In the western restaurant on one side of the plaza, two old friends who hadn't seen each other for over half a year sat face to face in a private room.
"So, you're here to take the Hunter Exam too, right?"
Amos picked up his cola and took a sip. "Seeing you standing here all lively and jumping around feels really great."
The familiar words made Kisho's forehead bulge with veins as he snapped, "I told you not to describe me as lively and jumping around, hey!"
"Heh heh~" Amos curled the corner of his lips. "When I heard the news about the Bankro family's merchant ship sinking, I was quite startled. You're pretty capable."
Amos suddenly turned serious. "So, your problem should be resolved by now, right?"
Kisho cut a piece of steak and stuffed it into his mouth, replying indistinctly,
"Of course it's resolved. Otherwise, how could I be this carefree, coming to take the Hunter Exam?"
But Amos still looked solemn as he continued, "What about the spiders?"
Kisho nearly choked. "...Cough."
He picked up his glass and took a gulp of iced cola to steady himself.
"That's not something I can resolve. I can only let things take their course."
Amos sneered. "Let things take their course? You mean giving up resistance."
"...Tch. We haven't seen each other for half a year—can't you say something nicer?"
Kisho slammed the table in anger, then rolled his eyes and looked at Amos.
"Stop asking about me all the time. Talk about your situation too!"
"Same as always." Amos shrugged.
"After getting a fake ID, I left Meteor City. Then I heard about the Hunter Exam. Since I had nothing better to do, I came to have some fun."
"Speaking of which…" Amos leaned back. "I haven't contacted that side for a long time. The Elders' Council might have already changed leadership."
Kisho complained, "...Those guys you dragged onto your ship are really miserable."
Amos spread his hands. "What's miserable about it? With me gone, they're free to do as they please and rely on their own abilities."
"By the way, before I left last time, you'd already developed the prototype of your Nen ability, right?"
Kisho smiled and met Amos's gaze. "How is it now?"
"And about the advanced application techniques of Nen—I've learned those too. Want me to share them with you selflessly?"
"My Nen ability?"
Amos smiled and raised a finger, shaking it. "Se-cret. You'll find out during the real exam."
Kisho snorted disdainfully, expressing his dissatisfaction that Amos was still keeping secrets from him.
"But I do need your help with something."
Amos stared at Kisho with sharp eyes and a faint smile.
He pulled a sheet of paper from a toolbox beside him and placed it in front of Kisho.
"Here, inject your Nen into this sheet."
Kisho raised his hand and pressed it onto the paper.
From the outside, it looked like an ordinary sheet of paper, but his fingers felt as if they were touching a cloud of smoke.
More than ten minutes later, after injecting over half of his Nen, Kisho felt a sense of repulsion coming from the strange sheet. He withdrew his hand and looked at Amos.
"Is this enough?"
Then Amos, who was sitting across from him, punched him on the head.
"Idiot! Did you forget how you got poisoned last time? What if I were being controlled by a Manipulator? What if I wanted to harm you?"
Amos gritted his teeth. "You know nothing about my Nen ability, yet you just do whatever I tell you to? How dare you?!"
Kisho: "..."
Kisho covered his head, aggrieved. "You're the one who told me to do it, and you're also the one telling me not to. You're really hard to serve, Elder Eros."
Amos shot him a glance and ignored him. On the sheet infused with Kisho's Nen, he used a pen that had suddenly appeared in his hand and, within just a few minutes, sketched Kisho's portrait.
Kisho moved their empty plates aside, propped his chin on his hand, and watched him.
"Done." Amos lifted the brush from the paper.
Then, as his Nen activated, the sheet of paper in front of him rapidly shrank—shrinking—until it became the size of a card. After he picked it up, it vanished at his fingertips.
"This is one of my Nen abilities," Amos explained while staring at Kisho. "When necessary, through this card, I can summon you—your paper version—and have it do anything I command. Heh heh, scared?"
"Whoa! A paper version?"
Kisho looked at Amos in surprise.
"Is it exactly like me? Can it use my Nen? Can it exist permanently?"
Amos answered each question in turn.
"Exactly the same."
"Not just your Nen and physical strength—even your personality is the same."
"It can't exist permanently. For now, about five minutes at most."
Kisho nodded in understanding. "Alright then. But don't use my paper version to do anything weird."
"Oh?" Amos leaned closer, curling his lips. "Weird things, like what?"
Kisho's face darkened. "..."
"Just kidding."
Amos sat back in his chair. "My Nen ability really isn't suited for direct combat, so I deliberately developed it in this direction."
"Other than fighting, I probably won't make your paper version do anything else."
He sighed. "After all, I can only create one of these cards every ten days, and the Nen consumption is terrifying."
Kisho's expression darkened again.
"You just didn't want to fight yourself, so you developed a Nen ability that treats other people like summoned beasts, Elder Eros."
"Heh heh~" Amos raised his brows at Kisho.
Kisho stared at him. "And you were just scolding me for not being cautious, yet you showed me your trump card the moment we met!"
"That's because I want to make use of you." Amos twirled the brush that had suddenly appeared in his hand again, not backing down at all.
"If I didn't explain it clearly, what if you refuse to help me make cards next time?"
"Fine, fine. You're right. Whatever you say is correct, Lord Eros."
Kisho sighed. "So, Lord Eros, are you still listening to the advanced Nen techniques?"
Amos smiled, slightly raising his chin at Kisho with an expression that said, you've got some sense after all.
...
Kisho demonstrated techniques such as "Ken," "Ko," "Shu," "Ryu," and "In" one by one, and time flew by amid demonstrations and explanations.
The moon climbed into the sky. In the plaza under the night, more and more tourists and examinees gathered.
"It's almost time, right?"
Kisho took out his phone, glanced at the time, then looked at Amos.
"Let's go~"
Amos picked up the coat from the sofa and put it on, nodding. "Yeah."
"Hehe, with you here, I feel at ease."
Kisho clasped his hands together toward Amos.
"I'm counting on you for the exam. Be sure to let me copy your answers."
Amos rolled his eyes at Kisho.
Amid low laughter and murmured words, the two boys walked out of the western restaurant and headed side by side toward the massive shopping mall.