Tangled Webs: Questionable Intentions

The print faded from focus as his attention drifted to something more… interesting.

Lan, the name was Anchian, as was the slight accent attached to her words. Her features were similar, although time tended to decay such specific, brief memories. Twenty years, in fact. Yet the woman, the Paijin, that had come to Meteor City all those years ago, Chrollo remembered her face well enough, he supposed. He had been an impressionable child, taken with rarities found amongst the scattered trash in his homeland. Fanghe Paijin had been a rarity, even if mafia groups often frequented the city to recruit residents to their ranks. The mystery had been lost when he learnt about Nen, the woman's unnerving presence the byproduct of powerful aura, but still, she had left an impression. One didn't often form an army out of the most battered and broken of Meteor City orphans, after all.

This Lan had to be a blood relative. Curious, considering all the Paijin were hunted down after Fanghe's assassination; one of the Fan Shi told him such, and she wasn't quite bright enough to lie back then- stealing her ability had, unfortunately, wizened her.

Regardless, if this Lan was a Paijin, specifically the youngest Paijin, he might have some use for her. The Paijin supposedly held a Nen-item with some rather fascinating effects. A riskless initiation process and the fostering of Nen at a substantially accelerated rate, such an item would be invaluable to would-be dictators and underworld leaders. If that alone didn't prove the item's value, it had a secondary use: the ability to slowly kill a target through the uncontrollable release of aura. Chrollo wanted it. If only to sell it after admiring it for a while, he wanted it.

And he would take it. The Fan Shi, if they had since found the Paijin heiress, recruited her into their ranks, and recovered the item, then he would steal it from them. If not, then he had the only clue to its location. He would steal it before the Fan Shi could reach it. In either case, Lan would be a useful bargaining chip in obtaining the item.

Hisoka had unknowingly brought him something interesting indeed.

"Kortopi." Phinks, ever irritated with the intrusion, continued to fume in a way uniquely his. The smell of cigarettes might cloud the entire room if he kept his pace. "Thought you had copies of this place around the area?"

"Yes." Kortopi's quiet voice responded. "Fifteen, just as Danchou requested."

"They looked exactly like this one," Shizuku chimed in. She and Shalnark had accompanied Kortopi yesterday when choosing locations, the task giving them something to do while they waited for the rest to arrive. A distraction dressed as a precaution, although it could prove helpful when moving the merchandise to the base. The last time a group of pursuers stumbled upon their base, Uvogin's enthusiastic shouting had reduced an expensive, recently-acquired, pottery collection to shattered porcelain shards.

"Girl didn't enter any in mistake?" Feitan asked, catching onto Phinks' line of thought. They were thinking more critically about the situation now that Hisoka wasn't there to goad them.

"No," he replied with the slight shake of his head, long hair flying about. Kortopi would have undoubtedly mentioned it earlier if he had sensed someone trigger the trap. "My copies function as my En, but I never sensed anyone enter the fakes."

"That settles it!" Phinks growled, whipping around to stalk off towards the door, Feitan quick to follow. How excited they all were to attend the auction; their restlessness grew as the day dragged on, bickering inevitable, especially as Hisoka created his own fun by inviting a friend over. Unnecessary suspicion between Spiders couldn't be left to run wild. "Hisoka told her where-"

"Phinks. Feitan." Chrollo's voice stopped their advance, the two looking over their shoulders in waiting. The echo in the silence as he closed his book drew more curious eyes to him. He would help steer them in the right direction. "When did Hisoka arrive?"

"Late," Uvogin answered instead, always one for punctuality.

"After the copies were created," Pakunoda said, nail polish set aside as she joined the discussion. "If no one told him, its likely he doesn't know about them."

"I get it!" Shalnark hopped to his feet, pocketing his phone, ready to explain the series of events. "The locations of the fake bases are closer to more populated areas and main roads into the city. There's a higher probability that she would have come across a fake base before ending up here. Especially with how surprised she seemed when she saw us; had she been searching for an occupied building to begin with, she would have known we were here." He paused, waiting for an interruption, for a flaw to his logic to be pointed out. Shal continued when silence prevailed. "That, and the directions I gave everyone to get here used a backroad. If Hisoka followed that route and came straight here, he probably never saw any of the fake buildings to begin with. I don't think anyone told the groups that arrived in the evening about the copies, either."

