Liam walked back from the cockpit, the low hum of the airship's engines vibrating steadily through the floorboards.
In the main cabin, Bisky sat in quiet concentration, bathed in the soft, warm light of Miss Cookie's healing aura. Half of her severed right arm had already regenerated under the Nen beast's soothing massage, the fresh skin pale and flawless. Across from her, Shizuku calmly flipped the page of a magazine, the crisp rustle of paper sounding loud in the quiet space. Kurapika, now fully awake, stubbornly refused to lie back down. He sat on the floor, the cold condensation of a half-empty water bottle clinging to his fingers. He took a slow sip, his hollow gaze fixed on the endless sea of clouds drifting past the porthole. Machi stood like a statue, her cold eyes staring blankly ahead, completely ignoring the others in the room. Beside her, Menchi sat with her head bowed, her brows furrowed in deep thought.
"We still have about two hours until we land," Liam said, dropping into the seat next to Shizuku. The worn leather creaked under his weight. "Bisky, are you absolutely sure you gave the captain the right coordinates? I do not recognize the name of this airport at all."
Bisky kept her eyes closed, her breathing slow and steady. "Battera used his private airstrip back then," she replied, her voice relaxed. "The one we are heading to right now is a public facility, so naturally, the name is going to be different."
After escaping the chaotic city, Liam had suggested returning to their starting point on Greed Island. The old castle Battera had given them offered a quiet, isolated sanctuary where they could all rest and recover. Bisky had spent ten minutes sourcing an airship and providing the coordinates, and the group had taken off immediately. They had already released Pakunoda from Jade's sleeve mid-flight, and now they were finally nearing their destination.
Menchi suddenly stood up, crossing the narrow cabin to sit on Liam's other side. She leaned in close, keeping her voice to a harsh whisper. "So why go through all this trouble?" she asked. She cast a brief, sidelong glance at Kurapika, who remained unmoving by the window. "He says he is looking for revenge against the Phantom Troupe. But in the end, you just capture a few of them and then release them? The only one who actually died was the one who actively sought his own death, committing suicide just to escape your binding."
Menchi began ticking points off on her fingers. "Sure, you imposed Nen restrictions on the surviving member in the group. But let us be brutally honest here. If you do not keep those people under constant surveillance, there is a very high probability they will eventually find a Nen Exorcist to remove the conditions and regain their freedom."
Liam nodded thoughtfully as she spoke. "It really is all pointless in the end. What you just said is incredibly philosophical." His tone then shifted, becoming flat and serious. "However, this is a personal grudge between members of our organization. That makes it an internal matter. You, as an outsider, really should stop prying."
As he emphasized the word outsider, Liam raised his hand, shoving his A-ring practically into Menchi's nose.
Menchi snorted, swatting his hand away and pretending the ring did not exist. "Forget the fact that he let those Spiders go," she pressed on. "You caught them, and you released them too. When you were just a kid, you had zero hesitation about killing those poachers in the woods. Since when do you show this kind of mercy to murderers?"
Liam just smiled, waving the A-ring in front of her face again. "I am also a member of the organization."
Menchi scowled, her voice turning grave. "Thugs like the Phantom Troupe... if you let a tiger return to the mountain, I guarantee it will become a massive, hidden danger in the future. Especially since they actually lost a member to our group this time. What happens if they do find a way to break those Nen restrictions? Even if they cannot remove the bindings themselves, what is stopping them from summoning another squad of top-tier experts from Meteor City to hunt you down for revenge?"
She gestured sharply toward Bisky, who was still meditating across the aisle, pointing specifically at the incomplete, regenerating arm. The implication hung heavy in the air. Meteor City hid ruthless, terrifyingly strong people—people capable of tearing the arm off a supreme master like Bisky. If those Troupe members returned home, there was no telling what kind of brutal retaliation they would orchestrate. Leaving hidden dangers alive after starting a cycle of revenge was incredibly unwise.
Liam listened to Menchi's mounting anxieties, but his expression remained entirely indifferent. He leaned back in his seat, his posture relaxed. "They are just a group of defeated opponents," he said lightly. "Let them go. What other tricks can they really pull?"
Across the cabin, Machi's eyes darted toward him. A faint ripple of surprise broke through her icy facade.
Liam caught her looking and held her gaze. "I am actually really curious," he said, directing his next words to her. "Have you ever met anyone who came seeking revenge against you before? And you... have you ever actively sought revenge against someone else?"
Machi held his stare, her voice devoid of any warmth. "A spider will bite to death any target that threatens its existence." She let her eyes drift toward Kurapika, who gave no sign that he was even listening to the conversation. "What exactly do you think the Phantom Troupe is? A pack of mindless, cold-blooded murderers? Non-human monsters with defective brains? That boy over there is a survivor of the Kurta Clan, a group we wiped out. He came to seek revenge. Uvogin died, and the rest of us were captured and subdued. All of this happened simply because our skills were inferior to yours, and we were completely defeated. What else is there to say? What is there to seek revenge for?"
Menchi curled her lip in disgust. "Oh, please forgive me for wronging you. I had no idea the Phantom Troupe operated on such noble, clear principles."
