A/N: Finally! This is the sequel to A Series of Bizarre and Mildly Humourous Events! I apologize for taking so long to come out with it. In my defense, the story developed sentience and tried to kill me. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story, and do remember to leave a review at the end! I'm trying to update the story one chapter a week, hopefully during the weekends when people have time to read it.

Hunter X Hunter does not belong to me. I do not own the copyright to any of these materials. This is a fanfiction written solely for the purposes of entertainment, and the views stated by the characters do not necessarily reflect the views of the author. If you wish to host this story on a site outside of , please contact the author for permission first.

The End

When Kuroro returned to where he had left Shalnark and Midoya, he found himself returning to an entirely too apprehensive Shalnark and an entirely too gleeful Midoya. Giving them an inquisitive look, he sank to the floor next to Midoya before noticing the regrettable ruin that was his coat. "What happened?" he asked, wondering if it was possible to get that much gore out of his coat, and whether it was possible to continue wearing that coat with red fur.

"Ants," Midoya said with a shrug. "You know how they are about their body fluids."

"I do," Kuroro agreed, dismissing his coat as something fixable in the future. "How goes the cooking?"

"Not too bad. It looks quite ready."

"Good. It smells delicious."

"It does. It made me so hungry I ate the biscuits in your coat. I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all, Midoya." Realising Shalnark was watching them, Kuroro met the young man's gaze and raised his eyebrow questioningly. Shalnark gave him a look that told Kuroro he was in great pain and was desperate for Dancho to do something about it though Kuroro had no idea what exactly was wrong with him. Since Shalnark didn't seem inclined to speak, he decided to ignore his discomfort as something that Shalnark could deal with on his own time (he was a big boy after all). Instead, he turned his attention to the two people coming up the corridor instead. "Phinx, Feitan."

"Dancho," Feitan said, looking pleased behind his mask. "We found the hunters pretty close to where Kito guessed they would be."

Kuroro nodded. "Report."

"They're holed up in the top floor," Phinx replied, leaning against a wall. "They built a barricade along Corridor Z, the only corridor leading to the Zodiac's meeting room. We couldn't really tell how many hunters are up there. But, we noticed that the corridor in front of the barricade is lined completely with booby traps."

"Excellent," Kuroro murmured, his eyes losing focus as he started to think. "They've trapped themselves in a dead end. Not a very smart move."

"They probably think they can hold us off until the ants finish us," Feitan said coolly, obviously insulted. "I'll see them choke on their own body fluids."

"Hard core," Midoya noted. "Speaking of fluids, I am kind of thirsty. I don't suppose anyone has any water?"

Kuroro caught Shalnark making a face as Midoya said that. Before he could ask, Pepeka and Moonshine stomped up the corridor, both perspiring and breathing deeply.

"Man, that was fun," Pepeka said brightly, looking a lot more cheerful now that he knew Midoya was alive. "It was quite a good workout too."

"A good workout? Kid, you ain't seen a fucking good workout till you go boar hunting in the Mounts. What we just did was a walk in the park."

"If you say so, Mister," Pepeka replied with a shrug, looking unconcerned with Moonshine's blatant dismissal of him. "How are you feeling sensei?"

"Fantastic," Midoya beamed, sipping water from the bottle Phinx had offered her. "I assume your chase went well."

"Yeah, great," Pepeka said happily. "We herded the ants into the biggest room we could find on Corridor Y. We even got most of them. Moonshine went into the ventilation shafts hunting them. You wouldn't believe how many ants there were up there. The system here is not that complex given how there isn't much space to work with, so we're fairly certain we got all of them out of their hidey holes."

"Wonderful, Pepeka, Uncle Moonie. This plan is going along perfectly," Midoya said fondly.

"Perfectly," Kuroro echoed in agreement, getting to his feet before picking her up. "Now then," he said to the rest, "we have some hunters to kill." He smiled faintly. "Let's go."

Despite the air conditioning, Corridor Z was warm with the heat of multiple bodies pressed together in a relatively small space. The barricade, a thick opaque wall of good quality furnishing was, unfortunately, blocking the ventilation shafts as well, resulting in the overheating of the space below.

Hunter Klep wiped sweat from his brow as he adjusted the rifle in his arms. "Damn," he complained, "do you really think the Genei Ryodan is going to launch an attack on us? Because if they are, they're sure taking their own sweet time about it."

"Stop whining," Hunter Qynn replied curtly. "We are lucky that they are not attacking because when they do, we'll be lucky to get out of it alive. The longer they stay away, the higher the chances of us surviving this."

"Yeah? How long are we gonna keep squatting here, waiting for an attack then?" Klep demanded with a sneer. "What if they never come? We gonna wall ourselves up here forever?"

"We obey our orders, Klep, so just shut up, wouldn't you?"

"Both of you shut up," another voice interrupted. "Listen."

The corridor full of hunters snapped to attention. A tensed silence descended on the group as they listened hard.

Footsteps. Quiet. Stealthy. Light. One pair. Possibly female or a small-sized male.

Qynn gestured to the hunter closest to the barricade and pointed at his eyes. See anything? The hunter peered out through the holes they had left in the barricade and shook his head. Negative.

Splash. Klep blinked and looked at Qynn questioningly. Qynn nodded back, frowning. He heard it too. More splashes. Yet again, Qynn looked at the hunter by the barricade. The hunter was frowning. Dropping to a crouch, he moved quickly to Qynn and whispered, "I saw something flash by. I can't tell what it is. There's a weird smell too. Like… soup" Report over, he scuttled back to his position by the barricade.

