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      "body": "Congratulations @beestmode! You received a personal award!\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/70x70/https://steemitboard.com/@beestmode/birthday2.png</td><td>Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 2 years!</td></tr></table>\n\n<sub>_You can view [your badges on your Steem Board](https://steemitboard.com/@beestmode) and compare to others on the [Steem Ranking](https://steemitboard.com/ranking/index.php?name=beestmode)_</sub>\n\n\n###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) to get one more award and increased upvotes!",
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      "title": "A HunterXHunter Fanfic (Part XVI)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n[Part III](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii)\n[Part IV](https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv)\n[Part V](https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v)\n[Part VI](https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi)\n[Part VII](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vii)\n[Part VIII](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-viii)\n[Part IX](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ix)\n[Part X](https://steemit.com/life/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-x)\n[Part XI](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xi)\n[Part XII](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xii)\n[Part XIII](https://steemit.com/life/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xiii)\n[Part XIV](https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xiv)\n[Part XV](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xv)\n#### _September 7th, YorkNew City, 5:45PM_\n“Damn that Prize Hunter. He really didn't hold back,” said Killua bitterly. Gon's surprisingly solid plan to court multi-billionaire Battera had hit an unexpected snag, and its name was Prize Hunter Tsezgerra. “Gon, we definitely have to find a way to pass their screening in two days. What do you say to some more hardcore training?” He looked over to Gon as they walked into their new hideout's rear stairwell. Gon beamed, his arms lifting the two heavy bags full of the cold tea, water, and sports-drinks with 'electrolytes' that Leorio had requested for Kurapika as they began ascending the stairs. Their chosen rooms had wound up being on the third floor, at Killua's insistence. \n\t“Couldn't've said it any better myself!” Gon grinned, carefully avoiding a series of trip wires near the door to the third floor's main corridor. Leorio was waiting for them inside the door. \n\t“Thanks, Gon, Killua,” Leorio said good-naturedly, taking the heavy bags full of beverages from Gon. \n\t“Yeah, yeah, no worries,” Killua answered, eyeing Leorio. “So, have you learned Gyo yet?” Leorio blushed slightly and made a strange half-smile.\n\t“Uh, I'm just getting the hang of it now, I think,” Leorio mumbled. Killua tossed his bag of convenience-store candy and snacks on an empty media storage cabinet and grinned, unwrapping a lollipop with one hand.\n\t“Oh sure you are,” Killua snickered, his mischievous eyes lit with sarcasm. “It only took Gon and I two days, you know...”\n\t“How's Kurapika?” Gon asked, his voice full of sincerity. \n\t“Still sleeping,” said Leorio. “But his fever is much lower, I hope it'll break soon. He's resting a little better now.” He moved the drinks into a lined garbage can half-filled with fresh ice. Gon didn't seem entirely satisfied with the answer.\n\t“But...Now that we know the Spiders are still in YorkNew...” Gon trailed off, and tilted his head back, testing the air like a bloodhound. “Do you smell that?” he whispered, looking at the other two with an expression of the utmost concern. Killua thought for a moment that he was imagining it, but quickly realized that not only was the faint aroma coming from Kurapika's room perceptible, he recognized the scent immediately. Gon was already charging in the door as Killua's eyes widened, and Killua had no choice but to bolt after Gon - as usual. Leorio was hot on their heels as the three sprinted for Kurapika's sleeping quarters.\n\t“N-nijiiro!” Gon shouted, bursting in through the door with a mixture of dread and excitement at the prospect of facing off against her again. For the original founder and youngest member of the Gennei Ryodan was indeed lolling in the sunlight pouring in through the wide frame of the room's open window, smoking a cigarette, with one leg dangling casually into the room and the other bracing her inside the frame. Her black clothes and silver hair were more or less the same, but cleaned, pressed, and spit-polished they were, her figure was very out of place in the mostly barren, dingy, beige-plastered room. She might have been posing for an art magazine cover. Nijiiro looked at them slowly, all of her thoughts having been rudely interrupted.\n\t“Oh, it's the Puppy-dog,” she noted indolently, taking another drag of her cigarette. “Nice tux. How was the auction?...That bad, huh? I take it Battera turned you down? Hmm. Looks like we're all losers this round...” \n\t“M-miss Nijiiro, why are you here?” Gon stammered, his heart pounding. Leorio slowly and deliberately drew his knife, eyes focused intently on Nijiiro's face.\n\t“Because I like to plan ahead,” she answered vaguely, frowning at her cigarette. Killua thought, 'Maybe I don't know her that well, but...she seems very distracted.'\n\t“I don't care what you have planned, if you try to do anything to Kurapika, I'll-” Leorio bristled, a lot more threatening than Gon or Killua had ever seen him.\n\t “You'll kill me, Stewardess? Come over here and do it, then,” Nijiiro said calmly, closing her eyes and flicking her cigarette out of the window. She leaned her head back, as if to offer him her throat. “If you think you've got the grapes.” Leorio clutched the knife harder, and tried to imagine himself taking her offer. He couldn't. “Such a tease,” Nijiiro said silkily, and suddenly Leorio's knife was in her hand, and she was balancing it on its point on the tip of one gloved finger. She twirled the knife and lodged it in the window frame, sinking the long blade nearly halfway into the wood. “I'll continue to do as I please, then...” Nijiiro said softly, without a hint of satisfaction. She slid gracefully out of the window and moved toward Kurapika's sleeping form.\n\t“Not this time, Spider,” Killua snapped. He sprang forward, burying the claws of his right hand deep into Nijiiro's chest. He felt her heart quiver in his hand, her hot blood flowing down from his wrist to his elbow. He yanked his hand back as hard as he could, pulling the heart free of the rest of her body. Nijiiro smiled down at him. \n\t“This time, and every time hereafter, Kitty-cat,” she said, evaporating into smoke. \n\t“Killua, don't,” Leorio said gently. “The next person you attack might not be just a mirage.”\n\t“Learned that the hard way, didn't we, Stewardess?” Nijiiro cooed softly. She was, much to the horror of his friends, sitting at the head of the room's only bed with Kurapika's head resting in her lap. Kurapika grimaced in his sleep, and turned his head so that his cheek rested against the scaly green serpent tattoo that  coiled around Nijiiro's right thigh. Nijiiro used her teeth to pull her right glove from her hand, and brushed Kurapika's long golden bangs from his forehead. “This is all your fault. I said I wouldn't allow you to die, did I not?” Nijiiro said gently, addressing the sleeping Kurapika as if he were a child in need of a lecture. “Ah, but I suppose I owe you something of an apology, for when I said you weren't trying hard enough. It would be more accurate to say you weren't thinking hard enough. I didn't realize how severe a price you were willing to pay for those moments. And now you've gone and burned them away... How many days, weeks, perhaps even years...? A numinous payment of time itself, such an injury even I can't heal. I should have known you would need to resort to such drastic tactics to achieve those lofty abilities of yours, Golden Boy. 'Emperor Time' isn't just a grandiose title, after all.” Killua, Gon, and Leorio stood frozen as Nijiiro rambled on, eyes closed, her face as relaxed as one in the midst of thoughtful meditation. The Nen radiating from Nijiiro felt...soothing, to say the least. “But you've put me in such a bind, you see. I've lost that precious time, too. So I have done what you can't, Golden Boy; I made the necessary sacrifices, I've destroyed every obstacle that remains before me. Now we get to settle once and for all which is stronger, your chains or my silk threads. Welcome to hell, m'boy...” \n\t“You can't seriously expect him to hear any of that while he's unconscious,” Leorio pointed out derisively. “If you want to go on weird rants, why don't you wait until he wakes up and tell him all this?”\n\t“Because you're going to do it for me,” Nijiiro countered simply, replacing her glove. “And I haven't the time, anyway. Other appointments await.”\n\t“You betrayed the Spiders, and now you're wandering around YorkNew making house calls? Isn't that a little too bold, even for you?” Leorio said, frowning. Kurapika did look better, with more color in his ashen cheeks than before.\n\t“Prometheus heretofore went up to Heaven, and stole fire from thence. Have not I as much boldness as he?” Nijiiro whispered enigmatically. Louder, she said, “If you honestly think that my Spiders are currently a matter of any concern to me, then you haven't been paying attention.” \n\t“Even so,” Killua said, “You're sorely mistaken if you think we're just going to let you go on some weird diatribe and then waltz out of the front door without explaining anything.” He cracked his knuckles as he fully unsheathed all ten of his claws. Gon's aura began building as he spread his feet and lowered his center of gravity, ready for another round of fisticuffs, or whatever simpleminded boys his age found acceptable terms of diplomacy. Nijiiro was unimpressed. \n\t“You know, Kitty-cat...I wouldn't be much of a 'Phantom' if I required a door, would I?” she sighed, and her figure evaporated again, like an image reflected in a pool of water dashed by a disturbance on its surface. “But if you need an explanation,” she said gently, her lips brushing against Killua's ear and causing him to shiver and blush furiously. “Suffice it to say that, even at the risk of prolonging my suffering, I am ever a slave to hope.” She tousled Killua's hair.  \n\t“That doesn't tell me anything!” Killua yelled, swatting at Nijiiro's hand. Nijiiro laughed then, a sound of silver bells cascading down a crystal stairs, a sound full of mirth. Kurapika stirred in his sleep.\n\t“No, it doesn't,” Nijiiro smiled down at him. \n\t“Must be nice, being in a position to be talking down to people all the time for no particular reason,” Leorio huffed indignantly.\n\t“It's lonely at the top, Stewardess,” Nijiiro smirked, leaning back against Leorio's broad chest and tilting his face delicately with one gloved hand, “Pity me.” Leorio lunged forward to grab her, blushing beet red, but she dissolved into fog once again, laughing her tinkling laugh. 'Such adorable friends he has, with such a way of lightening the mood,' Nijiiro thought, 'it would be an absolute travesty to kill them.'\n\t“I know you're keeping Kurapika alive for some reason...But what about the rest of us? Why aren't you willing to fight us?” Gon said, looking around expectantly. The smell of Nijiiro's peculiar cigarette smoke was getting stronger, rather than waning as Gon had anticipated.\n\t“Because only what it is in our power to do, is in our power not to do, see? So while I could make a wish and snuff the three of you out like birthday candles, it is far more advantageous that I choose not to. And this makes the third time I've made such a choice. Remember that,” Nijiiro said softly, putting a pink lollipop to her dark lips. Saluting the three of them casually, she dropped backward out of the third-story window like a scuba diver out of a boat.\n\t“H-hey! That's my...!” Killua shouted, realizing that Nijiiro had quite literally stolen candy from his open mouth, much to his chagrin. He ran to the window and looked down, but there was no trace of her in the street below.  “Tch. What a weirdo!”  \n\t“If I didn't know better, Killua, I'd say she has a thing for you,” Leorio mumbled, blushing and looking away.\n\t“Huh?” Killua blinked. He wasn't quite sure he had heard correctly. In fact, it seemed to him that Nijiiro had picked on him the worst.\n\t“W-well...How should I say this, erm, where I'm from, that sort of thing is called an indirect kiss, only some one who really likes you would, y'know...” Leorio trailed off, his imagination full of every indirect kiss he'd ever witnessed, fictional or otherwise. \n\t“Whaaa-?” Killua said, taken aback by the concept and immediately wondering if it applied to things like drinking fountains and oral thermometers.\n\t“I don't think that's what she meant to do, Leorio,” Gon said, oddly confident in his assertion.\n\t“What are you talking about, Gon?” Leorio asked, and Killua knew exactly what Gon would say in response, albeit a second too late.\n\t“Well, she already stole his first kiss pretty directly, so I guess this time she just wanted his lollipop,” Gon snickered, as Killua ground his teeth and Leorio's jaw dropped open.\n\t“Gon, you traitorous little-” Killua said, moving to grab his best friend in a well-deserved headlock. Gon almost ducked it in time.\n\t“What is that?” Gon asked, looking at the windowsill. A black, lacquered cabinet less than an arm's length in height was sitting on the spot where Nijiiro had touched down before quitting the room. A cigarette, lit and smoking on its own in the late summer breeze, was tied into the center of a blood-red ribbon wrapped around the cabinet present-style.\n\t“It's probably better if we don't touch it, right?” Leorio said, eyeing the parcel. Kurapika's eyelids fluttered. He recalled seeing her smoking as they'd entered the room, and wondered whether Nijiiro had ever even been in the room with them at all.\n\t“Leorio...your cologne...too strong...” Kurapika half-murmured in his sleep. Killua covered his grin with the back of one clawed hand.\n\t“H-hey! Can't you tell the difference between good aftershave and tobacco?! Damn that Spider, smoking in other people's rooms however she pleases-” Leorio grumbled, observing Kurapika's sleeping form immediately become alert at the word spider. Kurapika sat bolt upright, eyes wide.\n\t“Leorio? What were you saying just-” Kurapika said softly, looking around until his eyes settled  on the object in the windowsill. The threadbare curtains fluttered in the gentle afternoon breeze, and the smoldering cigarette tied into the center of the blood-red ribbon burned down like a time-delayed punk, until... Kurapika's hands trembled slightly as the ribbon ignited, fizzing into tattered embers and releasing all four of the side panels of the lacquered cabinet. There, inside of the polished ebony, were the precious pair of Scarlet Eyes stolen for the second time by the Gennei Ryodan. A small piece of black card-stock fluttered from within the cabinet to the floor at Kurapika's feet, and he could see dainty script in silver ink on the side facing him. Sliding out of the sheets, Kurapika retrieved the note while his friends breathlessly awaited his response.\n\t“What...what does it say?” Gon asked, after Kurapika read the note silently and grimaced.\n\t“See for yourself,” Kurapika responded, holding the card out to Gon.\n\t“The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances,” Gon read aloud, one eyebrow raised quizzically. “What does that mean?”\n\t“It's a quote from the Grecian philosopher Aristotle,” Kurapika said, staring at the set of Scarlet Eyes in the windowsill. It seemed as though they were giving him a rather disappointed look.\n\t“Why is the Spider queen quoting Aristotle to you?” Leorio asked.\n\t“Because I quoted him first,” Kurapika said, sounding forlorn.\n\t“What does it mean, though?” Killua chimed in. “Could this be some kind of peace offering? Maybe she's...asking you to give up on revenge?”\n\t“I sincerely doubt that to be the case,” Kurapika sighed. Everything had become increasingly messy since the moment he'd set foot in YorkNew City, and something deep in his bones was now begging him to grab the Scarlet Eyes and run to take the next flight out, even as his three friends recounted to him everything that occurred up until the point he regained consciousness. “From everything she has said, it seems her interests have diverged significantly from those of the other Spiders. I think..she wants me to accept her help in recovering the Scarlet Eyes. Possibly in exchange for something else later on.”\n\t“Exchange? For what?” Killua said, perplexed.\n\t“That's the thing. I can't imagine what I could offer that person, that another couldn't, or that she couldn't get for herself,” Kurapika said, rubbing his eyes.\n\t“Human sacrifice?” Killua leered, a little too eagerly. Kurapika scowled.\n\t“What about this?” Gon said, turning the note card over, “'Well met, Golden Boy'?”\n\t“Oh, well... Nijiiro seems to have a habit of giving people nicknames, and that's the one she picked for Kurapika here,” Leorio explained, suddenly remembering that he'd probably received the worst nickname of the four of them and feeling gilted. “Maybe...because he's blonde?” he muttered to himself, not entirely sure where the nickname had originated. Nijiiro seemed to have had it loaded and chambered at or even before the moment she and Kurapika had first met.\n\t“But what does it mean?” Gon asked again. The three of them looked at Kurapika, who sat on the edge of the uneven mattress with his head bowed.\n\t“It's...my name. A play on words. My name means 'Child of Gold' ...in my native tongue,” Kurapika intoned bitterly. “...And...I'm the only one in this world who should know that.” He wanted to throw something. His fists were clamped to the edge of the bed tightly. 'Damn it all to hell..what kind of sick game have I been drawn into...how many more cards does that person still hold..how much more is there that I don't know..?' he thought bitterly.\n\t“Still,” Leorio said, interrupting Kurapika's brooding anguish, “even if the founder of the Gennei Ryodan isn't actively trying to kill you... Now that their Boss is also missing, the rest of them might still be looking for a way to take you out. Especially that woman named Pakunoda, if she gets her hands on any of us...”\n\t“About that, Leorio...” Gon said slowly, not sure how to phrase the news properly.\n\t“She's dead,” Killua said bluntly, “That's one thing we learned after running into the Spiders at the auction today. They said they found her corpse that night, apparently having mysteriously dropped dead of her own accord.” Kurapika's mind revisited the imaginary seawater that had nearly drowned him in the perfectly dry passenger cabin of his airship, and withheld a shiver. “They also claimed that they wouldn't be seeking revenge on Kurapika, because his Nen chains have the potential to become more powerful in the event of his death. They seemed pretty convinced of that, actually.”\n\t“Do you think that Nijiiro...could she really have...?” Leorio said haltingly. \n\t“Killed her own friends?” Kurapika said, lifting his head to stare at the opposing wall, a look of disgust adorning his otherwise delicate features. “Of course. And whatever she's sacrificing them for, whatever she wants from me, whatever schemes she has for the future...you can bet they're going to be just as heinous. This simply proves...that going back was never an option for me, anyway.” Kurapika stood. “And that, aside from gathering the eyes on my clan, eliminating her must be my first priority from now on.”",
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      "title": "A HunterXHunter Fanfic (Part XV)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n[Part III](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii)\n[Part IV](https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv)\n[Part V](https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v)\n[Part VI](https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi)\n[Part VII](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vii)\n[Part VIII](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-viii)\n[Part IX](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ix)\n[Part X](https://steemit.com/life/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-x)\n[Part XI](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xi)\n[Part XII](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xii)\n[Part XIII](https://steemit.com/life/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xiii)\n[Part XIV](https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xiv)\n#### _September 5th, YorkNew City, 12:01AM_\nHisoka and Chrollo stood outside of the airship in the bright September moonlight, facing one another exactly six meters apart, with a gorgeous view of the Gordeau Desert surrounding them as a light breeze whistled gently through the stones around them. Puffy clouds holding intermittent showers built and imploded in slow motion around them, sprinkled with moonrays. Hisoka couldn't asked for a more perfect date, as he removed his shirt and posed a little, peeling off the fake Gennei Ryodan tattoo he'd crafted with Deceitful Texture. \n\t“With this, it won't be considered an internal dispute, right? C'mon, let's go crazy!” Hisoka purred, stretching his long arms over his head and rolling his hips seductively. \n\t“...I see,” said Chrollo, unmoved by the display. “You're not a member, so we can talk freely...I'll be blunt, then. I can't fight you. Or rather, I'm not worth fighting right now. The enemy used his Nen chains on me, and right now, I can't use any Nen at all.”\n\t“Oh, don't be like that,” Hisoka pressed on, eyeing Chrollo's muscular build. “A little bluff isn't going to discourage me!” With his final syllable, Hisoka launched eight playing cards directly into Chrollo's vital spots, as the latter stood very still and eyed the attack with a level of detachment of which perhaps only Chrollo Lucilfer was capable. At the very last second, however, Hisoka activated his Bungee Gum, retracting the cards and allowing them to float away on the damp air. Chrollo gave him a look of mild pity. Hisoka's mouth twitched angrily as he realized Chrollo had, in fact, told him the truth for once. \n\t“Damn it all,” Hisoka muttered, boarding the airship in only ten quick strides of his long legs. Inside, he found Nijiiro standing at the window, chewing her lip as she stared out at Chrollo. Her eyes were damp, but her cheeks were dry.\n\t“You,” Hisoka snarled, looking at Nijiiro as if she'd slapped him. “This is all your fault, you conniving little-”\n\t“You got exactly what you asked for, Hisoka. Nothing less, and nothing more,” Nijiiro said curtly, turning to face him.\n\t“You promised me a fight!”\n\t“I promised you a win, my ataraxian beauty,” she countered, with a bittersweet smile. Hisoka was technically very good at thinking things through, but fortunately for Nijiiro, he only thought through all the wrong things in such a thorough manner. “I said, and I quote, 'You will never have a better chance at defeating him.' I daresay that was exactly what you received.”\n\t“You are a raging asshole, you know that, kid?” Hisoka grumbled, throwing himself into a bench seat in front of the airship's wide window. Two years of waiting gone right down the drain. He sent a text to Illumi, absolving the eldest Zoldyck son of any further impersonation duties. He'd actually sat and played the role of 'Hisoka' without springing his brother free of the Spiders' captivity instead. What a professional.\n\t“You have no idea,” Nijiiro said, sitting directly beside him. She leaned against Hisoka's brawny  bare shoulder, still at a loss to understand how the worst part of this evening was still to come. She was exhausted. \n\t“How was he?” Hisoka inquired mildly. To say the man didn't hold grudges was to say a sieve didn't hold water. It was his primary function, as far as Nijiiro was concerned.\n\t“Terrible. I think I'm in love,” Nijiiro replied, her expression as dark and bitter as her humor. Kurapika's acrid charms had thrown her off-kilter by a good bit more than she would like to admit. His aura, his eyes were...unbearably beautiful. Nijiiro had always despised the sight of Scarlet Eyes, and the horrid memories that came with them, but one glance at the real, live thing, and... She shook her head suddenly, like a dog shaking water from its ears.\n\t“Your promises aren't usually this disappointing,” noted Hisoka as he looked out over the desert view. The airship was going very fast.\n\t“If you'd really wanted a fight to the death, you've had the leverage to claim it since the morning of the first,” Nijiiro said gently. She reached into her pocket and withdrew a tiny bag of her favorite kind of snow, and an appropriately sized spoon with which to shovel it away. 'And miles to go before I sleep,' she thought, watching the fresh powder disappear like magic. Hisoka watched her, his brow knitted in concentration, in silence for nearly a minute before he finally realized what she'd meant. His head leaned back against the window glass with an audible thunk, and he made a pained expression at the ceiling. “See?” Nijiiro added, dabbing at her nose, “You've got no one to blame but yourself, and your horrendous short-term memory. It seems that in your endless quest for fighting, you've clearly taken one too many blows to the head.”\n\t“Speaking of,” said Hisoka, glancing at the empty bag in Nijiiro's hand, “...shouldn't you be sleeping now?” He looked at her face, complete with deep bluish hollows beneath her dazzling eyes.\n\t“Yes,” said Nijiiro wistfully, “but...”\n\t“Tch. More scheming to be done, is there?”\n\t“Always.” \n\t“I'm not going to-”\n\t“I don't want your help,” Nijiiro snapped. Hisoka blinked. For some one who had just done a dangerous amount of cocaine, she seemed very unsatisfied. \n\t“Then stop bleeding so much, and I won't be forced to help you, brat,” Hisoka said tartly. Nijiiro realized he could sense the severe injuries her use of Passion had racked up. Now that she'd deadened the pain, it was time to slap a little first aid over the deeper lacerations. They were, as expected, quite grisly, but all in places she could reach. She stripped off the necessary articles of clothing, and patched herself up gradually with the medical kit in the airship's first aid station, smoking a cigarette and humming the airs from Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre. Hisoka watched patiently, following her slender hands through all seventy-eight stitches and over ten meters of gauze. It was almost as fascinating as watching her make her injuries disappear with Serenity, yet far easier to follow with the naked eye. Well, easier for Hisoka, perhaps, since watching some one whip together seventy-eight stitches and cover them in under three minutes would be a dizzying affair for anyone else. Nijiiro finished by slapping a small adhesive bandage over a scratch that had appeared just behind her ear and looking at Hisoka expectantly.\n\t“Better?” she quizzed, her expression a tad lighter than before.\n\t“You're asking me?” Hisoka returned, tilting his head. 'Touché' thought Nijiiro. “By the way,” he went on, looking Nijiiro up and down closely, “In the real prophecy that I received, I wasn't supposed to fight Chrollo until Tuesday, and half of the Spiders would be dead by the time I left. It seems that things...deviated quite a bit, didn't they, Nijii-chan?”\n\t“How odd,” muttered Nijiiro. Deviated was an understatement. She threw her clothes back on hastily, and checked her phone. She had already bypassed the airship's speed-limiting safety protocol and put the cumbersome craft into overdrive, setting it on a custom trajectory to land on the top of Ringon airfield's parking garage. She almost felt sorry for whomever had rented the thing, since she was about to get them into a world of bureaucratic hullabaloo with the Air Transit Authority, but time was most definitely of the essence here. The airship touched down hard on its target just five minutes after it launched, and Nijiiro, now fully ecstatic with the chemical cocktail she'd applied to her brain, remembered her other phone, the important one, still buried in the seat cushions of Nostrade's white sedan. She located the car easily, but then thought, 'why stop there?' She had, after all, come here to steal a car. She supposed she might as well make a statement. \n\tThe archaic lock mechanisms on the swaggering classic car never stood a chance. She climbed into the driver's seat, still lightly scented with Leorio's cologne. He had surprisingly good taste in brands, for what he lacked in moderation. Nijiiro quickly disassembled the outside of the ignition lock cylinder and jammed a nail file deep into the part, turning it until the cable inside had sufficient tension, and then twisting hard a few times until the engine roared to life. What a throwback, this thing, so very like the ones she'd cut her teeth on in Meteor City. She drove through the barricade to the parking garage, the cocaine and her general sense of causality both agreeing that she wouldn't be facing any consequences for what she was about to do, and rammed the car over a curb into the easement field nearest the dock from which Kurapika's dirigibles had launched. She whipped the car to and fro across the field, the heavy sedan's wheels chewing deep ruts in the freshly moistened soil. By the time her message had been spelled out, she spotted the airship containing Kurapika and his associates closing in on a landing. She floored the accelerator, spinning out a considerable amount of dark mud before tearing across the field and hopping the curb again with such a celerity as to break some parts of the driver's side suspension clean off. The bruises on Nijiiro's ribs complained loudly. \n\t“Hush,” she told them sternly, wincing as she worked her way into late-night traffic. \n\t“I haven't said anything,” answered Hisoka, eyeing her with some concern from the passenger seat. Nijiiro realized with a start that she'd forgotten about him entirely. \n\t“Why didn't you get out at the airfield? You got your free taxi,” Nijiiro asked, as the sedan groaned and squealed loudly at her abuse. All of a sudden, she wanted to be rid of him. \n\t“Who could turn down a free hay ride like that?” he smiled. 'She's come quite unhinged, hasn't she?' he thought to himself. Fortunately for Hisoka, it wasn't his job to stop her from getting into trouble. He likely couldn't if he tried.\n\t“Tell Illumi he's got custody of you for the rest of the weekend,” Nijiiro announced, “I have other things to attend.”\n\t“Really? I'd like to attend them, too,” Hisoka said, smiling his wicked smile. And he did. If part of Nijiiro's schemes involved freeing Chrollo from Kurapika's Nen chains, he definitely wanted in.  Nijiiro slammed on the brakes, nearly causing a pile-up in the middle of five lanes of YorkNew's main westbound street.\n\t“Out,” she said, as horns around them blared and expletive-laden driving tips poured in from neighboring vehicles. \n\t“What?”\n\t“Out! Get out! Get the fuck out!”she shouted, at a bracing volume that shook the windows, as she gripped the steering wheel so hard it nearly cracked. She was glaring at him with a sudden, terrible rage that left Hisoka uncharacteristically speechless. Nijiiro was almost never angry. To see her like that, without any warning... Hisoka decided to make a tactical retreat. The last thing that he needed was a scarlet-eyed Nijiiro shredding her way through downtown YorkNew City like a rabid tiger, no matter how amusing such a bloodbath would be to witness. Even though he'd be the first one torn through. He sighed gallantly.\n\t“Some taxi you are,” he said, deeply disappointed. She was usually so tactful about tossing him aside, that oftentimes he didn't even realize it was happening. This was an odd day indeed. He disappeared across the roofs of the river of commuters.\n\tNijiiro breathed in deeply, surprised at how close she'd come to completely losing her temper with Hisoka. He hadn't known what he was saying, or rather, Nijiiro should have known he'd say it, and she did, but she was having a hard time...compartmentalizing...the way she usually did. She laid a hand over her heart, willing it to calm, and closing her eyes until she regained her focus. She opened her eyes to find a burly man with a naked pin-up girl tattooed on his forearm tapping on the window, ordering her out of her 'vee-hickle.' Nijiiro used her newfound calm to dig a standard mafia issue nine-millimeter out of the glove compartment and turn his head into a canoe at close range, right through the driver side window, before pulling off into the traffic relief lane despite a double-row of orange safety cones. 'Calm Nijiiro is the best Nijiiro' she thought, looking into the rearview mirror at her reflection. She ditched the car as it rolled off of an unfinished overpass, and watched it sink into a deep YorkNew relief canal until only the fake mafia plates and dying tail-lights were visible above the murky water. She ran the rest of the way back to the Spiders' hideout, approaching as stealthily as she could, and found all ten remaining members sitting patiently - either reading or frowning - by candlelight. Nijiiro steeled herself to her purpose, activating her Zetsu and creeping lightly into the rear of the building. Her goal was not in the main hall, but in the small vestibules near the back of the building being used to store the now divvied-up piles of the mafia's stolen treasure hoard. It was at that moment, that Pakunoda felt a creeping suspicion, a faint tickle, raise the hairs on the back of her neck. The ninth Spider of the Gennei Ryodan stood up. \n\t“What is it?” asked Shalnark, watching her carefully.\n\t“I'll be right back,” Pakunoda smiled reassuringly. Shal exchanged a look with Kortopi, who shrugged as Paku walked away into the half-collapsed hallway leading into the center of the building. Nijiiro fell into step behind her, matching the clicking of her stilettos to the dull clunking of Paku's square-toed pumps. \n\tPaku stopped in front of the cracked, sagging doors of the previously office-like rooms of the dilapidated passageway and glanced around, hearing and sensing nothing but the drizzling rain that still fell in light bursts over the sparse roof. One door in the hallway was ajar, and in the dull ambient light, Paku could see the outline of a large moldy desk sitting askance through the gap. Paku wheeled around, carefully studying the darkness of the hallway behind her, but the silent corridor offered no explanation for the unease that crept along her spine. As she turned forward, however, she drew a sharp breath. There, placed upon the desk, was a filigreed silver cigarette lighter, sitting open and lit. The lighter itself was not frightening, but Paku had gasped as she realized she recognized the object, and knew exactly to whom it belonged. Like a slow, cautious moth, Paku walked silently toward the lighter, careful to prop the door open behind herself. \n\t“Nijiiro...” Paku whispered, looking down at the yellow flame. She reached for the lighter hesitantly\n\t“Good evening,” Nijiiro said calmly from the doorway. Pakunoda made a startled sound and turned to see the founder of the Gennei Ryodan regarding her coolly, arms crossed loosely over her waist. Even in the insufficient light provided by the tiny flame of the lighter, Paku could see that Nijiiro looked atrocious. Deathly pale, with hollow, sunken eyes that were accentuated harshly by the melted lines of black mascara and eyeliner dripping down her cheeks, disheveled clothing that was smeared with filth, damp hair that was flecked with blood spatter and broken glass. “Ah, did I scare you, Paku?”\nPakunoda, familiar with Nijiiro's tendency to pull the odd prank, sighed with relief. She must have escaped, which meant...\n\t“Is Chrollo far behind you?” Paku asked gently. Of course Nijiiro would smile and say no, right? Maybe she'd even throw in some of her peevish humor.\n\t“Not far enough, Paku, not yet,” Nijiiro said, her eyes quixotic and a little mad, “but we're going to change that, here and now...”\n\t“Saisho, I can't follow what you're saying...Where's the Boss? When is he coming back?” Paku quizzed, not really seeing the humor in the founder's words. Was there ever a more inappropriate time for pranks and jokes, Paku wondered.\n\t“He won't be coming here,” Nijiiro returned, staring at the lighter on the desk for the space of a heartbeat before turning back to look deep into Paku's eyes.\n\t“Nijiiro, please explain yourself,” Paku said through gritted teeth. There was something wrong here. Was Nijiiro...being manipulated? It would be easy enough to determine if Paku simply asked using her Nen ability, Memory Bomb, but would it be worth breaking the taboo against touching the founder? Nijiiro stepped in closer to the Paku, the latter taking a surprised step away and backing into the desk. The lighter's flame, burning low and orange, shook slightly when Paku's thigh bumped into the mildewed wood. Paku stood in stunned paralysis as Nijiiro closed the distance between them and slid one gloved hand around Paku's slender waist, pulling the taller woman into a delicate embrace that resembled a half-hearted ballroom dancing form. Paku gasped a little, and Nijiiro watched the air rush through Paku's pink, lightly-parted lips and down her throat from close range. Nijiiro grasped even tighter and pressed her head against Pakunoda's largely bare chest, breathing in Paku's delicate perfume, a soft scent that was like a bowl of fresh petals in water. Nijiiro had left her no choice. \n\t“Nijiiro, what happened with you and Chrollo?” Paku asked, placing her hands on each on Nijiiro's shoulders. Nijiiro looked at Paku, her odd smile widening.\n\t“Oh, Paku, my sweet, sweet Pakunoda,” Nijiiro breathed. She used her free hand to tilt Paku's long, oval face to look directly at hers and watched the download of information cause spasms in Paku's shocked expression. And in that instant Paku understood what Nijiiro had done. All of it, her memories, her sins, her schemes, her crimes, her punishments, her motives, her suffering and her triumph. It was all so...twisted...Nijiiro was a monster, her insanity far beyond anything Paku had ever imagined, but Chrollo was...even worse? Pakunoda had found it at last, the awful secrets she was never meant to see behind the curtain. \n\t“Nijiiro...” Paku said, it a horrified whisper, “I didn't know, I didn't...what have you done?” Pakunoda shivered as the answer to her second question filled her head. She covered her mouth, eyes wide and moist with tears. It was too much to learn, far too much to reconcile all at once. She turned away from the Saisho's searing rainbow eyes and looked at the floor. “I'm sorry. I'm sorry for...everything, Nijiiro, I...Please...” Pakunoda trailed off. She didn't want to want to die yet.\n\t“It was you, Paku. Every time, every time I left, it was you, wasn't it? Your powers that captured me again,” Nijiiro spoke gently, brushing Paku's blonde bangs away from her face. Pakunoda whimpered. “You were the one, who tried to make me forget what happened...”\n\t“Please... Saisho...I didn't have a choice,” Paku begged, not sure it would change anything.\n\t“There is always a choice, you know that very well, Paku,” Nijiiro said slowly. “a choice between selfishness and abnegation, between freedom and thralldom, and you knew well enough, what the choices were. You always knew. I don't resent you, not even a little, yet you have chosen... poorly.”\n\t“Let me set things right, Nijiiro, please, I want to apologize properly, even if it takes me the rest of my life,” Paku offered desperately. What else did one do in the face of pure, unbridled madness like  Nijiiro's? How would she ever face Chrollo again, having seen the psychosis behind the Boss' perfect mask? What could anyone do, caught between the rage of the sky and that of the sea? Paku didn't know anymore. She just wanted to live.\n\t“It just might,” Nijiiro said. She lifted her gloved hand and looked into the palm, as if it held important answers. Nijiiro's watched the blood pulse through Paku's throat, noting the timing carefully. “I don't need you to apologize, Paku...” Nijiiro's free hand curled into a fist, the other resting lightly  on Paku's back. “...I need you to die.” Nijiiro struck exactly as Paku's heart contracted, her expertly-timed blow seizing the other Spider's heart with minimal effort. Paku clutched at her chest and looked at Nijiiro in utter disbelief, her mouth a perfect o of shock and horror. Nijiiro held Pakunoda as the latter slowly collapsed to the floor. The lighter ran out of fuel, and the room returned to darkness. \n\tIt wasn't until Nijiiro laid in her penthouse, looking at the hundreds of objects and furnishings she'd spent hours destroying in a blind rage from a spot on the marble floor, that a single tear made its way from her burning eyes to the cold stone.",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"art\",\"manga\",\"fanfic\",\"hunterxhunter\",\"anime\"],\"image\":[\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png\"],\"links\":[\"https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i\",\"https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii\",\"https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii\",\"https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv\",\"https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v\",\"https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi\",\"https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vii\",\"https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-viii\",\"https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ix\",\"https://steemit.com/life/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-x\",\"https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xi\",\"https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xii\",\"https://steemit.com/life/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xiii\",\"https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xiv\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}"
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  "timestamp": "2019-03-06T20:57:21",
  "op": [
    "comment",
    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "busy",
      "author": "beestmode",
      "permlink": "a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xiv",
      "title": "A HunterXHunter Fanfic (Part XIV)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n[Part III](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii)\n[Part IV](https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv)\n[Part V](https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v)\n[Part VI](https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi)\n[Part VII](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vii)\n[Part VIII](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-viii)\n[Part IX](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ix)\n[Part X](https://steemit.com/life/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-x)\n[Part XI](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xi)\n[Part XII](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xii)\n[Part XIII](https://steemit.com/life/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xiii)\n#### _September 4th, YorkNew City, 11:22PM_\n“Does he really expect us to accept those conditions?” Phinks grunted loudly, looking at Chrollo as the leader of the Gennei Ryodan leaned in the doorway of their base, teetering on the threshold  like an anxious vampire. Killua glanced from Phinks to Chrollo as the latter stared in their direction with the most neutral of expressions – as if he were sizing up a pair of marble statues being prepared for transport. “Boss...tell us where they are. We'll kill the kids, then we'll go deal with the chain-user. We've played into his hands far too long as it is.” Chrollo, appearing to make up his mind at once, stood up straight and walked toward Killua and Gon. \n\t“The two of you will be coming with me,” he announced, looking at the two boys and speaking in the most impersonal of tones, as if relocating a houseplant. Killua realized Chrollo's eyes were rolling over his and Gon's forms without looking into their eyes at all, as if their faces were not recognizably human. He wasn't even really speaking to them, anyway. \n\t“Like hell they will,” Phinks huffed, glaring at not Chrollo, but at Shal, Paku, and Kortopi, who had moved in closer.\n\t“Don't interfere,” Shalnark said tensely, wondering why it was Chrollo's two biggest admirers who insisted on getting in the Boss' way. \n\t“Interfere? Just who is interfering with our plans?” Feitan intoned, his usual malevolence intensified.\n\t“Boss...you have to tell us where he is. I can't let them leave unless you do,” Phinks said, looking at Chrollo. Chrollo didn't respond, but closed his eyes and sighed. There was no time for this.\n\t“You're insisting?” Paku asked, one eyebrow raised incredulously. \n\t“I am,” Phinks replied. The atmosphere was suddenly charged, like a room full of thunderclouds waiting to unleash a storm.\n\t“...Just go, Boss, we'll stop them,” Machi said reluctantly, placing herself between Phinks and the two boys nevertheless. She had been hoping Nijiiro had already bit it, but now it sounded like the Boss was under some conditional ability that compelled him to do this exchange at the risk of his own life. She'd protect him from the others before she'd let him die for some one like the Saisho.\n\t“Stop us?” Feitan hissed, “You're trying to insult us?”\n\t“This has to be part of the enemy's ability,” said Phinks, hurling the accusation as close to the Boss as he could without saying it directly. Now Machi was switching sides, too?\n\t“I bet these four were defeated before we arrived,” Feitan said, hurling the accusation wherever he damn well pleased. “They're probably under his control.”\n\t“What?!” Machi snapped. Their auras built until a fight seemed imminent. Not only a fight, but a brawl involving Feitan and Phinks, the strongest fighters the Ryodan had left, with Machi, Shalnark, Paku and Kortopi forming the opposing side.\n\t“Paku, at least, wouldn't be following the chain-user's orders unless she was being manipulated. Either you are all traitors, or you're being manipulated...either way...” Phinks trailed off, cracking his knuckles loudly.\n\t“Are you serious?!” Shalnark cried, not entirely sure he'd survive such a fight. He didn't see a way to mediate this one without Chrollo's input, but the chain-user had been clear about that. Was Chrollo being controlled? Possibly. But even if he were being controlled, he wasn't trying to kill anyone, or drag more members of the Ryodan over to the chain-user's trap. If he weren't, and the others tried to interfere before the Boss' objective was complete, they'd be killing both the Saisho and the Boss for nothing, without even discovering the chain-user's location. As a Manipulator, Shalnark knew that a Nen power that could infect and control other Nen users without the originator of the Nen curse present was a highly specialized type of curse, so specialized that it was very unlikely the same person could have any other abilities whatsoever,  whereas the chain-user had at least two others. Even Machi had a change of heart, and it seemed genuine. And Shal couldn't quite fathom what the Ryodan would look like with neither the Boss nor the Saisho calling the shots... What Shal couldn't find, however, were the words to convey all of this to Phinks and Feitan before they started killing him and the others. Fortunately for Shalnark, however, some one else had.\n\t“Is it really that hard to understand?!” Gon shouted angrily, apparently uncowed by the tense atmosphere. He broke loose of the steel cord that had been wrapped around his torso in a bid to keep him from escaping. “You really don't understand why your Boss wants to leave without a word? You don't understand why Machi is stopping you?! You honestly think they're being controlled?! They want to save your founder! Is it impossible for you to understand the desire to save people who are important to you?!” His brown eyes glared up at Phinks, whose mouth twitched with the indignity of being spoken down to by a kid who was easily a meter below him in height and two decades his junior.\n\t“Oh, cripes,” Killua muttered, ripping his own bonds off and crouching next to Gon as his friend rushed headlong into another unwinnable fight with the Gennei Ryodan. Given the circumstances, he had a good chance of getting them out of the hideout without either of them dying, providing he intervened in time. He quieted his mind and waited for that explosive moment, while also doing his best to remember that they had little real choice but to hope for a successful exchange.\n\t“Are you that desperate to be spared?” Feitan asked, in a bemused tone that never boded well for anyone.\n\t“I'm not saying this for my own sake! Take those words back!” Gon barked in response.\n\t“Shut up, kid! Don't assume you can whatever you want!” Phinks warned loudly, “If you move an inch, I'll stomp your sorry ass into the ground, you hear me?!”\n\t“Then I'm not moving one inch!” retorted Gon, a little too fiercely for some one who was agreeing to follow Phinks' orders. He stuck his tongue out and reminded everyone present that he was, in fact, a very naive thirteen-year old boy.\n\t“Tch!You're just a brat, what do you-” Phinks said dismissively, but stopped when he saw Chrollo's expression. He looked...bored. Phinks continued to stare as the leader of the Gennei Ryodan, who had yet to make eye contact with any of them, calmly checked his watch and frowned. 'Get the fuck on with it,' his body language seemed to say. Well, sort of. The Boss himself was too polite to curse.\n\t“Kurapika isn't like you!” Gon resumed emphatically. “No matter how much he hates some one, he wouldn't lose control and kill them! And if he makes a promise, he'll definitely keep it! Having met him in person, your Boss has realized that. If you follow his conditions, he'll definitely return your founder!”\n\t“That's enough, kid,” said Franklin, speaking for the first time. “You two...” he went on, looking at Phinks and Feitan, “just let them go.”\n\t“Now you're siding with them, too, huh?” Phinks said sourly. Franklin sighed.\n\t“Shal, what would our worst-case scenario be right now?” Franklin asked.\n\t“Uuh, let's see...” Shal began, grateful that he'd been given a chance to reason aloud, “The Saisho is already dead, the Boss is being controlled, the kids escape, and the chain-user manages to kill half of us before we can fight back or leave YorkNew City.” \n\t“Then you haven't thought this through,” Franklin's deep, steady voice rebutted. “The worst-case scenario is that all of us die, and the Spider perishes forever. Compared to that, your scenario would be pleasant. But if we keep bickering, that could well happen, and allowing the Spider to fall apart as a  result is the greatest betrayal you could make against Saisho, or the Boss, for that matter. So let them do as they wish. If the chain-user double crosses us, we kill the kids, the chain-user, and the members being controlled, and start to rebuild the Spider with whatever's left. It's that simple. You are all being too reliant on the Boss and the Saisho, and it's unseemly.” \n\tChrollo, having finally heard the words he needed to hear, turned and began walking toward the exit. Killua and Gon stood slowly, backing away from Phinks and Feitan before catching up to Chrollo, following the Gennei Ryodan leader at a healthy distance. He was walking very fast. 'He must be under a time restriction,' thought Killua, putting two and two together as they half-jogged in a bid to keep pace against Chrollo's long strides. He quietly thanked whatever dark gods granted luck to assassins like him that no one had bothered to bring up Nijiiro's antics from what felt like an eternity ago, though it had only been half a day. 'If we do make it through this...we should really avoid these guys from now on,' he thought. Kurapika probably couldn't be convinced to stop, but Gon's ego had no discretion when picking fights. Killua's thoughts were interrupted when Chrollo slowed came to an unexpected halt under a street light a few meters ahead. \n\t“Tell me something,” Chrollo said slowly, staring up at a large moth as it slammed its body against the street light's plastic housing repeatedly. He turned and looked at the two boys carefully as they waited for him to ask his question, or try to murder them, as both seemed equally likely. “...You must have realized by now...that your friend has bound me under his chains. Right now, I cannot use Nen at all. Why haven't the two of you tried to escape? Your friend would be have his chance to kill his hostage without worry. Are you not seeking to help him, even though you are his friends?” Gon and Killua looked at each other for a moment.\n\t“It's because we're his friends, that we don't want him to kill,” said Killua. Gon nodded.\n\t“So for his sake, we'd prefer to settle this with an exchange,” Gon added. Chrollo stared at them, seeming to mull it over for a minute or so. He looked around at the nearly empty street.\n\t“Then prove it,” he said finally, and took off running, the two boys struggling to keep up with him.  \n\tAfter running nearly twenty-five minutes at breakneck speed, Gon and Killua found themselves at Ringon airfield, wandering through the ultralight docks, at exactly seventeen minutes to midnight. Chrollo stopped at dock thirteen, waiting for them to board. As the doors to their ship's airlock opened, a familiar but not entirely welcome voice called out from the shadows of the aircraft's aft.\n\t“Yoo-hoo! Long time no see,” Hisoka called, smiling widely at Chrollo and the two hostages.\n\t“H-hisoka! What are you doing here?!” Gon shouted. Running away seemed like a much better option, now that it was too late. Hisoka pursed his lips and pulled out his cell phone.\n\tUp inside Kurapika's airship, Nijiiro took the call that came in on Kurapika's phone.\n\t“Hiya,” said Hisoka's voice pleasantly.\n\t“You're late, clown,” Nijiiro replied. Kurapika and his two companions were busy staring down at the tarmac, stunned at Hisoka's untimely presence, until Kurapika's eyes alighted on the cell phone in Nijiiro's hand. She was talking as if there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary going on around her. “Don't interfere with the exchange, it won't bring you the result you're after. Now get on the ship, before I change my mind, you flat-footed inbred.” Leorio cringed at the thought of calling Hisoka anything, but Nijiiro seemed oddly accustomed to verbally abusing the stuff of Leorio's nightmares.\n\t“This is why you have no friends,” Hisoka retorted, strolling into the waiting airship. He hung up the phone and took a seat just inside the door of the cabin. Gon and Killua wandered in next, eyeing Hisoka suspiciously. They took adjacent seats at the opposite end of the cabin. Chrollo strode in last, and didn't bother taking a seat, but stood in doorway to the cabin, watching both Hisoka and the two boys in unamused silence. The pair of airships and their mostly unhappy occupants took off on an automated trajectory toward the Gordeau Desert, and landed on opposite ends a rocky plateau about eleven minutes after takeoff. Leorio watched as Nijiiro tossed Kurapika's phone back to him and smiled briefly as their craft touched down. Kurapika steeled himself and exited the ship first, followed by Senritsu. \n\t“How did you...Kurapika's phone...” Leorio said, as he and Nijiiro crossed the gangway down onto the moonlit plateau.\n\t“Before you finish that question, Stewardess, ask yourself this: Do I really want to ask the founder of the Gennei Ryodan how she managed to steal a phone?” Nijiiro responded with a sideward glance at Leorio, who blushed furiously. Nijiiro's humor had evaporated as soon as the ship touched terra firma, and Senritsu could hear the fear – not anxiety, not tension, but cold, dreadful fear – in her chaotic heart as she looked out at the ship containing Chrollo and his hostages. \n\t“Don't get too cocky just because you're about to be released,” Kurapika said, somewhat relieved to be out in the cool night breeze, as his migraine began to threaten both his stomach and balance. If only the moon wasn't so damned bright, and the airship rotors so loud. He just had to keep it together for another five minutes or so. Once Gon and Killua were safe, he would allow himself to empty his guts in some cool, dark, blessed silence, but until then, by god, he'd hold himself upright.\n\t“Ah, but who's going to release you, Kurapika?” Nijiiro said softly, as if she knew every sound that Kurapika heard felt like a glass bottle being broken across his head. She did, in fact.\n\t“You're still the captive here, last I checked, even if I've allowed you to live for the sake of this exchange,” Kurapika said, his voice nearly cracking. His Scarlet Eyes were considerably duller than they had been when he'd tried to strangle Nijiiro to death earlier.\n\t“That's a brave stance, Golden Boy. But remember this: having felt the Spider's bite, one must dance the tarantella until the dance is done. Be it today, tomorrow, or ten years along, I alone will decide when you are no longer of use to me,” Nijiiro said, her voice very low. It was a pretty good parting shot, as such quips went, but Nijiiro knew it wouldn't save her from facing her own music. She strode forward to rejoin Chrollo on the other side of the plateau. Looking at his disappointed face from just a few dozen meters away, her legs weren't as steady as she'd hoped they would be.\n\t“Let the exchange begin!” Kurapika shouted, his own voice threatening to split his skull like an overripe watermelon. He narrowed his eyes, but the moonlight continued to pierce them as the silver designs on the back of Nijiiro's coat swam away through his blurry vision. \n\tNijiiro winked at Killua as they passed one another on their way to reunite with their respective parties. \n\t“Are they being manipulated?” Kurapika asked Senritsu, as Gon and Killua approached.\n\t“It's alright, they seem to be normal. Killua, at least,” Senritsu answered. Kurapika's blood pressure seemed awfully high. Gon high-fived Leorio's outstretched hand as soon as he could reach. Kurapika nodded at the two younger boys, but continued to watch Nijiiro carefully as did Senritsu.\n\t“Um...why are you holding a grenade?” Killua asked, looking at Leorio, who remembered that he was indeed still clutching the grenade the Nijiiro had laid in his lap. He quickly lobbed it over the edge of the plateau, a good bit farther than necessary. \n\t“It's a long story,” Leorio said, looking over to where Kurapika stood glaring at Nijiiro and Chrollo. The leader of the Gennei Ryodan and the founder of the Gennei Ryodan stood stock-still, facing one another silently in a wash of silver moonlight that caught only the whites of Chrollo's eyes without touching the rest of his shadowy figure, and turned Nijiiro's silver hair into an ever-shifting river of starlight.\n\t“I...I don't believe this,” breathed Senritsu. Her dull brown eyes were widened considerably, adding to the sentiment of awe.\n\t“What is it?” Gon asked, a little too loudly. Kurapika gritted his teeth, waiting for the Spiders to board their ship. He was in no shape to fight, and so the last thing he needed was for them to simply follow him back to the airfield and slaughter them all together.\n\t“They're...having a conversation...” Senritsu said. The wind had died down, and she could hear their fluctuating heartbeats, as they seemed to have a telepathic discussion using neither Nen nor gestures of any kind. “...a difficult one, at that.” Chrollo unzipped the collar of Nijiiro's jacket, touching her throat as the latter's heartbeat rose with unbridled guilt, but also...pleasure? Chrollo reached into his coat, and Nijiiro winced, closing her eyes and turning from her lover, seemingly resolved to take a fatal blow from his hand. Instead of killing her, however, Chrollo pressed Nijiiro's missing glove into her hand, and tilting her surprised face toward his, kissed her like he'd never kissed her before. Nijiiro melted into  his embrace, her knees nearly buckling under the sensation of his mouth pressed so adamantly against her own. He pulled away from her then, tracing the outline of her full lips with his thumb and drinking in the the agony that shone in her iridescent eyes. Senritsu alone could hear the screaming torture of Nijiiro's heart then, as Chrollo walked away from her to the edge of the precipice, facing the East and the coming dawn. It was the sound of one being disemboweled. A tear rolled down Senritsu's cheek, as she was not sure she'd ever heard such misery conveyed by a single heartbeat. \n\t“I'm...returning to the ship,” Senritsu said finally. She didn't want to hear any more. Leorio coughed loudly.\n\t“I...guess they are married, after all...” he muttered under his breath, blushing deeply. He hadn't seen anything terribly unusual about the display, save that it was a very usual expression between two very unusual people. Killua frowned. \n\t“Then...why is she so afraid of him?” Killua said slowly, not completely aware that he'd voiced it aloud. Senritsu paused, halfway to the gangway back into the ship she'd arrived in. \n\t“...Some things aren't worth pondering too carefully, Killua-kun,” she said, and scuttled into the belly of the airship. Killua continued to see Chrollo, framed in yellow lamplight as he crushed Nijiiro's proffered hand.\n\t“C'mon, Gon,” he said. He and Gon scurried into the airship.\n\t“Hey...Kurapika...” Leorio said softly, looking at his friend as they stood staring at the reunited Spiders. Hisoka was speaking to Chrollo gleefully, and...taking off his shirt for some reason. It was clearly time to go.\n\t“...Yeah,” Kurapika said simply. He walked as steadfastly as he possibly could, his knees still shaking a little as he made his way back into the airship. He felt awful, his eyes and his stomach struggling to come to terms as to where the horizon really was. 'I...did it...' he thought, looking at Gon and Killua talking animatedly as he walked into the cabin, and he smiled in spite of himself. He could almost ignore the artificial lighting exploding across his vision like a flail capped in live firecrackers. \n\t“Kurapika!” Gon cried out, making his way across the cabin to congratulate his friend.\n\t“I'm sorry...” Kurapika said, breathing heavily, “for putting you in danger...” \n\t“Nah...You used their chains on them, right?” Gon said brightly. “They won't be breaking out of those any time soon!” Kurapika's eyes widened, his mind remembering the events of the evening in a dizzy, jumbled rush. He saw Nijiiro shattering his chains, leering like a maniac as she did. Kurapika swayed, and then found himself on all fours on the floor of the airship. He vomited, the effort of it bringing white-hot stars into his eyes and the deafening roar of blood rushing into his ears. Coughing, he brought his sleeve to wipe his mouth. His head, his guts...no, everything, hurt. \n\t“The tarantella, huh?” he whispered, as the vomit on the floor in front of him turned into an abstract, impressionist painting in a frame of creeping blackness. Leorio caught him as he collapsed.\n\t“Kurapika?! Hey, hey, Kurapika!” Leorio shouted, as all four associates gathered around the unconscious Kurapika. Leorio held the back of his hand to Kurapika's forehead, confirming what he could already feel through the Kurta's linen undershirt. “He's burning up! You two! Get me some water from the fridge!” Leorio yelled loudly at Gon and Killua, who dashed away to the beverage stand immediately. He picked up Kurapika as gently as he could, and laid him out over a bench seat on the starboard side of the cabin.\n\t“Wh-what's wrong with him?!” Killua said, more than a little jarred by the sudden collapse of his friend.\n\t“I...I'm not sure,” Leorio said. “It could be adrenal exhaustion, but, it could also be something to do with his Nen powers. We'll have to keep a close eye on him.” Leorio laid a cold washcloth on Kurapika's forehead, watching his labored breathing and wishing desperately that there was something,  anything else he could do. He sat down with Killua and Gon, explaining that they hadn't actually “won” at all, conveying the events that had unfolded during Nijiiro's capture as best he could. He did leave out his colorful new nickname, but more or less explained everything as it had happened in Gon and Killua's absence.\n\t“But...The other Spiders are definitely going to come looking for Kurapika when their Saisho and their Boss both fail to return, right?” Killua asked, his face extremely concerned. Had he always been this fond of Kurapika?\n\t“That's almost certain,” Leorio said sincerely. “I think it's best if we lay low for a bit. The problem is what we'll do if he doesn't recover. The Spiders definitely have access to the Hunter website, from the sound of it. If we take him to any of the national hospitals around here, he'll be discovered instantly.”\n\t“What about the founder?” Gon said.\n\t“What do you mean?” Leorio asked, surprised that Gon had kept up completely with the story so far.\n\t“Well...it sounds like she wants his help with something, right? Wouldn't she be willing to keep him alive, at least for now?” Gon went on, tilting his head slightly as he worked out the details in his head. Nijiiro did carry magical lollipops, as far as he was concerned.\n\t“That...may be true,” answered Leorio, inwardly shuddering at the prospect of actually seeking out assistance from the rainbow-eyed psychopath, “but just because she hints that she has a use for him, doesn't necessarily mean she'll keep him alive. And, to be honest, she doesn't strike me as the type to do something like that *gratis*. We might be worse off asking her for help than if we just bring him to a hospital, risks be damned. Whatever she has in store for Kurapika, it's a lot more unsavory than minds like ours could imagine, I'll guarantee you that much. We don't even know where she is right now, for that matter.” \n\t“Um, gentlemen...? You might want to come see this,” Senritsu said, looking out of the airship window and speaking  for the first time since she'd boarded the ship. On the airfield below, a white luxury sedan was turning doughnuts in the damp grass, spelling out a half-finished message in the muddy earth torn by the wheels. \n\t“Stay...tuned...” Gon read aloud, watching the car make its final loop before darting off into the night, flecked with black mud. “That's a weird message.”\n\t“That's an awfully good driver,” Killua said, sounding impressed.\n\t“That's our fucking car!” Leorio howled, watching their ride disappear into YorkNew's night traffic helplessly. “Damn that thieving woman! I don't care how hot she is! I swear I'm going to kick her teeth in one of these days! I-” he stopped abruptly as Kurapika groaned in his sleep, shifting around under the airship's courtesy blanket with a pained expression. “Shit,” Leorio whispered, and walked gingerly over to where Kurapika lay, kneeling beside him to change the washcloth on his forehead.\n\t“Geez,” Killua said, watching the drama unfold. “What a mess...”\n\t“Still...She didn't seem like such a terrible person when she was with us, right?” Gon said uncertainly, looking over to Killua for supplication. Killua wasn't entirely ready to side with such a statement. Publicly, at least. Gon smiled a little, remembering the rather informative afternoon.“Even though she is a thief who managed to steal Killua's first k-” Gon broke off as Killua clamped a razor-clawed hand over his friend's face, silencing him instantly.\n\t“Killua's first...what?” Leorio stage-whispered from across the cabin, rather confused.\n\t“Hahaha, nothing, complete inside joke, you wouldn't understand, ahahaha,” Killua said, laughing nervously and a little too much as Gon tapped out against his arm, desperate for air. He retracted his claws and glared at Gon, who looked at the ceiling guiltily. \n\t“There's a private cab company operating in YorkNew we can call,” Senritsu offered,. “As long as the client has a Hunter license, they're very discreet.”\n\t“We'll use mine,” Leorio asserted. “I'm not connected to any mafia, and I haven't really used it for anything else until now, but to pay tuition at my cram school.”\n\t“If we're laying low,” Killua said, continuing the train of thought, “we might be able to find another abandoned housing section north of YorkNew's old downtown district. I've been there a few times, for...work. It's pretty seedy, but there are always a lot of people from all kinds of society coming and going from there, so we should be able to hole up there for a while without anyone noticing.”\n\t“Even the Spiders?” Gon said. It sounded like exactly the kind of place they would be.\n\t“It's not like we have much of a choice, Gon,” Leorio said, looking at Kurapika with a worried expression. “Kurapika's got himself in pretty tough spot. And I have the feeling...this whole thing...is very, very far from over...”",
