Chapter 36: Laughing x Mad x Man

January 29, 1999

As the two wait for their food to come, Chrollo decides to speak up.

"Levi?"

Levi nods, too distracted in making an origami bird out of a tissue paper.

"Levi? " Chrollo repeats, a little louder than before.

Levi's eyes shoot up. "Mhm?"

Chrollo smiles. "Do you want to talk about what happened earlier today?"

"Hm? Uhm... if you want to."

"Thank you. Now, I want to start by telling you that none of the Spiders hate you. Okay?"

Levi narrows his eyes. "You really think so?"

"Yes, I know them better than you do."

"I always try to be nice-" Levi frowns as tries to fold the tissue into wings, "-but... they always end up yelling at me, for one thing or the other-- especially, Phinks-san. He has always been mean to me."

"I understand your frustration, but he just is like that. Do you think that that means he doesn't care about you?"

"I don't want that kind of care... Besides, he isn't that bad with the others."

"That's because you're a lot younger than he is-- you're a lot younger than all of us. It's by no means a bad thing, and it's definitely not your fault.

It just means that they'll-- intentionally or subconsciously-- look after you more. But, they will also be less polite with you. Simply put, they like you, but, for obvious reasons, don't respect you."

"I don't want them to respect me. I just don't want them yelling at me every time I do or say anything." Levi snarls, despite trying his best to keep calm.

"I understand. I'm sorry. I will talk to them about it, okay? I also want you to apologize, okay?"

"For what?" Levi asks, throwing the tissue paper away in defeat.

"For not trying to understand their true intentions and for not being cooperative." Chrollo replies gently.

"For example?" Levi scowls.

"You didn't take your medicine the first time we asked you to and tried to run away instead.

When you were travelling to the site of your mission, you repeatedly asked Phinks when you would reach it, despite him telling you not to do so.

And, of course, although the others strongly refused, you entered the bar anyway."

Levi lowers his head as realisation and guilt wash over him.

"I'm sorry." He squeaks out.

"It's okay." Chrollo smiles. "No one's without fault. Just try to be better, okay?"

Levi nods. "I'll apologize."

"Good job." He pats his head.

Levi flushes as Chrollo takes out a tissue from the holder. With a few quick movements, he presents Levi with the product-- an origami bird.

Levi lights up. "Thank you, Chrollo-san! You're great at this!"

Chrollo simply smiles again. Just then, the waiter arrives and sets their food on the table, one-by-one.

"I hope you enjoy your meal!" The good-natured waiter exclaims as she leaves.

"Thank you." Chrollo replies and turns to Levi. "Do you like it?"

Levi's eyes are wide which makes Chrollo chuckle. "Eat as much as you like, okay?"

"You're the best!" He beams and sticks a fork into the steaming steak.

Nearly an hour later, the two are walking out of the restaurant when Levi accidentally bump into someone. He looks up to see a tall man in a hooded robe, the hood covering his face so well that not even his nose can be seen.

He quickly apologises to Levi in a gruff voice.

Levi is also about to apologize when he sees blood trickling down the man's sleeve.

"Are you okay, mister?"

"Thank you."

The hood slips a little and Levi blanches. The man bares his canine teeth into a sinister smile.

"Levi, let's go." Chrollo tugs at his hand.

"Let go of me." Levi mumbles.

"I'm sorry, but no." Chrollo frowns.

Chrollo's eyes move towards the man, and he can tell something is wrong with him. He uses Gyo and sees Levi's body coated with the man's aura. Shit!

In the blink of an eye, he stabs the man with his previously hidden dagger. To his astonishment, it passes right through it as if he's an illusion.

The touch of Levi's hand on his own disappears. He whips his head around. His eyes widen. Levi is gone.

A low rumble reverberate off the man. Chrollo realises that... he's laughing. His aura flares up and he jabs his dagger into him again, but it passes through him like he's an illusion, like last time.

That bastard is just an illusion. The *real* one is somewhere else. He can't be too far away though.

It seems like he either trapped Levi into his nen domain or teleported him somewhere. That means his nen type is conjuration... To be using emission to show his image here... there are either more than one nen users or... there is only one man behind all this. If the latter is true, than he must be close by as emission is quite far away from conjuration.

Chrollo scans his surroundings with Gyo, the man still laughing as hard as humanely possible next to him. His eyes flick to the people around him. None of them bat an eyelash, none of them even stare at the laughing man.

So they can't see him... wait, can they see *me*? Is it possible for him to create an illusion of me? Perhaps I'm sensing things in this environment but my body is trapped somewhere else? Is Levi feeling the same?

