Hey guys! So so far it seems like you like the story, and I'm delighted! Thank you so much for reading! Ilya's proving to be extremely fun to explore, and I hope you feel the same. I should probably point out that this is going to be a story focused primarily on character development, but that doesn't mean that nothing interesting will happen. I personally prefer interesting characters over action-packed stories, but even I'll admit that a story with only character development can be boring. So stay tuned!

I now present chapter two!

Between bouts of torture at the hands of an eager Feitan, Chrollo would come sit with her in the dark torture room. Sometimes he would bring a book and just read, but every now and again he would speak to her. Each conversation was one sided, no questions slipping out of Chrollo and no responses rising out of her. Here eyes, though, were always on him. Feitan found it annoying that he could never draw a reaction from her, and yet all his boss had to do was walk in the room and he had her attention. He didn't like it, but every distaste he found towards her was overruled by the exciting challenge of a toy hard to break.

During one visit of Chrollo's, he laid his book in her lap and told her to read it. Of course, she couldn't. She did, however, glance down at the weight on her knees. When she looked up and met his eyes again, he was astonished to find the first flicker of a question in her gaze.

What is it?

"It's a book. It contains characters that represent words." Of course his explanation didn't reach her. Patient, he pointed to the book, then laid his finger on his bottom lip in demonstration. "Book." Then he returned his finger to the book.

Her eyes had followed his finger obediently, but it took her awhile to puzzle things together. Despite how little he talked to her, he was the only one who talked to her at all. She was beginning to understand that his sounds were directed at her, that he meant something. She was learning, but while she was learning, a familiarity nagged at the back of her mind. She knew what talking was. She didn't know why, though. No one had ever talked to her before….or had they? She had no recollection of it, but she felt that someone had. And as she thought this, her mind worked out what the man was trying to do. She looked down at the thing in her lap, repeating, "Book."

"So you can learn words." Chrollo retrieved his book from her and returned to his seat. He held it open in his lap, but kept his eyes on Ilya. She kept her eyes on him in return. Eventually, he pointed to his chest and said, "Chrollo."

It didn't immediately snap, her thoughts still sluggish, but she understood quicker this time. Without looking away from him, she repeated, "Chrollo." When he pointed to the book, she said book, and when he pointed to himself, she said Chrollo. Then she blinked, confused. She understood what he was doing, but what was she doing? Why was she inclined to repeat him when she understood him?

Chrollo watched her intently, now, something inside of him sparking to life. Gradually, the emptiness was wearing away behind her eyes. They looked far from full, but coherent thoughts were appearing behind them, and something about that almost made him smile. Not quite, but almost. He absently wondered if she was Uvogin's gift from the dead, to thank him for the marvelous requiem he had put on last night, but then dismissed the idea. He might have believed in souls, but his beliefs were far from that spectacular.

He taught her a few more words, among them being coat, chair, and chains, before he was struck with a new curiosity. Her aura was strange, to say the least. She seemed to not have an awareness of it, and yet it clearly worked with purpose to heal her body. So he spiked out his Nen to the side, forming a ball of it attached to him loosely through a thin line. He pointed directly at his, and her eyes followed. Then, dropping his hand, he moved the Nen ball higher. Her eyes followed. So she could see it.

"Nen," he said.

She showed no more recognition towards that word than she had any other when she repeated once more, "Nen."

Setting his book aside, he laid a hand on the edge of her aura, pointed back to his, and laid his hand on hers again. She said the word once more and he knew she understood that the two things were the same.

When he saw this, an even stronger curiosity settled over him. What he felt was far from what Feitan felt, although you could sum up both of their feelings towards her with the words fascination and interest. Feitan wanted to draw out anything that laid beneath the surface, but Chrollo wanted to create that thing beneath the surface.

So he broke the chains binding her limbs and pulled her to her feet. At first, he simply had her mime motions like waving, nodding, and shaking her head. Then he made up his mind and lead her out of the room.

Every eye in the Phantom Troupe turned on them when they emerged. When he stopped walking, so did she. Feitan grimaced, knowing with this that he'd lost permission to play with her.

"Is that the girl Feitan's been fawning over?" the samurai questioned.

"Bite your tongue, Nobunaga," Feitan warned.

"This is Ilya," Chrollo introduced, motioning to her. "I'm sure Shalnark has told all of you about her immortal body. The proof is that she has lived this long under his care. Currently, she is a blank slate, which we can work in our advantage. I want to train her to take Uvogin's place in the Troupe."

"Chrollo." His head didn't turn to acknowledge Machi. "Are you sure she isn't one of Omokage's dolls?"

