Book 1: Simplicitatem

Chapter 10: The Heart Is Only An Organ

"The real trick of combat is that everyone's human."
-Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion)

Previously:

"Are you really a member of the Phantom Troupe?"

Aika whirled around, cursing the dress and her own ineptitude; she came face to face with... a seven year old kid half her height? For the love of god-

"Father said you would come and try to get rid of us," the child shrugged, a skateboard tucked away under his left arm, "but you're not all that great." He sighed, as if lamenting the fact. "I was looking forward to it too…"

Aika gritted her teeth, feeling her blood pressure physically spike. "Don't get to so cocky will you? You haven't even seen anything!"

He pointed at her all of a sudden, abruptly halting her string of colorful language. "You run loudly. If I really wanted to I could have killed you a few minutes ago."

The girl felt a tic form on her forehead. Told off by someone less than half her age too.

"Killua." The child offerd.

"What?" She snapped, confused and frustrated.

"Killua." A sudden change in the ambiance made itself known. "The name of Zoldyk family member that killed you."

Aika crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "You?" She asked, cocking her head to the side. "Kill me? You're like ten."

Killua rolled his eyes in response. "And you're like, forty."

"I'm seventeen!" She barked. "Get over yourself."

The orangette blinked when she suddenly realized that the child was no longer in front of her.

"Where are you looking, old hag?"

She ducked just in time to see a sneakered kick go flying a mere three inches over her head with such velocity she could feel the wind against her hair.

Heart rate now successfully elevated, Aika quickly put some more space between herself and the young assassin. "Bite to go with the bark," she muttered under her breath.

"I'm seven by the way." He sneered, sticking his tongue out.

How embarrassing.

"There's no need to feel bad about yourself though." The silver-haired youngster shrugged, putting his skateboard down and placing his hands in his pockets. "You're just a normal person, right? You're actually doing really well."

Aika didn't enjoy being looked down on by someone less than half her age. Why did the kid talk so much anyways? She doubted she was even capable to speaking in coherent language like this was she was seven, much less able to incapacitate someone, an act Aika was sure the kid was very comfortable with.

Moving quickly, she decided to go on the offensive. Kuroro would only mock her if she spent too much time on the child.

Flaring her nen, she burst forward, using the concentrated strength in her calves and grabbed him by the throat.

Killua's eyes widened, a sign that he had been taken off guard by her speed, much as she had been before. He hit the wall behind him painfully as she slammed him into it, but didn't panic, as any other person would have.

Calmly, he placed both hands on Aika's wrist and proceeded to tighten his grip painfully.

She quickly released for fear of having her wrist snapped and kneed him in the ribcage for good measure.

He was very quick, she would admit, and had the wonderful ability to overpower his own instincts, but Killua was lacking in the diversity of battle experience.

After kneeing him, she delivered a quick elbow to the sternum and again proceeded to grab him by the throat, this time with her dominant left hand.

Breathing deeply, Aika concentrated on her intuitive talent; that was, the ability to suck people dry, as Kuroro had so eloquently put it.

Killua showed no obvious and melodramatic indication of pain, only a closed left eye and a very malicious glare.

The child hadn't learned nen yet from what she could tell-

The doors to the room they were in burst open and lo and behold, in came a very irritated Kuroro Lucifer with bloody murder written in his gaze.

"We're going back." He announced, shooting a quick look at the odd picture of Aika holding a boy half her height by the throat.

Confusion slapped itself onto her face. "What? We just…?"

"Are you going to make me repeat myself?" The male was obviously highly agitated, jaw locked and set and eyes hardened. "We're going back. Finish up with the child."

Aika immediately released her grip on Killua, letting him fall heavily to the ground, gaze still fixed bemusedly on Kuroro. "Are we abandoning the mission?"

Three seconds later Kuroro had smashed the silver haired assassin through the floor, splintering and cracking the wood and successfully knocking the seven year old unconscious.

"Finish up does not mean half-ass your objective." He commented coldly. "We're leaving. Now."

"Kuroro!" Aika shouted. "Slow down and explain yourself! You didn't need to do that, he wouldn't have been able to m-"

He didn't stay to hear the rest; instead, he quickly rushed out of the room, leaving her to follow his path of fury.

