Saiki Kusuo suddenly thought he should share the info on Genthru with his brothers properly, because this guy watches everyone who shows up in the city every day, and he might notice some people and use them as targets.
Milluki and Kotarou are fine, but Alluka is easy to trick.
"Done." Chrollo said suddenly.
Saiki Kusuo glanced over. It was correct.
"Do you need my help?" Chrollo asked Saiki Kusuo.
No need for that. Saiki Kusuo just bowed his head and wrote out the answer with Nen.
Chrollo looked at the answer sheet a bit longer but didn't ask how he wrote it without even holding a pen.
The handwriting looked just like it was printed.
Chrollo said, "I want to keep playing. Continue or leave?"
[Don't you do whatever you want?]
"That guy just now was the bomb devil you mentioned, right? It's getting dangerous here. What does he want?"
[He noticed it already. He's here to gather info, and it looks like he plans to set more bombs.]
No need to explain the logic in detail. Chrollo figured it out quickly and hesitated before saying, "Then let's continue."
From his actions, getting rejected by Zetsu once probably means his bombs won't hit us.
...
A little while later, two names suddenly shot into the top ten on the leaderboard.
Second place: Kusuo.
Eighth place: Kurusu.
They climbed fast, clearly by solving high-difficulty problems.
"Who are they?" A lot of people were looking for these two mysterious people. The names sounded like some rare minority group's, so they were probably fake names. You couldn't find them through the communication system anyway.
Saiki Kusuo hid himself and Chrollo in a corner. Chrollo was doing easy level-2 problems, while Saiki Kusuo looked at the Sudoku paper with just a few numbers left on level-2 difficulty.
The numbers in Sudoku can arrange in billions of ways, about 5.4 billion total.
The rules are simple too. With just those few numbers already there, you can rule out 5 billion possibilities right away.
Saiki Kusuo solves Sudoku like a search. The answers are all in his mind; he just finds the right one. It's brute force, knowing all possibilities. Sudoku is easy that way.
"If you solve it fast, can you do a few more?" Chrollo said. "I don't know what the first-place prize for level-1 difficulty is, but it should be valuable."
This guy has a habit of collecting rare things, huh.
But doing a few more is no trouble for Saiki Kusuo.
[Why aren't you surprised?] Saiki Kusuo still asked.
"Why be surprised? You became a doctor at fifteen, right? You're a high-IQ guy."
That kind of status doesn't matter to him.
After bumping the difficulty to level 1, Saiki Kusuo took first on the leaderboard. Once Chrollo solved the hardest level-1 problem and climbed to second, taking two spots on the board, they left the venue and stayed low-key.
The prizes would be announced tomorrow.
[Wait.] Saiki Kusuo suddenly stopped.
He suddenly felt a headache, then "saw" continuous explosions coming from the stage behind them. The blasts killed a bunch of people in a row, almost every one hitting a deadly weak spot like the neck.
Some people got their heads blown off, rolling like balls on the ground to Saiki Kusuo's feet.
Saiki Kusuo looked down. Nothing there.
This familiar feeling was the precognition he hadn't felt in a while.
"What's up? Is there something I can't see?" Chrollo followed Saiki Kusuo's gaze but didn't see anything around Shu. He thought it was some Nen thing and asked.
A future you can't see.
But the problem was, should he just turn and leave now? Or stay and do something? This wasn't like an accident from a chain reaction with the game world.
It was the bomb devil's deliberate action. Stopping one bomb on a person would just mean someone else gets hit.
Hard to stop completely.
Chrollo waited confused on the side.
[Can you go back on your own first?]
"Of course. But what are you going to do? Save people?"
[Maybe that's the only way... Wait, how did you know?]
"It's that bomb devil, right? You're watching him now too. Earlier, he tried to get close to me, so I paid some attention. He's already approached more than eight people here on purpose. Normally, he'd be a regular player in this game like everyone else, so no need to contact so many in a short time. Considering his ability, that's the only guess. -- He wants to put on a show here."
