Disclaimer: I strictly do not own Hunter x Hunter

Story so far: Kurapika and Kuroro were trapped in the virtual world that the Lady in Red created, and they were forced to revisit their pasts. They had seen Kurapika's nightmare, and now they were about to see Kuroro's dark pasts, beginning from his childhood.


Chapter 14

LOOKING BACK part 2 - OLD SCARS AND IGNORANCE


She looked around warily. In one glance, she could tell that the house was sparsely furnished, and that the occupants were poor. There was only furniture for basic necessities. There was only one bedroom with a single large bed inside, and a lone low table. The living room merged with the dining room, with only one table and two chairs. The kitchen was a sad view. It was located behind the house, out in the open in the backyard. There was only an old kind of stove, with a pan used to cook almost everything the family ate in the house. The paint on the wall was falling apart, and the ceiling looked like it was going to fall anytime soon. Despite the poor condition, it was still one of the better houses in the Shooting-Star City. Kurapika shook her head in disbelief; she could not believe that this house was the place where Kuroro Lucifer was born more than 26 years ago.

Kurapika lingered in the bedroom. There was almost nothing else in the room to see, but somehow, standing in the middle of the derelict room alone allowed her to absorb the reality in it. It was as if she was really standing there at that very moment. As if the room was real. There was not even a picture of the family anywhere at sight.

She was rudely jolted from her reverie when suddenly a cry was heard from the living room. In a rush, Kurapika went to the living room, fully aware that she could not be seen by the people of the past. She was not, however, prepared for what she was about to see.

There, in the living room, the man whom she assumed as the father was swinging a metal rod madly. He shouted some vulgarities to the woman he was arguing with. The woman had jet-black hair, and she was very beautiful. It was a pity that her attire could not enhance her beauty.

"He is your son!" The woman screamed while spreading her arm in a protective manner, like a bird protecting its eggs.

"That bastard kid is not my son! Lemme at him!" He slapped the woman's face hard until she fell over.

When the mother fell down to the floor, a small little boy was revealed. He was barely 3 years old, and was looking at his demon-possessed father with his big eyes. Innocently, he reached out with his tiny hands to his father. Kurapika covered her mouth with her hand. The little boy was unmistakably Kuroro Lucifer; the symbol on his forehead was the tell-tale sign. She could not describe how she felt at that moment; seeing her nemesis in his childhood, so vulnerable and weak. She had only known the strong and invincible side of that man.

"You, little demon child. Go back to where you belong to!" The man cried out and swung the metal bar in a cleaving manner, ready to strike the little boy to his death.

"NOO!" The mother, her face flooded by tears, grabbed a piece of the broken window glass and lunged at the man.

The razor-sharp glass penetrated deep into the side of the man, fatally wounding his inside. He screamed in agony as he fell down, his wife on top of him with her hands blood-stained. She scrambled away from her husband's body and was crawling towards her son, when the man hit her head with the metal bar as his final retaliation, cracking her skull in the process. The gore sprayed all over the boy, painting him crimson in her blood.

"Oh!" Kurapika gasped and covered her mouth tightly, trying not to throw up as she heard the sickening sound of the cracking skull. She staggered backwards and had to lean on a table for support as she continued to watch the horrible murder.

"Kuro…ro…" The woman whispered, her eyes wide in horror as she stared at her son's innocent face.

She fell dead to the floor, the wood beneath her soaked with the crimson liquid pouring from the gash on her head. Her gaze was still fixed on the little boy even as the light left those dark eyes. The man gurgled out more blood, before finally meeting his death as well, following his wife. The little boy stared at her with blank face, still too young to understand death yet. He did not even pay attention to the warm wetness of her mother's blood covering him. He crawled towards her and touched her still warm face. He peered into her eyes.

"Mommy?" He called at her, his voice still high-pitched and childish.

He shook her body a few times, thinking that she might be sleeping and that he had to wake her up. Receiving no response whatsoever from his mother, the boy lay down on the floor next to her and curled his body against her. It was as if he was just about to take a nap as he usually did, with his mother sleeping next to him.

If the little boy had not been Kuroro Lucifer, she might have cried for him. However, knowing that he was Kuroro Lucifer, the most she could do was just to sympathize with him.

"My father thought I was a demon child…because of the birth mark on my forehead."

