ENTER: The Magician, and His Assistant. [ PreExam Hisoka x Reader ]

EPISODE THIRTY: Only x Fools x Rush x In

CHAPTER 30

ONLY FOOLS RUSH IN

After that night, Hisoka had neglected to return to the lone heiress healing in her bed. Instead, he had spent the past week and a half scouring the city for the missing ring leader, Moritonio, who seemed to guess the jig was up: Hisoka was out for blood. In fact, his nails were practically singing with the phantom sensation of gore gathering beneath the shiny keratin, fingers dripping with imaginary crimson liquid. The thought burned at the back of his mind and thirsted in his throat, he craved death and the assertion of power. He was power itself, he had developed his hatsu in a night, and he wanted to test it out on Moritonio, his prey. With every tense and release of energy, his fleeting footsteps propelling him forward from rooftop to rooftop, bounding from wall to wall, and gliding through the air as if flying, he knew he was getting closer to destroying the man. He hadn't slept for three days, and he wasn't burned out yet. He relished in the feeling of the unrelenting hunt, in expanding his nen over yards of the city, constantly searching for the identifying signature of Moritonio, the scent of metal and the tug of magnets. He was overwhelming, and even those incapable of developing nen could feel the dissipating shadow of something heavy as he continued his hunt.

As he had refined his skill in nen, he had grown more bloodthirsty as he realized his boundless limits. Any precautions he had formerly held were tossed into the wind, there was nothing he couldn't do if he set his mind to it. He was naturally a genius and now he was unchained. The feeling of realizing true freedom was exhilarating. The whispers of destruction cradled his mind and motivated him to keep moving forward. There was something seductive about the way power spoke to him, enticed him to keep surpassing his limits, and crushing others.

He flew through the air like an acrobat, high above the skyscrapers as he launched himself straight up, and lifted a hand imbued with his energy to his eye. The act helped sharpen his already owlike vision, able to lock in on the deep crevices of the alleyways and search for clues. His ears strained for anything, something that could tip him off in a new direction. Moritonio would be stupid if he was out, surely he was trying to stay low. His pale yellow eyes skimmed thin crowds of people and stragglers, not many people were out in the dead of night.

He began a free-fall back down to the roof he had rocketed from, and he landed unharmed. If it had been a normal person, their legs would have snapped, but he was far from normal. Everything is true. Hisoka smiled to himself, egotistical and audacious, I am a freak of nature. Now, the words didn't even hurt as the fruits of their truths were finally revealed to him. He didn't need to fit in if he was the strongest, he just wanted to keep growing. He wanted to find others that were like him, and suddenly his games in the city felt so small and meaningless compared to what he could find out in the world. Some continents weren't even explored yet, anything could be waiting in the shadows of discovery. Why should he limit himself as a circus performer, a failing student, and the black sheep of his troupe? He would make them grovel for their lives.

Piercing the air, a scream reverberating from below caught his attention, and without another thought wasted on the matter, he flung himself forth with eagerness. His presence was silenced for the milliseconds it took for him to appear in the lower alley, gleaming eyes falling on a tall, long-faced man crushing a girl with his bare hands.

Not just a girl. Hisoka realized with glimmering interest. Abaki.

A girl from the troupe, probably out buying supplies, or whatever the lowstringers did in their freetime, was being murdered before his very eyes. Behind them, a body was crumpled on the ground, and he assumed Abaki had accidentally found Moritionio indulging his guilty pleasure of breaking bones and ending lives. The girl before him wasn't his concern, his focus was honed in on the ringleader's disguised form, and his hot pink aura exploded in a conglomerate of rage and potent bloodlust. Both of the figures froze upon feeling the invasive nature of Hisoka's wild aura, more powerful than any direct burst they'd felt before, and Abaki was thrown aside to the wall, which cracked from the impact.