Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Story so far: After their little adventure in Ryuusei-gai, the duo returned to Muntenia empty-handed—though it went without saying that their journey was not without any results, disregarding the fact that the result did not necessarily concern the missing child. However, Kurapika was in for a big surprise and it seemed that Kuroro had deliberately plotted it.
Chapter 19
ACCEPTANCE
"Sorry, I was not—"
Her words hang in the air uselessly, and Kurapika had her mouth ajar like a gaping goldfish. She stared at the person right before her while the person smiled her enchantingly.
"Not paying attention?" The man offered generously.
Kurapika gave no reaction. If anything, she looked like she had transformed into a stone statue. Silence filled the entire room; with anticipation engulfing Kuroro Lucifer and his vampire companion—though Lucian's anticipation was more of a dry and humourless one than anything else. The olive-skinned man stared at Kurapika with slight expression of loss on his face. He bent forward and waved a hand in front of Kurapika's spacing-out face.
"Kurapika? Are you—"
SLAP!
Kuroro raised an eyebrow. Lucian grimaced as if he was the one being slapped. The victim of Kurapika's violence blinked several times, his brain still registering and processing the event that had just transpired. Kurapika had her hand raised yet her face still betrayed the shock that was welling up within her. She retracted her hand and stared at it with disbelieving eyes.
"Ow, what was that for?" Heen protested as he rubbed his sore cheek.
"It's real."
"Yeah, duh." Heen rolled his eyes. "Flesh and blood."
Partially, Lucian muttered inwardly. He dared not to whisper it out loud lest the sometimes-oversensitive girl overheard him—if that happened, that would be the end of him. Kurapika would tear him from limbs to limbs, or perhaps with the addition of scattering his entrails to the fish by the shore of the town…Okay, his imagination just went slightly overboard but he had the feeling that Kurapika might really do all those. Female hormones and their mood-swings side-effects were the scariest thing he had ever encountered in his long years of life.
"Ho, how—" Kurapika started, but then her brains decided to work wonders and she immediately figured out what had actually happened. She spun on her heels and glared daggers at a certain raven-haired man; who was smirking smugly at her. "YOU!"
"Me?" Kuroro echoed her.
"Don't act innocent, you conniving bastard! What's the meaning of this?" Kurapika screeched as she pointed an accusing finger at Heen.
"Just as how it is plainly presented to you." Kuroro answered smoothly and coolly—in exactly the manner that he knew Kurapika could not stand the most.
By this time, Lucian was already inching away so that he was hidden behind Kuroro, though it helped little since he was much taller than the latter anyway.
"Heen, at your service, Ma'am." Heen said politely with a knowing yet mischievous smile on his tanned face. "Presenting to you the newest addition to the Genei Ryodan: number 11."
This declaration by Heen was equivalent to a flash bomb dropped right in front of Kurapika's face. She just froze there; eyes still locked with Kuroro's dark ones, finger still pointing rudely at Heen's face, mouth still hanging ajar from her earlier shouting at Kuroro. Several seconds passed and she did not move a muscle. To Lucian, the unbearable silence was as deafening as if a time-bomb was ticking away.
"Lucian, a few words with you alone." Kuroro finally said quietly at the vampire as he walked away.
Good! About time that I make my leave. Kurapika seems like she's going to snap very soon, and I absolutely don't want to be there when she does snap, Lucian thought as he shuddered slightly upon imagining the carnage that might occur once the temperamental Kuruta snapped.
As the two men slipped from the room, yet another set of silence passed between the two remaining occupants of the room. Heen was getting worried—was Kurapika knocked out cold in shock or what? He moved to face her and waved a tentative hand in front of her face.
"Kurapika?" He called out to her softly. "Kurapiiii~~~ka?"
She did not snap out of her trance when he did so, but she did blink and she lowered her arm ever so slowly. She then looked down to her feet as she had a distraught expression on her face.
"You alright?" Heen asked.
"Y, yes—no, I mean, of course I'm NOT fine!" Kurapika snapped. "What the hell is going on?"
"Well, simply put Lucifer decided not to kill me because he wanted me to join his gang so—"
"No, I know as much!" Kurapika interjected impatiently.
"Then?" Heen raised an eyebrow. He did not understand what was wrong with the girl now.
"It—it's just that… Damn…" Kurapika began combing her hair nervously as she started to pace around aimlessly.
"How am I supposed to know if you don't tell me, seriously?" Heen crossed his arms. "Is this too much information for you to process? Or too shocking, perhaps?"
"No, that's not the problem. The problem is it…kind of…makes sense…" Kurapika's voice trailed away.
"What does make sense?" Heen was really not getting it.
"He spared you because he saw potential in you. He left it for Lucian to deal with you knowing that Lucian would come, somehow somewhat. He blackmailed you into joining the Spider. Is that what has happened?" Kurapika asked, all in one breath.
"Uh… In general, yes." Heen nodded. Thought it's not exactly blackmail, but maybe it's really close to that anyway, he vaguely mused.
"Oh no, no, no…" Kurapika started combing her hair again, and this was starting to get to Heen's nerves.
"Seriously, Kurapika, what's WRONG?"
"I'm starting to think that his actions all make sense, while usually they don't." Kurapika whispered almost to herself.
"So?"
Kurapika turned to Heen and glared at him so intensely that if looks could kill then he would have been mutilated beyond recognition—even worse than when Kuroro Lucifer had barraged him with shotgun bullets back then in Bensalem. Heen then instinctively backed away when Kurapika yelled:
"I DON'T WANT TO START THINKING THE WAY HE DOES!"
