Right at that moment, in another space—
To be precise, inside the Kurta Clan's Nen Spirit space.
A blank, sealed chamber.
Three figures stood in three different spots.
The old man, Sheila, and Ron.
The old man glared fiercely at Sheila, his eyes full of hatred and fury.
Sheila looked at the old man calmly.
"Why did you reveal the location of my Kurta Clan's hidden refuge?"
Before Sheila could finish, the old man cut her off.
"If not you, then who? In all these decades, you're the only person to set foot here. And when those people launched their attack on the Kurta Clan, you appeared as well."
"I see no sympathy in you toward the Kurta Clan."
He practically roared his question.
Sheila was silent for a moment.
She acknowledged it, still without any visible emotion.
"Why would you do such a thing? The Kurta Clan has never done anything to wrong you, have we?"
"Indeed, you have not."
"Because I want revenge."
"You bear no hatred toward the Kurta Clan, yet you say you want revenge against us?"
Sheila shook her head. "I don't want revenge on your Kurta Clan. I want revenge on those who invaded your refuge."
"I know you're very strong."
"So I wanted to make use of your strength to kill them—for the sake of avenging my friend."
The old man's face registered shock.
The hatred in his expression faded somewhat, but the anger in his eyes only grew stronger.
"What do you take the Kurta Clan for?"
"Nothing in particular."
Sheila looked at him. "I don't care about you people—whether you lived or died mattered nothing to me. Because you're strong, I decided to use you."
"That was my conclusion once I learned information about your clan."
"My own power wasn't enough."
Sheila lowered her gaze to her hands.
"I'm too weak. Too weak to handle my revenge alone. So I could only borrow someone else's strength."
"I don't know if it's right or wrong."
"For me, right or wrong doesn't matter."
"Even if I could live this life a hundred times, I would still make the same choice."
The old man fell silent for a long time.
Before capturing Sheila and bringing her in, he'd had countless ideas and guesses about why she'd done it. But he hadn't imagined anything .
He found it impossible to accept.
After a while, the old man raised his head. His eyes were bright red.
"I cannot accept that reason."
"Tell me everything—every detail."
"Since you used the Kurta Clan…"
"Since you've turned us into this, near total extermination…"
"At the very least, let me know why."
"That's not too much to ask, is it?"
They were in the Kurta Clan's Nen Spirit space.
Though the old man was already spent, he was still a powerful Nen user.
Sheila was effectively a prisoner here, and the old man could kill her easily.
But before doing that, he wanted an explanation.
Sheila nodded. "I'm from Meteor City. When I was a child, it was totally different from the Meteor City now. True, it was full of garbage…"
"But it was also brimming with life."
"People lived hard lives, but they were happy."
"Then the Elders of Meteor City began colluding with outsiders."
"Meteor City had a surge of missing children."
"Yesterday's playmates would vanish without a trace by the next day."
"I had a very, very dear friend."
"Her name was Sarasa."
"Sarasa was adorable and lively, kind to everyone."
"And I… I was Sarasa's absolute closest friend."
"At the time, we had a little pastime we loved—dubbing the tapes we salvaged from outside."
"The people outside never recorded audio in Meteor City's language."
"Besides, those tapes were just scavenged from trash heaps."
"We had no other options."
"There were a few of us—at Sarasa and Chrollo's invitation—who formed a dubbing group, so everyone could enjoy tapes with sound."
Sheila recalled those days with a blissful look.
"Me, Sarasa, Chrollo, Pakunoda, Shalnark, Feitan, Phinks, Uvogin, Nobunaga, Machi, Bonolenov…we worked together so well."
"But right before we were set to stage our biggest show…"
"Sarasa disappeared."
"We forced ourselves to finish the performance and then went searching everywhere for her."
"We turned every stone."
Sheila seemed to recall something she wished she could forget. Tears poured from her eyes.
Her fists clenched tight, nails cutting into her flesh, blood dripping out.
After pausing a moment to steady her emotions, Sheila went on.
"Finally, we heard Sarasa left town and went into the nearby forest."
"We found her in the woods."
"There was a black plastic bag hanging from a tree branch."
"A note was pinned to the trunk."
"Uvogin tore down that bag."
"Even then, we all had a terrible feeling."
"When we opened the bag, it was Sarasa inside."
"But we couldn't even tell it was her."
"Sarasa had been cut into so many pieces."
"Head, fingers, toes, heart, skin…"
"I have no idea what Sarasa might have done wrong."
"I have no idea why those people would do such a thing."
"We carried Sarasa's remains back to town."
"There was someone who could repair her body, but Sarasa's eyes were gone—those people took them as trophies."
"In that moment, I swore I would avenge her."
"I had no idea who those people were."
"I investigated for a long time."
"But I never found anything."
"So, I resolved to take my revenge on them."
"Anyone who deals in human specimens, corpses—anyone who's into twisted murder—"
"Any one of them could be Sarasa's killer."
The old man's expression was grim.
"So you set your sights on our Kurta Clan?"
"Because we have Scarlet Eyes?"
"You think anyone interested in Scarlet Eyes might be tied to your friend's killers?"