Recently I have rewatched HxH and felt an internall need to write a story about it. It will be a story with an OC from Meteor City as a main character. It starts 10 years before the canon.
I don't own Hunter x Hunter.
A 14 year old boy went past the great piles of junk completely undisturbed by the sight. His red eyes were rarely moving under the hood. He got used to this view. Meteor City has been the world's greatest junkyard and his home. People were desperately looking for anything useful all around him, but he kept going. Such was life in this city, life of outcasts, forgotten by the outside world. The weak perished and the strong thrived – this rule was known by every inhabitant of this place and those who wouldn't accept it, quickly found themselves buried deep in the trash. Survival was, after all, the only thing that mattered.
He felt someone's hand entering his pocket and broke the fingers, sparing no glance at the pickpocket who was crying in pain.
'The first attempt today,' he thought, 'Doctor would say that it's my lucky day. I would like to say that they are learning.'
He looked at the nearby building to see a few people sitting or lying near the door.
'Definitely not a lucky day. They are waiting here and it's not even half past eight,' he sighed and went to the backdoor. After a few hard knocks and shouts it was finally opened by a brown haired middle aged man.
"You are late, Letho," the man addressed the boy by name, allowing him to enter. The man was tall – about 1,90m and was towering over the boy by head. He looked intensely at Letho, who entered as if nothing had happened and pulled down the hood of his dark green blouse revealing silver hair.
"Am I supposed to say something?" Letho asked after a while, feeling a bit uneasy.
"You are supposed to apologize for being late."
"Does it matter if I say anything? I came late, but nothing can be done about it. I'm here now."
"It is good manners to do so." Letho rolled his eyes.
"I'm sorry for being late," he half said, half asked. The adult nodded his head and pointed to the next room, where a purple haired girl Letho's age was cleaning scalpels and needles.
"Hey, Machi," the boy greeted her, "Have I ever told you, that it is stupid to wear white kimono while working here?"
"At least 100 times," the girl rolled her eyes, but didn't stop her actions.
"Ok, ok. Now that Letho is here we can start," the adult interrupted their banter, "Machi, are you done?"
Running a clinic, Letho decided, was a very profitable enterprise in a city like Meteor. Everyday people were coming the them, trying to meet doctor Miroku hoping that he would magically cure their injuries. So far, he has probably seen every kind of wounds, from broken bones, through knife cuts and gun shots, up to the wounds made by nen. Yes, Meteor City was a good place for doctors.
People who were wronged by someone tried to deal the justice themselves or went to someone who could do it for them. And almost always it ended either in a very crowded hospital ran by mafia or in private clinics. The main difference, besides quality, was that mafia accepted favors as payment…and that you had a great chance to die before getting treatment in their place.
"Machi, sew this wound," Miroku commanded the girl who bent over someone's body to sew a stab wound. Letho smiled at the memory of doctor ordering him to sew someone for the first time.
'Sew black with black, yellow with yellow and red with red, and it will certainly be good.'
The boy was torn out of his thoughts by the sudden noise coming from the door and Miroku ordering him to go out to check who was trying to destroy their door this time.
He usually liked his job. While Machi was doctor's full-fledged assistant, he was more like a general worker who did whatever was needed. Moments like these were the rare ones he didn't like it at all. He opened the door to be almost hit by some enraged guy with a bat.
"You…you…," the guy had some problems with articulating his thoughts, "You…let…my…my…brother…die!" Letho did not even nod his head. He had to deal with such situations quite frequently.
"I don't remember anyone dying here recently" he said emotionlessly, evading the bat
"You…you…refused…to…treat him!" the guy swung once more, only to hit nothing again. Everyday there were people trying to get something for free.
"Does this place look like a charity?" they were so annoying.
"So…you…allowed…him…die!" he breathed heavily and tried to attack once more, but was quickly hit with a hook in a chin and found himself on the ground.
"Did he need our permission?" Letho asked sarcastically and the guy burst into tears on the ground. "He is dead now, so stop acting like a child and move on. Blaming others won't help you. Time moves on, you can only accept what it brings," the man became silent with the exception of quiet sobbing, "Now get lost, you are disturbing the patients. Of course unless you wish to heal your broken jaw. It will cost you 50 thousand or something in exchange," he looked around to see a few onlookers, who dispersed after a short while of silence.
"Clap! Clap! Clap!" Letho immediately turned at his heel to see a black haired boy a bit older and taller than him leaning on the wall and clapping. The newcomer was wearing black long sleeved shirt, black pants and he was keeping a book in his right hand. But what stood out the most was definitely a cross tattoo on his forehead.
"Great speech. You must have practiced it before," he praised.
