Beta: TaintedLetter

(≧ڡ≦*)

The trash was finally, finally, almost cleared out. Within a day it would be entirely gone.

Which meant Miwa had to address the catastrophe that was the ground underneath.

The ground from under the trash had become nearly inhabitable. Emphasis on the nearly because nasty bacteria and weird moldy-mutations grew in that dirt fine and dandy. But such couldn't be allowed to stay that way because it was gross.

Super gross.

Some mushrooms looked nice (especially the ones that glowed at night) but the nasty-smelling mold had to go. With what Miwa had in mind the soil had to be fixed up after all the damage done from being a landfill for who knew how long.

There were a few fuuinjutsu seals that could be used to purify a land of lethal toxins but that was mostly to get rid of poison or bijuu chakra. She wasn't sure if it would work on the broad-scope of nastiness.

She would have liked to talk to Chrollo about it, but the man had disappeared since making the deal with her.

So Miwa decided to talk about it with Kikyo during their next phone call. Miwa tended to call Killua's mom after dinner so it was pretty late into the night. Even so, Kikyo always answered her with a warm and sweet, "Good evening, darling."

Miwa was starting to really like Kikyo.

Miwa told her about her day and how she was worried about the soil.

"It seems like it's time to test the soil then. Why don't you collect some samples and stop by tomorrow for lunch?" suggested Kikyo.

"Okay," happily agreed Miwa.

(≧ڡ≦*)

Kikyo had prepared a quaint tea party. After all the gore and trash Miwa had to witness each day at Meteor City, the beautifully adorned outdoor tea party felt like a cool misty breeze in a hot dessert. Miwa beamed brightly at the woman, and the Zoldyck matriarch smiled upon her arrival.

"Come, sit, sit," insisted Kikyo. "Have you been to a tea party before?"

Miwa shyly shook her head. The tea party had been set up outside in the gardens. The table had a pristine, crisp white cloth and was adorned with sparkly finger foods that looked straight out of a magazine.

"Oooh. This will be your first one," exclaimed Kikyo excitedly. "Marvelous! Try a bit of everything, darling, and tell me what you like best. Oh, I meant to ask you earlier—how poison resistant are you?"

"Pretty strong," Miwa answered. Kurama could neutralize nearly any poison. "As long as it's poison or venom, I can purge it within minutes."

Kikyo gasped. "My word! Can I see?"

"Sure," said Miwa. She didn't see any issue with it. Kikyo was already being so kind and helpful to Miwa, and the smell of the food was terribly enticing.

Kikyo was delighted by her response. "Gotoh, prepare the other dishes."

A butler that had stood off to the side bowed. "As you wish."

Miwa took a seat at the table and Kikyo poured her some amber colored tea in a pretty porcelain cup. "Drink, darling."

Miwa sipped the tea. "It's fruity!"

"I thought you might like that best," said Kikyo proudly.

"It's really good," assured Miwa. "Thank you for thinking of me."

Kikyo giggled, raising a hand to touch her bandaged face. When her fingers grazed along the bandages she let out a shudder. Her demeanor softened as if caught up in a memory. "Ah... did I tell you that my dear Killua did this to me? I was so proud of him, so very proud..."

Miwa wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"He did this out of love. He showed me his murderous rage. It was wonderful. So proud of him," dotted Kikyo, her voice trailing off.

Miwa didn't entirely understand, but she thought it was nice that a mother could be proud of her son. She was proud of Killua, too. She puffed her chest. "He's pretty neat! Did you know that he's an emitter?"

Kikyo gasped in delight. "Oh! He's learning nen? When? Tell me everything."

With a big smile on her face Miwa regaled Kikyo with what happened at Heaven's Arena. Kikyo was ever so delighted to learn about Killua's time spent in the arena, learning nen, and when Miwa told her about how they cut a head in half together Kikyo squealed with glee.

She clapped politely at the end of the tale. "Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful. Ah, I wish I could have been there to capture the moment. I've got so many videos of my children."

Kikyo tapped at the viser thing around her eyes. "All of it here. I never miss a single precious moment. From their first steps, to their first kill."

Miwa's smile brightened. "Wow. You're a great mom."

