Disclaimer: Skip this chapter if you get uncomfortable.

Chapter 33: Yay! x First x Mission

January 25, 1999

"I'll die but not drink this." Levi whines for the umpteenth time that afternoon.

"Come on! It will make you a lot better, okay?" Shalnark softly pats his head.

Levi pushes his hand away. "I'm not a dog!"

"You sure are acting like one!" Phinks sneers.

"Very stubborn dog." Feitan nods his head.

"Danchou!" Levi whines... again.

Chrollo chuckles softly. "Don't you feel awful right now? Just drink your medicine and you'll feel a lot better."

"I don't care! I can handle the current awfulness but I won't tolerate how awful the stupid medicine tastes!" Levi retorts.

"Your condition will only get worse."

"I don't care!"

"You should."

"No!"

Feitan frowns. "Tsk. So noisy."

Levi groans and runs out of the room. Unfortunately, he can run from the room but not the inescapable grip of a certain Phinks, who easily drags the struggling Levi back into the room.

"Behave." He growls.

"I'll pass."

"You little-" Phinks is about to punch Levi, when Chrollo sighs.

"You can pass on the medicine, Levi." Phinks throws Levi to the ground at his words. "However, if your condition worsens, I'll personally force you to take it. Understand?"

Levi nods with a sheepish smile.

"Now," He continues once the room settles down, "Shal, take Levi shopping."

"Shopping? Sounds fun!" Shalnark beams. "But what for?"

"A suit. As I told you earlier, he needs a suit for the mission."

"Hmm..." Shalnark taps his phone a few times until he has a satisfied look on his face. "... found it! There's a nice store nearby where we can get it. So... when do we leave?"

"As soon as possible."

"How about now?"

"Very well."

January 26, 1999

Levi looks at himself in the bathroom mirror. He's wearing a black coat and pants, with a white shirt underneath and a black bowtie. He's never worn a suit in his life, but he's seen a lot of people in it. So, he has some idea of how to wear it.

He turns around to check the collar from the back. It looks okay to him.

He steps out of the bathroom to see Phinks sitting on one of the couches in his room. His breath hitches as he notices a cigarette in his right hand, dancing between his index and middle finger.

"What's that?" Levi murmurs and points a finger at the burning cigarette. Smoke curls and rises out of its tip, while Levi scrutinises it.

Phinks takes, not one, but two slow long drags on his cigarette, finding pleasure in the fear shining in Levi's eyes.

Finally, when Levi's aura is on the verge of exploding, he speaks. "A cigarette."

"Isn't it bad for you... it damages your lungs and stuff... why do you still take it?" Levi murmurs, his words rolling awkwardly off his tongue.

"Hm? What's that I hear? You're worried about my health?" He sneers.

Levi turns his head away. "Never mind. Just... put that thing away... please."

Phinks narrows his eyes at the desperation in his voice and decides on a compromise. "Apologize for being a brat earlier and I'll put it away."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"... for being a brat."

"Say the whole thing."

Levi presses his lips together, almost refusing to say it. In the end, his pride wavers. "I'm sorry for being a brat."

Phinks expects the boy to lash out. At his undesired obedience, he frowns. "Elaborate."

Levi's hand twitches and nearly curls into a fist. His fear, however, defeats his pride again. "I'm sorry for arguing about Killua earlier. It was my fault for forgetting that the Spider comes before everything else. Please just-"

Levi chokes back a sob and with a frown, Phinks appears behind him. "That's enough. I forgive you. Just stop whining like a quivering puppy."

A sob escapes from Levi's throat as he tries escaping to the bathroom. Before he can close the door, Phinks grabs his collar and drags him back out.

He's about to insult him further when he notices tears streaming down his face.

He sighs and bites the insult back. "You're wearing your coat inside out."

For the next few minutes, he fusses over Levi's appearance. He fixes he coat, his buttons, his cuffs, and well... everything as it's all the wrong way. He even uses some of his own gel to fix his stubbornly messy hair, sticking them back and away from his face.

Once finished, he sneers. "You have a big forehead behind those bangs. It's especially surprising because of how tiny your brain is... or maybe it's not and you just don't use it enough."

Levi sticks out his tongue and strides out of the room.

"Hey! Where the hell are you going!"

