String Puller [Shalnark x female reader]

Chapter 0

I looked down at my hands, covered in unknown blood. I begged the lifeless bodies to make me feel something — regret, sorrow, sadness — but my stoic expression remained unmoved. Maybe my pleading was too silent for them to care about, as it was only heard by my mind and thoughts.

I sighed and picked the precious vase from the box. All this effort when they could have easily given me what I wanted. But deep down, I knew that the money I would get from selling the artifact could never bring warmth into my soul. It had been frozen for way too long, sometimes even I forget about its meaningless existence. Being too distracted by my own sabotaging speculations, the steps approaching almost caught me off guard.

"That's a really pretty vase you've gotten there!", a woman with short blonde hair mused, smiling calmly as she kept getting closer.

My whole body tensed at her sight. Who was she? What was she doing here? She seemed to be alone, but the aura surrounding her made me figure out she was a Nen user, and even a skilled one. Furthermore, the woman definitely knew how to hide her presence, but I sensed her too late. If I wasn't so caught up in my own thinking, I would have knew she was coming way earlier. The conclusion I drew was that she wasn't intending to attack me, but it still made no sense and I was too taken aback by her arrival to view her intentions clearly. I collected myself slowly, making sure to not let her see that she disturbed my peace so easily, and then I moved my inspecting gaze towards her; tall and defined body, a crooked nose, blonde hair framing her face gracefully. I snapped my glare at her eyes, but I couldn't see anything hostile in them as I was expecting, they almost seemed... laudatory.

"That's the place my friends and I planned on looting, I was sent to investigate a bit, but it seems like you got ahead of us.", she commented lazily, looking down at the bodies on the cold concrete, her body shifting a bit as she put her hand on her hip loosely. "I've gotten a proposal for you. Come with me and meet my boss, I think he would see you as a valuable new member.", the woman continued, her expression being a serious one.

"Your boss?", I spoke quietly, being stunned at my own hoarse voice — I haven't used it in so long, I entirely forgot what it sounded like.

"Yes. Join the Phantom Troupe."

~~~

I dropped another small piece of a rock on the ground, the sound echoing through the dilapidated room. I was sitting in a corner, as far away as possible from the others. The woman whom I've encountered two weeks ago was Pakunoda, the only member beside the leader whose name I had knowledge of. After our unexpected occurrence, I followed her to a secret hideout they had, where I spoke with Chrollo Lucilfer — who didn't seem to pay much attention at that time. Pakunoda explained how she observed the whole scene of me massacring the men who were guarding the freigh and she expressed her admiration towards the fact that I managed to fight and kill over 10 humans in a few seconds, on my own, although she didn't get a clear view of my Nen technique. I just shrugged. I was used to being alone; me and my thoughts, no one else to derange the peace I had worked so hard to achieve, or that's what I forced myself to believe. Being abandoned doesn't give you a choice, it doesn't ask you nicely or apologizes, you just fall desperately in the ruthless hands of fate. Chrollo — my boss — had a different expression at the end of Pakunoda's story. He looked at me and I looked at him. Nothing on his face changed, but his eyes carried an infinitesimal amount of praise. Therefore, he agreed to let me join the Phantom Troupe and informed me regarding their meeting on 31st of August, in York New City, which must be attended by all members.

I found myself lost in my mind again, so I snapped my look forward, scanning the room. Even though it was dark, the space being illuminated by a few candles placed strategically, I could identify almost everything that surrounded me. I arrived early — or maybe they were all too late — as only me and three other people occupied the area. The boss, situated on a higher construction, was sitting on a rock ledge, reading undisturbed a book. I could only make out a few facial features, his slicked back hair which enabled his mesmerizing tattoo on the pale forehead to be seen and his stripped upper body that had a heavy coat over. I moved my attention to Pakunoda, who sat quietly near Chrollo, polishing her gun, blinking slowly and having an unexpressive look on her face. Close to her was a small creature that I would've missed out if I wasn't paying attention. It wore what looked like a long blue dress, its face being hidden beyond the lengthy grey hair, only a small portion of its right eye being visible.