[Hunter x Hunter] Scamming My Way to the Top

[Boumargood]

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Chapter 31: Doors Beneath Their Feet

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​

The crew member's voice faded from the airship's speakers after announcing their arrival at the site of the Third Phase.

Tonpa remained seated on the edge of the bed for several moments, staring at the door as he tried to convince his body that sleep was over. It was not exhaustion that kept him there, but the fact that the Hunter Exam had awakened before him and already prepared another way for him to die.

He planted his feet on the floor. His body responded with greater lightness than he was accustomed to, reminding him of the Speed he had upgraded to Rank C before going to sleep.

The improvement was unmistakable, but the cost of the next upgrade immediately surfaced in his mind.

'Ten thousand Nen Points. Apparently, Rank B is reserved for the wealthy.'

Tonpa rose with a frown.

'At that price, hiring Netero himself might be cheaper.'

He entered the washroom and splashed cold water over his face, then straightened his clothes and left the room. The smell of food led him toward the section of the main hall that the crew had converted into a temporary assembly area while the airship completed its descent.

There, he found Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio gathered around the same table.

Gon was eating as though the next phase would be a competition to finish breakfast, while Killua had taken enough food to feed two people. Kurapika sat quietly, and Leorio held a steaming cup with an expression suggesting that mornings were a form of assault the law had inexplicably failed to criminalize.

Tonpa stopped beside the empty seat.

"Is this taken?"

Gon answered immediately.

"No. Sit down."

Tonpa sat without anyone objecting or moving their drink farther away from him. A few days ago, his approach alone would have been enough to trigger a state of emergency. Now, his presence among them had become almost natural.

'No objections and no wary looks. Familiarity is cheaper than trust, but it serves its purpose.'

Killua looked at him.

"If we need a plan today, try to choose one that doesn't involve the Chairman's mother."

Leorio stopped drinking.

"What is he talking about?"

Gon eagerly explained how they had forced Netero to use all four of his limbs. When he reached the part involving Tonpa's shout, Leorio's eyes moved between Tonpa and Killua, searching for some indication that they were joking.

"You confronted the Chairman of the Hunter Association by asking about his mother?"

Tonpa picked up a piece of bread.

"I distracted him at the right moment. The wording was a technical detail."

Kurapika asked:

"But it worked?"

Gon nodded.

"He had to use his other hand and leg."

Leorio studied Tonpa for a moment before shaking his head.

"The more I learn about you, the less I understand you."

Tonpa answered solemnly:

"That is a sign of depth."

A short laugh escaped Killua.

Their conversation continued until the airship shuddered, signaling the beginning of its final descent. The others tried to guess what form the next phase might take, while Tonpa contented himself with listening. He knew what awaited them, yet that knowledge brought him little comfort.

During the conversation, he noticed that Gon now directed questions toward him without hesitation, and Leorio no longer interrupted every answer with an accusation. Even Kurapika, despite the caution that remained in his eyes, listened instead of treating Tonpa like noise to be ignored.

As for Killua, he now mocked him the way he would mock someone whose presence he had grown accustomed to—not an enemy waiting for him to turn his back.

It was not complete trust, or anything close to it, but it was considerably better than the suspicion with which they had first greeted him.

'A few more days, and they might even let me pour the juice myself.'

Unfortunately, his knowledge of future events was no longer complete.

In the original course of events, forty-two applicants had passed the Second Phase, but only forty had reached Trick Tower. Killua had killed two applicants aboard the airship after leaving the ball game.

This time, Killua had remained until their game with Netero ended, leaving those two applicants alive. On top of that, six additional applicants had survived the Second Phase.

Forty-eight applicants were now approaching the tower—eight more than the number that should have reached it.

'Eight variables walking on two legs, and my memory is the only plan. Reassuring.'

The airship landed upon a vast stone surface. The applicants descended one after another, and the moment Tonpa moved away from the stairs, he saw the edge of the platform and the clouds gathered beneath it.

They stood atop an enormous tower whose sheer walls plunged downward until they vanished inside the mist.

'Trick Tower.'

Beans stood before them and announced that the Third Phase required them to reach the base of the tower alive within seventy-two hours. A large timer began counting down while the applicants looked around for an entrance that did not appear to exist.

A man near the edge spoke confidently.

"We don't need an entrance. We can climb down from the outside."

He lowered himself over the edge and began descending, using the gaps between the stones as handholds. He moved quickly enough that several applicants began to believe he had found the solution.

Then came the sound of wings beating beneath the clouds.

Winged creatures with long claws emerged from the mist. One of them swooped toward the man and tore him away from the wall.

His scream did not last long.

The creatures converged upon him before disappearing back into the mist with their prey.

Everyone retreated from the edge.

Tonpa took two additional steps out of respect for his survival instincts.

He remembered the scene, but a screen had not conveyed the weight of the man's scream or the drops of blood falling into the void.

'Forty-seven applicants left searching for a way down, and one confirmed way to become breakfast.'

The applicants spread across the roof and began examining the floor and its edges. Tonpa studied the stone tiles while trying to reconstruct the scene from the anime, but his memory offered him little more than an image of Gon standing upon gray stones indistinguishable from the thousands surrounding them.

One applicant suddenly disappeared on the other side of the roof.

Two more vanished shortly afterward.

Amid all the movement, not everyone noticed, but the number of people remaining on the surface was clearly decreasing.

A faint headache began pulsing behind Tonpa's eyes.

He knew that the entrances were hidden trapdoors, but he could not remember which ones led to the majority-rule route. If one of the additional applicants claimed the required door before him, he might find himself separated from the other four and trapped inside a route that had never appeared in the anime.

Tonpa looked toward Gon, then Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio.

Remaining with them was not merely a matter of convenience. The success of his Trust Quest depended upon them, and his knowledge of the tower's events was tied specifically to their route. Being separated from them now would mean losing his human shields, his guide to future events, and his four best sources of Nen Points at the same time.

'The moment I lose the route I know, my knowledge of the future becomes a collection of useless memories.'

He approached the group before they could disperse.

"Don't search for a path along the walls. Watch the applicants."

Kurapika looked around before answering:

"Their numbers are decreasing."

Tonpa nodded, pleased by how quickly he had noticed.

"And we haven't seen any of them reach the edge. That means they're descending from here—from beneath the roof. There must be hidden doors between the tiles."

Gon crouched and began running his fingers along the gaps in the stone. Killua did the same.

Leorio looked at Tonpa.

"How did you know where to search?"

Tonpa gestured toward the center of the roof, adopting the expression of a man who had completed a brilliant analysis rather than one following a blurred image from his memory.

"The central area is less exposed to those creatures. Most of the applicants who disappeared were also standing away from the edge."

The first half was a guess. The second was a genuine observation.

It was an appropriate mixture for convincing intelligent people without making his answer appear suspiciously prepared.

The five of them moved toward the center while remaining close to one another.

Several minutes later, Gon stopped over a tile and crouched to examine a thin line surrounding it.

"I found a door."

Killua discovered a second one nearby. Kurapika and Leorio soon found two more.

Tonpa continued searching as the tension inside him steadily grew. At last, a stone sank slightly beneath his foot, revealing a rectangular outline around it.

Five adjacent doors.

He breathed a quiet sigh of relief before remembering that he had no proof they still led to the same place.

Gon smiled.

"We'll meet below."

He pressed down on his door. The stone slab flipped open, dropping him into the darkness before closing again.

Killua followed, then Kurapika and Leorio. Each trapdoor closed after swallowing its occupant.

Tonpa remained alone above the final door.

In the original course of events, the other four had spent nearly two hours waiting for Tonpa to fall into the same room. This time, he had found his door immediately.

That should have reassured him.

It did not.

He could only trust that the five adjacent doors still led to the same chamber and that the additional applicants had not altered the routes inside the tower.

'After eight draws, this door is no longer the most dangerous decision I've made today.'

Tonpa pressed his foot against the stone.

'Betting my life on a door seems like a natural extension of my decisions.'

The slab opened beneath him, and he plunged into the darkness.

Only one hope remained inside his mind.

'Please... don't invent any new events before I hit the floor.'



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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 32: The Voice of the Majority

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​

Tonpa's fall did not last long.

The opening swallowed him, and his feet struck a sloping passage that sent him sliding through the darkness too quickly to assume a position that might preserve what remained of his dignity. He emerged from the other end shoulder-first, rolled across the stone floor, and finally came to rest on his back.

He remained still for a moment, making sure every part of his body was still where it belonged.

Tonpa tried to push himself upright too quickly, only for the room to tilt before his eyes and force his palm back against the floor. Apparently, Rank C Speed did not include the ability to land gracefully inside a dark hole.

The upgrade had improved his body's responsiveness, but it had not granted him a new agreement with gravity. He slowly sat upright and decided to reserve his experiments with speed for places where the ground could be trusted.

"Tonpa!"

He raised his head and saw Gon approaching. Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio were also inside the room, each having arrived through a different opening in the ceiling.

A long breath escaped Tonpa's chest.

'So my knowledge of the future hasn't become obsolete information just yet.'

Reaching the same room was far more important than it appeared. If his door had led him to an individual route, he would have been forced to face tests he did not remember with the strength of an applicant far better at escaping fights than winning them.

The presence of the other four meant the story had not broken yet—and that he still had four people to hide behind whenever necessary.

That, in Tonpa's opinion, was the true value of friendship.

Gon took his arm and helped him to his feet.

"You were right about the doors. I didn't expect you to be that observant."

Tonpa brushed the dust from his clothes and tried not to look too pleased.

"The disappearing applicants told me the doors existed. The difference in the echo near the center of the roof told me where to look."

Killua regarded him with narrowed eyes.

"I thought you were pretending to know what you were talking about again, but your analysis was right."

Tonpa raised an eyebrow.

"A person can pretend to know what they're talking about and still be correct. It requires talent."

Gon laughed while Killua shook his head. Neither of them realized that the statement was the closest thing to an honest confession they were likely to receive.

Kurapika added while examining the openings in the ceiling:

"Keeping us close together was also a good decision. It appears the adjacent doors led to the same place."

Leorio folded his arms.

"Well, you managed to do something useful without being swallowed by an animal this time. That's progress."

Ding!

A single notification appeared before Tonpa.

[Group Deception Registered.]

[Number of Targets: 4.]

[Nen Points +20]

[Experience Points +20]

[Total Nen Points: 116]

[Experience Points: 1,556/1,800]

Tonpa dismissed the window and maintained a modest expression.

His analysis had not been entirely false. The number of applicants had genuinely been decreasing, and the doors had indeed been hidden beneath the stone tiles.

The difference in the echo, however, had existed nowhere except inside the lie he had invented moments earlier.

They believed his ears had helped him locate the doors, and that was enough for the System.

'Twenty Nen Points for a sound I never heard. My Intelligence Stat is finally beginning to repay its debts.'

Tonpa turned to examine the room.

It was small and circular, with stone walls and no windows. A single metal door stood before them, but it had no visible handle or lock. A short pedestal rose from the center of the room, with five broad black wristwatches resting upon it.

Tonpa's mocking smile slowly faded.

The five watches. The sealed room. The single door.

Everything was where it belonged.

'Good. Don't change now.'

The sight of the five watches was reassuring and unsettling in equal measure. Reassuring because this was the route he remembered, and unsettling because they had reached this point almost two hours earlier than the original group.

He did not know whether the tower merely measured time or adjusted its tests according to when the applicants entered. The idea sounded ridiculous, but eight additional applicants had taught him to treat ridiculous possibilities with more respect than they deserved.

He had no desire to discover the answer while trapped inside a mountain of stone that doubled as a prison filled with professional killers.

Tonpa approached the pedestal with the others.

'I've forgiven you for the eight additional applicants and the way Netero looked at me. Just let this part happen the way I remember it.'

Gon picked up one of the watches. A small screen above the pedestal lit up, and glowing words appeared across it.

[Majority Rules Path.]

[The Path cannot begin unless five applicants are present.]

[All decisions will be determined by majority vote using the O and X buttons.]

The screen continued displaying the instructions. No single applicant could make a decision alone. Any choice that received at least three votes would become binding upon everyone, whether they agreed with it or not.

Tonpa read the lines without allowing his unease to appear on his face. He possessed advance knowledge of the tests, but the path was no longer subject to his will alone. If three people voted against him, even a perfect memory could not open the correct door.

'Wonderful. A system designed specifically to let four people control my chances of survival.'

Then he remembered that the original Tonpa had been exactly the sort of problem the majority-rule system appeared designed to contain.

'Perhaps justice really exists in this world. That's the worst news I've heard today.'

Killua turned one of the watches between his fingers.

"So we have to agree every time."

Leorio replied:

"Or three of us have to agree."

He looked at Tonpa as he spoke, and no one needed to ask whom he expected to become the source of their problems.

Tonpa raised his watch with an injured expression.

"That look hurts me."

"You'll recover," Killua said. "You have a protective layer."

Each of them put on a watch. The band automatically tightened around Tonpa's wrist, and two large buttons appeared on its screen: an O and an X.

He ran his thumb over the buttons without pressing either one. In his previous life, he would have loved a system like this—five people, two choices, and only three votes required to sell a decision as the will of the majority.

He would only need to persuade two people, then leave the others believing they had been defeated by logic.

The problem was that the four people around him were not customers sitting behind screens, and at least one of them could break his arm if he realized Tonpa was manipulating the vote.

The screen above the door lit up.

[Would you like to open the door?]

[O: Yes.]

[X: No.]

Tonpa stared at the two buttons.

In the original story, the old Tonpa had pressed X simply to annoy the group and test the system. It had not stopped the door from opening because the other four had chosen O, but it had immediately revealed that he had no intention of making their journey easy.

The current Tonpa needed their trust and their success. Before either of those things, he needed to avoid being punched by Leorio inside a locked room.

He pressed O.

Five circles lit up above the door.

[O: Five Votes.]

[Majority Decision Confirmed.]

The metal door rose, revealing a narrow stone passage.

Leorio looked at Tonpa with mild surprise, as though he had expected him to choose X.

"What?" Tonpa asked. "I like open doors."

They entered the passage, with Tonpa walking among them and feeling slightly lighter. His vote had changed, but the result had remained the same. Not every minor difference was a disaster, provided the next landmark remained where it belonged.

The unanimous decision even seemed better than the original outcome. Leorio had not glared at him, Killua had not begun watching his fingers, and Tonpa had not needed to invent an excuse for his vote.

He had gained another small step toward earning their trust, this time through an honest decision that required neither an additional lie nor a journey through an animal's stomach.

'Personal growth is suspiciously convenient.'

After a short distance, they reached a fork blocked by two doors, one on the right and the other on the left. Their watches lit up again.

[Choose a Path.]

[O: Right.]

[X: Left.]

Tonpa froze for a moment.

He remembered this decision.

In the anime, the group had chosen the right-hand path by three votes to two. That route had taken them to the trial whose details he knew.

This time, he did not need to guess or rely upon a faded image from his memory.

He only needed to choose the right-hand path and allow the others to repeat the same decision.

Gon approached the doors.

"I can feel a faint draft coming from the right."

Killua placed his palm near the seam in the stone, then narrowed his eyes.

"You're right, but it's a little too obvious. It could be bait."

"I agree," Leorio said. "They might have placed a fan behind it to make us think it's the correct path. I'm choosing left."

Kurapika studied the two doors without announcing his opinion.

Tonpa made no attempt to influence them. Offering too much explanation might arouse Kurapika's suspicion, and he was confident the original result would repeat itself.

He already knew the path. There was no need to persuade anyone as long as two others chose it with him.

Tonpa pressed O.

He watched the others' fingers hover above their buttons. He could not see their choices before they were confirmed, but every small movement appeared to contain ten different possible meanings.

Killua's thumb moved first, followed by Leorio's. Kurapika remained still for another second, as though reconsidering a decision whose contents Tonpa could not know.

For the first time, pressing a button felt easier than waiting for four other people to do the same.

The votes appeared above the doors one after another.

[O: Two Votes.]

[X: Three Votes.]

Tonpa's eyes widened.

He looked at the faces around him and understood how the votes had been divided. Gon had selected the right-hand path with him, while Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio had chosen the left.

Three against two.

A clean majority he could not challenge without revealing that he possessed an unnatural reason for knowing which path they should take.

A deep rumble came from the wall. The door on the left began to rise while the right-hand door remained closed.

Tonpa did not move.

'Left?'

Gon and Killua entered the new passage, followed by Kurapika and Leorio. Tonpa remained where he was, staring at the door on the right as though waiting for it to apologize and open.

It did not.

This had not happened in the anime.

They were supposed to take the right-hand path.

Had he remembered incorrectly?

No. He was certain about this moment. Three votes had sent them to the right, and then they had reached the prisoners' chamber.

So why had the decision changed?

Had his early arrival altered the way they thought? Had the draft existed in the original scene, only for him to forget it? Or had the presence of the additional applicants changed something within the tower's mechanisms?

He remembered the decision he had made after the Cooking Trial diverged from the original events: he would not alter anything important unless absolutely necessary.

But he had done nothing significant this time. All he had done was refrain from pressing a stupid button to irritate the group, yet the tower had opened its mouth in the opposite direction.

'So good behavior is dangerous to the timeline as well.'

Possibilities accumulated inside his mind, and none of them were comforting.

If the left-hand path led to a different trial, then his knowledge of future events had become worthless from the very first moment inside the tower.

Ding!

[Warning.]

[Major Events have diverged from their original course.]



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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 33: One Percent

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

The System's chime continued echoing inside Tonpa's head. Then another message appeared beneath the warning.

[Major Event Divergence Rate: 1%.]

He stopped breathing for a second.

One percent.

The previous divergence had been only one-tenth of that, and reaching it had required him to interfere with the Cooking Trial and suggest Spider Eagle eggs before Menchi could.

Now, immediately after they chose a different door, the number had increased tenfold.

One ridiculous choice, settled by five people wearing watches uglier than the tower itself.

'Where did I go wrong?'

Tonpa looked toward the open passage on the left, then at the right-hand door that had remained closed.

He had not altered the instructions or lied to the group to force them into choosing a particular direction. On the contrary, he had selected the right-hand path himself in an attempt to preserve the anime's course.

The majority had overruled him anyway.

Tonpa replayed the sequence of events in his mind. The chain that had led to that vote had begun long before they reached the fork.

This time, he had helped them locate the entrances and entered the chamber without delay, allowing the Majority Rules Path to begin nearly two hours earlier than it originally had. When the first question appeared, he had pressed O with everyone else instead of choosing X simply to provoke them.

He had not interfered with the tower's mechanisms directly, but he had changed the circumstances surrounding the decision—their arrival time, the group's mood, and the way they regarded him. Somewhere among those differences, the original outcome had been lost.

Perhaps their early arrival had altered something inside the tower. Perhaps their changed relationship with him had made them more willing to examine the draft as possible bait instead of repeating the decision he remembered from the anime.

Or perhaps every minor change he had caused since entering this world was finally beginning to accumulate.

'So my mistake was not being unpleasant enough.'

Tonpa dragged a hand over his face.

'Wonderful System. It rewards me for deceiving people and punishes me for treating them well. I've finally found a world that respects my professional experience.'

The mockery offered him no comfort.

One percent was not catastrophic by itself, but it proved that even the smallest change in his behavior could carry him away from the events he knew. If the number continued rising this quickly, the characters' names would soon be the only things left from the anime.

Tonpa asked the System what reaching one percent actually meant and how high the divergence would need to climb before his knowledge of the future became completely useless.

He received no answer.

The percentage remained suspended before him with perfect indifference, as though the System's only responsibility was to inform him that the ship was sinking after the water had already reached his feet.

'Thank you for the report. I might have mistaken the wrong door for good news.'

Leorio's voice came from inside the passage.

"Tonpa! Are you going to stare at that door all day?"

Tonpa dismissed the windows and turned toward them.

"I was trying to determine why this path opened."

"Because three of us pressed X," Killua said. "It wasn't complicated."

"I was searching for the deeper reason."

A small smile appeared on Killua's face.

"Of course. Depth."

Tonpa hurried after them before the door closed behind him. Stone ground heavily against stone, and the last thread of light from the fork disappeared.

Going back was no longer an option.

The passage stretched ahead at a gentle downward slope, illuminated by small lamps spaced along the walls. Gon and Killua walked together at the front, followed by Kurapika and Leorio. Tonpa remained several steps behind, watching every corner and stone.

He recognized nothing.

Not the placement of the lamps, the shape of the passage, or the first turn that led them toward a short staircase. He searched his memories for anything resembling this route, but every image he possessed belonged to the other path: the prisoners' chamber, the confrontations, and all the time the original Tonpa had wasted by surrendering.

This route had never appeared in the anime.

For the first time since awakening in Tonpa's body, he possessed exactly the same information as everyone else.

No advance knowledge. No memorized events. No protagonist he could wait for to provide the answer.

'Equality is a noble idea until it costs me my only advantage.'

He reviewed the tools available to him.

His Speed had reached Rank C, while his Strength, Flexibility, Endurance, and Intelligence remained at Rank D. His Talent was still trapped at Rank E.

More importantly, he had yet to awaken Nen.

He possessed [Is That Your Mother?] at Level 1 and the Consumable Skill [Oh, Is That You?], which could make anything appear to be something else for one minute. With only three uses remaining, however, he could not afford to waste one inside an unknown passage.

Those tools were useful when he knew the danger in advance and had time to prepare a suitable plan.

Here, they resembled a first-aid kit containing a fake mustache and an embarrassing question about his opponent's family.

'It's fine. If the trap asks me to prove I'm one of its relatives, I'm perfectly prepared.'

Tonpa slowed his steps at every turn, expecting a prisoner to emerge, a wall to open, or the floor to collapse beneath him.

Nothing happened.

That was worse.

Trick Tower had not been built to offer them a safe passage simply because they had chosen a different direction. The longer the silence continued, the more convinced Tonpa became that something was waiting for the perfect moment to ruin his day.

Kurapika looked back at him.

"You've been quiet since we entered this route. Have you noticed something?"

Four faces turned toward him.

Only moments ago, Tonpa would have treated the question as a perfect opportunity to sell them an analysis constructed from his knowledge of the future. Now, he had nothing except silent walls and an unpleasant feeling in his stomach.

Even so, he could not admit that he was as lost as they were.

He gestured toward the floor.

"The passage has continued sloping downward, which means we're still moving toward the base of the tower. But the absence of obstacles so far doesn't reassure me."

"Can't you say something optimistic for once?" Leorio asked.

"I can, but I prefer lies that provide me with some benefit."

Leorio regarded him for a moment, attempting to determine whether he was joking, while Gon laughed. Killua turned his attention forward again, now visibly more cautious.

They continued walking.

They passed another staircase, and the passage turned twice before gradually widening. At its end, a rectangular opening led into a large chamber.

Gon stopped at the entrance, and the others gathered behind him.

The chamber was completely empty.