The two of them remained in silence for a while—Kuroro sorting out his thoughts and questions while Lucian waited patiently for the 'Questions & Answers' session that was about to come. He knew what the Spider Head was going to ask, but he would rather hear the questions straight from his own lips rather than making haphazard-but-sensible guesses.
So he waited.
"Your body language shows that you have an idea on what I'm going to ask you. So let's get straight to the point: you know of my ancestry, I assume?" Kuroro said with straight face as he turned to regard the vampire coolly.
Lucian raised an eyebrow.
"Sure I do. To be honest, I've just found out when you ran off with your fată (girl) to Ryuusei-gai. But I suppose," Lucian narrowed his eyes as he carefully endeavoured to read his human friend's atmosphere, "that you've already done your homework about your ancestors."
"A bit of research, yes, but I'd rather hear more from you since this whole…" Kuroro paused as he searched for the best word, "…concept…is originated from your country." He then crossed his arms and looked demandingly (in a subtle way) at the vampire.
With a sigh, Lucian put his sinewy index finger on his forehead as he closed his eyes. Where did he even have to start? There were so many things to explain about Solomonarii, and he had no idea which information was relevant to Kuroro Lucifer or not.
"How much have you known?"
Kuroro was silent for a while, before he finally regurgitate all facts that he had learned from his brief yet intense visit to his personal library back there in Ryuusei-gai. He knew that the Solomonarii were not supernatural creatures but more like humans who had learned—or born with—special abilities. Children destined to be Solomonarii were born with a mark that was unique to every individual. The extent of these special abilities was still questionable as there were not a single cohesive documentation on the powers of these wizards and witches. Usually those who took their identity as Solomonarii seriously would want to further their abilities by learning from the devils themselves—absurd as it might sound to Kuroro but then again he had encountered genies so why should he be surprised if he met a devil, or demon, or even an angel next?
After hearing all those, Lucian nodded solemnly.
"Well, you know all the basics and the essentials. Unless you want to join the convent of those Solomonarii—which has a base in the capital—there is no need for you to know the other details as they are likely to be irrelevant. As for whatever special abilities you may have, don't ask me since it really depends on each individual. Go and figure out on your own."
Satisfied with Lucian's response, Kuroro merely nodded. There was no way that he was going to join whatever convent Lucian was talking about. Okay, perhaps now it was discovered that he had the blood of a Solomonar in his system but what significance did it bring to his life? He was already living with his blood mixed with a medusa's blood and it did not really change anything much; if his dependency on his restrainers could be exempted.
It was only a discovery; a new knowledge learned. Nothing would change just because of one measly discovery and that was that. Period.
"Does the Solomon Ring have anything to do with the Solomonarii? Their names sound too similar to be a coincidence." Kuroro asked calmly.
"I'm not too sure about that one. That piece of information goes way back to the ancient time. Actually, I did ask him about that one but the old man just told me that he wasn't going to tell me that because he claimed that it doesn't concern me, and if you want to know then you will have to personally ask him about that one." Lucian said with a shrug, though he seemed positively irritated when he mentioned about his father refusing to share the story with him because it does not concern him directly.
"Another time, preferably after this whole thing is sorted out, I suppose." Kuroro said with a nod. He made a mental note to visit the Muntenia ruler in the near future.
It doesn't matter, Kurapika had said almost offhandedly, as if she utterly meant it. She did not care about his heritage—odd, strange, bizarre, peculiar, demonic, or whatever else people might call it—then why should he care so much about it? While he did not want to cling to the fact that he was a descendant of a Solomonar, it would still do him good to know as much information about his own bloodline and the history behind it. Oh yes, Kuroro Lucifer would never forfeit the chance of learning anything new, no matter how gross or ugly that knowledge was.
"And please ram this into that thick skull of yours, Lucifer," Lucian said as he gave Kuroro a piercing stare, "above all, the Solomonarii are essentially humans."
The reason why Lucian had stressed that point was because he knew exactly how sensitive Kuroro Lucifer was regarding self-identity vis-à-vis 'human or monster' question.
"Duly noted," Kuroro said, almost dismissively.
You better do, Lucian muttered inwardly. The last thing the vampire would want was his human friend experiencing another 'falling-out' with his psychology with the crappy excuse of 'I'm not entirely a human so it doesn't matter if I do this or that'. He was already psychologically unsound as he was at the moment, and it would be better for him to maintain that status quo rather than becoming the worse. Lucian would not want to hear an earful from Kurapika about how more insane the Spider Head had turned into.
"So," Lucian said with a deep intake of breath as he prepared himself to steer the conversation to another direction, "what's the situation now? No Meta in Ryuusei-gai?"
"Just as you have so expertly observed," Kuroro responded sarcastically.
"What's the plan now, then?"
Kuroro almost immediately went into a trance-like pondering mode as he thought of the situation. As they had thought, Meta was not in Ryuusei-gai. Kuroro then began recalling the places that he had visited. He sorted out the places that Anansi knew Kuroro had visited. He narrowed down the options further to those places that Anansi was likely to know better than the others. Despite being goofy and unreliable at most times, he knew that Anansi was no fool. If he wanted to 'hide', he would choose a place that he knew very well. After a while, Kuroro had narrowed down the options to two places.
And those were not very pleasant places.
Evening came rather peacefully. However, a certain pissed off young woman was stomping her way toward a certain room in a certain mansion in a certain town. When she reached her destination, she flung open the door without reservation and stormed into the room. She quickly spotted the resident of the room and made her way there. She stopped right in front of the raven-haired man; who was reading his book calmly and was unperturbed by her sudden invasion.
"Okay, you owe me an explanation BIG TIME." Kurapika demanded as she stood right in front of him and crossed her arms.
"What explanation?" He asked coolly without averting his attention from his book.