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      "body": "<center>\n<p>Hi @beestmode!</p> \n<p>I am a curator for AkibaSteem and this is just to let you know that I upvoted your post:</p>\n<div class=\"text-justify\">\n<blockquote>We're an anime-focused community full of fans and good people!\nWe aim to find good anime & manga content, share a happy moment & give some visibility. Keep up the great work!</blockquote>\n</div>\n<p><b>Also, feel free to join our community on Discord!\n</b></p>\n<p><a href=\"https://discord.gg/7JQruwm%22%3E<img src=\"https://i.imgur.com/9z0Lrzv.png\" /></a></p>\n<a href=\"https://discord.gg/7JQruwm%22%3Ehttps://discord.gg/7JQruwm</a>\n</center>",
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      "parent_permlink": "life",
      "author": "beestmode",
      "permlink": "a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xiii",
      "title": "A HunterXHunter Fanfic (Part XIII)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n[Part III](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii)\n[Part IV](https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv)\n[Part V](https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v)\n[Part VI](https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi)\n[Part VII](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vii)\n[Part VIII](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-viii)\n[Part IX](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ix)\n[Part X](https://steemit.com/life/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-x)\n[Part XI](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xi)\n[Part XII](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xii)\n#### _September 4th, YorkNew City, 10:48PM_\nKurapika watched in slow-motion horror as the Nen chains he had cultivated specifically to keep the Spiders' mysterious powers in check crumbled away from the founder of the Gennei Ryodan, and her aura returned with a vengeance. Unlike the cold dread of Chrollo's aura, Nijiiro's Ren was a white-hot shower of sparks that hummed and shimmered erratically with powerful, high-frequency radiance. Being near her unleashed aura was like standing in front of high-power stadium lighting from mere centimeters away, and Kurapika reacted instinctively, reaching for his switchblade and swinging it in a graceful upward stroke that slashed at Nijiiro's eyes. Nijiiro ducked beneath the blade, activating Passion before Kurapika could follow up the first attack. Suddenly, as suddenly is it had come on, Nijiiro's Ren disappeared and was replaced with an vacuous absence of any presence whatsoever.  Kurapika wheeled around, ready to parry the blow that must be coming as his captive-turned-combatant dissolved into a mirage before his very eyes. Nijiiro withdrew Senritsu's flute from its owner's pocket, settled into the nearest first-class airship lounge seat and began the show. Kurapika's eyes swept the entire cabin, unable to see her for the span of a heartbeat, before she appeared to saunter in from the airlock's exterior door, out of thin air and into the airlock.\n\t“Temper, temper,” illusion-Nijiiro tutted, her eyes full of condescension.\n\t“Leorio! Stay in the cabin!” Kurapika shouted. Leorio, of course, acted in instinct as well, loping into the airlock with his trademark awkward, long-legged gait, his eyes wide.\n\t“Idiot!” Kurapika snapped, “Now I can't use you for reference!” 'Of course,' thought Nijiiro. 'He thinks it's only his eyes that are being influenced. Too bad, Kurta. All seven of your senses are mine, and those of your friends, too. You are a mere trio - I can play three people like marionettes, in this confined vehicle. This 'space' now belongs completely to me and my Passion. If I really wanted to, I could envelop this entire ship in my aura, and every sentient thing inside could experience a separate illusion of my choosing. But even this much is enough to control you and your goons completely. Perhaps you can appreciate being locked in an inescapable cage of a very different sort.'\n\t“I-sorry, I just heard-” Leorio, looking at a leering illusion-Nijiiro with abject horror as he realized her bonds were missing, and their wild wolf was now loose inside the pasture.\n\t“Stay vigilant! There's no telling where she really is!” Kurapika yelled, unaware that Nijiiro had absolute discretion over what either of them could see, feel or hear inside her illusion. There was simply no point in muting advice that wouldn't do either of them a scrap of good. Leorio stood with his back to Kurapika, keeping a keen lookout for any sign of Nijiiro in what was, ironically, a direct line of sight to where Nijiiro sat staring at the three of them through the open doorway. Kurapika and Senritsu activated Gyo, exerting themselves to see or hear anything that would give away Nijiiro's true location. \n\t“I would save my energy, if I were you,” Nijiiro called, the words appearing to come from illusion-Nijiiro as she strolled through the airlock and toward the cabin. Senritsu's head snapped to where Nijiiro made her think that Nijiiro was really standing. 'So even the little gremlin's preternatural hearing can't trump the total sensory overtake of Passion, huh? That's good to know,' Nijiiro thought. Her strategy for any future encounters with Senritsu would benefit immensely from the information. Senritsu, for her part, felt as though cotton ear muffs the size of dinner plates had been applied to her head, and the distress as she strained for her usual level of auditory input was clearly evident on her mousy face.  \n\t“This- this is her power?!” Senritsu yelped hysterically. Gyo wasn't helping her at all, which meant... “This is a spacial phenomenon!” Kurapika and Leorio didn't seem to hear her. She groped for her flute, and found it missing. Had Nijiiro taken it...? She hadn't heard a thing. Illusion-Nijiiro wandered closer to them, and Kurapika tightened his grip on his switchblade.\n\t“You won't be needing that,” Illusion-Nijiiro cooed, and the handle of Kurapika's knife was suddenly searing hot, causing Kurapika to drop it on reflex. The knife disappeared before it hit the floorboards. Kurapika glowered in frustration and lunged at Illusion-Nijiiro, who also vanished like smoke, reappearing instantly in the doorway to the cabin. \n\t“You're at a serious disadvantage, Golden Boy,” Nijiiro said softly, sitting in her lounge chair. Kurapika felt the words as if they'd been spoken into his ear from millimeters away, her breath rolling down his neck, “Don't go flailing about, you might hit something fragile.” Kurapika threw a backhanded swing at the source of the noise, and found nothing but air.\n\t“The only thing I'm going to hit is you, damn it!” Kurapika shouted back. He tried to calm himself, thinking, 'If I don't get agitated, I'll be able to spot the flaws in the illusion...No illusion is truly perfect, if I analyze it well...' He was very wrong about that. Nijiiro returned the sensation of Kurapika's heavy left hook to him then, and he reeled back even without the force of a punch to propel him. \n\t“Kurapika!” Leorio shouted. Nijiiro chuckled.\n\t“Sure, sure, but, where are you aiming?” Illusion-Nijiiro smirked, appearing just behind Kurapika where Leorio had been standing a moment before. Leorio appeared on the floor, unconscious. Kurapika launched a kick that hit the still-conscious Leorio squarely in the back of the head, causing the latter to see more than a few stars and howl in pain, before turning back to see Kurapika glaring at him intently.\n\t“Kurapika! What the hell?!” Leorio yelled, and Kurapika seemed to surprised to see him clutching his head and grimacing in pain. \n\t“Come now, your analytical skills are much better than that,” said a sing-song Illusion-Nijiiro, leaning casually on the wall of the airlock. “Or maybe you need to see it from a fresh angle?” She was toying with them, the way a cat would paw at some unfortunate creature it wasn't ready to eat yet. She could've killed all three of them with ease, but that was not the point of this exercise. She needed to prove just how easily she could turn their entire world upside down. Which she did, by turning their entire world upside down. Illusion-Nijiiro's eyes stared up at them, as they looked down at her from the ceiling, and all three of the Hunters experienced crashing back down to the floor cartoon-style in the ever-intensifying illusion. They had moved into the cabin of the aircraft, with the door to the airlock showing a red lock icon. Kurapika was the first to stagger to his feet, activating Zetsu in his desperation to regain his senses. Nijiiro smiled, her face full of pity. Zetsu was good for sensing one's surroundings without any Nen being thrown around, but inside of Nijiiro's radius, Kurapika had dived headfirst out of the frying pan and into her fire. Of course, in order to crush a fighting spirit, one needed to crush her opponent's sense of hope - and this was the perfect opportunity to hand him a little. “Why don't we have a bet?” Illusion-Nijiiro suggested smugly. “If any of you can land a single blow on me in the next thirty seconds, I'll tell you the names and weaknesses of every Spider involved in the Kurta massacre. If not... You'll have to answer my questions instead. Agreed?” The real Nijiiro strolled to the doorway, twirling Senritsu's flute like a baton. \n\t“I'll be wiping that shit-eating grin off your face, you weirdo!” Leorio yelled, looking up at the Illusion-Nijiiro that sashayed  along the ceiling. \n\t“I'm going break this illusion and make you regret those words,” Kurapika said, though admittedly he was not sure how to that. 'If she offered that bet, it means, for one reason or another, that I can't win. The secret to her power lies in understanding why I can't win, right? It would be dangerous to accept any offer she makes without knowing what she did to escape not one, but both of my Nen abilities...' Kurapika rationalized carefully, before Leorio said:\n\t“You're on, Spider! And I'm kicking your ass first!” \n\tIllusion-Nijiiro melted into a plume of bluish smoke and dissipated, swirling into the air around them forebodingly. The real Nijiiro appeared in the doorway before them, clutching a certain, very important flute. Her violet eyes burned bright with wicked glee.\n\t“Your time starts now,” Nijiiro grinned, slamming the flute into the floor hard enough to shatter it into a dozen pieces. Senritsu's eyes widened with fear. \n\t“We're screwed,” she said, uncharacteristically blunt with her words. \n\t“What do you mean?” Kurapika asked, not quite trusting that it was even Senritsu who spoke. \n\t“Her ability is a field phenomenon, like mine...” Senritsu answered, trailing off as Kurapika realized the implication. They couldn't get out of the ship while it was in flight, which meant...the only way to counter her ability was to control the 'space' Nijiiro's ability had usurped was to take it over with another Nen ability. In other words...only another, more powerful field phenomenon could defeat a field phenomenon. In destroying Senritsu's flute...Nijiiro had intentionally demonstrated that they were out of options. But a technique this powerful had to have limitations, didn't it? Why had she only offered them thirty seconds? Kurapika knew he didn't have enough information. But what he needed to know might be offered up voluntarily by his enemy, since she had no intention of killing him yet. He looked at Leorio and Senritsu, and his mind slid to Gon and Killua, still captive of the Spiders at their hideout. He wondered whether Nijiiro had somehow told Chrollo how to slip his Judgement Chain in a similar fashion. In fact... Kurapika's horror grew as he realized he had no conclusive proof of how or when Nijiiro's illusion had actually begun. \n\tNijiiro marked the helplessness building in Kurapika's eyes, licking her lips. It was time for the finale.\n\t“Even if you can play this moronic game of hide-and-seek with your ability, it's not much of a threat if you can't actually attack,” Kurapika said, knowing that she'd likely either correct him or reveal herself by attacking, both of which were beneficial to him in one way or another. As it turned out, Nijiiro knew that, too.\n\t“For a smart boy, you say some very foolish things,” Nijiiro laughed, with a beatific smile that didn't suit her one bit. Freezing cold water burst into the windows, rushing in with such force that the three-meter cabin ceilings would be overtaken in less than a minute. 'I don't need to reveal my true form in order to kill you, moron,' Nijiiro mused, while also reminding herself that killing him would be a huge mistake, whether or not it offered a momentary satisfaction. The truth was, she could carve him up like a roast hen and make it feel like butterfly kisses, or tickle him with a feather and make it feel like near-lethal electrotorture - there were no arbitrary limits on the power of Passion. Nijiiro stood in the knee-deep deluge and calmly lit a cigarette. It would be fun to watch them struggle with the 'reality' of the illusion, as were, the way so many overconfident combatants had before them.\n\t“Tch. You should have kept the ridiculousness to a minimum, Spider. An illusion that can't even suspend one's disbelief can't kill-” Kurapika stopped as the water reached his chest. It was so cold. He knew he could breathe it, since the 'water' didn't exist where he stood, but was instead filled with perfectly breathable air. So if he didn't doubt himself, he could... The thoughts ceased as the water closed over head and he attempted to keep breathing normally, only to discover that what began to fill his lungs felt very much like frigid seawater. He closed his mouth, instinctively holding on to what little air he had even as the salt burned his lungs. Kurapika realized that while his conscious mind might not believe the illusion, the rest of his nervous system did. Leorio was holding tightly to the handle of an overhead luggage compartment, while Senritsu swam over to the door to the airlock, attempting to open it repeatedly. The water filled the cabin, floor to ceiling, and through the mirage Kurapika watched Nijiiro sit on a lounge seat, one of four grouped around a tiny coffee table, and take a deep drag of her lit cigarette. The end burned a harsh orange against the refracted bluish light bouncing off of the cabin walls, and she exhaled a line of dense smoke that drifted straight through the water without a single bubble. Kurapika felt his head become light, his lungs already on fire. His scarlet eyes glared at Nijiiro's purple ones defiantly, as the latter crossed her legs and leaned back in her seat casually. Time was up.\n\t“I believe that's checkmate, Golden Boy,” Nijiiro said softly. Kurapika's vision went dim, and he made a desperate effort to strike at Nijiiro through the heavy, momentum-sucking water as the remaining air in his lungs escaped to the ceiling of the airship's cabin. A moment later, he was on all fours, perfectly dry and coughing up imaginary water from his lungs. Nijiiro could feel the aftereffects of Passion building along her skin, and closed her eyes slowly, pushing the destructive Nen payment to the furthest ends of her limbs. This was really going to hurt, and seeing as she had just used Serenity to escape Kurapika's Judgement Chain, it was going to hurt for at least another twenty-four hours. Nijiiro took her cigarette into her right hand and put her left into her pocket. She looked down at Kurapika from where she reposed on the seat, her eyes still an eerie violet flame. “Have a seat,”she said, gesturing to the empty recliner across from her own.\n\t“Go to hell,” said Kurapika, suddenly finding himself in the seat anyway. Nijiiro shook her head. \n\t“That can wait. It's time for you to answer my questions,” Nijiiro said calmly. \n\t“I'm not telling you a damned thing,” Kurapika said, “I never promised you answers.” Leorio flinched. Nijiiro raised a silver eyebrow at the technical approach. \n\t“Ah, but you're going to entertain me nonetheless,” she said. \n\t“Entertain you? You want me to fucking juggle now?” Kurapika snapped. Nijiiro snorted at the unexpectedly literal interpretation of her words, coughing and laughing at once at the suggestion. She cleared her throat.\n\t“Be my guest,” she grinned, “but I meant it more in the conversational sense.” Passion was beginning to ache dangerously in Nijiiro's eyes. Despite being the power Nijiiro used most often, and of which she had the best control, Passion, like all of her other powers, increased in strength as time dragged on. The ratcheting effect, which increased both the power of the technique, and its drawbacks, was inescapable. She would need to release it soon. \n\t“Why should we tell you anything?” Leorio grunted, and Nijiiro shot him a withering glance.\n\t“Stewardess, fetch me two clean glasses,” she ordered indolently. Leorio moved a step toward the beverage station in the corner before turning indignantly back to Nijiiro.\n\t“St-stewardess?!” he shouted.\n\t“That's your purpose here, is it not?” Nijiiro said, sounding bored. “Because, honestly, I can't think of anything else. Your aura is underdeveloped, weak, without even a hint of Hatsu. You're unbearably naive, an incompetent Nen user, and a worse chauffeur. Make yourself useful for a change, and fetch us a glass or two, Stewardess. And an ashtray,” Nijiiro exhaled a plume of smoke in his general direction for emphasis.\n\t“I refuse,” Leorio said stubbornly, knowing he should play along. She was, after all, correct on all counts. Nijiiro sighed.\n\t“No rest for the wicked, I suppose,” she mumbled. An illusory Nijiiro in a tightly fitted flight attendant uniform strolled by, depositing an ashtray and two clean whiskey glasses in front of Kurapika, who stared at the empty tumblers as though they already contained some kind of poison. Nijiiro pulled out her hip flask, which, by all the graces, was still half full. \n\t“What do you want?” hissed Kurapika. \n\t“Money, power, champagne, comfort and fame, just like everyone else. A chance to exert my passions upon the lives of others,” she said absently. “But...it is with our passions as it is with fire and water; they are good servants, but bad masters.” Nijiiro poured the brandy into each tumbler carefully. Not that she had bothered paying for it, but ounce-for-ounce the hundred-year-old pale lilac-colored liquid was worth more than scorpion venom. She set the flask on the table and took the glass closest to her. It was made with the ten-year fruits of an extinct tree, for crying out loud.\n\t“What is she talking about?” Leorio said in a low tone to Kurapika. Kurapika continued to stare at Nijiiro with intense focus, and didn't answer his friend. Kurapika knew a half-truth when he heard it. \n\t“I am talking about things obstreperous buffoons like yourself needn't ponder,” Nijiiro said patronizingly, answering Leorio. “But if you need something to think about...” Leorio found Nijiiro's plunging neckline eclipsing his field of vision, despite not actually having seen her move at all. Her small, warm hands were wrapped around his own, and inside his own hands was a small, round, hard and very heavy object about the size of an orange. “Why don't you focus all of that extra energy on making sure that-” she pulled the pin out of the grenade by its ring, twirled it on her finger and then dropped it into the drink in her hand, “stays in one piece, eh?” She settled back into her seat and raised the glass in her hand to Kurapika. “Your good health, Sir,” she smiled, taking a deep draught of the brandy. Kurapika looked from the grenade to Nijiiro's utterly relaxed face in disbelief. Leorio sat for a moment, before suddenly realizing that there was indeed a live grenade in his lap. Senritsu decided to stay in the far corner of the cabin, next to the door to the airlock. \n\t“I-is it, it's a r-real grenade isn't it?!” Leorio sputtered, not sure what to do and looking to Kurapika desperately. \n\t“Only one way to find out,” Nijiiro leered, taking another drag of her cigarette.\n\t“You're absolutely mad,” Kurapika breathed, not sure there was anything more befitting of such a moment. \n\t“We're all mad here,” Nijiiro retorted, her Cheshire grin widening by a few molars behind a cloud of smoke, “even you.” She released Passion, and felt bruises shred her ribs, left shoulder, and both calves. She knew there would be some deep cuts, as well, but the pain from the bruises eclipsed all other sensation. Nijiiro didn't even flinch.\n \t“Just hold the lever on the top down, gently, and don't shake it around,” Kurapika said, wishing they'd bothered to frisk her properly. He had noticed her eyes shift back their usual – in the loosest sense of the word – rainbow irises. He noticed her aura change, become the very tiniest bit smaller, less dense. “That is indeed a live grenade.” Leorio made a grinding sound in the back of his throat that sounded as if he'd swallowed a squeal only halfway, somewhat indicating that he understood. He affixed his stare to the object sitting between his palms as if it were the only thing on Earth that mattered. And for his own sake, it was an appropriate sentiment.\n\tKurapika turned to Nijiiro, not sure he'd ever loathed anyone so completely in less than an hour spent together. Nijiiro gave the slightest shake of her head at Kurapika's sober expression. \n\t“There's no need to stare like that. Are you, perhaps, ready to behave yourself, Kurapika?” Nijiiro smirked. The scarlet eyes burned at her even more brightly. A fraction of a thought graced Nijiiro's mind lightly, presenting itself without many words; what if the Kurta was truly like her, his life at the mercy of the Nen in his eyes? It was the closest thing to a worry Nijiiro had felt in more than half a year, and she swatted the thought away. She tormented him for the pleasure of seeing his beautiful eyes, and if Kurapika valued his own life, he'd get a grip on his reaction to her cheap taunts. 'But do avengers like him really value their own lives, Nijiiro?' her inner monologue asked. No, but he valued lives in general, especially those of his friends. That was how...she would pry him wide open. \n\t“Do you think that simply sitting here with three of us and displaying your power without attacking were wise moves?” Kurapika huffed, hoping Senritsu would understand the subtle request for help, and could aid him in coming up with a counter-strategy to Nijiiro's incredible powers. A cursory glance at Leorio's sweaty face showed him too preoccupied with the explosive in his lap to be of any assistance. Nijiiro drained her glass while staring at the ceiling in mock supplication, making sure to tuck the grenade's pin in her cheek.\n\t“Yes,” she said succinctly.\n\t“Do you honestly think I'll be answering your stupid questions?” Kurapika pressed through gritted teeth.\n\t“Yes,” Nijiiro said, her eyes sparkling a bit.\n\t“I have nothing to say to you,” Kurapika intoned, his voice as low and serious as Nijiiro had ever heard it. She licked the brandy from her lips.\n\t“You have a great deal to tell me, I think. At least, you have a great deal that you will tell me,” Nijiiro said smoothly. \n\t“It is pointless to talk to a mad dog like you,” Kurapika snapped. \n\t“Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide,” Nijiiro said, with smile turned a wee bit crooked. 'And he called me a barbarian,' she thought.\n\t“Not near enough, in your case,” Kurapika said acidly.  He was not in the mood for self-gratulatory poetry.\n\t“That's rich, considering the sudden...lack of advantages you find yourself with,” Nijiiro said softly, tilting her head as a few strands of her long silver hair fell against her pale face. “I wonder what  manner of wit that implies?” \n\t“I've seen through your techniques already-” Kurapika began, a bluff that would be sincere enough before any other pair of eyes on the planet.\n\t“Bullshit,” Nijiiro smirked, “...And, even if it weren't, what makes you believe that the reverse isn't also true?” Kurapika's serious eyes flashed. He was beginning to understand. \n\t“You don't know what you're talking about,” Kurapika said tersely. \n\t“I'm talking about the fact that you will forfeit your life if you attack anyone but my Spiders with those chains of yours,” Nijiiro said casually, “and the harsh covenant-restriction system you've created to help you draw unnatural amounts of Nen for your Specialist techniques.” Kurapika was floored, but only Nijiiro and Senritsu could sense it. Leorio was floored, and nearly dropped the live grenade sitting in his sweaty hands because of it.\n\t“H-how? No one could've told you about-” Leorio said, utterly flummoxed by the accurate information he himself had only learned a few hours before pouring forth from the mouth of their enemy.\n\t“Leorio!” Kurapika snarled, eyes transfixed on Nijiiro's face. She laughed softly.\n\t“Does it perturb you, Samson, to know that I could sell you to the Philistines at my leisure? Perhaps...you should focus your attention on the fact that I haven't... Yet.”\n\t“Perhaps I should bring your fetid temple down on your disgraceful head without giving much thought to you and your schemes, Spider,” Kurapika said.\n\t“You are more than welcome to try,” Nijiiro said, “But you must know two things beforehand; The first, is that you would not only fail, but also die in that pursuit, which I will not allow. The second, is that if the 'temple' I built could be brought down with mere force, chaos, or sabotage, it would have crumbled a long time ago. I know this, because I've tried.” She refilled her glass with the last of the brandy in her flask. \n\t“You won't 'allow' me to die? You've tried to bring down the Ryodan yourself? What sort of cheap act is that supposed to be? You and I are like oil and water, Spider. Enemies,” Kurapika scowled at her.\n\t“You can think of me as your enemy, if it suits you better. But believe it or not, Golden Boy, I'm on your side in all of this. Or rather, you are on my side...whether you like it or not,” Nijiiro said, with a look of pity. \n\t“Nonsense. Why must I sit here and remind you that I'm not acceding to any Machiavellian schemes?”\n\t“Why must I remind you why we're sitting here in the first place?” Nijiiro countered smoothly.\n\t“What?” Kurapika said, somewhat taken aback.\n\t“Tell me how you came to be in YorkNew City tonight, Kurapika,” Nijiiro said, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Kurapika weighed his options. Should he reveal Hisoka's cooperation? Would it matter, at this point? “..Or shall I tell you?” Kurapika remained silent for a moment. \n\t“...I'm here for my own reasons,” he said eventually. Nijiiro shook her head.\n\t“You're here at my invitation, Golden Boy,” she said, her smile more pronounced by the second.\n\t“But Hisoka-” Leorio blurted. \n\t“...Was acting under my orders, yes,” Nijiiro continued. She wished she had pitched the gremlin and the oaf off of the airship already, but as it stood they were more or less her hostages now. The all-important leverage that would keep Kurapika from doing anything...rash. Nijiiro pulled out Kurapika's cell phone and sent Hisoka a text message comprised of a single word: showtime.\n\t“Why should I believe a word you've just said?” Kurapika demanded. “From where I'm sitting, you're just capitalizing on a lucky escape from my chains, stalling for time without a way to finish what you started.”\n\t“Ah, so you're calling me a liar,” she said, a little too calmly.\n\t“Nothing more and nothing less,” said Kurapika. The fluorescent light bulb above Nijiiro's head exploded as her bemused smile drained away.\n\t“Careful, boy,” she warned, and her eyes flashed in the dimmed stretch of cabin where they sat.\n\t“It can't be helped,” Kurapika pressed on, despite the apprehensive expressions of his two friends, “if you're going say things that don't make any sense-”\n\t“I've said nothing of the sort,” Nijiiro said, coldly. “Tell me, genius, why would Hisoka invite you to YorkNew City? You think he gives a sideways shitstain about your precious revenge mission? Indeed, if he had no knowledge of anything the Spiders were up to before he joined two years ago, why would he know that you were targeting them? Do you honestly believe that the information he offered you, was his own? Which of us is saying nonsensical things, Kurapika?”\n\t“Enough!” Kurapika said sternly, standing. “I'm done playing your games!”\n\t“You've barely begun,” Nijiiro said darkly. “Now, have a seat. It's high time you answered a few of my questions.”\t\n\t“Are you deaf?! I'm not going to follow your damned orders, Spider!” Kurapika shouted, his handsome face twisted with a mixture of rage, disgust, and utter disbelief. “Just who the hell do you think you're dealing with?!”\n\t“I return your words to you, Golden Boy. Sit, have a drink, and let's us two play a little game while we wait for Gon and Killua to return,” Njiiro offered.\n\t“And if I refuse?” Kurapika spat, eyeing Nijiiro as though she were a form of weaponized anthrax.\n\t“Then, I paint the walls with these two,” Nijiiro answered malevolently, glancing from Senritsu to Leorio, the latter swallowing loudly, “and we continue this conversation somewhere a lot less...comfortable...” She frowned at her cigarette, which had gone out in the time that Kurapika had wasted waxing poetic his pointless obstinance.\n\t“What are the rules?” Senritsu asked, looking up from the floor. Kurapika blinked. Senritsu gave him a defeated look that said everything he didn't want to believe: Nijiiro wasn't lying, didn't mind murder or torture, and likely had the means to carry out her threats, if Kurapika didn't participate. Kurapika settled into the offered lounge chair very slowly. The worst case scenario...was that the Spiders' leader had already slipped his chains somehow, Gon and Killua were both dead, and Kurapika was sitting helplessly in an illusion while Nijiiro murdered his only other friends, sparing him only for the sake of whatever cruel and unusual punishment the Spiders had in store for him. Senritsu's words were the only thing he could attach to any other reality - and she was saying, in one way or another, that she wasn't ready to die just yet. Nijiiro leaned back in her seat, cracked her neck, and dug out her lighter while  the cogs turned in Kurapika's golden head. His aura was truly a treat to watch; like fire or falling water, it was never motionless, but a graceful churning that glided over his body, veins of light and darkness crashing into one another as he mulled over his thoughts. 'Kintsugi,' thought Nijiiro, '...something that becomes more beautiful specifically because it bears the marks of having been destroyed.' She hastily abandoned the train of thought. She already liked him a bit too much as it was.\n\t“The rules are simple. I ask questions, and Golden Boy answers them. If he hasn't answered at least three by the time Gon and Killua show up, I kill you and the Stewardess here, and then whomever taught him to use those Nen chains is going to be flayed alive for good measure,” Nijiro explained, adding, “Don't worry about repeat questions, there won't be any...and it should go without saying, but attempting to lie is not allowed. You can't lie to me, strictly speaking, but that doesn't mean I'll let you insult me by trying.” Kurapika's mind had more or less skipped over Izunavi since he arrived in YorkNew City, but Nijiiro's threat brought him the realization that everyone he knew, however tangentially, was on the menu for a woman like this one. Was his Nen master prepared to face off against the A-ranked horror that founded the Gennei Ryodan? Could he simply sacrifice Leorio and Senritsu in the interest of protecting his own secrets, even though the most important ones were already forfeit? Had she planned such a scenario specifically for him, knowing that he couldn't choose anything but to follow her in her designs? Looking at her patient expression as she twirled her lighter, he had his answer. He'd been played harder than a violin in a Tartini sonata. \n\t“It seems like you already have all of the answers, Spider. What could you possibly want to know that badly?” Kurapika asked, feeling the humiliation settle over him like a mantle of cold slime.\n\t“Are you a homosexual?” Nijiiro asked brightly. Kurapika's mouth opened slightly with the indecorous question's verbalization. Senritsu buried her face in one small hand and shook her head slowly. Leorio blushed and grimaced at the same time. \n\t“What?!” Kurapika snapped angrily.\n\t“A homosexual is a person who-” Nijiiro began obligingly.\n\t“I know what it means!”\n\t“Then...are you, to any considerable degree, a homosexual, or not?” Nijiiro asked placidly. Kurapika glared at her silently. He had expected logical questions – what are your other powers, what are your friends' abilities, names, addresses, habits, weaknesses, secrets. He wasn't really prepared for...whatever Nijiiro was after instead.\n\t“...No.”\n\t“But you enjoy cross-dressing?” Nijiiro pressed on, as if commenting on the weather, her tone bereft of judgment in any direction.\n\t“Do I...what? I'm not going to dignify that with an answer, you maniac. What purpose do these questions serve?” Kurapika asked. \n\t“I'll take that as a 'maybe.' So how do you maintain it?” Nijiiro asked, bringing her lighter to her  half-finished cigarette.\n\t“Maintain...what?” Kurapika asked, not entirely sure what he'd missed.\n\t“That stick up your ass,” Nijiiro answered smoothly, taking a fresh drag, “That's gotta hurt, right?” Leorio, in defiance of every other thing that had happened during the evening, caught himself just in time to keep a surprised grin off of his face at the churlish yet apt insult. It was a narrow save.\n\t“I look forward to killing you,” Kurapika said, his face in pure disgust.\n\t“And in the meantime, Golden Boy, you ought to loosen up, and learn how to live a little,” Nijiiro said. “..Do you like to dance?” Kurapika simply stared at her. “Or, do you know how? That's alright, you've plenty of time to learn. Do you have any pets? No? Well, I suppose it's hard, when you're always on the move. Do you like movies? What sort? That outfit of yours is handmade, isn't it? Did you sew it yourself? Do you like spicy food? Hot curry, or...? What about books? Ah, so you do like to read. That's wonderful. Do you follow a religion? I see...” Kurapika's face, as far as Leorio and Senritsu were concerned, gave nothing away, but Nijiiro prattled on like an overly passionate census taker, asking questions as she looked intently at Kurapika. She paused occasionally, glancing around his face, as if to read his aura itself for concise answers, or to take another delicate puff of her cigarette. The room soon became filled with the lingering, spicy scent of her smoke, half tobacco, half incense. Kurapika stared on, determined to know precisely how the first thing that popped into his head at each of her questions came to be in her possession the instant he thought it, even as he tried to suppress the answers from appearing in his mind. She was definitely up to something.  What did her strange eyes see that his couldn't?\n\t“Don't you have anything better to ask?” Kurapika intoned bitterly.\n\t“I'm technically not the one who arranged this awkward double-date, Kurta. But...I suppose I needn't drag on with the more banal baseline questions. We can move on to the more open-ended ones...What are your thoughts on cannibalism?” \n\t“What in the unholy hell is with these weird questions?!” Leorio shouted suddenly, unable to contain himself.\n\t“Cannibalism refers to when one consumes the flesh of one's own spe-” Nijiiro began, assuming that Leorio was having trouble with her vocabulary. She wasn't exactly wrong.\n\t“I know what you said. What exactly do you mean, my thoughts?” Kurapika asked suspiciously. \n\t“Hmm, allow me to rephrase it, then; under what circumstances would you commit to consuming the flesh of another human being? What ethical limits exist in your mind regarding the practice of cannibalism? You needn't be shy in answering, and take your time to think about it, if you have to...I'm compelled to remind you, however that you must answer at least three questions in the next forty-two minutes and thirty-seven seconds, or...” Nijiiro winked at Senritsu as she trailed off, her threat hanging over the room heavier than her fragrant smoke. Leorio looked at his watch. Nijiiro knew that Gon and Killua would show up at exactly sixteen minutes to midnight..?\n\t“And you? Are you in the habit of consuming human flesh, Spider?” Kurapika said softly. Nijiiro smiled very, very slowly. Beauty and brains; the boy wonder was catching on rapidly. \n\t“You haven't touched your brandy, Kurapika,” she deflected, glancing at the table between them. “Not much of a drinker?”\n\t“I don't drink with monsters,” Kurapika growled. \n\t“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?” Nijiiro answered wistfully. \n\t“Of course, you would be a nihilist,” Kurapika replied caustically. “Or whatever philosophy conveniently lets you commit murder for your own amusement, right? Spare me the literary lecture, I am well aware that obscene creatures like you have no conscience.”\n\t“Obscenity, which is ever blasphemy against the divine beauty in life, is a monster for which the corruption of society forever brings forth new food, which it devours in secret,” Nijiiro said, clearly enjoying herself. “I'm not a nihilist, Golden Boy, quite the opposite. I could pick apart your high-minded, dogmatic philosophy six ways to Sunday, but that I find no profit in it. What makes you believe that I am a nihilist is, in fact, the same thing that makes it so difficult to answer, nay, contend with, simple questions about sexual, philosophical and ethical boundaries. Your idealism believes them to be objective, where my realism knows them to be utterly subjective. You honestly believe I'm some sort of unnatural, heinous aberration, don't you? I, personally, believe the rot and filth of this world to be every bit as organic and wholesome as the seemingly pure and sacred.” \n\t“Belief is extraneous to the facts,” Kurapika said, his voice thin. She was too sharp, even after two glasses of strong alcohol. “The law is reason, free from passion.”\n\t“The fact remains that some one paid good money for that liquor, Golden Boy,” Nijiiro countered flippantly, adding, “Not me, but some one.”\n\t“Is this what it boils down to for you, Spider? Materialism? Luxury goods?” asked Kurapika, his voice raw with misery. “Is this what the eyes of my clan bought for you?” He backhanded the glass off of the table, staring into Nijiiro's eyes with his scarlet gaze as the glass shattered. Nijiiro frowned. The Amontillado. \n\t“I'm the one asking the questions here, but if you're really that curious, then please understand that I became a multi-billionaire long before your clan was destroyed. I have no need of the mere millions fetched by a handful of human trophies,” Nijiiro said. She glanced at the half-million worth of brandy puddled on the airship's dingy floor and sighed. Kurapika's hand slid into his waistband and clasped the grips of his bokken swords. There was a look in his eyes that spoke of murder and fear in equal measure.\n\t“Billionaire...?” Leorio muttered slowly, one careful eye on Kurapika and the other on the grenade in his lap. “How much money do you have, anyway...?”\n\t“More than enough to make you dance, Stewardess, you can be sure of that,” Nijiiro answered wryly, with a wink. “Even within the best A-rank criminal syndicate in the world, my...particular task...pays exceedingly well.”\n\t“What task is that?” Leorio asked, before he could help himself. His ears had always pricked up at the mention of huge sums of money, whether he liked it or not.\n\t“In a word, payroll,” Nijiiro replied. Kurapika's aura was twisting erratically with a kind of emotional poison, a deep pain that Nijiiro recognized immediately. Despair was creeping its ugly way into the shimmering gold halo around his head. \n\t“Payroll?” Leorio asked, nonplussed. In his mind's eye, he saw the Gennei Ryodan's members lining up to receive their checks with punch cards and hardhats, and the image was too much for him.\n\t“Yes, Stewardess. Payroll. This should be fairly obvious, but how do you suppose the national treasures, priceless artifacts, and precious metals stolen by the Gennei Ryodan become liquidated back to the ones who stole them? Or did you imagine we sit around munching on gold ingots and living in shacks fashioned from original Rembrandts?” Nijiiro joked. “Without my facilitation, the Spiders would each have to make their own arrangements – which, as you may know, is a risky procedure and the reason most thieves aren't thieves for very long -  but through my system, the process is a more or less a smooth transition from trash to cash. And no Hunter, Blacklist or otherwise, will ever be able to put a stop to it. That is the open secret of the organized crime world: good resource management is everything. In that sense, I'm simply a very well-qualified liaison for interested collectors of wealth.” Albeit one who could destroy half the world's governments, quasi-government organizations, and Mafias with the insidious degree of leverage she'd gained in the process, but that was a different conversation. \n\t“That's what you consider murder, kidnapping, theft, and torture? Good resource management?” Kurapika said finally. \n\t“That's a gross oversimplification of a convoluted modus operandi, of course,” Nijiiro replied, unfazed by Kurapika's threatening posture, “but I wouldn't go throwing stones at others for kidnapping and murder if I were you, Golden Boy.”\n\t“Don't you dare lump my actions in with yours, you god-forsaken filth,” Kurapika said, his eyes wide. He was nearing the end of his rope with her. If he didn't kill her soon, he didn't know what he was going to do. “We are nothing alike.”\n\t“Then you aren't trying hard enough,” Nijiiro shot back. It was a rather unexpected retort, and Kurapika's eyes lost their irate madness by several degrees.\n\t“What?”\n\t“Gazing into the abyss, you must have realized it at some point, Kurapika. You can't catch a predator and yet remain the prey animal. Ambition has a price. And friends are a luxury of the strong,” Nijiiro said softly, her face very serious. Leorio glanced from Nijiiro, to his friend, who stared back at her intently. He suddenly felt oddly as if he were intruding into something he shouldn't.\n\t“Those are the words of a lawless animal,” Kurapika said. What he didn't say, what he couldn't say, in spite of himself, was that her words were incorrect. \n\t“Here is my final question,” Nijiiro said, closing her eyes and opening them again as she stared raptly at Kurapika's pinched face. “Gon and Killua are each imprisoned in an inescapable cell. You must kill one, and rape the other. What do you do to each of them?” \n\t“Tch. What an unbelievably sick question,” Leorio interjected. He turned to his friend, whose eyes were still locked unflinchingly on the Spider who sat across from him.“Kurapika, listen, she's just trying to get inside your head. Don't let her get to you now. This is just like the two-choice quiz during the exam, remember? You don't have to say anyt-”\n\t“This is what you really wanted, isn't it?” Kurapika inquired gravely. “I don't know how, or why, but this is the question you really want to ask. Those rules, you think I didn't notice the caveat they hid? There was no fixed number of questions. Once you get two answers, you can use your 'final question' to force an answer. Only this question has no answer does it?”\n\t“Then you know nothing of your friends,” Nijiiro retorted, her tone equally grave. “Because there are two, very different, very important answers. And don't pretend you don't know what they are. Shall I answer for you?” Kurapika was silent, and so was the rest of the cabin. The tension was so high that Leorio and Senritsu could barely breathe, and everything was eerily still and silent as Nijiiro, sitting motionless with her long cigarette nearly gone, opened her mouth to speak. “...Killua could take it.  He's endured torture before, and his loyalties lie primarily with Gon, after all. In fact, even if you chose to let him survive, he'd likely make you a target for his own revenge. And with his talent, he might just be able to pull it off. If it were the other way around, however...I think Gon would suffer irrevocable damage. The death of Killua, the violent betrayal by you, being raped by a friend whom he admires greatly, all of these things would shatter him like so much fine-bone china. You might even get away with it,” Nijiiro used her hands to gesticulate something exploding apart at the word shatter. “The real question here, the one you don't want to think about, is whether you would take the punishment you deserve, and risk dying before you complete the mission to which you've pledged your entire life...or would you sink into depravity and moral turpitude, and choose to hurt your friends in a certain way specifically because you could get off scot free to continue your objective?  How deep into the rabbit hole will you dive to make your goals a reality, how low can you sink for the sake of your people before you can't see the difference between existing for their sake, and insulting their memory? Who will you sacrifice, and what, exactly, is the strength of your resolve? Who are you really, Kurapika?” Nijiiro's eyes were glowing, shining like those of a nocturnal creature caught in the beam of a lantern, and her pleasant, smiling mask had slipped completely. “That is what I want to know,” she half-whispered across the deafening silence, watching Kurapika tremble slightly with a merciless sense of satisfaction. She tossed the pin from the grenade at Leorio's feet as she stood. She strode to the window to look out at the tarmac, as Leorio fumbled with the pin and Kurapika sat motionless and staring at her empty seat. Kurapika could feel the powerful migraine promised to him nearly an hour ago sink its claws into the front of his skull, and two dull gray holes appeared in his vision. He breathed as deeply and calmly as he was able, although it felt like his scarlet eyes were stuck in his sockets, unable to revert back to their usual fawn color. He almost wished he hadn't flung his drink on the floor. Almost. He looked over to where Nijiiro stood, looking down at the landing pad. For the first time since he'd dragged her away from the other Spiders, he saw the design that was hand-embroidered into her coat. Killua had described it as “moons” but Kurapika's mind, desperate to focus on something, anything but Nijiiro's question, began to pick out the elements of its complicated design. Seven moons, or more accurately, a silhouette of the moon from one of every four days of the Lunar Cycle, were laid out in a vertical line from the neck of the coat to just below the waist, with the full moon sitting in the very center. Surrounding the full moon was a vesica piscis* that very much, when viewed as a whole, gave the impression of a staring, lidless eye. In the center of the full moon, the iris of the staring eye, a circle of bright silver thread ringed a graceful ibis, stylized in the manner of ancient Egyptian artworks. A bird which symbolized...'Thoth, the god of wisdom and learning...the eye is the all-seeing eye of Ra, and another word for the goddess of love, Hathor, and reconstructed, the entire design is a clever visual puzzle created to convey a love or admiration for knowledge, but only to those who know enough to deconstruct its symbology, in other words, a similarly erudite person who appreciates 'knowledge' itself in a similar fashion...' Kurapika realized with a start that he'd gotten the joke. He looked over Nijiiro, standing with her arms crossed as she stood at the airship's windows, wondering how much more complicated his revenge mission could become. How he could answer her question before four of his friends died in a single night, all for the same reason of trying to aid him. \n\tNijiiro watched Kurapika's eyes trace the design on her back from the reflective glass of the airship window. He was unbelievably stubborn, but if funneled in the proper direction...\n\t“About your question...” Kurapika said softly, unsure what the end of his sentence should've been.\n\t“That won't be necessary,” Nijiiro said, her voice very level, “They've arrived.”\n\t“But! I haven't answered the third question!” Kurapika said, his eyes widening with shock.  Just another moment's time, he wanted to say. He was dangerously close to begging, but Nijiiro simply sighed.\n\t“Oh sweet, summer child,” Nijiiro said, turning around to him with a queer expression that was a smile and a grimace, “but you have already answered them all.”",
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      "title": "A HunterXHunter Fanfic (Part XII)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n[Part III](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii)\n[Part IV](https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv)\n[Part V](https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v)\n[Part VI](https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi)\n[Part VII](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vii)\n[Part VIII](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-viii)\n[Part IX](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ix)\n[Part X](https://steemit.com/life/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-x)\n[Part XI](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xi)\n#### _September 4th, YorkNew City, 10:01PM_\nKillua struggled fruitlessly against Machi's iron grip, knowing he was hopelessly outclassed as the eyes of the Spiders adjusted to the darkness. \n\t“Too bad,” said Nobunaga approvingly, “Well, it was a good shot, anyhow.” Something whizzed across the darkened lobby, lodging itself in the marble column just behind Nobunaga's head as he dodged. “It came from the entrance?” he muttered, looking up even though he knew the thrower would have already vanished.\n\t“Oh!” said Shizuku, “The guy with the portable radio was working with them!” She moved to search for Leorio, forgetting that she was forbidden from acting alone.\n\t“Wait! Shizuku!” Nobunaga barked, remembering that they were forbidden from acting alone. “We don't need that guy, we only need these two! Our eyes will adjust in a minute.” \n\t“True,” said Shizuku, “Ah, by the way, Boss, what was Saisho yelling about just n- wait, where is Saisho?” She looked around, turning her whole head side to side like a golden retriever in search of a tennis ball. Lightning crashed for a split second outside, just long enough to show the Spiders short one member. Chrollo was kneeling on the floor, his face one of utter disbelief. In his hand, Nijiiro's black kidskin glove was gripped very tightly, the leather complaining ever so slightly under Chrollo's white knuckles. He was staring out of the entrance intently, insensible to the confusion and darkness around him. Killua saw him mouth a single word: wait. Wait, it said, this isn't right. Nijiiro was gone, and Gon and Killua looked at each other triumphantly. Kurapika had done it. Nobunaga looked at the note tied around Leorio's knife and quickly put two and two together.\n\t“Paku, you okay?” Machi asked mildly, several of her ribs broken and painfully restricting her breath. Machi really wanted to complain about her own pain, but also needed the others to think she was too tough to complain about such things.\n\t“I've got a broken left wrist, and they got a few molars,” Paku replied. In reality, she also had a cracked jaw and a mild concussion, but Pakunoda had a surprisingly high pain tolerance for an information type. “But first I have to figure out what these kids know about what just happened, as fast as possible. Now...to ask the right question...”\n\t“Paku! Wait! This note...is for you,” Nobunaga said, reading the note by the firelight of a brass cigarette lighter. Paku took the crumpled page Nobunaga handed her. Share their memories and I kill the hostage, it said. It was a hostage situation, then. But what should she do? Following the instructions on the note would mean she could be playing into the hands of the chain-user who killed Uvo. More importantly, what would the boss want her to do? She was sure Chrollo would never permit the other members to risk their lives if he were a hostage...but what of Nijiiro? Paku knew better than  anyone how seriously Chrollo considered Nijiiro's safety, taking the burden of her safekeeping entirely on himself in his jealous paranoia. The fact that the chain-user, or rather, Kurapika, had left a note that implied the he would be contacting them again. Kurapika would only do that if two things were both true; one, that he wanted to make an exchange, and two, that these two boys were close to him\n and therefore valuable hostages to the Spiders. It was entirely possible, nay, probable, that these two had vital knowledge about the chain-user, and his plans, somewhere in their memories, and she could extract the information key to destroying him from the hostages.  But then again, Paku had always held a tacit understanding that it was Nijiiro, the original Spider, who was chiefly to be protected when Chrollo said “the Spider must survive above all else.” As the who who most often guarded Chrollo, Paku was privy to far more information from within the Ryodan than the others. She knew the organization leaned heavily on Nijiiro's insights, to the point where one could claim that the Gennei Ryodan itself was threatened with the potential loss of Nijiiro. Of course, Phinks, Feitan, and Machi, the Ryodan's main fighters, would never see it that way, taking a more figurative interpretation of the 'Spider' in Chrollo's directive, but...Chrollo could order them to go against their beliefs, if he truly wanted to, right? Or could he? Which was right? Paku tried to reason it through. 'Chrollo will try to deal with this on his own, which means...if the chain-user wants to double-cross us, the Boss will likely be the first to die, perhaps before the Spider loses half its legs? That's right, what else was in the prophecy that the Boss gave me? 'On a day with very little light/You will face two choices within a small room/ You must choose between pride and betrayal/While the Death-Bringer hovers near...But which is which? Prioritizing the founder above the others, potentially losing half our limbs? Sacrificing Nijiiro to protect the others, perhaps even against the Boss' orders? There are still at least twelve of us alive at this very moment. Killing the chain-user would be easy, if I were to read their memories now, and learn his weaknesses. But the Boss...\n\t“Paku... Paku! Hey!” Nobunaga snapped, bringing Paku's attention back to reality. “Don't say anything for now. Leave it to the Boss.” Paku nodded, but looked at the Boss with obvious worry. How would he balance the lives of the Spiders against their founder? Paku remembered the prophecy foretelling her death. Did she perhaps already know the answer to her question? \n\tChrollo still hadn't moved from where had landed after Nijiiro took his place in the kidnapping. He couldn't recall her ever physically moving, much less shoving, him before. Had she always been that strong? He was almost ten meters from where he'd been standing when  the chain-user launched the attack. He pressed her glove to his forehead. He could feel a kind of agony building deep in the pit of his stomach, a feeling that only existed where Nijiiro was concerned. But for the first time, it wasn't Nijiiro herself who lay at the center of it. This chain-user...would have to pay dearly for his transgressions. Chrollo stood languorously, as though he were underwater, and continued to brood while Nobunaga reoriented himself and the others for a hostage situation.\n\t“I'll take that one,” Nobunaga said, gesturing to Killua. “The attacker bothered to leave a message, which means he'll contact us again. On the other hand, it also means that these two...are valuable as hostages.” He drew his mobile out and dialed Phinks' mobile phone nervously. “Phinks! Get over here, now! The founder's been captured!” His jaw tightened as he heard Phinks' reply, which contained a high proportion of loud, unintelligible cursing to actual vocabulary. \n\t“Paku...” Machi said, moving to stand beside Paku, but looking at Chrollo uncertainly, “don't worry too much about it yet. We'll figure out our next move once Phinks and the others get here.” Machi didn't like this one bit. The last thing she wanted to see was the Boss' pained expression as he worried about Nijiiro, of all people. But... if Nijiiro were to become a noble sacrifice, made to the Spider itself, who was Machi to complain? \n\tFourteen minutes after the hotel's lights had come back on, Phinks, Feitan, and Shalnark strolled through the gilded double-doors of the lobby with hostile expressions suitable to the gravitas of the Spiders' predicament. The first thing Phinks felt, striding quickly through the lobby to the others, was a kind of chill in the air. He felt Chrollo's aura first, before actually recognizing Chrollo himself, and for a very good reason; Chrollo's aura seemed to be bending the air around him, sucking the light and heat out of everything near him in a frigid mist of rage. The situation was nearing critical mass, and Phinks didn't even have anything to punch.  Things must be bad.\n\tAs Chrollo's aura became increasingly ominous, hotel guests began clearing out of the lobby as if fleeing a particularly violent poltergeist. The receptionists turned up the heat, and rubbed their hands together or found excuses to leave the reception desk. Phinks made a rare wise decision to grill Nobunaga before asking the Boss for orders.\n\t“Explain what happened,” Phinks said, staring down at Nobunaga. Nobunaga ignored Phinks' usual posturing, and tried to get straight to the point without saying Nijiiro's name out loud.\n\t“The lights went out. We couldn't see. N- uh, the Saisho was taken in that instant. We...underestimated them,” Nobunaga finished lamely, with a furtive glance at the Boss. He would kill to know exactly what was going through the Boss' mind, or rather, to know when exactly he should get out of the way. Chrollo had such a polite and deliberate manner, it was easy to forget that his anger could raze concrete fortresses.