Ill-Fated (Phantom Troupe x Reader) [Soulmate AU]

2.

You yawned as you made yourself coffee in your tiny kitchen for the last time. It occurred to you at that moment that you were going to miss this place. Over the last month, it became easy to consider this place a home of sorts. It was always hard for you to leave, but your situation has left you little options aside from hopping from place to place. Blinking away the exhaustion in your eyes, you attempted to focus on your game plan. The game plan being: pack your shit and get out of dodge. Perhaps you'll visit Zaban City, or maybe the Republic of Padokia. All of that depended on which aircraft left first because speed was your first priority at the moment.

You gather the few belongings you have into your bag. It's not much: a few sets of clothing, some hygiene items, a hunter's license, some loose change, and bandages, which you diligently wrapped around every single mark on your body daily. Taking in the ambiance of the apartment you had grown used to over the last month, for the last time, you tucked your trusty hunting knife into your boot, threw on a heavy bomber jacket over the rest of your outfit and set out. 

Winding through the crowds of the now bustling streets of York New City, you had your eyes set on the prize: getting to the airport quickly. That was your first mistake of the day. You had your eyes so set on the prize, in fact, that you didn't notice yourself barreling into an angry-looking tall man with slicked-back blond hair and no eyebrows. 

"Watch where the hell you're going, unless you wanna get your -"  An irate voice from above you spoke before stopping abruptly.

You were sure that he stopped midsentence, for the same reason you stopped frozen in your tracks: the overwhelming burning in the soul mark located on your arm, the spider with the five etched into it. You had often wondered what you would do if you ever encountered and touched one of your soulmates. On long and sleepless nights, your stomach tight in knots, you pictured in painstaking detail yourself pretending you felt nothing, running, and blending into the crowd. Out of any scenario you imagined, escaping early always gave you the best chance of survival. 

All your plans seemed impossible now. The drastic reaction of your body to the touch made what you felt obvious, and you knew he felt the same thing. As the burn in your arm slowly dissipated into warm tingles, you gathered your bearings and bolted without another glance, leaving the guy dumbfounded. You ran faster than you have ever run before, trying to stick to more crowded areas where you couldn't be easily spotted. If your situation had been bad before, it was much worse now. Now that you had encountered one soulmate, and now that he got a good look at your face. 

You were too scared to look behind you as you hightailed it out of there, but you were almost entirely sure that at least the one man from before was hot on your trail if not more Phantom Troupe members by now. Carefully, you slipped into a small alley, trying to catch your breath. That was your second mistake of the day. As you busied yourself using Gyo to try and find the blond Nen user in the crowd, you couldn't have noticed a tall, lanky man stalk up behind you silently, knocking you out in a smooth and fluid motion.

Your body fell limp onto the cobblestones, just in time for Phinks to reach the location of the other troupe member. 

"She's out?" Asked Phinks, eyeing Nobunaga.

The latter nodded, carefully sheathing his blade. 

"Your Nen. It's different now; it seems stronger." Nobunaga noted, eyeing Phinks. 

It was true what they said about finding your soulmate. Apparently, coming in contact with your twin flame meant that yours would burn twice as brightly, and if Phinks was anything to go by, that wasn't just a random rumor. 

"Yeah, man, I feel great! Like I can punch through the earth's crust." 

Phinks leaned down, assessing your face. Now that he got a good look at you, he noted that you were quite the looker. (h/c) (h/l) framed your relaxed face gently, with plump lips and long, thick eyelashes: he considered himself lucky. He scooped you up into his arms and threw you over one of his shoulders like it was nothing. He knelt down to pick up your bag, rifling through your belongings in the process. After feeling a card in the back, he fished it out, examining a hunter's license. So your name was (y/n) (y/l). 

"(y/n) (y/l)." Phinks spoke experimentally, relishing how nicely your name rolled off his tongue.

His companion was a lot more on guard, however, and took note of a few people beginning to look in the direction of the two men leering over an unconscious woman's body. To avoid the curious eyes of passersby, both men quickly retreated, taking you with them.

Your brain was foggy, and your limbs felt as though they were made out of lead as you came to. The first thing you noticed was the movement of a rocking vehicle underneath you. Yeah, you were fucked. You opened your eyes, blinking away the blurriness, but avoided moving in an effort not to draw attention to yourself. Your hands and feet were bound with thick rope, which prevented you from moving too much and accounted for the soreness you felt in your limbs. You were laid out on your side in the backseat of a car. In the passenger seat up front sat the blond man from earlier, your soulmate. Driving was another man, tall and lanky, with a hooked nose and long black hair gathered up into a ponytail. You assumed this was the man who knocked you out earlier. Your eyes moved to the window, straining to see through the tinted glass. A rolling landscape of mountainous rocky hills and sparse trees accompanied a setting sun. You knew you were far from the city, but not how far or where you were being taken.

"Sleep well (y/n)?" A cocky voice came from the front of the car. 

You could feel the smirk in his voice as you trained your eyes on your soul mate, who peered at you from the rearview mirror. You weren't sure how he knew your name but supposed it was from going through your personal belongings like an absolute creep while you slept. How do you proceed from here? Should you play dumb, pretending they've got the wrong girl? Should you interrogate them? Should you stay quiet? You decided to proceed with an abundance of caution.

"You're my soul mate?" You mentally kicked yourself for your own stupid question.

"Yeah, the one and only. You can call me Phinks." The smirk never fell from his lips. 

"And you?" Your eyes moved toward the other man in the car, who kept his eyes trained on the road. The raven-haired man laughed heartily in response.

"That's Nobunaga. He isn't one of your soulmates, so he's none of your concern doll." You cringed at the new nickname that Phinks had already given you. 

You stayed quiet, trying to reach into your boot where you had stashed a knife just this morning. At least there was only one of them for now, but you assumed your final destination was a hideaway where you would meet the rest of your ill-fated soulmates. You definitely couldn't let them take you to wherever they were heading.