The group split up outside the café. Lucky, Rein, Machi, and Feitan accompanied Shal towards where he claimed the attacker was. A large group was better after all, and if they had Machi, they could avoid the worst outcomes.

Phinks went off in his own, "In case it's a dead line," he'd stated.

Feitan, behind his painted skull and dark bangs, had said he would be safe "Because no one likes you here."

Thus prompted an argument of such volume that one could easily hear it from down the block. One could easily hear it even if one happened to be standing in the next alley over, the darkness shrouding them from sight and the noon heat, and the soft smell of cigarettes lingering in the air as they inclined their ear towards what the group had to say.

*     *     *

"I knew it. You were here, huh?" Kalluto pushed aside a few crates at the back of the alleyway to reveal Zushi, who he'd been looking for. At his slouched figure, he raised an eyebrow. "Have you been crying?"

"N-no! Why would you suggest such a thing?" Zushi wiped furiously at his eyes, as if somehow doing it with force would mask the mistiness welling up in them. He sat on the cold ground, the cobble stones more covered in grime than whatever pink, sugary powder covered the rest of the city. At the end of the alley was a large dumpster, and it was between this and the wall that Zushi had hid himself, covering himself from sight with whatever else had been thrown out. "I have been strong, all by myself!"

"Really." Kalluto swept a look around the narrow area. "It only took me half an hour to find you, you know. You're not the kind of person who would willingly watch all the things that happens in this city; if anything, it would make you uncomfortable. So you would avoid people, and that narrowed down the areas of search a lot. You got a sharp brain in that thick head of yours, so you must have noticed that the alleyways weren't safe either, because a lot of the scenarios happen there too. So the only place you could possibly be hiding at was either the café the rest of us met in before, or the one place in the city where there would be zero chance of anything story-worthy happening." He eyed Zushi, who refused to look back at him. "The dumpsters."

He hugged his knees tighter against his chest.

"Am I wrong?"

Zushi shook his head, not meeting his gaze for a while. "Am..." he said finally, "...am I that easy to predict?" When the other didn't answer immediately, he hung his head deeper. "That's not good for fighting, my master said so."

Kalluto was silent, biting at his lower lip before sticking his hand out toward him. "For now, you just get out of there. Nothing good can come from sitting in the trash."

He finally looked up, and took the outstretched hand gratefully, making sure his eyes were dry with a final rub at his face before smiling. "Osu!"

He pulled him up to his feet with a bounce. "What does that mean, anyway?" he asked, coaxing him out to the backstreets to avoid the crowds that Zushi so hated in this place. "You say that a lot."

"It is a word from the country Shingen-Ryu martial arts form originated from! It's normally used by people who practice martial arts, and normally used as a way to say yes." Zushi stuck out his arms and puffed out his chest to demonstrate. "Master Wing taught it also as a response to respect your superiors. I mainly just use it for 'yes', though," he admitted.

"Heh, so it is something your master taught you." Kalluto paused in his step and hung his bangs low, covering his face. "Hey, how do you do that?"

He looked back, curious. "Do what?"

It felt like the world was swaying beneath his feet, and for a brief moment, he wondered if bile would rise in his throat right then and there. He could hear echoes of his name over and over, slowly changing into 'darling' and 'dear', and suddenly even those being cut out from her sentences entirely. "Just kind of..." How? How did Zushi, someone who lived and breathed what his master had taught him, how did he-? "That, you know? Taking something you learn, taking someone else's lessons and changing them for your own sake."

He seemed visibly confused as he tilted his head, trying to think. "Well, an order is an order, but-"

"Then how?" Kalluto's words were bitter. "If an order is an order and you live with that lifestyle, how-!" How was Zushi different than him, he wanted to ask, but he couldn't find the words on his tongue. If they both lived lifestyles of listening to orders from others, then why? Why did it feel like Zushi could be so light? Free? While he-

"I..." He was surprised when Zushi bent down and bowed. "I'm sorry!"

