[Closed]

[alphaspider]

Characters: Kuroro, Kurapika
Location: Egypt
Rating: PG
Time: January 14, morning
Description: Kuroro and Kurapika go on a mission to test their resonance after the rather turbulent month they've had.

Comments

[alphaspider]

He understood, then, what Kurapka's conflict was. Kuroro had observed it before, noticed in passing the possibility, but he lacked the capacity for any true empathy to comprehend just what his actions meant to the boy. Kurapika's identity, drive, and goal in life -- Kuroro had upended these by being who he was and what he had forced them into, and Kurapika was liking it and destroying himself with worry and the insistence that he should be resisting the entire thing. Here it was, the proof of his long-predicted but uncertain victory, two blades in his hands and a line of chain as delicate as his partner could be himself. If he could feel guilt, maybe he would have felt a pang, but he wasn't and he didn't. Instead, he wondered a little, curious and a bit awed, not exactly flattered but still pleased because this partnership had ceased being about him as a Spider and Kurapika as a Kuruta for a while now, and Kurapika was catching up.

Kuroro didn't pull at the proferred link, but instead moved in, enveloping Kurapika's soul with his presence for a short moment to assure his partner before settling down to their more usual cadence. It was time to walk and figure out how this mission should end.

[ih8spiders]

The response was immediate but not forced, not the explosion he'd been bracing himself for, but a slower revving up, like a high-powered engine quietly purring to life. Their souls aligned, and Kurapika closed his eyes and just focused on breathing, on feeling, on keeping himself firmly rooted in the present. Not thinking about the past made it easier to see Kuroro's efforts at reassuring him, and easier to accept the feelings of fondness instead of denying them, allow himself to sink into the warmth surrounding him, and reciprocate not with the usual disgust or dislike but with a sigh of relief and his duty: the smoothest transition into resonance that he'd ever done so far, silence effortlessly soaring into levels they'd only achieved twice or thrice in the past, and always under duress, always brusque and roughshod and discomfiting.

Then Kuroro gave him what was most likely the equivalent of a soul hug and pulled back, and Kurapika blinked and opened his eyes as the thrum between them settled into something closer to their usual rate.

[alphaspider]

It had worked then, he thought with a moderate measure of relief. The possibility of it going wrong had been there, and he had planned for adequate steps to wrench it back to functioning order after, but the in-between had been a gaping, uncertain hole.

He walked toward an outcropping rock with a sand dune behind it, an adequate enough wall to keep his back guarded as he figured this out. They were ready, or Kurapika would be. It was pointless to ask, better to just do; without an outward sign of his activity, he upped the level of the ability he had been using, little by little.

[ih8spiders]

He'd been noticing that Kuroro had been displaying uncharacteristic signs of sensitivity and tact more and more often lately, contrary to his expectations that the Geneiryodan leader would exploit his mistakes and his gaffes. Normally he'd recognize these situations for what they were and accept his partner's consideration, but at the moment, rather than reassuring him, it was making him feel more exposed. He'd opened himself completely for those few seconds, and it was impossible that Kuroro didn't have any reactions to what he'd done.

Aren't you going to say anything? The question was whispered, tentatively-given; Kurapika didn't want to interrupt Kuroro's focus as he increased his output and slowly extended the range of his borrowed ability.

[alphaspider]

It didn't distract him in the least, that much Kurapika could tell from their resonance. Once Kuroro started on something, he usually could maintain it with less of the focus required to begin.

A twinge of curiosity and a short moment of incomprehension. What do you expect me to say?

[ih8spiders]

Was Kuroro really not aware? It was too surreal, it felt like he'd dodged some sort of bullet somehow. He could just let it drop here and now, instead of insisting and possibly digging up the kind of response he'd dreaded, or he could risk it and maybe figure out something useful for the both of them.

How did that feel? Kurapika ventured rather vaguely as something in the distance in the desert in front of them glinted, like a far-off mirror flashing at them. He shifted his perception to it, squinted non-existent eyelids against the sun. It eventually resolved to a blurry shape, outlines runny and wavy because of the heat rising from the land. It was also slowly getting bigger.

[alphaspider]

Good, he answered immediately, without even thinking about it, the words or thoughts rolling off his consciousness as he looked at where Kurapika's attention had gone. A relief that it didn't go terribly. I can be a sentimental fool at times, but resonance sometimes feels like going home.

Kuroro was aware to an extent, despite a very deliberate attempt at not prying too much into Kurapika's thoughts, the process by which Kurapika had finally synched with him. It was just difficult to put into words, his reaction to it, apart from a quiet appreciation and the acknowledgement that they seem to have taken another step in their partnership. It was good, like he'd said. Like coming home.

It's coming. He turned his ability off, or nearly off, now that their target was in sight. It would be unfortunate if they brought in more than what they needed.

[ih8spiders]

Like coming home. How odd for Kuroro to use the very words he'd carefully skirted. Associating the man with the emotions thinking about his untouched, unspoiled village would have given him felt like the height of blasphemy, and yet there it was, his partner echoing the exact same things he'd felt about their resonance.

Of course, it was the same resonance, the same rush of power, like activating their hatsu, like pushing their output levels to exhilaratingly high levels--there was no reason for them to feel differently about it. Then again, Kurapika realized that he'd asked the wrong question; they might not feel differently, but they certainly thought differently.

But there was no time to ask, or consider if he even wanted to ask and find out, because the blurry shape had resolved itself to something that looked like a giant four-legged statue of something bounding towards them ever closer with each spring.

