In response to:
Mi-Chan: Then you, my friend, have given me an idea that I'm going to use in the sequel (if I can make the fic just as fabulous as this one, that is.) So thank you! I hope it doesn't disappoint c: And this whole phenomenon is so new to Feitan, poor thing is all night thinking about how strange it is~ And thank you for all your support ! I appreciate it
DelphiniumSweets: I'm happy to serve the people who love Feitan just as much as I do! And x OC stories aren't appreciated by some, I'm just happy that you guys appreciate it so much. (and dont worry bout the typo, pal~)
jovysanchez17: Gon's significant other would be so lucky because he's so optimistic and honestly I think he could make the littlest, most boring things fun somehow.
SilverSapphire34523: Thank you so much!
Mina: Thank you c': *hugs you*
OoO: Heeheehee Someone's been paying special close attention~ Yes, yes and yes. she could tell that he wouldn't (and couldn't) hurt her, and his attitude gave a lot away about his character; He needs to be dominant. So you can, for sure, say that Lucius knows what he feels and that she understands what someone must go through to come out in such a way. so she never once stripped him of his dominance (for both his sake and her own safety) and you could say that she always had a witty comeback to make sure that he knew that she wouldn't submit to him. And of course, his reactions to that are always hilarious. She sees herself in him. You're a good guesser, I bet you know people very well and that's a nice trait to have!
Parasitic Shadow: eeeeee! Thank you! I'd probably be sad with nothing to write when it ended anyway.
Maga: YES YES YES!
Also I went through the responses backwards for some reason sorry lmao
Chapter 37
Feitan leans forward behind a large birch tree, staring up at the Estate with a dead darkened gaze. Inside the lit building showed no movement, but Feitan's enhanced senses tell him that there's some type of activity within the home, and he knows well that in hard situations, his instincts are always absolute.
He approaches the building with a slow pace, calmly checking the perimeter for anyone seeking a failed ambush.
And if anyone did happen to attempt a sneak attack, Feitan would have them decapitated within seconds. There's no reason for him to play nice tonight, so why not leave a bloody mess to conjure up some panic?
His left shoulder twitches as he detects movement in one of the top right third floor windows. He takes a quick and silent step, dashing for the wall of the building and he looks up at the silhouette in the lit window.
A feminine shadow slowly glides from window to window as he gets closer to the mansion's entrance. He checks the surrounding area again before checking through another window near the entrance to ensure that no one was in there. Then, he grabs the doorknob and observes it for a second before twisting it.
Locked.
He closes his eyes for a moment, and with a quick motion fueled only by rage, he completely rips the door knob out of the door, throwing it on the doorstep after he kicks the door open. It smacks against the wall as he walks in with silent steps.
Below the bright glass chandelier hanging above his head and before the large staircase leading upwards to the second floor, he stands; waiting for anyone who could have heard him break in.
After a few moments of absolutely nothing happening, he decides that the silence is suspicious.
But that isn't stopping him from checking the surrounding rooms, which includes a kitchen, bathroom, dining room and a living room. After concluding that all rooms are vacant, he then returns to the entrance where he stands before the elegant carpeted staircase, waiting for only a moment before making his way up the staircase, and looking around the hallway carefully for the feminine silhouette that he had seen earlier. He carefully and quietly checks each room, only to find that they are all just as vacant as the ones on the first floor.
He checks the very last room in the hallway and makes a shocking discovery.
The room is just like all the other 4 bedrooms that he has seen on this floor, but carefully laid across the queen size bed is the dress that Lucius had worn on the night of the ball.
He closes the door behind him and stares at the dress.
The only thing that occupies the room along with himself is the dress, the furniture, and the surrounding darkness, as it is the only room in the entire Estate that was left unlit.
He draws closer to the bed and kneels at the end, gaze locked on the black and red blood-stained fabric.
He slowly reaches out a hand to touch the blood stain on the back of the dress, seeing that it has dried since the night of the Ball.
He sighs, finding comfort in the darkness and his newfound positive thoughts.
This is a sign to him that Lucius is at least okay.
There would be no reason to strip her of her clothing if she were dead. No, The Chain User wouldn't have taken the time. He would have just buried her after he murdered her, just like he did Uvo. And The Chain User's moral standards are too high to strip her of her clothing and…
'No, stop thinking.'
He grabs his head and sits on the bed beside the dress.
If only his mind wouldn't wander so much, then he would have the energy to complete this mission much quicker. Such thoughts will only give him more things to keep him up at night.
He convinces himself that Lucius is safe.
Safe. Safe. Safe.
And he wipes his mind of all thoughts.
And he doesn't think.
The maid stretches her arms above her head, yawning.
Finally, she has finished cleaning the third floor of the Nostrade Estate.
And no one is there to appreciate it.
She sighs and sets the broom against a wall, wiping off a few beads of sweat from her forehead.
She goes to sit down on one of the many armchairs that are set up in Neon's hallway of nightmares that leads to the former psychic's bedroom. But before the poor, overworked maid can catch her breath, she hears what sounds like footsteps coming from the second floor of the mansion.