"I'm telling it myself every day," Letho replied before approaching the boy and shook hands with him, "Chrollo, what can I do for you? Has anyone told you that you are looking like a religious fanatic, all in black with a bible in hand?" Chrollo smiled slightly.
"You have, many times," he admitted, "I have a proposition for you and Machi. Very important one and potentially very profitable and life changing. If you are interested come to the old church at 9 p.m."
"Old church," the second boy repeated, "You don't really help the comparison if you choose such places, you know?" Chrollo once again smiled and left.
"Judging by the lack of noise, I guess you have dealt with it," Miroku said after Letho had returned inside.
"Yes, I did."
"Did this guy know nen?" the doctor asked curiously.
"No, he was completely average person who blamed us for not saving his brother," the boy explained and Miroku raised his eyebrow a bit.
"So what took you so long? Did you give him a monologue or something?"
"Of course not," Letho said a bit nervously, "Chrollo came to hang out a bit."
"Chrollo? Ahh, this boy with a scar on a forehead," Miroku remembered.
"He hides it with a tattoo now, but yes." The adult rubbed his nose and after a moment of silence he put on his coat.
"We are closing early today. I have to pay the tribute. Tomorrow is Friday 13th so don't come, the horoscope was rather horrifying and I'm not going to leave my house at all." Letho and Machi just looked at him with knowing looks on their faces. They have already got used to his eccentrics. Once they have waited for him a few hours, because a black cat had crossed his path.
"What did Chrollo want?" Machi asked after they had left the clinic.
"He wants us to meet him in the old church at 9 p.m. He said that he has a proposition for us," he kicked a stone laying on the ground, " It's supposed to be something really big. You know him, he doesn't do things other way."
"After his idea to rob the heroine factory, nothing can surprise me," she said and Letho smiled at the memory. Half year ago, Chrollo had the idea to rob mafia's seemingly lightly guarded factory. Needless to say, they encountered a few strong nen users, who had this idea, that every trespasser must be killed. In the end, they managed to subdue them all, but not only did they get nothing, but also almost died. Machi really liked to remind him that-
"You still owe me money for treatment," the inevitable came.
"Now, now, Machi. Can you maybe drop it in the name of our undying friendship?" he tried to reason, but she was not swayed.
"Does saving your life mean nothing to you?" It was hard to fight against such arguments.
"But don't you think that 1 billion is a bit too much? Doctor charges much less." He tried to use Miroku's influence, but she just snorted.
"He charges too little. He could have already been the richest person in the whole city if he wasn't such an altruist."
'Well, that is true' Letho couldn't disagree. He tried to think of some response but Machi changed the topic to their original one.
"This proposition. What do you think of it?" The red eyed thought for a few seconds before answering.
"I honestly don't know what to think of it yet," he answered, raising his head to the sky and gathering thoughts, "Chrollo said that it is "very important, potentially very profitable and life changing", and if he considers it as such than I believe him. This thing with the heroine factory was meant to be simple, easy job just appropriate for the two of us, so this plan of his must be something very big. Either way, I'm rather certain that we aren't the only people he invited for this."
"I guess we'll have to wait and see for ourselves," the girl nodded her head at that and stopped at the entrance to the building, "See you there." Letho smiled at her back, and went farther down the road.
15 minutes later he arrived at his house. Once it had been located at the deep suburbs of the Meteor City, but nowadays it was consumed by the ever growing city. Even if Meteor was governed by the mafia community and was a harsh place, many people wanted to live there. Common people, criminals, fugitives, priests, hunters, or kings.
There was no official law in this place and everyone could find home here, for the most important rule of the city was "We reject no one. So take nothing from us." People who came here, started anew. They didn't exist for the outside world. And even though inside the city, its inhabitants were absolutely indifferent towards each other, they shared a very strong bound. Rejected by the rest of the world, deep inside, they were like a family.
Letho stood outside the building, looking at the sunset. His mother was one of such people who came to the Meteor City, escaping their old life. He didn't know much about her history, but once she had told him that she hadn't wanted her family to know about her child. That she hadn't wanted him to be raised the way she had been.
She didn't tell him anything about either his father or her own family, but as he grew older he had understood that she had certainly been either an assassin or a hunter. She used to teach him how to fight. How to use his every sense effectively, to observe, to learn and how to use nen. And one day she vanished. She said that she was going to work, never to return.
For a long time, he was waiting for her. When she didn't come back, he tried to search for her around the city. As the time went, he met many people, but never her. He eventually had to accept the truth. His mother was dead and she was not going to return.
He didn't know what to do, so he started to use his skills for living. He started to work for the Community. He worked with a group of other talented people. Chrollo, Feitan, Franklin, Pakunoda, Caleb, Zannah and Dio.
