Disclaimer: I do not own Hunter X Hunter

Scarlet Memories

Reminiscence 25 – Another turn of event

After the occurrence in Rukuso Province, I tried to search for her everywhere, but my search was futile. I was unable to find the little girl I am looking for, until the time I set my eyes at York Shin City and planned an all in thievery as a start of my revenge against the mafia for having a deal with the Ryusei's council head to get the scarlet eyes. I might never find that little girl again.

But that doesn't matter anymore. That little girl doesn't exist anymore for she is now a young woman. More than that, she is now with me.

~o~

"So your name is Mikage."

"Pya."

"You are a little different from your kind. You cannot speak the human language unlike the others."

"Mikage?" the boy called questioningly in a whispered as he heard a voice of a girl and his fyulong friend whose name is Mikage. He opened his eyes and saw the shimmering strands of golden hair flowing with the wind at the back of the girl who was talking in front of Mikage.

The girl, as she somehow heard his weak voice, turned to face him, and the first thing that caught his attention are her tantalizing blue eyes. 'They're just like sapphire,' he thought as he seated himself up.

"Ah! You're awake," Kurapika said as she knelt in front of the boy. "How are you?" she asked, observing him. 'I wonder how old he is,' Kurapika thought to herself. He probably has the same height or a little taller that her. He has chestnut brown hair and a pair of jade eyes. 'He must be 16 or 17.'

"I guess I am fine," the boy answered Kurapika's question as he inspected his body, thinking about the injuries that he sustained, but now are gone, as if he never had those injuries.

"How old are you?"

"18," he answered, still looking at his arms, and then he looked back at the girl. She is staring at him with wide eyes. 'D-did I say something wrong?' his mouth twitched at her look.

"You're at the same age as me. I thought you were younger."

The boy sighed. He's used being mistaken to be younger than he actually is, anyway. He stood himself up, thankful that he had been lying on the grass and not on the plain ground. The girl followed, realizing that they have the same exact height.

"Are you the one who healed us?" he asked.

"Yes," the girl answered. "You were badly injured when we saw you."

'We?' he wondered as he looked around, then he saw a man standing not far enough from Mikage, watching them whit his dark eyes. 'I didn't notice him,' he thought to himself.

"That is Kuroro," the girl informed him. "And I'm Kurapika."

The boy looked back at Kurapika. "I- I am Teito," he stammered. "And that is my friend, Mikage…. Um…" he looked at the ground as he scratched the back of his head. "Thank you very much for your help!" he shouted as he suddenly bowed in front of Kurapika.

Kurapika smiled. "You're welcome…" "But seriously…." the surrounding suddenly became tensed. "Traveling with an untrained fyulong is dangerous."

Teito felt saddened at her remarks and looked at his fyulong friend. "He got separated from his parents when he was still a child. So I decided to take care of him."

"Someone must train him properly to survive."

"And leave him alone just like how his parents left him?" he raised his voice in agitation. "Never!"

"That is not what I am trying to say," Kurapika justified.

"Then what?" he looked at her in an angered state, but when he saw her worried look, he reprimanded himself internally, 'what are you doing, Teito?' "I- I'm sorry," he said as he looked at the ground in embarrassment.

"As I said," Kurapika continued, "someone must train him properly. That doesn't mean you have to leave him."

"I am really sorry. I did not mean to be rude to you," Taito said, still looking at the ground.

"Then look at me as I am talking to you!" Kurapika said in an authoritarian voice.

"Yes ma'am!" Taito raised his head and looked at her with a really embarrassed face as his face became red as a lobster.

Seeing that kind of face from the boy, Kurapika cannot help but to laugh softly. "Sorry for my use of tone, I am just used to be a leader of bodyguards."

"But it suits you, really," the man called Kuroro said as he walk over their direction and stopped beside Kurapika. Teito got an odd feeling about this man. He is kind of creepy and his black clothes, along with his dark eyes make him creepier.

"Don't worry, he won't bite you," Kurapika said as if reading his mind.

"He…he.." Teito tried to laugh out his embarrassment, but miserably failed.

"I am not a vampire, Kurapika."

"Hahaha!" she laughed. How pleasant to see her laugh. How bright. She's like a ray of sunlight that brightened the day. Teito cannot help but to be enthralled by her. 'She's… beautiful.'

"So, what is your suggestion regarding this fyulong?" Kuroro asked, thinking to himself that this would be an another turn of event that they have to face before they start collecting the scarlet eyes.

"I know a person that can help you with your problem," Kurapika said, directing her sentence to Teito while answering Kuroro's question. "Only that, this person is not easy to find," she said. "But do not worry," she hastily added, "I have a way to find him," she smiled, reassuring the boy.

"So who is this person?" Teito asked in concern.

"Someone whom I somehow owe my life," Kurapika said, and saw Kuroro in her peripheral view, looking at her questioningly, so she started to tell a past event.

