Beeeeep beep beep, all aboard the finally-updated-fic-after-it-being-ditched-for-ages wagon!
Chapter 3 - Parents are People Too
It had started as a light pitter-patter of small raindrops darkening the worn stonework.
The key word here was "started".
Feitan sighed in mild frustration. The dark clouds blanketing the sky looked like they were unlikely to clear anytime soon. He flicked a stray droplet from his sleeve. While the other members of the Troupe may laugh at him for it, he detested getting rained on and going outside in these conditions was unthinkable unless he really needed to, or was under orders from Kuroro himself. This, however, left him with some problems in his current state: one, he was trapped in the courtyard of some old fort; two, said fort was in the middle of nowhere; three, he hadn't found a way out of the courtyard short of blowing up the entire thing (and he wasn't sure if that would even work - the odd barrier preventing him from leaving was definitely created from Nen); four, it was starting to rain pretty hard; and five, he was really, really bored.
Okay, maybe irreverently throwing around supposedly ancient and cursed artefacts was, in hindsight, not a very good idea. Feitan sincerely hoped that Phinks was in a worse situation that he was. After all, it was half- no, it was mostly Phinks' fault that this had happened in the first place. Getting hit by something unexpected on his blind side hurt. It wasn't Feitan's fault that throwing the stupid (stupidly valuable, that is) artefact back at Phinks apparently activated the curse or something.
He sighed. Like most of the Troupe, he was proficient at most forms of Nen use, including En. Perhaps better than the average En in the Troupe (and that was saying something, as Coltopi raised the average by something along the lines of a ridiculous amount). Losing half of one's vision does make one more attentive to one's surroundings.
It also allowed him to wear a cool eyepatch with a skull on it.
Regardless, it was unlikely that En would help right now - the originator of the Nen barrier was most likely long-dead, and the source of the curse was back in the mansion they had been looting. He had resigned himself to being stuck here and thinking expositional thoughts when a shrill screech cut through the rain.
He smirked as he flipped open his cellphone.
"About time."
'Gon? Gon!'
"Whoa Kurapika, you don't need to be so loud!" said Gon, holding his cellphone as far from his ear as possible. A flock of wild fairy penguins scattered from the noise, squawking to themselves and fluttering their wispy wings nervously. They were high-strung little guys, thought Gon, adjusting himself on the tree to more comfortably observe them. "What's wrong?" he asked, gingerly holding the phone closer to his ear.
'Gon, I-' The Kuruta's voice sounded nervous, almost desperate. 'Have you seen Ceri?'
"No, I haven't."
'Fuck.'
Gon looked up from the penguins, and focused on the call. It wasn't like Kurapika to swear.
"Has she gone missing again? I can help track her down if you want me to."
'No, it's fine.' He paused. 'Tell me if you happen to see her at the Hunter Exam.'
As the call ended, Gon looked up to see a storm on the horizon.
He hung up the phone, and sighed. He had unconsciously summoned his chains during the call. The smooth metal links rattled, then vanished as he closed his fist, his hands shaking.
Maybe he had to too strict of a father. Too overbearing, too protective, too cautious, too nervous, too scared. He couldn't lose another. He couldn't handle losing more family. The blazing flames of his last house blended with the burning of his ancestral home in his mind. Not again. Never again. Even allowing Karu to go to the Hunter Exam had been a flurry of training, warnings, telling him to be careful of this and to watch out for that. Ceri couldn't possibly be prepared for the world. She was nine years old, for God's sakes!
Kurapika took a deep breath. Calm down. Don't jump to conclusions. Maybe she had gone to see Leorio at his clinic, just ten minutes away. Maybe she went to play at the park, and lost track of the time. Calm down. Breathe.
"Th-that's horrible... How could anyone do all that, just for our eyes?"
"The Phantom Troupe... They're scum. The worst of the worst. I HATE them."
He jolted up. A memory of tears and clenched fists, young voices raised in revulsion and rage.
Perhaps he should not have told Ceri and Karu. They were young, and Ceri in particular was fiercely impulsive. He took another deep breath, and resummoned his chains.
"Dowsing Chain - The Guiding Ring Finger."
He had to find his daughter.
Kalluto's hands shook as he dialled his number, waiting anxiously for him to pick up.
Stay calm. Keep your cool. Wear the mask. Be the mask.
'Kal?' A surprised and more than a little irritated voice answered. 'Kal, why are you calling me?'
"Faren's gone missing," said Kalluto, looking around nervously. "Have... have you seen him around?"
'No. He'll be fine. He is our child.'
While that was true, the blunt tone did not help Kalluto's nagging worry that something odd was going on. "I know that Faren would be fine. It's just..." He hesitated, then decided to tell. "I heard my brother receive a call earlier about his friend's daughter disappearing," he said, "I'm just worried that there's a connection. The reported increases in the Lost Places is also-"
"Faren's gone missing?"
Kalluto flinched in surprise. Killua always did have awfully convenient timing.
"We'll talk later," he said into the cellphone, hurriedly hanging up.
"Man, all these kids keep vanishing, don't they?" He gave a mild chuckle and put his hands behind his head. "It's like The Pied Piper of Hameln."
"I am glad someone finds this amusing." Kalluto tried to shoulder past his brother, but found himself abruptly hugged.
"It's gonna be okay Kal. He's a Zoldyck. He'll be fine."
It wasn't what Kalluto wanted to hear, but it was the thought that counted, right?
