Disclaimer: I do not own Hunter X Hunter or all the characters pertaining to it, except my OCs Merula and Art, and the rest of other characters not pertaining to the Hunter X Hunter anime/manga.
Warning: Referring Kurapika here as female. Some bad language, OOCness (but it's inevitable right? ;P )
Note: Please review….Any corrections to grammar, spelling, typo errors are welcome and will be greatly appreciated. ^^
Chapter 10:
Turning Point
"Red is obviously such a stimulating color, and it has so many connotations."
-P. J. Harvey
"Well, she pissed me off first!" Kurapika heard Art whined as she came to.
"You should have had thought of it first before you acted," Merula replied in the usual apathetic intonation.
"I did, but…." Art trailed off, "Wait a goddamn minute! Why am I being sermonized about it! What's the big deal? She's supposedly our goddamn hostage, not some….some-"
"You're the one who keep calling her princess."
"And you're the one who've gone so soft on her….which you don't usually do."
"No I'm not being soft on her. Why? How exactly do you expect me to treat her?"
Kurapika finally squinted and saw Art walking exasperatedly back and forth in front of Merula who sat along the wall of the cave, fixing the gauze on her left hand. Art would wince occasionally because of the pain in his sides.
"Sit, why don't you? You're hurting yourself," Merula told the agent.
"You could have just let me do it," Kurapika heard the agent mumbled as he sat next to her just a couple of meters away from her head. She winced as she realized that her hands were tied together, so as her feet. Although, she was thankful that the black leather jacket had put onto her, with its zipper fastened all the way up to cover her torso and her torn shirt. She wriggled and struggled as she lay down on the earthy ground. Then the agent looked down on her. He did not mind a pair of fiery red eyes glaring back at him. Art raised a hand to show that he was holding a vine that was connected to the thing that bound Kurapika's hands firmly together. The Kuruta realized that Art had been holding that vine to send Zetsu through it and to her body to keep her down. Kurapika cursed under her breath as she looked away and laid back down her head to the ground, feeling defeated.
"Why should I have let you done it?" Merula proceeded with the conversation. The agent looked back at her.
"Because! Because….." Art trailed off.
"See? You don't know what you're doing," Merula pointed out, "And it was very unlikely of you to commit such act."
"It is very unlikely of you, too, to take her along with us this long and this far. You even went as far as like …protecting her-"
"I have to. You know very well the situation right? We can't let them have her. Not a single strand of her hair or a tiny drop of her blood. Besides, you did protect her, too."
"It's because I was playing along. And until now, I don't know what your plan about her is!"
There was a short silence.
"Well…." Art prompted, "WHAT IS IT? What's YOUR plan. Why don't you do it right here right NOW?"
"Stop ordering me around." Merula said flatly as she looked up at Art straight into the eyes, "I'll decide when and where to execute my plans."
Art was dumbfounded.
"Don't tell me…." Art said finally, "Balak mo siyang isama sa amin? (You're planning to take her along to my place?)"
Merula nodded.
"You're kidding, right?" Art frowned at her.
Merula shook her head, "Bakit? Di ba dapat maging masaya ka? (Why? Aren't you supposed to be happy?) Di ba gusto mo sya? (You like her don't you?)"
A light flush flourished on the agent's cheek.
"Stop joking around!" Art barked in denial. His face all red.
Merula ignored the agent's tantrums and stood up. She looked out through the mouth of the cave and saw the abundant daylight coming from it. She knew that the storm was over and that it is safe to continue their journey.
"Let's move," Merula announced as she walked towards Kurapika and crouched besides her. She hauled the switchblade from the side of her boots and held it up. Making sure the Kuruta could see it.
"You shall walk," she told her, "You shall not attempt to escape nor attack any of us on the way, or else I'm going to tear off both of your legs. Understand?"
"Why don't you just kill me?" Kurapika spat.
Merula raised her eyebrows, and tilted her head as she looked down at her with the usual impassive countenance.
"Hm? Is that what you want to happen?" Merula asked as if surprised by what the blonde hunter's statement.
"You're going to kill me anyway. The lecher is right," Art flinched upon hearing Kurapika referred him with the term 'lecher', "why don't just get on with it here and now."
Merula looked at Art, who looked away guiltily to avoid eye contact with her. Then she looked back down at the Kuruta.
