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.

Chapter 1

THE GENIE

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.

"Oh?" Kuroro raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised by his small feat of pushing him.

After some seemingly interminable seconds, they broke away. However, strange things never ceased to happen. As Kuroro jumped away from him, he felt a strong tug to his left wrist. All of the sudden, Kuroro stopped halfway in his jump as if someone had pulled his right wrist forward, while Kurapika was jerked forward as well.

Kuroro blinked in surprise, Kurapika frowned in confusion. They looked at each other, both noticing the strange phenomenon that happened just a fraction of second ago. Slowly, they both straightened while keeping a wary eye at each other. Kurapika raised his left arm and pulled. At the same time, Kuroro's right hand was jerked forward towards his direction.

Kurapika felt butterflies in his stomach and gulped hard. Whatever it was, it was not going to be a pleasant thing. Kuroro himself looked troubled. He used Gyo and looked at his wrist, and Kurapika saw his already big eyes widened ever so slightly. Imitating his gesture, Kurapika used Gyo and inspected his wrist.

"For the love of—" He could literally feel his blood freezing in his veins and the colour leaving his face. A manacle was clung around his left wrist, and much to his dismay, the other end was connected to Kuroro Lucifer's right wrist.

"What is happening here?" The older man voiced his thought out loud.

As if to answer his question, a blue light flickered in the darkness and hovered eerily around them. Kurapika had to narrow his eyes to get a better look at the ball of light. Apparently, after further observation, it was not a ball of light. It was a very small boy, the size of a grown man's open palm, encompassed in blue light. The boy itself had blue skin, with oversized, round, beady eyes. He looked at them with curious eyes, coupled with the mischievous glint.

Teehee…I'm so lucky. The first thing I found when I woke up from my deep slumber was the unlikeliest pair. He giggled with his ghastly voice. Now let's see how things will go.

"Wait a minute." Kurapika frowned. "Is this…" He lifted his manacled hand and pointed at it. "…your doing?"

Who else? Who else? Only I, the Great Genie Hassamunnin, can do such thing. Hehehehe… The genie continued giggling. He floated around them, looking at them with calculating eyes. "I see you hate him with all your heart. That won't do, that won't do."

The genie shook his head with mock sadness, and then with a snap of his tiny blue fingers, something really unpleasant happened. The chain of the manacle suddenly shrunk, dragging Kurapika and Kuroro forward towards each other. The chain had shortened considerably that they almost bumped each other's head. Kurapika looked up, and to his chagrin, Kuroro's face was just a metre away from his. He glared at him hatefully, but Kuroro just gave him an annoyed look. He turned to face the floating genie.

"Hassamunnin? Would you be so kind as to release this manacle from me?" He politely asked. Kurapika snorted in disdain with his use of polite manner. Kuroro ignored him.

No no no. I can't do that. I won't do that. I don't want to do that. The genie replied with amused voice, which echoed in the underground cave.

"Nothing will change your mind?" Kuroro asked again, his tone even.

Nothing, nothing. The boy sang his annoying song while continued hovering above them.

"What are the conditions to release the bind, then?" He asked again. Kurapika gave him a questioning look. He had no idea on what Kuroro was talking about.

Oooh, the long awaited question. That, I will tell you. Listen well, humans. The genie lowered himself to their eye levels and cleared his throat. First, you cannot forcefully release the bind. Nothing can break it or lift it, except me. But I am not going to do that, so don't count on it. Second, the chain binds your life to each other. If one dies, so does the other one.

Kurapika groaned loudly with exasperation at this, but the genie ignored him. Kuroro shifted uneasily in his position. Hassamunnin continued then.

Third, you cannot liberate yourself from the bind by cutting off your arm. The bind will protect your arms. Fourth, the chain represents how close the two of you to each other is.

"WHAT?" Kurapika did not bother to rein himself this time.

The closer you are to each other, Again, the genie ignored Kurapika's yell of indignation. The more flexible the bind will be.

"So if we don't hate each other anymore, the bind will disappear?" Kuroro asked to clarify with dry amusement.

No no, it's not that easy. It won't be fun that way. The genie grinned evilly at him. It requires more than that to make the bind disappear. Much much more. Much much more. With that, Hassamunnin floated up, performed a stunt in the air, and then poof! He disappeared in a thin blue cloud.

Suddenly, a pin-drop silence engulfed the darkness. Kurapika slumped in defeat, while Kuroro sat in a rigid position. Both stayed that way for a few more minute, before finally Kurapika spoke up.

"Now what?" He asked to nobody in particular.

"What indeed."

"DANCHOU! DO YOU HEAR ME?" Nobunaga peered into the darkness of the cave with his big eyes, yet the darkness was so impenetrable. His voice echoed in the darkness, yet no reply ever came.