"Why did you trick me into thinking that you killed Heen?"
"Would you rather have me killed him in cold blood right there right then?" Kuroro asked back with a smirk on his face, causing the muscle beneath her eye to twitch in irritation.
"Of course not! But you are not answering my question." Kurapika narrowed her eyes dangerously.
"Hm…" Kuroro merely hummed as he flipped the pages of his book. "If I tell you that it was for a fun, what will you say?"
Kurapika grimaced. "Then you have a really morbid sense of humour. Seriously, this is not funny."
"It was never intended to be funny." Kuroro nodded. "It was a gamble. If he managed to stay alive after all those and somehow made it out of that place, then he qualified to be a Spider. If he died, then it's too bad."
"You are a sick bastard."
"I know. You've said that so many times before." He even chuckled at this.
"And apparently it doesn't register into your brain." She scoffed.
"More like it doesn't matter to me." Kuroro shrugged as the amused smirk grew wider.
Kurapika glared daggers at him, and if looks alone could kill Kuroro would have been shredded into unrecognisable bits by then. Kuroro professionally endured Kurapika's intense glare without much efforts considering that he was so used to it. He had had worse than this level of glare coming from Kurapika.
"You insufferable jerk…" Kurapika finally muttered in defeat. She should have known better than to expect something close to kind-hearted, genuine, and unconditional mercy coming from this man.
Kuroro only smiled and said nothing more. With a sigh and slumped shoulders, Kurapika pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Do you know that Bia doesn't recognise Heen at all?"
"I know. Lucian told me."
Flat tone, no sympathy, no empathy. Who am I kidding? Kurapika thought while rolling her eyes. She combed her golden hair in frustration—it was becoming a new habit that came out of nowhere.
"Heen has been training her to control her Nen." She informed him.
"They have similar Nen abilities, so it's not surprising." Kuroro murmured half-interestedly.
"Do we leave her with him or what?"
For once, Kuroro looked up from his book and stared at Kurapika's face.
"I'm surprised that you even ask me this question."
Kurapika shrugged. "He's your Spider."
"I was beginning to fear that you might consider adopting her." Kuroro murmured.
Fear? Now that's a strange word coming out of your mouth, Kurapika snickered at the thought. With amused voice, she answered:
"I was."
Kuroro raised an eyebrow and put down his book on his lap as if he was going to be serious. He clasped both hands and rested them on his crossed knees. Perhaps he really was.
"And I suppose you know what I'm going to say about that?"
"Of course you'll be against it."
"So you should know what my answer for your earlier question is." Kuroro said dryly.
"I wouldn't dare to assume. Anyway, like I said, he's your newest Spider. I don't know if you have some arrangements for him in some ways or not, so I figure it'll be better to let you know the circumstances. For consideration."
Kuroro leaned back in his chair and looked at Kurapika with a thin grin of amusement.
"How thoughtful of you," Kuroro said rather teasingly, causing Kurapika to scowl. "You know, you've been involving yourself with my group awfully a lot lately."
Do I? Kurapika could feel her blood turn cold upon hearing this.
"Interested to join? There's still vacancy. After all, you killed two of my members so you have automatically earned the position." Kuroro said again, the grin on his face growing wider and more mischievous.
"HELL NO!" Kurapika yelled at him.
Her outburst only caused Kuroro's grin to widen even more.
"You can make a good replacement for Pakunoda. She used to be the one keeping the others in line. Last time I checked, you managed to singlehandedly keep Phinks in order." Kuroro continued, ignoring the outraged look on the blonde's face. He was referring to the incident in Ryuusei-gai when Phinks had pulled a prank on Kurapika that ended up with Kurapika's backpack missing.
"I'll die young if you make me babysit those people." Kurapika growled.
"Oh dear. What to do, then?" Kuroro still maintained that smile and it was starting to appear creepy to her. She took one step back.
"Are you seriously considering making me join the Spiders?" Kurapika asked with guarded disgust.
"Why not? You are qualified."
"I am not! Obviously my mind doesn't work in the same way you people do." She gritted her teeth.
"That doesn't matter."
"What?"
"I said it doesn't matter."
"Oh really? Well then perhaps I'll join your Spider and sabotage all of your plans whenever you are going for missions." Kurapika tried taunting him.
"I'll make sure it won't happen."
"Can you?"
"Why can't I?"
Kurapika was at loss of words. The more she thought of it, the more she became aware that there was really very slim chance of her screwing his plans. Not only that he was obviously stronger than her—as she VERY begrudgingly admitted since years ago—they were also of the same level of intelligence. She was also painfully aware that she tended to be more reckless.
"Honestly, Kuroro, why do you want me to be in your Spiders? I don't believe that they are going to sit well with the idea, anyway. After all, I've been after you people a few years back."
"Not anymore, correct?"
"I may change my mind, for all we know."
"You won't."
Kuroro stated it as if it was the most absolute truth ever existing in the world. Kurapika could not help but to gape at his bluntness. His eyes were staring right into her blue ones, and they were unwavering. It was as if he was trying to impart that statement into her head through their eye contact, brainwashing her into believing that she would not turn her back on them.
"Okay, back to the previous question: why do you want me in your Spider?"
"Do I need reason?"
"Yes, you do! Or at least, I do!" She yelled at him. God, he was still the same as ever, not even thinking of the reason 'why' when he wanted something to be done.
"If I told you that I just want you in it, will that suffice?" He asked patronisingly.
"Sensible reason, please." Kurapika almost whined.
"Is that not a sensible reason?" Kuroro challenged her.
"It's—"
Well, to be really frank, it was indeed sensible. It was a simple reason—so simple that Kurapika had a hard time believing it. He just wanted her to be near, that was all.
