Book 1: Simplicitatem
Chapter 6: These Clothes Don't Fit Us
"Reality is relative. In the same way, so is insanity."
-Me
The next three days passed without incident. Kuroro trampled her in chess as he usually did. Meteor City still sucked, sucked even more now that the air was thick with ash and misery. A total of seventy-six deaths had been counted, added to the tremendous number of casualties. Plenty of people were still missing.
"A mission?" Nobunaga asked, crossing his legs.
The Spiders had decided to meet again at their junkyard in order to decide what to do next.
"I thought the Mafia hated us now?"
"The Mafia is rash but they aren't idiotic." Kuroro began to explain. Almost every member present shot Kuroro a doubtful look. "Maybe so, but only slightly." He relented. "They're well aware of the fact that we're necessary to them as an ally."
It was true. The Mafia wouldn't last a week with the Phantom Troupe as its enemy.
"They've given us a mission to see if we can prove our loyalty."
Nobunaga snorted. "Who do these people think they are?"
Kuroro paid him no attention. "It's not very appealing to me," he admitted. "so I'm allowing the group to decide."
"Do we have a time limit?" Pakunoda asked.
"Let's do it!" Uvogin roared.
"Uvo, we should hear him out first." The samurai warned.
"There is no time limit; however, they want our answer within three days." The Leader answered.
"What is it?"
Taking a deep breath, Kuroro answered: "They've asked for the annihilation of the Kuruta Clan."
Aika narrowed her eyes immediately; the word 'annihilation' just gave her bad vibes.
"Kuruta Clan?" She questioned. The teenager ignored the resting gazes of the rest of Troupe on her.
Kuroro inhaled deeply and began to explain. "From the information they've given me, I can deduce that they're skilled in fighting with swords-" Nobunaga whooped loudly, "and that their eyes are incredibly valuable, especially when sold on the Black Market." Macchi nodded once, giving her consent.
"They're a clan that is known to by very peaceable and highly honorable. Family and friends are very important to them."
"I'm in." Uvo grinned.
"Why are their eyes so valuable?" Pakunoda questioned.
"Apparently they change color when enraged or when they feel emotional." Kuroro answered, eyes closed and head down, as if exasperated. "If their eyes are harvested while in their reddened state, the color does not fade and is regarded as one of the world's seven wonders."
Feitan whistled. "Sounds fun."
Aika was fuming. Those people had lives and children and dreams, dreams she didn't want to impede on.
Suddenly, she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder. She started, recognizing Franklin looking at her with a strange look in his eye. "This is the Phantom Troupe, and if you can't stomach it, I suggest you leave as soon as you can."
There was no malice in his tone, only genuine honesty and perhaps a bit of concern.
She sighed. "I'm fine, but thank you. Really." She answered.
"We need one more member's consent to accept the mission." Kuroro prompted.
"I'm for it." Franklin spoke up. "For now, staying under the protection of the Mafia makes us a powerful force."
"Then it's decided. I'll tell them that we're accepting."
"When will we actually be going on the mission?" Aika questioned.
"That can be decided at a later time." The Leader stood up, and nodded once. "The meeting's over."
Everyone began to get up and make their way away from the junkyard at their own leisurely pace.
"Aika." Kuroro spoke up.
"Yes?" She replied immediately.
"Two years ago," she winced, remembering the time, "why weren't you poisoned when you…" he searched for the proper wording as he so often did, "used your power on my arm?"
"Poison has never affected me for as long as I can remember." She shrugged. "I mean, I can tell it doesn't belong in my body; it's uncomfortable but it can't kill me."
"Your pain tolerance must be something." He remarked.
"Nothing out of the ordinary." She looked away, frowning. "Don't compliment me, it doesn't suit you."
"Your pain tolerance sucks." He deadpanned, crossing his arms.
"Don't do that either, it still doesn't suit you."
"Do tell then, what suits me?" He smirked.
"I'm not sure but it's something along the lines of a mightier-than-thou attitude and too much late night reading." She hid her own smile.
He cleared his throat, which Aika noticed he had a tendency to do whenever he did something out of character. "I'll have you working with Feitan and Pakunoda."
She grimaced. Paku she could handle but the Chinese one…
"They're the information processors for right now. Both of them are interrogators, but if you ever get captured, we can trust you not to say anything you shouldn't."
