"Is she coming out of her room?"

"Take a wild stab at it and let's see where that gets you."

"So no." Shalnark sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "No progress whatsoever. Is she alright? We don't know what happened, but judging by how she's acting, its clear whatever this is has impacted her quite badly. Danchou said this might have something to do with Uvo, but on percentage of chance alone, that seems highly unlikely. And," He raised a finger. "No matter how silly this sounds, we also have to consider the possibility that perhaps her behavior is a withdrawal symptom from being separated from her lucky rock."

Machi eyed him, waiting for sound reasoning behind his words. When she got none, she spoke slowly: "There is no 'we' in this. And that rock idea..." She shook her head. "Just no."

A small snicker escaped his lips. "I guess that was a pretty stupid theory." He slid to the floor, leaning back on his hands. "In hindsight, I suppose I was just spitballing."

"Hm," said Machi. Reaching up, she slipped off her fuzzy blue scrunchie, bright bristly hair falling down in a spiky, hardened veil around her face. She swept a few strands out of her eyes so they stuck away, instead of poking out her retinas. In vain, she tried to smooth down the bump at the back of her hair, an eternal compliment of having been in a ponytail for far too long. Giving up, she instead adjusted it so it fell comfortably upon her tracksuit. Satisfied, she lowered her arms into a crossed position.

"What's with the getup?"

With the slightest of shrugs, she said, "Nobunaga and I are going into the city to draw out some person who's got their eye set on capturing us. Orders. I don't understand why we can't just kill them, though."

Shalnark was silent for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "Because Uvo."

Her eyes widened a bit at the realization, but her usual lack of expression never left her face. "They might be associated with the chain user?"

"And in turn, might know something about Uvo, meaning we can get information out of them," Shalnark added, nodding. "But this plan. It seems to me like its riding too heavily on the assumption that something negative happened to Uvo. We don't know anything for sure, and Rein is only adding to the confusion." He cocked his head. "Do you think Uvo is okay?"

She pursed her lips. "Maybe."

He waited. "Elaborate?"

"It seems unlikely. He's a strong fighter, but that chain user was able to capture him, right? And I'm sure the bruise Uvo got was from the chain user too, so he must be pretty powerful given that he was able to injure him while his entire Nen was focused on defense and preservation of his body."

He blanked for a moment. "A bruise?"

"Yeah, on his nose. The chain user must have broken it before Uvo used Enhancer abilities to heal it." This time, it was Machi who cocked her head. "Didn't you notice?"

"I..." Shalnark nibbled his lip. He hadn't noticed. Of the Spiders, Machi was one of the most observant, so it would make sense she'd notice the faded remains of a broken nose, no matter how fixed up Uvo had gotten it before they had arrived. Not to mention Machi was always patching the other Spiders up after intense battles as well, so she held an unusually keen eye for this type of thing. Shalnark doubted if any of the others had noticed the bruise. Machi was the only one of them who would have been able to tell Uvo had been hurt. Only Machi was capable. That was just a fact.

Still...

Sitting up, he struggled to keep his smile under her observant eye. He gripped his arms hard in an attempt to keep them from shaking, fingertips paling with the pressure.

Why couldn't he have noticed?

*     *     *

Rein looked at the clock. Had three whole hours gone by while she stared? Granted, it was the clock that had been hanging in the room since the Phantom Troupe moved in for the temporary stay, so she wasn't sure how old it was, or how reliable. Still, three hours?

Her gaze didn't waver, and soon another half hour had passed.

Huh.

Time flew? Another thirty minutes came and went. No, time moved. It was just her. Frozen in time or speeding it along, she couldn't tell which was which, or which one she was doing. But she could do it for a little while longer, she decided as the minute hand continued to glide in its perpetual circle.

A knocking came at the door. "Rein?"

Blinking away a haziness, she turned her head to the aging door, it's rusty hinges threatening to fall off from the impact of the pounding. "Phinks?"

"You, uh..." He cleared his throat from the other side of the closed door. "I see you didn't eat your lunch. You must be hungry by now, right? I've got some dinner right here. It's just a little, but you know how much Franklin eats. He inhaled half of everything Paku and I brought back from our shopping spree in seconds, I swear. Nobunaga was yelling at him to leave some for the rest of us, and his face turned all red like it always does." He chuckled for a while, but quickly withered in the silence Rein returned. "Um."

"It's okay. I'm not hungry."

"Oh." Silence. "Well... if you want more food just let me know, 'kay? I'm going to leave now. If you need anything, just call." He paused, and Rein could almost hear the teasing grin on his face. "Although, with that weak voice of yours, I'm not sure whether your screams are even gonna leave this room. You might just have to come crawling to my hall to even get a whisper through to me. Heck, you could shout straight in my ear and I still wouldn't hear anything!"

"Okay." Rein poked at her sheets and started to adjust her gaze to the clock once more before Phinks' voice made her stop.

"Rein. This..." His voice cracked and he cleared his throat. A thump sounded as he rested his hand on the door, waiting. "This is where you're supposed to chuck a rock at my head." His shallow breathing filled the emptiness for a few moments before the door hinges creaked as he finally lifted off. "I'm going to go now. Eat if you can."

"Mm." His feet padded into nothingness, and Rein brought her attention to the clock again.

The minute hand ticked by. It was nice to know that in the crazy world, something still stayed the same. A clock had a schedule, and followed it down to the second. It never strayed, there was nothing unexpected, no sudden sadness or tragedy. Just quietly did the same thing as time went on, for eternity. Rein blinked and tilted her head at the clock. It was very nice. Serene. Not a sound to be hea—

A kid fell through the ceiling, crushing the wall with the clock along with it. Groaning, the kid sat up in the rubble, shaking debris out of his fluffy white hair. "Man, that hurt."

