Suga remained seated in his place while listening to Hardy’s footsteps, which had gone too far away that they could no longer be heard. Suga sat alone, and he was now the only person along this quiet hospital hallway.

“Come, Nellson.”

Black smoke began to billow from all over Nellson’s wooden statue keychain held by Suga. This smoke continued to expand, and from behind it, Nellson the owl Yokai appeared the size of an ordinary owl. Suga whispered something to Nellson, and when he finished, Nellson whispered something back to Suga. After they finished taking turns whispering something to each other, Suga looked around him curiously and he was no longer blind because of the effect of the Yokai controller technique, but only one of Suga’s eyes could see again, replaced by one of nellson’s eyes vision and caused one of Nellson’s eyes to blind as long as this technique was active. Nellson watched Suga curiously.

“What’s wrong, Suga?”

Suga’s attention was drawn to Nellson.

“I have to meet someone; I want you to be alert, Nellson.”

Nellson’s expression turned astonished, and then he nodded. Suga walked away, and Nellson flew after him.

Suga walked into the hospital elevator, and a small monitor on the buttons panel displayed that it was currently on the second floor. Suga pressed the elevator button for the highest floor that this elevator could reach, the fifth floor. The elevator door closed.

Sometime later, Suga arrived on the top floor of the fifth floor. Suga walked along the corridor with Nellson, who flew after him. Suga looked around and finally found a directional sign to the stairs leading to the rooftop attached to the ceiling. Suga followed the directions, which ended at a door; he opened it. Behind the door were stairs that connected each floor in this hospital. Suga walked up the stairs. Nellson flew ahead of him and landed above, waiting for Suga to pass. Nellson then continued flying after him. After walking up the stairs, Suga arrived at a single door; he opened it, and unexpectedly, it was not locked. Suga arrived on the rooftop of this hospital building.

The time was 10:15 pm. Suga immediately realized the man’s whereabouts who had invited him to go here. Hardy stood near the concrete railing at the rooftop’s edge, his hands tucked into his jacket, as he watched the night view of the city before him. Suga was alert, and his expression turned serious.

“Be ready to attack at my command, Nellson.”

Nellson turned to Suga and nodded.

“I understand.”

Suga walked toward Hardy from behind, and Nellson then flew after him.

After getting close enough to Hardy, Suga stopped his steps, and Nellson landed behind Suga. Soon after, Nellson’s six long and broad wings appeared from behind Suga as if these wings belonged to him. Hardy appeared to realize the presence behind him; he turned around and was surprised to see Suga as if he had six broad owl wings on his back. Hardy positioned his hands forward with a gesture to tell Suga to stop what he was about to do.

“Hey, wow, wait a minute. Don’t tell me you will attack me with your Yokai.”

Suga and Nellson stood face-to-face with Hardy. Suga’s expression turned astonished as he thought.

“He’s not Japanese?”

Suga’s expression turned serious.

“Only if you are stupid enough to fire your gun at me. But of course, if you intended to kill me, you would have shot me before. So, I came here to find out the reason.”

Hardy’s expression turned serious.

“Sorry for what happened before. You wouldn’t want to meet me here if I didn’t do that. It can be said that I had to improvise my way of doing this because the person who encountered me before you beat me and my team up.”

Suga’s expression turned confused.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about….”

Hardy was slightly surprised.

“Sorry if I’m going off-topic. First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Hardy Aylward. Nice to meet you.”

Suga’s expression turned astonished.

“You expect me to introduce myself, too?”

Hardy smiled.

“Suga Hisoka, right? I know.”

Suga was slightly surprised after hearing Hardy know his name.

“How do you know my name?”

Hardy’s expression turned doubtful.

“How do I put it....”

Suga’s expression turned serious. Hardy continued talking.

“Alright then… actually, I’m from a secret organization. My comrades and I are tasked to observe several people, including you and your owl monster friend.”

Suga’s expression turned astonished.