"Sensible." Kuroro finished with his trademark smirk.
Kurapika fought the urge to slap her forehead. She prided herself as an expert in verbal intelligent arguments, but for some reasons she could not beat Kuroro Lucifer in arguing especially when it involved sensibility. When debating about fact, she might be able to stand on even ground with him, but when it went down to this kind of talk, he always made her speechless either by his simplicity or his insensibility. It seemed that 'reasons' and 'common sense' stood little chance against him.
Psychologically unsound freak, she muttered to herself grudgingly.
She was turning around as she intended to go out of the room and back to her bedroom when she caught something lying at the corner of the room. They looked familiar. When she focused her attention to those items, her eyes widened.
"Aren't those my things?"
Kuroro looked up and followed the line of her vision.
"So it seems." He answered while turning back to his book.
"What are they doing here?" It was a rather stupid question because somehow Kurapika knew where this was leading to and she was not happy with it at all.
"You should ask Lucian. He had your belongings moved here since we arrived just now."
"That little—!"
"Is it a big deal, really?"
From his voice, Kurapika could sense that he was fighting back a smile.
"You smile frighteningly a lot today, don't you?" She said accusingly with narrowed eyes.
"Do I? But more importantly, why do you keep making a big fuss over room arrangement? It's not like we haven't slept on the same bed before."
Perhaps he had meant to be straightforward and not hinting to something else, but still Kurapika could not help but to blush—quite furiously, if one might add. Seeing this, Kuroro felt more compelled to tease her.
"Or maybe you are just not used to it?"
"What are you implying?" She wanted to snarl, but her voice came out rather quivering. Damn the traitorous vocal chord.
"What do you think I'm implying?"
There, the sly and smug grin on his face again. It was always there whenever he knew that he was cornering her in an argument, especially when it was on a topic that was a good material to fluster the Kuruta. Silence occupied the room as Kurapika glared pointedly at the man before her.
"…I'd rather not start guessing." She finally said in defeat.
"If you say so." Kuroro shrugged. He then turned back to his book.
Silence descended between them and it was not an awkward one. Kurapika stared at the book that Kuroro was holding. It looked like a textbook on something. She spotted another stack of book on the table next to him. Curious, Kurapika took one of the books and understood what kind of book it was judging from the cover. It was a history book about certain place. She raised a quizzical eyebrow at this, and though she asked nothing Kuroro could sense the questions radiating from her.
"I've been thinking, and I believe that we have two options for places to check." Kuroro explained to her quietly.
I've been thinking, he said. This small detail did not escape Kurapika's notice as she knew the implication. Kuroro Lucifer had been thinking over where to find Anansi and Meta. He was really putting effort to it. Well, there was a chance that he might be hunting down Anansi to question him more about his heritage or Ishtar's legacy, but then again…She would allow herself to assume this time round.
"And those places are?"
"One is Anansi's home and the other is Ishtar's original home, though 'home' perhaps is not the best word to describe the significance of the places to them." Kuroro closed the book he was holding and covered his mouth with one hand. "Both places have the same odd of being chosen by Anansi for this little game of his, but then again I suppose he is more familiar with his own 'home' therefore he might choose to go there."
"You know them better, you take the lead." Kurapika told him as she put down the book.
Before Kuroro could reply, there was a soft knock on the door of his room. Telling whoever was knocking to come in, Kuroro locked his gaze on the door as it swung open to reveal Shalnark standing on the doorway while holding Bia's hand—who was standing on her own two feet! A huge grin was spread on Kurapika's face as she saw this, but Ku
"Shalnark. Is there a problem?" Kuroro asked his Spider coolly.
"Nah. Just here to report that I'm leaving this place."
"Visiting Fino?" Kuroro grinned knowingly at him.
"Uh…yeah, kind of… She's been demanding that I go there and tell her everything that's been happening around here." Shalnark said while scratching the back of his head.
An idea suddenly popped in Kurapika's head.
"You know, Shalnark. Fino's parents have been complaining about when you are going to propose to her." Kurapika said with a sufficiently-evil smile.
Shalnark gulped. "They did?"
"Will you?" Kuroro questioned the younger man.
"I…uh…" Shalnark's face turned tomato red. "Well anyway, Lucian wanted me to give Bia to you because he's busy monitoring Heen's progress."
"Monitoring his progress?" Kurapika asked with a frown.
"Today's the first day of him doing real exercises. He still has to be under surveillance until we're sure that he's perfectly okay to be on his own." Shalnark said, deliberately leaving out the fact that the man was now a half-cyborg, not a quarter-cyborg anymore.
"I see. Bia, come here." Kurapika said as she knelt down and extended her arms to her. She was positively excited to see the previously disabled girl standing on her two feet like any other normal little girls.
The white-haired mute girl released Shalnark's hand and began tottering towards the blonde. It was clear on Kurapika's face that she was extremely delighted to see Bia walking on her own without anyone's support. Kuroro, however, was looking at the scene quite disinterestedly. When Bia reached Kurapika, the latter scooped the former in her arms but did not carry her for long. She quickly dumped the girl on Kuroro's laps.
Kuroro gave Kurapika a sharp questioning look, but Kurapika merely replied with a "you haven't seen her at all since we came back." Kuroro then shot her an annoyed "why should I be concerned about that?"
"Oh, and Lucian said Bia drew this and he told me to give it to you, Danchou." Shalnark said without further elaboration.
