Trick Pair. Blue-eyed Fem!Kurapika. Edo Japan AU. Heavy symbolism (you've been warned). Four-part drabble series. Corresponds to events that took place in Lycoris Radiata.

Warning: Mature and dark themes. Violence. Sexual implications; semi-explicit.


i.

Like an abrupt dream, his eyes are an incursion.

The pale man is relentless with his sharp-angled glances; how the gold in his glare gleams of vice and voracity, twinkling like smelt steel that can slash throats in mere intervals. It cuts, she thinks. It cuts deep through the hollow of her soul when they gouge for her being with the insatiable hunger of a beast.

However his face is not like that of a spider—bone-white, though not quite like the moon or the string of phantoms that bays for his blood from the soles of his feet. It is painted and unnatural, like rest of his existence. He smirks a little, a sly upturn of telltale lips, and from that very image, she sees the cruel smile of a mononoke.

In the peak of eventide, the skies bleed like his tousled hair, the coppery shine of each strand reminding her of the Great Fire. It is alive as it devours the earth whole in its manic blaze and brilliance. Power—power is a fickle thing and it becomes him. This she understands.

Whilst Kurapika is still, he is in constant motion as he comes for her in angular grace and threat. In her quiet observation, she mulls over the manner of his stride. The gait of a man or a wolf? Perhaps, in his shadow there is truth, when it hulks over her form in a calm calculating prowl. He is intimidatingly tall before her, and in an act of mockery, he hunches down to meet her gaze.

She breathes in, catching the scent of fresh blood. "You are a lie."

Head tilting curiously, he croons, "So are you."

"You are not a Spider."

He gently strokes up an inch-long nail on her throat, the delicate contact raising the hairs behind her neck. It is a tease from the kiss of razors. "Ah, lovely creature," he purrs, voice like a caress, "don't you think we rhyme?"

With just as much nerve as he, Kurapika slaps his hand away. "Stop speaking in riddles."

He smiles. It vaguely reminds her of a cracked mirror; a distorted image of fractured sincerity and illusion. However in the fissures sustain a subtleness—a deviousness of an ancient being that thrills in its dark delight.

"I don't," he tells her, "and you know it's true."

He takes a step back, reveling on the flare in her eyes.

"I am a traitor and so are you."

The pale man chuckles. "It rhymes."


Exposition Corner:

Mononoke: they are vengeful spirits, dead spirits, live spirits, or spirits in Japanese classical literature and folk religion that were said to do things like possess individuals and make them suffer, cause disease, or even cause death.

The Great Fire: The Great fire of Meireki, or also known as the Furisode Fire, is renowned for destroying most of the Japanese capital city of Edo in the third year of the Meireki Imperial era. A reference to the events that took place in Yoshiwara in LR.


A/N: I wrote this here because I already wrote some scrapped scenes between Hisoka and Kurapika in Lycoris Radiata that just felt so out of place.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hunter x Hunter