The Reason We Fight

Chapter 55. The Puppeteer

Kakume and Kurapika trudged cautiously through the dilapidated textile mill, their eyes narrowed and senses alert. The building stood as a timeworn sentinel, weathered and stained with the patina of neglect. Its skeletal remains loomed over the landscape, a testament to an industrial past left to decay.

Inside, the cavernous space echoed with the eerie creaking of machinery long silenced. Rusty equipment lay scattered in haphazard disarray. Conveyor belts, now motionless, coiled like dormant serpents across the dusty floor. Rickety looms, their frames worn and warped, still stood, scattered around the space. The air hung heavy with the scent of rust and decay, and a thick layer of dust, undisturbed for years, cloaked everything in a sepulchral stillness. Every step they took reverberated through the hollow chambers. Further, Kakume could see a mezzanine laden with ruined wooden boxes, accessible through a metal staircase that seemed perilously close to falling into pieces. As they walked, she could hear a persistent buzzing sound, but whenever she whipped her head around to see what it was, it was gone as quickly as it appeared. She wondered if she was losing her mind.

Suddenly, they discerned Leorio in the distance, or rather, heard him. He had just kicked his chair and fell into the noose, hanging from the ceiling, even though it wasn't yet midnight. Damn it... Tam must have seen us enter, Kakume thought. She made an effort to step toward Leorio to help him off the rope, but found that she couldn't move. That buzzing... it must have been... oh no.

Kurapika seemed unaffected, and ran to his friend's rescue. Leorio was slowly turning purple, gasping and fumbling desperately at the rope around his neck.

"A knife!", Kurapika shouted at her. "Kakume, I need a knife! Quickly, make a knife! Now!"

"I can't! I can't move!" He turned to her in panic, and observed her motionless form, his forehead creasing. Kakume was in no position to shape him any sharp object with her blood. He scanned his surroundings for an alternative, and pushed the chair back under Leorio's feet, alleviating the pressure on his windpipe. He sharply took the razor-sharp metal claw off Kakume's finger, and worked on severing the noose.

Leorio collapsed on the floor like a marionette freed from its strings, gasping for air.

"He's... above...", Leorio voiced thinly, in a raspy tone.

From the mezzanine, a cold, booming laugh could be heard. Tam stood watching them as if they were all insects.

"Coming back for the buddy. If I didn't know you better, Kakume, I'd think you got a craving for the old dirt nap. Your success rate has not been high, yet here you are, ready for a second helping".

Still standing firm, unable to move a muscle, Kakume called out to him. "We don't have to do this, Tam. It's not too late... we can still be a family".

Tam flinched pointedly, ill at ease. "Fat chance of that", he spat. Sadness clouded her features and her head tilted down, eliciting the barest twitch of guilt on Tam's face. He suppressed it quickly.

"Ah. I get it now. The fortune, the Scarlet Eyes... all excuses", Kurapika said keenly. "The real reason you're trying to kill her, is that you can't bear to have someone you-"

His speech was interrupted by a fist in the face. Leorio had given him a strong hook that sent him sprawling to the floor. "Sorry, Kurapika. He... he's controlling me", he said, remorseful.

Kurapika stood back up, glowering, and spit up some blood. "You're just trying to protect yourself... from having to love someone. That's pathetic", he continued.

"Oh spare me the sermon", Tam said, seemingly wary. "Have your fight, since you're clearly looking for one, and leave out the bonus guilt. As for you, Kakume... well, I hope you enjoy the show".

-

Leorio approached him in a fighting stance, his movements mechanical but smooth, an unwilling puppet. Kurapika's heart sank, understanding what was about to happen. Tam will get them to fight to the death, and have Shuri watch them, helpless to act.

Leorio swung his fists at him, and he dodged. Dodging and evading was really all he could do, in this situation. Tam knows I will try to avoid an offense, not wanting to hurt my friend. If this fight lingers, I am bound to lose, Kurapika strategized.The only way I can walk away from this, is if I incapacitate him quickly, but without inflicting any harm. But here's the catch-22: the only Nen chain in my hand that can manage that, I cannot use on anyone but the Spiders.

He pirouetted around Leorio's relentless attacks, feeling frustrated about his own shortcomings. Leorio's reach was better, and he was stronger. What's more, pain was not like to stop or slow him, as he didn't have the reigns over his own body. Kurapika skillfully sidestepped each blow, desperately trying to find a way to break the sinister control over Leorio.

But despite his determination to avoid causing harm, Kurapika could feel his endurance waning with every passing minute. This time, Leorio managed to get a hit, making him fly back. When he advanced forward, Kurapika had no choice but to kick him back.

"Stop! Stop this, I beg of you!", Kakume piped up, her face contorting in despair.

Kurapika dashed towards the factory's old machinery, hiding behind their shadows to give himself the time to think. Mindwrangler's Domination. That's how Tam called this power. Once they get into your stomach, the beetles extend tendrils into your nervous system. It turns you into a mere puppet, with no control over your own body, he once told him, when he fought him just outside of Camor. But Shuri managed to escape its control, hasn't she? How did she...? A sudden image of that gaping wound in Shuri's abdomen flashed into his mind. Oh god, he thought, deeply disturbed. She tore it out of her own body...

Leorio found him quickly, as Tam was watching them from above and had an eagle's eye view of the whole floor. He grabbed Kurapika by the collar and threw him forcefully into a concrete pillar, shattering pieces of it. In his momentary lapse, Leorio seized the opportunity to land a series of punishing blows on him.

Kurapika, battered but resolute, glanced at Kakume. Her eyes were glowing in a deep crimson, tears flowing on her face.

"Use it, Shuri! You need to use it! It's your power... I know you can control it".

But she hesitated. She didn't trust this power, and didn't trust herself enough to wield it. If he had to guess, he would say that she even feared it. Feared what it could do... to him, to Leorio, maybe even to Tam. He stepped back, but the controlled Leorio was relentless. Kurapika's movements slowed, and each evaded attack took a toll on his stamina. In a cruel twist of fate, he found himself cornered. Leorio, his puppeteer's strings pulled tight, delivered one last devastating blow. Kurapika coughed up blood, pain coursing through every cell in his body. Sprawled on the floor, his eyes cast skyward like they were searching for help from an uncaring universe. He heard Shuri's sobs, distantly, his ears ringing, and then, he heard her roar in fury.

She was doing it. She was controlling it.

Shuri, still as a statue, but with an expression that scared even him, pulled all the nails holding the mezzanine to her. As Tam maneuvered around the collapsing structure, she propelled them to him like a hail of bullets. Agile as a cat, her father managed to avoid most of them by rolling off and jumping to the side, landing on his two feet a few meters from them. He was bleeding from a spot on his shoulder where one nail had pierced into him, and a gash in his leg that had a... playing card... lodged into it. Shuri fell down on the floor and so did Leorio... Tam's grip on them had been released. Kurapika looked up to where he had been a minute earlier, then to where he was standing now.

Hisoka approached him, his mouth curved into a raptorial smirk. "Good to see you again... Tam".

The world around him faded into black.