Kleps' head cocked as he listened and he tapped Qynn on the shoulder and pointed to his ear. Qynn's eyes closed as he listened.

More footsteps. Multiple ones. Some light. Some heavy. The Ryodan? But…

"I hear at least thirty pairs," Klep muttered. "I thought there were nine people with the Ryodan, max? Did they call for reinforcements?"

"No, that doesn't make sense. At any one time, the Ryodan has only thirteen people in it at all. I have no…" Qynn's reply was cut off as one of the booby traps detonated in a relatively small explosion that still shook the barricade anyway. The poor victim screamed, the voice high-pitched and almost inhuman in its agony.

"Fuck yeah," Klep growled fiercely.

Another explosion and someone else screamed, a low guttural cry of fright and pain. Yet another explosion. And another. And another. Screams and howls filled the corridor, getting closer to the barricade with each second.

Qynn and Klep exchanged looks. This wasn't right. There were still too many footsteps, too many voices… what…

"Oh fuck!" the hunter at the barricade shouted, his voice distorted with terror. "Oh fuck! It's not the Ryodan! It's the fucking ants!"

At that moment, the entire barricade exploded inwards and giant, grotesquely mutated, furious ants stormed into the corridor.

Next to Kuroro, Nobunaga chuckled darkly as they watched the ants pour into the hunters, lured by the mixture of dead carcasses Shalnark had cooked up and that Feitan had splashed liberally along the corridor leading up to the barricades. "Nice," Nobunaga commented. "The ants took the brunt of the booby traps. It saved us the trouble of dodging them."

"And now we know Shalnark makes excellent chum too," Feitan commented wryly.

"Shall we go in now?" Phinx asked, eyeing the chaotic battle with anticipation. "The ants are getting the best bits."

"Of course," Kuroro agreed, summoning his book. "Go ahead."

Grinning widely, Phinx pounded down the corridor, Nobunaga, Shalnark, Moonshine and Feitan close behind him. Kuroro glanced at Pepeka and Machi, who were still standing behind them.

"Not joining them?" Kuroro asked.

"Watching your back," Pepeka said, eyes fixed on the battle ahead and giant hands glowing with Nen. "Go ahead and find the Zodiacs."

"I got you," Machi said with quiet confidence, her Nen strings twanging almost invisibly in the darkened corridor.

Kuroro nodded and looked down at Midoya. "Shall we?"

Midoya, eyes closed and head resting against his shoulder smiled faintly. "We shall," she agreed, her voice strangely distant.

"Then let's go." Confidently, Kuroro strolled down the corridor, past ants and humans tearing and ripping at each other. An ant launched itself at him, and he barely glanced at it as Pepeka's giant fist took off the ant's head in one blow. Another enemy, a hunter this time, leapt at him, and Nobunaga sliced the hunter in half from behind. Kuroro hardly noticed. The chaos reigning around him was nowhere as attention grabbing as the thick, quiet Nen simmering from within the meeting room after all.

In his arms, Midoya's Nen rose in response, vibrating with anticipation and spite. Kuroro smiled faintly as a chill ran down his spine and his own Nen reared in response to hers.

A dead body tunnelled into them and evaporated against the combined wall of their Nen. A red mist, what remained of the body, wafted around them before disappearing into nothingness. Midoya smiled in his arms, a cruel, cold smile that made the smile on his face widen. He could feel her eagerness to join the fight, to revel in the shredding of the flesh and the breaking of bones. He could feel her desire to bathe in the blood of her animals and laugh in their faces as they breathed their last. But she couldn't. She couldn't waste her waning strength on the pitiful hunters dying around them. She had to wait, she had to be patient, she had to bid her time.

It was such a long walk down the corridor.

Soon enough though, Kuroro reached the closed doors to the meeting room. Behind him, he felt Pepeka turn around to face any enemies that might try to interrupt them. He glanced down at Midoya and her eyes were open, calm and confident as always.

"Open the door and let me in, said the spider to the fly," Midoya said quietly.

"And when the fly didn't, the spider just opened the door anyway," Kuroro replied – and pushed through the door.

Prior to meeting Netero, Midoya June Kito's world had largely been a disorientating swirl of bright lights. Everywhere she looked, people and things were covered with a thin layer of light. Very early on, she learnt to read things about people through that light. She always knew when someone was ill. She always knew when their time came. She always knew when people liked her. She always knew when people hated her. Mostly people hated her. It was a privilege that came with the position she had been born into.

It was hard to pay attention in class when she could see her teacher glowing with irritation and frustration. It was hard to warm up to the nurses in the hospital when their aura showed their general indifference towards her. It was hard to sleep at night in the Kito mansion when the entire room glowed with the history and emotions of hundreds of years. Sometimes, Midoya June Kito woke up with her mind so filled with the despairs and hopes, love and hatred of others that she wasn't exactly sure who she was.

Midoya June Kito read a lot. From a very young age, she knew what that was called, what she was: mad, insane, crazy.

When she met Netero, he had glowed in a way she had never seen before. It was wild and contained; passionate and reserved; powerful and controlled. Much later, she learned that most powerful Nen-users had auras like that because they had learned to control their Nen down to the smallest fluctuation. At that moment however, as she gazed upon the glowing man in front of her, all she saw was power and control like she had never known, like she had always wanted. In the spur of the moment, she had mentioned it. And suddenly, she had a name for this. It wasn't insanity, it wasn't a disease; it was Nen.