Even if drugs and black market were very profitable for the governers of the city, absolutely the most important merchandise here were the orphans. Orphanages were controlled by the Community and in return of taking care of them, the mafia took children as soldiers. Soldiers who didn't exist in any official records.
His unit was composed of such orphans, very gifted and special orphans, handpicked by the Spider, one of the 10 dark beasts of the Community, himself. Most of them weren't friends, but they worked well together. So well, that they were eventually sent to assassinate a few hunters who were disrupting Community's operations. It was their last mission together.
Zannah and Dio died and everyone else would surely follow them if it wasn't for Miroku who saved them and completed their assignment. The doctor, his mother's only friend, had been observing him all along and came in just in time to prevent his death. The group was disbanded and their paths split. While the others still worked for the mafia, Letho started to work in the clinic in downtown where he met a bit shorter than him, purple haired girl, Machi, , who had already been an assistant there.
'Huh, she didn't like me at all at first,' he remembered. Machi thought that the doctor wanted to replace her so she tried to sabotage his work. He smiled at the momory, 'She succeeded a few times, but the revenge was sweet.'
He was wondering for a while, how was it possible for the doctor to take him away from the Community.
'Maybe I have been just arrogant, but I had certainly been a very precious asset to them.'
However, after spending some time with him, the answer was very clear and very easy. Miroku was simply much too strong for them to mess with. He had once been a 3 star virus hunter, someone once completely devoted to the medicine and nen. He started to live in the Meteor City about the same time Letho's mother did, and opened a clinic where he healed anyone for a small fee.
'The last 2 years in his care were nice, but I can't stay there forever,' he thought. He knew that he will participate in Chrollo's plan no matter what, 'He is after all, my best friend.'
He stood up from the wall and entered the building.
The first thing he noticed was that the traps on door were disarmed.
'Great, someone broke in.' He silently opened the door and entered a dark corridor in utter silence. He immediately noticed that the light in the kitchen was turned on. He slowly approached the door staying in the darkness to see a rather unusual view.
A little, skinny girl, maybe 5 or 6 year old was sniffing through his fridge.
'Kind of look like Zannah,' he thought at the sight of a dark skinned girl with a mop of black hair on her head.
"There is a bread, just beside you," the boy said entering the room, causing the child to freeze.
'Definitely an orphan,' he concluded after getting a better view of her dirty clothes and sunken cheeks.
"What is your name?" he asked her, but she was visibly too scared to talk, "Talk, I won't eat you."
"Ca-, Canary, sir," she muttered quietly at last.
"Canary, a nice name," Letho tried to break the weird atmosphere, "And how old are you, Canary?"
"5, sir," came another quiet answer.
"5, and you managed to disarm the traps on my door," he was truly impressed, "You must be very talented young lady." She raised her eyes and lightened up a bit by a compliment, but still tried her best to become invisible.
"Thank you, sir."
"Sit down here," he pointed her a chair and started to prepare an omlette. After a short amount of time he put it down before her, on a plate, "Eat".
The girl looked confused and stared into his red eyes with distrust.
"It's not poisoned," he assured her and took a bite himself. She slowly started to eat and soon devoured the whole meal.
"Why…," she looked at him.
"Why did I feed you, instead of punishing you?" she nodded, "Because, Canary, by breaking into my house you have managed to impress me. And I believe that talented people should be rewarded. You live on the streets, don't you?"
"Y-, Yes" she said, still rather disbelieving.
"I'm going to show you a technique which will help you. It's called Rhythm Echo. It's a special technique used by assassins, so watch closely," he started to move in absolute silence in a certain pattern and a few afterimages appeared behind him. Canary stood with her jaw open, clearly in awe. "I'll show it to you only once more. It's going to be difficult, but with a lot of work I'm sure you'll be able to learn it by yourself."
A few moments later Canary was all around the place trying to replicate his movements. He smiled. He didn't expect anything else, but he had to cut this visit short.
"I must ask you to leave now," he killed the mood and the girl began to walk towards exit with a lowered head, "Don't speak to anyone about this and don't try to break into my house again."
After she left, he sat on the chair and relaxed.
"I have a feeling that today is going to be very important."
It was nearly 9, when he finally entered the old church.
'Blasted ruin, it's all that remained,' Letho thought looking around the place. Once, this place was very beautiful. Beautiful and crowded with believers. Those who were weak, those who couldn't have taken their lives into their own hands.
'Those too pathetic to even try to improve. Those who could only blame someone else for their fates,' he despised such people. They were all simple tools for those hungry for power, who knew how to manipulate. It was the downfall of the old church. Priests incited a rebellion and everyone paid the price. The Community didn't kill them. They made an example out of them. Their eyes were gauged, ears and fingers cut off, and they were released into the city to warn people, what awaits enemies of the mafia. Priests were tortured publically for days and the temples razed to the ground. Even if they didn't achieve anything previously in their lives, they served certain purpose at the end of them. It was the last time anyone tried to rebel against the Community.
