A gathering of victims

Was this Hisoka?

The question flashed through Illumi's mind.

His face was so swollen it resembled a pig's head, his features no longer distinguishable. Only the teardrop and star makeup remained barely visible.

His clothes were also torn to shreds, as though someone had thoroughly brutalized him not long ago.

"???"

That was Illumi's reaction at that moment.

Fortunately, Hisoka's wildly upswept hair still allowed Illumi to confirm his identity.

"So that's why you weren't answering your phone."

Coming out of his thoughts, Illumi understood somewhat. He took out his work phone and opened the call history.

The screen displayed ten unanswered calls he had made to Hisoka.

Of course, he hadn't called Hisoka for something as pointless as "meeting up." He wanted Hisoka to pay the billion he owed for the job Illumi had just completed.

Although the assassination target was merely a "lucky individual" Hisoka had randomly selected from the Dena Region's mafia, and the job hadn't been difficult, the agreed payment couldn't be short by even a single coin.

Yet Hisoka hadn't answered any of his ten consecutive calls.

Was he trying to skip out on the bill?

With that suspicion in mind, Illumi suddenly remembered Hisoka casually mentioning, before they parted ways, that he planned to check out some underground fighting arena.

So Illumi had come looking for him, never expecting to find Hisoka in such a miserable state.

"Why are you still alive?"

Normally, anyone witnessing this scene would wonder who had brutalized Hisoka like this.

But Illumi's first question was how Hisoka was still alive.

Illumi also noticed that someone had written "thank you" in blood on the ground beside Hisoka.

Thank you?

Illumi tilted his head.

The fog of confusion in his mind thickened.

What exactly had happened here before he arrived?

He