༺♥༻

Running through the woods, the three were at an equal speed and they had noticed that the girl from before was following them.

'What should we do about her?',Gon asked.

Looking through the trees, they could see glimpses of her figure as she ran and Killua rolled his eyes, shaking his head in agitation.

'Just ignore her. We'll have a chance to ditch her once the bandits show up'

Shock covering her face, Valentine's eyes snapped in Killua's direction and they widened slightly, concern flashing within them.

Noticing her gaze, the silverette turned her way and seeing the concerned expression on her face, caused Killua to furrow his eyebrows slightly as he frowned.

'What?',The silverette questioned.

He was curious as to why she was looking at him like that.

"Isn't that a bit rude?",Valentine questioned and a deep frown pulled at her lips as she furrowed her eyebrows in concern,"Just leaving her for bandits?"

Confused by what she was trying to say, Killua fully looked towards Valentine and furrowed his eyebrows as he frowned at the blonde girl.

'What are you taking about?',The silverette asked,'She passed, right?'

Coming up upon a fallen over tree, the three immediately jumped over it and as soon as she had landed on her feet, Valentine instantly began to run once more.

'So, she's got strong Nen abilities',Killua stated,'She can escape if it gets rough'

Stars shone as sugar spilt over black marble, glistening in the sun. The night sky was such a welcome sight, appearing like magic at each sunset, promising to return as she faded in dawn's first light.

The moon, a glowing yellowy white, loomed large, surrounded by an celestial glow.

The moon was a warm milky glow in the sky, the sight itself bringing comfort to anyone who had gazed upon it and it were as if the stars around it were scattered tears that the large celestial object cried each night.

The loud snap of the cracking of sticks and the rolling of stones that were kicked away echoed throughout the night as the three children ran as fast as their feet could carry them.

If anyone had been watching them now, they looked like nothing but blurs speeding through the night and if you hadn't been looking closely enough, then you would've missed them completely.

The sound of rushed footsteps following after them rang throughout their ears and the four glanced behind them, seeing the girl keeping a steady pace with them.

'She's keeping up better than I thought'

Eyes narrowing slightly, a bright glow illuminated eyes of thunder and it were as if the young girl were a celestial being, everything within her eyes slowing down as she stared at the girl.

Humming slightly, Valentine was tempted to try something she never tried and thought to herself, wondering if it would work.

If she had tried to use her teleporting technique with the boys, she had no idea what would happen; but, the last time she had tried it was with Zeus and he had fallen off of her shoulder.

So, unless she was holding onto something or someone, then she doubted that her technique would work with another being.

Sensing something, the three immediately slid to a stop and narrowed their eyes at the people who had stuck their head out from behind a tree.

But seeing that they were surrounded, Valentine's eyes narrowed as she looked at each person in front of them and she slowly reached down, wrapping her hand around the hilt of her dagger, before gradually pulling it out.

'You guys ready?',Killua asked the two.

Immediately nodding, Gon and Valentine hummed slightly as the girl tightened her hold on her daggers, the leather of the hilts were rough in her soft hands.

As soon as the group of people had jumped at them, Valentine was about to release one of her dagger, but instantly stopped herself as they all kneeled in front of them, their heads almost touching the ground.

Blinking in shock, the thunder eyed girl tilted her head to the side and let out a hum of curiosity; her interest peaked.

'Please help us! We beg you!'

Dropping their stances, the boys blinked in confusion and glanced towards Valentine, watching as she turned towards them, shrugging slightly.

She had no idea what was going on and couldn't tell if their intentions were good or bad.

Loud coughs left their lips and the blonde slowly scooted closer to the boys, leaning towards them as her worried gaze stayed on the ninjas.

"Are they okay?",She muttered under her breath.

Keeping their eyes on the ninjas, Gon and Killua shrugged slightly, slowly shaking their heads.

They had no idea if they were alright, but it looked like they were in bad shape at the moment.

The ninjas had requested that they followed them and with some hesitation, the group slowly followed after them as a strange feeling bubbled within Valentine's chest.

Sitting in a house, the three were looking at a small child and sweat was dripping down his face as a sickly haze burned the young boy's skin, a sickly blush coating his cheeks.

The boys skin was rather pale and sweat beaded down his body as he breathed heavily, his body shook with shivers every now and then.

