I have a doctor's note

"You don't seem like a bad person. Neither the bees nor the horse beneath us feels any aversion toward you."

Joey wasn't sure whether Ponzu had heard his earlier muttering, but shortly after he finished speaking, she suddenly whispered into his ear.

Her warm breath brushed his earlobe, making him shiver despite himself. His downward-slanting eyebrows drew together, and he shifted slightly.

"I told you, I'm just an ordinary office worker who longs for a quiet life. I was forced to join the organization. After all, I grew up in NGL. Where else could I go?"

Joey seemed to be explaining himself to Ponzu, though he made no particular effort to lower his voice.

"Then you're certainly dedicated to your job!" Killua suddenly chimed in from beside them.

"Dedicated? I just want to avoid drawing attention without letting people look down on me."

Joey gave a rather conflicted answer. He imagined Yoshikage Kira must have thought and acted the same way!

Of course, if Yoshikage Kira could have ditched his rotten habit of keeping a hand, Joey would have been even more grateful. He would even have dedicated a song to him: "Let me say thank you, because of you..."

"That's pretty contradictory, but it sounds like you really did do well in the organization."

Killua didn't have much of a sense of justice or anything like that. He came from a family of assassins and had been exposed to all kinds of darkness in the world since childhood. He had seen far too many scumbags.

After all, there were absolute scumbags in his own family. Growing up around them had made him sensitive to the scent they gave off.

He had caught that scent of a scumbag-or rather, a pervert-on Joey.

He was certain there was something wrong with Joey, and their brief conversation had now confirmed it. "You're definitely not normal!"

"No, I'm perfectly normal. I get regular health checkups, and the results say I'm normal. The doctor said there was nothing wrong with me, too."

Joey smiled, a rare sight, while once again sealing all his Nen inside his body.

"Then you probably went to a quack. If I get the chance, I can introduce you to a good doctor, though he won't like you." The corner of Killua's mouth lifted.

"Thank you, but I firmly believe I'm normal," Joey replied politely.

"You're at your least normal when you're telling people you're normal!" Ponzu had heard their entire conversation and couldn't help rolling her eyes.

"Even you think I'm not normal? That's really heartbreaking." Joey's downward-slanting eyebrows relaxed, and he smiled with narrowed eyes.

He didn't know whether he was normal himself, but he knew Yoshikage Kira had already been examined by a doctor and declared normal.

"I have a boyfriend, you know!"

Ponzu pulled back the little hands wrapped around Joey's waist and gave him a light pinch.

Joey didn't mind. "Haven't you heard the saying? No relationship is unbreakable if you know how to steal someone's heart."

"If you say one more word, I won't mind putting a Red Bow shot into you to shut you up for good," Pokkle cut in.

"Hahaha..."

"Your aura's unsettled. If you can't maintain Zetsu for ten minutes next time, I won't mind shutting your mouth for Pokkle."

Kite's icy words brought their entire off-topic conversation to an end. Still, quite a few people in the group couldn't help snickering at Joey being put in his place.

Joey's laughter cut off abruptly, but his Nen had already returned to a state of Ten.

As for stealing someone's girlfriend, he was only joking. Ponzu wasn't his type.

Still, their banter had dispelled much of the heavy, oppressive atmosphere that had hung over the group.

The horses were moving at a decent pace, and by the time darkness had fully fallen, they had already reached the vicinity of the border.

Joey spotted the two enormous trees in the distance from far away.

If he had to describe their size, Joey would have said that standing beneath them, he would probably be like a caterpillar, looking up at a single leaf he could never finish eating in his lifetime.

Perhaps only on the day he emerged from his cocoon as a butterfly would he be able to glimpse a fraction of the tree's form.

They were simply too tall and immense. A hundred years, a thousand-Joey had no idea how long it would take a tree to grow into such a towering giant.

Even seeing them only from a distance left Joey deeply awestruck.

Without thinking, he took his phone from inside his clothes and aimed it at the towering trees in the moonlight, taking a series of blurry photos.

These damn pixels are absolute garbage!

Joey felt an urge to smash his phone. Instead, he casually snapped pictures of Ponzu and Gon snickering beside him, though when he turned to Killua, all he captured was a blur.

Joey didn't mind, though, and casually took a selfie as well.

But the journey had long since left Joey filthy and disheveled. After fleeing drenched in sweat, it would have been strange if he looked good.

Still, the photo showed that the boy had excellent features. With a little grooming, he would definitely be handsome.

His short black hair and sharply defined features, especially those distinctive downward-slanting eyebrows, gave him an exceptionally expressive look.

On top of that, he was already nearly six feet tall at fifteen or sixteen, with a well-proportioned frame and firm muscles. He looked dependable.

Joey himself was quite satisfied with his current appearance.

"Let's go."

While Joey had jumped off his horse and busied himself taking photos and admiring his own looks, Kite had also stopped the group and finished giving Deena instructions on what to do next.

The trip from the village had taken just over three hours, and by now, it was completely dark.

The phone showed ten minutes to eight.

After more than three hours of training, Joey had essentially grasped the basics of using Zetsu.

Leaving aside geniuses like Gon and Killua, who had honed methods of concealing their presence since childhood, his progress could be considered astonishingly fast.

Of course, since he had only just learned it, Joey still couldn't keep his entire body in a state of Zetsu for long.

But his original purpose in practicing Zetsu was to conserve more stamina during the run ahead and recover it faster.

So as long as he kept his upper body in Zetsu and maintained the flow of Ten around his legs, he could achieve a decent burst of speed while saving some Nen that would otherwise be wasted.

Joey didn't know exactly how long he could sustain that state, but on the way here, he had already managed to maintain full-body Zetsu for over half an hour.

Then, after exchanging glances, they all burst into motion, racing back the way they had come.

The bewildered monitors had been about to ask why Kite and the others had stopped.

But when they saw the four of them burst away faster than the horses, both their eyes widened.

At that moment, Deena looked at the two with a smile. "They still have things to investigate. We'll return to the checkpoint first. Something major has happened inside NGL, and I need to report it to the Hunter Association."

The two monitors exchanged a glance and nodded together.

Although neither had seen any chimera ants along the way, they had seen the villages left deserted, with nothing but bloodstains and mangled corpses. They understood perfectly well how serious the situation was.