5 Chapter 5

After getting off the airship and settling the administrative formalities, the five of us went to a very nice hotel near the tower.

"Good morning sir, how may I help you?" asked the receptionist in a professional tone.

"I would like to rent out your entire top floor for the next month," Zeno calmly said while handing over a credit card.

The woman seemed a bit surprised. "Yes of course, that's possible, but don't take this the wrong way..." she started, a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"You seem new in town. So I assume you are probably not aware that all hotels near Heaven's Arena are extremely expensive," explained the receptionist politely.

When you work for a long time in an area so close to Heaven's Arena, you quickly learn that if you want to live long, you should avoid offending an unknown customer.

"I understand your doubts, but please just follow procedure," said Zeno, handing her his card again.

To make it simple, Zeno had asked her to just do her job and fulfill his request.

After a few minutes, the receptionist seemed shocked but quickly regained her composure and called someone on the phone.

"Excuse me sir, please wait a moment," she said before disappearing to an unknown location.

She came back with a well-dressed man in formal attire, who appeared to be the manager.

In no time, Hiro and the others were each able to go to their accommodations.

"It's a strange feeling to have your privacy back," thought Hiro, alone in his room.

Since the beginning of his reincarnation, Hiro had never really been able to breathe easily or have any real privacy.

The reason was the intimidating atmosphere of the Zoldyck residence, which any normal person from Earth would surely feel uncomfortable in. And he also knew he was under 24/7 surveillance there.

"Now here, I think I can explore my ability in more detail without fear of potential problems with my family," thought Hiro as he took a comfortable position.

Even though Hiro had basic information about his power ever since first activating it, he didn't know its full extent or real limitations.

For example, when he had first used his ability, Hiro hadn't felt any loss of stamina or other strange sensation.

But oddly, when he had used the Future Devil's power to see 3 seconds ahead, Hiro had clearly felt his stamina draining with each passing second.

Of course, it had stopped when he deactivated the Future Devil's power, and his future vision had vanished right away.

"I wish I could see further into the future, but I'm sure the Future Devil will probably ask for complicated things in exchange," mused Hiro.

He could only sigh at his powerlessness to improve his future sight.

After a few relaxing breaths, Hiro reactivated his ability like the first time to contact a devil from the Chainsaw Man universe.

His goal this time was not only to form a contract with a devil, but also to observe the limits of his power to better understand it.

After a few hours, Hiro finally opened his eyes.

"So in effect, I can't contract powerful devils as easily as I thought," noted Hiro, his face covered in sweat.

Hiro had just acquired a deeper comprehension of his ability.

It could be summed up in a few simple rules.

Firstly, Hiro could choose a specific devil to make a contract with, but the more its name invoked great human fears, the more stamina Hiro lost trying to contact it.

The proof was that in attempting to contact the War Devil, he was already drenched in sweat from head to toe before the conversation could even start.

The second rule of his power was similar to a roulette. It allowed him to randomly contact a devil, without losing any stamina during the contact or negotiation.

Unfortunately, it seemed to have a limited number of uses, because after activating it once, he could no longer access it.

"Can it only be used once a day?" Hiro instinctively wondered, as that would be the most logical explanation.

"That must be why yesterday I could contract the Future Devil without losing any stamina," he understood.

Hiro quickly realized yesterday had really been his lucky day. Not only had he contracted a devil with a convenient power, but also he hadn't had to use his specific devil contacting ability.

"I really would have had no valid excuse for why I was sweating and exhausted alone in the forest while in a meditation pose," thought Hiro. He could only thank his good fortune for avoiding trouble due to yesterday's carelessness.

Despite the huge progress in his understanding today, Hiro had unfortunately contacted a useless devil through the roulette.

He had gone from meeting the Future Devil to meeting the Tomato Devil.

Of course, Hiro had cut off contact right away. How could he gain an interesting power from the Tomato Devil?

After a shower, Hiro went straight to bed, too worn out by his attempt at contacting the War Devil.

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Hiro's POV

After a good night's sleep, I woke up early as usual since my reincarnation.

After some stretches, I hurried to get ready because I didn't know when Grandfather Zeno would take us to Heaven's Arena.

Just as I was finishing getting ready to go meet Zeno, I heard a knock at my door.

"Hello, yes who is it?" I said calmly, even though I'll admit my voice betrayed a hint of cheer. Surely a side effect of no longer being at the family residence.

"Good morning young master Hiro, I hope you had a nice night," said Canary with a bow.

"Okay, get to the point: why are you here?" I quickly said, skipping over all the formalities.

"Master Zeno is waiting for you downstairs for breakfast," answered Canary hastily.

