**
"Graaahhh!!! Damn it, I could die!"
Uvogin frowned as he looked over his half-charred body. How long had it been since he had sustained injuries this severe?
He had come out to find the chain user, yet he had wasted his strength on some irrelevant bastard.
Of course, it would take Uvogin less than an hour to recover this much aura, but he had suffered more serious injuries than expected.
"Damn it. Did he win just because he was tougher? I still have a long way to go."
He did not want to admit it, but the suited bastard's coin had displayed destructive power that was impossible to rank above or below his own [Cosmic Impact].
What had decided the match was the users' defensive capabilities.
Uvogin had the defense needed to withstand his own technique. His opponent had not.
That guy had seemed to know it, too. In the end, he had gotten caught up in his own attack and gone down.
Though they had been in midair, he had used such a Hatsu without securing enough distance. It seemed he had intended to die from the start.
He had not looked like the sort to throw his life away, though.
"Hot, hot. Seriously. Should I head back and have Machi treat me first? There isn't a single part of me that's intact. Before long, I might start pissing out maggots."
The wounds were deeper than he had thought. By Uvogin's estimate, he needed two weeks of rest.
Honestly, in terms of pain alone, it ranked among the top three worst injuries he had ever suffered.
But if he returned looking like this, the boss would obviously forbid him from pursuing the chain user. Uvogin's thirst for revenge was not something he would abandon over a few injuries, so he decided to prioritize tracking down the chain user.
Besides, he was confident he could beat someone like the chain user even with this handicap.
He'll obviously be a Manipulator.
The chains had been fairly powerful, but if he had not been poisoned by the Shadow Beasts, he would not have been caught so easily.
And Uvogin had never made the same mistake twice in a fight.
If anything, that guy was the more troublesome one.
Uvogin thought back on the victory he had temporarily put aside while dwelling on his injuries and the chain user.
"Heh heh heh."
It had been a battle he rather liked.
No cheap tricks—just a contest of pure strength. A fight that only those who had reached the pinnacle of Enhancement could wage.
He had shown off a technique he never thought he would use in his life, and he had won besides.
Sure, it was a little disappointing that the difference in durability had been the turning point... but that only meant his defense was superior.
"Hahahahahahaha! I won! This feels fucking amazing!"
Intoxication. Superiority. And the exhilarating sense of liberation that came with unveiling a hidden finishing move.
The adrenaline rushing through one corner of his brain was enough to make him forget even the pain.
Maybe he really could go catch the chain user just like this.
"Yeah, only strength! More strength! This is my path! Nothing in this world can pierce me!"
Even as he free-fell through the sky, the wind brushing against his body felt like proof of his victory.
Boss, are you watching? As long as I'm here, the Troupe is invincible. There's nobody who can beat us.
"I'll kill the chain user and return to the Troupe! I'll ask Shalnark to broadcast my new technique to everyone remotely. They'll all be shocked..."
The ground was close.
Yorknew City was in sight.
To land, Uvogin should have started focusing on gathering aura now.
But Uvogin could think of no such thing.
He had definitely hit him dead-on.
He had definitely killed him.
It made no sense.
Could that not have been the real body? No, but that aura...
He was still far away, but he concentrated Nen into his eyes. It was the real body.
It looked like he was saying something with his lips.
Ma... rio?
Mario? Who was that?
**
"[Mario Coin (Reviving Plumber)]."
A technique borrowed from some Italian plumber.
It was a trump-card Hatsu whose exact mechanism I had not disclosed even to the Zoldyck Family.
It was permanently active. If I had saved ten billion Jenny in my bank account, I could gain one extra life.
I could hold a maximum of three extra lives, and I could tell whether I had one stored by the mushroom tattoo that appeared on my left wrist.
Though I could also just look at my bank account.
Once I used one, no matter how much money I had saved before, I needed to earn another ten billion to refill it—and all of that money had to be earned by me personally.
There were additional risks, too, but I would explain those later.
In short, I died and spent ten billion.
"Fuck me, seriously."
This ability had activated exactly three times since I had transmigrated, and two of those had been because of Nanika.
Which meant this was the first time I had died from sheer firepower.
That gorilla bastard was ridiculously fucking strong, though.
I had no idea how much I had spent already today.
When I first came to Yorknew City, I had been up two billion. How much was I down now?
Even if I had spent the whole time in Yorknew City going in and out of casinos, I would have lost less than this.
The more fucked-up part was that I had to spend another billion Jenny.
I needed to finish that bastard off.
No matter that I had just come back from the dead, one punch from Uvogin would reduce my lifespan to an equal three seconds.
I would not use [Meso Explosion]. That was only the receipt I had paid to melt through that bastard's meat armor in the first place.
It might seem insane for a receipt to cost one billion, but I had also burned through a ten-billion-Jenny life.
So what would I use?
The fastest technique I had.
The one I was most confident in.
And the most powerful technique I had.
You might ask why I had not used it sooner if I had something like that. Obviously, I wanted to use it too. But if I was not careful when using it, it might have no effect at all.
Yeah. That's right. As you probably guessed, restrictions and vows.
Restriction one. This Hatsu can only be used on one person once.
Two. The Hatsu's power is fixed according to the price of the other Nen technique used immediately before it.
Three. Once the activation range and power are set, the user cannot adjust them.
