A young boy dressed in the traditional ethnic attire of the Kurta Clan, sporting a head of soft blond hair, stood nervously behind Kurajing, trailing half a step behind her.
It was none other than...
A smaller version of Kurapika than the one from the original story.
The current year was 1987 in the Hunter calendar, the year Gon and Killua were just born. Sarasa hadn't died, the Spiders hadn't yet descended into darkness, and it was still two years before the Kurta Clan would be massacred. Kurapika was only six or seven years old.
The fact that he could set out alone from his secluded tribe, taking cars and airships to safely find his way here, proved that despite his young age, he was cautious and far from ordinary.
After all, the Hunter world was rampant with perverts; twisted, crazy, greedy, and inhumane people were everywhere.
Not to mention Meteor City, just look at Yorknew City... What kind of well-ordered world would tolerate dozens of mafias controlling resources and recklessly hiring Nen users to slaughter their rivals?
Slowly, a gaze pierced through the wooden door and landed on Kurapika...
Perhaps the lingering aftereffects of suppressing the activation of the Mangekyo Sharingan hadn't completely dissipated...
Kurapika only felt a chilling breeze against his face. He reached out his small hand and grabbed Kurajing's hand, his knuckles turning slightly white from the force. Clearly... he was extremely nervous.
"It's okay, Pika,"
"The Young Master is very easy to talk to."
Kurajing smiled affectionately at Kurapika, her beautiful eyes curving into two sparkling crescents. With her younger brother here, the young girl was noticeably more lively and much happier than before...
The sensitive Kurapika could genuinely feel all of this. It was just that... having only just entered the Zoldyck estate, being led by his sister all the way into this tall, ancient castle, and hearing her constantly mention "Young Master... Young Master..." along the way...
Kurapika tilted his head and glanced at his sister. It had been a long time since he had seen her care so much about a person, even... their long-deceased parents.
The young boy took a deep breath, remaining silent.
He silently lowered his head. As his thoughts swirled, he seemed to recall what he had just seen and heard.
After being kindly rescued by Zebro from Netero's teasing banter,
The boy had thanked Zebro and chatted with him along the way, tentatively probing for information. He happened to hear the enthusiastic old guard mention that the towering main gate at the foot of the mountain was divided into seven doors. Just to push open the first door required four tons of force. Kurapika had been so shocked that he started counting on his fingers, carefully calculating that it was no less than the weight of a small car.
Then... "What about all seven doors?" the boy asked, clicking his tongue in astonishment.
"Hehe... The seven doors weigh over two hundred tons in total, several times heavier than the airship you took to get here."
Zebro gave the answer with a beaming smile.
However, this answer was undoubtedly shocking...
Several times heavier than an airship—what kind of concept was that? That was a massive aerial fortress fully equipped with facilities, capable of accommodating hundreds of passengers at once!
Kurapika couldn't imagine it. He opened his mouth wide, stunned for quite a while before finally recovering. He cast a reverent glance back at the mottled stone gates, thick with the aura of age, and muttered, "With it being that heavy, can someone really lift it?"
A door, not a mountain... Kurapika never doubted his own ears. He repeatedly confirmed that it was indeed a door.
Turning back around, he looked up to see Zebro blink, raise a finger, and whisper to him, "Of course. Just recently, the Young Master lifted all of them with a single hand."
Kurapika's pupils trembled violently, and his footsteps faltered as he froze in place. Even though he possessed a maturity far beyond his peers, with a mind as delicate and sensitive as an adult's, when faced with something that completely shattered his worldview and comprehension... he still couldn't hold it together and completely lost his composure.
"That's impossible. That's simply not something a human can do!"
The boy's mind couldn't accept the fact that someone could lift the equivalent of five or six airships with one hand. He immediately retorted.
But Zebro merely smiled warmly and didn't explain further. He led him up the stone steps, ascending toward the butler's mansion halfway up the mountain. However, the large and small figures hadn't gone far when suddenly, a roar like a clap of thunder exploded in Kurapika's ears. It made the boy's scalp tingle and his hairs stand on end as he looked over in terror...
"Roar!"
From the deep, desolate mountain forest, a massive creature had leaped out at some unknown moment!
It possessed a pair of ferocious eyes and a colossal body like a mountain. Its limbs were robust and muscular, and its dark brown fur swayed in the wind with awe-inspiring majesty... draped over its body like steel needles. Just by leaping out of the forest and approaching the stone steps,
it cast vast shadows that blotted out the sunlight, forcing Kurapika to look up, completely unable to see the sun overhead. His legs gave way, and he nearly collapsed to the ground on the spot.
