**** The Mysterious Cases of Detective Hisoka ****
[Disclaimers/Note: I do not own any of the HxH characters. OOCness can be expected in the story.]
** Case 5 : Illumi's First Case -Part I- **
Illumi Zoldick picked up his cell phone as he looked away from the morning newspaper. His expression was neutral, but he was rather annoyed that some idiot had to call him so early in that morning. Before answering it, he looked on the little screen, which showed Hisoka's phone number. "What do you want?" he answered coldly, putting away the newspaper. His apartment was awfully quiet, as if you can hear his every heartbeat. He had rented the apartment room to keep away from the clown, who had come to visit (annoy) him every now and then. Seeing that they worked together in the detectives' office, he did not want any more of the clown's company during other times.
Expecting some kind of nonsense, he waited for Hisoka to respond. But to his surprise, the clown on the other end of the line coughed as he replied, "Illu, it's me." Illumi's eyebrow rose slightly. The clown's voice sounded weird, even for Hisoka. "I caught a cold," he explained. "Could you run the office for few days?" He coughed again, but continued his maniacal giggle.
Illumi did not reply for a moment. Running the office by himself? It sounded like an awfully boring job to him, but finally he decided, "all right, but you'll have to pay me double when you get back. Running a detective's office isn't an easy job."
The clown giggled again. "If I can find that much money, Illu," he said. "I've been resting in bed, I haven't gone out to rob anyone." Illumi heard him smirk. "But," continued Hisoka. This time, Illumi heard a door opening and something crashing down. "Oh, here it is," he said happily. "I'll throw in something special if you'd agree with me paying you fifty-percent more."
"Make that seventy-five percent, Hisoka," Illumi wasn't satisfied. Knowing Hisoka, it wasn't hard for the clown to get away with things. So he added in a knowing tone, "who knows what your 'special something' might be."
"Fine, Illu, you win," Hisoka said. "I'll see you when I get back then. Oh, and I'll give you that 'special something' anyway. I promise you'll like it, I just found it in my closet!!"
Before Illumi could roll his eyes and say "whatever", Hisoka hang up. The clock came into his view as he stood up to go to the kitchen with his half-drank cup of tea. It was almost time for the detective's office to open again. Illumi walked slowly out the door, and locked it before he headed for the office. Finally, he was getting a Hisoka-free day. The day seemed to have been boring to him, but at least he was alone. It was just him, the office and one unexpected visitor....
* * * *
"Waii~!!" A teenage girl with pink hair and two servants - bodyguards - walked into a newly opened clothing store. Inside, they had a huge selection of every girl's clothing you could ever imagine. Neon Nostrad bounced to the sandals' section right away as she spotted a pair that she wanted. "Oh, this would go perfectly with my new dress!!" she turned to her bodyguards happily. "Don't you think?"
"Very nice," Senritsu tried to smile, but couldn't stop herself from yawning. The bodyguards were carrying loads of shopping bags from almost every store in the shopping centre already, and being Neon's bodyguards was a very hard and exhausting job. Senritsu sweatdropped as her boss looked at her with dissatisfaction.
"Can't you bodyguards be more supportive?" Neon whined. "I thought Kurapica was the worst, but you guys aren't any better!!" She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow.
Kurapica was absent that day, although his presence wouldn't have made things better. He had finally gotten a day off after such tiring days being Neon's bodyguard. Neon threw the pair of sandals at Senritsu. "Pay for those, and wait for me right there," she pointed at a bench just outside of the store. Her bodyguards nodded.
She turned to walk away, but Senritsu yelled, "But boss, where are you going?"
"The ladies' room," Neon replied without turning back.
The ladies' room was almost empty. Neon stood in front of the mirror and pulled out her eyeliner. She hummed to herself as she decorated herself with a new necklace she just bought, and smiled at the mirror. However, her happiness and excitement was short-lived.