"Damn!" He swore as he straightened up. "What do we do now?"

"Maybe someone can go down there to investigate." Shalnark piped in.

"You go." Machi shoved the young man forward.

"EEH? No, I was just suggesting. Besides, I'm not the best man for this." He protested.

"Sssh!" Shizuku suddenly hissed as she put a finger to her lips. "I heard something."

Everyone gathered around the gaping hole and keened their hearing. Indeed, they heard noises coming from the darkness. Phinks and Nobunaga leaned forwards and peered into the darkness, hoping to hear something more distinct or to see something. They heard a whizzing sound, like a projectile cutting through the thick air. Suddenly, something swished past Nobunaga's face, missing his nose just by an inch. In his surprise, he yelped and jumped back, landing on his butt on the dusty floor. A chain with metal ball moved wildly like a snake, and suddenly it dashed past Phink's head, this time missing his ear by some inches, and wrapped itself around the body of a pillar.

"What the—" Phinks joined Nobunaga on the ground as he fell on his butt. "Isn't that the chain-guy's—"

Before anyone could do anything, another louder noise could be heard from the hole. The chain tightened and went rigid, as if something very heavy was attached to its other end. Something emerged from the hole like a cannon ball. It flew up high to the sky and, as if in slow motion, was pulled down by the gravity and landed unceremoniously on the ground a few metres away from the group with a loud thud and a mild quake. Thin cloud of dusts rose from the ground as the thing hit the ground. It was only a second later that they all realised that the thing had been humans; two humans to be exact. The two launched into coughing fits and scrambled to untangle themselves from each other.

"Get away from me!" One said while kicking rudely at the other.

"And you get off me." The other one shoved the smaller one away.

"Hands off!" The one with lighter voice barked.

The two continued struggling to stand up on their own, but their movements were clearly restricted to their wrists. The members of Genei Ryodan who were present there waited warily. They recognised the voices as their Danchou's and the chain-guy's, but they had no idea on how things had ended up that way. What was more out of place was the fact that they were bickering. The Spiders looked at each other. Something must have happened down there.

"Now I've gotten ourselves out of that place, what do you suggest we do now?" Kurapika snarled at him while trying to stand as far away as possible from the older man within the allotted space allowed by the accursed manacle.

"Obviously we must get rid of this…ridiculous bind." Kuroro shook his magically manacled hand to emphasise his point.

"How?" Kurapika asked.

"Why, you didn't strike me as someone this dumb, Kuruta." Kuroro turned to look at him and gave him a mocking smile.

"Excuse me?" Kurapika glared at him.

"The genie is from the enchanted relic we are both after. I suppose the relic broke when we fought, and he was released."

"And this is what we get from releasing him. How grateful." Kurapika said with thick sarcasm while rolling his eyes. "Just great. And you haven't answered my question."

"Genies are seriously true to their power. There is no way to get around the rules they declare on the jinxes they cast. It must be fulfilled down to the last letter." Kuroro said with monotonous voice.

"But I am not going to tag along with you like this." Kurapika shook his manacled arm angrily at him. "I'd rather die than to travel with you!"

"I would be more than happy to do the killing-job for you, given the normal circumstances. But since condition does not allow, unfortunately you will have to bear with it."

"And why do you care, anyway? I'm more than willing to commit suicide, if by doing so I can drag you with me into the pits of hell!"

"But if you die now, your comrades' eyes will be forever lost."

Kurapika opened his mouth to argue back, but found no more sensible arguments. Kuroro was correct. Even if it violated his dignity, he had to bear with the shame because collecting back his people's eyes were one of his goals. If he died now, he could never do it anymore. He swallowed bile and glared daggers at Kuroro.

"My, aren't we being talkative today." He said spitefully.

"You are annoying."

"And you are despicable."

So they continued hurling insults towards each other. It seemed that both had forgotten the presence of the 10 other people there, who were watching their quarrels with perplexity in their faces.

"Danchou?" Machi called out, still unsure of the situation.

Hearing her voice, both Kurapika and Kuroro stopped their arguments and turned to her. Kuroro fought his urge to sigh in front of his subjects. Explaining his—their—predicament would be tough, especially with Nobunaga around. He had a certain thirst to kill the boy in the worst possible way since the boy had killed his best friend, Uvogin. Even worse, because of the stupid conditions laid out by a certain blasted genie, he had to protect the boy from Nobunaga's quest of revenge. Heck, they technically had to protect each other since their lives depended on each other.

Nevertheless, he had to tell them. So he did. Kurapika said nothing as he spoke; all he did was to have a glaring competition with Nobunaga. When Kuroro was done, silence fell among them. The members looked at each other with the same question in their minds: "What now?" It was the worst-possible case; to have the Kuruta bound to their leader while the boy desired the Spider head's death the most. It was like walking with a time bomb.