"H-hey." Kalluto'd head whipped around at the few people passing by, their gazes lingering on them longer than normal. "C-cut that out, stop."

"I don't know how I made you unhappy, but I sincerely apologize for whatever I did!" he exclaimed, his hands pulled tight at his sides. His face was almost parallel to the ground, his brows set in stone and, true to his words, sincere.

He looked at his lowered head, with his short cut brown hair, and the firm shape in his shoulders. Kalluto looked, he saw, but there was something else to it. A sixth sense, he could only suppose, that just made him feel like there was something more. Was this the same mysterious force that had kept Killua from returning? That caused him to claim to have friends?

"Hey," he said, and flicked Zushi's forehead as soon as he raised it. "I thought you said you wouldn't bow to me anymore." He snickered when the boy bobbed his head up and down, apologizing for forgetting and then apologizing for apologizing in a never ending loop. "Huh. You're kinda weird."

"I am?" He looked hurt.

Kalluto exhaled and waved a hand 'no'. "Not what I meant." He sighed another time, wondering how to put it. "Remember what you asked me before, when you were all depressed? The thing about being predictable. I won't say you're not," he emphasized, refusing to give undue praise, "but you are surprising."

"I am?" This time it was happy.

"Sometimes."

"Oh."

They walked on again, and Kalluto brought his eyes towards the sun. Back when his family had all trained together, before Mother lost her sight and Killua entered what Illumi called his 'rebellious phase', his father had taught him how to tell the time from the positioning of the sun. It was crucial, Silva had said, because an assassin could not rely on man-made watches. They had to awaken their animal instincts inside of them, to be one with nature enough to trust their gut. Then his father had taken his large hands and thrown him into the air, playing airplane to practice telling where the sun was, and...

Playing airplane. He missed that.

Pushing those thoughts aside, he tilted his head to the sky. "It's late now. I guess we should just head outside and wait for them by the city gate."

"Kalluto? I've been thinking, and I finally have the answer!"

"To what?"

"Orders," he responded simply.

It wasn't nearly enough information, but Kalluto was perceptive enough to understand it was a reference to their earlier conversation. He'd lost his cool back then, and now that the topic was up, he'd lost his composure back in the café as well. This wasn't good. His mask had been perfectly carved of stone when he'd left Kukuroo Mountain, but it was cracking by the day, today even more so. Was his training wearing off that quickly? "I was being irrational. You don't hav-"

"I think it's less about the order, and more about who it's from!" Zushi declared, bulldozing over his complaints. He stuck out his arms in that weird 'osu' way again, his face bright. "I will take orders from whomever I respect!"

Kalluto was learning how to decode this awfully formal tone. "So just from who you like, huh?"

The words of respect and like, the concepts of orders and carrying them out, of masters and teachers and mentors and parents, they all tumbled around in Kalluto's mind, folding in on each other and combining and breaking into one jumbled mess. As a son, a brother, a Zoldyck and a Spider, where did he stand in the midst of all of this?

The two boys arrived at the gates and made a mad dash through the main plaza, speeding through to the outside of the city walls before they could be pulled into any of the simulations. They leaned against the plaster, Zushi sliding down to sit. He must have been mentally drained from everything that had happened in their short hours here.

"How long were you running around trying to find a place to hide?" Kalluto asked. "You've never been to Aiai before. It must have taken a bit."

"Oh, I wasn't alone for all of it. I saw a friend I made during the Hunter Exam. He helped me stay away from the, uh, scenarios for a little while. But all of a sudden I just couldn't see him anymore." Zushi looked hurt for a moment before pulling himself together. "He did say he was here for work. He must have been busy."

*     *     *

"He's in there," Shalnark whispered to the group, pressing against the stone wall and motioning for Fei to take the other side of the door to prevent escape.

They were on the outside walkway of a motel, exactly where Shalnark had been directed by one of the city locals. There had been reported explosions and bursts of energy demolishing a few walls, and if put as a dotted line on a map, lead straight to this location. 

