Shalkuro

Shalkuro is the slash ship between Shalnark Ryuseih and Chrollo Lucilfer from the Hunter x Hunter fandom.

Yorknew City Arc
The troupe are introduced in the Yorknew City arc by all of them gathering in the hideout, and even in his first appearance, Shalnark pays great attention to Chrollo. Once all the members arrive, Shalnark is the one to inform him about the fact, as well as be the one to ask him what their mission was.

While Chrollo is the leader of the troupe and has the first priority when it comes to orders, Shalnark shows to be a good manager or director figure as well when the real leader is off-screen. He helps the rest of the troupe members do what they need to do, and especially help carry out any missions that Chrollo commands. He shows this by how he encourages others to play cards, keeps an eye out for Uvo and telling him instructions on how to remove spotted leeches, and he even is the one to drive when they needed to tail Kurapika.

Chrollo and Shalnark also have similarities in the fact that they are both the only founding members that are Hunters, or at least implied to be. Chrollo seems to be more of a Hunter in name by how he never associates himself with actual Hunters and instead indulges in his own ability and title of Skill Hunter, but Shalnark is shown to be an actual Hunter by how he has access to the exclusive website to give information to Uvo, Chrollo, and by extension the rest of the troupe.

Due to Shalnark's help on uncovering much of the Nostrade family, Chrollo takes an interest in stealing Neon's ability. The 2011 adaptation has Shalnark help him especially in this endeavor, having him control the guard that Light Nostrade was talking to about the location of Neon.

A day after the requiem for Uvogin is performed, the troupe discuss Chrollo's fortune and the fortunes that he tells for the others after Nobunaga is frustrated over Kurapika. It is predicted in the fortunes that Shalnark, Shizuku, and Pakunoda are destined to die in the following week. To convince Nobunaga that chasing after the Chain Dude is not worth chasing after, Shalnark tells him that both of their abilities are easily replaceable while Shizuku's and Pakunoda's are rare. Chrollo reiterates this point to Nobunaga, but proclaims that Shalnark, Pakunoda, and Shizuku are all vitally important to the troupe. Later in the discussion, Chrollo questions Hisoka due to his relations to Kurapika to reach his own conclusions about the chain's properties. Shalnark goes off of his points to help the rest of the troupe understand more about the enemy's abilities as well as de-escalate growing tensions directed towards Hisoka in the moment. He makes sure everybody is on the same page and simplifies the decision of staying or leaving Yorknew for Chrollo to make, to which he chooses the former.

Chrollo chooses teams for each of the member to be on and stay with each other over the following week, with 3 members in each team. Initially, he chooses Shalnark as well as Nobunaga to be on his team, but he switches the teams later on by replacing Shalnark with Kortopi due to the latter's ability. Throughout the discussion, Shalnark is attentive to everything Chrollo says or does, responding to his questions with detailed answers, as well as when he is asked to check the Hunter website once again for more information on the Nostrade family, he responds with an "Aye-aye". Right afterwards when Shizuku questions why Neon was in Yorknew in the first place and Pakunoda says it was most likely for the auction, Chrollo reaches a new realization and freezes in thought. Shalnark seems to be the only one to notice this small change, and calls his name to see if he is alright to which he does not receive a direct reply on. When Chrollo explains his realization more thoroughly, Shalnark is quick to catch onto what he is talking about.

During the discussion, Chrollo uses Shalnark's nickname, Shal, the most as well. Another thing of note is that Shalnark acknowledges exactly how precious a manipulator's item is to them, being one himself. He remarks that they "Can never be without their weapon of choice."

Shalnark, Phinks, and Feitan arrive shortly after Chrollo is kidnapped, and Shalnark immediately resorts to devising a plan, saying that the other members have no time to argue. He starts to direct the troupe members on what to do until Phinks is called by Kurapika through Chrollo's cellphone and he orders them to give Pakunoda the phone. When the troupe get in a hassle about deciding whether to follow Pakunoda to the airport or not, he is on the side of following her, which aligns with what Chrollo was thinking of doing. When he is asked by Franklin what the worst case scenario is, he lists Chrollo being already dead as one of the factors, but is corrected by him and agrees with the fact that the spider dying is worse than anything he had listed.

Afterwards, Chrollo is restricted and cannot interact with any other troupe member whatsoever, with his only way to go being East due to his fortune. Shalnark is still with the rest of the troupe at the hideout, as they had not yet moved since the previous events. When Phinks and Feitan steal the game Greed Island, he takes a heavy interest in it for it's possible lucrative benefit and as well as the risk included.

