The Reincarnator's Tavern

Chapter 26 Hisoka's Match

Rayleigh refrained from practicing Ten or using his Aura for the next month to make sure he didn't get ahead of Gon and Killua. Instead, he devoted his time entirely to Weighted Zetsu Training and Alar Training. Every week he'd perform a 45 Point Tavern Mission and occasionally hang out with Springheeled Jack and the others in the Tavern. He never asked their names even though he could easily look them up. He knew what to call them. To boost the effect of his Zetsu training, he only entered the Tavern physically. Around lunch time each day, he'd leave Heaven's Arena and find a location without cameras or witnesses to physically enter the Tavern from, so he could eat a very nutritious meal within.

By the end of the first week, his Alar Training had progressed, naturally enabling him to have two separate trains of thought simultaneously. The next step would be to separate the various thoughts into separate minds by isolating the thoughts of one train from the thoughts of another. This required one train of thought to completely ignore another train of thought. It was somewhat similar to having two people in the same room, both singing, but being so engrossed in their own songs that they didn't even notice the other person in the room.

From what Rayleigh knew, other than Jedi, the only other class with mental defenses was the Wizard Class. They had something called Occlumency, but it was not what the Players thought it was.

Within the Tavern, Wizards groaning about Occlumency being a rip-off were always present. Many a fanfiction had equated Occlumency to the Mind Palace Technique from Sherlock Holmes, but the two had nothing to do with each other. Occlumency was basically a fancier version of acting. According to those who got the Easy Mastery of Occlumency, the skill allowed the user to create a character, a false persona within the mind that seemed exactly like a real one. Those who observed the person would only find traits of the character, not the actor himself. A skilled Occlumens had layers of characters, making perceptive individuals capable of seeing through others believe they saw the real beneath the mask when the so-called real was just another character, another mask.

Occlumency was useful for mental defenses because it allowed the user to create a false target for mental attacks, but it did not organize the mind, grant eidetic memory, or make the user smarter. Similar to the belief that Wandless Magic was easy to learn, the 'truth' about Occlumency brought waves of complaints and groans from the Players who thought they could use its Easy Mastery to become geniuses without putting in the effort.

Rayleigh learned these things from the whiners in the General Chat. Most of the things Players learned about other Classes came from the complainers.

Rayleigh kept Occlumency in mind when practicing his Alar. In the future, he might need to isolate information from one of his minds and use it to block powerful mind readers or mental attacks.

Ironically, he ended up making a Mind Palace for himself in order to progress Mental Separation. Having two thoughts in the same room wasn't separate, no matter how hard he tried, so he had to expand the concept of his mind into something much larger, much firmer. Rayleigh's Mind Palace ended up being a combination of all the Temples Rayleigh stayed at on Tython, but primarily the Temple of Force Skills.

The Temple of Force Skills had a different Force Skill depicted on the wall of every room, and Rayleigh had used Psychometry on each while there and had a crystal clear memory of those rooms, making it easy to create such an image in his mind. Since the original Temple already separated skills into rooms, it was easy to keep those skills in those rooms and only slightly harder to make new rooms with different pieces of knowledge depicted within. Instead of books and libraries, his knowledge was carved in detail into the walls of each room. Techniques were carved into reliefs and statues, while memories were made into murals.

Upon the completion of his Mind Temple, he also completed Mental Separation. His various trains of thought could explore or renovate different areas of his mind palace while remaining unaware of what the others were doing. Of course, the separation had to be intentional. Separating the thoughts just allowed two trains of thought to occur without interrupting each other. The separation of the thoughts into individual tasks could be undone at any moment.

Rayleigh figured that the only reason he succeeded was thanks to the Game's mental mechanic which allowed Players to hide their past lives. It was very similar to the act of separating thoughts. During separation, your mind without your past life memories would think one thing, while your mind with your past life memories would think another. It was only thanks to this experience that he was able to replicate this unusual feat.

After a month, two significant events occurred in the Tower. Gon's arm healed completely, and a well-known fighter was scheduled for an upcoming match. If it was anyone else, the trio probably wouldn't have cared, but the fighter in the upcoming match was none other than Hisoka!

Killua and Rayleigh stood in line for over an hour to buy their tickets. Killua insisted on buying one for Gon, saying that watching a fight was not the same as studying Nen, and that Wing would allow it.