"The world is not so simple. You can't save people with kindness only."
- Yukyuzan Anji (Rurouni Kenshin)

The girl sat with head in both hands, back pressed against the damp wall of her old lonely alleyway; her little condo nearby didn't really suit her mood. It was raining in Meteor City, an event rare in itself within the dusty, desolate wasteland of self-pity.

She had ripped off the blue dress she had bought, changed back into her casual attire; her hair had been ripped from its bun, wet and pushed back, a sign of her inner turmoil and reflection.

The rain was soaking her to the bone, but it felt very nice. Cleansing, in a way.

She judged it was nearing dawn, though it was hard to tell given that the sky was shrouded over in angry rain clouds.

It was the first time Kuroro had skipped their chess match since they had met; she didn't know why but she felt very betrayed. The idea was ridiculous in it of itself because for there to have been betrayal, there had to have been trust, and she would like to say she was wise enough to never have trusted the leader of the Phantom Troupe.

Strange. Some of the raindrops tasted of salt.

"How will you confront this hatred in order to create peace?"
- Pain (Naruto Shippuden)

Six days passed in which Aika finished a total of eight novels, half of which were by Charles Dickens, since the writer seemed to be someone Kuroro was fond of.

Absentmindedly, she wondered if she was naïve to think Kuroro had been fond of her too.

Now that she had money, she didn't need to run around as much to get away from angry shop-keepers. She could buy the bread she wanted and pay someone to help run the shop Mike had run.

Thieving and murdering was very profitable, much to her dismay.

But she missed running around with unruly hair and rags for clothes, sleeping with books and playing chess orally.

Aika sighed deeply, realizing that becoming older than the age of fifteen had been the most grave mistake she had ever made in her entire life.

"Being weak means that there's room to grow."
-Ittetsu Takeda (Haikyuu!)

On the seventh day after the mission and no contact whatsoever from her Dancho, she woke up to the disgusting smell of something burning.

Aika started, realizing that she had fallen asleep in the alleyway again and that someone was sitting on the opposite side of the alley across from her.

"You look so peaceful when you sleep."

The girl found herself getting to her feet immediately, unsure what was expected of her in the situation.

"You're… smoking?"

"I figured it's something I needed to try sometime." Kuroro Lucifer shrugged, inhaling deeply and then blowing out smoke. "It's fucking gross."

He was a wreck, as bad as her, actually. His hair was knotted slightly and he wore slacks and a plain white crew neck shirt.

"Since when did you curse?" Aika shook her head, "Since when did you spend your time drowning yourself in cigarette smoke?"

"Since three days ago. Do you want one?"

"What's wrong with you?!" She shouted. "You don't talk to me for a week and then come crawling back in this unsightly form?!"

"Pawn to C2." He breathed, closing his eyes, blowing out more smoke.

She started crying.

"Memories... of the people we were. They're subtle, but they're real."
-Lust (Fullmetal Alchemist)

"Lately, I've been stuck."

"Strange, you're not the type of person who spends time agonizing over a decision. Or at least, I don't seeing you doting over something for extended periods of time."

"I don't."

"Go on."

"The Mafia have been irking me as of late. Using us to do the dirty work they don't want to stain on their hands. Toying with us on the pretense of proving our loyalty."

"Why didn't you just break it off?"

"Like I said earlier, we know too much about them. I'm not exactly sure what their higher ups were thinking, but I doubt they were so witless as to presume that they could overpower us in terms of manpower, no matter their numbers. They're only human after all."

"So?"

"But they're a pain to have as an enemy. No matter where you go, someone's always connected to them."

"A minor irritation for the Kuroro Lucifer, is it not?"

"Don't mock me. Besides, if they did decide to get rid of us because of the information we have on them, we would be forced to get rid of them, and what does that make us?"

"You're going so far as to assume that you wipe them out completely? Isn't that a bit arrogant?"

"Have you ever met someone who wasn't arrogant?"

"What does this have to do with your completely uncalled for and ass-like behavior this past week?"

"Silva and I had a nice long talk in the main room of the mansion that night. After trying to cut each other's throats out for about six and half minutes, that is."