Levi keeps walking. "To Danchou."

"Aw! If you wanted compliments, you could've just asked." Phinks snickers.

Levi dashes back and closes the door, before going back to Chrollo's room.

As Levi enters the room, a gray cat leaps into his arms.

"Levi!" Levi exclaims, embracing the cat.

Phinks appears from behind him. "Hey! Don't let the stupid creature ruin your suit. I just fixed it!"

Levi reluctantly put it down and turns to Chrollo, who sits at his usual place on the armchair by the blazing fireplace. The rest of the Spiders are busy being noisy and making bets of some sort. It seems like they usually stay in Chrollo's room for the day.

Chrollo smiles at him. "You look great." Levi turns a brighter shade of pink as Chrollo addresses Phinks. "Shalnark just sent me a message. The others have found a suitable car and are waiting outside."

Phinks nods. "Alright then, we'll be leaving." Then, he grabs Levi's hand and pulls him out of the room.

"Can we take Levi with us?" Levi inquires as the elevator dings open.

"No. Too dangerous." They step out into the lobby.

"But-"

"Now, shut up."

"But-"

Phinks pulls on his wrist harder. "I said, shut up. "

By then, Levi's too mesmerized by his lavish surroundings to continue the argument.

Phinks approaches the reception and nearly slams the pass on the table. "We're going out for a while." He snarls, not too pleased with the hotel policy of informing the receptionist about their arrivals and departures.

The receptionist smiles rather reluctantly, slides the card in a machine and hands it back.

"Make sure you don't lose it!" She says in her well-practiced cheery voice. Then, she looks at Levi and compares him to the man. "Is that your-"

She blinks. The two are gone.

"Hm... are we there yet?"

"No."

"Now?"

"No."

"Hm... now?"

"No."

"Uh... now?"

"No!"

"Ok... how about now?"

Phinks nearly crashes into a car as he whips his head back to glare at Levi.

"Shut the hell up! I'll tell you when we get there myself. Don't ask me over and over and over again!"

Feitan sighs in the front seat.

"Hm... are we there now?"

"You little-" Phinks grabs Levi by the collar and unintentionally turns the wheel around so hard that they crash into a poor parked car.

They coat themselves with aura and escape any injuries. Unfortunately, however, the car is not as lucky.

Feitan tsks as he kicks the door open. Shalnark whines and steps outside. Franklin helps Levi get out, before getting out himself.

Phinks on the other hand, pulls the door off its hinges, steps out and covering it with aura, growls and flings it at Levi.

Franklin shoots it away at the last moment. "No serious fights are allowed between members." He reminds him with a frown.

Phinks scowls. "Well, alright. But what the hell are we supposed to do now?! The tiny bastard destroyed our car!"

"You're the one who attacked me! Your faulty driving destroyed the car!"

"Alright, let's calm down everyone." Shalnark pipes up. "We can just get another car. It's not that hard."

"No we." Feitan jabs a finger in Levi's direction. "He will."

"Huh? Why me?"

"Punishment." He smirks.

"I agree." Phinks grins. "If we can't punch him, that's the second best option right now."

"But I doubt he even knows the car models!" Shalnark frowns. "And the nearest showroom is too far away. We'll be late if he tries to steal one from there."

"Why don't you go with him, then?" Phinks glowers.

"But I got this car! Someone else is going to get the other one!"

Franklin sighs. "Just flip a coin. Heads and we do as Feitan and Phinks says, Tails and we do as Shalnark says. Done?"

The others agree and the shiny piece of metal is flicked up in the air. It lands gracefully on Franklin's hand.

"Tails."

Feitan and Phinks snit while Shalnark beams. Levi stays neutral, knowing that he'll be stuck going either way...

"Hm... Our car got destroyed because of Levi and Phinks. So, they both should go get out car."

"Absolutely not!" Both of them yell at the same time. "I can go alone, but not with him!"

Shalnark chuckles. "Oh, come on now! You both seem to have a pretty good rythm. Besides, we all agreed on flipping the coin."

"Damn you, Shal!" Phinks mutters as he grabs Levi's hand.

"I can walk without your help." Levi tries to pull it away from him.

"Danchou specifically asked us to not let you go."

"But I'm with you!"

"Danchou's orders." Phinks smugly shrugs.