He crossed the room and handed a folded paper to Kuroro. As per instructed by the vampire, Shalnark quickly excused himself and somewhat bolted out of the room. While Kurapika stared at Shalnark's odd behaviour, Kuroro unfolded the paper and stared at it. He raised both eyebrows when he looked at the paper and he was clearly shocked out of his shell. Kurapika observed the change of his expression and could not help but to take the paper from his hand and look at it herself. Her lips quivered when she saw the picture, and she tried to smother her laughter as best as she could, though it was not very effective in the end.
On the paper was a drawing crudely made by the hands of a little child that depicted two figures: one had black bush for the hair, big black eyes, a black cross sign on the head and black attire while the other hand had yellow hair and big blue eyes. Above the all-black figure was the bold lettering DAD, while the other figure had the word MOM above it. It was a classical drawing that children made of their parents.
Kuroro Lucifer was not pleased with it. Kurapika Kuruta found it terrific.
"I don't find this funny at all." Kuroro said dryly while glaring mildly at the little white-haired girl in his arm.
"Don't you?" Kurapika said amidst her laughing session. She then approached Bia and ruffled her hair. "So Daddy's here, huh? Bia loves Daddy?" She burst out laughing when she saw the priceless expression on Kuroro's face.
"Kurapika." Kuroro was near glowering, which he rarely did. "Take this kid with you."
"Oh, Daddy's scary now. Daddy is mad so Mommy will leave now. Bia be a good girl for Daddy, okay?" Kurapika said in a cooing voice before she made a mad dash to the door and slammed it closed behind her. She readily accepted the label 'Mom' that Bia had bequeathed to her because after all she was indeed a mother.
"Kurapika!" Kuroro yelled at Kurapika.
"Think of it as your first lesson on parenting!" Kurapika yelled back from behind the door, but it was obvious from the volume of the voice that she was going away from the room.
Kuroro glared at the door intense enough that it might combust. A tug on his shirt made him turn back to the little girl who was clinging to him. She had an innocent expressionless face; the tell-tale that she did not understand what was happening. Despite his glare at her, she did not flinch. She merely stared at him with her big hazel eyes.
"I am not your father." He said pointedly.
Bia frowned slightly and shook her head. She then buried her face to the fabric of Kuroro's shirt and her clutch on his shirt tightened. Kuroro Lucifer then REALLY considered killing that girl right there right then, but it would do him no good. He would get rid of one annoying little girl but another female would be swearing to hunt him down for revenge. He knew better than to make Kurapika go around swearing that she would go on vendetta, no matter who the subject was. Kurapika and the concept of revenge would be better off as far away as possible. The last time she swore on revenge, it had resulted on years of troubles.
But did he really have to put up with this?
He had just reached Muntenia's international airport when the message alert of his cell phone buzzed. Shalnark raised a quizzical eyebrow when he saw the sender's ID—it was from Danchou. The younger Spider found it strange; it was not like Kuroro Lucifer to give him a message; which he suspected was another instruction, just after a meeting. Well, just now it was not exactly a meeting but still… Dismissing the irrelevant thoughts, Shalnark opened the message and perused it, and then he pursed his lips in annoyance. The message was:
Sender: Danchou
Message: I'm leaving you in charge of introducing our newest member to the others.
While the time limit was not mentioned, it did not mean that Shalnark could just dilly-dally and carry out the duty when he felt like it. On the contrary, when Danchou did not specify the time limit, it could only mean: 1) do it now, or 2) do it before the next meeting.
With a sigh, Shalnark dialled a certain number. He waited until the call was answered, and finally a voice barked through the receiver.
[What? You just left the place and now you're bugging me already?]
"…If you are this grouchy, then something has just happened?"
[Oh, yeah something very pleasant just happened a few moments ago.] The voice said sarcastically. [Kurapika decided to pay me a visit and gave me a 'service'.]
"A service?" Shalnark asked dubiously. He could imagine what kind of 'service' Kurapika would give, so he would spare the poor man the torture of describing the 'service to him. "Lucian, what have you done this time round?"
[Are you accusing me of doing something illegal?] The vampire retorted in indignation through the speaker.
"Try 'illegal in Kurapika's dictionary'."Shalnark said with slight snicker.
[Hey, I'm just doing them a favour, okay?]
"Obviously your definition of 'favour' is not agreeable to Kurapika's definition." Shalnark said with a grin. "Anyway, I'm calling you since I want to talk with our new guy."
[YOUR new guy, you mean.] Lucian said with a snort. [Good timing, I've just done with the regular check-up and he's here. I'll pass the phone to him.]
There was a period of silence before another voice spoke through the receiver.
[Shalnark?]
"Hey, Heen. How's it going?"
[I'm now officially done with the regular check-up since my poor doctor here deems me as perfectly stable.] Heen replied, and Shalnark could feel the smile from the half-cyborg. It seemed that Heen was there to witness Kurapika giving her infamous 'service' to Lucian.
"Good. Danchou asked me to introduce you to the other Spiders. I'll be waiting for you here in the airport, so pack up now and say goodbye to your 'poor doctor'."
[No problem. I don't have any belongings with me anyway, so I can just leave now. See you in the airport then.]
"Good." Shalnark nodded with satisfaction. It seemed that Heen was not hard at all to handle, unlike some of the more-insane-than-anything-else Spiders. While he had no problems with them and their quirky attitudes—admittedly he even enjoyed seeing them making a fool out of themselves—he had to admit that they gave him headaches sometimes.
[Do you want me to pass the phone to Lucian again?]
"Nah. Tell him for me I say 'see you again'."
[Will do.]
Then the call was ended with a low beep. Without wasting another minute, Shalnark quickly texted a message for his fellow Spiders that were scattered all over the globe with the short message saying that they would be having a short meeting without Danchou's presence, and he did not forget to embellish the message with a 'DANCHOU'S ORDER' at the very end. Goodness knew that if not for those two magic words, the Spiders would surely ditch the meeting.
