Rating went up to "T" for the violence in this chapter.

X

Leorio felt helpless. Kurapika was slumped over, her head resting next to his leg. She had shown no signs of consciousness since he had found her. He had no idea if she could come back on her own or if he could do something. An inner voice began criticizing him. He should have never let her leave. He should have gotten there faster. He should have worked harder on nen to reverse the state she was in now.

Kurapika could die and he would have been right there, having done nothing to save her.

Just like with Pietro.

He would never let that happen again. No matter what, he would have to know he tried doing something. After he made sure the road ahead had no obstacles in it, Leorio concentrated on his energy and attempted ten. Seconds passed before he could feel a gentle warmness flowing under his skin. He slowed his breathing. Soon after, a faint yellow glow enveloped his hands before him.

Now what did he do? He hadn't been able to master anything except ten and only knew the basic functions of the different kinds of nen. He wasn't even sure if he could transfer energy. As his frustration grew, the glow diminished. Leorio noticed it and tried to make the doubts leave his mind. When the glow was stronger, he took his right hand off the steering wheel and placed it on Kurapika's forehead.

"I hope this works," He said. A peek at the road ahead and he turned back to Kurapika. He imagined all of his energy rushing to his hand and being forced out of it into Kurapika's head. He knew he was doing something; every muscle in his body felt like it had done a strenuous exercise. Before he was completely exhausted, Leorio shut off the energy flow.

Kurapika hadn't shown any change. Leorio's hands gripped the wheel tighter. His vision began to get blurry as he told himself it hadn't worked. Leorio ran his sleeve over his eyes.

He almost had no time to remove his arm from his face when a bus started to cross over into his lane. Acting fast, he swerved and sped along the length of the bus. Free from the bus, he looked back using his rear-view mirror. Dust floated above the road and the bus had corrected itself. He cursed the bus driver.

He cursed again when he saw another car come into his lane and head straight for him.

A head-on collision looked imminent. With the part of his brain that was still thinking logically, he jerked the wheel to the right. The car went off the dirt road, and despite his best efforts, failed to get off the short, steep slope that clung to the side of the road. The car flipped over, finishing its somersault by landing back on to its tires.

Leorio sat stunned. When the shock wore off, he mentally assessed himself. His head hurt from where it had smacked against the window. The seatbelt had kept him in his seat and from worse injuries.

His thoughts were broken up when a low moan came from the floor.

"Kurapika! Are you okay?" Leorio leaned forward. Kurapika's eyes were wide open and flicking about, trying to find out where she was.

"I think so."

Someone tapped on the window. Leorio spun towards it, ready to go off on who he expected was the driver of the other car. Instead, Sokiri stood at the window. The red eyes and grim expression revealed him as their evil spirit. Leorio decided to try what had worked before.

"Go away," He yelled. Sokiri kept staring at him. "Go!"

Rather than vanish, Sokiri put his hand through the window. Leorio pulled back to avoid its touch, but that didn't matter. Everything changed before Leorio's eyes.

He was no longer in the car, but was now sitting on a tree branch, far from the ground. All around him was forest. Two people were with him on the branch, one on each side. To his right was Kurapika. To his left, resting her head against the tree's trunk, was a young girl. She wore a light purple dress and her long blonde hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail. It took him a moment to recognize that she was also Kurapika. She didn't acknowledge them, but stared down. Leorio did the same.

Below them was a wide path. As he followed it, his head rising slowly, he had a clear view of a village through a gap in the tree's leaves. There was a row of neat wooden homes. In front of one of the houses, two women were taking turns beating the dirt out a rug. From another house came the sound of a child crying.

From below them came a voice.

"Kurapika! I give up. Come out so we can play something else." Sokiri appeared at the bottom of the tree. He paused, his head swinging back and forth as he looked for Kurapika. When he had done this a few times, he moved further along the trail, continuing to call out. The child released a small giggle when he left.

Then screaming came from the village. The rug still hung, but the women were no longer next to it. One of them was on the ground, a small man with long black hair standing over her. The other was pleading with him.

From all directions, people came running. Some were being chased while others were armed and seeking out the intruders. Their savage expressions and shouts conflicted with their strict, traditional appearances. He didn't need to see their attackers to know that they were the Phantom Troupe. Leorio's stomach grew heavy as he realized what he was witnessing.

