"Alright. We got this. We're gonna go in, act friendly, and impress my mom. And you are not going to say anything inappropriate or related to drugs, murder, or psychotic clowns. Okay?"

"Ah, Y/N." Hisoka grins, brushing her cheek in that infuriatingly flirtatious way she's told him to stop doing at least four times by now. "You know me so well."

She shoves his hand away. "Back off. If my mom catches us like this, she will think we're dating, and you don't want that, do you?"

"I'm sure I could survive. It's only a few hours, after all."

"Yeah, no. If she thinks we're dating, she'll probably force you to stay the entire day. Maybe even the night." She freezes, face heating up. "Not, of course, in the same bed with me. You know, overprotective mom and all that."

His smile widens and he steps closer to her. She used to become unsettled or even creeped out when he did that; now she only feels the heat rising to her face. They've only been 'friends' for less than two weeks (he'd originally thought they were gonna go in front of her mom that Saturday- "you said before Saturday!" "Yeah, but did I specify which one?"- which explains the 100 question quiz), but already she feels...weird. She's going to go with weird.

"A-Anyways," she stammers, shoving at him before he can say anything, "If you're finished flirting with me, let's go inside."

"Flirting? What makes you think I was flirting with you?"

She gives him a dry look. "Invading my personal space, touching my face, attempting to make your voice all sexy-"

"So you admit it is sexy?"

"I said attempting, dumbass." Hisoka gives her an offended look. She just stares at him, unimpressed."Come on, let's go." Grabbing him by the forearm (very carefully avoiding grabbing his hands), she tugs him along, aware that the only reason she can do so is the fact that Hisoka's letting her do it. With her other hand, she knocks on the door, shifting onto the balls of her feet nervously as she waits.

"Hey, Y/N, I realize this is a little late but I don't think you ever told me your parent's nam-"

The door opens, revealing her dad. "Hey, Dad. I brought my friend."

Her dad looks Hisoka over, rather disapprovingly. She knows why: red-brown hair falling over his eyes, dressed in clothes faintly reminiscent of a circus performer, pale as a vampire, lazy grin on his face- everything about him screams bad boy, or at least weird. "This is your...friend?"

"C'mon, Dad, just give him a chance. You know how happy Mom'll be."

He sighs. "Fine. But if he says anything inappropriate, he's out."

She resists rolling her eyes. What a dad. He's all bark and no bite; she knows that, but does Hisoka? When she looks over at him, he looks just as serenely confident as ever. She wouldn't have thought anything could ever get to him if she hadn't asked him what he wanted for his birthday and seen his reaction. "Dad, this is Hisoka Morow. Hisoka, this is my dad, Mr. L/N."

"It's nice to meet you, sir," Hisoka says politely, extending his hand out for a handshake. Her dad meets him halfway and she watches Hisoka's face, expecting to see a wince- her dad's notorious for his extremely powerful handshakes. Hisoka's face doesn't even change in the slightest, though, and when she looks over at her dad, it's he who's suppressing a wince. Damn. Nice one, Hisoka.

"Mom is still asleep, so I didn't want to wake her. You know how little she sleeps these days." She nods. Her mom is very, very sick- her illness is almost always fatal, and she's due to die within six months. Doctors worldwide are working on a cure for the disease, but thus far, no breakthroughs have been made.

"Hey, Hisoka, have you eaten yet? I can make something," she says, searching for a way to dispel the tension around the two men.

"I...yes. I mean no, I have not eaten today. If you show me the way, I'll help you make something, if you want."

"I can help, too," her dad puts in.

The two teens exchange glances. "Thanks, Dad, but that's okay. Mom and I have made a pact to keep you out of the kitchen at all times."

"What? Why?" The older man sputters.

"...Dad. You burned pasta. I don't even know how you did it, but you did. Hisoka's not the greatest cook ever-"

Hisoka gives an offended snort.

"-but I have at least not seen him burn pasta. Yet." She gives Hisoka a wary look. "It could happen, though. I can see it."

"First you tell me my voice isn't sexy, then you insult my cooking skills," Hisoka mutters, looking and sounding like a sulky child. "What's next?"

"You told him what?" Her dad exclaims.

She sighs. "Nothing, Dad. We're gonna go make something, now!"

She practically shoves Hisoka into the kitchen, glaring at him. "What part of 'don't say anything inappropriate' do you not understand? I want my parents to like you!"

"You say it like I'm some boy you're dating that you want your parents to approve of."

