Tsuna & Chrome's Side
"Boss. I'm sorry... it didn't work..."
Having failed to deceive their target with her illusions, the young girl apologized, a deeply remorseful expression painting her face.
Chrome Dokuro. The Mist Guardian of the 10th Famiglia, and a master illusionist. Though she looked like an ordinary young girl, she had lost her internal organs in a severe traffic accident in the past. She was a highly unique existence, surviving only by using her illusionary powers to create functional, phantom organs to keep herself alive.
"Don't worry about it. I figured this might happen."
Chrome's illusions were practically flawless; ordinary people stood absolutely no chance of seeing through them. But Finn wasn't ordinary. The moment he knew an illusionist was on the field, it was guaranteed he would formulate countermeasures. Furthermore, against the Loki Familia, whose members shared an incredibly deep, intrinsic bond, Tsuna had already factored in the high probability that their illusions simply wouldn't hold up to scrutiny.
"Who gives a sh*t! I'm gonna slaughter every last one of you bastards!"
Having the image of the man she loved used against her, Tione's eyes were completely bloodshot, radiating pure, unadulterated killing intent.
"To lose your composure over such a simple trick. To think you are an executive of the city's strongest Familia—it's almost laughable."
"Huh!?"
Provoked by a completely unfamiliar third party, Tione whipped her head around, scanning the area, but couldn't find anyone matching the voice.
Suddenly, the owl resting on Chrome's shoulder flapped its wings, hovering in the air between them.
Gufo di Nebbia. Chrome's Box Animal, affectionately named Mukurou.
"But you need not feel so pessimistic. I have seen countless fools exactly like you, until I am thoroughly sick of it."
"T-Tione... w-what the... !?"
"The hell!?"
The owl's left eye suddenly bled into a deep crimson, the kanji for "Six" (六) manifesting clearly in its pupil. It then began to speak in perfectly fluent, elegant human language. Seeing an owl casually speaking, Tione and Tiona were utterly horrified.
"What do you want, Mukuro?"
Rokudo Mukuro. The other Mist Guardian of the 10th Famiglia, and a survivor of the Estraneo Famiglia—the mafia syndicate responsible for manufacturing the Possession Bullet, a forbidden weapon that allowed the user to hijack another person's body.
In the past, he had used the Possession Bullet to hijack Tsuna's body, intending to annihilate the mafia and possess world leaders to trigger a global world war. However, he was ultimately defeated by Tsuna and subsequently imprisoned in the Vindice's inescapable underwater prison. He had only been granted early release after playing a crucial role in the battle against Demon Spade.
The voice currently speaking wasn't Mukurou's. It was Mukuro, speaking through the owl via possession.
"I merely came to report on the progress of my assigned task."
"...And?"
"It was effortless. Harboring nothing but towering pride and endless greed, desperately averting their eyes from their own incompetence, and existing solely to drag others down. They were exactly identical to the foolish humans I have witnessed countless times before. I didn't even need to use my skills; they readily exposed their true nature and destroyed themselves. It truly is a wonder they ever had the audacity to condemn Bell Cranel."
"You didn't kill anyone, did you?"
"I wouldn't bother. Trash like that isn't even worth killing. Though I suppose it served as an adequate warm-up."
I-It's creeping me out...!?
W-What is up with these guys...!?
Seeing Tsuna casually converse with a terrifying, talking owl about incredibly ominous topics, Tione and Tiona felt a deep, instinctive dread crawl up their spines.
. . .
A short time ago. Before Mukuro had possessed Mukurou.
"You bastard! I was the one who landed the finishing blow!"
"Don't f*cking screw with me! You're just trying to hog all the credit for yourself!"
A group of adventurers stood over the drop items of a slain monster, furiously screaming at each other over the rights to the loot.
"Don't talk so big when you're just a useless piece of trash! You eternal Level 1 failure!"
"You f*cker! Look who's talking! You've got a lot of nerve saying that to me!"
"W-Wait! I didn't say that!"
"Who else is here, you piece of sh*t!"
"Gah!"
The adventurer panicked, completely bewildered as to why his own voice had just viciously insulted his partner when he hadn't spoken a word. But his partner, completely blinded by rage at the insult, punched him square in the jaw.
"You've done it now, you bastard!"
"Guh!?"
Naturally, the punched adventurer wasn't going to just take it. He punched right back, instantly escalating the argument into a full-blown, bloody brawl.
Meanwhile, the drop items on the ground silently dissolved into mist. But the adventurers, utterly consumed by rage, didn't even notice as they continued to beat each other senseless.
"They truly are beyond saving."
Mukuro watched the entire scene unfold with cold, apathetic eyes before reverting to his true form and slipping quietly down the alleyway. The armed monster they had "slain" was nothing more than an illusion created by Mukuro.
By manipulating the adventurers into chasing a fake monster and timing it so they all attacked simultaneously, he made the illusion "die" in a way that made it impossible to tell who had landed the final blow. Doing so guaranteed that the adventurers—who had flocked to Daedalus Street purely for the massive bounties—would immediately begin arguing over the drop items. Once the tension peaked, Mukuro, disguised as one of the adventurers, perfectly mimicked their voices to hurl deeply personal insults, striking directly at their pride to spark a physical brawl.
"To prioritize their own bruised egos over the crisis threatening their entire city... I fully expected it, but it seems this world is just as infested with ugly, pathetic humans as our own."
Mukuro specifically targeted adventurers who were low-level and highly insecure about their pride, easily manipulating them from the shadows. Oblivious to the fact that they were dancing perfectly in the palm of his hand, the adventurers tore each other apart.
"You bastard! You faked an injury to spread false information just so you could hoard all the glory!"
"W-What are you talking about!?"
