Fight!

Deep in the jungle.

A clearing washed silver-gray by moonlight.

A one-sided slaughter.

An unlucky examinee was stuck to a tree trunk.

Pink, translucent Nen clung to him like glue.

His limbs were stretched to their limits.

Incoherent pleas spilled from his mouth.

His hunter was Hisoka.

The clown magician with a teardrop and a star painted on his face.

He spread his arms, admiring his handiwork with a twisted smile of sick pleasure.

The cries of prey before its life ended.

They were the sweetest music.

To him.

This was no battle, merely a dull appetizer.

Just as he prepared to end this uninteresting life with a playing card.

A languid voice suddenly rang out through the woods.

"Hey, Mr. Clown."

"Don't you think picking on the weak for fun is a little beneath you?"

The voice wasn't loud.

Yet it landed squarely in this stagnant pool.

Hisoka stopped.

He turned his head, annoyance at the interruption flashing through his blood-red eyes.

A black-haired boy.

A blade of grass between his lips, both hands in his pockets.

He stepped out of the shadows behind a tree.

It was Luo Ye.

The strange boy who had carried the scent of unripe fruit when Hisoka first met him during the Hunter Exam.

Hisoka's pupils contracted.

He had come.

He had actually sought him out.

The annoyance on his face gave way to even fiercer excitement.

He extended his long tongue and licked his lips.

With a casual wave, he withdrew the pink Nen clinging to the unlucky examinee.

The examinee slid down the tree, scrambling away into the darkness.

Hisoka couldn't have cared less about that number badge.

Because a green fruit that interested him far more had delivered itself to his doorstep.

"Oh? If it isn't little Luo Ye. ♦"

Hisoka's voice had a cloying quality.

"Coming to find me yourself... does that mean you're ready for me to pluck you and eat you up? ♥"

"More or less."

Luo Ye stopped opposite him, looking perfectly relaxed.

"I have a friend who's a little shy. He's taken a fancy to your number badge, but he's too embarrassed to come get it himself."

Luo Ye pointed a thumb at himself.

"So I'll keep you busy while he takes it. See? Isn't this plan simple, straightforward, and full of the beauty of human kindness?"

That foolish declaration twisted Hisoka's smile completely out of shape.

Ecstasy.

How entertaining.

This was simply too entertaining.

The boy had not only delivered himself to a predator, but laid out his entire battle plan.

Confidence.

Or ignorance.

Either one made Hisoka's blood surge.

"Mmm-hmm-hmm-hmm~ ♥"

Hisoka let out a sick laugh, and his aura began to stir.

"A delicious fruit delivering itself to me, and bringing another little fruit hiding in the shadows... I'm so excited I can barely contain myself. ♣"

"Then, before I savor you both, let me see..."

"Just how ripe you are, little fruit that jumped onto my plate."

Before he had finished speaking.

Whoosh.

A playing card, its edge gleaming coldly with Nen, sliced through the air straight toward the space between Luo Ye's brows.

Fast.

Impossibly fast.

In the distant grass, Gon and Killua's hearts both skipped a beat.

Here it came.

The battle had begun.

That cold glint reflected in Killua's eyes as his mind slipped into a killer's cool analysis.

So fast.

The speed and power of this strike were leagues beyond what he'd shown in the Numere Wetlands.

How would Luo Ye dodge it?

Yet Luo Ye's response to this deadly strike defied everyone's expectations.

He didn't dodge.

He didn't even raise a hand to block.

He merely tilted his head casually just before the card touched his skin.

As though accommodating where the attack would land.

Shhk-

The razor-sharp card skimmed his cheek, taking a few strands of hair with it.

With a thunk, it buried itself halfway into the huge tree behind him, whose trunk would take two people to encircle.

A drop of blood seeped from Luo Ye's cheek.

The cut was shallow, but stark beneath the moonlight.

"That's it?"

Luo Ye slowly wiped away the blood with a finger, then put it in his mouth and smacked his lips.

He looked up at Hisoka, his expression lazy and disappointed.

"That was a little weaker than last time, Mr. Hisoka. Haven't you eaten? Or are you getting old enough that your hands are starting to shake?"

Provocation.

For the first time, Hisoka's pupils contracted.

The smile vanished from his face.

In its place came a seriousness mingled with disbelief and feverish excitement.

He knew exactly how much force he had put into that strike.

Even if his opponent dodged it, he should have been left scrambling.

Yet this boy had not only kept it from his vitals, but deliberately met it with his face.

It was as though that lethal weapon had been nothing more than a breeze.

This boy was completely different from when they last met.

His body, his reactions, his courage-all were growing at an astonishing rate.

No, evolving.

"Interesting."

"How interesting... so very interesting. ♦"

Hisoka's eyes blazed like roaring flames.

The Nen surrounding him erupted.

Pink Nen enveloped his entire body, boiling.

"Come on, little Luo Ye. ♠"

Hisoka's smile returned, no longer mocking, but filled with anticipation for a supreme feast.

