I forgot to mention in the last chapter. Timcanpy is from D. Gray Man.
Scarlet Memories
Disclaimer: I do not own HxH
Reminiscence 13 –Leorio's Messages
They are walking silently at each other's side, still on the border of the mountains, when Kurapika suddenly stopped and grabbed Kuroro's left hand with her right hand, stopping him from his walk.
"What is it?" Kuroro asked as he looked at Kurapika.
"I just want to try this," she said.
'To hold a hand?' Kuroro asked to himself.
Kurapika closed her eyes as she started to concentrate her nen. A few seconds later, her back started to glow and white wings started to form.
'Behold the wings spread to the wind that blows', Kuroro remembered a certain line from the prediction he made as he observed the girl intently. Now, he confirmed it, that the companion he was seeking is indeed Kurapika.
After Kurapika's nen wings were completed, she opened her eyes, but they are now burning scarlet. Then, she looked at Kuroro.
Looking at Kurapika's scarlet eyes never bored Kuroro, and seeing them now, he cannot help but to be awed by their magnificence.
As Kurapika looked at the sky, her wings started to move. Kuroro was still observing the girl when his body suddenly felt lighter and lighter, which make him look at his feet and saw that he is floating, that they are floating, that their feet are taking their distance away from the ground, away from the forest and toward the clouds on the sky.
000
Their hair is dancing with the wind that is blowing across the sky, upon their body, giving them the refreshing sense of the slightly cold air. The clouds are moving with them at a considerable speed, covering the entire sky. The ray that passes through the crevices of the clouds is sending then the warm touch of the early morning sun.
Kuroro feels like there is no gravity at all, as if he is actually flying by himself (only that, he doesn't have wings). He looked at the girl beside him and saw that Kurapika is still concentrating on her nen. He wanted to ask Kurapika what kinds of nen ability she is using, but he chose to stay quiet. He doesn't want to distract the girl on her concentration, or else, he would not know what might happen to them if he distracted her.
They had been flying for an hour and exhaustion is becoming visible to the girl.
"Let's stop there, Kurapika," Kuroro said as he saw the border of another country and Kurapika responded by flying downward as she looked for a good place to land on and decided to land near the entrance of a town. Kuroro looked back at Kurapika upon landing as he noticed her short, but hard breathings. He doesn't know if that was due to her nen or the use of her scarlet eyes or maybe both.
"You're ok?" he asked.
Kurapika nodded. "Let's go," she said. And they started to walk toward the town.
Although Kuroro did not say anything, Kurapika fully knows why the man told her to land in that country. It's not because he has some business there or there is something that he wanted to get in that place. He wanted her to rest. Surely, Kuroro notice her getting tired from the flight.
So, instead of flying, they looked for another way of travelling which includes riding bus or a taxi or whatever they find to get them to the airport where they will ride an airplane that will land them to York Shin and another taxi to get them to the main city. That was actually the plan on the first place, considering the distance between Rukuso and York Shin which are at each other opposite of the world.
Even though, they took only four to five hours to get them to the said city, the time frame from east to west (York Shin is a western country) is a good 12 hours, which made them arrived at night.
They are now in a hotel, in a room with two beds. Kurapika is on one bed, sleeping silently. Kuroro on the other hand is sitting on the other bed with his back against the wall, facing the door, with a book on his hands.
Kuroro stayed like that for a while when three consecutive knocks was heard from the door.
"Delivery!" he heard after the knocks.
Kuroro put his book at his side for a while as he immediately got off from the bed and walk toward the door to open it. Upon opening the door, a man in a hotel uniform greeted him and handed him his orders.
The light sleeper Kurapika fluttered open her eyes and seated herself up on the bed as she rubbed away the sleepiness off her eyes. She looked at the clock on the wall above the table; the time reads 8:00 AM. Kurapika averted her gaze to the door and saw Kuroro closing it, bringing with him a tray with two sets of plated food and bottled water.
"Good morning, Kurapika," he greeted.
"Good morning, Kuroro."
00000
"Senritsu!" a man in blue, business attire and wearing spectacles over his eyes, called to the retreating Senritsu, who was about to enter a train station, but looked back to the person who suddenly called her for the last time. "If you're able to contact him," the person said, "Please, call me right away."
"I'll do as you said, Leorio," Senritru answered and bid her goodbye to the man.
Left alone by himself, Leorio cannot help but sigh. He sighed out of anxiety. Yes, He was worried and he is losing his patience for a certain friend of his.
'Where in the end of the world are you, Kurapika?'
00000
"What is bugging you?" Kuroro asked to the girl beside him. They are now inside a mall, as Kuroro decided to look for more appropriate clothes for Kurapika. He even insisted that Kurapika should stop wearing her tribal clothes for a while until they resolved her circumstances as a wanted living artifact. Well, the red garment she is wearing is acceptable. It is a normal garment after all. Her other clothes are out of the question.
