Killer in Hunter x Hunter

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***

Risotto's POV

The rain had long since ended, and the sun had completely set behind the horizon a couple of minutes ago. Now the only thing that illuminated the road was the brightly shining stars and the moon. The clouds had parted and the lighting was quite good, not much worse than during the day.

Risotto and his team were on their way to the palace. They sprinted to get there, but not too fast to save their strength for the battle with the Chimera Ants.

- Oh, shit!' Melone said worriedly.

- What's wrong? - Giaccio asked him.

- I completely forgot to try to find a girl and make a homunculus before leaving the city. Now we have to fight like this.

- It's okay, we'll cover for you.

- You should be worried about something else,' Risotto said, 'There's been a time wipe, and more than once. That means the Devil has probably already reached the palace and is fighting the Ants. We have to hurry.

Everyone sped up.

''We've already gotten incredibly close to finding the arrow, but with that, the stakes have increased. 'We have to fight a bunch of monsters that want to enslave mankind. And there's also the risk that their king could get the arrow before we do and get the Stand. I can't even imagine what would happen then. I wonder what's worse: the Devil getting the arrow, or the King? Well, it's supposed to be worse with the King. We already know what the Devil's ability is, so we've been able to prepare. But the King's ability will be unexpected and then everyone will be in trouble, I guess... A man can't have two Stands at once, can he? That's ridiculous, of course he can't. In theory, you have to have two souls. So if an arrow pierces a person who already has a Stand, then most likely nothing will happen, I guess... So the outcome of the Devil getting the arrow is not the worst. All right, well, let's think positive. We're gonna get the arrow and no one else. We can do it. Anyway, it'll be clear soon enough. The palace is just around the corner.'

- Look! - Kurapika suddenly exclaimed and stopped abruptly, which everyone else did as well, 'What's that over the palace? - He pointed his finger towards the palace, which was already less than three kilometres away from them.

- What is that? - Risotto asked himself.

A huge number of projectiles that looked like lightning bolts began to fall from the sky, but they were not really lightning bolts. If you looked closely, you could see that these projectiles were in the shape of healthy arrows and were flying downwards, not deflecting anywhere else.

'What's that? At first I thought that Weather Report had returned and decided to destroy the palace, but this is something else. It's probably some kind of Nan ability.'

- That stuff will destroy the palace! - Formaggio remarked, 'Or at least leave a lot of holes.

- We have to hurry. - Risotto said to everyone.

They continued to run towards the palace, but they had barely run two hundred metres before they stopped again when they saw someone else running towards them.

- Damn it, it's them, the royal guards! - Melone exclaimed.

Three royal guards were rapidly approaching them.

One of them travelled through the air with butterfly wings, and was missing his right arm, but it didn't seem to bother him much. The second was a big red-skinned man. The third was a woman who had cat-like features.

'What the hell are they doing here?'

The guards stopped a little over fifty metres away from them and began to look around.

- Now there's more of you? - A winged guard who had descended to the ground addressed Risotto's team, 'You've come for that thing too? I'm sorry, but the King needs it more.

'What? What's he talking about?'

Suddenly Risotto noticed that on the ground, exactly between him and the guards was a pile of stones of various sizes, which from the looks of it were probably fragments of something, but it was hard to understand exactly what it was. But what was really important was that in one of these shards was an arrow, the very arrow that Risotto and the others had been hunting for for so long.

'I can't believe it! It's... It's her! The very arrow!'

This unexpected turn of events caused Risotto's heartbeat to increase.

'But how? What is she doing here? That's not important, though. What matters now is that we have to grab her right now and stop those guards from doing so.'

In just a couple of seconds, the tension in the atmosphere around them rose to unprecedented heights. Everyone looked at each other and waited for the right moment to rush straight to the arrow, but they also realised that it would not be possible to grab it right away. There would be a battle, during which the enemy could not be allowed to get to the arrow first.

- Hey you!' Kurapika suddenly turned to the one-armed guard, 'Catch!

