Chapter 66

Aruka had no clue what to do about the current situation.

“Generally speaking,” he explained to me with a blink of his eyes, “we tend to appear around people we are closer to first.”

I lowered my eyes.

So, in Alucard's heart, I still have a place.

But I've almost never thought of him.

This realization leaves me speechless.

"I see..." In the end, all I could do was utter a futile sigh.

Alka fell silent.

We sat facing each other in silence for a while, then I asked:

"Are we just going to wait here... and see if anything unexpected happens?"

“Ah, yes!” Hearing my question, Aluka smiled broadly, trying her best to be friendly. “Generally, I just wait like this... If we can’t stop something bad from happening in time, it’s okay, we’ll be sent to other places where we can make amends.”

"Are you stuck in this situation all along?" I asked again.

Aluka thought for a moment, shook her head, and then nodded hesitantly.

“…I don’t remember,” I guessed what he was trying to say.

This time, he finally nodded readily.

"How long have you been trapped in this so-called time vortex?" I couldn't help but ask. "For example, how old were you when this started, and how old are you now?"

Alka thought about it in a daze, then held the doll in one hand and gestured with the other.

“I seem to be much taller than before…” He stepped back to the telephone pole behind him and gestured that the height difference was at least ten centimeters.

Wow.

I don't know what to say to express my feelings.

His lonely and chaotic journey was truly long, and what's most frightening is that, based on his description, I can hardly imagine where the journey would end.

"Has Killua forgotten about you for so long...?"

Aluka's expression darkened, her head drooped, and she stared listlessly at her toes.

I realized I had touched a nerve with him, but it was too late to make amends. I could only casually move on from the topic.

“I’m a little thirsty,” I said. “You wait here, I’ll go buy some drinks.”

Aluka nodded obediently.

I took the opportunity to leave.

...When I arrived at the nearby supermarket, I noticed that the time displayed on the screen was several years ago. Arka's abilities were not only out of control but also chaotic. I didn't know what they had done in the first place or what type of disaster had changed to cause this result.

I rummaged through my pockets, but couldn't find any tokens to use for discounts. I sighed helplessly; I'd experienced every kind of poverty I'd ever known in my life in just these few days… Before I could figure out what to do next, a guy approached me with excessive enthusiasm, fawningly saying:

"Miss, is something bothering you?"

I held the drink in my hand, turned to look at him, and his eyes lit up as he asked:

"Did you forget your wallet? I can pay for you."

After hesitating for less than two seconds, I nodded calmly under the other person's covetous gaze.

...Oh right, speaking of which, there are indeed people like that occasionally.

I stared intently at the clerk scanning the product codes.

...Although I don't like my appearance and am not proud of it, there are still many people who are willing to pay for this face.

When the shop assistant handed me the goods, the man next to me seized the opportunity and asked for my contact information.

I unscrewed the bottle cap, thought for a moment, and casually recited a string of numbers. He tried to dial the number right in front of me... God knows, that string of numbers was completely made up by me. Who knows what might have happened if he had actually dialed the number.

To avoid encountering something I shouldn't have, I jumped in fright and turned to leave.

The man followed closely behind me, and I could hear the ringing of his phone... I quickened my pace, turned into the alley around the bend, and a few steps further, Aluka was waiting for me not far away.

However, the alley was blocked at this crucial moment.

Two men were blocking a tall, thin boy from the front and back... I desperately wanted to go around them, but I found the alley was too narrow and I couldn't get through.

"Excuse me," I could only interrupt their charade, saying, "Please let me go to the other side—"

The men gave an impatient "ha," raised their faces fiercely, and glared at me. In the backlight, I could only see two dark shadows.

The boy they surrounded had an unusual, deep red color that was faintly visible in the dim light.

……red

I blinked.

The man who had tried to strike up a conversation with me but failed to get my contact information hung up a phone call that had somehow gone off-topic, walked up to me, and persistently said:

"Miss, you've given me the wrong number."

...Now I'm caught in a dilemma, surrounded from both sides, unable to advance or retreat.

I couldn't help but rub my forehead, sigh, and resignedly turn away, deciding to go around this alley to find Aluka.

"Sorry," I said to the man behind me honestly, "I didn't bring my phone with me this time."

The man clearly didn't believe me, and with a hint of annoyance, he reached out his hand towards me—I wasn't sure what he wanted to do, but I instinctively backed away.

His attempt to shove me landed on the two burly men behind me.

Then, inexplicably, the three of them started arguing.

"Hey, hey—what do you mean by this?"

"Are you blind? Can't you see there's anyone else here? If you have a problem, go somewhere else!"

As they were talking, the hand that the man who had been flirting with touched the burly man's arm was violently twisted. He let out a howl and then retaliated with a leg kick, and the three of them got into a fight.

...What an idiot bunch! What's the point of them fighting like this?

I couldn't stand it anymore and didn't want to get involved, so I tried to leave by sticking close to the wall. But after taking only two steps, I found that my movements were being restrained by something.

The red-haired boy who had been silently standing in the corner reached out his blood-stained hands and gripped the hem of my clothes tightly.

I turned to look at him in confusion, and met a face that was both familiar and unfamiliar.