A cold cloth was on his forehead and it was quite clear to them, that he was running a very high fever.

'The disease is spreading',One of the men explained and a cough escaped his mouth, his chest shaking with each raspy breath,'It starts with a mild fever, but then it progressively gets worse and worse until the inflicted finally dies'

A raspy cough left the ninja's lips after he had finished his explanation and he turned his head away, tucking his mouth into his elbow as he coughed.

But once the coughing spell had faded away, he turned back towards the child and looked down at him with worry.

'All we can do is use medicine to keep the fever at bay',The older man explained and brought up his hand, coughing into his fist,'Sadly, the medicine only works for about a week'

Bone rattling coughs left the older man's lips once more and he shakily breathed in, making it quite clear that his throat was becoming dry.

'It's also incredibly expensive and now, we're completely out of money'

Turning his head to the side, the younger man closed his eyes and coughed into his fist, his chest rattling with every raspy cough.

'We're all sick, so we can't even steal what we need like we normally would'

With her eyebrows furrowing, the young blondes lip pushed up and her eyes softened as sympathy filled her body, alighting her veins like lightning.

Looking towards his friends, Gon's eyebrows pulled together and he slowly blinked, confusion shinning within his eyes.

'Could we catch it?'

Thinking it over for a moment, Killua slowly shook his head and was quick to reassure his friends, seeing that the two were curious and worried.

'It's probably just part of the gameplay',The silverette explained.

Suddenly, one of the men had gotten quite close and Killua immediately leaned back, his eyes slightly wide as his eyebrows shot up to his hairline.

Leaning back as well, Zeus chirped slightly in shock and feeling as the silverette's shoulder slightly brushed against her own, Valentine glanced towards him out of the corner of her eye.

'Help us! My son only has two or three more days to live!'

Suddenly, the older man from before had gotten quite close to Gon and the green-haired boy leaned back almost instantly; the two boys now squishing the blonde between them causing her shoulders to scrunch up as her eyes widened slightly.

'Would you be so kind as to give us some money? Every little bit helps'

Blinking quickly, Valentine's lips parted and she looked between the two boys as they both slowly turned their heads towards her.

'So.. this is part of the game to, right?'

'Yeah.. if we just give them the right amount of money, then they'll probably reward us with some good items',Killua explained,'Or, they'll provide some good information'

With a suspicious hum leaving her lips, the golden-eyed girl watched as the two turned towards her with confusion and then, they looked towards each other.

What was the worst that could happen?

But then again, Valentine was a bit suspicious and so, she would only see what happened.

'So, uhh.. how much do you guys need?'

'80,000 Jenny'

Almost choking on her saliva as soon as she had heard the price, Valentine's eyes widened and she looked between the group of men, seeing that they were all staring at them with wide eyes.

Wide, begging eyes.

Glancing towards Valentine and Killua, Gon furrowed his eyebrows and frowned slightly.

'But.. that's all of the money we have'

Narrowing her eyes, Valentine slowly shook her head and scooted back just a bit, causing the boy's to frown curiously.

'Yeah.. it sounds like they know everything about us, doesn't it?',Killua questioned.

Suddenly hearing a voice pitch in from behind them, the four immediately turned around and noticed the girl from before was standing there.

Although they all had different reactions to seeing her there.

Watching as the fellow blonde girl immediately brightened up and sent her a bright smile, the girl's lips twitched up a bit more as she was almost enchanted by Valentine's kindness towards her.

Meanwhile, the silverette's face instantly dropped into a deadpanned expression and an annoyed look glistened within his eyes as he frowned, clearly annoyed by her very presence.

The green-haired boy beside her on the other hand, stared at the other blonde with a curious expression and his eyebrows were risen slightly as a small hum left his lips.

'But I have enough to cover the 80,000 Jenny..',The young girl sang in a sing-song voice and she sweetly smiled at the three, pointing towards herself.

Raising his pointer finger towards his lips, an annoyed expression formed on Killua's face and his eyelids drooped down slightly, the frown on his lips deepening as he stared at the girl.

'Excuse me, but we're busy, so shut up for a minute',He snapped.

Blinking in shock at the rude tone, Valentine looked towards Killua and a surprised look coated her face as her lips parted in bewilderment, her eyebrows raised only slightly.

The only time she had heard that tone was when they had first met, but even then, it wasn't as bad and it shocked Valentine.