Kikyo cupped at her face, squirming in place. "Ah. Ah. You think so? You think so, do you? Ah. What a lovely daughter-in-law you'll be. I know, I know, you can call me Mother. Go on."

"Mother," repeated Miwa obediently, a little shy to be using such a title. She wasn't sure how Killua would take it.

Kikyo clapped again. "Yes. Perfect! Yes, yes! I've always wanted a daughter. My sons are wonderful, and I have two that will dress like daughters but they still want to be my sons, you know? I can't call them daughters if they're my sons. But oh they'd make for such pretty daughters... Have you met Kalluto? When Gotoh comes back I'll tell him to fetch Kalluto. I hope the two of you will get along."

Miwa inclined her head. It wasn't long after that did Gotoh bring out a tray of poisoned foods that looked equally delicious. Miwa tried a few of them, marveling at how she couldn't taste anything wrong with them.

Oooh. Interesting.

But apparently they had some pretty strong stuff in them! A couple of the cute little sandwiches made Miwa throw up blood in her mouth—she swallowed it back down—and one of the mini cakes made her head spin. It had been a while since Miwa was poisoned—she only remembered one time since waking up—and she had to admit it was an intriguing experience. She had absolute faith in Kurama's chakra, coupled with her own self-healing capabilities. She didn't feel endangered by the toxins, but it was a bit of a trip.

Each time Miwa conquered a poisoned meal Kikyo squealed in delight and cheered her on, which emboldened Miwa into trying more and more.

Far too soon the treats had been eaten up, the tea gone, and Miwa's belly was satisfyingly full. She had grown accustomed to only eating one meal a day—dinner—because it upset her stomach to smell Meteor City. And that dinner, while nice, was nowhere near as extravagant as the tea party Kikyo had prepared for her.

Miwa licked her lips. "This was great. Thank you."

"No, no, thank you," gushed Kikyo. "Come along inside. I'll show you my laboratory and we'll take a look at those soil samples. Gotoh, send Kalluto over to us when you find him, okay?"

Gotoh bowed again. "As you wish."

Miwa smiled, patting her stomach. She didn't want to get up, but knew she had to. "Okay."

(≧ڡ≦*)

Kikyo guided Miwa to a laboratory further inside the house. It was filled with odd machines that beeped and lit up. There were dozens of screens that displayed graphs, equations, and paragraphs of texts in languages Miwa didn't recognize. Kikyo accepted the soil samples Miwa had gathered and dumped them into some odd machines. She fussed around with the controls for a while—she told Miwa the computer would begin analyzing the soils—then clicked her tongue.

"Oh, dear. I forgot one of the machines in the torture chambers," she sighed.

Did she say torture chamber?

'I—I think so.'

"I'll be right back," Kikyo assured Miwa. "Wait right here."

Miwa nodded as Kikyo left. The blonde jinchuuriki looked around the laboratory, curious to what everything did.

"Hello."

Miwa turned to the entrance of the laboratory.

"I'm Kalluto," introduced the child that stood at the doorway.

Kalluto was a very pretty boy dressed as a girl. Like Killua, Kalluto had a charming face, although Kalluto's leaned more feminine. Killua's younger brother eyed Miwa disdainfully behind a paper fan.

Miwa peered at him. "You're very pretty."

"Thank you," he said icily.

"Where'd you get the dress?" Miwa asked, wondering if she could steal her own versions of it. It looked shiny, sleek, and adorable.

'Would I look cute in something like that?'

Still using your definition of fluffy and warm?

'Hmm...'

"It's custom made," he answered. "It's a furisode kimono."

"Furisode kimono," Miwa repeated, then brightened. "What an elegant name. I guess that suits you 'cause you're very elegant. I would have thought you were a princess."

His eyes narrowed. Coldly, he asked her, "You see me as a girl?"

Miwa may not have been the most socially intuitive person, but she could pick up that she had offended him somehow. Not wanting to upset Killua's brother, she thought back over her words and considered what she had said.

She had admittedly thought he wanted to be seen as a girl because of how he was dressed, but Miwa had to acknowledge her worldview had drastically changed since realizing cute things weren't exclusively fluffy animals.

"What do you want me to see you as?" Miwa hesitantly asked.

He frowned. "You don't have your own opinion?"

