Chapter Seven
Until Death Do Us Part
Chrollo awakens early the next morning to tie a bandana around his forehead. He adorns a simple white collared shirt, as if he were pure and innocent.
He'll have to go on Kurapika's brief description of the three witnesses to Gon and Killua. He has no real desire to see out Kurapika right now.
Fortunately, the young man described by Kurapika last night isn't hard to find, even with a vague description. He's a bodyguard for Prince Tserriednich...whose chambers are deliberately close to Chrollo's cabin.
Well, neighbors are supposed to be friendly, after all. And maybe he can forget the screaming Kurta boy if he focuses on his two missions: theft and murder.
Though those were the missions under which he caused Kurapika's misery…
Damn Hisoka for stalking him. Ruining his treasure plans.
"Tell me, are the rumors of the prince true?" Chrollo smiles, offering the bodyguard more coffee.
"You'll have to specify," says Danjin dryly.
"The treasures he's stored aboard, naturally. I imagine that makes life even harder, what with the succession contest and all," says Chrollo.
"Oh, it does." Danjin gratefully accepts another cup of coffee. "This is very good, sir."
"I do pride myself on fine coffee. It's my nen skill," Chrollo says with a cheeky grin. "Is Tserriednich the sort to care more about his body or his treasure? I honestly can't tell."
"Both. Though guarding the treasure – he has a pair of Scarlet Eyes, and let me tell you, those are creepy to behold." Danjin shivers. "I can't help but wonder who had them, how they lost them, what their life was like, you know?"
"I do," Chrollo says, feigning concern. Or is he feigning? Why can't he escape the Scarlet Eyes?
You ordered this. You chose this prison.
"But I imagine we'll be collecting more on the Dark Continent. The prince discovered he's a Nen specialist," adds Danjin.
"Oh?" Chrollo keeps his face still.
"You may make coffee sweet, sir, but he made the water test turn into sewer water. Or worse. I've never seen anything like it," says the careless bodyguard, shaking his head in amazement.
"Goodness. How frightening. I don't want to distract you for too long, lest he be angry with you!" Chrollo rises to leave.
"You know, you're the second to ask about that today," says the man.
Chrollo stills. "Oh?"
"Captain Baha himself was asking after it. He'd prefer not to have a bloodbath on his ship."
Chrollo sits again. Immediately. "Do you know much about this Captain?"
"Not really." The man barks in laughter. "He appeared out of nowhere, it seems, with more sailing skill than most of the Kakin's private fleet."
"I see." Chrollo is almost certain that this Baha is none other than Hisoka the murdering clown.
He sends a text message to the Troupe. What do you all know of our captain?
You mean the perv always watching me whom I suspect is Hisoka? Machi replies immediately.
He what? Feitan says, before sending a dozen knife emojis.
I don't quite have Shalnark's reasoning skills, but I too find his records suspicious, writes Shizuku.
Orders, Danchou? asks Franklin.
We should probably consider that if he's the captain, he might be the only one to know where we're going, warns Kalluto.
Sometimes I'm surprised Hisoka can find his way to his asshole, Machi says.
Illumi's not, Phinks responds.
PHINKS STOP. Nobunaga's text is accompanied by a sobbing emoji.
Chrollo shakes his head in amusement. At sundown, let's 'confront' this captain in his wheelhouse. Together.
"We have a problem!" Kalluto scampers into Kurapika's room.
"Eh?" Kurapika waits by the window, ever patient so long as the Troupe isn't involved.
Well, he's about to be disappointed.
"The troupe figured it out. They're going to 'confront' the captain tonight." Kalluto tears at his hair. "I'm useless!"
"Don't panic." Killua grabs his brother by the shoulders. "We've got this."
"We need you," Gon adds helpfully.
"You do?" Kalluto wipes his eyes.
"Yes. Both of you." Gon points to Kurapika.
"And I'm the fourth wheel," Leorio announces.
"Fifth," says Alluka.
"Sixth!" Kalluto sticks out his tongue. "You're sixth!"
