RUIN | Hisoka Fan Fiction

Chapter 04: To Destroy a World

[Dandelion]

Night. It's only pitch black if you don't know where to look. In the amber ambience of the hearth fire, I stoked the coals and hummed to myself. The cabbages were placed onto their shelves, the dried meats hidden from thieving rats, and I had swept both my room and the kitchen. In the distance, the night howled with bustling activity. 

Meteor city is a city that awakens with twilight. Though mother forbid me from stepping out after dusk, I hear rumors of what happens after the sun goes down. Drugs and death, the florescent scent of red lanterns and thunderous roars of pit fights. Truth to be told, it's not the activities that scared me, but rather the transformation of my neighbors. In the light, Mr. Hayato was the butcher and he also fed scraps to the stray dogs, but they say that he owned the fighting ring where savage beasts were pit against each other. Nothing frightened me more than the hidden darkness, and the ease that humans are able to conceal their true nature. 

I wondered what I was capable of hiding. What mother herself must be hiding, living in a city like this. 

The warm bed called to me and I tip-toed past mother's room. The door was left ajar. Mother always sleeps with the door locked. I nudged the door, it swung open with a soft creak, and the bright scent of lavender and oak flooded the hallway. Leftover potions sat on mother's desk, with a hastily thrown away message. I couldn't read it, she wrote it in strange symbols. Still, it seemed important so I tucked it into my coat. 

I shivered and wrapped myself tighter with the large brown scarf mother knit for me last winter. A light breeze wafted into the room, followed by a trail of snow. The first snow fall this year. I peered outside the open window. Mother's glove had been caught on the ledge. I was about to close the window when I noticed a distinctive calling card. A magician's red queen of hearts. 

"Mother?" I called out. She must just be in the garden, doing some late-night trimming. 

"Where are you, mother?" I dashed into the garden, frost emerged from my pants. 

The garden stood still in the moonlight. Silver beams shone down on the plants and flowers. 

I ran out. Mother would never leave me alone at night. She must be in danger. 

I passed the town center. The red lanterns. The dark alleyways. I reached the bar at the edge of town. If she left this way, someone must have seen her. I took the stairs two at a time and barged in the door. 

The room, which was bustling a second before, stifled its liveness.  Strange men and women with intricate markings stared at me. Leered. Smiled. 

"Dandelion," a familiar voice greeted me. Hisoka. 

"Have you seen mother?" I approached him and the gazes withdrew. 

"No, why?" 

"She's never out this late. I'm worried about her. Help me look."

Hisoka frowned and nursed the dark brandy in his hands. His amber eyes darkened with concentration. I felt the nen gathered around his figure, but I couldn't make out what it is he's doing with it. 

"I found her. Let's go. Quickly," he doesn't wait for me before he crushed the glass in his hands and vanished through the bar. 

I stumbled backwards and quickly paid for him before running out the door. Into the cold night air, the snowfall thickened and I could barely see his footsteps. The snow almost covered his tracks. I shielded my eyes against the frost and sprint at full speed. He had taken several shortcuts by jumping on roofs and I could only find his footprints again at the end of the road, near the western gate of Meteor City. 

I stopped. There were red berries in the snow. At this time of the year? The berry harvest season had long past.

My nose twitched. It didn't smell right. I glanced up and Hisoka's frozen in the gale of the storm. His figure tensed and I felt unprecedented fear. An aura of killing intent spilled out from him. I couldn't move. My lungs screamed and my legs wanted to buckle and fall deep into the snow but I forced myself. 

One. Two. Three steps towards him. 

"H-Hisoka?" I squeaked. 

"Turn away. You don't want to see this." His voice deepened into a primitive growl. 

"W-what's wrong?" I caught my breath. I pushed past him. 

I screamed. "Mother!"

The moonlight glistened against the soft layer of snow that had already buried mother's body like a shroud. The red berries earlier I realized was blood. Was it hers? I broke free of the fear paralyzing me and rushed towards her. 

"Mother, wake up!" I pushed at her but she gave no response. Her body's cold. How long had she been in the snow? I brushed the snow off her face and my breath caught. 

"W-what..." 

"Dandelion. Stop." Hisoka reached for my shoulder and I recoiled. I hugged mother's corpse and howled. 

"Who did this? Who did this to mother? Her... her eyes! Her beautiful eyes," I screamed but my voice came out as a hoarse whisper. 

Hisoka stood silently in the snow. The snow around him melted from pure anger. 

"I think you should go home now, Dandy."

"No," I rose from the ground. The tears on my face froze and crystalized. They bit into my cheeks. 

I took a step towards the nearly imperceptible tracks. "I'm going to find them. I'm going to find the ones that killed mother. I--"

My world went dark at the sharp pain at the back of my head. Hisoka?

...

A/N: Idk what you mean by it's been half a year *looks away* 

Hope you enjoyed this chapter... it's a little sad but let me know if you know who killed Beryl and took her eyes hehe. 

Till next time,

Wooshuu