Disclaimer: I do not own Hunter x Hunter (and will never…)
Story so far: All seemed well as Kurapika finally woke up. However, what kind of explanation would Lucian offer regarding the rings? What about those 'restrainers'?
WARNING: I DO NOT speak Romanian, and so if there are any wrong Romanian sentences down there, blame the Google Translator.
Chapter 28
INTERMEZZO
As Leorio had expected, Kurapika Kuruta was THOROUGHLY disoriented when she came to.
"Kurapika, you are awake!"
"Kurapika! How are you feeling?"
"Kurapika!"
The said girl whose names had been repeatedly called by three different people could only blink in utter confusion and bewilderment.
"What—why—how—?" She stuttered, unable to take everything in one instant.
As the three tried to spoon-feed her with whatever information they knew of her condition, Kuroro shot a hard look at his vampire friend.
"O mare parte din explicaţie, Lucian. (A great deal of explanation, Lucian)" Kuroro told him sharply.
Lucian raised a quizzical eyebrow. It was very rare for Kuroro to actually speak in Romanian (which he had taught him in their free time). If he did, it could only mean that he required private audience with the vampire alone.
"Chiar acum. (Right now) Afara. (Outside)" Kuroro added.
"Ei bine… (Well…) Nu ma deranjeaza, dar ... (I don't mind, but…)" Lucian glanced briefly at the disoriented Kurapika. "Ce zici de Kurapika? (What about Kurapika?)"
"Prietenii ei vor ţine ocupat ei. (Her friends will keep her busy)" Kuroro responded quickly and began pacing toward the door.
"Dar ea are dreptul să ştie asta! (But she has the right to know this too)" The vampire protested, but nonetheless followed Kuroro out of the room.
"Voi spune-i ce are nevoie să ştie. (I will tell her what she needs to know)" Kuroro briskly responded.
Without making any noises, the two older men slipped out of the room unnoticed. Once outside, they walked several metres away from the room to avoid being overheard by the occupants of the room. When Kuroro deemed the distance as acceptable, he spun on his heels and confronted Lucian.
"Well?"
"What do you want me to explain?" Lucian raised his shoulders and hands in a clueless-questioning gesture.
"The ring."
"Ah…Well, you see…" Lucian scratched the back of his head. "Where do I start? Okay, first, Ishtar's blood. Do you know that it has some side-effects?"
"I figured that much already." Kuroro crossed his arms. "What are they?"
"Ask Anansi for details," The vampire said offhandedly.
Kuroro frowned at this, and took mental note to 'pay a visit' to his 'foster father'.
"But so far I only know that extraordinary recovery is one of them—like what happened to fată—as well as death and insanity."
Lucian paused to observe the subtle change in Kuroro's facial expression. He knew that the younger man had sensed something from this information. Lucian also had not bothered to elaborate more about the details of 'why' and 'how', since it was highly likely that Kuroro did not require it—he could work that out on his own. Kuroro narrowed his eyes ever so slightly.
"Continue."
"Ei bine…So basically you guys need some kind of restrainers to control Isthar's blood in you."
"Because you are psychologically unsound and she is emotionally unstable," was what Lucian wanted to say, but he deliberately left that out since he knew that nothing good would come out of telling the Spider Head that.
Kuroro's eyebrows furrowed.
"The ring?"
"The rings," the vampire corrected, "are your and her restrainers. I met Anansi in the ruins of the compound you literally blew to bits," he emphasised the last part with slight distaste, "and he modified the rings into restrainers."
You'd better not tell him about his earrings being restrainers, or else I'll haunt your days and nights with itsy-bitsy-spidery nightmares, GOT IT? Anansi had threatened Lucian so, and the vampire had no choice but to comply with the spider incarnation's wish—lest he was doomed with spidery life for the rest of his eternity. He would not want that, not a chance.
"So you two are best not to take off those rings, if you want to live a normal life—" Lucian paused and corrected himself, "…a relatively normal life."
"After all these," Kuroro raised his hand that donned the Solomon Ring and his restrainer-ring, and gave a dark, almost sinister smile, "life can never be normal."
"Um…Kuroro?" came Gon's small voice from a distance halfway between the door and the two adults.
Gon eyed Kuroro with steady eyes, not fearing or despising him as he used to, but gave Lucian a dubious look—which the vampire did not give a fig for. Kuroro turned his head and only gave him a gaze that indicated the boy to continue with whatever he wanted to tell him. Gon caught the silent message quick.
"Em…Kurapika's fainted again."
Lucian went rigid, but Kuroro's countenance remained cool and undisturbed. He gave the boy an even look.
"Fall asleep, you mean?" Kuroro asked with small smile. He was amused on why the boy bothered to inform him of Kurapika's condition at all. He was regarded as her—and consequently their—enemy, after all.
Soon enough, Killua came storming from the room towards Gon and conked him hard. Gon stumbled slightly upon impact.
"Gon, you idiot! She just fell asleep!"
Lucian could only stare at the Spider Head with utter amazement. How he could really be in synch with the Kuruta girl was beyond him.
"HOLD IT!"
Everyone in the room froze in their respective spots. All eyes were directed to HoodedMan with profound puzzlement. HoodedMan had never raised his voice to bark orders; he usually did so with utmost coolness and composure.
"So you are a Kuruta, eh? Wonder of wonders! To think that the last Kuruta will travel with the murderer of her clan!"
"I am through with that!" Kurapika spat to the dirt, seeing that she was still pinned on the ground.
"Oh really? I can see why Kuroro Lucifer treasures you so much that he'll bother keeping you with him. Shall we insult him a bit?"