The first lesson Netero taught her was how to stop concentrating her Nen to her eyes. He had pressed his hands on her head and told her to relax, to stop trying to know. She hadn't even realised she had wanted to know everything she could about the way until he said it. So she did as he asked, and when she opened her eyes, the world had gone dark. Without the glow, the world was darker yet more colourful. For once, she could see the true colours of the skies, of the trees; for once she could clearly see the features of the man smiling down at her.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"As blind as a bat," Midoya replied and he had laughed.

As Midoya grew, she drifted apart from Netero. It was to be expected; they were such different people after all, with such different goals in life. But she still respected him, admired him, perhaps even loved him in her own twisted little way. After all, he was the one who had shown her the darkness in the world, and she was eternally grateful to him for it.

The twelve Zodiacs, most powerful of all hunters, and most trusted of Netero's, sat around the conference table, staring with varying degrees of coolness at them as they stepped into the meeting room.

Kuroro met their stares with his own steady gaze. They didn't look quite the same way they did on video. On video, they had look small, cowed and rather pathetic. The powerful Nen surging around them made him revaluate his opinion of their strength. This wouldn't be an easy fight.

"Kuroro, put me down," Midoya murmured. He obliged, setting her onto her feet. Though she was forced to hold on to his arm a little longer in order to stabilise herself, she pulled his coat around her like a queen's robe and held her head high as she regarded her enemies. "Zodiacs," she greeted, a friendly smile on her face.

"Midoya dear," Pariston, sitting at the head of the table greeted back, smiling warmly. "You have broken through our defences a lot faster than we anticipated. How delightful." He cocked his head as he looked her up and down. "You don't look too well though, dear," he said, concern in his voice. "Are you sure you wouldn't like to take a seat?"

"I would, if I didn't think you would have booby trapped the seat offered, dear Pariston," Midoya replied with a little laugh. "How are the rest of the Zodiacs? I trust you are feeling well?"

"Enough of that, Midoya," a woman with features of a canine said firmly. "We know why you are here, and you know what we have been ordered to do."

"Of course, Cheadle-san," Midoya said gently. "You have been ordered to kill me by Netero himself. And I am here to kill all of you to stop the association from continuing to hunt me. I would greatly regret killing you though since I've always admired you. It's not personal; I hope you understand."

"Understand?" a man with sharp spikey hair and stripes on his face interrupted. "Bitch, this has been coming to you for ages."

"Kanzai dear," Midoya said with a charming smile. "If the rest of the Zodiacs weren't backing you on this, you wouldn't have dared come within a mile of me."

The man shot to his feet, eyes blazing and everyone at the table rose shortly. Nen started to hum through the air, the auras of so many powerful Nen-users creating an atmosphere in the room that was close to suffocating. With Gyo, Kuroro could see the way the different strings of Nen wove around in complicated patterns. If a normal person had been standing in the room, he would have passed out from the Nen clamping down on him like a tidal wave.

Well, things have gone downhill fast enough. Kuroro started to flip the pages in his book, looking for the skill that he had planned on using first.

"Kuroro," Midoya said quietly. "Please stand as far from me as possible and defend yourself with Nen." Kuroro stared in surprise at the back of her head and she looked back at him with a wide grin. "Things," she murmured as her Nen started to swell, "are going to get wild."

"You're going down, bitch!" one of the Zodiacs shouted and several of them leaped over the table to get at her.

Midoya turned back to face them, her hands held in front of her, one palm facing her and the other facing the Zodiacs. It was a fighting stance Kuroro had never seen before. As the Zodiacs rushed at her, Midoya's eyes half closed and she murmured, "Ni Tao."

Abruptly, her head ballooned to twice the size of her body. Kuroro just managed to spring back in time as her arms joined her head, swelling up grotesquely into fleshy lumps of meat, giant veins pulsing prominently on the surface. Her body started to bloat up, expanding in certain areas like bubble-gum and collapsing in on itself in others. With a horrible crunching sound, Midoya's body shot upwards, swelling until the top of her head, now lost under folds and folds of flesh, hit the ceiling and cracked it wide open.

A wave of Nen washed over Kuroro and it felt… wrong. It was like Midoya's Nen but so unlike hers. It was twisted and rotten, like a corpse left out in the rain for weeks. Instinctively, Kuroro knew Midoya shouldn't be using this skill, whatever it was. She was tampering with powers she shouldn't be messing with. She was pushing herself to destruction to kill the Zodiacs.

Kuroro knew all that, and he did nothing to stop her. Everyone chose their own path to hell after all.

"Holy fucking shit," Kanzai, who had grounded to a stop right in front of Midoya breathed. "What the fuck is that?"

No one answered him. There was no time to. The Zodiacs scattered as Midoya's Nen erupted from her body, shattering the table and sending roaring, searing waves of heat through the room. It wasn't just the form she had morphed into that was grotesque, it was the way it kept shifting, ballooning out and deflating like play-dough. There was something fundamentally wrong about her form, something asymmetrical and unbalanced that made Kuroro's eyes hurt to look at her.

With a loud groan, the massive, swollen lump of flesh that was Midoya advanced on the Zodiacs. Right on the top, a massive eye glared down at the Zodiacs who had frozen in place below her. The eye kept shifting, expanding to at least a metre in length then shrinking, flowing over the lumpy flesh below it like a pool of mercury. "You're mine, Zodiacs," her voice howled, sounding hollow as if coming from within a cave.

"Good lord almighty," another one of the Zodiacs, a man with a horse-like face gasped. "She is a monster."

"Zodiacs! There are twelve of us! We can take her!" Pariston's voice, bright and sharp, penetrated through the roar of Midoya's Nen and the creaking of the room as it started to come apart under her weight. "Attack together!"

That was enough to rally the Zodiacs, and they charged as one towards Midoya, shouting their own battle cries.