"Tch." Feitan narrowed his eyes in slight irritation. "None mentioned it."

"Guess we shouldn't have left it to Shizu," Phinks muttered, glancing away as if to dismiss his involvement in the oversight.

"What? I don't remember that. No one ever told me to." A few members shared a collective sigh at Shizuku. She could be selective in her memories of mundane events. Direct orders and battle strategies were another matter, however. Still, perhaps he should have made it an order to share the copy information with the groups arriving later in the day, if only to avoid spurring a pointless argument. They did that well enough on their own, his Spiders.

"It took him long enough to get here," Nobunoga countered, interest drifting from the card game he was losing. "Might've gone a different way." Saw the copies and given away our location was easily inferred from his scowl.

Machi decided to join the debate, plainly stating, "Hisoka checked his phone the moment we heard someone inside. I think she surprised him with how quickly she found us."

"Even assuming all this is fact, and that he sent just a single picture and nothing else, its bit farfetched. Don't you think?" Franklin looked between the others, a divide forming as they judged just how guilty Hisoka was in the matter. This was his trial, after all. The Troupe really didn't care about the girl; she might as well have been a stray cat wandering into the hideout. "Hisoka left the room briefly about two hours ago. That would mean she found this place on the first try using only the surrounding buildings as reference. Not a lot of time to check the whole area on foot, if you ask me."

"I s'pose he couldn't have taken a picture last night. Too dark for detail." Nobu quietly added, beginning to see the flaw in his own argument.

"A Nen ability, then," Shal offered up. "She is a Blacklist Hunter. A tracking ability would be useful in that profession."

"Shouldn't we have sensed something?" As if on cue, Franklin paused as Nen flared on the opposite side of the building. A fair amount of irritation and fear was reflected in the burst; her emotions were quite present in her aura. (Chrollo could understand what drew Hisoka and Lan together; their admiration from him he understood, as he was impressive, but staring at him with that level desirous bloodlust? That was a trait only those two shared- although, enough fear had also infected her aura to cause rational confliction, while Hisoka was... Hisoka.)

"Her aura isn't exactly subtle," Franklin finished as the flicker subsided.

"It was probably disguised by In," Machi offered, quietly adding, "Hisoka has a way of wearing at your patience if you let him."

"All right. All right, already." Phinks shoved his hands in his pockets, reluctantly relinquishing, "Fine, maybe he didn't tell her everything." Phinks lowered his voice to grumble, "He still sent a picture. If he does something stupid like this again, I'm punching the smile off his face. Permanently."

"More important, what now?"

With Feitan's question, the group looked to Chrollo for a final decision. They had picked up on his interest in the matter, in the girl. The silence shattered with the distant echo of broken glass, punctuated by another wave of enraged aura. In the following second, her presence vanished with Zetsu as she made her escape.

"Feitan, without doing grave harm, catch our guest," Chrollo carefully ordered. If she died, he no longer had this clue to finding the Nen-item; the Fan Shi seemed convinced her death meant its loss. He pocketed his book as he stood, adding, "Ask for her full name." As Chrollo stepped off the ledge, landing on the floor, Feitan quickly disappeared to give pursuit. "Machi." Her attention snapped to him, on her feet before he finished saying, "With me."

Chrollo felt no need to rush, content walking, his hands deep in his pockets. Machi followed a few steps behind him, quiet, but curious questions on the tip of her tongue. They all wanted to know what he was up to. As glass crunched underneath their feet, the fourth landed before them. Hisoka smiled, lip cut, blood smeared on his face like he had rested a bloodied hand on his chin. Up his arm and across his hands, lacerations colored white flesh red.

"If you plan to break my toy, can I request I do it, Danchou?" Sugar-sweet with underlying tones of aggravation, Hisoka had that look of an interrupted feast, of prey alluding capture. His wounds were, in all likelihood, some warped form a foreplay between the two. The girl must be a favorite of his.

