Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
Part IX
Part X
Part XI
Part XII
Part XIII
Part XIV
Part XV
September 7th, YorkNew City, 5:45PM
“Damn that Prize Hunter. He really didn't hold back,” said Killua bitterly. Gon's surprisingly solid plan to court multi-billionaire Battera had hit an unexpected snag, and its name was Prize Hunter Tsezgerra. “Gon, we definitely have to find a way to pass their screening in two days. What do you say to some more hardcore training?” He looked over to Gon as they walked into their new hideout's rear stairwell. Gon beamed, his arms lifting the two heavy bags full of the cold tea, water, and sports-drinks with 'electrolytes' that Leorio had requested for Kurapika as they began ascending the stairs. Their chosen rooms had wound up being on the third floor, at Killua's insistence.
“Couldn't've said it any better myself!” Gon grinned, carefully avoiding a series of trip wires near the door to the third floor's main corridor. Leorio was waiting for them inside the door.
“Thanks, Gon, Killua,” Leorio said good-naturedly, taking the heavy bags full of beverages from Gon.
“Yeah, yeah, no worries,” Killua answered, eyeing Leorio. “So, have you learned Gyo yet?” Leorio blushed slightly and made a strange half-smile.
“Uh, I'm just getting the hang of it now, I think,” Leorio mumbled. Killua tossed his bag of convenience-store candy and snacks on an empty media storage cabinet and grinned, unwrapping a lollipop with one hand.
“Oh sure you are,” Killua snickered, his mischievous eyes lit with sarcasm. “It only took Gon and I two days, you know...”
“How's Kurapika?” Gon asked, his voice full of sincerity.
“Still sleeping,” said Leorio. “But his fever is much lower, I hope it'll break soon. He's resting a little better now.” He moved the drinks into a lined garbage can half-filled with fresh ice. Gon didn't seem entirely satisfied with the answer.
“But...Now that we know the Spiders are still in YorkNew...” Gon trailed off, and tilted his head back, testing the air like a bloodhound. “Do you smell that?” he whispered, looking at the other two with an expression of the utmost concern. Killua thought for a moment that he was imagining it, but quickly realized that not only was the faint aroma coming from Kurapika's room perceptible, he recognized the scent immediately. Gon was already charging in the door as Killua's eyes widened, and Killua had no choice but to bolt after Gon - as usual. Leorio was hot on their heels as the three sprinted for Kurapika's sleeping quarters.
“N-nijiiro!” Gon shouted, bursting in through the door with a mixture of dread and excitement at the prospect of facing off against her again. For the original founder and youngest member of the Gennei Ryodan was indeed lolling in the sunlight pouring in through the wide frame of the room's open window, smoking a cigarette, with one leg dangling casually into the room and the other bracing her inside the frame. Her black clothes and silver hair were more or less the same, but cleaned, pressed, and spit-polished they were, her figure was very out of place in the mostly barren, dingy, beige-plastered room. She might have been posing for an art magazine cover. Nijiiro looked at them slowly, all of her thoughts having been rudely interrupted.
“Oh, it's the Puppy-dog,” she noted indolently, taking another drag of her cigarette. “Nice tux. How was the auction?...That bad, huh? I take it Battera turned you down? Hmm. Looks like we're all losers this round...”
“M-miss Nijiiro, why are you here?” Gon stammered, his heart pounding. Leorio slowly and deliberately drew his knife, eyes focused intently on Nijiiro's face.
“Because I like to plan ahead,” she answered vaguely, frowning at her cigarette. Killua thought, 'Maybe I don't know her that well, but...she seems very distracted.'
“I don't care what you have planned, if you try to do anything to Kurapika, I'll-” Leorio bristled, a lot more threatening than Gon or Killua had ever seen him.
“You'll kill me, Stewardess? Come over here and do it, then,” Nijiiro said calmly, closing her eyes and flicking her cigarette out of the window. She leaned her head back, as if to offer him her throat. “If you think you've got the grapes.” Leorio clutched the knife harder, and tried to imagine himself taking her offer. He couldn't. “Such a tease,” Nijiiro said silkily, and suddenly Leorio's knife was in her hand, and she was balancing it on its point on the tip of one gloved finger. She twirled the knife and lodged it in the window frame, sinking the long blade nearly halfway into the wood. “I'll continue to do as I please, then...” Nijiiro said softly, without a hint of satisfaction. She slid gracefully out of the window and moved toward Kurapika's sleeping form.
