Chapter II: Prisoner x Spider

I'm left in a dark room, with nothing but candlelights to keep me company. The room has no windows, and all there is a wooden brown door with somebody probably outside of it, the person most likely being the one with the sword at his seemed to be a highly skilled nen user and had instantly obeyed orders once his boss told him to guard the door. He had already warned me if I had gone up to the door he wouldn't hold himself back withdrawing his sword, and that I would be dead in a matter of seconds.

But I can't really move or open the door anyway. My wrists are still bound by the silk material, and every time I try and wiggle my wrists to break free, it only gets tighter, the same can be said when I try and use my nen. It seemed to be some sort of weird nen ability of his.

Before one of the men took me to the base, a book had appeared in that man's right hand, and he pushed his nen onto the silk that bound my wrists. Obviously binding me for good unless he was the one to take off the binds.

I'm left alone with my thoughts, of what he could possibly want to know about the stupid birthmark and my village. Did he hold some sort of grudge to someone specific? I 'tsk' to myself. Of course, it was my stupid village to put me in this type of mess. I kick a rock at my feet, and it bounces across the floor. Its been at least an hour since his troupe members threw me into this room and I haven't heard a peep since.

All I could do was wait, with curiosity and fear. Not knowing why that man took an interest in me. How did he even see the tattoo? Was it possible he was looking at my chest when I had bent down? Then if that is the case he is some perv hoping to get a shot of cleavage. Though it was hard to picture. I doubt he would have been looking…He didn't seem like that type of man, but he was a man nonetheless.

I stare at one of the candle's tiny flames, and how it was flickering back and forth and casting a shadow on the cement ground. I then hear a noise outside the door, and I fix my slouching posture, to sit up against the wall as I stare eagerly towards the door waiting for it to open.

To my surprise it does, it creaking open to reveal, the man with the cross on his forehead. I stare at him not knowing what to expect and he all he says is "I'm hoping you can be a bit corporative with me this time or..."

I cut him off spitting back, my wrists still wiggling but the fabric only grows tighter around my wrist, like the nen itself was alive "Or what? Are you going to kill me or something...? Torture me to get the information you want out of me?"

He only smirks as he shuts the door behind him, and he walks towards me, his steps quiet "I could do those things but killing you would be a waste, and I'm not one for torture…usually...Though you could say a friend of mine, would be more than delighted to help me out with that task."

I swallow, and he kneels down in front of me, and I stiffen. The orange and yellow candlelight were casting light on his face though it is continuously flickering back and forth, the light being unsteady. He then says his eyes void of any emotion "What I ask is simple. Your birthmark, your village, and your name. I want to know those things. Tell me, and I will set you free."

My eyes narrow at him. He was most likely lying. I know how stuff like this works. I open my mouth, and I reply with only one of his questions "My name is Kiku."

His face shows no emotion, but I notice his finger twitches that set on his knee. "I see." he mutters to himself and silence follows shortly after before he states "My name is Chrollo, though a lot of the people you see here will address me as boss."

'Chrollo...That name was familiar but not so familiar at the same time.' I think to myself. I stare at his forehead, and the purple cross before I ask "You were from that village...Weren't you? Is that your reason for pursuing me. To get revenge or some other scheme like that?"

At this, he dryly chuckles, his lips curving up in a smirk. He then asks "And why would I want revenge on your village Miss. Kiku?"

I grow quiet before I mutter in a reply "Because we didn't warn your village that it was going to burn down all those years ago...when we obviously could have."

"I see... so that is your reasoning." He hums out almost bored as his eyes glance down towards the burning white stick, the wax of the candles melting on the floor below. He then asks "I had no idea someone knew we were going to attack. How did you know? A nen ability?"

Of great. Did I seriously just leak something he didn't know of? I want to facepalm but I can't thanks to my tied up hands behind my back. And did he just say...we?

"Yes…" I reply as I swallow. If I lie now, he might cause me more hell than I already endured.

He is quiet again, and he seems to be in deep thought, "Hm, would you as kind to tell me that person's name then…."

"No," I reply prominently, my chest tightening in fear he now wanted to kill that person or go after them.

His eyes travel back to me from the candle, and he hums "Still going to be stubborn I see. Well, at least tell me this Miss Kiku, where is your village located? I won't ask again. And tell me more about your birthmark."

Again I don't want to tell him where my village is located, so I start with my birthmark first, "I told you, I was born with it. The serpent tattoo represents the snake disguised as the devil, and even though my village was not evil, it was told the people with the cross tattoos soothed us and kept us in control. So that's why every 100 years, each village picked a boy and a girl to marry each other or else disaster would fall for both the villages and its people."

He seems to take in all my words, his eyes unwavering before he chuckles lowly again, "Yes, good. I'm glad you're actually her and not some fraud framing to be her."