"You're in the way, Hisoka." Machi stated plainly, politely asking him to step aside.

Hisoka grinned, a bleeding hand on his hip as he stood his ground. He understood that their casual pace meant there was little harm in detaining them with requests; it was the principle of the matter, of questioning the head's decision, that irked Machi. Still, to ask, Hisoka showed a clear preference.

"I don't plan on killing her." For now, as she wasn't a grand threat to the auction heist, her usefulness outweighing her minor transgressions. Feitan might grow frustrated with her, but he would follow his orders. Truthfully, Hisoka was currently more of a threat to her than Chrollo and the rest of the Troupe. "Rather, I require her alive."

"Hmm?" Hisoka's eyes were alight with intrigue, the veiled warning understood, its reception debatable. He mustn't know, then, about her connection to the Paijin, to the Nen-item. Hisoka held his hands to the side in defeat, dramatically declaring, "Then who am I to interrupt? My sincerest apologies." Instead of walking around, he chose to pass between Chrollo and Machi, brushing by them both in that nearly unsettling manner of his. Hisoka could be a bit odd, even for a Spider. It made him interesting, to say the least.

Within a half a minute of trailing Feitan, a pulse of aura raced over the area. From above them, curiously enough. Quite the distance from the girl, her defensive aura now felt as Feitan caught up to her- impressive, avoiding him this long. In that flicker of a moment, a speck of pale light rounded the corner of a building, disappearing from sight and detection a moment later.

"That was En." Machi's narrowed eyes lingered where the glow had vanished. "And In."

The flight pattern, the general shape, it appeared to be a bird. A Nen beast of some variety, then. One capable of using En and In independently of its user. A conjurer or specialist, most likely, given this novel ability. Perhaps he would ask her about it later. He was always looking to add useful things to his collection.

"Machi, I want you to patch her up once we arrive." Chrollo sent Feitan knowing the consequences. He could inflict a variety of injuries while operating within the order to not kill her. Fixing her up like it was a mistake might even garner him some misplaced trust; it would make her more cooperative if she believed he was on her side. Resistant hostages could be so tiresome. Especially when they annoyed the Spiders into killing them.

"All right," Machi agreed. He half expected her to charge him an exorbitant fee for her services. She rarely waved her fees, even for other Spiders, himself included most of the time. "What then?"

"Curious?" Chrollo felt a smile pull at his lips as Machi glanced away from him. She was. "I will deal with her personally after the auction. She has something I want, but I would like to investigate a bit more before deciding if its mission worthy." He could probably obtain the item on his own with minimal hassle. If the Fan Shi decided to involve themselves, he would consider inviting a few of the Troupe along to assist for the sake convenience.

She glanced back at him, quietly sighing. "I get the feeling its more complicated than you're making it seem."

"Your intuition is usually right." They already had one Fan Shi consistently interrupting missions from the last time he ignored Machi's intuition.

Two blocks from the hideout, Feitan found her. Dusty footprints outside the base, leading straight ahead and away, were the only clues he had to what direction she had desperately run while hiding in Zetsu. He would have caught her immediately otherwise, he reasoned. Even with whatever trick she had attempted.

About fifteen seconds ago, before he could see her, when he could only hear soft footfalls over uneven, crumbling pavement in the adjacent alley, there was a shift in her aura. Like she had used En, he felt it first surround him, then move above and behind him. The girl was still in Zetsu. Using En and Zetsu simultaneously, two polar opposite techniques, made no sense. But if she thought that that would be enough to trick him…

The white skull of her vest became a beacon on her back as he turned a final corner. Danchou and Machi could investigate the odd ability she had used if they wanted. He had something more fun to do.

Just like that, she left Zetsu, activating Ten, turning on her heel as he crashed into her at full speed. Her feet slipped out from under her, sending her face into concrete with a smack. His foot dug into her back before she could push herself up from the ground. He grabbed her left arm, yanking it back, a resounding pop echoing in the deserted street.

"D-did you just break my damn arm?" she half-shouted, trying to crane her neck to see behind her.

