[Hunter Doujin] Journey

【3】

In a restaurant built with earthen walls, two people sat facing each other.

"Why, did you not expect that the Phantom City is even more dilapidated than imagined?" The man sitting opposite Xiaojie laughed.

"No, I think it's the same as the ancient Egyptian adventure in the movie!" Xiaojie's eyes were full of excitement and excitement. "I don't know if there will be a treasure here that can make me change back (●OⅴO)!"

"Change back?" Ed gave Xiaojie a strange look, then drank water.

"Yeah, I was originally a boy (.＾▽＾)." Facing the friend he just made, Xiaojie didn't hide this matter.

"—Pfft!" The water he just drank was sprayed out by Ed.His eyes widened, and the corners of his mouth twitched, "—huh?"

After that, Xiaojie told him about the process from arriving at Whale Island to becoming a girl; during this period, she also showed Ed her hunter's license.

"...I said, you don't know how to use your mind anymore, and you have a hunter's license on you, is it really okay to just show me?" Although he still found it unbelievable, Ed handed back the hunter's license to Xiaojie .

"Of course it doesn't matter, because I believe in Ed." Xiaojie nodded with certainty.

"...you are really a strange child." Ed only felt a drop of sweat dripping from the top of his head. "Would anyone trust someone they met for the first time so casually?"

"Someone once said that to me." When Ed mentioned that, Xiaojie also thought of the past. "But in reality, the people I trusted were right every time, and they were trusted partners."

Ed was silent. He looked at the child sitting across from him, sizing her up quietly like this, watching the other party happily take the drink from the waiter at the side and then curiously.

"The color of this drink is so strange. (._.)"

"I said, why don't you tell your friends? It's dangerous for you to come out by yourself."

"They all have important things to do now, Qi Ya wants to be with his family." Xiaojie continued with a smile:

"Leori and Kurapika are both on the ship heading to the New World now. I can't let them distract me. After all, work is more important. I can't get in touch with Jin. I really can't ask him to help Kate. He Now I'm a girl too..."

Although Xiaojie wanted to see his friends very much, it was obviously not the time to burden them.

"If possible, I want to solve this matter by myself, and I also want to think carefully about what I can do in the future during this journey."

[...It should be, I really want to see my friends, I am still a child after all, I can't hide some expressions on my face. ] Ed thought so.

"Okay, so I can probably understand the purpose of your coming here." Ed patted his thigh and said, "If possible, why don't I help you too."

"Eh? Is it really possible?"

"Don't look at me like this, in fact, I've been here for a while. Speaking of which, I'm also here to explore. Would you like to come with me? Maybe we can find some clues."

"Okay!"

In this way, Xiaojie found a companion on his first day in the City of Phantoms.

"Now, the place I'm going to take you to is the most important ancient temple in the Phantom City, 'Gudar Temple'." After coming out of the restaurant, Ed took Xiaojie to the mountain, outside a temple with a constant flow of people. .

"Wow!" Xiaojie stared at this hall in astonishment. Different from the mud houses and tents in the city, this is a majestic stone hall surrounded by big trees.Looking up along the roots of the tree, although it is not as tall as the world tree, it is still a magnificent tall tree.

Almost all the way up the mountain are quaint stone steps, and the whole mountain building is partially covered by green moss, matching with the surrounding green leaves and bamboo leaves, soft and steel like all the people who came to swear Its unique style.

"It's amazing!" Xiaojie admired this temple from the bottom of his heart.Looking at the strange patterns engraved on the outer wall of the white building, although he couldn't understand it, Xiaojie knew that it must be a story, and the big tree seemed to grow out of this temple.

"Yes, I was also taken aback when I saw it for the first time." Ed also looked up at the temple. "In the City of Phantom, almost all the aborigines believe in the 'God Gudal', and there is also a sacred stone named 'Gate of Life' enshrined here, which is said to have the ability to bring all luck and wishes to the world. Well, but also It's just what they say."

"—Hey, is that so? Then let's go in and have a look." Xiaojie couldn't wait to enter the hall.

