Author's Note: This is part of a collaboration with Kiwizoom for a card challenge in the Greed Island Game Master Server.
Deep in a forest on the outskirts of Lukso province, Kurapika is shoveling through the soil. He's planning to bury a pair of scarlet eyes next to the graves of the rest of his clansmen.
This pair is his latest in a succession of hard-earned acquisitions. A wave of mingled grief and relief has accompanied each acquisition. But these waves have weakened with every eye or head he's collected.
Just as he feared as a hot-headed seventeen-year-old, his vengeful rage has faded over the years.
Now all he can summon is a muted, deadened feeling, sitting like a stone in his chest as he thrusts the shovel into the hard-packed dirt with monotonous motions.
Once Kurapika finishes the burial, he travels to a nearby town, which is the civilized area closest to the secluded settlement formerly occupied by the near-extinct Kurta clan.
This is only the fourth time he's ever set foot in this town. The first time he visited, he and his childhood friend Pairo bought groceries and accomplished other errands for the clan. The second time, he passed through alone after bidding his clan farewell for what would be the final time, as he realized only in retrospect. The third time was six weeks after those goodbyes, when he stopped by to purchase a shovel and granite tablets for gravestones.
On the edge of town is a church constructed on top of a hill.
At age twelve, Kurapika wandered into this holy place with Pairo. Without knowing why, they both hushed instantly as they passed through the marble archway erected at the entrance. Hand-in-hand, they ambled toward the altar then sat on pews on opposite sides of the aisle.
In rapt silence, Kurapika gazed at the stained glass windows, at the pulpit where a priest would deliver sermons during weekly days of worship, and at the enormous wooden cross mounted on the altar.
The Kurtas did not adhere to a monotheistic creed, but they did revere and honor their ancestors who'd ascended to another plane ahead of them. Even so, as Kurapika stared at the wooden statue of the messiah nailed to the cross, carved face anguished and bleeding beneath a crown of thorns, he understood why billions of adherents across continents and centuries would choose to pray to a sole deity allegedly possessing the powers to perform miracles and to redeem disciples from their lives of sin.
In the present, Kurapika enters the old church, which has long since been abandoned in favor of a flashy, air-conditioned establishment situated on flat ground in the heart of the town.
Over the years, the stained glass windows have become cracked and cobwebbed, while the cross has toppled over the altar. Somebody must've seized the nailed and nearly naked idol at some point, given that the cross is bare now.
Underneath the partly caved-in vaulted ceiling, the pulpit alone remains intact, apparently unweathered by typhoons and time and turbulence. Behind it, Kurapika's mortal enemy is lecturing to seven of his surviving followers scattered across the dusty pews.
Silence descends over the decrepit place of worship as Kurapika enters through the remnants of the marble archway and walks down the aisle.
From the altar, Chrollo hurries down a short flight of steps to extend his hand toward Kurapika.
The bandit's pale fingers smell of holy water.
The last time Kurapika shook this hand was just after he accepted the most recently obtained pair of scarlet eyes. This offering from the Spider's head was supposedly a symbol of their mutually beneficial relationship from that point forward.
The contract they executed at their last meeting had two primary conditions.
First, Chrollo agreed, on the Phantom Troupe's behalf, to assist Kurapika in searching for the rest of his clansmen's remains. Since the Spiders were the ones who procured the scarlet eyes from the source and traded them away in the black market, they have superior leads regarding the current whereabouts, as well as ties to flesh collectors worldwide. Chrollo's book also contains numerous stolen abilities geared toward locating lost items.
Second, Kurapika consented to wield his chains no longer against the Troupe but only against its enemies. His chains, which have slain two Spiders thus far, have already proven themselves deadly and destructive.
To secure the contract after they finished signing the page, Chrollo required a certain seal, which he branded directly onto Kurapika's skin.
A propensity for death and destruction is exactly what Chrollo seeks when recruiting new soldiers into the Troupe's ranks.
He now smiles serenely as he shakes Kurapika's hand. "Welcome to the Spiders."
Bowing his head, Kurapika lifts Chrollo's hand to his lips and kisses its knuckles. Though golden strands of hair fall on either side of Kurapika's face, they can't conceal the shining scarlet of his eyes.
Kurapika's gesture of resigned deference to his new leader exposes the back of his neck, emblazoned with a black tattoo of a twelve-legged spider, to the seven-strong congregation behind him.