Chapter 96: Dark Sonata: Flute Movement
The Dark Sonata was said to have been composed by a "Demon King" as a solo piece, written for four instruments: piano, violin, flute, and harp. When played or heard by a human, it brought unimaginable catastrophe.
In the Yorknew City arc of the original story, Kurapika had a companion at his side: a bald, short, fat, buck-toothed person who looked something like a human mole. A Music Hunter named Melody. She had almost no combat capability to speak of, but possessed sound-capturing, recording, and listening ability surpassing the world's most precise military radar by a significant margin. At tracking and lie detection she was in a category of her own.
But that human-radar ability had come at an enormous cost.
She had heard the Dark Sonata's Flute Movement, and her body had been severely eroded by malevolent Nen.
By her own account: she listened to a single bar, and her body went from an ordinary red-haired woman to what it was now.
She had barely survived through sheer luck, and even awakened to Nen from enduring the erosion, but the violent physical transformation had at one point driven her to consider taking her own life. As for the friend who had drunkenly played the Dark Sonata in a moment of showing off, that person died outright.
From that point on, Melody's life goals became two things: restore her body, and destroy the sheet music.
And that sheet music, the exact Flute Movement that had caused Melody's transformation, was now in Suzaku's hands.
The setup here was obvious. He was going to play it. Right now.
In an instant, a stream of questions and assessments fired through Ross's mind.
Suzaku daring to use it in this situation... did he or demons in general have some kind of immunity to the Dark Sonata? Could he deal damage one-sidedly without being affected himself?
Or was he simply aiming for mutual destruction?
Ross couldn't imagine Suzaku being that type, but he was already moving almost on instinct, both hands spreading wide, both Nen types activating simultaneously.
"Full aura output! Cover your ears!!!!!"
Suzaku had already brought the Insect Whistle to his lips. The Insect Whistle, which could control Makai Insects and serve as a genuine playable instrument, had begun resonating with the floating sheet music in front of him, building malevolent Nen. Rather than fall back, Ross charged forward, shouting his warning to the group while driving straight at the six Suzaku copies.
The next second: six sets of eyes went wide. From their perspective, the coating on Ross's hand cannon had shifted from blue to white, and the round that came out of the barrel was the same type as the Tiger's Roar Destruction Wave. A spiraling Vibration Round.
As Byakko's superior, Suzaku knew this ability better than anyone. Ordinary Nen blasts he could absorb or deflect outright. Vibration rounds were something else entirely. Dodge or take the hit.
One of the Suzakus in the direct line of fire couldn't get clear in time. One hand was caught in the blast.
With his aura divided to one-seventh, he couldn't sustain Ten or Ken at sufficient strength. Bare physical resistance against a Vibration Round at this stage was simply not possible.
In nearly an instant, the entire arm underwent what appeared to be countless cycles of high-frequency vibration and dissolved into a mist of blood.
If that Suzaku hadn't immediately severed the arm himself, the rest of him would have gone with it.
In that moment, Suzaku finally understood what kind of destructive power had actually been sitting in the Byakko he had kept as a pet.
Meanwhile, Suzaku #1, holding the flute and reading the score, had already blown the first note of the Dark Sonata's Flute Movement. His demon aura had formed resonance with the sheet music, constructing a one-way delivery channel, converting him into a humanoid Nen battery with aura pouring continuously into the score.
Ross recognized the mechanism immediately. It was identical to how he himself powered the Little Tyrant.
The difference: he could pull the power cable and force a shutdown. The sheet music's aura drain was compulsory.
And it wasn't just the aura. Suzaku's body itself, as if cursed and seized, began continuing to play against his will, unable to stop.
At the same time, a deeply unsettling aura, comparable in quality to post-mortem Nen, expanded and erupted outward alongside the Insect Whistle's clear, bright tone, entirely at odds with its grotesque appearance.
The first to be hit was Suzaku himself, as the one playing.
His pale skin visibly began developing black spots. His finely developed muscles began showing clear atrophy, like the farmed humans downstairs who couldn't manage the stairs. But looking at the rate of deterioration, it was clearly slower than an ordinary person being completely drained by a single bar. His playing duration would substantially exceed that first bar.
The second group was the six genuine copies, forced to hear the solo. They showed similar symptoms but were being eroded at a slower rate than the one actively playing.
Then there was Ross, charging forward with his shield raised, firing as he ran.
Why was this human completely unaffected?
Suzaku, observing through his genuine copies, went rigid. His eyes showed genuine disbelief.
Ross was simply fine. Not only did he appear completely unaffected by the Dark Sonata's erosion, his charging speed was increasing.
But the playing Suzaku quickly noticed something. The surface of Ross's shield was developing visible cracks. And the rate of cracking matched exactly the rate at which black spots were appearing on the copies' skin from the sonata.
The Hero's Shield was working.
It had classified the Dark Sonata as a "Demon King creation" and was continuously resisting the malevolent Nen erosion using its ability to counter instant-death curses, at the cost of the shield's own durability.
Which also meant: once the shield shattered, Ross would be forced to endure the Demon King's Sonata with nothing but his own body.
In a flash Suzaku made the connection between Ross being unharmed and the cracking shield. The other five Suzaku copies approaching from different directions immediately shifted all their targets to the shield.
Even if Ross could fire those Vibration Rounds continuously, he could only kill one Suzaku at most. But if they shattered the shield first...
Then a flash of light appeared on Ross's body, and a small white floating cauldron materialized in the air beside him.
A force carrying the weight of a rule instantly washed over all seven Suzakus and the bird-type demon circling above. The thought "don't want to fight" landed on every one of them simultaneously. The five who still had both arms, fists already loaded with demon aura and aimed at Ross's shield, pulled back almost on instinct.
Only Suzaku #1 was still playing.
[Byakko's Sacred Artifact: Grade B Nen tool, Four Saint Beast Artifact, consumable. From Sanguo Zhanji 2: Battle for Supremacy.
One of the Four Saint Beast Artifacts. When activated, forces all enemies into a state where they cannot attack, including physical strikes requiring no aura and ability techniques requiring aura; if an enemy is in the process of activating an ability technique, there is a chance of forced interruption. Duration: 25 seconds.
Usage restrictions same as Genbu's Sacred Artifact.]
The Suzaku copies could only watch as Ross closed the distance to Suzaku #1, held up his spider-web-cracked shield, and pressed the hand cannon directly against the head of the Suzaku who was being compelled by the sheet music and simply could not stop playing to dodge.
Vibration Rounds carrying high-frequency destructive factors mercilessly consumed Suzaku #1's head and the Insect Whistle at his lips.