Cards and Keys

Chapter Twenty Two: The First Thread

Lucy POV:

"Sign here please." The lady across the counter smiled at us, holding out a lengthy contract.

I read over the paper in my hand, scanning over all the legalities. "Are you sure this is ok? It says 'We are not responsible for any deaths that may occur well in the arena'. It sounds a bit dodgy..."

"Oh that only happens sometimes~." Hisoka batted his hand indifferently, signing his signature in elegant curly letters.

"If you say so." I hesitantly scribbled my own signature down, before handing it back to the woman.

After a few peaceful weeks of relaxation and training, Hisoka and I had finally come to sign up for Heavens Arena. We were still staying at the hotel, until we reached the 200th floor at least, but the tranquility of our holiday was over nonetheless.

"Your first fight is in an hour, so feel free to do whatever until then. I hope you enjoy your time here." The woman waved us off and went back to the paperwork at her desk.

"Where to first dear?~"

"How about the gym? I could do with a little warm up." I smiled up at Hisoka, taking his hand and we started off down the winding corridors. It was evident just how vast the building was, even though we were only on the ground floor, it alone was home to the reception, a food hall, a gym, and a medical ward. And with all the bodies always bustling past, it was like a city all on its own.

After a few twists and turns of the dimly lit corridors, we reached the gym. Hisoka jumped straight into using the heavy weights, but I decided to start out my work out on the 'treadmill'- or that's what Hisoka had called the running machine. All these machines would've been helpful back at the guild- they sure beat Natsu's weird forest workouts. I swear I almost died once when he tried to get me to lift tree trunks with him.

Cardio wasn't exactly my favourite, but it went long way to building my endurance, so I reluctantly got on with it. From there I moved onto a bunch of machines that trained my arms, legs, chest, and core muscles, then I finally warmed down on the treadmill again. By then, I was sticky with sweat and my skin was a vivid shade of pink.

But Hisoka, being the madman he is, wasn't quite done with his workout yet- insisting that he wasn't done until it really 'burned'. Slightly concerning statement aside, I left him to it. And I set off on my own, wondering the winding corridors in the half hour I had left before my first match.

I managed to find a vending machine full of drinks and snacks, so I put in a few coins and waited for a water bottle to dispense. But- just my luck!- the bottle got stuck half way down.
"Come onnn." I groaned and shook the machine a little, attempting to free my trapped bottle. But it wouldn't budge. Still determined, I tried reaching my hand up the shoot, but it was too high.

As I struggled, I heard a quiet dry laugh come from behind me. I jumped a little as the sudden noise and turned to find a girl. She had stern and dour features, yet they were framed with opposing bright pink hair. She stared at me for a moment longer, then spoke, her tone flat but sincere.
"You need a little help with that?"

"Um, yeah, if you don't mind." I gave her a confused smile as she strolled over. She dug through her pocket for a moment before pulling out a needle and thread.
"What are you..?" I trailed off as I watched her. She held the thread up to the shoot and it began to move upwards- reaching and winding up the shoot until it wrapped around the bottle and tugged it down. "Here you go." She handed the bottle to me, placing her thread back into her pocket.
"Wow, thank you! That was amazing." I beamed back at her. Controlling thread- I hadn't seen an ability like that before. Could all heavens arena competitors be that skilled? No, surely not. Hisoka had said that nen wasn't commonplace until floor 200.