"For now, it will be temporary disbanding for us. Until I am done with this business, that is." Kuroro declared. "Any objections?"

"Danchou, can I tag along with you?" Nobunaga asked while he still glared at the blond.

"You, Nobunaga, are prohibited from seeing us until further notice." He ordered him deadpan. He did not want to waste his energy trying to prevent the incoming bloodshed between the two along their journey. Nobunaga wailed in protest, only to have Franklin dragged him away to calm him down.

"Now…" Kuroro glanced at the Kuruta standing next to him, whose head was only slightly past his shoulder.

"What?" He snapped at him rudely.

"Nostrad sent you, correct?"

"Yes." He answered curtly.

"Then we will need you dead for him." Kurapika snapped his head towards Kuroro, his mouth open as he was about to protest. Before he could utter a single syllable, his head was slammed against the hard concrete floor and Kuroro was already pinning him by his neck.

"What. The. Hell. Are. You. DOING?" Kurapika chocked each word with effort, since his throat was squeezed by Kuroro's strong arm, but not without the underlying wrath in his tone. In his anger, his iris turned bloody crimson, which only earned a satisfied grin from the older man on top of him. Kurapika cringed as he gazed into the obsidian orb of the man. They were so dark, endless, and drawing. He felt drawn into their depths the longer he stared at them.

"Good. Coltopi, copy him." Kuroro called at his comrade; the small man with a mop of hair covering him face that only an eyeball was visible. He complied with his order without any protest and did as he was told. He gingerly touched the fuming Kuruta's arm; which was securely pinned against the floor by Kuroro.

In a minute, a perfect copy of Kurapika was made and Kuroro released the seething boy from his grip. Kurapika pushed him away roughly and dusted himself. He did not accuse him of anything or demanded any explanation from him, since he knew perfectly of what Kuroro was trying to do. He needed to make a duplicate of himself and faked his death, so that the Nostrad would not be searching for him once they found him missing during the mission. He also understood that Kuroro was trying to provoke his Scarlet Eyes, since it would be much more convincing that way. Much to his annoyance, it was well thought.

"Nobunaga." Kuroro called at the sulking samurai, who was still pouting. "You can 'decorate' the fake Kuruta to your heart's content."

"Really?" Immediately, the samurai's face lit up and he bounced his way towards the sprawling fake body on the floor. As he unsheathed his sword, he gave Kurapika an evil grin. Kurapika graced him with his most intimidating glare.

"Mind if I join the makeover?" Feitan asked, the evil anticipation was thick in his voice. Even when he was not looking, Kurapika could feel his sadistic grin.

"By all means." Nobunaga mocked a bow. In no time, there were sounds of flesh being ripped and torn, coupled with the slashing voice of sword against fabrics and flesh.

"Spare the face. They need to be able to identify him." Machi commented coldly as she watched from sideways. There was no emotion whatsoever on her cold feature as she watched her comrades redecorating the fake Kuruta. In the mean time, Kurapika stared at his body being mutilated without even flinching or cringing. Kuroro observed him with mild amusement from his side.

"You don't find this revolting?" He asked out of curiosity. The blond looked so refined, he thought the boy would not stand such a bloody scene.

"I've seen my comrades in worse condition." He said quietly, though not weakly. He braced himself to see his fake body being dismembered, while keeping in mind that it might happen to him once the Genei Ryodan had their hands on him for real. Kuroro looked over the boy from head to toe, measuring him with calculating eyes. He had seen the strength in the boy, and was quite amused that such thin body could muster such strength.

When they were quite done with the fake body, they carelessly trashed it to the dusty floor and let it be there. Kurapika looked at his duplicate with detached expression, as if it did not have his face. Kuroro ordered them to disperse, which they did immediately. Soon, the two found themselves alone in the ruin, with the manacles binding them together.

"We'll be going to Ryuusei-gai." Kuroro suddenly declared, breaking the awkward silence between them.

"WHAT? No way!" Kurapika refused vehemently. The very thought of going to his nemesis's hometown was just ridiculous.

"Well, do you have any other better options to begin with?"

"…Not at the moment."

"Then we'll be better off investing our time in Ryuusei-gai, since I know someone who can help us with this issue." Kuroro simply said.

"Fine, fine." Kurapika grumbled.

Author's Note: Well… I hope this is somewhat satisfactory (?) Reviews will be much appreciated and accepted. I think Kuroro is a bit out of character, or is he not? I was just itching to get Kuroro and Kurapika bickering with each other (feh…)

Next: The fact that Kurapika had to travel with Kuroro Lucifer was the last thing he could have expected in the universe he was living in. But reality is reality, no matter how harsh. In the end, they had to come up with some forms of truce if they wanted to reach The Shooting Star City somewhat safely and fast.