where the airships landed. Blurring in at invisible speeds, he glanced over the air traffic controller’s manifests. He then slipped back outside and slowed to visibility, frowning intensely. I should have known it wouldn’t be easy. The Zoldyck family obviously doesn’t like ANYONE knowing their movements, even for something so innocuous as returning to their own well fortified home. Best guess is that Illumi is arriving in the “field must remain open for maintenance” slot two days from now. There’s nothing else at all that could possibly be him. Of course, I could be wrong about his speed... or he might not even be going straight home... argh... I hate playing these kinds of games. Ryozha glanced around, but if anyone had noticed a young boy with his face contorted in a snarl, they were polite enough not to comment. He moved on again, just in case. The men who had attacked him, Kailua and Gon couldn’t reach Pyotokia ahead of Illumi, but there was no guarantee that they didn’t have accomplices or confederates already in place. With that cheerful thought, he decided to visit the train yards to absorb kinetic energy. After all, that’s still probably the best place to do it, I can pull a LOT of kinetic power from one train without anybody really noticing, since they have so much simply because they’re so incredibly heavy. He grinned to himself, and zipped off towards the train yards. A couple of thousand of miles from him, in a darkened basement, two powerful men were meeting. Both entered the room from opposite sides at precisely the same instant, leaving their bodyguards outside. No greeting was exchanged, but their locked stares spoke volumes. The one was short and wiry, with long, curly hair and a strange grace and utter confidence in his movements that belied his small stature. The other was so utterly average that you wouldn’t give him a second glance even if he was alone in a room, and likely not a even a first, at least, unless you happened to notice his eyes in an unguarded moment. They spoke of a soul not born to command, but of a soul who had reached out and taken it, battling through chaos and hell to grasp it in an iron grip. It was a measure of the other man’s strength that he could meet those eyes without flinching, and a measure of his power that he could do so without even blinking. They both sat at the heavy table set in the center of the room, again at precisely the same instant. Their stares remained locked, until the taller man spoke. Given the utter averageness of the man, hearing his voice was always something of a shock, although, in retrospect, his clipped tones and abrupt manner of speaking fit him perfectly. “Your patrons are concerned. When they are concerned, tremendous amounts of money are at stake and the balance of power is threatened. What is the cause of it?” were his words. The other man’s eyebrow rose in amusement, and he smiled slightly. “To the point as always, nai?” he asked. His opposite gazed at him with contempt, letting him feel the full force of his gaze. The smaller man returned the look with apparent equanimity, although a canny observer might imagine that his smile had flickered very slightly. The taller man spoke again. “Do not toy with me. I know what my position is. I know too much, but your masters are willing to let me remain unopposed so long as I am less trouble alive than dead. They are no fonder of upheaval than I am.” The small enforcer gazed back at him; his eyebrow rose again, this time in apparent respect. “As canny as ever, also, nai? I see. Very well; the games have been abandoned, although I like to imagine that you are as fond of them as I.” he paused, and the other man, on cue, snorted contemptuously. The smaller man allowed himself a secret smile, and continued. “There are rumors in the community that the Speed Hunter has been set on the trail of the Treasure. Personally, I do not believe that he will be able to find it; there have been too many working for too long to erase all mention of it for it to be easily found, nai? However, he is persistent, and has a habit of being lucky. Also, a disturbing... rumor has reached me. You have taken steps to remove what you perceived as a threat to our joint well being, if the rumors are correct. Nai? Boss Myoji?” The taller man, identified now as Boss Myoji, focused his gaze, stabbing into the small enforcer with the full power of his personality, and the smaller man wondered uneasily, not for the first time, if Myoji were an unconscious Nen-user. Myoji held the small enforcer writhing within his burning glare for a full twenty-second eternity before he spoke. “I have hired the Zoldyck clan to take the life of the old woman who ran from your order fifty-two years ago, and required that they show me her ring as proof of her death. I then gave them the ring as part of the payment, because it interested them, as I knew it would. They have no way of connecting it with the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate,

and no reason to try to connect it. And nothing... that... enters... Kukri... Mountain... Fortress... leaves.” The smaller man, forcing aside the discomfort he felt from Boss Myoji’s stare, smirked, commenting, “Well, obviously the Zoldyck's and their personal effects come and go frequently, nai? But I believe I understand your point. Very well. We will trust you on this matter.” With these final words, he stood and drew his long dagger in one fluid motion, holding it vertically in front of him. After that, he bowed, then abruptly snapped to a thin blue line behind his dagger, fading from sight like the image on an old television screen. Boss Myoji stared at it for a moment, then muttered “Showy.” He then, (and, had anyone else been in the room with him, they would have been hard pressed to tell whether he was congratulating himself on his own cleverness or trying to convince himself,) mumbled “But yes... nothing that enters the Fortress of the terrible Zoldyck clan leaves.” Two and a half days later, a bored and frustrated Ryozha stared up at the Gates of Trial that guarded the entrance to the Zoldyck clan’s Kukri Mountain Fortress. Nothing at all had landed at the airport in the “field must remain open for maintenance” slot, and he hadn’t even caught a glimpse of a ship that could be Illumi’s. Of course, Illumi could have gotten a new airship in the time since Kailua had seen him last, but it seemed unlikely. It was also possible that he had chosen another form of transportation, but that was also unlikely, given the distances involved. Ryozha then slapped his forehead and cursed himself out roundly for wasting time. A seemingly trivial comment from Kailua suddenly wrote itself in six-foot-tall letters of fire across his brain, mocking him for wasting his time. “... The mini-airship field behind the house...” Kailua’s voice echoed from several days ago. So, he thought to himself, at least I know how he got past me. Oh well... he shrugged. They say that the bold are lucky, or something like that... May as well give it a shot. He glanced down the mountain to make sure that there was no tour bus coming, there wasn’t one scheduled, but he’d seen stupider things happen to throw off plans, then marched up to the window of the small gatekeepers hut. “Excuse me, sir.” he addressed the older man sitting in the booth. “Are you Mr. Zain Bu-Lon?” The gatekeeper stirred and stood up, glancing around, until his gaze came to rest on Ryozha. He pushed back his cap and rubbed his baldhead, scrutinizing Ryozha carefully. “I am,” he said at last. “And who is this that comes asking for me by name?” Ryozha opened his mouth, then paused; “This may be easier if I simply deliver the messages I brought first.” he said. Zain-Bu-Lon raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” was all he said. Ryozha glanced sideways at him, then grinned; apparently the Zoldycks trained their servants in psychological combat as well as the more traditional kind. Either that or Zain-Bu Lon was just a devious old beggar; in either case, Ryozha was amused. He brought his mind back to the present, and said, “Well, first off, Gon sends his greetings, and said to thank you again for your training- it has really helped him and Kailua.” Zain Bu-Lon started, staring at Ryozha. Whatever he had expected, that apparently hadn’t been it. Ryozha smiled, but to himself this time. “Also,” he continued, “Kailua said to tell you ‘To need us is to know fear; to know fear is to need us.’ I’m assuming you know what he meant.” Zain Bu-Lon sat back heavily, nearly missing his chair. He didn’t seem to care, though. He pulled out a handkerchief and mopped his brow with it. “Master Kailua’s unique Zoldyck family code...” He heaved a sigh. “Well, at least I now have no doubt that you are genuinely coming from him. So... why are you here? And what is your name?” This time it was Ryozha’s turn to glance around. Satisfied, he asked, “Is there somewhere we could sit and talk? This might take some time to explain.” Zain Bu-Lon nodded, and motioned him towards the titanic gates that fronted the Zoldyck Estate. He began to remove his jacket, but Ryozha stopped him. “Those are the Gates of Trial, aren’t they, Mr. Zain Bu-Lon?” When Zain Bu-Lon nodded, Ryozha looked the gates up and down, sizing them up. “There’s something I’ve wanted to try, ever since Kailua and Gon told me about these.” he said. Zain Bu-Lon looked bemused, and said, “Be my guest, try anything you like on them.” Ryozha gave him a half-smile, but decided against his momentary whim of melting them to slag. Instead, he summoned up his Nen, a little shocked at the burst of scarlet power that surrounded him. Apparently he had been a little overenthusiastic in absorbing kinetic power at the train yards... as usual. He cautiously laid a hand on the gates. He would have to be careful, as he didn’t really want to tear them off their hinges and fling them halfway to the house. Okay, so the last bit was an exaggeration... he thought to himself. Let’s see- from what Kailua and Gon told me, the weight doubles with each door, starting at two tons per door for the first one... that makes the final door... sixty-four tons per side. Heh. One hundred and twenty-eight tons... He grinned to himself. Let’s see if I can do this. Carefully positioning his flat palm across the crack between the doors, he let his kinetic-Nen surge, power roaring into the

doors and slamming them open to crash against the walls they were hung from in a shower of concrete dust. He then zipped through, pausing only to grab Zain Bu-Lon. Once through, he paused just outside the range of the dust fall, both to let Zain Bu-Lon catch his breath and to check his Nen-reserves. Satisfied that the scarlet-shot-with-gold Nen he was displaying was enough, he looked over at Zain Bu-Lon, who was staring back at him with a kind of fascinated horror. “Er... sorry, Mr. Zain Bu-Lon. I guess I got carried away. I think things might be easier if I assured you that I do not wish to harm the Zoldyck family in any way. If we could sit and talk, I can explain why I’m here in more detail.” Zain Bu-Lon hesitated, then shrugged, motioning for Ryozha to follow him. Eventually, they were safely ensconced in Zain Bu-Lon’s kitchen. Ryozha glanced around, noting that there seemed to be another person who lived there, although, from the sense of the house, he wasn’t around. Zain Bu-Lon brought a pair of mugs full of tea to the table, and set them down. “So,” he said “why ARE you here?” Ryozha looked levelly at him. “It’s difficult to explain,” he began, “but the short form is that one of the Zoldyck clan, probably Illumi, has an item I need for my current hunt. He seems to have taken it as proof of a recent kill.” Zain Bu-Lon looked at him, and nodded. “It is not an unprecedented request, although it is a highly unusual one. But sit, and tell me what Kailua-kun is doing now, and his friend Gon.” Ryozha did, filling him in on all that had happened and passing along what Kailua and Gon had told him, pausing occasionally to grunt as he strained to lift the heavy mug of tea. When he had finished, Zain Bu-Lon hesitated for a long moment, and then sighed. “I will defer this matter to Goto, the manager of the estate. Please wait while I telephone him.” Ryozha sat back in the kitchen chair, watching as Zain Bu-Lon left the room. Shortly after, he heard him pick up the telephone and hit a few numbers. Probably an extension number, Ryozha thought. It’s a minor point, but it might someday be useful to know that Kukri Mountain is on a single line, like an office building. He listened carefully, but Zain Bu-Lon said exactly what he had claimed he would, and Ryozha couldn’t hear Goto’s replies clearly. After some time, Zain Bu-Lon returned. “Well,” he said heavily, “he doesn’t believe you. And he thinks you lied to Kailua, as well. But when I told him about what you did to the Doors of Trial, he didn’t know what to think. He is discussing the issue with the masters at this moment. We will see what they decide.” For the next few hours, Ryozha played cards and chatted with Zain Bu-Lon, amusing himself by seeing how far he could range when the gatekeeper blinked. Finally, the phone rang again. Zain Bu-Lon picked it up, and gasped. “It is for you, young hunter...” he said, sounding thoroughly shocked. “It is master Illumi himself.” Ryozha took the phone, nearly dropping it when he found that it was as heavy as everything else in the house. He recovered, and said “Hello?” into the phone. “I understand that you want something,” said the voice from the other end. “What is it?” I suppose when you kill people for a living, you have little time for niceties, thought Ryozha. Aloud, he said, “What I want is to finish my hunt. To get any further on that hunt than I already have, I need the ring you took from the body of Lady Shelling in Bad Genkopf as proof of your kill.” There was a long pause from the other end of the line, during which time Ryozha focused his attention on the motion of the electrical pulses in the phone line. It was an odd trick that he had picked up, and one that came dangerously close to violating his pledge to use his Nen solely for the function of controlling and sensing motion. In any case, it worked, and he was able to pin down Illumi’s current location with reasonable certainty... or at least, the point where the phone he was speaking into was connected to the telephone network of Kukri Mountain. When Illumi finally spoke again, Ryozha was so focused on the pulse-trace that the voice (and accompanying cascade of tiny electrical pulses that accompanied it) came as a shock so great he nearly dropped the phone again. Illumi stated flatly “If you can reach me, you may have the ring.” Ryozha nodded sharply, then caught himself and said “Fine. I assume that none of your defenses will be disabled, and your people will be warned that I am an intruder?” “That would be a correct assumption.” Illumi responded. “One moment,” Ryozha interjected. “Would you be willing to suspend that for a single person? I have been asked to deliver a message for Canaria, the intern at the first gate, by your brother Kailua and his friend.” “Kailua has no friends.” Illumi responded. “He is a Zoldyck, an assassin of the highest caliber; a puppet of darkness bred to do his current employer’s will