"I just told you that my pain threshold isn't anything spec-" She began to object, but he cut her off.
"I can tell that it is," he sighed, turning away. "You just don't like bragging."
"How?" She demanded.
Kuroro looked up to the sky, the setting sun. "Feitan enjoys doing what he does, and he knows how to make things hurt." He paused, she rolled her eyes. "When he breaks bones, he does it in the most painful way. Sometimes he doesn't even realize he does it particular way, especially when he's fighting. He broke your arm the first time you guys met and you didn't make a sound."
"Hardly anything special." She snorted. "Whatever." Aika hmphed and stood up. "Can we go play our chess match now?"
Kuroro looked confused. "What time is it?"
"The hell if I know." She gave him a look. "Does it really matter?"
He relented.
The two began to walk back toward her alley.
"Kuroro?" She questioned.
"Mm."
"I've always wondered. Where do you live?"
"I'm never short on money so I'm usually at one of the hotels. I like the one down the street from your alley. I keep them in business so they treat me kindly."
"What about the rest of them?"
"I've never found it necessary to dabble in their personal lives."
"I feel like I shouldn't go on this mission Kuroro." The words escaped her mouth in a storm, in a flurry of letters.
He stopped walking, blinking, and stared at her. "Why?"
Se swallowed once, looking confused. "One time, my friend took me to a field." Aika started. "You don't really find them here anymore, but ten years ago, Meteor City wasn't such a bad place." She cast him a look. "I'm sure you remember." She sighed. "Her name was beautiful."
Kuroro detected bitterness in her voice and he realized she was brooding over the meaning of her own.
They began walking again.
"Yukami means 'beautiful wood,' and so, she was obsessed with the vanities of nature. There was one flower field in particular that was so colorful. She showed me one day and we laid down in it, ran around. I sat down to take a break and wound up falling asleep. When I woke up, she was gone, and the entire portion of flowers around me, up to four or five feet away, were all dead, dried up."
"Nobunaga has trouble controlling his temper sometimes." Kuroro answered after a pause. "I'm sure you noticed that he's closer to Uvogin than the rest of us. When he gets angry he's not very good at distinguishing between his friends and his enemies, so he just slashes at everything. Uvo, on the other hand, has a lot of raw muscle. He can stop Nobunaga, so the two have gotten close to each other."
Met with her blank and confused stare, he elaborated. "My point is, you're not the only one who feels that you're not in control of your own actions. Don't think about it too much. All of us can tell when something's wrong with our bodies, even if we don't know what it is. You saw how Feitan pulled away as soon as you touched him."
"You're trying to reassure me by telling me that none of you are easy to kill?"
"That's the extent of my abilities." Kuroro shrugged.
"Well, just so you know, it's not working." She smirked. "But I appreciate the sentiment behind it."
"What sentiment." He almost snorted. Kuroro Lucifer wasn't someone capable of sentiment.
"I am so shamed because I should be there, not here, and I have no idea how to start."
-Unknown
They decided to complete the mission at the end of the week. It would take two hours maximum with the entire Troupe, so there was no hurry, not for Kuroro.
It was strange. Aika had pictured them all running, had actually worried about it, but their leisurely pace seemed to undo something inside of her.
"Butterflies?" Franklin had asked, making small talk as the Troupe trudged down the wearied trail.
She nodded once and looked away quickly. Talking about butterflies in front of a group of mass murders was strange if not comical.
"Digest them." Machi had commented coldly.
If the pink-haired woman didn't make her fear for her life, Aika would have had said something crass back.
Kuroro actually walked behind the group, nose buried in a book as he followed along. Aika had long since realized that he was their leader in the sense that he was their binding force. All of these different people could somehow come together and get along through the magic that was Kuroro Lucifer. He was smart and strange but also very good at what he did.
"What are you reading?" She asked, falling into step beside him.
"They aren't being very hospitable to you?" He cut straight to the chase, never lifting his gaze form the text.
Aika rolled her eyes. "Machi's outright hostile. Nobunaga's bearable. The Chinese one wants to gut me and sell my organs on the Black Market, I can tell."
"And Franklin?"
"He pities me." She crossed her arms. "Charles Dickens?" Aika peeked a glance at the worn-out cover. "Never heard of him."
"You have now."
"That's your cue to explain."
"I'm reading."
