At the entrance of the spiritual practice manor.
Micah Istrom was staring into the distance.
When he had arrived just now, he'd been genuinely startled by the sudden surge of murderous aura he'd sensed coming from that direction.
He had thought this was just a simple job but could it be that a powerful Nen user was secretly backing this spiritual practice group?
Being a cautious and steady man, Micah had decided immediately to retreat for now and make a long-term plan when he realized his intel might have been wrong.
But unexpectedly, the murderous aura had flared up and then vanished just as quickly.
And it didn't even seem directed at him. The moment he noticed it, the owner of that aura seemed to have deliberately avoided him.
It seemed they weren't from this manor at all perhaps just a passerby?
Whatever the case, the other party clearly bore him no ill intent, so it wouldn't affect his assignment here.
He rang the doorbell, but no one came to answer.
Without dwelling on it, Micah simply vaulted over the wall and entered the manor.
"…Hm?"
Once inside, Micah noticed a group of men in security uniforms rushing toward some place.
He casually caught up to the back of the group and asked one of them:
"Hey, where are we heading?"
The security guard at the back of the team didn't even turn around to see who was speaking.
At this moment, something big had clearly happened in the manor, and the security guard lost his composure, blurting out the news directly:
"The master is dead, and all the senior members of the Spiritual Practice Society are dead!"
"Oh? How did they die?" Micah asked calmly.
"I heard the members killed them. The captain told us to control the scene first. Don't talk so much, just keep up."
"Got it. Thanks."
Following the team of security personnel into the hall, Micah Istrom immediately noticed the bodies sprawled across the stage.
Without hesitation, he strode directly toward them.
"Hey, who are you? Who let you in here?"
The security captain stepped forward and stopped him, already annoyed and seeing this strange cow-dressed man show up uninvited.
"My name is Micah Istrom, and I'm a two-star crime hunter."
Sensing that the captain was also a Nen user, Micah didn't bother to conceal his identity and stated it outright.
"I came here specifically to investigate a case of a Nen user committing a crime. The suspects are none other than the top brass of the Spiritual Practice Association."
As expected, the captain was instantly taken aback. A two-star crime hunter was far above his own level.
In fact, when the captain, now jobless, discovered all his employers were dead, his first thought had been to pocket some cash from the scene and then slip away quietly.
But he hadn't expected a two-star crime hunter to show up — he could only swallow his greed and bow his head.
"Dear Mr. Crime Hunter, I was only responsible for security at the Spiritual Practice Association manor. As for whether they were involved in crimes… I really had no idea.
"Since you're here, we'll follow your lead in everything."
"Good. Then tell me everything you know."
"Understood!"
The captain then began recounting what he'd seen. He had been present in the hall the whole evening…
Fearing he might get himself into trouble, the captain told Mitsai Storm everything he knew, without holding anything back.
"Alright, I understand the situation now. Go ahead and report the case to the police and let them handle the aftermath," Mitsai Storm instructed.
"Understood..."
The security captain reluctantly made the call.
Once the police were involved, they wouldn't be able to take advantage of the situation at all.
Ignoring the captain, Mitsai Storm crouched down and began examining each body carefully.
"The wounds… clean puncture wounds, as if made by a sharp blade. I can sense residual Nen on them. Feels like a projection or emission-type technique."
Even though the security captain insisted no attacker had been seen, the evidence was clear — every victim's heart had been pierced by something like a flying blade, but no murder weapon was left at the scene.
It all lined up perfectly with the characteristics of an emission-type Nen ability that attacks from range.
"Also, as a fraudster, this master suddenly found his conscience and confessed in public?
"Then right after the confession, everyone started screaming as if they'd seen some kind of horror.
"This feels like a manipulation-type Nen technique. Could there have been more than one attacker?"
Mizaisutomu's expression darkened slightly as he murmured to himself. Then his eyes sharpened.
"…Wait."
He quickly strode over to the security captain.
"Excuse me—do the senior members of the Spiritual Practice Association sit directly on the floor during their gatherings?"
The captain answered reflexively, confused.
"No, they sit on their own cushions, just like the rest of the members. Why do you ask?"
Mizaisutomu didn't reply immediately but instead looked toward the stage.
"…Huh?"
His sharp eyes scanned the area and locked onto something.
"All their cushions… are gone?"
The captain froze.
"W-What? Gone? But they were clearly there when the gathering started today! How… how could they just disappear?"
His face turned pale. Clearly, he hadn't even noticed.
Seeing the security captain's bewildered face, Mizaisutomu knew he wasn't going to get anything more useful out of him. So he simply ordered the man to take him to the monitoring room to review the surveillance footage.
He had to confirm how those cushions had disappeared — that detail might be the key to understanding the killer's method.
It didn't take long before Mizaisutomu spotted it.
On the footage, just a few seconds before blood began to seep from the victims' chests, the cushions they'd been sitting on simply vanished into thin air.
"I see now…" he murmured, his tone calm but with a sharp glint in his eyes.
"The cushions the victims were sitting on were materialized Nen constructs."
He tapped the desk lightly, deep in thought.
"These cameras weren't tampered with by Nen, so of course they don't capture the Nen energy itself — but even so, you can clearly see the attack came from the cushions.
"When the attack succeeded, the materialized cushions dispersed."
He straightened up slightly, the outline of the killer's methods forming clearly in his mind.
"So… the murderer also has the ability to materialize."
Mizaisutomu closed his eyes for a moment, mentally connecting all the clues.
"First, they infiltrated the site and swapped out all the high-ranking members' cushions with materialized fakes. Since the surveillance shows nothing unusual, it means the perpetrator also had advanced hacking skills and disabled or masked the camera feeds when they acted.
"Then, the fake cushions must have been preset with a mechanism or trigger condition in advance.
"As soon as the high-level members sat down, it activated some kind of control-type Nen ability. That not only manipulated their speech and actions, but also induced overwhelming fear.
"And finally… the cushions launched an attack similar to a Nen bullet, piercing their hearts and killing them instantly — before dispersing, leaving no evidence."
Mizaisutomu opened his eyes, his usual stern expression darkened by the faintest trace of unease.
"…Worthy of being a member of the Zoldyck family," he muttered under his breath.
"If this series of arrangements was carried out by a single person, then the perpetrator is truly frightening. Could it really be a killer from the legendary Zoldyck family?"
As a crime hunter, Micah Istrom was naturally familiar with the name of the Zoldyck family.
They were a notorious clan of cold-blooded assassins. It was said that there was no one they couldn't kill, so long as they were paid the right price.
But he had never personally crossed paths with them before, so Micah Istrom had no clear idea just how strong they truly were.
Even so, his instincts told him — the one who orchestrated the downfall of this spiritual practice society was very likely a Zoldyck family assassin.
"After all, if it were just about barging into the venue and killing everyone outright, any average killer could have done that.
"But someone who could stay hidden in the shadows, control everything from behind the scenes, use such strange techniques to toy with people's minds, and execute such a precise, ingenious assassination… that could only be the work of the Zoldyck family.
"As expected of the world's number one assassin family. The Zoldycks truly are terrifying.
"If I ever cross paths with anyone from that family in the future, I'll need to be extremely cautious."
With the target of his investigation now dead, Micah Istrom's work ended sooner than expected.
Once the police arrived to take over the scene,
Micah Istrom slipped away quietly.
As for the truth behind the deaths of those scoundrels in the spiritual practice group, he had no interest in explaining it to the police.
He still had more important business to attend to — he needed to find his idol, Mr. Hiro, and ask him for that very cool portrait he'd been dreaming of.