"Wow, that blonde kid is a really bad driver."

Shichi watched the car almost swerve off into one of the adjacent cliffs upon Marron's comment, "Something's probably going on in there." She silently cursed tinted windows, she almost cursed aloud but she remembered that she was sitting next to Crimson.

Things seemed to settle down as the car continued to travel on in a steady line but that was no longer her main concern as Shichi looked a little further back at the new glimmer of light that had joined the two cars.

The redhead spared Shichi a glance before turning her eyes back on the road, "Is it the Phantom Troupe?"

"Looks like it."

Crimson grinned excitedly, tightening her grip on the wheel like a kid having his high score in the arcade challenged, "Should we intercept them?"

Marron however, was not as enthusiastic as Crimson was. "Please reconsider. I am fifteen and have a long life ahead of me."

"She's joking," Shichi brushed off his fears, as she loaded up the firearm in her arms. It was an elaborate and pretty thing in an unnecessary way. Bestowed on her by the Zakuya when she had reached the rank of co-captain, Tenjū remained by her side all the way up to the Alliance and now.

Shichi really wasn't as simple as Crimson was, who kept her butterfly swords simply because they worked. Shichi kept Tenjū to spite the Zakuya. What could be better than crushing them with their own tools?

Both of human and steel.

"Still, that kid seems kinda familiar somehow," Shichi mumbled almost as a distraction to herself to push the other thoughts aside.

Marron piped up from the back in curiosity, "Who? The blonde kid?"

"You don't remember?" Crimson demanded, sparing the girl a shocked look, "He's one of the rookies that passed the last Hunter Exam. Rukei-chan's friend! C'mon, get it together!"

Her eyes drifted to the ceiling as she tried to remember. Now that she thought about it, there was a guy like that, wasn't there? "He's the guy with the weird name, right?"

"You shouldn't be talking..."

"It was Pikachu or something like that..."

The redhead sighed and hung her head in a sign of surrender, "Just forget it."

"Speaking of Rukei," Marron put in a bit more seriously, "Recently, has she been...," the boy trailed off as if he was debating on telling them. If Rukei hadn't, then he would be giving up information he didn't want to give up but if she had, he had to know.

Crimson finished his question darkly, "Attacked? Sure, she has. Did they come after you?"

Marron exhaled deeply and leaned back against the seat at the thought, "They did. During a heist, no less. It was pretty rough, y'know? They really wanted their precious Subject 8 to come back with them."

"Oh? Who did they send after you?" Shichi questioned as she rolled down the window, making everyone else have to raise their voice over the howling wind.

"Knight."

Crimson shot the boy a look of disbelief through the rearview mirror, "Knight?! But he was experimented on too, wasn't he? Why would he help out those freaks?!"

After the boy's shrug, Shichi sighed and shook her head, "Whatever the reason, we should focus on the current mission. We can chat later."

The cold air whipped her cheeks as she stuck her head out to get a better view of the last vehicle in the trail of cars. She propped up the end of the gun against her shoulder, focusing in on the spinning tires of the black car.

There was a loud pop and hiss as the car swerved and jerked suddenly. Shichi reached over quickly around Crimson's arm to honk the horn a couple times and waved at the first two cars at the bottom of the cliffs casually. Though they couldn't hear her, she was sure they got her message. "You owe me one now."

"Hey! What the heck is that?!"

Shichi glanced back behind them to watch the car suddenly shrink to the point where it wasn't visible anymore. She caught the glimpse of a figure before he disappeared from sight, so she assumed who it was. "One of the Shadow Beasts. By the look of that weird ability, he's most likely the one who took the merchandise."

They drove on for a couple minutes in silence before Crimson spoke, "I guess the rest of the Shadow Beasts are dead by now."

"Probably," Shichi replied, resting her feet on the dashboard, "That's as good as it gets. I doubt the mafia would even be considered a pawn in this type of game."

"Miss Shichi Tsujou, take your filthy shoes off my dashboard right now."

-

"You sleep with those on?" Leorio questioned, giving Rukei an incredulous look as she opened her eyes just as she was about to sleep away on the couch. She wasn't sure what he was talking about until he pointed at the holsters strapped around her black leggings.

