Beta: TaintedLetter

(≧ڡ≦*)

Greed Island.

That was the trio's current objective.

They had taken a nice vacation at Gon's home island. While there, Gon's aunt had given them something left behind by Gon's father, Ging. One thing led to another and now they had to hunt down a game made by Hunters for Hunters called Greed Island.

Ging had challenged Gon to find him, and the first clue was on that island.

That was interesting, certainly, but it wasn't what weighed on Miwa's mind as the trio journeyed to Yorknew City.

No.

Meteor City nagged at Miwa.

While Gon went to pick up groceries at his aunt's request, Miwa and Killua stayed behind. Miwa had taken the opportunity to peruse through their books as a test to see what she could read.

Miwa flipped through a geography book, pleased with herself that she could pick out a few words. She tried to pronounce some major countries out loud—Killua had to correct her several times. There was one passage that caught her attention, though. Mostly due to how short it was.

All the previous chapters were walls of text and pictures. The one Miwa currently stared at was barely a paragraph long and only had a dot on the map to show where it was.

"M-Meteor City?" Miwa guessed, squinting hard at the name.

"First try, good job," Killua praised.

"It's so small," Miwa squinted at it.

"The actual area is pretty big, but it's not worth traveling to so it's only marked as a dot. All that wasteland surrounding it is part of it. It's a junkyard city inhabited by outcasts," Killua explained to her.

"Outcasts?"

"Unwanted."

Miwa gripped at the book, a faint bitter memory pulling at her mind.

She couldn't explain what bothered her about Meteor City. Only that it was stuck in her head all the way to Yorknew.

(≧ڡ≦*)

The game was retailing at 8.9 billion jennies and a few copies would be sold at an underground auction house. They were able to learn that much information from Killua's family and the Hunter exclusive website.

Killua's brother had to give them a secret URL for a Hunter website in exchange for the Greed Island memory card Ging had left behind for Gon. The website was essentially a wealth of information... in exchange for money, of course.

They learned that the game could only be played by nen users, and when and where the auction for it was... as well as the starting pricing now.

"8.9 million is way too much," Killua bemoaned when they closed out of the website.

"It's a waste of time to try and scrounge up money," Miwa muttered. "I can just steal the thing."

"Ehhh," Gon groaned, leaning back in the chair.

"Are you crazy? That whole place is run by several mafias! Even my dad wouldn't try to steal from them," Killua said.

"Can your dad destroy a mountain with a finger?"

"You're strong, not immortal," Killua said with a roll of his eyes. "It's not about strength, it's about angering the wrong crowd. Make too many enemies and life becomes an annoyance. People constantly coming after you to kill you."

Miwa could see that. "Okay. Fair point. Then I'll just steal the game and I won't get caught."

Killua face-palmed while Gon puffed up his cheeks.

"There's gotta be a way," Gon declared. "I'm sure we could find enough money to buy it."

"Good luck with that," Miwa dismissed.

"We could find some treasures and auction them off!"

Miwa didn't see the point in that at all. "I'd rather use this time to survey the city and learn about the auction."

"Okay," Gon agreed before Killua could start to lecture her again. "Killua and I will try to make up the money."

(≧ڡ≦*)

Gon and Killua set off to start finding a way to make money while Miwa decided to learn the city layout. She assessed the building where the auction house was taking place—being sure to leave her hiraishin marks at the roof and around it—then surveyed the surrounding area.

Her stomach growled around noon, telling her to take a break and eat.

As she was assessing one of the nearby shops to decide on a place to eat she picked up a familiar scent. She followed it until she found Kurapika. His nen was stronger than at the exams, but—

He's colder, Miwa realized. There was a distance in his gray eyes that made Miwa uncomfortable. It reminded her of—

He was small, tiny, and broken. Young, but forced to be old. It was one of those rare moments when they just couldn't take it anymore and he was crouching in front of her as silent tears of rage slipped out of dark eyes. It was a moment of weakness, and the self-hatred on his face for it hurt her more than any punch could have. She held him, her own small arms not yet big enough, not yet strong enough to support him.

