A woman stepped out from the dense foliage.
Black skintight dress. Dark skin. Slender, almost fragile frame, yet her upper body was full and alluring, carrying a faint seductive air.
Walking through deserted mountain woods dressed like that was, by itself, abnormal.
But she was a Nen user. That made it less strange.
Moro's whole body tensed, aura surging restlessly.
Only when he recognized the wide forehead and those large vertical pupils did the tension ease a fraction.
One of the Twelve Zodiacs of the Hunter Association: Snake, Gel.
He guessed the gunfire had drawn her.
Gel stood on the slope, arms folded, calmly sizing him up.
Their eyes met mid-air: one assessing, the other wary and surprised.
Somehow…
Moro being completely naked felt like the least noteworthy detail of the scene.
Gel's gaze drifted over the aura clinging to his skin. Compared to a moment ago, it had loosened considerably.
The shift from high alert to relaxed happened too fast to be normal.
She glanced at the open cargo truck, then at the two corpses on the ground.
Finally she looked back at Moro and spoke, voice flat.
"You think I'm less of a threat than the guy on the ground?"
She pointed at Zazan's body with deliberate meaning.
"Quite the opposite."
Moro stayed cautious, but the immediate sense of danger faded.
He'd thought the gunshots brought her. Now he realized she'd been here long before.
The rustling she made when appearing had been on purpose.
"If you wanted to hurt me, you wouldn't have announced yourself."
He looked up at her calmly.
Even so, he kept himself ready to attack or defend at any second.
He knew he couldn't beat a Zodiac, but he wasn't going to kneel and die quietly.
He'd at least splash some blood before going down.
Gel glanced almost imperceptibly at the aura gathered in his right hand. Her expression stayed neutral. She said nothing more, just lightly leaped down the slope and landed on the road.
Then, without a word, she walked toward the truck.
That naturally closed the distance between them.
Moro had placed himself in the absolute weaker position from the start, so her approach still applied pressure.
As a transmigrator, he didn't idealize the Hunter Association as some heroic problem-solvers.
But aside from a few exceptions, he didn't think the Zodiacs were the type to slaughter innocents for fun.
Still—not everyone was as straightforward as Gon.
Pressure was natural.
Gel seemed to sense his mood shift and slowed, stopping before crowding him further.
She'd only pressed a little because his words didn't match his aura.
Bullying a probable rookie who wasn't a criminal felt… excessive.
She shook her head slightly and turned to look at the truck.
From her angle she could now clearly see the rows of cages inside—and the naked children locked within.
Naked.
That detail clicked.
Her eyes flicked briefly to Moro's body again. His role in all this was obvious.
Moro didn't react to the glance.
Not because he had an exhibitionist streak—just that it wasn't worth emotional energy.
But the way she looked at him, completely unbothered, dragged up old memories.
When Morena had bought him and he woke up on the airship, she had scanned his body the exact same way.
"You're lucky. Survived that mess without losing any limbs. So I paid for you."
Same flat tone.
Only Morena had followed it up by casually grabbing his crotch and saying, perfectly deadpan:
"If you were a girl, I'd have been happier."
Like she could twist it off whenever she felt like it.
That was his very first meeting with Morena.
To Moro, the woman who never hid the massive scar across her face sometimes didn't hide her bizarre thoughts in front of him or Dog-brother either.
Yet after nearly a year together, he still couldn't say he understood her.
Maybe because…
From day one he'd privately labeled her "antisocial personality" and never looked deeper.
"You're awfully relaxed around me."
Gel's calm voice snapped him back.
Moro's heart jumped. His expression shifted—he instantly realized he'd dropped his guard for a second.
Seeing the flicker of self-reproach in his eyes, Gel suddenly found him interesting.
In their short exchange she could tell: this kid set extremely high standards for himself.
People like that, once they crossed the threshold of Nen, rarely turned out mediocre.
If she cared more about earning a Two-Star Hunter title, she might've invested some time in him.
"Gel. Professional Hunter."
She introduced herself first, eyes fixed on him.
"Nice to meet you. Moro's fine."
He returned the courtesy.
Gel nodded lightly. "Tell me what happened. I might be able to help."
"…"
Moro paused, then gave a concise rundown.
He left out the destination—the mental hospital.
In this story, he was just another piglet who hadn't reached the slaughterhouse yet. The less said, the safer.
Gel listened, classified it instantly as human trafficking, and asked no further questions about his Nen, his finishing off the gunman, nothing.
She was only in the area to collect venom from a newly catalogued snake species.
This was a minor detour.
If she could do a good deed on the side, sure.
Get dragged in deep? Pass.
Her detached attitude was exactly what Moro wanted.
"Big sis Gel… I'll leave the kids in the truck to you."
With her handling their placement, Moro felt a weight lift.
Because of the changes he'd already made…
Those kids might actually get to live normal lives now.
Gel gave a small nod—one phone call was all it would take.
Moro smiled faintly, then—under her calm gaze—stripped the two corpses for clothes that mostly fit, took their wallets, pocketed the cash, and tucked the pistol away.
She watched without comment.
Moro holstered the gun and prepared to leave.
"Thank you."
A sincere bow of the head.
Without her, figuring out what to do with the kids would've been a massive headache.
Gel lifted her chin slightly in acknowledgment.
Moro turned and walked away.
As he left, he couldn't help glancing once toward the direction the truck had been heading.
Were Morena and Brother Ken already waiting at the hospital?
He didn't know.
Now, standing at destiny's crossroads with future memories in hand, he had no intention of walking the old path again.
No intersection this time.
Farewell…
Morena.
He thought it silently, then stepped resolutely in the opposite direction.
Behind him.
Gel watched until he vanished from sight, then pulled out her phone and made the call to settle the kids' future.
Call finished, she stood by the truck and noticed the open cab had monitors inside.
Bored of waiting, she climbed in, fiddled with the controls, and pulled up the recorded footage.
A few moments later.
Watching the replay from the cargo hold, those snake-like vertical pupils slowly narrowed, gleaming with disbelief.