"Sekihara Jun," greeted a man in the car. He was dressed in a crisp black suit and tie. His dark hair was brushed back, a black eye patch over his right eye, hints of scars peeking out from under it.

"Just Jun is fine," she reminded him, reaching out her hand to touch his eye. He moved her hand away with a frown. Jun pouted, pushing her upper lip out and tapping her nose. "Aw, come on, Tan-san, let me touch the eyeball."

"There is no eyeball," he told her. "You cut it out."

"Oh, right, that was me," she said with a grin. She leaned back into the leather seats, gazing out the window as though she were taking a tour of the city. Tanaka Shin waited for her attention span to return. She was often spacey and he understood that there was a right way to handle her. It was why he always had to deal with Jun; too many of his men had died trying to negotiate with her. And, as he had been a judge for several of her fights in the arena, she knew him, to an extent, and was less likely to kill him, as he always let her have her way in the ring.

"Jun," Tanaka said, and Jun seemed to remember he was there. She turned to him with a smile.

"What?"

"Your job," he said, handing her a folder. She opened it, scanned over the black and white photo before closing it again. "Have it done as soon as possible."

"What'd he do?" she asked.

"Read the file."

Instantly, she tore it up, tossing it in the air like confetti. Her electric blue eyes landed on him. "I'm asking you."

"Jun," Tanaka snapped, as though scolding a young child. He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose as she just smiled. "He is stealing a large amount of money from profit we make for himself," he explained. "We are not the type to overlook this sort of predicament. Your job is to take the money back and kill him."

"I figured that last part," she said, shrugging. She plucked up a piece of paper, the eyes of the man she was supposed to kill. She looked back to Tanaka. "Do you have my reward yet?"

"We are still working on finding information, Jun," Tanaka reminded her.

A tiny frown tugged at Jun's lips. "Tan-san, you're supposed to be information brokers. I've been waiting for a long time."

"I know, and I'm asking you to wait a little longer," Tanaka told her. "We can compensate you with money—"

"Dammit, Tanaka," snapped a voice from the front of the car, and an older man whirled around from the passenger seat. "Will you quit babying her?" He turned to Jun, his salt-and-pepper hair askew, who was already staring at him with those blue eyes of her, a storm brewing. "You listen here, Sekihara Jun, you'll do as we say. You work for us, and you will do the job we tell you to do on the terms that we agreed upon. Do you understand?"

"Uwah, you really think I work for you?" she asked, smiling. "It would take me a total of nine seconds to slit all your throats and pry that suitcase with all your contacts from your cold, dead body, Lancaster."

Tanaka held in a sigh. This was why he preferred to handle Jun. Anyone else would become annoyed with her childish behavior; Tanaka was just used to it. "Jun—"

"Shh," Jun said, turning to him. "I'm talking, Tan-san." Jun turned back to the older man, Lancaster Yuu. After a quick glance in Jun's eyes, Tanaka decided to just listen. There was no negotiating when her eyes beginning to lose color. While he knew there were conditions to her ability, he also knew that she was resisting killing all of them and he didn't want to push her over the edge. "You're lucky that I believe in working for reward. Otherwise you would be dead. You underestimate me, don't you? That makes me really unhappy."

Lancaster wasn't backing down. He had taken too much of Sekihara Jun's insubordination. "If you don't do your job, Sekihara, then you'll never get your reward. The longer you take to complete your task, the later you'll receive your fucking reward and your brother may already be dead by the time you receive his location—"

"If I find out that Onii-chan is already dead, then I'm going to come back and violently slaughter every single one of you. They won't even be able to find your bones," she said. There was nothing menacing about her tone at all, but Tanaka could sense the sincerity in her voice. It was thick, heavy, suffocating; like they were drowning and she was the anchor tied to their feet. She smiled at the driver. "Driver-chan, you can let me off here," she said, and he pulled over immediately. He knew that she had been counting him in the nine seconds she'd need to kill everyone in the car.