"Mr Right Nostrad?" A woman's voice came. Neon turned and saw a woman with sunglasses, a huge pink hat and a dark pink dress. "Oh, hi, dear. It's me." Neon's eyes widened as she heard her father's name. 'Does this woman know Daddy?' she thought to herself. Her hand gripped tightly around her purse and she listened nervously. "Oh, yes. Same time, same place? Sure. I'll be there." Neon heard the woman hang up. She grabbed her lipstick quickly and applied it, pretending nothing had happened. The woman looked at her but said nothing. She then walked out the door, leaving Neon alone with her thoughts.
'Who was that woman?' Neon thought. 'She sounded awfully close to Daddy. Could she be....' My soon-to-be stepmother? She dashed out of the bathroom quickly to her bodyguards. "Let's go, we're going home!!" The bodyguards gave her a "WHAT?!" expression. Normally the shopping would go on for hours, but that day, they were spared from that.
Neon rushed into her Father's room soon as they arrived back at the mansion. "DADDY!!" she yelled loudly. Her servants covered their ears, and bodyguards dropped the shopping bags. "Daddy, I have something important to ask you!!"
Right Nostrad stood up from his chair right away. "What is it?!"
"Daddy, today, we went shopping," Neon replied. "And in the bathroom, I heard a woman call your name. Daddy, who is she?!" Neon's voice rose, and her father looked worried. He didn't want his precious daughter mad at him - he needed her Nen power to predict things, and make money for him. "Daddy!!"
"Neon," Right Nostrad sighed and offered her a seat. But Neon refused to sit down and listen to her father calmly. "Neon, I guess it's about time you found out the truth." Right Nostrad's voice deepened, and Neon's eyes widened. "This may shock you, but she is -- "
The last words were unheard, for the bodyguards had knocked loudly on the door, interrupting the conversation. "Boss? Where should we take your new clothes and accessories?" asked Bashou.
"Just take them to my room!!" Neon yelled. "Continue, Daddy!! What were you going to say?"
"Er - you should be in bed by now. It's getting late." Right Nostrad coughed and signalled for the bodyguards to take Neon to her room.
"What?!" Neon yelled. "But it's one o'clock in the afternoon!!" The bodyguards did as they were told, and dragged Neon away. She tried to get away violently, by kicking and screaming and knocking things onto the ground, but nothing worked. Her father stared at the door and sighed to himself.
* * * *
"Hello?" Kurapica put in a bookmark in between the pages he was reading. He then picked up his little, white cell phone. 'Who could be calling me on my day off?' he thought to himself. Yes, it was his precious day off, and he wanted to spend the day peacefully all by himself while Gon, Killua and Leorio had gone to the supermarket to pick up the foods they needed for the rest of the week. ("A manly man like me, going shopping?!" Leorio complained.)
"Kurapica? Listen, I need you do investigate something for me. It's urgent!! I heard a woman talking to Daddy and I want to know whom she really is. Daddy wouldn't tell me, so I must ask you to find out for me. You will do it, won't you? Won't you? Won't you?" Neon said it all in one breath, which was long and annoying and almost deafened Kurapica.
"Er - Boss, it's my day off, remember?" Kurapica sweatdropped. "You can ask the other bodyguards."
"They're not smart enough!" Neon said 'reasonably', and then added hopefully, "you're my only hope, Kurapica!!"
Kurapica couldn't possibly just say no to his boss. He could get fired for that, and even though working as Neon Nostrad's bodyguard wasn't the best job in the world, he wasn't jobless, at least. He sighed and thought for a moment whilst mumbling "well"s and "um...."s, and finally came up with a good idea. "Boss, I'm awfully busy today, but I can introduce you to a very good detective." His heart beat faster as he told her the phone number, and she agreed that she'd give it a try.
'At least she won't be bothering me again,' he thought, but his conscience troubled him, since he knew what a lousy detective Hisoka was.