With a loud gasp, Kurapika spun on her heels only to find herself looking at the grown-up Kuroro Lucifer standing at the doorway to the living room. He was leaning against the doorway, his hands on his pockets casually as if he was not seeing his childhood horror. His eyes were looking straight into her eyes, daring her to say something.

"Furthermore, my psychological skill developed all too late. I barely responded to what my parents did or said." He straightened up and approached Kurapika until he was right next to her. The girl kept vigilant about his movements, while Kuroro looked at the corpses of his parents on the floor.

"Not to mention that my mother insisted on keeping me instead of abandoning me on the streets because of that handicap of mine. I guessed all those drove my father over the edge of his sanity." He shrugged offhandedly.

"Why are you here?" She asked in a low whisper.

"I am not afraid of my past…Unlike a certain someone." He added with a small smirk directed towards the girl.

Kurapika looked away, feeling ashamed that the older man had been right. She had been afraid to witness again the massacre of her tribe. They were placed in separate time space by the Phoenix because she was fully aware that Kurapika's mental strength was as fragile as a glass. Kuroro was present in this cinematic record of his past because he had not shunned away from it. He embraced his past, no matter how tragic and monstrous.

For a split second, the scenery turned static and blurry as time was fast-forwarded, and in the next second it turned back to normal. However, this time the sky outside was already darkening as dusk fell, furthermore dark clouds were gathering. The sound of thunderclap racked the dead house, waking up the little boy from his nap. He glanced around with sleepy eyes, and then looked at his mother's still body. The corpse was already icy cold and stiff from rigor mortis. He shook her again, and still received no response. Heavy rain started to pour outside the house. Kurapika glanced to the side and found Kuroro looking at his child form with impassive face.

"And here they come." He said in a whisper-like voice.

True enough, Kurapika soon heard the characteristic slithering voice of a snake. She looked at the other door with anticipation, her breath held as if waiting for any monster to appear. A great snake then made its way from the front door, its dark green scale wet from the downpour. It sniffed the air with its forked tongue as it tried to find the source of the sweet, metallic fragrance of blood.

The little Kuroro turned around and spotted the gigantic snake as it slithered towards him, its massive head just a few meters away from him. Showing no fear or surprise, only curiosity, the boy reached out towards the snake with his little hands. Amused, the snake licked his hands with its forked tongue. The little boy giggled, as if it was a dog that had licked him; not a monstrous snake. Kurapika cringed as she saw the entire unsettling scene. Kuroro had been telling the truth; his psychological skill really developed belatedly. Even since his childhood, fear had been absent in that man's heart.

"What did you find, Basille?" Kurapika heard the then-all-too-familiar voice. Kuroro narrowed his eyes slightly as he heard the voice.

Ishtar then emerged from the door where Basille had come from. Kurapika saw that she had not changed the slightest even more than 20 years before she got to know her. Her hair was still the same mass of curly black hair, her skin was the same pale white skin. The only difference was may be the coldness in her face. Kurapika had never seen her face with such coldness before. She looked around the room with such casual manner as if the outrageous bloodshed in the room meant nothing to her. When she looked at the little boy, however, she paused for a while and finally her lips went upturned.

"My, my…Look at what we have here." Her voice sounded like a coo and she approached the little boy. She squatted down before him and looked at his face with what seemed like cold amusement to Kurapika.

Filled with curiosity, little Kuroro touched her face with his small hands. Ishtar looked slightly taken aback, but she let the child indulged in his curiosity. He felt her face, touched her hair and then he looked at his dead mother.

"Mommy…"

"Your mom is dead, sweetheart. And so is your dad." Ishtar caressed the boy's wet hair gently. Suddenly her one dark eye lit up, as if she had just come up with a bright idea. "So why don't you come with me?"

Lady, are you suuuureeeeesss? The snake hissed questioningly. It was very unlike her to adopt a human.

"It will be fine, Basille. This child…is special."

Because of the uncanny birthmark on his foreheaaadsss?

"No. That is just a matter of physical appearance. It has no other significance." Her curly hair bounced as she shook her head. She touched the boy's face with the tip of her fingers. "But I can see it… He is more than anything I've seen…"

The little boy looked at her with his great eyes, and then he reached out to her, as if embracing her offer. With a soft smile, Ishtar took him and lifted him up, carrying him as a mother would carry her child.

"What is your name, child?" She asked softly.

