Chapter 36 Biscuit Krueger

According to the Trade Shop's Employee, getting to Masadora required crossing a mountain range 80 kilometers north of Antokiba. After passing over that, they would spot an enormous lake, and if the lake's shore is followed northwest, they'll come across Masadora.

The Employee also warned them that there was a hide-out of bandits in the forest between Antokiba and the mountain and that even if they managed to get past the bandits, the other side of the mountain range was filled with monsters.

Needless to say, avoiding the bandits and monsters was the last thing on the trio's mind as they made their way through the dark forest.

As the terrain grew more rugged on their venture, Gon turned to the pair and asked, "What do you think we should do about her?"

He was referring to the woman who had been on their tail the entire journey, keeping within shouting distance of the trio without getting lost.

Killua answered, "Just ignore her. When the bandits appear, we'll shake her off."

Gon asked, "Isn't that cruel?"

Rayleigh snorted, "None of us are strong enough to protect everyone we meet. She doesn't look like she needs protection anyways."

Killua added, "That's right! She's also a Nen User, so if it gets dangerous, she can just run away."

Only sometime after the last light of the sun had hidden from the world had they made their first encounter. Six individuals wearing masks, light clothes, and weapons came out from behind the trees and charged forward.

The trio took a fighting stance as the bandits jumped into the air, seemingly ready to pounce on the group.

But instead, they landed in front of the trio, performed a sliding bow, and shouted, "Please Help Us!"

Rayleigh didn't sense any danger, so he answered, "Um, sure. What do you need help with?"

The bandits took the trio to their camp and showed them to a room with a sick child. He explained, "It's a local disease of the island. It changes from a low fever to a high one and in the end, it's fatal. It takes a month to kill those who are infected. To stop the fever, you need to take medicine, but the medicine only lasts a week, so you have to take more. The medicine is really expensive and we don't have any money. Our members are all suffering from the illness, so we can't do bandit activities anymore. As it is now, my son will die in two or three days!"

The homely woman next to the boy asked with tears in her eyes, "Could you generously donate some money?"

Rayleigh asked, "How much do you need?"

She answered, "We've already raised some, but we still need 450,000 Jenny."

Ray, Killua, and Gon shared a look. That was 95% of all the money they had together.

They figured this would reward them with a card, so they all agreed since it wasn't hard to get money.

They got out their books and handed the bandits their money.

The bandits then said their children would die from the cold, but the bandits didn't have any clothes the size of the ill kids. They 'coincidently' were the same age and size as the trio, so they offered their extra clothes to the bandit's kids.

Then the bandits said they were hungry and were completely out of food and all the utensils had been sold. Without food, the children would die from hunger. Since Rayleigh 'coincidently' had lots of food and cooking wear in his book, he donated what he had as well.

After emptying out their books of just about everything, the bandits thanked them profusely. And nothing else. The bandits did not reward them with anything. They got nothing at all. Nada. Zilch. Zero.

If it wasn't for the fact that Rayleigh confirmed using Gyō that the bandits and kids really were sick and weak, he would have thought those bandits were really high-end con artists to rob them of everything without fighting.

The woman in the back observed everything and seemed highly amused, though she didn't show it on her face.

After leaving with nothing but their undershirts, shoes, and pants, Killua raged, "Damn that sucked!"

Gon agreed, "Yeah, they got us bad. We lost everything."

Rayleigh said, "Easy come, easy go. I doubt we'll have the same problem with the monsters. If they turn into cards when we beat them, we can sell them at Masadora and get money for spell cards."

They were over the mountain and were heading down the other side when the forest ended and barren terrain of rocky outcroppings extended as far as the eye could see.

Moments after stepping into the rocky area, seven giant multi-story tall cyclops appeared from behind the rocks into view.

Without waiting for the tiny trio, the closest one smashed a city bus-sized club at them, forcing them to scatter.

Rayleigh used Gyō and saw something very interesting. The monsters did not have a single line of weakness or shatterpoint on their bodies, only a single massive one on their eyes. It was larger and deeper than any shatterpoint he'd ever seen. Even without using the Force, anyone could kill these guys hitting that thing.

Rayleigh wondered if the monsters worked off the Achilles' Heel Principle. Invulnerability on 95% of their body in exchange for absolute weakness in one part.

In any case, he doubted his lightsaber would cut these up, so there was no point in bringing it out.

Rayleigh was tempted to take them all out using some fancy moves but noticed something rather interesting.

One of his Wills maintained Clairvoyance and kept watch on the woman following them. As Gon and Killua started fighting the cyclops, she seemed to be assessing them. Her emotions flicked from annoyance to interest and back.

