Liam dragged Shizuku through the supermarket like a man on a mission. Under her confused gaze, he grabbed five plastic masks, five sets of oversized gray tracksuits, five megaphones, and a box of fine sewing needles.
"Let's head to where the photo was taken," Liam said.
They made their way to Fountain Square, where Kurapika had accidentally appeared at the edge of that photo.
Liam held out his hands. Five needles lifted from the box, wrapped in spheres of aura emerging from his palms. In an instant, they transformed into five Flying Star Bubbles floating in the air before him.
He waved his hand casually. The five bubbles drifted into the crowd.
No matter how excellent an ordinary person's eyesight was, they'd only see needles folded into pentagram shapes flying through the air. They wouldn't see the aura spheres wrapping them. And since these spheres had sacrificed their offensive power, they gave off no sense of threat. No killing intent. Nothing to trigger alarm.
Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.
Five Flying Star Bubbles touched the bare skin of five random passersby—men and women, young and old. Rose-gold Star Marks bloomed at different locations on their bodies.
All five people froze mid-step. Then, moving in perfect unison, they changed direction and walked toward a nearby shopping mall. One by one, they entered the restrooms.
Inside the bathroom stalls, they found gray tracksuits hanging on hooks. Masks. Megaphones. Thin needles.
In Fountain Square, a man wearing a cheap toy mask and gray tracksuit climbed onto the fountain platform, megaphone in hand.
This immediately attracted the attention of passersby.
"What's he doing?"
"Performance art?"
The crowd murmured. The masked man raised his megaphone and shouted: "I have information about the Phantom Troupe!! Anyone who wants to know can come find me!!!"
"I have information about the Phantom Troupe!! Anyone who wants to know can come find me!!!"
"I have information about the Phantom Troupe!! Anyone who wants to know can come find me!!!"
The masked man repeated the line over and over. More and more passersby stopped to watch in surprise.
"Phantom Troupe? That A-rank bounty criminal group?"
"Was he attacked by them?"
"Why does he keep repeating himself like that? Can't the megaphone just record and loop it?"
"Wait, is that the point?"
"Get your phone! Quick, record this!"
"Dressed like that, you can't even tell if it's a man or woman..."
More pedestrians gathered in front of the fountain, watching the strange masked figure standing on the platform and shouting through the megaphone: "I have information about the Phantom Troupe!! Anyone who wants to know can come find me!!!"
Then things got weirder.
"I have information about the Phantom Troupe... Anyone who wants to know can come find me..." A similar megaphone voice echoed faintly from the streets west of Fountain Square.
Then from the east: "I have information about the Phantom Troupe..."
From the south, from the north, from all four directions, megaphone shouts gradually converged: "...Anyone who wants to know can come find me!!!"
Many passersby stopped to watch the spectacle. Some even jeered and shouted, "I want to know! Tell me!" But the masked figures ignored them completely.
Some people called the police to report the public disturbance.
Of course, most people just held up their phones, taking photos and videos, or making jokes with each other.
Liam and Shizuku stood behind the crowd, eyes glowing with Gyo. They carefully observed the masked man on the fountain platform, shouting through his megaphone like he was causing some kind of breaking news incident.
"See anything?" Liam asked.
"Not yet," Shizuku said. "His aura is normal. Even in ordinary form, it's difficult to detect the rare aura mixed with your mark. But wait, the power used for healing... where does it come from?"
Liam and Shizuku left and took a detour through the four nearby streets—east, west, north, south—observing the other four masked figures one by one, all controlled by Star Marks, all broadcasting through megaphones.
Liam observed with Gyo and said slowly, "It shouldn't entirely use the bearer's own aura. After all, the mark can assist recovery even when aura is depleted. If the aura used for healing is itself exhausted, how can you use aura to heal? Isn't that like stepping on your own foot to fly?"
If he remembered correctly, the late Fenrir controlled by his Star Mark hadn't died immediately after decapitation. The severed head had still been under the Star Mark's control, slowly crawling back toward the neck like it was still alive. The wolf had been nearly dead. There couldn't have been any extra aura left for healing. In other words, even reattaching a head went beyond the category of simple "healing," right?
Return the Star Mark bearer to a healthy state.
Liam thought about his theory and wondered if it really consumed life force.
But what was life force? According to the rules of the Hunter world, the essence of vitality should also be aura.
Netero had fought the Ant King. His final attack, Zero Hand, used up all his aura. It caused Netero to become a deflated, shriveled old man, like a skeleton with only skin remaining.
Was the Star Mark overdrawing vitality? Using lifespan to recover from injuries?
Liam knew that lifespan was a real, tangible concept in the Hunter world. For example, Kurapika's Emperor Time ability after entering Scarlet Eyes burned one hour of lifespan for every second the state was maintained.
But Liam intuitively felt this was wrong. The Star Mark shouldn't consume lifespan.
Nothing else mattered. He just didn't like that approach.
Nen abilities reflected the heart. Even abilities formed unconsciously couldn't break free from this basic framework.
