"You… what do you want to do…?"
[The photo of the Buburachin mansion. Hand it over.] Saiki Kusuo held out his hand.
It had already been over seven minutes. He had to hurry. The three-minute cooldown for teleportation had already passed.
The butler finally cracked, tears running down his face as he handed over his phone. Under Saiki Kusuo's pressure, he scrolled faster than he ever had in his life to find the right photo.
Once Saiki Kusuo saw the photo clearly, he teleported again.
The butler collapsed to the ground, looking left and right. There was no one around. Then he realized—there weren't even any footprints left behind! What did he just encounter?! What the hell was that?!
...
As soon as Saiki Kusuo arrived at the Buburachin mansion, he heard screams—both pained and terrified. This was definitely the place.
When Saiki Kusuo flew inside, people were spraying a fire extinguisher directly at a man. Spraying that on a person might be harmful, right? Saiki Kusuo instantly teleported to the man's side, stopping the extinguisher and carefully putting out the flames on the man's body with his power.
The man was still alive, but most of his body had been badly burned. He was barely hanging on. With a serious look, Saiki Kusuo put out the last of the fire and used his Rewind ability on him.
Rewind restores time. No matter how bad the injury looks, the cost to use it stays the same.
Saiki Kusuo reached out, and a "7"-shaped "banana" appeared in his hand. It was one of his powers—if he hit someone with it, he could erase a part of their memory. But the downside was, people would fill in the missing part with their own imagination, so it wasn't always reliable.
He hit everyone present with it. He didn't hold back, so they all collapsed to the ground.
To make sure no one died from the hit, he rewound everyone by a day.
[You all just had a bad dream. Nothing happened here.] Saiki Kusuo implanted the suggestion in their minds before climbing out the window.
Maybe he was too tired, or just careless—but his foot caught on something outside the window. He grabbed the railing and leaned forward.
For the first time since waking up tonight, his feet finally touched the ground.
Because every step he took before felt like he was melting the ground, he hadn't dared to touch the floor since waking up. Even when close to it, he kept flying.
So tired. Saiki Kusuo hadn't felt this kind of deep exhaustion in a long time. This is what it's like when his powers go out of control. This kind of dangerous strength… this time was still lucky. But what about next time? What if, when he wakes up, he sees a bunch of bodies he can't bring back?
Sure, he could try using time travel to fix things—but there were too many variables.
Saiki Kusuo leaned on the railing to rest for one minute. He only allowed himself one. When the minute was up, he lifted his head again, took a deep breath, and flew off once more.
Inside, it was quiet. Outside, an ambulance wailed its way toward the scene.
"Where's the patient? That room? Wait, is that someone outside the window…?"
[You didn't notice anything.] Mental suggestion.
"Oh, I didn't notice. Huh? What didn't I notice?"
Saiki Kusuo disappeared instantly.
Chrollo had said he could stop the storm, but Saiki still didn't fully trust him. He needed to take care of it himself. Before the storm ended, he had to use illusions to cover the cracks in the ship's roof. He also had to make an illusion of himself on the ship since the examiners might be watching from above. And when the ship docked, he'd need to restore the damage.
Too many things to do.
Hopefully, aside from that one burned page, the rest of Chrollo's book was still fine.
Nen powers weren't like physical stuff. He couldn't rewind them. He'd already tried it with the book before.
Elsewhere, Chrollo stood on the deck, letting the wind blow past him.
A storm wind. A tornado.
In front of him, the broken part of the ship's roof was already sealed with ice. The cracks were filled completely, forming a pale icy blue line like a frozen galaxy above his head.
The wild wind messed up his short hair, but his heart stayed calm, just like always.
Out of nowhere, a pink figure appeared in his vision. He turned his head and saw someone leaning against the wall in the middle of the storm, eyes closed like he was just resting.
Looking more closely, this person looked different from the Saiki Kusuo who had left earlier. Most importantly, this one didn't look seasick at all.
A fake? Then where's the real one? But more than ten minutes had passed, and the fire hadn't returned.
The thick clouds in the sky finally began to break apart. The sea slowly calmed. The rain stopped. Without the rain, the ice started to lose its support.
Chrollo put away his book, "Skill Hunter," and finally let out a breath.
The sun rose from the edge of the sky, lighting up the faces of everyone who was hoping for a better day.
Temporary results for the third exam: 32 people passed.
As the ship sailed toward the fourth test area, Saiki Kusuo stayed underwater, riding alongside the ship while holding onto a dolphin he'd convinced to help him. He used illusions to hide the cracks in the ship and made a fake version of himself to trick the examiners recording the number of people from the air.
When the ship docked, the first thing he did was touch the ship and restore it to how it looked the day before. Even items on the ship returned to their original places.
Inside a room, Chrollo saw everything go back to normal. He also saw that the treasure on the table disappeared. He didn't chase after it. He just picked up both his and Saiki Kusuo's laptop bags, grabbed a yukata from the ship, and walked out with his hair now blond.
The fourth exam was a hunting game. Everyone drew a card in the order they escaped the trap tower. The card showed their target.
The points worked like this: your own number card was worth 3 points, your target's card was 3 points, and all other cards were 1 point. A total of 6 points was needed to pass.
So at least half the people would be eliminated.
In the center, test takers went up one by one to draw a card.
"First up, Hisoka."
Hisoka stepped up to draw.
"Second, Gittarackur."
Illumi had already changed back into his nail-covered form and clicked his way forward.
"Third, Saiki Kusuo Zoldyck."
…
"Saiki Kusuo Zoldyck!"
Only now did Hisoka and Illumi realize something—
Someone's presence was missing.
Hisoka stood with hands on his hips, glancing sideways at the nail-covered Illumi with a teasing tone: [Did we lose our little pink friend?]
Illumi, cold as usual: [Don't say 'we.' He's my little brother.]
Indeed, Saiki Kusuo was nowhere to be seen. And the monitors only showed Killua and Alluka.
Illumi thought it over. He didn't need to check every person to know Saiki Kusuo wasn't around.
That kid hadn't become an assassin, but he was good at hiding his presence. If you weren't paying attention, it was easy to overlook him.
Still, Saiki Kusuo usually behaved and never did anything unexpected. He wouldn't purposely stay hidden right now. Maybe… he fell asleep on the ship?
Illumi looked back toward the ship.
Everyone stayed quiet. No one cared whether this "Saiki Kusuo" lived or died.
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