But before she could take a few steps, the sound of arguing outside the hall caught her attention.Xiaojie looked over there, and saw several people and a child who was dressed strangely towards something.

"We just want to take a picture of this temple, is it necessary to drive us away?" The few people who looked like tourists were talking dissatisfied.

"Isn't the Godal Temple something that outsiders like you can take pictures of casually? Please get out of here quickly, and I won't hold you accountable for offending God." The strangely dressed girl shook her hands, as if she didn't want to look at those people more .

"What do you mean, kid? Are you telling us to leave?"

"I am really speechless to these aborigines. No wonder they are still so poor after hundreds of years. Everyone is either killing or deceiving customers!"

A few tourists seemed to get angry, and they took out their cameras regardless of it, as if they wanted to take pictures forcibly.

"What did you say?" The girl glared at them, and in an instant, the girl disappeared from the sight of the tourists.

After the tourists looked around in surprise, they realized that the girl was not far behind them, still holding their cameras.

"If you continue to stay here, then this camera will be your fate." She said this, and the camera in her hand was crushed in an instant.

Looking at the tourists fleeing in a hurry in the distance, Ed walked to Xiaojie's side and said:

"I forgot to remind you just now, the aborigines of the Phantom City are very repellent of outsiders, so it is best not to break some taboos." Ed added: "One of them is that you must not take pictures of the Godal Temple and touch the objects in the temple. any item."

Xiaojie didn't reply to Ed's words, her eyes all fell on the girl, it was a beautiful girl with black long straight and fair face, her face was painted with red runes.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Ed wanted to stop her, but Xiaojie came to her under the other's gaze.

"Your move just now was so powerful, you were able to jump away from the opponent's eyes with a 'shua', and even took away the camera."

The girl looked at Xiaojie, then skipped Xiaojie and walked past her.

"I told you, they don't welcome outsiders." Ed ran towards Xiaojie.

"Hey, but I just want to tell her that she is very powerful." Xiaojie looked at the girl's back with a smile.

"However, I didn't expect this child to be so young, and he would disappear from the opponent's face. He really deserves to be a person here." Ed couldn't help feeling.

"It's not disappearing, she's jumping over the opponent's head."

Xiaojie's words made the girl stop, she turned around and looked at Xiaojie.

"How old are you?" the girl asked Xiaojie.

"Me? I'm 13 years old. My name is Jay Freeze. This is Ed. What about you? What's your name?"

"Annie."

"Annie, are you the guardian of this temple?"

"defender?"

"Yeah, protecting it from being violated by others, shouldn't this be called a guardian? Ah, of course, these are what I saw on the Internet, I don't know if it's called that here."

"No, I'm just a trainee witch here."

"Witch?"

"Well, the wizard who guards this temple." Speaking of this, Annie's expression lost for a moment, but soon returned to that expressionless expression.

"Wait, Annie, can we make friends?" Xiaojie caught up with her.

Annie glanced at Xiaojie, and then said, "I don't need friends, the wizard only needs to protect the god Gudal."

"How can people not need friends?" Xiaojie stopped, and Annie stopped at the same time.

"Ed and I decided to explore together here, do you want Annie to go together?"

"Stupid... idiot." Ed couldn't help saying behind Xiaojie.

"Adventure?"

"It must be interesting to look for unknown things together." Xiaojie spread his hands towards Anne.

"So you came to Gudal Temple to explore?" Annie's previous calm appearance changed slightly, and she looked directly at Xiaojie with a bit sharp eyes.

And Xiaojie shook his head with the same cheerful expression as before, as if he didn't notice it, "No, because Ed said that 'God Dar' is the only god here, and 'Gate of Life' can give the world Brings all luck and wishes, so we are here hoping to be blessed."

Annie raised her brows, and her original sharp gaze was replaced by astonishment.And Xiaojie continued to speak:

"I have a thing that must be done no matter what, and the uncle I met before said that sincerity leads to success, so I came here with a very sincere heart. Of course, I also want to explore unknown things by the way ,hey-hey."

