ꜱᴛᴜᴄᴋ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴍᴇ- ᴋɪʟʟᴜᴀ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ [OLD]

24- 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬

"Okay, 3, 2, 1 Go!" Irene shouted. I charged towards her but she lept out of the way. Once again, I charged towards her, but she evaded my grasp. We did the multiple times before she sighed loudly. "You're gonna have to try harder than that babe." She shouted.

"But Miss Irene, I'm trying really hard!" I whined.

"Awe, I'm sorry. Please try a little harder though! I know you can do it, you just gotta try and push past those limits." She encouraged. "Tell ya what, if you hold me down I won't even squirm. You'll get the win automatically." She suggested. I nodded.

"Y/n! This isn't time for negotiation!" Killua hissed, already pining down the target. His opponent could easily flip him over, but he didn't. He just laid there, not even trying to move. "Hey, this isn't fun for me if you don't put up a fight." Killua frowned at the enemy, who just stared at him.

"Sorry Kid but this isn't supposed to be fun." He kind of chuckled. Killua scoffed.

"One, two, three, four, five. Boom, I win. What a boring victory." Killua got off of him and his opponent walked to a bench that was by the door.

"Alright, then kiddies! You two can work together to take me down." Irene smiled, pointing at the two of us.

"Yes!" I smiled.

"Yeah, okay." Killua responded, looking incredibly bored. I just looked at him.

"Awe, don't be like that! This'll be fun. Unlike Chizoba over there, I put up a fight!" She smiled, pointing over to where the man Killua took down earlier was sitting. "Just go whenever you want."

I glanced at Killua, who remained silent. He just looked right back at me. "It's your call Y/n." He said, his eyebrows furrowing.

"Awe, you two are just the cutest! I just wanna smother you two in hugs. But that's quite the opposite of my job right now." She sighed.

"Killua, let's figure something out," I said, grabbing his arm.

"Do we have enough time?" Killua sighed.

"We should. We only walked around and solved puzzles for four hours. We've still got 68 hours." I smiled. He followed me as I pulled him by the arm.

"Okay, so what's our plan?" He whispered.

"Maybe the two of us should charge toward her from two different directions?" I suggested.

"But she'd still have the other two to get away." Killua sighed.

"You could use rhythm echo to distract her, and then I could swoop in and bring her down. After that, we can both crawl on top of her!"

"Hmm...That actually might work." Killua smiled. "Okay, we'll do that."

"Oh, I almost forgot! Miss Irene says that we don't even have to count to five if we pin her down. We get the win automatically!" I cheered.

"Nice!" He grinned, holding a thumbs up. 

"Hey, Irene! I wanna show you a trick!" Killua smiled innocently. 

"Awe, not now sport. You and Y/n have to take me down." She pat his head.

"But pleaseee!" Killua whined, adding some puppy eyes for good measure.

"Fine." She smiled. Killua chuckled a little bit and began walking around in a circle, slowly and steadily. Soon, there were copies of him everywhere. Irene seemed distracted by this, so I took it as the opportunity to go and jump on her back. I held her neck tightly and leaned in the opposite direction she was standing in, naturally, she followed. She fell to the ground and Killua jumped on top of her. Just to make sure she wouldn't try and find a loophole I did the same.

"We got you!" I giggled.

"Well done!" She smiled. "You two are pretty smart. I'll put in a good word with the exam committee for ya. We won't be freed, which is sad but I'm glad you two will be doing alright!" She cheered.

"Freed?" I asked.

"We're prisoners. Nothing too bad though. I'm in jail for thievery and arson. Chizoba's in here for trafficking endangered animals." She sighed. "I'm excited to get out so I can put it all behind me. I've got a wife back home. I write her letters every day, but it's not the same as holding her." Irene looked sad. I ran up to her and enveloped her in a hug.

"It's okay Miss Irene! I'll ask Chairman Netero if we can get you out sooner. Just don't steal anything or set it on fire, okay?" I looked up at her. She smiled, but she looked close to tears.

"Okay. But promise me that you two will lead a fulfilling life. Live so that when you die, you have no regrets." She knelt, her blue and white hair flowing because of the slightly drafty environment. She cupped my cheek in her hand.

"I promise! Killua, come on." I grabbed his arm so he'd join us in our little heart-to-heart conversation.

"Hey, 99." She said, smiling still.

"Yeah?" Killua responded.

"You've got a lotta potential. Keep working hard. And you two should take good care of each other. You hear me?" She seemed so kind and so motherly, I wanted to take her with us. Unfortunately, all I could do was put in a good word and hope she'd make it out of her soon.

"We will!" I smiled. She had let go of our faces and we were free to go.

"Good luck you two! Not that you'll need it of course!" She smiled as we walked through the door.

~

We had gone through two more puzzles when we had reached two doors. There was a sign next to them which had read "Congratulations! You've reached the end of this phase! The two doors in front of you will guide you to the end. The door on the right is very narrow and you cannot walk very comfortably in there. However, it takes a very short amount of time to walk through. The door on the left has plenty of space but takes very long to go through. Make your pick."

I glanced at Killua. "So, what door?" I asked.

"We'll go through the right. I want some left over time so we can surprise Gon and the others." Killua picked up his skateboard.

"Yeah, but we're gonna have to get really close." I sighed.

~

We finished the phase with Killua carrying me on his back. It was kind of embarrassing, showing up to a room with other wannabe hunters who could do so much more, and you were being carried like a baby.

"You can put me down now." I sighed, my face red with embarrassment.

"Oh, right!" Killua said, letting go of my legs. I hopped down from his back and scratched the nape of my neck.

"We did it!" I smiled, trying to make conversation with him.