Greetings! First of all, thank you for deciding to read my first fanfic in this fandom~ *bows* I was once a humor and fluff fics writer so I'm not really experienced in writing serious story (sort of). I hope I can do this well. Any suggestion and concrit are always welcomed :D On other note, English isn't my first language and I don't think I've received enough lessons on it, so please pardon me for any grammatical errors and typos. Corrections are also welcomed here!

Anyway, nice to meet you and I hope you'll enjoy this little prologue.

Update: This chapter is beta read by SageofAges729

Cat's Eye

Summary: Kurapika was reported dead due an attack to the Nostrades by no other than the Phantom Troupe. Years later Gon and co. meets someone that looks exactly like him. Is it a doppelganger, a ghost, or Kurapika himself?

Warning: Fem!Kurapika. I think the label explains it all. If you can't accept it, perhaps it's better not to read this. Although, I'll be really happy and thankful if you give it a shot! Kurapika will be address as 'he' for the several first chapters. It'll change into 'she' later.

Disclaimer: I do not own HunterxHunter and its characters.

Prologue

Flame

The boy heard a soft jingling sound from afar. It was vague, but clear enough for him to distinguish it as the sound of metal chains. He glanced at his colleagues; they seemed indifferent. It was as if they couldn't heard it… or the sound itself didn't exist in the first place. It didn't take a lot of time for him to find out that the sound came from no other than him. It was his nen, his chains.

He slowly closed his eyes and concentrated his mind. As aquamarine beneath the black veils turned into ruby color, he could feel the jingle steadily become louder and soon, he found himself drowning in a pitch black dimension. An image of a single nen chain then appeared before him. One of its ends was attached to his little finger while the other was unseen, fused with the darkness on the other side of that place which looked endless.

The judgment chain.

He traced the chain; it linked him to something, or someone to be precise. There were only two living people who had the blades wrapped around their hearts. The first was himself, using this ability for the sake of strengthening his nen, while the other was none other than the Phantom Troupe's leader: Chrollo Lucilfer.

The time finally had come.

He knew his chain was dying. It was crumbling due a strange, ghostly force from a third party.

The exorcist.

The chain used its last strength to maintain its shape, supported by the essence of Kurapika's aura that had been left on it at the time when his two conditions had been appointed. His current state couldn't project any nen to preserve the chain. No, he should not. He was not allowed to. If there was anything he could do right now, it was only to wait, wait for the chain's final moment.

Suddenly, the chain shook violently, causing cracks on several parts of it. As the exorcist gave his final blow, the blade of his chain broke apart, resulting destruction on the chain. The breaks started from the other end, where the blade had been, to the last piece of the chain that was connected to a ring on his little finger. The chain crumbled rapidly, turned into gleaming metal dust that evaporated away. He felt a great shock on his heart once it was completely destroyed. It was as if his heart had been tightly bonded by an invisible chain. It was suffocating; he could barely breathe while using his nen to prevent his heart from getting crushed.

"Kurapika!"

Said boy snap opened his eyes. His eyes adjusted to the intense light of the outside world for a second then turned to his colleague.

"What is it?" He asked, trying to sound as calm and collected as he could.

The small woman looked at him with worried eyes. "No, it's just… You look unwell."

"I'm fine." He stated before turning away.

Knowing that he wouldn't say anything else, she only nodded without any further question. There was a silence in the air, accompanied by the whir that came from the engine of the car they were in. Nevertheless, Senritsu could always hear more; the driver's soft yet rhythmic taps on the wheel, strange squeaking sound produced by Basho's leather pants and the car seat rubbing against each other as he changed his sitting position, suppressed yawns, gulps, breaths, heartbeats… Kurapika's heartbeats had suddenly turned restless and unsteady, and this concerned her. Stealing a glance at the boy who sat behind the driver's seat, she could only wish that he would be fine.

Kurapika faced the window, his eyes weren't focused on the flashing scenery outside. Instead, his mind drifted to the vision he just had. He put his hand to his chest. The pain was still there, although it had lessened. He gradually gained his composure back and his breath had become steadier now. One thing he knew for sure, Chrollo Lucilfer was now free from his Judgment Chain. The Phantom Troupe might show up for a fight anytime and here he was, accompanying Neon Nostrade for a holiday with her father at the Nostrades' property located in Twebinnen Mountain.