* * * *
"Hello, Detective Hisoka's office," Illumi answered the very first phone call of the day. "Can I help you?"
"Yes, I'd like to book an appointment." Without a doubt, it was Neon on the other end of the line. "I have something urgent for you to investigate. I need it really badly."
Illumi sighed and thought, 'great. There goes my work-free day.' but instead, he replied, "sure, you can come anytime." He then gave Neon the address, telling her that she had better come as soon as possible.
And after few minutes, a taxi stopped in front of the building, and out came Neon Nostrad. With her was one of her bodyguards - Senritsu - since she didn't want too many people with her. ("Daddy'll be suspicious of us, you know!!" she said.) She waited ten minutes for the elevator, because Gon, Killua and Leorio were back from their shopping trip and had to load their huge bags of groceries. "Finally!! What kind of cheap apartment is this?!" Neon complained and got into the elevator. Senritsu sweatdropped and sighed to herself, wondering why she'd agreed to come with her.
Neon knocked softly on the floor. "Come on in," Illumi's calm voice greeted her. He pulled a chair and offered Neon a seat. Then he spotted her companion, and pulled the tea table over, since they didn't have another chair. "Have a seat and tell me what you're here for."
"Er....," Senritsu looked at the tea table and sweatdropped. "I'd rather stand, if you don't mind."
Illumi walked back to his desk (Hisoka's, actually) and sat down. "So, Miss Nostrad, how may I help you today?"
Neon took a deep breath and blabbed out, "today we went shopping and when I was in the bathroom I heard a woman talking to Daddy on the phone and I asked Daddy who she was and he didn't want to tell me but I still want to know who she is but my smartest bodyguard won't help me so I came to you." Again, Neon finished her whole sentence in one breath, leaving Senritsu sweatdropping and Illumi blinking.
"Er - why don't I ask you some questions?" Illumi took out his notebook and a pen. "Ok - what seems to be the problem here?"
Neon was annoyed, since Illumi didn't catch a thing she said. "And Kurapica thought you were a great detective. That guy doesn't know a thing!!" She crossed her arms impatiently and twitched her eyebrow. "If you can really solve this mystery, I'll pay you far more than what others pay."
"Okay, now answer my question!!" Illumi was annoyed also. "What's the problem here?"
"I heard a woman talking to Daddy," Neon replied simply and impatiently. "And I want to know who she is."
Illumi scribbled some notes down. "Alright, and do you have any idea at all who she might be?"
"Well....," Neon thought for a moment. "I was thinking that she could be my new stepmother, and I decided she wasn't rich because of that yucky perfume she was wearing." Illumi nodded and continued writing. "Her sunglasses were nice though. But her hat was too big. It made her head look small." As Neon continued, it became more like a description of the woman's taste in fashion.
After a long hour of questioning, Illumi finally said, "okay, Ms. Nostrad, I think I can handle it from here." Neon left the number of her cell phone as she and Senritsu left, and Illumi closed the door softly. He sat down and tried to come up with a plan. The first thing that came to his mind was to follow the tracks of Right Nostrad. For that, he needed the perfect disguise.
* * * *
The next morning, a huge white bunny walked out of Detective Hisoka's office. He walked quickly and sneakily, trying to avoid being seen. His midnight black hair was tied back loosely into a ponytail so that it wouldn't come out, and his pale skin matched well with his outfit. 'Dammit,' Illumi thought to himself. 'Why doesn't Hisoka have anything else I could wear for disguise?!' He looked around to make sure no one else was there, then stood in front of the elevator and waited. 'Come on, hurry up, elevator!!' he thought impatiently.
"Did you see that huge fish I caught?" A young boy's voice came from inside the elevator as the door opened. Inside were two young boys - Gon and Killua. The boys' eyes widened as they saw the huge but adorable, fluffy bunny in front of the elevator. He had his paws on his face, trying to hide from the two boys.
