Leaving

Professional matters should be handled by professionals.

This was the consensus among every country regarding certain phenomena.

Therefore, even the five most powerful nations in the world would directly commission the Hunter Association to handle particularly troublesome problems.

The space of Starry Sky Gazing covered the entire scenic area, and within it lurked something as dangerous as Balance. The level of threat it posed could not be ignored.

So it was all but certain that the country would ask the Hunter Association to step in.

Before that happened, Cheadle, as one of the people involved, had a duty to report the specific circumstances of the incident to the Association.

However, she would conceal the secret about Moyu, and say only that everyone except her had been trapped inside the space of Starry Sky Gazing.

The call went through after several dozen seconds.

"Heh heh."

As soon as the call connected, the phone carried President Netero's signature laughter.

Hearing that familiar laugh, Cheadle instinctively tensed up.

After all, she was about to lie to the president she had always admired and respected.

"President, I have something to report."

Cheadle got straight to the point, doing her best to keep her voice calm and conceal the conflict in her heart.

"Heh, such a formal opening. It must be something important."

Netero sounded surprised over the phone. "Then I'll have to stop what I'm doing and hear what you have to report."

"President."

Cheadle hesitated. "If you have something urgent to attend to..."

"Heh heh."

Netero said with mock seriousness, "It's only a challenge to drink a liter of soda through a twenty-meter straw in one go. I wouldn't call that urgent."

"..."

Cheadle paused. She could almost picture President Netero engrossed in one of his playful pursuits, and gave a helpless sigh inwardly.

Then she told him directly what had happened there.

Throughout the whole report, Netero didn't say a word. He listened quietly until Cheadle had finished.

"Hmm..."

After hearing her report, Netero fell into thought.

Cheadle said nothing, waiting a little nervously for his response.

For someone with such high standards for herself, concealing part of the truth in an important report was no different from a deliberate mistake.

"Cheadle."

A moment later, Netero's unhurried voice came through the phone. "Sometimes, you shouldn't push yourself too hard."

"Uh."

Cheadle's breath caught slightly.

She understood the president's hint. It seemed he had still noticed what she had tried so hard to hide.

"Heh heh."

Netero chuckled, apparently unconcerned with what Cheadle had done. Then he said seriously, "At any rate, I'll come over to your location right now."

"Huh? You're coming in person, President?"

Cheadle was taken aback.

The Association had plenty of talented people these days, so even when faced with a difficult commission, there was no need to trouble the president by sending him in person.

She had reported the matter to him mainly so the Association could prepare in advance. She hadn't expected him to come over himself.

"After all, a Nen Space left behind after death is quite rare. If we don't deal with it as soon as possible, it'll be even more troublesome once it becomes a Secret Realm. Besides, from what you've said, the threat posed by that Post-Mortem Entity is not to be underestimated either."

For once, Netero had dropped his playful manner and tone.

"I understand."

Cheadle's expression turned serious. Then she abruptly changed the subject and asked, "There's one more thing. What do you plan to do about the Qinglin Squad's remaining members, President?"

"..."

There was silence on the other end of the call.

After a long while, Netero's slightly rueful voice came through. "Although they were once my comrades, they've now completely left the Association. So the rules in the Hunter Bylaws can't be applied to them."

He had said "my former comrades," not "the Association's former comrades."

That was because—

Before taking the position of chairman of the Hunter Association, Netero had also been a member of the Qinglin Squad.

"I understand..."

Cheadle didn't press the matter. In a low voice, she said, "I'll wait here for you."

After chatting casually for a few more moments, they ended the call.

That night.

Netero took the Association's private airship and headed for Cheadle's location.

Meanwhile.

Wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts, Moyu followed a path toward a nearby village.

When he passed a farmhouse along the way, Moyu stopped and looked into its yard by the faint light of the night.

A clothesline propped up on wooden poles ran across the middle of the yard, with a great many clothes hanging from it.

Moyu paused, closed his Aura Nodes, and slipped into the yard in a state of Zetsu.

He glanced at a big yellow dog sleeping by the gate, then quietly took a set of clothes that looked about the right size from the clothesline. He left a large banknote behind and slipped out of the yard without a sound.

After putting on the clothes he had "bought" from the farmhouse, Moyu quickened his pace and reached the village under cover of night.

It was already late at night.

The village had no entertainment venues. Its streets were quiet, not a soul in sight, and lights were rare.

Moyu first went to the general store and slipped a few banknotes through the crack under the door.

It was the money Hawk owed for cigarettes and liquor, which he had originally planned to settle at the end of the month.

Then Moyu went to the butcher shop and the grain shop in turn, paying off each of Hawk's debts.

After finishing all that, Moyu left the village quietly without looking back.

"212 Tulip Street, Laxiang City. Suibian Law Firm. Liz..."

Those were the details written on the note Cheadle had given him.

According to Cheadle, Moyu needed to find a woman named Liz, who apparently worked as a professional lawyer.

"Laxiang City."

Moyu carefully put the note away.

He wasn't sure whether Cheadle had explained everything about this matter, but he thought it was important to keep the note safe.

After all, the "handwriting" on it was the strongest evidence he had of his identity.

"I've got more than enough for travel expenses. The problem is..."

Moyu glanced at the money he had left and muttered uncertainly, "Does Cheadle know I don't have an ID Card?"

Having spent the past year shut away, poring over books in the Temple most of the time, Moyu had no idea where Laxiang City was, how far away it was, or how to get there.

But with enough money for the journey, none of that was a real problem.

What truly stumped Moyu was—

He had no ID, which in a sense made him a fake Meteor City native.

So even with enough money, he couldn't buy a ticket for an airship bound for Laxiang City.

"I'll go to the nearest city first and see if there's somewhere to get fake documents."

Moyu picked a direction.

Before leaving, he glanced back at the Nen Space standing beneath the night sky.

Starry Sky Gazing...

He had a rough understanding of how the ability worked.

When it came to Exorcism, the most important step wasn't transferring the Nen, but the process of purifying it.

The risk an Exorcist bore during that process was failing to digest the transferred Nen before a specific "countdown" ended, causing the Nen to rebound and consume them.

After Elena's Starry Sky Gazing drew Nen into its space, it used a mechanism that "slowed time" to eliminate the time limit, leaving ample time to digest the transferred Nen.

Now that the ability had grown stronger after death, its power seemed to have increased further...

The size of the space went without saying. It could now even take in "living beings," and the "slowed time" mechanism had likely grown so powerful that it was close to "stopping time."

So—

That was why Hawk's "Nen," isolated from everything outside, hadn't disappeared.

Oh, right.

That Exorcist...

Moyu glanced back once more and mourned in silence.

The first arc was finished. It was time to start thinking about the second...

Well, it was still the same old problem. I had no outline and never planned to make one. I would do my best to flesh out the story freely and, as much as possible, explore the things from the original that had only been glimpsed.

Those of you who have kept reading this far should be able to tell that this Hunter story of mine is different from my previous Gourmet Hunter. It's aimed more at fans of the original, which is why I brought in so many details from the original during the first arc.

After all... when I wrote my previous Hunter story, the audience for Hunter fan fiction was pitifully small. To get better results and more subscriptions, I leaned toward drawing in readers who hadn't read Hunter x Hunter.

With this one, I believe that as long as I maintain the quality, you won't let me down, and you'll show your support in return.

Of course, I sincerely hope I can make it easy for readers who aren't fans of the original to enjoy it too.