Kyandi: Told you it wouldn't be that long!
Sinthe: Mostly because you didn't start putting these up until you had them all edited.
Kyandi: True, but I'm excited. Can you blame me?
Sinthe: I suppose not.
Kyandi: Anyway, so I'm having a contest for all of you lovelies who can draw. Draw a picture of one your favorite characters of mine and I'll pick my top favorites to be featured in a video I'm going to make for Halloween.
Sinthe: Bonus points to those who draw them in a Halloween costume.
Kyandi: Right! With that said, everyone please enjoy and review.
Sinthe: Kyandi-sama does not own Hunter X Hunter.
Chapter 10 Mission Start
"You pass."
Kurapika and Sinthe shared a look before turning back to look at the piercing studded woman behind the desk. After leaving Izunavi's, they had gone back to the agency to see if they could finally get a job. They now stood before the woman after proving that they could use nen. She seemed rather pleased to see them back so soon.
"Amazing. The two of you learned nen in less than six months." she remarked.
"You remember us?" Kurapika asked.
"Yeah. There aren't that many visitors. Only one other person has come since your last visit. This place is more difficult to find than you think." she replied. "And what kind of employer do you want?"
"We want someone with strong connections with the auction in York New. And we must stay together, so a job that will take the both of us." Kurapika told the woman. "We don't care what type of job it is."
"Employers with power usually have high criteria and only look for a limited number of people at any given time. I doubt they'll hire someone with zero years of experience as a Hunter, not to mention two people like that who have to remain together." the woman said thoughtful.
Kurapika and Sinthe looked at each other as the woman typed away on her keyboard. After a moment of searching, she came back with some results that fit them.
"There's three that fit your description and "decide upon interviewing the candidate". All three of them are bodyguard and security work. I'll read the job descriptions. First, a gun collector, looking for Bull 555 Limited Edition No. 1 by Mizet Company. Second, a china collector, looking for Rodo Company Anniversary Dish of years 1655 and 1667. Third, body part collector," Kurapika and Sinthe both came to attention. "tattooed skin, Jelly Diseased skull, etc...what a hobby. Which one?"
It was an easy choice. Kurapika and Sinthe didn't even have to stop to look at each other or discuss it. In one voice, they both replied.
"The third!"
After finishing their business with the agency, the two left. When they were back outside, Sinthe heaved a relieved sigh.
"Well, that's done. Finally." Sinthe remarked.
"Yes, but we still have a long way to go." Kurapika reminded her.
"I know. Oh! I have something for you."
Kurapika turned to look at Sinthe as she came to a stop and dug in her bag hanging at her side. Out of it, she pulled a small box. She held it out to Kurapika. It was just a plain, ordinary box. Nothing special in appearance. Kurapika glanced at her face before taking it.
"What is it?" he asked as he pulled off the lid.
Inside the box, nestled among a fluffy bed of cotton, was a small, silver bell. The sides of the bell had intricately carved vine designs that wove completely around the bell's surface. He picked it up, looking closely at it, finding that it was hanging from a silver chain.
"A bell?" he asked.
"It's a special bell. Granted, when my mother gave the bells to me, I didn't know how they were special or how to make them work. Now I do. Give it a ring using your nen." Sinthe told him.
Kurapika rang the bell, using a little bit of his nen in his fingr. A cheerful little tinkle sounded from it. He was surprised when one of the bells at the ends of Sinthe's scarf, began to chime along with his. No matter what tune he played on his bell, the bell on her scarf would mimick it. Kurapika focused in on the bell in his hand.
"There's nen on this bell." he said.
"There's nen on all of them. It all makes sense to me now. The extra bells that pair with the ones on my scarf, all the little tunes she use to teach me in order to communicate wordlessly...it was all to prepare me to be able to use these bells once I learned nen. As long as we're within twenty kilometers of each other, we can use these bells to communicate." Sinthe explained.
"And no one would suspect a bell." Kurapika said, the cleverness of Sinthe's mother, dawning on him.
Sinthe nodded as the chime of the bells slowly faded away.
"I plan to give one to Leorio, Gon, and Killua, as well." Sinthe said.
Kurapika smiled at Sinthe before he hung the bell around his neck, tucking it safely under his clothes. Seeing him put on the bell put the brightest smile on her face that he had seen since meeting her.
"I have something for you, as well." he told her.
"Oh?"
Sinthe's eyebrows went up in questioning. She leaned forward slightly, curious as she watched him fish something out of his bag. He held out his hand, opening it. There, laying on his palm...was an earring exactly like the one in his left ear. Sinthe's eyes lit up when she saw the ruby in the earring.
