As the darkness faded and Qiao Lun opened his eyes again, what he saw was not a distorted sky, but a brightly lit stage ahead.
Quiet conversation drifted over from nearby, from men and women dressed in glamorous finery.
Everyone seemed to be waiting for something. Just then, two young men, one tall and one short, walked onto the stage in formal suits.
Several scars ran across the tall young man's face, and his earlobes were exceptionally long. As he looked through half-closed eyes at the people seated below the stage, anticipation and cruelty showed in his gaze.
The short fellow had center-parted hair and narrow eyes. When he stood behind the lectern onstage, only his head and a little of his upper body showed.
He raised both hands and braced them on the lectern in what he considered a handsome pose, a mocking curve lifting the corners of his mouth.
"Welcome, everyone."
The people seated below the stage looked somewhat bewildered as they watched the two men onstage.
But someone realized something before the speaker could finish, and that person was Qiao Lun, who had just opened his eyes.
Because Qiao Lun knew this scene very well.
Especially with those two men's appearances and postures onstage, and the tall man's arms gradually beginning to rise as the short one spoke, a sense of foreboding welled up in Qiao Lun.
His mind raced, rapidly processing the information, and in an instant, Qiao Lun understood the situation before him.
This was no longer the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, but Hunter x Hunter!
The short one was Feitan, the Phantom Troupe member who specialized in torture and slaughter, while the tall one was Franklin, an Emission user.
As someone who had already traveled to another world, Qiao Lun understood all this quite easily.
After being caught up in the Sendai Colony, he had intended to wait for Yuta Okkotsu to arrive. Who could have expected Takako Uro to attack him first?
Most crucially, when Qiao Lun used the Ten Shadows Technique to evade Sky Manipulation, he had somehow triggered some special spatial mechanism and been swept straight into spatial turbulence.
When he opened his eyes again, Takako Uro was gone, and he was in his current seat.
But from the extra surprise in the gazes of the people nearby as they looked at him, and from his own hands when he raised them, he could tell that this time, his soul had not transmigrated after death. He had crossed over in body, his entire person traveling directly from Jujutsu Kaisen into Hunter x Hunter.
It was just that the timing of this crossing was really not good.
It was the day the Phantom Troupe wreaked havoc in Yorknew City-the evening of September 1, 1999.
Watching Franklin's movements onstage, Qiao Lun knew what he would face next: a bombardment from Franklin's Nen Ability.
When that happened, most of the people in this auction hall would die.
Even those lucky enough to escape had no chance of surviving, because Shizuku was lying in ambush in the corridor outside the hall.
Moreover, judging by the number of Phantom Troupe members who later left aboard the hot-air balloon, there should be four others providing support besides these three.
They were Uvogin, Nobunaga, Shalnark, and Machi.
Qiao Lun felt somewhat helpless. Given the current situation, he thought he would have been better off staying in the Sendai Colony and dealing with Takako Uro.
But now that he had crossed over, he naturally could not just sit and wait to die.
Qiao Lun checked himself. His Cursed Energy was still there, which put him somewhat at ease.
On his first crossing, his soul had gone directly into the world of Jujutsu, where he had become a direct descendant of the Zenin Clan, unexpectedly gained the Ten Shadows Technique, and qualified to succeed as the next head of the Zenin Clan. His strength was by no means particularly weak in the world of Jujutsu.
He was even considerably stronger than Megumi Fushiguro, who also possessed the Ten Shadows Technique.
Still, having two people with the Ten Shadows Technique appear in the same generation was unprecedented.
If Qiao Lun could have been given more time, he was confident he could become stronger. Even becoming Special Grade was not impossible.
But the shocking upheavals in the world of Jujutsu came at an astonishing speed. Only a little over half a year passed between Itadori swallowing Sukuna's first finger and Yuta Okkotsu taking on four opponents in succession inside the Sendai Colony.
To grow strong enough to threaten Sukuna in so little time would take cheats.
So from the beginning, Qiao Lun's plan in the world of Jujutsu had been to let Satoru Gojo fight Sukuna. At worst, Satoru Gojo would be cut in half, and Heavenly Emperor Tiger would take over.
He would be in no danger at all. Once Heavenly Emperor Tiger disappeared, he might even get to play around with the temporary title of the strongest of the current era.
Now that he had crossed straight into Hunter x Hunter, his plan was useless.
Instead, how to escape the Phantom Troupe's attack had become the main problem he had to face next.
"Then let's dispense with the pleasantries." Feitan was still speaking.
But as his words ended, the tips of Franklin's fingers behind him had already flipped open, exposing the pitch-black holes beneath them.
At the same time, Franklin's expression turned vicious, and an invisible aura enveloped his body.
"Die, all of you!" As Franklin's voice rang out, Nen bullets were already pouring from the openings in his fingertips.
And this was his Nen Ability, Double Machine Gun!
Qiao Lun, however, had already made his choice the moment Franklin's fingertips flipped open. His body abruptly sank downward.
On the floor beneath him lay his shadow.
The Ten Shadows Technique could do more than summon Shikigami to fight. It could also let him sink into shadows to launch surprise attacks or avoid damage.
He even had weapons hidden in the shadows on the floor!
But the instant he sank, he caught sight of Feitan quietly opening his eyes a sliver.
Just as I thought!
I've been spotted!
Qiao Lun was not surprised in the slightest. His Cursed Energy allowed him to see the Nen around Franklin, so presumably, Nen Abilities also allowed Franklin and the others to detect something unusual about him.
Even though Cursed Energy and Nen Abilities were two entirely different forms of energy.
Still, I'll have to test exactly how it works!
With that thought, Qiao Lun sank completely into his shadow before the guests in front of him were torn apart by Nen bullets.
"Interesting!" The corners of Feitan's mouth lifted slightly.
He had noticed something unusual the instant Qiao Lun sank down. Of course, that was partly because the expressions of the guests near Qiao Lun's position were noticeably different from those elsewhere.
Feitan had seen the bluish-white "Nen" that instantly enveloped him.
Franklin glanced at Feitan, but shifted his gaze the next second, because he had spotted a Nen user.
Amid the great eruptions
of blood and severed limbs, he saw someone instantly release a large number of puppets in an attempt to block his Nen bullets.
But his opponent was too weak.
The puppets and the person hiding behind them were all torn apart by Nen bullets in an instant.
Yet that brief resistance allowed two people to seize the opportunity to break through the auction hall's doors and rush out.
Unfortunately, someone had long been waiting outside the doors.
The head of an oddly shaped vacuum cleaner smashed into the head of the first man to rush out of the auction hall.
A single blow burst the back of his skull open.
But at that same instant, a beautiful figure who had already taken off her shoes darted barefoot past the two of them and into the corridor.
And within the shadow that beautiful figure cast on the floor, a pair of eyes watched Shizuku, the Phantom Troupe member holding the vacuum cleaner, as she instantly sprang forward in pursuit!