"I owe you another favor...if you tell me your sob story."

"What makes you think I'll accept your offer?"

...

"Fine. I accept your offer, on one condition."

"What is it?"

"Two favors, not just one."

"Okay."

...

"They're called contacts."

Yellow-gold eyes, like amber in sunlight.

"I got tired of being called demonic for having 'freakish yellow eyes.'"

...

"Anything else?"

"No. So, now that I owe you three favors, thought about what you wanna force me to do yet? Kill our principal?"

Hisoka grins.

...

"Well, I'll be off now. I'll contact you when I've thought up something for your other two favors. Bye-bye."

What the hell has she gotten herself into?

...

The next few days pass in a sort of limbo. Now that school's over, she really doesn't have anything to do except help her mom around the house, read books, and surf social media. All her friends are either busy or out of town for the next few weeks, so she is well and truly bored.

As it is, that's exactly what makes her almost drop her phone in her eagerness to respond to Hisoka's text. But once she reads it, she just stares at it, confused. All he typed was an address and a time, nothing else. When she checks the time, she sees it's a little over thirty minutes from now, which makes her huff- does he not think she has a life? Does he think she'll just come at his beck and call or something?

Then she sighs, typing in an 'okay, see you there.' If he thinks she doesn't have a life, then he'd be absolutely right. She's bored out of her mind right now: she'll take anything to relieve her boredom. She quickly boots up her laptop and types in the address, groaning when she sees it'll take her around twenty minutes to drive there. She needs to get ready now if she wants to be there in time.

But what should she wear? Hisoka hasn't given her any information other than the aforementioned time and place. It's around four in the afternoon, so it could go either way- she's currently still in pajamas, but the address seems to simply be a park. Since Hisoka isn't exactly the kind of person she'd imagine would be content walking around a park all day, that must just be a meet-up place. The problem is, where's he planning on taking her afterwards?

Well, she decides, no use worrying about it. No matter how much I try, I won't be able to figure it out, so I might as well just dress for the park. With that thought, Si wriggles into a pair of jeans and puts on a t-shirt, frowning at her hair in the mirror and vainly trying to comb her fingers through it in an attempt to tame it. Forgoing any makeup, she pulls on socks and sneakers then bids her mom farewell (carefully leaving out exactly where she's going and who she'll be with), climbs into their family's car, and drives off.

Twenty minutes later she pulls into the parking lot, keeping an eye out for tall, pale, weirdly dressed males (seriously, couldn't Hisoka wear something that's not skintight for once? It makes her uncomfortable, and in more ways than just one). When she doesn't find him instantly she parks her car, climbs out, and starts into the park itself, keeping a careful watch for him.

"Hello, little swan," a voice purrs into her ear, making her jump. She spins around and glares at him.

"Would it kill you to approach me from the front like a normal person?"

"It wouldn't kill me physically," he admits, grinning, "But emotionally...why, that's another matter entirely, my dear."

She groans.

After a short silence, Hisoka motions back towards the parking lot she'd just come from. "Let's go back to your car. I know what I want for my second favor."

She can't help it; she tenses immediately, fear and nerves roiling uncomfortably together in her stomach. "What is it?"

"I can't tell you now. Where'd be the fun in that?" When he doesn't budge even after she gives him her best eye-roll, she obediently walks back towards her car. Without hesitation Hisoka climbs into the driver's seat, waving for her to get into the passenger's. She's too used to Hisoka by now to protest, knowing that if she does it'll all fall on deaf ears.

"I had a feeling you'd choose something like that," Hisoka tells her as he pulls out of the parking lot, flicking a wrist towards her clothing. "I'm glad you proved me right."

"Why?" she tries again, hoping that he'll at least let something slip. "Are we going to go kill someone or something?"

Hisoka just laughs, but the pit of nerves in her stomach grows worse. Having her help him murder someone as one of her favors is not entirely out of the realm of possibility for someone like him. Since he's not exactly disproving it...

After a tense fifteen-minute drive with neither of them talking at all except Hisoka's muttered curses whenever they reach a stoplight, they pull up to...a school? She stares at the unfamiliar building blankly for several seconds, before she sees the sign and abruptly realizes. This is a private school. Hisoka mentioned his younger brother goes to a private school.

"Are we here...for something concerning your brother?" she asks hesitantly.

Hisoka flashes her a dazzling grin. "I knew you'd figure it out eventually. We're here to pick him up."

