Hisoka ~
Seeing Kira soundly asleep, her heart rate steady on the monitor, my anxiety finally subsided. Only a few hours ago, I was holding her broken body in my arms, afraid to let go.
I had rushed her to the hospital, upon realising the extent of her injuries. I didn't want to hand her over to the doctors but I had no choice. A stab wound, two bullet holes, a broken arm, snapped cleanly, electricity burns and, not to mention, severe internal bleeding. It was well beyond what I could treat.
The two fuckers had avoided killing her while inflicting as much pain and damage as possible. The thought made me murderous. My only satisfaction was that I had managed to kill one of them. Regrettably, the other got away.
No doubt he had already reported back to the Mafia. On the bright side, they wouldn't dare to send someone after Kira anytime soon. As long as I was around, I would make sure no one dared to touch her.
Now I had even more reason not to leave her side. I glanced down at her sleeping form and gently brushed a strand of hair away from her peaceful face. To think that I had almost lost her tonight...
Suddenly, I felt an intimidating presence enter the room. I recognised the aura immediately and knew it belonged to the last person I wanted to see right now.
It wasn't pure coincidence that the Mafia were able to find Kira and ambush her. Only two people had access to her location, one of the being me, and the other was the man who helped me install the tracker. No doubt, the Mafia had received the intel from the same man.
I wanted to kill him on the spot, but he wasn't particularly easy to kill. Instead, I wanted to see how he would react to the accusation. "You sold her out to the Mafia."
"Business is business," Illumi replied indifferently, confirming my suspicions. "I was under no obligation to withhold information from clients."
I resisted the urge to take him outside and beat the shit out of him. "Have I ever told you how much I despise sharing my toys?" I asked through gritted teeth, turning to face him.
"I have no interest in your toy," he said calmly, referring to Kira. "However, I don't think you should get too attached to her."
"Attached?" I wasn't. Who said I was?
"As you said, she is merely a toy. For you to abandon a mission for such a toy... I would say you seem awfully attached." His words were filled with utter distaste.
But it wasn't his tone that caught my attention. My eyes widened at the his casual mention of my mission, a task that was supposedly confidential. I didn't remember telling Illumi.
"What mission?" I asked in pretence, in case of the unlikely circumstance that he was referring to something else.
He looked at me with dead eyes. "Don't play dumb with me. If I hadn't known better, I might actually think you were stupid."
He had known about it but not through me. That only left one possibility and it made more sense than I would've liked. It not only explained what Illumi was doing in the Rezeda Empire, but also why Chrollo had assigned me the assassination task.
"We were given the same mission," I said quietly. At this point, it was more of a statement rather than a question. And we were employed by the same person.
"Not quite," Illumi shook his head. "My job was to clean up after you, should you fail."
"And would you look at that? I just so happened to fail."
I was torn between amusement and frustration. Why did I ever think Chrollo would make a plan without a backup? If he needed someone dead, he would make sure it happened. He had managed to play me again. That man was constantly one step ahead of me and it was infuriating, yet... exciting.
"It's not something to be proud of." Illumi pointed out, as if I wasn't already aware. "I must say, I am quite disappointed."
"I would apologise, but if we were to trace it back, you were essentially the cause of my failure." If he hadn't been such a backstabbing friend, I wouldn't be forced to abandon the mission to go after Kira.
I had managed to save her but did I lose Chrollo's trust in the process? Or rather, I never had his trust to begin with. He was overly cautious with me, going as far as hiring an assassin to secretly supervise my mission.
"Blame it on your own incompetence," Illumi replied with an air of contempt. "If only they had managed to kill her, I would've done you a favour."
"Try it again and you can consider your precious brother dead." I seethed, my voice dripping with venom. "Get out."
If he was surprised by my reaction, he hid it well. Without another word, he turned and left the room. I took a deep breath and calmed down.
Sometimes, I had to remind myself that I was his only friend and if I didn't tolerate him, no one else would. Though he would occasionally pull some out-of-pocket-shit, his intentions weren't all bad. It only meant that Illumi was still human.
Now there was the problem of Chrollo and the troupe. To some extent, Illumi was right. I had thrown away a chance to get closer to the Phantom Troupe boss. And I had no way of knowing when the next opportunity would be, or if there would even be one.