“Not this time, Spider,” Killua snapped. He sprang forward, burying the claws of his right hand deep into Nijiiro's chest. He felt her heart quiver in his hand, her hot blood flowing down from his wrist to his elbow. He yanked his hand back as hard as he could, pulling the heart free of the rest of her body. Nijiiro smiled down at him.
“This time, and every time hereafter, Kitty-cat,” she said, evaporating into smoke.
“Killua, don't,” Leorio said gently. “The next person you attack might not be just a mirage.”
“Learned that the hard way, didn't we, Stewardess?” Nijiiro cooed softly. She was, much to the horror of his friends, sitting at the head of the room's only bed with Kurapika's head resting in her lap. Kurapika grimaced in his sleep, and turned his head so that his cheek rested against the scaly green serpent tattoo that coiled around Nijiiro's right thigh. Nijiiro used her teeth to pull her right glove from her hand, and brushed Kurapika's long golden bangs from his forehead. “This is all your fault. I said I wouldn't allow you to die, did I not?” Nijiiro said gently, addressing the sleeping Kurapika as if he were a child in need of a lecture. “Ah, but I suppose I owe you something of an apology, for when I said you weren't trying hard enough. It would be more accurate to say you weren't thinking hard enough. I didn't realize how severe a price you were willing to pay for those moments. And now you've gone and burned them away... How many days, weeks, perhaps even years...? A numinous payment of time itself, such an injury even I can't heal. I should have known you would need to resort to such drastic tactics to achieve those lofty abilities of yours, Golden Boy. 'Emperor Time' isn't just a grandiose title, after all.” Killua, Gon, and Leorio stood frozen as Nijiiro rambled on, eyes closed, her face as relaxed as one in the midst of thoughtful meditation. The Nen radiating from Nijiiro felt...soothing, to say the least. “But you've put me in such a bind, you see. I've lost that precious time, too. So I have done what you can't, Golden Boy; I made the necessary sacrifices, I've destroyed every obstacle that remains before me. Now we get to settle once and for all which is stronger, your chains or my silk threads. Welcome to hell, m'boy...”
“You can't seriously expect him to hear any of that while he's unconscious,” Leorio pointed out derisively. “If you want to go on weird rants, why don't you wait until he wakes up and tell him all this?”
“Because you're going to do it for me,” Nijiiro countered simply, replacing her glove. “And I haven't the time, anyway. Other appointments await.”
“You betrayed the Spiders, and now you're wandering around YorkNew making house calls? Isn't that a little too bold, even for you?” Leorio said, frowning. Kurapika did look better, with more color in his ashen cheeks than before.
“Prometheus heretofore went up to Heaven, and stole fire from thence. Have not I as much boldness as he?” Nijiiro whispered enigmatically. Louder, she said, “If you honestly think that my Spiders are currently a matter of any concern to me, then you haven't been paying attention.”
“Even so,” Killua said, “You're sorely mistaken if you think we're just going to let you go on some weird diatribe and then waltz out of the front door without explaining anything.” He cracked his knuckles as he fully unsheathed all ten of his claws. Gon's aura began building as he spread his feet and lowered his center of gravity, ready for another round of fisticuffs, or whatever simpleminded boys his age found acceptable terms of diplomacy. Nijiiro was unimpressed.
“You know, Kitty-cat...I wouldn't be much of a 'Phantom' if I required a door, would I?” she sighed, and her figure evaporated again, like an image reflected in a pool of water dashed by a disturbance on its surface. “But if you need an explanation,” she said gently, her lips brushing against Killua's ear and causing him to shiver and blush furiously. “Suffice it to say that, even at the risk of prolonging my suffering, I am ever a slave to hope.” She tousled Killua's hair.
