Not (Really) Alone

After successfully obtaining all of the scarlet eyes Kurapika suddenly felt he lost his purpose and has refused to pursue the spiders. Lost and all alone, he meets a hunter that reminds him of his friends.

Alternate future events with the scenario: "Kurapika and a 'mysterious' (and eccentric) hunter."

Kurapika stared at the containers of the scarlet eyes. He had long thought of burying them to their land but he was unable to gather the strength and courage to step to the place he once called home.

There is nothing left for him, no home to return to, and no family to love. It is of utmost importance for him to finally bring his clan home and return them to where they belong. Yet the images of eyeless corpses kept on haunting him. Had he made the wrong choice? Was it wrong to desire revenge and seek justice for the fallen? His thoughts had kept on running endlessly and gave him sleepless nights. Should he finish what he started for his clan, or most likely for himself, what would be left for him to do? He abandoned so many for the sake of revenge. He had turned his back on his friends. And worst of all, he stained his hands with blood all in the name of the Kurta.

Slowly he clutched his hands and whispered a prayer for his clan. Tomorrow he promised to give them peace. He made all the preparations needed to safely transport the eyes to its final resting place.

Even after everything that had been done Kurapika was left with feelings of loneliness. Achieving his dream should give him a sense of accomplishment or peace, but neither of it would describe the pain that he felt. Despite it he simply dismissed the feeling as stress.

His mobile phone was relentlessly vibrating inside his coat pocket. Frowning in annoyance he took it and placed the device to a nearby table. The calls had surely come from Leorio and he didn't even need to glimpse at the caller ID to make sure. He had been a worried wreck after hearing that Kurapika finally buried the scarlet eyes.

He turned off his phone leaving it behind as he decided to go out for a walk.

The city's streets were filled with people that appeared to be rushing into every corner looking busy about something they consider important. He kept on walking aimlessly and paid no attention to the awful smell of the air polluted by car smoke.

From a nearby park on the opposite street he heard a commotion. People had gathered around and he failed to see whatever is occurring. Slowly he walked away deciding to ignore the low mumbling.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" a loud shout broke out from the mumbling crowd silencing them.

The Kurta stopped abruptly from curiosity more than surprise. His gaze went through the crowd finding a small opening to lead him to see an image of a tall, well dressed man towering a short dark haired stranger.

The stranger spoke with an obvious yet slight dialect, "I keep tellin' ya this kid didn't steal your money." The stranger held a young boy protectively shielding him from the man's sharp, deadly glare.

Pissed, the man stepped forward and grabbed the stranger's collar roughly pulling him up almost separating his feet from the ground. "This eyes don't lie punk, if you're gonna side with that squirt why don't YOU give back my money," he hissed spitting some of his saliva in the process.

The stranger visibly flinched mostly because of the saliva that flew into his face. "I can't give ya money that wasn't taken from ya," she choked. "Can't breathe..."

Kurapika who was watching from afar suddenly found himself standing among the crowd. A strong feeling flowed to his being. He felt cold as an image in red flashed in his mind...

'Pairo?'

Kurapika stepped forward standing beside the tall man. His head hanged low avoiding any possible eye contact. Abruptly he gripped the man's wrist squeezing it strong enough to prevent blood from flowing to his hand. "Stop it," he said in a low growl. 'What am I doing!?' Deep inside his mind he realized that this moment had reminded him of something in the past that he couldn't allow to continue on.

"What do you think you're doing? Are you also with the punk here, huh!" He inched his face to a bowed Kurapika only to squeeze tighter as a reply. "I've had enough of this children's game!" He snapped and was about to land a blow at him.

He dodged with ease then twisted his wrist making him kneel on the ground and scream in pain. The stranger tapped the Kurta's shoulder and whispered softly, "That's enough mister. No need for violence."

Snapping out from his thoughts he immediately let go of the man to turn his gaze at the stranger. His eyes widened when he successfully processed the strangers image.

