Hisoka had no time to react before the boy appeared right in front of him. An invisible slash landed on both his arms, and at the same time, the boy punched him in the face.
Black-and-blue energy flickered.
Hisoka staggered back several meters, his upper body thrown backward by the force of the blow. He quickly regained control, straightened up, and steadied himself.
Two bloody gashes now marked his arms, with bone faintly visible beneath them, but the boy hadn't managed to sever his hands.
"Tch, didn't cut them off." Su Wu wasn't surprised. He only murmured under his breath.
Hisoka had already wrapped his entire body in Nen as soon as he realized Su Wu could attack with invisible slashes.
He looked like a deranged pervert, but in battle, his reactions were calm and rational.
"So you deliberately tricked me into letting my guard down..."
"Ah~ I'm completely worked up now~" Hisoka wiped away his nosebleed. His face flushed, and something happened to his body that couldn't be shown without a holy-light censor bar.
The amount of Nen around him visibly surged again.
Seeing this, Su Wu had already lost any desire to keep fighting him.
Was fighting Hisoka really a fight? It was more like rewarding him! The harder you hit him, the more excited he got.
Stop rewarding the pervert!
Who wanted to fight a man with a glowing lower half?!
"But you seem to be running out of patience." Hisoka wore a subtle smile as he manipulated the invisible energy with his fingers.
At the same time, the pink Nen scattered all around them converged on Hisoka, weaving itself into a gigantic net.
"What?" Su Wu saw the pink net appear and immediately shot upward.
Had this guy been running around and spreading Nen everywhere just to set this up?!
The pink net came together in an instant, surrounding the person in its center.
As Su Wu shot away, he slammed into the pink net woven from Hisoka's Nen.
It was as springy as rubber, impossible to break through, and clung to him like chewing gum.
Like a butterfly caught in a spiderweb, he beat his wings with all his might but couldn't escape.
"But you've done very well to get this far." Hisoka walked closer and reached for his arm. As if performing a magic trick, the wounds on it disappeared.
"You're a wonderful little boy, and you have such beautiful eyes—the most beautiful I've ever seen." He spoke with genuine admiration.
"You're sure to become an even more wonderful fruit someday." He gazed at the boy in the net, his eyes full of anticipation.
"Huh? As if I need you to tell me that. I'm definitely going to become really strong. That's a fact." The white-haired boy spoke expressionlessly.
"That confident spirit of yours is delightful, too." Hisoka cupped his face, overflowing with affection for the promising little apple.
"Did you forget you shouldn't be standing this close to me?" The white-haired boy smiled, the corners of his mouth lifting.
"Here are your playing cards." He tossed over the cards Hisoka had used to attack him earlier. As he moved, the net around his body swayed.
Hisoka dodged the playing cards flying toward him.
Just then, Su Wu appeared behind him again in an instant. Hisoka was ready this time; he quickly raised one leg and kicked hard, turning his upper body to the side with the motion.
His foot struck the boy in the chest, but the other boy didn't go flying. Su Wu grabbed Hisoka's ankle with one hand and held three cards in the other, grinning with a strangely eager, malicious smile.
"Although this net limits how far I can move, because your Nen has this special property, this thing..." He raised both hands to show Hisoka the net clinging to him. "It can stretch really far," he said with a grin.
Even though the net severely restricted his range of movement, it didn't stop him from taking action.
He wasn't the kind of person who gave up helplessly the moment he ran into trouble.
The fervor on Hisoka's face ebbed a little as he considered what Su Wu was trying to do.
"Successful." The boy let go of Hisoka's ankle, and the net pulled his body back to where it had been.
Like a stretched rubber band, once one side let go, it sprang back into place.
"Cough, cough, cough—" Su Wu coughed a few times.
Luckily, he'd protected his body with both Nen and Cursed Energy. Hisoka might not have been using his full strength, either, so the kick hadn't caused any serious problems.
Hisoka, however, was standing motionless, suddenly quiet in a way that seemed off.
"Did eating three debuff cards make him depressed?" Su Wu glanced at Hisoka speculatively.
He noticed that Hisoka's censor bar hadn't disappeared.
He didn't seem depressed, either...
So what was it?
He expressionlessly wondered whether he should get closer to take a look, but then Hisoka, who had been silent, suddenly raised his head. His expression looked even more unhinged than before.
"Little apple, hehehe..."
"Not bad at all, hehehe—"
He released his Nen without restraint, attacking the surrounding trees until they were covered in damage.
The Magic Plants obviously weren't going to take the beating without retaliating, so black holes resembling faces appeared in the trunks of the trees that had been attacked.
"Ahhh~"
"Ahhh—"
They opened the holes that represented their mouths and sang in unison. Thorn-covered vines whipped toward Hisoka all at once.
Hisoka, caught up in the middle of it all, seemed even more excited as he battled the trees around him.
"...Some kind of berserk or confusion effect, maybe..." Su Wu frowned as he watched, his expression a little strange.
Mental pollution! This was definitely mental pollution!
Both Hisoka himself and the trees' singing could be called mental pollution at this point.
Still, judging by the situation, Hisoka wouldn't have time to pay attention to him.
The card effect lasted twenty-four hours, but who knew how long it would last on Hisoka...
As he thought about it, he suddenly gained a deeper understanding of his own ability.
Using three cards of the same type at once could trigger a stacking effect.
The first card's effect was 100 percent, the second added 50 percent, and the third added another 25 percent.
So the cards' effect on Hisoka was maximized—175 percent.
His willpower had been weakened, and his mind thrown into chaos. Losing his sense of order also meant losing his reason.
That meant Hisoka had temporarily lost the ability to think for himself.
So it was basically a confusion buff.
There was no telling if he could even find his way around now.
It looked like the effect would last a little longer this time.
After all, the three cards stacked to boost the effect to 175 percent. Hisoka's Nen was stronger than Su Wu's, but he probably wouldn't recover that quickly.
He didn't expect to hold Hisoka off for twenty-four hours. A few hours would be enough.
"Looks like I'm having a lucky day. Three debuff cards—by some measure, that's a great success." Su Wu watched Hisoka, who seemed to have fallen into a frenzy, and mused aloud.
"But the most important thing now is to get rid of this stuff on me..." He looked down at the layers of Hisoka's Nen wrapped around him.
"It's so sticky. It feels like I'm stuck to a giant wad of chewing gum. Gross." He pulled hard at his limbs while repeatedly using slashes, finally freeing himself.
"Oh, right. I should record this first." He took out his phone, aimed it at the rampaging Hisoka, and started recording.
He filmed the entire three-minute fight between Hisoka and the plants.
At the end, he made sure to get himself in the shot, too, and flashed a bright smile as he gave a peace sign.
Everyone, please give me a follow—more, more!
The protagonist's only attack methods are Dismantle and Cang. Sukuna had to use his Domain Expansion to fight Special Grades when he only had a few fingers, and the protagonist can't use a Domain Expansion yet. But he'll get stronger after this fight.
Surely nobody actually thinks Hisoka is weak... He went toe to toe with Chrollo, who used all sorts of abilities.
It's hard to say who's stronger in a Hunter World fight unless the gap is really huge.
Like I said, this isn't a story where the protagonist becomes invincible early on and steamrolls everything. It's focused on his growth, and the protagonist didn't lose out here, either. In fact, Hisoka got slashed twice.
Wouldn't it be even more satisfying if the protagonist got stronger later and could pin Hisoka down with one hand? (Just kidding.)
Before you continue