Bastian stood a good distance away from a skinny, gaunt-looking man, the Hunter's unzipped hoodie flapping a bit in the wind blowing through the mountain field.

"I am going to give you one chance to surrender." Bastian said coldly as he glared at his foe. "And I am also going to give you one chance to apologize for what you did."

"And what, exactly, did I do?" The man asked, tilting his head.

Bastian growled. "You killed the man who saved my life."

"I've killed a lot of people, kid." The man chuckled. "You're going to have to be a little more specific than that."

"A Deep Sea Hunter by the name of Alphonse." Bastian replied, clenching his right hand into a fist as his Nen flared with his anger. "You killed him four years ago when he tried to stop you."

"Oh yeah, the trident-user!" The man chuckled a bit to himself. "That really was a fun fight~"

Bastian growled again. "Now that I've refreshed your memory, let me ask again - will you apologize, surrender, and come with me... or not?"

The man's smile turned into a sneer. "I think we both know the answer to that... 'Killer of Killers'."

"That we do." Bastian said, taking his left hand out of his pocket. "And now that the requirements have been fulfilled, I can finally go all-out."

Over a hundred tridents, all made out of what looked to be blue energy, appeared in the air surrounding Bastian as the Blacklist Hunter raised his hands, all of them pointing towards the man.

"Prepare yourself, Yuudai," Bastian declared, his aura blazing strong, "because you will not be leaving this place alive!"

Yuudai chuckled, his own Nen flaring up. "Funny... I was about to say the same thing to you."

Twilight Sparkle strolled down the path of the park, a picnic basket held in her magical grasp; her and the other girls had managed to find enough free time to schedule a picnic, just like the old days before Twilight became an Alicorn. She found the rest of her friends eagerly awaiting her, each of them having brought a little something to the get-together. Pinkie Pie had brought some freshly-baked cupcakes, Rainbow Dash had ensured that the skies above the park were clear and cloud-free, Applejack had brought along some of her famous cider (which Dash kept trying to steal a cup of) and a basketful of apples, Rarity had provided the picnic blanket, and Fluttershy had brought along a cute little carrot cake she'd made this morning.

"Hey girls!" Twilight called out as she approached. "I brought the sandwiches!"

"Yay! Now we can start!" Pinkie pie declared happily, bouncing up and down and clapping her hooves, Rarity smiling at this announcement; Fluttershy gave a quiet "Yay" of her own as Applejack once again slapped Rainbow Dash's hoof away from the cider cooler.

Bastian leapt back to dodge another grab attempt by Yuudai, who laughed. "I wonder how long you can keep dodging like this! We both know that sooner or later, I'm going to grab you!"

He's right, Bastian thought as another storm of tridents drove Yuudai back, I can only dodge for so long.

The Blacklist Hunter had learned through the grapevine that Yuudai - colloquially known as the Hunter Killer, due to always targeting Hunters - had a Specialist Hatsu that allowed him to steal his opponent's available Nen while simultaneously locking them in a state of Zetsu for exactly one minute by grabbing hold of them for only a few seconds, giving him a boost while weakening his target; this was especially dangerous to Hunters who relied solely on their Nen to fight, as it would leave them helpless and wide open for the serial killer to strike.

Thus, Bastian had actually reworked his own Hatsu to counter this - by manipulating dozens of tridents from afar, he was able to keep at least some distance between the two of them, more often than not.

Yuudai leapt forward again, reaching out for another grab, but was forced back as a few tridents blocked his advance and more shot towards him from the sides; he leaped backwards to avoid them, narrowly managing to dodge the attack before they both swung around and came for him again.

He leaned back and let them pass over his nearly-horizontal form before straightening up again and backflipping over another trident from behind.

Yuudai cackled, rushing forward again with a crazed look in his eye. "Come on, you can do better than that!"

Bastian smirked. "You're right; I can."

The next attack came from a direction Yuudai didn't expect - right below him. A trident erupted from the ground in front of him as he darted forward, his momentum carrying him into its path. A moment later, Yuudai coughed up a wad of blood as the trident impaled his stomach, the force carrying his body upwards before the weapon disappeared and reappeared beside Bastian. Yuudai flopped to the ground, bleeding heavily, before slowly rising back to his feet, cackling again.

"This is why I love fighting Hunters!" He said through his crazed laughter. "They've always got something to surprise me!"

Another trident rushed him from the side - only for Yuudai to reach out and grab hold, stopping it dead in its tracks. Scowling, Bastian directed more tridents toward the maniacal serial killer while simultaneously destroying and re-creating the spear in the madman's grasp to get it away from him.

