"So in other words, we don't know what happened to Rein," Franklin summarized neatly from his spot on the cement block.

"That... pretty much sums it up, yes." Shalnark scratched at his head. "However, we can take some reasonable guesses and deduce from there." It had taken a while for the Troupe to meet together in the main room after he had highlighted just how serious the situation could be. Rein had come running in, pushed them all aside, and had made a beeline to her floor, to the room reserved for her. Even Phinks hadn't managed to catch her to demand what had happened, as she'd resorted to kicking him in the shins to make him let her go. Her actions, the timing, her words. The entire thing was just too strange for it to be nothing of significance.

"She's crying. She hasn't stopped since she ran in," Shizuku remarked.

"Wrong." Paku continued to polish her pistol, but her eyes were unfocused, dazed. Her hands moved but she was elsewhere. "She stopped, once."

She bit the inside of her lip. She had been startled when Rein had run in, tears streaming. She'd never seen Rein—always full of sweetness, smiles, laughter, childish confusion, innocence, playfulness—she'd never seen that Rein cry before. All she'd wanted to do was to help, to pull Rein into her arms and give her a hug, to see what had happened with her psychometry... but she never got to. She hadn't even been able to talk to her, or even get close to her.

Get away from me!

Her posture remained rigid, but Pakunoda wanted to curl in on herself and never open up. Quickly, she stifled that childish feeling. Forcing her shoulders to lower in an attempt to relax, she allowed herself to put down her pistol. It shone even in the dim light. "She's not allowing me to touch her and check."

"So there's something she doesn't want us to know about." Shalnark brought a hand up to his chin. "Rein is usually a open person. So this event that happened in the last hour was so... traumatizing, or of such a great scale, she wishes to keep secret, or there is something keeping her from sharing it with us."

"A threat?" Shizuku asked.

"No." Feitan entered the room, hands burrowed deep in his pockets. No one could see how they were clenched tight. "If it was a threat, we can silence them easy."

"Ah, Feitan!" Shalnark gave a lighthearted smile. "How's Rein? Have you gotten her to talk?"

"Tch. You make it sound like I'm torturing her." The air in the room suddenly stiffened, and he let out a short sigh. He rolled his eyes. "She's not talking. Kicked me out. Screamed some nonsense and about wanting to be alone."

Nodding slowly, the smile on Shalnark's face drew into a thin line. "So this is where the investigation ends, I suppose."

"Not quite yet." Chrollo leaned forward from his place at the head of the room and clasped his hands together. "Rein comes back crying and refusing to let anyone know of what transpired. Around the same time as her trip, Uvogin should have had his fight."

"Ah, with the chain bastard he kept ranting about!" Shalnark exclaimed, though his cheerful tone seemed a bit strained.

"A chain user... He's either a Manipulator or a Conjurer. Uvogin is a dominant fighter, but in a one-on-one fight, he is most vulnerable to these two categories. The amount of Conjurers who give special powers to the things they create are many. Some of those abilities could render Uvo helpless." The chain user was most likely a Conjurer—that was a safe assumption to make. Yet, if he wasn't, their views on his powers would be skewed by their former delusion, giving the chain user the upper hand. If he was a Manipulator... "And a Manipulator could control Uvo himself."

Shalnark clenched his fists by his sides, gaze intense. His usual smile was nonexistent. He let slip a swear.

"Danchou." Machi raised her head. "So you're saying that Uvo fought, lost, and Rein saw all that?"

"I am just stating it as a possibility."

"That would explain her..." Nobunaga lost his words. The chances of Uvo losing to anyone was slim, yet the chain-user had proven his strength. Capturing Uvogin with such confidence and treating him in such a way that he felt compelled to track him down and finish him off with fury and respect... If it hadn't happened, Nobunaga wasn't sure if he would have thought it possible. Uvogin should have won the fight, that was just logic. But if he'd been caught in some dirty trick, if there truly was something to those chains that could subdue this monster he'd befriended over the years, if the chain user could possibly defeat Uvo like Danchou had implied—Uvogin could die.

He could already be dead.

Not that he was actually considering that a likely possibility, but nothing was one hundred percent certain. And if not a death or trauma, what else could make Rein cry? "That would explain her situation," he finally finished.

"It's not impossible, but Uvogin is a pretty strong fighter, right?" asked Shizuku. "Could he really have lost?"

"Maybe," Feitan answered. "Unlikely, but it can happen." He cast a glance in Pakunoda's direction, who was absentmindedly tracing a finger over her gun once more.