[You figured it out without Nen.]
"Nen users fight relying on this more." Chrollo tapped his temple with his index finger. "Explosions are about to happen, and you plan to save people. Some people would notice that. You have healing abilities too?"
Chrollo tilted his head at him.
Saying "yes" right now would be a problem.
Not explaining clearly would hurt the good business friendship with his employer on a basic level.
He has healing abilities, but watching him limp for days like that would seem unkind.
Thinking that if he let the bomb devil blow up, he'd have to use his ability soon anyway. Saiki Kusuo thought briefly and answered: [Healing and all that is actually time-based. As long as they're not dead, I can restore a person's body to one day ago.]
[Your leg was over a day old by then, so restoration wouldn't work.]
Chrollo: ...
Saiki Kusuo: I was honest, so why did I shut this guy up?
"Hard to believe. You mentioned restoration before; I thought it was just for objects? Rewinding time by a day is way more useful than healing?"
[Reminder, that still won't fix your leg.]
"Just a leg injury." Chrollo didn't care about his broken leg. "You really plan to use that ability to save these people? Contact is the condition, right? How would you save them?"
[If I rewind this stage and everything and everyone on it by one day, the people involved would all live.]
"If someone jumps off the stage right then, they wouldn't get restored."
Warm tip: Can't find the book title? Try searching the author. It might just be renamed!
[That's right. No idiot would jump, though. If they do, their fault.]
"Oh..."
Chrollo was piecing together Saiki Kusuo's ability conditions like a treasure chest.
As for the many people about to get blown up, he didn't care at all.
He watched Saiki Kusuo thinking, that face that rarely showed expression now had rich emotions swirling in his eyes.
He always thought Saiki Kusuo was full of contradictions, so contradictory you could only explain it with fake kindness and self-centeredness.
From a killer family, doesn't kill, but must have made tools that help with killing.
Has the ability to hear others' thoughts, should use it often, but treats dying people's thoughts like background noise.
If he enjoys saving people, why put up with the bloodthirsty Troupe without stopping their killing?
And now, this guy who usually ignores strong people killing, why take the risk of exposing his ability and non-player status to save these people about to die by the bomb devil's hand? Healing abilities are attractive; it'll bring endless trouble.
With Saiki Kusuo's smarts, he really can't think of a way?
To solve this, obviously taking out the bomb devil is the right choice. Sure, he's tough, but we have his ability as leverage. Going straight at him to force answers would help the mission a lot. Control him first, then get the Troupe to help torture or have Illumi manipulate him for a spot with his teammate. Finding his Nen teacher would be faster.
-- Saiki Kusuo, who can hear thoughts: Is this guy cursing me on purpose?
Easy to explain. Basically, it's the plot. He doesn't dare mess with plot-related stuff, or he would've considered changing the Zoldyck family in year two after crossing over.
The Hunter x Hunter world is deep and unpredictable. Past stories and future outcomes are tightly linked. A small change's consequences he's already learned about; it easily leads to a bad end route.
In a world like this, he can't manage others. Saiki Kusuo is already working hard just to keep his powers from destroying the world.
Plus, he's a super-powered guy with a normal heart. In any setting, he just wants to be an unnoticeable average person, not a flashy hero in everyone's eyes.
As for this time, why save people.
One, it's a Hatsu thing outside the plot, so he can treat it from a normal person's view. Two, he foresaw it.
He usually acts on foreseen things. Like, if a normal person is walking and suddenly knows a kid in front has a three-scoop ice cream cone about to get knocked down, making the kid cry all day, but it hasn't happened yet. Would the normal person tell the kid to step inside?
Zetsu would. Intentionally doing nothing and waiting for the ice cream to fall and the kid to cry, then laughing on the side, that's scum! That's three scoops!
So, Saiki Kusuo wanting to help after foreseeing it is totally normal. He loses nothing by helping. If someone notices something off, he can just smash their unwanted memory away like a pipe to the head.
