"Chrollo, what are the next arrangements?"
Shalnark looked toward Chrollo. "The information you asked me to investigate earlier—I've already checked most of it."
"There have been some unexpected developments."
As Chrollo spoke, he glanced at Kisho and said, "The previous arrangements will be postponed for now. We'll decide what to do after Kisho's nen recovers."
"Huh?"
Shalnark's eyes widened slightly. He turned to look at Kisho and stared at him for a moment before the smile faded from his face.
"What happened?"
Shalnark paused, his voice turning serious.
"It's not just that you can't use your nen ability anymore—even 'Ten' can't be maintained?"
Kisho shrugged.
"It's nothing serious. Just backlash from my nen ability."
Shalnark's tone rose sharply.
"You call that nothing serious?!"
Kisho shuddered from the sudden increase in volume and muttered,
"It'll recover after sixty days..."
Shalnark frowned.
"Sixty days..."
He looked at Chrollo, waiting for instructions.
"Then should I notify the others to disperse and regroup after sixty days?"
"No need. Let Kisho handle the previously arranged mission alone."
Chrollo had clearly already thought through the arrangements.
"The others can carry out different missions."
Shalnark frowned even deeper.
"Even if the kid still had his nen ability, completing the mission wouldn't be easy—let alone now—"
"If a mission is delayed because of a member, then the resulting problem should also be handled by that member."
Chrollo smiled.
He turned slightly to look at Kisho.
"This is a problem Kisho needs to think about solving himself."
Kisho: "..."
What a clear assignment of responsibility, Chrollo.
"I'm going out for a while. I'll be back in about two hours and take Kisho to the target location."
Chrollo stood up as he spoke.
"The information you investigated earlier can be handed to him now. You can also explain the mission to Kisho."
"Yes, sir~" Shalnark nodded.
After watching Chrollo leave, he turned and stared at Kisho helplessly.
He stared at him for quite a while, seemingly seriously thinking about how this kid—who had lost his nen ability and in his eyes was no different from an ordinary child—was supposed to complete the mission.
After failing to come up with anything, Shalnark sighed helplessly, walked toward the desk, and turned his head.
"Come here. I'll explain it to you properly."
Kisho walked over.
"The mission target is a floor master of Heaven's Arena."
Shalnark spoke while opening the laptop on the desk. With practiced movements, he logged into a website using his Hunter license and pulled up rows of information.
"Heaven's Arena? Floor master?"
There were two words in that sentence that Kisho didn't understand.
He widened his eyes, blinked curiously, repeated the question, and naturally waited for an explanation—even though the information was right on the screen, he couldn't be bothered to read it.
Perhaps because he was used to explaining things to the Enhancers in the group, Shalnark was unusually patient.
"Heaven's Arena is located within the Republic of Padokea. The tower is 991 meters tall with 251 floors, making it the fourth tallest building in the world."
"The entire tower is filled with fighting arenas. The Heaven's Arena is open up to the 200th floor. Beyond that is a domain ordinary people cannot set foot in."
"As the name suggests, this building was constructed for martial artists from all over the world. Inside, every ten floors count as one rank. Challengers start from the bottom, and with every victory they advance one floor."
"Anyone who successfully reaches above the 200th floor and achieves ten victories there before suffering four losses can become a floor master."
After listening to Shalnark's monotone explanation, Kisho trembled slightly.
"So Chrollo means for me to go fight in illegal matches?"
Shalnark corrected him with a straight face.
"This arena is officially recognized and protected. Strictly speaking, it doesn't count as illegal fighting."
Kisho spoke weakly.
"...But I'm only twelve—no, thirteen years old."
"According to official announcements, even newborn babies are allowed to step onto the ring—don't worry. There are kids six years younger than you who have already reached the 100th floor."
As he spoke, Shalnark clicked several links and pulled up an article for Kisho to read.
It seemed to have been written by some paparazzi who had secretly snuck in. The person in the photo had been blurred into a mass of mosaic pixels—it could only barely be said to look like a human figure from a distance.
And the headline clearly read:
"Six-Year-Old Genius Child First to Clear the 100th Floor of Heaven's Arena!"
Kisho only needed a glance to realize he couldn't refuse. His heart went cold, but he still stiffened his neck and complained:
"...A six-year-old being forced to fight illegal matches—is this the distortion of human nature or the collapse of morality?"
Shalnark ignored his muttering, closed the webpage, opened another link, and pulled up a headshot.
"Your target is the floor master of Heaven's Arena, Shinichi Fujimoto."
He looked like a man in his early thirties with short hair. His appearance was fairly handsome, though there was a one-inch scar on the left side of his face.
Shalnark stared at the man smiling toward the camera on the screen and said to Kisho:
"He possesses an ancient book called The Telzi Symbol Compendium. It records certain runes left behind by ancient lost tribes—an ancient book, you know what that means."
"I don't!"
Kisho snapped.
"That's something Chrollo—the boss—wants. What does it have to do with me, Kisho?!"
"But that's the mission." Shalnark smiled.
"I can't help it. Chrollo's orders must be carried out. If you have objections, you can take them up with him."
Kisho: "..."
Seeing that Kisho had "no objections," Shalnark continued explaining.
"The nen ability of this floor master is currently unknown. It's suspected to be either Emission or Manipulation."
He opened a video.
"This is footage from six months ago when he achieved ten victories above the 200th floor and challenged the floor master position."
Inside the enormous arena, Shinichi Fujimoto stood completely still.
When his opponent approached, he suddenly vanished.
In the next second, his opponent inexplicably fell backward, lying flat on the ground.
His eyes were wide open, yet he couldn't move at all—or rather, he was no longer able to move.
Shalnark turned to ask Kisho,
"Did you see it clearly?"
Kisho frowned.
"Shadow...?"
Shalnark snapped his fingers.
"Correct. I didn't expect your observation skills to still be this sharp even without using Gyo."
"Either he manipulates the target's shadow to control them, or he releases some kind of nen beast that attaches to the target's shadow and forcibly controls them."
Shalnark said,
"After all, those two categories are adjacent. Having one as a secondary specialization isn't much of a problem."
"Above the 200th floor is a domain ordinary people can't enter... Does that mean everyone there has nen abilities?"
Kisho asked.
Shalnark nodded.
"That's right. But there's no guarantee the people you encounter before the 200th floor don't have nen abilities either—though the probability is quite low."
Kisho didn't say anything.
He stared at the video, thinking in his mind about how he could reach above the 200th floor without nen ability and then fight this Shinichi Fujimoto.
The more he thought about it, the darker his expression became.
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