Letting loose a roar, Uvo punched the ground, creating a cloud of dust large and thick.

When he moved, Rein saw something caught in his furs. In a short instant, she could see it drop to the ground before the smoke screen obscured her view of Uvo. Could the item have been her rock? Maybe her rock had fallen out of her pocket while Uvo was flipping her in the air, and it had landed on him. There was a slim chance, but it must've been as it was the only explanation as to why she'd been drawn to the middle of nowhere. Ugh, but now she couldn't see what was happening, and she couldn't be sure of that. He would act soon, while the chain user was blinded. She had to be down there by then. Then she could search for her rock and watch the fight at the same time.

Well, mostly the fight.

What? Uvo was fighting. This would be interesting, and an excellent time to learn from one of the best.

Using the dust as a cover, she jumped and landed, trying to do so as softly as she could. She skirted around the cloud, careful not to disturb it lest one of them noticed a shift in dust (and in turn, her). She hid behind another set of boulders and crouched with one knee on the ground, pressing her eye to the crack so she could follow along.

A loud hit and the crunch of bone rang through the air, and Uvo laughed as the dust settled. Above, the chain user was sailing through the air, arm swollen red and limp. "This time I crushed your arm." Uvo grinned. No one could withstand his full strength Big Bang impact. "But I'm impressed! You reacted quickly. I'm guessing you noticed the slight shift in smoke when I moved."

"I'm impressed as well," the chain user called back, still flying through the air. "I didn't expect you to know how to use In." He landed gracefully on the high cliff despite his shattered arm. "Striking the ground to create a smoke screen was intended to conceal both your physical body and presence. However," His hair and clothes waved in the wind as he lifted his arm. "I too, can use In. Can you see them?"

Quickly activating Gyo, Rein could see what the chain user had been hiding. Rows upon rows of chains, wrapped every which way around Uvo's body. They snaked around his legs and pinned his arms to his sides, rendering them near useless. 

"It appears you can use Gyo as well." The chain user jumped to Uvo's level, his chains shortening as he went. "These chains were fortified with a Conjurer's Nen, meaning I can use In to render them invisible."

Uvo narrowed his eyes. "So you kept the chains out to trick us into thinking they were real," he loudly summarized, projecting his voice. Summarizing, why was he doing that?

"Precisely," said the chain user. "I pretended to be a Manipulator using Nen-controlled chains, so my enemies would only be alert to the visible threat." He tilted his head down, eyes taking on a dangerous gleam. "And my bluff just paid off. While you were making empty threats, my chains were already wrapped around your body." Flicking his fingers, the chains tightened and proceeded to press into Uvo's skin so that they almost made red marks on his rock-solid body. "Capture complete."

Rein could see Uvogin trying to burst out of the chains, but no such luck. Why wasn't he using some Nen, or some other ability to break free? And even if he didn't, he should have been able to break his chains as conjuring unbreakable items was impossible. But the chains held an unusual amount of Nen. With that, the chain user's defense should have been nonexistent, yet he had been able to hold off Uvogin's attack and had only emerged with a broken arm. He should have been blown to bits. Besides that, only an Enhancer would have been able to barely have come out of his full strength punch alive, yet the chain user had emerged with minimal damage. 

The chain user was a mass of contradictions against everything she had been taught. If it wasn't supposed to be possible, where was all his power coming from?

"I see you're having trouble understanding," his voice cut, and her breath cut short before realizing he wasn't talking to her. "Before sending you to the other side, let me show you." Reaching his bare hand to his eyes, he removed his contacts.

Rein's eyes widened, but she stayed frozen to her spot behind the boulder. She couldn't be sure from her position, but his eyes seemed to shine a clear red. Or... a scarlet? Like... like how...

She held a hand to her own eye and focused back on the conversation, which had progressed without her noticing. She shook her head. No more distractions, starting now.

Uvo was giggling manically, teeth flashing and bared. "I'm getting fired up. Your grudge or my power, let's see which is stronger!"

"Bastard," the chain user growled. "Is that all you can think about? You'll never be able to break these chains!"

Rein could see Uvo try. His muscles flexed and his veins popped, his cheeks reddened with the effort, teeth gritted in strain. Letting out a roar, he stopped and bent over, taking a gasp of air. Uvogin seemed to be struggling. Uvo. It didn't make sense. Normally, he should have been able to break his restraints in a heartbeat, but the chains pressing into his flesh were as tauntingly present as ever. "Why? What's wrong?" she wanted to ask, but she kept her mouth shut.

She didn't have to speak, for Uvo voiced her questions in her place. Why was he talking so much? The normal procedure went so you didn't engage more in conversation than in combat unless you were sure of victory. Talking while fighting when you were losing was just kind of... dumb. At least it was giving her more information on the Chain User's abilities and such, but he didn't have to waste time on such things. 

"When my eyes turn scarlet, I become a Specialist," the chain user stated. He raised his voice. "When I am a Specialist, I wield full control over every category of nen. This is my power, Emperor Time!"