He rushes to the person closest to him-- a chubby lady carrying a white cat in her arms.

"Miss, are you... Cheryb?" He asks with a smile to sound sincere.

"Huh! No! I believe Cheryb is someone else and not me, sir!" The lady exclaims.

Chrollo thanks her and turns back to the laughing mad man. His eyes catch the blood dripping from his sleeve. His mind flashes back to a certain scene.

Before he bumped into Levi... did he have any blood on his arm? Can't remember... but it's on the same side as the one he bumped into Levi with.

Chrollo tilts his head a little to the side to check the inside of his sleeve. It's dark but he can see something glittering inside. Blades, he realises with a sigh.

His ability must activate with him... or rather his illusion or clone, getting hurt. This means that most probably... there is only a single nen user doing all of this.

The mad man goes into a coughing fit from laughing to hard. His angry scowl makes Chrollo smirks.

So, it's not a clone, but rather a projection... and it's not prerecorded either. He's most likely a conjurer which means that he can only use 40 of emission. So, he probably can't be too far away.

"Damn it!" The man yells and with a little 'pop' disappears.

If his illusion is gone, it means he can easily run away. Damn! I can't find him on my own in such a large area. I need backup.

He whips out his phone and calls Shalnark. In a few minutes, he informs him about his situation and plans, after which, Shalnark relays the information to the other Spiders.

Soon, the whole troupe is scattered across the area, searching for Levi or the bastard who kidnapped him.

Levi's own ragged breathing fills his ears. He frantically looks around. There's nothing but darkness surrounding him.

He looks down to see himself, but there's nothing but darkness. He raises his hand right in front of his face, but there's nothing but darkness.

"Chrollo-san?" He calls out. Nothing but darkness.

He calls again. And again. Each time even louder than before. He tries to run around to find him himself. But there's nothing but darkness.

Gah!

He trips on his own feet and falls down. Tears forms at his eyes. There's nothing left to do. He's lost. He's alone.

Clip-Clop! Clip-Clop!

Shoes on a cobbled floor. The dreadful sound comes from Levi's front. He looks up but finds nothing but darkness. The sound gets closer.

Levi scrambles to his feet and tries to run away. But the person easily catches up with him. Long slender fingers grab Levi's cheek and turn his face around.

His surroundings light up enough for him to see his attacker. A pale face with black piercing eyes. A thin mouth twisted into a malicious smile. Sharp facial features and, straight, chin-length black hair slicked back, leaving bangs on each side of his face.

Tears stream down Levi's face. He tries to run away but the man's nails dig deeper into his cheek.

"It's been a while, my boy."v

Chrollo's phone rings. It's Shalnark. He picks it up, hoping for some good news. It's been more than an hour since they've started looking and he's starting to get seriously worried.

"Danchou!" Shalnark's usually cheerful voice sounds worried. "We... found Levi."

Chrollo perks up. "Send me the coordinates. How is he?"

"I'll text you the coordinates and... he's... it's complicated... it's best if you check it out yourself."

"I understand. You're not hurt, are you?"

"No, we are good."

"You're with Machi, right?"

"Mhm."

"Alright, I'm heading there. Inform Phinks and Feitan about it too, for backup."

"Roger!"

A minute later, his phone dings as he recieves the coordinates from Shalnark. Fortunately, it's not too far away-- just at the outskirts of the city, at the border of which he was previously searching for Levi.

He pockets his phone and starts walking, slowly picking up speed, until he's a mere blur and one with the wind.

He reaches there a few seconds before the backup. His eyes widen as he stares at the building covered in malicious aura.

"It's Levi's, isn't it?" Machi confirms.

Chrollo nods. He need to stay calm and focused. There's no telling why it's there. Perhaps, Levi is fighting that guy or something.

"So, are we going in?" Phinks asks.

"Of course. I'll be at the front. Shal will have to stay back here to be the look out. The rest will enter with me. Good enough?"

Everyone nods.

"Hey guys! Wait, is that Levi's aura? What the hell's going on?" Nobunaga comes running towards them, with Kortopi right behind.

"We are not sure ourselves but we're going in to check. Nice timing. We'll need your En Nobunga. Kortopi, stay here with Shal as lookout."

"Alright, Danchou." Kortopi replies and looks at the building. "I hope Levi is okay."

"He should be... " Chrollo mumbles, half-saying only to reassure himself.

He straightens up right after. He can't afford to let his guard down.

"Let's go." He says and everyone, save for two, cautiously enter the building.

