The only reason Feitan hadn't noticed Phinks was following them around was because he technically wasn't.

He wasn't following the rest of his group. He wasn't considering intervening from behind to give Feitan an opening to wreak havoc on the attackers and let all hell break loose. And he wasn't keeping his eye on Temmi's short, brown, boring brat. What Phinks did keep a close eye on though, was the person who was slinking too close to them for comfort.

His gaze hardened with suspicion as the person he was looking at pulled out their phone and picked up a call.

They'd gone separate ways, but had somehow ended up at the same lodge. Phinks saw Lucky taken in there with his blood dripping on the ground along the way, but Machi should have been done fixing him now, so why wasn't he walking around with everything fine so someone could just notice the person watching them already? The dude was clearly an amateur. Perhaps he was too amateur-ish and Fei chose to actively ignore him?

Phinks also agreed that the man wasn't a threat in anyway, at least, not a threat he couldn't wring the neck of in half a second. His existence couldn't possibly hurt the Spiders in any way, but he was wary all the same. Of his intentions, possible connections, what he was clearly hiding... and his past. He didn't know where he was from or who he even was, but that brat had called him "zeppelin" or "zepelli" or some other stupid name.

The man got off the phone with a sulking face, as if he'd just been yelled at. Phinks was considering jumping in and pulling out information from him on the spot when he held up his phone and made another call.

When the man settled down, so did Phinks.

He didn't know what the man was planning to what degree, but his nose was keen for sniffing out people who were working against him. And for all the smiling Phinks had seen him do, there was another face to the man and Phinks would strip off his mask personally if it came down to it. It was just the 'what' that was troubling him. He didn't have a clue on what he was planning. Guessing the inside of a box was so much harder than just ripping the packaging open and looking at it. Deductions were more Chrollo's thing.

"Hey, hey, give me a break!" The man was suddenly shouting into his phone. "You said you'd cover for me! If you find a counterfeit of mine, you bid on the lot ... You don't have to worry about the bidding money, remember? The job I'm taking right now is paying some serious cash. I'll pay you back ... What? What do I look like, a con? ... Yeah ..."

When he heard those words, his heart rate spiked. Phinks tried to cool himself down, but the blood flowing through him had always been hot to the touch.

Because nine months before she'd given birth... the Spiders had been at an auction, right?

*     *     *

"Go away."

Lucky sat down instead, holding in a hiss at the injuries that hadn't quite healed yet.

"Go away," Feitan repeated. "Sit in bed. Not sofa."

Killua grunted in agreement, not looking up from the game he was playing on his beetle phone. "That lady said you're supposed to be bedridden till the weekend."

Biting his lip, Lucky shook his head. "It's not... I need to tell you all something."

With a few minutes of pleading and refusing to go lay down until they agreed to hear him out, the rest of the group gathered in the room. Lucky had mentally rehearsed for this, but his breath was still quiet when he said, "It's about my bracelet."

Machi understood immediately. "The one infused with nen."

He nodded. "It's... man, I don't even know where to start. I just figured this out a few minutes after I woke up. About my... It makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. Just let me..." They waited patiently for the injured to take his time in collecting his thoughts. "My bracelet. People want my bracelet.

"It's... I'm not completely sure. I'm going off childhood memories and warnings my relatives gave me right now, but I think I'm mostly right. My bracelet has Nen." He twisted the cord off his wrist and held up the jade so they could see it, along with the crack running down its backside. "It's broken now, but before it used to hold a lot of power. And right now, it has enough power for one last wish. And any wish, no matter how big, will come true."

"It grants wishes. Why is that bad?" Gon asked honestly, wondering how one could be sound gloomy at such a bright hope. "Isn't that a good thing?"

Lucky's eyes crinkled, but the look in them was far-off. "What do you want? If you could make any wish, what would you make it?"

There wasn't any hesitance from him. "To have enough strength to find my dad!" he exclaimed. "I want to be able to find Ging and be a Hunter with him."