"You sure you didn't just make that up?" Levi snarls.

"Meh! Just ask the others. I don't like holding your noodle hand anyway."

Unfortunately for Levi, the others are far behind by now.

A few minutes later, the two arrive at a large underground parking lot. It has several guards patrolling the entrance. Phinks lets go of Levi.

"Clear the way. Make sure you don't ruin the suit though."

Levi groans but agrees. He claws his hands and starts walking towards them, slowly increasing his pace.

An idea strikes him. He smirks and splits his aura into multiple illusions of himself using the Rythm Echo.

In a flash, he destroys all the security cameras, removing all evidence of him, and returns to his position.

The baffled guards point their guns at him as one of them yells. "Don't move, kid!"

Levi snickers and, in the blink of an eye, yanks out the yelling guard's heart and leaps back. He glances at his suit as the guard drops to the ground. It's still in pristine condition.

He smiles and turns to the others. He gathers back his aura, making the illusions disappear. The other guards are quaking in their boots now. One of them runs towards the dead guard. His gun lies forgotten on the ground as he weeps over him.

Levi gives them a few moments to recover until they start raining bullets on him. He simply chuckles, the bullets bouncing off of him and his aura-coverwd suit.

One of the guards call for backup as the others keep shooting and reloading their guns. Soon, the terrified guards run out of bullets and run back to retreat.

Levi picks a few bullets off of the ground and flings one to the nearest guard. It hits him at the nape and with a painful sound, he falls down dead.

Levi smiles with satisfaction, having found a good way to take them all out without getting any blood on him.

A few minutes later, he returns to Phinks with a frown.

"Done." He murmurs.

"Took you long enough." He scowls, grabs him by the wrist again and off they go inside, to get a new car.

"You did disable all the cameras, right?"

"Of course!" Levi answers, annoyed. "However, one of them did call for backup."

Phinks sighs.

A few minutes later, they are back outside with a shiny black sedan. Phinks scowls in the driver's seat while Levi whines in the back seat, as sirens sound in the background.

"Remind me to ask Danchou for permission to punch you when we get back." Phinks snarls as he steps out of the car.

"Stay in the car." He slams the door shut, rattling the poor car inside and out.

Levi closes his eyes, kicks off his shoes and curls himself up on the seat. Tears prick the corner of his eyes and he gives in.

Phinks frowns as he returns to a sobbing little boy curled up in the back seat.

"What now?" Phinks jerks open the back door.

Levi peeks an eye out from under his arms. "I'm sorry."

"You should be. Now, fix yourself up unless you fancy embarrassing yourself in front of Fei, Shal, and Frank too."

He slams the door shut, making the whole car tremble again, as Levi straightens up and tries his best to fix himself.

Phinks slides into the front seat. Drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, he tries his best not to slap Levi. Finally, he turns around and starts fussing over Levi's suit again.

Levi whines but reluctantly lets him.

Just as Phinks gets back into the front seat, the long-awaited trio makes their appearance with Shalnark knocking on the windshield.

"There! You two make a great team!" Shalnark beams as Feitan snickers, Phinks snits and Franklin sighs.

Levi simply goes with a pout and glues himself to the window as Franklin puts a box in the trunk of the car, while the others slide in.

Nearly an hour later, the car stops in front of a large swanky building. Magenta lights don every inch of it and there's something written in big curly letters at the top.

"Whew! Is this the place? Eh! I'm just glad to finally get out of that car! Hm... The Magenta Girl, huh." Shalnark yawns as he steps out of the car, his arms stretching high above his head.

"The... Magenta girl?" Levi slides out of the car as well.

"Hm? That's just the name of the place." Shalnark puts his arms back at his sides as the others exit the car.

"So... it doesn't exactly look like a house... what is this place?" Levi rubs the back of his neck, feeling an uneasy feeling creeping up his spine.

"A bar." Shalnark answers, matter-of-factly. "It's a place where people come to... mostly drink alcoholic drinks."

"And... what are we doing here?"

"I'm... not sure..." He turns to Phinks along with everyone else.

Phinks scowls. "The bastard changed to location mid-way through our drive. I informed Danchou about it and he was fine with it so I went with it as well."

"I can wait out here with Levi." Franklin sighs and hands the large box, he earlier put in the trunk, to Phinks.

