An Amusing Interlude: Part 8 – Continuance – In which we learn
that it's not over yet.
By
Deborah (Kosagi) Brown
Hunter X Hunter is copyright Yoshihiro Togashi. Quoll and Kurapika aren't mine more's the pity.
KURAPIKA:
I gaze out onto the forest below me, mind only half on my surroundings, leaning back against the tree trunk. This was my place as a child, a high spot nesting amid the branches of this ancient tree. A hidden spot I'd come to when I was unhappy, or bored or just feeling like being alone. Somewhere behind me, in the village, Quoll is waking up and finding my letter for him. I'll have to give him a head start, at least a week, before I can head down the mountain as well.
Am I making a mistake? Should I have killed him when I had a chance? Everything I had been taught says no. One does not wage war on the helpless, and he was utterly helpless when I left him. I could have slit his throat with his own knife and he would have been powerless to stop me.
It would be, I think, what the elders would have preferred, at least in those moments of madness when their eyes and his interacted to fatal effect. Yet I don't think even they would have demanded it had they been in control, had they understood what they were facing. I have to believe that, or I think I might go mad. I can accept what happened if I see it as a horrible accident, the inevitable result of two opposing forces coming into contact. Otherwise the elders, the trusted, wise and compassionate elders were no more than foolish mortal men.
I watch the sunset fade into darkness. Tomorrow afternoon it should be safe enough to go back to the village at least. To wait there until he's absolutely clear. In the meantime I'll be fine up here.
My thoughts are broken off by the sound of movement amid the trees. Too loud to be an animal's, too many to be Quoll searching for me, I realize that others are making their way through the darkness. I cling to my branch, looking down, and see several figures that look very familiar. Those robots again. They've found Quoll!
When one looks up and its glowing yellow eyes see me, I know it's me they want.
QUOLL:
There's a humming in the air, a sound that isn't a sound at all. A head-splitting noise that I know only too well. Standing in the darkness outside the meeting hall, I realize that I can't wait until morning to find Kurapika. Those things are looking for me, no doubt, but they'll take him as well. He would be useful to their master's experiment, after all.
I make my way through the underbrush, cursing silently as I do so. I appreciate Kurapika's reasons for getting far away from me, understand his fears, but his doing so has only made things more inconvenient. I am really beginning to hate the woods. Without gyou – the inner sight that all nen users have – to help me find my way I'd be lost in this murky darkness. And end up going over a cliff, no doubt.
Fortunately, he isn't all that far away. The machines have surrounded him, though, and he must be in agony from the signal they're putting out. He's clutching the branches and barely holding back the screams. If the signal had been adjusted to his brainwave pattern he wouldn't have been able to do even that much. Good thing they've never had a chance to get those brainwave patterns.
I can't go to his rescue. All those machines need to do is turn their signal onto me and I'll be helpless again. On the other hand, I don't have to go to him to get him out of there. I call on my nen and flip my Skill-book open to the page containing the image of the girl with the teleport nen.
Kurapika's startled gasp echoes behind me, but I ignore it in favor of pulling something from my pocket and flipping the page to another rapidly. As I toss the object into the center of the group I undo the shrinkage, then spin, dropping onto Kurapika and forcing him down.
The explosion from the reconstituted bomb shatters the quiet night air.
KURAPIKA:
Quoll makes a sharp sound of pain as he lies on top of me. As the explosion dies away he rolls off and puts a hand to his back. "Etayyyyyy," he gasps. "That thing was stronger than I expected." His words come to me through a fuzz of static, my overloaded ears exceedingly unhappy with the sound.
I sit up, glance over in the direction of the explosion. My tree is destroyed, but so are the things that were attacking me. I want to yell at him for the former, but, after all, he did rescue me and I can't really think of any way he could have done so other than what he did. Not when he couldn't get close to those monstrosities without being incapacitated.
"Let me see," I order, kneeling beside him to examine his injury. There's a piece of shrapnel stuck in his back, a stick of wood thrown out from the force of the explosion. "Can you walk? I think I'd better take care of this back at the village."
