Chapter 52: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind
"Damn human! Stop right there!"
"Stop my ass! You stinking spider!"
Peak trash talk, maximum enjoyment. Facing Rando swinging after him through the forest on silk threads like a cut-rate Spider-Man, Yusuke's mouth didn't hold back at all. Every last piece of vocabulary the current reigning super-delinquent had to offer went flying out.
This caused Rando to keep getting visibly, measurably angrier, demon aura and killing intent leaking out as if they were free, and yet he still couldn't lay hands on Yusuke who kept changing direction as he ran.
By Yusuke's natural disposition, his preference would have been to stop talking and go face-to-face, whoever the opponent was, just lead with his fists and get it done.
But after Ross laid out every detail of Rando's abilities, even Yusuke's brain couldn't miss that this wasn't an opponent you could easily put down with fists alone.
Ross's advice for an opponent this difficult to handle was simple.
Stall. And make as much noise as possible.
As long as you could draw other Nen users in from their positions around the island, you muddied the water completely.
If you could get lucky and reel in Hisoka specifically, that was half the job done right there. Hisoka the combat fanatic would almost certainly be more than happy to take Rando on as his own problem.
Handing off his own assigned target for someone else to deal with did make Yusuke genuinely reluctant. It was a roundabout way of admitting his own limitations, and for a stubborn Enhancement type that was genuinely hard to swallow.
But Ross had a follow-up that both Yusuke and Kuwabara could accept. It was less a reason and more a provocation.
"Don't you both want to see that freak Hisoka eat it?"
"...Yeah!" x2
With almost no hesitation, both delinquents gave their most honest affirmative answer simultaneously.
So even though it genuinely went against his personality, for the chance of watching that particular spectacle actually happen, Yusuke held back. Not only didn't he turn to fight, he kept punching trees as he ran, sending them crashing down with leaves flying in every direction.
Rando had already realized the demon aura leak was burning through his reserves for nothing and had deliberately reined it in, but this large-scale noise and destruction gave fresh coordinates to everyone approaching from the surrounding area.
Facing Yusuke who refused to engage head-on and kept running, Rando, who had already felt something was off, had a jolt run through him when he looked down and saw his body again, covered in those web-like scars.
He suddenly realized: he might be walking step by step into a trap that had been set specifically for him.
Rando had not worn false skin into this exam out of habit alone. He understood, better than anyone, exactly how the Hunter Association dealt with demons, particularly one who moved freely through human society.
Saying "kill on sight" might be going slightly far. But for someone with ninety-nine kills to his name, there would be no erring on the side of caution. The policy would be: execute.
During the second phase of the exam, Rando had personally witnessed Netero, the strongest human in the world, drop from the sky. The experience had produced two simultaneous responses: an instinctive terror as if facing a natural predator, and an intense, bone-deep desire.
That kind of power, in a human. There had to be an ability behind it unlike anything he had ever seen.
He wanted it. He genuinely wanted it. Wanted it badly enough to feel the craving crawling up his throat.
The plan had started simply enough: take the exam, get a license, travel more freely between countries, see if any good targets showed up along the way. It had acquired a new destination.
Take Netero's ability for himself.
A distant goal. But an extraordinarily powerful one.
With that goal in place, clearing the Hunter Exam and obtaining a license became a necessary step on the road to that ultimate acquisition. At least, that was how Rando saw it.
Through the entire second phase, Rando had been careful to keep himself concealed. When he confirmed that even the Chairman had not seen through his false skin, he had grown significantly bolder.
That was the main reason he had been willing to reveal his true form in front of Yusuke at all.
His plan, as originally laid out: kill his assigned target, collect six points, shed skin if necessary, find a hidden cave or hollow tree to spin a cocoon, grow a new false skin in about five days, then return openly as Shaolin and continue through the rest of the exam without anyone the wiser.
The idea of living openly as a parasite right under the noses of the world's strongest humans had given him genuine satisfaction.
But that beautiful plan had started going wrong the moment he encountered Urameshi Yusuke, and it had gone badly wrong. He was now trapped with no good option in either direction.
The way Yusuke was running, destroying everything in his path and leaving a trail of noise and wreckage, was clearly designed to draw in the surrounding candidates.
If they saw his demon form, it wouldn't just be getting ganged up on. It would very likely bring the Hunter Association down on him directly.
The Association's policy toward a murderous demon that could move freely through human society would have exactly one answer.
Kill.
The most rational thing to do right now was run.
Abandon the Shaolin identity. Abandon the exam. Drop into the sea and disappear. Wait until everything settled, then put on new skin for a future sitting, or simply ambush a licensed Hunter and take over their life entirely.
Under intense pressure, Rando's brain, whose vanity ran higher than most demons at baseline, finally came to its senses.
And so, after one more silk-swing through the canopy, he simply did not let go. He let the thread carry him arcing off in the direction he had come from.
"Badge 408! I won't forget this!"
Body swinging forward, neck twisted back, eyes full of killing intent and fury, Rando delivered a parting line that was more than just a threat.
He had needed only one look to copy Yusuke's Spirit Gun. That was partly his natural talent, an exceptional gift for observing and internalizing the aura flow patterns of others, and partly the effect of his Specialization-type ability: Technique Plunder.
A living Yusuke clearly could not satisfy the core judgment of Technique Plunder. Only when the original owner of an ability had been completely killed by Rando's own hand was a plunder, a hostile takeover, truly complete.
And because he was a born demon, hunting humans was part of his nature, which meant the activation conditions for this ability ran far lower than they would otherwise be expected.
But when something like this occurred, a target already locked in for a Technique Plunder then forced to be abandoned due to external interference, Rando discovered a flaw in his own ability he had never noticed before.
Specifically: before completely killing Yusuke and completing this plunder ritual, he would be temporarily unable to plunder any other ability. The skill progress bar was stuck.
If he could not kill Yusuke, Technique Plunder would be semi-permanently sealed.
"Huh?"
Hearing Rando's words, which carried an unmistakably retreating tone, single-minded Yusuke, without stopping to consider whether it was a trap, just braked and turned around.
Without much thought, he raised his gun-finger.
He had already fired two Spirit Guns, and the heavily aura-loaded ORA-rush that had cleared Rando's first-phase HP bar had taken the rest. The tip of his index finger had no capacity to gather more Nen in the short term. A third Spirit Gun was not happening.
That was the consequence of not managing his aura distribution properly.
"Damn! Used up my shots for today!"
And at that moment, directly above the path Rando's swing had to cross, something appeared.
A roulette wheel, needle spinning rapidly.
The needle slowed. Stopped.
All-Style Judo.
"Ross?!"
Yusuke, calling out on reflex, watched helplessly as Rando's figure vanished from right in front of him.
And disappearing along with Rando was Ross, who had arrived just in time, grinning ear to ear at the sight of All-Style Judo on the wheel.