The ticket price was 150,000 Jennies. The only reason they could easily purchase one was because the fighters on the 200th floor could buy them in advance before sales opened to the masses and the scalpers who'd buy up all the tickets before reselling them at a premium.

With Hisoka's upcoming match, the details of Hisoka's past matches became easily known.

According to others the pair asked, Hisoka had eleven matches in Heaven's Arena. Three were losses, and of his eight victories, six were outright killed. What was more interesting was that those three losses weren't to strong fighters, but matches he simply didn't show up for. At a fight he actually went to, he's never lost.

According to Springheeled Jack, Hisoka had gotten to the 200th Floor before they did and was one of the strongest fighters. He wasn't just famous, he was infamous. His presence at the Hunter's Exam this year reportedly caused several Hunter Players who hadn't yet obtained a license to wait a year in order to avoid Hisoka's attention.

When Rayleigh told them he already had the predator's interest, they both gave him heavy looks of pity and recommended staying away from him. They even said he should leave the Hunter World if Hisoka's interest grew any further.

When Rayleigh and Killua returned to Gon's room with the tickets, the pair saw him standing on his arm, cast completely removed, testing to see how much stress his arm could handle and checking if it was fully healed.

Gon even hopped a few times on his arm before getting up and stating, "I think I'm fully healed."

Rayleigh sighed and said, "Let me check. You probably should have let me check before you removed the cast."

Gon smiled but presented his arm for Rayleigh's inspection. It only took a moment to confirm that not only had the bones been mended, but even the location of the mend was harder than normal, confirming it was fully healed.

Rayleigh didn't explain his findings and just stated, "Yeah, you're good."

Killua, unable to believe it, asked, "What are you made of?"

Rayleigh mumbled to himself, "Plot armor and charisma."

Neither heard his statement, and Killua pulled out his own ticket for Hisoka's match and the one he got for Gon.

"These weren't easy to get. His matches always sell out, and we only got these because we had access to the ticket counter reserved for fighters on the 200th floor."

Killua then went on to explain what they learned about Hisoka's previous matches and the hype behind the current one.

"Listen to this, in all eight of his matches, his opponents have only ever gotten four points off him. What's better is that three of those points were achieved by a single fighter, and it is that fighter that Hisoka is up against again. It's a Rematch against the strongest person Hisoka ever faced! And what's more, it's definitely gonna be a death match!"

Killua continued, "If you go, you'll definitely be able to analyze his techniques against a real opponent."

Gon asked, "But what about my promise to Wing?"

Killua argued, "You're only watching the match, not using Ten."

Ray added, "We should probably ask Wing to make sure."

Neither they nor Wing had a cellphone, but he was usually found on the 50th Floor watching Zushi, so it didn't take them long to find him.

When asked if it was okay to watch the match, Wing answered, "No way! Watching this match is another way to learn about Nen."

Gon waved his arm around saying, "But I'm fully healed. Rayleigh confirmed it."

Wing glanced at the string tied to Gon's finger for a moment before shaking his head. "The two-month time limit wasn't just for your convalescence but as a punishment for jumping into an incredibly dangerous situation. Recordings of the Match will be available, so we can watch and analyze it once your punishment is over."

Gon looked thoroughly chastised before nodding. Seeing this, Wing walked back over to the TVs to watch another of Zushi's fights.

On the day of the fight, every TV in Heaven's Arena had experts talking about the upcoming match.

Although Hisoka was a legend, his opponent's record was even better. Given the title of the Warrior, the man named Kastro had ten fights on Heaven's Arena's 200th floor. His very first match was a loss against Hisoka, where he underwent the usual Nen Baptism, but the remaining nine fights were all consecutive victories. The fact that this was clearly a revenge match contributed to the match's hype. Kastro did not want to become a Floor Master without clearing away the shame of his only loss by defeating Hisoka for his tenth victory.

Rayleigh and Killua sat on a bench, sipping soda and juice and watching an interview Kastro had conducted only a few minutes before.

On TV, Kastro stated, "If I didn't think I had a chance of victory, I would not have made this challenge to begin with. I'm going to show everyone that in the two years since my loss, I have become a new man."