With that, he turned Kurapika roughly so that her back was towards him. In a flash, he made the insignia of bloody M on her back with a dagger he hid behind his hood. Kurapika only gasped in surprise as her skin felt pricked by the razor-sharp blade.
"A memento to remind you and him of our little time together." HoodedMan whispered close to her ears.
He then took a fistful of her golden hair and yanked her from the ground.
"Brand her."
A blood-curdling scream filled the entire room and reverberating throughout the entire floor of the hotel in the dead of the night. Killua and Gon; who had been sharing a bed in the same hotel room as Kurapika's, jumped to their feet in alert. Leorio, on the other hand, stumbled unceremoniously from the sofa he had been sleeping on to the carpeted floor with a soft thud. When Leorio had only managed to gather himself from the floor, rubbing his sore forehead sleepily, Killua and Gon were already by Kurapika's bedside.
"Kurapika, what's wrong?"
The question was repeated so many times, but it gave no consolation to the shaken Kuruta. The said girl was busy looking underneath her shirt, trying to frantically find the crude 12-legged spider brand on her chest—which by then was already non-existent due to her healing capability. While the trio tried their best to calm down the girl, Kuroro—who could not help but to hear the hair-raising scream from the next room he booked for him and Lucian ("Sfinte sisoe! (holy shit!)" he cussed as he stumbled from his bed in the same fashion as Leorio did)—stood by the doorstep and watched the whole commotion in silence. He was still dressed in his Danchou attire, only he was wearing his hair down by then.
The attention was brought to him only when Kurapika started calling out his name rather frantically.
"Kuroro!" She finally bellowed.
"You don't have to scream, Kurapika. I'm not deaf." He answered her coolly, still a good distance away from the bed.
Kurapika glared at him as per her habits towards him, but beneath that irritation Kuroro could clearly see the underlying horror in those oceanic blue eyes that were slightly tinted red.
"What…How…how was I when you found me?"
Her three Hunter friends knew that she was referring to the Mammon incident, as she had been informed earlier that it was Kuroro Lucifer who had actually rescued her (she did not seem surprised by it, taking it awfully calmly as if that was the natural order of things—which had almost freaked the living hell out of her friends)
"How much do you remember?" Kuroro asked quietly.
"I…" Kurapika bit her lower lips, and she shuddered upon recalling the horrid incident. "I think I blacked out after they branded me…"
Kurapika was still clutching her shirt just above her heart; the spot where the Mammon had branded her. Although the evidence was gone, the pain was still unrelenting; burning and painfully real. Leorio of course had noticed the brand before it went away, but he wisely chose not to tell the other two about it—for a reason that he might just not have the heart to tell others about it. It was simply too pitiful.
Kuroro eyed her with critical eyes. He knew exactly what she wanted to ask about.
"They did not rape you, Kurapika."
The other three gracelessly gawked at him.
"Are you sure?"
They turned to stare at Kurapika with disbelieving eyes.
"Pretty much yes."
They looked back at Kuroro.
"No, you are not." She snapped, her voice breaking apart. "You weren't there when they—they…"
Kuroro sighed. There was only one way to really convince the girl that she was still innocent and virgin. Kuroro strode to her side and bent down so that he could take her chin between his thumb and index finger and tilted her head up. Her wavering scarlet eyes stared back into his obsidian eyes.
"Let's go to Una."
The Unicorn would be the one to give the final, irrefutable decision of whether Kurapika was still innocent or not.
With one chocked sob, Kurapika nodded silently.
Kuroro shrugged off his thick Danchou coat and draped it on her thin shoulders. He then slipped one hand beneath the crook of her knees and carried her bridal style. He adjusted her position in his arms so as to ensure that she would be shielded from most of the bad night wind. He tucked her head safely beneath his chin as she laid her head against his chest.
Before Kuroro leapt from the balcony of the hotel room, he threw a sideways glance at the gawking trio.
"You can come along if you want to."
Una was standing by the lake of a forest, forlorn and worried sick. She could only point out to Kuroro the direction of where the Mammon had taken Kurapika, and that was all she could do. She wanted to see Kurapika, to see whether she was alright or not. She wanted to come to them, but she could not go into the city. She could only pace about the forest restlessly; waiting and waiting until they came to visit her.
"Una?"
And her prayer was answered.
Kurapika!
Without dilly-dally, Una galloped towards where Kurapika's shaky voice had come from. She soon spotted Kuroro sauntering towards her, cradling Kurapika securely in his arms. Without faltering; much to Kurapika's and Kuroro's immense relief, Una thrust her head eagerly into the embrace of Kurapika's open arms, at the same time careful not to accidentally hurt the girl with her horn. She nuzzled her face closely and earnestly to Kurapika's bosoms, like a child who had missed her mother very much.
Kuroro gave Kurapika a triumphant smile.
"Is this enough a confirmation and consolation?"
Kurapika's eyes were already glassy with tears of relief.
"More than enough."
Una had no idea on what they were talking about. Whatever it was—they could be talking about the end of the world, for all she could care—she was content enough to feel Kurapika's presence near her.
At the same time, Kurapika's Hunter friends were standing a considerable distance away from the reuniting Unicorn and her companions. They were staring with mouths open wide and eyes as big as a saucer.
"Are you guys seeing what I'm seeing, or am I seeing things because I'm too damn tired?" Leorio asked, still not daring to tear away his attention from the glowing horned horse which was nuzzling her head against Kurapika, because the scene was too precious to miss out and he was afraid that once he looked away, everything would vanish.
"I'm seeing a glow-in-the-dark horse with a horn, which I've heard is called a Unicorn." Killua declared.