Its stone floor extended toward the opposite side, where an open exit led into another passage. There were no watches, no instructions, and no doors requiring a vote. The path appeared straightforward—almost suspiciously welcoming.

That was precisely what made Tonpa's skin crawl.

Nothing inside the tower was free. Even the first door had required five people and a vote. Presenting them with an entire chamber without instructions was like a merchant smiling while assuring his customer that the contract did not need to be read.

In Tonpa's previous life, that had always been the moment to start searching for the fine print.

'An empty chamber and an open exit inside a place called Trick Tower. All it needs is a sign telling us to trust it.'

He examined the walls.

He saw no slits from which arrows or blades might emerge, nor did he notice any suspicious cracks in the ceiling. The tiles were uniform, and the layer of dust covering them was too thin to reveal any previous footprints.

"Looks like all we have to do is cross it," Leorio said.

"If it were that simple, they wouldn't need this chamber," Kurapika replied.

Killua crouched, picked up a small stone from the edge of the passage, and tossed it across the floor. It bounced twice and came to rest without anything happening.

Gon studied the chamber.

"I don't smell anyone inside."

That did not reassure Tonpa. The absence of people only meant the trap did not require a human operator to kill them.

Killua took half a step forward.

"Wait."

Killua stopped, and everyone turned toward Tonpa.

Tonpa remained at the entrance, examining the nearby tiles, but he was not relying upon his eyes alone.

He was waiting for a familiar chime inside his head.

The System had warned him about Netero's scrutiny and the divergence of major events, just as it had warned him of dangers he had failed to recognize on earlier occasions. Without realizing it, Tonpa had begun treating those warnings like an additional survival instinct.

Most of them had arrived only after the danger was already present, but fear made that detail remarkably easy to ignore.

If the chamber contained a genuine threat, perhaps the System would warn him before anyone entered.

Perhaps.

'Blindly relying on a System that refuses to explain its own abilities is a terrible idea.'

Nevertheless, Tonpa remained close to the threshold instead of retreating, testing whether a warning would appear. His gaze moved between the floor and ceiling while part of his attention waited for the chime.

Nothing appeared.

The System's silence granted him a small measure of confidence he did not deserve.

He failed to notice that the tile he had mistaken for part of the passage was actually the chamber's first tile.

His foot shifted sideways, and his weight settled upon it.

The stone abruptly sank beneath his shoe.

A single faint click was enough to make his stomach clench.

Tonpa froze. His eyes widened, and his breath caught as his gaze slowly dropped toward his foot.

He did not know what he had activated.

Nor did he know what would happen if he lifted his foot.

'Damn it...'

Ding!

The System's chime pierced his skull.

[Warning.]

[A trap has been activated.]

________________________________

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 34: Eight Meters of Heroism

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa needed no further explanation.

He kicked off the floor and threw himself backward with everything his Rank C Speed could give him. The instant he left the tile, a sharp sound came from the left wall.

A long arrow tore through the air, passing through the space his chest had occupied a fraction of a second earlier before striking the opposite wall and embedding itself in the stone.

Tonpa landed near the entrance off balance, his arms flailing before he managed to keep himself from falling.

The entire group retreated at once.

"That would've gone straight through you!" Leorio exclaimed, staring at the arrow.

Tonpa looked at the spot where he had been standing, then at the arrow whose shaft was still trembling inside the wall.

'Without his medical expertise, I might have mistaken it for decoration.'

Killua approached the left wall without entering the chamber. He narrowed his eyes until he spotted a tiny opening concealed between the stones.

"It came from there."

Kurapika crouched to examine the tile Tonpa had stepped on.

"It sinks under pressure. Some of these tiles must be connected to firing mechanisms."

Gon picked up another stone from the edge of the passage and hurled it forcefully onto the same tile. The moment it struck, a second arrow shot from the opening and followed the same trajectory before embedding itself in the wall beside the first.

"Then we need to find the safe tiles," Gon said.

They looked across the chamber. Dozens of tiles separated them from the exit, and any one of them might conceal a different mechanism. Throwing stones at random would not be enough. Some pressure plates might require the weight of an entire person or sustained pressure, while the openings scattered across both walls made predicting the direction of an attack nearly impossible.

"We could go back and vote for the other path," Leorio suggested.

Kurapika pointed toward the entrance that had sealed behind them.

"There's no way back. We have to cross this chamber."

Tonpa listened with only half his attention. It was not the arrow occupying his thoughts, but the warning that had preceded it.

The System had warned him immediately after the trap was activated, yet a moment before the arrow was released. It had not warned him about the tile before he stepped on it, nor had it revealed the nature of the danger or the direction from which it would come.

But it had given him one extra instant.

With his current Speed, a fraction of a second was something he could exploit.

He looked across the chamber, then at the four people behind him.

An idea occurred to him.

It was dangerous and slightly humiliating, but it carried the scent of Nen Points.

That was his favorite scent after money.

Tonpa slowly straightened and adopted a resolute expression.

"Stay here. I'll cross first and identify the dangerous tiles."

Killua raised an eyebrow.

"You?"

The amount of faith contained in that single word was close to zero.

Tonpa placed a hand over his chest.

"I'm the one who activated the trap, and I know the sensation that comes before it fires now. If we all enter together, one of you might be injured before we understand the pattern."

"We can test the floor with stones," Kurapika said.

"Stones might reveal some of the pressure plates, but not all of them. The first stone landed without activating anything, but that doesn't prove the tile beneath it would remain safe under a person's weight. Testing every tile would take too long, and the countdown isn't waiting for us."

His argument was reasonable enough and rested upon something they had all witnessed. The part he neglected to mention was that the sensation warning him was not some sudden expertise in detecting traps, but a window only he could see.

He looked at Gon and added in a calmer voice:

"There's no reason to risk everyone. I'll be the scout."

Concern appeared on Gon's face.

"But those arrows are fast."

Tonpa gave him a reassuring smile—the sort he had practiced on victims who were wealthier and considerably less capable of punching him.

"That's why you need to stay behind me."

He entered the chamber again.

Tonpa placed one foot upon an adjacent tile and slowly transferred part of his weight onto it. No warning appeared, so he moved forward. He tested another tile, then a third.

When he pressed down on the fourth, the stone sank slightly beneath his shoe.

Ding!

[Warning.]

[A trap has been activated.]

A metallic scrape came from the right wall immediately after the chime.

Tonpa jumped backward. An arrow shot past his stomach, close enough to stir the hem of his jacket.

He held his breath for a moment before pointing at the tile.

"That one is dangerous."

"We noticed," Killua called from behind him.

Tonpa ignored him and continued.

The process was slower than he had expected. The warning did not tell him where the attack would come from, but it gave him an instant to catch the sound of the mechanism before it fired. After that, his survival depended upon his reflexes and choosing the correct movement.

Some tiles launched arrows from the right and others from the left. One sent two arrows from opposite directions in rapid succession, forcing him to duck beneath the first and throw himself flat against the floor to avoid the second.

Each time, the chime preceded the arrow by a single instant, and the sound of the mechanism revealed its direction. The margin was terrifyingly small, but his Rank C Speed allowed him to jump, duck, or retreat in time.

To the group, his movements resembled astonishing intuition.

To Tonpa, they felt like a dance choreographed by someone with a personal grudge against his back.

Ten minutes passed.

Tonpa looked at the distance behind him, then toward the exit still waiting ahead. After all that tension and humiliating jumping, he had crossed no more than eight meters.

'At this rate, we'll reach the bottom after the tower becomes a historical monument.'

Then he noticed the way the others were looking at him.

Gon no longer appeared merely concerned; he seemed genuinely affected by Tonpa's persistence. Even Kurapika watched him with less suspicion, while the mockery had temporarily disappeared from Killua's face.

Ding!

[Group Deception Registered.]

[Number of Targets: 4.]

[Nen Points +40]

[Experience Points +40]

[Total Nen Points: 156]

[Experience Points: 1,596/1,800]

Four more messages followed.

[Gon Freecss's Trust: 10% → 11%]

[Killua Zoldyck's Trust: 6% → 7%]

[Kurapika's Trust: 2% → 3%]

[Leorio's Trust: 6% → 7%]

Tonpa almost smiled.

Forty Nen Points, forty Experience Points, and four percentage points of Trust distributed among his targets. Suddenly, the past ten minutes and all those humiliating jumps seemed like a reasonable investment.

'Perhaps I can manage another two meters before my dignity starts demanding compensation.'

He prepared to test the next tile, but Gon stepped into the chamber.

"I think I understand it now."

The boy leaped across the tiles that had not fired any arrows, then changed direction midway through the chamber, following the route Tonpa had uncovered. When he reached the final safe point, he surged forward and cleared three tiles in a single jump.

Arrows fired, but they passed behind him.

He reached the opposite exit within seconds.

Killua moved next. He did not even follow the entire safe route. He sprinted across the tiles and changed direction whenever he heard one of the mechanisms, leaving the arrows to pass behind him before reaching Gon with ease.

Kurapika observed the timing of the attacks, then crossed with measured steps, using the safe tiles Tonpa had uncovered and the brief intervals between each arrow.

In less than a minute, all three were standing on the other side.

Tonpa remained in the middle of the chamber with one foot suspended above the next tile.

Leorio lacked the other three's speed and agility, so he studied the route Tonpa had uncovered instead of looking at him. Most of the chamber could now be crossed using the safe tiles, leaving only two jumps near the end that needed to be timed correctly.

Even the one person who should have appreciated Tonpa's sacrifice was preparing to leave him behind.

'Betrayal spreads quickly once the path becomes clear.'

Tonpa looked at them, then at the distance that had taken him ten minutes to cross.

"You could do that so easily?"

"After you spent ten minutes showing us how the trap works, yes," Killua called from the other side.

"And you understood it that quickly?"

"After the last two arrows, more or less," Gon answered honestly. "I moved as soon as I was sure about the route."

Tonpa's eyes widened.

"Wonderful. Couldn't you have figured that out before I tested the floor with my stomach?"

A grin spread across Killua's face.

"You looked very committed to being the scout."

Kurapika tried to maintain a serious expression, but the corner of his mouth shifted.

"Your attempts weren't useless. You identified the safe tiles and helped us confirm the timing of the mechanisms."

Leorio burst out laughing behind Tonpa.

"Especially when you threw yourself flat to avoid those two arrows. That was an important scientific observation."

Tonpa stared at the four of them in turn.

'Forty Nen Points and four points of Trust.'

He forced himself to swallow the humiliation and began following the route he had mapped toward them, with Leorio moving behind him.

'An excellent deal.'

Ding!

[Warning.]

[A trap has been activated.]

A metallic snap came from the wall.

Tonpa's stomach clenched. He jumped just as an arrow sliced past his foot and embedded itself in the stone ahead.

'But the clients were bastards.'

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 35: Off Script

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Knowing the less dangerous route did not mean crossing it had become easy.

Tonpa discovered that immediately.

The arrow that had passed close to his foot a moment earlier had forced him to leap away from his chosen path. The instant he landed on the next tile, the stone sank beneath his weight.

Ding!

[Warning.]

[A trap has been activated.]

The System gave him no time to object.

An arrow shot past his thigh, forcing him to pull back his leg and twist his body aside. Another followed from the opposite wall, passing directly above his shoulder before embedding itself in the stone behind him.

Gon shouted from the exit:

"Don't move! The tile you're standing on fires two arrows in succession!"

Tonpa looked down at his feet. His desperate leap had landed him on one of the dangerous tiles he had tested earlier. It had already discharged its arrows, giving him several seconds before the mechanism reset.

'Wonderful. Even the resting places here operate on short-term leases.'

Leorio had only just entered the chamber, but he remained close to the entrance, studying the route with a face that had lost most of its earlier amusement. He could take advantage of the tiles Tonpa had uncovered, but he possessed neither Killua's speed nor Gon's agility. A single misplaced jump could turn him into a medical case he would never have time to study.

Kurapika raised his voice and pointed toward a diagonal row of tiles.

"Follow the same route until you reach Tonpa. The traps we've already triggered need several seconds before they reset. Move immediately after an arrow fires."

Leorio drew a deep breath, then ran.

He crossed the first few tiles with tense, uncertain steps. When he heard a small panel slide open in the wall beside him, he ducked just late enough to feel an arrow slice through the air above his hair. He cursed and continued running until he reached Tonpa and crashed into his back.

The two of them staggered atop the tile.

"Get off me!" Tonpa hissed through clenched teeth. "This tile isn't built for family gatherings."

"And where do you expect me to go?"

Killua pointed toward the final section of the route from the other side.

"Wait for the arrow from the left, then run right behind it. There's a short gap before the next one fires from the right."

Tonpa stared at the openings scattered across both walls. Taking survival instructions from a child wounded his dignity, but not nearly as much as an arrow would, so he decided to arrange his priorities accordingly.

The first arrow fired.

"Now!" Killua shouted.

Tonpa and Leorio surged forward together. Their feet nearly became tangled on the final tile, prompting Leorio to shove Tonpa by the shoulder. Tonpa instinctively shoved him back, sending both of them tumbling through the exit.

They rolled across the stone floor of the passage. An instant later, an arrow tore through the space they had occupied and buried itself in the chamber wall.

The moment Leorio pulled his leg across the threshold, a stone slab concealed in the ceiling dropped and sealed the chamber entrance behind them with a heavy crash.

Tonpa remained on his back for two seconds, listening to stone grind against stone.

Leorio spoke while catching his breath.

"You nearly got us killed."

Tonpa turned his head toward him.

"You pushed me first."

"Because you were slow."

"I was being careful. Living people usually understand the difference."

Gon offered Leorio a hand and helped him to his feet, while Tonpa stood on his own before anyone could offer him the same assistance. His clothes were covered in dust, and his knee ached from the fall, but his body remained intact.

Inside this tower, that counted as a respectable success.

They did not linger. The countdown displayed on their watches continued to fall, and the descending passage was their only way forward.

Gon and Killua walked side by side, with Tonpa following two steps behind them. Kurapika and Leorio brought up the rear. Tonpa had chosen his position carefully. Standing at the back no longer seemed wise after watching the stone door fall, but he had no desire to become the first person to test whatever awaited them ahead.

It was a modest position, but it offered the survival benefits of both directions.

Tonpa ran his fingers along the wall as he walked. The stones were cold, and the small lamps were spaced far enough apart that only a limited section of the passage could be seen at any given time.

His unease no longer came solely from losing the route he remembered from the anime. He had encountered his first unknown trap and nearly become target practice. It was a practical demonstration of what a one-percent divergence truly meant.

'Just one percent, and I've gone from a man who knows the future to someone following two children through a basement.'

He looked at Gon's back, then at Killua, who continued forward without hesitation.

'At least the children are more qualified than I am.'

Kurapika slowed at the first turn and examined the floor before crossing it. Leorio approached him while rubbing his shoulder.

"Do you think there's another trap?"

"After that chamber, it would be safer to assume there is one until proven otherwise."

Killua spoke from the front.

"I don't hear any mechanisms inside the walls."

Gon listened for several moments, then nodded.

They continued forward, but the silence brought Tonpa no comfort. Noisy traps, at least, possessed the courtesy to announce themselves before killing him. The silence merely gave him ample room to imagine what the tower might do next.

Several minutes later, the passage widened slightly until it measured approximately four meters across. The ceiling also rose, leaving enough room for all five of them to move together instead of forcing them into a single file.

Gon suddenly stopped.

Tonpa raised his head and fixed his eyes on the shadow standing at the edge of the illuminated section.

It was a man.

The man stepped forward, revealing his entire body beneath one of the lamps. He was enormous, with the muscles of his bare arms bulging beneath a coarse prison uniform. He did not need a weapon. His fists alone looked large enough to rearrange Leorio's face without the aid of any tools.

There was room to move on either side of him, but that did little to make his presence less threatening. He stood in the center of the passage with his feet firmly planted, slowly shifting his gaze from one member of the group to the next. Some distance behind him, a broad stone door blocked the path leading farther down.

The group stopped at a distance.

Tonpa studied the man's footing and the space surrounding him. The passage was wide enough for them to spread out and attack together. Tonpa might even be able to exploit his Rank C Speed and rush past him along one of the walls.

He could potentially reach the door and search for a way to open it, but the way the man followed their every movement made one thing clear: he had no intention of allowing them to pass easily.

Leorio spoke in a low voice.

"Don't tell me we have to fight that thing."

No one answered.

A faint click came from the ceiling, followed by an unfamiliar voice emerging from a hidden speaker in the passage.

"Applicants, to reach the next section of the route, you must get past the prisoner standing before you and continue your descent."

The enormous man raised his chin slightly, and a slow smile spread across his face.

The voice continued with the same cold indifference:

"If you fail to get past him before your remaining time expires, all five of you will fail the Hunter Exam."

Tonpa looked toward the door behind the prisoner, then at the space available on either side of him. No voting option appeared, nor was there a side passage that could transfer the problem elsewhere. The corridor gave them enough room to fight together, but first they needed to learn what the tower meant by "get past."

'Wonderful. We escaped a path filled with arrows only to find one with muscles.'

The prisoner interlocked his fingers and extended his arms, producing a series of heavy cracks from his joints that echoed through the passage. He stepped forward, his smile widening as he examined them.

"Well? Are you going to attack, or stand there until your time runs out?"



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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 36: The Line of Death

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

No one answered the prisoner's question.

Before any of them could decide how to respond, the voice returned through the hidden speaker in the passage.

"The path leading to the base of the tower will remain sealed until the prisoner declares his surrender. Simply reaching the other side without his surrender will not count as passing."

So slipping past him and reaching the stone door behind him would not be enough. They had to defeat him and force him to admit it.

The true surprise came when the air inside the passage suddenly changed.

A crushing pressure settled across Tonpa's shoulders, and his chest tightened until drawing air into his lungs required conscious effort. Nothing visibly moved, yet his skin prickled and the hair at the back of his neck stood on end.

Leorio retreated half a step. Kurapika's expression hardened as he watched the prisoner, while the last traces of curiosity vanished from Gon's face. Killua's eyes narrowed, his relaxed posture shifting into readiness within an instant.

Tonpa swallowed.

'Don't tell me the muscles were only the introduction.'

He lowered his gaze toward the watch fastened around his wrist. Not even an hour had passed since the phase began, leaving them with more than seventy-one hours of the time Beans had given them.

That should have been reassuring, or so he tried to convince himself.

All that time for a single phase. It made no sense for them to be given an opponent who was impossible to defeat. Perhaps the trial was meant to test their cooperation. Perhaps the prisoner was weaker than he appeared. Or perhaps wearing him down would be enough to make the rest of his sentence seem preferable to fighting five applicants.

'This phase can't be that difficult—'

Ding!

The System's chime pierced his skull, and a blue window appeared before him.

[Warning.]

[The Host is being subjected to pressure from a Nen user's aura.]

The thought died before it could finish.

Tonpa stared at the message, then slowly raised his eyes toward the man.

What he felt was not ordinary fear or mere bloodlust. The prisoner was truly using Nen, pressing down on them with his aura without moving a finger.

Anyone who had mastered Nen was now officially removed from the list of people Tonpa was willing to antagonize.

'Of course. Why face an ordinary prisoner when the tower can provide a criminal armed with supernatural power? Excellent service.'

Tonpa dismissed the window before anyone noticed him staring into empty space.

He felt Leorio move slightly closer before hearing him whisper:

"What is this feeling?"

Gon rubbed his arm, where goosebumps had risen across his skin.

"It's coming from him."

Kurapika answered without taking his eyes off the man.

"I don't know what it is, but it's deliberate. He's trying to frighten us before we make a move."

"And it's working," Leorio muttered.

Killua studied the prisoner's breathing and the movement of his eyes.

"He hasn't attacked us yet. He wants to see how we react under pressure."

Kurapika glanced toward him.

"Then whoever acts recklessly first will give him exactly what he wants."

Killua did not respond, but his eyes remained fixed upon the man.

Tonpa kept what he knew to himself. Explaining a power none of them understood seemed unwise, especially when all he possessed was a window that informed him he was in danger without offering any solution.

The System excelled at diagnosing problems and became considerably less enthusiastic when it was time to provide treatment.

The prisoner finally moved.

He walked toward one side of the passage, pressed his heel against the stone floor, then crossed toward the opposite wall while dragging his foot behind him. A harsh scraping sound followed his movement. By the time he stopped, a broad white line stretched from one wall to the other, separating him from the group.

The prisoner returned to the center of the passage and stood on the far side of the line.

He pointed toward it with one thick finger.

"This line is your last chance to remain alive."

His gaze moved between them, pausing briefly upon Killua.

"Anyone who crosses it will die."

Tonpa studied the line. The voice had mentioned no rule concerning it, and nothing indicated that it was connected to the tower's mechanisms. It was merely a mark the prisoner had carved with his heel—a clear threat intended to make them retreat before the fight even began.

Leorio lowered his voice.

"The voice said we have to force him to surrender. He won't do that while we stand here."

"That doesn't mean we should attack without a plan," Kurapika replied. "He wants the first person who crosses that line to act alone."

Gon leaned forward slightly, studying the line and the distance beyond the prisoner.

"Maybe we should learn how he fights first. If we all attack after understanding his movements, we might be able to bring him down."

Tonpa looked at the prisoner's broad shoulders, then at the space available on either side of him. The passage was wide enough for them to spread out and attack together, but the man's unwavering stance and the way he followed every movement made passing him appear far more dangerous than it should have been.

"First, we'll need to convince him that saying 'I surrender' won't damage his reputation."

No one laughed.

Tonpa counted that as further proof of how bad their situation was.

Killua remained silent.

His eyes moved over the prisoner's feet, shoulders, and hands, measuring distances Tonpa could only guess at.

Then, almost too subtly to notice, Killua's heel shifted backward.

Tonpa caught it.

Strange.

Killua had been the calmest person in the passage since the prisoner appeared, yet his body had just tried to create distance on its own.

The boy seemed to notice it too.

His eyes hardened.

A moment later, his fingers slowly curled into claws.

"Killua?" Gon said.

Killua did not look at him.

"I just need to see whether he can follow me."

Tonpa's stomach tightened.

Before Kurapika could object, Killua moved.

Tonpa's eyes failed to follow him. He saw dust rise near the white line, then Killua appeared to the prisoner's left, low beside his waist, one outstretched hand aimed toward the soft space beneath his ribs.

The man moved at the final instant.

His massive forearm dropped and intercepted Killua's hand.

The impact thundered through the passage, and the prisoner's body shifted for the first time.

One foot slid backward, and his blocked arm shuddered beneath Killua's hand. He looked down at his forearm before slowly raising his eyes toward the boy. The mockery vanished from his face, replaced by a brief flicker of genuine surprise.

"Fast..."

The prisoner gave Killua no opportunity to exploit that surprise. He planted his foot, and the astonishment in his eyes hardened into caution.

Before Killua could withdraw his arm, the prisoner's open palm struck his shoulder in a short movement that did not appear nearly powerful enough to explain what happened next.