“That doesn't tell me anything!” Killua yelled, swatting at Nijiiro's hand. Nijiiro laughed then, a sound of silver bells cascading down a crystal stairs, a sound full of mirth. Kurapika stirred in his sleep.
“No, it doesn't,” Nijiiro smiled down at him.
“Must be nice, being in a position to be talking down to people all the time for no particular reason,” Leorio huffed indignantly.
“It's lonely at the top, Stewardess,” Nijiiro smirked, leaning back against Leorio's broad chest and tilting his face delicately with one gloved hand, “Pity me.” Leorio lunged forward to grab her, blushing beet red, but she dissolved into fog once again, laughing her tinkling laugh. 'Such adorable friends he has, with such a way of lightening the mood,' Nijiiro thought, 'it would be an absolute travesty to kill them.'
“I know you're keeping Kurapika alive for some reason...But what about the rest of us? Why aren't you willing to fight us?” Gon said, looking around expectantly. The smell of Nijiiro's peculiar cigarette smoke was getting stronger, rather than waning as Gon had anticipated.
“Because only what it is in our power to do, is in our power not to do, see? So while I could make a wish and snuff the three of you out like birthday candles, it is far more advantageous that I choose not to. And this makes the third time I've made such a choice. Remember that,” Nijiiro said softly, putting a pink lollipop to her dark lips. Saluting the three of them casually, she dropped backward out of the third-story window like a scuba diver out of a boat.
“H-hey! That's my...!” Killua shouted, realizing that Nijiiro had quite literally stolen candy from his open mouth, much to his chagrin. He ran to the window and looked down, but there was no trace of her in the street below. “Tch. What a weirdo!”
“If I didn't know better, Killua, I'd say she has a thing for you,” Leorio mumbled, blushing and looking away.
“Huh?” Killua blinked. He wasn't quite sure he had heard correctly. In fact, it seemed to him that Nijiiro had picked on him the worst.
“W-well...How should I say this, erm, where I'm from, that sort of thing is called an indirect kiss, only some one who really likes you would, y'know...” Leorio trailed off, his imagination full of every indirect kiss he'd ever witnessed, fictional or otherwise.
“Whaaa-?” Killua said, taken aback by the concept and immediately wondering if it applied to things like drinking fountains and oral thermometers.
“I don't think that's what she meant to do, Leorio,” Gon said, oddly confident in his assertion.
“What are you talking about, Gon?” Leorio asked, and Killua knew exactly what Gon would say in response, albeit a second too late.
“Well, she already stole his first kiss pretty directly, so I guess this time she just wanted his lollipop,” Gon snickered, as Killua ground his teeth and Leorio's jaw dropped open.
“Gon, you traitorous little-” Killua said, moving to grab his best friend in a well-deserved headlock. Gon almost ducked it in time.
“What is that?” Gon asked, looking at the windowsill. A black, lacquered cabinet less than an arm's length in height was sitting on the spot where Nijiiro had touched down before quitting the room. A cigarette, lit and smoking on its own in the late summer breeze, was tied into the center of a blood-red ribbon wrapped around the cabinet present-style.
“It's probably better if we don't touch it, right?” Leorio said, eyeing the parcel. Kurapika's eyelids fluttered. He recalled seeing her smoking as they'd entered the room, and wondered whether Nijiiro had ever even been in the room with them at all.
“Leorio...your cologne...too strong...” Kurapika half-murmured in his sleep. Killua covered his grin with the back of one clawed hand.
“H-hey! Can't you tell the difference between good aftershave and tobacco?! Damn that Spider, smoking in other people's rooms however she pleases-” Leorio grumbled, observing Kurapika's sleeping form immediately become alert at the word spider. Kurapika sat bolt upright, eyes wide.
“Leorio? What were you saying just-” Kurapika said softly, looking around until his eyes settled on the object in the windowsill. The threadbare curtains fluttered in the gentle afternoon breeze, and the smoldering cigarette tied into the center of the blood-red ribbon burned down like a time-delayed punk, until... Kurapika's hands trembled slightly as the ribbon ignited, fizzing into tattered embers and releasing all four of the side panels of the lacquered cabinet. There, inside of the polished ebony, were the precious pair of Scarlet Eyes stolen for the second time by the Gennei Ryodan. A small piece of black card-stock fluttered from within the cabinet to the floor at Kurapika's feet, and he could see dainty script in silver ink on the side facing him. Sliding out of the sheets, Kurapika retrieved the note while his friends breathlessly awaited his response.
