After the consultation, Pyon waved her hand. The laptop turned into a ball of aura and disappeared.
She was a Conjurer. Unlike Manipulators who were paranoid about keeping their Nen type secret, as long as she hid the specific ability information of manifested items, she had nothing to worry about. What's more, Liam already knew she had Conjuration abilities. And her strength, after years of practice, wasn't just about her ability.
Pyon stood up, planning to leave.
"That's it? You're leaving now?"
Liam complained. "It's the same as not coming at all. You didn't even explain the patient's condition clearly!"
Pyon, wearing her bunny ear headband, put one hand on her hip. "The patient himself hasn't fully explained his condition. No matter how skilled the doctor, what can they do?"
Liam blinked.
Shizuku also blinked. True, although Liam had said he suspected his heart harbored abnormal Nen and was worried there'd be unbearable hidden dangers in the future, he hadn't told this woman about the death energy.
"Okay, Doctor Rabbit. I'll explain."
Liam raised his hands. "Whenever someone dies within about a one-kilometer radius around me, there's a special aura—what I call death energy—that attacks my heart uncontrollably..."
Pyon manifested a laptop and bonked it on Liam's head.
"I'm not a doctor. And don't call me Doctor Rabbit."
As if she had no bones in her body, she sat down on the sofa again. Opened her laptop again. Typed for a while.
Looking at the analysis data on screen, she suddenly muttered to herself, "Death energy... So that's what this part means."
You can never stand if you can sit, and never sit if you can lie down, right? Liam gave the bunny girl a sidelong glance. Was she really a hardcore shut-in following through to the end?
Pyon kept her computer and phone in hand all day. It made Liam almost mistake her for a Hacker Hunter, forgetting she was actually an Ancient Documents Hunter.
That's right—her ability could analyze things. Although these messy, disorderly analysis results might not be ancient, most were documents extremely difficult to interpret.
He'd first met her when climbing Sensui Mountain. She'd been investigating divine script in the cave. Was there anything more aligned with her abilities and interests than this mysterious text infused with Nen? Liam had reason to suspect this bunny girl must be involved in divine script research within the Hunter Association.
Interests, ambitions, and Nen abilities were complementary to each other, cause and effect intertwined. For a Nen user, this was probably the best state.
As Biscuit said in the manga when teaching Killua, it was important to follow the intuition of your first reaction when developing Nen abilities.
Shizuku blinked again.
Liam still didn't reveal all his secrets. Although he'd mentioned death energy, he didn't say that when it accumulated to a certain level, his body would catalyze growth as if unable to bear it anymore.
Pyon continued looking at the analyzed data for a while. Without raising her head, she lifted her index finger toward Liam. "One: If you have time, go to Hunter Association headquarters and find the Twelve Zodiac Dog, Cheadle. She's a Disease Hunter. With the information I've analyzed so far, she should be able to help clear up the problems in your heart..."
"What's number two?" Liam asked.
The bunny girl raised her second finger. "Two: Use my ability to scan and analyze your entire body without any blind spots."
Liam said, "One can wait. Let's talk about two first."
If he was going to Hunter Association headquarters, he'd already have gone. How inappropriate would it be not to take the Hunter Exam and get a proper license?
Since he'd go there to take the test and get licensed anyway, he had to time it for late this year and early next year.
Still half a year away. Too early.
Pyon said, "Depending on the complexity of the Nen lodged in your heart, I'm afraid it'll take at least a week to get clear results. And these results might not satisfy you."
"You said there are at least three or four components mixed together. Complex enough indeed. Understandable."
"But I don't want to do it."
"When do you think you're free... huh?" Liam paused, trying to ask. "Is this a paid service?"
Pyon put away the laptop again, clapped her hands, stood up to leave the sofa. "Because I don't want to scan your whole body."
She looked at Liam. "You're a Manipulator, right? Once someone knows a Manipulator's ability, they become passive."
Liam waved magnanimously. "I like being passive."
Pyon rolled her eyes, sat on the coffee table, folded her arms. "What I said is I'll be passive."
She pointed between Liam and herself in the air. "I'd know information about your abilities for no reason. I'd always feel like I owe you a favor. I don't want that."
