BLAZING X BLESSING
(Based on CINDERELLA by Charles Perrault)
PROLOGUE 1
Author: Finally a chapter is finished! Now…you're in charge of the disclaimer part, Kurapika!
Kurapika: And could you possibly tell me for what reason do I have to do so?
Author: Because we're going to continue the story from YOUR POINT OF VIEW, and it's your turn now so just say it!
Kurapika: Why don't I know anything about the order?!
Author: Oh whatever just say it, Kurapika!
Kurapika: Urgh… "Disclaimer: This author owns nothing belonged to my creator"…or whatever along those lines…
Author: Now proceed to Author's Note!
Author's Note: THIS STORY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE HXH ORIGINAL STORY. It has no relation whatsoever with Hunters or anything you've known from the original, but you still can find many hints related to what you've discovered from the original storyline. This is basically a Cinderella-based version of Kurapika's life, but it won't go that 'happy' and that 'simple'. BEWARE OOC-NESS, everyone, though realistically they will surely have a change in their original personalities, since, well, some parts of their backgrounds are different…
…I hate to announce this unnecessary thing but Kurapika is MALE (at least here).
Kurapika: Why does everyone need to announce such a silly thing? All people know which one is my gender, don't they?
Author: …Well, proceed to the chappy!
Kurapika: Hey! Wait a minute, DON'T THEY? Hey…!
CHAPTER 1: DAY OF THE TORTURE
"Gon! Killua! Where are you?!" I shouted.
Oh, damn! I should've not lost them. I should've not assumed this responsibility. I should've run away from home (yeah, like I can do that), I should've just read books at home. I should've … introduced myself first, oh, how foolish …
Hey, my name is Kurapika, the third child of the famous Zoldick six assassin brothers. We live in a region as broad as the Florida Disneyland, namely Mount Kukulu.
Now about the family. In all conscience I was the only surviving descendant of the Kuruta tribe, who are continuously being pursued by a troop of murderers known as the Genei Ryodan / Mirage. After my mother passed away, my father married an assassin, a widow with two children older than I am, but he was slaughtered soon after their marriage. My stepmother then brought me away and married the son of the Zoldicks, my stepfather today. They have three more children from this marriage, so at the moment I have five stepsiblings. Understood? No? Oh, whatever, like I care.
"Gon! Killua! Where are you?!" I shouted again.
Huh … those two had been constantly vanishing and it tortured me a lot, by compelling me to travel around house this huge, which wasn't able to be traveled around by foot in just one day. I even look for them inside the servants' rooms one by one, while each time asking, "Do you happen to see Gon and Killua?" until 200 times, opening and closing 200 doors, as well as not forgetting to say "thank you," until 200 times also.
Let's see, under the beds, under the sink, inside the wardrobes, behind the vases, under the tables, in the laundry …
THEY'RE NOWHERE! Ah, how about in the toilet?
I'll try it …
"Aaaaagh!" I yelled as a ten-centimeter nail welcomed my uninvited arrival.
"Kurapika, you can be on your good behavior and knock on the door before entering, can't you?"
Who's inside … a certain black, long-haired someone.
"Aaaah! G-gomenasai!" I closed the door (or slammed it to be more exact) and broke into a run.
And so … now I was outside the house. The hardest part of this hide-and-seek game was to search for them in this oh-so-very-wide "yard" of the Zoldicks residence, but now and again, those two absent-minded children made everything much easier …
"Gon! Killua! There you are!" I saw them playing around with … Mike, huh? Oh dear …
"Hey, you! What did you guys do that you're all dirty! Hurry up and take a bath!" The twins looked taken aback then they saw me crossing the field and approaching them.
"Aah! It's Kurapika! Ruuun!" They jumped onto Mike's back and it burst forth at a dash. I chased after them.
"Matte! Gon! Killua!"
"Ne, Killua, why do we have to run away? We have Mike with us, don't we?" asked the black-haired boy to his twin brother.
"… nice idea! Hey, Mike, after Kurapika! Don't let him get away!" ordered the other. As expected from the family's greatly-trained hound dog, it obeyed Killua like an adamant robot. All of a sudden, Mike turned around and made a beeline for … me!
"Aaaaigh! Mi-mike… stop… h-hey!"
"Yay! Chase him away, Mike!" Gon piped up cheerfully.
I had no choice but to betake myself to my heels. Somehow the situation was reversed and now I was the one who was being hunted!
"H-hey! Gon, Killua, command Mike to stop! It doesn't listen to me!"
Yeah, like they would ever do that. Fortunately I was faster than Mike in some degree, but I rarely had a good adventure in my life anyway, so a cliff suddenly appeared in front of me out of nowhere! Now what?!?
"Suiiit," a whistle saved my life out of the blue. Mike stopped from its pursuit and I was prevented from doing a suicide … but who whistled … I have a bad feeling about this …
"For goodness shake, what are you doing? What task are you doing around here-AAAAAH! Killua, Gon, why are you so dirty? Kurapika, why don't you keep a check on them? Over and above, what have you done to my beloved dog, Mike?!" Kikyo… or must I say my stepmother looked at me as if she was having a bee in her bonnet.
