Book 1: Simplicitatem
Chapter 1: Inaugural Game
"To be perfect is to be unable to improve any further, and as a scientist, I find that to be a truly detestable thing."
-Kurotsuchi Mayuri (Bleach)
Small and fifteen years of age, a slender figure curled herself into a corner set far back in an alley. Dusk was beginning to fall, but she made no move to stir. Only the sand around her did such a thing, carrying with it the wind and debris that consisted of plastic bags and pungent odors, things of that sort.
Eagerly, she tore into the loaf of bread she had manage to scrounge from the old man who ran a store stand. As she chewed the hard outer part of the bread, she flipped open the book she had been learning how to read. It was a rather large book, one with the back cover torn off and pages yellowed from age and use. There were about four-hundred pages to the novel. It was a painstaking process, but she enjoyed it nonetheless. There was something fascinating about the letters artistically sprawled on the paper that spelled out for her a life entirely different from her own.
She swallowed the dry wheat, craving water or something to drink, but stifled the urge, instead settling for attempting to decipher the next paragraph.
She had long since figured out that books were the best things next to food and shoes. Food was always great of course; she could not remember the last time she had not felt hungry. And shoes wore out quickly with the amount of running she was required to do, and without them, she could easily step on something she wasn't supposed to, given that she lived in Meteor City; thus the dilemma. But books, now, books were entertainment, a makeshift pillow, and a compacted alternate universe, all simultaneously. Nodding once and biting into the loaf again, she decided that shoes were probably priority; then came books, and then food.
"Aika." A scolding and achingly familiar voice came.
The girl jumped, almost choking, dropping her book out of surprise. The front of it closed on her, and she frowned as she lost the page. Reluctantly replying to her name, she crossed her arms and puffed.
"What do you want old man?" She blew her bangs from in front of her eyes; she spoke with a full mouth.
"Ah, that's no good." Another figure rounded the corner of the alley and began making its way toward her. "You need to show some respect for your elders."
"I thought I specifically told you not to," she paused to swallow, "call me that name."
"It means love song." He protested.
"It means funeral song." She said abruptly. "We went over this old man." She tossed the rest of her bread nonchalantly away from her. "My parents never cared about me."
"So much pessimism in one little body." He sighed.
The sun had finally met with the rim of the earth, beginning to dip under the surface. Shadows had begun to grow longer and become more menacing.
"I'm a relatively optimistic pessimist then." Aika leapt to her feet and began to stretch. "Are you here for the chess match?"
"Of course I am. That was the deal right?"
The streetlight over their heads flickered to life as Aika sighed. Immediately, bugs began to buzz and swarm toward the source. It was a meager source of illumination in the threatening abode of Meteor City, but it did them well and allowed the two to enjoy their little game.
The man, finally stepping under the brightness of the lamp, revealed his features. He was a kindhearted old man, the type you knew always had a smile on his face. Unfortunately, it was the kind ones the world had a tendency to be cruel to, and their little city enjoyed being satirical in its own sense. He walked with his eyes closed. The left side of his face was disfigured, and the skin rough and discolored.
"How are sales going?" Aika asked as she usually did, pulling a splintering chess board out from behind a tin trash can. This alley was her territory, and all the other children knew it. Anything she kept in the particular strip went untouched; still, she had the irresistible urge to hide anything she considered precious. Subconscious and instinctive, it had become second nature to her- fighting for everything she ever needed, that was.
"Oh, they're great." He groaned as he lowered himself to the ground to sit on it. "We sold all of our fruit today."
"That's good to hear."
With a thump, she laid the board out and went to find the bowl they kept their chess pieces in.
A loaf of bread for a game of chess. That was the deal. The girl sometimes had trouble getting by, sometimes going the entire day without a bite to eat. Though she tried to pretend otherwise, on days like those, it seemed that the man just knew and brought her the bread he had not sold.
He was a lonely person. His significant other had died several years back in the very accident that had mauled his face and taken half his vision, his left eye.
"Aika, when are you going to beat me in a game of chess?" He lamented playfully. "Winning all the time is rather boring."
"Perfection is what's boring." She shrugged, and sat down on the opposite side of the board, placing the chess pieces in their appropriate places. "You can still do plenty of interesting things as you win."
"Am I the black or white pieces today?" He asked.
"You tell me."
"I'll be using algebraic notation today."
"Alright."
The old man made the first move.