"It's just like the one you wear." she remarked.
"It is. And it's your's."
Sinthe looked up at his face, seeing the soft smile on his face, before she took the earring. Reaching up, she instantly put it in her right ear. Once it was secure, she pushed her hair back from her ear.
"How does it look?" she asked.
Kurapika's smile softened even more. He assured her it looked great. Sinthe smiled at him, promising never to take it off. As long as she was happy with it, he was happy. In high spirits, they set out about securing their jobs with the employer they had chosen.
"Kurapika, I have a question."
Kurapika looked over at Sinthe. She was walking along side him, her hands clasped behind her back as she walked. When he told her to go ahead, she turned her head to look at him, a serious look on her face.
"Before I ask, understand that I'm not judging or anything, I just honestly want to understand." Sinthe told him.
"What is it, Abstinthe?" he asked.
"Why are you doing this?"
That wasn't a question he had expected to hear her ask. It brought him to a stop, Sinthe stopping a few steps after him. She turned to face him.
"Why are you..."
Kurapika trailed off, a bit of a frustrated look on his face.
"Understand, Kurapika, that I understand avenging the death of loved ones and I can understand the need to make those who killed your loved ones, pay, but...don't you think there comes a point when enough is enough?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I mean that while I, too, feel the need to avenge those dear to me, I just...I don't see the point in killing someone else to do so. It won't bring back those already dead. It does, however, dirty your hands and the path, itself, is self destructive. I...I just don't want to see you hurt, Kurapika. Maybe I am too kind for my own good."
Instead of anger at her questioning, Kurapika felt his heart twist at the look on her face. It was clear by the sorrowful look on her face that she was honestly just thinking about him. She wasn't judging, she just wanted him to be happy and she knew this path wouldn't make him happy.
"I understand anger, and helplessness, and the pain, really I do. I chose not to feed the anger though. Perhaps my grandfather is right and I'm a push over without the ability to hold a grudge, but...isn't that a good thing? Anger, when you feed it, just grows until it's all you can think about, but once it's sated, once the source of your anger is gone...what are you left with? Nothing. You'll just feel empty. Have you thought about that? Can you really find happiness after all of this?" she asked. "If you honestly think you can, then I will never say another word."
This just proved that Sinthe was truly a kind soul. She couldn't imagine killing another for any reason what so ever. Looking at her, the truth was written for him to plainly see. She had experienced it and had decided that it was best not to trek that path he was currently on. Yet, she was braving it now and all for him.
She was watching out for him.
"Absinthe...thank you for worrying about me, but I will be fine. When the time finally comes that my mission is complete, I believe I will have the peace I've been looking for. Let's not worry about that for now." he told her.
Sinthe heaved a sigh, but she put a smile on her face and nodded. She would believe him for now. That was what he needed, was for her to trust him, because he didn't have an answer for her question. He didn't know what he would feel when his mission was done. He did know one thing, though.
As long as he could see her smile, Kurapika knew everything would be just fine.
-0-0-0-0-
"This is it?"
"Yes, it is."
Kurapika, as he answered the question, glanced over at Sinthe as she fixed her hood. The two of them stood before the large iron gates of a mansion. After returning to the agency they had visited the first time, Kurapika and Sinthe had finally been able to secure a referral to a client. The client they were at the mansion to see was a body part collector that was looking to hire body guards to accompany them to the York New auction in less than a month.
Sinthe looked up at Kurapika, meeting his eyes from admist the shadow the hood cast her face in. She gave him a nod, showing she was ready. Reaching out, his chain jingling as he did, Kurapika pushed the buzzer. When someone on the other end picked up, Kurapika spoke up for the two of them.
"I'm Kurapika and this is Absinthe. We were referred to by Sengi Guild." Kurapika announced.
There was a buzz and the gates swung open.
"Keep your eyes peeled." Kurapika whispered lowly to Sinthe.
Sinthe nodded and followed after him as he entered the grounds. Her eyes constantly scanned the grounds around them. All around them were various breeds of dogs. Some of them followed Kurapika and Sinthe as they followed the path up to the mansion where an old butler met them.
"Welcome. Please follow me." the man greeted.
Kurapika silently followed the man, Sinthe right behind him. He knew she was still observing everything and taking it all in. With people who had a hand in the black market and the underground, there was no telling what they'd get. It was best to have, at least, one of them on guard at all times.
The butler stopped ahead of them, turning to look at them. He gestured to a door and asked the two of them to wait inside. Inside, five people waited. Three were men, one was a young woman, and the fifth...Sinthe wasn't exactly sure if it was a man or woman. Sinthe looked around as Kurapika lead the way over to a couch. He offered Sinthe a seat first before he took a seat right next to her and pulled out a book.
