"Dalzollene is dead?"
"Most likely! We are moving to Plan B. Please come back!" Melody's voice came from the other side of his phone.
"Sure, I will be there." Harry replied as he put his phone away.
Healing and then reincarnating Baise as his very first pawn took longer than he had expected. Well, the explanations also took quite a bit.
Especially choosing your words carefully without dropping that he knew she would die was troublesome.
While Baise's combat power wasn't anything special, rather on the weak side, which is the reason he only reincarnated her as a pawn, she made a good experiment on how much he could improve her.
And Combat Power wasn't everything. Manipulators are scary; as long as she could kiss someone, she could control them.
Even with only 180 minutes of control, it was a very useful skill for manipulation, espionage, and similar shady tactics.
That was precisely why he had chosen her. The multiverse had enough powerhouses. Irene wanted to join his peerage; she is an absolute powerhouse, not weaker than one of the Heavenly Dragons.
If Baise could improve her Nen abilities even further after becoming a devil, she would become a really useful member of his peerage. One with maybe an unbreakable version of the Imperius Curse.
And he had enough opportunities to make her stronger in other ways. She could learn magic, get a Sacred Gear, or whatever he could find in a different universe, maybe a Devil Fruit? Right now he wanted to know what she could accomplish with Nen and a devil heritage.
He himself got a massive boost in his abilities and began to improve faster. She should too, even without a Longinus and a Dragon Soul.
"Well, I should get back." Harry muttered before he remembered something, "Almost forgot…"
Two pieces of a broken sword appeared in his hands, and Harry began to observe them closely.
This is the sword Dalzollene had attempted to use to torture Uvogin after capturing him. It broke after leaving a small scratch on the skin of the physically strongest spider.
It was a sabre or dao, but what really caught Harry's attention were the inscriptions.
These are Nen Inscriptions, or Divine Script, the Story never clarified wether they are one and the same. He never realized it while reading the manga, but being there for real, he could feel the sword making Dalzollene stronger.
That's the reason why he even managed to leave a scratch on Uvogin. Which was a bit sad, since Dalzollene seemed to be an Enhancer.
In the manga it had been stated that he was trained to withstand 10 bullets; for an enhancer, it was quite sad. A decent one should be able to resist far more regular bullets if not completely resist them.
A strong one like Uvogin could easily resist Snipers and even Bazooka shots!
While no one was watching, being too distracted by Uvogin's willpower, he had secretly grabbed the pieces.
"Well, Dalzollene I thank you for the last gift. I have been looking for some Divine Scripts or Nen Inscriptions to study. At least I won't have to wait until I visit Greed Island." Harry muttered as he left his hotel room.
———
Ring… Ring… Ring…
"Nothing, no response." Melody said as she lowered her phone.
'Of course not. That guy is dead.' Harry thought remembering the scene where Phinks of the Phantom Troupe put his hand through Dalzollene's chest in the manga before making a joke towards Uvogin, who still was paralyzed and bound.
The Phantom Troupe had a completely different mentality from regular humans.
For them a death is a part of their daily life. Killing someone is no different from eating lunch for them, while at the same time they somehow retained their strange version of humanity, caring for each other and grieving if one of them should die.
Maybe this was the price you paid if you truly dove into the Darkness of Human Society? Or was it just this world? Is there something like that in his own world too? Or in his past life?
Harry hadn't kept any personal memories about his past life; that made his Occlumency clear, only practical knowledge. So he was aware of the Darknet and some of the disturbing things one could find there. He never had a reason to take a closer look at it.
And the Phantom Troupe had used this world's version of the Darknet to find the killer of one of their childhood friends who had been abducted, tortured, and killed in a disturbing and horrible way.
Their plan to find the killer had been simple but cruel. Create a platform to let such monsters have their way and review the video material these monsters created through their platform to find the real killer of their one friend.
Thousands of hours and hours of watching the most disturbing part of humanity had twisted the Phantom Troupe into what they are today. Was it possible in his own world for something like that to happen too?
He couldn't tell. His own perception of humanity had definitely changed.