Blood, tears, and misery awaited him if she couldn't stop the pain now.

He was getting colder, and she didn't know what to do.

Miwa hadn't meant to, but she had reached forward and hugged Kurapika tightly around the waist. He was bigger than her, and she had used her quick speed to reach him so he was caught off guard by her presence.

"Ah—um—Miwa?" Kurapika carefully asked. "Hello."

Miwa pulled away, embarrassed by her lack of control. "Sorry. Hi. It's nice to see you again."

"Likewise." Kurapika offered a polite smile. "Are you here with Gon?"

"Mm-hmm. He and Killua are off hunting for money," Miwa explained. "What are you here?"

"Lunch break for now," said Kurapika.

"Wanna eat together?" Miwa asked. "I'll pay."

"Sure. Thank you."

"Great. Can you read the menu for me?"

"Uh—sure."

Miwa and Kurapika headed inside the nearest food shop which happened to be a small local eatery. They took a seat at one of the tables in the corner. The bubbly waitress handed them a menu each and Miwa stared at the words. She could probably sound out a few of them, but it looked like the place had come up with some bizarre food names.

She felt her cheeks turn red from her dilemma. She only recognized one of the foods being "burger". She mumbled a soft sorry as she placed her menu down on the table.

Kurapika watched her for a moment, surprise flickering over his face. "Can't read?"

"I'm still learning the language here," Miwa shyly admitted. "Killua and Gon have been teaching me, but it's still a process."

To Miwa's own surprise Kurapika's entire demeanor softened at that. He scooted closer to her to show her his menu. He pointed to the first word at the top left and said, "This says Dazzling Deluxe Delight. They've got some odd names for their food here so it probably seems off-putting. Don't worry about it too much, though. Why don't you try reading the second item?"

Miwa stared intently at the characters. She chewed on her lip before she hesitantly started to sound them out, "D-D-Daf?"

"Dave," Kurapika gently corrected.

"Dave," Miwa repeated. "Dave's Dehr—er—Dar—Darren—Daring? Dave's Daring Da-Dast—Dest—Dist—Dast—" Miwa became increasingly flustered as she stumbled over the odd word. "Dest—Destiny?"

"Destination. Very close," Kurapika praised her.

"My aren't you two cozy? Boyfriend and girlfriend?" asked the waitress when she came back with their waters.

"Um, no," Miwa answered, looking over at the unfazed Kurapika. She hadn't given him much thought other than he was Gon's friend and he had some kind of tragic backstory. The waitress giggled an apology before taking her leave.

If he was a girl he'd have been your type in your past life, Kurama remarked

'I liked girls?'

A little more than boys for a time, Kurama answered. There was a pause, and from his tone Miwa could feel reluctance as he said, You lost the ability to feel attraction at a young age.

Attraction...

Miwa considered it.

'Have I felt it before?'

You can now, at least.

'Is that a good thing?'

I—I hope you do. Falling in love is a stupid human thing, but it's a stupid human thing you never got to do.

'Okay. I'll properly consider it.'

It can't be with an idiot.

'Okay.'

They can't be stronger than me.

'Okay.'

They have to be good to you.

'Okay.'

If they try to kill you we kill them.

'Okay.'

They have to say they like foxes more than cats and dogs.

'Okay.'

Kurapika gently touched Miwa's shoulder, his gray eyes surprisingly kind. "Are you okay? You seemed lost in your thoughts."

"I've never had a boyfriend or girlfriend before," Miwa told him. "I was thinking about it."

Kurapika was startled by that. He blinked once, twice, then recovered. "Oh. Are you wanting one?"

"I've never fallen in love. I guess I'm obligated to try it at least once before I die."

"Ah. Good luck with that."

Miwa shrugged. "Have you?"

"No," Kurapika admitted. "It is not something I have considered."

