"Are we there ye—"

Feitan growled from the passenger seat. He stuck up his hand, showing manipulated nails, sharper than knives.  She could almost see them twitching with irritation. "You're getting annoying."

Rein gave a sheepish smile. "Love you too, Fei."

Feitan glared and faced back front. He lowered the visor, but even then it failed to shade his eyes from the bright, low-hanging sun.

Letting go of the wheel, Phinks grabbed a water bottle from the back of his seat and took a swig. He offered it to Feitan. "Any word from Machi?"

Feitan shook his head, shaking his spiky bangs into his eyes in place of the visor. He ignored the bottle. "No word of number 4. Machi was to check on him."

Number 4. She vaguely remembered the woman pointing him out before, and the short interaction they'd had. "Hisoka? He's coming too, right? Even if Machi doesn't know or didn't let you know, it's an order from Danchou, so Hisoka should be there." Undoing her seatbelt, she leapt forward so her head was in between the front two seats. "Besides, last time he said he had a card trick or something to show—"

"Put on a seatbelt," Phinks warned. "If any busybody sees you standing up, there might be trouble and as much as I want to, we can't cause a commotion right before a plan." He elbowed her roughly in the ribs, pushing her back. "And stay away from that pedo of a clown. You shouldn't be near him."

"Phinks." Rein had made the same slip-up before, mistaking a street magician for a clown. The magician had yelled at her, but at least she hadn't made the mistake on Hisoka. If she'd called Hisoka a clown, he would either accept the fact with a smirk or kill her on the spot. "He's a magician, not a clown."

Phinks took out a long breath. A pause. Then he let out a burst of creative curses and name-calling. Rein was taken aback with the flow of words. He continued, emphasizing every single adjective with a passionate hit to the steering wheel. "Don't go near him, EVER. Got it?" He let go of the steering wheel with one hand, revealing the dent he had made in it. He turned back to look at Rein, teeth gnashed together.

Was she supposed to answer? Stars, she hadn't understood anything that had flown out of his mouth. What to say? "...yes... Hisoka is dangerous. But so are all of you, technically."

Rein had never witnessed an aneurysm before, but if there was ever a person to have one at anytime, it would be Phinks, right now.

"She's right," Feitan butted in. He undid his seatbelt, and catapulted himself to the back of the truck, settling down next to Rein. "You're strong by civilian standards. Still weak for Nen. Hisoka stronger."

"Then I guess I'll have to train more." Rein smiled, then brought her hand up to Feitan's hair to pet it.

Snatching her wrist, he growled. "No." He stood. "Here's my stop." The truck was still in motion. He didn't look her way, but she could tell that he was monitoring her movements very carefully. He tended to do that a lot, but Rein pretended not to notice. It wasn't worth bringing up anyway, since she was sure he did that to everyone.

"You're meeting Machi, right? Tell her I say—"

The back door shut, cutting off her words. Feitan was gone. She shrugged, and climbed over to the front seat that Feitan had vacated only a minute before. Rein wrapped a hand around the water bottle Phinks had opened, pleased at the crinkling sound it made. She took a swig. "Are we there yet?"

"You brat, shut up—"

* * *

Feitan barely kicked up any dust on the plain as he ran. He kept his sword tucked carefully away, tilting it so that it wouldn't rub against his leg and potentially effect his speed.

"Tch." He had to admit, he was surprised that he made that sound aloud. He certainly hadn't meant to. It was just...Rein.

Rein. She was too optimistic, and while her optimism had fueled her determination for many years, it was only a matter of time before it would play a part in her downfall. She would underestimate an opponent, or assure herself that she would come out from a fight unscathed. She was strong for her age, and smart too, but she was far from invincible. She had a lot to learn, and not enough time to master them before she went and did something reckless. It's not that she wasn't careful, it was that she was terrible at evaluating a situation and how high the risks were.

Not only that, but she was also too attached to—

Feitan froze, sending a cloud of dust flying into the air before him. Attached to who? The Phantom Troupe? Them? The Spiders? She had said "Love you too". What did that mean? That she somehow misinterpreted some of his actions as...affection? He'd threatened her, so that couldn't have been it. Besides, she had also shown signs of attachment to other members of the Phantom Troupe. Memories of the past years flashed in his head: Shouting at the TV screen with Uvogin for a baseball game despite the fact that she understood none of it, trying to learn to sew with Machi, hiding Shalnark's gadgets and dragging Franklin into the whole ordeal, holding Pakunoda's hand when she had first started to tag along on missions.

