Jaku did not have much aura to spare. Liam controlled the wind to keep the gray bird gliding for a while before finally bringing it down to rest.
This area felt like the absolute edge of the world, completely devoid of human habitation. Jaku landed silently on the head of a strange, double-horned spotted pony, instantly taking control of the animal's mind and turning it to run in the direction of Liam's true body.
While the pony galloped across the barren plains, Jaku used the Star Mark to slowly restore its physical strength, all while Liam continued to polish his Transmutation ability, Swift Wind.
Liam's thoughts drifted back to the subterranean cave. That burly man with the terrifying aura... could that be Isaac Netero's hidden son, Beyond Netero?
And Pariston Hill was down there colluding with him. What was going on? Did that mean the conspiracy theories quietly pushed by Hunter scholars, that Beyond was plotting against his own father, were actually true?
Standing on the running pony's head, Jaku stared blankly into the distance. A wave of dread washed over Liam. If that conspiracy theory was real, then the horrifying monster that had swallowed his mouse Nen beast deep in the cave was exactly what he feared. That creature with the nightmare mouthparts was a Chimera Ant.
Not just any ant, either. It was a native species straight from the Dark Continent, a member of the generation preceding the Chimera Ant Queen from the original plot. The Queen from the standard history was mixed with human blood. That meant the monstrosity that ate his mouse was the previous generation's Ant King.
And the woman hanging upside down, covered in runes? She was the vessel. The tragic tool meant to impregnate the Ant King and birth the human-mixed Ant Queen.
Was Pariston just doing this for his own sick amusement, or was he genuinely setting a massive trap for Netero? Regardless of his twisted motives, Pariston was scheduled to formally join the Hunter Association this very year. It looked like the Association was not going to be boring anytime soon.
A sharp light returned to Jaku's gray eyes. A localized whirlwind began to circulate around the bird's feathers. Catching the updraft, Jaku shot forward like an arrow, disappearing into the vast skyline.
Back in Leorio's wrecked bedroom, the two teenage girls controlled by Liam, the blue-braided girl and the short red-haired girl, let out a synchronized, eerie laugh. When they spoke, a deep, resonant man's voice echoed out of their mouths.
"You... you can actually see that?" Liam asked, genuinely intrigued.
He noticed that the aura on top of the little brown-haired girl's head was flowing upward, much like an ordinary person's. Yuna was either a highly skilled Nen user pretending to be normal, or she was an ordinary kid born with exceptionally sharp natural perception. Or maybe her aura nodes were just naturally half-open, allowing her to catch glimpses of things most normal people could not see.
Mai immediately stepped in front of Yuna, her face calm and unreadable. "I am sorry," Mai said smoothly. "She is just a child who like to joke. Please do not pay attention."
"I did not lie!" Yuna protested, crossing her arms stubbornly. "Well, although it was just a guess."
Leorio waved his arms frantically, sending plaster dust flying. "You guessed it? It is just a joke! And another thing, what mouth are you two even using to speak? Are you talking to that giant tiger?"
Leorio pointed a trembling finger at the hole in the ceiling. Right on cue, Lumos the tiger dropped lightly down into the room, landing without a sound.
"He just admitted it," Mai muttered. She stared blankly at the panicked Leorio, then at the two smiling teenage girls, and finally at Lumos.
Lumos flashed a disturbingly human smile, exposing massive fangs. "Has he been discovered? That is right. He cannot hear my actual voice. I am projecting a thought wave by using my aura to simulate the vibration of vocal cords in the air. If your aura nodes are not open, you cannot hear it."
The massive tiger turned its heavy head, looking at Leorio and the little girl in the white coat. "Look. He and the little girl next to you have absolutely no reaction to what I am saying right now."
Lumos took a slow, padded step toward Mai. "You exposed yourself, miss. You are a Nen user. Or perhaps you are the creation of a Nen user?"
Mai's polite expression hardened into total blankness.
Yuna tugged on Mai's sleeve, completely oblivious to the heavy tension in the room. "Mai, I am hungry."
"Then let us go back upstairs and eat," Mai said softly. She leaned over and gently touched the skin behind Yuna's ear. "You go to sleep for a little while first."
