FOREWORD: writing a fan fic based on someone else's works calls for a proper disclaimer. The only thing I own here is the story and the other characters not found in the series Hunter x Hunter. That said, you may now read the fanfic proper)
The Never-ending Game of Hide and Seek
title
Today, we shall take the form of a raven hovering in the night sky over uncharacteristically quiet streets and lightless buildings of York Shin City. The stillness of the wind and the silence the city is producing is deafening, eerie, unnatural. We fly towards the outskirts of the city, searching for a place to stay the night and for entertainment. Finally, we settle into an abandoned building.
Cracks adorned the walls and the pillars of the building. The night sky, unadorned by stars, sent dark heavy clouds, threatening the current protagonists in our raven's eyes. Unlike the city, the building screams with life, a condition our raven finds comfortable. We then settle on a window, our raven's intention alien to that of our own.
As if on cue, sensing the audience's need to see the actors, the moon peeks from the clouds giving us enough light to distinguish their features. None existent doors and windows reveal the inner recesses of the structure. Our raven's adjusting its eyes to the darkness and the very little light provided, giving us, the audience a clearer view of the scene. We notice the particularly large amount of dirt and dust, traces of the building's weariness and strong evidence of the society's ignorance of this structure. The rats scuttled around and jumped into the various holes, hiding in their makeshift homes sensing our raven's presence. Spider webs and trapped insects hung in various places. But above all, we notice the main characters of this picture, a tall man, bruised and bleeding in various parts of his body, and a girl, looking at the man so intently.
Both of the actors stand frozen, and as if someone pressed play, they come to life, breathing, but neither moved, still studying each other. Until finally, the man decided to sit down, his movements breaking the silence.
It was the night of his last mission for the month according to the folder handed to him by his father a week before. From an outsider's point of view he should be happy, if not satisfied, and yet here he is, disappointed. Why wouldn't he be? Yes, the target was successfully killed without a doubt, but he was careless. Illumi is, was, never careless but the sarcastic voice in his head is telling him otherwise. He looked at his current condition. His good clothes soiled with blood, his blood. Open wounds, various glasses stuck to his arms and legs, and cuts embellish his body further humiliating him.
He frowned as he recalled what happened a few hours ago but decided against it. Getting disappointed with himself would have to wait. What currently called for his attention are his wounds. He has to stop the bleeding on his lower abdomen soon. The gaping wound can no longer be ignored.
He could feel the temperature drop lower. Faint sounds of thunder closing in. He cursed inwardly, blaming himself for thinking he didn't require to secure any place to stay in earlier. His original plan was to ride an airship back to Kukuroo mountain right after the assignment seemed moot given his current getup. He has to find a place soon, the weather and his wounds urging him.
He ran faster, making sure no one was following him.
At last he reached the outskirts of York Shin city. He descended from his flight gracefully and down to the seemingly abandoned building before him.
The place seemed relatively okay for an abandoned building. Deciding that it would have to do, he entered.
What did go wrong? The nagging voice in his head just couldn't seem to shut up. Pushing the impending question in a corner, he looked down at his body and proceeded to pulling the shards of glass off of his skin.
Noticing another presence in the building, he stopped. My god, his senses must be getting duller by the minute due to extreme blood loss. He stood proudly, his features showing the littlest of concern for the intruder and scanned his area.
"You look like you've been carried off by a cyclone and ran into a bunch of mirrors, mister."
His raised his left eyebrow at this. That was a very inaccurate estimation of what has happened to him. He looked at the owner of the voice, assessing the potential threat she posed.
To him she looked immensely harmless. She has quite small frame compared to him and she doesn't seem to be carrying anything with her. Her nen seemed to pose no problems as well but he was still wary of her. His years of experience told him to never underestimate a person based on their looks but his senses tell him different. What was peculiar about her though is appearing in this abandoned building. He idly wondered if it's currently a trend for teenagers to wander alone in abandoned buildings these days. It was either that or she had other reasons for being here.
Was she sent here to kill him? Perhaps. The only way to find out is talking to pry it out of her, one of his various specialties.
"Why are you staring at me? Do I have dirt on my face too?" she asked. This made his brow rise even higher. And then she made her way towards him. He continued to stay in his position ready to throw a needle at her at the first sign of hostility or assault towards him. Until finally, she was close enough and started to pull the glass off of his arms.
"Yikes, this one's in pretty deep." She said, looking at the wound as it bleeds after she removed the glass.
"What are you doing?" he asked, his eyebrow now resuming its original position.
"Removing the glasses off your body" she said as a matter-of-factly "you seemed like you wouldn't do anything about it."
"Plus, I couldn't heal you with all those things stuck on you."
Heal him? This got his attention.
"We have to act fast" she said crinkling her nose at the sight of his blood drenched clothes "That's A LOT of blood. It's a wonder you're still standing."