Below them came a thud. Leorio didn't want to see anymore, but he was no longer in control. Sokiri was on the ground, the lower halves of his legs missing. Despite this, he began crawling towards the village. A man wrapped in bandages came into view, pouncing on Sokiri, who cried out in pain. The man ignored it and gripped the boy's face. His boney fingers wriggled their way into Sokiri's eye sockets.

Leorio wanted to yell out and jump down to get the bandaged man off Sokiri, but found he could do neither. Even his eyelids refused to shut. Next to him, the younger Kurapika was hugging the tree. Her little body shook as she looked down at her village. Rage took over Leorio at the sight of her and everything around him, but he couldn't express any of it.

Something gripped his shoulder and pulled him backward out of the tree. He could feel the lurch of his insides as he anticipated hitting the ground. The impact didn't come. They had fallen back inside the car, both of them breathing heavy. Leorio turned to Kurapika. She had her knees to her chest and her face buried into her legs. He gently put a hand on her shoulder. It was vibrating under his grasp.

"Kurapika?"

"Leave me alone," Kurapika said sharply. She was glaring at him now, her irises red. There was a small, glistening trail going down her cheek. With some hesitation, Leorio removed his hand just as tapping came from the driver side window. This time, he found a living person peering in.

Leorio opened the door and immediately started to shout at the man.

"What the hell were you doing, driving into my lane like that?"

"It wasn't my fault!" The man pointed up at his car. "Something went wrong with my car!"

"It wasn't your fault? Yeah, right!"

"Hey, it's not like I planned for that to happen! I'm telling you, it was my car!"

Leorio didn't wait for the explanation. He grabbed a hold of the man's collar, his other hand curling into a fist. He glared at the man, who had stopped shouting and stared at Leorio's hand, waiting for the blow.

He never got it.

Leorio let him go, turned around, and punched the side of the car.

000

They had hailed down two men with a truck and pulled the car back on to the road. The car's roof and right side had been damaged. The right headlight was broken. The hook used for the towing had done its own damage so that the bumper was no longer securely attached to the rest of the car. The only bright side was that the car still ran.

Leorio exchanged information with the other car's driver and grudgingly paid the men with the truck. He then motioned to Kurapika, who had been sitting on the slope, to come back to the car.

Once he had sat down and started the engine, Leorio snuck a peek at Kurapika. She had calmed down and was staring straight ahead.

Neither of them spoke. Leorio used the time to think about what he had seen.

Leorio had never really wondered how Kurapika had been the only survivor of an attack by the Spiders. At the time, it wasn't important. Having seen the massacre for himself, his opinion was different. Firstly, he realized he had never known Kurapika. He understood her desire for revenge, but he had never experienced the emotions that had led up to it. He knew he would never know exactly what she felt.

The other thing the flashback had made him understand was what the spirit's words to Kurapika had meant. "Come out." The spirit was reminding Kurapika of how she had hid while her tribe was slaughtered. Accusing her of being a coward so it could feed off of her.

The car started to drift towards the side of the road. Leorio groaned. The rear tire was flat. Leorio reached a gas station and pulled into its vacant lot.

"I've got to change the tire," Leorio told Kurapika. He wasn't sure if she was listening or not. "It shouldn't take too long."

He got out and found the spare tire in the trunk. It seemed like the temperature rose as he started to change the tire. A bead of sweat tickled his face as he pulled the flat tire off.

As a chill traveled down his spine, he didn't need to see it to know a ghost was nearby. Leorio looked up to see Sokiri beside him, pointing into the car. Leorio followed the finger to a figure in the backseat of the car. It leaned over Kurapika's seat. With a few swift steps, Leorio had the passenger door open.

"Get away from her," He shouted and swiped at the spirit, a cold mist settling on his hand. With a defiant look, it obeyed and left.

Leorio grabbed Kurapika by both shoulders and shook. Kurapika's eyes shot open.

Leorio sighed in relief.

"Good, you're actually conscious this time. I can't believe it had the nerve to do that," He paused. He couldn't leave her alone again. "You should probably come out with me until I get this tire on."

"Okay."

They remained in their positions for a few seconds. It was Kurapika who spoke next.

"Leorio, I could get out if you took your hands off me."

Leorio noticed he was pinning her to the seat. He let go. Kurapika got out of the vehicle, and although she was trying to hide it, the simple action was taking a lot of effort.

"You can sit down there."

"I'm fine." Kurapika stood against the car.

