Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Kurta Village
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Lukso was a relatively low populated province. In the center of it lies a giant forest with tall swirling trees. Those who did live in the province lived around the forest and did not enter unless necessary. Traversing the forest was difficult and one can easily get lost. Since people believed the area to be uninhabited, they went around it rather than through it. This allowed the Kurtas to live in peace.
Kurta Village was a small village hidden deep in the forest. It was next to a creek which provided clean water and fish. Berries and fruit were grown as well. There were only one hundred and twenty-eight inhabitants in the village who knew and cared for each other. People never left the village, seeing no need to. It was a peaceful lifestyle that had few dangers.
Kurapika absolutely hated it.
The village was drowning in ennui. Nothing new was discovered and the days blurred as it always felt the same. Kurapika wanted to learn, he wanted to see. This often led him running off into the forest to discover new things. Book in hand, he’d go out and categorize local flora and fauna, watching how they interact with each other and take notes. It drove Elder Horn and the sentinels of the village crazy as Kurapika was able to come up with creative ways to escape. He was often warned that the outside was dangerous, and outsiders would want to cause him harm. Kurapika didn’t care what superstitious old people had to say.
He didn’t hear about vampires until he was six. His best friend, Pairo, told him about them.
“Vampires?”
“Yeah, Mido told me about them.” Pairo explained as they made paper boats by the river, “Apparently, that’s why we hide so that the vampires don’t get us. They’re monsters that disguise themselves as humans. They have hollow teeth that can suck the blood right out of you!”
“Mido’s just trying to scare you. It’s because people would find our Scarlet Eyes fascinating.” Kurapika told him.
“Yeah I know.” Pairo finished folding his boat and started covering it in wax. Kurapika had already finished his boat and he was waiting for Pairo. Once Pairo was done, they took their boats to running water. They grinned at each other in excitement.
“Ready? Set, go!” They said in unison and put their boats in the water. They cheered as the boats made their way downstream with the help of the current. The boys followed them eagerly, cheering for their respective boat to beat the other. Pairo started to falter before he tripped and fell.
“Pairo!” Boats forgotten, Kurapika turned and raced back to his friend. Pairo was born sickly, he had a limp and his eyesight was not good. Kurapika knelt down and helped his friend back up.
“Are you alright?” Kurapika asked.
“Of course, he’s not!” A new voice cut in. The pair turned to see Mido and his two friends walking up, “He’s a little weakling!”
“Shut up Mido!” Kurapika stood and faced the bully. Pairo was always being picked on due to his limp and Kurapika would defend him every time.
“It’s the truth, Kurapika! You can’t protect him from that!” Pairo tried to calm Kurapika down, but Kurapika was having none of it. His eyes had already turned red.
“You’re a liar, Mido! You lie about everything. Like the vampires! You can’t scare me with that stuff, Mido! There’s no such things as vampires!”
“I’m not a liar! There are vampires! My dad told me about them!” Mido sneered back.
“Your dad is a liar too then!” Kurapika snapped. At that, Mido’s eyes also turned red.
“Don’t talk about my dad like that!”
“Come on, Kurapika. Let’s just go.” Pairo tugged at Kurapika’s sleeve. Kurapika gave Mido one last glare before he turned to walk away. Mido felt the need to have the last laugh, however.
“You know what else he told me? He told me they’ll eat you because you keep running into the forest. And then they’ll eat Pairo because he’s weak.”
At that, Kurapika stopped. He didn’t care what Mido said about him, but he would leave Pairo alone. With a yell, Kurapika turned around and charged at Mido. Mido wasn’t expecting it and couldn’t do much as Kurapika tackled him to the ground and started punching his face. Mido’s friends rushed to get Kurapika off him. Pairo limped back to the village to get help. Mido kneed Kurapika in the stomach and pushed Kurapika to the side before he punched Kurapika back. Kurapika felt blood spill from his nose but he ignored it. He smashed his right fist into Mido’s stomach, causing Mido to gasp for air. Kurapika straddled Mido and continued to pummel him. He wasn’t sure how long this went on. But eventually large hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him away from Mido.
“Kurapika! Kurapika stop it!” A voice he recognized as his dad’s shouted at him. Mido got up and lunged for Kurapika when another adult stopped him. Kurapika tried to punch Mido again but his father held him back.
