Phantom Troupe's Web

Chapter 14.

After scouting and adventuring around the island, Iris lay on a tree branch, relaxing her head against the tree trunk with her hands folded behind her and her eyes closed. Soft hums escape from her rosy lips, enjoying the serene moment before the sound of a twig being snapped was heard from below her. Curious and annoyed by the sound, the female peers down the branch and into the thick, tall grass field; her lips curling into a pleased smirk at the sight of the culprit. Iris hadn't been actively searching for her chosen target, knowing she'd find and kill them with ease thus resulting in her choosing to relax in the meantime, however, the figure standing in the field was that exact person. They had come to her.

The person stood in the grassy field, their weapon drawn in case of an ambush, wearily looking around to see nothing but the blades of hay. Vaulting off the branch she had been previously laying on, Illuki lands in front of the person, her fingers interlacing behind her and her magenta hair flowing down behind her. Surprised by her sudden appearance, the person jolts back, stammering over their words and jabbing their weapon at the petite woman.

"Y-you! S-stay back! I-i'll kill you!" they threaten poorly.

Intrigued by the claim, she leans forward towards them with her head tilted to the side, innocence pooling her altered irises. "Are you sure?" she asked, giggling at the way her target fell back on their arse, crawling away from her towering figure with fear evident in their eyes. "Don't make this harder for yourself," she hummed, flinging her dagger into her target's head.

"N-no..t l..ik...e....th..i...s," they cried, falling back in slow motion as blood splattered out from the wound, their body becoming limp on the ground, blood pooling out from their head.

"I almost feel bad," Iris says, her arms crossed under her chest as she stares at the decaying body indifferently, shrugging her shoulders once it stopped twitching and stripped the applicant of their ID tag. "Oh well~," she childishly sang, trotting away from the rotting body and into the forest, hopping back onto the treetops and masking her presence from bystanders. She leaps from branch to branch, in search of Gittarackur or their mutual acquaintance, finding the latter sitting in an open field, under a large tree that provided him with some shade and a swarm of butterflies floating around him.

Bouncing over to the branch above him, she sits with her back facing him before falling backwards and announcing herself to him. "Hello Darling~," Hisoka greeted, focused on the butterfly that sat on his finger, its wings fluttering. "Did you find your target?" he inquired, glancing up at where Iris was hanging from, her magenta hair flowing under her head and green eyes boring into his stature.

"Stumbled into me," she commented off-handedly, reaching and pulling herself up before turning her body to face Hisoka, her legs swinging back and forth in a mismatching pattern. "And you?" the woman inquired with a raised eyebrow, her head turned to the east where she felt someone approaching them.

"Haven't moved since I left the boat," Hisoka clarifies causing his friend to deadpan, eyeing him and the injury he had sustained in the Third Phase. The pair fell into a somewhat comfortable silence with the magician relaxing underneath the red tree and the former assassin humming soft tunes to herself from above, her legs still swinging.

"Well, come on out," Hisoka says, feeling a presence in the bushes where his friend had been staring. The sun had set and whoever had been watching the duo was more prominent than before and although Iris felt a second presence, she decides to focus on the one she had felt earlier. "I know you're there," Hisoka said to the person.

As the person chooses to remain hidden, Hisoka stands from his spot on the ground while the emerald-eyed beauty jumps off the branch, the two of them approaching the bush where the presence was emitting from. Before either of them could engage, a figure pops up from the bush, swinging their weapon to the side. "I challenge you to a duel," the person declares, staring intensely at Hisoka, ignoring the woman standing beside the magician.

"You'll die," Hisoka responded with a blunt tone, smirking as Iris backs away from the situation, noting she had no purpose in the issue. The person releases a loud battle cry and lunges at the cruel redhead who dodges every jab of their weapon, its blade cutting the lone tree down from its spot in the middle of the open field. Pouting at the fallen tree, the disguised woman anchors herself on the trunk, her hair gracefully floating down behind her and green hues glaring at the applicant.

"Hisoka, explain yourself...Why won't you attack me?" the person, a man, panted.

"If I continue to avoid your attacks, you'll die eventually," Hisoka answered. "I can tell from the swarm of Hemotrophic Butterflies that your wounds are grave," he remarked, gazing at the butterflies that had been surrounding the participant's wound on his lower back. "Someone else has already dealt you a fatal blow, yes? Though I do understand your desire to die in battle," the magician turned and smirked.

"If you...If you understand so well, why do you still refuse to fight me?!" the man shrieks with pain.

"I have no interest in the dead," he stated simply, walking away from him and ignoring his claims of wellbeing. "You're already dead. It's in your eyes. Bye-bye," Hisoka pivoted and walks over to where his friend was standing, sitting on the trunk with his arms crossed and resting on his thighs.

Attempting one final attack, the man lunges forward with his weapon raised however his cry is cut off when a familiar yellow balled-tip pin is darted into his throat, a dozen more following after the first one. "Sorry about that," both Iris and Hisoka heard Gittarackur say from behind them, three pins held in the spaces of his fingers. "I carelessly let him escape."