He nods, expression composed and utterly calm. He has to be using an incredible amount of ten to achieve that state of mind. If it had been me, my eyes would be burning red right now. I pull him up, guiding him through the trees until we've returned to the village and the town hall. Once again he's forced to sprawl on the pillows, though this time I'm not going to use the thorns on him unless he needs me to. Nor do I dare use my healing chain. Not when the Nostrads are certainly tracing me through my nen.
Getting the wood out of his back means cutting his coat off him, eliciting some mumbled complaints as I do so. "Would you prefer to stay the way you are?" I ask him as I cut. He goes quiet then, though I can tell he's still irritated. It's a distraction for him, though, and I think I understand why he needs it. At last I finish bandaging the wound and sit back.
He looks at me silently, those ever so black eyes meeting mine without expression. There's something unnerving about the way he watches me, a depth of concentration that I begin to realize he gives everything. Even when he isn't being the Danchou, even when he's at his most light-hearted, a part of him is completely aware of everything going on around him. Aware and analyzing it all.
I break the silence at last. "Thank you," I say, "I would have preferred a different method, but"
QUOLL:
I stare at Kurapika, dumbfounded. "Are you feeling all right," I start to ask, then notice the humor in his eyes and have to smile slightly myself. "You're welcome," I add. "Now, are you feeling all right?"
His smile is wry. "I'm still more inclined to ask you what the hell you thought you were doing, but you did save me." He shrugs. "Nor can I think of a safer way for you to have done so. So I'm not going to complain. Even if that was my favorite tree."
After a long moment I blink at him. "Damn. I didn't mean to" He stares at me and I realize how out of character my response must seem to him. It's the truth, though, I know what it means to have a secret place. Everyone needs a place where they can hide sometimes and I've just destroyed his. Explanations, however, would only end up making no sense to him, so I shrug. "No point in making you madder at me than you already are."
Kurapika sighs. "It couldn't be helped. How did those things find us, anyway?"
Leaning back among the pillows, I consider the matter. I have not been thinking clearly in the last week, being too busy anticipating whatever plans Kurapika had for me to worry about other matters. Now, however, I go over the facts and think I understand.
The Nostrads probably found Kurapika through his use of his nen, otherwise he would have been followed a lot more closely. They have a nen douser, one who has seen or has been told how Kurapika's nen works. The machines that were hunting me must be using something similar. Something other than nen however, or they would have found me a lot sooner. It has been many years since I've had to deal with them, after all and the last time "They traced my Eyes," I answer at last.
KURAPIKA:
Quoll's explanation makes sense and I nod grimly. "There'll be more, won't there?"
"Unfortunately, quite probably. The only way to be rid of them would be to shut down the operation that sent them." His voice has a peculiar, controlled, quality to it that makes me suspect that this is not a conversation Quoll savors. If anything, it may be testing his self-control to the limit.
I have to ask, though, "Why haven't you? You obviously know they still want you" He shakes his head. "You didn't?"
"I was thrown away. I'd assumed for years it was because I was a failure." His jaw tenses for a moment and he stops. "Kurapika I can't. Not right now." It is the closest thing to an admission of vulnerability that I've ever heard from him. "Tomorrow when I've rested."
Realizing that he can't take much more in his condition, I nod. I can't afford to make him lose control. "Go to sleep, then. We both need to rest."
As he curls up in the pillows I rise to my feet and head for one of the other huts. Things are not going the way I'd intended them to. It would have been so much easier to just let him go, to have him disappear back into the shadows and rejoin his Spider. I have a feeling things aren't going to be nearly that easy, however.
Thrown away, I think to myself and can feel nothing but pity for him, though I'm certain he would neither welcome or accept it. I was raised in a loving environment, safe, protected and nurtured. Somehow I'm fairly sure he's had none of those advantages. What must it have been like? My imagination boggles at the thought.
