Itsy Bitsy Spider

65. Dying Embers Can Reignite

Feitan emerged in all regalness, his grin large and twisted behind the crimson cloth of his protective garments. He was a king, and the inferno was his kingdom. The white patterns and metal accents of his royal attire glowed orange as he stepped out of the pit of fire, flames trailing his heels on foreign soil and backlighting his figure.

As he grew farther away from the middle of it all, his outfit started to deteriorate and turned to ash as soon as it touched fresh air, leaving him only with himself and his original clothing. He lightly stamped his boots in the dirt, shaking off any lingering embers before they could burn through the leather.

A fist flew from behind him with the intention of smashing his head open, but Feitan dodged and caught it easily, gripping the knuckles tightly. "Too slow."

Phinks drew back his fist, the indents red and hot from Feitan's fiery fingertips. He forced a sneer into his voice. "You got to have all the fun today."

He shrugged. Rather in a good mood from the fighting, he raised a finger to pull down his mask and allowed Phinks to see his face as he rightfully stated, "Not my problem I'm better than you." He was pleased when this caused a few veins to pop in the man's exposed forehead.

Before Phinks could throw another punch and escalate the teasing into a full-on fight, Feitan moved past him and walked on, keeping his own steady pace while ignoring his angered shouting from behind.

As he'd suspected, Phinks had come to ambush him on his own. The other members were situated by the lakeside, a peaceful and vast body of water coming from a large waterfall and flowing out into separate rivers and brooks. He couldn't make out each individual figure of theirs with the tree that hung low and overshadowed them, but...

It had to be a trick of a light. As he approached, he continued to run the numbers through his head, list each one of their faces he saw as he drew closer, rechecking and checking again because something had to be wrong. He had full confidence in his vision, so maybe some of their shadows were overlapping.

They couldn't be one short.

"Feitan-san!" Zushi came running up and tried to grab him, to which he skirted around the child. "Kalluto is trying to murder me."

"Ah," Kalluto affirmed, calling out from a distance as he pushed back the wall of overhanging leaves. Feitan could see his sleeves were bunched up as much as they could go, ready for action. "You mess with my hair, you face the death penalty. Get back here, you coward."

They ran in circles around the older Spider, and he rolled his eyes. Still, he couldn't stop himself from taking a final headcount. Phinks made one, Kalluto and Zushi with their stupid games made two and three. As Feitan slipped out of their human cage, he continued. Killua ranting about how easy the mission had been made four. Lucky was complaining it hadn't been anything short of immensely difficult for him, and prompted even further arguments that Feitan was growing tired of. (Five.) It suddenly seemed as if everyone was actively going out of their way to flock to him, for the three he had left behind not moments ago and two he hadn't seen were suddenly in his presence. He understood he was the impromptu leader of the Spiders while Chrollo was gone, but this was a bit much.

Six, seven. Only seven.

"Where Rein?"

"Come to think of it, I haven't-"

A sudden silence. No one was quite sure who'd spoken. Their thoughts instantly flew to the fire Feitan had left behind, the heart of it still ablaze in the distance and sending clouds of smoke into the air.

Killua turned his head towards Feitan. "You didn't burn her to smithereens, did you?"

He rolled his eyes. Still, he knew inside that if he had—which was a possibility considering there was a gray area in which he would burn but not be able to sense anything he did—she was beyond help.