A Heart Frozen Over (MHA X HxH)

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Katzo glanced out into the empty streets. "Wait everyone? Everybody's dead?" He looked down, breathing a little hard. "That's the most he's really spoken or moved since we've got here" The woman murmured. Katzo sat down next to him, Gon was about to tell him to leave again when someone came jogging up to them. "There's strange markings on the houses. They look like carvings" He said, looking utterly confused. "An X and a series of lines next to it, as far as my group could tell all of them have it. Wh-" Gon spoke in a quiet mumble. "X marked I'd been here, a line for every person inside" The young man who had reported paused, then frowned slightly. "But there...there weren't anybody in the houses" Katzo froze. "You said there was a...pile of bodies in the marketplace" he said slowly. The young man's eyes widened in shock. Katzo turned to look at him. "Don't tell me you...you were the one who moved them all there?"

Gon nodded, all three of them looked horrified. Just seeing a dead body, or a pile, was enough. But carrying hundreds of them to a single place? No wonder this kid looked dead inside. He shifted a little. "Some...were alive. I'd stay until they stopped breathing, then move onto the next house. After I checked them all I moved them." He mumbled. The woman put a hand on his shoulder. "Why didn't you call anybody?" Gon looked down. "Aunt Mito said...It didn't matter. It was too late, she'd die before I even got to the nearest dock" Tears started rolling down his cheeks again, he laughed bitterly. "A-After I collected them all I called the police, they said I was lying. " He said, voice trembling slightly. "That they didn't have time for prank calls." But I wasn't lying, it was real. Gon started to sob, bringing his hands to his face. "I couldn't do anything. I'm a damn hunter. I-I don't...I don't even deserve my license anymore."

Katzo wrapped an arm around him as he sobbed. The words kept spilling out, now that he started he couldn't stop. "I couldn't save anyone. Not one of them. I'm such a damn idiot, I should've known it was more than just a cold. I should've gotten suspicious sooner when I kept seeing less and less people out in the marketplace-" Suddenly someone else came over, it was one of the men three who'd gone to the marketplace. "You said it had been a week but none of the bodies look very decomposed. Like, surely some animals would've eaten them-" Gon spoke over him. "They all died too" There was silence for a few moments. "Hold on, if everybody else died than why didn't you?" The young man said. The woman shot him a glare. "Don't say it like that-" Gon laughed again. A broken, empty, laugh. "That's what the lady on the phone said too. That I had to be lying, or else I'd have died too."

"I don't know why I didn't get sick, but everybody who started coughing got worse and worse and they started to cough up blood and then they died" He said, voice breaking. "Do you...have someone to go to?" Gon wiped his eyes, mind drawing a blank. "I-I can't think of anybody-" Katzo spoke. "What about those two you went with to the hunter's exam?" Gon froze. "Leorio and Kurapika...Leorio's a doctor, why didn't I even think to call him?" He felt anger bubbling up inside of him. Not towards these people, or the lady on the phone, or even the horrible sickness. He was mad at himself. He clenched his fists and then brought one of them hard into his face, near his forehead. "W-Woah! Don't do that!" Katzo said in alarm, moving him a little closer. His momentary rage faded under another wave of sadness and helplessness, soon enough he was sobbing again. "You said two names, do you have their numbers in your phone?" The woman said, settling down on his other side. Gon didn't respond, he was crying too hard.

About ten minutes later he managed to pull himself together, the tears stopped falling and he was about to reach for his phone when they heard a commotion coming from the ship. "Hey! Stay on the ship!" One of the crewmen shouted. "Let me go damn it! There's people I need to see!" Gon froze, eyes snapping up. The four other people who had been sitting with him noticed this and also looked towards the commotion. A tall man in a suit with glasses and a briefcase leapt off the edge of the boat and started running towards them. It was Leorio. "Gon!" He shouted, then panted a little as he came to a stop a few feet away. "You didn't reply to my texts or calls for a few days, came with the soonest ship but for some reason they didn't let any of us off. I had to jump, what're you doing out here all alone?" Gon finally looked up, and Leorio's eyes widened in shock. "What in the-" He dropped his suitcase and Katzo removed his arm from around Gon as Leorio made him get to his feet and grabbed him by the shoulders. "You look like you haven't slept in a week! What happened to you?"

