Chapter 22
There were many people at the exhibition.
I forced Milluki to come to the exhibition with me.
"I'd rather not do your mission."
That's what I said to him.
I don't really have much of an artistic talent, and the sculptures at the exhibition didn't stand out to me. Only one piece, titled "Love," was particularly eye-catching in the entire exhibition hall, making me linger there for a long time.
The main subject of the work is a girl in profile and butterflies fluttering and swirling. The colors are dark, and the butterflies beautifully and subtly form the shape of a cage. The imprisoned girl stretches out her hand and smiles happily.
I was so engrossed in watching that I didn't move for a long time. Milluki seemed to have discovered the target and left my side. Not long after, I felt a chill down my spine.
The other party did not deliberately exude a sense of oppression or danger; it was purely my body's instinct that automatically issued a warning after sensing his presence.
There aren't many people who can make me react this instinctively the moment he gets close. Illumi is one, and the other is probably...
I turned around, and bright red hair came into view.
Without making a sound, I lifted my foot and took half a step back to the side.
"Hisso," I called his name.
Just like when we first met and when we reunited, he was wearing a well-tailored black suit, his medium-length red hair ambiguously obscuring his sharp, curved eyebrows, and his cold, golden eyes were like hooks aimed at me.
"We meet again, Little Lai~" He still wore that nonchalant smile, his tone flippant and casual. "But there doesn't seem to be anything interesting here. How long are you planning to stay?"
If I hadn't known he wasn't such a kind person, and if I hadn't known that news of the Phantom Troupe's impending attack wouldn't have leaked so easily, I would have seriously doubted that his words were a way of giving me a chance to escape.
If we leave earlier, we won't run into those bandits.
However, my original intention in coming here was to meet them.
More precisely, it was to meet one of them.
So I smiled and replied, "No, I think it's quite interesting here. But you, if you're going to be bored, why did you come?"
He chuckled twice, narrowed his eyes, and said deliberately in a suggestive tone, "Because there's someone here who's very special to me."
“Then it seems it’s not me,” I said regretfully, “because you didn’t seem to expect to meet me here.”
Hisoka raised an eyebrow, his expression quite amused.
"Maybe," he said. "I never thought we'd meet, but we still did, didn't we?"
I stopped talking and just stared at him.
“I’m sorry,” I said to him with a smile, “even if you came here for me, there’s nothing I can do, because I didn’t come here for you.”
What I said was originally a bit presumptuous.
Hisoka chuckled and brushed his red hair behind his head.
“Hmm, this is indeed very interesting,” he said. “No wonder Xiao Yi is always troubled by you.”
"Is that so?" I asked.
“Yes, I do,” Hisoka said softly. “A long time ago, he always used that tone to say that he had a younger sister who was often temperamental but very cute.”
His smile grew increasingly frivolous, and the way he turned to look at me shone with a wilder light.
"Because I always hear it, I've always been curious about how cute he is," he said, leaning down close to my ear. I turned my head slightly and heard his voice vibrating softly in my ear, "Given his personality, to be liked by someone like that—it's amazing he's still alive and well."
"I see," I said, having already averted my gaze and focused on the butterfly sculpture in front of me. "Did your curiosity lead you to any conclusions?"
He let out a muffled laugh from his throat, his shoulders shaking.
I was getting impatient and turned around, wanting to scold him or glare at him. In short, I didn't want to do anything to get close to him—even though I had unexpectedly received a gift from him.
But in that instant of turning my head, because I was momentarily distracted, Hisoka suddenly wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me to his side, close to his chest.
I could almost hear his heartbeat.
He lowered his head and, without a word, forcefully grabbed my chin, forcing me to look up and meet his gaze, no longer tolerating any attempt to look away.
"Hmm... what's the conclusion?" His warm breath lingered on my lips. I frowned, but he didn't release the kiss. Instead, he asked in that position, "What does Little Lai think?"
I think...
I think if he keeps this posture, his back might break.
After all, I'm much shorter than him.
But I did not answer.
Hisoka then pressed my face against his, making me turn my head to look at the artwork beside me.
“Look at those butterflies, they’re things you could crush into dust with one hand,” Hisoka said. “But Illumi has never done that.”
...
At that moment, screams came from somewhere deep inside the exhibition hall.
Either Milluki completed the mission, or the Phantom Troupe has begun to take action.
I patted Hisoka's hand.
He must have finished saying what he wanted to say. He was unusually cooperative at this moment, obediently raising his hand and straightening his body. He didn't touch me again, but just showed a half-smile.
“He doesn’t need to do that,” I told Sissoko. “He prefers to cut off their wings… but that would be too deformed and not to his liking. If he could, he would want a lifelike, complete specimen.”
“If it were me,” I said, then looked up again at the fluttering butterfly statue, “...I would tear it apart, wings and all.”
This seemingly beautiful creature is, in some ways, no different from a piece of paper.
Their best place is in the fire.
"It was a pleasure chatting with you," I said at the end of the conversation. "I have to go see the people I need to see now. Goodbye."
He didn't stop me, and I didn't turn around.
But at one point, I really wanted to stop and ask him... what his choice was.
A deformed life, a stagnant specimen, or a burning fragment?
...But in the end, I still didn't stop.
Because what awaits me ahead of me is something more important and special.
With anticipation, the high heels felt like flat ground beneath her feet, her skirt fluttering and her long hair dancing in the wind.
However, when I arrived at my destination, I discovered that the source of all the unrest was simply another situation I had anticipated—
Miki successfully assassinated his target.
Looking at the body lying on the white ground, I smoothed out the wrinkles on my skirt, looked up to meet the gaze of Miki, who was hiding in the crowd, and then lowered my eyes in disappointment.
