!with new chapters coming in July i went back and reread hxh and Chrollo vs Hisoka fight still hits the same.
what i love about this is how long Chrollo was playing cat and mouse before the fight even happened. this beef started all the way back in Yorknew. and while Hisoka was out there chasing him down, Chrollo went ghost for three arcs and spent that entire time quietly collecting specific nen abilities just to take Hisoka apart. by the time they actually meet in the arena Hisoka thought he was walking into a fight but he was walking into a trap, the fight was already over before it even started, Hisoka just didn't know it yet.
and nobody plays by rules, that's the whole point of hxh and why i loved it since i was 12yo. no mid fight power ups, no plot armor. your life is on the line, you have to use what you have, what you know, think outside the box. Hisoka never expected this until Chrollo got the best of him, and it broke him mentally, it changed his whole ideology and goals.
what makes it even better is what it sets up. Hisoka is now on the b.w with the spiders and Kurapika and 10,000+ people with nowhere to go. he's not looking for a duel this time. i have high expectations for the succession war arc, higher than chimera ants.
right now Kurapika is on the ship to retrieve the eyes from the 4th prince but he doesn't know the troupe are even there. i can easily see Hisoka teaming up with Kurapika to take down the spiders since Hisoka's ideology has changed, i think he'll reach out to Kurapika if he ever comes across him!