Chapter 25: Cocco X Companion
Heaven's Arena 200th Floor, March 8th…
Cocco–as usual–was filled with boundless energy and excitement for this night's 200th Floor match ups. She barged into the announcing booth and dashed to her chair, on her desk was an information card for the upcoming fights. The flashing and marvelous introduction of Sinbad's debut on the 200th Floor burned on Cocco's mind as she stared at his portrait. Then her attention shifted onto his next opponent, Gido. She didn't have any strong feelings for the masked guy but his technique is interesting.
Her attention fell to the awaiting audience below and her eyes couldn't help locking onto the bubbling mass of women all huddled up on the southern side of the arena. Some of them had Sinbad's face cut into a poster, wore shirts with his face printed on them, and most importantly words of encouragement to help Sinbad win the match.
A memory of Gilgamesh and his manly posse flashed on her mind, the stark contrast between Sinbad's all women cheerleaders, Cocco couldn't help herself from facepalming.
The countdown above Cocco's desk ran down to zero and it was showtime. Clicking the button on her mic to transmit her voice across the arena, she prepared her fighter breakdown.
"All right ladies and gentlemen! Let's get this show on the road!" Cocco shouted with her best hype voice. Her voice ushered the crowd into an eruption of cheers and excitement. After pausing for three seconds and allowing for the massive showlight to flash onto the far side of the arena. "Let's introduce our first fighter, Sinbad! He is currently 1-0 on the 200th Floor!"
The purple haired Sinbad wearing the same get up as last time–a blue sailor coat, a purple shirt underneath and a matching blue trousers– skipped up the cement stairs and landed on the square tile platform. Immediately as he appeared, the fangirls exploded with high pitched screams. Some of the regular people watching couldn't help but glare at Sinbad from jealousy.
Similar to his previous match, Sinbad strolled the perimeter of the arena and waved at the crowd, three girls from his fan club fainted from his attention.
"He is clearly favored by the ladies," Cocco commented into the mic. Her gaze fell to the information card to announce Sinbad's opponent. "Let's–"
"He is a disgrace to what this arena stands for," said Gilgamesh, giving his honest opinion on Sinbad. His sudden appearance caused Cocco to jump out of her seat from shock. A worried hand rested on her beating heart, making sure that it was still there and operating.
"How did you get in?" Cocco asked. "When did you get in here?"
"Stop asking ridiculous questions women," Gilgamesh snapped as his eyes refused to acknowledge her. His attention remained on the purple haired actor who waved and smiled at the crowd. "Hurry up and announce the next fighter, I don't have much time."
Cocco nodded without any pushback because technically he was right. Quickly, she got back into her chair.
"Time to introduce our next fighter, Gido! This man has been on a win streak boys and girls, since his first horrific loss, he accumulated four wins in a row! Will his win streak continue tonight?"
Most of the crowd cheered for the man hopping on a singular metal crane, leaping from step to step until he reached the platform. The women of Sinbad's fan club boo'd devilishly at the man.
"No!"
"He sucks!"
"Never in a million years would he beat Sinbad!" They shouted such remarks at the man.
Sinbad's friends and companions were watching in attendance. Machi, who gave up her disguise, and Hisoka were also eagerly in the bleachers waiting to see the fight.
Shortly after, the referee of the match joined the two fighters in the arena and announced the start of their match.
"King's Crown!" Sinbad shouted, activating his Nen Ability as his golden crown manifested on his head. He rushed to the center of the arena. "King's Court!"
"Woah! Sinbad rushed to repeat the same events as his first match!" shouted Cocco, leaning forward in her seat. Sinbad's fanclub screamed in high pitched tones to celebrate.
"I don't think so!" Gido responded, pulling out a tray filled with spinning tops. He flowed his Nen onto them and then launched them directly at Sinbad. "Battle Waltz!"
The numerous spinning tops filled with Gido's Nen ricocheted off each other, boosting each other's speed and strength like billiard balls knocking into each other, a rapid shooting top flew directly at Sinbad's face.
Sinbad dodged the attack but in doing so, left the designated center of the arena. As if in sync with his movements, two of the spinning tops leapt after him. One of them headed straight for his chest, while the second aimed for his flank.
During this attack, Sinbad felt absolutely no pressure or threat at all from the spinning tops. In reality, he had the strength to slice them half but that went against his plan and nature. On the outside appearance, Sinbad's facial features tensed and displayed distress from this attack.
Sinbad spun, causing both tops to crash into each other. Immediately after that, more tops pursued him. As they swarmed him and all he could do was shuffle his feet and twirl, forced to move and pulled along by Gido's dance.
Underneath his strange red mask, Gido taunted with a chuckle. "As expected, stopping the necessary condition of his Court will put an end to his flair. I will allow your fan club to see your last tango."
"This is it folks! Gido's unavoidable dance!" Cocco announced. "How is Sinbad going to escape the never ending attacks from Gido's spinning tops?!"