Shal stood on one side of the door and Feitan on the other. Rein was behind the blonde, and per his instructions, Machi and Lucky were in the parking lot to prevent the archer's escape. Not that Shalnark had any intention of letting him take one step out of the room. Clicking his phone, it dispensed one of his needles. He held it firm in his grip, the acute end protruding. He drew in a slow breath, readying himself before he broke down the door and leapt in. The attacks on their group would end today.

He was pleased to hear a scream, but something was wrong with how he'd imagined it. He'd never expected the attacker to be female.

He moved before he could allow her time to react with much else. "Sorry," he apologized, wrapping a strong arm around her chest to pin her arms to her side. The tip of his sharp needle glinted as he stuck it into her neck, inserting it with precision as her eyes went blank. "But we're going to need you paralyzed for the time being."

Her knees gave away first, softly falling to the carpet before the rest of her body followed, the sound cushioned by her thick clothing.

"I'm done here," he informed Rein and Feitan as they stepped in. "She didn't put up too much of a fight. Guess I was right about us being stronger, huh?" Shalnark was confident, and happy that the issue had been halfway resolved without any much fuss. But the expressions of their faces told him otherwise.

Rein twirled her pebble around her fingers in thought, head tilted to the side. "Isn't this..."

"Ah," Feitan affirmed.

Upon seeing that all was fine, Machi came in, helping Lucky drag his way in also. It wasn't until Lucky entered that someone finally told Shalnark a piece of useful information.

He seemed surprised at first, but it grew into one of his go-to smiles. "Hey, Bumblebee."

"Bumble-?" The dull droning filled his ears almost too late. Shalnark jumped back, just in time to avoid simultaneous stings from all sides. The bees rose in droves and even more crawled out from her spherical hat, angry buzzing filling the air.

He recognized this species. Stung once and he would escape with his life, but twice would be enough to kill him. Shalnark was indeed immune to many kinds of poisons. Mainly plant poisons, with some chemical ones, like potassium cyanide. But insect poisons? He hadn't even thought to consider the possibility that someone would come after him with this. Feitan, the only person fast enough to do away with the bees without getting stung, was not stepping forward to assist anytime soon.

"Lucky?" Shalnark asked slowly. "You knew of this. How do you make them go back?"

A shrug. "You should probably start with taking the needle out of her neck."

With a nod and a quiet plea of help to Feitan, Fei zoomed forward and removed the needle, throwing it back Shalnark's way and jumping out of the bees' reach. As they waited and the insects advanced, the woman groaned and sluggishly picked herself up, touching the area where the needle had been inserted. Seeing their master was alive, the bees came to a standstill in the air.

Rein was the first to move. "What are you doing here, Ponzu?"

The woman had seemed like a quiet, submissive person, so it was a surprise when she exploded with: "Minding my own business, unlike some people! Shouldn't I be asking you that question? Oh no, not you Rein, or Lucky for that matter. I'll even let your angry little friend off the hook this time. But you!" Ponzu stood up, rage coursing through her veins faster than the drug Shal had laced the needle with. She stuck her face into his. "What do you think you're doing?"

"At ease," Shalnark said, the tip of his needle poking the soft skin right above her heart, threatening to sink in fatally if she moved. "We have our reasons."

Ponzu was in a nervous sweat, but she did her best to return Shalnark's innocent look right back. "You hurt me, my bees will automatically react. At such close range, you can't escape."

"Ah, yes, but our 'angry little friend', as you so well put it, is quick. He could put your bees out of commission easily. Now we have a few questions we'd like to ask you, if you don't mind." Shalnark smiled dazzlingly at her. "You will cooperate, won't you?"

With his weapon above her chest, he backed her into the room as Rein and Lucky took the opportunity to fill him in as to who she was, and how they'd met. "But Shal, I don't think she's the one we're looking for," Rein said, and Lucky agreed with her.