She leans her head against the fridge with a groan. "Seriously? Again with the innuendos and flirtation? If you wanna get a girlfriend so badly, go find one. I'm sure they won't be in short supply for someone like you."

"Someone like me?"

Her face heats up. "Shut up. Forget I said anything. Heaven forbid I compliment my friend," she says with a little more edge than she'd intended. "What do you want to make?"

"Eggs. I usually like mine scrambled, but for you I'll fertilize the-"

She puts a hand over his mouth. "Shut up! I swear, you're impossible. Do you want that favor I owe you or not? If you can't pull this off, our deal's done."

"What if the favor is for you to date me?" He's still smiling, as flirtatious and amused as ever. She has no idea if he's being serious or not- never does, not with him.

"It's still a null deal if you can't convince my parents that you're, A: a friend of mine, not my boyfriend, and B: that you're a good influence on me, not a bad one. Got it? You have two jobs, and right now you're not accomplishing either of them. Now, I'd really like to have this go well and it's in your own best interest for it to go well, too, so grow. up."

"You act like flirting with girls is not a thing adult men do, too."

Honestly, if she thought she could get away with it, she probably would've punched him by now. "Hisoka. Do you understand me?"

Another innuendo is on the tip of his tongue, but she sees him force it down. "Yeah, sure. Whatever."

She turns away from him, looking in the kitchen cabinets. "I sure hope so. What do you want to eat?"

"Fine. I'm on my way."

Esu stands up, examining her. In her semi-conscious state, she still seems to be in an awful lot of pain. He wonders how bad it really is- would it be enough to even make him flinch? He doesn't even feel pain, anymore. Not after Feitan had a night with him. Bastard had said it was initiation into the Phantom Troupe- like hell it was. But at least Esu gave him something to remember from that night, too. After he found out Feitan just hated him and wanted to torture him as much as possible.

Needless to say, Chrollo hadn't been very happy with either one of them.

But that was almost three years ago. He's become much, much stronger since then. And he definitely hates Feitan just as much, even if he also endeavors not to show it- after all, the spiders are supposed to be fellow associates. There aren't supposed to be any internal squabbles, and Esu knows Chrollo would kick him out in a heartbeat if he tried to pick a fight with Feitan.

"Wow, she's in a bad state," Illumi comments behind him. Esu turns around, giving a lazy grin.

"It seems like she's remembered a little too much. However, I do need to fight her, so is there any way you can change the properties of your needle?"

"Not without taking it out entirely."

"Then do it," Esu says, absently taking out a deck of cards. Pretending to ignore Illumi, he proceeds to shuffle and deal, practicing the same card tricks he'd made a living off of when he was younger. His eyes flick towards the two other occupants every so often but his inattention doesn't affect his movements in the slightest; even as he watches Illumi take the needle out of Si's head, Esu's hands are flying.

"Alright. Since you want to start all over again with the girl, what do you want me to do this time?"

Esu makes a considering noise. A card flies into the air, seemingly changing suit in midair before landing back in his hands. "Well, the object needs to be the same. She can not realize who I am."

"What about the consequences? It doesn't have to be pain. I can do paralysis, nausea, unconsciousness...although I'd prefer it not to be paralysis. That's what I plan to use on Kil."

"I don't really want her to throw up every time she looks at me. That'd be...rather unsanitary. Is there a way you can stop it from progressing that quickly again?"

"Not really, no. The symptoms are designed to become worse every time my commands are defied. And she is quite the defiant one." Something in the way Illumi looks down at her seems strange, but Esu puts it off on the whole Gittarackur thing the man currently has going on.

"Would it be possible to take the needle out and stick it back in every time the symptoms got bad? Would that reset it?"

"You seem awfully concerned about this girl, Hiso."

Esu makes a face. "Must you really call me that? And I've already told you. She's someone I know from my past, and I'd really rather she not find out who I am."

"I'd ask why that is, but then that'd give you free rein to ask about my childhood, too. And also, I don't really care." Illumi looks over the needle. It has traces of blood on it, but that doesn't seem to bother or disgust him in the slightest. "But to answer your question, you or anyone else could take the needle out of her head any time you like, but once it's out, the Nen stops working. It needs my power to start working again. I don't plan to be around her in the coming months, so unless you want to take the needle out yourself and risk her figuring out who you are, you're going to have to deal with the fact that she's going to be in pain."

Esu flicks a card from his deck. It lands a few feet away, deeply embedded into the wall.

