I'm so sorry for taking so long to post this. But, honestly, It couldn't be helped; college has been keeping me rather busy these weeks.
And thank you SO MUCH for reviewing! pitou77, doudouchinois, BK-201 (I'm going to reply for your review after the chapter, okay?), SplatterCracker, Bai-Feng333, AtM0sFears, DustyTypewriter, Yandere Shoujo, AngelaNoche, Mayu, Guest and KSHMR, I absolutely LOVE to know what you're thinking about this and really appreciate you all taking the time to tell me ;D
Music suggestion: The Game of Life - Scorpions
Just one more thing before begining the chapter: dialogues in bold letters are in HxH's chinese.
Nocturnal had never been a fan of violence and he particularly disliked anything that should be settled by brute force alone; however, he couldn't deny the perks of being an Enhancer. It allowed him to become very strong with little training, it gave him an immense persuasive leverage when dealing with shady names, and it allowed him punch holes through 2-meter thick concrete walls.
Like the one separating him and Feitan from the inside of Hei Àn's basement.
As soon as a part of the wall fell down in front of the thin Music Hunter, he dropped to his knees and slammed his hands over his ears. There were many heartbeats in Hei Àn's basement, and almost all of them sang a tune of agony, misery and hate. It was too much for the man to take at once.
Confused and annoyed at Nocturnal's antics, Feitan raised his leg to deliver a kick to the man's side and demand him to get up; however, when his eyes made a quick scan of what was beyond the wall's hole, his body stopped moving altogether.
Deformed people seemed to stare back at him from glass cages with bottomless eyes that seemed to beg and damn at the same time.
Having spent days with Senritsu back in Greed Island, Feitan automatically understood what had the tall Music Hunter on his knees.
He no can take hearing their heartbeats.
"I no wait for you." The Spider stated simply, not lowering his gaze to the suffering man by his side. "I no have time to lose and I no need you."
Without a second thought, Feitan entered the hellish nightmare that was Hei Àn's "hobby", feeling his heart increase its pace as his eyes took in the tortured images around him. But it was not fear that made the torturer's heartbeat speed up. Oh no, it was something else entirely, for, as much as Feitan despised and hated Hei Àn, he was still a sadist that couldn't help but think-
Not bad.
"Did you hear that?" Hei Àn asked, head raising in alarm. "That loud noise just now…"
Besides the General stood a man appearing to be in his late sixties when, in reality, he was very close to completing the eighth decade of his life. Despite that, his hands were steady, his brain was keen and his blue eyes were sharp. He was of medium height with grey hair that was once platinum blonde, and he was wearing a long white coat and blood-coated surgical gloves. His name was Joseph Heier.
"Yes. It seemed like something heavy falling." The doctor answered, not raising his eyes from his work and never stopping moving his hands. "Maybe you should go check it out, boy. I'm almost finished here, anyway; you won't miss much."
Hei Àn looked down at the doctor's working hands, hesitating for a second, before giving him a nod and turning around to march out of the autopsy room.
Laying on the autopsy table was an unconscious Senritsu, with her thorax cut open from the end of her stenum to the beginning of her pelvis in a vertical incision, allowing the world to see her organs moving inside her body.
Dr Heier smiled and went to get his personal camera. The room had its own footage system that recorded everything the doctor did in there for further studies; however, when the case was particularly appealing for him, he always kept his own images as souvenirs.
And Joseph Heier just loved vivisections.
Using Zetsu to hide his presence, Feitan stalked through the basement's facilities, searching for any signs of Hei Àn or Senritsu. He went through the large room full of glass cells, then through a maze of corridors that took an underground garage, large and full of different types of cars. The thief found himself surrounded by many limos, Ferraris and, most of all, black vans that didn't allow any light from outside into their interiors.
Scowling in anger and pain, Feitan turned around to go back the way he had come from.
The scowl was quickly replaced by a sadistic smile.
Standing tall with his arms crossed over a wide chest, right in front of the corridor's door Feitan had crossed not five minutes ago, was none other than his next victim: General Hei Àn.
"I finally found you." The torturer spoke, raising his melted blade in front of him. "And now I'll finally kill you."
Automatically, Feitan searched for his Aura to fight. But he didn't find it. The Spider's eyes widened in confusion as he tried again and again to activate Ren, but never succeeded.
"Wha-"
"You must be wondering why you cannot use Nen." Hei Àn's calm voice came from a few feet ahead. "It is this room - more specifically, the entire basement. In the walls, ceiling and floor, there is a circuitry that forces Nen users into a state of Zetsu. From the moment you stepped into my facilities, you became like me: forbidden of using Nen."
