Mist × Victory!

With only her hands still able to move freely, Carl swallowed the humiliation of having to crawl like a maggot and dragged herself over to the pistol that had been knocked away.

The moment she picked it up, she turned and saw Dio tackle Prince Mumuzawa to the floor.

The [Bullet Hole] she had sent out exploded behind Dio with a deafening gunshot!

Good. Unless you're an [Enhancement] user, you're not getting up from that!

Carl cheered inwardly. She had never expected the young man's bullet to pack such a punch.

It had nearly crippled her right hand outright. If her ability hadn't happened to be active at the time, she would almost have been taken out in their very first exchange.

But now, she had returned every bit of that power!

All she had to do next was meet that girl's eyes, then let [Bullet Hole] chase her down, and her mission would be complete.

Gritting her teeth, she raised her torso and aimed the pistol at her heart with her left hand.

Her eyes fixed on the two who had just fallen as she counted the bullets in the pistol.

Nine bullets. Even if a few shots miss, that'll be enough...

Carl had already sentenced the two before her to death. The tall young man was actually quite strong, but unfortunately for him, he had another, ordinary person to protect.

She wondered who that girl was to make the young man go to such lengths to protect her.

It reminded her of her own youth, when she, too, had been a hot-blooded Hunter...

As her mind wandered, she suddenly saw a wisp of white mist drift past her eyes.

Huh!?

"Mist? This is the second floor of a restaurant!"

Carl recognized the strangeness almost instantly and hurriedly turned to look around.

Only then did she realize that white mist had filled the second floor without her noticing-and it was growing thicker by the moment!

"Where did this mist come from... could it be..."

Realizing something, Carl hastily turned toward where the two had fallen.

Sure enough, there was no one there anymore.

"Damn it, when did they..."

Carl cursed inwardly and hurriedly returned her attention to the fight.

Did that young man make this mist? If not, who did?

If he did, what's he trying to do?

Block my sight?

Even after my [String-Puppet Black Hole] wounded him, did he still have enough left in him to spot my ability's weakness...?

Carl's spirits plummeted from heaven to hell. The situation had been overwhelmingly in her favor just moments ago, only to take a sudden turn for the worse.

As the mist thickened, her surroundings grew indistinct. Carl knew she couldn't hesitate any longer.

She immediately pulled the trigger, firing nine shots into herself!

Bang! ×9

Nine pitch-black [Bullet Holes] appeared on Carl's chest.

As Carl shifted her gaze, the nine [Bullet Holes] scattered around her without any formation, like a pack of stray dogs heading out for a stroll.

Some lay on the floor, some crawled up the walls, and some even climbed into thin air, becoming black holes suspended in midair!

In the end, though, they circled around Carl like debris floating in space.

"Now, even if you try to ambush me under cover of the mist, you won't stand a chance."

Carl tossed aside the empty pistol and watched her surroundings warily, guarding against the slightest movement.

At this range, as long as that young man dared enter her field of vision, she could order all nine [Bullet Holes] to attack him at once.

One Bullet Hole might have trouble threatening a Nen user, but with nine stacked together, she could blast apart even an [Enhancement] user's heart!

Yet as the seconds ticked by, no one charged out.

The pressure weighing on Carl only grew with time. She felt as though countless eyes were watching her from within the mist.

A sudden thought brought a bead of cold sweat trickling down her skin-

Don't tell me they ran away!

The thought instantly made Carl panic. With the mist blocking her vision, she had no way to pursue them.

Calm down, calm down! The gunfire downstairs hasn't stopped, so they might not have escaped yet!

But once it stops, they'll definitely try to leave... damn it, isn't there any way to clear this mist?

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Carl as she remembered something-

She immediately dropped flat and crawled in the direction she recalled.

That thing... if I can just find it, this mist won't be a threat!

Before long, her hand touched a wall. She hurriedly looked up-

There on the wall sat the room's ventilation switch.