"Precisely what I'm seeing. So that's a real thing?"
"A Unicorn!" Gon squealed in delight.
His squeal earned the attention of the said Unicorn, who then eyed them with wary yet curious beady eyes. Curiosity getting the better of her and Gon, soon the two of them were already studying each other and entertaining each other. Kurapika asked Kuroro to let her off, and he complied.
Soon enough, after Kurapika joined Gon and Una, the other two boys joined the merriment and were having one of those good old days back again. Kuroro then, out of respect, retreated into the recess of the darkness of the forest to allow them some private moments.
It was a boundary that he knew he was not supposed to step into—a part of Kurapika's world which he did not belong to.
Kurapika thought that she could finally earn some peaceful days, although she was still disappointed that a few days later her friends had to go back to attend to their duties and jobs: Leorio with his medical studies, Gon and Killua with their Ging-hunting-journey.
Oh, and of course Gon had pestered Lucian to talk about Ging
"That man? He's one of the strangest, craziest dudes I've ever seen. Not to mention a royal pain in the ass for pulling some lunatic pranks on his only son—"
"Lucian!"
THWACK!
"Killua, is my dad a bad person? Everyone's talking bad about him."
"Nah, Gon. I think that's just their way of showing their affection for your dad."
"I think it's your father's friends who are rather mental."
Kurapika thought that her days would go back to normal (YES! Travelling with Kuroro Lucifer and Lucian Virgilliu was now considered a normality for her), but by golly how wrong she was.
Several days after her friends departed and she and Kuroro resumed their Scarlet-Eyes-hunting, the whole Genei Ryodan gang assembled before Kuroro to report of their successful Mammon-hunting mission. Moreover, they announced that they were going to stick around their Danchou for the next couple of days.
Here came her personal hellions straight from the bowels of Hell.
"Do you really think this'll work?" Phinks asked nervously as he glanced towards his comrades.
"I honestly don't know." Shalnark answered with low voice as he eyed the unconscious Kuruta girl in front of them. "Or rather, I don't wanna know…"
Kurapika was sitting on a humble chair with her chin rested heavily on her chest. Her expression looked tranquil, betraying the fact that she had actually been drugged to sleep by none other than the Spiders themselves. Her breathing was even, and her body language was relaxed.
"Remind me again on why we are doing this." Machi said curtly with her glacial voice, shooting dirty look at Phinks and Shalnark.
"Well…" Phinks scratched the back of his head.
The Spiders exchanged glances with each other. Of course they recalled quite vividly the event that triggered this very dangerously volatile mission that they undertook without the permission of their Danchou. It was not like they had any choice in the matter—even if they asked for permission, there was no way in hell that Kuroro Lucifer would ever consent to such mission.
"You want me to WHAT?"
Kurapika's roar of indignation shook the entire room—if not the entire small deserted house they currently occupied—mildly, but the man whom she had yelled at remained unfazed and passive. If anything, he was kind of used to it by then. Kuroro folded his arms across his chest and gave his companion a steady look.
"I want you to stay here with the others while I attend to an urgent business." He repeated generously for her.
That did not help.
"You want ME to spend two days under the SAME ROOF with those SPIDERS of yours? Have you lost your sanity, Kuroro Lucifer?"
"No. I'm perfectly well and sound both physically and mentally." Kuroro gave her an irritatingly amused expression.
"Kuroro!"
"Kurapika, it's only for one night. ONE. Can't you bear with it for one measly night?"
"One night TWO days." She pointed out. "Then give me the reason why I can't tag along with you instead of staying with those, those…" she struggled for a moment to find a suitable word, and finally settled with "hooligans…"
"So you prefer coming along with me?" Kuroro's grin broadened.
"Hell, YES!" She was close to shrieking now.
"Previously you have always fussed around, complaining that you want to get away from me. And now after we dissolved the bind, you want to stick with me?"
"Dunderhead! This and that are completely different issue!"
Unbeknownst to them, the Spiders were eavesdropping from behind the door. They were crowding in the corridor and some managed to press their ears to the door, straining their hearings to catch their muffled conversation through the solid door. It was not hard to perfectly hear what Kurapika was saying, though—she was practically screaming.
"Hoo…What do you think they'll settle with?" Phinks asked in excited whisper.
"I wager Danchou'll make her stay." Franklin whispered back.
"I'll say Kurapika'll tag along with Danchou." Shalnark piped in.
"I bet Danchou will let her mutilate you all to death when they find you eavesdropping them." Machi said in very low voice, refusing to reduce her speech to mere whispers yet at the same time not wishing to be heard by the conversing people inside the room.
"Sssh!" They all put their index fingers on their lips to signal at her to keep quiet before they turned back to eavesdropping.
Machi's face scrunched up in displeasure for being told to shut up—usually it was she who told others to shut their trap. With an annoyed huff, she strode to the opposite wall and leaned against it, deciding to observe the situation rather than joining the eavesdropping team.
"What say you, Nobu?" She asked absentmindedly.
"!#%^&*()" came the muffled curses.
"Oh, I forgot…" Machi shrugged her tiny shoulders uncaringly and did not even bother to look at the poor samurai who was all tied up and had duct tape covering his loud mouth.
Nobunaga struggled to get himself free of the rope, but the rope was of special material that would not tear unless one used raw strength. The more Nen utilised to break the rope, the tighter the 'embrace' would be. Only people with ridiculous raw strength like Uvogin could break such ropes. The moment they all unanimously decided to eavesdrop, they had taken into consideration to first silence and immobilise Nobunaga. That was the most crucial safety measure they could think of.