As the General spoke, he proceeded to calmly remove the army's blazer he was wearing, revealing the large and powerful muscles that adorned his upper body. Feitan couldn't help but tense at seeing and hearing those words; without Nen and with his body so damaged from his fight with Huo Chieh, there was no doubt the General had an immense advantage over him.
"Tell me, how does it feel losing your Nen? Do you feel the fear? The anger? The helplessness? It is a part of you that is being taking away, after all." Hei Àn asked, cool eyes blazing with unusual fury. "How do you feel, being as deformed as I am?"
Feitan narrowed his eyes, but made no attempt to vocalize an answer. He had no time to fuel Hei Àn's madness and traumas, he had to figure out a way to recover his Nen, else he was sure to die by the General's hands.
"Forget it." Hei Àn continued, much calmer now. "There is no way for you to deactivate my Nen-blocker. You will have to deal with your handicap, as I have dealt with mine. And, of course, as Senritsu deals with her."
The Spider's eyes started to burn with a murderous fury at hearing the name of the small woman, something that didn't go unnoticed by Hei Àn.
"She is a most interesting woman, isn't she? So calm and peaceful, despite losing so much… Nothing like me. Maybe that is why she caught my attention so thoroughly. You see, I always strive to understand people around me. Inside out."
The General took a step forward and, despite being in obvious disadvantage, so did Feitan, with only one thing going through his mind.
What you did to her?!
It took Nocturnal some minutes to overcome the overbearingly cruel sounds assaulting his ears and stand up from the ground. One step into the basement had him submitted to a state of Zetsu, something that gave the Hunter pause. He was physically thin and weak and, despite knowing the basic of hand-to-hand combat, without his Enhancer Nen, he would be defenceless.
But, maybe not useless. The Music Hunter thought, raising a hand to the side of his head, curving it behind his ear so he could amplify the sounds reaching him.
It took some more moments for the Music Hunter to be able to pinpoint a calm heartbeat amongst the many excruciating ones around him. It wasn't a familiar heartbeat, but it was his best choice, so he went after it. As he walked closer to that heartbeat, another, much, much weaker, flowed into his ears and he heard his own heart skip a bit in dread as he picked up his pace.
Senritsu.
Nocturnal stopped just outside a door. Inside the room, he now could hear more than the two people's heartbeats; he could hear their breathing and their movements. He could predict what they were doing inside the room and formulate a plan based on it.
He had the surprise element, and he would make it count.
Dr Heier took his time suturing the strange woman's incision. In part because he was a perfectionist and, as such, did not lax in anything, but mostly because he was sad to end his time with this particular test subject. He had never seen such a singular creature before! Her organs were those of a normal human, only stuffed in a tiny body, pressuring the abdomen's skin to the point he could actually see the colours of her viscera and blood through the skin. And her bones! The X-rays he took showed such high density bone matter... as if her once normal-length bones had shrunken and compacted themselves into the short calcium deposits that gave the small creature's body the support it needed. He wondered if he could breed her… No. Her skin was already stretched to the limits by her organs; the development of a foetus in her uterus would sure end up in an spontaneous abortion.
Maybe if I transfer the foetus to another woman's uterus…
After the doctor had the woman stitched up, bandaged and dressed, he stopped moving altogether, lost in his own mind as he planned the tests he would put his most recent test subject through. No doubt, Hei Àn wouldn't allow him to do anything live-endangering with her, but he could talk the boy into allowing whatever other tests that came to mind. That kid denied him nothing.
Dr Heier was so lost in thought that he didn't notice the autopsy room's door open behind him, nor the silent and careful steps a slender, mask wearing man took in his direction, nor the way said man's hand reached for the instruments' side table by him.
However, he did notice the scalpel being pressed to his throat.
"W-Who are you?"
Nocturnal didn't need to have an enhanced hearing to hear the absolute fear in the man's voice. The doctor was a complete sadist, but he had no courage to account for.
"What did you do to her?" The Music Hunter demanded, black eyes setting over Senritsu's unconscious form. "Answer me!"
"Nothing, I swear! She's alive and well!" Dr Heier answered quickly. "Look at the screen! Her vitals are perfectly stable!"
Nocturnal didn't need to look at any screen, he could hear in the doctor's heartbeat he was telling the truth.
"Who are you?" Nocturnal asked, much more calmly now.
"J-Joseph Heier." The shorter man spoke. "I'm General Hei Àn's personal doctor and technician."
The Music Hunter couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows behind his mask. "What does Hei Àn need a doctor for?" Did the General have some health problems that could be used against him?
