Chapter Text
The woman looked nice, Alluka once believed that a few minutes earlier. She had pretty nails, shiny hair styled into nice curls that Alluka didn’t even bat twice on approaching her for help. She was a woman, a girl, and so very pretty so the idea of her being unkind to Alluka didn't strike her until she exited the bathroom in the woman’s basement. The conversation she overheard was one she was definitely not supposed to hear. Killua might have told her not to talk to strangers, she certainly broke that commandment, but he didn’t say she shouldn’t follow them, and he never told her specifically to not enter their house, and what if she was the one who approached them first? The woman wasn’t a complete stranger since Alluka has seen her walking by the bridge at night. Alluka sighed quietly, she had no more excuses but to accept the fact that her idealistic views of others and willful cluelessness had lead to this predicament. She hid behind the wall carefully listening to the woman's words and her pounding heart.
“I have an additional. I find more bodies for you and you get me my bag, remember? That was what we agreed on. Yeah, it’s a young girl; eleven to thirteen years old. I saw her sitting under a bridge for two nights, so it seems no one’s going to particularly miss her.”
Alluka eyed the door. The woman was much taller and stronger than her, and considering the flight of stairs up, it wouldn’t be difficult for an adult to easily grab her ankle even if Alluka didn’t get tired going the trip. She’s got no right to resent Killua, but right now she can’t help but secretly curse him for letting her be so weak.
With a new purpose in mind, she goes back into the bathroom and makes sure to close the door as quietly as possible—it'd be pretty terrible if the lady found out she knew. There’s a small window that leads to outside, it’s a tight crawl but big enough for Alluka to fit through with the sacrifice of having to dirty her beloved clothes. As she climbed onto the toilet cover she found that the main problem was the latch. It was incredibly difficult for to wind, it might be safe to say that it was going to remain stuck forever with her current physical strength. Alluka grit her teeth so hard it felt like she was biting on hard candy—so as to not release a groan of frustration. She heaved in a few deep breaths — despite the musty air of the bathroom that made her feel dizzy, which Alluka is starting to believe this house didn’t belong to the woman at all—and steered her eyes to the bottle of shaving cream sitting on the sink bowl.
Alluka taps on the glass—it’s thin. Nice. And even with the fossilized latch the wood frame has a sense of fragility to it that maybe with some force it could fall out. Going back to the door again, she twists the knob loudly so the woman would hear it this time. “Miss, my feet got dirty, would you mind if I use your bathtub?" The woman peeks her head out the corner of the hall and looks sternly at Alluka.
“Of course, take as long as you need.” She then waved her off and returned to her position on the couch.
Alluka thanked her with same, bright energy last time. Shutting the door, and Alluka immediately turns the shower on full power, and to be extra safe she even turned on the sink faucet for extra noise. Soon enough, the moisture from the steam fogs up the mirrors and the tiles. But Alluka doesn’t have time for the water to seep through the wood, the woman might realize her plan and stop her if she waits around a second longer. So with nearly all her strength, she holds onto the metal bottle of shaving foam tightly with her hands, not wavering the slightest despite the wobbliness of the toilet lid.
—
Alluka ran. Her panting and heaves of breathes were not as loud as the ache in her lungs. She’s sure by now that woman would have noticed, and she laughs. Despite the horrors of what might have happened if she failed, Alluka laughs with glee and a sense of victory overtook her spirit. She just escaped from an enclosed space with time limited on her hand, but she still did, and it was all by her effort alone. That's something to be proud of in her opinion.
Alluka’s not sure what’s wrong with her, but at this moment, she feel fulfilled. “That was fun,” she giggles out, ignoring the stares she’s receiving for her disheveled look. Alluka knows better that she shouldn’t get ahead of herself, but escaping such danger without the help of her brother has greatly decreased her fear of venturing out alone by herself.
Her smile didn't dissipate, but her joy had overwhelmed her to such an extreme the world had become blurry, she couldn't see the person in front of her until she once again ran face first into the bone of their hip.
