USEFUL ➴ Illumi x Reader

Ⅳ. The Spider

What did I know about Chrollo? How would I be able to find him? He had said he was a thief... Good thieves always go unnoticed. He was insanely conspicuous though... The way he dressed, the way he imposed his presence upon entering a place... How could he be a good thief?

And how could a thief lead a group of dangerous people? Were they all thieves? There'd be no way to find them with just that...

What other hints could he have-

Spider. He had formed one with his nen. Perhaps that was a hint as well.

As I typed "Spider, group of thieves" in the search bar of my clunky computer screen, I thought it would be far too simple if I managed to gather information like this. The screen loaded slowly, and lo and behold, the first entry, a wikipe page.

The Phantom Troupe, known as the spider.

There wasn't much information on the members of this group, legend said they had a spider tattoo. Well... that was flashy. But also very Chrollo of them...? I felt like this was it. He had always been fascinated with the use of spiders and their meanings in my books...

The page went on about how dangerous they were, and several massacres associated with them. That should've been a warning flag, but I had just taken an assassin as my date to a ball in which he had killed someone... What could be worse than this?

The day I penned a condolence letter to Mrs. Dewitt for the shocking passing of her husband, I decided that I'd search for Chrollo.

Where did dangerous unknown people come from?

Meteor City? Not a single person from meteor city has records... That'd be ideal for them. They couldn't be there waiting to be found though... And Meteor City was incredibly far from here, Chrollo had said he'd be back soon though.

I took a deep breath and grabbed my trusty phone, it was time to make some calls and find out where my friend, a rather fetching young man who happened to be a thief, was. Rune screamed bloody murder at me when I asked for the information, but still managed to give me the name of a city.

He wasn't even certain that the leader would be the one at that location nor that the information was trustworthy... but he usually downplayed his involvement in illegal scenes... Damned Rune.

Southworth was not far, not more than a two-hour flight away. That day I left Chiaroscuro at the hands of Nerus and Lin, with instructions to inform Chrollo, if he showed up, that I had gone to look for his royal ass.

I only thought I had perhaps been too hasty once the blimp landed. I had only let two days pass since the whole ordeal with the assassin, Illumi. Not only that, but I was already there, though, I decided it couldn't hurt to look for him for the day at least.

By the airport's exit, there was a small shop selling maps and tours of the city. I bought a map and looked for a car rental place. I was raring to discover this new city, but travelling took so much of my time... 

I wasn't visiting Southworth for the sightseeing, so I looked once more at the map, wondering where I would hide if I was a criminal. Abandoned places, deserted and forgotten. Far from the centre of the city, but not too far. I crossed out most of the buildings with a pen since they didn't meet the criteria. From the few buildings that were left, I highlighted five. A sigh left my lips, and I was left wondering if gut feeling alone would take me to Chrollo. 

Well, one of the buildings had to be it. 

The first three were a waste of time, the first was being demolished as I passed by, the second was now the rubble covering an empty lot, and the third one had been made into a small antique shop. Of course, I wouldn't pick the right building right away... I didn't have that kind of luck...