Kurapika's vision blurred, the edges of the brightly lit hallway bleeding into pitch black. The heavy toll of maintaining his scarlet eyes finally dragged him under. His knees buckled as the spinning world vanished, and he lost consciousness completely.
Liam's arm shot out, catching the blond youth securely before he hit the ground.
"Look at how sharp your tongue is now. You could have just said he was passing out," Liam muttered, shifting Kurapika's dead weight and glancing over at Shizuku.
Shizuku looked back with her usual calm expression. "He has been using his eyes for way too long."
From down the corridor, Bisky jogged toward them, her voice cutting sharply through the tense air to remind them of the reality outside. "I hate to rush you, but it is getting incredibly lively out there. We need to move!"
Liam reached out with his senses, connecting to the Star Mark he had placed on Jaku circling the building outside. Through the bird's vantage point, he could see a chaotic sea of flashing red and blue lights painting the streets below. Dozens of police convoys had already formed a perimeter. The local authorities were clearly treating the incident as a top-level terrorist attack.
"Kurapika!" Liam shouted.
When he got no response, Liam delivered a sharp slap directly across the unconscious boy's cheek. The loud smack echoed down the hallway. Kurapika didn't wake, but a soft, pained groan escaped his lips.
Before anyone else could act, Jade drifted closer, her movements entirely silent. With a sweeping motion of her wide sleeves, she enveloped Kurapika, pulling his body seamlessly into the spatial void of her Universe in the Sleeve.
Bisky's eyes widened in genuine surprise. "I didn't actually expect that to work!"
Jade didn't linger to celebrate. The lower half of her body sank directly into the solid floor until only her head and shoulders remained visible. She glided forward, cutting through the concrete like a shark slicing through ocean water. Liam, Shizuku, and Bisky sprinted after her, their footsteps rapid and light. Moving as fast as lightning, they reached the thirteenth floor in the blink of an eye.
Liam didn't bother looking for a window. He picked a direction, concentrated his aura into his fist, and slammed it into the reinforced concrete wall. The structure shattered outward in a deafening explosion of dust and jagged debris, letting in the cool rush of the night air.
The three of them vaulted through the gaping hole into the open sky. Jaku was already waiting out there, hovering faithfully where it had been ordered to stand sentry.
Liam willed his aura outward. Invisible, swirling air currents wrapped around his body, instantly halting his downward momentum. He shot hundreds of meters forward through the night sky, carried along as though he wore an invisible glider.
He extended his hands outward, reaching toward the two women falling on either side of him.
"Thanks a lot! But my hand is gone!" Bisky yelled over the roaring wind. She had jumped off the building just to Liam's left. Only the span of two arms separated them, but her missing right arm meant she was short by exactly that distance. Her fingers grasped at empty air.
Missing the connection, Bisky dropped straight down, gravity claiming her instantly as she plummeted into free fall.
Liam's mind raced. He was entirely out of Wind Talismans, and there was simply no time to craft another one mid-air.
On his other side, Shizuku was already plunging hundreds of meters toward the neon-lit streets below. She also lacked a Wind Talisman, but the thick belt fastened tightly around her waist was no ordinary accessory.
Because bringing Lumos around in his massive, imposing tiger form was too conspicuous, Liam had taken to transforming the beast into a wearable belt for Shizuku during their excursions. It was the perfect contingency plan for emergencies exactly like this one.
Reacting quickly to the rushing wind, Shizuku tapped into Lumos's cooperative Conjuration ability, Seventy-Two Transformations. She activated a specific transformation module Liam had pre-programmed just in case. In a flash of aura, the young woman vanished, replaced instantly by a small, gray-feathered bird that looked exactly like a rock sparrow.
Maintaining such a drastic shift in size and mass came at a steep price. Her aura reserves began plummeting rapidly, draining by fifty points every single second.
"Hey, that is quite a solution," Liam muttered to himself, watching the bird stabilize its flight.