The first Zodiac to reach Midoya launched himself at her, spear raised to thrust into her flesh. The spear hit her flesh and rebounded off as if it had hit rubber. Then a massive, swollen arm erupted from Midoya's side and smacked the Zodiac hard. The Zodiac flew across the room and smashed through a wall. He came back up, still raring to go, but obviously injured from the way he cradled his arm.

A second Zodiac, a woman with snakes for arms, hissed as she lashed out at the mountain of flesh in front of her. But a barrier of hot, searing Nen burned the snakes right off. The Zodiac's scream of agony turned into one of shock when a mouth lined with huge, square teeth opened up in front of her. She barely managed to get out of the way in time as the large teeth clamped around one of her arms. Without hesitating, the woman tore her arm off and retreated, whimpering with pain.

Then Ging and Pariston, moving in a pincer attack, struck from two directions at the eye on top of Midoya's head. Before their blows could land, the eye disappeared, sinking into the fleshy folds below with a wet, sucking sound. Instead the men found themselves faced with a large powerful hand emerging from the head, grasping and striking at them wildly.

"Fuck," Ging cursed as he was forced to retreat. Pariston however, somersaulted over the hand, landed neatly behind it and severed it with a quick slice of his hand.

A pained roar rose from the depths of Midoya's form and the entire mountain of flesh bucked wildly, stampeding about and threatening to crush anyone too slow to get out of the way. Somehow, Pariston kept his footing and he raised his hand for another blow – only to blink in surprise when Kuroro teleported him to the other side of the room.

Their eyes met briefly and Kuroro smiled insolently at the uncharacteristically furious look on Pariston's face.

Another roar from Midoya grabbed their attention and Kuroro turned back to the battle, just in time to see the severed hand finger-walk itself back to the main body and merge into her body. Howling, Midoya dragged her heavy weight over the floor, advancing slowly on the retreating Zodiacs. The Zodiacs, realising they were going to be trapped and squashed under her massive bulk if they let her corner them, fought back desperately. Midoya's advances started to slow as their attacks started to penetrate her defences, drawing streams of blood that leaked profusely. Even so, she continued to move forward, slowly but surely forcing the Zodiacs into a death-trap.

The fight was going to be close. Kuroro raised his book and allowed his Nen to flood his body. It was up to him to put the odds in Midoya's favour.

Then out of nowhere, a male voice filled with absolute authority snapped, "That is enough, all of you. Stop right now."

The entire room froze into inaction at the sound of the voice that came out of nowhere. A whirring sound filled the air, and the wall behind the Zodiacs slid open to reveal a gigantic screen. On it, an old man bald save for a top knot and with a long beard smiled paternally down at them. Kuroro would not have thought there was anything that could tear the Zodiacs' eyes away from the monstrosity of flesh before them, but he was wrong.

"Chairman Netero," one of the Zodiacs gasped as the entire group stared at the face on the screen with varying sounds of shock.

"Netero…" Suddenly, Midoya's body started to shrink and gain shape until she was back, small and plump as usual, staring in total shock at the screen, Kuroro's coat puddled around her feet. Before the Zodiacs could react to her sudden vulnerable state, Kuroro teleported her and his coat over, holding the coat around her firmly as she swayed and shook violently in his arms.

The old man on the screened laughed, a pleasant and benign sound. "Zodiacs and my dear Midoya. You must all be so shocked to see me. I wish I could see your faces now," the image chuckled. "Though of course I can't. If you are seeing this video, it means I am dead and that the Zodiacs have tried to carry out my orders of killing Midoya." His eyes twinkled. "I can also tell you failed, Zodiacs, given how this video will only be activated if the sensors pick up both Midoya's Nen and all the Nen of the Zodiacs. Well, at the very least, it tells me that all of you did work together to try to take Midoya down."

"How is this possible?" Cheadle demanded, staring wide-eyed at the screen. "He predicted that we will go to the Fort? He predicted that Midoya would make it this far?"

"My dear Midoya," the image went on. "You must have been surprised to learn that I ordered your death. I suppose you want to know why." To Kuroro's amazement, Midoya pressed against him with a soft whimper, shaking with terror and rage, like a cornered animal. "My dear disciple, youngest of my children, you were always my greatest pride and joy, and my biggest fear. Dear Midoya… my order was a joke."

The whimper died off and Kuroro felt Midoya's body stiffen in shock next to him as the entire room erupted in shouts of disbelief and horror.

"A joke? A joke?" Kanzai howled. "What the fuck? Netero, you old bastard! What the hell did you mean 'a joke'?"

The image on screen was laughing again. "I can imagine your faces now," he sighed happily, wiping tears out of his eyes. "Yes, it was meant as a joke. I knew that in the event of my death, the Zodiacs would come together to pull the Association together. I wanted to test you. I wanted to see how well you would fare against Two Star Blacklist Hunter Midoya June Kito, my disciple, heir to the Kito estate, honourary mafiaso, and lover of Kuroro Lucifer, Dancho of the Genei Ryodan." Now, it was Kuroro's turn to stiffen in shock. "Now you are wondering how I know about that. My dear, a few years ago, I snuck into your penthouse to check on you. There was no one in, but there were plenty of signs that a man had been living in your place. A very distinctive coat lying on your couch told me who it was. I can't say I'm too disappointed though. There are worse people in this world to bed. Lucifer, as rumour goes, is a powerful Nen-user after all and supposedly quite handsome too. I hope he's as good in bed as he is on the battlefield."

"My goodness, he knew?" Kuroro muttered. "Do you mean to say we spent the whole time sneaking around the eyes of the Association for nothing?"