"Jun," Tanaka said, handing her a glass of water. She poured it over her head and took a breath like she had just come up for air. She flicked the wet hair from her face, and blinked a few times, smiling at Tanaka with those big blue eyes of hers.

"I'll do the job," she told Tanaka, pushing open the door. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood." She stepped out, but turned back for Lancaster. "Next time, Lancaster, watch what you say. Or else I'll cut out your tongue and shove it down your throat." She offered Tanaka a smile. She did like him, after all. He was always so nice to her. "Until next time, Tan-san."

He nodded. "Looking forward to it."

Hisoka watched Jun emerge from the car a few blocks later. The car ride had been short. He debated chasing that car down himself and finding out what exactly had unfolded within, but he decided against it. Trying to pry the information from her would prove to be more fun.

Even from a distance, he could tell that something interesting had happened. Her hair was drenched, and her clothes were splattered with water. Hisoka knew that Jun had a tendency to…change sometimes. When there was a time she was especially annoyed, or even angry, he noticed that the color in her eyes and the way she spoke changed. He had discovered the water solution on accident, and learned that water tended to dissolve the darker personality that seemed to emerge when she was feeling especially emotional. He never did ask her why, but he used it when he needed to. It seemed like other people had figured out the same thing, as she'd already been disarmed today.

He would definitely follow her closely.

Jun took a deep breath. She had just showered and made herself up nicely only to have ruined it. She sighed, releasing all the air pent up in her lungs. Work was work. It was the reason she was here. It was the reason she lived.

A few people glanced at her as she headed down the street, as she looked like she'd stuck her head in a shower, but she didn't care. "Oh, Sekihara-san," said a voice, and Jun turned.

"Just Jun is fine," she said instinctively, and was greeted by a man with long silver hair. He was dressed in an orange scarf and a white long sleeve shirt and dark jeans.

She definitely knew who this man was. She recognized his face, vaguely, even if he wasn't in the clothes he wore while fighting in the arena. The arena! That's how she knew him. He definitely fought in the arena, but she wasn't sure if she'd seen it live or on TV. Had he won or had he lost? What was his nen ability again? She couldn't even put a finger on his name.

"Oh, hi," she greeted, offering a smile.

"It's great running into you, Sekihara-san," he said, smiling at her. Jun thought he could be on a toothpaste commercial. He had a charming smile.

"Just Jun is fine," she told him again. She wanted to avoid using his name. What was it anyway?

He chuckled. "Alright, Jun. Well, how are you doing?" he asked. "I haven't heard of any matches of yours."

"Oh, um, good, I guess. And I haven't fought since last year. It's pretty boring, so I'd like to avoid it," she said. She wasn't used to conversation with people that weren't Hisoka or Machi. What was it like to talk to a normal person? "And yourself?"

The man opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a high pitched voice. "Kastro-san, can I have your autograph?" asked a woman, skipping up to him in a short skirt. He didn't seem surprised, and agreed without question, and, right in the middle of the street, proceeded to sign a picture of himself. Jun had a million things to say about that, but instead, she decided to defer her energy into remembering his name.

But even with his name, a memory wasn't triggered. Maybe they'd spoken a few times before, but Jun didn't remember anything significant. She only tended to remember the names of people who were particularly interesting. Kastro bade farewell to the now-ecstatic fan girl before turning back to Jun, offering a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that, Jun. Anyway, it's great I ran into you. I wanted to ask if you wanted to go out sometime."

"Go out?" she asked, genuinely confused. "Aren't we out now?"

He chuckled, nodding. "Yes, we are, but I meant to ask if you wanted to have lunch and spend time together."

"Oh," she said contemplatively, tapping her nose. Kastro didn't falter, as he seemed to know that she hadn't rejected him yet. No man had ever asked Jun to 'have lunch and spend time together' before, not even Hisoka, so she wasn't sure what to do. "Why?"

Kastro smiled. "Well, I've always admired you as a fighter, and as a woman, I find you quite beautiful," he explained, not seeming to be ashamed. "I'm back in town for a fight, actually, and I'd really like to spend some time getting to know you. Since I am not yet a floormaster, it has proven impossible for me to go upstairs and ask you while in the tower, which was why I'm actually glad to have seen you out here."