He sharply threw something at the guard with all his might, and Risotto was able to see what it was. It was a mirror. The same hand mirror Illuso usually carries with him.

- Well done Kurapika,' Risotto said to him, 'I see that Illuso has already gone into the looking glass and you immediately realised what you had to do. And you also decided to take the winged one out of the fight. That's very clever.

- It's like you were expecting something else.

The guard didn't take the attack seriously and tried to dodge to the side, but as soon as the mirror was near him, it lit up with a glow and in the next moment the one-armed guard disappeared. The other guards were shocked by this, but they didn't show any signs of panic or fear, they just got into their fighting stances and attacked, and Risotto's team and he did the same.

The movement speed of the guards was noticeably faster, and especially the guard cat. Using its powerful legs, it made a dash towards the arrow, and instantly approaching a couple of metres away from the arrow, it stretched out its arm to grab it, but at that time Risotto managed to run to a distance of twenty metres and pulled the arrow towards him.

The arrow began to fly towards Risotto. The cat made another dash and tried to grab the arrow again and almost succeeded, but at the last moment it was hit in the face by several pistol shots that Prosotto had fired. Surprisingly it worked and stopped the cat, but it didn't do any damage.

- 'Damn,' Said Prosciutto, 'Looks like the bullets aren't taking them.

The arrow was almost in Risotto's hands, but when he was only a few dozen centimetres away from grabbing it, the red big guy hit the ground, and did it with such force that it started to shake violently. It felt like a localised earthquake. From such a strong shaking everyone fell, and it was impossible to grab the arrow.

The cat came at the arrow again. It tried to grab the arrow again and was close enough to do so, but at the last moment Kurapika launched his chain at the arrow. He was unable to grab the arrow, but he was able to fling it away, so that it flew high up into the sky.

The big man was about to rush to his comrade's aid, but Melone, Giaccio and Formaggio stood in his way.

- We'll take this one, you take care of the cat. - Said Melone.

The cat was already one metre away from Risotto and was about to rip his head off with a single blow, but a moment before its sharp claws reached his neck, Risotto had time to make himself a healthy combat knife, which he used to successfully block the blow and also managed to strike him in the chest, leaving a small cut.

'This case sucks. Her Nan level is noticeably higher than mine, making it quite difficult to create needles in her heart. They're created, but they're damn slow. We'll have to fight hand-to-hand.'

Next, Prosciutto entered the battle. Risotto realised that, given Nan's level, it would be foolish to let [The Grateful Dead] out, so he gave Prociotto the appropriate order in the form of a hand gesture and he engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

Prosciutto's main objective was to grab his opponent, which he attempted to do. First the cat tried to give him a few blows, but he safely dodged and in response tried to grab her arm, which he managed to do, but only for one second, and then she kicked him in the stomach so that he flew back a dozen metres and miraculously survived.

- Nothing... It didn't work... She's faster than me... And her Nan level is too high for instant aging.

The cat came at Risotto again and started to attack him with many blows, but he had enough reaction to dodge them all, so he stabbed her a few more times, but it didn't do any serious damage. All that remained on the cat's body were small cuts, no more than a couple of centimetres deep.

After another small series of exchanges, Risotto made a mistake. With its sharp claws, the cat tore off his index and middle finger on his right hand.

Risotto had enough willpower not to scream, and the pain was not so bad, because he had worse, but because of this he dropped his knife, which was used by his opponent to tear his throat, but when her hand was already at the target, suddenly, the hook of Pesci's fishing rod flew into her side and ripped out her kidney.

- What the-' Cat was shocked by this turn of events, though she showed no signs of pain.

- Shit, I missed,' said Pesci, who had surprisingly kept his cool, 'I took such a long time to aim, but ended up ripping out a kidney instead of a heart like I wanted to.

Taking advantage of his opponent's confusion, Risotto reattached the severed fingers and looked towards the second battle.

Meanwhile, Melone, Formaggio and Giaccio were actively fighting the big guy.

- What a bitch! - I cut him, and he doesn't even give a shit! He's barely shrinking.

