*HxH Disclaimer*

Author's Notes: Happy Epilogue Day! xD Here ends my fanfic Living Things. ^^

I know it may sound like some cliché speech, but it's been a great ride writing this; I had fun with this piece, and especially reading your reviews and remarks. :D I would never have finished this (a little behind schedule :P) without you guys. YOU ARE THE BESTEST. :DD

I always give special and fond mention to my faithful and new reviewers: Raywolf Shibelt, Kiniro-chan, Florrallover, a guest reader, LordOfTheWest, Ongaku no Usagi, kunoichi79, and Paperoo! *more party hats and cookies*

Okay, let's do this so we can move to Part 2 soonest. xD

Living Things
By: DW-chan

Epilogue: Nothing To Lose

22 messages.

11 missed calls.

Kurapica realized that he had completely neglected his own cell phone in his stay at the facility, not when he had to give quite a thorough lesson to his father about the said device. He gave a little grin when he realized that five of the messages and seven of the calls were his own father's, who had simply been testing his hand at the cell phone when Kurapica had told him "to review."

The rest were either Leorio's or Senritsu's. He wondered were Gon and Killua had disappeared to, but wherever they were, there had always been one way or another for them to meet again.

I'm all right, he replied to a couple of messages. That's all he needed to say.

He would be leaving for the city in an hour. Kurapica wanted a quiet, uneventful exit; Dr. Barrow would, once more, know what to say when more questions arose from the rest of the Lazarus team. There would always, however, be the need to be more vigilant—at least to remain well and intact until two months had passed, when Sianni would revive once more, and maybe, just maybe, with everyone else…

The lure of home in Rukso was strong, but he then remembered some lines of an old poem he had read some time before:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

"The road not taken," Kurapica whispered. He tucked the phone back into the pocket of his tunic. He slid his hand out, and clenched them, almost in reflex. He imagined his Nen chains, the weight of them, the scent of them, the rough silver color of them. Yet he did not materialize them. It was a start.

His phone gave a tiny, vibrating beep. Only slightly puzzled, he pulled it out of his pockets once more, and opened the new message.

Gdlck KpiC a,,,,,

It was from his father again.

"I think I've finally gotten the hang of it!" came a quite triumphant voice from behind him. Kurapica turned and Ianto was walking to him, a small gleam of a smile on his face. His father looked like he had discovered a moon within the moon and was proclaiming his accomplishment to the world.

Kurapica blinked.

"It's got a QWERTY keypad," the boy simply said.

Ianto looked at Kurapica as though he were seeing the boy for the first time. "What's that, son?" He still looked rather exultant.

"It'd be nice, father, if you spelled the words in full and correctly—"

"Right, right," Ianto nodded, his brows furrowing. He seemed in good spirits, despite the fact that his son will be gone again from his side. He had not taken his eyes off the cell phone. "Give me another day, maybe. My fingers keep on slipping."

"Just don't keep sending me practice messages every hour, father."

"Oh, did I just do that?"

Kurapica felt like scratching a sudden itch at the back of his head. There were simply times when his parents would think and act alike. He knew Sianni would be no different with her fascination with technology, even if she found it terribly outlandish in the first place. He even had a sneaking suspicion that Sianni wanted a cell phone for herself, and was only pretending she didn't, to occasionally appease her husband's old-fashioned sense.

Kurapica shook his head as he watched his father tinker with the cell phone some more. And once again Kurapica felt his phone buzz.

"Father!"

"Last one, last one!"

Kurapica glanced at his phone.

Say hi to PaIRO fr M m,e

Kurapica blinked again. He decided to humor his father. He replied to his father's message then and there, when they were only a few feet apart…

I will, father.

"Wait, I got this," said Ianto, trying to open his new message. He grinned once more when he had done so without much effort. The man looked up from his fumbling, his smile not fading. "You're quite a good teacher, Kurapica!"

Kurapica continued to humor his father. "Um, thanks."

They stood under the high noon sun; Kurapica had found his way outside the facility again, in the same courtyard-like expanse with their arching gateways and delicate architecture, neither flamboyant nor nondescript. He had walked on the very same grounds when he first ventured to enter the facility. Somehow, right at this moment, it did not seem too overbearing, and the air seemed a little fresher.

Dr. Barrow came to fetch him half an hour later to accompany him to the underground shuttle. "Zan's family finally responded," he informed Kurapica; the boy found himself genuinely interested in the posthumous affairs of the late head scientist. He had never really liked Dr. Zan Tournay, but after he had ascertained that Tournay might have had risked his life for the knowledge of Nexus, which he possessed now, filled Kurapica with unbidden gratitude.

"How is Dr. Tournay's family?"

Barrow seemed rather surprised that the boy was concerned. "It was a sister that answered my call. I can't, however, reach his nephew. It's quite a pity, though, since the nephew had been Tournay's primary concern… once. Well, that can't be helped now. I'll get to him soon enough."