"Oh," she said, and smiled, shrugging. Beautiful? That was a good word, right? Jun wondered why she didn't particularly care that he had called her such a nice thing. She wondered what it would feel like if that adjective spilled from Hisoka's lips, and if he'd said it to her. Would it feel better than just now? "Sure, I guess. Lunch sounds good."

Kastro smiled again, walking at her side. "Wonderful. Where would you like to eat?"

"Anywhere is fine," Jun said, honestly not caring. She was hungry, and she assumed she wasn't going to be paying.

"How about here?" Kastro asked as they passed a posh looking restaurant. The building was completely made of glass and steel, and rose for several stories. Through the glass, Jun could see that the people dining within were dressed to the dime, even if it was only lunch time. Jun had never come here before; she didn't care for gourmet food.

But then again, she wasn't paying. "Sure."

"Kastro-sama, welcome," greeted the hostess as soon as they entered through the glass doors.

"Do you have a table for two?" he asked, holding up his fingers for emphasis. The hosts didn't even need to check their books before nodding, and leading them across the restaurant and up the steel stairs.

Jun felt incredibly under dressed. She hadn't dried off very much, and she was here in a fancy restaurant in an oversized haori, high waisted shorts and a bandeau. She was probably showing more skin than everyone in the restaurant combined.

But Sekihara Jun was never the type to care. The approached an empty table and Kastro pulled out the chair, gesturing towards it. She paused for a moment. No one had ever done this for her before. "Did you want to sit, Jun?" Kastro asked after Jun had been standing there for a while.

"Oh, yeah," she said, plopping down into the chair. Kastro pushed it in and sat across her as the hosts left their menus on the table.

"May I take your coat, Sekihara-sama?" asked the host. So they did know her.

Jun was about to take off her haori, but then changed her mind, pulling it back on quickly. Without a proper shirt, the scar on her back would be completely visible. She knew the likelihood of Hisoka finding out about this was extremely low, but she knew that even if it was 1%, he would find out somehow. She did not want to make him unhappy with her.

"I'm fine," she told the host, who nodded and then strutted away, completely robotic.

"So, Jun," Kastro started, folding his hands on the table and offering her a smile. "Won't you tell me about yourself?"

"Why?" she asked, once again confused by this man's behavior. Hisoka never asked to hear about herself. What was she supposed to say? "I don't' think I'm particularly interesting to normal people."

"Nonsense," Kastro told her, not sure what she meant by that. "I'm sure that you have so many stories to tell."

"I don't," Jun assured him. She seemed troubled, so Kastro decided to talk about something else. All the stuff he'd said earlier to her, he hadn't been lying. She was pretty, and he did admire her strength. He just always wondered why she always seemed alone and he thought that maybe, he would be able to get her to open up a little.

"How about you choose our wine?" he asked, pushing over the drink menu. "Which would you like?"

"I don't drink wine often," she said, but picked up the menu anyway, glancing over the letters. "Or, well, I haven't tried it before, so I'm not really sure what I like."

"Sake, then?"

"I haven't drank that either," she told him, flipping over the menu. She smiled sheepishly. "See? I'm pretty boring."

Kastro chuckled, shaking his head. "Just because you don't drink alcohol doesn't mean you're boring, Jun. Just order whatever you'd like to drink."

A waiter came over, and Jun pointed to the menu. "This pink thing," she said.

"I'll just have a glass of white wine, thank you," Kastro ordered, and the waiter took their menus. Kastro opened his mouth to speak, but Jun beat him to the punch.

"So you're in town for a fight?" she asked, her eyes wide with curiosity.

Kastro smiled, and nodded. She truly was a warrior at heart. "Yes, I am."

"How many wins do you have?"

"Nine."

"Uwah," she cooed, seeming impressed. "If you win, then you can challenge a floormaster."

"That's correct," he told her. "But I don't plan to right away."

"Are you going to challenge me?" she asked, tapping her nose.

