Chapter: 41

"Coincidences."

One moment, I was listening to a father-son shouting match; the next, I was the epicenter of a lifetime's worth of hidden misery. Ging's finger, rigid and accusing, pointed directly at me. It was almost like one of those dreams where twists and turns hardly make sense.

I wasn't exactly familiar with being put on the spot like that, but the fact that everyone in the room was weighing me down with those shocked and confused stares, made me almost desperate to find some answers. "What? What are you talking about?"

Ging huffed, a sigh of frustration that accompanied his eyes flitting to a side. I believed the least I was entitled to after his sudden accusation was some form of explanation. But apparently, he didn't agree, because he looked quite pissed at my question.

To my side, Killua, and then Gon over by his father had matching guises of stunned disbelief. I couldn't blame them, I was pretty sure my own state was quite the same.

"That's a stretch and you know it," Luca suddenly interjected, looking at his master in disapproval. I had no idea what was going on, but I was grateful that someone was stepping up and providing some semblance of a response.

"You still have room to question that?" Ging shot back, already on the defensive. "After everything you've seen?"

"That's purely speculation." Luca sounded mad now, I had no idea his and Ging's relationship afforded that.

Ging's answering grunt was all the explanation he provided. It was a repeat of Gon and Ging's pin-pong conversation, except the audience had changed now. I for one just wanted to know what hell was going on.

"What the hell is going on?" I yelled, resisting the impulse to pull my hair out. "Luca, please come on. You can't just drop a bomb like that on me and jump into your stupid secret conference."

Luca's jaw tightened, his gaze flickering between me and Ging. "It's not that simple, Claire." He spoke in a low, strained voice, the kind that held back a torrent of unspoken words. "This... this is something you need to understand. Something we all need to understand."

Ging shifted uncomfortably, his eyes darting around the room as if searching for an escape route. "Look, this isn't the time or place—"

"This is exactly the time and place," Luca cut him off, not looking like he had much patience for his mentor in that very moment. "You led with what you led with, she deserves to know— in fact, they all deserve to know now."

Ging was silent at that. The moment felt weighted, too weighted. It was almost like it was inevitable for some earth-shattering truth to come out.

It was also becoming increasingly clear that Ging's reluctance to speak on the matter was chipping away, little by little. Gon's firm shove was probably what tipped him over the edge. "If you're done hiding, you owe everyone the truth."

That set an urgency in the atmosphere. I felt like either Ging would bolt out or he would put everything on the table, and I didn't know him well enough at all to really tell which of the alternatives he'd go for.

He looked at Gon, then at Killua, and finally, his gaze settled on me, a flicker of something unreadable in his eyes. "You want the truth?" he asked, his voice low, almost a whisper. The tremble in his mouth as he spoke wasn't missed by anyone. "Fine. You'll have it."

An almost physical ache of relief and anticipation came over me when he complied. It was like the truth couldn't get here fast enough— I needed to know how I was behind this man's claim. Was there really much more to my life than I'd initially thought?

"Sit down," Ging said, addressing everyone in the room. "You'll be here a while."

No one took their time following through with that. There wasn't much option for seating in that crammed and scarcely furnished apartment. Luca sat on the couch beside Ging, while Killua, Gon, and I took the couple of chairs that were randomly placed about the room.

Killua and I's eyes met in a brief but meaningful encounter as he moved my chair closer for me. I had no idea what was going through his mind, I wondered if he thought I had hidden more from him based on the current sequence of events. There was no time to find out though.

Ging took a deep breath, the air in the cramped apartment seeming to thicken with the weight of his words. "It started in the NGL," he began, his gaze fixed on the floor. "Years before the Chimera Ant Invasion."

"—I was there on an archaeological expedition, exploring some ancient ruins." His words were followed by everyone with bated breath. I didn't want to miss a single detail. "What I found wasn't artifacts, but something else."

"Drugs," Killua interjected, his voice sharp. "The underground drug trade."

Ging nodded. "An elaborate network, they were manufacturing and distributing a highly addictive substance, spreading it throughout the underworld."

I had heard something to that effect. The NGL had gotten really notorious at one point because of the D trade that was ongoing there. It all got a lot of coverage especially after the Chimera Ants disaster exposed the closed-off nation to the public.

