Chapter One

The car they were driving in sped up and headed toward where the other mafia members said that the thieves were headed. Kurapika turned to his window, eyes closed, sensing that this was some sort of trap.

He knew that Melody was worried for him and it felt nice to know that he might make a friend in her. But right now, he just couldn't shake the feeling that he would meet those bastards so soon.

The Phantom Troupe Brigade. The deadliest criminal gang out there, the ones who slaughtered his tribe, who were probably killing innocents at this moment.

When they got there he watched as the monster obliterated all that opposed him, including the Shadow Beasts who were a highly elite group from the head mafia themselves.

He threw the binoculars to his boss and walked towards the huge crater ignoring the shouts and protests of his colleagues. His eyes burned scarlet with cold hatred at the infamous spider tattoo imprinted on the monster's back.

He walked into that death ground alone, catching the attention of the group.

"OH! Look what we have here! Go home kid, you won't last five minutes!" the samurai shouted arrogantly from his spot above.

"Hey," the monster got a serious expression. "Are you one of those Shadow Beasts?"

"… No." they stared into each other's eyes, daring the other to back down. Finally, the monster opened his mouth to speak.

"Well then, please make this fight worth it." His face turned into a cheerful expression. "But could you wait until I've gotten all of this poison out of my system? It's quite uncomfortable. And could you wait until I've had some beer to help get those leaches out of my system?" he requested.

"Not at all." Kurapika said with a small fake smile.

He ended up waiting for a little over half an hour. When they were finally about to begin, the rest of the Shadow Beasts showed up and he backed out to watch.

Again, they were obliterated. But this time it was by the ones called Feitan and Machi with one captured. Again he stepped forward to fight, still ignoring the protests.

"Great! Now that all the interruptions are taken care of, we can begin!" the monster happily exclaimed.

Kurapika nodded in agreement and took off his dress-like outfit.

They disappeared.

Jump.

Strike.

Attack.

Chains?

Grab.

Jump.

Missed.

Punch.

Dodge.

Hit.

Jump.

Healed in smoke.

Pause.

Astonishment.

The bystanders were speechless. Nobody so far had been able to match up to Uvogin's skill. Ever. It was unheard of! But as the two further engaged in battle the Spiders feared for their comrade's life.

"Is that all you've got?" the chain-user drawled bored. Could these people really be that weak?

'Impossible!' the Spiders thought. 'Uvo was using his full power and that-that KID just comes out unscathed!'

"And hear I thought this would be hard. Pity it had to end so soon. But at least I got what I came for." And then he made a pulling motion with his left hand.

Machi knew something was wrong so she used Gyo and saw that there were invisible chains scattered around the canyon waiting for the command that the boy had just given. She shouted to her fellow co-workers, "Quick! Use Gyo!"

But it was too late.

The spider had already been caught in its own web. And no matter how hard it struggled it couldn't escape the confines.

Uvo gave up for the time being and realized that the chain-user had done nothing to him yet. He was still trying to guess what Nen category he fell into and it was tiring his brain. Then he remembered what the kid said earlier and asked, "What did you come here for?"

"Well," Kurapika smirked. "I came here for one of two reasons. The first, revenge. The second, to see if my power would actually work against an Enhancer capable of utilizing his/her power to its full capacity. Though, in a way," he grinned. "I'm fulfilling both!"

And with that, he pierced his heart with the Judgment Chain and ended his life.

His phone started ringing and he retracted his chains, leaving the battle with only a few bloodstains that were not his own.

Picking up the phone, he answered it with an exclamation of, "Gon! How are you?"

…

"What? Seriously? No way, me too!"

…

"What am I doing…" he glanced back at the group of criminals who seem to have been coming out of their shock. "… Nothing much, you?"

…

"Sure, I'll come. Where should I meet you?"

….

"Ok, see ya."

And he hung up.

The samurai stepped forward with bitterness and grief and gave the longest rant they had ever heard. "How dare you kill Uvo! You couldn't have possibly killed him!" he denied. "With someone of your small size and feminine shape, you couldn't have! You're practically a girl! Uvo would never be defeated by a girl! It's impossible! Are you even a boy? I won't believe it! Uvo is the strongest one among us! He would—"

"Yes, yes. We get it!" Kurapika interjected. "You're heart-broken and I'm bored. Not to mention tired. Do you know how hard it is to stay in that state? Let alone fight in it? I've never gone that far while keeping it steady. I'm just as surprised as you are that I won, let alone still breathing!" he started walking away from the befuddled group toward his frozen comrades but turned back one last time before he left to shout something that made them all even more cautious about him.

"And say 'hi' to Hisoka for me, will you?!"

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"HISOKA! WHERE ARE YOU, YOU BASTARD?!"

Hisoka looked up from his house of cards (that just fell again) at the red faced Nobunaga.

"Yes~?" he asked.

"How the hell do you know the chain-Bastard?!"

"Chain-Bastard?"

"Don't you play dumb with me! He's short, blond hair, looks like a girl, and told us to tell you he said 'hi'!"

Nobunaga was super angry right now. He already didn't like Hisoka, but to think that he could be associated with the chain-using bastard just made his blood boil with hatred.

"Oh~! You mean Kurapika-kun! Yes, I know him. What about it?"

Meanwhile Feitan and Machi were handing the Owl guy over to their Danchou, who was promptly ignoring them in favor of the interesting conversation that was at hand.

"What do you mean what about it?! He practically MURDERED Uvogin I front of us!" he shouted cringing at the memory of his best friend being murdered right in front of his eyes. Now, this little detail caught the attention of everyone in the room. "If I see that bastard again I'll… I'll… I'll mutilate him!"

Kuroro took this as his cue to intervene. "What do you mean he murdered him? Please enlighten us." He gestured to the rest of the group.