Four. If the opponent is not a Nen user, raising my right arm cancels the activation. In that case, due to the first restriction, I cannot use it on that opponent again.
And lastly, five. The instant I violate any of those restrictions, I lose my entire fortune.
Those were the restrictions. So for the conditions to line up, I had to use this technique only against an opponent I had never faced before,
I had to activate another Hatsu immediately beforehand after estimating a cost high enough to one-shot them, I had to avoid an environment where I might shoot an ally while firing,
and the opponent could not be an ordinary person who did not know how to use Nen.
If I messed up my estimate beforehand, I would waste my ultimate move and be unable to use it again.
And my entire fortune was the backlash? If that disappeared, I would not even be able to use [Meso Explosion] anymore.
You could hardly ask for more fucking difficult conditions.
Then why did I make such a technique? Well...
I simply could not resist.
I guess I understood why Kaito used that weird clown scythe even while complaining about it. Nen only got stronger when restrictions were attached, after all.
You have no idea how hard it was to materialize this. But the satisfaction was even greater.
If [Meso Explosion] was a three-dimensional surface, this was a two-dimensional line.
Well, you would see for yourself soon enough.
Because I could see a little burning dot in the sky now.
"One billion Jenny."
When I placed a coin on my finger and activated my Hatsu, lightning-shaped aura gathered around me. From this moment on, I could not cancel the activation by my own will.
If my opponent wanted to run, this would be his last chance.
But conveniently for me, the target was in the sky, where nobody around us could get hurt.
I had gone airborne with that in mind from the start.
Just like with Hisoka, it seemed I was better at catching enemies in the sky than on the ground.
I aimed at him in midair.
"I won't aim for your head. I need to collect your bounty at least, or I won't break even."
Once the lightning- and plasma-like aura had built up sufficiently, the air around me began to tremble.
I felt like some kind of esper. Though I had already been something close to one from the moment I started using Nen.
Let's see this through, then.
"Ever been hit at the speed of light?"
What I fired was lightning.
Speed was mass.
"[Borsalino Rail Gun (A Certain Director's Railgun)]."
A hole opened in the sky.
**
Kurapika arrived at the scene just as the battle that had cost me a life ended.
What a bastard who looked like he would play a cop in Detective Conan.
He could have come ten minutes earlier.
Then I would not have lost ten billion.
It was fucked up, but he was the client paying me two billion, so I could not say much more.
Honestly, this was not his fault. Who could have expected Uvogin to start shit with me before finding him?
I guess the Phantom Troupe was just being the Phantom Troupe.
"...Is he dead?"
I shook my head. Regrettably, he was alive.
He had coughed up blood and both his legs were wrecked, but he was alive. The way he kept fucking wriggling made him look like an earthworm.
This was why I had not used it on Hisoka, either. These bastards just would not die. Besides, back then it would have only been a one-million-Jenny railgun.
Even though I had fired a fucking fast railgun at Uvogin at light speed, he had somehow managed to avoid having it hit his heart.
Gon and Uvogin alike—Enhancers were all fucking beasts.
He was still breathing, and his eyes were a little fucked up, but judging by how he looked, he would probably open them soon. He would likely live for a few more hours.
"I see... That's a relief. It means I haven't left my revenge in someone else's hands."
You fucking asshole. I was not going to insult you because of the money, but seriously.
Can't you see I almost died? Shouldn't an apology come first?
Fucking bastard.
It pissed me off even more because I knew he would not act like this around Gon, Killua, and Leorio later.
Fuck. Old people should just die. Ah, I already died once today. At least hold a memorial service for me, Kurapika.
So I can meet the Kurta Clan in the afterlife and tell them I died because of you.
No matter what I muttered in my head, Kurapika looked troubled for a moment.
But then, perhaps deciding to take meaning from having caught a Troupe member and standing at the starting point of his revenge, his eyes blazed red and he drew a chain from his hand.
"[Chain Jail (Binding Middle Finger Chain)]."
Oh.
So this was the chain he had created specifically to capture the Troupe. He had never taken out the middle-finger chain even during training, so this was my first time seeing it. It was an incredible ability.
Then again, he had bet his life on it. It could not exactly be sloppy.
"Gotoh. Thank you. I owe you another debt. I'd like to talk longer, but... I have something personal to do."
Yeah. It sure looked that way.
It looked obvious he was about to torture that bastard for information, but I would not mention it.
I'll just go home after watching the sun come up from my utterly demolished hotel room, so don't come looking for me anymore.
I remembered there being more stuff involving the Troupe in Yorknew City in the original story that had come to mind while Uvogin was beating the shit out of me.
I did not want to get involved in any of that.
The work I had originally agreed to do ended here anyway.
I said my goodbyes to Kurapika and headed back to the hotel room, wondering whether any of my luggage might have survived.
Everything had been absolutely smashed to hell, but surprisingly, my phone was intact.
Is this the technological prowess of the Hunter world? Amazing-desu...
But in the middle of all this, I had a message from old man Zeno. It had been sent last night, so it must have come right before I started fighting.
In times like this, I needed to call him back immediately.
Old man was sensitive about this stuff in his old age.
Brrring—
"Old man?"
[Oh, Gotoh. Perfect timing. You're still in Yorknew City, right? We came to Yorknew City on a job too. Silva and Illumi are here with me. If you're done with your work, come help us out.]
For fuck's sake.
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