devil's advocate ─ hxh

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WHERE X IT X BEGINS 

Massacre, loot, burn.

That was how a heist carried out by the Phantom Troupe happened in a place like this. A remote village that took much time to be able to get to, surrounded by forests in the middle of nowhere.

The place reeked of blood, burning grass, and the smell of burnt meat. Human meat, mostly.

"Oi! What's that thing over there?" Uvogin called out, dropping the dead body he was just holding by the scruff of its neck into the large burning pile. The smell that would've made someone vomit a million times over never bothered them.

If they felt bothered about what they did for a living, then perhaps there would be no Phantom Troupe. And this dreary story would not begin with their plundering of a certain village.

Shalnark jumps down from a tree and approaches Uvogin, following his gaze. Not too far from where they stood was a dilapidated tower that would've stood out of place if they weren't surrounded by fire and dead bodies.

"Huh, my research didn't mention that there was a tower in this place." He glances down at his phone up to the tower, trying to figure out the purpose of the unusual tower and why it was there in the first place.

"I go." Feitan volunteers as Chrollo, who overheard the conversation, follows behind him. In a spur, Shalnark runs after them and Pakunoda takes the tail end.

After a good few flights of stairs, they reach the top of the tower that felt dead and devoid of any evidence that someone had come there recently. Not unless you stuck your nose around and felt the circling dust in the tower hard enough.

Nobunaga took a glance at the corner that had felt lived in and shrugged it off, seeing nothing. Chrollo continued to stare curiously at it, until Franklin shouts out that they were finished.

Their ever-charismatic leader sighs quietly in disappointment. The rest of the spiders in the tower wonder the reason for the disappointment but don't question it and follow him.

As they gather and walk to their base in the dead of night, it's eerily silent, but the thump they feel makes them all lose their composure. It felt as if a large gust of wind had swayed them, even though it wasn't the least bit windy in these parts.

It wasn't wind.

It felt cold, and unforgiving, as if it was telling them to stay away. Yet again, that is the exact opposite of what thieves and plunderers like them would do.

"Split up, come back here in half an hour." Chrollo orders promptly, as everyone starts to split up, and he takes Machi and Phinks with him.