19. Testing the Waters
"As I mentioned yesterday, I have questions I would like answers for. You could struggle, or you could cooperate." The leader gave a smile, far too sweet for his intent. "As you cannot leave unless we permit you to, I suggest you do the latter."
Lucky set his jaw in an attempt to hide his nerves. It was a threat, hidden under a soft tone and a perfect, practiced smile. Even then, it was undoubtedly clear. His gaze shot to his right arm for a brief moment. He should have gotten used to the pain by now, but it still throbbed every time his heart pulsed. Still red and swollen, aching, but not broken. Fractured at most. But from the realness of the threat, Lucky knew they could do far worse to him.
The leader spotted him inspecting his injured arm. "Rest assured, we will not hurt you unless need be."
Oh yes, that made him feel a lot better.
Lucky's blood pressure increased, and he struggled to lower it. A distant crash, followed by a high-pitched and frustrated "Why are all the auction items breaking?"
The leader sucked in a patient breath. "How long has your..." He paused, searching for a word. "How long has your condition lasted?"
Lucky was tempted to give a sarcastic response, but he refrained. He valued his life more than his dry sense of humor as any normal person would. "My bad luck? A while. I was born with it, I think." He thought back to all the stories his family had told him about the day of his birth. He'd gotten various accounts, but the full picture was just as convoluted as the individual point of views. First, his dad fainted, unhooking the tube his mother was using for oxygen, which caused her to panic which caused the doctor to panic. Then the lights flickered and the computer malfunctioned, and then the whole fish tank incident happened... He'd entered the world with a big bang, no joke. "Yeah, I was definitely born with it."
"You're quite an interesting kid," someone said, alarmingly close to his ear.
Lucky jolted, scrambling back. It was the woman with the revealing office outfit, the... he searched for the word. Blazer. While he had been furiously thinking, the woman with the blazer had snuck up on him without his realizing. Her fingertip hovered in the air where his elbow had been.
"He's not lying for now, Danchou, but he's starting to feel threatened again." Blazer stood. "My Nen keeps flickering on and off. I can get some snippets of information, but not a lot."
"I see." The leader, or Danchou, pondered for a moment before raising his voice to Lucky. "If we wait on you to be comfortable, it will take a long time for us to get the information we want."
At a nod, Emo Loser was behind him again, an iron grip connecting his wrists. His foot was firmly planted on Lucky's back so his arms were pulled back into a strained, painful position.
Lucky tried to level his breathing, he did. His heart beat at the bars of his rib cage as he inhaled deeply. He could hardly hear anything against his pounding head and his frantic thoughts, but the Danchou's voice rang loud and clear through his panic and pain:
"So tell the truth, alright?"
As if on cue, the woman put a hand to his arm, her expression stoic and unreadable.
Lucky gulped. He knew it was cliché, but he couldn't stop himself from thinking: What did they want with him? That Danchou asked about his bad luck. Did they want to know more about that? Why were they so concerned whether he was telling the truth? Lucky just wanted to sleep, stay home, maybe study for the advanced physics test coming up next Monday. Which he realized was now this Monday... which was tomorrow. Crud.
Blazer sighed, mumbling something under her breath. From the movement of her lips, Lucky could make out a few words, like 'this', 'idiot', and something that vaguely resembled 'physics'.
Lucky was sure he hadn't said anything out loud. There was no way to know what he was thinking. Was he hallucinating now?
"Do you have any idea how your condition came to be?" Danchou's melodious voice nearly lulled Lucky into a false sense of security.
His hesitation earned him a backward tug on his arms. Lucky reined in a cry before answering. "How exactly I happened to become like this? No. My great-uncle said it'd been a long time since he'd seen someone with my—"He decided to use the Danchou's words. "—condition. Said I would 'rattle the stars' one day."
He leaned forward with genuine intrigue. "Your great-uncle. He's witnessed a phenomenon similar to yours? Do you know the details?"
"I think he was joking."
A crack resonated in the room. A loud gasp for air was followed by Lucky's guttural screaming.
* * *
"What did we say about lying?" Feitan let his broken arm drop to the ground.