“What...what does it say?” Gon asked, after Kurapika read the note silently and grimaced.
“See for yourself,” Kurapika responded, holding the card out to Gon.
“The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances,” Gon read aloud, one eyebrow raised quizzically. “What does that mean?”
“It's a quote from the Grecian philosopher Aristotle,” Kurapika said, staring at the set of Scarlet Eyes in the windowsill. It seemed as though they were giving him a rather disappointed look.
“Why is the Spider queen quoting Aristotle to you?” Leorio asked.
“Because I quoted him first,” Kurapika said, sounding forlorn.
“What does it mean, though?” Killua chimed in. “Could this be some kind of peace offering? Maybe she's...asking you to give up on revenge?”
“I sincerely doubt that to be the case,” Kurapika sighed. Everything had become increasingly messy since the moment he'd set foot in YorkNew City, and something deep in his bones was now begging him to grab the Scarlet Eyes and run to take the next flight out, even as his three friends recounted to him everything that occurred up until the point he regained consciousness. “From everything she has said, it seems her interests have diverged significantly from those of the other Spiders. I think..she wants me to accept her help in recovering the Scarlet Eyes. Possibly in exchange for something else later on.”
“Exchange? For what?” Killua said, perplexed.
“That's the thing. I can't imagine what I could offer that person, that another couldn't, or that she couldn't get for herself,” Kurapika said, rubbing his eyes.
“Human sacrifice?” Killua leered, a little too eagerly. Kurapika scowled.
“What about this?” Gon said, turning the note card over, “'Well met, Golden Boy'?”
“Oh, well... Nijiiro seems to have a habit of giving people nicknames, and that's the one she picked for Kurapika here,” Leorio explained, suddenly remembering that he'd probably received the worst nickname of the four of them and feeling gilted. “Maybe...because he's blonde?” he muttered to himself, not entirely sure where the nickname had originated. Nijiiro seemed to have had it loaded and chambered at or even before the moment she and Kurapika had first met.
“But what does it mean?” Gon asked again. The three of them looked at Kurapika, who sat on the edge of the uneven mattress with his head bowed.
“It's...my name. A play on words. My name means 'Child of Gold' ...in my native tongue,” Kurapika intoned bitterly. “...And...I'm the only one in this world who should know that.” He wanted to throw something. His fists were clamped to the edge of the bed tightly. 'Damn it all to hell..what kind of sick game have I been drawn into...how many more cards does that person still hold..how much more is there that I don't know..?' he thought bitterly.
“Still,” Leorio said, interrupting Kurapika's brooding anguish, “even if the founder of the Gennei Ryodan isn't actively trying to kill you... Now that their Boss is also missing, the rest of them might still be looking for a way to take you out. Especially that woman named Pakunoda, if she gets her hands on any of us...”
“About that, Leorio...” Gon said slowly, not sure how to phrase the news properly.
“She's dead,” Killua said bluntly, “That's one thing we learned after running into the Spiders at the auction today. They said they found her corpse that night, apparently having mysteriously dropped dead of her own accord.” Kurapika's mind revisited the imaginary seawater that had nearly drowned him in the perfectly dry passenger cabin of his airship, and withheld a shiver. “They also claimed that they wouldn't be seeking revenge on Kurapika, because his Nen chains have the potential to become more powerful in the event of his death. They seemed pretty convinced of that, actually.”
“Do you think that Nijiiro...could she really have...?” Leorio said haltingly.
“Killed her own friends?” Kurapika said, lifting his head to stare at the opposing wall, a look of disgust adorning his otherwise delicate features. “Of course. And whatever she's sacrificing them for, whatever she wants from me, whatever schemes she has for the future...you can bet they're going to be just as heinous. This simply proves...that going back was never an option for me, anyway.” Kurapika stood. “And that, aside from gathering the eyes on my clan, eliminating her must be my first priority from now on.”