"If you check out my heart problem, it'll clear both sides."
"Who knows if I can even figure it out?"
"Then I'll pay you, okay?" Liam said. "Don't look at me like this. After all, I climbed from the 1st floor to the 200th floor in Heavens Arena. I still have a bit of money."
Pyon said strangely, "With your strength, you could jump directly to the 200th floor. What's so strange about that?"
Liam reminded her, "Who said I jumped floors? I'm talking about climbing from the 1st floor to the 200th floor..."
Isn't this just gaming the system and making money? Pyon's dead fish eyes met Liam's dead fish eyes.
Pyon crossed her legs, returning to the previous question. "I'm not a freelance Hunter. I don't accept private missions."
She flicked her nails. "Unless you apply to Association headquarters, get approval, and they issue it to me, I won't do it."
Translation: You're a shut-in who can't move, so you're too lazy to move, right?
Liam complained internally. Only a god like Netero could command such a homebody girl.
The Twelve Zodiacs of the Hunter Association, except for the Rat and Boar, were all Netero's biggest fans.
"Anyway, if you have time, go to Hunter headquarters."
Pyon really was leaving this time. "Cheadle is different from me. With your complicated situation—like a big bone that smells like meat—Cheadle, who loves difficult diseases, can't help but pounce on it."
"Do you need to phrase it so degradingly?" Liam had a black line on his face. "Although she is indeed the Dog of the Twelve Zodiacs..."
Pyon waved without looking back. Left the hotel room with her bunny ear ornament swaying. As she turned the corner, she thought: "Liam... he's the person Ginta investigated for a long time half a year ago."
Half a year ago, after Ginta left Ghost Island, he'd searched for Liam's information in the Association database but found nothing.
He'd originally wanted to ask Pyon, who was proficient in computer technology, for help. However, considering the opposing views of the two factions in the Association, he'd given up.
Ginta himself gave up quickly, but the traces he left were inadvertently discovered by Pyon, who browsed the internet intensively. Repeatedly checking the list of professional Hunters in the database—this kind of abnormal behavior was hard to avoid getting her attention.
Originally, Pyon had just scanned it and ignored it. But when she searched the name "Liam" using various methods and found nothing, it was strange.
Ginta using this name to search the Association database proved that the person named Liam had been a Professional Hunter when meeting Ginta. He'd even had a Hunter License.
While thinking, Pyon had already pulled up the most searched items in Ginta's search records.
Hunter Licenses had no personal information or markings, and of course didn't accurately match each Professional Hunter's personal identity.
However, each Hunter License had the serial number of that year's Hunter Exam, with the last digits being the exam number.
So the period Ginta focused on investigating was obviously the exam serial number he'd noted from the Hunter License carried by the "Professional Hunter" who called himself Liam.
With a swipe, Pyon had pulled up the complete list of Hunters who'd passed that year's exam from the database.
Another swipe, and she'd made a call to Ginta.
Ginta had always been responsible for notifying the Hunter Association when major events required all Hunters to gather.
Pyon inquired casually. After subtracting a few people from that year's Hunter list, three deceased Hunters were screened out.
Only one Enhancer among the three. Recently lost contact.
Pyon tapped her keyboard with her little hand, pulling up this Enhancement Hunter's last mission—a bodyguard assignment. The employer's identity remained confidential.
Appeared confidential.
Pyon quickly deciphered it. Found it was actually related to the Hui Guo Rou royal family of Kakin Kingdom. Seemed to be a private mission from a certain prince...
Soon the prince herself attracted Pyon's attention.
Because records and information about this prince online were scrubbed and blocked. Difficult to find through conventional means. Even news about the prince's wedding last year when she entered the Hui Guo Rou Palace, and photos of her with King Nasubi circulated online—all deleted.
This woman had privately issued a mission to find a Hunter from the Hunter Association as a bodyguard. Now she'd disappeared from the world. Even traces of her existence had been eliminated by Kakin officials...
The elevator door opened. In the empty lobby, only a few martial artists exchanged experiences.
