Rainwater slipped through the cracks of the shattered warehouse roof, dripping into the ruined building and landing on Ivan's face as he lay in a pool of blood.
The cold sensation made his eyelids twitch before they slowly opened.
His eyes were emerald green, slit like those of a reptile — something far removed from human.
The state lasted only a moment before gradually fading into normal pupils. A faint golden hue shone within them, bright and clear, matching the color of his hair.
Each falling raindrop appeared vividly in his vision. He could even trace the trajectory of every droplet as it descended.
But his focus quickly shifted — part of it to the pounding headache, the rest to the fading pain in his chest.
His white checkered sweater was soaked with blood, especially around the chest, where the sight was almost gruesome.
Raising a hand that was changing from wrinkled skin back into smooth flesh, Ivan touched his chest. Through the torn fabric, he felt a scar — the fatal wound that had ended the life of this body before his arrival.
The injury had already been repaired.
And the thing that repaired it was a pitch-black energy.
Dark aura drifted toward him from the scattered chunks of flesh throughout the warehouse, gathering into his body.
Ivan was not unfamiliar with this power. From the memories he had inherited, he already knew what it was.
Its name was Nen.
The only difference was that what flowed into him now was not the Nen of the living… but Nen left behind after death.
As for the scattered remains, he knew their origin as well.
They belonged to the father of this body's original owner — a judge named Lyman Zepile.
Ivan slowly sat up. There was no panic in his expression; this was not the first time he had experienced resurrection.
The last time had been eleven years ago. Back then, he had been driving alone through an uninhabited region when, on the brink of death, he unexpectedly arrived in another world.
Not hell.
But the world of the manga Steel Ball Run.
That was when Ivan realized he hadn't died — he had transmigrated.
He had gained a new identity: the second son of the Zeppeli family of the Kingdom of Naples, younger brother to Gyro Zeppeli — Ivan Zeppeli.
Now, as foreign memories once again flooded his mind, just like during his first transmigration, Ivan could conclude with certainty: after falling into a near-death state in the Devil's Palm, he had crossed worlds again.
His name remained Ivan Zeppeli.
But he was no longer from Naples.
Now he belonged to the Kakin Empire, in the world of Hunter × Hunter.
The year had changed from 1890… to 1998.
While sorting through the incoming memories, Ivan rose to his feet. His body was covered in injuries; even his fingernails looked newly grown.
Fragments of memory flashed through his mind — scenes of torture before death.
If not for Lyman's preparations, he likely would never have had the chance to revive.
Still, something in that plan must have gone wrong. Otherwise, the one resurrected would have been Lyman's son alone — not a transmigrator who had inherited his memories.
Comparing the faces from those memories, Ivan quickly identified his captors.
They were far too distinctive to mistake.
The purple cross-shaped tattoo at the center of the leader's forehead. Blue earrings hanging from both ears. A black coat marked with an inverted cross. Eyes so cold and unfathomable that no one could read his thoughts.
All signs pointed to one person.
The leader of the world-famous thief group and an A-class criminal — Chrollo Lucilfer, head of the Phantom Troupe.
Beside him stood a stern blonde woman in formal attire and a man wrapped like a mummy, only his eyes visible.
Pakunoda.
Bonolenov.
Surviving after falling into their hands… Ivan considered himself extremely lucky.
Yet as he looked at the swirling black Nen around his body, a heavy feeling settled in his chest.
The Nen that revived him carried something far beyond his ability to repay — a father's final love for his son.
He sighed, emotions complicated.
He could feel that the dark post-mortem Nen did not belong to him. He couldn't even control it.
To Nen users, he would probably shine like a lightbulb — and that was far from ideal.
For now, he had no solution. Especially since this death-Nen seemed to possess a unique property — the very key to his resurrection.
Ivan quickly organized his thoughts. It was something he excelled at.
He even formed a hypothesis about his transmigrations.
Both times had involved one thing: near death.
The first time, in the wilderness, he had been dying.
This time was no different.
Back in the world of Steel Ball Run, how could he not have wanted a Stand?
Especially as a member of the Zeppeli family — watching his brother master the Spin while he, as the second son, was forbidden from learning it. How could he accept that?
So he struggled.
He fought to join the royal guard.
He fought to enter the STEEL BALL RUN race.
All for the chance to learn the Spin… and obtain a Stand.
And he had succeeded.
In the Devil's Palm, he seized from Diego the Stand ability that should have belonged to Dr. Ferdinand — [Scary Monsters].
But by the time he obtained everything, he was already dying.
And now, death had brought him to a second world.
Would there be a third transmigration someday?
Ivan wondered.
But he would never gamble on it. The feeling of dying was terrible — and who could say the next near-death wouldn't be the real end?
His gaze swept across the abandoned warehouse. As he moved, the death-Nen linking him to the scattered remains surged toward him, and the flesh rapidly vaporized as if it had never existed.
After a brief hesitation, Ivan bowed solemnly toward the empty air.
"I'll avenge you."
It meant standing against the Phantom Troupe — even seeking them out.
But Ivan didn't mind.
They were never the same kind of people.
And he knew his resurrection would inevitably attract their curiosity.
After the bow, he stopped hesitating and headed toward the warehouse stairs.
He had no idea how long the Phantom Troupe had been gone. Nor how soon the next group would arrive to capture him. He didn't even know how much time had passed between his death and revival.
But one thing was certain:
He didn't have much time.
From the memories he inherited, he understood clearly — those who wanted him dead were few.
Those who wanted the intelligence he possessed, however, were many.
And such people wouldn't care whether he lived or died.
The intelligence wasn't his, anyway.
It belonged to his judge father — something Lyman had uncovered during an investigation.
Before being taken by the Phantom Troupe, Ivan had actually been in the hands of one of Kakin's three major mafia families — the Xi-Yu Family.
They wanted the information too, using him as leverage against his father.
They had taken considerable risks for it.
Ivan felt lucky that he didn't know what the intelligence actually was — or where it was hidden.
Otherwise, he probably wouldn't have survived long enough to be abducted by the Phantom Troupe… or for his father to find them.
In that case, father and son would likely have faced nothing but certain death together.
Now he had revived.
But the trouble was far from over.
This opening situation truly gave Ivan a headache.
Literally.
A flood of memories was still pouring into his mind, leaving him dizzy and disoriented.
Fortunately, the sensation was slowly easing as he adapted.
Otherwise, he honestly wasn't sure whether he could even make it out of this place alive.