Miwa nodded, not surprised. She certainly hadn't given it much thought, why would anyone else? She had far more important things to focus on like learning the language, trying new foods, and going on adventures with Killua and Gon. She could worry about that love stuff when she was older.

Miwa offered up a—what she hoped was—friendly smile to Kurapika. "So since you're on a lunch break that means you have a job here?"

"Mn." Kurapika didn't look like he wanted to elaborate on his job. "What about you? Got plans in Yorknew?"

"I'll be robbing the auction."

Kurapika stared at her. "What?"

"I'll be robbing the auction," she repeated. "Do you want anything?"

"Uh—um—" Kurapika could only stare at her in disbelief. "You do know who is running the auction."

Miwa raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Mafias."

"And you know how powerful they are?"

"Yeah. What's your point?"

"Did you tell Gon and Killua?"

"Yeah."

"And they're okay with it?"

"No."

"Ah."

Kurapika stared at her for several more seconds before he cracked a small half-exasperated yet half-amused smile. "You're a very odd one, Miwa."

"I guess. Are you ready to order?" Miwa asked him.

"Yes."

"Good. Make sure you order something hot to drink," she told him.

Kurapika blinked in surprise. "Why?"

Miwa looked at him as if the answer was obvious. "To warm you up of course. Your heart's too cold. You should take better care of it."

He gave her another funny look, but he felt a bit warmer than before.

'Silly boy.'

(≧ڡ≦*)

The next day she wandered around the marketplace with Gon and Killua. She told him how she had run into Kurapika on his lunch break—eliciting surprise from Gon—and they told her how they ended up wasting a lot of their money hunting for treasures to sell.

While going through the outdoor market Killua mentioned that Gon and Miwa really ought to have a phone by now. Miwa's reading skills had improved enough she could at least unlock the phone and make an emergency call. If they got a phone with text to speak she'd be in the clear until she properly learned the language.

They stopped by a phone stall, and the seller immediately tried to sell the pink one to Miwa.

"Don't bother," drawled a familiar voice.

The three children turned around to find Leorio, in his blue suit and tie, standing behind them.

"That feature doesn't work in many countries, and it isn't even waterproof," Leorio added. "That model's only good for making phone calls."

"Leorio!" Gon happily greeted him.

"Yo," Leorio said with an easy grin. He approached the stand and assessed the phones. "I would recommend... this Beetle-07."

He picked up a phone that looked like a purple beetle and Miwa immediately turned her nose up in disgust.

"It's a little heavy and pricey, but it translates two hundred languages used worldwide," Leorio explained.

"What? Really? Get this one, I'll get one too!" Killua exclaimed.

"Hard pass," Miwa deadpanned.

"How come?" Gon gasped.

"It's not cute," Miwa said flatly. "I have been spoiled by cute things in my life and I refuse to go back."

"Cute, huh?" Leorio rubbed at his chin. "Hmm... Then how about this one? The Totoro-93? A lot more expensive, but it's about the same as the Beetle-07."

The Totoro-93 was shaped like a beloved movie character that Miwa had seen a lot of posters about. It had a more blue tint to it than the character, but it was definitely cute enough to pass. Miwa had a lot more money to burn than the boys since she didn't waste it trying to buy treasures yesterday.

"Yes," Miwa agreed.

"Okay, two new Beetle-07's, and one Totoro-93 will come up to 1 million jennies."

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Leorio shouted and thus began an hour-long haggle where he halved the total price, and drew an impressive round of applause from the audience that had gathered.

Miwa was very happy with her new phone. It wasn't furry—one of the requirements to being cute—but it had a cute enough vibe to it. She supposed there could be some things that were cute that didn't have to be fluffy like Kurama.

Her entire worldview shifted with that decision. Cute things did not have to be animal exclusive.

Cute. Things. Did. Not. Need. To. Be. Fluffy.

Mind-blowing.

Miwa spent the remainder of the day reassessing the world around her and categorizing what could now fit in her Cute List™.

