Disclaimer: I do not own HunterxHunter, nor do I profit commercially from these writings.
Lucian's Story Part 9
THE PACT
The last thing she remembered before she succumbed into this darkness and void was the light, the fire, and the pain pain pain. The pain throbbing on her cheek where Meta had punched her, the pain as her bones ached, the pain as her lungs burned, and most of all, the pain as her blood boiled in her veins.
And now, she was floating in nothingness. No more pain. No more sensations. Everything was dull and numb. She was vaguely aware that she was perhaps on her way into that deep black abyss down, down there. To disappear into nothingness, to be absorb into that black hole that she somehow could feel in this dense darkness.
She was immobile, not in control of her own body. She just floated there, like a wooden doll, resignedly awaiting her fate.
Girl…
...Voice? Who?
"Child…"
The voice was distant, echoing all over her senses. Left, right, up, down. The voice was gentle and soft, non-threatening and even reassuring. As time passed, the voice grew closer and more distinct, until it finally solidified into a presence directly above her.
"Open your eyes..."
It took time for her to muster enough strength and willpower to crack open her heavy eyelids. When Bia finally regained her sight, the first thing she saw was the owner of the beautiful voice leaning over her. She was gorgeous, a fair-skinned lady swathed in black and purple with an unearthly glow blanketing her like a cape. Her hair spilled over her shoulders like a cascading waterfall. One of her dainty hands was wrapped around Bia's neck, for all appearance looking like she was about to strangle her.
"Bianca Lucifer Kuruta." The woman whispered solemnly.
Bia blinked sleepily. She didn't remember ever meeting this woman before.
"What is your regret?"
Regret? Her thought echoed from her mind and broadcasted into the darkness.
"Do you wish to live?"
Should I live? After all I have done?
"What have you done?"
I killed Lucian...
"Did you?"
Bia hesitated. Did she?
"He lives still, child. Barely and not for long, but there is still time."
Time? Time for what?
"To save him."
Hope blossomed on the girl's corpse-like face, and a dash of colour returned to it.
Save him. Please. She pleaded.
The woman smiled, and her grip around Bia's neck tightened ever so slightly.
"Will you embrace a curse for your penance?" The woman asked quietly.
A curse?
"A curse of endless existence and dependency."
Will it save Lucian?
The woman smiled.
"That is the purpose. That is your penance: to keep him alive. Save him from the loneliness of his existence."
Loneliness?
"Kuroro Lucifer is mortal. He will perish one day, and Lucian will be alone again. Alone in his immortality. Will you accompany him?"
She never thought Lucian was ever lonely. She had never seen him looking lonely, all the time that he was with the family. He always laughed. He always goofed off. He always got into silly arguments with Daddy. But lonely…?
Oh, but she had seen it. That one time, when Lucian thought nobody was looking. He had been gazing at the picture of the family that he always kept on his person. Yes, Bia remembered. She remembered wondering why Lucian had looked so lonely and, dare she say it, afraid. Afraid of what, she hadn't known at that time. But now she knew.
"You must not regret it. This decision. If you ever show regret, it will kill him inside out. Guilt will eat him up, and his eternity will be hell on earth."
The future. Lucian had been afraid of the future, where Daddy would no longer be around.
And in turn that made Bia afraid. Afraid of the loneliness that would haunt Lucian when Daddy's time on earth was up. Afraid of all the aimless wandering and the restlessness that came with lack of companionship. Afraid of the image of Lucian's back hunched over and looking so small.
"A life of companionship by his side forever, no regret and no turning back. Will you embrace this curse?"
Curse? Would keeping Lucian company for indefinite time a curse? She recalled all the time spent with Lucian. All the laughter whenever he goofed off and made a fool of himself. All the easy companionship. All the excited discovery whenever Lucian managed to invent something completely random and yet oddly useful. All the adventure as Lucian went on his trip to collect ingredients for his experiments.
If she had the strength, she would have laughed. Eternity seemed easy compared to the memory of Lucian's lonely back.
I will embrace this fate. Bia stated confidently.
Her deliberate correction of the phrase surprised the woman, but the woman recovered quickly and even seemed genuinely pleased by it.