"…Kuro..ro…"

"Kuroro?" She repeated the name, as if tasting it. She then looked over the bodies of his dead parents. "And your father thought you were a demon child? I see…"

Kurapika frowned at her words. How could she tell that? She was not there when the father screamed those words.

"Her True Vision could see whatever happened in a place." Kuroro explained for her as his eyes were glued on the woman. Kurapika thought she could see a mixture of contempt and something else in that endless depth of darkness of his eyes.

"So then, I will give you a name." Ishtar turned around with the child in her arms. "You will be Lucifer. The mighty angel who had come down from Heaven to rule Hell. You will be strong like him, who survived despite being deprived of his power and glory."

She kissed the boy's forehead, and the child giggled. He then leaned forward and hugged her slender neck. With a motherly smile, Ishtar walked away from the corpses towards the front door, into the downpour. She then disappeared behind the curtain of rain, along with the basilisk and the child in her arms.


Everything went into static and Kurapika could feel the air vibrating. The hum echoed in the chaos, but soon she found herself in another location. Kuroro stood still next to her, he was already used to the time and space shifting of the cinematic record of their pasts.

"Where…When?" She asked, still dazed and disoriented from the shift.

Kuroro looked around, trying to remember what time and where they had arrived to. When he heard the clatters of metals and the sound of a child sobbing, he knew straight away.

"Get up, Kuroro. A fighter never cries."

A familiar voice greeted Kurapika's ears, but when she looked up, she could not believe what she saw. On the floor was a boy, much older than before, yet still the same child. He was covered in bruises and bleeding cuts. His eyes were moist with tears that threatened to overflow. On the floor besides him was a sword. Standing in front of him was Ishtar, her sword raised and her face stern. Rather than a mother, she looked more like a strict mentor and a warrior herself.

With a grunt and a stifled sob, the boy got up and picked his sword. He took battle stance, although his face showed how much he was suffering from the abuse. Kurapika then knew that at this point of time, Kuroro had not yet mastered the art of putting the mask of indifference he had always donned most of the time.

"It was 5 years after she took me in. Since the day I could run on my own, she trained me for combat." Kuroro explained, his voice monotonous and his face impassive as ever.

Kurapika stared at his face. He looked like a stone statue, only looking straight at whatever was presented before him, detached from any emotions. For her, he looked like he had hardened his heart, putting it somewhere else so that he would not feel anything. Somehow, after seeing only a glimpse of his past, already she was feeling sorry for him. What a pitiful man he was.

CLANK!

Again, in a flash Ishtar had disarmed him. There was a fiery red mark on his wrist where Ishtar had hit him with the flat side of the sword. The little boy yelped in pain.

"Again." Ishtar swished her sword and had her sword ready.

They continued with the session until something horrible occurred. Exhausted, the little boy dropped his guard and in that split moment, Isthar was charging at him. With wide eyes, Kurapika witnessed the moment Ishtar's weapon pierced through the small body and skewered him.

Ishtar gasped in surprise on what she had done. The boy did not even have any chance to cry out or to gasp in pain. Quickly she released the hilt of her sword and caught the dying boy in her arms.

"Kuroro, Kuroro!" She cradled him carefully and shook his body slightly to wake him up. The boy's eyes were already half-closed, as if surrendering his soul to Death.

"What's with the noises, Lady?" A hunched figure tottered down the hall and towards them, still blissfully unaware of the bloody scene. When Hatsubaba looked up, though, her eyes were as wide as an owl's. "For the love of God!"

The old witch doctor quickly approached them and checked on the boy. The pulse was still there, albeit very faintly, but his breathing was shallow. The old woman said that if they did not find a blood donor, the boy was as good as dead.

"Give him my blood." Ishtar insisted firmly.

"But, Lady, surely you jest! By doing so, your immortality will expire!" Hatsubaba began to protest. "That is the rule of your kind! You must not share your blood with anyone else!"

Kuroro's eyes widened. He did not know of this scene.

"I don't care!" Ishtar's dark eyes were fixed on Kuroro, whose breath was barely there. "If it can save his life, I don't mind. Besides, I have lived for far too long…"

"Lady…" Hatsubaba looked at her with a mixture of sympathy and anguish.

