- The fanart above is SO hot idc idc. It's by @phoneafrog on Instagram. -
The sound of heavy rain pounding against the car windows added to the tension in the air. We noticed the members of the Troupe running in the direction of the hotel.
"Hey, can you pass them with the car?" Gon asked Leorio who sat in the driver's seat.
The man shook his head. "It's rush hour. They're faster running than we are with a car..."
I didn't have time to process anything because the passenger door swung open and the one who bolted out of the car was a disguised Kurapika. It took a moment to react, but Gon and I followed in hot pursuit, leaving Leorio stuck in traffic.
I could feel my heartbeat pulsating through my veins as worry washed over me while I ran through the pouring rain, quite literally chasing the man of my dreams. To clarify, no, I was no longer hooked up on that thought. During that time the only things which mattered to me was hunting down the group of thieves.
Running past the crowd of people, we hid behind the wall of an alleyway. If the Spiders were using Gyo, which they most likely were, they were sure to have spotted our location by now. I looked to Gon, making sure he was thinking what I was thinking. He nodded at me with furrowed eyebrows. We had to reveal ourselves.
Gon stepped forward first, hands outstretched. "Sorry!" The boy said innocently. "I promise I'll stop following you, I'm really sorry!"
"You again?" The voice was feminine and uncaring, probably a Troupe member. They muttered words among themselves. "There's another one. Show yourself!" The same voice demanded only seconds later.
They found me, despite me using In to conceal my aura. I gulped. I was about to walk forward before I felt a gentle hand touch my back, I turned to see Killua walking by me. He offered a reassuring smile from the corner of his eye. I read that look fluently, it said: stay hidden. Only come out if they decide to capture us.
I nodded at him as he turned his face away, exposing himself to the members. Even if Killua didn't issue that command to me, I still would have chosen to run out only if there was an immediate sign of danger.
"What should we do, Danchou?" I overheard the same girl speak again.
And then a deeper voice, who I assumed belonged to the leader, spoke, "Let's keep them."
That was my cue. At lightning speed, I took my revolver from the sheath on my thigh and flew out from the alleyway. Clearly the enemies who stood there hadn't expected this because they all looked immediately startled. I didn't hesitate before pulling the trigger, watching as a silver bullet teleported into the thigh of the short, black-haired girl with stylishly round glasses. She was mine.
"Attack the Spiders!" I yelled. The girl, no, my robot rather, acted instantly at my order and swung a fist into the face of another lady beside her who wore a short yukata.
Killua and Gon freed themselves from the Nen strings but before they could act, Gon was hanging upside down, the hidious man in the long dark fur coat holding him by his ankle. He took a hold of Gon so fast that I hadn't even noticed and neither did Killua by the looks of it. My eyes switched to the pink haired woman who was now lying on her back, trying to pry off the hands of my robot who was strangling her. Then my gaze went back to the tall leader once more to see him now wearing a confident smile on his face.
"Release her." He said calmly, referring to the girl that I had uses my power on. "Or I'll kill the kid." It was terrifying how his tone hadn't changed at all while threatening us so casually. I glared intensely at the man, his pupils didn't falter at all: he wasn't bluffing.
"(Y/N)..." A weak, heartbroken whisper came from Killua. He was staring at Gon with eyes wide with worry and pain. I knew I had to do it. The leader had won us.
Immediately I stopped my power, allowing the girl to be released from my control. She snapped out of the short trance and stood up off the friend that she attacked. The pink haired woman got up, the most terrifying expression on her face. She wrapped Nen strings around the three of us, particularly tightening mine so that I was the most uncomfortable.
The leader scowled at me as he spoke to his friends. "If they try anything again, kill them."
~
I felt my face collide with the cold tiles of the hotel flooring as I was kicked down immediately upon entering. The emotionless girl with the black hair stepped on me to prevent me from getting up. "That's for earlier." She muttered, referring to when I controlled her to attack her friend.
"That's enough, Shizuku." Their leader began, "We don't want to attract attention to ourselves."
The girl, Shizuku, took her foot off my chest and pulled me to my feet rather forcefully and shoved me in line with two worried-looking Gon and Killuas.
"You, girl." The leader looked at me with an amused smile. "Who are you?"
But before I could say anything Killua answered for me, "She's our friend. She was in on the plan to capture you guys but didn't know that there was no longer a bounty on your heads."
