Hello dear readers,

Sorry for the late update. I was just unable to do it for some reasons.

Anyway, here's chapter 20.

Disclaimer: I do not own HxH

Scarlet Memories

Reminiscence 20 – The Light Bearer

The heater in their hotel room was not open, nor the air conditioner, nevertheless, Kuroro's body felt so hot and cold at the same time. Burning outside, but freezing inside. Sitting at one corner of the hotel room, leaning his back on the wall with his eyes closed, he just let himself stay there as his body felt so tired and heavy after all the happenings in the cemetery building.

A refreshing touch on his forehead relieved him from his sore feelings. His body felt lighter as the hand's owner lifted him like removing the gravity around him, helping him up as they walked and letting him rest in the comfort of the bed. Light caresses on his forehead drifted him in a peaceful sleep.

000

Morning came by as Kuroro fluttered open his eyes, greeted by the blurry ceiling of the hotel room. Adjusting his sight to the light, he reached for his forehead as he felt the slightly wet towel on top. When he did so, the door to the bathroom opened and Kurapika stepped out, drying her hair with a towel.

"Ah! Kuroro!" She called in delight and immediately went to him, hanging her towel at the top of the backrest of the chair in front of the bed. "Good, you're awake!" She took the small towel from Kuroro to hang it at the top of her towel and seated herself at the edge of the bed as she reached her hand over Kuroro's forehead to check his temperature.

"You still have a slight fever," she informed him, as she removed her hand from his forehead. "How are you feeling?" She asked as she helped him to sit up.

"Still a bit dizzy," he answered, leaning his back at the bed's headrest.

Kurapika sighed. "I thought so."

"It seems that you have expected this to happen," Kuroro said, stating his fever.

"That's right, since I already did that to a half blooded Kuruta before. I awakened her Kuruta blood just like what I did to you, and after that, she fell in a fever," Kurapika said. "That's why I immediately went here after I explained our circumstances to them (her friend)."

"I see." Kuroro closed his eyes for a moment as his mind travelled to the previous happenings, the time when Kurapika's friends barge in the room after he knocked Gale's apprentices down. Opening his eyes again, he directed his gaze at Kurapika's own eyes. "Aren't you going to ask me why I didn't tell you that I am a half blooded Kuruta?" he asked curiously.

Kurapika blink at the question. She averted her gaze from the man and looked at the window facing the side of the bed. Silence stretched for a while when Kurapika looked back at Kuroro and closed her eyes. "It doesn't matter," she finally said. "Now that I know that you actually have a blood of a Kuruta," she continued and opened her eyes again, looking directly at Kuroro's eyes, "it doesn't matter anymore whatever reason you have," she said. "The most important thing is," she paused, thinking if she should continue saying the word and Kuroro waited for her to continue. "I have found another family," she decided to finish.

"Family, huh?" Kuroro closed his eyes for the second time. The word was pleasant to his ears. It's been a long time since he had the feeling of having a family, a real one. The Genei Ryodan was almost like a family for him, not an ordinary one though. Now that Kurapika called him as her family, he cannot help, but to smile in satisfaction.

A warm smile graced Kurapika's face in seeing the man's own smile. The last time she said the word family, Kuroro somehow indirectly questioned her motive. 'I didn't expect that coming from you, of all people,' Kurapika remembered the words he said, 'you supposedly hate me more than anything.' But that doesn't matter anymore. That's already in the past. The most important thing is the present and that Kuroro accepted his Kuruta blood and accepted her as his family.

Kurapika's feeling was overflowing with gladness. They were only separated for a day, but she somehow felt that she missed him. Right, for the past number of months that they had been through with each other, Kurapika had enjoyed the man's company. After what had happened during the 'kidnapping,' Kurapika felt that Kuroro has somehow become special to her, more than being a family.

Kuroro opened his eyes and looked at Kurapika with intensity. There is something in his mind that he wanted to do so badly. 'You are just too precious to me more than anything else,' he remembered stating to the girl while they were still in Rukuso. When he said that to her, it was only due to her being the last pure blooded Kuruta. But now….

"Kurapika," he called.

"Yes?" The girl answered, wondering what the man was thinking. There is something in his gaze that she cannot point out. The next Kuroro's action shocked her as the man suddenly pulled her and embraced her tightly.

Images of the past replayed in Kuroro's mind as he remembered their first meeting at Rukuso when they were younger, when they meet again at York Shin, when he accidentally released her from Gale's nen, the time she got separated from him on the train and when he saw her on the cemetery building with the 'Ravens' Wings.'

"I won't let anyone take you away from me ever again. You're just too precious to me more than anything," he whispered. It was the same word he had said that time when he returned the pair of scarlet eyes that was kept by Shalnark. At that time, he said it because she is a Kuruta, the blood of his origin, but now…. it was because she is Kurapika…..his Kurapika.

With the full understanding of the man's words, Kurapika relaxed her head on his chest and returned him the hug.

00000

At the woods in the outskirt of York Shin City, a man in dark outfit was leaning on a tree, arms crossed over his chest with his eyes closed. The setting sun fainted the sky with reddish orange, giving the forest a slightly dim illumination.

"Have you been waiting long, Gale-san?" he heard voice coming from a young female. Pushing himself from the tree trunk, he looked at the newcomer and gave a small smile.

"You just came in time, Kurapika. But what's with the honorific?"

"You do not like it?"

"I'm not used to it."

"Is that so? But I like to continue calling you that way," Kurapika insisted.

Gale shrugged. "Well, if that's what you like."

