Chapter 11


It was one of those parties again where she needed to smile and act like everything was fine.

People will get near her and will greet her. Asking how was she and will ask if it is true that she lost her power to see the future. They will sympathize when she would tell them she can't use it for the meantime for some security reason, the lie her father told her to tell the others.

But she knew once her back turned to them, those people will laugh for her misery. They will whisper to each other that she deserved it as she was nothing but a spoiled brat and his father was nothing but some small fly who was trying so hard to become one of the dons. How many times she had heard those spiteful words and saw their malicious glances. She can no longer count.

Splendid parties were her life before, along with beautiful dresses and magnificent jewelries. However, it was long gone. She was only doing this for her father's command.

Despite everything that had happened, Nostrades should still show their power.

This is what important to Light Nostrade.

This is what important to her father.

Not her, Neon Nostrade, who is his only daughter.

When she lost the Lovely Ghost Writer she became one of his pawns. And the job that had given to her was to still attend the parties, showing the Nostrade was still strong despite the lost.

She sighed. At least the party was already over. She can go home and forget everything about this.

The door of the car was opened for her. Her body guard, a man with short dark brown hair and green eyes, few inches taller than her, gave her a small smile before bowing. She gave him a tired smile. When the bodyguard noticed her smile he only thumbs up, his simple gesture to her that everything will be okay now. He was a new guard and very young, probably few years older than her. She wasn't sure when she became close to him.

Before Neon could enter the car, gunshots were heard. A hand quickly grabbed her and shielded her. There were battle cries. The body that was protecting her became heavy and slowly sliding away from her. She opened her eyes. The guard earlier was now lying on concrete ground, red liquid oozing from his body, green eyes still opened. She looked at herself and found same liquid on her white dress and arms. She looked once more at the guard, planning to wake him up. She gently shook his shoulder, but she received no response.

"Who authorized you of this ambush?" Kurapika angrily grabbed a man with sniper a kilometer away from their cars, hiding above a tree. The enemies on ground were all taken care of and this man was the last one.

"Z-Zenji…" the man smiled wickedly, still had the ability to taunt Kurapika despite his wounded body. "He has a message for you. He will make sure the Nostrades will be miserable. He will make sure that you will be miserable. Master Zenji will take care of her first." With those final words, the man swiftly shot himself with a hidden gun.

Kurapika had no chance to recover from shock from the man's message and action as he heard a loud scream from Neon.

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Eleven guns were pointed at them, holding by each man in black suits. Surrounded by these men, Mayllu knew they couldn't escape without confronting them. She did not see any problem with the idea to challenge them, thinking that these men were nothing special. But she couldn't ignore the disturbing feeling in the back of her mind, still wondering how come she hadn't sense them coming to their direction.

Are they using Zetsu? No, it can't be. She could tell they are not Nen user.

Having a little chat with Neon cannot be enough reason for her to be distracted and not sense any threat.

"What do you want?" The silver-head bravely asked.

Slowly, one of the men stepped forward, pointing his free hand to the pink-head. "G-give her…"

Upon hearing those words, Mayllu looked back and noticed for the first time that her companion was trembling. Neon's eyes were shaking and her hands were clutching hard the hem of her dress.

Sighing, the sliver-head stepped backward, leaving Neon in the center of a small circle created by those men. "You can have her if you want."

"MAYLLU!" Neon's frantic call, scared by what she heard. She looked back at Mayllu with pleading eyes, hoping she was only kidding, but the girl held a serious look, not even looking at her.

Six men gradually moved forward to Neon, while the five remained in their position, gun still pointed at Mayllu.

Neon felt her heart was racing. Rational thinking faded from her mind. Tears slowly formed on her eyes. When a hand grabbed her wrist, she couldn't help but to yell for help. "KURAPIKA!"

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"Oi! Oi! Kurapika, what's with the long face?"