"Er - hello, Mr Bunny," Gon sweatdropped and looked at Killua, who shrugged. Illumi got into the elevator quickly as Gon and Killua walked out. "Come on, let's go show our fishes to Kurapica and Leorio!!"
Illumi pressed on the button that had the letter G on it, and the doors closed. He sighed deeply and thought to himself, 'that was close'. But to his surprise, the elevator stopped on the second floor and Leorio appeared. His eyes were wide from surprise, but covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing hard. "....are you Killua's big brother?"
"........," Illumi ignored him.
"Wait till I tell everyone!!" Leorio couldn't contain his laughter any longer. He dropped the morning paper that he had just gone and bought. "Killua's big brother dressed as a bunny!!"
"Hold it right there, Leorio," Illumi sweatdropped and raised an eyebrow. "Don't you DARE tell anyone, you hear me?"
"Sure, Illumi," Leorio continued to laugh. "Illumi in a bunny suit.... Bwahahahaha...."
"Shut up," Illumi was even more annoyed. "You want me to kill you?"
Leorio tried to stop himself from laughing. "All right, all right, I won't tell anyone, ok?" he promised. Illumi decided to let him go. After all, he still had a long day of investigation ahead of him. But he was well aware that Leorio would go back and tell his friends all about this.
He crept along the Nostrads' mansion and made sure he wasn't seen by anyone. Unfortunately, what he didn't realize was that he was monitored through cameras hidden in the walls of the mansion. Suspicious as he seemed, the guards did not pay much attention to this giant, furry bunny, mainly due to the fact that they were all on coffee break. This gave Illumi free access to the entrance, then to other parts of the mansion. His bunny paws made sure that no sound was made as he crossed the living room and dining room, although he almost slipped on some orange juice on the kitchen floor, spilled by Neon when she was throwing tantrum that morning.
"Come help me prepare lunch," a young woman's voice came from down the grand hall. Illumi panicked a bit and hid behind the counter quickly, forgetting that the long, fluffy ears were still exposed. "Get the carrots," the girl continued, "we're going to make carrot soup. We'd better finish this soon and start preparing for dinner," she took out a stack of bowls from the cupboards and put them down, "Master said we'll be expecting a special guest tonight."
To this Illumi's bunny ear twitched. A special guest? Could it be the woman Neon was talking about? He carefully crawled under a table with pretty tablecloth on top. Eventually he discovered that the space under the table wasn't exactly the safest place, for the cook dropped the knife more than once, and there was a golden-retriever running around the kitchen, begging for food. When she saw Illumi, she sniffed him and decided that he was friendly. Illumi sweatdropped but had no place to back up.
"What is it, Krypton?" the cook noticed the dog walking around the table, wiggling her tail and sticking out her tongue happily. "Is there something under there?" She walked over, but just as her hand was on the tablecloth, ready to flip it up, the cook's helper had called her over for instructions in how the oven was used. Then the existence of Illumi under the table was forever forgotten, until he came out of there after the two girls delivered the food to their Master.
After Illumi was out of the Nostrad property, he remembered that he did not accomplish much. But since they were expecting a special guest, he decided that he would sneak into the mansion (risking getting licked by the dog) again and find out all about this mysterious woman. First, he had to go back to the office and change back to his normal clothing, or he would look very suspicious.
He sighed deeply as he finally got to relax, letting his hair loose and resting his head on the top of the couch, after making himself some earl-grey tea. Just as he sat down on the couch with a steaming cup of tea in his hand, he heard soft footsteps slowly approaching the door to the office.
** tsuzuku.... **
[In case you don't know, krypton is a chemical element. Neon is one, too, so I decided to use the name of an element for their doggie. I haven't been writing for a long time, and I don't think I'll be writing too much these days. Because of schoolwork, mostly. Hope you liked this chapter (^^) Illumi-sama will be continuing the investigation in the next chapter (whenever I get time to write again ^^;).]
