"His strength must be considerable. At the very least, in terms of raw power, I'd say he's on par with you, Gaki."
"Oh?" The blue-haired fighter, known as Gaki, raised an eyebrow, intrigued.
"Now that's someone I'd like to meet. Shura, where is he?"
"Let me check~" Shura, his serpentine fingers tapping rapidly on the screen, sifted through flashing images one after another.
"Found him."
"Where?"
"He… well, you might not need to bother. Right now, he's heading straight for Boss Jed."
"Huh??"
...
"My location?"
Inside the top floor of Heavens Arena, Jed, now without his cloak, revealed his silver hair and dark golden eyes. He listened to Shura's words through his earpiece and chuckled.
"Then let him come. Netero is already restrained, and there's no way he'll be causing any trouble~"
As he spoke, he glanced at Netero, who was bound by a life-forfeiting oath seal from Rengoku. Confidence radiated from his expression.
Netero was practically crucified.
Nearby, Gon and Killua anxiously racked their brains, trying to come up with a way to free him.
"Shura," Jed continued, "I looked into that guy. Apparently, he's the champion of the last Battle Olympia tournament—and also a disciple of the Shingen-ryu style that Netero follows."
"Oh? A disciple of Shingen-ryu?" A cruel smirk played on Jed's lips.
"Perfect. This way, Netero will get to witness the fate of his so-called 'outstanding disciples.'"
His voice took on a darker edge.
"I'll make your successors feel the suffering our people endured."
"Shura, activate all the monitors. I want the entire world to see this—especially V5. It's time they realized the man who once handled all their dirty work is back."
"Yes!!"
As Shura moved to carry out the order, Gon, Killua, and the restrained Netero absorbed every word.
"A disciple of Shingen-ryu?"
"Champion?"
Gon and Killua exchanged glances, realization dawning on them simultaneously.
"It's Ronnel!!"
"He's coming here, isn't he?! That's amazing—if it's Ronnel, we're going to be okay!"
"Yeah, nothing will stop him!!"
The two boys let out a breath of relief, their tense bodies finally relaxing just a bit.
Jed, however, remained unimpressed.
"A champion trained by those weaklings? Trash trained by trash is still trash. And this is your 'hope'? How disappointing, Netero. Has martial arts really regressed this much?"
Netero, still bound, let out a hearty laugh, his tone both amused and resigned.
"Heh~ Maybe I failed to guide this era properly."
His eyes softened as he looked toward Gon and Killua, then recalled the determined young fighter from earlier.
"That said, there are still remarkable youths among them. Even an old man like me has nothing but praise for this one."
"Oh?" Jed scoffed.
With a flick of his hand, a surge of powerful resentment coalesced into a violent wind whip, sending Gon and Killua hurtling out of the window.
"Then allow me to shatter your last hope~!"
...
Meanwhile, on the 245th floor of Heavens Arena…
A room was surrounded by mechanical soldiers.
"Things have certainly taken an interesting and dramatic turn~"
Hisoka lounged on a sofa, staring at the scattered playing cards before him.
A thin black line slowly crept down from his forehead, tracing his eyes and curling at his lips.
Excitement. Madness. Obsession.
Three conflicting emotions intertwined on Hisoka's face, twisting into the most unsettling smile.
"This year… I might finally have some fun~!!"
...
Across the world, audiences stared at blank screens.
"What's going on? Even if there's a technical issue, Heavens Arena's system should have fixed it by now."
One sharp-witted viewer frowned. "Could something… bigger be happening?"
Some remained puzzled, but others sprang into action.
...
At Kukuroo Mountain…
A certain hacker with a hot dog in hand rapidly tapped at his keyboard, his gaze flicking between his screen and the blank one in front of him.
"Even with my skills, I can't access what's happening. Hey, Ickshonpe, any luck?"
A line of text popped up at the bottom of the screen:
"Nope. I've hijacked all electronic devices in Heavens Arena, but they're all blocked. This shouldn't be possible. I suspect some kind of special Nen is preventing my access."
"Special Nen?" Milluki frowned, taking a huge bite of his hot dog.
"Ugh, seriously… nothing better happen. I put a ton of money on Ronnel. If this match gets canceled, I'll actually have to go earn money. And I finally found a limited-edition figure I wanted…"
While Milluki was panicking over his losses, someone else was even more agitated.
...
"Are these idiots completely useless? How do you mess up organizing a single fight?!" Machi growled, crossing her arms.
Something in her gut told her this was going south fast. And her intuition was never wrong.
Her aura flared slightly—proof of her foul mood.
The higher her expectations, the worse the disappointment.
Originally, she'd planned to make a fortune from this.
But now…
She had a really bad feeling about how this was going to end.
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