Chapter 54

At Adrian's house, due to his mother's authoritarianism and vigilance, coupled with my constant clinging to him, Kuroro had few opportunities to demonstrate his abilities.

But I know he is not a simple person, otherwise he would not have been able to hide it from my mother and impersonate my brother who has been missing for many years and is basically considered dead to have entered Adrian.

Kurapika has temporarily escaped the Phantom Troupe, but he disappeared within their planned encirclement... Chrollo will surely conduct a thorough search of the area soon.

Killua and Kalluto's movements caught Illumi's attention, and Kalluto himself was also in a difficult situation.

If we continue to hide in the same place without making any moves, they will probably find us soon, and this situation is too dangerous.

I need to find a way to get him away from here.

Thinking about this, I couldn't help but feel a little strange... I'd been "locked up" for so long myself, and I hadn't even thought about escaping a few times, so why was I now so kindly worried about Kurapika?

I tilted my head, unable to think of an answer. Turning my head, I saw the weak blond youth still resting with his eyes closed, his face pale, his lips slightly pursed, his hair disheveled and falling around his cheeks, and his brows furrowed.

It looks like an oil painting.

It's so beautiful that it can be hung on the wall and appreciated as a work of art.

This person looks like he's about to break.

My thoughts paused for a moment.

...Never mind.

We've already done our part.

Anyway, this isn't the first time I've been willful, so I might as well continue to be willful.

As for ways to help him...

After thinking it over carefully, I finally had to admit that the intelligence work my mother did was indeed a remarkable profession.

“There’s a retired bounty hunter in this city,” I said to Kurapika after reviewing the available information on the intelligence website in my mind. “It’s dangerous for us to stay here, and it’s also dangerous to move around rashly. I’m going to ask this hunter for help.”

"Does he have any special abilities?" The blond youth instantly understood why I had made this choice.

When I asked him this question, he still kept his head slightly lowered, and I couldn't see the expression on his face.

“Yes,” I nodded and explained the situation, “but it will be very dangerous… so I need to ask you to trust me one more time.”

He gave a wry smile, his voice tinged with self-deprecation:

"At this point, there couldn't be any better option... Although I don't want to involve any of you, I'm sorry to trouble you."

“In this situation, you’re the one who’s in trouble,” I asked, “because I got involved voluntarily, while you were forced to accept it.”

He continued to smile wryly.

"You really are quite different from everyone I've ever met... Anyway, please wait here for now, I'll be back as soon as I've dealt with this matter."

I said.

"Are you going to handle this yourself?" He seemed to sense something, looked up, and asked in confusion, "Aren't you going to find Killua and the others...?"

"Why should we look for them?" I was even more puzzled.

Kurapika: "..."

I solemnly declare: "No matter what misunderstandings you may have had before, my relationship with Killua is definitely not that good, at least not the kind of relationship where I can confidently turn to him for help whenever I encounter difficulties."

"...Your relationship is really complicated," he said in a tone that was hard to put into words.

“Likewise,” I said, forcing a smile and curving my eyes. “You’re quite a mysterious character too.”

The chatter ended as I adjusted the bow on my collar, said goodbye, and turned to leave.

The bounty hunter I'm looking for possesses a special Nen ability; his ability leans towards the Specialization type and is related to space and time.

If I can ask him for help, I can help Kurapika leave the city without anyone noticing, and at the same time, I can also help myself leave the city.

I haven't figured out what to do next, but one thing is for sure... Although it was just a spur-of-the-moment decision, rescuing Kurapika is the first time in my life that I've gained a sense of accomplishment through my own abilities in the world of Nen users. I will escort him until we are temporarily out of the Phantom Troupe's hunting grounds.

After that... I'll just keep living day to day. As long as I don't go back to Kukuroku Mountain, everything will be fine. I'm really tired of that family and my old life.

Bounty hunters are elusive, so I hid half of my face, which was passable, behind a mask and hat, and went to the area where he often appeared, temporarily bribing an informant with money.

