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Of course you knew the Phantom Troupe, everyone in your field either loved the chaos caused by the Spiders or wanted them dead. You worked solo as a professional assassin, sometimes being hired by mobsters, and you didn’t really mind if the Troupe killed some mafia boss or robbed some prestigious auction, as long as they didn’t meddle in your business.
Working in the underworld, you shouldn’t be so surprised to meet three individuals with Spider tattoos, but you didn’t expect those members of the infamous Troupe, almost an urban legend, to have such a… common appearance.
Firstly, the three individuals, a man and two women, who hired you to assist them were shockingly young. The man, too young to be the leader of such an infamous criminal group, wore a normal black suit and for some reason had his forehead bandaged, and explained the terms of business between you and them with such grace and ease that it didn’t even seem like you four were talking about robbing and murdering your previous contractor. They would pay you a generous offer if you agreed to lead the two women through the hideout of a mafia boss who had hired you last month. It wasn’t like you had any loyalty to him anyway.
You figured they wanted to rob him simply because they were thieves, although you didn’t know why the Troupe wanted him dead, but you didn’t bother asking.
The beautiful tall blonde woman with an aquiline nose and wearing a purple suit was Pakunoda, who must have been more or less the same age as the leader. Her resting bitch face intimidated you, but she and the other girl — Shizuku, who was probably the youngest of the three members of Phantom Troupe you met, and who was so dumb and mindless that you couldn’t believe how she had managed to get into such a ruthless group — accompanied you silently and without problems towards the nest of your former contractor.
Arriving there, you were greeted by three heavily armed guards, who even though recognized you, still seemed slightly suspicious. You talked to them, convincing them that the three of you just wanted to have a meeting with the boss, and when they verified that the three of you were unarmed, they finally authorized your entry.
You only knew Nen in a theoretical sense, imagining that Pakunoda or Shizuku would have some aura weapon at their disposal to finish the job. You knew that working in such nefarious business and deliberately avoiding learning Nen properly was reckless at best, but the idea never excited you. In your humble opinion, a real assassin was capable of killing with everything in sight with their bare hands, and using magical energy or whatever took all the fun out of it.
You walked down the halls, the two women behind you, until you arrived in front of your next victim’s office door. You turned the handle and unceremoniously opened the door.
“Y/N? What are you doing here?” the mobster tried to hide his surprise, but he didn’t looked really worried, just curious.
You didn’t say anything, stepping aside to let Pakunoda and Shizuku do their work.
Keeping her impassive expression, Paku approached the huge man and grabbed his chin with an abysmal force, scaring him and, although he tried to free himself from the woman’s grip, she just lifted him up to look him in the eyes.
“I’ll ask just once,” her voice was soft but cold. “Where is the key of the safe?”
“I don’t know what you are talking—” that man was clearly an awful liar, but Paku didn’t seem to care, letting him go, much to your surprise.
“Shizuku, you can already kill him,” announced the blonde.
Everything happened too quickly. Shizuku, who you realized wasn’t as innocent as you thought, used her Nen to probably summon a weapon you couldn’t see, but whose chilling energy flow you could feel. At the same time, the man desperately rushed to press a button that activated a siren, surely to attract the attention of the guards.
In the next second, you don’t know how, but the mafia boss’s head was crushed by Shizuku’s gun that you couldn’t see, spreading blood all over the table. The three of you heard hurried footsteps approaching, and Pakunoda opened the drawer, pulling out two pistols and tossing one to you. You have kind of hoped that you wouldn’t need to get your hands dirty during this job, but things were the way they were.
The door was broken down by the armed guards, but you and Paku were already prepared, shooting wildly to the point that the entrance to the room was blocked by the bloody corpses, the next guards having to push the bodies of their own partners to get in, being killed in the process.
At one point, your gun ran out of bullets at the precise moment when one of the men pointed his gun in your direction, hitting you in the shoulder and knocking you to the ground. Shizuku held and protected you while Paku killed the sniper who shot you.
That was the last guard. The three of you stayed on alert, but you didn’t really hear anyone else approaching. You weren’t sure how many exactly you three had annihilated, but it was a safe estimate that every man that were working in that building was dead.
You would have laughed at your feat if the burning in your shoulder wasn’t so sharp. Pakunoda noticed your pain and searched the dead mafia boss’s pockets for a handkerchief, which she tied around your shoulder after removing the embedded bullet with her own hands.