Sinthe sat next to him, hands folded in her legs, one leg tucked behind, and her head down to cast a deep shadow on her face. Her eyes continued to scan the room and the people in it. Her head came up when the butler came back into the room and stopped in front of a wide TV screen.
"Thanks for waiting. We'll explain about our contract." the butler said, turning on the screen.
On the screen appeared a man sitting business like in a chair flanked by two pretty women.
"I won't ask if you have a license or not. The important thing is if you can get the things that we want. There's one month until the auction begins. I'll give you a list and from that bring just one of the things of your choice to us." the man on screen said.
The butler handed out data cards then, each holding the list of things they wanted them to bring back. Sinthe took hers and started flipping through the list. Kurapika did the same from beside her. She felt him stiffen up beside her and knew why when her eyes reached the same point in the list as him. One item jumped out at her.
Eyes of the Kurata Clan.
After death, scarlet color remaining, with the head is the best.
Sinthe suddenly grabbed Kurapika's wrist when she saw what was next on the list. Kurapika glanced over at her and saw what she had stopped on. Right under the eyes of one of his clanmates, read out something he hadn't expected to see.
Clan tattoo of a Joelle clan member
Perferably skinned.
While Kurapika didn't really care all that much for Sinthe's clanmates after how they had treated her, he understood why she had become upset. He could feel the color draining from his face, bit by bit. One of the others gathered, a big burly man with a mustache that lead up into his sideburns, turned to look at Kurapika.
"What wrong? You look pale. Getting sick of this, you and your little friend there?" he asked. "This list is still level one. It's okay to just possess any of these. If we get hired, they'll probably ask us for something more dangerous. Like a corpse carrying a level five diesease. The sickest employer I ever had wanted a baby, and-"
"Shut up."
The man cut off when Kurapika spoke up, telling him to be quiet in a rather blunt way. It surprised the man, but it didn't surprise Sinthe.
"Do not speak to us again." Kurapika told the man.
Sinthe turned to look at Kurapika. Moving her hand on his wrist, she reached up, pressing her hand lightly into his shoulder blade. Just enough of a touch to let him know she was there with him. Kurapika felt the tension in his shoulders drain out at her touch. He gave Sinthe a tiny smile before they both turned back to look up at the man on the screen.
"If you accomplish that, we'll formally hire you as bodyguard and collector. Good luck." the man told them.
Sinthe and Kurapika looked at each other. They knew what they had to do. First, they had to gain the trust of their possible employer. Both knew that the man on the monitor was, more than likely, not the actual employer they would be working for. It just showed the distance between them and their real employer. They had to knock that down to zero as much as possible so that, hopefully, the employer would feel safe to share secret information with them about rare and unusual items as well as the other collectors.
There had to be a connection between their possible employer and other body part collectors. Sinthe hoped that, by doing that, they could find all of the stolen pairs of Scarlet Eyes. Kurapika just wanted to rid the world of such sickening people.
Sinthe raised her head when Kurapika tapped her shoulder. It was his silent way of saying that it was time for them to leave. They had to find one of the items on the list in order to get the job. They turned towards the door, just as the others did. The big guy that had spoken to Kurapika, reached it first and tried to turn the knob. For a moment, he stared at the door before looking at the others over his shoulder.
"It doesn't open." he told them.
Before any of them could question what was going on, the screen behind them, came on again, the man from before back on display.
"I forgot to tell you one thing. "To be strong" is the minimal criteria for this job. "At least" to be able to get out of the mansion alive." he told them before the screen went black.
Kurapika seized Sinthe with an arm around her waist, yanking her back away from the door when he, and all the others, jumped back as cloaked figures busted through the door, some with swords and others with guns. Two people flipped a table to duck behind while the young woman used the butler as a shield. Sinthe stepped behind Kurapika as he used one chain, his dousing chain, spinning fast in a wide circle, to catch the bullets that came their way.
When he stopped the bullets, two figures with swords, charged him.
"Absinthe!" he called sharply.
Sinthe twisted from behind him and slipped easily between the attackers. She kicked one away from her and flipped over the head of the next, her hands on his shoulders. She gripped the fabric under her hands and twisted when she landed behind him to throw him over her shoulder and into a wall. Sinthe's eyebrows rocketed up.
These soldiers...