Below them, a sharp concussive boom echoed through the night air. Bisky had forcefully gathered her aura at the stump of her severed right arm and blasted a concentrated shockwave directly toward the ground. The attack carried almost zero lethality, but the sheer reverse thrust was incredible. The recoil launched her back up into the high altitude, sending her flying right past Shizuku's sparrow form.
Liam spun, his whole body acting as a turbine. He generated a violent, swirling vortex of air that lashed out to catch both the gray sparrow and the rising Bisky. The powerful suction dragged them safely into the calm eye of the storm.
Supported by the makeshift tornado, Liam glided smoothly away from the chaos, drifting several hundred meters above the bright, sprawling desert casino city. Jade, tethered to his proximity, rode the spiraling winds right behind him. Meanwhile, Jaku received its next set of instructions and banked sharply, diving back toward the noisy, chaotic charity exhibition venue to locate Menchi.
"So you make a massive mess and just run away like that, huh?"
Standing on a quiet street not far from the surrounded building, Menchi stared up at the night sky. High above, two tiny black silhouettes glided away against the clouds. Any capable Nen user possessed enhanced senses, but as a top-tier Food Hunter, Menchi's eyesight was practically telescopic. Finding and preparing rare ingredients required nothing less.
Beside her stood Nobunaga, his head also tilted back to watch Liam's escape.
"What else am I supposed to do if not run away?" Nobunaga-Liam said, though the casual, slightly mocking tone belonged entirely to Liam. "Stick around to get handcuffed and thrown in a jail cell?"
"Don't you have a Hunter License?" Menchi asked, lowering her gaze to look at him.
"Don't talk nonsense. I haven't even taken the exam yet! All I have is a black license."
"A black one is still a license. It isn't entirely useless," Menchi argued, crossing her arms. "With a Hunter License, the standard V5 police force isn't allowed to touch you."
She sighed, deciding to drop the subject, and pointed a thumb at Nobunaga. "Anyway, what are you going to do with this guy? Do you want me to handle him?"
What she meant, of course, was the way Machi stood on her other side, behaving exactly like an obedient personal servant.
Menchi reached into her gear and pulled out her large iron pan. She was fully prepared to toss Nobunaga inside to cook up his submission. She eyed the swordsman's scruffy hair and unkempt clothes with mild disgust. Even if she used her ability to teach him every culinary technique in the world, she highly doubted someone this sloppy could ever prepare a meal that would satisfy her refined palate.
Nobunaga pointed a finger at his own chest, the foreign consciousness inside him offering a friendly warning. "Keep in mind, this guy uses a blade. Sure, it is a katana, but what if he actually has a hidden talent for cooking? If his dish satisfies you, won't you become his servant instead? From now on, you should really try not to use that risky ability of yours. If you run into bad luck even once, you throw your whole life away. Well, just like her."
He casually pointed over at Machi. She remained totally expressionless from beginning to end, her cold eyes staring straight ahead. She offered no reaction whatsoever to the words of Nobunaga, despite the fact that her comrade's body was clearly hijacked.
"Besides, if you want to give this guy an order, my Star Mark works perfectly fine too," Nobunaga added, tapping his chin. "It is much easier to use than yours. It is safe, carries no side effects, and has absolutely zero contamination risk."
Menchi raised an eyebrow. "If that's the case, then why don't you just do it?"
Nobunaga let out a sharp sneer. "Put a mark on him and let him wander around? Setting aside the fact that he might just get himself killed, what if he bumps into someone capable of tracing the mark back to my real body? That would be terrible luck falling from the sky while I am just sitting at home trying to relax."
Menchi gave him a flat look and gestured toward the silent woman beside them. "You know she heard all of that, right?"
"Hasn't she already been conquered by you?" Nobunaga waved a hand dismissively, a relaxed smile stretching across the swordsman's rough face. "She is one of our own now. One of our own."
Only at that moment did Machi finally turn her head. She locked her dead, expressionless eyes onto Nobunaga's face, staring hard as if trying to pierce through his skull to see the sinister puppet master wearing his skin.