Miwa shrugged, deciding to be honest. "When I first saw you, I thought you wanted to be a girl. You smelled like a boy, but you dressed so pretty, you know? But your mom called you her son. I used to think that boys who dressed like girls wanted to be girls, but I also used to think that only animals could be cute. I've learned a lot. Like this."

Miwa held up her Totoro phone.

"See it's cute even though it's not an animal," she proudly declared. "I was wrong before. So maybe I was wrong again? Boys can dress up in cute things too and not wanna be girls, but instead just like cute things. Right?"

Kalluto stared at her for several seconds, his expression unreadable. Then he gave a slow, small nod.

Miwa beamed. "Then you're a comrade in cute! Let's be friends, okay?"

Kalluto didn't know how to react when Miwa suddenly grabbed his hands and shook them.

'Wowza,' Miwa thought. 'First I made friends with Chrollo and now I'm friends with Kalluto. I guess making friends isn't that scary!'

She had been worried she'd never make friends after Gon and Killua, but it looked like her worries were for nothing.

Kalluto turned pink. "Y-You—"

"Hey! Do you wanna go steal stuff with me?" Miwa asked.

"St-Steal?!"

"Yeah, it's super fun!"

"I—I—" Kalluto's cheeks continued to grow a brighter shade of red. His hands trembled as Miwa held tightly onto them. "Your—your hands—"

It was then that Kikyo returned. "I didn't forget it in the chambers, I forgot it was actually destroyed when Killua esca—Oh my! Already friends?"

"Yeah-huh," confirmed Miwa, letting go of Kalluto's hands to properly face Kikyo. "I was going to ask Kalluto to do something fun with me."

"Ooo," Kikyo cooed. "Like shopping?"

"Shopping is fun?"

"Terribly so! Kalluto has excellent taste in clothes and really, darling, you shouldn't be in Killua's raggedy old things," Kikyo said. Then she paused. "Well, wear those while you're still tearing Meteor City apart, but once you're done purging that place from existence you'll need something nice to wear around."

"Nice," repeated Miwa.

Kalluto shakily held his hands close to his chest, his flushed cheeks slowly returning to their normal color. "I-I will assist you, s-s-sister-in-law."

Kikyo squealed again. "Marvelous! Stupendous! Oh what lovely children I have."

'Killua has such a nice family,' Miwa thought happily.

Nice families have torture chambers, huh?

'Killua has such a nice family,' Miwa repeated, ignoring Kurama's sass.

(≧ڡ≦*)

Unsurprisingly the soil under Meteor City was heavily polluted. It had high concentrations of saline, acidity, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Anything that could grow there would be dangerous to consume, if not outright lethal.

Treating such a wide area of heavily damaged soil would bankrupt some countries.

Luckily for Meteor City, Miwa had some tricks up her sleeves.

A perfectly normal human would treat contaminated soil by adding rich organic matter, peat moss, compost, and some aged manure. They would carefully nurture the soil over the next few years and adjust the pH levels as need be.

Miwa had the bright idea to ask Kikyo to test her conjured doton.

Miwa didn't have an affinity for doton. It wasn't something she could foresee ever using in combat.

"This soil is fine. It's... perfectly normal. It wouldn't treat the pollution," said Kikyo as she examined the results.

"And if I mixed it in with that other stuff?"

"I wouldn't even bother," said Kiky with a shake of her head. "Dump enough of this—what did you call it? Doton?—doton onto the ground and use that as a baseline."

"How deep?" Miwa asked.

"Five meters minimum if you're wanting to grow anything on top," said Kikyo. "If you were able to pour on some concrete between the polluted soil and the doton that'd be best."

"I can't make concrete," admitted Miwa. "But I can definitely mass produce the doton. Great! Thank you."

"Of course, dear. Good luck. Let us know as soon as you're done and we'll take you shopping," gushed Kikyo.

(≧ڡ≦*)

Next step in Meteor City revival was spewing out doton. This would barely take more than a few days since it was a mindless task that really only relied on Miwa's chakra levels. Summoning doton wasn't chakra intensive, so her clones were able to make a lot at once.