The last anyone knew was that the International Peacekeeper Force had taken over management and put an end to that. The Bira trees in the area were said to be banned and completely wiped out for that very reason.

"I was foolish, I assumed that the leadership knew nothing about it. I spoke up against it, hoping I could nip that evil in the bud. I thought I was doing something for the greater good." The strangest thing was that Ging sounded embarrassed, almost defeated as he revealed these details. That humanized him in my eyes. I realized that there was struggle and pain there that none of us knew anything about.

He paused, his gaze drifting towards the little crack of light coming from the window, his eyes reflecting a distant, troubled memory. "But I underestimated their reach," he said, his voice low and strained. "They weren't just some small-time operation. They were connected to powerful figures, influential families within the mafia and the underground world. A full-fledged drug cartel, operating with impunity. The NGL's founder and leadership was behind it— manufacturing it, providing access to it."

I was shocked, I had no idea the extent of the disgusting and malicious things that governments and leaderships were carrying out and promoting. Killua and Gon hardly looked taken aback, I suspected they knew about this, I was even willing to bet that they'd seen this stuff up close.

"I should've stopped there, as soon as I found out," Ging admitted, a sheen of sweat gradually materializing on his forehead. "But I was deluded, young, and I'd already invested years in finding out what I did— I thought I could… taken them on, put a stop to it."

"I suppose it goes without saying that I was an idiot. I made enemies, powerful ones, I was starting to become a major inconvenience to the underworld. But the water was still below head level for me, I could have stopped and disappeared for a while, they would have forgotten and I could have gone on with my life."

He paused, his gaze shifting from the window to the floor, his expression a mask of regret. "But I didn't," he said, his voice rough from the weight of the consequences he described. "And things took a turn for the worst."

"But the underground leadership of the NGL was wiped out by the Chimera Ants," Gon reasoned, echoing my own thoughts. "The drug production was stopped too, since the area was designated as a nature reserve and under the jurisdiction of the Hunter Association."

A sad smile overtook Ging's face on hearing Gon's account on the matter. "You're naïve, like I was," he detailed, closing his eyes. It almost looked like nostalgia had overtaken him for a moment. "I suppose that's good in a way, you see the best in things."

His vague words were only met with silence. No one had any idea what to make of them, but it was safe to assume that things were just progressing on to getting worse. He was the only one who could provide any further clarity on the matter.

"That's why you ran in the election," Gon connected eventually and the bits of the story that we had gotten from Isawa were starting to make sense now.

"Hm." Ging nodded, eyes still shut. "I assumed that the Hunter Association was the best and only bet I had at fixing things and also giving myself some sort of immunity, I had already pissed off way too many powerful people at that point."

"—I had trust in the Association's integrity, but the truth was after Netero's death, the ugliness of it all came to the front. He had kept a lot of the malice of those behind the scenes at large during his term, Pariston was a lot more forthcoming, I'm quite certain that his cooperation with the underworld is how that sketchy election ended up in his win."

He opened his eyes, a flicker of disappointment in their depths. "Netero was a force of nature, a bulwark against the darkness," Ging said, his voice low. "He kept the Association clean, or as clean as it could be. But with his passing, the cracks started to show. Pariston… he was a symptom of the rot, a sign of how deeply the corruption had spread. The way they… disposed of Cheadle and rubbed their hands clean…" His voice cracked from the effort. It was clear that his colleague's death had taken a toll on him, and not just in the form of a murder frame.

This was a hard pill to swallow. I had very limited knowledge of the hunter world, but far and wide the consensus of the Hunter Association being a clean and reliable entity was an unshakable stance. It was almost like it gave people hope, even normal people like me. It was uncomfortable to realize that the pillar of justice that everyone idolized to some extent was… rotten to the core.

Even during Isawa's description of the election's events, I had assumed that the Association itself had no part in it. I assumed Ging was framed so meticulously and the strings were pulled so subtly that things just turned out that way. It was starting to become clear that things were not the way they seemed.

"As for the drug operation, it was disrupted by the Chimera Ants invasion, yes. But they didn't eliminate it. They merely… shifted it. The power vacuum they left was quickly filled, the network re-organized. And the drug trade? It didn't disappear. It went underground, became more covert, more insidious." He suddenly fell silent for a moment, turning to Luca like he wasn't sure he should be speaking further.

