Chapter Summaries

Key events

• Pix has been unable to eat for three days despite normal medical tests. He describes a voice or presence in his stomach that makes him vomit and warns him not to eat. Mia urges him to seek psychiatric care, but Pix becomes angry, smashes a plate, and leaves.
• The next morning, Mia finds Pix eating his own hand. His body has become monstrous: a toothed mouth opens in his abdomen, his severed hand begins regenerating, and the house traps Mia. When she attacks him with a cleaver, an eye opens in his shoulder; Pix embraces her, and she loses consciousness.
• Elsewhere, Bai Zhu and Milluki encounter police carrying out Mia’s emaciated body and arresting Pix, who raves about hunger and eating bone marrow. Bai Zhu abandons his food and wants to leave, but spots a figure watching from an upstairs window.
• The system identifies the area as the main quest zone, “City of Hunger,” and offers a reward: the randomly generated third name of Bai Zhu’s Zanpakuto. Bai Zhu changes his mind about leaving, recognizing the place as dangerous.

Character developments and interactions

• Pix shifts from frightened and desperate to violently transformed, apparently ruled by the hunger and voice within him. He dismisses Mia’s concern, then attacks or incapacitates her.
• Mia tries to comfort and help Pix, but their disagreement escalates. Her shock turns to desperate resistance when she discovers his condition.
• Bai Zhu is initially enjoying the city’s food and attractions, then recoils from the murder scene. His curiosity and the quest prompt overcome his instinct to leave.
• Milluki is fascinated by the gruesome crime and wants to investigate, while Bai Zhu chastises him and tries to pull him away.

Significant themes

• Hunger and bodily horror: Pix’s starvation becomes grotesque self-cannibalism and supernatural bodily transformation.
• Mental illness and uncertainty: The medical explanation suggests psychological distress, but the speaking mouth and physical mutations imply something more than a disorder.
• Denial and helplessness: Mia’s reasonable attempts to help cannot reach Pix, and she becomes trapped as the danger escalates.
• Curiosity versus danger: Milluki’s fascination and Bai Zhu’s quest-driven decision show how spectacle and reward can draw people into peril.

Summary

Key plot points and events

• After spotting a figure at a second-floor window in the murder villa, Bai Zhu decides to return at night rather than investigate in daylight. He and Milluki spend the afternoon exploring the carnival’s food stalls and mapping the area before heading back.
• Milluki picks up a discounted camera to document the investigation, despite Bai Zhu’s protests.
• They enter the sealed villa through the back door. Milluki detects traces of Nen throughout the house, especially in the kitchen; Bai Zhu senses a chaotic residue of spiritual energy.
• Examining the blood trails and damage, they reconstruct the victim Mia’s final movements: she fled from the living room into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and tried to break through the exits. The doors and windows appear to have been trapped by a Nen space that let people move inside but prevented them from leaving.
• A search of the upstairs rooms finds no one. However, surveillance footage confirms a humanoid figure stood at the second-floor window for two seconds while Bai Zhu was outside, then vanished.
• Beneath the sofa cushions, Bai Zhu finds a hospital examination receipt for Pix, the arrested suspect. The receipt and Pix’s reported symptoms—stomach discomfort, constant hunger, and auditory hallucinations—prompt Bai Zhu to suggest visiting him.
• The Pope, brought along in Milluki’s backpack, senses something in the villa and identifies it as a Parasite, not a god or the Pope’s master.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu is curious but cautious: he avoids alerting the police, investigates only after dark, and is ready to leave if the danger proves too great. His deductions connect the physical evidence to the likely Nen ability.
• Milluki shows practical skill and enthusiasm, picking the lock, detecting Nen with Gyo, and locating useful surveillance footage. His eagerness to film contrasts with Bai Zhu’s caution, while their banter continues throughout the investigation.
• The Pope provides a crucial clue by distinguishing the presence in the villa from the “god” associated with his master. His answer redirects the mystery toward a parasite.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki work as a complementary team: Milluki handles tools, Nen detection, and technology, while Bai Zhu reads the scene and interprets its spiritual traces.

Significant themes

• Evidence and inference: The characters reconstruct the murder from physical marks, Nen residue, medical records, and surveillance footage.
• Hidden supernatural danger: Ordinary police procedures have not uncovered the Nen-bound exits or the figure at the window, suggesting the case extends beyond a conventional murder.
• Appetite and contamination: Pix’s unexplained hunger and the Pope’s identification of a parasite link the victim’s symptoms to the villa’s lingering presence.
• Humor amid danger: Food, bargain-hunting, and teasing provide comic relief as the investigation grows more ominous.

Key plot points and events

• Bai Zhu and Milluki pose as a lawyer and his assistant to gain access to Pix in police custody. Their credentials and authorization are fabricated but arranged to survive verification.
• Pix is restrained because he has behaved violently and injured himself. He has been unable to keep food down, and medical examinations have found no physical cause.
• Once alone, Milluki disables the room’s surveillance and takes the Pope’s severed head from his bag. Pix lunges toward it, apparently hungry, but cannot reach it.
• Bai Zhu questions Pix about hearing an unseen voice. Pix says it began about two weeks earlier after he ate food samples handed out on the street. The voice criticized his food and eventually seemed to prevent him from swallowing.
• Pix says he told Mia about the presence inside him; she advised him to see a doctor. When asked what happened in the kitchen during her later visit, Pix repeats that a meal “filled” him, avoiding the question.
• As Bai Zhu asks about the original food and restaurant, Pix’s abdomen visibly bulges beneath his restraints. A second voice then speaks from under the table, asking Bai Zhu whether he visited Pix’s home the previous night.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu acts as a controlled, resourceful investigator: he manages the officers’ suspicions, keeps a safe distance from Pix, and presses for details without revealing too much.
• Milluki is blunt and impatient, but alert to danger. He secretly disables the surveillance and brings the Pope into the interview; Bai Zhu stops him from slapping the head when they need to keep quiet.
• Pix shifts from detached, slow answers to intense attention when the Pope appears. His fixation on food and his evasiveness about Mia’s kitchen visit suggest that something is influencing or inhabiting him.
• The Pope is a comic but reluctant participant, complaining about being cramped and scraped in the backpack. He asks about the “Nen Tools,” but Milluki dismisses the question as useless.
• The police remain wary, insisting on restraints and warning the visitors not to approach Pix. Bai Zhu negotiates a brief private interview by pointing to the restraints and camera.

Significant themes

• Supernatural intrusion into ordinary life: Pix’s symptoms seem tied to a strange voice and a possible entity inside his body.
• Hunger, control, and bodily violation: Pix cannot eat normally, is compelled by the voice, and eventually shows an alarming bulge under restraint.
• Secrecy and deception: Bai Zhu and Milluki use false credentials and tamper with surveillance to investigate outside official scrutiny.
• Uncertainty and withheld information: Pix’s repeated, evasive account of the kitchen—and the unexplained voice at the end—leave the cause and history of his condition unresolved.

Plot points and events

• During Pix’s interrogation, Bai Zhu taunts him and offers the Pope’s head in exchange for information. Pix reveals that the Creation Society conducted horrific experiments: people were starved until they ate their own flesh, then some were put into pots. The Pope admits the experiments existed but says records are held at a Kakin Empire research institute.
• Pix’s abdomen-mouth suddenly becomes more violent and threatens to eat Bai Zhu. When the meeting-room door mysteriously locks—apparently through Nen—Bai Zhu uses a spell to seal the mouth shut. Milluki hides the Pope in his backpack while Bai Zhu tells the officer outside that Pix merely became sick.
• Pix explains that he unknowingly ate a serving of unlisted stew at a Carnival restaurant after being blindfolded. The next day, a voice began demanding meat; eventually it drove him to eat his own fingers. His collection card bears a distinctive stamp with tiny teeth around its edge.
• Milluki identifies the stamp in a tourist photo as belonging to the Baba Sisters’ beachfront restaurant, though later appearances of the same stamp make tracing the source difficult.
• After leaving the precinct, Bai Zhu tells Piyu about Pix. She connects the case to an anonymous tip she received: someone was seeking a young man with a special bloodline. She suspects the Kakin royal family, not merely surviving Creation Society members, may be involved. Kakin’s Nen Beast research and the possible escape of Society members with test subjects raise the stakes.

