Chapter 22 Heaven's Arena

The trio bought three tickets and boarded the next blimp-copter to the other side of the continent. Gon wrote a letter to his aunt Mito, and Killua and Rayleigh watched the cities and mountains go by.

On their arrival, the view of a massive building could be clearly seen from the distance. The blimp-copter's altitude was dwarfed by the sky-piercing structure.

Killua introduced it, "Heaven's Arena has 251 floors and is 991 meters tall. It's the fourth tallest building in the world."

Rayleigh asked, "Where are the other three?"

Killua shrugged, "No idea."

Gon looked disappointed, as they were both interested in seeing those.

The city around Heaven's Arena was relatively plain, with only a few larger buildings circling the tower while the rest of the area had residential housing, shops, and restaurants. Gon slipped the letter to his aunt into a mailbox before they headed over to the base of Heaven's Arena. He'd been writing her a letter every other week or so.

The line to enter the tower wasn't difficult to find. It stretched around the entire tower and continued a few blocks further.

Rayleigh asked, "Isn't that too many people?"

Gon stated, "There's so many!"

Killua answered, "They're all here to compete. Unlike the Hunter's Exam which very few pass, Heaven's Arena is open to all legal adults, and many matches are televised. Some get lucky and are matched with a weak opponent. Win enough, and you'll get a lot of money. For those who love a good fight, it's even better. The greater your skills, the better the opponent they match you with. It's a paradise for battle junkies."

Gon and Rayleigh had stars in their eyes.

Killua noticed Ray's excitement and asked, "How are you going to fight Mr. Pacifist?"

Ray chuckled. "Being a pacifist just means I will avoid starting a fight or trying to enforce my decisions on others. I won't kill if I can help it, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy a fight."

Killua asked, "So you'd be up for a friendly spar?"

"Of course," was the immediate answer.

Gon asked, "Who do you think would win between you two?"

Ray answered, "If I don't use my Lightsaber and Killua doesn't try to kill me, he'd win. He's stronger and has more experience in hand-to-hand combat."

Killua asked, "Why does it sound like you're saying that trying to kill you makes it easier for you to fight?"

Rayleigh answered, "Because it does. One of my skills, Battle Precognition, grants me insight into the future of my opponent's attacks. It works a lot better if someone is trying to kill me by reading their killing intent. That's how I responded fast enough to survive your brother's attacks. He is way too fast for me, but his desire to kill me gave me enough warning to predict what he was going to do."

Gon said, "But you'd win with your Lightsaber?"

Rayleigh answered, "I can turn down the power on it so that it only shocks instead of burns, we can spar with it later and find out."

Gon and Killua both looked excited. Killua would not believe Ray could beat him just because he had a weapon. That was a natural reaction, but there was a world of difference between a Force User fighting with and without a Lightsaber. Killua would learn this soon enough.

After a few hours of chatting, they reached the front of the line, where a woman wearing a shirt and hat with the emblem of a fist welcomed them.

"Welcome to Heaven's Arena. Please fill out this form."

Once filled out, the woman entered their information into a computer and said, "Rayleigh Rush, you are numbered 2054. Gon Freecss, you are numbered 2055. Killua Zoldyck, you are numbered 2056."

Due to Rayleigh's penmanship and education, he actually filled out the form first while Killua was thinking up cool things to add to the Fighting Experience part of the sheet.

The woman continued, "Please make your way to the first floor and find your arena when called. Thank you for coming, and I wish you the best of luck!"

The trio left the counter and headed for the first floor. Hundreds of men sat in bleachers while shouting for other matches to get more brutal. It had a very Gladiator Colosseum vibe to it.

Killua found a spot to sit while Ray and Gon sat next to him. He looked over the masses of meat pounding into each other with relentless vigor and said, "It's been a long time, but nothing's changed."

Gon asked, "You've been here before?"

"Yeah. My father dropped me off when I was six without a single jenny and told me to make it to the 200th floor and come back. It took me two whole years."

