Disclaimer: I do not own HunterxHunter, nor do I profit commercially from these writings.
Author's note: 'Kremlin' is Russian for 'fortress'. It indicates a group of buildings located within a fortification. Russian people, correct me if I'm wrong.
ABC Series
K is for Kremlin
"The Dark Continent?"
"Yep. I heard some obscure organizations are ganging up together to form an expedition team to explore the Dark Continent. President Netero is trying to sabotage them, though."
Kuroro gave a crooked smile. It always amused him when Kurapika didn't put any euphemism about everything and generally being brutally honest. She never bothered to be politically correct, although he knew for sure that behind all those carefree devil-may-care attitudes about politics, she could be really good at playing politics when the need arose. He also knew that she learned a lot about the arts of manipulation from himself, and so he couldn't help but to feel proud whenever she managed to manipulate someone to do her wishes—even if the person manipulate was him himself. In fact, that would make him even more proud; the proverbial student had proverbially surpassed the proverbial teacher, so to say.
But anyway, about the Dark Continent…
"Are you interested in it?"
"What?"
"The Dark Continent. Do you want to go there?"
Kurapika gave him a suspicious look, which amused him even more because she looked a bit like she was constipated. He did understand why the suspicion, though. He just knew the next question she was going to ask—
"You have been there, haven't you."
Yep. That one.
"Indeed." He said genially with a nod as he leaned back against his sofa chair, elbows on the armrest and fingers clasped together.
He almost snickered out loud when Kurapika's eyes shone brighter in sheer curiosity. Though she could be anal retentive most of the time, Kurapika could express a childish enthusiasm about new places and new experiences. It was refreshing to see her so excited, so liberated.
"In fact, YOU have been there, too."
She blinked.
"No." She replied with a what-the-hell-are-you-talking-about tone.
"You have. You just didn't know that it was part of the Dark Continent."
Kurapika frowned, and Kuroro could literally see the gears turning in her head as she tried to recall her past adventures and escapade around the world with him. Oh, those fine ol' days. He truly missed those days. Perhaps they should plan another getaway like that again. The children could take care of themselves now, and there were Fino and Nobunaga and Phinks who always volunteered to babysit the children. Nobunaga would sooner commit seppuku than to admit that he loved the four little critters to death, though.
"Ryuusei-gai?" Kurapika guessed.
"Close enough." Kuroro nodded in approval.
"The Temple?"
"The forest beyond the Temple." Kuroro corrected.
Kurapika's eyebrows furrowed even deeper and she tilted her head in incomprehension, and there was disbelief in her gait.
"The Forest is part of the Dark Continent?"
At her uncomprehending response, Kuroro raised an eyebrow.
"Why do you find it so hard to believe? The Forest is saturated with creatures that you don't find in the human continents here." Kuroro shrugged, amused that the fact escaped Kurapika's scrutiny. Perhaps she had forgotten about those monster-like creatures.
Kurapika's lips made an 'o' as she snapped her fingers in the typical I-got-it gesture. She indeed had forgotten that tiny little fact.
"You forgot about them."
"Sort of." She said sheepishly.
"Naturally." He grinned mockingly (playfully) at her, to which she responded with a swift kick to his leg—which she missed ("damn!"). "You don't exactly visit the Forest when you come to Ryuusei-gai."
"When I know that the Forest is crawling with your spidery critters? No way." She sneered at him. "So the Temple is literally the border between the Dark Continent and our human continent?"
"The Temple of Ryuusei-gai is the fortress of the dessert. An outpost, if you will."
"So there are other outposts?"
"Indeed. There is one for the sky, the underwater, the subterranean, the tropical jungle, and the tundra. There is one for each landscape."
"All in the form of temples as well?" Kurapika didn't even bother to conceal her curiosity.
"Not exactly, but you can tell that they are meant to be fortresses."
"So your job is to make sure that the creatures from the Dark Continent don't trespass into the human continent?"