"Let's say you wish to find your dad," Lucky proposed. "But to have him in your life, you need to remove someone for an exchange. You would lose Eyeliner here," he said, looking at Killua. He hung his head, hiding his face behind a mop of black. "And that's just it. If you want something, you'll lose something just as important. I didn't understand that before, and look where it got me.

"There's a condition," Lucky continued. "I think... It's a sister jewel, meaning there have to be two to work."

"Where's the other one?" Gon piped up again.

Lucky sighed, grateful that one person in the group was light enough to brighten the situation. "Nen can transfer to other things, right?"

Machi nodded.

"So... man, everything just makes sense now..." Lucky planted his fist in his hair to bring his thoughts together. "Given... everything that's happened to me and what's been said, the Nen from the jewels can be attached to someone." He spread out his arms and forced a cracked smile that mirrored the broken gem. As if on cue, the lights flickered. "Guess who got lucky."

Machi had been silent through his explanations, but with a snap of the fingers her deductions were airborne. "The attacks during Greed Island were considerably weak, so the squad that ambushed us today is most likely of a different organization. The focus of this attack seemed to be Lucky, so the possibility that they were after your jewel increases. And if they were aiming at you," she paused to look into his eyes, which she now realized were a dark almond. "I assume the other jewel they need will materialize if you die?"

"Yeah."

The clock in the room ticked ever louder.

Killua slapped his hands down onto the coffee table. "Alright!" He got up to his feet, snapping them all out of the possibilities for what they could lose. "We have a lead that says our friend, Kurapika, is in that organization trying to get those jewels of yours, at least probably." He glazed over how it put some of them on edge. "Gon and I were going to go stop his stupid butt, and I was going to ask Rein to join us if she could. Although," he glanced disapprovingly at the large group that had gathered. "It seems you've brought more people. But I guess given the fact that this organization is a lot more dangerous than we originally thought, we could use the extra help."

"But Killua..." Gon gestured at Machi and Feitan. "Spiders."

"And that's just it," he sighed, rubbing his chin in an attempt to think. "I'm not sure whether their presence is going to bring Kurapika back to reality or push him further down that path. I guess we can use them as backup, or when it comes down to it, bait."

"I guess so," said Gon, and lit up almost immediately. "You won't hurt Kurapika for your Danchou's sake, right? Let's work together for now, then."

"No one said yes," Feitan muttered, but he went largely ignored.

Rein looked hesitant. "You wanted to ask me for help?"

"You know how he is." Killua waved a hand around in the air mindlessly. "High-strung and extremely idiotic. The guy wouldn't listen to us if he tried. I've heard a lot from his coworkers, and at this point, a completely different third party is what's going to set his mind right."

"What's important is to help Kurapika!" Gon pumped his fist into the air, but lowered it when he saw Rein's expression.

"No." She took a step back, and then another. "No, I... I, no, not him—"

Stars, she liked Leorio, Gon, and Killua well enough, but... She knew how it was. She wasn't just some random third party who would conveniently change the Chain User's mind. She was being used for her past connections. But the past was the past. She'd had the bliss of forgetting everything that had happened, and she didn't want to lose that. She wanted to cling to that bliss, the blessing of not knowing all the sorrow that could have plagued her. She'd had enough of it and she didn't want more. She didn't want—

A tap on her shoulder was enough to make her flinch. Killua dropped his hand. "What's important," he rephrased slowly, "is that he doesn't kill anyone."

She attempted a smirk, but her hands were still shaking. Her face was a weak wince if anything. "I'm your trump card?"

"Yup," Gon stated plainly.

"If that friend is responsible for this," Lucky took a moment to gesture down at himself, "then I have some choice wording in mind." Forgetting that he was shot and that he still needed until the weekend to heal, Lucky stood up. This would have gone fine had he not tripped and dived headfirst into the coffee table, his crutches tipping over and hitting his already injured legs with the metal. Blood seeped through the dressings he'd just gotten.

"Machi," Feitan said curtly once Lucky had stopped moaning in pain.

She offered her arm to Lucky. "Come to the next room over. I'll bandage you up again." He took the arm and she slowly pulled him up, evaluating the situation at the same time. "Don't step there. That's broken glass."