Midoya did not answer him, her eyes wide and almost child-like as she stared at the screen.

"So Zodiacs," the image went on to the group whispering frantically amongst themselves. "Now you know. Midoya was a test that you failed to pass. But I hope you have learned something from it. As of this moment, consider the hunt on Midoya June Kito cancelled and all damages inflicted by her and her own null." The image smiled. "Of course, you can choose to ignore that and continue to fight Midoya. What are a dead man's words worth anyway?"

"That man is dead and he still scares me," one of the Zodiacs muttered.

"But Midoya, do not think none of this was for your benefit." Midoya's head whipped up and she pressed even harder into Kuroro. "Truthfully, I had hoped you would benefit more from this little joke than the Zodiacs. This was meant to be a lesson to you, my dear, the last lesson I would ever teach you as your sensei." The image looked solemn now. "My dear, for all your power, for all your strength, and for all your intelligence, one of the things you never learned was your own limits. Because you are so powerful, you have no idea how to gauge your own strength in relation to others. Ironically, that resulted in you placing so many limits on yourself that you have failed to reach your full potential."

"Is he joking again? Tell me he is joking," the Zodiac with the snakes snapped.

"You are only in your mid-twenties, and you are already a renowned Blacklist Hunter and businesswoman. Heir to riches beyond imagination. You have so much power, so much intelligence and so much creativity. Yet, you limit yourself to just being that. It has never failed to boggle my mind. My dear, why do you settle for simply being June Kito or Blacklist Hunter Midoya? You, with so much potential, so much intelligence… you could take over the world if you wanted to. That was part of the reason why I took you in; I thought for sure that once I helped you reach your full potential, you would start desiring more… start desiring things you shouldn't, and I would have to fight you. You were to be my magnus opus, my greatest enemy, the one I would sacrifice my life to kill. But you never tried. Not once." The image on the screen looked pained. "You remained... pure. Despite all that you went through as a child, as an adult… you remained so innocent and naïve of your full potential. Power should corrupt, and you who have so much power should be corrupted magnificently, but somehow you bypassed that, much to my greatest disappointment."

"He's not joking, Gell," Ging said quietly. "He's not. He really wanted Midoya to be a super villain. That crazy old man wanted to turn Midoya into a super villain."

"Midoya, what I want you to learn from this little joke is simple. You don't need the Hunter Association. I know how much you rely on your identity as a blacklist hunter to escape the claustrophobic world of June Kito, but my dear, you don't need the association at all. Ruin it. Destroy it. Seek to be the new Chairman or its greatest enemy. See how you could fight against the Zodiacs, go head to head with them, and hold your own? You have nothing to fear from the Association. There's nothing they can do to you that can hurt you." The eyes on screen were hypnotic and fierce. "Join the Ryodan if your lover asks you to. Kill a member and earn the right to join them if he doesn't. Overthrow his position and become Dancho of the Genei Ryodan. Why not? Destroy the mafia. Rebuild it in your liking. Become President. Ruin countries. Build countries. The world is your playground. Play in it or burn it to the ground."

"Good lord, I vote to switch off this video," Cheadle said faintly, and there were murmurs of agreement, but no one made a move.

"Dear Midoya. Learn this lesson well and become more than you are now." A delighted smile spread across the old man's face. "And when you do, Zodiacs, choose whether to hunt her or not. It will be a glorious fight, one that will shake this boring world to the core. I only wish I could be there to see it." The old man sighed. "And that is all I have to say. Learn your lessons well, my dears. Farewell Zodiacs, Midoya. I will see you all one day, in hell."

The video flickered off and the room fell back into silence. Slowly, one by one, the Zodiacs turned to stare at Midoya who had gone deathly pale and silent in Kuroro's arms.

"Well, this is certainly awkward," Pariston said brightly. "As it turns out, we've all been played by the Chairman."

"What a terrible misunderstanding. I'm so glad it is over," Kuroro said just as brightly, still holding the strangely silent Midoya who was leaning heavily against him. "If there's nothing else then…"

"Don't think you can leave so easily," Cheadle said sharply. "We have a hundred part-time hunters and another thirty hunters dead. Something must be done about it."

"Cheadle," Ging interrupted gruffly. "Did you think Netero thought he could pit the Zodiacs against Midoya and not have any sacrifices? He predicted this would happen and he still let it happen anyway. Best to let bygones be bygones. The Zodiacs wouldn't hunt Midoya anymore, as Netero requested." He turned to face Midoya. "Peace?" he asked.

Midoya did not reply and the Zodiacs started to shift anxiously, readying themselves for a fight. But Kuroro held up a hand to stop them. Carefully, he pulled back his coat from around Midoya. Her wounds had split open and blood was pouring down her body. He looked back at her face and her eyes were focused and dull at the same time.

Machi, who had been watching by the doorway with the rest of the Ryodan, Pepeka and Moonshine came in immediately.

"Peace," Midoya finally said quietly as Machi started to work on her wounds. "I'll let this go if you will."

"Then we are agreed," Pariston said happily. "The hunt for Blacklist Hunter Midoya is over. The deaths of the part-time hunters and hunters can be blamed on Netero since he's dead and can't protest anyway. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Nodding, Midoya regarded the blank screen with an expression on her face Kuroro could not properly identify. "You doddering, senile bastard," she whispered, so softly only Machi and Kuroro heard. "You could have just told me." Finally, her strength ran out and her eyes rolled up into her head. With a soft moan, she slumped and started to fall. In her broken state, the fall would have shattered already fragile bones and killed her.

Good thing Kuroro managed to catch her before she hit the floor.