Yuudai, through some miracle, was able to duck, dive, leap, or flip over every trident that came his way, laughing all the while as he slowly got closer and closer to the Hunter. Bastian narrowed his eyes and deconstructed another spear as he decided to get creative.

Yuudai's laughter was abruptly cut short as the trident re-materialized just centimeters away from him, his momentum once against working against him as he impaled himself upon the weapon, blood spilling from his mouth and the wounds as he hung there, stuck.

"Like you said - we've always got something to surprise our opponents." Bastian said, smirking as he sensed Yuudai's Nen slowly fading away. "But for now... go to Hell, and atone for your sins."

Yuudai's limp body was dumped unceremoniously on the ground as Bastian tilted the trident and allowed him to slide off. The hundred tridents continued slowly floating around the area as he looked down at the serial killer's corpse.

"Alphonse... I finally did it." The Blacklist Hunter said to himself, smiling as he stared up into the sky. "It took a while, but... I finally avenged you."

He turned and started walking away, the army's worth of tridents floating after him - until a horrifying Nen presence caused him to stop in his tracks. He spun around, Hatsu at the ready, only to see Yuudai's corpse still just lying there. After a moment, however, Bastian felt that same terrifying aura sweep over him and cancel his power. The tridents all vanished as he dropped to his knees, unable to stand.

Shit, the residual Nen! He silently cursed, realizing what was happening.

Bastian knew about residual Nen - sometimes, when a Nen user died, the emotions that user felt towards another person would fuel their powers, even post-mortem, while also greatly amplifying its effects.

And in this case, instead of forcing Bastian into Zetsu... it was draining his Nen dry.

Tunnel vision began to form as his life force was continuously sapped; Bastian, unable to do anything to stop it, slowly slumped over as his heartbeat began to slow.

After a minute, it stopped, and the Killer of Killers was dead.

Or at least, he was no longer alive in this reality...

The Element Bearers continued their 'picnic party,' as Pinkie kept calling it; there was a lot to talk about, since they had all been so busy for the last few months - or at least, there hadn't been any more major incidents in or around Ponyville. Surprising, to be honest, but certainly not unwelcome. For a while, the six of them had had to deal with major problems arising every few days or so. Of course, some ponies in town couldn't help but wonder when exactly that peaceful period would be broken.

As it turned out, that day was today.

The ponies' picnic was interrupted by what sounded like shattering glass, causing everypony to look around in confusion. Rainbow Dash was the first one to spot it - what looked like a large, black crack in the sky. Everypony there could feel an ethereal, almost malevolent presence coming from it before something dropped out of the crack; that something fell towards the ground at high speed as Rainbow Dash took off despite her friends' warnings. As she got closer, she realized it was definitely a creature of some sort, though it was apparently unconscious (she hoped).

Grabbing hold of it, she managed to slow its descent enough that it wouldn't go splat upon impact. The rest of the girls rushed over as Rainbow Dash looked the creature over. It was tall, easily six hooves in height, and rather ape-like, though it had little visible hair and wore clothing - a grey sweatshirt, unzipped, and pants of a material they'd never seen before.

After a moment, the creature moved, its eyes opening. It looked around, before finally stopping on the rainbow-maned pegasus and her friends. It opened its mouth... and spoke.

"Mind telling me if this is Heaven or Hell?"

Author's Note

So, in case anyone was wondering why Bastian having his Nen sapped led to his (supposed) death, let me remind you of something: Nen is essentially the manipulation of one's life force. Hunterpedia, the Hunter X Hunter wiki itself, says that if one were to lose all of their Nen - and thus, the energy keeping them alive - they would die.

Also, some side notes:

One, A Pirate's Promise has not been cancelled, it is on Hiatus.

Two, Fear's Fun is just coming along very slowly and I made this while I waited for new ideas to strike me. If you like, leave some suggestions for that story.

Three, this is actually an idea I've had floating around in my head for a while now. The hardest part for me, though, was trying to decide which Nen type he'd be and what his Hatsu would be. Initially, he was a Conjurer with a hammer that would double gravity's effect on whatever it touched. Then he was an Emitter who could fire Nen bullets from a finger gun (similarly to Franklin from the Phantom Troupe); as you can see, however, I have finally decided on a specific ability for him, which I have decided to dub "Poseidon's Tridents". It will be explained in more detail down the road.

Anyway, please leave some comments and let me know what you think of this! I could use the feedback!