Pokkle and Ponzu

After Joey and the others left, Pokkle suddenly turned to Ponzu. "What a shame."

"What is?" Ponzu asked, puzzled.

"Joey should be connected to a wanted notice. If we handed him over to the client, we'd probably get a decent bounty and some credit." Pokkle held nothing back. "And I suspect he has a treasure that speeds up his stamina recovery."

"A wanted notice? A treasure that restores stamina?"

Ponzu frowned in thought. She had no reason to doubt him about the wanted notice; Pokkle had always had a knack for gathering information.

But what had led Pokkle to conclude that Joey possessed a treasure?

After thinking it over, Ponzu pieced together a few clues.

Joey clearly hadn't known how to use Nen the previous night, and he had already been utterly exhausted when they found him. Yet today, he seemed to be in fairly good shape.

Especially after observing Joey's training up close, she could tell that he really was recovering unusually quickly.

Ponzu knew she could never have recovered that much with just a single day to recuperate.

And since Pokkle had brought it up, he obviously couldn't recover as quickly as Joey either.

Combined with how protective Joey was of his cloth bundle, those clues gave Pokkle's theory about an eighty percent chance of being true.

But then Ponzu shook her head. She trusted her bees, too, and felt that Joey didn't seem as bad as his background suggested.

More importantly, she had already developed an aversion to NGL. She wanted nothing more to do with this place.

For her, the most important thing about this trip to NGL was that it had shown her the true limits of her strength.

"I initially suspected he might be an Enhancement user, but even an ordinary Enhancement user shouldn't be able to match how quickly his wounds healed and his stamina recovered. That's why I suddenly exposed his identity."

Pokkle hadn't noticed what Ponzu was thinking and continued talking. "I wanted to put Kite on his guard beforehand. After all, there's no disputing that members of the Narcotics Organization are scum. Add the fact that Joey is a wanted criminal, and he's practically the scum of the scum.

"Even if Joey acted like a good person during our brief time together, he's a wanted murderer who's also guilty of selling narcotics. Being eaten by ants might actually be a relatively light punishment for him.

"I don't think Kite intended to let him off completely, either. The conditions he offered were probably more about getting useful information out of him first.

"And more importantly, I deliberately kept an eye on him along the way. After dark, an unexpected jolt from the horse exposed a corner of the cloth bundle in Joey's arms. At that moment, I sensed aura that didn't belong to Joey.

"It only lasted an instant before he concealed it by covering the bundle, but it was enough to confirm my suspicion that he might be hiding a treasure."

Pokkle's final words all but settled the matter.

"Then what are you planning to do next?" Ponzu looked at Pokkle seriously. "NGL is going to become even more dangerous. Isn't staying here for a treasure that might not even exist more trouble than it's worth?"

"Kite was right earlier. This is the ideal training ground for anyone who wants to stand on their own. I've spent the whole journey comparing myself to Killua and Gon. They're getting stronger so quickly, and I want to get stronger, too!

"I'm not strong enough yet, but as long as I gather information and avoid fighting monsters like that crocodile head-on, this is the best place to hone my skills and build up credit."

Pokkle openly shared his thoughts. Clearly, this was a decision he had considered carefully.

"If Joey completes Kite's task and Kite's people pick him up, we'll leave him alone. But if he runs away halfway through, we'll intercept him and finish him off."

From beginning to end, Pokkle had never taken Joey seriously, as though he could crush him whenever he pleased.

"Ponzu, will you stay here with me? I need your ability."

Pokkle made his final request with utter seriousness. Only with Ponzu there could he find Joey more easily.

Her ability to control bees could also bring them more information and help them avoid certain dangers in advance.

"No. I'm too weak right now. Staying would only make me a burden, and it would be far too dangerous for me."

Ponzu answered without hesitation, then tried to dissuade him before he could ask her to reconsider. "An elite extermination team from the Hunter Association will take over here. This isn't the only place we can train, and there's no rush to build up credit.

"Besides, the world has never been short of scum. One more person like Joey won't make much difference. As for that treasure you suspect he has, I'm not interested. I'd rather we both got out of this mess."

Joey knew nothing of the disagreement between Ponzu and Pokkle after he left.

Nor did he know that Pokkle suspected him of possessing a treasure, or that a bee was hiding inside his cloth bundle.

But even if Joey had known what Pokkle and Ponzu were doing, he wouldn't have cared much. Pokkle was merely a tool to him, not much of a threat.

Their few encounters had also given him a clearer understanding of Pokkle's overall strength. Dealing with Pokkle wouldn't be particularly difficult for Joey.

Saving Pokkle and preventing Neferpitou from learning about and mastering Nen ahead of time was the best outcome Joey could envision for him.

He still remembered how, back when he had followed the manga as it came out, plenty of readers had repeatedly dragged Pokkle through the mud, saying that the Chimera Ants wouldn't have grown stronger so quickly if not for him.

Joey largely agreed, but he wasn't optimistic about how much time that would buy.

After all, Pokkle wasn't the only person entering NGL who could use Nen. Without him, some other hunter named Stripkle or Headkle might end up having their brain opened by Neferpitou instead.

As for Ponzu, Joey saw her as a pretty girl who was someone else's girlfriend. Saving her had merely eased a regret he'd had while reading the manga.

Such a lovely, pretty girl-not only had she been shot in the head, but the ants had eaten her corpse clean. Sometimes, he had to admit that the old bastard really was ruthless.

Joey now devoted most of his attention to sensing every tiny change in the aura within his body.

The Nen wrapped around his legs allowed him to keep up with Kite and the other two, but his use of Ten was so crude that every step wasted more energy.

His grasp of Zetsu was imperfect as well, and aura kept leaking uncontrollably from his body.

Although he could quickly close his Aura Nodes each time, wasted Nen was still wasted Nen.

Gon and Killua, running beside him, handled this perfectly. Joey couldn't even see any Nen covering their bodies with the naked eye.

When Joey simply couldn't figure out how to contain his Nen more effectively and reduce his consumption, he asked about what he didn't understand as they ran.

Gon was easy to talk to, but his answer was extremely vague.

According to him, Joey needed to incorporate Ten into everyday life. Gradually, he would reach the point where he could run without wasting Nen.

"Besides, you don't even need Nen to run at this speed, do you? You should be able to manage it just by exercising more regularly!" After his explanation, Gon followed up with a question that struck right at Joey's soul.