"Of course you are, I'm so sorry I fall short in comparison to a stack of papers with ink splattered on them; which, I might add, are older than my grandparents." She shrugged.
"He was a terrible person who purposely elaborated to a sickening extent in order to get more money."
"Charles Dickens?"
"Hn."
"So, in other words, only people like you can understand what he's trying to say."
Kuroro chuckled, shutting the book and putting it away. "Alright, you win."
"Can I borrow it sometime?" She asked, putting a careful amount of distance between them.
"You wouldn't like it. He's too..." He paused. "He's too wordy."
"I can put up with you can't I?"
"I'm not from the 1800's, Aika."
"Boss," Pakunoda called out, bringing their attention back. "Is that the village?"
Kuroro's gaze shifted, snapped back to what it had been before. He looked up and inspected the sight before him.
It was a quaint village with humble shacks and an abundance of bookstores, no bars in sight. The road was dusty, but relatively well-kept, and Aika took in a deep breath.
The air was dry and it was sweltering, but it wasn't so different from Ryuuseigai, so it didn't bother her all that much.
"Yes, that's it."
"Will we be going in incognito first, or are we going all out?"
He seemed to think about it. "There's no need to do any scouting, so we won't be lounging around." He decided.
The group stopped walking and directed their gazes toward Kuroro.
"The Mafia wants their eyes. Don't kill them before their eyes change color. Children below the age of thirteen don't have the ability so you're free to do as you please with them. We'll harvest the eyes after it's done." He snuck a glance at Aika; she was controlling her temper surprisingly well. "Keep unnecessary bloodshed to a minimum. Disperse."
Upon his word, everyone gracefully and swiftly made their way to the center of the village. After a moment of much confusion from the native Kurutas who seemed alarmed to suddenly find such a different type of people in their square, Franklin, much to Aika's surprise, actually began to shoot bullet from his fingers, his detachable fingers, what the heck. This seemed to signal the start of the massacre and Nobunaga, nimble and quick, had beheaded three corpses by the time the teen had blinked.
Screams erupted.
"There's no time for hesitation on the battlefield." Feitan hissed beside her. "Enjoy yourself and remember not to get killed." After a few short words of advice tossed in for free, he too sped away.
Enjoy herself? How was she supposed to do that?
She wasn't given much respite to answer because a presence immediately made itself known at her right. It was a middle-aged man, aged but experienced, with short blonde hair and steely blue eyes; he was charging at her with what seemed to be a blunted wooden sword.
Aika remembered Kuroro's warning, the purpose of the mission. Don't kill them before their eyes change color.
But this man was old and well-tempered, and he seemed to understand what their goal was. His lips were set in a thin line as he swung a wooden sword at her.
"What do you intend to do with that?" She asked, and it was a genuine question. The best it could do was bruise her.
"We don't fight to kill." The male answered gruffly. "We have no reason to kill you; only defend ourselves."
How honorable, she thought sadly, side-stepping his swing. But unfortunately, you can't win if you're always defending.
She ruminated as she dodged his attacks. Her power was not good for offensive use, as Kuroro had so intelligently pointed out several days ago. He had told her to make use of her legs because they had been strengthened from running around and such, but her speed had never been something she thought highly of.
The thought of killing the man made her sick.
"Do you have any children at home?" She asked, chest clenching painfully.
Aika had meant it in the most harmless way possible but apparently, the phrase had threatened him and contrary to what she thought about his levelheadedness, sapphire orbs suddenly morphed into a blazing scarlet.
His swings became faster and one grazed her shoulder. She winced as it made contact and quickly put some distance between them.
So he does. I wonder how old they are.
"Ottou-sama!" Someone's shrill voice cut through the air.
Her target whipped around, drawn to the sound of the call. "Kurapika, I told you to-"
It was all so fast, Aika barely had time to process what was going. Suddenly a loud sound pierced the air and the man in front of her crumpled to the ground.
Her eyes could barely keep up. It seemed Pakunoda had shot the Kuruta through his head and he had fallen without a sound, hitting the ground with a dull thump.
"Father!" The scream came again, louder.
Aika hastily and barely caught a gun that was thrown at her by the woman. "It's easy," Pakunoda stated as she fixed Aika with a look. "Pull the trigger. Finish off the kid." And then she was gone.
Aika wasn't sure if she wanted to thank Pakunoda or not. Now she didn't have an excuse for not killing anyone.