The tall, sickly pale man hummed and looked away. Killua, Gon and I continued to stand in unwavering silence under the supervision of the three Troupe members.
It remained like that for a while until thankfully I heard the booming voice of a man I didn't expect to hear. "So!? Do you know what time it is!?" Leorio yelled into a cellphone. "Idiot! It's Takeru Beach Hotel, not Bay Rock!"
The man met our eyes with a strict look and yelled at us again in an attempt to pick a fight. The Spiders chose to ignore him and he continued to yell on the person over the call. "Listen carefully." Leorio said. "I want you here at seven o'clock sharp, in the hotel. If you're one second late, you're fired!" He ended the call with an angry press of a button.
I got the message. My eyes met with Gon and Killua who nodded: we all knew. At seven, the power will turn off and give us a chance to act.
Time had never gone so slowly. Even the other two members had arrived who I learned were Pakunoda and Nobunaga. Nobunaga looked at me with disgust, "Who's the girl?"
"She's with these boys." Replied Shizuku.
A smile crept onto the lips of the long-faced man as he leaned into Killua and Gon. "It could be a sign, fate wants us to meet again and brought another potential member too. We'll be good friends, don't you think?"
"No way!" Killua closed his eyes. "We were following you just because there was a reward. To tell you the truth, I never wanted to see your faces again."
I smirked as Gon agreed with his friend, closing his eyes too. Killua's decision was a smart one. I huffed and waffled about something similar regarding my hatred for the troop after shutting my eyes.
The Spiders discussed our antics and brought up Pakunoda's ability. "I want Paku to check the girl, she may know something about the Chain User." Said the leader. "I want to know what she hides."
I gulped. With a question like that everything I know about Kurapika would be revealed. I was surely screwed. There was only a minute left until the lights would go out and I knew that I had to stall one way or another.
"It'll be a waste of time." I said as calmly as I could. "I know nothing of this 'Chain User'. Besides, what makes you think I'd know any more than those two, I-"
A slender hand grabbed my face, squishing my already sore cheeks. "Shut up." The woman said, "I'll find out what you know in due time."
Shit. "Yooo, why don't we just talk it out, from one gunwoman to another." I could feel her grip on my face tense.
"Enough stalling. Get on it with it, Pakunoda." The leader said.
"Even if we knew something," Gon shouted, getting everybody's attention. "We would deliberately thing of something else to fool you."
"It's impossible to fool me." Pakunoda said nonchalantly. I felt her glare daggers into my soul even with my eyes closed. "I'll ask you my question. What are you hiding?"
A gasp emerged from the woman holding me as the power went out finally. Without a moment to waste I opened my eyes and bit down on the hand around my face, forcing her to let go of me. I saw Gon fly to attack her so I moved on and kicked down Shizuku instead who was directly beside me.
Unfortunately we failed. The woman with the Nen strings managed to get a hold of Killua and Nobunaga captured Gon. Pakunoda pulled me off of Shizuku and held me with a terrifying grip. After handing Gon over to Shizuku, Nobunaga pulled a knife out of the pillar.
"Anyways those kids are incredible. Those kids have..." Pakunoda stopped talking when Nobunaga called for her, giving her the letter on the knife as it was addressed to her. The woman took the paper and gasped, almost letting go of me after reading it. She stared at the letter for so long that I began to think maybe it was laced with some sort of paralysing spell.
"Paku!" The man with the long nose called for her. "From this point on don't say anything. Understood?" He asked and recieved a nod. He turned to the cold lady with the pink hair and said, "Machi, focus on your threads. I'll take your place." Nobunaga paused. "If he left us a message that means he's willing to contact us again. Until then, take care of our hostages. They're valuable."
I smiled of relief. We were safe, for now. Thank God for Kurapika succeeding in capturing the head Spider; who knows what would have happened if things turned out any differently. But I didn't let my guard down. We hadn't completely won this hunt yet.
~
BYE I DIDN'T KNOW PAKUNODA USED A REVOLVER I LITERALLY THOUGHT IT WAS A PISTOL
I'm strung up about this because I made Reader's specific gun type a revolver mainly because I find them really cool and snazzy. I was so sure that Pakunoda used a pistol so I thought it would be fine but now I've realised that I've messed up because I feel like this makes Reader a lot less original since she uses the same weapon as a different character. Sorry. Let's just pretend that Pakunoda uses a pistol in this story from now on pls 🏃💨
Sorry, bye 💃💃