His brows furrowed tightly. No. No, he did not break her arm. He dislocated her shoulder. Those were two very different types of pain; usually even the toughest of people showed some sign of discomfort at the pain shoulder dislocation caused. How could someone not know the difference? They didn't even sound the same.

As Feitan removed his foot from her back, he pulled her up using the same arm. While she reluctantly stumbled to her feet, she didn't so much as flinch as he wrenched her arm behind her back. A push made her step forward. She recognized escape was impossible, then. If she knew what was… What would usually be coming, she would have struggled more. As much as he wanted to torture her, he had orders. Danchou had that look on his face when he first saw the girl. The look of seeing something he wanted to steal.

With a shove, he forced her into an abandoned building. He slammed the door behind him, pleased to see it was a confined room, other doors closed, nowhere to hide. She quickly found the corner, biting her lip as she examined her arm. Even as she raised it, strained the dislocation, caused herself further injury, she appeared annoyed rather than pained. The bruising bitemark on her neck was absolutely repulsive; she might have a higher pain tolerance than most if Hisoka kept her as a bed mate- that might be the grossest image Feitan's mind ever conjured.

"Name." Not a question. A demand.

Her eyes drifted from her arm, narrowing into a glare as she looked at him. "Lan," she said tersely, incorrectly.

"Full name."

Uncooperative silence was broken as he stepped forward, hands coming back out of his pockets. Her body tensed, nowhere to run with her back to a windowless wall. Panic tainted stubborn defiance. Before she could react, he lunged forward, fingers catching her shirt collar, throwing her into the ground, tile cracking with the force. The impact of her chin slamming into the floor momentarily stunned her. Feitan wrenched her arm behind her back, his knee digging into her spine to keep her on the floor under the threat snapping it. With her cheek pressed to the floor, she struggled to see his face.

He gripped the nail of her index finger, pulling with agonizing slowness. Nothing. Not until he tossed the bloodied nail aside within her line of sight. Then her eyes widened in satisfactory fear. Still, he felt his irritation rising as her expression didn't go beyond mild inconvenience.

"Full name," he repeated for a final time. 'Grave injury' left him plenty room to work.

Another nail was torn off at her hesitation. Her lips pressed tight when he dropped it a fraction from her nose. A snap made her anger cycle back to fear. She mustn't feel pain at all. He jerked her arm around, allowing her to see splintered bone stabbing through skin, her finger hanging limply to side as dark red stained his fingers. The color drained from her face.

"Last chance."

"Lanfen Paijin," she whispered into the ground, defeated.

Heavy silence settled over the room. He thought she looked Anchian, but Paijin no less. A little mafia dog from a dead line of traffickers… He had about thirty seconds of babysitting before Danchou arrived with Machi. He could feel his lips trying to twitch into some semblance of a smile. Sounded like ample time. Maybe slice off a limb or two? Machi could stitch her back together, keep her alive- that's why she was chosen to come with, after all. Or, he could just contort her arm a bit more, break it in a few places, so she could watch in horror as he snapped more fingers. Actually, flaying skin would accomplish that even more effectively. Then again, maybe he just hadn't done enough to cause pain yet. A bit more damage in the right places wouldn't kill her.

His bloodlust had given away his intentions.

In flash of flickering blue, her aura flared to life over her back. Feitan stood as her aura caught the edge of his cloak, piercing and tearing the fabric like a few dozen daggers. His fingers released her wrist with the lightning change in Nen flow. Superficial, white-line scratches marred his palm. Had he held on, he might actually have a few bleeding scratches.

His foot caught her stomach to fling her to the other side of the room. Instead of smashing into the wall, she got her feet beneath her, left arm limp at her side, index finger threatening to detach with a final tug. Her knees bent, muscles tensing. He waited, hands tauntingly in his pockets.

Arm above her head, she jumped upwards. Her aura tore into the ceiling to weaken the structure. Eventually, it would collapse the second floor onto them. Annoying. Feitan rushed forward, dodging chunks of debris. As he launched himself toward her, Nen shrouded the arm he was preparing to slice off. His Shu-enhanced nails slid off the aura like clashing blades. She tried to retreat with a quick hop backwards. He followed.