Slowly, she looked at the weapon and made her way over to the child, gun in hand, albeit her trembling, left hand.
Aika realized that the concept of time slowing down was definitely a fallacy because in times like these, time seemed to become faster, much faster, so quick that she found it difficult to simply stand on her own two feet.
Even when stealing bread back in Ryuuseigai, the chase had always been disorienting.
"Who are you people?!" The kid shrieked, angry and teary-eyed, hands balled up into fists. "Why are you doing this?!"
"We are the Phantom Troupe," Aika said slowly, testing how it tasted on her tongue –disgusting, you should know- raising the gun to his forehead. "and we're doing this because it's our mission."
He was perhaps twelve or thirteen years of age, still too young to have acquired the Kuruta's eyes.
Children below the age of thirteen don't have the ability so you're free to do as you please with them.
She remembered his orders, and narrowed her eyes. She supposed that mean she should kill them regardless, without having to wait for their eyes to change color, but technically, she was free to do whatever she wanted.
"Kurapika." She said, remembering what his father had called him. "Go hide in one of the huts. Play dead if someone finds you."
The young blonde Kuruta's expression immediately straightened itself out, baffled confusion dominating his young features. Aika looked at his wide, unadulterated blue eyes and burned with envy.
"What is that supposed to mean?" He spat, fists clenching, form tensing.
She didn't blame him.
"Or I could put a bullet in your head right now, whichever you prefer." She forcefully slapped a cruel smirk on her face.
After a pause, he questioned shakily: "Why?"
"We can do whatever we want with children who don't have the Kuruta eyes yet." She answered.. "So no, I'm not going to kill you."
He looked at her angrily, suspiciously, tears still in his eyes. "Who are you?" Kurapika snapped roughly.
"I am the eighth Spider." She answered. "There's no need for you to know my name."
It was so sudden that Aika had to take a few steps back. Tears flowed freely from his eyes again and he shoved her roughly. Seconds later, he immediately started to run toward the huts she had mentioned before.
"You'll regret letting me go!" He shouted, hurriedly wiping away tears on his sleeve.
"Gee, I should make a list." She murmured, looking at the gun in her hands.
She finally began to take in her surroundings once Kurapika had entered the safety of a hut. Multiple fires had started and bodies littered the main road. The gut-wrenching smell of blood burned through the air. There was so much screaming.
So far she had managed to avoid killing anyone, but how long would that last? What would the rest of the Troupe say if they found out she had let a child live free?
Through the chaos, she somehow caught sight of Kuroro snapping someone's neck. They couldn't have been much older than him, but Kuroro finished within seconds, immediately dropping the body after finishing his business with it.
From behind him in his blind spot, a female Kuruta was creeping up, eyes a blazing Scarlet, dagger in hand. Whatever had happened to 'we have no reason to kill you'?
She fully expected him to whip around and incapacitate her but the Leader seemed to be unaware of the threat behind him, closing his eyes and using one hand to squeeze his temples. He was experiencing a headache.
Aika found herself moving without a second thought, legs carrying her fast than she would ever dared to have dreamed.
Her hands shot out and clasped onto the Kuruta's thin throat and it was over before Aika's consciousness returned to her because by then, the female's body was hanging limply and Kuroro had shot her an incredulous look.
"Uhm," he stuttered out, clearing his throat, taking a step away from her. "Thank you."
Aika herself found that she was having some trouble convincing herself to let go of the woman in her hands. Her fingers wouldn't move, her mind wouldn't process.
"I'm sorry," was all Aika could say, eventually prying her fingers open and fighting down the oncoming wave of bile in her throat.
Kuroro himself was both surprised with the girl and incredibly disappointed with himself. A mere headache would have been the death of him; unlike Aika, the other Troupe members would have simply watched, as per his previous orders and their agreements never to interfere in another's fight.
"What for?" He frowned, still experiencing difficulty understanding the alarming rate at which the girl seemed to improve.
"I didn't know what I was doing, it won't happen again." She said too quickly, hands clenched into fists now.
She was showing the telltale signs of guilt and horror, which could easily lead to some sort of mental trauma, which, needless to say, was not going help the Spider grow.
Why exactly was he allowing himself to slip so much around this one little girl with the most insolent attitude he had ever had the misfortune of stumbling upon? She had saved his life not once, but twice, and he found himself unable to maintain his leader-like presence whenever she was within a five-foot radius of him.