Fortunately, whether he was stunned by fear or simply spaced out, the boy ultimately managed to stay on his feet. This earned him a few surprised glances from Zebro, who warmly held his arm and quickly explained to Mike, who had suddenly popped out and mistaken the boy for an intruder, "This is an esteemed guest specifically invited by the Young Master to visit our home."
Miraculously,
upon hearing the words "Young Master"... Kurapika, supported by Zebro's warm arm, tried his best to suppress his inner terror and the urge to wet himself. He looked up to see that the ferocious beast—which was even taller than the main gate he had seen at the foot of the mountain and looked exactly like a hellhound—had bizarrely retracted all of its murderous aura...
It lay down meekly, and even... began to wag its tail in a fawning manner!
"This..." Kurapika stood frozen on the spot, completely speechless.
"Ho ho ho..." Zebro thoughtfully patted the boy's back, helping him catch his breath and easing his frightened state. "His name is Mike. You can also call him Sanmao. He's actually very gentle. He's usually just responsible for dealing with those overconfident intruders who try to break into the Zoldyck estate. There's no need to be afraid."
"Awooo..." Mike barked twice as if in response.
Kurapika quietly swallowed hard. Even though Zebro spoke so casually, the boy still viewed this ferocious beast—which, even while lying down, was no smaller than a hill—as the equivalent of the guard dogs he usually saw tied up in courtyards back in his tribe, specifically tasked with watching the house!
"Ho ho... Go play, Mike. I'll take him to find Kurajing..."
Seeing that the child still seemed to be in a daze, Zebro dismissed Mike. Holding onto Kurapika's arm as if carrying a pendant, he half-pushed, half-guided him, continuing their trek toward the butler's mansion halfway up the mountain.
"Step... step..." Footsteps echoed in the quiet mountain forest...
A trail of shallow footprints, both large and small, was left behind on the moss-covered stone steps...
After an unknown amount of time, Kurapika finally seemed to recover from his fright and was able to walk on his own. After a long silence, he tilted his head, cast a probing glance at Zebro, and asked, "Mister, what kind of person... is the Young Master?"
That hellhound, which was no smaller than a hill, had become unbelievably docile just from hearing the words "Young Master." Kurapika had been highly intelligent since childhood, often displaying exceptional wisdom in the original story. He was faintly beginning to believe... that Roy really could lift the Testing Gate with one hand. As soon as the words left his mouth,
Zebro was genuinely stumped for a moment...
What kind of person was the Young Master?
In the Zoldyck family, there was only one existence who was addressed simply as "Young Master" without a name attached... and that was the eldest son and grandson of the Zoldyck family, Roy Zoldyck!
Zebro halted his steps, seriously pondering this question for the first time in his life.
His mind immediately flashed with the various astonishing feats Roy had displayed in the past. For instance... pulling down a meteorite with a single sword strike, and successively pushing open all seven doors of the Testing Gate in less than two years... Not to mention Gotoh, who was currently lying in the butler's mansion, his aura growing stronger by the day...
Zebro thought hard for a very long time, momentarily losing his voice...
'Is this question that hard to answer?'
'Or did I ask something I shouldn't have?'
Kurapika felt a wave of anxiety and became flustered. Asking so many questions on his very first day at the Zoldyck estate—would he be considered impolite? Would it negatively impact his sister?
His sensitive thoughts sprouted and grew wildly like weeds. The mountain path was silent at this moment. The two figures, one large and one small, stood still on the mottled stone steps, falling into a brief silence...
After a long while, a faint, bitter smile escaped Zebro's lips...
"You really asked a good question, kid."
Approaching middle age, he was bald and had a bit of a gut, though fortunately, the muscular physique he had trained years ago was still there. Zebro rubbed his shiny forehead and looked at Kurapika with a chuckle. "Logically speaking, as a servant, I shouldn't evaluate the masters. But given the Young Master's temperament, he has always been gentle. Even if I had some thoughts or wanted to say something, he definitely wouldn't mind..."
"Mister, it's my fault," Kurapika apologized nervously. "Please don't say anymore. Just pretend I never asked."
Zebro waved his hand. "It's fine, because... I don't know what kind of person the Young Master is either..."
Kurapika: "..."