Kastro chuckled, shaking his head. "I don't plan to."

She grinned. "Wonderful. I don't like fighting. And you seem like a nice person. I'd hate to have to kill you," she said, and Kastro, not knowing what else to do, continued smiling. "So, who are you fighting?"

"Will you come to watch?" Kastro asked.

"Well, it depends who you're fighting," she countered, smiling as the waiter brought over Kastro's wine, and Jun's strawberry daiquiri. She placed her lips on the straw, taking a sip from it. She held the liquid in her mouth for a while, tasting it, before her eyes brightened and she seemed to realize that she liked it. She brought the drink closer to her so she could drink and talk.

Kastro laughed. "How about you come to my match and see for yourself."

"You think it'll be boring?"

"I think it'll be fatal."

Kastro saw a fire light up in her eyes at that, and she nodded. "I'll be there, then. When is it?"

"Well, it hasn't been confirmed yet, I haven't received a response. But if I know him, it'll definitely happen. I'll be sure to let you know," he said. "Speaking of which, I think I'll need your phone number to contact you should my match be confirmed. And to give you free tickets, of course."

"Oh, sure," she said, pulling out her phone as Kastro did the same. They held their phones together and a beep let them know their contact information had been transferred.

Kastro was quite proud of himself. That had been a lot easier than he thought. "I'll be looking forward to you cheering me on."

Jun smiled. "Ditto," she replied, taking a long sip from her daiquiri. She finished it off, blinking her eyes several times, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by alcohol. She hadn't really drank before, other than the occasional glass of champagne – Hisoka tended to like something called Cristal – but even then, she didn't ever finish her glass.

"Are you alright?" Kastro asked, his voice colored with concern.

"Yeah," she told him, offering him a smile.

"Are you ready to order?" asked the waiter, returning with a notepad, and a refill on Jun's drink. She figured they were pretty attentive waiters and didn't bother asking about it. But she realized she hadn't gone through the menu, and she'd never been anywhere that doesn't serve French fries and ice cream, so she had no idea what to eat. It was why she didn't care for gourmet dining.

"Yes," Kastro answered before Jun had time to answer.

"Oh, um, what are you eating?" she asked, holding up the menu, skimming for something she'd like to eat. She hadn't even glanced at the menu.

"Don't worry about it," Kastro told her, and proceeded to order for the both of them. Jun figured that he must have come here often. She'd never had someone order for her before. Did that mean that he could tell what she liked to eat?

The waiter pivoted and stalked off to deliver the ticket, and Kastro turned his attention back to Jun. "Thank you," Jun said politely. "You're very nice to me."

"Of course," Kastro said, offering her a charming smile. "You're a lovely woman, you must be treated this way all the time."

"Not really," she said, shrugging. "I don't really talk to other people."

Kastro knew that already. "But men must talk to you."

"Not true," she said again. "I only know one man, actually. Besides, you, I mean."

Kastro chuckled, trying to hide the fact that he was fishing for information. "Your boyfriend?"

Jun nearly choked on her daiquiri. Kastro let out a little sigh of relief, figuring that she was going to deny that this one other man was her boyfriend. Maybe it was a relative. "What's that?" she asked.

Kastro paused for a moment. "What's what?" he asked, confused. "A boyfriend?"

"Yeah," she said, sipping from her drink. "I mean, he is a boy and I suppose we are friends, sort of. Not really sure what that means, though. Does that count?"

Kastro's mind was beyond blown. He blinked a few times, trying to gather his thoughts, wondering if this woman truly was over the age of twenty. If she wasn't, he'd feel really creepy right about now. "Well, um, do you go on dates with this person? Like, spend time together?" he added, just to be sure.

"Not during the day," she said, tapping her nose. "He does things during the day."

"Do you have feelings for this person?" Kastro asked, not fully believing that he was coaching an adult about figuring out whether or not she had a boyfriend. Kastro wanted to be that one man special to her, but it seemed that perhaps he was too late.

"Well, it's nothing specific," Jun asked. "I don't hate him."

"Do you like him?"

"I guess."