"Let me see just how much you can surprise me."

Humm-

A strand of pink Nen shot from his fingertips, stretching into a long thread through the air and sticking to Luo Ye's shoulder at incredible speed.

Bungee Gum.

Feeling the gummy sensation on his shoulder, Luo Ye's smile brightened too.

The real fun was only just beginning.

"That's more like it."

Luo Ye growled and, rather than retreating, stepped forward.

But the instant his foot touched down, an immense pulling force surged through the Nen thread.

Hisoka yanked backward.

Luo Ye instantly lost his balance and was hauled into the air.

"Let's start with an appetizer! ♥"

Laughing wildly, Hisoka nimbly sidestepped just before Luo Ye crashed into him, then flicked his wrist and gave another vicious tug.

Bam.

Luo Ye's body traced an arc through the air and slammed into a nearby tree.

The violent impact shook the entire tree, sending leaves raining down.

"Mm!"

Gon cried out in the grass, but Killua swiftly clamped a hand over his mouth.

Killua's expression was grave.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Hisoka stood where he was, waving both hands.

The Nen thread attached to Luo Ye lengthened and shortened in turn.

Luo Ye's body became a tool of destruction, slammed again and again into the ground, rocks, and tree trunks from every vicious angle.

The dull impacts rang out one after another, making Gon's heart pound with fear.

Each sound struck him right in the heart.

"Luo Ye." He gripped his fishing rod, his knuckles white.

"Don't rush in! Trust him!"

Killua hissed, his eyes fixed on the battlefield.

Though Luo Ye looked miserable, Killua sensed something was off.

Luo Ye's cries of pain were far too halfhearted.

They sounded less like groans of agony and more like the burps of someone who had eaten his fill.

At the center of the battlefield.

Ooh, nice force. That hit packed about three hundred kilograms-just right for training my spine to withstand pressure.

Ow, that's a good angle. Right on my shoulder blade. Feels like my bone density went up a little again.

Luo Ye's body was flung back and forth in midair, but his mind was analyzing everything at lightning speed.

His Combat Adaptive Evolution ability was working at full speed.

The agonizing pain of each impact stimulated his cells to restructure and strengthen.

His muscle fibers grew tougher, his bone density increasing under the impacts.

His body was rapidly adapting to these utterly unpredictable forces.

Hisoka also heard that something was wrong.

At first, he could still hear the dull thuds of bone striking hard objects.

But gradually, the sound changed.

From a thump to a clang, then to a clank.

From smashing a lump of flesh to smashing a rock, and finally, a piece of thoroughly tempered steel.

Far from having his bones broken and tendons torn, the boy seemed to grow harder with every slam.

"This little game has been fun, but it's time to end it."

Just as Hisoka hurled Luo Ye toward a huge boulder once more, Luo Ye suddenly spoke in midair.

His voice was clear and steady.

"Now it's my turn."

A second before his body struck the rock, Luo Ye forcefully twisted his torso, wrenching himself into a new position in midair.

He planted both feet against the rock and pushed off, using the recoil and the pull of Hisoka's retracting threads to launch himself back at Hisoka.

Too fast.

Even Hisoka was startled by the sudden reversal.

"Die."

Luo Ye's right fist, wrapped in densely concentrated Nen aura, traced a straight line through the air toward Hisoka's face.

This punch was his counterattack, born from analyzing and converting all the force he had just endured.

Hisoka's pupils contracted, and he instinctively raised his left arm to block.

Boom.

Fist met forearm with a muffled crash.

The ground beneath Hisoka's feet cracked instantly.

The tremendous force drove him backward several meters, leaving two deep furrows in the earth.

For a moment, the jungle fell deathly silent.

In the distance, Killua's jaw dropped.

"H-he hit him? He actually drove Hisoka back head-on?"

Gon's eyes, too, were filled with shock and elation.

Luo Ye's plan had worked.

He had really held Hisoka off.

Hisoka lowered his left arm.

It tingled slightly.

He looked at the unscathed boy across from him, and for the first time, the pleasure on his face turned into frenzy.

This toy.

This toy actually bites.

And its bite hurts so much.

"Ahhh..."

An uncontrollable tremor escaped Hisoka's throat, his excitement reaching its peak.

"Wonderful, absolutely wonderful! Luo Ye! You really are the best toy! ♠"

His Nen aura erupted without restraint.

Pink aura blazed skyward, staining the surrounding air with an eerie hue.

He no longer treated this as a game.

This was a real fight, one into which he would pour every ounce of his enthusiasm.

"Now, it's time for the main course."

Hisoka suddenly vanished from where he stood.

A second later, he appeared behind Luo Ye, a playing card gleaming coldly as it swept silently toward Luo Ye's neck.

But without even turning his head, Luo Ye threw a punch behind him, aiming precisely at Hisoka's face.

Both changed their moves at the same time, fist and card crossing in midair so quickly that only a string of afterimages remained.

The battle had reached a fever pitch.

And the hunter lurking in the shadows had finally found the perfect moment to draw his bow.