Chapter 23: When I Say the 400-Meter Combat Hurdles Is an Item Race — Does Anyone Actually Get That?
It was less a small commercial street and more the preparation area built into the interior of the Tōdō Zaibatsu General Arena from Nekketsu New Record — and only two people had been placed inside it: Bendot and Ross.
The other four convict-examiners and four candidates, along with Lippo and his assistant on the monitoring room end, had all been pushed into a spectator mode. They could adjust their viewpoint freely and follow either Bendot or Ross, but they could not participate in any form.
"As the one who activated this ability, I'll run through the basic rules for everyone here."
Bendot spoke up voluntarily, which was the Domain's underlying framework requiring it — covering everyone present, including Ross.
"Four-hundred-meter combat hurdles: a competition where both participants must simultaneously avoid or destroy hurdles while pushing their speed to the limit. In principle, both parties must remain on adjacent parallel tracks, but within those track boundaries, each side may also make reasonable use of attacks against the other.
In principle, the first to cross the four-hundred-meter finish line wins. As the ability's activator, I am removing that rule."
The bloodlust on Bendot's face deepened noticeably as he said it.
He was a man serving a hundred-and-ninety-nine-year sentence. The violence in him — which had no outlet inside the prison's ordinary confines — could be fully released in a space like this. He intended to use every bit of it.
"The only win condition: one of us goes down entirely."
"One courtesy of these rules — neither side can engage in any form of violent conflict while outside the competition area."
"Of course, if you're a thoroughgoing coward, you're also welcome to go sit on that swing over there while I wait. I'm patient."
He gestured toward a shaded patch of ground not far away, where a single-person swing sat in the grass.
"A rules-based Domain that follows a sports event format. It draws in spectators as well as participants — that's not common." Lippo observed calmly from his forced spectator position. "But something about this feels off. This shouldn't be an ability he developed on his own."
"Hey, Yusuke. Is this examiner actually trying to kill him?"
"Looks like it... I should've gone first if it was going to be a straight fight!"
Kuwabara and Yusuke, solidly part of the functional half of the group, were both showing concern for Ross — who did not, by any physical metric, look like someone built for this kind of outcome.
The other two, with considerably more experience between them, were watching and absorbing in silence. Stepping into another Nen user's Domain was genuinely rare even for people with their histories. Any information they gathered here would improve their odds the next time they faced an ability of this type.
Based on what Ross had shown so far, a pure footrace would have given him strong odds. But Bendot had removed the finish-line rule, deliberately maximizing the combat component of the event, and the general read on Ross's prospects had shifted accordingly.
"What are those rooms?"
Ross spoke up, which surprised everyone who had assumed Bendot's presence had already settled his decision-making for him.
"Those? Looks like they're selling something, but I can't read what." Bendot looked faintly puzzled by the question, then answered it straightforwardly without any attempt to hide anything.
There was an underlying logic to this. In Togashi's original setting, the Hunter world's script was the Japanese syllabary with a new visual skin — but to reflect the diversity of the world's cultures, real-world writing systems had also been woven in, including both Latin letters and Chinese characters. The card grades in Greed Island used English letters; the previous head of the Zoldyck family had been known to take missions while wearing clothes printed with the Chinese characters for "one kill per day" and "career professional until death." None of these counted as the official common language of the Hunter world, and most people couldn't read them.
By the same token, the five large characters spelling Nekketsu New Record above the preparation area's entrance were completely unreadable to Bendot. The smaller text inside the shops was even further beyond him.
So that's how it is. A parasitic-type ability. Good to know.
"You don't mind if I take a look around?"
Ross's tone made the question sound like a formality.
"Go ahead." Bendot nodded. Having Ross idle on his side of the preparation area was genuinely fine with him. Whether or not this candidate could read any of that obscure text, the shops didn't take Jenny — he was confident there wasn't anything in there that could be used against him.
Ross walked past the first three shops without stopping and went directly to the roller door closest to the competition entrance.
Every spectator adjusted their viewpoint to follow him, curious what he was going to do.
What they saw a moment later was strange.
Without anyone being quite sure when it had happened, Ross had something cradled in his arms that looked like an old CRT computer monitor. Before anyone could get a clear look at it, he gripped it and slammed it against the ground. It broke apart. A golden ring shape rose briefly from the wreckage, then vanished.
Ross then reached behind him, produced three gleaming gold rings from somewhere, and held them out to the shopkeeper standing behind the counter — a figure with the approximate presence and responsiveness of a decorative mannequin.
At the same time, of the four items on display in the shop, the ones in positions one and three both flipped to sold-out markers. The shopkeeper returned five silver rings to Ross.
Ross took the silver rings and stood there for a moment with a slightly complicated expression.
"...If I hadn't personally watched Bendot manifest that ability myself, I'd almost suspect Badge 406 was the actual one who created this Domain."
Behind his sunglasses, Lippo's interest was now completely undisguised.
On raw physical comparison alone, Ross was at an absolute disadvantage on every axis. But the ease of his movements in here — the ease of someone walking through their own back garden — made Lippo genuinely curious what he was going to do with it.
He was also becoming increasingly certain that today's observation report was going to need to be written and submitted before end of shift. Both subjects: Bendot's Conjuration Nen tool and Domain of unknown origin, and Badge 406's gold rings that apparently had purchasing power inside the game space.
Yusuke and Kuwabara hadn't accumulated enough experience to think through all of that. But Ross's calm manner brought something back to both of them — the thing he had said before stepping into the arena:
Nobody knows the four-hundred-meter combat hurdles better than I do.
Maybe that hadn't been self-motivation. Maybe it had been a plain statement of fact.
Ross finished his shopping without visiting the other stores and walked in long strides toward the double doors leading to the competition arena. Bendot, who had no spectator view and had not seen anything Ross had just done in the shop, paused for a beat — then the predatory smile came back across his face.
If this candidate was walking toward him voluntarily, he was more than happy to oblige.
The two of them passed through the doors one after the other. Light covered the space again, and the scene began its next change.
With the sound of a cheering crowd filling the air around them, Ross and Bendot appeared together at the starting line of a standard rubber-track running course.