The Razor's Edge [[Feitan x Reader]]

8: The Mission - part 2

I was lying in the grass beside a big building when I woke up. It had to have been where the boss had sent us. I didn't know how I got here. I figured a considerable amount of time had passed. There were no more sounds of gunshots or explosions, just distant sirens as the city dispatched teams to put out the fires that still crackled around the auction hall.

So we did it, then. We've completed the first part of our mission.

I smiled to myself, dropping my head to the side, but my smile immediately fell when I came face-to-face with Feitan. His grey eyes were wide and unmoving and a trail of blood ran out the corner of his mouth.

"Hey," I said, my voice hoarse from how weak I was still. "Hey," I repeated, louder, shoving his shoulder.

When I pulled back my hand I was shocked to find it covered in blood. I quickly sat up and saw that his body was littered with bullet holes.

How did this happen?

Panicking, I looked around, trying to piece everything together, but what I saw only caused me more distress. Feitan wasn't the only one that the mafia had killed. I saw the bodies of the boss, Machi, and—

"Shizuku!" I crawled over to her, trying to hold back the tears that were quickly building in my eyes.

I gripped her hand tightly as I started crying. Shizuku had been so kind to me and I wasn't there when she needed me. If only I hadn't used my nen attack on those men. If only I'd just fought them with my hands and my beads instead of sacrificing my aura to summon Poe. Maybe I could have beat them on my own.

"Oh, hey, she's awake!" I turned to see Shalnark coming toward me. "Are you alright, y/n? You gave us quite a scare, there."

"Am I alright? Look at Shizuku and the others! How many more people did we lose?"

He tilted his head, clearly confused, before gasping. "Oh, these aren't real! These are just copies of their bodies. The boss, Machi, Shizuku, and Feitan are all perfectly fine."

"Copies?"

"Yeah, the mission has been a success so far, but we'll have the advantage if the world thinks we're all dead."

It made sense. Really, it was a good plan. The troupe would wreak havoc and then disappear without a trace. They'd thought of everything.

"There's a copy of you, too," he said with a smile. "You wanna see it?"

He pointed behind me, and there I was, sprawled out on the pavement. It was a strange thing—seeing my own dead body, I mean. The troupe had decided to kill me by slitting my throat. I couldn't help but wonder if this might be my fate some day. If I might really die by their hands.

Maybe it would be a good thing if the world really believed that I was dead. I could finally be free.

"Pretty freaky, right?" He chuckled.

I nodded and turned back to him with a question that had been tugging at my mind. "Hey, Shalnark, how did I get here? I mean, when I passed out I could just barely make out this building."

"Oh, Feitan carried you."

"Really?" That didn't seem like him.

"Yeah, I think he was pretty worried."

I laughed in disbelief. This had to be a joke. The Feitan I knew didn't care if I lived or not—he told me so himself. I figured he would have left me behind and let the mafia finish me off.

"If he was so worried then where is he now? Why'd he leave me out here?"

"Oh, well, we're still in the middle of the mission. The rest of the team is inside, preparing for the auction. I offered to watch you while I grabbed a few more puppets."

I hadn't noticed the little device in his hand before, but it was clear now that he was using it to control some of the mafia members

So this is Shalnark's ability? Good to know.

Despite what Shalnark had said, Feitan did not seem pleased to see me alive and well. He gave me the same unamused 'I want to kill you slowly and painfully' look that he always did.

"Well, it's about damn time," Phinks called over when he saw me. "I hope you didn't think you could just sleep through the rest of the mission."

"Hey, Phinks, have you ever heard of just shutting the fuck up? It might suit you," Machi said, rolling her eyes at him. He did not seem to appreciate her advice. "Are you alright, y/n?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. What are you guys doing?"

Shizuku popped up from behind some of the wooden crates that filled the room. "Kortopi is making copies of all of the auction items. We're digging them all out now."

Making copies? So he's a conjurer?

Machi handed me a list of the items. "Here, we've got the first couple already. Take those crates over there and start searching."

The constant work made the auction fly by. Once it was over we started heading back to the base, splitting up again so that we wouldn't draw attention to ourselves. The boss said he'd take care of gathering the items.

Feitan and Phinks ignored me for the majority of our trip back, walking a few paces ahead of me and talking about one of the nen users that Phinks had fought.

"Y/n?" Feitan said my name when the conversation came to a lull.

"Yes?" I was a little surprised he was speaking to me.

"What was that attack you used?"

"Oh, you mean Poe?"

"Poe?" Phinks echoed with a slightly judgmental tone.

"Yeah," I shrugged. "She's her own person, so I figured she needed her own name."

"Her own person?" Feitan asked.

"Well, it's hard to explain."

"That's alright. We've still got a while before we reach the base."

I frowned. "It doesn't seem fair that you get to ask so many questions about my ability when you won't even tell me what yours is."

He gave an amused laugh. "Alright, fine. I call my nen abilities Pain Packer and Rising Sun."

"And what do they do?"

It was Phinks who laughed this time. "You're trying to gauge whether or not you could beat him in a fight, right? Well, it's pointless. You'd be dead in an instant. Hell, I tried to see it once and almost didn't live to tell the tale."

"Thank you," Feitan replied, "But you still aren't staying in my room tonight. Flattery won't change my mind."

Phinks made a strangled sort of sound and turned back to me. His expression was somewhere between angered and embarrassed. "He's just kidding about that."

"You're right. . . If you keep going then I might let you sleep at the foot of my bed."

"I never asked to spend the night in your room!" Phinks barked.

He kept yelling at Feitan, who remained calm as we continued our trip back to the base. It was odd to see this side of them. One moment they were merciless killers and the next moment they teased each other like a couple of middle schoolers.

I'm not sure I'll ever understand these two.