Killer in Hunter x Hunter

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***

Risotto's POV

Slowly opening his eyes, Risotto found that he was already in a completely different place.

'What is this place? Where am I?'

Looking around he saw that he was in a somewhat old and not very spacious room. A few metres away from him, there were tables lined up in rows, each of which could seat four people. All these tables were two metres away from the large windows that should have given a view of the street, but behind them there was only impenetrable darkness, as if it were the darkest night in the history of mankind.

Turning round he saw that he was standing right next to the bar, behind which stood an old bartender.

'A bar? How could I fall asleep in a hospital and wake up in a bar? Although... Or maybe it's just a dream? Yeah, it's probably just a dream.'

- Would you like to order anything? - The bartender asked Risotto.

- I don't know... I don't really like alcohol.

- There's more than just alcohol in this bar. There are other drinks here.

- Like what?

- Like different juices.

- Juices? This is an unusual bar. All right, then pour me an apple juice.

- Right away.

The bartender went to get the juice and Risotto sat down at the bar.

'Bit of an unusual dream. I wonder why there are no other customers besides me? Never mind, though. I like it better this way.'

Less than a minute later the bartender came in with a large bag of juice and a glass.

- Here's your juice. Anything else you'd like? - The bartender asked Risotto.

- No, thank you. You know, though... Tell me, what kind of bar is this? Tell me about it.

- There's nothing to tell. It's just a regular old bar. I built it 28 years ago, and I've been both owner and bartender ever since.

- Isn't it hard to be both owner and bartender? - Risotto asked, slowly sipping his juice.

- Not really. My bar is small, and plus I enjoy it.

- Good for you. Then tell me something else... It's all a dream, isn't it?

- Who knows?' said the bartender with a slight smile, 'Maybe it's just a dream. Or maybe not... Either way, why not just relax and enjoy the atmosphere here.

- Hmm, indeed....

Risotto continued to leisurely drink the juice and enjoy the atmosphere.

'What an unusual dream, but also quite pleasant. It's been a long time since I've relaxed like this.'

Meanwhile, there was thunder and rain outside.

The barman decided to break the silence with music and switched on an old radio on the shelf.

Once the radio was tuned to the right wave, something from rock and roll played on it.

'Hey, I know that band! That's... That's The Rolling Stones!'

***

Opening his eyes abruptly, Risotto found himself lying in the same hospital bed he'd gone to sleep in last night.

'Just a dream, then? But it left a rather unusual feeling from it, like... I don't even know...'

He felt someone standing at his side. Turning his head, he saw that a rather sleepy Prosciutto was standing beside him.

- There you are awake,' He said in a very tired voice, 'It's about 8:00. Nothing happened overnight, you don't even have to ask about it. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go to bed....

Without saying anything, Risotto got out of bed, got dressed and went about his business.

Kurapika's POV

After sleeping for quite a while, Kurapika finally started to slowly open his eyes.

'What is this? Where am I, is this a hospital room?'

Slowly looking around he realised that he was indeed in a rather spacious hospital room.

'How did I end up here? Really... That's right, I was found by Risotto along with everyone else. It seems like they're the ones who dragged me to the hospital. Also, the angle of view is a bit odd... Oh, that's right, I lost my eye in the battle with him... That man... If you can even call him a man.'

He tried to stand up, but as soon as he moved a little, he felt an intense pain.

- You shouldn't do that,' Kurapika looked towards the door and saw Risotto enter the room, 'You've just had your hands sewn back on and blood transfused, plus you have a few broken ribs. So you need to keep your movements to a minimum right now.

- I get that. How about you? Have I caused you much trouble?

- Don't be ridiculous, you haven't caused us any trouble. We're a team, we help each other out. Tell me, how are you feeling?

- Not great, but it's still better than yesterday. Listen, since I can't move my arms, could you let me look at myself in the mirror?

There was a nightstand beside the bunk. Risotto took out a small hand mirror from it and let Kurapika look at himself.

Half of his head and face were bandaged. There were a few wrinkles on his face, faint glimpses of grey in his hair, and his eyes were a little droopy from what he'd been through.

- I look like shit, but it could be worse. - Kurapika said with a little irony.

- That's certainly true... To tell you the truth, I have an important conversation to have with you. - Risotto said rather seriously.

- What is it?

Risotto took a chair near the wall and sat down next to Kurapika.

- Tell me, what do you know about the soul?

- What?' Kurapika was puzzled by this question.

- What is the human soul? Can it be seen? Can it be felt? Does it have an incarnation? What does it look like?

- I don't understand you at all... - Risotto's words made Kurapiki's bewilderment increase even more.

- It's an expected reaction. What if I told you that some people can embody their souls in visual form? No... It would still be a bit more accurate to say 'battle spirit', or 'life energy'. Anyway, it doesn't matter. What's important is that there are people who can physically manifest their morale, and you've seen it many times.

- I'm trying to think. So you're not talking about Nan now, are you? If not, then what have I dealt with? You're making my brain explode.

- My manipulation of metal and that monster you saw near that man who nearly killed you, that's not Nan's power. It's called stands! As I've said before, stands are the physical manifestation of a person's fighting spirit, and to some extent the embodiment of their psyche. Stands are represented in many different forms and with many different abilities, which depend on the psyche of a person, his desires and intentions. There is also one rule: only another user of the stand can see the stand, but as it turns out, if you use Gyo, even a person who doesn't own the stand can see it.

