Still Doll

A Job Post

Nostrad's looks of hopelessness at the loss of his daughter's fortune-telling ability as well as the burning thirst to regain the stature of the Nostrad family as they parted ways were still fresh in Kurapika's mind.

Bad luck after bad luck came to the Nostrad's household when they returned to their home from York Shin. They lost Tocino, Baise, Ivlenkov, Dalzollene and after a confirmation, even Squala after their encounter against Genei Ryodan, and the scarlet eyes worth 2.9 billion went missing as his beheaded body was reported to them along with the abandoned car. This put Neon Nostrad into a very terrible mood, but Light Nostrad lost all the colours on his face when his daughter said that she couldn't write prophecies anymore.

According to the police reports and witnesses' testimonies, after staging those weird acts of decapitating Squala and shooting each other with a gun on the head without dying, the suspects fled the scene as if nothing happened and without taking anything from the victim and the car. No one dared to approach the crime scene as well until the police arrived, and nothing was missing from the car but the eyes.

Days later, they heard from the Community that the York Shin auction management was flooded with complaints that their purchased items from the auction magically disappeared from their possession a day after acquiring them. Kurapika noticed that the purchasers' accounted time of their items' disappearance played around the same time of Squala's death, thus it could be concluded that the same fate happened to the scarlet eyes.

As it turned out, the York Shin auction was a big fraud and what more, they couldn't refund the 2.9 billion as it was stealthily taken by the bastards as well. This confirmed Kurapika's fear that his brethren's eyes had fallen into Ryodan's hands again.

Things came from worse to worst as the Nostrad's piling debt (both father and daughter were lavish spenders) began to earn interest and income from their existing business establishments couldn't even cover them up. One by one, their properties were repossessed by the banks until only their five-star hotel in York Shin (the one where they stayed at during the Ryodan fiasco) and the mansion where they currently lived remained.

Zenji's blabber about Light Nostrad being a former gang leader seemed to be true: his former boss didn't seem to be that proficient in handling businesses and he was mainly taking his financial support from his daughter's ability.

There came in Lurix Dmitri who was Nostrad's colleague back from his gang days and later helped him out with his remaining assets. One way or another, Nostrad managed to get back on his feet and regained a bit from the proceeds of his hotel. This was when Kurapika found out that Dmitri was collecting the Kuruta eyes as well, and Dmitri happened to be in search for new guard. One thing led to another: Dmitri offered him a job which he intended to grab. Nostrad couldn't turn down Kurapika's decision to transfer to Dmitri due to his gratitude to the man so he had no choice but to let him go.

He hadn't heard much about the Nostrads after that; he was busy at Dmitri's plus his dilemma about Kuroro kept him occupied, and Nostrad didn't contact him at all since the day he left their house. Looking back, he could clearly remember the look on Nostrad's eyes as Kurapika handed him his resignation. After their exchanges of thank you and good luck, Nostrad swore that he would definitely be back on the game and asked him if he would still like to work under him when that time came. Kurapika replied it would be his pleasure, not wholeheartedly meaning it. Unless they hold onto the scarlet eyes again then there was no reason for him to work for them, so that phone call from Nostrad didn't baffle him that much and even lent him a tiny ray of hope.

Kurapika tried to ask what the agenda of their meeting was, but Nostrad refused to give him any hint, saying it would be better to be told personally. Kurapika chose to accept the invitation despite still being distressed by his encounter with Kuroro, and they agreed to meet in the restaurant at Nostrad's hotel.