Everyone, hope you had a Merry Christmas, a wonderful New Year and that 2015 turns out to be an amazing year for all of you! To begin this year's updates... here it is! The first chapter of To Retrieve Music! *.*

I wanted to wait until I had more chapters ready to start posting this, but I figured I made you all wait enought already. By the way, I truly apologize for taking so long to post this, but traveling and Netfllix kind of sucked out all of my free time lately, strongly subtracting from my writing time. Sorry...T.T

Now, thank you so, so, SO much for all of your reviews for the last chapter of To Steal Music! pitou77, DustyTypewriter, Haru 508, AlisterSeiyu, doudouchinois, Mika, Sol, Bai-Feng333, Sailor Pandabear, BK-201, AtM0sFears, OoO, Juridal and Mayu, I can't even begin to describe how happy and accomplished your reviews made me few. Really, reading how much you enjoyed To Steal Music was one of the most amazing things ever! (glomps everyone) I LOVE YOU ALL!

Also, I was very surprised at reading how many of you mentioned Feitan's past molding who he is in your reviews because, for months, I've been planning to have this fic here exploring Feitan's past - or, you know, my version of how it might've been. ;D As many of you mentioned, Feitan must've lived somewhere before Meteor City since he speaks a different language, which, I believe, is HxH's equivalent to Chinese. He must've lived in HxH's "China" until he was 8-10 years old (age in which children's facility in picking up a new language ends).

Some stuff about this fic:

- I'll be grounding HxH's world in the real one (as was done with York Shin - aka: New York City), using anagrams to talk about places with will be more or less equivalents.

- I'll also use some historical information in this. However, many things in this will come solely from my imagination. The OCs I'll use here and their actions are in no way, form or shape references to actual people.

- I'll keep giving you music suggestions every chapter.

- I think I may have to up this fic's rating eventually for some graphic descriptions of torture/mutilations. If you feel too uncomfortable about that, please let me know so I can organize said chapters in a way that you'll be able to skip the graphic descriptions. Also, I'll put warnings in the chapters I deem too graphic for a T-rating.

Warnings for the fic: bad language, description of torture and OOCness.

Disclaimer (valid for all chapters): I don't own Hunter x Hunter or its characters. Only the plot and OCs belong to me.

Music suggestion: Rebirth - Angra

Saying goodbye to Kurapika was one of the hardest things Senritsu ever had to do. In their months together, working as Neon Nostrade's bodyguards, she had grown to care immensely for the boy; he was and always would be one of her most precious friends.

But it had to be done.

Now that Neon had lost her Nen ability, the Nostrade family was losing its power and wealth, so the chances of the Music Hunter crossing a piece of the Sonata of Darkness while working for them was slim at best. Senritsu honestly felt bad for leaving Kurapika during such times, but she had to. Destroying the four solos of the Sonata of Darkness was her objective in life, her responsibility to the world; she couldn't let her emotions chain her in just one spot.

She had to leave him.

"It's sad to see you leave, Senritsu, but I understand why you have to. I really hope you will find the remaining solos of the Sonata of Darkness."

"Thank you, Kurapika. And I'm… I'm really sorry." –for abandoning you and, most of all, for befriending one of your worst enemies. "I really hope you'll find it in you to forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive, Senritsu. All I can do is wish you the best; you deserve it."

Two weeks later.

Thanks to Hanzou, the Information Hunter Kurapika had indicated her, Senritsu managed to get her hands on a clue about the whereabouts of the harp solo of the Sonata of Darkness. It seemed that it was in the possession of an old and dignitary General in a large country called Cihan. According to Hanzou, said General was called Hei Àn and was living in a large, Estate-supported country house, away from any kind of stress, due to health problems. The man was infamous for his cold-blood and the place he inhabited was infamous for making people magically disappear.

Senritsu didn't think twice before using the privileges of her Hunter's License and getting a passage on the first airship to Cihan. The trip would take her four days, so she booked herself a private cabin.

As soon as she entered said airship cabin, her cell phone ringed. It was an unkown number, but she had a pretty good idea of who was calling her.

"Where?"

Senritsu smiled in amusement. Feitan, always so subtle.

