By Yukitsu
Disclaimers: HxH and its characters are not mine; they rightfully belong to their creator, Yoshihiro Togashi, and I am in no way making any profit from this. Etcetera.
KuraPC went poof. T.T
A lot of thanks to Lynlyn for proofreading this for me. I don't think I could have managed it properly, at that time. o.O Go read Wild Hearts can't be Broken (if you haven't yet, though I think the chance of that happening is very slim. Lol.)
Chapter Four
Puzzle Pieces.
I make my way home with no problem. Yorkshin is a big enough city that meeting two vampires in one night in the same area rarely happens, though this is with the Geneiryodan set aside, of course. Cities usually don't get that many vampires in a week in the first place, unless you're in Fenderling City, in which case nearly half of the citizens are actually vampires.
Despite my supposed extra defenses courtesy of my vampire blood, my body had been particularly sore. Hisoka must have been a very powerful individual before he got turned. Fortunately, my body has already started with its natural rapid healing. All bruises will be gone by morning, and by the time I start the hunt again in the evening, my knee will be in tiptop shape too.
It's one of the quirks of being a halfbreed, I suppose.
The healing hasn't made all that much difference yet so I'm a bit slower in walking than usual. It's not long before I get back to HQ, though, where as expected, Leorio and Mito give me hell.
"Where have you been?" Leorio demands of me as soon as I step in his office, his mouth half-full of bandages. I raise my eyebrow. He finishes tying the rest of it around his head, throws the remainder away, and resumes interrogating me.
"You don't want to know," I tell him.
Meanwhile, Mito steers me to a chair and starts looking me over. I wave her away, but she glares at me and I reluctantly gesture where my injuries are. The kids are flocking around me too, though how they do it with just two of them (plus another two, if I consider the very noisy adults) amazes me.
"Will you answer me already?"
"Hisoka found out about my vampire blood."
He pales, and I give him the I-told-you-so look. Idly, I notice the bruise on the side of Mito's face. It doesn't really do her features justice.
"I ran after him and that Ryodan girl he was with, but I lost them. There was another vamp, a normal one, that fed on two people." I wrinkle my nose slightly, but Mito catches the move and pinches my nose fondly. I suppose she's happy I'm not hurt, but I'm not sure if she's aware that not many things can hurt me badly in the first place.
Leorio, on the other hand, looks like he is having epilepsy. He shoots up from his seat and paces around with impressive speed.
"He's going to tell the rest of them," I finally say quietly, and I turn to look outside the window. It's still dark. If I want to, I can probably still go out on another round, look for them and all that.
"Does he know you're a Born half and not a Bitten one?" I can feel his eyes on me, and I shrug.
"I don't know." It will be too big a disadvantage for me if they find out I'm a Born. It means I can be converted again, into a pureblood, and getting converted for the second time will most likely kill me if only because of the pain it will cause. If I do survive… let's just say Wing won't be the only severe itch the Guild will have to deal with. It doesn't take much to convert – just the pass of a bite, and I'll be infected.
Leorio's heading for the telephone, and I watch him cross the length of his office to reach it. His hand hovers over it, and then he paces around again, before he finally snatches the thing up.
I stand up despite Gon's protests and make my way out. The last thing I hear from my Apostle is a request for assistance from the Guild, and something that probably explains my situation.
They'll have to send someone this time. Or two. Or three. Send in the whole lot, really, Yorkshin will need all the slayers it can get. I don't like the thought of strangers prying in my business, and even if I don't like my job as much, it's still mine and the Ryodan had been given to me.
It's not a decision for me to make. Leorio still handles that, and as of the moment, he's too disturbed not to ask the Guild. He has his priorities, I have mine. Ours don't match too well.
Just as I reach my room, Leorio comes huffing up to me again, waving a thick folder in the air. For a moment, I think that he is going to swat me, but the thought is so ridiculous I inwardly call myself stupid.
"The Guild sent me the profiles of the Geneiryodan members," he wheezes, and I accept the folder. Not that I have a choice –- he practically thrusts it at my face.
"It's a bit late, isn't it?" He glares at me, and I give him a questioning look. It was a valid complaint –- I've already met three of them, after all. We decide to drop the subject, anyway, before he really does try to swat me, and I reluctantly let him in my room.
"I'm going to clean up," I tell him as he seats himself on my bed. The place is too small for a chair.
"Go on, then. I'll read the important bits to you."
"Gee, thanks. Why the sudden kindness? You're going to have me deported, aren't you?" Friendly bickering, that's the only thing left to us when we don't want to talk about other things and silence is unthinkable. The man can be an ass, but he's still the only person who wanted to take me in and be my Apostle after what happened.
"Yeah, yeah. As soon as Gon and Killua are old enough."
That won't be too long now. I can't wait. There's a moment of silence as I make my way to the bathroom and strip off my clothing after locking the door. I can hear him rifle through the contents of the folder over the water as I wash my face. Ash. It's kind of disturbing that I'm not disgusted by it anymore.