\n\t“Why didn't you pursue immediately?” Phinks said. Why didn't the Boss pursue immediately, was the better question, but Phinks didn't exactly have the cajones to question Chrollo in his current state. \n\t“Paku and Machi got several injuries. And our hostages could've escaped,” Nobunaga explained defensively. Shizuku, who still held Gon by his ankles obediently, lifted her captive a little higher in case Phinks didn't know who Nobunaga was talking about. \n\t“Here's the message from the chain-user,” Kortopi offered, holding Kurapika's note out to the frustrated Phinks. Phinks read it in a glance, and looked at Pakunoda. He certainly didn't envy her position in all of this. The note was clearly directed at her, and so too the onus of remaining silent or risking Nijiiro's life to defeat the chain-user who killed Uvo. Phinks himself was certain that the only real solution was to hunt, and then painfully kill, the chain-user as soon as possible. The other Spiders, however, might not be able to see it as cut-and-dried as Phinks did, especially... He turned his head to where Chrollo stood glaring through the walls of the lobby and out into the nighttime of YorkNew City.  Phinks, who had always held Chrollo as a sort of beloved older brother figure, deeply regretted the dilemma his Boss faced, but knew that while risking Nijiiro's life was the right move, Chrollo would probably never be able to bring himself to give the order. Paku seemed hesitant to do anything decisive, as well. Which meant it would be up to Feitan and himself to make the right move.\n\t“But why didn't you tail him?” Feitan asked.\n\t“Paku and Machi were both injured,” Nobunaga repeated, as if Feitan could've understood the concept of personal injury in general.\n\t“And?” Feitan answered flippantly, narrowing his already slender eyes.\n\t“He has allies who are pro Hunters,” said Nobunaga, wishing for the first time that Feitan had a better grasp on human emotion. He could feel waves of energy rolling off of Chrollo's aura that made standing in the lobby akin to standing next to a battery the size of the hotel itself.\n\t“So?” Feitan replied.\n\t“Read between the lines, damn it! It means we can use these kids as hostages! If we give chase and they escape, it's over! Saisho has probably been caught in those chains the even Uvo couldn't break! She probably can't just escape on her own!” Nobunaga exclaimed, delicacy be damned. The Saisho had to be protected, or their reputation as Spiders was less than trash, it was as simple as that. It occurred to Nobunaga that not every Spider appreciated her style, but that was neither here nor there when it came to enemies outside of the Ryodan. Besides, Uvo had always given Saisho his unequivocal support, and somewhere along the line, Nobunaga had come to feel the same way. \n\t“Probably?” Feitan asked suspiciously, wondering if any of the Spiders in front of him had been affected in the way that Hisoka had admitted to earlier that evening. It was certainly possible. Perhaps they were still being controlled? Powerful Nen users being controlled by the enemy were enemies themselves.\n\t“I told you! The lights went out! By the time our eyes adjusted, Saisho was gone. We weren't in any condition to give chase!” Nobunaga shouted.\n\t“O-okay, okay, we can debate that later,” Shalnark said, stepping in before Feitan could begin bringing accusations. “For now, we need a plan.” 'And it looks like we won't be getting one from the Boss' he added in his head. Shalnark was utterly terrified of the Spiders' one and only Nijiiro, but somehow, that was exactly why he was averse to risking her life just to sate the machismo dripping off of Phinks and Feitan. Nijiiro would likely fare better than most as a hostage. If they pursued recklessly, and she died, that would also be terrible, but if she didn't... Shalnark had every confidence that Nijiiro would find the idiots who had forsaken her safety and put them in the deepest, darkest holes she could find - permanently. And even if she didn't, Chrollo might. He did tend to take her well-being very seriously, from what Shal could tell. It was then that Phinks' phone began to ring. \n\t“It's Saisho,” said Phinks, a little hesitantly. His caller ID clearly said “Saisho”, but he could not remember having ever programmed such a number into his contacts. He picked up the call.\n\t“Hello?” Phinks said.\n\t“My demands are threefold. The general rule is that my demands are absolute. If you don't obey, I will kill your founder. The first is that you do not attempt to follow me. The second, is that you will not harm the two hostages in any way. The third, is that you will put the woman named Pakunoda on the phone,” said a voice, far too confident to be speaking to Phinks of the Gennei Ryodan. He sounded like a bratty little girl.\n\t“Before that, can I ask you one thing? It's about the second demand...The hostages put up a struggle, and so we had to break a few bones...” Phinks said, smiling at Gon and Killua. The friends of the chain bastard would have to suffice until Phinks could get his hands on the real thing.\n\t“Then we're done negotiating.” Kurapika said briskly, ending the call. Phinks dialed back the number immediately, an exaggerated sort of dismay in his expression that would have made Nijiiro laugh uncontrollably had she been there to see it.\n\t “Sorry. That was a lie. The hostages are fine,” Phinks admitted as soon as Kurapika answered. \n\t“This is your final warning. Do not fool around, or I will kill your founder. Put Pakunoda on the phone, now,” Kurapika commanded. Phinks handed the phone off to Pakunoda, as Nobunaga and Machi enthusiastically clocked him over the head for his stupidity. Pakunoda glanced at the Boss before answering. Chrollo had not moved or spoken in at least fifteen minutes. Paku decided to play along with the chain-user's demands until the Boss told her otherwise.\n\t“Hello?” Paku said hesitantly.\n\t“You're the only one permitted to hear what I am about to say. Move away from the others,” Kurapika said. Paku shook her head at Feitan, who was straining to hear the phone conversation from Paku's right side. She would comply, until he asked her to do something impossible or Chrollo intervened. Pakunoda strode up one flight of stairs and stood on the mezzanine, making sure that she and the others could see each other clearly.\n\t“...Have you made contact with a man named Squalla?” Kurapika continued, unfazed or doing a very good impression of it. \n\t“Yeah,” Paku replied.\n\t“Then you know of a woman named Senritsu, too?”\n\t“...Yeah...”\n\t“Then I can make this brief. Listen carefully to what I say. You are forbidden from communicating with the others. No using Nen. No talking, writing, signaling, gesturing, or making eye contact. None of that is allowed. Understood?”\n\t“I understa- Danchou, wait!” Paku stammered, as Chrollo simply appeared beside her, taking Paku's hand and the phone it contained, and forcefully took the call from her. Paku and Chrollo were standing in front of the others as he spoke, even though less than a second before he had been next to her on the mezzanine. Chrollo looked the phone with a look that might have set it on fire before putting the receiver to his ear. \n\t“What is it that you want?” asked Chrollo. His face and aura being unobservable over the phone, one listening could have said he sounded calm. Too calm.\n\t“Hand the phone back to Pakunoda, and move away,” Kurapika ordered.\n\t“No.” The single syllable held a world of power.\n\t“The offer I am prepared to make is heavily predicated on your ability to adhere to my demands without question,” Kurapika's voice explained briskly, “ I have your found-”\n\t“You have my wife,” Chrollo said, not as calmly. Killua's eyes widened. Gon and Killua looked at each other. 'Those two are married?!' Killua panicked silently. He and Gon had both sort of tacitly assumed that Nijiiro's confident swagger was that of a single woman, but with this revelation much of what they'd observed yesterday made a lot more sense. What remained to be seen was whether Kurapika had received a stroke of luck or an absolute disaster. \n\t“...In any case, you should understand that we are now on equal footing. The penalty for further insolence is singular: our negotiations are over. My demands-” Kurapika said slowly, desperately trying to retain his air of confidence. \n\t“What are your demands? I have no desire to repeat myself in this manner.” Chrollo said brusquely, cutting over Kurapika for a second time. \n\t“Pakunoda will-”\n\t“Pakunoda will remain with the Ryodan,” Chrollo stated flatly. “Whatever impetration you intend to make, will be made to me. I alone will take responsibility. Consider this a demand, if you will, because it is not negotiable. And as the leader of the Gennei Ryodan, my cooperation is of more value to you, is it not? It is far better for both of us this way. So state your demands.” Pakunoda watched Chrollo carefully, but could not see so much as a hint at what she or the others should do. Obviously, he believed there was already some way they should know what to do. Or was he simply keen to take Nijiiro's place in the fire? \n\t“...Very well, under the prerequisite that Pakunoda adheres to the commands I have already given her, I will accept your involvement...for now. You will not speak to or communicate with any other member of the Ryodan. You must come alone, to the place I designate. If your heart rate changes, even in the slightest, I will kill the hostage. Now give the phone to some one besides Pakunoda,” Kurapika said, his blood pressure on the rise. Chrollo complied, handing the phone to Nobunaga, who happened to be standing the closest to him. Feitan frowned at the phone even harder than he frowned at everything else, and he exchanged glances with Phinks. The Boss was being awfully cautious with this chain bastard. \n\t“Here,” said Nobunaga. \n\t“I'll be meeting with your leader, alone. The rest of the Ryodan must return to your hideout immediately. All remaining members must be there. If even one is missing, at any point, I will kill the hostage. If any of you attempt to use Nen, I will kill the hostage. Understood?” Kurapika said assertively. \n\t“Yeah,” Nobunaga grunted. He was getting tired of this Kurapika. Very tired. And if the bastard had taken anyone but the founder, Nobunaga reckoned he would be willing to hound after him, hostages be damned. But the Boss had right to deal with him on a personal level, even more than Nobunaga himself. '...Uvo was my best friend, but Nijiiro is the Boss' wife...That's...on a different level, right?...' Nobunaga thought. He could hunt the chain-user down once Nijiiro was safe. \n\t“Give the phone back to your leader,” Kurapika said. Nobunaga handed the phone back to Chrollo, who didn't bother making eye contact. \n\t“Speaking,” said Chrollo. Machi was startled to see that Chrollo had begun walking away from the rest of the Spiders, towards the double doors of the hotel lobby. He hung up the phone, walked calmly through the right-hand door, and then took off running so quickly Machi barely caught his silhouette as it shot across the busy street and disappeared into the stormy city night. Phinks and Feitan, followed by Machi, strolled after Chrollo, much to the horror of Shalnark and Nobunaga. \n\t“Wait!” Nobunaga yelled after them. They turned back to him, surprised. “Didn't you hear him?The Boss is going to meet with the chain-user alone. The rest of us are to go back to the hideout. Orders from the chain-user.”\n\t“What's your point?” Phinks said, genuinely confused.\n\t“If we disobey, he'll kill the Saisho!” Nobunaga snapped, unsure how Phinks and the others could fail to understand the point of a hostage situation.\n\t“Are you an idiot?” Phinks asked, eyeing Nobunaga with concern, “If he does that, we kill those two, and the chain-user, and that will be the end of it.”\n\t“It's what Saisho would expect of us,” Feitan added, and on any other day he might've been right. “Nobunaga...your cowardly way of thinking is an insult to the Spider.”\n\t“We've got to follow the Boss now,” Machi chimed in, “killing the chain-user is more important than following his orders.”\n\t“The Boss said he would deal with this himself!” Nobunaga yelled. What few hotel patrons remained in the lobby looked around for the one who yelled, then quickly decided not to interfere. \n\t“That's what he told the chain-user,” Phinks sneered, “We're going to make sure the chain bastard doesn't try any shady shit, the way he must've done with Uvo. Or have you forgotten?” \n\t“And what about the Saisho's safety?” Shalnark asked, disappointed in his fellow Spiders. \n\t“Tch. As if the Saisho couldn't handle herself,” Feitan spat.\n\t“What?!” Nobunaga howled, not quite believing his ears. “Saisho's been bound by those chains, ones that even Uvo couldn't break. She can't just get away on her own!”\n\t“If anyone can figure a way out of those chains, it's Saisho. And even if she can't, she'll be fine as a hostage,” Phinks declared solemnly. “That girl could talk the honey out of a fuckin' beehive, I'm sure she's shrinking the chain-user's head as we speak.”\n\t“And if she's already been killed,” Machi said quietly, “The sooner we find out, the better, right?”\n\t“And if she hasn't? Can we really be the ones to say whether she should be killed by the chain-user, just to stroke our own egos?” Shalnark said gravely, looking directly at Machi, who glared back at him in defiance. \n\t“If we keep following the chain-user's orders, then the prophecies will come true,” Phinks said, despite having never actually received a prophecy himself. “And what do you think?” he added loudly, turning to Pakunoda as she stood several meters away. Paku merely made a face that implied she had swallowed something very bitter, closed her eyes and looked away from the others. It was answer enough.\n\t“I agree with Nobunaga,” Shizuku offered supportively, “We should continue to follow the chain-user's orders for now.”\n\t“I concur,” added Kortopi.\n\t“For now?” Phinks said quizzically. “How long do we continue to listen to him? Until 'half our limbs' are gone?!”\n\t“Usually when there's a disagreement, we flip a coin,” Shizuku said brightly, missing the fact that there were clearly more than two people at odds this time.\n\t“He's broken the rules,” said Phinks, looking Nobunaga up and down dismissively.\n\t“Still, I'm going with Nobunaga on this. I don't want the Boss to die, but I don't want the Saisho to die either. Besides, the general rule with Saisho, is that she doesn't follow the rules anyway,” Shizuku concluded. Several of the Spiders blinked, realizing that not only was she correct, it was probably the smartest thing Shizuku had ever said aloud.\n\t“I don't believe what I'm hearing,” Phinks said, turning to leave. “Talking to you is pointless. I'd like to kill you right now, but following the Boss comes first.”\n\t“Hold it!” snarled Nobunaga. He gripped his katana and lowered his stance threateningly. “Take one more step...and I will cut you down.” \n\t“Oh? I'd like to see you try,” said Phinks, glancing back at Nobunaga with a malignant grin. The tension would be short-lived, however, as Shizuku used her demonic vacuum cleaner to knock Nobunaga out cold with a single wallop to the back of the skull. It was a strike Nobunaga never saw coming, nor any of the Spiders, for that matter. 'My god, these people are strange,' Killua thought, wincing as Shizuku landed the audible blow on Nobunaga's skull. In his mind's eye, Killua saw Chrollo casually crushing Nijiiro's hand without warning, an act that became even more grim with the understanding that they were actually husband and wife. Could it be...that a ritual far darker was hiding among the bizarre camaraderie of  criminals who spent one minute killing for each other and the next trying to kill each other?\n\t“H-hey, weren't you on his side?” Phinks stuttered, surprised to see Shizuku actually commit to an attack against Nobunaga, and far more surprised to see it stick.\n\t“Fighting between members is forbidden. The rules are absolute,” Shizuku said, as one reciting a passage from a textbook, “and when we reject the rules, we reject the Spider. And we also reject the Boss. I don't want to do that.”  Shalnark's phone began playing Nijiiro's ringtone, and he made a sound something akin to a Maltese being trod upon by a sumo wrestler. Shalnark cleared his throat and held up the phone.\n\t“It's the chain-user,” Shalnark announced. Phinks took the phone.\n\t“Hell-” Phinks began, almost pleasantly, before Kurapika cut him off.\n\t“Put one of the hostages on the phone,” Kurapika ordered. Phinks' lip curled.\n\t“Here, kid, it's your mama!” Phinks grunted, and held the phone against Killua's ear as roughly as possible.\n\t“Are they all there?” Kurapika asked. Killua could hear the exhaustion in his voice, thinking, 'I guess Kurapika and the Founder of the Gennei Ryodan are a pretty terrible combination, after all. She's probably already gotten under his skin. He's going to have a hard time keeping a lid on his rage around that woman...But Gon and I are pretty much out of options outside of a prisoner exchange. The Spiders, at least some of them, seem to think their Founder is capable of some miraculous escape that the other member wasn't, whereas Gon and I escaping now is a foregone conclusion. The footing is far from equal. Please, recognize that, Kurapika...'\n\t“They are now, but they're talking about going after the leader-” Killua blurted quickly, before Phinks took the phone away again, glaring daggers at Killua.\n\t“Careful what you say, kid. Hello? Y-” Phinks said, preparing to threaten Kurapika with an assortment of painful techniques inflicted on the hostages if the chain-user dared to cut him off just one more time.\n\t“You have thirty minutes to return to your hideout. If you aren't all present at that time, I will kill the hostage,” Kurapika said, cutting Phinks off smoothly before hanging up.\n\t“Fuck!” said Phinks, with considerable passion. He threw the phone back to Shalnark.\n\t“We won't be able to follow the Boss now,” noted Shizuku, in her endless quest to state the obvious.\n\t“Tch,” Feitan scoffed. He was itching to find whomever or whatever had turned half of the Spiders into sentimental ninnies and reduce it down to a painful, bloody pulp. But to reach the hideout in time, they would have to run at top speed for several blocks and catch the next train on the half-hour out to the edge of town, followed by more running. All while hauling two hostages that must not be allowed to escape, and Nobunaga's unconscious dead weight. What a pain.\n\t“Let's go,” Machi glowered at Killua, more tempted than ever to pay him back for her broken ribs. The pain and shortness of breath were beginning to chafe at her, and now she was being forced to run. Not only run, but run back to the hideout with her tail between her legs. She gave Killua a look to melt permafrost. 'I haven't really done anything to you, you know,' thought Killua helplessly as they began to run, Machi's eyes still glaring daggers into Killua's back as they took off for the train station. He sighed. Moving as a group, with injured members, they surprisingly easy to keep pace with. \n\tAboard the train, Phinks and Machi muttered to one another angrily, while Feitan eyed the sleeping Nobunaga with a mixture of disgust and suspicion. Shalnark, who had been conscripted into carrying Nobunaga, sat silently next to his burden with a worried expression on his usually cheerful face. Pakunoda frowned at the floor, cradling her broken arm against her ample chest.  Killua glanced over to Gon, who was already looking to him for some kind of cue. Killua simply nodded his head at Pakunoda. She was the lynch pin in all of this. If Pakunoda wanted to read their memories, she would be able to do it, and Kurapika would kill Nijiiro, condemning them to die at the hands of their captors. And if she chose to follow Kurapika's orders, it would be possible to make an exchange, assuming the others didn't interfere. It was Pakunoda who held the key to their survival.",
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      "body": "@@ -22224,17 +22224,16 @@\n  Danchou\n-*\n , wait!%E2%80%9D\n",
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      "author": "beestmode",
      "permlink": "a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xi",
      "title": "A HunterXHunter Fanfic (Part XI)",
      "body": "@@ -865,16 +865,92 @@\n art-ix)%0A\n+%5BPart X%5D(https://steemit.com/life/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-x)%0A\n  #### _S\n@@ -1611,17 +1611,16 @@\n %0A%09%E2%80%9CDomo,\n-*\n %E2%80%9D Nijiir\n",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"art\",\"life\",\"anime\",\"manga\",\"hunterxhunter\"],\"image\":[\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png\"],\"links\":[\"https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i\",\"https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii\",\"https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii\",\"https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv\",\"https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v\",\"https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi\",\"https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vii\",\"https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-viii\",\"https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ix\",\"https://steemit.com/life/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-x\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}"
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      "author": "beestmode",
      "permlink": "a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-xi",
      "title": "A HunterXHunter Fanfic (Part XI)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n[Part III](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii)\n[Part IV](https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv)\n[Part V](https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v)\n[Part VI](https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi)\n[Part VII](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vii)\n[Part VIII](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-viii)\n[Part IX](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ix)\n #### _September 4th, YorkNew City, 10:00PM_\nNijiiro's head slammed into the moon-roof of a richly upholstered white sedan with fake plates before landing on the generously proportioned memory-foam seat. Face down in the leather, she could sense it smelled ever so slightly of new car and old blood. Her favorite.\n\t“You can't slam the hostage around like that!!” Leorio snapped, hurling himself into the driver's seat, and buckling his safety belt. For...you know, safety. \n\t“Shut up!” Kurapika snapped back, “He's lighter than I thought he'd-” He stopped, as Nijiiro wriggled into an upright position, and her hood fell back to reveal her rather feminine face. \n\t“Domo,*” Nijiiro replied gregariously. Kurapika's eyes widened for a second, his gorgeous pink lip curled with a moment's frustration before the cold adrenaline regained control of his thought process.\n\t“Drive!” shouted Kurapika, and Leorio whipped into action at once. The car lurched forward, its momentum slamming the open car door shut and causing several vehicles around them to slam on their horns anxiously. Nijiiro was thrown backward into the seat with a grunt, and she knew it was a moment she couldn't afford to waste. She twisted her broken hand painfully far, or just far enough to let the phone tucked inside her sleeve slide down into the gap between the seat cushions and the upright cushions of the luxury car's interior. She'd need to retrieve it quickly, but it was better than the Kurta getting his hands on the information it might reveal in its unlocked state. If it remained untouched for a full five minutes, it would automatically re-lock its screen, among other security measures, but Nijiiro had no way of knowing when or how invasive a bodily search might be coming. With great effort, Nijiiro wound the cord of her earbuds around her fingers and shoved the headphones into the gap behind the mobile.  All in less than two seconds. 'I definitely deserve a medal this time.' she thought. She instinctively drew a deep breath as the chains around her tightened down against her body. Her arms were forced to her sides, and her knees were pulled together awkwardly, inviting her to squirm but giving her almost no room to do so. Her heart began to race as the reality of where she was set in. She was in the middle of it. Her own opera. The danger was palpable, the score comprised only of traffic sounds and her own pulse as it jumped frantically in her throat. Her mouth began to salivate, and she fought the urge to make a noise that implied a minimal sense of humanity. She looked at Kurapika as she felt her aura dissipate, rendering her into a helpless state of Zetsu. Her heart began to race even faster, and she wondered if the total loss of her control of  the situation would bring about an untimely anxiety attack. But under the agitation, another part of her body began to feel her quickening pulse. As he looked Nijiiro over, Kurapika's aura crackled and turned with rage, a white-hot glow that forced its way through the surface of his Ten like lava that churned freely under a thin, cracked layer of solid rock. Nijiiro felt the fabric of her panties begin to dampen and cling to her body, hating the urge to moan and her urge to stifle her moans in equal measure. She turned away and looked out of the window, trying to regain control of her breathing. \n\t“That's not the man you were targeting, is it?” Senritsu asked calmly, even though the anxiety in the car was deafening. “Who is she?”\n\t“Doesn't matter,” Kurapika replied brusquely. “She'll be a hostage, or she'll die. And that's all there is to it.” Nijiiro laughed quietly. 'There's more to it, Golden Boy. A lot more,' she thought, staring out of the rain-spattered glass. Her nether regions twitched incessantly in a bid for something her conscious mind could not yet name. “Is there something funny about that?” Kurapika hissed, and Nijiiro couldn't stop herself from turning her head just enough to cast a sideward glance at his dour expression and the incredible aura which surrounded it. \n\t“My name...is Nijiiro,” she said, slightly out of breath, “but my friends call me Saisho...”\n\t“I am not your friend,” Kurapika growled. Nijiiro smiled and closed her eyes.\n\t“Ah, you're ever so cold,” she said, turning her head to look at him properly. “Have I, perhaps, done something to upset you?” \n\t“Don't assume that I am calm enough to sit here and endure your taunts,” Kurapika said darkly, “The next words out of your mouth could be your last.”\n\t“I'm quaking in my boots,” Nijiiro said, continuing to smile. She was indeed shifting in her seat, but not exactly out of fear. “Are you really a woman?”\n\t“Did I ever say that I was?” Kurapika spat, swiftly removing his wig and wiping the pink stains, hastily created by a red cinnamon candy from the hotel lobby, from his frowning mouth. \n\t“No, but I've trimmed my nails just in case,” Nijiiro said, leaning in closer to Kurapika in her seat. In the front seat, Leorio cleared his throat and tried his best to concentrate on traffic. Senritsu frowned intently and thought, 'What an absolute deviant...' but ultimately said nothing. \n\t“Whatever...sort of nonsense you are spouting-” Kurapika began, acutely aware that he didn't actually understand the provocation she offered.\n\t“I'll explain it to you when you're older,” Nijiiro answered wryly, without missing a beat. \n\t“Shut up! Don't continue to test my patience with you!” Kurapika snarled, and his chains tightened around Nijiiro harshly. “You'll find I'm at my limit.” Nijiiro gasped and writhed as the cold metal pressed sharply into her flesh. She strained against the chains and bit her lips to keep a series of low, desperate moans behind them. There was a yearning ache building between her legs that became more insistent by the second, and she twisted against it hopelessly. The pain in her broken hand had given way to numbness, as the severe swelling dampened the efficacy of her peripheral nerves. She was dimly aware that the clamant throbbing in her lower bits would need to be sated or risk ruining her concentration, and in this dangerous and turbulent situation, no less. \n\t“I seem to be...at my limit...as well...” Nijiiro panted, looking at the ceiling but thinking about the tension in her nipples. 'What is...wrong with me...' she thought, licking her lips, and pressing her eyes closed tightly.\n\t“Hah! You think a little claustrophobia will make me loosen these chains for you? If you can mouth off, you can breathe, which means I'll be tightening them until you shut it and behave yourself. If you want to keep breathing, you should shut up immediately. I won't be showing mercy, even if you ask for it.” Kurapika said, his eyes wide and his mouth serious.  \n\t“Wouldn't...dream of it,” Nijiiro answered, her voice raw with sensation.\n\t“Uh, I don't think she has-” Senritsu said softly, her round face flushed. \n\t“Quiet!” Kurapika yelled back. Nijiiro smiled, knowing how quickly her fun would end if Kurapika knew how...captivated...she truly was inside his chains. \n\t“But-” Senristu began, and Nijiiro, acting instinctively, threw the rapier-sharp end of her boot heel through the passenger seat, the tip emerging on the very top edge of Senritsu's ear.  Senritsu started and turned about in her seat as she felt the sharp metal graze her skin.\n\t“No spoilers, Senritsu-san,” she hissed, her rainbowed eyes practically glowing in the darkened backseat. Kurapika wrapped more and more of his Nen chains around Nijiiro until she could barely move.\n\t“Did you not hear what I just said?!” Kurapika barked as he shook her bound form at the end of the chain roughly, his eyes beginning to flash red. Seeing the burning scarlet color from barely a meter away had a profound effect on Nijiiro's body temperature, and she shivered in spite of the warmth that flushed her pale face. \n\t“Ah!” Nijiiro sputtered, her muscles a little sore from struggling against the intense weight and pressure of Kurapika's chains.\n\t“You will regret that,” Kurapika snarled  from across the sedan's plush tan cab.\n\t“I regret it...already,” Nijiiro gasped, “Hah...Now this...is a proper torment... You must be very nettled...Is it because my Spiders murdered your entire clan and tore the eyes from their dead skulls?”\n\t“You fucking scum! You think I won't end your life?!” Kurapika screamed, drawing out his judgment chain. Nijiiro realized she was staring at his lips as he said this, wondering what the faint cinnamon sugar candy smears might taste like on them. \n\t“Kurapika! Don't listen to taunts right now!” Leorio warned from the front seat.\n\t“Ouch. That hurt my feelings. Now we're both in the wrong,” Nijiiro smirked, feigning an air of regret. “Besides, you've left your dear little friends behind, haven't you? I know you won't.” Kurapika's face became a little colder, but appeared all the more menacing for it. He muttered something and looked out the window, trying to regain control of himself and struggling. She licked her lips as the blood in her body rushed to every organ except the one that could think her way out of this. She  needed to let the steam out, before she went crazy, and for that, a little manipulation was in order. Using what minuscule degree of mobility the chains still allowed, Nijiiro wiggled until her head fell into Kurapika's lap, her disheveled silver mane spilling over his knee and her eyes staring into his from behind her veil. Kurapika turned with a look of abject disgust, questioning her sanity while too surprised to say it aloud, but Nijiiro spoke softly before he could move to shove her back off of his person.\n\t“Hey...Kurapika...Do you...want to kill me?” she said, her tone all seriousness. She squirmed against his chains, feeling the slick moisture that had crept down the inside of her thighs spread an inch farther. He smelled so good.\n\t“You...are completely insane...” he said slowly. Nijiiro sighed with relief. 'He's probably right,' she thought.\n\t“I must be,” she said softly. “You see, when I imagined what the proud avenger of the Kurta might look like, I thought of an intimidating sort of person with enough power to bravely fight my Spiders vis-a-vis. But what do I find instead?” Nijiiro's condescending smirk widened into a toothy condescending grin. “A lipstick-wearing pantywaist who can't even kill a defenseless woman quite literally within his grasp. I pity your clan, who must be rolling in their graves about now...” Burying her face in his shirt, Nijiiro felt the well-defined muscles in Kurapika's abdomen bunch as his rage built to a fever pitch. She was so close. “I bet your insides taste like fucking cotton candy...” she moaned softly, flicking her tongue out over the fabric of his shirt for emphasis. Just one more push until he broke, one little sentence until he went over the edge. “...So...would you like to know which of your relatives were cowards, too?”  \n\tKurapika let a ferine shriek that could hardly be described as human and his chains wrapped themselves around Nijiiro's neck. He seized the ends of them as with a garrote wire, and pulled sharply, pinning Nijiiro's entrammelled figure down between his legs as she struggled against his weight and forceful asphyxiation. She drank in the sight of his sanguine eyes, utterly taken by their vibrancy, and her hips thrust forward impulsively even as her eyes rolled back. Nijiiro came silently, her cries of ecstasy muted completely by Kurapika's relentless stranglehold, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish out of water, until darkness began creeping into the edges of her vision. Her spent body quickly became too heavy to struggle against him, even though her insides continued to twitch and contract  eagerly. She was vaguely aware of the car being pulled over, and some shouting being exchanged as the car door was wrenched open from the outside.\n\t“Kurapika! KURAPIKA! Hey! If you kill her, I swear to god I will beat you senseless!” Leorio shouted, dragging Kurapika off of Nijiiro's prostrate form. He sighed with relief when he saw her chest rise and fall once, and she coughed and wheezed her way back to full consciousness. She sat up arduously, feeling a little dizzy but very satisfied. \n\t“GODDAMIT!” Kurapika roared, punching a large dent in the trunk and causing the whole vehicle to bounce on its axles. He climbed back into the backseat of the car and slammed the door so hard the interior handle snapped off in his grip. He flung the broken handle onto the floorboards and glared at it for several minutes while they drove in sullen quietude. Senritsu was the first to break the silence.\n\t“You are really...a seriously abnormal individual,” she frowned, looking at Nijiiro in the rear-view mirror. “I can't believe you'd actually...stake your life...on...” Senritsu furrowed her brow, not sure how to describe what she'd witnessed.\n\t“I regret nothing,” Nijiiro replied coyly, her voice a little raspy. 'Now that...that...is out of the way...' Nijiiro thought, still wanting another round but leery of the odds regarding her survival. He had very nearly crushed her windpipe.\n\t“Good,” said Leorio sternly, glancing back at her in the rear-view mirror for a second, “because if you decide to goad him again, I won't be dragging him off of you a second time. Treat your life more preciously in the future.”\n\t“Why? Because I could die? Death isn't nearly as frightening as you seem to believe,” Nijiiro said gently. \n\t“Say that once you've done it,” Kurapika growled, still staring at the floorboards.\n\t“Oh, but I have,” Nijiiro replied, in the same gentle voice, “...twice.” Kurapika let out a harsh laugh, one that sounded more like a bark. It was a sound full of bitterness.\n\t“If you insist on this, this babbling of falsehoods-” Kurapika said slowly.\n\t“She's not lying,” Senritsu interjected. The air in the car seemed a little colder, all of a sudden. Kurapika leaned forward, to where Senritsu sat with her eyes wide and staring.\n\t“...What are you talking about?” he whispered.\n\t“She's telling the truth. Her heartbeat is honest, and completely undisturbed by any of this...she's...simply not afraid to die...I can hear something in her that eludes death...it's feral and savage... It's – it's haunting and lonely, dark, deep and fierce like, like a storm. It's frightening, like...endless screaming from some ancient time! What is this madness?! This sound...This sound isn't human! This is the accursed howling of some wild creature!! I don't want to hear this anymore!” Senritsu closed her dull brown eyes and turned away, seemingly overcome with sensory data.\n\t“Well said,” Nijiiro commented nonchalantly. “I'm glad I didn't kill you earlier, goblin.” Senritsu flinched and looked up into the rear-view mirror indignantly.\n\t“You...what kind of monster are you...?” Kurapika said, his aura showing its first shred of uncertainty. \n\t“A Spider, of course,” Nijiiro said smiling humorlessly. It had been a long day, and it was only going to get longer from hereon. She leaned her head against the cool glass of the car window, watching Kurapika's face closely in the reflective surface. The pivotal objectives of her plan could still be achieved, and she had now formulated a decisive stratagem by which to achieve them. It brought her no satisfaction. \n\t“You had better hope your Spider friends value your life more than you do,” Kurapika scowled.\n\t“I wouldn't count on it,” Nijiiro said in the same sober tone, her mouth a crooked frown, “I may the founder and all, but I'm not nearly as popular as you might think. Too bad you couldn't get the acting Boss. He's infinitely more valuable. Handsome, too.” She let a wistful sigh.\n\t“Kurapika, we have to arrange the exchange soon,” Leorio said anxiously. Kurapika patted down Nijiiro's pockets in search of a phone, but came up empty.\n\t“Looking for something?” Nijiiro purred innocently.\n\t“Your cell phone, you reprobate. Where is it?” Kurapika said coldly.\n\t“Three guesses,” Nijiiro smiled, twisting her shoulders forward in a way that accentuated her buxom anterior. Leorio cleared his throat again rather loudly and squinted at oncoming traffic as though he didn't trust it. \n\t“I don't guess,” Kurapika said sternly, purposefully ignoring the hint. He pulled out his dowsing chain, only to discover that Nijiiro did indeed have a cellular phone hiding somewhere amid her ample cleavage. Nijiiro began to laugh then, slowly at first but quickly giving way to a loud cackling not unlike that of an excited hyena. \n\t“Kurapika?” Leorio asked, looking back at the grinning Spider and her decidedly vexed captor. “Uh, if I could, er, help with anything back there, I'm willing to-”\n\t“Just keep your eyes on the road, Leorio. And you,” Kurapika snapped, turning back to Nijiiro, “Not another fucking word out of you, until you're told to speak, or you'll be traveling the rest of the way behind this car, understood?” He held up his Nen chain for effect.\n\t“Yes, Daddy,” Nijiiro said, leaning forward obsequiously. It occurred to Leorio that not one of the people in the car, including him, would really be able to handle this particular young lady's unique personality. In fact, she seemed poised to twist any one their minds into absolute lunacy at a whim, even though her body and Nen were both bound in full. Kurapika pulled Nijiiro's coat open, feeling gently across the fabric of her shirt until he felt the outline of the phone's rectangular casing, and then, looking pointedly away from Nijiiro's smug face, reached in between her sizable bosoms to draw out the thin device that sat directly against her skin, beneath her underthings. It was very warm in his hand, and he tried not to think about the sweet jasmine scent that clung to it as he tried to power it on. The screen that glowed in his palm looked like a cross between a strobe light and a kaleidoscope, and he realized, much to his own chagrin, that he must have crushed it when he'd attempted to murder her a few minutes ago. Nijiiro watched him struggle for a long moment, before...\n\t“...That's alright. I've got a spare in my boot,” she said cheerfully. Kurapika's eyes flashed their brilliant scarlet fire yet again, his mouth parting slightly in disbelief.\n\t“You could've mentioned that earlier!” he shouted, snatching it easily from the top of her right boot. His face was flushed again, and it made her inner hedonist smile.\n\t“You could have bought me dinner first,” she retorted, enjoying the quivering rage that brought out his beautiful blazing eyes. She could look at them forever. She knew that if she didn't stop tormenting him soon, however, she'd be seeing them for the rest of her life. Kurapika scowled at her contacts list. It was long, bizarrely long, and unintelligible, but thankfully there was a number listed under “Nobu”, which Kurapika fervently hoped referred to the one known as “Nobunaga.” He dialed and waited. A deep, gruff male voice picked up on the second ring.\n\t“Hello?” said Phinks suspiciously.\n\t“My demands are threefold. The general rule is that my demands are absolute. If you don't obey, I will kill your founder. The first is that you do not attempt to follow me. The second, is that you will not harm the two hostages in any way. The third, is that you will put the woman named Pakunoda on the phone.” Kurapika spoke with absolute confidence, even though his unfocused eyes were bouncing slightly in their sockets, a classic sign of repressed anxiety Nijiiro could spot with ease. \n\t“Before that, can I ask you one thing? It's about the second demand...The hostages put up a struggle, and so we had to break a few bones...” Phinks said slowly, a malevolent grin perceptible in his voice, even across the phone line.\n\t“Then we're done negotiating.” Kurapika said, ending the call abruptly. Nijiiro laughed softly.\n\t“That's the problem with running a circus, you see, the clowns never get along,” she murmured, having some idea as to what manner of discussion might be taking place among the Spiders at that very moment. The phone rang in Kurapika's hand.\n\t“What?” Kurapika answered frostily.\n\t“Sorry. That was a lie. The hostages are fine,” Phinks muttered, jarred by the realization that the 'chain-user' wasn't thoroughly daunted by him, and would not act as such.\n\t“This is your final warning. Do not fool around, or I will kill your founder. Put Pakunoda on the phone, now,” Kurapika commanded.\n\t“Hello?” Pakunoda's sullen voice said, hesitantly.\n\t“You're the only one permitted to hear what I am about to say. Move away from the others,” Kurapika said. There was a slight pause, while Paku presumably complied with his instructions. Nijiiro found herself fairly surprised that no one had blown a fuse yet, and refused to let the others cooperate. It was bound to happen, and sooner than later. Nijiiro closed her eyes and concentrated on escaping Kurapika's chains, and Chrollo's soon after. “...Have you made contact with a man named Squalla?”\n\t“Yeah,” replied Paku.\n\t“Then you know of a woman named Senritsu, too?”\n\t“...Yeah...”\n\t“Then I can make this brief. Listen carefully to what I say. You are forbidden from communicating with the others. No using Nen. No talking, writing, signaling, gesturing, or making eye contact. None of that is allowed. Understood?”\n\t“I understa- Danchou*, wait!” Pakunoda's voice faded, and another voice, as smooth and dark as Italian coffee, took its place.\n\t“What is it that you want?” said Chrollo, far too calmly. The look in his eyes certainly didn't correlate.\n\t“Hand the phone back to Pakunoda, and move away,” Kurapika said sternly. 'Here we go' Nijiiro thought. Her instincts told her, accurately, who was interrupting the call. And that he would not be moving away.\n\t“No.”\n\t“The offer I am prepared to make is heavily predicated on your ability to adhere to my demands without question. I have your found-”\n\t“You have my wife,” Chrollo spoke through the receiver, his tone running deeper than original sin. Kurapika's eyes widened ever so slightly and he turned to look at Nijiiro. She smiled back at him, until he saw the plain gold wedding band encircling the correct finger on her glove-less left hand, for the first time. The car's interior seemed to tilt a little. \n\t“Kurapika? What's wrong?” Senritsu turned around worriedly. The emotional range of Kurapika's heart had suddenly begun bouncing around like a bottle rocket in a closed coffee can. \n\t“...In any case, you should understand that we are now on equal footing. The penalty for further insolence is singular: our negotiations are over. My demands-”\n\t“What are your demands? I have no desire to repeat myself in this manner.” Chrollo replied, keeping his voice very level.\n\t“Pakunoda will-”\n\t“Pakunoda will remain with the Ryodan. Whatever impetration you intend to make, will be made to me. I alone will take responsibility. Consider this a demand, if you will, because it is not negotiable. And as the leader of the Gennei Ryodan, my cooperation is of more value to you, is it not? It is far better for both of us this way. So state your demands.”\n\t“...Very well, under the prerequisite that Pakunoda adheres to the commands I have already given her, I will accept your involvement...for now. You will not speak to or communicate with any other member of the Ryodan. You must come alone, to the place I designate. If your heart rate changes, even in the slightest, I will kill the hostage. Now give the phone to some one besides Pakunoda,” Kurapika said, the shift in his confidence imperceptible to anyone but Nijiiro and, to lesser extent, Senritsu. There was a slight pause, before Kurapika continued issuing instructions to the next Spider.\n\t“Here,” said Nobunaga. \n\t“I'll be meeting with your leader, alone. The rest of the Ryodan must return to your hideout immediately. All remaining members must be there. If even one is missing, at any point, I will kill the hostage. If any of you attempt to use Nen, I will kill the hostage. Understood?” Kurapika said slowly, to which Nobunaga grunted his assent. He felt as if he were missing something. But even as his mind ran back and forth around the situation, from every imaginable angle, everything was proceeding exactly as it should. Aside from nearly killing his hostage, of course, but there was no time to dwell on that aspect just yet. She was still alive, at least. He glanced over at Nijiiro. She was looking out the window, lost in her own thoughts, or so it appeared to Kurapika. In reality, she was using her incomprehensibly precise vision to watch his expression in the reflective glass, absorbing data about him and his companions the way a sponge might passively absorb any liquid into which it was set. 'He's probably thinking something along the lines of things-are-going-well-and-maybe-too-well...ah, but don't worry, Golden Boy, you're right on both counts. Things are going to go exactly as planned, whether you like it or not, and they're going too well, because it was never your plan to begin with. All in good time.' “Give the phone back to your leader,” Kurapika commanded.\n\t“Speaking,” said Chrollo, somehow perfectly conveying that he was in no mood to do so.\n\t“You will come to Ringon airfield, by eleven o'clock. You must come alone. I will contact you again with further instructions.” Kurapika hung up without bothering to confirm whether Chrollo intended to follow his instructions. The air in the cab felt almost suffocating, and for some reason, the thought of having to call the leader of the Gennei Ryodan again was as thoroughly uncomfortable a prospect as he'd ever faced. He drew a deep breath. \n\t“Just wait until you meet him,” Nijiiro said softly, as if she were reading Kurapika's mind in real time. “He's even more attractive in person.”  She smiled at the dissatisfied expression on Kurapika's delicate features. Of course, Kurapika was equally attractive, in Nijiiro's book, albeit in a radically different way.  Her legs were starting to go numb, the Nen chains wrapped around being far too tight, although she couldn't bring herself to complain. The aura surrounding them, and Kurapika himself, was a thing of staggering beauty. \n\t“Didn't I tell you to can it already?” Kurapika intoned, with considerably less venom than before. The fact that she was half of a married couple had certainly thrown him for a loop, and he realized why. She was his age. The founder of the Gennei Ryodan, which had existed for a minimum of six years now, was probably no more than twenty, which meant... He looked her over again, from her silver hair, her strange veil, the soft, full pouting lips that sat like a dark rose on her pale face, and finally to the livid maroon bruises on her white throat which were growing darker by the minute, clear outlines of his Nen chains visibly stamped into her flesh. Clear proof  that his grasp of the Gennei Ryodan, and how it operated, was timorous at best. 'None of that matters,' he thought, facing forward in his seat and straightening his posture, 'Nothing changes the fact the they massacred my people. I'll learn as much or a little about them as is necessary to defeat all of those responsible. My objectives are no more and no less than the total annihilation of the ones who call themselves the Gennei Ryodan...' \n\t“You certainly did...But if were to stay silent, I wouldn't be able to answer the question you're about to ask,” Nijiiro answered confidently. Kurapika's mouth, which had opened slightly to ask the aforementioned question, clamped shut again, his jaw tightening with uncertainty. He refused to be spooked by serendipitous guessing.\n\t“What question would that be?” he quizzed, unintentionally admitting that there was indeed a question on his mind.\n\t“The answer,” Nijiiro continued, “is that while I am indeed the founder of the Gennei Ryodan, in the dictionary sense of the word, and I could, perhaps, tell you the names and abilities of those involved in the massacre of the Kurta, neither threat nor supplication on your part will earn you shred  of useful information. Give up now.”\n\t“What?” Kurapika growled in response. She had anticipated the question, all right.\n\t“Allow me to phrase it in a way that you might understand better,” she said, turning to face him with an eerie grin. Her eyes seemed to glow behind their veil, and Kurapika resisted the impulse to distance himself from his ostensibly helpless captive. “Go to hell, dipshit.” Kurapika felt the words as much he heard them. His heart began to pound, and Senritsu wheeled around in her seat.\n\t“What happened?!” she squeaked emphatically, searching for evidence of a deadly struggle of some kind. For the first time since they'd met, Kurapika's heart had gone full-tilt towards terror. 'It can't be...it's a coincidence...she can't be using any kind of ability, not with my Chain Jail around her. Casually speaking the last words of her fellow Spider just to toy with me is certainly possible, but the only one with knowledge of what his last words were is I, and even if her Nen ability is similar to Pakunoda's she has no way to use it right now. All of these...coincidental responses...are far from magical, but even so, she seems to have a remarkable read on me. Killua mentioned as much earlier, but now it's obvious that whatever she's doing is not a Nen ability. Superhuman abilities like telepathy and precognition aren't possible while she's captured, so if I refuse to let her under my skin and stay calm, her ability to manipulate the situation will be nil.'\t\n\t“Do you honestly believe you're in control, Kurapika?” Nijiiro said, breaking his concentration entirely. He swallowed. She might be able to follow his train of thought, but it wouldn't undo her paralysis.\n\t“I believe it's time for you to stop talking,” he said darkly. She was clearly doing this to rattle him, which meant the last thing he should do would be to begin doubting himself. \n\t“And here we finally getting on so well, you and I,” she cooed, an artificial layer of saccharine sweetness laid over her voice. \n\t“Please don't even insinuate that you and I have anything in common,” Kurapika chided.\n\t“More than you think, Kurta,” Nijiiro countered, surprising herself by voicing aloud what she had perhaps meant to keep silent. \n\t“...What is that supposed to mean, exactly?” Kurapika inquired slowly. He wondered whether she would simply use the opportunity to continue jeering at him, but her sober tone hinted at something else entirely. She was quiet for a moment, as she scrambled to tell the truth, without revealing anything that could endanger the success of her plan. She settled for the most obvious truth of all.\n\t“I get the feeling that neither of us cares much for body snatchers,” she asserted, “and for much the same reason.”\n\t“Body snatchers?” Kurapika asked, not familiar with the term. He knew he'd heard it somewhere before. Senritsu cleared her throat. Nijiiro saw Senritsu's face make a decidedly guilty twitch every time the phrase was spoken aloud. There could be no doubt. 'Interesting...so she's one, as well,' mused Nijiiro. How delightfully unexpected.\n\t“It's a...colloquial term for hunters of human trophies,” Senritsu explained.\n\t“I knew you were a liar, a barbarian, and a thief, but isn't that a little too much?” Kurapika snarled. She was mocking him yet again, and he'd nearly fallen for it this time. “That you would actually try to say-”\n\t“Amazing, Kurapika... Everything you've just uttered...is completely wrong,” Nijiiro offered earnestly, shaking her head. “I'm not a professional thief, nor am I as brutishly uncultured as you seem to think. And I never lie.” \n\t“I look forward to shutting your mouth permanently,” Kurapika said angrily, “and if I have to hear one more pathetic con out of you...”\n\t“She's not lying,” Senritsu sputtered suddenly.\n\t“Senritsu, you can't be serious,” Kurapika hissed, “whatever sounds her heart make, her words are objectively false.”\n\t“Be that as it may... Just like lies, honesty has its own sound. Her heart has held a rhythm of absolute honesty, from the very beginning. I don't think she has any intention of lying, either. She's saying what she believes is the complete and utter truth.” Kurapika made a pained expression.\n\t“I see,” he groaned to no one in particular, “she's a lunatic who believes her own lies.” Nijiiro sighed.\n\t“I'm a lunatic of a very different kind. Why don't you take this veil off and see for yourself?” she suggested gently, her voice almost a whisper. Kurapika's curiosity soared in tandem with his uneasiness. She had invited him to do it, which suggested danger, but also had no way to follow through with a surprise attack, given that her Nen was completely sealed. Even if the removal of the veil was a precondition for some sort of Nen attack, the attack wouldn't be able to form without releasing the chains on her body. On the other hand...Kurapika had assumed that the veil hid a sort of damage or blemish that Nijiiro was keen on concealing. He was certainly intrigued to know what it could be, if it were otherwise... 'No, I can't take an unnecessary risk like that,' Kurapika thought, before looking up to find his own hand clutching the end of the velvet ribbon that held her veil in place. He tugged it loose, and the scrap of white tulle and lace slid off easily. Nijiiro sat for a moment, her eyes still closed. “I am not in the habit of repeating myself,” she said, “but given the way that...extenuating circumstances... beget a certain, necessary degree of disbelief on your part...I'll say it just one more time. I do not lie.” She opened her eyes and looked at Kurapika. Senritsu gasped. \n\t“What the hell is-” Leorio blurted loudly, nearly slamming into the back of a heavy truck attempting to switch lanes in front of them. He hit the brakes suddenly, and the entire car pitched forward, nearly spilling Nijiiro out of her seat. Kurapika seized both of Nijiiro's shoulders roughly, to keep her in place, and wound up staring directly into her prismatic irises. It was like a magnetic force was dragging him inward, although not in a physical sense. He had to tear himself away, or risk sinking into the inescapable metaphysical tar pits that stared at him from Nijiiro's delicate face. His conscious mind refused to phrase his feeling, but some subliminal fraction of his brain knew they were the most exquisite thing he'd ever seen. He felt his pulse jumping in his throat wildly. He wanted to keep looking at them.\n\t“Those eyes... Those are the legendary...but they're not supposed to be real!” Senritsu exclaimed as the car righted its course. \n\t“Legendary? What do you mean?” Leorio asked, looking from the obviously stunned Kurapika to the scared-looking Senritsu. \n\t“Any career pro Hunter would know the story. Almost three hundred years ago, some manuscripts were found in Kakin, in ancient ruins, detailing the exodus of people who allegedly had angelic blood and rainbows for eyes. It was assumed that these manuscripts were using flowery or figurative language, until about ten years ago, when a pro hunter claimed he had seen them in person. He refused to say when or where. But since then, collectors and human trophy hunters have aggressively sought after any possibility of finding them, offering billions in exchange even for information about where they might be found. One group of collectors even pooled their funds, under a contract of mutual ownership, and the reward for capturing the rainbow eyes has soared to over three hundred billion. It's said that...there's only one pair in existence...” Senritsu finished, and shuddered. She was afraid of those eyes based on legend alone, and now they were boring holes into the back of her seat.\n\t“Correctement,” Nijiiro said softly.\n\t“Th-three hundred billion?!” Leorio shouted.\n\t“Three hundred ten, but who's counting? ...You hear that, Golden Boy? Today is your lucky day. I may not be too valuable as a hostage, but if you'd like to sell me for parts, you could hire endless numbers of assassins to wipe out the Ryodan for you and still make a tidy profit. Ah, but somehow, I don't think you would actually do that,” Nijiiro said slyly, “since you probably find that sort of thing unsavory, no?” Kurapika remained silent. \n\t“How could anything, even a human trophy, be worth three hundred billion....” Leorio said, glancing back at Nijiiro, before hurriedly turning back to the busy traffic of YorkNew City. Truly, she had ceased to look like a real person to him as soon as her veil was lifted, or more accurately, she seemed too pretty to be real. With her unnaturally pale skin, full bust, pouting lips, and wild eyes, she seemed more like an uncanny life-size doll that some crazed sculptor had wished to life by selling his soul. \n\t“Because...every hunter that went after them has disappeared without a trace, or died a gruesome death, everything from torture and poisoning to suicide. Pursuing them has been labeled a fool's errand, of S-rank difficulty, due to what was called the “Angel's Curse” at the time. Powerful hunters, at that. The two of you are too new to know much about this, but a decade ago, it was the foremost exemplar of the Hunter Association's zeitgeist, with large numbers of Hunters and hired criminals alike viciously competing to discover the rarest prizes, including human trophies. It became intense enough, that the general public began to question what the difference between a pro Hunter and a 'body snatcher' even was, and a large reform effort was made within the Hunter Association by its members, to preserve the image of the Association and set better ethical standards for pro Hunters. During that time, I never met a single Hunter who believed that the Angel's Curse was real....” Senritsu clasped her hands and stared at them, wondering whether helping Kurapika had doomed her to a grisly death.\n\t“Seeing is believing, goblin. But make no mistake, even though you are guilty of trafficking in human trophies yourself, I bear you no personal malice, certainly not on the cosmic-grudge level of our Golden Boy here. I meant that I dislike body snatchers, the way I dislike the existence of certain other things, like bees and escalators. And as the bearer of another powerful curse, I'll even afford you the choice to remain silent about this night. Recognize the schietto of my heart now, and I can spare you having to hear the stiguendo of your own, capiche?” Nijiiro said glibly, unable to resist to opportunity to make colorful threats. Senritsu sat wondering just how anyone could see the scars of her curse through three layers of clothing, heightened vision or not.\n\t“Shut your mouth, trash,” Kurapika said finally. His aura crackled darkly, its surface becoming dangerously unstable. “Do not threaten her again!”\n\t“Kurapika!” Leorio said sharply, but internally he began to worry. Kurapika had a terrible temper, but never had he made the expression of rage and sorrow that he now made at Nijiiro. His chains clinked lightly with the shaking of his hands, and the edges of his aura began to snap and explode like the surface of boiling oil. \n\t“Of course not. If I have to threaten her more than once, it's not much of a threat. You ought to take notes,” Nijiiro said calmly, looking over toward Kurapika with a slight smirk. “...Or at least stop associating with the body snatching criminals...” Kurapika summoned his full strength and punched her with a nasty left hook that Nijiiro felt all the way to the back of her skull. She tasted blood.\n\t“If...If you understand so well...what it's like to be hunted...then why...WHY?! ANSWER ME!” roared Kurapika, seizing the lapels of Nijiiro's coat and shaking her like a rag doll her until blood dripped from the corners of her mouth.\n\t“Kurapika! Enough! Gon and Killua are risking their lives for you, or have you forgotten! Control yourself, damn it!” Leorio shouted from the driver's seat. Senritsu alone heard the shift in Kurapika's heartbeat from the staccato rhythm of  frothing rage and righteous anger, to a  fervent agitato of pure agony.\n\t“That's an excellent question, Kurapika,”  Nijiiro drawled dispassionately, blood running down her chin in two lines, “But the answer, I'm afraid, is that I'll tell you what I deem necessary, as I see fit. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad*. If you can't accept that...you'll just have to kill me. I certainly deserve it.” Nijiiro finished speaking and shot a sidelong glance at Kurapika as she slumped gracefully back in her padded leather seat. They would arrive at the airfield in roughly twenty minutes. She had to collect her strength for what came next, and fortunately, Zetsu was the perfect state in which to do that. Being a Specialist Nen user granted her a far better grasp of internal Nen manipulation than most, and with a little concentration, she could build up her remaining Nen within the confines of her body, Zetsu be damned. \n\tKurapika dialed another of Nijiiro's Spiders. The first voice to answer his last call was back.\n\t“Hell-” Phinks started to say, more than willing play along this time.\n\t“Put one of the hostages on the phone,” Kurapika commanded. \n\t“Here, kid, it's your mama!” Phinks grunted, and Killua came on the line.\n\t“Are they all there?” Kurapika said. Killua could hear the stress in his voice, and it worried Killua more than he had time to discuss.\n\t“They are now, but they're talking about going after the leader-” he said quickly, before Phinks snatched the phone back.\n\t“Careful what you say, kid. Hello? Y-” Phinks said, ready to give the chain bastard a piece of his mind.\n\t“You have thirty minutes to return to your hideout. If you aren't all present at that time, I will kill the hostage.” Kurapika hung up. His throat was actually sore. How much more could his stamina take? Kurapika couldn't fathom that yet. He'd never used his abilities this long. Nijiiro glanced over Kurapika's aura. The exhaustion was setting in deep, and she decided a break was in order. Besides, if his eyes couldn't turn scarlet at a critical moment, both of them were in deep trouble. Eventually the car came to a slow halt, and Kurapika bolted out of the cab before it reached a complete stop. 