"Hello, Feitan. I'm glad to know you're doing well."

"Where?"

"Right now, I'm in an airship, going to Cihan-"

"No."

The Music Hunter's eyes widened at the definitive negative; the thief's voice, despite commanding, had an almost desperate edge to it. Probably, it was just the phone.

"What are you talking about? Why shouldn't I go to Cihan?"

"No matter why. Just no. Get out of airship and come York Shin. We go find Sonata of Darkness then."

"I've already found it. Apparently, the harp solo of the sonata is in Cihan-"

"No."

"Feitan…"

"No."

"I'm going there, regardless of you wanting it or not." Senritsu spoke at last in an exasperated voice. "I didn't let Kurapika hold me down from pursuing the remaining solos and I won't let you do it either. If you don't wish to come, it's alright."

The thief's response was the dry sound of the line going dead. Feitan had actually hung up on her.

Senritsu couldn't help but sigh at the man's childish behaviour; she wished he had at least explained why he was so determined not to allow her to set foot in that country. Something had obviously happened there and she really wanted to know what it was. She needed as much information about the place as she could get.

But, most of all, she was awfully worried about Feitan. What could have him so dead-set in avoiding a whole country like that?

That little bi- idiot! How dare she disregard him like that?

Eyes blazing in anger, Feitan whipped his head to Shalnark's direction. The blonde was sitting on the stone ground of their York Shin HQ, typing furiously on his laptop to produce something the smaller thief had asked for.

"Shal, your phone virus no ready yet?"

"Have patience, Feitan." Shalnark answered good-naturedly. "The Sistine Chapel wasn't painted in just one day, you know?"

"I no even know what Sistine Chapel is."

"It's a famous Chapel in Civatan. Its ceiling is completely painted with frescoes that portray, mainly, scenes of the Book of Genesis from the Christian Religion. It's a master piece of the Renaissance period." The blonde explained, never stopping his typing. "Now, give me some more moments. I just have to finish putting the final commands in C++ language and I'll be done with the virus."

Feitan rolled his eyes. Shal meant well, trying to explain what the Sis-something chapel was and trying to situate him regarding the development of the virus he had asked for, but the blonde really had to learn how to use words and expressions that he would understand, instead of 'frescoes' and 'Book of Genesis' and 'C++ language'. Senritsu would no have problem explain it to me.

The small thief's glare darkened at his thoughts and he was on the brink of throwing his cell phone on the ground in frustrated anger when Shalnark's excited voice demanded his attention.

"It's done, Feitan! Just give me your phone so I can put the virus' archive in it."

Feitan handed the man his phone immediately.

"Once it's here, all you'll have to do is insert it in a message and send it to your little bodyguard." The technician explained. "Once she opens the message, the virus will infect her phone and start transmitting data to your own. Her location, her contacts, the messages she receives and sends, the websites she visits and even the pictures she takes will all be duplicated and sent to your phone." With that, the blonde handed the brunette his phone back.

Feitan didn't waste a second before sending Senritsu a message with the virus in it. Get back York Shin now.

Ten minutes later, he received a reply - I'm sorry, Feitan, but I really can't - and a new icon appeared in his phone's screen. He clicked on it and it opened a window full of folder archives:

General Settings.

Contacts.

Messages.

Music.

Camera.

Internet.

Applications.

Shalnark couldn't help but grin at the satisfied gleam in Feitan's eyes. At the same time, he couldn't help but take a step back from the black-haired thief that was now emanating an almost suffocating murderous Aura.

"Well, good luck, Feitan! I have to… fix Machi's laptop! She's been asking me to get to it for weeks now! I'll see you on our next job! Goodbye!"

Before Feitan had the chance to tell Shalnark that not only Machi didn't own a laptop, but she was also mid-way around the world, sewing some big-shot fighter's foot in the Celestial Tower, the blonde was already gone. Actually, all of the Spiders but him and Shalnark had left York Shin already, moving on to take care of their own business until Danchou returned to them. Shalnark was probably going to do the same.

With a shrug of his shoulders, the torturer turned around to leave the run-down building that served as their HQ in York Shin behind and make his way to the airport. That town had nothing to offer him anymore; it was time for him to follow the rest of the Spiders' example and move on from the city.