The human brain is truly remarkable, capable of perceiving countless minute and distinct details in an instant, processing them roughly, and then reporting and outputting the information at an extremely high speed. However, this highly efficient operation inevitably exhibits some roughness in its process.

The intelligence observation ability I inherited from my mother is like a second brain. It takes what we observe with our naked eyes, but which our brains can't analyze, and can only process into "intuition." For example, information about a person being very small or someone who is approachable... I write all of this in a detailed and intuitive report.

So I actually knew a long time ago that Kuroro was impersonating my brother.

The moment I saw him, my Nen ability told me that there was a deep greed hidden in his eyes.

He was sincere and cautious in front of his mother, humble and subservient, with his eyes slightly lowered, but in front of me, he impatiently half-concealed his dark ambitions.

He looked down on me.

A person's judgment can be influenced by the group environment. When people are alone with a cat, they are wary of its claws, but they will ignore kittens in a pride of lions.

I wonder if he has realized this now: even if I look weak and not as strong as the lion behind me, I am still a carnivore, a natural hunter.

...Let's get back to the main topic.

Using my Nen ability to identify several individuals who might know the information, and after spending a large sum of money I had previously withdrawn from Kal'ts' account, I quickly found the target I wanted to meet.

The bounty hunter, whose exploits were documented on intelligence websites, was sprawled on his sofa at home, crocheting gloves. When he opened the door for me, he briefly got up, then quickly sat back down, picked up his crochet hook, and continued working. I greeted him and tried to explain why I had come:

"Hello, sir."

Without even looking up or glancing at me, he said:

"I haven't taken on any missions in a long time, and I've sold my license. Please leave."

“I’m not here to ask for a task,” I said.

He then briefly looked up from his handicrafts and glanced at me.

After looking me up and down, the dejected and disheartened bounty hunter chuckled, a mocking expression on his face:

"Little girl, those words won't work on me. I've heard the same thing countless times. I said I'm not taking any missions, and that's final. Go away. Don't force me to take action. I won't hold back just because you're a little girl."

“This world isn’t easy to live in anyway,” I said calmly. “But I’m not here to ask for a mission; I’m here to discuss terms of a deal. This deal will definitely go through. You can refuse to ask for a mission, but you can’t refuse me.”

"What are you talking about?" He chuckled, gripping his crochet hook tightly, a murderous aura emanating from him. "This is my last warning to you: get lost and don't disturb me while I'm making gloves—"

"In your last mission as a professional hunter, you used your Nen ability to kill your comrade, and you're still haunted by it, which is why you quit being a hunter." I gripped the doorframe, telling myself I couldn't back down, and said with my chin held high and my tone unchanged, "I can let you communicate with your deceased comrade one more time, but even then, you're unwilling to cooperate?"

"...communication"—he showed a desire to communicate.

“Yes,” I said, “There is a Nen user whose ability allows you to communicate with the deceased. Don’t you want to talk to your comrades about what happened? Someone who values ​​their comrades as much as you would definitely want to see them again at all costs… If you do, please help me. The condition is simple: you just need to help me transfer one person.”

The bounty hunter fell silent.

After a while, he put down the glove he was halfway through crocheting.

“Since you know about that… you should also know the limitations of my ability,” he said. “I used this ability to kill my comrade, and even so, you still want my help.”

“I have my reasons for doing so,” I said. “Just as you had to use your spatial abilities to move your friend, I faced the same situation.”

—I have many reasons to explain my motivation.

But I know that this is the one that will touch him the most, as he values ​​his companions.

As expected, after a brief moment of thought, the man revealed a complex expression, and then mumbled:

"In that case, if you are prepared to accept the worst outcome, I can reluctantly give it a try... but this ability is really dangerous, and it could kill someone."

“No,” I said. “With me here, I won’t let that happen.”

...

To avoid drawing attention, I split up with the bounty hunter. I gave him an address and told him to show up there and activate his ability at the agreed time.