Gon, Killua, Leorio, and Miwa headed out of the market to grab some lunch. While they ate they caught Leorio up on what had happened: Heaven's Arena, nen training, Gon's fight with Hisoka, finding Ging's open taunt to Gon to come find him. Since it was starting to look like it would rain they headed back to the hotel the trio of children were staying out to drink tea and finish chatting.

Leorio was aghast by the starting price, but he was with Gon on trying to make money rather than just letting Miwa steal it.

But she was going to steal it regardless. The more they told her not to, the more she wanted to do it.

At seven o'clock Miwa hopped out the window without alerting her friends she was leaving then she used hiraishin to teleport to the top of the building where the underground auction was being held. The auction was being held at an impressive building and already Miwa could sense a bunch of nen users inside. None of them had particularly impressive cores, though, so Miwa didn't feel threatened in the slightest bit.

'Better safe than sorry,' Miwa thought. She did a quick henge to look like she was wearing all black ninja clothes with a fox mask on top. Even if someone saw her, they wouldn't think she was a blonde little girl.

She wasn't very familiar with the technology used there. Killua had told her a lot about things called security cameras and alarms. Alarms didn't mean much—so what if they knew she was there if they couldn't actually catch her? The camera's were confusing though. Gon had taken a picture of her with a henge on and it made her very blurry in the photo—she only looked like a blob of darkness, really—but that meant something showed up on camera. Even if they couldn't identify her.

Miwa could only do her best to avoid what she saw. There were guards on the rooftop, but she slipped by them with her kunoichi skills. Down the hallways she went.

'Now to find the treasure!' Miwa thought excitedly. She had absolutely no clue where it was, but she had a lot of chakra to summon shadow clones and a solid four hours before the event started. Her shadow clones could henge into guards they spotted as need be, too.

Even with that major advantage the hotel was simply that huge that it still took Miwa and her hundreds of clones an hour to find the spot. It was pretty out of the way, but a clone placed a hiraishin mark nearby it before dispelling so Miwa could transport right to it.

'Now how do I open this without triggering that alarm thing Killua said all vaults have?' Miwa thought to herself. 'Hmm...'

I think I have an idea, Kurama purred. Use my chakra.

'Your chakra?'

Technology has always had difficulty dealing with the chaotic energy of my chakra. If you transform my chakra into electricity, I'd bet one of my tails it will cause a malfunction.

'And that'll make it not work?'

Yep.

Worth a shot.

Miwa placed her hands on the door and channelled Kurama's chakra through and around it. It was diluted enough that it wouldn't directly affect the door, but were some sparks flying all around it. The lights in the hallway flickered and the door miraculously opened up.

'If that hadn't worked I would have drilled underneath it,' Miwa thought.

That would have worked, too.

Miwa entered the room, surprised to find such an abundance of items. The door shut behind her, the lights flickering back on as things somehow returned to normal.

'Technology is surprisingly resilient.'

Better than our old world.

Miwa pulled out the first of her dozens of storage scrolls she had stashed in the messenger bag she brought. For every item she stole she'd leave behind a shadow clone version henged to look like it so they wouldn't catch on right away. She wanted plenty of time to escape, after all!

She did actively try to search for the game Greed Island with her clones first, though. That was the whole point of her stealing. She didn't really understand what a video game was, but Gon said it was like a smaller movie case.

"Hmm."

She meticulously went through the pile, adding things and replacing them with cloned versions.

'I don't see the game. And this is only one room. Now that I think about it, isn't the auction supposed to go on for ten days?'

More than likely they only bring a certain amount to the site to be auctioned off, said Kurama.

'Damn. Guess I'll have to keep coming back if I don't find the game.'

Maybe you'll get lucky and it's here.

'We both know I'm not that lucky.'

Kurama barked out a laugh.

'Ah.'

One of the shadow clones Miwa had stationed around the hotel popped, informing her and Kurama that the auction was starting. She had several clones—henged as guests—inside the main room to watch the auction unfold. On the off chance there was another treasury room that Miwa missed and they auctioned off Greed Island, she wanted to see who bought it so she could kill them and give it to Gon.