Slender golden eyes, arched eyebrows, thin lips and a pointed chin... Disheveled red hair, wet and mixed with blood, clung to his cheeks, the shocking bloodstains further highlighting his pale and weak complexion.

...It seems to be Hisoka.

Could it be Hisoka?

I stared in astonishment.

Hisoka didn't say anything, closed his eyes as if he was about to faint. I didn't care about anything else, grabbed his hand that was clutching my clothes, squatted down, lifted his chin, and examined his features.

...It really seems to be Hisoka.

Just as I was still wondering whether I had mistaken someone for someone else, the guys who were fighting finally remembered that they had some "important things" to do. They stopped what they were doing and looked at me and Hisoka.

I don't want to fight them... I just want to sneak away, but what if Hisoka gets involved...

Seriously.

Although we're not officially married yet, at least he's the one I proposed to—

I had to take a deep breath and sense the flow of my mental energy.

The guys behind me are just ordinary people; with my skill level, dealing with them is more than enough.

...However, if this guy in front of me really is Hisoka, how could he have been defeated by these two seemingly ordinary individuals?

While lost in thought, I leaned Hisoka against the wall and put him down, clenching my fists for the first time in a long time, and getting into a fighting stance.

"Hahahaha," the men burst into laughter, noticing my movement. "Little girl, what do you mean by this?"

My ten fingers, stretched across my chest, were twisted and deformed, with sharp, razor-sharp nails sprouting from their tips. I endured the pain of my deformed fingers, first casually piercing the wall beside me, then, my face hardening, I gave a warning:

"Get out of here—"

Their laughter stopped abruptly after my action, and an unsettling, terrifying atmosphere filled the air.

"That, that is—"

"It's just a smokescreen, isn't it?"

"No, maybe it's true..."

What is that?

The Zoldyck family's "limb-bending technique" might seem strange and terrifying to the average person.

...I withdrew my hand, deliberately releasing a suitable amount of Nen pressure, and coldly added:

"I'm sorry, but if you don't leave soon, I may have to resort to other methods to get rid of you."

The mental pressure made them bend over, almost unable to breathe, sweat beading on their foreheads. I silently counted a few times in my mind, and at the right moment, I withdrew the mental pressure. The next second, the group of guys scattered like birds.

Only Hisoka and I were left in the alley.

I struggled to lift him up from the ground... For someone like me who can push open the Zoldyck gate, Hisoka's weight wasn't a problem; it was his height that was really giving me trouble.

Seriously.

I struggled to adjust my posture while carrying him, thinking irritably, "Why is this guy so tall for no reason?"

...

After stumbling and swaying all the way, I finally brought Hisoka to where Alluka was. However, it was only then that I realized that the drinks I bought at the supermarket had disappeared in the chaos of war.

hateful.

Wasn't this just a wasted trip?

I grumbled and tossed Hisoka to the side of a telephone pole, telling him to sit down against it.

“This guy,” I then asked Alka, “is he the one you’re supposed to save this time you travel through time?”

Alka was squatting by the roadside. He seemed to have been waiting for me for a while, looking absent-minded. When he heard my question, he looked up, a little confused, glanced at me, then at Hisoka, and then, holding his cute doll, asked me:

"who is he"

I:"……"

Alka said even more innocently, "I don't know him... My abilities won't take me to save people I don't know."

I:"……"

The current situation has left me somewhat speechless.

I looked at Hisoka with a puzzled expression, then at Allka, and tentatively asked:

You really don't know him?

Aluka replied firmly, "I don't know her!"

I:"……"

After a moment of silence as we looked at each other, I sighed, took Hisoka's arm, and put it around my shoulder, intending to help him to a place where he could stay temporarily before discussing the final arrangements with Alluka...

In that brief moment, Alka suddenly exclaimed "Ah!"

“I know, Sister Lei,” he said excitedly, “I’ve seen him, my brother knows him! They’ve met!”

The brother that Alluka mentioned is most likely "Killua"... Considering that Hisoka knows Illumi, it's not surprising that Killua knows Hisoka, and it's also not surprising that Alluka met Hisoka with Killua.

"So," I asked again, "your abilities might allow you to save him?"

Alka wore an expression I can't quite describe. After hesitating for a moment, she shook her head and whispered:

"Probably not... because I don't want to save him. My ability will only activate when someone I want to protect is in danger."

It seems I've heard some terrible news again, and I inexplicably feel even more pressured. Does this mean I've unknowingly been categorized as a "protected individual" by Aluka?

This pressure is simply unbearable.

I cowardly chose to escape again and avoid the topic:

"Then why are we here?"

Alka thought about it seriously for a moment, then opened her eyes wide and asked me:

"Could it be..."

Me: "Hmm"

Under my questioning gaze, he cautiously added, "Could it be... because Sister Lai wanted to save him, which affected her abilities..."

I:"……"

I was deeply shocked, and in disbelief, I turned to look at Hisoka beside me, blurting out:

I want to save him.

Am I that concerned about him?

Are we that close?

Seeing my shocked expression, Alka hugged the doll tightly, embarrassed, and whispered again:

"Isn't that right...? But Sister Lei, you're helping him right now."

I:"……!"

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