Chapter 144: "A Choice for Abengane"
On the night of July 2, Gelman, Kurapika, and Abengane met without a hitch, and soon began the exorcism.
Puff, puff, puff—
The bonfire flickered as smoke and dust billowed, as if struggling to hold back the darkness closing in from all sides.
The bamboo grove rustled. Abengane, his skin dark, held a cursed doll and murmured an incantation. The scene looked even more like a voodoo ritual.
"Forest Spirit, please hear my prayer..."
The dry firewood crackled. Sparks burst out with a pop, shooting in every direction like plant spores and scattering into dazzling embers.
The seasoned Abengane wasn't startled. Calmly, he wove a few branches around the doll, as if putting a garland of flowers around it.
Once he had finished, he tossed the doll into the bonfire. He watched the flames quickly swallow it up and burn it to ashes, then saw the many phantoms of "cursed Nen Beasts" appear.
Here they came.
Abengane looked at the "Nen Beasts" crowded together in the flames, crawling out slowly. Their numbers hadn't diminished at all since the last exorcism, but he felt much more at ease.
When his ominous premonition came true, he felt relief instead.
This time, before Abengane could remind him, Gelman, standing nearby, spoke through his Plague Doctor Mask in a muffled voice.
"That one." He pointed toward the "Scarlet Nen Beast" indicated by his Spiritual Intuition.
"As you wish." Abengane seemed like Gelman's loyal servant now, but he turned a fierce gaze on the "Nen Beast."
When everything was done, Abengane poured several buckets of water over the fire, dousing the flames that had been roaring moments before. After making sure not a single ember remained, the bamboo grove was plunged into darkness.
Gelman gently held the fragment of