After looking into Xiaojie's eyes for a moment, Annie continued to walk forward.

"Then I'll take you to see the 'Gate of Life'."

"Okay!" Xiaojie happily followed, and waved to Ed behind him, "Ed, hurry up, let's go and see together."

Ed looked at Xiaojie's figure and couldn't help muttering: "This kid looks silly, but I didn't expect that he could talk so much at a critical moment."

Followed Annie to the hall, and a towering stone was erected in the hall.

"Wow, is that the 'Gate of Life'?" Xiaojie looked at the stone up and down, it was a gray stone, although its shape was resolute, but if it was placed in the wild or on the mountain, it would be overlooked at most.

"No, that's the statue of 'God Godal'." Annie said lightly from the side, "God Dar is not a god with a specific humanoid posture, on the contrary, its appearance is as you can see but unique. The several major disasters that have occurred in the history of the City of Phantoms were almost all avoided by the blessing of the "God Godal". There were even many times when it manifested itself and gave off a shining light."

Xiaojie couldn't help but exclaimed: "Hey! It's amazing, no wonder everyone loves it so much. Now I finally understand why you don't allow others to take pictures, Annie, because you respect it so much, so you don't want it to be a place for others to visit. background."

"..." Annie looked at Xiaojie but didn't say anything, but continued to lead them to the door behind the temple.

"This is the 'Gate of Life'."

Different from 'God Dar God', 'Gate of Life' is in the form of a human being.At the height of a palm like a ruby ​​material, there is a beautiful long-haired woman embracing the rudder of a boat.

Seeing it, Xiaojie immediately put his hands together and closed his eyes to make a wish.

"Please, 'Gate of Life', please make my wish come true!"

Annie looked at Xiaojie making a wish, and she didn't know what emotion was in her eyes.

After the three of them came out of the hall, Annie asked Xiaojie, "Is there anything you need to do?"

"Actually, I'm actually—" Xiaojie repeated what he told Ed to Annie.

For the first time, Annie showed surprise that was different from her previous calm look, but she swallowed back what she wanted to say because she saw the affirmative look in Xiaojie's eyes that did not contain a joke.

"That's surprising, I thought you were a girl like me."

"But we are still the same age." Xiaojie showed his white teeth to Annie and smiled. "By the way, Anne, do you know that there is something in Phantom City that can change me back to my original gender?"

"If it's just changing the gender, there is one thing that can be done."

"what?"

"Rodel herbal medicine. It is said that it can change the gender of a person, but I'm not sure if it can change people back to their original body."

"Well—so, where is Rodel's herbal medicine?"

"In the ancient ruins of Parfitley."

"Parfit, the ancient ruins?" Xiaojie looked at Ed who was on the side. "Has Ed heard of this place before?"

"Well, I've heard of it, but it seems particularly dangerous there, so I haven't been there yet."

"If it's just the two of you, I advise you not to die." Annie looked at the two and continued, "I know that for you outsiders, the reason for coming here is these treasures or adventures, but since the strength If you’re not good enough, let’s take a tour and go back.”

"Then Annie, have you been there?" Xiaojie looked at Annie and asked.

"Well, I stayed there for half a day in order to obtain the apprenticeship qualifications for witches."

"Annie, can you take Ed and me there in your free time?" Xiaojie clenched his fists excitedly and looked at Annie with anticipation.

"Sorry, my duty is to protect the temple."

"So can you tell us a little about Parfitri?"

"Hey, you don't really plan to go, do you?" Ed was a little surprised, he never thought about going to such a dangerous place.

"Yeah, since there is a medicine that can turn me back into a boy, I must go." Xiaojie looked at Ed, and then said to him, "If Ed thinks it's too dangerous, then tomorrow we will act alone. Let's meet again later."

"You bastard, you might die wherever you go!"

"Then if I encounter something that might kill me, can't I just run away?" Xiaojie turned his gaze to Annie, "And I also want to know Annie's experience; maybe this will let me know, is there any way to Let me live to find the Rodel Herb."