Feeling this, Rayleigh knew exactly how to mess with her. Fully knowing that the cyclops could only be defeated by hitting their eye, Rayleigh enhanced his legs and jumped at the closest cyclops, where he confidently headbutted the cyclops' chest.

The headbutt harmlessly bounced off, and the woman watching him had a sudden spike of irritation and annoyance.

Rayleigh played clueless and shouted, "Headbutting doesn't work!"

Gon smashed his fist into the face of one of the cyclops, but he didn't deal any damage with that either.

Rayleigh dodged a few more attacks and ran up to the top of one of the rocks before running over it at his fastest speed and extending his arms and legs to use his weight to body slam his chest against the largest cyclops. Due to the weight difference, he bounced harmlessly off its chest again and the spike of irritation he felt from the woman erupted. She was gritting her teeth and clenching her fists, calling Rayleigh every insult she could think of.

It was then that Killua kicked one in the eye and caused it to pop into a card. He took out his book to place the monster into a Free Slot and Rayleigh and Gon both struck the eyes of the nearest cyclops once they saw how Killua beat one. All the monsters turned to cards and were placed into the trio's free slots.

Killua gave Ray a weird look, so Rayleigh used Force Muffle to prevent his words from being heard by the woman and said, "I'm just trying different things. This is a game, so I wanna have fun."

Gon smiled while Killua rolled his eyes but didn't hide a small smirk.

They walked a few more steps in before a building-sized, six-legged black spotted salamander walked over a rock and spotted them. As if mimicking Rayleigh from earlier, it leaped into the air over the trio to use its massive size to smash the trio. They ran to the closest rock to jump off it into the air and onto the salamander's back where they tried attacking it, but none of the attacks had any effect and the salamander rolled and almost squished them. A few ineffective attacks later and they gave up and ran away.

Rayleigh's Gyō saw that one of the black spots was actually its weak point, so he avoided that while attacking everywhere else using ridiculous means like biting it and performing a flying elbow drop.

Once they lost it, Killua complained, "What the hell! No matter how much we attacked it, nothing happened!"

Gon added, "Maybe they forgot to give that one a weakness?"

Rayleigh said, "No, it definitely had a weakness. We just need to learn how to find it."

Killua nodded and they continued on. The woman following them looked at the Salamander for a bit and struck the weak spot directly, turning it into a card and examining it for a moment before continuing to tail the trio. With the exception of Rayleigh, the other two didn't even know she was still following them. Not that it was entirely their fault. Without using Clairvoyance, Rayleigh wouldn't be able to sense her either. Jedi shouldn't be able to use Clairvoyance like this without meditating, but Rayleigh could have one of his Wills meditate and use Clairvoyance on the go.

Their next encounter was with a black puffball that jumped from its position off Gon's face.

Seeing his friend get attacked in the face, Killua looked worried until Gon said, "I'm fine, it didn't hurt me at all!"

It may not have hurt, but it was bouncing around them so fast it looked like there were three or four of them all bouncing around them at once.

All three could clearly see it, but when they tried to grab it, they always just missed it.

For some reason, the black puffball only hit Gon's face.

The woman was still following them and getting more and more irritated, so Rayleigh didn't use the Force and kept aiming where it was instead of where it was going to be. They continued trying to catch it for ten whole minutes before it ran away.

They encountered a horse that shot white and red bubbles, a sharp-fanged worm, a floating jellyfish thing, a swarm of hornets, some slimes, and another of those big salamanders. Against everything, Rayleigh played around while making it look like he was making foolish decisions. He didn't stand out though since Gon and Killua were actually clueless and also just tried various things which usually failed.

The woman's irritation had long since reached its peak and was slowly condensing into resolve. If it wasn't for the fact that she didn't have any malice, Rayleigh would have been concerned she was resolving herself to kill them.

Rayleigh still had some spells for Movement that he obtained from the random encounter when they first entered the game. The Movement Spell cards he had only let you go to places you've been. If the woman had any malice, Rayleigh would have immediately taken out a spell card and used it to get them all back to Antokiba. Pranking a prankster was one thing. Risking the lives of his friends was something else entirely.

A suit of armor started walking toward the trio, Killua exclaimed, "Oh," while Gon added, "This looks like a strong one."

Rayleigh added fuel to the fire and said aloud, "Maybe we'll have to run again."

"GYŌ!"

Killua and Gon turned back to see their stalker, both surprised to see that not only was she still following them, but she was also actually shouting at them.