Not bothering to think too much, Shalnark lazily stated the Prancing Pony as the meeting place and 'next Monday' as the meeting time. Since Danchou had given him the full permission to handle the introduction as he deemed suitable—seeing that he did not put any specific instructions in the message— Shalnark thought that he might as well abuse it to his convenience.
Ishtar?
It was just a whisper in his mind, but usually it was enough to elicit some response from the presence that used to linger so strongly at the back of his mind. Now that presence was so vague and faint it was almost like a mist. It scared Meta.
Ishtar?
This time, he inwardly called out to her with stronger voice and the presence finally stirred.
Yes, Meta?
The voice sounded so exhausted and sluggish—so unlike the strong and firm voice that he was very used to.
Are you alright? You sound so tired.
I'm okay, sweetheart. I'm just…tired. Like you say.
Meta tilted his head in confusion. How come a voice like her could be tired? He did not understand it.
How come? He finally asked.
Well, let's just say that…my battery is running out…
Battery? You run on battery? Meta had his mouth formed into an 'O' while his face was the epitome of admiration.
…Forget I said that. Anyway, looks like you're getting attached to that Ksa boy, aren't you?
True enough, as Meta was engaged in a 'telekinetic' conversation with Ishtar, physically he was inside the temple in Tichitt Walatta. Meta had earlier said that he was tired and wanted a break from their exploration of the vast ruin. Ksa had agreed and he was gone for a while to search for food for the boy's snack.
Yeah! Ksa is very cool! The boy chirped excitedly. He then began describing Ksa's awesomeness to Ishtar in how exaggerated a four-years-old could be. Ishtar merely listened to his blabbering while saying nothing to interrupt him. Finally, when the boy had seemed to cool off from his excitement, Ishtar asked:
You like him very much?
Of course! Meta answered with a beam.
Do you trust him?
Sure! He nodded without hesitant, although it might as well that he did not fully understand the true depth of 'trust' that Ishtar was referring to.
Will you entrust your life to him?
…Huh?
"Meta."
It was not Ksa's voice and Meta knew it. However, he still recognised that voice. With face lit up in excitement, Meta sprung to his feet and turned to dash towards the owner of that voice.
"Anansi!"
He then lunged at the very tall man—who had graciously gone on one knee so that he was eye-level to the four-years-old—and gave him a bone-crushing hug. Meta squealed in delight as he tried to squeeze the lanky man in his embrace. Anansi returned the embrace by patting the boy's small shoulders.
"Hey, my boy. Are you being a good boy while I'm away?"
"I am!" Meta grinned at him from ear to ear. "You can ask Grandma and Ksa!"
"Ksa?" There was a strange glint in Anansi's eyes, before his facial expression settled back to the usual one. "Oh, I see that you've met him. How do you like him?"
"He's nice! Look, he even gave me my birthmark!" Meta proudly showed his palm that bore the birthmark.
"Ah, very nice." Anansi said while appraising the birthmark. It looked uncannily identical to Kuroro's. "Actually, he didn't give it to you. It has been with you all along, Ksa only made it visible to you."
"Hm…" Meta obviously did not really understand the concept, seeing that he tilted his head sideways and gave Anansi a rather blank look.
"So what are you doing here all alone in this temple?" Anansi changed the topic as he saw it as pointless to explain the whole concept to the boy. He was only four-years-old, after all.
"I'm waiting for Ksa! He said he's getting some food since I'm tired from exploring this place."
"And you just sit down here doing nothing while you wait for him?" Anansi asked dubiously with a raised eyebrow. No matter how tired the boy was, he always had the endless supply of energy to roam and bounce around. If his energy was at its limit, he would simply go to sleep to restore his energy, or eat some sweet food. The boy was amazingly as simple as that.
"Not really…I was talking to Ishtar. She sounds so tired!" Meta then tugged at the fabric that hung loosely around Anansi's shoulder. "Do you know what's wrong with her? She really really sounds really tired."
Under normal circumstances, Anansi would have laughed at the way the boy emphasised on the 'really', but the context of his query was not something that he could lightly handle.
"And what did she say about it?"
"She said her battery is running out. I didn't know that she runs on battery." Meta confessed innocently.
"No, she doesn't run on battery. It's just a way of saying that…" Anansi was explaining rather amusedly when he suddenly realised what he was doing. He quickly stopped his explanation, never finishing his sentence.
"That?" Meta urged him to continue.
"That she's simply very tired." Anansi decided to settle on that.
Anansi could not possibly tell the boy that Ishtar was dying. One possibility was that the boy would not understand what it meant. Another possibility was that if or when the boy understood it, he could experience a kind of breakdown. He knew that Ishtar had been with him constantly; she was almost a part of him now. Even Ishtar's lack of presence was already bothering him so much, Anansi could not bear to imagine how the boy would react once he knew that 'that part of him' was dying, let alone how it would be when Isthar's presence finally departed from the material world for good.
"Hooo…" The boy nodded slowly, as if indicating that he really understood what he was saying and implying.
"So you are waiting for Ksa here. Say, how much do you like him?"
"You know, you are asking the same thing that Ishtar has been asking me earlier." Meta pointed out.
"Really? And what else did she ask you?"
"She asked me if I trust Ksa or not, so I told her that of course I do!"
Anansi chuckled at Meta's look of indignation, as if Ishtar had insulted him and he had felt wronged. How very cute of him. "And what else?"
"She asked me this weird question I don't understand. She asked me if I will entrust my life to him. What does it mean, Anansi?" Meta asked with his innocent face.
Hearing this, Anansi's eyes widened in disbelief.
