"Little girl, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
The flight attendant had barely voiced her concern.
Pakunoda, sitting to A Luo's left, answered for her:
"It's nothing. My daughter stole her cousin's ice cream and got a bit of a stomachache. Her father's comforting her."
The attendant turned to look.
Chrollo, who looked like a college student, was leaning down and speaking softly into the little girl's ear.
Whatever he was saying, their voices were too quiet for her to make out a word.
Then she looked back at the woman claiming to be the mother, dressed in a sexy, low-cut business outfit and radiating the air of a mature, powerful career woman.
Were these two really a couple?
No matter how she looked at them, the age gap seemed rather large.
Uh...
Never mind. That was the passengers' private business. She had better not pry.
The attendant's mouth twitched as she offered Pakunoda a compliment:
"Ma'am, your husband looks so young!"
Pakunoda gave her a polite smile without answering, and the attendant turned and left.
Only the weak, helpless Lola remained in her seat, continuing to endure Feitan's punishment.
Watching the attendant walk away, A Luo couldn't help singing inwardly:
"Come back soon, I can't take this alone..."
After six long hours in the sky.
The airship finally reached its destination: Heavens Arena.
Looking at the building towering into the clouds in the distance, A Luo couldn't help feeling wistful.
This arena, where she had suffered so much after crossing into this world, somehow held so many unforgettable memories when she thought back on it now: Killua, the first friend she had made in this world, her sharp-tongued but softhearted dad, and her mom, whose whereabouts were now unknown.
Looking back, whether it was the matches or the special training her dad had forced her through, the life she had once complained about was now one she could only dream of, with no way to return to it.
Chrollo frowned at the sadness on the little girl's face. He was about to speak when Feitan, sitting behind them, beat him to it:
"Little cook, what's with that look?"
Remembering what he had just done to her, with every muscle still aching, A Luo naturally had no patience for him:
"I remembered my family and got a little sad. Is that not allowed?"
Feitan looked utterly indifferent:
"Family? What's that?"
A Luo was about to get angry, but then she remembered these Spiders' pasts. Her anger suddenly faded, and she tried to explain:
"Family are the people who hurt when you're hurt, who are willing to risk their lives to protect you when you're in danger."
But after saying that, A Luo looked up and realized that not one of the four Spiders around her understood the concept of family.
Much less could any of them understand how she felt about losing hers.
At that moment, A Luo once again understood just how utterly different these people were from her.
"You cold-blooded bastards. You'll never have feelings like that in your entire lives, so you'll never know just how important the things you've lost really are."
Chrollo lowered his head. Whatever had come to mind, a trace of sorrow surfaced in his eyes.
"No! We have things we cherish too."
A Luo froze.
Chrollo stared at his palm, as though he had returned to the distant past. It seemed he had used this very hand to open that horrific bag hanging from the tree.
"A Luo, perhaps you can't understand. But we swore long ago that, to achieve our goals, we would pay any price and walk this path of villainy for the rest of our lives."
"But if you ask what exactly we cherish, I can't really say. Ourselves? No, that's not right! The Phantom Troupe as a whole? Or those poor companions of ours, or something else? I don't know..."
Chrollo's sudden, seemingly mad rambling left Lola staring in disbelief.
What on earth was he saying? What did any of it mean?
Feitan gave a disdainful "tch" and snapped straight at A Luo:
"Family, my ass. I don't have any, and I don't want any. But, you weakling little cook, if family are all weaklings like you, I'm honestly glad I don't have those ties holding me back."
Chrollo came back to himself, as though he hadn't been the one spouting that nonsense a moment ago, and abruptly shifted the subject back to A Luo:
"I see. So these are the things you care about most, A Luo? It looks like coming here really was the right choice. But as far as I know, Fan'en Reno is already dead, so we'll have to find your mother instead. What was her name again? Shalnark mentioned it once. Malena, I think?"
"Little Lola, if we find Malena and use her to threaten you, will you be willing to tell us everything you've been hiding?"
Lola instantly went on high alert, bristling like a kitten as she warned them sharply:
"Don't you dare!"
Chrollo blinked:
"A Luo, do you think we wouldn't dare?"
Seeing that the Spiders had found her weak spot, A Luo was utterly enraged. Fierce anger flooded her mind.
At the same time, the Nen Ability throughout her body surged with her anger, instantly gathering into a single point before making the little girl shudder as though it had exploded.
The next second, her eyes blood-red, A Luo began muttering almost manically:
"If you dare, I'll kill you. I'll definitely kill you! If you dare touch Mom, I'll hunt you Spiders down, one by one. I'll kill every last one of you... not a single one left. I'll really kill-every-last-one!!"
As A Luo murmured those words, ominous dark purplish-red Nen spread from between her hands toward the Spiders.
As the saying went, you took on the colors of the company you kept.
After spending so long with the Spiders, even Lola herself hadn't noticed.
Just how much she had changed compared with a few months ago.
The little girl who had once been afraid to strike hard even in a match could now not only battle wits and wills with the Spiders, but even dare to threaten to kill them.
Yet Chrollo and Feitan visibly grew excited at the little cook's words.
Chrollo said, "A Luo, this is the real you, isn't it?"
Feitan said, "A Luo, your Nen is such a beautiful color!"
Feitan in particular watched A Luo's Nen with keen interest, his expression positively eager.
I really want to test how much this little thing has grown in such a short time!
What neither of them had expected, however, was that Chrollo's words would instantly bring A Luo back to her senses.
The little girl had realized that everything just now had merely been Chrollo probing her. He had deliberately brought up Malena to enrage her, trying to make her reveal her true thoughts and strength!
A Luo: "..."
After staring blankly for a moment, A Luo hastily withdrew her pitiful little bit of Nen, lowered her head, and smiled meekly:
"My dear boss, could your esteemed self please stop teasing a little kid like me all the time? And Feitan, what are you trying to do? Your Nen's showing. That's way too scary, okay?"
Chrollo watched, entranced, as the dark purplish-red color flashed across A Luo's palm and vanished. Then he smiled faintly:
"A Luo, the things you say and do really do keep taking people by surprise!"
A Luo could only play dumb and laugh it off, taking the opportunity to change the subject and ask about something else.
"Boss, what exactly are we here at Heavens Arena to do?"
Before you continue