Okay, so I've been meaning to say this, but it's been slipping my mind the past few chapters. The passage of time in this story is going to be slightly altered from the canon work. That's to give more time for Ilya to actually become someone before the showdown between Chrollo and Kurapika. I mean, at this point, she's still growing into a person. So while in the original work there was only a max of three days in between the auction raid and Chrollo's capture, there will probably be a few more days passing here. Kay? I hope that clears up some confusion that might've come down the line.

Anyway, onto the story!


It was late that night, a full twenty four hours having passed since her initial arrival, before anyone spoke directly to her again. Some of the Troupe members had gone out, other wandered off to find a place to rest their heads. She was still sitting there, though, eyes trained on the area where they had been conversing earlier in the day. Since the sun had set, a heaviness had begun to settle over her. She was nearly about to let her chin drop to her chest when a certain clown settled himself in front of her, forcing her eyes to meet his. Immediately, she felt the same sense of wrongness she had felt earlier that day, and went to look away, when he spoke his name.

"Hisoka."

The impulse implanted in her, she locked her eyes where they were and echoed, "Hisoka."

He adjusted in his seat to find a more comfortable position, before wondering aloud, "You say that, but how can one be sure that you know that Hisoka is me? You simply sound like a parrot to me."

He wasn't giving her new words, nor had she not known him to be Hisoka already. So she averted her gaze and brought it back to the ledge, where Chrollo still sat reading. She couldn't see him, nor could she connect the light that was glowing to mean he was reading by it, but it had been the last place she had seen him go. She just assumed he was right there.

But Hisoka stood and blocked her line of sight. She blinked, but kept looking at him. Other than towards Chrollo, she didn't know where else to redirect her eyes to. Something about what Hisoka was doing didn't sit right with her, though. She would look away, if she had another place to look away to.

Knowing her too stupid to look elsewhere, Hisoka kept his place between her and the boss. It would have been preferable had he been able to sit, but sacrifices must be made on occasion. And she was too good of a treat to pass up.

Drawing a card out of his pocket, he flicked it out and it stuck, sunk halfway into her shoulder. Shalnark had been telling the truth when he'd said that injury didn't faze her, but that wasn't the reason he'd done it. Not a minute had passed before he noticed that the card no longer seemed as deep. Indeed, it was slowly excreted from the skin, the blood around it gurgling back into her body. By the time his card hit the floor, her skin had stretched over and covered where the slice had been. The only evidence left was the slit in the shoulder of her already torn up shirt.

He didn't give her the satisfaction of bending over and breaking their eye contact to pick up his possession, simply snapping it back into his hand with his bungee gum. Then, he tapped the edge of the card against his lips. Tongue snaking out when the card drew blood, he imagined her humanized. He imagined her trained by Chrollo, exceeding at combat and Nen and ready to fight. How powerful would he have to be to kill one with Chrollo's expertise, plus a body that recovers indefinitely? How incredible would it be when he succeeded?

His lips trembled into a bloody smile at the thought.

The more Hisoka looked at her, the worse Ilya felt. Something seemed to be growing behind his eyes, bulging so large and gruesomely that it spilled into the rest of his face. Suddenly, just breathing seemed harder. She kept her breaths even, but the effort to do so was doubled. Why? She didn't care to think. She just wanted to look away from the chilling expression Hisoka wore.

So she did.

When she did, she showed Hisoka her first witnessed sign of expression. Her entire body had jolted when her eyes left him, and her eyes flew everywhere. She didn't know where to look! Where were her eyes supposed to settle? No one was demanding her attention, and she couldn't look at where Chrollo was because Hisoka was there, so where was she supposed to look?

In her panic, she forgot to put the extra effort towards breathing and her breaths began to come ragged. Her entire body shivered from the jolt it had experienced, having never tensed so suddenly of its own volition.

Chrollo had noticed this change instantly. Her body had moved notably in his En, and then he had heard her breathing. He set down his book, despite having nearly been finished, and leapt off the ledge. Hisoka moved aside for him as he approached the girl, the clown's expression having reverted to normal in the face of the boss.

Her eyes quickly skimmed Chrollo, then returned and stayed there. As she gazed up at the man, her breathing gradually returned itself to its usual ease, her spazzing muscles relaxing. Relief seemed to wash through her as she slumped, tired.

The heaviness that had been descending on her earlier felt like much more of a burden now, and she was unable to keep her back straight under its weight. Her chin, too, dropped to her chest. The only thing she felt power enough in to keep up were her eyelids. Her eyes returned to their typical half open state, she gazed at Chrollo, now kneeling before her, through the curtain of hair between them.

Calm, Chrollo picked a few strands of her hair between two of his fingers. He showed her this pointedly, giving her the word, then grabbing her hand and closing two of her own fingers around the strands.

His ease relaxing her entirely, she obediently muttered, "Hair."

Turning his head to the joker, Chrollo inquired, "What caused this?"