Twebinnen Mountain was a small, right-angled triangular mountain belonged to the Nostrades, located in Vanbal Region of the Republic of Nesie. It was cliffy and surrounded by thick forest, making it almost impossible for normal people to hike. The only way that led to the villa was a heavily guarded road. Right on the villa's backyard was a cliff with a deep, fast-flowing river at its bottom. Only death awaited for those who dared to climb the slippery wall. Out of all places, Light Nostrade chose this place for the sake of his only daughter's safety. He even doubled up the guard's number protecting this area, starting from the foothills until the peak where the villa stood.

Well, for the mafia boss the safety might look decent, but Kurapika felt otherwise. The young leader of Neon's personal bodyguards knew that most of the young lady's personal collections were kept in an underground gallery below the villa. If his archenemies knew of this as well, it would raise the probability of getting attacked by the Troupe, as they might be attracted to her rare and high valued collections of human body parts as well.

Kurapika sighed. He must be worrying too much. Even though his chain had been broken, it would still take a quite some time for the head to rejoin with its limbs. The Spiders were also well-known for having a perfectly organized plan before they moved so this would also give him more time (that is, of course, if they really chose not to let go what had happened back in the Yorknew City and planned to confront him as soon as possible). The problem was, there might be another third party beside the exorcist who acted as a messenger between Chrollo and the rest of the Spiders. Orders could be given, thoughts could be exchanged, and plans could be prepared without any direct communication. According to Killua, Hisoka might have intervened in this matter. The magician might have been the one who had found the exorcist for Chrollo in the first place. Fortunately, judging by his personality, there was no way Hisoka would let Chrollo get away without a death match.

'I still have time,' Kurapika reassured himself. It would be better for him to distance himself from the Nostrades, because unlike him, who couldn't trace the Spiders' whereabouts, they knew perfectly where to find him. He also had to warn Gon and the others about Chrollo's breakout. Their safety was always the most important thing to him, more than anything else. He took his phone out from his pocket, staring at the black screen, his thumb rubbing on the keypads. He would call them once he reached the villa.

But he couldn't.

As soon as he and his companions reached the peak of the mountain, the villa was already on fire. The air was stifling and everything he saw was bright red. He could hear the crackling of the fire and people's screams that came from the burning building.

Just when he was thinking that he still had a little time left…

"What happened?" He asked Nostrade's men. They only stood there, looking at the inferno with terrified faces as if they had been petrified on their feet and couldn't do anything to stop the fire.

"W- We… We're under attack," one of them stuttered. His eyes never left the blaze. "T- The boss is still… there… inside…"

"No! Papa!" Neon screamed as she ran toward the blaze. Her servants tried to stop her but she shoved them away. Fortunately Basho managed to catch her arm and stop her right before she entered the fire. She struggled but was too powerless against the brawny man. "Let me go! My father is there!" Tears of despair poured down her cheeks.

"I can't," Basho deadpanned, his hand firmly held on her thin wrist. Call him heartless, but as her bodyguard, it was his priority to keep her away from danger at any cost. Besides, there was nothing she could do even if she had gone in there. Light Nostrade might have been dead, as well as the others, and the enemies might be still nearby. Only a madman would run into the blaze in that kind of situation.

But there was a madman amongst them, whose eyes invisibly turned scarlet as soon as he heard the people muttered a single, cursed word.

Spiders.

He ran into the building, ignoring his colleagues' warning. He was too reckless and it might cost his own life, but for him, this fire was nothing compared to the raging flame within him which burned him inside out: anger, hatred, vengeance…

Senritsu could only watch him disappear into the blaze. His heartbeats were just like the time when they had pursued the big man from the Troupe at the outskirts of Yorknew City... And it wasn't a good sign. She had a bad feeling about this… Really, really bad.

Her intuition was right. It turned out to be the last time she saw him.

When the next dusk came, the fire had finally been put out. The red color had changed into sorrowful black. The entire property was beyond repair, and the furniture inside had been reduced into ashes. All of Neon's collections had disappeared, along with the people that had been supposedly trapped inside the holocaust. It was just like the incident at Yorknew City's underground auctions; the dead bodies had been wiped clean by an unknown, strange power.

Time flew by and two years had passed since that tragedy. Three young men made their way along the heavily guarded road. It was the same road their dear friend had once took some time before his death.

