Kisho placed his hand against the door. To his surprise, he didn't need much strength at all before the door was pushed open.
He stepped forward and walked in through the not-so-wide gap.
On the ceiling of the room, that luxurious lamp was still lit. It was also the only light source on this ship, which was sailing alone across the vast sea.
The room was large and spacious, carpeted in pure white—originally pure white, that is. Now, however, it had already been dyed an unpleasant dark red by the blood of corpses lying scattered across it.
The instant he saw those corpses, Kisho tensed his entire body and expanded his "En" to the maximum.
The wounds that had turned living people into corpses were round-headed long needles stabbed straight into their foreheads.
"If I were you~ I wouldn't keep moving forward~"
A voice that made one's scalp prickle drifted softly to Kisho's ear.
Kisho: "..."
"The guy inside is a really terrifying person, you know~"
The speaker looked exactly the same as the last time they met, dressed up as a clown.
He leaned casually against a wall several meters away, one leg bent at the knee.
He stared at Kisho, his narrow eyes squinting, a playing card pinched between his fingers.
That dark red joker card flipped and danced at his fingertips, appearing and vanishing over and over again—just like the man himself, stretched taut to the extreme, yet wavering between eruption and concealment, his battle intent unstable.
Kisho looked at him, deeply puzzled, and asked with a frown:
"Why are you here?"
This annoying guy, who had left a profound (bad) impression on him ever since their last meeting...
"Ma~"
The joker vanished from the young man's hand as he smiled.
"Didn't I say when we parted last time that I'd come find you again?"
He let out a humming laugh, his eyes scanning Kisho like a detector.
He seemed to have noticed Kisho's "En." A satisfied look appeared in his narrowed eyes.
"What a good kid—training seriously, aren't you~"
Kisho: "..."
He took a deep breath.
What kind of freak even is this guy?!
"Were the ones outside your doing?"
The young man's gaze passed through the crack in the door. With a sharp "whoosh," so fast it was almost impossible to catch with the naked eye, a card vanished from between his fingers.
"Pop."
A monster that had been creeping in ambush collapsed dead at the doorway.
The card had sunk straight into the monster's eye, leaving behind only a corner the size of a fingernail.
Blood gushed from the monster's eye socket, staining a large section of the carpet red.
Kisho: "..."
Whether it was the speed of the attack, the force behind it, or the accuracy, all of it was astonishing.
And after the astonishment came fear—fear of the unfathomable depth of his strength.
"I saw it all, you know—your eyes, and the eyes of those guys."
The young man raised a finger.
"Exactly the same~"
"It wasn't me."
Kisho said in a low voice.
"I just let them out and let them take revenge."
"Revenge? What a cute idea."
It was unclear whether the young man's tone was mocking or carried some other meaning.
Just as he was about to say something more, his expression paused slightly, then he smiled again.
"The guy inside is about to come out. Let's chat later~"
Before the words even finished, he had already vanished from the spot, as if he had never existed at all.
"If you can survive in that guy's hands~ well then good luck~"
Kisho: "..."
After that annoying freak disappeared, several more seconds passed before the faint sound of a door opening came through.
At the other end of the room, the door carved with magnificent patterns slowly opened, and a short-haired young man stepped out.
In his hand, he seemed to be carrying something.
It was Vervik's head—his expression twisted to the extreme, eyes bulging as if they were about to pop out of their sockets. On the half of his face not soaked in blood, the skin was an eerie, ghastly pale.
Yet the young man held this terrifying thing as casually as if it were a toy.
The expression on his face was utterly calm, and the emotions in his pitch-black eyes were calm to the point of emptiness.
His gaze met Kisho's, who was standing at the doorway.
The moment their eyes met, Kisho felt as though the air around his body had been sucked dry.
The suffocating sensation and the pressure of imminent death pushed his entire body to its absolute limit.
"Huh? Missed one?"
