A/N: If we think of this rationally as with what I had planned, Chapter 29 was something like an "Epilogue." And this would be "Prologue" of the next part. So explains the title.

I hope you don't get confused with the ending; hopefully as it goes the pieces will gather themselves together into a beautiful, beautiful snowflake.

[And I'm now greeting an advanced Merry Christmas (even if there is some conflicts with my belief in it) because I'm not too sure if I would be able to upload Chapter 31 next week Saturday. Or something.]

DISCLAIMER: Yoshihiro Togashi, unfortunately, isn't giving me HxH as a Christmas gift this year.

OWC: 3,534 words

Chapter 30

A Prologue Slightly Too late

(Losing Control)

Everything passed by as if they were merely a dream.

"'Actually, all Hunters are pretty stubborn. That's why while you're listening to this tape, I should be somewhere doing something stupid. So if you want to meet me, come and find me. …Catch me if you can.'"

Gon told me those exact same words before we had separated ways in the airport. That had been so long back, a good few months, but I remember our conversation like it had happened an hour ago, or sometime closer. He said it was from a tape his father had prepared for him to listen to, long before he even cared about Ging or looking for Ging. It was his only response to my question, when I asked him if he was still going to look for his father 'who did not deserve being looked for by his kid'. Especially by a talented kid like Gon. Then, I asked him why he still was going to. He said—"It's a father-son thing. He challenged me and I accepted the challenge. I'm not going to back down here, halfway."

I knew from the start of this adventure that the storm that delayed our flight didn't bode anything well for the future. Why had I tagged along with Kurapika anyway? I buried my face in the palms of my hands and I sighed—a long and grieving one.

The chains he had laid down on the ground for the arachnids had accidentally tripped me, made me fall, and then, wrapping around my neck like a snake, slowly—very, very slowly—suffocating me.

It was not too long after they had left Whale Island with smiles and promises that Kurapika and Akane went on seriously with their adventure. Bags slung over their shoulders they boarded the plane and flew into a faraway land, like knights, when they would wander with their favourite white horses.

"'It's not that I mind your lack of experience, because there are clients that accept amateurs. But right now, you're worse than an amateur. I can tell just by looking at you,'" Kurapika said, trying to mock the voice of the lady he had met earlier. He wasn't drunk, high, or anything close to that, Akane knew, but certainly he was acting quite differently from what she would have expected him to do or say. His eyes were threatening to turn Scarlet. Something must have hit him in the head pretty hard. "Who is she kidding? 'Worse than an amateur' is just plainly insulting! Sure I'm off in this world as a rookie from the Hunter Exam, but I'm still considered a Professional Hunter right? Professional! Here I am being humble enough to ask from them and—"

"Kurapika, please calm down," Akane said, patting his shoulder with a gentle hand, trying her best to comfort him. She tried to keep a calm composure, but actually, she was already wildly panicking inside. She didn't know how to handle a Kurapika in that state!

She handed him a glass of cold water, telling him to drink it. The ice clinked as they touched the cylindrical surface of the said glass, and it broke the heated silence. Drinking it? He did with no much hesitance. Then, after emptying the glass, he put it angrily against the wooden table, making Akane wince.

They had stayed in that same hotel the past few days. And Akane figured they would continue to, until they find a decent-enough place to stay in. Or something at least close enough to decent. Renting an apartment was one of their options, but they had no cash for something as extravagant as that. Especially since there was the two of them, and they figured they needed space, so an ordinary, one-room rentable wasn't an option. At least, that was what the ever too-conservative Kurapika thought of their current situation; Akane wouldn't have cared the least.

Akane took the glass and put it away, far away from Kurapika who was shaking. But out of what? Was it fear or anger? Or a mixture of both? "Maybe you just need more training," Akane told him, trying to fish out the proper words. "Besides, no knight ever goes to war without the proper battle skills, training, and practice. Maybe she saw something amiss with you. Don't take it personally."

"I know how to fight and defend myself!" Kurapika complained, slamming his hands against the wooden table. "I'm not any regular seventeen-year-old! I am a warrior in my tribe and I know—"

Akane tried to shush him. The best she could do with the situation was to try to take more information from the suddenly so honest and vulnerable Kurapika, until she would be able to piece out what happened that afternoon when he left to look for a job. He wasn't going to say straight out what happened, anyway. "What did she say anyway? Maybe you're not taking this rationally like you should do!"

"I asked her what she meant and she asked me if she saw that thing beside her. Did you actually expect me to tell her I see her shadow? That would be stupid! And then, she followed it up with 'Come back when you can see it. That's our minimum requirement'!" Kurapika said, trying to grab onto something, but only finding his hair so he pulled at it. The shriek that had formed in his through just stopped short of his teeth, and it was replaced by angry, angry breathing, like a bull.

Trying to control her temper, Akane peeled off his girlish fingers from his already slightly longer than before blond hair. Her soft approach wasn't working for him—this time, she would have to knock some sense into him. When the fingers were off the strands, she slapped the backs of his hands, out of the blue, unexpected by Kurapika. "Then you weren't listening! Maybe there is some kind of ability you're supposed to have to see those things!" Kurapika looked at her with slowly turning bloodshot blue eyes, almost curiously but not so much.