"Anyway, about the deal," she said, changing the topic of their conversation, "do you agree with it?" she asked.

Smiling lightly at her question, he remembered his mental conversation he had with the girl.

Flashback

"Why are you helping the mafia on catching her, anyway?" Gale's apprentice asked in curiosity.

Gale chuckled at the question, but answered nonetheless. "I am not helping the mafia, I am helping Kuroro to realize the importance of acceptance," he said. 'More importantly,' he thought to himself as he looked at Kurapika, 'this girl.' He turned again and walked toward the large, open window. The wind blew from the outside, passing onto him, making his long, dark hair dance lightly with the cool breeze of near winter. He looked at the scenery outside and remembered the day he met an extraordinary girl.

[He didn't tell me anything] he suddenly heard a female's voice inside his head. 'Telepathy?' he asked himself as he looked at the supposedly unconscious girl on the bed and saw a winged, golden ball hiding beside her.

[Yes, it is] the voice in his mind answered his mental question.

'So it is you then,' he said to the voice in his mind which he assumed belongs to Kurapika.

[I did not know he is your son] Kurapika continued.

'Huh, I am telling you, Kurapika, he does not even call me father. But that doesn't matter to me, but to reject his Kuruta blood is another story.'

[Then, I will make him recognize his blood and you as well. And if I succeed, will you give him his mother's eyes?]

'If you succeeded in awakening his Kuruta blood, I might think about it.'

[I will do that.]

End of flashback

Gale smiled again and said: "You don't have to fulfill the other condition."

"No, I will make him recognize you as his father," she said. "Well then, until next time." She turned her back to him as she was about to leave, but stopped midway, remembering something. "Your show was rather amusing, but risky; your subordinates could have died back then."

"He cannot kill them. He won't be able to face your wrath if he did."

Kurapika chuckled at the comment. "You really know Kuroro."

0000

After resting Kuroro's body for two days, the two made their preparation for another journey. And now it was Kurapika's time to take the lead. She already set her plan and directed Kuroro for their next destination. They are going back to the east, but not in Rukuso.

Since she had the conversation with Gale Altair, she was itching to fulfill her goal of making Kuroro recognize his father and at the same time, to know the man's history. There is one person who can help her, and that is where this journey will bring them. The mere thought of this person sends a flood of questions in Kurapika's mind. How will this person react upon seeing her again? She smiled at the question. That intrigues her a lot. She knows this person since her childhood days that she can actually imagine the person's shocked teary face in front of her and her warm hugs.

She missed her. For a long time of separation, now she wanted to see her so badly. The journey they are about to take excited her to the core of her heart. It's been about seven years since they last saw each other, just a year before the Kuruta massacre. And since her knowledge about nen was very limited back then, she didn't able to find her until she met Gale.

"What are you planning anyway?" Kuroro, who was sitting at the edge of his bed, cut her reverie as he finished arranging his things.

Kurapika blink as she realized she had been staring blankly at her belongings on the top of her bed. She looked at Kuroro and smiled. "We are going to visit someone."

"And who is this someone?" he asked in curiosity.

Kurapika's smile widened. "Your sister."

Kuroro raised his eyebrow at that.

"Rhea," she was the other half blooded that I awakened.

"She is alive then."

"You know her?" Kurapika curiously asked and Kuroro nodded.

"I do not know her that much since I was only about five the last time I saw her."

"Eh?" Kurapika became more curious.

Kuroro smiled, seeing that Kurapika wanted to know more. "I was actually born and grew up with the Kuruta tribe," he said.

"Eh! Then, what happened?" Kurapika's attention was completely taken by Kuroro's word.

But Kuroro's last memory with the Kuruta tribe was not a happy one. Kuroro closed his eyes and slightly cast his head down, remembering the past. "When my mother told us about our father, Rhea and I became more inseparable. We dreamt with each other that once we are able to go to the outside world, we will look for our father." He opened his eyes, but did not look up. He just stared blankly at the floor beneath him.

"It was all ended when a group of bandit attacked us. We separated ways as my mother tried to escape with me in the woods."

Gulping, Kurapika stared at Kuroro with a serious face. She somehow knows how the story will end.

Kuroro remembered vaguely the details of his past with the Kuruta tribe, but the attack that happened to them will never fade in his mind as much as he wanted. He remembered her mother running with him on the pitch dark forest as she dragged him with his small hand tightly gripped by her own.

"We kept running in the forest until someone blocked our way," he continued. "It was Gale, as my mother called him. My mother left me with him as she ran back to the village, but Gale also followed after a while. I tried to run after him, but my speed was not enough. And when I found him, my mother is already dead. After that, Gale brought me to Ryusei Gai. That was the time I got the name Lucifer. He gave that name to me before leaving me behind to the hands of the council."

Kurapika stared at the man with wide eyes and unblinking. So that was how he became Kuroro Lucifer, she thought. "Lucifer," she murmured.

Kuroro looked up at her with his curious eyes.

"Do you know what does that name means?" she asked, face unreadable.

"The angel who fell because of pride?" He answered, not sure if that is what she meant.

Kurapika smiled. "It means light bearer."

Kuroro also smiled. Of course he knows that is the actual meaning. How could he not? He was well read and knowledgeable. Not that he knows everything; it's just that how he was. A line from the prophecy came to his mind. 'To complete the name that was yours, this light would be the one to bear.' The smile on his face widened before speaking. "You are my light, then."

Kurapika tilted her head sideways as she blinked, not really understanding what Kuroro meant.

To be continued

AN: Don't forget to review.

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