Now that the danger was over, it became apparent to Kuroro that Midoya needed more medical help than Machi could give, and she needed it immediately. Pariston reached the same conclusion as Kuroro and offered them use of the medical facilities in the Fort. Theoretically, Kuroro felt he could depend quite a bit on the Zodiacs' goodwill. But years of living as a criminal had made him paranoid of any hand-outs and he had steadfastly refused the repeated offers.

In a stroke of unprecedented genius, Kuroro whipped out Midoya's phone and dialled the number listed under 'Butler (Kito)'. A smooth, young male voice answered the phone, listened to Kuroro's instructions with great care, and then politely indicated that a helicopter with a medical team would be sent out immediately to pick up Lady Kito.

Apparently Midoya spared no expenses in hiring efficient help because a helicopter reached the port of Northern Hun before they did, even though they travelled along the routes used by the hunters, did. By the time they arrived, the medical team was already on standby with a surprisingly elaborate medical set-up.

Pepeka who had been carrying the still unconscious Midoya leapt onto the helicopter immediately, his face drawn and worried. Kuroro, who had ran out of steam carrying Midoya sometime ago (she was heavy), was told there wasn't enough space for both of them on the helicopter.

"I'll contact you," Pepeka promised with frantic absentness as the helicopter took off.

"Alright," Kuroro replied, still panting, his voice lost in the roar of the departing copter as he watched the helicopter until it was nothing but a small black speck in the horizon.

"You look like you got dumped," Feitan teased and Kuroro gave him a strained smile.

Almost an entire day later, the Ryodan were back in their base in York Shin City where they were greeted by the other members and a stockpile of explosives.

"There's no more funeral?" Shizuku exclaimed disappointedly. "And I was looking forward to cremating Kito too. She was the best Ryodan member ever."

"She's never been in the Ryodan before," Franklin corrected patiently in the tone of voice that suggested this wasn't the first time he had said this.

Faced with an abandoned warehouse full of hyped up Nen-users practically bouncing off the walls with unspent energy, Kuroro had been forced to plan a spontaneous invasion of the York Shin City bank, just to take the edge off the tension in the group. As they stood in the bank vault, happily grazing through the goods, Kuroro checked his phone for any missed calls or messages. Nothing. Well… how fast he got information depended on where Midoya was sent to. He really should have asked, but there hadn't been time. No matter, he could wait a day or two to hear from them.

A week later, Kuroro was still sitting stonily in the warehouse staring at his phone. Still no contact from either Midoya or Pepeka. All attempts to call them had not connected. He frowned slightly at the phone as if he were thinking of taking it apart and examining its insides. The other Ryodan members edged away from him as subtly as they could.

Two weeks later, Kuroro climbed through the window in Midoya's penthouse. To his horror, the place was neat. Books had been put back properly into their shelves. When there hadn't been anymore shelf-space, books had been put in neat piles along the wall. Midoya's makeup was actually arranged properly by type, colour and brand. Her bed was made. Her wardrobe was arranged by type of clothing. There was no sign of the war zone they had left the place in.

Rather anxiously, Kuroro searched for Julius, the doorman, just to confirm that Midoya's evil twin hadn't taken over her room in her absence. Julius, with great calmness and politeness, assured Kuroro that no evil twin of Midoya's had invaded her room. In fact, no one had returned to the penthouse since the last time Midoya, Kuroro and Pepeka had left it. Lucy had taken the initiative to clean up the room and she hoped sincerely that Kuroro didn't mind. She assured him that she had not looked in Midoya's diary. Kuroro hadn't even known Midoya had a diary.

"Lady Kito left a message for you," Julius told a half-appeased Kuroro. "It was mailed to us a week ago."

The message read: Dear Kuroro, I'll find you when I find you. Don't worry about me, I'm just taking a break. Midoya.

She had also left messages for Pepeka and any other hunter that came by to find her. Kuroro begged, threatened and finally charmed Julius into showing him the messages. The one to Pepeka was pretty much the same as the one addressed to him, only with more reassurances of her well-being and love for him, and many more terms of endearment. The one to the hunter association was addressed to Pariston, and it told him in great detail what he could do with his male reproductive organs.

"Physically impossible, I would think," Julius said, as if he were talking about the weather.

"Oh, not at all," Kuroro disagreed, the memory of his fight with Hisoka still fresh in his mind.

Still, Kuroro mused as he left the building through the front door, it was hardly a surprise that Midoya was on vacation. After what she had been through, she probably needed time to recuperate and think about what Netero had said. She probably needed time to mourn his death too, given how much she obviously cared for the old man. What with being hunted by the association, he doubted she had time to sit down and have a proper cry about it. In fact, Kuroro mused, that was probably the reason why she left without telling him. She didn't want him to see her cry.

With that realisation, Kuroro Lucifer, like the sensitive, new-age guy that he was, set out with even greater determination to hunt her down. Hey, the last time he went on vacation, he took her with him instead of abandoning her in boring old York Shin with a brief note that barely even began to explain her absence. Never mind that she was working for him then and didn't have a choice; it's the principle of the thing that matters.

In his search for the missing Midoya, the next obvious stop was the Kito mansion. Security at the mansion had been very unsympathetic and disbelieving of Kuroro's story, and had tried to stop him from advancing into the mansion. Kuroro had been forced to take action against their impoliteness. Eventually, a beautiful young man with coiffed blonde hair and Dorian Gray good looks, elegant and poised, emerged from the mansion and asked Kuroro very politely to stop eviscerating the guards and getting innards all over the carefully tended lawn. Kuroro obliged only because the man told him that Lady Kito had been here a good ten days or so ago, but had already left. No, the young man did not know where she had gone to. Yes, he was telling the truth. No, he did not want to be tortured. Yes, he was definitely telling the truth. No, he had no idea how to contact Lady Kito. Yes, he was very grateful for 'sir's' kind understanding.