Tch. They'd all gone soft, but he was different. All he'd done was train her.

So why?

Struggling to understand, he took off once again, picking up the pace to meet Machi and her group at the scheduled time. Rein was not at all weak. But to be weak and to have a weakness were two different things. And she had many weaknesses, and all one had to do to find them was to spend a day with her and the ones she seemed to...to...

Machi's spiky pink hair came into view, and Feitan slowed down. He tried to calm his thoughts, but his mind was still a whirl.

...to love?

* * *

"We're here!" Rein shouted, flinging the door open and jumping out.

Phinks looked as if on the verge of killing someone. Most likely her, from the amount of times she'd asked "Are we there yet" and he'd responded with a plate full of curse words that Pakunoda would not approve of.

They'd arrived at the base of a crumbling building, and though the architecture of it suggested that it had once been a rather grand place, it's magnificence had been worn down over years of hardships. Now it stood on the outskirts of Yorknew City, lonely and forgotten. Slivers of colored glass from the top of its dome littered the concrete, and rubble decorated the place, offering shelter for wandering animals. A scrawny cat hissed at the intruders and dashed away.

She slung a single bag of supplies around her shoulder and walked in, leaving Phinks behind to deal with the parking of the truck. She definitely didn't hear him shouting at her to come help unload the rest of the supplies. Nope.

"Chrollo!" she shouted. No answer. "Danchou!" Still none. "I know you can hear me!" Nothing still.

Guess she had to track him down then. Using Gyo, she started to search the building, zigzagging across each floor and leaping up to the next, until she reached the top floor with its broken dome of shattered color. "I should've known."

Chrollo sat amidst the rubble, reading a small book with a worn red cover. He leaned back on the block of cement, elegantly crossing his legs as he did so. Candles of various sizes were set around him, basking him in a warm light and illuminating the text. He flipped a yellowed page. "Should have known what, exactly?"

"That you would be here, at the unique spot of the building. If I'd stopped to think I could have just come straight here without wasting my energy."

"Why? Are you tired?" He finally looked up.

"Of course not." To demonstrate, Rein concentrated some aura to the bottoms of her feet and jumped, landing all the way on the other side of the large room, right next to Chrollo. She crouched down. "What are you reading?"

"The second volume of Jine Curan's set of philosophical works, though this particular chapter is leaning more toward analysis of reality." Adjusting the fur lined collar of his leather coat, he smiled up at Rein. "It's a rather fascinating read. I'll let you borrow it when you're older."

Rein found herself nodding.

He closed the book and looked at the young girl. "You're eleven now, correct?" He didn't wait for the answer. "What progress have you made?"

"Well, I can jump on Feitan everyday now, and can stay on for almost a second." Rein felt a measure of pride at the slight jump in his eyebrows. When they'd last been together, Rein hadn't even been able to enter a room without Feitan noticing, let alone touch him. Comparing that to now being able to surprise him every single day and latching onto his back for an entire second, she knew it was a considerable amount of progress. She hadn't made a mistake in choosing her companions for the separation.

"Have you mastered switching in between eye state? Or have you finally selected a Hatsu?" Chrollo, ever the teacher.

"No," she admitted, though she didn't want to. What else to say? She couldn't leave him on just one part of improvement. She hadn't made much progress in the field he'd asked her to work on, since the genetic mutation she had wasn't anything anyone else could teach her about, but... "I was able to hit Phinks in the face twice in one day! Twice!" she repeated for emphasis.

"And to add insult to the injury she didn't even help unload the truck."

"Phinks!"

He stood with his arms crossed. "Personally, I don't even know how she managed to hit me once, let alone twice. With her rate of increase in power and skill, I thought it'd still be at least a year before-"

A smack echoed through the room.

"That's how I did it, Danchou."

Chuckling, Phinks lowered his arm and opened up his fist, revealing the stone he'd caught. "Too slow, Rein."

She clucked her tongue. "You're making me look bad."

He gave a fake laugh. "It's not because of me."