“Ow…” she whimpered. Opening her eyes, she was met with a familiar sight of red eyes peering down at her. This time, though, there was less of a glare and more of confusion.
“It’s you again.” Their voice was low and raspy.
“Funny indeed,” he said, slightly scritching the red skin on his neck.
The man’s eyes ran over her messy hair and splotched dress, and shortly a frown came to settle on his lips. Slowly, he raised his hand above her head and silent panic spikes through Alluka. Right. She should apologize. Her mouth opened but no words come out, she’s instead confused by the gentle touch of his fingers settling on her scalp. It wasn't his whole hand, just four fingers lightly pressing down on her head.
“Excuse, but what are you doing?”
The fingers pressed on her scalp are gentle as he waves his arm and makes her head wobble back and forth.
“You haven’t showered,” he comments, eyes narrowing with an unknown assumption.
Alluka gasped in simultaneous offense and embarrassment. “You can’t just say that to a lady!”
The man let out a noise of amusement, a combination of a scoff and a laugh, before he said, lowly, “So who are you running from?”
Alluka almost lets out a joke accusing him of conspiring with her could-have-been trafficker, but refrains from doing so upon seeing his intense eyes fiddled with rage and fury; they weren’t glaring at her but past her. It almost reminds her of Killua’s when he’d get mad on her behalf.
—
The man takes her to a dark, looking place with little light. The first time she followed a stranger should have taught her a lesson, but here she was following this man like a little duckling. He knocked on the door in a meticulous pattern and it responds by opening and revealing a living, purple mist of a man. The mist man greets him, politely—Alluka learns their name is Shigaraki— before his yellow eyes peer down at Alluka curiously.
“And who do we have here?”
“A child,” Shigaraki responded with little fanfare, so Alluka made the executive decision to step in.
“I’m Alluka. I’m thirteen years old.”
The mist man turns to look up at Shigaraki and in a disappointed and deadpan tone, “You just learnt her name right now, didn’t you?”
“Can we stop standing outside right now?” Shigaraki grumbles in disdain, his fingers appear to twitch in resistance to something.
Even though he’s strange and has murderous air around him, Alluka doesn’t really fear him, instead she smiles and walks to stand beside him. She could stay here for the time being, it sounds safer than sitting under a bridge, and if Killua can’t find her then perhaps these people might help her. If there’s one absolute thing she learned today, it’d be that appearances don't dictate if someone was bad or good. Yes, Shigaraki may look creepy, but he allowed her multiple instances of escape. He was a good guy in her eyes. Plus, he reminded her of her brother in someways.
-
“What is that?” Alluka pointed to the the device Shigaragi held gently in his two hands, he stared intently at the pixels that brightly shined out from the screen.
“You’ve never seen this before?” Shigaraki cocked his head and frowned, warily suspicious at Alluka’s lack of knowledge.
“I think I have. It looks like a phone.”
Shigaraki almost huffed in amusement, but to maintain his stoic image, he held it in and spun on his stool to meet Alluka’s curious gaze, two seats away. “This,” he lazily waved the object with a hand, “is a gaming console. You play video games on it.”
“Video games,” Alluka echoed. “I see.”
“No, you clearly don’t see.” Shigaraki said, seeing that his words didn't even regitster in her blue, bright eyes. He holstered the small handheld console on the bar table, Alluka had to lean forward to see the screen better. “Your eyes are going to bulge out if you stare like that.”
“Really?” She giggled, missing the subtle invitation that he was permitting her to have a seat closer. Shigaraki instead went to grasp the controllers on the sides, the character on the screen moved as he pushed the stick.
“You have quite the knack for explaining your interests to others terribly,” Kurogiri inserted himself as he took Shigaraki’s empty glass. “Might be why you have no allies—or friends.”
The teasing remark seemed to quietly anger Shigaraki as he slammed his fist on the spot where his glass had been. “You are a terrible player two.” Shigaraki wished he could remind Kurogiri what his placement was in the hierarchy, but didn't in consideration for Alluka.
