Chapter 294: Kurapika Enters the "Grand View Garden" x A Shocking One-Day Tour of the Zoldycks
A young boy wearing the traditional clothing of the Kurta clan, with a head of smooth golden hair, stood anxiously behind Kurajin, half a step back. It was clearly...
A smaller version of Kurapika from the original story.
Currently, it was the year 1987 of the Hunter Calendar, the year Gon was born. Sarasa had not died, the Spiders had not yet gone dark, and it was still two years away from the annihilation of the Kurta clan. Kurapika was only six or seven years old. Being able to set off from his reclusive clan all by himself, take buses and airships, and safely find his way here was enough to show that his mind was cautious and he was no ordinary person despite his young age.
It should be known that the Hunter world was overrun with perverts; twisted, mad, greedy, and inhumane people were everywhere. Not to mention Meteor City, just looking at Yorknew City... a world that could tolerate dozens of mafia gangs controlling resources and wantonly hiring Nen users to slaughter their rivals, what kind of good and orderly world could it be?
A gaze slowly penetrated the wooden door, falling onto Kurapika...
Perhaps the residual effects of suppressing the Mangekyō Sharingan hadn't been completely cleared away...
Kurapika only felt a cold chill on his face. He reached out his small hand and grabbed Kurajin'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."
Kurajin smiled affectionately at Kurapika, her beautiful eyes curving into two bright crescents... With her younger brother here, the girl was visibly more lively and much happier than before...
Kurapika, with his sensitive mind, could genuinely feel all of this. It was just... having only just entered the Zoldyck estate, being led by his sister into this towering, ancient castle, and hearing her constantly mention "Young Master... Young Master..." along the way.
Kurapika cast a sidelong glance at his sister. It had been a long time since he had seen her care so much about someone, even... their parents who had long since passed away.
The young boy took a deep breath, remaining silent.
He kept his head down in silence. As his thoughts turned, he seemed to recall what he had just seen and heard. After being rescued by the kind Zebro from Netero's teasing, the boy had thanked Zebro and chatted with him along the way, trying to probe for information... He accidentally heard the enthusiastic old gatekeeper mention that the towering, majestic mountain gate sitting 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. After calculating carefully, he realized it was the weight of a small car. Then... "What about all seven doors?" the boy asked in astonishment. "Hehe... the total weight of the seven doors is over two hundred tons, several times heavier than the airship you took to get here~"
Zebro gave the answer with a smile, but this answer was undoubtedly shocking.
Several times heavier than an airship—what kind of concept was that? That was a super-massive aerial fortress fully equipped with facilities, capable of holding hundreds of passengers at once!
Kurapika couldn't imagine it... He opened his mouth wide and was stunned for a good while before coming back to his senses. Looking back with awe at the mottled stone gate dense with the aura of time, he muttered, "Can someone really lift something that heavy?"
A door is not a mountain... Kurapika never doubted that he might have misheard... He repeatedly confirmed that it was indeed a door. Turning back, he looked up and met Zebro's blinking eyes. The old man held up a finger and whispered to him, "Of course. A while ago, the Young Master lifted them all up with just one hand."
Kurapika's pupils trembled violently, his footsteps halting as he was completely dumbfounded... Even though he possessed a maturity far beyond his peers and a mind as delicate and sensitive as an adult's, when faced with something that completely shattered his worldview and cognition... he still couldn't maintain his composure and lost it completely.
"That's impossible! That is absolutely not something a human can achieve!"
The young boy's cognition couldn't accept the fact that someone could lift the weight of five or six airships with one hand... He immediately retorted, but Zebro only gave a genial smile without over-explaining. He led him along the stone steps, climbing up toward the butler villa halfway up the mountain... However, the large and small figures hadn't gone far before a roar suddenly exploded like thunder right beside Kurapika's ears. It made the boy's scalp tingle, his hairs standing on end as he looked over in horror...
"Roar!"
In the deep, solitary mountain forest, a colossal beast had appeared at some point!
It possessed a pair of ferocious eyes and a massive body like a mountain. Its limbs were strong, its muscles highly developed, and its dark brown fur swayed in the wind with awe-inspiring majesty... draping over its body like steel needles... Just lunging out from the forest and approaching the stone steps, it cast large swaths of shadow that blocked the sunlight, forcing Kurapika to look up, completely unable to see the sun above... His legs went soft, and he almost collapsed to the ground on the spot.
