1001 Nights

"1001 Nights" - Chapter 1: The Genie

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Hunter x Hunter

INTRODUCTION: Kurapika had a question. Should he feel unfortunate, for losing the only Scarlet Eyes that he thought he had retrieved, and knowing that Kuroro Lucifer; his nemesis, had finally broken free from his Chain of Judgement? Or should he feel fortunate that he actually bumped into him in his task to retrieve some ancient relic? One thing for sure: the appearance of a genie definitely spelled D-O-O-M.

NOTE: words confined by two * indicate italic words

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Chapter 1

THE GENIE

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His head throbbed as if his skull would split into two anytime. A thick layer of dusts obscured his vision, and some of them had gotten into his mouth, forcing him into a fit of coughing. He waved his hand around the cloud of dusts, trying to clear them. He was not supposed to be leisurely waving away the dusts. He was supposed to be doing his assigned task by his idiotic boss, who had his eyes fixed on a certain ancient relic. He was supposed to retrieve the relic from the ruin, and yet there he was, sitting in a God-forsaken underground floor of the forgotten ruin.

Kurapika shook his head vigorously, trying to get some of the dusts and debris off his blond hair. He tried to remember the chain of events that had been taking place. Ok, so his boss had gone desperate. Neon Nostrad, his so-called gold mine, had lost her ability and so his steady income had gone down the drain. He needed to pay for mountains of debts; which Kurapika himself had not the slightest idea on how he managed to accumulate such ridiculous sum of debts, but Nostrad did not have the money. Apparently, he came across a dusty archive which stated that there was a certain enchanted relic that could grant wishes of the owner. Thinking that he might be able to clear his debts and climbed up the social hierarchy once again once he possessed the magical relic, Nostrad set his eyes on the lamp and sent his best men; Kurapika included as one, to get the relic.

Unfortunately, Kurapika's luck had been running thin lately. Not only the Scarlet Eyes had disappeared from Nostrad's possession, he recently felt that the Restrictions he had placed upon Kuroro Lucifer, his mortal enemy, had been lifted. So technically, the head of the Spiders was out there, roaming freely with his Nen liberated. Instead of hunting him down, he was given the menial tasks of retrieving some relic. However, in the end Kurapika found himself wondering whether he should have counted himself as extremely lucky or unlucky. While begrudgingly trying to get his hands on the relic, he came across the unlikeliest group in his mind that he would ever bump into in such a deserted place; the Genei Ryodan itself. Complete with the head.

"So much for my luck." He muttered with a huff.

So, to cut long story short, they fought. A duel, one-on-one between him and Kuroro Lucifer. In the process, the ruin itself was half destroyed as the two were immersed in their duel, the floor collapsed beneath them, and they were swallowed into the underground cave of the ruin. So here he was, in the damp darkness. Kuroro should be near, so he could not afford to lower his guard.

Sure enough, he sensed movement to his left. The next second, Kuroro and Kurapika were already engaged in a furious deadlock; Kuroro holding a dagger aimed to his face, while Kurapika wrapped his chain around his wrist, trying to hold the dagger away from his face.

"You bastard..." He managed with a strain voice while shooting the man looming over him with a glare that could have killed a man, if looks could kill.

His eyes glowed eerily in the darkness of the tunnel, like a glowing ember. Kuroro peered into his eyes, taking in all the negative emotions; the hatred, the resentment, everything, with cold face. Looking into those scarlet eyes, he could not help but to smile. He had suspected that the Kuruta boy's eyes were the brightest among all that he had ever seen, and he was right. Enraged by his smile; which seemed twisted and wrong in his mind, Kurapika's eyes glowed even redder out of anger. Energy pulsed around him, and he began to push Kuroro, until they were of the same eye level.