She closed her eyes again, seeing that it wasn't anything of great importance, "It's part of Shichi-oneesan's advice."

"Huh?"

She could still remember clearly. The Zakuya had decided to put Rukei under Glass' supervision and care after her first month there. She was scared, of course. When she had been introduced to them, the dirty-blonde haired man seemed so harsh; the bright blue eyes were iced with a unforgiving coldness.

The girl behind the man was just as intimidating. She looked down on Rukei in a critical manner and Rukei was suddenly very aware of how small she was compared to them, how sloppy her stance was, how unofficial she appeared with the old, dirty yellow dress that she had not switched out of since she was first taken in by the Zakuya.

But as they guided her to her quarters, she realized that they weren't scowling at her or yelling at her. Glass had lightened up considerably though he didn't say anything especially comforting or kind and gave her a rough pat on the head.

The other girl however, Seven, was still of a countenance that was not easy to approach. Rukei felt that Seven disliked her.

But later that night, Rukei was suddenly shoved a pile of things into her arms. The first article was a pair of beige shorts and an oversized dark purple turtleneck.

"Listen up," Seven started as she began to pull out more things from a drawer and throw them into Rukei's hands, "Here are the three things you keep with you wherever you go. Sleeping, bathroom, everywhere."

Rukei watched bewildered but silently listened to the older girl's advice as the girl laid a new flip on the stack.

"Always keep your phone," Seven dropped a pair of scuffed up white footwear on the stack, "Your shoes," and to top off the pile, a black, metallic tool on the top, "And your gun where you can reach them."

And so, those were the words of wisdom she relayed to Leorio.

"Your sister is scary."

Rukei huffed as everyone bid each other good-night, ready to rest up for another long day of arm wrestling and calculating ahead of them. She opened her eyes to stare at the ceiling for a while in the darkness as she mulled over a question.

What was Shichi doing now?

-

Shichi swung open the door previously locked down with several bolts and clasps of all kinds. Everyone in the room jolted at her sudden appearance and they stared at her, not sure what kind of action to take. They were ready to attack her or run at any second but they had no idea what to do or where she came from.

"Remember me?" Shichi smiled, "You owe me one."

The first one to speak was the blonde, Kura... Kurapichu? She couldn't remember. "You must be the one who shot earlier in Gordeau."

"Correct," the girl's grinned widened as she stepped farther into the room, "I'm from the XX Alliance," most of everyone seemed to tense upon the information. Hunters or not, the mafia did do some shady things, "Rest assured. I'm only here for information and 11 here seems to be the fastest way to get it."

"How did you know we were here?" A man farther along the back spoke. He held a sword with nen patterns engraved across it and she recognized him as the leader from earlier who tried to stop Rukei's friend, "And how did you bypass all the security?"

Following them was easy enough and security didn't mean squat to a phantom thief. "Some idiots I know are good with cars and locks."

She could feel an air of distrust drift throughout the room; they were slightly partial to her for her help but obviously, they were pretty ready to kick her out.

"You owe me one," Shichi repeated firmly, "Imagine what would've happened if the Troupe caught up to you. I didn't do it just for your sake."

The man contemplated the issue for a couple long moments, "You said you needed information. What for? What does the Alliance want with the underground auction?"

Shichi sighed. It wasn't like she could straight up tell them that the stupid criminal organization was coming back together. "It's not with the mafia. Just some of the mafia's old friends."

"She's not lying."

She turned her eyes to see a much shorter person, at first she assumed he was male but by the sound of her voice, Shichi decided that the short, balding fellow was a female.

The lady had a soothing voice really, it didn't seem like the type she'd hear working in the mafia. She realized this was the one earlier who was playing the flute. "We all want the same information, don't we?" The lady concluded turning towards the man, "I don't believe she has intentions to harm us, so there should not be a problem in letting her stay."

And as the man relented, Shichi decided that she very much liked this lady.

11 awoke and his first response to their question was "What time is it?"

