Friendship

Hearing Ian's words,

Uvogin was as uneasy as a child who had done something wrong and found himself facing a parent.

He hesitated, unsure how to explain himself. His face turned red before he finally replied.

"Sorry for making you all worry..."

Ian glanced at him without pressing him and simply said calmly,

"Forget it. If you don't want to talk now, tell us when you've made up your mind. Let's get out of here first."

As soon as he finished speaking,

Nen gathered around his hands. He reached out from under the Invisible Cloak and gripped the iron lock on the cell door with both hands.

Seeing what he was doing, Uvogin hesitated, then said,

"Wait, those iron locks are really sturdy. I tried..."

Before he could finish, there was a crack.

The broken lock fell to the ground with a crisp clatter, and Ian looked up, a little puzzled.

"What is it, Uvogin? What were you just saying?"

Uvogin looked embarrassed and hurriedly scratched his head.

"N-nothing..."

But inwardly, he was astonished.

When he had first awakened his Nen, he had been full of confidence in his strength.

But after Ron had easily knocked him down, and now that he had seen the strength Ian displayed, he understood that there was always a higher heaven, and always someone stronger.

Uvogin had naturally tried to "break out of prison" before this.

But these metal cells had all been custom-made on the Third Elder's orders.

After all, this prison occasionally staged fights to the death for important figures.

For the sake of the spectacle, it naturally held its share of Nen users.

Nen users of average ability couldn't budge the cells or their locks, and Uvogin, who had only recently awakened his Nen Ability, naturally couldn't either.

"Quick, get in here!"

As soon as Uvogin stepped out of the cell, Ian hurriedly lifted the Invisible Cloak, making room for him and beckoning him inside.

As soon as he entered, he looked around curiously, finding it all wonderfully novel. He copied Ian and lowered his voice.

"Ian... what is this?"

"Is it another new item?"

Ian lowered his voice and said,

"That's right. I can lend it to you to play with sometime. It's not very useful against Nen users, but it's still a pretty interesting item."

"Let's get out of here first. Here, you hold the cloak. We'll go straight out. Be careful not to make any noise."

As he spoke, he handed Uvogin a corner of the cloak, shook out his little hands, and muttered,

"That lock was pretty hard. Even with Nen, it hurt my hands badly. If I hadn't used Nen, I probably couldn't have done anything about it..."

"You were lucky, Uvogin. Otherwise, we might have had to consider another plan to rescue you..."

Hearing that,

Uvogin started to speak but stopped.

He wanted to tell Ian, You're already really strong... I couldn't even bend it...

The two followed the way they had come, slowly making their way out.

As though nothing had happened, Uvogin simply vanished from his cell.

Aside from the pieces of the iron lock left scattered on the ground, it was as though a perfect crime had been pulled off.

The two hid beneath the Invisible Cloak.

They walked down the corridor, descended the stairs, and passed a group of prison guards.

Uvogin was injured, so he couldn't move very quickly.

As they passed the guards, he couldn't help holding his breath nervously.

Looking out through the cloak and seeing that the people outside couldn't see him at all was a very strange feeling.

Uvogin couldn't help marveling inwardly.

As expected of Ian. Whenever it mattered, he could always create a magical item like this.

For Ian and Uvogin, everything was going smoothly.

But for those outside, who had no idea what was happening, every day felt like a year.

Outside the prison,

In a concealed patch of bushes,

Machi, Nobunaga, and the others were hiding.

"I wonder if Ian managed to find Uvogin," Nobunaga said, looking up at the sky with some concern.

"Don't worry. That idiot will be fine."

"Besides, now that Ian's on the job, I trust he wouldn't do anything he wasn't sure of!"

Machi glanced at Nobunaga and spoke in a steady tone.

Feitan was getting impatient. For someone as hot-tempered as him, staying here all this time was no different from torture.

If he could, he would rather have fought the Third Elder's people head-on.

Chrollo's gaze was as calm as an ancient well.

He believed Ian would have no trouble rescuing Uvogin.

The Nen Ability item [Invisible Cloak] introduced a major variable, an unconventional factor beyond the scope of this rescue plan.

His mind was elsewhere, quietly imagining what his own future Nen Ability might be.

Franklin was as taciturn as ever. Though he seemed a little goofy, nobody could figure out what he was thinking.

As for Pakunoda, she looked toward the prison entrance with concern from time to time.

She couldn't say what kind of feelings she had for Ian, whom she had only recently met and who had brought a miraculous gift to the children at the orphanage.

But in any case, she didn't want anything to happen to him...

In a little less than half an hour,

"Tap... tap... tap..."

Slow footsteps gradually approached, and everyone's expressions sharpened.

Chrollo, Feitan, Nobunaga, and the others turned to look at the open ground nearby.

Machi's face lit up, and she lowered her voice.

"Is that you, Ian? Are you back?"

Then, inside the concealed bushes, it seemed as though something heavy came to a stop beside her.

"Phew... everything went pretty smoothly. I managed to bring this guy back!"

A transparent ripple slowly lifted.

Everyone saw Ian smiling, with Uvogin supported at his side.

Uvogin's face was slightly red. Though he didn't want the others to see him in such a miserable state, he still greeted them.

"Yo, sorry for the trouble, everyone!"

"Pfft... hahaha, Uvogin, you idiot! How did you end up looking so stupid?"

When Nobunaga noticed the bruises all over Uvogin's face, he couldn't hold back and nearly doubled over laughing.

He managed to hold back his tears and moved closer to Uvogin with a carefree expression.

He gestured at the injuries on Uvogin's face, as though reconstructing the scene of his beating, clicking his tongue as he spoke.

"Look, you must've taken at least three punches from this angle. Idiot, has Ian been feeding you too well lately? You couldn't even dodge them!"

"And here!"

"Awful... absolutely awful... You probably couldn't even get your elbows up to block, so you just had to take the beating!"

Nobunaga stared at Uvogin with his dead-fish eyes, his mouth never stopping.

Uvogin took a deep breath, the veins on his forehead bulging more and more.

In the end, he couldn't take it anymore. Nobunaga's jabs pushed him over the edge, and he cursed.

"Bastard, I'm just young, that's all!"

"You think I can't beat that guy? Sooner or later, I'll pay him back double for all of this!"

"And you, idiot, if you faced that bastard, you probably wouldn't last five seconds. No, you wouldn't even last three!"

Seeing Uvogin lose his composure, Nobunaga covered his mouth with a laugh, still refusing to let up.

"Right, right, right. So... you only lasted five seconds against him?"

Hearing that, Uvogin looked ready to steam out of his ears, his face flushed red.

Machi and Ian hurriedly grabbed hold of him.

"All right, all right, Nobunaga's only joking."

"Bastard! Ian, Machi, let go of me! I'm going to kill this guy!"

Nobunaga merely put his hands behind his head, whistled, and teased,

"Looks like you've still got plenty of energy. Let's put off any challenges until your injuries have healed. After all... I don't want to pick on the sick and injured..."

Everyone watched the scene with amusement.

Even the hot-tempered Feitan watched quietly without a word.

All the noisy bickering made it feel as though they had returned to their childhood.

"All right, that's enough."

"We've rescued Uvogin, but we still don't know if we can get away safely. We need to leave here as soon as possible."

At that moment, Ian spoke softly.

"Let's get going. Oh, right, Uvogin, I didn't have time to ask you earlier."

"You can tell us now, can't you? What happened to you."