Feitan indifferently walked upstairs back to his room, unclear whether he planned to keep playing games or catch up on sleep.
Meanwhile, Kisho directly found a corner on the first floor and sat down, closing his eyes to continue his Nen training.
They would soon have to resume live combat practice, so every bit of recovery mattered.
...But I can't concentrate at all.
He frowned hard in his heart.
That guy called "Omokage" had been staring straight at him the whole time.
—More precisely, he was staring at his eyes, his gaze so scorching that Kisho could feel it even with his eyes closed.
Kisho suddenly opened his eyes and coldly met the stare.
When Omokage saw Kisho's silver-blue pupils, he froze slightly.
After that, it was as if his interest had only grown. He curled the corner of his mouth and licked the ring on the left corner of his lips.
He seemed to be smiling, but the malice in his eyes surged even more violently, pressing down on Kisho like a tide.
The doll sitting by Omokage's feet moved almost imperceptibly, slowly lifting the head that had been hanging down.
From the outside, the puppet didn't look like a puppet at all, but rather like a real little girl sleeping with her eyes closed.
Kisho stayed alert to the puppet's movements, and a chill suddenly ran through him.
"...It's not made from a real person... right?"
The thought startled Kisho himself, and he knitted his brows.
He often felt out of place in the entire Troupe because he wasn't twisted enough.
"It seems you're very interested in my younger sister."
Omokage's voice drifted eerily into Kisho's ears.
As he spoke, the puppet that had been sitting beside him fluttered its lashes like a living person and slowly opened its eyes.
Kisho locked eyes with the blonde puppet girl, and his pupils shrank sharply.
The puppet's eyes... where pupils should have been, there was only pitch-black emptiness, hollow eye sockets that looked as though they led straight to hell.
The puppet slowly stood up and approached Kisho step by step.
Kisho: ...
His body tensed instantly. In the hand resting on his knee, he silently gripped a badge, while his other hand was already prepared to draw the tri-pronged dagger at any moment.
The atmosphere tightened to its limit, on the verge of exploding—
"Omokage."
Chrollo spoke calmly. With the sound of a page turning, everything returned to silence.
Omokage paused, his tone helpless.
"Since it's the leader's order, there's nothing I can do."
The puppet turned little by little as if receiving a command, returned to Omokage's side, sat down again, and closed its eyes.
Omokage sighed regretfully, his tone rising at the end.
"But just borrowing an eye or two shouldn't count as fratricide, right, leader?"
Chrollo answered him with silence.
Omokage shook his head with deep regret.
"What a pity..."
Perhaps because he had been warned, Omokage restrained himself afterward and no longer bit down on Kisho with that venomous gaze.
...
Time passed.
The listless sun slowly climbed over the garbage mountain, bringing light while making the desert air even more stifling and irritating.
The awakened Spiders gradually came down from the second floor into the hall, took the day's canned food and biscuits from the piles of looted boxes, then gathered in small groups to begin another day of idleness and wasted time.
—Playing games, fighting, gambling, and spacing out.
As several Enhancers came downstairs, voices suddenly exploded inside the three-story building, so noisy it made one's head ache.
Chrollo let out a nearly imperceptible sigh and closed the book in his hands.
Kisho noticed that the other members of the Troupe seemed to have little goodwill toward the fourth member called "Omokage."
When the Spiders came downstairs and discovered an extra person at the base, they didn't even ask a question—just exchanged glances and let it go.
Even the most "hospitable" Shalnark, upon seeing this person after coming down from the second floor, only smiled briefly.
Shalnark looked toward Chrollo and spoke with a smile:
"Boss, looks like all the members are here now."
He blinked and continued.
"Shall we start preparing for the mission?"
"Mm."
Chrollo stood up, his gaze sweeping across the gathered Spiders.
Even without him saying a word, everyone stopped what they were doing in unison and waited solemnly for his instructions.
The black inverted cross behind the Spider emblem shone with a dazzling black light under the sun.
He spoke, his calm voice drifting lightly into everyone's ears.
"This mission is related to the Ten Dons."
After hearing Chrollo's words, everyone showed different expressions. Clearly, the meaning carried by those three words was anything but ordinary.
Seeing the looks on the Spiders' faces, as if they couldn't wait to start a massacre, Kisho realized that he was the only one in the Troupe who was completely out of the loop.
"Um..."
He slowly raised his hand and asked,
"...May I ask who the 'Ten Dons' are?"
"Ah, right—you wouldn't know yet."
Shalnark turned his head toward the kid who had been inexplicably dragged into becoming a bandit and smiled.
"I'll explain."
"The Ten Dons are the ten highest leaders who rule the world's underworld. They are the heads of the Mafia in ten regions across six continents. Under their command is a ten-person organization of Nen users called the 'Shadow Beasts.'"
He paused, then added,
"You could say that every Mafia organization in the world is under these ten people."
Kisho fell silent, his face turning pale.
So now, not only was he carrying an official bounty, but he was about to have the entire world's underworld put a price on his head too?
After Shalnark finished speaking, Chrollo smiled slightly and glanced at Kisho, whose complexion looked terrible, then continued.
"An Elder from District One and one of the 'Ten Dons' became enemies for certain reasons. Recently, Mafia forces under that person have not stopped attacking Meteor City."
"So this operation is to assist the Elder and solve the problem directly at its source."
Chrollo smiled faintly and spoke with a calm cruelty.
"The one who issued the order, along with all Mafia members under his command—"
"Kill them all."
"Kill them all?"
Phinks repeated Chrollo's words, clenching his fists until they creaked, a brutal smile spreading across his face.
"I've been idle for so long, finally I can really get moving."
"These kinds of missions can come more often."
Feitan spoke coldly, his hand gripping the dark red umbrella set aside nearby.
"Much more interesting than the assassination jobs from last time and the time before that."
"But... is it enough to deal with just one?"
He frowned and turned to Shalnark.
"Hey, Shalnark, if we only take out one of them, will the other nine join forces for revenge?"
Shalnark laughed.
"If we're fast enough, we probably won't be retaliated against—at most, the bounty on the Troupe will double."
"That's way too boring!"
Uvogin muttered, blood surging into his eyes as he grinned ferociously.
"Boss, why not take this chance to wipe out the rest of that trash too?"
Chrollo looked at Uvogin, who was already teetering on the edge of extreme excitement and about to go berserk, and spoke calmly and gently.
"The target of this mission has already been decided. As for your suggestion, if there's a chance in the future, I'll consider it."
Uvogin burst into laughter.
"All right!!! Then I'll be waiting for it!"
Chrollo withdrew his gaze from him and turned to the others.
"If anyone has questions about this mission, raise them now."
No one answered. Everyone's eyes were sharp and eager, wishing they could depart immediately.
Chrollo smiled faintly, turned, and walked toward the second floor, leaving behind only a serious and cold command.
"Since there are no objections, rest and recover. We depart at six tomorrow morning."
----------------
Pls Drop some Power Stones
+100 chapters and support me on Patreon(.)com/Jixo