Killua was hurled backward.

His feet struck the floor behind the line, but he continued sliding for several meters as he struggled to steady himself. He staggered and planted one hand against the ground before completely losing his balance.

Gon rushed forward and caught his arm, helping him straighten.

The prisoner did not pursue him. He lowered his forearm and resumed his position on the far side of the line. His breathing remained unchanged, and he had yielded no more than a single step.

It appeared that he had not intended to injure Killua so much as return him to his place and prove that he could do so whenever he wished.

"Killua!" Gon said, remaining beside him. "Are you all right?"

Killua rolled his shoulder once before lowering his arm.

"I'm fine."

Tonpa watched him for another second.

'Wait...'

His brows drew together.

'Wasn't this exactly the kind of fight Illumi planted that needle to keep him away from?'

Killua had felt something was wrong before attacking. Tonpa had seen his body try to retreat.

And yet he had crossed the line anyway.

Then another possibility occurred to him.

'Unless...'

Tonpa's eyes settled on Killua.

'Maybe he wasn't overcoming his fear at all. Maybe he went in convinced he was faster and stronger than this guy.'

Killua's gaze never left the prisoner.

A moment later, he added, with none of his earlier indifference left in his voice:

"But he saw my attack."

"Saw it?" Leorio said, staring at the prisoner. "I didn't even see you."

Kurapika stepped forward but remained behind the line.

"He didn't merely see it. He was waiting until Killua came close enough to block him."

Tonpa swallowed.

In the original story, Killua had torn the butcher's heart from his chest before the man even understood what had happened. Here, he had failed to get past this prisoner.

Worse, the giant did not appear tired and had yielded only a single step during the entire exchange.

'All of this because I pressed O instead of X.'

Tonpa looked at the white line stretching across the passage.

'A one-percent divergence, and the price is a Nen user. I'm afraid to discover what I'll receive at two percent.'

The prisoner fixed his eyes upon Killua.

"This time, I merely sent you back where you belonged," he said, his calm voice more intimidating than his earlier threat. "Cross that line again, and I'll make good on my promise."



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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 37: Borrowed Experience

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Gon remained beside Killua after catching his arm and helping him regain his balance, while Kurapika and Leorio approached cautiously without taking their eyes off the prisoner.

Leorio bent slightly to examine Killua's shoulder.

"Can you move your arm normally?"

Killua rotated it once, then let it fall back to his side.

"I'm fine. I didn't take the full force of the blow."

Kurapika studied the point of impact before lowering his voice.

"Even so, you forced him back one step, but he stopped you and threw you all the way over here with a single move. The same attack won't work twice."

Killua kept his eyes fixed on the man. Nothing in his expression revealed whether Kurapika's warning had convinced him or merely irritated him further.

Leorio was about to say something, but Tonpa spoke first.

"Don't rush."

He approached with measured steps and placed two fingers against his chin, adopting the expression of a man who had spent his life analyzing opponents like this one rather than avoiding them. In truth, he needed a few seconds for his heart to stop trying to escape his chest.

All eyes turned toward him.

"Did you notice something?" Kurapika asked.

Tonpa looked at the prisoner, then at the line separating them.

"I think he's using Nen."

A brief silence followed.

Gon blinked.

"What is Nen?"

Leorio looked equally confused, while Killua narrowed his eyes at Tonpa. Kurapika's expression shifted from surprise to focused attention.

"How do you know that?"

Tonpa maintained his composure. He knew about Nen from the anime and understood its theoretical foundations, but knowing that a car ran on an engine did not qualify someone to repair one.

"Nen is a method that allows a person to perceive and control their aura. Aura is the life energy emitted by the body. The pressure we're feeling is coming from him. He isn't relying on his size alone—he's surrounding his body with aura and using it as protection. That's why Killua's attack couldn't hurt him."

Gon regarded the prisoner with newfound interest.

"Can you use it?"

"I know its principles, but I can't use it right now. And this isn't the time for a long lesson. I'll explain after we get out of here."

Tonpa cut the question off before it could lead him somewhere expensive.

'Once we're out, I'll have time to invent a convincing reason why an expert like me is helpless.'

Killua said:

"So you're an expert in theory and nothing else."

Tonpa ignored him and raised a hand toward the massive prisoner.

"His aura may protect his body, but it doesn't allow him to watch all of us at once. If we attack together and force him to divide his attention between different directions, we can knock him off balance and pin him down until he surrenders. No one moves alone this time."

He gestured toward the prisoner's knees and arms before continuing:

"We don't need to overpower him through strength alone. Gon keeps his arms occupied with the fishing rod, while Killua uses his speed to target his knees. Kurapika and Leorio pressure him from either side. If he falls, we stop him from getting up and force him to surrender."

"And what about you?" Leorio asked.

"I'll watch his movements and move in when an opening appears."

Killua gave him a brief look.

"In other words, you'll stay in the back."

"In other words, I won't ruin the attack by charging in blindly. Try to appreciate the difference."

Killua did not look pleased by the final remark, but he raised no objection. Gon and Kurapika exchanged a brief glance, then nodded. Leorio clenched his fists and took half a step back, preparing to charge.

Tonpa, meanwhile, took up a position a short distance behind the four of them.

The strategist needed a clear view of the battlefield.

And the coward needed bodies between him and the punches.

They advanced toward the line.

The prisoner planted his feet, and his smile widened.

"Didn't like my warning?"

"The path won't open until you surrender," Kurapika said calmly.

"Then make me."

Tonpa gave the signal with one hand, and all four moved at once.

Gon attacked first. He swung his fishing rod and sent the weight at the end of its line toward the prisoner's head, forcing the man to raise his forearm. The metal struck his arm with a sharp clang, but his body did not budge.

The weight rebounded violently, and the line pulled Gon a step forward. The boy planted his feet and swung the rod again, directing the next strike toward the prisoner's leg to keep him occupied.

This time, the prisoner lifted his foot and allowed the weight to pass beneath it before planting it back on the ground without giving up his position.

Killua appeared at his right side and targeted his knee, while Kurapika attacked from the opposite direction. The prisoner moved faster than his size suggested. He twisted his leg out of Killua's reach, deflected Kurapika's strike with his elbow, and shoved him backward.

Leorio charged through the opening that appeared between them.

"This is my chance!"

He drove his fist toward the man's jaw, but the prisoner tilted his head, leaving his shoulder to take the blow. For an instant, it appeared that Leorio had finally struck him directly.

Before Leorio could pull his arm back, however, the prisoner snapped his forearm outward. The back of it slammed into Leorio's chest.

Leorio was lifted off his feet and hurled into the wall. He struck it with a dull thud, then collapsed onto his side without moving.

"Leorio!" Gon shouted.

Kurapika turned toward him, his expression changing when no answer came.

He tried to reach Leorio, but the prisoner shifted half a step and extended an arm across his path, forcing him to retreat before he could get there. Leorio's chest continued to rise with labored breaths, but his eyes remained closed and his head lolled without resistance.

Tonpa should have retreated.

It was the correct, rational decision—and one perfectly aligned with his desire to remain alive.

But the prisoner half-turned to face Gon and Killua, exposing his flank to Tonpa for an instant.

An opening.

Tonpa's body moved before his mind finished objecting. Fragments of the body's memories surfaced: old brawls with applicants, a low punch, a sidestep, and a shoulder used to drive an opponent backward. They were not martial arts, but they seemed better than nothing.

'All right. This body has taken part in more than thirty Hunter Exams. It must have learned something useful.'

Tonpa crouched low and charged toward the prisoner's flank, driving a fist toward the soft space beneath his ribs. If he struck a vulnerable point while the man was distracted, he might give the others a chance to bring him down.

But the prisoner turned toward him at the last instant.

Their eyes met.

The courage that had driven Tonpa forward vanished, replaced by a cold fear that clamped around his chest. He saw the prisoner's fist shooting toward his stomach and realized he had charged straight into its reach.

He tried to stop, but his momentum betrayed him.

'No—'

He tensed his muscles and dropped his elbow to protect his stomach.

The fist arrived first.

BOOM!

The impact thundered through the corridor, and all the air vanished from Tonpa's lungs at once. His body folded around the fist, and for an instant, he felt as though his insides had been driven back into his spine.

He was hurled backward and crashed down onto his knees behind the line. His mouth hung open as he tried to breathe, but no air would enter his lungs. Then his stomach convulsed violently, and he vomited onto the stone floor.

Pain spread from his abdomen into his back all at once. He tried to draw a breath but managed only a dry cough and a sour taste in his throat. Even the Endurance he had raised to Rank D did nothing to dull the pain; it merely kept him clinging to the edge of consciousness.

He heard Gon calling his name, but the voice sounded distant. The corridor swam before his eyes, and the prisoner blurred into a dark mass that refused to remain in one place.

Tonpa tried to raise his head, but his arms trembled, and darkness began creeping in from the edges of his vision.

'Thirty Hunter Exams... and he never even learned how to take a punch?'

That was the last clear thought he had before the floor tilted beneath him.

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 38: An Expired Expert

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa did not lose consciousness completely.

He remained trapped in that miserable space between wakefulness and oblivion, hearing the voices around him as though they were passing through layers of water. The pain in his stomach spread with every breath, bringing the entire punch back with it—the fist, the emptiness beneath his feet, and then the ground rushing up to meet him.

"Tonpa! Can you hear me?"

It took several moments for the voice to become clear enough for him to recognize it.

Tonpa opened his eyes with difficulty and found Gon's face above him. The boy helped him prop himself against the wall, while Kurapika took advantage of the prisoner's return to the opposite side of the line to drag Leorio away from the middle of the corridor.

Killua remained standing between them and the prisoner, holding his injured shoulder slightly lower while keeping his eyes fixed on the man.

Tonpa drew several breaths before the walls stopped spinning around him. The pain did not disappear, but it settled enough for him to remain conscious and understand what was happening.

His gaze returned to the prisoner, and the name of a Skill surfaced along with the memory of what he had intended to do.

[Is That Your Mother?]

Tonpa's fingers tightened against the floor.

He had not forgotten it during his charge. On the contrary, it was the reason he had continued closing the distance. He did not trust Level 1 to buy him more than a brief instant. If he shouted the question from behind the others, the prisoner might recover before Tonpa could reach him.

So he had waited until he entered striking range. He had intended to activate the Skill, exploit the moment the man's attention shifted, and drive his fist beneath the prisoner's ribs.

But the prisoner had turned faster than Tonpa expected.

By the time their eyes met, the man's fist was already moving. The question froze in Tonpa's throat, and fear erased what remained of his plan. He had barely managed to lower his elbow and protect his stomach, and even that had accomplished very little.

'Wonderful. I moved closer to create an opening, so he saved time and made one in my stomach.'

Tonpa swallowed the bitter taste in his mouth and continued watching the prisoner.

He would not enter the man's reach during the next attempt.

The massive prisoner made no attempt to stop them this time.

He remained on the opposite side of the white line he had drawn, watching them with the confidence of someone who saw no opponents before him—only a group of children who had failed to understand his warning the first time.

Even so, he no longer looked exactly as he had before the fight. His chest rose at a slightly heavier rhythm, and a thin layer of sweat had appeared along his temples. The signs were subtle, but they proved that he had not emerged from their assault without paying a price.

"Nothing we did hurt him," Killua said irritably.

"He had to move more than before," Gon said, looking at the prisoner. "His breathing changed too."

Kurapika nodded after confirming that Leorio was still breathing.

"He's tired, but not as much as he should be after fending off that entire assault."

Tonpa swallowed the sour taste tinged with metal in his mouth. He had an answer, and for the first time since the confrontation began, his knowledge of the anime seemed more useful than the body's miserable memories.

More importantly, three people in front of him desperately wanted that answer.

He slowly raised his head, maintaining the expression of someone who knew more than he was willing to reveal.

"Your attacks weren't useless, but most of their force never reached his body."

Gon looked at the prisoner.

"Because of the aura you mentioned?"

"Exactly. Think of it as an invisible layer that softens attacks before they can hurt him. But maintaining it costs energy. That's why his breathing has changed and he's begun to sweat, even though he isn't showing any obvious injuries."

Gon looked down at his hands, while Kurapika continued studying the prisoner as though attempting to see the layer Tonpa had described.

A brief silence followed.

Then Kurapika turned toward him with a stare more unsettling than another punch.

"You said earlier that you couldn't use Nen."

'Of course he remembered.'

Tonpa rested his head against the wall, using his genuine pallor and pain as props in a new performance.

"I never said I knew nothing about it."

Killua raised an eyebrow.

"Are we supposed to believe you're some kind of Nen expert now?"

"I was learning it when I was young." Tonpa allowed the words to emerge slowly, as though each one dragged a painful memory behind it. "My family didn't train its children only in theft and lockpicking. A thief who doesn't know Nen users exist might enter what looks like an easy house, only to discover that its owner can kill him with a finger."

The lie fit neatly with the story about a family of professional thieves that he had already sold to Killua. The best lies did not require a new foundation—only another floor built upon a structure the customer had already accepted.

"Then why can't you use it now?" Gon asked.

Tonpa lowered his eyes toward his palm.

"The person training me forced my aura nodes wider and pushed more aura through them than my body could handle before I had learned to control the flow. My body was damaged in a way that left my aura flow unstable. I retained the knowledge, but I couldn't continue training or properly use what I had learned."

Killua stared at him for a long moment. He did not appear to believe every detail, but he accepted Tonpa's explanation for the time being and raised no objection.

Kurapika, however, asked:

"Why did you hide something like that until now?"

Tonpa raised his eyes toward him wearily.

"How did you expect me to introduce myself? Hello, I'm Tonpa, a former con artist and Nen expert who can't use Nen? I was trying to improve my reputation, not bury it permanently."

The corner of Killua's mouth twitched, while the answer seemed reasonable enough to Gon. Even Kurapika could not immediately refute it; Tonpa possessed knowledge for which none of them had a better explanation.

Ding!

The System's chime pierced his skull, and a blue window appeared before him.

[Group Deception Registered.]

[Number of Targets: 3.]

[Nen Points +45]

[Experience Points +45]

[Total Nen Points: 201]

[Experience Points: 1,641/1,800]

Tonpa's eyes stopped on the total number of Nen Points and widened slightly before he forced his expression back under control.

Two hundred and one.

This was hardly the time to celebrate, but he suddenly possessed one point more than he needed.

"Even if your explanation is correct, we don't know how to use our aura to break through his defense," Kurapika said.

"We don't need to break through it immediately." Tonpa forced himself to sit a little straighter. "Stop trying to hit him directly. Make him think you're going to. Use quick attacks from different directions, and don't remain within reach of his fists. Force him to keep moving and maintain his defense the entire time."

Killua understood first.

"We wear him down."

"And keep his attention divided," Kurapika added.

Tonpa nodded.

"Gon keeps him occupied from the front with the fishing rod. Killua pressures him from one side, while Kurapika closes off the other. None of you commits to a full attack until a genuine opening appears."

Leorio opened his eyes beside the wall and released a faint groan before attempting to rise. Kurapika placed a hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

"Did... we win?" Leorio muttered.

Killua looked at the massive man still standing before them.

"Yes. That's why we're all sitting on the floor."

Leorio closed his eyes again while muttering a weak curse.

The three began taking their positions, and Kurapika drew his twin wooden swords. Gon advanced toward the line, while Tonpa remained propped against the wall, safely outside the prisoner's reach.

This time, he would not need to close the distance himself.

He opened the System interface.

[Is That Your Mother?: Level 1]

[Skill Upgrade Cost: 200 Nen Points]

Tonpa stared at the cost, then at his new balance.

Two hundred and one.

Level 1 had already disrupted Netero's rhythm for a fraction of a second. The prisoner before him was immeasurably weaker than the Chairman, but Tonpa did not know whether that difference would make the effect last longer—or whether the man would recover before the others could exploit the opening.

He had just learned how much pain accompanied the word "maybe."

As for Level 2, Tonpa had no idea what would change. It might strengthen the effect, extend its duration, or add something else entirely. The only certainty was that he was unwilling to wager his stomach on Level 1 again.

'A minute ago, I became a retired Nen expert. Now I'm about to invest my entire fortune in a question about the mother of a man who wants to kill us.'

His career was taking a troubling turn.

He pressed the Upgrade button.

[Skill Upgraded.]

[Is That Your Mother?: Level 2]

[Nen Points: 1]

A different kind of pain passed through Tonpa's chest. This time, it did not come from the punch, but from watching his balance plummet from two hundred and one Nen Points to a single point.

Killua gave him no time to mourn.

"Now!"

Gon moved first, sending the weighted end of his fishing rod toward the prisoner's face. The man raised his forearm to intercept it, but Gon pulled the line back before impact and redirected it toward his leg.

Killua appeared at the prisoner's right side at the same moment, low and close to the ground. The prisoner turned toward him, allowing Kurapika to lunge from the opposite side and strike the back of his knee with one of his wooden swords.

The blow caused no visible damage, but it forced him to shift his weight and retreat half a step.

The man growled, and the pressure of his aura intensified throughout the corridor. Killua hesitated for an instant, but Gon swung the fishing rod again and forced the prisoner to raise his arm. Kurapika moved toward his flank while Killua slipped beyond the prisoner's forward field of view.

The man began pivoting between them, blocking, retreating, and striking empty air whenever one of them withdrew before his fist arrived. His breathing grew louder, and more beads of sweat gathered across his brow.

Then he lost patience.

He ignored Gon's fishing rod and reached toward Killua, his feet settling for an instant into a stance that left him exposed from two directions.

That was the opening.

Tonpa raised his head despite the pain, fixed his gaze upon the prisoner, and activated the upgraded Skill.

"Is That Your Mother?!"

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 39: A Family Visit

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

The prisoner's eyes twitched and slid to the side against his will.

His chin followed by a fraction, but the movement stopped halfway. The muscles in his neck tightened, and his feet remained planted as though they had taken root in the stone. His lips parted, and a broken sound escaped them.

"Mo—"

He cut the word short, then forced his face forward again. There was no shock on his face, only cold fury born from the realization that something had compelled his body to move—even if only for a fraction of a second.

Tonpa felt a smile tug at his lips despite the pain.

'Even you couldn't ignore it completely.'

Level 2 had produced a stronger effect than the momentary disruption Level 1 had caused Netero, but it had not robbed the prisoner of control. The man had resisted the skill and stopped himself before completing the turn.

Even so, his focus had wavered for a single instant.

And a single instant was more than Killua needed.

The boy lowered his body and shot inside the reach of the prisoner's outstretched arm. His palm slammed into the soft area below the man's sternum. The weighted hook of Gon's fishing rod struck the same spot immediately afterward, while Kurapika lunged in from the opposite side and drove one of his wooden swords into the back of the prisoner's knee.

A muffled thud came from the man's chest.

He staggered forward, one knee dipping toward the floor. A violent cough tore through him, scattering dark droplets across the stone.

Tonpa smiled despite the pain twisting through his stomach.

'Excellent. Now surrender, and we can all pretend this went according to plan.'

But the prisoner's knee never touched the ground.

He planted his other foot and arrested his fall, then slowly raised his head. A thin trail of blood ran from the corner of his mouth, and the pressure of his aura intensified until the air in the corridor felt heavier than before.

Tonpa's smile vanished.

The prisoner roared and swept both arms outward. Killua slipped beyond the attack's reach. Kurapika ducked beneath most of it, but the edge of the man's forearm clipped his shoulder and drove him several steps backward. Gon took the full force of the blow and tumbled across the floor before coming to a stop near the white line.

Then the prisoner turned toward Tonpa.

Tonpa understood the look immediately.

The one who had shouted had just become the most valuable target in the corridor.

He planted a palm against the floor and tried to rise and move away from the wall, but pain stabbed through his stomach and weakened his legs. He barely managed to lift himself before the prisoner crossed the distance between them.

Gon pushed himself off the floor and tried to intercept him, but the man knocked him aside with a single palm to the chest without breaking stride.

He reached Tonpa.

His massive forearm rose.

Tonpa's eyes widened, and he tried to raise his arms to protect his side.

'Not again—'

The forearm crashed into him.

Tonpa's body flew backward and struck the wall. Pain exploded from his shoulder through his ribs, and the back of his head hit the stone before he collapsed, unable to draw air into his lungs.

Through his shaking vision, he saw Leorio still sprawled near the wall, lost in a half-conscious haze. Gon was struggling to rise again, Kurapika was clutching his injured shoulder, and Killua remained the least injured among them.

They had inflicted real damage on the prisoner, but they had not defeated him.

More importantly, he had not surrendered.

The man wiped the blood from his mouth, then reached toward a small stone protruding from the wall beside Tonpa's head and pressed it.

A heavy mechanical sound came from beneath them.

Killua moved, but the floor split open before he could reach the man. Five separate trapdoors opened beneath the group, and the tile below Tonpa vanished before he could so much as move his fingers.

He fell into darkness.

His body struck a sloping stone chute and slid along it before being thrown into another room. His shoulder hit the floor, then the opening above sealed shut, extinguishing the final thread of light.

"Gon! Killua! Kurapika!"

Only the echo of his own voice answered him.

Tonpa crawled to the nearest wall and leaned against it until some air returned to his lungs. The green digits on his Trick Tower watch were the only source of light.

The countdown was still running.

They had not passed, but they had not failed either. The prisoner had not surrendered. He had merely separated them.

Tonpa felt along the walls with one hand. The room was small and bare, with no visible door or air vent. He slowly made his way around it, pressing every stone his fingers could reach. Then he called out again and pounded against the walls, but nothing moved, and no one answered.

Hours passed.

At first, he measured time by the numbers ticking down on his watch. Later, he began measuring it by the dryness in his throat, the throbbing pain in his shoulder, and the growling of his stomach, which grew increasingly furious as the silence continued.

His small bag was still strapped across his body. He opened it and felt the juice bottles inside, then stopped.

Most of them were laced with the laxative that had made Tonpa infamous, and a sealed room without a toilet was not the ideal place to gamble with his digestive system.

As his fingers moved across the bottles, a memory surfaced from the original Tonpa's mind. He had kept one bottle for himself without spiking it and tied a thin thread around its neck so he could distinguish it from the others in the dark.

Tonpa found the thread.

He opened the bottle and smelled its contents, then took a cautious sip and waited. Nothing happened except that his thirst eased, so he drank half and saved the rest.

'Even the original Tonpa had enough sense not to poison himself. A low bar, but still an achievement.'

By the time he had been trapped for nearly ten hours, hunger had become a separate source of pain, and he could no longer find a comfortable position for his body. He remained seated with his back against the wall, staring at the countdown.

'This wasn't in the anime.'

The route he remembered from the original story was supposed to lead them to a group of prisoners and contests that could be overcome through cleverness or voting. They were not supposed to face a Nen user capable of beating all five of them and locking them in separate rooms.

'That monster must be at least as strong as Hanzo.'