This hunter's ability is to use himself as the center point to teleport a marked target to the other side of the world in an axially symmetrical manner.

If the teleportation location is not chosen well and an obstacle is encountered, the teleported person may explode like a balloon filled with water.

That's how his companion died.

This incident dealt him a heavy blow, leading him to sell his hunter's license, voluntarily retire, and hide in a corner of the city, never accepting any more commissioned missions.

However, today, thanks to my persuasion, he is going to use this ability again.

"The location I chose won't be a problem," I assured him again as I left.

"Why are you so confident?" He seemed unable to understand.

“Because…” I thought for a moment, then laughed, “It’s rare to find something I’m good at, so I’m sure I’ll do it well.”

There will absolutely be no problem.

Finally, on my way back, I casually tossed Kurt's phone, which I hadn't had time to deal with, into some hidden corner.

Goodbye, Zoldyck.

I put my hands back in my pockets and looked up at the sky. The clouds floated in the sky like willow catkins, light and white.

Of course I will succeed, I will definitely succeed.

Because I am my mother's daughter.

Even though my mother didn't acknowledge me and I never took on any major responsibilities, I still truly inherited this ability and this mind from her.

In the past, my father said that the resemblance between me and my mother was an omen of misfortune, so I tried my best to prove him wrong.

But now I know he was right, I really do resemble my mother, and I no longer intend to hide that part of me.

I am that woman's daughter.

Like her, I am intelligent and capable, and perhaps I have also inherited a bit of her cold-bloodedness.

But so what?

What's wrong with accepting yourself and being yourself?

A mother doesn't need a father.

Just like I don't need Illumi, I don't need Chrollo, I don't need Killua, Kalmod... they can't save me, but I can save Kurapika.

I can be the savior myself.

Relying on my memory of the city map, I bypassed the alleys, quickened my pace, and walked straight around the corner not far behind me to enter the Phantom Troupe's territory. I might even bump into one of them. I was fearless and brazenly brushed past this infamous group of villains.

Wearing the bounty hunter's ability marker, I walked faster and faster, but each step was firm and solid.

Arriving at the bike shed where the blond youth was hiding, I pushed open the door. The old motion-sensor lights outside the bike shed only flickered on with a warm yellow light the instant I opened the door. The blond youth inside the bike shed turned his face, and his deep black pupils, similar to Kuroro's, reflected a bit of orange-yellow light.

I took out the marker.

“The negotiations were successful. I found someone to help me,” I announced to him. “We can leave here soon, and you will be safe soon.”

“…Thank you,” he said.

"You're welcome." I crouched down, trying to make my eyes level with his, and placed the marker in his palm. "But it will take some time before his ability is activated... His ability is spatial teleportation. I plan to teleport you out. Take this and I'll go to the destination and wait for you."

As I got up to leave again, he suddenly called out to me:

"Ray."

It was rare to hear my own name spoken by this guy.

I turned around, puzzled. "What's wrong?"

"Why do you want to help me?" he asked.

I thought about it and really wanted to come up with a more plausible answer, but after thinking for a long time, I couldn't come up with anything. In the end, I could only give a confused reply:

"...I don't know, maybe I'm just bored."

He received the answer, but he seemed to have some reservations and didn't look very satisfied, as if he wanted to hear something else.

"What else?" I asked, my eyes wide open.

He suddenly smiled and said, "No... this reason is good enough."

After a very brief pause, he repeated it again, as if talking to himself:

"...Very good reason, thank you."

After saying that, he closed his eyes, lay back down, and continued to rest.

I tilted my head and looked at him for a while, then finally decided to close the door and leave for good this time.

His way of expressing himself is indeed very unique; I find it hard to understand.

But for some reason, I don't dislike this at all; in fact, I find it quite interesting.

...After being lost in thought for a while, when I came to my senses, I found that I had already arrived at my destination.

Success is within reach.

It's almost time.

I clasped my hands together, made no prayers, and simply waited.

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Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!