However, as I looked down at Kira, I realised that I didn't regret it. No, not at all. I reached for her hand and held it gently in mine. It was surprisingly cold but strangely, I liked this feeling.
Kira ~
I woke up to the monotonous sound of a heart rate monitor beside me and the smell of hospital-grade disinfectant. I looked around drowsily, feeling uncomfortable from the assortment of medical equipment and the stark white walls that seemed to be closing in. I hated hospitals.
Glancing down at my own body, I noticed that my wounds were all stitched up and bandaged. The bullet holes were patched up, cuts sewn shut and from the elbow down, my right arm was in a cast.
I clearly recalled the fight, the torture session, but not much else. Anything after that felt like a long fever dream. I knew Hisoka was the one who had gotten me out and brought me to the hospital. But where was he? Had he gone back to the arena?
Detaching myself from the IV drip, I dragged myself out of the bed. But before I could make it out of the room, the door open and a nurse walked in. She seemed surprised at first, but quickly ushered me back to the bed, despite my protests.
Moments later, a doctor arrived and sat down in the chair beside me. He looked to be in his sixties, with soft wrinkles and gentle eyes behind round spectacles. Upon checking my vitals, he smiled pleasantly. "We didn't expect you to be awake so soon," he remarked, "let alone have the strength to walk."
I didn't know about strength. Getting out of bed took an unnaturally immense amount of effort. However, I couldn't feel much pain, which made me wonder how drugged up I was on painkillers. Although it dulled my senses, I wasn't in a position to complain right now.
"Where's Hisoka?" I asked, wondering where the clown was. "The man who brought me here."
I was feeling rather thankful to that clown and I wanted to convey it to him, before he does something to make me change my mind. I could only vaguely remember him breaking into the warehouse, killing Axel and scaring off Zyan. But the feeling of his arms around me, holding me together when I was on the brink of falling apart, seemed to linger.
"The tall man with red hair? He only left this morning," the doctor explained. "You must be a very important person to him."
I shook my head and laughed. "I doubt it."
"Funny you say that, when that man hardly left your side for the past three days."
He did? And I was out for three whole days? Knowing Hisoka, he would've gotten bored after a few hours. This was very out-of-character for him and I didn't know what to make of it.
"And he must mean a lot to you, too." The old man commented with a smile. "Upon waking up, the first thing you did was inquire on his whereabouts. You don't even seem to care about your own condition."
"Of course, I care... I was just... curious." I almost slapped myself for giving such a weak justification. The doctor was right, I wanted to find Hisoka. But that was because I was grateful to him for saving my life. No other reason.
"You know, after many years of working as doctor, you come to see that the purest acts of love often happen in hospitals."
My eyes widened and I felt my face heat up when I realised what he was getting at. He had to be joking. Love?! Who came up with such a delusional idea?
The doctor seemed to notice my reaction and laughed softly. But thankfully, he didn't pursue the subject further and instead gave me an update on my condition. "Your arm would take the longest to heal, at this rate, I'd say around two months." He explained. "Fortunately, your opponent had broken it with a clean snap, otherwise, the damage would've been much worse."
I nodded. Hisoka must've lied and told them I had gotten my injuries from a fight at Heavens Arena. It certainly saved a lot of trouble.
"Oh, I had almost forgotten," the doctor said, handing me a folded piece of paper. "He left a note for you."
I took the note, which was in the form of an origami heart. Hisoka must've been really bored while waiting for me to wake up. I carefully opened it up and read the contents.
In case you wake up while I'm gone:
I'm sorry I'm not at your side, Sweetheart. I have a fight scheduled at 6:00 this evening so I have returned to Heavens Arena. Please feel free to watch me on TV, it should be live-streamed on the sports channel. I'll fight a lot better knowing you're cheering for me.
~ H ♡
P.S. Remember to drink water and try not to move around too much.
I had forgotten that he had a fight. It was against a man named Kastro, if I remembered correctly. I really wanted to watch it, preferably live and in person.
Folding the note, I looked up at the doctor. "What's the time right now?"
"It's quarter past five in the evening."
"Is it possible for me to be discharged tonight?" I asked eagerly. I had an hour to get out of here and make it back to the arena.
"Technically, you shouldn't be allowed to leave until a few days later." He replied, before eyeing the note in my hand. "However, you seem in a hurry to get out and I have a feeling you will disregard the rules anyway, so I guess I have no choice but let you go."
