"Well then, I'm off. Rest well, Little Pink." [Hehehe… knowing Chrollo's here, holding back for even a day was already pushing it…]
[Yeah, okay. Thanks…] Saiki Kusuo lowered his head, gently touching the big leaf that had been covering him. A corner of it snapped off with a crisp crack under his fingers.
Wait a second—did he just hear a stray thought?
What was that? Chrollo…?
Hisoka knows Chrollo is here? Saiki Kusuo suddenly looked up. It didn't matter what those two were about to do, but… could this discovery be connected to me? Did I talk in my sleep and give something away? No way—that's impossible. I don't talk in my sleep. Then what was it? A power leak? Did my telepathy slip?
"Hmm~ What's wrong?" Hisoka noticed Saiki Kusuo acting weird and stopped to ask.
…Calm down. Hisoka's thoughts didn't mention me at all. He wants to leave. If I had exposed something, he'd be grilling me right now, not looking for Chrollo. Probably.
Hisoka's thoughts were hard to read. Even being able to hear them didn't help much. Like he said himself, people with transformation abilities tend to change their minds on a whim. He was unpredictable.
[No, I was just thinking…] Saiki Kusuo quickly came up with something. [This exam lasts seven days. I saw you building a card tower all this time, and I wanted to try it out. Can I have a deck?]
"You want my cards~?" Hisoka put one hand on his hip and stroked his neck with the other as he looked at him.
Can you stop acting so flirty?
Saiki Kusuo nodded calmly. [Yeah. Is that okay?]
His x-ray vision let him see the wounds on Hisoka's body. Even though they were lightly covered, his ability could see through Nen. Aside from a bunch of hidden loose cards, Hisoka only had two full unopened decks on him.
"Hmm~ sure. Want me to teach you how to build the card tower?"
To little Apple, Hisoka was surprisingly easy to talk to.
[Nah, that's fine.] Saiki Kusuo added, [Do I need to give you anything in return for the cards?]
"Nope~ Il-chan gave me too many already~ see." After that drawn-out "see," Hisoka reached behind his back with his right hand, the one on his waist, and pulled out a deck.
Only Saiki Kusuo knew both unopened decks were actually in a pocket on Hisoka's left side. He'd purposely twisted around to get it. That move obviously pulled at his wounds. As expected… the scabs got ripped open and blood started seeping out. Seriously, couldn't he just do a normal magic trick without hurting himself?
And to someone who can see through things, magic tricks are totally boring anyway.
*Thud.* The sealed deck landed next to Saiki Kusuo.
[Thanks. Good luck. Hope you find your target without hurting too many people.] Saiki Kusuo said.
"Hmm~ you're welcome." Hisoka waved and walked off. [My target is Chrollo, hehe… this is fate…]
Chrollo is Hisoka's target?
Saiki Kusuo watched Hisoka walk away and silently felt sorry for Chrollo for a second. Then he took off his thin transparent glove.
Yeah, he had been wearing a see-through glove the whole time. He had a small, unnoticed ability—touch-sensing. When he touched something, he could see a bit of its past. But what part he saw was random. He couldn't choose.
That's why he asked Hisoka for the cards in the first place—he wanted to figure out how Hisoka knew Chrollo was the "Chivalry" guy.
Touch!
[The setting is a forest. Hisoka stood with his hands on his hips, blocking Chivalry's path: "Hey there, number 135. Hehehe… I wouldn't have known if it were someone else, but I remembered your number. You're my prey."]
["Hisoka, I know you love fighting, but we can't fight among teammates. And I'm not a fighter. I know I can't beat you," said Chrollo (a.k.a. Chivalry).]
["Kikyo told me about that. But this target card… mm-hmm, fate! It has your name on it. A little fun doesn't go against the rules, right? Feitan and Phinks fight too. So, Chivalry-chan… be my prey~"]
["I see. Well, this might be annoying, but here's my number card then!" You could tell Chrollo really wanted to get out of there.]
[He threw the card at Hisoka. It flew past Hisoka's cheek, but he didn't catch it.]
["Hehehe… I won't accept your pity. In the hunter-and-hunted game, the points only count if you win them in battle. That's what makes it fun, right? Here, take it back~"]
The cards flew back toward Chrollo with a flick of Hisoka's fingers—he must've used Bungee Gum. Hisoka bent forward slightly, his breathing getting heavier and more ragged. He was clearly trying to hold back his excitement. Then suddenly, he stepped forward—the fight was about to explode!
The footage cut off. That was it.
Saiki Kusuo tapped it again—unfortunately, it only showed the scene where Hisoka bought the cards. Seriously? He got them from a normal convenience store?
He tapped it again and again—just scenes of the cards getting boxed up. Nothing useful. Saiki Kusuo gave up. So, to sum it up, Hisoka targeted Chrollo and tracked him down, but in the fight, it looked like Chrollo didn't even use the borrowed ability?
Didn't Chrollo take that guy's power and fake everything?
That was probably what happened. But no matter how he looked at it, it didn't seem like Hisoka and Chrollo would fight to the death on this island. Even if they did, that would be completely within expectations—Hisoka wanted a one-on-one fight with Chrollo anyway. The only difference was that now it happened without any prep.
As long as it's not his fault, that's all that matters.
Without any stress, Saiki Kusuo powered up his gloves, put them on, sat cross-legged, and spread the deck in front of him.
Yes, he was really about to build a card tower. Back at home, he had other ways to practice control, but fine motor control had always been hard for him. That's exactly why he needed to train—especially now.
He carefully used a stick to open the lid of the cards and spilled them all onto the ground.
He picked up a nearby leaf and crushed it in his hand over and over until it finally stopped crumbling.
Okay, warm-up complete. Step one—pick up two cards.
...
Three hours later, Saiki Kusuo had restored the shattered deck scattered all over the ground.
Nope. Totally hopeless. With the state of his power right now, he couldn't even hold one card steady. One tremble and the card would fly off. He had to use his psychic power to bring them back, and sometimes, they'd get twisted into a mess mid-air from the unstable force.
Card towers were absolute hell. No matter how he looked at it, this wasn't for him. Something like building a radio tower out of steel pipes would probably suit him more—he'd have an 80% chance of pulling that off.
...Yeah, he was being impatient. He only rested one day and already thought he was back to normal.
He sat back down, cross-legged, and closed his eyes to meditate. It looked like a training pose—and it actually was. The goal was to calm himself and get back into the right mindset.
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