"Why?" It's Levi's turn to scowl now.

"Punishment." Feitan smirks. In his suit, there's no tall collar to hide it.

Levi thins his lips. "I thought we already did that part."

"More punishment." His smug smile widens.

Levi wracks his brain. There's no way to convince them... unless...

"Let's flip a coin. Heads, I can get in. Tails, I'll stay without a complain."

Phinks snickers. "In your dreams. You're staying out here whether you like it or not. Decision my majority. Even if Shal disagrees, we still have three out of five."

Shalnark nods. "I'll have to go with Phinks here. It's best for you to wait out here."

"But Danchou-"

"Danchou will understand." Shalnark dons his kindest smile and softly pats Levi on top of his head.

"Not a dog." He growls and Shalnark withdraws his hand.

Levi snits as the three turn away without another word.

"Hey, it's okay." Franklin's large hand falls softly on Levi's head. "We can maybe drive by a nice restaurant on our way back."

Levi, still unconvinced, reluctantly slides back into the car. In the front seat, Franklin turns on the radio and closes his eyes.

Levi eyes the rolled down windows. With a smirk, he hatches a nice little plan.

Inside, barely anything is how he imagined it to be. A strong repulsive stench of liquor and who-knows-what casually hangs in the air that nearly makes Levi gag. All around are men in suits smirking at women in skimpy dresses fluttering their eyelashes.

Levi gulps, the atmosphere slowly killing him. The plan was supposed to be simple-- slip out of the window unnoticed, get into the... whatever-Shal-san-called-the-place and rejoin the others.

In the strange crowd, however, Levi wonders if he can even get himself out if needed. He finally decides to crawl up one of the empty long stools drawn up to an endlessly long countertol.

He spots three familiar heads in the crowd. Fortunately, they are not faced his way and are walking towards a set of double doors in a surprisingly lonely corner. There, they say something to the two burly guards and he lets them in.

He heart skips a beat as someone taps him on the shoulder. Amidst all the noises and people, his senses run amok and he doesn't know whether the person behind him is Franklin or a stranger.

"Aren't you a pretty boy." A honeyed voice slithers unwelcomed into his ears.

Levi's breath hitches as the person behind him-- a lady by the pitch of their voice-- puts a finger under his chin and turns his face towards herself.

It's a lady in her late 20s or early 30s, wearing an off-shoulder wine colored dress, with curly golden locks of hair gracing her bare shoulders. As she inches her face closer to his, he painfully notices her unnecessarily thick layer of make up.

"A child like you shouldn't be here." She whispers in his ear, sending a chill down his spine.

Just when he starts to believe that the situation can't get any worse, he hears someone growl his name. The voice is familiar enough for him to not want to turn around.

"Hm..." The corners of her mouth turn up. "Is that your name? How pretty. It suits you quite well."

"Levi, what the fuck do you think you're doing in here? " The situation behind Levi also gets worse.

Levi finally turns around, the woman's nail grazing his skin. He finds a scowling Phinks towering over him. Shalnark and Feitan stay behind, both of them sparing him some useless pitying looks. Levi manages a weak smile that only adds fuel to the enormous flame that is his fury.

Levi gulps and turns back to the lady. Better face a smaller problem than a bigger one. He expects her to be terrified by Phinks' unmasked bloodlust by now, but she actually seems... charmed?

"Did the transaction fail?" She tuts and tucks a stray blue hair behind Levi's hair.

"What transaction?" Phinks' voice slices through the thick tension.

She hums, tucking another hair behind his ear. "So, he doesn't know..."

"What the hell? " For once, there's some confusion in his voice-- fake or not, however, Levi can't tell.

"Very well." Without tearing her eyes off of Levi, she addresses the man behind him. "How much?"

"Absolutely not-"

"I can pay more than him-"

"I said no-"

Another tut from her. "500 million."

"For the last time-"

"1 billion?"

"What's... going on?" Levi turns back to Phinks and asks, completely in the dark.

"You shut up. Wait till I tell Danchou about this-"

"5 billion."

Something shines in his eyes. "Alright."

"What? " Shalnark finally speaks up.

Phinks gives him an unknown type of look that shuts him up. Feitan tsks as Phinks gives her the bank details.