Killua sipped his juice and stated sarcastically, "Really modest, isn't he?"

Rayleigh shrugged, "Words are empty, so it doesn't matter."

Killua replied, "Maybe." Then he looked a little mischievous. "Hey, you want to check? Is he really that good, or is it all talk?"

Rayleigh got up and tossed his empty can into a trash can on the opposite wall.

The pair made their way to the room fighters could use to wait for their matches. There was a guard blocking the entrance into the hall leading to it, but Killua tossed a stone to the man's side to get him to turn his head, and Rayleigh and Killua sped past his perception and were down the hall before he turned his head back.

The pair came to a door, and Killua peered through a viewing glass to see inside. He whispered, "He's there, sitting in front of the TV."

Rayleigh looked through the little glass opening and saw the same man from the TV, apparently sitting there, watching his own interview on another TV.

"Can I help you boys?"

The pair quickly turned around and saw Kastro standing behind them, apparently the one who asked the question. Both were shaken.

Before he spoke, Rayleigh's senses did not pick him up at all.

The pair instinctively turned back to look into the room they were peeping into earlier but didn't see Kastro sitting there.

Killua seemed to be freaking out internally. They were clearly looking at Kastro through the window when this man bearing the same appearance spoke up behind them, and the Kastro they were looking at was now gone.

Nothing about that made sense.

Rayleigh had seen freakier things and was less affected. He quickly recovered and answered Kastro's question, "We were curious to see someone who was willing to fight a Death Match with Hisoka. We all took the Hunter's Exam with him and know a little bit about how terrifying he can be."

Kastro nodded, "So you came to size me up, huh? What are your impressions?"

Killua recovered a bit and answered, "Definitely impressive."

Rayleigh answered, "I don't know enough about Nen to judge."

Kastro smiled at Killua's remark but frowned at Rayleigh's. It was obvious that Rayleigh didn't have confidence in Kastro's victory but was too polite to say anything or lie.

Kastro looked back over to Killua and said, "Your Zetsu is pretty good, but you should erase your presence before getting to this floor instead of down the hall. A presence like yours vanishing is more noticeable than having a presence the whole time."

He turned to Rayleigh and added, "Your friend didn't even bother to hide his presence, so I guess it didn't matter."

Killua looked over at Rayleigh and scowled, but only for a moment. Rayleigh always intended to speak with Kastro, so there was no point in hiding.

Killua changed the subject by asking, "How did you do that?"

Kastro obviously knew what Killua was referring to and replied, "Sorry, I can't tell you. We may fight each other someday."

Killua shook his head, "I don't have any intention of fighting for the position of a Floor Master."

Kastro smiled and opened the door that the pair was standing in front of and re-entered the waiting room, stating, "I'll see you at the Battle Olympia," before closing the door.

Killua scoffed a bit at the fact that Kastro didn't believe him when he said he wasn't interested. He turned to Rayleigh and asked, "Did you see how he did that?"

Rayleigh nodded, "Kinda. Do you want me to explain it now, or do you want to be surprised when you see it during the match?"

"Tell me now." Killua wasn't the most patient person.

The pair started walking down the hall, and Rayleigh explained, "The Kastro we saw in the room was real while the other was a fake. The one in the room hid when we turned away, and the one who snuck up on us was probably invisible to our senses before making its presence known. When Kastro felt our presence, he probably had that fake stand in the hall and made it invisible, waiting for us. You got pranked."

When Rayleigh turned away to see the duplicate, his Force senses did not miss Kastro getting out of his seat and hiding his presence while his duplicate had their attention. The fact that it was a fake was something he could sense using the Force. The fake had lifeforce, but no Midichlorians, so he was something made of aura, not a living person.

As for how the duplicate became invisible, Rayleigh figured it was the same trick Armory used to make his magnetic sand invisible. It wasn't a specialty of his, but an ability all Nen users might have access to.

Killua looked shocked before he turned pissed. Rayleigh almost thought he could see steam coming from the top of his head.

Killua actually thought for a moment that Kastro was so fast, he could get behind them while Killua was still looking at him. The explanation of how Kastro did it was weird but made far more sense than Killua missing someone moving from in front of him to behind him without seeing it.