without fear, favor or remorse.” He paused. “However, I will do as you ask- Canaria is a minor part of our security and her impeding or not impeding you should make little difference.” “My thanks,” Ryozha told him with angry sarcasm, “but if you ever try passing out that dark puppet garbage around me again, I’m going to perform an enema on you to see if I can find your head.” Illumi ignored him, repeated, “If you can reach me, you may have the ring.” and hung up. Ryozha bowed politely to Zain Bu-Lon and raced out of the house, allowing himself to scowl blackly once he was out of sight. He paused and took his bearings. Okay... I’m pissed, he thought. Need to blow off some steam before I reach that jerk, or I’ll probably do something that’ll get me killed. But what... He half-shrugged to himself and zipped off to down the path to where he believed Canaria to be. May as well deliver the message while I’ve got some time to kill. A few seconds later, he came upon a pair of stone pillars flanking the path with a girl of about his own age or a little older standing between them. Hmm, thought Ryozha. Dark skin, thick dreadlocks, strange blue coat, and staff with a jewel containing a teddy-bear skull on the end... well, the description matches, anyways. He decelerated sharply and appeared in front of her. Her only reaction was a slight widening of her eyes as she shifted fluidly and fired off a series of lightning-fast lunges with her staff. Ryozha leaned slightly a couple of times, effortlessly dodging, but nevertheless impressed with her speed, doubly so in that it didn’t appear to be Nen-enhanced at all! Remembering something that Gon had mentioned, he backed off slightly, stopping behind a faded line in the dirt. His antagonist stopped also, settling easily into a waiting stance, her eyes staying alert not only on him, but on her surroundings as well. Ryozha gave her a rueful half-smile and shrugged. “Sorry about that,” he said, “but I think you were warned about me?” For the first time, an emotion crossed Canaria’s face- a flicker of open disbelief. “YOU’RE the one who’s trying to reach the house with all the guards alerted?” “Thanks for the reaction,” Ryozha commented dryly, “but I’m really not here for you to call me crazy.” He dug into his pockets, and then fished out an envelope. “Here,” he said, handing it to Canaria, “Kailua sends his best wishes, and hopes that you’re taking care of his skateboard. Gon wanted me to tell you all about what they’ve been doing and the adventures they’ve had, but it would have taken too long; so instead I made him record it all and copied it onto disc for you.” He glanced up, a little surprised to find himself still holding the envelope. Canaria’s veneer of detachment had vanished completely, and her eyes had teared up. “They... they remembered me?” Ryozha leaned back and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeesh...” he muttered, “this job must really suck, huh?” A little louder, he said “Gon spoke of you quite fondly, and even Kailua seemed... pleased to have you called to mind, I guess.” Canaria’s face crumpled, and she started to cry, then made a visible effort to pull herself together, scrubbing at her eyes and taking the envelope that Ryozha was still proffering. “Thank you, she said, “but...” Ryozha cut her off by shaking his head. “Tell you what,” he said, “I’ll talk to you on my way back.” With a sort of lazy salute, he vanished in a carefully damped-down sonic boom. Well... he thought that could have gone better, but overall, wasn’t too bad. And it did give me an idea... I’m going to take apart their entire security force, just out of spite. For the next half-hour or so, Zoldyck security officers found themselves abruptly hanging from tree branches in their underwear, by, their underwear, suddenly swimming in ponds three miles from where they had been standing less than a second before, duct-taped upside down to flagpoles, trees, or just about any other convenient structure, along with just about any other variety of humiliating situation you could think of. Well, thought Ryozha, brushing his hands together, I feel a little better now... on to Illumi. With that thought, he blurred into the trees, blithely ignoring the traps that snapped shut, exploded, or sliced past far behind him. Seconds later, he arrived in the Zoldyck mansion. He shifted one earphone back (the super sped-up beats of Evanescence’s “Bring me to Life”... an ironic choice to come up on random play here of all places... could be faintly heard) as he slowed to just under the speed of sound, all senses carefully extended- he didn’t doubt that the Zoldyck ancestral home was loaded with traps and secret passages. Pausing in a darkened alcove, he took his bearings. Despite the unconventional layout of the place (... probably deliberately organized to confuse intruders.), Ryozha was fairly certain that Illumi’s last

known location was North and East, and a little above him. He whispered silently through the halls, as fast as he dared. Much of the mansion seemed to be darkened- Wonder if it’s because they’re assassins, and prefer shadows, or if they simply don’t use these areas, and more than once he nearly jumped out of his skin when he rounded a corner and ended up in an old torture chamber (thankfully unused at the moment, although all the instruments showed heavy wear), or nearly ran into a party of lethally armed servants, many of whom glowed with powerful Nen auras. Finally, he ghosted into the room where he had last sensed Illumi. He found the young assassin still standing silently next to the telephone. “You are above average in skill.” Illumi told him. “You’ve got quite the way with a compliment, mate.” Ryozha responded, and then continued (as Linkin Park’s “Bleed it Out” danced madly out of the loose headphone) “You said I could have the ring if I reached you. You’re here, I’m here... I’d say I reached you.” Illumi studied him with his dark, blank eyes for a few seconds (dragged out into an agonizing half hour by Ryozha’s speed awareness), then in a movement that would have been invisible to anyone but Ryozha in full speed-mode, flicked a trio of his lethal pins at Ryozha. Ryozha, forcing himself to react with apparently disdainful ease, snatched all three from the air in a single motion, wincing inwardly at the sheer power as he sucked their kinetic energy from them. Then, again with apparent contemptuous ease, he rocketed them back the way they came, suppressing a flinch as Illumi avoided them with a flawless absence of effort. Illumi looked at him for another long second, then nodded sharply. He reached into his pocket, pulled out the ring and flicked it at Ryozha in one fluid motion. Ryozha’s eyes narrowed, and, in a flare of Nen, he caught the ring out of the air, pausing briefly to suck the momentum out of the second trio of pins Illumi had hurled along with the ring. The pins tinkled gently to the floor, and Illumi gave Ryozha another nod, this one allowing some grudging respect. Ryozha gave the ring an apparently cursory glance (in speed awareness, he scrutinized the ring, straining every sense he possessed, studying it for traps, for more than an hour of subjective time), then bowed to Illumi, vanishing in a flicker of half-visible movement. Shoot... thought Ryozha as he sped away. I’ve never spent that long tensed to run... I’m still shaky. He paused on the path to give Canaria a (forced) cheerful grin and a wave, and then raced off, too jittery to take the time to speak to her. He left a note in the kitchen, smoking with near-burning hot letters written at impossible speeds, thanking Zain Bu-Lon for his help. Then he blurred off at horrific velocity to explore the surrounding terrain at super speed, killing time (and winding down a little) until Gon and Kailua arrived. Behind him, the mighty doors of trial crashed with shattering force against the outer walls once again, nearly torn loose by the unfettered Nen-power he was too jittery to control. Meanwhile, some 300 miles... 450 miles... 600 miles... 475... 380... 300... 500... 430... (Well, you get the idea) from where Ryozha was, two young boys were getting off a train. Kailua glanced around and sighed. Somehow, all train stations looked the same. Granted, there was a limit to the number of ways you could design buildings for a place whose sole purpose was to move people somewhere else, but you’d think they could come up with a few variations... He glanced over at Gon, who was staring around with the rapt wonder he always reserved for new places. If he didn’t know better (but he did), he would have thought his best friend was just another empty-headed country bumpkin on an all-toorare outing. Gon’s keen senses and powers of observation had saved him more than once, though, and he was content to allow his friend to look a little silly if that’s what it took to get the job done. Gon’s eyes flickered over the panorama in front of him. The train station at the base of Kukri Mountain had changed little since he had been here last more than a year ago. Then again, why would it? He glanced over at Kailua, wondering what thoughts drifted behind that emotionless face. Gon was normally very good at reading people, but there were times when Kailua, his best friend, was completely closed to him. He glanced around, hoping to see Ryozha waiting for them... even though he suspected that Ryozha wasn’t very good at waiting for anyone... but didn’t see him. Well... Ryozha knew their travel schedule, and they had his room number in the hotel where he was staying. It shouldn’t be too hard for them to meet up. Gon started to move towards the exit, then blinked. Kailua, walking beside him, tensed, his hands flicking in and out of his pockets with practiced ease, coming out with heavy steel yo-yos, his weapons of choice. He had far too much respect for his friend’s senses

