Blurring Line

Chapter 2

Warm and peaceful, those sensations were what Kurapika first felt when he woke up. For a moment, he thought of staying this way forever, but then he forced himself to open his eyes. The cell was so dark, the only dim light came from a source outside the cell. The source of the light might be a torch, as he had seen one of the men who imprisoned them carried it inside the cell in their last visit.

He closed his eyes again and sighed happily. He wondered how long it had been since he last slept this peaceful? No nightmare. No waking up in the middle of the night, sleeping clothes soaked with sweat. It was so long since he last felt the warmth of human?

Kuroro...

Kurapika startled, his eyes snapped open. A painful cry escaped his throat as memories of last night came back in a rush. The memories were like a storm, blowing away the last trace of peacefulness.

He felt himself slightly trembling, not because of the icy air in the cell but because of a vague emotion slowly building up. Kurapika didn't know if it was happiness or it was despair.

Within him, there seemed to exist a Kurapika that was choking with laughter while another Kurapika screaming through tears. Fate was so ironic. After all of those long years of hatred and pain, finally he found someone who returned to him the peace of his soul. But the one whose arms were wrapping around him was also the one who had robbed him that peace. The leader of Genei Ryodan. The Spider.

Kuroro was enemy. He had murdered every one in the Kuruta Tribe and made Kurapika's childhood a living hell. Crimson reflected in those gray eyes, but quickly faded. Panic, Kurapika broke out of Kuroro's hold and sat up abruptly. He didn't dare to look at Kuroro; instead, he embraced himself and tried to recall the painful memories. All of which he could remember was only warmth though. He desperately searched in his mind for the old anger only to end up with a soft, tender feeling.

"Wake up already?" Kuroro sat up beside Kurapika, his hair letting loose and slightly tousled. The bruises on his face hadn't faded yet.

Kurapika quickly stood up and walked to the opposite wall.

"I have no intention of biting you or making you my meal." Kuroro smirked. 'But it didn't mean that I don't want to' He silently added.

Silence fell upon him. Kurapika bit his lips and turned away. His heart urged him to come back to Kuroro's arms. His mind told him to use Kuroro as a hostage to rescue Gon and Killua. Torn between them, he felt so lost.

Thoughts of Gon and Killua made him startled. Sunlight didn't get through the thick stone of the walls to come into these cells so he didn't know if it was night or day. How long did he slept?

Another minute here meant more danger he put to Gon and Killua. Panic returned. Newborn fear mixed with the old one not faded yet shattered the last of his usual calmness.

"Want to fight your way out?" Kuroro asked, then he shrugged. "You'll only waste your effort."

"Shut up." Kurapika snapped. He leaned to the wall of the cell and thought quickly. The situation was very bad. His enemies outnumbered him obviously. Kuroro couldn't use his nen. He couldn't use his chain to fight against those men. Leorio... Kurapika sighed, well, he didn't expect much from Leorio.

But still he couldn't abandon Gon and Killua. They were his friends. Not just friends, Gon, Killua and Leorio were his only true friends. Kurapika exhaled sharply, making up his mind and stood up. Even without the chain, his nen level must be enough to defeat all of his current enemies.

"I've told you it's useless," Kuroro said nonchalantly as if reading his mind, "Before you do something stupid, look at your hands first."

Kurapika startled. A new fear crept up. He had an idea of what Kuroro wanted to mention, but so afraid to find out. Willing himself to raise his hands, Kurapika looked at them. A nen-controlling device in the form of a ring was set on his wrist. "How..." Kurapika was too surprised to finish his sentence.

"Of course they make you wearing that."

"When?" Kurapika swirled around and stared at Kuroro.

"When you were sleeping." Kuroro's voice betrayed no emotion as if nothing had happened.

Anger started to rebuild inside Kurapika, a flash of crimson reflected in his eyes. "Why didn't you wake me up? And why don't you have this damn device on you?"

"Why must I wake you up? And if you want to know, thank to you, I obviously can't use my power. If they can't see that then they're worse fools than they already are. Well, they thought that they don't need to lock my nen."

"You--" Kurapika nearly screamed. He wanted to kill Kuroro right away, but how strange, his eyes didn't change into the crimson shade. He also didn't feel the familiar hatred when facing with anything related to spider. "Forget it." He grit his teeth and tried to take off the device, but he found himself unable to no matter how hard he tried. "I'll fight them anyway." He said stubbornly.

"And then you get killed," Kuroro said in the same emotionless tone, "and your precious friends will get killed too, just because of your stupidity and the condition to use the chain only against Ryodan."

"How do you know?" Kurapika froze.

Kuroro burst out laughing, the tension in the air didn't seem to get to him at all. "You don't hide your secret so well, I must say. Just by observing you when we were caught, I understand everything."

Kurapika bit his lips so hard that blood oozed out and trickled down his chin. He didn't expect things to turn out this way. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't even force himself to get angry with Kuroro. The man had been right in every word.

Kuroro stood up and headed toward him. Kurapika stepped back until his back met the wall. He wasn't scared of Kuroro; it was himself that made Kurapika afraid.

Wiped away the blood on Kurapika's lips, Kuroro smiled. Kurapika couldn't make out if it was a gentle, true smile or a wicked one. All what he knew was that he wanted to run away, to escape, anything to hide from the man standing so close to him. "Now, the only way for you to save those two brats is to untie the chain around my heart." Kuroro did say it gently.

To be continued...