Sinthe didn't have time to complete her thoughts. She dodged out of the way as two more soldiers charged her. They went directly past her and to Kurapika, who dodged them with ease before jumping up to perch on the rail of the balcony above. Sinthe dodged another sword and turned to look up at Kurapika. She'd liked to keep track of him as much as possible in a fight. Good thing she did. She saw the two soldiers approaching him from behind and called out to him before he sensed them.
Kurapika jumped from the rail and onto the chandelier, peering down on the scene below and glancing at the two on the second floor landing. That made a total of eight wielding swords and two with guns. Watching the two on the second floor, he picked up on the same thing that Sinthe had when she had hit them. He looked down at Sinthe as she dodged swords, her eyes darting around the room. He could tell that she had picked up on it as well.
His eyes scanned the others as they fought, his eyes finally landing on what he was looking for. He called down to Sinthe, making her glance up at him. He gave her a vague gesture that no one else but her could understand. She nodded, dropped into a crouch and sought out her target. Her eyes zeroed in on her target and she bolted past the others so fast that she rose a gust that ruffled their clothes. Her target only saw her for a brief second before she had one of his arms twisted to painful levels behind his back, a wicked looking knife to his throat.
The man was one of the employee candidates that had been in the room before she and Kurapika had showed up. He glanced back at her hooded face in shock and fear. Kurapika jumped from the chandelier and landed in front of him and Sinthe.
"You have three seconds to stop them or I'll give her the order to kill you." Kurapika warned him, Sinthe pressing the razor sharp blade of her knife to his skin as a back up to his word, a bed of blood appearing. "One...two..."
"Okay! I understand!" the man replied.
The soldiers around them suddenly deflated, as if they were balloons and someone had just let all of the air out of them. The swords and guns clattered to the ground. Sinthe remained behind the man, twisting his arm further in warning not to do anything else.
"Just as I thought, nen. I felt it when I punched it, "A human shaped aura"." the man with the mushtache-sideburns, said. "But I didn't realize it was his nen."
He turned to look at the man Sinthe was holding in place, raising an eyebrow at Sinthe and then Kurapika. The man Sinthe was holding, twisted slightly to look back at Sinthe.
"You were hiding it well, but from above it's obvious that you were the only one not being attacked." Kurapika said, answering instead of Sinthe. "I noticed it when the two of them attacked me upstairs. They kept stupidly swinging their swords at me...even after I jumped onto the chandelier."
"I noticed what they were when I kicked one. Finding you, even on level with you, was easy. You most likely gave them the order: "Attack the closest enemy". Only a simple order was given, and their fighting ability is horribly low. But a nen user that can control eleven human sized auras from a distance...? While impressive, the nen type obviously had to be Emission. With the size of the aura emitted...the range had to be limited to a few meters in order to maintain it. I knew that the user then had to be in this room. While you were very good at remaining close enough to the others to make is appear as if you, too, were being attacked, I could see the bluff for what it was." Sinthe said in a low, even voice.
"She has a hyper-sensitive observation skill. You couldn't fool her eyes." Kurapika added with a nod.
The man looked back at Sinthe once more, still unable to see any more than just the bottom half of her face.
"Yes. She's correct. I'm Sachimono Tochino. I'm a Hunter as well. I was hired by the owner of the mansion. As I'm your senior, if you understand, can you please have her put the knife away and release me?" Tochino said, looking at Kurapika.
Kurapika stared at him for a moment before turning to Sinthe. It only took a silent look and Sinthe released him, returning the knife back to it's sheath inside her boot. Tochino was lucky she hadn't added a new dose of poison to the blade in a few months. Tochino stepped away from her, rubbing the wrist she had grabbed so painfully tight.
"Don't feel bad, I was just ordered by the boss. He said to, "Test them as if you were going to kill them". But I didn't expect to be revealed this fast. Well, I think five of you can manage to get out of here. Good luck." Tochino said.
"Five?"
Sinthe instantly locked in on to what he had said. The last time she had counted, with Tochino out of the count, that left six of them. Her, the young woman, the person she couldn't tell the gender of, Kurapika, the mustache-sideburns man, and one last man. That meant...there was one more enemy among them. She turned and looked at Kurapika who nodded before holding out his right hand, letting his dousing chain hang.
"You said it to confuse us, but that was a mistake. I'll see if there are any other infiltrators among us." Kurapika said.
Just to show that he was fair, he held the chain up in front of Sinthe first. It didn't move. He moved on to the others, one by one, without the chain moving, until he came to the last man. A dark skinned man with a mass of curly hair tied at the nape of his neck. When Kurapika held the chain in front of him, it began to swing back and forth under it's own power. Kurapika pointed a finger at the man.
"There. You're the infiltrator." Kurapika said.
