Chapter 62: The Hidden Nen Ability User
A warrior of the free civil rights movement?
Mord's lips curled slightly. How intriguing.
When he set down his drink and looked down, he found the large pot of sukiyaki on the table had been completely devoured.
Not even the broth remained for Mord.
All that was left for him was Little Mikoto's grinning face.
Mord had no choice but to order another table of food, this time mostly dry snacks and pastries.
After a while, Mord left payment for the meal, stood up, and walked out of the establishment.
"Your grandmother is home alone. You should head back first. I'll return later on my own."
"Do you know the way?"
Mord waved dismissively, his figure gradually disappearing into the night.
The princess mentioned by those fellows earlier was the primary objective of his current mission to Jappon.
The moon was dark, the wind high.
The three young nobles stumbled out of the tavern, swaying as they walked down the street—clearly having drunk heavily.
Faced with the current situation, what could they possibly do? Nothing but drown their sorrows in alcohol day after day.
Had it been daytime, they wouldn't have dared speak those words in the tavern's private room even with ten times their courage.
It was merely the liquor emboldening them.
They remained completely unaware of a dark shadow quietly trailing behind them.
"Teacher, I miss you."
"Teacher, I miss you too. How could you leave us like this? What are we supposed to do now?"
The three continued walking while weeping and shouting.
Mord observed it all, recognizing that their respect for the teacher they mentioned came from the depths of their hearts.
The trio eventually left the main street and turned into a nearby alley.
The moment they entered the alley, the pursuing figure finally revealed its true form.
A ninja!
Yet another ninja.
The kunai in the black-clad ninja's hand gleamed with a chilling cold light under the moonlight, but the three unfortunate souls ahead remained completely oblivious.
Just as they were about to meet a tragic end, a figure swiftly closed in on the ninja.
The black-clad ninja had no time to react. A solid chop to the back of his neck rendered him completely unconscious.
The entire sequence unfolded in the blink of an eye. By the time Mord departed with the ninja, the three still hadn't noticed anything amiss behind them, completely unaware they had just brushed shoulders with death.
...
Outskirts, a cave.
By the firelight, a completely naked man was bound tightly. He lifted his head, glaring viciously at Mord. When he opened his mouth, it revealed that all his teeth had been knocked out.
Blood mixed with saliva continuously dripped from the corners of his mouth.
Having finally captured someone alive, Mord had no intention of letting him commit suicide by poison right before his eyes.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm doing this for your own good."
Mord casually fiddled with the poisoned arrows and throwing darts in front of him—all stripped from the ninja before him. He lifted his head and continued speaking.
"I have a few questions for you now. As long as you answer obediently, I can spare your life."
"You've already experienced my methods. If you're truly confident you can endure them, I'm perfectly willing to spend the whole night here with you."
Ninjas possess an extraordinary tolerance for pain, but they are still human in the end.
They may have the courage to seek death, but they cannot bear the endless torment of being unable to live or die.
Mord was using the technique of the Thunder God—electrocution.
After being shocked to the point of incontinence, the young ninja finally couldn't withstand the agony and nodded at Mord.
"Name and identity."
"Tenma Ichiro, chūnin of the Kōga ninja." His voice was muffled and unclear due to the loss of his teeth.
"Are you affiliated with the shogunate?" Mord asked.
The young ninja nodded.
"Your mission?"
"Monitor the people in Asakusa Town. If any rebels are discovered, eliminate them on sight."
"Are there any other companions of yours still in the town?"
Tenma Ichiro's eyes flickered as he spoke: "There is one more companion. We agreed to meet at dawn. If he doesn't find any trace of me by then, he will immediately report the intelligence to Kyoto."
He was trying to increase his bargaining chips for survival.
Mord saw through all this but didn't expose it. Whether this information was true or false wouldn't affect his next actions.
"Do you know Princess Tsukiwa's whereabouts?"
Hearing Mord's question, a look of "as expected" appeared on Tenma Ichiro's face. He said: "We don't know. If we did, we would have captured her long ago."
"Princess Tsukiwa disappeared along with the Cloud-Hidden Elite Ninja Hanzo. We're looking for them too."
Coming to rescue someone, but not knowing where they're hidden.
How utterly troublesome.
Mord then asked about the current numbers and combat capabilities of the Iga ninja, but due to Tenma Ichiro's limited status, he didn't know much core intelligence.
Countless thoughts flashed through Mord's mind as he looked at Tenma Ichiro and asked his final question.
"Have you seen General Kubo? How strong is he?"
Upon hearing Mord's words, General Kubo's figure involuntarily surfaced in Tenma Ichiro's mind. At that moment, a sudden anomaly occurred.
Strange tattoos, like cursed patterns, began appearing on Tenma Ichiro's body.
It's Nen!
A sudden sense of crisis emerged!
Almost without thinking, Mord immediately leaped backward.
Boom!
A dull explosion sounded. When Mord looked again, Tenma Ichiro had turned into scattered pieces of flesh all over the ground, the air thick with the smell of blood.
No mistake about it—the aura emanating from Tenma Ichiro just before the explosion was indeed Nen.
Mord pondered.
The entire interrogation process had been smooth from start to finish until just now, when the question about General Kubo was asked, triggering this anomaly.
That meant Tenma Ichiro had likely been placed under some kind of command like "must not reveal any information about General Kubo," with immediate death upon violation. Of course, he himself probably wasn't aware of this.
From these signs, the person who issued this command was most likely a Manipulation-type Nen user.
This country indeed has Nen users.
Supposedly came here to lay low from the mafia and complete a mission along the way.
Seems like that old geezer Netero screwed me over.
Given the current situation, without understanding the opponent's true strength and abilities, acting rashly could very well mean not leaving this country alive.
Speaking of which, where would that guy Hanzo hide someone?
The contact method given earlier is also out of reach.
Did he lose his phone?
Thinking this, Mord walked out of the cave, glanced up at the sky, and realized without noticing that dawn had already broken.
He yawned and slowly headed toward the town.
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