No alcohol—no alcohol—after eating their fill, Kisho paid for the meal with cash he had specifically exchanged.
"Mito-san, I'll come again!"
He turned back and greeted Mito, who was gradually getting busy, then pushed the door open and went out.
Kisho headed into the forest of Whale Island.
Probably because few people ever set foot here, the trees in the forest were exceptionally tall. From time to time came the rustling sounds of small animals, flashing past and vanishing into the grass.
Kisho walked deep into the forest, where there was a lake.
The sun had not yet climbed to its highest point. The thin mist over the lake had yet to disperse, hazy and tranquil, like an illusion.
Having gone a whole night without sleep, in such a peaceful environment, Kisho quite naturally—began to feel drowsy.
He found a patch of grass, lay down comfortably, and closed his eyes.
A faint breeze swept across the grass.
Birdsong and insect calls.
...
When Kisho groggily opened his eyes, the sun in the sky had already shifted westward.
He stared blankly at the setting sun, only then realizing that he had actually slept all the way until dusk.
But what surprised him even more was that a small boy was sitting beside him, wide-eyed, looking at him with curiosity.
The boy looked only six or seven years old, with spiky hair, wearing a green shirt and shorts.
Seeing Kisho wake up, the boy grinned.
"You're awake~"
Kisho was thrown off by the boy who had suddenly appeared and by his extreme familiarity.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts, then frowned.
Something was off. Even if he hadn't actively activated "En," he absolutely shouldn't have failed to sense even a child.
He stared at the boy in front of him with vigilance.
If it weren't for using "Gyo" and confirming that this boy was indeed human, he might really have thought the kid was some magical beast in disguise.
What's more, the aura drifting around the boy's body was even stronger than that of an adult, which was astonishing.
Yet the boy paid no attention to what Kisho was thinking. Even when Kisho didn't respond, he kept tossing out questions one after another on his own.
"I've never seen you on Whale Island before!"
"Did you come to Whale Island from outside to play?"
"I've never left Whale Island myself—hey, where did you come from?"
"What's it like outside Whale Island?"
"..."
Seeing himself about to be drowned in questions, Kisho hurriedly interrupted him.
"...Wait. Can you tell me your name first?"
"My name is Gon Freecss~ You can just call me Gon."
The boy answered energetically, not bothered at all by being interrupted, then politely returned the question.
"And—what about you?"
Hearing his name, Kisho paused slightly.
So this was Gon—looking at him, Kisho recalled the conversation he'd overheard in the tavern that morning and couldn't help but sigh inwardly: fate truly works in mysterious ways.
"Just call me Kisho."
While answering Gon, Kisho raised a hand and pressed his brow. Faced with such a naturally familiar kid, he found it a bit hard to cope.
"By the way, I'm a stranger to you, right? Didn't anyone teach you not to talk to strangers on your own?"
He showed Gon a sinister, child-scaring cold smile.
"Aren't you afraid I might be a bad guy?"
"Oh yeah~ Aunt Mito did say not to talk to strangers."
Gon pressed a finger to his chin thoughtfully. After a moment, he smiled again.
"But I can tell that you're not a bad person, Kisho."
Kisho complained.
"...Your instincts might be a bit off. I'm actually pretty bad."
"Huh?!"
Gon's eyes widened in shock, then he broke into an honest, cheerful smile.
"My instincts won't be wrong—so, can you tell me about the outside world?"
Kisho "..."
So he was being latched onto, huh?
No helping it. Even if Kisho wasn't exactly a good person, he still couldn't bring himself to just walk away from a kid staring at him with those big eyes. He could only sigh.
"Alright. What do you want to know?"
...
By the lakeside, one big and one small figure sat side by side.
Melodious laughter and exclamations of wonder echoed through the sky for the next half hour.
"...So there really are airships that can fly in the sky!" Gon's eyes shone with longing.
"Yeah, that's right. When you grow up—"
Kisho didn't finish the sentence. His expression suddenly turned serious.
What surprised Kisho was that the child beside him also tensed up, his small face tight as he stared toward a certain direction.
Kisho turned his head and looked at him intently.
"You heard it too?"
That extremely faint gunshot, coming from very far away—even he had only heard it because the badge in his pocket had enhanced his perception.
Gon nodded hard, anxious.