An angered look formed on the girl's face as she stared at Killua, an irk mark raging on her forehead and quite frankly, Valentine didn't blame her.

Lifting her hand, the young blonde smacked the back of her hand against Killua's arm and watched as he looked down at her, a confused look on his face, which caused her eyebrows to furrow in anger as she frowned deeply.

Almost reading what she was trying to say within her eyes, the silverette sighed slightly and lifted his arm, gently pushing at her causing her body to only sway a bit.

'We'll give you the 80,000 Jenny',Gon agreed and looked up at the older man, a bright smile on his face as his chocolate brown eyes glistened with light.

Leaning back in shock, the older man's eyebrows shot up and his voice cracked as he spoke.

'You really will!?'

One of the men that was sitting by Killua, placed his face in his arm and loud cries left the man's lips, causing the three to look towards him.

'Thank you three so much! You've just saved my poor son's life!'

Shivers shook through the young boy's body and small pants escaped his lips as sweat gradually fell down the side of his face.

'I-I'm so cold.. so very cold'

Crawling towards his son, the man had tears in his eyes and hovered over the boy slightly, his body shaking with relieved; but worried, cries.

'This is awful',The father cried,'If his body gets even a little bit colder, he's going to die before we can get the medicine into him. If only we had some children's clothes for him! Why don't we have clothes!'

Looking towards each other, the three thought of it for a moment and small sighs left their lips.

Shrugging off the sweater she was wearing, Valentine looked down at the grey material and stared it for a moment, before looking up, holding it out towards the father.

"It's my twin brother's but.. I'm sure that he wouldn't mind, he'd probably want you guys to have it anyway"

Almost crying once more at the kindness of the young girl, the man instantly bowed his head in respect and his body shook as he gently took the material within his hands.

'Thank you so much..!'

'I guess.. I can give him what I'm wearing as well'

Appearing in front of them, the father's eyes widened in shock and the four leaned back once more, Zeus's eyes widening as a low chirp left his beak.

'Can you really?!'

The older man leaned towards Gon once more, causing the boy to lean back and the two had crushed Valentine between them once more; the young girl's eyes as wide as saucers as her arms were pushed tightly against her body.

'You're like angels sent to us from heaven!',The older man exclaimed and tears of joy streamed down his face,'Mere words aren't nearly sufficient-'

'-to express the depth of our gratitude!'

Thinking of a way they could repay them, the silverette smiled brightly and held out his head, giving the men each a close-eyed smile.

'Unless you've got items or info'

Hearing these words, the men slowly scooted away from the children and the three hummed in curiosity, watching as the two backed away.

༺♥༻

Running down the hill, the three were stripped only slightly and they were now wearing thin shirts and some shorts.

'We got nothing!',Killua seethed.

'We gave all of our clothes away and now, we're totally broke too!'

With a small sigh of aggravation leaving her lips, Valentine kicked a stone as she ran and sent it flying into the woods, causing the boys to glance at her.

She knew that she shouldn't have ignored that bad feeling she had gotten, but they had played into the kindness of her heart and used that against her in order to steal everything she had.

And now, those men had the only thing Jaxon had given to her.

'Damnit!',Killua exclaimed,'They're messing with us'

Screeching in anger, Zeus spread his wings wide and an angered expression formed on the hawks face as he trilled slightly.

Hearing footsteps from behind them, Valentine glanced over her shoulder and seeing the girl from before, her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

Why was she following them?

'But as soon as we get passed this mountain, we'll find lots of monsters right?'

Lighting up in remembrance, a small smirk formed on Killua's face and the silverette nodded confidently, glancing towards his friends.

'Yeah, if we beat a few of them and turn them into cards, we can sell them for cash!'

'And then, we can finally start fighting!'

Smiling slightly, Killua looked between the two and nodded toward them, causing the two to nod back.

'Time to see what you two got!'

'You too!'

"You guys too!"

'I wanna see what you and Valentine had accomplished in your secret trainings',Gon exclaimed,'I can't wait!'

Making towards the edge of a small cliff, the three came to a stop and looked around.

There were large pillars in every section of the canyon; it was filled with tons of rocks and cliffs.

'This area's pretty rocky',Gon examined and swept his gaze across the area.

Looking towards each other with smiles, the three instantly jumped down and ran down the large slope, jumping over some rocks.