What was worse was that this was clearly a prank. Kastro sensed them and prepped a prank for them just to mess with them and make himself look cooler and more mysterious when his skill was more of a gimmick.

Rayleigh added, "I don't care about the fake, but I do want to know how he sensed us from all the way over there. That would be really useful."

Killua nodded. An assassin being found so easily was an insult, so Kastro's ability to spot them was something to consider. It made them both more eager to learn about Nen.

Rayleigh and Killua arrived somewhat early for the match, but the seats were already packed. Thankfully, they were numbered, and the seats they paid for were good ones. Gon's ticket was between them, and Killua certainly didn't want to give or sell it to a stranger, so Rayleigh just got out HK-47's head and set it on the seat so he could record and analyze the match himself.

Both fighters arrived on stage as the minutes counted down to the start of the match. Hisoka dressed lightly, his vest had playing card suits sewn into the front and back, and his wrists and ankles were tied with lengths of cloth.

Kastro wore a long shawl that covered most of his body and simple colors. The contrast between the color palettes of the fighters alone showed how diametrically opposed they were to each other.

On the stage, Kastro stated, "I must thank you, Hisoka. Without the Baptism you gave me, I would not have become so strong."

If that wasn't arrogant enough, he then called out, "I must warn you. In the nine matches I fought since my defeat to you, not once did I go all out. All in order to train to finally beat you."

Rayleigh said aloud to Killua, "If you train while holding back, you only get skilled in holding back. Not something to brag about."

Killua nodded. Holding back was fine to train minor skills, but real skill was gained from all-out fights against someone who could make you go all-out.

The match began, and Kastro charged forward; his arm seemed to concentrate aura into it, and he leaped forward to chop at Hisoka's head.

The Magician ducked beneath the attack, only to receive it where he had dodged.

Killua asked, "How'd he do that?"

Rayleigh guessed, "His fake is still invisible, overlapping his attack with the original."

Killua added, "So the fake can hit that hard?"

Hard was right. Hisoka was nearly sent to the floor with that hit, only bracing himself at the last second. His wandering eyes confirmed that he didn't see the invisible fake and that he was confused about how an attack he dodged still managed to hit him.

The Ref awarded Kastro a point, and Kastro declared, "Fight for real Hisoka. Don't hold back. I've changed a lot in two years."

Hisoka answered, "Whether or not to hold back. I'm the one who decides that."

Kastro gritted his teeth and charged forward once more, "Then decide!" He attacked again, and once again, Hisoka dodged. But once again, he still received a hit.

Killua asked, "Why is he using the fake like that?"

A professional assassin could think of a few ways to use an invisible doppelganger that matched you in strength. Using it to hit with a delayed version of the same attack your main body used was not one of them.

From the seat between them came a helpful robotic answer.

[Conjecture: Perhaps he is hiding the nature of his ability to amend some apparent weakness. Further analysis is required.]

Hisoka continued to analyze Kastro's ability himself by receiving various hits. At one point, the fake made itself visible in front of Hisoka while the original hid behind it and moved into Hisoka's blind spot while the fake attacked. When Hisoka blocked the fake's attack, the real one kicked Hisoka from behind as the fake vanished.

Most of the crowd didn't even notice when Kastro separated from his fake and only saw Kastro attack Hisoka from the front, then vanish as Hisoka was attacked from behind.

The attack was so unexpected, Hisoka was sent cleanly to the ground, awarding Kastro a Clean Hit and a Down. With the first Clean Hit awarded, Kastro now had 4 points.

Hisoka's face was bloodied, but he seemed quite happy. He was feeling the same thing that Killua had earlier. He clearly saw Kastro was in front of him, then Kastro was also behind him, and the one in front was gone.

The announcer and the audience went crazy, unable to believe the teleportation-like feat they believed they saw.

Hisoka tried to figure out the trick aloud, but Kastro was losing his patience and interjected, "I won't wait any longer. In my next attack, I'll take an arm from you."

Kastro took a stance with his hands apart, resembling a set of jaws.

Several fans of Kastro shouted, "He's finally showing it! The Bite of the Tiger!"

Kastro then charged forward, but abruptly stopped when Hisoka did something none of them could imagine.

Standing without taking a defensive stance, Hisoka had his left arm extended, literally presenting it for Kastro to 'bite' off.