[Disclaimers/Note: I do not own any of the HxH characters. OOCness can be expected in the story.]
** Case 5 : Illumi's First Case -Part I- **
Illumi Zoldick picked up his cell phone as he looked away from the morning newspaper. His expression was neutral, but he was rather annoyed that some idiot had to call him so early in that morning. Before answering it, he looked on the little screen, which showed Hisoka's phone number. "What do you want?" he answered coldly, putting away the newspaper. His apartment was awfully quiet, as if you can hear his every heartbeat. He had rented the apartment room to keep away from the clown, who had come to visit (annoy) him every now and then. Seeing that they worked together in the detectives' office, he did not want any more of the clown's company during other times.
Expecting some kind of nonsense, he waited for Hisoka to respond. But to his surprise, the clown on the other end of the line coughed as he replied, "Illu, it's me." Illumi's eyebrow rose slightly. The clown's voice sounded weird, even for Hisoka. "I caught a cold," he explained. "Could you run the office for few days?" He coughed again, but continued his maniacal giggle.
Illumi did not reply for a moment. Running the office by himself? It sounded like an awfully boring job to him, but finally he decided, "all right, but you'll have to pay me double when you get back. Running a detective's office isn't an easy job."
The clown giggled again. "If I can find that much money, Illu," he said. "I've been resting in bed, I haven't gone out to rob anyone." Illumi heard him smirk. "But," continued Hisoka. This time, Illumi heard a door opening and something crashing down. "Oh, here it is," he said happily. "I'll throw in something special if you'd agree with me paying you fifty-percent more."
"Make that seventy-five percent, Hisoka," Illumi wasn't satisfied. Knowing Hisoka, it wasn't hard for the clown to get away with things. So he added in a knowing tone, "who knows what your 'special something' might be."
"Fine, Illu, you win," Hisoka said. "I'll see you when I get back then. Oh, and I'll give you that 'special something' anyway. I promise you'll like it, I just found it in my closet!!"
Before Illumi could roll his eyes and say "whatever", Hisoka hang up. The clock came into his view as he stood up to go to the kitchen with his half-drank cup of tea. It was almost time for the detective's office to open again. Illumi walked slowly out the door, and locked it before he headed for the office. Finally, he was getting a Hisoka-free day. The day seemed to have been boring to him, but at least he was alone. It was just him, the office and one unexpected visitor....
* * * *
"Waii~!!" A teenage girl with pink hair and two servants - bodyguards - walked into a newly opened clothing store. Inside, they had a huge selection of every girl's clothing you could ever imagine. Neon Nostrad bounced to the sandals' section right away as she spotted a pair that she wanted. "Oh, this would go perfectly with my new dress!!" she turned to her bodyguards happily. "Don't you think?"
"Very nice," Senritsu tried to smile, but couldn't stop herself from yawning. The bodyguards were carrying loads of shopping bags from almost every store in the shopping centre already, and being Neon's bodyguards was a very hard and exhausting job. Senritsu sweatdropped as her boss looked at her with dissatisfaction.
"Can't you bodyguards be more supportive?" Neon whined. "I thought Kurapica was the worst, but you guys aren't any better!!" She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow.
Kurapica was absent that day, although his presence wouldn't have made things better. He had finally gotten a day off after such tiring days being Neon's bodyguard. Neon threw the pair of sandals at Senritsu. "Pay for those, and wait for me right there," she pointed at a bench just outside of the store. Her bodyguards nodded.
She turned to walk away, but Senritsu yelled, "But boss, where are you going?"
"The ladies' room," Neon replied without turning back.
The ladies' room was almost empty. Neon stood in front of the mirror and pulled out her eyeliner. She hummed to herself as she decorated herself with a new necklace she just bought, and smiled at the mirror. However, her happiness and excitement was short-lived.