"My eyes," Kurapika continued scornfully, "That's all you want from me right? You can just poke them out of my sockets and put them on glass cylinders. You must be really enjoying collecting my people's eyes and putting them on display, DON'T YOU, YOU BASTA-? "
"You talk too much trash," Merula cut her off. When Kurapika looked up at her, she saw her left eye lost its original amethyst color and glowed with scarlet color, "I never desire you're peole's eyes. In fact, I utterly DESPISE them together with their owners," Merula's bondage fingers moved over her left scarlet eye, almost threatening to dig it out of her own socket, but her fingers spread over to the left side of her face and pressed hard into the skin and trembled, "Especially my brother who gave this eye to me."
Kurapika's eyes went wide upon hearing what Merula said. Brother, her brother was a Kuruta?
Merula took away her hand from her face and revealed her left eye again which still glowed vividly with scarlet hue.
"This eye," Merula continued, "Is a constant reminder of what your people did to me. I will never forgive them… for taking part on my creation."
"You're brother…." Kurapika stammered as she looked at Merula incredulously, "….is a Kuruta? And he gave that eye to you?"
"Yes. And I have to kill him for that."
Kurapika gasped on this revelation. She could feel the chill as she continued to stare at Merula eye to eye and see those icy, emotionless, mismatched eyes stared back at her.
Kurapika tried hard not to tremble. She could not imagine that there would be a person that will hate his people so much for such a vague reason.
Then, something dawned on the Kuruta and she started to giggle, almost crazily.
"I see!" Kurapika exclaimed among her giggles, "Everything is started to become clear now…..You're the one who hired the Spiders to kill my people, aren't you? As revenge."
"No. I'm not," Merula replied as she cut the vine that bound Kurapika's feet, "Why would I hire someone else if I can kill them myself?" Kurapika froze as she continued to hear what she was saying. The revelation she was hearing at that moment was like icy cold water being poured on her, that even if her feet were already freed, she could not bring herself to move immediately. Art, on the other hand, was terribly quiet in one corner. He seemed to be silently grieving on the situation. Perhaps deep inside, he felt sorry for Kurapika for hearing such things.
Merula folded the switchblade and shoved it to the small of her back. She stood up and turned her back at the Kuruta who was still dumbfounded and apparently, was closed to breaking down, "It was not me who hired the Spiders though," Merula continued. Then she glanced back down at the Kuruta, her left eye returned to its amethyst hue, "It was my grandfather." Then she looked away and started to amble towards the half-burned glass cylinder that contained a single scarlet eye. It was lying along the base of the cave wall. Merula picked it up. The eye inside it is barely visible. Then she walked towards Art and dropped the cylinder on him. The agent caught it with both hands,
"He's dead now though." Merula said as she finally walked away from them.
Minutes later, Merula, Art, and Kurapika were walking in the woods. Merula was leading the way, behind her was Art, then Kurapika. Kurapika's hands were still tied together by a vine. A leash made up of the same material was connected with it, and Art was holding its other end by his left hand. The glass cylinder with the Kuruta eye was being carried under the agent's right arm. It looked like the agent was dragging a dog with him. But it was not a dog. It was Kurapika. The agent kept on sending Zetsu towards the Kuruta's body through the leash to make sure she could not use her Nen until he and Merula allowed it, and thus, prevent her from attacking them as well.
Art craned over his shoulder and saw the blonde hunter tottered. She was walking in such a manner not because of exhaustion, but most probably because she was out of herself, daydreaming, and she was slowing down. Probably, she still couldn not digest everything that she heard from the cave.
Abruptly, the agent jerked the leashed almost violently. It made the Kuruta lunged unsteadily and almost tripped, but fortunately, she immediately gained balance. This was enough to snap her back to reality.
"What THE HELL!" Kurapika railed at the agent as she jerked back her hands.
"Hurry up will you!" the agent demanded, only to receive a sharp glare from the blonde hunter. He ignored it and continued to walk.
After a half hour of walking and without talking to each other, the agent decided to break the silence finally…
"Hey princess," Art started without looking over at Kurapika as they continued to walk. The agent was not sure if she was even listening or hearing him but he did not care, "Do you know something about Paracelsus?"
There was a moment of silence before the Kuruta answered.
"What about him?" Kurapika answered sarcastically, "He's a long dead alchemist."
"Is that all you know?"