Suddenly, everything then went into static and the air vibrated again. Although she was uneasy with the ringing in her ears, Kurapika took the effort to look at Kuroro's face. His expression was that of a shocked one. Kurapika remembered the huge scar on his stomach that she saw weeks ago in Chiron's forest. So he acquired that scar from this accident. She frowned with uneasiness at the thought.

"I don't remember…" He whispered to himself. Kurapika blinked at his sudden doubts. To her, he seemed surprised by that particular piece of his past.


The static continued for a while, before suddenly everything cleared up into a bright white light. Kurapika instinctively shielded her eyes from the assault of the light.

"Where are we going?" A childish voice alerted Kurapika back to the cinematic record of Kuroro's past.

She pried open her eyes and found herself in a dense forest. When she turned around, she could see the top of the temple where Ishtar was living in. It was most probably the forest behind the temple, the one Ishtar had told her about when she was saved from the Chimera Poison. When she turned back, she saw a 10 years old boy walking behind Ishtar. The boy looked around him curiously, as if it was the first time he had ever stepped into the forest.

"You will have to survive here for a week, look for food on your own, fight the wild animals here. After one week, come back to the temple."

Ishtar stopped walking and spun around on her heels. Her midnight-coloured robe swished around her gracefully, glinting under the blessed sunlight. The boy had his eyes wide in shock. Without waiting for his answer, Ishtar walked away and disappeared into the depth of the forest. The boy stood alone in the middle of the forest, lost and confused.

"It was this time…" Kuroro muttered. "…The first time I was poisoned."

As if answering to his cue, the scene before them was fast-forwarded. In the blur, Kurapika could catch a glimpse of the boy scavenging for food, killing the wild animals for both food and self-defence, finding clean water for drink, and so on. Time stopped fast-forwarding when it reached the sixth day of the week. The boy, by then he was already filthy, was walking by a thick shrub overflowing with a kind of berries. He happily plucked the sweet fruits and ate them, unaware that a certain creature was lurking beneath the bushes.

"Ouch!" He yelped as he felt a sharp pain on his calf. He kicked whatever was clinging to his flesh, and found a venomous looking lizard landing on the ground. The lizard hurriedly scurried away for it was by right a shy creature, however its poison was strong.

His calf rapidly turned blue in colour and in no time the boy's leg was paralyzed. He took out his switchblade and tore at the bite mark, not bothering to clean the blade first. He squeezed out the bad blood, but he was too slow. The poison was already making its way up. Cursing quietly under his breath, for he was losing his breath, the boy crawled towards the clearing, attempting to reach a lake he had just found the other day. The lake was just a few crawls ahead, but his body just could not take it anymore.

Kurapika stayed rooted to the ground next to the grown-up Kuroro. She felt compelled to drag the boy to the lake, despite knowing that it was Kuroro Lucifer. In a split moment, she remembered the incident back then in the cave, when Kuroro got a tetanus. Fully aware that he was the murderer of her people, she still had helped him. Kurapika's eyes widened.

What was I thinking? She averted her gaze to the dying boy before her. What am I thinking?

For a moment, everything was blank to her. She could not think anymore, as if her brain circuit had gone malfunctioned.

He is Kuroro Lucifer, the murderer of my people. Why…am I thinking all these? Why am I here standing next to him? Shouldn't I…

Kurapika willed her chain to appear, and her eyes had already turned bright Scarlet. However, nothing happened. The rattles of her chains were never heard, the solid coldness of the metal never materialised in her hand. Only then, after several seconds of struggling, she realised that her Nen had been sealed. They were in the Phoenix's realm, after all. She was literally powerless there. Begrudgingly, Kurapika clenched and unclenched her fists and drew a deep breath in an attempt to calm her self. When she was back to her sense, however, she saw Ishtar already cradling the boy in her arms. She walked towards the lake and stood at the edge.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Morgan, but please lend me a hand?" She asked quietly to the water.

Just suddenly, the water stirred and moved to form a translucent figure of a woman. The figure solidified into an enchanting woman with wave pale blue hair. Her amused giggles rang pleasantly.

How precious is the boy to you, pray tell, milady, until you ask for my help? She asked, with her thin lips ever upturned.

"More precious than my immortality. So I take it you are willing to assist him?" Ishtar asked with calm voice.

How can I deny your request, when that pretty boy reminds me so much of my Lancelot? The Lady of the Lake hovered above the water with slight agitation and approached Ishtar.