It was a woman, seemingly about his age. Her features made her look androgynous but it wasn't hard to tell her real gender. The gentle, feminine smile she gave could easily prove it.

That very smile made him instantly calm at her sight.

It was strange... Terrifying even, at least for him.

The man had swiftly ran away while crying childishly as he held for his poor injured arm, yet none of them seemed to care. The crowd had slowly dissolved when the stranger had said farewell to the poor accused boy. Then the stranger focused on her unlikely savior smiling sweetly. "Thanks, although I could handle the situation myself."

"You're..." a woman... He continued in his mind "not from around here. Aren't you?"

"Oh, my dialect gave me off didn't I?" She chuckled. "The name's Marshal by the way, Marshal Seyers," she introduced and offered her hand.

He took a short moment thinking about how it ended up in this situation. Politely, he took her hand. "I'm Kurapika."

"Nice to meet ya Sir Kurapika."

"Kurapika is fine."

"I couldn't thank ya enough. Not many are brave enough to stand for someone."

Suddenly it flashed again in his mind. The image of a long distant memory.

'Must be hard taking care of that cripple.'

He suddenly felt dizzy and weak. His sight was growing dimmer by the second. But before everything disappears he managed to let go of a barely audible whisper.

"It was nothing."

In a world of nothingness he sat with his eyes tightly shut.

He held his face with both hands trembling feeling the urge to cry. But when he felt that tears are supposed to flow out nothing came and so darkness only existed to comfort him.

"Pairo I'm sorry..."

"Don't apologize yet! You still haven't kept your promise!" Pairo's voice echoed. He is going crazy he noted to himself. Still he looked up and saw Pairo standing before him.

"There is no point. There is nothing left for me." He hesitantly replied hoping everything is just a dream.

"No! Before you meet me you have to tell me that the outside world is fun! I won't forgive you until you can say those words to me."

The outside world is cruel. It was the painful truth. 'It's alright, you better not forgive at all. Besides you're not even here to hate me.'

His eyes slowly opened. But his vision was slightly blurred by the light, making him blink a few to make a clear image.

"Good to see ya nice and well. Seein' ya like that, really a good lookin' guy." The stranger from earlier had popped out from his side.

"What happened?" His eyes still struggled to adjust to the light.

"Ya collapsed and I took ya to the hospital. The doctors said it was most probably because of over fatigue. Can't help but agree with them though, your eyes would tell me otherwise."

"I see..." He looked around and studied his surroundings. Beside him was an IV that is connected to his hand where his chains should have been.

Collapsing from fatigue? Very embarrassing for someone who calls himself a pro-Hunter.

"Oh yeah, I was about to call your family but ya don't have a phone with ya. Isn't there any way for me to contact them?" she said as she motioned a 'call' gesture with her hand.

Phone? Contact? Family? The words scrambled in his mind. "I don't have one."

"Ya mean ya don't have a phone?" she raised her brows at his response.

"There is no family for you to contact."

Marshal felt the atmosphere drop to a negative level. She deeply regretted asking the question, but who was she to know something as sensitive as that.

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't mean to..." she rambled on, unsure how to fix her mistake.

"No its fine." He sits up and attempts remove the IV from his hand. "But I need to go. I'm the one to apologize I've made you worried." And he tries to stand.

But even before he could do so he is pushed back into the bed. "That I can't allow Sir Kurapika. I wish ya to leave this hospital in your greatest condition. I've yet to repay ya for savin' me. Though I didn't exactly needed it." She chuckled as she was reminded of his heroic action.

"That is too much. I still have things to do."

"Leave it behind sir. Your health is much, much, more important." She protested. "I've even brought food here so if ya could please stay till ya 'look' better."

The food was a tempting offer. 'Maybe staying for a while wouldn't hurt,' he thought tiredly his eyes slowly closed shut.

For the first time he found himself in a calm dreamless sleep.