The short exchange between them had Alluka’s brows furrowing. “Am I not your friend, Shigaraki?”
It made him pause. “Friend? What are you—” he paused upon seeing the sad frown rooted on her face. “I don’t have friends. I don’t need them and no way in hell would I want them,” he rasped.
“Oh. Is that so?” Alluka seemed to have accepted the answer quite quickly, and fared quite well despite its harshness. “Then I must be your ally!”
The joy in her smile made Shigaraki flinch, and he was the one starting to feel concious and manipulated despite how meaningless the conversation had been. That, or her brillaint innocence had him feeling like a fool, an irritated fool. “I mean, I haven’t proclaimed you to be one yet—”
“Yet!” She blurted.
“You’re not supposed to interrupt me. Don’t speak before I finish,” he grumbled. So Alluka giggled instead; it didn’t make him less pleased. “No, you’re not my ally. You’re…”
Really, what was he thinking? He brought back a little girl and allowed her to enter his secret base so now this location could be compromised if she runs away and tells someone else. But something tells Tomura that she wouldn’t. Why? It was because she had no one else to tell it too. Just a hunch of his, but he could put the pieces together; from the very first time she bumped into him and the second, she wore the same clothes from then. Not to mention, they were quite the unusual fashion for young children in this age, it must have been a special dress for her, the only belonging she was allowed to bring with her before she was kicked from her home—alright, he was stretching with a made up backstory he couldn’t one hundred percent confirm, but the point still stands that she was homeless and Shigaraki knew what it was like to be without a home. It made his fingers tingle, the skin on his neck had felt bare until he could only grit his teeth. Reminding him of the time he lived out on the streets, when no one paid him any care or acknowledgement.
Which was why he couldn’t just leave her knowing full well of her situation—he’d just be like all those people he hates.
“You’re my apprentice,” he stated with confidence—hurried confidence, it was more to sooth himself than anything.
“Okay. What will you be teaching me? Apprentices have teachers and learn from them, right?"
Shigaraki refrained himself from groaning and glanced toward his console, realizing the hole he dug for himself. “Fine.” He said. “I shall introduce you to a game called Hollow Knight. It’s an old game from the twenty-first century, though I believe it holds up quite well—a masterpiece,” he explained with glee. He was excited for a moment before he realized if he wanted Alluka to actually learn without sacrificing their personal space, he’d need some controllers—and those controllers were dusted in the trash bin of his room.
"That's why I believe you should have bought a Nintendo Switch,” Kurogiri interjected seeing Tomura’s contemplative face.
“Tsk, go to hell.”
Tomura stood up from his seat and headed off for his room, though not before telling Alluka to stay put. In a way, it was to tell her that he would be coming back shortly and not to worry. It left her all alone with Kurogiri, and silence befell them, though it was not stifling at all. Alluka kept herself curious and entertained by perusing with her eyes, from the minimal but warm decor, to the lustering bottles on the shelves behind Kurogiri. She couldn't read the labels, but she had feeling she knew what they were, having been to bars and restaurants with Killua before.
“I believe you may be too young to handle those, Alluka-san.”
“I was just looking at them,” she explained. “I think everyone in my family could.”
“Your family?” Kurogiri became curious. "You aren't with them."
Alluka pondered for a moment, genuinely trying to find the answer. “I left home with my brother. The last time I heard of them, they were at home. If they left, I wouldn’t know where.”
“Is that so?” Alluka nodded, and a room temperature glass of fruit juice was placed in front of her. “Ice?” Kurogiri asked.
Alluka shook her head. “No thank you.” She gratefully took the drink with no complaints.
“You’re much more polite than Tomura-kun,” he hummed with amusement tinted in his voice.
“Just like brother then," she giggled fondly.
Tomura came back shortly, grumbling something under his breath but it was clear he came back empty-handed.
“What happened to the new controllers you bought a few days ago?”
Shigaraki didn’t respond.
“All dusted then,” Kurogiri sighed, if he could visibly shake his head he might have.