"What? You don't believe me?" Zebro looked down to meet Kurapika's suspicious gaze, secretly praising the boy for having such beautiful, large eyes, almost identical to Kurajing's. He patted the back of the boy's head with his large hand and said, "There is a difference between [Mortal] and [God], young man."
"In my heart, the Young Master is just like the Master, the Grand Master, and the Ancestor—they are all god-like figures."
"How could a gatekeeper like me, who's just coasting through life waiting to die, possibly evaluate him..."
Kurapika's head was buzzing. He didn't know if it was from Zebro's pat or if he was shaken by the guard's sigh... He couldn't snap out of it for a long time...
'God...'
'Perhaps, only a god could truly push open those gates and make that hellhound submit and roll over...'
"Whoosh—" A gust of wind blew by, sweeping up the summer heat and blowing it right into their faces, making the air unbearably hot and stifling...
After Zebro finished speaking, he placed a hand over his forehead, glanced at the sun, and patted Kurapika's back. "Alright, let's go. Your sister is still waiting for you."
Kurapika's bangs covered his eyes as he gave a soft hum of agreement. Following Zebro, he resumed walking. Before long, they finally arrived in front of a luxurious mansion.
'So big!' The massive butler's mansion was both luxurious and elegant.
It was not the slightest bit inferior to the tall buildings Kurapika had seen along the way in Minbo or the Republic of Padokea.
The boy's soft blond hair swayed in the wind as he secretly glanced at Zebro, deeply suspecting that the older man was bringing him directly to see the Young Master... Just as his imagination was running wild,
he heard a creak as the mansion's front doors opened. A young girl rushed out of the building in a flurry.
She excitedly cried out, "Pika!"
She dashed in front of Kurapika and pulled him into a tight embrace!
"Sister..." The corners of his eyes grew slightly damp, and his eye sockets reddened despite himself. Hearing Kurajing's familiar call and seeing her familiar face, Kurapika hugged his sister back, just like he used to do back in the tribe... The awkward part was,
Kurapika paused slightly, realizing that with his arms wrapped around her, he couldn't even reach the center of his sister's back anymore!
Furthermore, why was his sister's entire body so hard!
She was as hard as a rock, pressing painfully against him...
Kurapika struggled to pull his neck out of Kurajing's embrace, forcefully patting her back as he said, "Sister... cough, cough... you're squeezing me so hard I can't breathe."
Off to the side, Zebro watched with a chuckle and chimed in at the right moment, "Kurajing, be gentle. Careful not to strangle him to death. After all... you're not the same as you used to be..."
Only then did Kurajing notice.
In her excitement, she had used too much force...
Her face flushed red.
She hurriedly let go of Kurapika and began to apologize, "Sorry, sorry."
"Ho ho ho, you siblings catch up. I still have guests waiting for me at the front gate, so I'll be taking my leave..."
"Thank you, Mister!"
"Don't mention it..." Zebro waved his hand and turned to leave.
Kurajing bowed to him in gratitude. Then, she reached out and gently patted Kurapika's back, asking with concern, "Feeling better, Pika?"
Kurapika coughed a few times, tilting his neck up to take large gulps of the fresh mountain air. It took him quite a while to catch his breath before he sized up his sister...
His sister was still the familiar sister he knew, but after not seeing her for a while, she also seemed much more like a stranger...
Not only was she taller,
she also seemed more muscular.
She was wearing a crisp tailcoat that, while tight and stylish, was bulging from the inside... Looking at it, could those be muscles?
Also, his sister, who used to love reading, always looked gentle, and didn't even have the strength to truss a chicken... how did her strength suddenly become so immense?
After all, even when they used to play around and she would pin him down, he had never felt like he did today—nearly passing out from just a light squeeze...
"So, Sister, are you trying to kill me?"
His thoughts racing, seeing Kurajing finally allowed Kurapika to drop a sliver of the guard in his heart as he complained resentfully.
Kurajing awkwardly pushed up the glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. Tactfully choosing not to continue this topic, she simply pushed Kurapika along, heading toward the mountain peak...
"Pika,"
"We'll talk later."
"Come with me to see the Young Master first."
Kurapika lowered his eyes, remaining silent... As Kurajing pushed him forward... he could faintly see another ancient castle at the peak of the mountain. It was even larger than the butler's mansion, its mottled walls thick with the aura of age.
The boy's little heart began to pound wildly...
Finally, they reached the peak.
A gentle voice drifted out from the bedroom...
"You're here?"
"Come in."