Book 2: Malum

Chapter 14: A Farewell to Arms

"We can't live if we don't keep running forward."
- Natsu Dragneel (Fairy Tail)

Kuroro Lucifer did not like the sight of fire. Unfortunately, ironically, he had undergone the fabulous process of self-discovery in past recent years, and this was an epiphany the Phantom Troupe Leader had realized: he did not get attached often but it had a tendency to be powerful when he did.

He loathed the sight of fire.

So instead of calmly summoning a water-based nen move from his book to quench the wall-of fire bearing down on him as like should have, he coated himself thickly in his nen and took the force of the attack at point-blank.

It was scorching, but the licking flames could not burn him.

Slowly, the pale man closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of ash.

"Well, well, if it isn't the Devil himself." Someone said, an obviously male voice.

When the fire had eaten itself up, the scene cleared enough for the three people to get a good look at their opponents.

"Rita, don't go around blasting your dumb fire everywhere, you'll ruin everything!"

"Stop fussing," the female replied snarkily.

Kuroro observed the scene before him for a few moments and then swiftly turned around again, concluding that this chamber was not, indeed, the treasure room, and thus he had no business being there.

"Hold on a second you-!"

"Rita, wait! Don't attack him recklessly!"

Another wave of fire was unleashed, red and furious.

Kuroro decided to react the same way; stoically, of course, and without extravagance. Again, he was enveloped in extreme heat as it passed by him.

"How is he doing that?"

They were getting rather annoying. If the pair was going to hinder the process of looting the place, Kuroro debated whether getting rid of them was warranted.

"Stop shooting at him, you'll make him angry!"

"Ging Freeccs." Kuroro sighed, turning around to look him in the eye. "Please contain your disciple, lest she disturb the pristine beauty of Akasha's great legacy."

"Chrollo Lucifer." The two-star Hunter allowed the foreign name to roll off his tongue smoothly. "Isn't that exactly what you're here to do?

"I'm here for the valuables." He corrected him. "We won't touch any of your treasured walls or paintings."

It was at that exact moment that a huge bang sounded through the cavern, and the leader closed his eyes. "We'll try not to touch any of them." He corrected himself.

"How strange." Ging snorted. "Strange, given that your Spiders live for the sake of causing a ruckus."

Kuroro Lucifer hmphed and sped from the room, back from whence he came, leaving after-images in his wake.

"Tch." Ging spat, glaring after the man for a few seconds more before assuming a slightly more relaxed pose, taking a deep breath and allowing his shoulders to lower. "Why's that trash always showing up everywhere?"

"He's the Phantom Troupe head isn't he?" The girl asked in an uninterested tone of voice. "You probably could have taken him out in a fight, right? Why'd you let him go?"

"Are you an idiot?" He barked back. "And risk destroying everything in the process? Not even he's worth that much."

Rita simply shrugged.

"And don't go around firing your power off like that. Honestly, it's reckless."

"Yes mother." She rolled her shoulders. "I'm going to go get some fresh air, if you'll excuse me."

"No, you'll stay." Ging interrupted. "The entire Troupe is roaming around the place; what the hell do you mean you're going out? Just because he wasn't interested in us doesn't mean the rest of them won't be."

"Maybe if you did something about it," she half hissed, "I could go enjoy myself comfortably."

"I like my head attached to my neck thank you very much, now sit down Rita."

"Aw, Ging's worried about me." She mocked, walking toward the exit. "It doesn't really matter if I die anyways right? I'm your traveling companion, nothing more nothing less."

The two-star Hunter frowned and crossed his arms. "Be careful."

"I'll be fine, you doting mother hen." She waved. And then she was gone.

"A half moon. A bright half and dark half. Just like me."
- Gasai Yuno (Mirai Mikki)

"It's been a while, Rita."

The girl locked her jaw and huffed, breath visible in the freezing desert night. The temperature tended to shoot up and down, and seemed to know no middle ground. "Pariston." She greeted coldly.

