"I wonder what kind of strength the captain's other teammates have..."
A strong sense of urgency surged in Ponzu's chest, unbidden.
Kaizen glanced at her, noting the change in her expression—but he didn't find anything wrong with it.
In a team, some competition between members is healthy. If everyone just stagnated and got comfortable, then Kaizen's reason for assembling this team would lose its meaning entirely.
"Ponzu, over here."
It was Ponzu who had come back to his senses and motioned her over to Kaizen.
"What's this?"
Ponzu's eyes landed on a massive white bear lounging nearby.
"That's Polar Bear. Belongs to Nina. She's the one who somehow manages to stay cold even in the sun," Kaizen replied with a faint smile.
Hearing his name, Polar Bear raised his head and looked at Ponzu with curious eyes. Then he sniffed the air—probably trying to memorize her scent.
Unlike humans, animals often rely more on smell than sight to remember people.
"Polar Bear, hey there."
"Woof!"
Ponzu sat down next to Kaizen.
"Captain, is that Tessia?"
Though Tessia looked quite different from before, her core features were still recognizable if you looked closely.
"Yeah."
"She's gotten crazy strong... How long did she study?"
"About three or four years."
"That's it? Just three or four years and she's already this powerful?"
"You can reach that level too someday, Ponzu."
Even without the results of Oster's experiments or the Queen Bee, Altan's calculations suggested that Ponzu had the potential to reach B-rank—the same level as Tessia now.
But even so, at this moment, Ponzu still couldn't compare to Tessia.
Her aura was made for combat.
"Really?"
Ponzu's eyes lit up with hope.
"You will."
...
On the arena floor, the battle between Tessia and Natru had reached a fever pitch.
Flames clashed with fists—brute strength and explosive aura clashing at every turn.
Their fighting styles were actually somewhat similar.
But Natru was simply one level above Tessia.
Even with all her effort, Tessia was getting pushed back.
A wave of violent flame surged toward Tessia. She raised a shield of white fire to block it, but as the seconds ticked by, it began to burn away.
Boom!
Tessia was blasted backward, landing hard.
At Kaizen's mental signal, Natru's figure disappeared from the ring.
Tessia slowly stood, now back in her normal human form.
"Not bad," Kaizen said with a grin.
Tessia smiled brightly.
"When's Nina's match?"
Kaizen asked.
Tessia checked the time. "Ten minutes."
"Let's go watch."
Kaizen stood.
"Wait... I don't think we'll be able to get tickets at this point."
Tessia hesitated.
"Don't forget—I'm a Floor Master at Heavens Arena. I still have some perks."
Kaizen didn't bother with tickets. He walked straight to the venue, spoke with the staff, and entered through a private corridor.
No packed seats this time.
Instead, they were shown to a private viewing room.
Kaizen, Ponzu, and Tessia took their seats.
At that moment, the balcony was still empty.
Down below, the referee stood at the edge of the ring.
The crowd had almost entirely filled in. The stands were packed.
The host's voice boomed across the arena as he introduced both fighters.
Kaizen scanned the crowd—and spotted a few familiar faces.
Sadaso. Gido. Riehlvelt.
Though something was different.
The three of them weren't sitting together like they did in the original timeline. Their auras felt more grounded, more stable—less like cold-blooded rookie hunters out for easy kills.
Kaizen remembered meeting Sadaso years ago.
Sadaso caught Kaizen's gaze.
Kaizen didn't linger.
He remembered that brief moment when Sadaso and Killua were together. That moment must've been affected by his butterfly effect. But Kaizen couldn't be sure how much had changed.
"Looks like he's on a better path now."
Sadaso's aura felt like it had reached the D-rank level.
In the original story, he was painfully weak—so much so that even Killua, fresh off learning how to use aura wrapping, scared him senseless.
Killua's killing intent alone had driven him to abandon the arena and flee the city.
"Gido and Riehlvelt don't seem too different from the original timeline, though."
...
At last, the host finished the introductions.
Two fighters stepped onto the stage.
On one side: Nina.
On the other: a muscular, older woman. Her presence was solid. Her aura, not bad at all.
Nina had been a Heavens Arena fighter for years—but had never become a Floor Master.
She'd once won ten straight victories and earned the right to challenge a Floor Master.
But instead of picking a weak opponent to boost her odds, Nina had chosen someone strong—one of the middle-ranked Floor Masters.
Both were C-rank Nen users at the time.
Nina with tool-based support abilities.
Her opponent with a fighting-based style.
Nina lost.
After that, her record in the Heavens Arena was reset to zero.
In terms of points, she was back to square one—just like any rookie who had barely earned their ticket to the 200th floor.
Now, if she wanted to challenge a Floor Master again, she'd need to win another ten matches without losing four.
...
"Nina! Go for it!"
Tessia's voice rang out.
Nina turned toward the sound and spotted them.
When she saw Kaizen, surprise lit up her face.
Kaizen smiled and gave her a thumbs-up.
Nina's gaze moved to Ponzu.
"Is that the Ponzu that the Siper mentioned? The new recruit in your team?"
She studied Ponzu with curiosity.
Ponzu stared back, just as curious.
"So she's Nina, the first one Captain recruited? I wonder how strong she really is..."
"Probably stronger than me," Ponzu muttered.
The host's voice rose again.
"And now—let the match begin!"
...
Sadaso followed Nina's gaze—and his eyes widened when he saw where she was looking.
"Kaizen?"
He remembered the first time they met.
"After all these years, I finally made it to the 200th floor of Heavens Arena..."
He clenched his fists.
"But the gap between me and Kaizen... it's even wider now."
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Fanfic is completed on patreon.com/FanficsHub (1047 chapters in total)