Rayleigh sighed, "At least you got a lot of experience. I've trained a lot, but honestly speaking, I don't have any real experience fighting other than two fights in the Hunter Exam."

Killua looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "That's fine. At least you didn't learn any bad habits."

One of the announcers called out, [Number 1973 and 2055, come to ring E.]

Gon stood up, "Ah, that's me!"

He looked nervous. His combat experience was identical to Ray's. He had two fights, one against the fake spider and one against Hanzo.

Killua noticed this and said, "You passed the Door of Verification right?"

Gon nodded.

Killua continued, "Then just push your opponent with everything you've got."

Gon looked confused and asked, "Really?"

Ray and Killua both nodded. Gon headed down to his assigned ring, where a bulky man with arms thicker than Gon's torso waited for him. The contrast between the two caused most of the audience to start laughing and calling out how lucky the big guy was to get someone one-tenth his size.

The referee stated, "On the first floor, we're here to evaluate your level. You have three minutes to show us what you are capable of. Begin!"

The massive brute charged Gon while reeling his fist back to deliver what would appear to be a bone-crushing blow. Gon didn't move as he was approached and only ducked right as the man swung, leaving the fighter completely open. Gon set his stance as if he were going to open the two-ton door and put all his strength into a pushing blow.

The heavy opponent did not weigh anywhere close to two tons, and the speed of the strike lifted the man off his feet, where he flew backward and off the arena. It was like he had been struck by a wrecking ball.

A moment later, Rayleigh was called to another match, and Killua was called to the one right afterward.

Rayleigh's opponent looked like a martial artist, but his strength felt hollow. As if he were a bodybuilder who saw a dozen kung-fu movies and decided to give it a shot because it looked easy.

Rayleigh caught his punch, pulled him off balance, performed a shoulder throw to get him off his feet, then spun the man by his captured arm twice before releasing him and letting him fly to the same wall where Gon had planted his own opponent.

The man screamed the whole flight, but due to how Ray threw him, the man struck the wall rear first rather than head first. He wasn't even unconscious from the impact, but his entire skeleton ached, and he was in no position to get up.

Rayleigh looked over to Killua's ring and saw that his opponent was already unconscious.

Rayleigh's ref typed a few things into a handheld printer and said, "You can go to the 50th floor." He printed out a ticket and handed it to him. This would be used to get his winnings from the counter on each floor.

As Rayleigh took the ticket, he heard the crowd cheer for another match and looked over to see what the spectacle was. It turned out to be a kid, younger than they were, wearing a martial arts gi. He'd beaten someone even larger than Gon's opponent, and his ref told him to go to the 50th floor as well.

Gon, Rayleigh, and Killua made their way over to the elevator. Rayleigh noticed another person approaching and held the door open for the shorter newcomer.

Killua pressed the button for the 50th floor and said, "On the fiftieth floor and beyond, one win gets you ten floors up while one loss sends you ten floors down."

The new arrival added, "I heard when you reach the hundredth floor, you get your own room!" Everyone looked at him, and he said, "Hello, my name is Zushi."

"I'm Gon."

"Killua."

"I'm Ray."

The door to the 50th floor opened, and they exited into the main hall. Zushi asked, "May I ask from which school of fighting you have learned? I am from the Shingen-ryu style of Kung Fu."

"We don't really have one," was the reply from all three.

Zushi almost shouted, "What?! To be able to reach such a level without being guided. That's really shocking to me. I have a long way to go."

"Zushi, you did great."

From the side was a young, glasses-wearing man with a white button-up collared shirt that was only half tucked into his pants.

Zushi gave a short bow and said, "Thank you. Eh, Master, your shirt is..."

The man realized his sorry-looking state and quickly tucked in the remainder of his shirt before asking, "And who are those at your sides?"

Zushi introduced, "These are Gon, Ray, and Killua."

The man nodded and said, "Nice to meet you, I'm Wing. You know, I've been seeing more and more kids these days coming and going from Heaven's Arena. Why are you three here?"

Killua answered, "To become stronger and earn some money."

Ray asked, "Where are those kids you were talking about?"