"Don't play dumb with me!"
"Gah!?"
Mukuro, disguised as an injured adventurer, had fed false sightings of the armed monsters to passing groups. The moment the groups realized the information was fake, they assumed they had been intentionally set up, immediately returning to violently assault the original adventurer Mukuro had impersonated.
"Get out of the way! This is mine!"
"Shut the hell up!"
"Guh!?"
In other areas, Mukuro simply dropped illusionary loot on the ground and watched as the adventurers tore each other to pieces over it. Driven completely mad by the prospect of astronomical wealth, they abandoned all reason.
The law of loss aversion. It was a psychological principle dictating that humans feared losing what they perceived as "theirs" more than anything else. The vast majority of adventurers swarming Daedalus Street for the bounty desperately wanted to hoard the wealth for themselves rather than split it with rival factions. Therefore, they were willing to do whatever it took to monopolize it. In fact, most Familias explicitly refused to cooperate or share information for this exact reason.
Fundamentally, relations between Familias in Orario were terrible. Orario was the City of Heroes. It was filled with people who came specifically to become heroes. Thus, anyone who wasn't an ally was simply a rival to be crushed. That hostility was magnified tenfold against rival factions. Furthermore, since adventurers were naturally hot-blooded and prone to violence, constant conflict was inevitable. It was precisely to prevent these conflicts from escalating into full-scale gang wars in the streets that the War Game system existed.
All across the district, Mukuro systematically poked at their greed and pride, manipulating them into fighting each other. And the vast majority of them bled each other dry without ever realizing they were being used.
"It truly is a wonder they had the gall to condemn Bell Cranel."
Bell had been universally condemned for supposedly prioritizing his own profit during a state of emergency. Fueled by deep-seated jealousy over his record-breaking Rank Up, the adventurers had seized the incident as the perfect excuse to tear him down. Yet now, these exact same adventurers were viciously attacking their peers to hoard the bounty for themselves. Completely hypocritical, despite having crucified Bell for the exact same perceived crime.
In the past, the Zeus and Hera Familias had violently "baptized" anyone who dared call themselves an adventurer with overwhelming, absolute power. But their goal had been to forge as many true heroes as possible to save the lower world.
However, among the adventurers who despised Bell, there were more than a few who actively formed mobs to crush and "baptize" talented rookies. Unlike Zeus and Hera, their "baptisms" were fueled entirely by petty jealousy toward those more talented than them, and misdirected resentment over their own wounded pride. Watching their true, ugly nature exposed so easily by his illusions, Mukuro couldn't help but feel thoroughly disgusted.
"What the hell are you guys doing!? Open your eyes, this doesn't make any sense!"
Meanwhile, a single human male desperately screamed at the brawling adventurers, but his voice completely failed to reach ears deafened by bloodlust and greed.
Mordo Latro. An adventurer belonging to the Oghma Familia, a Level 2 known by his alias, Ruffian Dog.
Mordo was one of the men who had harbored a bitter grudge against Bell for reaching Level 2 so quickly, and had personally attempted to "baptize" him. However, after witnessing Bell's heroic stand during a certain incident, Mordo drastically revised his opinion. He was now an ardent fan, having bet entirely on the Hestia Familia during the Apollo Familia's War Game. Even when the entire city and its adventurers had condemned Bell for attacking other adventurers recently, Mordo was one of the few who had actively defended him.
Mordo wasn't exactly a genius either, but seeing the same men who had vehemently condemned Bell now beating each other bloody for a quick payday, even he realized something was terribly wrong.
"...Something is wrong."
Just like Mordo, Naaza, who had been using Fels's Magic Item, the Illusion Flower, to project hallucinations, felt a deep sense of unease.
When Bell had given her the Illusion Flowers, she had been warned that anyone possessing the Abnormal Resistance development ability could negate the pollen. Because of this, she had specifically targeted Level 1 adventurers who were unlikely to have the skill. Yet now, she was watching high-level adventurers—who undoubtedly possessed the resistance—falling victim to the mass hysteria. She knew something wasn't right.
"The sighting reports for the armed monsters are a complete mess!"
"What the hell is going on!?"
"At this rate, we can't tell which ones are the real ones!"
Because Mukuro had seeded the district with countless illusionary armed monsters and sparked massive infighting, the intelligence network was completely compromised. Unable to verify which reports were genuine, the subjugation squads were paralyzed, unable to move recklessly.
"What in the world..."
"The children are fighting each other..."
Meanwhile, overlooking the chaos of Daedalus Street from a high vantage point stood Loki and a blond male deity.
The god's name was Dionysus. He was the head of the Dionysus Familia, currently cooperating with Loki for a specific purpose.
"Lord Dionysus."
"Filvis, is it?"
A young elf girl with long black hair and striking crimson eyes appeared beside the god.
Her name was Filvis Challia. The Captain of the Dionysus Familia, a Level 3 adventurer known by the alias Maenads.
"The adventurers have suddenly begun fighting amongst themselves. Furthermore, the information network has completely collapsed; we've completely lost track of the armed monsters."
"What did you say?"
Hearing Filvis's report, Dionysus immediately sensed that something was fundamentally wrong.
This is way too convenient...
The timing was far too perfect. The situation was overwhelmingly advantageous to the Hestia Familia. Loki's instincts screamed that someone was intentionally pulling the strings.
Is it the Evilus? No, if they pulled a stunt like this, it would just expose them and tighten the noose around their own necks... Which means it has to be the pipsqueak, but there's no way a god who loves her kids that much would do something like this, or force her dependents to do it...
Loki racked her brain trying to profile the mastermind who had engineered this chaos, but she simply couldn't find an answer.
"Who is it...!? Just whose doing is this...!?"
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