The Reason We Fight

Chapter 51. The Friend

Kurapika produced a translucent blue crystal sphere from a locked cabinet in his offices. It sparkled brightly under the fluorescents.

"An Aetherium Crystal", he said, mysteriously. "I got this from a group of religious zealots called the Crimson Syndicate. It's infused with the Nen of its creator, and can induce an altered state of consciousness that enhances the target's capacity to respond to suggestion. I believe it's used by the state in political interrogations... quite the valuable tool".

Kakume twitched nervously. "Do you really think this is a good idea, Kurapika? Can I really get stronger if we do this?"

He nodded. "I believe so, but it's up to you".

Kakume wasn't sure she wanted to go back to that place. There must have been a reason it was suppressed from her memory. And besides, she didn't like to think about her time in Kakin, it was too... painful. But what choice did she have? Kurapika was right, the other day. It isn't just about her anymore – he and Leorio, even Senritsu, are all involved, now. They were all ways for Tam to get to her... she couldn't afford to succumb to inaction. I have to do it, she thought. Let the chips fall where they may.

"Alright. I trust you", she said, a determined expression on her face.

Kurapika smiled and sat her at his desk. He placed the crystal on the surface of it and pushed it forward. "Gaze into the flaw at the center of it. Don't keep your eyes off of it".

Kakume was doubtful - to her, it seemed like hocus pocus... New Agey nonsense. Abruptly, however, the basement of Kurapika's Mafia headquarters receded from view, and she was transported back to a different time and a different place. She could faintly hear Kurapika calling out her name in the distance, but it seemed very far from here, and not quite real. As if they were not really words, but simply thoughts that sprung into her mind.

"Take me back to your last day as a slave to Prince Jabatai, the day you used your power", she thought she heard a disembodied voice command her in her head. The world spiraled around her.

-

It was dark and damp, with dawn breaking on the horizon. She glimpsed it through the bars of her narrow window slit, which she needed to climb the stone wall to reach. It's now been three days. She hoped Daro managed to escape, but she still felt a knot of worry churning inside her stomach. When he left the kennels with his Handler, and she watched his back gradually disappearing from her sight, he looked over his shoulder and smiled at her with utter confidence. He had a plan, he said.

She heard a noise in the cell next to her. They were opening the metal door to let Daro back in, and she heard him weep, which wasn't like him at all. She felt dejected. So he failed, then.

As soon as she heard the heavy footsteps of his Handler recede, Shuri approached the wall separating them, and removed the heavy stone she had by chance managed to dislodge by scratching its borders a few months back.

"Daro?", she called out to him. "What happened? You got caught?"

But on the other side of the stone wall stood a strange girl, rather than Daro. She was beaten up pretty badly, with bruises on her face and lashes on her back. Shuri frowned, not understanding.

"Who are you? Where's Daro?"

A loud clanking made her jump, as the guard rapped his baton against the door of her cell. "Silence!", he shouted. She put the stone back into the wall, stewing in her disquietude. Biding her time.

-

Shuri had her eyes transfixed into the center of the crystal. She responded to his questions succinctly, with little inflexion in her voice, and her eyes looked dull and empty, not blinking once.