"Mr Right Nostrad?" A woman's voice came. Neon turned and saw a woman with sunglasses, a huge pink hat and a dark pink dress. "Oh, hi, dear. It's me." Neon's eyes widened as she heard her father's name. 'Does this woman know Daddy?' she thought to herself. Her hand gripped tightly around her purse and she listened nervously. "Oh, yes. Same time, same place? Sure. I'll be there." Neon heard the woman hang up. She grabbed her lipstick quickly and applied it, pretending nothing had happened. The woman looked at her but said nothing. She then walked out the door, leaving Neon alone with her thoughts.
'Who was that woman?' Neon thought. 'She sounded awfully close to Daddy. Could she be....' My soon-to-be stepmother? She dashed out of the bathroom quickly to her bodyguards. "Let's go, we're going home!!" The bodyguards gave her a "WHAT?!" expression. Normally the shopping would go on for hours, but that day, they were spared from that.
Neon rushed into her Father's room soon as they arrived back at the mansion. "DADDY!!" she yelled loudly. Her servants covered their ears, and bodyguards dropped the shopping bags. "Daddy, I have something important to ask you!!"
Right Nostrad stood up from his chair right away. "What is it?!"
"Daddy, today, we went shopping," Neon replied. "And in the bathroom, I heard a woman call your name. Daddy, who is she?!" Neon's voice rose, and her father looked worried. He didn't want his precious daughter mad at him - he needed her Nen power to predict things, and make money for him. "Daddy!!"
"Neon," Right Nostrad sighed and offered her a seat. But Neon refused to sit down and listen to her father calmly. "Neon, I guess it's about time you found out the truth." Right Nostrad's voice deepened, and Neon's eyes widened. "This may shock you, but she is -- "
The last words were unheard, for the bodyguards had knocked loudly on the door, interrupting the conversation. "Boss? Where should we take your new clothes and accessories?" asked Bashou.
"Just take them to my room!!" Neon yelled. "Continue, Daddy!! What were you going to say?"
"Er - you should be in bed by now. It's getting late." Right Nostrad coughed and signalled for the bodyguards to take Neon to her room.
"What?!" Neon yelled. "But it's one o'clock in the afternoon!!" The bodyguards did as they were told, and dragged Neon away. She tried to get away violently, by kicking and screaming and knocking things onto the ground, but nothing worked. Her father stared at the door and sighed to himself.
* * * *
"Hello?" Kurapica put in a bookmark in between the pages he was reading. He then picked up his little, white cell phone. 'Who could be calling me on my day off?' he thought to himself. Yes, it was his precious day off, and he wanted to spend the day peacefully all by himself while Gon, Killua and Leorio had gone to the supermarket to pick up the foods they needed for the rest of the week. ("A manly man like me, going shopping?!" Leorio complained.)
"Kurapica? Listen, I need you do investigate something for me. It's urgent!! I heard a woman talking to Daddy and I want to know whom she really is. Daddy wouldn't tell me, so I must ask you to find out for me. You will do it, won't you? Won't you? Won't you?" Neon said it all in one breath, which was long and annoying and almost deafened Kurapica.
"Er - Boss, it's my day off, remember?" Kurapica sweatdropped. "You can ask the other bodyguards."
"They're not smart enough!" Neon said 'reasonably', and then added hopefully, "you're my only hope, Kurapica!!"
Kurapica couldn't possibly just say no to his boss. He could get fired for that, and even though working as Neon Nostrad's bodyguard wasn't the best job in the world, he wasn't jobless, at least. He sighed and thought for a moment whilst mumbling "well"s and "um...."s, and finally came up with a good idea. "Boss, I'm awfully busy today, but I can introduce you to a very good detective." His heart beat faster as he told her the phone number, and she agreed that she'd give it a try.
'At least she won't be bothering me again,' he thought, but his conscience troubled him, since he knew what a lousy detective Hisoka was.