The other boys' fight with the big guy was different from Risotto's fight with the cat.

The big guy had an unusual ability to change his body. He grew new limbs in the form of arms, harnesses, spikes, blades, changed their size and number. It was obvious that it was not easy for the guys, because in addition to everything else this big guy was also quite strong, even stronger than a cat.

It was Giaccio who did most of the fighting. He took most of the blows, and his ice armour could withstand even such an onslaught. He froze his enemy's limbs, but he grew new ones. There were numerous attempts to get close and try to freeze his head, but he just wouldn't let anyone get that close.

Melone and Formaggio tried their best to help Gyaccio by attacking and distracting the enemy from different directions.

'Damn, the rest of them don't have a better situation. If they're guards, it's even scary to imagine what their King is like.'

Risotto went back to his battle and saw that his enemy had already recovered from the shock and swung at him to attack, all the while ignoring the lack of an organ.

But when the enemy was close enough, and Risotto didn't have enough speed to block the attack in time, Kurapika stepped in. He used his Stand to hit the cat in the face, which sent her flying back a couple of metres, and then she grabbed her face as she was burned, though she was able to bear it.

- I'm sorry it took so long,' Kurapika said to Risotto, 'I've been watching from the sidelines and analysing her fighting style, habits and abilities. Now let me fight her.

- I believe in you. - Risotto told him with hope in his voice.

Kurapika entered the battle.

The radius of his Stand allowed him to fight at a more or less safe distance of three metres. His opponent tried every possible way to land any blow on the Stand, but the speed difference was significant. Kurapiki's Stand was able to evade all the attacks of the enemy and hit back with lightning speed, leaving a lot of burns all over his body, which unfortunately didn't spread any further because of the still big difference in Nan's level.

The cat tried to take a break from the onslaught of blows by jumping back a dozen metres, but Kurapika didn't give her a chance to breathe, throwing at her small pebbles charged with Stand's power.

The downside to this situation was that they had moved more than ten metres away from Risotto during their battle.

'Damn it, it was already a little bit away from finally creating needles in her heart. That's alright, Kurapika's doing a great job. He might even be able to defeat her alone.'

Pesci at this time decided to change his opponent and joined Gyacho who was still fighting the other guard.

Diavolo's POV

- Oh shit... - Devavolo muttered as he regained consciousness.

'How long was I out for? What happened in that time? Damn stone! Damn King! Damn old man! By the way, what about the King and that old man?'

Opening his eyes, Diavolo saw that he was lying crushed by a rock, and meanwhile a battle was going on a couple of dozen metres away from him. The king was fighting against that very old man. What was a little surprising was the weapon the old man was using. He kept making strange movements like a prayer, and at that moment, a giant golden statue appeared behind him, looking like some kind of deity with a huge number of hands. This same deity deity dealt many blows to the King, preventing him from even getting close, but it was as if the King felt nothing at all and still continued to attack at different trajectories and angles.

'Damn all of them! I was so close, but they...'

Fully regaining his senses, Diavolo picked up the rock that was pressing him down with his Stand and got to his feet.

- Hey you, old man! - He turned to the old man, who then noticed him and stopped just after the King did, 'You have no idea how badly you screwed me over. You'll pay for this with your life!

- What? - The old man was surprised, - Are you still alive? And who are you? And you're so cheeky.

The King took advantage of his opponent's distraction and instantly ran away from the palace in the direction of the arrow.

- Halt! - The old man shouted to the fleeing King, but it was too late. Now he turned to the Devil, 'You... You have no idea what you've done! - He was clearly angry.

Diavolo was silent for a few seconds, then smirked and replied:

- Who cares. For you, old man, everything has already been decided. You're going to die anyway. That is your destiny.

- You!

The huge golden statue reappeared behind the old man's back as he prayed and began to strike.

- It's useless, [King Crimson]!

Time had been erased.

'I'll quickly finish off this old man and run after the arrow.'

