Machi, When Did You Meet Mog? The Elders' Relief!

They were truly terrified.

"You bastards!!!"

Nobunaga, who was tying up the van driver and the tattooed, mole-faced man, heard their cries.

Furious and frustrated, he viciously kicked both men several times in the crotch.

The unconscious pair's bodies trembled.

Yes, that was real trembling.

Franklin, who was also bound, did not say a word, but his livid expression showed that he was in a terrible mood as well.

Chrollo, who had finished inspecting the scene, was just as upset.

"When those two saw Feitan, they weren't wary at all. They even said such unrestrained things..."

Chrollo came to Mog's side and said quietly, "That means they've done this many times before."

And they had almost certainly succeeded every time.

That was what made Chrollo feel especially sick.

They had been so brazen, even openly talking about what they had done.

They had even planned to record the entire process with their equipment...

Clearly, this was not the first time they had done it. It also meant more than one child had been treated this way.

Chrollo did not dare imagine what it would be like if his companions had suffered such a fate.

If it had not been Feitan, deliberately acting as bait, on that road, but Sarasa or Machi on their way home...

He immediately shook his head, forcing the thought from his mind.

"So that's why you didn't let Machi and Sarasa come?"

"It's better for them to stay at the warehouse than run around outside with us."

Mog answered calmly.

They had not all come out this time; Sarasa and Machi had stayed behind.

For their safety, Mog had nominally assigned them to guard the base.

But in truth—

"This group was the same bunch that dismembered Sarasa in the original story, wasn't it?"

In the original manga, Chrollo and the others only had eight dubbed episodes of Cleaning Warriors.

When they ran out of episodes later, Sarasa planned to search the nearby forest.

"If I find them, everyone will definitely be shocked, right?"

"I never told everyone that there are lots of videotapes in the commercial garbage dump beside Wooga Forest. And I've already memorized the common-language writing used in Cleaning Warriors~~~"

With such lighthearted thoughts in her heart, Sarasa hummed as she entered the forest.

Then she encountered the tattooed, mole-faced man and his group.

Afterward, Sarasa was dismembered, her body wrapped into a bundle with a cloth sack and hung from a nearby tree.

Later, Chrollo and the others found her in the pouring rain. Uvogin climbed the tree and took down the sack.

Inside the sack, aside from Sarasa's dismembered body, was a note pinned to her head.

The note was filled with vile words.

Unable to understand the writing, Uvogin grabbed Chrollo by the collar in the rain and asked what it said.

Chrollo stared with hollow, lifeless black eyes. "Even if I die... I won't say."

Then, in the downpour, all the Troupe's companions cried as they embraced one another.

It was at that moment that Chrollo, who had still possessed kindness, completely fell into darkness.

When Uvogin intended to seek revenge alone, Chrollo told him something rather meaningful.

Machi, When Did You Meet Mog? The Elder's Relief!

"Uvogin, can you wait three years for me?"

"Before I turn fourteen, I'll prepare everything. I'll strengthen myself and improve Meteor City's system..."

"So that there will never again be sacrifices like Sarasa in Meteor City, we must be prepared to devote our lives."

"Three years from now, I'll kill a great many people..."

At that moment, the good child Chrollo completely died.

All that remained was Chrollo Lucilfer, the future leader of the Phantom Troupe.

His English name was Chrollo Lucilfer, a name the old thief had coined based on Lucifer.

Lucifer, a synonym for a demon who rebelled against God and a symbol of evil, perfectly matched Chrollo's image in the manga as the utterly vicious leader of the Phantom Troupe's bandits.

The name Chrollo roughly carried two meanings in Japanese:

The first was black silk, referring to his image in a black coat; the second was central hub, hinting that he was the spider's brain.

It could be said that Chrollo's fate had been determined from the moment he was created.

But now~~~

Mog glanced at him, then tossed him the recording equipment taken from the driver.

"This contains footage they recorded of some children before..."

Chrollo had only just taken it when Mog's seemingly unsteady voice reached his ears:

"Let Uvogin, Phinks, and the others see it too."

"Let them witness how sinister the people outside can be."

"As for Sarasa and Shira..."

Mog stopped there, and Chrollo understood what he meant.

"Let us bear this kind of cruelty."

Chrollo muttered to himself, then instinctively looked at the old footage displayed by the recording equipment.

What kind of images could make even someone like Mog seem unable to control his emotions...

Then~~~

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chrollo's pupils suddenly contracted, and his face turned uglier than ever.

"What's wrong, Chrollo?!"

Uvogin, who had been watching their movements, came over and instinctively looked at it.

"What it recorded... could it be..."

Very quickly, the forest fell silent once more.

Then~~~

"You animals!!!"

Uvogin's furious roar echoed throughout the entire forest.

"I'm going to kill them!!!"

When everyone returned to the dilapidated warehouse once again—

"You're back~"

Sarasa, who had been waiting so anxiously she was nearly sick with worry, immediately came forward when she saw them.

"How did it go?!"

"Nothing. It's all taken care of."

Shalnark replied in a somewhat subdued tone.

Hm?!

Machi, standing in the back, raised an eyebrow. Then she saw the furious Uvogin, Phinks with a foul expression, Feitan with killing intent in his eyes, Nobunaga constantly gripping his sword hilt, and Franklin lowering his head with a dark expression...

They did not appear injured, but their states were clearly not good.

And—

"Where are Mog and Chrollo?"

Sarasa did not see either of them and asked curiously.

"Also, what's wrong with all of you?!!"

She had naturally noticed that her companions were acting strangely and hurriedly asked.

"Mog and Chrollo took those outsiders to see the elder..."

Pakunoda came to Machi's side and spoke quietly. "They intend to hand that group and their recording equipment over to the elder together..."

"Recording equipment?!"

Machi sharply caught the key point.

"Yes. It contained some awful things those people recorded. Shira and I didn't see them, but Uvogin and the others seem to have watched it..."

Pakunoda explained what had happened to Machi, while Shira went to Sarasa and told her about what had occurred at the scene.

"So the contents of that equipment..."

After listening, Machi fell silent for a moment before carefully choosing her words.

"They must have been too horrible to watch, right?"

She did not even know whether she could imagine what kind of scenes they were.

But judging from Uvogin and the others' current expressions, she knew the footage had definitely contained nothing good.

"If you hadn't stopped me, I would've twisted their heads off already."