"Why? Are they friends of yours?" he asked.

Rayleigh answered, "I've never met them before, but Netero said he knew of some kids our age who were really strong, so I wanted to meet them too."

Rayleigh had not met any Players since leaving Dyna Might and Glitter. He stayed in the General Chat rather than the Hunter Chat, so he didn't know what any of them were doing. Many of the Pirate Players returned to the Pirate World, but since not a single Hunter Player took part in the Exam, that begged the question. Where were they?

Wing nodded and replied, "Well, none of them are my students, so I don't know a lot about them. In any case, be mindful of harming yourself and your opponents." Wing then walked off while Gon, Zushi, and Killua walked over to the counter to get their prize money for winning. Rayleigh felt a number of things were off about Wing, but it wasn't the time to bring them up, so he ran over to catch up with the rest.

At the counter, they were awarded 152 Jennies.

Killua put the change in the adjacent vending machine and explained, "Win or lose, on the first floor, any match awards 152 jennies, the price of a drink. After that, losing gets you nothing. On the 50th floor, winning awards you 50,000 jennies."

Everyone looked excited over that, but then Killua continued, "Victory on the hundredth floor awards a million. The hundred and fiftieth-floor awards ten million."

Each number shocked their group more than the last. The total worth of everything on the island Rayleigh supposedly grew up on in this world was only worth five million.

Gon asked, "You've been here before, right? How much did you win from the 200th floor?"

Zushi froze when he realized one of the kids next to him had been up to the 200th floor before.

Killua answered, "Actually, I went home without ever fighting on the 200th floor, so I don't know. But my victory on the 190th floor awarded me about two hundred million jennies."

When it was obvious what their next question was, Killua quickly stated, "Hey, it's all gone. I used it all to buy cake and snacks for four years."

Ray, Zushi, and Gon all shared a look while thinking the exact same question. What the hell kind of cake and snacks did he buy?!

Changing the subject, Killua said, "Let's register for a match on the 50th floor today since none of us are injured."

No one disagreed, and Killua led them to the waiting room.

The waiting area for the fiftieth floor looked like a gym locker and was filled with tensed-out fighters brooding silently while sizing up everyone else in the room.

Killua calmly sat on a bench and said, "If these are our opponents, this will be an easy victory. No need to get stressed out."

Gon asked, "You think?" and Rayleigh nodded. Zushi looked even more nervous as Killua was speaking aloud, and the heated glare of everyone in the room was now directed toward their group.

Two at a time, fighters were asked to go to various rooms where they would be matched up. The losers fell to the 40th floor while the winners rose to the 60th, so no one returned after they were called out.

[Rayleigh and Zushi, come to room A on the 57th floor.]

Zushi looked even more nervous and said humbly, "It's an honor."

Rayleigh replied, "Same."

As they left, Killua said, "Ray, we'll all meet up on the sixtieth floor, so wait for us there."

Zushi looked rather dejected at Killua's absolute certainty in his own loss. Rayleigh was tempted to comfort him, but since he didn't plan on losing, there was nothing to say.

The pair made their way to the elevator, hit the button for the 57th floor, and made their way to that floor's arena. Unlike the first floor, each floor from that point onward had fewer arenas and larger seating for each. The fiftieth floor had four arenas, and each had several hundred spectators. Audience members bought their tickets for specific matches or specific floors and just stayed there and watched all the matches they wanted to until they were bored. The arena made its profit off betting, tickets, and concession stands.

Once both had climbed onto the arena, the announcer started.

[Ladies and Gentlemen! We bring to you today an exciting matchup between two young geniuses! Don't let their appearances fool you, they both passed directly from the first floor to the fiftieth in a single fight! If you'll move your attention to the display, we'll show you a video of their first-floor matches!]

There was a massive screen on both sides of the room, so anyone could watch them without turning their necks too much.

The first video played and showed Rayleigh's match.

[Rayleigh easily manhandled that fighter like an adult playing with a child!]

The video then changed to Zushi's match.