"Do you think Danchou can really convince her to stay?" Machi asked again, seemingly to nobody in particular. When there was no answer forthcoming, Machi frowned. "Lucian?"
Answering to his summon, Lucian appeared out of nowhere. It was as if he had simply emerged from the shadows of the corridors. He had his usual cheeky grin plastered on his deathly pale face while his grey eyes glinted with mischief.
"I'm sure as hell that he is going to make her stay." The vampire answered in soft voice as he sauntered towards Machi.
"Reason being?"
"I was the one who told him that she must not come with us."
"You are going with Danchou?" Machi turned to glare at him with narrowed eyes, deliberately showing her suspicions against him. "What are you planning?"
"My motive is a secret, but I am going to tell you my plan."
He gave her an impish grin and started explaining his plan to her.
Machi looked down at the so-called wonder drugs that Lucian had given her before he departed with Kuroro. According to him, the drug would put a heavy sleeping spell on Kurapika, but at the same time she would be under hypnotised state where she would answer any questions directed to her honestly without fault. The whole concept of the drug had been intriguing to her, but now she was starting to sense the unfamiliar sensation of doubts in her guts. Her instinct was telling her that it was not going to end pretty.
Nevertheless, the other Spiders had been too eager to test out the drug so she could not really object. The gang had unanimously agreed upon interrogating her of her relationship with Danchou. Personally, she had been itching to know more about that issue as well.
All they needed to do was to dissolve the drug in a drink and make the Kuruta drink it. After some brainstorming because they knew that there was no way that they could make the Kuruta eat or drink anything they gave her—considering that she was still extremely wary about them—they ended up with delegating the task to poor Shalnark.
Of course the young man had vehemently rejected such nerve-wracking, life-threatening mission, but upon being told that he was the second person next to Danchou who was closest to the girl (among the Spiders, that is), he knew that he could not retaliate. After praying for longer life and 'spare me from this cup of suffering, oh Lord', Shalnark took off to the girl's room (who had begrudgingly agreed to stay in her room until Kuroro came back—but only Gods above knew what kind of persuasion he used to really convince the more-stubborn-than-a-mule girl to stay put) to offer her a canned soft drink.
They had dissolved the drug and injected it into the canned drink, and they could only hope that the girl had not bothered to check the can for any needle marks. Apparently, the Goddess of Fortune smiled upon them and she did not check. As soon as she had finished the entire can, she was out like a light.
"What should we ask her first?" Kalluto asked innocently, voicing the same thought the others had been mulling over.
"Lemme try." Nobunaga marched forward with his hand on the hilt of his sword. There was a faint mark of duct tape across his mouth, and the skin was still throbbing from when the duct tape was forcibly taken off. Damn you guys, one of these days I'm so gonna let you have a taste of being duct-taped! He swore inwardly.
"Nobu, don't do anything harsh…" Shalnark warned him with nervous voice.
It was a common secret between them that their Danchou was uncannily fond of the Kuruta girl—if not unnervingly protective. That was one of the objectives of the interrogation: to find out the reason of their Danchou's unusual possessiveness of this particular Kuruta.
"Hey, wake up, brat!" Nobunaga barked.
Kurapika stirred awake and the Spiders involuntarily held their breaths. They all tensed up in anticipation of what the girl was going to do, but they quickly sighed in great relief upon seeing the drowsy look in her oceanic blue eyes. The drug did work nicely. Nobunaga scowled at her, but there was an apparent smugness on his face.
"Answer me, have you tried harming Danchou in your…journey together?" Nobunaga practically spat out the last two words like they were plague.
The answer did not come forthwith.
"…yes…" came Kurapika's soft answer, her eyes giving a blank, soulless stare.
Nobunaga gave out a low guttural growl, but Machi's cold eyes stopped him from unsheathing his sword.
"She has not harmed him." Machi warned him.
"Tsch. Next question!" Nobunaga whipped his attention back to the drugged girl. "Do you intend to harm Danchou in the future?"
"No." The answer was rather fast to stumble out of her mouth this time.
"Do you intend to kill him?"
"No."
Everyone in the room raised their eyebrows and looked at each other with obvious bewilderment. Here was the chain-assassin; the sole survivor of the massacre of the Kuruta tribe, who had swore by her own blood, soul, and life to extract her revenge on the Genei Ryodan, telling them that she had no intention of killing the brain behind the massacre? Could they believe it?
"Why?" This time, it was Machi who asked.
"…we have…a truce…" answered Kurapika, her voice trailing away. "…and I've made…a promise…"
"What promise?" Machi asked with more urgency.
Kurapika's eyebrows knitted in the manner that indicated that she was fighting the drug-induced urge to tell them the answer—which was the promise she made to Ishtar. Fearing that it would result in the Kuruta breaking from the hypnosis, she decided to distract her with another question. The gears in Machi's brains were clocking and rumbling as she noted that Nobunaga had been asking questions related to Danchou only. How about the Ryodan?
"How about us? Do you intend to kill us?" She asked with steady voice.
Some of the Spiders shot her a disbelieving look, but some nodded in understanding of the logic of her question.
"…no…" came Kurapika's rather reluctant answer.
"Why?" Machi pressed on. She noticed the sure way wherein Kurapika had responded with questions regarding their Danchou, but it was not the same way with the Spiders. She was beginning to see where it was going to lead. Nonetheless, she had to make sure.
"…the truce…"
"Truce, truce, truce! What in the blazing damned hell is this 'truce' you keep blabbing about?" Nobunaga yelled in impatience.