Seeing the confusion on Kastro's face, Hisoka smirked and explained, "Here. I'm giving it to you."

Kastro only hesitated for an instant, but in that instant, he split off from his double again, his fake approaching Hisoka while his original approached from behind. The fake suddenly vanished, and to the onlookers, it looked like Kastro teleported from in front of Hisoka to behind him.

Kastro shouted, "I'll take the right!" and with a single motion, Hisoka's arm, halfway to the elbow, was completely severed.

Hisoka grabbed his severed right arm with his left and got some distance before calmly declaring, "Now I see. The secret of your strength is your double."

Kastro smirked, "That's right. You got it."

Removing whatever made it invisible, a second Kastro appeared in the ring, right behind the original.

Killua asked, "Why did he make it visible?"

[Observation: The manner in which Hisoka stressed that he could see implied that he can now see the doppelganger. The angle of Hisoka's head also indicates that he was looking directly toward its location. Analysis. A technique exists that allows one to see the invisible. Once Hisoka knew the doppelganger was invisible, he started using that technique. Kastro is aware of this technique. After being found out, Kastro had no further reason to maintain his doppelganger's invisibility.]

Rayleigh added, "That must be why Kastro put so much effort into hiding the nature of his ability. The moment Hisoka figured out it was invisible, he could negate it."

Killua asked, "So Nen can make invisible stuff, but you can also use Nen to see invisible stuff?"

Ray answered, "It looks that way." If he learned that technique, he'd be able to see those hidden things that even his Force Senses couldn't locate.

Although the fact that his doppelganger existed was known, Kastro's confidence didn't waver. It was still two against one after all.

Hisoka seemed unconcerned. In fact, he seemed quite pleased with himself for figuring it out.

Kastro didn't like Hisoka's confident smile and declared, "Will you remain arrogant when I take your left arm?"

Hisoka continued smiling while playing with his severed hand and answered, "Maybe."

Hisoka then bit down on the flesh of his severed arm and ripped it off with his teeth. For obvious reasons, this action unsettled everyone in the room and probably caused a few people to shit themselves.

Rayleigh was the only one smiling. Hisoka really deserved his title of Magician. Kastro was pretty good at making people look at one thing while he hid his presence and did another, but Hisoka was on another level when it came to misdirection. While holding everyone's attention with the flesh in his teeth, he removed a handkerchief from beneath the wrappings on his arm.

Hisoka smiled and flicked the handkerchief in the air, making it look to everyone like it appeared out of nowhere. He let the handkerchief fall on his severed arm and flipped it over, so the arm was now hidden under the handkerchief.

Hisoka then declared, "Shall I show some of my skills? I'm actually a Fortune Teller."

Hisoka then threw the handkerchief into the air. For some reason, the arm shot like a bullet to the roof, and a deck of cards hidden within the handkerchief scattered in the air.

Even Rayleigh's eyes didn't catch the movement of the arm toward the ceiling, he only felt it using the Force. It was still there for anyone to see if they looked up, but Hisoka had everyone's attention, and it looked like Hisoka's arm had turned into a deck of playing cards.

Hisoka then played a game. He said, "Pick any card you see here and choose a number from it."

Rayleigh found it impressive that every single card landed face up. Were they double-sided?

Hisoka continued, "Are you ready? Take that number and add four. Then multiply by two. Subtract six. Divide in half. Then subtract the number you started with."

Everyone in the audience seemed to be doing math in silence for a moment before Hisoka declared, "That number you have in your head. I know what it is."

Hisoka then plunged his hand into the stump of his right arm. The pain was clear on his face, and several members of the audience threw up.

Hisoka then appeared to pull out a playing card he probably already had on his palm and show it off, saying, "It's one, right?" The bloody card in his hand was the ace of spades.

Everyone who didn't understand basic algebra went crazy thinking that Hisoka knew the number in their heads. Unsurprisingly, that was most of them.

Hisoka then said, "Your souvenir," and tossed the ace toward Kastro. He knocked it away, thinking Hisoka had gone completely crazy. He then sent his doppelganger to take Hisoka's left arm.

Once again surprising everyone, Hisoka gave a repeat performance and presented his left arm for Kastro to take.

This time, Kastro didn't even pause before continuing.