Of course, the leader was pretty pissed at 11's apathy and he brought down the blade on him to prove it. But Shichi had to move her head to the side to avoid the spinning end of the broken blade. 11's Ten was impressive.

The thief offered to make a deal. "I'll spare your lives so let me up now."

The man next to her, one with long hair pulled back in a low ponytail, was clearly unsettled by the statement, but logic told him that it shouldn't have been possible. 11 was the one who should be begging for his life.

But the lady said that he was telling the truth. Everyone took her word pretty seriously, so Shichi assumed that the lady had some way of knowing if someone was lying or not.

"Let me make something clear," the thief sighed as they still stood about him baffled, "We're after the auction's merchandise. If you don't know where it is, then I have no business with you."

Shichi's deductions were correct. The Ten Dons had beaten the Phantom Troupe to the punch and took back the treasure before they could get to it. The safe was empty when they got there.

"So he's serious?" the man beside her spoke uneasily, panic edging his voice, "When he was offering to make a deal earlier, h-he wasn't bluffing?"

11 gave him a frightening grin, "Everyone makes mistakes... We haven't stolen anything yet. So take these off, and pretend you didn't see anything. If you do, you get to live!"

Shichi readjusted the strap of the guitar case slung around her shoulder. Sure, this man couldn't do much of anything right now. Heck, she could kill him if she wanted to. But she knew who he was referring to; 11 had complete faith in the other members to come by and pick him up. That would be trouble...

"What about the guests?"

Shichi looked up to see the blonde, serious and cold, unmoved by the threat of death. His voice was frigid and it sounded to be very, very short in patience, like a rubber band being pulled just to the point of before snapping.

"The guests who were in the auction hall. Some of our colleagues were in there. Answer me."

Colleagues, huh?

"I see. That's too bad..." 11 remarked, "We killed them. It was part of our plan-"

The blonde's fist came down like judgement. Shichi held her breath as his voice raised volumes; the rubber band had broken. "How many lives do you think you took to carry out that plan of yours?!"

Was it her imagination? Was it how her mind translated his fury? This boy's black eyes seemed to be lined with red; it seemed to glow a dark hue of scarlet that she couldn't see, a rage she could almost visualize. As his comrades pulled him back, she could no longer see it. She began to question it's existence entirely. But it definitely was there, wasn't it?

She silently cursed tinted windows.

-

"What's your name?"

The dark-haired girl looked down to find the lady with the pleasant voice walking to stand beside her while the teen was sighing and pressing her head against the wall. She had lost her lead just as she had feared.

The girl straightened her posture. "Shichi."

"That's an unusual name," the lady chimed as the girl smiled tiredly.

The teen shoved a hand into her pocket and fully faced the lady. "I get that a lot. You?"

"Senritsu."

There was a sort of familiarity about the conversation that was calming but at the same time, melancholic. "That's a nice name."

Senritsu gave her a polite thanks and invitation, "Would you like to join the rest of us in the waiting room? There is some tea and water if you would like any."

The dark-haired girl waved off the idea with a gesture of her hand, "No, I'm good. I don't think your boss would like me hanging around anyways."

The lady's soft smile seemed to fade away and there was a couple moments of silence, as if Senritsu was listening for something. "Do you usually distance yourself from others?"

Shichi laughed dryly after a pause, "You could tell? I thought I was pretty good at hiding what I think."

The lady made a small motion with her fingers, as if she were conducting an orchestra. "You can train to hide many things with your eyes, face, voice and posture, but your heartbeat cannot lie."

The teen blinked in surprise at the older lady's statement. So the lady could hear heartbeats; a much more powerful version of her pulse measuring. "I see," after a few more moments of quietude, Shichi finally shifted to move, "Is there a couch in the break room?"

Senritsu nodded, glad that the girl had finally given in, "There is."

"Good. I need a nap."

Shichi woke up to her favorite alarm clock; the angry temper tantrum of the enemy. 11, or Uvo, as his buddies called him declared that he wouldn't be returning to his base until he settled things with the 'chain user'.

She slipped further into the shadows as one of the troupe members passed her, deciding that it was about time to follow the other bodyguards up the back staircase. Shichi quickly caught up to them, running alongside Senritsu, "Your comrade looks like he's going to have a long night ahead of him."