He is stirred awake by the woman's confused mumbling. When he glanced to his side he saw her fumbling into an object as to he would describe as a black Rubik's cube.

"How do ya even solve this thing?" She groans tempted to throw the 'abomination of a puzzle' to the floor. "Darn that old man."

" 'Solve this and you'll find what ya need.' Or so what he said it would be. But I don't remember needing eternal confusion of solving an unknown puzzle." She mumbled on while randomly turning the sides of the cube.

"Heck, why did he even give this to me anyway."

Finding himself unable to ignore her any further he simply observed her actions and listened to her now incoherent mumbling, "That's strange indeed."

She gasps and carelessly dropped the cube. "Whoa, don't startle me like that."

"When a part of it is turned the inscriptions written on each box changes. Blindly turning it won't solve it." He eyed the black object that rolled on the floor. He shifted to the side of his bed then sat up and took the cube studying it intently.

Her eyebrows twitched. "He totally ignored me." Strange guy.

He took a few experimental twists on each side. "Interesting." He marveled on the conspicuous markings that glowed on the smaller boxes of the cube.

"So? Can ya do it?" She asked impatiently, her foot tapping the floor in a hurried rhythm. "I've had it for six months but no luck."

"Luck is not what you need for this is a puzzle." He answered not even bothering to give her a glance as he was so captivated into whatever was the object that he holds. "It has to be carefully analyzed."

A stab. He seems to have an incredible talent in hurting a person's feelings without effort. Or maybe it was just herself. She could've really deserved that comment.

Without anything better to do, she simply observed the man in front of her. She had carefully noted his features. The stress in his eyes seemed to have faded. His cheeks had gained a healthy color. Now that she had the time to scrutinize him, she had realized the air of sadness that flowed from him. She didn't know if it was there before. But this time she is sure-

"I solved it. All you need is to find the pattern and know when the next symbol will appear."

Her eyes widened in amazement instantly snapping her from her thoughts. It surprised her greatly it only took him less than a day to solve it when she had that thing for months.

"Ohoh! Say do ya feel anything strange? Are ya enlightened or somethin'?" She beamed enthusiastically as she leans closer to him.

"Huh?" He looks up to her and is surprised by the sudden closeness.

"The person who gave it to me says it has magic," she sits beside him and carefully took the cube from his hands. "Hmm?"

"Is something the matter?" he peers at her curious at the sudden drop of her enthusiasm.

She hummed softly and began to playfully juggle the solved puzzle with her hands, "Now that it's solved this thing didn't look special anymore. Anyway, I have no words as to how managed to solve this. With a smart guy like ya I guess it'll do great if ya could join my crew."

"Your… crew?"

"Ya see… I'm an anthropological hunter. And this thing ya solved was given to me by a sage of a certain tribe that I've studied."

"Where's your crew now?" He asked his face slowly forming a frown. He couldn't help but feel strangely bothered.

"They're probably looking for me." She hummed at her words.

"Why would they look for you?" A small frown crept on his face.

"Because to be honest with ya…," she scratches the back of her head sheepishly, "I'm lost."

"What kind of hunter is bad with directions!" He said with a voice slightly, ever so slightly loud enough to imply he was astonished at her revelation.

They had left the hospital soon afterwards with Marshal insisting that she would pay the hospital bills to which Kurapika couldn't argue further because he didn't have his money or license with him. In exchange, she had asked him to help her find her crew.

"Are you sure this is the place?"

"They told me to meet them at 4254 Avenue Blake hotel. If this is it then we'll meet them soon. I may be horrible at directions but my memory isn't. Let's just wait a bit longer." She answered somewhat confidently but her trembling hands that was tucked in the pockets of her pants definitely tells it's the opposite. She couldn't help but feel embarrassed that she ended up like a child separated from her parents.

Not long after the two heard oddly conspicuous mumbling sounds on the far side of the road. As if on cue their gazes simultaneously went to its source. Then they found three people who were obviously gossiping with each other but immediately acted normal when they realized that the two were looking at them.

