Scarlet Vendetta chapter 1

A shadow stands alone in its lonely misery. The same shadow is standing in the middle of nowhere, not moving from where it stands, at a few feet from him. At first, he wondered if it was his own shadow, gawking at him like a prey, but he soon discovered that it wasn't. In this dream, he has no shadow. He tries to analyze the strange thing, as he knows he is currently in a dream. This shadow has no shape, but somehow he feels that it is a person who is there.  Or something along those lines. He tries to analyze the surroundings, but there are none. Everything is pitch black around him, except for him and the shadow. This is the same dream that has been in his mind for quite a while. He finds nothing particular about it. There is no reckonable trace that can help him to understand this dream. When he tries to reach out to the shadow, because that's the only thing he can recall to do, it starts to run away as soon as he moves. The last thing he sees is the burning clarity of an intense fire, overshadowing everything in his sight. Its color is scarlet, which makes his heart pound faster when he wakes up and recalls once more what that color means to him.

"Kurapika, are you alright?" Neon's cheery voice brings him back from his thoughts. "You look like you're troubled by something." She comments.
"I am fine." The blonde replies with a serious nod, as he looks to the side. "It is just a dream that has been haunting me for the past few days." He explains.
"Oh." The teen held her chin, as if she were thinking. "In that case, I'll read you your fortune. Maybe you'll find something that might help you."
"No, no. Neon-sama, you don't have to--" he hesitated.
"But I want to." She insisted. "Write here your name, age and blood type." Neon handed him a piece of paper. When he didn't take it, she insisted again. "Go on, go on." she said, cheerfully.
".. If you insist, then." He took the paper after a moment with a sigh.
"Lovely Ghostwriter!" the pink-haired girl said with a smile as she twirled her writing pen around her fingers after having received the paper.
As the days passed by, he found that he didn't know how to figure out what his dream means. There is nothing about it that is specific enough to come up with any conclusions. It always starts and ends the same way. He suddenly finds himself in the middle of pitch black with that shadow and when he moves, it runs and everything turns scarlet just before he wakes up. For the moment, Kurapika was to look after Neon, the fortune-teller daughter of one of the Mafia bosses. Eliza was gone when she found out that Suqwala had been murdered while trying to reach the group. The kimono-dressed lady quit her job as soon as she found out and took off, with her lover's dogs following her. That didn't seem to faze the boss in the slightest, as he had already replaced both the maid and the bodyguard with new ones in the matter of a week. Neon continued to do her fortune-telling to her father's clients and to go shopping pretty much every day. Today had been one of those days. The party had just arrived at the mansion after the daughter's shopping spree had finally subsided. She had been upset for a while because her father had yet again broken another promise of bringing her a new treasure, so the bodyguards had taken her shopping to ease the girl's mind. Kurapika mused over this as he watched her eye color became empty and dull. Dull just like his eyes had become. No sooner than two seconds, the girl's hand began writing in the paper, below his handwriting.

"What was once a grand scarlet garden is now a gray wasteland.
Utter silence and soothing quietness has reached the ruin.
A forlorn shadow stands in the middle of a clear field.
At the roots from which you were born is a treasure to be found.

Seek out the tree of beginnings,
in the garden where you once played.
There, you will stumble upon something precious.
Keep your findings, you shall need them.

Aware must you be at all times,
What you find might be taken from you.
Journey anew awaits you,
to find the gazes of those equal to you."