Kastro exhaled. "So he's a friend, then."

"Yeah," she said, shrugging. "I guess. He's never said we were friends, but I think we are. I'm not sure. Should I ask?"

"Maybe that would be a good thing to do," Kastro said, and wondered why he had just said that. He was essentially giving her away to another man. Sekihara Jun was cute, but incredibly naïve. More so than he thought she was.

"He might get mad."

Yes! Kastro was quick to jump at the chance to take his words back. "Then, um, maybe it would be better not to ask."

Jun seemed to like the idea, and nodded, sipping from her drink. "Yeah, I think I'm not going to. If he got mad at me, I would be really upset. I hate making him mad at me."

Kastro was dying to know who this man was. Sekihara Jun was truly an interesting person. She had mood swings, she talked about killing people, she enjoyed fighting, and she was incredibly strong. She spaced out a lot, she had a lot of confidence, but at the same time, very low self-worth. She was extremely cute, but just as naïve, so much so, that anyone could take advantage of her if given the right keys. But yet, the man she was talking about seemed to be able to handle all of her, and keep her happy. The man who could accept Sekihara Jun for everything she was. Kastro wondered what kind of person this was.

But before he could ask, the waiter brought back their appetizers, two small plates of salad and a tray of sashimi to share. "It's almond miso dressing and the fish is otoro from the violet sea tuna, one of the rarest tuna in the world," he explained, smiling.

"Oh," was all Jun could say. She had never had any of this food before. "Thank you."

She picked up her chopsticks and forced herself to down the food. While it was delicious, and certainly tasted expensive, it wasn't particular to Jun's taste. She couldn't put a finger on why. Maybe it was because she wasn't really a fish person. But she just smiled at Kastro, who was being so nice to her, and ate the food on the table. After all, she wasn't paying.

The main course was brought over and Jun wasn't sure what it was. She knew that she couldn't eat it with chopsticks. "You look like a woman of exquisite taste, so I ordered for you veal and fresh porcini mushrooms," Kastro told her.

Jun had not eaten either of those things in her life. "Oh, thanks. What did you get?" she asked, gesturing to his food.

"Just a simple steak," he said, shrugging.

Jun actually would have rather eaten that, but for once, she didn't want to be rude. So once again, she ate the food in front of her, and wondered why Kastro hadn't just let her have a few more minutes so she could pick out her own meal.

Would Hisoka have been able to pick out food for her? Jun wondered what he would have chosen in this situation, and she wondered if she would have liked it.

"So, Jun," Kastro started, and Jun swallowed whatever veal was, and looked up. "Have you, uh, seen any fights recently?" He had thought back to their previous conversations and the only thing she seemed remotely interested in was when he talked about matches in the arena.

Jun seemed to think for a while, tapping her nose. "Not really. I saw my match against that Leviathan or something on TV the other day. Some bar was playing reruns of fights, I guess."

"Oh, I did see that match in person," Kastro said, happy to have her to speak.

"I don't really remember it very well," she said, shrugging. "But I don't remember people who bore me, so it doesn't really bother me."

Kastro chuckled a little. "I'm sure you'll get another fun match soon, right? It's been some time since you've been in the ring. A lot of fighters are gaining wins in the 200's."

"Yeah, but I don't like fighting," she said, taking another bite of her food. "It's always the same formula. People underestimate me, or think they can beat me for some reason. And then they end up dying. Right now, I only know two people that can kill me, and I actually want to build a third. That seems like more than enough."

"I'm curious to know who those people are," Kastro said.

Jun smiled. "It's a secret."

He laughed, waving her off. "I figured as much."

"I wish I could refuse matches sometimes," she said, finishing off her plate. "But if I did, I apparently lose my floor, and that would be bad. I'd hate to be homeless."

The rest of the conversation, Kastro found to be rather strained. Jun wasn't easy to talk to; he could feel that perhaps she felt uneasy, or didn't trust him, which he understood. He, too, was a fighter, and perhaps she thought they would fight one day and talking too much would have been her downfall. Or something like that. He found Sekihara Jun impossible to read.