Kuroro left the young man bowing behind him as he strode out of the mansion, frowning deeply. This was going to be difficult. Well, he would expect nothing less of Midoya. This was a challenge he was willing to take on.

"Shalnark," Kuroro said into his phone as he strode off the mansion grounds. "I need to know where Midoya is right now. She's not in her penthouse or her mansion. Find her."

"Okay," Shalnark agreed, and his voice suggested that he was only surprised Kuroro had taken so long to ask.

In the end, it took the entire Ryodan working together to find her. A few people were tortured (some might have died), a very well protected website was hacked (accidentally causing a power outage in the whole of York Shin City), a blimp was shot down (almost causing an international accident), the Hunter Association was harassed (with great prejudice) and Shalnark may or may not have lost his virginity along the way. But, they found her.

Midoya turned out to be on the other side of the globe, on a peaceful little island retreat which seemed to Kuroro to be mainly beach, sea, scantily dressed women, tanned men and a lot of coconuts. The resort she had been staying in had been booked entirely by Midoya using an alias, and Shalnark had assured Kuroro that she was the only person living in it.

It turns out Shalnark had been wrong about that. The moment Kuroro stepped through the charmingly rustic entrance, he found himself faced with ten men in black suits and shades waving firearms of varying sizes and shapes at him. Yet again, Kuroro was forced to take offence at their blatant disregard for the well-being of his coat (which had survived the attack on the Fort in one piece) and to defend himself to the best of his ability.

As he rampaged through the crowd of men, trying his best not to kill any of them and make Midoya even angrier than she would be once she found out he was here, he locked in on her presence and started to beat a path towards the room she was in. Men shouted and shot things at him. Kuroro responded in kind. Midoya's presence did not vanish. He took that as a good sign.

Finally, he found himself standing outside an intricately decorated door. Without any hesitation, he dropped the screaming man he had been holding on to and pushed the door with his toe. Cautiously, he peeked in, half-expecting to be greeted with another spray of Nen-reinforced bullets. No one shot at him, so he stepped in.

The room was large, airy and filled with plenty of natural light. Furnishing made from various types of rattan, ropes and wood filled the room with a charming, rustic air. Bright, aromatic tropical flowers were placed strategically to brighten up the largely dull colours of the furnishing. A large bed dominated the room, chiffon drapes flowing around it. And on the bed was Midoya, book in one hand, cookie in the other, wearing a silk bathrobe and an expression of amused annoyance on her face.

"My dear Kuroro, you are the most relentless man ever," she said, putting the cookie and the book down. "I am fairly certain you have gotten my message from Julius…?"

Kuroro looked her up and down. She had lost some weight, and her skin was even paler than usual. Dark eye circles rimmed her eyes, and she looked exhausted and ill. Her lips were slightly chapped and peeling at the corners. The skin that showed from under the bathrobe was severely scarred. All in all, she looked like hell warmed over, but she certainly looked a lot better than the last time he had seen her. "I did," he finally said. "Did Julius tell you? I thought he was lying when he said he had no idea how to contact you."

"Of course he had a way of contacting me. Still, you got my message. And yet you thought to come all the way here looking for me," she sighed wearily. "I must assume it is an emergency. What is it?"

What was it indeed? Truth be told, Kuroro had been so focused on rising to the challenge of locating his enigmatic, mysterious Midoya that he hadn't thought of why he was actually looking for her in the first place. Well, when in doubt, go with the first impulse.

Kicking off his boots, he climbed onto the bed, pulled her into his arms and kissed her neck. She smelled like stale sweat and something medicinal, like she had just recovered from a prolonged illness. Her skin was warm and feverish. Kuroro pressed against her and kissed her some more.

"Kuroro?" Midoya questioned tentatively.

Sighing contentedly, Kuroro pressed his face against her neck and started to undo her bathrobe. He slipped a hand inside and gently stroked her skin. Scars, rough and obviously still raw, made a delicious contrast with the softness of her body.

"Kuroro, are you telling me you travelled half way around the globe for sex?" Midoya asked incredulously.

That brought a chuckle out of Kuroro and he nipped her neck gently in reply.

"My word… this is… this is... Oh bugger. Alright then," Midoya replied faintly, wrapping her legs around his waist. "Just be gentle; I'm still recovering. If you reopen my wounds, I will spank you."

A pleasant hour later found the pair curled up in the mess that was once a bed, half-dozing in the afterglow of sex. Absently, Kuroro traced the hideous scar on Midoya's torso, one of the numerous remaining signs of her time spent fighting the Hunter Association. His fingers wandered over the other scars, including the one at the back of her hand where an I.V. drip had been inserted once.

"My doctors almost cried when they brought me in," Midoya murmured when his finger traced the back of her hand. "They had no idea how I had survived a Y-incision and had no idea what to do about it. They didn't know about Nen, you see. It took them all their skill plus some desperate illegal drug-usage just to put me back together. I heard the head surgeon was almost weeping with exhaustion by the end of the operation. It was a really close call." She stopped talking for a while as a breeze swept over them. "I was unconscious for days. Even after I woke up, I could barely move. I was totally dependent on Pepeka to take care of me for a while."

"Mmm," Kuroro replied lazily.

For a moment more, they enjoyed the fresh breeze coursing through the room. Then Midoya said quietly, "Why did you come looking for me, Kuroro? I really don't think sex was on your agenda. Much."