Nobu walked towards Pakunoda and declared, "It will be better if I show you. Take my memory and give it to them will you?" he pleaded and she put her hand on his shoulder and let the memories wash over her.

Taking out her gun, she implanted five memory filled bullets and shot them all at the ones who were not there to witness the spectacular fight (in her opinion) and as they were coming out of their dazed states, Kuroro's next words were said with curiosity clouding his voice.

"I wonder what other abilities he has. If he has a chain for each finger, what are the rest of his abilities?" he turned his gaze to Hisoka. "You said you knew him?" he demanded.

"Yes. I met him while I was taking the Hunter Exam this year. But I'm just as surprised as you are; he had no knowledge of Nen when we last saw each other. I'm thrilled at the prospect of one of my fruits being near ripe!~"

"You mean to tell me that he had absolutely no knowledge of Nen before six months ago?" it seemed that Nobu had come out of his angry phase and was looking at Hisoka in amazement.

Kuroro was also impressed, though it seemed that this Kurapika was playing them.

"What did he mean when he said he was filling both the first condition revenge?" he asked.

"Oh that, it's simple really~. He was very open about explaining during the exam, you just had to be there to listen when he told his little friends~." Hisoka drawled on amused that his plaything could case this much disaster. "Apparently, he had some sort of grudge against the Spiders. Something about avenging the massacre of his clan that happened around five to six years ago."

"Demo, during that point in time, we were murdering tons of clans." Shizuku stepped in. "How do we know which one?"

"Oh that's also very simple. He has the most interesting eyes that turn scarlet red when he gets emotional. It's quite beautiful~! I had the privilege of seeing them once during our fight, it was magnificent~!" then he got that creepy smile that sent unpleasant shivers down peoples spines.

"Wait, he fought you, and lived?" Shalnark asked.

Yep~! Got me injured too, he gave me a scratch," he motioned to his arm, "right here, he caught one of my own cards heading towards him from mid-air and threw it right back at me. I was so surprised that I didn't dodge fast enough."

"Why are you telling us this Hisoka?" Machi questioned suspiciously. "You wouldn't give us this much information if it didn't benefit you in some way."

"I can't help it that I like to brag about him." Hisoka shrugged. "He is an interesting specimen after all."

"Red eyes… hmm, I wonder… is he a Kuruta?" Danchou proclaimed.

"Hai~!"

"And he killed Uvogin you say?"

"Yeah!"

"And here I thought we killed them all. But, I think we've just found our new member."

"WHAAAAT!" the entire room boomed.

"Well, he meets all the requirements for becoming one. All he needs now is a little motivation." He explained.

"But Danchou," Nobunaga protested. "He killed Uvo!"

"All the more reason. If he's really that strong, then I would like to be there to see it for myself. And if I deem him unworthy, you may kill him."

"Are you serious? I can?" That last part seemed to sober Nobunaga up.

"Hai." Though Kuroro knew that would never happen, he just said it to calm Nobu down. Kuroro was positive that the kuruta would join there little group, because he could not let a potential threat roam around unchecked and he got one of those feelings that he made sure to always listen to because of how accurate they were.

Turning to Shalnark, he gave him an order, "According to Hisoka, he just passed the Hunter Exam and has recently acquired Nen. We have too little information on him. Use your hunter License to gather as much information on him as possible."

"Hai!" and with a mock salute, Shalnark ran off to find a household with a computer.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Ever since he killed that monster named Uvo, everyone but Melody had been avoiding him. He figured that he probably appeared scary and fearsome in their eyes, but he was still trying to bring himself to admit that he had finally killed one of the Phantom Troupe Brigade.

'I've finally done it!' one part of him screamed.

'I finally did it, I'm a monster. No better than them!' said another.

Then there was this teeny tiny critical-survival instinct part of him that was like, 'Shit. What am I going to do now that I've deliberately put myself in the spotlight?'

The only thing keeping him sane was his new friend. She was playing a song on her flute to calm and clear his head from the annoying disturbances. He was extremely grateful to her in moments like these.

"Would you like to talk about it? It would help get some things straightened out in your heart." She asked, finished with her song.

"Thank you Melody, but I'd rather not." He declined politely.

"Well, if you ever want to, just know that I'm here for you." She said fully aware that he would do no such thing.

"Hey Melody," he said offhandedly. "Would you like to meet the rest of my friends? We're having a get-together in a few days, would you like to come?"

Melody smiled softly, "I would love to." And she exited the room thinking it wise to leave him with his thoughts for a while.

Kurapika smiled at her and went back to the serene state before. He was relaxed at the thought of meeting his friends again. He wondered how they would react to Melody's presence.

'They would probably act the same, regardless of who I bring.'

That thought made him smile even more.

'But, they probably wouldn't be glad to see you if they knew. If they knew what you've done in the past, and how you've been fooling everyone since you decided to join their little group. And you know you can't take the pressure. Soon you'll snap. It's only a matter of the timing and the place. Especially since—'

'NO! I refuse to take this shit from you right now! Just go away!"

Kurapika sighed. Ever since that certain incident when he was twelve, these voices just came back to haunt him and force him to relive guilt of any kind at every presentable chance.

'Oh please, we have a greater reason than that. And we'll go away when you stop feeling guilty for everything, simple as that."

He covered his eyes with his hand ignoring them for the time being, but still filed that piece of information somewhere where he could analyze it later.

Damn. What should he do now? His comrades will no doubt be suspicious of his Nen abilities after seeing that fight. Or would they fear him so much now that they wouldn't dare to ask questions?

Whatever the outcome, he had to find a way to neatly clean up the shit he caused so it wouldn't inconvenience him any longer.

And he had a call to make.

What a bother.