[alphaspider]

It was familiarity, perhaps. Coming back to something secure and something he knows in the face of a great number of things that just like uprooting the things they knew around them. Kuroro could adapt better than most, but even he could be surprised and displaced by the seemingly small things.

It looks... Strange. That was the word. Funny, was the word that solidified into thought instead. This was their target, definitely, because Kuroro wasn't sure about more than one of these existing here. He didn't dispel Saralegui's ability just yet because something was better than nothing at all.

Should they wait for it to stop and ask questions? Kuroro did like riddles. Still, they had a guest to return to -- Kuroro shook out an excess length of chain and took off in a dash for the kishin egg.

[ih8spiders]

They couldn't be too careful with kishin eggs; mission details weren't exactly that thorough when it came to their targets' abilities or weaknesses and it was often a matter of attacking first before a kishin egg could bring out any nasty surprises, or having a good enough defense that it didn't matter. Kurapika didn't protest Kuroro taking the initiative this time around, though. He was anxious over what could be happening back in Death City, and he appreciated the thought that spurred his partner into action, so even though he was still feeling rather awkward, he pushed everything aside for the moment and focused on the sphinx.

The vaguely feminine face looked just like the bust he'd been staring at earlier. The body was thickset and massive, the paws were the size of car tires. The only difference between this and the unmoving sphinx statue that was Egypt's pride was that the face was made of real flesh, the lion body had real brown fur and real, sharp claws and a very mobile tail.

[alphaspider]

It's very interesting how kishin eggs tend to adapt to their environment in terms of physical appearance, he thought vaguely, recalling the slimy kishin eggs of the sewers, the scaly ones under water, and everything in between. It at the very least proved that as lifeforms, they weren't exactly inferior to humans, even if they were intellectually deficient.

Real flesh was good, though. It meant an easier time stabbing it, and Kuroro was now formulating a plan on how to destroy it. Kuroro leaped clean over its head and--

landed on its back, using the chain as a rein. One of the blades plunged into the hard neck, and then Kuroro had to contend with the bucking as he attempted to tie the chain around its neck in quick motions.

[ih8spiders]

Not just with the bucking. The creature shrieked, a sharp note like a raptor's scream, and then started wailing about its ruined performance. Its front paws were more limber than expected and came up in turns to try to swipe at the chain around its neck, and the tail Kurapika had observed whipped forward to smack Kuroro off its back.

In the midst of all this was the realization--the rather useless realization, since it wasn't as if he could do anything about it--that Kuroro was using him to collar the sphinx, like how one would rope steer, unless he was planning on asphyxiating the thing.

Save your observations for later-- The tail was reaching, like some prehensile limb, trying to wrap around Kuroro's waist even as the sphinx bucked and shook its head and inadvertently opened the wound in its neck a little more.

[alphaspider]

Front was safer than the back. Kuroro nimbly pushed himself further up the thing's back, the tail missing him by an inch on its first swipe. Collaring the thing wasn't his idea, though -- but using Kurapika's ability was.

Help me with this, will you? he threw at Kurapika, throwing one of the blades in a wide swing around the creature's neck in the next instant. It was unlikely for it to go the entire loop back to him unless Kurapika gave his blade an extra jerk. He just needed that one and he can do something else for the third.

Kuroro was practically standing on the Sphinx's back by now, sacrificing balance for agility. The tail cut a stinging line across his thigh, but he ignored that to avoid the claw almost about to rip at his arm.

[ih8spiders]

The irritated line of his thoughts stuttered to a stop then, as he realized what Kuroro had been meaning to do all along. Had they gone without resonating for so long that his ability to anticipate his meister's intentions had rusted into disuse? But Kurapika scrambled to oblige, jerked his blade to the side at the bottom of the swing so forcefully (just as Kuroro had jerked him out of his thoughts) that it shot up into the air at an odd diagonal angle and sliced a shallow cut up the sphinx's shoulder.

[alphaspider]

Don't worry about it, he wanted to say, but the thought was a jumbled, vague prod at the back of his mind, just loud enough to be noticed but clarity was hardly his priority at the moment. Too many things to focus on and think about, which was probably why Kurapika hadn't picked up on it earlier.

Kuroro caught the blade by the hilt with great dexterity and carved it into the back of the kishin egg's neck to steady himself. The other, he pulled out of the beast and threw far away, to embed itself in the ground some distance away. Adjust the chain, was the faint murmuer. Adjust it to match the thing's thrashing, but don't let it get pulled off the rock.

And then now came the reckless part. With a burst of energy, Kuroro let his borrowed ability surge from zero to overwhelming, and in the next second let the ability go completely out of him. The effect was instantaneous. The sphinx's thrashing became more violent and its tail hacked into its own back as Kuroro leaped off, in the other direction from the other blade.

[ih8spiders]

Adjusting the chain was easy enough; it felt a bit like a reverse tug-of-war with him in the middle, actually, while making sure that he didn't accidentally pull too hard and yank the opposing ends together. It got significantly harder when the sphinx started thrashing even more violently in response to Kuroro forcing the baiting ability to its maximum, and Kurapika had to hold on for dear life and not think about how unbelievably, foolishly reckless that was.

In any case, he was finally starting to realize what his partner was up to, and against a kishin egg of this size, unorthodox strategies might be the most effective. The chain clinked and tinkled noisily, echoing the strain in his efforts to lengthen and shorten the slack without giving the kishin egg the chance to yank his other blade free of where it was stuck in the ground.