The upright rat stood there, silently watching Law, like a lifeless stuffed doll. Meanwhile, the black smoke at the end of its tail continued its soundless, wide-mouthed grin, its eyes sometimes vertical, sometimes triangular, its expression unusually animated.
Law met the gaze of the rat and the smoke, his expression calm.
This was the third encounter, not in the exact same location, but at roughly the same distance.
Having mentally prepared himself, Law wasn't surprised. He retrieved Shin from Kuro's space. As Aura surged, a jade-white humanoid phantom materialized behind him in an instant.
A fierce Aura erupted, radiating dangerous intent, yet the rat and the black smoke remained unmoved.
Law's eyes turned cold. He swung the sword, the phantom longsword descending directly, slicing the rat and the black smoke into fragments.
The shattered pieces of the rat's body scattered on the ground. The black smoke dispersed, then moments later, coalesced back into its original form, still having that soundless, grinning expression.
It suddenly puffed out its cheeks. Beneath it was a black, smoke-like tendril, sharp, long, and thin, resembling a rat's tail.
The black smoke's mouth billowed like a bellows. Simultaneously, the end of its tail quickly swelled. In less than two seconds, it had blown out an upright rat, which then returned to its original color.
After blowing out a rat, the plume of black smoke grinned soundlessly, its eyes transforming into inverted triangles, hinting at sharpness, almost like a challenge.
"Turning the intangible into the tangible? The same nature as Kuro's ability."
Watching the black smoke produce a rat, Law didn't immediately launch a second attack. The rat blown out by the black smoke was a physical entity, while the black smoke itself was intangible.
This characteristic was the same as Kuro's ability… the fundamental transformation of a Nen Beast from nothingness into existence.
Regardless of whether he could ascertain the truth about the rat and the smoke, assuming this might be a dream, what was the point?
Unconsciously, the scales in his mind tipped toward the idea that his current experience was a dream. The reason being the ability of some Calamity.
The train of thought Law usually employed in combat halted due to this slightly negative notion.
So, he decisively swung his sword again, shattering the rat and the smoke. Before the black smoke could reform, he closed in, compressed a spherical Domain, and sealed the scattered black smoke within it, continuously applying pressure.
From the size of a basketball, to a soccer ball, to a tennis ball, and finally to the size of an egg.
Law's cold gaze fell upon the black smoke within his Domain, now shrunk to the size of a marble. Suddenly, he clenched his palm as if crushing a bug, obliterating the black smoke into nothingness.
This time, the black smoke seemed completely gone, not reappearing, leaving only two shattered rat corpses.
"This thing is a bit interesting." With the fight over, Kuro emerged from Law's hand, materializing.
He circled the rat's corpses, his back to Law, and asked, "Do you think this could be an effect produced by Nen?"
Law glanced at his palm and said calmly, "Can't you see? There wasn't a trace of Aura on that black smoke or the rat."
'The White Smoke Font still provided no information. Was it on strike, or was it unable to appraise them?'
Kuro turned to look at Law, speaking with an air of seriousness, "There is no Aura, but don't you think all unbelievable things should be related to Nen? Or born from it as a foundation. Like me, aren't I a product created by Nen?"
"If you wanted to..." Kuro's facial fur twitched slightly, "It wouldn't be hard to materialize another Nen Beast with special abilities, right? After all, any Nen User has this potential and capability. What's lacking is just the extent of the cost."
Hearing Kuro's lengthy discourse, Law's pupils constricted slightly. He found it strange that Kuro would say such things.
But the next second, he wondered why he should find it strange?
Once the idea of 'assuming this is a dream' was injected into his thoughts, then considering Kuro's words as nonsense wasn't surprising at all.
'But where did these words from Kuro originate? I was certain he had never held such views.'
'So then...?'
Unconsciously, Law sank into contemplation, completely unaware that a seed of chaos was taking root and sprouting within him, affecting him like a vortex.
"Am I right?"
Just as Law was deep in thought, Kuro paced over. Previously, he had been circling the rat's corpses. This time, he was circling Law.
If one could rewind time, they would be astonished to find that Kuro's circling around the two different objects had nearly identical steps, rhythm, even his expression and tone were identical.
The deathly still forest was left with only the sound of the boundless wind and rain.
Rain falling on leaves might be the only accompaniment.
Law was lost in thought. Kuro circled him clockwise for the second time.
"Am I right?"
The second repetition of the question snapped Law out of his contemplation.
At that moment, he felt as if the workings of his brain were like a kite with a severed string, drifting with the wind, or like an overloaded CPU, stuttering intermittently.
"Am I right?"
Kuro finished his third circle, the third repetition of the question. His voice suddenly blurred into the sound of the rain.
Law looked sharply down at Kuro by his feet. Kuro had now turned into a smoke-like form. But Kuro wasn't returning to the back of his hand.
Instead, amidst a series of contortions, he transformed into a round, smoke-like mass, revealing a pair of inverted triangular eyes and the signature soundless grin from the front.
Kuro had just vanished inexplicably, replaced by the black smoke that had been crushed into nothingness moments before.
The curve etched at the corners of its mouth grew higher and higher, reminiscent of a certain fast-food clown's smile.
Seeing this, Law's slightly stiff face tightened. In wordless silence, he lowered his head further. A shadow seemed to fall over his features. His thoughts felt frozen solid, and for a moment, they almost crashed completely.
The Domain surrounding his body slowly dissipated. The cold raindrops fell directly onto Law, instantly soaking his hair and clothes.
It wasn't that Law had dismissed it himself, nor that he had suddenly lost the ability to use Nen. More precisely, the very existence of his Nen had been erased.
Law's reaction was almost nonexistent.
The eerie black smoke seemed incapable of making sound, merely maintaining its highly conspicuous grin, staring motionlessly at Law.
If the first and second times were deliberate acting, the third time was an intentional reveal.
Utterly clueless… this was Law's current situation. The only comfort he could offer himself was that he had never felt a sense of crisis.
When the black smoke revived in this manner, it could be said to have directly removed its mysterious mask.
Yet, beneath that mask, there was still only darkness.
Law still didn't know when all of this had begun, 'What was the purpose of the unknown entity behind the scenes? Was it enjoying the thrill of hunting me, or could it only use such methods to slowly wear me down?'
What worried and concerned him more were Biscuit and Bruna back in the tree hollow.
His frozen thoughts began to thaw. After a good while, Law slightly nodded. A sharp glint flashed in his eyes as he said coldly, "You want to see me break?"
The grinning black smoke suddenly pressed close to Law's face. Its eyes stared intently at him, like a scanner, passing over every detail and every inch.
Law, however, remained unmoved, enunciating each word clearly: "I will find you."
A flicker of something strange passed deep within those inverted triangular eyes.
'From start to finish, why was there no panic? Why no fear? Why no despair?'
'Ah, was it too early to reveal the tell?'
'Hmm, then let's have a few more rounds.'
The black smoke suddenly stretched open a cavernous mouth and swallowed Law, who was unable to use Nen.
Everything once again returned to darkness.