The bite of the needle was less than what Winry had expected. All of her experience was with medical needles and she had thought it would be more similar to the sensation of a hypodermic needle. But as Shizuku ran the tattoo gun across the soft skin of her outer thigh, it was nothing she had thought it would be. It was a stinging, persistent vibration that dulled the longer it went on.

The blue tracing outline of the spider on her leg made her heart race. She was ready for this indoctrination. From the moment she had laid her eyes on the Troupe at the airport in Maycape, she had felt the fine fibers of Fate — like a spider's web — drawing her to Chrollo. To them. Even from the start. This was the endgame she had always been destined for. It was what she had left Amestris to discover, even if she hadn't realized it then. Perhaps this was what everything had been for, right down to Kimblee and the Promised Day.

Number eleven.

Machi crouched down beside where Winry laid; "I may need your help." Winry's brows perked as she waited for the other woman to expand on her words. "Hisoka wired me money to repair his injuries, in the event of his death. I couldn't repair all of his wounds last time — I may need your help again this time. I will split my commission with you."

"I can do that," Winry agreed. Although Chrollo had asked for license to use her ability, he had not taken her up on the option. She was free to help Machi.

"The fight's starting," Nobunaga said. His tone was sharp — he wanted quiet. It took no urging. They all wanted to see what would come of this. The tension between Hisoka and Chrollo had been building before Winry had even entered the picture. This reckoning was due.

"Ladies and gentlemen! The opponent the elusive "Grim Reaper" has picked for this Floor Master battle...! Here for his first match as Floor Master! His name is—"

Shizuku lifted the needle to stop tattooing for a moment, and Phinks grabbed one end of the couch Winry laid on, turning it so that it faced the television. Shizuku settled back into her place, continuing to fill in the blue outline of the spider on Winry's thigh, eyes darting up every few moments to look at the screen with the rest of them.

"Chrollo Lucilfer verse Hisoka Morow!"

Winry couldn't breathe as she digested the sight of the two men, squared off and standing face-to-face in the arena. Chrollo's hair was haphazard and uncharacteristically wild. The tattoo on his forehead was uncovered and there for all to see. His left hand was curled into a fist at his side while he leisurely touched his chin with the other. Across from him, Hisoka stood with the back of his hand on his hip, pristine in his whites, and his lips wet. Neither man was mic'd up for the fight; instead there were booms over the arena. The crowd cheered — Raah! Raah! — and Winry thought back to the two men on the dock in Meteor City.

"He will be so primed to fight me by that point that he will agree to whatever terms I lay in place. It will not be advantageous for him."

She would not choose to be in the crowd tonight.

"Finally," Hisoka said with a slow smile. "...My dream is realized. I've waited this long — I don't want a friendly sparring match. "

"I know." Chrollo nodded his acknowledgement of Hisoka's request. "Being pursued has become annoying. This will be a battle to the death."

Hisoka inclined his head. "Okay."

"WOW!" the commentator's voice said over the jeering of the arena. "Floor Master Chrollo proposes a battle to the death! And Hisoka consents! Mortal combat it is! Only one will survive! Victory is on through the other's death!"

"The use of weapons is allowed," the referee said, taking his place between the two men. Winry could see a bead of sweat trickling down his cheek. Or mayhap it was a tear, because deep inside he certainly had to know he'd never make it out of the arena alive. "For your pride and honor...Let's fight!"

Winry hadn't blinked, she hadn't taken her eyes off the two men, but already Chrollo had Bandit's Secret in his hand and she didn't know where he had taken it from. She hadn't seen him move. Hisoka hadn't moved yet either. The arena had gone quiet and a small gasp echoed through the microphone's. The screen switched to a camera that was focused in on the referee; his eyes had gone wide. The screen switched again. There was an antenna sticking out of the back of the referee's spine.

"Hey, ain't that yours?" Phinks said, and heads swiveled to Shalnark.

"Black Voice: Mobile Fate Director," Chrollo said in the ring, holding up the phone.

"I see."

"He left Hisoka hanging after the exorcism in order to gather his cards," Machi murmured admiringly.