"She isn't. Her aura is her own, not his. And besides, Feitan can vouch for the fact that she's human." The fact that the boy in question didn't speak against this was confirmation enough for the other members.

"She's about as good as a doll, though," Shalnark noted, hopping off the rubble he'd been sitting on and poking the girl's unresponsive face. "She's as blank a slate as they come. I can work with that!"

"She'll be out here with us from now on," Chrollo announced. "The more she sees and hears, the more she'll learn. Once we're able to communicate with her effectively, we'll begin with the physical and Nen training."

"Should we initiate her, then?" Phinx wondered.

Chrollo shook his head, hopping up onto his usual ledge and taking his seat. "We'll hold off until she's learnt enough." And with that, he finished his explanation and opened his book. The girl stood absently at the foot of the ledge staring up at the top. She had been following up until then, but knew herself unable to climb up what he had lept. So she stood, blinking, left with nothing to think about or follow with the object of her attention gone. She kept on staring even when Shalnark tapped her shoulder. Ignored, Shalnark wedged himself into the small space between her and the wall of the ledge, poking her again to get her attention. Once more failing, he followed her line of sight before boosting himself to the top of the ledge and peering down at her. Only when his eyes met hers did she finally seem to realize he was there.

"Hiya!" he greeted her. Slapping a hand to his chest, he said, "I'm Shalnark, but you can call me Shal if you like."

Shizuku, stepping lightly around Ilya, told Shalnark, "She doesn't understand. You're too complicated."

Rethinking things, he simply says, "Shalnark."

She remained seemingly unaffected by his new attempt, until she surprised everyone by repeating his name the same way she had done for Chrollo. She continued to do the same for Shizuku, then Nobunaga, then Phinx, followed by everyone else ending with Hisoka. Each time a new one was introduced, she was quicker to say the name. By the time Hisoka was reached, there was barely any delay to speak of before she repeated his name.

When she repeated his name, and no one tried to immediately speak to her again, she found herself locked eyes with the joker. She saw something in his eyes, something very wrong. That something prompted her to look away on her own for the first time. She returned her gaze to the top of the ledge, her thoughts being on Chrollo but her eyes meeting Shalnark's.

Her eyes did not follow him, though, when he jumped down off the ledge, nor did she look at him when he took her by the shoulders and sat her down in a place with a full vantage point of the crumbling room they were in. Her gaze only shifted when he moved her head so that she faced the whole of the room.

For the rest of the day, the Troupe acted as if she wasn't even there. They discussed what to do about the chain user, and what they were going to do with the auction they had control over, and she heard every word. Not that she understood a single one.

At least, at first she didn't.

The first new word she picked up on was actually two words that she identified as one. Chainuser. Something about the way they said it brought on a feeling of wrongness, and she came to understand that this chainuser thing was bad. Her brain then connected the first half of her new word to the word Chrollo had taught her for the things that had held her to the chair. The only outward sign of this realization was a slight widening of her eyes, but no one took notice. It's unfortunate, really, because that was the first hint of an expression that she had ever shown.

Her thoughts followed that loose train of thought, as wobbly as that train might have been, and she wondered if the chainuser was anything like the chains. Was the chainuser also something that kept them in place? Was it something that needed to be removed, like Chrollo had done to the chains to get her out of that chair like he'd wanted?

She also came to recognize the word auction, although she couldn't plaster any meaning to it. It was simply a thing they spoke about often. Sometimes they spoke about it neutrally, other times with a feeling of wrongness, and a few other times with a feeling of rightness. She could not understand their disposition of it, but she understood that it mattered. Along with auction, she picked up on a few words that she could tell did not matter. Mafia, for example, was something dispensable. So was money.

This continued throughout the day, although she showed few signs of it. The visible signs she did show were so minute that even Shalnark, who was the only one who would spare her a glance besides Feitan, who was mourning the loss of his toy, didn't notice. In fact, in the back of his mind Shalnark was worried she wasn't absorbing anything at all like the boss had hoped she would. He had to admit that he might've hoped she would as well, just to see what it would be like to teach a human how to be human. He had to laugh at himself. They were the Phantom Troupe! Sure, they were human, but they were far from what normal people would consider acceptable. In the eyes of the world, they were hardly qualified to teach this girl. But teach her they would, because it was the boss's orders. They would teach her even if, as a result, she became a monster.

I like Shalnark. Anyone else? He's definitely one of my favorites in the Phantom Troupe. If I had to choose a single favorite, though...it'd probably be Chrollo. I just wish he had more time in the anime. I know he probably shines more in the manga, but all I can say to that is hiatus. What about you guys? Who's your favorite? And has anyone formed an image of Ilya yet? I look forward to hearing!

Till then, Kisses from SnowyNeko! :3 MEOW!