"…I will cooperate with him to find a way to break the bind…in return he will help me collect all of the Scarlet Eyes…when everything is over, he'll leave me alone…and I will leave him and his Spiders alone…"
Phinks gave a whistle. "Nice one, Danchou."
"But I'll never get to kill this blasted brat! How will I get my revenge for Uvo?" Nobunaga yelled in indignation as he whirled around to confront his confrere, as if his right had been denied.
"Nobu, are you an idiot on top of being annoyingly loud? Truce or not, you'll never get your revenge. Danchou won't allow it." Machi rolled her eyes in exasperation. Sometimes she really wondered if the samurai had even a proper brain or not.
"It's damn obvious that Danchou's fond of this girl. You'll have to face Danchou before you can lay a hand on her." Phinks said casually as he pointed at the girl with a jerk of his chin.
"Danchou'll say something along the line: 'over my dead body', but it's really you who'll end up dead first." Feitan said with his characteristic snicker.
"You are sick. YOU ARE ALL!" Nobunaga roared as he spun on his heels to face the girl in drug-induced hypnotised state. The jealousy and rage in his small eyes were so blazing that even a blind person would not be able to miss them.
"Nobu, don't do anything stupid." Machi warned her as she strode towards the samurai, her hands flexing in dry anticipation of the upcoming skirmish.
"You witch. Not only you seduce Danchou but you also trick my comrades into defending you!" Nobunaga hissed.
"Nobu, we are only stating the obvious!" Machi's voice ascended by one pitch. "Remember the Mammon incident?"
"Speaking of that…" A malicious smile curled up Nobunaga's thin lips. "Brat! What did you tell those Mammon cowards about us? You'd better tell the truth." He said with a low growl.
"…nothing…"
Nobunaga failed to hide his surprise. The others were equally surprised.
"What did you tell them?" Nobunaga was close to roaring since he thought that the Kuruta was lying—though he knew it better that she was not but he just could not accept it.
"…Go to hell."
A vein popped in Nobunaga's forehead.
"Damn brat! I'll see to it personally that you are put out of your misery."
With his top speed, Nobunaga unsheathed his sword and brought it down in a cleaving manner, ready to split the languid girl into two bloody halves. Instead of hitting any flesh, the sword only managed to split the chair into two.
"MACHI!" Nobunaga roared.
"It wasn't me," came Machi's—for once—shocked voice from behind the samurai.
The samurai turned his head to confirm that Machi was really still behind him, and when he turned back to where the girl had been sitting a meagre second before, he really only found splinters of woods and metals; the remaining of what had been a chair before. Without so much of an effort, he spotted the blonde right away.
"Putting up a fight, eh? Fine! Let's see what you can do!"
"Nobu!" Franklin sprung into action to lock the hot-headed, short-tempered samurai in his hulking arms. That always worked.
Machi had deliberately positioned herself in front of the Kuruta, together with Shalnark. The young man with sandy brown hair was the most familiar one with the Kuruta girl among the Spider Limbs, and so he knew well enough that the girl would not harm him—well, at least she would not kill him. Machi, on the other hand, had always admired and adored Kuroro as her irreplaceable charismatic leader. If her Danchou deemed the Kuruta precious enough to be protected and trusted enough to have a truce with, she would protect the girl from unnecessary harms without even being asked to.
That was how much devotion Machi had for Kuroro Lucifer, though it had never blossomed into romance even in the coming future.
"I can't die yet…" Shalnark heard Kurapika's mutterings to herself since he was closest to her physically.
"What?"
"…I have a duty…" Kurapika said as she looked at the scars on her palms. "…I told him I won't die yet…"
Being outsiders, neither Machi nor Shalnark understood the meaning of her soliloquy. They only knew one thing for sure: so many things had happened between Kuroro and Kurapika and other people had no hope to comprehend what lay between those two former enemies. They had their own world; the two Spiders understood as much.
Suddenly, the whole interrogation thing became ridiculously pointless. Since the beginning, it was a lost cause. There was no way they could understand that strange relationship between those two people.
"…That's why…" Kurapika's eyes suddenly flashed dangerously scarlet. This alerted both of her defenders, but it was too late. "I won't let myself be killed so easily."
Before Machi and Shalnark could react, Kurapika lunged herself at Nobunaga, intending to fight him back. Enraged, Nobunaga wrenched himself free from Franklin's iron grip as the giant was rather stunned by Kurapika's sudden burst of rage.
Since the beginning, drugging the Kuruta was a bad idea, and it had gotten worse with the belated realisation that the Kuruta was renowned for her short fuse, and it had come down to the worst with the fact that the short-tempered chain-assassin was getting mentally unstable due to the drug. And it was entirely their fault.
Curiosity be damned, Lucian! Machi cursed inwardly as she rushed to try to save the day.
"Ce sa întâmplat (What's wrong), Lucifer?" Lucian asked with innocent tone, though he had an unpleasant stirring sensation in his gut.
Kuroro had stopped in his tracks and was looking at the direction of the humble house where he had left Kurapika with his Spiders. Somehow, he was getting a bad premonition over the decision of leaving them 'under the same roof', as Kurapika dubbed it. A frown creased the space between his eyebrows and he turned to regard Lucian with one measuring look.
"What are you planning?" Kuroro was articulating his question, and whenever he used this kind of gesture, it meant that he wanted a clear, reasonable answer. And Lucian knew it—but this also spelled D-O-O-M to him.
"P—plan?" Lucian inwardly cursed his stutter. "But I'm only taking you to Anansi, as you asked me to."
"And why did you suggest not taking Kurapika with us?" His eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.