Character developments

• Bai Zhu remains controlled and mocking under threat, but acts decisively to restrain Pix and conceal the investigation from the police.
• Pix shifts from hostile and threatening to frightened and desperate, revealing how the creature took hold of him and asking Bai Zhu for help.
• Milluki is practical and investigative: he protects the exit, recognizes the danger in the room, secures the Pope, and uses online photos to track the restaurant stamp.
• The Pope admits the Creation Society’s role while distancing himself from particular experiments, revealing both the group’s cruelty and his evasiveness.
• Piyu contributes a broader lead that links Pix’s condition to a possible Kakin operation.

Significant themes

• Scientific cruelty and accountability: The experiments’ victims and their consequences have escaped the laboratory and reached the public.
• Exploitation disguised as entertainment: A Carnival tasting event may have served experimental material to unsuspecting customers.
• Institutional concealment: The Pope’s evasions and Kakin’s control of records suggest powerful groups can hide responsibility.
• Trust and control: Pix’s body and behavior are controlled by the creature, while Bai Zhu’s restraint spell temporarily reasserts control.

Character interactions

• Bai Zhu uses provocation to pressure Pix and the Pope, but protects Pix from the abdomen-mouth by sealing it.
• Milluki challenges the Pope’s claims and works alongside Bai Zhu to contain the situation without alerting the authorities.
• Pix’s plea for help marks a change in his relationship with Bai Zhu: he is no longer simply an aggressor but also a victim.
• Bai Zhu’s call with Piyu turns the local investigation into a possible conspiracy involving Kakin’s royal family.

Key plot points and events

• Bai Zhu interrupts Milluki’s online digging and takes him to Baba Sisters restaurant, where they check for anything unusual using Milluki’s terminal and Bai Zhu’s Reiatsu. They find no sign of Nen or suspicious activity.
• A waitress recalls that one of the victims had become alarmingly thin after attending a three-day burger-tasting event hosted by several restaurants. The burgers were supplied by a man called Old Zhang, who drove a van and never stayed long.
• The restaurant owner confirms the festival organizers introduced Old Zhang. After the event, he returned to ask whether customers had suffered stomachaches, nausea, or persistent hunger.
• The owner remembers Old Zhang taking an unusual route toward Wetland Park after a rainstorm. Milluki notices a faint indentation on Old Zhang’s business card, while Bai Zhu detects a trace of disinfectant on it.
• The pair check other participating restaurants. Each has a similar business card and recalls Old Zhang’s cap and battered van, but no one knows his actual business location.
• Milluki reviews surveillance footage and identifies a pattern: the van arrived during busy tourist periods, used back entrances, and avoided police posts and main-road cameras. Its routes repeatedly led toward the seawall. Bai Zhu suspects the van’s contents—not the vehicle itself—were the reason for the precautions.

Character developments

• Bai Zhu relies on observation, Reiatsu, and direct questioning rather than prolonged digital searches. He keeps Milluki focused on eating and gathering practical information, while increasingly treating the burger supplier as a serious lead.
• Milluki combines technical investigation with sharp attention to physical evidence, spotting the business card’s hidden indentation and assembling the van’s movements from surveillance footage.
• The restaurant owner and waitress move from ordinary recollections to useful witnesses once Bai Zhu connects the tasting event to the victim’s decline and possible death.

Significant themes

• Appearance versus reality: The restaurant and tasting event seem ordinary, but details surrounding the supplier suggest something hidden beneath the surface.
• Investigation through small clues: A remembered symptom, a card’s indentation, a faint smell, and repeated vehicle routes gradually build a larger lead.
• Trust and concealment: Old Zhang’s evasive driving and the uncertainty over who handled the cards raise questions about what was being transported and who may have interfered with the evidence.

Character interactions

• Bai Zhu playfully restrains Milluki from tugging at a waitress’s tail, establishing their teasing but cooperative dynamic.
• The two disagree mildly over Milluki’s thoroughness, but work together: Bai Zhu questions people and interprets clues, while Milluki analyzes records, cards, and footage.
• Bai Zhu’s mention of the suspected cannibalistic murder makes the owner visibly uneasy, but he presses for information without openly accusing her.

Chapter Summary: “Visit Them One by One”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu and Milluki investigate the connection between Old Zhang’s Meat Burgers and the creature found inside Pix. Bai Zhu explains that the bite-mark stamp was not proof that the restaurants were involved, but a tracking marker used by Old Zhang to identify people he was monitoring.
• Outside the Baba Sisters restaurant, Bai Zhu notices a thin black strand of flesh emerging from an injured waitress’s finger. He concludes that the restaurant itself is harmless, but one or more customers may have been infected or altered. He decides not to interfere, since doing so could expose the larger operation.
• The next morning, Milluki identifies three restaurants named Old Zhang’s Meat Burgers. They visit each one:
  • The commercial-street location is a newly opened fake business whose owner denies involvement.
  • The residential shop confirms that a masked young man delivered unlabeled burgers before the Carnival. Surveillance shows that the man limped slightly and appeared to listen intently after each delivery.
  • The harbor shop’s owner disappeared after receiving unusually large shipments of frozen meat. A neighbor recalls the suspicious old van used for deliveries, including its triangular dent and habit of arriving around low tide.
• The evidence reveals that the harbor shop was the real distribution point, while the residential shop was another legitimate recipient. Old Zhang likely discovered that the meat deliveries were connected to something dangerous and fled, later visiting the restaurants he had supplied to investigate.
• The remaining burgers had been thrown away and transported to an abandoned composting center near Old Street. Bai Zhu and Milluki follow the trail there.
• At the facility, they find fresh tire tracks, a damaged metal tag, destroyed insulated containers, and extensive claw marks across the walls. The warehouse is empty, but the signs suggest that numerous desperate creatures—or people—had been confined there.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu demonstrates caution and investigative insight. He distinguishes between the restaurant businesses and the people potentially infected by the mysterious substance, choosing not to act prematurely. His ability to sense suppressed life force helps him recognize that the warehouse once held living captives.
• Milluki proves increasingly useful as an investigator and technical specialist. He tracks locations through traffic systems, accesses surveillance footage, cross-references information, and helps reconstruct the delivery network. He also becomes more decisive in supporting Bai Zhu’s deductions.
• Old Zhang is reinterpreted as a possible innocent or reluctant investigator rather than a conspirator. His disappearance appears to have resulted from discovering the danger associated with the meat.
• The masked delivery man emerges as a key unknown figure. His limp, secrecy, and habit of listening suggest he may have been monitoring the meat or its effects.
• The Pope, carried in a sealed bag, provides a brief comic interruption but remains largely peripheral to the investigation.

Significant Themes

• Investigation through scattered evidence: The truth emerges by combining business records, witness testimony, surveillance footage, vehicle details, and physical traces.
• Appearance versus reality: The restaurants appear connected by name and business cards, but their actual roles differ. Likewise, Old Zhang initially appears suspicious but may have been trying to uncover the truth.
• Hidden contamination and surveillance: The black flesh strand and the stamped victims suggest that something is spreading unnoticed among ordinary people while an unseen party tracks its progress.
• Exploitation and captivity: The claw marks and suppressed life force imply that living beings were imprisoned and possibly used in experiments or some larger biological operation.
• The danger of acting too soon: Bai Zhu repeatedly emphasizes avoiding alarm. The investigators are not merely searching for victims or evidence; they are trying to identify the person or organization controlling the network.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu explains his theories to Milluki, who questions the logic and gradually adopts his reasoning.
• The two work cooperatively, with Bai Zhu interpreting supernatural clues and Milluki handling technology, records, and surveillance.
• Their conversation with the residential shopkeeper is especially productive: Milluki’s false claim of working for a television station encourages her cooperation, while Bai Zhu extracts details about the delivery man and the mysterious uniformed investigator.
• The final discovery at the composting center strengthens their shared suspicion that the meat-distribution operation was linked to the Creation Society or Kakin investigators and involved the confinement of living creatures.