What is she thinking? Meta can't possibly understand that kind of question! He is too young to understand that kind of concept. Heck, he doesn't even understand the meaning of that question, let alone the concept of this ritual…
"Anansi?"
But perhaps he ought to give it a shot.
"Well, she's asking if you want to share your life with him or not, like you two will be sharing one life."
"One life for the two of us, meaning each of us will only have half life? Will it be enough?"
Expectedly, Meta did not understand.
"Nevermind, I'll explain it when the time comes."
"What time?"
"…Forget I said that."
"Hey, Ishtar said that too!"
Anansi did not know what to say. Fortunately, he detected another presence coming closer to their site.
"It seems that Ksa is back." Anansi said while turning his attention to one of the door that led to that particular room.
True enough, a small figure emerged from the darkness of the tunnel beyond that door. Ksa was walking towards them with bountiful of fruits in his arms. It seemed as if he had carried all fruits as much as his arms could afford. When he saw Anansi with Meta, his face showed a hint of surprise and he quickly bowed his head at the senior spider incarnation.
"Master Anansi. It's a pleasure to see you again after so long." Ksa greeted him with undeniable respect and reverence in his husky voice. Anansi nodded in recognition of his greeting, but before he could offer his own greeting, Meta had outdone him.
"Ksa! You're back!"
Thoughtlessly, Meta detached himself from Anansi and began rushing towards Ksa. It was plainly obvious that he was going to tackle Ksa to give him a bone-crushing hug like the one he gave to Anansi earlier. Just as Meta launched himself to Ksa—who had his hands full with all the fruits—another set of limbs sprouted from Ksa's sides to grab hold of the ecstatic boy, effectively preventing any collision between the two of them.
"Tut, Meta. You are going to spoil the fruits if you have really crashed into me head-on like that." Ksa mildly reprimanded the younger boy.
"Fruits!" Meta squealed, but then he realised that something is strange about his new friend. After a few seconds, he knew what was different. "Ksa! You have four arms!"
"So I do." With that, Ksa released his hold on Meta and sprouted yet another two sets of arms. "I can have up to eight arms in total."
"WOOOOOOW! THAT'S SOOOOO AWESOME!" Meta boomed with uncontained fascination at this new discovery.
"But Master Anansi can have up to twelve arms in total." Ksa said more proudly.
"Really?" Meta turned to Anansi and with his eyes pleaded at him to prove Ksa's statement.
With a shrug, Anansi pulled out all of his twelve arms. He did so with exaggerated fashion to entertain the young boy and it worked wonders. The boy was absolutely thrilled and taken in by his 'performance'. With a playful grin, Anansi told him that he could juggle all the fruits that Ksa had brought easily. At this, Ksa gave a very displeased look.
"Food is not to be played around with, Master." He stated with stern voice.
"Ah, don't be so stuck up, Ksa. Come on, throw me the fruits."
Very reluctantly but knowing full well that he could not deny his lord's order, Ksa threw him the fruits with all his four arms. Anansi effortlessly caught them and began juggling them. Needless to say that Meta went into a frenzied laughing session that was bordering hysterical.
After Anansi was done entertaining Meta (he could not bear being glared at Ksa for too long because it really reminded him of how Kurapika would glare disapprovingly), they settled down to finish all the fruits that Ksa had brought. While eating, Meta had tried to ask Ksa something but his words turned gibberish and utterly incoherent.
"Swallow your food first before you talk, Meta."
Obeying him, Meta quickly swallowed his food and gave Ksa a suspicious look.
"You sound so much like Mom."
Anansi gave a loud snort at this and the corner of Ksa's mouth twitched.
"Is that what you are trying to tell me earlier?"
"No. I'm just asking you if you know what 'entrust your life to him' means."
Ksa raised his eyebrows in confusion and looked at his senior for guidance.
"I think it's referring to the ritual." Anansi quietly told him.
"Ah…I'll explain when you are older, Meta." Ksa said deadpan.
"Why?" Meta frowned unhappily.
"Because that's the rule."
"Oh, okay."
Anansi could not believe this. It seemed that Ksa had more insight on how to deal with the ridiculously curious little blond boy than Anansi did. He had wisely decided not to even try explaining the concept to the boy, knowing full well that the boy would never understand it considering his age. Above all, Anansi was surprised that the reason 'that's the rule' worked wonders with the boy. He could only guess that it was a mindset that had been implanted inside the boy's brain because of his (strict) mother's teaching.
"What's the meaning of this?" She asked the two men demandingly.
"You should know that I'm more annoyed than you are." Kuroro said grumpily as he glared at his vampire friend with his dark eyes. Sometimes he wished that his eyes really had the ability to swallow people up.
They already had their meagre belongings packed and they were ready to leave at any moment's notice (or more like anytime Kuroro deemed as suitable), but they were presented with yet another problem—or rather, another tag-along.
Seated on top of Gamayun's back—who had volunteered to take them to the border of Muntenia to cut short the time taken to reach their next destination—was the white-haired little girl who was still as mute as ever but had obviously regained her vigour and stamina. She was now even capable of walking on her own two feet without falling or staggering. It was all thanks to the relentless exercises subjected to her by Kurapika and the muscle-stimulant drugs that Lucian had periodically injected into her. However, all these were beside the point.
What prompted Kurapika's question was that it seemed that Bia had been set for a journey with Kurapika and Kuroro. The two of them had planned on leaving Bia in the country since she was beginning to adapt well with the vampire, and hopefully over time with the people there. After all, it took time for a traumatised child to adapt to her surroundings. However, Lucian just had to ruin that plan—although it was not like he had been informed beforehand of this plan, anyway.