"Oh, okay. Might as well be fish food," mutters Leorio.
"But seriously," Killua says, turning back to Kalluto. "Do you have your paper?"
"Can I do my role soon? I have a confrontation with Chrollo scheduled," Kurapika says with frustration.
"Say what?" Killua asks in exasperation.
"Don't worry, it doesn't involve murder this time."
"You didn't try to disguise your presence this time." Chrollo sits on his bed, smirking at the Chain User in his doorframe.
"Are you sorry?" Kurapika holds forth his dousing chain. "This will detect your lies."
Chrollo doesn't even protest. He speaks flatly. "I don't know."
The chain swings.
"The least you can do is tell the truth."
"Maybe," Chrollo says, and the chain doesn't move. "I haven't allowed myself to think so much on it."
"But do you feel sorry?" Kurapika snaps.
Chrollo sighs. He turns his face away. "Yes."
"Ha!" Kurapika stares at his unmoving chain with disgust. "I'm glad my trauma is good for something."
"And what is that?" Chrollo turns back to him.
"If this is what it takes for you to maybe feel some kind of empathy, you're a monster," Kurapika spits. "I hope someday you experience what it's like to watch your friends tortured for – for your fluffy coat. Or your spider tattoo. Something useless. And then I hope they die right before you."
"They already died before me, at your hands, if you recall," Chrollo says icily.
"They weren't tortured in front of you. You weren't even there when they died," Kurapika mocks after a brief moment of silent fear. He feels as though every molecule of hatred has been released inside, and is forcing its way out through his mouth.
"I know." Chrollo growls.
Kurapika frowns. He's never seen the leader lose control before.
Chrollo relaxes. His even expression resettles across his countenance. "But if you think I'll ever forgive myself for that, you don't know me as well as you think."
Not for Uvogin and Pakunoda – he really should have emphasized his unimportance more – not for Shalnark and Kortopi.
"So you can pity those who belong to you, but not my family? Not a crippled child? You're pathetic," Kurapika growls. There are tears in his red, red eyes.
Chrollo forces a laugh. "You don't want me to die, after all. You want me to understand."
Kurapika spits in Chrollo's face. "You understanding won't bring them back."
Chrollo casually wipes away the spittle littering his cheek. He won't say he doesn't deserve that. "But my death will? My friends' death will?"
Kurapika points at him. "If – If there were an alter I could trade – I would cut out your heart without hesitation."
"But there isn't. Not even with magic." Chrollo scoffs. "Isn't humankind hopeless?"
Kurapika raises his hand to strike him again, but Chrollo is faster. He opens his book and sends Kurapika sprawling across the room.
"I'm warning you, Kurapika of the Kurta Clan. Don't lay a hand on me again." He, like everyone born in Meteor City, experienced enough assaults as a child to last a lifetime.
Kurapika stares at the head of the Spiders. His eyes are a dark and stormy gray. And he is deadly serious.
The words that emerges from his mouth sound rather trivial. "You can teleport people with that."
"It's one of the more boring, and therefore more useful, abilities I've acquired." Chrollo closes the book.
"Why haven't you teleported me before? I spit on you. I used my judgment chain. I slapped you yesterday." Kurapika scrunches up his face.
Chrollo is quiet for a moment. Despite the beauty of Kurapika's eyes, he finds himself afraid to look on them. "Because…I was trying…to understand."
Kurapika is taken aback. "You'd need to suffer for that."
"What makes you think I'm not?"
"Your actions?" Kurapika conjures his dousing chain again. "I will charge this for both of us. We are going to tell the truth, once and for all."
"I'm almost impressed, you looking at yourself," Chrollo can't resist saying.
"Shut up!" Kurapika snaps.
"Ah, there the anger is again. I'd almost missed it."
"Illumi." Killua scampers up to his brother, who's practicing pin throwing by the stern. The poor fish below.
"Killua." Illumi elects not to tell his brother about the plan to kill Hisoka tonight. It will only further upset Killua.