to take anything they indicated for granted. Gon glanced around, and spotted what had bothered him before- a shimmering streak of scarlet Nen-fire, laced through with lightning bolts of purest gold, appearing and disappearing in the same split second. He grinned, and waved. “Hey Ryozha! Over here!” he yelled. Kailua relaxed a little, his yo-yos disappearing into his pockets again. Ryozha came to a stop in front of his two new friends, still blurring a little at the edges as he shook with power he could barely contain in his current state of mind. He looked at Kailua, knowing in his heart of hearts that the other boy would not welcome his pity, but barely able to contain it just the same. To cover it, he flourished the ring, grinning broadly and, mostly, sincerely. “I got it!” he exclaimed. Kailua raised an eyebrow. “You got it back from my brother? Amazing... I never thought Illumi would let go of it so easily.” Ryozha snickered. “Easily? Well... I suppose he DID only try to kill me twice... and not very hard at that. But still...” Gon looked a little horrified, and Kailua half-smirked, wondering what exactly the other boy was hiding with this show of bravado. He didn’t think it was fear, oddly enough, although there was definitely residual fear in there. As an assassin, he’d learned the smell of fear very, very young. And he couldn’t blame Ryozha for being afraid after having met Illumi- he himself was still terrified of his older brother... Then his entire train of thought was derailed as the ring suddenly roared with power, blasting out a terrific flare of Nen. It flickered and died as abruptly as it appeared, leaving dancing afterimages on the retinas of all three boys. Kailua shook his head, trying to clear it, and noticed that Ryozha was nowhere to be seen. About ten minutes later, Ryozha reappeared at high speed from the North, hopping from the tracks onto the platform and looking a little sheepish. Once he reached them, he suddenly started hopping on one foot, pulling his shoe off and dropping a clam out. “I must have been moving faster than I thought.” he mumbled. Kailua said nothing, merely noting to himself that the seaside was more than six hundred miles away. He looked at Ryozha a little more closely, and noticed that his Nen was doing the color-change thing again, and was almost entirely gold now. Before he could comment on it, Gon, who had picked up the ring and was fiddling with it, said, “Ryozha, do you think you could get it to do that again? Something looked...” Gon paused; searching for words, then gave up “kind of weird, I guess.” Ryozha, who was still vibrating slightly, gave a blurry shrug, and snatched the ring. The Nen flared again, less dramatically this time, and Gon studied the brief flash carefully. Ryozha and Kailua were also looking at it curiously, but couldn’t see anything coherent. Gon stared at the space where the flash had been far longer than Ryozha was comfortable with, but just as he was about to say something, Gon shrugged. “I... guess... it was nothing.” he said slowly, as if he didn’t quite believe it himself. Kailua nodded, still eyeing him carefully, and Ryozha, too jittery to care, said, “Come on- let’s get out of the train station.” Ryozha’s nerves were on overdrive. The unfriendly presence he had sensed that night in Bad Genkopf was back, closer than ever. Quite possibly, whoever this enemy was had come on the same flight as Gon and Kailua, following his pack. He shuddered; going even blurrier at the outlines, and metaphorically grabbed and shook himself. I need to focus, he thought, otherwise I’m doomed before I start. With that cheerful thought, he scowled, then reached for his headphones, I’ve been trying to adjust between speed levels without needing this all the time, but I don’t seem to be having much luck. Unfortunately, right now I can’t afford to go cold turkey and just live with it. Sighing, he slipped the headphones on, and majestic cadences of Tchaikovsky’s “Marche Slave” keened down out of the ultrasonic, slowing to a normal listening pace and bringing him gently back to normal speed. When does a tool become a crutch, I wonder? He thought absently. Then, glancing at Gon and Kailua, who needed no such aids, his mouth twisted half-sourly, half-ironically. Whatever that point is, it looks like I passed it a while ago. His nerves settled a bit, he glanced around, seemingly casually, but with every sense extended, including his ‘6th sense’ that traced motion, from the dance of atoms to the larger, cruder motions of people, even to the point of the giant motions of planetary orbits. He focused in, ‘watching’ the travelers passing through the airport. Beside him, Gon and Kailua also tensed, Gon in response to Ryozha, and Kailua in response to Gon. Each boy scanned their surroundings through their own unique senses. Around the airport, travelers began casting glances over their shoulders, wondering where the feeling of intense scrutiny was coming from. As they walked, Kailua scanned the airport, killer’s senses

heightened to the maximum, and in their wake, people shuddered in uncontrollable fear, suddenly fearing for their lives without knowing why. Gon, searching the area with the senses of both hunter and hunted, predator and prey, passed through, silent as a whisper, as noticeable as the breeze. Ryozha walked in a silent fire of Nen, determined to ferret out their silent stalker who seemed to track them so easily. Kailua had found the tracker in his bag easily, and Gon’s keen senses had found a second when Kailua had asked him. Ryozha paused for a moment, carefully extending his motionsense through his pack, and finding nothing that he did not expect. Stretching his sense a little, down through the ground and up a little, he scanned Kailua and Gon in turn. Gon looked at him a little oddly, but otherwise there was nothing to be found. He frowned, extending his senses again. A tall man brushed past him, and he stared at him, trying hard to find something wrong. Then, in a chance meeting of eyes, he glimpsed someone on the far side of the terminal behind the tall man who had bumped him. A subtle feeling of wrongness teased at the back of his awareness, and he stopped the other two. “Hey guys- just remembered.” he said. “I need to pick up some toothpaste.” “What?” complained Kailua. “Well, if you have to...” When Kailua complained, Ryozha had turned to him, and was flashing words with his Nen- Something is wrong. I suspect the guy by the toiletries counter has something to do with it. Then he jogged over to the counter, carefully and covertly studying the man he had pegged as an anomaly. As he approached, the man had pulled out a cell phone, dialed, and, casually and unobtrusively, turned to the window and began talking. It was a perfectly natural motion, but one that raised the red flag a little higher in Ryozha’s mind, since the man’s face was now hidden. Hidden to him, anyways. He allowed himself a small smile- working with partners was a new experience, and, with such competent partners, a pleasant one. Gon had wandered off to look at one of the displays, and was at an angle where the man’s face was clearly visible in one of the overhead mirrors. Kailua, meanwhile, had stayed with their bags, draped over an airport lounge chair, apparently bored out of his mind, completely relaxed. Rhyoza’s smirk threatened to broaden, he was sure that the boredom was unfeigned... but if Kailua was relaxed, it was the relaxation of a big cat in the shade. The slightest threat, and the limp kitty-cat would instantaneously become fanged death. Ryozha’s smile faded as he drew closer to the counter, seemingly absorbed in the toothpaste- he actually did need more, but his focus was on the man with the cell phone. He reached for a tube of toothpaste, grabbing a random one as he scanned the man, far more carefully than he had scanned Gon or Kailua. He looked down at the tube to disguise the intense concentration that the task took, and nearly dropped it when his senses found a pair of hidden daggers at the man’s belt, writhing with snaky tendrils of Nen. He recovered quickly, and purchased the toothpaste, waving to Gon and Kailua. The three left the airport terminal, and Ryozha put his head close to theirs. “If we walk, we control his surveillance to a certain extent.” Kailua said. Ryozha nodded. “Pretty much what I was thinking. We could probably ditch him, but do we want to?” Gon chimed in. “I don’t think we want to, do we? One guy when we know where he is better than an unknown number of guys who we don’t know where they are...” Ryozha smiled at Gon. “Pretty much, yeah.” he said. “But...” continued Gon, “what if... hmmm.” he trailed off. Ryozha and Kailua looked at him curiously. “What if,” he kept going, “we grabbed him and tried to get some information from him? We never really tried to ask those guys who attacked us anything, and Ryozha couldn’t find anything out about them when he looked...” Ryozha turned a bit pink, and growled, “Thanks for reminding me, Gon...” Kailua nodded slowly. “That makes sense,” he commented, “since the information we’d gain would be more valuable than the simple information of knowing where he is.” Ryozha cocked his head to one side. “That’s settled, then.” he said. He disappeared, and reappeared a few seconds later, holding their tail’s twin long daggers. “Simplest way to deal with these guys,” he said, “take their weapons away- they’ve invested so much of their Nen into them that they’re nearly helpless without them.” “That’s true as far as it goes, boy.” said a new, deeper voice from down the street. “But you didn’t take into account...” here their pursuer gestured imperiously “the fact that we might have unusual ways of getting them back.” The daggers tore themselves from Ryozha’s hand and flew into their owner’s grasp. “You may have taken out those idiot pages,” their attacker stated flatly, “but I believe you’ll have a harder time with...” he charged, leaping into the air and bringing his daggers to bear, “ME!” and struck. Gon and Kailua moved as a unit, splitting apart and abruptly blazing with Nen. Ryozha

hesitated a split second, watching where they moved, and then glared at the dagger-wielding man. Then his jointed staff was in his aching hands and he was meeting the attack head on. A crash, and a flare of Nen, Ryozha found himself lying on his back a good twenty meters down the street, clutching his staff with his head spinning. He shook it to clear it as Gon and Kailua raced in on the attack. He stood to his feet, and slipped his earphones in, noting, somewhat to his surprise, that Kailua had disappeared. As he started to move forwards, Kailua reappeared above their assailant, his yo-yos crackling with electric fire as they arced downwards in a terrible, unstoppable blur. At the same time, Gon ducked low, bringing his Nen-glowing fist up with his trademark cry of “First comes Rock! Jan... Ken... Pon... ROCK!” In Ryozha’s hyper-accelerated vision, the dagger-wielder took a split second to assess the situation, and to decide that Kailua was the greater threat. His Nen-aura pulsed a little, and fed into the daggers in a terrible rush. A fine edge of crimson fire burst into existence along the edge of the long daggers, burning brighter until they hurt to look at. Then they lunged upwards, obviously (at least obvious in the slow-motion world that everyone else seemed to inhabit to Ryozha when he was in speedawareness) intending to cut the wires on Kailua’s yo-yos, rendering them useless. A slow smile spread across Kailua’s face, and his wrists twitched, altering the course of his weapons slightly, sending loose, looping spirals around his enemy’s wrists and the dagger hilts. As they started to tighten, Gon’s fist connected with a CRUNCH! of breaking ribs. Then Digitalism’s “I Want I Want” thudded out of the headphones, and Ryozha launched down the street, hitting the dagger man like a tornado stuffed with bricks. Somewhere in the flurry, he saw Gon slamming the dagger man again and again, and Kailua fighting to keep control of the lethal knives, pumping uncounted watts of electricity into their enemy. Finally, the fires on the daggers died, and their foe slumped, barely conscious. Phew, Ryozha thought to himself, that jerk was tougher than I expected... And somehow, I almost feel like I was in the way in that fight. Gon and Kailua high-fived one another, laughing, and Gon went to high-five Ryozha, who returned it without thinking, then winced, dropping his staff and clutching his aching hands together. He managed to stop, and, ignoring Gon and Kailua’s concerned stares, looked carefully at his hands. There were no signs of physical damage, and, when he simply ignored the pain and grabbed his staff, there were only two small scratches to show where the daggers had impacted. He looked back at his hands, lost in thought. He was jerked out of it when Gon shouted “Hey!” and Kailua said, “Use your Gyo, Ryozha.” Mentally cursing himself, Ryozha shifted into Gyo, and found nothing. Concentrating more carefully, he let his eyes defocus slightly, watching for movement. He caught a flicker out of the corner of his eyes and pounced on it, virtually dragging it into focus by willpower alone. Then he growled, lurching forward at impossible speed and hyper-slapped their semiconscious enemy awake, jarring the daggers he held loose. The snaky tendrils of evil-looking dark red Nen that were causing the tiny fires in his joints flickered, and then died as the dagger-wielder’s concentration was broken. “Watch yourself, Kailua- I think I broke his concentration, but he might be trying to burn your hands from the inside as well.” Ryozha snapped. “He’s obviously a transformation user- he was turning his Nen into fire- but his fine control is incredible!” “I know he’s a transformation user,” Kailua countered, cutting him off, “and I used my own transformation abilities to turn his fire into electricity, making it harmless to me... mostly, anyways.” Their attention turned to the dagger man, who was surreptitiously trying to rip his daggers out of Kailua’s iron grip. However much force he used to pull them to him, it was obviously less than the over sixteen tons that Kailua could exert, and wasn’t working. Gon was holding him down, having grabbed him when Ryozha slapped him awake, and Kailua leaned into their tail’s face. Grinning. The dagger man started glare contemptuously at him, started to turn his nose up... and then he got a good look at Kailua’s eyes and recoiled, jumping so violently that he nearly broke Gon’s grip. “What do you want?” he demanded shakily. “Who are you, mister?” Gon asked from behind him. The dagger wielder glanced uneasily at him, keeping one eye on Kailua, whose face was still bare inches from his, Kailua’s eyes like black pits, and answered, “My name is Alejandro, Squire-who-burns. We track you because you seek knowledge that it is forbidden for outsiders to know.” Kailua’s brows lowered menacingly, and his hand arched, then stiffened, becoming a terrible blade. Alejandro flinched, but Ryozha waved Kailua off. “It’s no use, Kailua. If these guys are who I think they are, you could break every bone in this guy’s body except his jaw and he still wouldn’t talk.” He raised an eyebrow speculatively. “I’m not sure how conditioned they are to accept bits getting sliced off... but frankly, I’m not sure I want to

