Lihua Verdandi Loire

        Lihua was born to aristocratic parents who had married through family arrangement as a union of estates. When she was young, Lihua believed she lived the picture perfect storybook life- her father and mother were happy and they lived happy, perfect lives, loving each other every single day. That is, until Lihua accidentally discovered her father was having an affair behind her mother's back. Her father made her swear to keep his infidelity a secret, and Lihua did so without fully understanding what was going on, but her mother inevitably learned the truth. They immediately divorced, with Lihua's mother gaining custody of her.

        In the years that passed, Lihua's mother's mental health began to erode, particularly as Lihua grew older and matured into a beautiful woman. Lihua now lived alone with her mother, tending to her every needs and trying to placate the paranoia that had seized her mind, making her mother fearful of men to the point that she fearfully warned Lihua never to trust a man and no matter how loyal she would believe a man to be, he would inevitably leave her in the end. As an adult, Lihua decided to take the Hunter Exam, but her mother grew so possessive of her in her madness, she used her Nen to enchant a chain necklace that cursed Lihua's heart, rendering her unable to love, nor believe she was loved, by any man. Lihua herself wouldn't even know she was cursed.

        She would take the Hunter Exam regardless, unaware of the curse even long after her mother's death...

        In the years that followed her mother's death, Lihua had become a successful member of the Hunter Association and works as a Truth Hunter, using her cunning, wiles, and charisma to track down various truths for her clients. While the work is fulfilling and sees Lihua traveling all over the world, she developed a strict policy of adventuring on her own, as a good number of her clients couldn't handle the truth she discovered, either by willful ignorance or anger to not accept the information uncovered. For years, Lihua had managed to keep even the most desperate client from tagging along with her on jobs, that is, until she was contracted by Leorio Paradinight.

        Leorio, unlike Lihua's previous clients, wasn't content to leave well enough alone and stubbornly insisted he tag along with her in the search for the truth of a certain disease, namely if there was any treatment to it in the known world. Lihua, having a keen sense of insight from working with people as a Truth Hunter for so long, could tell this was a personal matter, which was even more reason for her not to let Leorio come with her, that would only lead to him getting in the way, blinded by his personal stakes.

        If only the younger man wasn't so damnably stubborn! It got to the point that Leorio outright stated that even if Lihua left him behind, he'd track her down regardless, and by that point, Lihua was so fed up with the time the argument had cost her, she let Leorio have his way. This made the initial start of her search wrought with irritability, as the two had already started things off roughly, and it didn't improve as the bits of conversation shared between them were barbed with tit-for-tat squabbles.

        It was a week into searching for the truth behind the illness, where after following a lead on medical information turned out to be a dead end, Leorio told Lihua specifically why he had hired Lihua. Just as she thought, Leorio had a personal stake in things, but what she hadn't expected was the amount of guilt eating at the younger man, the helplessness that he was fighting against to make changes in the world of medicine going forward. Hearing things from Leorio's true perspective is enough for Lihua to lower her guard and admit that his cause and heart is noble, which eases the tension between them slightly.

        However, it's not enough when another lead eludes them several days later and Lihua's frustration reaches a breaking point when she tells Leorio to let her do her work on her own, which ignites a heated argument between them. The two go their separate ways and days later, Lihua finally finds a solid lead on where to find the medical information at long last, and is able to get a copy of the text after sweet talking the man tasked with the care of a city's immense scholarly library.

        This just went to show how right Lihua was in her choice to work alone and free of her bothersome clients wasting her time, but no sooner had she left the city with that thought forming smugly in her head, Lihua was seized by bandits. They had no interest in anything she had on her person or the knowledge she had acquired, their plans for a woman like Lihua were much more sinister natured, and right when the leader claimed the right to have his fun first, a voice called out warning the bandits to let Lihua leave unharmed.

        To her surprise, relief, and immediate concern, it was Leorio, who had been following Lihua even after their argument, just keeping his distance by a day or two's travel behind where she was. However angry that made her, whatever arguments they had had in the past, Lihua wasn't going to let Leorio get himself killed and told him to listen to her for once and leave, but he still didn't heed her words and instead readied his knife- which he then threw with such speed and accuracy that it grazed Lihua's neck without cutting her, shattering her chain necklace on impact and lodging itself into the shoulder of the bandit leader, causing him to let go of her. A battle erupted around them, but with Lihua now able to use her Nen ability and working together with Leorio, the two were able to turn the fight in their favor, sending the bandits fleeing for their lives.

        When the dust settled, Lihua found herself completely overcome with a sudden rush of emotion and she flung her arms around Leorio with such unexpected force that the two fell to the ground together. Memories of her mother's Nen curse infused into the chain she wore returned to her, and when she asked how in the world Leorio knew to break the chain, he merely responded that in the time they had been traveling together, every time Lihua would respond negatively or rudely to him about something, she would fidget with the chain, idly wrapping it around her pointer finger- except for on the night when she complimented the nobility of his ideals. It wasn't his intention to break the chain when he rescued her from the bandits, but he had the feeling something was off about it from how Lihua's mood would differ when she fidgeted with it, and Lihua was finally able to recall the memories of her mother's curse now that it was broken.

        At that moment, Lihua also remembered the tome she had sweet talked the library curator into borrowing, the one containing the information on the disease that had killed Leorio's friend. She turned the book over to Leorio and stood to take her leave, believing he would want to experience the truth of the disease on his own, since it was a personal matter to him. Instead, Leorio reached up and took hold of Lihua's hand, asking her to stay with him, and so she sat beside him, much more closely than before, as the two read the truth the book contained.

        In the following months, Lihua and Leorio's relationship changes immensely. Now that Lihua could freely love as her heart desired, she saw no reason not to love the person who freed her in the first place, nor did she have any reason to hold her tongue expressing it- and often! Her feelings were accepted and returned by Leorio; he had already started caring for Lihua on the night she genuinely expressed that he was an admirable person for his dreams and goals. Seeing her now, free and affectionate and happy, just reinforced those feelings even more. Leorio even had her chain necklace repaired, which delighted Lihua- to her, the repaired chain now symbolized the strength of their love.

        Just before the events of the 287th Hunter Exam and knowing they'll be apart for a long period of time between the exam and Lihua's work, Leorio proposes to Lihua and she immediately accepts. Just before he boards the Kaijinmaru, Lihua gives him a long, loving kiss before confidently saying she believes in him and wishes him good luck with the Hunter Exam!

        Although Lihua's work as a Truth Hunter keeps her and Leorio separated for long periods of time, that just makes things all the sweeter whenever they're reunited. Lihua is nothing short of radiantly proud of Leorio's accomplishments and loves nothing more than settling in together with a bottle of red wine and Leorio retelling the (only slightly) epic and embellished tales of going through the Hunter Exams, returning to school to become a doctor, and catching Lihua up on what's going on in Yorknew City. While Lihua puts her own efforts toward finding the truth behind the actions of the Phantom Troupe, she also gets to know Gon, Killua, and Kurapika, and is pleased to know Leorio has a wonderful group of amusing friends to look out for him while she isn't around~