It took four days for Senritsu to arrive at Cihan's capitol, Jingbei.

The city was warm and sunny and, most of all, buzzing with people. It took Senritsu the better part of an hour to get directions to the small inn in which she had reserved a room, and another seven to go there from the airport.

The inn room was a simple but clean place, with one single bed, a mini-fridge, a small television and a narrow but well-functioning bathroom. Obviously, it weren't the hotel's facilities that made her choose it, but its location. According to the map Hanzou had provided her with, it was but 15 kilometres away from the infamous General's country house. All she needed now was to find an excuse to go visit the house; tourism, she believed, was not nearly a good enough reason to justify her presence there.

With that in mind, she went to the inn's front room so she could talk to the owner, to see if she could get something out of the woman about Hei Àn's house. The talk was long and complicated, for, despite spending almost all of her time in the airship hearing audio CDs to learn the basics of Cihan's language, Senritsu still was having difficulties with it. It was a very complicated language, based mainly in vowel sounds, and she couldn't help but be grateful for her sensitive hearing; without it, she'd never be able to pick the very slight phonetic nuances that distinguished its words.

The talk was also pretty much useless; the receptionist had nothing to tell her about Hei Àn besides that he was "a great General, who fought bravely to defend the Nation and make sure that all could live a prosperous and peaceful life".

That didn't help Senritsu at all, so she went back to her room and did the only thing she could think that would surely give her more intel about her target.

From: Senritsu

To: Hanzou

Hello, Hanzou.

I'll need you to find out as much as you can about General Hei Àn for me. Anything is good; the details of his career and personal life, info about his family and circle of friends, his hobbies and obligations… Anything.

Thank you,

Senritsu

As expected from an Information Hunter, Hanzou replied seconds later.

From: Hanzou

To: Senritsu

Hi there, Senritsu. I take it you arrived well in Cihan?

I'm still in the country, doing some side-research, so I think I'll be able to have something for you by tomorrow afternoon. Same price as last time.

Where are you staying? We can schedule a dinner on your hotel's restaurant for us to make our exchange. ;)

From: Senritsu

To: Hanzou

Dinner tomorrow sounds good for me. I'm staying at that inn you talked about in your last report, about 500km from Jingbei. Can you be here tomorrow at eight?

From: Hanzou

To: Senritsu

Sure. See you there. :)

York Shin airport; waiting room.

Feitan had to resist the urge to throw his phone at the wall as he read the exchange of messages between Senritsu and that Hanzou. There were three reasons for the torturer's anger. One: Senritsu was completely going against his orders. Two: the tone of the conversation was too friendly for his tastes – what idiot put smiley face in message? And three: Hei Àn.

The Spider had had the displeasure of meeting the infamous General once, when he was still young. To say it lightly, they didn't part on good terms.

This time I kill him. First I make him watch I torture his pig friends. I torture him until he beg death. Then I kill him.

Not good terms at all.

"Ladies and Gentlemen booked for the flight HW-13361, destined to Cihan, please report to Gate 37 to boarding. This is the last call to board the airship."

With an annoyed grunt, Feitan stood up from his place on the waiting room and walked to his gate. There was no delaying it anymore; he was going back to Cihan.

He was going home.

At 20:00 sharp, Hanzou made his way through the doors of the small inn. The dinning room was nice and clean, albeit a little small, and, thanks to the small number of people present, the Information Hunter spotted his client easily. Her peculiar appearance helped some as well.

"Senritsu?" Hanzou called with a polite smile on his face as he approached her table. "It's nice to finally meet you face to face. I'm Hanzou."

He offered her his hand, which she shook promptly in greeting.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Hanzou. Kurapika spoke highly about you; said you're a man I can trust."

Hanzou's smile grew warmer. Her words were not purposeless flattering nor were they an attempt of getting in the Hunter's good graces to gain some sort of benefit from him; they were nothing but the truth, spoken with the sole purpose of making him feel good about himself.

"I can already say that we're going to be good friends."

The small woman smiled softly to him and nodded her head. "I think so too."