The man stuttered in the face of Kurapika's accusation. He even took a step back from Kurapika.
"What the...What proof do you have to say that? A chain merely moved!" he snapped.
"It's called dousing."
This came from the person that Sinthe couldn't guess the gender of, but the moment she heard the voice, soft and smooth, she knew it was a woman. The man turned on her.
"Huh!? So what!? That's not proof!" he snapped.
"I think it's correct. When you were pointed at, your heart pounded really loudly. If it's a false accusation, heartbeats gradually grow louder from nervousness. But your heat got really loud at first and gradually grew quieter. And that's definite proof of "a liar". Both of you." the woman said, pointing to Tochino as well.
"It's decided then. Two of the six people are pointing at you." the man with the mustache-sideburns said, cracking his knuckles as he did.
"Three." Sinthe said.
When questioning eyes turned to her, Sinthe prowled forward as well, circling the man, looking him over. He froze as she approached, his eyes following her as she circled him. She took note of the nervous sweat breaking out on the back of his neck, of the way a vein in his neck pulsed with the fear and nervousness she could almost feel rolling off him in waves. Finally, she stopped by taking hold of his wrist, pressing two finger tips over the inside of his wrist.
"What are you...!"
"I wouldn't pull away from her if I were you." Kurapika warned him. "It'll only drive her suspicions on and she might deem you a threat to be decimated."
The man grew still, not daring to move until she released his wrist. When she did, she turned and rejoined Kurapika.
"His pulse races, there's a nervous sweat on the back of his neck, and a vein his neck that beats the rhythm of a liar." Sinthe said as she came to a stop at Kurapika's side. "He's the infiltrator and he will say anything to point the accusation away from himself. In fact, he's about to turn the accusation around on you, me, and our supporter here."
Sinthe said all of this in a matter-of-fact tone. She could see him gearing up to do just that, could see the words in his eyes as clearly as if they had been written there. She knew she was right when his eyes widened in surprise.
"It's a valid point!" he snapped, still trying to defend himself. "It could be like this! From the six, there are three candidates and three infiltrators!"
Kurapika turned his dousing chain on the woman who had supported their claim.
"By the way, he is not an infiltrator." Kurapika said.
"She's a female." Sinthe corrected Kurapika.
The woman smiled at Sinthe, though it must have been a little difficult with the bucked front teeth that hung over her bottom lip.
"You two are not infiltrators, either." she said.
"I'm saying that that can't be trusted!" the accused man yelled. "This is a waste of time. We won't get any truth just by talking here."
Everyone turned to the man with the mustache-sideburns-Sinthe really needed to find out names soon-as he wrote something on a small bookmark shaped tablet of sorts. He turned it around to show them then. He read, aloud, what he had written there.
"Things I hit will burn."
With that, he closed his hand around the tablet and punched the nearest chair to him. He knocked it into the air and away from them and before it could hit the ground, it burst into flames.
"Damn. It's not burning well. This one's a piece of crap." he remarked before opening his vest to pull another tablet out of an inside pocket. "For you reference, this is called haiku...an art of my home country. The verse I read aloud becomes truth. End of explanation. This one is for real."
He wrote something down on the tablet and then turned it where it could be read by the others. Sinthe leaned to the side to read the tablet.
"Those untruthful to my question die by fire." he read. "In other words, liars burn in hell."
Oh...Sinthe liked what he did there. It was a good spin on the usual phrase, "burn in hell". She snapped her mind to attention when he turned to her and Kurapika.
"Question. Are you an infiltrator?" he asked Kurapika first.
"No." Kurapika said, nothing happening.
He turned to Sinthe next and asked the same question. She gave him the same answer as Kurapika. When nothing happened, he turned to the others, turning to Tochino second to last. He answered yes to the question and the man turned to the accused man last, asking the question once more.
"For your sake, think and then answer." he warned the accused man.
In a nervous sweat, the accused man looked at each of them in turn before finally holding his hands up in surrender.
"The answer is...yes." he said, dropping to sit on a couch. "Well done. I'll tell you. I'm Scuwala, I don't have a license, but...I have an ability in Manipulation type aura. And I have already given orders to some things."
"What order did you give and to what?" asked the young woman who had earlier used the butler as a shield.
"Ha! If I tell you, it won't be an exam. I won't speak, even if you torture me." Scuwala replied.
Kurapika heaved a sigh and turned to look at Sinthe.
"I suppose that means it's your turn." he told her.