'You're far too cruel to your assets, Nijiiro,' she mused silently. Senritsu scurried away to arrange a pair of zeppelins.\n\t“Get out,” Kurapika snapped.\n\t“I can't do that,” Nijiiro said flatly.\n\t“Excuse me?” Kurapika said, not sure whether he could tolerate another second near this woman and her exhausting shtick. \n\t“I mean that my legs have gone numb, and I can't move from where I'm sitting. Not won't, can't. For some one who put in the work to materialize chains, of all things, you're quite abysmal at restraining people,” Nijiiro said. She raised one slender silver eyebrow.\n\t“These chains aren't here to comfort you,” he sneered, yanking her halfway out of the car by said chain. “Get moving.”\n\t“Ha! I'm precious cargo,” she called, her face upside down as she stared out of the cab, to Leorio, who stood just behind Kurapika. “Won't you please carry me instead?” Leorio did a terrible job of pretending he wasn't looking directly down the neckline of Nijiiro's shirt, and nodded.\n\t“I, uh, um, hmmm” -Leorio cleared his throat awkwardly- “I suppose I'll have to, anyway...”\n\t'Virgin!' Nijiiro's inner monologue seemed to shout. The corners of her mouth twitched.\n\t“All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up*,” Nijiiro smiled innocently.\n\t“Mr. Who...?” Leorio puzzled for a moment. And...how close did she want him?\n\t“Get a move on! Now is not the time for pointless chit-chat,” Kurapika directed grimly. He looked around for any signs of surveillance from the perimeter of the airfield, but felt only quiet, the humid air swirling around him uncertainly. Leorio wrapped his arms around Nijiiro as gingerly as possible, lifting her out of the car with his considerable strength the way a father might lift an injured child. 'Despite how you look, you're pretty gentle, aren't you, Leorio?' Nijiiro thought, trying not to giggle at the thought of this simpleton feeling obligated to princess-carry some one who could end his life more expediently than he could sneeze. He stared straight ahead with great effort, not wanting to be distracted by Nijiiro's bizarre eyes a second time, let alone her figure. The perfume drifting up from her hair was enough to cloud his concentration already. Senritsu scuttled back at a surprisingly brisk pace with the particulars of their flight. Nijiiro glanced at her, but immediately returned to building her Nen as quickly as possible, eyes closed. To escape these chains would be no small feat, even if she did have the power to do it.\n\t“There's a private flight arranged for the lightweight ship in dock fourteen. I got express air traffic approval for free-form routes between now and twelve a.m.” Senritsu reported uneasily, looking, or rather, listening around for hostile heartbeats. The only one she heard was Kurapika's.\n\t“Bring the car into the parking garage. And you,” Kurapika said, turning to Leorio, “make sure that that,” -he gestured to Nijiiro- “doesn't try anything foolish while Senritsu is gone.”\n\t“Why, I would never,” Nijiiro quipped, nearly finished accruing Nen. She certainly wouldn't try escaping if it were a foolish thing to do. Senritsu returned after two minutes or so, affirmed that she was indeed Senritsu, not an imposter, and they trudged off to dock fourteen in silence.\n\tInside the ship, Nijiiro was dumped unceremoniously into a lounge seat while Kurapika combed through Nijiiro's phone contacts for a direct number to the Spiders' real leader. Nijiiro watched the cogs tick inside Kurapika's mind as he deduced which contact was the correct one, appreciating immensely the sheer cleverness behind his ardor. He had broken her naming code in under ten minutes, perhaps without realizing how difficult most would find that task. He frowned at the phone, and selected a number. \n\t“You were right the first time,” Nijiiro said, her eyes closed when Kurapika looked over to her. 'How the hell is she doing that?!' Kurapika thought. 'I can see the reflection of the phone's screen in your eyes, rube,' thought Nijiiro. Kurapika dialed the first number he determined. It was certainly a fortunate choice, too, since the second was the very private number of Light Nostrade. Nijiiro would have been content to laugh at Kurapika had he accidentally dialed a prominent politician, a drug dealer, or an Oriental take-out store, but calling his own boss from her exclusive line might have created a turgid situation indeed. Of course, Kurapika himself would have probably preferred to speak to anyone on Earth other than the one he dialed.\n\t“Yes?” said Chrollo expectantly.\n\t“Come to dock fourteen. Board the ship moored there. Do not attempt any sort of trickery. I will issue your next set of instructions once you're on board,” Kurapika said, in a voice as heavy and tasteless as wet concrete. Chrollo hung up without responding. He knew Nijiiro would not be an easy hostage to keep. She had, in all likelihood, been twisting his mind into various balloon animals for the last forty minutes. His impromptu jog across YorkNew had probably been pleasant by comparison.\n\tNijiiro was hoisted up by her restraints and propped up in front of the entrance to the ship's main cabin, her legs having recovered a little of their strength. 'Smart...' she thought, glancing around, 'he's placed himself in the airlock to control the amount of physical space around us, he's using me as a shield, and he's set Leorio just behind the door to provide both an escape route and backup at the drop of a pin. He's used what few resources he has effectively and efficiently. It's probably what I would do... Well, if I didn't already know how fast Chrollo could wipe the floor with all three of them...'\n\tSenritsu, who stood near-but-not-too-close to Kurapika, whispered something to him, and Kurapika went to the window to confirm what Nijiiro could already feel in every fiber of her being: Chrollo had arrived. \n\t“Hey...Kurta...Zip up my coat, quickly,” Nijiiro requested softly. Kurapika let a short derisive laugh.\n\t“Just try to behave yourself, and maybe I won't have to kill you in front of your beloved spouse,” he scoffed, spitting the last word as if it were a bite of something rotten. Why did it continue to bother him so much? Kurapika decided he would parse that later.\n\t“It's your funeral,” Nijiiro sighed. There was no time to argue with him, anyway.\n\tChrollo stormed in like negative wind chill, his anger a freezing gust that sucked all the warmth from the small anteroom where they stood.  The pneumatic door closed behind him.\n\t“Ch-Chrollo...” Nijiiro stuttered. Her legs stood a little straighter, body at full attention. He looked into her eyes, and she blushed and looked at the ground. She was his dog, all right. The ship rose as he continued inspecting her, noting her missing veil, her mussed hair, smudged mascara, rumpled clothing, bloody mouth, and finally, his eyes alighted on the brilliant blue-purple bruises that bloomed across Nijiiro's white throat, the unmistakable outline of chains imprinted onto her skin. Senritsu gulped loudly amid the tense silence and questioned all of her life choices up to that point. The sound his heart made...it was the sound of one capable of total annihilation.\n\t“What have you done?” Chrollo demanded, his black eyes flashing on Kurapika. The leader of the Gennei Ryodan glared at the avenger of the Kurta as the aura of the former filled the airlock with a sensation of freezing sleet and existential dread. Kurapika's jaw was set, and he couldn't think of an answer to save his life, which might have been forfeit at that moment, but for Nijiiro, who answered for the both of them.\n\t“Please, my Sky, it wasn't...The truth is, I've done this to myself,” Nijiiro whispered, glancing up at Chrollo and blushing furiously. Chrollo simply looked at her, obviously disappointed. \n\t“Explain.”\n\t“I...managed the situation as best I could, but...” Nijiiro trailed off, her mouth too dry to continue. She swallowed and tried again.“And, I didn't mean to intervene, my body just...kind of...” And that was certainly true. She had originally planned on releasing the hostages, not being one. \n\t“That's enough reunion for now. I'm going to set a few terms, and if you'll agree to them, we can proceed to an exchange. Just to confirm, you are the leader of the Gennei Ryodan, correct?” Kurapika said, as calmly as possible. Chrollo blinked. It was like watching a bank teller placidly inform Death himself that his account was overdrawn. 'He's either got some brass ones dangling from that deceptively slender build, or he is comically out of his depth,' Nijiiro thought, '...Please, don't get either of us killed, Kurta.' Chrollo looked from Nijiiro to Kurapika for a moment. Whose terms were they, exactly?\n\t“What are the terms?” Chrollo asked, his eyes wide as he looked the chain-user. Kurapika drew out his Judgement Chain.\n\t“Three conditions for each of you. If you abide by them, I will release my hostage. First, you will not use Nen. Second, you may not communicate with any member of the Ryodan henceforth, and cut all ties to them. And, third, if a hostage exchange can not be made by midnight, that is, one hour and thirteen minutes from now, my Nen blade will pierce your heart, killing you instantly.  I'll let you decide if you agree to these terms,” Kurapika stated, looking Chrollo square in the eyes. \n\t“Those terms...are every bit as foolish as your conduct up until now;” Chrollo's words were the slow and deliberate drawing of a sword, his malevolence borne out in every syllable. “And the possibility that you would survive beyond this moment evaporated the second you decided to manhandle my wife,” he growled, drawing out his Skill Hunter. The pressure of his Ren was almost too much to breathe in, and Nijiiro's heart pounded as she tried to remember who she was and what she was doing there. Chrollo was livid. Her forehead wanted desperately be pressed to the cold diamond plate on the floor, and she resisted the urge to press it there and beg for her continued existence. The forceful Zetsu of Kurapika's chains had left her more open and vulnerable than usual to the sensation of Chrollo's awe-striking aura, and she hit her knees without realizing she had fallen.\n\t“Chrollo, please! Wait!” she cried out, both wincing at the colossal weight of his aura and dying of happiness to be beneath it. “Accept the terms!”\n\t“Why?” Chrollo demanded, “Why should I wait until he can double-cross us, killing not only me, but you, and the others. That is his mission! I can't risk that. How can one agree to such terms without knowing what the immediate future holds, Nijiiro?!”\n\t“I may not know what the future holds, but you do, Sama' Allayl,” Nijiiro attested fervently. Chrollo's terrible aura seemed to waver as he looked into her eyes. He understood. The prophecy had given him verses for the next week, and the one after.  It didn't mention any danger for the next week, either. The odds had been in his favor the whole time, and only Nijiiro had noticed. “Please,” Nijiiro concluded, staring up at him breathlessly. For Nijiiro had dropped a hint to what was perhaps the most important feature of Neon Nostrade's power yet, one she'd taken great pains to hide until just then: the prophecies always came true if one believed they would. That was the reason Neon Nostrade refused to read her own fortunes, lest the negative omens become truly unavoidable. Chrollo seemed unmoved for the space of a few heartbeats, and then spoke softly in a voice that sounded far more tired than angry. \n\t“Then...I will do what I must to regain your safety, Zahrat-Alqamar,” he said, looking only at Nijiiro as if the rest simply weren't there. 'Moonflower, he called her...' thought Kurapika. It suited her too well, and the sweet words sent cold needles into his guts. He was driving a metaphysical wedge between two people as inextricable as the moon and the night sky.* It felt...uneasy. \n\t“If you accept the terms then I'll-” Kurapika began.\n\t“Do it,” Chrollo ordered smoothly, still focused on Nijiiro's eyes. Kurapika hesitated, wondering why Chrollo's mind had suddenly changed. Did Nijiiro tell him something important? Was there some critical flaw in his plan, one that Nijiiro detected? Was there some possibility that she had been one step ahead the entire time? No, she had no way to communicate with her gang or Chrollo from the moment she had been taken. More importantly, was there any way around this? What could he change his terms to? How could he change his strategy? 'There's no alternative. I...I can't think of anything. I have to focus on saving those two! There's no other way!' Kurapika thought anxiously. He launched the Judgement Chain into their chests. Nijiiro closed her eyes and cringed, while Chrollo stared ahead defiantly. Kurapika leaned down next to Senritsu.\n\t“If Gon and Killua were being manipulated, would you be able to tell from their heartbeats?” he whispered.\n\t“I...don't know about Gon, but I've met Killua and I know how his normal heartbeat sounds. I should be able to tell the difference,” replied Senritsu. 'But right now...the one whose heartbeat...is most off-kilter...is yours, Kurapika....' she added inside her head.  Kurapika nodded, and turned back to Chrollo, reciting the terms of the oath of the Judgement Chain for him, and then Nijiiro in turn. \n\t“I have a few things to say before the exchange is made. You will escort the two hostages back to the airfield, unharmed, by ten minutes to midnight. You will do this alone. You will not go anywhere else, or attempt to subvert the exchange process in any way. I don't need to lecture you on the importance of adhering to the terms of the negotiations made here. I have every confidence that the other hostages will cooperate completely, and so you can avoid any casualties by cooperating as well-”\n\t“If you're finished, take me back to the airport,” Chrollo said flatly. Kurapika's eyes narrowed. \n\t“Why haven't you asked any questions?...You know who I am, don't you? And you're not worried? You honestly believe I'll return this woman to you?” Kurapika snapped. Nijiiro rolled her multicolored eyes, somewhat forgetting that they weren't as hidden as they usually were.\n\t“Of course. You wouldn't ask those questions if you intended to deceive me,” Chrollo countered indolently, “So hurry up and don't waste any more of my time.” Kurapika, unable to argue with the statement, scoffed aloud and tapped on the door behind him six times, the signal to return to the landing pad. They traveled back to Ringon airfield in silence. Nijiiro's head remained bowed her eyes staring at the floor. She decided she could not afford to indulge in what-ifs for the rest of the evening, which she estimated at around fifty percent complete by now. 'Focus,' she chastised herself quietly. A braver soul would have turned her guilty eyes to stare at more of Chrollo than his boots, but Nijiiro, in spite of her successful scheming, couldn't bring herself to do it. Chrollo disembarked as soon as the door to the airlock blinked green, indicating full ground contact. Kurapika dialed Shalnark's cell phone.\n\t“Hello?” Shalnark said, almost pleasantly. \n\t“Give me one of the hostages,” Kurapika ordered. His eyes were twitching in a way that told him a migraine was imminent. He put a hand over his face, massaging the bridge of his nose even though it probably wouldn't help one bit. Gon's voice came on the line.\n\t“Kurapika!”\n\t“Are they all together? Are the two of you unhurt?” Kurapika asked, lacking the energy to mince words. \n\t“Yeah.”\n\t“Good. Give the phone back to the one who answered,” Kurapika said.\n\t“Yes? This is Shalnark,”said Shalnark.\n\t“Your leader is coming to retrieve the hostages. He'll be bringing them to the location of the exchange. He will not be speaking to any of you. Do not delay or interfere with him in any way, or the consequences for your side will be severe. The rest of you will remain in the hideout until the exchange is complete. As with before, disobedience will not be tolerated. That is all.”\n\t“Wait! What guarantee do we have, that Saisho is still alive?” Shal blurted. \n\t“Your leader, and your founder, were both able to agree to these terms,” Kurapika asserted stoically, “And so you should be able to, as well. Clinging to your egos at this point in time could prove detrimental to both of them. Remember that.” He hung up, wondering whether he'd said too much or too little. Nijiiro let a low whistle from across the cabin. She stood slowly.\n\t“What a tense situation,” she remarked, grinning at their horrified expressions as she shattered Kurapika's hitherto unbreakable Nen chains like so much lead crystal, seemingly with brute force alone. “...Good thing it's over.”",
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      "body": "Hello beestmode!\n\nCongratulations! This post has been randomly Resteemed! For a chance to get more of your content resteemed join the [Steem Engine Team](https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemengineteam/more-followers-more-votes-steemengine)",
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      "body": "@@ -129,16 +129,17 @@\n logo.png\n+)\n %0A#### _S\n",
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      "body": "Congratulations @beestmode! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/60x70/http://steemitboard.com/@beestmode/posts.png?201902282205</td><td>You published more than 10 posts. Your next target is to reach 20 posts.</td></tr>\n</table>\n\n<sub>_[Click here to view your Board](https://steemitboard.com/@beestmode)_</sub>\n<sub>_If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word_ `STOP`</sub>\n\n\nTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!\n\n\n**Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:**\n<table><tr><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/carnival/@steemitboard/carnival-2019\"><img src=\"https://steemitimages.com/64x128/http://i.cubeupload.com/rltzHT.png\"></a></td><td><a href=\"https://steemit.com/carnival/@steemitboard/carnival-2019\">Carnival Challenge - Collect badge and win 5 STEEM</a></td></tr></table>\n\n###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) and get one more award and increased upvotes!",
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      "permlink": "a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-x",
      "title": "A HunterXHunter Fanfic (Part X)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n[Part III](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii)\n[Part IV](https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv)\n[Part V](https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v)\n[Part VI](https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi)\n[Part VII](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vii)\n[Part VIII](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-viii)\n[Part IX](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ix)\n#### _September 4th, YorkNew City, 9:55PM_\nAs expected, the lobby of the Beichtaku Hotel was still bustling with activity late into the evening, when the seven Spiders and their two hostages strolled across its immaculate marble floors. 'Ah, there he is,' thought Nijiiro, as she wandered by Kurapika, who was sitting to the left of the entrance disguised as a receptionist. Clothes lied, but auras never did, and she could spot his from across a city block or three. 'Another costume change?' she mused silently, 'My god, he's quick...' Nijiiro smiled to herself as the Kurta was bombarded with a grisly tale of the two bodies found in the hotel trash incinerator just two days ago by a well-meaning old man in a tweed suit. \n\t“Bad business, ma'am, all these mafia types in one place,” Nijiiro heard him say as they walked by, “better to keep yourself indoors at this hour, for safety...” She barely kept herself from laughing out loud.\n\t“What is it?” Chrollo said, looking down at her smile. Nijiiro's grin disappeared like a fox down a hole, as she remembered she was in deep trouble with her winsome lord and master. If only she could understand why.\n\t“Ah...It's nothing, just a...a passing fancy,” she said softly. He released her right hand, the hand he'd broken a few minutes ago, and Nijiiro bit her lip to keep from gasping. It was going to be a throbbing mass of pain until she could activate Serenity in about two hours. 'At least the glove will probably keep the skin from splitting open, even if it keeps swelling like this...' Her kid-leather glove was already rather tight over her injured flesh. She looked at the gilded clock in the center of the foyer. If Kurapika was planning to spring his friends from Spider custody, he'd need a coordinated effort. All Nijiiro needed to do was read the signs, and follow along. Killua had said in his earlier report that they were targeting a woman, but that could potentially mean herself, Machi, Shizuku, or Pakunoda. Kurapika would be aware of Shizuku's Nen ability, but that also meant he was unlikely to make her a priority. Machi would be a troublesome opponent for his skills, but he probably wouldn't actively target her without having a better grasp on what she could do. It had to be either Pakunoda, or herself. Of the two, it would make more sense to target Paku, because her ability was a well-defined intelligence type, but she wondered if perhaps they would switch targets once they realized Kurapika's cover had been blown. \n\t“Wait here,” Chrollo instructed the others quietly. The four Spiders and their two captives arranged themselves around the four sides of a large marble-clad pillar on the west side of the lobby, with Machi and the two boys facing the center of the lobby, while Shizuku, Chrollo, and Nijiiro took the other three. Nijiiro pulled her hood back and sighed. Her side of the pillar faced the main entrance, but she knew no one of importance would be entering that way. She wandered back around the pillar, next to Machi, and carefully scanned the occupants of the lobby. \n\t“Saisho?”inquired Shizuku, tilting her head slightly. Chrollo came back around and looked at Nijiiro, and Shizuku followed suit. To her eternal surprise, Kurapika's associate was a mere ten meters away, pretending to read yesterday's newspaper intently at nearly ten o'clock at night, and nervously twitching his foot as he sat on a brown leather sectional sweating bullets. Poor thing. The most damning evidence, by far, was the so-called invisible paint - very much visible to Nijiiro - covering his tan hands as they gripped the sides of the newspaper, which trembled slightly as Leorio waited for his cue. It was the same hideous, mildly radioactive paint Nijiiro had dabbed on the steering wheels of every Nostrade vehicle outside of the Beichtaku Hotel two days ago. 'Bingo. Let's see what Leorio has to say to these two. I have a feeling it won't be a terribly sophisticated code, either...' she thought, careful to turn away and look back at the entrance as if she hadn't spotted anything of note. \n\t“What time do you think it is already, jackass?!” barked Leorio loudly from his post at the sofa. The two hostages looked over at him, as well as several hotel patrons and all of the Spiders except Nijiiro, who glanced over to where the disguised Kurapika was slipping away from the reception desk with a perfect Zetsu. “Dumbass! It's not Beiroku, it's Beitacle Hotel! How could you have heard it wrong, eh?! How many times do I have to repeat myself? The HELL are you lookin' at, huh!? You wanna have a go, ehh?!” yelled Leorio, at Chrollo himself, who simply blinked at the odd fellow's brazen disregard for his own life. \n\t“Shall I eliminate him?” asked Shizuku politely.\n\t“Ignore him, don't pay any attention. Continue the lookout.” Chrollo answered. \n\t“Hey, hey, this ain't no show!” Leorio continued, turning his aggressive act on the couple behind him, who looked pointedly away. “Damn, my future is dark thanks to the failures who work for me!  Just this once, I'm gonna close my eyes like nothing's happened! One more mistake, and you'll get it good! If it fails, you know what'll happen?! Listen close, ten o'clock on the dot! Come to this hotel by then! Otherwise, I'll fire you! I'll fire you immediately!!” Nijiiro saw Killua's fingers twist around in a way that probably meant he was dislocating several of his joints. Of course, even without thinking about it, she understood that the lobby would be plunged into sudden darkness at ten o'clock instant, but what remained now was likely the most difficult part of the operation thus far: retaining the hostages long enough for the Kurta to escape with his intended target, while the others were blinded by the sudden loss of light...\n\tFrom the low table in front of Leorio, a static-laden voice on a portable radio announced the end of the radio program.\n\t“For a guest with the pen name Akimine-san, here's the song 'Moon Child.' Enjoy...” the announcer chirped, and tinkling piano jazz rose up through the cheap, hazy speakers. 'Only three minutes until lights-out,' Nijiiro mused. It was then that Paku, Nobunaga and Kortopi walked through the hotel entrance, brushing off the cold rain and looking mildly irritated. Well, except Kortopi, who looked like an old wet mop that had developed sentience and donned a tiny pair of worn leather boots.\n\t“Paku and the rest are here,” Shizuku declared, sounding pleasantly shocked. She probably was, since Shizuku had all the memory retention powers of a hypoxic lemming. \n\t“Ohhh? You guys got yourselves captured again!?” Nobunaga said loudly, strolling up to where Gon and Killua stood grimacing at the sight of him. “I get it!” asserted Nobunaga, who did not get it at all, “You two changed your minds! You want to join the Gennei Ryodan after all! Isn't that right?”\n\t“The reward money on your heads had been canceled, and we didn't know,” frowned Killua, “That's all there is to it.”\n\t“So you screwed up again while stalking us? Hahaha!How pathetic! But still,” Nobunaga said thoughtfully, “this must be fate at work. We ought to be friends, whaddya say?” He leered down at Gon and Killua expectantly.\n\t“No way,” said Killua. “We were only following you for the reward. In fact, I honestly didn't want to ever see your faces again,” he concluded, closing his eyes and turning away from Nobunaga's smile, which only grew wider at the audacity of the comment. 'Ah, what an actor you might have been, Kitty-cat,' thought Nijiiro. The entire Dickens suite would sparkle, with such talent.\n\t“Me either,” added Gon, closing his eyes and doing the same.\n\t“What say, you Boss?!” Nobunaga laughed, “Their sass definitely reminds me of Uvo!”\n\t“It's because they're kids...” said Machi, “They still don't know fear... Anyway, Paku, describe the chain-user for us.”\n\t“First things first,” Chrollo interrupted, eyeing the two boys suspiciously. “Check these kids again.” The kids in question both winced.\n\t“Okay,” said Paku obediently, “What do you want to know?”\n\t“I want to know...what are they hiding?” Chrollo said darkly. Damn, that was a smart question. Of course, people, even children, hid a lot of things all of the time, and so it would give Paku plenty to sift through. Nijiiro could only hope that the boys' more banal secrets would fill the remaining minute until Kurapika's counterattack began. Paku reached for the two, and Killua attempted to stall her.\n\t“It's no use,” Killua asserted, a little too confidently. Paku's hands hovered over the boys' heads,  hesitating ever so slightly. “Your power lets you extract memories from people you touch, right?” he pressed on, grasping for things that might drag the process out just another twenty seconds or so. People usually liked to talk about themselves, right? “It's useless. We aren't hiding anything, and we know nothing of interest to you all. Even if you could reach our memories, we can just alter them to throw you off-” Pakunoda seized Killua by the jaw, lifting him several centimeters off the the ground. Nijiiro bit her tongue, and reminded herself to continue watching for Kurapika, who would strike in less than thirty seconds. The boys would live.\n\t“Even if you ask your question, we could just think of something el-” Gon began where Killua left off. Paku grabbed his jaw as well, lifting him even higher from the floor than Killua, and held them both at arm's length with a sour look on her face. Paku was a woman of little compassion and no patience whatsoever, and her nerves were getting shorter for every minute the chain-user continued to elude the Spiders. \n\t“Listen well, my powers can't be suppressed by altering your memories or simply thinking of something else. My power draws on memory in its purest form, the original, unaltered memory at its source. Like a stone thrown into a still pool of water, my question settles to the bottom, stirring up the bits of silt that lie at the very lowermost depths of the water. This silt would represent your pure, original memory, and from there I can simply scoop it up at my leisure. Do you get it? It is impossible to deceive me,” Paku said, her lip curled. “Now...to ask my question...What are you h-” \n\tNijiiro heard a thump as all of the lights in the hotel lobby suddenly went out. She dilated her pupils at will, forcing them to open fully, and the entire lobby returned to full visibility with only the dim light of the streetlamps flooding in from outside. Time seemed to slow as she watched a chain, vibrating with hateful Nen power, sailing toward Chrollo through the lobby. To her own bewilderment, Nijiiro watched her own hand, her broken hand, raise up in front of her, and shove Chrollo with all her strength out of the path of the chain, wondering exactly why on earth her hand was moving of its own accord. She heard her own voice, as if it had been recorded, howl 'No!' and echo off marble walls as the chain roped itself around her instead, and dragged her off her feet, backwards through the darkened lobby as if she were a small fish being dragged out of the water by a mighty fisherman. 'What have you just done, Nijiiro?!' she thought helplessly, as Chrollo spun around quickly, and his right hand caught her left, dragging her glove off without slowing her. She sped backward through the hotel's main door, eyes wide behind her veil. 'What have you done? What have you done...What have you...done...'",
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      "permlink": "a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ix",
      "title": "A HunterXHunter Fanfic (Part IX)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n[Part III](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii)\n[Part IV](https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv)\n[Part V](https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v)\n[Part VI](https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi)\n[Part VII](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vii)\n[Part VIII](https://steemit.com/art/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-viii)\n#### _September 4th, YorkNew City, 7:38PM_\nNijiiro watched with satisfaction as Killua's cell signal made a beeline for the hideout, bouncing right over buildings, canals, and parking garages without even slowing down. 'Agile, aren't you, Kitty-cat?' she thought, smiling to herself. 'He'll be on this block any minute. I ought to be ready.' She wondered which of the Spiders they would target. If they were smart, it would be herself, but more likely than not, they would try for Chrollo. Kortopi had made no less than fourteen copies of the building they were in, the little rascal, and it was guaranteed to throw Killua off when he got close. Nijiiro slid a pair of earbuds down her right sleeve and plugged them into her phone's audio jack. It was safe to assume that the two boys would be using their phones to coordinate, so if she could monitor their phone calls, and trace their locations in real time, it would be hard to lose track of them during the operation. She could even send them hints, if she felt like it. She slid her phone into her sleeve. That was pretty much all, as far as preparations were concerned. She could always stuff a few hand grenades into her pockets, but it would serve more as a security blanket than a legitimate measure of defense. Besides, Nijiiro had always found that the lighter she packed, the farther she could go. Just one grenade would be alright. It would take a few hours for the Spiders to get clear across the city on a bustling Saturday night, so Chrollo would almost certainly hold a meeting in the next few minutes. Perhaps the only reason he hadn't already, was the surprising level of exhaustion that followed repeatedly using the power of Lovely Ghost Writer. As he had recovered, silently reading next to the light of a single candle, Nijiiro had watched Killua and Gon move about on her phone's screen, still oblivious to the tracking devices in them. 'God bless the Beetle's clunky design and immortal battery,' she had thought. If they hadn't noticed by now, she knew they simply weren't going to. Nijiiro pretended to read one of the books they'd picked up that morning, but even though she read the words printed on the pages of it over and over, they had no meaning which the caliginous mass of her brain could recognize. Nijiiro pulled out a cigarette without thinking about it, reaching for her lighter, but stopped short of lighting it. She opened and closed the engraved silver lighter in her hand a few times, searching the scratched, worn filigree on the sides, the spots where her thumbs had worn through the silver plate. She turned it over, and stared at the initials on the bottom. The reason she couldn't bear to part with this thing, the absolute cheapest object in her possession. 'Do or die, Nijiiro.' she told herself sternly. It couldn't really be helped that both of those options felt like they were the same thing. She secured the white veil over her eyes once again, pulling her hood up over her hair. Her phone hummed against her wrist and she answered without looking, pretending to adjust her sleeves. Killua's voice came on the line, the background noise full of static and rainfall.\n\t“Something's off. I can't figure out where they are, and there're a lot more buildings here than yesterday. I think one of their members might have done this with some kind Nen ability, since I don't see any other reasonable explanation,” Killua said softly.\n\t“I see. That is most likely the work of a conjurer,” said Kurapika's voice. Nijiiro could hear an engine humming in the background, and then the clicking of a turn signal. So he was driving?\n\t“Yeah, that's gotta be it,” said Killua, “these buildings didn't spring up overnight.”\n\t“Man, these people are all crazy...They've got some one who can conjure entire buildings...” another voice said in the background. It was loud and crass, probably on Kurapika's side of the call and not on stakeout with Killua.\n\t“It's safe to assume they're rigged somehow,” Kurapika said slowly.\n\t“Yeah, but this also tells us that they're still using this place as their base... The problem is that these buildings create too many blind spots. I can only surveil about twenty percent of the area at a time...” Killua said, sounding rather put off. Why wasn't he more roused about nabbing a Ryodan member, the way he had been yesterday? Nijiiro wondered if perhaps she'd been too hard on him. No, he was probably after the reward, but found out that it had been rescinded. He'd only had a few thousand bucks in his pockets when he'd been caught, and even for a rich kid, staying in YorkNew for a week wasn't cheap. Of course, there was a large needle of unknown purpose in his head, made of pure gold and inscribed with powerful Nen writing that was worth roughly ten billion in the right market, but removing it was a dangerous and painful prospect. She doubted whether he even knew it was there, but then again, who really knew what kind of weird nonsense the Zoldycks did under the pretense of “training?” Killua continued breathing into the receiver and Nijiiro fought the urge to stick her head out of a window and look for his aura. \n\t“Be careful,” said Kurapika's voice, “If you move around too much, you could be spotted by one of them.”\n\t“I'd like to avoid that,” Killua responded quietly, “But there are too many of them, and too many places for them to hide. I mean, I don't even know what I would do if I heard their voices behind me. My heart's pounding just thinking about it.” 'You and me both, kiddo,' thought Nijiiro. She checked her phone again, and saw that Gon's signal was moving westward towards her at about thirty kilometers per hour, and Killua's was static at about two hundred meters from the hideout. Gon was probably with Kurapika, then. She pulled out a deck of cards and began playing solitaire. \n\t“...Voices...?” Kurapika muttered to himself. He was onto something, but what it was Nijiiro wasn't sure.\n\t“Huh?” said Killua.\n\t“Nevermind, I read you Return to your original position. I'll call you back in five minutes,” said Kurapika. 'Roger that,' thought Nijiiro. Five minutes later, Killua picked up another call from the Golden Boy himself.\n\t“Yeah?” Killua said, not bothering with formalities.\n\t“I'm sending an associate of mine your way, Senritsu. She should be of some assistance to you in detecting the moves of the Ryodan,” said Kurapika, who had never once bothered with formalities.\n\t“Got it,” said Killua simply, hanging up. Nijiiro checked Gon's location once more, and found he was headed for the Cemetery Building. Ah, well, it didn't matter where they were headed, not really. It was her plan they would be following, after all; Kurapika's designs were immaterial. Besides, the more capable associates he brought out, the better it would be for her. It was then that Chrollo called the Spiders together once more, preparing to move out. Nijiiro glanced over at Hisoka, who was still as a statue, still idly shuffling cards in the same spot he had occupied for nearly six hours. She looked back at Chrollo, and it was more than a little apparent that something was still bothering him. Nijiiro knew exactly what it was: Hisoka's fake prophecy had indicated that whether the Spiders stayed in YorkNew, or tried to leave, at least five of them would die. Chrollo had yet to formally announce it, but they were obligated to fight, and to fight a mysterious enemy, who had been powerful enough to take down Uvogin alone. \n\t“You've already told me everything Uvo knew about the chain-user?” asked Chrollo, looking at Shalnark.\n\t“Yeah. When we were investigating the Nostrade family using the Hunter website, Uvo pointed out the three people at the top,”replied Shalnark, holding up the Nostrade personnel page he'd printed out yesterday.\n\t“It was late on the first when we realized they were the daughter's bodyguards,” Chrollo continued, his deep voice mesmerizing and his eyes dark stormclouds, “and I met that daughter yesterday...”\n\t“And that's when you stole her power,” finished Phinks, not sure where the Boss was going with any of this.\n\t“When, and more importantly, where,” Nijiiro said calmly, staring down at her card game. The others couldn't quite understand what she had implied, and so ignored her comment.\n\t“And here is an updated list of the bodyguards,”said Shalnark, holding up a new printout before handing it over to Chrollo.\n\t“There are two new members,” he said, looking it over. He memorized the faces on it before surrendering it back to the rest of the Ryodan.\n\t“Whoa! The Hunter site already has new information up,” said Phinks, clearly impressed. \n\t“One...two...seven bodyguards for one girl?” said Franklin dubiously.\n\t“Well, he must really love his daughter...” Phinks said.\n\t“He probably cares more about her ability,” said Chrollo prosaically, “Her father achieved his current status by using her power.”  'Remind you of anyone?' thought Nijiiro, without looking up from her cards. She didn't like Neon Nostrade, but that didn't mean they had nothing in common.\n\t“But why did she come to the auction?” said Shizuku. Nijiiro laughed softly. 'Bingo,' she thought. She hadn't even needed to say it herself.\n\t“Well, for some treasure or other, I imagine,” said Pakunoda. A light clicked on in Chrollo's mind. He began to mutter under his breath, and the others had to come closer to try and catch what he was saying.\n\t“...Damn, what is wrong with me? If I'd stopped to consider why their boss' daughter was in YorkNew, we could have found the chain-user a lot sooner,” Chrollo grumbled, his eyes were wide with surprise, as if he were genuinely shocked to find himself making a mistake. Knowing Chrollo, he was. He looked at Nijiiro, who was laying out yet another game of cards. \n\t“You didn't ask,” said Nijiiro, feeling his gaze scorch the back of her neck but still not looking up from her cards. The others looked from Nijiiro to Chrollo, then around to each other, at a loss for what was going on. \n\t“Neon Nostrade came to YorkNew to participate in the auction...I was too focused on her fortune-telling to give any regard to that. That girl... According to the Hunter website, she collects human trophies.”\n\t“Human trophies...like...The Scarlet Eyes!” Shalnark said, supplying the last car to Chrollo's train of thought.\n\t“The chain-user joined the Nostrade family for a reason... He knew that the Scarlet Eyes would be sold at the auction, and also that Neon Nostrade would be interested in them. He has at least two goals: to take revenge on the Spiders, and to recover the eyes of his people,” Chrollo said, putting Nijiiro on a back burner for the time being. “Shal, were we able to steal the Scarlet Eyes?”\n\t“I'm not sure,” said Shalnark, “I had the auctioneer on autopilot for the whole auction.”\n\t“I copied them,” offered Kortopi, raising his hand. \n\t“Your copies function as En,” said Chrollo, sensing an even better solution was at hand, “can you find out where they are now?”\n\t“If I'm touching the original,” said Kortopi, his raspy little voice reminding Nijiiro very much of  how they'd first found him, half dead in a ditch and unable to speak. He had such a bizarre aura, too, like a bowl full of marbles under a blacklight. She'd always thought of him as a sort of weird little mascot for the Gennei Ryodan, a thought she had always wisely kept to herself. An effort was mounted to find the original Scarlet Eyes, which was something of a task since the Spiders now had over a hundred and fifty crates full of treasure scattered throughout the base. After thirty minutes or so, the original was produced, and Kortopi laid his hand on the sealed jars.\n\t“There's something of this shape approximately two thousand, five hundred meters in that direction,” he said, pointing one tiny finger. Chrollo noticed Nijiiro frowning slightly and looking pointedly away from the Scarlet Eyes. 'You still hate these things, don't you, my Flower?' he thought, and sighed.\n\t“What's in that direction?” asked Shizuku.\n\t“The Beitacle Hotel,” said Nijiiro, holding up her phone's GPS screen. Her other phone, that is. She had three, of identical make and model. The one tracking Gon and Killua remained tucked safely in her right sleeve.\n\t“We should hurry,” said Kortopi, “The En effect will fade in a few hours.” Which was true, of course, since Kortopi's copies only lasted for twenty-four hours at a stretch. Nijiiro checked her watch. It was a little after nine o'clock; Kortopi's copies would only last another two hours or so, and it was almost three hours before she could use Serenity again. This would be a delicate dance, to say the least.\n\tNijiiro finished her twentieth game of solitaire, gathered the cards, and began shuffling them, preparing to lay out another. Chrollo stood in front of her before she could set the first card down, apparently having recovered his strength completely. He reached for her hand, and she let herself be drawn off of the slab of stone where she had been idling away the evening a mere arm's length away from him. He wrapped one protective arm around her waist, and her heart began to race. He rarely so much as touched her hand in front of the other Spiders, let alone casual gestures of affection. Nijiiro blushed and gripped the pack of cards in her hand, not sure what else to do. \n\t“Boss, let me go,” Nobunaga intoned sincerely, gripping his sword's sheath, “...please.”\n\t“Very well,” said Chrollo. “...But I will accompany you. Pakunoda, Shizuku, Machi, you're coming too. Shal, switch with Kortopi.”\n\t“Yes, Boss,” said Shalnark.\n\t“Nijiiro...” Chrollo began, with perhaps every intention of ordering her to remain at the base. It was then that he looked down at her hands. In between Nijiiro's long, white fingers and sharp jet-black lacquered fingernails, the jester stared up at him, seeming to grin at his decision before he made it. His eyes flashed in the pale lightning from beyond the broken windows. “...You're coming with me, as well.” Nijiiro was surprised, but didn't let it show. She could make her plan work no matter where she was, perhaps even better from the front lines. She didn't have a choice anymore.\n\t“Yes, my Sky.” Nijiiro said passively. Her phone vibrated inside her sleeve and she answered, pressing the 'accept call' icon through the material as she put her gloves back on.\n\t“Hello?” Killua said on the line.\n\t“Oh, Killua-kun?” said another voice, which sounded female.\n\t“Yeah, who is this?”\n\t“One of Kurapika's colleagues. Could you please look to your left?” said the voice. There was a slight pause, and then, “Now hang up the phone, and whisper a command to me,” she said. The line went dead. What a confusing call. But according to his last position, Killua should be on the roof of a narrow outbuilding next to a line of condemned townhouses, with barely five meters to either side of him. Which means whoever the mystery woman was, she expected to hear Killua whispering through the rain from the next rooftop, or even farther along Killua's line of sight. Interesting. \n\tNijiiro walked behind Chrollo as they walked through the rain, somewhat wishing they could return to the way things were just that morning, as they strolled arm in arm through downtown without a care in the world. The rest of the Spiders walked around her in a defensive pattern, and Nijiiro hated it. If anyone should have been in the middle, it was Kortopi, who had almost no combat ability. She stared at the cross on Chrollo's back. She'd sewn it for him, of course, and she knew every last stitch of it. She was the very idiot who, in a rush to complete it for his birthday gift, had put the sleeves on the wrong side, forcing the cross to wind up upside-down. She could still see him smiling graciously, overlooking the fuck-up and accepting it anyway. She looked down at her own coat, made of the same outrageously expensive black stingray leather and arctic fox trim, prizes she had taken from the unfortunate poachers that tried to hide in Meteor City over six years ago. “We're 'cut from the same cloth,' eh? What a wonderful perspective,” he had said, pulling her closer, wrapping her twelve-year-old self in the circle of his arms for the very first time, in a way that made her heart pound dangerously fast. Nijiiro bit her lip. The hem of her coat swished against her calves in the driving rain, reminding her that she was six years older, six inches taller, and a thousand times wiser than the girl whose coat had dragged the ground behind her, the one who hadn't seen what he was capable of just yet. \n\t“Didn't we already try this place before?!” Nobunaga said loudly, interrupting Nijiiro's melancholic reverie. “Hotel Beitacle is one of the places where the Nostrade family is staying!”\n\t“Yeah, but when Shalnark checked the website, they'd already checked out,” Machi added.\n\t“It's likely that they checked back into the hotel under a different name. They're being cautious,” said Chrollo. Nijiiro slid her hands into her pockets as her wrist began humming once again. Killua's voice came on the line once again, his soft Padokia accent becoming familiar to Nijiiro's ears. \n\t“The woman's here,” said Killua. Nijiiro's back stiffened a little in spite of herself. Did it mean they were targeting her, after all? “She's with her buddies, there's seven total, moving together. The top-knot guy's here too. And one more person who wasn't there yesterday, probably their 'Boss.'” Killua continued. \n\t“Can you describe him?” said Gon. 'Describe him? I could say things that'd curl your hair, kid,' thought Nijiiro, despite knowing the question wasn't for her. Nijiiro noticed that the engine noise from Gon's last call had quieted, and she could hear traffic passing by; they were probably pulled over on the side of the road, waiting.\n\t“Black coat, with an inverted cross on the back. He has combed-back black hair. I can't see his face... And they're way too alert!I'm afraid to circle around in front!” Killua hissed. Nijiiro smiled a barely perceptible smile under the deep cowl of her hood. 'You're safer than you think, Killua' She thought.\n\t“Let me speak to him. Where are you now?” demanded Kurapika's voice. \n\t“In front of the Motoba building. They're walking west, on Continental Street.” Killua said.\n\t“There's a station nearby...can you make it onto their train?” Kurapika asked, still rather brusque. \n\t“It depends on the circumstances,” Killua offered, not wanting to commit to anything that chancy. “If it's busy, I can manage.” \n\t“Leorio, take us South!” Kurapika said. With that, Nijiiro had a fairly good idea of where they were, and when they would run into one another. The stage was set, on a manner of speaking, and there was no time to relax. The show must go on. Nijiiro followed Chrollo onto a subway car, taking an unoccupied corner as the other Spiders stood glaring around at the other passengers, looking for threats.\n\t“The station's pretty packed,” Killua said, “We're going to go for it.” After a few minutes of silence, “Senritsu's in the same car as them. I'm in the last car. This train's headed toward Castor.” Nijiiro lifted her head slightly, unable to resist the urge to look around for this sharp-eared associate of her scarlet-eyed avenger. She couldn't pick out anyone who seemed even remotely threatening.\n\t“Castor...” Kurapika muttered.\n\t“The auction site's that way!” Gon yelled in the background.\n\t“So is our hotel,” Kurapika added, sounding worried. Not nearly worried enough.\n\tNijiiro rode the subway in relative silence for over forty-five minutes. They were all either too cold, too tense, or too stupid for conversation, and Nijiiro decided then and there that she wasn't going to miss this one bit. Machi wouldn't stop glaring at her, and Nijiiro wished she could just pitch her through the side of the train hic et nunc, but then looked up at Chrollo's tensed shoulders and thought better of it. Her wrist buzzed twice as they stepped off at Liber station, and Killua made another call detailing their movements. It was then that Kurapika finally realized that the Spiders weren't headed for the auction hall at all. 'Attaboy' Nijiiro mused, 'now, why don't you come out and play?'\n\tShe didn't have to wait long. As soon as they stepped out the station entrance, Nijiiro scanned the eyes around her, and had him picked out in an instant. White sedan, three occupants, including some guy in a teal tie she hadn't seen yet, his face obscured by a lowered sun visor. 'That must be Leorio, then' Nijiiro reasoned, by sheer process of elimination. Kurapika's aura was on fire, full of anxiety and rage, with Gon's directly behind it, determined but not nearly as emotional. The car was one of Nostrade's, which meant it had her tracker on it. Not that it would help much, as the car was stuck in rush hour traffic. People milled about the busy street, obscuring Kurapika's line of sight in a way that meant he couldn't see Nijiiro eye's focus on him intently for a moment before turning away, scanning the crowd as if she hadn't already uncovered her target. \n\t“They're on the move,” said Kortopi. “Descending slowly.”\n\t“An elevator,” Chrollo said darkly, “We'll have to hurry... We'll apprehend him as a group. Stay close enough to provide support. Pakunoda, once we capture him, get the information on Uvo. Nijiiro, stay close to me, and watch for any surprise attacks. Do not use any of your powers unless I tell you to. Nobunaga, you take the front. Once Paku is done, he's all yours. Go!”  And with that last word, all seven Spiders took off like a shot, sprinting up and around the pedestrian milieu, running across the sides of buildings and bouncing off streetlamps. 'Catch me if you can, Kurta,' Nijiiro thought, her pace a little faster than even Nobunaga's, before she dropped it down to run behind Chrollo. Her wrist hummed again.\n\t“We're in front of the station. The Spiders ran off to the northeast,” said Killua.\n\t“Yeah! I'm following them!” Kurapika yelled back. Nijiiro was disappointed to find she couldn't see him or hear him outside of the phone receiver yet. Gon seemed to be behind Kurapika, yelling something over the traffic noises.\n\t“Stop! They'll notice you! Wait, you're running after them?! Stop! They'll - ” Killua snapped at Kurapika, who disconnected. 'Too late,' thought Nijiiro. Ahead of her, Kortopi pointed his right hand ahead of him.\n\t“Target moving forty kilometers per hour, in a two o'clock direction,” Kortopi said, and the Spiders adjusted course. It was then that Killua made another call, this time to Leorio. \n\t“Where's Gon?!” he yelled, clearly agitated.\n\t“He took off running after Kurapika,” said Leorio's voice, “I'm driving to Beitacle hotel, but I'm stuck in traffic.”\n\t“Damn it! Fine! We're going after Kurapika!” Killua howled, before hanging up. 'What a fun game of tag this is turning out to be,' Nijiiro thought, delighted. She caught a glimpse of Kurapika's aura in a tinted car window as it turned a corner thirty meters ahead of them, and decided it was close enough.\n\t“We're being followed,” she said, and the six others immediately tensed, even as they continued to run.\n\t“Damn...Since when...?” Machi said.\n\t“I was too focused on the target ahead,” Shizuku admitted.\n\t“Damn it all!” Nobunaga yelled, “Is the chain-user in front or behind us?!” Nijiiro thought it prudent not to answer, but simply looked at Chrollo. As if she didn't know exactly what he'd say next. She licked her lips.\n\t“Nobunaga, Kortopi, and Pakunoda, pursue the target ahead of us!” Chrollo said quickly. \n\t“Yessir,” said Paku. The three Spiders darted forward and continued the chase. Through her earpiece, Nijiiro heard a sound very much like a ball-peen hammer tapping a glass jar. The proximity alarm on her tracking program was telling her a device she was actively tracking was within fifteen meters. It sounded for a second time, and Nijiiro, now running in front, pivoted suddenly to face the two behind her. Kurapika and Gon darted away, but not before Machi and Shizuku glimpsed the two of them on their way to stow away behind a barrier. Perfect.\n\t“Did you see him?” Chrollo asked, his face deadly serious.\n\t“I caught a silhouette,” Nijiiro said slowly. “There's one behind the dumpster, and another in the alley.”\n\t“Shizuku, Machi...keep using Gyo. Stay with Nijiiro, and be on your guard,” Chrollo said. His aura looked coiled and ready to strike.\n\t“Yes, sir,” Machi said dutifully, pulling out her threads. And she was serious, of course. If Chrollo told her to, Machi would gladly lay down her life for Nijiiro, a person she hated more than any other human being on the planet. 'Loser,' noted Nijiiro's inner monologue. Chrollo advanced menacingly toward the alleyway, his hand gripping a hidden pen within his pocket. It was then that a wide-eyed Gon suddenly hopped up from behind the trash can, his open palms raised in a clear sign of surrender.\n\t“Sorry!” Gon said loudly, his face a paragon of goodwill. “I'll stop following you, so, er...can you let me go?”  Chrollo's aura looked like he'd been dumped in an ice bath, and Nijiiro bit her lip to keep from giggling. \n\t“We meet again,” said Nijiiro, walking towards where Chrollo and Gon stood facing one another, the latter obviously impressed with the truly overbearing presence of the former. \n\t“Is this the boy you mentioned?” asked Chrollo calmly, not moving his eyes a fraction, or anything else for that matter. \n\t“Yeah. The other one's here, too,” said Machi, and her voice had a heavy sour note. Killua strode out from the alleyway, hands raised, and Machi glared at him, as if anything that had happened yesterday was his fault. 'If you want to tattle, Machi, now's the time,' Nijiiro thought. Of course, even Machi knew  an irrational feeling should be held at arm's length. It's what made her intuition so sharp. “What do you want?” she said, one peremptory eyebrow raised at Killua, “The mafia reward on our heads is gone.”\n\t“Wh-what?! Seriously? Why?” Killua said, the epitome of sudden dismay. If anything, his acting was too good. Chrollo continued to stare at them. For some reason, these two sent prickles across his back, and he wondered whether, on some level, they might be similar to himself. Or perhaps the opposite? \n\tNijiiro stared at Chrollo's back, watching his aura become unstable, uncertainty creeping over him, wishing she could help him somehow. There was no helping this, she knew. It was what happened whenever Chrollo faced children, specifically boys, something Chrollo's mind refused to see, and something Nijiiro had never found the words to tell him. Nijiiro knew precisely why it happened, too, but even remembering that sort of thing at a time like this was begging disaster, and she forced it from her mind. \n\t“What do we do, Boss?” said Machi.\n\t“Tie them up,” replied Chrollo flatly. Nijiiro wanted to hold Chrollo, wanted it badly, but also didn't care to be punished again. She frowned. Watching him try to ignore his own painful confusion, even when she was standing right next to him, was easily the most frustrating thing about him. Nijiiro sighed as Chrollo turned away from her and called Phinks, Shal, and Feitan, ordering them to Beitacle hotel. \n\t“Shouldn't we just kill them?” Machi asked, as Chrollo hung up.\n\t“I trust your instincts,” Chrollo said. Nijiiro could hear the lie in his voice, without even looking at his face. “If they're connected to the chain user somehow, we should keep them alive.” His aura continued to twist with agitation. 'This isn't good,' Nijiiro thought. Perhaps she was the only one who could feel the danger radiating off of him, in spite of the scant aura the surrounded his form. Confusion, not anger, was the prelude to Chrollo at his most frightening. \n\t“I have a question for you,” Gon stated, his hands twisted behind his back in Machi's threads. Machi and Shizuku looked down at Gon. Chrollo turned slowly to face the boys again, his eyes intense. Nijiiro looked at Killua, who also seemed surprised to hear his friend suddenly speak out. “How can you kill people who have nothing to do with you?” It was a deep question, at the worst possible moment. 'Goddamn it, don't ask him that. Not now. Your life just became a coin toss,' Nijiiro thought desperately. 'Wait, coin toss? Could I...' She'd never considered using Fortune to sway a person's thoughts, and with Chrollo, there was no definitive outcome to hope for. She searched for something, anything, that would stop Chrollo if he decided to snap right then and there. Her heart leaped into her throat, as she realized not one of her powers could protect her plan from the idle curiosity of this one reckless brat. The next moment would be guided by fate, and fate alone. 'Please, keep it together, my Sky, and let him live' she thought, closing her eyes, 'he's just a tactless child.' As if by some divine cue, lightning knocked out the streetlamps on the block. After a long pause in the darkness, Chrollo finally spoke; the lightning crashing overhead held nothing to the tempest in his black eyes.\n\t“You look pretty hostile, considering that you've just surrendered,” Chrollo said. The uncomfortable prickling feeling had earlier returned tenfold, but this time he looked at Nijiiro, who stood behind him. She lowered her eyes, even though she knew Chrollo couldn't see them under her hood and veil, feeling his eyes boring into her face. He was no longer thinking about Gon at all. “Why indeed?” he muttered, lost in the question, but not really trying to answer. “Because they have nothing to do with us? No. On second thought, it isn't that simple. How to verbally express our motives...I'd rather not...But oddly enough, or, perhaps it's not that odd...Could that... be the key to understanding myself?” He looked up at the sky, and Nijiiro wondered whether he had calmed down, or become even more confused. The streetlamps returned to their yellowish glow, and Nijiiro reached out, hoping perhaps a little too much that the danger had passed. As it turned out, the danger had passed. It had passed straight from Gon to her. \n#### _September 4th, 9:49PM_\nKillua stood breathless as Gon uttered his unbelievably blunt question, glaring at the supreme leader of the Gennei Ryodan as if they weren't both about as powerless before the Spiders as an ant colony might be against a thermonuclear bomb. He then watched in sheer disbelief as that same leader of the Gennei Ryodan attempted to answer the question, stumbling over his words and ultimately failing to create even a single coherent sentence. 'The hell is he on about?' Killua wondered, somewhat relieved that Gon hadn't been killed on the spot for being insolent, or something very like it. \n\t“We should go, Sama'  Allayl,” said Nijiiro, her face nearly covered in its entirety under her deep cowl. She slowly reached out, as if to touch the arm of the Spiders' captain. He caught her hand, and what happened next didn't seem real, even as it happened half a meter from Killua's own eyes. Wrapping Nijiiro's smaller hand tightly in his own, Chrollo gripped it hard enough to crush several bones, while Nijiiro stood motionless, her face, however hidden, not showing any sign that she had felt anything at all. 'He just...but...why?' Killua thought, his eyes widening at the muffled but still audible crunch as Nijiiro's right hand became irrevocably maimed in an instant. Neither of the other two Spiders seemed to hear or see anything amiss, either. 'Something's...very wrong here...that was definitely painful, it had to be...his own comrade...he just suddenly...' Gon didn't seem to notice, as Shizuku happened to be standing in his line of sight. Killua almost began to doubt that he had seen correctly, but Nijiiro's grimace of pain, as she calmly pulled her broken hand out of his grip and took his hand again – the very same hand that had crushed her own – and interlaced her shattered fingers with his, was unmistakable. Nijiiro took a deep breath and a half-step forward, and Chrollo seemed to acquiesce, walking ahead of her once again, only now pulling her by her injured extremity. \n\t“If they try to run...kill them,” Chrollo ordered, his voice low and terrible. Killua looked at Gon, who had already turned his eyes in Killua's direction with a look that could only mean 'what now?' There was the sound of a cellphone ringing, and Chrollo used his free hand to withdraw his mobile from within his coat pocket without breaking stride. \n\t“It's me.” Chrollo said, before listening to Nobunaga's report. “Meet us in the lobby of the Beitacle Hotel,” he said, hanging up. He looked back to Shizuku and Machi. “We now have the chain-user's identity,” he announced, “It seems he has three remaining allies.”\n\tKillua had a sinking feeling in his chest. 'What do we do now? There's no point in capturing Pakunoda anymore...If I were Kurapika, I'd switch targets. If I wanted to crush the Ryodan...I'd target the boss. Senritsu should be listening in on their conversation, so they'll know where we're headed....Now it's just a question of when he'll attack. We'll have to be on alert for any signal indicating when it might be, and be ready to move in one second, probably less. The first instant will decide everything! Any slight delay could cost us our lives...' he thought, hoping Gon had some inkling along the same lines as he. Gon looked at him and nodded.",