Chapter Summary: “What on Earth Molted Here?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu and Milluki investigate an abandoned compost-storage building connected to their search for an escaped experimental subject.
• Inside, they find deep claw marks high on the walls and footprints beneath them, suggesting that something repeatedly tried to climb.
• The storage containers contain only rotting food waste and additional claw marks, offering no direct evidence connecting the restaurant clues to the parasitism investigation.
• A drag trail leads from a damaged insulated container to a drainage channel, where they discover a huge grayish-white snakeskin wedged beneath an iron grate.
• The shed skin is enormous—potentially from a creature as thick as an oil drum—raising the possibility that the experimental subject mutated into a snake or that a giant snake inhabits the facility.
• Milluki consults the Pope’s severed head, but the Pope admits he knows of no experiment involving this type of mutation and cannot identify the skin.
• Bai Zhu notes that the compost center could naturally attract a large snake, though this theory does not explain the claw marks.
• The pair withdraw rather than enter the drainage system without daylight or proper equipment.
• Outside, Bai Zhu traces the drainage channel to an underground entrance. A damaged fence and a scrap of dark fabric caught high on the barbed wire indicate that something formerly human entered the tunnel.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu remains analytical and cautious, carefully separating confirmed evidence from speculation. He considers both supernatural/experimental and ordinary explanations, including the possibility of a natural snake.
• Milluki becomes increasingly frightened by the environment and the possibility of confronting another monster. Although he jokes and initially follows Bai Zhu, he ultimately insists on retreating until they can return with better equipment.
• The Pope provides limited assistance. His lack of knowledge about the mutation suggests the creature may be outside the known experimental projects, increasing the mystery.

Significant Themes

• Uncertainty and incomplete evidence: The characters repeatedly encounter clues that suggest multiple possibilities but cannot definitively connect them.
• Transformation and loss of humanity: The enormous shed skin and the final clue that something “once human” entered the tunnel reinforce the chapter’s focus on grotesque mutation.
• Caution versus curiosity: Bai Zhu’s investigation conflicts with Milluki’s fear, but both ultimately recognize that entering the drainage system recklessly would be dangerous.
• Hidden contamination beneath ordinary places: The compost center, normally associated with waste processing, conceals evidence of monstrous activity and possible experimentation.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu guides Milluki through interpreting the claw marks and footprints, correcting his assumption that the creature necessarily resembles Pix.
• Milluki challenges Bai Zhu’s theories, particularly by pointing out that a snake could not have made the claw marks.
• Together they examine the shed skin, using sticks and Bai Zhu’s Light Rope to avoid direct contact.
• Milluki turns to the Pope for answers, but the Pope’s uncertainty leaves the pair with more questions.
• Their decision to retreat reflects a practical compromise between Bai Zhu’s investigative drive and Milluki’s fear.

Summary of “Fatty Decides Not to Go Down”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Back at the hotel, Milluki analyzes technical data and orders specialized equipment to investigate the abandoned Composting Center, while Bai Zhu reflects on what they discovered there: signs of imprisoned living creatures, a giant snake, and a likely underground facility.
• Bai Zhu speculates that the snake may have eaten their target, but Milluki dismisses the idea because a dead trail would make further investigation pointless.
• Milluki converts the hotel room into a workshop and equips Bai Zhu with:
  • A hidden button camera
  • A tiny communicator
  • A palm-sized Mechanical Spider for reconnaissance
• Milluki hacks municipal records and finds old renovation plans showing that the Composting Center still contains extensive underground infrastructure, including storage tanks, maintenance corridors, and sewage branches.
• Bai Zhu agrees to investigate alone while Milluki remains aboveground to provide support. They establish that Bai Zhu will retreat if communication is lost.
• After returning to the Composting Center, Bai Zhu searches the perimeter instead of immediately revisiting the drainage ditch. He discovers a concealed maintenance shaft with signs of recent use.
• The shaft’s location matches the underground blueprint and explains the tire tracks found earlier, suggesting that the delivery vehicle may have been used to conceal access to the underground complex.
• A piece of repeatedly folded plastic has been deliberately placed beneath the heavy cover to keep the entrance usable.
• Bai Zhu sends the Mechanical Spider and a gas detector down first. The air is safe, and the camera reveals a ladder, a dusty corridor, and fresh shoeprints.
• One footprint has a distinctive dragging mark. Milluki compares it with surveillance footage of the young delivery worker and confirms the same limp-like movement.
• Convinced that the delivery man entered through this shaft, Bai Zhu prepares to open the cover and follow the trail underground.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu is portrayed as practical, cautious, and somewhat lazy, but he remains willing to take personal risks when necessary. He relies on observation and refuses to act impulsively, carefully testing the shaft before entering.
• Milluki demonstrates his technical expertise and enthusiasm for machinery. Though initially mocked for buying excessive equipment, his research, hacking, surveillance analysis, and inventions become essential to the investigation.
• The Pope remains an unreliable but potentially valuable source of information. His uncertainty about the escaped test subjects’ feeding requirements reinforces how little the investigators understand about the threat.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki develop a clear division of responsibilities: Bai Zhu handles fieldwork, while Milluki provides technological and analytical support remotely.

Significant Themes

• Investigation through evidence: Physical clues—footprints, tire tracks, disturbed dust, and the plastic wedge—gradually reveal the hidden route.
• Technology versus danger: Milluki’s gadgets allow the characters to explore hazardous spaces while reducing unnecessary risk.
• Hidden worlds beneath ordinary places: The abandoned facility conceals a vast underground network, suggesting that the apparent surface setting is only part of a much larger mystery.
• Caution and controlled risk: Bai Zhu emphasizes communication protocols, reconnaissance, and retreat rather than blindly entering an unknown environment.
• Uncertainty and biological horror: The unclear nature of the escaped test subjects and the giant snake creates an atmosphere of danger and incomplete knowledge.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu teases Milluki about his equipment and dependence on technology, while Milluki responds with pride in his inventions and intelligence.
• Milluki equips Bai Zhu and gives him instructions, establishing a cooperative partnership despite their contrasting personalities.
• Bai Zhu questions the Pope about the test subjects, treating him as useful but burdensome.
• Milluki and Bai Zhu work closely through the communicator, jointly interpreting blueprints, environmental readings, surveillance footage, and physical evidence.
• The chapter ends with Bai Zhu taking the lead in the field as Milluki watches and supports him remotely, just before the descent into the underground facility.