Everyone's attention was on Kastro's doppelganger and Hisoka. So Rayleigh naturally looked up. He was the only one to spot the moment when the arm on the ceiling rocketed down.

The doppelganger that charged forward cleaved off Hisoka's left arm, but also received the attack of the severed right arm that seemed to shoot down from the ceiling. Rayleigh wondered how Hisoka got the arm to attack like that, but then he noticed that the arm was not aiming at Kastro, it was aiming at the handkerchief on the ground that Kastro had just stepped over.

After the arm struck Kastro, the handkerchief then seemed to jump from its place on the ground and fly toward Hisoka's right stump. Hisoka's severed right arm followed it and seemed to attach itself perfectly back to his stump, while the handkerchief covered the wound and seemed to vanish over the arm while hiding the wound.

Rayleigh was likely the only one who was looking at this. Hisoka's left arm had just been severed and was flying in the air. Hisoka timed the trick perfectly so that no one would pay attention to what he did with his right arm as their attention was on his left. Perfect misdirection, as expected of a Magician.

While everyone was looking at the falling arm, the doppelganger vanished from the attack it just received.

Hisoka casually said, "It really was the double that attacked. And here I was planning on planting you into the floor if you attacked me yourself with my right arm."

It was only at that moment that everyone realized Hisoka's right arm was back. The handkerchief covering it somehow looked like skin, so even the injury was perfectly hidden.

Understandably, the entire crowd was shaken. Even Killua looked shocked.

The announcer repeated the word "HOW?" four or five times, unable to process what they were looking at.

Hisoka was obviously pleased. Kastro had given a display that made people scratch their heads, but Hisoka's performance had everyone truly flabbergasted. He boldly answered the confused announcer, "It's one of my tricks. Can you figure it out?"

Hisoka took a confident step forward, his left stump still dripping with blood and his left arm laying on the ground.

Even with such a wound, Kastro unconsciously stepped back when Hisoka stepped forward.

"What's going on with you?" Hisoka laughed. "Are you scared? You don't understand the trick, and you're surprised. Hehe, that's the basics of magic. The ability to make a double is wonderful. But now I understand the trick. It isn't difficult for me to imagine what you're going to do next and figure out how to counter that."

Rayleigh frowned at Hisoka's statement. It wasn't arrogance. To Hisoka, it was a simple fact that he could now predict Kastro's moves. If that was true, it meant Hisoka was a genius. A true genius.

Hisoka continued, "It's a pity. You could have become a skilled Nen user. It was only because of this that I let you live last time. Allow me to read your fortune. You are going to sink into insanity and die."

The statement clearly shook Kastro up. Falling completely for the provocation, Kastro and his copy jumped toward Hisoka to launch a two-pronged attack.

Hisoka turned to look at the real one, causing the original Kastro to abort the assault while his copy tried in vain to attack Hisoka on its own.

Hisoka leisurely explained while dodging the copy's attacks, "The image your copy holds doesn't change. The drops of my blood on your own clothes don't appear on the copy."

The doppelganger went harder on offense to keep Hisoka's attention while the original Kastro prepared another use of Bite of the Tiger, this time aiming for Hisoka's head.

Kastro launched himself at Hisoka who didn't bother taking a stance to dodge the imminent decapitation. It was at that moment that the severed left arm that had been lying on the ground shot like a rocket and struck Kastro's chin directly.

Kastro wobbled from the hit, and the doppelganger fighting Hisoka vanished.

Rather than take advantage of the off-guard opponent, Hisoka picked up his severed left arm and walked away.

Kastro tried to steady himself, but Hisoka calmly stated in an almost lecturing tone, "It's useless to struggle. You received a direct hit on the chin. You won't recover your mind for a while. Oh, and it will be useless to dodge this next attack."

Hisoka waved him off while walking to the end of the stage.

The dozens of playing cards littering the ground were then lifted into the air and shot toward Kastro one at a time.

Kastro started panicking and tried to recreate his double so it could take the attack for him, but Hisoka leisurely continued his lecture.

"Your double won't be able to help you dodge. You can't materialize it anymore."

Several cards struck and pierced into Kastro's left arm.

Hisoka explained, "To materialize your double, you need a lot of concentration."

More cards pierced Kastro's right arm.

