Ten

The woman stepped back, wearing a warm smile.

Kurapika did the same, his face growing red with confusion. Senritsu was of a similar disposition frankly, what is going on?

"You know him?" Senritsu asked, looking at the woman with a frown, who returned her gaze looking equally as miffed. And now that Senritsu could see her face clearly, it became apparent to her that Tomin's mother was blind or at least very visually impaired. Her irises were a cloudy blue and her gaze was unfocused, like she wasn't really looking at her.

"No, you," Tomin's mother said. "I've been waiting for you. Well, both of you. Oh dear, sorry my vision isn't that great any more. You are her, aren't you?"

Has she mistaken us for someone else? And really, lying would get her nowhere. They needed information on Kurapika, or Tomin, so it was probably best to start out as truthful as possible.

"I am her," she replied. "Is it because of the letter? About Tomin…?"

The woman nodded, inviting them inside with a wave. And while her gut told her this is a bad idea, the more rational part of herself reminded her we have to get some kind of answers from someone. So she walked in, Kurapika trailing just behind her and she could almost hear the questions in the erratic way he was breathing. Several questions came to her own mind, but none of them would help their situation. Senritsu hardly knew what they were looking for outside of the last few places her blonde companion had been presumably before losing his memories.

Tomin's mother's apartment was barren of anything but a couch in the living room, and a few wooden chairs in a large kitchen off to her right. But it was empty in a way that indicated she had moved out a bunch of stuff in a hurry…

"Sorry for the mess," the woman said, motioning towards the large, L-shaped yellow couch in the center of the living room. "My husband passed away a month ago and…well I was in the process of moving when all this happened."

"It's no problem," Senritsu said, sitting down.

"Sorry about your loss," Kurapika said, standing awkwardly above her. "Both of them."

The woman smiled, and Senritsu scanned the room for any clues as to what her name might have been. A letter, a stray note, but the tiny place revealed nothing.

"Look," Kurapika folded his hands across his lap as he sat down. "I'm not sure who you think we are, but we're probably not the people you're waiting for. My friend here was the last person to talk to Tomin alive, and that's why we're here. Because she gave you a letter to give to my friend."

Senritsu turned a shot him a look, but she couldn't really complain about him being blunt. Even the old Kurapika had been a little blunt and to-the-point.

"Oh…" The woman nodded, a sad expression fell across her face for a moment. "Well, I guess I'll introduce myself then. I'm Kila, Tomin's mother."

"Senritsu and this is Kurapika," she said. "And I am very sorry about the death of your daughter. I…" But the right words escaped her. Somehow, she felt Tomin's death was her fault. If not wholly, than at least partially.

No, it's not. I have nothing to do with her death.

"If you don't mind me asking, what did the two of you talk about?" Kila asked. And she was still standing in front of the couch, making the fact that the two of them were seated extremely uncomfortable.

"I was looking for Kurapika," she replied. "Someone sold his phone to Tomin and I wanted to know who. She helped me find him, actually."

There was something closed off about Kila. And there would likely be no getting any information from her. It wasn't just the strange, steady way her heart beat, but everything about her seemed to have grown still. Like she was doing everything in her power not to make any noise, or move.

"That's nice." Kila sat at the edge of the couch. "I appreciate the visit, but I don't like being deceived. I am expecting someone any minute now, so I have to ask you to leave."

"Of course," Kurapika said, standing up.

What do you mean of course? Senritsu glanced at him again. They needed answers; there was nothing of course about it. But she followed his lead, bidding Kila goodbye and walking out the door.

"Hold on," Kila said. "There's…something for you. I didn't think I'd ever see either of you. Tomin….just take it." She practically shoved the paper in Kurapika's face and pushed him out into the hallway. The door slammed shut a few seconds later, followed by the loud click of a lock.

Kurapika opened the paper. "I think these are clues," he said, extending the paper towards her.

"What?" She looked at it herself. They might have been clues, or gibberish, or poetry for all she knew. The paper contained a list of words, none of which really made any sense to her. "What makes you think these are clues?"

"Church: Scarlet Eyes," he said.

"…How do you know about that?"

"The Scarlet Eyes in the church?" he asked, wrinkling his nose. He motioned for her to follow him and began heading for the elevator. "They were Father Ariale's collection or something. They kind of creeped me out though."

Chewing on her next words carefully, she listened to his heart carefully as she caught up to him. "Do you know what the Scarlet Eyes are?" she asked. They were in front of the elevator. He pushed the button and then looked down at her.

The expression on his face told her he has no idea what I'm talking about. And she wasn't sure if that relieved or worried her. So Father Ariale knew about them…did Kurapika bring them there or were they really his? It truly was too bad the man was gone; otherwise Senritsu was fairly certain she would've been able to play a melody that would relax him enough to talk.

"Should I know what they are?" he asked.

"No, not particularly," she replied, clearing her throat. "Uh so the next clue on here would be…?"

He shrugged. "I'm just guessing really. I don't know."

"Well guess some more. There aren't even thirteen things on here. Just four."

Kurapika took another look at the paper. "Forest: Spider."

"You know what that means?"

"No, I told you I'm just guessing."

"So you don't know what the Spider is?"

"…Yes, I know what a spider is, unless you're referring to something else?"

"I'm referring to something else." But that wasn't important at the moment. "So you think before you were at the church you were at a forest?"

"Forest Iardina or something like that. You can see it from the chapel," he said, nonchalantly. "It's the only thing on there that makes sense."

"Okay, let's go."

They went to the "forest", if it could even be called that. It was more like a park with a few trees here and there, but it was called Forest Iardina, and you could practically see Ariale's chapel from there. There was a small hiking trail in the park they went down together. And the situation might have been romantic if Kurapika had been paying any attention to her at all.

But as it was, they were both more concerned with what exactly they were doing here.

"So I don't really understand something, like is this like a puzzle where we go to various places and you remember something? We piece it together and then you have all your memories back?" she asked. "I mean, the only instructions we got from Tomin were the last thirteen or whatever places you had been at, but if we go there what does that even mean?"

Kurapika shuffled beside her slowly. "I don't know. I mean, I sort of remembered something at the chapel, but I think it was just a memory of me arriving there."

"Why would Father Ariale be cleaning blood off the wall though when you arrived?" she frowned.

"Maybe that place isn't actually a chapel," he said. "It was pretty normal, when I was there though. They had a church service and everything…"

But he had those Eyes there…She frowned.

They came to a small fork in the road. "I wonder why she wrote Forest and Spider." Kurapika asked. "Should be lookout for spider webs?"

"Er…maybe." But it was entirely possible the note did actually mean spiders and not the Spider. "Let's walk around a little bit more…see if another memory comes to mind." And then, glancing at his outfit, she frowned a little harder. "Then I'm taking you shopping for something that doesn't make you look like a Shinigami."

"Alright."

They walked to the end of the trail, which looped back around to where they had started. By then, she was tired and ready to take a nap. Kurapika hadn't remembered anything either, maybe this is the wrong forest?

"That's interesting," Kurapika said, motioning to a sign by the park's entrance.

"What?"

"The trail we were on is called the Spider's Trail."

"Really?" She looked at the sign. It was called that. And it was named so because apparently a very rare type of spider was often found here, native to Zevil Island, where is that? "Well, there is always the internet. Might as well look it up."

"Alright," he replied.

"But first, clothes."

AN: I just want to apologize for all the grammar errors lol