Chrollo was fascinated by how the screaming captive's Nen reacted. Threatened, it was colossal. Enormous. He, Paku, and Feitan all instinctively drew up their auras to protect themselves, but it fizzled away, corroded by the sheer amount of black destruction in the air. It flashed, unsure of what to do or where to go. It flitted between the three Spiders, trying to determine which threat to neutralize. In the end, it couldn't decide, instead going haywire and striking out randomly.
More crashes from down below.
"Stop that."
"Stop?" he screamed back at Feitan. "Stop what? Screaming? You broke my arm!" he managed to shout before tumbling into gasps and hisses and cries once again.
His aura was smothering now. Paku waved off Feitan, trying to calm the captive down before he destroyed all of the auction lots, or the entire building. "Hey," She moved to his left side, with the arm that still remained uninjured. "Everything is alright. Calm down. Breathe."
Heeding her words, he started to hyperventilate. His aura increased, engulfing the entire room. More crashes, and one side of the room started to crumble. "I-I can't—"
With a quick chop to his neck, the captive was once again unconscious. The massive black Nen was now gone, only with relatively small wisps leaving his imperfect Zetsu state. They exhaled breaths they didn't know they were holding.
Feitan drew back his hand, satisfied he had finally shut up. "He's so much work."
"Danchou!" Shalnark cried as he burst into the room. Other members of the Troupe followed closely behind. "What was that? I felt the building shake. Shake! This is a multi-level cement structure, with the lower levels reinforced with various metal alloys, it can't just—"
"Was it him?" Machi asked, cutting off Shalnark's rant. She stole a look at the captive, who was slumped on the ground. Was he asleep again?
"Yes. Feitan caused the captive to feel threatened, and possibly realize just how dire of a situation he was in, which caused him to panic and his Nen to fluctuate in great amounts. Seeing a threat, Feitan made him unconscious so he would enter into his Zetsu state once more."
Machi sighed. "Feitan."
He shrugged. "I just broke arm."
Yes, she wanted to say, but the captive wasn't used to broken arms. She understood Danchou wanted to keep Feitan in the room as he had been to one to bring him, but he wasn't helping the situation. Torture may have worked just fine for other people, but this captive had the potential to be very dangerous if he was threatened too much. The greater his panic, the greater his Nen. They were fortunate his Nen hadn't targeted anyone this time around. "Danchou, should Feitan be in here? He's only threatening the captive, but this method won't be successful."
Chrollo didn't hesitate. "You're right. Machi, Shalnark, switch with Feitan. The new objective is to have him open up on his own, allowing Paku to read his memories." Chrollo's gaze drifted to the unconscious body. "Phinks, could you get some buckets of cold water?"
* * *
Lucky sputtered awake, coughing up water that entered the wrong pipe. Then the pain hit like a truck. Just one look at his arm was enough to make him nauseous.
"Hey." Pinky was before him now. Huh, what a coincidence seeing her here as well. Next to her stood a young man with platinum blond hair and bubbly sage eyes, clutching a phone with devil-like wings attached. "Hey," she repeated, waving her hand in front of Lucky's face to get his attention. "You're fine. The other man isn't allowed to be in the same room as you, at least for the next few hours. Now let's see about that broken arm." She reached for it, needle and thread in hand.
Lucky flinched back. He widened his eyes when her thread disappeared.
Devil-phone spoke up. "It's okay. She's really good at what she does."
"Stabbing my broken arm with a needle?
Devil laughed, almost sparkling. "She'll fix your arm, no problem. I'm supposed to keep you distracted for the time being."
She gently lifted his arm, and he hissed at the rippling pain it caused. She raised her needle, then stopped. Her icy blue eyes met his. "You need to be calm. I can't do this unless you calm down."
"I know it's kind of hard," Devil chimed in. "But your arm will be back to normal in no time. So while you were unconscious, I printed out some horrible pick-up lines to help distract you. I've even compiled a video of the most cringeworthy ask-outs recorded so you can both see and hear the pain. If that doesn't work, I have a fanfic app, and I will read out loud every single lack of detail. What fandoms are you in?"
This was not the way Lucky expected himself to go. He let loose a snort, unable to hold it in. "Death by cringe." He froze.
He felt his skin being first sliced open, but that wasn't it.