In the second he reached out, her Nen materialized something more than a blade coating. Like a narrow-faced wolf or an overgrown fox, teeth snapped onto his arm, latching onto flesh, force enough to crush an average person's bones to dust. Feitan grabbed its upper jaw with his other hand, fur driven into his palm like hundreds of needles before he finally relented and focused more Nen into his hand; not out of pain, fear, or defeat, but because he had an auction to attend later. The punctures on his arm would be hidden by his sleeves, more damage to his hands, not so much. Phinks would never shut up if he got scratched up by Hisoka's chew toy- terrible analogy almost made him cringe. He'd like to see Phinks fight this ridiculous girl making knife-covered foxes out aura and come out of it unscathed.

As he pried himself free, the fox retreated back to her side before fading as she released it. She then kicked a piece of rubble towards his face. Feitan smacked it out of the way like it wasn't half his height and twice his weight. In that time, she had scrambled to a small window, busying herself with pulling herself outside.

A tug to her vest dislodged her easily enough. He threw her to the side, bored with this, mortar shattering upon impact as she flew through a wall into another room. She rested her back against a force-cracked wall. Stunned, but she had used her aura as a cushion again to keep conscious.

"Damn," she whispered, blood dripping down her chin. Between heavy breaths, she coughed at the lingering dust clogging the air. Her expression… irritated him. No winces from pain, she watched him with a look between admiration and terror. She reminded him of Hisoka, but with a speck of rational fear preventing her from foolishly pulling herself from the ground to continue.

Her 'saviors' had arrived.

He left her in the building, convinced she understood this as the only act of mercy she would receive. If she tried to run again, she would have three on her trail opposed to one. Danchou might even rescind the 'don't kill' order if she misbehaved; Feitan would happily finish what she started in resisting.

"Lanfen Paijin," he said as he stopped in front of them. Danchou, unfortunately, looked pleased with the bit of information. Feitan wouldn't be getting to kill her, then, even if she did escape again. A hostage or something, probably. He didn't really care.

"Did you learn anything else worth noting?"

"Doesn't feel pain," he said, narrowing his eyes with a touch of residual frustration. Given more time, he could have found a more effective torture method. Peeling away skin was probably the solution… His answer only seemed to please Danchou more, like he expected this. Feitan had wondered why he didn't have someone more 'gentle' catch her since he wanted her alive. Sending the torturer made sense if he wanted to test her pain tolerance. "Nen sharp like metal blade but flexible. Shaped it like fox or dog to attack."

The two wordlessly absorbed the information as Feitan returned his hands to his pockets, then stepping into the shadow of the building. No point in waiting in the sun while Machi cleaned up the mess.

"How much work did you leave me?" Machi asked, already passing by him.

"Could be worse." A lot worse. Machi would not have been happy with him if he had taken that little spat seriously. Neither would Danchou, considering the girl would bleeding out from a nasty combination severed limbs, flayed flesh, and broken bones- he decided all the above would be the most satisfying method. Really, he had treated her very nicely.

He could take out his frustration at the auction later anyway.

Lan rubbed her arm across her face, smearing blood onto her dust-covered sleeve.

That Feitan guy, damn. Potentially faster than Hisoka, and he wasn't even trying. The whole scuffle seemed more like a chore to him than anything else. Definitely impressive, but also an asshole. She stared at her left hand, two nails missing and a broken finger. The moment she felt his bloodlust she knew more damage would follow. They sent a presumed torturer after her… So much for Hisoka 'doing what he can' to help.

The only reason she attempted an attack, another escape, a distraction, was because she knew others were coming- either with or without Hisoka. Nemmi had used En for a reason earlier; that pulse of aura had given her an approximate location to her additional pursuers. While a hit to her pride, she knew one Spider was more than enough to kill her. Sending more, well, that was overkill, or they had something else to accomplish. Only asking for her name, she had a good idea of who to blame for this.

Nemmi arrived in a quiet tizzy, flapping his wings, bobbing his head, talons digging into the floor the second he landed. At least the broken window proved a better bird entrance than emergency exit. (She took note to not wear her vest if she lived long enough to fight Hisoka, or to any future fights. The wardrobe malfunctions needed to stop.)