Chapter Summary: “The Snake’s Nest”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu enters an underground maintenance passage while Milluki supports him remotely through communications and mechanical devices.
• He sends a Mechanical Spider ahead to scout and follows intermittent footprints marked by a distinctive drag from the left foot. These tracks match those previously associated with the suspected deliveryman.
• At a fork, Bai Zhu chooses the passage where moss has been worn away by repeated foot traffic.
• The route becomes blocked by collapsed pipes and rubble. The Spider discovers numerous openings and tunnels that do not appear on the official blueprints, revealing that something has created an additional underground maze.
• Milluki deploys a Mechanical Dragonfly carrying Mechanical Ants. The machines establish signal beacons, secure the retreat path, and search for alternate routes.
• Using Bakudō #26: Kyokkō, Bai Zhu conceals himself, then uses Bakudō #58: Kakushitsuijaku to detect living creatures within five hundred meters.
• He senses a dense concentration of creatures nearby. The Mechanical Spider enters a large cavern and reveals a colony of more than a dozen enormous snakes, including one exceptionally gigantic snake matching the size suggested by the shed skin found earlier.
• The snakes are gathered around an abandoned underground pumping station. Food packaging and cleaned bones indicate that someone has been feeding or living among them, while a narrow, clean path leads directly to the pumping room.
• The clues—the shed skin, fabric from the fence, and deliveryman’s footprints—now converge on the pumping station as the likely location of the mysterious inhabitant.
• Bai Zhu advances while concealed, carefully avoiding detection. The largest snake briefly senses something unusual but fails to locate him.
• As Bai Zhu approaches the pumping room, chopping sounds come from behind its locked iron door, implying that someone is inside preparing food or cutting something.
• One of the giant snakes blocks Bai Zhu’s retreat route. Despite the danger, Bai Zhu remains confident and prepares to use his spiritual power to force his way forward.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu demonstrates patience, caution, and strong investigative instincts. He methodically tests the route, confirms evidence, uses concealment and detection techniques, and refuses to panic even when surrounded by giant snakes.
• His confidence becomes especially clear at the end when he dismisses the snakes as merely “disgusting” rather than truly threatening.
• Milluki acts as Bai Zhu’s remote support and equipment operator. He carefully manages the Mechanical Spider, Dragonfly, and Ants, while also showing a more humorous and nervous side when confronted with the snake den. His reaction suggests he is relieved not to be physically present.
• Milluki also becomes more serious and professional when he realizes the underground area has been transformed into an uncharted maze. He prioritizes communication, reconnaissance, and securing Bai Zhu’s escape route.

Significant Themes

• Investigation through evidence: Separate clues—footprints, shed skin, fabric, food remains, and the underground tunnels—gradually converge to identify the pumping station.
• The limits of official knowledge: The blueprints describe only the original infrastructure and fail to account for the tunnels created or altered by unknown creatures.
• Preparation versus danger: Milluki’s mechanical devices provide scouting, communication, and escape security, allowing Bai Zhu to confront a dangerous environment without acting recklessly.
• Human coexistence with the monstrous: The orderly snake colony and maintained passage suggest that whoever occupies the pumping station has established a controlled relationship with the snakes.
• Hidden threats beneath ordinary spaces: The familiar city infrastructure conceals an entire ecosystem and an unknown inhabitant, emphasizing the contrast between the surface world and the dangers below it.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Milluki maintain constant communication, with Bai Zhu giving precise instructions and Milluki operating the machines remotely.
• Milluki repeatedly warns Bai Zhu to stop or wait when the situation becomes uncertain, while Bai Zhu calmly assesses the danger and continues.
• Their relationship combines professional cooperation with contrasting temperaments: Milluki is more visibly anxious and reactive, whereas Bai Zhu remains controlled, analytical, and confident.
• The chapter ends with Bai Zhu reassuring Milluki that the snakes cannot prevent him from reaching the pumping room, setting up a confrontation with whoever is making the chopping sounds inside.

Chapter Summary: The Source of the Meat Patties

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu discovers that the giant snakes are emerging from a foundation pit beneath the pump room. To prevent them from interfering, he uses Bakudō #81: Dankū to create four transparent barriers, trapping the snakes inside the pit.
• He sends a Mechanical Ant through a hole in the pump-room door. Its camera reveals a horrifying processing facility: a masked young man is chopping meat, while dozens of human corpses hang upside down behind a plastic curtain.
• The room contains meat-patty molds, wrapping paper, and insulated delivery boxes, confirming that the mysterious patties distributed at nearby restaurants are made from human flesh.
• Milluki identifies the young man as the target from the surveillance footage. Bai Zhu and Milluki infer that the restaurants were unknowingly distributing the patties as “samples,” while Old Zhang likely discovered the truth and fled.
• The young man reacts defensively to noises outside and deliberately hides an insulated box, suggesting it contains something important. Bai Zhu prepares to restrain him and investigate the box.
• When Bai Zhu enters the room, he steps on a fragment of bone, triggering a supernatural trap. Black flakes expand into a darkness that surrounds him, blocks communication, distorts distance, and absorbs the force of his sword strikes.
• Using Bakudō #58: Kakushitsuijaku, Bai Zhu confirms that he remains inside the pump room and that the young man is fleeing rather than transporting him to another dimension.
• Bai Zhu produces the incomplete Soul King’s Pen and touches it to the darkness, apparently attempting to counter or investigate the trap.
• From outside, Milluki sees Bai Zhu vanish and a perfectly black sphere appear in the doorway. The young man is terrified by the sphere and abandons the insulated box before escaping through another exit. The chapter ends with Milluki desperately calling for Bai Zhu, who does not respond.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu demonstrates tactical caution and adaptability. He neutralizes the snakes before investigating the pump room, notices the young man’s defensive behavior, and quickly recognizes that the black trap is not a conventional spatial displacement.
• He also shows increased willingness to experiment with unusual tools, using the incomplete Soul King’s Pen when ordinary attacks fail.
• Milluki shifts from technological excitement to horror and seriousness after witnessing the corpses. He carefully preserves the evidence and becomes increasingly concerned for Bai Zhu when their connection is severed.
• The masked young man is revealed as a butcher and likely the central figure behind the meat-patty distribution. Despite his connection to the snakes, he appears physically impaired and panics when confronted with the black sphere, suggesting that he may not fully control or understand the supernatural power involved.

Significant Themes

• Hidden exploitation and concealed horror: Ordinary restaurants serve as the front for a human-meat distribution network, emphasizing how horrific wrongdoing can hide behind mundane systems.
• Evidence versus direct confrontation: Bai Zhu and Milluki rely on surveillance, deduction, and controlled investigation rather than immediately attacking.
• The limits of physical force: Bai Zhu’s sword is useless against the darkness, highlighting the need for spiritual or conceptual abilities.
• Fear and loss of control: The young man’s panic suggests that the black phenomenon is more dangerous than he is, while Bai Zhu’s disappearance leaves even his allies powerless.
• Transformation and contamination: The chapter connects the meat patties to Pix’s mutation, though the exact mechanism remains unresolved.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and Milluki work as a coordinated investigative team: Bai Zhu handles the physical danger while Milluki monitors the Mechanical Ants and records evidence.
• Milluki identifies the suspect through the camera feed, and Bai Zhu instructs him to remain silent to avoid alerting the target.
• Bai Zhu interprets the young man’s movements, especially his attempt to hide the insulated box, while Milluki supplies remote observation.
• After Bai Zhu is trapped, Milluki repeatedly calls for him, but the severed signal leaves him unable to help. The chapter closes on this unresolved separation and Bai Zhu’s uncertain fate.

Chapter Summary: I Am Ella

Key Plot Points and Events

• Milluki loses contact with Bai Zhu after the Mechanical Spider’s feed shows Bai Zhu disappearing inside a mysterious black sphere. He determines that the sphere is not a technical malfunction but a signal-blocking, space-confining device.
• Milluki consults the Pope’s severed head, forcing him to identify the object. The Pope explains that the sphere and the fragments Bai Zhu crushed are paired Nen Tools: the fragments are the triggering “child,” while the sphere is the containing “mother.”
• The Nen Tool cannot be destroyed or opened from inside. Bai Zhu is alive for the moment, but the amount of air and the length of time he can survive inside are unknown. The only realistic rescue method is to find the paired “child” tool outside and use it to release him.
• Milluki refuses to detonate the sphere because an explosion could kill Bai Zhu. Instead, he reorganizes his Mechanical Insects:
  • Some guard the sphere and monitor it for changes.
  • Others pursue the young man carrying or connected to the triggering tool.
  • Additional units search the slaughterhouse-like pump room and surrounding tunnels.
• The pursuit becomes difficult because the young man has entered a narrow, unstable underground passage. Heavy attacks could cause a collapse and destroy both the suspect and the rescue lead.
• Milluki sends Piyu the coordinates of the maintenance shaft and orders the surface area sealed, particularly against government interference.
• The continued stability of Bai Zhu’s Dankū barrier against the attacking snakes suggests that Bai Zhu’s spiritual energy remains intact, supporting the Pope’s claim that he is still alive.
• Meanwhile, Camilla learns that a fugitive experimental researcher and valuable “materials” are somewhere on the Basha Islands. She is told that Bai Zhu and Milluki are also investigating the matter.
• Determined to seize the experimental subject before Unma can intervene, Camilla travels with armed guards to Milluki’s hotel. She brings a specially sealed suitcase, implying that it contains an important or dangerous object.
• Milluki detects Camilla’s arrival through a Mechanical Moth and remembers their previous hostile encounter at the abandoned Church.
• Camilla’s forces surround and secure the hotel. When she knocks on Milluki’s door, she does not identify herself as Camilla, but calmly says, “Mr. Milluki, I’m Ella.”