She blinked. "You just fell through the ceiling and had cement fall on you. I'd be surprised if it didn't. Also," Rein held up a stiff arm at the sight. "What the heck."

The white-haired kid reared his head up, shock clear on his face until it melted into suspicion. "Who are you?"

"You're the one busting into my room, I think I should be the one asking that question." Rein crossed her arms and kept a calm expression, and though every thought in her head was mostly unintelligible screaming, her body stayed relaxed. Finally a new thought: Even she was surprised by how she was reacting. Was this a side effect of a loss? Did nothing faze her? After wishing for no heart to feel emotions with, this sudden change in her was surprisingly nice. It seemed like someone else had taken control of her body, and was doing a good job at piloting it too. "You ruined the clock, not to mention," Her gaze flew to the wall that had been crushed under the weight of the collapsing ceiling. "Not to mention you tore a hole in my wall."

*     *     *

Killua narrowed his eyes at the girl, who was rambling on about how he had broken her wall and how the room was a mess and couldn't he have at least spared the lovely clock?

Her hair was a muddy brown, cropped at the shoulders with strands hanging and flying all over the place. Bobbing up and down and swishing in a messy yet fixed bell shape, it caught his attention more than her words. It seemed to defy gravity, coming inches away from her scalp in unbelievable fluffiness.

Not as fluffy as his, of course, but it came pretty darn close.

Was she a member of the Spiders? That was a possibility, but Kurapika had said there were 13 members, twelve "legs" and one head, the leader. Kurapika had already killed a member as the chain user, and the Spiders had clearly stated their leader was out. Which meant back in the room that he and Gon had been brought to, all the others had been accounted for. He certainly hadn't seen this girl among them then. Was she a prisoner? Maybe.

Certain the girl wasn't a member of the Phantom Troupe, Killua brought his focus to observing her.

She seemed to be about his age, or younger. The only part of her outfit that stuck out was her vivid, red, flannel skirt, which appeared to be weighed down with something, though what that something could be was a mystery. The skirt ended at her knees, but he could tell some of its length had been due to being stretched from having the weight in her pockets. Even her gray sneakers popped in the dim room because of the neon orange laces attached to them. Heck, her solid black t-shirt stood out because of who it was on. At first glance, the girl didn't look that much, but her aura (both literal aura and figurative) drew your eyes.

The way her words droned on and on didn't suit her bounciness, but honestly, he didn't care. "Hey."

She looked his way.

Killua sucked in a quiet breath. Her eyes were moist, dark circles hanging under them. He guessed she hadn't slept well since yesterday, maybe even before that. Her eyes were rimmed red, but... was it only that? He could have sworn he'd caught a flash of scarlet in her irises as well, not just around her eyes. Scarlet...eyes... like Kurapika. But his entire tribe had been wiped out by the Phantom Troupe years ago.

"Do you want to come with us? Me and my friend are escaping right now, but if you want to tag along, I won't mind." Killua gave a welcoming smile and held out a hand, but he was watching her every move with extreme precision. If she came along, he could figure this out on the way.

But if she didn't come along, he did have one trick up his sleeve. He attempted a smile, but it came out a smirk.

"Well? You coming or not, Kurta?"

*     *     *

Kurta... That word again.

The chain user had said that.

Rein dropped her feet to the ground. They felt incredibly heavy. Perhaps it was because she hadn't slept at all yesterday. Quickly, she swooped down and plucked a few small pieces of debris from the ground that looked like they would be able to be smoothed into perfect throwing stones later. She approached the boy and tapped his shoulder. "The exit is that way."

She took one step in the direction she'd pointed and froze. Protected from chunks of aging cement and gray dust by the rickety door was a tray of food. A tray of bread, some fruit, and a bowl of brownish stew with chunks of potatoes and carrots floating on the surface.

Phinks.

Had he left the food there for her?

"Um." The kid poked the back of her head with extreme force. "You okay? You don't seem to be in top-notch shape. If you're too weak, I could leave you behind, or carry you on my ba—" He froze upon seeing her face. "You're crying."

"What? No, I'm not," she argued, but with a wipe to her cheeks, her palm came back damp.

"Yes, you are."

"Well, I'm fine. I can carry myself." Moving ahead, she ignored the boy who was squatting on the ground in a position where she could climb onto his back. She bent down and held up a roll of bread to her mouth. "Come on, staircase is that way," she said through a mouthful, drawing up.

"Geez, fine. Take the lead, Kurta."

Rein shook her head, and sped to the staircase.

This boy knew of something called the 'Kurta'. The chain user had mentioned it during their encounter, meaning he had some sort of relation with it. And if both of them knew, then this white-haired boy—who probably weighed a lot more than one would realize—could lead her to him. He would lead her straight to the chain user.

She clenched her teeth at the thought, but relaxed when the boy looked quizzically her way.

Do you know of the Kurta? No, she didn't. She had no idea who or what it was.

But she would find out.

Awww...Phinks you poor baby. And Shalnark is a poor baby as well, frustrated because he couldn't notice Uvo was hurt. And also KILLUA HAS FINALLY MADE HIS DEBUT WHOOHOO. Hehehe and he crashed through the ceiling (must be because of all that chocorobo he's eating). So! Sorry for the really late update, I've taken up a tutoring offer for English, and I have concerts this week... also I procrastinated. A lot. I'll be better when school is over, I promise!
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