Joseph hesitated in answering that question, but an increase of the scalpel's pressure on his neck quickly changed that.
"He wants to find a way to remove the limitation my brother put over him!" The man yelped, eyes now brimming with scared tears. "He wants to recover his Nen!"
Nocturnal's eyes widened. Hei Àn cannot use Nen? Is that why-
"Is that why this basement forces its occupants in a state of Zetsu?" Nocturnal inquired. "For Hei Àn to surround himself with people like him?"
"Yes…" The doctor whispered, closing his eyes. "Please don't kill me."
"I will not kill you. As long as you tell me how to turn off the Nen-blocker in this basement."
If Feitan had found Hei Àn… Nocturnal didn't even want to think about the outcome of that fight.
"T-there's no way to shut it down." Joseph spoke, voice trembling in fear. "It's a circuitry I created m-myself. I-It's on the floors, walls and c-ceilings; it doesn't have an ON-OFF s-switch."
Nocturnal pursued his lips as dread once again surged in his chest. But he still removed the scalpel from the doctor's throat.
Only to slam on the back of his head with the electric saw on the side table close to him.
"Let us leave, Senritsu." Nocturnal spoke softly, stepping over Joseph's unmoving body to lift the small woman in his arms. "This place is not safe for us."
The Music Hunter ignored all the agonized heartbeats and desperate cries coming from around him as he ran through the basement's corridors. He had to get Senritsu out of that mansion and into a hospital as fast as possible.
Those people were far beyond his help.
But he knew their voices and heartbeats would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Nocturnal ran to his car - a black Jaguar that could easily reach 300km/h and take them to his home in less than 1 hour – laid Senritsu on the backseat and buckled the seatbelts around her body. Then, he quickly moved to the driver's seat and started the engine. The Music Hunter was about to step on the gas and speed away from that nightmare when one name popped in his mind and made him pause.
Feitan.
Nocturnal's hands tightened and loosened around the driving wheel repeatedly before letting go completely.
I cannot leave him to fight Hei Àn alone. Not without Nen. There must be a w-
"It's a circuitry I created m-myself."
Circuitry.
Quickly, the Hunter's thin hand reached inside his coat's pocket and grabbed his cell phone. It ringed once before he was answered.
"Anna!"
"Sir, it's wonderful to hear your voice. What can I do for you?"
"Tell Jean to drive to Hei Àn's state immediately. Tell him there is an unconscious woman lying in the backseat of my black Jaguar and that he is to take her to my home. Wake up Dr Duchamp and tell him to wait for my guest ready to provide her medical attention."
"It's done, sir. What about you? Are you unhurt?"
"…For now, yes."
"Sir, what do you plan to do?"
"I know I told you I would do my best to return home safe, but there is still one thing I must do before I can fulfil that promise."
"Sir-"
"Thank you, Anna."
Nocturnal slid his cell phone shut and threw it over the passenger's seat. He took one last glance at Senritsu's unconscious form on his backseat and left the car.
The Hunter ran back to Hei Àn's house with one objective in mind:
The power box.
"I remember you. Your eyes to be more specific; such vengeful eyes are impossible to forget." Hei Àn spoke calmly as he and Feitan circled each other. "You are that boy from years ago. The one I casted away in Meteor City."
"Yes, and you are the one that murdered my sisters." Feitan retorted; narrowed eyes full of anger.
"I never murdered anyone. Huo Chieh killed the first one simply to fix your parents' mistake. The second one; I just granted her wish for death."
"You made her wish for death!" The Spider accused in a hateful voice. "You let those pigs rape Bei until she couldn't take anymore. It's the same as murder."
"Say what you will. She was still to weak-willed to deserve living."
The words had barely left Hei Àn's lips before Feitan charged towards him in burning fury. Despite his wounds and the lack of Nen, he was still surprisingly fast.
Unfortunately, despite his large and heavy frame, so was Hei Àn.
The General side-stepped the thief's attack and counter-attacked him with a powerful kick to the gut, making blood spatter from his mouth on the ground. Then, he grabbed the torturer's head with both of his hands and raised his smaller body in the air until Feitan was high enough for him to head-butt him full-force on the forehead. The blow was more than enough to make Feitan's vision blur and his conscious to falter for a second.
If I can use Nen, he'd see.
Hei Àn dropped the Spider's limp body on the floor and rose his right foot in the air, ready to kick the short man's skull in. But, before his polished boot could connect with Feitan's already bleeding head, the thief threw one last insult at him; one that made the General pause with pure rage.
"You're a coward. You say those Nen-blockers make you and me the same but it isn't so. They are here to give you advantage over others. You haven't surpassed your handicap. If you had, you'd be fighting me on top conditions, not hiding behind this techno trash."
