Kute spoke slowly.
"All the money in my home was stolen."
"That man tried to take me away."
"I saw the greed in his eyes with my own eyes, his desire to use my ability to earn even more money."
"He held the knife that was stained with my parents' blood, and walked toward me slowly."
"I simply stared blankly at everything in front of me. My mind was emptied and I couldn't think of anything."
"Until that dagger was pressed right against my eye..."
Kute's bronze artificial eye, made of three hundred tiny gears, turned slightly.
"And later, when that dagger stabbed into my eye, it was like something inside me awakened."
"When I came back to my senses, the knife that was originally stuck in my eye… was instead stuck in his chest."
"That man collapsed beside my parents, his face full of shock and disbelief."
"After that, a fire burned down my entire home, every clock, and even the bodies of my parents. Everything that happened afterward... The world already knows."
Yes, after that, the future world-famous thief, Kute, began building his legend.
"I didn't intend to steal anything at first."
"It's just that I noticed many valuable things were always in the hands of people who shouldn't have them."
"And when I went around collecting things, I attracted greed from all sides."
"So I simply decided, since I have to do it anyway, I might as well do what I think is right..."
Kute was still speaking when Luke cut him off: "Do you think it's right... to poach endangered like the Two-headed Wolf?"
"As the leader, I won't deny responsibility. But that was indeed those two idiots acting on their own."
Kute continued calmly: "But I actually agreed with their decision. If they had succeeded, I would have rewarded them."
"Right now, I need them to do certain things for me..."
Certain things he needs done… Luke and Chrollo both instinctively looked at the strange stone in Kute's hand.
From Kute's tone and emotions, they gradually understood that Kute becoming what he is now cannot be separated from that stone.
"This thing is called the Stone of Seven Emotions and Six Desires."
Noticing their gaze, Kute explained on his own.
"It has only two functions."
"One, it can manipulate a being's seven emotions and six desires. Two, it can control any living creature that has emotions."
"As long as I want it, crying, laughing, sadness, anger, everything is under my control."
"And as long as the creature has emotions, I can control it through this stone."
Kute's left hand gripped the stone tightly, its eerie glow pulsing slightly.
Just from hearing the description, one can tell that this thing is sinister and dangerous.
Manipulating emotional fluctuation, even using emotion as a medium to control others, in terms of function, it's powerful.
But the stronger and more twisted an ability is, the harsher the restrictions must be.
"To obtain this power, I first had to sacrifice my own Nen ability."
Kute immediately dropped a bombshell.
"To control this stone, it does not allow any other Nen ability to coexist."
"And to become its master, the first requirement is to abandon your own Nen ability."
"Using your own Nen ability as the offering for it to acknowledge you."
Just to wield it, you must give up your original Nen ability?
Hearing this, Luke and Chrollo both looked at the stone once more.
As expected, it was no ordinary object.
"And to bring out its full power, one must gather the seven emotions and six desires in the world."
Kute explained again, slowly.
Seven emotions are joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate, and desire, the seven emotions humans are born with.
Six desires come from life, death, ears, eyes, mouth, and nose, desires produced from these senses.
If the goal is to control others' emotions, then gathering emotional energy as the price makes sense.
"To collect various emotions, I created many methods."
"For example, letting someone struggle repeatedly between rises and falls, or letting someone sink endlessly into a miserable world."
"Or giving someone hope during a crisis, only to crush them with despair."
"At first, I indeed collected a lot of emotional energy this way."
"But later, I realized these methods were too inefficient."
"Other than casinos, places where emotions fluctuate intensely, everywhere else had very little emotional output."
"Until one day, I discovered a shortcut."
Kute continued.
And when he said shortcut, Luke instinctively classified it as something twisted and underhanded.
Sure enough…
"One time, my subordinates accidentally destroyed a one-of-a-kind world-class artwork, and the news reported it everywhere."
"At that moment, I received an endless stream of emotions from all over the world, regret, sighs, longing, grief, pain, lamentation, and more."
"And those emotions kept coming to me continuously."
"And then I understood..."
Kute remained calm.
"If we do something that makes the entire world feel regret and sorrow, then I can collect emotional energy on a global scale."
"So you started making your subordinate destroy rare treasures of the world, didn't you?!"
Luke finally understood why Kute's group committed so many acts that enraged Poacher Hunters, Ruin Hunters, and countless others.
They were called thieves; they rarely killed, and their main work was stealing valuable items.
Yet they committed poaching of endangered species, destruction of precious ruins, all actions that no one could understand.
Now, everything connects back to the stone in Kute's hand.
"That's right."
Kute nodded.
"No matter if it is a rare cultural heritage or ancient ruins, we destroyed them."
"And the rarer the thing is, the more deeply it is remembered once destroyed."
"If it makes the news or history books, even better. The more people who remember it..."
"The more people who feel sorrow, the more emotional energy we collect."
"As for endangered species, when a species goes extinct, humans feel pity and lamentation."
"And the creatures themselves experience despair and sorrow at the moment their race disappears."
"All of that is excellent emotional energy."
So to gather emotional energy, the Kute Gang of Thieves did all those hateful acts over the years.
World wonders and scenic relics, endangered creatures, priceless art pieces, all beautiful and irreplaceable things, were destroyed for the sake of emotional energy collection.
Everything was ruined by the Kute Gang of Thieves.
No, the real mastermind wasn't even the other members.
They were just following orders.
The one orchestrating everything was Kute himself, and the Stone of Seven Emotions and Six Desires.