Mechanical Doctor
This is written for one of my friends from here, you might know her, she's the amazing author for Phantom Troupe Café! Hope you like this TopSecretMagician… ^_^
Disclaimer: Nobody is stupid enough to believe the owner of Hunter X Hunter would write fanfics on here. I don't earn even a penny for writing this.
Death.
Some would welcome it, while others take it as an unfortunate event especially when the deceased person happens to be your loved one. It can be a parent, a child, a lover and even a friend. Leorio knew all too well how painful it is for someone to die young and even more so if that someone could be saved easily, and before he knew it he goes on a dangerous quest to become a Hunter in order to become a doctor. Not just any doctor that expected hefty payment for his own benefit, but the kind that charges for free just so that nobody would ever wallow in regret and guilt the way he does again.
Today happens to be the date where his childhood best friend passed away from an unknown but also curable illness, so seeing that the day is bright and its also a Sunday where he didn't have any classes to attend to, he decided to drop by his friend's tombstone which was located in this same local city he's residing in.
While it didn't look like it, Leorio Paladiknight believe in the afterlife so he figured that his friend needed to hear everything about the Hunter Exam, his new-found friends and his almost fulfilled quest to be a doctor.
'' Oh yeah, and there's this blonde guy named Kurapika, he was after the gang of A-list criminals, the Phantom Troupe, for killing everyone in his tribe and just like me, he passed too. Funny huh? I want to save lives while he goes out to kill some people and yet we ended up being friends. But sheesh, that guy could be too serious sometimes, not to mention kinda girly but we all put up with it. And then we learned Nen...''
While Leorio was trying to search through his memory to think of what else to share right in front of his friend's tombstone, he noticed a boyish looking, blonde young man who was just sitting under a tree across this cemetery, staring at him. Leorio wondered if this man had listened to everything that he had just shared and felt rather nervous. After all, normal people didn't know about the existence of Nen or the Kuruta tribe and he'll be damned if somehow Kurapika's secret is out in the open.
'' Eh, heh, heh, excuse me. I know it looks stupid to talk to someone who's already dead, so if you don't mind...''
'' No worries dude, I appreciate sentimental people. I happened to have a friend who had passed away. ''
'' Really? I'm sorry! Is that why you're here too? ''
'' My friend was murdered and we couldn't find his body so we didn't even give him a proper burial. But I suppose it's better than not knowing at all if he's dead or alive. ''
'' You seemed too calm and accepting about this. ''
By now this blonde man had walked towards him and looked like he was thinking about what to say next. He shrugged and replied,
'' Hmm, how do I put it? It's to be expected that we might die from our profession anyway. I only regret that we have yet to find out the culprit's wherabouts. ''
'' Sigh, I have a good friend who is going through the same thing, except that he knew exactly who murdered his family but he just needed to find out how to search for more information about the murderers without getting killed himself. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with some people?! They can kill for any stupid, selfish reason. ''
Suddenly the blonde man gave Leorio a knowing smirk, and it unnerves him, and this man replied with '' I may not know who you're talking about, but no matter how ugly a crime seemed by majority of people, there's always a reason. You don't even know about the criminal's past, or if he is suffering from any sort of mental disorders so you have no right to judge. The world isn't exactly black and white.''
Leorio can't help but to agree with this weird man on the most part. Still he noticed how despite this man is mourning over the death of his friend, he seemed defensive and didn't think badly about criminals. Exactly who is he? And the more this blond man talks the more Leorio felt that they have met somewhere before.
'' What's your name blonde? ''
'' Sorry, it's classified, I did tell you that I'm working in a risky profession. '' the blonde man winked at Leorio.
'' Fine then, I'll have to go home now. See you later! And... '' Leorio feels the need to add in some comforting words towards someone who had lost a friend like him too.
'' The body may be gone, dude, but as long as you believe the soul remains, don't ever give up! Live your life to the fullest and your buddy would be proud! ''
With that Leorio sends out a goodbye wave and left the cemetery. The blonde man could only smile and thought to himself ' For once I agree with someone who's not a member of the Phantom Troupe. I can't kill him yet, not until we find a way to defeat the Chain User and Kuroro could use his Nen.'
Pardon me everyone for this to be short, its hard to think of how Leorio and Shalnark would interact and still keep them in-character.
I forgot to mention that this sets during Greed Island, according to my research about the story arc's timeline, its possible for Shalnark to be elsewhere while his leader can't keep in touch with him yet.
Question on why Shalnark didn't kill Leorio? The answer is same as the reason why Phinks and Feitan didn't kill Gon and Killua when they met at the Auction. Hope you all remember that part.