It's an old office building with everything black and rusty. According to Shalnark's information, it burnt down a few years ago in a terrorist attack.

"Nobunaga keep your En activated. Everyone, be on guard." He orders as they climb the stairs.

The closer they get to the source of the aura, the more the temperature drops. It starts becoming a nuisance when they reach the top floor-- supposedly, the CEO's office.

There's a long lobby decorated with various charred items. A half burnt carpet covers the floor. A single door stands in the wall.

Chrollo carefully approaches it, and touches the doorknob. It's frozen. The whole door and its adjoining wall was covered with frost, and it was only increasing.

Chrollo braces himself and turns the knob. It's stuck. Of course it's frozen. He braces himself again, and kicks the door off its hinges.

The CEO's office is the only one not burnt to a crisp. But what it lacks, it gets, by being turned into a winter wonderland.

Frost covers every inch of the surfaces in the large room. On the chair behind the desk, turned away to the window, sits a ratty man in a gray suit.

As the troupe enters the room, he dramatically turns around. Like a cartoon villian, he smirks and raises his hands in the air.

"Congratulations! You've found me!" He jerks his head backwards and swings around in the chair.

Machi steps forward, preparing her threads. "Where's Levi?"

"My dear lady! He's oveh-" He flounces, pointing to a maintenance closet at the corner of the room. "-theah!"

The troupe has had enough of his nonesense. In a flash, Machi appears behind him and makes her threads wrap around him.

Her eyes widen as the threads pass right through him.

He snickers. "Surpise! Surprise!"

He kicks his chair back, making Machi sidestep, and jumps the ground. With another flounce, he struts towards the maintenance closet and pulls it open.

He bows like he's on a stage. "The boy's in theah!"

"Danchou?" Nobunaga pipes up.

Chrollo nods. "Machi stay back. Do whatever you can to keep him from escaping. The rest, come with me."

The maintenance closet is a long dark hall with tall shelves on either side, filled with junk and what-not. Even though, it's labelled as a maintenance closet, it used to act more as a storage dump. Like the office, it's not charred either, but is an even worse condition.

As the four enter, the man straightens up and closes the door behind them, leaving them in pitch-darkness.

Phinks snits, and on Chrollo's command, flicks his lighter on, shedding light on the ice covering the room. Inside, it's even colder.

Feitan transmutes his aura into heat to keep them warm.

Nobunaga breaks some of the ice covering a broom with his hands. It's hard and not even hollow.

"Danchou?" He turns to Chrollo. "Do you know whose ability this is?"

Chrollo shakes his head.

They move forwards. The deeper they get, the colder it gets.

"Could it be Levi's ability?" Phinks suggests.

Chrollo shurgs.

They walk on a for a little until they reach a door.

"Tsk. We underground. Damn floor tilts." Feitan comments as Chrollo kicks the door open.

"The building wasn't very tall to begin with, I guess. Still weird how a literal maintenance closet's actually a fucking tunnel fulled with ice. Damn cold!" Nobunaga mumbles.

Through the door, they enter into a small room. A chair stands in the midst, and on it is bound-

"Levi!" Chrollo rushes towards him.

Bound to the chair, wrapped in thick chains from the neck below, is an unconscious Levi, his face contorted in pain.

The chains are completely frozen. As Chrollo tries to break them, his hands brush Levi's cheek. Despite, the cold surrounding him, Levi's warm-- if anything, he's burning from a fever.

Is his ability like Feitan's? Or is he the one freezing everything?

He easily breaks the chains, freeing Levi. Unfortunately, he remains unconscious. Chrollo hoists him up in his arms bridal-style, and carries him outside.

Instead of being cold, Levi acts as a heater. Chrollo looks back at the room and finds the ice to be melting.

So it is his ability?

The others follow suit, feeling slightly awkward, and soon the four, with Phinks kicking the door open this time, are back in the office.

The man is sitting back on the office chair, with his legs on the table. He rolls a lighted cigarette in his his fingers, as he talks animatedly with Machi. It's more of a one-sided conversation than anything, as his blatant flirting bounces off the nonchalant lady.

"So, you're back!" At the sight of the four, he kicks his legs off the desk and smirks. "Thanks for letting me have your lady for a while."

The four, save for Danchou, growl menacingly. Machi rolls her eyes.

"Your aura's still on him." Chrollo notes, his voice still smooth. "How do we get him back."

"A magician never reveals his tricks!" He snickers.

"Hate to admit it, but Hisoka does it better." Nobunaga frowns.

"What do we now, Danchou?" Feitan asks.

For once, Chrollo really doesn't know.