Scuwala's eyes fixed in on Sinthe as she stepped forward. When they had left Izunavi's place, Sinthe had switched her stockings, shorts, and open front top over a tube top for a backless, halter style, cream colored, strapless dress with a neckline that plunged all the way down to her belly button. Like with her previous top, she wore a tube top under it, this one in a ruby red, and she wore red legging under the dress. The point was, the dress, depending on how she turned, could show off the Joelle Clan mark burned into her stomach.
As she turned to face him, Scuwala caught sight of the mark and instantly felt a chill run down his spine as he identified it. He wouldn't be able to tell that it was the heir's mark, but he would know she was a Joelle and the Joelle were known for their interrogation techniques. But Sinthe didn't any closer to him than that. The woman who had asked Scuwala the question, was standing behind him. She held up her hand, silently asking Sinthe to stop. Sinthe did as asked and tilted her head to one side in a curious manner. The woman tapped Scuwala on the shoulder. When he turned to look at her, she...kissed him.
Instantly his eyes went dazed and he turned into some kind of panting slave, willing to do as she told him. He even dropped to all fours and begged for her to step on him more when she put a boot to his forehead.
"I'm also a Manipulation-type specialist. Those I kiss become my slaves!" she declared, pulling out a video recorder to record him on his hands and knees.
She demanded that he tell her what order he gave and to what he gave it. Demanded him to tell her, or she would stop stepping on him. He instantly jumped into telling her that he manipulated dogs to do whatever he wanted them to do.
"It is watching things like this, that make me very ashamed to be female." Sinthe remarked from where she stood in a direct line with Kurapika and the other two candidates.
The woman, who later introduced herself as Melody, gave a sheepish type of chuckle, somewhat agreeing with Sinthe while Kurapika and the man, who introduced himself as Bashou, inwardly shared the thought of what a horrible ability it was.
As they escaped the mansion, the woman with that horrible ability, introduced herself as Veze. Kurapika insisted the he and Sinthe not bother introducing themselves until after it was sure that they were all going to be working together.
Thus, they all parted ways at the gate. Sinthe instantly pulled out her data card once more and started scrolling through the items once more.
"We'll both need an item." Sinthe said.
"That's right." Kurapika agreed.
"What are you going after?"
"I believe the hair of the actress might be an easier target. And you?" Kurapika asked.
When she didn't answer, he turned and looked at her. Sinthe had stopped at the same place in the list as she had earlier. On the mark of a Joelle clan member. He stopped and turned fully to look at her.
"Absinthe...are you thinking about going after one of your clanmates?" he asked.
"No. I wouldn't go after one of them for something as minor as this. Unless they try to kill me or someone close to me, I probably will never feel the need to go after any of them." Sinthe said, heaving a sigh and scrolling further down the list. "No. I have my eye on the Jelly Diseased skull. I know someone, an old contact of my mother's, who can get his hands on just about anything. He owes me a favor so it wouldn't cost me."
Kurapika nodded, but his eyes were still sat on Sinthe. It still amazed him how grudgeless she was when it came to her clan. Especially after all that had happened to her in her life. As if feeling his eyes on her, Sinthe raised her head, pulling her hood back far enough for him to see her eyes.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Nothing." he assured her, smiling at her.
"Alright, then. Shall we get started?" she asked.
Kurapika nodded. They both knew what they were going after. Now it was just to get their hands on it and return to the mansion. Sinthe instantly fished out the cell phone she had bought, and dialed a number. She talked to someone briefly, mentioning the two items they were after and then hung up.
"He happens to have his hands on both items. Lets move." Sinthe told Kurapika.
They set off to meet with this old friend of Sinthe's mother. Once they had the items secure, they could return and would be hired. That would take care of the ties they would need.
Then it was off to York New City.
-0-0-0-0-
It didn't take them, or the other three candidates, much time to find, and return, with their items. All five stood before the man who had appeared on the screen back at the mansion on that first day. Kurapika was the first to step forward and put his item on a tray a woman was holding.
"Actress Sarah's hair with DNA verification." Kurapika said.
Sinthe stepped forward next, sitting down a glass jar holding a skull inside.
"Skull of a Jelly diseased patient." she said.
The other three followed suit. When all five items sat on the trays, the two women carried them away and the man turned to all of them, satisfied with a job well done.
"Okay. All five of you are now formally hired." he told them. "I'm the leader of bodyguards, Daltzorne. Nice to meet you. I want you to get onto your first mission immediately! That is to accompany and guard the boss on the way to York New. Escort the boss safely to the hotel room."
Daltzorne got up out of his chair and walked over to a table where a map was spread out on it's surface. They followed him, gathering around the table as he pointed to the map.