It was only a guess, but Tonpa had no better point of comparison. All he knew was that Killua had failed to defeat him and that a single punch from the man had made breathing feel like a paid privilege.

He cursed the one-percent divergence, then the left-hand door and Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio for giving it the majority vote.

He considered cursing Gon as well, but reluctantly remembered that the boy had been the only person who had voted with him for the right-hand door.

So Tonpa went back to cursing himself for becoming useful enough that the group would listen to him, yet not useful enough to earn a majority.

Without warning, a lamp above him flared to life.

Harsh white light exploded through the room after hours of darkness. Tonpa flinched and raised an arm over his eyes. Pain shot from his shoulder into his neck, wrenching a muffled groan from him.

Several seconds passed before he dared to open his eyes.

The room gradually emerged behind the dark spots clouding his vision: four bare walls, a stone floor, and nothing else. It was the same room whose walls he had felt and struck for hours without finding a single crack.

Then he heard stone grinding against stone.

His breath stopped.

The sound came from the opposite wall. Fine dust trickled down its surface, and a vertical seam appeared where none had existed moments earlier. The line extended toward the floor before an entire section of the wall slowly slid inward.

A dimly lit passage opened beyond it.

No one appeared at first.

Tonpa stared into the opening as his heartbeat quickened. His hand swept across the floor in search of something he could use as a weapon, but all it found was the juice bottle.

'Perhaps it's one of the examiners.'

He did not believe the thought even as he clung to it.

A heavy footstep came from beyond the opening. A foot appeared, followed by a thick leg covered by the rough fabric of a prisoner's uniform. A large hand settled against the edge of the doorway, and its owner ducked slightly to pass through.

Tonpa's eyes widened.

He recognized the man by his build before seeing his face—the breadth of his shoulders and the way his body filled the entrance, blocking most of the light behind him.

Tonpa's stomach clenched, and the pain from the first punch came rushing back.

'No.'

The man entered and raised his face toward him while most of his body remained shrouded in the doorway's shadow.

Blood had dried at the corner of his mouth, and a dark bruise had spread below his sternum where their combined attack had landed. The injury did not make him look any less dangerous. It made him look like someone who had spent the past ten hours thinking about the person responsible for it.

The prisoner.

Tonpa tried to stand quickly, but his shoulder betrayed him. His hand slipped, and he nearly fell. He forced his legs to support him and retreated until his back struck the opposite wall.

The stone door remained open behind the man.

But his body filled the entire entrance, making the existence of an escape route little different from having none at all.

Tonpa's eyes moved between him and the empty walls. There was nowhere to run. No Gon to charge in front of him, no Killua to attack from the side, and no Kurapika to devise a plan.

The prisoner took a step forward.

Tonpa tried to retreat despite his back already being pressed against the wall.

A slow smile spread across the man's face.

"Listen..." Tonpa's voice came out rougher than he intended. "I think what happened between us was a simple misunderstanding."

The man stopped several steps away.

"My mother."

Those two words silenced Tonpa.

The prisoner tilted his head slightly.

"You made my eyes shift and my head turn against my will in front of everyone."

"It was a distraction." Tonpa tried to produce a smile, but the muscles in his face refused to cooperate. "Nothing more than a psychological trick. I didn't mean anything personal about your mother. I have the deepest respect for all mothers."

The man's smile widened.

"I know."

The answer brought Tonpa no relief.

The prisoner continued forward until only an arm's length separated them, then extended his enormous hand toward Tonpa's uninjured shoulder.

"Come with me."

Tonpa stared at the hand, then slowly raised his eyes toward the man's face.

The prisoner leaned closer and whispered:

"I'll show you where my mother is."



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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 40: A Deal Between Two Schemers

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa did not move.

The prisoner's hand hovered just short of his uninjured shoulder, large enough to close around his entire head, while the words "I'll show you where my mother is" lingered in the room.

Tonpa neither moved toward it nor tried to knock it away. He merely watched the massive fingers, unwilling to give the man any excuse to grab him.

Instead, his eyes shifted toward the open stone doorway behind the prisoner, then to the short distance separating them. Even if he somehow slipped past the body blocking the entrance, his injured body would not carry him more than a few steps.

The prisoner's smile widened slightly before he withdrew his hand.

"Good."

Tonpa did not understand what was good about that, and he was not prepared to ask. But the silence brought the man's previous words back to mind.

He swallowed.

"What about your mother?"

The prisoner gave a short laugh.

"There's no mother waiting for you behind that door. I only wanted to see your face when you found yourself facing me without your friends."

Tonpa found nothing amusing about that, but he kept the observation to himself. Correcting an angry Nen user's sense of humor was not an urgent priority.

The man stepped sideways out of the doorway's shadow, allowing the light to wash over his entire body. Only then did Tonpa realize that the bruise below his chest was not his only injury. Thin scratches ran across his forearms, one side of his knee was swollen, and dried blood stained his uniform in several places. Even his gait was no longer completely steady.

Their group battle alone could not have caused all those injuries.

The prisoner noticed where Tonpa was looking.

"Your friends were stronger than I expected."

Tonpa's chest tightened.

"Where are they?"

"In their rooms. Alive."

The answer came more quickly than he expected, but it did not fully reassure him.

The man ran his thumb over a cut near his jaw.

"I faced each of them and defeated them. I could have killed them, but I spared them. I liked their strength."

He paused, then added with complete indifference:

"As for the man with glasses, he barely woke up when I opened his room and managed to punch me once. I put him back to sleep before he could try again, then moved him while he was unconscious."

'Leorio continued contributing to the battle in brief intervals separated by much longer periods of unconsciousness.'

The prisoner continued:

"As for the white-haired kid..."

His smile shifted into something closer to admiration.

"He's a monster. I don't know where he came from, but he tried to kill me the moment I opened his door. I caught his arm twice, and he slipped away both times."

Tonpa's expression froze. Earning the admiration of a man who had intercepted Killua's attack and sent him skidding several meters only hours earlier was no small accomplishment.

"The boy with the fishing rod is annoyingly stubborn. Every time I knocked him down, he got back up. As for the blond one, he kept watching me even while taking hits, changing his approach every time."

The prisoner looked over the injuries covering his body, then released a heavy breath.

"If I hadn't been using Nen, they would have defeated me a long time ago."

Tonpa's eyes widened before he could conceal his reaction.

He already knew that Gon, Killua, and Kurapika were strong, but hearing a Nen user admit that he had needed his aura to defeat them put their strength into clearer perspective. None of them had learned Nen yet, and they had still forced a man like this through several fights and left him in such a state.

"Have you been fighting them all these hours?"

"I checked on them one after another. Whenever one of them recovered enough to stand, he tried to attack me again." The man glanced at the scratches across his forearms. "None of them knew when to surrender."

Tonpa, meanwhile, needed a wall simply to remain standing, and he knew exactly when to surrender. In fact, he had professional experience identifying the ideal moment to do so.

The prisoner studied him for several seconds.

"You aren't like them."

Tonpa pressed his back against the wall.

He waited for the System's chime.

In his mind, he imagined a window appearing before him.

[Side Mission.]

[Defeat a Nen user alone.]

[Penalty for Failure: An Instructive Death.]

One second passed, then another.

Nothing sounded.

The System's silence was the first respectable service it had provided him all day.

"If you mean strength, I've never claimed to be like them," Tonpa said cautiously.

The prisoner gave another short laugh.

"I'm not talking about strength."

He took a step forward, and Tonpa's legs stiffened against his will.

"I watched you in the corridor. You deliberately kept your distance whenever the fighting drew near. You sent them in first and remained behind to observe. Even when you devised the plan, you chose the role least likely to take a hit."

Tonpa opened his mouth, but the prisoner raised one finger and silenced him.

"You rushed me only once, when you thought my side was exposed. After I put you down, you kept your distance and used that strange question from behind them."

The smile vanished from the man's face, but amusement remained in his eyes.

"You're cunning. You know when to push others forward and when to hide behind them. You're like me."

Tonpa could not decide whether that was a compliment or a diagnosis that ought to come with a prison sentence.

"I was trying to avoid getting injured, and then I actually was injured," he said, defending his image before a man who was praising his cowardice. "Retreating was the logical decision."

"Exactly."

The man's enthusiasm for that answer was more disturbing than his anger.

He turned toward the open entrance and rapped one fist against its stone frame.

"That's why I'm going to offer you a deal."

Tonpa said nothing. Offers from men capable of beating him to death rarely required a terms-and-conditions section. Death was usually written at the bottom in very small print.

"The tower's overseers gave me the authority to choose one applicant if I believe he deserves to pass in his own way," the prisoner said. "If you accept my offer, I'll declare my surrender to you alone. Your victory will be recorded, an individual route to the bottom of the tower will be opened for you, and I won't attack you again."

Tonpa looked past him at the open passage, then returned his gaze to the man.

"And the others?"

"My surrender won't include them. They'll remain in their rooms until time runs out, and they'll fail."

The words came out with disturbing simplicity, as though he were suggesting they abandon excess baggage rather than four people.

Tonpa narrowed his eyes.

"Why would you do that?"

"I already told you. I liked your methods." The prisoner gestured toward himself. "Strength alone doesn't keep a man alive for long. You understand that."

"And how do I know you won't kill me the moment I leave this room?"

The man looked directly at him.

"You don't."

Tonpa's fingers shifted along the wall, searching for something that was not there.

"But I don't need to deceive you in order to kill you," the prisoner continued. "You have my word. If you agree, I'll open the path and won't lay a hand on you."

The logic was not reassuring, but it was annoyingly sound.

Tonpa fell silent.

Accepting the offer would get him out of this route and spare him another confrontation he might not survive. It would not complete his Main Mission; several more stages of the Hunter Exam still awaited him. But he would advance alone and move closer to whatever unknown reward the System might grant him once he finally passed.

It would also save valuable time and protect his body from further beatings.

It was an excellent offer.

That alone made it look like a trap.

Then he remembered the other mission.

He silently summoned its interface.

[Trust Mission]

[Raise Gon Freecss's, Killua Zoldyck's, Kurapika's, and Leorio's Trust to at least 20%.]

[Time Limit: End of the Hunter Exam Arc.]

[Penalty for Failure: Forced Transportation to the Dark Continent.]

All four of them were still far from the requirement. Gon's Trust stood at 11%, Killua's and Leorio's at 7% each, and Kurapika's at only 3%.

If they failed now and left the exam, would the mission remain active until Tonpa completed his own exam? Or would the System treat their departure as the end of his opportunity and declare his failure immediately?

He questioned the System internally.

No answer came.

Even if it granted him more time, how was he supposed to increase their Trust after they learned that he had accepted a chance to escape alone and left them imprisoned? Their percentages might not remain where they were in the first place.

On the other hand, refusing the offer meant returning to four injured companions and a Nen user who had not surrendered, while the countdown continued devouring their remaining hours.

"Think it over," the prisoner said, "but don't keep me waiting too long."

Tonpa stared at the open door to freedom behind the prisoner, then at the mission window floating before his eyes.

He could escape one prison now.

He had no idea whether doing so would send him straight to the Dark Continent



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---

 

[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 41: Repentance Under Observation

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa continued staring at the mission window, trying to extract an answer from lines that refused to change.

The System gave him nothing.

In front of him, what remained of the prisoner's smile began to fade. The man shifted his weight onto his uninjured leg, then tapped one finger impatiently against his forearm.

"Hurry up. What have you decided?"

Tonpa raised his gaze toward the open doorway behind him.

A safe path downward, an opponent who had promised not to touch him, and a chance to continue the exam without four injured companions slowing his progress. The offer was not merely good; it resembled the sort of deal Asnos had spent his previous life convincing people they would be fools to refuse.

As for the Trust Mission, he still had time. Perhaps he could find them after the exam ended or repair the damage later with a better lie. And if he could not...

The Dark Continent would be future Tonpa's problem.

He opened his mouth.

"I—"

Ding!

The System's chime pierced his skull, and a small blue window appeared before his eyes, followed by a second, a third, and a fourth.

[Gon Freecss: Tense.]

[Killua Zoldyck: Confused.]

[Leorio: Angry.]

[Kurapika: Suspects the Host's intentions.]

The word died in his throat.

Tonpa did not blink.

He read the names once, then slowly shifted his gaze toward the bare walls. According to the prisoner, all four of them were being held in separate rooms. They were not supposed to know about the offer, much less experience such strong reactions at the exact moment Tonpa was about to answer.

Yet Gon was tense, Killua was confused, Leorio was angry, and Kurapika suspected his intentions.

'They can hear me.'

The realization settled over him like ice.

And perhaps they could see him as well.

Tonpa reviewed the notifications in his mind. Gon would not be tense over a decision he did not know existed, and Leorio would have no reason to become angry behind a wall if he could not hear what was happening. Kurapika's suspicion, meanwhile, had appeared at the exact moment Tonpa was about to accept.

Four simultaneous reactions could not be a coincidence.

He shifted his eyes toward the prisoner without turning his head. The man had stopped tapping his forearm and was now watching Tonpa's mouth rather than his face, as though waiting for one specific word.

'This isn't an offer. It's a trap waiting for the wrong answer.'

Suddenly, everything seemed a little too carefully arranged: telling him that the others were alive, praising Tonpa's cunning, offering him a deal aimed directly at the weakest point in his character, and even leaving the open doorway plainly visible behind him.

The man was not merely offering him a chance to escape.

He was offering Tonpa's betrayal to an audience.

A drop of sweat slid down Tonpa's back. Only seconds earlier, he had been on the verge of giving them precisely the answer they had expected from him all along.

'A few more words, and the Dark Continent would've become my next vacation destination.'

He dismissed the floating windows, planted one palm against the wall, and forced himself to stand straight. His shoulder and ribs protested the movement, but he now needed to look like a man enduring pain for the sake of his principles—not a man leaning against the stone because he would fall without it.

When he raised his face again, the hesitation was gone.

In its place appeared a heavy sorrow polished by years of lying to victims who desperately wanted to believe what they heard.

"No," he said quietly.

The prisoner's eyebrows rose.

Tonpa drew a painful breath, then raised his voice enough to reach any ears concealed behind the walls.

"I won't accept."

He looked toward the open doorway and allowed his gaze to linger upon it for a moment before turning away. It was a simple gesture, but it conveyed that he was rejecting something he genuinely desired.

And he did genuinely desire it, so that part required no acting.

Even after he turned away, the open doorway continued to pull at the edge of his vision. He could imagine the passage beyond it, escaping that monster, and completing the rest of the exam without allowing his body to serve as a ball for other people's fists to bat around. Each image made his refusal hurt a little more.

But if the others were watching, merely refusing would not be enough. He needed to make his loss look like a sacrifice.

'If I'm going to lose an excellent deal, I might as well sell the loss at a high price.'

"I spent years destroying rookies' chances because I couldn't pass the exam myself. I told myself they were weak and that the Hunter Exam was no place for mercy. But the truth was that I couldn't bear watching someone else achieve what I had failed to reach."

'Strong opening. Painful, partly honest, and reusable.'

He fixed his gaze upon the prisoner.

"I thought regret alone would be enough. That I could deliver one good speech or help someone once, then behave as though everything I had done had disappeared."

Tonpa pressed his fingers against his injured side and allowed his voice to weaken slightly.

"But I haven't atoned for anything yet."

He imagined Gon standing somewhere behind the wall and directed the next words toward him first.

"Gon gave me a chance despite knowing who I was. Leorio personally warned Gon about me, yet still gave me a chance to prove that I had changed. Kurapika fought beside me even though he didn't trust my motives. And Killua..."

He paused as though searching for the most difficult admission.

"Killua had more reasons than any of them to leave me behind, but he didn't."

'In truth, he probably stayed so he could keep a closer eye on me, but details ruin the emotion.'

Tonpa took half a step forward before the pain forced him to stop.

"If my success requires their failure, then I don't want it. And if the path only opens for someone willing to abandon his companions, then it can remain closed."

The final words came out louder than he had intended, their echo rebounding between the walls.

"I won't abandon my friends."

The word "friends" nearly caught in his throat. He swallowed it along with what remained of his dignity and continued:

"Not before I repay them for what they've done for me, and not before I prove that I'm no longer the man I was when I entered this exam."

Silence followed.

Tonpa tried to keep his chest raised while privately counting how many times he had lied within the past minute.

'A moving speech. All it needs now is someone scattering flowers over my grave after this man kills me for refusing.'

The silence lasted longer than Tonpa could tolerate. His gaze dropped toward the prisoner's hands. One rested near his waist, while the other needed only a short movement to reach Tonpa's throat. The man was favoring his uninjured leg, but he could still cross the distance between them before Tonpa finished a single apology.

One second passed.

Then another.

Tonpa began to wonder whether the speech had actually saved him or merely given him a more dignified reason to die. He nearly added that his words were symbolic and open to negotiation when the corner of the prisoner's mouth twitched.

The man's expression slowly changed. The amusement disappeared from his eyes, replaced by something Tonpa could not identify.

Then he threw his head back and laughed.

It was no brief chuckle this time. The sound filled the room until Tonpa felt it vibrating through his injured ribs.

"Excellent!"

The prisoner struck the wall once with his fist.

A faint hum came from behind Tonpa, making him turn cautiously. A rectangular section of the wall—which had appeared to be solid stone until that moment—lit up. The opaque stone-like layer covering its surface faded away, revealing a thick pane of one-way glass that had allowed those behind it to observe the room without being seen.

Four faces waited beyond the glass.

Gon stood at the front with both hands pressed against the pane. Killua was beside him, his expression caught between relief and irritation. Kurapika remained slightly behind them, watching Tonpa with a gaze that had not entirely lost its caution. Leorio sat upon a nearby bench, a bandage wrapped around his head.

He was awake.

And he was indeed angry.

Gon released a visible breath, and his palms slid slightly down the glass. Leorio continued staring at Tonpa as though every second of his hesitation had been a personal insult, while Kurapika's eyes moved between Tonpa and the open doorway.

Killua, however, kept his gaze fixed upon Tonpa's face. His eyes shifted toward the doorway before returning to him, as though he were trying to identify the exact moment Tonpa's decision had changed.

They had not merely heard his refusal.

They had witnessed everything that came before it.

Tonpa felt his knees threaten to give way, and this time, his injuries were not responsible.

"They've been watching since the moment I entered," the prisoner said.

Tonpa slowly looked toward him.

"I knew what kind of man you were from watching you fight. You let the others attack first and retreated whenever danger came near you. I thought you would sell them out the instant I offered you a way to escape."

The man smiled.

"I wanted them to watch you do it."

'And they nearly received a complete live demonstration.'

"My offer was genuine," the prisoner continued. "If you had accepted, you would have passed alone, and they would have remained here until time ran out. But you refused."

He turned toward the glass and raised his voice.

"I surrender. All of you have passed."

The hidden voice echoed through the room's speakers.

"The prisoner has declared his surrender. The route downward is now open."

Ding!

The System's chime pierced Tonpa's skull once more. A blue window appeared before him, followed by several more.

[Trust Levels Increased.]

[Gon Freecss's Trust: 11% → 19%]

[Killua Zoldyck's Trust: 7% → 15%]

[Kurapika's Trust: 3% → 11%]

[Leorio's Trust: 7% → 15%]

Tonpa had no time to enjoy the numbers before the next messages arrived.

[Group Deception Registered.]

[Number of Targets: 5.]

[Nen Points +100]

[Experience Points +100]

[Total Nen Points: 101]

[Experience Points: 1,741/1,800]

Tonpa's eyes stopped on the number of targets.

Five.

He had not deceived only Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio.

Even the prisoner had believed his repentance.

Tonpa examined the Trust percentages once more. Gon had stopped at nineteen percent, only a single point short of the requirement, while the others remained even farther from it.

The path downward had opened, and he had earned one hundred Nen Points and the same amount of Experience Points, but the Trust Mission was not over yet.

He raised his gaze toward the man, who was still laughing, then toward the four faces beyond the glass.

Only moments earlier, he had been prepared to abandon every one of them.

Now, in their eyes, he was the man who had rejected guaranteed success for the sake of his friends.

'Repentance is much easier when the System tells you there's an audience.'

________________________________

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 42: Tonpa the Honest

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

As the final notification faded from Tonpa's sight, the room trembled beneath his feet.

A heavy grinding noise came from inside the wall behind him, followed by a succession of metallic clicks around the edges of the thick glass pane. Its stone frame retracted into the wall, then the entire panel slowly slid aside, opening a path between Tonpa's room and the observation chamber where his four companions stood together.

Tonpa remained where he was for a moment, one palm still braced against the wall. He had already seen their faces when the false stone covering the glass had disappeared, so he did not bother feigning surprise that no one would believe. Instead, he let his gaze travel over them, inspecting the injuries he had been unable to see clearly through the pane, then allowed the appropriate measure of concern and relief to show on his face.

He did not have to manufacture all of it.

Seeing them alive meant that the prisoner had at least told the truth about that. It also meant Tonpa's speech had done more than save his mission. It had spared him from continuing the phase alone and injured, without four useful bodies between him and everyone stronger than he was.

"Are you... all right?"

The question came out weighted with convincing concern.

'I still have it. The beating didn't damage the most important muscle I possess.'

Gon emerged first. His clothes were filthy, blood had dried along one side of his head, and his lips were cracked from thirst. He moved quickly at first, only to slow as he approached Tonpa and noticed the way Tonpa was pressing one hand against his side.

Kurapika followed with measured steps despite his pallor. A clean bandage was wrapped around his upper arm near the injured shoulder. It appeared that whoever had moved them into the observation room had provided some hurried first aid, but nothing more. Killua was in the best condition among them. He had only a few bruises, a tear in his clothes near the shoulder, and an alert gaze that missed neither Tonpa's expression nor the open doorway behind the prisoner.

Leorio came out last, leaning against the edge of the opening. He had regained consciousness, though his body did not appear entirely convinced that this was a decision worth supporting. A bandage encircled his head, and his face bore the indignation of a man who had awakened to discover that he was still trapped inside the Hunter Exam—and that the exam had taken advantage of his brief period of consciousness to make him watch an excessively long performance.

All four looked hungry and thirsty after the hours they had spent confined. Tonpa felt a silent surge of gratitude toward the safe bottle of juice, half of which remained in his bag, then decided that his gratitude ought to remain extremely silent. This was not the ideal moment to inform four parched people that he had spent part of his isolation drinking something guaranteed to be safe and saving the rest for himself.

Gon reached him and extended a hand toward his uninjured arm, but stopped just short of touching it.

"Did he hit you again?"

"Not after he entered the room." Tonpa drew a careful breath. "He settled for trying to kill me with a moral dilemma. That was a new experience."

Gon studied his face for a moment, then released a visible breath of relief. Afterward, he turned toward the others and pointed at Tonpa with a triumph he made no attempt to conceal.

"See? I told you Tonpa was telling the truth! I knew he wouldn't leave us behind!"