"The first Lucifer converted was, as you know, his son. News of a madman heading to the city had gotten around and Kuroro had decided to meet with his 'ill' father. That had been a mistake."
"Obviously," I mutter. He clears his throat and I grunt for him to continue.
"Like most aristocrats, he's been well trained in fencing, horseback riding, and archery. He was also trained in Aikido, and other forms of martial arts specializing in self-defense."
"So he wasn't a useless mortal after all."
"Whatever gave you that idea?" he teases me.
"Hn." I close the tap and turn to the shower stall. The water's cold when I turn it on, and I wonder if it will warm down if I wait long enough. "Anything else important? What about Hisoka? And no surnames." He knows I don't like surnames -– it gives the vampires I hunt too much humanity, and I want to avoid thinking of them as such when I'm face to face with them –- but he's an Apostle, pro-detail and all that, so he forgets.
"Kuroro was also the one who started the group. He's supposed to be a charming man, and if he convinced twelve vampires, I don't doubt it at all."
I don't either, for two reasons: One, I've met him, and two, he has Hisoka under him, of all psycho vamps.
"Hisoka, on the other hand…. He basically didn't exist before this."
"Excuse me?" I say loudly through the patter of water. I can hear him fine, but I doubt if he can hear me unless I yell at him.
"According to the file, he used to be a freelance assassin before he got converted. He was hired by the Apostle in Meteor City. He's supposed to be infamous in the underground circles for being bloodthirsty and strong, though the Guild hasn't found out what he can do exactly."
"He is strong," I mutter as I examine my bare knee. It's still a bit swollen, but I can hardly feel the pain anymore.
"Speaking of the Apostle in Meteor City…. Her name is Pakunoda, and she was one of the last ones to get turned."
Now that's new. I'm fighting against an Apostle.
"You knew her?"
"Sort of. We've met. Tall woman, very… unique, and classy. She was included in the top ten Apostles in the list a couple of years ago, and rumors has it that she would have been a slayer if she didn't make such a good Apostle."
I was hoping that she'd be weak, or at least not that strong. Leorio certainly isn't the fighter type – he's a doctor-turned-priest, for goodness' sake, and he's one of the best Apostles there is, too.
"What about Machi?" I turn off the water before inspecting myself for more ashes. None. Great.
"Machi. Hm."
"Better yet, why don't you give me the profiles according to who got converted first?"
"All right," he mutters as he flips through the pages again, shuffles around the papers some more – to reorganize them, I think – and clears his throat. "The first was Kuroro." More shuffling.
"I know that already," I tell him anyway, just to annoy him. He snaps something that sounds like 'shaddap' at me, and continues.
"Next was a girl by the name of Shizuku. She was an employee of the bookstore a few blocks from where Kuroro was converted. There's nothing interesting in her profile, apart from the fact that she was an orphan and has had several run-ins with vampires in the past. It says here that her parents had been killed by one."
I've dried myself by the time he's done with 'Shizuku', and slipping into a pair of cotton pants when he starts on the third victim. I almost fall over at his introduction of the third Ryodan member.
"Shalnark was the local slayer of Meteor City."
"A slayer?" I echo in disbelief. First an Apostle, then a slayer? Most slayers are as strong as I am, even without the vampire blood – they had training, something that I never had. The Guild must have thought my blood made up for my lack of training. I suppose it does.
That's besides the point. One of the Ryodan's a former slayer, and as a Bitten half, Shalnark should be twice his normal strength by now.
"He was an orphan too, much like Gon and Killua now. He applied for slayer training when he was twelve and took up residency in Meteor City when he was fourteen. Hmm. You both started as slayers at the same age."
I don't say anything and continue slipping on clothing.
"The next ones are named Feitan and… I think this is Sphinx, but it says Phinx, so I'll go with that. It must be a codename of some sort, since they were both assassins before they got turned. They had a guild underground, though, unlike Hisoka."
And Leorio's just talking about it like it's no big deal. He must have gotten some very good news from the phone call he made.
"Pakunoda, when Shalnark got converted, asked for back up from the guild. She got impatient, though, because Lucifer had been on a rampage, feeding on citizens left and right. She hired them from their agency. Records has it that they're two of the best in their... err… field of expertise.
"Hisoka was next. He might have heard about it on the rumor mill, and decided to challenge the new guy in town."
I make my way out the bathroom and deposit most of my laundry on the hamper without interrupting him. The trench coat, I shake a bit and hang up behind my door.
Leorio ignores me and scans through the rest of the documents for a moment. I take a swig from the water bottle I keep on my table, and then I set the alarm.
"By this time, the Guild's 'back up' gets to Meteor. Name's Coltopi, he's a short guy with very long hair. Normal slayer, average strength, seems to be keen on the arts. Machi was being converted around the same time – he tried to save her, failed, and got converted also. Machi is the girl you said was with Hisoka?"