Except then Chrollo drew out a second antenna. The judge and Chrollo lunged toward Hisoka, synchronized, and Winry saw immediately what Chrollo's goal was — to pin Hisoka with the judge, and stab Hisoka with the other antenna. Chrollo's movements were too quick to track on the television as he closed in on Hisoka, levying stomp after stomp. Winry's breath was caught in her chest as she waited for Hisoka to escape. She waited for the alchemy to defend himself. Instead Hisoka used his Bungee Gum to escape his predicament.

"Chrollo wants him to be vigilant of the antenna," Shalnark said casually from where he sat. "In order to wear Hisoka down. He wants Hisoka to know this will be a drawn-out battle."

"I'm so happy, Chrollo," Hisoka crooned. "You make me feel...so good."

A small thunder crack and a rupture of light and blood disrupted the television, and Hisoka was dodging away from the judge. Chrollo stood behind the judge, hands in the air, and Nobunaga rose to his feet. Shizuku paused to watch. The judge's eyes rolled back in his head, up toward the sky, but the life had already flickered away. His knees went out under him then the weight of his body let him collapse onto his face, and Winry could see his eyes no more.

"What are those?" he demanded as the camera zoomed in on the tattoos on the backs of Chrollo's hands. Winry's breathing quickened as she sat upright. But they weren't seeing it yet — Chrollo's greatest achievement.

"The Sun and the Moon: Paired Destruction," Chrollo said in simple response to Hisoka's alarmed expression.

"But where's the book?" Phinks whispered, at last seeing it.

"As you can see, it uses both hands," Chrollo continued. "When the marks touch each other, they explode. The marks themselves can be made in an instant, but for maximum effect I need to touch the target for three to five seconds."

"Hmph," Hisoka squared his shoulders.

"I gained this ability back home...in Meteor City."

"When did Chrollo go to Meteor City?" Shalnark asked. Winry said nothing.

"Are you being condescending, or are you really expecting me to just bend over?" Hisoka asked.

"I won't take another draw step," Chrollo replied coolly. "I'll play with my hand face up." He smiled. "Style is important in a game, right? More than the outcome."

"Won't you be more insistent on winning? Don't be such a turn-off," Hisoka pouted.

"Of course, I plan to win. What about yourself?" Hisoka said nothing. "Think carefully before you call after seeing my hand." Chrollo drew a simple bookmark. "Double Face: Bookmark Theme. Like I just demonstrated, by using a Bookmark, I can maintain that page's ability even after closing the book. I can use it concurrently with an ability on another page."

"As long as you can fight comfortably," Hisoka smiled. And, in that moment, he looked devastatingly handsome. He simply glowed with excitement under Chrollo's attention. "A battle is a dance...We must move to each other's beat."

"I only have one Bookmark, by the way. Being able to make a combo of two abilities is powerful, but the true advantage of the Bookmark is not having to hold the book.

"Skill Hunter required me to hold the book with my right hand when I conceived it. But when I stole an ability that required both hands—" Winry's gaze briefly trailed away from the television. "—I was forced to make some adjustments. Now I have more annoying conditions to deal with, but I find that my combat efficiency has vastly improved. I can use one ability with both hands free. Isn't it wonderful?"

"Hmph."

"With that in mind...I'll show you three more abilities. You're setting a new record for the number of abilities it has ever taken me to kill someone. You should be proud."

Except Winry hadn't forgotten that Hisoka could use alchemy. She doubted Chrollo had either, though, as he drew a stamp from places unknown.

"Order Stamp: Proof of Humanity," he said simply. "Shalnark's Black Voice manipulates humans. This one manipulates puppets, but can't give complex commands."

"So the phone is for the finish. Humans and puppets can't be controlled together. Is there another plan?" Hisoka said.

Chrollo tucked his Bookmark inside Bandit's Secret, and away the book went as he knelt beside the referee. "You've seen this one before."

The expression on Hisoka's face would have been comical, had his life not been in the balance, as Chrollo knelt and laid his palm flush against the dead referee's shoulder. Winry already knew what would come next; she had watched Chrollo conduct his experiments on the dock in Meteor City. A perfect replica of the dead referee materialized to Chrollo's right; this was Kortopi's ability.

"To me," he mused, "a corpse and a puppet are similar inanimate objects...but not to the former owner of Order Stamp. A corpse cannot be controlled, but its copy can." Chrollo rose to his feet. "Get up."