He couldn't hear Devil's nonstop talking over his wonder with what she was doing. Her thread glowed neon blue and swerved with extraordinary speed. Before his eyes, the swelling went down, his bruised skin returned to its usual tone, and he felt his bone reconnect. She pulled away as fast as she'd worked. "Done. Thanks for distracting him, Shal."
"No problem!" He responded with a two-fingered salute. "Just glad I didn't actually end up having to pull all that out."
Lucky inspected his arm with awe. He flexed his fingers slowly. No pain, not even a reminiscent scar. "This isn't..." He trailed off, but her cold gaze dared him to finish. "Possible?" he squeaked.
"It is possible." The man with slick hair finally spoke up, closer to Lucky than he'd been before. Their Danchou. "What makes it possible is something called Nen."
* * *
"So this Nen is energy, a power of some sort." They didn't respond, except for Devil, who nodded encouragingly. "And with time, you can use it to do certain things, things seen as essentially superpowers to the rest of the world." Lucky rolled his words around in his mouth. When did his life become like this? "And you're saying I have this power."
"Every person does, and so does every thing, but to a minuscule degree. Each person's aura is different, but yours was stunning, which is part of the reason you are here now." Danchou set a wine glass before Lucky, nearly full to the brim with water. In the middle floated a small leaf. "You do not yet know how to control your Nen, but there is a surprising amount floating around you freely in a patchy Ten which occasionally delves into a Ren, so this technique should work. This is a method to test for your Nen category. There are six possible, and what happens to this glass of water and the leaf inside will let us know which category you are in." Danchou hovered his hand around the glass. "Keep your hands in this position."
"Okay." Lucky leaned forward, but Blazer didn't let go of him, instead keeping a hand on his shoulder as he brought his hands to the glass. She'd said something before about Lucky not lying, and at the time, she was right. It had bothered him until now. Perhaps she was a mind reader or an empath for her Nen power, one that relied on touch. Lucky's mind wandered as his hands waited patiently about an inch off the glass.
Her power didn't matter. It's not like he had anything to hide.
Well...
A wild screech grated his ear drums. A scrawny cat dashed into the room, hissing and bumping into seemingly every obstacle, including them and the glass. It tipped over, the spreading cracks like spiderwebs. The cat batted the leaf with a dirty paw before hissing once more and dashing back out into the hallway.
"Oh," the woman with pink hair said, breaking the long silence. "The screaming cat from before."
Danchou raised his coat to reveal another glass he'd hidden. "I brought a replacement, just in case." He gingerly plucked the leaf from the puddle, and scooped more water into the cup from a bucket before placing the leaf back into the glass.
Lucky brought his hands to it again.
A blur crashed into the glass with incredible speed, breaking it before hitting the far wall. They all turned their heads to the source of the flying object.
Lucky was pleased to repeat one of his more original nicknames in his head: Wannabe Samurai. His foot was raised in the air, and he was without one sandal. The man himself looked very perplexed, unsure of how he'd gotten into the situation. Lucky was surprised he was part of their gang as well. What were the chances of three people he'd seen in the city that night?
"Nobunaga," Danchou started to say. "How did this happen?"
"I," He furrowed his brows, eyes seeming to sink deeper into his skull. "I don't know," he said slowly, staring curiously at his raised foot. He scowled and marched into the room, plucking his sandal off the ground with a powerful annoyance. His gaze softened when it landed on Lucky.
Lucky gave a small wave. "So. You want to discuss your life choices now, or—"
He returned to glaring once more. He shifted the sandal in his hands. "I'll get you another glass," he mumbled, shuffling his way out.
Lucky managed a nervous smile towards them all. "Sorry." Of course his bad luck had to strike here. It probably wasn't making any of these people warm up to him, and he was pretty sure Emo Loser already hated his guts. Although the blond one was nice enough, and the others seemed to tolerate him. Maybe if he could get them to let down their guard, he could escape. He thought of the many open windows of the building. Perhaps he could jump out from one of those.