The woman shouted again, "Hey! Don't look away! Use Gyō! Can't you at least use that?"

Gon, Killua, and Rayleigh used Gyō and spotted a current of invisible aura extending out from the suit of armor.

The woman then shouted, "You see it now? That armor is just a puppet. Even if you attack it, there won't be any effect!"

Killua and Ray kept the armor's attention while Gon ran around the rock to find the source of the aura. A moment later, the suit of armor crumbled and Gon brought out a monster card, showing that the creature was called a Radio Rat.

The woman approached while Killua and Rayleigh kept a watchful eye on her. Rayleigh kept his senses open to ensure she wouldn't try anything, but he had a good feeling.

When Gon returned, she asked, "You can use Gyō. Why didn't you use it before I told you to? I've been watching since the start, and with the exception of THIS IDIOT!" she roared while pointing harshly at Rayleigh, "The rest of you haven't used it even once!"

Instead of getting insulted, Rayleigh chuckled while Gon and Killua didn't have a good answer.

She asked, "You forgot, right?" Then she extended a finger, and on instinct, Rayleigh used Gyō and saw that her aura had formed the number 1 in the air above her finger. She seemed angry that Rayleigh used Gyō right away but angrier that neither Gon nor Killua used it. She shouted, "What are you waiting for?! Buddha?! USE GYŌ!"

Gon and Killua did so and the woman asked, "What did you see?"

Ray just smiled as Gon and Killua answered, "The number one."

The woman noticed Rayleigh didn't say anything but sighed, her resolve had completely taken shape. She said, "All right. From now on, each time I put up this finger, use Gyō right away and loudly tell me what you see. And when you feel a suspicious atmosphere, always use Gyō. When you look off into the distance, use Gyō. When you see something unfamiliar, use Gyō. I want you to be able to launch and use Gyō naturally and instantly. That's the basics of fighting using Nen. Understanding stuff like that can only be acquired with experience."

The woman then pointed at herself and said, "From now on, I'll be your coach. I'll even do it for free. In exchange, I want you to do exactly what I tell you."

Rayleigh smiled. So that was the feeling he'd been getting from her. This definitely happened in Canon. This woman was the real deal and she was offering free training? Banzai MC Train! This is why you stick with the MC!

Killua on the other hand did not understand how strong this woman was and shouted, "Who do you take us for?!"

A few seconds after everyone released their Gyō, she extended a finger again and Rayleigh used Gyō, shouting, "Five!" a tenth of a second before Gon shouted the same thing.

The woman nodded and pointed at Killua, "Right, do 200 push-ups. Whoever is the slowest gets punished."

Killua gritted his teeth and shouted back, "Are you making fun of me?!"

Rayleigh decided now was a good time to come clean. He stated, "I should probably point out that she is not currently lying and she is much stronger than all three of us put together."

Gon asked, "Really?!"

Killua gave the woman a second look. She didn't look it, but he didn't doubt his friend. He turned to Ray and asked, "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"

Ray smiled, "She's been watching us the whole time and got mad when I did something stupid, so I spent this entire time messing with her."

The woman asked, "Wait, you behaved like an idiot on purpose?! To fool me?!"

Rayleigh calmly answered, "It was just a prank. Like how you approached us with a prank in mind, Ms, 'Please let me accompany you. I promise I'll make myself as inconspicuous as possible.'"

Killua asked, "You knew she was lying from the start?"

Rayleigh answered, "She's been following us on and off in Antokiba since the 11th. I've been keeping an eye on her though, but she wasn't being malicious. I figured it was just a hobby."

Gon asked, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Tell you that someone stronger than any of those scrubs from that group recruiting for players was stalking us for a prank? The only way to fight pranks is with a bigger prank! Besides, I don't mind liars. I think they're funny."

Killua remembered when Rayleigh told him the same thing during the Hunter Exam.

The woman's anger had turned into interest at this point, "You really spotted me from the very beginning huh? And that's why you messed around?"

Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah, I can use Clairvoyance to see around me without aura and sense emotions, so I saw you the whole time and noticed you got angry when I played around and got back at you for trying to prank us using that against you."

She asked for clarification, "But you're willing to listen to me now?"

"Yep. I can tell you're sincere and really, really strong."

She asked, "How strong do you think I am?"

Rayleigh shook his head. "No idea. But I can see a person's weaknesses if I try, and well, you don't really have any. I've never seen something like that before, so it's reasonable to assume you're really really strong."

Gon looked amazed, "Really? No weaknesses?"

Rayleigh added, "Looks that way. Anyways, I'm Rayleigh Rush. I'll be in your care."