"Pawn to C3."
Aika moved her right hand to shift the white pawn to the corresponding square.
The first time, she had been mortified, as if she thought she was simply playing chess with herself. Soon she found out it was far from it. The old man was clever and very wily. It provided her almost as much entertainment as her novels.
"I'm moving my pawn to D4." She narrated. As an afterthought, she added: "I meant D4 from my perspective."
"You're making things difficult aren't you?" He chuckled.
"That's my job."
Soon after they were well into the throes of the match, Aika spoke.
"Oyaji, you're only blind in one eye, right?"
"Queen to B6." He crossed his arms. "Hmm, yes, that's right. Why?"
"My knight takes your queen." The girl said triumphantly. And then: "Why don't you open your other one? Keeping it closed is… it's kind of a waste, isn't it?"
"Rook takes Knight." He answered, smiling slightly.
After a pause he began speaking again. "I like being blind. Meteor City can be a wonderful place. Lush grass as far as the imagination can reach. No one is ugly and everyone is beautiful. I can hear better than I normally would if I were to rely on my sight. I can appreciate more."
"Bishop takes rook. Check." Aika smirked.
Again, the old man sighed. "Ignorant as ever I see. Pawn to E7. Checkmate."
A dead silence ensued. And then a low groan. He heard a thump as she fell backwards to lie on the floor of the alley. "Do you make it a point to delude yourself, old man?" She asked.
"If you call optimism delusion," he hauled himself up to his feet. "Yes, I do. That and I make it a point to lecture you." He chuckled to himself.
"Oyaji, when are you going to tell me your name?"
He only laughed again as he began to make his way out of the alley. "The day you accept yours." He answered simply.
The old man rounded the corner and disappeared from sight. Aika tried to close her eyes and enhance her hearing as the man seemed to be able to do, but to no avail.
Above her, the lamplight went out with a spark.
"I'm not little. I just live in a big world."
-Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)
The sun had graced Meteor City with its presence as Aika walked, more like scampered, down along its streets. Garbage littered the roads everywhere. The citizens had become so used to the constant presence of waste that no one bothered to even kick it to the side anymore.
The main trash heap that their city was known for existed smack in the middle of it. It was an interesting place, and surprisingly very quiet. Rampant in disease and rodents, the inhabitants made a point to avoid it. Aika enjoyed the solemnity that could be found there. Since it was such a large place, people crowded the perimeter of the town, so the streets were always crowded, bustling, and overheated.
Upon reaching the foot of the mountain, she leapt upward toward the apex of the trash heap nimbly, jumping from place to place to find decent footing to ascend. Once she finally did, she plopped down and sat on the remains of a television with a shattered screen. The wind howled around her, and Aika inhaled deeply.
The air was rank and terrible, but it was so mournful. The girl looked at her hands. Sores and abrasions covered them. The small, open wounds stung horribly, but she made it a point not to show anyone. Perhaps that was the reason she would only hang out with the old man; he didn't question her appearance, or wounds, or reasons.
Small movements happened sporadically all around her; the teenager didn't need to look to understand that the rats were uneasy with her presence.
One darted from under the cover of a trashed bulletin board. With startling speed, Aika grabbed the rodent by its neck and pressed with her thumb and index finger on either side of its head so it could not nip her.
She examined it closely and after a moment's thought, she muttered, "No good," and let it loose. Gratefully, the rat sped away, back toward the bulletin board it had been finding shelter beneath. The sores would have to heal on their own or wait until she could find something uncontaminated.
Voices that made no extra effort to conceal their presence suddenly poked in through her consciousness as she registered them.
"… The head is just another leg for the sake of…" A surprisingly soothing voice made its presence known.
Aika slowly got down off of the broken television and gingerly stepped onto the trash heap, her curiosity getting the better of her. Nobody in the city enjoyed the dumping grounds; at best, it was a fact of life they were forced to accept.
As far as she could tell, the person who owned the voice was not that far away. It sounded close, closer than she would have liked, to be honest. As she rounded the mountain, taking caution to stay quiet, Aika caught a glimpse of the back of a figure. It was clad in black, with onyx hair to boot. In front of him were five other silhouettes.
She stilled herself, quieting and slowing her breathing. People had a tendency to be hostile here, and congregations were rare, much less existent. Who were these people?
"And what do we have here?"