Disregarding the statue's strike, Diavolo went behind the old man's back after which Stand swung to strike. When time resumed its course again, [King Crimson] had no trouble punching the old man through with a single blow. Diavolo was already rejoicing, but a second later, what appeared to be a glow began to emanate from the old man, and a second later, there was a tremendous explosion.

'What?! What was that just now? I expected anything, but an explosion... What's wrong with that old man? Is there a bomb planted in him?'

Diavolo carefully examined the old man, after which he looked around. A smile appeared on his face.

'Hehe, a bomb you mean? Haha, you think that's going to stop me? You think I won't be able to kill you? Or that I'll kill you but die myself? No way! I am the Devil! I'll destroy you and I'll survive!'

The Diavolo went behind the old man's back, summoned the Stand, and swung to strike.

Time resumed its course.

The [King Crimson] struck and easily pierced through the old man, but immediately afterwards....

Time was erased.

'I'm taking an insane risk by using this plan, but I don't see any other way to win and get out of this situation alive. Although maybe I could have done it differently... But none of that matters! What matters is the result, not the means!'

Diavolo concentrated all of Nan's energy into [King Crimson]'s legs, then used them to escape from the explosion that had already started to happen.

He rushed away from the palace at a tremendous speed.

'Ten seconds. In ten seconds, I must escape from the target zone.'

One, two, three seconds passed.

Diavolo ran to the wall behind which the palace grounds ended.

Four, five, six seconds passed.

He had already run several hundred metres away from the palace walls.

Seven, eight, nine seconds had passed.

'Damn, I hope I've already run the necessary distance to stay out of the blast zone. Though I have no idea what kind of bomb was planted in that old man or what its radius is. I don't even want to look back to check it out.'

Ten seconds passed.

Time resumed its course.

Illuso's POV

- Hmm, how interesting,' Said the one-armed royal guard looking around, 'I take it this is a looking glass. You pulled me into it when that kid threw a mirror at me. Very clever. I didn't realise anyone could have that ability. But don't expect it to do you much good.

- Ha, don't be so confident,' Illuso told him with a sneer in his voice, 'You're the only one here and you don't have a hand. I can defeat a crippled man.

The royal guard looked at him with a disdainful look before spreading his wings, soaring into the air and attacking.

'Eh, looks like I'll have to use this ability at once.'

When he was about three metres away from colliding with the guardian, the space around him began to distort and eventually cracked, shattering into thousands of shards.

- What?' The guard was surprised, and immediately afterwards, he was hit in the face by [Man in the Mirror] and flew backwards, landing on the ground.

- Do you see the difference between us now? You can't even touch me.

Stand Illuso flew closer and threw a few punches to the head of the royal guard so that he didn't have time to do anything, and when he tried to, his punches were just redirected at him.

The guard didn't try to attack anymore, but simply stood still and took the blows dealt by Illuso Stand, but they did little to no damage.

'What's the matter? My strikes are useless. It's too durable. But at least I can keep him at bay for now thanks to the shards and the radius of [Man in the Mirror], which is almost a hundred metres.'

- Hmm, interesting,' the guardian said with a smirk on his face, 'It's a powerful ability, but it has the unfortunate consequence that you can't maintain it for too long. It's an ability that requires a lot of energy, and because of that, your spirit's punching power is weak. To me, it doesn't hurt any more than a slap. I think you won't last more than two minutes.

Illuso was breathing heavily, his knees were shaking, his eyes were blurred, and drops of sweat appeared on his face, which once again showed that he was seriously exhausted.

'As much as I hate to admit it, he's damn right. I've never used this ability for too long, and even in the few times I have, it's exhausted me. Was it a mistake to fight him alone? Was there nothing I could do to him? Oh, shit! How can that be? What am I supposed to do?'

Unable to stand any longer Illuso collapsed to his knees.

Slowly, the shards began to disappear and space began to return to normal.

- Everything happened exactly as I said it would,' the Guardian was clearly pleased with himself. He had a satisfied smile on his face, and he began to walk leisurely towards Illuso, -Well, are you going to let me out of here and let me kill you? Although the second option is easier and faster.