[And Zushi's Kung-fu technique allowed him to pulverize the giant that outweighed him by over 200 kilograms without a single injury!]

On the video, Zushi apparently got into close range and landed a flurry of powerful blows. Each stunned his opponent, preventing him from countering, while Zushi continued to strike until the man collapsed. He landed at least a dozen strong blows in a few moments and made the fight look a lot easier than it was.

The announcer continued.

[Ladies and gentlemen, who do you think will win? Place your bets now!]

After a moment, the results came out.

[Betting Results

Rayleigh to win 2.5:1

Zushi to win 1.3:1]

Zushi looked very nervous, as it seemed everyone thought Zushi had a better chance to win.

The announcer also spoke up. [Oh! According to the results, our audience expects Zushi to be the winner! Does the master of Kung-fu look more reliable? Let's find out! First of three rounds of three minutes. Begin!]

Zushi took a serious stance, and Rayleigh noticed something interesting. Zushi's lifeforce, no, his aura was circulating. He couldn't see it, but he could feel it secondhand through the Force. Rayleigh wondered how common that was.

Rayleigh approached at a normal speed and Zushi struck out. Rayleigh dodged, paying special attention to the strength of the punch. Oddly enough, it looked like the punch was normal. Zushi was stronger than a normal person and definitely had months or even years of intense training, but the might behind that fist did not appear outside the realm of his expectations. It seemed covering his body in aura did not greatly increase the might of his punch.

Rayleigh struck Zushi's shoulder with a twist of his palm, causing Zushi to cry out and collapse.

The ref shouted, "Clean hit and a down, two points!"

The refs counted up the cool-looking parts of the fights for points, and you'd win if you reached ten points, even if your opponent was still standing.

A down also meant to stop fighting until the opponent could get up or just stayed down.

Ray walked away from Zushi with a calculating smile. That strike was enough to dislocate Zushi's shoulder, but it didn't. The aura Zushi was surrounding himself with didn't increase his damage, but it did increase his defense. But why didn't it increase his damage? Ray still had many questions.

Since his arm wasn't dislocated, Zushi was able to get up and return to his stance.

Zushi tried to go on the offensive, but Rayleigh had no problem dodging his attacks. Rayleigh grabbed Zushi's arm and pulled him out of his stance. His aura seemed to grant a lot of resistance to this, but it wasn't enough as Zushi was hurled over Rayleigh's shoulder and slammed into the ground.

The ref called out a critical hit and down. Critical hits looked cooler than normal ones and were awarded three points instead of one. That and the down meant Rayleigh's slam netted him four points, meaning he now had six. Four more, and Zushi would lose even if he could get back up.

Zushi knew this too and changed his stance.

Suddenly, the aura around Zushi made Zushi seem like he was much stronger and could not lose.

This was not the first time he felt this. It was the same thing that Gourmet Hunter did when he stood up to her.

Rayleigh didn't back up, such a feeling in an actual fight ignited his fighting spirit. An unconscious smile appeared on his face, and Rayleigh shot forward.

"ZUSHI!"

Rayleigh stopped just short of striking Zushi's chest with a palm blow. He looked behind him to see that Zushi's master, Wing, had shouted at his disciple. Though his hard exterior quickly changed to shock when he realized what Rayleigh almost did.

Rayleigh himself retracted his hand with some embarrassment. Opps. He almost did exactly what Gon did against that fake spider. Whatever Zushi did made him appear stronger than he actually was, and Rayleigh was about to match that perceived level with everything he had.

The announcer made an awkward announcement.

[Er, the encouragement of a spectator has brought a halt to the match. Let's restart the match!]

Zushi stopped using that intimidation thing, which killed Rayleigh's motivation. Rayleigh knocked Zushi down two more times to get enough points to end the fight with a Technical Knock Out. Even though he used enough strength on that last blow to crush a steel beam, the aura that surrounded Zushi seemed to also permeate his flesh and negate much of the damage, allowing Zushi to stand up even after Rayleigh's strongest blow.

Rayleigh headed up to the sixtieth floor and found Gon and Killua waiting for him.