"Excuse me?" I question him, confused by his words.

His gray orbs stare more into my own set of eyes, and he asks "You don't remember me Kiku?"

"Ah, No. I don't remember you, but I know of your village…Have we met before?"

He then says with all due seriousness, "We were the ones that were supposed to marry. My real name is Kuroro."

My eyes widen, and he then asks "Do you remember me now Miss Kiku...? I remember you." His voice is a little eerie, and I can't help but find it a little emotionless as he says this.

"No. That isn't possible….That boy died who I was supposed to be wedded to." I say absolutely weirded out he knew of that name, and of that boy who I faintly recall meeting with and playing with.

"A lot of things aren't as they seem, Miss Kiku." he says, then he hums "But I supposed you could say I died in a way….but that is for another time to explain and another day. Now is not the time for that."

'Confusing again...What did he mean?' I think

"Now...where is your village?" he asks again, this time extremely cold sounding and demanding. If I didn't answer what would happen? Should I really test his limits?

I stare into his orbs, and I purse my lips tightly going back to being silent. His eyes grow cold and scary looking, and I can't help but feel a chill run down my spine.

"Not going to talk..?" he questions me as he stands up, that same eerie look from earlier washing over him. "Is this how it is going to be Miss Kiku? Well, don't forget you choose this, you could have been granted freedom."

He then says while looking down at me and he sighs, "I guess your stay here will be longer than expected. I will see you again tomorrow morning."

He goes to turn around, and I panic slightly and say which stops him, "Wait, what happens if I have to go pee or use the bathroom...? Will that man outside take me out of this room. "

He keeps his back turned to me, and he says "Well, you should have thought about that earlier. If you soil yourself overnight, you can bathe in the stream near here." He grins ever so slightly and snottily, and I grind my teeth as a blush overtakes my cheeks. He was ridiculing me on purpose.

With that, he exits the room and closes and locks up the room, leaving me alone with an ever so quickly burning candle.

…

…

The more time that passed, the more I got bored, and the more I feel a pressure in between my legs and lower abdomen, the feeling was having to pee. I glare at the door as I lay on my side on the floor with my arms still bound behind me back.

I sigh heavily as I keep pressing my legs together. That fucker really and probably wasn't coming until morning. I bite at my lip and sit myself up using just my back strength. There had to be a way out of this bind he put his nen into.

I have been messing with it for the last couple of hours, and no matter what it just kept getting tighter and tighter, until eventually, the pressure started to cut my circulation off. It was really painful now. Ok, Kiku. Think. There had to be a way out of this. I wasn't an enhancer, but during these few moments, I wish I was.

I was a conjurer. My nen ability revolving around different plants and conjuring them. Perhaps there was a plant I could conjure up to cut the bind, and I'm just not thinking of it because I'm in a state of pure panic and dismay. The binds at this point, couldn't get any tighter and that was a fact.

Come on Kiku. Come on think. I keep on lecturing myself going through all the plants and not thinking of one that could cut the bind, and free my hands. Even so could the type of plant I conjure if I do think of one also cut thru a nen barrier?

I grind my teeth, and the pressure grows of having to pee. Ok, enough was enough. I needed to get out of these binds, NOW.

After a couple more minutes of thinking, I finally think of the plant I was looking for. The plant name is Dogrun, and I remember studying the flower with other plant hunters such as myself while in a snowy rural village when I first became a hunter.

The Dogrun is an uncommon, small plant and can be found only in some snowy regions. It blooms once a year, for 2 months.

It has tiny, circular leaves, which are usually an abnormal light blue. It also grows decent sized flowers, which can be light silver.

These plants grow alone, but within a decent distance from each other, but it's challenging to control and maintain their growth.

They can be used as an energizer when eaten if you're quick with your hands if not its flowers produce something sharp that comes from the stigma of the flower and it is known to be sharp enough to cut fingers off.

Us plant hunters have yet to fully understand the odd plant, so that's why I don't want to summon the plant while in full bloom, but it is all I have to rely on.

Why didn't I think of it earlier? I lecture myself in my head. Hopefully, this confusing shitty plant will be able to cut thru that man's nen. I then lean more towards the ground and place my hands on the concrete and think of conjuring the plant above the concrete, once I infuse my nen into the ground, I hear the crack and splintering of the concrete as the plant suddenly appears.

I smirk slightly and turn around seeing the Dogrun in front of me in full bloom. Ah, this would be perfect. I then slowly near it, sweat running down my cheek as my only light comes from the candles that were almost nonexistent at this point.

My bound hands loom above the flower, and my heart accelerates. One wrong move and this flower could cut my wrists and make me bleed out. Was this really a smart move on my part? I would rather be better off pissing my pants rather than accidentally cutting my wrist.

