{Secrets II}

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When Aurora woke up, she assumed to have crossed over the river of styx. The last thing she remembered was a numbing pain met with darkness.

This time, instead, she was met with another discomforting pain that resembled that of a burning sensation running through her body. It started from her right nail and fingers and crawled up all the way to her brain.

It was this crippling pain that had startled her conscious to awaken.

"Remove your Nen." A soft but commanding voice said. Her voice was void of any emotions except for a bit of listlessness and exasperation in it.

Either way, Aurora didn't listen. Her eyelids felt too heavy and closed again when suddenly she felt and heard a nasty crunch from her right. Once again pain ran through her body like a shockwave.

"A- iuu- wahh-!" A sharp burning pain jostled her awake, but she was unable to turn her head to the side.

"Feitan! Go easy on her!" Someone said.

Aurora tried to force herself awake and see what was going on, but the sight of green eyes and pink hair stopped her.

"Put away your Nen. I can't treat you like this."

"Ma... chi?" Aurora whispered softly.

Machi paused briefly and sighed.

Seeing her, Aurora listened. Tears welled up in her eyes and she bit down onto her lips to ignore the pain on her right.

"Stay still." Machi said as she leaned over her a Nen thread in hand.

Flashback End

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In hindsight, it was all thanks to Machi's generous treatment - she had demanded the bills for it -, that Aurora managed to see another day.

She didn't know the exact reason why... but seeing how they saved her, she figured that they wouldn't do anything to trigger her... as of this moment.

Pakunoda too, kept her distance from her. Although, there was a sense of distrust in her eyes, the woman didn't act onto it.

She glanced at Chrollo next to her.

'I knew it. He holds the power.'

Either way, the danger that was Pakunoda should be, forgone... momentarily.

But just as one left, another one had appeared.

Feitan who had his time to shine - when it was his turn to oh, so graciously keep Aurora conscious - had comitted to his task dutifully... Wonderfully even...

'Maybe he had done just a little bit too much of a good job.' The woman added grimly.

If his sneaky smile and constant mocking voice had any other meaning, but to rile her up, she was sure it was to emphasize his "exhilaration at being the one who saved her"...

It was nothing other than torture though.

"I saw it neccessary to keep you awake." Chrollo had said, but as Aurora glanced down at her broken arms and fingers, secured in a makeshift cast, she couldn't help but wonder about that vehemently. It still hurt and throbbed badly even now. She wasn't sure whether she could bear it without her Nen.

"You know... I like to write... Even more so than I like to read." She stared down at her still functioning left hand and clenched it into a fist.

"Is that so... It doesn't matter. It will heal, and broken bones heal into stronger ones." Chrollo said, with a lack of interest.

"What-? " Aurora said and shook her head with an exasperated sigh. "That only counts if they are broken right. I doubt Feitan had the generosity to break them like that!" she refuted.

'Correct.' Chrollo agreed. 'She has a good grasp of the members already.'

Aurora couldn't help but sulk slightly. Was she supposed to be thankful or get mad here? She didn't know. The one thing she did know, was dutifully commited to her memory:

'Never get close to that Pakunoda woman.'

"So... have you come to an answer?" Aurora said, deciding to switch her topic to something she liked. The interview!

"I agreed to keep you alive but I didn't say anything about taking you seriously."

Her eyes opened wide. 'The audacity of this b-'

"... Aren't you high-maintenance." She mumbled to herself, before facing him again.

"I'm not the type to give up either, you know? I always get what I want. Always. No matter how hard it is to attain. I won't give up."

'I don't know how to give up.'

She saw the tiniest resemblance of a smile on his lips.

But maybe it was just the stage light, shining through the stage curtain's, that were playing a trick on her. Aurora couldn't tell what was hidden beneath that mask of his and the others. She didn't know the reason, she was kept alive after all... And more importantly, she didn't know for how long.

As Aurora nestled her arm closer to her, pondering over her situation, a strange wave of drowsiness overwhelmed her. She couldn't help but realize that she had bitten off much more than she could chew and was now facing the consequences for it.

'Still...Be it. as it is... I won't... give... up...'

With her mind insisting on hanging onto it, Aurora escaped into wonderland.

A/N

"Some call it luck. I call it skill."

- Solomon about Aurora's survivability

"Kekeke, what? Did you not like my treatment?"

"..."

"Tch, kekeke. If you'd like I can also treat. Your other arm, I mean, hihihi."

"..."

"What? No reaction... So just another garbage that's all talk-"

Clang! Thump! Thud.

Feitan soon found himself bombarded with a random vase and the other many items that lay at her disposal.

"Shut up, Feitan! Shut up!"

"HIHIHIHI..."

"You know... If I didn't know them any better, I'd say they get along pretty well..."

"Well... we'll see about that."

- Feitan and Aurora, as well as Nobunaga and Pakunoda after the incident.

Dear Readers, thank you for reading Lycoris! I apologize for the delay. I have been much more busy this year than expected and I won't lie that I had my doubts about this story. Is it good enough? Is it interesting? As much as I love Aurora, it might be only me who feels like that. Throughout these doubts that occured, your reviews, feedback and support helped me reclaim my motivation a lot!

English isn't my first language, and I can't say I'm a good writer either. I just like to write... and most of all, I want to bring her/this story to an end. And Aurora hasn't reached the end, I desired for her yet. As such, I will continue writing this story until I can proudly say that it's completed. Thank you for your support. I hope you will enjoy the story much more!

Illumi will soon join the cast, and I hope you look forward to seeing a bit of their interactions together! I'm quite exciting for their moments since he is one of the few characters with a deeper involvement with Aurora.

Thank you for reading!

Please continue to love & support Lycoris, Yoshihiro Togashi and HxH for a long time!