I didn't miss the way Luca's eyes flicked to me for just an instant before he nodded at him. It was like that small gesture woke me up all of a sudden. "But what does any of this have to do with me?" I interrogated, stepping out of the trance of Ging's story.

"I'll get to it," Ging dismissed with a sigh. It didn't look like he was too sure about whatever he had up his sleeve now. "The party that picked the drug cartel right back up… was the same family."

"The leader of the NGL and his entourage were killed by the Chimera Ants, what same family?" Killua asked, having spoken for the first time during Ging's narration.

Ging's pursed his lips, it looked like Killua's question was touching on multiple dimensions. "Here's where it gets complicated," he prefaced, turning to my brother again, "care to take over?"

Luca nodded again, but this time he didn't look so composed. "The NGL's founder… ran a platitude of operations. He had his empire, connections, influence, it was all taken over by his partner after his death."

The connection was suddenly blaring like an alarm now. "Ingrid," I whispered, the name echoing in my mind, a cold dread settling in my stomach. My head was suddenly spinning from everything my mind was processing.

Luca nodded slowly. "Yes. She was the one who took over and orchestrated the NGL's operations, the one who controlled the drug trade, the one who manipulated the leadership. And when the founder died, she simply stepped into his place, consolidating her power, expanding her reach. It was almost like she was waiting for it to happen."

"—She came from a very powerful family, the Kuroyami Dynasty, who were top-tier in the underworld. Her marriage with NGL's founder was a strategic alliance that worked in everyone's favor. She came in as a figurehead, but from what I suspect she always planned to take over, the Chimera Ants just sped up what she was already working towards. Her own family's legacy had weakened, she acquired a new, even better one."

My eyes were blinking so fast from the effort to keep the moisture from erupting. "Wait, the— founder of the NGL would be…"

Luca probably saw what I couldn't see in my eyes, which was why I saw absolute heartbreak reflected back on his face. "Our father," he confirmed in a voice that told me had had his share of time to process it. "…Gyro."

I didn't look anywhere else, except at my brother. I couldn't look… I knew Killua and Gon's gazes would be on me. I couldn't face anyone— was this the reality of my life? It was a sinking realization, that was making me nauseous. I never had much in the way of my father's identity, but I did realize that some sick, desperate part of me thought of him as… misunderstood.

As a child, I imagined him willing but unable to come to us. A lonesome figure rendered helpless by circumstances or some kind of influence to be there for us. It dawned upon me that I always thought of him as… good. Despite Ingrid, despite the strange upbringing, the isolation, I thought…

Reality was terrifying. Had it also been hard for Luca? I wondered. To know and accept that we came from… filth and evil. We were products of darkness and malice, we might not ever have had any more strategic value than pawns. Why were we even allowed to be here? To live?

Were we just pawns, disposable tools in a larger, darker game? Or was there something more, something that even Ingrid, with her cold, calculating mind, couldn't completely erase?

My mind was absolutely spinning, the wetness of my cheeks the result of a lost fight with my impulses. Killua's firm hard steadied my trembling one. His eyes were grounding— he had me. "Let's take some time," he said, putting a hand up to stop Luca from going further.

"No," I refused, the word firm despite how my voice shook. "Go on, I need to know everything."

The need to understand, to unravel the tangled web of my existence, was a burning ache within me. I couldn't afford to retreat, to bury my head in the sand. I had to face the truth, no matter how painful.

Luca hesitated, his gaze shifting to Ging, a silent question passing between them. Ging nodded, a grim acceptance of my demand. "Ingrid continued the pursuit for Ging, even after Gyro was out of the picture, it was clearly established among them all that he could prove to be a problem if left unchecked."

"But why?" Gon asked, his voice sharp, cutting through the tense silence. "Why go to such lengths? What's her ultimate goal?"

"Control," Luca replied, his voice laced with a hint of bitterness. "Absolute control. Over the underworld, over the economy, over the very fabric of society. The Kuroyami believe that power is their birthright, that they are destined to rule. And Ingrid… she's the one who will make that vision a reality."