"Okay. When the meal is ready, call me," Yuna murmured. Her eyes fluttered shut instantly, and she slumped into Mai's arms, fast asleep.
Leorio's jaw dropped. She just falls asleep on command?!
Lumos kept speaking in human words, pacing closer to the maid. "Let me get a good look at you. What kind of darkness are you?"
Without warning, Lumos lunged forward, his massive claws swiping through the air. But he hit nothing but empty space, crashing heavily into Leorio's already damaged wall.
Mai and the sleeping Yuna had vanished into thin air.
The blue-braided girl rushed forward. Lumos flicked his tail, offering her a makeshift step. She planted her foot on the tiger's tail, launched herself to the ceiling, grabbed the jagged edge of the hole, and hoisted herself into the apartment upstairs.
A moment later, the red-haired girl spoke aloud, answering her own thought. "It is not up there. I see. That is how they disappeared."
Liam finally remembered the name Yuna. He had heard it when he was traveling on the airship with Shizuku. That was the doomed flight that encountered the Phantom Troupe and Pariston. He and Shizuku had met a pair of sisters on board. When the airship eventually crashed, the flight attendants reported that the two sisters were completely missing. Everyone had assumed they were unlucky victims of the crash. Now it was obvious that right before the impact, Mai had used her Nen ability to teleport Yuna to safety.
Instant teleportation. It was an incredibly convenient spatial ability. Liam wondered what the specific activation conditions were.
Blue Braid dropped back down through the hole in the ceiling. Lumos had already searched the upstairs apartment earlier and found no bizarre Dark Continent artifacts or victims of strange disasters. That meant the dark temperament that had attracted Lumos here was most likely Mai herself.
Lumos laid down on the ruined floorboards, muttering to himself.
Leorio finally snapped. "What the hell is going on here! What tricks are these? What talk? What explosions, talk, leave, sleep! Who are you, this tiger? Who raised you? What on earth am I talking about and what am I doing? What on earth are you going to do to me... huh?"
Leorio froze in sheer panic as the giant tiger casually raised a paw and waved at him, clearly gesturing for him to come closer.
Leorio felt his heart drop into his stomach. He took a hesitant step forward. "What do you want to show me? Toe beans? I do not really like touching animals."
A few strands of blood shot out from Lumos's paw. Right in front of Leorio's wide eyes, the blood drew a perfect five-pointed star in midair. With a sharp whistling sound, the pattern flew forward and slammed into Leorio's forehead, leaving behind a glowing, rose-gold pentagram mark.
"Leorio, sorry about this. Go pour a cup of tea for this master," Lumos said in perfect human speech.
"Did you speak?!" Leorio screamed, reeling from the shock. He wanted to run for the door, but his body moved completely on its own. Following the tiger's casual order, his legs marched him straight toward his small kitchen to boil water.
"My body! What are you doing?!" Leorio yelled as he walked helplessly.
The blue-braided girl and the red-haired girl were equally terrified. Liam had released his possession over them, returning their ability to move. They backed against the wall, staring at the giant tiger with extreme caution.
Because they had been marked by the Star Mark, all their aura nodes had been forced open, including their eyes and ears. Even though Liam had completely hijacked their bodies to fight and talk earlier, they had remained fully conscious the entire time. They were in a much better position than Leorio, who still had no idea what was happening.
"Who are you?" the red-haired girl demanded angrily.
Blue Braid was more curious than angry. "Why can you talk? Did you control our bodies earlier? Are you a monster?"
Lumos ignored them, thinking for a moment. "Leorio, find your home phone number."
"You asked me to look for it, and I really did it?!" Leorio cried out from the other room, followed by the sounds of frantic rummaging.
Once Leorio found the phone, Liam logged in completely, possessing Leorio's body. Leorio's own frantic thoughts were pushed to the back of his mind. If you can just control my body directly, Leorio thought bitterly, why didn't you just ask me to make the tea for you? Do you not know how to make it yourself?!
Liam ignored the mental complaints, using Leorio's hands to quickly dial a number on the keypad.
Miles away, Yuna woke up feeling groggy. She rubbed her eyes and sniffed the air, instantly following the delicious, sweet smell into the kitchen.
"Mai, why did we come back to this house?" Yuna asked, looking around the familiar room in confusion.