"Want to get lunch?" Killua offers Illumi his hand.
Illumi grabs it instantly. "I haven't seen you in a day."
"I needed time," says Killua, pulling his brother into the dining hall. "But Kalluto was very helpful. So was Alluka. They had a marvelous idea."
"Oh?" Illumi makes a note to thank Kalluto for whatever he said.
"We're going to all sign a document that we're a family, and we don't kill each other, and we stick together. Make it official." Killua injects as much cheer into his voice as he can muster.
Illumi hesitates. "What if Alluka proves…"
"She's not a danger. Neither is Nanika. I like them both, actually," Killua insists.
"Okay, okay." Illumi holds up his hands. If Alluka is the price for Killua's love, he'll create a hundred Allukas. "Where do I sign?"
Killua holds out a parchment and pen. He holds his breath as Illumi signs his name beneath.
With Kalluto's paper manipulation, Illumi believes he's signing a document with Kalluto, Alluka, and Killua as cosigners, instead of a marriage certificate with his siblings as witnesses.
"There we go!" Illumi smiles. "This is wonderful. Kil – Killua, I'm so happy to be your brother."
Killua gulps. "I'm glad, too."
"You were how I first learned to value family. I realized early on when caring for you that I would care more about your life than my own," Illumi says, eyes focused on sometime in the past. "That's how I learned to prioritize family over everything else. I'm happy as long as you are."
You're not, not at all! Killua wants to shriek.
Illumi chatters on. Apparently, signing this paper is all he's ever needed to feel secure. "You know, even if I died and I had no offspring, I'd be okay. Because there's you. You've always been my hope."
Killua feels his heart slowly sinking into the sea.
"Don't worry. Soon you'll be free of your promise. We're going to apprehend Hisoka today." Chrollo looks at the ceiling in a half-prayer. This truthful conversation should prove entertaining, at least.
"You're sure you want to?" Kurapika looks at him. "What do you feel when you kill?"
"Nothing, really. I don't enjoy it. I…didn't enjoy killing your clan. I just…I view it as necessary sometimes. Never really as power, I don't think, Chrollo muses. He keeps his eyes unfocused, so he can't see Kurapika's indignation. "At least not for myself. Power in the name of the Spider. To keep people afraid so they don't attack us."
"Didn't stop me, though." Kurapika says softly.
"Few people are as dedicated as you, or Hisoka." Chrollo focuses on his hands. He imagines them dripping with blood. "Not even the Zoldycks enjoyed attacking us."
"But now you have two with you."
"I enjoy that, yes. The children are not responsible for the parents." Chrollo smiles sadly. "I suppose I felt a bit like a parent when Hisoka took Kortopi and Shalnark."
Kurapika frowns. "He what?"
"They said they wanted to partake in Hisoka's defeat, so I stole their powers – borrowed, really – to destroy him in Heaven's Arena." Chrollo holds up his book. "And that's when he tore them apart."
He wonders if the Kurta parents felt like that when he tortured their children.
Of course they did. Once the thought has settled in Chrollo's head, he can't shake it. Perhaps they even felt worse, because those parents had done nothing.
"Chrollo…I didn't know that." Kurapika stares at his feet. "Do you find vengeance satisfactory?"
"Do you?" Chrollo watches Kurapika closely. "How did you feel when the adrenaline wore off, when you let me go but saved your friends, when you killed at least two of my friends?"
"I felt…like drowning. In indescribable emptiness." Kurapika's face is flushed. Because that feeling is what he clings to, as much as it confounds him – the feeling that he's not a born killer, unlike Chrollo.
"Lonely, isn't it?" Chrollo half-smiles, and Kurapika feels cold.
He – Chrollo Lucilfer does not enjoy revenge.
"When we slaughtered the mafia for Uvogin, it felt spiritual. A requiem for his soul, which I will personally break out of hell should I have to." Chrollo sighs. "And then the music faded, and Uvogin is still gone."