"And… The Kuroyami are not just a family," he continued, his voice low and strained. "They are a force. A legacy of power, manipulation, and control that has shaped the underworld for generations. They are masters of deception, experts at operating in the shadows, pulling the strings from behind the scenes. So, imagine just what the full force of what he's got after him is."

"I know of that family," Killua spoke in an almost reserved manner, like saying these words out loud was dangerous. "They've had a complicated relationship with my own family. I'm not sure what the nature and extent of it is at the moment."

"Your family?" Luca questioned, taken aback by Killua's input.

"The Zoldyck family," Killua confirmed, his voice flat, devoid of any inflection that might betray his thoughts. "They operate in the shadows, just like the Kuroyami. There have been… agreements, contracts, overlaps in our areas of expertise."

The air in the room thickened, the weight of unspoken history pressing down on us. The Zoldycks, a family of legendary assassins, connected to the Kuroyami, a dynasty of underworld puppeteers. The implications were staggering.

Moreover, Luca looked absolutely stunned on learning Killua's identity, Ging's expression didn't betray much, but it was clear this revelation was not nothing to him either. "You're a- Zoldyck?" Luca restated, not looking like he was getting over that fact soon.

The way his eyes moved and settled a little too long on Killua's hand on mine was a clear indication of his thoughts. I could see it from his eyes: his sister involved with someone from the most notorious assassin family in the world. I was too far gone in my own spiral to care.

Killua's gaze remained steady, unflinching, as if he were accustomed to the reactions his name evoked. "Yes," he confirmed, his voice flat, devoid of any hint of apology or explanation. "And that changes nothing."

"Changes nothing?" Luca echoed, his voice laced with disbelief. "Your family's reputation precedes you."

"A fact that has nothing to do with Claire or this situation," Killua rebuked sharply.

"But they do," Luca insisted, his voice rising slightly. "They have everything to do with this. The Kuroyami and the Zoldycks… they're intertwined."

Killua raised an eyebrow at Luca's implication. "I'm not in the loop with my family at the moment, so I wouldn't know of these developments."

Luca blinked in shock, it was getting annoying how hung up he was on Killua's last name. "Since when?"

"Five years, more maybe." Killua shrugged, his nonchalance a stark contrast to Luca's growing unease. "I left. I'm not privy to their… business dealings."

That piece of information seemed to put things in perspective for Luca. "I see," he mused, looking over at Ging like they were both doing some sort of mental math. "Right now… Ingrid and the empire she's built outranks the Zoldyck family's influence in the underworld," he revealed, sounding uncomfortable.

"Could be," Killua allowed, his thumb drawing slow circles on the back of my hand. "They're good with maintaining connections. If that's the case they might have an alliance going."

Luca nodded, appreciative of Killua's solid analysis. "For the past five years, at a specified time, the Zoldycks have been making moves, those aren't coincidences."

"Strategic acquisitions, targeted eliminations, consolidation of power," Luca explained, his voice low and deliberate. "Moves that align perfectly with the Kuroyami's- Ingrid's expansion."

My heart started literally aching from the truth that Luca set before us. The Zoldyck attacks… my father's death, my real father, his death was nothing but a casualty in a disgusting ploy for power.

"Sounds about right," Killua confirmed, almost looking disgusted. His feelings about his family weren't exactly a secret.

The information overload was getting to me, but it still felt like even after knowing so much… I knew nothing at all. "I still don't see how I fit into this. How am I behind all of this for you?" I demanded, looking Ging straight in the eye. "If you're blaming our… father," -the word almost made me want to vomit- "or Ingrid, isn't Luca just as responsible?"

Ging crossed his arms on his chest. "It's because you're what she's after."

I looked at him stunned. It was true that Ingrid was tailing me, it was also true I had no idea why.

"Wait- you'll do nothing but confuse her." Luca put a hand up in his direction to stop him. "We need to go about this right, if you're to get the gist of it. It's already too enmeshed, we've already taken too many detours, but you need to understand, that's imperative. Because if you understand, maybe you'll be able to give us something."

"What?" His words left me more confused than before.

"I'll explain. You need to understand how NGL came to be, you need to understand how our father… Gyro brought all this to life."

I nodded, figuring I might as well.