Senritsu returned to her room that night with a smile on her face, a belly full of good food and a thick folder full of useful data in her hands. Hanzou was very good at his job it seemed. And a great dinner company.

Still, the Music Hunter wasted no time dwelling about her dinner before sitting on the head of her bed, supporting her back on the headboard as she opened the folder to analyse the information it contained. She noted with satisfaction that all she had asked for and more was contained in those pages. It would be a night full of heavy reading.

But, for the Sonata of Darkness, she didn't mind it.

Three days later. General Hei Àn's countryside house.

"Miss Ongaku. General Hei Àn will receive you now."

From her place, kneeling on a large red cushion of the richly decorated guests' room, Senritsu raised her eyes to the soldier who had spoken to her. The man was tall, missing an arm, well-built, head shaved bald and, definitely, a Nen-user. Smiling innocently up at him, Senritsu stood and followed him as he led her through the wide and well-illuminated corridors of Hei Àn's country house, which, in all truth, was more like a castle.

The soldier led Senritsu through a maze of corridors before they finally arrived at Genral Hei Àn's study.

Unlike the guests' room, Hei Àn's study was nothing if not austere and pragmatic. Nothing there was without purpose; there were no paintings, no pictures, no decorative statues, no expensive rugs, not even paperweights. Everything there seemed to be of use: all of the bookshelves glued to the walls seemed to have been gone through in the last days, the writing table at the corner had its lamp on, and the two guests' armchairs sitting on the centre of the room were completely dust-free. And, of course, there was the late-generation laptop being used at that very moment, laying on top of a large desk, in front of which sat none other than the General himself.

General Hei Àn was a man well in his fifth decade of life, but his physique was nothing if not perfectly healthy, despite his alleged health problems (Hanzou had found no confirmation of the General's need of avoiding stress whatsoever). The man was of a medium height and his skin was still tight over his well-toned muscles. His face was hidden behind his laptop's monitor, but Senritsu could make out a square jaw and a head full of greying black hair.

"Miss Ongaku." Hei Àn said, not moving his eyes from his computer screen. "Please, do take a seat."

Senritsu quickly sat down on one of the armchairs, scared. Not because of the two Nen-users standing behind her, at each side of the door, not because of Hei Àn's imposing posture and not because of his emotionless voice. What scared – no, what terrified her was his heartbeat. It was calm, cold, unfeeling, calculative and, most of all, ready to kill. So much like Feitan's own heartbeat, but at the same time, so different. Senritsu had grown used to the torturer's almost physiological need to kill - a sadistic streak he simply couldn't deny - however, the General's readiness to take another's life was innerving her greatly. He was much too calm and collected and indifferent for someone ready to kill.

"I understand you came here as a Music Hunter, requesting to examine one of the antique instruments of my collection." Hei Àn spoke, typing something on his computer.

"Yes, sir." Senritsu responded softly. "It's my knowledge that you possess a dizi from the time of the Western Han Dynasty. One that no one, besides the archaeologist who discovered it and yourself, was able to examine."

Still with his eyes on his computer's screen, the General responded with a bored "I do".

"I've been traveling the world, conducting a research about wind instruments and their origins and your dizi is one of the few of that time. The other three I found in museums were in… less than adequate conditions."

"And you're hoping that mine will be in good enough conditions for you to examine."

"Yes, sir."

"And why should I allow you to touch my property, Miss?"

"I know you are a music enthusiast yourself, General Hei Àn, so, as a Music Hunter, I was hoping you would contribute to my research." Senristu explained, fighting to keep her voice from trembling at the sound of the man's heartbeat. "Also, I'm sure my old teacher, who is very interested in this research, would be very grateful to you."

"And who is your teacher?"

"Nocturnal."

Hei Àn's fingers stopped moving over his computer's keyboard as soon as the word left Senritsu's lips and, finally, the General closed his laptop and raised his eyes to her.

She wished he hadn't.

Hei Àn was a man that imposed fear and respect, not only because of his powerful posture and physique, but also because of his eyes. They were pitch black and seemed to suck all of the hope from anyone who looked into them; as if, as long as the people were in his presence, their destiny was in his hands. Those black orbs were the very materialization of his cruel heartbeat.