"How many more?" she whispered.

While fleeing the Spider den, she had ordered him to use En if he spotted pursuers before returning to In to keep hidden. Too bad Feitan's speed overtook Nemmi's a hundred times over, leaving her blind to his location. Although, he probably would have destroyed Nemmi in one hit after the silly bird disobeyed her 'don't attack unless I say so' command; Nemmi tended to do that when he was in the room and she was clearly outranked. Sometimes, Nemmi having 'free will' based on the… the actual Nemmi's behaviors, backfired on her. Although, it also did allow Nemmi to function independently, like when she fell unconscious.

A pause followed by two scratches. Another part of the contractual loops Nemmi operated under: she had no idea what the bird witnessed until he told her through a series of bizarre gestures. He added another line to one mark, forming a cross.

The… the leader came with? She chewed on her lip, stopping when she tasted more blood in her mouth. When she got hit into the wall, she must have cut it open on her teeth. Grand.

But really, Chrollo came with? She regrettably found it oddly flattering that the Troupe leader personally came with to… to whatever. She had ideas, most unpleasant. Paijin might have mafia connections, but what would the Phantom Troupe want enough to…

That item thing of Fanghe's. Troublesome…

"And no Hisoka?"

Nemmi moved his head side to side in a clear no.

Three Troupe members, leader included, Hisoka absent, she was woefully outmatched. Running had already proven impossible. Feitan would catch her before she took more than two steps. Who knows what the other two were capable of. Cooperation would be the best option, but...

Footsteps echoing in the other room made her attention snap from the floor to the hole in the wall. Nemmi remained in In, but she motioned for him to leave for the time being. She didn't want his presence mistaken as a will to fight. Whoever was coming made sure she knew about them, the obvious footsteps a wordless peace offering meant to comfort her rather than startle her. As Nemmi skittered to the other side of the room, through a door-less frame into a hall, the person stepped into view.

The woman with bright pink hair and mostly traditional Japponese clothes reminiscent of a ninja's, her critical blue eyes skated over Lan. Her gaze lingered the longest on her left hand, the mangled finger in particular. The silence quickly became deafening.

Her phone decided to break the pause. Lan tried to ignore the vibrating in her pocket, the noise very audible in the quiet, not quite sure what etiquette the moment deserved. Did one answer a phone call when essentially held hostage? Could she reach into her pocket without being suspicious, triggering another unwinnable scuffle? It kept going, reaching the point of absurdity, or the moment just felt abnormally long under the woman's gaze.

"You going to answer that?"

Lan blinked at the voice, effectively brought back to the moment. She carefully dug her phone out. By some miracle, the screen wasn't cracked from Feitan tossing her around. The woman gave her permission to answer the call, right? Not just hang up and go back to dealing with the Spider mess? Without taking her eyes off the woman, feeling the need to watch for any changes in her calm expression, she poked at her phone and held it up to her ear.

"Are you still alive, fledgling?"

"I am," was her flat response. Of course, who else would call her at this very moment but Hisoka? Irritation with him began to replace fear for the Spider still before her. "You-"

"Is there an absolutely radiant kunoichi there?" he asked over her complaints.

She paused, staring at the woman in front of her. Kunoichi. That's the word she was looking for, not just ninja. She seemed to match Hisoka's description perfectly. "Yes."

"Would you give her the phone?" Lan's eyebrows knitted together at the request. He had something planned. His damn tone ensured it, all sweet and falsely sincere. "You have to be hurt, fledgling. Let me help."

She sighed in acceptance. The longer she waited, the more likely she would be losing a finger. Even then she might, since her medical training was nonexistent at worst, minimal at best. Cuts were more her expertise than… bone sticking out of skin. She couldn't imagine the Spiders letting her go to a hospital before continuing what would become a lengthy interrogation process.

She held her phone out. No reaction. "It's Hisoka," she explained, hoping to make some form of progress in this awkward exchange. The other woman stared at it like it was either annoying, bizarre, or both; she could hold a blank expression way better than Lan. Another moment passed before she bent down, snatched the phone, and then paced a few steps away.