Tonpa held a modest smile in place as a voice inside him scoffed.

'Really? How fortunate that the System knew before I did.'

If the notifications had arrived two seconds later, Gon would have been forced to reevaluate his ability to judge people, and Tonpa would have been forced to continue the exam alone while knowing that four people would spend the remaining hours hoping he fell from the top of the tower.

Leorio folded his arms, winced, and immediately abandoned the pose.

"He took a long time to refuse."

Killua glanced at him from the corner of one eye. "I was about to say the same thing."

Gon continued smiling, but Kurapika's eyes settled upon Tonpa as though waiting for an explanation. It was not an openly accusatory stare, which by itself represented remarkable progress, but neither was it the gaze of someone prepared to forget the seconds Tonpa had spent silently facing an open door to freedom.

Tonpa released a sigh heavy with manufactured regret.

"I was trying to determine whether his offer was genuine and whether there was anything in it I could exploit to get you out. If I had refused immediately without understanding the limits of his authority, he might have closed the door and left me here with you until time ran out. I couldn't rush a decision like that."

Killua raised an eyebrow. He did not say that he believed Tonpa, but neither did he find an obvious weakness in the explanation to attack at once.

After a moment, Kurapika said, "Whatever the reason for your hesitation, you made the right decision in the end."

Tonpa placed a hand over his chest and lowered his head as though the words had affected him more deeply than they should have.

'The right decision—after the right answer appeared directly in front of me. No need to ruin the moment with details.'

A rough laugh came from the prisoner, drawing every wandering gaze away from Tonpa. The man stood near the stone doorway through which he had entered, his arms folded across his chest. The bruises and dried blood made his smile look harsher, but the hostility that had filled his face during the fight was gone. In its place was a heavy satisfaction that disturbed Tonpa far more than it reassured him.

"You're still looking at this too narrowly," the prisoner said. "Overpowering me by force was never the true purpose of the test."

Leorio frowned. "But you said the path wouldn't open unless you surrendered."

"And that was true. I surrendered, and the path opened." He gestured toward the passage extending beyond the doorway. "My declaration of surrender is the key that activates the mechanism. What would make me give that surrender was the part you had to discover."

Gon tilted his head slightly. "So we didn't have to knock you down?"

"That was one possible method." The prisoner looked at the dried blood coating his knuckles. "It simply wasn't the best one available to you. I could have continued fighting, and the clock would have continued counting down while you tried. Even if you eventually succeeded, you might have reached the rest of the tower in no condition to finish it."

Tonpa disliked how calmly he said it. The man was not boasting. He was stating a fact their bodies had already verified. Simply remaining upright had become a task of its own, and Leorio needed the wall just to continue participating in the conversation.

The prisoner went on. "In the corridor, I saw how each of you behaved when the danger was directly in front of you. After I separated you, I saw what each of you did when there was no one behind you to offer protection or make decisions for you. That left one final question: What does a group do when success for one member becomes easier than success for everyone?"

His eyes shifted toward Tonpa.

"And does that person take the shorter path when his companions have no way to stop him?"

Leorio's jaw moved, but he did not interrupt this time. Kurapika looked back at the observation chamber, then toward the doorway the prisoner had offered Tonpa. Killua kept his eyes upon the man, appearing to rearrange the pieces of the test in his head while refusing to grant him the satisfaction of admitting that the trap had been well constructed.

"Before I came to him, I asked what you knew about Tonpa," the prisoner said. "Your answers weren't identical, but I heard enough about the Rookie Crusher—the man who enters the Hunter Exam every year, earns the trust of new applicants, then destroys their chances before disposing of them. Nothing I saw from him during the fight gave me a reason to doubt that picture."

Every gaze turned toward Tonpa.

He kept his expression still, but his stomach tightened. Hearing his reputation summarized by other people was unpleasant, especially when they presented it with enough accuracy to leave him no room for protest. Worse, the prisoner's wording made it clear that at least one person had supplied the details with considerable enthusiasm.

Tonpa's eyes moved toward Leorio.

"What?" Leorio demanded. "Did you expect me to give them a recommendation?"

"I didn't say anything."

"Your face did."

One corner of the prisoner's mouth rose. "I left them behind the glass without any means of interfering, then gave you a genuine offer. If you had accepted, you would have passed alone, and they would have remained here until time ran out. I thought the outcome was already decided."

He shook his head once.

"But I was wrong."

Gon's face brightened as though the admission had settled a case he had argued alone. He looked toward the others, the words I told you so plain in his eyes even though he did not repeat them aloud.

'Don't look at me like that, Gon. The truth almost lost the case before the closing argument.'

Leorio turned toward the prisoner. "You would've made all of us fail just to test this idiot?"

"If he had accepted, yes."

Leorio swung back toward Tonpa and pointed at him with a finger trembling from exhaustion.

"If you'd accepted, I would've spent the rest of the time planning how to kill you after I got out."

"That's why I refused."

"Don't say that as if fear of me was what saved your conscience!"

Tonpa nearly pointed out that folding his arms had almost cost Leorio his balance a moment earlier, and that carrying out the threat would first require a difficult victory over gravity. Instead, he allowed the man to preserve his sense of menace. It was the least he could do for someone who had taken two blows that had introduced him to the ceiling more than once.

The prisoner looked over them, then said, "In any case, you made it farther than I expected."

He stopped at Gon. "You're irritatingly stubborn. Every time I knocked you down, you stood again before I could decide whether I wanted you to."

Gon smiled as though he had received a pure compliment rather than a complaint from a man who had repeatedly tried to put him on the floor.

The prisoner's gaze moved to Kurapika. "And you don't lose your head even while you're bleeding. You change your approach whenever the last one fails, and you rarely make the same mistake twice."

Kurapika gave a small nod without lowering his guard.

Then the man looked at Leorio. "You can endure more punishment than your appearance suggests."

Leorio raised his chin, visibly satisfied with his share of the assessment.

Tonpa did not point out that the statement could be interpreted either as praise for Leorio's endurance or as an insult concerning the number of times he had lost consciousness. Allowing the customer to choose whichever interpretation made him happiest was an old professional rule.

At last, the prisoner's eyes settled on Killua, and his smile faded.

"As for you... you're frightening."

Killua smiled with an innocence that convinced no one. "Is that a compliment?"

"Consider it a warning for anyone who stands in your way."

Tonpa did not need to ask the prisoner for the rest of what Killua had done inside his room. What he had already heard—about Killua trying to kill him the instant the door opened, about the prisoner catching his arm twice, and about Killua slipping free both times—was enough to convince Tonpa that further details would do nothing to improve his sleep. Some questions were not doors to knowledge. They were entrances to new problems.

Gon asked, "If you were only testing us, would you really have killed anyone who crossed the line?"

The last trace of amusement disappeared from the prisoner's face.

"I said I surrendered. I didn't say I was joking."

A brief silence followed.

Gon retreated half a step, while Tonpa decided that the answer was sufficient reason to close the subject forever.

The prisoner turned and pointed toward the passage beyond the stone doorway. "Head down to the next level. You'll find a room with food, water, and medical supplies. Rest there, but don't take too long. You still have to complete the Third Phase, and the tower won't stop its clock simply because you passed this test."

At the mention of food, Gon's eyes shifted toward the passage. Leorio swallowed loudly. Kurapika attempted to preserve his dignity, but one foot moved ahead of him. Even Killua looked more interested than he wanted to reveal.

Tonpa felt that his entire speech about friendship and trust had just lost its importance to a single word.

'Food.'

They started walking. Gon remained close to Tonpa, slowing whenever Tonpa did, as though the space beside him had somehow become Gon's natural position. Kurapika followed, then Leorio, who complained about hunger, the exam, and prisoners with an unhealthy fondness for psychological manipulation. Killua walked behind them for several steps before drawing even with Tonpa and leaning slightly closer.

"Your speech was moving."

Tonpa did not like the glint in the boy's eyes.

"I said what I felt."

"Of course."

Killua moved ahead before Tonpa could decide whether the words were sincere or mocking. He favored the second possibility, but it hardly mattered. Their Trust Levels had risen, the route had opened, and the points were safely in his balance. In his former profession, that qualified as a successful transaction even when one of the customers knew the advertisement had slightly exaggerated the product.

At the threshold of the passage, Tonpa looked toward the empty space where the System's notifications had appeared. This time, the System had not pushed him toward a monster, burdened him with a lethal mission, or offered him a reward that required a miracle to obtain. It had merely given him the clues that revealed an audience behind the wall and left the rest to his own talents.

'Well done.'

The praise was directed at the System, though admitting it hurt more than his shoulder.

'This time, you helped me without demanding my life or two hundred Nen Points up front.'

The smell of soup reached him from the far end of the passage, and his steps quickened as much as his ribs allowed. Behind them, the stone entrance began to close, hiding the prisoner and the testing chamber from view.

Ahead waited free food and four companions who believed he had chosen them over guaranteed success.

Tonpa smiled as he followed them downward.

Perhaps the System's service was finally improving.



________________________________

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 43: One-Sided Trust

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

They had taken barely ten steps down the passage when Tonpa's legs buckled beneath him.

His body veered toward the wall, but Gon reached out and caught his uninjured arm. Tonpa tried to straighten without help, only for the pain running from his shoulder into his side to remind him that moving speeches might open doors, but they did little for bruises or the lingering impact of a Nen user's forearm.

"Lean on me," Gon said.

"There's no need. I can walk."

Tonpa took one step, and his face tightened against his will.

Killua watched him from behind.

"Clearly."

Tonpa ignored his tone. Gon ducked slightly and slipped one shoulder beneath Tonpa's good arm, leaving Tonpa no choice but to put some of his weight on him. The boy was shorter, yet he supported Tonpa with ease, as though Tonpa were the child between them.

'This is temporary. Once I raise my Stats high enough, I'll recover my dignity. Or buy a new one from a shop if it's cheaper.'

The smell of food grew stronger as they descended. After two turns, they reached a metal door that opened automatically, revealing a chamber far larger than the cells in which they had spent the past several hours.

Couches lined the walls, and a long table occupied the center of the room. Pitchers of water, bowls of hot soup, bread, meat, and fruit had been arranged across its surface. Several first-aid kits rested atop a nearby cabinet, with a sink and clean towels beside them.

They stopped at the sight.

Then hunger overpowered most of their caution.

Leorio reached the water first. He filled a glass, emptied it in one swallow, then refilled it before setting the pitcher down. Kurapika sat with greater restraint, though he still took his glass in both hands and drank in silence. Gon helped Tonpa reach the nearest couch before returning with food and water for both of them.

Killua alone inspected the edges of the room and the second door before taking a seat.

"If this is another test and the food is poisoned, I'm going back to kill that prisoner," Leorio said between bites.

Tonpa swallowed a spoonful of soup. It was hot, salty, and real.

"If it's poisoned, you aren't going back anywhere."

Leorio's hand stopped. He stared down into his bowl.

Gon laughed.

"It isn't poisoned."

"And how do you know that?"

"It smells normal."

That did not appear sufficient to reassure Leorio, but he watched Gon swallow another spoonful before resuming his meal. Tonpa did the same. After the frog, the juice bottles, and everything else the exam had thrown at them, the nose of a twelve-year-old boy was the closest thing they possessed to a certificate of safety.

Once their initial assault on the food had subsided, Tonpa leaned back against the couch and looked around at them.

"What happened to all of you after we fell?"

He knew the broad outline from what the prisoner had told him, but he wanted to hear the events directly from them and learn which details the man had chosen to omit. More importantly, Tonpa wanted to discover what they would choose to tell him after meeting without him.

Gon swallowed what was in his mouth.

"He entered our rooms one after another."

Kurapika nodded.

"He didn't give us much time to prepare. He wanted to see what each of us would do alone."

Gon spoke with an enthusiasm poorly matched to the bruises covering his face.

"I fought him again, but he was holding back. He could have hit me much harder."

Kurapika added, "When he fought me, he targeted my joints and balance instead of anything vital. He wanted to bring me down, not kill me."

Killua set his glass on the table with slightly more force than necessary.

"He was testing us from the beginning. Even the group fight was only a way to see how each of us behaved under pressure."

His irritation remained plain. From the unnecessary force with which he had set down the glass and the abruptness of his explanation, Tonpa concluded that the prisoner had seen something during their encounter that Killua would rather no stranger see.

Tonpa turned toward Leorio.

"And you?"

Leorio raised his head from his plate.

"I woke up when he came in."

Everyone waited for the rest.

"And tried to hit him."

"What happened next?" Gon asked.

Leorio's jaw moved slowly.

"The next thing I knew, I was waking up again... on a chair behind the glass. He was waiting for me to open my eyes so he could tell us there was one last part of the test."

A brief silence followed. Killua lowered his face to conceal a smile, and Kurapika suddenly found his glass fascinating. Tonpa turned toward the wall and coughed, afraid that laughing might tear something in his injured shoulder.

"I was already injured!" Leorio protested.

"No one said anything," Tonpa replied.

"Your faces did."

Gon hurried to intervene.

"He gathered us in the same room behind the glass. That was the first time we'd seen one another since we fell. After Leorio woke up, the man asked what we knew about you, then told us about the offer he was going to make."

Tonpa's spoon stopped halfway to his mouth. He already knew about the glass and the offer. What he did not know was what the four of them had said about him before the prisoner entered his room.

Killua scratched his cheek and looked away.

"He asked what we knew about the fat con man known as the Rookie Crusher."

Tonpa's eyes dropped toward his stomach, then returned to Killua.

"Did he actually say fat?"

A small smile appeared at one corner of Killua's mouth.

"Yes. He repeated it to make sure we knew who he meant."

'A child assassin, a candy thief, and a dedicated courier of insults. What a delightful collection of traits.'

Kurapika continued before another argument could begin.

"He said he would offer you the chance to pass alone. If you accepted, we would fail and you would be allowed to continue. If you refused, he would surrender and all of us would pass."

Tonpa nodded slowly, keeping his expression calm.

"And what did you say?"

Something strange happened around the room.

Killua abruptly developed a deep interest in peeling an orange. Kurapika leaned over one of the first-aid kits and began arranging rolls of bandages no one had disturbed. Leorio stuffed such a large piece of bread into his mouth that answering the question would have endangered his life.

Gon alone saw no reason to rescue them from their embarrassment.

"I told them you'd refuse."

Tonpa gave him a smile that was almost genuinely affectionate.

"Thank you, Gon."

The boy continued.

"But Killua said you'd probably accept. Kurapika said relying on you would be an unwise risk, and Leorio asked the prisoner to fail us immediately instead of making us wait."

The orange stopped in Killua's hand.

Kurapika closed his eyes.

Leorio nearly choked on the bread.

Tonpa kept smiling despite the muscle twitching beside one eye.

'Wonderful. Each of their Trust Levels rose by eight percentage points after three of them bet on my betrayal. Apparently, the System rewards improvement, not quality.'

Killua spoke quickly.

"The important part is that we fought him alone. I think the way he was using Nen—"

"Wait," Tonpa interrupted gently. "I want to hear the rest."

"There is no important rest."

Leorio finally managed to swallow the bread.

"Be reasonable. He was offering you guaranteed success in exchange for four people you'd known for only two days. Considering your history, your answer seemed obvious."

"Obvious enough that you asked him to fail all of you in advance?"

"I was saving time."

Tonpa turned toward Kurapika. The latter did not attempt to escape responsibility, though he looked less comfortable than usual.

"I judged you according to your past actions and the way you repeatedly held back during the fight," Kurapika said. "My conclusion was reasonable... but it was wrong."

Killua shrugged.

"I said you'd probably accept. I never said I was certain."

"What profound faith."

"I gave you odds."

Tonpa cursed them one by one inside his head, then cursed Gon twice—once for exposing them and once for doing it with the same innocent smile that made anger at him feel like kicking a small animal.

Even so, Tonpa could not show his displeasure. A man who had sacrificed guaranteed success for his companions was not supposed to become offended because those companions had expected him to do the opposite.

He allowed his expression to soften, then looked down at the food as though gathering the courage to make a confession.

"I don't blame you."

Leorio stopped chewing.

Tonpa lowered his voice.

"I'm the one who spent years creating that image of myself. It's only natural that a single decision wouldn't erase everything I've done. If I were in your position, I might have doubted me too."

The statement contained enough truth to provide a solid foundation for the lie that followed.

He raised his eyes toward them.

"But when he offered me the chance to pass alone... I couldn't think about anyone except you."

Gon's smile widened. Kurapika lowered his gaze with a trace of shame, while Leorio coughed and muttered that the matter was over. Killua merely stared at Tonpa for a long moment, as though trying to open his skull and inspect what had truly been moving inside it.

The suspicion did not leave his eyes, but he did not mock Tonpa this time. He appeared to accept that at least part of the statement might be true, even if he had not swallowed the entire picture.

Tonpa held his calm expression in place.

Ding!

The System's chime sounded inside his head, and a blue window appeared before his eyes.

[Group Deception Registered.]

[Number of Targets: 4.]

[Nen Points +20]

[Experience Points +20]

[Total Nen Points: 121]

[Experience Points: 1,761/1,800]

'Twenty points. Five from each of them.'

Tonpa struggled to preserve the look of a man deeply moved as he dismissed the window.

'I didn't lie.'

He truly had thought about them—about their Trust Levels, the Nen Points, the mission he might fail, and the possibility that they would hate him until the end of the exam. It was hardly his fault that they had imagined themselves appearing in his thoughts surrounded by flowers instead of numbers.

Tonpa placed a piece of meat in his mouth while Killua's gaze remained fixed upon him.

'Even the System respected the wording. It doesn't matter that it called it deception as long as it paid me.'

At the opposite end of the table, Gon began telling Tonpa how he had defended him to the prisoner, adding details with every sentence that made the others look increasingly worse. Leorio tried to silence him, and Killua joined the effort, while Kurapika wrapped a fresh bandage around Tonpa's shoulder and pretended not to hear any of it.

Tonpa relaxed amid their noise and continued eating.

One-sided trust was truly a moving thing.

Especially when the one side was Gon.



_______________________________

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• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 44: Four Too Many

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

The rest room gave them food, bandages, and an hour of peace. It did not give Tonpa a miracle.

When he stood to leave, his shoulder immediately reminded him that it was still attached to his body. The pain had eased enough for him to walk without leaning on Gon, but every step continued to send a sharp twinge through his side. Leorio walked beside him in much the same condition—back hunched, a bandage wrapped around his head, and an expression that suggested a personal grievance against the existence of stairs.

The other three looked as though the food and water had rebuilt them from scratch.

Kurapika moved carefully, but his steps were steady. Gon had recovered enough energy to run ahead before stopping to wait for them, while Killua descended with his hands behind his head, looking so clean and comfortable that Tonpa found it offensive.

He watched the boy leap over three steps at once and land without making a sound.

'This kid doesn't recover. His body simply refuses to admit it was injured in the first place.'

Killua continued down as though the prisoner had not thrown him across a corridor only hours earlier.

'Where is the option to report cheating when I need it?'

Killua looked back at him from farther down the stairs.

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

"I'm trying to make sure the prisoner actually hit you."

The boy smiled.

"He hit me when I let him."

Leorio's exhausted voice came from behind them.

"Some of us didn't have the luxury of letting him."

"Some of you stood in front of him and waited for the punch," Killua said.

Leorio straightened to object, winced, and bent over again. Tonpa kept his eyes ahead. He was in no condition to defend the dignity of the injured, especially after spending a large portion of the fight searching for other people's backs to place between himself and the prisoner's fists.

Before leaving the rest room, they filled several flasks with water and wrapped bread and fruit in clean cloths. The idea had come from Kurapika, and Tonpa offered no objections. After spending ten hours alone with half a bottle of juice, he no longer considered carrying provisions excessive caution.

They continued descending through the stone corridor. A small screen mounted near the first turn displayed the time remaining in the Third Phase.

Tonpa stopped in front of it.

The timer still showed more than sixty hours.

The number was not surprising. Less than an hour had passed between the beginning of the phase and their encounter with the prisoner. They had then spent nearly ten hours in the separated rooms, followed by the hour of rest and the time consumed by the fighting and moving between rooms.

Leorio looked at the screen and released a relieved breath.

"More than two days. We have plenty of time."

Tonpa stared at him.

'During the Hunter Exam, "we have plenty of time" isn't reassurance. It's an official invitation for disaster to arrive.'

"Don't say that out loud."

Leorio frowned.

"Why?"

"The tower might hear you."

Trick Tower did not take long to prove that it had been listening.

Two turns later, the corridor ended in a chamber with three identical paths branching from it. Instructions appeared on a screen embedded in the wall, ordering them to select a path by majority vote without offering the slightest clue as to which one was correct.

The following hours became a long list of poor decisions.

They chose a corridor that returned them to the same chamber after several hours of walking, then entered a room that locked them inside for eighteen hours before reopening. After that, they spent half a day following a current of air Gon believed came from the base of the tower, only to discover that it flowed from a ventilation shaft that moved with the walls.

Kurapika tried to draw a map, but the corridors shifted whenever he thought he understood their layout. Killua went ahead to scout the faster routes, only to return twice from the same direction he had departed despite insisting that he had never turned around. Tonpa suggested a path that looked less frequently used, which led them into another waiting room and earned Leorio's demand that he stop offering advice for a while.

They slept on the stone whenever exhaustion overcame them, rationed their food and water, and resumed walking each time a new route opened. Hours became a day, then two, while the timer crept closer to its end.

When they finally found a path that continued descending without interruption, there was no time left to celebrate. The numbers on the screens had fallen from hours to minutes, and then the seconds began disappearing before their eyes.

They smelled the sea before the door came into view.

Gon raised his head and shouted.

"There's an exit ahead!"

They all charged toward the light at the end of the corridor. The metal door was opening slowly as the timer above it continued to count down.

Ten seconds.

Eight.

Five.

All five shoved the door together, then stumbled through the threshold in a single mass. None of them crossed far enough ahead of the others to count as arriving separately. They passed through pressed together, just before the door closed behind them and the timer reached zero.

Tonpa remained on his knees, pressing one palm against the floor as though confirming that it was real.

The sound of the closing door still echoed in his ears. He was not merely trying to catch his breath; part of him was waiting in terror for a red window to appear and announce the failure of his Main Quest.

If he had stumbled before the threshold, or if they had been delayed by a single second, he would have found himself on the Dark Continent before he could even object.

'Damn this tower. One more second, and the System would have given me a free trip to the Dark Continent.'

Gon struggled to catch his breath as he asked:

"Are you all right?"

"I would just like a moment with the first floor I've encountered that isn't trying to send me somewhere else."

Leorio dropped into a seated position beside him, while Kurapika remained bent over with his hands braced against his knees.

Killua, on the other hand, straightened and looked back at the closed door.

"The maze wasn't that bad."

Tonpa and Leorio raised their heads toward him at the same time.

"Don't speak," Leorio said.