waste the effort and cleaning bills to find out.” Kailua gave their captive a glare that suggested that he wouldn’t mind trying anyways, and Gon looked revolted. Ryozha ambled casually off, his hands in his pockets and whistled along with “Digital Love” by Daft Punk as it blasted through his headphones. ”C’mon, Kailua, Gon. I think we’ve learned all we’re going to from Squire-who-loses.” Alejandro shifted angrily, but Gon held him fast for the moment. He and Kailua glanced at each other, and then Kailua shrugged and drove the daggers to the hilt in the pavement in front of Alejandro. He smiled sweetly. “Have fun getting those out, Squire-who-loses.” Then he ran off, with Gon following him, laughing. As soon as they rounded the corner they had seen Ryozha disappear around, they found him standing there waiting for them. He grabbed them both by the wrist, there was an unpleasant wrenching sensation, and they were somewhere else. Ryozha leaned shakily on a nearby wall, gasping for breath. Gon looked at him worriedly, and Kailua regarded him half-contemptuously, half-awed. Finally, he straightened, and as he did, Gon asked, “Are you all right, Ryozha?” Ryozha nodded, then winced, massaging his temples slightly. “Blast,” he said, “I overdid it- barely had enough kinetic power in my Nen left to pull it off at all. Let’s find somewhere to sit down.” A quick look around located an open-air cafe, and Gon bought them all tea. Ryozha absently sipped the tea, and then made a face. “Eh... thanks, Gon,” he said, “but I don’t really like tea... anyways, whatever. I don’t think we have much time before someone catches up with us, and I don’t want them to think we know anything much. Here’s what I know: according to most of the legends about the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate, that’s the one I’m hunting right now, about seven hundred years ago, someone managed to gather all the treasures of the Ophirates into one place- a fabulous mound of treasure so large that it’s said it took an army of serfs just to load it on the wagons, which formed a train seventy leagues long, three abreast. There’s probably some exaggeration, of course, but the basics of it is that there was a LOT of treasure. Anyways, he assembled it all in an invincible fortress and created what was supposed to be the most powerful fighting force in the known world to defend it- the Knight-Guardians of Aerie Fortress. There are all kinds of crazy legends about them- two of them defeating small armies, fifty of them routing entire kingdoms, that kind of thing. One Hunter historian thought that if they existed, they might have been wild-talent Nen users, or maybe even practitioners of some secret way of using Nen. But anyways, even though the guys chasing us didn’t seem as tough as the legends make the Knight-Guardians out to be, there are still some things that they did, like the Nen-powered weapons and special abilities designed to counter other abilities, makes them sound kind of like the KnightGuardians. If they ARE, then it looks like the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate isn’t quite as lost as it’s supposed to be.” Ryozha paused, then looked down briefly. “I’m... afraid I haven’t told you guys everything up ‘til now. I’m guessing that you guys already know that this is a class ‘A’ difficulty hunt. What might not be so obvious is that the International Money Council is very, very interested in my hunt, and that there are treasury agents from at least seven different countries trying to trail me. Plus at least one private group has hired a hunter to either compete with or follow me. I’m not sure which. Top that all off with these guys who might be the Knight-Guardians...” he raised his eyes, staring Gon and Kailua right in the face “and, well, I’m not even sure there’s a name for a hunt like this one. We’re talking literally world-shaking amounts of money- if this treasure is found, the whole world is gonna feel the shockwaves.” He stopped, trying to read his two companions. Kailua was closed, as always, but Gon... Gon was radiating enthusiasm like a small sun. “Wow!” he exclaimed. “A really important hunt!” then he hesitated, his face clouding over. “Um... do you still want us to help you, since it’s so important?” Ryozha stared at Gon in frank disbelief, and Kailua grabbed Gon, giving him a noogie and laughing at him. Finally, Ryozha stammered “Er... ah... actually, I was going to ask if you were still willing to help me... Ah, I’m guessing that you do, then?” Kailua shrugged, and Gon nodded eagerly, leaning forward. Ryozha grinned, his normally cynical half-smile becoming a full, grateful grin as he said “Okay... well, I’ll tell you everything, starting with who hired me. Her name is Dr. Katrina Scheck, and she works for the World Money Council. She has a theory that if the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate were properly introduced into the world economy, it could... er, ‘stabilize the economic systems of many poor countries’ I think is the way she put it...” He continued to talk, explaining in detail what he had done up to this point, and where he... they were going to go next. END CHAPTER 1

On a rooftop in York Shin City, a solitary man crouched, staring over the brilliant panorama of the night-shrouded city. His big frame was perfectly still, shaggy hair so blond as to be almost white (or was it white?) fell over a hard, craggy face. Emotionless eyes shifted slightly, and he grunted in acknowledgment of the small, giggling man who had materialized soundlessly next to him. The crazed assassins seemed to delight in trying to surprise, or possibly kill, him. Once he had let him know that he was aware of his presence, the Iron Wolf ignored him. His was a name spoken only in furtive whispers by “those who knew”. It was said he could find anyone. He was a hunter. Not a Hunter... no, not a member of that select guild of brilliant madmen. He was too solitary for that- a lone Wolf, who stalked his prey as a test of skill and courage, tracking them tirelessly until he had run them to the ground. He shifted his position slightly, continuing to ignore his giggling companion, acknowledging the slight weariness he felt... weariness that would have been exhaustion, exhaustion to the brink of death, for an ordinary man. He would wait. The Speed Hunter, the boy who was his prey (a boy not much older than my son... a restless inner voice said) had eluded him briefly, here in York Shin. But he would be back. His instincts told him this, and on the hunt (I have no children. I am wed only to the hunt.), they had never failed him. A movement down on the street caught his attention. He watched as a silent, slender figure strode into view, supreme confidence and perfect caution in a strange blend. Then, abruptly, the young woman vanished from view in a burst of impossible speed. The Iron Wolf tracked her with his eyes, watching the scarcely visible blur disappear into a small, cheap-looking hotel. She was nowhere near as fast as the boy, but the Hunter-filly was still fast enough to give him problems. Which was why his employers had insisted on sending Padraic Shea with him. The deranged little man was a Blacklist Hunter, who apparently shared the beyond-human abilities of his prey, both the immediate and the ultimate. He shrugged. It seemed that her search for the day had been as futile as his. However, she, too, remained convinced that the boy would return here. The other trackers had dispersed, chasing rumors and shadows, searching for a “Speed Hunter” that most of them had never even seen. The Iron Wolf shrugged, steel-hard muscles rippling under his skin, and stalked over to the roof access, vanishing from sight. His small companion stared at the hotel a moment longer, eyes glowing with Gyo, his giggles stilled. The crazed Shea, his lunacy dropping from him like a mask, scanned the cheap-looking hotel with a studied intensity that would have given even the famed Iron Wolf pause. He had checked the girl’s file at the Hunter website, along with the Speed Hunter’s, and had learned enough to be wary of her. He glanced back at the dark stairwell, half-thinking of hurrying down to try to ‘surprise’ the Iron Wolf again to maintain his manic persona, half-thinking of the Hunt that he was currently on... the Speed Hunter, high bounty notwithstanding, was minor prey. But there were no rules saying that a Blacklist Hunter couldn’t have more than one target at a time... He smiled coldly, a very different smile than his usual manic grin, as his gaze turned to the seedy little hotel again. In the shadows, the Wolf watched his erstwhile partner carefully. He’d long suspected that the manic giggler was merely a facade, and here was one more bit of proof that the man behind the facade was even more dangerous than he appeared. Meanwhile, down in the seedy-looking hotel, the young huntress flopped onto the bed in a surprisingly nicely appointed room. She rolled over onto her back, brushing her long, blond ponytail out of her face, and smoothing her puffy red dress. She heaved a sigh, wondering whether or not whoever it was had that had been shadowing her for the last two weeks was going to do anything

THIS time. She doubted it... she would almost have welcomed the break in the monotony. As far as she could tell, they were following her because they thought she had lost the Speed Hunter’s trail. She had, in fact, but didn’t care that much- she had her own leads to follow. She’d been doing this for long enough she didn’t feel that much need to tail another Hunter to try and find her prize. She smiled at the thought... I seem to be running into a lot of terribly talented boy Hunters lately. First those two, and now this Speed Hunter child, child... heh... I wonder how the hotel owner’s nice teen-aged son would react if he knew I was almost old enough to be his grandmother? She thought, and then chuckled. Well, at least he’d probably stop flirting with her. She had been promised any five named or name-worthy stones from the Grand Treasure of the Ophirate, along with her weight in gems. It was THAT big. She smiled again- I guess I never WILL stop loving sparkly things... She rubbed her sleepy eyes, and started to giggle at the slightly irrational thought of shifting into her true form and walking out, leaving her pursuers wondering where she’d gone. She flicked the light off, and let her special Nen ability “Lovely Masseuse” calm her. Then she smiled in the darkness, relaxed and a little giddy. More gems to add to my collection. Soon, the Museum is going to have to rename their gemstone display the ‘Biscuit Kruger Wing’... Of course, they’re still all mine... all... mi. And with that happy thought, Biscuit drifted off to sleep. High above the hotel on the rooftop, hunter and hunted watched the darkened room. Padraic Shea shifted slightly, staring down at the window with burning eyes, his Nen a chaotic jumble of swirling colors. Behind him, the Iron Wolf’s eyes widened slightly as the crazed little Hunter simply faded from view. He tested the wind, and then bared his teeth slightly in what might have been a grin. The little loon was still there, simply blended into the background. It seemed tonight was a night of revelations. The Iron Wolf stiffened infinitesimally, his instincts warning him it was time to go. He could no longer track Shea accurately, so he casually vanished into the shadows, drifting out of sight with less noise than a night breeze. In a nondescript van on the streets behind Biscuit's hotel, Daniel Smith slumped forwards, letting his forehead bang against the steering wheel. Some surveillance team we are... he thought bleakly. 3.7 Trillion Jennys in equipment and training, and the best we can do is stare at the other surveillance teams... He paused, and gave a short, muffled bark of laughter. Well, at least now I know who watches the watchmen... we watch each other. He banged his forehead on the steering wheel again; ignoring the chatter behind him... it was always the same. Then a couple of words caught his attention, and he turned his attention to the tech-lit dimness of the back of the van. “... Disappeared completely off our scope... nothing on any wavelength...” “... Infrared traces suggest that the Wolf was up there too...” Daniel swiveled his chair around. “What’s happening?” he demanded, swinging his display panel and keyboard out and hammering a rapid series of commands. “Sir!” one of the technicians said, “It appears the Mafia team is making a move. The giggling one- the Hunter- has vanished off all our scopes. The Wolf appeared to have left earlier, but we’ve lost him off all sensors as well.” Daniel hesitated for a moment, then slammed his workstation back into its nook and spun around, throwing the van into gear with the same motion. “Park the drones somewhere safe.” he snapped. “We’re gone. I haven’t forgotten what that maniac did to Patel and Jackson when he found them spying on him.” Padraic Shea slipped back into visibility, glaring at the receding taillights as the surveillance van disappeared around the corner on two wheels. His mouth twisted in a bitter frown, and he glanced up at the hotel they had all been watching, briefly considering taking out his anger on the sleeping Huntress, and then decided against it. He stalked away down the street, his face an icy mask. In a familiar dark basement, the Knight-Guardian enforcer was writhing in Boss Myoji’s incandescent stare, pinned to his chair by the sheer force of the other man’s anger. “Do-you-know?” Myoji rapped out, biting off each word as though it had offended him personally. “Do-you-know-what-those-idiotsyou-hired-in-my-name-are-doing?” He noticed the smaller man’s hand continually straying down to his half-concealed morning star, and collected himself. The small enforcer opened his mouth to speak, but Boss Myoji ran straight over whatever he was going to say. “I’ll TELL you what they’re doing. They’re ELIMINATING the various nation’s surveillance teams, whenever they run across them!” He paused for breath, and the other man again started to speak, but once again, Boss Myoji ignored him. “This wouldn’t be a problem, normally, except for the fact that at least two of the nations are aware of who is killing their men, AND who they’re working for. At least,” he hesitated,

