War of the Ruby [Kurapika x Reader]

22 - The Missing Piece

"So.. you're telling me these are your friends?..." I asked, staring at the three new additions.

We all resided back in my hotel room. I ended up just listening to Kurapika's advice even though I didn't want to. But, a part of me knew that it wouldn't have ended well for neither of us if I didn't.

"The more brains the merrier!" The said-Leorio shouts.

My eyes ignore the older man but instead shift to the two younger ones. My eyebrows furrow knowing that they could get hurt whilst tagging along with the rest of us.

The white-haired kid, presumably named Killua, met my eyes. "I know what you're thinking hag. We're not weak kids. We can handle our own."

My vision traces the kid. Something is certainly different about this one. He carries around this calm demeanor, but theres a dormant sense of entity the green-haired kid doesn't have. Although surveying the green-haired kid, Gon, he must also have some things said-Killua doesn't. They balance each other.

"Yeah, somethings telling me I don't have much to worry about with you." My voice lacking emotion.

Killua smirked at my statement, but doesn't further explain.

My finger found itself pointing to Gon to assess his power. "As for you, you certainly don't fall short of strong, no less powerful, but I doubt you have as much experience as Killua does, do you?" My eyes remain on the young boy.

He just -- in turn, smiled at me, his big pearly whites shining bright. "Yeah! That's cuz he's an assassin! I grew up on whale island so I'm more experienced in nature based things."

My eyes widened as his voice faded out after the mention that the kid was an assassin. I always thought my childhood would be a blur to me; and that it was. But, I remember hearing about assassins an awful lot when I was younger.

My dad would claim to have these important meetings he would sort of host in the basement of my then-home. There's no doubt younger me lacked a clue of what an assassin was, but growing up and finally realizing the meaning could be a key part of my memory, and hopefully help to solve the rationale behind the division of my parents.

Although the division in itself is not the main concern here, it's unquestionably a big part in my moms mission, or not.

I took the seat that was adjacent to my bed, everyones eyes confused, waiting for me to talk after being lost in thought for so long.

"I know you aren't the only one." My eyes were on the floor, but in my peripheral, I could sense the cold blue eyes staring straight in my direction, along with every everyone else's, but theirs weren't as important.

"And who's to tell otherwise?" The white-haired kid began to interrogate, slowly taking strides closer to where my chair sat. My eyes remained on the floor, not bothering to make eye-contact with the kid.

I chuckled. "Me. You're not that much younger than I am, but I would have known more than anyone else here that you're not just self a taught killer."

"I never claimed to be." He crossed his arms in dubiety.

"Then why are you hesitating?"

My eyes finally met the kid. He just stared right back in my direction, not a single word leaving his pale lips. I saw his eyebrow twitch for a moment while waiting for a response from him, still never receiving one.

"I know Kurapika had to tell you about my story and how his connects, otherwise you wouldn't be here right now." I claimed

"I would've been here regardless of your story. Kurapika is my friend so I'd be there whenever he needs me." He coldly stated.

"Then there would simply be no reason for you to state your potential strength at all. I never blamed nor did I question. You just decided to put it out there like you had to in order for me to trust you, and I'm sure you know that."

Despite the tension in the room, I was confident that he was going to eventually tell me what he was hiding. He know's something that I don't, clearly enough. And I'm almost certain it's connected to my family in some way.

"What do you want to know?" Was all he said before taking a seat on my bed, still holding his cold eye-contact.

Everyone else around seemed to have their eyes on us. Except Kurapika, who was currently leaning up against a wall with his eyes closed, listening intently to our conversation.

"Why your family took secret meetings with my father."

His eyebrow raised in question, almost displaying the expression that he had not a clue of what I was talking about.

"You can't just ask me questions like that and expect me to know who the hell your old man is."

"I thought Kurapika told you...?" I took a quick glance at Kurapika, only to see him with the tiniest smile on his face, but his eyes remained closed.

I sucked my teeth and return to the conversation at hand. "Alright, my fathers name was.. is Mabri Nindil L/N. He stood around 5'11-6'0. He was a big guy with tattoos and a long dark brown beard. Oh yeah, and he was bald."

I heard Gon chuckle in the corner, but my face remained straight trying to hold in a chuckle.

Killua seemed to be deep in thought. "Yeah no doubt that dude had something to do with the Zoldycks. Did he have a code name?"

"I knew it. Nobody other than the Zoldycks. -- No, not that I'm familiar with."

"Did your old man have rivals? Or someone he was trying to get away from?"

"Uhh..."

~

"I'm not sure what you remember, but he never killed himself, he simply caused an accident and manipulated his way into large amounts of money through insurance and government."

"He what?"

~

"No rivals. But he definitely was trying to get away from someone." I shook my head as those words left my mouth. Oh' was my mother one problem of a woman.

"Well then there's your verdict." He stated, as he got up to stand next to Gon.

I too stood up, confused on what he meant, even though deep down I knew exactly what he meant.

"Wait, you're not saying my dad was planning to kill my mother are you?" I said in a sort of panic, but my voice remained low and tamed.

"If she's the one he was trying to get away from, then more likely than not, my family were the ones plotting to kill her. I'm surprised they weren't successful. Who even is your mother anyway?" He began pondering my mother's strength.

Day after day, hour after hour, there was something new to add to this line of events. It seemed like there were more dots leading down this path of memory that I never lost but were buried so deeply I never bothered to try and dig them up.

Maybe I never bothered to because I thought the way I was living was normal.

Kurapika's eyes were now opened, his body still leaning against the wall. He was looking for an answer to Killua's question, even though he himself already knew.

"She's a woman who wants something from me and I don't know what it is. That's what we're trying to figure out here."

Lauri starts walking closer to where I stood. "You know I was thinking... maybe she lured you into the business we worked at for a much bigger reason than to just 'get you strong'." She inputed.

I looked her direction and nodded at her statement. Yes, it only made sense for that to be a lie because I never got strong through Cane&Co, I got stronger because of Kurapika.

...

Wait.

Something doesn't feel right.

"Kurapika."

He hummed and lifted himself off of the wall he was leaning against.

"Tell me more about yourself.. like about your childhood."