Gon introduced himself as well but Killua said, "Wait, we already have a teacher and we don't know anything about this woman! We can't just train under any random person, no matter how strong they are!"

Rayleigh shrugged, "She is skilled and sincere. Wing would probably be alright with it."

The woman asked, "Wing? Are you talking about a lanky guy who wears glasses, always falls asleep, and has his shirt improperly tucked in no matter how many times you remind him?"

Gon answered, "You know him?"

The woman smiled, "Know him? He's my student. My name is Biscuit Krueger, a pro Hunter. I started learning Nen at 17, and that was 40 years ago. I have gone further in that domain than any of you. You can call me Bisk."

She talked to herself for a moment, "Time sure does fly by, so he already became a master huh?" She then asked the trio, "So you are also Hunters?"

Gon answered, "Ray and I are."

She asked, "And the Hidden Exam?"

Gon replied, "All of us passed."

She looked nostalgic for a moment, "Ha, it's been so long since I was an examiner." She then looked at Killua and said, "I'm the master of your master, so it shouldn't cause any problems."

Seeing that Rayleigh already agreed and that Gon seemed on board, Killua relented, "You certainly have the disposition of a teacher. If your story is true anyways."

She smirked and said, "Stubborn one, aren't you? But I don't mind that kind of character. But.." She took out her book and removed a card from the free slot and showed the trio. It was the black puffball monster, apparently called Hyper Puffball.

She explained, "This is a D-Rank card. The fact that you could not get this card is not the problem. The problem is that many other people in the game could get it easily. There are lots of people stronger than you in this place."

Rayleigh's Danger Sense spiked as someone in the distance had the desire to kill him and the will to act upon it.

Bisk calmly said, "Sit, get out your book, and chat casually, there's an enemy at my back." The trio sat down and Biscuit said, "Don't try to locate his presence, you'll transmit your nervousness."

Rayleigh said, "It's fine. He is 100 meters behind you. Alone. And fully intends to kill us all."

Biscuit looked at Rayleigh and added, "You really can see without aura huh? That's useful. What else can you see?"

"He has a pair of what appear to be custom-made scissors. Even though he is slowly stalking closer, his fingers are already positioned to use them, so he likely fights using those scissors."

She asked, "And you sensed his intent to kill?"

Rayleigh answered, "If someone wants to kill me, I'll know. It's why I didn't try to run from you when I knew how strong you were."

Killua asked, "Can you tell how strong he is?"

"No." Nen relied on amplification, so while someone didn't amplify their strength, guessing their max strength before a fight was inaccurate. With the Force he could somewhat tell how strong a person's mind was and use that to get a ballpark estimate, but he couldn't do so through Clairvoyance. Skills like Shatterpoint also only worked using his eyes.

Biscuit said, "He released his bloodlust for an instant before reeling it in. Since he reeled it in when it looks like he has easy prey, he is experienced and very skilled."

The woman seemed to be in teacher mode while explaining the theory before asking the trio, "What do you think we should do?"

Gon said, "Stick together."

She asked for clarification, "Why?"

Ray answered, "Why else erase his presence unless he is not certain he can kill us all? If the difference between us was that large, he could charge forward and kill us even if we knew he was coming."

Biscuit nodded, "Correct answer. But we'll do it a bit differently. I'll go that way and you three will go over there. After 500 meters, double back. He'll definitely follow me."

Rayleigh took out a Return Spell card and handed it to her. She accepted it and put it into her binder. There was no real way of determining the killer's strength, so this was a good plan B.

She then closed her book and slapped Killua's face. She got up and shouted, "If you really think so, that's fine! I can't take you three anymore! Good bye!"

Rayleigh got up and shouted, "Fine! Good luck going back to Antokiba without any spell cards you moron!"

She shouted back, "Idiot!" without turning around.

Ray got up with Killua and Gon while heading in the opposite direction. Killua was muttering a complaint while Gon was figuring out that this was an act.

Once out of earshot, Killua said, "That girl is really fast. I was ready to move in an instant, but I felt the pain on my cheek and didn't even see the hit coming."

Rayleigh nodded, "Yeah. I didn't exactly see the future, but I got a good feeling that she'll help us get a lot stronger."

A few steps later, Ray said, "He's going after her, let's head back."

They hurried back but kept to the side, keeping out of sight and in Zetsu so as not to be spotted.

The man stood across from her, scissors in hand. A lock of hair had been cut from one of Biscuit's twin tails and was being held by this crazy barber.

Rayleigh used Gyō and said, "It's fine. He's stronger than any of us, but not stronger than she is."