Although that solves one mystery, it only serves to confuse her further. Why would Hisoka think it necessary to ask her to come pick up his brother? Is he just going to bid her farewell once he brings his brother back home?

Hisoka pulls up to the entrance. A chubby, red-haired kid of around twelve is standing there rather impatiently, pale as snow (hah! She called it!) and sagging under the weight of a humongous backpack. His gaze first alights to her, then passes over with apparent indifference and drifts to the driver's seat. The annoyance clears, something like relief flashing over his face. He walks over, opens the back door, and slings himself in.

"Hey, bro," he greets, then turns to her. "You must be Y/N." Even though he has the voice of a twelve-year-old boy, vocal cracks and all, something about it is unnerving- as though he's analyzing every move made by the car's occupants and is calculating his reactions based on them.

"Yes, I am." The words 'nice to meet you' die on her tongue, both because she doesn't know how they'd be received and because she's not sure exactly how nice it is to meet him. What if the kid has Hisoka's amorality or even worse? She has no idea what she's dealing with, and if neither of them have parents, who knows how the kid turned out. Hisoka's...strange, yes, but he's not evil. He has feelings even if he doesn't show them, and he operates basically like a normal human. Can the same be said for his brother? "What's your name? Hisoka never told me."

"Satoshi. Thanks for letting Nii-san borrow your car."

Again, she swallows down the automatic niceties. Something tells her this boy wouldn't appreciate them. "You don't have a car of your own?"

"Without our parents," Hisoka says, sounding a bit on edge, "our only money is what I make from work."

She frowns. At age 17, Hisoka shouldn't even be able to have legal guardianship of his brother- do they not have a legal guardian? But once more she bites back the words. The last time she asked something personal of Hisoka, she had to make a deal and give away two favors. She isn't going to do that again unless she has a very good reason to. Other thoughts come to mind, like why Hisoka only asked her today to pick Satoshi up, or why Satoshi's school goes so far into the summer, but again, she knows they probably wouldn't be appreciated.

"You usually walk to school, then?" she asks instead. Red-brown hair moves in a nod in the corner of her vision. Usually, Hisoka would allow at least a little more information slip. Knowing Hisoka, he probably loves seeing the frustrated look in her eyes when he holds back something important. Today, though, he stays silent. Is it Satoshi's presence?

The drive back to Hisoka's house is silent and tense, the only exceptions being Hisoka's continued swearing whenever they get a red light. As they pull up, she hesitates, unsure on whether or not Hisoka was just using her for her car or not. If he was, she can just say it's a favor and only have to deal with one more favor after that. But Hisoka steps out and motions first to his brother then to her. With an inward sigh, she climbs out and follows the two boys inside.

"Nii-san, I'm hungry," Satoshi informs his brother the moment the three of them walk inside. It's such a twelve-year-old boy thing to say that she has to suppress a smirk. Genius intellect or no, Satoshi seems to at least has the stomach of an average boy.

"Y/N and I will make you something." Satoshi nods at his brother's words and takes off, scampering to a door and disappearing into what she guesses must be the basement.

"Is his bedroom down there?"

Hisoka nods, turning around and walking into the kitchen. His feet are nearly soundless on the wooden boards. "We have a pretty big house, but Satoshi seems to prefer having as much space to himself as possible. I live upstairs, he lives downstairs. We eat on this level."

It seems like a lonely existence, but if there are any two people that'd be totally fine with it, it'd be Satoshi and Hisoka. "You sound close despite all that," she notes offhand, opening the fridge and inspecting the contents. Thankfully, Hisoka seems to have gone grocery shopping recently, so there's plenty of food. She grabs a carton of eggs and places them on the counter, then goes back and grabs a pack of ham.

"We do?" Hisoka asks, bending down and taking a frying pan out of a cabinet under the stove. Despite his words, Hisoka doesn't sound overly surprised.

"Well, he did call you 'nii-san,'" she reminds him. "I would've expected him to call you nii-sama or something like that, to be honest. Oh, do you want to make sandwiches or just ham and egg omelettes?" He opens his mouth with a smirk. "And no, don't make that stupid egg joke again."

"You don't like my jokes?" Hisoka asks, looking hurt and staggering backwards. "My lady! I'm wounded by your words."

She gives him an unimpressed look. "Sandwiches or omelettes?"

"We don't have any bread." Hisoka magically recovers from his mortal injury and turns the stove on. "Get me the shredded cheese."

"What's the magic word?"

Hisoka doesn't even spare her a glance. "The cheese."

