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That night.
A bald man named Sanji sat in a luxury car, listening to a report from his subordinate over the phone. After hearing just a few sentences, he couldn't hold back his cursing:
"Bunch of idiots! In the end, you didn't even see how you died, and you still have the nerve to report to me? Didn't you claim to be an assassination squad with a 100% success rate? Get your leader on the phone!"
"The leader is dead," the man on the other end replied.
"Dead?" Sanji frowned. "What about the deputy leader?"
"The deputy leader is dead too."
The man sounded embarrassed as he added, "They were in the same car. Before they could see clearly, they were shredded into pieces by some inexplicable force, car and all..."
"Enough!"
Sanji was so angry he almost crushed his phone. Veins popped on his forehead as he hung up.
As a prominent mafia boss in Yorknew, it was rare for him to suffer consecutive setbacks at the hands of a nobody who had seemingly crawled out of the woodwork. He felt incredibly stifled.
"That famous hunter whom even the Ten Dons might not be able to hire... Light actually managed to hire him. What kind of trick did he use...?"
Sanji pondered carefully, inevitably recalling new intelligence he had received just a few days ago...
Rumor had it that the reason Light's daughter had a 100% accuracy rate in divination was that she was also an awakened Nen user.
"Could it be that he relied on his daughter's divination again..." Sanji thought, affirming this answer in his heart.
Aside from that, he couldn't think of any other reason why Light could hire that white-haired hunter.
Thinking of this, Sanji became increasingly dissatisfied, and resentment surged in his heart like a tide.
"If not for that little girl, I would definitely have had a chance to sit on the throne of the Ten Dons in the future.
But just because of Light's good luck, relying on his daughter's ability, he can not only seize my position but also use it to win over such powerful ability users..."
However, Sanji also understood—as long as he got rid of that girl, everything Light possessed would flow away like water, and everything he himself had lost would eventually be reclaimed in full.
"Sure enough, I can only spend a little money... to hire that legendary family of assassins."
If he really let Light ride his daughter's coattails to the Ten Dons, Sanji was certain he would struggle to find another chance to turn things around in the future.
...
Several days later.
Yorknew City, Lincoln Airport.
A magnificent airship was docked here, its stairs lowered.
Yuu silently followed Neon up the stairs. Behind them were Neon's two maids, carrying a lot of luggage, clearly most of which belonged to their young miss.
Neon was very satisfied with the bodyguard her father had found for her.
Although his temperament was cold and he always looked serious, he was handsome, and he had a pair of azure blue eyes that she cared about immensely.
So even while walking up the stairs, Neon couldn't help but stop occasionally to turn back and size him up.
At such a close distance, she could observe those eyes from a higher vantage point.
However, this stop-and-go behavior made Yuu a little impatient.
Neon, completely disregarding the feelings of the person behind her, asked Yuu thoughtfully:
"By the way, didn't you bring your own luggage? Like a change of clothes or something."
"Of course I did, you just can't see it..."
Yuu replied flatly, then urged her to move on.
Currently, most of his luggage was stored in the belly of his Nen beast, such as clothes, toiletries, and various tools he might need.
Through a year of training, although Yuu's Nen cat hadn't grown much in size, the capacity of its stomach was enough to hold the contents of a room.
Of course, this only applied to inanimate objects.
If it were a living thing, or an item imbued with 'Nen'...
Whether it could be swallowed, and the storage limit, depended on the 'total amount of Nen' of the Nen cat itself. Currently... for humans, it could only swallow individuals with weak auras.
That is, critically injured people or the elderly near death.
Of course, whether to digest them or not depended solely on Yuu's will, so naturally, an embarrassing incident like 'digesting a heavily injured ally into a Nen pill' wouldn't happen.
...
The airship departed quickly.
Inside the airship, Yuu could sense that besides himself, there were four other Nen users with average strength.
Excluding the blond man Kurito whom he had met before.
The remaining three.
Among them were a man and a woman, led by a black-haired man named Valtz.
All three were dressed in military fatigues and had robust builds. They seemed to know each other well... according to Kurito, they were an independent team before coming to the Nostrade family.
Perhaps because of this.
They didn't care much for Kurito or Yuu, the young boy who had joined the team temporarily. They even harbored a bit of rejection... so far, no one had taken the initiative to talk to him.
Yuu didn't care about this... after all, he was used to being alone.
And on the other hand...
For him, the fewer extra people interfering with his actions, the better he could unleash his full strength.
...
In the following days.
Yuu rarely left his room except for meals.
Because the journey from Yorknew to the Kakin Empire was long, he could take this opportunity to relax, enjoying a rare leisure time.
However, perhaps because he rarely went out, Miss Neon would always come looking for him.
From the day she met Yuu, she had shown excessive attention to him because of those azure blue eyes.
After all, she was a collector of human body parts.
Although Neon didn't harbor any cruel thoughts about Yuu's rare and beautiful azure eyes, she was inevitably fascinated by them.
She often dreamed of holding those blue eyes while sleeping peacefully.
The journey had only been underway for a few days.
Neon's two maids, Eliza and Fury, discovered that the young miss, who previously only wanted to play games with them, often went to disturb the white-haired hunter.
The excuse every time was just to get some fresh air or play games together... but her real purpose was obviously to admire those eyes a bit more.
Yuu naturally understood this.
But Yuu wasn't interested, and since this seemed to be outside the scope of his commission, he decisively refused every time.
However, he didn't expect...
As the days went by, Neon not only didn't stop but knocked on his door more frequently, clearly unwilling to give up until she achieved her goal.
Just like right now.
It was already late at night.
But Yuu could clearly see outside the room—
Neon was standing at the door with a hesitant look.
She seemed to plan on skipping the knocking part and directly put her hand on the handle, wanting to push the door open.
Yuu could only helplessly open the door, look at Neon who hadn't acted yet, sigh, and say helplessly:
"Miss Neon, what exactly do you want?!"
Perhaps because it was late at night, Yuu was rarely angry, and his tone became stern:
"My mission doesn't include keeping you company to kill time or taking care of your daily life...
Those are your maids' jobs, and I am only responsible for your personal safety!"
"Do you know that your frequent disturbances are quite troubling for me!"
"Even I... need rest, understand?!"
Yuu hadn't lost his temper for a long time, and his aura was a bit scary for a moment.
But he seemed to have overlooked one thing.
The current Neon, although only thirteen or fourteen years old and petite, had long developed a spoiled character. Whenever she encountered something she wanted, she just had to cry in front of everyone, and she would eventually get her way.
If crying once wasn't enough, she would cry a second time, and cry even harder.
Over time, as the number of tantrums increased, and her father became more indulgent towards her, no one in the entire Nostrade family dared to lose their temper with her again.
The next moment, inside the entire airship.
Neon's piercing cry instantly resounded through the clouds.
Everyone thought they had encountered an assassin, but when they rushed to the scene... they saw Miss Neon rolling on the ground in her pajamas.
Aside, Yuu held his forehead with a speechless expression.
He would rather the entire Phantom Troupe rush out of the cabin right now than see this naughty little girl throw a tantrum again.
What a headache.
...