returning his baleful glare to the target of his ranting and slamming him back against his chair, “who they THINK they’re working for. If they’re pushed too far, they have more than enough resources to bring my organization crashing down. And when they do... one way or another, they’ll have my secrets.” He leaned in, skewering the enforcer with his gaze at close range. “ALL my secrets. I believe you would be wise to go and bring your hounds to heel, enforcer.” With that, Myoji turned and stalked towards his door. The Knight-Guardian got shakily to his feet, and managed to sputter, “The Knight-Guardians can destroy any foolish enough to challenge us! Let them send their entire armies to claim the Treasure. They will break like waves on the cliffs!” Boss Myoji stopped, briefly, but didn’t turn. “And when they decide that no amount of treasure is worth this, and drop a nuclear warhead on you... where will your vaunted prowess be then?” he said. Then he walked out the door and was gone. The enforcer relaxed muscles like corded steel, shuddering. Even if Boss Myoji didn’t have information that would tear the veil of secrecy from the Knight-Guardians and their trust, to be delivered in the event of his death, he wasn’t sure he could have acted against the Mafia boss, so overpowering was the man’s rage. He stared at the empty doorway Boss Myoji had vanished through a moment longer, then drew his dagger and vanished behind it. In another part of York Shin City, in a well-appointed room in a large hotel, Kailua was sitting on one of the beds clutching a double handful of poker chips and wearing a shocked look on his face. Ryozha was storming around the room, yelling “I swear, Kailua, if I have to drag you out of that casino one more time!” “He did the same thing last time we were here, too.” Gon volunteered from one of the other beds. “HEY!” yelled Kailua, jumping on Gon as poker chips sprayed all over the room. Ryozha watched as the two wrestled and laughed, absently catching and neatly stacking the poker chips in a brief burst of speed. He wanted to join in, but wasn’t sure it would go over very well. He sighed, and slumped into the armchair, grabbing his laptop and popping it open. He hammered rapidly at the keyboard for a few minutes, before finally exclaiming “A-HA!” Kailua got off of Gon and wandered over. “What’s up?” he asked. “I finally managed to figure out where the guy we’re looking for is.” By this point, Gon had wandered over too. “Ping Lee. My Grandfather always said that he’s one of the best there’s ever been at imbuing Nen permanently into stuff. If he can’t figure out how this ring works,” here he paused and fished the ring out of his pocket, flaring Nen through it, “then he’ll know who can. Best part is, he’s still in York Shin City. Unfortunately, York Shin is also where I ditched most of the people who were tailing me. Odds are, at least some of them hung around to wait for me.” “Yeah, you mentioned that before.” Kailua answered. “So I had an idea,” Gon interrupted. “We have a friend here- a man we met last time we were in York Shin, looking for Greed Island. His name is Zepille- he’s a buyer in the big market, and he sees just about everyone who passes through here.” Ryozha sat up “So... what did he say?” “Well,” said Gon, “he said that the ‘Market Rumor’ is that a lot of the local Mafia guys are all stirred up. A guy he knows who works for the Mafia as a runner when they’re dealing with something too sensitive to trust to electronics said he got sent to a really weird place on one of his last runs. He walked through a door, there was a flash, and suddenly he was somewhere else- he wasn’t in the room he had walked into when he went through the door. He gave the message to the guy who met him there a few minutes later, and then... well, he said he thinks he’s lucky he’s still alive- the Mafia boss who gave him the message was so angry he almost couldn’t talk, and the guy he gave the message to looked really mad too. Then the guy he gave the message to pulled out a big knife... and disappeared behind it. Zepille told us that he thinks the only reason he got so much info out of the guy is because he was drunk- he was trying to forget coming so close to death.” Kailua made a small, disdainful noise, and Ryozha glanced at him. “Not everyone has done what you have, Kailua, and while we may live inches from death more often than most, it still affects us.” He glanced at Kailua ’s face, and his mouth quirked in a half-smile at the look on it. “Well, most of us. Heh. So... the Mafia is all-abuzz, huh? Well... I don’t really think that has much to do with us, but it’s useful to know. Unless... Kailua, where did that news report you found go? The one about the weird murders?” Kailua looked surprised, but dug around under the bed until he found the newspaper clipping. He tossed it to Ryozha, who snagged it and studied it. “Here we go,” he said, “all those guys who got killed- they worked for a bunch of different embassies.” Gon cocked his head to one side, looking puzzled. “So?” he asked. “They were spies, idiot.” he said, laughing. “And that paper also says the police think the Mafia killed them, right?” “Yup.” said Ryozha. “So... this might have something to do with me... or rather, us... after all.” He shrugged, tossing the paper aside. “We’ll figure it out later- I just got an email from Ping Lee.”

About an hour later, Ryozha was fidgeting in an outdoor seat at one of York Shin’s many cafes. Ping Lee’s e-mail had given the name of a famous night spot in Zaban and the instructions to meet at ‘it’s closest equivalent’ in York Shin, along with the warning that at least three of the surveillance teams were still in York Shin City, hoping to pick Rhyoza’s trail up again, and that one or more of them had at least half an eye on Lee. Ryozha glanced around. He, Gon and Kailua had all disagreed as to what exactly Lee had meant, so they had split up. Kailua had taken the instructions literally, and had headed for York Shin’s hottest nightspot... and, coincidentally (or not), the location of a large casino. Ryozha sighed, but decided that Kailua was most likely going to be able to stay focused on the hunt at hand. Gon had thought that “Mr. Ping” had most likely meant the street address closest to that of the nightspot, and was perched on a warehouse rooftop not far from the street corner he thought Ping Lee would show up at. Ryozha had simply superimposed a map of Zaban over a map of York Shin, and parked himself at a cafe near where the nightspot would land if Zaban were abruptly dropped onto the center of York Shin. If Ping Lee were to show up at any of the three places, whoever was there would immediately call the other two, and Ryozha would approach Lee once he got there. Ryozha shifted position again, absentmindedly drumming his fingers in time with the jazzy beat of Artie Shaw’s “Begin the Beguine”. He half-hoped Kailua was right- he’d have to put up with his gloating, but the crowds at the “Night Auction” Casino would provide the best cover they could hope for in this meeting. Some time later... Ryozha wasn’t sure how long, but a glance at his player revealed that Glenn Miller, Count Basie and Duke Ellington had all finished their gigs and packed it in for the night... This “random play” really isn’t very random... or at least, it’s sure spitting out a lot of Jazz tonight. Going to have to remember to ask Lee about this if there’s time. Ryozha thought... Rhyoza’s cellphone vibrated silently in his pocket. Ryozha yanked it out and snapped it open. “Yeah?” he said. Gon's voice came out of the speaker briefly. “He’s here.” was all he said, before hanging up. Ryozha smiled. Looks like Gon was right after all. He stood and tossed some coins onto the table to pay for the sodas he’d been drinking, but before he could leave, his phone vibrated again. This time, it was Kailua who said “He’s here.” before hanging up immediately. Ryozha frowned. Something’s not right... I’m gonna bail before Ping Lee shows up HERE, too. With that, Ryozha left the cafe and vanished into the nighttime crowds of York Shin. He drifted with the crowd, pausing briefly to call Gon and Kailua, to tell them to pull out. A short while later, a third faux Ping Lee had turned up. Ryozha watched him carefully from the fringes of the crowd as he glanced around, and then spoke briefly into his lapel, where presumably he had a microphone concealed. Ryozha studied him carefully- whoever he was working for; they had the resources to employ both talented character actors and expert professional makeup men. He assumed that the other two “Ping Lees” would be equally proficient actors, since there was no way for them to know in advance where he’d be. Now that he looked at the man closely, he could see subtle hints of wrongness that told him that it was NOT Ping Lee, although he wasn’t sure he would’ve picked them up if he hadn’t been warned by the other two being early. As he watched, the actor slipped a stun-gun into his pocket. Ryozha shuddered. Kailua might be able to shrug off crippling shocks like they were nothing, but Ryozha had no illusions that he could handle even one shock from a taser. He thought for a second. Obviously, whoever had sent the doubles had intercepted Ping Lee, or delayed him somehow. If Lee was only delayed... he wondered if Gon or knew how to do a brush pass. Ryozha faded into the crowd and found an Internet cafe. He grabbed a shadowy corner booth and hooked his laptop up to the system with a cable. No sense in risking an open Wi fi port. He hammered out a brief e-mail in a single staccato burst, “Sorry, was delayed tracking another lead. Will arrive tomorrow. New meeting place? -R”. Then he invisibly attached a tiny worm to it whose only function was to follow the e-mail to it’s destination and report back if it was intercepted or not. Hopefully the hacker I bought this from was as good as he claimed... I certainly paid enough for the stupid thing. But he said that it should withstand any attempts at detection. A few seconds later, the worm reported back- the e-mail had gone through without incident. Ryozha sat back, idly scanning through the web for any hints at the surveillance teams watching him- there were certainly enough ‘live satellite imagery’ sites kicking around that he should be able to find some trace of them. When the fifteen minutes he had hired the “net kiosk” for were up, he snapped his laptop shut, paid and left.

When he got back to the hotel, Gon and Kailua hadn’t returned, so he called Gon, bouncing his call through Whale Island, just for fun. Through the crackling, scratchy, but surprisingly clear phone, he learned that Kailua had tailed his “Ping Lee” to a nondescript van, where he’d lost him. Gon hadn’t even had to follow his- the same van, or one very much like it, had picked up Gon’s “Ping Lee”. He and Kailua were on their way back to the hotel- they had just stopped to leave a note for Zepille to meet them as soon as he could. After Kailua and Gon got back to the Hotel, they settled in for some serious brainstorming. “Okay,” started Ryozha, “I can’t figure out what’s going on very well, but here’s my best guesses. I think one of the countries that’s having me followed kidnapped Ping Lee, the Hunter they hired to follow me wouldn’t have to kidnap him, he’d just use the Hunter Website to get any info he needed about Ping Lee. Also, he’d know that Ping Lee’s specialty is imbuing objects with Nen, so he’d have no reason to assume that I’d come back to visit him so soon. That, and he probably wouldn’t have the resources to keep him watched- he’d be following his own leads, not tailing me, most likely. So, it's probably not the Hunter who’s competing with me. I don’t think it was the Mafia, either- if what the newspaper and Zepille said DO have some bearing on each other, then the Mafia here in York Shin might be mixed up in this somehow, but I don’t think they have the resources to make three, or maybe even more, Ping Lee duplicates. Also... I don’t think a stun-gun is a Mafia-style weapon... they seem more likely to just stick a gun in your ribs and tell you to come quietly.” “That sounds right.” Kailua agreed. “ So you think it’s one of the government shadow-teams that kidnapped Ping Lee?” Ryozha nodded, and Gon said, “I don’t think a Hunter would grab Mr. Ping either, it doesn’t feel right.” Ryozha and Kailua both looked at him expectantly. “Well...” Gon continued, “If anyone grabbed Mr. Ping, that means that they knew you were back in York Shin City, right?” Ryozha nodded again. “So that means that they know you’re back in town, either from your e-mail to Mr. Ping, or else because someone saw you. Most Hunters wouldn’t bother grabbing someone to force you to come to them- they’re more likely to track you down and grab YOU, since they’ll probably underestimate you.” “Yeah, that sounds right, actually, Gon. So, it’s almost definitely one of the government shadowteams that took Lee. He said that there were at least three of them still around in his e-mail- that’s out of seven that I know of- and the murders were of men from three different embassies. That means that there’s one shadow-team out somewhere else hunting for me. I don’t think anyone has realized yet that you and Kailua are working with me, Gon, except maybe the Knight-Guardian wannabes, so we still have that advantage. Since that’s the case, I think it should just be me that goes in to get Lee out once we find him.” Gon moved to protest, and Ryozha waved him down. “I know you want to help, and that you’re my partners now, but I don’t think those goons can stop me if I’m ready for them. It would be bad tactics to waste a major potential advantage for a small bit of extra safety.” Kailua rolled over on the bed and put his hand on Gon’s shoulder. “I don’t like it either, Gon, but I think he’s right.” Gon subsided, grumbling. A while later, Ryozha was blurring down the darkening street towards Ping Lee’s place. His reply email had included a coded ‘trouble alert’, for which Ryozha was thankful- it confirmed his suspicions that Lee was in fact being held hostage. Gon and Kailua had gone ahead to position themselves. “in case of trouble”. Once he reached the Lee’s building, he slowed to a stop in the shadow of a nearby building. He shifted to Gyo briefly, not really expecting to see anything other than Lee’s usual neonNen signs. Seeing nothing to indicate danger from that front, he hesitated. He wasn’t sure what resources this shadow-team had, although the fact that they’d taken Lee suggested that they weren’t very well equipped, at least in terms of surveillance gear. Ryozha shifted to In, and did a rapid run by of all the buildings with a clear line-of-sight to Ping Lee’s warehouse. He spotted five men with binoculars, and three with Sniper Rifles. Gon and Kailua were virtually invisible until Gon sent up a little Nen-flare, and Kailua did likewise a second later when none of the watchers reacted. Ryozha let a half-smile creep across his face, and did another super-speed run-by, this time leaving the word THANKS in a shimmering trail of Nen-fire. With that, he was ready. Taking a deep breath, he checked his aura briefly as he blurred virtually invisibly towards Ping Lee’s warehouse. It was a satisfying gold-shot crimson, so he tightened his focus, blazing towards Lee’s

