Itsy Bitsy Spider

48. Bits and Pieces

The tea sat bitter on his tongue, but for a dry throat, it was absolute heaven.

"Here." Machi handed Lucky a few leaves Shalnark had brought in. "Chew on them. They'll dull your pain. And whatever you do, don't move for the next few hours. My stitches are good, but I'm not sure how well they'll fare against you."

Lucky placed a leaf hesitantly into his mouth and leaned back slowly so he didn't reopen the wound. "You know," he said between chews, trying not to taste it, "we had some down time in between the Hunter Exam phases, plus some at the end. There was, like, a two-hour window, and..." He looked at her. "How long have you known Red?"

"Rein?" Machi peered at him with both curiosity and suspicion. "Why do you want to know?"

He shook his head. "She asked me a favor on the airship back, you know." Lucky slowly reached towards his jacket, and pulled out his hidden stash of threads from its inner pocket. He held them up, and smiled at her.

Machi's breath caught in her lungs at the sight, and for the longest time, she couldn't breathe. She knew what this meant, what he and those strings combined together meant. It wasn't bad, but it made her want to run, run far, far away. But her joints locked, and she kept perfectly still.

He spat out the disgusting leaf and put it neatly away. "If I'm going to be stuck here for hours, I might as well do something to pass the time. What do you say, Pinky? Want to make a bracelet with me?"

* * *

Shalnark hummed a tuneless melody as he watched their Nen exorcist from afar. If he was right, the attacker had shot him in the knee and Lucky his chest because he'd figured out the Spiders were after the exorcist. If their attacker knew he was dealing with the infamous Phantom Troupe, it was no wonder he wanted to get rid of them before they found his whereabouts. He'd most likely been employed to kill the exorcist, and he obviously wanted to do it badly.

But that Nen exorcist was theirs, for Danchou. They needed to get Chrollo's nen back as soon as possible, and that man was their ticket to it.

"Unfortunate, isn't it?" Shalnark called back. "Just when we find someone, he has to go and be a target for someone else."

"That's how it is," Kalluto said. "The rarer or stronger your abilities are, the more likely you are to get targeted. Even if you're nice, and even if you haven't done anything wrong, being strong or being associated with strong people is dangerous. It's inescapable."

Phinks scoffed. "It's troublesome is what it is." He got out a box of cigarettes and lit one of them, inhaling deeply. He blew out, irritated. "So when's he getting attacked again? It's taking forever."

Kalluto's eyebrows twisted at the sight of him smoking—in the Zoldyck house, smoking was off limits; anything that could affect your performance was strictly forbidden—but he brought his gaze down to hide it. "I thought you said it was troublesome."

"Yeah, but I'm bored. I just wanna up and break the bastard's neck already, that way he won't be a threat, right?"

"Too late!" Shalnark shouted from the cliff ledge where he perched, eagerly leaning forward to observe the exorcist's safety. "Fei already called dibs. Next time, Phinks."

He muttered a string of curses under his breath, grinding the cigarette between his large teeth and popping his knuckles. Placing his hands behind his head, he fell back in the grass, taking a few drags of smoke before sighing. With literally nothing to do and everything having to be done of zero interest to him, he stated, "I'm hungry."

After a pause, Kalluto rummaged in the large sleeves of his kimono and brought out a small bundled package. "I baked some bread this morning," he said offhandedly, undoing the knot and passing a roll to Phinks. "I had time."