-

"Why is she with us?"

"Ouch," Shichi threw out sarcastically at his harsh tone. Senritsu explained shortly that she was helping them out for now, since their leader was most likely dead, the Alliance member was offering support. In return, she, again, got to stick around for information.

The blonde wasn't so thrilled about the idea. "You aren't going back with your companions?"

She raised an eyebrow at his question, "Companions?"

"The idiots."

Shichi blinked at the title before a short chortle. This kid had good memory. "The idiot good with cars got orders to investigate something else and the idiot good with locks is off doing who knows what."

"So, what do we do now?" Someone she learned was named Basho brought up, pretty concerned but not too nervous with the issue at hand.

On the other hand, Squala was a little more jittery, "The leader is probably dead. And we haven't completed the mission..."

"Shouldn't we report this to the boss?" Senritsu suggested.

"That little girl's our boss in name alone."

"It was someone else who hired us," Squala, the most experienced bodyguard amongst them, admitted, "Light Nostrade, her father. He gave the orders and the leader received them. But the leader was the only one who knew how to contact him."

Kurapika sighed and stood up after the discussion, "It seems like we have no choice but to report what's happened to the boss."

When Shichi heard 'little girl' she wasn't really expecting their boss to be a 'little girl'. Their boss probably wasn't that much younger than Shichi was but seemed to have the mind of someone younger than that.

So Shichi was a little worried when the blonde straight up told their boss, Neon, that a large number of her bodyguards were dead. They didn't need their boss to have some kind of mental breakdown now.

But there was nothing to worry about when the girl seemed far more concerned about the mummy that she wanted from the auction. She didn't know what orders to give, so she handed over her phone to the blonde and told her to call her father for her.

From there, the blonde was named interim leader. It didn't matter much to Shichi, since she wasn't really on the team, but it seemed like a good decision. The blonde didn't look like too much of an idiot.

"11 was pretty mad," Shichi mentioned as she turned on the computer downstairs, "He's probably searching for you right about now."

The boy was rather expectant of this information, only giving her a short glance to affirm it as he quickly sat down in the chair and opened up the Hunter website. "You said you worked for the Alliance. What do you do?"

Shichi folded her arms, watching him scroll through. He looked for buildings that the Nostrade owned first and sure enough the information popped up on the screen. "I'm a Crime Hunter."

This got a reaction from the blonde, though slight. It was just a pause. "A Crime Hunter?"

The girl was pretty suspicious by his reaction but realized the reasons behind his hesitance quickly. Rukei must have blabbed about her, no doubt. Shichi replied to him with a simple 'yes' and didn't give any information further than that. "You should call your comrades. It's quite possible that they've already searched a couple of these buildings."

"Have a look at this," the blonde instructed his colleagues, both who were surprised to find the family names and list of buildings, "This website is only accessible to pro Hunters. With this information, they can locate this room."

Senritsu was quick to catch on, "Then if one of the enemies is a pro Hunter..."

Rukei's friend stood up, "We're in big trouble. We need to take the boss to a different room."

"In the same hotel?"

"It's faster and avoids needless movement," he reasoned, and Shichi could only watch, impressed. The boy had adapted very quickly to his environment; he had already learned all the tricks of the trade. "But we can't use any fake names. We'll have Senritsu or Basho register the room. Make sure everyone, especially the boss, stays inside. Don't check out of this one."

Shichi reiterated his instructions inside her head before pointing to herself hesitantly, "Wait, you're not including me in this, are you?"

"You're the one who offered help," the boy reminded her, "Since you're an Alliance Hunter you must be fairly capable. Make sure no one goes in or out."

She did say that, didn't she? The girl sighed and muttered a 'fine' as she readjusted the strap of the guitar case.

"Kurapika?" Senritsu called after him quietly with unease coloring her voice, "What about you?"

"I'll stay here."

-

"Say, about Kurapika...," Shichi mentioned getting Senritsu's attention, while tracing some of the patterns on the rifle absentmindedly, "What's he fighting for?"

