Luo Ning read the contents of the prophecy, and in his heart, he already understood why only one poem had appeared on the paper.
According to the prophecy, he was going to die next week. Therefore, there was no need for the content of the remaining weeks of the month to appear. The "missing crimson" likely referred to the loss of his Sharingan. The second line, "Fate being toyed with begins with a gaze," probably pointed out how the Sharingan would be lost.
Luo Ning tapped his fingers on the table as a specific person came to mind. It was a guy in the Phantom Troupe who found joy in making dolls—the current Number 4 of the Troupe. It was Omokage, a character who only appeared in the Hunter x Hunter movie!
However, that movie was quite poor and tested one's patience; the whole film felt like a forced attempt to pull in popular characters for cameos. Even the setting for Omokage's abilities had quite a few controversial issues. Omokage's ability set belonged to the Specialization category.
The first was "Soul Dolls," which allowed him to control dolls he manufactured. These dolls had no eyes but possessed the memories of others and could use a limited portion of the original person's Nen abilities. The second was "Soul Retrieval." When a doll created by Omokage made eye contact with someone, it would steal the target's eyes. The eyes would only return to their original owner once the doll was defeated. The final one was "Doll Catcher," which allowed him to fuse three dolls with himself so he could use a portion of the Nen abilities they mastered.
That "portion of Nen abilities" was quite vague and mysterious.
Luo Ning had seen Omokage in his predecessor's memories. After all, the man's setting also included the title of Eye Collector. How could he have been absent during the massacre of the Kurta Clan? In fact, the beginning of the movie featured a doll of Pairo, Kurapika's best friend, created by Omokage to complete the theft of Kurapika's eyes. It could be said that this character was created entirely for Kurapika's sake.
However, according to the setting, Omokage's goal was to create dolls of all the Troupe members. This was also the reason why he, coming from Meteor City, joined the Troupe. It seemed that only by coming into contact with a target could he create a doll with their memories and the ability to use a portion of their Nen. By adding the target's own eyes to the doll, the doll would become even stronger, potentially even allowing it to replace the original person.
In the movie, the reason Omokage was hunted by the Troupe seemed to be because he dug up Uvogin's grave. He then gouged the eyes out of Uvogin's corpse and stuffed them into his doll.
'But would that really improve the strength of the Uvogin doll?' Luo Ning was skeptical.
Luo Ning felt that perhaps Omokage's abilities in reality might differ slightly from the movie, though he didn't know the specifics. Regardless, Omokage was a significant threat to both him and Kurapika. If he didn't know the man was coming, even Luo Ning could easily be ambushed. After all, an ability that steals eyes just by making eye contact was clearly targeting him too specifically!
As for the subsequent lines, they were also quite simple. "Fiery red" should refer to Kurapika, meaning that after Luo Ning's eyes were stolen, Kurapika followed right in his footsteps and faced Omokage. An eyeless Luo Ning and a Kurapika who couldn't use Nen would naturally be at Omokage's mercy.
'Neon really did me a huge favor!'
"How is it? Did you see anything?" Neon asked expectantly.
Luo Ning put away the prophecy, his tone becoming more scrutinizing. "Your prophecy is excellent, but I must doubt your intentions."
Neon's expression stiffened for a moment.
"You said before that you thought your ability might not be a prophecy but a curse. Now, I'm here to tell you that your guess was right," Luo Ning lied through his teeth. "The reason there isn't a second poem is that I'm going to die next week. There's no need for you to predict what happens after I'm dead."
"This..." Neon didn't know what to say.
"Since this was all caused by your curse, you should take responsibility. For the next week—no, until the beginning of next month—you will stay with me. If I die, then you can just be buried with me," Luo Ning said indifferently, as if he were talking about a trivial matter.
"I won't!" Neon refused.
But refusal was useless. Under the horrified gazes of the shop staff, Luo Ning knocked Neon unconscious and left the cafe in broad daylight.
The police soon arrived at the scene. Besides the kidnapped Neon, they also found a corpse with its heart removed in a nearby alley. It was the cleaning middle-aged man who had been casually killed by Luo Ning's Shadow Clone.
A short while later, Light Nostrade arrived with a look of impatience. After confirming that his daughter had been knocked out and taken away, Light left only one sentence: "Wait for the kidnapper to call me, and I'll handle it. If they don't call, treat her as if she's dead."
His tone was extremely cold, as if he didn't care about Neon's death at all. In reality, that was exactly the case. She constantly defied him, her interests were bizarre, and as she grew up, her face looked more and more like her mother's. Light Nostrade truly didn't care about a useless daughter who only knew how to cause trouble. He was a pragmatist; only things that were useful to him were good and worth his attention. And Neon clearly did not fall into that category.
The prophecy was handed over to Kurapika, and it was a version interpreted with Luo Ning's notes. Luo Ning even wrote down the information he knew about Omokage, though he framed most of it from the perspective of a theorist. Once Neon woke up, Luo Ning took the opportunity to have her perform a reading for Kurapika as well.
This caused the way Neon looked at Luo Ning to change. She could clearly see that Kurapika was supposed to be Luo Ning's companion. Especially since Kurapika looked at Luo Ning with obvious admiration, yet Luo Ning could still be so ruthless. Neon was truly terrified. 'This man is not good at all; he is a complete devil.'
Kurapika's prophecy was similar to Luo Ning's, both indicating that he would die alongside Luo Ning at Omokage's hands.
"Can fate be avoided?" Looking at the situation, Kurapika also felt a bit of a headache.
"It can," Luo Ning said with certainty.
In the prophecy Neon had once given to the Troupe, they were supposed to lose half their members within that month, but the result was that the prophecy was not fulfilled. Clearly, Chrollo, knowing the outcome, made adjustments in advance, causing the number of casualties to change. Now that Luo Ning and Kurapika also knew in advance that Omokage would be their biggest threat, they naturally had a chance to change their fate.
The validity of Neon's prophecy was only for the month it was given. Once the month passed, the content became meaningless. Thus, Luo Ning and Kurapika had two choices.
One, actively seek out and eliminate Omokage.
Two, avoid Omokage and have Neon perform a new prophecy next month to confirm that the death flag had disappeared before searching for him.
The first option carried immense risk, while how to successfully avoid him for the second option was a problem! But regardless of the choice, the massive threat that was Omokage had to be eliminated as soon as possible!
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