"Morgan, you are still mourning over Lancelot's death." Ishtar accused with slight frown.

Kurapika's eyes widened.

"She is Morgan Le Fay! The Lady of the Lake!" She exclaimed as the realization dawned on her.

"The very same one as the one who purged the chimera poison from your blood system." Kuroro added.

So that's her real form. Kuroro mused. He did not realize that his visage had softened by a certain extent. Again, this was a scene that did not exist in his memory. Not that he forgot it; he merely was unaware of it. After all, at that time he was at the brink of death yet again.

Now that you have your own Lancelot, you will know the depth of my sorrow when I lost mine once you lose yours…Lady Medusa… The Lady of the Lake muttered as she took the dying Kuroro from Isthar's arms.

Both Kuroro and Kurapika went rigid for a second. Finally, they knew of the true nature of Ishtar.

"A Medusa…So that's what she really is." Kuroro murmured.

"You never know?"

He shook his head slowly. "I never wanted to know."

Kurapika looked at him with a slight frown. She then decided to ignore his obvious contempt towards Ishtar. That would be his problems, not hers. She tried not to meddle too much with his personal affairs, lest she got entangled in it more than she already did.


"What is the meaning of this?" He threw a VCR rudely to the floor in front of Ishtar, who was inhaling her hookah as usual.

"Of what?" She asked casually, as if his rage was nothing special.

Kurapika looked on as she witnessed the onset of the birth of the Genei Ryodan; or so Kuroro told her. Earlier on, when they had been sent to a few years after the Lady of the Lake event, they ended up in a shack where a handful of boys; including the then approximately 16-years-old Kuroro Lucifer, were gathering.

"I only had very few friends." Kuroro informed her deliberately. "Since they all thought that I was a sheltered kid, and so I was worth almost nothing in the gang. In other words: useless."

"The power of stereotype, huh? Just because you have Ishtar to look after you." Kurapika had muttered with slight derision in her voice. She disliked stereotypes the most. Kuroro commented nothing, and so they watched the unfolding events in silence.

"In this VCR is the recording of a mafia boss from the outside world talking to, I assume, The Elders." The teenage Kuroro said with strained voice, as if he was trying to rein his anger.

"…And?" Ishtar asked lazily as she exhaled a puff of her favourite sandalwood-fragranced smoke.

"He is demanding the elite force from here. The specially trained soldiers for them to do the dirty job." The boy continued, his dark eyes blazing with pure rage.

Ishtar said nothing and merely waited for Kuroro to continue with his 'demand'. The boy clenched his fist tightly, his shoulders bristling with anger.

"I'm one of them, right?" He finally said.

Ishtar still said nothing for a long time, but upon seeing that no more words were forthcoming from the teenager, she exhaled and straightened up.

"You are afraid, Kuroro?"

The boy turned pale as if the blood had been drained from his face, and the bristling anger vanished in an instant. Kurapika frowned with confusion for she did not understand what was happening. Kuroro besides her also said nothing, which meant he had no wish to elaborate. He would explain when he felt like it; how moody. The teenage Kuroro was obviously at loss on what to say, and so Ishtar continued.

"You are afraid that the attention I'm giving you all this time is purely for that purpose; for the sake of moulding that so-called elite force out of you. You don't want to be used, eh? You are too prideful to be someone else's pawn." She paused and cocked her head to a side, as if listening to a very small voice. "You feel cheated? You feel that all those hellish trainings are for nothing? Come now, Kuroro, be logical."

"SHUT UP!" The boy shouted, but it was undeniable that there was a panic in his voice.

Kuroro, the one standing next to Kurapika, frowned at his teenage self. How young and emotional he had been back then, so easily influenced by his feelings that he felt ashamed even to see it.

"Have you no courtesy, peeking into my heart like that?" He growled with gritted teeth. "And this is not the first time, either."

"Oh…" Ishtar seemed a bit taken aback. She had felt the sharpness of hatred and loathe in the boy's heart as he mentioned about her peeking into his heart without permission.

"Shame on you!" The teenage Kuroro shouted at her again and stormed out of the room with pure rage.

Just suddenly, after all the noises that the boy had caused, the silence in the room seemed to be suffocating. The pin-drop silence was unbearable, and Ishtar herself was drowned in her own self-reflection and retrospect. Even without anyone telling her, Kurapika knew that this was the turning point for Kuroro; the time that he decided to put on that cold and expressionless face of his. It had been for self-protection against the likes of Ishtar; and it eventually became rooted into his nature.