place of business in a comet of red fire and golden lightning, invisible to all save the keenest Nenenhanced senses. He reviewed his options in the surreal slowness of his speed-awareness. Anything I do will alert these guys, and probably the other surveillance teams, to the fact that I’m in York Shin again. My best bet is to get the info I need from Lee, then bail. Should’ve told Gon and Kailua to wait for me at the airport... oh well. Guess what I need to do is disable everyone inside, get the info from Ping Lee, and get out before the others know what happened. Running straight up the wall, Ryozha cleared the roof, soaring high above York Shin. Then, abruptly, he sucked up his own momentum and slammed it out the other way, ricocheting off the sky and screaming down at the roof at thousands of miles per hour. Nailing the skylight squarely, he hurled kinetic energy into it just before he hit, shattering it like a bomb blast. He also briefly stopped absorbing the kinetic energy of the friction heat and sonic booms he was generating, creating a spectacular burst of noise and flame. Flipping himself upright and once again swallowing his own momentum, he was amused to see that those inside hadn’t even hit the ground from the dive they had performed to get clear of the “explosion,” a glance also told him that the shock-wave from the sonic-boom he had let slip had just started to pick them up, sending them tumbling. He considered his options briefly, then grabbed one of the rolls of duct tape he always made a point of carrying and solidly bound the half dozen diving, tumbling men (who had moved a good inch or two in the time he wondered what to do with them) Must’ve really scared them to get them moving that fast even without the help of the shock-wave... he thought, mouth quirking in a half-smile, then gagged them all as an afterthought. Then he slowed out of speed awareness and ambled over to where Ping Lee sat, tied to a chair with an amused expression on his face. “Y’always were a showoff, kid.” Lee greeted him. “I’m assuming you’ve already noticed the watchers and the snipers?” “Five and three, right?” Ryozha answered. “Good kid. So, whaddya need? I’m assuming it has something to do with why these goons're after you?” “Got it in one, Lee. Tracking down some major-league treasure, and this...” Ryozha produced the ring, “has something to do with it.” Lee casually snapped the ropes with a burst of Nen and grabbed the ring, heading for his workbench. “Hang on. Oh, those others’ll be here in a sec, take care of them, willya?” Ryozha nodded, heading for the door. Once there, he paused for a second. He was well within Lee’s building, and could already hear the pounding of feet coming up the street outside. He called Kailua, and confirmed briefly that the three snipers had remained outside. He grinned, and stretched, zipping back into Lee’s workroom to drop off his pack. He unlimbered his jointed staff, and waited, grinning cockily in a matter guaranteed to infuriate the first man through the door. A couple of minutes later, the door was kicked open, and a burly man in a dark suit and darker glasses dove through, his pistol coming up almost into the ready position before Ryozha cracked him over the head with his staff at the same time Ping Lee yelled “Hey! Keep the damage to the fixtures t’a minimum, puh-LEAZE!” The big man staggered woozily to his feet as two of his companions followed, with the remaining two covering them from the doorway. Ryozha stole the first man’s gun and threw it into the face of one of the two who had stayed outside, knocking him off his feet, while his other hand brought his staff around like a whip, knocking the gun out of his partner’s suddenly numbed hand. Then he whipped his jointed staff back around, bringing it to the ready position and dropping into a challenging, in-your-face crouch. The big man who had entered first gathered his wits and made a couple of abrupt, peremptory hand motions. His men spread out, the two who were still armed hanging back, and the other three surrounding Ryozha. Ryozha paused just long enough to wonder why the lead agent was wearing sunglasses when it was dark out, then idly wondered if he had a full tank of gas and half a pack of cigarettes... he slid his headphones on, and smirked with some satisfaction as “Mission Bell” by Everymoveapicture blasted out of them at 10x normal speed. He did a fast, showy sideways flip to dodge incoming fire from the shooters, then leapt at them, dodging the three surrounding him and disarming both gunmen with a fast staff-sweep whose follow-through knocked the guns skittering into the shadows of the hallway. Doing a midair flip, he let his momentum carry him into the wall,

which he then sprang off of, kicking one agent squarely in the face and battering two others about the head and neck with the two ends of his jointed staff. The agent he had kicked in the face slammed headfirst into the far wall and slumped down (accompanied by the shout of “Oi! The fixTURES, if ya don’t mind!” from the workroom), while one of those he had been belaboring didn’t manage to block a strike at a vital point and collapsed. The remaining three had managed to turn that point, and two were leaping at him, trying to pin him, while the last agent, the big leader, was bringing his hands down in a hammer-strike that would be crippling if it landed. Ryozha dropped onto his back, hooking a toe under one of those lunging at him and yanking him slightly off-course, wincing slightly at the sound of fingers and collarbones breaking as the hammer-hand strike that had been aimed at him smashed into the big man’s luckless subordinate instead. Rapidly shifting position without getting up, he boosted the last agent, who had been diving at him, so that he sailed right overhead and also slammed headfirst into the wall (“That’s goin’ ont’yer bill, y’know!”). He then flipped onto his feet and did a quick spot-check the big team leader was quickly wrapping his broken, Well... maybe just sprained, from the size of him... yeesh. Ryozha thought, hand with a handkerchief. His subordinate was writhing slightly, but didn’t seem able to get up. Ryozha mostly ignored him, dropping into a ‘ready’ crouch and motioning the big agent towards him. The big man pocketed his sunglasses and pulled out his earplug, Perfect! Thought Ryozha, and hit the auto-dial button on his phone in his back pocket to briefly buzz Gon and Kailua so they would take out the snipers unseen, then dropped into a fighting crouch as well. Ryozha watched his form carefullythere had been no Nen-activity from any of his opponents in this fight yet, but there was no harm in being careful- then decided not to waste any more time. He did a couple of back-flips down the hall, then raced forward, flipping sideways in a dazzling spring that pin-balled him off both walls, the ceiling, and then one of the walls again to end up behind the big man, spiking a devastating nervestrike at the base of his skull. A split second before he connected, Ping Lee stepped out of his workshop behind the big man and swatted him aside, slamming him into the wall with stunning force. He flipped the ring to Ryozha, who had tumbled to a halt, and informed him “It’s a map of some kind, I can tell you that much, and it’s a-flipping-mazingly old- at least six hundred years- but how it was made, or even how to read it exactly, I can’t tell you, and I don’t think there’s anyone else alive who can, neither.” Ryozha looked at him, disappointed, but before he could say anything, Lee held up his hand. “I have a coupl’a educated guesses, tho’. First off, it doesn’t display properly if you just pump Nen through it. Either it’s degraded over time- and frankly I’m amazed that th’ thing still works at all- or else y’gotta put the Nen through it a special way. Hmm... Since it’s still working, I’d actually guess that it’s th’ latter. I might be able to pull the Nen out of this thing t’ study it, but if I made even one mistake, you’d have nothin’. Well... nothing other than a ring with a huge funny-cut diamond in it, anyways.” The sound of sirens and running feet outside interrupted them. “Ah... that’ll be the police.” Lee commented. “If there’s as many people chasing you right now as there seems t’be, y’d better make yerself scarce.” Ryozha turned to go, and just as he was about to vanish, Ping Lee held up a hand. “Hold up, kid- something’s bugging me. Call me in a day or two- I might have some fresh info.” Ryozha threw him a casual salute in thanks, and vanished in a silent blur of speed. He met up with Gon and Kailua on a warehouse rooftop a few blocks from the suddenly active warehouse. “So what did he say?” Gon wanted to know. “He doesn’t know much, he thinks it’s probably a map, but he can’t tell us much more than that. But he thinks he might have more info in a few days... I think he’s trying to remember something.” “If that’s all he had to say, what took you so long in there?” “Well... I used almost no Nen fighting those guys that came in from outside.” “What? Why?” Gon asked. Kailua cocked his head to one side, but didn’t say anything. “It’s pretty simple- basically, I just don’t want them to know what I can really do.” Ryozha told him. “Oooh...” said Gon. “Kind of... ‘Never let your enemies know your true capabilities’?” Ryozha looked at him for a second, surprised, then nodded. “Yup, that sounds almost exactly right. Anyways, lets head back to the hotel, see if we can figure out this ring.” Back in their hotel room, Ryozha flopped down in the armchair again. He dug the ring out of his pocket and, almost absently, started flashing Nen through it, varying the duration, varying the intensity, trying staccato pulses, basically doing the Nen-equivalent of idly doodling. Gon and Kailua arrived a couple of minutes later and locked the door behind them. Kailua perched on the edge of his bed, and Gon sat cross-legged on the floor, watching Ryozha with his head cocked to one side.