Character Developments

• Milluki demonstrates both technical expertise and emotional restraint. Although desperate to rescue Bai Zhu, he avoids using the dangerous forced-detonation command and instead develops a cautious, multi-stage search strategy.
• His concern for Bai Zhu is clear, but he expresses it through practical action rather than open emotion. He also shows growing distrust of outside forces by ordering the area sealed from the government.
• The Pope becomes a reluctant source of information. Fearing Milluki’s hostility, he finally reveals the nature of the Nen Tools, though his limited knowledge leaves the rescue uncertain.
• Bai Zhu remains physically absent but central to the chapter. His survival is confirmed indirectly through the continuing strength of his Dankū barrier.
• Camilla is portrayed as calculating, domineering, and opportunistic. She quickly changes plans once she learns Bai Zhu is involved and uses the loyalty of the escaped Creation Society members to advance her objective.
• Camilla’s use of the name “Ella” creates an immediate mystery, suggesting either an alias, a disguise, or a deliberate attempt to manipulate Milluki.

Significant Themes

• Rescue versus risk: Milluki must balance the urgency of saving Bai Zhu against the possibility that a reckless attack will kill him.
• Uncertainty and limited knowledge: The characters do not fully understand the Dark Continent-derived Nen Tools, emphasizing how dangerous and unpredictable such technology is.
• Control and confinement: The black sphere physically imprisons Bai Zhu, while Camilla’s forces impose control over the hotel and the escaped researchers.
• Competing powers: Milluki, Camilla, Unma, the government, and the Creation Society are all pursuing overlapping objectives, turning the situation into a race for information and valuable subjects.
• Identity and deception: Camilla’s final introduction as “Ella” highlights the chapter’s concern with false identities, hidden motives, and concealed alliances.

Important Character Interactions

• Milluki interrogates the Pope’s head and threatens him into explaining the black sphere’s function.
• Milluki coordinates his Mechanical Insects and communicates with Piyu while attempting to rescue Bai Zhu.
• Camilla’s followers report Bai Zhu and Milluki’s involvement, prompting her to move against them.
• Camilla arrives at Milluki’s hotel with armed guards, creating a direct confrontation that begins when she presents herself under the name “Ella.”

Chapter Summary: “Do You Dare Bet?”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Milluki monitors two things: a black sphere on his terminal and an injured young man crawling through underground pipes.
• Camilla enters his suite and reveals that Milluki has misunderstood the situation. The fleeing man is not merely an escaped experimental subject; he is a defected researcher who stole the “cargo.”
• Reviewing the surveillance footage, Milluki realizes the man’s suspicious behavior—avoiding crowds, listening near the kitchen, and bypassing the giant snakes—supports Camilla’s claim.
• Camilla also hints that Bai Zhu may have been trapped or lost inside the black sphere, a spatial Nen Tool from the Dark Continent. This provokes Milluki into threatening her.
• Milluki unleashes his Mechanical Beetles and physically restrains Camilla. At the same time, he has a sniper aiming at her, intending to trigger her Nen ability if she is killed.
• The sniper is unexpectedly knocked from the roof by an invisible force. Milluki correctly deduces that Camilla’s ability, Million Reincarnation Cat, allows her to revive after killing the person responsible for her death.
• Camilla abandons her attempt to intimidate him and offers cooperation instead.
• She explains that the meat patties were failed experiments containing parasitic Nen Beast embryos, which caused Pix and others to mutate.
• The defected researcher and the supposed experimental subject are working together. Underground, they are using the subject’s body and remaining experimental materials to create a massive testing ground.
• Camilla reveals the true danger: the experimental subject was designed to become a parasitic Nen Beast by absorbing and differentiating flesh from its hosts. If the experiment succeeds, the hosts will become its new body, creating an uncontrollable disaster.

Character Developments

• Milluki demonstrates sharp analytical ability, reassessing surveillance evidence almost instantly once Camilla provides the correct interpretation. He also reveals impressive combat speed, technological control, and strategic planning.
• His reaction to Camilla’s mention of Bai Zhu shows that, despite his claim that he has no feelings for her, he is deeply protective of or concerned about Bai Zhu.
• Milluki’s understanding of Nen develops during the confrontation: by observing Camilla’s aura and the sniper’s death, he infers the function and limitations of her ability.
• Camilla appears confident and manipulative at first, using her knowledge to challenge Milluki. However, his countermeasures expose the limits of her confidence. She adapts quickly, suppresses her fear, and shifts from intimidation to negotiation.
• Camilla’s awakening of Nen is linked to her survival instinct after leaving Sankara Town, suggesting that fear and the desire not to die shaped her power.
• The defected researcher and experimental subject are recontextualized as collaborators rather than simple escapees, implying a deliberate and dangerous plan.

Significant Themes

• Mistrust and hidden motives: Initial assumptions about who is the victim, researcher, or monster are overturned.
• Information as power: Camilla gains leverage through secret knowledge, while Milluki uses surveillance, deduction, and insects to uncover the truth.
• Survival and self-preservation: Camilla’s Nen ability originated from her refusal to die, while the experiment seeks biological survival through parasitic transformation.
• Control versus uncontrollable growth: Milluki attempts to control the situation through technology and strategy, but the experiment threatens to evolve beyond anyone’s control.
• Moral danger of experimentation: The meat patties and parasitic embryos reveal a willingness to use living bodies as disposable experimental material.

Character Interactions

• Milluki and Camilla engage in a tense power struggle, with Camilla invading his space and Milluki physically asserting control.
• Camilla tries to manipulate Milluki by correcting his assumptions and mentioning Bai Zhu, but this instead provokes him into attacking.
• Milluki counters Camilla’s apparent invulnerability by arranging the sniper trap and identifying the mechanism behind her revival ability.
• Their confrontation ends in an uneasy negotiation: Camilla offers crucial information, while Milluki remains suspicious and silent rather than accepting her cooperation outright.

Chapter Summary: Milluki

Key Plot Points and Events

• Camilla attempts to pressure Milluki by warning that the experimental subjects could turn the tourist city into an uncontrollable disaster.
• Milluki reveals his ruthless Zoldyck upbringing, stating that he does not care about the city’s fate and could simply use Rose bombs to eliminate the threat.
• He demands to know whether Camilla can rescue Bai Zhu, interrupting her explanation when she begins outlining her plan.
• To verify Camilla’s claims, Milluki produces the severed but still-living head of the Pope of the Creation Society. The Pope confirms that the “Mother” sphere cannot be opened externally without the “Child” device.
• Camilla admits that she cannot open the sphere directly but intends to use the researcher’s family as leverage, forcing him to emerge, release Bai Zhu, and surrender the experimental subjects. She asks Milluki to help locate the researcher.
• Milluki mocks her reliance on family, implying that her plan is naïve or based on a misunderstanding of the researcher’s motives.
  Meanwhile, inside the black sphere:
• Bai Zhu remains trapped in a realm of complete darkness and sensory deprivation.
• Physical attacks fail, and his Kidō is absorbed or neutralized by the sphere.
• Using the incomplete Soul King’s Pen, he analyzes the structure of the Kidō he already knows instead of attacking blindly.
• He discovers that the pen is not primarily a weapon but a tool for understanding and reconstructing the essence of spiritual power.
• Bai Zhu determines that the sphere functions like an infinitely extensible defensive barrier, similar to Dankū. Its walls expand endlessly in response to impact, nullifying attacks.
• He develops a strategy to overcome the sphere’s infinite extension by identifying and disrupting its “anchor,” beginning a complex new technique.