"Don't tell me the head of a family of assassins was the one who made you see the light."

"Alright then, I won't."

"Geez."

"In the long run, I suppose it'll be worth it. I've sent news that we will no longer be beneath the protection of Mafia. I saw no reason to do their bidding and take out a family of assassins we clearly were not equipped to deal with."

"Why did it take you so long to decide?"

"I stumbled across something very strange recently. I think it's called worry. I've never really had to deal with it before."

"Kuroro, are you even human?"

"Aika, I am a Spider first, a human second.

"It wasn't said. It was felt, and that made it all the more genuine."
- Me

"We're no longer under the protection of the Mafia." He announced. Kuroro was back with suit and hands-in-pockets and all, in all of his former glory.

The PSA elicited no visible reaction from anyone other than Uvogin who whooped rather loudly, victoriously. "That means we can do whatever the hell we want to right?! WOOHOO!"

"Uvo, tone it down will you?" Nobu covered his ears. "If I go deaf I'm killing you."

"Up to a certain extent, yes." The Brigade head nodded. "But for the time being lay low for awhile longer. They'll be itching for fresh blood, I suppose, and I've never been good at predicting what the idiots at HQ were plotting."

This seemed to dampen Uvogin's mood considerably, and so his voice softened to the point where there was no immediate threat of loss of hearing to his fellow Troupe members.

"That was all I called the Troupe together for." Kuroro said. "So enjoy the rest of your day, and don't stir up too much havoc. Disperse."

Leisurely, the members picked their way out of the yard one by one. Soon, only Aika and Kuroro were left standing.

"Do you want one?" Kuroro asked. He extended the cartridge of cigarettes to the girl.

"I'm seventeen." She commented.

"And I'm tone deaf. Do you want one?"

She took one. "You'll die early."

He lit it and put it in between his lips.

Aika casually leaned and pressed her cigarette to his, lighting hers as well.

One big drag and she had her hands on her knees, hacking her lungs out. "How the hell do you do that?"

"It's kind of life coffee." He admitted. "Bitter at first. Always bitter. You kind of come to like it though."

"It's not bitter, it's like inhaling ash." She retorted.

"Because it is inhaling ash, Aika."

"You should stop. This is your second pack this week, isn't it?"

"And?"

"Like I said, you'll die." Aika tried again, inhaling a bit more shallowly this time. She managed to exhale this time, though still not without considerable difficulty.

"Are you scared of death?" He asked, sitting down next to her on a crate.

"Is that a question?"

A pause.

"Yes, Kuroro, I am scared of dying."

"I'm not." He looked up at the sky. "Think about it. There are six billion of us. What will my death make a difference? And besides," he leaned back, "this life is tiring. The sooner I die, the better."

"A nihilist in addition to an opportunist, I see. Very ironic." This time she took a drag and got is just right.

"Why are you scared of it?"

"I'm not scared per say. I think it's accurate to say I'm not looking forward to the pain that will accompany it." She shrugged. "There are sights to see, and books to read, feelings to feel. I don't want to leave without being known and knowing. Why would I waste my chance to make the world a better place?"

"How romantic."

"I think you're just angry at the world Kuroro." She paused again. "Do you believe in God?"

He was slightly taken aback by the abrupt and controversial nature of the question. "Do I…?" He chuckled a little bit. "Guess."

"Tell me."

"No, Aika, I don't believe in a higher power. There's too much chaos for there to be a god or whatever."

"Not even from a Deist perspective?"

"Have you been reading philosophy lately?"

"Answer the damn question."

"No not even from a Deist perspective."

She threw the cigarette aside. "I do. I mean look at all of this. Look at how beautiful it is."

Kuroro neglected to say out loud that she said the last three sentences staring straight at him.

She, on the other hand, neglected to mention that she believed in God only because she didn't trust nature to conjure up such a perfect arrangement of atoms to assemble someone like him.

TO BE CONTINUED

"The best kind of love helps you grow up."
- Misawa Mitsuyoshi (Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun)

A/N: I banged this all out in one night, please forgive the messiness. I'd had a bad case of writer's block for a good three weeks. I'm sorry T^T I hope you're enjoying so far. Ily 3 Please read and drop a review!