"You are taking her with you. End of discussion. Period." Lucian said while crossing his arms defiantly, showing that he was not leaving any rooms for negotiation for that matter.
"Give me a sensible reason for that, then." Kurapika also crossed her arms and glared at him. This time, Lucian was not fazed.
"I can ask you the same thing. Why do you think of leaving this kid with me here? My house is not an orphanage, and I don't work for charity. I'm by no means a philanthropist, just so you know, fată (girl)."
"I won't believe it when a vampire declares himself a philanthropist for humans." Kurapika said dryly. "If a vampire starts taking in human children, he/she may just do it for the sake of stocking up blood supply."
"I see that you understand how some vampires do their business." Lucian said with equally dryness in his voice.
"Give her to Heen. She's her sister, for goodness' sake!"
"He's already gone with Shalnark."
"Tsch!" Kurapika clucked her tongue irritably. "Don't you have an orphanage or something like that in town?"
"We don't. Any parentless children are taken in by other families, so there's no need for orphanages. That's how it works here. This town is just a small town." Lucian said.
"Then ask one of them to adopt her!"
"You think I will let my people to take in a dangerous little creature like her; who barely has any sufficient control over her emotion and Nen power? Nu, draga mea, nu cred acest lucru (no, my dear, I don't think so)." Lucian said rather vehemently.
"Then ask the doctors or the nurses to take care of her. Surely they know how to handle children with unstable emotions?"
"But none of them know how to deal with Nen."
"Put on the Nen-sealing bracelet on her, then!" Kurapika was getting exasperated with this discussion.
"It's not a healthy thing to do, Kurapika."
Surprisingly, it was Kuroro who spoke up. Kurapika turned to Kuroro with a surprised look on her face. She knew that Kuroro was against taking along the mute (and useless, in Kuroro's opinion, although she was a Nen-user) white-haired girl the most. Despite being a Nen-user, she was unstable physically, mentally, and psychologically. It was a big no-no to let such vulnerable child go along with them in their precarious journey.
"I know how it feels to be forcefully denied of my Nen power for a prolonged period of time. It didn't affect me that much because I'm who I am," Kuroro said.
Conceited bastard, Kurapika thought in a flash.
"But Bia is a different case. She is more vulnerable than children of her age; especially mentally. If she's denied of her Nen for too long, she will get too frustrated and she might lose her sanity for good. You know that Nen is part of yourself. It is not an option to put the Nen-sealing bracelet on her except for short-term emergencies."
Kurapika was positively flabbergasted. Was Kuroro saying all those in consideration of Bia's well-being. That was something that she had never expected of him. She had expected him not to give a shred of thought or consideration, seeing how irritated he was after she had dumped Bia on him the last time.
"Then put it on when she's throwing her tantrums?"
"The moment you guys leave her behind, she'll start throwing tantrums and she won't stop for hours, even days. She's seen you packing up your things, and I'm surprised about this myself but apparently this girl has the intelligent to deduce that you are leaving for good this time round, unlike the last time. How long do you expect until she stops throwing tantrums? By that time, I'm afraid that she'll be losing grip on reality already I her Nen is forcefully sealed away. I'm afraid that she's already too attached to the two of you."
"Your fault." Kuroro muttered to Kurapika accusingly.
"He said 'the two of you', meaning you are just as guilty in this as I am." Kurapika retorted with a glare.
"Anyway," Lucian said out lout to earn back the two's attention, "there's no turning back now. You have to take that kid with you."
Kurapika and Kuroro looked at each other, and then they both turned to look at Bia. She still had the expressionless face on her, but she was now considerably healthier and stronger than the first time when they rescued her from that abominable tank in Bensalem. At least now she had a shine in her hazel eyes.
Come on, folks, don't be so cold-hearted. She doesn't seem like a trouble to me. Look, she's such a sweet quiet little girl, Gamayun commented as she took a long glance at the girl on her back.
"You haven't seen when she starts throwing tantrums…" Kurapika said with a groan. "But it looks like we really have no choice," Kurapika said with a sigh as she started walking towards the waiting bird-human hybrid.
"She's your responsibility." Kuroro said to her as he walked behind her.
"Excuse me? Didn't you hear what he just said? He said 'the two of you', meaning you are in this as well! Take some responsibility, will you?"
"I never actively tried to win her affection."
"Oh really? Then what's with that night when you urged her to walk on her own?"
"That's—"
And so they continued bickering and arguing like some old married couple. Lucian was relieved to see this again, as he recognised this as the same pattern he had seen a few years back when they were still stuck together in trying to find all of the Scarlet Eyes scattered all over the world. Even as Gamayun had taken them towards the border of Muntenia, a thought still lingered in Lucian's head:
How would it be with an additional of an emotionally unstable mute little girl who adamantly believed that they were her parents?
Lucian walked back to his mansion while laughing his head off.
Author's Note: Yes I'm still alive and yes Angel's Prayer is still on-going. It's been on a short hiatus 'coz I've just finished my term assessment and it was KILLING me. Definitely no time to write any more chapters. Sorry for the super delay, people. I don't know if this chapter is up to your expectations after such a long delay, but well… I hope you enjoy it. I think Kurapika is a bit OOC here at the part with Bia's drawing of 'Mom and Dad', but I just think that people change so even characters in stories will have to change to certain extent as well.
Any questions I'll entertain you. Please don't butcher me for the super late update. I just checked that it's almost one month since the last time I updated! Oh dear me... My time management really sucks BIG TIME.
Next: In the end, Bia really tagged along with the two of them. They had decided on a destination based on Kuroro's consideration. Which would it be; Anansi's home or Ishtar's original home? Also, what did Anansi, Ishtar, and Ksa meant with the ritual? What did it have to do with Meta?