“Enough, Kurapika! You need to calm down!” His father dragged him back to the village. Pairo watched sadly as the fighters were returned to their homes.
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The cotton swab dabbed lightly on Kurapika’s face, disinfecting the wounds. Kurapika winced every time but his mother ignored his complaints.
“Maybe this will teach you not to get into fights.” His mother chided him as she cleaned. Kurapika fumed but said nothing. He knew he was in a lot of trouble. Once she was done, his mother sighed, cupping Kurapika’s face gently. “My beautiful boy. You need to control that temper of yours.”
“I know, mom…” He said sheepishly. She let go of his face and patted the seat next to hers. He cautiously sat down next to his mother as instructed.
“Now, tell me what happened. You normally don’t let Mido get you this riled up.”
Kurapika told her what happened. How Mido tried to scare them with vampires, how he said Kurapika and Pairo were going to die. His mother furrowed her brows and frowned at the word ‘vampire’. When he finished, she sighed.
“Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean you should resort to violence. What Mido did was wrong, what you did was worse. You’re going to apologize to him tomorrow.”
“But -“
“And no more exploring the forest until I say otherwise!”
“But-“ Kurapika tried to argue but his mother gave him ‘the look’ and all arguments faded from his mind. “Yes mom…”
At that, she wrapped up her son in a hug, “There’s my good boy! Now, go to bed.”
“Hey mom? Have you ever heard of a vampire?” Kurapika asked her.
“What makes you say that?”
“You make a thinking face when you get worried.” He explained. She sighed at the explanation.
“You’re too observant sometimes…” She started. His mother then made the thinking face again as she best tried to word it in a way as to not scare her son, “Vampires are a story in the village. Whether or not they are real, I can’t say.”
“Really?!” Kurapika asked excitedly, “Tell me more!” Kurapika demanded and begged her with wide grey eyes. Helpless, his mother sighed and told him about the legend of vampires. Creatures that used to be human and then became monsters who craved human blood. They kept humans locked up so they could feed from them whenever they pleased. They found Kurta blood particularly tasty and found their Scarlet Eyes beautiful to look at. Kurapika bombarded his mother with questions that she didn’t know the answers to: How did vampires come to be? Why do they like Kurta blood? How do you kill one? To that she said the only weaknesses she knew of was that vampires couldn’t be in sunlight or they’d burn and the oil of the ojigi plant was toxic to them. Before he could pester her with more questions, his mother shooed him off to bed.
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Vampires faded out of Kurapika’s interest as time passed. They merely became stories as there was no proof that they existed. Kurapika went back to studying the forest. As he grew older, the more confident he felt in navigating the forest. He went farther away from the village each time to see what else he could find. When he was eleven, he stumbled upon something he never saw before.
It was a tent. It was man-made from fabrics Kurapika didn’t recognize. It was set up in front of what was a firepit. The tent was obviously many years old as plants were growing in and around it. The owner abandoned it long ago. Excited but cautious, Kurapika crept up to the tent. He pulled the flap back to see the interior of the tent. A sleeping bag took up most of the tent. Next to were two books, one that looked like a journal. Kurapika grabbed them both and hurried back to the village.
It was nighttime when Kurapika got back from his excursion. He sneaked past the guards at the village entrance and made his way to Pairo’s home. Finding a small pebble, Kurapika chucked it into his window.
“Pairo.” He whispered, not too loudly so that everyone could hear, but not too softly so Pairo couldn’t. “Pairo, wake up! I found something!” Minutes passed before Pairo poked his head out the window.
“What’s up, Kurapika?” Pairo asked sleepily.
“I found something interesting. Follow me to the hideaway!” Kurapika beamed excitedly. Pairo blinked twice before sighing in defeat.
“Alright, but if Elder Horn catches us, this is your idea.” Pairo warned. Kurapika shrugged it off and ran to their hideout. In order to get away from Mido and other annoying people in the village, Kurapika and Pairo found a hideaway outside the village. It was a hole in a giant tree trunk that was hard to spot unless you were looking for it. Kurapika practically bounded into the hideout with a tired Pairo stumbling after him.