A bead of sweat dripped off Uvogin's jawline. "A Specialist?" he echoed. "You can control every other category one hundred percent?"

"That is correct." Using his free hand, he tore off the sleeve of the forgotten shattered arm. A chain lengthened and dropped from his fingers, glinting as it bounced and came to a halt. The newly dropped chain slowly rose up and wrapped itself around his arm, barely brushing skin as the cross at its end came to rest on top. In a burst of aura, the arm that had once been swollen and bruised beyond repair healed in an instant. "Even a broken arm will be completely healed with my Enhancer's Nen."

Had he kept from healing himself for this moment? Just to make an impression and to prove a point to his victim? No, Rein quickly thought. Uvogin was not a victim. Why wasn't Uvo just getting it over with and winning already?

"There were a number of reasons why I chose you to be my first target." The chain user's hand was steady, and the chains tightened just a bit. "While you fought the Mafia and the Shadow Beasts, the others showed no signs of interfering. This told me you preferred to work alone, and they had full trust that your strength would prevail. I prefer to fight one on one. That made you the perfect target: an Enhancer with full confidence in his offense and defense. You met every condition I needed for my first target, because then I could test if my Chain Jail would be effective on the rest of the Troupe. Chain Jail forces Zetsu upon any Troupe member it ensnares, and also paralyzes them. Zetsu nullifies aura, meaning to break these chains, you would need to rely on physical strength alone. If the Troupe member with the most strength cannot break the chains, the others will surely not be able to break free of Chain Jail."

Uvo clenched his teeth and fists, and Rein's body followed suit. So that's why he hadn't been able to bring up aura, why he was still stuck in those dangerous chains. Forcing Zetsu on those caught... the chain user had thought this through. Most of any Nen user's skills and power stemmed from aura, so once sealed off, the power once relied on would be utterly useless.

Which meant that Uvo... that Uvo...

Moving swiftly, the chain user punched Uvogin in the stomach.

Uvogin's eyes bulged as he stumbled forward. He threw up blood.

Blood.

"It seems as though my enhanced fist is slightly stronger than your physical brawn," the chain user observed, fist brought up to his chest. "This is valuable information. Provided I've chained them, I can beat every Troupe member barehanded." He glanced up, eyes once again gleaming cold and dangerous. "Tell me everything you know." Noticing Uvo's hesitation, he punched him again. The blood that was spit up splattered onto his forehead. "Where are the others?"

Uvo gazed at the ground, thick blood spilling from his lips. He couldn't look up. "Kill me."

The chain user punched his upper arm. With a grinding twist, it shattered just like his own arm had been. "What abilities do they have ?"

His own breath would have shuddered at how he was acting, but it remained strong. "Kill me."

He scowled, and the flurry of punches began.

*     *     *

Rein pressed a hand to her mouth. She wanted to look away. She wished she was blind, that she didn't have eyes, that her sight would suddenly vanish and never return. But with each punch and the overwhelming amount of gushing blood, her eyes only went wider and wider, and she remained frozen in place.

The strikes continued. Rein had lost count a long time ago. Blood once again spilled onto the ground, and her eyes burned, but they didn't close, and her body didn't move.

The chain user paused, fist clenched tightly at his side. "It makes me sick." He lowered his head, hiding his blood-stained face behind low bangs. "The sensation left on my hand; the grating sound of each strike. The smell of blood! It throws all my senses into disarray..." He whipped up his head, red eyes shining with hate. "How can you do these things, yet feel and think nothing at all?! Answer me!"

Barely moving his lips, Uvo answered. "Just kill me." The next word was so quiet, so soft and broken that it was barely registered, but it was there. The small "please."

His hand snapped forward and a new chain shot out, puncturing Uvo's chest. Blood started to seep into the white cloth. "Last chance. I've placed a conditional bond upon your heart. If you break the rule I set, the chain will activate, and your heart will be crushed. The rule is that you must answer my question honestly. Abide by that rule, and I will allow you to live a little while longer. Where are the other Spiders?"

With a chuckle, Uvo straightened as much as he could. He grinned, blood dripping through his clenched teeth. "Die, fool."

*     *     *

His heart squeezed and twisted. Warm blood spurted out of the hole in his chest as more came up his throat. It spewed into the air, arching violently before splattering back onto his own face. He felt the chains clink together as his heart ceased to be whole.

Surprisingly, it didn't hurt as much as he'd expected.

As he started to tip, his gaze darted to Rein, hiding and frozen stiff behind the boulders.

Run. She had to run. She had to run and let the rest of the Troupe know, so they could all destroy the chain bastard. He'd done all he could to ensure that Rein would hear about the chain user's abilities. He'd succeeded in making the chain bastard go on and elaborate on his skills and had gotten him to explain it nearly in full. She had to take it and run. She had to escape and let them know.

She had to run.

Run...

*     *     *

He crashed to the ground face first.

"Uvo..."