"What, do you like her?" Illumi's voice is curious even though his face is blank. "I know you don't like torturing people, but this is a little excessive, even for you."

"I don't particularly care one way or another about how much pain she's in," Esu says calmly, walking over to the card and picking it up. "But, like you said, I don't relish the idea of causing pain to other people outside of battle, unlike you and some others." He makes a face, bending a card. The rest of the deck fans out across the floor.

"You do realize Chrollo was just as mad at Feitan as he was at you, right?"

"That changes nothing. He still tortured me all night. I had to use Texture Surprise on my whole body for months to hide the scars."

"Mm." Illumi waves his hand over the needle; a black aura appears around it. "I overheard him talking about that night once. He said he'd never found someone as weird as you. Said you wouldn't even scream."

"I sealed my mouth shut with Bungee Gum." He shrugs, offering Illumi a smirk as he sits back down on the floor. "It's their own fault for not using Gyo."

"So you've decided to go with pain again?" Illumi asks, not replying to Esu's last comment as he turns the needle over in his hands.

"Yes."

Illumi goes to stick the needle in again, joints creaking. "Actually," Esu cuts in, "Can you stick it somewhere else? If the pain starts coming from a different part of her head, that should confuse her more."

"Okay." With one swift movement, the needle's in. "Once she wakes up, she should be okay. If you don't want her possibly managing to localize the pain and pull the needle out, however, I'd advise you stay away from her after the exam's over."

Ignoring Illumi's advice, Esu says, "If you're planning to stick a needle in Killua's head as well, does that mean you'll have to stay away from him, too?"

"I never said Kil's needle was triggered by me."

Esu stands up from where'd he been sitting, cross-legged on the floor, and brushes off his pants. "You can go now. If you hurry, Killua and Pokkle's battle might not be over yet."

"I'll do that." Illumi straightens, his entire body creaking and hissing. Once again Esu wonders how much is Illumi and how much are the needles, but he stays silent. Instead, he turns back to the girl still unconscious on the bed, watching her as Illumi's footsteps fade into the distance.

"Come now, darling. It's time to wake up." He taps the place where the needle had gone in, waits. When nothing happens, he taps it again, harder, and the girl's eyes snap open. Interesting.

The girl instinctively lashes out with her dominant- broken- hand. He catches it easily, watching, unmoved, as she winces. "Shit, ow. That hurt."

"Next time, try not to attack the people who are only trying to help you."

"You were standing right over me and I'd just woken up," she defends. Something in her tone seems...off. "What was I supposed to do? Assume the extremely tall and menacing guy looming over me intends only beneficial things?"

"How is your head?"

"My...?" she hesitantly reaches a hand to the aforementioned body part. "It's fine."

"The truth, please. If I'm going to fight you, I at least want to know how pathetic your resistance is going to be before I get my hopes up too high."

"Well, you broke my hand. Even if my head were fine, it'd still be a pretty awful fight." Esu crosses his arms and gives her a look. She sighs and says, "It feels better. Still throbbing a little, but nothing I can't handle. Now, if you'll get out of my way, I believe you have a fight to win."

"Already conceding? My, my. I'd expected so much more from you."

She mutters a few curses at him and puts her feet on the floor, standing up. Once she's ascertained her legs are strong enough to support her weight, she looks over at Esu. For some reason, looking at him doesn't hurt as much as it did just- uh, how long has it been, anyway? "How long have I been out?"

"Just a few minutes. I carried you back here so you'd recover."

That short of a time? How come her head feels so much better already? Biting her lip, she nods. "Alright. Let's go." Sarcastically motioning at the door, she adds, "Ladies first."

"Now that Silent has sufficiently recovered, we will now hold the match between Silent and Esu. Begin!"

It's not even a contest. She is as outmatched as an ant is to an elephant. Esu weaves in and out effortlessly, dodging her attacks without even having to concentrate. Without her Hatsu improving her speed, she's like a snail or a slug compared to him. With a broken hand and a throbbing head to add into this whole thing, well...

There's a flash.

Before she knows what's happening, Esu is holding her to him, preventing her from getting away. His smug smile makes her head hurt, but not as bad as earlier. "Now, now," he says in that condescending tone of his, "You and I both know your resistance is futile."

She kicks at him, but to no avail. She might as well have kicked a mountain. "You said you wanted resistance, so that's what I'm giving."