Hisoka must have done all the talking, because the second the woman said, "All right." she paced back. Then she proceeded to toss the phone to Lan. Her phone's life flashed before her eyes as she fumbled to catch it before it met the floor in a horrendous clatter. The still ticking time had her holding the phone back to her ear.

"You need to be in working condition so I can play with you some more," Hisoka declared. "I paid Machi to fix you up. I'm sure Feitan did a number to you." Actual annoyance drifted into his sing-song voice. The thought of someone else dissecting her bothered him. How comforting- not. "Talk to you soon, fledgling." He hung up without another word explaining the situation.

With a bit of exasperation, she shoved her phone back into her pocket. In the same moment, Machi took a final step forward to officially be uncomfortably close. Lan looked up from her spot on the ground, the pink-haired woman suddenly much, much more intimidating. And pretty. Another elegant predator, the Spiders truly exceeded her expectations in every way. No wonder Hisoka would choose them over her.

"Is your shoulder dislocated?" Her voice, while not giving away any emotion, sounded sharp and commanding. For that to be her first question, Feitan must do this a lot.

"I think so," Lan said immediately, Machi's stern tone making it very clear that if she wanted help, she should answer.

Within a fraction of a second of her answer, Machi crouched down, hand on her left shoulder. A few precise movements later, Lan heard a pop as her joint resettled into its proper place.

"Get up." Machi stood, taking a few steps away. "You're too close to the wall. I'd like more room to work."

Setting her shoulder in place before making more requests was… was that supposed to be a sign to trust her? The explanation tacked on as an afterthought meant to further that? Lan slowly pushed herself off the floor, debris cascading off her clothes. She didn't have much choice if she wanted to keep her finger.

"Raise your arm so I can look at your hand."

Lan complied, raising her left arm, spreading her fingers out so she could see the damage. Curiosity started to get the better of her, caution fading as Machi seemed helpful enough at the moment. She wondered how she intended to fix this small problem; she didn't appear to have any sort of 'first-aid' kit on her. Nen, probably, but that made her even more curious. Lan would love to see a Spider at work- other than Hisoka and his stupidly effective gum ability that would surely prove a further nuisance to her.

Machi studied the damage closely for a moment, eyes hyper-focused on every aspect of the wound. She eventually grabbed Lan's wrist, holding it still, while her other hand went to the broken finger. A single movement had the bone at least back under the flesh- some things just shouldn't be seen, your own bones one of them.

"Hold it just like this," she said, waiting for Lan to take over holding her finger together. Once she had her hands free, Machi reached for a needle neatly pinned in a cushion attached to her glove. "Keep still. Drop your aura, too."

Lan could see Machi's aura beginning to strengthen as she prepared to do… something. Reluctantly, for the sake of her finger, she let the last scrap of her defensive Nen fade away. As Machi pulled out a needle, a thin Nen thread formed. Lan fought leaning in for a closer look, her eyes sparkling as she almost struggled to follow Machi's rapid movements. She could barely feel the needle going in and out of her skin, the thread leaving an odd residual warmth as it fixed everything into place. With a final pull and a snap of the string, she finished, returning the needle to its cushion. Lan stared at her finger while fighting a smile. She bent it, finding it worked even after being all but severed. Amazing. Simply amazing. She might actually be willing to get hurt again and part with some money to watch Machi's Nen at work a second time.

"The look on your face is just like Hisoka's," Machi commented as she stepped back. Lan tore her attention away from her hand to stare dumbly at the other woman while trying to hide how impressed she was. Should she say, 'thank you for fixing what your associate did?' She couldn't decide if that was appropriate or not. "Anything else?" Lan shook her head, Machi adding, "Then you survived two minutes with Feitan better than I thought you would. He must have been in a good mood."

Two minutes. That's it. The entire chase and capture had only lasted two minutes. And that was a good mood? Living on another plane of existence, operating under their own rules, these people were something else indeed.

"Danchou wants to talk to you when we've finished our job in Yorknew. It'd be in your best interest to stick around." Machi paused, Lan eventually muttering an 'okay' to show she understood, even if she didn't. It almost sounded like they were letting her run free until then? Made more sense to keep her tied up somewhere. Then again, it was fact rather than arrogance that they could easily catch her again if she tried to flee. "Well, that's it." Machi unceremoniously turned on her heel, walking back through the rubble to rejoin the other two.

