SOUR CANDY | killua z. ✔

23 | spy

KURAPIKA KNEW Sen was an odd duck.

One of the first things they learned about Sen was that she was abnormally perceptive, and she wasn't subtle about it. She observed people head-on and didn't care if they caught her.

That perceptiveness had reached a new level. Kurapika found Sen crouched in trees, staring intently into what seemed like nothing. They were impressed that she was able to balance up there despite the hundred-pound vest, but they were mostly concerned about the staring.

At first, Kurapika wrote it off as being related to her fear of Mike. 

Spiders, after all, triggered an immense rage in Kurapika. They understood trauma and how it could cause a person to act differently.

But there were other things.

Kurapika knew Sen wasn't fully human, so they did their best not to judge her by human standards. But when Kurapika woke up at two in the morning to Sen already pacing around the room, they couldn't help but feel wary.

She was poking at the walls. Why was she poking at the walls?

In the darkness, Kurapika couldn't see much more than the impression of her long hair and small frame. It was eerie.

"Sen, what are you doing?" Kurapika whispered.

She froze, turning around. Her face was fuzzy and gray.

"Nothing," she whispered back. 

Like they were supposed to believe that.

Now that she was caught, Sen stopped whatever it was she was doing and slipped back into her blanket pile on the floor. 

Kurapika heard the mechanical clicking of her Rubik's cube for another hour before she finally fell asleep.

A sense of unease lingered, like a ghost.

The next day, Sen started fluffing their clothes off at odd intervals. Gon's and Leorio's, too. Usually when none of them were looking at her. 

"There was a leaf," she would say.

Sen said it with such certainty that Kurapika was tempted to believe her. 

Except the Dentora Region was not in its autumnal season, and the trees on the Zoldyck property had large leaves. If one fell onto their shoulder, they would know. They would startle.

Gon and Leorio thought it was just one of her weird habits, but Kurapika suspected there was more to it. She kept swiveling her head this way and that, as if she were picking up on something just outside her line of sight.

When Sen brushed Kurapika's shoulder off for the umpteenth time, they had to confront her about it.

"We're being watched," she confessed, still looking into the trees.

"By who?" Kurapika frowned. They hadn't noticed any eyes on them. 

"I don't know yet," Sen scrunched her nose. 

Already finished chopping wood, she darted off into the woods. 

Whatever she was worrying about obviously took precedence over her dog phobia.

"Oi!" Leorio hollered. "Someone tell that kid to stop running off!"

Kurapika didn't think it was possible for Sen to have more secrets, but they supposed that was the nature of a kitsune.

They couldn't explain how she shattered Hanzo's blade with the palm of her hand, or how she knew their group was being watched. 

Kurapika couldn't sense anything amiss, but Sen was looking around like they would be ambushed at any moment.