The guardian came close to Illuso and swung to strike, but as he was about to strike, [Man in the Mirror] suddenly appeared and gave him a powerful blow to the face that sent him flying backwards a few metres to the ground.

- What... What kind of power is that? - He was clearly shocked and his nose was bleeding, -You were a complete weakling just a short while ago. Where did this power come from?

- Ha-ha-ha,' Illuso laughed a little and got to his feet and walked confidently towards his enemy. His face no longer had that deadly fatigue that had overtaken him not so long ago. At least he didn't show it. 'You know, I once heard of a funny thing called an Oath. You may not know it, but it's a thing that allows you to greatly enhance your own abilities in exchange for any restrictions.

- No way! You...

- That's right. I've permanently given up using my ability that allows me to shatter space into multiple mirror shards. If I ever use it again, I will die. That's my vow. And plus I limited the Stand's range to five metres. All this just to punch you in the face!

Before the Guardian could do anything, he was attacked by the Illuso Stand. He landed blow after blow on his face. Blow after blow, his face became more and more like a chop, and his head became more and more embedded in the ground. Almost all of his teeth were knocked out, and his nose was completely shattered.

But then [Man in the Mirror] stopped striking and disappeared, and Illuso collapsed to his knees again, and then to his stomach.

'Oh crap... I spent too much energy on that ability. Almost... I almost finished him off... There's just a little bit left, but apparently it wasn't fated.'

His body didn't move at all, he stopped hearing anything, and his eyelids slowly drooped. Before his eyes closed he saw that he had started to go from the mirror world back to the real world.

'I'm sorry guys... I screwed up...'

***

User Name: Illuso

Stand Name: Man in the Mirror

Destructive Force - B

Speed - C

Radius - C

Strength/Strength - C

Accuracy - C

Development Potential - E

Hatsu Type - Specialisation

***

POV Risotto

'Oh crap... Again... Time erasure happened again!'

Suddenly, Risotto and everyone else on the battlefield were hit by a powerful blast-like wave that threw everyone back a few dozen metres.

- What's that... - Suddenly he was speechless for a few seconds, - Look over there... - He pointed in the direction of the palace.

Risotto and then everyone else, including the guards, looked towards the palace and were shocked. Where the royal palace had stood not long ago, there was now a huge nuclear mushroom, perfectly visible even from here, and in place of the palace itself and the surrounding area, there was now a huge crater of fire.

'How...? How could this have happened? What on earth happened there?'

- Horror... - Said the still shocked Kurapika, 'It turns out... That everyone who was in the palace... And all those city dwellers who were supposed to have passed the selection... They... All of them... All of them...?

Risotto was silent. He wasn't much less shocked than Kurapika, but he was still trying to come to his senses as quickly as possible.

He looked around and came to his senses when he saw an arrow lying ten metres away from him, already completely free from the stone but with a half broken shaft.

Without a moment's hesitation he rushed towards it, and at the same time began to draw it towards him. The guards were so distracted by the disaster that they didn't have time to react in time, so Risotto grabbed the arrow.

- It worked! - Loudly and enthusiastically he said, 'Boys, I've got the arrow.

His companions had hardly had time to rejoice when suddenly the one they least wanted to see now came running from the side of the palace. It was King Ant-Man. As soon as the guards saw him they knelt down.

- My King,' the cat said, 'what has happened? The palace, he...

- I don't care about the palace anymore. There is something far more important.

With a look of terror, the King looked at Risotto and the arrow he held in his hands. With firm and confident steps, he strode forward towards Risotto. The others tried to stop him.

Kurapika was the first to attack. Speed was on his side, but not strength. [Speed King] hit the King in the head, but it was as if he didn't feel it at all and struck back, which sent Kurapika flying backwards, his bones crunching in the air.

Pesci tried to throw his rod next, but he lacked speed. The king dodged the attack and with a quick dash was instantly at Pesci's side and struck him in the body with his tail, after which the crunch was heard again.