"And don't touch any of the walls," Tonpa added.

Killua smiled and extended a finger toward the wall.

"I said don't touch it!"

Killua stepped back, laughing, while Tonpa cursed the tower, its designer, and every stone that had agreed to participate.

'I survived a Nen user only to nearly fail against a collection of rocks. That would not have been a fitting end for a professional con artist.'

He took a deep breath, then raised his head to examine the place they had reached.

The final chamber was wide, with a low ceiling. The applicants who had arrived before them were scattered in small groups. Some sat on the floor near the walls, others gathered around the food and water provided for them, while several remained standing and watching the door.

A few faces turned toward them when they entered, then the fragmented conversations resumed. An entire group arriving in the final seconds was interesting, but not interesting enough to force the exhausted applicants to their feet.

Tonpa needed only one glance to spot the two people he least wanted to notice him.

Hisoka leaned against the far wall, turning a playing card between his fingers as though the hours spent inside the tower had been nothing more than a short break. Some distance away stood Gittarackur, his needle-distorted face perfectly expressionless.

Tonpa immediately recognized the man concealed behind that face.

'Hisoka and Illumi. Suddenly, the maze looks like a perfectly reasonable place to return to.'

He slowed and quietly moved to the other side of the group. He placed Kurapika between himself and Hisoka and made as much use of Leorio's broad shoulders as possible, though hiding behind people when some of them were shorter than him was hardly an ideal plan.

Killua gave him a sidelong look.

"What are you doing?"

"Choosing a place the drafts can't reach."

Killua looked at Leorio, who was standing directly in front of him.

"Behind him?"

"His chest is broad."

Without turning around, Leorio said:

"I can hear you."

"Excellent. You must be recovering."

Leorio muttered something unfit for Gon's ears, while the latter laughed and headed toward the food. Tonpa did not immediately follow.

He narrowed his eyes and began counting the faces inside the chamber.

Seven by the left wall.

Seven near the food tables.

Nine scattered across the opposite side.

Twenty-three applicants had been waiting for them.

He added his group of five, and his thoughts stopped at the result.

Twenty-eight.

He counted again, more slowly. Then a third time, as though persistence might convince four people to disappear out of respect for his memory.

No one disappeared.

'There were supposed to be twenty-four.'

In the events he remembered, only twenty-four applicants had emerged from the Third Phase. Now there were four more.

He tried to identify the extra faces, only to encounter a problem he disliked admitting: his memory was not a complete record of every person who had appeared for two seconds in the background of the anime. He recognized the important characters and remembered some of those who reached Zevil Island, but the faces of dozens of passing applicants had blended together in his mind.

The four might have been gathered near one of the food tables, or scattered among people who were supposed to be here.

Not knowing their identities was worse than the number itself. If he knew who should have failed, he might have guessed what had changed. As things stood, every unfamiliar face could be a new error carrying a badge capable of overturning the draw in the next phase.

'Wonderful. Even the future I knew has started accepting guests.'

Kurapika noticed him studying the chamber.

"Is there a problem?"

"I'm making sure there's enough food."

"He was counting the applicants," Killua said without looking at him.

Tonpa gave him a flat stare.

"Food is generally divided among the applicants. Both methods lead to the same answer."

A small smile appeared on Killua's face, while Kurapika continued watching Tonpa a moment longer than he liked. Tonpa retreated toward an empty space near the wall before the counting could turn into an interrogation.

His stomach tightened.

The divergence had begun as a small detail he could ignore, but it was now leaving traces through every phase. People who should have failed were still here, and each additional survivor altered the future encounters, target draws, and potential victims.

A lock clicked inside the side door before he could finish his analysis.

Tonpa raised his head, his body stiffening automatically. After everything the tower had put them through, the appearance of another door no longer qualified as good news.

It opened.

A short man appeared in the doorway, oversized red glasses covering most of his face and a file tucked beneath one arm. His eyes passed over the applicants before stopping on the five latest arrivals.

Tonpa blinked, and recognition cut through the layers of his exhaustion.

'Lippo.'

The examiner in charge of the Third Phase himself.

For the first time in two days, an opening door brought news that did not involve another maze. Tonpa should have felt relieved, but one look at the applicants surrounding him brought the troubling number back into his mind.

The conversations inside the chamber stopped. Lippo walked over to the large screen, then removed the file from beneath his arm and opened it.

"The allotted time for the Third Phase has ended."

The screen behind him lit up. A large number appeared, robbing Tonpa of his last chance to blame his own counting.

Twenty-eight.

Lippo continued:

"Congratulations to the twenty-eight applicants who successfully cleared Trick Tower."

Cries of relief erupted throughout the chamber, but they reached Tonpa as muffled noise. The playing card continued turning between Hisoka's fingers, and Gittarackur's expression did not shift.

Tonpa rested his back against the wall and slowly slid down until he was sitting on the floor.

It was not a congratulation.

It was an official seal confirming that the future he knew had lost four more pieces of its value.

Twenty-eight survivors.

Four additional people meant four additional numbers in the draw, four badges that had never been part of his calculations, and four new ways for the following phase to diverge.

An excited smile appeared on Gon's face, while the pain in Tonpa's side suddenly felt sharper.

'The problem wasn't that twenty-eight people had passed.'

He looked at the badges fastened to their chests, then lowered his gaze to the number sixteen on his own.

'The problem was that one of those twenty-eight people would draw my number.'

_______________________________

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• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 45: Twenty-Eight Possibilities

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Lippo gave Tonpa no time to count the ways the next phase might kill him.

The examiner finished congratulating them, closed the file, and tucked it beneath his arm.

"Follow me. It's time to explain the Fourth Phase."

The applicants moved after him, some with an enthusiasm Tonpa could not understand and others with the caution of people about to open a box of unknown contents. He rose more slowly than the rest. His side immediately protested, and he had to suppress a groan as his ribs shifted beneath the bandages.

Leorio passed beside him, dragging his feet.

"If the Fourth Phase involves another staircase, I'm withdrawing."

Killua spoke from ahead of them.

"I think you'll collapse before you get the chance to withdraw."

Leorio launched into an angry protest, but Tonpa did not join them. He was too preoccupied with the passage Lippo was leading them through. He recognized neither its turns nor the metal door at its end, nor anything else happening around them.

In the anime, the story had moved straight to the explanation of the Fourth Phase with suspicious ease. He had never watched the applicants walk through this corridor, nor learned how far the final chamber was from the tower's exit. Those details had not mattered to someone sitting safely behind a screen.

Now that he was trapped inside Tonpa's body, every minute he could not remember had become a convenient place for disaster to occur.

'Wonderful. I've entered the scenes the camera didn't consider important. I hope my death isn't one of them.'

Lippo opened the door. Daylight flooded the passage and forced Tonpa to narrow his eyes. They emerged into a stone courtyard at the base of the tower, where the wind carried the scent of salt and a faint chill that cleared the stale air of the corridors from their clothes.

An island stood in the distance, a mass of green surrounded by water on every side.

Lippo stopped near the edge of the courtyard and pointed toward it.

"Only two phases remain. The Fourth Phase will take place on Zevil Island."

The applicants turned toward the island. Gon raised a hand above his eyes and tried to make out its details, while Kurapika studied the distance separating it from the shore. Tonpa did not need an explanation to know what awaited them there.

Seven days of hunting, stealing Badges, and sleeping in a forest occupied by Hisoka and Illumi.

He would have preferred the island to remain a little farther away.

One of the Hunter Association officials moved from the side of the courtyard, pushing a small wheeled cart. A broad black box rested upon it, with an opening in its lid large enough for a single hand.

It did not look threatening.

That did nothing to stop Tonpa's stomach from tightening.

The draw.

The applicants formed a semicircle around the cart. Gon stood near Tonpa, staring at the box with open curiosity, while Killua leaned slightly to one side in an attempt to see inside it.

Kurapika remained still, but his eyes moved between Lippo and the other applicants as though he had already begun analyzing the rules before hearing them. Leorio regarded the cart as though it were personally responsible for his injuries.

Lippo rested one hand upon the box.

"We will use this draw to determine the hunters and their prey."

The surrounding whispers faded.

"Inside this box are twenty-eight numbered cards. They bear the same numbers as the Badges you received at the beginning of the Hunter Exam, and each of you will select one."

Lippo gestured toward the applicants before him.

"You will draw in the order that you reached the bottom of Trick Tower."

His eyes then moved to Tonpa and his companions.

"As for you five, your arrival was registered as a single group. You will draw last, and I will call you in order."

Twenty-eight cards.

In the future Tonpa remembered, the box should have contained only twenty-four. The course of events had not merely allowed four additional applicants to survive; it had altered the draw itself to make room for them.

It was as though the future had not only opened its doors to unexpected guests, but also set out extra seats before they arrived.

'Excellent service. I hope it prepared targets other than me for them as well.'

Gon raised his hand.

"How will the card decide who hunts whom?"

Lippo's eyes settled upon him behind the red lenses.

"You will learn what the number means once everyone has finished drawing."

Gon lowered his hand but continued watching the box, trying to guess the answer.

Leorio released a long breath.

"Wonderful. We survived the tower together, and now they're going to make us hunt one another."

Tonpa said:

"At least we won't have to vote."

Leorio looked at him for a moment, then folded his arms before the pain forced him to lower them again.

"That's the first advantage I've heard since we entered that route."

Tonpa did not need the rest of the explanation to understand what the cards meant. The applicant whose Badge matched the number drawn would become the drawer's target on the island, and somewhere inside the box was a card bearing the number sixteen.

His number.

He studied the Badges worn by the applicants around him. The numbers he knew surfaced in his mind one after another: Gon was 405, Kurapika 404, Leorio 403, and Killua 99.

Hisoka was 44.

Gittarackur—the needle-faced man Tonpa knew was merely Illumi Zoldyck in disguise—wore number 301.

Tonpa tried to recall the remaining numbers and received only a mixture of faces and brief scenes. He remembered Hanzo, Pokkle, and Ponzu, along with several applicants who would disappear from the story before the anime gave him any reason to memorize their names.

As for the four additional survivors, he knew only one troubling fact about them: they were not supposed to be standing here.

'Twenty-eight cards. That means my chance of drawing Hisoka is less than four percent.'

The number reassured him for exactly one second.

Then he imagined his fingers turning over the card to find forty-four waiting on its face. He imagined tracking Hisoka through the island's forest and reaching for a Badge attached to the chest of a man capable of killing him with a playing card.

His fingers trembled, and he closed them around the edge of his jacket.

'And there's more than a ninety-six percent chance I won't draw him. Let's focus on the statistic that doesn't end with my corpse.'

The danger did not lie solely in the card Tonpa would draw. Someone present would draw number sixteen, and Tonpa would have no idea who it was.

It might be a weak applicant he could handle, one of the four unfamiliar survivors, or someone the draw decided to reward with an easy target by sending Hisoka after him.

Tonpa retreated half a step until Gon stood between him and the magician. It offered no real protection, but it improved the picture aesthetically.

Killua noticed the movement.

"Are you trying to hide again?"

"I'm choosing a position that lets me observe everyone."

Killua looked at Gon's back, which concealed half of Tonpa, then said:

"A true expert's position."

Before Tonpa could answer, Lippo raised his hand toward the first applicant to arrive.

"Hisoka. You're first."

The magician pushed away from the wall. The few conversations still lingering around the courtyard stopped, and the applicants parted before him without needing to be asked.

Hisoka approached the cart and slipped one hand into the box. He stirred the cards for several seconds, then withdrew one and turned it between two fingers.

He read the number.

His smile did not change, but his eyes rose slowly and traveled across the assembled applicants.

The muscles in Tonpa's back tightened when the gaze neared him, only for it to continue past as though it had found nothing worth stopping for.

'Either he didn't draw my number, or he did and has already started enjoying the idea. How reassuring.'

Hisoka stepped away, and Gittarackur approached after him. His hand disappeared into the box before emerging with a card. He examined it without a single change passing over his needle-distorted face.

Tonpa had been unable to read that face before the draw, and the card did not grant him a sudden miracle.

A third applicant followed, then a fourth.

Every hand that vanished into the box had a chance of emerging with number sixteen.

Tonpa stood among his companions and watched the applicants' faces after every draw, trying to distinguish relief from fear—or from a sudden interest in his direction.

He could not tell which of them had drawn his number.

For the first time, he was not merely waiting to learn the identity of his prey.

He was waiting to discover which one of them had become his hunter.



_______________________________

Chapter 46 drops in two hours as a bonus chapter! Thank you all for reading and supporting the story. Enjoy!

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 46: A Useful Divergence

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Hands continued disappearing into the box and emerging again.

Each time an applicant stepped away from the cart with a card partially concealed between his fingers, Tonpa's eyes moved to his face, then to the direction of his gaze, then back to the Badge pinned to his chest.

He was waiting for one thing.

A glance that lingered too long on number sixteen. A sudden change in posture. A smile that did not belong.

Anything.

He found nothing.

Some applicants left the cart with expressions that were suspiciously rigid, while others avoided looking at the crowd altogether. A few did not even bother pretending. The moment they hid their cards, their eyes began moving from one Badge to another.

Those people, at least, were comforting.

Idiots were easier to read.

Unfortunately, whoever had drawn the card bearing number sixteen was under no obligation to be an idiot.

A stab of pain pulsed beneath Tonpa's ribs, and he shifted his weight to the other leg.

It did not go away.

Food, rest, and fresh bandages had made it possible for him to walk without leaning on Gon, but they had not erased what the prisoner had done to him. The longer he stood still, the more the dull ache in his side began to throb again.

Another applicant stepped away from the cart.

Then another.

Each card removed from the box reduced the number remaining without giving Tonpa any better idea where his own number had gone.

Quite the opposite.

With every passing draw, it became more likely that the person holding sixteen had already finished and returned to the crowd.

'Wonderful. My hunter may already be standing in front of me, and I'm giving everyone equal attention so I don't discriminate.'

Tonpa and his companions had been the last to reach the bottom of Trick Tower, so they remained where they were while the line in front of the cart steadily disappeared.

The space around the box widened.

Then Lippo raised his head.

"Gon."

Tonpa's attention snapped away from the other applicants.

Gon stepped forward.

The open curiosity he had shown before the draw was gone, replaced by quiet concentration. He paused in front of the cart, then slipped one hand into the box.

Tonpa watched him more closely than he had watched anyone else.

'Originally, he drew forty-four.'

His eyes shifted toward Hisoka.

The magician stood some distance away, idly turning his card between his fingers as though the number written on it deserved no more than a few seconds of thought.

It was not a reassuring sight.

Hisoka could look that relaxed while considering how to kill someone.

Tonpa looked back at Gon.

Part of him wanted the boy to draw forty-four again.

His jaw tightened slightly.

A grown man hoping that a twelve-year-old boy would become Hisoka's target.

When he phrased it that way, it sounded terrible even by his standards.

But he was not wishing for Gon's death. He was clinging to the only version of the future in which he knew Gon survived. A different card could send the boy after someone Tonpa did not remember, or into an event he had never seen.

'It's not cruelty.'

He paused.

'It's confidence in the only version where I know he doesn't die.'

The revised wording did not help much.

Gon withdrew his card and shielded its face with both hands before looking at it.

His eyes widened slightly.

Then the reaction vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared.

He slipped the card into his pocket and returned without looking at Hisoka—or anyone else.

Tonpa followed him with his eyes until he stopped beside them.

Nothing.

'Either canon survived... or Gon suddenly learned how to keep a secret.'

Lippo's voice came again a few moments later.

"Killua."

Killua walked toward the cart with a lightness that made Tonpa watch him for a moment.

After everything the boy had endured inside the tower, he still moved as though injuries were a problem that only happened to other people.

Killua reached into the box and withdrew a card quickly.

He read the number once.

Nothing changed on his face, though his thumb paused against the edge of the card for a fraction of a second before he hid it.

When he returned, Leorio leaned toward him.

"Did you get someone you know?"

Killua looked at him.

"Maybe."

Leorio frowned.

"What does maybe mean? The number is right there."

A small smile appeared on Killua's face.

"It means I'm not telling you."

Leorio opened his mouth, but Lippo called Kurapika's name.

Tonpa's stomach tightened.

Kurapika.

In the events Tonpa remembered, Kurapika had drawn number sixteen.

Tonpa's number.

Kurapika approached the cart with his usual calm.

When Tonpa had watched this draw from behind a screen, it had been little more than a convenient coincidence that arranged the hunts of the Fourth Phase.

Now he was watching the hand of a man who still doubted a large portion of what Tonpa told him disappear into a box that might contain the number officially turning Tonpa into his prey.

The card came out.

Kurapika exposed just enough of the number to read it himself.

His expression did not change.

A moment later, his eyes rose and moved across the crowd.

They passed near Tonpa.

Or over him.

He could not tell.

His shoulders stiffened before he forced them to relax.

Kurapika concealed the card and returned.

'Excellent.'

Tonpa knew exactly as much as he had known a minute ago.

The card bearing number sixteen might be with Kurapika.

Or it might not.

Trying to read that man from his face was an exceptionally slow method of wasting time.

Leorio's turn came next.

At least Leorio did not suffer from the same problem.

The instant he saw his number, his brows drew together.

He looked at the card a second time, then tightened his fingers around it as though whoever owned that number had personally offended him.

Tonpa watched him return.

Originally, Leorio had been Tonpa's target.

Four hundred and three.

Tonpa looked at the scowl that had appeared on the man's face from merely seeing a number.

'And I was supposed to steal his Badge later.'

He paused.

'Yes. I'm sure that would have ended in a calm and mature conversation.'

His gaze moved to the bandage wrapped around Leorio's head and the exhausted way he carried himself.

Practically speaking, he would not have been the worst target in the courtyard.

As for their relationship...

'Stealing his Badge would be an excellent way to turn fifteen percent Trust into a sincere desire to kill me.'

Leorio rejoined the group.

Gon started to speak.

"After the draw, we can—"

Killua interrupted him.

"After the draw."

Gon fell silent.

Leorio eyed their pockets suspiciously, while Kurapika remained still, his gaze shifting between the cart and the applicants without giving Tonpa a single useful piece of information for free.

Then Lippo raised his head.

"Tonpa."

His thoughts stopped immediately.

'All right. Time to stop observing everyone else's problems.'

His eyes settled on the box.

'Now I get to buy one of my own.'

He moved toward the cart.

Several gazes passed over him as he walked. He could not tell whether they were simple curiosity or whether one belonged to the person who had drawn the card bearing number sixteen.

He did not turn to search.

If his hunter was intelligent, he would not reveal himself now.

And if he was an idiot, he had seven full days to prove it.

Tonpa stopped in front of the box and looked at the dark opening in its lid.

Then something obvious finally pushed through the tension clouding his thoughts.

Twenty-seven people had gone before him.

He was last.

Only one card remained.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

'They even took away the illusion of choice.'

Tonpa slipped his hand into the box.

His fingers moved along the bottom until they touched the edge of the only card left.

He took it and withdrew his hand, keeping the number covered beneath his palm.

His fingers hesitated.

He knew waiting would not change what was written there, but that did nothing to stop his mind from presenting the worst possibilities one after another.

Hisoka.

Illumi.

Someone he didn't remember who would later turn out to be even worse for some ridiculous reason.

'Let's see what kind of disaster they saved for me.'

He shifted his thumb aside.

The first digit appeared.

Then the second.

His eyes fixed on the final covered space.

He moved his thumb a little farther.

Tonpa remained still for a moment.

Then he read the number again to make sure.

Three hundred and three.

His eyes remained fixed on the number.

At least he had not drawn sixteen himself.

The thought stopped him.

'Actually... what would they do if that happened? Would I become both my hunter and my prey?'

A trace of amusement crossed his face.

'I'd demand all six points for not robbing myself.'

The thought remained amusing for another second before the number in front of him pulled his attention back to the real problem.

Not the number he had expected.

Some of the tension drained from his shoulders.

'Good.'

For the moment, that was enough.

'No deranged magician. No professional assassin in disguise. For once, the result isn't the worst one available.'

But the relief shrank when he lifted his eyes from the card.

If he was holding 303, then someone among the applicants in front of him had already drawn sixteen.

Twenty-seven faces.

And Tonpa had no real reason to rule any of them out.

'Excellent. I know my prey, and I still have no idea who my hunter is.'

His eyes moved across the crowd for a moment before he stopped himself.

Anyone with enough sense to draw sixteen and keep quiet was not going to answer Tonpa's question by staring at him.

He looked down at the card again.

He clearly remembered that his original target should have been 403.

Leorio.

Tonpa raised the card slightly, then lowered it.

'So even this changed.'

The divergences were no longer just a few additional people standing in the background.

They were beginning to reach events Tonpa had personally relied upon.

'Four extra survivors were annoying.'

His gaze settled on 303.

'But when the future starts changing what's in my own hand... that's a problem.'

He raised his head and began searching through the Badges.

He found the applicant wearing Badge 303 near the edge of the gathering.

The number was pinned to the chest of a man Tonpa couldn't tell whether he remembered from the original events or not.

He studied him for several seconds.

Average build. Standing away from the larger groups. Feet planted steadily, hands resting loosely at his sides.

Tonpa's eyes narrowed slightly.

He might be one of the four additional applicants who were never supposed to reach this stage.

Or he might simply be someone who had appeared in the anime background for a few seconds and given Tonpa's memory no reason to preserve his face.

After his failed attempt to identify the extra survivors inside the tower, Tonpa was not prepared to pretend he knew the difference.

He continued watching the man.

There was none of the cold stillness he associated with Hanzo, nor the unpleasant sensation that made Tonpa's body begin searching for exits whenever Hisoka came too close.

But the man had reached the Fourth Phase.

That alone was enough reason not to assume he was weak.

An unknown target, but not an obvious disaster so far.

Tonpa hid the card inside his clothes and returned to his companions.

Killua needed only one look.

"You look happy."

Tonpa settled his expression.

"I'm happy the draw is over."

Killua's eyes dropped briefly toward the place where Tonpa had hidden the card, then returned to his face.

"Of course."

Tonpa did not like the way he said it.

Leorio spoke next.

"You got a good number, didn't you?"

Tonpa raised an eyebrow.

"I got a number that doesn't make me regret it immediately. That's all I know so far."

His eyes drifted despite himself toward the edge of the courtyard.

The applicant wearing Badge 303 was still there.

Tonpa watched his posture for another moment, then looked away before his interest became obvious.

His body was no longer the one he had entered the exam with. He was stronger and faster now, but he had learned painfully that numbers alone did not tell him who knew how to fight and who did not.

The prisoner had made that lesson quite clear.

'This time, I'll try not to learn it with my face.'

The divergence had not suddenly become a blessing.

Four additional applicants were still here.

His draw had changed.

And whoever had drawn the card bearing number sixteen remained unknown—and might be far more dangerous than the applicant wearing Badge 303.

But for once, the change had not left him with only a problem.

It had left him with something he could work with.