"Enough of this, Kurapika! How many times have you abandoned them like this until Mike was bound up in your neglect of duty?"
How many times have you barked up the wrong tree? I tried to make everything conceived in plain terms, as always. "They unexpectedly disappeared of their own accord and played around with Mike… "
"Don't allege in excuse! Why could you possibly lose them? They're still young, what would happen if they get out of the gate and run into trouble?!? Moreover, this time you even involved Mike, isn't there any good thing that you have ever managed to be done?!"
After my short explanation, she started to bawl me out as always. Oh well… looks like I am unable to do anything else for now. "Hai, Okaa-san, I admit I'm wrong."
The temperature went down as she said to Gon and Killua, "Gon, Killua, go and take a bath."
"Hai, Okaa-san!" squeaked the twins politely.
Mike was directly fed and spoiled, while me? I was used to grumblings and protests from others. But for aught I care, while they were in bathroom, I could spend my time reading quietly.
Wearing two very identical turtle necked sweaters after bathing, the two troublemaker twins walked side by side in high spirit, thinking about what they should do next.
"Ne, Killua, we must apologize to Kurapika," suggested the younger of the twins.
"For what? Gon, listen up, Kurapika is an arrogant, annoying, know-it-all person! Even hearing his accent makes me shiver in dislike! After all, it's better to do those things than get bored ourselves, isn't it?"
"Killua… " muttered Gon warningly. Killua rolled his eyes.
"Y'know? That's what Okaa-san said."
"I know, but Killua, why do we call him by name? Isn't he our elder brother? We should call him Onii-chan…"said Gon quietly.
"Okaa-san instructed us to do so, and besides I don't want to call him Onii-chan, uurgh," answered Killua.
"Killua, let's play somethin!"
'Gon sure loves to change topics,' so Killua tought.
"Hmm… I have an idea… " whispered Killua with his kitty face. Whenever he flashed out that expression, I know that nothing good would gonna happen to me, and I was right. They searched for me who was reading a book in the living room. Around that time I was very absorbed in my reading, so I didn't pay much attention to their approaching footsteps (although they had been specially trained to approach their preys without producing any sound, like a cat, it was likely that I could detect their presence in my normal state).
Reading might give an advantage to spying enemies, but hey, reading gives you a hell lot of more useful benefits to accelerate the development of your brain and provide you with the acknowledgement needed for many unforeseen circumstances, (somehow, I feel that my brain skills helped me a lot to overcome difficult obstacles in some kind of tests, I don't know…maybe it's just my imagination) so that slight negative part of reading was surely beneath notice. (Note from Killua: So the best time to attack this guy is when he is in his reading state. Believe me. Watch this…) Killua was skilful enough to sneak into the room and while showing his kitty face of his he…
"AAAAAAAAAAH!" I screamed in terror as I jumped from the sofa. Killua bubbled with laughter while guiding his spider remote control.
"Aaiigh… D-don't follow me, cursed spider!"
Wait, I shouldn't be warning the spider, I have to make amends to those two wet blankets!
When they realized that I was going to run amuck, they locked the door from outside and controlled the spider from the keyhole.
HEY, MIND YOUR MANNERS! I'm trapped in here. Well, this is just the secret between us (although, again, somehow I feel that many people have known about this already) that I hate (albeit am afraid to) spiders. Ugh, even toy spiders make my flesh creep horribly, let alone the real ones. However, the gods didn't give me any mercy because suddenly a real spider appeared before my eyes. Did I have any choice but to make an ass of myself? I was forced to dodge around the room just to escape the stupid creepy-crawlies.
"Kurapika is a real coward," said Killua with a chuckle while Gon was rolling on the floor, laughing. Damn you rude little brothers, this is your (step)brother we're talking about! Can't you consider how depressed I was when taking care of you in Kikyo's absence?!
Really do I want to kill these spiders… but I was too disgusted to do it.
"Hey Kurapika," Killua called out while opening the door, "What are you doing up there?" He let out a sinister laugh while watching me standing on the sofa.
"Killua, you're so great to be able to controls two spiders at a time!" said Gon, still laughing.
"Stupid Gon, it's a real living spider!" sputtered Killua. He was always Gon's private corrector.
"Whoops… "
"Then please get them out of here and scram!" I said, somehow managing to glare at the boys and the spider at one sweeping motion. Both the spider-like remote-controlled creeper and the real spider were still moving.
Killua stucked out his tongue and said, "Why should we do that for you?" Can't you give me the slightest bit of respect? I broke into cold sweat when the real spider approaching me even more. However, suddenly Gon noticed something and move towards me.
"Killua," said Gon while approaching the spider, "This spider is a little queer, pretty good to be added to our collection."
"Huh? Really? Lemme see," Killua breathed in rush.
Gon took a living spider with his hands and gave it to Killua. Yuck, that's gross, and you are collecting them?
"S-since when have you been collecting spiders?" I wailed, shivering in horror.