* * * *
"Hello, Detective Hisoka's office," Illumi answered the very first phone call of the day. "Can I help you?"
"Yes, I'd like to book an appointment." Without a doubt, it was Neon on the other end of the line. "I have something urgent for you to investigate. I need it really badly."
Illumi sighed and thought, 'great. There goes my work-free day.' but instead, he replied, "sure, you can come anytime." He then gave Neon the address, telling her that she had better come as soon as possible.
And after few minutes, a taxi stopped in front of the building, and out came Neon Nostrad. With her was one of her bodyguards - Senritsu - since she didn't want too many people with her. ("Daddy'll be suspicious of us, you know!!" she said.) She waited ten minutes for the elevator, because Gon, Killua and Leorio were back from their shopping trip and had to load their huge bags of groceries. "Finally!! What kind of cheap apartment is this?!" Neon complained and got into the elevator. Senritsu sweatdropped and sighed to herself, wondering why she'd agreed to come with her.
Neon knocked softly on the floor. "Come on in," Illumi's calm voice greeted her. He pulled a chair and offered Neon a seat. Then he spotted her companion, and pulled the tea table over, since they didn't have another chair. "Have a seat and tell me what you're here for."
"Er....," Senritsu looked at the tea table and sweatdropped. "I'd rather stand, if you don't mind."
Illumi walked back to his desk (Hisoka's, actually) and sat down. "So, Miss Nostrad, how may I help you today?"
Neon took a deep breath and blabbed out, "today we went shopping and when I was in the bathroom I heard a woman talking to Daddy on the phone and I asked Daddy who she was and he didn't want to tell me but I still want to know who she is but my smartest bodyguard won't help me so I came to you." Again, Neon finished her whole sentence in one breath, leaving Senritsu sweatdropping and Illumi blinking.
"Er - why don't I ask you some questions?" Illumi took out his notebook and a pen. "Ok - what seems to be the problem here?"
Neon was annoyed, since Illumi didn't catch a thing she said. "And Kurapica thought you were a great detective. That guy doesn't know a thing!!" She crossed her arms impatiently and twitched her eyebrow. "If you can really solve this mystery, I'll pay you far more than what others pay."
"Okay, now answer my question!!" Illumi was annoyed also. "What's the problem here?"
"I heard a woman talking to Daddy," Neon replied simply and impatiently. "And I want to know who she is."
Illumi scribbled some notes down. "Alright, and do you have any idea at all who she might be?"
"Well....," Neon thought for a moment. "I was thinking that she could be my new stepmother, and I decided she wasn't rich because of that yucky perfume she was wearing." Illumi nodded and continued writing. "Her sunglasses were nice though. But her hat was too big. It made her head look small." As Neon continued, it became more like a description of the woman's taste in fashion.
After a long hour of questioning, Illumi finally said, "okay, Ms. Nostrad, I think I can handle it from here." Neon left the number of her cell phone as she and Senritsu left, and Illumi closed the door softly. He sat down and tried to come up with a plan. The first thing that came to his mind was to follow the tracks of Right Nostrad. For that, he needed the perfect disguise.
* * * *
The next morning, a huge white bunny walked out of Detective Hisoka's office. He walked quickly and sneakily, trying to avoid being seen. His midnight black hair was tied back loosely into a ponytail so that it wouldn't come out, and his pale skin matched well with his outfit. 'Dammit,' Illumi thought to himself. 'Why doesn't Hisoka have anything else I could wear for disguise?!' He looked around to make sure no one else was there, then stood in front of the elevator and waited. 'Come on, hurry up, elevator!!' he thought impatiently.
"Did you see that huge fish I caught?" A young boy's voice came from inside the elevator as the door opened. Inside were two young boys - Gon and Killua. The boys' eyes widened as they saw the huge but adorable, fluffy bunny in front of the elevator. He had his paws on his face, trying to hide from the two boys.