The thunderstorm was fully raging now. Feitan kicked at a rock in irritation, sending it skimming across the courtyard and smashing into one of the walls. Of the two phone calls he had gotten, one was entirely unrelated to his current predicament and the other was Phinks being unhelpful and also probably being on the other side of the world.
There was also the matter of the odd and wispy Nen presence that occasionally flitted past. It was barely there, like a faint scent on the wind. But Feitan could sense its will. He had tried to capture it several times, to no avail - the thing slipped past his hand like a jellied eel.
Maybe he should try using En.
An application of Ten and Ren, En expanded one's aura to cover a sizeable area with Ren, then contained it with Ten to prevent loss of aura. Most people's En, as the name suggests, were spherical in shape. There were some exceptions such as Coltopi's Nen copies and other irregularly shaped En; but for now, a spherical En suited Feitan just fine.
He looked up, and found himself looking into an odd distortion in the air.
"Found you."
The distortion shifted and twisted, the heat haze-like distortion solidifying into a smug and childish grin on a lizard-like head that looked to be made of partially transparent glass. It chuckled, and its body was also revealed - it had snaked around Feitan, like a snake about to consume its prey.
"Heh, so you did."
Its voice was soft yet clear, and seemed to come from all directions at once.
"What do you want?" asked Feitan, withdrawing his En.
"Company."
Useless, but information wasn't too hard to get. Feitan casually stabbed one of its eyes out - and the entire glass-like creature vanished in a sudden gust of wind. A Nen beast? Some, especially those created by an Emitter, could be sent out long distances or be attached to a particular place or object. No matter. Despite its quite admirable In, it seemed to be fairly weak-
"That doesn't work, you know."
A human-shaped gap in the rain, with the same wispy presence. It gradually solidified again into a more visible form, this time gaining tinges of colour. It wore a dark hooded cloak that shielded its rail-thin body and childlike face from the rain.
Feitan frowned. What was this thing? An illusion-type Nen ability? An odd application of Transmutation, Emission and Conjuration? Or...
"A ghost. A memory. Trapped within this Lost Place. Like you!"
Feitan narrowed his eyes more than usual. Lost Places were easy to get out of. All they did was scramble one's sense of direction. The fact that the thing had apparently read his thoughts didn't escape his notice either. A Specialist, then. Perhaps he should take the time to find the user and get him to Kuroro.
The cloaked thing giggled as it splashed in the rain. "The bigger they are," it said, suddenly leaning over him, "the harder they are to leave. Even the wind can be caught, it seems." It gave a sad smile and twirled, sending the water on its cloak all over Feitan.
Goddamn it, Phinks better be in a worse situation than him right now.
Phinks, as Feitan knew, was in no such situation. Luck had been kind to him, and he had been transported right to the door of some former acquaintances, as it were, and was getting along splendidly with them. Shalnark, being the overzealous father that he was, was trying to persuade Hiro to clean his room without being persuaded in turn to grab a random person off the street and control them into cleaning the house with his Black Voice.
"You know, I'm gonna get Mum to bring out Deme-chan if you don't clean up this mess in your room."
Hiro shivered. The demented vacuum cleaner was a recurring figure in his nightmares. The googly eyes, the slavering tongue, and the inability to regain anything that it sucked up made for some prime horror. Last time, his mum had gotten overzealous and Deme-chan'd his bed.
Phinks laughed. It was good to see his comrades again. Even though he could sense the traces of the Judgement Chain still binding the two, he knew the rules imposed on them - one from the Kuruta, and one from the Boss. He shook his head. No point worrying over pointless crap.
"So Phinks." Shizuku scratched her head, looking over the scroll of parchment that Phinks had left on the table. "What's this thing you've brought?"
"Uh... Well, yanno how me and Fei were gonna check out the 'cursed' jewellery set? The one with the fire opals?"
Shizuku shook her head, looking puzzled, then blinked and nodded.
"Turns out that the jewellery wasn't cursed at all. We got a pretty good price for them, and stole them back a few days later. Man, that guy was a complete sucker. Bought it at a higher price when we told him that it was cursed to do some things I won't mention in front of little Hiro here-"
"Get to the point, Phinks." Shalnark called from across the room, having temporarily given up on his son. A tactical retreat, as he put it.
"We nabbed some other stuff while we were there too, of course. I picked up that thing then, and threw it at Fei as a joke, right? Little blighter chucks it right back at me and then just vanished. And as soon as I caught the thing outta reflex, I ended up here."
"You holding up alright?"
A well-lit room, with a sleek and modern design. It would have been quite a nice apartment if the floor had not been covered wall to wall with papers, plates with half-eaten food, dust and empty cans, and the walls themselves were also covered in notes, newspaper scraps, pins and several maps.
"Yeah. I've got to hand it to you, though. You're very good at finding relevant documents."
"And you are good at making a mess of them. I know, I know, specialised sorting method."
The smaller of the two paused. "I just hope that your efforts do not end up becoming a waste."
"Your abilities could become the solution for the Lost Places. No amount of effort could be considered a 'waste'."
The two of them glanced at each other, and continued working.
AN: Feitan is actually a cat and nothing you say will convince me otherwise.
AN2: Fairy penguins (also known as little penguins) are an actual thing, minus the literal fairy bits. They're pretty damn adorable.
AN3: I apparently have a thing for nervous and awkward dads who can't control their children very well.
AN4: I don't know why but Phinks has an Australian accent in my head and it refuses to change.
Bonus AN: Apropos of nothing, but the "men" in "ramen" means noodles (or threads). Please don't say "ramen noodles", unless you're specifically talking about the noodles as opposed to, say, the broth. This has been a random PSA.