Kurapika stood up and immediately hurried toward the hotel where Dalzollene was staying.
Qiao Lun, however, knew that the crucial part was still to come. Chrollo would approach Neon after she left alone and take her to the Semetary Building.
Taking out his phone, Qiao Lun sent Hisoka a message.
"The target has already succeeded. If you want your wish granted, get to the restaurant on the eighteenth floor of the Semetary Building before four. Don't let anyone spot you."
What came next was a gamble-a bet that Chrollo would still come to the Semetary Building as he had in the manga. If the gamble paid off, Hisoka would get his fight. If it failed, Neon would lose her Nen ability.
But what did that have to do with him? Neon was no child. Naturally, she had to pay for her own willful recklessness.
Hisoka was sitting in an abandoned building when his phone vibrated. He took it out, read the message, then put it away again without betraying anything after sending a reply.
Franklin keenly noticed Hisoka's movements. He still had not let go of his suspicions about Hisoka.
A few minutes later, Hisoka stood up and walked toward a corner of the building.
Franklin's gaze followed Hisoka's movements closely. When Hisoka disappeared around the corner, he stood up too and headed that way.
This abrupt action drew the eyes of quite a few members, but Franklin did not care at all.
Yet when he rounded the corner, he ran straight into Hisoka coming toward him.
Hisoka said nothing and did not even spare Franklin another glance. He simply walked past him, returned to his previous seat, and stared into space.
Franklin frowned slightly. He kept feeling that something was wrong, but looking at Hisoka staring into space, he could not put his finger on it. All he could do was return to Shizuku's side and sit down in frustration.
Was he really overthinking it? Franklin kept his eyes on Hisoka, trying to find something, but as time passed, Hisoka did nothing unusual.
The sounds of Feitan and the others playing cards together gradually became the only sounds in the building.
But everyone was actually waiting-waiting for the evening auction to begin!
They simply did not know that the person sitting in the abandoned building was no longer Hisoka.
It was Illumi, disguised through his ability and techniques.
Chrollo had contacted the Zoldyck Family, and the person he reached was Illumi. Before that, however, Hisoka had already approached him first.
So Illumi accepted the lucrative job Chrollo offered and also agreed to Hisoka's request.
He passed Chrollo's commission to assassinate the Ten Dons on to his great-great-grandfather, Maha Zoldyck Family, his mother, Kikyo Zoldyck Family, and his younger brother, Kalluto Zoldyck Family.
With those three's abilities, Illumi was not worried in the slightest that anything would go wrong with the job.
As for Illumi himself, he slipped into the address Hisoka had sent and took Hisoka's place.
Earning three payments in one go was a relatively rare assignment even for the Zoldyck Family, so it was understandable for the family to send a few extra people.
Hisoka, now replaced by Illumi, had already left the area around the abandoned building and arrived at the restaurant in the Semetary Building.
He was not wearing his clown outfit, nor had he even put on his clown makeup. Instead, he wore a black tracksuit and hid his conspicuous fiery red hair beneath a hat.
With a mask covering his face, only his long, narrow eyes were exposed. He swept his gaze across the restaurant but did not see the person he was looking forward to meeting.
"He's still not here. Your information isn't wrong, is it?" Tapping the table in the corner, Hisoka sat down opposite Qiao Lun. "And don't you need a disguise?"
Qiao Lun checked the time. It was already past five.
The auction was scheduled for eight that evening. The sky had already begun to darken, and mafia members had occupied the streets outside the building.
No uninvolved personnel would be allowed within five hundred meters of the Semetary Building. Armed mafia members were stationed everywhere. What the Ten Dons wanted was for even a fly to die if it entered without following the rules!
A man with bat wings appeared atop the building, accompanied by two other rather peculiar-looking people.
One looked like an old man, while the other was a dark-skinned man with thick lips.
All three were members of the Shadow Beasts, assigned to provide support.
The other seven Shadow Beasts members were already stationed throughout the building. If anything unusual happened, they would immediately rush over as reinforcements.
To be on the safe side, however, they operated in a two-two-three formation: two pairs and one team of three.
If they discovered a larger number of Phantom Troupe members, the teams would quickly join forces and call for backup.
Aside from the mafia's Shadow Beasts, there were also top assassins recruited at short notice inside the building. They were gathered in a room, none of them speaking, though all were secretly sizing one another up.
The appointed time was six, so it was still early.
Qiao Lun also counted as an assassin invited by the mafia. At the moment, however, he was more interested in Hisoka's fight with Chrollo, so he was in no hurry to leave the restaurant.
"Wait a little. He should already be on his way." The coffee on Qiao Lun's table was already his third cup.
Gon and the other two had long since left. According to the information Kurapika had sent back, the young lady was heading straight for the Semetary Building.
In fact, that much could have been established from the moment Neon ran away.
Kurapika had left more to bring Melody and the others over. With Melody helping him look after Gon and the others, he could devote himself more fully to the operation against the Phantom Troupe.
Moreover, Dalzollene had accompanied the boss to the Semetary Building. As one of Neon's bodyguards, Kurapika also needed to explain the situation to the boss in person.
At six, two people pushed open the door to the room where the assassins were gathered.
The two who entered were one tall and one short. The taller man had a powerful build, silver hair, and an intensely oppressive gaze. Steady, powerful Nen surrounded him. He was Silva Zoldyck Family, the current head of the Zoldyck Family and Killua's father.
The shorter man also had silver hair and held his hands behind his back. His clothes bore a line of text, "A kill a day, on active duty for life," perfectly illustrating his identity as an assassin. He was Zeno Zoldyck, Killua's grandfather.
Following the two into the room was a short, stout mafia boss, Zenji, who was responsible for assigning jobs to the assassins and supervising their actions at this auction.
Zenji wore round black sunglasses on the bridge of his nose. With his drooping mustache, bald head, and a fleshy face full of menace, he looked like someone not to be trifled with.
"Looks like everyone's here." Zenji swept his gaze over everyone in the room.
Behind the subordinate, he passed more than just
a subordinate, however, stepped forward of his own accord and told him, "Not yet."
"Why? I remember inviting only eight people in total." Zenji looked displeased.
"The two newcomers brought in by the Nostrade Family haven't arrived yet," the subordinate reminded him cautiously.
"They certainly know how to curry favor," Zenji said disdainfully.
Just then, Light Nostrade entered the room with Kurapika.
"Why is there only one?" Zenji already disliked Light Nostrade, and seeing someone missing made his gaze even more hostile.
"He has something to do. Let's start without him." Light Nostrade paid no attention to his attitude. As soon as he spoke, he sounded more like the person in charge than Zenji did.