Fortunately, whether he was scared stiff or completely out of it... in short, the boy ultimately managed to stay on his feet... This caused Zebro beside him to cast a few extra surprised glances at him. Warmly holding his arm, Zebro hastily explained to Mike, who had suddenly popped out and mistakenly thought the boy was an intruder... "This is an honored guest the Young Master specifically invited to the estate."
Miraculously, upon hearing the words "Young Master"... Kurapika, supported by Zebro's warm arm, tried his hardest to suppress the terror in his heart and the urge in his bladder. Looking up... the ferocious beast that was even taller than the mountain gate he saw at the foot of the mountain... looking extremely like a hellhound, bizarrely retracted its murderous aura...
It laid down docilely, and even... wagged its tail as if trying to curry favor!
"This..." Kurapika was completely frozen on the spot, unable to speak.
"Haha..." Zebro considerately patted the boy's back, helping him catch his breath and easing his frightened emotions as he said, "Its name is Mike, you can also call it Sanmao. It's actually very docile and is usually responsible for handling those outlaws who overestimate themselves and try to break into the Zoldyck estate. Don't be afraid."
"Awoo... woof..." Mike barked twice as if responding. Kurapika quietly swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Even though Zebro spoke of it casually, the boy still viewed this ferocious beast—which was no smaller than a hill even when lying down—as a watchdog... just like the ones he usually saw tied up in courtyards back in his clan to guard houses!
"Hehe... Mike, go play. I'll take him to find Kurajin..."
Seeing that the child still seemed silly and hadn't snapped back to his senses, Zebro shooed Mike away. Holding onto Kurapika's arm, as if carrying an accessory, he half-pushed and half-pulled him along, continuing toward the butler villa halfway up the mountain.
Step... step... The sound of footsteps echoed in the silent mountain forest...
Leaving a string of large and small, shallow footprints 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, casting a tentative look at Zebro, and asked, "Uncle, what kind of person... is the Young Master?"
That hellhound, which was no smaller than a hill, had become unbelievably docile just upon hearing the words "Young Master"... Kurapika had been clever since childhood, and as shown by his superior intelligence in the original story, he faintly began to believe... that Roy really could lift the Testing Gate with one hand...
As soon as the words left his mouth, it truly stumped Zebro for a moment...
What kind of person is the Young Master?
In the Zoldyck family, the only existence who wasn't addressed by name, but solely as "Young Master"... was the eldest son and eldest grandson of the Zoldyck family, Roy Zoldyck!
Zebro halted his steps, seriously pondering this question for the first time in his life. In his mind immediately surfaced all of Roy's astonishing feats from the past, such as... pulling down a meteor with one slash, and in less than two years, successively pushing open the seven Testing Gates... coupled with Gotoh, who was currently lying in the butler villa with an aura growing stronger by the day...
Zebro thought hard for a long, long time, and for a moment, remained silent.
"Is this question very hard to answer?"
"Or did I ask something I shouldn't have?"
Kurapika felt uneasy, becoming increasingly flustered... Having only just entered the Zoldyck family on his first day, asking all these questions... would he be considered impolite, and would it negatively affect his sister?
His sensitive thoughts surged, growing wildly like weeds... The mountain path was silent at this moment... The large and small figures stopped on the mottled stone steps, falling into a brief silence...
After a long while, a bitter smile leisurely escaped from Zebro's lips...
"You child really asked a good question."
Approaching middle age, his head had gone bald and his belly had grown round, but fortunately, the muscles he had trained back in the day were still there... Zebro rubbed his shiny forehead, looking at Kurapika with a chuckle as he said, "Logically speaking, as a servant, one cannot evaluate the masters. But given the Young Master's temper, he has always been gentle. Even if I had some thoughts or wanted to say something, he definitely wouldn't mind..."
"Uncle, it's my fault," Kurapika apologized uncomfortably. "Please don't say anything, just pretend I didn't ask."
Zebro waved his hand: "It doesn't matter, because... I don't know what kind of person the Young Master is either..."
Kurapika: "..."