Killua asked, "What was the hold up?"

Gon followed up with, "Was he strong?"

Ray answered, "He used some interesting techniques, and I ended up having a bit of fun. Hopefully, there will be more strong guys like that on the other floors."

Killua said, "We're not going to reach the hundredth floor tonight and get our own rooms, so cash your winnings first and we'll head out to find a hotel for the night. If we don't find one before the sun goes down, there won't be any left to find."

Gon added, "They really give fifty thousand zennies!"

Rayleigh nodded and cashed in his winnings before the trio headed down the elevator to head back into the city and find a room for the night.

Rayleigh didn't need a room or bed as he could make do with meditating, so they got a room with two beds, and Rayleigh spent the night meditating on the floor.

The next day, they returned to the tower, but the matching took even longer than before, and they only had time for two matches, making it to the eightieth floor before they returned to their hotel. The next day they returned, and with another two victories, they reached the one-hundredth floor and each got their own room.

Gon jumped onto the bed and shouted, "A room of our own! No more hotels!" to which Killua and Ray nodded. The Hotel rooms were loud, dirty, and stinky.

Killua stated, "If you lose, you'll also return to the 90th floor and lose your room. The 100th floor is like a ceiling. Everyone above wants to maintain their place no matter what."

Gon and Rayleigh took the advice seriously, and the next day, they started their matches with full concentration.

Only to anti-climactically one-shot their opponents.

After cashing their winnings, Killua sighed and stated, "It took me two weeks to reach the 150th floor when I came here."

Gon replied, "Yeah but, you were six."

Rayleigh added, "We are all literally twice as old as you were then."

Killua conceded, "That's true."

Rayleigh asked, "Will they get a lot stronger? I haven't seen anyone else use the skills Zushi used."

Killua asked, "What exactly did he do?"

Rayleigh described Zushui's use of Aura to defend himself and that burst of aura to make himself seem like he couldn't lose.

Gon said, "I saw him on the TV a while ago, he's still on the 50th floor."

Killua stated, "Hopefully there will be more guys like that on higher levels. It sounds like he did what my brother can do."

Gon asked, "Why not ask Zushi?"

Ray felt something click into place and said, "Yeah, let's do that."

He had been tempted to ask Zushi this whole time but felt the timing wasn't right. Now that the main character brought it up, the timing seemed right.

Rayleigh didn't know if it was his sealed Metaknowledge, the Force, or a combination of the two, but he'd been using that feeling to make sure he didn't screw everything up.

They took the elevator down to the fiftieth floor. Zushi usually wins on the 50th floor but loses on the 60th. He lost a match on the 60th the prior day and was waiting for his next match on the 50th floor.

He wasn't difficult to find, and Rayleigh asked, "Hey Zushi, how did you do that intimidation thing during our match?"

Zushi politely answered, "Oh. Ren is one of the four principles of Nen Training. The four principles are the basis of every fighting spirit technique and rely on spirit elevation and its hardening. You start with finding the Ten, learning Zetsu, succeeding in Ren, and reaching Hatsu. Together, these four practices form Nen. That's all."

Gon looked completely dumbfounded, and Killua nearly shouted, "I didn't understand any of that!"

Wing approached the group and stated, "Zushi, since when have you become skilled enough to teach others what I have taught you?"

Zushi looked properly admonished, and Wing continued, "Ray, Gon, Killua, if you try to learn something from its parts, you'll understand less than if you were told nothing at all."

Killua summarized, "Half-knowledge is worse than no knowledge, right? But I still want to know. From what Ray described, that skill Zushi used is something my older brother uses."

Wing asked, "Your brother uses Nen?"

Killua answered, "I think so. Would you mind teaching us? Otherwise, we'll have to discover it in parts, which, as you said, is dangerous for us."

Wing seemed to consider it for a moment before replying, "Okay, here's my address. Come over tonight."

With that, he handed them a piece of paper on which he wrote his address and left with Zushi in tow.

*Author's Note*

Reviews and stones fuel my will to write more chapters.