"Er - hello, Mr Bunny," Gon sweatdropped and looked at Killua, who shrugged. Illumi got into the elevator quickly as Gon and Killua walked out. "Come on, let's go show our fishes to Kurapica and Leorio!!"
Illumi pressed on the button that had the letter G on it, and the doors closed. He sighed deeply and thought to himself, 'that was close'. But to his surprise, the elevator stopped on the second floor and Leorio appeared. His eyes were wide from surprise, but covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing hard. "....are you Killua's big brother?"
"........," Illumi ignored him.
"Wait till I tell everyone!!" Leorio couldn't contain his laughter any longer. He dropped the morning paper that he had just gone and bought. "Killua's big brother dressed as a bunny!!"
"Hold it right there, Leorio," Illumi sweatdropped and raised an eyebrow. "Don't you DARE tell anyone, you hear me?"
"Sure, Illumi," Leorio continued to laugh. "Illumi in a bunny suit.... Bwahahahaha...."
"Shut up," Illumi was even more annoyed. "You want me to kill you?"
Leorio tried to stop himself from laughing. "All right, all right, I won't tell anyone, ok?" he promised. Illumi decided to let him go. After all, he still had a long day of investigation ahead of him. But he was well aware that Leorio would go back and tell his friends all about this.
He crept along the Nostrads' mansion and made sure he wasn't seen by anyone. Unfortunately, what he didn't realize was that he was monitored through cameras hidden in the walls of the mansion. Suspicious as he seemed, the guards did not pay much attention to this giant, furry bunny, mainly due to the fact that they were all on coffee break. This gave Illumi free access to the entrance, then to other parts of the mansion. His bunny paws made sure that no sound was made as he crossed the living room and dining room, although he almost slipped on some orange juice on the kitchen floor, spilled by Neon when she was throwing tantrum that morning.
"Come help me prepare lunch," a young woman's voice came from down the grand hall. Illumi panicked a bit and hid behind the counter quickly, forgetting that the long, fluffy ears were still exposed. "Get the carrots," the girl continued, "we're going to make carrot soup. We'd better finish this soon and start preparing for dinner," she took out a stack of bowls from the cupboards and put them down, "Master said we'll be expecting a special guest tonight."
To this Illumi's bunny ear twitched. A special guest? Could it be the woman Neon was talking about? He carefully crawled under a table with pretty tablecloth on top. Eventually he discovered that the space under the table wasn't exactly the safest place, for the cook dropped the knife more than once, and there was a golden-retriever running around the kitchen, begging for food. When she saw Illumi, she sniffed him and decided that he was friendly. Illumi sweatdropped but had no place to back up.
"What is it, Krypton?" the cook noticed the dog walking around the table, wiggling her tail and sticking out her tongue happily. "Is there something under there?" She walked over, but just as her hand was on the tablecloth, ready to flip it up, the cook's helper had called her over for instructions in how the oven was used. Then the existence of Illumi under the table was forever forgotten, until he came out of there after the two girls delivered the food to their Master.
After Illumi was out of the Nostrad property, he remembered that he did not accomplish much. But since they were expecting a special guest, he decided that he would sneak into the mansion (risking getting licked by the dog) again and find out all about this mysterious woman. First, he had to go back to the office and change back to his normal clothing, or he would look very suspicious.
He sighed deeply as he finally got to relax, letting his hair loose and resting his head on the top of the couch, after making himself some earl-grey tea. Just as he sat down on the couch with a steaming cup of tea in his hand, he heard soft footsteps slowly approaching the door to the office.
** tsuzuku.... **
[In case you don't know, krypton is a chemical element. Neon is one, too, so I decided to use the name of an element for their doggie. I haven't been writing for a long time, and I don't think I'll be writing too much these days. Because of schoolwork, mostly. Hope you liked this chapter (^^) Illumi-sama will be continuing the investigation in the next chapter (whenever I get time to write again ^^;).]