There was a perfectly valid reason I hadn’t recognized Chrollo.
Now that I was facing him, other than being goddamn handsome, he had no distinctive features you could recognize at a glance.
I vaguely remembered him having something like a cross-shaped tattoo on his forehead, but it was covered up now. How was I supposed to know?
If I hadn’t used Gyo to take a closer look, I probably never would have recognized Chrollo.
"Shall we go, then? We’re going to the auction, right?"
I wasn’t even on his radar anymore.
If I could, I’d like to grab Neon and run away with her, but that was physically impossible.
Fuck. If I’d known this would happen, I should have unlocked some kind of spatial movement ability.
Then I could’ve just gone, ‘Wow! Escaped successfully! Yorknew City arc over!’
But unfortunately, I had no utility skill with that kind of versatility.
In the end, my only choices were to physically confront Chrollo or talk my way out of this.
"Mister. Why do you keep following us?"
When I silently followed behind the two of them, Chrollo asked as though it bothered him.
What was I supposed to say?
That if I tried to grab him, I felt like I’d lose a hand, but if I let him go, we’d all be fucked?
That sounded way too pathetic.
For now, Chrollo probably thought his identity was hidden, so I should use that.
"...My duty is to protect Miss Neon. It cannot be helped if she does not trust me, but I cannot abandon her personal safety as well."
"Heh. You’re a diligent man, Mister."
Chrollo scratched his head, quietly impressed.
He was clearly thinking I was a massive pain in the ass.
Honestly, whether Neon got kidnapped or not had jack shit to do with me.
I didn’t have any ties to the mafia, and in a few hours, Neon and I would never see each other again anyway.
If anything, staying in contact with the Phantom Troupe for this long was the more dangerous situation for me. My opponent was Chrollo, after all.
But I couldn’t bail on this.
The moment I did, I’d turn not just Hisoka, but the entire Phantom Troupe into my enemies.
Here was why.
I had killed Uvogin.
It hadn’t been intentional, and I hadn’t even landed the finishing blow, but I was still responsible for Uvogin’s death. And the Troupe didn’t know that yet.
That was why I had been trying to get out of Yorknew City quickly, before they got their hands on me.
If I vanished, all the Troupe would know was that Kurapika had taken revenge.
But Neon’s involvement changed things.
Neon’s ability was to write prophecies about the near future. Even though it was ‘precognition,’ it was a ridiculously broken ability that also revealed the past, as long as it fell within the scope of the prophecy.
Let’s say Neon wrote out my future from January through April.
If I asked Neon for that on January 31st, then the prophecy would contain predictions from February to April, while January would describe things that had already happened.
I didn’t actually know whether the mechanism worked exactly like that.
But in the original story I remembered, there was a scene where the Troupe saw a prophecy and interrogated Hisoka over his betrayal.
That meant past actions were recorded too.
I couldn’t believe I was only remembering this now, but...
Anyway, I’ve gone on too long.
The point is this.
[If Neon falls into Chrollo’s hands, he’ll find out that I killed Uvogin.]
Even if the prophecy Chrollo received from Neon contained nothing like that, I’d still be fucked.
Because this thieving bastard would definitely steal Neon’s ability.
If Chrollo kept using the prophecy ability, sooner or later my information would show up in someone’s prophecy.
What a fucking awful butterfly effect.
"If you intend to go to the auction, I will not stop you. I shall accompany you. I will take the wheel myself, so why don’t you, sir, look up a nice restaurant in the meantime? A gentleman ought to escort a lady, shouldn’t he?"
What a cheap provocation. But I had no other choice.
I seriously wanted to cry. This bastard was definitely a better fighter than Hisoka.
And now I had to steal Neon back from him.
Stealing from a thief? Why was there never a normal-difficulty stage for me?
"Hmm."
"Let’s do that! I want to ride in the back seat and talk with you!"
"What if he takes us somewhere strange?"
"Then you’ll protect me, won’t you?"
She was falling for him way too damn fast.
They’d known each other for all of five minutes, yet she was casually saying things even one of those obnoxious couples from Crayon Shin-chan wouldn’t say.
At this rate, they’d start kissing right here.
But Chrollo seemed rather pleased by Neon’s words, a smile touching his lips.
"True enough. Mister, I don’t know whether you’re a bodyguard or what, but I’ll be counting on you."
So you were still just another guy, huh? Taking on risk to look cool in front of a woman.
Or maybe he was simply confident in his own strength, confident he could kill us all if things went wrong.
Either way, thanks for letting me come along.
Even if that might turn out to be where I got buried.
"Ah. But if you call anyone else along the way, we’ll run immediately."
What a thorough bastard.
I’d been planning to find an opening and summon the Zoldycks.
Of course, he was probably only saying it to prevent the mafia from coming after them.
In that case, I’d have to give up on subduing Chrollo through force.
**
"There’s still some time before they inspect the auction items. I found a nice restaurant, so shall we kill some time there?"
"I will be joining you as well."
"Ehh? Why, Mister?"
Why do you think, young lady? If you’re fucked, I’m fucked too.
Don’t you realize we’re in this together now?
