The sudden explosion forced Hisoka to hurl a severed head into its path.
The detonation blasted a puppet's body into the airborne head, which swatted it aside effortlessly.
But that single moment of contact made Hisoka's eyes narrow.
There was a stamp on the puppet.
The same "Sun Mark" was burned into the corpse.
He quickly scanned the others lying in heaps nearby—
All of them, including the one whose head he'd just used as a projectile, bore the Sun sigil.
Something's off.
He continued running, feet pounding toward Chrollo's last location, but his mind spun through earlier deductions, the logic Chrollo had laid out during their verbal sparring before the fight began.
Chrollo had explained that the skill "The Twin's Traitor"—a postmortem ability—could imprint explosive marks on the Gallery Fake puppets, even if he stopped using it afterward.
The puppets would persist until they exploded.
But both abilities—Gallery Fake and The Twin's Traitor—required two hands to activate.
And Chrollo only had one bookmark.
Hisoka had assumed a sequence:
Use Gallery Fake
Bookmark it
Create puppets
Switch to Order Stamp to command them
But now—
What if that was a misdirection?
What if the real order was:
Activate Gallery Fake
Bookmark it
Create the puppets
Switch to The Twin's Traitor
Imprint them with Sun Marks
Deactivate both abilities
Finally, activate Order Stamp to issue commands
This version changed everything.
Because now—
Once the puppets were created and stamped, all Chrollo had to maintain was Order Stamp.
His bookmark and other hand were free again.
Which meant he could:
Use Convert Hands to swap appearances with a spectator
Use Black Voice to plant antennae on that same spectator
Dress them as himself, send them running
Then hide, fully vanished into the crowd.
Hisoka clenched his jaw.
"The one I'm chasing… is just a puppet."
Chrollo himself was long gone—face, voice, clothes, all replaced.
Melted into the 3,000-person crowd.
A fake.
Another trap.
The puppet even slipped a hand into its pocket, mimicking ability activation.
"Tch."
Not buying it.
Time was critical.
With every passing second, Chrollo was likely creating more puppets—one every two seconds, at least.
Letting himself get baited now would be game over.
Hisoka turned, somersaulted off the viewing deck, and landed back on the arena stage.
"Think, Hisoka."
To his surprise—
The crowd hadn't fully evacuated.
Only Gerrard's section had descended into chaos.
Everywhere else, people still watched.
Too many faces.
Too much static.
And somewhere in it, Chrollo… hidden, changing again.
Still—Hisoka calculated:
If the emergency response team mobilized due to mass casualties, the match would be forcefully shut down.
Normally, that would take 10 minutes.
But with Gerrard, a high-ranking Arena executive, still inside—
The reinforcements could arrive 3 to 5 minutes early. Maybe less.
"Which gives me what… two minutes?"
Enough time for Chrollo to build a second wave—another 100+ puppets.
And this time, he'd likely go all out.
The Twin's Traitor, at its full charge, required 3 seconds of direct contact to imprint a high-power explosion.
Enough to level a section of the arena.
Chrollo had the time.
And Hisoka knew—he'd use it.
"Which means…"
I can't let even a single puppet touch me.
And yet…
Hisoka grinned.
Eyes bloodshot with excitement.
"This… this is it."
"He's the best."
He was getting hard.
boki
"Ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer yelled, still working through the chaos.
"Hisoka stands tall at center stage—searching for his elusive foe, Chrollo Lucilfer!"
She kept her voice firm, even as screams and explosions rattled the stadium.
"Gerrard's remaining bodyguards have dwindled—"
"The assassination attempt has shattered their composure—"
"Every explosion means another death, every step is a potential grave!"
But the camera feed didn't capture Joey, already reappearing before Gerrard and Eide, glowing with menace.
At the same time—a second puppet wave surged.
Some climbed back from the crowd.
Some leapt from the shadows.
They didn't march—they charged.
But Hisoka wasn't watching them.
His head snapped to the announcer's stand.
Joey's sudden move had triggered something in his mind—
A fragment of memory from Kate, and the recording device she'd once hurled.
Why had Chrollo triggered another wave of chaos?
What was the real point?
Hisoka's eyes narrowed, and he focused on the announcer's headset mic.
"He's going to use it."
That microphone—the one wired to every speaker in the stadium.
If Chrollo took it,
And spoke just two words—
"Destroy Hisoka."
Then every puppet, every clone, every monster he'd made—
Would turn toward one target.
Him.
The fastest way to synchronize all units.
Efficient. Ruthless.
And he was too late.
Hisoka whirled just in time to see—
Chrollo, hand on the mic, mask off.
Looking straight at him.
And whispering—
"Destroy Hisoka."
The words rang through the coliseum.
Amplified a thousandfold.
Instantly, the puppets stopped attacking civilians.
They turned.
Locked on.
And charged.
Hisoka didn't hesitate.
He leapt for Chrollo's throat.
This was it.
The final round had begun.