Right after the match began, Gon was the first to make a move.
The jump using only ankle strength with no preparatory motion that he'd shown in the Razor battle.
The movement most difficult to react to for an opponent standing in front, but Hisoka, though his eyes widened slightly, firmly took a backstep.
Gon's swung-down fist easily pulverized the training ground floor reinforced with Nen.
Hisoka's smile deepened at that strike. He closed the distance with cards in hand, slipped past Gon's counterattack, slashed his neck and side, and separated.
"Mmm ♥ You're really hard, Gon. You were so squishy back at Heavens Arena ♥"
The cards Hisoka had infused with aura had their corners crushed, and Gon's neck and side that should have been slashed only had faint red lines carved.
Gon's body, which had evolved through the death match with Uvogin, easily surpassed the Additional Muscle: More Power from Heavens Arena days even in its base state without using Muscle Is Justice, Power Is Everything, and wielded a 200% enhancement rate through Muscle Worship: Power Is Everything with increased proficiency without issue.
Even for Hisoka now, cards merely cloaked in aura no longer had any effect.
"Done confirming? Then I'm going all out from here!"
Gon's aura erupted with even greater force, compressing and performing Ken through Perfect Communication where muscle and aura came first.
The technique polished by Biscuit, the ultimate teacher, properly demonstrated its effect. The aura compressed to skin level faintly outlined Gon with emitted light.
The gallery watching Gon's Ken—those who knew Ken showed massive shock, while even those who didn't were surprised by the power they felt from this unknown phenomenon.
Hisoka also couldn't suppress his excitement at the clearly more refined Ken compared to what he'd seen before. He transformed the aura cloaking his body into Bungee Gum and pulled out new cards in his hands.
The aura he wrapped around the cards became thin, sharp, honed like a razor.
The gallery all understood he'd transformed the aura into blade form, but they couldn't help falling silent at the high level of proficiency.
While materializing a sword that cuts anything is impossible, Hisoka's aura possessed sharpness that would make one almost believe it if told it could cut through everything.
"Let's play, Gon. Let's have the best time ♥"
Aura so intense the space around and between them seemed distorted.
The Asura and magician facing each other with smiles continued accelerating, neither willing to fall behind.
Among the gallery wrapped in shock, only Leorio and Kurapika, while surprised, had enough composure to converse and speculate.
Having trust that Gon could do this much, their surprise was felt strongly mainly toward Hisoka.
"Do you think he could always do this much, or did he get stronger?"
"He must have gotten stronger. It's shocking—hard to believe such growth."
For Leorio and Kurapika, Hisoka was the absolute powerhouse they first met after Gon—someone they had no hope of defeating.
And not just with Nen but in other fields as well, normally the most growth occurs during the beginner phase—when just learning or after mastering basics.
For Hisoka, whom Biscuit had given up on polishing as having no room for improvement, to grow in such a short period at a level recognizable to Leorio and Kurapika was clearly an abnormal situation.
"How far are these two planning to get stronger? Killua, who do you think has the advantage? ...Killua?"
Receiving no response, Leorio turned his gaze to see Killua with eyes wide open, concentrating to not miss even a moment of Gon and Hisoka's battle.
While using Godspeed and flickering faintly like Gon, he even maintained meticulous control that didn't affect Gin sitting on his head.
(Ah, I see. So you're heading that way after all.)
When Kurapika, puzzled by Leorio's sudden silence, also noticed the concentrating Killua, he showed a complex, soft smile—endearing yet reliable, and just slightly lonely.
The Killua who had gnashed his teeth in frustration at Heavens Arena was no more.
What was here wasn't a fledgling lamenting its inability to reach, but a thunderbird that had gained qualification to fly to the same height and compete for supremacy.
Those eyes didn't cloud with despair but shone brilliantly, finding opportunities for victory.
The three who had the same beginning—but here, one had chosen a different path.
It was certainly lonely, but more than that, the two vowed to cheer him on and stay close, and right beside them, the lightning kid powerfully stepped onto the path of the Asura.
While everyone was engrossed in the Muscle and Clown show, Leorio and Kurapika, along with Biscuit and Netero, witnessed the birth of a new world peak.
Though the level had risen, Gon and Hisoka's battle progressed similarly to their match at Heavens Arena.
