Kisho, hiding outside the door, wanted to cover his nose the instant he caught that sweet, fishy smell, but…
After smelling that extremely strange scent of blood, it was as if his soul split in two.
One half tugged at his hand, trying to make him cover his nose; the other half controlled his nose itself, intoxicated by the smell, unwilling to make any movement that might stop him from continuing to breathe it in.
"What on earth is that? How could an ordinary drink possibly have such a terrifying smell!"
Kisho shook his head hard, trying to clear it. By "terrifying smell," he didn't mean "unpleasant." On the contrary, the scent was faint, yet it seeped straight into a person's bones—so much so that once you smelled it, you'd be haunted by it forever, never able to forget.
He heard the bartender's murmuring:
"Three million jenny only buys one hundred milliliters of the original liquid… The lives of the rich really are hard to imagine."
Muttering to himself, the bartender set down the shaker in his hand and reached for the glass.
"Now!"
Kisho reined in his mind and seized the moment, flicking a small pebble at the shaker, striking hard against the small ring of rubber protection at its top.
Because of the rubber barrier, there was no collision sound, but the powerful force pushed the shaker into a wobble, tipping it toward the floor. The bartender let out an "Ah!" and instinctively reached out to grab the shaker, steadying it.
In the two seconds that the bartender's attention was off the glass, Kisho tossed a pill the size of a fingernail into it. The pill dissolved on contact with liquid, completely melting into the blood-red wine within a few seconds.
The bartender picked up the glass and slowly walked out of the mixing room. Kisho, hidden in the shadows, followed at a measured pace, tailing him to the third floor of the residence and hiding at the turn of the staircase.
He saw that outside the massive bedroom door stood two maids. The bartender respectfully handed the glass to one of them, then turned and left without a word.
The maid carefully accepted the glass, while the other pushed open the door for her and let her enter.
"Put it there and get out."
From behind the bedroom door came a deep, authoritative male voice, lowered, along with the faint, intermittent gasps of a woman.
With his exceptionally sharp hearing, Kisho: "…"
The maid hurriedly replied, "Yes," and then withdrew from the room.
Kisho curled up in the shadows, waiting for his moment.
...
He didn't know how long had passed—so long that he was almost asleep—when he finally heard the sound of something heavy hitting the floor.
In the next instant, before the two maids with shocked, panicked expressions could react, Kisho was already in front of them, knocking each out with a single chop to the neck.
He pushed open the door and slipped into the bedroom.
Solzt lay on the floor, his expression twisted in extreme pain. At his feet, shattered glass was scattered everywhere.
Seeing someone enter, Solzt seemed to understand something. Endless fury surged into his eyes.
He wanted to stand up and send this despicable poisoner straight to hell, but the agonizing pain wracking his body made him unable to move.
All he could do was stare at Kisho, wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, and force his voice down to its lowest, thick with resentment and killing intent:
"Who are you—?"
Kisho didn't say something like "the one who's going to kill you." He silently walked up to Solzt, who wanted to stand but couldn't, gathered his nen at his fingertips, and prepared to finish him off.
—Come to think of it, it was rather laughable. This convenient technique of turning one's hand into a blade was something he'd learned from the Troupe back when he was under control.
Solzt seemed to be using "Gyo." When he saw Kisho's nen, it was as if he realized something, and he said heavily:
"I know now—you're the one who killed Kleri!"
"Heh… hehe…"
As he laughed, filled with resentment and unwillingness, streams of fresh blood poured from the corners of Solzt's mouth. He laughed miserably.
"I never thought… I'd die at the hands of a lowly commoner like you…"
"But even if I die, I'll drag you down to hell with me—!"
Kisho's fingertips sliced across Solzt's neck, but in the very next moment, Solzt's hatred and rage condensed into substance, merging with the tsunami-like surge of nen erupting from his body and pressing down toward Kisho.
"Cough… cough… my… nen ability—'Gentle Paradise of Poisoned Wine,' kid… You take your resentment and tears as a commoner, and enjoy it properly! Ha—"
Pitch-black blood gushed in large amounts from his mouth, mixing with the blood pouring from the severed artery, choking off the shrill laugh Solzt never managed to let out.
His pupils slowly dilated, his head drooping limply to one side, eyes wide open in death.
Kisho's expression was grave. He leapt backward, evading the nen pressure crashing down on him, then likewise unleashed his own nen without reserve, gathering it before him and detonating it in a sudden burst.
Like splitting a massive wave, Kisho forcibly tore open a path through the terrifying nen pressure that had grown even more dreadful after its owner's death. He pushed off the ground with his toes and leapt out of the pressure's range.
But something unexpected happened.
The nen behind him rapidly drew together, converging, evolving, and finally condensing into pale red mist—like countless tiny insects gathering into a cloud—howling as it rushed toward him.
This mist seemed to possess consciousness. No matter where Kisho fled, it clung to him like a bone-deep curse, closing in step by step, never leaving his side.
Fire couldn't burn it away, water couldn't dissolve it, until Kisho was driven into a corner, and then…
Kisho was enveloped by the pale red fog. He smelled the same faint yet extremely bizarre scent as that glass of wine from earlier.
An indescribable sensation spread from his brain to every corner of his soul—a feeling so intense that even his soul trembled and reveled in it, as if he were standing in a valley of breathtaking beauty, or as if he had already ascended into heaven.
In an instant, and yet as if an eternity had passed.
Kisho lowered his hand, already bitten into a bloody mess, and blinked hard with unfocused eyes before finally breaking free from that unimaginably beautiful dream.
He didn't even know whether he had awakened because his will was strong enough, or because that beautiful dream was meant to end.
As the dream dissipated, a sharp, fine pain suddenly erupted from somewhere in his body, surged up his spine into his brain, and in the next few seconds spread throughout his entire body.
Kisho shuddered violently.
He felt every muscle in his body spasming, trembling.
The hunger in his soul, the restlessness with nowhere to vent, the despair with no path forward, the anger with no outlet, and the agony beyond words…
His reason told him he should leave immediately, but—
He couldn't move.
He understood all too clearly what was causing the changes in his body—he had seen certain anti-drug and detox videos.
"Original liquid," "three million jenny for only one hundred milliliters"—descriptions like that could only mean—
That kind of thing.
His soul was screaming for him to run. Any slower and it would be too late.
"Go—go—"
But his body was frozen. No matter how frantically his brain issued commands, it only lay there, quietly experiencing the pain.
"Leave here, leave here, leave—"
Kisho had already heard the guards talking, along with hurried footsteps.
...
With a loud "Bang—," the bedroom door was kicked open, and more than a dozen guards rushed inside. But what they saw was only Solzt's corpse lying on the floor, eyes wide open in death.
On the streets of District One under the cover of night, a boy walked slowly.
For some unknown reason, he walked very, very slowly, yet unhurried and calm.
His eyes were slightly open.
Both of his eyes were silver-blue, like moons hanging high in the sky, coldly gazing down upon everything in the human world.
————————
Solzt's nen: [Gentle Paradise of Poisoned Wine]
Type: Transmutation
Ability: Through nen, able to analyze the components of liquids consumed by the body, and by adjusting those components, re-proportion and materialize them.
[Restriction 1: A certain amount must be consumed in order for analysis to succeed]
[Restriction 2: Can only re-proportion and materialize substances consumed within the last 3 hours]