Knowing the hotel and exact room in advance had given the Phantom Troupe the initiative.
Xiyou was still a Zodiac and a specialized combat bounty hunter, so the Troupe arrived with a full plan already in place.
Franklin, Kortopi, Chrollo, and Machi took the room directly above.
Nobunaga and Pakunoda took the room directly below.
Hisoka remained in the corridor, antennas already deployed. His only job was to wait and keep the waiter under control.
The waiter's meal cart drew Xiyou's attention. The moment it did, both floors attacked together.
Franklin opened up with both machine-gun hands, raining Nen bullets downward.
Nobunaga drew his blade, spread En, locked onto Xiyou's feet, and thrust upward.
Chrollo and Machi dropped from outside, aiming for a direct frontal assault.
Pakunoda held her pistol ready, En already spread, waiting for a clean shot.
Kortopi stayed back; his abilities favored defense over offense.
Xiyou's reactions stayed inside their predictions—stronger than expected, but not surprising. One swing of the Ruyi Staff casually shattered Franklin's bullets. A simple shift of weight carried him clear of Nobunaga's near-instant thrust. Then the three hairs became full-sized monkeys and the fight turned from defense to counter-attack.
Chrollo and Machi exchanged a single glance. Both saw the same weight in the other's eyes.
Bandit's Secret appeared in Chrollo's hand. Pages flipped. Spider silk shot from his fingers—the ability taken long ago from the Shadow Beasts. Machi's attack was almost identical, only her threads were pure Nen rather than silk.
Neither aimed at Xiyou. Both targeted the monkeys charging them.
Chrollo had come for one reason: reliable information that Xiyou possessed an ability capable of stripping another person's sight. The three monkeys confirmed and expanded that information at once.
One wore heavy headphones.
One had a strip of red cloth bound over both eyes.
One had a zipper sealed across its mouth.
See No Evil. Hear No Evil. Speak No Evil.
A classic deprivation set, firmly inside Manipulation. The Nen beasts themselves fit the category perfectly. Combined with Xiyou's own movement and power, Chrollo's assessment settled: Emission leaning toward Manipulation, with secondary Enhancement. The balanced "mountain" training path—never the absolute peak of any single category, yet often more troublesome than pure specialists because of the complex abilities it produced.
The blind monkey reacted to the incoming spider silk without eyes. Its senses seemed sharper for the lack of vision. A flexible body twisted through every strand, closing distance at the same time. A long arm whipped forward with a crack of displaced air, aimed straight at Chrollo's face.
Pages flipped again. An ornate dagger appeared in Chrollo's free hand. He dropped his center of gravity, slipped under the arm, and drew the blade across the monkey's abdomen in one clean line.
The blind monkey did not flinch. The missed punch reversed into a downward hammer blow that looked ready to drive Chrollo through the floor. Two Nen threads from Machi snapped taut and yanked Chrollo sideways. The fist smashed empty floor.
The hearing monkey was already there, foot driving toward Chrollo's chest.
The mute monkey had drifted to Machi's side. Unlike the other two, it reached up and gripped the zipper on its own mouth. Machi's pupils tightened. Nen automatically reinforced her ears. What came was not sound. A thick tail lashed out, aimed at her waist.
Most of her defense had been concentrated on her head. The tail connected. Ribs cracked with a sharp, wet sound. Her body slammed into the wall.
Only then did the mute monkey pull the zipper open.
At the exact moment the zipper parted, the mouth on Xiyou's face simply vanished. The lower half of his head looked wrong, but he paid it no attention. The Ruyi Staff was already rising in a crushing upward arc that forced Franklin to abandon his guns and cross both arms in defense.
Metal rang against wood. Franklin was the one thrown backward.
Xiyou was superior in both aura volume and fine control. He did not stop. While both feet were still off the ground he reversed the staff, poured Nen into it, and hurled it like a javelin straight down through the floor.
The staff punched through the boards, met Nobunaga's blade, and carried both swordsman and floor downward in a rain of debris.
At the same time the mute monkey opened its mouth.
"Stop."
The command hit Chrollo first—not the airborne Machi. His body locked in place as though the word itself had rewritten his nerves. The hearing monkey's kick landed cleanly on the arm he had raised to block.
In the same instant the headphones on the hearing monkey vanished. Absolute silence swallowed Chrollo's world. A pair of headphones now sat on his own head. He could not remove them.
Only after the silence took hold did the force of the kick send him flying.
A soundless world closed around him. For the first time in years a thin thread of helplessness and genuine panic stirred in his chest.
So this was a Zodiac of the Hunter Association.
Strong.