Shizuku looked up from her magazine, her large eyes blinking slowly. "You say, do not ask for what isn't yours, but do not try to take what is ours. That is the rule of Meteor City. Yet what you do is exactly the opposite of that, so you just call yourselves thieves instead?"
Machi squared her shoulders. "The Phantom Troupe is the Phantom Troupe, and Meteor City is Meteor City. Are Professional Hunters and all ordinary humans the exact same thing?"
Liam chuckled, a genuine sound of amusement. "Interesting, very interesting. What a funny coincidence. The Hunter Association has its twelve Zodiacs, plus a Chairman leading them. And your Meteor City also happens to have twelve Spiders, plus a leader to guide them. Tell me, when you guys first formed this little group and made your debut, did you just copy the structural chart of the Hunter Association?"
A brief memory flashed through Machi's mind. In the beginning, we just wanted to take... She remembered the rundown streets, the feeling of standing beside Chrollo when they first established the Troupe. She pushed the thought away.
"Isn't that comparison even worse?" Menchi interrupted, glaring at Liam. "Being targeted by a Meteor City version of the Twelve Zodiacs is like being hunted by twelve or thirteen absolute monsters on the same level as Master Bisky or Master Ging. Just thinking about that happening would ruin my sleep and my appetite completely."
Liam waved a dismissive hand. "Do you think too highly of them?"
Menchi crossed her arms. "If the Phantom Troupe recruits new members to replace the dead ones, they will definitely be just as strong, or maybe even stronger."
Liam shook his head, correcting her. "No, I mean do you think too highly of the Hunter Association's Twelve Zodiacs? How is it possibly realistic that all twelve of those politicians are actually as powerful as Bisky?"
Bisky let out a soft, dry cough without opening her eyes. "Please, do not flatter me."
"I am just stating the truth," Liam replied smoothly.
Throughout the entire exchange, Kurapika remained utterly silent.
Deep down, if given the absolute choice, he had always wanted to seek total revenge against the Phantom Troupe. However, this time, it was Liam who had provided the crucial information. He simply could not refuse the assistance Liam and Shizuku offered. As for slaughtering all the Phantom Troupe members together... Kurapika felt a heavy knot in his stomach. He was genuinely unwilling to kill. His greatest hope was to fundamentally dismantle and eliminate the Phantom Troupe as an entity.
Yet, the deeper his understanding of Nen became, the more he realized the terrifying truth Liam and Menchi were casually discussing. No matter how strict or complex the restrictions placed on Chrollo and the others were, a Nen Exorcist could eventually remove them.
Since when had he started shrinking away from the killing intent he held toward the Phantom Troupe?
Was it when he heard Chrollo declare that even if the head of the spider is cut off, a new one will simply take its place? When the man claimed that as long as the scrap heap of Meteor City existed, the Phantom Troupe was destined to be reborn?
Or was it when he watched Uvogin choose a brutal death over accepting the restrictions and abandoning his identity as a Spider?
Or perhaps the hesitation started even earlier. Back in The Abyss, when he watched the former Spider named Omokage willingly choose death rather than betray the secrets of his former comrades.
If I do not kill them, they may eventually return to take revenge. But if I kill them all in cold blood, if I let my own hands become permanently stained with their slaughter, what makes me any different from the Phantom Troupe who massacred the Kurta Clan?
Whenever his thoughts spiraled into this agonizing dead end, Kurapika felt a crushing sense of powerlessness. He understood perfectly well that all this pain stemmed from a single, contradictory truth. From the bottom of his heart, he did not want to take human lives, yet he could never, ever allow himself to forget the blood feud of his slaughtered people.
For the sake of this revenge, he had lived a hollow life, twisting himself into someone he barely recognized. If he ultimately died alongside his enemies, consumed by hatred, Kurapika had no complaints about his own fate. But now, the reality was much more complicated. His personal quest for vengeance carried the very real possibility of dragging down his companions—people like Liam, Shizuku, and Menchi.
While Kurapika suffered quietly in his own mind, the airship gave a sudden jolt. The engines whined as the vessel slowly descended through the clouds. They had arrived at the destination airport.
A few minutes later, the landing gear touched down with a heavy thud, and the airship finally rolled to a complete stop. The group quickly gathered their things and filed out of the cabin. Menchi led the way, stretching her stiff arms above her head.
Behind her, Machi walked silently. Her eyes drifted forward, locking onto the back of Liam's head as he walked down the ramp, casually joking around with Shizuku and Bisky. Machi narrowed her eyes. A specific image replayed clearly in her mind—the look on Liam's face back in the cabin when he had casually stated that he did not care about the Phantom Troupe's potential revenge.
In that brief moment, she knew she had not been mistaken. She had seen a very specific, chilling expression flash across his features.
Machi possessed immense trust in her own eyesight, and even greater trust in her sharp intuition. For some inexplicable reason, looking at Liam in that moment made her think of that absolute idiot, Absuo.
A disturbing thought took root in her mind. Could it be that this guy named Liam... let Pakunoda go, and allowed Chrollo and the surviving members to be released, simply because he was hoping that one day they would come back to seek revenge against him?