Gon's throat constricted, no words came out. Instead he fell forward into Leorio, his face in his chest as his arms wrapped around his back. Leorio hugged him back a little as Gon's hands started to tremble slightly. "Some sort of sickness swept through the island, this kid's the only one who survived." Leorio's body stiffened in shock, Gon started to cry softly into his chest. "A...sickness? Why didn't anybody notify any sort of hospital or at least friends and family from outside the island?" Gon sobbed a little. "It seemed like a cold at first, I told Aunt Mito and grandma Abe to stay home and rest. B-But then...Then I started seeing less and less people in the marketplace." He managed to choke out in between his sobs. "I got worried when I saw nobody out and went to Noko's house, but nobody answered. I heard a faint scratching sound but nothing else. And then I b-broke down the door and...she was coughing up blood on the floor. And then when I went upstairs, both her parents and her uncle were dead. B-By the time I came back, she was dead too."

His hands tightened a little on Leorio's shirt, neither Leorio or any of the 4 other people with them said a word. "When I reached for my phone, but I left it at home. So I ran to the docks, there was one ship. Everybody was dead there too, and w-when...when I got back home, Aunt Mito started coughing up blood" He started full on sobbing again. "I-I couldn't do anything. They all died, even the animals-" Leorio stiffened, then shifted slightly. "You, tell everybody to not take anything from the island. Don't drink, or eat, or touch anything that come from here." Two pairs of footsteps went away quickly, then Leorio muttered something under his breath for a moment. "Why didn't you call anybody?" The woman who'd been with him since the beginning spoke. "He said that whoever picked up thought he was just playing a prank call and didn't send help. He's been sitting out here for an entire week after he moved all the bodies to the marketplace. I tried to get him to eat something but..."

Leorio sighed, "Damn, you've had a rough past couple weeks haven't you? That smell must be awful-" Katzo spoke. "What do you mean by that?" Leorio sighed again, hugging Gon a little tighter. "Kid's got a ridiculously strong nose, must've been why he left the marketplace to come all the way out here instead of where the food was" There was silence for a few moments again. "Well is there somewhere he can go? Seems like the poor kid lost all his family and friends" The woman murmured softly. Leorio scooped him up, then grabbed his briefcase and Gon's bag. "I'll take him back to my place, but-" Gon gripped Leorio's shirt a little harder for a moment. "Wait" He didn't know why, but he didn't want anyone else to know. Maybe it was his failure, or the pity he'd get, or the people who'd try to take advantage of it. Leorio paused. "I-I don't...want you to tell anybody" He mumbled. Leorio frowned slightly. "Why?" Gon was silent for a few moments. "I...dunno. I just don't want everybody to know"

Leorio sighed. "I'm telling Kurapika" Gon shifted a little. I...Kurapika can know. "Kurapika...and Killua. That's it" Leorio huffed. "Well there goes over half of the plans I thought of to help you get through this" He grumbled. Leorio kept walking, they were going in the direction of the ship. "Oi! Why the hell-" The man's voice cut off as Leorio leapt back up onto the ship. "Sorry, it was important. When's the ship going back?" Gon didn't look up but there were footsteps. "I was told-" Leorio cut the man off. "I know, I'm aware of the situation. Gon's the only one left, don't take anything from the island alright? And if anyone starts to come down with a cough separate them from the others. Apparently the sickness that swept through seems like a normal cold at first but turns deadly in a matter of days" There was a pause. "We'll call another ship out here for cleanup, for now we're going back to Yorknew" Leorio let out a relived sigh. "Great"

1615 words

To be continued...