"...Hey, Xiaojie, let's compete." Annie pointed to the woods on one side and said: "It's right there, you and I have a one-on-one competition, if you can make me approve, I will tell you where I am encounter."

"How is it possible..." [How could Xiaojie beat you. ] Ed thought so in his heart, but Xiaojie on the side smiled and nodded and said:

"Okay!"

This caused Ed to have a black line on his forehead again, wondering what was going on in this kid's head.

I followed the two children to the bushes, and saw them standing opposite each other with a distance.

Xiaojie really bent over, propped his knees, and sat up and stretched for a while; while Annie posed in a martial arts posture.

"I won't show mercy." Annie's expression was very serious, and Xiaojie also responded with a serious expression.

"That's natural. If you put water on me, I won't listen to you."

"It's started." Following Annie's words, her figure instantly disappeared on the spot.

"It's gone." Ed was stunned as he watched from the side.

But Xiaojie kicked hard with his feet, turning his whole body and kicking, Annie was right behind her at this moment, and she interrupted the hand knife that Annie stretched out to her neck just now.

"!" Annie looked a little surprised.

"Don't underestimate me. If you want to have a competition, do it for real." Xiaojie jumped back, posing for a fight at any time.

Annie squinted her eyes, then made a horse stance, kicked the ground, and rushed towards Xiaojie quickly.

Her arm flashed a quick arc, left fist, right kick, sweeping legs, Annie continuously attacked Xiaojie with smooth movements, while Xiaojie kept colliding with him with precision in the process, and then jumped to avoid the sweep leg.

"Amazing..." Ed, who was watching the fight between the two, was speechless.

Although he can no longer use Nian, his bestial intuition and fighting experience have not disappeared.

Xiaojie's eyes turned once to the left and to the right, and then she ran to the right.

"Want to escape?" Annie appeared on the right side as expected, and Xiaojie immediately punched him with a right fist, Annie turned sideways and Xiaojie kicked from bottom to top.

"I won't run away!"

I wanted to dodge backwards, but I didn't expect that Xiaojie's kick flew towards Annie together with her boots, so Annie instinctively jumped back sideways, and at the same time Xiaojie turned away after Annie looked away from the shoes. Appeared in front of the eyes.

A fist came head-on, and when Annie stretched out her right hand to resist, she was kicked hard at the foot, and her body fell backwards.

"You're left-handed." When she heard Xiaojie's words, someone grabbed her waist. "But Annie, you are really good."

Realizing that she was being held by Xiaojie, Annie pushed Xiaojie away.

"Ever since you noticed that I'm left-handed, you've been trying to get me to use my right hand to block the attack, but to divert my attention?"

"Yeah, otherwise if you keep fighting with me, I may be beaten to the ground by you soon. Since there is no way to fight head-on, I can only find a way."

Annie didn't expect that this seemingly innocent and silly kid in front of him would figure out a way to deal with himself in the battle.

"However, if you continue to fight, I may still use the method against your right hand."

"Do you think I won't take precautions after you tell me?"

"Yes, that's why it's more interesting. Because Annie, you are very strong."

Speaking of the last sentence, Xiaojie's eyes were full of fighting spirit, and she was ready to fight again, but Annie just stood there and just looked at her.

"There's no need to compete anymore, I already know your level." Annie walked towards Ed.

"Hey, isn't it better?" Xiaojie was a little disappointed.

"Although it is still dangerous for you to go like this, at least there is a possibility of getting out of the body." Annie said in a flat tone: "I will tell you about my experience of going to the ancient ruins of Parfit."

"Really? That's great."

It was night when Xiaojie and Ed separated from Annie.Annie has been talking with them about her experience in the ancient ruins of Parfit, which also made Ed categorically unwilling to go there with Xiaojie, and when Xiaojie and Ed found a hotel to live in.

Looking at Xiaojie who was sitting on the table doing his homework, Ed still asked the question that was pent up in his heart:

"Are you not at all worried that you might die?"