After a minute or two, Ryozha sat up, flipped the ring to Gon and said “Here, Gon- your turn.” As Ryozha leaned back, Kailua bent forward and said “After your little light show for those guys, there’s no more point in secrecy- we need to move fast from here on.” Ryozha cocked his head and glanced at Kailua. “I agree.” he replied, “The question is, what should our next move be? Those spies, based on what I saw and what Ping Lee told me, I think they’re from Bederusse, know I’m here now, and they’ve probably decided that I had help... or else that I’m faster than their Intel reported. I hope it’s not the latter- I went to a lot of trouble to make them think I’m slower than I really am.” He gave a kind of half-shrug. “Also, once that particular batch of spies makes their report, it’s very likely that however many surveillance teams are still in York Shin will also know that I’m here. It’s amazing how few secrets there actually ARE in the ‘secret world’ of Black Ops and spying.” “Do you really think they’ll be that much of a problem?” Gon asked, looking up from the ring. “Well... no, not really.” Ryozha answered. “We’ll have to be careful of them, of course- Nen doesn’t make us bulletproof.” He paused, and glanced at Gon. “Well... it doesn’t make ME bulletproof, anyways... I’m not so sure about you, Gon.” He winked at Gon, who stuck his tongue out at him and went back to the ring. “The other Hunter shouldn’t be a problem, since they’re not a Black List Hunter... I just wish I had some kind of ‘in’ with the Mafia. They’re the ones that worry me the most. One of their high-level members is in on this, and we have no way of knowing what they’re up to.” He half shrugged again. “I guess we’re just going to have to ‘hurry up and wait’ to find out what Ping Lee comes up with- I don’t have any more contacts here in York Shin who could help us. Unless...” he flipped off the chair to stand looking at Gon and Kailua. “Do you guys know anyone here in York Shin who might be able to help us out?” A while later, Gon had passed the ring over to Kailua, who was busily producing blobby, amorphous masses of Nen from it. He wandered over to where Ryozha was fitfully poking at his laptop, producing the usual stroboscopic blur. “Why do you want somebody else to help us here in York Shin, Ryozha? Zepille has already given us very good information, and he’ll probably get more to us if he finds anything more out. And your friend Mr. Ping has already helped us too.” he said. Ryozha glanced away from the computer, and said irritably “Yes, but neither of them can help us any with the Mafia connection.” “Oh!” exclaimed Gon. “Why didn’t you say you needed somebody inside the Mafia?” “I did.” grouched Ryozha. “Sorry...” Gon told him. “I guess I was concentrating really hard on the ring when you said that. But Kailua and I know someone who is with the Mafia- our friend Kurapica works as a bodyguard for one of the Mafia guys. He took the Hunter exam with me and Kailua, but right now he’s chasing the Phantom Troupe.” “He’s chasing the Phantom Troupe and he’s still alive? He must be strong.” Ryozha commented. “He is!” Gon told him. Hang on, I think I still have his home code around here somewhere...” He pulled out his phone and started prodding it. Thousands of miles away, Kurapica pulled out his phone and studied it. Recognizing Gon’s code, he let a small smile slip and answered. “Hello, Gon.” “Hi Kurapica!” Gon said. “Um... is it all right if I ask you a question about the Mafia?” Kurapica blinked, and then replied, “Ask your question, if I can, I will answer it.” “Thanks, Kurapica! The question is: do you know anything about Mafia activities in York Shin...” There was a burst of frantic whispering from Gon’s end of the phone, then Gon continued “... in York Shin or elsewhere... concerning Ryozha Tenryu, the Speed Hunter? He’s searching for a major ancient treasure trove that somehow has modern Mafia ties.” Kurapica was silent for a moment, then said “The Mafia has seen a great deal of upheaval recently, the death of the Ten Godfathers and the theft of the entire Underground Auction has caused the fall of a lot of organizations, and new

ones have replaced them. So it’s difficult to say who’s doing what at the moment- no one trusts anyone else as the various organizations fight for position. Even so, there is STILL only one organization, and one man, who is the unquestioned master of ancient treasures- Boss Hinata Myoji of the Aerie Organization. I cannot tell you any more, except for one thing: be very, very careful if you have any dealings with Boss Myoji. He’s dangerous- there are rumors that he’s a Nen-user of some kind, but even if he isn’t, he’s very powerful.” Gon listened soberly, then said “All right, Kurapica- thank you very much!” He was about to say more, but he caught the look in Kailua eye, hesitated, and glanced at Ryozha. Ryozha stiffened slightly, and then said, “I’m going to go out for a while- take it easy, guys. And if you have to go somewhere, hit the F1 key on my computer and leave me a message in the box that opens up.” As he disappeared out the door, he caught a fragment of Gon’s end of the conversation “So, how is your search for the Phantom Troupe going, Kurapica? Have you been able to find the eyes of your clan?” The closing door cut off the rest of the conversation. A while later (a glance at the clock on his phone revealed it to be about 20 minutes), Rhyoza’s cell rang. He opened it and gave a half-shrug when he didn’t recognize the number. He answered anyways, and was startled when Kailua's voice came over the line. “Hey.” Kailua said, without preamble. “Gon thinks I was being unkind to you, or at least rude... and, well... I guess...” Kailua trailed off for a moment, then continued, “I guess he was kind of right. Come on back to the roomwe need to talk.” Ryozha mumbled something, and closed his phone, still a little shocked. Apparently there’s more to Kailua... and Gon, for that matter... than I thought. He absently threw the phone into his pocket, then half-shrugged. Well, no sense standing around here mumbling to myself- time to hit the hotel again. He thought, and disappeared in a sudden burst of speed, racing back to rendezvous with his partners. Back at the hotel, Gon and Kailua were listlessly poking at Rhyoza’s laptop, half-heartedly playing one of his computer games. Ryozha burst in like a silent whirlwind, as usual, this time chucking a small pile of chocolate bars to Kailua. Kailua jerked back in surprise, allowing the candy to scatter everywhere before he registered what they were, then his eyes lit up. He snapped them up, saying “Uh... wow, thanks! Why?” Ryozha half-shrugged. “It seemed like a good peace offering. I passed a specialty shop that sells imported chocolate, and I know how much you like it, so I got about 20 pounds of it.” Kailua glanced down at the mound of candy in front of him, and hesitated. “This... doesn’t look like 20 pounds of chocolate...” Ryozha winked. “You’re not the only one who likes imported chocolate.” He glanced over at Gon. “I’m sorry, Gon... I really don’t know what you like, so I wasn’t sure what to get you. And I have to apologize... I was being kind of nosey when you were talking to your friend.” Gon waved him off, saying, “It was nothing...” just as Kailua said,” Well... I’m sorry too. I should have just asked, instead of...” They both stopped, and Ryozha started to laugh at the looks on their faces. “Anyways,” Gon said, “we think that we need to practice together some.” “Right,” continued Kailua, “both fights we’ve been in, you haven’t really known what we could do, and we haven’t known what you could do, and that’s caused problems.” “Um... wow.” Ryozha managed to say. “I like that idea... a lot. What do you want to do first?” Gon grabbed a water glass while Kailua rolled his eyes. He filled it from the tap in the bathroom and set it on one of the bedside tables after grabbing a leaf from the tree outside the window. “The water test?” asked Ryozha. He half-shrugged. “Okay, I guess, even though I’m pretty sure we know what each other’s Nen-type is.” Gon put his hands on either side of the glass and focused. A second later all three were spluttering as water sprayed out from the glass. They stared at the glass, then at Gon, who was looking stunned. “Wow,” he finally said, “I guess it’s been a while since we did this

last. Wonder what’ll happen when you try it, Kailua?” Kailua shrugged, brushing water out of his hair and looking interested for the first time. He put his hands in position and glowed gently with Nen. A few seconds later, he stopped, and stuck a finger into the glass. It skittered off the surface of the ‘water’, which had become a solid, crystallized lump. He scraped a bit off and tasted it, while the other two did the same. Ryozha screwed up his face at the taste, slurring “WHEE-OW, SWEET!” He glanced at Kailua, who was grinning from ear to ear. He does like being strong, doesn’t he... Ryozha thought idly to himself. In the meantime, Gon had re-filled the glass and peeled the leaf down from where it was stuck limply to the ceiling. Ryozha hesitated. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever done this test, I’ve heard of it, I think it’s Shinjen Dojo that does this water test, but my Grandfather’s school used a different method. So I’m not sure what’s going to happen... if I remember right, the leaf on top of the water moves for Manipulation, right?” Gon nodded, and Ryozha hesitantly put his hands around the glass. The leaf quivered for a second, and Ryozha breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. “That’s i...” he started to say, as the leaf shot off at a sharp angle, taking a chip out of the glass with a sharp ‘CHINK!’ noise and cutting his ear as it went by. All three boys turned to stare at the leaf where it stuck, quivering, in the far wall. After a brief, frozen moment, Ryozha raised an eyebrow and looked at the other two. “I take it you’ve never seen that happen before either?” He looked around. “Maybe we should clean this up before we try anything else. If we’re going to spar or anything, having all this water on the floor could be dangerous.” Gon and Kailua nodded mutely, their eyes occasionally straying back to the leaf where it was embedded in the wall. As they cleaned, Gon started to enthuse about Rhyoza’s strength, but Ryozha stopped him. “I don’t think that test is very good for showing what I can do, Gon, just because of the way my Nen works. Remember what my special ability is? I control motion of things that are in my Nen. I think a lot of how fast that leaf shot out of there is because of my special ability, not because my Nen is really strong.” Gon blinked. “Oh.” was all he said. Kailua glanced at them both, and quickly changed the subject. “I’m still curious about what you found at my house, Ryozha,” he said. Ryozha looked at him, surprised. Odd... I always got the impression that Kailua didn’t like to talk about his family. Maybe he really IS starting to trust me more. Aloud, he said “Well...” and gave a description of what had happened when he went to Kukri Mountain. After he had finished, Gon and Kailua were falling about laughing from his description of his short “speed prank war” on the Zoldyck security forces. “One thing I’m still puzzled about, though, Kailua...” Ryozha finished off. “Why did your house have so many dungeons and torture chambers? I thought the Zoldycks were assassins, not kidnappers.” Kailua sat up and shrugged offhandedly. “Oh,” he said, “those were used on me and my brothers, as part of our training. Grandfather said that he used them on my father when he was small, and that his father used them on him. It’s kind of a family tradition, to make us strong.” Ryozha stared at him, and so did Gon. “You’ve never mentioned that before, Kailua...” Gon said wonderingly. “I haven’t?” said Kailua. “Well, I guess I just didn’t think it was important.” He shrugged again. “Anyways, we’ve sat around long enough. Why don’t we spar a little?” Ryozha grinned. “Why don’t we head out somewhere where it won’t matter if we break stuff? One of the warehouses not far from Ping Lee’s place is abandoned and condemned- it won’t matter if we trash the whole place.” Gon and Kailua looked at him. “Uh... exactly what did you HEAR when I said ‘spar’, Ryozha?” Kailua asked him. Ryozha looked at him blankly for a moment, then half-shrugged. “Why don’t we just go over there? You’ll see what I mean, I think, once we start. It’s not like it’s all that far.” The other two shrugged and followed him out the door. Some time later, Gon and Kailua were standing in the empty warehouse Ryozha had suggested. Ryozha blurred in a second later and said “There’s nobody around, so there won’t be any reports of the building falling down or weird flashes of light or anything if things get out of hand.” He looked at Kailua, who was giving him a flat stare, and Gon, who was giving him a look of bewilderment, and sighed. “Why don’t you guys go first? Maybe then I’ll see why you think I’m so weird for thinking the building might fall down from our sparring...” Gon and Kailua looked at each other, shrugged in unison, and squared off. Ryozha watched them as they started off with what were obviously comfortably familiar opening moves, and moved on into blurred (for just about anybody other than Ryozha, anyways) strikes, blocks and counterstrikes, staying more or less in the same position as they started in, shuffling back and forth a bit. After about five minutes, they broke off and walked over to Ryozha. He gave them a half grin, noting to himself that neither of them was so much as sweating. Okay, THAT, at the very least, is impressive- most people I know, even Hunters, would be

