Title: Chapters of Our Life
Summary: KuroKura. A collection of drabbles and backstories. All related to TSASAN and CO but can be read alone.
Chapter 1 the Eyes
Timeline: 1 year after the Kuruta Massacre
Setting: Ryuuseigai
Special thanks to Aionwatha for beta reading
"I don't mean to second guess your decision, but are you sure, Danchou? That you want to sell away all the flame-colored eyes?" Pakunoda, the so-called second in command asked to her Genei Ryodan gang leader who was sitting on one of the cargo wooden box amongst many that littered the abandoned warehouse they called their rendezvous point. "I mean…I've seen you admire these eyes more than any other thing we've stolen."
Upon that question, the other five members each in their own spots about the hall, turned their heads to their leader. Machi, Nobunaga, Ubogin, Feitan and Franklin. They were all interested in what Danchou had to say. After all, the Kuruta had been extraordinarily strong. The Spiders had quite a hard time bringing them down, had even harder time making their eyes turn red.
Stabbing children to incite their parents' anger?…At least there was one person in Genei Ryodan who mentally cringed at this idea.
Three of them did have the time of their lives though, with the thrill of the fight, of the torture and killing…but still, unlike other valuables that they had stolen in which Kuroro quickly lost interest, they all had thought he was going to keep the eyes for life.
"I am sure; sell them all to Black Market," Kuroro said with final tone. "Paku, you'll take all of these eighteen pairs of eyes. All the money earned from them goes to Ryuuseigai. I'll take care of the rest of them." Untold to anyone, Kuroro was going to keep two of them somewhere else safe…just in case.
Pakunoda looked down at all the eighteen pairs of eyes in the cylindrical containers that lay out in front of her. Another nineteen pairs were the ones including the heads attached, which her Danchou would take care of. She nodded at last, "Okay, Danchou. Understood."
All was cleared, yet Kuroro sensed his comrades' doubts floating in the air. Pakunoda started gathering the eyes with the help of Machi and Franklin; the other three were not allowed to touch the eyes because they might break them.
"It's not in here," Kuroro trailed off as he had his fingers skimmed over his face, thinking and reflecting.
"Eh?" Pakunoda asked, looking to her Danchou questioningly.
"The pair of eyes that I want," Kuroro continued as if he were mumbling to himself. As Pakunoda and Machi exchanged a lost look, he elaborated, "There was a kid whose eyes turned the most appealing shades of red. I saw him in Nancha Town. His eyes weren't the first ones amongst the Kuruta that I saw…"
When Kuroro didn't seem to finish the line, Machi took a wild guess, "But his was the ones that you want?"
Kuroro nodded. "Yes, he was the one who made me want the flame-colored eyes in the first place." Then his eyelids lowered as he exhaled, "Too bad his weren't among the ones we've stolen. Had I known they wouldn't be in here, I might have taken the eyes from him there and then."
"But we made sure that no one escaped. We couldn't have missed out someone," Ubogin trailed off, wondering about the odds of this. Next to him, Nobunaga nodded in agreement of his statement, as well as Feitan.
"Right," Kuroro agreed.
Then again, they all knew that if Danchou said that pair of eyes wasn't here, then it really wasn't here.
"Do you remember what he looked like, Danchou?" Franklin asked, wondering if any of them could recall this certain Kuruta. It had been quite a while.
Kuroro gave it a thought, "Blond, maybe? I was slightly occupied with his eyes and didn't pay attention to his appearance."
Nobunaga quirked his brow. If Danchou failed to recall a visual image of things happening around him, the 'slightly occupied' would be an understatement. It brought him a question, "Are his…like, better than other pairs of eyes? I can't see the difference that much."
Face straight, Kuroro responded, "Nobunaga, apparently, the delicate beauty of this rare artifact, unlike the one with a sword, isn't your forte. You wouldn't know."
"Ehhhhh!?" the swordsman wailed comically while most of his comrades snickered from the sidelines.
While the others gave an attempt to shut Nobunaga up, Kuroro sank into his own thoughts after he had indicated to Pakunoda that she could do her job now. His comrades' voices faded into background. It was true that all the eyes were similar. But everytime he looked at the stolen eyes, his mind just had to go back to the eyes of that boy.
Kuroro gave one last look upon the Kuruta eyes that his comrades were gathering away, then he thought about the rest of them that would soon end up with the same fate.
'If that kid's eyes are not here, then where?'
XXX
Note: Nancha City is related to Kurapika's reminiscence in Togashi-san's original. I know my previous presumption about Kurapika's surviving in TSASAN is now wrong. Oh boy, I should have known. Spiders are not going to let anyone escape. That last page of chapter 340.5 part 2 still makes my hair stand. They are much more brutal than I had imagined.
Yeah, I keep jumping from one story to another. From CO to the Sun, then atlantic, and now drabbles…I'm so under circumstances doing that 3 but 10th of Jan is coming. Gonna get to my plot notebook and work on CO soon! Thanks for reading, people. Please review!