"So you will be his tovarăş?"
Bia vaguely recalled Lucian using that word before. Tovarăş . Companion. Comrade.
I will stay by his side forever.
"No regret?"
No regret.
"Good girl."
The woman bent over and kissed her on the forehead. Bia felt a spread of warmth coursing through her body and concentrating along her neck where the woman's hand was. She vaguely felt a band of warmness settling around her neck like a loose collar.
"There will be pain and there will be blood." The woman whispered to her. "A lot of them."
I'm not afraid.
The woman smiled approvingly.
"I expect no less from the daughter of Kuroro Lucifer and Kurapika Kuruta."
Madame Sforza fingered her dagger with anxious anticipation. The air was heavily charged with her magic. Everything was ready.
"Ma...Pa…"
Madame Sforza glanced down at the frail dying girl in her arms that she had managed to wrestle out of Death's jaw. The girl was staring with half-lidded eyes at her parents.
"I'm sorry…" The girl croaked out weakly.
Understanding dawned on Madame Sforza, and she tightened her grip on the girl as a gesture of reassurance.
"This is not a goodbye." She whispered to the girl softly.
Perhaps. If all went well, this would not be a goodbye. She had done all she could. The rest was up to Lucian. She just prayed that her boy would stop being an idiot for this time and did the best thing. For his sake and for the girl's sake. Or at the very least for Kuroro Lucifer's sake.
She chanted the last rite for the tovarăş ritual and raised the dagger in a ceremonial manner.
"You are a brave, brave girl, Bia." She whispered to the girl approvingly, before she brought down the dagger.
Her fingers were bleeding raw and some of her fingernails were broken, but she didn't care. She continued digging and digging. Deeper and deeper. Even after she had exhausted her Nen trying to dig her way through the dense mountain of rubble into the quarantine chamber, she continued digging with her bare hands.
"Kurapika."
She ignored him. She didn't even hear him. She continued digging, her mind focused solely on digging closer to the quarantine chamber, where her dear daughter was buried underground with Lucian and bleeding to death.
"Kurapika."
A pair of hands reached out from behind her and held her wrists firmly yet gently, stopping her from digging and damaging her hands further. Those hands were larger than hers, warmer and stronger. They were steady and sure, not shaking like hers. The arms to which those hands were attached folded themselves around her, enveloping her into an embrace.
"That's quite enough."
She had been so single-minded in her effort to dig her daughter out that she had pushed away her emotions. But now that her manual labour was stopped, she couldn't stop the flood of memories that assaulted her mind. The memories from few scant hours before.
XXX
"NO!"
Kurapika was about to make a leap toward Madame Sforza and retrieve Bia, but a hand shot out and grabbed her by the waist. Kurapika then found herself being pulled backward and her back collided with Kuroro's solid chest.
"Kurapika, don't!"
But she wasn't paying him any attention. Instead, her eyes were glued to the bloody scene taking place before her. The scene that she could only perceive as the murder of her daughter. It was like a tunnel-vision.
The blade did not seem to be met with resistance as it sliced through skin, muscle, and flesh. It glided through her neck along the glowing inscription around her neck. Bright vermillion blood gushed out of Bia's throat, the dainty little neck cut open almost in half. Madame Sforza's other arm pushed her away and effectively dropped her into the egg-shaped barrier that contained a deranged bloodthirsty vampire. Bia's slight body dived like a rag doll into a fiery incinerator.
"BIA!"
"Kurapika!" Kuroro hissed as Kurapika managed to wrench herself free from his hold and made a mad dash toward the hole on the floor where Bia was falling into.
Kurapika barely managed to take five steps when lightning descended from the dark heaven and struck the ground right before Kurapika. The force of the impact sent Kurapika flying back, with second degree burn around her arms when she used them to shield her face from the lightning. Kuroro caught her in midair and teleported away to safer ground, where Kurapika immediately used her Healing Chain on herself until there were no burn marks left.
When Kurapika looked up, she was greeted with a scene of utter destruction. Thunders fell from the sky like spears raining down a battlefield. It struck the ground around the hole, effectively destroying what remained of the floor. Everything was burning. The red combat dragon gave a mighty roar; its mistress standing regally on top of its head, before it made a swipe at the burning inferno with his barbed tail. The tail destroyed everything in its path, flattening the landscape and sweeping everything into the hole where Lucian and Bia were.