Alluka couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her, her new friends were just so strange—not that she was one to speak on, she was quite weird herself according to the treatment her family gave her compared to her siblings, and really, who else would she know to compare? The description was still true to Alluka: it was strange to have friends; she never had any, after all. Killua, she could consider her friend, but this was quite different; Killua is her friends because she is his sister, Shigaraki said he wasn’t her friend but he shared his interest with her—an invitation to become friends right? Kurogiri was also like a butler but without the duty and stringent loyalty, and he was simply respectful of her so perhaps they could become friends too.
“What are the controllers for?” Alluka asked.
Shigaraki refused to answer to save his pride.
“If you go now, the store should still be open,” Kurogiri muses and Shigaraki walks out the door, but not before he stretches his hand out in the air, waiting until Kurogiri drops a wallet into it through a warp portal.
Once he’s gone, Kurogiri doesn’t resume with his task cleaning up but focuses on Alluka. “There’s very little entertainment here, I must apologize. I can only keep you company for the meantime until Shigaraki gets back.”
“It’s alright I’m used to it. Actually, this might be more fun than what I usually have."
“I see.” Kurogiri doesn’t blink, Alluka wonders if he could, but maybe he doesn’t need to. She’s very curious about him, how he could speak without a mouth, how he can stay so contained without dispersing into the air despite being mist, and she wonders if it’s just his head that’s purple or if his body is also purple mist. When he speaks up it momentarily surpirses Alluka. “I look unusual, don’t I?”
She doesn't to him in her response. “Very. I’ve never seen a human like you before,” Alluka takes a second to blink, “maybe you’re not human after all.”
“Many would take offense at such a statement.” This voice was different, catching Alluka off-guard. Kurogiri didn’t have a mouth so she had no idea if he spoke or not, but Kurogiri’s slit, yellow eyes that widened slightly gave her the answer.
“Sir?” Kurogiri’s tone was much more formal than when he spoke with her.
“Well,” Alluka addressed the voice, seeing Kurogiri stare behind her she turned to find a TV screen with text she couldn’t read. “Just because someone isn’t human, it doesn’t mean they aren’t a person. I don’t take offence to it.” Alluka knows Nanika wouldn’t either, only because it’s true that she’s a bit different from Alluka.
The odd wording of her last sentence stirred a hum from both Kurogiri and the man in the TV. “You’re quite interesting Miss Alluka, if Shigaraki Tomura brought you in, then he made quite the choice. That perspective is seemingly rare nowadays." The man behind the screen chuckled and bid farewell to the two in the bar. The TV blinked and became black. It was reminicient of how others communicated to her back at the Zoldyck mansion.
“Who was that?”
Kurogiri answered her truthfully, only because he knew it wouldn’t hurt to tell her. All for One was still listening in of course. He always was. “That is Tomura’s master.”
Alluka hummed, nodding in acknowledgement. "So, he's like a father to him?"
Her comment made him still, before he reflectively answered, "Something of that sort."
--
In the next few days, Alluka had spent her time learning to play an assortment of games Tomura had been trying to get her into. Hollow Knight had been too challenging for her. Tomura realized that for someone who had never touched a digital game before it would be an absolute mess. He found some other selection of games for her to watch him play, and while he did Alluka had been thinking about the events that had led her to be separated from Killua now that she believed she was in a safe and secured place. She asked Nanika about it, who revealed that she also had no idea what she had done. She remembers trying to fulfill Killua’s wishes, but at the same Alluka herself wanted to do the opposite.
How did it it all begin? Oh, right. She met Kalluto. Her younger sibling who had been seeking out Killua to bring back home, had miraculously found them. Killua wanted nothing to do with the family and opted to evade him. With some circumstances she had been found by Kalluto before he ran into Killua and for the first time in many years they exchanged words—it was quite the formal interaction, but not hostile or alienating one; they just didn't know how to talk to one another. The idea that one of her siblings other than Killua had talked to her made her feel like a bird—she wanted to flap her wings in joy. Killua must’ve misunderstood, he must’ve not known how she had felt then, because he collected her immediately, fleeing from their desperate little brother. The last thing she saw was his small hands that reached out for them.