Mai was wearing a neat apron, standing at the stove. Without turning around, she said smoothly, "Wash your hands quickly and get ready to eat."
Yuna did not question it further. She threw her hands up happily and ran to the sink. Dragging a small stool over, the little doctor climbed up and hummed a cheerful song while scrubbing her hands with soap.
Standing at the stove stirring a pan of cola chicken wings, Mai offered a small, quiet smile.
Nen Beast: YouAreNotAlone
After the death of Yuna's parents, their deeply entangled, protective aura manifested into a special Nen beast. The core of its body is a power stone. It does not need the host to provide energy to maintain its existence. It only needs to drink water to survive. The Nen beast imparts the intellectual wisdom of Yuna's parents to Yuna through a passive halo effect. The Nen beast takes protecting Yuna as its absolute first priority. When Yuna is in danger, it can teleport Yuna home immediately. If any condition is met, the Nen beast will convey a final message from her dead parents and will be completely controlled by Yuna. The conditions are: one, Yuna's twentieth birthday; two, Yuna decides to participate in the Hunter Exam; three, Yuna reveals the true identity of the Nen beast.
"What on earth did you do down there? Why are they going crazy trying to catch you?"
Outside the Special Voyage Bureau building, Menchi walked casually down the empty street. After putting a safe distance between herself and the lockdown, she reached into her coat and pulled out a palm-sized, cloth doll. She pushed the doll's soft head. "Even if I treat you as an intruder, there is no need to make such a fuss, right?"
The doll dissolved into a swirling ball of aura, dropping to the pavement before rapidly expanding back into Shizuku's true form.
"I did not expect that guy Liam to develop such a powerful Nen ability," Menchi muttered, clicking her tongue as she inspected Shizuku. She noticed a layer of sweat covering Shizuku's forehead and heard her slightly uneven breathing. "This transformation ability consumption is big?"
Shizuku nodded, wiping her brow. "The greater the change in body shape, the more intense the consumption."
"No wonder you urged me to leave the building quickly. No, wait, it was Liam who urged me," Menchi realized.
Shizuku's face suddenly shifted, a familiar, playful smirk taking over her features as Liam stepped in. "If you join, you will have a ring too. That is all directly with your aura, right?"
Menchi snorted loudly, crossing her arms. "Why didn't you invite me in the first place? Could it be that you know I have developed new abilities you cannot even copy? You are jealous of my genius?"
Shizuku's face relaxed as Liam logged out, leaving her back in control. She blinked curiously. "What kind of new ability?"
"Oh, it is changed back to Shizuku again," Menchi muttered, looking slightly disappointed. She slung a friendly arm around Shizuku's neck and grinned proudly. "You want to know? Let us find a quiet place to sit down and I will show you. Hehe. You are going to be completely shocked! But hey, you still have not answered my question. Why did you end up in the Special Voyage Bureau building anyway?"
Shizuku gave a brief, simple explanation about the trap on Greed Island. As for why the government agents were causing such a massive panic and searching the entire building, she genuinely did not know. Maybe, just maybe, it was because she had used Blinky to vacuum up a bunch of highly classified, bizarre artifacts related to the Dark Continent from their underground vault.
"What about you?" Shizuku asked, changing the subject. "Why is Menchi here?"
"Oh, I am a chef," Menchi sighed, waving her hand dismissively. "There is a big shot here who wants to eat my cooking. I was too lazy to travel all the way out here, but the other party directly sent me an official Hunter mission just to invite me. So I had to come cook a meal."
PS: This conspiracy theory was what I thought when reading the manga. This theory suggests that the Chimera Ant Queen wasn't a freak mutation, but rather the product of an established ecological cycle where humans—or a prehistoric branch of humanity—have served as a primary food source on the Dark Continent for eons. The fact that the Queen arrived with a bipedal structure and a pre-existing "taste" for human flesh implies she was already a hybrid, evolved specifically to hunt a species the world thought was native only to the six continents. If Togashi is hinting that humans are an indigenous part of that nightmare landscape, it reframes the entire series: humanity isn't a dominant species exploring a new frontier, but a group of lucky refugees who long ago escaped a world where they were merely the bottom of a very ancient and terrifying food chain.
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