"So what?" Kurapika retorted. Although, in fact, she knew a lot about him. She was a bookworm after all. She loves to read and of course, she had red a lot about him. She was just not in the mood to talk about it with the perverted agent.
"What about the Philosopher's stone? Do you think it exists?"
"Why does it matter now?" the blonde hunter replied, still with sarcasm.
"How about alchemy? Do you believe it exists?" Art continued. His questions, which sounded more like statements.
"What are you trying to pull?" Kurapika grouched while frowning at him. The agent did not even glance at her.
"The human body is an amazing, don't you agree?" The agent begun to talk with elaboration, "It contains 60 chemical elements. Just like what Professor Richard Wool said, our own bodies are extraordinary biological chemical manufacturing systems, where we use our genes to make highly complex molecules. Our bodies can produce anti-bodies as protection from diseases, we have organs to filter the dirt from our blood and discharge them; our brain is one big chemical reaction, and controls everything-our metabolism, perception, body movements, body chemicals, learning, memory, body growth etc…Our genes, on the other hand, decides mostly on what we look like when we grow up-the color of our eyes, hair, skin, the number of our limbs, our sex, mutation…."Art trailed off from the last word. Slowly he stopped walking and turned around to face Kurapika whose expression was like she had seen a person grew another head.
"So, Kurapika?" the agent finally called her by her name, "Do you believe a human body could be so terrifyingly functional to perform Alchemy?"
The blonde hunter looked at the agent with bewilderment. She knew Art was trying to tell something to her though. She just could not make it out exactly. Or could it be that the agent was mad?
"Did it ever come across your mind as to how the Kuruta originated? How you and your tribe's eyes obtain the scarlet color?" Art added.
"Enough!" Kurapika snapped and walked past him, the agent followed behind her. "My tribe's origin and how we got our scarlet eyes are none of your business!" Merula who was ahead of them came to a stopped to watch them.
"Why don't you just admit that you don't know anything about the history of either of them?" Art scoffed, "Your ancestors hid the truth from you!" Abruptly, the blonde hunter turned around, walked back towards the agent and confronted him up close.
"Oh yeah? And what are you trying to brag? That you know everything?" the Kuruta spat at his face, "It's not like you had been to our realm!"
"Yes I HAD!" the agent pressed, "I was there more than three years before and until the massacre of your tribe."
"You're LYING!" Driven by anger, Kurapika attempted to push the agent by her bound hands; but Art caught them and held them up firmly. He pulled the blonde hunter close to him and looked her straight in her glassy, scarlet eyes.
"I'm not lying!" Art protested, "It's you who keeps on running away from the truth!"
"And how can I trust you? You traitor! You trickster! You who lured people to their deaths!" the blonde hunter attempted to free her hands from the agent's clutch but failed, "You are as rotten as Merula! The two of you are no different from those who massacred my tribe. You, who never hesitate to kill people! The smell of blood, I DESPISE IT! It DISGUST ME! So tell me, how could the tow of you just kill people so easily? What do you feel when you go with Black Riding Hood to slaughter people!"
Suddenly, Art's eyes flared with rage. His teeth gritted. He pushed the blonde hunter and her back hit against a tree. He pinned her there as he hold her arms above her head. He glared back at her eye to eye. Their faces were so close to each other that they could inhale each other's breath. Kurapika started to feel nervous. Could it be that the agent will try to touch her again? To violate her? Fortunately, no such thing happened.
"Feel what Kurapika?" Art growled, "Mercy? Forgiveness? Those people in the organization turned my wife into one of their monsters and I had to watch her die in my arms!" As the agent spat his sentiments, he recalled what happened 4 years ago-He sat on a cold tiled floor with legs spread wide, his shoulder sagged. He was staring down forlornly at the deformed dead body with a long blonde locks lying in front of him. Art's hair was longer. His brown fringed was soaked in blood that had begun to clot. He was wearing a white coat, the kind worn by those who work in a laboratory. It was also stained red with blood. Under the deformed dead body in front of him was a pool of red liquid expanding as the blood continued to gush from the said corpse. Art slowly looked up to see that a bloodstained blade was being pointed at his forehead. That blade emerged from the flesh of a girl's mutated arms and blood was still dripping from it. The said girl was the four years younger Merula . She had a longer hair that reached down to the back of her thighs. Her left eye was glowing scarlet while the other was as dark as the hematite stone. Both eyes appeared soulless otherwise as she looked down at the pathetic man in front of her. The hospital gown she was wearing used to be white but it had turned crimson because of the blood of those she had killed. Art would never forget that day, when Merula decided to spare his life.