"Oh, so you've finally found out? Heheh, coz our collection is hidden in another room you've never visited, it's natural that you've just discovered it now," said Killua sinisterly.
You don't say. And don't tell me you aren't just treating your collection as cute, eight-legged pets and manage to train them exercising. Furthermore, if you use me as your training gears, you'll get a laugh therapy on your heads as well. However, I assure that you'll never escape the hospital if you ever have the conscience to do such things, as you have surely understood very well. Well maybe Killua has, but Gon certainly won't.
"How's it Killua? The spider's pretty good, isn't it? It's cute!" said Gon impishly.
Cute? Gon, have you lost your mind? In this world there wasn't any spider which could fulfill the "cute" criteria! Moreover it's a spider as big and fat as a tarantula!
"It has a nice motive! Let's keep it, c'mon, Gon," said Killua, dashing outside the room. He glanced over his shoulder and grinned to me, "And Kurapika, have a nice cleaning."
Cleaning, oh yeah, this room was a mess because of my blind rush in avoiding the spiders just now, kuso!
"Killua, should we bring our toy spider or leave it here?" asked Gon while he was scurrying out the livingroom.
"Just leave it here."
"Are you asking me to POISON you?!" I snapped.
Killua turned around and sighed deeply. "Okay, Gon, take away the spider."
Gon obeyed Killua's order, his eyes gleaming like a little dog sent to fetch a ball for his master. Killua yanked the cuffs of his turtleneck over his hands and winked naughtily to me before leading Gon out of the room. Hoping that their departure augured well, I jumped down the sofa and started to clean things up.
However, I was interrupted by someone who entered the living room.
"Kurapika, tidy up my room and clean it, I'm going to go killing someone," said Illumi without any expression, "jane." And he left without any further delay. I haven't even replied to you! Who do you think I am, your errand-boy?! But this was not what you would hardly see everyday. When I was trying to clean up the room again, another person came in.
"Kurapika, make me a meal, complete from opening to closing," said my fat stepbrother leering down at me arrogantly, "Our chef is buying ingredients for dinner, so just use anything left, also don't forget to clean my room, I'm waiting you inside my personal computer room."
After saying all those in one single breath, Millky left me without giving me any chance to say a word. Damn you! You're no different from Illumi!
"Kuso! Why do I have to do all these?"
Of course, I didn't say it out loud. If I said those words louder than twenty-five decibels, I would get a punishment in less than twenty-five seconds. But I frequently protested my slow and depressing life. Clean the rooms, cook meals and wash the dishes for that fat stepbrother, walk all around the house and get scolded because of those two lamebrains as brothers! Hey, Karuto never asked me to do anything painful. Hn … cute little--
"Kurapika," I heard a voice of a little kid behind me.
"Ah, Karuto? What's wrong?" I asked warmly.
I felt a jolt of relaxing comfort while looking into that pair of innocent eyes. And I also rarely see you in the family's kitchen, what ails you?
"I'm hungry, too."
Huh?
"Well, okay, I'll make you something," I said, scratching my head with a finger, Geez … I don't know if there's anything left from that greedy pig though.
"I'm bored, too."
Huh?
"And so?" I asked with a smile.
Are you finally opening up to me? I need to say that I am not exactly full of beans but I quite appreciate your …
"So be my playmate."
Huh?
"Karuto, I'm busy so… "
But that was so lame an excuse to be alleged to an eight-year-old killer-to-be.
"Let's play Mike," the child insisted.
Didn't you listen to me at all? While glaring to me straightly, Karuto repeated, "Be my playmate."
Are you treating me as Mike now?
"Let's play," demanded the child, "Mike."
Don't call me Mike! I might be your brother and your mother's servant, but I'm a human not your DOG!
"Be my playmate or I'll tell Mom."
Are you threatening me? I heaved a deep sigh. Now it's my turn to dictate my own terms!
"Okay, I'll accompany you, with three conditions. One, I'm your brother, although there is no blood connection at all between us, you are obliged to call me 'Onii-chan' or 'Kurapika'. Two, I am neither your toy nor your dog. Never call me Mike; it must be Killua who has taught you. Punch him, because it's a slander. Three, I have much work to do and you know that. Ask Millky to go for a picnic with you. Or go hiking with Illumy. Don't bother me again, and DON'T play with Gon and Killua, their trouble-making disease is more contagious than SARS. Understood?" I said, nodding forcefully.
Man, everyone's no different!
EPILOGUE 1
Author: Aww, Kurapika, you're such a sweet big brother…
Kurapika: That's disgusting, I feel like a care-worn teenager! Somebody has to fix this up!
Author: More like a damsel in distress…
Kurapika: Na-naniiii?!
Author: There would be more characters' appearance in the next chapters: Leorio, Neon, Right, Hisoka, Tompa, Hanzo, Baukurou, Ponzu, Wing, Bisuke, and the rest of the Ryodan, etc…
Spoiler: One of the princesses was Neon Nostrad.
Review X Review, readers!
TO BE CONTINUED