"We'll fly in our private floater to Ringoan Airport, near York New. Moving time: Thirty-five hours. From there we drive to the hotel. Moving time: ninety minutes." Daltzorne told them. "You, the new comers, will take the most outer part of the formation. Any questions?"
"Any idea of who might attack the boss?" Kurapika asked.
"Ha ha ha. It's not even worth answering. I'll just say there's way too many. Boss is a VIP in the black society. There are tons who feel animosity towards him." Daltzorne replied.
"You don't seem to understands my question." Kurapika said. "With or without animosity, I want to have an idea of the people that might make a move towards the boss. If we can reduce the possibilities, then we can plan ahead. If we have a plan, then the safety of the boss increases."
Sinthe could tell from the look on Daltzorne's face that he wasn't too pleased with Kurapika pushing the subject. He picked up the little pointer stick and held it between his huge palms, slowly crushing it as he spoke.
"You're the one that doesn't understand. We protect Boss from "whoever", "whenever", "wherever" and "however". Just remember that." Do not make any assumptions. All who come close are the enemy." Daltzorne said, dumping the crumpled pointer on the table.
Message received.
With that done, Daltzorne took them all to introduce them to the "Boss" they were going to be protecting. Sinthe stuck to Kurapika's side. He was pretty sure her eyes were busy taking in her surroundings. Forever a Joelle who couldn't trust her surroundings. Kurapika felt her tense up at his side before Veze spoke.
"Wait...what's that?"
Everyone turned to see what Veze, and Sinthe, were staring at. There was a painting on the wall that looked more like 3D art with the head, arms, and one knee of a man sticking out of the canvas as if he had been caught half way through coming through a liquid. It looked so life like and Sinthe was afraid it was real. Daltzorne confirmed her thoughts.
"That's real. He used to be one of our partners. He didn't listen to me and drew assumptions from false information provided by the enemy. As a result, the team, and more importantly, the Boss was put in danger. Therefore, he was terminated. You five are here to replace him."
That was a clear warning to all who passed the display then. Do not do anything to endanger the boss or the results would be...unpleasant.
Once again, message received.
They continued down the hall, Sinthe right at Kurapika's shoulder. Bashou looked back at her before turning his eyes to Kurapika.
"Your friend there sticks to you like glue." he remarked. "And she doesn't speak much."
All eyes came back to glance at Sinthe and Kurapika for a moment. Daltzorne turned back to face forward, but he was listening to the conversation intently.
"Absinthe is a more...observant kind of person. She stands back and observes everything. As I said, she has a hyper-sensitive observation skill. Little escapes her eyes. Not even the smallest of details. Even now, she is constantly surveying her surroundings and the people in them. She will know when danger approaches long before we do." Kurapika said confidently.
All eyes turned to Sinthe once more. They couldn't see much of her face, but they could tell the slight shifts in her hood as her head moved for her eyes to look at something.
"As for her sticking to me...we are a team, a good one. As well as we do on our own, we are even better together." Kurapika said simply.
That was all he had to say on the subject and while it wasn't a lie, it wasn't the main truth behind why Sinthe stuck to him so closely. He was sure she was just trying to make sure she didn't lose sight of him...ever.
"Can she fight on her own, then?" Veze asked.
"You saw her, yourself. Absinthe if fast and lethal. She is fine on her own." Kurapika replied.
"Then why does she take your orders?" Veze asked.
That one, Kurapika didn't answer. Neither of them felt the need to explain their relationship to others. Sinthe relied on him and trusted him because he gave her someone to come back to, someone to trust. Kurapika relied on her and trusted her because she understood him better than others and she gave him a sense of peace he had not felt since the slaughter of his clan.
Neither were willing to give up what they found in the other and neither would explain that to someone else.
Silence returned to the group as they continued down the hall. When they finally reached the room, Daltzorne knocked and called through the door that he had brought the new comers. When he opened the door, it was into a huge room draped in sheer, white curtains and there, sitting on a bed at the end of a velvet carpet, was a young woman.
The boss.
Sinthe had a feeling that this was going to be a long, and bothersome, job.
-0-0-0-0-
A little over twenty-four hours before the start of the York New auction, Sinthe found herself standing on the landing strip of an airport, her eyes peeled for trouble while Daltzorne hustled their little girl of a boss, Neon, into her car. It was only once she was securely inside that the bodyguards, including Sinthe and Kurapika, moved for their assigned cars. Sinthe ended up in a back seat, Kurapika sitting in front of her and Bashou driving.
"I hear that she's an excellent fortune teller. With her father's influence, she has many VIP customers from the mafia." Bushou said.