Letho entered the main hall to see a few familiar faces. Chrollo was sitting on the broken altar and reading a book in the light given by the torch behind him. He raised his eyes to meet a newcomer and greeted him silently with a nod. Pakunoda, a busty blonde woman Chrollo's age, was peeling a dirt from under her fingernails.
"It's good to see you again, Letho," she said in a deep voice at the sight of the silver haired teenager.
"You too, Paku. It has been a long time," he liked her. She was polite and respectful towards everyone and in return she was liked and respected.
"3 months and 17 days," another person said. It was a short, pale, black haired boy Letho's age dressed in a long, dark coat.
"Feitan," Letho immediately recognized him, "I see that you still look like a vampire. If I didn't know better I would think that you can't tolerate polluted air and have to wear one of those silly white suits."
"68," Feitan said for some reason.
"Hm?"
"It's the number of your bones I will break one day. It increases with every stupid remark you make."
"Now, now, Feitan. Don't tell me that you would actually harm a friend," red eyed boy responded with a fake fear, before continuing challengingly, "And even if you wanted to, I am still ahead by 5 in a Game of Phantoms, so you are inferior."
Feitan stood up from a rock and began to move slowly towards Letho who did the same. Almost immediately their mirror images appeared all around them and engaged in a silent battle.
"What are they doing?" a red haired girl their age, who was watching the skirmish with interest asked loudly no one in particular.
"They are comparing sizes of their penises," answered Machi, who just took a glance at the event, from a bench she was laying on. The red hair was not satisfied and looked at the very big, scarred, about 20 year old man with very long ears, trying to find an answer.
"Franklin?" she asked with hope.
"They are fighting using only Rhythm Echo. The first hit wins," he explained, "They created this game themselves a few years ago and called it a Game of Phantoms,"
"Just let them do it, Lana. It's their mating ritual," Machi interjected and caused the red hair to snicker.
"Ritual or not," dark haired man with an appearance of a samurai entered the building unnoticed, "I don't think I have ever seen anyone able to use this technique even half as well as the 2 of them."
"Yes, yes, Nobunaga is right," this time it was incredibly tall and muscular man with a mane of dark grey hair, shorts and white tank top, "The rivalry clearly helps them."
The phantoms suddenly disappeared revealing Letho staying behind Feitan with a dagger at his throat.
"And the mighty Letho once again triumphs over the evil creature of the dark, Fei!" he declared loudly and looked around as if expecting applause.
"Hahaha, it was great performance!" the muscular man exclaimed and hugged them both, "You would be both great addition to the arena"
"Tch!" Feitan thched and quietly returned to his place, after releasing himself from the hug, not happy with his defeat.
"Uvo! I see that you found time to attend our little meeting," Letho greeted him.
"Of course! Chrollo's plans are never boring, and I haven't done anything interesting in quite some time! All these guys at the arena are weak!" Uvogin was current arena champion of the Meteor City. Along with Nobunaga they were called the Unstoppable Duo, but he also liked to fight alone.
"Because you killed the rest of them," red eyed teen reminded.
"Did I?" Uvo rubbed his forehead, "It seems they weren't worth remembering."
"Everyone from the arena is just a cannon fodder," someone said mockingly from behind, "Just meat used for easy tasks before we enter the stage."
It was a blonde man with long hair, dressed in colorful clothes. He was a few years older than Letho, had sparkling blue eyes and a massive hat on his head.
"And who are you, clown?" Nobunaga asked with a hand on his sword.
"I see, Letho, that the company you keep is much worse than it used to be. Cannon fodder from the arena should know its betters." The atmosphere suddenly got tense. Both Uvogin and Nobunaga started to use their aura and were about to attack.
"At least, I know that they won't run away at the first sight of life threatening danger, just like you did, Caleb," Letho looked him at him coldly, his red eyes sparking grimly, "Were they too scary to you, or are you simply a pathetic thrash?"
Older boy greeted his teeth in anger and also started to use aura.
"Bang! Bang!" Franklin shot nen bullets from his hand between them, "We haven't come here to fight."
Chrollo closed his book and loudly and stood up.
"Indeed, I have called you there to listen to a proposition I have for you, so stop antagonizing each other," he looked mainly at Caleb, who moved back and sat beside the pillar. Chrollo waited for a few seconds, and after gaining everyone's attention he revealed his plan, which left them speechless, "I want us to rob mafia's treasury."
I will be grateful for any insight you may provide, so review and tell me your honest opinions about this