simply diminished: a phantom troupe story

the cheshire cat

"My own room, huh?" I murmured to myself, turning the key and swinging the door open. It wasn't a bad room, but it wasn't the fanciest either. Then again, I didn't necessarily come here for luxury. I threw my bag on the bed and snatched the tv remote, turning it on to a current match. To be completely honest, what I saw caught me off guard. It was two younger boys, around eleven, maybe twelve? I'm newly 20, and when I was twelve, I didn't even have enough skill level to pass the first floor.

One of the boys had ghostly features; pale ivory skin and chalk white hair. His hands were slumped in his pockets casually, and his cold sapphire eyes were glaring into the smaller boys' hazel ones. The other boy had short carmel hair and a lot of fucking determination. I could hear the shrill voice of the announcer echoing through the stadium.

"ZUSHI AND KILLA ARE PREPARING FOR THE FIGHTTTT"

Once the referee blew the starting whistle, Zushi, the smaller boy, drew in a rushed breath and got into position. He slid one of his feet across the cracked tile, pushing his fisted hand towards his opponent. He's definitely had training. Fighting someone in that stance wouldn't be impossible, but it doesn't leave very many openings to attack. Killua, however, didn't even blink. He stood stiff and slowly began walking towards the other boy.

"WOW KILLUA IS WALKING BOLDLY TOWARDS HIS OPPONENT!" The Announcer yelled. Killua still kept a composite demeanor on his face, even when Zushi made the fist punch. Killua flashed to the other side of the boy, landing a single chop on his back. This kid's good. I would have done the same thing. Zushi tumbled to the ground and let out a small cry as he did so. The ref lifted a hand and announced it as a clean hit, provoking the crowd to go wild.

"KILLUA HAS NOW LAID OUT YET ANOTHER OPPONENT WITH ONLY A SINGLE BLOW! A CLEAN HIT AND A KNOCKOUT EARN HIM TWO POINTS! AS YOU KNOW, UNDER THE POINTS AND KNOCKOUT SYSTEM, THERE ARE CLEAN HITS, CRITICAL HITS, ANDDD KNOCKDOWNS! GREAT ATTACKS, SUCH AS CLEAN HITS, COUNT AS 1 POINT EACH! SUPERB ATTACKS ARE CRITICAL HITS AND ARE WORTH TWO POINTS! KNOCKING YOUR OPPONENT DOWN IS ONEEE POINT! COLLECT 10 POINTS AND YOU'RE AWARDED A TECHNICAL KNOCKOUT! OF COURSE, IF YOUR OPPONENT CAN'T CONTINUE THE FIGHT AFTER ONE HIT, YOU WIN BY KNOCKOUT!"

Oh, so that's how it works. This might be easier than I think. But It looked like Zushi was down for good. Seriously, how is this Killua guy only on floor 40?

To my surprise, Zushi hopped right back up, unaffected both physically and mentally.

"HE GOT UP? ZUSHI WILL CONTINUE THE MATCH!" The crowd was still cheering loudly for both of the boys, and they both got positioned for the next round. Again, Killua slowly approached Zushi, he looked tired- no that's not the right word, bored? Zushi squinted his eyes and began throwing solid pouches, to all of which Killua dodged effortlessly. Zushi pulled back and sent one more hard punch towards Killua. I could see it before it happened, in that situation, throwing a punch like that would only open up vulnerability for your opponent to deceive you. And I guess Killua saw this too because once again he slid and appeared behind Zushi, placing another solid chop on his back.

"HE'S TAKEN ANOTHER HIT! ZUSHI IS DOWN! BUT HE'S GETTING UP BEFORE THE REF REACHES HIM, MEANING KILLUA WON'T BE AWARDED THE POINT." Won't be awarded the point? But it was still a clean hit?

I watched the rest of the match, drawn in by Killua's insane amount of power. Killua ended up winning, as I predicted, and I switched the TV off before leaving my room. I slammed the door to my room shut, and walked down the seemingly endless hallway. I clicked the button to the elevator, and stepped inside hastily. I was getting hungry, and I knew I could find some restaurants on the first level. The elevator rose slowly, and stopped about halfway along the way, sliding its doors open to another passenger. I was looking down at my feet, fiddling with the leather that coded my hands. But the feeling- the change in atmosphere when he walked in sent a shock down my body. I couldn't turn to look at him, it was all too much. He stepped in without saying a word and reached to click the first floor before realizing I had already pressed it. Even though the man looked completely unaffected, his dark aura loomed over me, stealing my breath and creating an uncomfortable silence. While his eyes peered down onto a loose deck of cards that he shuffled in his porcelain white hands, his long, knife-like fingernails traced against the edge of each card, producing a quiet click click click click. Observing the strange man, my eyes trailed slowly up his figure. He had smooth skin, paler than parchment, and an odd pop of color was drawn onto his cheeks. Just below his squinting golden eyes, was a tear and a star, both drawn flawlessly with brightly pigmented face paint. The smirk he wore was both agitated and playful, not matching the wicked aura draped over the small space between us. Circular armcuffs were wrapped around his wrists, matching with the ones positioned just below his shoulder. Dark, round, knee pads surfaced upon the cream colored pants that hung loosely off his thin waist. He continued to shuffle the cards as I stared, click click click click. The man gave off odd but whimsical energy; more of a dark whimsical. Sort of like the Cheshire cat.

His eyes fluttered my way suddenly, causing me to snap my head back down and pretend to look at my shoes. I could feel his raw stare stinging into me, nervously, my foot began tapping rapidly as I waited to reach the 1st floor. My eyes fanned over to the black screen that sat above the hem of the ceiling, watching the lit up numbers decrease in value as we neared the bottom floor. Floor 70...60... 50.. We still had quite a wait. But just as the elevator lowered he let out a small chuckle and tapped his heel against the floor, crossing his arms furtively.
"You're quite an impressive little thing~" His voice was somewhat low and his everlasting smirk coiled each word he spoke eloquently.

"How would you know?" I countered, my suspicion along with my guard only rising.

"I saw your fight earlier of course" He brought one of his hands up and rested a single finger on top of his chin as he watched the number screen. "Although I couldn't say that your strategy was absolutely flawless~"

This man only saw me strike my opponent once, and now he's taking it upon himself to correct my strategy?

"You underestimate my power." I drew in a sharp breath and continued on, "There's a lot of me that I didn't put into that fight."

He turned towards me and his eyes widened in excitement. "Is that so?"

I didn't reply to him. I don't answer stupid questions.

"Hmm. Show me sometime?~" I hesitated, I should have declined right away. But I couldn't help but wonder...What about me was so intriguing? Was he actually interested in seeing my abilities, or was it a trick to gain something else from me?

"Maybe one day- but not anytime soon." He turned away as the elevator gradually stopped, sliding open the metal door and pouring in light from the arena.

"Pity~"