Goosebumps hit her bare arms and legs and she stops breathing completely, focusing on the noises that she hears from the floor directly below her.
Fear and panic settles in as she wonders who else could be in the house with her.
She was told by one of Neon's bodyguards that no one but staff was to be allowed in the Estate for approximately four months, and they seemed to rush out of the building without another word.
As for Neon, she was told that she would stay with a friend in another state.
Hesitantly, the woman slowly lifts herself off of the armchair and she tries again to listen, but unfortunately she cannot hear anything past her own heartbeat.
She arms herself with the broom, just in case, but finds that she is too afraid to move.
Whatever it is on the second floor of the mansion, it is heading her way up the stairwell.
The group had set up a kind of makeshift dining table when they finally returned from their long drive back to the hotel from the neighboring town.
The table was a combination of coffee tables and nightstands collected from all three of their rooms, which all surprisingly fit in Kurapika and Leorio's hotel room.
Gon, Kalluto, Killua and Lucius sit at the makeshift dining table, patiently waiting to be served their spaghetti while Melody, Leorio and Kurapika are in Gon and Killua's room, making use of a microwave that was conveniently placed across from their beds next to a miniature refrigerator.
"I feel like this could be the strangest thing I have ever done." Says kalluto with a awkward smile, comparing the height differences of each table that makes up their makeshift dining table.
"No, you mean that this is the most ghetto thing you've ever done. The strangest thing you've ever done was join the Phantom Troupe." Says Killua as he leans on the nightstand that sits in front of him. "And you still have to explain yourself."
Kalluto puffs his cheeks, scowling. "It was all to find you, you know." He mumbles.
"The strangest thing Killua has done is become friends with an octopus named Ikalgo!" Says Gon to Lucius with a smile. "And the strangest thing I've ever done was become a man even before I hit puberty! What about you, Lucius?"
Lucius, who is sitting at the end of their pretend dining table, widens her eyes at Gon's response, far too confused to come up with her response to his question. She raises her eyebrows, unable to believe her ears. In fact, she even doubts for a moment that she heard him correctly or perhaps mistranslated his words.
She leans in closer to him, speaking with utmost concern. "...What did you just say?"
"He became a man, somehow." Says Killua, confirming that her ears had not misheard him.
And then, Gon continues to explain to her something that she is almost certain never happened.
According to Gon's explanation, Mutant ants that somehow took the form of animals, began to eat people and repopulate and threatened to take over the world…
And Gon risked his life to take down a single one which happened to be one of the strongest of them all.
Lucius further expresses her concern by looking at Kalluto, who only nods.
Their conversation ends when Leorio and Kurapika come carrying the dozen takeout boxes and set them on the table(s) in front of them along with plastic utensils.
"Eat up."
Upon meeting eyes with the stranger, The maid brought a hand to her mouth.
The figure was small and cloaked in black from head to toe. The bottom half of his face is covered by a collar, which bares a symbol of a skull and cross-bones. Radiating from his body is some sort of dangerous aura, that leaves her skin tingling.
It is like he is bloodthirsty.
He just glares at her for a moment, and she stares back as beads of sweat begin to form on her forehead again. And then, as she is about to ask what the hell he could want from her, suddenly he begins to advance towards her with a frighteningly calm glide.
His eyes, his blank, black pupils express no emotion and paralyze her with fear.
When he is just in arm's reach, she jumps back instinctively, stepping back without looking away from his eyes and dropping the broom in her hands.
Then, her heel is caught by the leg of the armchair, and she falls on her behind as the small cloaked man continues to pursue.
He stops at the end of her feet and crouches, leering above her.
He speaks to her with venom dripping from his words as if she had wronged him horribly, speaking in between heavy breaths with a soft, tired and strained voice.
"Where… is… Chain User?"
"Ch-Chain User? I-I don't know what you're talking about!" The maid attempts to make distance by crawling backwards, but the cloaked man pulls out a knife and within seconds her vision is blurred.
The man pins her up against the wall, holding her by the throat with surprising strength. His expression eerily remains the same as he tightens the grip around her neck.
She gasps for breath but only chokes.
"Blonde. Red eyes. Bodyguard. Where is he?"
The description immediately rings bells and she struggles to speak to tell him that she doesn't know, and he loosens his grip enough so that she can speak.
"H-He left without a word! I swear, I don't know!"
He squeezes her neck harder, causing the veins in her throat to swell.
"You better give me answer before I kill you." He says as he lifts the knife in his other hand.
Her mind races to some conclusion but can't come up with any.
'Please, God. Not this.'
He loosens his grip again and she gasps for air, tears welling up in her eyes.
"I-I'm sorry, p-please! Take anything you want, Please don't kill me!"
And with absolutely no emotion at all, Feitan plunges the knife into her gut and she lurches back, tears falling from her cheeks.
But then, as he holds the knife inside of her stomach, she realizes the information that she really has.
She remembers cleaning Neon's bedroom and picking up the teenager's diary which had been sprawled on the floor with a numerous amount of other items. And thankfully, her curiosity had gotten the better of her.
