Battlefield

A Lonely Journey

hello everyone! finally a new chapter on this thing! you'll notice that the characterization will be quite different from the one in dav. kurapica isn't so full of rage, for one. i hope you enjoy this new kurapica, haha.
i'm sorry if i don't answer PMs, as i literally never use this site except to post this where someone asked me to be able to read my stories. if you want to talk to me, send me an ask on tumblr or poke me on the discord chat.

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Chapter2

A Lonely Journey

Onceupon a time, life on the road had been something that Kurapica hadenjoyed. It had been so much simpler back then. Before he knew aboutthe Plague, about the dead rising and haunting the living in a muchmore gruesome manner than any spectre would. This was certainly notthe sort of resurrection that people had been hoping for.

Itwasn't nearly as enjoyable anymore. There was him, alone with thewide world all around him, but the world had frightful teeth now. Hetravelled, roaming the countryside, circling widely around largercities, where the dead were sure to be out in droves. He couldn'tforce himself to use his Scarlet Eyes constantly, as they tired himfar too quickly, but he triggered them again and again, looking forsigns of his brethren.

Dayspassed by, lonely, wretched days, where loss and anguish warredwithin his soul; loss for his home and anguish for his family andfriends. Days turned into weeks, turned into months. He scavengedwhere he could, finding food and sometimes medicine. At one point,he'd managed to wire a car and drove it until it ran out of gas.Now he was on foot again. Having a goal helped him keep going, but itwas hard to feel like he made any progress at all.

Latespring gave way to full summer, and the sweltering heat added toKurapica's woes. He didn't dare get rid of his few warmerhoodies, as he was all too aware that after summer, the autumn coldwould bite at his skin, but this meant that he had to find room inhis duffel to carry them.

Onescorching late afternoon found him on the back porch of an abandonedwood cabin he'd gone through to find food but had found alreadyransacked. It could have been July or August; he wasn't entirelysure of the date. The sun was slowly setting in the west, but he knewthat the heat wouldn't abate regardless. He was wondering whetherto stop for the night, or force himself to walk on for a few morehours, when he triggered his Scarlet Eyes-

Heheld his breath, nearly dropping his bag in his shock. He blinked afew times to make sure that he had not hallucinated, but each time heopened his eyes again, he could see it still. A thin, barely visiblestream of translucent red.

AKuruta had walked by this house before.

Ithad to have been quite some time, because the light, gossamer smudgeof colour and movement had nearly disappeared. He didn't recognizethe tint, a sort of purplish red, and couldn't get a specific senseof whohadbeen here, but it was one of his people, for sure. Only they leftthese colour streams behind.

Kurapicaquickly shouldered his bag and started walking resolutely, followingthe trail of colourful light. It didn't take him long to realizethat he was going in the wrong direction, as it soon vanishedentirely. He turned on his heel and went in the opposite direction.He walked with renewed focus, not daring to return his eyes tonormal, for fear that he would lose the trail, and after months ofwandering around without a single clue to where his people had gone,he couldn't afford let go of this one thread.

Hewalked in feverish anticipation for hours, knowing that it wouldprobably be a long time before he caught up to whoever this was, butunable to slow down due to the fierce hope that had suddenly awokenwithin him. Woods gradually gave way to farmland.