Too sudden.
Pakuonoda's fifth bullet wasn't the harmless Memory Bomb like before...
Moreover, just before Pakunoda fired this fifth shot, neither the silver revolver nor the loaded cylinder showed the slightest aura fluctuation.
This proved that Pakunoda had already mixed in a lethal Nen bullet before firing the first shot.
Machi, Nobunaga, and the others were all experts. Though shocked by the scene before them, they quickly gathered these obvious clues.
What followed was confusion.
They didn't immediately consider the possibility that "Hisoka was the traitor," since Pakunoda's ability had already verified everyone's innocence.
But as Pakunoda holstered her revolver, this ingrained assumption clearly no longer applied.
For Pakunoda to use "Memory Bombs" as a pretense while secretly preparing a fatal Nen bullet for Hisoka...
Even without an explanation, Machi had already instinctively realized one thing.
Hisoka was the traitor.
In that instant, Machi's gaze sharpened like her Nen Threads, slicing coldly and mercilessly toward Hisoka, who now lay on the ground with a bullet wound in his forehead.
Even as Hisoka's aura steadily weakened, her murderous glare made it seem like she might desecrate his corpse at any moment.
Nobunaga also grasped the situation... Hisoka might be the traitor, yet everything still felt chaotic.
Just then, Pakunoda finally spoke.
"Hisoka is the traitor."
She revealed the truth in the simplest terms.
But the moment her words fell, the seemingly lifeless Hisoka on the ground suddenly erupted with surging aura.
With a flick of his wrist, a playing card shot toward Pakunoda like lightning.
The sudden attack left Pakunoda no time to react.
Fortunately, Machi, standing beside her, had been watching Hisoka closely.
The instant the card flew out, her right hand snapped forward, aura-wrapped fingers precisely catching the deadly projectile.
Pakuonoda stared at the card mere inches from her face, pupils contracting in shock. She never expected Hisoka, with a bullet in his forehead, could still launch such a vicious attack.
So that near-death aura state earlier had actually been Hisoka barely surviving the fatal shot while putting on an act?
The moment Machi caught the card, Nobunaga and Uvogin turned toward Hisoka, attacking almost simultaneously.
Nobunaga's blade flashed, its keen edge slicing through the air straight at the still-prone Hisoka.
At the same time.
Uvogin roared, his right fist gathering violent aura like a meteor, smashing toward Hisoka's chest.
Yet just as the attacks were about to land, Hisoka's body suddenly slid rapidly along the floor toward the morgue entrance.
Bungee Gum.
His earlier card throw at Pakunoda had been a diversion to draw everyone's attention.
Meanwhile, he had secretly attached Bungee Gum to the wall outside the door.
But he didn't move immediately, only when Nobunaga and Uvogin struck did he suddenly retract the pink adhesive thread.
This way, the risk of being blocked at the entrance could be minimized to some extent.
Hisoka's figure slid like a ghost to the morgue door.
Had he not caught the faint bloodlust leaking from Pakunoda at the last possible moment, his head would have already been pierced by a Nen bullet.
Even so, his hasty defense still left him injured, blood continuously flowing from the wound on his forehead.
Doesn't hinder movement...
Using the pull of Bungee Gum, Hisoka twisted his waist the moment he slid to the door, bouncing up with astonishing flexibility and darting outside like lightning.
He reveled in battle and slaughter, but he wasn't arrogant enough to think he could single-handedly take on several Troupe members, including Chrollo.
That wouldn't be enjoyment, it would be suicide.
The instant he burst through the door, Hisoka glanced toward Chrollo's direction out of the corner of his eye.
The man, who had remained standing still all this time, still wore an expression of utter detachment.
This abnormality made Hisoka's nerves tense up instantly.
Are there other Troupe members outside?
But he dismissed the thought almost immediately.
Those absent from today's gathering had long become corpses at Morrow's hands; they would never appear again.
Nevertheless, Hisoka remained convinced of his judgment.
Chrollo's unusual calmness must have a reason.
At that moment.
A figure suddenly appeared outside the door, as if materializing out of thin air.
But this emergence from nothingness wasn't due to a spatial ability; it stemmed from an incredibly skilled aura-concealing technique.
