The Hunter's Fantasia: A Never-ending Tale By Kumatenshi

VOLUME II: THE BOOK OF TRAGEDIES ** Chapter I --- Room 1003**

When Zumi opened her eyes again, she found herself in the single room in Fishers' Paradise. She looked out the window and found everything deadly white. There were no signs of life, not a beetle humming, not a flower blooming, not even an ant crawling. All there was left was howling wind along with increasing piles of ice and snow. Depressed by the view outside, she turned her attention to her room, which was small, old, but tidy. On the wall was a picture of a sunflower field. The golden flowers were happily bathing in the warmth of the sun. She closed her eyes and pictured herself lying in the middle of the field. The light, gentle breeze carried with it a sweet odor from the flowers. All of a sudden though, the ground collapsed and she fell into the bottom of the abyss where she became an ice statue. She opened her eyes again, panting heavily and shivering at the awful scenery she just depicted inside her head. If a cure for this terrible snow could not be found, sunflowers and all the living creatures in Dentora probably would only live in pictures and memories. At this thought, Zumi wanted to go out of her room and find her companions quickly, but she could not move her body. At that instance, an angel with gigantic black wings emerged from the flame. She could not recall the face as it was covered by long, messy, blonde hair, but she could see those scarlet eyes, shining through the hair like the soul of a blood thirsty beast. His body and hands were torn by wounds and scars and surrounded by heavy chains. She wanted to ask who he was but she could not speak. Slowly he came closer, and closer to her. She could now see his long nails that were covered in blood and feel the devilish aura he was emitting. She tried to escape but her efforts were in vain. Just when he was about to strike, she heard a familiar voice casting a spell: "Katorena, the dark elf of emptiness, please come forth before Lord Legnakrad and banish this creature back to the underworld!" In that instance, the shadow of a dark lady surrounded the creature and vanished. Zumi turned to the source of the voice and there Kurapika was, standing at the door, staring at her with his crimson eyes.

* * *

Killua was sitting at the dressing table, staring at Gon through the mirror. Since he regained consciousness, Gon had been sitting in the same position on his bed, staring out the window, or more precisely, staring at the image of Mito's frozen body in his mind. No matter how hard Killua persuaded, Gon hardly ate or slept. For Killua, witnessing Gon's tiny body withering hurt far more than swallowing the most awful poison in the world. It literally pushed him to the limits of sanity and shattered his already fragile heart. Worse was the fact that Killua did not know what he should do at a time like this. He had never learned to love, save to console someone who had lost someone he loved. He tried to dig into his newly regained memory to find a textbook formula to cheer a person in agony. Naturally, he could not find any. Hence, he did the only thing he could do at the moment. He went over to Gon and hugged him with his thin, white arms in the hope that even if his words could not penetrate Gon's cocoon of sorrow, at least the warmth of his body could. After a few minutes, Killua released Gon from his grip and proceeded to the door.

"Gon," Killua said in a spiritless voice, "I am going to try talking to those soldiers again." Gon did not reply. Killua sighed and closed the door behind him.

* * *

Once again, Killua descended the stairs to room 1003. In the past two days, he had kept returning to that room and knocking, but there was no response. As he reached the first floor and turned in the direction of the soldiers' room, he saw Saipher coming toward the stairs with a tray full of food. When Saipher saw Killua, he greeted: "Good morning sir!" Killua returned the civility and inquired if the food was for the soldiers. "Yes," Saipher replied, and half complaining, "these soldiers are so strange. They never leave their rooms and will not allow anyone to enter either. When they first arrived, they told us to leave their food outside. At the beginning, they would still eat a little but since yesterday, they did not touch their food at all! What a waste, especially in weather like this, we cannot go get fresh food and our supplies are almost running out. This awful snow, I hope it stops immediately!" Saipher sighed and left.

"Something's definitely not right," Killua thought to himself. He knocked at the door again but there was no reply. Killua had a bad premonition. He tried to peep through the door. Suddenly, a hand caught his shoulder. Shocked, Killua quickly turned around to face the owner of the hand --- it was Leorio. "Hey, Killua, what are you doing here?" Leorio asked. Killua relaxed and told Leorio the unusual behavior of the soldiers. "I see," Leorio said at the end of the story, "so detective Killua is investigating, I'll help too!" At hearing the word "detective", Killua blushed. Leorio smiled at the cute face of Killua while pulling out from his pocket a small wire.