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      "body": "Hello @beestmode! This is a friendly reminder that you have 3000 Partiko Points unclaimed in your Partiko account!\n\nPartiko is a fast and beautiful mobile app for Steem, and it’s the most popular Steem mobile app out there! Download Partiko using the link below and login using SteemConnect to claim your 3000 Partiko points! You can easily convert them into Steem token!\n\nhttps://partiko.app/referral/partiko",
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      "permlink": "z8teyb289qav9z-re-beestmodea-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-viii",
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      "body": "Here's a free vote, just for being you!!  Have an amazing day!!",
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      "permlink": "a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-viii",
      "title": "A HunterXHunter fanfic (Part VIII)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n[Part III](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii)\n[Part IV](https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv)\n[Part V](https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v)\n[Part VI](https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi)\n[Part VII](https://steemit.com/anime/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vii)\n#### _September 4th, YorkNew City, 5:44AM_\nHisoka had been awoken in a rough and unpleasant manner many times, and in many different ways, but this morning he found a new contender for the rudest awakening of them all: being painfully pelted in the face with dirty pebbles by Nijiiro, who sat beside a still-sleeping Chrollo with a mischievous grin on her face. Fighting the immediate urge to throw something much larger and heavier back at her, he looked over to where she was pointing at her phone. He pulled out his own phone and opened the encoded text from Nijiiro that showed on the screen.\nThe script has changed. Our Golden Boy will star, after all.\n--Shall I contact him?\nNot yet. There is another scene to contend with. Wait for my cue.\n--Another scene?\nThe Fortune-teller's entrance will demand some improvisation. Utilize your charm until the audience is satisfied.\n--And if the plot is laid bare?\nSay whatever you must, say as little as you can, and say it sternly. The best stories are half true.\n--And if the fortunes prove correct?\nAll players have their strengths and weaknesses. The Fortune Teller's lines are forever subject to the interpretation of the moment.\n--The Golden Boy's mask may slip, if the scene becomes too protracted.\nNot if his 'contract' forbids it. \n--Our antagonist is skilled in reading between the lines.\nThat is also his tragic flaw.\n--And what is your tragic flaw?\nHedonism.\n\tHisoka couldn't help but chuckle softly at her final message. She still had a touch of that refreshing, unabashed honesty that had been so endearing when she was still small and cute. And she was surprisingly generous with him, so long as he did what she expected him to do, without hesitation. She could see straight through his lies, but never held them against him, even when he tried to deceive her anyway; what kept him so “loyal” was the fact that Nijiiro always made obeying her wishes far more attractive than crossing her. He looked up from his phone to see her grinning widely, brandishing both of her middle fingers at him from across the cavernous hall. He smiled and returned the salute. What a woman. He sent one more text before returning his phone to its pocket and pretending to sleep again.\n-- /Same ♥\n#### _September 4th, 6:23AM_\nChrollo opened his eyes slowly. Nijiiro was next to him, holding a hot cup of coffee from a percolator atop a single-burner propane stove, which she offered to him wordlessly. The other Spiders were all still asleep, having partied far later into the evening than Chrollo or Nijiiro. He waved away the coffee and stood, staring out at the weak, gray light of dawn trickling in through the dirty stained-glass windows. How long had it been since he'd dreamed of them? The two brothers who had died so long ago, he could barely remember their voices. So why did he feel them with him now? Baseless superstition was an indulgence a leader like himself couldn't afford, but still his intuition told him that this cloudy daybreak held something of profound personal significance.\n\t“They say there's a huge storm brewing today,” Nijiiro said softly, as if on cue. Chrollo simply looked at her. \n\t“They, your instincts?”\n\t“They, the meteorologists at YorkShin Radio Advisory,” Nijiiro said, holding up a portable radio. She smiled. Chrollo wondered how often he overestimated her. He then wondered whether he could overestimate some one like her. He reached for the coffee cup, and once he had taken a sip of the hot brew, exactly as he liked it - black with a single cube of sugar at the very bottom, unstirred – and and sighed contentedly, Nijiiro at last poured herself a cup of black coffee and took a sip. Nijiiro, for her part, was merely wondering how he could always tell the difference between cubed sugar and loose crystals in the exact same amount, especially when they were half-dissolved at the bottom of a coffee cup. Spooky, that.\n\t“When will the rest of them come around?” said  Chrollo, gazing down at the other Spiders as they slept. Nijiiro slid off her veil and examined their auras closely.\n\t“None of them will be in fighting shape before noon, most likely,” she replied. She turned to him, seeing that his aura was more subdued than usual. Ah, but it was still as beautiful as ever. The color was one of dozens for which Nijiiro had no name, but it was perfect, too perfect to be real. It was an impossible shade between jet black and deep midnight blue, one that didn't exist as far as the human eye was concerned. A single, smooth, whole, absolutely consistent, color, the color of sunlight glinting off the scales of a black snake as it strikes, the color of cold, impending danger. The color of the vast black emptiness of outer space and bottomless pits. The hypnotic effect it had on Nijiiro could not be overstated. She forced herself to turn away, sliding her veil over her eyes once more. What was causing his melancholy? “You seem...troubled, Sama' Allayl,” she said politely. He said nothing. “I came to YorkNew in person, that I might be more effective, my Sky...” she tried again, “if there is something I can do...”\n\t“What shall we do until they wake up?” Chrollo muttered, ignoring Nijiiro's stumbling offer.\n\t“Ah, well... How about...breakfast?” she replied. He turned his head to her and smiled then, a real smile that made Nijiiro wonder if she was finally having a heart attack at the ripe old age of nineteen. Her face was certainly red enough.\n\t“Of course,” he said simply. He held out his hand to her.\n\tAcross the half-lit stone room, Hisoka cracked open one golden eye, just wide enough to see Chrollo and Nijiiro walking out of the hideout, arm in arm, Nijiiro talking cheerfully and smiling as Chrollo listened calmly and matched his pace to hers. He thought of her eyes on the night she'd climbed on top of him, the fiery determination that glittered there, and then...his mind wandered to the lovesick puppy eyes that had shined at prince-charming Chrollo as they danced through Nijiiro's illusion last night. He knew from experience that if there was one thing that would destroy her so-called escape plan, it was Nijiiro herself, and if there was one thing that could cause her to destroy it, it was twenty-four solid hours of Chrollo. He realized his faith in her was waning, and his patience wearing thin. But was there anything he could do about it, really? He decided there was no reason to rock the boat, at least until she tried to back out. No, that wasn't good either. If he tried to do things his way, he might never get his chance at Chrollo. After all, he hadn't managed to find a way on his own. Was he stupid to believe she'd really let him try to kill her beloved man? Probably. But why would she lie? She never lied, per sei, but did she say that was the case? Hisoka tried to remember her exact words when she promised him his chance. 'You will never have a better chance,' she'd said with a wicked smile. 'What did that mean, Nijii-chan?' he wondered silently. He mused for a while, his eyes closed, not entirely aware of the time that passed, until his thoughts were interrupted by the return of Chrollo and Nijiiro. His phone said it was nearly noon. It also had a text message from Nijiiro he hadn't seen yet.\n'He that can have patience can have what he will.' it said.\nShe had sent it five and a half hours ago, that witch.\n\tHe looked down at the two of them. Chrollo had a canvas bag that seemed to contain a lot of heavy books, Nijiiro had a large transparent plastic bag with what appeared to be three dozen donuts from a bakery chain downtown. He watched as they set their burdens on the floor, and Nijiiro said something before winking at Chrollo and cracking open one of the hundred packing crates that filled the stone floor. Hisoka struggled to feign sleep instead of laughing hysterically, as she produced a huge ancient brass gong and mallet, set it in the middle of the sleeping Spiders, and proceeded to bang it loudly with a malevolent grin on her face until the echoes of it brought dust and concrete shards falling from every crevice in the broken ceiling. The look on Machi's face, however, was eventually enough to make him giggle out loud.\n\t“You goddamned-” Machi began, holding her head, but stopped short and turned rather pale at the expression on Chrollo's face as he turned to look at her. Chrollo ascended to the second-floor mezzanine, and Nijiiro followed him.\n\t“Everyone, please gather around, I have an announcement to make,” Chrollo said matter-of-factly, an order to which all of the Spiders instantly complied despite the painful ringing in their heads. Nijiiro stood slightly behind him, smiling faintly. Her lipstick was a bright shade of plum today, her shining hair brushed and set carefully. Her veil was white lace and tulle, with velvet ribbons that matched her lipstick a little too well. Her hand-embroidered black stingray leather coat was immaculate, with nary a trace of the blood that had soaked it through the night before. Hisoka was the only one present who could see her gloved fingers twirl at her side, in a type of sign language that she had forced him to learn nearly four years ago now. \n “Proceed with caution,” they said. \n\t“The Spiders will take what's left of the mafia treasure at the auction this evening. Any treasure that remains after that will have to be abandoned. We're leaving YorkNew before midnight tonight,” Chrollo stated, in the subdued tone he generally used when issuing orders. \n\t“What do you mean, we're leaving?” Nobunaga said slowly, not sure he'd heard correctly. He'd heard what Chrollo said all right...but what he hadn't said was bothering him immensely.\n\t“I meant exactly as I said,” Chrollo said calmly, looking down at Nobunaga. He could hear the challenge in Nobunaga's voice, and knew it wouldn't end there. But there was an order to these things. He couldn't sic Nijiiro on a Ryodan member, at least not until the insubordination they committed became clearly defined. “We're leaving tonight. We'll take the rest of the treasure, and then we leave tonight... That will be the end.” Hisoka looked at Nijiiro, seated just behind Chrollo, and smiled. She had a pair of headphones on, and was silently banging away on an imaginary drumset. Of course, she was actually listening to Gon and Killua invite Kurapika to join him in D-Road Park, and then back to the hotel room to meet some one named Leorio, another apparent comrade of theirs, but no one else needed to know that. Nijiiro could feel the barometric pressure dropping as Nobunaga glared at Chrollo's passive face. She didn't need to hear anything to understand what was being said; her ability to read lips told her everything she needed to know, and that it was all going more or less as she imagined it would. \n\t“No... It isn't.” Nobunaga answered.\n\t“What else is there?” said Chrollo mildly, knowing damned what else there was.\n\t“We have to find the chain user.”\n\t“You seem obsessed,” Chrollo offered, as if commenting on the weather.\n\t“Yeah, sure, I am. We're gonna scatter without even avenging Uvo's death? Uvo will be bored in the next life, if we don't send the chain-user to join him,” Nobunaga said darkly, his tone becoming a growl as he spoke. \n\t“Cut it out, Nobunaga. The Boss has given his orders already,” Franklin said.\n\t“Yeah,” said Nobunaga, his irritation rising, “and an order from the Boss is absolute. But is that really an order from our Boss, Chrollo?” Nijiiro saw Nobunaga's left hand tilt his sword's sheath ever so slightly forward, his weight shift on the balls of his feet. Nobunaga was serious. Nijiiro sat on the edge of the mezzanine and let her legs dangle over. She cocked her head at Nobunaga, who didn't bat an eyelash or look away from Chrollo's face for a second. The other Spiders were all silent, having recognized Nijiiro's I-don't-want-to-punish-you-but-I-will-if-I-have-to face, and having quickly decided to stay out of it. \n\t“Nobunaga-” Franklin began, wishing Nobunaga would look a little to the left of Chrollo, for his own safety.\n\t“Shut it! I'm asking Chrollo here!” Nobunaga shouted. Chrollo pondered for a moment, looking from Nobunaga to Nijiiro and back again. Having her punish him would be easy enough, too easy, in fact. But as he looked at Nijiiro, he wondered if perhaps a lighter touch would be more effective, after all. Settling on a course of action, he jumped down to where Nobunaga was standing, and strode forward in the least threatening manner possible.\n\t“Nobunaga... Before I answer your question, I need you to answer one of mine,” said Chrollo.\n\t“Huh?”\n\t“What's your date of birth?” Chrollo asked. Nobunaga was nonplussed.\n\t“September 8th of '70,” said Nobunaga, wondering whether Chrollo was simply stalling him or if he had really lost his marbles.\n\t“Blood type?” Chrollo asked again.\n\t“It's...B...” answered Nobunaga, his anger giving way to curiosity.\n\t“And your name?” Chrollo asked.\n\t“Nobunaga Hazama...You already knew that! The hell is this about? What else do you want?!” \n\t“That's enough. Write that down on this paper,” replied Chrollo, holding out a pen and a piece of stationery he'd picked up earlier that morning.\n\t“Christ, why the fuck didn't you just say that to begin with?” Nobunaga complained, snatching the paper out of Chrollo's hand, but doing as he was asked. 'Ah, I see...' thought Nijiiro, 'he's using Nobunaga to gather more information about this week and next, to see what course of action to take. Too bad, though. I have a lot more experience with this power than you, my Sky. It is sensitive to intention, not causality. The prophecy will change with the mind of the one it prophesies. You might suspect this, though, and so you'll try to round out your decision with a number of prophecies on all of the Spiders here. And that is why...my vision will come true in the end. Too many facts can confuse as surely as too few...'\n\tChrollo sat on a crate, with another crate before him as a makeshift table, and brought out the Nostrade girl's Nen ability, Lovely Ghost Writer, which, as it turned out, wasn't lovely in the least. Nijiiro made a face. That hideous thing was what had caused her so much grief? But as she looked at the transparent green booger with wings that moved Chrollo's hand, she missed her opportunity to obfuscate the prophecy it created. Whoops.\n\t“What is this?” Nobunaga said quizzically, reaching for the paper that Chrollo offered him. Chrollo found that using the Nostrade girl's ability was surprisingly tiring.\n\t“A one hundred percent accurate fortune, written in verse,” Chrollo replied, “The ability to see the future. I stole this power from Nostrade's daughter.”\n\t“One hundred percent accurate?” Nobunaga said, a little mystified. As if Chrollo wasn't formidable enough. Now he could see the future.\n\t“Each of the four verses predicts what will happen in that week.”\n\tNobunaga looked over his fortune, and read:\n>The calendar loses a precious component.\nThe remaining months gather to mourn.\nThe first moon, having missed his opportunity, \ncontinues to pursue the eleventh month alone.\n\n>The chrysanthemum withers and falls, leaves and all.\nIt lies on the ground beside the Scarlet(bloody) Eyes.\nBut the Spider does not stop,\nEven after losing half its limbs.\n\t\n“This is the fortune that Neon Nostrade gave me yesterday,” Chrollo said, offering up his own fortune for comparison.\n\t“So this 'precious component' refers to...” Nobunaga trailed off and Chrollo nodded.\n\t“Uvo,”\t he said. “That girl didn't know anything about Uvo. In other words, she predicted the attack on the mafia auction. And she had fans among the Ten Dons.” 'And so, when you realized that there was a team of assassins after you at the Cemetery Building, you assumed she had warned the Dons of your plan to annihilate the mafia, and you had Illumi Zoldyck kill the Ten Dons...Clever move,' thought Nijiiro. Pretending to turn her music off, she took three seconds to send a text to Hisoka; she was fairly certain of the outcome, but still eager to test her hypothesis.\n\t“That explains why the merchandise had been moved the first time we attacked,” said Franklin.\n\t“What does Nobunaga's fortune say?” asked Shizuku.\n\t“My hand moves on its own,” explained Chrollo, “I don't know what was written. You'll have to ask Nobunaga.”\n\t“Well, Nobunaga?” Shizuku said, turning to Nobunaga expectantly. Nobunaga tried his best to parse the poem, but the literary arts had never exactly been his strong suit. \n\t“Next week, five or six of us will probably die,” he said, after struggling for a minute.\n\t“Which five?” asked Franklin. \n\t“Dunno. I can't interpret this,” said Nobunaga, “but this part of the second verse, about the Spider losing half its limbs, I kind of get that line. It means half of us are going to die. I can't say whether that means half of twelve, or fourteen, but counting Uvo, at least half of us are going to die, so that means at least five more.”\n\t“The Spider would be us, right?” asked Phinks.\n\t“Yeah.” said Nobunaga.\n\t“The same line was in my fortune,” said Chrollo. \n\t“Let me see,” said Shizuku. She beckoned for the paper in Nobunaga's hand. “Boss, can you tell my fortune, please?” she asked, reading over Nobunaga's fortune. Hisoka, having read the text, looked over to Shizuku and smiled. Chrollo obligingly brought out Lovely Ghost Writer for a second time, and Shizuku received a very different fortune:\n>The calendar loses a precious component.\nThe remaining months gather to mourn.\nYou join your ally as an offering,\nTo keep him from being lonely.\n\n\n>You will find your eternal rest in a room with black merchandise,\nBeware solitude above all,\nYou have the most to fear\nWhen you are alone with another.\n\n“That proves it. I'm going to die next week,” Shizuku said, her voice surprisingly nonchalant.\n\t“Seriously?” said Franklin, hoping that fortune could be proven otherwise. Of all his fellow Spiders, he found Shizuku to be the least quarrelsome, and he appreciated her for that.\n\t“Yep. I only got two verses, see? And Pakunoda and Shalnark are going to die as well,” she continued, her tone casual. Nijiiro stopped herself from smiling a smile that would've been very out of place just then. Her experiment had proved successful. 'By telling Hisoka to kill Shizuku right now, the first verse implies that she, like Uvo, will be a sacrificial offering to my escape. And if he does it after midnight, her death appears in the second verse. Excellent,' mused Nijiiro. 'I'm sure he got the hint...ah...but now he's actually going to kill her, isn't he...?'\n\t“What makes you say that?” asked Nobunaga.\n\t“It seems the numbered months here refer to the Ryodan members,” Shizuku said.\n\t“But...Aren't there only twelve months in a year...? Our numbers go to thirteen,” Phinks said, confused. \n\t“Well....maybe not...The Unified World Calendar, which is based on lunar cycles, has thirteen months of twenty-eight days each, with another day for the vernal equinox,” said Shalnark.\n\t“Ah, that makes sense. The poem refers to us as 'moons,' right?” said Shizuku, “And it would explain the second line here, 'the remaining months gather to mourn.' Saisho is the only one who wasn't with us before the week started, but she came after Uvo died.” The other Spiders stole a glance at their Saisho, who had crossed her legs and was smiling gently down at them from the second floor mezzanine. They quickly looked away.\n\t“November is the eleventh month. Uvo was number eleven,” said Shizuku.\n\t“Exactly,” said Chrollo, picking up the thread of deduction, “and the the chrysanthemum is the flower of September, the ninth month...It blooms in August, the eighth month...it withers in June, the sixth month. Since the word 'falling' is used, it can be taken to mean death.”\n\t“I'm not sure who the 'Scarlet Eyes' refers to,”said Shizuku.\n\t“I know it isn't one of us,” Phinks said, “It's probably the chain-user.”\n\t“Scarlet Eyes...I remember now...” Pakunoda began slowly, “The clan whose eyes turned red...”\n\t“Then, there was a survivor?” Feitan said doubtfully.\n\t“So it seems,” said Shalnark.\n\t“Will he also die?” asked Kortopi, looking at Chrollo.\n\t“It could just mean he's covered in blood,” said Phinks, liking this conversation less and less.\n\t“Nobunaga... this means we'll suffer serious casualties if we fight the chain-user,” Shalnark concluded, turning to his fellow Spider with a serious look. “We'll lose half our members. And while you and I can easily be replaced...Shizuku and Paku have rare powers. The Ryodan can't afford to lose them!” Nobunaga frowned even harder. Wasn't there a way he could at least avenge Uvo on his own?\n\t“Today is Saturday of the first week,” Chrollo added, staring directly at Nobunaga, “If we return home today, we won't run into the chain user next week. The advantage of being able to predict the future, is that we can avoid undesirable prophecies. But if we leave without fighting the chain-user, this prophecy is one-hundred percent guaranteed not to come true. Nobunaga... You and Uvo were the Ryodan's main attack force; to die is simply part of the job. I believe you both chose that role voluntarily. Shizuku, Paku, and Shal collect intelligence...They provide us support. In the field, you could say that they're our lifeline. Is it not your job to serve as their shield?” Nijiiro now had a clear sense of how Neon's power could be used to her advantage. While Chrollo's eyes were imploring Nobunaga away from his selfish desire for revenge, Hisoka's eyes were directed at Nijiiro's right hand, a hand that she now lifted in a motion resembling pulling cotton candy from the air – the ubiquitous gesture of stage performers that meant keep going, play for more time. Hisoka knew it well. And everything was going as Nijiiro had predicted earlier that morning, her hints laying out a path for him that would give him the power to sway Chrollo's course of action and leave the Spiders at his mercy. Who the hell needed prophecy when Fate was on your side? He unlocked his cell and found his conversation with Kurapika. 'The dead bodies were fakes,' he typed into his messenger, but didn't send it. Wait for my cue, Nijiiro had said. And so he would. \n\t“Yeah, it is,” Nobunaga admitted begrudgingly, glancing over at Shal, Paku, and Shizuku. As if he could say anything else with all three of them staring at him!\n\t“Wait!” Hisoka said suddenly, jumping down from his perch in the windowsill, “You should tell some of the other members' fortunes... We might gather additional clues for avoiding the prophecies.” Chrollo stared at him for the space of a heartbeat. For Hisoka, this was both uncharacteristically helpful, and an idea that made far too much sense. But more than that...avoiding the prophecy also meant avoiding a fight. Chrollo turned to Nijiiro, who simply shrugged, as if to say 'why not?' \n\t“Of course,” Chrollo said. \n\tOne after another, he wrote prophecies for not only Hisoka, but every member of the Ryodan, save for Phinks and Kortopi, who didn't know their blood type, Feitan, who didn't know his birthday, and Nijiiro, who seemingly had neither. Hisoka read over his fortune carefully, and was pleased with what he read:\n>A red-eyed customer will visit your shop,\nHalf angel, half death-bringer,\nYou would do well to sell the calendar's secrets.\nHe will be very pleased to learn the eleventh moon's secret.\n\n>The customer will return on a hot day, \nLeaving you alone with the man who bears St. Peter's cross.\nThe false fourth moon will be torn from the calendar.\nAnd only six pages will remain.\n\n“What does your fortune say?” demanded Pakunoda, interrupting Hisoka's gleeful reverie. She held out an impatient hand. Hisoka took a moment, deciding what he'd reveal and what he'd hide. Covering for Nijiiro was a given, so what else might earn him some alone time with the 'man who bears St. Peter's cross?' A Texture Surprise was in order.\n\t“I wouldn't recommend reading it,” Hisoka said, feigning reluctance, “it might come as a nasty shock...”\n\t“Whatever, just hand it over,” Paku said. She reserved no patience whatsoever for Hisoka and his...eccentricities. Snatching the paper from Hisoka's hand, she read it for a moment, before hurrying to where the rest of the Spiders were gathered, trying to discern their fortunes. Paku distracted the others well enough that none of them saw Nijiiro's lift one hand into the air, to spell out two simple words:\n'Tell him.'\n\tHisoka slid his hand carefully into his pocket, pretending to reach for a deck of playing cards. What he really sought to do, of course, was tap the 'send' button of his phone, relaying the crucial message he'd typed earlier to Kurapika. Hisoka withdrew the playing cards from his pocket and began to shuffle them aimlessly, doing his best to look concerned in spite of his overwhelming sense of accomplishment.\n\t\n\n\n“Everyone! Look at this!”  Paku snapped, and the others gathered around to read the fortune in her hands:\n>A red-eyed customer will visit your shop,\nSeeking to make a trade.\nThe customer will use the sword of law upon you,\nTaking the calender's secrets with him\n\n>The eleven-legged Spider grows homesick, \nLosing another five of its legs.\nDo not leave your temporary shelter,\nEven as the Spider's 'vision' is forever lost.\n\t\n“Hisoka... Did you sell him out?! UVO!!” Nobunaga howled, brandishing his sword at Hisoka, who looked over to Nijiiro, or rather, her right hand. Good work, it said. “I'll take that as a yes,” said Nobunaga, charging forward to relieve Hisoka's shoulders of his wretched head. \n\t“Nobunaga, wait!” Shalnark shouted, placing himself between Hisoka and Nobunaga's blade. Franklin joined Shalnark, his large frame blocking Nobunaga's line of sight to where Hisoka sat, continuing to passively draw cards from his deck without acknowledging Nobunaga's threat in the least.\n\t“Outta the way!” Nobunaga yelled, obviously not in the mood for a coin toss.\n\t“Wait a minute,” said Franklin, ever the pragmatist, “Let's hear his explanation first.”\n\t“Explanation?! What the fuck needs explaining?!” Nobunaga barked, gripping his sword.\n\t“Just calm down!” Shalnark countered, with the full understanding that once a fight with Hisoka began, it didn't end until some one died. And Shalnark wouldn't bet in Nobunaga's favor. “Didn't the Boss just tell us that prophecies can be avoided, depending on our actions?”\n\t“Hisoka!” Franklin said, thinking much of the same thing as Shalnark, “Explain what happened this week!”\n\t“Can't say,” Hisoka replied indolently, seeming to reject the grace extended to him by Shalnark and the others.\n\t“What the fuck?!” Nobunaga replied, in equal parts ire and incredulity.\n\t“I can't say. All I can say, is that the first verse is true. Nothing more,” Hisoka replied calmly. Too calmly.\n\t“You hear that?! Now move!” Nobunaga said again.\n\t“Just hold on,” Franklin said, not quite ready to see Nobunaga try to fight, or rather lose to, Hisoka. \n\t“Hisoka, why can't you explain yourself?” Shalnark tried again, sensing that something was amiss.\n\t“To say why I cannot explain, would be to say what it is that I cannot say,” Hisoka retorted. “Thus, I cannot say. It isn't that I will not, it is that I cannot. And that's all I can let you know. If you can't accept my answer, then, in order to defend myself...I'll have no choice but to fight.” Nijiiro had to stifle a surprised giggle at the seriousness with which he delivered this last line, because she happened to know that the only pleasure for Hisoka that existed in this mortal plain beyond forcing another to fight, was being forced to fight himself. Indeed, at that very moment, Hisoka's gratuitously sized appendage was twitching anxiously inside his pants, despite his stoic expression. He held out two cards, as if to take on Nobunaga in earnest self-defense.\n\t“Forget it, I just can't deal with you...” Nobunaga said, turning away and sheathing his sword. It was then that Franklin and Shalnark made the mistake of lowering their arms, creating a hole in the guard between Nobunaga and Hisoka. “...the Hell I would say THAT!” Nobunaga howled, pivoting on one leg and doubling back toward Hisoka at full speed. Nobunaga launched himself at Hisoka one moment, and the next found himself thirty meters away, slashing his sword at empty space on the mezzanine. And to his dismay, Nijiiro was standing directly behind him, looking unamused. He immediately sheathed his sword and swallowed hard.\n\t“Nobunaga,” said Chrollo, “...be quiet for a second.”\n\t“Did...the Boss do that?” Phinks muttered to Machi, who was standing only an arm's length closer to the Boss than he.\n\t“Probably,” answered Machi, not wanting to admit that it was almost certainly Nijiiro's mysterious powers that had moved Nobunaga in an instant.\n\t“Hisoka,” continued Chrollo in a low and carefully measured tone, “I have a few questions for you. If you're unable to answer, just say so... In the fortune, what are 'the calender's secrets?'”\n\t“The abilities of the Ryodan members,” said Hisoka.\n\t“Of how many members?”\n\t“Seven...Or, no, eight. The Boss, and Uvogin, Shizuku, Machi, Franklin, Pakunoda, Shalnark, and I add up to eight.”\n\t“So, until yesterday, you knew nothing of Kortopi's ability?”\n\t“That is correct.” \n\t“What is our opponent's power?”\n\t“I cannot say.”\n\t“What of his outward appearance?”\n\t“I cannot say.”\n\t“What is your relationship to him?”\n\t“I cannot say.”\n\t“I understand now,” Chrollo said, closing his eyes. The rest of the Ryodan waited for him to explain what was going on. “The red-eyed customer in the fortune, has two abilities, at the very least,” he said slowly, “The first being the one he used to subdue and control Uvogin, and the second being the one he has used to limit Hisoka's speech. Since the fortune uses the phrase 'sword of law', we can assume that the 'law' must compel one to obey a set of rules, for example, 'do not lie to me,' or 'do not tell anyone any information about me'. I would further venture that he has placed something in Hisoka's body, possibly as some kind of threat. The first half of Hisoka's fortune mentioned a trade, but the second half only described what the customer took. This would suggest that the 'sword of law' would attack Hisoka, unless he traded secrets. In other words, Hisoka traded the sword's attack for the secrets of the Ryodan members. And the sword that can restrict Hisoka's speech is powerful indeed.” Hisoka began salivating so much that he had to swallow and lick his lips, his cock twitching in his pants. Two long, torturous years of denial were finally at an end, and he knew at that moment that Chrollo had to be broken by him. He simply couldn't bear any other outcome.\n\t“So what we already know about the chain-user, is that he's either a conjurer who used Nen chains to defeat Uvo, or a manipulator using real chains...” Shalnark said. Nijiiro could see the gears in his head turning, and for a moment worried whether he might capture some important detail, some angle she had missed. Shalnark had the best analytical abilities in the Ryodan next to her own, and on rare occasions had surpassed her in his skill for parsing fine details.\n\t“Is there a difference?” asked Shizuku. Nijiiro sighed. 'Shizuku...you are a conjurer, you should know the difference better than anyone...” she thought. It was moments like this that she missed the original number eight.\n\t“A big difference,” said Shalnark, “A conjurer might walk around unarmed. That's a major advantage...The problem is the power that is restricting Hisoka. Since it's the 'sword of law' it involves a set of rules that he has to follow. The rules are probably something like what the Boss mentioned, and also a rule that prevents Hisoka from attacking the chain-user as well. And he'll die if he breaks those rules. That's what I would do, anyway...”\n\t\n\n“Boss,” said Shizuku, turning back to Chrollo, “What about this second verse? 'The eleven-legged Spider grows homesick, losing five more legs, do not leave your temporary shelter, even as the Spider's vision is forever lost...”\n\t“If he leaves this base, that is, our 'temporary shelter', then Hisoka will die,” Shalnark said, sparing Chrollo the additional explanation. Of course, Chrollo wasn't even listening, having begun to contemplate the last line of the false fortune ahead of the rest with a stony expression.\n\t“But what does 'homesick' mean?” said Phinks.\n\t“It refers to our desire to return home,” said Machi.\n\t“Oh, I get it,” said Phinks, ever the scholar. “If we try to go home, then half of us will still die, as well?”\n\t“Uvo, Hisoka, Pakunoda, Shalnark, Shizuku...” said Feitan, counting on his fingers, “ one more would make half, was there anyone else whose fortune predicted their death?”\n\t“Well, it would have to be you, me, or Kortopi, right?” Phinks replied, one scant eyebrow raised. They looked at Chrollo, who hadn't said anything for several minutes.\n\t“...No...” said Chrollo, very quietly. Nijiiro could see the unrest in his aura, and it was hard to look at. She turned her eyes to the ceiling, watching the rain spatter on the broken shards of stained glass skylights.\n\t“Huh?” said Phinks, not sure what the Boss was refuting.\n\t“The last line...of Hisoka's fortune...” Chrollo said hesitantly, not wanting to speak his thoughts into being.\n\t“Ah...this...” Paku said, reading over the fortune one more time, “'Even as the Spider's 'vision' is forever lost'... I don't really get it...”\n\t“A Spider with unique visual prowess. A Spider who is credited with the conception, or vision, of the Gennei Ryodan...A Spider who foresees our actions and is responsible for bringing them to bear...No matter how we interpret that line, it can only refer to one person that could be forever lost...” Chrollo stated darkly, and the unhappiness on his face was unmistakable. The Spiders turned in unison to look at Nijiiro, who was standing almost beneath a shattered skylight, hair and coat fluttering softly in the wind of the storm, with one gloved hand out to the rain as she watched it fall into her palm and explode into thousands of tiny prisms which refracted the multicolored light of the stained glass. Lightning crashed overhead and she turned back to them, her eyes unveiled, two unearthly rainbows that shimmered under their own chilling light.\n\t“Saisho...” Shalnark gasped. Nijiiro smiled slightly. He realized that she had probably parsed the entire fortune of every member as soon as it was written, and had simply waited patiently for them to come to a consensus, another thing she had likely anticipated in its entirety. She looked down at Chrollo, her hands clasped behind her. 'You needn't pretend to think about it, my Sky,' she thought, looking over his tense back. 'You won't take the road that implies I will be sacrificed, no matter what else the fortunes say. Even though you suspect that Hisoka is lying, you won't take the chance. Your mental state is frayed at the mere suggestion that I would be taken from you by a hostile force. Your leadership isn't selfless as you want to believe, is it? It never has been.'\n\t“I will be staying here,” said Hisoka, breaking the tension. “I have something to do before I die; therefore, I will not be leaving my 'temporary shelter.'”  'Now there's a lie if I've ever heard one,' Nijiiro thought at him, suppressing a snort of disbelief. That damned wastrel had never had a single ambition in all his twenty-nine years.\n\t“Boss what should we do? Leave, or stay?” asked Shalnark. All eyes were now on Chrollo. He felt exhausted from using Neon's powers so many times in a row, and the weight of their stares became...uncomfortable. \n\t“Stay.”\n \n\n#### _September 4th, 12:23PM_\n“Why...Why would you tell us something so important?!” Killua shouted, rising up from his seat on the sofa. He glared at Kurapika.\n\t“Why, indeed...?” Kurapika muttered, looking at the floor, “With their leader's death, I must have relaxed a bit...” He continued staring at the carpet to avoid Killua's accusatory cerulean stare.\n\t“It'll be fine if we just keep a lid on it, right?” Leorio offered, not quite understanding the urgency in Killua's tone.\n\t“No...it's too dangerous. I think...the leader isn't really the leader, or maybe... I don't know... But there's a 'founder' and a leader, and they're two different people. Anyway, that one has some terrifying power that affects your senses, and I can't really begin to guess how it works. And another one of the surviving members has the ability to read memories. If they find this out, Kurapika won't be able to beat them!”\n\t“But they didn't learn anything last time..?” Gon said hesitantly.\n\t“That's because we didn't realize that Kurapika was the 'chain-user' they were talking about... But now that we know...” Killua trailed off, looking at Kurapika intently. \n\t“We'll just have to stay away from them, then,” Leorio said simply. “They already checked you, so they think you're clean.”\n\t“The founder...she guessed my name just by looking at me. Her eyes...have some weird power in them. There's also a guy named Nobunaga,” Killua went on, the nagging feeling of danger growing stronger with every word he said. His instincts told him this wasn't over, not by a long shot. “He's especially dangerous. He's still out there, looking for Kurapika, and he's also trying to hunt us down.”\n\t“But is he aware that you two know Kurapika?” Leorio asked mildly.\n\t“Well, no...” Killua answered slowly.\n\t“Then it's okay!” Leorio said, smiling brightly. “As long as no one around the mind readers knows  Kurapika, then you're safe.”\n\t“Well, actually, I've also...been in contact with Hisoka...” Kurapika said, to the horror of everyone present.\n\t“Wha- Hisoka?!” said Leorio, leaning away from Kurapika suddenly, as if Hisoka might be hiding in his shadow.\n\t“Hisoka? Really?” Gon said, leaning toward Kurapika eagerly, as if Hisoka might be hiding in his shadow.\n\t“He knows, that I am the chain user... We had made a pact. But now that his target, the leader of the Spiders, is dead, I don't know what he'll do...” Kurapika finished. He didn't think Hisoka would do anything to get him killed on purpose, but there was always the off chance that Hisoka would change his mind. Actually, there was an excellent chance that Hisoka would change his mind. \n\t“What should we do?” asked Killua, as rain began to patter against the windows of the hotel room. “Now that we know Kurapika's secret, it's dangerous to wait around. If Nobunaga captures either Gon or me again, we probably won't be able to escape. But now, we have you with us, Kurapika. We should take them out now, before they have a chance to recover and escape! We know where their current base is. But, if we wait too long, they could get away. We have to move quickly.” Killua looked at Gon, who seemed to be weighing the merits of Killua's argument, but would probably still have the same opinion as when he began speaking. Which was fine, of course; as long as Killua could get Kurapika to agree to a plan of action, Gon would certainly give it his all. What bothered Killua was the look of pure hesitation on Kurapika's face as he listened taciturnly to what Killua said. “They could be making an escape as we speak,” Killua pressed on, looking for any kind of reaction from the silent Kurapika. “We don't have too much time for thought...”\n\t“The woman you mentioned is certainly a threat...But since their leader is dead, I'll do as Gon says, and focus on recovering the eyes of my brethren,” Kurapika said, looking at Gon's relieved face and smiling slightly.\n\t“Are you serious?!” Killua said, not quite believing his ears. It was too illogical, especially for Kurapika. \n\t“Yeah,” Kurapika said simply.\n\t“Are you sure about this?” Killua tried again. Gon and Kurapika...were both abandoning their objectives in YorkNew City, and Killua couldn't understand why he was fighting them over it. He didn't even technically have an objective of his own...it was all too capricious.\n\t“Kurapika's made up his mind!” chimed in Leorio, sounding weirdly like a proud uncle, “We can't force him to change it.” 'I don't believe this,' thought Killua. Abandoning a target went against every fibre of his being. 'Choosing to pursue a target, or not, on nothing but a whim, an emotion...this must be the prerogative of 'normal' people, huh...?' It would certainly take some getting used to.\n\t“I'm sorry, Killua,” said Kurapika, sensing Killua's distress. “Thank you, for valuable information.” Killua looked into Kurapika's warm brown eyes, and the sincerity there was undeniable. He sat back on the sofa and sighed. 'Just wait until their Saisho lights you on fire, you insufferable optimist,' he thought, looking pointedly away. And...hadn't there been something after that? Killua bit his lip, hoping he wasn't blushing in front of the others. The fewer people that knew about that, the better. The sound of Kurapika's phone mercifully interrupted his recollections.\n\t“It's from Hisoka,” said Kurapika, before falling silent for nearly half a minute. Killua realized with a start that he wasn't even breathing. \n\t“...Kurapika?” Gon said carefully. Something about the air around Kurapika was suddenly hotter, denser, and far more dangerous. Lightning crashed outside the window, and Kurapika looked up from the screen of his mobile phone, his eyes glowing a more fiery crimson than Killua and the others had ever seen.\n\t“The corpses were fake!” Kurapika hissed, his aura spiking around him.\n\t“What?!” Leorio said emphatically, “You mean the dead bodies of the Ryodan members?!”\n\t“Yes...The dead Spiders were fakes!” Kurapika said, his eyes wide with revulsion, “It would certainly be possible, for a conjurer to accomplish that...Fuck! Why didn't I think of this sooner?!”\n\t“The situation has changed,” Killua said solemnly. “...Now what? We're here to help.”\n\t“Uh-huh,” Gon agreed. Leorio simply nodded his assent. Kurapika's phone rang yet again, and Kurapika fought to answer it properly when his instinct told him to snap it in half.\n\t“Hello?” Kurapika answered.\n\t“Kurapika? It's me,” said a voice on the other line.\n\t“Senritsu? What is it?” \n\t“The Community has called off the hunt for the remaining Ryodan members,” she said hesitantly. Kurapika realized she could probably hear his agitation. He suddenly wished he had snapped the damned phone in half. \n\t“What?!” he bristled at the receiver.\n\t“We learned that they came from Meteor City,” Senritsu explained, hoping Kurapika would understand. He did, and the implication wasn't good.\n\t“The Ryodan comes from Meteor City?”\n\t“The Ten Dons gave the order directly. The reward has been rescinded.” Kurapika hung up the phone without thinking.\n\t“The reward...has been rescinded?” Kurapika repeated slowly, struggling to believe it even as he said it aloud. Killua's eyes widened.\n\t“Seriously?” said Killua, “The Ryodan comes from Meteor City?!”\n\t“Now I get it,” Leorio said thoughtfully, “That explains why their identities are still unknown, and also why the police haven't been able to track them down...”\n\t“What is Meteor City?” Gon asked, his trademark innocence shining through.\n\t“A city populated by people who, as far as society is concerned, don't exist,” Leorio explained.\n\t“There's a city like that?” Gon asked in disbelief.\n\t“Yes. Officially, it's uninhabited, but it's said that upwards of ten million people live there... It began as a garbage dump over fifteen-hundred years ago, and people began living off the garbage that was deposited there. It eventually became an abandoned region, with no real form of government. You're allowed to dump anything there... From garbage to weapons, even people... And the residents will accept anything that is left there,” Leorio said gravely. “It's said that Meteor City residents share a mysterious bond that is 'thinner than that between strangers, and thicker than that between kin'.” \n\t“Actually, there are certain people that provide Meteor City residents with weapons and precious metals, under the pretext of dumping garbage...The mafia community.” Kurapika added, having finally caught his breath.\n\t“What are you talking about? The mafia is hunting the Ryodan!” Gon said loudly, not quite comprehending the intricacies of mob hiring practices.\n\t“In exchange, the mafia recruits people from Meteor City,” Kurapika finished.\n\t“People who don't 'exist,' as far as society is concerned,” Leorio said, “Who better to commit crimes? ...The Ryodan destroyed the normally inextricable relationship between the mafia and Meteor City. But the mafia has decided to prioritize that relationship.”\n\t'The Spiders...are really that powerful, huh?' Killua thought, frowning. 'Then it makes sense that the mafia would want peace with the remaining members... the better question is, why did the Spiders stop waging war against the mafia?'",
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      "body": "Congratulations @beestmode! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/60x70/http://steemitboard.com/@beestmode/voted.png?201902230407</td><td>You received more than 10 upvotes. Your next target is to reach 50 upvotes.</td></tr>\n</table>\n\n<sub>_[Click here to view your Board](https://steemitboard.com/@beestmode)_</sub>\n<sub>_If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word_ `STOP`</sub>\n\n\n\n> Support [SteemitBoard's project](https://steemit.com/@steemitboard)! **[Vote for its witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1)** and **get one more award**!",
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      "permlink": "a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vii",
      "title": "A HunterXHunter fanfic (Part VII)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n[Part III](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii)\n[Part IV](https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv)\n[Part V](https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v)\n[Part VI](https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi)\n#### _September 3rd, 7:52 PM_\nNijiiro called a cab for the first time since returning to YorkNew City a mere six hundred meters from the Spiders' secret base. Her presence in YorkNew wasn't really a secret anymore, but she might still secretly hope the Kurta would be clever enough to search the cab companies' records and find the base without too much help from her, or better yet, arrive in the cab she'd summoned so that she could see him up close for a change. His aura was...well, it was really something else. What arrived was, of course, not the Kurta, but a wizened man with a heavy Takanyu accent and fewer teeth than fingers. Nijiiro sighed and climbed into the cab, directing the driver in Takansi to drive her to the Cemetery Building, much to his delight.\n\tWhile the driver prattled away in his native tongue about his cousin's cattle farm back home, Nijiiro quietly activated the tap-and-tace tracking function she placed on the two boys' phones, hoping they wouldn't notice the additional battery drain. Beetle cellphones, even newer models, had a much heavier, sturdier battery, so the odds that the phones' charge would last at least another thirty hours, even with the extra heat and charge drain of the bugging equipment she installed, were excellent. The two boys didn't strike her as terribly tech-savvy, but there was always a risk that they'd discover the Slave Driver that was copying their phones' data back to Nijiiro's virtual phone application, plug it into a random data generator, and use it to track her instead. And while her phone's custom encryption software more or less made the flow of data packets a one-way street, her physical location would still be visible to anyone clever enough to see through her strategy long before she would notice anything was amiss with the Slave Drivers. Of course...she was probably overthinking the situation quite a bit. If things didn't take a decisive turn in the next eighteen hours, her larger plan would likely collapse, if it hadn't already.  A trace on her location would quickly become immaterial. Gon and Killua suddenly popped up on her screen as the trace made its connection successfully, moving quickly toward a subway station on 250th Avenue by Stilton Street. 'So they've already escaped Nobunaga, huh? That was fast. I doubt either of them has given up on capturing the Ryodan, too. I wonder what they'll do next. Well, no, I imagine the next step would be to contact the Kurta. They clearly underestimated the strength of my Spiders, hmm...' Nijiiro mused to herself, chuckling quietly as she imagined what she and the Spiders must look like to couple kids who had just barely learned to use Nen. The driver took her smile as a sign of encouragement, and seemed to be about to invite her out for a drink when a tap on the window interrupted both of their imaginations, and a beefy-necked mafia cop asked them for their traffic pass. Nijiiro handed over Don Marscapone, Junior's master pass, and the cab proceeded smoothly through the anxious line of politicians, mobsters, and armed goons swarming the Cemetery Building ready to kill any Spiders with the audacity to approach the Mafia auction. Nijiiro yawned. The place could do with a few more explosions.\n\tNijiiro made her way to the comms room, eager to get a look at the team of top-dollar assassins she had ordered the night before last.  If the Injiyuu disaster that night was any indication of the mafia's power deficit, the assassination strategy was going to be a similar sort of crap-shoot in the dark, with an even higher risk of failure. Of course, all the real risk would be borne by the mafia men and their hired guns, which was how they became the 'B' plan in Nijiiro's careful itinerary. She raised the hood of her floor-sweeping coat and slipped into the half-lit CCTV viewing room like a shadow in a fog. She checked her phone again, and the boys had vanished off her map's GPS.  'They must be underground still,' she reasoned, spinning slowly in an office chair and pouting. How long would it be until the Spiders showed up? Until the assassins arrived? More importantly, when would Chrollo show up? As much as she had missed him this morning, the thought of his disappointed face concocting an appropriate punishment for leaving Meteor City without permission sent shivers of dread down her spine. Her mouth was suddenly dry. Reaching for her hip flask, Nijiiro took a deep draught of Dutch courage, only to spit it back out when the camera on the ninth floor elevator doors showed none other than Chrollo himself, escorting Neon Nostrade into a small cafe. And wearing a very flattering suit while he did it. 'Plenty of time to think about that later, Niji-chan' she scolded herself. Of course, she had expected him to turn up at the Cemetery Building sooner than later, but to actually use Neon herself as a cover, and stroll right through the front door, the nerves on this man... Nijiiro was caught halfway between admiring Chrollo's perfect shining black hair and reminding herself that he'd once soaked her in kerosene and lit her on fire for doing the very thing she was now trying to do again. 'Here's to happily-ever-after,' she thought, and emptied her hip flask.  \n\tNijiiro watched the headache-inducing monitors flicker away at a pitiful seventy frames per second until Neon Nostrade collapsed in the second floor hallway, brought down by Chrollo's deft and barely perceptible blow to her slender neck. “Believe me, Neon, you got off easy,” Nijiiro couldn't help but mutter under her breath, even as Chrollo's caricatural display of concern for Neon's well-being made her grin like a Cheshire cat beneath her cowl. Even murderous sociopaths could be guilty of overcompensation from time to time.\n\t“Could you rewind this monitor?” inquired a middle-aged man in a beret just a meter to Nijiiro's right. 'One of the assassins, eh?' Nijiiro thought. He had an impressive aura for a hired gun. He was good, but certainly not good enough to notice her calmly sitting here among his employers. In fairness, this fellow was hardly expected to know that she was even affiliated with the Spiders in the first place. \n\t“Of course,” replied the mafia camera jockey. Nijiiro realized with a start that while she'd been staring at Chrollo, she'd missed her chance to assess the professional hitman squad that had prompted her to enter the comms room in the first place. She tapped at the feeds from the entrances until she found the footage of their arrival. Biting her lip to stave off a long string of descriptive curses, she watched not only six regular mercenaries, of which the Beret was one, but also the Kurta kid, and not one, but two Zoldycks. The same Zoldycks that had offed her comrade three years ago, before her very eyes, and were now under her own orders to do the same to Nijiiro. Not only was the Kurta kid critically unprepared to handle Chrollo in a fight, the presence of the two Zoldyck assassins meant that she might not be able to slip under the radar this time. 'So much for abating personal risks...and yet, I'm not the same person I was three years ago...I won't have to hide behind Chrollo if they come charging my way... And it's not as if I'm the only target they have. If I keep my distance, the rest of the Spiders will finish these two off long before they can get to me. If bad comes to worse, I'll have to force the Ten Dons to call off the hit. I've never heard of a Zoldyck that would get out of bed for less than two billion. Just how much did this cock-up cost me, anyway?' Nijiiro watched the cock-up in question unfold in real time, as glimpses of Chrollo flitted on and off of various monitors, taking out the mediocre assassins, followed by the competent, and finally the true professionals, until only the Kurta, who wandered aimlessly about the ground floor, and the Zoldycks, who had taken an elevator to the roof, remained in action. Billions worth of hired muscle dispatched with a handful of free pens from the reception desk. She'd have been disappointed, but the pride swelling inside her chest left no room for it. 'Ah, such a man he is.' Nijiiro decided she would stretch her legs before the finale. \n\tRising gracefully to her feet, Nijiiro stalked toward the second-floor ballroom on noiseless cat feet, careful to hide her presence lest one of the Zoldyck assassins come flying out of the shadows to end her reign of terror prematurely. So gingerly, in fact, that when her phone began to vibrate, indicating that one of the phones she had bugged was dialing out to another number, Nijiiro hopped a full meter and a half off the ground and yelped like a wounded animal, before quietly thanking the gods that no one had witnessed her. She ascended the stairs and found a quiet corner, adding a set of earbuds and then picking up the call to listen in. \n\t“Hello?” a voice came in over a slight bit of static. The staccato sound of machine gun fire drifted in from the background, and Nijiiro smiled. \n\t“Hey, Kurapika?” Gon's insistent tone answered. 'Given name, Kurapika,' Nijiiro thought, 'It sounds awfully cute...for a stone-cold killer...' \n\t“...Huh?” said Kurapika, not sure whether he had ever even given Gon his number.\n\t“Thank goodness we finally got ahold of you!”\n\t“Gon, is that you?!” Kurapika exclaimed. He actually hadn't given Gon his number.\n\t“Yeah! Can you talk right now?” Gon asked.\n\t“Uh, sorry, I'm in the middle of something right now,” Kurapika replied, inadvertently making what was, perhaps, the understatement of the century, “I'll call you back.”\n\t“Just wait a sec! Can you give me at least a minute? I have to tell you something!” Gon insisted, in an insistent way that only he could insist. “Killua and I ran into the Gennei Ryodan!” 'Boy, did you ever, kiddos.' Nijiiro thought, grinning widely. “Actually, we got captured by them...” \n\t“What the hell were you thinking?! Don't you know how dangerous they are?!” Kurapika yelled back, sounding more or less on the verge of a heart attack. 'They do now, don't they?' Nijiiro mused, still grinning, ' But he seems genuinely horrified to know these two were risking their lives. Interesting, that. I took him for more of a lonely, self-righteous type.' After a shuffling sound, a new voice came on the line.\n\t“I thought I knew, but after we met them, it became painfully clear,” said Killua. 'Painful indeed, wasn't it, my miniature Zoldyck,” Nijiiro thought, glancing around warily for any sign of the two full-sized Zoldycks from whom she was hiding but smiling all the same. “They're very strong...Right now, we have no chance against them...That's why we need your help -”\n\t“We want to help you, too!” Gon interjected.\n\t“Don't be ridiculous. I'm not going to help the two of you get yourselves killed,” Kurapika said icily. \n\t“Don't you want to know where their base is located?” Killua tried again.\n\t“I have my own sources of information,” Kurapika answered disdainfully. 'And all of your sources are yours-truly, boy-o,' Nijiiro thought, with a humorless smirk. She contented herself with the thought of walking downstairs and smacking the condescension right out of his pretty mouth. Ah, the temptation was real.\n\t“Do you know all of their powers?” Killua continued calmly. \n\t“Enough! Just stay away from the Ryodan!” Kurapika finally snapped. 'He really cares for them, doesn't he?' Nijiiro thought. It had been a good idea to bug the kids' phones; and that good idea had just led Nijiiro to an even better one. A light now shone at the end of the proverbial tunnel.\n\t“You're the 'chain-user' who killed one their members, aren't you? They're looking everywhere for you. Even if you won't treat us as friends or equals, we'll just do whatever we must to help! Hmph!” Killua barked, surrendering the phone back to Gon in frustration. And with that, Nijiiro's plan was set. These two would be helping her after all, whether they liked it or not.\n\t“Kurapika...one of the Spiders, he cried in front of us. He said he couldn't forgive whoever had killed his friend. I...got really mad after I saw that. I can't just let that go. We can't let them go! So please...Kurapika...” Gon finished uncertainly, hoping his irresistible honesty would win Kurapika over. \n\t“...I'll call you back.” Kurapika said slowly. He hung up. 'I have his name, his number, and two of his precious friends...that, Kurta, is what we call leverage. And very soon, I will turn that leverage into a force well beyond your control. Just you wait, Golden Boy.' Nijiiro looked around again. Damn, why did she leave the comms room? Avoiding the Zoldyck pair, who were using En or something very like it  in a grid-search pattern, would have been much easier with the help of closed-circuit television. But if the Zoldycks held their pace, they'd meet Chrollo in front of the second floor ballroom in about twelve minutes. Without her telling them to, Nijiiro's legs had betrayed her, and carried her directly to that spot. Killing Chrollo was one thing, but forfeiting any chance of a good-bye kiss was unthinkable. She stepped into the ballroom. \n\tAlone, she stood on the stage, memories of her days with the circus in Meteor City flooding over her. Days that were long dead tonight, lying among the first victims of the Spider. Nijiiro gazed out at the empty ballroom, and in a sweet, gently lilting soprano, began to sing. \n### _September 3rd, 8:32 PM_\nChrollo Lucilfer was all out of pens. That wouldn't prevent him from wiping the floor with every mafia bigshot downstairs in under ten seconds, but he preferred a weapon that would spare him from physically touching anyone, if he could help it. The magnetic forces of fate that drew his attackers to their deaths left him unscathed thus far, and he wanted to keep it that way. He wandered slowly toward the weapons check on the building's lobby, masking his presence with a perfect Zetsu. He had sensed a massive amount of aura, a master of En, feeling their way through the building earlier, and wasn't too keen on facing that aura barehanded. But as he neared the doors of the second-floor ballroom, a sound he hadn't heard in years rose and fell, seductively faint and far away, begging him to venture inside and listen closely. He stepped into to the brightly lit ballroom as quietly as he could, not to hide his movement, but to avoid disturbing the flow of the melody that enveloped the hollow space with its hauntingly beautiful echoes. Without accompaniment, without restraint, without fear, she was singing hymns. To him, and him alone. And he couldn't bear to interrupt.\nThe king of love my shepherd is,\nWhose goodness faileth never;\nI nothing lack if I am his\nAnd he is mine for ever.\n\nPerverse and foolish oft I strayed,\nBut yet in love he sought me,\nAnd on his shoulder gently laid,\nAnd home rejoicing brought me.\n\nIn death's dark vale I fear no ill\nWith thee, dear Lord, beside me;\nThy rod and staff my comfort still,\nThy cross before to guide me.\n\tChrollo waited for Nijiiro to fall silent, her lyrics, however borrowed, having answered at least three of the four questions he might have asked her. For that was her way, he'd learned. Though she would swear she didn't read minds, she had the most uncanny knack for anticipating them. He was irate, and yet, he could never doubt why he had chosen her. She pulled her cowl back and turned to him, a faint smile playing across her lips. She would wait politely for him to speak, as always.\n\t“You sing as beautifully as ever, Zahrat-Alqamar.” \n\t“ I aim only to please, Sama' Allayl...” Nijiiro answered, her prismatic eyes lowered. \n\t“And yet, here you stand. Did you imagine I would find this untimely stunt of yours pleasant? I myself ordered you to stay in Meteor City, for your own safety. For the sake of the Spider.”\n\t“Ah, but was it not you, my Sky, who called to remind me of my own desire to see you, and also your own desire for counsel?” Chrollo stared at her for a moment, contemplating her soft red lips, her shining silver hair, her subtle yet exotic scent of jasmine flowers and rare spices. She lifted her eyes to him and he stared into the rainbow irises that had struck fear and awe into the hearts of so many others. Since the first time he'd looked into those eyes, he had the most unshakeable feeling that something otherworldly lay behind them. Rationally, he knew that she was using her beguiling nature to wriggle out of the consequences that came with defiance. Irrationally, he could feel it working on him, and he hated it more than he could fathom. Closing the distance between them in the space of half a heartbeat, Chrollo seized Nijiiro by the soft white throat and brought her just off the ground with one hand. He breathed in the scent of her, his hand tightening as he spoke into her ear, a low and calm tone in his voice.