"H-hey! It's the captain!" A curvaceous woman nervously waved a hand at the sight of Marshal.

"It is!" A tall lean man approached them while carrying bags of groceries.

"She found the way back!" A small girl wearing a white dress excitedly waved her hands at Marshal.

"They're here!" She exclaimed, happy at the sight of her friends.

"Hey, who's that guy with you?" The tall man asked, pointing at the male beside her.

"So you got lost then hooked up with someone. How unfair of you Captain." The woman teased, smirking at her.

"You got yourself a cute guy Captain. I'm jealous." The girl copied the woman's smirk.

"Whoa, whoa," She waved her hands defensively, "Now stop makin' up silly stories about your poor captain here. This guy here just helped me out."

"I could hardly believe it." The woman narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"Captain's blushing." The girl giggled while playfully elbowing the woman beside her.

"You're embarrassing me," she muttered.

"Thank you for helping our Captain, I'm Klaus," he dropped the bags and offered his hand at Kurapika.

"Kurapika," he replied and politely shook his hand.

"I'm Nika! Please be nice to our captain," she beamed, raising a hand at Kurapika.

"And I'm Yasha," she introduced, then flirtatiously winked at him.

Marshal had known Yasha long enough to know where this was going and quickly tried to think of a way to divert their interest. "S-so, what have ya guys been up to while I was gone?"

Klaus who had already picked up the bags replied, "Our client called yesterday, he insists that we arrive at the place a week earlier."

"What! Ya mean we have to go already?"

"Yeah, we're leaving tomorrow morning. Klaus had already prepared everything for the next trip, knowing full well you'll stray again somewhere and get lost," Yasha huffed at her Captain.

Marshal felt an invisible knife had made its way through her pride that stiffed her whole body.

"Klaus is making dinner today! Why don't we invite him?" Nika pointed at the blonde.

"Good idea Nika. Come," she then grabbed Kurapika by the arm and dragged him towards the hotel, "Klaus is a really good cook, trust me you don't know what you're missing."

"I'm very grateful for the offer but I really need to-"

"Oh my, what a shy boy. Don't worry too much." Then she forces him to enter the hotel.

"The Captain has a thing for shy types." Nika followed and clings on his arm.

"Where did ya get that idea Nika! Just what is Yasha teaching ya!?" Marshal fumes and blushes harder.

Silently Klaus stood beside her and asked, somewhat innocently, "Is it true?" then raises an eyebrow.

"Not ya too!?" she groaned and quickly covered her face with her palm.

It wasn't a lie when they said that the food was great that Kurapika even found himself eating more than he originally intended. However the only problem was that he was bombarded with questions by the other two girls. With Marshal occasionally choking on her food and Klaus snorting at their ridiculous questions.

"How old are you? / How did you two meet?"

"What's your job? / Do you want to join the team?"

"What's your ideal woman? / What do you think of our Captain?"

"Are you single? / Was the Captain nice to you?"

.

.

"Or did she blackmail you to do some stuff?" Yasha and Nika asked in sync.

It was a quick barrage of questions countered by an even faster sling of answers. Noticing his discomfort Marshal sneaked a nudge at Klaus beside her telling him to stop them from bothering the guest. He visibly coughed making it loud enough to understand the meaning. The two girls instantly stilled then apologized for their behavior. Kurapika glanced at Marshal and he saw her smile apologetically and mouthed a 'sorry'.

They were all cheerful, friendly- kind awfully kind, painfully kind. It was making him sick to the core. 'People of the outside are cruel and judgmental.' He had always thought. They discriminate those who are different. He had seen them all. Each and every monster that wore human skin. Criminals, murderers... Everyone is disgusting. Utterly disgusting.

They had reminded him of his old friends. Gon, Killua, and Leorio...

He doesn't belong here... Not anymore.