It look her a moment, but when she got the meaning behind his words, she rose and crossed her arms to mirror him. It didn't hope for long as she started shoving her hands into her pocket and turned it inside out, sending the dozens of rocks she'd carefully put back there yesterday spilling out onto the concrete block. "You want to do this again?"

Chrollo brushed off the rocks that had fallen into his lap and scooted to the left, giving Rein some room. He glanced at the amount of stones, and the candles they had knocked over when they had tumbled out of her skirt. "Did...did your pocket get bigger?"

"What, this?" Rein fingered the soft material. "No, I just made another skirt with much bigger pockets out of the same fabric." She admired the red cloth, and felt heat creep up to her ears when she noticed Chrollo eyeing her strangely. "I like flannel, okay? Shut up."

Chrollo broke eye contact. "I didn't say anything. And I believe you were about to have a fight." He nodded toward the rocks, then looked at Phinks, who had unzipped the jacket of his tracksuit in preparation for the fight.

"Oh yeah." Rein knelt down and directed aura to her hands.

"Winner is whoever admits defeat, but winning by a KO is acceptable. The one who loses has to cook dinner for the whole Troupe and do the dishes."

"Deal."

*     *     *

"What is going on." It wasn't even a question, just words that fell from her mouth. Machi widened her eyes a bit upon seeing the sight, but quickly adjusted them back to their usual disinterested and nonchalant look.

"Rein and Phinks are having a fight, loser cooks dinner and does the dishes," Shalnark briefly explained. "Victory is through admittance of defeat or by a knock out. Seeing as this has gone on for the past hour or so, I'm starting to think that we're not going to be eating a cooked meal tonight."

"Hm." Seeing Pakunoda in the corner cleaning her pistol, she left Shalnark to his observation. "Paku."

Pakunoda tilted her head toward Machi but didn't take her eyes off her weapon.

"Did Rein say anything about past memories? Have you checked?"

Pakunoda exhaled and lifted her pistol to the ceiling, examining its gleam from below. "She's been fighting since I got here, and we haven't had a chance to talk." She lowered her arms and stared at her quizzically. "Why do you always ask? Even Danchou stopped asking years ago. You know the memory remover said the effects would be permanant."

"Then why wasn't Danchou able to steal his ability?" Machi hadn't meant to snap, but no matter. She'd been asking herself that question for years, and it angered her, though she didn't know why. "I know, I know, the entire process took longer than an hour. That's why." Shouts from the fight and its observers drew her attention.

"Nice dodge! Now jump back!" Uvogin shouted, clapping his large hands.

Phinks tried to punch Rein but missed by an inch as soon as she leapt backwards."Why are you helping her?"

Rein threw another stone. "Because no one likes yo-" A rock hit her temple.

Phinks seemed pleased at how he'd thrown one of her own stones right back at her. "How do you like a taste of your own medi-" A pebble hit the back of his throat.

"I'm sorry, you were saying?"

Machi turned away. Rein had definitely gotten stronger during their separation if she was capable of taking on Phinks for a light game, but her essence hadn't changed at all. She looked at Pakunoda. "After all these years...It's...it's just that..." She let loose a short sigh. "It's probably nothing."

"I'm going to check her right after the fight, so I'll update you later. Don't worry." Pakunoda patted Machi's shoulder. "Like you said, it's probably nothing."

That's what Machi hoped. Yet something still felt off to her. It was just her hunch, but still, Machi's gut feeling was almost never wrong. Would Rein really stay ignorant of the first six years of her life? Maybe the memory remover had lied. Maybe his Nen was imperfect. Maybe Rein wouldn't forget forever.

Just a hunch.

There seems to be confusion so I'm just going to say that this is a FAMILIAL-love centered fic, no pedophilia (because ew).

Rein grows attached easily (of course, she's a child, and children need attachments, whether they're reciprocated or not or whether they're even healthy relationships). She claims to love them. That does not mean they feel the same towards her, at least initially. Sure, they might think about and care for her, and joke around, but they do the same with the other spiders, and even then their definition of "attachment" is...weird. Real weird.

What was my point I have no idea

IM REREADING BACK FROM CHAPTER 37 AND WOW WHY ARE THEY OOC IM SO SORRY

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