"Enjoying your time with the best Two-Star Hunter in the world?"

"Hardly." She said, not missing a beat. "Why did you call me out?"

The new moon offered no solace in the endless darkness of the desert and Rita could barely see the always-present, nearly unnatural smile the Vice-President always wore, much less the rest of him.

"I just wanted to tell you that the East Gorteau President really enjoyed his time with you darling." Pariston said with a flourish. "Wonderful, he said."

"I'm flattered," she replied sourly, "though I must ask him to understand when I can't say the same for him."

"Thank you so much for your cooperation Rita, it really does help in dealing with especially difficult countries and-"

"Get to the point." She sighed. "Ging's expecting me."

The girl flinched when Pariston closed his eyes and smiled wider, shooting his nen toward her. "Learn your place first," he commented, drawing it back just before it collided with hers.

She growled slightly, barely audible over the whipping wind.

"Stay with the Boar for awhile longer." The Vice-President suddenly turned far too pleasant. "The Phantom Troupe has been becoming bolder as of late and I can think of no place safer for you than with Ging Freeccs."

Rita tsked. The girl knew that the group of bandits had something to do with her being pinned up against a tree that night at the York New Auction, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out how exactly they fit into the picture. The memories were all fuzzy, hazy, blinded by overpowering pain; for the time being, she had to go off of Pariston's story.

A biological weapon, created in a lab and utilized for the sake of Mafia; sold at the auction for a high price; stolen by the ever greedy Twelve-Legged Spider and disposed of immediately when discovered as unstable and disobedient.

"Getting attached to the old man?" Pariston poked fun at her, taunting.

"Not in the slightest," she answered forcefully.

"Good." He nodded. "You are an object to be used, nothing more." He opened his eyes, smile dissipating. "You have no use for attachments and tethers, sweet Rita." Then his persona enveloped him again completely. "Run along, dear. The Boar is wondering where you've gone."

A powerful gust of wind and sand picked up and Rita lifted her arms to shield her eyes and face; when the gale had passed, so had the phenomenon of the Three-Star Hunter.

"Ignorance is a sin."
- Unknown

"You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Just me and my low blood pressure." She shrugged, flopping down on the ground and pulling a book out of her side-sling bag. A Farewell to Arms, by Hemingway. "Nothing to worry about."

"You have strange nen clinging to you Rita."

She groaned. "Ging, it was probably a Phantom Troupe member, alright? And what nen?" The girl used gyo to do a once-over of herself. "There is no foreign nen!"

"I know there isn't but I can feel it." The Two-Star Hunter tsked. "Be more careful. I guess it isn't just us here after all."

"Get on with your excavation will you?" She opted to lie down. "It's boring in here!"

"I think the Troupe is starting to clear out." He answered. "We'll be done within-three days' time."

The girl decided to ditch reading. She opened the novel to a page and put it down over her face. "Geez, wake me when you're done."

"I'd rather trust and regret than doubt and regret."
- Kirizaya Kazuto (Sword Art Online)

"Is everyone back?" Kuroro asked, eyes never leaving Hemingway's words.

"Almost." Shalnark answered. "For now, it's only Nobunaga that's missing."

Uvogin looked like he was going to blow his top off. Everyone knew how he was a stickler for times, especially when it came to rendezvous and…

"Maybe…you'll fall in love with me all over again."

"Hell," I said, "I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?"

"Yes. I want to ruin you."

"Good," I said. "That's what I want too."

Kuroro sighed quietly and flipped his book shut. Rather than Dickens, he supposed Hemingway was more masterful with his diction.

Nobunaga came bounding along a good 30 seconds later, gleeful as could be. When they all boarded their hot air balloon, they took off. As promised, most of them had refrained from blowing the place to pieces and kept the bloodshed to a minimum.

Coltopi had done them a favor and left them with copies for a good 24 hours.

After the Spiders had reached their hideout, Kuroro dismissed them, congratulating them on a job well done.

