Rein lay awake in bed at what the clock suggested was 7:02 am. She sighed. Finally, she could think in peace, her mind as clear as it could be with all the information swarming around in it.
She thought back to when she'd woken up with amnesia after falling unconscious. Her earlier memories tugged at her insides. All of them... they'd been nice. So nice.
Shalnark tried to explain as best he could when she was confused. Chrollo had bent down to look her in the eye when they talked. Phinks made her laugh for the first time. Pakunoda chided the others when they got too close to accidentally hitting her. Machi had sewn her new clothes, even giving her some old outfits she'd outgrown. Omokage complimented her eyes. Uvogin took the initiative to talk to her from his end. Nobunaga begrudgingly made a pun when Danchou told him to, and swore to never ever do it again under any circumstances, ever. Franklin told her why his earlobes were so long, which infuriated Shalnark and had Rein smiling with a smug, mischievous glee only a six-year-old could pull off. And Feitan had even gone so far as to tolerate her existence.
Thinking back, they'd also acted a bit suspiciously, but at the time, she didn't know that. She just thought they were nice people for taking care of her needs. But after what Gon told her today, she didn't know what to think. Breathing in deeply, she tried not to wake the others.
So.
She was Kurta?
The Kurta, a clan who, according to Gon, were famous for their Scarlet Eyes. Their eyes turned red. Rein pressed a palm against her eye. The Phantom Troupe attacked them years ago and stole all their eyes. All except hers? How long ago? Was she even from the clan, or did she just so happen to have the same genetic mutation?
She shook her head to clear her thoughts, ruffling the pillow case.
Stars, she didn't know what to think. She didn't know how to want to think. Did she even want to have a want to think to... want to think to think... the want... Ugh. She couldn't even think straight.
Head still muddled, she stormed as quietly as she could to the window. She fumbled with the lock for a few seconds before sliding the window open, the first crack letting in a gentle breeze. The morning sun was still rising from behind the building, so the only thing bright was the sky. A calm, cool, whispering blue, unreachable but hugging the entire world.
She took in a breath, cold air stinging in her nostrils. The air frosted when she exhaled, clearing her mind.
The Phantom Troupe attacked the Kurta years ago, stealing all of their Scarlet Eyes, to admire them before selling them at high prices. All remaining pairs were now in circulation by the darker parts of society. This Kurapika, the Chain User, was the only survivor.
Believed to be the only survivor.
Sighing, her breath clouded the world before her before fading away to become one of the clouds drifting in the sky.
She lost her memory years ago. Five years, roughly. How long ago were the Kurta attacked? Rein wasn't sure, but she had a stinking suspicion that it was five years ago.
She hadn't asked much about her past. Now that she thought of it, any time she did ask, Chrollo would give her long and drawn-out explanations, giving her many details. But essentially, he told her nothing. How he managed to make unnecessary points sound so much like they were relevant, or how he spun entire paragraphs of information from a single vague detail, she had no clue. After, he somehow always managed to turn the topic back to the Troupe. He always brought it back to the here and now, the Spider. He never dwelled on the past for long. Now that she tried to dig deeper into what she actually knew about her history, she came up empty.
Not empty like how a slate would be wiped clean after use. To her, it felt like the entire slate was just straight-up gone. The crumpled paper Chrollo had given her as a stand-in for it paled in comparison.
That's it. As soon as she saw him again, she would ask—No,—she would demand for the truth. No stories, no analysis, no reminding her of her purpose was as of the moment. She didn't care about the now. She wanted the past. She wanted to know her past. The hard, cold, raw truth. She'd wring the information out of him like droplets from a wet towel if she had to... Not that she stood a chance of actually being able to do that, but still.
"Thinking?"
Rein jolted at Leorio's voice.
"O-oh. Hey." She peeled her arm from the open window. Conversation. Right. "Hey. Did the window make the room too cold? I can close it. Or did I wake you up?"
"No, it's fine. I've been awake for a while now." Reaching for his glasses, he put them on, squinting for a few seconds to get used to the sudden clearness of the world.