If this was his own Nen ability, there would be no effects that weren't aligned with his inner wishes.
If Liam had consciously designed the Star Mark's ability, he definitely wouldn't have chosen such a ridiculous setting as burning life in exchange for healing. He wasn't like Kurapika, who'd died inside along with his clan's annihilation, who was determined to be buried in the soil alongside his people's eyes. How could someone like that be willing to price his own ability at such an uneconomical cost?
"I have information about the Phantom Troupe!! Anyone who wants to know can come find me!!!"
The tracksuit-masked man controlled by the Star Mark continued shouting loudly through the megaphone. Above his head, a thin wisp of aura rose like smoke and naturally dispersed.
Back at the hotel, entering the afternoon Ken training session, the image of that wisp of aura rising from the controlled person's head still lingered in Liam's mind.
He suddenly opened his eyes. "Shizuku, let me ask you a question."
"Hm?" Shizuku sat cross-legged on the bed, holding her Blinky vacuum cleaner. "What's the question?"
Liam remained in Ken and didn't release it. He'd only been practicing for less than half an hour. Still very relaxed.
"The aura that ordinary people naturally lose," Liam pondered. "Where does it go?"
Shizuku looked surprised. "I've never thought about that problem."
There were countless billions of people in the world. Countless trillions of lives had existed over the past tens of thousands of years.
And the vast majority of beings didn't have Nen abilities. They couldn't control the flow of their own aura.
Where did that dissipating aura go?
Absorbed into the sky?
Dissolved into the air?
Liam looked at the Blinky vacuum cleaner in Shizuku's hands, imagination running wild. "Since Nen users can turn aura into real substances, could it be that the real substances in our lives are formed from this naturally dissipating aura? Massive amounts of it, accumulated during long periods of evolution?"
"The entire material world formed by the continuous accumulation of aura emitted unconsciously by all living beings, finally manifesting after a qualitative change?"
Anyone listening to Liam's theory would think it was pure fantasy. More importantly, it couldn't be verified. Just wild speculation.
Shizuku asked curiously, "Why did you suddenly think of this?"
"Because I'm still thinking about the Star Mark's healing effect," he said, then paused. "Shizuku, release your Ten. Don't control the aura around your body. Let it flow away naturally."
"Oh, okay." Shizuku did as instructed.
Instantly, the aura around her that had been as calm and unified as flowing water began to fluctuate. It turned into an irregular outline, uncontrollable like an ordinary person's. A wisp of aura gradually dissipated above her head.
However, since Shizuku hadn't deliberately disguised herself as an ordinary person, although the aura around her body showed an irregular outline, the size and density of her aura felt completely different. Far beyond the level of ordinary people. Not to mention the aura flowing naturally from the top of her head was much thicker than normal.
Liam approached Shizuku. He was in Ken right now. Even without deliberately using Gyo, the effect wasn't much different.
He carefully observed the aura flow above Shizuku's head.
Shizuku leaned forward to make it easier for him to see.
The aura rose like a column of smoke, curling upward above Shizuku's head. Liam looked closely. At about half a meter high, the tail end of Shizuku's aura flow appeared very... smooth?
The end of an ordinary person's aura flow would appear blurry, dim, unclear. It was difficult to understand how the aura dispersed into the air, what it became after flowing into the air, how it finally dissipated.
But the "break" at the top where Shizuku's aura smoke should have dispersed was very clean. At first glance, it looked similar to ordinary people. But upon closer inspection, it was completely different.
Shizuku's aura wasn't naturally dispersing into the air at all!
"But I can really feel the natural loss of aura," Shizuku said doubtfully. But soon, she and Liam realized something. "Ah!" Shizuku opened the waistband of her pants and pulled them down slightly, exposing the rose-gold Star Mark at the base of her left thigh.
Liam studied it with her for a long time. He found nothing unusual about the Star Mark itself.
"Although the specific mechanism might not be clear, I'm guessing it's this," Liam finally concluded. "The Star Mark absorbs the naturally flowing aura and uses it as an energy source."
"But most of the time I use Ten and won't let it flow," Shizuku said.
"You said it yourself. Most of the time. There's always a chance to shear the sheep." Liam smiled. "I think the energy used by the Star Mark for healing has several priorities. The highest priority is accumulated aura that flows naturally. Second is the remaining aura in the bearer. What if all that energy runs out..."
"Then it might pause and wait for the wearer to recover to a certain extent before activating the healing function." Liam glanced around, raised his hand, and flicked the air. "Or even simpler, the Star Mark might be able to continuously absorb aura that exists in the natural environment. Aura that hasn't completely disappeared after ordinary people naturally disperse it."
Can he, Liam master Sage Mode?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing takes time, coffee, and a lot of love.If you'd like to support my work, join me at [email protected]/GoldenGaruda
You'll get early access to over 50 chapters, selection on new series, and the satisfaction of knowing your support directly fuels more stories.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~