"What do you mean?" he asked, sounding weak, and defeated. "Are you saying I'm weak too?"

Akane wrapped her arms around him—trying to show her friendship to him—and then hit the backs of his hands again. He winced this time. "I'm saying you need training. Maybe… maybe it's the same phenomena from the Hunter Exam, do you remember?"

"With Hisoka?" he asked as Akane sat back up again. He retrieved his hands that were already slightly pink. Were they sore? "Yes, I do." Akane could tell his mind was returning to normal and she felt relieved for that.

"That's good. Maybe we can ask people about it; we're not the only soldiers fighting in this war, are we?" Akane asked him, and he nodded. "Is your head clear now?"

He clutched it in his hand, and he could feel his heart thumping inside it, as if it had jumped from his chest to beside his brain that was being split open by migraine. "Somehow," was his answer. Then, he stood up. "I'm going to go to my room."

Akane nodded, watching him step away from her. When the sound of the closing of the door from his room echoed in her eardrums, she sighed. Her own heart was beating angrily against her chest. She didn't know it—everything—would be that hard.

She looked out the ceiling-to-floor window of the room—around the size of three doors laid side-by-side. There were not too much skyscrapers in the area, so from where they were—on the 23rd floor of some hotel whose name was so complicated she had forgotten it—she could see almost the entire city.

It was almost eighteen o'clock—6:00pm—and the sun had already fallen into its grave behind the earth. The city was bathed in a shade of night blue as the moon, full circle like a round porcelain plate, started to take over, take control like a commando officer. Its daughters and sons, its children, the stars, started to play in the night time sky that they had made their playground. The lights from the little houses started to be turned up, one at a time. She watched them, blinking, in dead silence.

There was news that a good number of at least a hundred stars would be racing across the sky that night, in around an hour more, and those stars would be so bright, that their light would be seen all the way to Dentora Province, in their little house in Rimowa town…

And then, as if shot with a drug that worked like lightning, she took her newly-bought phone from her pocket and dialled a number. It was as if her life depended on it. She tensed as she heard the ringing. Kriiiiiing. Kriiiiing. Kriiiiiing. And then, when the person on the other side answered "Hello," a smile crawled over her face.

"Sensei?"

I want to be strong—the kind of strength that can banish all the wandering spirits into the deepest level of hell.

"What do you think of the Kuruta kid?"

"He has potential, a lot of which he might as well give to those in needs of such, but he's not just using it the right way. What with the power we know about his race. We all know they're a special kind. But it's just the wrong thing that's pushing him through with what he wants to do. It's a good goal but it's not a good force. But he has potential and he would be a good student. It would be spectacular for any teacher to have a student, an apprentice like him. I can see he's a fast learner and he's an adapter—a very good one. Chameleon people are those who know how to live. But we all know what's chaining him down."

"But you're taking him?"

"Why not?"

"Sensei!"

"Is that you, Akane?" His voice was ragged.

"Of course it's me!" His reaction elicited a hyperactive giggle from her. "Who else would it be?"

"Akane my child!" He gasped through the line. "It certainly has been a while. Have you still been putting up weights? Are you still training? How can I help you?"

Akane giggled again. "Man, are you excited or what. What did you eat this time? Squashed spinaches, something? Well, yes, I'm training, sensei. Talk about pushing a four ton door, isn't that good enough for you?" The old man grunted.

"Look who's bragging. What did I tell you about bragging?"

"You told me it was illegal. It isn't. I met a 12-year-old who brags even better than me," Akane said, an image of Killua flashing behind her eyelids. She laughed slightly. "Anyway, that's not the point. Can you help me? Please? It's about training."

"You've passed the Hunter Exam, that's what I've heard."

"I should be asking you how you know that, asking you if my mom blabbed about it excitedly to you, but this is not the time, so—"

"It's related. It's about Nen." There was a slight pause from the other end, followed by a sharp gasp. "–oh shit, no, I shouldn't be telling you about this… but keep it shut."

"What?" Her left eyebrow rose. Her sensei wasn't making any sense at all.

"Never mind what I just said. I'll dictate to you some numbers, and call them. Tell them my name of course. They can help you. Do you have pen and paper in hand? These are two numbers. I'll start. Six, three, nine, one, seven…"

It was actually a very different kind of control.

The tiles glinted slightly sky blue as they bounced back the light from the bulb that sat above them, on the ceiling made out of painted-over wood. The tiny room smelled of Satsuma, coming from the scents from the complimentary candles of the hotel that she had lit on the darkest corners. A kind of tranquil, irresistible silence filled over as the background music of the room. The sound of the water droplets hitting the tiled floor echoed in her eardrums, filling her senses.

Sun in the sky, trees on the ground…

Akane ran the soap across her skin, feeling that her sense of touch had become slightly revitalized. It had been a long day; a long, long day right after Kurapika had gone out to search for a job. She had called the people her sensei had told her to, one by one, and finally, they have gotten themselves some Teachers. Akane could not thank them more than anything, and she felt like a weight had been pulled off her shoulders. She was yet to tell Kurapika though; he was busy burying his nose into a book when she had arrived in their little Hunter-Organization-funded-room.