"It was a gunshot... I've heard that sound before!"
"Aunt Mito said there are many animals on Whale Island that don't exist outside—people come here to poach them!"
He suddenly jumped to his feet.
"No, I have to go stop them—"
Before he could finish, Kisho raised a hand and pressed it on Gon's shoulder.
"Then this isn't something for you to do."
"But—"
Gon hesitated, but still didn't get to finish, because Kisho had already vanished from his sight.
All that remained by his ear was a firm voice.
"Trust me. It'll be fine. I promise."
...
Kisho's figure darted swiftly among the trees. He casually grabbed a branch to swing himself forward, leaping dozens of meters ahead.
Soon, he reached the place where the gunshot had come from.
He landed lightly on a branch, using the dense shade to look down at the people below holding guns, and sighed inwardly.
"Sigh... didn't expect to be back on duty after just one day off. Looks like I'll never get to live a life without fighting."
Under the shade, a blond poacher shouted excitedly.
"Boss, once we catch this fox-bear, we can lie around for a whole month without working, right?!"
In his hand, he was holding an animal about the size of a house cat from a past life, like a bear with a fox's face.
"That's thinking too small. Hang up the little fox-bear to lure out the big one. Sell the small one to a rare-beast park, sell the big one to a restaurant. With that money, we can lie around for a whole year without working! Hahahaha~"
Another poacher in a red vest fantasized about the future and let out a shrill laugh.
"Idiots!"
The boss holding the gun glared at his two underlings with a sour expression.
"Being able to catch the small one is already good enough. You're still waiting for the big one? If it really comes out, you'll lose your lives!"
He spat and turned his head.
"What are you still standing around for? Let's go!"
But when he turned around, he froze in shock.
Because a white-haired youth was standing in front of them, one arm braced against a tree, the other hand tucked into his pocket.
He stood there at a slant, smiling.
Yet for some reason, the three poachers felt as if they were being watched by a beast.
"Well, I was asked by a kid to come take a look."
Kisho's gaze fell on the little fox-bear that had been shot in the hind leg. He tilted his head and smiled.
"Leave the bear. The people can go."
The three fell into an eerie silence.
A few seconds—or perhaps dozens of seconds—later, the first to break the silence was the poachers' boss.
He raised his gun and aimed it at Kisho, snarling.
"Damn it, brat. If you don't want to die, get the hell out of the way!"
What he expected—that the youth would piss himself and run when faced with a gun—didn't happen.
Amid the poacher's bluster, the youth simply straightened up lightly and shrugged.
"Oh? Negotiation failed. What a pity."
As he spoke, he slowly stepped toward them.
The first second, the youth vanished from where he stood.
The second second, a gunshot rang out, followed immediately by a sharp "ding." The bullet fired at the youth was knocked to the ground by a weapon that appeared and disappeared in his hand in an instant.
The third second, the youth was right up at the boss's face, smiling faintly at him.
In the man's terror-stricken eyes, Kisho effortlessly took the gun from his hand and even politely said thanks.
The youth raised the gun, aimed it at the stunned poacher leader, and pulled the trigger—
"Bang—"
The poacher's eyes went wide as he collapsed to the ground.
"Huh, that's all it takes to scare you?"
Kisho lowered the gun and shrugged at the man on the ground.
He then raised the gun again toward the other two who had already turned tail to run.
"Bang."
Before the word even finished, the youth flashed behind them and knocked both unconscious with the gun butt.
"All done~"
Tossing the gun aside, Kisho bent down and picked up the fox-bear. To the little creature baring its teeth at him, he said,
"Don't bite me, okay? I'll treat your wound."
He pressed his finger to the bullet wound piercing the fox-bear's leg. Nen condensed into water and flowed into the creature's body.
"Roar... roar..." The fox-bear's growls gradually quieted.
"All better."
After placing the fox-bear into the grass behind him, Kisho said to it,
"Go home. Next time you come out, remember to bring your dad and mom along, okay~"
The fox-bear glanced back at Kisho once, then disappeared into the grass.
At that moment, Kisho's expression suddenly turned cold.
He looked toward the shade of a nearby tree and said icily,
"You've been watching for a long time, haven't you? Isn't it time to come out?"
But the place stared at by his silver-blue eyes was completely empty.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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