Kikyo was impressed by how soon Miwa would be ready to move on to the next step. The Zoldyck matriarch offered a helping hand. As soon as Miwa had originally told Kikyo about her intentions to rebuild Meteor City, the woman had reached out and hired an architect.

On the second day of covering Meteor City in doton, Kikyo had Miwa meet with the architect to discuss planning out the new city. The man was extremely excited and honored to have such a wonderful job and he assured Miwa he could plan for anything.

So Miwa told him what she wanted.

He gave her an odd look, and so Miwa demonstrated what she could do and the man was giddy with glee.

"Oh, yes!" he said with great cheer. "Yes we can make this work. I'll have the first set of designs ready in a week."

"A week?" Miwa's face scrunched up, but Kikyo was unbothered by that time frame.

"You need some time to rest anyway," said Kikyo. "Something like this shouldn't be overly rushed."

"I suppose," agreed Miwa. "I guess I can have my clones go fishing for food for everyone."

If each of her clones caught at least five fish in the ocean that'd make for some decent meals for the awaiting citizens. It was the least Miwa could do for them. She had murdered a good chunk of the population, and the ones that stuck around were in it for the long haul. They had really grown on her and she felt bad she couldn't take better care of them yet.

'Okay. That settles it. I'm gonna get them a whole bunch of fish!'

While you're doing that, might as well send some clones to start collecting the seeds.

'Good idea.'

(≧ڡ≦*)

Miwa knew how to follow blueprints and designs decently. As long as she was given a clear direction and shown what to do at least once she could do it herself. Kurama told her she had spent a lot of time in her "Genin days" doing construction work and there was even a time she had to help rebuild her home from scratch. She did not have the memories, but the knowledge remained in her very soul.

And Kurama had a very keen memory. He remembered things he didn't want to remember, including how to replicate plumbing.

Kikyo had graciously hired a firm to design the city for Miwa. It was not a simple or quick process. When she had finished the minimum ground work (laying down doton, flattening it out, then drenching it with suiton and patting it down further) she spent her days hunting for food for her citizens.

She had a lot of citizens. Seven digits.

Meteor City used to have over ten million occupants, but since at least a quarter to half of them were cannibals and Miwa had a very strict no-cannibals-were-allowed-to-live policy the numbers had been drastically reduced. There were some occupants that left, but the city was a place where the unwanted gathered. They had nowhere else to go. They were nameless, faceless, unwanted bags of meat.

So most of them continued to camp out and wait. Wait to see what would happen next. Or maybe they were just waiting to die.

When Miwa started bringing them hoards of fish her clones caught in the sea they were tentatively intrigued. When she brought them wood to build fires and checked up on them every day, they started to warm up to her.

They had tents, clean water (Miwa started taking water from the ocean and using a storage scroll with a filter designed into it), and decent food. A significant upgrade from the literal trash pile they had lived in. Not bad for the residents of Meteor City.

Chrollo reappeared at the end of the week with a gift for Miwa. The Phantom Troupe Leader walked up to Miwa on her blanket. She had sensed him before she spotted him, and the blonde got up to greet him.

Chrollo had something cupped in his hands. Miwa raised an eyebrow at him and he opened his hands to reveal a butterfly with a red body and bright red wings. The tips of its wings were a darker shade of red.

"This is called a hemotropic butterfly," said Chrollo. "They're originally from Zevil Island, but some have made their way to the mainland. They feed off blood."

'Blood—?'

Miwa gasped. "Like what my nen did!"

"Yes," said Chrollo. "Does a butterfly count as cute?"

"Super duper cute!"

"Perhaps this can inspire you then," he said, holding it out. "Think carefully, Miwa."

Miwa accepted the lovely butterfly, smiling fondly at it. "Mn! Thank you, Chrollo."

Chrollo nodded at the flattened land. "I see you have moved on to the next phase."

"Mm-hmm. I'm waiting on blueprints now," explained Miwa. "Since you helped me with an idea, how about I show you what chakra feels like?"

Miwa held out her hand and Chrollo placed his hand in hers. She pulled his hand and rested it over her heart. Carefully, gently, she pulled her chakra out of her body and into Chrollo's hand. She made sure to filter out Kurama's chakra, knowing it wouldn't end well for Chrollo if the man touched the dangerous energy.