Shichi translated the silence into 'why do you ask' and 'I should not answer'. She had learned enough of the language by now. So that was going to be her answer, huh? Shichi sighed, turning her eyes back onto Tenjū, her finger sliding over a certain loop in the embellishment.

"It seems familiar somehow..."

Just as she finished speaking, the door creaked open, and a familiar blonde head popped through the door and she uncrossed her legs and set them down on the floor from the table, starting to get up but stopped when she saw his eyes. Exhausted, dull, and dead.

The other bodyguards made a move to talk to him but in the end, they let him walk by, with a sleeve torn and stained in red.

"Oh, I see," Shichi breathed as she stood up after he closed the door behind him.

"You're going to speak with him?"

Shichi glanced down to the worried Senritsu as the teen made a move for the same door. "Just a little pep talk."

The girl followed the boy's actions and shut the door behind her, leaning against it as it closed. Sitting down beside her against the wall, with his elbows resting on his knees, was Kurapika. She knew he wanted her gone but made no move to rebuke her.

"No one in, no one out. You owe me one."

The silence told her to 'shut up'.

"So?"

Shichi huffed, propping up Tenju on the other side of the wall, before folding her arms back up again.

"How's it feel to be covered in blood that's not your own? Terrible, ain't it?"

Longer moments of the yelling silence. 'Get out' and 'what would you know?' was more or less along the lines of what it spat. But he spoke her first language to her surprise after those moments, "Do you remember the first person you killed?"

A pause before she answered. "No."

"Liar."

Shichi scoffed. "You could tell?" She supposed he understood silence as well. "Surprisingly enough, yes. Life was supposed to be as important as what you ate for breakfast back then."

"In the Zakuya?"

"She told you?" the dark-haired girl questioned, and the lack of response replied 'yes'. "The person that stood beside you in the assembly yesterday was sometimes gone the next day. Sometimes, you'd never see that person again. That's what being a 'colleague' means in the Zakuya. It's pretty rough getting close, so don't." She advised, obviously referring to the night before.

The blonde quickly turned those words against her, "Is that how you feel about Rukei?"

Shichi grumbled something that went like, "That's a different stupid case."

She listened to the hum of the air conditioner for a while, instead of the silence. It was friendlier and made less sense. But Kurapika spoke louder than the air conditioner. "Why did you decide to overthrow the Zakuya?"

Shichi thought the answer should clearly be obvious, or at least the answer she wanted to give. Freedom and justice. Giving Rukei a better life.

"It's not that simple, is it?" The blonde broke in, as if he had read her mind, "There must have been something to kickstart the drive."

"Someone," Shichi corrected after a moment.

"Who?"

"An idiot."

Kurapika sighed deeply at her answer, moving his eyes to look at her, but not his head. "You're just surrounded by idiots, aren't you?"

Shichi shrugged with a dry chuckle. "Basically."

They both turned their eyes back forward. "The idiot's name?"

"Wistle," Shichi answered and seeing that there was not a great reaction, she came to a conclusion, "Rukei didn't tell you about him? He's pretty important to her. To all of us," she corrected herself.

"Who is he?"

Shichi laughed again, more of an edge to it this time around, "I said it already, didn't I? An idiot. A very, very big, very stupid, and very nice idiot that I had as my best friend."

Kurapika seemed to smile very slightly, a reminiscing kind, like she reminded him of something. "I see. And what is he doing now?"

"He's dead."

Even Silence held it's breath.

"There are currently eight Zyphon experiments in total. Rukei is Subject 9," Shichi continued on, "He was Subject 7. Killed during the rebellion."

She was asked many questions by Silence, and she found herself answering them. Why? She herself wondered as she rambled on.

Shichi pressed her back further against the door, against the ridges of wood and the jabbing knob, like it provided some kind of comfort. "Do you know the only thing that Roku and Hanna taught me? 'Live for the Zakuya. Die for the Zakuya.' That's exactly what they did. A living and dying example," Shichi's voiced raised a little in mocking praise.

So when they left, it wasn't too much of a shock for Shichi. The same thing had happened to them as had happened to the person that stood beside her in the assembly. She was built that way. Roku and Hanna would have been proud.