Smirking, the clown replied, "I'm not sure. I was just messing with her a bit, seeing for myself what Shal was going on about, when she suddenly freaked. It wasn't my hurting her. She started to panic after she had healed." Hisoka could see Chrollo didn't buy it as the reason. After all, Chrollo already knew all of that. So long as the boss was on the premises, nothing went on in this building without him knowing about it. So, Hisoka offered, "It seems that Pet here is scared of me."

The man seemed to accept this, looking back to the girl and thinking for a moment. "Don't interact with her again unless I give you permission. She needs to be fond of us, not afraid, or she'll never turn out well enough."

"Of course, Boss," the clown consented. "But I have to say, it doesn't look like she's 'fond' of anything except you."

"She's fond of learning."

"Oh? Enlighten me. What about her makes you think that?"

"If you can not tell, you simply aren't observant enough." Chrollo closed his eyes to say this, not having to see to know the smirk had flipped into a frown on Hisoka's face.

"My apologies. I wasn't thinking when I questioned you."

"Don't you have some havoc to be causing somewhere tonight?"

That smirk returned. "Always." Knowing a dismissal when he heard one, Hisoka declared, "I'll be off to do that. Have fun with the Pet."

Chrollo partially expected Ilya to relax to the point of sleep with Hisoka's departure, but she didn't even notice. Ever since Chrollo had reentered her sights, she had shoved the clown's presence to the back of her mind. He was the last thing for her to think about, and she definitely was not going to dwell on that smile he had shown her before Chrollo had come back.

When she saw him lay his hand on his chest, she readily answered him, "Chrollo." Despite the fact that she already knew that, and that Hisoka doing the same thing earlier had turned her away, she found nothing ill in repeating this now. If anything she felt a rightness perhaps similar to the one she had heard earlier, when they had been talking about the auction.

Although this rightness did not portray itself in her voice like it had for the members of the Troupe, Chrollo saw it in the haste of her response. He had noticed it before, when she was reciting the names of all the legs of the spider, that she had gotten quicker and quicker about speaking. She might not have been the fastest to catch on, but she picked up speed steadily until now. She had just now begun the 'kuh' sound before his fingers had even landed on his chest. And this was also the first time she had done this without verbal prompting immediately prior. Yes, he was sure that she was learning, and he was sure that she was enjoying it. Why else would reply so eagerly when she was clearly ready to pass out?

Lowering his hand, he praised, "Good job, Ilya."

There. She latched onto that word as soon as he said it. There was something about that word. She couldn't quite grasp it, but like the words she had discerned earlier, she knew whether or not it mattered.

It mattered.

Chrollo definitely noticed when she opened her mouth, her lips struggling to move correctly. Yes, he had said something, but it had not been a single clear word. He didn't think he had done anything to indicate meaning to her. Not only that, but this time she wasn't directly copying the motions of his mouth. She had either waited too long to do that, was confused by the sentence he had used, or was trying to say something else entirely. And he was impatient to hear it.

"I-il…"

"Ilya?"

Before he'd even finished saying it she blurted, "Ilya!"

Her outburst caused him to pause, but she said no more. She fell back into silence, and he was left to puzzle out what she meant. This was her first time doing something other than repeating. She hadn't phrased it like a question. Actually, she was pretty much doing what she'd been doing all along. This time, though, she had been the one to initiate it. She had raised her voice, however slightly, when she'd finally found the word. She was trying to speak to him.

He spoke her name a few more times, gaining an intense stare out of her and her usual repetition. The difference was that she said the word over and over again in a tone that, if he had to put a description to it, sounded agitated.

Finally, he reached under her curtain of hair to lay a hand just below her neck and just above her breast. As per usual, she didn't react to the touch. So he went ahead and told her, "Ilya."

And for once, she didn't respond. She blinked, breaking the staredown she'd been giving him. Then her hand moved. At first it just twitched, but slowly, jerkily, it raised to cover his where he held it still on her chest.

Her hand warm over his, she breathed, "...Ilya."

"Ilya," he repeated.

Her eyelids widened again, and a smile tugged at Chrollo's lips. It was strangely wonderful, teaching her like this. There was just something about seeing the subtle awe on her face.

Raising his other hand to rest it on Ilya's head, he ordered her, "Sleep, Ilya."

"...Sleep?"

Her first question.

"Yes, sleep." He removed his hands from her, her hand falling back to her side. Then he returned to his ledge, picking up his book to where he had left off. His mind wasn't with it, however. He couldn't stop thinking about the pure astonishment that had colored her blank face when she'd discovered what her own name meant.

With her on his mind, he was very aware when she slumped farther within his En, and her breathing had slowed its pace. Later in the night, he even felt her eyelids flicker with dreams.

Dreams!

He could only imagine what it was she was dreaming about!


Haha! Of course she's afraid of Hisoka! Wouldn't you be? No matter how awesome of a character he is, even I have to debate whether or not I'd actually like to meet the guy in person. But hey, what do you think? Has she been making progress? She's in quite the environment to be learning in, I'd say. Oh, and since this is a mystery, I guess I should ask: Does anyone have any ideas as to who she is? Or what's going on? I guess I haven't given you guys very many hints, but that just leaves more room for imagination for now. It should be interesting to hear from you.

Till then, Kisses from SnowyNeko! :3 MEOW!