The blond was awakened from his reverie upon hearing his friend called his name. He looked away, embarrassed that he was caught off guard. He was being unfocused than usual and he too wondered why. Was it because he remembered that one night when one of his subordinate died in front of Neon? When he witnessed that Neon still haven't recovered from that trauma upon seeing her own blood from that little accident when she cut her own finger two days ago? Was it because of Neon's predictions to Mayllu? Or was it because of this disturbing feeling he can't understand?

Kurapika's frowned deeper. "I don't know. Something feels odd," he admitted.

Leorio gave him a grin. "What is odd? That those two girls are not here and all over you?"

"Don't put me in the same level as yours, Leorio," Kurapika huffed as he snatched the bag of potato chips from the older man.

"Where are they, anyway?" Gon, who was munching popcorn and not leaving his gaze on the movie they were watching, asked them.

"Neon said she will look for Mayllu," it was Leorio who answered. "But it has been four hours since she–" his speech was interrupted as they heard a loud stomping in corridor. Next, the door pushed opened with too much forced resulting for a loud noise that startled the trio in the living room. Killua was panting, and he was looking at them with worried eyes.

"Where's Mayllu?"

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Mayllu was running fast, avoiding the bushes and trees in her way. Her mind was focused in one thing, to find the way back to the boys.

Someone had shrieked behind her and it made her stop and look back. Neon was on her knees, tripped from big root of one of the trees emerged from the ground. Mayllu almost forgot about the pink-head.

When one of the men grabbed Neon earlier, she acted quickly. With her harsh training as a child, it wasn't hard for her to knock down the men with guns pointing at her. Next with little used of martial arts, she was able to dislocate the arms of the men surrounding Neon.

The fight should end that way: the men flattened on ground and her not even breaking a sweat. But things didn't go as her planned. Slowly, those men stood as if the wound on their bodies were nothing and raised their guns once again.

It was frustrating, whenever Mayllu knock over them they will just stood as if they haven't felt the pain. Their limbs will move little by little, and then will face her, like puppets which strings were being pulled up.

That thought made her feel uneasy. Something is definitely wrong…

"Neon, get up! We don't have time to rest," Mayllu shouted as she helped the pink-head stood, but the latter only fell once more.

"I can't… move… anymore…" Neon answered between pants. Mayllu knew the girl had tried her best not to be left behind in that long run. But Neon has a fragile body and she already reached her limit.

Then, the men in suits already appeared, surrounding them once more. Mayllu cursed silently, annoyed she haven't felt them again. Zetsu… she thought gravely and realized that these men were nothing but pawns. The Nen user was a manipulator and hiding somewhere while using these puppets against them.

"You leave me with no choice you idiots…" she mumbled as she focused her aura and summoned it towards the soil on her feet. Five thick vines, at least a meter wide each, materialized from the ground and pushed the five men, which made them flew several meters away from the two girls. Then two men were crushed on a nearby three while the remaining four were pulled down by the vines underground.

A ten minutes fight and now the battlefield was clear. Those men were as good as dead anyways, nothing to be worried about them.

"What happened?" Neon silently asked, eyes wide opened, surprised in the clash she saw.

The silver-head only shook her head and helped again Neon to stand up. Mayllu put Neon's arms around her shoulder, supporting the pink-head. "I'll explain later. We need to go back to the boys faster before some crazy men appeared once more and tried to kidnap you."

They only made a ten steps when someone applause. Mayllu looked annoyingly at the source but her eyes widened in fear upon recognizing the culprit.

Neon felt the girl holding her was trembling. She looked up to Mayllu, and then followed her gaze. In their front was a young man, probably in mid twenties, with long jet black hair and big black irises. He has the palest skin she had ever saw and at least at the same height of Leorio.

"That was a good performance. Your fighting ability has not wavered a bit even most of a time you are just playing around."

"Illumi-nii-sama…" Mayllu said after a minute of silence, eyes not leaving the man in dark green pants and sleeveless top with pins. "What… are you doing here?"

Illumi gave her a blank look. "I would like to say I'm in a vacation in this fancy island. However, I'm currently on a job." He raised his hand towards them. "Give me Neon Nostrade. A client wants her dead."