Dessert was a shared ice cream sundae, to which Jun just ate the strawberry ice cream and the strawberries, leaving everything else for Kastro. "You like strawberries?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I guess. It's my friend's favorite thing."

Kastro took care of the bill and they left the restaurant without trouble. "Did you want to head out and shop or something?" Kastro asked. "Perhaps see a movie?"

"There is this place I wanted to go," Jun said, smiling as she pointed in the direction. Kastro returned her smile and followed, stopping at a patisserie a few blocks down.

"We just had dessert," Kastro said, a little confused. "Are you still hungry?"

"Oh, no," she said, shaking her head as he pushed open the door for her. "I just wanted to buy cupcakes and bring some back home for my boy person," she said and then paused, thinking aloud. "Man person? I don't know. He's older than me. Man person. Boy person?"

Kastro just didn't say anything and let her head to the cashier's. The place seemed new, colored in pastel pinks and yellows with swirly text on their menus. The workers were all dressed in frilly pink outfits. This didn't seem like somewhere Sekihara Jun would eat.

"Do you guys have a strawberry shortcake cupcake?" Jun asked the cashier, illustrating what a cupcake looked like with her hands, as though they didn't already know.

"Yes," the young girl behind the register said, gesturing to the glass display cases. Jun peered over to see a cute cupcake in a strawberry holder with pink frosting, and half a strawberry perched on top. She smiled.

"How many do you have left? Just those?" she asked, pointing to the twenty cupcakes in the case.

"Oh, we have some in the back that we're baking throughout the day," the girl explained. "We have about two hundred for today."

"I'll buy them all," Jun said immediately, smiling as she dug out crisp bills from her little bag.

The young girl seemed distressed, so Kastro decided it was time to step in. "Um, Jun, maybe not all two hundred of them," he suggested. Jun seemed confused, as though she were being perfectly rational for buying two hundred cupcakes in one sitting. "How would we carry them back to your room?"

"Oh," she said, as though seeing his point. "You're right." She turned back to the girl. "I'll pay double if you deliver them to my room on the 235th floor of Heaven's Arena."

In that moment, the girl seemed to realize who exactly was standing in front of her and paled like a ghost. Kastro stepped in again. "Jun, how about we buy maybe, like, five cupcakes?"

"But he likes these cupcakes," she said, frowning.

"Well, you don't want him to get tired of them, right?" Kastro asked. "If he has too much, he may get tired of the taste."

"So, they'll become boring?" she asked.

Kastro nodded. "Exactly. Things are good in small amounts."

Jun seemed to understand that logic. "Okay, five cupcakes, then," she told the girl, who looked relieved, taking the money from Jun. She packed them into a pastel pink box and handed it to Jun.

"Thank you," the girl said, and Jun just turned and left, practically skipping out of the store with her cupcakes in hand. Kastro just decided to follow; there wasn't anything he could do about the people watching them.

He cleared his throat when they were outside, and Jun glanced at him. "Did you want to go anywhere else?"

Jun shrugged. "Wherever you want to go, I guess," she said, not particularly caring. She tried to remember what he'd said earlier. She didn't really hang out with other people besides Machi, and Machi liked shopping. Jun thought that might work. "Did you want to go shopping?"

Kastro offered her a smile, and nodded, following her towards the shopping complex. The rest of the day was filled with a shopping excursion. Kastro had bought a few things for himself, new scarves, and shoes, and pants, and Jun found herself not minding waiting for him. Jun hadn't gone shopping for some time, so she burned through a lot of money buying a bags and bags of new clothes and accessories she knew she'd never wear.

"Let me carry those," Kastro offered, scooping the bag handles from her hands.

"Oh, it's fine," she said, but he had already taken all her bags. She just decided to let him carry them for her. Anything that had her doing less work was a good thing.

By the time they finished, they sky had long ago darkened. They'd gotten an evening snack at a small café, and Jun actually had a nice time. But throughout the day, she had been wishing that instead of Kastro, a certain red headed magician had been at her side instead.