"I've bothered you more than enough, I'm sorry but I need to take my leave." He quickly walked away and left.

Klaus instantly glared at the two girls to which they responded with tense silence.

Marshal was dumbfounded at his sudden behavior. She immediately stood and ran after him but not after grabbing something before leaving.

She finds him outside the hotel and chased until she reached him at the sidewalk.

"Stop." He threatened as he felt her following him.

"Wait!" She chases then pants.

"You should stay away from me." He stood still, his back facing her.

"But!" She exclaimed as she stepped forward attempting to close the distance between them.

"Stop!" He warned but he still doesn't face her. "Don't' follow me."

"Why are ya like that!? Did we do something wrong?"

He turned and faced her, his eyes flashed scarlet as he glared, "Go away and leave me alone! I owe you nothing anymore, you're now back together with your friends."

Her eyes widened at the sight, "Th-those eyes are-"

Kurapika upon realizing his gravest mistake had covered his eyes with his hand and turned back. "Forget that you ever met me, just forget everything.. Please, don't make it hard for me." He clenched a knuckle to his side.

She closed her eyes for a moment trying to find her thoughts. Then suddenly she understood everything, it all made sense. All the pieces came together. Now… It cannot be unseen. And most of all… She simply cannot forget.

She found herself smiling at the absurdity of the occurrences that led to the present. "Don't say anything. I know exactly what ya are. But I must apologize, I can't simply forget. If ya wish to keep it a secret then I can promise ya that."

"Then I guess I'll have no choice but to trust you. Because I'll regret choosing to kill you."

Marshal, ignoring the obvious threat to her, walked slowly towards the blond until she was standing in front of him. He raised his head and met her gaze. His urge to flee from her had dissipated at the sight. She gave him a small smile while emanating an aura of melancholy. "That would be truly regrettable indeed. If you'll stain those hands with my blood," she muttered while reaching out for his hand. Kurapika inwardly flinched at her touch. But he found himself indulging the warmth of her touch on his hand that was always embraced by the coldness of his metal chains. He saw her grab something from her pocket and gently placing it on his palm. He eyed the object and recognized it. It was the puzzle he solved earlier. "Before ya leave I want ya to take this. I honestly have no idea what this thing is, however I can assure ya it will bring ya no harm."

"Why are you giving it to me?"

"You're the one who solved this and therefore ya have the right to keep it. Who knows it may even help ya in the future," she cheered her face beaming with positivity.

Reluctantly he retreated his hand from her. "I see… Then I guess this is where we part ways."

"A-ah, yeah. Uhm, goodbye. Thank ya for everything." Awkwardly she stepped back and allowed him to walk pass her. She watched him walk away until his figure was shadowed by the darkness of the night sky. Then she turns around and walked to the opposite direction until suddenly she stopped in front of a dark alley.

"Klaus, ya were watching?"

A man stepped out from the shadows of the alley, his presence concealed by zetsu. "I'm sorry, you know how I work. That guy was seriously considering on killing you. I almost lost my control."

She smirked at him, "Scary isn't it? That guy. But still he didn't do it, did he?"

"Will it be alright to let him be?" he replied with a frown.

"There's nothing to worry about Klaus. In fact I'm looking forward to seeing him again," she answered before striding her way back on the concrete sidewalk.

Klaus watched her pass by, his frown deepened at her direction, "Captain."

"What is it?" she asked without looking back at him.

"You are going the wrong way,"

"O-oh… Sorry 'bout that."

A/N: So here it is. An old draft turned into an actual chapter. Sorry if it looks bad, but this is just an idea for the future. Though I don't know if I'll ever continue this or adapting the idea into a long shot. Maybe if the Dark Continent arc I ever continues (hopefully) or is completed I'll look back into this. But I'm currently developing a long shot sooooooooo…. YEAH! Happy Birthday Kurapika!

Comments? Criticisms? And flames of shame for my awful writing? Go ahead!