'Let's go for it!'

As soon as they had made it down, two eggplant tinted cyclops peeked around the corners of two pillars and watched as the three quickened their pace, running towards them.

Seeing that a ton more stood up, the three blinked in shock and only smiled brighter, exhilarated by the sight.

'There are tons of them!'

As soon as one of them swing down a wooden club, the three jumped apart and split off from each other.

Aura spiked and formed around Gon's fist, before the green-haired boy swing forward, hitting the cyclops in his large eye.

But his attack seemed to do nothing because as soon as Gon had landed on the ground, the cyclops swung it's club down and the boy jumped away; he had just narrowly avoided being squished.

Lifting his leg, the green-haired boy kicked the giant across the face and the beings neck snapped to the side.

It was clear to the two watching that no amount of punching would take one down.

Looking up, Killua saw two cyclops swinging down at them and the two immediately jumped apart, going separate way.

Running up the side of the cyclops arm, Valentine rose one of her dagger and quickly sliced a clean cut into the palm of her hand.

Feeling a warm feeling wash over her body as soon as her Nen had spiked, Valentine clenched her fingers into a claw-like motion as she jumped up and a sharp spike-like whip formed out of blood.

Turning her body only slightly, the blonde girl snapped her hand forward and the blood weapon swing forward, slicing a deep cut into the creatures eye, blood spraying from the slashed area.

A roar of agony left the giants lips as it stumbled back and it's body turned into smoke, before a card slowly descended from the air, causing the blonde to catch it.

Landing on the ground, Valentine landed in a crouch and her knee slightly touched the ground, her eyes wide with surprise before a wide smile spread across her lips.

'Bingo! Hey Gon, just go for the eye!',The silverette shouted out,'Hey, Val! That was a pretty impressive move'

Looking at the card in her hand with fascination, Valentine turned her head at the compliment and looked towards the boy with a wide smile on her lips.

"You weren't too bad yourself, Killua",Valentine said and gave the boy a close-eyed smile.

Heat raced towards the boy's face and a blush painted his cheeks as his eyes widened, causing Killua to blink slowly, his lips parting.

With an embarrassed look on his face, Killua clenched his teeth in order to ground himself and looked away from the girl, closing his eyes as his face burned with color.

'S-Shut up, you idiot.. you say such embarrassing things sometimes..'

Chuckling slightly at the boy's nervousness, Valentine slowly shook her head and looked in front of her as soon as she had stood to her full height, holding up her hand.

"Book"

A small cloud of smoke appeared and surrounded the book, causing Valentine to open the cover and sort through it, before placing the card in a slot.

Hit after hit the three took down each monster and high up on a cliff, the young girl from before was staring down at them, a small smile on her face as she observed the three.

They were moving around way too much, but on the other-hand, they were doing reasonably well.

Having finally finished, the three were now standing by a giant that had reverted back from it's card form and Valentine studied the creature with curiosity.

'They were weaker than they looked',Killua stated and an annoyed tone coated his words.

'Yeah, but after we left it alone for a little bit, the card reverted'

With confidence gleaming on his face, Killua held up his fist and nodded towards his friends, a smile on his face.

'We can do this easy, guys. Each of these monsters are built in with a weakness, just got to stay calm and think',Killua explained,'Alright then, let's head for Masadora'

'Yeah!'

Just before the three could leave, a large lavender colored toad blocked their way and Gon sighed slightly, the three of them watching as it stared them down.

It's large blue tongue itched out of it's mouth as the creature licked it's lips and slowly inching back, the three chuckled nervously.

Swiftly turning around, the three immediately began to run and feeling as Zeus took off from her shoulder, Valentine watched as he flew ahead of them with a panicked shriek.

"You traitor!"

'Coward!'

Watching as the hawk took a sharp left and dove behind a corner, the three did the same and slid to a stop behind a rock, keeping their backs against it as small pants left their lips.

Thunderous footsteps walked up to the rock they were hiding and looked around, but ultimately seeing nothing, the large toad creature walked off, the ground shaking as it went.

Before they could even react, a black blur sped up to them and smacked Gon upside the chin, causing the boys head to snap back; which caused Valentine and Killua to look at the boy in worry.

'Gon!'

"Are you alright!?"