Sprawling on my cot, I stare at the ceiling of my room, thinking of things I would rather not think of and wondering what I'm going to do about it. My feelings are at odds with each other, pity for what has been done to him fights with anger at what he has done. Even knowing why, I cannot completely rid myself of my fury. Somehow, I close my eyes and manage to fall asleep.
***
Vision wavers. He stands over me, eyes blazing a brilliant ruby that sears me through to the heart. I cannot move. I do not want to move, though I know what it is he will do. He kneels over me, his chains jingling in the hollow darkness. Without a word he sets to work, the blade of his judgment piercing my eye, tearing it out.
I would howl with pain, but I cannot make a sound, entrapped in his chains and forced to compliance by knowledge of my own guilt. Only when darkness falls on me eternally, when he has taken both my eyes for his own do I weep.
***
QUOLL:
I wake to the smell of something burning and the sound of someone cursing in Kurota. Standing shakily, I move slowly outside and lean against the rails surrounding the outer porch and watch Kurapika trying to cook. "Such language," I can't help saying. "Who taught you to talk like that, young man?" I focus on what he's doing, in preference for thinking about my nightmare. It is not the first such I have had. It will not be the last.
Kurapika turns and blinks at me with a startled air, but I ignore it, coming down the steps and taking the frying pan full of charred eggs away from him. "Here. Let me." I'm not the world's greatest cook, but a month or so working in a greasy spoon has at least taught me how not to burn eggs.
As I clean up his mess and start up a fresh batch, he watches me. Very cautiously, he asks, "How do you know what I'm saying?"
"How do you think?" I ask. It's a silly question, considering what my Eyes did to his people before they killed them. I force my thoughts away from that line, though, only adding, "Don't ask further, please."
His eyes on me make me feel mildly uncomfortable and I turn back to my cooking, half-wishing I had taken Pakunoda up on her offer to use her nen to remove those memories from me. Except we couldn't be sure what would have happened if she had died later. Sometimes nen effects only last while the user is alive and I can't think of anything worse than having those memories suddenly breaking in on me unexpectedly. At least this way I know where the pitfalls lie and can avoid them.
"Actually, someone taught me some of your language when I was a child I think." I put some eggs on his plate and on mine, then put the pan away. "I don't have many memories of that time, to be honest."
As Kurapika eats I can see him thinking hard. At last he says, "You couldn't talk about it last night. Can you now?"
I pick my thoughts and words very carefully. "You asked why I have done nothing about them." I say quietly. "What makes you think I haven't been?"
"The Ryodan?" he asks. "Is that why you formed it?"
"Not really," I shake my head. It's easier to talk about them than my own past, and I am revealing no secrets in telling him these things. "Remember what I said about how the people of Star City see us?"
"Robin Hood and his Merry Men?" Kurapika asks finally, at my nod, he frowns. "Then who is Prince John?"
"The rest of the world, frankly." I shrug, "Specifically the Mafia, or similar organizations. People without record, without a background, can disappear so easily if need be." I allow myself a sour smile. "A rather large number disappeared recently, in fact."
He yawns and apologizes quickly. "I'm not trying to be callous," he says. "I just had a bad dream last night. I didn't sleep well." Is it my imagination or is he giving me a guilt-ridden look. At my nod, he continues, "The auction at York Shin was Mafia run, of course. That's why you targeted it And why you were so bloody?"
I shrug slightly. "There were several reasons, actually. One, Ubo." He flinches a bit at that, realizing that our violence that night had been partly driven by the death of the man he'd killed. "Two, we have a reputation to uphold. And, thirdly, there was no one in that hotel who wasn't involved somehow in the organization. Not one person who wouldn't have killed us before allowing us to steal one object from them. No quarter was offered on either side and none would have been taken."
KURAPIKA:
I shudder uncontrollably. "Quoll" How can he be so calm about things like this? He's talking about people's lives. I feel sympathy for him, but I can't feel sympathy for the cold-blooded way he kills. It's all the harder to hear after that dream last night. Bending over him, ripping his eyes out, my cold rage too great to even care how much pain I was causing him. Bloody tears streaming down his face from empty sockets. My dream self had felt great satisfaction but all I can feel now is sick.