"Em… Because you said that you want to be the one to explain the whole thing to her?" The corner of Lucian's mouth was already twitching nervously, and this did not escape Kuroro's keen observation.
"Lucian." Kuroro said again with underlying threat in his silky voice.
Lucian gave a chocked 'eep' sound and he actually almost jumped out of his skin upon hearing the edge in Kuroro's voice. It was either good luck or bad luck for Lucian, but before he was further threatened into spilling the beans, Kuroro's head snapped back to the direction of the hut. His obsidian eyes were wide in wonder and surprise. He had felt it—Kurapika's Nen was in turbulence. Whatever that could mean, he knew it was something unpleasant.
"If I were you, I would've ignored this shitty excuse of a vampire and rushed back to Kurapika."
A calm yet amused voice rang, and Kuroro could identify it in less than a second that it belonged to Anansi. Not bothering to respond to him, Kuroro dashed towards the direction of the house but not before shooting Lucian one super hard glare.
"I told you this wouldn't be a good idea." Anansi mocked Lucian with unhidden glee.
"I was only trying to help!" He retaliated.
"How so? By trying to break the ice between her and the Spiders?" Anansi snorted in open amusement. "In any case, whatever stupid reasons you have, I strongly suggest you go after Kuroro and check how bad things have gone."
"Thank you very much for your reassurance." Lucian mumbled begrudgingly, but nonetheless took off in the direction of the house.
The vampire was not prepared, however, to behold the scene that was unravelling before him and Kuroro. Of all things, this had to happen.
Most of the Spiders; notably Bonolenov, Coltopi, Shizuku, Feitan and Kalluto, remained safely on the sideline. Feitan chose not to meddle with the affair since he was not in the mood of fighting a half-conscious chain-assassin. Not only that, the girl seemed to have entered a delusional stage; which was probably the side-effect of the drug, since she began screaming some things that they did not understand—or chose not to understand—in response to Nobunaga's vulgar shouts.
On the hindsight, the fight was amusing in itself, seeing that Shalnark and Machi were trying to get the drug-induced raging Kuruta away from the seething samurai, while Franklin and Phinks were trying to drag the latter away from the former.
They were all so preoccupied by the ensuing chaos that they failed to notice the extra two presences that had just arrived at the scene.
"What is going on here?"
The room soon fell into pin-dropped silence.
"D, d, da, dan, Danchou…" Shalnark managed to squeak in high-pitched voice.
The 'innocent' Spiders only looked at their Danchou, then to the beyond-pale vampire, and then to the group that had been wrestling just a few seconds ago. Now, a more entertaining scene was about to play.
"Well?"
That one word was spoken so flatly and devoid of any emotions yet full of unspoken demand. He would not take silence as an answer. Lucian was so horrified by the way things had turned out to be that even the idea of running away slipped from his mind. He simply wanted to disappear into thin air—or combust into ashes in his case, perhaps, being a vampire after all.
"…Kuroro…?"
A soft voice rang surprisingly loudly in the tense silence of the room, and all heads snapped towards the owner of the voice. Crap, they all had forgotten about the drugged Kuruta. There was no way she was going to listen to reasons or even to Kuroro Lucifer. Even worse, she was in delusional stage. She could do whatever impossible things she would normally never do.
"Kurapika, what—"
Kuroro could not find his voice when his eyes landed on the Kuruta. She was a total wreck. Her face was pale and she had a cloudy stare in her scarlet eyes. She was looking at him in a very alien fashion; there was something about her that he could not really pinpoint. They stared at each other for the longest seconds ever before Kurapika's scarlet eyes suddenly burst into life, and so did her movements.
"You bastard! After what you have done to me, you think you can get away so easily, huh? I am so going to get my revenge!"
She was screeching by then and was already stomping her way to the stunned Spider Head. Everyone else was equally dumbstruck and when her words dawned to them, it was almost too late. Nobunaga was the first one to recover.
"Blast it! She's going to—"
Before anyone could move from their spot; save for Nobunaga who was trying to worm his way out of Franklin's grip, Kurapika was already in front of Kuroro and had grabbed the lapels of his shirt. She yanked him towards her and then it happened.
She pressed her lips forcefully against his.
"Now we are even…" She said with slurry voice, despite her earlier energy.
Without wasting another second, the not-really-herself Kurapika slumped against Kuroro's rigid chest and fell asleep as the sleeping spell hit her hard. When Kuroro felt her knees buckling under her dead weight, he instinctively slid his arms beneath hers and held her before she could hit the concrete. For those who had known him long enough, the look on Kuroro Lucifer's face was absolutely priceless—he was stunned, dazed, shocked, bewildered, confused, and other synonyms that existed in dictionaries, PLUS a blush albeit so slight and faint.
Another pin-drop silence filled the room. Everyone gawked at the action that the Kuruta girl had just committed, as if it was an unjustifiable crime. Then again, everyone in the room was totally at their wits' end. Nobody was entirely sure on how to explain the whole situations to Kuroro, let alone comprehending the meaning of that kiss that—of all people—Kurapika Kuruta had forced on Kuroro Lucifer. If anything, things were more delicate than they ever were. Then, Nobunaga blew it.
"Lucian, you conniving bastard! You drug is defective!"
Uh-oh.
Some of the Spiders gulped hard, while Phinks, Franklin, Shalnark, and Machi had taken the liberty of beating the light out of the imbecile excuse of a samurai.
Lucian was already dashing for his dear life towards the nearest exit—the window—when Kuroro had miraculously appeared before him and grabbed him by his collar. He still had Kurapika in his other arm, her head leaning comfortably against his chest. Kuroro's eyes were narrowed to dangerous slits, and there were murderous glints in those obsidian eyes.