Greed Island Arc
Shalnark starts to research Greed Island as much as he can, and he comes to the conclusion by use of Kortopi's and Shizuku's abilities and observations of the game itself that it is a place in real life, not an actual game. His plan is to find a way to use the spells outside of the game and exploit them for his and the troupe's own benefit, but his motivation changes once the troupe comes across a player named "Chrollo Lucilfer." He is seen to be laughing as he figures out the reason why, and he is the one to uncover the steps that Chrollo took exactly, only interpreting the name wrongly. Shalnark informs Shizuku, Franklin, and Phinks about Chrollo's message, and the messenger is revealed to be none other than Hisoka whose reward is a post-exorcism fight. The members are not so enthusiastic about that part, but Shalnark smiles determinedly at the fact that Chrollo will be back in only a matter of time.

Chimera Ant Arc
In the midst of the Chimera Ant Arc, a population of Chimera Ants under self-proclaimed Queen Zazan find their way into Meteor City, the home of the spider. Wanting to exterminate the bugs out of their city, Shalnark along with Phinks, Feitan, Shizuku, Bonolonov, and Kalluto decide to infiltrate the nest, with their incentive being that whoever defeats the queen earns the title of temporary leader. The other troupe members seem interested in this title, or at least competitive with each other when it comes to fighting the queen, but Shalnark does not show too much interest in that title from the start. They part their separate ways to individually try to find the queen, and Shalnark runs into a large beetle named Pell and attempts to control it, but is unsuccessful, and he ends up being restrained by the bug. It turns out that Pell was already being controlled by a manipulator ant, and Shalnark and the ant talk briefly about the fact that they are both manipulators. The ant explains that his mission is to take control of Shalnark to restrain him and have him serve the queen for the rest of his life. He compares this to how Shalnark had been serving a leader before, and Shalnark laughs and actually agrees with the sentiment.

He points out a difference, however, that being the person that he works for, that he would rather die than become a slave or a yes-man to somebody that he disliked. This implies several things about his relationship to Chrollo, as well as possibly being an indirect profession of loyalty to him.

Hisoka vs Chrollo
Ever since Greed Island, the plan was that Hisoka would help Chrollo find a Nen-exorcist and would be able to fight him at some point. It seems that they had agreed afterwards to fight each other in Heaven's Arena, but Chrollo would postpone the date of the battle to prepare himself for it with new abilities and strategies to combat Hisoka's own extremely adaptable gum.

Despite Shalnark saying himself in the Yorknew arc that manipulators should have their items at all times, as well as showing protectiveness over his phone, he allows Chrollo to borrow his ability for the fight against Hisoka, showing an enormous amount of trust.

In the fight, Chrollo introduces Shalnark's ability first, as well as using it for a finishing blow. While the regular antennae Shalnark used were two bat-winged antennae, befitting the bat cellphone, the antennae Chrollo used had instead bird wings.

When Chrollo tells Hisoka about the various abilities that he is using he tells him that the real enjoyment of being a Skill Hunter is adapting to the ability by honing it yourself and learning about the depths in the soul of the original owner. Abilities in themselves are mostly confidential. Even in the phantom troupe information on abilities can sometimes be personal. By borrowing Shalnark's ability, Chrollo must have grown even closer to him by learning about his ability and therefore learning more about Shalnark himself. Chrollo manages to kill Hisoka in the fight and ultimately win against him with the help of his abilities, including Shalnark and Kortopi's. Afterwards, he walks in the crowd outside of Heaven's arena on the phone with Shalnark. He informs Shalnark about the Kakin empires expedition to the Dark Continent with a smile. Shalnark understands the information and comments that they will have a nice trip on top of their mission to steal the treasure that the Kakin royal family would hold. Chrollo then asks Shalnark about his cellphone and if he should return it now that the fight was over. Strangely, Shalnark tells Chrollo that he can hold on to it because he has no intent to use it in the moment despite his attachment to the object. Chrollo agrees to give Shalnark his weapon back when they board the Black Whale which would depart the day after, and they end the call.

Chrollo could not have given Shalnark's phone back to him, however, because directly after Shalnark hangs up, he and Kortopi are brutally ambushed by Hisoka who revived himself using post-mortem Nen and had vowed to kill any of the spiders on sight. The attack had resulted in the death of both of them, with Kortopi's head resting in front of Shalnark's body propped onto a playground swing.

The Black Whale
In his next appearance, Chrollo seems to be completely devastated at these losses, and is described as looking like he is "about to kill someone." The description is not far off, and is quite exact, because Chrollo's sole motive on the Black Whale is revealed to be killing Hisoka. He orders the rest of the troupe to follow suit, but he is especially bent on killing Hisoka and decapitating him himself.

It is assumed that Chrollo is still in possession of Shalnark's phone, but after Shalnark's death, there has been no reference to or appearance of the item.

Founding
Chrollo's next and latest appearances would actually come in the form of a flashback to the troupes founding in Meteor City spread across three chapters. The time is set back to when Chrollo was 11 years old before the troupe's darkness was birthed. The flashback opens with Shalnark, Chrollo, and Franklin running alongside each other away from Uvo, as they had stolen a VHS tape from his mound. In the flashback, Shalnark and Chrollo seem to be already friends and appear to be around the same age.