"What reason did you give them?"

Barrow once more felt the odd amazement towards Kurapica's curiosity.

"A work hazard," he returned. "Only the half-truth, I'm afraid. Though I doubt," said the man slowly, "that the family would bother to know the truth, either way. Tournay was…" he cleared his throat. "He was a man married to his work. He had custody over his nephew, and yet he chose to remain with Project Lazarus…"

"Just as you have."

Barrow turned to the youth, still mildly beguiled at Kurapica's precociousness and his habit of treating every adult as an equal, rather than an elder—unless, perhaps, it came to Ianto and Sianni. Even then, thought Barrow with a smile, not so much.

"I've seen Lazarus this far, Kurapica," Barrow said. "And in all honesty, though I still have some of my misgivings, I just couldn't deny the fact that we may be working on a miracle here. A good one, and I have high hopes."

"Then I wish you all the luck, doctor," Kurapica said, with an awkward formality. "My people are in your hands. They are my world."

"I had known nothing but Project Lazarus nearly all the days I've been a scientist; I've been here even before the Project had a name. You can say," Barrow chose his words willfully, "That this is my world, too."

The trek to the underground passageway that led to the facilities' lesser-known shuttle station seemed shorter than expected. Ianto had walked abreast with the young man and the scientist, silently observing their conversation, knowing that under Barrow's leadership, there will no longer be secrets kept from father and son. Transparency, confidentiality… there was a subtle balance between the two. Barrow would find his way.

Kurapica only needed to bring a few necessities. He practically came to the facility barehanded, with hardly anything in his knapsack. His father, however, had practically ordered him to supply himself with enough food that would last him a dozen trips around the world.

"It's what your mother would've wanted," proclaimed the man.

Barrow, on the other hand, supplied him with a mini-tablet.

"The information in there won't endanger us," Barrow assured the Kurata boy. "But it's best if you knew a bit more about the essence of what Nexus is trying to achieve. It's old information. Nothing to worry about."

"Light reading for the trip," Kurapica declared matter-of-factly.

"It would seem like that, I hope," answered Barrow.

Once more, the doctor and the youth shook hands. The boy's grip was sturdier, more certain.

"Now, now," said Ianto when his turn came. "I'll be tailing you, anyway, Kurapica, so let's make this quick."

Quick was Ianto placing both his hands on Kurapica's shoulders.

It was Ianto admiring his son's fearlessness.

It was them knowing the fear in both their hearts.

It was the anticipation of a portent, and whether it was a good or ill one, none of them could say yet.

Ianto pulled his son into a bear-hug, a hand resting on the boy's golden head. Kurapica did not resist, and he held on for a moment.

"May the gods be with you," Ianto said, voice low.

Kurapica found himself saying, "They always have."

Then father and son parted; Dr. Barrow himself opened the shuttle door for the boy. Kurapica nodded his thanks. That was the last he saw of the scientist and his father, at least in the days to come, as the shuttle sped away, driverless, magnetized to its railing and trailing into the darkness, with a few lights dotting the tunnel every now and then.

There is a certain peace, and yet a certain dysphoria, and still yet a certain elation of knowing that one is living for something bigger than himself.

Kurapica had conversed with that purpose nearly everyday of his life, as though it were a living being apart from him. The purpose would simply look back with eyes deeper than dark agates. In his once-fevered desire for revenge, the purpose would stand taller than him, almost in mockery, and with an iron grip.

The purpose was all-or-nothing. It had been menacing. In his darkest days, and even with the faint visions of his friend's faces looming overhead, he knew that the purpose would never leave his side, whether it came in the form of an angry fire, a shadow, or a ray of light.

This time, purpose took on a new face. It was Ianto's face, Sianni's face, Pairo's face. It was the rolling hills of Rukso, and the swelling, shimmering rivers that surrounded it.

It even took the face of Project Lazarus and the lives involved in it. It took the face of Project Nexus and the lives involved in it as well, in faces known and unknown, named and nameless.

He had once kept saying to Dr. Barrow: I had nothing to lose.

And perhaps, Barrow had replied, everything to gain.

Kurapica conversed with purpose once more. It was an inner conversation: nothing more, nothing less.

Outside the airship window, Kurapica glimpsed at the sky and at the glittering sea below, all vastness, wide and ever-stretching for miles and miles and miles.

The sun had begun to set.

A/N: The end.

Kthxbye!

Just kidding! ^^

Well, there we go! I hope I haven't left any threads hanging lose, but in case there are, well, the sequel is always an excuse. x3 Wow, so much for a graceful exit. xD

The lines of the poem I included in this chapter are from Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken. ^^

Here ends Part 1 of Kurapica's adventures in a pseudo-scifi setting. :P

I'll see you all at the sequel. ^^

Until then, GRATITUDE, MUCH LOVE, AND CHOCOLATE CAKE.

Cheers,

DW-chan :3