"I'll have to concur," Shal admitted. "Something feels off about this conclusion. All right then. Ponzu?" He turned back at her, ignoring the hateful look he received. "I will put down my weapon, and you will summon back your bees. Do otherwise and my 'angry little friend' will have to get involved."

He slowly lowered the needle and her finger flicked around in the air, calling back the insects. During the process, they both ignored Feitan's grumblings of "It's my face."

"Wonderful," he exclaimed. "Now for a Nen test. You know how this works, right?"

"Fine," she answered spitefully, and sat down cross-legged, refusing to get the materials herself and making Shal get them in her place. Her eyes snapped open as she performed Ren, aura bursting from her palms. The water rippled, and after an endless twitching, the leaf shook on its surface. They all exhaled breaths they didn't know they'd been holding.

"A Manipulator." Shalnark brought a hand to his chin. "The attacker we're looking for is an Emitter. I suppose you weren't who we were seeking after all."

"Exactly. Now get out." They all turned to leave, but she called Rein and Lucky back, her demeanor completely changed as to when she'd been dealing with Shalnark. She seemed quite happy just to see a few friends she'd made during the exam and attempted to make light conversation with them. "Glad to see you two are doing okay. Where's the other one? The one with the martial arts uniform? You were trying to calm him down last time I saw you, yes?"

In the end, Shal was the only one who'd been kicked out, standing by the door and peering in every so often to wonder if they were finished talking yet. He didn't know how long he'd been made to stand alone, but finally, it seemed to be coming to a close.

"If you ever want to find me again-" Ponzu shot a withering look at Shalnark to tell him he was not welcome before turning her features soft once more. "-you can contact me through the book. Just go to the player list and I'll pop up there." She'd waved goodbye to the group as they left, and when he'd raised a hand back, she lowered it and walked straight back into her room.

*     *     *

Shalnark shook his head with a heavy sigh as they reconvened with Kalluto and Zushi outside of Aiai. "I thought such a large city would have leads, but all we found was a lot of kissing and a woman with very peculiar tastes in hats. I guess the attacker must have moved on by now."

Rein patted his shoulder in consolation, shivering at the memory of so many bugs. She pushed him down the path, back towards their base.

"Don't beat yourself up, Devil. It's not like getting a positive outcome was a given in this case."

"Agreed." Machi helped Lucky over a rather large tree root, hefting him up with her hip. "But if we couldn't find any links to the archer, then nothing has changed."

Feitan was poking at his face—was it really that angry-looking?—when he caught Machi glancing his way. He stuffed his hands deep into his pockets and scowled. "Leaving arrow-user alone is dangerous. He can get stronger."

Rein looked about her, at both her old friends and her new ones. The closest thing she had to family, the one concept she'd stuck with when training with the Spiders. They were all precious to her, and though her heart rate was calm now, the thundering pulse she'd felt when she'd found out that Shal and Lucky were attacked had made her chest feel like it would explode. She wanted to avoid that at all costs. Her friends were her family whether they shared the view or not, and she couldn't lose any more.

Gradually, her brows came to furrow. Machi, Feitan, Shalnark, Lucky, Zushi, Kalluto. She felt like they were forgetting somebo-

"Not to bring unbridled joy, but..." Shalnark, who had fallen silent, spoke up and pointed in the distance, where a figure was making it's way through the grass. "That's our nen remover, right? And he... I might just be hallucinating, but is his nen creature gone?"

Feitan squinted against the glare of the sun, and confirmed that Shalnark was not suffering from heat stroke.

Shalnark's expression crawled into a grin. Finally, the moment they'd been waiting for. And with the right choices, they might not even have to cross paths with their arrow-user ever again. "This means we can free Danchou!"

I chose to make Ponzu a manipulator because of her bees.

Which Nen category do you think you guys would fit into, and why?

I would be an Enhancer, definitely. I'm super simple-minded and wear my emotions on my sleeve like 82% of the time. If I were an enhancer though, I honestly wouldn't know what to make my Nen ability... It seems too simple, I guess?

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