“What do you mean by observing?”

Hardy himself appeared to have difficulty explaining it.

“How do I put it… We don’t know either. My comrades and I also want to find out why, because it’s becoming increasingly unclear.”

Suga’s expression turned even more astonished. Hardy continued speaking.

“That’s all I want to tell you. I think you need to know what my organization might want; sooner or later, we’ll definitely be ordered to meet you anyway.”

Suga’s expression turned deadpan.

“You expect me to believe what you say?”

Hardy appeared to remember something.

“Sorry, I should have given you that first.”

Hardy took out a smartphone from inside the pocket behind his jacket. Hardy walked to Suga and then gave him this smartphone as he spoke.

“In there, there is various information that we collect for you, along with some other information as a bonus.”

Suga didn’t accept it, and his expression turned astonished. However, Suga was curious about the information Hardy wanted to give him and finally received it.

“Okay, let’s see how far this information can convince me.”

Hardy smiled.

“That information is a bonus, but my main goal is to build communication with you, so I’m leaving something for you in case I need to contact you, because I think we are in the same position. If something bad happens, we can… help each other, maybe?”

Suga’s expression turned serious but also mixed with curiosity.

“Weird, if you don’t know anything, it’s all because of your negligence. So, why, from the way you talk, doesn’t sound like that?”

Hardy appeared to realize something.

“You’re right, I’m sorry. I may know a little something….”

Suga looked curious. Hardy’s expression turned serious.

“Be careful of someone called Black Star.”

Suga was surprised because he knew about Black Star, whose news was busy on television, even in various parts of the world. Hardy’s expression showed that something was bothering him.

“You and your friends might be in danger. At that time, we might should help each other.”

Suga’s expression turned serious. Hardy continued speaking.

“Sorry, but I have to go now; I have a flight to catch.”

Hardy turned back and walked toward the wide concrete railing on the rooftop’s edge, then walked up to the top of it and stood there. Seeing Hardy, Suga was slightly surprised.

Moments later, the sound of a roaring engine was heard. A VTOL plane to transport personnel in the form of a huge fighter jet, which had previously also visited the factory that Erdyn attacked, flew from below direction of the hospital and then hovered not far from where Hardy was standing. The plane faced Hardy momentarily, then made a 180-degree turn so that its rear door faced Hardy. The cargo door opened and became stairs’ bridge and a ramp to load the cargo or personnel into the plane. Hardy boarded the plane via the stairs’ bridge from the rear cargo door, and this door then closed. This VTOL plane flew higher and farther. Suga stood in his place with a surprised expression.

“How reckless they are; aren’t they afraid of being detected by the military defense?”

Nellson stood beside Suga, with his current size being two meters tall.

“That man is so strange.”

Suga turned to Nellson; his expression turned curious.

“I don’t know, but he warned me about Black Star….”

Suga’s expression turned worried as he felt a bad feeling. He looked at the black smartphone in his hand that Hardy had given him. His expression turned serious.

Back to the VTOL plane that Hardy was in, this plane had flown very high at an accelerated speed through the night sky clouds. Inside the cockpit, this plane was flown by two male pilots. Hardy was sitting in one of the passenger seats arranged sideways on the right and left sides of this plane’s cabin, with a woman sitting beside him. This woman had slightly long hair and wore a women’s leather jacket that fit elegantly on her body, a shirt underneath it, black trousers, and black army women’s boots. This woman in her thirties was Ely Samford. Before them, Raymond wore military-grade armor and clothes and sat with his arms crossed.

“Are you sure about this?”

Hardy’s expression turned slightly doubtful.

“For now, all we can do is find out why we were given this surveillance mission.”

Raymond’s expression turned astonished.

“Huh? I mean, we get on this plane and fly into another country’s airspace.”

Hardy came to his senses.

“Relax; we immediately use stealth mode so as not to be chased by this country’s defense fighter jets. After all, isn’t it faster like this?”