With Saiyu's hotel and room known in advance, the Phantom Troupe had already seized the initiative.
But their opponent was Saiyu, a bounty hunter among the Twelve Zodiacs who specialized heavily in combat. So by the time the Troupe reached the hotel, they had already made their arrangements.
Franklin, Kortopi, Chrollo, and Machi went together to the room above Saiyu's.
Nobunaga and Pakunoda went together to the room below him.
Only Shalnark remained in the hallway, though he had already handed out his antennas. From here on, he didn't need to participate in the frontal battle. He only needed to wait patiently and control the waiter properly.
The waiter pushing the food cart drew Saiyu's attention, and then attacks came simultaneously from above and below.
Franklin used his Double Machine Gun, sweeping the lower floor where Saiyu was.
Nobunaga drew his blade, released his En, sensed Saiyu's feet, and immediately launched a thrusting ambush.
Chrollo and Machi dropped in from outside directly into Saiyu's room, preparing to attack him head-on.
Hidden in the dark, Pakunoda raised her pistol and released her En to sense Saiyu's position, ready to fire at any moment.
Only Kortopi did not rush to act, because he was not suited for combat to begin with. His ability was more useful for defense than offense.
Saiyu's reaction was completely within their expectations.
He was strong. With a single staff, he could easily block Franklin's Nen bullets, and his footwork let him dodge Nobunaga's near-instant slashes.
Now, the three hairs he had plucked had transformed in midair into large macaques, shifting him from defense into offense.
That made Chrollo and Machi exchange a glance, both seeing the gravity in each other's eyes.
Skill Hunter appeared in Chrollo's hand. As the pages flipped, spider silk shot from his hand.
It was the ability he had previously stolen from the Spider among the Shadow Beasts.
Beside him, Machi's method of attack was almost the same as Chrollo's. The only difference was that what shot from her hands was not spider silk, but threads transformed from Nen.
Both attacks were not aimed at Saiyu behind the macaques, but at the large monkeys charging toward them.
The biggest reason Chrollo had come after Saiyu was because he had learned through certain channels that Saiyu possessed an ability capable of stealing other people's sight.
Now, seeing the appearance of the macaques—especially their distinct features—he immediately formed a more complete guess about Saiyu's ability.
The three large macaques transformed from hairs each had their own trait.
One wore earmuffs over its ears.
One had a red cloth wrapped over its eyes.
The last had a zipper over its mouth.
They corresponded exactly to "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil."
An ability that stripped others of their senses clearly fell within the realm of Manipulation. The appearance of Nen beasts also matched that judgment well.
Combined with Saiyu's own traits, Chrollo judged him to be an Emitter leaning toward Manipulation, while also training Enhancement.
A mountain-shaped training path.
It was an extremely scientific combination of abilities, and also the easiest way to create complex yet extremely powerful types of Nen abilities.
It might not reach a single extreme, but it could very well be more troublesome and difficult to deal with than an ability that did.
The blindfolded Nen monkey reacted to the spider silk shooting toward it.
Although it could not see, it seemed to possess even stronger perception.
Its flexible body twisted and darted around, dodging every strand of spider silk without needing to look. At the same time, it used those evasive movements to close the distance with Chrollo.
Its long arm swung out with a sharp rush of wind, striking straight toward Chrollo's face.
But the pages in Chrollo's book had already turned. At the same time, a beautifully shaped dagger appeared in his free hand.
He shifted his feet slightly and ducked down, letting the Sight Monkey's arm pass over him, while the dagger in his hand slashed toward its abdomen.
The Sight Monkey neither dodged nor evaded. After its long arm missed, it froze in midair and immediately changed into a downward hammer strike, as if it intended to smash Chrollo straight through to the floor below.
Chrollo's dagger landed first, cutting a long gash across the Sight Monkey's abdomen.
At the same time, two threads appeared on Chrollo's body. As the taut Nen threads pulled, his body shifted sideways.
The Sight Monkey's downward punch missed again.
But the Hearing Monkey had already appeared in front of Chrollo, kicking toward his chest.
The remaining Speechless Monkey had quietly approached Machi, who was pulling Chrollo with her Nen threads. Unlike the first two macaques, the Speechless Monkey raised its arm and grabbed the zipper over its own mouth.
Machi's pupils shrank, and a bad feeling rose in her heart. Aura automatically gathered around both of her ears.
But what came next was not a sound from the Speechless Monkey after it opened the zipper.
Instead, it was the cunning glint in the monkey's eyes—
and its thick tail whipping toward Machi's waist.
Bang!
Most of Machi's defense had been concentrated around her head. That sudden tail strike made her ribs crack sharply, and her entire body was sent crashing toward the wall.
Only then did the Speechless Monkey pull open the zipper over its mouth.
But at the exact moment the zipper opened, Saiyu—who had leapt high into the air and swung his Ruyi Staff upward—suddenly lost his mouth.
The lower half of his face turned bizarrely smooth, but Saiyu didn't care in the slightest. His Ruyi Staff forced Franklin above him to raise his arms and block, which also forced Franklin to stop firing his Double Machine Gun.
The heavy blow slammed into Franklin's arms, producing the sound of metal clashing against metal.
But Franklin was still the one sent flying backward.
Whether in aura quantity or aura control, Saiyu was stronger than Franklin.
After knocking Franklin away, Saiyu did not stop. The instant both his feet left the ground, he reversed the Ruyi Staff in his hand. Like a javelin, he poured a large amount of Nen into it and hurled it straight down at the floor beneath him.
Boom!
The Ruyi Staff pierced through the floor and smashed into Nobunaga's blade, carrying Nobunaga with it as the floor shattered and sent him falling to the level below.
At the same time, the Speechless Monkey not far away opened its mouth.
"Stop!"
The instant that word was spoken, the first to be affected was not Machi, who had been sent flying, but Chrollo, who was trying to block the Hearing Monkey's kick.
Chrollo felt his movements turn stiff the moment the Speechless Monkey said "stop." It was as if his body had truly obeyed the monkey's order and frozen in place.
And in that instant, the Hearing Monkey's kick struck Chrollo.
Although it only hit the arm Chrollo had raised to defend himself, that was enough.
Because the moment the kick connected, the headphones on the Hearing Monkey's ears vanished.
In their place, all sound disappeared from Chrollo's ears.
A pair of headphones appeared on his head.
His stiff movements returned to normal, and only then was his body sent flying backward, the force of the Hearing Monkey's kick finally taking effect.
But more importantly, Chrollo couldn't tear the headphones off his head at all.
A soundless world surrounded him in that instant, stirring helplessness and panic in a heart that had not wavered in a very long time.
So this was a member of the Hunter Association's Twelve Zodiacs.
He really was strong.