Character Developments

• Milluki: His seemingly harmless, eccentric image is shattered. He displays the coldness and violence associated with the Zoldyck family, treating mass destruction as a practical solution. However, his impatience and fury reveal that his concern for Bai Zhu is genuine; rescuing him is his immediate priority.
• Camilla: She realizes that she has badly underestimated Milluki and the danger he represents. Though frightened, she manages to reveal the truth about her plan and maintain enough composure to negotiate.
• Bai Zhu: Rather than succumbing to panic, he responds to captivity through careful analysis and experimentation. His understanding of the Soul King’s Pen deepens, and he begins advancing from merely using established techniques toward creating or deriving new forms of Kidō.

Significant Themes

• Hidden identities and underestimated danger: Milluki’s true nature contrasts sharply with the weak, fussy persona he shows around Bai Zhu.
• The value—or disregard—of human life: Milluki’s willingness to destroy an entire city emphasizes the moral extremity of the Zoldyck worldview.
• Knowledge as power: Bai Zhu escapes danger not through brute force but by analyzing the underlying principles of his abilities and surroundings.
• Limits of leverage and emotional bonds: Camilla assumes family can control the researcher, while Milluki’s reaction suggests that such conventional assumptions may not apply.
• Innovation versus convention: The Soul King’s Pen enables Bai Zhu to move beyond memorized Kidō and investigate the fundamental laws behind spiritual power.

Character Interactions

• Milluki and Camilla: Their negotiation becomes an intimidation contest. Milluki dominates the exchange, forcing Camilla to abandon her prepared explanation and disclose the truth.
• Milluki and the Pope: Milluki uses the Pope’s severed head as an interrogative tool, forcing him to confirm the limitations of the Mother sphere.
• Bai Zhu and the Soul King’s Pen: Bai Zhu treats the pen as an analytical key, using it to deconstruct Kidō and the black sphere’s structure.
• Camilla and the unseen researcher: Camilla plans to exploit the researcher’s family, believing emotional attachment will compel him to cooperate, though Milluki clearly doubts this assumption.

Chapter Summary: “Piercing the Clouds”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Camilla confronts Milluki and attempts to pressure him into cooperation by threatening to use his family as leverage. Milluki dismisses her tactic, mocking her and ordering her to leave.
• Camilla’s interruption causes Milluki to lose track of the Creation Society researcher, who escapes through the underground pipe network.
• Shortly afterward, the black sphere sealing Bai Zhu inside begins to rupture from within. Bai Zhu releases an enormous sword of Reiatsu, splitting the sphere and blasting a pillar of silver light through the underground rock and into the sky.
• The spectacular attack destroys the mechanical reconnaissance units and becomes known throughout the Basha Islands as the “Heaven-Dropped Holy Sword.”
• Camilla witnesses the attack from outside the hotel and realizes with relief that the person she confronted was only Milluki, implying that Bai Zhu is far more dangerous.
• Bai Zhu emerges from the underground area unharmed but slightly weakened. He kills the giant serpents trapped by Dankū and returns to the hotel.
• Milluki explains Camilla’s visit and reveals the researcher’s plan: using parasitic Nen Beast technology to turn ordinary people who consume specially made meat patties into hosts or breeding grounds for Nen Beasts.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki decide not to flee. Bai Zhu is motivated by the possibility of obtaining the system’s reward, the “Third Blade Name,” while Milluki is excited by the chance to develop or test another powerful technique.
• They dismiss the possibility of cooperating with Camilla and instead plan to locate the escaped researcher through the captive Pope’s head, whom Bai Zhu identifies as a potential guide.

Character Developments

• Milluki: Displays unexpected psychological toughness, refusing to be intimidated by Camilla’s threats or appeals to family. His priorities remain centered on technology, experimentation, and powerful attacks. He enthusiastically supports Bai Zhu’s decision to continue the investigation once it is presented as an opportunity for technical advancement.
• Bai Zhu: Demonstrates overwhelming combat power through the Reiatsu sword while remaining calm and efficient. He begins reconsidering his usual preference for avoiding danger, choosing to pursue the mission because of the potential reward and the chance to acquire a new blade name. He also shows strategic manipulation by framing the mission in terms that appeal to Milluki.
• Camilla: Suffers a humiliating defeat in her confrontation with Milluki and is shaken by the Reiatsu released from underground. Her fear suggests she now recognizes the danger posed by Bai Zhu and his allies.
• The Pope: Remains helpless and terrified, but his knowledge of the situation makes him valuable. Bai Zhu intends to exploit him as a source of information.

Significant Themes

• Power and intimidation: Camilla’s political threats fail against Milluki’s emotional detachment, while Bai Zhu’s overwhelming strength creates a much more genuine sense of fear.
• Pragmatism versus ambition: Bai Zhu initially prefers avoiding political conflicts, but the promise of greater power convinces him to take the risk. His decision reflects the tension between survival and ambition.
• Manipulation and shared interests: Bai Zhu successfully motivates Milluki by presenting the mission as an opportunity for experimentation rather than merely a dangerous investigation.
• Human exploitation and unethical experimentation: The researcher’s plan to use civilians as Nen Beast incubators highlights the chapter’s horror and moral corruption.
• Legends born from violence: Bai Zhu’s destructive attack is transformed into a local legend, contrasting the terrifying reality of the event with the romanticized public story.

Important Character Interactions

• Milluki and Camilla: Their confrontation establishes Milluki’s refusal to be controlled and Camilla’s inability to pressure him.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki: Their conversation shifts the story from escape to active pursuit. Bai Zhu relies on Milluki’s enthusiasm while carefully withholding the true reason for his interest.
• Bai Zhu and the Pope: The final interaction introduces a new strategy: using the captive Pope to track the escaped researcher.
• Camilla and Bai Zhu: Though they do not meet directly, Camilla’s reaction to Bai Zhu’s attack reveals the growing gap between her understanding of the situation and the true danger involved.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu and Milluki interrogate the mutilated Pope, hoping to use him as a “professional guide” to locate a mysterious Creation Society researcher.
• The Pope panics because he knows almost nothing about the researcher—neither their identity nor appearance—and is too terrified to admit his ignorance. Bai Zhu’s calm presence and Milluki’s aggressive impatience leave him paralyzed with fear.
• Meanwhile, on the Basha Islands, Hisoka grows bored after finding no worthy opponents during Carnival.
• He overhears rumors about a man who violently ate his girlfriend and uses his specialized perception to investigate the incident from afar.
• Hisoka discovers numerous people across the city infected or influenced by a strange, destructive hunger. Although they appear normal outwardly, he senses a dangerous “seed” growing inside them.
• A massive sword-shaped pillar of light suddenly tears through the night sky. Hisoka recognizes it as an unfamiliar and exceptionally powerful energy system, distinct from Nen.
• Excited by the appearance of this new power—and suspecting it may belong to the same intriguing person he encountered in Meteor City—Hisoka disappears into the shadows to hunt down this “little apple.”

Character Developments

• The Pope: His fear and helplessness are emphasized. His body and spirit have been broken by Bai Zhu, leaving him unable to resist, lie, or even speak clearly.
• Bai Zhu: Remains calm and controlled, casually cleaning his Zanpakuto while exerting psychological dominance over the Pope. His quiet expectation is more frightening than overt threats.
• Milluki: Acts as the impatient and openly threatening interrogator, using intimidation to force the Pope to answer.
• Hisoka: His boredom turns into intense excitement after discovering the infected people and sensing the unfamiliar light-based power. His predatory instincts and obsession with finding powerful, unusual opponents become fully engaged.

