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Chapter 66: Demon's Automatic Notes
Kurapika's abilities differed slightly from the manga, most notably in his middle and little fingers.
They were no longer exclusively targeted at the Phantom Troupe.
Instead, they leaned more towards support. This was because Ronin, another Kurta survivor, meant Kurapika no longer had to shoulder the burden of revenge alone.
As for Kurapika's Specialist ability, it remained unchanged.
In the Scarlet Eyes state, he could utilize all six Nen categories at 100% efficiency, though he still primarily used Enhancement.
His battle had ended. Nearby, Neon was also wrapping up hers.
Neon didn't know the target's name, but that didn't stop her from divining his fortune.
Aura enveloped her left hand, and a cute, mochi-like Nen beast with black wings materialized out of thin air.
Guided by the Nen beast, the fountain pen in her hand wrote rapidly in the air, forming words made of bright red aura.
"The busy street under the moonlight will become your graveyard."
A smile curled on Neon's lips. She didn't even bother using speed to close the distance to Slug. Instead, she took a few steps back, quietly watching him.
Slug also saw the words made of aura that suddenly appeared.
He didn't understand what they meant, but an ominous feeling arose in his heart.
Neon's gaze shifted, landing on the heavy truck that had blared its horn earlier.
It was unclear what happened to the truck, but the driver, seeing he was about to hit a car ahead, slammed the steering wheel. Tires screeched against the pavement, and the truck flipped onto its side.
The direction it slid was exactly where Slug was standing.
Slug heard the ear-piercing screech. Turning his head, he saw the overturned truck careening toward him.
Slug's pupils constricted. He moved to escape the truck's impact zone.
But in that instant, the ground, perhaps weakened by the "small volcano" that had erupted nearby earlier, suddenly cracked open. Slug's forward step landed right inside the fissure.
His foot was stuck for a second.
In that second, just as he burst out with Nen to free his foot from the ground, the heavy truck slammed into him.
Neon's hair danced in the wind. She didn't even move, just watched quietly as Slug was carried away by the truck.
"You should have been able to see that line of text. Yet you stayed in the street. Did you look down on my curse?" Neon walked slowly toward Slug, who was lying on the ground coughing up blood, not quite dead yet.
If he had ducked into the shops lining the street when he saw the bloody text, he might have changed his fate.
After all, the Curse Poem clearly stated the street would be his graveyard.
Leaving the street would have naturally allowed him to break free from the death destiny outlined in this fate line.
A pity he didn't understand.
"Ronin said my prophecy poem is a curse, but I actually think curses are quite nice." A smile appeared on Neon's face.
"Lovely Ghostwriter" could only write divinations.
But what she was actively using wasn't "Lovely Ghostwriter," but "Demon's Automatic Notes."
So the writing implement shifted from the mechanical pencil in her right hand to the fountain pen in her left.
The words floating in the air were also a dangerous bright red. After Slug was hit, blood-like traces began to ripple out from the text.
She was a Specialist.
She didn't want to rely solely on Enhancement-type Nen for combat as Ronin suggested. So, Neon actively developed her Specialist Nen.
She refused to become a muscle-bound loli.
Through tireless effort, her right hand remained "Lovely Ghostwriter," upgrading from predicting a month to providing short-term, one-day divinations.
Neon couldn't understand the content of the divinations, no matter whose they were. She only knew they consisted of a sentence or a few poems.
Her left hand was "Demon's Automatic Notes." It could also write text, but it was a curse on the target.
This curse only lasted three minutes, and if the target could spot the way out hidden within the curse, they could actively avoid its effects.
But if they ignored the curse, misfortune would befall them!
Just like Slug now.
Crushed by the heavy truck, he was breathing out more than in, but Neon still didn't intend to let him go.
She took a dagger from her waist. Under Slug's unwilling gaze, utterly confused about what had happened, the dagger pierced his head.
Even Slug's brain wasn't good enough for Neon.
This was a complete failure of a guy, holding zero collection value for her.
Pure waste, trash, scum.
Neon's gaze involuntarily shifted from Slug to Bat, who was descending from the sky, and Worm, who Ronin had hammered into the ground.
Both of them had inhuman features.
Worm's ugly, disproportionately long head and Bat's functional bat wings on a human body were excellent collection materials.
I hope Ronin didn't break them.
Seeing the hole in Bat's wing, Neon felt her heart bleed.
"Stop! The wings! Don't break my wings!"
Ronin hadn't planned on letting Bat live, even though he had obeyed and landed. But before he could act, Neon's anxious shout reached him.
My wings?
Her damn collection obsession is acting up again!
Although Ronin thought this, he didn't fire all the stones he held. He only shot one, aiming for Bat's head.
The Nen protecting Bat's head was like paper; the stone pierced right through it.
"It really wasn't conjured. I thought he was weak because he trained in opposing categories like Conjuration and Emission! Turns out I overestimated him," Ronin muttered to himself, watching Neon rush over like a whirlwind.
Kurapika walked over as well.
"These guys feel weak. Is this the extent of the Ten Dons' ace unit?" Kurapika couldn't believe it.
"Knowing Nen exists but lacking a systematic understanding—that's the norm for ability users outside the Hunter Association," Ronin shrugged.
The Association made Nen a top secret, and the V5 agreed to this proposal.
Consequently, in this world, without a master, even if someone naturally awakened Nen, they would only treat it as a special superpower.
History recorded many Nen users, but they weren't called Nen users. They were called psychics, masters, geniuses, immortals, superpowered individuals...
Without systematic learning, relying solely on self-exploration, users easily ended up like Kastro—an Enhancer who trained in Conjuration, a category highly incompatible with his own.
This was a massive waste of talent.
Furthermore, their grasp of basic Nen applications was messy. They simply understood that wrapping themselves in energy increased offense and defense, but that was far from enough in battles against experts.
Most of the Shadow Beasts were like this.
So in Ronin's view, apart from those like Owl with highly valuable abilities, the rest of the Shadow Beasts were just good touchstones to test Kurapika and Neon's training results.
Overall, Ronin was satisfied with Kurapika and Neon's performance.
"Take him. Let's go."
Police sirens were approaching. Ronin leapt up, scaling a nearby high-rise in a few jumps.
Kurapika and Neon followed closely. Though not as graceful as Ronin, they had their own methods.
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