How much was 'a while'? Stars, she hoped she hadn't accidentally said any of her thoughts out loud. What if she let something slip about the Phantom Troupe? Then he could put two and two together and realize she was more foe than friend. Stars, no. She was sure she could take on Leorio alone if he decided to attack now. But if he told the two boys, they could attack and or interrogate her later as a group. They all knew the basics of Nen whereas Zepile seemed to be a genius, one who had a Nen ability without any knowledge of it. She was sure Zepile wouldn't be capable of physically attacking anyone, so that left only Leorio, Gon, and Killua to worry about. She'd gotten stronger during the months with Feitan and Phinks, but she wasn't sure if she could take three nen users on her own. She didn't even have a Hatsu yet, and—
"Everything okay? You seemed troubled."
Leorio had finally stopped her mental speech. Stars, she really had to stop rambling to herself. She just really hoped she hadn't said anything aloud. "Yeah, just... thinking."
"Yeah." He drew a leg up to his chest. "Me too."
For a few moments, all they did was to exist. They didn't speak, didn't think, just breathed and were present.
"So, you heading for the auctions?"
"In a couple of hours. I just couldn't sleep, thinking about the Phantom Troupe and what they did and all." Leorio stretched, spine crackling.
"Yeah," Rein said, almost too quiet for him to hear. "Me too."
He tilted his head to her. "What are you planning to do today?"
"I don't know." Her fingertips tapped at the cold windowpane. "Probably just follow Killua and Gon around. Think about the future, like I said yesterday." Rein restrained from adding in she would think about the past as well.
The alarm clock gave a faint clicking in the quiet room, switching to 8:00. The others were still wrapped in blankets, drooling and snoring in their dreams. They were so tired from staying awake until 2:00 last night, or more accurately, this morning. They were so peaceful sleeping.
A spark of an idea.
"Leorio." Rein inched closer to the curtains and grabbed. She wiggled an eyebrow.
He shielded his eyes and gave a thumbs up at what she was about to do. "Ready."
Rein threw the curtains open, curtain rings wildly screeching as they clashed against the metal rod. Brightness violently flew into the room, and groaning could be heard. "Rise and shine! A lovely new morning, isn't it? Just smell that wonderful car exhaust of a new day! Darn, how fresh!" she shouted as brightly as she could. "Say hello to the wor-"
"I'm going to kill you," Killua moaned, burying his head in his pillow. "Go away. You can't drag me from my blanket," he mumbled as he threw it over his head.
Rein grinned wickedly.
The absolute fool.
* * *
It was morning. Rein hadn't returned.
She sighed. Whether that was good or bad, she didn't know.
Maybe Rein got her memories back. Maybe she now knew of her past, and how exactly they had tricked her. But what would happen because of that, Machi didn't want to expend even more energy to think about the possibilities. What would happen would happen. She couldn't change that if Rein wasn't there.
Machi rubbed the back of her neck as she looked at the teen dead asleep on the concrete before her.
Even lying down, it was painfully clear that he was awkwardly tall, a lanky person with a bit too much length to his limbs in the sense that he didn't know what to do with them. His hair was jet-black, ruffled and awkwardly sticking out every which way from the long night he had. It was too long to be short hair, but too short to be considered shaggy, that awkward phase of transition between hairdos. He was even sleeping awkwardly, legs strewn about while his arms were pinned under him at the most awkward of angles.
He was just... awkward.
His wrinkled shirt and repeatedly patched up jacket gave an insight into how much money he had, which couldn't have been much, though the jacket in bad need of repair seemed to be more from how his Nen affected him instead of tearing with age. His ripped jeans were about an inch too short, something he made up for with long, mismatched socks. His shoes were old, clearly broken into and loved, dust still clinging onto them from his run over to their base.
His skin was extraordinarily pale compared to his hair, even paler than Machi was. Did he not go outside? Though he was incredibly light-skinned, he did have stronger tans on the bridge of his nose and his cheeks, like a permanent blush. His eyelashes were long, and he sported a scar over his eyebrow. Upon closer inspection, Machi could detect a scar on his cheek, a nick on his ear, scratches on his hands... What did he go through?