Tonpa fixed his gaze on the applicant wearing Badge 303 one last time.

He memorized the man's face, his stance, and his position near the edge of the courtyard.

Then he looked away as though the man had never caught his attention at all.

The card bearing 303 remained hidden inside his clothes.

As for the card bearing number sixteen...

It was hidden somewhere among the other twenty-seven applicants.

And somehow, his new target was no longer what worried him most about the Fourth Phase.



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• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 47: Things That Don't Change

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa remained beside his companions, the card bearing 303 hidden inside his clothes.

A few moments later, Lippo placed a hand over the box.

The draw was over.

Nothing in the courtyard had visibly changed, yet the atmosphere felt heavier. Minutes ago, every one of them had simply been an applicant trying to survive the Hunter Exam. Now each of them had prey, and Tonpa himself had become a number in someone else's hand.

He swept his gaze across the faces only once.

Hisoka idly turned his card between his fingers, as though the number he had drawn meant nothing. The needle-faced man stood not far from him, perfectly still, his expression difficult to read even before the needles had rearranged his face. Hanzo had already hidden his card and folded his arms without sparing anyone a glance.

Three faces.

Not a single clue.

'I might not find out who drew my number until my Badge disappears. Or my neck along with it.'

His mouth went slightly dry.

A moment ago, 303 had seemed like the only good thing to come out of the draw. Now he remembered that having a target who did not look like an immediate disaster would mean very little if the person hunting him happened to be one of the worst people here.

Worse, whoever had drawn sixteen had no reason to look at him at all.

A smart hunter memorized his prey, then acted as though it did not exist.

Among the other twenty-seven applicants, far too many were capable of doing exactly that for Tonpa to feel reassured.

Lippo raised a hand, and the murmurs spreading through the courtyard died down.

"The number each of you drew corresponds to your target in the Fourth Phase."

The explanation did not surprise Tonpa, but several faces around him tightened. Somehow, hearing the word "target" spoken in that official tone made the little cards feel heavier than they had a moment earlier.

Lippo continued.

"You will be taken to Zevil Island, where you will remain for seven days. Your Target Badge is worth three points, and keeping your own Badge is worth another three. Any Badge that belongs to neither category is worth one point."

He raised five fingers on one hand and one on the other.

"You need six points to pass the phase. How you obtain them is none of our concern."

As Lippo lowered his hands, Tonpa's mind went straight to the numbers.

His target's Badge and his own would give him the full six points.

In the best case, he only needed his target's Badge. After that, he could stop hunting anyone else and spend the remaining days protecting his own while staying away from the three people whose intentions he had no desire to test.

If he lost his own Badge, however, the entire calculation changed. He would need his Target Badge and three additional Badges worth one point each.

As long as he kept his own Badge, the math was simple. Lose it, and the phase turned into seven days of chasing people who already had no shortage of reasons to dislike him.

'Add points and rules to theft, and suddenly it becomes an official exam.'

Beside him, Leorio touched the spot where his Badge was without thinking, then quickly moved his hand away when he noticed Killua watching.

One corner of Killua's mouth rose.

Leorio scowled as though the boy had personally invented the rules just to annoy him.

Lippo spoke again.

"A ship is waiting for you at the coast. Follow the marked route. The remaining details will be explained before you reach the island."

The examiner moved first, and the applicants followed in an uneven line.

Tonpa walked between Gon and Kurapika. The same group that had barely stopped arguing in the dining room now walked in a silence that made the sound of their footsteps uncomfortably clear.

Gon opened his mouth, then closed it when his eyes met Killua's.

Kurapika kept track of anyone who came too close, while Leorio touched the spot where he had hidden his card every few steps, pretending to adjust his coat.

Leorio was the first to lose patience with the silence.

"Are we going to walk the whole way like this?"

Killua answered.

"You can tell us your number if the silence bothers you."

Leorio pulled his coat tighter.

"I like silence. Silence is excellent."

Gon smiled, while Tonpa turned his face slightly to hide his own.

'Touching. It took the prisoner hours to bring us together, and the box needed one minute to make all of us guard our pockets.'

Tonpa was no better.

The card bearing 303 remained hidden inside his clothes, and he had no intention of sharing it even with Gon. Trust was a beautiful thing, but three points were prettier, and the System had yet to announce any reward for collective stupidity.

They smelled the salt before they saw the sea.

The path opened between the rocks, revealing a ship waiting beside a short pier. The wind drove cold spray into Tonpa's face, and a sharp twinge ran through his injured side beneath the bandages.

He climbed the gangplank carefully.

Killua moved ahead of the others, then jumped onto the deck instead of simply finishing the walk up the plank.

Tonpa stared at his back.

'There was an easier way.'

He paused.

'Which is exactly why he didn't use it.'

Tonpa continued carefully up the gangplank until he reached the deck, then chose a place near the middle of the ship—far enough from the edge to reduce his chances of falling, and far enough from Hisoka to reduce his chances of being shoved overboard.

Gon and Killua did not move far away. They stopped beside the nearby railing, and a few moments later Gon's voice reached him clearly.

"Killua... you didn't draw my number, right?"

Killua leaned slightly toward him.

"No. Did you draw mine?"

Gon quickly shook his head.

The tension between them vanished almost immediately. Then each of them drew out his card just far enough for the other to see, without revealing the number to anyone else on deck.

Killua's smile disappeared for a moment as he read Gon's number.

Then he looked back at him.

"Your luck really is awful."

Gon hid the card again, but the excitement in his eyes looked nothing like fear.

He leaned a little closer to Killua.

"What about you?"

Killua hid his own card and shrugged.

"I don't know who the number belongs to."

"Then... good luck."

Killua smiled.

"You're the one who needs it more."

Tonpa remained still as a single thought slowly surfaced.

'Gon's excited... and Killua says his luck is bad.'

He looked at Gon for a moment.

'In the original story...'

He paused.

'Forty-four.'

If his guess was right, Gon had drawn the card bearing Hisoka's number, just as he had in the story Tonpa remembered.

The exchange had not been identical. Even where they stood was different. The number of survivors had changed too.

Yet the result seemed to have found its way back into place despite everything that had changed.

Tonpa slipped a hand inside his clothes until his fingers touched the card bearing 303.

He had not drawn Leorio this time.

Four additional applicants had emerged from Trick Tower.

Even his target's number was one he had never expected to draw.

As for Kurapika, Tonpa still had no idea what he had drawn.

And yet it looked as though Hisoka's number had ended up in Gon's hand again.

Tonpa looked toward the widening wake behind the ship and felt some of his earlier relief fade.

'Why do some events change whenever I get involved, while others find their way back into place?'

The future no longer seemed like a road he had simply strayed from.

It was beginning to look more like a web. Some threads shifted whenever he passed through them, while other knots remained fixed no matter what changed around them.

But that was only a theory.

No blue window appeared to confirm it. The System offered no free explanation, and Tonpa was not stupid enough to turn a comforting idea into a rule simply because it sounded clever inside his head.

His fingers tightened around the card.

Maybe there were no fixed knots at all.

Maybe, if his guess was right, Gon drawing forty-four again was nothing more than a coincidence.

Or perhaps some events simply required larger changes before they moved off course.

None of those possibilities helped.

All Tonpa knew was that he could no longer rely on the future he remembered, but neither had it dissolved into complete chaos.

Some things had changed.

Others had not.

'It's like walking through a room full of fragile things. I don't touch anything on purpose, and somehow I still hear something break behind me every few steps.'

That was, in its own way, more disturbing than either alternative.

Tonpa fixed his eyes on the wake stretching behind the ship.

A more unsettling question surfaced.

Did some events simply find their way back into place, no matter how much the road leading to them changed?



_______________________________

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• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 48: The Cheapest Sacrifice

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

The question lingered in Tonpa's mind until the coastline disappeared behind them.

The deck shifted beneath his feet with every wave, while his fingers kept brushing the card inside his pocket to make sure the number 303 had not changed. It was ridiculous. Ink did not rewrite itself, and the System had not yet reached the point of replacing his target with Hisoka halfway through the voyage.

Even so, he did not take the card out to check.

Some fears were better left folded away.

The applicants had scattered across the deck in small groups, keeping their distance from one another. No one spoke loudly anymore. Whenever someone moved, eyes followed them, then looked away before they could be noticed.

'An hour ago, we were congratulating each other for surviving. Now everyone's trying to figure out who they're going to rob first.'

The thought was not quite as funny as he wanted it to be. Every quick glance around him confirmed that the others had reached the same conclusion in their own way.

After a while, Tonpa grew tired of watching people pretend they were not watching one another and leaned back against the cabin wall.

As the voyage wore on, the pain in his shoulder took the opportunity to remind him it was still there. He watched the sea instead of the other applicants, trying not to seem interested in anyone—especially now that he had realized whoever had drawn number sixteen might be smart enough not to look at him at all.

A short, fair-haired attendant stepped out of the cabin, a clipboard in one hand and a small microphone clipped near her collar.

She waited until most of the applicants had turned toward her.

"Before we arrive, there is one final detail regarding disembarkation."

What little conversation remained died down.

"You will leave the ship in the order in which you reached the bottom of Trick Tower. Applicants will disembark at two-minute intervals."

Something heavy settled in Tonpa's stomach.

He knew the rule.

He simply had not thought about it while his only concern had been getting out of the tower alive.

His group had been the last to reach the bottom.

'Wonderful. Even succeeding came with a late fee.'

He kept his objection to himself. He still wanted to know what would happen to the five of them, since they had arrived together.

As though answering his question, the attendant continued.

"If multiple applicants reached the bottom at the same time, their order will be determined when they disembark."

Then she returned to the cabin, leaving behind a silence slightly heavier than before.

Tonpa turned back toward the sea.

Those who left first would have time to get away, find a suitable position, and perhaps even watch the people arriving after them.

As for him and his companions...

Together, they had managed to finish last.

Now they were paying for it together.

No one announced the island when it first appeared.

It began as a dark line dividing the blue sea from the sky, with trees gradually rising above it. Dense forest covered most of the land, tangled so tightly that the shadows beneath it looked like one long entrance to somewhere Tonpa had no desire to explore. Along the nearest stretch of coast lay a narrow gray beach broken by black rocks glistening with seawater.

Without realizing it, Tonpa pushed himself away from the wall.

He would spend an entire week there.

Seven days to take the Badge of a man he knew almost nothing about, protect his own from an unknown pursuer, and avoid Hisoka, Illumi, and Hanzo.

'A relaxing vacation. All that's missing is a request to rate the service when we leave.'

He remained standing as the shoreline drew closer. The island was no longer a distant shape whose danger could be reduced to a joke. The rocks became clearer, the trees taller, and the shadows beneath them deeper.

Then the sound of the engine beneath his feet grew quieter, and the ship began turning toward a small bay.

The scrape of the anchor against metal rang out, and the same attendant emerged from the cabin again.

She raised her clipboard.

"This is Zevil Island, the site of the Fourth Phase."

Tonpa's gaze moved from the beach to the trees. There were no buildings, no fences, and no safe place to hide. Apparently, the Hunter Association had chosen the island according to a simple standard: the harder it was to find the body, the better the exam site.

The attendant turned a page on her clipboard.

"Disembarkation will begin now. How you use your time is up to you."

She glanced down at the list.

"The first applicant may disembark."

Hisoka moved.

His footsteps crossed the wooden deck with the calm of someone who knew the entire island would be within his reach whenever he wanted. At the gangway, he turned his head slightly toward the remaining applicants.

Tonpa stopped breathing for a moment.

'Damn it. I haven't even set foot on the island yet. Don't start the exam with me.'

He forced himself not to move his head. The last thing he needed was to look like a terrified man trying to check whether Hisoka was watching him.

The magician's gaze passed over the group without stopping on him... or at least, that was how Tonpa chose to interpret it.

Hisoka crossed onto the beach and disappeared into the trees without a single branch making an audible sound.

The two-minute interval began.

It was not long, but Tonpa felt every second granting Hisoka a little more distance between himself and anyone with common sense.

When the time was up, the man with the needles was next.

Illumi walked with the same stiff gait, his distorted face turned toward the island. He looked neither left nor right, giving Tonpa no clue whether he was carrying the card bearing number sixteen.

'One makes sure you know he's dangerous. The other doesn't even need to try.'

Tonpa could think of nothing to add to that, even inside his own head.

Illumi vanished among the trees, and the silent two-minute countdown began again.

When it ended, Hanzo's turn came.

The moment his feet touched the beach, he shot toward the trees, moving so fast that the advantage enjoyed by the first three applicants began to feel less like a head start and more like the island being cleared for them.

The attendant continued calling applicants forward.

With every departure, the deck grew emptier. Some applicants ran the moment they reached the beach. Others walked to hide their urgency. Tonpa tried to memorize their routes, then realized that half of them had deliberately changed direction near the trees.

Everyone was lying—even with their feet.

After a wait that felt longer than the voyage itself, only Tonpa, Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio remained near the gangway.

The attendant looked at her clipboard, then at them.

"You reached the bottom of the tower at the same time, so none of you arrived before the others. Decide your order among yourselves."

Leorio opened his mouth, then closed it.

Kurapika looked at the others, while Gon scratched his cheek as though considering how to settle the matter. Killua, meanwhile, did not seem particularly concerned about a few extra minutes either way.

Tonpa stared at the gangway.

He could ask to go first.

Eight minutes separated the first of them from the last.

Under different circumstances, that might have been worth arguing over.

But ahead of him lay an empty beach and a forest that had swallowed twenty-three applicants, one after another.

Hisoka had entered first.

Illumi after him.

Hanzo too.

'Yes. Eight minutes will definitely change everything.'

He almost scoffed at himself, then stopped mid-thought.

Eight minutes meant nothing to him.

But did the other four know that?

He looked at Gon, then Kurapika, then Leorio, and finally Killua.

His gaze lingered on the boy's faint smile.

'You might.'

He turned his attention back to the other three.

Still, he did not need to convince everyone to the same degree.

He only needed to make his concession look more generous than it actually was.

And with that, the noble persona he had created a few days earlier began slipping back into place.

He softened his expression and raised one hand before the discussion could begin.

"There's no need to argue over something like this. Decide the order among yourselves. I'll go last."

Gon's eyebrows rose.

"Are you sure? You'll be the last one off."

"I know."

Tonpa smiled like a man who had risen above selfishness hours ago, rather than one who had just discovered a way to sell eight minutes he did not need.

"We made it out of the tower together. I'm not going to start the next phase by arguing with you over a few minutes."

Gon smiled immediately.

"Thanks, Tonpa."

Kurapika studied him for a moment, then nodded.

"That's generous of you."

Tonpa gave a modest smile as Leorio let out a breath beside him.

"Fine... thanks. Just don't come back ten minutes from now and say we forced you."

"I'll try to bear this sacrifice bravely."

Leorio gave him a narrow-eyed look.

Killua merely offered a small smile.

"Suit yourself."

Tonpa could not tell whether that was gratitude or whether the boy had understood exactly how much his concession was worth.

Ding!

The familiar sound rang inside his head, and several windows appeared in succession.

[Trust Level Increased.]

[Gon Freecss: 19% → 20%]

[Killua Zoldyck: 15% → 16%]

[Kurapika: 11% → 12%]

[Leorio: 15% → 16%]

[Required Trust Level Reached with Gon Freecss.]

Tonpa's eyes stopped on the twenty percent.

Genuine joy spread through his chest, forcing him to lower his head before his expression gave him away.

Finally.

The first condition of the Side Quest had been met.

'One down. Three to go.'

He wanted another second to enjoy the achievement, but the System did not give him the time.

Before the Trust window had fully faded, another chime sounded.

Ding!

[Group Deception Registered.]

[Number of Affected Targets: 4]

[Reward per Target: +5 Nen Points]

[Reward per Target: +5 Experience Points]

[Total: +20 Nen Points, +20 Experience Points]

Tonpa dismissed the remaining windows before they ruined his performance and kept his modest smile in place.

'Twenty points for eight minutes. I'm finally starting to understand why people enjoy charity.'

His attention returned to the group.

His concession had solved only one part of the problem. The other four still needed to determine their order.

Gon spoke.

"Shall we settle it with rock-paper-scissors?"

Leorio frowned.

"We're deciding our disembarkation order with a children's game?"

Killua said:

"If you've got a better idea, say it."

Leorio went silent for a moment, then raised his fist.

"Fine. But nobody cheats."

Killua looked at him.

"At rock-paper-scissors?"

"You, specifically, I don't trust."

Gon let out a short laugh, while Kurapika raised his hand along with them.

A few quick rounds settled the order.

Gon first, followed by Killua, then Kurapika, with Leorio in fourth.

Leorio stared at his hand in annoyance.

"Wonderful."

Killua said:

"At least you're not last."

Leorio glanced at Tonpa standing behind them, then shut his mouth.

Tonpa gave him a small smile.

"Glad I could help."

Leorio's eyes narrowed.

"Don't make me regret thanking you."

Tonpa merely raised both hands in innocent surrender.

The moment did not last long. The attendant had been standing beside the gangway the entire time, watching them with patience that was beginning to wear thin.

Once she was sure their game was over, she recorded the order on her clipboard.

"The twenty-fourth applicant may disembark."

Gon stepped forward, but stopped at the entrance to the gangway and turned back toward them.

"See you on the island."

Killua raised a hand without answering, while Kurapika nodded.

Tonpa settled for a small smile.

'Assuming we still have our Badges by then.'

He did not say it aloud. Gon did not need that particular wish before setting foot on the island.

Tonpa simply maintained his smile and watched Gon cross the gangway to the beach.

The moment his feet touched land, he ran toward the trees and quickly disappeared into the dense greenery.

The two-minute interval began again.

Tonpa stayed behind as promised, watching the place where Gon had vanished.

He had not lost his chance to hide. That chance had left the ship with the first applicants a long time ago.

But he had bought a little more trust from his companions with something that was no longer worth much to him.

And in his opinion, that was as close as sacrifice had ever come to being a fair trade.



_______________________________

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 49: A Faceless Pursuer

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Killua remained by the edge of the ship, watching the direction in which Gon had disappeared until the two minutes elapsed.

The attendant gestured toward the gangway.

"You may disembark now."

Killua passed Tonpa on his way down.

"Try not to lose your Badge the moment you step ashore."

"Your concern for me is touching."

A small smile appeared on Killua's face.

"I was thinking about the poor person who has to hunt you."

Killua descended and headed toward the trees with light steps.

Tonpa watched him through narrowed eyes.

'He hopes my hunter makes it out safely, then expects me to miss him.'

The forest swallowed Killua quickly. Two minutes later, the attendant signaled for Kurapika to proceed.

Before descending, Kurapika fixed his gaze on Tonpa for a moment.

"Don't trust any agreement someone offers you here."

Tonpa nodded solemnly.

"I was about to tell you the same thing."

"I know. That's why I said it first."

Kurapika turned away before Tonpa could answer.

Leorio's turn came two minutes later. He adjusted his coat and looked toward the forest, then at Tonpa's Badge.

"We're supposed to meet again after the Phase. Don't make us come looking for you."

Tonpa did not remember them making any explicit agreement, but he heard the warning concealed beneath the words.

"I'll try to stay alive so I don't inconvenience you."

Leorio muttered something about that being all he asked before descending.

The trees swallowed him. After the final two-minute interval, only Tonpa and the attendant remained beside the gangway. Ahead of him lay an island that twenty-seven people had already entered, and one of them knew that number sixteen was worth three points.

"Your turn."

Tonpa fixed his gaze on the first row of trees.

He saw no movement. But the bushes could conceal a crouching man, and the black rocks blocked his view to the left. Whoever had drawn his number might already be far away—or waiting for him to disembark alone.

His fingertips brushed the edge of his Badge.

'If you're watching me, I'm not giving you a clean trail.'

He descended and walked to the right along the water. He planted his shoes in the damp sand, leaving an obvious trail toward a rocky outcrop. He resisted the urge to look back despite the sensation of an unknown gaze resting between his shoulders, until the rocks concealed the ship.

He stopped.

Holding his breath, he listened.

Water receded over the pebbles, and wood creaked in the distance. No footsteps reached him, and no shadow moved across the sand.

That did not reassure him. A hunter who had waited for Tonpa's turn might also know how to move without making a sound.

Tonpa prepared to continue, then noticed the glint of the Badge on his chest.

His hand moved toward it and paused.

'One hunter already knows my number. I don't need an advertising campaign.'

He removed the Badge and wrapped it in a piece of cloth. After slipping it into an inner pocket, he shook himself lightly to make sure it was secure before continuing.

Tonpa crossed a narrow gap between two rocks and jumped onto solid ground that would not preserve his footprints. Then he turned sharply toward the heart of the island. The moment he reached the trees, he broke into a run.

He changed direction at a fallen trunk, then did so again while crossing a patch of bare stone that would leave no tracks. The image of a faceless figure remained in his mind, discovering the false trail before searching for the branches Tonpa had disturbed.

His jaw tightened.

He would have preferred an opponent he could see. A fist was a straightforward problem. Now he was fleeing from someone who might not even be following him, yet he was too afraid to stop and confirm it.

A raised root stretched across his path. Tonpa pushed off the ground and cleared it with a long leap.

He landed and waited for his thighs to seize in protest.

Nothing happened.

He continued for another five steps, then glanced at the distance he had covered. His chest was rising quickly, and the pain beneath his ribs remained, but his legs showed no sign of giving out.

'How long have I been running?'

Tonpa slowed slightly and tested a longer stride.

His legs responded immediately.

A short laugh nearly escaped him, but he suppressed it before it became a sound.

'Finally, something in this body is improving without trying to kill me first.'

His strides lengthened, and cool air brushed across his face. Tonpa felt his smile widen and allowed himself to enjoy it for several seconds.

He lifted one foot to clear a cluster of roots.

Snap!

A dry branch shattered beneath his shoe.

The smile froze on his face, while his momentum carried him another half-step before his body locked in place.

'Well done. You've informed the entire forest where you are.'

He immediately ducked behind a bush. His limbs went still as his eyes moved between the trees.

'Did anyone hear that?'

He did not search for an entire person. He searched for a color moving against the wind, a shadow stopping a moment too late, or a hand pulling away from a trunk after its owner had slipped behind it.

A nearby bush shifted against the breeze.

Tonpa froze, his eyes slowly turning toward it. His fingers tightened, and he braced himself to bolt in the opposite direction.

The leaves parted.

A small lizard emerged and scurried across the dirt.

Tonpa followed it with his eyes until it vanished, then remained motionless for several more heartbeats.

'I nearly ran from a lizard.'

He might have accepted the humiliation if it had come with a warning from the System, but he heard nothing. Tonpa waited for the chime that had preceded Hisoka's appearance in the tunnel.

His head remained silent.

'Either no one is watching me, or your service doesn't cover anyone below Hisoka's threat level.'

He was not prepared to wager his Badge on the first possibility.