The young man tilted his head slightly as he looked at Kisho. A trace of confusion appeared in his black, cat-like eyes, as if he couldn't quite understand where this strange little kid had suddenly come from.
"Well, no matter. I'll just take care of it."
A long needle appeared in his hand. Then, with a light flick of his wrist—
Kisho's pupils shrank sharply.
The silver-blue-eyed boy was switched out.
The boy's figure appeared on the other side of the room.
The long needle sank into the wall where the boy had originally been standing, piercing straight through the steel-forged wall and leaving behind a hole that let light through.
"Ah, what a shame. Missed."
The young man muttered to himself.
He looked at the silver-blue-eyed boy.
Just moments ago, this kid had still clearly been within the bounds of a normal human. But after his eyes turned silver-blue, he gave off an extremely familiar feeling.
He had felt the same aura on one of his younger brothers back home.
An aura that was extremely ominous, extremely terrifying—one that, if mishandled even slightly, could bring catastrophic disaster upon the entire family...
He looked like he wouldn't be easy to kill. And doing unpaid work wasn't something he was particularly keen on.
If killing him caused some serious consequences afterward—then that would be an even worse loss.
Their family never did unprofitable business.
"Ah, this is troublesome."
A troubled expression appeared on the young man's face.
He raised a finger and tapped his forehead, then carefully placed the thing he was holding neatly onto a chair.
It was a bit hard to deal with, but since he'd already provoked it, he still had to resolve it.
Freeing up both hands, he prepared to take this silver-blue-eyed kid seriously.
One second, two seconds, one minute, two minutes.
The scene seemed frozen in time, silver-blue pupils staring into hollow black ones.
Neither made the first move.
"Beep beep beep, beep beep beep..."
An untimely ringtone sounded from the young man's pocket.
"Hold on a moment."
He suddenly spoke, as if pressing pause, though it was unclear who he was talking to.
Then he casually took out the phone and put it to his ear.
"Hello."
"...It's nothing. Just a small accident."
"Mm. The target's already been dealt with. Have them transfer the money into my account."
"...I'll be out soon. Hanging up."
"Beep."
He hung up the phone, picked up the head he'd placed on the chair, and slowly walked toward the door.
In his hollow black eyes, the kid he'd been wary of didn't move at all.
Mm, quite a sensible little kid. Less trouble was nice too.
He stepped out of the room. Cold light flashed as several long needles drilled into the foreheads of monsters lunging at him.
Screams rang out. The long needles sank into the monsters' brows, the metal round heads at the ends trembling slightly.
In just an instant, he cleared out a wide blank area at the doorway.
A rope dropped down from above.
The young man grabbed the rope. Above him, the vertical airship began to ascend.
"This kid... is worth paying attention to."
His gaze remained fixed on the smoking ship below, growing farther and farther away.
"Should I just leave it alone like this, or snuff it out in advance?"
He thought for a moment, then shook his head.
"Better let Dad and Grandpa worry about that kind of thing."
After setting the matter aside, he seemed to recall something else, a thoughtful look appearing on his face.
"But before I came out, I clearly sensed two people's auras outside."
"And there was still one guy I never actually saw... where did he hide?"
...
Inside the luxurious room.
"Huff..."
Kisho gasped for air in great gulps, cold sweat rolling down his cheeks and dripping onto the floor.
"Just where did this bunch of guys even come from?!"
Kisho felt like crying but had no tears.
Chrollo counted as one. That freak just now counted as one. And then there was that... guy who was probably a killer.
They clearly weren't that old, but why was every single one of them terrifyingly strong?!
Did they start training Nen the moment they were born or something?!
In this godforsaken world, just how many monsters like that are there?!
Oh right—although the killer had left, there was still that freak.
Kisho: "..."
Forget it. He'd stop thinking about that freak for now.
This ship was already close to being wrecked by him and that group of monsters. Who knew when it might sink.
If he didn't want to be buried at sea along with all the monsters on board, he'd better make plans early.
Thinking that, Kisho headed toward the deck.