"It's a very hard task to make a thing as complex as a human being appear and make him move freely. It's so hard that the necessary strength to reach it made you forget your other skills."

Kastro's eyes were lifeless, dozens of cards had already pierced into his chest, torso, and legs.

Hisoka finished, "That's what I refer to as insufficient memory. The superfluous use of your memory is the reason for your defeat."

Hisoka's explanation was finished as he stepped off the stage, and Kastro collapsed to the floor. A count wasn't required, Kastro was dead.

The audience exploded in applause at the insanity of the match, and Rayleigh and Killua got up. Rayleigh packed up HK-47 and said, "I'm gonna go see Hisoka. Wanna come?"

Killua looked at Rayleigh like he was crazy and said, "No way! Go on your own!"

Rayleigh smiled and did exactly that.

It didn't take much effort to make his way to the medic station Hisoka had gone over to. What surprised him was that it wasn't a doctor with him, but a young, pink-haired woman.

Rayleigh didn't hide his presence, so both were looking at him as he entered.

Hisoka smiled, "Oh ho? Why have you come over?"

Rayleigh answered, "I wanted to check if you needed healing."

Hisoka recalled Rayleigh healing Killua during the Hunter Exam and asked, "Can you perfectly repair severed limbs?"

Rayleigh honestly answered, "Theoretically, yes. In practice, I've never done it before."

Hisoka laughed, "Hehehe, so you wanted someone to practice on. Amusing. But I already have an expert."

The pink-haired woman asked, "Who the hell are you?"

Rayleigh answered, "A friend."

The woman then turned incredulously to Hisoka and asked, "You have friends?"

Hisoka chuckled, "So it seems. Why don't you show him how a professional does it?"

The woman shrugged and removed a needle from the pincushion on her glove. Her aura surged and she seemed to pull a fine threat from the aura on her finger and pass it to the needle.

She instructed, "Erase the aura around your left arm first. We'll stop the bleeding."

Hisoka did as instructed, and blood started gushing from his left stump. The woman's arm quickly circled around Hisoka's stump, and the thread coming from her fingers was tied around it, halting the flow of blood.

The woman then held Hisoka's severed left arm with one hand, and her fingers started weaving at an impossible-to-perceive speed through the space between the severed arm and the stump.

The speed far exceeded what Rayleigh saw the Zoldyck Butler do, and it looked like several hundred illusionary hands were doing precise work in the same space.

After only a few seconds, she released Hisoka's severed arm and said, "I'm done." The arm fell, but hung beneath the stump by the attachment of several thousand threads. The woman then made a pulling gesture, and the threads attaching the stump to the arm retracted, pulling the arm perfectly into place.

She stated aloud, "Veins, bones, and flesh, everything works again at 100%."

Hisoka started flexing the fingers of his no longer severed hand and said with great appreciation, "Nice work."

She replied by handing him his other severed arm and saying, "Right arm this time. You hold it."

Performing the same impossible feat as before, she reattached the other arm.

Hisoka smiled and said, "Impressive as always. I think I may get injured in the future just to have the pleasure of seeing you work."

The woman flatly stated, "It's twenty million for the left arm and fifty million Zennies for the right one. There are still lesions from the damage, so you'll have to heal yourself after."

Rayleigh added from the side, "I can take care of that."

Hisoka asked, "Really? Then by all means."

He presented his right arm to Rayleigh without any concern.

Rayleigh grabbed the arm and confirmed the damage and how the woman fixed it. He turned to her and said, "You are an artist."

She nodded confidently and said, "It's good that you know."

She really was. It took a special mind to be able to mend like that. All the wounds were still there, but her threads perfectly aligned every injury in such a way that it would heal the fastest.

Rayleigh started using Dark Transfer. Most of the negative effects of the skill only applied when using it on Force Users, so there wasn't a problem using it on Hisoka.

The fissures and cracks he perceived through the force on the wound were deep, but the cracks were also thin thanks to what the woman had done. It took some effort to draw in the Force to gently fill in the cracks, but it was doable.

With Rayleigh's healing, every severed segment neatly reattached itself. The severed nerves worked because of how perfectly the woman realigned them, but there was a difference between realigning and reattaching.

In about two minutes, the severed was connected, and Hisoka's arm was fully healed.

