Hisoka's Reputation Suffers Again

"Oh, dear lady, good evening."

Dressed in a camel-colored trench coat and black leather boots, hands shoved into his pockets, the man approached the woman with a smile.

His eyes were gentle, his smile perfectly placed.

His demeanor was polite, his face handsome.

He looked deeply affectionate and tender.

His silver-white short hair was a little messy, but still aesthetically pleasing.

Slowly, inch by inch, he drew closer.

"Would you do me the honor of joining me for dinner?"

He extended his right hand, palm up, longing and tenderness hidden in his raised eyebrows.

Beauty can be deceiving.

Unfortunately, the woman opposite him wasn't particularly swayed.

She merely glanced at the preening man and said coldly, "One million Jenie."

"What?"

The man feigned confusion, as if he hadn't heard correctly.

Behind him, another deep voice answered his unspoken question.

"Coleman, asking this elder sister to do something costs one million Jenie."

"Don't call me elder sister, you're older than me."

Machi raised an eyebrow slightly at the neat, severed edge.

She glanced at the oblivious Coleman, then lowered her head and began to sew.

"You're sewing very sloppily yourself."

She muttered to herself, unable to fathom why someone would do this to their own arm.

And it must hurt.

"Ah, isn't this just saving me the trouble of carrying it?"

Coleman shrugged and replied with a smile.

"But, beautiful lady, won't you really do me the honor of having a meal?"

"I told you, one million Jenie."

"Isn't it vulgar to talk about money?"

Coleman tried to use his good looks to get a free meal.

He blinked, feigning pitifulness.

Sorrow and sadness slowly surfaced on his handsome face.

His mournful gaze was like that of a heartless man who had abandoned his family.

The pitiable tone in his voice made him seem like a homeless puppy.

Machi looked up, pursed her lips, and applied a little more force to her work.

"Hiss."

"Take it back, I don't think you want your hand to go on strike mid-use."

Meeting his gaze directly into his beautiful rose-red pupils, Machi remained indifferent, unmoved.

She finished sewing the last gap and infused it with Nen.

She let out a sigh of relief; the job was done.

"Seven hundred thousand Jenie, cash or card?"

Coleman appraised the girl, who was barely over 1.6 meters tall, and smiled, handing her a card.

"If you change your mind, remember to call this number. It's just dinner, making a friend."

With that, he casually tossed his 'fake' business card onto the coffee table.

Examining the near-perfect stitching, Coleman nodded in satisfaction.

Machi showed no reaction to his sudden rudeness, her gaze fixed on the card lying on the coffee table.

Coleman, Layton Family.

Layton?

One of the major mafia families?

"Goodbye."

Machi tidied her tools, then looked up, signaling for the two to leave.

"Hey, hey, Machi, aren't you going to give us the agency fee?"

Hisoka leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed, saying teasingly, "Wouldn't that be normal?"

Machi fastened the last buckle on the medical kit and turned her head, speaking slowly, "Get lost!"

Her gaze swept over him, the threat evident.

"Alright, alright, I'm leaving."

Hisoka raised his hands over his head in surrender, signaling to Coleman that he was leaving.

Outside the door, Coleman said playfully, "I never expected our Hisoka to be afraid of anyone."

Hisoka walked down the corridor with his hands in his pockets.

"Of all the doctors I know, only this sister can reattach body parts with 99.9% recovery. If you piss her off, will you reattach my broken hands and feet for me?"

He retorted, pushing open the large door.

"Sure, if you want me to, I guess I can."

Coleman flexed his newly reattached arm, chuckling softly, "But I can't guarantee the quality, I'm not in that line of work."

"Heh, can the parts you attach even be used?"

"Probably. Even if they have no feeling and look ugly, they could still work as throwing weapons, right?"

Of course, they could be used. If you treat your hand like a club, you can still hit people, can't you?

"Heh."

Watching the people coming and going on the street, Hisoka sneered and shot him an annoyed glance.

Turning around, Hisoka walked backward, looking at Coleman, who had grown as tall as him. "What are you doing later?"

"Picking up girls. You?"

Stopping, Hisoka waited for him for a moment, then walked alongside him. "Have you forgotten the young lady you offended last time?"

With their arms around each other's shoulders, they looked like two old friends.

Coleman licked his lips and said with a smile, "Can we not bring up things that are best left unsaid?"

"No way, that was one of the few times Coleman made a fool of himself. We have to take a picture to commemorate it, right?"

Hisoka refused to back down, completely ignoring Coleman's threat.

Coleman glared at him, fumbled around on his body, and pulled out a photo.

"Here, today's target."

Hisoka whistled as he looked at the dignified young lady in the photo.

"You're going like this? Who's going to eat with you after this?"