"No, you're not. You're barely keeping yourself up," He pushed the new tire in. "There's nothing wrong with giving yourself a break. You clearly need one right now."

When he looked up, Kurapika was looking away from him, offended. He didn't understand what was wrong with what he said. He had made sure not to mention anything about the scene they had escaped from.

As he thought it, it hit him. Everything came together: the massacre, the refusal to rest, even the cross-dressing. The most powerful emotion he had felt when watching the members of the Kurta tribe being killed had been weakness. It was something he hated feeling. He knew it was the same for Kurapika.

Any frustration he had had with Kurapika was replaced with sympathy.

"That was the day you decided to become a boy, wasn't it?"

He didn't know what to expect when he looked up at Kurapika, but he was relieved to find he hadn't totally upset her. She was contemplating her answer, sadness mixing with the calm.

"Yes, that's right."

Having gotten his answer, Leorio got up from the ground and threw the car jack back into the trunk with the old tire. When he came back, he stood before her and looked her in the eyes.

"Kurapika, I don't care how you survived. The only thing I care about is that you lived," He squeezed her shoulder. "And I'll do everything I can to keep you that way."

Leorio let go. That was when he saw the grease stain he had left on Kurapika's white sleeve. Seeing it brought out the other marks from when he had grabbed her in the car. Knowing his expression would give him away, he abruptly started for his side of the car. The hope that Kurapika wouldn't notice was soon shattered.

"Leorio, what did you wipe off on me?"

000

The cigarette dropped from Pons' mouth as Leorio and Kurapika pulled in front of the office. He was yelling before Leorio had a chance to get out of the car.

"What did you do to her? Get out of my car! You will never go near her again! You will never look at her again! Oh dear God, my baby!"

"Hey, it was some other guy's fault! Yell at him instead," Leorio thrust a paper with a name and number on it at Pons. The doctor read it and then stepped closer to Leorio, snatching away his too-small glasses. He threw them on the ground and stomped on them.

"What the hell's wrong with you?! You can't just do that!"

"You don't even need these," Pons said, grinding the glasses into the pavement like they were a used cigarette. He smiled as he did it. "I feel much better now."

"We'll see how great you feel after I slam you to the ground."

"Cut it out, Leorio. We have work to do," Kurapika interrupted. Leorio and Pons gave the other a final threatening look.

"You got lucky," Leorio said as he followed Kurapika to the door.

"No, you did. I was about to pull out my secret weapon: no more free rent," Pons shot back as he walked over to his car. Leorio turned away from the sad sight of a man and his wrecked car and listened as Kurapika talked.

"We'll need to go to library. We should try finding the information out in books before we go to the hunter's website and spend money for it. There're also local historians we can check with. I'm sure they could point us in the right direction," Kurapika continued on, but Leorio tuned it out.

They were inside his room when Kurapika's tone became more somber.

"When you called me on the bus, you said Sokiri warned you about what was going to happen. Are you sure it wasn't this spirit that's attached itself to me?"

"I'm sure. The Sokiri I saw was much nicer. If he hadn't of shown up when I was changing that tire, I don't think I would've have saved you in time."

Upon hearing this, a smile flitted across Kurapika's lips.

"At least we have someone else on our side."

This comment made Leorio remember the information he had found earlier that morning.

"I found some ways to ward off spirits. Most of them weren't practical, but one site said if you have iron on you, the spirit can't touch you. I think it'd be a good idea if you had something like that in case we get separated," Leorio said, crossing the room to start looking through his drawers.

"You actually believe that?"

"Anything helps," He rummaged through a drawer full of junk. Towards the bottom, he spotted a nail. Leorio picked it out and gave it to Kurapika. "I can't remember if this was iron or not, but hang on to it."

Kurapika looked it over.

"Let's go get this research done with before I have to depend on the nail."

000

Leorio slammed a book shut.

"Maybe paying someone isn't such a bad idea," He said.

They had been in the library, skimming through all the books on local lore or the supernatural they could find. None of the librarians had proved to be very helpful. The closest thing to a "Gateway" they had heard of was a long-dead computer brand.

"There are still a few books left to go through," Kurapika replied, flipping a page of the book before her.

"I'm starving. Let's take a break and get something to eat."

"You do realize how serious this is, right?" Kurapika shut the book and reached for the next one. As she did so, she suppressed a yawn. Leorio saw it and kept at his drive for a break.