The moment the figure appeared, it launched a fierce attack toward Hisoka.
Hisoka reacted instantly, crossing his arms in front of him.
Boom!
The figure's fist seemed to carry the force of a thousand pounds, slamming heavily into Hisoka's raised arms.
As the dull impact reverberated through the silent corridor, Hisoka was sent flying back into the morgue by the sheer force of the blow.
From this moment onward, the aura of death tightly ensnared Hisoka.
It was also at this moment that Hisoka understood why Chrollo had been so calm.
The person Chrollo had stationed outside the door was extraordinarily powerful.
Forced back onto the spider's meticulously woven web, Hisoka surprisingly lost the urgency to distance himself from the center of danger immediately.
With a flick of his wrist, he produced several playing cards between his fingers, his narrowed eyes quickly scanning the Troupe members in the morgue before settling on the doorway.
Tap, tap...
The crisp sound of high heels striking the floor echoed into the morgue.
The figure that had forced Hisoka back was now slowly approaching the entrance.
Hisoka looked up, his pupils contracting sharply.
Standing there was another version of himself.
The same face, the same build; the only difference was the other's corseted outfit and stiletto boots.
Though it was his usual attire, he wasn't dressed like that today.
And... those deep, pitch-black eyes.
Hisoka detected a trace of familiarity in them.
That indifferent, almost emotionless gaze...
Along with the masterful disguise ability.
Who else could it be but Illumi?
So that's how it is.
In an instant, Hisoka understood why Chrollo had suddenly set up this death trap.
Illumi had betrayed him.
"I still owe you a huge sum of money, don't you want it anymore?"
Hisoka's golden pupils reflected the image of the imposter, his body swelling with surging aura as he prepared for a desperate battle.
The imposter, Illumi.
His ability allowed him to maintain a transformed disguise for several hours without inserting Nen needles.
Hearing Hisoka's words, Illumi mimicked him by pulling out a playing card and holding it between his fingers, calmly stating, "Your 'sense of smell' is as sharp as ever, Hisoka... As for the money you owe me, Chrollo has already settled it for you."
"Is that so? How touching, his sense of responsibility."
Hisoka turned slightly, ensuring his gaze remained fixed on Illumi at the entrance and Chrollo's group in the morgue.
Though his demeanor still appeared calm and composed, his heart was filled with an overwhelming sense of crisis.
Today, he might die here.
Hisoka had already considered this possibility.
Or rather, from the moment Illumi betrayed him, fate had already dealt him a death card.
"Heh..."
Yet, in the face of the suffocating pressure of death closing in from all sides, Hisoka's surging aura radiated an even fiercer thirst for battle.
Everyone present, aside from Illumi and Chrollo, subtly shifted their expressions.
Pakunoda, who had just narrowly escaped death, stared at Hisoka's bloodied forehead, her heart filled with indescribable shock.
She was certain that before she fired, Hisoka had no knowledge of Chrollo's deadly trap.
And yet, even so, he had managed to react at the last moment and hastily block her Nen bullet at such close range.
A true monster...
Pakunoda's eyes trembled slightly.
Nobunaga noticed her emotional turmoil and said, "Don't dwell on it, Pakunoda... Hisoka's senses have always been unnaturally sharp."
With that, he raised his katana toward Hisoka, his eyes brimming with icy bloodlust.
Pakunoda nodded and stepped back, leaving the battlefield to Nobunaga and the others.
"Boss, should we just kill him now?"
Nobunaga asked Chrollo without turning around.
But even as he posed the question, his aura was already infused with the intent to slice Hisoka into pieces.
It was as if, even if Chrollo ordered them to spare Hisoka, he would still cut him down without hesitation.
Chrollo didn't pay much attention to Nobunaga's seemingly redundant question; his own feelings were no different from the others'.
"Kill him."
His cold voice rang out as he channeled his Nen, materializing Skill Hunter.
At Chrollo's command, everyone immediately shifted into combat stance.
But at that moment, Hisoka made a seemingly meaningless move.
Before engaging in battle, he took out his phone and, with a slight exertion of force, crushed it into tiny fragments.
At the entrance.