sweating like pigs after a workout like that, he thought. Out loud, he said, “Well, at least now I know why you guys thought I was nuts for suggesting the building might fall down. You hardly even MOVE when you’re sparring!” “Huh?” Gon said. “We were moving a whole bunch!” “Uhm... right.” Ryozha said. “But when you finished, both of you were standing in the same spot you started in, or very close to it.” “Oh.” “Anyways, which of you wants to tangle with me first?” Kailua looked at him sidelong. “I’m curious, now. I’ll go first, okay Gon?” Gon looked disappointed, but nodded. Ryozha moved out to the center of the warehouse, with Kailua close behind. They started to square off, but Ryozha interrupted, saying “Hey Kailua- want to do it with weapons or without at first?” Kailua shrugged, and then said, “Let’s do it without to start, this is just practice, right?” Ryozha favored him with a lopsided smirk, shook his head and laughed slightly. “Sure.” was all he said, though. They squared off, and danced around each other a bit, watching for an opening. Kailua thought he saw one first, and lunged, a quick feint with his left hand while he brought his right foot up in a fast snap kick. Ryozha started to block it, felt the power of it, and darted backwards to avoid damage to his arm. He closed again, ducked under another swing and smacked Kailua solidly with an uppercut, lifting him off his feet. Kailua simply flipped in midair, landed and closed again. Ryozha narrowed his eyes, and then held up a hand. “Hang on,” he said, “is this just martial arts practice? You’re barely even using your Nen, Kailua!” “Uh... well...” Kailua stammered. “Haven’t you ever sparred with your Nen abilities? It’s actually pretty fun once you get the hang of it. You just have to be careful not to injure your opponent.” Kailua shrugged, and said “Well, I’m willing to give it a try... let’s go.” Abruptly, he was in midair, gathering his Nen in a crackling electrical discharge. Ryozha grinned and ran straight at the wall, shooting up it and across the ceiling to come down on Kailua, drop-kicking him to the floor. Kailua landed on his feet, and Ryozha was on him in a whirlwind of blows. Kailua blocked some, took others, and watched carefully for his opening. He’s being very careful to avoid my hands, where he can see the electricity crackling... Kailua thought. I think I can use that. When they broke apart next, Kailua watched cautiously as he chased after Ryozha. As soon as Ryozha started to turn, he jerked his hands wide, abruptly covering the areas that would normally be left slightly open by his standard guard. Rhyoza’s kick smacked into his open hand, and he closed his grip, shocking Ryozha with thousands of volts. Ryozha twitched for a split second, and then Kailua’s hand was forced open by a flare of golden kinetic-Nen. Ryozha flipped backwards, rolling to a halt with his hair sticking out in all directions and a grin on his face. “You’re starting to get the hang of it, Kailua, I told you were stronger than me.” Kailua grinned back and closed again, but this time Ryozha didn’t close with him. He flipped onto his feet and left a flash of friction fire he had been building up behind his back, forcing Kailua back and blinding him briefly. When Kailua’s vision cleared, Ryozha was nowhere to be seen. Thinking fast, Kailua scanned the warehouse- most of the floor he was on was open and clearly visible. The upper level was too small to hide much either... he glanced upwards, then ran towards the nearest pillar of the warehouse’s metal support frame and sent electricity coursing through it. He was rewarded a split second later by an “OW!” from the rafters, and Ryozha tumbled out of them. He landed easily on his feet, looking more serious than he had since the play-fight had started. Kailua’s good... very good, he thought. I can’t afford to play around as much as I have been, even if it’s just sparring. He accelerated into speed-awareness, rocketing forward and closing the distance between him and Kailua in an eye blink, trailing a wall of friction flame. He forced it forward with a spurt of kinetic power at the last instant, and then leapt into a flat arc, leg extended in a devastating kick. Too late he realized that he hadn’t connected with anything where Kailua had been, and then Kailua’s foot crashed into his shoulder in a downward-smashing kick that hurled him into the floor with enough force to make a small crater in the concrete. He bounced out of it and

tumbled to a stop, gasping and clutching at his shoulder slightly. Gon rushed over, asking “Are you okay?” and even Kailua looked a little concerned as he rubbed his bruises and singe marks. Ryozha staggered to his feet with Gon’s help, and said “Whew... nice shot, Kailua. I’m going to need a break before we do anything more like that.” He sat back against a convenient pillar and rubbed his shoulder, watching Gon and Kailua ricochet around the room, trying out ‘his’ new way of sparring. A couple of hours later found them back at the hotel, sweaty and happy from a solid workout. Ryozha was sprawled in his customary armchair, Gon on the floor as usual, and Kailua had flopped down on his own bed. “That was fun!” exclaimed Gon. “Yeah,” said Ryozha, “you know, I think that’s the first time I did Nen-sparring with kids my own age. It’s totally different than when I do it with Grandfather or the other instructors at his school.” He paused for a second. “I couldn’t believe it when you punched Kailua through those two metal pillars, Gon... that was just nuts.” Kailua groaned and rubbed his ribs. “Don’t remind me,” he muttered. “Can you show me the move you used to do it in slow motion, Gon? I couldn’t see it clearly from the angle I was at.” Gon said “Sure!” and hopped up. Under his breath he said, “First comes Rock... Jan… Ken... Pon... Rock!” as he slowly swung his Nen-glowing fist around. Ryozha stared, slack-jawed, for a moment, before slapping his forehead. “Looks like I need to relearn some of the basics.” he muttered to himself. A little louder, he said “Gon... exactly how do you do that? The Nen-focus around your fist? I think I get it, but I’m not totally sure...” Gon thought for a second, and then said “It’s called Kou, you take all your Nen and put it on whatever part of your body you’re attacking with. It’s very strong, but it leaves you vulnerable-, there’s a version called Ryu that’s not as strong, but you’re not as vulnerable either, you basically just use Gyo to move your aura around and concentrate it. It’s pretty simple.” Ryozha slumped further into the armchair, groaning, and then vaulted up. He focused for a second, bringing up his Ten, then concentrated harder, achieving a short flare of Nen around his fists. He stopped, breathing heavily, and commented “That’s harder than it looks... the part that’s bugging me, though, is that... well, for crying out loud, I GREW UP in a Nen school! You’d think that by now someone would have noticed that I wasn’t adding Nen to my strikes properly... No wonder my blows have been doing so little.” Kailua glanced at his bruises, and then looked at him. “So little?” he said, an incredulous look on his face. Ryozha sighed. “I know you’re trying to make me feel better Kailua, but honestly, compare my hits to Gon’s. They’re downright pathetic.” Kailua shrugged, and Gon spoke up, saying, “Maybe no one noticed because you always move so fast when you fight. I know I could hardly even see YOU, much less your hits, even WITH Gyo.” Ryozha gave him a grateful look, and said “Thanks Gon. I guess that’s possible, and at least that explanation makes me feel a little less stupid for missing something so basic for the last six years or so...” Gon and Kailua started to laugh, and, after a second or two, Ryozha joined them. Dawn found Ryozha on the roof of the hotel with his Nen flickering and strobing all over his body as he reinforced it first in one place, then another. Gon appeared in the doorway, rubbing his eyes. “You’re STILL going, Ryozha? Wow.” Ryozha stopped and turned to Gon. “This is harder than I thought... I kind of wish I had a teacher to show me how to do it properly. Only problem is, I can’t afford to leave York Shin until Ping Lee contacts me, and I don’t know how long that will be.” He sighed. “Otherwise, I’d just hit Grandfather’s school- he’d probably be able to sort this out in no time.” He stretched, grunting a little. “I’m going to go for a jog, Gon. If Lee calls before I get back,

I’ll call you guys and meet you there.” And with that, he disappeared in a whirlwind rush, racing straight down the side of the building. During their fourth night of Nen-sparring (the warehouse had fallen in halfway through the third night), Rhyoza’s phone finally rang. Ping Lee’s impatient voice came over the line. “Hey kid, quit wreckin’ up the neighborhood and get over here. I finally twigged to what I’ve been tryin’ t’remember.” Ryozha shrugged and snapped his phone shut. Waving the others over, he jogged down the street towards Ping Lee’s place... at a more normal pace than usual, so Gon and Kailua could keep up. A short while later, they stood outside Ping Lee’s place. Most of the rubble had been cleared away, and Ryozha, indulging his curiosity briefly, found that the skylight had been repaired as well. Returning to ground level, he led Gon and Kailua inside, finding Lee’s workshop with little trouble. When they reached the door, Lee called “C’mon in, kid, and bring your friends with you...” and, when they were inside, he commented “So this is what happened t’those snipers the other night. Good work, boys. So... who are yaw?” Before Ryozha could say anything, Gon spoke up. “I’m Gon Freaks, and this is my friend Kailua Zoldyck.” Ping Lee cocked his head to one side and looked at them. “Gon Freaks, huh? I did some work for your daddy once- y’look a lot like him- nice guy, if a little odd. Then again, all the Hunters I’ve ever seen are a bit crazy. And... Zoldyck? Huh. I remember my master telling me about some work he did for a Zeno Zoldyck once, years and years ago. Said he was the most dangerous guy he’d ever laid eyes on.” Kailua nodded. “Yes,” he said, “that sounds like my grandfather, all right.” Lee turned and rummaged under his workbench. He pulled out a battered binder and said “A’right... now that th’pleasantries have been dispensed with, down t’business.” Opening the binder, he flipped through it until he found what he was looking for. Propping it open in front of him, he said, “Okay...” then paused. Gon and Kailua were looking at what appeared to be a blank page in puzzlement. Ryozha nudged Kailua and murmured “Gyo!” Kailua blinked, and when his eyes came open they were gleaming with Nen-light. Gon quickly followed suit, and they found themselves staring at a three-dimensional image of a man’s face. “This was an early project I did... s’why it took me so long to remember it, and also why y’gotta use Gyo t’ see it.” Lee told them. “My master wanted me to translate an old photo into a Nen-image. He picked this guy, he said, because he was the greatest living master at infusing objects wit’ Nen. Name’s Jack Fathom, and last I heard, he was still alive. He specializes in ancient Nen techniques, too, so figuring this ring-thing o’ yours out she’d be no problemo for him. Only problem is, he don’t like visitors too much, although he’d prolly take someone I sent out o’ respect for my master and between craftsmen an’ all that, but like I said, tha’s th’problem- where he is, takes at least a month, mebbe two, for a letter to reach him, and just as long f’r one to get back. An’ that’s assuming he’s even home when the letter gets t’ himway I hear it, he goes out on long rambles, sometimes for weeks on end... word is, his whole valley’s lit up like fireworks if you use Gyo- place is the Nen version of fairyland. Eh- guess a guy’s gotta have somethin’ to do for a hobby.” He paused and looked at Ryozha. “‘Fore you ask, kid, this one’s on me- I’ve already sent the letter. All I ask in return is that you give him my respects, an’ maybe suggest that he come visit me sometime.” Ryozha gave him a half-smile and said “Sure... thanks, Lee.” A half hour later found them wandering through one of York Shin’s many markets. “So...” Gon said, “What do we do for two or three months? We have to wait for confirmation that Mr. Fathom is still in the same place...” Ryozha shrugged. “I dunno... hang on a sec,” he said, stopping to look at a few pieces of computer equipment. “Hmm... These would fit my laptop nicely, and make it a lot more powerful. Let me just check what my bank balance is...” he fished out his phone and rang up his bank balance. “Whoa...” was all he said for a second. “Hmm... Lee’s raised his rates a bit, but... wow, I hadn’t realized I was this low on cash. Shouldn’t have bought those last couple dozen games, I guess.” He glanced at Gon and Kailua. “You guys know of anywhere around here where we can earn some money without needing to wander too far?” “Well...” started Kailua, but Gon interrupted. “Wait a minute! I bet Master Wing and Zushi are still at the Celestial Tower- Master Wing could train Ryozha some, and it would be good to see Zushi again.” Kailua nodded enthusiastically, and added “And since Ryozha hasn’t competed there... err, have you?” when Ryozha shook his head negatively, Kailua continued, “Since he hasn’t competed, he’ll be able to earn a few hundred million while we wait for word from this Fathom guy.” Ryozha looked at them, and said, “Uhm... not to sound ignorant or anything, but what’s this “Celestial Tower” you were talking about?” “Well...” said Gon,

“It’s right here in York Shin- it’s the fight capital of the world...” and he went on to describe the way that the Battle Tower worked. END CHAPTER 2