"Father's influence? It's the other way around." Kurapika corrected. "Father used the daughter's ability to rise in the mafia world. Hence, the father is afraid. Afraid of losing his daughter and the revenge from others whom he beat during his rise."
"If her ability was to vanish, so would a good portion of his fortune." Sinthe said softly from the back seat.
"Didn't he say? Don't make assumptions. All we need to do is to terminate the enemies." Bashou told them.
Kurapika knew it wasn't an assumption, but he didn't argue. He merely twisted in his seat to look back at Sinthe.
"Absinthe." he called.
"I understand." she replied.
Eyes peeled. Always peeled. Kurapika nodded and turned back to face forward. If ever he happened to miss something, he could count on her to pick up on it.
Sinthe turned her eyes out her window and, though it was only a brief flash, too brief for most to be able to tell what they had seen, she caught sight of four people walking down the side of the road. In that brief moment, Sinthe's sharp eyes snagged all but the tiniest of details.
Three men, one woman. A large man with earlobes that hung well past his thick shoulders and stitches and scars all over his face, a second man with a topknot and wearing a samurai's clothing, a third man in all black with the bottom half of his face covered, and a somewhat normal looking woman with her medium length, spiky hair pulled back. Sinthe shifted, looking back, but the four were quickly out of sight.
"Is something wrong, Absinthe?" Kurapika asked, peering at her in the rear view mirror.
"No. Just some people walking along side the road." Sinthe replied, turning back around.
Though she said that, she couldn't help the strange feeling she had gotten when she had seen them. It was like her instincts as a predator were trying to tell her something. But that didn't matter. She had to keep her mind on the task before her. She would consider the strange feeling later.
Hopefully it was just a passing feeling.
Hopefully.
-0-0-0-0-
Somewhere deep within York New, in a run down building, thirteen people met up in the shadows lit only by a few candles. At the head of the room, with the light of the moon to fall upon his face, stood the leader of the group known to the world as the Phantom Troupe. Three words had just fallen from his lips snagging the attention of each and every member of the group.
"All of it."
Chrollo Lucilfer looked down upon his followers, his friends, looking at each one of them in turn. He had their full, undivided attention as he continued.
"We take all the items in the underground auction."
It was Uvogin, a large, beast of a man and the physically strongest of them all, who spoke up.
"Are you serious, Chief? The world's mafia conducts the underground auction. If we rob them, we'll have the entire mafia on our backs." Uvo called.
"Are you afraid?" Chrollo asked evenly.
"I'm excited! Give me the order, Chief! Now!" Uvo yelled, practically foaming at the mouth.
"I'll allow it. Kill them. Terminate all who get in our way." Chrollo ordered.
This seemed to make Uvo's day, leading the large man to throw his fists in the air with a roar of excitement. Hisoka threw a glance towards Chrollo out of the side of his eye. Knowing what he knew, he couldn't help by put a comment in.
"I heard the most interesting rumor concerning the topic of our last discussion." Hisoka said then, drawing Chrollo's and everyone else's attention to him.
The previous conversation had revolved around a subject of interest for Chrollo, something that Chrollo was praticularally keen to get his hands on and had been searching for for the better part of six years.
"What about it?" Chrollo asked.
"What you were looking for, or should I say who you are looking for...is suppose to be York New for the auction." Hisoka remarked idly.
There was little change in Chrollo's expression, only a slight widening of his eyes as his eyebrow rose just a quarter of an inch higher. Hisoka had his attention completely now.
"Oh? Is it information you can trust?" Chrollo asked.
"Of course!" Hisoka replied.
Chrollo stared at him for a moment, as if he was thinking on this information that Hisoka had shared with him. Then he turned to look at the others.
"Be viligent, you know what to look for." Chrollo told them.
"What do you want us to do if we see her?" Shalnark asked.
"Bring her to me. Alive."
With the orders given, Chrollo returned to his seat, perching his elbows on his knees and folding his hands in front of his face. Finally. Finally, he might have found her, after years of searching, keeping his eyes peeled, he might finally have the chance to get his hands on her, on the girl he had been watching since she was no more than a small child. The girl he was looking forward to being face to face with.
Absinthe Joelle.
END
Kyandi: Yes, everyone, there's a connection between Chrollo and Sinthe.
Sinthe: The question remains...is it a good or bad connection.
Kyandi: They'll see. Let's just say that Chrollo is very eager to get his hands on you.
Sinthe: That sounds so creepy.
Kyandi: Yeah...it did. Sorry about that.
Sinthe: Forget about it. Let us move on.
Kyandi: Right! Everyone enjoy and review.
Sinthe: We shall return very shortly.
Kyandi: Bye-bye!