Our bodies created from the earth, our souls from the heavens.

Akane was happy that Kurapika was feeling much better than he did the day before. He stayed at home—err, in the hotel—the entire day, saying he would sort out his thoughts, before he went and did his next move. Akane said she would be out doing something important, because, well, the York Shin Auctions would be in a few months, coming closer at them, closer and closer, that she had to prepare some important things. She hadn't told Kurapika what exactly, though. He had no idea that she had prepared Teachers for both of them already, thanks to her sensei. The advantages of her seemingly deceitful hiding—not exactly lying—were slowly assembling, though. Where had she learned those? Hisoka?

The sun and the moon shines on our limbs,

She wanted to be a kid again, somehow. Her thoughts said those exact sentiments, and it was easily splattered with her every murmur as the shower went alive, cleansing her. When she was but a child, she lived a relatively happy life. What more did she want that she had ventured into the woods of the real world? When she was a child, she lived this life in a fairy tale, with unicorns—she suddenly thought of Gon, but it was just a fleeting memory and she went on—and princes in white horses. She used to believe in happy endings, but at that moment everything seemed realistic. She closed her eyes and she wished she was a child again, when ignorance was bliss and everything, everything—yes, everything—was perfect enough in its own way.

And the ground moistens our body.

She wished she could be sure of the future. Something like playing an RP game that you've already finished before—the second time, you would be able to know what would happen next, you would be able to conduct the "next move" in the best way. But no, Akane wasn't a fortune teller, and neither was Kurapika. Life wasn't an RP game either, and there was no "undo" button either. But Akane put faith in everything she did, she put all her faith, until she was sure that she was sure.

Giving this body the wind that blows.

But… somewhere inside she was scared, though. Scared of what might happen, scared of where this entire adventure was leading her to. She was scared that one day, she might fall into a black pit, a hole that would assure her death and her disappearance, her end. She was scared of everything. But she held hope, on Kurapika and to his plans. It was like she trusted him, suddenly, with all her heart and soul. She had hope that Kurapika's plans would work and that one day, that illusion of laughing and joy, and finally 'oneness' and unity, would happen. She looked out the window and she saw the stars, dancing and singing to her and to him of that hope. He was her hope, in that moment.

What she didn't know that she was his hope, too, the only thing he could cling on to in that sandpit of desperation.

Oh, how I wished I could help them.

Thank god for the miracle, and the Kuruta territories.

She turned off the faucet and took a lot of long, deep breaths. She was hyperventilating as if she had gone through a marathon. She had, actually, if merely in her disturbed thoughts. She was shaking and she wondered if it was because of the fear of the assurance of danger. Akane was overthinking and it had become a hobby, if only recently. She shrunk into a corner of the shower, feeling her skin meet against the cool tiles, and she shuddered at the contact.

Wishing to share everlasting peace in our souls…

Moonlight, making its way from behind the clouds, pierced through the small window of the bathroom, bouncing to the tiles and through the shower curtain, finally to her bare, wet skin. It was some kind of cleansing, the bath she had taken in the dark, not only physically, but emotionally, probably even spiritually. Everything that Kurapika had poured on her suddenly crashed through her dam, and she was losing control recently.

Catharsis. She craved spiritual and emotional catharsis, but would physical pain do enough to give her that?

I desire to share the mirth with my people.

She closed her eyes, trying to block out all negative sensations that ate at her heart—especially, the worry. Worry and fear, of course. Wasn't it always those two?

Some part of her continued to worry about Gon and Killua and what was happening with them. Where they still blindly chasing after Ging, like Gon had told her they would do? And then Leorio—she wasn't so worried about him, he was bound to act like a grown man despite his seemingly childish brain, but how was he, and his Medical Exam? She could not help worry about her parents as well, who she had rashly run away from before they had saved Killua, but looking at everything that happened after that, she didn't mind the consequences. She was already there, so why bother regretting, right?

No turning back.

I desire to share their sadness.

From inside the bathroom she could hear Kurapika rustle around the room. He was going to call downstairs for some room service—food for dinner, for it was just the time: twenty one o'clock, 9:00pm, the time they would usually eat. The two weeks of being with Akane—and Akane alone, in that little suite—let him know quite a bit more about her habits, her quirks. And as Kurapika knew more about her, she knew more about him as well—how he liked to have vegetables during mealtimes, how he hated the Thousand Island Dressing, how he fixes his hair (Killua had told him to teach Akane that),and how, every single time when he's thrown to the ground by life, he needs to be picked up even if he says he does not want to be picked up. And somehow Akane had a gut feeling that now, she would be able to help him better. He was brother, he was 'tribemate' after all.

God please praise eternally the Kuruta people.

At least, with Akane I was assured that there would someone who would be able to ground him-to fix him. Five years had already passed—five long years that he'd been wandering somewhere around the border of being dead and being alive. He'd almost lost his soul to his vendetta. And always, always, I've been watching—forever, I will be watching.

Let our Blazing Scarlet eyes bear witness.

None of this was a dream.