"Then why don't we just kill him?" Menchi suggested, her grip tightening on the handle of her pan. "He's part of the Phantom Troupe anyway. If we kill him, people will just clap and applaud."
Liam thought from afar that she made a very logical point, though it would be much better if she just did it instead of talking about it.
"If that is how you feel, then why isn't she dead?" Nobunaga asked, pointing directly at Machi again.
"Don't point at me again," Machi said, her voice dropping to a freezing chill.
"I am pointing again. What are you going to do about it?" Nobunaga challenged. He lowered his hand for a second, then immediately raised it back up, jabbing his fingers right toward Machi's nose.
Before another syllable could leave his mouth, his two fingers suddenly detached from his hand and fell to the pavement.
The incisions were impossibly smooth and neat.
Not to mention Menchi, even Machi looked mildly stunned. She stood with her hands raised, gripping the tough, thin thread she had transmuted to the sharpness of a razor. She truly hadn't expected the strike to connect so easily. She had assumed the imposter controlling Nobunaga would at least attempt to dodge.
"My fingers!" Nobunaga let out a dramatic, sorrowful wail, kneeling down to scoop up the severed digits from the dirty concrete. "My poor... oh, wait. They are not my actual fingers. Then it is fine."
His feigned panic vanished instantly. He casually tossed the bloody fingers up and caught them, then gave Menchi a cheerful wave with the maimed hand. "Forget about it. You go on ahead. I am going to hang back here for a bit. I will release my control over this guy once you are a safe distance away."
Menchi looked up, catching sight of the small, gray rock sparrow Liam had raised fluttering down from the sky toward them.
"Are you absolutely sure you aren't going to kill him?" Menchi asked, lingering for a moment before leaving.
"You really have no faith in me. I am a good person. I try my best not to kill anyone if I can avoid it." Under the subtle control of the Star Mark, the two severed fingers lifted from Nobunaga's palm and floated back to the smooth stumps on his hand, automatically reattaching themselves flesh to flesh.
"Besides," Nobunaga-Liam continued, flexing his newly healed hand, "this guy is just an Enhancer. If he were a Specialist with some unpredictable ability, I might kill him just to prevent future headaches. But if he is strictly a combat type, let him come for revenge if he is actually capable. What can he really do?"
Did she honestly think every single Enhancement type out there was as terrifying as Kurapika?
Half an hour later.
Nobunaga slowly opened his eyes, feeling like he had just clawed his way out of a remarkably long, exhausting fever dream. He blinked against the harsh streetlights, utterly disoriented. He found himself sitting slumped on the edge of a bustling sidewalk, looking for all the world like a homeless man begging for food.
He rubbed his temples, his mind racing. It had to be a nightmare. It had to be. Otherwise, how could Uvogin have died under his own blade?
A gap parted in the busy crowd across the street. Chrollo was walking past, completely alone. His face was a mask of cold indifference, his eyes fixed straight ahead. He didn't even cast a glance toward the opposite sidewalk where Nobunaga sat. Without breaking stride, the leader of the Phantom Troupe passed by and disappeared into the sea of people.
A block away, perched on the flat roof of a four-story building, Phinks stood in the shadows. His thick arm was locked tightly around Yonger's neck, his large hand clamped firmly over her mouth, completely ignoring her frantic struggles.
"Let's assess the situation first," Phinks growled in a low, cold tone. "The first priority right now is our own safety. Hey, Shalnark. What is your plan?"
Near the edge of the roof, the blond young man stood bathed in the ambient glow from the city below. Shalnark stared down at the street, watching the spot where Chrollo's retreating back had just vanished. His thumbs moved rapidly over his phone.
Without turning around to face Phinks, Shalnark raised a single finger. "One: The boss definitely spotted us. But for some reason, he seems unable to talk to us directly. We follow him. With the boss's mind, he will definitely leave us information in other ways."
A moment later, Shalnark raised a second finger. "Two: We need to find Absuo. Before this entire operation started, the boss met with Absuo alone. I haven't seen that guy since..."