Machi X Feitan X Shalnark

On the top floor of an abandoned high-rise at the edge of the scrap zone.

Half the edge of the broken concrete floor had collapsed, exposing rusted rebar and shattered bricks.

Wind blew in from all sides, stirring the hem of a slender figure's clothes and the ends of her hair with a soft flutter.

The girl was small and slender, with delicate, cool features, blue eyes, and short pinkish-purple hair tied in a high ponytail.

She wore a short Japanese-style top, black skintight shorts, fingerless gloves, and long leg warmers, an outfit resembling a female ninja's.

Her expression indifferent and her gaze sharp, she watched the scenes unfolding on the battlefield.

If Jiang Ye had been there, he would surely have recognized the girl as one of the Phantom Troupe's members.

Machi!

Machi crouched on a broken beam at the edge of the roof, her feet planted on the rebar on either side, as steady as if she had been nailed in place.

Her blue eyes calmly watched the burning scrap zone below, taking in every detail of the battle.

Frontal charges, flanking cuts, ranged attacks, and traps to funnel the enemy.

With her keen senses that could perceive Nen, she tracked the changes in airflow across the battlefield.

When Iron Wall's shield formation crashed into the enemy, she could feel the savage killing intent of ordinary people.

Gray Beak's squad moved along the flank like shadows, each incursion precisely severing a weak point in a defensive line.

Shattered Eye's men stood at a distance, throwing Molotov cocktails. Flames flared and died, driving those figures into the traps already laid for them.

And there was the man charging at the very front.

He was shouting something, but he was too far away for her to make it out.

There was no real technique to his fighting, but he had an animal-like ferocity.

Machi's gaze swept across the battlefield before finally settling on an indistinct spot behind the ruins.

She couldn't see exactly what was happening there, but she could sense something wrong with the airflow in that direction.

It was as if three stronger forces were clashing, but obstacles and distance concealed most of the details.

She stared for a moment, then stood up on the beam.

With a light tap of her toes against the rusty rebar, she dropped silently onto a lower platform on the building.

She made her way down the dilapidated outer walls like a bird gliding along their surface, without alerting anyone.

Twenty minutes later.

On the second floor of an inconspicuous old building somewhere in Central City, Meteor City.

The room was small. Thick, dark cloth covered most of the window, leaving only a narrow gap through which the gray-white daylight filtered in.

There were four people in the room.

Chrollo sat on an old sofa, leafing through a dark-covered book, his fingertips resting lightly against its spine.

Shalnark sat in the chair beside him, his blond hair and baby face lit by the faint glow of his phone screen. His thumb occasionally swiped across it.

Feitan leaned against the opposite wall, his thin body wrapped in a long, high-collared black coat. A skull-patterned scarf mask covered his nose and mouth, leaving only a pair of narrow eyes exposed.

Those eyes held an unsettling gleam in the dim light.

When Machi pushed open the door and walked in, Chrollo didn't stop turning the pages of his book.

But his gaze lifted from the page for a moment and fell on Machi.

"Is it over?"

"They're still fighting."

Machi walked over and sat in an empty spot beside the sofa, her tone flat.

"The battle on the main front is mostly over."

"The Rust Bone Gang scattered the combined forces with a three-squad tactic."

"The casualties are heavy. Less than half of the combined forces' ordinary fighters are left."

Feitan's eyes suddenly lit up.

He tilted his head slightly, his voice coming from behind his mask with a muffled rasp.

"A three-squad tactic? That kid came up with it?"

"Yeah."

Machi offered no further opinion, simply stating what she had seen.

"A shield wall at the front, mobile fighters picking them off on the flanks, and ranged attacks and traps funneling them from the rear."

"The roles were clearly divided, and they carried them out cleanly."

"The people from the two groups in the alliance had equipment, but once the tactic split them up, they were basically picked off one by one."

Feitan straightened away from the wall.

His fingers twitched slightly in his coat pocket, as if in some instinctive reaction.

"Let me join the fight."

The light in Feitan's eyes grew brighter as he spoke, and he was itching to act.

"It's been a long time since I've been in a fight on that scale."

Chrollo turned a page as though he hadn't heard him.

"Feitan."

"Hm?"

"No."

Feitan's fingers paused in his pocket.

"Why?"

"I said no."

Chrollo's voice was quiet and held no anger, yet it was like a stone weighing down the water.

It pressed Feitan's surging waves firmly back down.

Feitan's Adam's apple bobbed, but he didn't press the question.

He leaned back against the wall, but the light in his eyes didn't go out. It merely lay dormant, like a venomous snake ready to strike at any moment.

Machi glanced at Feitan, then at Chrollo, before asking a more practical question.

"Should we intervene?"

Chrollo closed his book.

Its cover was dark red, without a title or any markings.

He set it on his knee and rubbed his fingertips lightly along the spine twice, lost in thought.

"We won't help the Shattered Iron Group or the Gray Rat Squad."

He paused, then continued.

"And we won't help the Rust Bone Gang either."

Machi's brows twitched slightly, but she didn't interrupt.

"Intervening too early would use up the Phantom Troupe's manpower."

Chrollo spoke unhurriedly, explaining his reasons.

"And it would expose the Phantom Troupe's existence too soon."

"It's not time yet to let the forces in Meteor City know we're here."

He placed the book on the sofa's armrest and lifted his head slightly, looking toward the gray-white light filtering through the narrow gap in the window covering.

"Besides..."

"Forcing our way in would ruin a specimen worth studying."

Shalnark looked up from his phone screen.

"You mean that kid?"

"Yes."

The corners of Chrollo's mouth curved ever so slightly.

"I casually taught him a little something back then."

"Now it seems he's figured out quite a lot on his own."

Machi was silent for a moment, a flash of shock crossing her eyes.

"You mean you taught that drifter?"

"I wouldn't call it teaching."

Chrollo picked up the book again and opened it with his fingertips.

"I only helped him correct an error in how he circulated it."

"The rest grew on its own."

He looked at the words on the page, but they didn't seem to truly register in his eyes.

"I'm looking forward to seeing how far he can go from here."

Leaning against the wall, Feitan added in a muffled voice,

"What if he dies in that battle?"

Chrollo turned a page, his gaze never leaving the paper.

"Then he wasn't worth my waiting until now."

The room fell silent for a moment.

A faint, rapid vibration came from somewhere in the distance outside.

As though something had struck the ground hard.

By the time the sound passed through several walls and the ruins, it had become faint and muffled, but Feitan's eyes lit up again, and Machi turned her head to glance toward the gap in the window covering.

"Looks like it's not over yet."

Shalnark looked down at his phone screen, which displayed a map-like grid of some kind.

"The combined forces' fighters have nearly been routed."

"Only Tie Liao and Shu Mu are left over there now..., but they've been stopped."

Chrollo's fingertip came to rest on the corner of a page.

"Who stopped them?"

Shalnark looked up, a smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

"That specimen of yours."

Chrollo didn't reply.

He simply turned a page in silence and murmured to himself.

"A nobody, or a name known throughout the world?"

"I can hardly wait to find out."