"Miss, what's wrong?"
Kisho walked up to Anida and asked.
Anida looked left and right. Seeing the bodyguards all panting as they sat in chairs to catch their breath, she gave a sly smile.
"Come with me~ Hurry, don't let anyone else see!"
Kisho followed her without understanding why, weaving through people and slipping into the innermost fitting room, hidden behind layers of clothing racks.
With a bang, Anida shut the door.
Kisho: "...?"
"Where's your pager? Give it to me!"
Anida held out her hand toward Kisho.
He stammered as he looked at her.
"Miss, you—you want to do what?"
"Cut the crap and hand it over!"
Anida shook her hand.
Kisho had no choice but to take out the pager and place it in her hand. The young lady took it, pressed the power-off button without hesitation, then stuffed it under the chair in the fitting room.
Kisho stared at her with a deadpan look.
"What are you trying to do?"
Anida ignored him.
"Turn around! If you dare peek, I'll gouge your eyes out!"
Kisho: "..."
He shrugged and turned to face the door.
Rustling sounds came from behind him. When Anida said, "Okay," he finally turned back around.
The moment he looked back, he was stunned.
The cute little girl who had looked like a porcelain doll had, in just a few minutes, turned into a lively little—little boy, completely different in style from before.
Anida had changed into two neutral-style outfits hanging inside the fitting room and tied up her hair. Her face, too, had been transformed by makeup in a way that could only be described as magical.
Staring at the eager-looking Anida, an ominous premonition rose in Kisho's heart.
"Hehehe~ This is the makeup technique Gelia taught me. Amazing, right!"
Anida grinned proudly, then patted Kisho on the shoulder. His face was full of panic after witnessing such a transformation.
"Let's go~ We'll shake off those annoying bodyguards and go have fun by ourselves!"
Kisho's body jolted, and he flatly refused.
"I don't think this is okay."
He looked utterly helpless.
"Miss, if you do this, I'll lose my job."
"I don't care."
Anida pouted.
"You've already seen what I look like now. If you don't come with me, I'll go back and tell my dad—your job will be gone anyway!"
She thought for a moment, then lowered her voice.
"This is an order! Hurry up, stop dawdling."
Kisho: "...Fine, fine."
When the two little figures sneaked out of the mall, Jitt and the group of bodyguards were still waiting inside.
"We're out!"
Having shaken off the bodyguards she regarded as her lifelong enemies, ditched the bags and clothes that were definitely bugged with trackers, and even dragged along this very strong but surprisingly not-annoying "little lackey," Anida felt incredibly proud of herself.
Now she could finally have a good, carefree time!
...
Two hours later...
Kisho found it hard to believe that someone with Nen abilities like himself could lose to a teenage girl—who was just an ordinary person—when it came to stamina for shopping.
He collapsed into a chair at a street food stall, staring speechlessly at the girl who kept walking nonstop, eating nonstop, and still had an appetite.
"Aren't you tired?"
"Not at all."
Anida spoke indistinctly while happily eating skewers. She was a completely different person from when she was in the Bankro family.
"Don't be so nervous."
As she ate, she pushed the skewers in front of her toward Kisho.
"Don't let my dad fool you. There aren't that many bad people in the world—aren't you going to eat?"
Kisho replied weakly.
"...I can't eat."
He really couldn't.
Without that long line of bodyguards behind them, this generous young lady—oh no, this young master now—who never waited for change after buying things had already drawn the attention of who knew how many people.
Kisho felt his stomach cramping.
Most of those watching her were ordinary people, but...
His gaze casually swept over the black-shirted man across the street, leaning against the railing on a rooftop, and then to another hooded man sitting not far away at a juice shop, slurping juice while pretending to mind his own business.
These two Nen users had been tailing them ever since he and Anida left the mall.
Or rather, the moment the young lady and her bodyguards entered the city, they had attracted plenty of attention. It was just that, with so many bodyguards, petty criminals didn't dare act rashly.
But with only him and Anida, it was a different story.
—Even if they couldn't recognize the disguised Anida, they could definitely recognize him, the one who had just stopped a traffic accident on the street.
That was why Kisho could tell these were exactly the kind of people Vervik Bankro truly wanted the bodyguards to watch out for—enforcers from other gangs.
Kisho frowned slightly.
His pager had been tossed aside by Anida back in the mall, and now, trying to take her back to that building was probably too late.
"Are you full?"
After a moment's thought, Kisho decided they couldn't continue like this. Even if a fight was inevitable, he needed to choose the battlefield.
He stood up and said to Anida.
"If you're full, let's keep shopping. I just saw a really fun place."
Hearing that, Anida stuffed the last two skewers into her mouth at once. She even licked the bamboo sticks before tossing them away, then asked him.
"What place?"
"Come with me."
Kisho had no intention of explaining.
He walked straight to Anida, grabbed her wrist, and strode rapidly back the way they came.
—Before those people caught up and a fight broke out, he needed to shorten the distance between them and the building where the bodyguards were.
If he made enough of a commotion, maybe they could get support before things turned desperate.
It wasn't that he was overly pessimistic about the situation—it was that he believed once a fight started, Nen users would definitely not be limited to just those two tailing them.
"Noah..."
Anida was starting to struggle to keep up with Kisho's pace. She frowned and panted.
"Slow down... I... I'm a little tired..."
"When we were shopping and I told you to slow down, you didn't say that."
Kisho sighed, then slowed a bit.
"That's not the same!"
Anida stopped outright, panting as she spoke with stubborn indignation.
"Why are you running so fast? Is there a ghost chasing you or something?"
"There really is."
Kisho bent down helplessly.
"Get on. I'll carry you."
Anida didn't bother being polite. She jumped straight onto Kisho's back.
"That's more like it."
Kisho smiled and took off at full speed.
Caught completely off guard, Anida exclaimed.
"Whoa—! How can you run this fast?!"
Kisho laughed.
"Because there really is a ghost chasing us."
A dozen minutes later, Kisho brought Anida to an open area.
The only structure there was a windowless metal shed with a single door—probably a temporary storage space.
From the outside, it wasn't big, just a few square meters, barely enough for him to cover with En.
The metal walls and the goods inside made it excellent for stopping bullets, and there was no worry about someone suddenly breaking through from the other side.
More importantly, although this open area was still some distance from the building, it was visible at a glance from the mall's windows.
In such a rush, this was the best he could arrange.
"Noah! This is the fun place you were talking about?"
After jumping down from Kisho's back, Anida looked around and flared up.
"You lied to me!"
"...I didn't."
Kisho walked up to the metal shed and pushed the door. With a dull clang, the lock bar snapped.
He said calmly.
"Go inside. Someone's coming to play hide-and-seek with us."
"Hide—?"
Anida's angry question hadn't even finished when a malicious voice came from behind Kisho.
"You two little brats... you sure can run..."
"So tired... why can that white-haired brat still run so fast while carrying someone?!"
Anida froze slightly. Her gaze passed over Kisho's shoulder and landed on the dozen or so people who were pouring in one after another.
She looked at Kisho.
"They..."
She realized then that these people were after her.
She didn't know what Vervik had done. So the world in Vervik's eyes was completely different from hers.
In her view, having done nothing wrong, there was no way she could be hated—she had never even imagined that being hunted down could happen to her.
A flicker of fear crossed her eyes. Not only fear of what was about to happen, but also fear that... her world seemed to have changed from what it used to be.
"It's okay."
Seeing her fear, Kisho gave a light laugh to reassure her. He gently nudged her shoulder, pushing her into the shed.
"Anida, hide well."
He smiled, closed the door, and said from outside.
"If they find you, you lose."