They had been shopping for about two hours now, but Kurapika is not really into it. She seems not with herself actually which make Kuroro ask that question.
"Eh?" Kurapika asked as she looked at Kuroro, slightly taken aback at the sudden question. And Kuroro is right; she's been out of herself, thinking over something.
"I asked, what is bugging you?"
Kurapika looked at her feet before answering. "I was thinking about a message from my friend."
"What's about it?"
Kurapika sighed, but told him the reason anyway.
Flashback
It happened right after finishing her breakfast when Kurapika got off of her bed and walked toward the table with the plate on her hand. Putting the plate on the table, she looked at a certain object that was lying silently on the said table. It was her phone with a plugged charger connected to it. She picked the phone up, removed the charger and turned the phone on.
It's been a while since the last time she was able to use her phone again. Since Kurapika was too busy on practicing her nen when they were still in Rukuso, she did not able to answer all the incoming calls or even read her messages. Not that she has no time to do it. It just, it didn't enter her mind to read her messages as she left it in her bag until its battery emptied because of the rings that Kurapika never heard because of her absence the time it was ringing.
As the phone turned on, the first thing that Kurapika saw from the screen are alerts for missed calls and messages. Kurapika brows the call history and find out that the missed calls are mostly from Leorio and some from Senritsu. After that, she opened the inbox to read her messages. They are all from Leorio and the contents are as follows:
[Where the end of the world are you, Kurapika?]
[Why are you not showing up?]
[Do you even know that Gon is in dying state?]
Kurapika's eyes widened in horror with the last message, of course she do not know that.
'What happened?' she asked herself. Her musing was only distracted by Kuroro when he called her and told her about his shopping plan, so Kurapika decided to resolve the problem afterward; only that, the thought won't leave her mind.
End of flashback
"I see," Kuroro said. "Why don't you call your friend, then?" he asked.
Kurapika nodded with a small smile on her face. "I will do that," she said, "and thank you. I felt half of my burden was lifted from me."
Kuroro smiled. "You're welcome."
00000
Leorio was having his dinner on a mini restaurant when he heard his phone rung from his pocket. He took the phone out and looked at its screen.
"Kurapika!?" he said out loud as he read the caller's name in surprise which made the other customers look at him. Leorio looked at his surroundings, feeling the stares of the people sitting near his table. He laughed an embarrassed laugh as he bowed in an apologetic manner, scratching the back of his head. As he returned his attention to the phone, he pressed the answer button and placed it over his ear.
"Kurapika," he called the name.
[Leorio] the voice from the other side of the phone acknowledged.
But that made Leorio frown. "Kurapika?" he asked. He is not sure if it is really Kurapika he is talking with. Somehow, the voice he heard is different. If his ear is not deceiving him, the voice he heard was definitely from a female. It somehow has Kurapika's voice in it, but it is too feminine.
[Yes, it's me.]
Itching to ask a certain question to his friend, Leorio disregarded the female tone of the voice and asked his question. "Why are you not answering my calls?" he almost shouted.
[I'm sorry about that. I just became too busy lately. I'm sorry, ok?]
Leorio sighed. "Never mind. What happened to you anyway?"
[That's a long story, but I can tell you one thing.]
"Yes?"
[I returned to my original self.]
"Huh?" Leorio frowned.
[I returned to being a girl.]
"What!?" he shouted as he stood up which caused the other customers to stare at him for the second time.
000
Kurapika just managed to get her phone away from her ear when Leorio shouted. She is currently on the hotel's rooftop, alone with herself.
[Sorry, sorry] she heard Leorio's apology as she put the phone back over her ear.
"Alright, but that is not the reason why I called you," she said.
[Eh?]
"It's about Gon. What happened to him?"
[Ah, he got himself in the bridge of death because of his own nen. But he's fine now. Killua found a way to cure him, so you don't have to worry.]
"What caused his nen to get him into that state?" she frowned.
000
Leorio can't help but sigh at the thought. "It's more like because of hatred and for revenge," he murmured, but Kurapika herd nonetheless.
[Hatred?... Revenge?... Why?]
And so Leorio told her everything that had happened. He told her about Gon's friend, Kaito, being killed by a chimera ant and then as Gon, Killua and others infiltrated the palace where the chimera king was staying, Gon killed the chimera using an unbelievably strong nen that he should not have at that time. As an effect, his life force had been sucked by his own nen, reducing his body to an unrecognizable state. And as he said earlier, Killua found a way to cure him, but that is out of Leorio's knowledge. He doesn't know how the healing was made.
000
"I see," Kurapika said after hearing the story.
[Now I am finished with my part, would you mind telling me what happened to you?]
"About that, I'll tell you in due time. Bye," and she ended the call.
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