"That wasn't nice of him." An old voice came from the corner of the room. "And that wasn't so kind of you, either."

Hatsubaba emerged from the adjacent room and approached the solemn woman clad in black.

"You shouldn't have said his feelings at that moment. Those are quite sensitive ones. I didn't know you could be that dense, Lady." The old woman said with slightly scolding tone.

"I—" She had wanted to protest, but as she thought further, she admitted her error. "Yes…That was wrong of me…"

"Still, you could've told him that it is never your intention to raise him as the elite force." The old witch doctor frowned, as if not understanding her. "Heck, Lady, you even refused The Elders when they asked to take custody of the boy."

This time, it was the present Kuroro who turned sickly pale although his face was already naturally pale. His eyes widened slightly, but the shock on his face was rather obvious that Kurapika could not help but to notice it. Seeing that the Lady was not about to reply anytime soon, the old witch doctor continued with her ranting.

"You raise him purely out of your affection towards him. Even all those trainings are for his sake in surviving in this harsh world. You told me once that you want him to be the best, didn't you? Because of his potential, latent Nen, and such… Seriously, milady, you are such a doting parent."

"I didn't have any chance, did I?" She suddenly said with a sad smile plastered on her pallid face. "Then again, I think I wouldn't have told him either even when if I had the chance. Given the circumstances, he wouldn't believe a word I said."

True… Kuroro thought bitterly. Suddenly, he felt so foolish and ignorant. Now that he was already 26-years-old, he realized how so hot-headed his 16-years-old self had been.

"Sooner or later, he will find out on his own." She said with hopeful tone.

Oh, he'll only find out after 10 years, Ishtar. Kurapika thought as she rolled her eyes heavenwards.

A pregnant silence filled the room once again. The old woman's gaze fell to the door where the teenage Kuroro had stormed in and out earlier. There was a faraway look in those ancient eyes.

"I've never seen the boy so greatly upset before." She muttered.

"It's beyond upset, Hatsubaba. His heart…" Ishtar paused. "…is beyond repair."

Her voice was reduced to barely a whisper, but both Kuroro and Kurapika heard every single word. The air vibrated again, but in the fleeting moment before they were whisked away from that time period, Kuroro thought he caught a glimpse of the woman's tears.


When the turbulence in the air ceased, Kurapika and Kuroro found themselves still in Ryuusei-gai, but in different part of the city. Kuroro looked around and immediately recognised the place.

"The Elders' office." He declared.

"Elders?" Kurapika blinked.

"In Ryuusei-gai, The Elders are something like the chiefs of the city. Like the governor. But honestly all they did was stay in touch with the outside world. Nothing much." Kuroro shrugged nonchalantly.

"So you have really prepared other children like me to be raised as elite force?"

A familiar voice grabbed their attention, and as they looked at the source of the voice, they saw the teenage Kuroro facing a few old men. The Elders seemed hesitant, and somewhat wary around Kuroro. It was as if they did not want to tell him anything, but was forced to spill out everything.

"Yes, there are other kids but—" One of them spoke up, but was quickly interjected by Kuroro.

"I want the names." The teenaged lifted up his arms and made a demanding gesture. "The names of those children."

"What are you going to do with it then, boy? Try to free them? Don't be so naïve." The more intrepid one stepped forward and confronted the boy. "Listen. This city is, by all truth, funded by the mafia. Without them, we would have perished long time ago."

Kuroro snorted in disdain. "So we are like their dogs, doing the dirty jobs but are paid with garbage and trashes. You think I don't know? When they are done with us, what did they do? They put all the blames on us, saying that we are bunch of criminals from a city infested by exiles and black-list people. That's true, right?"

The Elders seemed to be rather taken aback, for the boy was intelligent enough to deduce until that far. They started to become restless, and the teenage Kuroro narrowed his eyes to dangerous slit.

"What a bunch of losers, all of you." He spat. "I will not tolerate it. We are not born to be the black sheep of those greedy bastards. You need funds? Fine, I will fund you. In return, those raised to be the elite force will be put under my wings."

"Wha—What in the blazes are you saying?" One of The Elders literally almost fainted upon hearing a teenage boy saying such outrageous idea.

"Names." The teenage Kuroro demanded, his hands outstretched.