The immediate conclusion was reached. She's dangerous, Kuroro.
Against his better judgment, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind, reminding himself that there was no one within the Troupe that wasn't.
Aika had the strange sensation that she was not in her own body at the moment. Listlessly, she knelt down beside the woman she had just drained and gouged out her eyes, frowning slightly at the warm and sticky sensation of blood that stained her fingertips.
"Here." She coldly offered the bloodied eyes to Kuroro, who took them quickly and put them in an opaque bag. He looked at her, expression disapproving. "Thank you, for getting my back." He said quietly, nonetheless.
She closed her eyes, flinging the thick blood off of her right hand. She vaguely realized that her jaw ached tremendously because she had been clenching it so hard for the past half hour.
"I'm going back first." She said, voice unsteady.
He didn't respond.
Aika didn't care as she stumbled away from the village.
"Death no longer terrifies man; the smell of blood is as common as the smell of white plums."
- Hiko Seijuro (Rurouni Kenshin)
"You should probably leave the Troupe."
Aika didn't respond, curled up in a ball in the corner of the alley.
"You're not cut out for dirty work-"
"Shut the fuck up Kuroro." She hissed out through gritted teeth.
Two weeks had elapsed since the massacre of the Kuruta clan. The Mafia and the Phantom Troupe had renewed the conditions of their mutual understanding and were once again on speaking terms. They had received a handsome sum of money that Aika absolutely refused to touch; the mere thought made her sick to her stomach.
Most importantly, the orange-haired girl had not touched the chess board in two weeks.
"You think you're so clever, analyzing all of these aspects around you." She buried her head in between her knees. "I'm not leaving the Troupe."
He stared at her silently, reveling in the spectacle of the shattered remains of a human being. "Why are you forcing yourself to do this?"
"Witless humans need no reason to justify their actions." She retorted.
"You're far from witless Ms. Brehznev."
She hissed again, uncurling herself for the first time in what seemed like days. "My name is Aika." Malice penetrated her tone of voice.
"Isn't that just as bad?" Kuroro answered sardonically. "The precious name your parents gave you?"
"What are you doing here Kuroro?" Her voice was rising.
"It seems to be half past ten and I'm waiting for my daily source of entertainment, as well as to repay my eternal debt to a hormone-dominated, traumatized seventeen year old." He set his jaw.
This seemed to shove some sense into Aika's mind, and her eyes widened dramatically. "What is the point?" She chuckled, defeated, head collapsing into her open, waiting hands. "Honestly."
"Aika." Kuroro sighed in the most frank tone of voice she had ever heard him utter. "You are a member of my Troupe, and if you're crippling us more than facilitating us, I'm dismissing you."
She laughed even harder now, frame shaking. "Yes, Dancho. Of course." Aika smirked. "You're telling me to get over myself, yes?"
"To be frank, that's exactly what I'm saying." He massaged the back of his neck. "You can't be a part of a paid mercenary group if you have qualms with killing."
"I'm well aware." She uncurled herself completely and sat criss-cross. "I'll work on that for you, Dancho."
"I'm being serious."
"Kuroro," she sighed suddenly, a steely look spontaneously creeping into the corners of her eyes. "I want you to train me."
He crossed his arms, entirely baffled by this strange enigma of a girl he could never fully unravel. One minute she was brooding over the fact that she stained her hands with blood, the next displaying determination to do it better next time.
Kuroro almost retorted that he was under no obligation to but then swiftly proceeded to mentally bury his face in his hands. Aika had killed the Kuruta woman who would have mortally wounded, if not ended him two weeks ago.
Clearing his throat, he deliberated over the implications. "What kind of-"
"Everything." She frowned. "Everything you know. Make me one of you guys."
He frowned, fully having expected this vague response. "You'll hate me as an instructor."
"I would have come to hate you regardless." She shrugged. Shooting him a look, she tried to console him: "I meant it highest degree of sincerity, don't take it personally."
"Well," he shifted, correcting his posture. "why don't we start right away."
END
"Conversation is mere abandon."
-Nat Wolff
A/N: Heyo! So this chapter was rushed, and it kind of sucks. I'm sorry I haven't updated in awhile, I'm at an SAT camp as of now. ;_; Please bear with me. I'll try to write as much as possible soon!