Qizhou X Noah X The Disappearing Silver Blue

Chapter 4: Qi Zhou x Noah x The Disappeared Silver-Blue

Chrollo closed the door and went down to the first floor of the building.

Pakunoda had already called Shalnark and Machi to the first floor at his request. The few of them each found a place to sit down on the first floor.

"Did you find anything?" Chrollo looked first at Shalnark-that blond teenager.

"Hmm... can't really say we didn't find anything." Shalnark turned his computer to face Chrollo; the toddler on the screen had a seven-point similarity to the boy who called himself "Qi Zhou"-two points missing for temperament, one for age. But the toddler's name was very interesting: Noah Barton. Furthermore, the profile picture was black-and-white-indicating this person was deceased.

"This is what I found in the Republic of Padokea's database using his photo after logging into the information query system with a Hunter License."

Shalnark said, "But what turned up was in the database marked 'cancelled'. The time of death was five years ago, the age of death was five years old, and the cause of death was failure to respond to emergency treatment."

Chrollo nodded and continued to ask Shalnark, "What about the language he spoke?"

Shalnark spread his hands innocently, "Searched the entire database, didn't find any similar notes."

Chrollo: "The song he sang?"

A look of regret appeared on Shalnark's face, "Didn't find a clip with a similarity of over seventy percent-actually it sounded quite nice, I even wanted to download it."

"Hmm..." Chrollo pondered, looking at Pakunoda, "Are there any noteworthy spots in his memories?"

Pakunoda shook her head, "Some strange images, but they're all fantasies-not very related to his identity."

Chrollo looked at Machi, "Did you find anything during the treatment?"

Machi looked as if she had already checked the person inside and out thoroughly, without hesitation, "There are no Nen marks, seals, or others on his body, nor are there any implant-type monitoring or recording equipment; his body has been dissected and then stitched up, but without detailed examination by instruments, the internal situation is unknown; as for physical fitness..."

A look of disgust appeared on Machi's face, "Not even as good as the children on the outermost fringe garbage mountain."

Consolidating some information, Chrollo nodded, "I understand."

The few people who had finished official business and prepared to return to their respective rooms stood up separately, but Chrollo remained in place, as if thinking.

Shalnark looked at him and asked with a smile, "Is the Leader thinking of recruiting him into the Troupe?"

Chrollo smiled non-committally, "What do you think?"

"Don't, way too much of a burden." Shalnark spread his hands.

"A burden?" Chrollo thought of the ice, fire, rock, and wind that filled the corridor yesterday afternoon, that level of "Ren", even someone who had bitterly cultivated Transmutation for ten years would find it hard to achieve. Although the way he used it was completely without order or technique and he could only reluctantly give one point based on the quantity, as long as it was properly nurtured...

However, the interesting thing was that that brat seemed completely unaware of the power he possessed.

Chrollo smiled again, said nothing, and stepped up the stairs.

He returned to his room, and the oblivious, crippled brat was lying in the corner sleeping soundly.

The collar of the white shirt he sponsored out of friendship was too wide, half of the brat's shoulder was exposed, and there was more than one scar on his fair neck, like a bruised and battered little white rabbit that had escaped a wolf's mouth thinking it was already safe, and fell asleep soundly with peace of mind-unwittingly entering a wolf den with even more wolves.

Chrollo walked over to him, bent down, and his slender fingers clasped the boy's neck.

It wasn't that he wanted to kill him; after all, his ability was still with himself, and killing him would be a huge loss if it couldn't be used. But if that pair of silver-blue eyes, which might be a second personality, could only be summoned under strong emotion or when encountering something unacceptable, he wanted to try it out-

Qi Zhou was a little cold, and his neck was a little itchy.

He mumbled, shrank, rubbed his neck downward, and rubbed against the palm of his hand, as if craving a heat source.

Oh, his Nen was taken away, without Ten protecting his body, and now it had only been a few days since early winter, the weather was indeed getting cold.

Chrollo did not withdraw his hand, instead feeling the slender artery beneath the prey's fair skin under his hand.

He thought, there really is no self-awareness of having entered a bandit den.

What is scarcest in Meteor City? Food? Clean water? Heavy metals? None of them; it is trust-trust like this, offering one's neck and throat to the bottom of a stranger's hand, trust like this, being able to sleep so soundly in an unfamiliar environment.