Coleman looked at Hisoka as if he were an idiot.

"Did you forget your brain? Of course, you need to disguise yourself."

As they walked, Hisoka suddenly yanked Coleman into a dark alley.

"Tell me, why did you want to have dinner with Machi?"

Suddenly serious, Hisoka looked expressionlessly at the flippant Coleman.

He suspected his unreliable 'friend' might be sabotaging him.

Hisoka had just finished preparing his infiltration plan for the Phantom Troupe, and this guy was going after an old member. Wasn't that a bit much?

"Ah, you're going somewhere fun lately, so I was just checking the path for you."

Half-truth, half-lie, Coleman held a cigarette in his mouth, looking like a spoiled rich kid.

Seeing that Coleman wasn't telling the truth, Hisoka grinned, then suddenly his expression turned serious, and he threw a punch.

The gust of wind grazed Coleman's hair and hit the wall beside him.

The bricks shattered.

"Come on, I just wanted to fight someone from the Troupe. You don't need to keep such a close eye on me."

He said the most cowardly words with the harshest tone.

Hisoka wasn't intentionally excluding Coleman.

Although he had acted first and reported later, fundamentally, what did it matter to Coleman where he went?

Hisoka: You two brothers controlling each other is fine, but don't drag me into it!

I'm not a pervert!

At most, I'm a martial arts fanatic!

Coleman was neither annoyed nor afraid, and he continued to smoke his cigarette in that pose.

He blew a smoke ring towards Hisoka's face.

Seeing the frowning fighter, Coleman smiled playfully. "You're overthinking it. Why would I control you? I just find people from the Troupe annoying."

Don't compare me to my brother.

Besides, your brother doesn't care about you at all, okay?

Don't think too highly of yourself.

Hearing this, Hisoka breathed a sigh of relief and lowered his hand.

"I told you, you don't have the spare time for that."

Coleman took a drag of his cigarette, his brows furrowing slightly: "Who told you that?"

With Hisoka's logic, he would never think that Illumi and Coleman were personally trying to control him.

After hesitating for a moment, Hisoka turned around, scratched his head, and muttered: "Manster, he said that you two wanted to control me to work for the Zoldycks."

"And then?"

Hisoka wouldn't have come here to act like a lunatic just for that.

Somewhat reluctantly, Hisoka looked at Coleman's face for a long time before finally surrendering.

"Fine, fine, I'll tell you. Actually, it's nothing, Manster and I just made a bet."

"The bet is, if I can get you to say that you have no intention of controlling me, then I win one million Jenie. Otherwise, I have to give Manster one million Jenie. The deadline is one week, and today is the fourth day."

Spreading his hands, Hisoka smiled in the face of an increasingly terrifying Coleman.

"It's impossible to split the money! Manster hasn't given it to me yet!"

Hey, hey, he couldn't be blamed for this, could he?

Who was it that made him so money-grubbing?

Wasn't it Illumi?

Slowly backing away, but soon finding nowhere left to retreat, Hisoka thought of a clever idea in his desperation: "Hey, don't you think Manster has the wrong impression of you two brothers?"

How could he dare to make such an unreliable bet with him?

When he first heard about this bet, Hisoka had smiled disdainfully and agreed without a second thought.

This million was just too easy to earn.

As everyone (only Hisoka) knows, the first pair of twins in the Zoldyck family only have a desire for control over their other half; they are very cold to everyone else.

All other living beings in this world are merely dispensable existences to these two masters.

This "dispensable" naturally includes Hisoka.

Hisoka knew full well that if he weren't still of some use to them, these two masters would have stopped playing with him long ago.

Control him?

Honestly, he felt that was giving himself a bit too much credit.

After a moment of silence, Coleman pondered.

He suddenly remembered the last time he was being "clingy" with Illumi at the hotel, and Manster had seen them.

In an instant, it dawned on him; Manster had seemed incredibly shocked at the time.

Stamping out his cigarette butt, Coleman spoke slowly: "Maybe he misunderstood."

"Misunderstood what?"

"Nothing, it was just me being clingy with my brother, who told him to ban my alcohol!"

It was just acting spoiled. If he didn't act spoiled, how would Illumi let seventeen-year-old Coleman drink?

It was just a standard operation to get what he wanted; what was there to be surprised about?

Hisoka understood; Hisoka had reached enlightenment!

"Oh, so that's how it is."

Then it was perfectly normal for him to misunderstand. What kind of decent brothers would be so clingy with each other?

They said things all day that would make others misunderstand, even though the two of them really just had a normal twin relationship.

It had taken Hisoka a long time to get used to it.

"Then look, now that this has happened, do you really not plan to change the way you interact with Illumi?"

"No way."

"Hey..."

"You're just jealous that I have a brother and you don't!"

"..."