Kuroro could hear nothing, see nothing, feel nothing. Wherever he was, something dark was hovering over him and the Phantom Troupe leader did not like it. Eyes twitching slightly behind his closed lids, he tried to move.

Nothing.

'Interesting' , he thought. 'I can't sense my nen at all.'

Someone or something most have put him in a state of zetsu. That someone or something likely being whatever was looming over him.

That didn't explain his current inability to move however, nor did it shed any light on the perpetuating darkness he found himself in.

Kuroro let his mind wander trying to reach for a semblance of clarity in the form of his other senses. For now, he was calm. Despite his predicament no one had hurt him yet, so he was either being observed, or whomever most have put him in this state was waiting till he was awake to extract whatever they needed from him.

He wondered about his troupe members current whereabouts. Kuroro could distinctly recall walking with Shalnark to the designated meeting spot hours before whatever happened, happened. They most have been ambushed somehow. Taken of guard no matter how unlikely that seemed, for Kuroro could briefly recall flashes of memories of a sudden ice-cold hand wrapping itself around his throat, of Shalnark's panicked screams, of fighting to get free to no avail, before everything descended into nothingness.

'Is Shalnark here? ' he wondered, trying again to extend his senses and tap into his nen. All he got for an answer was a pitiful simmering under his flesh and then nothing

So, it was still there then. Still accessible but buried so deep under his very essence that just the thought of forcing it back up and using it left him feeling wary.

Even so, the tiniest bit of weight fell of his chest. It was still there. For now, that was enough.

Sure, getting his nen back once again would not be impossible, but the last time that had happened, it had been quite the tedious affair, and Kuroro would rather avoid a repeat event if he could help it.

His mind suddenly jolted at the thought

The chain user.

Kuroro's brows furred the slightest degree across his forehead. 'Why hadn't he thought of the chain user? The reckless blond could have somehow gotten to him again, and maybe that's why his nen wasn't responding correctly? Maybe he had found another way to silence his nen. Not sealing it away this time, but making so that just the simple task of using it require a tremendous effort on his part?'

Could he attribute the darkness and immobility he was currently experiencing to the chain user as well? As far as he could tell, the blond had not been capable of this feat last time they met, but then again, the chain user had made progress far beyond the average man once before. Granted he did it by sacrificing everything like a foolish boy, but who's to say that he hadn't yet made another deal to immobilize his worst enemy and drag him into a world of endless darkness just to finish him off later?

Kuroro would have snorted in amusement if his body was able. If this turned out to be in fact the chain user, it would mark it the second time the effeminate boy had managed to get the drop on him. The infamous leader of the deadliest group of thieves the world had ever known bested by a teenager boy, twice? He was almost impressed.

And just as his musings came to an end. Noises began to filter through the murky paralyses, dragging him slowly back into the world of the living. It was a slow going, but with gentle pats on his shoulder by a hand he could faintly feel the pressure of, and a reassuring voice cozying him back into consciousness, he managed to finally crack open a single eye and gasp in a shuddering breath.

It was as if a wall of stones had been lifted of his chest and he could suddenly inhale all the air his lungs had been craving the whole time his body lay defenselessly on the ground. Or what he thought was the ground. It certainty felt cold enough.

Squinting at the blinding light piercing through his sensitive eyes, Kuroro frowned, trying to bring up his right arm to shield himself against its burning brightness. Of course his limb refused to comply with his demands, laying there useless and unresponsive, but before he could shut his eyes all together and avoid the light that way, a quick stumble of words was muttered uncomfortably close next to him, before a head of blond hair with the brightest of blue eyes leaned into his field of vision, effectively blocking the light .

"Better?" the chain user asked.

For he was undeniably the chain user. Even if the Phantom leader was tempted to not trust his eyes at the moment.

The bizarreness of the situation was slowly starting to confound the thieve, but rather than let that show on his face, he kept his expression serenely blank and answered with a twitch of his lips and a twinkling of his eyes. "Much better yes," he said, voice coming out more scratchy then he expected. "Thank you."