Gon boldly attacking with one-hit-kill power, and Hisoka dodging and deflecting while slashing with cards.
However, this time there was one difference—contrary to Heavens Arena, Gon was clearly pressing forward.
The reason was simply that Gon and Hisoka's strengths had meshed in Gon's favor.
"Your recovery ability really is crazy. You could at least bleed a bit more ♣"
"You're too sharp. Just what were you planning to cut that you refined it this far?"
"Hmm, it was for Gon, but I didn't think it would backfire ♠"
Hisoka's cards wrapped in too-sharp aura successfully penetrated Gon's defense and slashed his steel muscles.
However, being too sharp became a hindrance. Combined with Gon's abnormal recovery ability, an impossible phenomenon occurred where cuts sealed and healed as soon as they were made.
Normally, foreign aura entering the wound should prevent such quick healing, but because Gon's aura density was too high, Hisoka's aura was immediately pushed out of his body.
The technique refined for Gon, which was overkill for anyone else, had become incompatible with the crucial Gon himself—a cart-before-the-horse result.
"Nen really is deep after all. I still have much to learn ♦"
"So? Don't tell me that's it. If you're fine with me pushing through, I'll do that."
"That's impossible ♥ Earlier than expected, but this is where it really begins ♠"
Hisoka attached Bungee Gum to the centers of both sides of cards, held them in his hands, and vigorously spread his arms to stretch them.
Among children's crafts, there's something called a "whirring top."
It's a simple toy where you make two holes in the center of cardboard, thread string through the holes, and tie it.
By twisting and pulling the string, the cardboard spins at high speed, making a whirring wind-cutting sound that gives it its name.
That rotational force isn't to be underestimated—even when a child spins it, it can rotate at a reasonably dangerous speed.
Hisoka's cards became circular saws without even a wind-cutting sound.
Making one vividly anticipate cutting power that made even the previous too-sharp aura pale in comparison, Hisoka successively created five of these cards and swung them around while still connected to Bungee Gum.
Grazed ground, touched air—everything was slashed. At that center, Hisoka, wearing a cruel smile, took one step forward.
"Don't fall apart too easily. I'll want to break you completely like that ♥"
Though a bead of cold sweat trickled down, Gon awaited Hisoka with a smile.
Hisoka, who had pulled back the battle situation that had been tilting toward Gon all at once, wielded the Bungee Gum attached with high-speed rotating cards like whips, unleashing attacks.
The cards' rotation wasn't through Nen but physical phenomenon, so it gradually weakened, but each time he stretched and contracted the Bungee Gum to make them spin at high speed again.
Even Gon's body and aura couldn't fully defend, and wounds scraped away more than slashed took time to heal.
Though Gon was being pressed, he minimized damage with Gyo while using Ken and shortened healing time.
Though Hisoka was dealing certain damage to Gon, his attack methods were limited, so he couldn't fill the opening to being adapted to.
Though Gon was gradually whittling down Hisoka's stamina, the damage race gap began widening here and his disadvantage accelerated.
The death match between the two, who desired complete resolution rather than a half-hearted conclusion, showed even more acceleration as if tracing their Heavens Arena bout.
Gon made the move.
Batting away the six card-circular-saw-attached Bungee Gum without minding his wounds, he twisted his body and spoke the spirit words to perform Ko.
"First comes rock!"
Though he couldn't achieve the compression of the Razor battle since he wasn't using Muscle Is Justice, Power Is Everything, the enormous energy that chilled the hearts of the watching gallery created a moment's paralysis even in Hisoka.
"Jan, ken!"
Attack or retreat—Hisoka's experience and desire as a veteran of a hundred battles chose attack, but Hisoka's instinct made an uncharacteristic fleeing move.
His reason questioned the instinct that chose to distance even further from already unreachable distance, but the next moment understood he would have lost if he'd attacked.
"PAPER!!"
The earth gouged by Gon became death buckshot of various sizes approaching Hisoka, and violence of surface that would blow ordinary ability users to pieces bared its fangs.
(Brutal ♥)
Hisoka curled his body to reduce hit area and changed the Bungee Gum cloaking him—soft on the surface, harder closer to his body.
Having retreated also worked in his favor. Though Hisoka reduced damage to the degree of several pebbles embedding, when the buckshot passed and his vision cleared, Gon approaching in a twisted posture appeared.