Significant Themes

• Fear and domination: The Pope’s inability to act demonstrates how completely terror can destroy a person’s will.
• Predation and pursuit: Hisoka views the infected individuals and powerful fighters as “fruit” or “little apples,” reducing people to sources of stimulation and potential combat.
• Hidden danger beneath normality: The infected people appear ordinary but conceal an increasingly destructive force within them.
• Clashing power systems: The sword of light introduces a force fundamentally different from Nen, suggesting a major confrontation between unfamiliar abilities.
• Boredom versus excitement: Hisoka’s emotional world is driven by the search for exceptional stimulation; ordinary people cannot interest him, but unusual power immediately reignites his enthusiasm.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu and the Pope: Bai Zhu’s composed questioning contrasts with the Pope’s terror and silence, showing their extreme power imbalance.
• Milluki and the Pope: Milluki aggressively demands answers, but his threats only deepen the Pope’s panic.
• Hisoka and the infected people: Hisoka observes them remotely as a hunter studying potential prey rather than engaging with them directly.
• Hisoka and the unknown light-wielder: Though they do not meet in the chapter, Hisoka immediately becomes fixated on tracking down the person responsible, likely connecting them to the powerful figure from Meteor City.

Chapter Summary: There Is A Perverted Face Outside The Window, Run!

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hisoka arrives at the site where Bai Zhu’s enormous light sword erupted from the ground. The attack created a massive, seemingly bottomless crater.
• Police are recovering mutilated bodies from the pit, including tourists and locals who had recently gone missing. Numerous enormous snakes were also found cut into pieces.
• While the police interpret the destruction as divine punishment against monsters, Hisoka realizes the attack was likely Bai Zhu’s desperate escape from danger rather than a final victory.
• Hisoka senses that the strange “little fruits” he previously marked remain abnormal and are becoming more agitated, suggesting the supernatural crisis is still ongoing.
• Bai Zhu and Milluki leave their hotel and head toward a commercial district. Bai Zhu repeatedly senses that someone is watching them.
• At a barbecue restaurant, Bai Zhu deliberately sits by the window so he can monitor the street, but his unease intensifies.
• Hisoka suddenly appears with his face pressed against the window, terrifying both Bai Zhu and Milluki. The two recognize him as a dangerous and unsettling pursuer.
• Before they can escape, Hisoka enters the restaurant, casually joins their table, and orders more food based on Milluki’s selections.
• Hisoka reveals that he knows Bai Zhu is investigating the abnormal events and taunts him about being completely unable to understand the situation.

Character Developments

• Hisoka: His fascination with Bai Zhu grows stronger. He views the supernatural events and Bai Zhu’s powers as entertaining opportunities, treating the pursuit like a game. His confidence and unnerving playfulness are emphasized by his casual intrusion into the restaurant.
• Bai Zhu: He becomes increasingly anxious and defensive after realizing Hisoka witnessed his “Heaven-Dropped Holy Sword.” His normally controlled demeanor gives way to panic, and he recognizes that attracting Hisoka’s attention may have created a serious new problem.
• Milluki: He remains focused on food at first, ordering large quantities without concern for the danger. Once he sees Hisoka, however, he shares Bai Zhu’s disgust and fear, becoming equally eager to escape.

Significant Themes

• Danger concealed beneath apparent victory: The police believe the crater represents the destruction of evil, but Hisoka understands that the threat remains active.
• Being watched and hunted: Bai Zhu’s growing awareness of Hisoka creates a tense atmosphere of paranoia, culminating in Hisoka’s disturbing appearance at the window.
• The unpredictability of power: Bai Zhu’s devastating sword attack solved only part of the problem, while simultaneously exposing his abilities to someone dangerous.
• Predatory curiosity: Hisoka is drawn to unusual people and events, treating danger as entertainment and viewing Bai Zhu as an intriguing “toy” or target.

Character Interactions

• Hisoka silently observes the aftermath of Bai Zhu’s attack before deciding to continue searching for him.
• Bai Zhu repeatedly asks Milluki whether he feels watched, but Milluki dismisses the concern and jokes that Bai Zhu may be hallucinating.
• After Hisoka appears outside the restaurant, Bai Zhu and Milluki react with immediate panic and disgust.
• Hisoka deliberately invades their space, sits at their table, orders food, and taunts Bai Zhu about his investigation, establishing psychological control over the encounter.

Chapter Summary: The Perverted Guide

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu initially tries to escape after Hisoka unexpectedly appears, but quickly gives up and returns to his seat at a barbecue restaurant.
• Hisoka explains that he tracked Bai Zhu through instinct, sensing the unusual and powerful energy released when Bai Zhu opened the black sphere.
• Hisoka reveals that he has discovered several people affected by the parasitic Nen Beast embryos. Some have already begun eating humans, while others are only starting to display abnormalities.
• With the previous researcher missing and Bai Zhu’s investigation stalled, Hisoka offers a valuable new lead: an infected person living in an old apartment building.
• Bai Zhu agrees to work with Hisoka, deciding that Hisoka’s straightforward desire for excitement and combat is less troublesome than the complicated political motives surrounding Camilla.
• After finishing their uncomfortable meal, Bai Zhu, Milluki, and Hisoka travel to the apartment.
• Their target is an elderly man in Room 307 who collects small animals and presumably eats them.
• Bai Zhu enters the building alone while Milluki establishes technological support outside, including a mechanical spider capable of interfering with the building’s power and internet.
• Hisoka remains outside, entertaining himself with cards while waiting for the infected “fruit” to fully reveal itself.
• As Bai Zhu approaches Room 307, he detects the stench of blood and decay and hears the disturbing sounds of chewing and bones being crushed.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu: Shows practical judgment and emotional restraint. Though disturbed by Hisoka, he recognizes the value of Hisoka’s information and chooses cooperation over a more politically complicated alliance with Camilla. He also takes command of the investigation by entering the apartment first.
• Hisoka: Demonstrates an uncanny instinct for sensing people affected by the parasitic Nen Beasts. His obsession with powerful or “tasty” individuals remains clear, as does his desire to participate in dangerous situations purely for excitement and entertainment.
• Milluki: Remains deeply uncomfortable and frightened by Hisoka’s predatory attention, especially after Hisoka describes him as a promising “uncut gem.” Nevertheless, he contributes effectively by deploying his technology and supporting Bai Zhu’s operation.
• Camilla: Does not appear directly, but Bai Zhu’s thoughts reveal his growing reluctance to become entangled in her political ambitions and manipulative schemes.

Significant Themes

• Dangerous alliances: Bai Zhu accepts that working with a frightening but predictable individual may be safer than dealing with someone whose goals are politically complex and hidden.
• Predation and corruption: Hisoka’s language of “ripe fruit” and “tasty” people parallels the infected humans’ transformation into predators who consume others.
• Instinct versus investigation: Hisoka’s supernatural intuition provides leads that conventional tracking and research could not, emphasizing the limits of rational methods against the parasitic threat.
• The horror beneath normality: The apartment appears ordinary from the outside, complete with television laughter and warm lighting, while blood, decay, and cannibalistic sounds reveal the grotesque reality inside.
• Power and potential: Hisoka evaluates both Bai Zhu and Milluki according to their latent strength, treating people as possibilities to cultivate, test, or consume.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu confronts Hisoka and demands to know his purpose, establishing a wary but practical relationship.
• Hisoka openly flirts with danger and unnerves both Bai Zhu and Milluki by describing their potential as “tasty.”
• Milluki asks Bai Zhu for protection when Hisoka focuses on him, and Bai Zhu takes some satisfaction in knowing they share the burden of Hisoka’s attention.
• Bai Zhu negotiates Hisoka’s involvement by asking what he can contribute, turning Hisoka’s appetite for excitement into a useful investigative resource.
• Hisoka and Milluki exchange an unsettling but somewhat humorous interaction over the old man’s habit of eating animals.
• Bai Zhu directs the operation, Milluki provides technical backup, and Hisoka waits outside for the confrontation to become more interesting.