"I… don't know too much about his past and his upbringing. What I was able to uncover was that he set up his entire empire when he was really young. Basically, a nobody." Luca began, his voice low and measured, "he came from nothing, and then suddenly he was a powerful piece on the map. He had his influence and his partnership with Ingrid afforded him even more power, but the way the two of them expanded their legacy… the speed with which it happened, it's almost… it should be impossible."

I was too far gone to have any kind of mental capacity to solve the puzzle he was presenting.

"They had at their disposal… something very powerful, something that-" Luca's voice cracked that very instant, it took him a second to continue, "made things go their way."

It was like somebody had punched me in the gut when the realization hit me. "Katie," I whispered, my hands clasping to my mouth immediately.

"I don't know how much the two of you know about our little sister," Luca prefaced for Killua and Gon, looking devastated. "But she- had an ability."

It was the first time I'd heard her condition be mentioned like that. It wasn't even something we talked about, I feared it, I didn't understand it.

"Claire told us a little about it," Gon said, looking at me for approval.

I couldn't offer him anything in return, I wasn't even sure what I was experiencing in that moment.

"I never understood the nature of it, where it came from, what it was," Luca described, his hands were shaking now, as if he was recalling the memories as he spoke. "It was terrifying, but it was also powerful."

Despite being as devastated as I was, I didn't miss the way Killua and Gon's eyes met at the description. This was the second time that mention of Katie had drawn that reaction from them. There was some story here.

"Certain conditions put her in an alternative state- it wasn't quite wish-granting as it was… shaping events that were to come."

"Precognition," Killua murmured, his voice low, his gaze fixed on Luca.

"Something like that," Luca confirmed, his voice strained. "But it wasn't passive. It wasn't just seeing the future. It was… influencing it. She could see potential outcomes, and then… nudge them in a certain direction."

"Like a… a living oracle," Gon said, his voice filled with a mixture of awe and dread.

"Yes," Luca said, his voice barely a whisper. "And they used her. They used her ability to manipulate events, to shape the future to their liking. They used her to build their empire, to consolidate their power. They used her to… eliminate their enemies."

"—but her abilities were dark, they came at a cost. Of the conditions I've mentioned, one was… blood sacrifice."

The words hung in the air, a chilling revelation that sent a wave of nausea through me. Blood sacrifice. My little sister, a child, forced to pay such a horrific price for her abilities.

"What do you mean?" Gon asked, his voice sharp, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"She needed… life," Luca said, his voice strained, his gaze fixed on the floor. "She needed to take life in order to shape it. The more significant the event, the greater the sacrifice."

"They made her kill people?" Killua asked, his voice low and dangerous, a hint of steel in his tone.

"Not directly," Luca said, his voice barely a whisper. "But they were more than willing to pay the price asked by… whatever they invoked. Katie wasn't in control of any of it. I do believe she had some understanding of what she did, but very little recollection, her control over it was gradually getting better- but it was slow, and… it hurt her."

"—I'd talk to her about it sometimes, she told me how it scared her, things she'd see, she was very little but very smart," he recounted, the fondness and sadness in his voice unmistakable.

I felt like my soul was shaking, hearing aspects of Katie's life and the experiences she had, I never bothered to say one nice word to her. She was Luca's world, of course he knew all this about her. But this also made me wonder- why did he do what he did?

When there was so much adoration and ache in his voice as he spoke of her, what led him to…?

"You can see how her… power was of so much value to Gyro and Ingrid. But she also knew what they were using her for. Which was why-" He simply couldn't speak on and for that one singular moment my heart hurt for him.

"They know," I informed him in a whisper, right as I broke down into tears. My face in my hands, I couldn't help but shake from the power of the devastating sadness within me. For him, me, and for Katie. For where we came from, for where we were led to, for what our fates were.

I felt Killua's reassuring hand on my shoulder. It made me realize how badly I didn't want to be alone… how much I wanted his forgiveness and how desperately I wanted a life with him. Despite the sick and disgusting twists and turns of my past… I wanted it so bad.

"I know it doesn't mean anything but, she asked me to," Luca confessed, sounding very small. "-she begged me over and over and I was a weak coward— I don't know how I did it, Claire. It's a void in my mind- the memory of it."

And suddenly he was crying too— a painful wail. The room was filled with the raw, unfiltered sound of grief. The weight of our shared past, the burden of our family's dark legacy, was crushing us. Katie's sacrifice, Luca's impossible choice, my own ignorance—it was all too much to bear.