"I have not eaten yet either... Is even that not permitted?"
I had to be shameless. If we got physically separated, I had no way to pursue them.
And a direct confrontation was even less possible.
I had to keep him in check, where people could see us.
"Sure. You have to eat. You’re paying, right, Mister?"
"Oh, then great!"
You little shit.
This bastard had more money than he knew what to do with, and he was still trying to suck the blood out of a flea.
And you’re the same, Neon, damn it. You’re filthy rich, so why are you happy just because I said I’d pay?
But I was the desperate one here.
"Of course. Please take your time choosing."
Fucking Phantom Troupe bastards.
Every last one of them only knew how to drain my money.
.
.
.
"So, I hear you’re really good at fortune-telling? I’ve heard about you, Neon."
"That’s right. It’s my specialty. Even important people ask me to do it for them."
Perhaps they had decided to ignore me, because the two began chatting cheerfully without me.
"Really? Just how accurate are these fortunes?"
"They say they’re always right!"
"‘They say’? Aren’t you the one telling the fortunes? You make it sound like somebody else does it."
"It’s called automatic writing. My hand writes on its own."
Had this bastard worked at a host club or something? The speed at which he was extracting information was absurd.
Or maybe Neon was just an unbelievably easy mark.
Either way, nothing changed: the situation was tilting in Chrollo’s favor.
"Hee~ That’s amazing! Tell my fortune too!"
"Sure. Then..."
"That will not be possible."
Okay. That’s far enough.
If you’re going to get fucked, let’s have you get fucked alone, young lady.
I still wanted to live a long life.
"Huh? Why? I don’t mind."
Neon had been about to explain the conditions for fortune-telling, but stopped when I intervened.
You don’t mind, but I do.
"He may belong to another mafia organization, so it would be dangerous to tell his fortune."
Chrollo’s gaze burned into me.
So what? I couldn’t just sit back and hand over information that had my life on the line.
And wasn’t confirming information about the ability he wanted to steal one of the conditions for stealing an ability?
Shutting up a teenage girl was pretty difficult, but it was nothing compared to fighting Chrollo.
Then I had to do my best.
"It is acceptable for you to participate in the underground auction. It is even acceptable for you to meet an unidentified man. But using your ability is another matter entirely."
"That hurts. Do I look like the mafia to you too, Neon?"
Unbothered by my suspicion, Chrollo spoke only to Neon.
Scheming bastard.
He knew that if his employer did whatever she wanted, there was nothing I could do to stop her.
His head was working nicely. He knew perfectly well that our young lady had flowers growing in her head.
"I was merely curious about Neon’s ability... But now I feel bad, as though I’m some villain. Well, if that’s how it is, it can’t be helped."
"No, no! I’ve never thought that!"
As Chrollo started to rise from his seat, Neon hurriedly stopped him and made him sit back down. Then she pointed at me and said,
"That’s entirely this Mister’s opinion! It has nothing to do with me! Mister, are you really my bodyguard? Even if you are, I’ll fire you if you keep doing this!"
You miserable little brat. I’m trying to save your life here.
If your ability gets stolen, do you think the mafia will keep treating you the way they do now?
My head was spinning with an ignorant kid stuck in the middle of this. There was no way I could explain it to her, either.
"Then I shall contact your father immediately and request another bodyguard. You said calls were forbidden, but in this case it is solely for the sake of your protection, so there should be no issue."
"What does that have to do with anything? If you make a call, we’ll run immediately!"
"The underground auction will begin shortly... In that case, you will be unable to participate for however long that takes."
"Grrr!!"
Perhaps frustrated, Neon began clawing at her own hair, while Chrollo quietly watched the situation unfold.
What are you going to do? I only need to stall for time.
Should we end this around here?
You need to find Uvogin and rob the auction house, too.
Our esteemed leader. You’re busy, so let’s not waste time on one spoiled young lady, okay?
"Hmm."
Huh.
Wait a second, Mr. Chrollo.
Hold on.
Why is Neon collapsing?
And what is this dagger flying at me?
You fucking asshole, dropping the ordinary-guy act is cheating. What are you doing?
While I hurriedly knocked away the dagger, Chrollo slung Neon over his shoulder.
"What? You lived? Not bad, you. But I won’t let you off if you follow us."
"Please let me off."
"Hm?"
Fuck.
The words had slipped out reflexively before I knew it.
"Pfft, Mister, you’re funny. Fine. If you stay right here, I’ll pretend I never saw you."
"No, that will be difficult."
"Mister, I’m a little busy."
As if his laughter from moments ago had been a lie, Chrollo’s face turned utterly cold.
"I can’t keep playing along with you. If you follow me, I’ll kill you."
- Well then, farewell.
Leaving those words behind, Chrollo smashed through the window and began to flee.
"Aaaah!"
Well, they were thieves, after all.
Would it kill them to use the front door?
Still, I went out the window too. The door was fucking far away.
"I have no intention of fighting! Just leave the young lady behind... you motherfucking bastard, seriously."
"Hello♥ Your mouth has gotten rougher since I last saw you♠"
What fucking awful timing.
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