Itsy Bitsy Spider

59. Burning Bridges

"We move," Kurapika's employer said, watching the lodge with great interest as a boy fled from it, "now."

* * *

Kalluto was irrational, there was just no other way to explain it. A strange tightness constricted his breath at the thought of what could have gone wrong, and it didn't come from the obi wrapped about his waist. His normally set hair was disheveled with twigs sticking out of it as he ran through the woods, not caring when his long sleeves tore in the brush. His voice was hoarse, and his body propelled forward with stupidity as he didn't stop to think whether someone could use all the racket he was making to target him.

"Zushi!" he called again, with no answer.

What if the organization that tried to kill Lucky made a move on Zushi instead, to draw him out? Was he being pressed for information? Worse? Dead?

Maybe it was the fact that Zushi was weaker than him, but Kalluto couldn't stop horrible fantasies from streaming through his head. He'd never known this feeling before with his family, because he knew they could all handle it. But upon feeling it now, it made him sick to his stomach. He was... worried.

There was a spike of elation when he saw movement, but it was just Machi coming to meet him.

"Did you-?" Kalluto paused as soon as she shook her head.

"I got separated from Lucky while searching." Her eyes quickly assessed the situation. "Have you been alone? It's best to act in groups or pairs, especially if we don't know when we will be targeted again."

Kalluto stayed silent, his head tilted down. It was a surprise when she spoke again, answering all his internal questions concisely.

"The possibility that the organization the chain user is associated with did this is high, but it's not for certain. Don't get your hopes up, but despairing won't do any good either."

"Am I that easy to read?"

"The situation made it easy to tell."

Kalluto gave a dry scoff and lowered himself to the ground, letting the clothes his mother had carefully chosen for him get dirtied. "That's... not good." His mask, his iron mask was crumbling apart by the second. "He could be getting tortured for information right now, or used as bait, or already..." His stomach knotted, and he eased a hand to it in a futile attempt to get it to heal. "...dead, and I don't even, I can't do anything. He's not all that strong-" His mask of stone and iron turned to dust as he squeezed his own arms in an attempt to calm himself.

This worry was something he'd never experienced. Everybody he'd known until now he knew would always come back safe, so matter what. Danger had never been a part of the Zoldyck life, not the kind which could threaten their existence.

"Again," Machi repeated, "That's only a possibility. He could have left of his own volition."

"I suppose," he found himself saying. Kalluto cleared his throat and drew himself up, pin-straight and proper. With a deep breath, he brushed the dirt off his sleeves and renewed the stoic look on his face. This was all he could do for now, repair the mask that had been broken down. Worry flowed foreign through his veins as he focused all his efforts on not letting it show.

He followed Machi back quietly. If he could do nothing, fine. He would take the neutral look of hers and try to make it his own, to have his old look back when they found Zushi. He had to be fine.

After even Kukuroo Mountain didn't feel like home anymore, he didn't want to lose his one and only friend. His—Zushi's wording echoed in his head—best friend.