"She knew," I whispered, my voice thick with tears, "she knew what they were doing to her. And she asked you… to stop it."

Luca nodded, his face buried in his hands, his body shaking with sobs. "She was scared," he choked out. "She was so scared. And she knew… she knew they wouldn't stop. Not unless…"

He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. The unspoken words hung heavy in the air: Not unless she was gone.

When I rubbed my eyes, the action giving some clarity to my vision, I saw the way Killua's jaw was tightly set and his eyes fixed on my brother. There was not an ounce of pity that he could afford him.

His gaze was cold, unyielding, I knew there would never be even a glimpse of forgiveness from him. But there was… far more than that from me. I knew I'd forgiven Luca even before I consciously made the decision to do so.

"Without Katie, things fell apart for them fast," he continued, not quite managing the composure of the earlier conversation now. "Gyro was… killed by the Chimera Ants."

I had no idea how I felt about that information. The man meant nothing to me, but the pain he caused would be forever. I found myself wishing he'd had a painful death.

"I always believed… I suspected…," my brother mused, almost sounding scared as he spoke, "that her powers, they brought misfortune in their wake. To mess with the fabric of fate like that and in such a gruesome way, it brings consequences. Just look at the way he died…"

"And Ingrid," I whispered, the name a bitter taste in my mouth, "she took over."

"Yes," Luca confirmed, his voice strained. "She seized the opportunity, consolidated her power. She used the chaos of the Chimera Ant invasion as a smokescreen, a way to operate without scrutiny."

"And she solidified the chase after me," Ging added, his voice betraying frustration. "My earlier pursuits were a direct problem for her main line of work."

"But without Katie," Gon interjected, his voice filled with a mixture of confusion and anger, "how could she do it? How could she continue his work?"

"She adapted," Luca replied, his voice heavy. "She found other ways to achieve her goals. She used her connections, her influence, her resources. She manipulated events, orchestrated schemes, pulled the strings from behind the scenes."

"Not to mention she has powerful allies, like the Zoldycks," Killua provided, looking like he was lost in his mind's calculations.

Luca nodded, I noticed there was a quality to the way he was looking at Killua. I couldn't describe it, but it was like he simultaneously feared and admired him. "We've been working around this for years now. Gathering everything we could, about her, the Kuroyami— trying to find a weak point, anything."

"And?" Killua asked, eyes knife-sharp as he took in my brother's words.

"There's not much," Ging gave up, throwing his head back like he was over everything and I imagined he so was by now.

"But there's something," Luca added, always the first to nominate himself motivator. I remember I hated that about him growing up. "From every source we've consulted, every lead we've chased, the one thing that's consistent with all those that are in close associations with her— she's looking for something… desperately."

"Or someone," Ging asserted, looking just a tad bit hopeful, if I wasn't mistaken.

And suddenly once again, the whole room was looking at me. "Me?" I asked, almost choking on the word.

Ging and Luca nodded. "It was a theory, but after you were tailed, it's all but confirmed."

"But what could she want with me?" I demanded, feeling uneasy with all the eyes on me. "And if she really were after me I think she would have recognized me at the auction, we rode in an elevator for five minutes."

"But maybe she did recognize you and played it coy," Luca postulated lacing his fingers together. "You're not that different Claire and it's bogus to assume that someone who knew you then can't make you out seven years later."

"So, you're saying she faked not recognizing me? For what?"

"Well, for starters, she could be playing a long game," Killua pitched in suddenly, "watching you, observing you, she might want to manipulate you, or is after something she thinks you might have."

I blinked, taken aback by his quick explanation. I also noticed the way Luca's eyes were fixated on me, so… expectant. It dawned on me that they really were expecting something. "I swear, I have no clue whatever it could be." I raised my hands in immediate defeat, I didn't want to pass on any false hopes here, especially because a whole person's life and freedom were at stake here.

"Also… I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm dead, since she planned it that way," I reminded them, referencing back to the night I left.

"Which makes it even more odd why she didn't react on seeing you at the auction."

They had a point there and I was taken aback by it.

"She's not acting like someone who's in a hurry. She's methodical. She's patient. She's waiting for the right moment," Killua theorized eyes sweeping over me protectively. "And clearly dangerous."