The room had four exhaust fans, all controlled by this master switch. Once switched on, they could completely replace the air in the room in just a few dozen seconds.

The mist would be sucked out along with it. Whoever had activated this ability couldn't possibly keep producing mist without pause.

The moment they were exposed would be the moment they died!

Rumble-

The exhaust fans roared. Fresh air was continually pumped in from outside while the air and mist inside were drawn out.

As the mist gradually dispersed, Carl's eyes widened. Looking around, she found no sign of her enemies!

"They really did run downstairs!"

Frantic, she hurriedly crawled toward the stairwell-

"That's what you thought I'd think, isn't it? Young man on the ceiling!"

Carl abruptly stopped. The panic vanished from her face, replaced by a faint smile.

On the ceiling above her was Dio, clinging firmly to its surface with Ripple and poised to strike, with Mumuzawa held in his arms, her eyes closed!

She looked up into Dio's cold eyes, a smile curling across her face.

"The automatic door makes a sound whenever someone leaves. I never heard it open!"

Carl spoke leisurely as the [Bullet Holes] beside her swarmed toward Dio like a hive of bees!

Carl's Bullet Holes had two operating modes: fixed-point navigation and automatic tracking.

Only automatic tracking required eye contact. Fixed-point navigation did not.

Earlier, she had noticed that although the girl had closed her eyes, she had remained standing in place, so Carl had simply set the [Bullet Hole]'s destination directly in front of her.

Now, she switched to automatic tracking. Her target was, of course, the most

dangerous person before her, and the only one with whom she had made eye contact: Dio!

Automatic tracking was slower than fixed-point navigation, since it had to calculate a trajectory. Moreover, the farther a Bullet Hole traveled from Carl, the slower it became.

But that didn't matter. Her opponent was still carrying a burden. In terms of speed, her Bullet Holes would definitely catch up!

Seeing the enemy's attack approach, Dio pushed off, using [Ripple]'s repulsive force to leap from the ceiling to a nearby wall, narrowly avoiding the [Bullet Holes] lunging at him from close range!

But the next wave of attacks swiftly changed direction, forcing him to leap away again.

Dio leaped back and forth between the air and the floor. Though he was carrying Mumuzawa, Ripple's repulsive force let him narrowly evade the pursuing [Bullet Holes] each time.

Carl, however, was in no hurry at all.

The enemy before her might be fast, but his stamina couldn't be endless, whereas her [Bullet Holes] could keep chasing him forever!

She was already in an unbeatable position!

Meanwhile, Dio's thoughts raced:

This time, the [Bullet Holes] can only attack me!

That gives me an opening!

I'll put Mumuzawa down first...

Dio flipped over and used [Ripple] to stick Mumuzawa to the ceiling. At the same time, he pushed off hard toward where Carl lay, shooting forward like a cannonball!

As long as he killed the ability user, all these [Bullet Holes] would disappear.

Just as Dio had expected, every Bullet Hole chased after his back!

Facing Dio's terrifying charge, Carl remained unruffled.

At the Bullet Holes' speed, they would surely pierce his body before Dio reached her!

And if he tried to shoot her, her ability was still active!

As Dio closed to an extremely dangerous distance, the Bullet Holes pursuing him crawled onto his back one after another, then overlapped into a single hole.

Sensing it all, Carl was ecstatic:

I've won! He can't block this! With the combined power of nine bullets, he'll be a corpse before he hits the ground!

9×! Bang!

Nine perfectly synchronized gunshots rang out as one.

Yet in the next instant, Dio was already standing before Carl, looking down at her without expression.

His gaze was that of someone looking at a corpse.

What!?

Carl suddenly felt a chill in her chest. Bewildered, she looked down-

A black coat had somehow been draped over her chest. There was a round hole in it, through which she could see scarlet flesh and the floor on the other side of her body.

Thud.

Carl's corpse collapsed like a sack.

Even as she died, she couldn't understand when that black garment had been laid over her.