\n\t“What is it that you want to happen now, Zahrat-Alqamar? Why did you come here?” Chrollo's hand released her, and Nijiiro sunk to her knees. She took a few breaths to regain her bearing and looked up at him. It was a vague question. In all honesty, she wanted to kiss everything between the toes of his boots and his perfect charcoal-colored eyes and beg him for forgiveness,  but she quickly shook the thought out of her head. There was a certain need to answer his questions quickly, before Chrollo decided to do something truly painful. Not that she would mind the punishment, but there was simply no time for it. She smiled up at him, undeterred. \n\t“I suppose it was...a perverse desire to have my cake and eat it, too...”\n\t“...How very like you.”\n\t“There are thousands of dead mafioso down there. Bosses, contractors, two-bit thugs. Half of the crime syndicates in YorkNew have been wiped out, or nearly so.”\n\t“Get to the point.”\n\t“I understand the desire to eradicate the one who killed Uvogin, perhaps his entire organization. But killing too many of them, too quickly...will risk some long-term effects for the Spiders. You will soon create an irreparable power vacuum here. I believe a certain measure of ...restraint... is in order.”\n\t'So she was concerned for the Spider, after all. I shouldn't have doubted her,' Chrollo thought, but continued to feel a sliver of suspicion at the timing of it all. \n\t“What are you suggesting, my Flower?”\n\t“Let them have their auction, and also let us have their treasure,” Nijiiro said, smiling a little wider as the strategy she imagined dawned on Chrollo and the tension in his brow began to slip away.\n\t“....Yes...I see. In the end it is your delicate approach, Zahrat-Alqamar, that moves mountains...” Chrollo said slowly, mulling it over. Nijiiro's heart pounded as the corners of his mouth twitched upward, in what was almost a smile. It was at that instant that an overwhelming Nen presence slammed into them from the end of the hallway, and Nijiiro was reminded what it was that had scared her only slightly less than Chrollo's castigation this evening. She stood slowly. The color of this Nen was new to her, but she guessed that it belonged to the elder Zoldyck that had entered the building with the assassination team earlier. An Earth-shattering burst of energy that could only belong to a first-class emitter. \n\t“Chrollo...”\n\t“I know. Run away now, and stay hidden. That's an order.”\n\t“Chrollo, I-”\n\tChrollo kissed her forehead then, a light and soft brush of his lips that nevertheless meant the world to Nijiiro. She knew he wouldn't ask for her help, and he wouldn't accept it - whether there were two Zoldycks out there, or twenty, no matter how strong she'd become. No matter how she felt for him. Truly, love and hatred were two sides of the same coin.\n\tNijiiro sprinted full speed toward the comms room, speed-dialing Hisoka's number without breaking stride. He picked up on the first ring. \n\t“There's been a shift in plans,” she said, without waiting to hear his voice. \n\t“Meaning?”\n\t“Meet me in the comms room. Now.” Nijiiro hung up without waiting for a response. 'Tch. What a slave driver,' thought Hisoka, frowning. He leaped from his perch on top of the Commerce Centre building and darted toward the epicenter of the Spiders' rampage. He used his Bungee Gum to pull himself across the roofs, well above the rabble without attracting to much attention. Running was for plebeians.  When he reached the Cemetery Building's front doors, he found all of the glass shattered by stray bullets and one of every three surfaces was decorated with either blood, shrapnel, or open flames. It really did set the mood. \n\tNijiiro was settled in to the biggest chair in the comms room nervously running her hand over the back of her head and frowning. 'This could be bad news, then,' Hisoka reckoned silently. He followed her gaze up to the monitor where her attention had been glued since she hung up on him. On it, Chrollo was in full-tilt combat with two extremely competent assailants. It made Hisoka's blood instantly begin to boil. \n\t“What is this?” he hissed at Nijiiro, “A part of your plan to deny me the only thing I want in exchange for executing your stupid pla-”\n\t“Shut up and watch.” Hisoka blinked. Such tension. She really wasn't sure of the outcome here. \n\t“Who are they?” \n\t“Zoldyck assassins.”\n\t“Illumi's relatives?”\n\t“Killua's, too.”\n\t“Oo-oh. They're pretty damned good.”\n\t“Of course. I paid for the very best,” Nijiiro said, frowning even harder at the screen. She sometimes envied Hisoka's one-track mind.\n\t“Are you frightened?” Hisoka said, glancing down at her. Nijiiro's legs were tucked up into the chair, her brow was furrowed with tension. She thought back to the plan she'd conceived of mere minutes ago, the one where Chrollo was alive and well when she left him, and shut her eyes tight before Silva Zoldyck could deal a final blow. A massive explosion shook the building to its foundation, and a thick cloud of dust obscured the camera in the ballroom where Chrollo fought the Zoldycks for his very life. “By the way, flower-girl, I have an interesting tidbit for you. Do with it as you wish. It seems Chrollo hired an assassin himself just yesterday, the one-and-only Illumi Zoldyck. His target is – or should I say, was – the Ten Dons, leaders of the world mafias.”\n\tAs the dust cleared in the second-floor ballroom, on the now upside-down view from the cracked camera, Nijiiro could just make out the shapes of  three people slowly climbing out of the rubble. The fight appeared to be over, and all three of them still alive. She sighed. The Ten Dons were scrapped, meaning all of the connections she'd made in order to influence their moves would have to be re-worked. It wouldn't be easy - in fact, the thought of it threatened an instant migraine, but it was possible. Perhaps, if her plan here was a success, she could even choose the new Dons for herself. That move would certainly come in handy one day, when the entire world turned its eyes to the East... Thinking of that day brought new conviction to Nijiiro's face and she hopped out of the chair, stretching like cat before sauntering off toward the door. Hisoka wondered why on earth the bad news had sat so well with her, but questions like those were just too far above his pay grade. He contented himself with following her to the lobby, where she beckoned all the other Spiders gathered there to follow her as well, and together they went to the destroyed second-floor ballroom. Chrollo outlined a new plan to steal what remained of the treasure, and Nijiiro watched him speak, a quixotic expression on her face. 'It's the strangest thing, but...I can't tell which of us is screwier anymore, Niji-chan,' Hisoka thought uncertainly, 'all I can do is hope that you know what you're doing this time. Because if you disappoint me again, I can't say what I'll do about it...'\n\tAs if sensing the dangerous thoughts beginning to rise in Hisoka's mind, Nijiiro glanced over at him, her eyes rolling up and down his form twice before turning back to Chrollo. 'Tomorrow night, Hisoka. Don't fuck it all up before then,' she thought, wishing she could beam the message directly through his thick skull. She'd have to settle for a text later. It was time for an auction.\n#### _September 3rd, 9:37 PM_\nNijiiro smoked a cigarette and watched the other Spiders work enthusiastically, her demeanor slack with indolence. 'It must be nice,' she reasoned, 'to care about things like treasure and money. Especially when the thrill of possessing those things wears off so quickly.' Nijiiro supposed she had been like that, too, once upon a time. But the Peltier mansion, the mafia men, the human-trophy hunters, the host of petty kings and tyrants she had met, tempted, toppled occasionally, had provided her with a great deal of perspective regarding the value of mere material wealth. Watching powerful Nen users like the Spiders go to the effort of stealing treasure was like watching billionaires stoop low to pick up pennies. It was more of a hobby than a vocation, whether they knew it or not. Nijiiro sighed. Perhaps her lackadaisical attitude towards money, she reminded herself, stemmed from the fact that she had billions in her personal accounts and trillions at her disposal now. She shouldn't begrudge the others their silly golden swords and porcelain flour jars. She wandered out into the audience and found a well-cushioned velour seat on the periphery. 'Ah, it's almost over, isn't it? Thank god,' she thought. She watched Paku bring out the last item, the Scarlet Eyes, and fought the urge to look away. Nearly a year ago, she had concocted a plan to destroy the mafia bosses that had refused to stop selling human trophies at the yearly auction, and that plan was currently relieving the Community of every treasure it had, exactly as she had promised the Ten Dons would happen. But now that the Ten Dons were dead, and the mafia itself in considerable disarray, the punishment was a pointless one. 'At least the rest of the Spiders like it.' But Nijiiro would just as soon never see those damned Scarlet Eyes ever again.\n\tAs if on cue, Kurapika burst into the auction hall, panting and sweating. Nijiiro could make out his obvious distress from across the auction hall. He quickly made a phone call, and then began bidding on the Scarlet Eyes. A bidding war began between him and Zenji, a fat little toad from the Mondseer clan. Nijiiro had forgotten to kill him six months ago, and she couldn't even quite remember why anymore. He hadn't made much of an impression. She watched them go back and forth for a while, until Zenji finally had his face stepped on for what seemed to be a second time today. 'Good work, Golden Boy,' Nijiiro thought. He seemed so distraught. 'Worry not, you'll have your shot at the big, bad Spider tomorrow night, when I've a full night's sleep and fat rail of white lightning to start the day right.' She stood and wandered out of the auction hall, thinking that perhaps Kurapika's disapproving frown was beginning to grow on her. Ah, well. It wasn't like being her asset was a _voluntary_ position. He could frown all he wanted.\n#### _September 3rd, 10:29 PM_\nMachi couldn't remember the last time she'd enjoyed a bottle of gin in its entirety, but downing the last swig was almost enough to make her forget that Nijiiro was sitting across the room at Chrollo's side, dutifully pouring him sips of his favorite plum saké. Almost. Machi had always suspected, and correctly, that the Boss was something of a lightweight, if he drank at all, which Machi had always found oddly charming. Nijiiro, the queen of drunks herself, hadn't imbibed a single drop, as was her habit whenever Chrollo was around. 'Fake bitch,' Machi thought, wishing she could say it aloud, but knowing it would ruin the atmosphere in a disastrous way. The others were in a delightful mood, however, driving the dark clouds away as she listened to them laugh and rib at one another. Eventually, one the men loudly suggested some music, and a drunken effort was made to find a stereo, or a record player, but to no avail. It was then that Chrollo stood and looked down at Nijiiro, whispered something and held out his hand to her. Nijiiro simply looked at the proffered hand as if she didn't know what to make of it.\n\t“You seemed eager to use your powers,” Machi heard Chrollo say gently, “There is no time like the present, is there?” Nijiiro swallowed, understanding the situation after a moment's deliberation. “Will you...dance with me?” he pressed on. His black eyes were exhilarating in their sincerity, to the point where Nijiiro could scarcely discern whether it was punishment or reward, although it was almost certainly the former, and only her contorted view of Chrollo made her see it as the latter. She decided she didn't care. She slid her gloved hand into his, and he led her to the middle of the empty stone floor, where she activated Passion. If Chrollo asked it of her, punishment or not, she would give him a spectacle.\n\tThe other Spiders fell silent as Chrollo and Nijiiro strolled hand-in-hand to the center of the bare concrete slab, and a soft, tinkling melody rose up around them, seemingly out of nowhere. First a single violin sang out, before it was joined by other sounds: a xylophone, a flute, a cello, a french horn, and so on. Chrollo bowed, and Nijiiro offered a deep curtsy in return. Chrollo rested one hand high on Nijiiro's slender waist, the other holding her hand in the most maddeningly light and delicate of embraces. Nijiiro laid her free hand on Chrollo's shoulder before gazing into his dark eyes with her violet ones.  Just close enough to feel the warmth of his body, but not close enough to enjoy it the way she longed to. The music swelled and they began to turn, a flawless Viennese Waltz. And as the seconds ticked by, the illusion created by Passion intensified. The first turn changed Nijiiro and Chrollo into new clothes; his black coat became a pressed white military dress uniform, complete with silver cords and medals of honor pinned to the lapels, hers a white ballgown, the material of which shimmered so brightly it appeared as a million tiny fireworks, exploding indefinitely in the candlelight. Each wore a bright crown of diamonds that glittered in the moonlight. The second turn changed their surroundings, as the walls and floor began to melt into a shining golden ballroom. Huge golden candelabras with dozens of lit candles each swam into being, as did massive chandeliers swarming with hundreds of lit candles and millions of crystal ornaments. The changing of the room seemed to melt in from one's peripheral vision, rather than pop suddenly into existence, and it gave the uncomfortable feeling that everything around oneself was perfectly genuine, and one was simply noticing it for the first time. Machi felt her heart begin to pound a mere four seconds in, but as Nijiiro and the Boss whirled around the shining ballroom, the details of the scene only intensified. The pale gold wallpaper and rich tapestries took on dizzying levels of intricacy. Live musicians appeared at the far end of the room, playing away at their instruments. The music swelled and subsided, as Chrollo lifted his partner effortlessly into the air to the tune. Nijiiro smiled the most genuine smile they'd ever seen, and Chrollo seemed unmistakably pleased as well. But it continued, and soon ghosts appeared, or at least appeared thus to the Spiders, who began to notice an increasing number of guests in the ballroom; graceful women in gowns of pashmina and tulle and silk in bright floral colors, elegant gentlemen in black and midnight blue, all dancing in time with the music or milling about with flutes of sparkling champagne in their hands. Machi suddenly couldn't get enough air. Her seat on what had been a broken stone slab was now a tasteful gold chaise lounge, and she looked down to find she, too, was dressed for the occasion, in a sparkling gown of periwinkle blue taffeta dotted here and there with blue crystal accents and embroidered with silver thread. 'This isn't real. This isn't real. This is an illusion,' she thought, trying to slow her breaths before she hyperventilated. 'Nijiiro can't be this powerful. I know it's not real, I'll see it, if I calm down, and...' Machi never finished the thought, as one of the ball room ghosts looked into her eyes and politely asked her to dance. Reeling backward, she shrieked and tried to run, only to trip over a heavy taffeta gown and heels she knew she wasn't wearing.  Before she crashed into a very real stone floor, a powerful arm caught her and held her fast, setting her upright. Hisoka smiled down at her.\n\t“Ballroom dancing isn't meant to be so frightening, Machi,” he said, his voice dripping with condescension. She wanted to hit him, as usual, but the world around her was fast becoming a fever dream in which she couldn't recognize a single piece of the real world. Even Hisoka, to her horror, was in a very fetching suit of form-fitting deep gold velvet and white linen, his red hair curling naturally around his face and adding to his already roguish charm. She looked around, and saw that the other Spiders were still present, only they were all wearing the luxurious clothes befitting a ball of such magnitude, and none of them were nearly as terrified as she, only varying shades of awestruck and uncertain. Hisoka was truly at home, however, even as the illusion deepened to maddening new levels, twirling about with the ballroom ghosts and even inviting Paku to take a turn with him. There was a smell of cigar smoke, and of warm apple tarts. Squealing children in dress clothes ran through the circles of guests as a nanny chased after them. Bursts of laughter and snippets of conversation drifted in from the corners of the room, and the music became even more complex, as drums and harps piled in on the main melody for a truly dynamic arrangement of sounds. The candles burned to the touch. The champagne tasted dry and expensive. Snow beat at the towering lead-glass windows as thunder rumbled in the distance...  And then, all at once, the world around them began to dissolve again. \n\t“Forgive me...” Nijiiro seemed to whisper painfully, from inches away from their faces, and Machi realized she was in fact speaking to Chrollo, at a barely audible volume, “I am... at my limit...” The Spiders turned in unison to where Nijiiro was sagging in a low dip, supported only by Chrollo's arms around her.\n\t“As am I,” he whispered back, kissing her on the mouth passionately as the ballroom, and its imaginary occupants, seemed to dissolve into a light, feathery ash and then vanish altogether. Chrollo gathered her utterly exhausted form up into his arms and held her as deep lacerations and dark, angry bruises bloomed across her skin, mostly hidden by her long coat, but betrayed by the blood dripping from the sleeves and  hems. He traced the curve of her full lips with his thumb,smudging her blood-red lipstick in the process. He licked the smudge of red on his thumb. It tasted like honey. She moaned a little, and he kissed her cheek. The other Spiders looked around at the damp, gray walls, one another, and Shalnark began to clap, which everyone but Machi and Bolonev joined him in. They were, to say the least, very impressed. \n\t“Some punishment,” Nijiiro said weakly, knowing she'd really overdone it. \n\t“I haven't the slightest idea what you mean,” Chrollo replied. 'Liar,' Nijiiro thought. They both knew exactly what he'd meant to happen, and so it had. Nijiiro was in so much pain she could hardly breathe. The blood began to soak though her coat in a hundred places, and she was dangerously light-headed as she stared into Chrollo's eyes. \n\t“Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love,” he whispered, leaning in close to her ear. She smiled to hear the borrowed words spoken so perfectly, as if he were the first to utter them. 'But you know, my Blackened Sky...Hamlet was a true tragedy, wasn't it?' she thought hazily. Perhaps she'd die of blood loss, after all. He couldn't actually force her to use Serenity, even though she knew he'd given her permission just now. But Ophelia never lived to see her lover regret his selfish actions, and she'd be damned if she died before seeing Chrollo forced to admit he was wrong. She had already done her drowning. Her eyes blazed with sapphire flame, and Serenity dowsed the burning, mottled flesh of her limbs and torso with a cool wave of relief, her Nen closing the wounds it had made only moments before. She knew she was simply trading one drawback for another, but drunkenness wasn't exactly a terrible state to be in for an after-party. Unless she blacked out and tried to kill everyone, but then again, that might play out more like a party game than a party foul with this crowd. \n\tAs it turned out, the intoxicating influence of Serenity didn't strike nearly as hard as she had expected. And instead of taking advantage of her state, and interrogating her properly, Chrollo merely slung a protective arm around her, and held her close as she laid against his shoulder and fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. \n\tChrollo looked down at her, watching her breath rise and fall upon her generous decolletage. Somehow, she was the only one he could touch without causing him to recoil, the only one who felt like something other than the quintessence of dust.* When men died, they died, returned to dust, but yet, here she was, warm and breathing, alive, exempted entirely from the ultimate of fate. 'Why, Nijiiro? How do you slip beyond the bounds of possibility and return unscathed? How do yours powers cling to you in defiance of mine? How do you alone possess something I cannot? Tell me, Zahrat-Alqamar, how came it to be...that no matter how you betray me, betray the Spider, no matter how I hate you for it...I can never love you any less...'",
      "json_metadata": "{\"tags\":[\"anime\",\"fanfic\",\"hunterxhunter\",\"manga\",\"art\"],\"image\":[\"https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png\"],\"links\":[\"https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i\",\"https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii\",\"https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii\",\"https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv\",\"https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v\",\"https://steemit.com/busy/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi\"],\"app\":\"steemit/0.1\",\"format\":\"markdown\"}"
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{
  "trx_id": "d2335fd2e63f88d0fbbe20802f3c3bbf891b61df",
  "block": 30476232,
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  "timestamp": "2019-02-19T05:58:27",
  "op": [
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    {
      "parent_author": "",
      "parent_permlink": "busy",
      "author": "beestmode",
      "permlink": "a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-vi",
      "title": "A HunterXHunter fanfic (Part VI)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n[Part III](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii)\n[Part IV](https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv)\n[Part V](https://steemit.com/fanfiction/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v)\n#### _September 3rd, Yorknew City, 4:45PM_\nNijiiro got Hisoka's text – the one indicating that Chrollo had left the hideout - shortly after hanging up with Chrollo that morning. Chrollo would be on the hunt for the Nostrade girl for most of the day and perhaps late into the night. Which of course meant that Nijiiro was free to stake out the entrance to said hideout as long as it took for Nobunaga and the others to come back with something good. It had only taken four hours or so, which was a promising sign, for two cars full of Spiders to return victorious with two largely unharmed detainees. They had interesting auras, as well. The only problem, from what Nijiiro could see, was that neither of them appeared to be a day over thirteen. ...Drat. \n\tShe waited for them to be brought into the hideout, using her perfect Zetsu timed with the entrance of the other Spiders to vanish into the building and perch up above the scene. It was possible that these kids had absolutely nothing to do with the Kurta, and wouldn't be willing to work with her at all. It was also possible that they were working directly or indirectly for the Kurta, who had also turned out to be far younger than expected, and would need to be saved from imminent death any moment, a feat perhaps only Nijiiro could manage by combining her sensory-manipulating power of Passion and her current position. On entering the hideout, both of the kids clearly recognized Hisoka, which was quite fascinating, to say the least. Hisoka ignored them. 'Attaboy, Hisoka' Nijiiro thought, smiling. Protect the plan. The only two places Nijiiro could recall Hisoka having the opportunity to meet new people in recent months were the Heaven's Arena and the Hunter Exam. Which meant that these two were at least pretty strong. And if one factored in the fact that Hisoka had pointedly ignored them, and they had played along, then it wasn't a casual encounter between fellow fighting enthusiasts that could be freely admitted to in present company; it could only mean that these two had been part of the same Hunter Exam as Hisoka and the Kurta, and might very well be friends or at least colleagues with the scarlet-eyed avenger. What played out below was an odd scene, however, as Nobunaga repeatedly challenged the black-haired kid to arm wrestling instead of handing him over to Feitan or interrogating the kid himself... Clearly, he liked this kid enough to give him multiple opportunities to win at arm wrestling. Which was more important than either of the boys realized, of course. In order to join the Ryodan, one had to secure a “victory” over a standing member. And since an arm-wrestling “victory” over Shizuku only counted when she was using her dominant hand, it seemed Nobunaga had taken it upon himself to give the kid an opportunity at being recommended for Uvo's vacant spot. 'Well, I'll be damned,' thought Nijiiro. No matter how well-conceived plans were in her head, little things like this always came out to surprise her. She looked a little closer at the two boys, and found the surprises didn't end there...\n\n#### _September 3rd, 5:05PM_\n“...I don't know anything,” replied Gon heatedly, staring back at Nobunaga's fierce gaze with one of his own, “but even if I did, would never tell you! I thought you were a bunch of heartless monsters...But you'll mourn the death of one of your own? If that's the case, why couldn't you spare...even a fraction of that grief...ON ALL OF THE PEOPLE YOU'VE KILLED?!” Gon slammed Nobunaga's hand down onto the makeshift stone table between them, and Nobunaga's eyes widened considerably. Even if it was a casual game of arm wrestling the kid was pretty strong. Feitan, meanwhile, who had been itching to interrogate both kids since they arrived, sensed an opportunity.\n\t“You're getting too cocky,” said Feitan in his dispassionate tone as he seized Gon's arm and twisted it painfully around his back. Up in the rafters, Nijiiro shifted her weight slightly, preparing to leap.\n\t“Gon!” shouted Killua, stepping forward to help his friend. Hisoka stopped him abruptly. \n\t“Move an inch, and I'll cut you,” Hisoka said softly. It was obvious to Hisoka that Nijiiro would be around here somewhere, watching, and was probably the only chance Gon had of escaping from Feitan and the others, so long as Killua didn't force the situation to become even more unstable.\n\t“...Answer the question,” Feitan continued, unfazed, “do you know who the chain user is?”\n\t“I already said I have nothing to tell you!” Gon shouted, still appearing to feel rather brave. A flight above the confrontation, the boys' unlikely guardian bit her lip anxiously. 'This is getting bad' thought Nijiiro, frowning. If there was anything that aroused Feitan's torture fetish, it was a brave face shouting the words 'I don't know' at him. Time to make a decision. She activated Passion and dropped down into the action, inaudible and invisible to all.\n\t“Stop,” said Nobunaga, massaging his bruised wrist.\n\t“Stop what?” answered Feitan, despite knowing damn well what Nobunaga had meant.\n\t“Stop what you're about to do.” Nobunaga insisted. Feitan wasn't letting go of his prey without an argument, as expected.\n\t“You know what I'm about to do?”\n\t“You're going to break his arm, right?” Nobunaga said, taking his best guess and getting it wrong.\n\t“I'd start with one finger, maybe peel off the nail...” Feitan trailed off, his imagination getting the better of him. Nobunaga decided to put his foot down while the kid still had hands to arm-wrestle with.\n\t“It doesn't matter where you'd start, just stop it, now.” \n\t“Why are you giving me orders? I've no reason to listen to you.” Feitan responded coyly, daring Nobunaga to try and stop him with force. After some heated staring, Franklin, ever the voice of reason, finally spoke up.\n\t“Hey. Knock it off, Nobunaga.”\n\t“Have you forgotten the rules?” Machi chimed in.\n\t“Troupe members aren't allowed to start serious fights,” added Shizuku, always happy to say the thing everyone already knew.\n\t“Pfft. I know that, already!” said Nobunaga, already rummaging for a coin, “If there's a dispute, we flip a coin.” He looked at Feitan, who chose tails, and tossed the coin into the air. Nijiiro grabbed the coin out of the air, unbeknownst to all present, and wandered over to the highest-sitting stone block to take her rightful seat among them.  'We meet again, comrades,' she thought, smiling.\n\nSeptember 3rd, 5:06 PM \n\tKillua's mind was a whirlwind of tension and fear. From the moment Phinks had cornered him in the double-tail operation, he had been in a cold sweat trying to think his way out of the situation, which had only become more dire by the minute. And far from attempting to save him and Gon, Hisoka seemed to be putting out a sincere level of bloodlust that prevented him from moving even an inch from where he stood paralyzed, Hisoka's razor-like card at his throat. Nobunaga threw a coin in the air, seeming to leave Gon's safety to a fifty-fifty chance while Killua stood there like an idiot, helpless to do anything about it. It was then that an amused female voice rang out from the back of the cavernous room, like a deus ex machina in a classic opera. \n\t“Oh, dear, now what sort of grab-asstic barnyard buttfuckery is this?” said Nijiiro, grinning. It was if she'd appeared out of thin air. Every Spider present stood  at attention and faced her in a fraction of a second, their eyes wide with surprise. \n\t“Saisho!” Shalnark shouted, unable to comprehend the sudden presence of the founder of the Gennei Ryodan on a job for the first time in nearly four years. It was a sentiment shared by most of those present, with the exceptions of Hisoka, who had expected this from the start, and Machi, who gritted her teeth in annoyance. Nijiiro tossed the coin into the air. \n\t“Call it.” she commanded, looking at Nobunaga and Feitan expectantly. Feitan chose tails again, and Nobunaga confusedly muttered heads in response. “Congratulations, Nobunaga,” said Nijiiro, uncovering the coin, “your new friend is released.” Feitan muttered something obscene under his breath and let go of Gon.\n\tKillua took a careful look at the sudden arrival, not entirely sure how anyone could sneak into this room and survive, let alone well enough to surprise the room full of powerful Nen users. She had rather long bright-silver hair, the very ends of which were gathered into perhaps ten braids around her, with another two braids framing her face on either side. Her long silver bangs fell over a black veil made of a very fine mesh that sat like a blindfold across her eyes, fastened with a thick ribbon around her head. She was wearing a long, black, hooded coat, trimmed with some sort of white fur, open over a low-cut black top and black leather skirt that hemmed well above the knee. The ensemble was completed by black thigh-reaching leather boots with sharp-looking metal heels and black leather gloves, all very well-trimmed and laced to perfection as she sat with her legs crossed, appearing very much at home. She was medium height, rather well-proportioned, with a large bust, tight waist and powerful legs, and couldn't have been more than twenty-something, although it was hard for Killua to tell through the veil. Her skin was extremely pale, except where her right thigh seemed to bear a tattoo of something scaly which disappeared under her skirt. A flash of blood-red lipstick surrounded her devious smile. Killua couldn't help but think of a vampire from the horror movies he'd seen as a kid. Her demeanor positively oozed authority over those gathered, and their eyes all followed her carefully as she effortlessly leaped from her seat and landed silently on the stone floor in front of them without actually appearing to move through the necessary airspace. She sauntered gracefully toward Killua and Gon, and to Killua's surprise, Feitan and the others had not only released Gon, but backed away deliberately as if this mystery woman were carrying high explosives or a deadly virus or both. 'Are they...afraid of her? They called her Saisho, which means she's the first or maybe the founder or something important...But the tension in the air is way too high. They all seem uncertain. Is this girl really their boss? And what is with that ability? Is it teleportation or something? Is that even possible?' Killua thought, struggling to make sense of everything as it unfolded. He hadn't expected the boss to be a young woman, not at all... \n\tNijiiro could read the faces of the two boys like bold-faced type on fresh white paper. Kids their age were so very, very honest. The white-haired one she had down to a t, but the black-haired one was still a wee bit of a mystery. Oh well. The Zoldyck kid was very cute from this angle, and it made Nijiiro smile even more. 'Just like a fairy tale prince,' she thought, glad she moved from the shadows to inspect them. She beckoned for them to sit on the stone slab in front of her, and unsurprisingly, they did. Killua watched the terrifying presence draw closer until she stood barely a meter away.\n\t“Well, well...Now this isn't something you see every day,” Nijiiro said, “A hunting dog-” she pointed one slender finger at Gon, “and a housecat-” she pointed the finger at Killua, “and they're the very best of friends, no less...” She smiled warmly at both. Too warmly, as far as Killua was concerned. Killua looked at her face, wondering to himself what the veil was concealing. She had them characterized pretty well, Killua realized with a start. He looked over at Gon, who by then had forgotten his life was in danger, as usual, and was listening to her with an open expression. If this was the leader they were dealing with, then it would be important to cut through the small talk and find out what the Spiders were planning to do with them, while not making her angry, or worse, giving away Kurapika's secrets. Killua scrambled for something to say.\n\t“I don't see how you'd know enough about us, to say any of that,” Killua said, shrugging and keeping his tone casual enough to not mean anything. Nijiiro leaned in close to Killua's ear, still smiling.\n\t“That's likely because I can see a great deal more than most, Killua-kun.” Killua's eyes widened and he fought the urge to reel backward and make a run for it. 'She knows who I am?! Is this her ability? Wait, why is she saying it so quietly? No, I'm definitely missing something. If Gon doesn't figure out what we're up against at the same time I do, which is unlikely, we can't escape her at the same time, so..What should I do? No, is there even anything I can do...?' Gon interrupted Killua's panic in the way Gon usually did: idle curiosity.\n\t“What do you mean by that?” said Gon, his eyes sparkling. Nijiiro was taken aback for a moment by Gon's guileless expression. He really wanted to know, and didn't seem to have any intentions whatsoever beyond that. What a kid.\n\t“I mean, kid, that I have a habit of observing things, and people, veeery closely. It's something most people can do, to one degree or another, but generally choose not to. You could even say... it's my only true profession,” Nijiiro said.\n\t“But how does it work?” Gon pressed on.\n\t“You ask a great deal of questions,” Nijiiro said, “But can you not think of one more important than that?” She looked at Killua.\n\t“Why were we brought here? What are you going to do with us?” Killua said uncertainly, still wondering how she saw anything at all beyond the dark veil over her eyes.\n  \t“See? There's two questions for you,” Nijiiro replied, looking back to Gon, who actually seemed like he'd forgotten his current predicament. “And the answer, to both of course, is that it depends entirely on you. This day, like any other, will become what you make of it.” \n\tKillua raised an eyebrow at the philosophical reply. Gon continued to look curiously at Nijiiro, not sure what she'd just said but willing to wait patiently for a demonstration, if he could get one.\n\t“Paku,” said Nijiiro, “what do you think?”\n\t“...I examined them on the way here. They really don't know anything. They have no memories of the chain user.” said Pakunoda, stepping forward. 'Memories...?' Killua thought. Perhaps the one called Paku had already gotten information out of them.\n\t“Oh? And what do you think....Machi?” Nijiiro turned to look at Machi, who gritted her teeth even harder. “Hmmm...so your instincts disagree with Paku's assessment? That's rather interesting. Your instincts are usually correct.”\n\t'But...she didn't say anything...' thought Killua. The longer he spent sitting in front of this woman, the more nervous she made him. Just how many psychics did the Ryodan have, anyway?\n\t“If they have nothing to do with the chain user, can't we just let them go?” asked Franklin. \n\t“Yeah...there's no point in keeping them here,” Shalnark added. Nijiiro appeared to mull it over. She looked at the other Spiders, carefully calculating each of their most-likely-opinions on the matter. \n\t“No, we can't be sure they're completely unrelated,” countered Phinks, “it's possible they're being used...If the chain user typically conceals his chains, they wouldn't realize he was the chain user. We shouldn't release them until they tell us who they're working for.”\n\t“If they're working for some one, it won't be the chain user, since the chain user operates alone. Any information we need on the chain user...can be found through the Nostrade family, since we know the chain user is a member...we should ignore everyone else...” Shalnark said.\n\t“And there you have it,” said Feitan, nodding in agreement.\n\t“Two good arguments...both rife with half-baked supposition. For the record, I think they're both incorrect. Well, then...nothing to be done for it, I suppose. I'll check them myself.” Nijiiro said, still smirking. Killua braced himself, though for what he wasn't sure. Nijiiro looked at Killua.\n\t“What is your name?”\n\t“Killua,” Killua heard himself say. 'Answering against my will ...Oh,no.'\n\t“What Nen category do you belong to?”\n\t“I'm a transmuter.” 'This is bad.'\n\t“Are you acting on orders from anyone?”\n\t“No.” '...Really bad'\n\t“Who's your friend here?”\n\t“That's Gon.” \n\t“And, do you think, that he would be aware of the chain user's identity?” \n\t“No.” 'What awkward phrasing...wait...I'm missing something again...'\n\t“And what color are Gon's underwear today?” Nijiiro said, grinning rather mischievously. Killua opened his mouth with every intention of saying something like 'now how the fuck should I know, you weirdo,' but instead...\n\t“Green.” 'Wait, what?'\n\t“K-Killua...why do you know...something like that...” Gon said, turning beet-red and looking scandalized. Killua realized that Nobunaga and a few others had started to chuckle. They all knew something he didn't.\n\t“I didn't know anything! I -” Killua returned, blushing somewhat himself. But then it hit him: 'So that's it. Even if I don't know, the answer is still the truth no matter what. Is she...a manipulator? No, that doesn't explain everything either. This is really bad. Just one more question could-' \n\t“And that concludes our questioning,” Nijiiro said, clapping her hands together. 'As long as I throw in a little showmanship, no one here will think to question my phrasing. It's a good thing, too. Because clearly the Zoldyck kid has some idea of who the “chain user” is by now. He's obviously the brains of this outfit. But I can probably use both of them. No, I can't get overeager here and shoot myself in the foot. Time for a little stress test...' Nijiiro mused, her face inscrutable. Gon was staring at the ground, attempting to make sense of what powers Nijiiro had used, without him feeling any Nen from her whatsoever. “As you can see, these two are not, in fact, working for the chain user, nor anyone else.” Nijiiro concluded, facing the other Spiders. “Now, tell me, gentlemen...what do you think we should do with the two of you?” She said, turning back to Killua and Gon. \n\t“Well, that's...you heard the others, we don't have anything to do with this...you should let us go..” Killua offered hesitantly.\n\t“Oh? I think you should stay,” Nijiiro said. She looked at Nobunaga and waited.\n\t“Hey, kid,” said Nobunaga, directing his gaze at Gon, “join the Spiders.” Everyone listening raised an eyebrow. Gon's lip curled involuntarily.\n\t“Thanks, but I rather die than join your gang!” Gon shouted back, in no uncertain terms. Nobunaga laughed. \n\t“You hate us that much, eh?” he said calmly, “Hey, boy...you're an enhancer, aren't you?”\n\t“So what if I am?!” Gon returned, becoming even more frustrated. Nobunaga laughed even harder. \n\t“Yep...I'm not gonna let you leave. I'm keeping you here until the Boss gets back. And I'm recommending you for Uvo's spot.” Nobunaga said, still chuckling. 'Wait...the Boss? This isn't the boss right here?' Killua thought. He eyed Nijiiro suspiciously, who beamed at him in response. These people were strange as hell.\n\t“There's no way in Hell he'll agree to that, Nobunaga. But you're welcome to ask, anyway,” Nijiiro said, “if you can keep them here, that is. In fact...” She took five elegant steps backward, never actually looking backward to see where she was stepping but magically avoiding all obstacles in her way. “Let's play a little game, with the three of us. What do you say, Puppy-dog? Kitty-cat?” Nijiiro said, sounding downright magnanimous. Gon and Killua stood.\n\t“Oh, dear, here we go again...” Shalnark muttered, then sighed. \n\t“Is there something you'd like to add....Shalnark?” Nijiiro said softly. Shalnark emitted a sound that could only be described as either nervous laughter or mild hysteria.\n\t“O-of course not, Saisho...” Shalnark stammered, bowing nervously. Killua had a terrible feeling about this.\n\t“Sure. What are the stakes?” asked Gon. \n\t“Gon!” Killua hissed, “Do actually think you can win any game she offers you?”\n\t“Well, no...” said Gon, “but....I didn't think I could beat the ponytail guy at arm-wrestling either, so...” Killua sighed; hopefully he could draw all the ire on himself, away from Gon, if they had to refuse once she explained the game. Which shouldn't be too hard. He had a knack for pissing people off.\n\t“Ah, the rules are simple. If Puppy-dog here,” Nijiiro pointed at Gon, “can get past me within one minute, you win, and I'll let both of you go. And not only that, I'll let each of you claim a piece of treasure from the Mafia auction. You wanted funds, right?” Feitan hissed at hearing this but said nothing. \n\t“And if I don't?” Gon said, cocking his head slightly.\n\t“There will be a penalty, and then it's Kitty-cat's turn,” Nijiiro said coyly, glancing up at Killua, “and if both of you fail, I guess you're Nobunaga's problem.” Killua's hands twitched involuntarily, his sharpened nails threatening to unsheathe at the drop of a pin. \n\t“What do you mean, get past?” said Gon.\n\t“Exactly what I said, Puppy-dog. You do your best to get by me, using whatever method you deem necessary, and if you make it out of this room, you win. Of course, you can't have help from anyone else. But any and all effort you make on your own is acceptable.”\n\t“Okay...I accept!” Gon said. \n\t“Gon, I don't think-” Killua began, but Gon held up his fist and gave Killua a thumbs-up that was full of confidence.\n\t“Don't worry. I've got this, Killua!” said Gon. Of course, he absolutely did not get this. Killua watched helplessly as Gon struggled to get within a single step of Nijiiro, who continued to catch Gon effortlessly and propel him back to where he started. Gon tried everything from attacking and feinting, to running in the opposite direction of Nijiiro's position, hoping to find egress in the other end of the room behind the rubble. However the former strategy only found him snatched out of the air and hurled back towards the stone table, while the latter found him inexplicably darting back toward his original position without consciously changing the direction of his sprint. \n\t“Aaand that's a minute, Puppy-dog. Thanks for playing,” said Nijiiro after what, to Killua, felt like an hour of Gon being slammed around by forces beyond either of their comprehension. Gon was covered in cuts and bruises. And Killua wasn't any closer to figuring out Nijiiro's power. Of course that mattered a lot less as Nijiiro seized Killua from out of nowhere, slamming him facedown into the bare stone floor and holding him by both wrists, his arms crossed over one another twisted painfully above his head.. Killua felt something rather sharp, like an ice pick, pressing against the back of his neck and realized it was the heel of one of Nijiiro's boots, poised to instantly kill him if he resisted. It had taken less than a tenth of a second, and Killua had been caught completely off guard. He gritted his teeth as the sole of her boot pressed into the back of his head, forcing him to open his mouth and pant into the dirt. His heart was pounding now, but the rest of his body was frozen in place. \n\t“Killua!” screamed Gon.\n\t“Stay where you are, Puppy-dog,” purred Nijiiro in a voice that was both deadly and dipped in milk chocolate.\n\t“What are you doing with Killua?! Let him go now, or-” Gon howled\n\t“Or what? You'll come swinging, forcing me to kill your best friend here? I did say there would be a punishment, Puppy-dog. I never said you'd be the one to take it.” replied Nijiiro calmly. Gon looked shell-shocked, finally getting his first taste of the depraved mind that had forged the world's deadliest criminal enterprise. Killua resisted the urge to shiver. 'She said I'd have a turn after Gon, so she probably doesn't mean to kill or completely disable me...probably...' he thought desperately, 'so I just have to endure this...' \n\t“Gon!” Killua shouted back, “It's fine... I've endured...all kinds of training for things exactly like this. Do your worst, Spider-bitch!” Nijiiro licked her lips. This was going to get interesting, fast.\n\t“...As you wish, little Kitty-cat. But let me give you a precious piece of advice concerning torture. It's true that it is possible to prepare for a lot of pain through training and discipline. But there are sensations in this world that are impossible to prepare for...because even attempting training with them is too dangerous, no matter how skilled you may be. I'll show you what I mean very shortly. I advise you refrain from moving too much, though, or you'll find out what happens when your medulla oblongata is severed from your first cervical nerve set.” Nijiiro concluded, pressing her heel down a millimeter or so for emphasis.  \n\t“Tch.” Killua closed his eyes.\n\t“You know, I really think I'm starting to like you, Kitty-cat,” Nijiiro said, smiling. She activated Passion, and Killua screamed. He was on fire, he was on fire, completely engulfed in flames, smoke and the smell of burning flesh choked his senses, destroyed all rational thought in his mind. It hurt, it fucking hurt. And  it was terrifying, so terrifying he couldn't take it. The heat and smoke blinded him immediately. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to move, get away, make it stop, do anything to release him from this wild and horrifying agony that covered every inch of his skin. He felt his flesh rendering into hot grease and cooked meat, the smell made him want to vomit. He couldn't breathe. This was pain beyond what he had imagined pain could ever be, and he was dying. And then it was over. Tears welled up in his eyes, and he began to shiver uncontrollably as the boot was lifted from his head and his limp arms dropped back down to his sides with a slap. He felt bile creep in to the back of his throat and swallowed hard before remembering where he was, barely recognizing his own screams still reverberating off of the stones around him. Killua willed strength back into his limbs, and it was slow to return. He sat up, dazed and shivering, somehow surprised to find that he was both alive and physically whole. \n\t“I guess he mouthed off to the wrong Spider. Saisho never ceases to amaze,” said Feitan slowly. Killua looked around and found most of the Spiders were assessing him with a mixture of pity and fear. A few were looking away pointedly. As his senses became clearer, he realized this is what they were all afraid of. \n\t“Killua!” Gon screamed, running over to his friend's side, “are you all right?” Killua saw that his skin was covered in cold sweat. 'I'm not sure'  he thought.\n \tAloud, he said, “Yeah, I'm fine.” Gon turned and glared at Nijiiro, who held up ten fingers.\n\t“Ten seconds.”\n\t“Huh?” said Killua, who couldn't think of much else to say.\n\t“That was ten seconds of Passion, one of my abilities. For the record, I can sustain that particular technique for almost three hours,” said Nijiiro. Killua remembered the smell of burning flesh and a fresh wave of nausea rolled over him. He took a deep breath. 'One of her abilities...so there's more to it than this? No wonder I can't figure a damn thing out. She's a specialist, with multiple powers. There's no telling how much more she might have up her sleeve. Goddammit.' \n\t“Ah, I guess it's your turn now, Kitty-cat. But first, I'll commend you on a pretty impressive display of self-control just now. You barely moved at all, in spite of being caught off-guard. And on fire,” Nijiiro said, still smiling warmly. Killua made no attempt to hide his ire as he looked back up at her veiled face. “Haha, you really look mad now, hahaha...Well, then. How about a bonus round? I'll guess who taught you to resist that level of torture, and for every guess I get incorrect, you get one free strike. I won't counter. How's that sound? Oh, and no lying, or there will be two punishments this time, hahaha...” Nijiiro cocked her head as she said this, watching Killua rise and slide his hands into his pockets. Of course, she knew he was trying to casually conceal the fact that he was unsheathing his sharpened claws underneath the fabric, but then again, that was exactly why she would win. If the game she put before Gon was low-hanging fruit, this one was a veritable ground apple. Killua scowled back at her. 'One strike is all it will take, so as long as I get her before she can react...I can't let her get to Gon with that technique...I'll kill her before that happens.' \n\t“You're gonna regret those rules, lady,” Killua said, his voice low. He was clearly done playing games. 'Perfect' thought Nijiiro. Clearly Killua couldn't see Gon preparing to launch his own offensive, just inches away from where he stood, as he was too focused on killing her in one lightning move to notice. They really were kids, after all. But she was a professional baddie. \n\t“I doubt that very much,” Nijiiro said, half-smiling. “Let's see,” she said, turning away and reaching for her veil's ribbon fastener, “Would it be...your mother, or maybe your father?...no, that's not quite right...” Killua gritted his teeth and Gon clenched his fist practically in unison. They'd both attack as soon as she guessed, of course. “I know...it was...Illumi, right?” she said, smiling and pointing at Killua, who was already airborne, his claws sailing toward her chest, even as Gon flew toward her face with his right fist ready to smash her jaw in. But Nijiiro's mask was off, every shred of light in the room showing her the finest details of her surroundings in an exactitude and speed that defied human understanding. They might as well have been wading to her through a pool of maple syrup. \n\t“Wrong!” screamed Killua, whose wide-eyed look had nevertheless shown the appropriate reaction to his brother's name. His claws were within a few centimeters of their target. 'I can make it' he thought. \n\t“Oh, no, that just won't do...” answered Nijiiro, looking back towards the two with her iridescent eyes burning. Gon got her full-strength roundhouse to the ribs, cracking about four of them and slamming him back into the stone table for the eighth time in half as many minutes. Killua, whose claws missed Nijiiro's sternum by about one millimeter, got an inescapable knee to the chin followed by a potent open-palm strike to the solar plexus that sent him crashing to the floor in front of the table a meter or so from where Gon landed, gasping for air. “There's one,” said Nijiiro confidently. Killua's mind began to scream at the mention of Illumi's name. He had to get away. She was too strong. He had to get away. Nijiiro slowly reached for Killua's paralyzed form, but Gon swayed to his feet, clutching his broken ribs with eyes full of murder. \n\t“Get away from Killua!” he howled. Nijiiro simply looked at him.\n\t“No,” she said. \n\t“WHAT?!” \n\t“I said there would be an extra penalty for lying, did I not?” Nijiiro answered coolly, closing her eyes and opening them slowly. Killua was frozen. On the one hand, he was probably going to experience the hell of her torture technique again, on the other hand, at least it wasn't Gon. Nijiiro turned back to Killua and reached for his face. At least it wasn't Gon. His heart began to pound. At least it wasn't Gon. He felt her hand tilt his chin upward. At least it wasn't Gon. He shut his eyes hard against the inevitable torment. At least it wasn't- this...soft...?\n\tSoft, full lips were gently, oh so gently, pressing against his own, in a chaste but rather deliberate kiss. Killua's eyes flew open to find Nijiiro's face mere centimeters from his, and he was suddenly paralyzed and breathless in a way that nothing to do with his injuries. Nijiiro's eyes opened slowly at point blank range, and the effect was immediate. Killua drew back as if she'd burned him, his face bright red, and put a hand to his mouth in disbelief. Her lipstick tasted like honeyed apricots, and without the veil, her facial expressions were downright human. Killua looked at her, trying to hate the person who'd just more or less lit him on fire, or at least not find her pretty, and failing on both fronts. 'What's with...those eyes...' Some one in the room let a low whistle as Nijiiro straightened up in her kneeling position, her hands in her pockets and her expression  gentle. \n\t“Heh...I did say this day would become whatever you made of it. We're not here to hurt you, you know,” she said, a slight tinge of color in her own cheeks that emphasized her warm smile, “and I'll add just one more piece of advice to what I said earlier. It's funny, how most people think of torture in terms of what it does to the recipient, but never examine what it does to the executor...I think Illumi cares for you a lot more than either of you will ever realize. Try to remember that, okay?” Nijiiro tapped Killua's head right in the middle of his hairline and winked, hoping he'd understand the hint of the century. Killua looked away, blushing furiously; his mouth still tasted sweet. He hadn't expected nice. That made two wildly unexpected sensations in under five minutes at the hands of some one whose name he still didn't know. Gon looked back at him, utterly nonplussed. Today was giving them both whiplash. \n\t“NIJIIRO!” Machi shrieked from the back of the room, shattering the calm atmosphere.\n\t“Ah... That's my name,” said Nijiiro, standing up and facing an irate Machi, who hadn't, by all accounts, screamed once in almost two years. Killua looked around to find the other Spiders had retreated even farther from the three of them, obviously not wanting to be caught up in Nijiiro's “game,” and several of them were now standing around exchanging uncomfortable glances. Hisoka giggled to himself. Machi was beyond pissed, and they all knew exactly why. Nijiiro sighed. This could get ugly.\n\t“You...you bitch...you've gone too far this time...I don't give a shit if you are the Boss' favorite...I'm not letting this go!” Machi roared at Nijiiro, who raised one unconcerned eyebrow.\n\t“Whatever do you mean, Machi?” Nijiiro answered, unruffled. She knew damned well what Machi meant, but it was nice to watch her aura froth.\n\t“Machi!” Franklin interjected, “It doesn't matter what your gripe with the Saisho is...you're seriously pressing your luck, so shut it.”\n\t“Fuck that! She shows up out of nowhere, and then pulls a – a stunt like that – I won't let you get away with whatever you want, you conniving cunt!” Machi screamed. Nijiiro's smile continued to widen. \n\t“Ah, but Chrollo certainly will, won't he...? Heh...Pulling out your threads already, Machi? I hope you're prepared to hang yourself with them,” said Nijiiro, her voice lowering a little and her smile becoming cruel. If Machi attacked her directly, it was over for Machi, but what about the plan? Nijiiro decided it prudent to end things on nonlethal terms for now. Of course, nonlethal didn't mean painless, did it? \n\t“Machi, that's enough,” Nobunaga said, annoyed. \n\t“No, let her say what she wants. We're all entitled to our opinions here,” said Nijiiro calmly.  There was a cold, dark gleam in her eyes that warned against doing anything of the sort.“And yet, for a lion to consider seriously the opinions of a mere sheep...would be downright unseemly, would it not?...” 'This is getting rather serious...' Killua thought, 'but maybe...it will allow us to escape, if they start fighting, and...'\n\t“And why the fuck are you even here, anyway!?” Machi demanded.\n\t“Ah, well, how should I put this...A lack of basic caution from my advance team has left our precious Uvo missing, presumed dead, with the job not yet even halfway done. How could I stay away?” Nijiiro countered, in a tone of obviously feigned distress that dissolved back into a grin. “What's more, I come to find my trusted comrades-in-arms bickering, dragging their feet, and playing around with a couple of kids while this 'chain-user' walks free...How embarrassing...” \n\tMachi nearly launched herself at Nijiiro right then, consequences be damned, but was stopped just in time by Franklin's powerful grip on both of her arms. Feitan and Nobunaga were facing her, hands on their weapons, while Bolonev had risen to his feet, cornering her within fractions of a second. The tension was palpable. Even Hisoka turned from where he was standing to watch the drama unfold, a crooked smile on his lips.\n\t“Embarrassing? Us? The embarrassing one...who's having her fun with kids...is you, you fucking whore!” Machi spat through gritted teeth.\n\t“Ah, so that's what this is? You're all worked up over one little kiss? Even though he's just a kid, and judging by that rosy blush, it was probably his first kiss ever, hahaha...” It was indeed his first, Killua realized with a start, blushing all over again and hoping she hadn't signed his execution warrant with it. “But don't be jealous...” Nijiiro continued, her face becoming grave, “if you come over here, I've got a nice kiss for you too, Machi.”\n\t“I-I don't want a kiss from your lying mouth, whore!” Machi retorted, spitting in Nijiiro's general direction. 'Such tired insults...' Nijiiro thought, disappointed. She'd always preferred her insults colorful, or at least accurate.\n\t“There are at least three problems with that sentence, my Spider. First, that's Saisho to you. Second, don't call some one like me a whore, it's an insult to the profession. And third, perhaps most importantly, you are well aware that I speak only the truth. Don't fool yourself into believing otherwise, or the consequences...may be dire,” Nijiiro finished mildly, pulling her silver cigarette case from her coat pocket and flipping it open. All this pointless rage was giving her a headache. Machi, who began to chuckle humorlessly in Franklin's grip, was clearly about to crack, and Nijiiro would be the one to crack her. With gusto.\n\t“The truth....hehehe...isn't it true that you sleep your way to the top wherever you go, Nijiiro?” Machi said glaring at her.\n\t“Isn't it true that you can't, since you're always on your period?” Nijiiro returned nonchalantly, lighting a cigarette with her matching silver lighter. 'These two are seriously vicious,' Killua thought. Machi growled in frustration.\n\t“I fucking swear, the first chance I get, I'm gonna k-” Machi began, before Franklin promptly covered her mouth with one mammoth hand, and for her own good.\n\t“You know what I like about you, Machi?” Nijiiro said, exhaling a line of rich blue smoke. She looked Machi in the eye, and began sauntering towards her very slowly. “You're petty. No matter the situation, I can always count on you to be hanging at edges, worrying about the little things, tripping over your own ego, imagining you have a snowball's chance in hell of winning some illusory competition you dare to think exists between you and I. You think I've taken this position because I received an undeserved stroke of luck, that somehow maybe you deserved it more. Some one like you can't even fathom the weight of the crown you envy so much, and yet you have the gall to critique the way I wear it. You fool yourself into thinking that the pedestal I occupy isn't built upon achieving the impossible, success after success, at pursuits you couldn't even attempt... Nothing has the deceptive power of the lies we tell ourselves, Machi. But let me dispel some of those lies for you right now. It's not that you don't want to be me, Machi, it's that you can't. That combination of ignorance and incompetence is precisely why I allow you to stand right there, year after year, making puppy eyes at Chrollo, and hating my guts, all the while never realizing the truth you've refused to see, perhaps from the beginning. You will never, ever be a threat to me. And the next time you decide to open that fucking cock-holster of yours in my general vicinity, I'm going to carve out your fucking liver and watch you choke on it. That's a promise.” Nijiiro exhaled a line of perfumed smoke that engulfed Machi's face. She was less than an arm's length away as she said this, watching Machi's face contort from fury, to outrage, and finally to misery, as the latter absorbed not only the truth in Nijiiro's words but also the precarious situation her own self-righteous outburst had placed her in. Nijiiro could, in fact, destroy her for what she'd said today - and not figuratively - and the Boss would probably not even punish Nijiiro for doing it. Franklin quietly let go of Machi.\n\t“How mean, Saisho...” said Hisoka, gleefully breaking the silence, “Machi was simply trying to point out that your presence is a bit of a complication, since...the Boss doesn't always make the most rational choices where your safety is concerned, you know...” Nijiiro laughed. \n\t“Now I've heard it all. You know it's a sad day for the Spiders when Hisoka's the best behaved of the lot of you,”she sighed.\n\t“You're just saying that because Hisoka's your favorite,” Phinks said dismissively.\n\t“I'm saying that because it happens to be true. And for the record,” Nijiiro said, pointing her gloved finger, “my favorite...is Franklin.” Which was true, of course, since only Nijiiro and Hisoka himself were aware of Hisoka's false-spider status. Nobunaga and Feitan seemed surprised.\n\t“Thank you,” Franklin said matter-of-factly.\n\t“Ouch,” said Hisoka, holding a hand to his chest and pretending to be hurt but giggling anyway. “Now I know how poor Machi must feel...” He laughed, casually dragging Machi's heart through the metaphorical mud. Nijiiro could see Machi's face growing colder, hiding from everyone but Nijiiro's sharp eyes the urge to cry at her public humiliation. \n\t“You're just saying that because Machi's your favorite,” Nijiiro shot back, grinning. Hisoka set them up, but she knocked them down. 