Baby Spider

Chapter 2

"You never told Machi-nee why we're meeting at Yorknew," I said. "We're here to crash the auction, right?"

"Why ask if you know the answer to it?" Nii-chan asked with a light chuckle.

Reaching over to ruffle my hair, he then turned to face the rest of the Troupe.

"Hisoka isn't here yet, Nii-chan," I said. "Should we just ignore him and tell us your plan?"

"Oh?"

Shivers went down my back at the voice.

"You're so cruel, Y/n," said Hisoka. "Such a spoiled brat. Does your nii-chan let you go around, demanding things as you go?"

"Hisoka," Phinks warned. "Shut up."

Hisoka grinned at Phinks before rolling his eyes back to me and Nii-chan.

"Calm down," Nii-chan murmured in my ear. "Don't give in to his teasing."

Pursing my lower lip, I moved to sit on Nii-chan's lap. Turning my back to the rest, I rested my head on his shoulder with a "humph".

"Once a child, always a child." Nii-chan lightly chuckled.

Silence overcame the group.

Shalnark started playing cards with Machi, Shizuku, and Pakunoda. Feitan is sharpening his sword, Nobunaga and Phinks are taking a nap. The rest are just doing their own thing.

"Nii-chan?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I go into town? Please?"

I tilted my head back to gaze at him with puppy eyes.

"Someone's bound to go into town for supplies, right? Can I go with them?"

Nii-chan shut his book and placed it off to the side.

"Shalnark and Pakunoda will be going into town soon for supplies," said Nii-chan. "However; Franklin, Feitan, and Shizuku plan to head into town to see if there's anything worth stealing. Perhaps you'd like to go with them instead."

Perking up, I eagerly nodded.

"Thank you, nii-chan!"

And so off we go.

The town, no, city, is huge. Bigger from where the base was at.

Nii-chan warned me not to get lost or separated from the group. I replied back saying that I'm not a child and that I'm almost eighteen according to him.

Since I didn't know when my birthday is, Nii-chan ended up just giving me a random day to do a mini-celebration to celebrate it and it's stuck ever since. It used to be just the two of us but the Troupe started to pitch in.

"Don't wander off too far," Feitan repeated Nii-chan's words. "Hate to drag you by the hair back to the boss."

"Can you even reach me?" I muttered.

Ah, yes. The classic argument between Feitan and me. He's only an inch (2.54 cm) shorter than me but I'm still taller than him, that's for sure. Machi-nee said I might get a growth spurt but it's unlikely that I will. That doesn't mean I can't hope for one so I can at least pluck things from taller places for Feitan!

"Y/n, this is going to be your first heist," said Franklin. "Your "official" heist. Stealing from small businesses and locals aren't considered heists in the Troupe."

"But Franklin-"

"Just stick close to us. We care about you too and if anything were to happen to you, the boss will have our heads."

That's true.

A former Troupe member took me outside a few years back to get me to use up all of my energy. I ended up tripping over my own feet and got a few scrapes and bruises. Nii-chan wasn't happy and that was the last time I saw that Troupe member.

"If you get lost and we don't find you by the time boss finds out, we're good as dead," Feitan added. "Personally, I like my head to be connected to my shoulders."

"Says the guy who tortures people as a hobby," I muttered.

Nii-chan and the rest of the Troupe try their best to keep me away from Feitan when he's in the process of torturing people. Either they take me out to somewhere else or Nii-chan and I stay at a hotel for the night. I once walked in on Feitan covered in blood from head to toe and it scarred me for a good while.

Nii-chan sat me down and calmly explained to me that the man Feitan was torturing was a bad man. Nii-chan went on saying that if the man didn't tell us the information the Troupe needed then the Troupe would be in big trouble. Of course, I believed him.

Nii-chan is always right, right?

Finally entering the city, I turned in circles in awe.

"The city is so HUGE!"

Giggling, I turned to face the group. Clasping my hands together, I gazed at Franklin with a pout.

"Can I go?"

"We just had this conversation, brat."

"Please, Feitan. I promise I'll be in your eyesight."

"No."

"Humph. Mean-ow!"

"Feitan, don't hit the boss's sister."

"She deserved it."

"Feitan."

"Hey! That's not fair! Shizuku disappeared!"

Looking around the group, it's true. Shizuku had disappeared. It didn't take long to find her.

She was arm-wrestling a young boy for a diamond. Sadly, she lost to him.

"But why didn't you use your left arm, Shizu-nee? It's stronger," I asked Shizuku.

"Oh, right. He extended his right arm so I did the same," said Shizuku. "I'd like to challenge him again."

"No time. We have our job."

"Yes. Besides, buying and bidding would be wrong."

"We're thieves," Franklin said.

"If we want something, we take it." Feitan finished his sentence.

That's true. Nobody in the Troupe had any issues of stealing whatever caught their fancy, even if it's not an official heist like the one that's about to happen.

"Crowd's getting thicker," said Feitan. "Let's go before-brat?"

Shizuku, Franklin, and Feitan looked around.

"Goddammit."

_______

Humming to myself, I looked around the different stalls and windows of shops.

I stopped humming to myself, feeling my En ticking my sides so I looked around.

It wasn't Feitan, Franklin, or Shizuku as far as I can tell. It's......alarming. Scary even.

I feel a lot of anger, rage, revenge. Whoever this person is, they're certainly radiating a lot of those three emotions through Nen.

My mind is screaming at me to run, to leave. Instead, my feet took me closer and closer to the Nen user.

"Hi."