This was several shades of strange. I could now understand how Ging thought to pin me as the cause of his confinement. It was a reach but still a possibility.

Could there really be some weakness to someone as well-positioned as her, something I could have? I came up blank, also the nervousness that came about from this whole ordeal was messing with my mind.

"It's clear that both of you are in danger," Gon said, looking sequentially at Ging and I.

"I can take care of myself," Ging said, shaking his head in disapproval, "but I've had about enough of the fugitive life."

"I've been keeping an eye on Claire and will obviously continue to do so," Luca assured, his voice demanding cooperation from everyone.

"She's taken care of," Killua laid down harshly, putting his arm around me. He made it abundantly clear that his earlier interaction with Luca was nothing but a temporary truce that he had no intention of extending further.

Luca's lips quivered on registering Killua's hostility. "Now's hardly the time to start infighting—"

Killua scoffed, a flicker of mean amusement dancing in his eyes. "I don't even know you, calm down," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "She's with me."

"Stop, please," I quietly pleaded, my eyes begging Luca to just drop it. I knew Killua wouldn't.

Luca drew back without much protest and thankfully, because Killua fully looked like he was ready to start throwing hands.

"What have you been up to?" Ging suddenly asked Gon, breaking through the tension. Everyone realized that the two of them hadn't really gotten a chance to talk, aside from the shouting match they'd gotten into earlier.

"Well… a lot, I've been halfway around the world looking for you," Gon answered, sounding more open to giving Ging a chance now. I was glad something had worked out for someone, at the very least.

I decided to let father and son have their space, I was also badly in need of some air. It felt suffocating with the weight of everything I'd just learned about myself.

I got out and walked to the roof of the apartment complex, it was dark out now. The entirety of the day had passed us by, but for some reason, it felt like time had stopped right there for me.

Killua walked up and stood beside me as I looked at the unending city stretching out below us. It was almost Christmas time— the beautiful lights twinkling all across and the snow-topped rooftops creating a picturesque scene.

The contrast between the festive, glittering cityscape and the turmoil within me was stark. It was a strange, almost surreal feeling, to be surrounded by so much light and joy while feeling so utterly lost and broken.

"It's beautiful," I murmured, my voice barely audible, more to myself than to Killua.

"Yeah," he agreed, his gaze following mine. "It is."

We stood in silence for a moment, the only sound the soft hum of the city below. The air was crisp and cold, but I barely noticed it. My mind was still reeling from the revelations of the day, from the weight of my family's dark history.

Killua moved ever so slightly, adding a layer of his own jacket to my attire.

"I'm sorry you always get sucked into my drama, you can't even get the space you asked for-" I began, feeling disgusted with myself.

"Everything's fine," he assured, silencing me as he pulled me into an embrace.

I broke down before I even knew what was going on.

The tears came in a rush, a torrent of pent-up emotions that I had been holding back for too long. The weight of everything – the revelations, the danger, the loss – was finally too much to bear. I clung to Killua, his warmth, and strength a comforting anchor in the storm of my emotions.

He held me close, his arms wrapped tightly around me, his hand gently stroking my hair. He didn't say anything, didn't try to offer empty platitudes or forced reassurances. He simply held me.

I sobbed against his chest, my tears soaking into his jacket, my body shaking with the force of my emotions. I cried for Katie, for Luca, for the man I never knew, and for the life that had been stolen from me. I cried for the fear that gnawed at me, for the uncertainty of the future, and for the overwhelming sense of loss that threatened to consume me.

My only solace was… Killua knew everything about me. And I prayed that one small silver lining would hold me over. No secrets, not from me.

Unbeknownst to us, some distance away, on the shadowed ledge of a neighboring skyscraper, two figures stood regarding us in silent observation.

Author's Note:

Deep breaths... okay. Here's Claire's past, quite almost all of it. I've unpacked so much in this chapter, I'm not sure what to say. To be honest I'm as stunned as I've described everyone being in every other scene. Please let me know what you think of the plot so far! Lots more mind-blowing revelations to come!

Also side note, the first fifteen chapters of the story are updated. The ten chapters in-between after them... I don't know her. I only take claim of any chapter that doesn't make you want to cringe, so that's that.