Beyond the Grave [ILLUMI X CHROLLO]

[ 17 ] The Custody Battle That Is This Entire Series Continues

It took one try for Illumi to identify which fist would punch him back to Chrollo's domain. After staring at his clenched hands like one held a secret surprise Sukuna had hidden behind his back, Sukuna said, "Either one would do."

"But it's always one or the other," Illumi said. He raised his dominant hand. "This one put me in Killua's body."

Sukuna lowered it then, but held it firmly between both of his own hands. "Does my esteemed opinion hold any weight here?"

Illumi resisted the urge to roll his eyes, which ended in a long, painful glare and Illumi saying, "Duh."

"You're thinking about this like your brother's boyfriend would," Sukuna said. He pulled Illumi's hands apart with a little shake, saying, "You have access to so much more than one body and one afterlife, but if it helps to punch..."

When Sukuna's grip slackened, Illumi dropped his arms completely to his sides. "So you're saying what Gon is doing is pseudoscience?"

"I was going to say cute and rather mortal of him, but pseudoscience also works."

"This doesn't help me get to Chrollo's domain, and I'm not really in the mood for a crash course right now."

Sukuna picked up Illumi's non-dominant hand, saying, "This took you to my domain, correct?"

"Yes, but that won't help—"

Sukuna shook Illumi's closed fist, punctuating it with a simple, "Then this takes you to Hell. Dilute it a little, and your want for Chrollo will creep in. This is how intentions work with divine and celestial energy."

"So just... believe it takes me to Chrollo." Illumi hated fallacies and loathed how closely this skewed to one. "It takes me to Chrollo."

"Exactly. Now then," Sukuna stepped back with a gesture forward, as if brandishing the runway for Illumi's punch back to Hell.

Cute and mortal, Illumi thought, visibly cringing and glaring at the ceiling. "I hate this," he admitted, and rather than a full-blown punch, he swatted his left hand across like he could smack Gon over the head with it for coming up with such a silly method.

And, when he opened his eyes, it worked.

Meruem's foyer flashed and, with a swell of blackness, the world vanished from view. The color and light that always seemed to swath Sukuna dissolved into an inky void.

Vertigo took hold as Illumi staggered back. The darkness didn't affect him as he anticipated—he was a picture cut out from the universe. In his confusion, a blip of panic seized Illumi's chest.

This was the void at their heels when he and his family were trapped in Meruem's domain. With Wrath and Meruem in the same room, the impossible density of their combined divinity collapsed entire rooms just like this one.

Is this all that's left of the workshop? Illumi wondered, and then began to walk across the void.

Stars flickered in and out of focus, too far away for Illumi to accurately discern and even when he stood still, they felt like faults in his vision—like static from staring too long and too hard at one thing. But moving ahead into the darkness sent Illumi's body skewing involuntarily left and right, desperate for orientation. He kept his hands out in search of a wall, but there was nothing.

"Chrollo?" he called out, to no answer.

He turned about, squinting, before startling at a very clear exit not far over his left shoulder. It had the same decorative marble framing that Illumi recognized from the workshop, and so he approached it.