"Nocturnal, you say?" Hei Àn asked, stretching his right hand to the phone sitting on his desk. "I'm sure you won't mind me calling him to confirm this. Right, Miss Ongaku?"

"Be my guest."

"You are a fraud." Hei Àn accused immediately and Senritsu heard the bodyguards behind her take a step forward. "Nocturnal has been in Greed Island for the last couple of years. If you were his student, you would know that reaching him is impossible

It took Senritsu every ounce of willpower to keep her body from shaking as she responded softly to the man's words.

"Nocturnal returned from the game a week ago. He has even released some new musical pieces that he wrote over the years in Greed Island. One is receiving particular attention from the media; it's called A Requiem for the Wind. As one of his biggest fans, I thought you knew that, General. I apologize."

Hei Àn's heartbeat hardened at those words and his index finger descend on the phone's buttons at alarming speed.

"Hello, Mister Hei Àn." Nocturnal greeted through the phone, approaching its speaker to his deformed mouth. "I was expecting your call sooner."

"Nocturnal…" The respect was evident in the man's voice. "I did not know you had returned from the game."

"Understandable since I did not make such a big deal of my homecoming. Well, what can I help you with? Please, bear in mind that I returned from Greed Island barely a week ago and have plenty to do at the moment, so I will not be able to accommodate a private audience for you in my schedule so soon."

"Of course, I understand. This time I called you for another reason. There is a small woman here claiming to be one of your old students-"

"Are you talking about little Ongaku?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"She called me some days ago to ask me how was Greed Island and update me about her research about wind instruments. I was the one that told her about your spectacular dizi antique. I apologize if it was a bother for you, Mister Hei Àn; I just wanted to help her with the research."

"It is no bother at all, Nocturnal. I just wanted to confirm that she is, indeed, who she claims to be."

"She is."

"Thank you for your time. And… about that private performance-"

"I'll let you know as soon as I have the time, Mister Hei Àn. You have my word."

"Thank you very much."

"You are welcome."

Nocturnal sighed as he ended the call and put down his phone. Hei Àn was one of his biggest fans - if not the biggest – and had supported him from the very beginning of his career; be it with his influential name or with requests of private and very profitable performances from the musician. As a child and adolescent, Nocturnal had travelled many times to Cihan to play for the General.

However, in his early adult years, when Nocturnal got wind about the General's "hobbies", the man reduced his visits to Cihan as much as possible. The Music Hunter had wished to cut relations with the General completely, but did not have the courage to do so. Hei Àn's support was very important to his career, not to mention that…

"Please, sir! You can't stop coming here; the General will be furious if you do so! Please, I'm begging you! In the name of the entire household – no! In the name of all Cihan - don't stop pleasing the General!"

The Music Hunter shook his head, trying to erase the image of a young and skinny maid staring up at him with tearful eyes, terrified out of her wits as she begged him not to halt his private performances.

And so, Nocturnal continued performing to the infamous General, trying to ignore the rumours about the unfortunate souls locked inside his basement, being subject to the most diverse ways of torture and cruellest medical experiments. Only after his curse, Ging and Greed Island did the Music Hunter stop going there.

And, in the meantime, Hei Àn got his hands in one of the solos of the Sonata of Darkness.

Nocturnal was very surprised when Senritsu had called him the day before, telling him that she had found the harp solo of the Sonata of Darkness, but was even more so when she asked him to lie for her. The woman told him she wished to feign interested in one of the General's antiques to get in his house and try to steal said solo and asked to use his name as a reference. Apparently, an Information Hunter told her that Hei Àn was a big fan of his.

Nocturnal asked her to rethink her decision, told her about the rumours he heard, but could not dissuade her; she was going there, with or without his support. The most he could do to ensure her protection was to use his name to back her up.

And so he did.

Oh gods, let her walk out of there alive.

Civatan = Vatican

Cihan = China

Jingbei = Beijing

I hope you enjoyed this first chapter of To Retrieve Music. :D Please, review and let me know what you thought about it; hopefully, it wasn't too confusing. =.=

And sorry if Hanzo was too OOC; I literally have no pratice whatsoever writing his character.

Kisses,

RedVoid