Hunter x Hunter 268

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[insert text: Pitou meets the King's gaze!!!]

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Hunter x Hunter
#268: The King
[insert text: The scene that Pitou witnessed...!!!]

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[Text: When the king looked away, time once again began to move. // ...No... // Aside from the King himself, time remained frozen.]

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[Text: As for the reason why even the invaders, who had infiltrated the castle with the purpose of killing the King, stopped in their tracks, breath caught in their throats... // The bloodstained girl... // And... // The grotesque being cradling her in his arms... // Looking upon those two, the tenderness welling up within the King was unmistakable.]

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King: Pitou.
Pitou: Yes.
[Text: And then the King's face returned to its usual expression. // Oddly enough, that only served to unsettle Pitou further. // ...But then...]
King: Fix Komugi.

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King: I need you to do this.
[Text: The King. // That voice, laced with an abnormal level of intensity, left no room for doubt. // Immediately, Pitou began to move. // His entire body was shaking with a kind of joy. // He didn't know where the drops running down his cheeks were coming from. // Meanwhile... the two veteran combatants simply stood quite still, simply observing the actions of the enemy. // It was a form of respect.]

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[Text: This being's actions, brimming with affection for this single life... // To disturb that would be to lose any claim to righteousness, to cease to be truly human.]
Zeno: This isn't exactly turning out how you predicted.
[Text: It was only natural that Zeno should bring up this subject. // And Netero was thinking along the same lines.]
King: But here......
[Text: Muttering indistinctly, the King arose... // ...and made a less-than-prudent decision.]

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King: Shall we go somewhere else? // That would be more convenient for me... // ...and for you as well, would it not?
[Text: Separating the King from his Guards... // Netero had expended a great deal, and even borrowed Zeno's power to accomplish this. // He could not have had any objections. // But...]
Netero: Well... // Hm.
[Text: He was unable to shake the feeling that the initiative was being stolen from him.]

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Pitou: Doctor Bryce.
[Text: In the instant Pitou activated his ability... // They felt that they may have been fatally negligent.]
[background kanji: DEATH]
[Text: That for a moment the two of them were readying themselves for that possibility is only natural.]

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[Text: And yet so easily and so calmly, // the King walked across that line between life and death. // Once more, the enemy... // ...was a remote monster.]

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[Text: Meanwhile, the other invaders had been separated by Yupi's attack.]

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[Text: Having destroyed the stairs, Yupi stood ready to assault anyone who attempted to climb up once more. // But behind him... // Knuckle and Meleoron had just managed to evade the attacks and reach the second floor.]

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[Text: Down below... // Shoot had taken the attack from closer proximity than anyone else.]
Shoot: (He got... my leg!!)
Mamoru: Shoot!! // I'll handle the rest.
[Text: And Morau. // Calling out Knuckle's name was not an option. // By the time Yupi noticed anything strange about the dust clouds rising around him, // Morau's Deep Purple was already on the attack.
Yupi: Why, that impudent...!

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[Text: Yupi eliminated the Deep Purple attack with a single attack, in the blink of an eye...]
Yupi: (...Smoke?!)
[Text: But this was all part of the plan that Morau had laid out. // To take advantage of this momentary weakness...]
Yupi: (Those were decoys, huh? // This resistance... // This is no smoke!)

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Yupi: !! // (It was only the weapon that wasn't smoke?!)
[Text: To slip through his fingers...]

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Yupi: Why, you... // Not a chance!!
[Text: Having used even his own weapon as a decoy, there was nothing left for Morau to do but run... // But Knuckle...]
Knuckle: HAKOWARE!!!
[Text: ...understood without needing to be told.]
[insert text: The unsurpassable bonds of master and student!!!]