Internally as Sinbad exerted zero strength or stamina to dodge the tops, he broke down Gido's Nen Ability. Quickly, he deduced this harmless technique to be a failure of a Manipulator, because the commands issued to the tops were vague and indirect. Gido wasted the possible potential by splitting too much attention by the amount of tops.
And unfortunately for Gido because of Sinbad's absurd amount of Nen, he couldn't notice that Gido put extra effort into Enhancing each top with Nen.
'Clearly, Gido developed this ability with his mind only set on competing in the Heavens Arena,' Sinbad sighed inwardly, disappointed in the person's lack of ambition and creativity. He continued to narrowly escape each top to give Gido the assumption that eventually one of the tops will hit him.
However, Sinbad grew tired of dancing to someone else's tune regardless of it being necessary for his future plans. While dodging the jumping spinning tops, he unsheathed his blade.
"Looks like Sinbad has something planned up his sleeve to get out of his dire situation," roared Cocco.
Sitting next to her, Gilgamesh shook his head.
"Dire?" Pokkle repeated, quizzically.
Zushi balled up his fists. "Is he not in a dangerous situation currently?"
"Not even close," answered Killua, leaning back in his seat.
Up back in the announcing booth, Cocco's eyes widened. Watching as Sinbad increased his speed, weaving in and out from the numerous attacks. He moved only what was necessary, a leg, hand, arm, neck, perfectly dodging the tops as Sinbad closed the distance between the stationary Gido.
"What an unexpected turn of events?!" Cocco leapt onto her feet, amazed by Sinbad's fluid agility. "It's as if Sinbad downloads the moves to each top and is predicting their path!"
'In his previous fight, I guess he did show some ability in dodging,' Gido thought a bit frustrated. "Let's see you evade this! Shotgun Blues!"
Gido revealed another tray of spinning tops imbuing them with his Nen and fired them directly at Sinbad. After launching the tops, Gido bounced on his singular metal peg and began twisting in air. While remaining in the air, his spin rapidly increased, mimicking a spinning top of his own. He landed as a spinning tornado.
All of these events and the ones that will transpire next happened too quickly for Cocco's mind and mouth to work together to speak on them so instead she watched speechless.
Sinbad evaded and sliced the only top coming straight for him in half as he blitzed the spinning Gido. Keeping his momentum, he slid on the ground and cut a diagonally through Gido's metal peg. This caused Gido to shift unbalanced and slowed his spinning speed, he then landed on the awkward pointy spire and fell.
In distress, he manipulated all of his spinning tops to attack Sinbad. Predicting this, Sinbad leaned forward and crouched below the attacking tops as they self-destructed by crashing into each other. At the same time, Sinbad clenched his left fist and hammered it down onto Gido's face.
The referee approached the unconscious man and deemed him unfit to continue the match.
"Wow! Sinbad claims victory with an unreal finish!" Cocco announced. The crowd roared and celebrated for Sinbad's spectacular win. Sinbad's invigorated fan club erupted in cheers and hugs, while screaming his name.
Without uttering a sound, Gilgamesh got up and left the booth.
Her eyes followed Sinbad as he celebrated with the crowd, pumping his fist and thrusting his sword in the air.
Heavens Arena, 200th Floor, March 9th…
Cocco hummed an energetic tune as she entered the announcing booth of the 200th Floor inside of Heavens Arena. Skipping toward her desk, the long pointy buns on both sides of her head bounced up and down till she reached her seat. Before checking the information card of tonight's fight, her attention fell onto the simmering crowd below her.
Not the same erratic anticipation as the night before, probably because of the absence of Sinbad's crazy fan club .
Cocco picked up the card in her hand and read the information, familiarizing herself with the two fighters. The white haired kid who for some reason was immune to electricity and his opponent, another white haired man with a missing arm, Sadaso. Looking at the man's creepy smile and appearance, her body couldn't help from physically shaking.
She took a deep breath to calm herself and prepare to put on another great performance of casting the events of the fight. She leaned back in her seat and watched the countdown time slowly tick away till she noticed someone in the corner of her eye.
A man with extremely sharp features and long blonde hair, even through his clothes, she noticed the man's bulging muscles and sculpted appearance.
Shocked, she jumped out of her seat and pointed at the silent intruder. "Who let you in here?"
"Nobody," the man said without looking at her, he calmly continued staring down at the fighting arena. "I walked in."
'We really need to assign some security,' Cocco sighed.
"What is your name at least?" Cocco asked, retaking her seat. To her, having someone else in the booth didn't matter as long as he didn't disturb her work.
"Silva."
"Pleasure to meet you," said Cocco. The man only answered with a nod and didn't bother trying to learn her name. By the time, this awkward interaction ended, it was time to announce the fighters.
"Let's give a warm welcome to our first fighter of the match!" Cocco said into her mic as the overhead lights shined on one side of the arena. "He is still new to the 200th Floor but he had an electrifying performance for his debut match. He is currently 1-0, give it up for Killua!"
As she announced him, the skinny white haired kid appeared and climbed the steps onto the arena. On sight, the crowd cheered for the boy. He pumped a singular clenched fist and then kept his hands remaining in his short pockets. A look of determination and unease was displayed on his face.