"NO!" Kurapika screamed when she realised that the dragon was trying to bury Lucian and Bia alive.
But she could do nothing. She could only squirm in Kuroro's arms and scream her throat bloody raw as she watched the whole compound collapsing into the quarantine chamber. She could only sag into Kuroro's arms and cried her heart out as the dragon gave one final roar and rose to the sky with its mistress perched safely on its head.
The moment Kuroro had released her, she had immediately scrambled to the mountain of rubble and used her Nen chain to carve out a semblance of tunnel. She continued digging well after night had turned into dawn and her tears had dried out. And now, those tears came streaming down her cheeks in her silent weeping.
She always fancied that she was strong. Not the strongest, but at least strong enough to protect her family. That her family was strong.
"Kurapika."
His breath was warm to her cold skin and his solid chest like a fort. She sagged into his arms as he rested his chin on her shoulder and rubbed his cheek against hers. His hands held her bleeding ones gently, blanketing those damaged fingers in Nen to accelerate the healing process.
She was strong. Kuroro was strong. So why…?
Why?!
"They are still alive."
Her breath hitched.
"Heen has just reported to me. He has life-tracking chips inside Bia and Lucian so he can monitor them through Beast. They are still alive right now."
She almost did not believe those words, but Kuroro never lied to her. Kurapika turned around to stare at Kuroro in wonderment and disbelief that was soon replaced by hope.
"They are?"
"Yes."
She burst into tears; this time they were tears of relief.
"Oh God...Thank you…" She sobbed tearfully.
And then she collapsed.
She was already in his arms, so it didn't take Kuroro much hassle to readjust Kurapika in his arms so he could properly hold her as he made his way toward the dense forest near the vicinity and away from the mountain of rubble. Once he reached the edge of the forest, he immediately chose a spot under the shadow of the trees where the harsh midday sunlight later on would not reach them and where the mountain of rubble was still within eyesight. He laid Kurapika down on the soft grass before he lay next to her facing the ruin of the safe house and draped an arm around her. He tucked her under his chin and let out a tired sigh.
For all appearance, Kurapika looked dead to the world but Kuroro knew that she was just sleeping off her exhaustion. Kurapika had simply collapsed out of mental exhaustion, he had nothing to worry about her. He was more worried about the two trapped underground.
True, he had told her that Lucian and Bia were still alive and he had not lied. They were indeed still alive at the moment, but for how long more he didn't know. He had told Kurapika that for her sake, for her peace of mind. She needed it right now.
He was pretty sure that Lucian and Bia had not been crushed to death when the compound had collapsed on them because of the barrier that Madame Sforza had set up. At the very least, that would have given them breathing room and enough oxygen to last them until they could unearth them from this small mountain of rubble. Kuroro suspected that Madame Sforza purposefully buried them under this rubble so that the last part of the tovarăş ritual would go uninterrupted and in private. Kuroro didn't know the details of the ritual, but it wouldn't be surprising if the last part of the ritual had to be in utmost private, between the vampire and the human.
Kuroro wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but he still had a lingering doubt.
While Kurapika had been focused solely on Bia and nothing else, Kuroro's attention was on something else. He had seen how Lucian had reacted the moment Bia's blood was spilled. He had seen how the vampire's blood red eyes had reverted back to their gray hue. He had seen how Lucian had moved with his arms extended; his gait more of a man who was trying to catch a falling person instead of a predator pouncing on a prey. Lucian had been lucid.
It filled Kuroro with both hope and dread. Hope that Lucian might be lucid enough to not suck Bia dry and perform the rest of the tovarăş ritual (if there was any left) properly. Dread that Lucian's conscience might make him hesitate for too long that Bia's life would expire first from the sheer blood loss and thus died in vain soon.
He just hoped that the fact that both were still alive was the sign that the tovarăş ritual was successful.
Author's Note: Madame Sforza isn't as mean as she appeared in previous chapters. Review please! What do y'all think so far?