"Thank you," I said gratefully. "Thank you so much."
The old man smiled in response. "Just try not to strain yourself."
Within thirty minutes, I was dressed in fresh clothes that Hisoka had left for me and gotten out of the hospital. I wasn't going to run the risk of getting ambushed in the streets again so I hailed a taxi to get back to Heavens Arena.
At this time of the evening, the traffic was horrendous and without my phone, I had no way of knowing the time. By the time I arrived, the arena was already filled with people and I could only hope that I didn't miss too much of the fight.
Making my way up to level 200 through the competitors' entrance, I managed to sneak into the stadium without having to pay for a ticket. The match was well under way and it appeared that...
Hisoka was losing?!
He was losing in every possible way. He was down on points, his opponent had cloned himself and he had somehow lost a limb. Yet Hisoka didn't seem bothered at all, casually holding his right arm in his left and using it to scratch his shoulder.
This is a death match... right? Don't people die in death matches?
And even more absurdly, he was now performing magic tricks with his severed arm. What did I walk in on? Without knowing this was a fight, I would've mistaken it for a circus show.
No, I must've missed something. Focusing harder on Hisoka, I started to notice his Nen, the light pink threads of his Bungee Gum. There were too many strands branching out in various directions and I couldn't be bothered to track them all. I just had to trust that he had a strategy.
Whatever he was planning, it was probably something elaborate and overdramatic. If anyone could find a way out of such a dangerous situation and have fun whilst doing so, it had to be Hisoka. The clown seemed to be really enjoying himself.
Smiling arrogantly, he offered his remaining arm to Kastro, baiting him to attack. He must've lost his right arm the same way too. What a masochist.
In the span of a second, Kastro cleanly severed Hisoka's left arm. My heart skipped a beat for all the wrong reasons.
However, the clone immediately dissipated and Kastro retreated in shock. My heart skipped another beat as Hisoka revealed his perfectly healed right arm from behind his back. He held it up like a trophy, brandishing it for his opponent and the audience to see.
No way...
Now even I was surprised. I knew that he must have used Bungee Gum to reattach the arm and covered it up with Texture Surprise, but there was no way that arm could be functional. I refused to believe it.
He's bluffing.
The more I looked at it, the more evident that became. Sure, Hisoka had managed to physically stick his arm back on, but it wasn't fully connected. The muscles were limp, there was no sign of movement in the fingers and the arm itself looked kind of... wonky.
It was attached at the elbow, but the angle was a bit off, making it look unnatural. Then again, nothing about this clown was particularly natural.
Hisoka continued to taunt his opponent, provoking him and pushing him to the point of fury. Of course, it worked. From the looks of it, there wasn't a single logical thought left in Kastro's head. His mind was occupied entirely by blind hatred.
Taking advantage of this, Hisoka calmly dodged Kastro's frantic flurry of attacks, all without using his right arm. It confirmed my guess. That arm was entirely useless and he just carried on faking it. He was unsurprisingly good at it.
Charging in blindly, Kastro was clocked hard in the jaw by Hisoka's severed left arm. To him, it must've appeared out of nowhere. I cringed, feeling bad for the guy. Imagine getting punched by a detached limb. What a humiliating way to go.
Unable to react, Kastro collapsed to the ground, his body pierced by thirteen cards. Hisoka smirked victoriously and gloated one last time, before picking up his severed arm like a handbag and strutting out of the ring.
The crowd was cheering wildly, expressing their admiration, but all I wanted to do was snatch that arm from him and slap him across the face with it. What in the world was he thinking?
Hisoka had won the fight but lost both of his arms in the process. He could've easily avoided it but of course the idiot had to put on a show, without considering the aftermath.
Did he even think this though? How did he plan on doing his magic tricks in the future? Not that I enjoy them or anything.
Yet, he didn't seem particularly bothered, while I was here stressed out of my mind. Why was I even worried about him? He better have a follow up plan to fix those goddamn arms.
~~~~
Hope you've enjoyed this chapter. The plot is back on track, after a little detour.
Yes, I know the romance is extremely slow burn, it's been burning for over twenty chapters, and it feels like it's getting nowhere. But trust. Trust me.
~ krypto