Killua and Gon calmed down and confirmed they would not have to assist her.

The crazy murderer said aloud, "Hehe, if I eat the hair I cut with my favorite scissors, I can learn every single detail about a person." He brought the lock of hair to his mouth and started chewing on it while using his Ren, showing that this seemed to be a Hatsu of some kind.

The man then completely froze. He shook for a bit before calming himself and putting his scissors into a holster of some kind. He said, "As a warrior, I'm interested in a fight."

Biscuit chuckled, "Looks like you're not just a mere cannibal. Fine with me."

The pair each took a stance and the scissor guy made the first move with a lightning-quick palm thrust at Biscuit's head. She tilted back just a little while turning her ankle to pivot her body to the man's side as the strike passed over her. She then grabbed the man's arm, pulled it to get him off balance, twisted it with a jerk to cause the man to start spinning in the air, and as he fell, she struck with a thunder-like palm blow at the man's back, bending him severely as he fell and rupturing a few of his organs. The man was unable to get up and his mouth only opened for a moment to release the blood that filled his stomach.

He was still alive, but only barely.

Rayleigh approached and Gon and Killua followed.

Biscuit looked over to the trio and asked, "You saw? How much of the battle did you watch?"

Gon answered, "We got here before he ate your hair."

She nodded, "I see. If he was a game character, he would have changed into a card after getting defeated. As for the level of acquisition difficulty, it'd be about a D. You're lucky to have Rayleigh, otherwise, if you'd met him alone, it would have been game over. But are you going to continue to rely on him?"

It was obvious she was trying to hype them up and make them want to be trained.

Gon asked, "Bisk, why did you come to the island?"

"Me? To clear the game. There is an item I want. Imposed Slot card number 81, Blue Planet. What about you?"

Gon explained their situation and the identity of his father.

Biscuit seemed thoughtful, "Ging Freecss, huh? Don't know him but I know of him. I have no idea where he is either. Netero once told me that among Hunters, there aren't more than five like him in the world."

Rayleigh wondered if Netero had any hidden meaning in that. Was he referring to Ging's strength as a Nen user? Or were there four other Reincarnators that Netero knew about?

With that, Gon and Killua both fully agreed to learn under Biscuit's tutelage.

Biscuit approached the scissors guy and said, "Take out your book."

He did so and Biscuit took all of his cards and placed them into her book. She then said, "I'm offering you a chance. You have two weeks to avoid the attacks of these three. If you manage to survive, you're free to go. If you get injured to the point you can no longer move, I'll kill you."

The man asked for clarification, "Just avoid their attacks? And whatever happens to them is fine, just avoid their attacks?"

Biscuit answered, "Yes, exactly. The only rule is that you must stay in this area. If you leave, I will kill you."

Biscuit then turned to the trio and said, "If you can't beat him in two weeks, you'll be punished."

She turned back to the scissors guy and said, "You're Binolt, the Black List Hunter right?"

Seeing him nod, she turned to the trio and said, "His favorite dish is the flesh of 20-year-old girls."

He corrected, "22-year-old."

With that, any bit of mercy the trio had was promptly squashed.

Biscuit walked off to the side and said, "Begin!"

*Author's Note*

For those who forgot, Biscuit's original intention when seeing Gon and Killua was to break up their friendship. My guess is that she wanted to play the cute little girl act and get them to develop a crush or something and then have them fight over her or play with them to get them to fight against each other and destroy their friendship. The fact that she thought she could do so implies she has probably done so before. But she abandoned that plan upon seeing all their untapped potential.

In other news, No more Yinyang DarklightSaber

Other than balance, it became obvious that there is no good reason to get Rayleigh a Yinyang saber and when I tried writing a justifiable way to do it, it kept looking over-extended and ruined the 'as realistic as practical' vibe I'm trying for. So I gave up.

Now Rayleigh's Lightsaber is still going to get the power of two devil fruits, just not Light and Dark.

As for how that works and what two fruits he'd get, what do you think would happen if Rayleigh stabbed Blackbeard in the Heart with a Lightsaber made from his aura using the original Kyber Crystal WHILE Blackbeard was in the middle of absorbing Whitebeard's fruit? Can't say it's impossible for it to happen, right?

At first, I didn't like the Tremor Fruit on a lightsaber because breaking things with a slash was not very Swordsman-like. Then someone pointed out that I missed something. The Tremor Fruit is not about breaking, it is about amplifying damage using vibration. So...

Dark Vibrosaber that can slice Logias and cut through space! Here I come!

Remember: Reviews and Stones= Motivation to write chapters faster.