However, rare as it was, it wasn't precious at all, and was instead the cheapest and most useless thing.

He lacked someone to teach him, with blood or life.

Thinking this, Chrollo released his hand and threw a piece of clothing onto the sleeping boy.

The next day, the news that the Leader had picked up a kid and brought him back quickly spread to everyone in the building.

The few people out on missions also gathered curiously at the door, peering through the open door at the boy half-sitting and half-lying on the floor inside.

Qi Zhou was sitting leaning against the wall. The time he woke up, if his biological clock was correct, was probably around six in the morning, but when he woke up, there was already no one in the room.

This room was quite large, a huge window allowed one to see very far away, and there were bookshelves and books on the walls in all directions, as well as a sofa in the opposite corner-it looked like it would be very nice to lie on.

He was almost moved to tears when he found out he could sit up, and not being tied up or falling down after sitting up made him want to weep even more, although his body hurt like hell-but for the ten years since he contracted ALS at age nine and deteriorated ridiculously within a year, and the three months since coming to this world, this was the first time he sat up by himself.

However-wasn't this recovery a bit frighteningly good? His broken arm and thigh actually recovered overnight?

He tried to stand up again, spent an hour curling up his left leg and found it hurt like hell, spent an hour doing psychological preparation and began to move his right leg again and found it still hurt like hell, so he stopped moving-let's just sit.

Then he saw a few pairs of eyes staring at himself from the doorway.

A short person covering half his face, a short-haired blond man without eyebrows, a black-haired man carrying a knife, a tall, gray-haired guy who looked very hard to mess with.

He was creeped out by so many people gathered at the door staring at him, and could only pull his face into a stiff smile.

He couldn't understand what those few people were muttering about, nor could he understand the few sentences they shouted at him, and could only smile until his facial muscles stiffened.

At that moment, the people by the door successively moved aside to both sides, and a young man draped in a black coat with a white-collared large leather jacket walked in with long strides.

Flipped a book, eyes glowing purple, and then-

Chrollo's first sentence made Qi Zhou's face turn pale: "Get up if you're awake."

Qi Zhou grimaced. "I can't get up..."

Although it was very rude for a guest in their host's home to stay in bed after the host had gotten up, but... it really hurt!

Reading the meaning from a picture and guessing it from someone's face were one and the same. The grimace on his face was so obvious that the people outside the door instantly understood what he meant.

Shalnark teased, "Has Machi's skill at stitching bodies gotten worse?"

A vein bulged on Machi's forehead. "You-" Considering Chrollo was there, she didn't say what came after that. "Don't talk nonsense!"

Chrollo said nothing, just tossed out a sentence: "Get downstairs within ten minutes." Then he turned and walked away, signaling to everyone at the door to stop blocking it and come down too.

Qi Zhou: "..."

Did "ten minutes" mean what he thought it meant?

He felt like giving up, but the next second, he remembered the way Chrollo had looked at him just now. His gaze had been calm, without a ripple, and his voice had been no more than a casual instruction. Yet, for some reason, it was terrifying. He couldn't summon the slightest desire to disobey. It was as if something even more terrifying would happen if he didn't do as he was told.

He cursed a hundred more times in his mind, filthy words that went unanswered-unanswered because no one here could understand him. Qi Zhou gritted his teeth through the agony of his bones being split apart, braced himself with his hands, and inched along, trying to crawl up. But this was too much to ask of someone who had spent ten years lying in bed and an unknown amount of time sitting in a box. No one could instantly learn to skillfully control something they had never controlled before, just as no one could pick up a pen with their toes and write beautiful block letters without practicing.

He fell heavily back to the floor.

Every muscle in his body was tearing itself apart to entertain his master, trembling and twitching as it tried to escape its control and return to the good old days of not moving.

It was a sensation different from pain, yet even more unbearable.

Helplessness.

He had finally gotten a proper body, and could feel that it was there, yet he couldn't use it at all.

Ten minutes later.

The Spider's leader, his face expressionless, waited a long while without anyone coming downstairs. So, amid the Spiders' pitying, horrified, and amused looks, he went up the stairs. Then he saw the boy, leaning on both arms, dragging himself out of the room and all the way to the top of the stairs.

The boy's face was streaked with tears, but the moment he saw Chrollo, he still smiled.

"My body's been unused for too long. I really can't stand up."

He lowered his head and said softly, "I'm sorry... Mr. Lucilfer."