He found the way expressive her face looked while concentrating on pulling the glass off of him entertaining, the way her eyebrows furrowed in disbelief as she pulled the really deep ones, or the way she shakes her head in disbelief that a person can have this many punctures and not seem to mind. Once or twice he caught her eyes wandering to his face as she pulled the glass as if expecting him to say ouch or react.
He then sat down, noticing that she's having a hard time reaching the glass stuck to his shoulders. Remembering that there were annoying bullets stuck to his back (ones that didn't penetrate his skin deep enough) he then held one of her hands, signaling her to pause, and then proceeded to taking of his needle vest and his under shirt.
Seeing the strange stones that punctured his body, she started taking those off too.
Visible foreign objects removed, she then asked "Is that everything?"
"Yep" Illumi replied coolly.
Her hair and eyes started to glow and turned vividly white reminding Illumi of some of the members of his family, except hers never looked unruly. She looked extremely ethereal, no longer looking like the plain harmless girl from earlier.
That was when she started singing. The girl's aura taking on various shapes, outlining her body and then pouring out of her mouth and onto him. He didn't tense at this or felt like he was in any danger. It was as if by instinct, he closed his eyes and let her actions take over. Instead he found his body engulfed in an invisible cloak of warmth. He could barely make out the words of the song. He felt his body drown into the warmth, not in an alarming way though for it was the most comfortable sensation he felt. It's that feeling you get when you know you're completely safe, or the tenderness a baby feels when inside its mother's womb.
He pried his eyes open when he felt her hand touch the big gash on his abdomen, and was amazed at the way it closed, tissues repairing itself, cells forming over cells, skin healing, until no mark of the wound was visible. He looked at her as she sang. Hearing words so foreign to him in a melody so enchanting he'd want to play it over and over.
And just as he wished for it, she stopped and smiled.
"That was unusually long." She said, putting him off the trance-like state he was in.
"There. Now all you need is a good bath and you'll look good as new" she said. And then added as she thoughtfully looked at him, "that and a few blood transplants."
He curiously stared at her and then at his own body, feeling around for any wound or scars or still bleeding gashes, he found none. And then he noticed that her hair and eyes aren't glowing anymore.
Feeling compelled and a bit guilty, he nodded his head and uttered a word of thanks to her.
"You're welcome" she replied, smiling at him.
"Do you always heal random wounded people when you see them?" He asked as she sat next to him facing the direction of the moon.
"Nope" She answered as she looked at the moon "I mostly do heal animals." Sighing, she added "I just thought it's only polite for a host to tend to a wounded guest."
Now he got even curiouser. "You live here?"
"At the moment, yeah" turning to him and grinning. He wondered how someone could possibly stand in such dreary quarters, why one would stay in a filthy place baffled him until a certain group of thieves came to mind. Could she be hiding from someone? He looked at her, she looked relatively calm for someone who's hiding. A runaway, maybe? He gave the room a quick scan. No bags in sight. So why is she staying here?
It was then that he noticed her features. Her brown hair looked darker in the moonlight, while her green eyes shined bright looking straight at him.
"And what is a girl like you doing here?" at this the girl looked a bit offended.
"Woah, hey mister, I turned nineteen last week! Tis here is no girl." She answered, pointing at her chest. "And you've been asking a lot questions too! That's not fair." She added sticking a tongue out imitating a kid.
"Your actions say otherwise." a small genuine smile forming on his lips.
"How about we exchange questions instead?" the girl proposed
"Okay, and that's one from your part already, now we're fair." His smile widened a bit as he found himself enjoying her annoyed reaction. "Will you care to answer my previous question?"
"Yes." Two can play it that game the girl thought. "Do you like beetle frogs?"
"You didn't answer my question yet." He asked surprised she asked a question already.
"I just did" her grin matching his "You asked if I would answer your previous question and I did! I said yes!"
Silence float over them for a few seconds.
"So do you like beetle frogs?" She repeated.
He blinked twice in surprise at this. To Illumi, it looked like she really is asking him. Again, he felt inclined to answer and answered "I don't particularly like them."
An exchange of random questions and answers followed soon after, with Illumi unconsciously enjoying every minute of it.
A/N: Alas, the caffeine has stopped supporting my defenses against sleeping already and my brain cells seemed to stop functioning altogether thus I shall end this chapter here.
I have a good feeling about this story. And for the first time in a long while, I've finally made something that has a definite direction, one I'll be most happy to share to you guys once I'm fully rested.
*edit
I gave this a quick read the minute I came home and noticed that I wasn't able to write some of the parts I intended to show. Sorry. Part 2 is coming up soon. Tomorrow maybe.
P.S: Plus points to anyone who recognizes the whole raven act and where it's from. That and I'll get bricked for being so unoriginal 80 percent of the time.
Oh and it's always awesome to hear from you guys, do drop me a message if you can feel like it)
Thank you for reading (and reviewing).
Love sent,
-vjeury