Levi thins his lips and stares at the now-nonchalant Phinks, unsure of what to do.

"I hope he's not too much of a riot." She asks, midway through typing something.

"Don't worry about it. He's very obedient."

A minute of fumbling with phones and a satisfied beep.

"Done." She smiles at Phinks as he checks his phone and nods.

The three walk away, leaving a puzzled Levi still in her presence. Levi tries croaking out for help, but he seems to have forgotten his voice in an unknown corner.

The finger under his chin slids down to carress his hands. She slowly lift one of his hands and kisses it with a honey smile.

"Let's go." She leads the too-baffled-to-do-anything boy by his hand out of 'The Magenta Girl'.

Is this part of Danchou's plan or did I mess up so badly they're just abandoning me like this? Levi pokes his brain cells awake as the lady gracefully leads him into a lavish car.

She closes the door and even though, there's plenty of space in the heart-attack-price car, she sits uncomfortably close to him. With a snap of her fingers, the driver nods and starts the car.

Before Levi can even comprehend, from the company of Franklin, he's in the company of a strangely intimate lady, travelling to who-knows-where.

He blinks to clear his head. His brain still refuses to work.

He tries to get away from her but she clutches his shoulder in an iron-tight grip. Levi tries using some aura but nothing comes out.

After an hour or so of travelling, Levi dozes off.

January 26, 1999

He wakes up, an unknown time later, in an unfamiliar place. He rubs his eyes to examine his surroundings.

He's lying on a white bed, in a white room, surrounded by white walls. A white chair is drawn to the bed and there's someone sitting on it, humming a rather melancholy tone.

Levi dares to look at the person. It's the lady from before, this time wearing a simple long white night gown. Her face looks a lot better without the thick layers of make up and her hair is tied up in a bun. She smiles sweetly as she runs a hands through his hair.

Surprisingly, Levi doesn't feel like recoiling back into the fluffy blanket. Her touch is gentle and soothing. Her humming voice drains his body of all tension.

A few minutes later, she stops humming and withdraws her hand from his head, starting to stand up. Levi feels a strange sensation tugging in his guts.

He abruptly sits up and grabs her hand.

A wild look dances in his eyes. "Please... don't leave."

He tugs at her hand as the sensation tugs harder in his guts. The honey smile returns to her face as she sits back down.

"Anything for you, darling." She softly ruffles his hair.

Just then, a distant bang rings in their ears.

Levi wants to ask her what that is. Even more than that, he wants-- no, needs-- to get away from her. But the more he feels like getting away from her, the more the strange sensation tugs in his guts. Soon, the tugging turns to stabbing and moves up his body.

The woman keeps humming the sad song, as the sensation travels up to his head, earning him a sharp headache.

He winces and tries to pull away from her. But her grip is iron and he can't think with all that pain.

Another bang sounds, this time louder. It seems to be getting closer. Levi doesn't know what to expect-- an enemy or an ally as the door bursts open.

"Oh, come on, now." The woman stops her humming and faces the door, her voice sounding as melancholy as that song. "I took you as a man of your word."

Levi tries to steal a glance but the woman's body blocks his sight. A deep growl comes from the intruder. It sounds familiar but Levi can't quite put a finger on it. Not to mention, the pain is all over his body now, blocking his brain cells from their thinking rooms.

"Hmm..." She licks her lips. "Unfortunately for you, you're too late."

The pain in his body gets worse to the point where he can't even compare it to anything. Perhaps, it's his every cell being torn apart from his body. Perhaps, it's him being put through a meat grinder. Perhaps, it's him getting hit by a lightning bolt.

He can't quite tell but it makes a scream escape his throat. He instantly suppresses it, clenching his teeth so tight that the rest of it only comes out as a hiss. No matter what, he can't succumb to the pain like this. There's something wrong, very wrong going on and he doesn't like it.

He feels the woman removing her hand from his head. Slowly, the pain starts to ebb away.

Levi opens his eyes to a strangely familiar face glaring at him from dark eyes, half covered with his black hair. Just looking at him, makes his blood boil. He snarls and leaps at him, his claws out, as the woman snickers.

[A/N: Finally, a nicely long chapter. I kinda mixed up the vibes here because... I wanted to? Is that excuse good enough? I hope so!]