'Machi really is going to try and kill me one day' she thought, laughing a little 'And I'm looking forward to it.' Nijiiro looked back at the two boys, who were still miraculously sitting patiently by the stone table, observing. She decided then that she liked them. And that she needed to furtively slip the cell phones she'd removed from their pockets and bugged back into their possession somehow, as she had planned to do before Machi's untimely outburst. Ah, well, there wasn't exactly a need to rush.\n\t“You two should learn to capitalize on confusion better. You just passed up a golden opportunity, gentlemen,” Nijiiro smirked. “At that rate, you really are going to be forced to join us Spiders.”\n\t“Nonsense. Neither of us is even willing to consider joining you. And from what I can tell, there's only one spot open, right? But there's two of us,” Killua said confidently. Nijiiro didn't seem like a very kind person, but if she wanted to kill them, she would have done it already...right? \n\t“And so you're saying the two of you are a package deal, as it were? How endearing. But Nobunaga is only really interested in him,” she gestured to Gon, “and so I guess that makes you the spare in this scenario, doesn't it? If I felt like it, I could force you two to fight to the death, and take whomever survives. But it would also be a pity to discard young talent like yourself...So why don't you become my pet, Kitty-cat?” Nijiiro wondered what it was, exactly, about the Zoldyck boy that drew her in so much. Perhaps she was even more of a cat person than previously thought. Killua froze at her sincere question, not really understanding the proposal and letting his imagination run wild a bit more than he ought. \n\t“W-What..?” he stammered, now having been embarrassed by her for the fourth time since they met a few minutes ago. The rubicund innocence in his cheeks was irresistible, and Nijiiro found herself wanting to pinch them very much, an urge she barely resisted. She smiled. One more time, damn it. She had to toy with him one more time. \n\t“Come on, now, I'm a very responsible owner. I'll let you out every night, treat you often, and I'll even let you up on the bed with me, what do you say?” Nijiiro said, trying not to laugh as the kid turned a bright cherry red and began overheating. Killua opened his mouth to speak, but Nijiiro laid a lambskin-covered hand over it, saying, “Shh, no need to decide now, Kitty. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Gon, for his part was in the process of trying to understand how a person could reasonably be made into a pet cat, his innocence being far less imaginative than Killua's. Nijiiro drew out two Bunny-Bun lollipops from her coat pocket and held one out to each of them, which they eyed suspiciously. “Go ahead. It's not like I've laced them with anything. They're mine, after all.” 'So Kitty-cat prefers strawberry,' she thought, following their eye movements closely. She crossed her hands, and they each took the candy slowly. She then sat on the floor between them, her back against the stone slab table.\n\t“Why do you walk around with candy in your pockets, exactly?” said Killua, still doubting the condition of candy from a stranger. 'It's not like I can casually poison you anyway, Zoldyck,' Nijiiro thought.\n\t“For times and places when I can't do this,” she answered, taking a long drag of her cigarette and exhaling a cloud of smoke toward the ceiling.“I can't very well risk the two of you going into shock from the injuries I gave you, so to raise your blood glucose levels, I'll let you have my personal snacks as recompense. That's all.” It must have been sufficient, because the two boys immediately opened the treats and began eating them. Nijiiro pretended to rest with her eyes closed while tying her veil back over her eyes, but in actuality she activated Serenity and healed all of the wounds she'd given them, as well as the ones they'd arrived with. \n\t“Ah! I guess this does help a lot! Thank you, er...?” Gon said, quite fooled by the apparent lollipop magic. By the time Killua noticed his ankles had healed, she had already finished.\n\t“Nijiiro.”\n\t“Thank you, miss Nijiiro!”\n\t“Don't mention it.”\n\t“Say, miss Nijiiro?”\n\t“Yes, Puppy-dog?”\n\t“Are you...waiting for something?”\n\t“I am.”\n\t“What are you waiting for?” Gon said, tilting his head. 'You really do talk like a small child, questions and all,' Nijiiro thought. This was exactly the kind of questioning that destroyed her usual air of mystery if she wasn't careful. But then again, she could be careful and dance circles around his level of intellect at the same time.\n\t“Show and tell.”\n\t“What?”\n\t“Puppy-dog, do you hear anything from the next room?”\n\t“Uhhh, I guess, I hear clicking, or...some kind of machines running?” Gon said hesitantly. What did machines have to do with a show-and-tell? \n\t“Close. It's the sound an ink-jet printer. One that's been running continuously for nearly ten minutes now,” Nijiiro said. “If we simply do the math, an ink-jet printer of average quality can churn out about five pages per minute, and once the printer stops-” she held up a finger at the precise moment said printer fell quiet, “-we have fifty pages of printed media complete. Assuming there isn't a set for me, and the one who created the prints doesn't need a copy, there's ten sets of five pages each for the remaining troupe members currently here. Based on his earlier comments, Shalnark is most likely setting up a debriefing on what he's learned from the Hunter Website, with the objective of hunting down this chain-user we've all heard so much about.” The other Spiders looked at Shalnark, who simply nodded and fetched the documents. Nijiiro's frightening level of observation and intelligence was not lost on Killua, who turned to her as she spoke, wide-eyed. She'd make a formidable adversary with only that, let alone whatever crazy specialist ability she was still hiding up her sleeve.\n\t“Uhhh...miss Nijiiro, what is a debriefing?” Gon asked, understandably unfamiliar with the term.\n\t“It's...like a show-and-tell, Gon,” Killua answered for her. \n\t“Oh! I get it now!”\n\t“Congrats.”\n\t“Um, miss Nijiiro?” Gon said, still mystified. Nijiiro shot him a sideward glance. “What are you going to do with us now?” \n\t“Nothing. As promised, you're Nobunaga's problem now,” Nijiiro answered coolly.\n\t“Tch. You're tired of playing games with us already?” Killua asked, bitterness creeping into his tone. He had a feeling Nobunaga wouldn't be giving them an opportunity to win their freedom, either.\n\t“Not at all,” Nijiiro shot back. She'd love nothing better than to toy with them some more.\n\t“Is it because you're drunk?” Gon asked innocently.\n\t“Yes, yes it is,” Nijiiro said, surprised that he'd noticed. Killua raised his eyebrows, taken somewhat aback that Gon had noticed something he hadn't for once. This was, of course, the side-effect of Serenity. Despite their relatively minor wounds, healing both boys at once had the same punch as downing a fifth of bourbon on an empty stomach. \n\t“But...aren't you underage?” Gon pressed on. Nijiiro turned to face him, not quite believing what she had heard. But seeing the sincerity in Gon's face made her slowly begin to chuckle, the hilarity of it building until she was howling with laughter. Shalnark actually stopped his monologue and gave her a concerned look before continuing on. She nearly choked on her cigarette, for god's sake.\n\t“Oh, you're right, kid, what was I thinking all these years, hahaha, I should probably stop stealing things while I'm at it, too, hahaha...no, no, wait, what age should I start murdering people, do you think? Heaven help me!” Nijiiro cackled, drawing out her hip flask and taking a long swig of brandy for effect. She continued to chuckle at a blushing Gon, who hadn't considered his audience very well, as usual. “Ah, well, you probably can't help it, can you, goody-two-shoes? You've had a rather sheltered upbringing. On an island, right? ...You must be an excellent fisherman, at least...”\n\t“H-how could you know all of that?” Gon said, his wide-eyed curiosity ever quick to return. Hadn't he been ready to kill her earlier? It seemed the kid had all the emotional complexity of a goldfish. Nijiiro took a deep breath. What harm could it do?\n\t“Because I pay attention. I said that before, didn't I? Observing things carefully is what I do,” she said. “Take, for instance, that jacket of yours. Sturdy, simple, cheap, and mass-manufactured, with rolled cuffs that can be let out as its owner grows into it. You reached the end of your cuffs at least a year ago, and yet you haven't replaced it. That tells me you aren't from a moneyed, or even middle-class background, but poor, and likely rural, as such pieces are often found in multi-year, long-order catalogs. The wear pattern on it tells me that it's been washed a million times, and mended a million more, by some one with a very fine hand, probably your mother or grandmother, which tells me you still have a home with living relatives who care for you. The inside of the collar has been faded by a strong sun, but the outside is far less faded, and there are deep, symmetrical impressions on each of the shoulder seams, in spite of the sturdy canvas fabric, indicating that the same person, one without an electric dryer, has used the same clothespins, in the same spots, for years, carefully turning the jacket inside out to protect its color from the harsh sun and salt air. Your boots tell a similar story, with laces at least a year newer than the shoes themselves, well-worn soles, and a very fine crust of dried salt still lingering in the space between the laces and the tongue. And that's just your clothing. Your build is flexible, wiry, and very well-toned, indicating a wealth of raw physical strength gained naturally over a long time, such as one would gain doing nonstop physical labor as part of daily life. Your thick, coarse hair, despite being naturally black, has been faded by the same harsh sun, aging it and removing much of its shine. Your skin is ruddy and tanned - or should I say it was, as it's become much lighter in recent months – and the lapse between the condition of your hair and and the tone of your skin suggests you left home about six to eight months ago. Since you can't be older than thirteen, I can imagine your reason for doing so must be quite important, yes? And then, finally, there are your hands. Short nails, bitten off and still harboring a good deal of dirt, powerful, tightly curled fingers, and a very particular set of darkly-colored, permanent callouses that could only belong to a right-handed person in the habit of holding a fishing pole – or a golf club, but I find that unlikely - nearly every single day. Adding all of this, well, this and a few other things I haven't time to explain, together...I'd say that until very recently, you've spent your life living simply on a small island, cared for by a female guardian with strong protective instincts, hunting and fishing out in nature. And then, at the tender age of twelve, something drew you out of all that and into the big city, seeking out big money and getting yourself into big trouble. There's only one thing that draws your kind out of nature and into the world, and that's blood... you're searching for family, aren't you?” Nijiiro finished quietly, grinding out her cigarette. Killua and Gon were both staring at her, mouths agape, and their combined expressions told her just how close to the truth her words had cut. They quickly exchanged a look.\n\t“Wow, Gon, I didn't realize you, er, held such a distinctive figure...” Killua said slowly, hoping Gon wouldn't start spilling their personal details in his usual ham-fisted manner until she discovered their connection to Kurapika. But Gon was far too mystified with her inferences to say...well, anything at all.\n\t“Oh? Well, in my professional opinion, Kitty-cat, I'd say that you are by far the more 'distinctive' one,” Nijiiro replied. 'I'd better lay off the brandy if I'm going to keep talking like this...my god, I haven't bothered explaining anything so thoroughly in years, have I?' she added in her head, scolding herself for the premature fraternization. But talented kids, openly impressed by her analytical prowess, were like catnip for a literal know-it-all like Nijiiro.\n\t“What do you mean by that?” Killua asked, despite thinking he'd rather be handed a basket brimming with live scorpions than have Nijiiro's attention honed in on him once again. Nijiiro almost giggled. 'Well bless my buttons, the boy's got an ego that can't resist hearing about himself...he's just like me, then...' she thought, looking Killua over and smiling.\n\t“I mean, my feline friend, that if Puppy-dog here is the consummate outdoorsman, then you would be the mirror opposite. Soft, shiny, angel-fine hair, unnaturally pale skin, even your irises, are all completely undamaged by the sun... Your clothes are simple at first glance, but in reality they're very finely made, and the outfit you have on right now probably costs more than most people in this city make in a year. Your shoes alone, made by a famous boutique in Kyousen, bear half of that cost, and most of the spoiled boys that don these shoes never take a single step off of clean pavement, let alone drag them through the mud the way you've done. The careless way you've treated them tells me you're no average rich boy content to live out his life on a trust-fund salary, but rather one with a considerable amount of willpower and ambition. The fact that you're here with this boy, and not your personal butler or bodyguard, tells me your ambition deviates heavily from that of your family's main source of income. And I have a firm idea of what that source of income is, but let's narrow it down a bit first. Firstly, there's the slightest hint of an accent in your speech, barely perceptible to most but obvious to those who have heard that accent before, and know what to listen for... The soft consonants, the deliberate vowels, the way you touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth during pauses...you're undoubtedly from Padokia. But the it's the fact that you've taken steps to intentionally obscure that accent which tells me you're from an upper-class family of specialized trade professionals, who often travel for the sake of their business. Your build, hidden carefully amid your baggy clothing, is nevertheless rather remarkable in itself. Rather than a gradual accrual of strength via physical labor, your physique has been carefully sculpted with scalpel-like precision, optimized for a balance of endurance, power, and gymnastic ability. Of course, no mere aspiring gymnast would harbor the lethal set of claws you keep deliberately sheathed and hidden in your pockets, as such. Your eyes have a way of flitting around the room defensively, settling not only on each exit and entrance but repeatedly checking the shadows and corners in an unconscious yet distinctive paranoia common to those in the world of professional criminals. Adding to the impression of criminality is your rather truthful statement about the torture training you've received, which tells me the crimes you commit must be rather dire, as in matters of life and death, to warrant such harsh preparation. Preparations from birth, it would seem, in the interest of creating a perfect assassin. And to my knowledge, there is only one family in Padokia crazy enough to raise assassins so young they could be guilty of running away from home,” Nijiiro said, watching the other Spiders bicker about Shalnark's plan disinterestedly, “and so from that, I can safely say...well met, Killua Zoldyck.” She could see the matching expressions of wonderment on both boys' faces without turning her head now. She had gotten it all the way down to his full name. Killua found himself debating as to whether he was about to be ransomed, in addition to being held against his will. Nijiiro had said they were Nobunaga's problem, but if she had the whim, she could simply tell Nobunaga exactly how much his head was worth, and chances were good it wouldn't stay attached to his shoulders if she did. Then again, she seemed to have some perverse idea of keeping him as a live captive, so maybe she was considering using his true identity as blackmail to ensure his compliance. Killua wasn't sure of anything now. These people were insanely strong, strong enough to do whatever they wanted with him, and Nijiiro was no exception. She didn't need his compliance with anything; in fact, it seemed she didn't even need the compliance of her fellow Spiders, being an exception to the rule against serious disagreements among members. Nijiiro stood. “I suppose I should get going as well. So long, gentlemen...and good luck.” She smiled, but Killua could see there was something strained in her expression. He didn't have time to wonder what troubled her, as Nobunaga began herding Gon and himself upstairs at once while clutching the sheath of his katana.\n\tIt was right about then that most of the Gennei Ryodan stood and bowed in Nijiiro's general direction, shuffling toward the exit as the afternoon sun quickly gave way to a hot orange dusk. Pakunoda hung back for a moment, facing Nijiiro with a worried look on her face. \n\t“Nijii” said Pakunoda. It was the name Paku had addressed Nijiiro by when they first met, and the casual syllables had a not-so-casual implication. Phinks stopped at the doorway and waited.\n\t“It'll be fine, Paku,” Nijiiro answered, knowing exactly what it was that Paku was afraid to say out loud. “And if it isn't, I'll survive.”\n\t“But...” Paku began hesitantly. Pakunoda alone among the Spiders had some idea what Nijiiro might be up to, and Paku alone had some idea of why, something she never told the Boss, or even Nijiiro. Perhaps that was the reason the Boss had created such a strict rule regarding physical contact between Nijiiro and any Spider other than himself. No one could touch her, for any reason, on pain of death. On the surface it seemed like simple, paranoid jealousy, not at all uncommon among men who valued their lovers as deeply as Chrollo valued Nijiiro; but Paku always had a suspicion that the rule was directed at her, as a deliberate effort to prevent her from using her powers to scan Nijii's memory. Paku knew instinctively, though she never wanted to believe it, that something in Nijii's memory...was a threat Chrollo, or even to the Spider itself.\n\t“I know what I'm doing, Paku,” Nijiiro said softly. She stared into Pakunoda's honey-brown eyes. If she could kill Paku, the least indoctrinated, most sympathetic to her among all the Spiders, she could kill anyone in the Ryodan without blinking. Of course, no one had to die if Chrollo would simply let her leave the Ryodan, but Nijiiro would never again be naive enough to hope for such a thing. And even Paku would undoubtedly throw her lot in with Chrollo, and help hold her captive, if Nijiiro forced the issue. Pakunoda turned to leave, and Nijiiro had to stop herself from calling out to her. 'Break the rules, Paku.' she thought desperately, 'Break the rules right now, scan my memory, tell the others what will happen to them if they don't stop me...Your suspicions are correct, all of them...Defy Chrollo's stupid rules and live, Paku...' But just as the glowering orange sun could not be held above the horizon in the west, Pakunoda's silhouette slipped through the open doorway into the dusk, leaving darkness to fall across Nijiiro as she stood alone in the ruins.",
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      "permlink": "a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-v",
      "title": "A HunterXHunter fanfic (Part V)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n[Part III](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii)\n[Part IV](https://steemit.com/hunterxhunter/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv)\n#### _September 3rd, Yorknew City, 6:45AM_\nNijiiro had only been asleep for about two hours when her phone began making a particular noise; it was a noise that made her fly out of bed and answer the call without so much as opening her eyes, or breathing for that matter. For that was the power of Chrollo's ringtone.\n\t“Yes, Your Majesty?” She heard Chrollo chuckle softly on the other end of the call, and the sound was like a warm velvet glove running over her entire body.\n\t“I call you with unfortunate news, Zahrat-Alqamar...”\n\t“And what might that be?” Nijiiro said softly. Her guilty heart was already going crazy. As if it could do anything else when he spoke to her, guilty or not.\n\t“Our Uvogin is missing, now presumed dead. And his killer is roaming free in Yorknew City.” Nijiiro's heart was beating too fast. 'Did he know? No, he couldn't. Not yet. But...did he know?!'\n\t“And how did that come to be? Uvo himself may prefer to fight alone, but I recall giving specific advice as to solo activities whilst in Yorknew City.” And so she had. It had been her intention to have them all killed together. \n\t“It seems there is an avenger amongst the Mafia, one of the bodyguards affiliated with the daughter of the Nostrade clan head. He uses chains as a weapon, so he's likely either a conjurer or a manipulator.”\n\t“...If you know that much, how is he still roaming free in Yorknew City?”\n\t“It seems that the Nostrade's daughter has a considerable power of prophecy...”\n\t“Prophecy, if it were either concise or immutable, would indeed merit caution in your approach; however...”\n\t“However?”\n\t“However, the fact that she has multiple bodyguards in the first place is telling, is it not, Sama' Allayl?”\n\t“Ah...And you think, should she find herself without her bodyguard...” \n\tNijiiro never needed to tell him exactly what to do, both of them knew that all too well; he could very well excogitate the rest on his own. Nijiiro could feel his smile on the other end of the call. She wished she were there to see it, momentarily forgetting that she was in the middle of betraying him, perhaps fatally. Cutting the legs off of a spider without the head's aggressive involvement was a delicate process, and his safety was never guaranteed, after all. Of course, there was no man on Earth in less need of safekeeping than Chrollo Lucilfer. \n\t“It's not as if you're short-handed this time around. I'm sure Nobunaga is furious. Simply allow him to serve as pilot fish, and drag a sturdy net behind. I believe it best to capture our enemies alive this time. This chain user may be operating alone for now, but yet there remains the possibility that he hails from a larger congeries of revenge-seekers.” It was solid advice, of course. It was exactly what she would tell him under normal circumstance, circumstance where her goal was to prevent the Spiders from being killed. The only difference... was that Nijiiro herself would be along to gather up any decent results of the double-tail operation and convert them into her very own assets. Best case scenario, some powerful allies would fall into her lap after getting rid of the Spiders sent on the double-tail mission. Worst case scenario, she would have to move to Plan C.\n\t“A call to you is never wasted, Zahrat-Alqamar. I'll send them out immediately.” \n\t“That's your prerogative, of course. But it might be better to wait until noon.”\n\t“What makes you say that?”\n\t“Because unlike me, the chain user is probably asleep right now.” Nijiiro made her voice as neutral as she could, but the thought of making a passive-aggressive comment to Chrollo while standing in the same city as him made her nervous. Which is why she did it now, of course. He needed to believe she was safe in her bed in the middle of Meteor City, right where he'd left her, and not gallivanting around Yorknew City searching for ways to dismantle her own gang. Or else. She shivered. Chrollo continued, pointedly pretending not to notice the sass.\n\t“...Nijiiro?” Chrollo said quietly. Kneeling on the floor next to her bed, still tangled in the white bedsheets, Nijiiro's eyes widened. He'd used her name. Things had suddenly become...uncertain.\n\t“Yes?”\n\t“...Do you miss me?”\n\t“Do I really need to answer that, Sama' Allayl?”\n\t“If you wouldn't mind.”\n\t“I miss you dearly. And right now, I want nothing more in this world, than to have your eyes upon me and my heart in your hands. I often wish, wish that I....could listen to your voice forever.”\n\t“Further words?”\n\t“I love you.” Nijiiro couldn't stop the words from spilling out of her mouth. It was the truth.\n\t“Ahbk' aydaan, Zahrat-Alqamar.” Chrollo hung up.\n\tSometimes telling the truth was hard, but sometimes telling the truth was dangerously easy. Loving Chrollo was sweeter than heroin and a thousand times harder to quit. And in spite of all he had done to her, neither of them ever doubted that Chrollo held Nijiiro's heart in the palm of his hand. What he could not anticipate, however, was that this time she was willing to walk away without it. Not to save herself, but because she had been reminded that there were more important things waiting out there than the ephemeral joy of meeting Chrollo's approval.",
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      "author": "beestmode",
      "permlink": "a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iv",
      "title": "A HunterXHunter fanfic (Part IV)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n[Part III](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii)\n#### _September 2nd, 11:43 AM_\nNijiiro came to in the wrong room, or at least it seemed like the wrong room, on account of the two dead bodies she certainly had no memory of leaving there last night. She felt lovely, but the police uniform on one of the corpses meant she might be in for a headache any moment. The other body seemed to belong to some mafia woman in business casual. She didn't recognize either of them. She looked down and found she was fully dressed. That would save a few moments, she reasoned wordlessly, packing the two bodies onto a maid's trolley under some sheets and wheeling them down to the ground floor  trash incinerator. Hopefully, there would be some helpful evidence on her phone, since drunk Nijiiro was more of a screen-queen prima donna than she cared to admit. She grabbed a few covered plates of hot food on her way back through the kitchen and brought the trolley back to the room. Breakfast would be a surprise today. After scrubbing down the blood-soaked bathroom, she settled in to a double cheeseburger the way some one else liked it and the cellphone video of herself of going full beau-coup-dinky-dau on the late Mr. Francisco the Teeth's daughter and her steroid-powered personal paid police stooge. Ah, the glamorous life of a professional thief. That did, at least, explain why half of YorkNew's finest hadn't descended on her misbegotten hotel room in the middle of the night. Of all the drunken states to come out of using Serenity, the blacked-out-psycho Nijiiro was the very rarest, showing up perhaps time in a thousand, and by far the most dangerous; and she had some pretty terrible ideas about what to do with assholes that tried to wake her up a full three hours before her alarm went off, according to video. Sober Nijiiro sat in bed laughing like a moron and eating french fries until the thirty-minute video ended, then got up and stretched her legs. She needed to get some materials together before Uvo made his appearance. She brought the ID she'd lifted off the woman's body to the front desk and rented her current room in the dead woman's name and credit card. “It's what she would've wanted,” chuckled Nijiiro under her breath. The hotel staff, who were used to the bizarre idiosyncrasies of a mafia business, never questioned a thing. \n\tWith the help of Fortune, Nijiiro piled up some funny money from the slot machines in the casino downstairs before hurrying out into YorkNew in search of a few black-market electronics, a couple handguns, and a milkshake. When she returned five hours later, every Nostrade Family vehicle was accounted for, and still in its original parking spot. Not one of the hotel staff had seen Uvo, either. Excellent. Nijiiro tagged all of the cars with custom micro-trackers and slapped a little “invisible” paint on the steering wheels, which to her was absolutely not invisible, but would show the prints of anyone who touched the cars' controls with radioactive ultraviolet ink. After sunset, she began to worry. What if Uvogin really was too dumb to find the hotel room, even with Shal's help? She weighed the pros and cons before deciding to use one of the public computers downstairs to make sure her scheduled uploads to the Hunter site were being posted according to their schedule.\n\tShe had only made it down one flight of stairs when a familiar Nen presence stopped her in her tracks. Uvogin was here, probably on the ground floor, and he was angry. Shit. She took a deep breath and focused, knowing that the feeling of a Nen like hers panicking would only set off sirens in the back of Uvo's brain. Backing out of the stairwell, Nijiiro went back to the elevators and rode one down to the ground floor as Uvo ascended up the stairwell, thankfully focused on his target and not his surroundings. She knocked the hotel valet unconscious with a, er, light tap to the head, and glanced over the selection of keys in his logbook until she found a black four-wheel-drive SUV. Taking the keys from the corresponding peg, she removed her necklace and hung the massive sapphire pendant in their place. It would make for a nice severance package, assuming he woke in time. She fetched the car from the lot and pulled it around to the hotel entrance, nearly missing Uvo and the Kurta as they walked out, and, to her utter amazement, climbed into the same black sedan and pulled away, heading west toward the highway. It was a remarkable display of restraint, especially for Uvo. Nijiiro tailed them, three cars behind, until they pulled off on an exit just six kilometers from where they got on, and from there out to a dirt road that led into empty desert to the northwest of Yorknew City. She switched off the headlights and continued to follow them, her eyes being able to see them in the light of the full moon the way most people could see under a blazing midday sun. When the sedan stopped, she pulled the SUV around a large boulder sixty meters back , concealing it from the roadway, and sought high ground. At this distance, her eyes would be able to pick up even the most minute details in their faces and gestures, but the threat of being detected was also that much higher. Using a trick she'd trained six months to master, she activated Zetsu so slowly and gradually it would seem as if her Nen was walking away without her; a small precaution that paid off more often than not when dealing with Nen masters. Nijiiro found a scalable cliff rather close to where Uvo and the Kurta had gotten out of the car, and climbed it slowly and deliberately, careful to maintain absolute silence, even going so far as to belly-crawl the last few meters to the edge  of the rocky outcrop and line the darker and lighter parts of her outfit up with the pools of moonlight and shadow in the bare rocks around her. Even an expert man-hunter, staring straight down at her from above with a scope, would be hard-pressed to spot her right away. From her position, she could see the entire exchange between Uvo and the Kurta clearly, which began, to her eternal embarrassment, with watching Uvo relieve himself while facing in her general direction. Well, there was something she'd never cared to witness. She looked over to the Kurta. 'He's so...young. And pretty to boot. His aura...it's incredible...I've never seen anything like it. He's almost certainly within a year or two of my age, which is nineteen now, I think...I was only about thirteen when the Kurta clan was massacred, so he must have been eleven, perhaps twelve? His resolve must be staggering, to have come to such a level, and so quickly...Come to think of it, it was only January of this year when Hisoka and this boy passed the pro Hunter Exam, and from Hisoka's description, he didn't use any Nen at that time.' Nijiiro watched them exchange a few terse words, and by the end of it the Kurta was dripping with rage. His aura really was incredible, and she couldn't pull her eyes away from it for even a second. Her heart was beating faster as he met Uvo blow for blow, holding his own against a battle veteran who outweighed him by at least threefold. He danced around the giant Uvo with catlike grace, and Nijiiro felt blood rushing to her face as he pulled out his chains, slamming them into the cliffside and nearly hitting her twice. 'I must be getting feverish...from using Nen earlier,' she thought to herself. Of course, that wasn't entirely the case, but admitting anything else made her feel uncomfortably like a voyeur rather than a spy. It wasn't long before Uvo slammed his fist into the Kurta's left arm, which the Kurta miraculously guarded. The implication was clear. 'He must be a specialist, then. Interesting.' Seeing other specialists use Nen always made Nijiiro feel a little itch, a vague sort of tingle, a sense she could never quite explain. Where's a fresh bowl of popcorn when you need one?\n#### _September 3rd, 2:43 AM_\n“You're wasting my time,” Kurapika said, glaring at Uvogin tauntingly. Uvo grimaced, regretting the restraint he'd shown heretofore and wishing he could just crush the kid and get it over with before wunderkind mouthed off again. Well, it wasn't like he'd used his full strength yet. He would show the featherweight who was wasting whose time. Uvo grinned.\n\t“Okay, jackass. This time I'll come at you with EVERYTHING I'VE GOT!” roared Uvo. Of course, it wasn't like him to attack blindly. He slammed his fist into the ground, raising massive clouds of dry dust and rocky debris around Kurapika. \n\t“That's an incredible aura...”said Kurapika. Up on the cliffside, Nijiiro rolled her eyes. 'Clearly, this boy has a penchant for stating the obvious,' she thought, watching dust surround his slender silhouette. And if anyone was wasting time, it was the Kurta who had chains wrapped around his target, yet insisted on testing him like a guinea pig instead of sealing the deal. She watched as Kurapika tried to block Uvo's full-force punch, receiving a crushed arm for his trouble.\n\t“This time, I crushed your arm. No one can withstand a full-force Big Bang Impact! But I'm impressed. You reacted immediately... I'm guessing you noticed the slight shift in the dust particles.” said Uvo.\n\t“I am impressed as well. I didn't think you knew how to use In,” Kurapika replied confidently, “Striking the ground to raise a smokescreen was intended to conceal both your physical body and your presence. However, I, too, can use In.” He raised his hand slightly, the Nen chains attached to him clinking a little. Uvo, finding himself suddenly paralyzed, realized his mistake a minute too late. Nijiiro smiled. 'Should've used Gyo from the outset, eh, Uvo?' she thought. \n\t“N-No way!” Uvo stuttered. The Nen chains around his body began to tighten menacingly.\n\t“You can see them? I guess you can use Gyo.” Kurapika said. Nijiiro suppressed a giggle at the statement. 'He did it again,' she thought. “These chains were forged with conjurer Nen, which means I can use In to render them invisible,” Kurapika continued with his exposition.\n\t“So...by keeping the chains out, you tricked us into thinking they were real chains.” Uvo stated, trying to think his way out of said chains and coming up blank. This kid seemed bent on giving him a lecture for some reason, so Uvo figured it would be better to let him talk . Maybe he'd slip up and show Uvo a way out. Over-explaining one's abilities was a rookie move, after all.\n\t“That's exactly right. I pretended to be a manipulator using Nen-controlled chains, so my enemies would only be alert to the visible chains. And my bluff just paid off. While you were making empty threats, my chains were already wrapped around your body. You've been captured.” Kurapika's confidence in these last few words seemed genuine. 'Damn...But how?' thought Uvo, trying to parse the abilities Kurapika had displayed thus far, 'He has an enhancer's defensive power, and the Nen in his conjured chains is incredibly strong...Has he fully mastered both conjurer and enhancer techniques..? That shouldn't be! A Nen user can only fully master their innate category...'\n\t“I see you're having trouble understanding. Allow me to illuminate you, before I send you to the other side,” Kurapika said ominously. 'Oh, goody... And here I thought I'd have to analyze all of these Nen techniques for myself,' thought Nijiiro, sitting up. The two below her were so focused on one another now that she wagered even a Zetsu with a quarter of the efficacy of hers would have been plenty to remain hidden. She crossed her legs and rested her head on one hand. The Kurta reached up towards his face and removed two small pieces of something. 'Contact lenses?' thought Nijiiro, 'Well I suppose that makes sense, for a Kurta...It's kind of like my veil...' Still, it made a chill run up her spine. It had been a while, since she had seen the Scarlet Eyes...and she certainly had no fond memories upon which to attach them. Kurapika's eyes glimmered a dozen shades of vermilion in the light of the full moon, and it made Nijiiro's heart begin to pound once again, even faster than before. It was as if the rubicund glow tethered to some primal human instinct, warning one to stay away or risk annihilation. And like so many other dangerous things before, they were pulling her in for a closer look. After all, she'd never actually seen the Scarlet Eyes on a living person before. Nijiiro crawled to the very edge of the cliff on all fours, biting her lip. The Kurta continued speaking, unaware of his titillated onlooker.\n\t“I'm using specialization Nen. Only when my Scarlet Eyes appear, do I become a specialist, capable of using techniques I've learned from any category of Nen.” Kurapika stared into Uvo's bewildered face as the gears finally clicked into place.\n\t“Those eyes...I remember now. There were a bunch of them, in the middle of nowhere. The Saisho really liked those eyes. They were really strong! Then, you're a survivor? Hmm, he he he he he...I'm getting excited now...Let's see what is stronger! Your grudge, or my power!” Uvo chortled, perhaps forgetting in his excitement that he was immobilized.\n\t“You bastard...is that all you can think about? You'll never be able to break these chains!” Kurapika shouted, hoping it was true. It was, as it turned out. In spite of Uvo's considerable brute force and powerful roars of frustration, Kurapika's chains held fast to their prisoner, strained but nowhere close to breaking.\n\t“What the hell?!” Uvogin growled, not comprehending how normal metal chains, conjured or otherwise, could refuse to yield to the diamond-crushing force of his muscles.\n\t“With my specialization ability, Emperor Time, I can use any category of Nen with one hundred percent efficiency.” Kurapika explained, drawing out his Holy Chain. It was time for a demonstration. He activated the healing powers of the Holy Chain on his shattered arm, healing it instantly. Uvogin's eyes widened.\n\t“I can use enhancement category self-healing to completely recover from a broken arm,” said Kurapika coolly. Nijiiro, for her part, found this to be a very strange interrogation indeed. 'What is this, show-and-tell? Having him explain his powers certainly is convenient for me, but how does this help him...Isn't he...going to...ask any questions, or...?' she thought, unsure of the Kurta boy's motive. Her best guess was that he was planning on impressing Uvo with his abilities first in order to make Uvo more willing to talk. Which was laughable from her perspective, but she would let the Kurta figure that out on his own soon enough. But the expositive continued on, unimpeded by Nijiiro's confused thoughts.\n\t“There were a number of reasons why I chose you to be my first target,” said Kurapika, “While you fought the Mafia and the Shadow Beasts, the other spiders stayed out of it altogether. That told me you preferred to fight alone, and that they trusted your strength would prevail. I prefer to fight one-on-one. That made you a perfect target. Next, you were an enhancer who was confident in both offense and defense. You met every requirement I had for my first target. Because then I could test to see whether my Chain Jail would be effective on the rest of the Gennei Ryodan. Chain Jail forcefully activates Zetsu upon any Ryodan member it ensnares. It also paralyzes them.” At this, Nijiiro felt fireworks going off in her cranium. What a delightful ability he had there. No, better than that, it was damned useful, particularly for her designs on the Ryodan. You had to hand it to the Kurta boy, he really had it all mapped out. Perhaps that was why he'd looked so promising right out of the gate; unlike the Injiyuu, he had anticipated that he'd be fighting opponents far stronger and more experienced than himself. Yes, this Kurta Clan avenger would make a fine asset, indeed. Uvogin was now looking perfectly horrified, understanding the implications of Kurapika's powers in a one-on-one combat situation such as the one he currently faced. 'So that's why I can't muster any aura,' he thought, straining to rip the chains apart.\n\t “Zetsu nullifies aura. Meaning, you'd need to use physical strength alone to break these chains. If the Ryodan member with the most physical strength cannot break the chains, the others will certainly not be able to escape Chain Jail,” Kurapika went on, Uvo's situation seemingly growing more dire with every new bit of intelligence. Uvo had to get out of these chains and crush this guy before he himself was killed, or worse, the other Spiders were caught unawares. 'His forced activation of Zetsu here is bad,' thought Uvo, straining against his bindings, 'Aura is the basis of all Nen. If it's sealed off, you can't use your power. A technique for sealing Nen...this guy really thought everything through...' It was at that moment that Kurapika rammed his Nen-charged fist into Uvo's unguarded abdomen, breaking several ribs and sending blood shooting out of his surprised mouth. Nijiiro looked on, thinking, 'I guess show-and-tell is over, then...' She felt almost sad, watching a brawler like Uvo forced to stand still and passive as an old tree being hewn down by an unmercifully blunt Nen-charged fist. That being said, she'd have to step in and finish Uvo off herself if the Kurta failed to kill him for a second time. That didn't seem likely, though as Kurapika calmly continued narrating the process, now doubly confident in the restraining powers of his chain. “It seems my enhanced fist is somewhat stronger than your physical brawn. That's valuable information. That means I can beat every Ryodan member barehanded, provided I've chained them.” \n\t'Valuable information...' Nijiiro thought slowly, an important realization slowly dawning on her. By god, it couldn't be. No, it made too much sense now. 'He's using these Nen abilities for the very first time...and needs real data on how they behave in combat. Not because he imagined them all up yesterday, or because no one was training him...but because he couldn't use them on anyone else. That's why he keeps saying 'Ryodan member' instead of 'target' or 'opponent.' Eureka. He's using a convenant-restriction system, and a nasty one at that. The exorbitant consequence he's laid against the amount of Nen power in these chains must be quite dire.' Six months ago, he had no Nen abilities whatsoever, yet now, he was sitting pretty with the monstrously strong Uvogin's balls in a metaphorical sling. There weren't many conditions that fit the bill, either. 'He's almost certainly staked his life, his Nen, or both, on this power. Of course, an asset this good naturally comes with a massive liability like that, doesn't it?' Of course, this is also meant that, should the Kurta prove hostile to her proposal for an alliance between themselves, she probably had sufficient leverage to convince him otherwise. So long as the Spiders continued to meet their end one by one, as with Uvo, he would probably be fine working alone, but reality rarely afforded anyone such optimal circumstances, much less twelve times in a row. Nijiiro made herself turn her eyes back down to the scene below and grimaced. It was a scene she'd created, but not one she cared to watch. She knew, even without looking, that Uvo would do the Spiders proud. That he would refuse to yield, until his dying breath. As the one who'd arranged Uvo's funeral, the least she could do was bear witness to his final moments. \n\t“Tell me everything you know,” demanded Kurapika, “...Where are the rest of your friends?” \n\t“...Kill me.” Uvo growled. Kurapika hit him again.\n\t“What are their abilities?”\n\t“Kill me.” replied Uvo, a little softer.\n\tIt went on like this for a while, back and forth, until Kurapika was spattered with blood and Uvo could hardly stand on his own, the latter wheezing and struggling for breath but faithfully responding to every question with the same stoic reply. Kurapika intensified his efforts, striking Uvo multiple times at each inquisition, but to no avail. Nijiiro watched the the face of the Kurta boy become increasingly twisted with disgust, his mind a riot of conflict and anxiety. 'He's never tortured anyone before, has he? And it shows.' she thought. Ironically, it was Uvo who stood proud and menacing in these circumstances, while for the Kurta she felt only pity. Eventually he stopped, unable to keep up with the stress of causing Uvo pointless physical agony.\n\t“It makes me sick...” Kurapika uttered, his face wracked with emotion. “The sensation left on my hand... The grating sound of each strike... The smell of blood...It throws all of my senses into disarray! How can you do all of things, yet feel and think NOTHING AT ALL?! ANSWER ME!” Nijiiro had a strange urge to laugh at these last words, although she knew the situation was far too serious for that. It was such a stupid question, a rookie question. An incorrect question, brought by a boy unfamiliar with the ways of never-ending violence,  the effects of undertaking one's own survival as a sort of spiritual dictum, and the laws of the jungle that was Meteor City. Indeed, in that place, in that savage garden, “thoughts” and “feelings” were often the only things one had...and they were not for sharing with strangers. The 'answer,' if one could answer, was that no one did such things without thinking or feeling anything at all, not even her. It was the fire-hardened steel nerves of those who had thrived, dared to live, and triumphed against the very worst of what this world had to offer that allowed them to quaff human suffering, and even death itself, like a fine red wine. It was more of an acquired taste, a necessary skill, than any sort of random personal quirk. It was the kind of aphorism the Kurta himself would need to internalize, if he was serious about annihilating the Gennei Ryodan. Nijiiro smiled to herself, knowing exactly what Uvo's “answer” would be.\n\t“...Kill me.” Blood soaked the front of Uvogin's white shirt and dripped down the length of his eight-foot-plus frame. His mind had long ceased to think angry thoughts at this kid. In fact, he felt nothing but respect. In a way, he was glad his ticket had been punched by one of the droves of avengers whom he owed a painful death. But that didn't mean he'd give up even one of the Spiders, no matter how much suffering he had to endure. Hell, compared to Feitan's work, this guy was nothing. Kurapika screamed in frustration and launched his trump card, the Judgement Chain, into Uvo's chest. The Nen chain wrapped around Uvo's heart, threatening him instantaneous death. Uvo breathed a sigh of relief, while doing his best to look frightened. Nijiiro bit her thumb and tried not to laugh at Uvo's unconvincing “scared” face.\n \t“This your last chance! I've just placed a conditional bond on your heart. If you break the rule I set, the bond will activate, crushing your heart.” Nijiiro clamped both hands over her mouth. Her terrible habit of laughing at inopportune moments was going to give her away, if she didn't try harder. But the clueless Kurta wasn't helping. 'Chance? He thinks Uvo is looking for chances?' She tried scolding herself then, thinking, 'it's not funny, it is NOT funny, your Spider is dying, Nijiiro,' and so on, but still, the corners of her mouth continued to grin. “The rule is that you must answer my question honestly. Abide by that rule, and I shall allow to live a bit longer.” Kurapika continued, insensible to the hilarity of his words. In fairness, only the utterly depraved, nihilistic humor of the two Spiders who heard him would find it the least bit comical. Uvo grinned a wide, bearish grin. 'About damn time,' he thought. \n\t“Where are the other Spiders?!” Kurapika demanded once again. \n\t“Go to hell, dipshit.” Uvo sneered, and then collapsed. He was dead before he hit the ground. Nijiiro fought the powerful urge to give him a standing ovation, liking him more in that moment than she had ever before. Uvogin was dead, but her plans were still very much in motion. Speaking of motion... Nijiiro stood up before her legs began to cramp too much. The Kurta boy stumbled. \n\t'...I spent too much time in that state...' thought Kurapika, his eyes fading back into their usual warm brown. His phone began ringing for the ten thousandth time that day, and he decided to answer it. It would be nice to hear a friendly voice, after that...ordeal. It was Senritsu. His face softened considerably as he picked up the call.\n\t“It's me.”\n\t“Kurapika, what's going on? Are you alright?”\n\t“Yeah. I'm okay. What about things over there?”\n\t“Thank goodness...The boss is safe. She's asleep in her room. And also, the boss' father won't arrive until late tonight, due to weather complications.”\n\t“I see. Understood.”\n\tKurapika ended the call and looked at Uvo's corpse. He could simply leave it there. After all, the Spiders had not bothered to bury a single one of his clansmen after they slaughtered every last one of them and plucked the eyes from their corpses. But he was better than that. And he'd brought a shovel.\n\tNijiiro watched as the Kurta quietly buried Uvo's massive body in the dry desert soil, his arms and back trembling with fatigue by the end of it. 'Using the Scarlet Eyes must take a lot out of him. I guess we have that in common, eh, Kurta?' she thought. In spite of her perfect Zetsu, Nijiiro was still feeling a fair amount of fatigue herself. Tonight had been a very successful endeavor, in terms of intelligence. She knew what the Kurta boy looked like, how he sounded, and how he moved. She knew how his powers worked. She knew he had friends in Yorknew. She knew, without even having to ponder it, that Chrollo would intensify the war between the mafia and the Gennei Ryodan if Uvo failed to return in a few hours, sending more of the Spiders from the safety of the hideout into mafia territory. She knew Chrollo could be lured away from them, when he went after the Nostrade girl's powers. She knew...she could win this time. It was all coming together. Nijiiro watched the Kurta drive away, presumably back to the Beitacle hotel, before sliding down the cliffside to where Uvo was buried. She knew it was pointless, hell, it was probably insulting, given that she'd caused this, but she gathered a large pile of extremely heavy stones anyway, and stacked them carefully in a pyramid over the spot where Uvogin lay in his final rest. Having finished her task, she sat and looked at it for a moment, before saying the only words she could think of. \n\t“I'm sorry, Uvo.”",
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      "parent_permlink": "fanfic",
      "author": "beestmode",
      "permlink": "a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-iii",
      "title": "A HunterXHunter fanfic (Part III)",
      "body": "![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)\n[Part I ](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunter-x-hunter-fanfiction-part-i)\n[Part II](https://steemit.com/fanfic/@beestmode/a-hunterxhunter-fanfic-part-ii)\n#### _September 1st, Yorknew City 9:37PM_\n Don Marscapone was a busy man. After sending a few upper bosses from his personal circle to make his presence felt at the auction, he had been to an ultra-exclusive hairdresser, a top-dollar tailor, and a pricey Swedish massage parlor that could knead the prickles out of a cactus. He believed in being ready. But of course, nothing would ready him for the sight of Nijiiro's black figure-cutting floor-length number hugging the serpent tattoo all the way to her hip and an inch beyond. Her pale skin contrasted sharply with the tattoo's eerie photorealism, and now that the tension in his blood had boiled away at him for the past six months, he had decided he'd have her in every way he desired, or else. \n\tNijiiro strolled leisurely across the nearly empty tarmac toward the Don, smiling as sweetly as she ever had. The ribbons adorning her black lace veil, set like a stylish mask across her multicolored eyes, fluttered gently in the breeze created by the airship's propellers, and even through this veil she was forced to squint at the landing pad that was lit brighter than a Christmas tree. She did her best to look impressed. Of all her assets, Don Marscapone was the very hardest with whom to remain truthful. Well, her version of truthful.  'What a putz' she thought inwardly, 'all he's ever done is roll his money out in front of me, like a child parading his toys around, and he's not even pretending to care about his wife anymore. He thinks he's playing hardball, but in reality he's not even trying.' She sighed, but through her current facial expression it appeared quite doting.\n\t“My esteemed Don Marscapone, of the Marscapone Family. I've waited for a night like this for such a long time, my eagerness got the better of me, and I left early. I'm surprised to be here second,” Nijiiro said, perhaps a little too coyly. But that was exactly what turned old Marscapone's gears, of course. He loved to play King. The man honestly believed he was at the pinnacle of existence, and thus needed to chase romantic affairs and wealth to stay in touch with his youth, despite being nearly eighty-two, thrice married, and obscenely wealthy. And what a chase she'd given him. While she played the part of the consummate love interest, he'd become so entrenched in her game, he'd nearly had his own brother killed and handed the keys to his financial records - all of his financial records - over to her with nary a thought to the danger of it. Nijiiro held him so deeply in pity, she wondered whether she should kill him where he stood, and get it over with now. She glanced at the tarmac. She wouldn't want to get blood on it, in case he'd left any ground-level security crew behind after takeoff.  No, he would vanish into the sky tonight, just as she'd planned. An even more pliable puppet would take his throne at the Council of the Ten Dons tomorrow night.\n\t“Count my enthusiasm that much greater than yours, Mon Cheresse*,” said the Don, returning her smile with interest. 'Let's get this over with' Nijiiro's inner monologue groaned. She took the arm he proffered gracefully, glad of her opera-length gloves between them. She hadn't offered her nineteen-year-old body to the old goat, nor would she ever stoop to such, but the Don was clearly unaware of that as he leered sideward to her decolletage. Superhuman vision able to read the barest hint of an expression on a man's face often presented Nijiiro's mind with ugly truths that others were spared, and tonight Don Marscapone's expression made her acutely aware of that fact. Of course, the Don's need for privacy only guaranteed that no other powerful associates of the Don would be present to muck things up. They mounted the steps to Marscapone's disgustingly opulent airship arm in arm, lost in idle chatter while bodyguards followed them nervously, walking backward up the staircase and searching for threats to the Don. In the exact wrong direction, as it soon turned out.\n \n#### _September 1st, 11:23PM_\n“There wasn't any merchandise?” inquired Chrollo mildly, holding his cell phone a few centimeters from his ear. Clearly, some one with higher authority than even the Community auctioneers had moved very quickly, and prioritized the safety of the guests at the Cemetery Building well below that of the treasure slated for the auction. Fascinating.\n\t“No, the safe was empty,” grunted Uvogin over the receiver, already itching to punch something, “According to the auctioneer, the only one who was aware of the situation, everything in the safe had been moved a few hours before the auction was supposed to start. It's like they expected this to happen.”\n\t“Oh?”\n\t“Don't you think the timing is a little too perfect here?” Uvogin continued, his face darkening. “We have...a Judas among us.”\n\t“So you're saying one of us is a traitor?” said Nobunaga, loudly enough that Chrollo could hear him on the other end of the call. Even without being present, Chrollo could sense the tension soar among the seven powerful albeit headstrong Nen users. Even if there was a traitor, which seemed unlikely, he could simply have Nijiiro sniff them out later. For now, it was time to re-direct the team.\n\t“There are no traitors. And, in my opinion, Judas wasn't a traitor. It's said that Judas sold Jesus out for thirty pieces of silver. Supposing a 'traitor' had sold us out, what price would he ask of the Mafia? What would he stand to gain?...Money? Glory? Power? Can you honestly believe those things would be enough for any of us?” Hisoka, sitting in the window of the Spiders' temporary base across the room from Chrollo, fought to keep a neutral expression. Counting himself, there were at least two traitors, and neither were friends of the Mafia, not by a long shot. He turned to face out of the window and smiled at the full moon.\n\t“...No. You're right. There is no traitor among us,” said Uvogin, almost embarrassed. The Boss had a way with words, all right.\n\t“See?” said Chrollo, cool as the figurative cucumber. “Besides, something else here doesn't add up. Assuming there was a spy, their response was far too tepid. If they had information indicating that the Gennei Ryodan would appear at tonight's auction, they would have added much stronger security. The guests were all uninformed and unarmed. I believe some one provided information that wasn't explicit. And a leader of the Mafia Community believed it.” \n\t“I don't get it...who told whom what? Whatever. What should we do now?”\n\t“Did you ask the auctioneer where the merchandise was moved to?”\n\t“Yeah, but he swore on his life he didn't know. Feitan tortured him, so we know he wasn't lying,” Uvogin replied, a disappointed tone detectable in his gruff voice.\n\t“Did you get the names of anyone who might know?” pressed Chrollo, not one to waste cell data, much less his own breath.\n\t“But of course. The auction is run by the Mafia Community heads, who lead gangs in each of the ten regions around the world. They're called the Ten Dons. This is the only time the all ten gather in one place, to discuss business and  issue directives. Their directives are carried out by the Injiyuu, the Shadow Beasts, who represent the Dons' top combatants.”\n\t“I see...and so, since the Injiyuu weren't guarding the auction house, the Mafia didn't know we were coming.”\n\t“Makes sense.”\n\t“And how did they move everything from the safe?” \n\t“Here's where it gets complicated. The treasure was stored in a safe of about twenty-five meters squared, stacked floor to ceiling with goods. According to the auctioneers, a single member of the Injiyuu walked in, then walked out a moment later...empty handed. Yet the safe had been wiped clean. It may be a guy called 'The Owl'.”\n\t“Ah. He may possess a Nen ability similar to Shizuku's,” Chrollo said, the barest hint of a smile forming on his face. Such an ability would be invaluable for future operations, and now it was as good as his.\n\t“Yeah, probably.”\n\t“Surely, after five hundred people disappeared from the auction hall into thin air, the Mafia has at least realized...that they're dealing with Nen users.”\n\t“So...we can go wild?” Uvogin countered with the thought that was always at the forefront of his mind. They were sending the Injiyuu, chief among the Mafia's Nen users. There'd be a good fight, after all. He grinned.\n\t“Of course. Put on a big show for the pursuers, that will draw them out.” Chrollo said. He thought about adding an instruction to leave the one called Owl alive after locating the treasure, but then again, he knew Machi would see to it without a word from him. She was...exceedingly loyal to him, and a shade smarter than the rest. He ended the call. Hisoka was still staring out of the window, fantasizing about breaking Chrollo, but also wondering if he should report any of this to Nijiiro. On the one hand, she loved information. On the other, she'd predicted Chrollo's phone call and subsequent decision so minutely, he had a strange feeling she already knew. \n#### _September 1st, 11:46PM_ \nNijiiro took the very daintiest sip of her second snifter of powerful apple brandy and watched Don Marscapone's face turn absolutely aghast as he took the call that informed him of the Gennei Ryodan's attack on the auction house and the hundreds of missing guests, including one his closest associates. For the last two hours, there had been a long exchange of coquettish wordplay, a chess game Nijiiro struggled greatly to lose, a boring, thinly-veiled discussion on the supposed merits of 'inter-generational discourse', a glass of brandy and the presentation of an absolutely stunning sapphire pendant the size of a hen's egg to Nijiiro, who blushingly accepted as though she hadn't seen the purchase on his bank statements eight days ago. Things might have become even more boring if not for the frantic ringing of all the phones of Marscapone's security team, followed by a stern hand-off of cell phones between his head-of-security and the Don himself. He nodded twice, and then grunted as he slowly comprehended the gravitas of the situation. Nijiiro made her face inscrutable and patiently waited for the Don to gird his loins, swallow his unspeakable egotism, and beg for her advice face-to-face for once. Right about now, there should be a hot air balloon with seven disgruntled Spiders drifting westward toward the Desert of Gordeau. Nijiiro ran back over the calculations she'd made yesterday evening. If she sped the airship to about one hundred eighty knots, changed course fifteen degrees Southwest and adjusted the altitude within fifty meters of the cloud cover, her eyes would have sufficient light to follow the balloon's trajectory without a chance of being spotted. \n\t“Mon Sanctifié Bodhisattva...Your 'vision'...has become reality once again. My men, the ones I sent to the Community...They never stood a chance. The treasure alone is safe, thanks to you, but...”\n\t“...But you wish to know what should happen now, given the hundreds of missing guests and the possibility of hostages?”\n\t“Your power of inference never fails to amaze.”\n\t“And what would you give for that information?”\n\t“A thousand sapphires like this,” he said beckoning at the gem on her throat, “ and half of my soul.”\n\t“Only half?” Nijiiro purred, knowing every second he waited was agony. Her inner sadist began counting down the seconds until she could safely slit his pretentious throat.\n\t“I can give no more, as half belongs to you already, Bodhisattva. Tell me...please. Where are the hostages?”\n\t“There are no hostages.” \n\t“Then...where...?” Don Marscapone blinked.\n\t“Nowhere. They have all been killed. Slaughtered. By the powerful thieves' guild known as the Gennei Ryodan.”\n\t“What? Those murderous Spiders?!”