Lan reluctantly followed a few steps behind her. She rationalized that it was the nearest exit, that maybe she could gain some inkling of her fate from seeing him again, not that simple, stupid curiosity of hers. Stepping out into the sunshine again felt odd. Seeing the three of them in the sunlight somehow felt wrong. Machi calmly, wordlessly stood between the other two, her hair nearly florescent pink in the afternoon sun. Feitan looked impassive, his eyes not giving away whatever expression he might have under his sweltering cloak. Finally, she dared glance at Chrollo. Lan quickly learned that the Troupe had the most impressive assembly of poker faces in existence. While their eyes met, as she stared into endless gray, his emotions and thoughts were a mystery.

"It was nice to meet you, Lanfen," he said, his words foreboding and polite in the same moment. Something about hearing her full first name from the lips of the devil himself made her panic and swoon in the same heartbeat. Captivating in the same beautiful, deadly way Hisoka was… She almost quaked at his presence in that odd combination of anticipatory dread.

Lan stood frozen, eyes fixated on the reversed cross of his coat as he walked away, as he lead his Spiders back to their web.

A weight on her shoulder shook her from her daze. Nemmi gave her a concerned head tilt paired with a gentle squeeze of his talons. Now standing alone in the middle of the street, sun beating down on her head, she considered what came next. They wanted the item, but…

She had no idea where it was, no idea what it even did. They… they wouldn't take that well. She could try to explain, but the pathetic truth, she doubted they would accept it. She would be back in the hands of the torturer. Again, relying on Hisoka to help smooth things over…

Her best option might be letting him kill her first.

It would be slightly better than letting Feitan slowly dissect her for information she didn't have… With Machi's ability, they could keep piecing her back together after cutting her apart in an endless cycle of horror and misery.

She wrung her hands together, trying not to sink her teeth into her lip again. For a person that didn't feel pain, she feared torture more than she should. She didn't want a slow death. She didn't want to die at all, but something prolonged… Suffocation. Illness. Drowning. And now, torture. The list of her most feared ways to die unfortunately grew.

"I hope you keep that promise, in the very least…" Lan muttered, finally dragging her feet in the opposite direction the Troupe had gone. "That my life is yours… That you won't let anyone else kill me before you do."

Hisoka killing her might be the only mercy he had to offer her now.

A/N- Why did I use Feitan's pov? I honestly just like him. So much so that at one point he was the 'love' interest rather than Chrollo. And on the subject of Chrollo, I hope he is in character because he is my new enemy- its just, I don't have much to go off of? IDK, I tried and hopefully am not failing because he's going to be around now. Especially since he knows a lot more about the Fan Shi than Lan.

Thank you for reading, and for the follows and faves! Thank you to Cutefrog, TheParadoxicalOxymoron, and HeavensScribe for reviewing!

Cutefrog- Oh, Gon. He just doesn't react to strangers with much suspicion. I'm glad you liked his little appearance last chapter! And that you are loving the story still! Thanks for reviewing again!

TheParadoxicalOxymoron- Haha, I thought you would like last chapter! And feral dogs fighting over a hunk (of meat), lol. They kind of are. Some of Lan's hunter activities will come up eventually :) As for if I have an ending in mind, I do. Didn't plan on marriage or kids, but death is always a possibility. Other than that… Well, its secret! Thank you for reviewing, I'm glad you appreciate the work going into the story!

HeavensScribe- Haha, wow, I'm so glad you've enjoyed my interpretation of Hisoka so much! One of the most accurate, you say? Super glad I've been doing him justice; I can only hope the same will apply to Chrollo. I'm happy that Lan's and Hisoka's interactions have been natural enough too; Lan definitely doesn't plan too well when it comes to him, lol. Then again, Hisoka is rather unpredictable. Reacting to his nonsense is about all you can do with him. Have some more Troupe! They always make things better, right? Anyway, thank you for reviewing, following, and favoriting! I'm glad you're enjoying!