"But then, when I was transferred over to Glass, I met this stupid idiot," the dark-haired girl rolled on, "A completely normal idiot."

Kurapika shifted a little, but sat still, listening.

"He was so normal, it was weird," Shichi chuckled, "He insisted that everyone tell them their real name to call them by and he demanded the same treatment, the selfish brat. When I finally told him mine, he wouldn't believe me."

The name thing had blown up into a huge fight then, eight year old Shichi actually decked Wistle for being the prick he was. Whenever they looked back on it, Wistle always said it was her fault for dragging it on because when Wistle told Shichi his real name, she thought he was spiting her. But it was a fair argument, Shichi thought his codename was 'Whistle' since he could make a flute out of foliage like no other.

"We got stuck doing a bunch of missions together since Glass wanted us to make up. His fighting ability was just as normal as he was and I cannot count how many times I had to save his sorry idiot rear. But somehow, the idiot and I got along and that's when I began to question myself, stained in blood. 'Is this really who I want to be?' He was selfish, pretty weak, but nice."

'Thanks again' he would say and she would smack the doofus across the head. He would be mad about it for a while, but then he would tell her how cool she looked fighting off their enemies. She smacked him again.

Shichi stared up at the ceiling; it was a light blue color. "That's probably why they used him as an experiment. He was weak, so they thought if they gave him some freak ability, he would make himself useful to the Zakuya."

Kurapika said nothing but he was still listening.

"They try to make the process as clean as possible, you know. It's not like they want to torture their subjects; they need them in their best condition. But it's still pretty painful both for the body and the mind. I'm sure you can imagine the questions. 'Am I even human anymore?' Things like that."

"Did Rukei ever ask that?"

Shichi huffed, closing her eyes to remember the brunette in the flimsy, simple blue clothes by herself in a white room, with tubes running through her arms and neck. "Good question. She doesn't really understand that kind of thing so I doubt it. Besides, Wistle was a good distraction for her. He'd drop by and be like 'Wow! They let you out already?! I couldn't handle the pain for two weeks!'" She mimicked, "And Rukei would go 'That's because you're an idiot' so that she didn't look happy to see him."

"He doesn't seem too affected by the experimenting," Kurapika observed.

The dark-haired girl chortled sardonically. "He wasn't. You'd think he was any other kid you'd find  straight out of middle school even if he came straight out of a lab. He was a normal boy. Daring, adventurous, stupid."

And she couldn't keep her eyes shut any longer when ginger hair and hazel eyes came into her vision. She cursed aloud, as his stupid grin was imprinted in her mind even as she stared up at the light blue ceiling.

She laughed bitterly, running a hand through her dark brown bangs in exasperation, "Heck, I was probably in love with him. I was so, so stupidly in love with him," her laugh grew louder, as she knocked her head back against the door, a wry smile curled upon her face as the hollow sound rang out through the room.

Kurapika spoke in silence; surprising how silence had more substance to it than her laugh. 'Who killed him?'

"We were escaping. Set off a bunch of bombs in the headquarters. There was someone, we called him Moon, he wanted him dead even if it was the very last thing he did." Shichi's wry smile faded all together, "And it was."

"You killed him?"

Shichi let silence speak and straightened her posture. She knew there was an imprint of the knob in her side now, but she didn't really care to much. "Think very carefully about what you're fighting for," Shichi warned as she turned the handle but waited for a moment as she continued. She did not look at him. "To kill a monster, you must become a monster."

。。。

Initially, I was going to write about the scene between Shichi and Moon, but it ended up revealing more about Shichi's Nen then I would have liked for now. Speaking of Shichi's Nen, the picture above is of Wings of Gabriel. I think it's just because of Shichi's long shirt, but she always seems kinda disproportionate when I draw her...

The next chapter focuses back on Rukei, and goes back a little in time to show what happened while Kurapika was dealing with Uvogin and their auctioning progress. I am also in the process of trying to write a new summary but holy crap this is hard.

And 500 reads? Cool! Let's keep it going! Thanks for reading guys!