Illumi watched Hisoka destroy his phone and instantly understood... Hisoka didn't want him using it to further manipulate Morrow. His expression remained blank as he said, "It seems you've mentally prepared yourself for death, Hisoka."
Hisoka's response was several playing cards wrapped in pink adhesive thread, launched straight at Illumi.
Attacking Illumi first meant Hisoka still held onto the hope of breaking through the encirclement.
"Taking the initiative is crucial, so don't waste your effort."
Facing the playing cards Hisoka shot toward him, Illumi paid no attention to the Bungee Gum attached to them. With a flick of his wrist, he sent three Nen needles flying, knocking the cards out of the air.
Without waiting to see Hisoka's next move, he calmly retreated from the doorway.
As he stepped back, nurses and doctors, along with patient after patient, all impaled with Nen needles, surged from both sides of the hallway.
Under the control of the needles, they completely blocked the morgue's only exit, forming an impenetrable human wall.
This barricade thoroughly crushed any thought Hisoka might have had of breaking through.
In the dimly lit corridor, Illumi leaned against the cold wall, arms crossed.
You get what you pay for.
So in this final operation to eliminate Hisoka, he had no intention of overexerting himself.
Sealing off Hisoka's escape route was already more than enough.
The rest could be left to the Phantom Troupe to handle.
Illumi watched the crowd blocking the exit with cold, indifferent eyes, his pitch-black pupils betraying no emotion.
In his view, a wounded Hisoka facing Chrollo and the others alone had almost no chance of survival.
But this obvious outcome didn't stir even the slightest ripple in his heart.
After all, compared to so-called "friendships" maintained by mutual benefit, family was the only thing that truly mattered.
Illumi lowered his eyelids slightly, listening to the sounds of battle echoing from the morgue.
—--
Time passed slowly.
When the commotion inside finally ceased, Illumi manipulated the Needlemen to disperse the blockade.
As the human wall parted, a headless corpse immediately came into view.
Hisoka's body lay on the ground, his severed head resting not far away, his pale face frozen in a trace of madness.
Illumi stepped unhurriedly into the morgue, his gaze sweeping past Hisoka's head before shifting to the members of the Phantom Troupe.
Uvogin's massive frame bore two gruesome wounds, one dangerously close to his throat.
Nobunaga clutched his abdomen, where a playing card was deeply embedded in his flesh, blood dripping from its edge.
Even in a one-sided siege, Hisoka's dying counterattack had still exacted a price from the two who had led the charge.
"This guy... really was a pain," Nobunaga muttered.
Gripping his sword in reverse, he drove the blade down mercilessly into Hisoka's skull.
Thunk.
The sharp steel pierced through the back of the head, pinning it to the floor.
Illumi remained indifferent to Nobunaga's desecration of the corpse, his eyes locking onto Chrollo instead. "Is the SIM card from Hisoka's phone still intact?"
"Shattered," Chrollo replied flatly.
Before the ambush had even begun, Hisoka had crushed his phone without hesitation, grinding the card to dust along with it.
"Pity."
Illumi sighed faintly in disappointment before offering a reminder. "You'd better move quickly. If Morrow doesn't receive any updates from Hisoka, he'll grow suspicious."
He paused, then added, "Also... I don't think I ever mentioned this, but the idea of using memory alteration to bypass inspections was actually Morrow's suggestion. So even with the element of surprise, don't let your guard down."
This overly proactive remark inevitably revealed a hint of Illumi's own intentions.
Like the Troupe, he wanted Morrow dead.
It was precisely this realization that allowed Chrollo to confidently maintain their cooperation through the currency of "money."
"We will."
He looked at Illumi's face, which was no different from Hisoka's, and stated firmly.
Seeing this, Illumi turned and left without hesitation.
"Notify me before taking action."
He left those words behind and, before departing, swiftly removed all the bead-head needles from the Needlemen.
Soon, the corridor was littered with corpses.
In the morgue.
Chrollo gazed at the disorderly pile of bodies strewn across the hallway outside the door, raising a hand to rest against his chin.
After securing the advantage of prior intelligence, he had originally planned to prepare a combination of abilities for Morrow.
But now, it seemed they would have to act directly.
With the additional intelligence Illumi provided about Morrow's abilities, it was enough...