"It's not that I don't appreciate their kindness for letting us pass without any trouble, but," the oldest guy huffed. "I would be grateful if they'd also accommodate us with transportation."

"Better watch your mouth, old man. You might get yourself killed because of it," a silver haired boy snorted.

The first man looked around in fear that the mafia had heard his complaint and got offended just like the teenaged Killua said. He then noticed something in the younger's statement and turned to him. "Wha- Wait, you called me old man, didn't you? How many times I've told you this: I'm just a little older than you!"

"But you do act like an old man." Killua smirked in amusement at getting Leorio agitated so easily. Such a typical emitter, he thought.

"There, there, Leorio." The last member of the group, Gon, tried to calm down the man in the suit. Honestly, it had been a whole year since the three of them had last met but it seemed that the only thing these two could do was fighting. Killua never missed his chance to tease Leorio while the hotheaded guy almost always got irritated by any single word that came from the ex-assassin's mouth. Well, Killua did look like he was having fun (and perhaps reminiscing about the good old times) but Gon was worried about Leorio. He had heard that life as an aspiring doctor had been quite stressful and in Leorio's case, a large portion of Killua's teasing might double it up.

Sheesh, what would Kurapika say if he had seen this?

During his childhood, Aunt Mito had once told him that people's souls would have turned into stars when they had died. He looked up to the blue sky. It wasn't like he had been expecting to see the stars at noon but he knew that stars were always there even though they couldn't be seen… just like ghosts.

Gon wondered whether Kurapika's soul had really turned into a star, like what Aunt Mito had said. Or had he turned into a ghost instead, haunting the Spiders he had despised so much?

"Here we are." Killua's voice brought him back to the reality. He hadn't notice that they had reached the peak of Twebinnen Mountain.

What stood before them was no longer a luxurious villa but a graveyard. Under Neon's orders the remaining ruins of the villa had been demolished and gravestones had been placed, though there was not a single corpse beneath the ground. The biggest one was (obviously) Light Nostrade's. Around his grave were the capos' and notable members' of the family. She also built one for Kurapika. Even though he had been employed as a mere bodyguard, in her eyes he had been a brave man who had sacrificed his life in an attempt to save her father. At least, that was what she believed. Senritsu knew well that it hadn't been the reason why he had ran into the fire on that day, but she never bothered to tell the lady.

"Gon, Killua, Leorio!" The three saw Senritsu waving at them. They walked approaching the small woman, who was standing in front of a certain gravestone: Kurapika's.

"Senritsu!" Gon exclaimed. "I thought you'd have left by the time we reached this place."

"We planned to, but boss is taking more time than we expected," she explained while gazing at Neon with a sad, knowing look.

'Ah, that's why there were so many guards here.' Killua mentally noted.

"I see." Gon said as he followed her gaze and saw a young woman crossing her fingers as she knelt before the largest gravestone. Neon Nostrade had changed a lot. She wasn't a spoiled child anymore and, with Senritsu's and Basho's support as well as the servants who were closest to her, she lived her life as the new head of Nostrade Family. Everyone had changed in the past two years. Gon himself and his two close friends probably had changed as well.

"Well," Senritsu said, averting the guys' attention back to her. "I guess I'll let you have your private talk here," she referred to Kurapika's gravestone. "See you later." With that, she excused herself.

Gon, Killua and Leorio looked at each other. They still found it strange to talk to a solid stone when they knew that their friend's body wasn't even there in the first place. After a moment of awkward silence and exchanging glances, the black spiky haired teenager decided to speak up.

"Ging… My dad," Gon began. "He discovered ruins of an underground temple that presumably belonged to the Kurta Clan and is investigating it. He told me he wanted to take me there once the excavation was done. He also said that I could bring my friends along." He stopped for a while, clenching his fists while trying to fight his tears back.

"I wish I could bring you there."

Okay, so the prologue ends here! Did you find it too cliché? XD For further information, there might be romance in future chapters though I'm still unsure about it. I've thought of the pairing as well but... hm, let's keep it as a secret for now.

For the timeline, this story takes place two years after the New Hunter Chairman Election arc which mean Gon and Killua are around 15 while Leorio is around 21.

So, how do you like it? Please review and do tell me your opinion on it. Suggestions and concrits are welcomed!