She must have thought I was annoyed because of my request for concision.

"Tell him I'm coming, I just need to put on my shoes," I replied.

After a while, I finally went downstairs and strangely, Amane was waiting for me outside.

"Good morning young master Hiro, please follow me to Master Zeno," she politely said.

We quickly reached Grandfather, but I must admit it was a bit awkward between Amane and I since neither of us had struck up a conversation on the way there.

"Hello Grandfather," I said once I spotted Zeno.

He simply nodded ever so slightly before going back to sipping his tea.

"You're finally here! I was so bored with Grandfather only talking business," complained Killua.

"And tell me, now that I've got you, why didn't you want us to share a room last night?" he asked in a falsely sad tone.

"We're not allowed at home, but here we can have fun together in our rooms, right? Unless you wanted to play with others," continued Killua, throwing accusing looks at Amane and Canary who could only bow their heads before their young master.

(Author's note: here Killua means play = have fun, so no twisted thoughts please lol)

I could only sigh at Killua's boundless imagination.

"I just wanted some peace and quiet since I was mentally exhausted," I explained, giving a half-truth while scratching the back of my head.

In the presence of Zeno or other family members, I had learned to never lie to them, only give half-truths and only speak at key moments to mislead them.

I didn't think I was smart or experienced enough to lie to these Nen users and assassins.

"Now that you're here, we can start eating. And after, you'll follow me for registration at the arena," declared Zeno calmly between two sips of a cup which I assume contained coffee based on the smell.

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Hiro's POV

A few hours went by after our breakfast, and we were currently in line in front of the Arena.

"Hey Hiro, why are we waiting? We can just beat everybody here and go in, or you can even ask Canary and Amane to do it for us, right?" complained Killua, hands behind his head, looking around him.

"You know very well Grandfather Zeno said we need to keep a low profile and avoid trouble before registration," explained Hiro once again to Killua.

"Next!" shouted a security guard.

"Hello, what can I do for you?" asked a beautiful redheaded woman.

Who of course wasn't the same as in the manga.

"I've come to register for the fights," I calmly said.

"Yes, but forgive me, aren't you a bit young to participate? I would like to speak to your legal guardian if possible, if you don't mind," she requested.

It's logical they can't allow a minor to compete. Gon and Killua in the manga had their Hunter Licenses as ID which allowed them to get around that issue.

"Here is a letter from my grandfather with his number. He said you can contact him if there are any problems," I said, handing over the documents.

Luckily Zeno had provided a letter along with his business card.

"Zo...zo..." stammered the receptionist as she looked at the letter.

She was in shock, but who wouldn't be? A group of kids comes up to you with papers proving they're part of an internationally notorious family of assassins.

And as if that wasn't enough, everyone in the underworld knows claiming to be a Zoldyck without expecting to die young is madness.

After a moment, she seemed to regain her composure, a sign of her professional skills. She registered me, Killua, Canary and Amane.

Each of us received a participant number and she explained the basic rules of Heaven's Arena.

(Author's note: I think you're already familiar but I'll still give a quick summary for anyone not an HxH expert.

Heaven's Arena bans weapons on the first floors, from 1 to 199. The fights have no other official rules, apart from the points system.

There is no time limit, the match stops when a fighter gets 10 points (TKO) or KO.

The points given by referees are:

* 1 point for "clean hits"

* 2 points for "critical hits"

* 1 extra point for putting the "opponent on the floor"

Referees/judges also have personal point awarding styles for "critical hits". Some value damage dealt, others strategy and technique.

In dangerous matches, a ref can also lower criteria for safety, or speed things up with quick points.

There are also Deathmatches, with no other rule than one fighter's death.

That covers the basic rules, but there will be alternate elements, due to incomplete info found by your humble author!)

"Now that you know the rules, let me explain there are also earnings to be made here, but you probably knew that already or you wouldn't come," she said professionally. You wouldn't guess she was on the verge of fainting earlier.

"Actually, we didn't know about the winnings. Could you explain?" asked Killua, his interest piqued by the word "earnings".

"You really came here without knowing anything?" thought the receptionist with a sigh.

"Well, fighter income depends on floor, but to simplify, it ranges from 50,000 jeni on the 50th floor to 200,000,000 jeni at the highest," she explained.

"Here, this contains more details on the formalities in the Arena," she said, handing us documents.

"Can we fight today?" I asked, feeling my blood starting to boil at the idea of the upcoming matches.

Author's Note:

I want to inform you that I'm surprised my fanfic is being read and I'm getting Power Stones.

I wanted to let you know that this really motivates me to continue this story since I didn't expect much at first lol 🤷‍♂️.