"Now, I believe that a very GOOD explanation is in order," said Kuroro with his voice latched with unspoken dreadful threats.
"Goodness grief! What the—ow, ow, ow!" Kurapika clutched her throbbing head desperately and despairingly. The headache was threatening to blow her head and her fever was determined to fry her brains.
Headache? Fever? What in the deuce is happening to me? She blinked several times as she struggled against the involuntary tears that were blurring her vision. The heat was driving her insane!
"Hey."
The cool, familiar voice snapped her back to reality and she forced herself to focus and to absorb the surroundings she was in. She was in a familiar room, she was lying on a familiar bed, she heard a familiar voice, and she felt a familiar cold touch of a familiar hand on her burning forehead.
"You are still having slight fever."
"SLIGHT?" She yelled hoarsely, but that was all she was capable of. Soon enough, she was coughing herself silly.
A strong arm slid beneath her back and helped to prop her up in her bed. Amidst the coughing fit, she vaguely felt some fingers forcing a pill into her mouth and the cool sensation of a glass touching her dry lips. She then found herself relishing the cooling effect of the cold water that travelled down her throat.
"Explanation?" She asked with still hoarse voice as she finished devouring the entire content of the glass with the appetite of someone who had not drunk for three days.
Kuroro put aside the glass and made her lay down on the bed before he explained the entire scheme that had been plotted behind their backs. He had extracted the details from Lucian by literally torturing the undead life out of the vampire. When he got to the drug part, Kurapika visibly blanched.
"He freaking drugged me?"
"Technically, it's they. My Spiders drugged you, he manufactured the drug."
"Whatever." She waved a hand impatiently, dismissing the inconsequential details. "So now, what's this? I'm having a Great Hangover which is the side-effect of that stupid drug?"
"Yes." Kuroro said as he leaned against the back of the chair with his arms folded across his chest.
"Aargh! I'm GOING to get them later!" Kurapika vowed loudly despite the brain-sizzling headache.
"Don't worry, I have made sure that they stay put until you recover." Kuroro said, deliberately missing the minor details on how he had handpicked the guiltiest of the party and ensured that they would not escape their wraths. "When you are ready to pound the life out of them, let me know. I don't want to miss the spectacle." He said with chuckle.
Kurapika gave him a look.
"You are one hell of a twisted man, you know that?"
Kuroro gave her a Cheshire-cat grin.
"They need to learn the lesson fast, and I guess they badly need it the extremely hard way. I just want to ensure that they REALLY learn it by heart now."
"How much trouble did you get through this time?"
Kuroro only shrugged. "Not as much as you did, I suppose. Although, for someone who's having a hangover, you are quite lively."
"Gee, thanks." Kurapika rolled her eyes. "You have no idea on how much this headache is killing me."
"You don't look dying at all."
"Shut up!"
Kuroro let out an amused chuckle while Kurapika curled herself into a tight ball and cussed softly under her breath as her headache returned with more vengeance. Kuroro observed the small 'ball' on the bed, his hand covering his mouth in his characteristic pondering gesture. After a while, he decided to ask away.
"How much do you remember?"
Kurapika gave a snort.
"I remember Shalnark giving me a can of soft drink. After that, I'm more or less out of my sanity."
"Is that all?" There was some hidden anticipation in his voice.
"I think—" Kurapika's eyes widened in horror upon realising the possible meaning of that 'anticipation' in his voice. She jolted up into a sitting position and gave the man a pleading look. "What did I do this time?"
"Hm?" Kuroro fought hard to conceal his smile, but his mouth was already twitching.
"Don't play dumb! That drug—what did I do in my drugged state?"
"Doing some impossible…things." He gave away the smirk and was now attempting to smother a gleeful laugh.
"What THINGS?" She was yelling then, her headache forgotten.
"Now, now, Kurapika. Don't be so worked up, it's not healthy—"
"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT MY HEALTH RIGHT NOW! JUST TELL ME WHAT THE HELL DID I DO?"
"Do you want me to tell you, or do you want a demonstration?" Kuroro continued with the same level of composure that it unnerved her to no end. He felt bad about teasing her in her hangover period, but he could not help it. The looks on her face was simply too rare to be missed.
"De—demonstration?" Her voice quavered as her eyes widened in pure horror.
Kuroro let out a devilish handsome grin, purposely misinterpreting her question for clarification as a statement of answer.
"Then demonstration it is."
"We are oh so dead." Lucian whimpered.
"This is YOUR fault! Why do you have to drag us along, you idiot vampire!" Phinks kicked his side, and the vampire gave an 'Ouf!'
"If your curiosity keeps getting us into unnecessary troubles, I will make sure that you will no longer be able to feel anymore curiosity." Machi hissed venomously from her seat while glaring daggers at the vampire; who shrank under her scorching glare. "You too, Nobu!"
The samurai had actually been sitting at the dusty corner of the room, brooding and weeping. In fact, he looked as if he would break down in tears and cried flood at any given time when given the right cue.
"She, she… she k, k, ki—" He had stuttered, unable to finish that particular k-word.
"Kissed Danchou." Phinks had generously offered.
"DID that to Danchou! Poor Danchou!" Nobunaga had covered his face with both hands like those tearful maidens in some soap opera drama who were weeping for their tragic love-life.
"Poor? I thought he rather enjoyed it." Phinks had laughed.
"YOU!" Nobunaga had roared like a wounded lion.
"What did I do wrong this time?" The samurai snapped.
"Are you an idiot? The whole commotion was caused by you!" Machi snapped back at him.