She'd heard from Chrollo about his Nen. When he was asleep, he went into a state of Zetsu, albeit an imperfect one. She could see wisps of smoky black drifting around, like he was a bowl of soup, steaming.
A sudden large leak of aura shot out through an imperfection in his Zetsu and something—was that a cat—fell through the ceiling, causing even more colored glass to fall. The thing, which she was sure was a cat now, made an unearthly screech before darting out into the hallway in an attempt to flee.
The captive didn't even move a muscle.
He was able to sleep through that? Machi's eyebrow twitched. If that was what happened when he slept, meaning when his body enforced imperfect Zetsu, what happened when the Zetsu wasn't there? What happened when he was awake, when his aura flamed?
Machi suddenly thought back to the person who had come across her in the process of killing the man in the alleyway. Back then, it was too dark to see, so she couldn't tell. But if the falling lamppost was any indication, she was almost sure the person from before was the person sleeping in front of her now.
She was sure. Back then, his aura had been near untraceable, but it still left an impression no matter how weak it was. It felt unique. According to Chrollo, who had seen both sides of his Nen, the captive's aura flipped in between hardly being noticeable to being almost suffocatingly clear and destroying everything in its path.
Using Gyo, she admired as the aura leaking off him glowed even brighter, despite being black. The wisps leaking were twitching with power and energy, almost as if alive. It flitted about before disappearing, though occasionally a large burst would escape and she could hear either a crash or swearing coming from somewhere else in the building.
But something else caught her attention.
Hidden under his stifling aura and the unreasonable amount of hand-woven friendship bracelets on his left wrist, there was another source of Nen.
Carefully, Machi got up and went to it. Slowly so as not to wake him, she moved the friendship bracelets out of the way to take a look at the other source of Nen. It came from a piece of jewelry.
It was small, attached to a black string tied tightly around his wrist. The stone of the bracelet was carved into a hexagonal shape, with runes decorating it. It seemed to be Nen-infused. The Nen emanating from the bracelet was more refreshing than his the one from his body, a bright green relief from the strangling black.
A person with an extraordinarily unique and dangerous Nen, with a Nen-infused item. Connected, or an unfortunate coincidence?
A crashing sound came from down below, followed by a panicked "The vase!" from Shalnark.
With him, there was no way to tell.
Machi sat back down, still waiting for the time for him to wake up so she could escort him to Chrollo. She would inform Danchou of his bracelet later, but for now, she would get comfortable. It was clear he wasn't waking up anytime soon.
* * *
Kurapika was stalling, he knew. He was claiming to rest when in reality, he just couldn't think. He didn't even know if he wished to think at all. He sat at the foot of his bed, strangely exhausted from the last night. The Phantom Troupe was gone. Their head was crushed. They were really gone.
He almost tasted the tangy iron on his lips from when he'd licked chains in an earnest attempt to strengthen his conjuring.
Now that they were gone, Kurapika didn't know what to do any more.
All this time, all this energy, all his hate he'd expended toward one goal... it no longer had any meaning. The Spider's head was gone. They were neutralized. His entire Hatsu which he'd made specifically for getting rid of the Phantom Troupe. What could he do with it now? One chain was now rendered useless.
He... he couldn't...
Kurapika felt empty. He couldn't bring himself to have emotion, or even to fake it. A shell of a human, walking without a purpose. He stared at the wall.
What would he do now?
A buzzing came from his pocket and he pulled out his phone. A message from Gon. His thumb moved by itself, clicking on the notification.
His eyes softened a bit at the message, asking where he was, how he was doing, and plans to be in the park later, asking if he wanted to come. It wasn't just the fact that he could almost hear Gon chirping it in his ear even though he was miles away. The little misspellings, the bursts of text, the one smiling emoji at the end, simple yet sweet. The lack of punctuation, inserting spaces or exclamation marks where there should have been periods. The straightforward tone, with a subtle concern.
He lifted a hand to his earring.
Maybe... maybe meeting up with the others wasn't such a bad idea.
Rein now knows she's Kurta, but she's kinda brushing it aside. She is playful to fool the others (and fine, maybe to have a little fun). And I am tired, just like Lucky. Btw, Lucky is asian.
I should sleep
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