Hunters X and X Heroes

The X Ideals X Remain X Untouched

"Continue to use your wings as a fan," Kurapika instructed carefully, "Until there's no more oxygen in the room left. How much can you carry when you fly?"

"How much do you need me to?" Shichi questioned, beating off the snake again with a slam of her wings. She understood, and she was glad that she had listened, "I could carry you, if that's what you're trying to find out."

The boy nodded as he checked the doors of the room again by sight, "Then when I give you the signal, burst through those doors on the right."

'Humungous' would be a bit too weak to describe the current size of the snake. It's width was at least half of the room, and the length was difficult to figure out, but it had to coil itself up numerous times to fit inside and not burn it's master. The mentioned master held a hand over his face; he found it hard to breathe as well and was now being extremely cautious in advancing.

Kurapika had to be cautious too. They only had one shot and if it didn't work, the backlash of it was not even going to compare to Shichi's messing around.

Shichi's slackened shoulders and back gave the blonde a quiet reassurance of his plan. Her sarcastic grin was something normal and that was somehow comforting. "That good?"

The man would have taken a deep breath if that was safe right now, but it wasn't, so he settled for closing his eyes for a brief second and looking up. "Good."

With that, she burst forward, grabbing him in her flight while guarding his head from the wood and glass she barreled through with her elbow. The howl of the wind outside rushing in erupted into a loud blast accompanied with shattered windows and splintering doors. They watched the formless fire spread across the hall after the explosion, suspended in the city air.

"His Ten should be good enough to keep him alive," Shichi concluded, more to assure herself than anyone else, "When did you think of it?"

Kurapika looked up at her as she removed her arm from over his head, keeping a good grip to ensure he would not fall down to his death. "When you said 'it's getting hard to breathe'."

She gave a short, tired laugh as she watched the fire rage on. It was quiet for the rest of Shichi's descent towards the more deserted side alleys next to the building so she would not draw attention. She folded up her wings as her feet touched the concrete, making them disappear into nothing but a regular guard of aura and pulled her jacket back around her shoulders.

The wailing of firetruck sirens was nearing the building and they prepared to go out and meet them. Kurapika was smarter than she thought. She hadn't even considered using the doors both as a counter and an escape. The air in the room was very thin with the ridiculous fire snake taking it all up. By letting in all that new air in so suddenly, the serpent had eaten more oxygen than it could handle inside that tiny hall and detonated.

Shichi dusted off some ash from her clothes and tried her best to wipe the soot off her face but only succeeded in smearing it around. She glanced at the man beside her who did the same, but had much more luck in cleaning himself up. It sort of bothered her somehow that he was wearing something so... Normal? The peculiar blue and gold garments had really stuck with her. "When did you start wearing a suit?"

"When I stopped working for the Nostrade family," he replied, shaking out debris from the black jacket.

Shichi put her weapon back in her guitar case, closing the clasps with a click, "Still involved with the underground?"

"Yes," Kurapika answered simply. Kurapika had never directly told her what he was searching for or why he was doing it, but she could figure it out by the way he talked and the empty, worn expression he sometimes had. It was only till later that she had found out he was a survivor of a genocide.