"That is the job of the Master of the Temple of Ryuusei-gai, yes." Judging from Kuroro's expression, he obviously didn't like his job description. Poor guy, but Kurapika couldn't help but to inwardly gloat at his misery. How ironic that an S-rank criminal like him ended up relegated with the noble duty of protecting the human continent from onslaught from the Dark Continent.
"The Lady of the Lake seems to be doing the most at keeping the creatures in the Forest in check." Kurapika quipped, when she was done basking in the glory of his ironical misery.
"She volunteered for it, and eventually grew into the role. She took residence in the Forest in order to keep Ishtar company when Ishtar took up the role of the Mistress of the Temple."
"And you know this because…?" She doubted that he asked Ishtar about it.
"Hatsubaba talks too much." Kuroro shrugged. Kurapika laughed.
"I have always wondered, though... Is Bibi from the Dark Continent?" Kurapika tapped her chin in wonderment.
There was no more exasperation in Kurapika's voice when she spoke of the raptor that Sarai had adopted as family pet. She was beginning to like the raptor because she (Bibi was a she) was highly intelligent and understood human speech very much. Bibi actually could communicate appropriately with them using body language on her part. Kurapika wouldn't be surprised if one day the raptor started talking in human speech. The raptor also made for a very good steed, like Una and Bara were. In total, the family had four steeds: Bara, Una, Bibi, and Bast when she was in her gigantic form.
"Perhaps. I wouldn't be surprised if dinosaurs still live somewhere out there." Kuroro said casually.
Kurapika then looked like she just had an epiphany, and Kuroro waited in anticipation for her next question.
"Is Lucian and his kind from the Dark Continent, too?"
Kuroro paused and blinked at that.
"Actually…" He drawled with uncertainty. "I'm not sure. He might be."
Without further ado, Kuroro fished out his mobile phone seemingly out of nowhere and began dialling Lucian's number. When Kuroro Lucifer was curious, he was going to sate it immediately. Kurapika could only roll her eyes at his impatience and impulse. Before long, the call was picked up and the vampire's cheery voice rang from the phone.
[Hey, Lucifer! Wassup?]
"Are you from the Dark Continent?"
[Say what?]
"You heard me."
[I know, but what? The Dark Continent? Where did that come from?]
"Are you?"
[Impatient bastard.] The vampire muttered without malice. [No, I'm 100% Wallachia resident. Now tell me why you start asking me about the Dark Continent. Did your little fiends escape there or what? If yes, I can't help you there, frate (brother). I'm not familiar with the place.]
"Then was your sire from there?"
[My sire? Pfft. That ancient buffoon has been sitting his ass on his throne here in Wallachia even before he was reborn. Nu (No). He's 100% local.]
"What about his ancestors? The sires before him? The Solomonarii?"
[The hell with all this questioning? We're playing 20 Questions or what? Nu știu (I don't know). They should have the record somewhere in the family library. Ain't gonna do the damn research for you, by the way. You want to find out, you come here and dissect the library for the information yourself. And so far as I know, the Solomonarii are humans so by right they shouldn't be from the Dark Continent. Now tell me why all these questions?]
"Oh, just idle curiosity."
[Idle curiosity my ass. What's your plan? You going there with Kurapika? Please don't bring the kids with you, te implor (I'm begging you). Goodness knows what kind of creatures from over there that they will adopt into the family pet because they WILL, everything else—you two included— be damned. One raptor, two unicorns, and a daemon cat are enough, I should think.]
"A valid and fair point." Kuroro conceded as he mentally laughed at Kurapika's horrified expression. No doubt she was imagining the kind of monstrosity that the four children would insist on bringing back home to add to their collection of exotic pets. When she spotted Kuroro's conniving grin, she glared at him with all she had while pointing a sharp don't-you-dare finger at him.
[In any case, frate (brother), I've got news for you.]
"Oh? And what would that be?"