Rayleigh let go and said, "Realigning everything is the hard part for me. As long as the pieces are all there, I can put them back together."

Hisoka flexed his arm, and even the woman examined it. She said, "You didn't use Nen."

Rayleigh shook his head. "I only just started learning Nen."

Hisoka added, "Interesting, no?" He then presented the other arm.

Rayleigh took it and said, "This way you won't need to cover it with a handkerchief."

Hisoka asked, "Oh, you saw that?"

Rayleigh added, "It was funny how you stuck your hand to the ceiling and no one looked up."

Hisoka proudly declared, "If their attention is not where I want it, I wouldn't be a very good Magician, no?"

Rayleigh nodded in agreement.

The woman stood to the side, staring at Rayleigh's work, trying to figure out how he was healing Hisoka.

Rayleigh finished, and the woman asked, "Is there a limit to that?"

Rayleigh answered, "I can't replace what is lost, and I can only heal tissue damage. I can't heal curses and stuff like that."

Curses were a thing for the Jedi too. Tissue damage was seen using Shatterpoint as fissures and cracks he could fill in with the Force using Dark Transfer. But Curses were not seen as fissures he could just fill in, so he had no way to affect them with Dark Transfer.

The woman shook her head and said, "That's a shame. Nen removers are really rare."

The woman then headed for the door and said, "Well, I'm leaving."

Hisoka asked, "Already?"

"You're already healed, I'm done here." She then turned back and said, "Oh, almost forgot. There's a job. Every member of the troupe without exception is to arrive in Yorknew before the 30th of August."

Hisoka asked, "Will the Boss be there?"

The woman answered, "Probably. If you don't show up again, the Boss could punish you." With those words she left.

Rayleigh didn't ask any questions about a conversation he wasn't a part of, but his subconscious told him to remember it.

Hisoka then turned to Ray and asked, "So what do you want in return for this? Ah, let me guess. You have a question?"

Rayleigh nodded. "Yeah. I somewhat guessed what you did, but I did have one question. You used Nen to make stuff fly around from one target point to another, right? And you made your Nen invisible, the same way Kastro made his doppelganger invisible. My question is, why didn't Kastro do what you did to see the invisible Nen you used to perform your own trick?"

That was the only thing that didn't make sense. Kastro used a trick to make his doppelganger invisible. So why didn't he check for invisible things himself? Unless Kastro had brain damage, it didn't make any sense.

Hisoka started chuckling for a few moments, seemingly pleased with the question.

He elaborated, "The technique to see hidden Nen is called Gyō, you'll learn it easily enough at some point. The problem is that Gyō, like all Nen techniques, requires a certain amount of concentration to use. Kastro's doppelganger simply used up too much of his concentration. He could not use Gyō and his doppelganger technique at the same time. He invested everything into that technique and gave it all kinds of features like the invisibility you spoke of, thinking it would make him strong enough to beat me, but in doing so he lost the resources needed to see through my trick. That's why I chose such a trick to perform in the first place. Had he been capable of using Gyō and the doppelganger at the same time, I would have fought in a different manner."

Rayleigh had HK-47 in his backpack, and the droid was recording all of this. The limits of what could be done and what could not be done were important to prevent yourself from heading toward a dead end and winding up like Kastro.

Rayleigh said, "Thank you. See you around."

Hisoka smiled and laughed as Rayleigh left. The laugh continued and got creepier as Rayleigh got further down the hall, causing him to increase his pace a bit. It was probably just Hisoka messing with him, but he wasn't going to take any chances.

*Author's Note*

Ah, how long. In any case, this chapter has a lot of important aspects. One problem I've seen in a LOT of Hunter X Hunter fanfics is that the MCs have too many Nen abilities which are way too complex. Hisoka only has two Nen abilities, both of which are very simple, but infinitely flexible. Of course, even Hisoka's abilities have limits. Did you know his Bungee Gum has a limit of 10 meters? It can reach the height of the roof in the arena, but not any further. This means he can't go Spidermanning, but the restriction also probably strengthens the gum as well.

In any case, it is better to have a few simple but flexible techniques over an assortment of complex techniques. Plenty of Hunter X Hunter Fanfic writers didn't pay attention to Hisoka's lecture during this fight and didn't understand that Nen has limits.

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