Joey and André were not saints.
Even when they encountered civilians marching toward Peijing, they gave no warnings.
That indifference made infiltration… seamless.
Their luck held out—until 10:00 PM.
A breaking news broadcast shattered the quiet:
Diego, Supreme Leader of East Gorteau, appeared on national television to declare martial law.
"Looks like Gon and the others made their move," Joey muttered under his breath, keeping to the shadows of a remote town.
"Yeah. Bit premature, though."
André stroked his chin, agreeing.
The town square was crawling with soldiers—lined up, ready to depart. But there was something off about them.
Joey narrowed his eyes. He could see aura threads, thin and shimmering, attached to each soldier's back.
Puppeteer-type Nen.
Neferpitou's work.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Joey asked.
"If we disrupt the puppets, we risk exposing ourselves. But if we don't, all these people are doomed."
He activated Gyo—the humanoid figure behind the soldiers grew clearer.
There was no doubt.
Terpsichora.
Removing Nen wasn't in the cards—they weren't Exorcists.
But neutralizing the puppets?
That, they could do.
"Let's help them," André said at last.
"If we can save even a few… it's worth it."
"And what if Pitou comes herself?" Joey frowned.
Though according to Nob's reports, Pitou hadn't left Peijing during the selection, the timeline had already diverged wildly.
No assumptions were safe.
"We're hundreds of kilometers from the palace," Joey added.
"Even if she notices, it'll take time."
"Unless you've got a better idea…" André smiled, summoning his Solitary Cell.
Joey raised an eyebrow.
"So where's the exit point?"
"Three klicks back. Deep woods."
Joey nodded.
Three kilometers.
Beyond even Pitou's En.
It was safe.
More than that, it meant André had already planned this out.
Joey volunteered to do the fieldwork.
André would cover the extraction.
Their mission:
Neutralize the puppets. Scatter the civilians. Avoid detection.
At first, Joey intended to just knock out the controlled soldiers.
But then he realized something chilling—
Only three of them were under actual Nen control.
The rest?
Brainwashed.
Their minds poisoned by the regime.
No Nen strings—just blind loyalty.
For the real puppets, Joey had a plan.
Exploding their skulls.
Once decapitated, the puppets kept moving.
A perfect distraction.
And he didn't use Killer Queen.
That would be too risky.
If Pitou picked up on his aura, it could ruin everything.
"Never show your trump card too early," Joey reminded himself.
In Hunter battles, information is everything.
In Stand battles, it's the same.
No matter how overpowered an ability seemed,
Once exposed—it could be broken.
Too many "invincible" enemies had died screaming:
Kars, sent adrift in the void, frozen in thought.
Yoshikage Kira, killed by a paramedic truck.
Diavolo, trapped in an endless loop by Requiem.
Joey wasn't delusional.
He wasn't invincible.
His enemies, though?
Always.
So while he fired aura bullets to blow off heads and knock out soldiers, he kept Killer Queen in the shadows.
Let the puppet corpses scare the people.
Let fear spark chaos.
He didn't need to shout slogans.
Didn't need to lecture anyone about tyranny.
Just one headless body lurching forward was enough to scatter the townsfolk.
The soldiers that tried to shoot them down?
Knocked out cold.
Joey's experience—anatomy, dissection, real combat—
made taking down untrained soldiers a trivial task.
Once done, he vanished into the woods, regrouping with André.
But the response they got wasn't from Neferpitou or Ant patrols—
It was tanks and fighter jets.
"The chaos didn't stop the selection," André muttered, watching the armored convoys roll in.
"They had a contingency plan."
Not just a backup—
the military crackdown gave them more legal power.
Civilians lost their last hope of resisting.
"The ants planned for this," André continued.
"Now it's not just a cull… it's lockdown.
This move may have backfired."
"You want to keep fighting?" Joey asked, fingers twitching.
Taking down a tank sounded fun.
He was confident he could handle it.
"No. We move," André shook his head.
"Even if Pitou doesn't come… more ants will.
There's too many unknowns.
And without Diego's 'corpse' to discredit… the public won't panic.
They'll turn on us.
Brand us as insurgents.
Saving people now only makes us villains later."
Joey nodded, eyes narrowing.
André was right.
"Still, we kicked up a hornet's nest. That's got to count for something."
"Kite gave you a job," André said.
"You did it."
But André's gaze lingered on the skies.
"The real enemy hasn't shown up yet.
I don't know if that's good news… or bad."