With one easy, graceful movement, she's sent flying through the air. Eyes wide, she tries desperately to gain control of her body, to gauge where she is, but another blow rocks her frame and she's sent in the other direction. Esu rains down blow after blow on her, a sadistic gleam in his eyes, before he stops and suddenly gets uncomfortably close to her. "You know, I usually...dislike...seeing other people get tortured. I simply see no point in it. But, you see, in battle I can always make an exception."

"I don't see why that's remotely relevant," she mutters, ducking as he tries to send another blow her way. His other fist catches her in her stomach and she wheezes, jumping backwards to avoid his next hit.

Why am I even fighting him? She wonders. I'm wounded, I'm exhausted- the more time I spend fighting him, the less chance I have of beating Leorio in the next round. Who knows- kid might have some kind of fighting skill after all.

She turns to the ref, barely managing to dodge the magician's next hit. "I concede the fight. Esu wins."

She walks off and goes to stand next to Hanzo, Killua, Kurapika and Leorio. Somehow, their presence makes her feel just a little safer- something that's needed after an extended period of time with the psychopathic joker clown known as Esu. The aforementioned joker clown frowns at her but says nothing, striding over to stand next to Illumi.

"The next fight is Gittarackur and Pokkle!"

Illumi moves towards the center of the room as Pokkle follows, looking slightly terrified. As they stand across from each other, Illumi smiles. With as many needles in his face as he has, it's quite intimidating. "Ah, what am I thinking? I won't be needing these anymore." He reaches up and takes a needle out. His hair color changes. She looks over at Killua as his brother slowly takes more and more pins out; the white-haired boy looks terrified. She reaches out a consoling hand, but he shrugs it off, stepping away from her.

Once all the needles are out, Illumi's face begins its transition. Esu is placid, emotionless even though she's seen him watch this before. Illumi's face contracts and contorts, finally smoothing out. He opens expressionless eyes and says, "That's much better. Little brother, don't worry. I'll deal with you later."

Ignoring Killua's clear body language telling her to stay away, she puts a hand on his shoulder. She wants to tell him she won't let him get hurt- that she's his friend- but the words stick in her mouth. You made a decision back in Phase Four to stay away from them. Shouldn't you stay with it? Killua tenses up underneath her touch but gradually relaxes.

Like with her and Esu, this fight isn't even sporting. Pokkle surrenders within a minute.

"The next fight is Leorio versus Silent!"

She stands across from her opponent (your friend, a voice inside her head insists), frowning. She has no idea how she's going to win, but she has to try. She's not that selfless person that lets people win at the expense of her own career. She has no idea how good Pokkle is, since every fight he's been at, he's been severely outclassed. With her injuries, nothing is for certain. Which is why she needs to give her all to winning this battle while she still has the energy.

She considers telling him she won't go easy on him, but discards the idea as idiocy. Leorio won't go easy on her; why should she insult him by telling him the same?

"Begin!"

Leorio charges at her with all the strength and rage of a roaring bull. She dodges rather easily and springs backwards, considering. Since she can't use Nen, she needs to be extra cautious. She needs to feel her way around, making sure she comes to predict his every move.

"Why aren't you fighting me!?" Leorio shouts, charging at her for about the tenth time. "Do you think you're all high and mighty!? Huh?"

She stays silent (aha ha she's so funny), eyes narrowed. Alright, so he's going to feint left, then kick right. This time, she doesn't jump backwards. She dodges deftly, ducking between all his blows and sending one, straight punch to his groin. The man cries out in agony, dropping his guard, and that's all she needs. She's always found men a little pathetic on that regard- they act all big and strong, but one kick or punch to their crotch and they're nothing more than crying babies. She counts herself lucky she wasn't born with such sensitive genitalia on display...

In his pain, Leorio completely forgets what he's doing- that he's fighting a duel. With three precise blows, he's on the ground, defenseless. "Do you yield?" She demands.

"No!"

Don't tell me this guy's going to pull a Gon. "Look, buddy, I can stay here all day if I have to. Punch you as many times as I want to where the sun doesn't shine."

"If I don't win-"

"And if I don't win, I'll have the same. You really think I'll let you win out of pity? Would you want me to let you win out of pity?"

"No! Never," Leorio hisses, but his eyes hold no malice when he looks at her. She would've thought he'd hate her for this, but he doesn't. Does he still consider her a friend, even after she abandoned them all to that cave?

There's a long silence. Finally, Leorio sighs. "I yield. Si wins."

She lets go of him, letting him scramble away from her. And then she looks down at her hands. It's in that moment that she realizes why her punches were so accurate; she was using her broken hand. "Shit!"