"What is this?" Killua queried but Leorio did not answer the question and plunged into action instead. Using the wire, he skillfully picked the lock. After a few seconds, there was a click and the knob turned. "Wow," Killua could not help being amazed for he had learned yet another secret of the "young" to-be-doctor, "you are great!"

Obviously flattered, Leorio scratched his spiky, short hair. "Thanks, but don't tell, Kurapika!" Killua looked puzzled, "why not, it's so convenient?" Leorio said with a face redden from embarrassment, "well. it's.hard to explain. Anyway, just don't tell, please!" Killua finally agreed and the two tried to open the door but found it was bolted. Leorio sighed and this time, took out a fishing line instead. He skillfully put it around the wire and stuck it through the space between the wall and the door. While watching him at work, Killua thought about Kurapika. The scholar just returned silently yesterday, with Zumi in his arms. He then went up to the single room, laid Zumi on the bed and went to sleep himself. All this time, he did not say a word.

"By the way, Leorio," Killua asked, "Have you seen Kurapika?" "I saw him sleeping this morning, he normally wakes up late so I decided not to bother him and went to have breakfast downstairs. On my way back, I saw you peeping through the keyhole." Killua blushed again but a small noise of sliding metal rescued him from further embarrassment. Carefully they opened the door but what they saw was way beyond their expectations. Nothing in his twelve years of rigorous education had prepared Killua for the sight in front of him. Killua let out a very terrible scream and ran into the bathroom and vomited. Even Leorio, a student trained in medicine and who had seen and worked with corpses, felt so sick and disgusted he dropped to his knees.

* * *

"Mama, mama, where are you?" Gon searched in the dark maze of his mind, where he was imprisoned by his own melancholy. The land around him was completely covered with snow and he felt so cold, so lonely. For a few minutes, he found himself wrapped by a patch of light --- so warm, so gentle, so comfortable --- but the light vanished and once again, he was out in the solitary cold. Then, he heard a voice, calling him - an unfamiliar, yet nostalgic voice. He must have heard it somewhere, probably a long time ago, but he could not recall when and where. The voice grew stronger and stronger and then from the deepest point of darkness, he saw a figure --- the figure of a water nymph emerging. "Zumi, is that you?" Gon wondered but soon dismissed the idea as she looked a bit older and more matured. "My dear Gon, you can't stay here forever! You must be strong or you'll never be able to help the one who'll be most important to you."

"Who are you?" Gon asked but the nymph did not answer. She just floated on. Gon ran after her. He jumped, he hopped, occasionally he fell, but he tried to keep up with her. After a while, he saw a light that became brighter and brighter. It was the exit of the maze. He ran past it and all of a sudden, found himself sitting on a bed in front of the window. Still lost at what was happening, he heard Killua screaming. Worried, he quickly pulled himself out of the bed. His legs were numb from the lack of movement but with a little running, combined with a little crawling and rolling, he managed to arrive at the origin of the scream --- room 1003. Saipher and Wyne ran past him covering their mouths. Their eyes were filled with fear and dismay. At the door, the owner was standing with his mouth wide open in shock. Zumi was kneeling beside Killua, whose face had turned stone white and who was panting heavily. "What happened?" Gon asked. Zumi shook her head, "I don't know, Kurapika would not let me in." Gon turned to Killua. When their eyes met, Killua embraced Gon and cried, "It. it was terrible! Don't.don't go in! You mustn't go in!" Gon was stunned as he had never seen Killua so terrified before, not once in their adventure up in the mountain. He stroke Killua on the back to calm him. Then, neglecting the advice of the latter, proceeded boldly to the room as he wanted to know what prompted such immense fear in Killua but he soon regretted.

(NOTE: THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH IS FOR THOSE WITH STRONG HEARTS. IF YOU CAN'T STAND BLOOD, I ADVISE YOU TO SKIP THIS DESCRIPTION)

This was not surprising for the two soldiers' body had been terribly decapitated. The once strong muscles were gone, leaving behind only naked bones. The head of one soldier was half devoured. The remnants of his brain and eyeballs scattered all over the formerly white linen. The head of the other was still intact and his lifeless eyes appeared to be staring at his companion, knowing that a similar fate would soon befall him. The whole room was reduced to a violent 3-dimensional painting of blood on wood. Yet, in such a foul place, something was absent. It was the smell of decay. In its place was a sweet fragrance of camellia.

"Camellia", Kurapika said as he calmly went over to examine the remains of the body. In the meantime, Leorio still could not move his body but his eyes followed Kurapika. The sight in front of him was daunting but Kurapika's composure petrified him even more. "What kind of life did Kurapika use to have", Leorio could not help wondering.