Quoll looks at me quietly, waiting a moment, then says softly. "We've had to be hard in order to survive. For what it's worth, I am sorry it causes you pain. We could argue the morals the ethics of what the Ryodan do for hours and never come up with a definitive answer."
He finishes his food and stands up, staring off into the distance silently. "In any case, all of this does not answer your other question, as to what I have been doing about my pursuit." Quoll is choosing his words carefully and I realize that speaking risks shattering a delicate balance, and remain silent. "As I said last night, I was thrown away. When I first learned of the project I thought it was because I was a failure. I believe now that it was to test me. To test what my Eyes" he pauses again. "To test what my talent can do. I believe I am intended to be a weapon."
I blink at him, repeating his statement softly. I don't want to, but I understand what he is saying only too well. My people's power is almost purely a defense mechanism. Such an ability, turned to offense would be invaluable to some. "But you have no control"
"Depending on the nature of what they would use me for, control may not be needed," Quoll points out. "Just drop me in among the targets and set me off." Suddenly he's shuddering and I can't help but stand and reach out to touch his shoulder. He struggles with whatever is going on inside him and I can feel the pressure tearing him apart inside. Somehow he is controlling it, though, and I know I never could. Of course, I've never had to control something like his Eyes.
He glances at me and I see the faintest wavering of heat within. To my deep surprise, I don't feel that same urge to throttle him I had before when he uses the Eyes. Am I becoming innured to it? I can certainly feel the power, faint surges that are fading even as I watch. Maybe it's just too faint to incite me? I wonder.
"It would not be a pleasant life for me," he says finally. "But I am only guessing at their intentions, mind you. For all I know, my initial assumption was correct and they simply want to destroy something that has turned out to be a danger to them, now that I know what they were up to."
"What what can you tell me, then?" I want to know. I need to understand more. We are walking a dangerous path, I know that now, but if he can answer my questions without losing control of himself then maybe, just maybe, I'll know what to do next. I know what I want to do. I just don't know how.
Sitting down, Quoll looks up at me with that quirky smile. "I don't have answers I can give you," he tells me. "Not with me. If you really mean to go further into this, then I have a proposal for you."
I stare at my former enemy, confused. "A proposal?" I repeat, feeling foolish.
"Yes." His huge dark eyes meet mine calmly. "You brought me here for answers, and you have some, but not all the story. The rest is in Star City."
Sudden understanding hits me. "You mean"
"Yes. I want you to go home with me, now."
To Be Continued
Author's Notes:
Yeesh. I really meant to have this out sooner, but the sinus infection has turned my head into an empty bone with a tiny brain rattling around inside. That and a Skies of Arcadia fic that decided to force me to write it last week or so. However, I think I know how to make this story work as a single longer story, though it will take me a bit to get through. So – hopefully – one update a week will be possible.
Daiji: In the process of doing this fic I've searched out a whole bunch of Quoll pics on the web and had myself loads of fun being inspired by them. Dang it all that they're all over in the non-English areas, though, because it makes hunting them down difficult. Quoll is definitely a glompable person in this story, but then I want him to be. As you see, I could draw the curtain over the situation here, but am choosing to continue rather than sequel this. Oh, and yes, there's apparently a Greed Island OVA out there. It's even being fansubbed, but I haven't had a chance to get it yet. As for where to find the translations, Toriyama's world is the place to go. I think there's another site out there, but I like their xlation pretty well. is the URL. Oh, and roiling is a descriptive term meaning something like turbulent, so yes, that's the word I mean.
Aelys: Thanks!
Yukitsu: Like I told Daiji I'm not forcing the two into a relationship. If something happens in the course of the fic, it happens. Right now they're like squabbling brothers more than anything else.
Blunt: Art is always good. I *like* art. I like it very much. (Am hoping to manage some story related pieces myself, but at the moment nothing.) Thanks muchly for doing it at all!
