Regarding Hisoka's one-sided appointment, Kisho expressed that he really did not want to bother with him.
In a certain sense, his current mood might be very similar to that of a certain leader who was also being pestered by Hisoka.
Thanks to the great leader who "sacrificed himself for others" by standing in front, so that Hisoka is now only thinking about him—cough cough.
...
The Bankro family's large ship stayed docked in the harbor for an entire day, only officially setting sail at midnight. Therefore, the location where this gigantic vessel sank was still not far from the harbor.
The lifeboat ran at full power, cutting through the sea in the night, breaking the surface as it headed back toward the harbor they had departed from.
When the fiery red sun completely climbed up from beneath the sea, the coastline was already clearly visible.
Kisho looked toward the distant shore. This was his first time seeing a sunrise at sea. The sky and ocean, joined together by golden radiance, were reflected in Kisho's eyes.
"...Heh~"
At the other end, Hisoka, stacking a tower of playing cards, glanced at the country bumpkin who had never seen the world and let out a laugh.
Kisho really could not understand how this guy managed to stack three layers of playing cards on a swaying ship.
"Well~" Hisoka's fingertips slowly brushed across the top layer of cards, and the playing cards scattered all over the floor.
Kisho felt his hair stand on end.
Even the most casual motion, when done by someone called Hisoka, gave him the feeling that what was being pushed over was not playing cards, but a skyscraper collapsing with ease.
"We're almost there." Hisoka stood up.
He looked toward the crowded harbor, narrowed his eyes, and chuckled softly.
"To avoid unnecessary trouble, I suggest you hide from that bunch."
"See you around, little apple~"
Before the words had even finished, he vanished from where he stood.
Kisho: "..."
He also turned his head to look at the densely packed crowd over at the harbor.
He really did need to hide.
The news of the shipwreck should have already been sent back here. He did not want to be discovered as the sole survivor.
Once discovered, countless troubles would follow.
Moreover, he had to resolve the final issue before the remnants of the Bankro family took action—the laboratory that the Bankro family had hidden deep within the mountain.
If the monsters in the laboratory were to fall into the hands of other families on Lashan Mountain, who knew what new unpleasant things might emerge.
Kisho steered the lifeboat to the other side of the coast, landing on a desolate tidal flat backed by cliffs, rarely visited by anyone.
He bored holes through the lifeboat and watched it sink into the depths of the sea.
...
After spending an entire day traveling, by the time night fell, Kisho returned to the Bankro family's main estate.
Looking at the mansion with its doors wide open and not a single soul inside, Kisho fell silent.
It really was as expected—but the speed at which people vanished once the tea cooled was a bit too fast.
"...I hope Gelia has already taken Anida and left."
He gazed from afar at the castle-like building, resplendent yet dim, and silently thought to himself:
"And I also hope that in this lifetime, it would be best if we never meet again."
He turned around and continued on his way.
On the pitch-black road, one could occasionally hear cars without headlights roaring past.
Kisho restrained his aura, entering a state of "Zetsu", and when vehicles passed by, used the shadows of the mountains to completely conceal his figure.
Two more hours passed, and he arrived at the mountaintop, standing before a house that looked utterly ordinary on the outside.
The last time he had come, the area around this house had been heavily guarded—but now, all those who should have been keeping watch in the shadows were nowhere to be seen.
Kisho took out his access card, walked to the door, and swiped it.
"Beep beep—" The door opened in response.
"They didn't even revoke the permissions on this card?" Kisho lowered his head to look at the card in his hand, letting out a cold laugh.
"Probably because they thought a dead man couldn't use it even if he had it."
Using the same method as last time, Kisho entered the underground passage.
He stood at the end of the corridor, but was shocked to discover...
The ground was littered with the bodies of security personnel in black suits, and... the corpses of those silver-blue monsters.
Some of the doors on either side stood wide open, others were half-closed, but without exception, there was not a single living being inside any of the rooms.
"Someone got here first?"
Kisho thought as his gaze swept across everything around him.
"It shouldn't be the other gangs of Lashan Mountain—otherwise, they wouldn't have spared these test subjects."
Kisho withdrew his gaze from the dead monster beside him.
He expanded his "En" and advanced slowly.
"...But one thing is certain: his goal is the same as mine."
"—To slaughter all these monsters."
At the end of the dark passage was a long staircase descending step by step into the abyss.