"What? You don't believe me?" Zebro looked down, meeting Kurapika's suspicious gaze. He secretly praised... the boy truly had a pair of beautiful, large eyes, almost exactly like Kurajin's. Patting the back of the boy's head with his large hand, he said, "There is a difference between 'mortals' and 'gods', young man,"
"In my heart, the Young Master, like the Master, the Grand Master, and the Ancestor, is a god-like figure."
"How could a guard like me, who just muddles along waiting to die, be fit to evaluate him..."
Kurapika's head was buzzing. He didn't know if it was from Zebro's pat or from the shock of the gatekeeper uncle's sigh... He couldn't snap back to his senses for a long time.
"A god..."
Perhaps, truly only a god could push open that massive gate and make that hellhound submit and roll over...
Whoosh~ A gust of wind blew by, carrying the scorching summer heat straight at their faces, making it unbearably hot...
After Zebro finished speaking, he rested his hand on his forehead, glancing at the sun. Patting Kurapika's back, he said, "Alright, let's go. Your sister is still waiting for you."
Kurapika's bangs covered his eyes. He gave a soft "Mm" and followed Zebro, resuming their steps. Before long, they finally arrived in front of a luxurious villa.
"It's huge!" The massive butler villa was both luxurious and extravagant.
It was not inferior in the slightest to those tall buildings Kurapika had seen along the way in Minbo or Padokea. The boy's smooth golden hair swayed in the wind. He sneakily glanced at Zebro, deeply suspecting... was the uncle bringing him directly to see that Young Master?
Just as his thoughts were running wild, a creak~ sounded as the villa doors opened. A young girl rushed out of the villa like a whirlwind, crying out in excitement, "Pika!"
She darted in front of Kurapika, pulling him into a tight embrace!
"Sister..." The corners of his eyes grew slightly moist, and his eye sockets turned red uncontrollably... Hearing Kurajin's familiar call and seeing her familiar face, Kurapika hugged his sister back, just like he used to in the clan... Awkwardly, Kurapika froze slightly, realizing that wrapping his arms around her, he actually couldn't reach the middle of his sister's back!
Moreover, why did his sister feel so hard all over?!
She was as solid as a rock, digging painfully into him...
Kurapika struggled to pull his neck out of Kurajin's embrace, patting her back forcefully as he said, "Sister... cough, cough, cough... you're squeezing me so tight I can't breathe..."
Beside them, Zebro watched with a chuckle, throwing in a timely remark: "Kurajin, be gentle. Careful not to strangle him to death. After all... you're not the same as you used to be..."
Only then did Kurajin realize that in her excitement, she had used too much force...
Blushing, she hastily released Kurapika, repeatedly apologizing with a "Gomen~ Gomen~".
"Hohoho, you siblings chat. There are still guests waiting for me at the gate, so I'll take my leave..."
"Thank you, Uncle!"
"Don't mention it..." Zebro waved his hand and turned to leave.
Kurajin bowed to him in salute. Then, she reached out to gently pat Kurapika's back, asking with concern, "Feeling better, Pika?"
Kurapika coughed a few times, stretching his neck and taking large gulps of the fresh mountain air. It took a long while for him to catch his breath. He sized up his sister... His sister was still the familiar sister, but after not seeing her for a while, she seemed much more unfamiliar...
Not only was she taller, but she also seemed much sturdier. A crisp tailcoat was fitted tightly and stylishly over her body, yet it bulged heavily from the inside... Looking at it, could it be muscles?
And also, his sister, who used to love reading, always had a refined appearance, and lacked the strength to even truss a chicken... why had her strength suddenly become so massive?
You must know, in the past even when playing around and being pinned down by his sister, he had never been like today, where just a gentle squeeze almost made him pass out...
"So, Sister, are you trying to kill me?"
His mind racing, upon seeing Kurajin, Kurapika finally dropped a sliver of the guard in his heart, complaining resentfully.
Kurajin pushed the glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. Tactfully dropping the subject, she simply pushed Kurapika forward, heading toward the mountain peak...
"Pika,"
"We'll talk later,"
"Come with me to see the Young Master first."
Kurapika lowered his eyelids, remaining silent... Being pushed along by Kurajin... he could faintly see another ancient castle at the mountain peak with the naked eye. It was even larger than the butler villa, and its mottled appearance was dense with the aura of time. The young boy's little heart started pounding wildly with a thump-thump~...
Finally, they reached the peak. A leisurely, gentle voice drifted out from the bedroom...
"You're here?"
"Enter."
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