A sharp squeeze of his shoulder from Blazer cut off any more consideration to the topic. Lucky didn't know what her ability was, but he had an inkling it was mind-reading to a degree. He couldn't think about any thing secret much, like what his great-uncle had given him—
"Thanks, Nobu!" Devil exclaimed, cradling the cups with one arm and giving a cheerful wave with the other. "Okay, so we have two more glass cups and one earthenware pot. Let's try to be incident free, shall we?"
"This is in no way a 'we' situation." Lucky reached out for the water-filled glass handed to him, and set it on the ground. He placed his hands around it and waited. Slowly but surely, a puddle formed under the glass. Lucky smiled, but the others seemed puzzled.
Reaching forward, the pink-haired woman lifted it up. As she held it still a drop fell from its bottom. She sighed. "This one has a crack in it."
Devil groaned. He set the final glass cup down, dropping the leaf in.
Lucky hovered his hands around the glass, again. For a few seconds, all seemed still. Lucky was naive for thinking that maybe this was finally when he could do the Nen category test incident-free, because then the ground crumbled.
He didn't even have time to scream before he was carried to stable ground by Danchou. He heard the glass shattering below them, followed by curse-filled accusations from multiple people on that floor. Lucky was surprised everyone had managed to run to the hallway before the ground gave away, and their faces offered no hint of panic or shock as to what just occurred.
"I still have the pot," Devil offered. "I filled it up with water just in case before too, and I was able to get the leaf from the glass before it crashed onto the lower level."
Lucky blindly took the pot and sat down. Devil had done all of that and somehow got to safety in less than a second? The thing was, none of the others were shocked at what he'd done, as if that skill was a normality in their group. And for all Lucky knew, it might have been.
Blazer set her hand back on his shoulder. Trying to not pay attention to her, he focused on stilling his hands as they floated above the surface of the pot.
When a bird flew in through the window, plucked the pot up and carried it into the distance, Lucky gave up. He fell back with a frustrated snort and attempted to get comfortable on the hard floor. He was still tired after all, and this wasn't helping in the slightest.
Devil bit his lip. "Osprey aren't even native to this country," he mumbled under his breath before setting his hands on his hips. "Well, we have no more cups now. Everything we have left are auction items, but I don't trust him around them. He's already broken eighteen."
A crash.
"Nineteen," he corrected through clenched teeth. "So Danchou, if his Nen keeps interfering, the water divination test will never be conclusive."
A spark entered into Danchou's eyes. "How could I have been so blind?" He slid a hand over his hair for a brief moment. "It's crystal clear. Every time, his Nen caused something to happen to the cup. The cat, Nobunaga, the crack, the ground, the Osprey. All those incidents came to the various cups because his Nen made it be. He's a Specialist."
His words sunk in. "We've solved the mystery," Devil announced, smiling once again. What was it with him and the use of the word 'we'?
The Danchou smiled as well, clearly relieved it was finally over. "Your great-uncle was right." When he tilted his head, the light reflecting off his earrings sending aquamarine rays cascading to the ground. "I also believe you are going to 'rattle the stars' one day."
Lucky knew this was a compliment. His eyes crinkled gratefully before he looked away, rubbing at his neck. The leader of the one who'd kidnapped him thought the same as his Uncle Fu. He felt a heat creep up to his ears from the compliment. Danchou may not have meant it as much, or maybe his intent was just for flattery so he could use Lucky later. But the words originally came from his great-uncle. And just knowing that another agreed with what the one person he'd looked up the most to had said... He couldn't stop a smile from spreading across his face, though he tried to hide it behind his long shaggy hair. Uncle Fu brought back good memories.
A small breath was enough to make Lucky jump back.
Blazer was so quiet he'd forgotten she was there. Her lips were pressed together firmly, and her hand was still hovering where his shoulder had been. This time, she didn't lower her hand, appearing puzzled. Crud, he hoped he hadn't let anything slip about what he had, what he held. Lucky didn't know much, but he knew these weren't good people, no matter how nice they treated him... after kidnapping him and threatening him and breaking his arm. Okay, they were bad people, and he suspected he'd only yet seen the surface. Crud, if he'd let anything slip...
"...Jewels, yes?"
*gets Miraculous vibes*
yes, I got inspiration for Lucky's backstory from that, but this is not a cross over. Neither shows belong to me, I was just pulling a concept from that show
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