Flashback

It happened after the Kuruta massacre, as little Kurapika was waiting anxiously for the young man (whom now she learned, was actually Kuroro) to emerge from the burning village.

She made a step forward, wanting to follow the young man, but then, a huge bird suddenly grabbed her, and the bird flew away from the forest, away from her home.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" Kurapika tried to lose herself from the grip of the bird as she kicked her feet in the mid-air. But her move was futile. The only thing she can do was cry.

The bird flew far, far away from what she knows as the whole world. She never knew the world outside Rukuso Province, the only world she knew. And the bird continued to take her even far away until another huge bird emerged from the clouds. It was a bird way much bigger than the bird that carrying her.

"A dragon!?" she was not sure.

"BO!" the huge bird, or dragon, or whatever you may call it, growled loudly. Then a man jumped from its back to the bird that grabbing Kurapika and attacked the bird from its back, making it lose its hold on her.

The events that happened in front of her were too fast that she did not manage to utter a single sound even if she was already free-falling toward the hard ground. She was looking at the bird above her trying to lose the hold of the man.

The man let go of the bird and let himself free-fall like Kurapika. With his nen, he made his fall faster and toward Kurapika, catching her in his arms. He positioned himself mid-air and landed at his feet to the ground with a loud thud, creating a small whirlwind of sand that surrounded his feet briefly.

Looking at the girl, the man saw her staring at him with her wide sapphire-blue eyes. He smiled before saying: "That bird was being manipulated by someone. If the bird managed to take you to the manipulator, they will surely kill you for your eyes.

Kurapika's already wide eyes widened even more. "What do you know about my eyes?" she asked as she pushed herself out of the man's arm, landed at the ground perfectly and put herself in a defense position.

The man did not answer, but instead, he walked over the frowning Kuruta and Knelt in front of her so that they are mostly at eye level. "Do you see any bad intention in my eyes?" he asked.

Kurapika blink at the man's question. Nonetheless, she directed her look at the man's brown eyes. The man's eyes are clear from any bad intention, but instead, Kurapika saw excitement in them.

"N-No," she answered as she lowered her guard down. "But who are you? What do you know about me?"

The man stood up and looked at the sky. "Bo!" he shouted, and the dragon (Kurapika choose to regard it as such, mentally) soared above them. The man looked back at Kurapika saying: "I will answer your question the next time we meet," and he jumped with his nen and landed at the back of the dragon.

Kurapika stared dumbfounded at the scene. "How can we meet again if I don't even know your name, or what you actually are?" she asked to herself.

End of flashback

"Yes, that person might be able to help," Kurapika said to no one in particular as she remembered the man who saved her six years ago; handling the huge bird easily, and having a dragon with him. He must be a hunter specialized in wild animals.

"Anyway," she looked back at Teito, "we cannot travel in a normal way with Mikage in tow."

"So?" Teito and Kuroro frowned.

"We are going to use Timcanpy," she said as she reached out her hand and a golden round 'thing' appeared as if going out from her palm, flapping its wings to the air.

"Hih!" Teito took a step back raising his left hand in front of him, horrified at seeing the 'thing' out of Kurapika's hand. "W-what is t-that?!" he stammered.

"A nen golem," Kurapika answered in a tone as if it is the most normal thing in the world.

"You do not know nen, do you?" Kuroro asked him for the first time.

"What nen?" Teito asked as an answer to Kororo's question, still maintaining his horrified position.

Kurapika's eye twitch at seeing him like that and said: "Timcanpy is not something that you should be scared about. I will explain to you later. Now, Timcanpy!" she called and the 'thing' called Timcanpy, as if knowing what to do, opened its mouth, showing a black hole within it.

Seeing the black hole in the 'thing's' mouth, Teito suddenly felt his body tensed up, and the pressure around them became unbearable to him that he has to close his eyes.

"You can open your eyes now, Teito," he heard Kurapika after a few seconds, and he did as he was told.

Everything is white. He saw Kurapika beside him, looking at him in mild amusement. Kuroro on the other hand was standing in a distance, observing the 'white world'.

"Isn't this the void space?" Kuroro asked as he turned to look at Kurapika.

"Yes, it is," Kurapika answered, facing Kuroro. "But it is a little different from the void space you saw before (the one when she awakened Kuroro's Kuruta blood). This technique requires a huge amount of aura in a single release if I choose to enter the void myself, since we cannot use our nen inside the void. With that, I cannot send my nen to Timcanpy, leaving it vulnerable if anyone managed to attack it. The huge release of aura is to prevent that. Timcanpy can use that nen to defend itself, just in case."

Kurapika finished her explanation and looked back to Teito. "Now as for what I told you a while ago," she said.

"Yes!" Teito shouted in attention as his body stiffened from nervousness, sensing the importance of her next words.

"I will start explain to you what is nen."

To be continued.

AN:

That's it. I put Teito and Mikage from 07 Ghost.

How is it?

Anyway, we'll be starting our quarterly audit, so, I might not be able to update this next week.

Have a nice day!

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