She remembers the entry had been about how much fun she'd have living with her friend for a few months, and that her bodyguards were going on vacation and are staying in a hotel called…
called…
He twists the knife, triggering her memories.
"Aughh! Stop, stop I know where they are, please!"
He takes the knife out of the woman's stomach and she falls limp to the floor, spitting blood onto her black and white maid outfit.
He kneels.
"Then speak."
"The Hotel Epitome just past YorkNew! That's where they went! Please, please…" The woman begins to sob. "Please don't kill me…"
The man puts a hand over her mouth and says words in her ear that she cannot understand. Then, just as someone would gut a pig or fish, he plunges the knife back into her gut, which causes her to scream against the palm of his hand and he forces the knife upwards, continuing up to her throat until her screams became muffled sobs, and finally…
Silence.
He removes his hand and the knife, and her body falls limp on her side.
He wipes the blood that she spit up into his hand on his cloak before exiting the Estate through one of the third floor windows.
Lucius slurps another noodle into her mouth as she continues to listen to Gon speak of his adventures with his father when he sees Killua creeping from behind him with a handful of spaghetti in his hand. Killua lifts a finger to his lips and Kalluto chuckles.
Gon turns his head towards Killua, who smashes his handful of noodles right into Gon's face.
Lucius gasps, and she thought at first that he would react negatively as he sat with the spaghetti sauce and noodles dripping down his face silently.
Killua snerks as a giant grin appears on Gon's face as he slurps up the noodles and wipes his eyes before grabbing his entire plate and shoving it into Killua's face and holding it there while Killua sits completely still.
Kalluto laughs and Lucius puts a hand over her smirk; checking the other room to see if Kurapika and Melody have noticed their little food fight, but it seems that they have started to watch the news in Gon and Killua's room as Leorio enters the room they are eating in and closes the door behind him.
Leorio gasps and smiles while grabbing from the pile of spaghetti on his plate.
"I want in on this"
He smiles fiendishly at Lucius and Kalluto, but Kalluto puts up his hands in protest.
"Wait wait wait." He says while standing. "If we're going to have a food fight, I'm going to change first since everyone here is all about sleeping in spaghetti stained pajamas, I'll join you."
With that, Kalluto climbs over Gon and Killua, who have began to wrestle with spaghetti noodles hanging from their hair and noses and walks into the next room and closes the door behind him.
Leorio turns to threaten Lucius with the ball of noodles in his hand, but instead he is met with a face full of sauce and a fork hitting his face. He shakes it off to see that Lucius has stood with her own ball of spaghetti in hand.
He smiles and laughs fiendishly, taking a kind of cowboy-ish stance.
"Nice shootin' Tex." He says with a southern accent. "But I'm afraid you've started a war."
Lucius smiles, a big goofy kind of sheepish smile that the group hasn't seen on her face before. She lets out a little chuckle, which fuels Leorio's urge to make her smile more.
Leorio spots a little chunk of spaghetti noodles that Gon and Killua had thrown on the floor and returns his gaze to Lucius, who has been waiting for a moment to grab some more spaghetti and continue their war. Before she can make any movement, he steps forward and allows his shoe to slip forward, causing himself to fall.
Kalluto smiles as he closes the door that separates his room with Gon and Killua's, where Kurapika and Melody sit watching the television, blissfully unaware of the food fight going on in the other hotel room.
The sound of Lucius's laughter can be heard even from this room.
Happily, he waltzes from the door to his bag near his bed where he stuffed his new pajamas that he was able to get on their shopping spree, gleefully listening to Lucius laugh.
It was a nice change from her usual stoic attitude; and he can tell that she is much happier in such an uplifting environment.
He wishes as he begins to undress and get into his pajamas that she would laugh more often, even though when she laughs it is usually quiet chuckles. Seeing her happier than normal makes him feel less guilty.
Guilt is a rarity when it comes to Kalluto. Usually he feels no kind of remorse when he hurts someone, he is a Zoldyck after all. But Lucius made him feel comfortable, and comfort is not something he felt when it came to the Phantom Troupe.
He felt as though she was the kind of sibling that he always wanted. And perhaps he can make up the whole "balcony" situation by helping her in her new life.
After he is completely changed, he decides to go to the bathroom before returning to their food fight. Afterwards, he takes the time to wash his hands and brush through his hair. He then turns off the light and walks into the unlit, empty hotel room.
But suddenly, he is stopped by some sort of strong, almost demonic aura that paralyzes him.
It was like the air became heavy and muggy with despair and anger. It was a feeling that was made familiar to him by spending lots of time with Illumi.
Kalluto holds his breath, choking on the red, deadly aura around him.
His head slowly turns towards the dark figure standing in the moonlight that floods through the open window, which is glaring at him with a death glare that is all too familiar to him.
"F-Feitan?!"
BUM BUM BUUUUUUUH
Sorry if some parts got shitty, I kind of had a rough week and I was sick for most the week but I hope it was at least enjoyable.