"No." Xiaojie continued to write his homework without raising his head.

"Why? Aren't you afraid?" [Is this child stupid? How could he not be afraid of death?]Are you still too young? ]

"Because I won't die." Xiaojie looked at Ed with a strange sideways face. "So why should I be afraid?"

"..." These words made Ed speechless.Then he sat on one side of the bed and fiddled with his lighter.

The phone on the table vibrated again, and it was Qi Ya's video call again.This caught Ed's attention.

"Don't take it?"

He noticed that Xiaojie, who was always cheerful and smiling, had a calm expression at the moment.

"I can't take it."

Saying so, Xiaojie cut off the video.

"I don't want to lie to him." Xiaojie said calmly, but his eyes were tangled: "But I can't let him get involved in this matter."

"But I can't think of any good way to make him not feel that I'm perfunctory. Ed, do you have any ideas?"

"Xiaojie, is the person who made the video call to you really your friend?" Ed just asked her like this.

"Well, he's my best friend, Kiya."

"Then I think he definitely doesn't want you to use any excuses or reasons for not telling him the truth." Ed felt that this matter should not be concealed, although he didn't know what happened to Xiaojie and Qiya before.

"If you have to take care of everything yourself, then why do you want to make friends?" Ed looked at the lighter again "You can imagine, if you have a most important friend by your side, but he doesn't care about any difficulties and problems." I don't want to tell you, even if you want to share and don't give you a chance, how would you feel?"

Ed's words made Xiaojie think of what he did to Qiya when he chimera ants.

"..." Xiaojie lowered his head.It was actually a memory that he didn't want to recall or deny, and he kept it in his heart: "Qi Ya... He has done a lot for me. All the time, I feel at ease because I have him by my side, but sometimes I feel at ease. Very capricious."

"I am also very aware that my character is very stubborn and reckless, which has caused a lot of trouble to the people around me, but in fact I... I also want to protect them." Xiaojie looked at Ed with a blank look in his eyes.

"When I decided to face it by myself, on the one hand, I was very disappointed that Qiya didn't understand my feelings, and on the other hand, I didn't want Qiya to die with me. Because the enemy is very strong, very strong, too strong If you gamble with your life and your life, you can't win, but... I don't want Qiya to die."

"Dead?" Ed looked at Xiaojie in confusion.What Xiaojie said was what he didn't tell Ed.

"I can die, but Qi Ya can't... So when I recall that time now, I did hurt Qi Ya."

"Wait—wait! What you said makes me feel confused, can you explain it to me again?"

On the other end of the phone, Qi Ya looked at the phone suspiciously.

This is the second time Jay hangs up on his video call and still hasn't responded to the text message.

"What happened? Xiaojie."

"What's the matter, brother, shouldn't it be time to talk to Xiaojie?" Alluka walked over from behind.

"Oh, Xiaojie seems to be busy with his homework. I'll leave him alone for now."

"Well, shall we go downstairs for supper now?"

"Okay."

When the camera turned to Xiaojie again, Ed was already dumbfounded.He didn't expect that Xiaojie had encountered such an amazing thing, and he didn't expect that one of the heroes behind the scenes was sitting in front of him, and he was such an inconspicuous child.

Of course, Ed also thought about suspecting that what Xiaojie told was just an imaginary story, but he was strangely unable to believe that Xiaojie would be such a person.It also shocked him at the fact that he trusted Xiaojie for no reason.

"I already know what happened. It's really hard to tell." Ed couldn't make a final judgment on who was right and who was wrong between the two.

"But you should really explain to him in detail why you can't have a video call with him. Since you are so important to each other, should you also reassure him?"

Xiaojie was about to say something when Ed interrupted again:

"I know you don't want him to know about your becoming a girl, so you can bypass it to express your thoughts."

"Betched?"

"Yes, since you are in trouble but you don't want him to know, at least let Qiya understand that you can solve it yourself."

"...Well, yes." Xiaojie lowered his head and thought for a while, thinking that what Ed said made sense.