Snapping his head forward, a small smile formed on Gon's face as he looked towards the two and shrugged slightly, pointing towards his chin.

'That didn't hurt at all, see?',The green-haired boy stated and smiled reassuringly at his friends, before looking towards the small creature from before,'This one's pretty weak'

Looking up at the small creature, a small noise of awe left Valentine's lips and eyes of thunder softened as she looked at the smaller being.

The creature looked like a fluff ball with a tail and legs, it was absolutely adorable.

But suddenly, the creature ran forward with a large burst of speed and bounced off of the wall, looking like nothing but a blur.

'But it's really fast!'

'So, let's hurry up and catch it'

Nodding slightly, Valentine locked her eyes onto the blur that sped around and her left eye began to glow a brighter hue of thunder, time slowing down slightly.

Watching as the blur was about to pass her, Valentine reached out and just about missed the creature, catching a bit of it's fur in her hands.

Up on the rock where she was watching them, the girl from before hummed slightly as she watched Valentine, her eyes narrowing as they turned towards the boys.

'The girl's close. She knows how to use her eyes and her instincts, but those aren't enough, she needs to be faster. But these boy's aren't using their eyes properly!'

Not having caught the creature, the three were now running around and looking for something g else to catch.

The small fuzzy creature had gotten away.

'It got away from us'

'Yeah, but if the rest of the monsters are this weak, then we're going to get to Masadora in no time!'

Furrowing her eyebrows, Valentine glanced at them out of the corner of her eye and hummed slightly.

But, what if they encountered one that was both strong and quick.

Hearing the patter of hooves, the three looked forward and slid to a stop, watching as a strange looking horse walked in front of them, before turning it's head, spotting them.

Puffing up it's cheeks, the horse spit out some red and white bubbles, catching the three off guard.

As she was about to reach forward and touch one, the blonde was pushed to the side and an exclamation of surprise left the girl's lips.

Screeching at the girl, Zeus's moved his beak and screeched in a way as if he were trying to speak, but seeing the confused look on Valentine's face, the hawks face dropped into a deadpanned expression.

Hearing a loud popping sound, Valentine turned her head and saw that as soon as the boy's touched the bubbles, they exploded and emitted a loud sound.

'It's loud and generates a shockwave, but there's no real damage'

Walking back towards the two; with an angered Zeus raging on her shoulders, Valentine watched as Gon touched one of the red bubbles and she tilted her head as it didn't pop and instead, was pushed away.

'The red one's don't pop when you touch them'

Watching as the red bubble headed towards a rock, Valentine hummed in curiosity as it popped as soon as it touched the rock and she slowly tilted her head.

Strange.

After that encounter, they had ran into a large centipede with teeth and they had just barely escaped that.

Then, they had run into a strange floating creature with one eye and as she tried to stop him, Gon had touched the creatures eye.

Which caused a swarm of insects to chase them.

Then they had run into some slime-creatures and Gon and Killua tried kicking and hitting them, but it ultimately did nothing.

Finally, they had run into a suit of armor that had nothing inside of it and Valentine tilted her head in curiosity, her lips parted in fascination.

'Gyo!'

Hearing the girl from before calling out, the three turned their heads and saw her standing up on the rocky cliff above them.

'Keep your eyes on it! Use Gyo, you know how don't you!'

Turning forward, Valentine felt her aura surrounding her eyes and spotting a trail of aura coming from the armor, following it they saw that it lead behind a rock.

'See, the armors just a puppet! Attacks aren't going to work against it!'

Watching as the armor swung it's sword down, the three split apart and Gon decided go head towards the rock, following the aura trail.

Suddenly, the armor dropped to the ground and Gon ran towards them, holding up a card.

'Look, I got the card'

Before they could say anything else, the girl from before hopped down and Valentine smiled, waving towards the girl.

Watching as her eyes wondered her direction, Valentine saw a small smile twitch at the girl's lips, before it faded and her face went blank as she stared at the three of them.

'So, why didn't you guys use Gyo?'

Feeling a weight fall upon her shoulder, Valentine's face deadpanned and she ignored the hawk, crossing her arms as she kept her head turned away from him, ignoring the small chirps that left his lips.

Whenever he tried to look her in the eyes, she'd turn her head away from him and Zeus chirped angrily, hopping from each shoulder to try and get her attention.

She was still angry with him for leaving her behind.