In the courtyard of the Bankro family estate, by the fountain pool, Roy Kuhl stood in front of a black sedan, looking as if he were waiting for someone.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Kisho and greeted him:
"You're here?"
After saying that, without waiting for Kisho to respond, he pulled open the car door.
"Get in."
"Oh."
Kisho responded as he got into the car.
Roy Kuhl followed and sat down beside Kisho.
Kisho tilted his head and stared at him, confusion showing in his eyes.
Roy Kuhl looked back at him. After a moment, veins bulged on his forehead.
"What are you looking at me for? Someone else is driving today!"
Kisho nodded and withdrew his gaze.
The veins on Roy Kuhl's forehead became even more obvious.
"So you really were counting on me to drive just now?!"
Kisho shrugged, coughed lightly, and pretended nothing had happened.
"It seems..." Roy Kuhl stared at the brat who irritated him to no end.
"I need to find someone to teach you how to drive. From now on, when we go on missions, you'll be the one driving."
Kisho didn't mind at all, replying calmly as if he couldn't hear the sarcasm in Roy Kuhl's voice.
"Sure. I'd be happy to."
Roy Kuhl: "..."
...
The car drove along the mountain ring road, heading toward the summit.
Kisho ate the biscuits Roy Kuhl had given him while continuing to memorize the route in his mind.
As for their destination, he already had some guesses.
The car stopped in front of a house at the mountaintop that looked utterly unremarkable from the outside.
For no apparent reason, Kisho felt an unprecedentedly oppressive atmosphere.
Because there were Nen users lurking everywhere—more than a dozen of them, just from what he could sense.
A man in a black suit and sunglasses walked up to the car and knocked on the roof. The driver rolled down the window, allowing the man to place a card reader against the rear window.
"Pass." Roy Kuhl reminded him.
Without a word, Kisho took out his magnetic card and swiped it across the reader.
"Beep—"
The reader emitted a beep, and a green light flashed on top.
"Captain Roy, is this a newcomer this time?"
The man in sunglasses put away the reader, his tone rising slightly at the end.
"Mm." Roy Kuhl nodded slowly, then said to Kisho, "Get out."
Kisho followed behind Roy Kuhl and walked into the unremarkable house.
However, when he stopped in the empty center of the room, he noticed the floor beneath his feet moving—
"Ka-ka-ka—"
Accompanied by the sound of machinery operating, the floor slowly descended, carrying both of them down into the depths underground.
Inside the downward shaft, all four sides were metal walls, with cylindrical light tubes embedded in the seams.
By the faint light, Kisho saw numerous concealed cameras, as well as gun barrels that moved along with them.
If someone infiltrated without preparation, even if they broke through the guards at the entrance, they would be riddled with bullets here.
Kisho's gaze darkened slightly.
"With steel walls this smooth, going straight up and down on all sides, even if you realized something was wrong and tried to escape, it would probably already be too late."
"Ka-ka—"
The floor stopped descending, and a steel door appeared in front of Roy Kuhl and Kisho.
Roy Kuhl stepped forward, swiped his card across the reader on the door, then gestured with his eyes for Kisho to do the same.
After the cards were swiped, the steel door slowly moved aside, revealing a passage leading to an unknown place.
Kisho walked forward slowly. As he passed through the steel door, his expression changed imperceptibly.
That door alone was a full three meters thick.
At the end of the passage, there was yet another elevator.
A man in a black suit guarding the area saw Roy Kuhl and bowed slightly.
"Captain Roy."
As he spoke, he glanced at Kisho, then unobtrusively withdrew his gaze and continued.
"Everything is ready."
"Mm." Roy Kuhl lifted his chin slightly in acknowledgment.
The suited man nodded, turned around, and pressed a button beside the elevator.
The screen shielding the keypad split apart. After he entered a string of commands on the control panel, the elevator doors abruptly opened.
...A moment later...
Roy Kuhl led Kisho into a dim corridor.
Kisho's expression was calm, but layers of thick mist gathered in his eyes.
From the instant he stepped into this corridor, he sensed something that disgusted him to the extreme.
Every door on both sides of the corridor was tightly locked, yet even thick iron doors could not fully isolate the aura of death and despair within.
Roy Kuhl suddenly stopped. He glanced at Kisho and swiped the access card against a steel door beside them—
"Beep—"
The scene beyond the door turned Kisho's gaze icy cold.
Inside the room, two people were standing, and two were seated.
The two standing figures, upon hearing the door open, slowly retreated to the side.
The two people bound to chairs were screaming hysterically, their entire bodies soaked in dark red blood.
Even though cloth was stuffed into their mouths and their heads were covered with black hoods, fragmented muttering still spilled out uncontrollably.
Hearing it made one's skin crawl.
Roy Kuhl glanced at Kisho, who still showed no expression, then raised his hand and gestured to the two thugs.
At his signal, the two men walked over to the chairs and removed the black hoods from the prisoners' heads.
Kisho stared at the two faces smeared with tears, snot, and saliva. After a moment of silence, he said:
"...You brought me here just to show me these two guys?"
"That's right." Roy Kuhl said slowly. "But not only to show them to you. I also wanted to see your reaction after seeing them."
Facing the two people who were still screaming and sobbing, Roy Kuhl acted as if he neither saw nor heard them. He smiled approvingly.
"Worthy of someone even the family head admires. Your reaction passes."
Kisho: "..."
He said slowly:
"This is the driver who went to Meteor City to pick us up that day."
"That's right."
"So the traitors you found are these two?"
"That's right."
Kisho slowly turned around.
"Then now that I've seen them, can we leave?"
"Not so fast."
Roy Kuhl extended an arm to block him and smiled.
"There's one last good show you haven't seen yet."
"...Oh?"
Kisho turned back and looked up at him without avoidance, curling his lips.
"Then let's see it."
"Don't worry. You won't be disappointed."
Roy Kuhl said softly, then looked at the two thugs.
"You may begin."
The two men nodded slightly.
They took out finger-length glass vials from their pockets and, with a "pop," flicked off the stoppers.
An indescribable smell spilled out of the bottles.
The instant he smelled it, Kisho used an enormous amount of Nen to seal every pore on his body and held his breath.
Even so, he had to stab his fingertips into his palm to suppress the urge to rush forward and snatch the two small bottles away.
The poison of the raw liquid did not weaken because of voluntary suppression. On the contrary, the suppression made it grow ever more violent, ever harder to control.
Like a dormant volcano—suppression could not stop it from erupting. Instead, once pushed to its limit, even a tiny spark could easily ignite it.
"...It's fine."
Sensing that faint yet resolute will deep within himself, Kisho said silently:
"Don't come out. I'm fine... rest assured."
Kisho took a barely perceptible breath.
This was his battle—one without gunpowder smoke, yet no less cruel.
Even Noah Barton couldn't help him here. He had to, and could only, fight on alone.