And thus they began conversing about some business that Kurapika felt did not concern her at all because it was about the Genei Ryodan and their missions. After all these years, she still tried to not get too much into their business. Woefully, her children didn't follow her example. In fact, they loved playing with those ruffians. Similarly, the Spiders enjoyed the company of the children and often times they behaved just as childish as the kids were. Kurapika didn't know whether to feel touched, freaked out, worried—or anything at all, for that matter—by the fact that the Spiders had taken so much to the children that it was as if those four little fiends were also their children. They took their time teaching the children all they could, passing down skills and techniques that Kurapika thought was supposed to be their secrets. She had to grudgingly admit that those skills could come in handy, but she still wondered… Why were the Spiders so dedicated to the children? She asked Kuroro about it once, and the man would only give her an indolently complaisant smile and nothing else.
But speaking of the children…
Strange. She hadn't heard a peep from those infernal spawns of Lucifer (pun intended), and that was highly suspicious. The only time when they were this quiet at home was either when they were planning some sort of diabolical pranks, or when they were sick like dying cows on painkillers. Kurapika then began to wonder. Ignoring Kuroro's questioning glance, Kurapika expanded her En and tried to track down the children. To her escalating suspicion, their presence was absent from the house. Even when they were in In state, they were supposed to still be detectable with En. Kurapika then expanded her En even further, until she did manage to catch signals on the edge of her En radius. The presences slipped from her En almost as soon as they touched it, but Kurapika managed to get a good feeling on those Nen signatures.
Her analysis was as such: Sarai and Noah were riding Bibi, while Bia and Meta were on Bast's back. They were running at top speed towards the general direction of their Backyard Forest, which was strange because they never rode their steeds when entering the forest. Unless…
"No…" Kurapika started with horror.
She noticed it. The kids. They had fully-loaded backpacks on, judging from their body postures. The Backyard Forest could be a shortcut off the mountain when you jump off the cliff at the edge of the forest.
"No no no—" She began clawing at her face, before she ran out of the room in a flurry of movement and curses.
[Ce se întâmplă? (What's going on)]
"Well…"
[Așteaptă, nu răspunde (Wait, don't answer). Lemme guess: your micii monstri (little monsters) overheard your conversation and they have decided to hightail it and off to the Dark Continent without your permission?]
"Succinctly summarised." The Spider Head chuckled.
[Typical day in your house.] Kuroro could just imagine Lucian shrugging at the comment. [You really should discipline them more.]
"Indeed. They could have done a better job at sneaking out under Kurapika's radar."
[Dude, that is so NOT my point.]
Before Kuroro could make another witty remark just to annoy the hell out of Lucian, Kurapika had reappeared into the room with a ready backpack—nostalgically from their adventure time so long ago—and travelling coat for each of them. She was already dressed in her travelling attire. Her face was flushed, and there was a glint in her eyes.
"We are going after them."
"Kurapika..." Kuroro started as he rose from his seat gracefully.
"I am not backing down. We are going after them." Kurapika interrupted curtly, hands on her hips.
"I know. What I was going to say is…" He dramatically put a hand on her shoulder, and he could see her eye twitching in mild irritation.
Lucian, meanwhile, had decided that he was just going to hang up because obviously he was being ignored by Kuroro in favour of messing with Kurapika.
"…You just want an excuse to go to the Dark Continent yourself, don't you?"
Kurapika's face flushed even more and she started stammering out justifications and denials. Kuroro simply flashed her a boyish grin and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, before grabbing his backpack and travelling coat, and dragged her towards the door by her wrist. Lucky he was still in his outdoor attire. After all, he just came back home from a trip done per Abelard Constantin's request.
"Well, come on then."
Perfect. He was getting his wish of going on adventure with her again; bless the children and their errant behaviour. He just hoped that the children would have the foresight to take the unicorns with them so that Kurapika couldn't catch up with them.
To his glee, they did.
Author's Note: Yet another comedy. I just can't help it =P I firmly believe that no matter how old Kuroro gets, he will always have that adventurous, mischievous boyish side in him—which will inevitably always try to drag Kurapika into the mess. I simply fell in love with the word 'kremlin', and was determined to make a chapter out of it. I suppose the summary of this chapter is about Ryuusei-gai and this wacko family as one of the fortress guarding the human continent from the Dark Continent (which is a real canon place in the series, as you will know if you have read until the latest chapter of HunterxHunter). And Lucian just had to make a cameo here.