Suddenly, there was a cackling laughter filling the room. The Elders looked around in confusion, before they all turned to one particular direction. A wizened old lady had just entered the room, and she was laughing with amusement. He hunched back shook mildly as she laughed. She strolled forward and approached the teenage boy. She peered into the depths of his dark eyes, and upon seeing the determination in those obsidian eyes, she made up her mind.

"Here you go." She rummaged through her pockets and squeezed a piece of paper to Kuroro's hands.

"So you are one of them." Kuroro said with cold, mistrusting voice. "Hatsubaba."

The old witch doctor snorted. "Don't misunderstand me, boy. I'm against them, but what can a crone like me do against those rock-headed old things? They are tough nuts to crack."

Kuroro said nothing and merely turned around to walk away. Just as he reached the door, Hatsubaba called out at him again.

"Kuroro. About Ishtar—"

Without even sparing an ear to listen to her until she finished, Kuroro dashed out of the room. The old lady only shook her head and sighed.

"Running away, eh?"

"Exactly…" Kurapika murmured mockingly. The Kuroro next to her graced her with one annoyed look, but said nothing to deny it. He, in all honesty, admitted that he had been such a foolishly childish boy.

"So…The other children are your Spiders?" Kurapika asked, but there was no mistaking of the bile in her voice when she mentioned the word Spiders.

"Those who hailed directly from Ryuusei-gai, yes." Kuroro answered briefly. Yes, there were originally 8 of us: Me, Machi, Uvo, Nobu, Paku, Feitan, Phinks and Franklin. He reminisced.

Again, for the umpteenth time of the day, the air vibrated again and the humming sound filled their ears. This time, instead of being swept in swirls of distortion as the time and space was shifted, they were plunged into the abysmal darkness once again.


When they both came to, they found themselves in the infinite darkness again. A speck of red light glowed somewhere in the distance, and it seemed to grow in size gradually. Even without thinking twice, they all knew that it was the Phoenix coming after them. True enough, the light transformed into the woman figure of the Lady in Red.

"Feeling ignorant, aren't we?" She asked with the ever-present amusement in her voice.

"What now?" Kuroro asked, somewhat rather tired of the game that the Lady in Red was playing with them.

"Well, for your information, I gotta go now. I've got business to attend, so I'll leave you guys for now. 'Sides, my job's done here. Your homework will be to review all those pasts that you've revisited. Easy, no?"

Seriously, her way of speaking was starting to grate on both youths' nerves. Her regal appearance and her manner of speaking did not match each other. It was like seeing a queen who was raised in a slum by some punks.

Suddenly, the darkness was swept over by the blazing flame of the Phoenix's. As they were engulfed in the flames, the Lady in Red showed herself in front of them for the last time. She was still dressed in her exotic garment, but her apparition was rather translucent. She grinned at her with the same playful smirk, and then her form started to shift. Her dress danced around her amidst the flames and they transformed into feathers of fire. Both Kuroro and Kurapika wasted no second as they watched on the absolutely magnificent transformation of the Phoenix.

So…I'll take my leave now. Kurapika… She turned to address Kurapika; who was thinking that as she transformed into a Phoenix bird, her manner of speaking somewhat improved.

When the child is born, bring it to Ishtar.

Without even sparing them even the tiniest bit of explanation, the bird of eternal flame took off. There was a huge, suffocating silence between the two of them, before Kurapika's scream harshly broke the peace.

"WHAAAT?"

And then the flames consumed them wholly.


Author's Note: Kuroro's past here is entirely made up by me. So for those who strongly dislike it, that's just too bad. Also, (especially for yuriyurishii) if you find this chapter another boring one, please forgive me. I tried my best not to make it boring, but I just couldn't help it. I felt that there were lots of Kuroro's past that needed to be showed here, in order to get the previous chapters and the coming ones to flow nicely. Sorry if I failed miserably -_- And what child is the Phoenix talking about? Taa-daa… Nyahahaha… *evil grin*

Next: The Phoenix's last parting words became a big question for both of them. But regardless, like it or not, they were faced with an assignment that they had to finish. Kurapika then had to decide whether she had to pardon Kuroro for being who he was, or not. Kuroro, on the other hand, had to decide whether he would exculpate Ishtar, or not. And accidentally, they bumped into some people they had no wish to encounter right at that moment.