Win some, Lose some

Summary: Because even the strongest nen users are only human; the members of the Genei Ryodan are no exception.

Shalnark: Health problems

The sandy hair bishounen woke up with a pounding head. He could feel every freaking single surge of blood his beating heart sent to his head. A quick calculation told him that it was seventy per minute.

The rate that all sportsmen wished to achieve but Shalnark was no ordinary sportsman. The young man maintained his position of sitting on the ground with his back against the wall for a few seconds, assessing the headache, before leaping agilely up onto his feet.

A miscalculation.

His head jarred painfully from the impact as his feet hit the ground silently. Almost immediately, a dizzy spell lasting for a few seconds stole his sight and threatened to throw him off balance despite him being stationary.

The burst of random white spots which clouded his vision were of different sizes and shrunk rapidly, only to be replaced by yet another and he had to be careful not to focus on any circle or risk a painful fall, flat on his face, courtesy of a past experience.

Shalnark's vision cleared and he glanced at his surroundings, easily picking up Machi's suspicious gaze which she did not bother to conceal. She was always one of the first to rouse in the Genei Ryodan, second only to Danchou or at times, Shalnark himself.

Around them in the hideout, everyone remained asleep. It was as silent as a tomb, except during Phink's sudden bouts snoring. Shalnark was thankful that he was not a light sleeper, as Phink's chainsaw imitation started abruptly.

As usual, Shalnark took the initiative in making morning greetings, the most awkward time of the day. A 'good morning' was too formal, besides Machi had seen and was most probably trying to figure out his earlier actions. He needed to say something which would enlighten her but not sound like he was whining or close to dying from the pain.

"Want some coffee?" He called out to the seamstress.

Yes, a good strong cup of well brewed coffee was exactly what Shalnark needed to sooth his head and ease the soreness. Machi regarded him with her icy blue eyes before shaking her head and resuming the task of tying her nen threads. These ready made accessories were especially convenient and spelt instant death for all who got caught in any of the deadly and invincible nooses.

Shalnark checked his cell phone cum weapon briefly before making his way out of the hideout and towards town. There was no news from Hisoka, who was on the hunt for a nen remover and also the only known person in contact with Kuroro. And in a way, no news meant good news. As long as Kuroro was alive, the Genei Ryodan would maintain it's status quo.

Kuroro had always stressed that he was not the head of the spiders, but a limb. Thus even if he were to die, the spider still lived.

However, from what Shalnark could observe, most of the members were too influenced by Kuroro and more dependent on the man then it appeared; their respect for him was a large part of the reason why this group of powerful nen-users stayed together for all these years. Shalnark was sure many would not react well to being under a new Danchou. Still, as far as he could tell, Feitan was the only suitable candidate to lead the spiders should anything happen to Kuroro. The other guys were either too silent or lacked maturity. Phink's strange sense of humour was just unfitting and Feitan was the strongest, after all. Now, if only the little guy was taller... A very big and fat 'if'only', that was.

Shalnark chuckled to himself and then winced suddenly as he became conscious of his pounding head again. He increased his pace, anxious for a cup of all healing dark coffee.

The cloudless sky was beginning to light up a pale blue as he reached the only cafe in town which was bustling with activity.

Alas, Genei Ryodan or not, rich or poor, the waiting time of fifteen minutes for any order applied to all people. That was not including the time spent queuing, amidst impatient people grabbing breakfast before rushing off to work. In the already packed waiting area, the lady behind him just had to do a further invasion of personal space by reading her newspaper. Shalnark resigned himself to having his hair smell like ink for the rest of the day as the newspaper made contact with the back of his head for the twentieth time that minute.

Despite having decided that a cup of coffee was not worth activating his nen over, Shalnark couldn't help wondering why he even bothered going through all these procedures like a normal person.

The reasons were painfully obvious; he suffered from splitting headaches just like the common folks and found the aroma of coffee irresistible, as did more than half the world population. Life couldn't get more ordinary even for a member of the infamous and powerful phantom brigade.

Shalnark felt his trusty cell phone vibrate in his pocket. He had forgotten to disable the daily alarm in his hurry to get to the cafe. A few heads turned as he brought out his phone. The devil design sure was attention seeking, even without any additional blings.

As if on cue, Shalnark's headache intensified and he resisted the desire to go into auto mode until he received his coffee. Muscle aches and cramps he could endure, but this headache was a real killer. There was no obvious trigger that he could identify since he led such an unhealthy lifestyle. Lack of sleep, stress, and of course, harmful radiation from his hand phone. Not to the extent of being carcinogenic, Shalnark believed, though there were contrasting studies regarding that and he had not much choice but to stay on the optimistic side. Grudgingly.

Don't get him started on the fertility problems which stem from having too much harmful radiation from mobile phones due to the amount of time they are placed in the pockets. The effects of such prolonged close proximity between the phone and the male reproductive organ had Shalnark holding the phone in his hands the entire time for a month straight, but he had resumed the nasty habit once again in the past few weeks for the sake of typing on his laptop.

Not that the laptop was doing his reproductive organ much good. In fact more studies have affirmed that the heat emitted from a laptop resulted in erectile problems due to the acclimatization to the increased temperature. There's a reason why those things hang outside the male human body, you know.

Perhaps he should have made his weapon a game boy, but he would have gotten a cell phone and a laptop either way so that wasn't so much of a valid point.

Besides, fertility issues were the least of the problems on Shalnark's mind since he was happily single and had no intention of changing his martial status any time soon. Not that he had a suitable girl in mind anyway. He tried not to think about why that was the case.

Live with it. Shalnark advised and gave himself a mental pat on the back for the umpteenth time as the queue progressed slowly.

~o~

A/N: Hello! This will be a collection of short stories involving one or two members of the Genei Ryodan in each chapter and can be considered an expansion of my first two HxH stories -Solemn Pastimes and Of Samurai, Ninja, Assassins and Pirates which featured Hisoka, Shizuku and Franklin. The main inspiration was to write about the mundane and not-so-glam parts of the spiders lives. After all, Togashi mostly depicted them wasting time sitting on crates or dishing out destruction under Kuroro's orders and I'd like to believe that such an extraordinary group of people are in a way, similar to ordinary nen-less humans XD

Please review to let me know how you felt about this chapter and thanks for reading!