She crosses her arms. Hisoka isn't looking at her, but she knows he would've marked the slight rustle of clothing that heralded the movement.

"Fine," he huffs, cracking an egg. "Please."

"Aw, you're so sweet!" she gushes in a sing-song. "How are the ladies not all over you by now?"

"Well, you see," he finally turns to her and winks, "They already are, but you're the only girl for me, darling."

She hits him, desperately trying to control her blush. "I walked right into that one, didn't I?"

Hisoka laughs lowly, snatching the bag of shredded cheese from her hands and pouring it into the pan along with the eggs and ham. It looks surprisingly good, considering how Hisoka's culinary skills aren't the best. "Well, Y/N, I hope you've realized by now I didn't just call you over to pick up my brother and cook lunch."

There's a long silence. Hisoka doesn't seem to notice, continuing to flip the omelettes.

"...Okay?"

Hisoka neatly flips the food onto waiting plates, turns, and grins down at her. "I've decided what I want for my second favor." She closes her eyes, silently praying he isn't actually going to ask her to murder someone. "I want you to kiss me."

Her heart stops.

What?

The next day dawns clear, bright, and surprisingly warm. She accompanies Gon, Killua, and Leorio to their positions and watches from above as a crowd begins to gather. Leorio states their pitch and several men start forward, before being stopped by their friends. It's hard to hear clearly from up there, but she thinks she hears them say not to bother; that Gon's completely unbeatable.

She purses her lips, watching as the crowd slowly begins to dissipate. I really hope Leorio knows what he's doing. As if her thoughts had summoned them, a small group of well-dressed men approach. And then they say what Gon and they have been waiting for. "Interested in making some real money?"

Leorio leans forward, the perfect picture of supreme interest. "Meaning?"

"I know where you can make big bucks instead of the pocket change you're getting here. You can make hundreds- no, thousands- more than you're making here."

"When do we start?" he asks. Si's at least 80% sure that the greedy look on his face isn't entirely feigned.

"Now, if you'd like. Follow us." The small man jerks his head. Gon stands up, and the three of them fall into line behind the two men. Si follows them on the rooftops until they get out of the crowd, then gracefully leaps down and joins them. It's to their credit that the two men hardly flinch as she joins them.

"Are they moles?" Gon asks quietly after a few minutes. They've dropped back a few feet, so that the two men leading them won't hear their quiet conversation.

Leorio nods. "Yeah, looks like we landed a big fish."

"Fish?" Si suppresses a laugh at Gon's adorably confused face. "Don't you mean mole?"

"Stop talking. It doesn't matter!"

Now Gon looks even more confused, but before he can short-circuit himself, the two men in front stop before a door. "Here we are."

They step inside. The building is rather dingy, sporting questionable brown stains on the floors and walls. It fits Si's expectations exactly. The two men guide them towards an elevator. They're silent on the relatively short ride down, but as they get closer Si can hear faint cheering. Then the elevator door opens and she sees exactly what they've gotten themselves into.

It's less bloodthirsty than she'd expected, to be honest. No blood marks the ring the two competitors are sitting in, though a whole lot of sweat does. One of the competitors is just winning; she sees the other's arm fall to the table with a thud.

"I can feel the blood-lust," Killua remarks as they step up to the railing.

"The arm wrestling competition here accepts all comers, and it pays out. The spectators bet on each match, and the winner receives ten percent of all bets placed. We're talking billions bet on each match."

"That would mean millions with each win!" Leorio looks practically beside himself with joy.

"You could win even more..." the small man looks at them with an expression that has Si's defenses up instantly. "I'll be taking fifty percent of your earnings as my commission."

"Fifty percent? Isn't that a little high?"

Si exchanges glances with Killua. They both frown. But fifty percent of their earnings here is still better than what they'd earn if they were still out in the auction, so they don't really have a choice. They need money. This guy is willing to help provide it.

"You can't participate unless I enter your name. Besides, you can bet your own money. You'll get great odds with that kid and earn back your stake a hundred times over."

"That's right!" Leorio says excitedly. "I'm in! Go, Gon!"

"Huh?" Gon looks first at Killua, then Si. They both nod.

"He's right. It's a good deal," she says, motioning to the short man. "If you want to make enough money to participate in the auction, you should take him up on it."

Right as she finishes speaking, the announcer speaks up. "Well? Any other challengers?"

Si pushes him lightly towards the announcer. He and the small man start towards the ring, but just as Gon's about to go up, the lights flick on. A strangely clad man jumps into the room and yells, "Sorry, the arm wrestling is cancelled!"

