Cards Struck By Needles [Hisoillu]

Matches

The phantom troupe, and the two men, went to a gigantic arena that seemed to be very recently abandoned. Hisoka found the size quite unnecessary, seeing as only four people would be fighting, and not even at the same time.

A/N: The arena mentioned is not the Heavens Arena

"Meet us all here tomorrow at noon, please don't be late." Chrollo said. Hisoka and Illumi gave him a nod, and left, to go back to the Cemetery Building, where there were now police, ambulances, and news reporters, due to the attack. They discreetly got the car from there, and Illumi drove them back to Hisoka's place.

After entering, the two both crashed on the large sofa, after having a glass of wine or two. Hisoka, though usually not a light sleeper, woke up only a few hours later, because of the city noises that were coming from the open balcony window. He sat down closer to Illumi, his elbows on his knees and his hands holding up his chin, as he admired his...ally. Illumi had still been wearing his dress, and he was sleeping gracefully, with his hands laying loosely over his chest. Hisoka had grown quite fond of having someone by his side, and dreaded the day their job with the phantom troupe and all their alliances would end; the day Illumi would tell him he would leave him behind. Not wanting to think about it anymore, Hisoka went back to sleep on the couch.

The next morning, Illumi woke up a bit earlier than Hisoka, so he took off his dress, and dressed in his usual attire.

"Hmmm." Hisoka yawned, stretching his arms, when he remembered he was still in his suit. He got ready quickly, and then went to the kitchen to prepare some breakfast-or early lunch, since they had slept in pretty late. "Is there anything specific that you would like, Illumi?" Hisoka asked, as he looked through the fridge. "Do you mind making what we had last time?" Illumi requested, thinking of the delicious pancakes Hisoka had prepared. "Oh...so you like my cooking?" Hisoka asked, looking quite smug. "I didn't say tha-" "Say no more." Hisoka said, hushing him by putting a finger to Illumi's lips, before getting a pan out, and placing it on the stove.

Illumi finished his meal pretty quickly, and Hisoka did too. They had to get going soon if they wanted to be on time, so they left the place, and got in the car. "I'll drive, if that's fine." Illumi said, while getting into the car. Hisoka nodded, and got in too. Illumi drove over to the abandoned arena, and the two men got out, walking inside.

Inside, they found the whole phantom troupe, as expected. "Do you need clearing up of the rules?" Chrollo asked. Both Illumi and Hisoka remembered them perfectly fine, so they said no. "If any troupe member has been chosen for a fight, they must agree to fight. If you both have chosen the same troupe member to fight, that member must fight both of you one after another. If you are ready we shall proceed." Hisoka and Illumi nodded. Hisoka went up to the pink-haired girl. "You...what's your name?" He asked. "Machi." She said, and stepped forward. Illumi pointed to the blonde, who seemed dressed for business. She stoo, stepped forward. "I'm Pakunoda." She said, looking straight at Illumi.

Hisoka went first. He rarely used his playing cards in combat, but they were going to be useful if he needed blood. He threw a card at her in an attempt to cut her, but she swiftly caught that card between two fingers; Hisoka was impressed, and he flung another card at her, while she threw the one that she had caught back at him. As the two cards flew through the air with incredible speed, they crossed paths and sliced each other in half, before landing on the floor. Hisoka frowned at his now broken cards, to make the illusion that he had gotten distracted; so Machi took the chance, and inserted her nen thread with a needle into the skin of Hisoka's forearm; she pulled on it, expecting to draw blood, but there was not one drop; and while she did that, Hisoka used the split second to get behind her, and ran a sharp fingernail of his along her neck, gently, while still drawing blood.

Hisoka won. "I used an ordinary scarf with no special features, then I used bungee gum to attach it to my arm. After that, I used texture surprise to create a layer of skin; which is what your needle pierced, instead of my own skin." He explained, with excitement. "Yep i really did not need to know all that." Machi said, which triggered a genuine frown upon Hisoka's face. As the gentleman he could sometimes be, he snatched the bandaid that Machi was about to put on her neck, placed it on her gently, and ran a finger over it, using texture surprise; so it would blend into her skin. She rolled her eyes at him, and he chuckled at that.

It was now time for Illumi's turn in his match against Pakunoda. "How the hell will mind reading win her a drop of blood?" One of the members snarked, commenting on Paku's ability, only to get a nasty glare from Machi. The match began. Illumi calmly walked toward her, so she swung him to the ground immediately; she laid her hands on his head, in an attempt to put him in a trance, but Illumi, as an extremely sharp assassin, who was trained since he was very young, and worked with manipulation of persons himself, using needles, his head wasn't easy to get into. He jerked his head back, and his eyes rolled to the top of his head. Pakunoda's ability hadn't actually affected him at all yet, but he stayed like this, until she determined it was safe to draw blood, but before she could do anything, Illumi grabbed three pins from his vest in both hands, and stabbed her in the calves, drawing blood, which meant his victory.

Both Illumi and Hisoka thought this to be a peculiar way to fight, because booth of them would always go way further than "first blood," during fights.

Chrollo nodded; signaling that he had seen everything that he had needed to see. Though Machi and Paku weren't the strongest members, the other troupe members were rather impressed by the newcomers' ability to defeat them.

"You're both in." Chrollo said, in a quite friendly tone. "We'll now go to the troupe's hideout, and you shall speak nothing of its location." He then said, leading the two men out of the arena and to the hideout.