Chapter 43: Subconscious
Early the next morning, people from the Blanchet Company found Arthur at the small inn where he was temporarily staying and delivered the latest model of the Spirit Phone.
The local informants are really well-connected. Arthur weighed the package in his hand and watched as the staff went next door and quickly knocked on the door.
"What phone?" came Shizuku's voice from the next door. "Impossible, there's no such thing."
"There really is," Arthur said, walking over and tossing the brand-new package in his hand to show Shizuku.
Only then did Shizuku, with a puzzled expression, take the box from the Blanchet Company staff.
Arthur found it amusing. "Even if you forgot, why not accept a free phone first?"
Shizuku held the box, puzzled. "What if there's a bomb inside?"
...Makes sense!
Arthur had to admit. Although they were both reasonably skilled Nen users, if caught off guard at such close range, they might still get injured even by a small bomb.
Arthur walked into Shizuku's room, intrigued. "Let's assume there's a bomb inside. How do we confirm it?"
Shizuku closed the door and followed him. After thinking for a moment, she tore a slit in the plastic wrap of the Spirit Phone's packaging, so it was no longer sealed.
Then, with a wave of her hand, she materialized a strange vacuum cleaner with a wide-open mouth and a long tongue, looking very surreal.
"Blinky, suck in the bomb," Shizuku instructed, holding the vacuum cleaner's handle and switching it on.
The vacuum cleaner's "head" opened its mouth and started sucking!
Hiss, hiss, hiss!
After a while, nothing changed. The phone box with the torn plastic wrap lay motionless on the bed.
Shizuku exclaimed, "Looks like it's not a bomb."
"Your ability can be used like this? You could work in security!"
Arthur was genuinely surprised. He only knew that Shizuku's ability could suck things in like a storage space; he didn't know it could be used this way.
Shizuku held the vacuum cleaner and said, "Blinky can suck in anything I don't consider a living being."
"You consider?" Arthur sat cross-legged on the bed. "Is it based on subjective judgment? If you think a living person isn't a living being, can you suck them into Blinky?"
Shizuku was puzzled. "How could a person not be a living being?"
"I see," Arthur nodded.
If he remembered correctly, in the manga, after the Chairman Election arc ended and the Dark Continent arc began, one of the Hunter Association's Zodiacs, "Ox," invited the mafia's second-in-command, Kurapika, to help. Kurapika used his ring finger's Dowsing Chain lie-detection function to catch a mole and mentioned a concept: the "subconscious"...
Arthur opened his box, took out the brand-new Spirit Phone, and pondered while trying out the new phone.
According to the manga, Kurapika's Dowsing Chain could only perform lie detection when facing the target directly.
However, when he activated his Scarlet Eyes and entered Emperor Time, enhancing his Nen ability, the Dowsing Chain seemed to transcend his self-awareness, detecting subtle changes that were usually imperceptible and transmitting them to the chain, allowing him to perform lie detection even through a surveillance screen, even if he had only met the person once, or even if the person had undergone deliberate training.
Nen is rooted in the heart. At least, that's how Arthur saw it.
The school led by Hunter Association Chairman Netero is directly called Shingen-ryu.
The subconscious doesn't lie, and people can't deceive their own subconscious.
In Shizuku's subconscious, living people are naturally considered living beings, so there's no possibility of her pretending that a living person isn't a living being to "trick" her ability into sucking them into Blinky.
In the manga, Kurapika, to deal with the Phantom Troupe, set a Nen Vow and Restriction for his Chain Jail: "The middle finger chain can only be used on Phantom Troupe members; using it on anyone else will result in my heart being pierced and death."
It's conceivable that the core of this vow, the identification of Phantom Troupe members, is Kurapika's own subconscious, meaning "I believe they are a Phantom Troupe member." And precisely because it's subconscious, there's no possibility of "I pretend you're a Phantom Troupe member, so I can use this ability on you."
Hence the saying: Nen Vow and Restriction is an extremely dangerous double-edged sword.
Without firm will and deep resolve, it's best not to tread this path. If someone with a muddled mind, constantly changing their thoughts, were to make such a harsh vow, it would only lead to their own demise.
While Arthur was still sitting on the bed, playing with his new phone and lost in thought, Shizuku had already turned off the vacuum cleaner.
"Blinky, suck in all the dust in the room."
Hiss, hiss, hiss!
The vacuum cleaner opened its mouth wide, sucking in all the dust in the room into its seemingly bottomless mouth.
Arthur clicked his tongue in wonder. "No wonder your room is cleaner than mine."
"It can suck anything, but can it spit it out?" he laughed. "It can't be just intake, right?"
Shizuku said, "Blinky can spit out the last thing it sucked in."
Arthur was puzzled. "Only the last thing?"
"Yes."
Arthur thought this wasn't right. He had clearly seen her extend her hand, ask for a bottle of water, and the vacuum cleaner would spit out a bottle of water. Then she'd ask for bread, and it would spit out a bag of bread...
However, it's possible that the bread and water Shizuku had the vacuum cleaner spit out were indeed the last things Blinky had sucked in before she entered the forest, and she just spat them out one by one.
But there's another possibility...
Arthur laughed. "I think maybe Blinky can spit out anything it's sucked in. But because you have a bad memory, you can only remember the last thing it sucked in."
Surprisingly, Shizuku didn't refute the "bad memory" evaluation with "impossible, that's not true."
"That's possible," she said.
Just like Kurapika didn't fully understand his chain abilities, the birth, development, and perfection of a person's Nen ability have different encounters and processes. Arthur had also experienced exploring his own Star Mark ability, so it's entirely possible that Shizuku didn't fully understand her Blinky.
Even if Blinky can only spit out the last thing it sucked in, Nen ability isn't static. In the manga, Chrollo evolved his book that could steal others' Nen abilities, "Skill Hunter," by adding a bookmark. Who could argue with that?
Arthur laughed. "If you remember what's been sucked in, you can release it again. If you keep thinking that way, maybe Blinky will respond to your thoughts and change in that direction."
"Okay." Shizuku nodded, dispersing the vacuum cleaner into a cloud of aura and retracting it.
Arthur sighed. "When it comes to ability details, you answer everything I ask. It feels like I'm bullying you!"
Shizuku was puzzled. "You're the boss, right? Akatsuki's first rule: listen to the boss."
Arthur didn't speak for a moment, just nodded.
After a while, he jumped off the bed, opened the window, and looked outside.
"What's up?" Shizuku asked.
"We have to wait a bit," Arthur replied, sitting at the table. "Let's arm wrestle again."