Hunters X and X Heroes

Welcome X Back X to the X City

"I'm returning to Jianghai."

Gon's hollering echoed off the walls; it startled her enough to drop her phone and cover her ears, "What?! Why?!"

"Did something happen?" Killua questioned quickly, immediately jolting up from his seat.

"It's just for a little while," Rukei explained while pulling her hands away from her ears and picking up the device, "If the process runs well, I'll probably be able to come back within a week. The Alliance needs to run a couple tests on my blood; essentially it's a check-up."

The spiky-haired boy slumped back into his chair and let out a deep exhale of relief, "Oh. Don't scare us like that, Rukei!"

"When are you leaving?"

"Preferably, right now. My doctor's a little...," she broke off and considered the best group of words to describe him, "Upset with me. I haven't visited him in a year where as in the past, they checked me monthly. I apologize about leaving in the middle of all this, Kite."

Kite didn't hold anything against her for leaving, but he was curious at to why, "That's alright. You've been a great help, so we'll be slowed down a bit, but we can manage. I will not force you to explain anything, but are you sick?"

Rukei was sure a Hunter as great as he already received news about the Zyphon experiments, but she still decided against elaborating to save time. She needed to hurry and book a flight to the other crowded city, so her response shortened to something akin to "I'm a bit unusual" following a request to borrow the computer in order to purchase a ticket.

Spin offered to go ahead and do it for her to give Rukei extra time to gather her belongings. It had been a long time since she had been in Jianghai, though she doubted it had changed any. Busy, bustling, indifferent crowds of congested the roads, and she expected them to be congesting it still. Ah, but she may as well get something for Gon and Killua while she was over there-

"Can you buy two more tickets?"

Okay, change in plans. She turned to find them leaning over Spin's shoulders obnoxiously, trying to give her directions to things she already knew how to do. "What are you two-"

"We'll pay you back later!" Gon assured while reaching for the mouse himself, which was promptly jerked away by the indignant woman.

"Uh, Gon, we're Hunters," the white-haired boy reminded him, "We don't need to pay for transportation."

After a couple seconds of dumb silence, Gon broke into a bashful smile, "Oh, that's right. In that case, there's even less reason not to buy two more tickets!"

"Okay, I get it!" Spin yelled over their voices after a frustrated groan, whirling around in her chair and swatting them away, "I'll get you guys a ticket, so just go sit down somewhere!"

Everything had been decided and Rukei could not even manage to slip a word in during the exchange. She felt awkward asking after everything was determined, but she pushed through. "The process isn't very interesting. You should stay here and help Kite-"

"But Jianghai is where you live, right?" Gon questioned she could finish her sentence, "I've always wondered what it's like. We've been to Killua's house, my house, but we've never been to yours."

The looks on their faces enforced their determination as Killua finished up the boy's reasoning, "So, it's only fair!"

"It's really not that interesting," Rukei repeated, though her voice contained very little intention of actually trying to persuade the boys: Rukei wasn't going to waste her time on that.