Chrollo was difficult to read, but Miwa thought she felt his demeanor relax upon feeling her chakra.

He said softly, "It is very warm."

Miwa smiled at that. "Thank you. Are you ready for your first lesson?"

"Yes."

Miwa took a deep breath then started to explain.

(≧ڡ≦*)

The general layout of the city was finalized a few days after Chrollo returned. It'd be tough work, but Miwa figured she could handle it.

She had to steal a lot of supplies, but that was fine. By that point her clones had sent up hiraishin marks in a lot of cities. Kikyo only had to do a quick search on the internet to find the right warehouses and boom they were robbed overnight.

Kalluto actually decided to tag along with Miwa when she robbed them. Killua's young brother was very interested in spending more time with Miwa, but Kikyo didn't want him anywhere near Meteor City so the only time they could hang out was when Miwa was doing things outside the city. Like robbing warehouses and swimming in the ocean.

With the blueprints in hand and a clear direction, Miwa was able to start properly working on building the city.

She had collected the seeds of hybrid hyperion trees—designed for longer branches—and planted them in specific parts of the designated city area. Then she used Sage mode to channel nature chakra into them and boom giant trees.

After all, she wanted her city to be a tree-city. As many buildings as possible in the trees!

She wasn't a mokuton user, but she could make sturdy trees by channeling nature chakra directly into them. As long as she continued to feed the trees nature chakra over the next month or so they'd become very strong. Certainly strong enough to handle the climate.

The residents were certainly surprised to find such tall trees popping up in a matter of minutes. One of them even had the courage to ask Miwa what her plans were. When she explained them, they gave her a funny look but then grinned and wished her luck.

Now every time Miwa successfully grew a tree where the crowd of residents could see her, they cheered.

They even started to name some of the trees which Miwa thought was actually pretty cute.

From dawn to afternoon Miwa grew trees and spared some clones to help tutor Chrollo in chakra. In the evenings she'd dine with Kikyo and Kalluto, then either go to sleep in a fancy hotel with Chrollo or rob some factories.

Miwa's life had settled into a comfortable routine.

And then they got a visitor.

(≧ڡ≦*)

He was there in the morning when Miwa teleported her and Chrollo to the city at their usual spot.

"Feitan!" Miwa squealed excitedly, rushing towards the dour assassin. "Did you—did you come to see me?"

Feitan's brow creased as he looked at her with plain disdain.

'Ah, that look reminds me so much of you when I call you a tsundere. I love it!'

Damn it, Miwa.

Feitan ignored her, looking directly at Chrollo. "Checking in."

"Everything is going fine," said Chrollo. "What do you think of the city so far?"

"Hard to believe this was Meteor City. I almost walked by it," said Feitan.

"Did you take care of it?" asked Chrollo.

"No."

"Unusual for you."

"I'm an assassin, not a tracker," said Feitan flatly.

Miwa blinked slowly, looking between the two men. "What's going on?"

"Hisoka has been removed from the troupe," quietly explained Chrollo.

"Oh. That's good. You can do a lot better." Miwa brightened as a thought came to her. She eagerly turned to face the dark haired boy. "Feitan if you're going to stay here, d'you wanna join the trade?"

Feitan looked over at Chrollo. "Trade?"

"Her abilities are not nen and can be taught," explained Chrollo in that velvety soft voice. "I am helping her develop her nen in exchange."

"That clone thing?" probed Feitan.

"Shadow clone? Yeah, you can learn it," she said. "It's really good for espionage because when the clone pops, you get its memories."

"Extremely useful," commented the assassin. Miwa nodded in agreement. Shadow clones were her most versatile ability. Feitan had a decent nen core. If he was able to utilize chakra he could probably make a dozen or so clones before getting tired. Feitan shifted his weight, dark eyes assessing. "How far into training are you?"

"She is a specialist, but she has not determined what her goal should be," explained Chrollo for her. Miwa nodded.

"I only know what I want it to look like, not what it should do," she admitted shyly. "Kinda silly, huh?"

Feitan let out a slow sigh.

"What do you lack?" he asked.

"I dunno. I know a lot of destruction abilities and I know some stuff for all the main elements. I'm not very good at suiton or doton, but I can compensate by pumping the abilities full of chakra."