"I saw a hot dog stand outside. We can go there."

"Why don't you go and eat by yourself?"

"I told you, I can't leave you alone. That's the only time the ghost attacks."

"I have the nail."

"I can't believe you just said that with a straight face," Leorio laughed.

000

They had broken down and accessed the Hunter's site.

"There are only a few known ways to banish a spirit when it comes from the Gateway. The first is to seek out an exorcism. Another option is to destroy the origin of the spirit."

"They charged us for that?" Leorio said in disbelief. "What would the origin be? The trees? Do you think we're supposed to burn them down?"

"Let's make sure of that before we go and start a forest fire," Kurapika gave him a sideways glance. "It may be a good idea to go back to the town we found near the Gateway. That's where the historian who wrote about the Gateway lives. I'm sure he would be a good source of information."

"All right, let's go. We'll have to catch a bus, though. I don't think Pons is going to lend me his car again," Leorio got up from the computer seat and stretched out. Kurapika remained in her seat, thinking. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Kurapika said. She clicked the internet window shut and clutched the wooden divider between the computer stations so she could get up. Leorio fought the urge to reach out and help her.

000

It was nighttime by the time they got off the bus and made their way to the hotel. Thanks to a quick flash of their hunter licenses, they were given a big suite for the night. The first thing Leorio did when they got into the room was to throw himself down on one of the two beds.

"I'll never get used to how nice this stuff is. Come here and enjoy this with me."

Kurapika went stiff, an uneasy expression crossing her face. Realizing what he just said, Leorio quickly added in: "I didn't mean it that way."

"I know," Kurapika answered back as if it would have been stupid to think otherwise. She walked past Leorio's bed to the nightstand and pulled out a phone book.

"Are you looking for that historian?"

"Yes. Yanki Gogolo. I'm positive this number is his," Kurapika checked the clock. "Do you think it's too late to call?"

"A spirit is trying to kill you and you still feel the need to be considerate? Give it to me, I'll call him."

"I think it'd be better if I did it."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You've been on edge today. I don't want you going off on this guy."

"I have not been on edge. I've been acting the way any normal person would in a situation like this," Leorio stopped when he heard the anger in his own voice. He took a few breaths before talking again. "Whatever, you can call him."

He listened as buttons were pressed and a faint ringing came from the phone. Kurapika introduced herself and what she wanted. An inaudible voice spoke back from the phone.

"I know it's late, sir, but this is very important to us. If we could just-" Kurapika shut the cell phone. "He hung up on me."

Leorio rolled over onto his stomach and extended his hand. "Give me the phone."

"Let's just wait until tomorrow."

Leorio jumped off the bed and made a grab for the phone in Kurapika's hand. The only thing he got was a kick to the shoulder. He lost his balance and fell to the floor.

"You need to calm down, Leorio."

His kept his face pressed into the carpet, the colors blending before his eyes. Kurapika was right, he told himself. Quietly, he lifted himself off the floor and sat on the side of his bed right across from Kurapika.

"I guess there's not much else we can do till tomorrow. I'll keep watch tonight, so you can sleep."

Kurapika nodded, her eyelids already trying to shut. Leorio walked over to the TV while Kurapika pulled back the covers to her bed. He picked up a remote and began flicking through the channels. After he had picked one, he looked over at Kurapika.

She was already asleep. She lay on her side, facing towards him. Her hair fell into her face, some of it rising and falling with her breath. Leorio soon become more engrossed with watching her sleep than the movie.

What am I doing?

He put his attention on the TV. But he had lost interest in it. To keep himself from looking back at Kurapika, he lay down and stared at the ceiling.

All they had to do was destroy the origin of the spirit. They could torch the Gateway, like he had suggested earlier, but he knew it couldn't be that simple. Someone else would have done it already. But then what could the origin be?

Leorio thought. When he couldn't come up with anything, he went for his briefcase. He might as well study while he was awake. His briefcase and Kurapika's bag were side by side on the floor. Poking out from the bag was the bundle with the eyes. He stared at it.

"No way," He whispered.

They had went into the Gateway and left with a spirit pretending to be Sokiri. It made sense if the eyes were Sokiri's.

Did Kurapika already figure out that Sokiri might be the origin? Leorio had no doubt she did.

Destroy the origin.

Leorio felt the whole situation was getting worse.

x

Stay tuned for the shocking conclusion!