Aika suddenly felt a malicious presence not three inches away from her neck as the hairs there and on her arms rose. This was not the voice she had originally heard. From the inner circle she had been staring at not half a second ago, a figure was now missing.
This voice was pitched slightly higher, and reminded her of the sound of a snake shedding its skin.
Acting on adrenaline and instinct, Aika lashed out and roundhouse kicked –or tried to roundhouse kick- the shadow behind her. But fear had made her lose her control and she wound up using much more force than necessary. Her kick ate only air and she had difficulty regaining her balance.
"What's going on Feitan?" The voice from before called, sounding more annoyed than concerned.
"We have another rat rummaging around."
Aika hopped backward a few feet, gaining a certain safe distance. This man's speed was incredible; when was the last time she had been caught so utterly off guard?
This Feitan was clothed similarly to the form she had been previously been staring at, though his hair was shorter, and parted differently, and he had narrower eyes. His lips were curled into a cruel smirk, and his irises showed nothing but a yearning for animalistic carnage.
"Leave her alone, Feitan. There's no reason to go after every single one." The only female in the group spoke up.
"Macchi, are you ordering me around?"
"I'm stating facts. And pointing out the fact that you rudely interrupted Leader."
So that's what they were; angst-ridden children who never had model figures in their lives, trying to make themselves a world of their own.
"I'm just having some fun."
Aika heard no more as he charged toward her.
This man was not a human. He moved so quickly he left after-images in his terrifying wake.
The girl heard before she felt something break in her body. Suddenly, her right arm was twisted at a strange angle, and Feitan was now behind her, instead of facing her.
The pain was incredible, rippling through her entire frame, and she fought to keep her knees from shaking, her eyes from filling. An unbecoming sound escaped her lips.
"Some fun." Another sitting figure snorted.
Aika didn't understand what was going on. This was not a typical human reaction to watching someone have their elbow shattered. The five people couldn't have been much older than her, judging from appearances, perhaps three or four years at most.
"Shut the hell up, Nobunaga."
Aika shuddered, and decided to leave her arm be. Trying to set it back at this point would be both dangerous and a waste of time.
He charged again, this time grinning instead of smirking.
Thank god she was left-handed.
She could see that Feitan had dangerously elongated and sharp nails. Bringing his fingers close together, he could make a makeshift dagger.
Scratch that; he could make something more dangerous than a dagger.
Acting quickly, Aika sidestepped the jab and grabbed his forearm. It was only for a second, but she could see the shock that registered in her opponent's gaze.
The teenager inhaled deeply again, and tightened her grip.
Puzzled and startled, the dark-haired male yanked his arm free and jumped backwards once. Cautiously, he examined his arm, opening and closing his fist. His nails were no longer sharp.
"What did you do to me?" He hissed, eyes narrowing further.
Aika shrugged, eyes fleeting to her own arm. "Beats me." Her elbow was beginning to bruise and discolor a result of his harsh treatment toward it. It looked nasty, and painful.
Feitan reared to rush toward her once more, but he was interrupted.
"Feitan," the suave voice stopped him in his tracks. "That's enough. Leave her alone."
Aika's attacker paused for a fleeting moment, and then straightened himself up, dusting his clothes off. After shooting her an intense glare, he abruptly turned around and returned to the rest of the group.
The girl only stood there for a few moments, unsure of what to do. Was she free to go now?
"Girl, what's your name?" The voice came obviously from the figure who they called their leader. He turned around to face her, and suddenly, she could not move. Soulless pits, like the steep drop to the ocean floor, his gaze was immobilizing. Ochre irises did not relax their grip on her.
Before anyone could stay another word, Aika had fled, turned around and sped down the side of the dumping grounds, left hand clutching at her elbow, heart hammering against her ribcage as if it wanted to burst free of its own confines.
Didn't look back.
END CHAPTER 1
"Good is predicated on corruption and evil."
-Tsunenaga Tamaki (Deadman Wonderland)
A/N: Hey, Mimi here! Wow, I haven't written in such a long time.
Just so you guys know, this portion of the fic will be set in Meteor City, the Geneiryodan's hometown. The gathering that Aika saw was the beginning of the formation of the Troupe.
And also, I haven't read the manga for Hunter X Hunter, so this fic will be set solely on the anime.
I hope you guys like how this is turning out. I have this terrible habit of abandoning my stories sometimes but its summertime now, and I basically have this one all figured out! Thanks for giving this fic a chance, yay! Read and Review, please!