Hunters X and X Heroes

A X Gamble

Kurapika threw the tabard back on as he walked back over to the platform; Rukei now realized that he was Kurta, though she was sure they were all wiped out years back when Kurapika was about her age, but the Scarlet Eyes were the proof.

Rukei blinked in surprise as the boy reappeared to them. The Scarlet Eyes were gone, replaced with the former grayish-brown they had all been familiar with. As the boy explained what happened with an apologetic look on his face, she was starting to put together that his Scarlet Eyes were probably connected to the reason why he took the exam. He hadn't told her as it was 'personal'.

She couldn't blame him. She too hadn't told them many things,

She thought about the situation again; it didn't hit her until a few moments later.

The Kurta's clan was wiped out by the Phantom Troupe. And Kurapika was the survivor of it. Rukei wouldn't know the suffering and pain Kurapika went through, there was no way she could know, but from what she saw, he had set his heart and eyes on avenging the Kurta.

She pulled back out of her thoughts to listen to him continue his explanation, "To be truthful, whenever I see a real spider, my personality changes and I go into a frenzy."

Gon then proceeded to turn and with such a poor attempt at a whisper that she was sure Kurapika heard them, said, "We should keep Kurapika away from spiders."

And Rukei was always the one that got jabbed at for pointing out the obvious.

The blonde let out a ragged sigh as he slid down one of the stone walls claiming to be glad that his rage still burned as strongly as ever. But as Leorio stepped up to take the next match, Rukei quickly whipped her head upwards towards the monitor over their heads. Something was wrong.

Kurapika's win wasn't counted.

One of the prisoner's stepped forward, a female by the sound of it, claimed that the match had not yet been settled, as Majitani was still alive and hadn't surrendered. She was a bit annoyed at this, but the proposition was a death match.

"Hey, Kurapika!" Leorio turned around to the blonde with impatience lining his tone, "Go finish off that worthless piece of trash."

The answer was immediate and cold, "I refuse."

"What? Why?!"

"The fight is already over," Kurapika reasoned, opening his eyes, "He had already lost his will to fight when I punched him. I will not fight someone who has lost."

Rukei vexation grew, but his reasoning was valid in her eyes and he seemed to resemble Shichi so strongly now that she couldn't say a word against him. The Scarlet Eyes seemed to really throw her for a loop.

Leorio did not see the same thing she did. "Screw that! Then what do we do? They're claiming that the match hasn't ended!"

"Let him handle it," Kurapika replied in a clipped tone.

"Huh?!"

The blonde seemed to be annoyed that he had to continue speaking. She presumed that he wanted to be left alone for a while. "Once he wakes up, we'll have our answer."

Rukei wasn't sure when Majitani was going to wake up, seeing that Kurapika really slugged him hard causing her to glance at her watch in discomfort. Leorio voiced her concerns, "We only have so much time left. We can't afford to sit around and wait-"

"I have no intention of killing him!" Kurapika finally raised his voice.

"Come on-"

Killua stepped in cooly still a bored underlining amongst his words, "Hey. If you don't want to dirty your hands, I'll do it," everyone stared at him, "You haven't killed someone before, right?" Killua's tone had a challenging lift to it, "Are you scared?"