"Let's go, Killua!!!" Sinbad, Pokkle, and Zushi stood up from their seats and shouted simultaneously.
Embarrassed by their shouting, Killua yelled at them to shut up as the lights shifted over to the opposite side.
"Now, let's give a warm welcome to a more seasoned and familiar face, Sadaso!" Cocco said into the mic. The man known as Sadaso walked up the stairs and even though he wasn't on the popular side of 200th Floor fighters, the crowd still applauded and wished for his victory. "After his devastating lost in his second match on the 200th Floor, he has amounted a four match win streak as his record stands at 5-1! Can Killua once again end another fighter win streak!"
"Boo!!!" Sinbad, Pokkle, and Zushi boo'd the man and held their thumbs pointed downward.
Killua shook his head as the referee for the match joined them on the fighting square tile.
"Your friend their is a cocky," Sadaso said, pointing in Sinbad's direction with the sleeve missing an arm. The awkward slant of his brow-less eyes intensified with anger. "I can't wait till someone shuts his arrogant mouth."
Killua removed his hands from his pockets and shrugged. "I'd be more worried about the person in front of you."
"I see, you both need to be humbled," Sadaso replied. "The fighters here on the 200th Floor are all agree, especially that purple haired brat and his obnoxious smile."
"Don't worry," Killua answered, rapidly bending his knees and then hopping to stretch. "Since you have extra slots in the lose column, you will have your chance at him after I'm done."
Hearing all of this, the crowd rumbles with excitement for this match due to the confidence of Killua and the vendetta of the vetern fight who believes the kids to be full of themselves.
"Here that folks!" Cocco chimed in. "It appears word has spread amongst the fights on this floor that they all have the same target, Sinbad! Surely, after this fight, more of them will also want to fight Killua!"
The referee looked at the two fighters and asked for their confirmation of them being ready to fight, once received the okay, he raised his hand and then started the match.
Faster than Cocco could perceive, Killua vanished and struck Sadaso with both palms open. Suddenly, the man flew backwards, landing on his back as he nearly fell of the stage.
"Dammit," Killua cursed, looking down at his palms. "It didn't come out."
"Clean hit!" The referee raised his hand to signal a point to be added to Killua but his hands continued to move. "Plus knockdown!"
"A clean hit and a knockdown at the start of the match!" Cocco shouted into the mic with overflowing energy. The crowd roared from the unexpected charge from Killua. "Killua already takes a 2-0 lead against Sadaso, who is finally up onto his feet!"
From above, Cocco watched the boy clasp his hands together and closed his eyes as if he were praying.
In response, Sadaso activated his Nen Ability. A large invisible arm extended from the missing limb and reached out to grab Killua.
At the last second, the white haired boy's eyes snapped open, dashing to the side and then immediately blitzing toward Sadaso. Faintly, traces of blue lighting coated the boy's feet, enhancing his speed, even as the second near invisible hand split off from the main arm, Killua moved to fast and dodged it by cutting inside to appear on Sadaso's right side.
"Killua is too fast for Sadaso!" Cocco shouted, rising out of her seat. "What are they feeding these kids?!"
The white haired boy rushed straight into Sadaso chest and prepared the same double opened palm strike but this time the intended affect worked.
"Lightning Palm!" Killua announced his Nen Ability as he transmutted his Nen to become charges of intense lightning that shoots out from his palm. Flashes of blue arcs of lightning shoot out from Killua's palms as he struck the center of Sadaso's chest. The man screeched from the sharp charges of electricity coursing through his body before he was sent flying from the impact of the strike.
"Critical Hit! Add knockdown!" The referee added more points to Killua's total, raising it to five points. The crowd erupted into an explosion of cheers and amazement.
"What a powerful blast of lightning!" Cocco's eyes widened due to the revelation and damage brought from Killua's Nen Ability.
During his match up against Riehlvelt and being electrocuted by the twin snakes, Killua's Nen reacted to the discharge of electricity. Even though the pain was present, his Nen felt alive and excited, revealing itself to Killua of its capability to be transmutted in such a way. Since then, he had been practicing to develop his Nen Ability through lightning.
Even though it was a successful strike, Sadaso struggled to his feet.
"Look at that! Sadaso is back on his feet!" Cocco announced. However, the man began swaying back and forth, clearly his brain was fried from the electric currents. "But, how long will that last?"
Killua's left hand grabbed onto his right wrist, surging his Nen into his right hand. After two seconds, his right hand brightened with blue lighting arcing and jumping from his hand. Then, he disappeared.
He reappeared in front of the disoreintated Sadaso and unleashed the lightning onto him. His whole body glowed blue electricity as he skin charred. After three seconds of lightning flowing through him, he collapsed to the ground and spasmed like a fish out of water.
The referee announced the end of the match due to Sadaso's inability to continue the match.
"Killua wins again!" Cocco shouted. In the corner of her eye, the man known as Silva, disappeared.