"Tell me Kurapika, after the massacre of your tribe, what did you do?" the agent continued while the Kuruta remained speechless and stunned, "Did you just forget everything? What will you feel when you met the murderer of your tribe? Will you feel forgiveness towards them? Will you feel mercy? Huh? Don't talk like you haven't killed anyone yet, or have you?"
The agent's last sentence rang painfully in Kurapika's ears. She remembered what she did back in York Shin. She killed Ubogin, who was one of the Spiders who murdered her tribe. Art's reason why he does things revealed to her like a slap in the face. And from that moment she realized their similarity.
Art heaved a deep sigh. He pulled away from the Kuruta and pulled down her arms, then started untying the vine that bound her hands.
"I'm tired of dragging you," Art complained as he ambled away, his countenance was calm and exhausted, "You walk on your own. Besides, you are well aware of what will happen if you try to escape. I know you're smart enough to do the right thing," Art threw the cylinder containing a Kuruta eyes at her and she caught it with both hands, "You carry it," the agent continued to walk then.
Kurapika hesitated for a while. She watched the back of the agent as he went farther away from her. After she heard everything, she felt different. Her views about Art and Merula changed, although there were still few things, she could not understand but it dawned on her, that probably, she would learn them eventually and then understand their goals. However, of course, there might be several things in the future that would probably remain disagreeable about them.
Then Kurapika began to walk. In fact, she ran to catch up with them, only that she maintained a more or less 3 meters distance between her and them.
Kurapika held the cylinder in shoulder level and examined it as she walked.
"Merula?" Art began a conversation with the girl in black as he ran to catch up with her pace until he was walking alongside with her.
"Hm?" was Merula's answer.
"Wag mong sabihing balak mo kupkupin natin siya nang buhay? (Don't tell me, you're planning to keep her alive?)"
"Sinong may sabing kukupkupin natin sya? (Who said we're going to keep her?)"
"So ibig mong sabihin, balak mo talaga syang buhayin? (So that means you're letting her live?")
Kurapika watched the two in confusion as she heard them talk to each other in different language. She did not dare to ask what they were talking about.
"So gusto mo talagang tapusin ko sya, gusto mo ba yun? (So you really want me to finish her? You really want me to do that?)" Merula stared at the agent, "Bakit ka ganyan, hindi ka naman ganyan dati ah. (Why are you being like that? It's so not you,)" Merula replied flatly.
"Hindi naman sa ganun(No, it's not like that) Nagtataka lang ako na hinayaan mo siyang sumama sa atin kahit na matindi ang galit mo sa kanyang tribo, o baka naman, napatawad mo na sila (I'm just surprised that you dragged her along with us alive, despite the fact that you have a grudge on her people, or have you forgiven them?)"
"Never. Kailanman hindi ko sila mapapatawad hanggang sa dumating ang ikalawa kong kamatayan (I will never forgive them until my second last breath.)"
"Kung ganun, anong tunay the rason? (Then what is the real reason?)"
"Revenge." Merula delivered the answer in firm tone but in a low voice to the level that Kurapika could not hear it.
"Revenge eh?" Art squinted and pondered this for a moment. He craned at Kurapika behind them and saw her looked back at him with suspicion, and then he returned his eyes ahead of their path. Suddenly, upon realizing something, he begun to giggle and shook his head, "Just like what you did to me huh?"
Merula did not give an answer.
"Merula, you really ARE a cruel person," Art muttered under his breath as he smiled.
Suddenly, Art's earring started to blink green light. He heard it rang and pressed the stone on it.
"Uncle!" said the energetic female voice coming from the stone; Art was the only one who can hear it though.
"Marj? Is that you?" Art exclaimed incredulously. Somewhere in the same island, a girl was sitting next to a wooden counter of a pub, where her laptop was placed.
"Bingo!" Marj replied cheerfully as she smiled in front of her laptop. Her left hand adjusted the mic on her headphone. The back of her left palm contained a 8-legged spider tattoo.
"How did you….? Are you eavesdropping on us?" the agent asked angrily
"Hmmm….sort of!"