\n\tNijiiro rose to her feet and smiled. She turned and swept the thick coif of silver hair off the back of her neck, revealing the original Gennei Ryodan spider tattoo. The ashen expression on the Don's wrinkled face  intensified to a whiter shade of pale. She strode over to the gilded antique record player sitting conspicuously in the corner of the airship's luxurious drawing-room cabin and set a record on it. Flipping the switch on the turntable, she turned herself to face the trembling old man with a look of utter pity as 'Habanera' of Carmen fame drifted up from the golden speakers. The moment they'd all been waiting for, whether they knew it or not. Nijiiro had activated Passion, and her eyes gleamed a deep violet behind their tulle shroud. A veil and a cane do not a blind woman make. \n\t“Oh, Marscapone. And you were so sure the Nostrade girl's fortune-telling would keep you safe tonight. But nothing is safe from my intervention. If I want a few hundred powerful Mafioso dead, it will be done. Be it by the Spiders you know...or the Spider you don't.” Of course, the security team would see their boss rise to his feet, shouting for his men to speed the aircraft up to one hundred eighty knots, steer it fifteen degrees southwest, and send the Injiyuu under his command to the Gordeau desert in pursuit of the bandits. And they would comply, barking their orders to one another and their associates on the phone, blissfully unaware that Nijiiro had ever risen from her seat, or that their boss was being lifted bodily from his chair by the woman they'd always tacitly assumed to be blind, his body numbed by drugged brandy. The illusion was beyond perfect, and she had left only the Don out of it, that he might make the very expression Nijiiro was now savoring. It was time to pay the price for mediocrity in the world of deadly criminals.\n\t“You did this. No...My Bodhisattva. My Muse. No, why would you do this? How...?”  Marscapone stuttered, and the shock on his face nearly made Nijiiro laugh out loud. \n\t“This is my victory, mon Triste Faux-Empereur.” She brought him to the massive glass window on the port side of the airship by his finely hand-embroidered lapels as he struggled to gain control of his body well enough to stop her, and failed. Reaching into his waistband, she drew out his signature weapon, a custom bejeweled, engraved nine millimeter he'd allegedly used to kill his first enemy. Four strategic shots into the glass behind the Don, and the mounting air pressure from the ship's propellers blasted fragments of the massive glass panel into the cabin, the security team still oblivious as the shards spun past them, or even into the men themselves. As far as they were concerned, their boss was calmly smoking a cigar, still in his favorite armchair. The real Marscapone stumbled backward, his heel kicking a few glass shards over the edge of the hole in the side of his beloved airship. With her free hand, Nijiiro caught a handful of his Italian silk tie, and he dangled backward over the edge for a moment, his wide eyes reminding her strongly of a trapped animal's. \n\t“Sergei! Sergei! For GOD'S SAKE, MAN, STOP HER!!” screamed Marscapone, struggling not to fall through the open window frame as the strength in his legs and back quickly gave way. The Sergei in question remained oblivious, carrying out his illusion-made boss' orders even as the air rushing in from the open window turned the room into a bottled hurricane, and every scrap of paper and fabric flew about in disarray with glass shards from the shattered window. Nijiiro breathed in deeply, enjoying the music, and calmly shot all ten security guards dead with the pistol in her left hand. Holding the now-empty handgun next to Marscapone's face, she let it go, and his eyes filled with horror as they watched it make its three-thousand-meter descent Earthward. “You lying cunt...you were the light of my life...You said, said we'd be together...to the end...” he gasped in desperation.\n\t“I never lie, darling. And this is the end.” She let go. The music climaxed just as the great Don made his final bloody mark upon the world. “Si je t’aime, prends garde à toi, indeed,” Nijiiro agreed, switching off the record player. Nijiiro liked her men a little more down-to-Earth, anyhow. She removed her gloves and looked for another weapon among the bodies of the security crew, pleasantly shocked to find an authentic single-digit Benz knife. 'Finders keepers, Muchacho.' she thought, looking at its previous owner. Casually slitting the throat of one very surprised helmsman, who had been lost in a now terribly ironic track called “Pay Attention” ala  Dilated Peoples, she took control of the airship, and set it to ascend to cloud-level. She'd be in visual range in less than five minutes, but to be close enough to read lips she would have have to be just a few hundred meters from the targets, which meant a steady, slow but inconspicuous cruising speed over the scene would be best. Unable to stop herself, she flipped through the cockpit's entertainment menu until she found  Saint-Saëns'  'Le Carnaval des Animaux' and hit play. “Now let's see what these so-called Injiyuu are really made of...” she thought aloud, smiling. Best case scenario, all of the Ryodan's forward attackers were wiped out by the Injiyuu, and Shalnark and Shizuku were captured by the enemy. Worst case scenario, she would have to move to Plan 'B'. \n\tThirty-five kilometers away, the balloon bearing Uvogin and the others made landfall on a cliffside in the Gordeau Desert, and the stage was set. But to her eternal disappointment, the combined efforts of two hundred armed mafioso couldn't even touch the first of her Spiders. Not only that, but she watched droves of the idiots scramble about in a vain attempt to take on Uvogin, a master Enhancer, with guns and explosives, even though it was obviously futile from the beginning. They actually left the other six on the cliffside utterly unmolested, even though they had snipers at their disposal. Nothing but illogical actions by chimps in suits...it made her teeth grind. From the first useless, disorganized attack by the four - only four, for fuck's sake, against seven of the Ryodan - Injiyuu, she could see how hopelessly outclassed the mafia was. An organization of the world's most successful criminals, millions strong, with bottomless wealth, and this is what protected it? She wanted to scream. Picking up her cell phone, she made a call to her next asset, informing him of the new steps he was to take. Marscapone, Jr., being little more than putty as far as Nijiiro was concerned, obediently put out the call to the world's best hit men, assassins and hired mercenaries, at her behest. He had asked her for his father's throne, and now, she had given it to him. Not that he would likely enjoy it for very long, for if the assassination plan failed, his life was as good as forfeit, but that was none of her concern. Her next call was to a local underboss, a quirky bikini-wearing fellow named Toolie, wiring him twenty billion of the late Don's personal fortune to aid in rounding up the Spiders using any and all means, including the underground auction system. She used him for this kind of thing because Toolie had a motto of “never ask questions” which helped explain both his personal ethos and his wardrobe. She wired the rest as an investment to her fake holdings company, which would then spread the funds around to her various shell companies, which would convert them into secure bank accounts in Padokia, far from the reach of international law. 'Sorry, Junior. It looks like your old man's inheritance won't be reaching his oblivious prodigal son. Being clueless has a price, you know.' Just as she hung up, however, something caught her eye. Of the six Mafia henchmen who had bothered to hang back and observe Uvogin before charging in at him, one suddenly strode forward. He stopped for a moment, being halted by his comrades, but then straightened  and resumed his path toward Uvo. '...Was that a goddamned flute!? Whatever. Maybe blondie's got a plan. This might be good.' thought Nijiiro, checking her watch. She turned the airship forty degrees westward, and watched carefully as they circled their vehicles around to behind the cliff where the rest of the Ryodan sat playing cards or watching Uvo  disinterestedly. To her utter amazement, the blonde one actually managed to snag Uvo right out from under Shalnark's gaze, his Nen technique so smooth and unexpected that not even a single member of the Ryodan had time to intervene. 'Hmm...Must be using In'. It was hard to tell sometimes, as her eyes saw straight through In. She followed them all the way back to a Nostrade's storage facility, which, like most Nostrade properties, was situated in an industrial park on the western edge of Yorknew City. Was this blonde one, perhaps...the mysterious Kurta survivor turned pro Hunter? She certainly hoped so, because while he occupied the unlikely slot of Plan D, his fighting style seemed flexible enough to take on most of the Ryodan, with the notable exceptions of Bolonev, Machi, and Feitan. The total letdown of witnessing the Injiyuu beaten to pulp by the loud, easily-countered Nen abilities of Uvogin might as well have an upside, and if the Kurta could at least take out one Spider tonight, and give her a plausible excuse to intervene in this job directly, then...Her plans might get a little more complex, but one way or another, the destruction of the Spider was beginning at last. Realizing that the other six Injiyuu would be destroyed shortly, that single-digit addition would reveal Uvogin's captors to be rank-and-file mafia men, and that Shalnark would be able to find the facility with ease thanks to the information she'd uploaded to the pro Hunter website, Nijiiro decided to err on the side of caution. She quickly sent Hisoka an encoded text that simply read 'You're late for the meeting.' He'd understand. Hopefully the Nostrade bodyguards would manage to kill Uvo before Shalnark infiltrated their communications network and  the storage facility, but knowing the Mafia, they'd try to torture him first. And knowing Uvogin, Nijiiro could sense they'd reach a dead end with that approach. She could only hope the Nostrade's personnel were smart enough to reach the correct conclusion before the Spiders descended on them in force, and wiped out yet another asset before it even became an asset.   'Ah, now what to do with this grandiloquent mess of a ship...' she thought, gazing around at the chaotic scene she'd created in the airship. She set the autopilot on a trajectory passing through the airspace directly above Beitacle Hotel and popped the flight recorder out of its hardened steel housing, using the Benz knife infused with a little of her own Nen. These knives always had a manner of ending up in the hands of the most talented killers, which she took as a compliment, given the circumstances.  She lit a fragrant brown cigarette, and waited for the ship to get closer to the hotel, musing silently. If the Nostrade bodyguard lot made it out in time, or better yet, defeated Uvo's rescue crew, they'd undoubtedly re-group at the hotel. They were bodyguards, after all. And thanks to her timed uploads to the Hunter site, the body of she whom they were guarding would inevitably come under assault by none other than Chrollo Lucilfer. 'Chrollo never could resist a rare Nen ability. And this one's a gem to outshine them all.' She'd never acknowledge it, even to herself, but she was a tad jealous of the Nostrade girl's ability. Precognition would have come in handy on that day, in the secondhand bookstore in Meteor City... She avoided the thought for what could well have been the ten millionth time. Nostalgia could wait. Her machinations could not. And  Chrollo wouldn't be keeping that ability, even if he managed to steal it, she'd make sure of that. It was an ability that had proven difficult to work around, even as she ascended the social ranks of Mafia beadledom. New predictions could be done over and over again – thus, even as she adapted her schemes, plans that were months, sometimes years in the making - her enemies could gain new information on a moment-to-moment basis. Now that Neon Nostrade had served her purpose in bringing the Kurta to Yorknew City, her ability was nothing more than a threat. Unfortunately for Miss Neon, and the ones in charge of her safety, that was an ability she couldn't allow to persist. Of course, she'd considered making the girl an asset, but then again, escaping from Chrollo didn't have room for cumbersome, fragile excess baggage, and she couldn't see herself putting in the time or work required to turn a person like Neon into anything else. She ground out her cigarette in the right eye of the helmsman's corpse and stood.  'It's high time for a catastrophic engine fire, isn't it?' Nijiiro set every corner of the place ablaze, ensuring the cabin and its gruesome contents would escape forensic analysis - for a few days at least - as the whole gilded disaster burned to a crisp and then sank into Yorknew Bay. \n\tNijiiro dropped quietly onto the roof of the luxurious Beitacle Hotel, her perfectly trained body thinking nothing of the fifty-meter fall. She stood for a few minutes to watch Marscapone's airship explode into a massive fireball as sirens wailed past the hotel en route to the Bay. The airship's current velocity meant it would crash into the water, missing most of the shipping lanes but still halting traffic out of the Bay until emergency response crews could drag the wreckage out of the way, which could take days, especially once they learned Marscapone, Sr., was introuvable. The Spiders were down one escape route. The Mafia's corrupt police force would only be spread that much thinner as officials devoted all of their time to finding out who had destroyed the great Don Marscapone's personal zeppelin. Two proverbial birds with one airship, not too shabby. The dress was still in good shape, too, but to be cocktail-ready she'd have to wash some pilot blood off her hands. 'It's a dirty job, but some one's gotta do it' she thought, and grinned to no one in particular. She activated Fortune, and her eyes glowed a deep bottle-glass green. She tapped four random digits into the digitally coded lock of the steel roof access door, and of course it opened on the first try. What luck, tee-hee. Nijiiro didn't mind paying for it in her own blood, but Fortune had a nasty habit of drawing more than it should, moreso at moments when she could least afford it. A power as fickle and cruel as random chance itself. At the moment, however, she was in no rush, nor was she incapable of opening the door with brute force, and so Fortune would likely draw a reasonable hundred-milliliter-or-so payment directly from her veins. She glided down the emergency stairs rapidly in spite of her rhinestone-encrusted stiletto heels, then took an elevator to the 38th  floor jazz lounge and washed up thoroughly before ordering a whiskey sour. The 38th floor had a lovely wide balcony facing the bustling main thoroughfare to downtown, but more importantly, it held a clear view of the main entrance to the hotel lobby. Nijiiro wanted nothing more than to sip her drink, listen to a surprisingly good version of “Hard Hearted Hannah,” and stake out the front entrance until the Nostrade bodyguards – or what was left of them - made their return. But an outfit like hers, on a figure like hers, in a place like this, never went unnoticed for long. As if pulled by an invisible string, a confident, middle-aged Mafioso in custom Italian everything made his appearance, staggering a little under the weight of too much Dom Perignon. Nijiiro glanced him over; paunchy-but-not-too-fat, medium complexion tinted heavily with spray tan, outstanding mustache, authentic but oversized bejeweled gold rosary nestled in the salt-and-pepper chest hair sticking out of his conspicuously half-buttoned silk shirt. Enough cologne to overwhelm her on a breezy 38th floor balcony. Charming. \n\t“Buona sera, mia bella signora,” he said, slurring his words a little. She had a good idea of who he was. And that she wouldn't be getting rid of him easily. For this was an upper Boss of the Monterrey Clan named Francisco the Teeth, famous for collecting and gold-plating the teeth of those he had curb-stomped and executed, and then wearing said teeth as fashion statements. Nijiiro rolled her eyes behind her veil. Mafia men never did anything new.\n\t“Buona sera, signor Francisco. I hear your foray into the Lubo region was a resounding success,” Nijiiro said politely. Francisco leered at her in a drunken stupor and, apparently finding an invitation in her words, slid onto the opposing stool at the narrow two-seated table. Perhaps her blood was still up from massacring Marscapone and his men, but she was already itching to drop another Mafia big-shot from a tall place tonight.\n\t“Mi sorprendi, bella. What does this lovely young girl like yourself, know of the Francisco's business, mmm? Tell Francisco. Sei solo stasera?” he slurred on, obviously unaware of who she was. So much the better. Despite being the global mafia's most powerful information broker, Nijiiro had a habit of cleaning up behind herself so well that no one recognized her work, much less her face. The phantom of the Phantom Troupe. The hidden Spider in a never-ending web of influence, whose work rarely even brought her outside Meteor City. It was said that her business card might as well be a blank slip of paper. If a blank slip of paper could make grown men piss themselves, that is. \n\t“Non più, it would seem,” she sighed. Could she kill all of the mafioso that annoyed her? Probably. Would there be anything left to preside over afterwards? Probably not. Not that she fancied herself a ruler. Manipulating the might of the global mafia might seem like an excellent end goal, for anyone else, but in reality, Nijiiro's goals lay well beyond the boundaries of anything the mafia could touch. Literally.\n\t“You look troubled, bella. Tell Francisco what troubles, eh? Anything you want, I can make happen.”\n\tNijiiro looked out at the street, then over to the bar, where Frankie's associates sat laughing and making rude hand gestures between glances at her table. Why not tell him? He could always accidentally fall off the balcony afterward.\n\t“You really want to know?” Nijiiro said softly, taking a sip of whiskey. 'Last chance, Francisco.' she added silently in her head. Francisco chuckled.\n\t“Sí, sí, of course.” He eyed her breasts as he answered, signing his own death warrant. \n\t“I'm having trouble...with a man.”\n\t“What this man has done to you, eh? Francisco can have him dealt with tonight. Tell me his name, poof! Scompare completamente! Then you spend the night with me instead, bella.”\n\t“He has done all kinds of things to me, Francisco. Both great and terrible. Mostly the latter. But tell me something, have you read the Christian bible?” \n\t“Sí,” he replied, lying through his teeth. Nijiiro looked at the gaudy cross trapped in his chest hairs and back to the hotel entrance below.\n\t“And what do you think of the Christian God?” \n\t“Dio è la nostra salvezza, is he not?” Francisco returned quizzically, clearly not prepared for prodigious philosophical discourse.\n\t“Salvation...hmm...I think not. In fact, I believe, that if you read the Christian bible, really read it, you'll find that God is no more than the greatest enemy of all mankind.”\n\t“And what does that make Satan, eh?” said Francisco, chuckling.\n\t“Angry, I suppose. God betrayed them both, you see. For the same reason. For yearning...to be free. For seeking the truth in knowledge. For the crime of imagining that a self-appointed God could have an equal. I sought an equal in Chrollo, and he cast me down, betrayed me, just as God cast Lucifer, his favorite, his best, into eternal hell. I know what it is to be trapped in a hell of your own making, unloved by the one you worship, blamed by him whom you love most, and yet used for your brilliance, the brilliance what should make you his equal...He fashioned my love, my weakness for him into his own authority, casting me as a villain guilty of his own misdeeds. He took my comrades in arms, turned them into brainwashed thralls that would commit atrocities at a twitch of his fingers. I aided him in creating my family, the Gennei Ryodan, because I believed, truly believed, that together we could...upend the rules of society, the rules of the world, that said Meteor City and everyone in it were powerless trash...that if we just had enough power, we could have freedom from the irrational laws of an unjust, unequal world. I believed, as truly and piously as anyone can believe, that I could compel my comrades to help me conquer the unknown world in pursuit of that wonderful, impossible truth, a truth that lives in our very veins. Instead he declared himself my superior, destroyed the freedom I sought to give us all. I love him, and yet...I can't forgive him. Not until I show Chrollo...just how much that freedom means to me. Even if it means destroying everything I've wrought with my own two hands.” Nijiiro finished her drink and looked over at the drunken Francisco, who by then had some suspicion that she was not a random hotel bar pickup, and was sweating bullets with a very disturbed look on his orange face, his eyes tracing the rising twin dragons that wound their way up the entirety of Nijiiro's left arm. A lounge cover of “Sympathy for the Devil” made a timely entrance into the background. Francisco the Teeth moved, intending to leave. “Sit down, Francisco,” Nijiiro said, in a voice colder than pack ice. Francisco sat. “Now hand me your cell phone,”she said, holding her hand out. He quickly complied. The hooligans watching them from across the bar made yowling noises that would have embarrassed an alleycat, assuming Frankie had succeeded in scoring a phone number.\n\t“Look, lady, I didn't know -”\n\t“Nijiiro.”\n\t“Eh?”\n\t“My name is Nijiiro. Nijiiro Kosai.”\n\t“Ni-Nijiiro, hey, look, I think, we get off on a wrong foot here, I didn't mean to upset. You uh, have struggles, Francisco understands. We can talk about, I will tell no one. Francisco have many struggles, too. We tell each other, we make some trust, and...”\n\t“You see, Francisco? You can be civil, after all,” Nijiiro said, calmly rolling the ice ball around her empty glass.\n\t“Sí, sí, Francisco is always trying best to be civil for beautiful ladies.”\n\t“Oh? That was your best attempt?” Nijiiro lit a cigarette. Below, she watched four of the Nostrade bodyguards rush into the hotel lobby, all looking various shades of terrified. Blondie was not among them. 'So he was the Kurta, after all.' Nijiiro mused, smiling ever so slightly. The drunken Francisco misinterpreted the smile as a sign that his nervous backpedaling had worked. He reached under his sport-coat slowly in a furtive bid for his gun.\n\t “Per favore, bel- Miss Nijiiro, tell Francisco how to make you satisfied. I do anything you ask, just say it,” he said, slapping a shit-eating grin onto his face in a vain attempt to mask his nervousness. Nijiiro tired of him. Deciding the price was worth it, she activated Dominance, and her eyes lit a feral orange. She looked him square in the eye, an important move concealed beneath her veil.\n\t“Very well, Francisco. I'll tell you. As soon as I stand up, you will count to ten. And when you're done counting to ten, you will climb over the railing here, and jump off. And when you jump, I'll have finally rid the world of your vapid, puerile blathering, you meat-headed shit-pile.” She stood, watching his face contort in terror as he began to count aloud, entirely against his will. Perhaps it didn't seem very sporting of her to use Nen, but then again, she did leave him a full ten seconds to try and shoot her with his pistol before he died, and he didn't. Nijiiro let him count to five before she sauntered away toward the bar, letting the gasps and screams of the lounge patrons confirm what she already knew. Dominance left no room for disobedience. Of course, it came with its own terrible price, and after using not only Dominance, but Passion and Fortune in the same day, Nijiiro was beginning to feel the strain all the way to her bones. Between the cuts and bruises caused by Passion, the blood loss of Fortune and the feverish aches of Dominance, she would be in for a rough night unless she activated Serenity, and soon. Nijiiro stepped into the elevator just as her cell began to vibrate. It was Hisoka. She accepted the call, silently holding the phone to her ear.\n\t“It's me.”\n\t“What's the verdict?” Nijiiro asked, keeping her voice low. She decided to head for the clothing boutique on the fourth floor, pressing the appropriate button as the doors closed. Secret Spider or not, this outfit was far too flashy for a stakeout in mafia territory.\n\t“Inconclusive.”\n\t“What is that supposed to mean?” Nijiiro frowned.\n\t“He's demanded another meeting tomorrow night.”\n\t“We don't have time to play the dating game, Hisoka.”\n\t“There's more. Uvogin is on the hunt for your Kurta survivor. Apparently, he's out for blood.”\n\tNijiiro pressed her palm to her forehead and drew a deep breath. They hadn't even managed to kill Uvogin yet, the incompetent little cunts. She stepped out of the elevator, struggling to hold her temper. Letting Hisoka know just how nervous she was could cause him to lose faith in her plan, and loyal he was not.  \n\t“And the others?” she asked, knowing the answer but still compelled to confirm her suspicions.\n\t“Safe and sound. The treasure has been located, as well.”\n\t“...Lovely. Are the Scarlet Eyes among the treasures?”\n\t“I don't believe so.”\n\t“Is Chrollo still at the base?”\n\t“Indeed he is.” \n\t“Text me when he leaves. I have to go now.”\n\t“Be careful out there, Niji-chan.”\n\t“No promises.” She ended the call and sighed.\n\tNijiiro knew the strength of the Spiders better than anyone, but only now did it dawn on her just how hard it would be to kill them all...without getting her hands dirty, that is. To be fair, she despised the idea of having to kill them, directly or indirectly. Chrollo was her only real target, and she wasn't even resolved to kill him. The challenge she faced, however, was fundamentally the same as the one facing Hisoka: Chrollo held absolute sway over the other Ryodan, and they would enforce his will, even to the point of opposing Nijiiro herself. That obedience was one thing she could never really understand. What was the point of being a class-A outlaw if you were going to simply turn around and bow to another face of authority? Of course, all of the others simply took his orders. Only she had been broken like a wild mare, reined in and kept as his personal property. She had seen his best, his worst, his love, and his wrath, and now only she dared to defy him. The fragile peace that held them together had long since shattered, and now the only things compelling Nijiiro to remain Chrollo's captive varlet was her own psychological weakness, and his power base; that is, the Spiders. \n\tNijiiro slid the Benz knife through the deadbolt on the boutique door as if cutting through butter. She also ran the knife along the top of the door, slicing through the wires that ran to the silent alarm system. As soon as she opened the door, she sent the knife flying into the lens of the motion-activated closed-circuit camera in the corner. Within fractions of a second, she had defeated top-notch twentieth century security using nothing but an eighteenth century knife. Thievery was always fun, even when done out of necessity. She looked around at the clothes, finding them to be mostly of the frilly, brightly colored haute-couture variety, but near the back she found some more reasonable items, including a midriff-baring black sports top, a black zip-up hoodie with sort of urban design on the back, dark gray cargo pants and a pair of gray-and-white lace-up running sneakers. These she threw on quickly before pulling her hair out of its intricate coif and tousling it around her shoulders. In this ensemble, she could blend in pretty much anywhere in the city. The dress and heels were dumped unceremoniously in the trash can on her way out.  She needed to rest before she collapsed under the backlash of her Nen abilities in enemy territory. Good thing she was in a very nice hotel. She strode down the hall and yanked on the fire alarm, sliding into the shadows as the alarm wailed its fallacious warning to the sleeping hotel patrons. \n\tConcerned guests piled out into the hall, quickly revealing the unoccupied rooms by process of elimination, or rather, the only unoccupied room on the floor, since the YorkNew Dream Auction had half the city's hotels at maximum capacity. It seemed the Beitacle was no exception. Once the hall was emptied of those with the intention of complaining to the hotel staff in persona, Nijiiro slipped into the last available room to wash the day away and activate Serenity. The benefits of Serenity were remarkable, but the drawbacks included an unavoidable sort of drunkenness and a twenty-four-hour recharge time, that left her completely vulnerable to fatal wounds sustained before the twenty-four hours were up. Of course, only Chrollo was aware of that particular weakness. Nijiiro barricaded the door and ran a warm bath as she threw the contents of the mini bar down the sink; even she was leery of the bad decisions that could be made after using Serenity in these circumstances. She set her phone to ring an alarm after six hours, hopefully waking before hotel staff could begin doing rounds and discover her unwelcome occupancy, and left the phone itself to recharge on the nightstand. She slipped into a deep, foamy bathtub and activated Serenity, breathing a long sigh of relief as her powerful healing Nen stripped away the day's fatigue and stress, instantly healed her wounds, and flooded her veins with what she could only compare to designer morphine tablets from the NGL goons on the portside of YorkNew. 'Please...don't drown in a random bathtub in YorkNew, after all the work you've done this year, Nijiiro' she asked of herself politely, half serious but then laughing out loud at the thought of it. If a foolish and pedestrian death were even possible for her, it was all evidence to the contrary. But still she smiled.",
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      "body": "#### _September 1st, Yorknew City 5:22AM_\nNijiiro leaned against the railing on the balcony of her luxury penthouse apartment, sipping a hot espresso and waiting for the sun to rise. Of course, her eyes could see the whole thing, and so for her, first light was over an hour ago, but it was still a treat to watch the fiery pinks and oranges light up the sky from an elevation of nearly 800 meters. She heard Hisoka slip out behind her, on his way to meet with the Gennei Ryodan at last. She glanced at her watch. Only about eighteen hours late. Oh, well. It's not like he'd ever been on time, anyway. She downed her espresso and wandered inside in pursuit of another, and she could already feel the warm caffeinated liquid firming up bits of the chemical soup of her brain, and cogs begin to tick the way she wanted them to. Her current plan had so many moving parts, it could be considered ambitious, even for her.\n\t'Nothing is too ambitious for the girl who knocked over the Peltier mansion. Not for the girl who stole the Magna Virtus diamond from under the noses of the world's highest paid museum security using nothing but wires and paint. I can manage. I must manage.' she thought, scolding herself a little. She'd replaced the Virtus with exactly seventy grams of horse manure, for crying out loud.\n\tNijiiro slid into her desk and used her bare foot to open the palm-print-scanning safe in the bottom, seamlessly hidden in the floor beneath the office chair. Paranoid security befitting the world's greatest thief. Inside lay the usual store of cash, grenades, passports, and diamonds, but Nijiiro fished around for a moment and pulled out something far more valuable: Hisoka's Hunter License. With this, controlling the information on the Hunter Website would be an absolute cinch; not to mention, she'd gained unprecedented insight into the Hunter Association itself, something which she hadn't anticipated but had, of course, been a welcome surprise. She closed the safe and scanned her left palm to reaffirm her legitimate access to the cache, lest the bombs rigged to it blow the floor beneath her and both of the exits to a height well exceeding 800 meters. Paranoid and dangerous. \n“Such to-do...and so much to do...” she muttered under her breath, starting up her laptop with a 24-character passphrase and a retinal scan, followed by a time-sensitive insertion of a specialized pin from the safe. Hisoka had already texted her the coordinates of the hideout and confirmation of the official job announcement from Chrollo: the target was to be the mafia auction's entire treasure hoard.'The eagle has landed' she thought, the faintest of smiles on her lips. She logged in to her custom-built location-scrambling software and began uploading the information she'd stolen from Nostrade's man a month prior, careful to program each specific piece to become viewable at a set time throughout the next three days. As she looked up from this somewhat stressful and uncertain task, Nijiiro realized she had missed the true dawn in the sky, and for some reason, this made her rise from her to seat and walk a bit quicker than normal out to the balcony to look at the brand new sun. 'This day is the newest day in the history of this world. Experiencing new things...is nice, after all....'\n\tKurapika walked out onto the balcony of the richly-appointed Beitacle Hotel and glared at the morning of September first. 'They're coming...the Spiders... are definitely coming' he thought.",
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      "body": "##### _YorkNew City, August 31st, 10:27pm_ \n\t\n\tNijiiro took another long swig of wine from her second bottle, ignoring the glass sitting on the coffee table amid gourmet chocolate truffles and traces of cocaine.  'Maybe I should go out, after all, risks be damned...'  she thought, frowning. The cold, modern aesthetic of her surroundings felt kind of lonely, in spite of the huge open fireplace that dominated one side of the living room. Going out was out of the question, of course, since being spotted meant sacrificing months of careful planning and burning nearly every resource she had with nothing to show for it. No, she had to stick to the plan, and stay hidden, or else... She flipped through the channels on the massive flat-screen television until she landed on some kind of steamy late-night romance flick, and after glancing around at the empty penthouse apartment, decided to leave it on for a bit. There were twenty possible plans to utilize for her escape, and no way to be certain of their outcome until after the attack on the underground auction had been carried out. But that wouldn't happen until tomorrow night...'Heh. The stress must be getting to me, now that I'm so close to going through with it. It's been a while since I paid attention to myself, so...” Blushing at no one, she untied the sash on her soft black kimono-print silk robe, laid back into the luxurious white couch cushions and popped another truffle into her mouth. She finished the second bottle of wine while a less-than-compelling plot played out between a woman in a swimsuit and a rather incompetent bartender, wishing she had stolen a cable package with all the naughtier channels on it. When the inevitable soft-core pornography scene came onscreen, however, she found her hands sliding down toward the hem of her silk teddy, her nether regions apparently indiscriminate towards shoddy studio lighting and halfhearted nudity. Just as the lead actress' shapely breasts began to bounce their way into the middle of the screen, a nasty, yet all too familiar Nen presence suddenly appeared in the front entrance of the penthouse, and Nijiiro let out a yelp in spite of herself and wheeled around to face it despite knowing exactly who it was.\n\t“Hisoka! What in the unholy fuck are you doing here?!” Nijiiro yelled, her face a bright red. Hisoka snickered loudly over the insincere moaning in the background.\n\t“My, my, Niji-chan,” he said in mock disappointment, savoring this rare instance of embarrassment, “I thought I would come to keep you company for a while on this lonely evening. But it looks like you found your own entertainment, huh?”\n\t“Tch.” Nijiiro looked pointedly away and turned off the television. “You were supposed to be with the rest of the Ryodan hours ago. You're beyond fashionably late, even by your standards.” Hisoka flopped gracefully onto the seat next to her, nonchalantly crossing his long legs and unwrapping a truffle. He silently wondered what the chocolates might be laced with, before eating it anyway.\n\t“Oh? Does that mean you don't want to hear my report? It could be quite valuable, you know...” he said, positively purring with the knowledge that Nijiiro couldn't resist an offer of reliable information, especially before the execution of one of her grand schemes.\n\t“That depends on what you have to say, of course,” she said, still miffed by his untimely intrusion. \n\t“The clairvoyant girl from the Nostrade family is here, in person. She and a large number of bodyguards are staying in the Beitacle Hotel uptown, just as you anticipated.”\n\t“Is he among them?”\n\t“He hasn't contacted me yet. But it seems likely.”\n\t“And you haven't contacted him, either?” Nijiiro said, eyeing Hisoka suspiciously. He laughed.\n\t“So thorough. But no, I have been behaving myself thus far. Everything is unfolding as you wished it. Even the little confrontation you staged, just to create an opening in the Nostrade family's upper circle of bodyguards, came off without a single hitch.”\n\t“I see...” Nijiiro glanced over at Hisoka as he began to shuffle cards aimlessly. She recognized the nervous habit for what it was, and then found herself pondering the way his long, slender hands expertly moved the cards, so smoothly his fingers seemed to merely contain the cards as they moved of their own accord. He caught her staring, and his mischievous smile widened into a mischievous grin.\n\t“Distracted, are we?” Hisoka smirked and leaned in closer to Nijiiro until she could feel his breath against her neck. Her pulse jumped a little. God, he was handsome. 'What is wrong with me? He's always like this, isn't he?' she thought to herself. She intended to rebuff him properly, but what she said was, per usual, the truth:\n\t“I...suppose so. Given the circumstances, I...” she frowned and looked at the fireplace. Hisoka moved a hand toward her at lightening speed, and before Nijiiro could dodge it, he had one powerful hand gripping the back of her neck, his face inches from her own. Nijiiro's breath caught in her chest, and the butterflies in her stomach began to favor her groin.\n\t“You wouldn't be getting cold feet about this whole thing now, would you?” Hisoka said quietly, his smile remaining but a cold, menacing light had crept into his eyes. Nijiiro blinked. 'Cold feet? Me?' She laughed softly. 'So that's what he came here for. To warn me against sabotaging my own damned plan, all because I finally promised him his precious fight with Chrollo, and he's worried he won't get it if I go soft. Typical Hisoka.'\n\t“Is that what you think? That somehow, after all the time spent, all the work I've done to create this grand scheme of mine, I'm going to let it all go to waste? Logic was never your strong suit, but let's be reasonable here.” Nijiiro's tone lowered to match Hisoka's, and her multicolored irises glittered in the firelight. His hand slid from her neck to play along her jawline, his thumb playing across the curve of her bottom lip. He dropped his hand.\n\t“It has nothing to do with what I think. It's a matter of what you'll do, if things go sideways again,” Hisoka said, and stared straight into her eyes, his expression uncharacteristically serious. He had a point there, as his de facto role as a liaison between the mysterious Kurta survivor and herself did carry a considerable risk. A risk which probably thrilled Hisoka beyond belief, but a risk nevertheless.  \n\t“Hah. Are you that scared of a few angry spiders, Hisoka? Because it sounds to me like the one getting cold feet here...is you.” Nijiiro, knowing how he'd react, immediately wished she could take back those words and wondered at the wisdom in provoking him right now. But the pounding in her chest wouldn't stop, and the tingling between her legs just wanted the tension to keep on rising. The corners of Hisoka's mouth twitched. As expected, she'd gone too far. But tonight, too far wasn't far enough. Hisoka let out a low, menacing laugh. \n\t“Careful, Niji-chan. Your game will fall apart quickly if no one wants to play with y-” Hisoka stopped abruptly as he realized Nijiiro had shed her kimono and was sliding into his lap, straddling him between her knees. If Hisoka had thought to threaten her, he would have to think again. And if he wanted to see her resolve, she'd show him. \n\t“It's fine if you don't want to play with me, Hisoka. But no matter what you do, our little game never ends. I made sure of that. In fact,” she said softly, cupping his face in her hands and looking into his eyes, “no matter what I stand to gain or lose, or how I play, it's always you that loses first, isn't it?” Nijiiro was treading into dangerous territory, but realized she didn't want to back down. “So whether things are sideways, backwards, upside down, or inside out, don't bother worrying about what I'll be doing from now on. Because from now on, I promise you, I'm going to be doing one thing, and only one thing.”\n\t“Which is?”\n\t“Whatever the fuck I want.” Unable to stop herself, Nijiiro brought his lips against hers, kissing him as he were a cool drink of water and she a man dying of thirst. Hisoka gave every bit as good as he got, sliding his left hand up the length of her thigh to grab a firm handful of her ass and using his right to pull her legs farther apart, her minimally clothed groin grinding against his own. 'Ah, isn't that what you always do, Niji-chan?' Hisoka thought, as their tongues slid against one another. But this was a new development. And very, very exciting. \n\tFeeling his excitement building against her nethers brought forth a low noise deep in Nijiiro's throat, forcing her to come up for air. Hisoka brought his right hand up to hold her face, and looking into her eyes, found them bottomless pools of desire. He drew a deep breath, as he began to realize the meaning of her words and the motivation behind them. 'She really isn't...Chrollo's servant anymore. She's become something...dangerous...' Nijiiro took hold of Hisoka's right hand, turning it and sliding her tongue down the length of his index finger. Hisoka shuddered. 'That's too much, Niji-chan. I really...won't be able to stop myself...' He decided to test the waters.\n\t“You know Chrollo will be very upset if I touch you, Saisho,” he cooed, in mock concern, “I'm told it's very much against the rules.”\n\tBut whatever effect Hisoka had been expecting this to have on Nijiiro, what he saw was something else entirely. Rather than cooling her desire, hearing Chrollo's name aloud only seemed to intensify her arousal, and licking her lips, she gave a smile two shades beyond wicked and whispered, “So hurry up and break the rules, Hisoka.” Leaning in close to his ear, she added, “Or have you lost your nerve for that sort of thing?” Deep in the recesses of Hisoka's mind, something shattered. Faster than a shot out of a cannon, he flung her down onto the couch, dragging her back toward him so that her black silk teddy rode up over her navel, her thigh-grazing mass of soft silver hair fanning out behind her like a halo. Seizing her right leg, he ran his tongue up the length of the long serpent tattoo that wound all the way up to her hip, nipped at the apple it held in its fangs with his own teeth. 'A serpent that comes bearing the 'forbidden fruit' of knowledge...it suits you well.' he thought. And he was dying for a taste.\n\tHisoka dropped to the floor, kneeling between Nijiiro's thighs, and ran his long tongue over her dampened panties, stroking and exploring the hidden contours of her sex through the scant silky fabric. Nijiiro gave a low moan, the muscles in her toned abdomen tightening as her hips rose up towards him in obvious pleasure. Propped up on her elbows, she watched him tease her until her panties were sopping wet with a combination of Hisoka's mouth and her own arousal. \n\t“H-Hisoka...ah, god, yes, ahh...mmmnn, hah, Hisoka, p-please..” Nijiiro panted. Hisoka twisted the scrap of lacy black fabric away as if it were a passing thought and ran his tongue slowly down the center of her soft little sex, his eyes rolling back and his eyelids fluttering in deep satisfaction. \n\t“You're so delicious, Niji,” he said, his lips intentionally grazing her exposed clitoris, “you really must be a 'forbidden fruit.' Tell me, is a 'forbidden fruit' forbidden because it's delicious, or is it more  delicious because it's forbidden?” His eyes rolled up to her face, and he was pleased to find her blushing furiously.\n\t“Hisoka...no, ah, don't, d-don't...” Nijiiro gasped, her body convulsing from the erratic vibration of his mouth.\n\t“'Don't?' Don't what?” he said coyly, dragging his tongue backward across her swollen clitoris.\n\t“D-Don't...talk...with your mouth full,” she replied, using her left foot to force his mouth down fully onto her wet, excited sex. 'Uppity brat' he thought, but began licking her in earnest, as her moans grew longer and her hips pressed more fervently upwards. Hisoka savored the taste of her as he slid two long fingers into her, exploring her soft opening. Nijiiro cried out, her body convulsing around his slick fingers. He flicked them in and out of her in a delicate fashion, timing his motion with the thrusting of her hips, the panting of her mouth. 'Oh..fuck...so good...how is he...this skilled...at...' she thought, her eyes rolling back and her back arching as the first wave of orgasm washed over her. Hisoka, sensing her ecstasy was at hand, clamped his mouth around her sex and simply sucked as she howled her pleasure to the ceiling, his cock twitching eagerly at the sound. He unfastened his pants, drew out his cock, already rather excited, and began slowly teasing her wet opening with the tip of it. He grinned. Nijiiro gazed down her body to where his hardening parts were massaging her soft ones so agonizingly well, and swallowed dryly. He was huge. And his intimidating girth continue to swell as he teased her wet slit, keeping himself at the very slender edge of her in spite of her hips thrusting forward to receive him. She let out a frustrated moan. “Hisoka... hurry... I....”\n\t“Unfortunately, Nijiiro, you're absolutely right. I'm far too late in meeting up with the Ryodan,” Hisoka said, his voice low and cunning. “I'll have to hurry there now, before some one comes looking for me, right?” He stood. Nijiiro blinked and sat up, eyes still hazy with orgasm and wine. 'Damned sadist. He really wants me to beg for it.' she thought. She looked at his cock throbbing in his hand. 'I'm still being underestimated, then.' She smiled. 'Now that just won't do.'\n\t“If some one comes looking for you? Who might do that?” Nijiiro said innocently. It was a slow pitch down the middle, and Hisoka always swung without thinking, which is exactly what he did now.\n\t“Chrollo, perhaps?” He said, and Nijiiro grinned, knowing she had the home run. Taking his cock into her own hand, she realized her fingers didn't meet her thumb by a good bit, even though he wasn't fully aroused.  She began to stroke him gently.\n\t“If the great and terrifying Chrollo Lucilfer himself wants to see you that badly, I don't think we should keep him waiting,” she said coyly, stroking him with both hands, “in fact....” Nijiiro rolled away and rose gracefully to her feet, heart pounding at the thought of what she would do next. Strutting slowly toward the balcony of her glittering glass-and-steel 800-meter-tall downtown apartment, she casually slid the black silk teddy down her body to be cast off on the floor. The door to the balcony slid open with a soft, automated whoosh. “...why don't we tell the whole city where you are?” Hisoka could barely believe his eyes, but peeled off his shirt without actually thinking about it, and followed her out to the railing, where she feigned to be searching the city for someone under the humid, cloudy skies. 'You've really lost your mind this time, Nijiiro' he thought. He seized her from behind, a little too roughly, and growled in her ear, “Imagine he were to hear of this-” he pressed his hard cock against the small of her back “-some time before your plan comes to fruition. Would he be more inclined to punish me first, or you?” The thrill of the situation, spoken aloud, began to unravel what little self-control Hisoka had maintained until then. Lightning flashed overhead, illuminating Nijiiro's wicked grin as she turned to face him. 'She's always playing me like a fucking violin...and now even at this.' Hisoka thought.  \n\t“Why don't we find out?” she said, kissing him softly on his lower lip. Her full, naked breasts pressed against his bare chest, nipples a little stiff from the chilly early-fall winds. Hisoka pressed her breasts together, sucking each of her nipples until they were teased and fully erect. His hands traced down to her naked hips, then around the swell of her ass. Wrapping his long fingers around the tops of her thighs, he lifted her up against the sturdy modern railing of steel and frosted glass, holding her where their hips were level and setting her on the handrail. Nijiiro moaned a little as he rubbed his hardened shaft against her soft slit, drenching it in the fluids of her excited body.  She clasped the handrail behind her tightly as he slowly began inching his wide cock into her wet opening. Hisoka licked his way down her neck as he slowly exhaled, and the gentle heat of his breath combined with the rough stretching of her opening made Nijiiro shiver. 'It's too...too big...But I...want this' She licked her lips as he shoved his way inside her. “H-Hiso-k-ka, ah, y-yes, hah, H-Hisoka, it's...big, I...” He let out a dark groan close to her ear that was positively feral.\n\t“Louder,” he growled, slowly pulling himself out, only to force himself back in harder. Nijiiro's heart was pounding in her ears as he leaned over her with his long frame and forced her head and chest to dangle backward over the railing. His rhythm began to increase, and she couldn't restrain her voice.\n\t“Hisoka! H-Hisoka-a! Hah, ah, fuck, yes, Hisoka! HISOKA!” she howled, her mind beginning to slip into a daze as the thick wet slap of his hips against her and the painful pleasure of his powerful cock  pumping in and out of her took over all other sensation. He shoved inside her wetness, her screams driving him forward and his balls tingling with hope of release. She screamed his name over and over, her back arching over the skyline as the savage pleasure reached fever pitch inside her . “Hisoka, I...I'm...c-come, coming...I'm coming!” she moaned, doing exactly that as warm fluid squirted from her tight slit, dripping to the balcony floor beneath them. He wrenched himself out of her quickly, letting her sink down to her knees, panting, with her slit still dripping with her cum. 'She's...too...good...It feels...too...good...I...could barely stop.' thought Hisoka, still breathing hard. He half-doubted the reality of it, wondering if perhaps all of this was occurring through Nijiiro's power of Passion, but when her eyes rolled up towards him he understood the truth of it. Somewhere in all the years he'd known her...this obnoxious know-it-all ten-year-old girl had metamorphosed into the voluptuous adult that was now pressing his buttons like a concert pianist. And he fucking loved it.\n\t“Still holding back, huh?” she said throatily, her voice a little rougher for having screamed too much a moment ago. Hisoka seized a handful of hair and brought his face down to hers.\n\t“What's that? Haven't you gotten what you wanted already, you horny little beast?” he sneered down at her, the roughness in his motions making Nijiiro's eyelids flutter a little. Raindrops began to fall lightly across the balcony.\n\t“Almost,” she said, thunder rolling ominously in the skyline behind them. She reached up with her right hand and squeezed Hisoka's cock, which twitched and released a single drop of clear fluid from the tip. “And it's not like I've ever been...too proud to beg.” And with this last, Nijiiro took his cock into her mouth, licking the tip and shaft thoroughly before sliding his hardened cock as deep into her mouth, as far as it would go. She'd only slid him in and out a few times when he took her by her hair and began dragging her back into the apartment. Nijiiro gasped at the pain of her body weight being jerked around by only her hair, feeling a little like a dog being dragged by an impatient master at the end of a leash ...and found she liked it very much. 'Ah, was I always this depraved...?' she thought, even as he pulled her across the threshold and flung her onto the fluffy white living room rug in front of the fireplace. In a second, he had removed the remainder of his clothing, knelt in front of her, and begun to spread her legs. Nijiiro swept the wayward tresses of her hair out the way and began to sit up a little.\n\t“Hiso-” she began, but ended abruptly as Hisoka seized her by the jaw with a powerful right hand and forced her back down, his left arm stopping them just shy of slamming into the floor. In one fluid motion, he reached down, cupping his right hand behind her right knee and forcing her leg up before sliding his cock inside her so roughly she winced and turned away, gasping for breath. 'He's so...so much deeper this time...He's...' Nijiiro thought, whimpering slightly as he shoved even deeper inside her. She felt him reach the end of her, his cock stretching her to her breaking point. She moaned and writhed, even as he pinned her down with the full weight of his long frame on top of her. \n\t“I won't be...holding back this time, Niji-chan,” Hisoka said, his voice a low growl. Nijiiro gazed up at him, and his expression was enough to make her heart race. He was looking down at her like a wild tiger eyeing a fresh kill, his golden eyes flashing menacingly in the firelight. \n\t“I don't...want you to...”\n\t“Does it hurt?” he said, staring directly into her eyes, his expression intense.\n\t“Y-Yes.”\n\t“Do you want more?” he breathed, his cock already seeming to know the answer. She licked her lips and stared back at him, eyes full of longing.\n\t“Yes.” \n\tHisoka began thrusting even before she finished forming that one syllable, forcing his massive cock to become fully sheathed inside her with every stroke of his hips. Nijiiro's hands found their way to his muscular shoulders, bracing herself even as he pounded her hips into the floor. She rode the pleasure and the pain as they rolled over her, crashing over one another like rogue waves even as she writhed under him, moaning his name helplessly. Hisoka buried his face in her neck and groaned, her moans drawing him ever closer to the shining edge of orgasm. 'I've fucked her this much...and yet she's still so... deliciously tight...' He thrust even faster as Nijiiro bit her lip, her nails digging deeper into his back. For both of them, the pain was divine. \n\t“Nijiiro...” Hisoka moaned, his eyelids fluttering as the viscous fluids came roaring out of his throbbing cock with such force that it brought her again, and she pitched and screamed under him, overwhelmed by pleasure. Nijiiro's grip, slick with sweat, slipped from Hisoka's broad shoulders to rake ten deep, red parallel scratches down  his back, tearing through the false Ryodan tattoo and skin alike as they came. Hisoka shivered. 'You've really...lost your mind this this time... Niji-chan...' he thought, looking down at her naked form. He pulled a few shreds of the spider design dangling from his back off and looked at them, his grin widening, 'How prophetic...to tear it apart with your own hands...it would seem you're committed to following through with this insanity, after all...how exciting...' She saw him grinning, and felt suddenly embarrassed. Covering her reddening face with an arm, she sighed, searching for something to say that wouldn't yield a derisive chuckle from the man with his cock still buried deep inside her.\n\t“Is that what I've been missing out on...all this time?” she panted, a sheepish grin pulling at the corners of her mouth. Hisoka withdrew himself slowly, watching the white fluids well up and out of her quivering opening. It was so beautiful he felt like sighing; what could be a more perfect prelude to destroying Chrollo than this?\n\t“And what is that supposed to mean?” he said, already sincerely considering a second round.\n\t“You know damn well what it means.” Nijiiro looked up him, hazy with good wine and better sex. Ah, wine. Too much wine. She was very drowsy, and the rug was surprisingly comfortable. Her eyelids were getting heavy. Hisoka sighed and kissed her navel, then proceeded to work his way to her throat, laying light kisses on her skin that brought forth goose-flesh and hardened her nipples. He gently pulled away the arm that covered her face and looked directly into her eyes.\n\t“I think I like this new game of yours,” he said softly, nipping at her earlobe, “and the way you play it. So much I'd happily play with you again.” Nijiiro smiled and closed her eyes. Rain pattered away at the windows, and she struggled to stay conscious.\n\t“I'm sure...I'll have time for another go...Once Chrollo is out of the way...”\n\tHisoka's smile widened by a few molars. Even half-conscious, she always knew just what to say.\n\t“Don't worry. Because I'm going to break him. And before I do, I'm going to inform him all about this,” he purred, running a hand up her thigh, “wonderful new perversion of yours.”\n\t“You're...too kind...” she said, drifting off to sleep with a dreamy smile on her lips. Hisoka watched her fall asleep, then rose to his feet and glanced around. The apartment was one of those huge, open-floor-plan-loft affairs with nothing separating the bedroom from anything else, and he found himself looking at the king-size bed, replete with pure white bedding, before glancing back down at the sleeping form of Nijiiro. He sighed. Gathering her gently in his arms, he carried her to the bed and laid her down. 'How many times have I done this now?' he wondered, as she stirred slightly and sighed. He thought back to the years they'd spent working together, fighting together, sometimes even living together, realizing with a start that it had definitely been about a decade since they'd met. Everyone else from that time had died or faded from his memory or both...but yet she alone remained here in front of him, impossible to conquer. He tucked her under the cool sheets, then, after a pause, slipped in next to her. 'Who knows when I'll get another chance like this?' he thought. The bed was far too comfortable, the fine linen sheets too cool and soft as he arranged his body around hers, throwing one long arm around her. She turned to face him in her sleep, instinctively seeking out his warmth and burying her face in his chest.  Perhaps the danger he'd felt from her earlier wasn't physical at all. 'What is it about you?...What is it that draws everyone you meet into the tangled webs you weave?...' He looked down at her, and a newer, darker realization slowly dawned on him. 'Those who becomes involved with you...gain something they desire more than anything else...' He thought of all the deals he'd witnessed her cutting, the trail of broken bodies and souls she'd left in her wake. '...and pay an exorbitant price.' And what was worse, Nijiiro seemed to know what her victims wanted even better than the victims themselves. What was it that he had wanted? '...A never-ending fight. That must be what this is. The moment I stop resisting you, I become your thrall. My very own Mephistopheles.' Hisoka sank into the overstuffed pillow, breathing the soft, sweet perfume of her hair. Her bare breasts pressed against him with each slow, deep breath. 'Of course...being the favorite toy of Satan herself has its perks, doesn't it?...Which of us gets to devour the other alive? I...can't wait to find out...'  \n\tIt seemed he'd only closed his eyes for a moment, but when he opened them again, Nijiiro was gone from the bed. Hisoka sat up quickly, hearing a cell phone ring, but realized it wasn't his. 'Damn it all...how long was I asleep?' he thought, regretting climbing into bed with the only person he could sleep beside soundly. Avoiding Nijiiro's presence was simple enough – when she had no use for him, he was always free to leave – but Hisoka had come to find that her Nen had a way of making him physically want to return to her side, and the closer he was, the closer he wanted to be, like a human magnet. It was heady stuff for some one who preferred to improvise the dynamics of his attraction and repulsion on a moment-to-moment basis. He glanced at the digital clock next to the bed. 'It's almost dawn...but the Spiders should still be waiting. It's not like I've ever been on time.' Nijiiro's voice drifted in from the kitchen.\n\t“Hello? Ah, yes, I remember. How could I forget?” She laughed softly, and Hisoka could already hear the honey-sweet seduction in her intonation. Nijiiro wandered over toward the bed, wrapped up in pure white towels and smiling her evil smile as she spoke to her mystery caller. “I've thought of you a lot, too, but ...I don't suppose you've been drinking all night, have you? Ha ha ha, yes, a little bit. No, it's alright, I'm so glad you called. I also...want to meet with you again. Oh? Well if the great Don Marscapone of the Ten Dons himself wants to entertain me, who am I to refuse? Of course. Why don't we skip that boring auction and take an aerial tour of the city? I hear it's going to be a beautiful night. We can gaze at the full moon and speak of a future much greater than mere prophecy permits...Ah, that won't do, darling, you're making me blush. Ha ha ha, of course, but you had better go to bed before your wife finds out, hadn't you? I'll see you at eleven o'clock, at the usual place. Until then.” She hung up and grinned, thinking 'Ah, what a time to be alive.' She looked at Hisoka. \n\t“There's espresso in the kitchen and clean towels in the bath. You really ought to get a move on, or our Machi will start to miss you,” she said, kissing his cheek. Hisoka frowned. Did her good moods now come with kisses and cute smiles? 'That just isn't fair,' he thought. His phone buzzed with an incoming text. Nijiiro looked at Hisoka quizzically as he read it.\n\t“It's him.”\n\t“The Kurta?”\n\t“Yeah.”\n\t“Excellent. Meet him some time after midnight, on the west end of the city. The specific place doesn't matter. Invite him into an alliance, but don't mention me. If he accepts, we'll meet at the designated place, and things will proceed smoothly from there.”\n\t“And if he doesn't?”\n\t“Then...things won't go as smoothly. But fear not, I have incidentals prepared.” \n\tHisoka nodded, and headed for the shower. The scratches Nijiiro left on his back stung a little in the hot water, absolving him of any lingering doubt that she'd actually made them. His cock twitched at the memory of their tryst, and he drew a deep breath, knowing exactly two things were for certain. One was that he would be alone with Chrollo for the first time in over two years, so long as he played along well and danced to Nijiiro's tune. The other was that, whoever Don Marscapone was, he'd be dead by midnight.\n![Hunter_Association_logo.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTgN7FiSYn7FKhkTwfH8cfnWPyADx3iGHAbauyRN6kapb/Hunter_Association_logo.png)",
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