Heaven's Empress ||COMPLETE||

|26| The Calm Before the Storm

|Third Person POV|

The sun was blazing its final glory as Zel and Kimaru headed back to Heaven's Arena, the real Ki Hatamei in Zel's arms. The girl was still slumbering peacefully, her face an expression of unadulterated calm.

Zel arrived back in Chidoku's office, where he put Ki on a make shift operation table to check her vitals.

"Well?" Zel asked, growing impatient as Chidoku performed one test after another.

"She's fine, mostly. There's still some drugs in her system, which is why she's asleep, but she'll be fine after some time."

"Alright then..." Zel nodded. She faced the door, relieved that Ki was fine. "I'll go back to this Mei girl then, try to find out what she's after."

"Good lucky." Chidoku nodded. "I'll... be the babysitter I guess."

Zel managed to hold her smile until she was back out the door. Kimaru was perched on her shoulders as she slid her hood over her head.

"It's late, do you think that Mei is still with Killua and Gon, boss?"

Zel shook her head.

"Probably not. We'll find them tomorrow. Let's go."

Zel headed back upstairs to her penthouse, ready to get some sleep.

|::|

Throwing the door open, the first thing she noticed was the stench of death. An eerie pair of eyes glowed in the darkness. Bright amber in a midnight light, Hisoka stood there, a deranged expression on his face.

"Hisoka, get out of my room." Zel said, tired and not in the mood for the man's antics.

"I didn't scare you? What a shame~" Hisoka murmured, laughing loudly as he passed by Zel.

"Remember, I'm fighting tomorrow~" He purred in Zel's ear as he passed.

Zel whipped around to shove Hisoka away, but he was already gone with a cackle.

She shuddered slightly, now far too vexed to sleep. Releasing a scream, she hurled a fist at the walls - creating a fist sized indent with cracks forming around it.

Someday... Zel promised herself. Some day she would kill that man.

|::|

The next day, Zel showed up in the normal floors of Heaven's Arena to watch Gon's battle with Gido. It was his first battle since arriving in the 200th floors, and he had gotten Killua to give Zel puppy-dog eyes in order to persuade her to watch and give him tips.

She sat down besides Killua and Ki, and kept a portion of her attention of the latter child at all times.

The match began, Gido flung spinning tops charged with electricity towards Gon. Who - to Zel's surprise - had already mastered ten and was using the technique to defend himself.

However, at the moment things did not look like they were going well for Gon. The tops had surrounded him and he was being hit left and right. Zel sighed. This wasn't a very good start.

She peered over to Ki, whose expression was hard to read. To most, it might have seemed like concern, even worry. But there was a lingering smile that hinted at something far darker. And what worried her the most, was not how much attention Ki was paying Gon but rather that the two boys weren't paying much attention to Ki.

Zel was aware very soon after meeting Gon that he was a naive child who saw the good in everyone. But that left him vulnerable and defenseless against the cruelty of the world. That Ki was able to slip under Gon's defenses was understandable, even expected. But Killua?