Shalnark gets knocked down by a wooden plank thrown at his head after he had called Uvo dimwitted, but Franklin and Chrollo can't pay mind to him, as Chrollo runs with the tape and Franklin gets into a physical scrap with Uvogin.

Chrollo discovers that the recording on the tape was a popular children's show called the clean-up rangers (power cleaners) in another language. Chrollo uses his knowledge of the other language to translate a script into the language used in Meteor City and gets the help from Pakunoda and two of their other friends, Sheila and Sarasa to make a dub and present it to the other children of the city.

The day of the showing comes, and the cathedral is filled with children, including the younger founding members of the troupe. Once the video plays, Shalnark notices and recognizes Chrollo's and Pakunoda's voices in the characters, and Franklin comments that this must have been the project that they were hiding, re-establishing the fact that they were already friends beforehand.

The recording has a glitch, and the audio from it stops working which prompts Chrollo to dub the episode live on stage, voicing multiple different characters along with Pakunoda, Sarasa, and Sheila playing individual roles.

After the showing, Chrollo's closer friends all congratulate him and the other dubbers, as well as Shalnark who puts a hand on his shoulder as he tells him how amazing of a job he did on the dub. Chrollo sheepishly puts a hand behind his head in response and says that he couldn't have done it without Sarasa, Paku, or Sheila.

Uvogin, Machi, Phinks, and Feitan show up to get back at Chrollo due to him having stole the VHS tape as well as tricked Phinks and Feitan about the tape given to them. Sarasa solves the conflict, however, and the whole group gets along with each other for the first time, all of them claiming roles for the dubbing that they will do for later episodes of the power cleaners. The young group of friends then perform an episode together, practicing and making scripts.

One day, the group gets into a difficulty as they are lacking enough voices for the roles they need. Shalnark points out the fact, and suggests that they recruit more people to which the group agrees, then comes up with a name for themselves: The troupe.

Right afterwards, Chrollo is concerned about how Sarasa had suddenly left. Phinks tells him that she had sorting duty out in one of the dumps, and Chrollo frets even more because she went by herself. Shalnark reassures him that she should be okay due to her hamlet being close-by, and explains why she swapped out. However, Sarasa had a different plan in mind, and instead of sorting in the usual place, she starts going to another dump and puts herself in danger without telling the rest of the troupe.

Consequentially, Sarasa is missing at the next screening of the power cleaners which causes the rest of the members to become deeply concerned. Chrollo announces Sarasa's absence and cancels the screening, ending up crying on stage once the other children offer their support. The children of Meteor City and the troupe start a search for Sarasa, and Chrollo and the troupe eventually find her body in Uga forest.

The scene is dreary and tense with rain pouring down on the children as they gather around the small trash bag hanging from a tree containing Sarasa's remains. Chrollo, with the help of Uvo, gets down the bag and opens it, and as Chrollo huddles over Sarasa's body, Uvogin's expression is that of pure rage behind Chrollo. Shalnark notices the anger that he harbors seemingly towards Chrollo and cautiously says his name before he goes on to interrogate Chrollo about a note that was on the tree as well as on Sarasa's face. The situation escalates as Chrollo refuses to say it, and Uvo picks him up by the shirt, and shortly after throws him onto the ground relentlessly. Once he does this, Shalnark defensively shouts at him as he storms away, possibly trying to stand up for Chrollo. Afterwards, there is a scene of reconciliation for the children, as Sarasa was able to be embalmed and her body restored for a proper funeral. However, Chrollo and Uvogin are not content with the situation, with the former wanting to change Meteor City's status quo of being a people hunting ground, and the latter wanting revenge against Sarasa's killers. The two get in a discussion about how they should act, and Chrollo tries to convince Uvo to wait three years before making any moves, but his reasoning confuses Uvogin and he doesn't understand a word that he says, leaving Chrollo speechless. Shalnark steps up to help, however, and he explains Chrollo's plan in a way that Uvogin immediately understands. Chrollo looks relieved as well as contented at his sudden appearance and explanation, and just says his nickname, Shal, in response.

Shalnark continues on to offer his support, gathering the rest of the troupe minus Sheila as he adds on to what Chrollo was saying about his plan, establishing an understanding enough for Uvo to exchange a knowing look with Chrollo.

Fanon
Kuroshal is an uncommon or rare ship in cases, and being especially minor in the English-speaking fandom. It can often come as a surprise or something that people previously would not think of, but it can become well received. A reason for it's unpopularity can be because more popular ships, especially Uvoshal, tend to overshadow it, as well as how it is in canon: evidence present but inconspicuous.

Many Shalkuro fans enjoy the angst and sheer irony of Shalnark's death while Chrollo is still living, especially with how Chrollo supposedly still has his phone in his possession. A common trope is to put Chrollo in denial about this loss.

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