Pakunoda. While her soft spot for Rein wasn't up-in-your-face obvious, anyone who witnessed them interact could tell that she deeply cared for her. Feitan knew Pakunoda would never admit it out loud that clearly, but it was true, and she didn't hide the fact. The first few weeks after they'd taken in the six-year-old bundle of disaster, he'd seen how Pakunoda subconsciously moved in front of the girl when she was intimidated, or pressured the more rash Spiders to be cautious around her, or even just sat next to her to talk. Since then, Paku had stuffed those feelings lower into the bag, but it was fairly plain to see that she cared. Cared a lot.

Back in the truck, Rein had said "Love you too." What did that mean? Even if she had only said it to Feitan at the time, he knew that she would have said just as much to Pakunoda. Fitting, as she returned those feelings.

Paku might have been one of the few who openly supported that fact.

Shizuku crossed her legs and obliterated everyone's thoughts: "So, what now? We don't know for sure what happened." Tch. Shizuku. She couldn't perceive anyone's feelings, how right now, the tension in the room was much too high for her dumb and blunt question.

"If he doesn't return by dawn..." Chrollo looked up, rich black eyes slicing straight ahead. "There will be a change in plans."

* * *

She grappled around her skirt pockets. Her rock wasn't there. She gripped another one, but it wasn't the same. It wasn't. Nothing was the same anymore.

Her tears had long gone, but she still felt the stiffness on her cheeks, the burning in her throat. And how her eyes wanted to close. She wanted to sleep. She hadn't been able to say anything today, but maybe tomorrow, she could ask Machi if she could sew Uvo's heart back together, they could go back and Uvo would rise up, and...

Through she didn't admit it, she knew it was a lost case. Even if Machi could raise the...those gone, they'd have to find Uvo first, and Rein didn't think the chain user would just leave his victim out in the open for anybody to stumble across. But even then, Machi wouldn't be able to. She wasn't magic.

So... Uvo...

"Rein."

"No!" she screamed. She gripped the sides of the bed, trying to keep herself from scrambling backwards like she had done before. White sheets bunched up around her fists, she took a deep breath. Her heart rate slowed, but she still couldn't look up when she answered: "Please stay away, Paku."

She took a step forward instead. "Rein, I don't know what happened, but you should share trauma with your lov—peers. Your peers." She reached forward, arms open and palms facing her. "You don't have to talk, just let me sift through your memories. It's okay R—"

"No!" Leaping up and pressing herself against the wall, she struggled to swallow the scream crawling up her throat. "No!"

Pakunoda's eyebrows raised questioningly. Her foot slid forward, and she entered within arms' reach.

"No!" Rein kicked up the blanket. "Don't touch me! Stay away!"

A stifling silence almost crushed her lungs. Pakunoda tried to breathe, but her silent gasps only got her so much. "I see." She lowered her arms and her head, light bangs shadowing her face. "You want to be alone."

As soon as she had slipped out, Rein allowed her knees to buckle. "I'm sorry," she whimpered into the empty room.

Why was she acting so strangely? Was this an effect of the chain? Or maybe the true fear of death after she'd witnessed one? Before, she could have claimed she was comfortable with the idea of death. She knew she would die someday, but now, with its threat alarmingly present... she wasn't so sure.

If this were under normal circumstances, she would have accepted Pakunoda's touch, no doubt. But the circumstances were nowhere near normal, and neither was Paku's power to read minds. Rein had seen the chain user, and had heard about all of his abilities. She even had a Nen chain circling her own heart, the one which would kill her instantly should she leak any information on the chain user's abilities to the Troupe. But she didn't even have to willingly say anything to die. If Pakunoda touched her, at all, that would be her end.

As soon as this was all over, she would hug Pakunoda and be sure to not let go. She would explain the situation and tell her how much she cared and reassure on all points. She knew Paku tended to overthink. They would be—did she dare say the forbidden word?—family again.

She couldn't lose anymore, not now.

Sorry this chapter took so long guys! Plus it's a really short one this time... I have no excuse... well, no excuse except for two words: Assassination Classroom.

I finished the entire thing in like a week.

*cries because LITERALLY ALL OF THE FINAL SEASON*

So. Hope you liked the (relatively short) chapter! I'll probably spend the next week watching the entire Yorknew City arc to figure out the timeline of the events, so the next chapter will be a little late in coming out too. (Sorry...)
Share, support and comment!