And Ed immediately gave Xiaojie a thumbs up, pointing to himself, "I've decided, I'll go with you tomorrow."

"Eh!? But it's dangerous there."

"I am not as thrilling and exciting as your previous adventures, but I did come out to explore." Ed took out a book from his backpack beside him.

"This is an adventure story I wrote. It has always been about the cultural and interesting stories of various cities, but in fact there is no dangerous experience."

"In the past 65 years of my life, I have lived a very ordinary life, and I even have my own family." Speaking of this, Ed can't help recalling his wife, son, grandson and daughter-in-law.

"Then why did you decide to come out to explore, Ed?"

"About half a year ago, I was diagnosed with 'gallstones' by the doctor, but I couldn't even undergo surgery because of my age." Ed's old face was full of signs of time. "Life is like this. From young to old, I found out that there are some problems everywhere. The doctor gave me a death notice in four years at most."

Looking up at Xiaojie who still has infinite youth in front of him, Ed smiled and said:

"I have always been ordinary, very ordinary, and I have never even had any experience that I can brag to others. But I have a hobby, which is reading novels. I am very envious of the wonderful experiences of the protagonists in the stories. I hope that I will become the protagonist of the story, and I will be satisfied just watching these stories in the future."

"And now, for the rest of my life, I just hope that I can also be a story writer. I can also let more people like me, or even ordinary people, see a different life." Ed handed the book to Gave it to Xiaojie. "I want to start my dream road in my sixtieth year, the road that I never had the courage to challenge when I was young."

"I have a hunch that if I go there with you, if I'm with you, I will definitely write some different stories. Of course, if you encounter any dangers and difficulties on the way, you can leave me at any time, after all It is unnecessary to protect me, and this is also difficult for my strongman."

"No, I think it would be nice to go with Ed. It's nice to travel alone, but I like to travel with friends."

Xiaojie picked up Mr. Ed's book and said to Mr. Ed: "Can I read this book?"

"Of course, I'd be happy if it was you."

"That's great. Also, thanks to Mr. Ed, I know how to reply to Kiya."

Xiaojie smiled at Mr. Ed again, that smile was like sunshine in the dark night.It also made Mr. Ed understand why everyone around Xiaojie can trust him.

This child... has incredible power that can bring others.

[Xiaojie: Qiya, I recently encountered a troublesome thing, but I can solve it by myself, but I can't make a video call with you until I solve it. 】

This is the content of Xiaojie's text message received by Qi Ya who is far away in another city. When he saw the first message, he stood up instinctively.

"What's wrong, brother?" Alluka looked at him in surprise.

【Xiaojie: It’s really not trying to be brave, because I’ve already found a solution.I'm really sorry, I didn't want to hide it from you before, it's just that this trouble has brought some changes to my appearance. 】

Qi Ya quickly flipped through the next text message.

[Xiaojie: Even I can't accept the appearance, and I don't want others to know.By the way, this matter is only told to Qi Ya first, I don't want them to worry about me, Leorio, so Qi Ya also please keep it a secret for me. 】

【Xiaojie: I really really really really want to make a video call with you, really want to see where Qiya is and what happened to him, but I can’t do it now. 】

【Xiaojie: So, trust me Qiya, I will have a video call with you soon. 】

"What a... capricious guy." Qi Ya's expression looked downcast again for a moment.

And Aluka was watching the text message beside Kiya.

"Are you going to find him?" Alluka looked at Qi Ya with a smirk, although she was a little disappointed in her heart, she still said that subconsciously.

"No, this is my trip with you, and if we go to find Xiaojie like this, he will be angry."

Kiya asked Alluka to continue to sit down and eat, and he himself sat beside him and ate barbecue.

"Since Xiaojie asked me to wait for his video call, he will definitely contact me again." Qiya chewed the barbecue indifferently.

[I, believe him. ]

Another text message was sent to Xiaojie's cell phone not long after——

【Qi Ya: That's fine, but after everything is over, you must tell the truth. 】

[Xiaojie: En! 】