Author's Note:
I jumped on the HxH bandwagon. I also haven't written fanfiction regularly for a good 2 years or so. I hope this can get somewhere, because Kurapika is the best character ever.
The starting date is completely arbitrary, and this fic is an AU. The point of divergence (POD) is that Chrollo enters the Hunter Exams for amusement. Unfortunately for him, it's also the year Kurapika entered.
Before I begin, the prologue begins at what I hope to be Chapter 27. I know it's a trope, but watching Quentin Tarantino gets you places.
And final ramblings: there will be a AU Nen ability involved. It's kinda BS, but for those of you who enjoy JoJo, it's gonna be a hell of a ride.
Anyways, hope this is OK! Please review, because I'm kinda rusty in terms of writing here. :o
HALL OF ARCHIVES, OUTSKIRTS OF METEOR CITY
December 5th, 1996
For a moment, the light shone.
Across the olden hall concealed deep within the abandoned Meteor Library, candles and lamps wandered aimlessly, silent as the cool air surrounding them.
Amidst the lights was a man, a chair, and a column of books. Scattered and strewn across the ground, they were all, despite the unkempt appearance, neatly closed and oddly organized.
The man watched intently, seamlessly switching between a glance at the barred doors of the hall and the text of an ancient fable about the sun and the moon.
A stinging sensation pricked the side of the man's right arm, coinciding with the sound of metal gently colliding.
All of a sudden, a bang shook the hall.
Echoes of each smash of the door rang throughout the hall like a cacophony of disorder and disarray. Despite the chaos surrounding him, the man read on, intently.
Finally, the stone door, the final barrier between two predators, broke free. The dissonance in the air silenced the candles, causing them to be extinguished in a sea of hatred.
Amidst the darkness, a pair of red eyes confronted grey.
"This is where it ends."
Kurapika glared at Chrollo, who had an amused smirk at his statement. He looked back at Kurapika, slowly and lazily, and opened an eye.
"And this is…?"
Kurapika entered into a fighting stance, fists ready to come to blows. "The 4th time."
For a handful of moments, Chrollo counted each previous encounter, as if they were numbers engraved on his hands. "Number one, the restaurant at the top of the hotel…"
"You…"
"You bastard!"
"The second, the marketplace of Yorknew City…"
"Hnn…"
"It's too late, Kurta."
"You...you underestimate me, Spider
"The third encounter, the Mauro Building in Weisshaus…"
"So, Spider. How does it feel having a part of your body torn away?"
"How does it feel being stripped of an arm? How does it feel?!"
"Now you know what it feels like...to be broken."
"I have been humiliated, battered, and beaten to the brink of death. We've both fought each other enough times for you to know, Chrollo…"
In the span of a second, Kurapika's fist connected with Chrollo's face, surprising and attracting a slight hinge of pain from Chrollo.
"...that you can never kill the Kurta spirit."
There will always be darkness and light.
No matter how hard one might try, it is near impossible to fully embrace either. Only the ones who have either fallen so far or ascended so high as to become either can truly know what either extreme is.
An old adage reads as such: "He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
One who pursues revenge, vengeance, or anything of the sort will inevitably be confronted by this dilemma. Once cornered, the temptation to fall into what they truly hate will take bloom, and slowly corrupt the avenger into an oppressor. White knights turn into oppressive kings, noble idealists turn into the dark decay of cynicism and tyranny, and even paragons of light and justice can be warped into a greater tyrant than the enemy they face. Only those with the conviction and willpower to follow the high road can resist the prospect of warping their means to meet their ends.
Conversely, one who is willing to consider all perspectives, know them, touch them, and be all, can attain the opposite of falling into darkness, the attainment of enlightenment. One who is willing to not only seek knowledge of perspectives, but also admit guilt for harmful action against others, and seek forgiveness from their victims, can attain light in its purest form.
Seekers of the light, unlike those who can fall into darkness, can be from anywhere. From those who fully remorse past actions, to those who simply strive for more knowledge, anyone can attain enlightenment.
Just as the greatest villain can be redeemed, so can the greatest hero be tainted.