Chapter Summary: “The Monster Behind the Door Was a Pile of Shit!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Bai Zhu, Milluki, and Hisoka investigate a deserted apartment building filled with the stench of decay.
• The apartments on the second floor are open and covered in dried blood, suggesting that the entire building’s population has been devoured.
• In Room 307, they discover a grotesque monster made of bubbling, rotten flesh and slime. Its appearance resembles a massive pile of waste rather than a recognizable human body.
• The creature suddenly attacks Bai Zhu, but Hisoka intercepts it by throwing a playing card that slams it back into the room.
• Enraged and disgusted, Bai Zhu attacks the monster with concentrated Reiatsu, repeatedly punching it until it is flattened and weakened.
• He binds it with Bakudō #4, Light Rope, preventing it from escaping.
• Bai Zhu searches the apartment and finds torn furniture, claw marks, blood-covered bedding, empty food storage, and scattered human and possibly animal bones.
• The room contains no communicators, notes, or equipment, confirming that no Creation Society researcher had returned to observe the mutated subject. The investigation’s trail is once again lost.
• The creature has lost all human intelligence and is driven only by hunger and instinct, making it useless as a source of information.
• Milluki suggests burning it with a miniature incendiary bomb, but before Bai Zhu can agree, Hisoka intervenes and insists that they should not dispose of it yet.

Character Developments

• Bai Zhu remains cautious and observant during the investigation, refusing to rush into using his abilities. His disgust and anger intensify after the monster attacks him, leading him to destroy it through overwhelming physical force rather than draw his sword.
• Milluki provides comic relief through his complaints about the smell and his dramatic vomiting. Despite his disgust, he remains willing to help eliminate the creature.
• Hisoka displays his usual fascination with dangerous and abnormal beings. Rather than being repulsed, he views the monster as an exciting “fruit” because of its vitality and potential. His intervention suggests he may see some hidden use in keeping it alive.

Significant Themes

• Dehumanization and failed experimentation: The mutated creature was once likely human but has been reduced to a mindless organism, reflecting the destructive consequences of the Creation Society’s experiments.
• Abuse and neglect: The researcher treated the residents as disposable test subjects, spreading experimental “seeds” without caring about the results or collecting data.
• Horror versus absurdity: The chapter combines grotesque body horror with comedic reactions, particularly Milluki’s vomiting and Bai Zhu’s furious disgust at being attacked by what he regards as a pile of excrement.
• Loss of identity and reason: The monster’s inability to understand speech demonstrates that its humanity has been completely erased by mutation and instinct.
• Unresolved investigation: The lack of evidence leaves Bai Zhu’s group without a lead, while Hisoka’s refusal to destroy the creature hints that the encounter may still reveal something important.

Character Interactions

• Bai Zhu leads the group and investigates the apartment, while Milluki follows reluctantly and complains about the conditions.
• Hisoka hangs back, observing the situation with amusement and anticipation.
• Hisoka saves Bai Zhu from the monster’s initial attack with a playing card, teasing him afterward.
• Bai Zhu ignores Hisoka’s teasing and responds by brutally beating and restraining the creature.
• Milluki and Bai Zhu agree that the monster is useless and should be destroyed, but Hisoka interrupts and claims it should be preserved for further examination or entertainment.

Chapter Summary: “Paper Man!”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Hisoka suspects the monster in Room 307 could not have produced the enormous amount of blood and bones found inside, even if it had consumed everyone in the building.
• He identifies a sealed, damaged load-bearing wall as the likely hiding place of a more dangerous “main course.”
• Bai Zhu investigates the wall but finds no hollow space or detectable energy, initially making Hisoka seem mistaken.
• Hisoka throws three playing cards into cracks in the wall, revealing hidden blood and provoking a terrifying scream from within.
• Bai Zhu destroys the wall with a powerful sword strike, exposing a massive opening.
• A tall, crimson, nearly two-dimensional creature crawls out. It is essentially a living paper-thin cutout made of exposed muscle and veins.
• Bai Zhu realizes this creature was the same experiment that escaped detection at the villa earlier. Its lack of thickness allowed it to hide in tiny cracks and gaps.
• The creature avoids combat, slipping through a narrow crack and disappearing underground before Milluki can mark or track it.
• The group is frustrated that the experiment escaped, but Bai Zhu notes that they at least discovered its identity and unusual nature.

Character Developments

• Hisoka demonstrates his sharp observational skills and instinct for uncovering hidden threats. His excitement rises when he senses a stronger creature nearby, but his interest quickly fades when the paper-like experiment refuses to fight.
• Bai Zhu remains cautious and practical, testing Hisoka’s theory before acting. Once the creature appears, he reacts immediately and attacks decisively, then calmly accepts that it escaped.
• Milluki is shown as capable of tracking but unable to react quickly enough to mark the sudden-moving creature. His disappointment reflects the team’s overall frustration.

Significant Themes

• Hidden danger and misdirection: The obvious monster in the room is only a lesser threat, while the true danger is concealed behind an apparently solid wall.
• Adaptation and unnatural biology: The experiment’s paper-thin body allows it to exploit spaces humans cannot perceive, making ordinary investigation nearly useless.
• Limits of control: Despite discovering the creature, the group cannot capture it because of its speed and unique escape method.
• Curiosity versus combat: Hisoka is attracted to powerful, unusual opponents, but loses interest when the creature shows no desire to fight.

Character Interactions

• Hisoka challenges Bai Zhu’s assumptions by pointing out the mismatch between the monster’s size and the evidence in the room.
• Bai Zhu initially doubts Hisoka but investigates the wall and ultimately confirms his suspicion through direct action.
• Hisoka’s card attack exposes the hidden creature, while Bai Zhu’s sword strike creates the opening through which it escapes.
• Bai Zhu calls on Milluki to confirm whether the creature was marked, but Milluki admits he was caught off guard.
• The chapter ends with Milluki lamenting their failure to capture the experiment, while Bai Zhu reframes the encounter as a partial success because they have identified what they are pursuing.

Plot points

• Bai Zhu, Milluki, and Hisoka discover that the escaped target is a paper-thin person who can slip through narrow spaces. The Creation Society had used him to distribute the infection’s “seeds.”
• Rather than kill every newly infected person immediately, Bai Zhu decides to watch them. He hopes to learn whether the seeds gather naturally or the paper person returns to collect them. Milluki deploys Mechanical Ants to track the infected.
• The group finds a couple whose bodies and blood are merging into a single, aggressive monster. Hisoka insists on fighting it himself and kills it with his Nen-enhanced playing cards.
• After spending the night clearing the locations Hisoka had identified, the exhausted group prepares to return to their hotel. Hisoka then senses that infected people have appeared across nearly the entire city—and that their numbers are rapidly increasing.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Zhu remains practical and analytical: he treats the night’s failures as useful information and shifts from simple extermination to surveillance in hopes of finding the infection’s source.
• Milluki is frustrated by the escaped target and horrified by the grotesque monsters, but follows Bai Zhu’s plan and supports the investigation.
• Hisoka acts as both an unsettling guide and a dangerous ally. He enjoys the violence and claims the fused monster as his opponent, but his sudden confusion at the expanding outbreak signals that the situation has become unpredictable.
• The trio work effectively together—Bai Zhu leads the strategy, Milluki handles tracking and cleanup, and Hisoka locates targets—though Hisoka’s delight in the carnage unnerves the others.

Significant themes

• Knowledge as a form of progress: Even when the target escapes, learning what he is and how the infection operates may help the investigation.
• Escalation and loss of control: The infection evolves from isolated cases into rapid, citywide spread.
• Monstrous transformation: The infected couple’s fusion makes the outbreak’s effects both bodily and relationally horrific.
• Uneasy cooperation: The group benefits from Hisoka’s abilities, while his appetite for violence makes him a disturbing companion.