"I'll just be honest~ I'm here to look into the Troupe. You know them? The Phantom Troupe. Their leader looks… delicious."

Saiki froze for 0.3 seconds: Wait, we're already at that part of the story? The part where Hisoka joins the Troupe and chases Chrollo around?

Chrollo. Delicious? The guy's just a bookshelf with legs who fake-smiles all day. What's so appealing about him? He probably doesn't even fight—he lets the other members handle that.

Hold up. The bigger piece of info here is… the Phantom Troupe is in this place?! Why would they be here?

No way. Don't tell me it's because of what Ging left behind…

No no no, probably not. Definitely not. Ging said it was just something that weakens abilities. Why would a bunch of Nen users want that?

When the ship landed, Saiki realized that everyone getting off at this stop looked… different from regular tourists.

Then, a bunch of ticket scalpers suddenly showed up.

"Full tour buses, check them out! Only 230,000 Jenny!"

230,000?! That's robbery! That's more than double the Kukuroo Mountain fee!

[Heh heh heh. Plenty of suckers willing to pay. After all, everyone here can afford it…] thought one of the ticket guys.

What's going on? This place was supposed to be a quiet little tourist spot. He checked ahead of time. And it's not even peak season!

"Hey, pink-haired kid! Still deciding? Check out our tour route—only 230,000 Jenny, just one seat left!"

[Heh heh heh. There's space for five more, but this idiot looks like an easy mark.]

Good grief. Saiki sighed. This is why he hated hearing people's thoughts—everything gets exposed. The world would be much quieter if people could only speak out loud.

He glanced at the map. The first stop of this bus was the Small World Tree. He was about to turn and leave but hesitated.

[I just need to get to the World Tree. How much for that?]

"Ah, kid, we've got a base fare, you know? Gotta be at least this much."

The guy held up two fingers. His thoughts said: 200,000.

Saiki turned around and walked off. He looked into the distance and decided to use clairvoyance to find the World Tree, then teleport there.

It's not that easy to get money out of someone drowning in debt.

"How much for the whole car? Just to the Small World Tree and back~" Big spender Hisoka appeared.

Saiki turned around. Hisoka winked at him.

Saiki turned back: Let's use clairvoyance. Riding that bus would cost me my dignity.

"I booked the whole car for you, little pink. Come on in!"

Saiki Kusuo: ...

Right now, everything he did could be dangerous, so he figured taking a car was the safer choice.

Even though it was Hisoka who invited him, this favor could probably be counted on Illumi's side, right?

He hadn't heard Hisoka talk about payment earlier—if he didn't mention money, then maybe it meant Kusuo didn't have to pay?

Tch. When did he get to the point where he had to worry about something that only cost a couple hundred thousand?

As he was thinking, Hisoka suddenly used his ability, throwing something pink and stretchy like chewing gum at him.

Even without using Nen, Saiki Kusuo could still see it. He instantly teleported to the last row of the car, the farthest seat from Hisoka.

"Hehe, I knew you could see it. Let's go, little driver."

"Y-yes!" the driver stammered, shaking as he started the engine, clearly just wanting to drop these two off as fast as possible.

Yare yare, judging from the way the driver was acting, it was obvious Hisoka had scared him into submission. His thoughts were full of complaints.

Saiki Kusuo looked out the window. The car was moving so slowly. With his current vision, he could see every detail of the people and places they passed. The noise from their thoughts was annoying, too—this place had a lot of Nen users, and lots of scheming and plotting.

He finally understood—someone had leaked Ging's location on purpose. It was likely a trap using treasure rumors to lure people here.

What a pain. But that thing… Saiki Kusuo had to get it.

The car passed by a bookstore. A man was walking out carrying a stack of old books—it caught Saiki Kusuo's attention for a moment.

He also noticed what the guy looked like: black and white striped shirt, casual pants, short hair slightly messy in the wind, revealing a cross symbol on his forehead. The two blue bulbs by his ears were a dead giveaway.

Oops. My eyes must be broken. No one's there. I didn't see anything.

"Hey! Can't the guy in front drive properly?! Back up a little so the other side can pass! We're about to get stuck here!" the driver suddenly shouted. The car then happened to slam on the brakes not far past the bookstore.

This is so bad. Saiki Kusuo's face darkened. The horn made everyone nearby look their way, and the car up front causing the jam had no intention of moving back.

Move! Saiki Kusuo used his ability to force the car backward and pushed another one ahead to open the path. The road cleared up in an instant.

[Huh?] Chrollo noticed something odd. At first, he just glanced over because of the traffic jam, but now he was staring at the tire tracks left on the road.

The way those two cars moved wasn't normal. Their smooth coordination was too unnatural, like they were suddenly being controlled by the same person.

Chrollo: [Nen ability? That's something I'd like to steal. There are a lot of Nen users here… instead of chasing unknown treasure, maybe I can get some unexpected gains.]

Saiki Kusuo: Crap. Now you're interested? You're really the type to want to steal everything, huh? Why don't you take a look at Hisoka's ability instead?

Hisoka also noticed something strange about the cars and turned to glance over his left shoulder—right where Saiki Kusuo was sitting, who he now saw as the most suspicious and mysterious person here.

[Driver, the road's clear. Let's go,] Saiki Kusuo said.

"Huh? Oh, right." The driver finally snapped out of it and stepped on the gas.

Saiki Kusuo subtly moved his body to block part of Hisoka's line of sight. Unfortunately, where Hisoka was looking overlapped with Chrollo's spot in the distance. He couldn't let Hisoka see him...

"Oh? If I'm not wrong, that looked like Chrollo."

Seriously? You saw one pant leg! Do you have Chrollo's image printed into your DNA?!

No, you're wrong. Totally wrong.

"Driver, stop the car," Hisoka said without a second thought.

"Huh? So are we stopping or not…" The driver slowed down again but didn't come to a full stop.

[Go.]

"Stop."

...

Hisoka and Saiki Kusuo looked at each other and chuckled.

"I only rented this car with you to go to the World Tree. Little Pink, wait here, okay? I'll just check if that person's really Chrollo and come right back."

Yeah, no. You *checking is exactly how trouble starts between you two.

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