After Risotto's explanation, Kurapiki's brain finally exploded.

'What did I just hear? Stands? The embodiment of martial spirit? It seems like he explained everything to me, and yet I still don't understand anything.'

- Well... I... I... I... I need to think about it....

- I know. It's not an easy thing to understand. Why am I telling you this? Firstly, you were bound to find out sooner or later. Secondly, the thing is, we've learned that somewhere in this world, there's a powerful artefact that can give people booths. And now we're going to find that artefact so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

- The artefact? Should I come with you?

- No, you need to lie down and heal. And we need to find out where it is first,' Risotto looked at the time on his phone and thought for a moment, 'I've told you very little of what I was going to tell you, but you need to think about it first. You'll learn more in time. Now I have important business to attend to. Have a speedy recovery.

Risotto left the room and went about his business. Kurapika continued to lie on his bunk and try to think about everything Risotto had told him.

Risotto's POV

Time 18:10.

It was evening and it was slowly starting to get dark. In one of the multi-storey office buildings, on the tenth floor, there were two dead bodies lying in one of the rooms, with a guy in a business suit sitting at a computer. His face had many cuts and small holes left by blades and needles. A couple of blades had just come out from under the skin on his arm, causing him to wail loudly.

- Please stop! - With tears in his eyes, he turned to Risotto, who stood nearby and looked at him with a cold stare.

- So, are you going to talk or not? If not, your left eye will be next.

- Enough! I'll tell you everything!

- Tell me, what do you know about this arrow and this cipher? - Risotto showed him a picture of the arrow and the cipher on his phone, - Do you know where to find this arrow?

- Well... We managed to find out that the next step to finding this arrow is Greed Island.

- Greed Island?

- You don't know what that is? It's a Nan video game. It's only a hundred copies in print, and each copy has an exorbitant price tag.

- Are you saying the arrow is in this game?

- I don't know. All we've found out is that this game is the next step in finding the arrow. That's all we found out, I swear to you... Please have mercy... - He began to beg Risotto pitifully for mercy.

- Okay, I'll have mercy on you and give you a quick death.

As soon as Risotto said that, the scissors that were on the table flew into the back of the guy's head and went deep into his brain, causing him to die instantly.

'That's enough information, and the rest we can find on our own. But still... What the hell is Greed Island? What kind of video game is this?'

As Risotto stood pondering, Illuso entered the room.

- I see you're done,' he said, 'Have you learnt everything you need to know?

- Yes, I've got enough information, now let's go.

They left Illuso's looking glass world and went to the ground floor of the building.

Everyone else was waiting for them on the ground floor.

- How did it go? What did you find out? Did our plan work? - Prosciutto asked Risotto.

- The plan worked as planned. As for the information, this is not the place to discuss it. Let's go home and discuss it there.

They went outside and went to their house.

After about half an hour of walking they arrived at their home and went into Risotto's flat and sat down at the table. Risotto began to tell them what he had learnt.

- The Island of Greed?! - Melone exclaimed slightly, 'I read about it on the internet once. It seems to be some kind of special game for hunters. It has a circulation of only a hundred copies, and the price is exorbitant. And to play it, you need a Joy Station console and a special game card.

- Oh, wait! - Formaggio exclaimed, I remember it. Yes, that's right... When I was picking up the Auction treasure that the Spiders had stolen, there was one such console with the game among all the junk I had stuffed in my pockets. It was lucky that I hadn't managed to get the treasure back yet, and I should have that console with me.

Digging through his pockets Formaggio pulled out the console and returned it to its normal size.

- So, are we going to play it? - Prosciutto asked.

- Firstly, in order to play it, we need a special game card, which we don't have. Secondly, even if we do find a card, only one person can play on one console.

- What?! - Giaccio exclaimed, 'What do you mean... We need to find some more of these fucking consoles to play this game?!

- Wait a minute! There's a trick. You can use a special splitter that allows multiple people to play on the same console. But you'll still need a game card for each of them, no way around it.

- Then right now we go in search of these game cards and this splitter. - Said Risotto.

- What, just like that? - Prosciutto was a little taken aback.

- We don't have much time. The Devil is after the arrow too. Every minute counts now. We'll look for the same from the mafia.

Agreeing with Risotto, the rest of us set out to find the missing game cards and the splitter.

Finding the missing elements was not difficult, and already closer to the night they got one splitter and four cards.

After plugging in the console in Melone's flat and inserting the splitter, they prepared to start the game.

- Shall we start now? - Melone asked.

- Yes, right now. But as we can see there is a small problem, - Risotto pointed at the splitter, - This splitter has only four card slots. So only four people can get in.

- Well, then we'll have to choose who gets in. Who will you take with you? - Prosciutto asked.

After almost a minute of deliberation, Risotto replied:

- I have decided. With me will go Giaccio, Melone and Illuso. The others will have to stay in the real world.

- We'll stay, but you realise that we were lucky that Formaggio had a console with the game. It could take a long time to find another one.

- I realise... But still, I hope it won't be too long and we'll meet soon.

Risotto, Giaccio, Melone and Illuso sat down near the console and prepared to start the game.

- And so we begin, - Risotto announced, - We have no idea what's in this game, but it doesn't matter to us. We will overcome any challenge to reach our goal. Let's go, in pursuit of the arrow!