Meeting and Parting

The person who emerged from the thicket of branches and grass was a woman dressed in a tight black dress.

The woman had dark skin, a slender and lithe figure, but her upper body was full and alluring, carrying a hint of seductive charm.

Walking through a remote mountain forest in such attire was itself highly abnormal.

But the woman was also a Nen user, which made it less strange.

Moro stared at the woman who had suddenly appeared, his body tensing as his Nen surged and fluctuated.

However, when he made out the woman's clothing and her face—with its broad forehead and large, vertical-pupiled eyes—the tension in Moro's body eased somewhat.

He recognized her identity—

Gale, the Snake of the Hunter Association's Twelve Zodiacs.

Moro guessed she had been drawn by the gunfire.

Gale stood on the slope, arms crossed, calmly appraising Moro.

Their gazes met in midair—one scrutinizing, the other a mix of surprise and wariness.

It seemed...

Moro's naked body, under these circumstances, was instead an unremarkable normalcy not worth noting.

Gale's gaze lightly swept over the Nen around Moro. Compared to before, the state of his Nen had noticeably relaxed.

But the transition from tension to relaxation had been too fast, somewhat abnormal.

Gale shifted her gaze, taking in the open cargo door of the transport truck and the two corpses on the ground.

Only then did she look back at Moro, saying flatly, "Do you think I'm less of a threat than the one on the ground?"

As she spoke, she extended her index finger, pointing meaningfully at the dead Zazan on the ground.

"Quite the opposite."

Though Moro remained vigilant, the sense of crisis in his heart had already faded considerably.

He had initially thought Gale was drawn by the gunfire, but now it seemed she had arrived before that.

The noise she made when appearing must have been deliberate.

"If you intended to harm me, you wouldn't have made a sound to alert me earlier."

Moro looked up, his gaze calm as he regarded Gale on the slope.

That said, he still, against his true feelings, prepared to attack or defend at any moment.

Even though he knew he couldn't stir up any trouble against a member of the Twelve Zodiacs, he wouldn't just surrender.

Even if he ended up a corpse, he would still make some waves.

Hearing Moro's reply, Gale subtly glanced at his right hand, wreathed in Nen. Her expression remained indifferent, and she said nothing more, instead lightly leaping down the slope to land on the mountain path.

Without a word, she walked toward the transport truck.

This action inevitably shortened the distance between her and Moro.

And Moro, having positioned himself from the start as absolutely disadvantaged, naturally felt a surge of pressure as Gale approached.

As a transmigrator, his impression of the Hunter Association hadn't been elevated to the point of seeing them as righteous heroes solving all kinds of problems...

But aside from certain individuals, he didn't think the Twelve Zodiacs were the type to casually take lives.

However—

Not everyone could be as consistent inside and out as Gon.

It was no surprise, then, that Moro felt pressure.

Gale seemed to sense the change in Moro's emotions and slowly stopped, no longer encroaching on his mental space.

She had only applied a little pressure because she saw he was being insincere.

But treating a rookie who likely wasn't a criminal this way—thinking it over, she had gone too far.

Gale shook her head slightly and turned to look at the transport truck.

From her angle, she could already clearly see the rows of cages inside the cargo hold, along with the naked children locked within.

Naked, that characteristic...

At this thought, Gale couldn't help but sweep her gaze over Moro's body, essentially confirming his role in this matter.

Moro showed no reaction to Gale's glance.

It wasn't that he had an exhibitionist streak, but simply that he felt such a trivial matter wasn't worth stirring his emotions.

However, Gale's earlier glance and her utterly unruffled expression instead made Moro unconsciously recall some things.

Back when Molena had bought him and he woke up on the airship, Molena had looked over his body in the same way.

"You're very lucky, surviving that chaos without missing any limbs, so I spent money to buy you."

At the time, Molena's expression had been exactly like Gale's before him.

But Molena had done something that made Moro deeply uncomfortable then—she casually grabbed his private parts and said, in a tone utterly devoid of any emotion:

"If you were a woman, I'd probably be more satisfied with you."