"Here..."
The movement using only ankle strength shown right at battle start enabled movement while maintaining stance like iai sword-drawing footwork.
"...I come!"
A distance subtle for either closing in or retreating—Hisoka with broken posture chose interception on the spot.
He spread the fingers of his right hand to their limit and spun a total of four cards at high speed between his fingers.
Facing his palm toward Gon and drawing back Bungee Gum with his left hand, he fired it more like a slingshot than a bow.
"—!? Shoot!!"
Gon, who had been planning Rock if Hisoka closed in or Paper again if he retreated, hastily cut away two cards on direct collision course with knife-hands and forcibly evaded the remaining two using Muscle Control.
With both their broken postures reset, a gap opened. Grimacing Gon and beaming Hisoka faced each other.
"I see ♥ Point Rock, surface Paper, and line Shoot ♦ I thought your stance was full of openings, but if you can move in that posture, it's not much of a problem ♠ Good technique ♥"
"Having it nearly perfectly received on first sight was unexpected. You have a good technique too, Hisoka."
The two, whose hidden cards both misfired, saw Biscuit who seemed about to step in to stop the excess and decided to go for one final showdown.
Gon erupting even more aura without thinking ahead, and Hisoka honing his aura dark, heavy, and sharp.
One final exchange—because Biscuit, judging this had already exceeded sparring bounds, was captivated by the leaping pair and misjudged when to stop.
Hisoka, aiming for two consecutive wins, launched cards via slingshot method while rapidly closing in. Seeing this, Gon forcibly received the cards with Ken before assuming interception posture.
"Jan, ken!"
Gon, who assumed his stance while having four cards embedded in his body, didn't care and pulled back his left arm to meet the lunging Hisoka.
"ROCK!!"
The counter with perfect timing whiffed past the nose of Hisoka, who had stopped perfectly mid-air.
What wide-eyed Gon saw was Hisoka's extended left arm stuck to the distant Shingen-Ryu dojo.
Hisoka, stopped by the Bungee Gum arm hidden in shadow and invisible, laughed darkly. The peeled left arm super-accelerated with rubber elasticity.
Gon realized evasion was impossible with the Bungee Gum connecting him to Hisoka before he knew it, and somehow managed to insert his left arm between the fist approaching at terrifying speed and catch it.
The high-speed rotating card hidden in the Bungee Gum fist, combined with punching power, severed Gon's arm and embedded into his collarbone.
"—!? Match ove—"
Overtaking Biscuit who hastily tried to stop the sparring, Gon, who caught Hisoka's strike with his collarbone, fixed it with muscle and shoulder and assumed his stance.
"Scissors!"
"—♥"
Hisoka's left arm made of Bungee Gum was difficult to sever due to balancing precision control and power.
The moment the final strike was released at mutually lethal distance, a palm that left everything behind swung down.
Hyakushiki Kannon: First Hand
Netero's strike inserted between Gon and Hisoka physically separated the two and made Biscuit's termination declaration on time.
"Match over! Both excessive with no resolution! I told you it's sparring, not a death match!! Don't fight to the death!!"
"Show me that arm quick, Gon! Hisoka, don't go digging out embedded pebbles on your own, got it!?"
"I recovered Gon's arm. I wrapped it in aura, so I think I prevented bacteria and such."
"Well done, Kurapika!!"
While the gallery stopped moving at the too-rapid progression of events, Cheadle and Sanbica both marveled at Leorio and Kurapika's treatment speed.
And Gon and Hisoka, though their match had been interrupted, having mutually received each other's growth in their bodies, took a satisfied breath.
"My arm was even taken, so is this my loss again?"
"The final strike was brought to fifty-fifty ♥ If we hadn't been stopped, considering technique power, I'd say it could be my loss ♥"
"Just call it a draw. Hisoka would have hit first, but Gon's strike wouldn't have stopped either."
"Indeed, this match is decided as a draw. How they make me boil over."
Killua, exasperated, and Netero, whose eyes weren't smiling, both declared a draw. Under the gaze of Biscuit, enduring her sermon while waiting for treatment, were Muscle and Clown.
The two, whose third bout ended without resolution, lightly bumped fists and vowed in their hearts to decide the outcome next time.