She had finished putting the real treasures in her storage scrolls already and only had to wait for the door to leave.

Still—

She wanted to see if anyone could spot her fakes right away. She decided to use her hiraishin to teleport just outside the vault. She used a simple genjutsu to make people not notice her. The genjutsu was useless against sensors, or those with superb senses of smell, but for civilians it was fine. No one would hear or see her with it on and she could monitor their reaction to seeing the vault.

If someone could spot her shadow clones at a glance, that was important information to have as soon as possible.

A clone popped.

It had not popped on its own.

It had been killed, and its rush of memories startled Miwa.

(≧ڡ≦*)

A brief interlude with the clones

It appeared that a very cute boy with dark hair had stepped up onto the stage in front of an extremely large and not cute man. The cute boy with cold eyes flatly addressed the audience with, "Uh, welcome everyone."

The cute boy's face transformed into something dark and cruel that immediately perked Kurama's interest as he watched the clone's memories.

"Let's forego the formalities."

The dark haired boy covered his ears as the giant main stretched out hands bigger than Miwa and—and his fingers literally popped off to reveal a hollowed metal inside. He proceeded to shoot bullets of nen at the entire audience. The first clone had been in the front row and had no time to react before getting a face full of nen bullets and popping in a puff of smoke.

The second and third clones had reacted well enough to immediately use the other humans as meat shields. The third clone decided to play dead, while the second one chose to wait it out. The third clone was able to successfully escape through the door. There had been a black haired girl with glasses waiting for it, but the clone was too quick for the girl to notice. It made it all the way outside before popping to inform Miwa about the other girl.

The second clone had lost control of its henge, revealing the true form of Miwa. It hid under the corpses and in the sea of blood. It listened as the black haired girl entered the room and conjured some kind of monster vacuum.

The black haired girl said to her vacuum, "Suck up all the corpses and their blood, body parts, and personal possessions from the room. Grab the chairs too."

The clone had thought to itself, 'Holy shit that's so freaky.'

With such ease the vacuum began to suck up everything. Even Miwa hadn't perfected her storage scrolls to be able to do it that effortlessly. Blood would still remain in the carpets with Miwa's storage scroll, but not with that girl's vacuum.

'I need to learn how she does that.'

The cute boy's soft voice carried in the room as he said, "Shizuku's nen ability is always entertaining to watch."

'Shizuku. The black haired girl with glasses and vacuum is Shizuku. Shizuku.'

"Oh?" mumbled the large man.

The vacuum was only mopping up the dead, so the living were left. There was one man they had found alive.

"Someone's alive," the black haired boy was amused.

"Wh-Who are you?" the dying man questioned as he struggled to even breathe. "Doesn't matter. You're all dead. The community will destroy you. Your family! Torture you... Cut you up. You'll taste hell—"

The man was cut off as the clone witnessed the cute black haired boy move with speed that Miwa hadn't seen from anyone other than Netero since waking up. He cleanly sliced off the man's head with only one hand and did it with such ease and grace that not a single drop of blood was left on him.

The clone of Miwa gasped in amazement, drawing attention to itself. Well, it was the only thing left.

"A kid?" questioned the large man as the black haired boy turned to coldly glare at her.

The clone of Miwa grinned foxily at them, stood up and bowed politely. "That was a very impressive performance."

"Care for an encore?" the black haired boy cruelly asked her with a twisted smile.

"Sure," the clone said. "If I can have your name first. I was taught it was good manners to give the dead your name."

"Feitan," he politely returned as he chopped the clone's head off. The clone hadn't made any move to stop him, more interested in obtaining information than preserving its life. It disappeared in a puff smoke, laughing in delight as anger and realization flickered across the cute boy's face.

(≧ڡ≦*)

Back with Miwa

While that was happening with the clone a man had come along and literally put all the cloned goods in some kind of dimensional pocket. Shadowclones weren't meant to be held in pocket dimensions so they immediately dispelled. The man who took the goods didn't appear to be a thief—he was escorted by the guards—so Miwa didn't bother to tail after him.