Chrollo's opinion has some value.
But not much.
Control the bomb devil? The bomb devil is beaten by Gon and the others, a small boss that helps them grow. If he can avoid it, he doesn't want to mess up the plot on his own.
Any other way? But recalling the vision, the Zetsu who introduced them to their lackey was there too, blown into eight pieces scattering, head rolling on the ground.
In that moment, some people blasted off the stage...
"Huh? Killua, look over there!"
Saiki Kusuo snapped back from the voice and turned to see a green-clothed kid pointing at him.
Gon?
"Coming to see Anton's event was the right call!"
"Super shocking, right, Nanami bro! Didn't expect you here!"
...Thanks, I'm shocked too. Weren't you supposed to be in the wild with Biscuit, training Nen? Wait, where's Biscuit?
Saiki Kusuo scanned the area and suddenly realized Biscuit wasn't with them. Not just that; looking carefully, there were no brightly dressed little girl figures in the city.
Wait, why? Why isn't Biscuit teaching Killua and Gon? Then what about these two kids? Self-teaching on Greed Island? No way, without a teacher, their progress is slow.
He needed to find a way to make Biscuit meet these two kids.
The next moment, Saiki Kusuo noticed the atmosphere drop to freezing.
What's wrong? Oh, Chrollo.
[Why, why is Chrollo here!] Killua kept a calm face, but inside he was yelling.
"Killua, what's up?" The oblivious Gon asked Killua.
Chrollo was still without Nen, passively in Zetsu with his aura hidden naturally, close to using In, easy for some "natural animals" to overlook him as another "natural animal."
Like Gon.
Killua bristled, his mind already linking things: Chrollo here = has Nen removed, with Nanami bro nearby might mean trouble, this is bad!
Killua slapped Gon's shoulder, his face full of expression to signal: [Idiot, stop talking. We need to get away now! This situation... tell Kurapika!]
But Gon's takeaway was finally noticing Chrollo. He pointed right at Chrollo's face: "Ah! Chrollo!!"
"The kids from back then? Hello." Chrollo greeted without dodging.
Killua: [Hello my foot, you'll kill us! No, with Nanami bro here he won't. Is it because Nanami bro represents the Zoldycks somewhat? Criminals care about faces... Wait, in Yorknew City, Dad and Grandpa went on a mission to kill Chrollo! So his ties to Zoldycks are totally bad!]
[...Killua, you're overreacting.] Saiki Kusuo soothed his bristly brother.
"Oh oh... the two kids from yesterday. Hello." A sudden familiar voice broke the tension, with a fake nice-guy tone. Everyone looked over.
The voice came from the bomb devil.
"It's the uncle from yesterday! Hi! Thanks for showing us the way yesterday!" Gon said happily.
Yesterday? They met yesterday? With something like the bomb devil?
"No problem, no problem. After all, I have the nickname of nice guy. I like helping out, haha." Genthru laughed cheerfully as he walked over, reaching to put a hand on Saiki Kusuo's shoulder while thinking of a chance to state the vow's condition.
In short, he wanted to casually plant a bomb on Saiki Kusuo's shoulder.
Saiki Kusuo dodged naturally and stepped toward Killua.
Genthru: [Tch, just dodged, rude guy. Can't even do basic handshake manners.]
You're the one trying to put a bomb on someone, who's really rude here.
Saiki Kusuo: [What else did this guy say to you yesterday?]
Sometimes telepathy works like the Phantom Troupe's Paku ability.
People don't usually think about unrelated things, but if you ask, normal people will think of what you asked right away. Info and memories pop up like bamboo shoots; whether they say it or not is secondary.
Saiki Kusuo saw in Killua's memory what Genthru did yesterday and confirmed it.
Gon: "This uncle patted our heads and said to watch out for the bomb devil. The bomb devil is around in this city."
As for Gon's type who says whatever he thinks, telepathy on him is useless.
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