Kisho's footsteps landed on the stairs, producing dull "thump, thump" sounds.
He did not walk quickly, until his feet finally touched solid ground.
The sight before him made his eyes widen abruptly.
A room of about fifty square meters, with transparent glass pods hanging on all four walls, already smashed to pieces.
The clear cultivation fluid inside the pods flowed down, pooling into a sticky mess on the floor.
All kinds of horrifying half-human, half-beast creatures were suspended inside the glass pods by chains.
These beings looked as though parts had been arbitrarily taken from humans and beasts alike, crudely stitched and kneaded together.
Kisho's gaze turned icy, his fists clenched until they cracked.
"So this is... that so-called 'creation' the researcher 'Sains' spoke of."
There were always people who found ways to shatter his bottom line.
"To die with a single slash to the throat was far too merciful for him."
The monsters came in all shapes and forms, but they shared one thing in common: their hollow silver-blue eyes were all wide open.
Tubes were inserted into their bodies, injecting red "raw liquid"; another tube continuously extracted "blood" from them, transporting it into containers on the other side.
The containers, filled with liquids of various colors, were covered in labels.
An uncontrollable surge of anger rose from deep within—part of it from himself, and part of it from Noah Barton.
That fleeting flash of anger and despair, as tiny and transient as sparks, returned to nothingness, yet Kisho still caught it.
Noah Barton awakened within his body, but did not act.
Because someone had already arrived here before him and done what he had intended to do.
That person stood at the center of the room, with his back facing him.
He wore black clothes, and on the hooded cloak connected to his back was embroidered a dark-golden symbol.
Crouching by his feet was a strange brown creature that looked like a tree spirit, with branches sprouting from its head and several green leaves growing among them.
"If you came for these guys,"
He seemed to notice the newcomer behind him and spoke coldly.
"Then I'm afraid you're too late."
"Knock knock knock~" The tree spirit at his feet waved its branch-like arms along with its master's voice.
Kisho's expression changed slightly as he took a step back.
Something fell from the ceiling, crashing down with several loud thuds onto the floor in front of him.
They were several researchers—no, human scum—whose bodies had been pierced by vines from one side straight through to their heads, their faces frozen in terror, eyes wide open in death.
The man in black turned around and met Kisho's gaze.
When he noticed Kisho's eyes, a trace of confusion flashed across his face, quickly turning solemn.
"...Your eyes."
He spoke slowly, pronouncing the reason for passing judgment.
As his killing intent surged sharply, the two branch-arms of the tree spirit at his feet also became sharply pointed at their tips.
Kisho met his gaze without avoiding it.
This was not the first time he had endured such terrifying killing intent. Instead, what the man in black displayed was what concerned Kisho more.
He asked bluntly:
"Do you know the true origin of those things?"
He paused, then continued:
"The source of the 'genes' that Sains obtained?"
The man in black froze.
He had not expected that this child, whom he had also labeled a "monster" and planned to eliminate, would actually know about this matter.
Moreover, what puzzled him even more was that among all the "silver-blue" he had killed, none had been like this child—capable not only of thinking, but of asking questions.
After pondering for a long while, he did not answer Kisho's question, instead throwing out another one:
"There's a monster hidden inside your body. You know that, right?"
Before his words had even finished, Kisho cut in decisively:
"He is not a monster."
Man in black: "..."
He let out a cold laugh, as if mocking, but restrained his killing intent.
He had been investigating the "silver-blue" and a certain researcher who had joined the Bankro family. Because he needed to conduct the investigation covertly, he deliberately chose the time when the Bankro family went to sea for trade.
Although he had not found the researcher he was looking for, the unexpected gains were equally gratifying.
Could this completely different new individual be the key to solving the problem?
And that fellow "Sains" had most likely died at this child's hands as well.
If so, this mission could be considered a complete success.
What remained was the cleanup.
The man in black no longer paid attention to Kisho. He raised his hand, and an extremely thin vine shot out from the tree spirit, piercing the throats of the creatures in the glass pods one by one.
Until death, these beings still maintained their wide-eyed expressions, utterly silent.
As the man in black stepped past Kisho's side, he left behind a single sentence:
"I'll be watching you—to see what exactly that thing inside you really is."
His figure vanished at the top of the long staircase.
And Kisho stood there, speechless for a long time.