Dis Aliter Visum

Chapter 91

"I'm sure I've seen worse," the blond replied. "I don't want to waste two days here doing nothing."

Kuroro stared at him for a few seconds, waiting for him to change his mind. When the Kuruta only returned the look and didn't respond, Kuroro turned back to the teller.

"All right," he said, "we'll take them."

They soon had their tickets in hand. The train wouldn't be leaving until four o'clock, so they had a bit of time on their hands. They ended up out on the sidewalk, sort of looking at each other in awkward silence.

"So," Hisoka drawled out in a singsong manner, "we have a few hours."

Kurapica's eyes flew to the jester's face. He studied his expression, a suspicious look on his fair features. Hisoka looked unbothered and only smiled wider. Kuroro fixed his gaze on the dangerous, unpredictable man, too. He narrowed his eyes slightly and took a step closer to the Kuruta. It nearly felt like a tense standoff, Kuroro and Kurapica against Hisoka. Gon and Killua looked between them. The silver haired youth opened his mouth, as if to say something, but Gon beat him to the punch.

"I'm hungry," he declared, suddenly breaking the tension.

The next few minutes were spent trying to figure out where and what to eat, which was much less stressful than the earlier deadlock. They ended up going for pizza, voted by the youngest members of their little group. They quickly found a place that was boisterous and noisy, but so was every other restaurant they had passed. Hisoka claimed the seat directly across the table from Kuroro. He kept his disconcerting yellow eyes fixed on Kuroro, who ignored him. The jester seemed intent on making him uncomfortable, but Kuroro refused to give him the satisfaction of looking bothered.

The younger boys made lunch somehow less awkward. They chatted happily about all kinds of things, forcing the others into joining the conversation then and again. Kuroro was content to let them talk and although he listened to every word said, he also analyzed what he knew of Hisoka and kept an eye on him. After lunch, they let the Spider Head pay – and really, he'd spent more in these few months with Kurapica than the past three years combined. He would need to pull off a major heist to recoup his money, but Kurapica would be worth it. Hopefully.

They found a park to spend the rest of the afternoon, and Kurapica's two young friend immediately started running around and chasing each other. Hisoka wandered away on his own, and the Spider Head watched him go, apprehension growing in the back of his mind. He was pretty sure what Kurapica's plan was, but there was the slightest chance that the blond would come up with a new one, now that Kuroro had shown that he was aware of what was to happen. Returning from his friends, the blond sat next to him and pulled a small book out of the large front pocket of his hoodie. He noticed Kuroro staring and glanced at him in question, but Kuroro had no answer for him. He turned away.

Hisoka had disappeared into a copse of tall trees. The park was far greener than anything around, and Kuroro could see a gigantic water tower behind the trees, hinting at the city watering the place to keep it lush. This close to one of the largest deserts of the explored world, no doubt that the park provided a welcome respite from the harsh winds that still whistled between the low building of the town every so often.

Kurapica read for some time in silence, but then the Zyaoldyck kid called his name and he set his book down between the Spider Head and himself and got up to walk over to his younger friends. Kuroro watched them talk animatedly for some time, but when he focused his hearing on them, they weren't talking about anything particularly interesting, just some places and people they knew. He half listened for some time, making note of names, but then his attention fell on the book the blond had abandoned and he picked it up, curiosity piqued.