I gulp noticeably and loudly, and as soon as my hands loom close enough to the flower, it produces a sharp looking blade and ejects it up about 6 inches in the air. I flinch and gasp as the blade ends up cutting into my flesh but frees me of the bind.

I then quickly retract away from the plant, blood running down both my arms and I inspect my arms seeing the blade cut some of my skin and flesh off because of how closely the bind had pushed both my arms together. My hands shake, as more blood slips down my arms and onto the ground in large splats.

Well, at least that plant is good for something and can cut through even the strongest nen, I would have to keep that in mind, and write that down in my journal when I have a chance.

I suck up the pain, and I notice the blade retreats back into the stigma of the flower, and I quickly pull down my pants and relieve myself while in the corner of the room, and pray no one opens the door.

Much to my luck, no one opens the door, and I then summon a normal looking plant with my shaky and blood covered hands and arms, and I rip a large leaf from it to clean myself. After doing so, I step away from the spot I peed in and am highly embarrassed about, so I rip the plant up from the ground and throw it on top of the spot in an attempt at covering the damp spot on the concrete.

I hate to look at my hands, and I try and think of a plant where I can use to make the bleeding stop and heal me. But the only problem was, I was running low on my nen. That powerful binding spell I did earlier tonight really did a number on me.

I attempt to conjure another plant in order to help heal me but nothing spouts up from the ground, and I growl slightly. Dammit...I knew it. I can't conjure anything more. I then look towards the door and wonder if that man was still guarding the door. The man named Nobu or something like that.

He warned me already tonight, he would cut me down if I drew close to the door, but should I take the risk and see if he was still there? He could of very well became distracted and if I stay here who knows what will happen to me or my village. It might become a tragedy either way, but I guess if I die now, my village would be safe.

So I take my chances, quietly stepping towards the door, some of my blood still dripping on the floor and I grab the door with my injured hand, I feel slight pain every time I move it, but the pain was somewhat bearable.

I creak open the door trying to hide how scared I was of having my head cut off, but when I open it I don't get a warning or anything, and the more I open the old wooden door there is no one at all guarding the door. I start to feel highly excited and relieved, and I step out from the room I had been kept a prisoner for several hours.

'I have to escape now.' I think highly determined to escape from this building I currently was in.

As I quietly step around, my ears alert, I hear nobody or feel no one's nen nearby, but that could mean shit. This was the Phantom Troupe we were talking about, I heard rumors from other hunters outside my field of work about how dangerous they were and to stay away from anybody with a visible spider tattoo at all costs unless you were hunting them for their bounty. But even those type of hunters usually got killed.

The more I have time to think the more precautions I take. I step around the seemingly empty and quiet building, and I get to a window, with broken glass. I look down and note that I am on the second floor and nobody seems to be outside either, the skies are still dark meaning the sun had yet to rise. A slight breeze pushes my now messy hair away from my face as it travels throughout the building because of the broken window.

I then draw away from the window, and I step down the stairs listening and feeling for anything that was odd. Shouldn't somebody be around and guarding my door? Did no one care about their boss's orders? As I reach the first floor, there is still nothing, and I zone it on the exit door.

I then decide to quicken my steps, and with a couple swift movements, I push open the exit door and start to sprint away from the building. My heart accelerates, I'm filled with adrenaline and soon my sprinting turns into a full-blown run and all I can think in my head as I grow further and further away, 'I can't believe I escaped from the Phantom Troupe!' and with that, my plan succeeded and I had successfully made it out alive...for now.

….

….

(Third Pov, Chrollo)

The morning sun rises in the sky and when the leader of the Phantom Troupe returns to the now empty room and stares down at the single flower that he recognizes as the Dogrun plant after fully studying and expecting it. He also notices and sees splats of dried blood all throughout the room and hallway, and it wasn't hard to figure out what she had done to get free from her binds.

He suddenly feels extreme anger in himself, and the troupe members that had so lazily fallen asleep downstairs after huddling together in a small group. He curls his fingers into his palm so badly his dull fingernails cut into his palm causing blood to surface and drip on the floor, mixing with the girl's own dried blood on the floor.

He then turns around and leaves the room his eyes suddenly full of emotion and sudden rage over her escaping him and the rest of the spiders. Rage was very unlike him, but he knew what he was doing to do... He was going to find Kiku without a doubt, but should she be punished for her wrongdoings?

A sudden smirk overtakes his face, slight, but there as he stares ahead outside the broken window, he could smell the slight scent of flowers she carried on her. She wasn't too far away if her scent lingered on the air. The punishment was something he would have to think about and something for him to decide once finding her. and with that, and for a long time in his life, he feels excitement. He would have fun hunting and tracking her down.

Authors Note: Woah it has been some time since I last updated this fanfic but I hope you all enjoyed the update and leave me a review if you did and I hope to see everybody in the next chapter! :)