I nod at him and take a seat on the other edge of my bed. I think I don't want to know about the other new converts, if the rest of them are going to be like the first batch. Two slayers, an Apostle, and three assassins so far, as well as a bookstore employee. Half of them are potentially capable of terminating me and half the population with enough effort.
It's become a habit for me to arm myself when I'm nervous, and before I can help it, I'm already making my way to my drawers. My weapons need cleaning, that's it. I take out my swords and start on the chore. Leorio doesn't seem to notice, but there's this pause while I settle myself back on the bed.
"She practiced witchcraft, but it is unknown if she was ever proficient with it. She also worked at a tailoring shop in Meteor, and was said to have made the best clothing in the place. Machi hates slayers. That's the most definite thing on the records."
"I wonder why," I mutter uninterestedly. Leorio explains it anyway after much hmm-ing.
"She was originally from Fenderling City. It says here that a vampire fed on her brother, and instead of trying to save her brother's life, the local stabbed a stake through his head instead. This happened in front of her."
"Can't blame the slayer. Fenderling has too many vampires as it is. I would have done the same thing." It's true, no matter how sad the situation seems, it happens on a daily basis around the continent.
"You wouldn't kill an infected in front of his family, would you?"
"I might."
I see him shake his head from the corner of my eye; I shrug it off before going back to my sword.
"Anyway, there was a guy there who witnessed the whole thing. Bonorenolf was a local embalmer and had apparently been out to buy paint for his clients. He seems like a normal enough guy; a bit eccentric, but seeing as he's had his job for over twenty years, I can't really blame him for being anti-social."
"An embalmer," I repeat flatly, though I'm slightly relieved inside that there's at least another member of the Ryodan who had been a normal human being. I'm still having my suspicions on the late Lucifer, however.
"Yep. The Guild got pissed off by then, because that was two slayers Lucifer had converted. They sent in Franklin. Basically, Franklin is this huge man who was a candidate to fill in the vacant position of Malign in the Triad."
The position that was vacated because you killed the Malign off. I can practically hear him say it.
"He didn't make it to the Triad, though, because the Trinity thought he was too much of a brute to fit the category of their ideal slayer."
If Franklin was strong enough to fill in the position of Malign, I don't think sending anything other than their whole army of available slayers will be able to take care of the Ryodan. A slayer can only be a member of the Triad if he is one of the top three best slayers. And the Trinity's view of the 'best' is the 'most powerful'. Those three heading the Guild have simple bases for their decisions, no matter how my Apostle tells me otherwise.
"The last two before Pakunoda were bounty hunters. The Guild sent a notice, and about a dozen flocked to Meteor City. Lucifer killed most of them, and converted two. They're Nobunaga and Ubogin, who were traveling bounty hunters the majority of their lives. Ubogin is a big brute of a man, who is often mistaken for a werewolf, and Nobunaga uses the sword, like you do. Eh… Pakunoda was the last one." He trails off and I calmly go about cleaning my workplace.
"So we have an Apostle, three slayers – one who was supposed to be Malign – three assassins, two bounty hunters, a witch, a bookstore employee, an embalmer, and an aristocrat."
"Yep."
"I don't think Lucifer had been as insane as the records say," I tell him quietly, and I see him blink. I can practically hear him blink. "How long did Lucifer take to convert these people?"
"More or less ten days."
"How many did he feed on during these ten days?"
He finally understands me, and slowly rolls a number off his tongue. "Twenty two. All of them, even the bounty hunters, are nothing like what the Ryodan had been."
"That's thirty five people, Leorio. And he just coincidentally converted the nine most powerful people that had been on the list? I don't think so."
"You think he was specifically hunting for people who would make the most powerful vampires?"
I nod once. It makes sense, now. I'm sure the spell that Wing had broken must have had side effects, but I don't think that Lucifer had been that far gone to not realize he needed powerful successors before the Guild – or Wing himself – disposed of him. I don't think he expected his own son to lead the group to dispatch of him either, though. I tell Leorio as much, and he gets this thoughtful expression on his face as he mulls on it.
"What would be Lucifer's reason for hoarding in the strong ones? Why not convert them all?"
"He might have wanted to lead a small group on his own," I say, taking a wild guess, "For world domination, or something of the sort. Wing nearly did it."
"He might have wanted to overthrow the Guild," Leorio adds. "This is insane. I'm going to call the Guild up and to tell them that mere imports aren't going to help you any."
He gets to his feet, pats me on the head awkwardly, and shuffles out the room. I barely notice it. Why was the Ryodan formed? What did Lucifer have planned? How much of his insanity had touched this plan of his, in the first place? Too many questions.
It's suspicious. Why are the Ryodan here? It seems to me that the whole mess is darker now, with the knowledge that I – we – are dealing with Bitten halves who were already exceptional from the start. No wonder I couldn't beat the two who I've fought against.
Things are clicking to place in my head, but the more important pieces of information are missing. I can't make out the whole of it. It's like the puzzles I vaguely remember playing with as a child.
I slide under the cover of my blanket, and it is sunrise by the time I finally fall asleep.
10:21 PM 7/21/2005