"If…" Kurapika says after a moment, "If I promise to stop my vengeance, will you cease yours?"
"We've already planned Hisoka's demise. Most likely."
"You know you can stop it. You're their Danchou." Kurapika gestures towards his dousing chain. "I will stop if you spare Hisoka."
He'll focus on the eyes. He'll stop killing the Troupe.
Chrollo ponders this strange offer. The Spider First. If Hisoka can not destroy the troupe, isn't peace better? Even for he, who has never known peace?
He's not the only one who should make this decision. This is for the entire group. And Hisoka.
"I will see what I can do." Chrollo stands. "It's about that time."
"My promise remains open until Hisoka dies." Kurapika says.
"I know." Chrollo smiles briefly. "Thank you."
Kurapika swallows the lump in is throat. In the end, all he can do is pray that Gon and Killua's plot works. "Let me come with you."
Chrollo opens his book. "Let me see…no. No."
Kurapika is sucked back against the wall. Pinned there.
"Why not? I have to help my friends." Kurapika struggles.
"Because my friends will kill you." Chrollo leans closer. "And right now, I don't want that, Kura."
"Why not?" Kurapika nearly shrieks.
"I don't want the Kurta clan to go extinct. Not anymore," Chrollo says softly as he closes the door behind him.
"Hi, Captain Baha," Gon sings, prancing into the wheelhouse.
"Hello, Gon," the captain says with a ready smile.
I never told you my name, Gon thinks. "I have a favor to ask."
"A favor?" The Captain cocks his head.
"Yes." Gon presses his hands together. "My friend and I are in a contest to see who can get the most signatures from famous people aboard the ship."
"Signatures?" The captain eyes him, and Gon's throat dries a little.
"Yes. I want yours first." Gon holds out the sheet of paper and a pen.
The captain shrugs, hopefully assuming he's just under duress from a silly child. He raises the pen and quickly scribbles his signature.
"Thank you!" Gon snatches the paper away before the captain can blink. He lifts it up, and, sure enough, Kurapika's truthtelling nen is changing the name. The ink swirls around to rearrange the letters.
Hisoka Morow.
Gon doubles over laughing. "We got you, Hisoka!"
The captain's mouth falls open. "What?"
The door bursts open.
"There's a problem!" Kalluto shouts, shoving Killua out of the way. The two children are swiftly thrown aside as Nobunaga, Phinks, and Feitan zip into the room.
Bonolenov and Shizuku crash through the front windows. Franklin and Machi crawl in the sides.
Illumi hurls a pin that the captain narrowly dodges. He squeezes himself into the tiny room.
"STOP!" Gon bellows, jumping in front of the captain.
He's nenless, but he has to try.
"Wait!" Kalluto stops another pin with his paper fan, causing Illumi to pause with pride. Kalluto leaps to the captain's back, and Killua scrambles to his side.
"Kalluto, why?" Machi cries as Feitan halts his attack.
"You've got to be kidding me." Franklin shakes his head.
"I never kid," Killua says sternly.
"Because you are one?" Phinks shoots back, raising his fist.
He's warped aside.
"What is going on here?" Chrollo strides in, book in hand. His voice is deathly serious, and even Kalluto feels a chill run down his spine.
Well, Chrollo can't say he's surprised to see the small power duo covering a captain who is slowly melting into Hisoka. Kalluto's choice, though, is disappointing, not that Chrollo blames him. But they can reason with this child. He is not too far gone; people rarely are. No need to get upset.
This will be over soon. Shalnark and Kortopi will have their vengeance.
"Illumi, you can't fight Hisoka any more," Killua insists.
"Why not? It's our engagement." Illumi holds another pin aloft, and Feitan nods with approval. At least Illumi was truly committed to the troupe.
"Because," Gon says. He holds up the paper and waves it around, in front of Hisoka's face. "Oh. Wait. Wrong side."
Hisoka is now dead white.
Gon flips the paper about for Illumi to see. "You're not engaged any more. You're married."
"He's your family now," Killua adds.
