After getting off the airship, the gloomy Kisho kept his head down as he followed behind Chrollo.
They transferred several times—train, subway, bus—and finally the two stopped in front of a sanatorium on the outskirts of the city.
Kisho glanced at the entrance of the sanatorium. Just from the level of luxury in the gate alone, it was obvious that this place was far beyond what ordinary people could afford.
"What are we doing here?"
Chrollo smiled but said nothing, simply walking inside on his own.
Kisho frowned slightly and quickly followed.
The environment and facilities of the sanatorium were, in Kisho's view, truly top-tier.
A pleasant garden, walkways lined with greenery on both sides, pools with artificial rocks and swimming fish, various rehabilitation equipment, and medical staff everywhere.
There were also quite a few patients undergoing rehabilitation training or coming outside for some fresh air.
No matter how he looked at it, this was a perfectly normal sanatorium. It couldn't be that Chrollo had some target here to eliminate, right?
As he walked, Kisho muttered to himself internally.
Chrollo had already entered Building No.1 of the patient ward and, as if very familiar with the place, pressed the elevator button.
"Ding."
The elevator doors slowly opened in front of them. Chrollo glanced at Kisho, signaling him not to stand there daydreaming or wander off, but to follow properly.
Kisho silently stepped inside, though his breathing tightened slightly.
If Chrollo really planned to kill a patient here, then he—
He imagined countless possibilities in his mind, running through a hundred ways he might resist or save someone. But before he could settle on any plan, the elevator had already stopped.
Chrollo stepped out with long strides.
After walking a few more steps down the corridor, Chrollo stopped in front of a certain patient room and raised his hand to push open the half-closed door.
Kisho took a deep breath and was just about to follow in when a familiar voice came from behind the door.
"Ah~ Leader, you finally came. I was almost bored to death!"
While speaking, Shalnark noticed the tail following behind Chrollo and greeted with a rising tone.
"Yo, you even brought Kisho along?"
He smiled and asked, "Hey, Leader, you must be fine, but what about this kid Kisho? Did he pass the exam?"
Chrollo responded with a simple "Mm."
"Yes!" Shalnark cheered excitedly at the thought of winning his bet. Someone who didn't know better might think he was cheering for a fellow member.
"Why are you here?"
Kisho asked as he stepped inside, while at the same time scanning the room's interior.
A bed with restraint straps, a television, a desk, a bookshelf—and a young man lying on the bed wearing a patient's gown.
The young man had his eyes closed, as if he had been in a constant state of sleep.
His skin had a waxy yellow color from extreme malnutrition, and his face was frighteningly thin and gaunt.
Yet Kisho was shocked to discover that if this young man were healthy, his appearance would be exactly the same as C·L.
Or rather, this young man was the real C·L.
That was probably why Chrollo's "disguise" had been flawless—so perfect that even the instruments of the Hunter Association couldn't detect it.
This wasn't merely a disguise anymore.
It was basically stealing another person's entire identity, then using it to act recklessly in the world without bearing any responsibility.
That was completely the Phantom Troupe's style.
Realizing this, Kisho sighed quietly in his heart.
Although he had always wanted to know how Chrollo turned into someone else, now that he had the answer, it didn't make him happy in the slightest.
He silently stared at Chrollo.
But the man being stared at had absolutely no awareness of the eye-daggers aimed at him. Calmly, he said to Shalnark:
"You can cancel the Nen ability now."
"Got it~"
Shalnark made an "OK" gesture.
The Nen ability "Black Voice" activated. A little devil cellphone and an antenna appeared in his hands.
He took a few steps forward, casually inserting one of the antennas into the young man's shoulder, then pressed several buttons on the phone.
The young man was controlled into sitting up on the bed. His lifeless eyes suddenly opened, and two arrows—one pointing up and one pointing down—appeared on the back of his hand.
The young man slowly turned his body toward Chrollo.
Without any visible movement from him, Chrollo—who had been in C·L's appearance—returned to his original appearance within a few breaths.
The arrow symbolizing the "transformation" on the back of his hand also disappeared after his original appearance returned.
Kisho stared at Chrollo after the transformation ended. For some reason, his heart trembled slightly.
To be honest, Mr. C·L's face looked much less frightening and made it easier for him to bargain with the fiend.
But facing this Leader with the inverted cross tattoo...
Tch. Better forget it.
While staring at Chrollo, Shalnark's voice drew his attention.
"This Nen ability is called 'Convert Hands.' Because it requires both hands to activate, Leader can't steal it using Skill Hunter. So whenever we need to use it, I have to come with him and use the antenna to control the process and complete the exchange."
Kisho looked at Shalnark, waiting for him to continue.
After removing the antenna from the young man, he continued:
"This Nen ability works like this: if the right hand touches someone else, that person will change into your appearance. If the left hand touches yourself, you will change into the other person's appearance."
"If both hands touch at the same time, the two people will instantly exchange appearances."
After listening to Teacher Shalnark's explanation, the studious Kisho asked:
"While the appearance is changed, is there no way to voluntarily change back?"
The one who answered was still Shalnark.
"Of course there is. Leader's Nen is far stronger than this guy's. If he wants to cancel it, it only takes a moment—just a surge of his own Nen power."
"But since it's a trigger-type Nen ability, under normal circumstances both the transformation and cancel need to be initiated by this guy."
Shalnark lightly patted the young man's back, as if he were patting a machine capable of disguising people.
"If the person whose appearance was changed forcibly breaks the effect, this guy will suffer backlash from his own Nen. And once that happens, with his current physical condition..."
"He'll probably just die."
Shalnark narrowed his green eyes and said the word "die" with the same calm tone one might use to say "broken."
Kisho was silent for a moment before quietly saying:
"So that's why Leader doesn't want to cancel it himself."
There was still half a sentence he didn't say.
Because they would need to borrow this identity again in the future, this young man, to Chrollo, was like a fragile but useful tool. Naturally, he would be careful when using it.
As for the fact that the tool was originally a human being—
Heh. Would the Phantom Troupe care about something like that?
—Ridiculous. Wasn't he himself forcibly recruited by this Leader just because he had a useful Nen ability?
Before Shalnark could respond, Kisho curled his lips slightly, his cold smile quickly fading away.
So in this lifetime, he would never become a true member of the Phantom Troupe.
From the very beginning, he and these spiders had never belonged to the same world.
...
While the two were chatting on this side, Chrollo, who had been standing on the other side, had already combed his hair into a slicked-back style. His suit had also been replaced with a black coat bearing an inverted cross that no one knew where he had just taken out from.
Noticing Chrollo's change of appearance, Kisho clicked his tongue.
This outfit—classic. Too classic.
So classic that he once again felt like a pitiful little guy who could only follow behind the Leader of the Phantom Troupe, suffering oppression while having no choice but to endure it.