Slowly, Hei Àn lowered his foot on the ground and Feitan couldn't help the relief that flew into him at seeing that. Said relieve died when he saw Hei Àn's eyes. They were bugged out in fury, disgust and a promise of hell.
"Who are you to say that?" The taller man spoke, voice eerily calm as he bent down to pull Feitan up by the hair. "ANSWER ME!"
But Feitan didn't get the chance to answer, for Hei Àn's large fist started to slam in his abdomen again and again, breaking ribs as if they were twigs.
Somewhere between the punches, Feitan's pain gave space to a moment of clarity, allowing the Spider to see an opening in his opponent's movements. With an speed the thief himself didn't think possible in his current state, Feitan raised his blade to Hei Àn's face, thrusting it in his right eye.
The General automatically let him fall to the ground as a howl of pain tore out his throat. Feitan stood up and took quick steps away from the large man, adrenalin overruling pain as he hid himself behind one of the many vehicles around them.
When the General finally regained control over himself, he was, strangely, much more collected then before. With deliberate calm, Hei Àn removed his white tank top and tied it around his head as some sort of eye-patch. It didn't matter that he had just lost his right eye. An eye meant nothing to a man who had lost his Nen.
44 years… It has been 44 years since I last used Nen.
And he could remember as if it was yesterday.
Both of Hei Àn's parents had been Hunters. Right up until the day they died, when Hei Àn was barely 10, both would take their boy with them in quests and adventures, showing him the wonders of that secret and magic world only Hunters could see. As a child, the fearsome General was nothing short of in love with the world around him and with the power of Nen. He knew he would grow to become a Hunter.
Even his parents' murder, by the hands of a Jackpot Hunter, didn't detract from Hei Àn's desire to become one. On the contraire, it only increased it.
"You want to become a Hunter like your parents, boy? Well, let me give you a head-start then."
That Jackpot Hunter had forced Hei Àn's Aura nodes open, confident that the young boy wouldn't be able to control his Aura's flow and lose it all gradually, until there was nothing left to allow him to live. After forcing malicious Aura into the boy's body, the Hunter allowed himself to relax into a state of Zetsu, so he could watch calmly as the boy struggled and failed to keep his Aura inside his body.
Unfortunately for the Hunter, although Hei Àn's parents had denied to baptize him due to his young age, they had already explained to him the basics of Nen. So, as soon as the boy realized his Aura nodes were open, he searched all of his theoretical knowledge to push his Aura form his hands and towards the Jackpot Hunter.
It was with great satisfaction that Hei Àn watched the man's eyes widen in shock and pain before his eyelids slid shut for a last time. After that, the boy turned towards his parents and sat down on the ground. His gaze, once full of wonder, had turned ice cold; and like that it would remain for the rest of his life.
Without a sound, Hei Àn started to meditate. His parents told him that meditation was the best way to keep his Nen under control.
It wasn't long before the boy had figured out how to keep his Aura from leaving his body and, once it was done, he stood up, closed his parents eyes, kissed their cheeks in a silent goodbye and left the room, but not before giving their murder a last glance.
"Thank you. For the head-start."
The first thing Hei Àn did after that was participate in the Hunter Exam, which, thanks to his previous knowledge of Nen, he passed easily.
However, he failed the secret Hunter Exam. Not because he couldn't learn how to properly use his beloved Nen – Hei Àn was nothing short of a genius when it came to Nen – but because Ludwig Heier, the Hunter that was supposed to finish his basic education on Nen, didn't find him suitable to use it.
"What you intend to do with Nen, Hei Àn?"
"Perpetuate it, of course. I will open people's eyes to Nen and its wonders."
"What if they don't want to learn Nen? What if they can't?"
"Then they do not deserve the life that their Auras allow them."
That statement sealed Hei Àn's fate forever.
Ludwig saw the dangerous madness that inhabited the boy and understood the potential to bring destruction. The boy was too good with Nen; he'd become one of the most powerful Hunters in history if given the chance to grow. But he was much too unstable to yield such power. He could not be given the chance to grow.
With many seconds thoughts and regrets for ending such a promising future, Ludwig used a technique he had developed long ago, for his own brother, and sealed Hei Àn's Nen away, inside a small, black dice Ludwig would carry with him until the day he died.
That day came much sooner than expected.
And it began a week after sealing Hei Àn's Nen away.
Hei Àn refused to accept the loss of his Nen. It was his and no one was allowed to take it from him. Therefore, the boy used all of the other privileges that being a Hunter allowed him to search for a way to recover his Nen.