"Thanks," Lucky said, but ended up stepping on different glass shards anyway. "Ow."

"You've already bled through the bandages I gave you two hours ago," she stated, and searched for wording that indicated she didn't care he was getting hurt. "Stop depleting my supply."

His signature grin was sheepish as he looked around the room and then at himself. He was the only one injured. "I'll try to be careful."

At all the physical trauma to his body, the blood was slowly but surely spreading. Machi clicked her tongue. "I'll have to change the dressings completely."

Lucky's expression went from accepting to alarmed, to very red. "W-Wait, but," he stuttered as he looked down at himself. Aside from the new injuries on his foot, the bullet from before had embedded itself into his lower hip, and another had nicked the inside of his leg. He was in varying degrees of pain in different places, but as to where most of his injuries happened to be? "You're bandaging... b-but that's near my... where... wait!"

Understanding that Lucky was in no condition to move, Machi knelt down to look him in the eye. "You need medical attention," she stated, gesturing at the area of injury.

"W-wait, I... it's just glass shards and a bullet wound!" he protested.

She obviously ignored that ridiculous statement.

Now Machi was a strong woman. But Lucky was proportionately awkward; his legs were stiff and limp with pain, and his arms were just as long but not quite as still. No matter how strong one happens to be, it is very difficult to carry around luggage without a center of balance, all the more so if the thing you are trying to pick up is doing its very worst to cooperate. So although Machi was leaning back and trying to support his weight as much as she could, she couldn't help but stagger as she carried him bridal-style to the next room over to administer first aid.

"And?" Killua asked after the two had left. "You helping or not?"

Rein was silent. She considered giving no response at all, but surely Gon with his stubbornness wouldn't let her, and Killua would do whatever he did. Going anywhere near the Chain User was not something she wanted to do. She still referred to him as 'the Chain User' and not 'Kurapika' for a reason.

Locking her grip firmly on a pebble, she opened her mouth. She tried to keep her voice level. "K-Kurapika."

The twitching of a chain made her heart lurch.

There still was a chain wrapped around her heart. So far, it would only twitch less than a millimeter, really. It was a warning system that the Chain User had embedded into the chain. Whether this action was special towards her or to all his chains she wasn't sure, but every single time she tried to say his name, the chain would move. A deterrent, constantly reminding her that she would die if she told other Spiders of his abilities.

That had been a long time ago, but he'd never removed the chain or the restraint. It was as if the chain was warning her, 'don't die, don't die', and going over and beyond because it was afraid that Rein would.

As long as this chain was poised around her heart, nothing could end. "I'll work with you," she answered quietly. "I'm... I'll stop him. I'll stop him, I will."

*     *     *

In a dark room and clean bandages, Lucky closed his eyes and breathed in, imagining the air sucked in coloring and swirling in his lungs before exhaling deeply.

This was it. He'd come to so many close calls before. He couldn't procrastinate any longer.

He pictured everything flowing inside of him and outside, interchanging and flipping places as if he were transparent, only an empty space of nothing. He imagined all of that and reached out a hand to close in on that exchange, balling it up and concentrating its energy; smoother and stronger. It would swirl in clouds and haze in his hands, his to use as he pleased. Then, eyes snapping open, he focused on a single area, feeling that hypothetical power flicker into reality.

Before him, a scroll of paper crackled into existence, the page old and weathered, but bound tightly in its thickness. Slowly, he willed it to unfurl before him, the frayed yellow edges waving in the air even without a breeze. He held his breath as a dark blotch appeared on the rice paper, before the ink scrawled itself on the page, swooping and falling into letters and words.

He grinned, victorious. This would be his Hatsu, his own Nen ability.

Eye of the Writer.

Simple Lucky inspired by Nichijou color palette:

I've drawn and added in doodles and comic strips to previous chapters, so go to my art book for easy access to those!

Well we finally got to Lucky's backstory. And now that Kurapika's technically on the enemy side things are gonna get a tad bit more complicated.

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