At the very top of the spectator stands, in a patch of shadow forgotten by the lights.
Hisoka neither gasped like the others nor cheered or wailed like the gamblers.
He fell into a deathly silence.
The face that always wore an amused smile was utterly expressionless now.
His narrow eyes tightened slightly, his gaze as sharp as a freshly honed scalpel, fixed on the white-clad figure slowly descending from the ring.
The deck of playing cards that never left his hands ceased its dazzling shuffles and cuts.
He clamped them tightly in his palm, his knuckles deathly pale from the pressure, even producing a faint sound of bones grinding together.
He was trembling.
Not from fear, nor from anger.
It was an emotion mingling extreme excitement, boundless greed, and bewilderment unlike anything he had ever felt.
That shudder rose from the depths of his soul and climbed his spine, leaving him barely able to stand.
He was forcibly holding himself back.
Suppressing the primal urge that threatened to burst through his reason-
To rush down to the ring right now, tear that white-clad young man apart, savor him, and claim him for himself.
"Hold back..."
His Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty.
"Hold back... eating him now would be such a waste..."
His mind worked like a cold, precision instrument, breaking down and dissecting the scene he had just witnessed frame by frame.
Under Gyo, nothing could hide.
That streak of reddish-gold light was not Nen.
Hisoka was one hundred percent certain.
Because it possessed none of Nen's characteristics.
It was not enveloped in Shu.
An ordinary Nen projectile, whether produced through Emission or Manipulation, would inevitably have a layer of flowing aura over its surface. That was the foundation that maintained its shape and power.
But this golden light