Kurapika's eyes widened as he read the paper that was handed to him. At first, the girl's poems didn't seem to make any sense to him, but then he started to think well about it. 'Scarlet garden' could only mean the Kurta Clan site. The shadow part must be related to his dream. Now with the 'treasure to be found', he began to think that he was supposed to find something. Maybe what he needed to find would be located where his Clan perished. He tried to find a connection from his dream to the fortune, and somehow everything started to make sense inside his mind. All the little pieces and what he didn't know and what he were yet to discover. Maybe if he were to return to where he was born, he would find the answers he was looking for. Maybe he would find why that same dream kept haunting him night after night.
"This is.." he began, still looking at the paper.
"Was it accurate?" she asked while choosing one of her stuffed animals with her usual expression.
"Yes, it was." He could only nod his head. "Very accurate, indeed."
"Ah, that's good, then. I haven't lost my ability." She smiled while holding her stuffed animal and sat down over a large sofa.
"You sure haven't, Neon-sama." Kurapika made a small smile before continuing. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to--"
"If there is somewhere you need to go," Neon interrupted him. "You can go, you know?"
"Neon-sama..." the blonde could only blink. "I can't do that. My job is to look after you. I was hired by your father to--"
"But you want to go." The girl said suddenly, cutting him off again. "I can see it in your eyes. This is something you need to do to attain peace."
"I--"
"Plus, I'll be fine. Here at home, with all the security and people walking around, nothing can reach at me." She continued. "And plus, Papa is on a trip somewhere and I'm sure he'll take a while to get back, so he'll never know you left. You can go."
".. Understood." He said after a moment. "If you'll excuse me, then."
"See you soon." She smiled before turning to her new maids.
As Kurapika closed the living room's wooden door, he could listen to the young boss asking the servants to play the card game Doubt with her. It somehow reassured him to know that his current boss was going to be alright. Now he would be able to move forward and find his people's eyes. That was probably the 'treasure' he needed to find. Perhaps there were some pairs hidden around. He recalled that there was a small forest close to where he used to live. Maybe, during the attack, someone was able to escape and hid there for all the following years. Now that he thought it over more carefully, it was quite possible. Even so, he tried not to get his hopes too high. It was more likely that he would find more ruins, dust and ashes than clues for his answers. For starters, he would just go there. If he, indeed, were to find anything buried in the remains of his Clan, then he would continue to look for the eyes. If he found nothing, then he would return to his current job for the moment. As he walked down one of the mansion's many corridors, he crossed ways with someone else.
"Ah, Senritsu." He greeted as he stopped walking.
"Such a calm melody." His partner said with a gentle tone of voice.
"Eh?" he blinked.
"Your heart. Its melody is calm and soothing, quite different from its distressed tune in the past days." She continued. "You're leaving, aren't you?"
"Yes." He nodded with a small understanding smile. "There is something very important that I need to do."
"I understand. We will be fine here. If you ever need our support someday, just let me know. With all you've done for the boss, I'm sure he won't mind us helping you." Senritsu said, also with an understand smile.
"Thank you." He nodded again. "Farewell."
"See you soon." Senritsu watched him off with a calm wave of her arm.
As Kurapika walked towards the main entrance of the mansion, he would wave goodbye to whoever would pass by him. He didn't feel the need to say goodbye to everyone as he was sure that everybody would know that he was gone as soon as he would walk past the door. When he stepped out of the mansion's main gates to the outside, Kurapika felt a sudden wave of relief washing through him. It was as if he just had a massive weight off his shoulders. He then realized that he had been dreaming awake for some time. Ever since he had taken this job, it was as if he was on auto-pilot and had just awakened from his deep slumber. Working his way to the top and even earning the boss's trust. Those details were necessary for his job to be successful, but it wasn't what he had wanted in the first place. It was as if he had almost forgotten one of the main reasons he had become a Hunter for. Catching the Phantom Troupe was just as important to him as finding all of his people's eyes and returning them to where they could finally rest in peace. Those were his goals. Right now, he had a small chance of starting to solve one of them, so he would get to it. To get to the village where he was born, he had to take a 3-hour flight plane and a 15-hour train ride. It was somewhat convenient that his job location wasn't all that far from a bus station. From there, he would go to the airport and take the first flight to Branne. Once there, he would take the direct train to the Lukso Province. From there, it wouldn't take him too long to reach the site where it all happened. He felt slightly nervous to be aware that he was going to return somewhere that would be most likely empty. Even so, he was doing it. The fortune said so, and knowing how Neon's fortune-telling was always 100% accurate, he had no other choice. He would start looking there, and hopefully he would find something relevant.
"Well, then.." Kurapika said to himself, looking forward to the road before him. "Let's get to it." with that, he began walking.