'He was super cute,' Miwa thought after she finished reviewing all the clones' memories.

Absolutely not.

'What? You told me—'

No.

'But—'

No.

'... Okay.'

Why would you even think such a sadistic man like that is cute?

'Because I love you the most and he reminded me of you.'

I—

Kurama couldn't really argue with that. He had only himself to blame. He was too amazing. It was only right that Miwa compared every potential partner she could have to him, and they would all come up short.

Kurama came to a sinking realization that making Miwa's original life's wish of having a family come true would be harder than he anticipated.

Miwa watched under her genjutsu as more people showed up at the vault. They killed the guards stationed at the door and blew the door open. They weren't happy at all when they saw it was empty.

'They must be with those people in the ballroom,' Miwa concluded. She decided to tail them.

She almost got caught when one of them—a big, burly man with wild hair, hairy arms, and a feral demeanor—sniffed at the vault and muttered, "Reeks of a girl."

'Oh, shit.'

Someone with an excellent nose could smell her through the genjutsu. Miwa applied a third layer to genjutsu to deal with that issue. She decided to lay back and give the group a heads start just in case they could still smell her through the genjutsu. She counted to fifteen minutes then tracked them down.

She followed the group through the building, up to the roof, where a pretty lady with crazy pink hair was waiting for them in a hot air balloon. Miwa watched them board and take off before she leapt onto the basket, and used her chakra to sit upside down on it.

'Wonder where they're going,' Miwa asked as she looked up—er down?—at the city below her.

She listened to that burly man make a phone call.

"... No, the vault was empty. According to the auctioneer, the only one who knew the situation, all the items were relocated somewhere else before we arrived. It's as though they expected this to happen."

The person on the other phone spoke, but Miwa couldn't hear them over the wind.

"Don't you find the timing to be perfect?" muttered the grizzled man. "We have a Judas among us."

Another one spoke, his voice low and smooth. Miwa thought it might have been the guy dressed like a samurai, but she didn't dare poke her head above to confirm. "You're saying one of us is a traitor?"

The person over the phone talked again.

"No, nobody's like that," sighed the burly man.

Silence again.

"Huh?" A pause. "That's true."

A longer pause.

"I don't get how this information is traveling. Whatever. So what do we do?... Yeah, we asked the auctioneer where the merchandise went but he swore he didn't know up until he died. Feitan tortured him, so he wasn't lying."

Feitan's soft voice was hard to hear over the wind. "He had the worst luck of them all today."

"... You bet I did," the big man told the person over the phone. "The auction is run by the Mafia community heads who lead gangs in each of the ten districts around the world. They're called the Ten Dons. This is the only time that all ten gather in one place to discuss business and issue orders. Their commands are carried out by a special force, the Shadow Beasts. This team consists of each don's best combatants... That's right, I heard that a single Shadow Beast member turned up at the vault. The twenty-five square-meter safe was packed with items ready to be auctioned off. The Shadow Beast walked in, then walked right back out, empty handed. But the safe was emptied when the auctioneer looked in. It was a man in sunglasses, calling himself Owl."

'That must have been that strange man who came by. His nen didn't feel very special. Certainly smaller than the people in the balloon.'

"We can take them on right?"

The one over the phone must have responded positively because the man started to laugh in wicked delight.

'Looks like I'm going to have quite the story to tell Gon and Killua,' Miwa thought.

(≧ڡ≦*)

Cute things are cute. Killua and Gon are cute. Kurama is the cutest. These are her standards.

Feitan has Kurama's cruelty and looks like a combination of Killua and Gon so he had made the Cute list.

Miwa official cute list:

Kurama

Foxes

Killua

Cats&Dogs

Gon

Totoro

Flowers

Soft things

Totoro-93

Feitan

Answer: Gengar in every Pokemon story ever. Anyone keeping up with Twitlight Wings?

Question: What would make your top three in your cute list?

Reviews are love!