"Pakunoda," he called before she left the dilapidated building. "Remind me again, why I did it."

Alone now, as all of the rest of them had left, she sighed before answering. "Boss," she said, tone disapproving. "You did it for the sake of the Spider, the same reason why you do anything else."

"I saw a girl today." He confessed. "Same eyes, same hair color. It looked like she had grown her hair out, the roots were brown and the tips orange. She used fire. But her name was Rita."

The information handler frowned, turning her body to face him. "You drove an acinaces through her stomach, Dancho, it was not her."

"If she was alive today, that's exactly what she would have looked like."

"Your work is flawless."

"But my inner workings are not."

"… Do you regret it?"

"I regret the things I didn't do more than the things I did."

"This is unlike you, speaking about your feelings."

Tell me it was the right thing to do.

He paused. "You're dismissed." He relented and closed his eyes, tossed A Farewell to Arms into the farthest corners of the hideout and brought his clasped hands to his face.

It wasn't her. She's gone, six feet under, because of your weakness.

Sighing again, he got up and picked up the book, flipping the open to the page he had left off on; he resumed reading.

"But I think I want to live with all of my memories, even if they're bad memories."
- Sohma Momiji (Fruits Basket)

A young girl with short, orange hair starts awake, realizing that she has fallen asleep in the alleyway again and that someone is sitting on the opposite side of the alley across from her.

"You look so peaceful when you sleep."

The girl finds herself getting to her feet immediately, surprised and taken aback.

"You're… smoking?" She asks.

"I figured it's something I needed to try sometime." A tired-looking man shrugs, inhaling deeply and then blowing out smoke. "It's fucking gross."

He is a wreck, as bad as her, actually. His hair is knotted slightly and he wears slacks and a plain white crew neck shirt.

"Since when did you curse?" The girl then shook her head, as if to dispel the question. "Since when did you spend your time drowning yourself in cigarette smoke?"

"Since three days ago. Do you want one?"

"What's wrong with you?!" She shouts all of a sudden. "You don't talk to me for a week and then come crawling back in this unsightly form?!"

"Pawn to C2." He breaths, closing his eyes, blowing out more smoke.

She starts crying.

"Nothing that happens is ever forgotten, even if you can't remember it."
-Zeniba (Spirited Away)

"Rita!"

The girl convulsed on the floor for a split second, overcome by sensation of her falling, and then her eyes flew open, gasping.

"Goddammit Ging I just lost ten years of my fucking life!" She scrambled away, heart rate shot through the roof.

"You were tossing around and crying in your sleep, what was I supposed to do?" He retorted.

Rita blinked, confused. Her? Moving around in her sleep? That couldn't be. She was a shallow sleeper, conditioned to stay stone-still lest her movement attract unwanted attention; it was a defense mechanism she had been born with.

Much to her surprise, she realized he was right. Her face was wet with tears, and she tried to blinking them away in bafflement.

"What were you dreaming about?"

She pondered for a moment, recalling, wiping her face.

"It was… I was in some junkyard city, I think." A splitting headache suddenly seared its way through her skull. She winced. "It was raining. Ging, do you know what chess is?"

The Two-Star Hunter frowned. "It's an obsolete game, one that Chairman Netero likes to play. I don't know the rules. Why?"

"I need to find a chess board, Ging."

TO BE CONTINUED

"We must demonstrate the we took action, even if that action was meaningless."
- Watashi (Jinrui Wa Suitai Shimashita)

A/N: Hey ^.^ So this chapter is a rather short one, I hope you'll forgive me. I'm trying to update as fast as I can because my break ends tomorrow (*cry*) and I'll have less time to write. What do you guys think so far? I'm happy with all the positive feedback so far :3 If there's anything that I can actually work on, don't hesitate to tell me! And hey, the quotes are back, woo~ I might reuse one by mistake but for now, I'll try to keep them all original. Please read and review for m! Thank you! :D