Her tone and demeanor suggested she could twist his vitals off at any moment.

That was Moro and Molena's first encounter.

In Moro's eyes, that woman never concealed the scar that stretched across half her face, and perhaps for that reason, she sometimes seemed equally unguarded about her peculiar thoughts in front of him and Dog Brother.

But after nearly a year of association, Moro still couldn't truly understand what kind of person Molena was.

Maybe it was because...

From the very start, he had already unilaterally slapped a "sociopath" label on Molena.

"You really trust me, don't you."

Sister Galu's flat voice came from beside his ear. Moro's heart tightened, his expression shifting slightly as he couldn't help reflecting on his earlier careless mistake.

When Galu saw a flicker of chagrin in Moro's eyes, she suddenly found herself a bit intrigued.

From their brief interaction, she could tell Moro was someone with extremely high "self-standards."

And someone like that, once they crossed the threshold of Nen ability, would surely develop skills that were nothing to scoff at.

If her desire for the "Two-Star Hunter title" weren't so low, she might have been willing to invest some time and energy into Moro.

"Galu, Professional Hunter."

Galu fixed her gaze on Moro and introduced herself first.

"A pleasure. Just call me Moro."

Moro gave his name in return.

Galu nodded lightly and asked, "Tell me the whole story. I might be able to help a little."

"..."

Moro was silent for a moment, but quickly began recounting the entire situation.

However, he didn't mention the mental hospital where this transport truck was headed.

In this matter, his role was merely a piglet not yet delivered to the "slaughterhouse"—saying less and doing less was the most rational approach.

After hearing Moro's account, Galu grasped the gist and immediately labeled it as human trafficking.

At the same time, she showed no curiosity or pressing questions about Moro's knowledge of Nen ability, nor did she care about his finishing off the middle-aged man.

She had come to this area solely to collect venom from a venomous snake newly registered in the species database.

Running into this mess was nothing more than a trivial accident.

If she could do a good deed on the side, she was willing.

But getting entangled in it? No, thank you.

Galu's detached attitude was exactly what Moro wanted to see.

"Sister Galu, them... I'll leave them to you."

Seeing that Galu was willing to help settle the piglets in the cargo hold, Moro felt much lighter.

With the changes he had set in motion now, these piglets...

Might actually have a chance to live decently from now on.

Galu nodded. For her, this was just a matter of a phone call, nothing significant.

Moro cracked a faint smile, then, under Galu's watchful eye, stripped the clothes off the two corpses that fit well enough.

After that, he fished out the wallets from Zazan and the others, pulled out the cash, and finally made sure to take the pistol.

Throughout the process, Galu neither asked nor interfered, simply watching from the side.

Moro tucked the pistol away and prepared to leave.

"Thank you."

He offered Galu a sincere word of gratitude.

Without Galu, he would have been racking his brain over how to deal with the piglets in the cargo hold.

Galu lifted her chin in acknowledgment at his words.

Seeing this, Moro turned and walked away.

But as he left, he couldn't help glancing in the direction the transport truck had originally been heading.

At this hour, were Molena and Dog Brother already at the mental hospital?

Moro didn't know.

Now, standing at the crossroads of fate with memories of the future, he had no intention of retreading the same old path.

Though they had never truly crossed paths, this was farewell...

Molena.

Moro thought to himself, then resolutely set off in the opposite direction.

Behind her.

Gale watched Moro leave until he was completely out of sight, then pulled out her phone and made a call to arrange accommodations for the group of pigs in the carriage.

The call ended quickly. Standing by the cargo truck, Gale suddenly noticed that the open driver's cabin had a surveillance camera installed inside.

Figuring it was boring to just wait around, she climbed into the driver's cabin and, after a few operations, began playing back the footage that had been recorded earlier.

A moment passed.

Watching the playback of the carriage interior, Gale's snake-like vertical pupils slowly contracted, revealing a glint of disbelief.