Kaizen's phone buzzed. Ito Xius's voice came through with a chilling tone.
"You brat… you asked for this."
"I'll show you why Taris makes the world tremble in fear! Don't regret this!"
With that, Ito hung up abruptly. He handed the phone back and turned his cold gaze toward Raiken.
"Let's start with your nen beast," he sneered.
Without warning, Ito extended his hand, gripping Raiken's throat. Black aura surged around him, writhing like tentacles, and bound Raiken tightly. The oppressive force left Raiken with no room to resist.
"Boom!"
Nen beast shattered and disappeared into nothingness.
Kaizen observed the scene with narrowed eyes. He had anticipated this outcome.
The truth was, Kaizen had ordered Raiken not to resist. It was a calculated move—one designed to make Ito underestimate him and to keep his true abilities hidden until the critical moment.
More importantly, the distraction had served its purpose. A hidden program, inserted into Ito Xius's phone by Altan, had transmitted vital data. As the program ran, information was sent directly to Kaizen's own device. He didn't check it immediately, though. Instead, he slipped the phone back into his pocket and addressed Dominica and Wendy.
"The moment I spotted the airship, I had one of my nen beasts sneak aboard," he began. "I wanted to pinpoint their exact location using that method, but they caught on. The phone was taken from my beast, and Ito Xius used it to contact me. The beast was killed shortly after."
Kaizen paused, letting the gravity of his words sink in.
"However," he continued, "the tracking on that phone is still active. By comparing the location data with the direction indicated by the book-reading tool, we can narrow down their position with precision."
Kaizen deliberately withheld certain details. Altan's abilities were best kept secret. As long as only he understood the full scope of her powers, his enemies would remain vulnerable.
Dominica nodded, seemingly convinced.
"But what if they discard the phone?" she asked.
"I considered that," Kaizen replied. "That's why I sabotaged it midway through our call."
Dominica raised an eyebrow. "Is that why you hung up earlier, only for him to call back?"
"Exactly."
Dominica fell silent for a moment before nodding in understanding.
"Even so, we can't rely on them keeping the phone. But with the book-reading tool and the current data, we should still have a solid lead."
Kaizen nodded in agreement. "It's a calculated risk. If they discard the phone, we'll adapt. But for now, this is our best lead."
He turned to Wendy. "Send me your phone number. I'll forward the tracking updates to you."
"Understood." Wendy handed over her number, and Kaizen quickly set up the updates to refresh every ten seconds.
Wendy cross-referenced the location data with a map, her eyes lighting up as she pinpointed the target.
"Got it! They didn't ditch the phone!"
Dominica smirked. "Idiots. They're making this easy for us."
She pressed harder on the accelerator, the car speeding up. "Wendy, keep me updated on the location and direction."
"Got it, Dominica."
Kaizen leaned back in his seat, scrolling through the data Altan had extracted from Ito Xius's phone: contacts, call logs, text messages, and even a few photos. The images seemed mundane—landscapes from Taris, likely taken on a whim. Still, they confirmed Ito's connection to his homeland.
"Typical," Kaizen muttered. "Wanderers always carry a piece of home with them."
Among the texts, however, he uncovered something more troubling. Ito wasn't working alone. This was a coordinated effort—a larger conspiracy rooted in vengeance. But this wasn't the personal revenge of a single individual like Fiora. No, this was something far more dangerous.
"They're targeting the entire world," Kaizen realized, his expression darkening.
After a moment of thought, he calmed himself. "Still, there's no need to panic. In the original timeline, the nen-users from Taris didn't manage to cause significant damage. V5 remained intact. The Hunter Association wasn't impacted. Even the Zoldyck family emerged unscathed. Whatever they're planning, it's nothing that can't be stopped."
He glanced at the progress displayed on his crystal ball, which had increased to ten percent after the recent battles. Absorbing the traits of Taris was proving to be more efficient than he initially expected.
"If this pace continues," Kaizen mused, "defeating Ito Xius and his group might push my Observer's Will to over fifty percent."
A grim smile played on his lips as he prepared for what was to come.
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