It took him a year before he had found something – someone - useful.
"So you're the poor boy my older brother has judged unworthy of his own power. Ludwig can be so heartless… He was like that since we were kids, you know? He smiled when he took my Nen from me – when he maimed me – just because I used it to lure some people to come and… play with me. But he'll get his due. We'll make sure of it."
Joseph Heier promised Hei Àn something he didn't know he craved until they had met: revenge.
"See this skin patch here? I developed it myself. It's a Nen-blocker. All you have to do is touch Ludwig and the patch will stick to his skin immediately, forcing him in a state of Zetsu. Then he'll be just like you and me, and I'll be able to shoot him with my tranquilizer gun. He'll be at our mercy; he'll undo his seal."
"Why did you not do this before, on your own?"
"Well, obviously, my brother wouldn't trust me to get near him. Also, someone needs to wield the tranquilizer gun, right?"
Hei Àn didn't notice the fear behind Joseph's words. The doctor was the only one in a year that offered him a way out of the pointless reality that was his life without Nen and that was more than enough to earn the young boy's respect and admiration. Most important, it earned his absolute cooperation.
Next time Ludwig saw Hei Àn, he felt a very familiar pang of guilt stab him in the chest; he didn't regret his decision, but he still hated what he had done to him. Maybe that was why, when he saw the child marching towards him with all the anger and misery of the world in his eyes, he didn't move. He just thought a silent apology and let Hei Àn punch him in the stomach.
The pain, Ludwig expected. What he didn't expect was the complete exhaustion of his Nen, nor the feel of a tranquilizer dart penetrating his neck. His vision blurred in a matter of seconds, but the older Hunter still managed to see his younger brother wielding a tranquilizer gun and smiling down at him in sadistic anticipation.
Ludwig had known that the victims of his Nen-sealing technique would come for revenge one day. He just didn't believe they would succeed.
But they did. And they dragged their victory for as long as possible.
Joseph kept his brother alive for 37 days, inflicting experiments and tortures on him as Hei Àn watched with sickened interest. When, finally, Ludwig wasn't able to take it anymore and died, both killers were sure everything would come back to normal for them.
But it didn't. Nen is a fickle mistress and Ludwig's, instead of dissipating after his death, only strengthened.
When Hei Àn understood that – understood that his Nen had been blocked forever – he didn't cry, he didn't scream and he didn't complain. He just crushed the black dice that kept his Nen and spoke to Joseph in a chilling voice.
"We will survive. We may have been maimed from our Nen, but we still must prove ourselves worth of it. We will live and become great. Then, we will show people who also lost part of themselves that overcoming it is possible. More than that, it is necessary. And, with your help, I will find a way to recover what was taken from me. You will make me whole again, doctor."
And so, Hei Àn started trailing the path that Ludwig tried to steer him from.
"Not the time to think about that…" Hei Àn murmurer to himself, shaking his head softly. "There is a rat I must kill."
The General scanned the parking lot with his one eye, before stopping at one of his many black vans. There was a trail of blood leading there. Without a second thought, he took a step forward, towards Feitan.
"It is a pity, but your survival ends now."
Well, I really hope the chapter was worth the wait. =.= My plan was to finish Feitan and Hei Àn's fight in this, but it was getting too long, so I decided to split the chapter in two. Next we see how it'll all end. ;)
Bei: sad; sadness; sorrow; sorrowful; feel compassion for
BK-201: I usually don't reply to reviews in ANs but you took your time to write a pretty long and detailed review (again, thank you very much :)) so I'll make an exception this time. XD
The truth about Huo Chieh's character is that I only created him so I could write a nice Nen fight in this fic. Since Hei Àn can't use Nen, I needed someone else for Feitan to fight and that's why I made him. However, I really dislike just throwing characters without explaining at least a little bit about where they came from so, despite literally using Huo Chieh just as a punching bag, I felt myself obliged to create and write a bit of his background here. So, you're absolutely right in feeling that Huo Chieh was used just for show. It's a waste because I really enjoyed working with this character, but I don't think it'd feel right to extend myself too much on him in this fic.
About Feitan's emotions, don't worry. I'll take plenty of time later to show just how much of a toll watching his sisters die took on his sanity. I just think that Feitan is more of a do-now-think-later kind of guy, so he wouldn't spend time thinking too deeply about his sisters' deaths when the culprits are right there in front of him, ready to be killed. But, then again, this is my interpretation on his character; only Yoshihiro Togashi knows how he'd behave in such a situation.
Thank you - ALL of you - for reading up until now! As always, please tell me what you think about the chapter and until next time! :D
Kisses,
RedVoid