Why are you taking me away from him, Killua? Alluka trusts her brother very much, more than anyone in the world. It's why she rarely ever ask questions and just goes with the flow. But in that moment, she found herself having a desire to retaliate.
"If he is here, then it's likely that he's Illumi or Mom" he scowled as he carried her in his arms.
Illumi, she could understand. He tried to kill her once, and and even tried to use her to threaten Killua once upon a time. As for Mom, Alluka likes to think she wouldn't have the heart to actually kill her. But Kalluto? Honestly, she's not really sure herself. Milluki didn't mind her, but it was clear he didn't really love her. But Kalluto, he was just there. It had been years since they've had an interaction, but all those years his gaze had remained the same as she remembered: cold and peerless. Perhaps that was why Alluka hadn't felt sad or scared of Kalluto. Unlike their parents, or her other brothers whose eyes looked upon her like a foreigner in their home when she changed, Kalluto saw her as no less and no more than who she was. So before the image of Kalluto could disapear altogether, Alluka too, reached her hand out toward Kalluto.
It wouldn’t be wrong to surmise that her separation from Killua had been her fault, as much as it was an accident. She wasn’t thinking clearly when she internally wished to see Kalluto again, Nanika must have heard that and done something, but even she also didn’t know how. She'll think about it on a different day, it was making her tired.
“Tomura, I want to play that game again.” Alluka interrupted the dull silence.
The skinny man blinked at her, probably because it was her very first request in all her two days of hanging around. Tomura kept her around because—because he was bored. It’s not everyday you’d pick a child off a street and for no reason and now they’re having residence at your base of operations. That sounded worse than it is; like he did a kidnapping, but he is villain, so should be expected that he’d do some terrible stuff. If that terrible stuff included letting an adrenaline-high girl follow you back to your secret villain base and having her sit around and force her to watch you play video games then so be it.
“Why?” He asked. “You can barely understand the controls.” He grumbled reluctantly but exited out from the game he was currently playing to find the title.
“The little ghost is cute,' she answered. "I've also been watching you, so I think I know a little bit more."
“The character design. It was one of the many reasons for the game’s success in its days." Kurogiri bemused how he actually sounded like an intellectual whenever her rambled about the history of his fixations.
“You know a lot about it.” Alluka commented.
“And you don’t seem to know anything.” Tomura retorted.
Alluka didn’t refute, “That’s true. I’m still learning about the world.”
Tomura surprised himself as he allowed Alluka to take hold of the game console, he thought he’d be more tightly guarded toward his belongings but apparently the need to flex his knowledge outweighed his stinginess.
The game had already loaded when Alluka steadied her hand, the little knight she loved so much in the cutscene jumped down a cliff. She had already seen the animation once, but seeing it again made her feel giddy and excited.
Tomura watched as she familiarized herself with the movement, experimentally pressing on the buttons to see what happened and squealing whenever a fly rammed at the character. Alluka tried to flee as her character was being attacked, but she was quite slow and unaware of her surroundings—Tomura had to bite the inside of his mouth to not take control and show her how it’s down. Alluka fell into a pit and was unable to escape as she continuously bumped into the walls, Tomura would have believed she was trying to rage-bait if it wasn’t for her furrowing brows. She was like a baby, and could barely understand what to do.
“You know you can jump, right?”
As if she had remembered all a sudden, her eyes widened. “Um. Yes. I press down on the top button on my right hand.”
“It’s the bottom one, actually.”
The ‘little ghost’ had died by then, and Alluka could only gasp. You are so terrible at this, Tomura would have said but he felt enough pity for her that he kept his mouth shut and sighed. Alluka returned to the beginning and began traversing through the caverns again, making the character bunny hopped as she held down on the 'jump' button. She was frozen when she saw the shadow—it was a dark floaty figure that escaped the player's avatar whenever they died.
“It’ll attack you if you get close to it,” he reminded her again, wondering if doing so would push her to move on or if it would only make her scared.