Her lips quivered.

"Uvo, no..."

The chain user looked her way, startled.

Choking back tears she didn't know she had, she pushed off the boulders and started to run. Away. She needed to run away, she needed to be anywhere but there, from the mass of body on the dusty grey rock. Anywhere but there.

The chain user leapt down in front of her, blocking her path.

Her eyesight was blurry, but she could still see shapes and some color. She flung her rocks in his direction, aiming for his thick head, or his cruel heart. She would be able to hit him. She had to. She would land a hit on him, she would kill him, kill him and all would be fine... She felt her nen rocks breaking before she heard them being crushed by his chains.

"What are you doing here?"

She couldn't respond.

"Are you a Spider?"

Wiping at her eyes, Rein shook her head yes, then no, then yes again, so much so that the world swirled below her and she stumbled in an attempt to regain her balance. Shaking her head wasn't helping. Why wasn't it working? Why wouldn't her feelings go away? Feelings remained. Her throat started to ache, to burn from the inside. Painful emotions. She wished she didn't have a heart to feel them with. No heart.

"Are you a Spider or not?" His tone was cold. "Answer the question. You're wasting my time."

With a final wipe at tears, she felt a sudden strength empower her. It took control of her voice, shouting: "Why? Why did you kill him? Not only that, you tortured him! He was weak! Was-wasn't... wasn't that enough? Enough for you? It wasn't a fair fight! Uvo wouldn't...he would never...Even he wouldn't render his opponent helpless to do anything! No one just-"

She froze.

She dropped to the ground, gravel biting her knees. She gripped the sides of her head, words gone. Hypocrisy or not, it all left her now.

The world blurred once more.

"Your eyes." His voice shattered her thoughts. "They... look up again."

With a final bite to her lips to keep them from shaking, she did. She rose to her feet, steady as ever. She readied her rocks, almost setting them ablaze with the amount of Nen they were holding.

"Your eyes are red," he breathed.

"Your hands are red," she spat back, only taking a glance at his blood stained fist before looking away. "What's it to you? You think I'm a demon or something?"

"A...A demon? A demon," he whispered. "No, that's not it. Tell me, do you know of the Kurta Clan?"

She threw a rock: a curveball. Surely he wouldn't be able to dodge a curveball. She sent another squadron his way, firing just like she had with Phinks earlier in the week. He wouldn't be able to block them all. Her Nen fueled rocks fired nearly fast as bullets and packed a slightly stronger hit. There was no way he would be able to block and crush them all without taking some damage.

He could and did.

"Do you know of the Kurta?" he repeated, shaking out her rocks from the holes of his chains.

She watched as her attack dropped harmless to the ground. "The...Kurta? No."

A silence. The chain user took a breath, but hesitated on his words, lips wavering with no sound coming out. Eventually: "What is your relation with the Spiders?"

Her breathing hitched. Spiders...Uvo... She shook her head violently— don't think, don't think. Don't think about...that, don't think! Thankfully, this time it seemed to work. The only tears remaining were the ones drying on her cheeks and the ones still inside. "Why should I tell you? What do you have against the Troupe? Why did you have to ki-"

Tears welled up and she struggled to keep them from spilling. "To... to..." She willed her knees to stop shaking. She could not be weak here, not here. Rein had to defeat him, but if she couldn't, she had to run, to warn the others about this chain user, find a weakness, and destroy him. They had to. It was revenge, of sorts. Yes. They would defeat him, and everything would be alright, maybe Machi could sew Uvo's heart back together and everything could be normal. She could watch baseball again while yelling at the screen and Uvo could teach her other throws so she could improve on her throwing arm, and she could hug him again and have her hair spike up in mimicry of his. Yes, things could go back to normal, they could be normal and whole and strong and happy...

She didn't the notice the tears plop down to stain her skirt.

"So you do associate with them. Yet you do not seem to be a member." He flicked his wrist forward, and a chain shot through the air.

Rein brought her rocks up to her chest, but the chains punctured not only that, but the skin underneath. Nen chains wrapped around her heart.

Would she die here?

"You surely know how this works. Break the rule I set, your heart will be crushed." His hand shook for a moment but immediately steadied. "The rule is that you may not inform any of the other Spiders to my abilities."

She waited for more, but none came. That was it? "Why?"

He cocked his head.

"Why? You aren't torturing me, or hurting or pressing for information." Idiot, what was she saying? Did she want to die? "Why is my rule so easy? Why aren't you threatening me? Why not me?"

He pursed his lips. "Go now." He pulled back, and his chain disappeared. "I hope we meet again."

She wanted to kill him, she did. But she couldn't see, and she couldn't stand right, and she was barely holding back her insides from spilling out. She wanted to fight him, but she'd used up a lot of her energy on her Chi, a stupid technique that would never work with her. She wanted to wipe his very much alive grimace off of his face. But she was making excuses. Next time would be different.

She fled, lucky rock forgotten.

Stars, it hurt.

:)
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