"Why you brat! How dare you! And how did you manage to hack into our communication device?" Art continued heatedly.
"Why Uncle! Are you an idiot? Of course! Duh! I can hack into them because I'm the one who MADE THEM, remember?" Marj chuckled.
A nerve swell on the agent's temple as he endeavored to hold back his temper,
"How dare you call your handsome Uncle an idiot. Do you want to get spanked when I get there?" The agent muttered irately under his breath.
Kurapika did not know what was going on anymore. She watched the agent in perplexity as she saw him smacked his forehead and seemed to be talking to himself. Then the blonde hunter cast down her eyes at the cylinder on her hands. She squinted as she noticed something moved inside the vague, burned glass.
"You CANNOT do it Uncle; I'm just too cute for you!" Marj added teasingly. Art's eyes rolled.
"Why did you call?" Art suddenly brought up.
"I was worried," Marj replied, "A storm just passed by right? Where are you now anyway?"
"We are already in the Island."
"Great!"
Kurapika kept on staring at the cylinder. She could not see exactly through it but she was sure she could see something moving inside it. And of course, the blonde hunter found it odd. A small animal or inset could not have been able to enter inside the cylinder, right?
"Art, tell Marj I wanna speak with her," Merula told the agent.
"I heard that," Marj said and immediately her communication with her Uncle cut off. Merula's left earring blinked. Merula pressed the stone.
"What is it sister?" Marj asked from Merula's earring.
"I just want you to know," Merula replied, "That I lost my pendulum. The thread was cut off."
"WHAAAAAATTTT!" both Art and Marj exclaimed in unison.
"You got to be kidding me!" Marj cried out furiously through the line. Merula raised her right gloved hand to examine the empty case of her metal ring in one of her fingers where the pendulum used to be attached with a sharp thread. "Do you know how hard it is to make one? Damn you Merula! If you want another one, prepare $20,000.00 for it!" Then the line went off. Merula heaved a deep sigh, although her expression did not look that saddened.
"Cut off?" Art exclaimed incredulously with elaboration at Merula, "How the fuck was it cut off! I thought the thread can cut into metals!"
"It was made of organic material, of course it has its limit," Merula explained as she walked past the agent who kept muttering words because of shock and disbelief. After a few steps forwards, Merula stiffened. She suddenly smelled an oddly familiar stench nearby.
She turned her head to see Kurapika opening the cylinder and in every turn of its lid, the stench became stronger. Merula was alarmed by this because she knew that that stench was a sign of impending danger.
"Kurapika, WHAT are you doing!" Merula exclaimed as she ran towards the blonde hunter who looked back at her, bewildered. She had stopped turning the lid but it was closed to opening. Abruptly, the lid of the cylinder burst open and the lid itself was thrown away in great distance as if a very strong pressure escaped from it. It made Kurapika dropped the cylinder and she tripped backwards. The thing that came out from the cylinder was a round thing with tentacles and it was running in great speed towards the Kuruta. There was no time for the blonde hunter to react. The thing with the tentacles leaped from the ground in speed almost invisible to the eye, it stretched its tentacles wide open like an octopus and headed towards Kurapika. Just as it was just a foot away from the blonde hunter's face, the switched blade flew sharply towards it and nailed it into the nearby tree.
"What…." Kurapika stammered as she stared with eyes wide open at the wriggling thing impaled on a tree, "….was…that?" The center, which was impaled by the blade, was a round lump of flesh as big as a fist with a red glassy thing on the center, which looked like the very iris of the scarlet eye it used to be. Attached to the round lump, were some slimy nerve-like tentacles wriggling. Seconds later, the wriggling stopped and the thing turned completely motionless.
…to be continued….
Author's Note:
Yeah…I guess I was able to update my fanfic weekly this month (I have to suffer the consequences later though ) because the idea came teeming inside my head, and actually, the next sequence of events of this fic are already made inside my head. All I need to do is endeavor to spare some time to type them all down. Moreover, I am really enjoying writing this fic now, despite the low number of reviews. But it's okay. I still enjoy writing this story. This fic is getting closer to the revelation part where Merula's relationship with Kurapika and her people will become clear. Also I might write a hypothetical story on how the scarlet eyes of the Kuruta tribe originated. :P (Hope it works and consistent with Kurapika's background though)
Moreover, I couldn't think of a proper title for this chapter. Hope you enjoyed this though. ;)