"Y-you can't do that. She is… she is important to..."

"Are you disobeying me, Mayllu." His cold voice brought chills in the silver-head spine and her trembling became more visible to Neon. "Are you trying to interfere with my job?"

Mayllu quickly averted her gaze, can no longer stand to look at Illumi's intimidating eyes. She can't do anything against him. How can she defend herself and Neon?

"S-stop… you're scaring her…" Neon stood between them, fear inside her yet trying to act brave. She can't understand the situation well. She knew this man wanted to kill her, like the others she encountered during parties or ambush. However there's this nagging feeling she cannot explain.

Those dark orbs stared directly at Neon. She shivered upon feeling that those orbs were pulling her into an endless pit of darkness. A familiar emotion built inside her. Her body quivered more.

"Y-you are the person who caused Mayllu's fear from the past… The one who will make her feel miserable… It hurts so much here…" Neon held her chest tightly before looking at the silver-head. "Mayllu… don't… don't do what will he say… his commands will break you."

Mayllu gawked at Neon in disbelief.

"Interesting…" Illumi ended the seconds silence then focus his dark aura toward the girls. Neon, who cannot stand the evil Nen emitting from the man, collapsed unconsciously on the ground. "Definitely weak but I can use her power. She predicted well my plan."

Illumi walked forward to the girls and stopped few inches at Mayllu who remained rooted on her position.

"You should sleep for a while, too, my cousin."

A powerful forced shoved her behind and knock her unconscious.

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Half of Mayumi Island is composed of trees and small hills. The forest behind the beach is incredibly big and looks like a maze. With this, the boys decided to split to look for the two girls, Mayllu and Neon.

Killua turned left after passing the line of oak trees, following his hunch. He was sure that he felt Illumi's aura. There was no way he was just paranoid.

After another five minutes run he stopped. In a bolder few feet in front of him was his brother, sitting comfortably. Beside his brother was a seven footer man with those incredulously big muscles. With those unfocused eyes Killua could tell that the bulky man was one of his brother's needlemen, and that man was holding the two missing girls in each hand.

"You finally arrived my little cute brother."

"Illumi…" Killua hissed. "Released Mayllu and Neon."

Illumi only looked blankly at before gazing at the two girls. "It seems these two are important to you. I'm jealous. Should I kill them now?"

"Don't you dare," Killua warned as visible electricity crawled on his right hand.

"I really want to entertain you my little brother but I have a job to be done."

Illumi stood from his position as the bulky man disappeared swiftly.

"And please tell your Kuruta friend that my client, Zenji, wanted to say hi."


A/N: First, I apologize for not updating. Second, I hope you are still reading this story. Love Hurts should be only a ten chapters long but as the plot bunny interfere, the story became different as the original plan. Still, I love writing this. I guess this story will end after 2-3 chapters. And I hope you will support this until the end. And last, sorry for my grammar.

Explanation about Neon's new ability: I was wondering how specialists get their power. By knowing the abilities of Neon, Kuroro and Kurapika, I have a little theory. Specialists usually get a power they desire. Neon desire to help people by telling the future, she had the Lovely Ghost. Kuroro desire to get something he wants, he has the Bandit's Secret. Kurapika wanted a power to fight alone, he has the Emperor Time. So now that Neon desires a power to help people without shutting her eyes or being clueless with this, she developed a power where she will be the medium. Unknowingly her Nen touch the Nen of the person and she will feel every emotion of that person, especially the emotions that person will encounter on the future. Yes, I know her Nen ability had been stolen by Kuroro. Her Lovely Ghost, but not all her Nen I guess? Nen is the aura of a person, and Neon is still alive, she still has the aura. Kuroro's ability restricted Neon by using her Lovely Ghost, but only her Lovely Ghost. So it could be possible for her to develop another ability. Of course all of this is just an excuse for this story. Haha! Oh! Well I hope I explain it a bit.

Do you like this chapter? R&R.