"Our real boss is her father, Light Nostrade!" Squala said from his spot on the couch.
'What? Oh, right, they realized Dalzollene is dead and are looking now for a replacement and have to decide what to do. Of course Neon is just the boss in name.' Harry knew, as he was once again back following the discussion.
In the end they decided to wake up Neon to ask her for the contact of her father since Dalzollene had been the only one possessing it.
"Boss… Boss!"
After a while, Neon began to move and get back to her senses. "Mmmmh… What time is it?"
"2 AM."
"What!? What about the auction? She asked, now fully awake.
"It was cancelled."
"Cancelled… Why?"
"The Auction Building was attacked by a band of thieves. Baise, Tocino, and Ivlenkov died there." Kurapika explained calmly, looking Neon straight in the eyes, his expression neutral.
"We fear Dalzollene is also dead!" Squala added from the side.
"What?" Neon asked, with no reaction to the deaths on her face, "But what about my mummy? Did it get stolen? I wanted it so bad!"
Yes, the Phantom Troupe was a band of killer thieves, but at least there is a cause why they are the way they are.
This girl right in front of them was far more fucked up than any of them. And she didn't live through anything traumatic.
While most of the bodyguards had a disbelieving expression on their faces, Kurapika remained neutral.
Just looking at her. Harry could tell he was ready to fully walk into the Darkness of this World just like the Troupe once did.
Was that what it meant to be Human?
Well, it's nothing you could do anything about. That's Gon's job, who could also be a complete nutcase.
"The items were moved to a safe location."
"Good! When is the auction?" Neon asked with clear relief.
"We don't know yet!"
The discussion continued leading towards the selection of a new head bodyguard who would replace Dalzollene and act as leader in place of Neon's father.
It was Melody who made the first step: "While I feel the strongest here is Harry. He didn't feel threatened by the Phantom Troupe at all. I feel Kurapika is the best choice as a leader, making the best calls. I nominate him." She glanced at Harry, "No offense."
"Huh, I have no interest in becoming the head bodyguard." Harry raised his hands, amused. "I would also nominate Kurapika."
"I agree too." Basho nodded.
In the end, the decision was unanimous, and Kurapika became the Head Bodyguard of the Nostrade Family, one step closer to his goal of infiltrating the Underworld to get access to their resources.
Everything so he could find all the Scarlett Eyes. The eyes of his clan and family are famous for their unique scarlet color that appeared in moments of high emotions. The whole clan had been tortured in front of each other because their eyes would remain scarlet post mortem.
"Your father will arrive tomorrow." Kurapika addressed Neon after finishing his call with Light Nostrade, "He wants you to stay in your room until then."
"Aww… But I wanted to go to the casino!" She pouted.
———
"Look at this!"
"What is it?" Squala asked as they joined Kurapika at the PC he was sitting in front of.
It showed a list on the Hunter website.
A website that can be accessed by Hunter using their license to get access to all kinds of information for the right price.
Pro Hunters can even sell information to the website, which is one of the main income streams for Hunters with information-gathering Nen abilities.
Through that fact, the website was well maintained and very actual.
"The Hunter Website! It lists all properties owned by the Nostrade Family."
"What?" Squala once again began to panic. How did the guy even learn Nen? He wasn't a pro hunter who completed the exam. And Nen was forbidden to be taught to non-Hunters by law. No way that guy could pass the exam.
"There is even a list with all the employees." Kurapika opened another window. "Looks like we were too recently hired to be on it."
"So they will find our room by using the information about the location where Dalzonelle was killed. All they have to do is compare the names on the Employee List since the room is booked under Dalzonelle's name." Harry completed Kurapika's thought process.
"Exactly. We're in danger. Kurapika confirmed, "Get a new room for the boss."
"In the same hotel?"
"Yes, it's quicker to use Harry's, Melody's, or Basho's name."
"So what about you? Going to have a fight?" Harry asked, already knowing the answer.
Kurapika nodded, "I will remain here."
"Well, have fun." Harry winked over his back as he left the Room first.
( End of Chapter )
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HP - DXD - HP
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