"But she told me to go to hell!"
"Dumbass. That's what she told those Mammon assholes when they interrogated her about us."
This time, shockingly it was Feitan who answered. All heads turned to the small man, surprised that he could give an explanation to it. Nobunaga gave him a queer disbelieving look. He raised one sharp eyebrow upon seeing their ludicrous reaction.
"And how exactly did you know that, Feitan?" Phinks asked him curiously.
"Well…" Feitan shifted his legs to adjust his balance. "I simply 'interrogated' some of the 'lucky' ones."
"You mean those who still retained a bit of their original appearance before Danchou permanently altered them?" Phinks snickered with gruesome humour.
"Whatever you call it." Feitan only shrugged uncaringly. "Oh, and another trivia to amuse you: she kept saying 'I'm not a Judas'. Whatever the hell that means."
Shalnark and Machi exchanged a brief glances to each other. Judas was Kuroro's favourite character from the Bible that he would often refer to, for a reason that they did not—and would never—really comprehend. Not that it mattered for them, though.
"Why didn't you tell us before?" Machi demanded.
"I never thought that would be necessary." The small bandit gave an evil smirk.
"If you have told us earlier we wouldn't have to go through all this hassle." Shalnark complained. "Now we can only wait for the worst."
Lucian sighed heavily from the corner where he was sitting in despondency.
"I'm already dead and I'm going to die all over again…" Lucian pouted.
The words were scarcely out of his mouth when an ear-splitting, blood-curdling scream thundered across the compound and shaking the house in its intensity. It sounded more like an explosion than anything else. Everyone in the vicinity jumped out of their skins out of utter surprise and shock. Birds and other animals living in the nearby greenery scampered away for dear life. When the scream died down, it was replaced by yells of indignation and wrath that virtually drowned the light-hearted laughter that accompanied them. A knowing grin graced the vampire's pale visage.
"Well, at least not today…"
Before the meaning of Kuroro's words sank into her head, she could only catch a glimpse of blurry movement, and the next thing she knew, Kuroro already had a fistful of her golden hair in his hand and he was locking her lips with his. It was a simple kiss, really, but still it was the shock of Kurapika's life. The moment Kuroro broke the kiss, it came.
Her screeching scream that ravaged the entire compound.
And then her yells of outrage accompanied by his full-blast laughter (Kurapika was too preoccupied by her embarrassment that she failed to notice this phenomenal occurrence of Kuroro Lucifer laughing)
"I, I… I did that?" Kurapika's face was already lobster red from the embarrassment and shame when she was finished with the yelling and screaming. Her voice had turned hoarse again, if not worse.
"Well, you said something along the line: 'Now we are even' afterwards." Kuroro's face was also flushing from the laugh.
"E—even?" She blinked in confusion.
"I guess you were referring to your first kiss." Again, the devilish grin. "Oh, you should have seen the looks on the others—"
"Others?" Her voice rose by one pitch. "Don't tell I did that in front of them?"
Oh, God, please spare me this shame!
"Every. Single. One. Of. Them." He evilly informed her. "Plus Lucian."
No such luck. That was all she needed to shut down her system in order to cope with the stress and life-killing embarrassment. Without any sounds, Kurapika passed out and fell onto the bed with a soft thud.
"Oh my…" He grinned to himself.
Kuroro wondered when the last time he was having so much fun was. Lately, things had been depressing and all prospects seemed to be gloomy—or cloudy at best. He sighed contently as he gazed at the unconscious prone form of Kurapika, whose face was still furiously blushing.
He got up and sat on the bed while his gaze was fixed on the girl. Their journey of collecting the Scarlet Eyes was coming to an end, sooner or later.
Kuroro's eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the news. It was too fun to have the girl around. Then again, at the same time he knew that it was not healthy for them to stick together for too long. Things were getting out of hands, and they both knew it despite never voicing it out loud. That was another terrifying realisation between them; they could share a thought without talking about it. It was as if they were synchronizing.
No. They were two very different beings with very different ideologies. It would be best for them to quickly finish the whole Scarlet Eyes deal and leave each other alone for the rest of their lifetime.
"You only learn not to take things for granted once you've lost something you hold dear. Isn't that too much?" Anansi's voice reached his ears softly.
The man was standing by the open window, observing the duo with plain amusement on his seemingly-grim visage. His eyes, however, were ever playful. A soft gleam flashed across Kuroro's usually cold eyes. Despite Anansi's presence, he reached out and brushed her cheek with the back of his fingers. His eyes narrowed slightly as his mind spoke:
Maybe it's time for me to start relishing my time left with you.
"Why are you here?" He asked Anansi with indifferent voice, his voice a stark contrast with his gentle gesture.
Anansi smiled to himself despite Kuroro's cold attitude to him; Kuroro allowing him to have a glimpse of his gentle side was already an achievement for him.
"I suppose you have questions for me?"
"You even made a restrainer for her." Kuroro stated as-a-matter-of-factly, not really answering Anansi's question.
"Of course." Anansi's smile broadened. "She means the world for you, doesn't she?"
Kuroro did not deny it—nor did he have any plans to ever do so.
Author's Note: Just a trivia: the 'spare me from this cup of suffering, oh Lord' prayer that Shalnark uttered above was inspired by Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before he was captured by the Romans. Even until the last moment, Kuroro's still a selfless guy. Sigh… I think Kuroro's actually quite lucky to have such understanding parents (albeit they were both very weird and eccentric)
Next: Their journey was coming to an end. When the last pair of the Scarlet Eyes was finally collected, how would things end up? Would they really part ways?
