The Reason We Fight

Chapter 11. The Capture

"Sorry, I ran into some unexpected trouble. What happened out there, did you find the thieves?", Kakume's voice said on the phone.

Senritsu awaited, anxiously, for Kurapika to come back from his suicide mission to capture that immensely powerful, enormous ape of a man. "We did, yes. It was a massacre. Hundreds dead, including four of the ten dons' Shadow Beasts. It was the Phantom Troupe."

She then saw Kurapika, miraculously coming back with his captured hostage, tightly secured in his chains.

"I have to go. Kurapika has captured one of them. We're getting in the car".

"What?", Kakume exclaimed. She groaned audibly. "Where are you headed?"

Senritsu told her. "We are in the Gordeau Desert. We will be taking Route 45 back into the city". Kakume thanked her and hung up.

The atmosphere inside the vehicle grew increasingly tense as it sped through the desert. The low hum of the engine seemed to resonate with the palpable trepidation that hung in the air. Senritsu glanced at Kurapika. She had calmed him with her flute earlier, but his heartbeat was getting increasingly unstable. It was jarring, disquieting. The man in the back of the car, wrapped in Kurapika's chains, was attempting to taunt him.

Behind them, Senritsu noticed a car advancing, closing the gap. How did they find us?

"Kurapika, you better floor it. They're closing in on us!", she said.

Kurapika had noticed too. He used his Gyo to find out how they managed to find them. A Nen thread. His frustration was mounting, being thwarted every step of the way. In the opposite direction, a motorcycle roared, tearing down the road at breakneck speed. But is this friend of foe? Senritsu wondered. Are they going for a pincer attack?

In a sudden, thunderous screech, it came to a stop, twirling around in a circle, just besides their car. The rider, a skilled acrobat, leaped off the motorcycle and onto the roof of the car, leaving the bike to barrel forward. They all heard a thump as the rider landed. The careening motorcycle continued its trajectory. The Spiders following them swerved the car, deftly navigating around it, narrowly avoiding collision.

"One of yours, chain bastard?", the man in the car asked Kurapika.

The Spiders maintained their pursuit, following closely, until they screeched to a sudden stop, hastily exiting the car. Senritsu clutched her seat as their own car surged forward. Out of nowhere, a missile stuck the Troupe's car, triggering a colossal explosion that reduced the vehicle to wreckage. The thieves have gotten out, but they could no longer keep up the chase. Kurapika stopped the car, and Kakume jumped off the roof, enormous missile launcher resting on her shoulder. It melted into a liquid, which spilled like a fountain to the ground. She got into the car, seating herself in the back, and they kept on driving. She looked pale and clammy.

"Are you okay?", Senritsu inquired, worried.

"I'll be fine. I just lost a lot of blood, I am not a natural Emitter", she responded. She drank a whole litre of water which she got out of her bag, then produced a syringe, which was filled with a yellow fluid. She injected it into her thigh. That man, the one the other Troupe members called Uvogin, was staring at her.

Kakume shot him an irritated glance. "What are you looking at?"

"Just surprised to see a cute girl like you mainlining in a moving vehicle."

She rolled her eyes. "You must be as stupid as you look, then. EPO. Erythropoietin. It's a substance that increases the production of blood from the bone marrow. Plus, some water to prevent hypovolemia."

Uvogin laughed heartily. "You've got some lip on you! I like that in a woman", he declared.

"Keep your hands to yourself, old man".

Uvogin narrowed his eyes, looking at her closely. "Wait. Hold on... do I know you? You seem familiar. And that blood Nen..." Senritsu sensed that he was being truthful.

"Be silent! I don't want to hear one more word from you!", shouted Kurapika, incensed.

Uvogin seemed to find that amusing. "What, chain bastard? Don't like me making the moves on your girl? You have to tie me up to beat me. There's a word for people like you. Coward." He snickered. "And you think those chains can hold me? If you don't kill me now, you'll regret it later."

Kurapika, enraged, tightened the chains, quickly losing his composure.

"I told you to shut up!"

Uvogin seemed to be caught off guard by the strength of the chains. Kurapika let the car swerve.

"Eyes on the road!", Senritsu shouted, agitated.

Kakume looked on ahead, distracted, her mind on other matters.

-

"Hey, wake up!", called a man's voice.

Uvogin opened his eyes. He was in a dimly lit room, on top of a cold metal table, tightly wrapped in bounds, surrounded by a group of people. He was feeling groggy... Seems like I was drugged, he thought. The chain guy and the blood girl were there, looking on. The man with the face tattoos appeared to be their leader.

"Do you understand what's going on?", the tattooed man asked. He was wielding a sharp sword with strange inscriptions on it. "Where did you put the stolen merchandise?"

Ah, is that what it's about? Uvogin wondered. But do they have the will to torture a man for this? He kept his aura firm around his body, solidifying it, resolute.

"Let's make a deal. If you let me go now, I'll spare your life", he pronounced, dead serious. The men looked at him like he was mad. "If you aren't the ones who took the contents of the safe, then I want nothing to do with the likes of you", he continued.

A small half bald woman at his rear asked, "Didn't the Spiders steal the merchandise?"

Uvogin smiled, smug. "No. The Shadow Beasts did. I guess they didn't bother telling grunts like you lot".

"He's telling the truth..."

The chain dude approached him, fuming. "What about the guests? Some of our colleagues were in that crowd", he demanded.

"That's a shame. We killed them all".

His fist met him flat in the face. "How many lives do you think you took, trying to carry out that plan of yours? Are these lives so unimportant to you?" His eyes were enraged, red glowing on the rim.

Next to him, the girl restrained him. "Kurapika, stop", she said. Her face was placid, contemplative.

He shrugged her off and left the room, flustered. Uvogin watched the dynamics at play.

That chain bastard... I'll make him pay. He made a fool of me; I'll make a corpse of him.