The dead referee's copy dragged itself up to its feet, wavering slightly before finding stable footing. It's eyes were wide, somehow overly animated and still wildly dead. The tension in Hisoka's shoulders shifted with his stance. Winry wondered what Hisoka was thinking now, watching this scene unfold. Perhaps he was wondering whether he could defeat Chrollo at all, even with alchemy. But Hisoka did not launch an attack — he was waiting for Chrollo to uphold his promise, to show his hand before Hisoka called.

"For the former owner, the difference between a puppet and one that ceased to be one is whether the head is connected to the torso." Chrollo didn't take his eyes off his opponent, his left arm raising to point. He utter a single command: "Break Hisoka."

The copy referee charged without hesitation, and Hisoka widened the stance of his legs in preparation for the attack. Before him, Chrollo continued, unperturbed.

"How it accepts commands depends on the puppet too. It reflects its original personality. It may focus on inefficient methods or assume the deed is done before the target is truly dead. In the worst cases, some puppets outright ignore the order. But change the command to break..."

The copy reached Hisoka then, and it tracked Hisoka like prey even as the Magician nimbly turned to evade the attack. He had to quick step to avoid the copy's hands.

"...and they get to work on severing the head." Chrollo smiled, and Winry felt herself smiling along with him. "Making the ability yours while exploring the darkness within the soul of the original owner. That's the true pleasure of a Skill Hunter."

The copy lunged for Hisoka again, but Hisoka didn't try to avoid him this time. He seized the referee with one hand on top of his head and another digging into his chin, and twisted. A sickening crack of bone shot through the booms and out the television speakers, but Hisoka didn't stop twisting. He wrenched the head around until it ripped from the neck, severing messily. Spectators gasped. Hisoka turned back to Chrollo, dropping the head without so much as a smile. Blood splattered over his whites.

"Correct," Chrollo answered to Hisoka's unspoken question, "sever the head and the puppet stops — the Stamp disappears."

"And the last one?" Hisoka asked, his tongue sliding across his lips, tantalized. Winry shuddered.

"This." Chrollo held his hands up once more for Hisoka, but with his palms held outward and fingers splayed this time. There were new tattoos. One was a white arrow with a black ground, while the other had the colors inverted. "I can use my left hand while holding the book, but I use the Bookmark when I want to use the right. The ability remains in effect so long as I hold the book open, even if I remove the Bookmark."

Hisoka's lips pursed. This was bad news for him indeed, Winry knew.

"Touch with my right hand, and the target takes my form. Touch with my left hand, and I take on the form of the target. Touch with both hands, and we instantly switch forms. It'll be easy to figure out which is real," Chrollo reassured him. "I'm the one with the arrows on my palms."

In this moment, as the camera panned the two men, laying plain the difference between them, Winry wondered if perhaps Chrollo had Hisoka outclassed...even if Hisoka had alchemy. She had seen the terrifying bits and pieces of his destructive thoughts on the dock at Meteor City, she had known he was frightening and calculated, but this...She had not known then all of the abilities Chrollo intended to wield and how they would interact and unfold. Chrollo, the Head of the Spider, was tremendously cunning.

"All to defeat you," Chrollo finished, the slightest upturn of his lips.

Hisoka took a step forward, then another.

"So...that it for the lecture, right? Time to get this started."

"One more thing. I'll offer you the most important bit of information."

Hisoka's chin raised slightly, waiting. He had waited this long, after all. What were a few more seconds to him? Chrollo drew his Bookmark, letting it dangle from his fingers.

"The abilities in my book vanish, never to be used again when the person I stole them from dies. But one of the abilities I just explained is an ability that remains in the book even after death."

Hisoka's eyes widened and his lips parted. His footsteps paused. Then his brows furrowed and his eyes narrowed once more, realizing on his own what Chrollo had had to explain to her on the shore.

"Nen that becomes stronger after death." Chrollo smiled. "Looks like you get it. This came as a surprise to me too.

"The original owner was Meteor City's elder. Unlike Order Stamp's owner, the elder thought there wasn't much difference between humans and puppets. I tend to agree." One final pause. "Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

"Yes," Hisoka nodded. "The Sun and the Moon, once marked, cannot be removed."

"Exactly. Whether I close the book or put it away, they remain until the bomb goes off. That's the end of the explanation. I'm not saying this as a challenge, but I'll win. I'm one hundred percent sure. Will you continue?"

Hisoka had no hesitation, and even now, Winry felt admiration for him for that. "Of course."