“But why would it do that? It’s me, isn’t it?”
“Who knows, maybe it just hates itself. It’s just game mechanics anyways.”
Alluka made ‘the little ghost’ approach the shadow, “Can we shake hands?”
“No, you can’t.”
She frowned sadly, she would then get too close that the shadow began striking at her. She squealed but having learned her lesson she bunny hopped and evaded an attack…only to jump into spikes—and die.
“Oh, the shadow disappeared but a new one came out from me. That doesn’t quite make sense.”
Tomura noted that Alluka seemed to care more about the characters than she did about the gameplay, it was quite the opposite of what mattered to him, but watching her get emotional was too amusing.
“You can kill it, you know. The shadow.”
Alluka frowned. “But I don't watnt to,” she whined. Once more she repeated the process from before, resulting in her death once again.
“You are terrible at this game. If you can’t run past the shadow before it kills you then kill it first. Its attacks are so slow and telegraphed it should be easy to counter.”
Alluka didn't swallow her gasp this time to show offense at Tomura's instructions. "Then I’ll get better," she proclaimed, protesting against his idea of inflicting violence on the character's shadow. As she ventured on, it was increasingly clear she wouldn't be getting anywhere past it, and for the first tiime in her life would Alluka scream out in rage. Thirty minutes. It had been thirty minutes and she hadn't made any progress at all. Tomura muffling his laughter in the chair beside her didn't make her feel any better.
"I don't want to play this game anymore!"
"Pfft. Really? You barely passed the beginning," he was nearly cackling, and Alluka had pout prevent herself from releasing the pent up frustration at him.
"It doesn't matter, if I have to kill Nanika then I rather be stuck for all my life.
Shigaraki's lips thin in that moment. "You gave it a name."
"'It' is a she, Tomura."
Alluka pushed the console back into his hand, she was evidently sad afterwards that even if he wanted to make fun of her for it, he somewhat understood the dejected feeling of rage-quitting all too well to poke fun of her for. "Fine then. What other tittle do you want to play," he huffed impatiently.
"Oh, there was one with red dress and pointy twin horns.* They looked like a princess. What's that one called?"
Tomura could only sigh to not palm his face at the moment.
-
He makes her play a casual multiplayer farming simulator that day. It's not until the next two days when Tomura proposes for her to try out Hollow Knight again—albielt it took her a minute of convincing again.
"Just get on it. There's a suprise waiting for you." He refuses to elaborate any furthur and urges Alluka to hurridly laod the game.
When the scene opens up, she greeted with a surprising but wlecoming site; the shadow floated by 'the little ghost's side, amicably. In fear of their life, she ran away only for the shadow to chase her from behind.
"Wh-what's wrong with it?"
"It's your friend now."
Alluka's head snapped toward Shigaraki. "What did you?"
"What—why are you asking me? I definitely didn't do anyting."
At that, Alluka smiled, it was so relieved and happy that it looked like she was about to cry. "Thank you."
Again, he didn't do anything! He was going to retaliate but froze as Alluka let out a laugh so light and filled with pure wonder that he couldn't say anything.
The truth was, he had spent some time yesterday researching for mods that would allow the shadow to exist alongside the player character. That night he couldn't believe he was doing something as frivolous as researching for something so dumb and useless—just to please a little girl. He constanly mumbled complaints and berated himself for even thinking of it in the first place, it had went on like that from the very beggining until the very moment he retutned the console back to Alluka, and only then did he feel…hesitant.
Shigaraki rose up from his seat. "I'm going out."
"Already? Don't you want to see me play?"
He smirked, "I don't belive you'll even get out of howling cliffs when I get back; I'm not going to miss much."
Alluka gave him a glare and a pout. She declared she would prove him wrong.
"Sure," he drawled. "If you do, I'll take you to the mall. Girls like stuff like that, right?"
"Really?" Alluka nearly screamed. She'd never been to one before, but that made he all the more excited.
Shigaraki had already exited out the door, but Alluka was now intent on getting him to fufill his promise. Now if she could stop falling off the platform…