Feitan snorted derisively. "Mass destruction is easy with enough power. What skills do you lack? Your clones can cover intelligence gathering—are they the only things you have for it?"

Miwa shook her head. "I can use genjutsu."

"Illusions?"

"Yeah. You know?"

"I am a shinobi," he said, "but genjutsu is not my specialty."

Miwa's eyes widened. She hadn't even thought about finding other shinobi. What a pleasant surprise!

Feitan pressed on, "What else? Do you have abilities for one on one?"

"Yes."

"Escape?"

"Yes."

"Survival?"

"Ye—well—for me to survive," she said slowly. "I—I guess I don't really have anything to help others 'cept for my hiraishin."

Feitan cocked his head. "Nothing in the supportive role?"

She shook her head. "No."

"You know basic anatomy?"

"Yes," she said. That was taught in the academy and Miwa had torn enough humans apart to remember what the insides looked like. She didn't have any knowledge about how it all worked or connected, but that didn't matter since she was really good at destroying it.

Or at least she hadn't considered it mattering until then.

Now that it was brought to her attention Miwa realized she had no way of helping her friends after they got hurt. She had already seen what a danger magnet Gon was. It didn't matter if she was strong, because she wasn't constantly with them. There was always the possibility of Miwa arriving too late, or even scarier, facing an opponent Miwa and Kurama couldn't handle.

What then? She could flee, but if they hurt her friends...

Miwa swallowed nervously, a sudden surge of pain and anxiety ripping through her stomach.

'I don't want to be alone again.'

There were memories, too vague to give her anything more than their impressions, but strong enough she could feel the blood on her hands and the heart-stopping pain in her gut when she realized his heart stopped beating—

Miwa folded her hands together as a way to stop the memory. She said, "I don't know anything about helping my friends after they've been hurt."

"There you go," said Feitan. "Figure out how butterflies can fill in a supportive role and you'll be set."

Miwa swallowed back the lump in her throat as she offered Feitan a sweet smile. "Th-Thanks. You helped me realize something important."

"Don't mention it," he said flatly.

'He's a tsundere like you, too.'

Shut the fuck up.

"It's rare to see you treat someone so kindly," Chrollo sardonically observed. Feitan gave him a nasty look.

(≧ڡ≦*)

(Gon & Killua & Bisky)

"Ara? What's this?" Bisky asked. Gon had emptied out one of the small pocket storage scrolls Miwa had given him. Killua and Gon were proficient enough in chakra to use the storage scrolls which made their lives infinitely easier. Gon really liked being able to fit several backpacks worth of stuff in a single slim scroll that fit in his front pocket.

He was currently searching through the junk stored to see if he could find a skinning knife. He saw a river further down and was craving for some freshly grilled fish.

Upon Bisky's question Gon looked up to find that she was reaching for a stack of—

"No!" Gon exclaimed with wide eyes. Unfortunately for her she touched one of the tags and it immediately exploded in a rainbow color of sparklers that sent her flying into the air.

Killua, who had been reading through the chakra book Miwa made for them—her grammar was terrible so she mostly drew pictures of what to do next in their training—looked up when the explosion went off.

Bisky, singed and coughing, returned to them a few minutes later. "What the hell was that?"

"It's an explosive tag," said Gon, taking the stack of explosive notes and quickly putting them away. "Our friend made them for us. If anyone but me touches this stack it self-detonates."

"How dangerous!"

"Shouldn't touch other people's stuff then," snarked Killua. That earned him a quick smack on the back of his head. He glared petulantly at the blonde, muttering under his breath, "Bargain Miwa."

Gon heard and covered his mouth to not snicker. Even if Bisky didn't know who Miwa was she got the implication quick and proceeded to smack him again.

(≧ڡ≦*)

Holy tamoli! I got another fanart of adult Miwa (with fox ears). Drawn by GamerFoxFujoshi on Instagram. Big thank you. :)

Answer: Pokémon: 1.) Palkia so I can dimension hop and hopefully return to Pokémon anytime I want for anything else I need, 2.) Lucario 3.) Infinity bag.

Question: Miwa's going for a tree-city, what kind of city would you like to build/rule?

Reviews are love!