Kuroro blinked sleepily and forced the pleasant haze of fatigue away. "You weren't in any of the places I know you frequent. Pepeka, the only one who might know where you were, wasn't answering my calls. You were avoiding me. That's why I came after you."

"Because I was avoiding you? Didn't you think I have my reasons?"

"Certainly. I could think of several reasons why you might have needed time alone. But you were avoiding me. Of course I had to come after you."

"Kuroro dear, has anyone ever told you that you might be a little bit obsessive?"

"It might have been mentioned a couple of times," Kuroro chuckled.

"You are impossible," Midoya scolded gently. Her expression grew pensive as she stared at the thatched ceiling. "I'm not joining the Ryodan," she finally said.

"Why not?" Kuroro asked, though he wasn't surprised. "Your sensei suggested you should. Wouldn't you respect a dead man's wishes?"

"To hell with that old man. He can say what he like about my choices in life, but it is my life, and only I can decide what I want to do with it," Midoya snorted. "Kuroro, your Ryodan is lovely. I like the members I've met so far. I like the way you do things. I felt we worked well together, the Ryodan and me. But… it's not right for me." Her gaze on him was intense. "The Ryodan requires its members to give it all their loyalty, isn't that right, Kuroro? To the members, the Ryodan is above all."

"Yes, that's right."

Midoya shook her head. "I can't do that," she said. "There is no way I can afford to put the Ryodan above everything else in my life. And… it wouldn't be fair to the Ryodan if I joined knowing that I will never be as loyal to the Ryodan as the rest of them would be."

"It wouldn't be," Kuroro agreed, playing with a strand of her hair. "I can't say I am not disappointed, Midoya, but I can accept your reasoning. The Ryodan has no need for a member who does not have absolute loyalty to the Ryodan anyway. I hope you don't mind if we occasionally come to you for help though? We do outsource for outside help once in a while."

"Of course I wouldn't mind," Midoya said softly, a smile on her face.

Silence fell over them as they lay quietly for a while, each caught in their own thoughts.

"What are you going to do now?" Kuroro asked finally.

"Enjoy my vacation," Midoya replied with a laugh. "Theoretically, my doctors have ordered that I be confined to my room like an invalid, and fed on nothing but porridge and water. But I grew restless; I needed something to do. That's why I came here, really, not just to escape the relentless fussing of Pepeka and the general harassment by the association… and your pesky intrusions into my privacy, you bad boy. Not that I'm unhappy you found me, really."

"No?" Kuroro smiled unrepentantly. "That is good then. I hope you will let me enjoy your vacation with you."

"Of course dear, since you're already here." Her expression brightened up suddenly. "I heard rumours that the seas two miles off the shores of this island to the east is home to a giant sea monster, as huge as the island itself and as wide. Shall we go check that out later today?"

Kuroro's smile widened. "Why not? It will be an interesting adventure."

And it was.

The End

A/N: And yay! This is the end of the third instalment in the Series series. I hope you enjoyed it, my dear readers. I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to read my story. Even more thanks goes to the readers who left reviews. I enjoyed reading the comments very much and they have inspired me to continue writing. So without further ado, I present to you, the preview to the next instalment of the Series series!

Preview of A Series of Very Criminal Activities

Hardly two hours into the search, Kuroro obtained news that the newcomers were in District Four of Meteor City.

As they walked up the mud paths of District Four, a dirty, grimy hand waved at them. The squat boy with a horrible hunchback, owner of the hand, held a finger to his lips then pointed to a pile of rubbish a good storey high. "Behind there," he whispered with a lisp.

Kuroro nodded his thanks and headed for the mountain of rubbish. For a moment, he paused to consider the pile of junk before him carefully. The mountain of rubbish was unstable, but not impossible to climb. With a little care, they could scale it and get a good look at these strangers without alerting them. He indicated his plan with a gesture, and all four of them skipped up the rubbish pile agilely.

At the top, Kuroro stopped just before he reached the peak. Cautiously, he stuck his head over and looked down.

Just like the boy had told them, the three outsiders were there, obviously questioning a sullen and wary man. The two men looked almost identical, tall and well-built, both dressed in black suits. There was something about them that just screamed mafia. The obvious gun holsters there were wearing and the black suits were probably clues. That was surprising; the average mafia thug just wasn't tough enough to survive an hour in Meteor City. However, as far as he could tell, these men were obviously just… normal humans. Then it wasn't them that had deterred the residents of Meteor City. Kuroro dismissed them as unimportant and looked at the third person.

The third person, as the rumour had claimed, was a woman. Kuroro couldn't see her features properly as her back to him. From what he could see, she had straight black hair, pulled into a neat ponytail at the base of her neck. She wore a baby pink pantsuit that looked very out of place in the filth of Meteor City. Kuroro thought he caught a glimpse of pearls hanging around a pale neck. The immediate impression that sprang to mind was of a rich business-woman.

However, despite the appearance of a pampered, sheltered life, something about the woman before him set off the alarm bells in his head. There was just something about the way she stood, the way she moved, that conveyed… danger

Abruptly, the woman's head snapped up to meet his eyes and Kuroro heard Nobunaga gasp in surprise. Kuroro himself had frozen up in shock when he recognised her. How could he not? The woman was Midoya, Two Star Blacklist Hunter Midoya whom he hadn't seen in four months.

Then he saw the flawless skin, the subtle make-up, the colour of her pantsuit which Midoya (who normally favoured black clothing) never wore, and the hard, cruel expression on her face as she stared at him. No, Kuroro realised with a start, not his Midoya.

June Kito.