Pyon walked out of the hotel, thinking: "The Hunter License Liam showed Ginta was the one lost after the death of the Hunter who worked as bodyguard for the prince? So Liam's true identity..."
Thinking of what happened at Sensui Mountain the past two days—especially the Nen beast left by Sky Master Goya Hui Guo Rou in desperation taking up residence in Liam's body—it was really hard not to overthink.
"Is he related to the prince?"
"Looking at Liam's age, definitely not a lover. So—the prince's illegitimate son?"
"And the strange death energy in his heart was left behind after the prince died?"
"This is consistent with what he said about his heart becoming like this after his mother passed away..."
"The only thing difficult to explain is why the obsession left by a mother after death could leave such unpredictable hidden dangers in her child's body."
"Is it because of what happened during her lifetime—regret and even resentment toward the child? But post-mortem Nen, unless imposed during life and strengthened by obsession after death, has relatively complex mechanisms. The remaining Nen that bursts out temporarily when dying is often very pure in purpose. The mechanism isn't too complicated..."
"The Nen in Liam's heart is chaotic, complicated, very unstable. Doesn't look like something his mother placed on him during life and strengthened after death. Nor does it look like it formed when dying, obsession bursting out..."
"Instead, it's more like various irreproducible factors colliding in an extremely difficult-to-reproduce coincidence, improvising such a result."
Walking down the road, Pyon unknowingly developed dead fish eyes. "Ah, I accidentally followed the analysis thread. Busy working for nothing..."
She raised her hand to reveal her phone. More relaxing than surfing the internet.
"It's not like there's nothing gained."
In the hotel room, Liam sat cross-legged on the sofa, pondering. "Since Doctor Rabbit said the Nen in my heart is too complex—at least three or four kinds... Where did three or four come from? My godmother's obsession before dying. And what about the baby's own desire to live? What else? The... certain energy that came with me when I transmigrated?"
The classic mysterious unknown energy that comes with transmigration. After following local customs, it turned into strange Nen. After piecing together, it finally became this ghost thing now, attached to his heart?
Since it had something to do with such nonsense as transmigration, it probably wouldn't backfire casually and kill him as a transmigrator, right?
Liam smacked his lips and touched his heart.
Another cold little hand pressed on his hand.
Liam raised his eyes and met Shizuku's gaze. The lavender eyes behind her glasses looked at him quietly.
Liam consoled her. "At the latest this year... oh, early next year. January. We'll go to Hunter Association headquarters."
"How about we get Hunter Licenses together and have this disease checked out?" he asked with a smile.
"Mm." Shizuku nodded.
"Come on, give me a hug." Liam opened his arms. "Can I really be considered a patient now?"
Shizuku opened her hands. "Let me hug you."
Liam understood her logic—since you're a patient, it's my turn to care for you, so I should hug and comfort you, right?
Liam smiled. Sat cross-legged on the sofa. Hugged Shizuku's thighs, leaned in, rested his head on her flat abdomen.
The weight was heavy...
The next day, nearly 7 AM. The same group of martial artists gathered again at the same back mountain training ground.
Everyone was in groups, whispering, waiting for Netero to appear.
Liam was in a good mood. He'd tested yesterday—the increase in aura was significantly improved compared to usual. It seemed that during Ken practice, Reflection's aura supplementation forcibly prolonged the Ken duration. Over time, it did help practice. Equivalent to saying it was originally just over five hours of suffering, but ended up innocently suffering for six hours, so there'd be compensation.
"If I specifically found someone who could help people recover aura, or even inject their aura into others... it might also greatly improve practice efficiency!"
Liam thought like this. Netero arrived at the training ground at some point. Still dressed in the same simple clothes as yesterday. Smiled and stroked his brush-like goatee. Liam always felt the old man smiled very treacherously.
When Liam came on stage, he knew why.
Netero, wearing a vest and loose pants with tight cuffs, kicked off his clogs and waved at Liam. "Come on, let's try again today."
The old man was smiling all over his face. But what was even more terrifying—he didn't have any aura on his body.
Had he entered Zetsu?
Liam took a deep breath. Felt like he couldn't escape a violent beating today.