"...Huh?" Then I heard a girl's voice that was vaguely familiar yet completely unfamiliar, "...You look so familiar, have I seen you before?"
I looked in the direction of the sound and saw a girl with short black hair and red-rimmed glasses holding an exhibition information card, her eyes wide open, meeting my gaze directly.
It was the suspicious Nen user I'd seen at the hotel that day.
She had reminded me to have a meal in a certain room, and later, Milluki told me that the owner of that room had disappeared after that.
No matter how you look at it, the girl in front of you who looks innocent and harmless is the prime suspect.
I recognized her, and she recognized me too. After a moment of confusion, we quickly realized who it was:
"It's in the hotel..."
I smiled at her, then looked at the artwork closest to her, following the spot where she was standing.
"What a coincidence, you're here to see the exhibition too... 'The Spring'... Do you like this kind of style?"
The girl shook her head.
It probably means that they don't like the work.
"So what type do you like?" I asked.
“Something cute,” she said.
Me: "Me too. But it seems like everyone has a different definition of cute."
She nodded in deep agreement.
Then they looked at each other in silence.
After a while, she suddenly spoke up and asked me, "Do you know Finks?"
"...Is it the person who appeared with you that day?" I answered honestly, "I don't know them."
She said "Oh".
Another moment of silence followed.
Then she reached out and grasped the cross-shaped necklace on her chest, shifting her gaze from the artwork in front of her to the next exhibit.
"It would be great if it were colored," she muttered.
"It's hard to say..." I blinked. "After all, I haven't seen the effect of the coloring in person yet."
"Then how can I see it?" she asked me.
"Buy it and give it a try," I asked uncertainly.
The girl's eyes widened, and she let out a drawn-out "Oh—" as if she had suddenly realized there was another way.
"Do you need it?" I asked. "This piece should be the kind that can be sold."
“No one has ever bought me anything,” she said instead of answering. “I’ve never bought anything like that either.”
As she spoke, she made a decision: "No need, thank you, I will find my own way to see the effect of the coloring."
At that moment, a "Little Di" came from somewhere in the distance. The girl turned around, said "Goodbye" to me, and then turned and left.
I watched her departing figure, standing still for a while... Not long after, Milluki, who had noticed that no one was beside me, appeared as expected.
“Who is that?” he asked. “He looks a bit unusual.”
"I don't know," I replied, "but he probably isn't an ordinary person."
"Then why are you still moving forward?" He couldn't understand.
"Because I was a little curious," I said. "You've finished your task."
He nodded.
I did not make a move.
He asked, "Aren't you leaving?"
Me: "I'm waiting for someone."
“Don’t wait any longer,” Milluki insisted. “Big brother will be back soon, and Killua has also said he’ll be back… They’re probably on their way. Just behave this once.”
“I see,” I said. “That’s perfect. Let Killua take care of Big Brother, then I’ll go back.”
He couldn't persuade me, and because his physical skills were too weak to suppress me, if I didn't want to, he wouldn't gain the upper hand if he forced a fight, and using other abilities might hurt me. So he could only glare at me angrily, throw down the words "Then you just wait," and turn away.
...This time it seems she's really angry with me.
After all, I was just being stubborn.
But it didn't matter, I continued to wander around the exhibition hall.
It wasn't until the morning exhibition was almost over that I learned roughly what had happened—
Someone called the police, and several other bodies were found in a small room on the second floor. The bodies were in strange and contorted positions, as if they were warning someone. It also seemed that something particularly important was missing from the scene.
...Really.
So that's what Milluki meant when he said the Phantom Troupe would visit the exhibition.
They weren't planning on causing any major trouble; instead, they were carefully searching for something they wanted.
My waiting seems to have been in vain.
Well... what can I say... I'm so unlucky.
I waited so long, and this is what happened?
I walked out of the exhibition hall feeling very disappointed.
Millet has already left, probably not far away. He might call me in a little while—that's just how he is, always trying to distance himself from me, but then he ends up getting himself into trouble by coming here to suffer.
But that phone call wouldn't come too soon, after all, he has a temper too.
Before that phone rang, I was wandering aimlessly along the road in front of me, and when I came to my senses, I realized that I seemed to have entered a secluded and sparsely populated alley.
Nothing good ever happens in a place like this.
I turned around to go back to find the main road.
But in that very short time—an unexpected accident occurred.
A tall figure blocked my way.
Because of the backlighting, I couldn't see his face clearly, but I could judge from his figure that he was an adult man who was about 1.9 meters tall.
"Honestly," the guy who had appeared out of nowhere rubbed the back of his neck and complained, "I told you I'm not completely useless... Ha, you fell for my trap."
The moment the words left my mouth, rattling chains emerged from the shadows and bound me tightly.
"Got you!" Then, the tall man who had stopped me cheered.
“…No,” another voice slowly came from the direction of the extended chains, “she is not a spider.”
Everything happened so fast. Before I could even ask them what they had misunderstood, my body instinctively sensed danger approaching, and every cell in my body seemed to be screaming, "Get out of the way!"
The suspicious stranger who had chained me up was clearly also exceptionally perceptive. The moment I realized the danger, he yanked the chain and dragged me and the tall man beside me toward his location.
...The outline of her fair and beautiful face flashed before my eyes, and then I only had a chance to see the golden hair swaying on the back of the head of this Nen user who manipulated the chains.
He turned his back and ran hurriedly, seemingly trying to escape someone's pursuit. The chains binding the man beside me had loosened, but mine hadn't—
He took me with him and we ran away together.
“You’ve arrived too early,” he said to his companion, adding, “Our only chance to succeed in the attack was by kidnapping the wrong people. It won’t be easy to catch them again… Let’s go. Hisoka just said where we’re supposed to meet.”
His companion hesitated, "Let me see... But speaking of which, are you bringing this young lady along?"
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