Tonpa rose and continued at a slower pace, choosing exposed roots and patches of stone. The person who had drawn number sixteen was no longer his only concern. Whoever had drawn Hisoka's or Illumi's number might decide to keep their own Badge and collect three ordinary ones rather than attempt to take their target's.

To those applicants, Tonpa was only a single point walking on two legs. Taking that point would still be far easier than approaching Hisoka or Illumi.

After about an hour, fatigue began to gather in his thighs. It was not the crushing exhaustion he remembered, but a manageable heaviness warning him that he had run long enough.

He decided to postpone his search for the owner of Badge 303 until after the first day. Before hunting his target, Tonpa needed to make sure he was not delivering himself to that target as prey.

He selected a broad tree whose leaves concealed most of its upper branches. The lowest branch was slightly above his head. Tonpa backed up two steps, ran forward, and jumped.

His hands caught the branch.

His weight pulled against his injured shoulder. His feet slipped against the bark, and he remained suspended for a moment, trying to hoist a stomach his Speed upgrade had apparently forgotten about.

His fingers slipped.

Tonpa fell onto the layer of dry leaves gathered around the base of the tree.

He looked up at the branch.

'Apparently, the Speed upgrade didn't include tree climbing.'

On his second attempt, he wedged one foot into a crack in the bark, jumped, and caught the branch with his uninjured arm. He pushed with his legs instead of relying on his injured shoulder and dragged himself over the branch while suppressing a groan.

Tonpa continued climbing until the leaves surrounded him.

His body disappeared among them, with only one eye peering through a narrow opening toward the ground.

He waited for his hunter to appear.

No one did.

One bird passed, then another. Patches of light moved slowly across the trunk as the heat of the day began to fade. Whenever Tonpa considered descending, a leaf rustled or a fruit dropped, causing his body to stiffen all over again.

When his stomach finally growled, he raised his head toward a sky that was beginning to lose its clear blue color.

He had remained in the tree longer than he intended.

Tonpa tried to swallow, but his dry throat scraped painfully, making him grimace. He could no longer postpone searching for water, especially now that the shadows were beginning to stretch between the trees.

He freed his numb leg and pushed the leaves aside before lowering one foot toward the branch beneath him.

Snap!

Tonpa jerked and pulled his leg back against his chest. The leaves around his face trembled, and he froze at once, before their rustling could further betray his hiding place.

'I didn't touch anything.'

He slowly lowered his head and examined the ground through the leaves.

He saw no movement.

A faint scrape came from below, followed by the sound of a dry leaf breaking beneath something's weight.

'Not a small animal.'

Tonpa pressed himself against the branch, trying to reduce the amount of space his stomach occupied. The sound drew closer, then cut off on the other side of the tree trunk.

The tip of a shoe appeared between the roots.

A leg followed, then the body of someone whose face Tonpa could not see from his angle. The stranger was passing directly beneath the tree. He did not raise his head, and nothing in his stride suggested that he had noticed anything among the leaves.

Tonpa held his breath.

'All right. Don't look up, and we'll both come out of this deal happy.'

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 50: Half a Percent of Silence

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

Tonpa remained curled among the leaves, one hand gripping the branch he had been about to use to climb down.

The sound that had broken the forest's silence had not been his imagination.

A shoe scraped against the dirt, followed by another twig snapping beneath a heavy foot.

Tonpa's eyes moved between the narrow gaps in the canopy while his head remained perfectly still. A shoulder appeared first, followed by a man forcing his way through the bushes with uneven steps.

Tonpa's brows furrowed.

'An unfamiliar face... Could he be the one hunting me?'

He swept his gaze over the newcomer, searching for a badge, a weapon, or anything else that might give him an advantage. The man was broad-chested, and one sleeve of his jacket had been torn all the way to the shoulder. Dried blood covered his arm, while a wound near his thigh forced him to drag his left leg. He was not dying, but he had clearly not emerged victorious from his last encounter.

The man stopped beneath the tree and braced one palm against its trunk.

Tonpa stopped breathing.

The narrow branch pressed into the sole of his foot. One careless shift of his weight would be enough to shake the leaves above the stranger's head. Tonpa held himself still despite the pulse of pain in his shoulder and lowered his eyes to the man's chest.

The badge was still there.



Tonpa searched his memory for the face. He could not remember seeing the man in the anime, though he had noticed him near the back of the gathering during the draw.

'Probably another guest the divergence invited into the story.'

The man raised his head slightly, freezing Tonpa's eyes in place. But instead of looking into the branches, he closed his eyes, drew a ragged breath, and pressed a hand against his wound.

"That damned blond..."

Tonpa's eyes widened.

The man wiped the sweat from his mouth with the back of his hand and muttered,

"He tells me I'm his target, then expects me to hand over my badge as if he were making a polite request. I'll make him regret it once I recover."

Tonpa's breath caught.

'Blond... and politely asking for the badge?'

Only one face came to mind.

'Kurapika?!'

Tonpa needed a moment to rearrange the draw in his head.

Kurapika was hunting 277.

But in the future Tonpa remembered, Kurapika was supposed to be hunting 16.

Tonpa.

The fact that badge 277 remained on the man's chest meant he had escaped Kurapika before the latter could take it. The man had occupied Tonpa's place in the event he remembered.

Relief seeped into Tonpa's chest, only to die before it could settle. Escaping Kurapika's target list did not mean no one had drawn his number. It only meant an unknown hunter had taken Kurapika's place.

'It could be Hisoka or Illumi... Why can't it be a normal person for once?'

His gaze dropped from the badge to the man's pockets.

'Wait... What if he has my card?'

Tonpa's fingers went cold against the branch.

'Maybe he didn't stop here by accident. Maybe he was searching for number sixteen and found the right tree.'

He waited for the chime that had begun accompanying major divergences.

One second passed.

Then another.

Nothing appeared.

One percent remained the last divergence rate the System had shown him. What he was seeing was not a new deviation, merely a delayed consequence of the previous one.

'So it isn't a new disaster. It's the old one continuing its work.'

His chest remained tight, but his attention finally returned to the man.

The stranger pushed away from the trunk and started walking. Before he could leave the shadow of the branches, Tonpa fixed his eyes on the badge once more.

It would only earn him one point. That was not enough to justify starting a fight, but it was enough to keep him from simply letting the man walk away—especially if he happened to be Tonpa's unknown hunter.

Tonpa's fingers tested the branch beneath him. He could drop onto the man now, taking advantage of surprise and a body weight he possessed in abundance.

Then he imagined missing and landing in front of the man instead of on top of him.

His enthusiasm disappeared at once.

'If he has my card, climbing down in front of him would be a gift-wrapped delivery.'

The man took another step beyond Tonpa's jumping range.

Tonpa made no attempt to stop him.

His gaze shifted to the injured leg, then to the hand pressing against the wound. The man would need to rest sooner or later, and Tonpa could be remarkably patient whenever courage was the alternative.

'I'll follow him until he falls asleep. Then we can negotiate from one side.'

The corner of Tonpa's mouth rose.

'A perfect plan: no courage required, and no conscious opponent.'

Badge 277 disappeared between the trees. Tonpa waited until the sound of the man's footsteps faded, then began climbing down.

His weight pulled painfully at his injured shoulder. He bit the inside of his cheek to smother a groan. Halfway down, one foot slipped, and his stomach scraped against the trunk before he managed to catch himself.

He clung to the bark and waited for the man to return.

Only insects answered.

'Wonderful. I've lost two rounds to the same tree in one day.'

His feet finally touched the ground. He remained still until the pain in his shoulder subsided, then moved after the man.

Tonpa kept a trunk or bush between them and stopped whenever the footsteps ahead stopped. When he found the man's tracks in the mud, he placed his feet in the same spots, taking advantage of the path already disturbed through the undergrowth.

A violent flutter erupted above Tonpa's head.

His body contracted, and one hand dropped to the ground before he could think. At the same instant, the footsteps ahead stopped.

'What was that?'

A small shadow burst from the branches. A bird emerged through the leaves and flew deeper into the forest.

The owner of badge 277 raised his head to follow it.

Tonpa remained crouched, his heart hammering against his ribs. Only then did he notice the dry branch stretched across the ground in front of his foot. Had the bird not startled him, he would have stepped on it.

He waited until the man lowered his head and resumed walking, then carefully stepped over the branch.

'Thank you. You're officially the best ally I've found in this phase.'

The footsteps ahead grew faint.

Tonpa saw the man's shoulder begin to turn.

He dropped behind a bush before the man could complete the motion.

'Don't stop now, you idiot.'

The owner of badge 277 listened for several moments before continuing. When he looked back again at the next bend, Tonpa pressed himself against a broad trunk. The man's gaze passed between the trees, close enough to make Tonpa's heart pound against his ribs.

'Yes, just an unusually fat tree. Keep walking.'

The stranger moved away. Tonpa counted to ten before leaving his hiding place and resuming the pursuit.

He followed the uneven tracks, watching the injured leg.

'He'll collapse after the bend.'

The man passed the bend.

'Fine. At the large tree.'

He passed that as well.

Tonpa's eyes narrowed. He waited for the man to fall, stop to tend his wound, or find somewhere to sleep. Instead, the stranger continued dragging his leg forward with infuriating stubbornness, as though the blood covering his clothes were merely decoration meant to waste Tonpa's time.

'Is that wound decorative? Collapse already.'

At the next glance backward, Tonpa slipped behind another trunk while silently cursing the man, his leg, and the injury that refused to perform the one task expected of it.

This time, the owner of badge 277 waited longer before continuing.

A cold thought passed through Tonpa's mind.

'Wait. Am I following him, or is he leading me?'

Tonpa remained behind the trunk instead of following immediately. He counted the man's steps—three, then four—while watching his shoulders and injured leg.

On the fifth step, the man's knee suddenly buckled. He caught himself against a nearby tree and nearly collapsed onto the ground.

Tonpa's fingers loosened slightly, but his suspicion did not disappear.

'The limp is real. That doesn't mean its owner is stupid.'

He emerged from behind the trunk and returned to the trail, keeping a wider distance this time. Ahead of him, the man slowly straightened and resumed walking.

'Collapse, sleep, lose consciousness... Pick something.'

The man ignored the suggestion he could not hear and continued dragging his leg.

Tonpa followed while counting the steps at first, then the turns, before eventually losing track of both. When he finally paid attention to the forest around him, the light had turned gray, and the spaces between the trunks had become deep enough to conceal an ambush.

Hunger pinched his stomach again while dryness scraped at his throat. He tried to swallow, only to feel a rough ache extending down into his chest.

Then a faint murmur reached his ears.

His foot stopped.

'Water?'

He tilted his head. The sound came again from somewhere to the right, clear enough to pull his eyes toward it against his will.

The man ahead raised his head at the same moment.

'Of course he heard it.'

Badge 277 turned toward the sound.

Tonpa pressed his dry tongue against the roof of his mouth. The water lay in the direction the man had chosen, but the stranger remained between Tonpa and the bank. If Tonpa hurried forward to drink, he would close the distance and expose himself. If he waited, he would have to drag his parched throat along behind the man until the fool finished first.

'Drink your fill, then find somewhere to sleep so both our suffering can end.'

The man moved toward the running water. Tonpa waited two steps before slipping after him between the trees.

The closer they came to the water, the thinner the forest became, leaving wider patches of open ground between the trunks. Tonpa slowed to preserve the distance, but the man's limp was worsening, and every step he took became shorter than the last.

The gap between them refused to widen.

The sound of Tonpa's breathing swelled in his ears until it nearly drowned out the running water. He closed his mouth and breathed through his nose, then carefully lowered his next foot toward a patch of ground clear of twigs.

The footsteps ahead vanished.

Tonpa noticed the silence only after his foot had begun to descend.

It stopped in midair.

'He stopped?'

Tonpa raised his eyes. Badge 277 stood motionless among the trees, and there was no nearby trunk large enough to hide Tonpa. Only a few low bushes separated them, barely concealing his body beneath the growing darkness.

The man slowly tilted his head and turned one ear behind him.

'He heard me.'

Tonpa made his breathing so shallow that his chest barely moved and fixed his eyes on the side of the man's face.

'Don't breathe... Don't move.'

Silence stretched between them.

Tonpa's raised leg began to tremble.

Just as he feared it would betray him, something strange contracted inside his body.

It was neither pain nor heat, but the fleeting sensation of something that had been spread around him suddenly withdrawing inward. His skin turned cold, and his presence seemed to fade into the surroundings in a way he could not describe.

'What—'

The man continued listening. His head shifted slightly to one side, as though he had been tracking a trail only to lose it before he could grasp it.

Not a leaf stirred. Not a twig snapped. After several seconds, the tension left the man's shoulders, and he began turning forward again.

Air slowly escaped Tonpa's lungs.

'I did it... I think.'

Ding!

The chime tore through his concentration without warning.

His foot jerked, and his heel came down on a dry leaf.

It crunched beneath his shoe.

The man spun around.

His gaze swept across the bushes and stopped directly on Tonpa's position.

'Not now, you damned System.'

The darkness prevented him from clearly seeing what was hidden there, but his hand slid toward the weapon hanging from his waist.

"Who's there?"

Tonpa did not answer. He did not even dare adjust his stance while the muscles in his leg continued trembling.

A translucent blue window opened before his eyes.

'Close the window and let me hide!'

The first line appeared as the man took a step toward him.

[Zetsu Activated.]

A second notification followed.

[Zetsu Mastery: 0% → 0.5%]

Tonpa stared at the name of the technique and, for a fraction of a second, nearly forgot the man approaching him.

'Wait... Is this Zetsu?'



_______________________________

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[Boumargood]

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •

Chapter 51: An Injury for Sale

• ────────── ◆ ────────── •
​

'Zetsu? I actually used it?'

The window gave Tonpa no time to process the answer.

The man wearing badge 277 took another step closer, his hand lowering toward the weapon hanging from his waist. His gaze probed the bushes where Tonpa had curled himself up, then settled on a gap barely a handspan from his face.

Tonpa kept his foot planted over the leaf that had betrayed him. A muscle in his thigh trembled, but he did not dare shift his weight to the other foot.

'Don't look this way.'

The man stepped closer.

Gray light slipped between the branches and fell across half his face, revealing the sweat gathered on his brow. The other half remained submerged in shadow.

So did Tonpa.

"I heard you."

Tonpa did not answer.

He held his breath until his chest began to ache. That cold sensation remained drawn tight within his body. It was not true invisibility; it felt as though the part of him that normally leaked into the world had withdrawn beneath his skin.

The man raised his head slightly. His eyes narrowed and shifted from one bush to another before dropping toward the ground.

He saw the broken leaf.

His fingers tightened around the handle of his weapon.

Tonpa's heart stopped for an instant, then resumed beating even harder.

'An animal. Just tell yourself it was an animal.'

The man stared at Tonpa's hiding place for several seconds. His injured leg shook, forcing him to transfer his weight to the other one. His hand remained on his weapon, but his grip slowly began to loosen when no further movement came from the bushes.

"Just an animal..."

At last, he turned away.

Tonpa did not move.

He waited until the footsteps receded, then continued counting in his head until he passed thirty. When nothing remained but the murmur of water and the insects, the air escaped his lungs all at once.

At that same moment, the strange stillness inside him shattered. He felt his presence spilling back into the forest, distinct and heavy compared to what it had been moments ago.

He bent over and braced both hands on his knees.

'Yes. An animal heavier than you that nearly died because it forgot how to breathe.'

His mockery did not last long. The name remained on the window before him, forcing Tonpa to straighten slightly and look at it again.

Zetsu.

A real Nen technique—one he had used without training or explanation at exactly the moment he needed it.

The memory of Gon stalking Hisoka through the trees surfaced in his mind. Gon had not known the technique's name then, yet he had concealed his presence while moving, as though his body understood what to do before his mind did.

Tonpa, meanwhile, had lost it the instant he released his breath.

'How long can I keep it active?'

The question received no answer. The window vanished, leaving him with nothing but a sensation he would have to find again on his own.

Tonpa closed his eyes for a moment and tried to recall what he had felt. He did not hold his breath this time. He relaxed his shoulders and pulled his attention away from the sounds around him, focusing instead on the cold emptiness he had felt beneath his skin.

Two heartbeats passed.

Then three.

His presence contracted slightly.

He slowly opened his eyes.

'Did it work?'

He did not trust the sensation alone. He lifted one foot and placed it down in front of him to test it.

The moment his weight shifted onto it, the sensation dissolved, and his presence spread around him once more.

Tonpa stared at his foot.

'So it works as long as I don't move. An excellent ability for dying on my feet.'

His sarcasm faded when the receding footsteps reached his ears. The man wearing badge 277 was getting farther away, and Tonpa had no time for more experiments.

He followed, keeping a line of trees between them.

After several dozen steps, the scrape of the dragging foot stopped.

Tonpa stopped with it.

There was no trunk nearby large enough to hide him. He relaxed his shoulders and tried to summon Zetsu again. Several heartbeats passed before the faint chill returned. It was weaker than before, but it suppressed his presence enough for him to notice the difference.

The man turned halfway around.

Tonpa remained motionless.

The man's gaze passed over the trees without stopping on him. A few moments later, he faced forward again and resumed walking.

Tonpa waited for two steps before moving.

Zetsu vanished with the first step.

'A few seconds as long as I stay still, then it collapses with the first step.'

It was not much, but it might be enough if the man turned around again.

Ahead of him, the man continued dragging his leg without sitting down.

Tonpa waited for the injured knee to buckle or for the man to choose a tree to rest beneath. Instead, the man wearing 277 kept moving farther away with stubborn determination while fatigue accumulated behind Tonpa's eyes from his brief attempts to recover Zetsu.

His mouth opened around a curse, but it died before leaving him when his gaze shifted from the man's leg to the direction of the running water.

He did not have to follow him until he fell asleep.

The hint of a smile appeared on Tonpa's face.

'If he won't give me an opening, I'll make one myself.'

The smile lingered as Tonpa reconsidered the distance and direction. Then he retreated two steps and veered away from the man's trail. He used the sound of the water to guide him and moved in a wide arc instead of continuing directly behind him.

At first, he moved slowly, careful to keep the trees between them. Once the denser trunks concealed him, he accelerated, taking advantage of the man's limp and the shorter route he had chosen.

He reached the stream first.

Tonpa crouched beside the water and scooped some up in both hands. He drank quickly, then took a second handful and wiped what remained across his mouth.

Two handfuls were enough. He did not want to weigh down his stomach before putting his idea into action, and the scrape of the dragging foot told him that the man was still following the route Tonpa had predicted.

He moved along the bank until he found a narrow passage between two rocks. Thorny bushes blocked the left side, while the ground dropped sharply on the other. Anyone approaching the water by the man's route would have little choice but to pass through there.

Tonpa looked down at himself.

He did not look nearly bad enough.

He checked his inner pocket to make sure badge 16 and the target card marked 303 were still secure. Then he gripped the bottom of his shirt, well away from the pocket and his injured shoulder.

'So now I'm paying for this con with my clothes and my skin.'

Complaining did nothing to make the necessity disappear. He tightened his grip and pulled hard. The fabric resisted at first, then tore with a sound that made him turn toward the trees.

He heard no nearby footsteps.

Tonpa crouched beside the mud and plunged both hands into it, then smeared it across his clothes and face. The mud clung to his cheek, and some of it slipped cold beneath his shirt, making him shudder.

He picked up a sharp-edged stone and positioned it over his forearm.

He hesitated.

'Wonderful. Either I fool him, or I become the first victim of my own con.'

His mockery did not survive for long. His eyes returned to the edge poised above his forearm, and his hand hesitated for another moment. Cutting himself had been much easier while it was still only part of the plan.

Tonpa clenched his jaw and pressed down with the stone.

A thin line of pain ignited across his skin. Tonpa sucked in a sharp breath and swallowed his curse, then pressed around the cut until enough blood emerged. He smeared it near the tear in his shirt and mixed in a little mud to make the wound look older and dirtier.

He examined the result.

'Kurapika, this is the first time your hostility toward someone else has ever benefited me.'

His gratitude did not last. He looked back toward the passage the man would use, then chose a rock clearly visible from it and leaned his back against the stone. He stretched one leg out, bent the other, and let his head droop as though remaining seated demanded the last of his strength.

All he had to do was wait.

He fixed his gaze on the passage. One slow minute passed.

An insect stung him near the ear, but he did not raise a hand.

Then the scrape of the dragging foot reached him.

The sound approached slowly. One step, a brief pause, then another. Tonpa kept his head lowered and watched the path through the strands of his hair.

The edge of a shoulder appeared between the trees.

It stopped.

Then it vanished behind the same trunk.

Tonpa remained still.

'He disappeared... Did he hide from me?'

Ding!

The chime nearly made him flinch, but at the last instant, he turned the motion into a feeble tremor of his shoulder.

The blue window appeared.

[Potential Hostility Detected.]

[Someone Is Watching the Host.]

'Someone is watching me? Thank you. I was about to accuse the tree trunk.'

His sarcasm faded as he returned his attention to the trunk. He let the window vanish, then tightened his fingers over the cut and released a faint groan. After that, he raised his voice just enough to reach the man's hiding place.

"That damned blond..."

He drew a ragged breath, then struck the rock behind him with his uninjured fist.

"When I recover, I'll make him regret it."

No answer came.

Tonpa caught the faint scrape of something behind the trunk. He waited a moment, then abruptly raised his head as though the sound had only just startled him.

His eyes moved between the trees.

"Who's there?!"

The silence held for another two heartbeats.

Then the man wearing badge 277 stepped out from behind the trunk.

His hand hovered near his weapon, but he did not draw it. His gaze traveled over the mud, blood, and rips in Tonpa's clothes before stopping on his face.

Tonpa shrank back against the rock and raised his uninjured arm in front of his chest.

"Did that blond send you?"

The man froze.

His hand moved slightly away from his weapon, and his eyes widened for the first time.

"The blond?" He looked at Tonpa's injury again. "What did he do to you?"

Tonpa nearly smiled.

'Wonderful. I haven't even started the lie, and he's already finding an excuse for it.'

He concealed his relief behind a wary stare.

"He attacked me when I refused to hand over my badge." Tonpa pressed his palm over the staged wound, then added bitterly, "He beat me until he ripped it off me and left me here."

The man's eyes moved to the empty spot on Tonpa's chest, then he took a step toward him.

Tonpa pushed his back away from the rock and struggled to his feet. He raised his uninjured fist in front of his face while keeping his wounded arm folded close to his ribs.

"Stay where you are."

The man stopped, moved his hand away from his weapon, and raised his empty palm.

"Calm down. I don't work for that blond. He tried to take my badge too."

Tonpa did not lower his fist. He let suspicion fill his face as he examined the dried blood on the man's arm and badge 277 pinned to his chest.

"If you're not with him..."

His voice dropped, but his body remained ready to fight.

"Then what do you want from me?"

_______________________________

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