“So, what is this all about?” Pairo yawned as he asked Kurapika. The blond was digging through his stash to find them.
“When I was out in the forest today, I found a tent!” Kurapika told him excitedly.
“A tent?”
“Uh-huh! I have no idea how long its been out there. Several years at least. But when I looked inside the tent, I found…” He trailed off so he could reveal the books dramatically, but he couldn’t find them. Pairo raised an eyebrow.
“You found?”
“Gimme a second…There they are! I found these!” He held up the books under Pairo’s nose. He took the book and studied it.
“Books? What are they about?”
“I have no idea! It’s written in a language I don’t know!” Kurapika told him, “I think it’s called ‘Common’. It’s a language that everyone knew before we went into hiding.” Pairo’s eyes light up.
“My dad has a dictionary on that! It’s really old, but that will work!”
Kurapika and Pairo spent the next year learning common and translating the books. Kurapika would write all his notes in his book and eventually, he was able to read the books. The first one was a children’s story about a guy called ‘Dino’ who goes on adventures. It became his favorite story. As he suspected, second book was a journal. It belonged to a person who ran away from their previous life. They came to Lukso forest to hide from their pursuers and quickly got lost. By the end of the journal, it became obvious to Kurapika that the person did not survive the journey.
One day, when he went to the hideaway, he found the books gone. He tore the place apart to find them, but they were not there. Kurapika’s eyes burned angrily as he realized what happened. He ran back to the village to confront Elder Horn.
‘Horn’ was not his real name, but the children called the Elder that. It started when Kurapika pointed out that his hair looked like a horn. Elder Horn tried to stop the nickname from spreading but conceded when Kurapika suggested other nicknames such as ‘Elder Target’ for the scar on his forehead.
Kurapika burst into Elder Horn’s house. Elder Horn was sitting down drinking tea as if he were expecting him.
“Where are they?” Kurapika growled. Elder Horn put down his cup and then looked at Kurapika.
“Ah good morning. You’re up rather early –“
“Where. Are. They?!”
“Where are what?” Elder Horn asked innocently.
“You know what!” Kurapika snapped.
“That temper of yours is going to cause you problems in life if you don’t better control it.” He took another sip of his tea and continued. “They’re not here.”
“Where –“ Kurapika started but Elder Horn continued.
“I will not tell you. Your adventures into the forest have always been dangerous, but I don’t want those books of yours putting ideas in your head.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to take something that isn’t yours!”
“I have the right when the safety of the village is at risk!” Elder Horn’s patience for Kurapika was quickly waning, “Your rash actions put the lives of everyone here in jeopardy! If someone were to discover you, they could easily follow you back home. You are no longer permitted to leave the village.”
“You’re not answering my question: WHERE ARE MY BOOKS?!” Kurapika yelled.
“I burned them. You will never see those books again.” At Elder Horn’s answer, Kurapika’s temper peaked. He slammed his fist into the wall.
“I HATE THIS PLACE! AND I HATE YOU!” Kurapika screamed at Elder Horn before running off. He pushed past several onlookers who were investigating the commotion. He saw his parents and Pairo. When they called out his name, he ignored them. The village became a blur as he ran out as fast as he could. Kurapika didn’t really care where he was running, as long as it was away. He didn’t know how long he was running when he tripped on a tree root and he fell to the ground. Kurapika let out a cry of rage and began kicking the tree root. He then dropped to his knees and began punching it over and over, imagining it as Elder Horn’s face. He hated him! He hated him! He hated him! Stupid Elder Horn is just scared, and he takes it out on him! He just wanted to learn new things! Why is that such a crime?! Eventually, he calmed down a bit and Kurapika sat up panting. A throbbing in his hands revealed his knuckles were bleeding. He pulled his knees to his chest and hugged them, glaring at the world angrily.
The light began to fade when Kurapika started to move again. His stupid tantrum would have scared his parents and he didn’t want that. He’d explain what happened to his mother and she’d help solve everything. He stood up and looked around. Kurapika searched for familiar landmarks but found none. Horror started to sink in Kurapika’s gut. He climbed a tree to get a better vantage point. Kurapika searched desperately for something that looked familiar. There was nothing.
He was lost.