Cancelled!? Seriously?

"We'll be doing some conditional auctioning now."

She, Leorio, and Killua run down to where Gon and the other man are. "Why was it cancelled?" Leorio demands of the latter.

"U-Uh, I don't know."

"To win," continues the strange man, "you must play hide-and-seek!"

Hide-and-seek? Her brow furrows. What does he mean?

"We'll start by passing out flyers!"

She takes the paper she's handed and rapidly scans over it. She frowns. "Hey, Gon, isn't that the girl you beat in arm wrestling?"

"Yeah! She was really strong."

The voices around them are growing with excitement, murmuring about something that happened at the auction last night. They speculate that these seven people had something to do with it.

Si's eyes narrow. Kurapika had said the Spiders would try to interfere with the auction. These seven people definitely look dangerous, and if the girl was a definite challenge for Gon, then they should all be powerful. Is it possible these people are from the Phantom Troupe, or at least affiliated with them?

"In order to win the bid, you must capture and deliver a target to us. For each target brought in, you'll receive a nice sum of two billion Jenny!"

Two billion? Then they must be very dangerous indeed, or the price wouldn't be worth the effort. Her suspicion grows. She can't think of any other organization- except perhaps the Zoldycks, whom she'd recognize- that would be powerful enough and daring enough to do this.

"There is no time limit," the man says, "and it doesn't matter whether the target is dead or alive. Please contact us once you've captured one!"

"Two billion each?" Gon asks.

"We'd have fourteen billion if we caught them all!"

She looks over at Killua. His eyes are narrowed, considering. She knows he must've heard the same things she did about the auction, and wonders if he's come to the same conclusion she has.

Over the speaker, the man states the entry fee: five million Jenny.

Leorio starts towards the growing line and motions to them. "We're joining in, right?"

They all nod. "Yeah," Gon says.

Si stays silent in the time it takes for Leorio to get through the line and sign them up. She keeps her eyes on the flyer but her ears open, listening to what the others around them are saying. Killua and Gon keep quiet, too.

Rumors and speculations fly around them at a rate almost impossible to keep up with. People wonder if they're a rogue section of the mafia; if they're Zoldycks; if they're one of the various other assassin groups around the globe. People speculate what the targets did, everything from stealing to murdering to national treason. But out of everyone she listens to, no one seems to agree on anything, which means no one really knows anything. The mafia is keeping everything concrete under wraps for whatever reason.

Leorio walks up to them and informs them that he's signed them up. They start walking out of the building in silence, and it's not until they're alone in the streets that Si breaks that silence.

"Do you think it's the Phantom Troupe?"

Leorio and Gon stop, wide-eyed, having obviously not considered it. But Killua just nods slowly. "I'd say so. After all, who else would be crazy enough to steal from the mafia?"

"Then should we even try catching them?" she asks next. "I mean...Esu joined them for a reason. If they're all as strong as he is..." She knows what these ten months have done to her. She knows she could, possibly, take on Esu and win. But what if they're even stronger than he? What if their abilities can counter hers? And that's assuming they'd be lucky enough to catch a single target alone.

Killua stiffens, as though something she'd said had struck a chord in him. "Maybe Si's right. If these people are as strong as Esu, it'd be pointless to even try."

"I think we should still try," Gon says. "After all, we don't actually know how strong they are! We might be able to catch them after all."

"We should try contacting Kurapika," Si says after a moment. "After all, we blew through when we were supposed to meet up with him. We should ask him to join us."

"We did?" Gon asks, then his expression crumples. "Aw, we did! I was so caught up in the excitement that I completely forgot! Aw, man, this sucks!"

"Hey, don't worry about it," Leorio reassures him. "We all forgot, after all. You should call him now and apologize for it, though. Maybe then we can ask him to help us out."

Gon nods and takes out his phone. He dials up Kurapika's number and calls, but after a while he takes the phone away from his head and frowns. "He's not answering."

"He's probably working at his bodyguard job," Si says.

"What if he was guarding someone at the auction when it got attacked? What if he got hurt?"

Si frowns, then shakes her head. "That's not like Kurapika. I doubt he'd let himself or his charge get caught up in all that. He's probably actively tracking them down as we speak."

"Yes!" Leorio agrees. "He's probably even caught two or three already!"

Although she wouldn't take it that far, she privately agrees that Kurapika's probably fighting or about to fight one of the Troupe members at this moment. "Well," she says, "What are we waiting for? Let's go catch some Spiders!"