You were speechless at how those two women had helped you in such a simple way, something you would never expect from members of Phantom Troupe, especially the ones who had made you uncomfortable in the beginning.
“I can’t find my glasses,” Shizuku calmly stated. “I must have lost them during all this confusion.”
“Confusion” was a very mild way of referring to the mass of piled up corpses accumulated at the entrance of the room, whose walls and floor were completely painted red and full of scattered guts.
“Don’t worry, we will find them,” replied Paku.
You and Pakunoda walked around the room, trying to find the glasses among the bloody mess, until you stepped on something: Crack!
Well, you found them.
You raised your head, swallowing hard, and Paku stared at you in disbelief.
“Oh, that was my glasses?” Shizuku asked, weirdly not really upset. “Did they break?”
“Yeah,” there was no way you could alleviate the situation: the lenses were cracked and the temples were broken in half. “I am so sorry, I promise that I will buy another one for you, I—”
“Okay,” the girl responded with the same disinterest as always.
While Paku opened the hidden safe in the room, Shizuku ordered “Blinky” to get rid of the bodies, and your jaw dropped when you saw all the corpses being sucked into a vacuum invisible to you — what made you consider that maybe Nen was something worth learning.
“I’m done here, we can go now,” Paku warned, carrying a folder with her that you assumed were documents from the safe. You expected them to be there to steal money or jewelry, so you wondered what kind of crucial information those documents contained.
“Let’s go to a glasses store!” Shizuku hit the wall before she could finish the sentence.
You held Shizuku’s left arm and Pakunoda held her right arm while also taking care of the fold she had stolen. The three of you had finally made it to the closest optician you could find on internet.
Shizuku was blind as a bat, and every time you or Paku held her hand, the girl would let go and start walking around without being able to see anything, and you two ran after her to save her from hitting the wall, falling into holes, entering the street full of moving cars or even following complete strangers by mistake.
Her stubbornness left you on the verge of madness and despair, somehow Shizuku was attracted to the most dangerous obstacles possible like an insect is attracted to light (and she walked at such an incredible speed! You couldn’t believe how she seemed determined to kill herself, like a little child), but Paku only seemed mildly amused.
“Come back tomorrow, I’m about to close the store!” the owner rudely informed when he saw you entering the establishment.
“It’s an emergency,” you tried to argue, but Shizuku once again got rid of you and Pakunoda and started walking around the store, squinting to see the models of glasses on the shelves.
She bumped into a box, but you were quick to stop it from falling. “You see? She needs glasses!”, you looked at the man.
“Well, okay,” he sighed, defeated, a little scared by the look Paku gave him. “Lady, please sit here, I will bring you the glasses models, but I warn you that the lens will take a few days to be ready.”
You rolled your eyes and took a wad of bills out of your pocket, handing it to the owner, who curiously remembered that he had a device in the back of the store that could prepare the lenses quickly.
“Do you have your eye prescription?” he asked Shizuku.
“What do you mean?” she clearly didn’t.
“Would you mind do an eye exam for her?” you handed more money to the man.
The price of the glasses was absurd, you kept wondering if it would be more affordable to just steal them and kill the store owner later, but you had specifically promised that you would buy the glasses, and since it was kind of your fault that Shizuku were practically blind, the least you could do was honor your agreement.
Suddenly, the folder Paku was carrying slipped and fell to the floor. You picked it up and handed it back to the woman. “By the way, what is here?” you questioned.
You expected that she would just tell you that it was none of your business, but she actually answered you, although without going into details: “There is some information here about our homeland that interests us.”
They surprised you once again.
“Have you already chosen the frame?” the optician appeared, taking the structure from Shizuku’s hands after she nodded and returned to the back of the store.
“Thank you for helping us,” Paku suddenly spoke, catching you completely off guard. She smiled, which you didn’t think was possible.
“Yes, thank you!” Shizuku added. “Although you broke my glasses, you will buy me an expensive new one, so everything is fine!”
(You didn’t bother telling her that she was actually talking to the plant next to you.)
Before you could respond (in fact, you were speechless anyway), the store owner came back with the glasses ready.
You paid the exorbitant price and the three of you left the store.
“From here we go our separate ways. It was an honor to work with you,” Pakunoda said.
“Goodbye! Thank you for the glasses!” Shizuku also smiled at you.
You also said goodbye and waved, watching the two go their way, feeling a warmth inside you.
You really hoped to see them again.