Chrollo's bag was destroyed too.
The small nen pouch tore open, spilling countless treasures. It turned out these were the riches those two old men hadn't taken with them.
Chrollo closed his book, deactivating his power. He had no time to worry about the treasure scattered across the floor. He looked at Saiki Kusuo, who was leaning against the now-deformed wall, his body still shaking.
Even Chrollo couldn't quite understand what was happening.
...
It was hot. Saiki Kusuo could feel something was off with his body. Really off. And hard to control. Especially the bracelet on his right wrist—thanks to a strange curse, his powers were going haywire.
Normally, his powers would reject the bracelet's pull for energy. But now, just like the first time he ever touched it, the bracelet was wildly drawing out power, pushing his abilities into chaos.
Even while feeling sick, Saiki Kusuo figured out the chain of cause and effect. His powers were going to keep spiraling out of control. He had to get out of here.
Teleport! Failed.
Flight! …Failed too.
Yare yare… everything was scrambled. He let go of the wall and tried to take off the bracelet.
He took one step forward—and his foot slowly sank into the floor.
What the—? He grabbed the bracelet with both hands, but after two seconds he realized even his x-ray vision wasn't working.
He lowered his hands and saw his foot stuck in the ground, the edges glowing with a burning red light.
The temperature was out of control!
Great. Just great. Hopefully no one saw that.
He didn't notice that far off in the distance, Chrollo was silently watching.
The ship rocked again. Caught off guard, Saiki Kusuo dropped to his knees—but ignored the pain. He just reached for the bracelet, desperate to take it off.
But now that it was drawing power freely, the bracelet had become greedy—very greedy.
Of course. This thing was never some obedient tool. It was just a device that sucked up energy endlessly. Once it latched onto a source, it would activate its power and devour everything—again and again—until the wearer was completely drained!
Chrollo realized Saiki Kusuo was fighting the bracelet and quickly guessed it was the source of all this strange behavior.
It looked like Saiki had been using something dangerous, and now it was backfiring because he wasn't in good shape.
Should he help? Chrollo didn't plan to.
Everything *looked* okay from the outside, but his instincts were screaming: this was extremely dangerous. In the face of something unknown, how could he just walk into it? Especially for something that had nothing to do with the Troupe.
"Crack."
A sound came from above. Raindrops started to fall into the room. Chrollo looked up, and his expression changed.
A crack had opened on the ceiling of the ship? The outer shell of a ship like this should be solid.
Was it just wear and tear—or did someone do this?
"Saiki! Saiki Kusuo!" Chrollo called twice, but unlike before, there was no reply in his mind.
The ship was already out at sea, and now they were facing a storm.
A crack on the ceiling now was bad news. Heavy rain could flood the inside and mess with the ship's balance.
And strong winds might make the crack even worse.
After weighing the risks, Chrollo made a quick decision.
First, get Saiki Kusuo under control.
He opened his bandit book. With two quick jumps, he got close to Saiki Kusuo. A bundle of bandages appeared in his hand. They looked loose, but moved exactly how he wanted.
With a single thought, the bandages rushed toward Saiki Kusuo's arm—
"Fwoosh!" The bandages caught fire.
What? That bandage was made from Nen, it shouldn't catch fire like normal cloth!
The ship suddenly rocked again, throwing Saiki Kusuo—who was already unsteady—hard to the side, along with everything else in the room. The treasure scattered on the floor became dangerous obstacles.
Normally, Saiki Kusuo would've slammed into the wall along with all the flying objects.
Chrollo cut off the burning bandage. Among the fallen items from the destroyed room was a blanket. He used the bandage to swing the blanket toward Saiki Kusuo, wanting to test the temperature around him.
But what happened next defied all logic. When Saiki Kusuo hit the side of the ship, the steel pipes and the wall didn't stay firm. They bent, crumpled, and shattered—like they'd been hit not by a person, but by a cannonball.
Strangely, the blanket Chrollo threw over wasn't burned. That made him suspicious, but he still used the bandage to tie Saiki Kusuo up through the blanket.
For a moment, everything went quiet. Had he finally calmed Saiki Kusuo down?
Wrapped in the blanket, Saiki Kusuo didn't move. Chrollo slowly walked over.
No, something was wrong.
Chrollo looked down and noticed the floor where Saiki Kusuo's feet touched was sizzling.
Even without getting close, Chrollo could feel the heat from over there!
"Fsshh!" The bandage suddenly caught fire again—but the blanket remained perfectly fine!
Chrollo pulled the bandage back and flipped open the Bandit's Secret book.
If Nen-based powers weren't working, he'd have to switch away from materializing abilities.
If it was about heat… then maybe try ice.
Water to ice—an uncommon but useful skill. Right now, heavy rain was pouring in through cracks above, flooding the floor, making it a perfect place to use that ability.
Chrollo stepped forward to activate it… but nothing happened.
What the hell? He was sure he turned to the right page.
He looked down and saw that one of the pages was glowing with flames. When he flipped to it, he found that the bandage ability hadn't been fully put away. Because it had caught fire, he couldn't store it again—it was still active!
Damn it. Chrollo quickly released more bandages. But part of that page was already burning. What would happen next, he had no idea.
This kind of ability… he had never seen before. Chrollo stared at Saiki Kusuo, still lying on the ground, still heating up the floor. He couldn't get close. Worst of all, he couldn't escape either. If the burning spread to the whole book, and not just one page, he'd lose everything.
"This is… way too 'interesting.'" Chrollo couldn't tell if the liquid running down his face was sweat or rain. The storm soaked them both, and the flames dimmed just a little.
Then the ship tilted again—this time in the opposite direction! Saiki Kusuo slid across the floor, straight toward Chrollo.
The blanket had long since come loose. Chrollo jumped, grabbed a pipe near the ceiling, and hung on to steady himself. Meanwhile, Saiki Kusuo was once again headed for the wall—but this time, behind the wall wasn't another room. It was the ship's outermost steel hull.
Based on what happened last time, Saiki Kusuo would definitely crash through and fly out of the ship. And in this kind of storm, if he hit the ocean while unconscious…
He'd die.
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