Gyaccio was next. He ran up to the King, but before he could even take a swing, the King shattered his armour with a single blow of his tail, sending him flying off and vomiting blood while holding his stomach.

Melone and Formaggio couldn't even move. They were truly terrified.

Prosciutto was still lying on the ground, but now he was trembling at what he saw in front of him.

'Guys... How could it be?.... We were so close.'

Suddenly Illuso appeared beside Prosciutto out of nowhere. He was unconscious and lying on the ground, and not far from him was another royal guard, who he pulled into the mirror.

'And you, Illuso.'

Being distracted by his crushed friends Risotto himself didn't notice that the King himself was already standing in front of him. He stared into his eyes, making terror fill his heart, causing it to pound at breakneck speed.

'The body... The body refuses to move. This King... He's a completely different level. I can't defeat him.'

Suddenly, Risotto noticed something flickering near him at a tremendous speed. It wasn't until a few seconds later, when a strange feeling appeared in his body and something warm started flowing down from his chest, that he realised everything. It was the King's tail. The King stabbed him in the heart with his stinger at the tip of his tail.

The arrow fell out of Risotto's hands and he collapsed to the ground.

'What's happening...? My body is getting cold... Cold... Grave cold. I can't feel my hands or feet anymore, and the principle is no longer feeling anything... It's just cold. Is this really the end? Am I really going to die? Like this?

At this time, a one-armed royal guard who now had a disfigured face approached him. He picked up an arrow and presented it to the King.

- Please, my King. As you commanded.

'Many times I have come close to being in death's embrace, and still somehow managed to pull through. But it looks like this time it's for real. Looks like I'm really gonna die. I'm sorry guys... I let you all down. I'm sorry...'

***

- Hey. Long time no see.

Once again, Risotto found himself in a familiar old place. He was once again standing in the middle of the same bar. Somewhere in the corner sat the old bartender, reading his newspaper, and near the bar sat Scolippi, looking at Risotto with sadness and compassion in his eyes.

But there was one slight change in the bar that was nevertheless immediately perceptible. It was the radio, or rather what was playing on it. Whereas before it had been playing songs by The Rolling Stones all the time, now it was different. Now it was playing different music. Now it was King Crimson-In the Court of the Crimson King.

- Why? - Said Risotto full of sadness and despair, - Why Scolippi? Why did it have to be like this? Why did it turn out this way?

- It's fate. Sorry Risotto, but it's been said many times before and you know it. No-one can escape their destiny. We're only human and we can't control our destiny.

- Fate... Then who is...? Who has the power to control their destiny? Who can't be touched by it? Who can avoid it and change it?

- Hmm, probably the gods. Or someone like them. Sounds weird, but that's what I think.

- Gods? So you're saying that to just live a peaceful life that you can control yourself, you have to have the power of a god? What the hell are you talking about, Scolippi?!

- I'm sorry, but it makes the most sense to me. Ordinary people can't do that.

- But then again.

- We're running out of time, and you're running out of time. I suggest you accept your fate and don't suffer.

Risotto looked over and saw that the rock that had been Scolippi's Stand had changed. It had changed shape, and was now exactly like Risotto himself, as if it had been carved there by a professional sculptor. But still there were differences. The sculpture had something that looked like blood coming out of its mouth, and if you looked closely you could see a small hole in its chest.

- Tell Risotto,' Scolippi addressed him again, 'If you could make a wish and it would come true, what would you wish for?

- A wish? - Risotto thought for a few seconds, looking at the stone with his image on it, 'A wish... Hmm, perhaps... I would wish to save everyone. No, not like that... I wish I could change fate.

- Hmm, expected, but interesting. Well, I believe in you.

***

- What have you done Poof?!

- My King, it wasn't me, I swear! She did it! The arrow came out of my hand! As if of its own accord!

Risotto opened his eyes, and besides the shocked Chimera Ants, he also saw an arrow. An arrow that stabbed into his chest near his heart and went all the way in.